Week 2: Take Up Your Cross - Take Home Page

Week 2: Taking Up Our Crosses
Additional thoughts/Suggestions/Ideas

“Taking up the cross is not a merely passive operation. It comes about as the Church attempts, in the power of the Spirit, to be for the world what Jesus was for the world – announcing the kingdom, healing the wounds of the world, challenging the power structures that keep anger and pain in circulation. We need to pray that we will have the courage, as a Church, and as Christian persons, to follow the Servant King wherever he leads. That, after all, is why we come to his table. We have seen in our century what happens when people dream wild dreams of world domination, and use the normal methods of force and power to implement them. We have not yet seen what might happen if those who worship the Servant King, now enthroned as Lord of the world, were to take him seriously enough to take up our cross and follow him. But that, as Mark reminds us, is precisely what the Servant king calls us to do.” – N.T. Wright in Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship p. 51

“The Pax Romana was a peace made possible by the cross: people so feared crucifixion that they would think long and hard before rising up against the emperor. It’s stunning in this light that the church chose the cross as one of its primary symbols. What could choosing such an instrument of torture, domination, fear, intimidation, and death possibly mean? For the early church, it apparently meant that the kingdom of God would triumph not by inflicting violence but by enduring it – not by making others suffer but by willingly enduring suffering for the sake of justice – not by coercing or humiliating others but by enduring their humiliation with gentle dignity. Jesus, they felt, took the empire’s instrument of torture and transformed it into God’s symbol of the repudiation of violence – encoding a creed that love, not violence, is the most powerful force in the universe.” – Brian McLaren in The Secret Message of Jesus p. 152-153

“I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit’s power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made- I’m a disciple of his. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean in his presence, walk by patience, am uplifted by prayer, and I labor with power. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions are few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesititate in the presence of the enemy, pander at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go until he comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till he stops me. And, when he comes for his own, he will have no problem recognizing me…my banner will be clear!” – Note from a young pastor in Zimbabwe found in his office following his martyrdom as found on page 31-21 in Brennan Manning’s The Signature of Jesus


Nurture for your own walk:

Struggling with doubt - John 20:24-29
Being impatient - Matt 25:1-13, Acts 1:7-8
Being afraid - Isaiah 41:10, Matt 10:26-31
Pride - Matt 19:27-30
Feeling Inadequate - Matt 9:13


Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I give You my hands to do Your work
I give You my feet to go Your way.
I give You my eyes to see as You do.
I give You my tongue to speak Your words.
I give You my mind that You may think in me.
I give You my spirit that You may pray in me.
Above all, I give You my heart that Your love may be my own.
I give You my whole self that You may grow in me,
so that it is You, Lord Jesus, who live and work and pray in me. Amen.