Do we as people, who say we are Christians know what it means to dedicate our lives to Christ and follow Him? Salvation is not a singular act, where we say a prayer and then we move on to manage our lives the way we see fit. We are called by Jesus to “take up our cross” and follow Him. This key piece of scripture is found in Luke 9:23 It says this: Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. We as people who are desiring to follow Jesus as he has told us to, must understand that following Jesus is a life of sacrifice to our own desires and goals. We must deny ourselves and take up our cross. So what does it mean to take up our cross? It means we die to self, our desires, our wishes, our carnal nature and live for God. In Leviticus it says this. “But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. (Leviticus 27:28) What is given (read devoted here) to God, God views as holy.
When we as people devote ourselves to God by acknowledging that He is God and we give Him our lives, he views that thing (us) as Holy to the Lord” God takes this very seriously. In Romans 12:1-2 it says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Do our lives shout the Love of God, or do they shout hate for anything that we see as not what we like? What is God’s view. Who or what do we hold to be true in our lives, The Apostle Paul says we are Living Epistles read of all men”
In Romans 12:1 to give our lives to Christ as our reasonable sacrifice, means we no longer go our own way or build our own kingdoms, we Labor with Christ to build the Kingdom of God. Jesus took up His Cross. (This did not mean burden) it means He died to His own will and became God’s sacrificial lamb for us all. He died to His own will. He said in the garden , “If it be thy will that this cup may pass from me” He died to what he wanted which was not to suffer the cross and all that we will never know that it meant for Him to go through the death on the cross.
In our world today, we need to die to our selfish desires and needs for power, wealth and status, because Jesus said the greatest is the one who serves all. Who and or what are we serving and how does this further the actual kingdom of God? What do people read in our actions and our words? Do they point to a cause or ideology, or do they point to Christ and the will of God that none should perish?
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