“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).

There are three demands of being a disciple of Jesus:

1. Deny yourself
2. Take up the cross
3. Follow me

Deny yourself – it’s not about you. It’s not about what you want. It’s not about what makes you happy.

Wow. That’s kind of a downer.

But here’s the truth. You can make it all about you, all about what makes you happy. Many try. And, you know what the result is? They’re not happy. They have a good marriage, a good paying job, a nice house, nice vacations…and yet they’re still not happy.

You know why? Happiness is found in living out your purpose. Happiness is discovered in making a difference. It’s when we live for something bigger than us that we live a meaningful and purposeful life. It is then we are happy.

It’s not about you. Seriously. It’s not.

Take up the cross – take up suffering, take up giving your life so others may live. The pathway for our salvation was paved through the cross. Why do we think that the pathway for spiritual and kingdom success is paved through happiness and bliss?

If you want to know why this is the case, look at “Deny yourself.”

Follow me – follow the way Jesus has chosen. Jesus was tempted by the devil for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. The core of the temptation was for Jesus to choose the Messianic plan minus the suffering and the cross. What Jesus realized at Gethsemane was that there is no Kingdom plan minus suffering and the cross.

Follow the one who went to the cross so that we might live through him.

The Kingdom way may have times of hardship, heartbreak, betrayal, suffering, and even death. But don’t lose heart. None of these can defeat you. Every one of these things will be an opportunity to reflect the one who marched to the cross.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me.”

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” (Matthew 7:1).

You do you.

As long as it works for you.

Who am I to tell you what is right and wrong?

Hmmm.

The verse of the day is one of the most frequently misunderstood and misused verses in all of Scripture.

God is NOT saying, don’t judge between what is right and wrong. God is NOT saying, don’t discern truth from lies. God is NOT saying, don’t judge what is sin and what is not.

The Bible is clear that truth, right and wrong, sin, holiness, etc. absolutely matters to God. It would be ludicrous to say that these things don’t matter.

One of the greatest lies that our culture has bought into is the belief that affirmation of someone is the proof of love. It doesn’t matter whether they are true, right, wrong, holy, sinful. What matters is that our affirmation of the person is the proof that we love them.

That is hogwash!!!

Jesus is the only way to the Father.

The Bible is the only authoritative word of God.

There is salvation in no one else apart from Jesus.

What the Bible calls sin is sin.

What the Bible calls holy and good is holy and good.

These truths absolutely matter.

When Jesus says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” what he is saying is that we are not to judge based on our own understanding or standards. We don’t judge based on what we think is right, what we feel to be true. The standard by which we determine truth is God’s word.

Truth matters.

Truth matters to God.

Truth matters to disciples.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

There is not one thing you can do about your past. There is nothing you can do to change what’s already happened.

• Yup, you royally messed up when you ____________.
• Yup, you should have never said ____________.
• Yup, you should have never been with ____________.

The thing about every one of these things is that they happened. We did it. We messed up. And the memories are so vibrant and real. That’s why these memories hurt so much.

The devil loves to bring these up to torment us.

While it is true that there is nothing we can do about our past, because of what God has done for us in Christ, we can all live into a new reality. The past does not define us. The past does not conquer us. In Christ, we have a new reality, a new future, new possibilities..

The difference between who you are today and who you want to be in the future all depends on what you do right now.

You do not have to let that one thing be the thing that defines you!

The only thing that defines who you are is Christ and Christ alone. He is your identity. He is your purpose.

It is precisely because of our past that Christ died for us and rose again from the dead for us. In Christ we are new. The old is gone! There is a new creation.

Choose today to honor God with your time, your choices, and your actions.

Love what Zig Ziglar wrote, “You can’t start over. But you can begin now and make a new ending.”

Go ahead. Start writing!