AWT The Cross

THE DEVOTED AND COMMITTED person who takes the cross and follows the Lord does not ask what the consequences will be, neither does he argue about God’s plan and God’s wisdom.

ONE OF THE REASONS WE exhibit very little spiritual power is because we are unwilling to accept and experience the fellowship of the Savior’s sufferings, which means acceptance of His cross.

GOD WILL CRUCIFY WITHOUT pity those whom He desires to raise without measure!

THE CROSS THAT WE WANT is that which will come to us from being in the will of God. It is not a cross on a hill nor a cross on a church. It is not the cross that can be worn around the neck. It must be the cross of obedience to the will of God, and we must embrace it, each believer for himself!

The cross stands high above the opinions of men and to that cross all opinions must come at last for judgment.

WAS THERE EVER A CROSS that was convenient? Was there ever a convenient way to die? I have never heard of any, and judgment is not going to be a matter of convenience, either

We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do—flee it or die upon it.

…who but someone very old and very conservative would insist upon death as the appointed way to life! And who today is interested in a gloomy mysticism that would sentence its flesh to a cross and recommend self-effacing humility as a virtue actually to be practiced by modern Christians!

ONE OF THE REASONS WE exhibit very little spiritual power is because we are unwilling to accept and experience the fellowship of the Savior’s sufferings, which means acceptance of His cross.

In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.

The cross would not be a cross to us if it destroyed in us only the unreal and the artificial. It is when it goes on to slay the best in us that its cruel sharpness is felt.

IT IS THE LOVE AND THE pity of God for His children that prescribes the chastening of a cross so that we may become the kind of mature believers and disciples that He wants us to be.

The cross of old Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took Him down six hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.

WE TALK A LOT ABOUT THE deeper life and spiritual victory and becoming dead to ourselves—but we stay very busy rescuing ourselves from the cross. That part of ourselves that we rescue from the cross may be a very little part of us, but it is likely to be the seat of our spiritual troubles and our defeats.

THE CHILDREN OF GOD MUST be ready for everything the cross brings or we will surely fail the test! It is God’s desire to so deal with us about all of the things that the world admires and praises that we will see them in their true light. He will treat us without pity because He desires to raise us without measure—just as He did with His own Son on the cross!

The cross is rough, and it is deadly, but it is effective.

Men crave life, but when they are told that life comes by the cross they cannot understand how it can be, for they have learned to associate with the cross such typical images as memorial plaques, dim-lit aisles and ivy. So they reject the true message of the cross and with that message they reject the only hope of life known to the sons of men.

The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before that cross it bows and toward that cross it points with carefully staged histrionics—but upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.

If we are wise we will do what Jesus did: endure the cross and despise its shame for the joy that is set before us. To do this is to submit the whole pattern of our lives to be destroyed and built again in the power of an endless life. And we shall find that it is more than poetry, more than sweet hymnody and elevated feeling. The cross will cut into our lives where it hurts worst, sparing neither us nor our carefully cultivated reputations. It will defeat us and bring our selfish lives to an end.

The life that halts short of the cross is but a fugitive and condemned thing, doomed at last to be lost beyond recovery. That life which goes to the cross and loses itself there to rise again with Christ is a divine and deathless treasure. Over it death hath no more dominion. Whoever refuses to bring his old life to the cross is but trying to cheat death, and no matter how hard he may struggle against it, he is nevertheless fated to lose his life at last.

In every Christian’s heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross he remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among gospel believers today. We want to be saved but we insist that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Mansoul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility.

People want the benefits of the cross but yet they do not want to bow to the control of the cross. They want to take all the cross can offer but they don’t want to be under the Lordship of Jesus.

The very power of the cross lies in the fact that it is the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of man.

To try to find a common ground between the message of the cross and man’s fallen reason is to try the impossible, and if persisted in must result in an impaired reason, a meaningless cross and a powerless Christianity.

The man with a cross no longer controls his destiny; he lost control when he picked up his cross. That cross immediately became to him an all-absorbing interest, an overwhelming interference. No matter what he may desire to do, there is but one thing he can do; that is, move on toward the place of crucifixion.

In every Christian’s heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross he remains on the throne.Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among gospel believers today. We want to be saved but we insist that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Mansoul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility.

Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name. He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster. He calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern civilization affords. He calls them to self-abnegation and death; we call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac. He calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers.

At the heart of the Christian system lies the cross of Christ with its divine paradox.

. . .it cannot be denied that the way of the cross is unpopular and that it brings a measure of reproach upon those who take it

I am constantly drawn to read those quotes again and again these past days and weeks. I believe behind these thoughts are hidden enormous truths for our Christian walk in fullness.

I would encourage every brother and sister to read them carefully, thought they are (at least for me) unbearable to read them all at once.

Brothers and sisters, the bare, old, rugged cross...

Thank you Brother Kire for bringing this up. A sad day indeed when a post of this magnitude can simple be buried without notice.

Brothers and sisters, the bare, old, rugged cross...

The question, do we suffer its reproach, or simply ignore it? How can one turn their back on
the Lord for what we call rights, how selfish
can we be.
Take the whole world, I choose the Cross. Dear Lord take this simple life and make it a reflection of your suffering.
Thank You Jesus

[b]The Pain of Cross-Bearing[/b] - A.W.Tozer

The weakness of much that passes for the Christian faith these days is seen in the readiness of many professed followers of Christ to make any concessions in order to ?get along with people,? especially with relatives and in-laws.

The philosophy of mid-twentieth century Christianity is a philosophy of appeasement. Peace and unity have become the Castor and Pollux of the majority of religious leaders, and truth is regularly sacrificed on their altars.

The notion that ?peace on earth? as the New Testament uses the words, means concord between light and darkness is foreign to the whole traditional Christian position. Our Lord cared nothing for the good will of bad men, nor would He alter one word of His message to stay in favor with anyone, be he Jew or pagan or even a member of His own earthly family. ?For even his own brothers did not believe in him? (John 7:5).

No one has understood the meaning of the cross who puts blood ties alongside the ties of the Spirit. ?Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit? (John 3:6). All fleshly relationships will be dissolved in the glory of the resurrection, including the relationship between husband and wife.

For this reason our Lord said plainly that for some people it would be necessary to break family ties if they would follow Him. ?Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law? (Luke 12:51-53). ?If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple? (14:26-27).

No one has understood the meaning of the cross who puts blood ties alongside the ties of the Spirit. ?Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit?

Luke 14:26-27
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. [27] And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

This is probably the greatest shortcoming of those who ask for God's will to be done in their lives and then shape their lives around the whims of their loved ones.
What we need today, is to seek His face until we know and become one with the cross He has called us to bear, and receive the grace to follow Him no matter what the cost may be. Then and only then will His will be accomplished in those who seek it with all their hearts. When this is accomplished, then and only then will the request;
Lord, thy will be done in me, mean something to those who request it.

In His Love
pastorfrin