What dose take up your cross really mean

I have always understood "taking up your cross" meant the same thing as "dying to yourself". Therefore, we must be willing to give up everything at a moments notice. James tells us not to worry about the future, as we don't know it. We live out God's plan for us, so that the Kingdom may be enhanced. We live by how our today will affect our future, not how the future will affect our today.

Welcome to the Chrsitian Forums.

I listened to one youtube and what David says sounds really good. It does make one reflect on if they are doing enough.

Hate your mother and your father? I believe that means you are not to put them ahead of God. In some countries if you turn and follow Jesus, your family disowns you. So if they follow Jesus, their cross is being disowned from their family. Glad my parents love Jesus! but yes, we put God first!

You help the less fortunate, that is good. It is between you and the Lord how much you give. If you have a family to support, selling everything and giving it all to the poor would not be wise. The Lord just wants us to be aware of the poor and to help them, and He would not want us to indulge so much when we could help others with our excess.

Thank you for sharing! good for me to reflect and try to do more to take up my cross and follow Him!

God bless.

Girder of Loins said:

I have always understood "taking up your cross" meant the same thing as "dying to yourself". Therefore, we must be willing to give up everything at a moments notice. James tells us not to worry about the future, as we don't know it. We live out God's plan for us, so that the Kingdom may be enhanced. We live by how our today will affect our future, not how the future will affect our today.

Click to expand...

Excellent!

To take up your cross daily means to do everything the Word of God says, for any situation or a circumstance in our life, instead of what we want or say. It means making dead what we want, in order to do what God wants, in any area of our life. Romans 12:1, 2

When Jesus "took up His cross" that night in the garden, He did so by saying five little words, and "living" them out in the real world.... Not my will, but thine.

Hi itsallgood, welcome to CF
Well what do you mean by 'enough'? Well...no amount of good deeds you can do is 'enough' for you to be worthy in the eyes of God...This is because we are saved through faith and faith alone, not by our good deeds. Now, the Bible does say that faith without works is dead, and we are to bear good fruit. But this good fruit is more of a 'by-product' of following Jesus, those who are truly saved cannot help but bear good fruit for the love of God is in their hearts.

The good fruit and good works are not however, a basis for salvation, and whether or not you helped the needy or donated money does not make you any more or less 'saved' or 'worthy'. For if we could save ourselves or become worthy by our good deeds, then Jesus died in vain.

On a final note, some Bible verses that popped into my head while writing this:

Ephesians 2:8-9: For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works so that no one can boast.
In Isaiah 64:6
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

This of course is not to discourage you from bearing good fruit, but rather...don't depend on it towards salvation.


Edit: Now that i finished writing that whole thing, I realize i may have interpreted your question completely wrong and you may have known all of what I said but instead were asking what it means to be a radical Christian...which makes me feel kinda silly for explaining some stuff that is pretty basic...

UnionJack said:

Hi itsallgood, welcome to CF
Well what do you mean by 'enough'? Well...no amount of good deeds you can do is 'enough' for you to be worthy in the eyes of God...This is because we are saved through faith and faith alone, not by our good deeds. Now, the Bible does say that faith without works is dead, and we are to bear good fruit. But this good fruit is more of a 'by-product' of following Jesus, those who are truly saved cannot help but bear good fruit for the love of God is in their hearts.

The good fruit and good works are not however, a basis for salvation, and whether or not you helped the needy or donated money does not make you any more or less 'saved' or 'worthy'. For if we could save ourselves or become worthy by our good deeds, then Jesus died in vain.

On a final note, some Bible verses that popped into my head while writing this:

Ephesians 2:8-9: For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works so that no one can boast.
In Isaiah 64:6
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

This of course is not to discourage you from bearing good fruit, but rather...don't depend on it towards salvation.


Edit: Now that i finished writing that whole thing, I realize i may have interpreted your question completely wrong and you may have known all of what I said but instead were asking what it means to be a radical Christian...which makes me feel kinda silly for explaining some stuff that is pretty basic...

Click to expand...

Excellent! I'm glad you shared this! God bless.

take up your cross until you are worthy to die on it

that's all I have to say

Dear itallgood. You had good and different answers, I believe that Jesus told
us individually to take up our cross, and follow Him. He is our Saviour and Friend, and He will guide us and help us carry all hardships and heavy burdens. With Jesus by our side, no burden will be impossible to carry. I say this with love. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ. P.S. We always ask
for help and guidance.