Pick up your cross and follow me.

[Tellyontellyon]

Luke 9:23 KJV

'And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.'

What exactly does this mean, what is Jesus asking you to do?
Do you?
How?

 

[Pavel Mosko]

It means that our own "flesh" (aka natural desires and instincts) will want to reign over us. And to be a Christian you must fight over that or Jesus isn't truly your Lord; because you serve the thing that you obey. So you need to be willing to suffer at times to be a true Christian. Technically it something you should embrace in your daily life since that is what verse actually says. aka work for the right thing and be willing to suffer to achieve it rather taking the easy way out etc.


As far as the exact questions of how exactly I know etc. This is kind of a meta theme in the Bible, there are many other parallel verses to it like "No Man can serve two masters" and it relates to many similar kinds of passages in the OT as well.

 

[Friedrich Rubinstein]

A Christian says to God "Your will be done, not mine!" This is denying oneself.
As Christians we are baptized into Jesus' death, which means that we count ourselves dead to sin. We died on that cross with Jesus and are not slaves of sin anymore. This is a daily battle because sin is all around us. It's our willful decision to obey the Holy Spirit instead of following our own sinful desires and that can be quite painful at times.
But yes, that's what we do! God himself gave us the power to live a life as He wants us to, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we do it to God's honor

 

[royal priest]

Romans 12 is a great summary of what Jesus meant.
I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 

[Sketcher]

Luke 9:23 KJV

'And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.'

What exactly does this mean, what is Jesus asking you to do?
Do you?
How?

Picking up one's cross is essentially saying "I'm finished." That means we are to put Jesus first, ourselves second. This was especially poignant in the days of the Early Church, when Christians were often martyred. You could probably temporarily save your life by denying Christ when pressed, but the expectation God has for us is to confess Christ instead, in spite of the danger. If we are to do that, then we must also obey him in our daily lives, when doing so will not endanger us. If we want to go to the left, and God wants us to go to the right, we have to go to the right.

 

[splish- splash]

Genuine repentance /seeking His presence in our lives daily / forsaking everything else for Him / seeking God's Kingdom and His righteousness.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Luke 9:23 KJV

'And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.'

What exactly does this mean, what is Jesus asking you to do?
Do you?
How?

Jesus comes first, we are to be His disciples, and endure the cross of that discipleship. What form that cross comes in may change, and differ for every one. For some, especially in the early years of Christianity, it might even be a literal cross, such as those who themselves were crucified by the Romans and died a martyr's death. For the early Desert Fathers and Mothers, it was the monastic life. It is our repentance, our denial of ourselves and our putting Christ and Christ's way ahead of ourselves, to love others, even when--or even especially--when it is hard and difficult. It is forgiving others even when others refuse to make amends or seek peace. It is loving our enemy. It is turning the other cheek. It is living not for ourselves, but for others, in imitation of Jesus, following Him. It is the sufferings of this life, whether spiritual, material, emotional, or mental. It is the struggle against sin.

The cross of discipleship looks like many things, and can be different for each individual.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Pavel Mosko]

If Jesus was teaching us to crucify our natural desires and instincts, then why did he drink alcohol and have emotional reactions like indignation?

1) Because Alcohol consumption is not innately evil, drunkenness' however is. The Jewish religion had Passover and other kinds of wine drinking "offerings" instituted by God in the OT so obviously it should not be considered innately evil.

The notion that alcohol consumption is innately evil is a notion that came from the American Temperance movement, and this movement did not come about till very late in Christianity the late 1800s. Through most of Christian History, Christians could not avoid alcohol when it came to taking Communion since pasteurization was not until Welches invented it sometime in the mid 1800s or so. Furthermore if you are picky about Bible verses, the Bible passages that speak about wine for Communion, Passover, Drink offerings etc. only refer to fermented grape juice (oinos), and not unfermented grape juice (glucose).




2) The same goes for anger, this also is not innately evil, but is only bad in excess where one looses all reason etc. The Bible at different times describes God as being angry etc. and their is such thing as righteous anger. Righteous anger is not something that is out of control. It can however be scary, Jesus chasing the money changers out of temple probably being the best example.

 

[Friedrich Rubinstein]

Is breathing in carbon monoxide from a busy street sinning?

?

 

[Friedrich Rubinstein]

It's man made pollution that is destroying God's beautiful planet, and all life on earth. So is it not an act of sin to destroy the habitat that we must all live in?

God gave us humans the responsibility to take care of the nature and the wild-life. One day He will call the people to account for what they did and how they abused this planet, yes. But you originally asked "is breathing in carbon monoxide sinning", which is not the case. There is a difference between causing the destruction of earth and suffering the consequences of other people's deeds.
You'd be held accountable for industrial lifestock farming for example, not for breathing in the exhaust fumes of your neighbour's factory.

We should also note that we cannot define a strict line between "allowed" and "called to account for". Everyone of us "supports" the abuse of animals and the destruction of planet earth indirectly in one or another way. Be it driving cars, using plastic bags, eating meat and eggs, energy from coal-fired power stations, energy from nuclear power stations or a thousand other things.
We do know for sure though that God is absolutely just, and He'll judge every person's deeds in the most fair way, knowing all circumstances of their life

 

[SolaChristian]

If Jesus was teaching us to crucify our natural desires and instincts, then why did he drink alcohol and have emotional reactions like indignation?

I think the person who defined "the flesh" as "natural desires and instincts" perhaps defined it too loosely. "The flesh" is rather our sinful nature and sinful desires and instincts, not just any natural inclination that we may have. The question regarding alcohol has already been answered quite well by another person, but I'd like to add something to the second question.
Jesus' emotional reactions were obviously in accordance with his divine nature. He had every right be angry, e.g., at the people turning the temple into a "den of thieves and robbers" because this was His Father's home and what they were doing was wrong. But he did not sin. There is even a verse in Ephesians (4:26) which says "Be angry, but do not sin." Crucifying the flesh would mean crucifying those sinful parts of our nature which are not in accordance with God's law. But I think in context Jesus was not necessarily speaking about that, I think he was literally asking his disciples to join the death march becuase he knew that they would have to lay down their lives for him. Most of us these days have the privilege of not having to literally lay down our lives in that sense, but we still have to submit to Christ as Lord above all. Not "Lord" in a mere spiritual sense, but Lord, King, Ruler of every aspect of our lives.

 

[SolaChristian]

I can see my arguments coming across as a clueless idiot What else can I say when working around peoples beliefs is making me dumb and dumber.

Well the greatest sign of a failed argument is inconsistency and double standards, and I'm afraid that this is characteristic of most inter-faith dialogues. Unless you can understand the Christian worldview from its own perspective, you will always be limited to scoffing and rhetoric, which will be ripped apart by anyone who actually knows your position while you don't know theirs. Your arguments came across as clueless because you actually are clueless. That sounds harsher than intended, but if you don't even know the answers to basic questions, then obviously you will sound ridiculous to anyone who actually knows the topic in question and has to answer your quite silly comments. E.g., I know nothing about cosmology. I would sound ridiculous when talking to a cosmologist about how horoscopes work and why our solar system is expanding and how he can't explain what's inside a black hole and how he doesn't even know how time works outside of our solar system. It would just be cringeworthy. Well, that's what atheists look like when they try to ridicule Christians on things which the atheists know positively nothing about. It may look impressive to other equally clueless atheists but it's honestly just as bad as a flat-earther lecturing a geographer. My point is, before you try to "debunk" the Christian worldview, maybe start by understanding what you are trying to debunk first? Use our sources, understand them in context, know what the different theological positions and interpretations are, know where they came from, and be able to articulate our position in our own words. We all owe each other that level of intellectual honesty.

 

[Jonathan Be Well]

*"I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back. Though none go with me I will still follow Him.

Would you decide to follow Him today?

Many have forgotten to live to the one that died for them and rose again from the dead.

He paid a debt He did not owed, the penalty of our sins, in order for us to surrender our lives to Him and be Forgiven, and to Make Him Lord of our lives and follow Him, His ways not longer ours.
Many have forgotten to follow Him and just believed , the word of God says His ways are no ours, and also it says, "Now That we Live let us NOT live unto ourselves but unto HIM who died and rose again".

Lord forgive us for our sins, we turn to you, your ways, help us today to live unto you and fulfil your call upon our lives this day we pray in Jesus Christ's name , Amen

Enjoy the song"*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFUkBpK4k3Q&fbclid=IwAR3ghbaAhRlGn_avUzp8ASBqKCAEeYvH8LtPBCREUqWbhQ4VrGEpG5ajaCU

3 John 2-4
Authorized (King James) Version

2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

 

[Tellyontellyon]

Your arguments came across as clueless because you actually are clueless.

My grandmother told me that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

 

[SolaChristian]

My grandmother told me that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

I wasn't trying to sound harsh, I think typed messages tend to sound snarky

 

[SolaChristian]

I aim to become as dumb as possible when it comes to all theological beliefs.

That's fine, but then don't be surprised when no one takes you seriously

 

[Rachel20]

I wish I was dead.

Don't. You remember Jobs 3 friends? They had their theology correct, but they were still wrong.

 

[Suggestion Box]

My grandmother told me that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

But then... what are you going to do with the flies you catch with honey?

 

[Tellyontellyon]

But then... what are you going to do with the flies you catch with honey?

Be kind to them..