Then Yeshua was saying to everyone, “If anyone wants to follow Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross every day, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.’
-Messiah, from Luke 9:23-24 TLV
“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.”
-A.W. Tozer, The Radical Cross: Living the Passion of Christ
He came down to us, willfully humbling Himself to suffer and die for us. How willing are we to die to self and live for Him? Do we live with one foot in the Kingdom and the other foot in the world? May we choose to not look back to spiritual Egypt, never turning back and striving to finish the race set before us.
Wayne