A Cross to Bear

Christians usually identify themselves by the cross.

Church steeples. Wall ornaments. Necklaces. Earrings. Tattoos.

Many think that by displaying a cross that they are somehow doing a good thing.

Some may even think that a cross is a spiritual "get out of jail free card."

Put the cross on the steeple, but the building is filled with bitterness, gossip and unbiblical teaching.

Hang a cross in the living room, but spend your evenings watching drugs, sex and murder on TV.

Get a cross tattoo and use your strong arms to beat your wife.

Is that not a degrading of the cross?

We've dressed it up so much that it's a fashion statement. A lucky charm. Cute.

We've forgotten that the cross is an instrument of death. Cruel death.

Nails the size of rail spikes held the body to the cross.

Exposed to the elements, the birds and the beasts, the condemned died a slow death of suffocation.

And then we have the nerve to plate it in gold and stick it in an ear lobe.

That's like wearing a gold-plated electric chair.

Or a hangman's noose around your neck.

When Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23), He wasn't talking about a tattoo.

The cross was a means of death. Only those condemned to death carried a cross.

A true follower of Jesus takes up his cross daily. He condemns his self to death.

All the goals, plans and ideas that he has for that day have changed. Like a condemned man on the day of execution, he no longer has the freedom to decide what he wants to do. He has chosen to follow Christ with every word, thought and action.