Mark 8:34-38
Crucify Your Life -Not my life, His life (vv. 34-35)
- Denial of self
- Death of self
Crucify Your Ambition – Not my goals, His goals (vv. 36-37)
- A. Valueless yield
- Valuable yieldedness
Crucify Your Pride – Not my way, His way (v.38)
- He bore the shame for our blame
- We must bear shame for His Name
More to Consider
In Venezuela there are great iron mines, from which ore is shipped to the largest iron works in the world, near Philadelphia. If a man were to try to get iron out of ore with a hammer, he could not do it, because iron is not a mechanical agglutination; it is a chemical union. The ore must go into a great furnace; as the temperature rises, the iron within the ore turns to liquid, and the pure metal runs out.
This is exactly how God works in your life and mine. This is why we must be salted with fire. You and I cannot hammer sin out of our lives. God loves us and He will salt us with fire until the slag is burned away and only pure metal remains. So, if you and I desire to be delivered from sin, we must be willing to go into the flame. There is no other way.
Signs of the Times.
Tourists to California stand in awe and admiration of the redwood tree. Something unusual happens when this giant of the forest dies or is cut down. For years sightseers in Muir's Woods near San Francisco were shown the stump of a tree which was a sapling at the time of Solomon. From this dead stump of the old tree a number of young redwoods were growing. It is peculiar to the redwood that it does not produce any young trees until it dies. At the death of one, a number of smaller ones spring up around it, getting their start and their nourishment mostly from the dead stump.
What a reminder this is of the tree of the cross. It was a tree of death which became a tree of life. It had to die first before it could give life. But once cruel men had cut down Christ by crucifixion and had buried Him, He sprang forth and countless other Christians sprang forth.
Signs of the Times.
I counted dollars while God counted crosses.
I counted gains while He counted losses!
I counted my worth by the things gained in store.
But He sized me up by the scars that I bore.
I coveted honors and sought for degrees;
He wept as He counted the hours on my knees.
And I never knew 'til one day at a grave,
How vain are these things that we spend life to save!
Ibid.
An American businessman went to Oberammergau to witness the Passion Play. Enthralled by this great drama which depicts the story of the cross, he went back stage at the conclusion of the play to meet Mr. Anton Lang, who played the part of the Christ.
Our American friend snapped the picture of Anton Lang, much to Mr. Lang's discomfort. Then looking about the stage for something more to shoot with his camera, he saw over in the corner the great cross which Mr. Lang had carried up the hill to Calvary in the play.
Quickly turning to his wife he said, "Here dear, you take my camera. I'm going over and lift up the cross. When I get it up on my shoulder, you snap my picture carrying the cross. Won't that be a novel and exciting picture to send home to our friends in America?"
The man had hurried over beside the cross. He stooped down to lift it to his shoulder, but he could not budge it one inch off the floor—the cross was made of heavy iron-oak beam.
Puffing with amazement the man turned to Mr. Lang and said, "Why, I thought it would be light. I thought the cross was hollow. Why do you carry a cross that is so terribly heavy?"
Mr. Lang drew himself up to his full height and replied with compelling dignity and rebuke, "Sir, if I did not feel the weight of His cross, I could not play His part."
Benjamin P. Browne