“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24 NLT
http://bible.com/116/mat.16.24.nlt
In the times that we live in, it is important to make it clear who we are as Christians. Showing others the Christ that we serve and how He is real in our lives. The world is getting more and more hostile towards our faith as a whole. Unfortunately, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Better for us is going to glory to reign with Him forever.
The unbeliever is without God and in turn without hope in the world. This is why God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. It’s not our job to condemn the world. The world does not believe in Jesus and is already condemned. It is our job to give them hope. It’s called the good news. Not the bad news about all the sinning you’ve been doing. Do we address sin? Yes. Do we say that it’s wrong? Yes, but what we don’t do is try to play judge, jury and executioner to the lost. We tell them about the devastation that sin will ultimately cause in their lives, but we have an answer for that. It doesn’t have to be that way. Here is Jesus Christ.
In doing that there will be some ridicule and some persecution, but in the end it will be worth it when He says, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord.” Just like Jesus, we have a joy set before us, but to get to it we have a cross to endure in this life. As the old saying goes, “No cross. No crown.” Paul said in 2 Timothy 3 that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It comes with the territory. The suffering we endure here is in no comparison to the suffering Christ did for us or the glory to be revealed for living a life dedicated to Him.
He asks us to take up our cross and follow Him. We must lift Jesus up and men will be drawn to Him. The struggle, the pain we have to deal with here is a momentary thing compared to the eternal glory we’ll experience with Him. If we represent Him now and show Christ to the world there is benefit in this life and the life to come. Jesus is in your heart. Now give your heart to the world. Represent.
That leads us to our Throwback Song of the Week. It is by Richie Righteous. It is a song from his 2009 release entitled “R.I.C.H. – Resting In Christ Hands.” The track is called “Who You Represent?” It’s a hard hitting track with some hard hitting truth of the gospel. Make sure you tune into the TRACKSTARZ show this week to hear DJ Jeremaya spin this banger. There is a link below as well. Check it out and let us know what you think. Until next time…
Peace and blessings.
