Cleave steadfastly..

Robert Scott Duncanson [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Biblegateway’s verse of the day: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord [the only Lord]. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5 AMP

I am reading an insightful book by Lysa TerKeurst called Made to Crave and am in a Bible study with about ten other women meeting each week. Last night’s discussion was far and away the most impactful of series for me.

Let me share the Word that sparked my thoughts.

Luke 9:

22Saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be [[f]deliberately] disapproved and repudiated and rejected on the part of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be put to death and on the third day be raised [again].

23And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [[g]disown himself, [h]forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, [i]refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [[j]cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

24For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [[k]from the penalty of eternal death].

25For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and ruins or forfeits (loses) himself?

26Because whoever is ashamed of Me and of My teachings, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in the [[l]threefold] glory (the splendor and majesty) of Himself and of the Father and of the holy angels.

27However I tell you truly, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.

Can you imagine for a moment what it would have been like to have been a disciple in this room? I’m just saying..

This verse is what I sat in last night until very late. 23And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [[g]disown himself, [h]forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, [i]refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [[j]cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

I had to take it apart because on Lysa’s leading I truly began to realize what He might have meant by this verse, look at it with me.

If any person wills to come after Me…

Wills (thelō) to will, have in mind, to be resolved or determined, to purpose, to desire, to wish, to love, to like to do a thing, be fond of doing, to take delight in, have pleasure
How often do I get to Saturday night (when I go to church), throw up my hands praising the Lord, listening wholeheartedly to the message, taking notes, determined to follow thru with the truth spoken and then the middle of the week and boom, where am I?? Jesus is saying..you want to follow Me? It has to be more than a resolve or a desire…it’s got to be all of you.

Mark Hammitt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARIe3PUgu84

…let him deny himself [[g]disown himself, [h]forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, [i]refuse and give up himself]

I am all over the place here in my mind. This phrase has so many ramifications to my life. So many! When my first thought is what am I going to eat? or I need that coffee today, what is not first place in my mind? Or rather who is first place in my mind? Not the Lord. Not Jesus. My needs. My wants.

Jesus says let him disown himself, lose sight of himself…when one of my children leads me to anger and I go willingly to the anger, who is most important in my mind? My rights. How dare they be children and not be perfect?

When I allow busyness to invade my thoughts and all my planning or scheming for the day..and I’m in a store or I’m at the speech therapist’s office and people surround me. Is my first thought, Lord can you use me here? Can I be a beacon of light to the world around me when I am panicked about getting to the next place? Um…no.

take up his cross daily…

Cross (stauros): denotes, primarily, “an upright pale or stake.” On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroo, “to fasten to a stake or pale,” are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed “cross.” The shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the “cross” of Christ.

As for the Chi, or X, which Constantine declared he had seen in a vision leading him to champion the Christian faith, that letter was the initial of the word “Christ” and had nothing to do with “the Cross” (for xulon, “a timber beam, a tree,” as used for the stauros, see under TREE).

The method of execution was borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from the Phoenicians. The stauros denotes

(a) “the cross, or stake itself,” e.g., Mat 27:32;

(b) “the crucifixion suffered,” e.g., 1Cr 1:17, 18, where “the word of the cross,” RV, stands for the Gospel; Gal 5:11, where crucifixion is metaphorically used of the renunciation of the world, that characterizes the true Christian life; Gal 6:12, 14; Eph 2:16; Phl 3:18.

The judicial custom by which the condemned person carried his stake to the place of execution, was applied by the Lord to those sufferings by which His faithful followers were to express their fellowship with Him..
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G4716&t=NASB

The custom..taking your stake..the Lord knew He would carry His cross and part of being a faithful follower..powerful.

Take Up Your Cross: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZsalHQB7aM&feature=related

…follow Me [[j]cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

Cleave steadfastly to Me..so don’t worry. Don’t be consumed with what you can’t control. I think that just dovetails beautifully with Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:

28And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and [x]learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.

29Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his [y]magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these. [I Kings 10:4-7.]

30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?

31Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?

32For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

33But seek ([z]aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness ([aa]His way of doing and being right), and then all these things [ab]taken together will be given you besides.

34So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.