Pick up your Cross

Matthew 16:24-25

New International Version (NIV)

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

I've heard so many pastors and laity in the Church call Jonah the worst missionary of all time!! In reality, Jonah is an example of real mission at its best.  Consider the fact that a lot of missionaries are sent to those that are not active, current enemies! Although some mission fields are tough, demanding and deserve our full respect….they are not as tough as Jonah's field. The Ninevites, or the Assyrians, were the known enemies of Israel.  Now, for us living on American soil, you might not truly appreciate the concept of a religiously, diametrically opposed, militarily threatening enemy.  Try living next to someone who's mother had their head blown off by the people you are being called to serve!! Try selling mission needs in the church, letting "the body' know that you plan to send chocolate cookies to Bin laden and the Taliban for Christmas! Ha!! Now try doing it just two days after 9/11!! Ha! Ha! Jonah and his people, the Israelites were under attack and under threat of more attack when he was called to serve in Ninevah.  The truth is …that equation added up to E= mc2 or the right stuff to go Boom!! The military rulers, as in many other nations, could be a brutal breed. They ruled their empire and subdued nations with absolute terror.

“I destroyed, I demolished, I burned. I took their warriors prisoner and impaled them on stakes before their cities. …flayed the nobles, as many as had rebelled, and spread their skins out on the piles [of dead corpses]… many of the captives I burned in a fire. Many I took alive; from some I cut off their hands to the write, from other I cut off their noses, ears and fingers; I put out the eyes of many of the soldiers." (TimeFrame 1500-600 BC by Time-Life Books) Assyrian War Bulletin (1000 B.C.) http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/342worldhistoryearly.html

“I slew two hundred and sixty fighting men; I cut off their heads and made pyramids thereof. I slew one of every two. I built a wall before the great gates of the city; I flayed the chief men of the rebels, and I covered the wall with their skins. Some of them were enclosed alive in the bricks of the wall, some of them were crucified on stakes along the wall; I caused a great multitude of them to be flayed in my presence, and I covered the wall with their skins. I gathered together the heads in the form of crowns, and their pierced bodies in the form of garlands."

Jonah wasn't just uncomfortable, he was facing certain death, socially and physically…and for what?? His worst enemies…!! Shoot! I'd take the whale!!

Excuse me mister? I'd like a ride out there to meet my big fish!!

So what do we do with the cross theology found in Matthew 16? To take up your cross means knowing that people die up on that wood, and carrying it means it has a destination..death! What??? However, "whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." Yikes! Heah Christian! Ready to pick up your cross? there is good news for you if the answer is, "no" and even better news if the answer is, "yes"! Jonah wasn't ready either and the Lord gave us more grace…  But for Abraham, who was ready…the Lord made his descendants as numerous as the stars!!  Today, consider the cost of the cross and determine how you would like His story written out for you…His plans are perfect and in the end the story ends with victory…

Every empire like every human life has an hour glass with grains of sand flowing through it and when judgment had come, the city was defeated by the next emerging empire in Babylon. We all should try to look past the 'normalcy' in our own nations and our own lives, because one day our nations will pass, one day our lives will end and the only thing left to us will be our relationship with God, standing either in our own righteousness, or in the righteousness provided as a free gift in Jesus Christ.

It is mercifully interesting to note that after the fall of Nineveh, the Assyrian people did not disappear, they were simply ruled by others. Assyrians were some of the first converts by the earlier church and they became a thriving Christian community sending missionaries through out the eastern world. Today there is still anAssyrian Church with an amazing history and communities throughout the world.

 Or, you can wait and wait and wait and  refuse to take a leap of faith!!

Listen to the following song and consider letting God write His story all over your heart!!