Take Up Your Cross — The Cost of Discipleship Nobody Preaches Anymore
There are words of Jesus that fit comfortably on a coffee mug, a bumper sticker, or a church wall — "Come unto me," "Peace I leave with you," "Ask, and it shall be given you" — and they are true, beautiful, and needed. But there are other words of Jesus that will never sell a conference ticket or build a brand around comfort and success, words like "Deny yourself," "Take up your cross," "Lose your life," and "Be crucified." Those words do not draw crowds the same way, and so in many places the cross has quietly been turned into a logo instead of a life. We have put it on buildings, necklaces, websites, stage backdrops, and social graphics — but Jesus never called men to wear a cross as decoration; He called them to carry one as death, and that is a very different thing. 1. The Contrast — How the Corporate Church Waters Down Cross-Bearing The corporate church has learned to present Christianity as an addition to th...