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Tears_of_joy
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Joined: 2003/10/30
Posts: 1554


 Who Will Carry The Cross?

Who Will Carry The Cross?
By Thomas à Kempis

Jesus has now many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who carry His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who desire tribulation. He finds more to share His table, few His fasting. All wish to rejoice with Him, few want to bear anything for Him. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to drinking the cup of suffering. Many revere His miracles, few follow the shame of His cross. Many love Jesus so long as adversity does not befall them. Many praise and bless Him, so long as they receive some consolations from Him. But if Jesus should hide Himself and leave them for a little while, they fall into complaining or deep dejection.

But those who love Jesus for Jesus’ sake, and not for any consolation of their own, bless Him in all tribulation and anguish of heart, just as in the highest consolation. And if it is His will never to give consolation, they would nevertheless always praise Him, and always wish to be grateful.

 2006/4/21 8:24Profile
boomatt
Member



Joined: 2006/3/20
Posts: 235
fredericksburg, Virginia

 Re: Who Will Carry The Cross?

Wow!!!

I have been real convicted today. "Please Lord break my heart to long for you no matter what, even to the point of death!"

Bless you for sharing that.


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Matt Kroelinger

 2006/4/21 14:05Profile
crsschk
Member



Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA

 Re: Who Will Carry The Cross?

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Mike Balog

 2006/4/21 15:28Profile
hmmhmm
Member



Joined: 2006/1/31
Posts: 4994
Sweden

 Re:

Quote:

Jesus has now many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who carry His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who desire tribulation. He finds more to share His table, few His fasting. All wish to rejoice with Him, few want to bear anything for Him. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to drinking the cup of suffering. Many revere His miracles, few follow the shame of His cross. Many love Jesus so long as adversity does not befall them. Many praise and bless Him, so long as they receive some consolations from Him. But if Jesus should hide Himself and leave them for a little while, they fall into complaining or deep dejection.

But those who love Jesus for Jesus’ sake, and not for any consolation of their own, bless Him in all tribulation and anguish of heart, just as in the highest consolation. And if it is His will never to give consolation, they would nevertheless always praise Him, and always wish to be grateful.




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CHRISTIAN

 2008/10/3 13:32Profile
jlosinski
Member



Joined: 2006/9/11
Posts: 294
North Pole, Alaska

 Re:

Thanks for this,
This post, along with the one with the account of Oswalt Chambers struggles has been a challanging word today. What soul sorrow these posts can cause when the hopelessness of our self dependance is slowly unveiled.
Joe

 2008/10/3 13:51Profile
PaulWest
Member



Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas

 Re:

Quote:
But if Jesus should hide Himself and leave them for a little while, they fall into complaining or deep dejection.


Yes, this is the true proving ground of faith, when Jesus leaves the believer for "a little while". It was certainly the proving ground for the apostles when He left them physically...not long after His departure, they all fell apart. One in particular even denied knowing Him. They basically all gave up and went fishing, went back to the nets they left behind three years earlier. Jesus had warned them in John 17 that He would be with them "a little longer" and then He would have to go. He called them His "little children", and He still uses that term today when addressing those from whom He departs for a season.

Brothers and sisters, we who walk daily with the Lord know about these periods of departure. Sometimes the Lord departs for a season, withdraws and observes us. He wants to see if we'll go a-fishing (or whatever it was we did before He called us), and if we return to those things, we find no success, no fulfilling pleasure, only toil and depression and deep unrest. Those dejected apostles were out on the lake all night and caught nothing; the fish were there for others to catch I'm sure, but God saw to it that [i]His[/i] children would catch nothing. And then...the Lord appears on the shore! He calls to them! "Hey children, did you catch anything?"

I love God.

Peter, like you and me and after a long season of darkness and failure and torments, [i]leaps[/i] into the water and swims to the shore, and when He arrives he finds that God Himself has already prepared breakfast, a literal "break from the fast" from the season of darkness and emptiness where the Lord has drawn away for a time.

Brethren, we all go through these seasons, and the level of your maturity dictates how long or intense the season may be. May the Lord grant us the wisdom and grace to remain on the shore and wait obediently for Jesus. Wait, wait, just wait a little longer - because He's coming with breakfast!


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Paul Frederick West

 2008/10/3 14:01Profile
Tears_of_joy
Member



Joined: 2003/10/30
Posts: 1554


 Re: Who Will Carry The Cross?

I even don't remember when I have posted this, thank you brother for the reminding. A quote that caught my attention recently:

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Let us constantly bear in mind the rules and principles of Christian warfare; namely, that we conquer by yielding, we receive by giving, we overcome by being defeated, and we live by dying. [b]There is no other way except the way of the Cross.[/b]
-George Warnock

 2008/10/3 16:02Profile
tjservant
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Joined: 2006/8/25
Posts: 1658
Indiana USA

 Re:

Quote:
May the Lord grant us the wisdom and grace to remain on the shore and wait obediently for Jesus. Wait, wait, just wait a little longer - because He's coming with breakfast!



Amen brother Paul. God is good and always faithful. Praise His name!

Great quote from George Warnock Tears of joy. How true it is. There is no other way except the way of the cross.

This thread has been a tremendous blessing to me.

Grace and peace


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TJ

 2008/10/3 16:15Profile
Lor_E
Member



Joined: 2006/12/23
Posts: 248
Montana USA

 Re: Who Will Carry The Cross?

Quote:
But those who love Jesus for Jesus’ sake, and not for any consolation of their own, bless Him in all tribulation and anguish of heart, just as in the highest consolation. And if it is His will never to give consolation, they would nevertheless always praise Him, and always wish to be grateful.



I am so very thankful for this word, amen.
Latly,in my heart have been thoughts of our cross and what a wonder it is...

It seems, though, that there is great "consolation" in knowing that "He ever liveth to make intercession for them...". What a wonderous consolation there is in the hope set before us... that great refuge we lay hold of.

Truly, we do all struggle, with our flesh, with our soulish natures, with the world around us, with our doubts, our fears, our pride; yet the most precious, to me, moments in my Christian life are the lessons that I learned during some of the darkest times.

These times were not fun, there were a lot of tears, a lot of heartache; but what suffering or struggle could we possibly compare to the absolute wonder of knowing the God that made the universe and everything in it has paid such a price for our soul? (Even knowing how intensely fallible we are...)

And that there is no sorrow, no cross we bear that is without purpose, God's purpose.

Everyday there are people all around us whose lives are horrible and they have no 'God of all comfort' to rest or hope in; God help us to be free with what we have been freely given.

There may be no respite with our struggles in this world but; the Father of mercies: who teaches us faith, gives us hope, expects our trust, and in return for every correction received gives us the peaceable fruits of righteousness, has our good in mind for every dark moment, our eternal good.

Praise the Lord for that!!!
Thanks again for bringing this to the forefront.
Love in Christ,
Lori


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Lori Salyer

 2008/10/3 23:22Profile
JoanM
Member



Joined: 2008/4/7
Posts: 797


 Re: SIGH!

WOW (Oh my).

As some members posted on this thread about the poverty of our love for Jesus, another posted on another thread called “MUST SEE!!”:

This is a video of the Chinese during th 90's. They're gathering around in house churches.
This is what the preachers are saying, while shaking..
"We don't love the Lord enough.. Our love is so smal.." And they're all weeping.

We do love Him. But with Peter...
We don’t Love Him. We just don’t.

 2008/10/4 6:27Profile





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