TC13

"Then he called to the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels" Mark 8:34-38

I got this verse from TC training because TC13 is solely themed on this verse. We were asked to reflect on it so I decided to place it on here. 

We were asked to look previously and after for some context.

Before: We see that Jesus is asking his disciples of who people say he is. Then after, he explains "who do you say I am". Then, he yells at Peter for rebuking his statement on the messiah getting beat and killed. The reason for this is because this is man's vision of a God and of a "hero" we want a person who can never get hurt, killed but is almighty, strong, and can defeat anything that gets in our way. This allows us to be more satisfied and comfortable about the "hero"'s presence. 

He explains how he needs to stop looking in man's way but in God's way. The full reason for Jesus's sufferings is to save us and he also wants to show his humility and how he has made this decision to get to know you from the highest class of people to the lowest possible. This shows us that he is all knowing, and understands all the pain we are going through. Who do you think he is?

Verse: This verse is solely based on "picking up your cross" Yes YOUR cross. This means it is different for each individual. The cross was Jesus's death bed and all the sins of others. Thus, the cross should symbolise our burdens and stop ourselves from doing the wrong we think is correct. Someone pointed out that in order to drop something in the first place, you would need to have your hands filled. This means that if you haven't picked up your cross, you are carrying items or thoughts that are blocking the way or distracting you from fully committing to Christ. We need to be able to understand this entire verse before we can finally say "I am willing to follow you God and take up the cross along side of you" 

After: As I continued reading until the end of chapter 8, It explains how we should drop everything and follow him but God knows and understands the difficulties of it. No one said living as a Christian is the easiest thing in the world. It actually is one of the hardest things in the world. Satan will continue to tempt you and create ways for you to fall. God shows his understanding by explaining "sinful and adulterous generation" A generation is a group of people of the same age or group. This can be 1 year or even 100 years apart. No matter the difference  he is explaining that no matter the century you're living in, it is sinful and adulterous and there are peer pressures that will cause you to sin. But you need to remember to trust in him, ask for forgiveness and never be ashamed of him. He explains this when he says "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power" Mark 9:1. This showed me that even though he is saying this a long time ago, it reflects us and the way we act today. I think the way to approach this is asking yourself "will you be ready and will he be ashamed if he came down Today? Tomorrow? A week from now?" This specific verse tells us to continue living a life of Christ because we will never know when he will come again and we definitely do not want to disappoint and be ashamed of him.