Our cross- loving with Christ's love not ours.

Luk 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 

Luk 14:27  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 

Excerpt-

'He wishes to rid us of our natural love towards others so that we will not love with our own love. Of course He wills that we should love others, but not with our natural soulical affection. If we love, let it be for the sake of the Lord and not for their sake. A new relationship comes to us in the Lord. We should receive from Him His love so that we may love others. In a word, our love must be governed by the Lord. Should He desire us to, we must love even our enemies: if He does not ask us to, we cannot love even the dearest of our household. He does not want our heart to be attached anywhere because He wants us to serve Him freely.

This new love relationship being the case, the soul life must be denied. That is a cross. In so obeying Christ as to disregard his natural affection, a believer’s natural love suffers intensely. Such sorrow and pain becomes a practical cross to him. Deep are the heart wounds and many are the tears when one has to forfeit the one he loves. These inflict intense sufferings upon our lives. How very loathe the soul is to yield up its beloved for the Lord’s sake! But through this very action is the soul delivered to death; yea, it even becomes willing to die; and thus the believer is liberated from the power of the soul.'

The Spiritual Man  - Watchman Nee

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Do you believe those we hold dear are more important than our love for God? How do we feel about God taking our loved ones from us- through death, divorce, and any other way? Do we comprehend that we are truly being refined by Christ?  That we do have a cross to bear. We've been talking about the cross, our own individual cross that is connected to the cross of Christ. We have to bear our cross as He bore His cross. We need to comprehend that we may even feel as if God has forsaken us when we are bearing that cross. We may be in agony- spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically as we take up our cross.  If we are expecting a life without the cross bearing we are NOT in Christ!  We cannot be Christ's without our cross - it's impossible. 

Loving God first- we then receive God's love which will enable us to love others with HIS love, not our own screwed up idea of what love is or should be.

Is love getting along with someone?  Is love never fighting?  Is love an understanding? What IS this thing WE call love?  If we LOVE with Christ's love we are putting others first- even our enemies.  Those who love their enemies are NOT loving them with their own love, but loving them with CHRIST'S love.  Christ would have all people know HIS love and it goes beyond all things.

We want to teach our children to know Christ, to know Christ's love and to do this, we need to live Christ's love. 

The cross we bear is RECOGNIZING that even in all our frustration over life and all its squabbles, even when we are being UNJUSTLY used, NOT thought about lovingly, emotionally stripped of affection, demeaned daily-  even in all that and more we know that it's all a part of our CROSS!  

We have to bear our cross, but all too often we don't even know what that cross bearing is.  When we are shown that our cross is all those things that would keep us dwelling on ourselves in any way at all, we need to understand that Christ would have us kneel at HIS Cross and seek HIS love in which to love in His way, NOT ours!

More tomorrow on this by the GRACE and WILL of God!

In Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior's name always!!!!!!!!