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Luke 9:1-27And He said to them all, if any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me (9:23).Bearing A Cross The Holy Spirit has given us two phrases to describe the same experience: “I am crucified with Christ” and “Take up your cross and follow Me.” But to what do cross-bearing and crucifixion with Christ refer? Some people identify these with a personal sorrow, saying, “I have a burden, a broken heart, a great frustration and disappointment, an agony, a great trial. This is my cross to bear.” Undeniably Christians, as everyone else, have trials. We have heartaches, frustrations, and despairs. But the meaning of cross-bearing in the Bible does not even approach this matter of personal affliction. When the Lord says, “Take up thy cross,” and when Paul uses the expression, “I am crucified with Christ,” they are both talking about dying. Crucifixion means death. A cross is an instrument of death. When the Lord speaks of taking up your cross, He is talking about dying. When the Lord bore His cross and made His way to a hill called Golgotha, or Calvary, He came to that place to die. The cross was an instrument of execution. From the agony on the hill the sun hid its face. The Son of God cried in desolation and loneliness, “My God, why?” It was death. Following Christ is to die to self, to vanity, to egotism, to all of the blandishments of the world. To become a Christian is essentially to die to oneself. In salvation, however, that is only the beginning, because death itself becomes the prelude for life in Christ. And I summon the temerity to speak to myself. How I need this word said to me: "Dead." To be dead is to have no feelings. And the Christian going around with feelings on his sleeves, so easily insulted, or so easily hurt, or so easily made to feel unwanted or uncared for; they don’t appreciate me, or they don’t recognize me, or they’re not cognizant of my gifts and I’m hurt; full of feeling. And if I’m filled with ambition and vanity and blasphemy, then I lay myself open to all of the hurts of this world. The dead don’t have feelings. And if I’m dead to the world, I can’t be hurt. Oh, how I need the sermon preached to me! It doesn’t matter; it doesn’t matter. "I am crucified with Christ" [Galatians 2:20]. I have no personal ambitions at all, just doing it for the love of Jesus. I have no ambitious aspirations at all, just loving God. You don’t need to cajole me, pat me on the back, feed me all kinds of compliments and sweetness. I’m not doing it for that. I’m doing it for God, because that life died and what is left is just, "Not I, but Christ" [Galatians 2:20].