The Glories of AltarsSample

Take Up

take up | tāk əp | verb

— to willingly accept and personally bear the calling and ministry of Christ at great risk and the cost of our lives

Enter at your own risk. When we say yes to Jesus for all time, we become the “called according to His purpose.” Our primary purpose is to embrace His mission on earth and His heart for people. To this end, Jesus asks us to take up our cross daily and follow Him.

At this altar we lay down our lives for the honor of obeying Jesus and being discipled by Him. Our cross includes the mission of fearlessly taking the Gospel to the world and sacrificially loving others in word and service. It means being despised. It means daily, faithfully embracing scratchy people and situations. It often means resisting or challenging popular culture. Sometimes it means uncomfortable change or grave personal responsibility. It can mean being rejected by people we deeply love. For some it even means martyrdom.

None of these feats are accomplished in our own power. We are only the yielded vessels for His power to flow though.

As I write these very lines, I am seated at my altar, embracing my own cross and taking up the present crisis in my sphere of influence. I do this because Jesus does this for me and empowers me to lay down my life for others.

Let Us Take Up

• As you arrive at your altar, pause and receive the sacrificial love of Jesus and love Him in return. Pinch yourself! You are His disciple.
• Ask Holy Spirit to help you search your heart looking for people and situations that you have stepped back from. Avoidance, hostile tolerance, and passive indifference are the opposite of taking up the cross. Ask Him to reveal your present cross (it is probably right before your face) and give you the power to carry it.
• As an act of your will, lay down your life by choosing to embrace the people Jesus calls you to impact in His name, even if it means great sacrifice. (I am not suggesting enduring abuse here. If you are being verbally, emotionally, or physically abused, please seek help. The Lord loves you.)
• As you fellowship in the sufferings of Jesus (Phil. 3:10), the one who carried the cross for you, ask Him to teach you to walk so closely with Him that your cross becomes the joy set before you.