Luke 23:26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cAs the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene,\u00a0who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Obviously, to a Christian, the person they most admire in the Bible and whom they most would like to be like would be Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0However, I see other people in the Bible, like the Apostles, to emulate. Additionally I would like to do what Simon the Cyrene did, help Jesus carry the cross.<\/p>\n
Although some would like to believe that Simon voluntarily carried the cross for Jesus, the verses that mention this act do not indicate that to be true. (Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He was forced to do that by the Romans because Jesus was so weak after suffering the brutal beatings and lashings that He struggled to carry the cross to the destination on Calvary.\u00a0\u00a0Nevertheless, he did help Jesus carry the cross.<\/p>\n
There are beliefs that He became a Christian and perhaps they are true, but we have no proof, though it is something nice to fancy.\u00a0\u00a0And yes, he was forced to help Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0But he did help Jesus carry the cross.<\/p>\n
I was forced by the curse I was under (original sin) to the cross.\u00a0\u00a0I was forced to come to the cross and repent and follow Jesus, that is, if I wanted eternal peace with God.\u00a0\u00a0Yes, the curse and my inability to not sin forced me to the cross, and I\u2019m eternally grateful that it did.<\/p>\n
As we know, Jesus died for our sins.\u00a0\u00a0He alone provides eternal peace between God and man. For those who love and obey Jesus He commissioned of us to\u00a0\u201cTherefore go and make disciples of all nations,\u00a0baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,\u00a020\u00a0and teaching\u00a0them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you\u00a0always, to the very end of the age.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0(Matthew 28:20<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a0Matthew 16:24-26<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Mark 8:34\u00a0<\/b>Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0What is the cross that Jesus wants us to carry, what is His high command to us?\u00a0\u00a0It is to love God with everything that we are and to love each other. (Mark 12:30-31<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0And if we are saturated in thankfulness for Jesus and what He did for us, then we will obey Him.\u00a0\u00a0(John 14:15<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Out of our love and thankfulness to God we have this to do: To carry His love for the world to the world, and to each other, lifting up the name of Jesus so that all may have the opportunity to come to the cross to worship Him live with Him for eternity.<\/p>\n
We, like Simon the Cyrene, are called to carry the cross.\u00a0\u00a0We are to share the Gospel.\u00a0\u00a0If our hearts are wise we repent and the love of God compels us to carry the cross to the world.\u00a0\u00a0So, what Simon did one day I pray that I remain committed to do every day.\u00a0\u00a0I want to help carry the cross.\u00a0\u00a0Love for Jesus and thankfulness to Him compel me.\u00a0\u00a0Let me serve Jesus daily, or let me die trying.\u00a0\u00a0I want to carry the cross with my name on it that I have received from Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0It is not burdensome (Matthew 11:28-30<\/b>) and I have an assignment that I daily joyfully look forward to. What a wonderful God we serve!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n Luke 23:26\u00a0\u201cAs the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene,\u00a0who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.\u201d Obviously, to a Christian, the person they most admire in the Bible and whom they most would like to be like would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[100,106,93,101,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2394,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions\/2394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}