<html><head></head><body><div><div><div><div><br></div>Mark 8;34&amp;35<div><br></div><div><b>34. &nbsp;And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, “if any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.</b></div><div><b>35. &nbsp;For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.</b></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>The very first spiritual battlefield Jesus leads Believers onto is, ‘self.’</div><div><br></div><div>This is intended by God&nbsp;to be&nbsp;deadly warfare for us,&nbsp;which with Christ,&nbsp;by the Holy Spirit, we must&nbsp;repeatedly&nbsp;lose.</div><div>Death to self, death to selfishness, passions, and desires is the first good&nbsp;gift given us in our Baptism into Christ.</div><div><br></div><div>By that gift called repentance, we, by&nbsp;love and faith, put&nbsp;the will of the Father first, ahead of our own will. &nbsp;This is&nbsp;how Christian discipleship begins.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>&nbsp;It does not begin by&nbsp;inviting Jesus into our heart. &nbsp;For&nbsp;our hearts must be declared a diseased, dangerous,&nbsp;disaster zone, which must be&nbsp;torn down, scooped up, and disposed of&nbsp;in the great spiritual darkness of the empty tomb along with all our sin. &nbsp;We&nbsp;condemn&nbsp;our old hard heart, declaring it unfit, foul, unclean, and polluted with all manner of filth. &nbsp;We deny and forbid&nbsp;that selfish heart to have any place in our new cleansed breast.</div><div><br></div><div>Our new hearts given us in our baptism into Christ give us the Mind of Christ.</div><div><br></div><div>Living in that Mind&nbsp;is the on-going work of the Holy Spirit in us. &nbsp;In fact, it <u>is </u>&nbsp;Christ in us. &nbsp;This is why Jesus says, <i>“take up your&nbsp;cross.” &nbsp;</i>The purpose of the cross (which Christians symbolically wear around their neck),&nbsp;is for the killing of our&nbsp;sinful, prideful&nbsp;will,&nbsp;which desires to put itself into the place of God. &nbsp;It is not just Jesus’ cross, it <u>is</u>&nbsp;ours too.<u></u></div><div><br></div><div>To be baptized into Christ is to become with Christ&nbsp;God’s slave. &nbsp;With Jesus we are dead to sin, and with Christ we are resurrected as new creations, who live to do His good and gracious will&nbsp;for the praise of His glory, not our own. &nbsp;<u>That,</u>&nbsp;is what <i>“follow Me” </i>means.</div><div><br></div><div>It is also what ‘walking by the Spirit’ means.</div><div><br></div><div>Prayer: &nbsp;O&nbsp;Most Merciful Father, you sent Jesus to do Your will, to die, and to be raised. &nbsp;Bless us to daily die with Him, and having been raised with Jesus, bless us to&nbsp;live to the praise of Your glory. &nbsp;Bless us to never turn our backs on our first enemy, self, or surrender to his diseased, dark,&nbsp;deadness. &nbsp;He is not our friend, he can only give us the second death, Hell. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In Jesus, in and with&nbsp;his mind,&nbsp;we pray, Amen.</div><div><br></div><div>Love,</div><div>Dad/Baba/Eric</div><div>Grandpa Pickle Pastor</div><div>“A chapter a day, every day, progressively, be transformed, ‘soak’ in the living Word. &nbsp;God’s Word is our habitation, and we are His.”</div><div><br></div><div><br><br><div><a href="https://mail.onelink.me/107872968?pid=nativeplacement&amp;c=Global_Acquisition_YMktg_315_Internal_EmailSignature&amp;af_sub1=Acquisition&amp;af_sub2=Global_YMktg&amp;af_sub3=&amp;af_sub4=100000604&amp;af_sub5=EmailSignature__Static_" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><br></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>


Mark 8;34&35
34.  And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, “if any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.35.  For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

The very first spiritual battlefield Jesus leads Believers onto is, ‘self.’
This is intended by God to be deadly warfare for us, which with Christ, by the Holy Spirit, we must repeatedly lose.Death to self, death to selfishness, passions, and desires is the first good gift given us in our Baptism into Christ.
By that gift called repentance, we, by love and faith, put the will of the Father first, ahead of our own will.  This is how Christian discipleship begins. 
 It does not begin by inviting Jesus into our heart.  For our hearts must be declared a diseased, dangerous, disaster zone, which must be torn down, scooped up, and disposed of in the great spiritual darkness of the empty tomb along with all our sin.  We condemn our old hard heart, declaring it unfit, foul, unclean, and polluted with all manner of filth.  We deny and forbid that selfish heart to have any place in our new cleansed breast.
Our new hearts given us in our baptism into Christ give us the Mind of Christ.
Living in that Mind is the on-going work of the Holy Spirit in us.  In fact, it is  Christ in us.  This is why Jesus says, “take up your cross.”  The purpose of the cross (which Christians symbolically wear around their neck), is for the killing of our sinful, prideful will, which desires to put itself into the place of God.  It is not just Jesus’ cross, it is ours too.
To be baptized into Christ is to become with Christ God’s slave.  With Jesus we are dead to sin, and with Christ we are resurrected as new creations, who live to do His good and gracious will for the praise of His glory, not our own.  That, is what “follow Me” means.
It is also what ‘walking by the Spirit’ means.
Prayer:  O Most Merciful Father, you sent Jesus to do Your will, to die, and to be raised.  Bless us to daily die with Him, and having been raised with Jesus, bless us to live to the praise of Your glory.  Bless us to never turn our backs on our first enemy, self, or surrender to his diseased, dark, deadness.  He is not our friend, he can only give us the second death, Hell.    In Jesus, in and with his mind, we pray, Amen.
Love,Dad/Baba/EricGrandpa Pickle Pastor“A chapter a day, every day, progressively, be transformed, ‘soak’ in the living Word.  God’s Word is our habitation, and we are His.”


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