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Suffering rejection for the Testimony Of Jesus Christ    
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Your Cross and mine is personal rejection by unbelievers for our testimony of Christ Jesus.     

Until we are willing to be rejected by men for Christ's testimony we bear no cross.     

It is a dangerous thing to be unwilling to suffer persecution for our testimony.     It is the next thing to outright denial of Him as Saviour and Lord.     

We deny ourselves by giving all praise glory and honour to Christ Jesus at the risk of being persecuted.     

So, we take up the cross of persecution - being mistreated because of our stance for Christ.     

We follow Jesus is His Word and Holy Spirit, speaking as He spoke and doing what He did.     

Peter's Double Minded nature was not unique to him so Jesus addressed all the disciples so that they understood the level of commitment that Jesus required.     We must deny ourselves.     

Peter had tried to intervene in the direction of Jesus' Physical Life.     So, Jesus addresses how to experience Abundant Life in our Physical Life in His comments to all the disciples.     We find Abundant Life by giving up our Self Will controlled life in obedience to the Holy Spirit and Word.     

Persecution for our testimony is our cross.     Those who do not testify of Jesus Christ receive no persecution and so never bear their cross.     

Jesus testified of the Father and suffered rejection and death for it.     Jesus is a stumblingblock to the rebellious unbeliever and so are we in our testimony of Him.

And he that takes not his cross, and follows after me, is not worthy of me.

The cross that we take is the stigma of Christ Jesus.     We should always be identified with Him and so bear His reproach from the unbelievers.     

Our worthiness of Christ is determined by our unconditional commitment to Him.

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

We can only know Christ through spending time with Him - listening to Him and meditating on His words .     

The Power of His resurrection eliminates fear .      In this fearlessness we are able to testify of Him to every man and so come to experience rejection, hatred and persecution .     

Such Knowledge, power and sacrifice makes us conformable unto His death.     We are living sacrifices .     

The world that Paul lived in needed Him as such.     The world that we live in is no different.     

When we deny ourselves and share the Gospel of Christ Jesus we enter into a level of fellowship with Him that those who do not submit never experience.     

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

This is one of the most important verses in the book of revelation for each of us personally.     

We overcome by two actions and one attitude.     The two actions
   → Jesus shed blood
   → Our testimony that Jesus is our Creator and Saviour.     

The one attitude is
   → Being willing to die for Christ's sake.     

Take up Your Cross and enter into fellowship with Jesus, experiencing His suffering and His joy.