Sound Word Outreach and Ministry

Take Up Your Cross (Re-posted) When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” — Mark 8:34—36 NKJV Sacrifice, CHRISTLIKENESS.  Growing in the likeness of Christ requires that we be willing to lay down our lives and take up our cross daily. It regularly confronts the human insistence on our own will, way, and wants. But even as Jesus laid down His life for us, He invites us to lay down ours for His. It is not an equal exchange. He died to do for us what we could never do for ourselves—to save us and give us eternal life. But when we sacrifice for Him, that opens the way for His life to reveal even more of the glory of His way and will—

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. —   Genesis  1:27   NIV Just, as I Am Our desire for justice reflects the image of our Creator. What is it about injustice—about seeing one person prosper at the expense of another or seeing certain people denied rights that are enjoyed by others—that strikes such a universal chord in the human heart? Chalk it up to our internal wiring. In the creation story of Genesis, we find a remarkable statement: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” ( 1:27 ). The human race bears the likeness of the Creator. We possess, in finite form, many of his qualities. His priorities are wound into our DNA. Nowhere is this more evident than in our desire for justice. Proverbs 11:1 says, “The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.” In Old Testament times, most commerce rel

Friendship with the Master No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.    — John 15:15 NKJV In the Roman world, a “friend” was often a political ally who owed one a favor, or a more powerful patron on whom one could depend. But the traditional Greek concept of friendship remained influential even during the apostle Paul's day. Paul had urged the financially well–off Christians of Corinth to treat Christians in Jerusalem as friends by sharing all things in common. Friends treated one another as “equals” (2 Corinthians 8:13,14). Jesus said to His disciples: “I have called you friends.” While He was not implying that as His friends they were His equals, He was offering to share with them what belonged to Him. John's Gospel describes this assurance specifically as the promise of the Spirit sharing Jesus' words with t