Last week I completed a study on covenant and its relationship with God and mankind. Every culture has some form of covenant ritual and it is considered sacred, serious, eternally binding. Many included a shedding of blood. An example, cutting the wrist of the parties and mingling the blood. Two have become one.  God used the customs of Abraham’s culture to initiate a covenant with him.  The ratification of this covenant required animals to be cut in half and God to pass between them and consume them with fire. On man’s side it required the cutting of his foreskin. The new covenant with Yeshua required the cutting of his skin. On our side it requires a cutting away the foreskins on our hearts. But that entails not a literal cutting of our hearts but a submission to the will of God. It can be stated like this “Take up your cross and follow Me.”

What does it mean to take up your cross? I’ve heard many teachings on what Yeshua meant. I found nothing wrong with them. In fact, most made sense and were true. But this last week I saw something that shook my inner soul. To enter covenant with Yeshua I must become one with Him. I must take up my cross. What is the purpose of the cross? Crucifixion. Death. When I take up my cross I have accepted destination death. Death to self, death to my will, death to my life including physical death. So when you, I, picked up that cross we recieved and agreed to our death sentence.

We teach and preach about that abundant life and the promises of prosperity but that comes with the cost of our death. Don’t say Yeshua wouldn’t allow us to die because so many around the world have died already just because they took up that cross.