To take up your cross means to associate yourself with Christ and to share His rejection. It means you take a stand for Christ even though people make fun of you, persecute you—or even kill you!
~ Billy Graham
The Bible says that as long as we are here on earth, we are strangers in a foreign land. There are enemies to be conquered before we return home. This world is not our home; our citizenship is in heaven.
Only in heaven will we know exactly what heaven is like.
We were equipped by our Creator not only to live on this earth, but also to live in touch with heaven. This was the Great Design of the Great Designer.
There are restrictions to entering heaven. The Scripture says: “Nothing impure will ever enter [heaven], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” [Revelation 21:27 NIV].
Only one answer will give a person the certain privilege, the joy, of entering heaven. “Because I have believed in Jesus Christ and accepted Him as my Savior.
Even when we allow our imaginations to run wild on the joys of heaven, we find that our minds are incapable of conceiving what it will be like.
What a thrilling future for those of us who know that some day we will populate the kingdom of God.
In our resurrection bodies we will know nothing of physical weakness. Limitations imposed on us on this earth are not known in heaven. We will have a habitation from God that is incorruptible, immortal, and powerful.
In heaven I’ll wish with all my heart that I could reclaim a thousandth part of the time I’ve let slip through my fingers, that I could call back those countless conversations which could have glorified my Lord—but didn’t.
Don’t let the burdens and hardships of this lifedistract you or discourage you, but keep your eyes firmly fixed on what God has promisedat the end of our journey: heaven itself.
The most thrilling thing about heaven is that Jesus Christ will be there. I will see Him face to face. Jesus Christ will meet us at the end of life’s journey.
Heavenly rest will be so refreshing that we will never feel that exhaustion of mind and body we so frequently experience now. I’m really looking forward to that.
Nothing made by the hand of man has ever been so beautiful as starlight on the water or moonlight on the snow. And the same hand that made trees and fields and flowers, the seas and hills, the clouds and sky, has been making a home for us called heaven.
A Christian’s citizenship may be in heaven, but he has obligations as a citizen of earth. Both living with Christ and going to be with Him in death are greatly to be desired.
If Jesus had not risen from the dead, no right-minded person would have glorified anything so hideous and repulsive as a cross stained with the blood of Jesus . . .An unopened grave would never have opened heaven.
Be willing to be sneered at than to be approved, counting the cross of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Washington, London, Paris, or Moscow.
The law enables us to see ourselves as morally dirty and in need of cleansing. But it also points us to the place of cleansing: the cross of Christ.
The cross is the only way of salvation. And the cross gives a new purpose to life.
The cross shows the seriousness of our sin—but it also shows us the immeasurable love of God.
Jesus was born with the cross darkening His pathway . . . From the cradle to the cross, [Jesus’] purpose was to die.
Jesus Christ opened heaven’s door for us by His death on the cross.
Great crowds followed our Lord . . . as He healed the sick, raised the dead, and fed the hungry. However, the moment He started talking about the cross . . . “many . . . no longer followed him” (John 6:66 NIV).
Sin was conquered on the cross. [Christ’s] death is the foundation of our hope, the promise of our triumph!
Had Satan not set himself in opposition to God . . . there would have been no need for God to send His Son to the cross.
One-third of Matthew . . . one-third of Mark . . . one-fourth of Luke, and one-half of John are given to [Christ’s] death . . .Jesus came for the express purpose of dying for sinners. When He left heaven, He knew He was going to the cross.
Sin’s masterpiece of shame and hate became God’s masterpiece of mercy and forgiveness. Through the death of Christ upon the cross, sin itself was crucified for those who believe in Him.
The cross has become a symbol in much of the Western world, misused by many rock stars and others who do not comprehend its significance.
How do we get our values so mixed up? We look for shortcuts to happiness. Our lust for immediate pleasure prompts us to think of evil as good.
There is legitimate pleasure, which is not wrong, but we are not to become so preoccupied with its activities that it takes the place of God.
We have at our fingertips every pleasure that man is capable of enjoying, and man has abused every gift God ever gave him.
We are like a restless sea, finding a little peace here and a little pleasure there, but nothing permanent and satisfying. So the search continues!
[Mankind has] allowed worldly desires and pleasures to fill the heart and mind. Whatever the sin, we need to repent and turn to Jesus Christ in faith for forgiveness and new life.
Many of us have no appetite for spiritual things because we are absorbed in the sinful pleasures of this world. We have been eating too many of the devil’s delicacies.
Today our world is mad in its obsession with pleasure, sex, and money. Its ear is too dull to hear the truth. Most men’s eyes are blind. They do not want to see. They do not want to hear. They hurry to their doom.
Salvation is always “good news.” It is news of God’s love and forgiveness—adoption into His family—fellowship with His people—freedom from the penalty of sin—liberation from the power of sin.
Your salvation is a free gift, made possible only because God planned it . . .Christ paid for it . . . and the Holy Spirit assures you of it.
God doesn’t say to be perfect and you’ll get to heaven. He says to confess that you’re a sinner and come to the cross, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The Bible is primarily concerned with the story of man’s redemption as it is in Jesus Christ. If you read Scripture and miss the story of salvation, you have missed its message and its meaning.
If Satan can’t keep you away from Christ, he will at least try to make you doubt your salvation.
