{"id":1686,"date":"2011-12-20T23:22:30","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T23:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1686"},"modified":"2011-12-20T23:22:30","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T23:22:30","slug":"the-cross-is-not-made-of-soft-feathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1686","title":{"rendered":"The cross is not made of soft feathers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The cross is not made of soft feathers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(Charles Spurgeon)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTake up the cross\u2014and follow Me.\u201d\u00a0Mark 10:21<\/p>\n<p>You have not the liberty of\u00a0<em>making <\/em>of your own cross; although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making. Neither are you permitted to\u00a0<em>choose <\/em>your own cross; although self-will would gladly be lord and master. Your cross is\u00a0<em>prepared <\/em>and\u00a0<em>appointed <\/em>for you by divine love\u2014and you are cheerfully to accept it. You are to take up the cross as your chosen portion, and not to stand caviling at it. Jesus bids you to submit your\u00a0<em>shoulder <\/em>to His\u00a0<em>easy yoke<\/em>. Do not . . .<em><br \/>\nkick <\/em>at it in petulance, or\u00a0<em><br \/>\ntrample <\/em>on it in vain-glory, or<br \/>\n<em>fall under <\/em>it in despair, or\u00a0<em><br \/>\nrun away <\/em>from it in fear.<br \/>\nTake it up like a true follower of Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus was a cross-bearer; He leads the way in the\u00a0<em>path of sorrow<\/em>. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if He carried a cross\u2014what nobler burden would you desire?<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Way of the Cross <\/em>is the way of\u00a0<em>safety<\/em>\u2014do not fear to tread its\u00a0<em>thorny paths<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Beloved,\u00a0<strong>the cross is not made of soft feathers<\/strong>, or lined with velvet\u2014it is heavy and galling to\u00a0<em>disobedient <\/em>shoulders! But it is not an\u00a0<em>iron <\/em>cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colors! It is a\u00a0<em>wooden <\/em>cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of sorrows carried the load. Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit\u2014you will soon be so in love with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the\u00a0<em>reproach of Christ <\/em>for all the treasures of Egypt!<\/p>\n<p>Remember that the\u00a0<em>cross <\/em>will soon be followed by the\u00a0<em>crown<\/em>. The thought of the coming<em>weight of glory<\/em>\u2014will greatly lighten the present<em> heaviness of trouble<\/em>. May the Lord help you to bow your heart in submission to the divine will\u2014that you may go forth to<em> this day\u2019s cross<\/em> with the holy and submissive spirit which befits a follower of\u00a0<em>the Crucified<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The cross is not made of soft feathers (Charles Spurgeon) \u201cTake up the cross\u2014and follow Me.\u201d\u00a0Mark 10:21 You have not the liberty of\u00a0making of your own cross; although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making. Neither are you permitted to\u00a0choose your own cross; although self-will would gladly be lord and master. Your cross is\u00a0prepared and\u00a0appointed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-h-spurgeon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1687,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686\/revisions\/1687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}