This song covers one area of splintering¹ in each of its¹ three verses.

1. The pain of taking up your cross
2. The pain of mentally being unable to figure things out
3. The pain of Jesus as the church body divides itself

Taking up Your Cross Daily

Read Luke 9:23 and Matthew 10:38-39.

What is your cross? What does taking it up mean?

The cross you bear is the place where you daily give your desires and your way of life over to the direction and control of Jesus. You essential die daily to the old self that would try to raise up and do things like your former way of life. See, when you become a Christian, God takes the old person away and gives you a completely new nature. However, we must submit to the Lord constantly and receive this new life as part of our thinking. Sometimes we will want to return to old ways of doing things, but this is the cross where, although it is painful, we lay down ourselves and take on the new nature of Jesus that God has placed in us. If we are baptized in water into Jesus, which is a fundamental tenet of Christian faith, we are buried with Jesus into his death and resurrected with Him into new life (Romans 6, Colossians 2:12). It is a truth, not a feeling, and taking up your cross is a way of seeing this dying in our daily lives.

The Mind of Christ

Having the mind of Christ simply means thinking like Jesus, putting on the

thoughts of the most Holy and perfect man of all time, so in tune with God that you act like Jesus did. This is a process of your will turning to God¹s will more and more and a transformation takes place by the power of the Spirit (Philipians 3:19). See, our way of seeing things and acting prior to our conversion to Christianity is always as ³looking through a glass darkly² (1 Corinthians 13:12). We may struggle to make sense of the things of God but our natural mind is corrupt and deceitful in all its ways (Romans 8:6-7a, 12:2). We lay this struggle down when we receive the mind of Christ and discipline ourselves to let Him rule in all we do.

Body of Christ

What we do to break up the church, what God intended as the body or bride of Christ, to be spotless and without wrinkle for his return. (Psalm 133:1)

1. Racial hatred (Galatians 3:28)
2. Denominational hatred and jealousy (1 Corinthians 3:3,12:12, Ephesians 5:30, 1 Timothy 1:5-7)
3. Slander other believers (Leviticus 19:16, Titus 3:2)
4. Too relaxed with the standards of the Word (compromise on essentials) (2 Timothy 2:15)
5. Lack of prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

See, the church is not a building or a service or even a single person as some
would define it. The church is the universal body of true believers who move and grow together up into the head of the body, that is Jesus Christ! The church is the advancing hand of God on our planet, destined for triumph and victory over darkness in this world and to usher in the light of the kingdom of God and present a spotless people to the King and Creator!