Floodgates 101_Issue2_2019_FINAL

Message from Senior Pastor
Our hearts go out to our brothers and
sisters suffering for their faith. Each
year, we remember them through the
International Day of Prayer for the
Persecuted Church. As I reflect on this
matter, I am reminded to continue praying
for fellow church workers who were forcibly
abducted in Malaysia. How do we navigate
this theologically? Jesus said, “If you hold
to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth
will set you free.” (John 8:31-32). How do we
bring about a freedom in our lives, not lived
with a spirit of fear, but of liberty?
This brings us to ask a fundamental
question: What does it mean to be a
follower and disciple of Christ? What did
He call us to be and into? Let me point you
to this passage entitled in NIV as “The Way
of the Cross”.
Mark 8:34-38 (NIV)
34 Then he called the crowd to him along
with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants
to be my disciple must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me. 35 For
whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me and for
the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it
for someone to gain the whole world, yet
forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone
give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone
is ashamed of me and my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation, the Son
of Man will be ashamed of them when he
comes in his Father’s glory with the holy
angels.”
marked by a voluntary response. The act
of water baptism is an outward expression
of an inner reality, meaning we choose
to die and be buried like Jesus through
obedience. This reminds me of the song
“I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning
back, no turning back.”
Secondly, we must deny ourselves. This
self-denial is not about denying one’s
personality, to die as a martyr (although
that is possible) or to deny things (as in
being ascetic in life, although it may mean
that too.) Rather, it is the denial of “self”,
turning away from the idolatry of selfcentredness.
“Dead” people have no rights.
We are reminded too of our watchnight
covenant renewal where we declare “I am
no longer my own but Yours …. Put me to
doing, put me to suffering …. Let me have all
things, let me have nothing …. I freely and
wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure
and disposal ….” It is a reminder that
the Christian faith and the entire
biblical narrative is not about me, but of
God’s glory.
Thirdly, we are to take up our cross.
Interestingly, Jesus did not say to take up
His cross, but our own cross. Each of us
needs to be clear what that cross is that we
are carrying. The cross had never been
There are four active verbs in verse 34 —
“wants”, “deny”, “take up” and “follow”.
As a disciple, it is a willful choice of denying
our rights, desires, apprehensions and fears.
Let’s look at them one by one.
Firstly, when Jesus said, “whoever
wants to be my disciple”, he is making an
invitation to anyone who would choose to
be His follower. The Christian faith is one
where we choose to follow a Master by our
own volition. We are never forced into it as
the nature of love is such that it is always