How are you ‘unlearning’ some assumptions that you somehow acquired? How is following Christ a rebellion against the world’s way of operating life? For me, it being reminded that Jesus is king with absolute authority. He is king in our here and now moments, not just someday when He returns with full physical authority. Practicing His presence now is preparation for what is to come, and participating with Him in His kingdom work now. It is not crushing enemies or clicking the checklist of doing things for Him. It is being loyal to His presence even if we do not see results today.
“To be formed in Christ is to be unformed by culture. This undoing is painful: it undoes our idols, our defenses, our loves, our ambitions, our pride, our myths. But in that undoing, the truth of God’s love is born.” - Graham Joseph Hill
“To take up one’s cross was to live as an insurrectionist, rejecting the merit-based, hierarchal ways of the world embodied in Rome. It was to consciously choose a different way of living. It was to embrace the ways of the kingdom that Jesus taught.
Our sense of identity is inevitably impacted by this commitment to reject the ways of the world and embrace the ways of the kingdom. That impact is seen in the phrase “deny themselves.” To deny ourselves is to die to the identity we construct based upon the merit-based, hierarchal ways of the world.” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford
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