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Pick Up Your Cross by Jerry Brown KEY BIBLE VERSE:  Mark 8:34-35 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.  NIV    This text has 4 major components: 1) we need to have a desire to follow Jesus, 2) we must deny ourselves, 3) we must identify the cross that we are to bear, and 4) we must then follow Jesus.    The first requirement to have a desire to follow Jesus. There are many examples in the Bible of persons who followed God. In most of those cases, the person started out initially not wanting to follow God or thinking that they were not good enough to follow Him.    The key in all these cases was to trust God to provide the talent to do whatever it is that He has called us to do. In our weakness, we must call on God's strength in order for us to accomplish the task  He has set before us. God has something for each of us to do. We need to focus our hearing on God and when we have perceived what that task is, we then to step out, trust God, and follow Jesus. Each of us are needed to increase the effectiveness of God's ministry at Victory Assembly.       Jerry Brown is a leader of Men of Victory and also has a ministry of the cross carrying the cross in witness to our Lord Jesus where the Holy Spirit leads him.