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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello, thank you for listening to your Daily

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Speaker 1: Bible Verse, the podcast that examines one verse each day

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Speaker 1: to learn more about God and his will for us.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jessica Vanrokel, and after the short word

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Speaker 1: from our sponsor, will continue our journey to the Cross

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Speaker 1: with today's Bible verse, John chapter nineteen, verse seventeen. Today's

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Speaker 1: Bible verses John chapter nineteen, verse seventeen. And he went

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Speaker 1: out bearing his own cross to the place called the

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Speaker 1: place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

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Speaker 1: For the last few decades, I've met with a friend

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Speaker 1: every other week. We raised our kids side by side,

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Speaker 1: served together in our local body of believers, worshiped God together,

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Speaker 1: and grown in grace and trust. We've celebrated together and

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Speaker 1: sorrowed together. God knit our hearts through our shared commitment

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Speaker 1: to live for Him no matter what we face. When

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Speaker 1: her heart breaks, my heart breaks too. When I'm joyous,

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Speaker 1: she rejoices too. Whether we have internal or situational struggles,

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Speaker 1: we point each other to Christ and God's word. She

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Speaker 1: has borne my burdens and I've borne hers. Burying each

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Speaker 1: other's burdens is a gift we can give to those

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Speaker 1: who struggle to carry them alone. It is a privilege

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Speaker 1: to walk with my friend through her ups and her downs.

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Speaker 1: I'm beyond grateful she allows me access to her inner heart.

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Speaker 1: Jesus also had to bear burdens. He needed his friends

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Speaker 1: to pray with him through the Garden of Gsemine, and

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Speaker 1: they couldn't stay awake. Then they scattered at his arrest,

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Speaker 1: and he faced the next several hours alone. When he

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Speaker 1: couldn't carry his cross, the Romans pulled a stranger from

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Speaker 1: the crowd. In this episode, on our Journey to the Cross,

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Speaker 1: we dive into the gospel's accounts describing Jesus's carrying his cross.

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Speaker 1: You can find each of these accounts in Matthew chapter

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Speaker 1: twenty seven, verses thirty one and thirty two, the Book

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Speaker 1: of Mark in chapter fifteen, verses twenty one through twenty two,

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Speaker 1: Luke chapter twenty three, verses twenty six through thirty one,

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Speaker 1: and John chapter nineteen, verses sixteen and seventeen. Where today's

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Speaker 1: passage is taken from each one of the gospel writers

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Speaker 1: presents the same event, but with an individual perspective. Reading

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Speaker 1: them in conjunction, or one after another paints a vivid

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Speaker 1: picture of what Jesus experienced. Carrying his own cross is

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Speaker 1: considered the sixth stage of Christ's suffering. It was the

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Speaker 1: Roman custom to place the cross beam on the man.

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Speaker 1: Before they placed the man on the cross, they forced

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Speaker 1: the criminal to carry his cross in a public procession

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Speaker 1: designed to draw attention to the condemned, his crime, and

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Speaker 1: his fate. It was good advertising for Rome's stance on

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Speaker 1: criminal justice, and because of that, the criminal was often

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Speaker 1: led the longest way possible to Golgotha so more people

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Speaker 1: could be see and more warnings declared. Jesus had been condemned,

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Speaker 1: A herald shouted his crime and death was his fate.

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Speaker 1: By the time the crossbeam, weighing anywhere from seventy five

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Speaker 1: to one hundred and twenty pounds, was tied to Jesus's shoulders,

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Speaker 1: he was exhausted. He had been up all night without food, water,

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Speaker 1: and sleep while he faced false accusations and mistreatment from

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Speaker 1: the Jewish Council. After Pilot's ruling, he was scorged. Scorging

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Speaker 1: is a cruel and inhumane treatment of criminal sentence to death.

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Speaker 1: It was designed to induce blood loss and circulatory shock

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Speaker 1: by ripping the flesh and cutting through muscle. Next, they

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Speaker 1: placed a king's robe on him and a crown made

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Speaker 1: from thorns on his head, and they mocked him. They

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Speaker 1: spit on him, and they beat him. Lastly, they stripped

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Speaker 1: him of clothes, possibly reopening the wounds on his back,

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Speaker 1: placed the crossbeam on him, and let him out. The

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Speaker 1: weight of the crossbeam plus physical exhaustion, pain and weakness

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Speaker 1: caused Jesus to fall down. The burden was too great,

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Speaker 1: so a man, Simon of Syreene, was pulled from the

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Speaker 1: crowd to carry Jesus's cross. The Romans placed the cross

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Speaker 1: on Simon's shoulder, who then followed Jesus through the crowd

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Speaker 1: to the place of the skull, which was arising on

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Speaker 1: a greater hill northwest of Jerusalem. Mark chapter fifteen, verses

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Speaker 1: twenty through twenty two tells us they started by leading

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Speaker 1: Jesus and ended by bringing Jesus because he was too

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Speaker 1: weak to walk. Jesus did all of this for us.

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Speaker 1: He stepped into the role of savior because he loved us.

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Speaker 1: John chapter three, verse sixteen states for God so loved

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Speaker 1: the world that he gave his only son, that whoever

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Speaker 1: believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

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Speaker 1: We can have this gift of eternal life when we

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Speaker 1: believe and receive. He also taught us what it means

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Speaker 1: to take up our cross. Jesus taught this particular teaching

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Speaker 1: in Matthew chapter ten, verse thirty eight, along with chapter sixteen,

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Speaker 1: verse twenty four, and in Luke chapter fourteen, verse twenty seven.

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Speaker 1: In Jesus's phrase take up your cross and follow me

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Speaker 1: painted a vivid picture in the disciples minds because a

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Speaker 1: cross in their day meant death. Taking up our cross

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Speaker 1: is a way to deny our self, which is not

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Speaker 1: the same as self denial. We deny self when we

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Speaker 1: surrender ourselves to Christ and determine to obey His will.

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Speaker 1: Self denial is me centric, while denying self is to

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Speaker 1: live as an others centered person, and it is the

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Speaker 1: radical command of our Christian life. Our cross is not

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Speaker 1: our troubles or trials in life. It is the internal

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Speaker 1: wrestling between indulging our wants, our ambitions, and our ways,

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Speaker 1: or surrendering to God's wants, ambitions, and his ways. Human

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Speaker 1: nature wants to indulge self, not deny self. Yet this

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Speaker 1: is what Jesus demonstrated in the garden of Gessemite, and

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Speaker 1: when he carried his cross, God has given us his

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Speaker 1: strength when carrying our cross seems too heavy and the

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Speaker 1: fight too intense. Galatians chapter six, verse two says, this

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Speaker 1: bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

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Speaker 1: Jesus bore our burden of judgment so we wouldn't have to,

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Speaker 1: and he gives us his strength to surrender our self

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Speaker 1: to him. And he also gives us each other, just

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Speaker 1: like God gave me my friend and he gave me

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Speaker 1: to her. To help us walk out this life of

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Speaker 1: self denial. We can help each other bear our struggles,

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Speaker 1: which teaches us to deny self and reflect Jesus's sacrifice

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Speaker 1: to the world. Let's bear our cross and help others

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Speaker 1: bear theirs. Let's pray, Holy God, we thank you for

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Speaker 1: this example of what it means to bear burdens for

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Speaker 1: each other, but also to deny ourself. Lord, we wrestle

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Speaker 1: every day. Are we going to indulge our human nature

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Speaker 1: of wanting our own way at whatever cost? Or are

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Speaker 1: we going to live in such a way that we

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Speaker 1: are asking you, Lord, what do I need to do today?

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Speaker 1: What plans do you have for me today, How can

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Speaker 1: I live for you at whatever cost. Lord, give us

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Speaker 1: the courage and be our strength, Be our cross bearer

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Speaker 1: with us as we say yes to taking up our

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Speaker 1: cross and living for you in Jesus' name. Amen,