The Series That Keeps On Giving ~ CRUCIFY IT 3.0!

Good Morning Sunshine! We are still dealing with Crucify It! And this is just for you, make it personal, your Yesterday’s Surrender Is Not your Today’s Yes!

God will not turn this loose, and apparently, neither can I! I keep trying to move on, and He keeps adding. But I believe it is because He does not want us to miss this; crucifying the flesh is daily, and picking up our cross is daily. Yesterday’s surrender cannot replace today’s obedience. As long as God gives us breath, we must continue bringing our flesh under submission, picking up our cross, and following Jesus. This is not a one-time decision; it is the daily discipline of a surrendered life. There comes a point in our walk with God when we have to move beyond simply knowing what needs to be crucified and begin developing the discipline necessary to keep choosing the cross. This is where Crucify It 3.0 begins.

The original Crucify It confronted the flesh. It caused us to look at the desires, attitudes, habits, reactions, and behaviors that compete with the Spirit of God operating in our lives. It challenged us to stop excusing what God was calling us to surrender.

Crucify It 2.0 took us deeper. It made us examine ourselves again because sometimes we can surrender something in one season only to discover another layer of it in another. God continued revealing what was beneath the surface. We began understanding that crucifying the flesh is not simply about changing outward behavior; God is concerned about the condition of the heart producing the behavior.

But now we have arrived at Crucify It 3.0, and the question has changed. We are no longer simply asking, “What needs to be crucified?” Now we are asking, Luke 9:23 (KJV): “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” “Do I have the discipline to pick up my cross again today?” Because Jesus did not say, “Take up your cross once.” He said, “Take up his cross daily.” That one-word changes everything. Daily.

Daily means yesterday counted but yesterday is finished. Daily means the surrender you made last week was necessary but today has its own decisions. Daily means there may be mornings when you wake up feeling strong and mornings when you wake up tired. There will be days when obedience feels easy and days when everything in your flesh wants something different. There will be days when you feel close to God and days when you must obey what you know even when you do not feel anything extraordinary.

This is where discipline enters the journey. Discipline says, “I am not waiting until I feel like surrendering.” Discipline says, “I made this decision yesterday, and I am making it again today.” Discipline says, “My emotions changed, but my commitment has not.” Discipline says, “I know what my flesh wants, but I also know whom I have chosen to follow.” Crucify It 3.0 is about learning how to live the surrendered life after the emotional moment of surrender has passed.

It is the morning after the altar. It is the decision after prayer that you prayed. It is the response when the same person presses the same button. It is what happens when the temptation you thought was gone knocks again. It is choosing obedience when nobody is watching. It is learning that following Jesus requires more than a moment of surrender; it requires a lifestyle of surrender.

And perhaps this is where we sometimes become frustrated with ourselves. We think, “But I prayed about this already.” We say, “I gave this to God.” We wonder, “Why am I dealing with this again?” Maybe you did surrender it. Maybe yesterday’s surrender was completely sincere. But Sunshine, yesterday’s surrender belongs to yesterday. Today requires another yes. This does not mean we start our relationship with God over every morning. It does not mean yesterday’s growth disappeared overnight. It means discipleship continues.

Think about physical discipline. You cannot exercise one day and expect that one workout to sustain your body for the remainder of your life. You cannot eat one healthy meal and declare that nourishment will never again be necessary. You cannot sleep eight hours one night and decide you will never need rest again. Some things must become rhythms because they are necessary for continued health.

Jesus describes discipleship with that same kind of continuation: daily. So, Crucify It 3.0 is not simply another call to the cross. It is a call to consistency at the cross.

Let’s Begin Day 1

Good Morning Sunshine! It’s Time To Pick It Up Again, The Discipline Of Daily Surrender!

Luke 9:23 (KJV): “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Here we are again! If you walked with me through Crucify It 1.0 and Crucify It 2.0, you may be wondering what else there could possibly be to say about crucifying the flesh. We have already talked about surrender. We have looked honestly at attitudes, desires, habits, reactions, thoughts, and behaviors that must come under the authority of Jesus Christ. We have prayed, cried, repented, released, forgiven, confronted, and allowed God to show us things about ourselves that we could no longer blame on somebody else.

But Crucify It 3.0 brings us to another place. The first Crucify It helped us recognize what needed to die. Crucify It 2.0 showed us that surrender has deeper layers. Now Crucify It 3.0 asks a different question, can we develop the discipline to live surrendered every day?

Can I choose Jesus when nobody is preaching to me? Can I guard my mouth outside of church? Can I forgive when there is no apology? Can I wait when I am tired of waiting? Can I trust God when His timing does not agree with mine? Can I deny myself when what I want may not be sinful, but it is not God’s direction for me? This is where surrender moves beyond a moment and becomes a way of life.

Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” That word daily is where we are going to live throughout Crucify It 3.0. Yesterday’s surrender mattered. Yesterday’s obedience mattered. Yesterday’s repentance, forgiveness, restraint, and decision to trust God mattered. But yesterday has ended, and today has arrived with its own thoughts, conversations, temptations, emotions, and decisions. So, here is the truth we are carrying with us every day, what you crucified yesterday belongs to yesterday, and what you do today belongs to today. Yesterday’s surrender was necessary but today requires its own yes.

To understand the weight of Luke 9:23, we have to look at what was happening around it. In Luke 9:18–20, Jesus asked His disciples who the people said He was. Then He made the question personal: “But whom say ye that I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” Immediately afterward, Jesus told them in Luke 9:22 that the Son of Man would suffer, be rejected, be slain, and rise again. Then He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

For us, the cross is immediately associated with Christianity. For those hearing Jesus, however, the cross was an instrument of Roman execution. It represented suffering, shame, death, and loss of control. Jesus was making it clear that discipleship would require surrender. Notice also that Jesus first says, “Let him deny himself.” Self-denial does not mean self-hatred, neglecting legitimate needs, remaining in abusive situations, refusing healthy boundaries, or believing every personal desire is sinful. It is about lordship. My feelings matter. My plans matter. My desires matter. My opinions matter. But none of them are Lord. Jesus is Lord.

That is why the order matters, deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Me. We cannot genuinely follow Jesus while continually insisting that Jesus follow us. Daily surrender does not mean we start our relationship with God over every morning. We are not getting saved again, erasing yesterday’s progress, or pretending God has not already done anything within us. We are continuing. Philippians 1:6 (KJV) says, “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” God is continuing His work in us, and we continue responding to Him.

Think about the rhythms necessary for everyday life. One glass of water cannot sustain you forever. One night’s sleep does not eliminate your future need for rest. One healthy meal does not provide permanent nourishment. In the same way, prayer, trust, obedience, forgiveness, and time in God’s Word must become rhythms in your spiritual lives.

Lamentations 3:22–23 says that God’s compassions “are new every morning.” Every new morning is another reminder that God has given us mercy for another day and another opportunity to respond to Him. Perhaps one of your first prayers should simply be, “Lord, You gave me another day. Help me give this day back to You.” I know that sometimes surrendering feels different the morning after. You may have had a powerful moment with God. You prayed sincerely, cried, released something, forgave somebody, or made a decision that you knew was necessary. Then life happened.

The person who irritated you says something else. The situation you surrendered still has not changed. The temptation returns. The person you forgave comes back to mind. The door remains closed. The thing you said you would stop worrying about is suddenly back in your thoughts. You may find yourself saying, “God, I thought I gave this to You.” But what you surrender on yesterday does not mean you will never again experience an emotion, thought, memory, temptation, or circumstance connected to it. This is where discipline begins. Discipline says, “I remember what I surrendered, and today I am going to live according to that surrender.”

Romans 12:1 calls us to present our bodies as “a living sacrifice,” and Romans 12:2 tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. A living sacrifice keeps encountering real life. Your renewed thinking will eventually meet an old trigger. Your new response will meet an old situation. Your discipline will meet an old temptation. That is where growth becomes visible.

Just so you know that on some days the cross looks like you being obedient. There will be days when you know the right response but do not necessarily want to give it. You know you should pray before reacting, forgive while you are still hurting, wait when you are tired of waiting, or apologize while pride is telling you why the other person should apologize first. This is where you begin to see the difference between desire and discipline. Desire often moves when it feels like moving. Discipline learns to obey even while the feelings are catching up. Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” When our emotions are giving us poor directions, God’s Word becomes our lamp. James 1:22 tells us to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only.” Eventually, what we know has to become what we practice.

Sometimes picking up your cross will look very ordinary. It may mean not sending the angry text, pausing before answering, admitting you were wrong, listening instead of immediately defending yourself, praying when you are tired, opening your Bible when your mind is crowded, or refusing to revisit something God has already helped you release. Some days the cross will not look dramatic at all. It will simply look like obedience, and  I know that you just read that line, “it will simply look like obedience on your part.” So, stop waiting until you feel like it.

Sometimes you can tell yourself that you will obey when you feel stronger, forgive when you feel completely healed, move when you stop being afraid, or trust God when you finally understand what He is doing. But if you always wait for your feelings to agree before you obey, then your feelings are still governing you. Second Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Proverbs 3:5–6 tells us to trust in the Lord rather than leaning entirely upon our own understanding. Faith sometimes requires movement while questions remain. Jesus demonstrated this in Gethsemane when He prayed in Luke 22:42, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” He did not pretend that what was before Him was easy. He honestly acknowledged the weight of it and still submitted to the Father’s will.

Sometimes your daily cross will be found in your own nevertheless. “Lord, this hurts; nevertheless, I trust You. This is not what I wanted; nevertheless, I will follow You. I do not understand; nevertheless, I will obey what You have shown me.” And these are the moments when discipline simply sounds like nevertheless but pick it up again anyway.

Maybe you have been discouraged because you thought you should be farther along by now. You thought you would never struggle with that thought again or that the flesh would never try to pull you back toward an old response. But Jesus already gave us language for this journey: daily. Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Walking is continued movement. We take one step and then another. Proverbs 24:16 reminds us that “a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.” Philippians 3:14 says, “I press toward the mark.”

That is the heart of Crucify It 3.0, you are not starting over every morning, you are continuing, you are continuing to surrender, continuing to learn, continuing to receive correction, continuing to recognize the flesh sooner, and continuing to respond to the Holy Spirit more quickly. If God gives you tomorrow, you will continue tomorrow. But right now, He has given you today.

I want you to ask yourself one simple question today, what does picking up my cross look like right now? And then ask yourself whether you are waiting until you feel like obeying or whether you are developing the discipline to follow Jesus regardless of how you feel. Hebrews 12:1–2 tells us to lay aside every weight and sin that easily besets us, run with patience the race set before us, and keep looking to Jesus. You cannot run today’s race staring backward at yesterday. Today has its own grace, its own decisions, and its own cross, so pick it up.

Let’s Pray:

Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus Christ, thank You for allowing me to see another day. Yesterday is finished, and I thank You for every victory, every lesson, every correction, and every act of surrender that took place. But today You have given me another opportunity to follow You, so I give this day back to You. Teach me what it means to deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Jesus. Forgive me for the times I have wanted the benefits of following You without the discipline of surrender. Forgive me when I have called Jesus Lord with my mouth while allowing my emotions, preferences, pride, fear, or desires to have the final authority in my decisions. Holy Spirit, help me in the ordinary moments today. Help me when I am irritated, disappointed, overlooked, afraid, impatient, or tempted to control something that belongs in Your hands. When pride tells me I do not need correction, humble me. When offense tells me I have a right to hold on to what happened, remind me of the freedom of forgiveness. When fear tells me I need to control everything, remind me that You are trustworthy. Teach me to acknowledge my emotions without allowing them to become my authority. Let my thoughts be examined by Your truth, my desires submitted to Your wisdom, and my plans surrendered to Your will. When I do not feel like praying, help me pray. When I do not feel like forgiving, help me move toward forgiveness. When I do not feel like waiting, give me patience. When I need to apologize, break the pride that makes being right more important than making things right. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Show me where something is competing with Your authority. Reveal the excuses I have become comfortable making and the places where my mouth says yes while my actions are still saying no. Father, when I stumble, help me get back up. When I miss it, help me repent. When I hurt someone, give me humility to make it right. Do not allow shame to keep me on the ground when Your grace is calling me to continue walking. I thank You for yesterday’s surrender, but I will not attempt to live today on yesterday’s yes. Today I choose Your will over mine, Your Word over my feelings, Your Spirit over my flesh, Your timing over my impatience, Your truth over my thoughts, and Your purpose over my preferences. Lord, do not merely teach me how to have a surrendered moment. Teach me how to live a surrendered life. Today I pick up my cross again, and today I give You another yes. In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Nugget: Hello Sunshine, you are not starting over; you are continuing. Yesterday’s surrender mattered but yesterday cannot carry today’s cross. God gave you another morning and another opportunity to choose Him. Do not wait until you feel like it. Pick up your cross again, give God today’s yes, and keep following Jesus!

Blessings…

Love, Dr. Jean…