The most difficult thing we have to do in America is to keep our mind on things above. The part of our life that is still on the earth, the part not yet harvested by the Lord, clamors for our attention all day long. We have to keep choosing to pay attention to our new life, which is Christ, that is above us in Heaven.

So many things, circumstances, and relationships strive to bring us down from our heavenly position! We have to keep praying, keep meditating in the Scriptures, keep gathering with fervent believers, keep reminding ourselves that we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God.

We have to realize constantly that our treasures are in Heaven, that our present life on earth is temporary, that our purpose here on earth is to be changed into the moral image of Christ and to be brought into untroubled rest in the Father through Christ.

The temptation is to try to play before it is God's time for us to play, to attempt to dodge the pain of this cursed world in which we are attempting to serve God. The worst mistake any human being can make is to set his or her mind on things on the earth, trying to find out how to avoid the unpleasant work that God has set before him, the prisons and testings.

If we do not strive continually to keep our mind on Christ we will put our treasures on earth. We will hold onto our pleasures as long as we can. We will not give all to Jesus. We will seek to save our life. The result of such shortsightedness will be to lose everything, including the right to play.

Your life on earth will be short in any case. Don't be so foolish as to stray from the path God has set for you.

Doing what we have to do—carrying our cross.

And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27—NIV)

By definition a Christian is a disciple of the Lord Jesus, not just the member of a church or religion. We have to carry our cross or we cannot be a Christian.

Carrying our cross is work—hard, painful, grueling work. We have to do it but do not desire to do so. There is no way in which we can make carrying our cross to be play. By its very nature the cross is the opposite of play.

It was God's love that withdrew play. Having to do that for which we have no heart is part of the curse. If we avoid doing that which we are required to do because it is unpleasant, we never will be permitted to play with the children of God.

It is God's love that gives us our personal cross, that gives us work to do. Why is this? It is because the source of all corruption and misery in the creation is our self-will. As long as we are bound by self-will we cannot enjoy God or His creation. We cannot play. It is carrying the cross that destroys our self-will.

To be continued.