“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. -Jesus, Luke 9:23

“To an unusual degree today, Christians mistakenly think that the freedom of Christian experience means that we no longer need to make any effort to be spiritual. We simply ‘do what we feel,’ and ‘be ourselves’. To live any other way—for example, to set aside definite and sacrificial amounts of money to do the Lord’s work, or to set aside specific time during the day for prayer, engage in deliberate acts of self-denial as we seek the Lord’s face— is seen as ‘legalism’ and ‘bondage.’ Jesus, on the other hand, assumes that these disciplines are basic to any spiritual vitality. And he was no legalist!” -Sinclair Ferguson