"

You must be born again.

"

How are we supposed to do that?

"

Drink my blood and eat my flesh; in this there is life

.

"

Eww.

"

If you'd like to be in first place, go to the last. Choose the worst seat, become the servant.

"

Unrespectable.

"

Love your enemies, do good to those that hate you. If someone hits you in the face, offer the other side your face for his fist.

"

Unhealthy, unrealistic.

"

You must hate your father and mother. I didn't come to calm conflict; I came to bring a sword.

"

Wha?!

"Whoever tries to keep her life will lose it, and whoever loses her life will preserve it."

How can we lose what we're hanging on to, but get what we've let go? And Jesus Christ!-- Did you come to bring us life or to bring us death? I thought you came as Life to bring us life, but you want us to let go of it? . . . You are asking us to

die in order to live

, to follow you to the grave, to follow you into the grave, to lay down in the grave, to be wrapped up in the grave cloths, to close our eyes in that tomb and to LET GO OF LIFE. And then in that moment of death, here comes the angel of white who forces the earth to tremble, rolling away the stone. We receive not mere life, but Resurrection Life.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, she must deny herself and

take up her cross and

follow me

.

For whoever wants to save her life will lose it, but whoever loses her life for me will find it."

I want to follow You, Jesus. Right into the grave. Right into the light of life.

moves and removes