I was reading today a passage in Matthew (Mt 16: 21-28).  The verse was not written as I'd remembered reading it earlier this week.   So I reviewed the other things I'd read this week to find out that the other passage was Luke 9:23. Here are the passages: Matthew 16:23: Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Luke 9:23: Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Do you see a difference? Before getting into that, let's look at what might be meant by the phrase "take up his cross" .  We discussed this at Bible Study this week.  I think we have a tendency to look at taking up a cross as a negative.  After all, Jesus carrying his cross and being crucified on his cross is a pretty vivid image in our heads. We see the negative, harsh picture of the cross and believe that we have a di...