Jesus Christ demands self-denial, that is, self-negation (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23), as a necessary condition of discipleship. Self-denial is a summons to submit to the authority of God as Father and of Jesus as Lord and to declare lifelong war on one's instinctive egoism. What is to be negated is not personal self or one's existence as a rational and responsible human being. Jesus does not plan to turn us into zombies, nor does he ask us to volunteer for a robot role. The required denial is of carnal self, the egocentric, self-deifying urge with which we were born and which dominates us so ruinously in our natural state. Jesus links self-denial with cross-bearing. Cross-bearing is far more than enduring this or that hardship. Carrying one's cross in Jesus' day, as we learn from the story of Jesus' own crucifixion, was required of those whom society had condemned, whose rights were forfeit, and who were now being led out to their execution. The cross they carried was the instrument of death. Jesus represents discipleship as a matter of following him, and following him as based on taking up one's cross in self-negation. Carnal self would never consent to cast us in such a role. "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die," wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was right: Accepting death to everything that carnal self wants to possess is what Christ's summons to self-denial was all about.

J.I. Packer

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Meats, Dairy		Crockpot, Beef	5	Servings

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2	lb	Round steak
1	ts	Salt
1/8	ts	Pepper
1		Onion; sliced
1/4	ts	Garlic salt
1	tb	Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2	c	Beef bouillon
1	tb	Catsup
2	tb	White wine – dry
1/4	lb	Fresh mushrooms; sliced
1/3	c	Flour
1	c	Sour cream

INSTRUCTIONS

Cut steak into 1/4 inch strips. Coat with salt and pepper. Drop into bottom
of slow-cooking pot with onion. Mix garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce,
bouillon, and catsup. Pour over meet. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8
hours or until tender. Turn control to high. Add wine and mushrooms.
Dissolve flour in small amount of water. Add to meat mixture, stirring
until blended. Cook on high for 15 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Stir in sour cream; turn off heat.
Posted to recipelu-digest Volume 01 Number 264 by James and Susan Kirkland
<kirkland@gj.net> on Nov 17, 1997

A Message from our Provider:

“We can do nothing, we say sometimes, we can only pray. That, we feel, is a terribly precarious second-best. So long as we can fuss and work and rush about, so long as we can lend a hand, we have some hope; but if we have to fall back upon God — ah, then things must be critical indeed! #A.J. Gossip”