not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Difficult demands? Impossible in human terms. Yet those are Jesus’ exact words—unequivocal, unadorned, unmitigated by any explanation or soothing rationalization. He was sounding a note that is missing from much that passes for evangelism today. His “follow Me” was a call to surrender to His lordship. “[We preach] Christ Jesus as Lord,” the apostle Paul wrote (2 Cor. 4:5). “Jesus is Lord” was the core of the early church’s confession