Take Up Your Cross – Paperback

Every night, a little boy’s mother sat on the edge of his bed and read him the story of someone who had died for Jesus. Some were burned at the stake or thrown to animals in Roman arenas, and others were missionaries killed by the very people they’d gone to save. When she closed the book, she asked him the same question she always asked. Would you have stayed faithful? He was five years old, and he knew what answer she wanted.

Take Up Your Cross is the true story of that boy, told by the childhood friend who grew up next door. His mother was a missionary who hiked into the mountains of Central America during years of civil conflict. Back home, she led the missions program of a large Pentecostal church and raised her son to be ready to suffer and die for his faith. Far from misreading her Bible, she read it very carefully, and that’s exactly what makes her story so hard to dismiss.

If you’re a Christian who has started to feel uneasy about parts of your faith, this book was written with you in mind. Maybe you’ve sung about the blood of Jesus for years and recently heard the words for the first time. Maybe you’ve noticed that the verses about hating your father and mother or fearing the one who can destroy body and soul in hell rarely get preached on Sunday mornings. Maybe you’ve wondered why a faith built on love keeps returning to suffering and death. You aren’t the first person to ask these questions, and you aren’t wrong to ask them.

Author Jordan Cross came to faith in 1981 and spent a decade inside the evangelical church before leaving, and he walks through the passages most churches would rather skim past. He reads the hard sayings of Jesus alongside the letters of Paul and the honor roll of the tortured in Hebrews 11. He traces the long tradition of martyr stories from the early church through Foxe’s Book of Martyrs to the modern missions movement, and he asks a question that thoughtful believers rarely hear spoken aloud. If the woman reading torture stories to her five-year-old was the one reading the Bible most faithfully, what does that say about the Bible?

The tone is calm and respectful toward believers, and the book takes Scripture seriously, quoting it directly from the King James Version so you can check every word for yourself. It’s honest about the kindness and decency found in many churches, and it’s honest about where that kindness actually comes from.

Inside, you’ll find a clear look at why the cross and the blood of the Lamb sit at the center of Christian worship, along with the way a persecution complex takes root in families and spills over into public life. You’ll follow one man’s slow path through a gentler, progressive faith and finally out of belief altogether. You’ll also see the lasting marks a fear-based upbringing can leave, including a suspicion of joy that can take decades to unlearn.

Most of all, this book offers a different idea of courage. The martyr stories celebrated people who refused to change their minds no matter what. Take Up Your Cross makes the case that the braver thing, and the rarer one, is to examine what you believe, ask whether it deserves your loyalty and change your mind if you find you were wrong. The book closes with a practical word for parents, followed by a glossary of church terms and suggested reading for anyone who wants to go further.

If you’ve been carrying quiet doubts and wondering whether it’s safe to look at them directly, this book offers an honest, steady companion for that conversation. Nobody’s asking you to reach a verdict by the last page, only to read the words that were there all along with your eyes open.