What is Your Life Centered On?

I am finally getting to Chapter 2 of The Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney. In this Chapter CJ asks the above question. Just watch the media and we can see all kinds of causes that preoccupy a Christian. Some are good and some are, well questionable. And since the media is the major source of people's information it becomes the perception of what Christianity is about. At the start of the chapter CJ uses an illustration of the owner of a parrot. Almost daily the owner is going to the pet store to get things for the cage to try and make the parrot happy, but in the end the parrot dies of starvation. The pet store was working on the assumption that the pet owner had food, and the pet owner did not know what was missing - thus the vital communication of pet food never came around, and in the end the parrot dies (pg 18-19). D.A. Carson is quoted as writing, "I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far from idolitry." (1), pg 22. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, esv, states: "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures" To quote CJ..."First impotance. The Bible tells us that, while there are many different callings and many possible areas that service in the kingdom of God, one transcendant truth should define our lives. One simple truth should motivate our work and affect every part of who we are. --- Christ died for our sins." (2) Even not in the site of the mainstream we are daily in danger of moving away from Christ and what He has done and focusing on the periphery. When we do focus on something other than the cross CJ points out that the tendency is to move towards legalism (basing our relationship with God on our own performance), condemnation (focusing more on our own sin rather than on God's grace), and/or subjectivism (basing our view of God on our changing feelings and emotions). (3) Like Paul says in Galations (6:14, esv), "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Take time to consider these things that Mr. Mahaney points out. What is our life centered on? What do we take time, when we have it, to think about? What is our first passion? What passions and thoughts do we convey to the world around us if it was to be asked? Is there anything in our faith that is not tied to the cross, and what was accomplished there on our behalf. Nothing, and we need to convey this message not just to our children, our families, our churches, our communities, and unto the world. (1) Carson, Cross & Christian Ministry, 26. (2) pg 20 (3) pg 22-23 Verse for today: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, esv For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. amen