Chapter 6: Cross Centered Days

Mahaney begins chapter 6 with this simple but significant insight: "A cross centered life is made up of cross centered days." In other words, we don't so much need to focus on how to make our entire life cross centered (which sounds like a big project), rather our focus needs mainly to be on today: How can I make this day cross focused?

He suggests six vital ways to make this happen:

• Memorize the gospel
• Pray the gospel
• Sing the gospel
• Review how the gospel has changed you
• Study the gospel
• Do not do these things alone

Which of these are you doing today? Which of these most urgently needs to be addressed in your day-to-day life?

Chapter 5: What You Feel May Not Be Real!

Mahaney begins chapter 5 with this quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?

He goes on to write, "...Before you can make real progress against [legalism and condemnation], you need to understand the importance of what happens inside your head. The cross centered life starts with biblical thinking. Are you going to build your life on what you feel or on what is real?" (47).

I must say, quite honestly, that if people grasped this one essential reality, my pastoral counseling load would decrease by 75%. That's not to say that I don't love shepherding and counseling God's people. I do! It is only to say that the vast majority of believers live their lives entirely on the basis of what they feel rather than what is real. Very often, the frustrations and spiritual roadblocks that seem most impassible to us can be pushed aside merely by recognizing that what we feel isn't real, and by speaking biblical truth into our own lives consistently, steadily, and uncompromisingly.

What truth do you need to "preach" into your life right now? What are you believing that isn't real?

Is Your Life Cross Centered?

This is the key question C.J. Mahaney asks in chapter one of The Cross Centered Life. He writes,

The cross was the centerpiece of Paul's theology. It wasn't merely one of Paul's messages; it was the message. He taught about other things as well, but whatever he taught was always derived from, and related to, the foundational reality that Jesus Christ died so that sinners would be reconciled to God and forgiven by God (11).

He goes on to quote Jerry Bridges:

The gospel...is not only the most important message in all of history; it is the only essential message in all of history. Yet we allow thousands of professing Christians to live their entire lives without clearly understanding it and experiencing the joy of living by it (15).

So, he asks: Is your life Cross centered? Do you often lack joy? Are you not consistently growing in spiritual maturity? Does your love for God lack passion? Are you always looking for some new technique, some "new truth" or new experience that will pull all the pieces of your faith together?

What do you think, NHC?

The Cross Centered Life Discussion

"Do you desire more passion for Jesus Christ? Return to the very essence of your faith-the cross of Christ. Here, the deepest truths of Calvary will stir your passion for him into an unquenchable fire" (C.J. Mahaney). Read the book and join in the online conversation. Get into discussions at the dinner table, when out with friends, maybe even at lunch with co-workers. Ask God to use this book to transform, inspire and ignite the New Hope Church family as we prepare for Easter 2010 and move beyond the season and live out our daily lives.