The following are my favorite quotes from the book Living the Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing by C.J. Mahaney.
“‘We never move on from the cross, only into a more profound understanding of the cross.’ The cross and its meaning aren’t something we ever master.”[1] – page 17.
“‘My God, only You could show me what a wretched sinner I am and make it the greatest news I’ve ever heard!'”[2] – page 20.
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I just recently read and completed this book. Its main thesis is that the Gospel is not something believers should “move on” from after conversion. Instead, Christians should seek to grow in deeper love with the Gospel everyday and allow its reality to affect every aspect of who they are and the way they live. This excerpt from the book seems to summarize its main theme rather well:
I can hear you asking, ‘But don’t I need more than the cross?’
In one sense, the answer is no. Nothing else is of equal importance. The message of Christ and Him crucified is the Christian hope, confidence, and assurance. Heaven will be spent marveling at the work of Christ, the God-Man who suffered in the place of us sinners.
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This message is the fourth and final message I delivered at Winterfest, 2011, at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp in Pembine, WI. Up until this point we had looked at the Gospel [Good News] of Christmas, the Gospel According to Jesus (the cost of discipleship), the Gospel’s [Inevitable] Effects on Those Who are Saved, and finally, in this message we looked specifically at Philippians 1:27-30 and how the Gospel is still the most important thing for us as believers. We took Paul’s principles from this passage and made multiple applications to our contemporary context of how the Gospel ought to affect our lives as believers.
Other Winterfest 2011 messages.
This is the third of four messages I gave at Winterfest at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp in December, 2011. In the previous message, The Gospel According to Jesus, we looked at what it takes to follow Christ. In this message, we examined the book of 1 John to see exactly what a follower of Jesus looks like. One of John’s goals in this epistle is to give assurance to those who are saved. On the other hand, his message is hopefully one of conviction for those who are not.
Other Winterfest 2011 messages.
What does it take to follow Christ? What does Christ have to say about the Gospel? The answers to these questions are hard pills to swallow, but a reality we need to be confronted with and must not ignore. This is the second of four messages I spoke at Winterfest 2011 at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp, Pembine, WI. In this message we took a look at Luke 24:15-35, as well as several cross-references, and examined what it means to follow Christ.
[NOTE: I apologize for some of the audio malfunctions. Some of the audio was lost in the file and so there are moments when the audio-only plays out of either the left or right speaker and at times neither. After a certain point, the audio is fine.]
Other Winterfest 2011 messages.
Kirk E. Miller 