The effect of the cross is salvation, sanctification, healing etc., but we are not to preach any of these, we are to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work.” ~Oswald Chambers
In a recent Bible study, the author asked the following question. What do you live for? She went on to explain that the early church’s response to this question would have been JESUS. It was all about Him. I felt a pang of conviction and wondered. Is Jesus is the main focus in my life? Is He what I live for?
I have to be honest. Jesus has not always been my main focus. At times I have allowed other things to take center stage in my life: family, friends, even ministry and church. Although these are all good things they should never take precedence over Jesus.
Paul is someone who put Christ first in his life, but this wasn’t always the case. In fact, before his intense encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul spent much of his time and energy persecuting everyone who was a follower of Jesus. He thought he was doing the right thing until Jesus opened his heart to the truth.
Paul penned more books of the New Testament than any other author, and do you know what his central theme was? Jesus Christ!
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11)
In this passage, alone, Christ is mentioned five times. Jesus became the center of Paul’s life-message and preaching and He should become the center of our life-message too. Making Christ the center of our lives must be a conscious choice we make each and every day. I don’t know about you; but I want to live for Jesus!