Are You God-centered? Really?

Some stirring quotes from God Is The Gospel:

"The acid test of of biblical God-centeredness - and faithfulness to the gospel - is this: Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because, at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy making much of him forever? Does your happiness hang on seeing the cross as a witness to your worthy, or as a way to enjoy God's worth forever?"

"The sad thing is that a radically man-centered view of love permeates our culture and our churches. From the time they can toddle we teach out children that feeling loved means feeling made much of...This distortion of divine love into an endorsement of self-admiration is subtle. It creeps into our most religious acts. We claim to be praising God because of his love for us. But if his love for us is at bottom his making much of us, who really is being praised? We are willing to be God-centered, it seems, as long as God is man-centered."

"Our fatal error is believing that wanting to be happy means wanting to be made much of. It feels so good to be affirmed. But the good feeling is finally rooted in the worth of self, not the worth of God. This path to happiness is an illusion. And there are clues. There are clues in every human heart before conversion to Christ. One of those clues is that no one goes to the Grand Canyn or to the Alps to increase his self-esteem. That is not what happens in front of massive deeps and majestic heights. But we do go there, and we go for joy. How can that be, if being made much of is the center of our health and happiness? The answer is that it is not the center. In wonderful moments of illumination there is a witness in our hearts: soul-health and great happiness come not from beholding a great self but a great splendor."

May you all have wonderfully sweet gatherings this weekend!

Justin N.