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JANUARY - MONTH OF JOY AND BLESSINGS

New Year’s Resolution

"Putting Christ in the Center of our Lives"

@ Christ Jesus Centre Church

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Galatians 2:20

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."· What would happen in the New Year if we put Christ as the center of our lives and most of all "our thinking?"

· In our work we have come to believe that the meaning we give any internal or external event determines how we live our lives for as a man thinketh so is he." (Proverbs 23:7) The word meaning is a German word which means "to hold in mind." That is exactly what Proverbs 23:7 is talking about.

· If we get the meaning right, all other areas of our life will be right. The Bible teaches us that when Christ is center, all is well. John 10:10 Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

When "He" is at the Center, all of our thinking becomes Christ centered:

1. In Galatians 2:20 Paul is asserting that Christ is the center of his life for "Christ lives in him" and the purpose (#7 Purpose) of his life is to live it "crucified unto Christ."

When the meaning of our life is to be "crucified with Him" that will determine the remaining components of the circle which we believe sums up all thinking/behaving.

2. By letting Christ be at the center, we create a "new Self" (#2 Self) for in 2 Cor 5:17 Paul says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Knowing our position in Christ solves all identity issues. I know who I am because I know Whose I am. And, that is good enough!

3. By letting Christ be center of our lives the gives me the Power and Resources (#3 Power) to live in this world successfully for Phil 4:13 "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

4. By letting Christ be the center of our lives, we have a dynamic relationship with this concept called Time (#4 Time). He has given me eternal life (John 3:16). "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s." (Romans 14:8)

Paul says, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18) That tells me that being crucified with Christ, having our meaning from Him makes time irrelevant for we are in Him the timeless one.

5. By letting Christ be the center of our lives, we will live in obedience to the Greatest Commandment which calls upon us to love God and to love our neighbor
(#5 Others).

Matthew 22:37-40 "^{37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with thy entire
mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.}

6. By letting Christ be the center of our lives, we will accept the world as a place that we can live in without fear but with confidence and joy (#6 World). 1 John 4:4 says, "…dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

7. By letting Christ be the center of our lives, He is our purpose, period (#7 Purpose).

2 Timothy 4:6-9 "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.