Ann Voskamp in a video presentation 2/4/2017:
“You are what your heart loves. …..Draw a cross on your wrist and ask, “What do you want?” And “Do you want what Christ wants?” Cross-shaped thinking, cross-shaped living…cruciformation. We are called to take risks to bring others to Christ. Be the Esther generation. Now is the time to be configured by your imitation of Christ……Get in formation and disciple a generation to live in cruciformation. We are in a crisis of discipleship…We are in a crisis of worship. We have loved safety more than we have loved the Savior. We have loved ladders to the good life more than we’ve loved dying to the good life in order to have the BEST life……How we form our days is forming us! The habit forming practices in which we engage reveal what our everyday idolatries are. Are we formed by the Word or the World? By the culture or the cross? We look for God in the next big thing and he looks for us to do the next right thing……the only needful thing- communion with Christ. We are what we love. We are what we are willing to die for. Where are the people willing to die in a thousand ways for the upside down kingdom of God? No one ever got saved unless someone was willing to live unsafe. Are we called to a life of comfort or a life shaped by the cross? …. We don’t get to be people in the shape of the cross unless we die to the world. ………..We live the cross to the extent we are willing to be inconvenienced.
Is Jesus ultimately USEFUL to us or is Jesus BEAUTIFUL to us?
You are what you love. You are what you want. Do you most want the one who most loved you by giving his life? Do you love the one who held you closest when others held you in contempt? ….Jesus doesn’t demand your perfection; he desires your affection.”