What is the Cross-Shaped Life? It is the vertical life of loving God with all your head, heart, and hands; and the horizontal life of loving others as Christ has loved you. Employing the symbols of the cruciform cathedral and the Celtic cross, Jimmy Davis uses personal stories, both humorous and heart-breaking, to encourage and equip the reader to gain a cross-shaped perspective on how he or she can be an active participant in God's community-on-mission. This book casts a vision for living as disciples of Jesus who are being shaped by the cross (gospel) into people and churches who share and show the cross (gospel) by living as sons and servants of God. As we embrace the gospel in this way we can live:
- in relationship to God as seekers who exalt God;
- in relationship to other disciples as shepherds who encourage one another;
- in relationship to the resources God has given us as stewards; and
- in relationship to those who are not disciples as sowers of the gospel of grace, engaging our neighbors, the nations, and the next generation with cross-shaped words and works.
Finally, the Cruciform Life involves growing through cross-shaped spiritual disciplines and cross-shaped suffering, which together enable us to embrace and express the Cruciform Life to God, one another, and the world.
Autorentext
Jimmy Davis, an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, holds degrees from Bryan College and Dallas Theological Seminary. He has been in ministry for more than 20 years and served as a staff writer and associate editor of the Colson Center's Worldview Church Website. He and his wife, Christine, have three children.
Inhalt
Introduction: Cruciform Cathedrals 1) Created to Be Cruciform 2) Redeemed to Be Cruciform 3) The Elements of Being Cruciform 4) The Cruciform Life in Action 5) Servants of God: In the Shape of the Cross 6) Sons of God: Shaped by the Cross 7) Embracing the Gospel : Taking In the Cross 8) Expressing the Gospel: Taking Up Your Cross