Leonard Sweet

Christians have made the gospel about so many things-things other than Christ. But Jesus Christ is the gravitational pull that brings everything together and gives it meaning.

Seek Christ, embrace Christ, know Christ, and you will have touched Him who is Life. And in Him resides all truth, values, virtues, and gifts, in living color.

Consider those things that you find arrestingly beautiful in the earth, whether they be beaches, mountains, canyons, or that

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which lies beneath the ocean. Consider the beauty found in art, music, nature, and the like. Ponder those things in life that you admire and that cause awe and wonder to stir in your soul.

Those things are but images of Jesus Christ, for He is the essence of true beauty

The person of Jesus has become increasingly politically incorrect and is being replaced by the language of"justice," "morality," "values," and "leadership principles."

Every revival and restoration in the church has been a rediscovery of some aspect of Christ in the process of answering this critical question. In fact, three features are present in every awakening in the history of the Christian church: ( 1) a rediscovery of the

"living Word,, or the Scriptures and its authority; (2) a rediscovery of the living Christ and His supremacy; and ( 3 ) a rediscovery of the living Spirit and the Spirit's gifts and power to manifest Christ in the context of that culture. God has a history of taking seriously people who take the eternal Word seriously

Our mission is simply to lift Him up in a context that our culture can understand and appreciate.

Jesus Himself said that when He is lifted up, He will draw all people to Himself

Today, the church needs a conversion to its forgotten "first love": "Jesus loves me, this I know."

When Christ is not central and supreme in our lives, everything about life shifts out of orbit and moves out of kilter

In fact, when God expresses Himself, it is Christ. We can rightly say that God spoke Himself into human life in the person of the Lord Jesus. For this reason, John called Christ the logos, the living Word of God.12 God's Word is a person. The one true God has revealed Himself completely and finally in Jesus