TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
But many who are first will be last, and the last first. Mark 10:31
Read: Mark 10:1-31
Listen: Mark 10
TODAY’S MESSAGE
Cruciformity is a cross-shaped life. It’s a life shaped by the same humility and sacrifice Jesus shows by dying for us on the cross. In this week’s passage, Jesus (a character to circle in the journal) is on the way to Jerusalem, where he will be crucified. He wants us to have a cruciformed life like his, centered in humility and sacrifice.
Pastor Jeff Manion uses the image of a cookie cutter to emphasize what being shaped by Jesus looks like. This is the season for cut-out Christmas cookies. We get perfectly-formed cookies by pressing the shape we want into the dough. Jesus wants us to let him shape us into people humbly sacrificial in all areas of our life.
This week we will see how Jesus invites us to let the cross-shaped life spill over into our marriages, status and identity. It takes renovation of the mind and an active choice of the will to surrender our egos to God so that he can live through us. This is not a “one and done” but an on-going process. It is only through humility and sacrifice we can experience the resurrection power of God.
IN YOUR CHAIR TIME TODAY
What is shaping you? Hang a cookie cutter somewhere (workspace, night table, car or backpack) as a reminder that Jesus wants to change you into his likeness through your humility and sacrifice. Pray and invite him to shape you.
Download a printable PDF of the BTW week here.
