{"id":3466,"date":"2008-04-18T00:10:53","date_gmt":"2008-04-18T00:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2008\/04\/preparing-for-pentecost-20.html"},"modified":"2008-04-18T00:10:53","modified_gmt":"2008-04-18T00:10:53","slug":"preparing-for-pentecost-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/04\/preparing-for-pentecost-20.html","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for Pentecost 20"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What is at the center of our life? For many, as I suggest in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F40-Days-Living-Jesus-Creed%2Fdp%2F1557255776%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1201660962%26sr%3D1-22&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\">40 Days Living the Jesus Creed<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/><\/em>, it is work. Abe Lincoln said this: &#8220;My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don&#8217;t deny it. I&#8217;d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh &#8212; anything but work.&#8221;<!--more|inline--><br \/>\nBut isn&#8217;t work the center of so many of our lives? What did Jesus think was the center of life?<br \/>\nMatt 6:33 reveals an answer: &#8220;at the center of a centered life is God and God&#8217;s way.&#8221;<br \/>\nThings are not at the center.<br \/>\nThe kingdom is at the center: the kingdom is the society in which God&#8217;s will is done.<br \/>\nRighteousness &#8212; or God&#8217;s will and our conformity to it &#8212; is at the center.<br \/>\nPentecost, toward which we are looking, empowers us to put God and God&#8217;s way at the center of life.<br \/>\nMore importantly, perhaps, Pentecost empowers us but also enables us to be content with God and God&#8217;s way as the center of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is at the center of our life? For many, as I suggest in 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, it is work. Abe Lincoln said this: &#8220;My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don&#8217;t deny it. I&#8217;d rather read, tell stories, crack&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesus-creed"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preparing for Pentecost 20 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/04\/preparing-for-pentecost-20.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preparing for Pentecost 20 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is at the center of our life? For many, as I suggest in 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, it is work. Abe Lincoln said this: &#8220;My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don&#8217;t deny it. I&#8217;d rather read, tell stories, crack&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/04\/preparing-for-pentecost-20.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-04-18T00:10:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"xscot mcknight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Preparing for Pentecost 20 - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/04\/preparing-for-pentecost-20.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Preparing for Pentecost 20 - Jesus Creed","og_description":"What is at the center of our life? For many, as I suggest in 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, it is work. Abe Lincoln said this: &#8220;My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don&#8217;t deny it. 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