We recently posted a sermon on the Keep Believing website called Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Here's an excerpt:

"A few weeks ago I celebrated my 55th birthday. That in itself is hardly a world-shaking event, but I am truly celebrating it because it feels like I have reached an important milestone. When I was a teenager, 55 seemed positively ancient. Now it feels perfectly normal. But when you have lived 55 years, you can't pretend to be young anymore. If God wills, I may live another 30 years (or another 30 minutes—who knows?), but I'll never be a teenager again. I'm definitely closer to the finish line than to the starting line. I find myself in a stage of life where I am trying to get rid of things I don’t need to carry with me. For most of us, life can be divided into two phases—accumulating and de-accumulating. After decades of trying to amass things, I am well over into the de-accumulation side. I find myself throwing things away left and right. It’s not a good week for me unless I can fill up a trash bag or two with things I don’t need anymore. I find myself going through something similar spiritually. I want to go back to basics in every area. I want to find those things that are true and that matter eternally, and that’s where I want to spend the bulk of my time in the next few years. I pray, 'Lord, strip away the things that don’t matter, even the good things, so that what is left are the things that will still matter 10,000 years from now.'"

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.