"Gaze at Jesus and just glance at men and you will always be an optimist.  Gaze at men and glance at Jesus and you will be a pessimist.  Gaze at Jesus, glance at yourself and circumstances, and the peace that passes understanding will always be yours.  Glance at Jesus, gaze at yourself and circumstances, and you will surrender to decay."

-Michael Wells, Abiding Stories

Takeaway
what we focus on fills up our mind and changes our emotions.
Application
it is suitable to focus on Jesus Christ and His life more than anything or anyone else.

"There are two ways to be controlled by sin.  One is to constantly be thinking of participating in it,and the other is to constantly be consumed with staying away from it.  Either way, sin is the focus."

-Michael Wells, Abiding Stories

Takeaway

if you focus on sin (doing it or avoiding it), then sin controls you.  sin and sinning is almost irrelevant for a believer; Jesus Christ is everything, our very life.
Application
it is suitable to focus on Jesus Christ, not on sin.

what is the Gospel?

it's a simple question.  do we really know what it is?  i dare say that we do not.
Romans 5:8-9
 8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  9Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.  10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

i call this the 'Salvation Gospel', and i see two pieces to it:

1. the first piece is that we are justified by the death of Christ - the cross.
2. the second piece is that we are saved by the life of Christ - He still lives because of the resurrection

imagine a linear scale, a ruler so to speak.  this scale is numbered from -10 to +10.  when we are conceived, we are sinners by nature; we start out at -10.  when we accept Christ, two things happen.  the first is that Christ pays for our sinful nature on the cross; we move from -10 to 0 through the death of Christ..  the second is that Christ gives us His life; we move from 0 to 10 because of the life of Christ (not His death).
Takeaway
we are saved by the life of Christ, not by the death of Christ.
Application
it is suitable to spend more time on the life of Christ given to us than we commonly do today.
Question
we wear crosses around our necks and erect crosses on top of our churches to symbolize the death of Christ.  what is the best symbol of the life of Christ?