Just received NT Wright's: "God in Public" and found this equally affirming and challenging...

"This is the strange public truth of the Christian gospel. God is in the business of remaking the whole world, turning it the right way up at last. The call of the Christian gospel makes the sense it's supposed to make, not when it is heard as a call to ignore the world and pursue a private salvation, but when it is heard as a call to follow Jesus and become a part of his plan to sort the world out now, as much as we can, in advance of the final day.

Being a Christian means that your own life becomes part of that anticipation, allowing God to do in your heart and mind, your imagination and energy, what he's going to do one day for the whole world — that is, remake it from top to bottom and flood it with his glory."