1. The Radical Journey
So a couple weekends ago I was visiting with a mother who inspired me when she was talking about a book she was reading. That night I found it on half.com and for under $10 (including shipping) it was on the way to my door.
Now the LAST thing that I need is another book, since I have been home 39 days I have completed 3 weeks of Beth Moore's Esther, 1 week (week 3 of Gospel Life), Daily Chronological Bible - just started the New Testament and finished the old, read the books A Positive Life (as in HIV not attitude( my explantion)), The Invisible Cure and Half the Sky.
After being home 7 days I found myself moving around the house feeling like a heavy cloud was weighing me down, ready to burst into tears with each breath. What in the world could be wrong with me? I live this picturesque life, there is nothing that I want for, happiness = me. I had realized that after being home only 7 days I was already "back into the swing of things". Like an animal that fights when captured my soul was fighting with everything it had to not let that happen to me. I don't want to be back into the swing of things ever.
So I resolved...I was just going to keep myself immersed in reality. Not my reality, but the global reality of the condition of our world, the safety of our children. The only way right then I knew to do it was to learn and set after it. Now this isn't hard for me, I love to read. John works so hard so I am up late, I sit in carpool lane, I take a quiet time every day. I have space in my life for learning and I was going to get after it.
While in Malawi our friend recommended "The invisible cure" and my aunt visited while I was reading that and recommend "Half the Sky". These two books could not have been more perfect for educating me about global conditions and opportunities. I can NOT wait to digest the information and figure out our next steps with regard to these things. But then in the midst of my education comes another recommendation. This one isn't about the global reality it is about MY reality and I am nervous beyond words yet so excited to see what the Lord has in store.
I finished the first chapter I have to answer two questions....
Do I believe what Jesus said. Yes.
Will I obey Jesus. Yes.
Now I am a big HUGE proponent of accountability. So I am deciding to type "notes" about this book Radical by David Platt, I don't know if you have read it but I'm hoping that someone has and that as I dig through this you will be there to keeping me accountable to my answers to the questions I noted above.
2. A Caveat
Websters definition says Caveat: let him beware. I am not sure if this falls into that category, but I'm going with it.
A skeptic, now I like to describe myself as someone who gives people the benefit of the doubt. But the reality is that I am suspicious, I balk when certain words are used when statistics are quoted. Seriously, I will be writing letters and need a number to quanitfy the statement. I will read for hours trying to find the right number, how do they know? Usually I just end up deleting the whole thought that might need a number because I can't find a consistent enough answer. But the Word of God, I take it at face value. I believe what this book says...do I?
Okay so my bible has lots of words in it, both God's and mine. I ask questions in the margin, elaborate, recall a memory and question. I question what the words in the bible says. How does this match up with that, Paul are you sure that is what God wanted you to write...I question, I am a skeptic.
So Chapter 2 has me really questioning alot of the content of this book. I find myself with bibles open, journal at hand and writing questions that I want scriptural reference to. I want to prove actually that David Platt is wrong.
Wrong, why would I set out to disprove a pastor? Why would I want to argue? I don't know! But I am being honest and I do. So this is my warning, I am flawed I am prideful and I want to be right.
Yes, incase you have counted I have just referred to myself 29 times in this brief note. So Caveat, which if not for Websters would have been spelled caviate which means to form cavities or bubbles. It wasn't easy to move from my spelling to the "new" spelling, I wonder when they changed it?
Do I view the cross as a demonstration of God’s love or God’s wrath? Do I believe that God allowed soldiers to crucify his son so that I would know God loves me? No, I believe that Jesus was crucified, accepting my punishment for me, my debt I cannot repay. Only because of the cross am I made acceptable to God. Why did God send his son, because God loves me. Why did Jesus die on the cross? I have never pictured the crucifixion something that God did to Jesus rather something that men did to him. But how could the cross make me acceptable to God if men were simply killing an innocent man. On the cross Jesus suffered the wrath of God. That is the cup Jesus was referring to in the garden. Many Christians have died courageously praising God, but Jesus suffered much more than just death upon a cross.
Jesus knew what was coming. An angel appeared to him from Heaven strengthening him. Platt refers to Jesus sweating tears and blood, he’s right, not in Matthew or in Mark, but the physician Luke said in 22:44 that Jesus sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.
Did God turn away because he couldn’t bear to see Jesus suffer, because he could not bear to see my sin on his son? I dislike the word could not when it comes to God. God can do all, but God is Holy and when Jesus took my sin (no idea how that occurred) God would not look upon sin. Praise God that Jesus had power over sin and death and rose that third day. It is still hard for me to fathom that I know this truth yet walk away from it every day. Help me Lord.
p. 29 "God hates sin and loves the sinner"...I’ve said this, more than once. Platt calls it into question. He’s right, I can't find one place in the bible where it says that God loves sinners, but it does say in Romans 5:8 that God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Platt compares these statements on p. 32…”God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved.” With “You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life. Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do”. He points out that Christianity is the only religion where people cannot get to God but that God came to us.
Then this…You will not find a verse in scripture where people are told to “bow your heads, close your eyes and repeat after me.” There is not a sinner’s prayer mentioned in the bible.
Last question. p. 37 Do I think that Jesus needs my acceptance?
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” Platt says that Jesus is speaking to devoutly religious people who thought they were on the narrow road that leads to heaven and will be eternally shocked to find that they were not in the kingdom of God.
p. 45 James Truslow Adams, who is credited with coining the phrase “American Dream” in 1931 spoke of it as “a dream….in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are. Sounds good so far, but Platt goes on, “the dangerous assumption we unknowingly accept in the American Dream is that our greatest asset is our own ability.”…“While the goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God.”
p.54 “His power is so superior to ours. Why do we not desperately seek it?” John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Platt says on p.59 “This is a rock-solid promise that the resources of heaven are ready and waiting for the people of God who desire to make much of him in this world. For the people of God who long to see his power at work and who live to see his purposes accomplished, he will give us absolutely everything we need according to his very presence alive in us.”
The boys and I went over the first commandment tonight. You shall have no other Gods before me. We talked about these questions…What takes up our time? What do we think about? What do we strive for? What excites us? – I think that the first commandment and this chapter lie in close proximity. Gospel in Life, chapter 3 talks about idols; are we the god we put before God? Lord please help us.
5. Hard Questions
David Platt asks if we have unnecessarily (and un-biblically) drawn a line of distinction, assigning the obligations of Christianity to a few while keeping the privileges of Christianity for us all. Would I rather send my money rather than myself? Can I find anywhere in the bible where Jesus said to a follower just send money you stay put? No.
Also earlier I said God sent Jesus because he loves me, Platt argues that isn’t good enough. God sent Jesus because he loves me and wants me to love others enough to tell them about him. I’m not talking about Malawians, what about right here at home, to my friends. Do I see people who do not know Jesus and feel grief at the trajectory of their lives, so much so that I speak up, I pray, I walk beside them. Do I believe what the bible teaches about eternity? I do, but I have always figured that we each made our own decisions about this and would suffer those consequences.
p.84 Platt quotes an e-mail he received from a mom in his congregation: “All my life I have completely disconnected God’s blessings from God’s purpose, and now I realize what I had never seen….That is why God has given me income and education and resources. God saves me so that the nations will know him. He blesses me so that all the earth will see his glory.”
Questions: How am I using the blessings God has given me for his purpose, 10%, 20%....I’m not sure that is exactly what God had in mind. Everything (100%) that I have is a blessing from God; am I using everything as he would want me to?
6. Contrast
Receiver or Reproducer
Every follower of Christ becomes a teacher. Do I learn for myself? Yes. Do I listen carefully while I am learning so that I can teach what I have learned….uh no, but I will.
Disciple or Disinfect
p.104 “Disinfecting Christians from the world involves isolating followers of Christ in a…church building and teaching them to be good….Being good is defined by what we avoid in the world…. “We (the church) may be the only organization in the world defining success by what we don’t do)” Discipling Christians “men and women sharing, showing, and teaching the Word of Christ and together serving a world in need of Christ.”
7. Who Me?
“We all have blind spots – areas of our lives that need to be uncovered so we can see correctly and adjust our lives accordingly….on glaring blind spot in American Christian History. Slavery... Churchgoers with good intentions worshiping God together every Sunday and reading the Bible religiously all week long, all the while using God’s Word to justify treating men, women and children as property to be used or abused. They actually thought they were generous when they gave their slaves an extra chicken at Christmas.” p.107
Do I give God my extra chicken or everything I have, what about the child that just died as I wrote this sentence that only needed food, less food then I threw away tonight after dinner. Platt says caring for the poor is not the basis of our salvation but it is evidence of our salvation. He continues Faith in Christ that saves us from our sins involves and internal transformation that has external implications.
p.115…”In the time we gather for worship on a Sunday morning almost a thousand children elsewhere die because they have no food. If it were our kids starving, they would all be gone by the time we said our closing prayer. We certainly wouldn’t ignore our kids while we sang songs and entertained ourselves, but we are content with ignoring other parents’ kids. Many of them are our spiritual brothers and sisters in developing nations. They are suffering from malnutrition, deformed bodies and brains, and preventable diseases. At most, we are throwing our scraps to them while we indulge in our pleasures here.”
Platt talks about a conversation he had with a man in his faith family, “He sat down, looked at me, and said point-blank, “I think you’re crazy for saying some of the things you are saying….But I think you’re right. And so now I think I’m crazy for thinking some of the things I’m thinking. For the next few minutes, he described how he was selling his large house and had decided to give away many of his other possessions. He talked about the needs he wanted to invest his resources in for the glory of Christ. Then he looked at me through tears in his eyes and said, “I wonder at some points if I’m being irresponsible or unwise. But then I realize there is never going to come a day when I stand before God and he looks at me and says, ‘I wish you would have kept more for yourself.’ I’m confident that God will take care of me.”
Platt asks: “Am I willing to live a life that is content with food and clothing, having the basic necessities of my life provided for? …Why not begin operating under the idea that God has given us excess, not so we could have more, but so we could give more? …scripture clearly teaches that God intends our plenty to supply others’ needs”
Deuteronomy 15:7 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.
James 2:15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
1 Timothy 6:18 Command them (us) to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
8. Plan B
There isn’t one.
Truth 1: All people have knowledge of God
Truth 2: All people reject God
Truth 3: All people are guilty before God
Truth 4: All people are condemned for rejecting God
Truth 5: God has made a way of Salvation for the Lost
Truth 6: People cannot come to God apart from faith in Christ
Truth 7: Christ commands the church to make the gospel known to all people
We, each follower of Christ, is the church. How am I doing personally with making the gospel known to all people? I'm not sure, I will pray, I want to do this.
9. Risk vs. Reward
The thought of putting up $1K for a risky investment that looks promising sounds fine. I think that risks are good and often they work out. But when it comes to Jesus what do I think about this?
Suffer, Go to Danger, Be Betrayed, Hated and Persecuted – These are the risks and promises of following Christ. “Jesus doesn’t say if you are persecuted he says when you are persecuted”
Am I experiencing any of this? No. What does that mean? I don’t know.
Platt says “To everyone wanting a safe, untroubled, comfortable life free from danger, stay away from Jesus. The danger in our lives will always increase in proportion to the depth of our relationship with Christ.” This is hard to read. Luke 6:40 A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. Platt notes on p. 168 “These words should frighten us because our Teacher was mocked, beaten, scourged, spit upon, and nailed to a cross. Do we really want to be like him? Yes. Platt reminds us that Jesus said “do not be afraid” “How is it possible for sheep going into the middle of wolves not to be afraid? How can Jesus say that his disciples would be betrayed, hated and persecuted but they would not need to fear?”
Reward –
Platt elaborates “Jesus was telling disciples who would face certain persecution and suffering, “Don’t be afraid of people. The worst they can do is kill you. We don’t need to be afraid to go anywhere in this world, because the worst that could happen is that we might be killed….The only way this can comfort us is if we have already died with Christ. The only way this can encourage us is if we are so focused on an eternal God that temporal human beings strike no fear in us. In the words of Paul, Philippians 1:21 “To live is Christ and to die is gain” Clearly, the only way death can be a reward is if dying really is gain.”
10. The Radical Experiment
The Challenge for 1 year Will I... Yes, I will.
1. Pray for the entire world.
A. Pray for God to send workers to his harvest field
B. Pray for the church (me)
C. Pray for God's purpose to be accomplished around the world.
( A helpful tool, www.operationworld.org)
2. read through the entire Bible. This is the only book that God has promised to bless by his Spirit to transform you and me into the image of Jesus christ. It is the only Book that he has promised to use to bring our hearts, our minds, and our lives in alignment with him. There is only one Book that God has perfectly inspired by his Spirit for the accomplishment of his purpose. When we open the Bible, we are beholding the very words of God-- Words that have supernatural power to redeem, renew, refresh, and restore our lives to what he created them to be.
A. Side note, Platt mentions the various strategies to go about this. I struggled with this for a long time, but my sister recommended "The Daily Bible In chronological Order 365 Daily Readings" and it has helped me to do this.
3. Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose. What would it look like for our family to make intentional sacrifices over the next year for the glory of Christ in light of specific, urgent, needs in the world? Some stats from Platt... If we make only ten thousand dollars a year, we are wealthier than 84% of the world, and if we make fifty thousand dollars we are wealthier than 99% of the world. Meanwhile, more the a billion people live in desperate poverty, lacking food, water, clothing and shelter.
In Chapter 6 Platt talked about caping our lifestyle, I didn't make notes about it, but he brings it up here as a tool to know what sacrifice would look like in our lives. It is good to know what we "need" and what is "excess".
A. Side note, after reading invisible cure and half the sky I have multitudes of ideas about this - exciting!
4. Spend time in another context. Share the gospel or care for the needy in Christ's name away from home. p. 198 "A true brother comes to be with you in your time of need." (side note they don't just send a check). Spend 2% (approximately) 1 week somewhere else serving, sharing and teaching. Platt says "When a group of people decided to give 2 percent to their lives to making the gospel known in another context around the world, they had no idea how radically it would transform the other 98 percent of their lives in their own context.
A. This is true, our lives radically changed when John went to Costa Rica in 2006, it was a short term mission trip but it has had a lasting impact on our family.
5. Commit my life to a multiplying community. God has created us for community with one another, and the community we were created for is called the church. As part of a vibrant community of faith, you will have support and encouragement to live out your intention to be radically abandoned to Jesus. We are not lone rangers trying to accomplish the purpose of God. Our giving and our going must be tied to the multiplication of the gospel through the church.
No comments:
Post a Comment