Radical Faith

I have mentioned a few times the book Radical, by David Platt. It is a profound, life altering book. I wish I could make it required reading, but I can’t. I do want to share another short passage from the book. Maybe that will make someone interested enough to read it. I am starting in the middle of a thought, but I think it is easy enough to catch.

We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with.

A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that he receives all our affection. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are. A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger altogether. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream.

But do you and I realize what we are doing at this point? We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.

Radical

I am reading the  book Radical, by David Platt for the third time. It is a book that everyone should read, one that is guaranteed to shake you up. It will inspire, ignite passion, or possibly offend.

I have been anxious to blog about the book, but have not been sure where to start. I am putting in a short quote that maybe will get someone to thinking.

I am convinced that we as Christ followers in American churches have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical but that actually contradict the gospel we claim to believe. And I am convinced we have a choice.

You and I can choose to continue with business as usual in the Christian life and in the church as a whole, enjoying success based on the standards defined by the culture around us. Or we can take an honest look at the Jesus of the Bible and dare to ask what the consequences might be if we really believed him and really obeyed him.

I invite you to join the journey with me. I do not claim to have all the answers. If anything, I have more questions than answers. But if Jesus is who he said he is, and if his promises are as rewarding as the Bible claims they are, then we may discover that satisfaction in our lives and success in the church are not found in what our culture deems most important but in radical abandonment to Jesus.

The Principle of “Buoyancy”

Les and I were sitting on the porch swing this morning talking about how we can know when God is telling us to do something, and he reminded me of a really good illustration. When God speaks to you about something, it has buoyancy, it keeps coming up.

Years ago, when we lived in Ft. Worth, we decided that we were supposed to move to Stephenville. We were in the middle of making plans to do that when we discovered I was pregnant with our fourth child. For some reason, that seemed to mean we were not supposed to move, so we decided not to.  However, after several weeks, we began to think about making the move again. We decided that God still wanted us to move, so we again began to make plans, which included trying to sell our house. The house did not sell,  so we again put our plans on hold.  Again, we began to feel that we were supposed to move. We rented our house to a family who planned to buy it in 6 months, found a house to rent in Stephenville, and made the move, while I was 7 months pregnant.

There have been other times that I thought God spoke to me about something, but decided it was not from God. Sometimes, that was the end of it. But, at other times, the thought kept coming up. That’s what we mean by buoyant. It’s like a beach ball. Have you ever tried to hold a fully inflated beach ball under water. You can keep it down for a while, but eventually, it pops back up. It’s because it is buoyant.

When God speaks about something, you can push it down for a while, but it keeps coming back up.