Radical

So after four months of reading on and off, I finally finished David Platt's book Radical today. Whoa. Talk about a holy slap in the face! Apart from the Word, this is possibly the most convicting book I have ever read. God has seriously blessed David Platt with the ability to get His message across. I have so much to say about this book and all that I learned from it, but first I want to start by reminding you of the passage that this whole book, and our whole lives, revolve around:

"And Jesus came and said to them,  'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

{Matthew 28:18-20}

In reading Radical, I have felt a need to step back and take a look at the way I have been living my life this year, and the seventeen before that. Also it has made me want to reshape the way I live my life as I take the next step of my life, which is college. I will be moving six and a half hours away from home, to Jackson, Mississippi, going to a school where I know no one. One of the things most incoming college freshman are excited about is going to a place where no one knows them, where they can be anyone they want to be and start over fresh. I, also, am looking forward to that, but I am looking forward to having a fresh start at living the radical life that Christ has called me as a Christian to be living, one which I should have been living for the past eighteen years. There is so much more that I could say regarding my life and this book, but I will leave the rest to David Platt to say in these quotes from the book.

"My biggest fear, even now, is that I will hear Jesus' words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience."

"Somewhere along the way we [have] missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We [are] settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves."

"In a world that prizes promoting oneself, [the disciples] were following a teacher who told them to crucify themselves."

"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."

"Wake up and realize there are real battles to be fought, so different from the superficial, meaningless 'battles' you focus on."

"The cost of non-discipleship is profoundly greater for us that the cost of discipleship."

"We desperately need to explore how much of our understanding of the gospel is American and how much is Biblical."

"Everything in all creation responds in obedience to the Creator...until we get to you and me. We have the audacity to look God in the face and say 'No.' "

"The modern-day gospel says, 'God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved.' Meanwhile the Biblical gospel says, '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.' "

"What happened at the cross was not primarily about nails being thrust into Jesus' hands and feet but about the wrath due your sin and my sin being thrust upon His soul."

"We have taken the infinitely glorious Son of God, who endured the infinitely terrible wrath of God and who now reigns as the infinitely worthy Lord of all, and we have reduced Him to a poor, puny Savior who is just begging for us to accept Him. Accept Him? Do we really think Jesus needs our acceptance? Don't we need Him?"

"The challenge for us is to live in such a way that we are radically dependent on and desperate for the power that only God can provide."

"While the goal of the American Dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God."

"[A] church could have all the man-made resources one could imagine, but apart from the touch of the Holy Spirit, such a church will do nothing of significance for the glory of God."

"[God] created human beings, not only to enjoy His grace in a relationship with Him, but also to extend His glory to the ends of the earth."

"While the wonder of grace is worthy of our attention, if that grace is disconnected from its purpose, the sad result is a self-centered Christianity that bypasses the heart of God."

"The message of Biblical Christianity is not 'God loves me, period,' as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of Biblical Christianity is 'God loves me so that I might make Him known among all nations.' "

"We owe Christ to the world--to the least person and to the greatest person, to the richest person and to the poorest person, to the best person and to the worst person. We are in debt to the nations."

"The Bible teaches that all the church--not just selected individuals, but all the church--is created to reflect all the glory of God to all the world."

"God saves me so that the nations will know Him. He blessed me so that all the earth will see His glory!"

"Disciple making is not a call for others to come to us to hear the gospel, but a command for us to go to others to share the gospel. A command for us to be gospel-living, gospel-speaking people at every moment and in every context we find ourselves."

"We will multiply the gospel only when we allow others to get close enough to us to see the life of Christ in action."

{That one for sure was a wake up call, especially for me!}

"When we take responsibility for helping others grow in Christ, it automatically takes our own relationship with Christ to a new level."

"Jesus doesn't give options for people to consider; He gives commands for people to obey."

"So when we worship these 'gods' instead of Him, we don't get credit for trying our best. Our idolatry is just not good enough."

"There are no innocent people in the world just waiting to hear the gospel. Instead there are people all over the world standing guilty before a holy God, and that is the very reason they need the gospel."

"We are the plan of God, and there is no plan B."

"God clearly has decided to use the church--and only the church--as the means by which His gospel will go to the ends of the earth."

"If more than a billion people today are headed to a Christ-less eternity and have not even heard the gospel, then we don't have time to waste our lives on an American Dream. Not if we have all been commanded to take this gospel to them."

"It makes little sense for us to sit over here asking, 'What do You want me to do, God?' The answer is clear. The will of God is for you and me to give our live urgently and recklessly to making the gospel and the glory of God known among all peoples, particularly those who have never even heard of Jesus."

"We have nothing to fear, because God is sovereign."

"Your life is free to be radical when you see death as a reward."

{Philippians 1:21}

"We express enthusiasm, emotion, and affection for football and other sports, and it begs the question, what would happen in our culture if the church prayed with such passion?"

"If you and I are going to penetrate our culture and the cultures of the world with the gospel, we desperately need minds saturated with God's Word."

"When you or I open the Bible, we are holding the very words of Gods--words that have supernatural power to redeem, renew, refresh, and restore our lives to what He created them to be."

"Sacrifice is giving away what it hurts to give. Sacrifice is not giving according to you ability, it;s giving beyond your ability." 

"When God chose to bring salvation to you and me, He did not send gold or silver, cash or check. He sent Himself--the Son."

http://www.radicalthebook.com/