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/

 



GO

So lately, I have had a lot of convictions about the way I live my life. God is working in me a lot right now, preparing me for what is ahead. I guess that graduating and getting ready to go off to school has gotten me thinking a lot about what my life looks like and who I am. Here is something I've lately been convicted of myself.
-taye


"Go and make disciples of all nations. . ."

For the past four months (yes, it has taken me four months), I have been reading David Platt's book "Radical". God has 'radically' changed my outlook of life through that book. I have one more chapter left to read, but in the first eight chapters, I have seen that the church in America today is seriously confused. We have taken the Jesus of the Bible, and turned Him into whatever Jesus we decide to "worship" but that this is not true worship, it is just lifting our hands and singing songs to something that is not there, we have taken the God and turned Him into a god. I say we because I am included in the American church. When I first began reading Radical I had an outlook that David Platt was not talking about me, but merely others in the church, some that I see every Sunday, that walk around believing they are following God and yet they are so lost. But now I see that in fact, he was talking about me- however, I did not realize that until last night.

A passage in the Bible that every Christian knows is the great commission.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." {Matthew 28:19-20}

We read this passage, which is a commandment of God, and we say "Okay" but never act upon it. We then go on our merry way believing that we are following God's will for our lives. However, I hate to break it to you, but the great commission IS God's will for our lives. A question so many Christians ask is "How do I find God's will for my life?" or "I'm waiting to see what God wants me to do with my life." However, He clearly points out His will for your life in Matthew 28:19-20!

The great commission is called the great commission, not the great suggestion. A verse we typically leave out of the great commission is verse 18:

"Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me . . ."

That changes things, He has given the authority to tell us to GO, and yet we are still not GOING.

when you put it together the great commission looks like this.

 "Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  {Matthew 28:18-20}


I challenge you, and myself, today to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES. Give your life in OBEDIENCE to the God (not god) who has all authority in heaven and on earth. GO.



Good Saturday?

So there is Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, what's Saturday? I'm going with it's good too. So happy Good Saturday! Oh goodness, last night I went to my church's simulcast of David Platt's Secret Church . . . wow. It was like nothing I've ever done before. Thanks to two cups of choffee, my friends and I made it through the night, and I learned so so so much. I was telling a lady last night around 11:45pm how it was so much being thrown at me and God was just spilling over through David Platt, it is going to take a while to finally be able to begin absorbing it all. He was correct in saying that Secret Church is like drinking from a fire hydrant. Ha. It'll be a bit before I can get my thoughts together to share a little of what I learned throughout the six hours in the Word from last night, so today I'm going to leave you with a verse, that is so good on this "Good Saturday".
-taye

"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed."

1 Peter 2:24 (ESV)

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus at all times, but especially this weekend and tomorrow. But also, know that the Cross is not meant to be thought of only on Easter Sunday once a year, it should be at the front of our lives every single day that we are alive. Jesus is the only way that we are alive right now, but if you have not trusted in Him and surrendered your entire life to Him, you are far from alive, you are still dead in darkness, unable to force yourself to come to life, and only through His death on the cross for us, but more so for the Father, is life and salvation from eternal darkness found.



My God is so BIG...

I just got home last night from New York, where I had been since Friday. My parents and I went as my graduation trip/ spring break. But because we came back yesterday, that leaves me with the rest of the week to sleep late and get some stuff done like cleaning out my room and closet and washing my dirty, pollen-covered car. I can't wait. Here are some thoughts on what God's been teaching me lately.


-taye


. . . So strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do



Throughout this entire year so far, I can see that God has been continually showing me the same few things over and over and over again. Since January 1st, I have grown so much closer to God and taken my relationship with Him to such a different place than it has ever been before. Although that closeness with Him has not given me a free pass from sin. I see my sinfulness so much more clearly now that my mind is more in tune with His will for me. The more I see Christ's love for me and the depth of His affections for me, the more I am saddened by my rebellious nature. I have a tendency to run away from the things I fear. For some reason I have been afraid to let God love me. That sounds absurd, I know. I suppose that I feel like people I love tend to let me down so often, and so I fear that I will just be let down again if I trust to let God love me, or if I trust myself to love God wholeheartedly. But God is not a person, He is so unfathomably more. So, He has been showing me recently that I can trust Him, and I need to trust Him, because that is sometimes the only thing I can do.



Another thing God has been showing me throughout that past four months, is my insignificance. Compared to Him, I am so incredibly small. When I was in New York, I went to the American Museum of Natural History (The museum that inspired the movie Night at the Museum), and while there I saw the IMAX movie of "Journey to the Stars" narrated by Whoopie Goldberg. Although I did not agree with everything in the film (the mention of evolutionistic theories), the movie was amazing. The visualization of all of those beautiful stars! And to think that God created every one of them and knows each one by name . . . it bewilders me! However, I got to thinking: all of those stars are like people. There are so many of them and one huge, powerful God. Compared to God, we -I- am so immeasurably small and puny and completely incapable of doing anything significant . . . on my own. I realize my weakness and my inadequacy.



Though this is not nearly the final thing God has been showing me, it is the final for this post (because it's 12:06am and I am tired). For the past month or so, I have been reading off and on in David Platt's book "Radical" . . . WOW. My full thoughts on the book are so numerous that they are for an entirely other post (and I am only half way finished with it!), but two major things have struck me from the book.
First, that as a follower of Christ, it is my job -my duty- to proclaim Christ to the world . . . and that does not mean just to LaGrange, Georgia, or Jackson, Mississippi, or even just the United States, but it means to the whole world. That really hit me because I have always been one of those Christians who say that not everyone is "called" to be a missionary. But guess what: everyone is called to be a missionary, check out the great commission.
The second major thing that God has shown me through the book is that we are to live our lives serving others. Now at this you may be thinking, "well hold on, I thought we were to serve Christ, not people." And you're right, but, in order to be a servant of God, we serve others. Serving others is serving God. Putting others before ourselves is putting God before ourselves. This thought has changed me perspective of my life completely.