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This blog is simply meant to bring God the glory; no more and no less. I'd love to hear from you! Comments, questions, conversation. rebecca.labriola@gmail.com

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Radical...based on the book by David Platt. Thursday, April 10. Lent 2014.

Right now I am reading a book by David Platt called Radical.
While I don’t agree with everything I have read so far,
Platt has made some pretty notable points.

Platt presents this concept of being a radical Christian.
He is suggesting that all followers of Christ need to be
deeply renewed and  reformed.
We need a reset button.

Platt points out the irony of ‘accepting Jesus’.
While the idea is nice,
Jesus does not need for us to accept Him.
He was
and is
and always will be.
Regardless of our existence or acceptance of Him.

When we place emphasis on our accepting of Jesus,
our relationship with Him becomes about what we do.

This theme of ‘me’ seems to be a strong one in this day.
In reality,
we should be far from the ‘me’ mentality.

With the focus on ourselves,
we make things convenient for ourselves.

We decide that Jesus wasn’t speaking literally when He said,
leave your family and follow me,
leave your dead father and follow me,
pick up your cross and follow me,
sell your possessions and follow me,
and finally,
this is my body, this is my blood, given for you.

Surely He cannot be serious.
He can’t be speaking literally.
These saying are hard.

So we decide to twist and tweak them
until they fit in with my schedule,
my comprehension,
my beliefs,
my life.

This is where we need reform.

We need a major shift from a self-centered Christianity
to a Christ-centered Christianity.

Platt has done tons of ministry work in nations that have never heard of Christ.
He recounts a week he spent in an Asian country.
Each day they spend 11 hours studying the Bible.

In hot,
stuffy,
smelly
room.
Piled on top of each other
with their livelihood, their crops,
not being tended to for the week,
for they wanted to hear about Jesus.

This room had one dim light in the center of the room,
a room hidden underground,
for Christianity was not allowed in this country.
These people could be killed for the very act of learning about Jesus.

They did not complain about the lack of A/C,
or about the lack of cushioned chairs,
or the missing music,
or the hardness of the sayings.

Nope.

They soaked it all up.
They took the hard sayings
and believed them
and yet,
wanted more.

They did not ask to tweak the hard sayings.
They did not question the long hours,
no, rather,
they requested the long hours.

They were focused on Christ
and His truth.

If all Christians could be focused on Christ,
instead of focused on themselves,

if all Christians accepted and embraced the hard sayings,
instead of tweaking them to their liking,

if all Christians embraced their faith,
instead of treating it like a salad bar,

the Church would be radically different.

The Church would be focused on God Alone. 

2 comments:

  1. I loved this blog -- though it is scary challenging.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A.M.D.G.

    Amen.
    I love the analogy of a "salad bar"...it is SO true and yet sad that so many pick and choose what tickles their ear and pleases them and their lifestyle/choices. Not taking into account the context and totality of God's Word...what He was/is REALLY trying to tell each of us. We have to take into account the time of the writings, the Greek and Hebrew terminology, the loss of meaning during translation...we have to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what God has for us...wisdom of the Word.

    I love salad bars...but not in the Word.

    Peace & blessings,
    Mrs.O.

    ReplyDelete