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.