Wednesday Wisdom: Radical

Have you read the book Radical by David Platt yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this book!! This book is having the same effects on me that Crazy Love had. I loved Crazy Love, read it about 4 times I think. Radical is just as good, but maybe a little more radical. 🙂

Both of these books inspire me to live a faith that is authentic and genuine. Both of these books challenge me to look at the Jesus of the Bible and how He lived rather than the Jesus who makes us feel all good and comfortable inside.

To say that these books challenge me and cause me to think is an understatement. I find myself with more questions after reading a chapter in Radical. But, I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. I am just praying that God would reveal His perfect and specific plan for me and my family…because so many times I get discouraged that our family doesn’t look like this or that, or that my life hasn’t taken a certain direction…but then I am reminded that God is a very personal God, He loves me for who I am and has a plan that fits with who He created me to be. I just have to remind myself of that.

And, at the same time, I have to remind myself that God does not call us as Christians to sit in the pew each week for our “church time” and let that be it concerning our walk with Him. I have to go beyond my comfort zone, beyond the walls of the church building, beyond the people that look like me…to be Jesus to a lost and dying world.

Finding the balance of those challenges and questions is what is hard for me. Pray for me!!

Here are a few quotes from the book that have really challenged and spoken to me…

“Somewhere along the way we had missed what was radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.” ~ Radical, p. 7

“No sound system.
No band.
No guitar.
No entertainment.
No cushioned chairs.
No heated or air conditioned building.
Nothing but the people of God and the Word of God.
And strangely, that’s enough.
God’s Word is enough for millions of believers who gather in house churches just like this one. His Word is enough for millions of other believers who huddle in African jungles, South American rain forests and Middle Eastern cities.
But is God’s Word enough for us?” ~ Radical, p. 26

“How many of us are embracing the comforts of suburban America while we turn a deaf ear to inner cities in need of the gospel? How many of us are so settled in the United States that we have never once given serious thought to the possibility that God may call us to live in another country? How often are we willing to give a check to someone else as long as we don’t have to go to the tough places in the world ourselves?” ~ Radical p. 64

“Are you and I looking to Jesus for advice that seems fiscally responsible according to the standards of the world around us? Or are we looking to Jesus for total leadership in our lives, even if that means going against everything our affluent culture and maybe even our affluent religious neighbors might tell us to do?” ~ Radical, p. 121

And these quotes, friends, are just the tip of the iceburg. 🙂

Oh God, change me. Give me Your vision for my life. Give me more of You and less of me. Make my desire for You outweigh anything this world has to offer…for truly, You ARE the treasure. Help me to live a life that shows the Treasure to each person I encounter.