Radical
David Platt
Radical is one of the most aptly titled books ever (aside from “How To Talk To Pretty Girls For Dummies”…which is incredibly helpful by the way.) Basically Platt is calling out the American church for being complacent in LIVING FOR CHRIST. Not only does he talk about ideas, but gives example after example after example about what being radically selfless for Jesus looks like. And I’ll just go ahead and tell you…it’s pretty radical. For instance:
Platt called the folks in charge of placing foster kids into foster homes for his county, asking how many children didn’t have foster homes. The number was over 200. He then encouraged his church to search out their hearts to see if they were willing to become foster parents, providing those parentless children with a loving home. His church answered the call by taking in EVERY SINGLE ORPHANED CHILD IN THE COUNTY. Yes, one church stepped out in a big way, risking and sacrificing their personal lives in order to help meet the needs over 200 kids, answering the call of Jesus to love orphans.
That’s the kind of radical Platt is getting at. That’s the kind of life and love he wants the world to know about. That’s the kind of thing he says Christ calls us to. To risk. To sacrifice. To act as a response to the love of our Father and our King has for us. Now tell me that isn’t the start of something that could become even MORE radical!!
Platt also gives story after story about missionaries who went into very dangerous, very unknown territory with the purpose of sharing the great news of Jesus no matter the cost, no matter if their own family called them crazy. Some were killed, some weren’t…but all answered the call faithfully and with passion, being used by God even in their death. And that’s part of being radical.
I’ll leave you with the following two excerpts from the book. It really is worth the read.
“Jesus was saying to his disciples then – and, by implication, to you and me now, ‘I am sending you to dangerous places, where you will find yourself in the middle of evil, vicious people. And you will be there by my design. Go to great danger and let it be said of you what people would say of sheep wandering into the middle of wolves. ‘They’re crazy! They’re clueless! They have no idea what kind of danger they are getting into!’ This is what it means to be my disciple.'”
A writing from C.T. Studd (a missionary from the late 1800s and early 1900s) says, “Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time for waiting is past!…Should such men as we fear? Before the whole world, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God…and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand time sooner die trusting only in our God than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.”
