Hello friends and family,
I just finished the book Radical by David Platt. First, if you have never read this, I urge you to, after reading my blog. Secondly, I am going to share what I took away from this book and hope it impacts your life as much as it did mine. The main subject of this book is how the American Dream can affect our Faith. The American Dream is dangerous when it comes to living like Jesus, but it is not all bad, we just have to be careful not to get sucked in. I want to start by asking you this question and want you to truly think about it throughout the blog. Are we wiling to risk it all for Jesus, this includes dying to be rewarded with eternal life with God? It is easy to say yes to this until you come face to face with struggles and even death, and then the most important thing is, would your answer change in any circumstance? I will be honest with you and tell you that I struggle with this and am constantly working on it and asking myself would my answer change and if it would, why? I have a lot still to learn, however I feel as though this book has opened my eyes to some things I have been blind to or just was too comfortable where I was.
The modern day gospel is “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. Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do”(Platt 2010). The biblical gospel saves souls and needs to be shared or you are practically misguiding people and leading them to Hell. We have become comfortable with changing the biblical purpose of the Bible. We always say God loves me and that makes us, or people, the center of Christianity. However, this is not the biblical purpose of the Bible. God loves me so that I will make him known to all nations by His ways, salvation, glory, and greatness. This makes God the object of our faith and Christianity now centers around Him, God is the end of the Gospel. You can’t pray a simple prayer and ask to be saved by Jesus and then get a ticket into heaven from that. You can’t earn your way into heaven by doing anything other than what Jesus specifically commands, which is lift up your cross and give up everything and follow me. This will make you want to do everything else out of compassion for others, just as Jesus had compassion for every single one of us on the cross. Saying a prayer in church on a Sunday morning in comfortable chairs and air conditioning is not following Jesus. This is the American Dream Christianity, but do you want to be sucked into that or be apart of biblical Christianity?
There are approximately 4.5 billion people who do not follow Jesus in the world when this book was written(Platt 2010). I am sure that number has gone up since then. People always say they are waiting for a calling or God’s will to show them what they need to do. However, God specifically commands all of us to go and make disciples of all nations, so why are you waiting for a calling when you have been commanded to do this by the one and only God of the universe. We assign the obligations of Christianity to a few people, while the rest of us sit in church comfortably, thinking we aren’t called to do that. We are born into this world to disobey God and be sinful. This is why people who haven’t heard of Jesus will not go to heaven. However, many times people ask about the innocent person in the unreached people group whether they will go to heaven or not.
There is no such thing as an innocent person other than Jesus and therefore people will go to hell without knowing Jesus regardless if they have heard of him or not. This should make you sick inside and make you want to do something if you truly want to follow Jesus. If the unreached people group who did not know Jesus went to heaven, then we would not have to do anything because they would already be in heaven. People sometimes ask why I am going overseas instead of just sending the money I have raised or just evangelizing in my own country. Money can go a long way to fix temporary problems in other countries, however money cannot fix the spiritual needs of people in other countries. IT GETS FIXED WITH YOU AND I GOING TO MAKE DISCIPLES! I promise the people from the other nations will be more open to the gospel if you go and live alongside them in their struggles. Disciples can take days, months, or even years to make. Jesus walked with his disciples for three years and only had 12. Later he had 11 because one lost his way.
Spending time in God’s Word ultimately increases your faith and changes your heart. Following Jesus is not easy, as He promises suffering, betrayal, hurt, and even death along the way. However, He also promises the greatest reward, which is eternal life. Jesus says pick up your cross and leave everything behind if you wish to follow me. He brings light to your blind spots in the areas you need to let go to be able to follow Him fully. How many people would come to church, if you did not have any of the comforts (i.e. comfy chairs, AC, etc.) or entertainment, that many churches have these days? How many people would come to a 6 hr+ meeting repetitively to learn God’s Word? Some people overseas spend all day learning God’s Word in secret because they are risking their life and family’s lives if they get caught. Would you be willing to do that in the United States? To be truly radical we need to focus on eternal life (Heaven), and we will forget about the earthly desires, materials, and even dying. “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forget their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
Jesus commands us to care for the poor and sometimes calls us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor, for example Lazarus and the rich man. Open your eyes and see that their is more to life than money and material possessions. This doesn’t mean you have to sell everything and live on the streets. However, it could just be living on necessities and getting rid of the things that hurt, to get rid of that you do not actually need and giving that to others. Don’t get me wrong, money or material things are not all bad, but we do need to be careful they don’t become an idol over Jesus. Giving up material things will not earn you God’s salvation or an entry to heaven. The only way to heaven is through Jesus. Living and being more like Him, will change your heart and fill you with compassion. The reward of eternal peace and goodness is worth so much more than anything offered here on Earth.
Are you ready to give up the comforts you have today? Are we wiling to risk it all for Jesus, this includes dying to be rewarded with eternal life with God? Some of the most faithful people are from other nations because they truly are risking it all to follow Jesus and they still choose to do it every single day, not just once a week.
So, I leave you with this are you living the American Dream Christianity or the Radical Biblical Christianity?
Much Love,
Zach
Resources.
Platt, David. Radical. Multnomah Books, 2010.
