Radical
I have just finished reading the book Radical by David Platt, pastor of Brook Hills Church in Birmingham. I had breakfast Friday morning with my pastor and we shared our hearts - he shared why he's been in a bit of a funk over the past few months and what God was stirring in him. He was sort of struggling with how to even articulate his thoughts with me. Much of what stirs Keith has been stirring in me for some time and I too haven't been able to put my arms around all I feel God is doing. So I shared a lot of what I got out of this book and it was exactly the things that were stirring in Keith. He's called a meeting of the Board of the church for a day of retreat to dig into this. God is calling Christ Community to "Break through". Break through to the other side and to "more". A deeper, more passionate, more devoted walk with God. To get there, we're going to have to tear down some walls. Some strongholds (personally and corporately) need to be broken. Families need to be fixed. Finances need to be fixed. Freedom from bondage needs to take place.

I can't sleep and it is 1:30 on Saturday morning (now its 2:45). I need the sleep but this is moving me and I need to get it down. These are some of the things I am wrestling with and then some comments from the book....

The church is under attack. I've been able to share a few times with the men in our church and we've talked about some of this. Marriages in our church are in trouble. Marriage all over America is under attack. Satan's attempted "death blow" to the church is taking place in our homes. If Christian marriages fail or are full of contempt or seething anger, our witnesses fall apart.

Money is a huge issue. We are a nation of consumers and consumerism has invaded God's church. Joel Osteen tells us that God wants to prosper us financially - that Jesus' death was about lifting you and I out of mediocrity - that "because of the price He paid, we have a right to live in total victory not just a good family, good job and good health but victory over our finances as well. He has paid the price that we may be totally free...free from poverty and lack..." God's church is consumed with consumerism. The "American dream" is "God's dream". Really? Is that really why God gave up his Son to suffer a horrific death...so I can be wealthy?

Manhood is under attack in the church. I've written about this numerous times but we have a generation of men in their 30's and 40's that are ill-equipped to lead their homes as a Christian. In many cases, their wives have stepped up into that void and not only do these women work in corporate jobs, they serve on local boards, lead the PTA, attend three bible studies a week and "know" the bible a lot better than their husbands. And so what does the man do? Shrink back.

This isn't politically correct but it has been on my heart for years - we have a generation of young black men in America and especially in the South who have no future. They are aimless. They don't stand a chance. They have no hope. The church has done a poor job of making our own backyard a mission field.

Lastly, this notion of "fully alive" or in John 10:10 that "He came to give us abundant life". It is one thing to accept Christ but something quite different to be radically alive in our walk with Christ. To be completely "sold out" on Jesus. To not fear the condemnation from our father or brother or wife or co-worker if we just totally throw ourselves into Jesus. To be willing to spend 5 hours on a Friday night in prayer and the Word. To be willing to sell everything we have and give up the "American dream" to pursue and follow God wherever He may lead us. A guy told me one time that instead of practicing a lucrative medical practice, he chose to give away his medical talents. He opened a free medical practice in Augusta. People told him he was crazy. His father is a successful real estate developer. He was raised in a "money" family. His uncle is a local physician. He could have just fallen into line and had the big house, beach place and boat. People told him "you'll be poor" and his answer always has been "Yeah, only for about 80 years and in the framework of eternity, that's nothing."

As David Platt says, "Am I willing to hear the Word...even if it convicts me. Am I willing to obey the Word...even if it costs me?"

So these things have been stirring in me - some of them connected and some of them not and I picked up the book Radical. Wow. Oh my.

"It is entirely possible that he will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor. But we don't want to believe it. We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives. So we rationalize these passages away. "Jesus wouldn't really tell us to not bury our father or say good-bye to our family (Abraham). Jesus didn't literally mean to sell all we have and give it to the poor. What Jesus really meant was....And this is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with. A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn't mind materialism and who would never call us to give away all that we have. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are."

Oh my.

He then talks about a trip he took to Hyderabad, India. He says that Bonhoeffer said "the first call every Christian experiences is the call to abandon the attachments of this world" and that as we spend our time pursuing the American dream, literally billions of people will remain in the dark to the Gospel. On a hill in Hyderabad, "God gripped my heart and flooded my mind with two resounding words, "Wake up". Wake up and realize that there are infinitely more important things in your life than football and your 401(k). Wake up and realize there are real battles to be fought, so different from the superficial, meaningless battles you focus on. Wake up to the countless multitudes who are destined for a Christ-less eternity."

Yes.

He goes on and talks about his experiences with the underground churches in China and in Muslim controlled nations -- people that sneak out together early in the morning to worship God in secret. 60 people crammed in a room with a light and their Bibles. No plasma TV's on the wall, no cushioned seats, no praise band, no cool video clips to sell the point of the message, no time limit so we can get to the club by 12:30 for lunch -- just people starving for God's Word. People so hungry, they will meet for 3-4 hours to just read the Bible and pray. "I want to know him. I want to experience him. I want to be a part of a people who delight in him like the Asians who have nothing but him. And I want to be a part of a people who are risking it all for him."

That taste. Oh, to have a taste of that in America where we care more about how comfortable the chairs are in church -- or -- we complain that the nursery workers who tend to our kids for an hour aren't organized like we think they should be. I too hunger for that passion. I crave an abundant, abandoning faith. I crave being in places where God has to show up. I'm sick of the prosperity/comfort Christianity. I want to be uncomfortable. I want risk in my faith.

I'll end this long post with this last image he talked about. I used this Friday with the FCA kids. We all stand alone on a beach with a wall of water 1,000 feet high coming at us 100 miles per hour. That water is our sin. We own it. No one helped us get it. It's ours. And we can't run from it. We stand alone on that beach with no one to turn to. As we stand there that crushing wall of sin comes at us like a freight train. We can't outrun it. Our time is up. We must face and own our sin. In that moment, we don't just "accept" Jesus. Jesus doesn't need me to accept him. He isn't a facebook friend I decide to add after an emotional weekend retreat and then I go back to my nice, comfortable, American consumerism life. No, in that moment, I BEG for a Savior. I cry out. I fall to my needs at the horror of my life's work and the depravity of my soul. Without a Savior, I'm doomed.

And Jesus takes that wall of water and we are lifted up presented to God in Christ's glory -- none of our own doing. In that, we praise him, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The one that is and is to come. With all creation I sing, praise to the King of Kings, you are my everything and I will adore you."

How on earth we've taken that picture of salvation and turned that into a "Jesus wants to make me rich" theology is beyond me. In the context of that wall of water crushing down on me and my salvation through Christ, my 401(k) no longer matters. 1 billion people on this earth have not heard the name of Jesus. That matters. The Gospel needs to be shared and Jesus doesn't do it by himself. We came to Christ through others who shared their faith with us. So too for us...we are to go. Go share the Gospel to all corners of this earth. And if that means we "give up" all that is the American dream...so be it. Go. He commands...Go.

Soar!