Living and Dying...in Christ

In San Diego right now and I just finished reading "Radical" by David Platt. I highly recommend you read it. It's the manifesto for our generation. It discusses the very thing you said Kyle in your email, I must become lower so he can be lifted higher. The book squarely challenges the highly admired "American dream" and calls us to consider the actual commands of Christ. Things like 2 Timothy 3:12 -Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." How does that look in my life? Or consider Matthew 10:16 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves." Why would Jesus want his sheep to hang out with wolves? Because our lives are in His hands. Sheep among wolves die! Sheep are dumb animals and have no "danger sense". We are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But it doesn't make sense that He would ask us to do such a thing unless His plan was for us to be abandoned to His will even to the point of death. How does this look in my life? Can I honestly say, "to live is Christ and to die is gain"? Jim Eliot said, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jesus said in Matthew 10:28: "do not fear man who can only destroy the body, but fear Him who has the power to destroy the body and soul in hell" So Jesus says, "Don't fear men, all they can do is kill you." Yeah, no big deal! Wow.

Gents, billions are dying daily without Christ and our safety and security has rendered the American Church completely impotent. Sending money is really not enough. I admit, my heart is torn to the point of grief about this. As Platt puts it, I have embraced "intellectual universalism" meaning that although I know people all around me are dying without Christ, I safely assume they will be ok somehow and flatly ignore what the gospel teaches...that they will go to hell. Am I loving my neighbor when I don't risk his/her persecution in sharing the gospel? Have I died enough to my comfort zone to live in persecution with my neighbor, or coworkers, or a stranger on the street? This is what it really boils down to. It's not necessarily giving up material things, but comfort, and embracing confrontation with the desperately lost. I struggle with this because I know my thoughts are changing with regard to these things. Will I sell everything and hit the mission field? Probably not, but the question is, am I willing. I am, but is my wife? God must deal with her in His way. Through my prayers and subtle advancement of abandoning all for Christ will she and I be in harmony. Is this a slam on her? No. It is my lack of heeding the Word of the Lord for years and leading my family in the gospel. There's been a snapshot here and a mission trip there, but a lifestyle and worldview shift is what I'm talking about. We all know how it feels after returning from a missions trip where we say "God moved in amazing ways and we saw lives changed". That's the attitude we must maintain perpetually. We are at war and the casualties are mounting.

Jesus talks so much about suffering, persecution, trials, etc. Where is that gospel in America?. We see mega-churches with books like "Your Best Life Now" WHAT? People are dying daily for believing in Christ all around the world. Why not in America? Because we aren't out there in the marketplace making people uncomfortable with their sin (see Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort www.wayofthemaster.com ) He gives us assurance of His love, care, provision and direction. "Radical" has steeled my resolve. Great preachers like Voddie Baucham, and many others have motivated me to see the gospel for what it is. We have to stop asking "what is God's will for my life?" and realize he gave his will: "GO into all the world and PREACH the Gospel, MAKING DISCIPLES of all nations, and know I will be with you until the end"! What more do we need to know regarding His will? GO, PREACH, MAKE DISCIPLES. It's easier for impoverished Africans and Asians to understand this than for Americans; and I think it's easy to know why. We must change in this country and its only going to be through another 'Great Awakening'. With books like "Radical", I think we are seeing the beginning of it now.