Day 274

Finished book 1 for October, and because of this book I have started a new one-year challenge. This blog was inspired because of a challenge to do something valuable - finish the things that I start, namely books. This new one-year challenge is "My Radical Experiment." Let me explain:
I finished Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt. The emphasis of this book is understanding and obeying the gospel and the commands of Jesus. The author draws the attention of the reader to how our Christian culture is in danger of making me the object. Am I really the object of the gospel? Can I sing "Jesus Loves Me" to my children and leave their understanding of God at that? No, I would have to say I cannot. Jesus does love me and my children, but the gospel is about God - His ways, His salvation, His glory, and His greatness.
Platt also draws to the readers attention the major mistake of thinking that some portions of Jesus' commands are only for those who are "called" to missions.  

But where in the Bible is missions ever identified as an optional program in the church? We have just seen that we were all created by God, saved from our sins, and blessed by God to make his glory known in all the world. Indeed, Jesus himself has not merely called us to go to all nations; he has created us and commanded us to go to all nations. We have taken this command, though, and reduced it to a calling - something that only a few people receive...Now we know that each of us has different gifts, different skills, different passions, and different callings from God...Peter and Paul had different callings (Platt 72-73).

Later in the book Platt presents the "My Radical Experiment" where he asks each reader to test the claims of the gospel for one year. Before you think that he is charging each reader to go into full-time foreign missions, let me say that having read it cover to cover - he does not. He does however challenge each believer in Jesus to begin thinking globally, pray for all nations, pray for laborers to go, and be involved however possible with sacrificing for other people in nations without the gospel. He proposes that we spend 2% of our year in another context. Get out of your comfortable surroundings for 2% of the year just may change how you spend your time and resources in the other 98% of your time at "home."
Please take a minute and read this blog about living radically: THINKonline: getting-too-radical
And then tell me what you think - please - I crave some other thoughts on this.

Thanks for reading!