Reading Radical by David Platt

I have been going through the process, albeit rather slow due to the rocking of my world from this book, of reading RADICAL by David Platt. My wife has read it, and I have been intending to read it, and finally committed to doing it. I am not a reader by nature, but I had to do this one. Crazy Love by Francis Chan did this to me, especially chapters one and four, and quite frankly I had to marinate on that for a while.

This book is a lot like an earthquake or a punch to the face. It knocks you down, but after you recover, you realize that there is some things that you have allowed in your life (spiritually speaking of course) that should have never been allowed into your life.


I seriously questioned my faith and salvation. Why? It has caused me to look at my life compared to the lives of the men who followed after Christ. Mark 10 deals with a man who had it all yet wanted to follow after Christ. He was smart, he was wealthy, he was influential, the type that every American pastor wants who will influence others. yet this man wanted eternal life. Jesus knew his heart and knew what he truly needed. Jesus didn't say pray this prayer, sign this card, get baptized. He said, "go, sell everything you have, and give to the poor. Then come follow me." I like to think I would sell everything but I had to really ask myself would I? When Jesus went to Peter, Andrew, James, and John and said, "Come follow me", would I leave everything? Would I give up my job, my comforts, my family for uncertainty, danger, hunger. Would I drop my nets?

I am still going through the process of reading and applying these difficult words. I realize these words are just from a man, but if his words are difficult to hear and do, can you imagine how Jesus' words would have sounded when Jesus said that we must take up our cross, an instrument of torture, and follow Him? Or leave our families, or not take care of our parents as they age in order to follow Him. I could keep going but I hope you get the impact of Jesus' words. There can be nothing in my life that comes close to Him if I am truly going to follow Him. That means my wife, my kids, my job, my health, and yes, even my wealth.

What is the purpose of this blog entry? I am not sure except that I challenge you to read it and also that I need to express how much I have failed to follow God's Word. I have done it the American way, and the bottom line is that the American way is not God's way. It seems almost unpatriotic to say and it hurts my patriotic pride, but the simple fact I must face is that my allegiance is to my Lord and Savior not a country or what I believe our country should be and used to be. It is a tradition of man, and Jesus spoke against the traditions of man when He blasted the Pharisees. The only thing that I must hold to is God and His Word and making Him known and bringing glory and honor to Him.

And as I read, i am realizing how much I must do in order to fulfill what God asks of all of us. I am one of the worst to think about the poor, the hungry, the orphans, the widows. Yet my Lord tells us to do that very thing. I must take all of God's Word if I am to take it at all. I can't just take what makes me comfortable, but I must go and do this because I called to do this, you are called to do this by the Creator, the Lord whom I surrendered my rights to, the one who has saved me from the wrath of God.

I write this more for my benefit now and to remind me so I don't forget it and forsake it later. If it helps you, thank the Lord not me. I have much to learn in what time I have left.

To God be all the glory and may my life, my family, and all of me bring glory and honor to God.