Radical Abandonment

Hey people. Hope you’ve loved the posts so far and that at least one of them has either calmed the storm in your minds or lit it up with some new thunderous thoughts. These last few days my mind has been lighting up like crazy because I just finished reading Radical by David Platt, and if you’ve read it, than you know what I’m talking about.

For those of you who haven’t yet had the opportunity to read the book than first off I highly recommend you add it to your reading list. Secondly, I’d like to share with you a few of the key radical changes and thoughts in the book that struck me the hardest. I’ll admit that after looking through my notes over the book it’s been real hard to choose what touched my heart the most so let’s just start with what hit me first.

“the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves” pg. 7

That’s certainly a strong statement and one well worth looking at. Those last two words are what actually struck me while reading because I’d never really thought of it that way. I’ve known that God is supposed to be the ultimate center of our lives with our love for him being so great that our feelings for everyone else just looks like hate. I know that we are supposed to gladly give to Him and help His people and worship Him forever. With all this though, I hadn’t realized that all these and many more Christian ideals and commandments seem to lend themselves to those two words. We must learn to simply abandon ourselves in this World and instead focus our vision on God, His will, His power, His glory, His Son, His wrath, and His love. Our abandonment must be truly radical and we must always stand willing to give up everything we have in this world in order to follow the one true God and Savior, that’s Jesus.

“Enjoy His grace and extend His glory” pg. 65

This is literally one of my favorite sentences from the entire book because it is short, sweet, and simplifies a gigantic topic. When Dr. Platt says these words he is referring to how we all have the chance to experience the grace of God but we tend to bask in that grace by ourselves. We mustn’t do that. God gives us His grace so that we can extend that grace to all of His people all around the world, in turn bringing great glory to God. Now that might sound a bit intense to some because, well, the idea of traveling all around the world sharing God’s grace can be a bit of a daunting task. Look at it this way instead, start out by thinking about whether or not you even share that grace with the people you see every day, with your coworkers, your employees, your friends, even your family. Simply sharing with these people may very well be the first step towards sharing the grace of God with the world. In the end, people of every nation, tribe, people and language will stand before the throne of God so He has a great desire for his grace to be extended to all these people.

“…this world is not your home.” Pg.179

This is something that we have to always remember whenever we think of the treasures of this world and when we consider our actions in this world. Our home is not here, our home will come someday in the future and that place will be far better than this one because there we will receive our greatest reward, to be with God. We desire to do everything and to live fully for His glory because He is the ultimate reward that nothing else can compare to.

So in this world we must bring His grace to the 4.5 billion people who aren’t Christians and the 1.5 billion people who’ve never even heard of Jesus. We must realize that we are All called to abandon the desires of this world and make disciples of all nations.  Never forget that the reward that God offers will always be worth the risk. These are just a few of the thoughts that Dr. Platt evoked in me through his book and I’ll admit that Dr. Platt seems to be fairly centralized and focused in on just one part of the great message of Christianity but at least he’s focused, and he’s making a change in the right direction, toward God. If you’ve got a free few hours, read the book and understand what all I’m talking about.

“The eleven gathered around him, and Jesus said,” All authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

All quotes except the last one are taken from Radical by Dr. David Platt, published by Multnomah Books, copyright 2010.