Radical

I told you a few weeks ago that I was going to tell you about a couple of my favorite books of the Summer . . . I told you about Untamed . . . and then I disappeared!

Ok, here's the second: Radical by David Platt.

Fair Warning! He says stuff like this:

* "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 everything 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 . . ."

* "Based on what we have heard from Jesus in the Gospels, we would have to agree that the cost of discipleship is great. But I wonder if the cost of nondiscipleship is even greater."

* "In direct contradiction to the American dream, God actually delights in exalting our inability. He intentionally puts His people in situations where they come face to face with their need for Him."

* "The goal of the gospel is to make much of God."

* "The key word here again is sacrifice. The challenge is not just ot give away excess stuff that you really don't need anyway. That's not sacrifice. Sacrifice is giving away what it hurts to give. Sacrifice is not giving according to your ability; it's giving beyond your ability."


That's probably enough fair sampling. Platt's book is definitely not for you if you desire to stay entrenched in American consumeristic, easy-believism Christianity.
But I'll warn you that I think that is a dying tribe.

If you want to be stretched to follow Jesus in new ways - and I hope you do - then I would encourage you to get it and get it for a friend.
Both of you read and discuss it (it won't be a quiet conversation :)

Then let God do something with it.