Radical Together

Just finished this book.  It's kind of Platt's sequel to his book, Radical, extrapolating the same ideas to a church body.  The book report is set to release October 1st.  Be looking for a picture to upload to facebook with my face, a guitar, and some sweet aviator glasses that will have "October 1st" and "Book Report" strategically located on the picture.  Until then (get hype!) I want to let some amazement out. 

How can people read this stuff and not be inspired, excited, and moved to leverage all that they have for the Kingdom of God?  To join the movement that He has started and will finish?  To quicken His coming by resourcing the church to take the gospel to unreached people groups in our backyard and around the world?

I'll tell you how.  We have to get it through our heads that this life is a story.  You, me and the bourgeoisie are all a part of a grand narrative, and there is a shocking twist to this story that many people are missing.  Surprisingly, we are NOT the main character in our own life story!  In every story being told on earth right now, represented by all 6 billion of us hanging out on the planet, God is the main character...in every single one!  Romans 11:36 says, "For from him, and through him, and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever!" 

Not only does every individual story have God as the main character, but all of these stories are working together in His grand masterpiece.  God is giving a free gift of life to humanity, which is dead in its sin, through the sacrifice of his one and only perfect son, Jesus.  Don't be overwhelmed, we know as much from John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life."   So, if our own personal story is really about God, and our collective story is really about God saving as many as will believe, then what on earth are we doing holding on to "our" stuff?   

Let it go!  If we do not love our eternal Father enough to let go of these temporary safety nets, these temporary pleasures, things that moth and rust will destroy, then what love do we have, exactly?  Some of us are all too ready to "hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters" in relation to our love for Christ.  But our love for personal satisfaction, happiness, or comfort leaves us disastrously chained to things that will pass away. 

"No one can serve two masters," so Father I pray that we separate our identity from our possessions and securities that will fall away, and rather we would anchor our souls in your promise of Life.