Radical

I remember when the book "Radical" by David Platt came out a few years ago. Like most christian books that come out, it was added to my long list of "one day" books. Well, after the Lord placing a heavy burden on my heart about being too comfortable, I picked it up. I'm so glad I did.

This book reminded me what I so easily forget living in a comfort saturated country: That following Jesus does not equal comfort. It's actually the opposite. If you search through the life of every single person in the bible, you will find that each one of them was called into something very uncomfortable by God. God called them to face fear and trust in Him.

Why doesn't it look like that for us Christians in America? Why doesn't MY life look more like this?

Here is one of the scariest verses in the bible:

"So you'll recognize them by their fruit. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord!' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father in heaven." Matthew 7:20-21 NLT

For more context please read Matthew 7:13-23.

This is terrifying. This honestly keeps me up at night. How many people who proclaim themselves as Christians are going to be surprised when this is the response they get from Jesus as they stand before Him. It's hard to think about.

Jesus came to save EVERYONE. That doesn't mean everyone will be saved. In fact according to the worlds statistics, if Jesus came back today majority of the people will NOT be saved. And this is solely due to them choosing not to put their faith in Christ. They never will unless we Christians get out of our comfort zones.

Jesus also came to give us hope. He will be with us as we face rejection, pain, and even sacrifice. When you put your faith in Jesus, you should know that rejection, pain, and sacrifice will be a part of your life if you are living it right. When you decide to follow Christ, you are signing up for them! Where was that little side note when I prayed the ABC's at the age of 8?

In order to have active, growing faith you have to get out of your comfort zone. You have to actually do what Jesus calls you to do. We over complicate God's purpose and God's will for us when it's actually pretty simple.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

I don't think Jesus could have been more clear. Imagine if every single person who proclaimed to be a Christian loved others like Jesus loved. Imagine the impact the Gospel would have. People would be lining up to hear about Jesus and how they can get the kind of love that we have. We would never have churches with dry baptism pools or a ton of dusty bibles on every Salvation Army bookshelf. The love we would be living out would be contagious.

I could keep going on forever. But the main thing I want us to think about is when is the last time you had to actually use your faith? It doesn't require faith to live a comfortable life. It requires faith when we step out of our comfort zone. It's then that we have to trust The Lord. We have to put our faith in Him. And we know from His track record that He will always show up. He will always give courage. And He will always win.