Radical Living
A good friend is one that will keep you accountable. After chatting with a friend last night about moving and how it feels and what she may experience as she gets ready to head off to school, she gently added the question, "And how is your TAG time?" For those who do not know the acronym it stands for "Time Alone with God." I instantly felt a little shock, because I know how my TAG time has been and it was refreshing and convicting to have someone actually ask me and keep up with me. So I confessed. For some reason this week I have felt less of a desire to be near to God, less of a hunger for His Word and revelation. I have been feeling spiritually dead. Though I may go through the motions trying to stir myself up by listening to sermon podcasts, reading missionary biographies, playing worship music on my guitar but nothing inspired me, nothing left me wanting to know Him more. It simply left me feeling guilty and ashamed for wanting the opposite. At times like these I wish I owned a copy of John Piper's, "When I Don't Desire God."
But instead of a book I have prayer and I have friends who encourage me in that prayer and faith. As I responded to my friend's question honestly it made me stop and realize the person I really need to talk to is God and though He knows all, let Him know that I want Him to know where I'm at and what I'm feeling and ask Him for help. I have a lot ahead of me and I don't want to try and face this world alone. I don't want to do my own thing. I want my life to count for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So today I finally pulled off the shelf a book by David Platt, a pastor in Alabama, titled "Radical." The subtitle being "Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream." In an hour and a half I'm already through the first two chapters and hungry for more. Not because he is such a great author or a great pastor but because I know this is the gospel God wants me to hear at this particular time. His words towards the end of the second chapter spoke the words I want my heart to echo all the days of my life:
"But the gift of grace involves the gift of a new heart. New desires. New longings. For the first time, we want God. We see our need for him, and we love him. We seek after him, and we find him, and we discover that he is indeed the great reward of our salvation. We realize that we are saved not just to be forgiven of our sins or to be assured of our eternity in heaven, but we are saved to know God. So we yearn for him. We want him so much that we abandon everything else to experience him. This is the only proper response to the revelation of God in the gospel. This is why men and women around the world risk their lives to know more about him. This is why we must avoid cheap caricatures of Christianity that fail to exalt the revelation of God in his Word. This is why you and I cannot settle for anything less than a God-centered, Chris-exalting, self-denying gospel. I pray continually for this kind of hunger [...]. I pray that we will be a people who refuse to gorge our spiritual stomachs on the entertaining pleasures of this world, because we have chosen to find our satisfaction in the eternal treasure of his Word. I pray that God will awaken in your heart and mine a deep and abiding passion for the gospel as the grand revelation of God. [...] The revelation of God in the gospel is good. I invite you to receive it. [...] Maybe simply to recover a passion for God's Word - his radical revelation of himself - and discover once again the reward that is found in simply knowing and experiencing him."
Wow... so a long paragraph but I hope you read it because it's worth the read. After finishing my little reading session I felt inspired to worship the Lord in song and the song that came to me was "The Wonderful Cross." I've sang it many times before, but today my heart stopped on the last verse...
"Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine... demands my soul, my life, my all." That is radical living.
I did not come to grad. school to survive and become some top speech pathologist and be successful in material America. I came to prepare myself so I could survive the world. If I learn to rely full on God here, I will learn to rely on Him no matter where He takes me or how I serve Him. I want to give God my life and I am starting each day fresh.
But instead of a book I have prayer and I have friends who encourage me in that prayer and faith. As I responded to my friend's question honestly it made me stop and realize the person I really need to talk to is God and though He knows all, let Him know that I want Him to know where I'm at and what I'm feeling and ask Him for help. I have a lot ahead of me and I don't want to try and face this world alone. I don't want to do my own thing. I want my life to count for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So today I finally pulled off the shelf a book by David Platt, a pastor in Alabama, titled "Radical." The subtitle being "Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream." In an hour and a half I'm already through the first two chapters and hungry for more. Not because he is such a great author or a great pastor but because I know this is the gospel God wants me to hear at this particular time. His words towards the end of the second chapter spoke the words I want my heart to echo all the days of my life:
"But the gift of grace involves the gift of a new heart. New desires. New longings. For the first time, we want God. We see our need for him, and we love him. We seek after him, and we find him, and we discover that he is indeed the great reward of our salvation. We realize that we are saved not just to be forgiven of our sins or to be assured of our eternity in heaven, but we are saved to know God. So we yearn for him. We want him so much that we abandon everything else to experience him. This is the only proper response to the revelation of God in the gospel. This is why men and women around the world risk their lives to know more about him. This is why we must avoid cheap caricatures of Christianity that fail to exalt the revelation of God in his Word. This is why you and I cannot settle for anything less than a God-centered, Chris-exalting, self-denying gospel. I pray continually for this kind of hunger [...]. I pray that we will be a people who refuse to gorge our spiritual stomachs on the entertaining pleasures of this world, because we have chosen to find our satisfaction in the eternal treasure of his Word. I pray that God will awaken in your heart and mine a deep and abiding passion for the gospel as the grand revelation of God. [...] The revelation of God in the gospel is good. I invite you to receive it. [...] Maybe simply to recover a passion for God's Word - his radical revelation of himself - and discover once again the reward that is found in simply knowing and experiencing him."
Wow... so a long paragraph but I hope you read it because it's worth the read. After finishing my little reading session I felt inspired to worship the Lord in song and the song that came to me was "The Wonderful Cross." I've sang it many times before, but today my heart stopped on the last verse...
"Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine... demands my soul, my life, my all." That is radical living.
I did not come to grad. school to survive and become some top speech pathologist and be successful in material America. I came to prepare myself so I could survive the world. If I learn to rely full on God here, I will learn to rely on Him no matter where He takes me or how I serve Him. I want to give God my life and I am starting each day fresh.
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