The Radical Question, A Radical Idea

JESUS! We say we love Him. We put His name on bumper stickers and license plates. But what if we are called to do more? What if going to church on Sundays and living a moral life isn’t all God’s asks of His followers.
In his book The Radical Question, Platt asks if it could be possible that God wants much much more then what the typical American believer is willing to give Him.
I have always enjoyed reading biographies of christians and books like Foxes Book of Martyrs. My one thought as I turn the last page every time is, what if that was me? Is my faith strong enough to hold on to God even while watching my loved ones tortured in front of me? Even though this book is barely 100 pages I experienced the same self questioning and soul searching.
In America we are told to follow our hearts, to do whatever feel right, that we should only do what feels good and is fun. THIS IS NOT LIVING FOR JESUS! We are called to so much more! Are we willing to truly sacrifice possessions, money, stability, and even family for the sake of the gospel? Is God worth giving up everything for? IIS JESUS ALONE ENOUGH to satisfy every want and desire and need?
Real love would be saying "YES! God hear I am." But its not easy. Its not comfortable and sometimes it hurts and feels overwhelming. THAT IS WHEN GOD takes over. When we fail He is enough. When we are done and at the end of our rope He CARRIES US. If you want your perfect world to be blown apart in a matter of minutes you have to get a copy of this book!
 5 of 5 stars
Don’t forget to purchase and extra copy to give to your best friend because you will want to share it!

To Buy this book

About the Author:

DR. DAVID PLATT, President of the International Mission Board, is deeply devoted to Christ and His Word. David’s first love in ministry is making disciples, sharing, showing, and teaching God’s Word in everyday life. David has written several books, Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me and most recently Counter Culture (to be released February 2015). 

David founded Radical (Radical.net), a ministry devoted to serving churches and disseminating disciple-making resources toward the end that the gospel might be made known in all nations.

Disclaimer:I received this book for free from the Publisher for this review, every opinion expressed here in is 100% my own.
 

Barreir-Free Friendships

In Barrier-Free Friendships the authors share how many disabled people are stuck in a world of isolation. Even though disabled people are surrounded by others who help and taking care of them, very few have true friends who know the person inside.  This book challenged me to look past the physical and strive to understand how the person inside feels. We are all created and loved by God. In the second part of the book Joni gets very practical in the ways that you can connect and help someone with a disability feel loved and valuable. 

Many times disabled people learn to view themselves as victims. But Joni points out that Jesus was the biggest victim in all of history, and yet he didn’t dwell on that. Instead Jesus reached out, and we should too. In chapter after chapter Joni tells of beautiful friendships that were formed between the most unlikely of people. I loved the way Joni finally came to the realization that we all are handicapped by our sin in God’s eyes. It is only when we admit our helpless state before God that we can be forgiven of our sin and made new before God! 

Author, Publisher and Date:

Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Jensen, Zondervan Publishing, 1997

Disclaimer:Every opinion expressed here in is 100% my own.

 

The Gospel

"Managing Conflict Creatively" Summary

There was once a town that sat on the top of a large beautiful cliff. The only problem was that sometimes the children would be playing outside, and every once in a while a child would slip and fall off the cliff. The towns’ people decided to do something to solve this terrible problem. They decided to build a hospital at the foot of the cliff so that when the children fell off, they could be picked up quickly and have immediate care. Farther up the side of the mountain there lived an old wise miser.  When he heard about the town’s problem, and what they had done to solve it, he asked the people, “Would it not be a better solution to build a fence at the top of the cliff to prevent the children from falling off the edge and getting hurt in the first place?”

Managing conflict is similar to the story above. Some of the key principles that stood out from reading “Managing Conflict Creatively” by Donald C. Palmer were first of all that “Conflict well managed is conflict that is managed continuously and in its early stages.” In the story, the town had a problem, but instead of addressing it at its source or root, the people tried to fix the problem after the damage had already been done. 

Though this solution is not wrong and is better than no solution, it is far better to stop the problem before permanent injury is done. Thus the principle of continually dealing with conflict before it has time to simmer and develop into a serious issue is crucial. Every ministry is a combination of many different people and thus many different personalities. In such environments it is impossible to avoid conflict. If these conflicts are not resolved quickly and in a systematic way, they will eventually fester and develop into crippling problems. 

Another foundational principle is realizing that conflict itself, is not sinful or wrong. Conflict is not only natural, but can be healthy and is a catalyst of growth when handled correctly. The caution here is to not fall into sin when disagreements arise. “Whenever love is lost to hatred, gentleness to maliciousness, truthfulness to dishonesty, humility to selfishness; it is sin.” Like many things in the Christian walk, conflict management is predominantly about finding a balance between extremes.

One of the major causes of conflict in ministry specifically, is poor leadership. The roots of conflicts with leadership vary, but one of the most prominent is miscommunicated expectations. A practical principle to actively help prevent conflict in ministry is to simply communicate expectations clearly. For example, if a missionary talks to his mission board and understands that he is expected to spend so many hours a week networking or raising funds then he can be held accountable to do so. If however, this expectation was not clearly understood by the missionary because the mission board had not clearly communicated, it could be the beginning of a conflict that, if not resolved, could result in the missionary getting frustrated and leaving the field. Sadly, situations like the example above are not uncommon. That however, should only encourage seeking to solve conflict more, before it becomes a problem, and ultimately hinders God’s Kingdom moving forward.

The wise miser in the story saw that though the hospital at the bottom of the cliff was a good thing, it would be even better to prevent the children from falling off the cliff in the first place. Be like the old miser and commit to resolving conflicts before they fester and grow into church-splitting, ministry handicapping problems. Let conflict be the catalyst for positive change and the inspiration for new growth so that God’s Kingdom can be expanded and He can ultimately be glorified!

Depraved Indifference

Are you Dumb?

  

Do Hard Things and The Rebeloution

I don't know about you, but for me I am really tired of hearing people say things like "your a teen, don't worry about it."  "After twelve your brain restarts and you go back to the age of two." "I am so proud of you all for being here instead of out smoking weed." or "I expect you guys to be mature and put your plates in the trash." Really? Adults are just glad that we aren't doing anything bad, other than that, their highest expectation is that we put our plates in the trash! That's how our world sees us teens. Because of the low expectation levels around us, teens have in turn lowered their standard of performance which causes adults to assume they are asking to much and lower expectations even more.This is the vicious and unending cycle that is has driven our generation to the level it is at today. The good news is that there is a another way to live our teen years.

Alex and Brett Harris present that different way in their book "Do Hard Things" The idea is a rebellion against low expectations. They call it " The Rebelution."

"In 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 the apostle Paul writes, 'Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.' (NIV) We are convinced that the teen years are the primary time God has given to us for 'strict training.' "

"This is what we call the Rebelution: Throwing off the shackles of  lies and low expectations and returning our generation to a true and very exciting understanding of the teen years- not as a vacation from responsibility but as a launching pad for the rest of our lives."

This is the mentality that we should have, especially as Christians. We should daily as ourselves-

" What hard thing can I do today that will have an eternal impact for the sake of the gospel?" 

Just imagine that you took this charge and call to heart. Imagine what could happen if each of us took up the banner of the Rebelution for the glory of God in our circle of friends.

" Is it enough to be know for the things we DONT do, or should we also be known for the positive and difficult things that we DO? We must go beyond simply avoiding bad stuff...  We're supposed to pursue righteousness in a way that others will want to imitate..."

THIS IS OUR CHARGE AND CALLING!!!

" We are change makers who influence our world both by fighting against sin, suffering and decay, and by fighting for truth and justice. "

"We are commissioned not just to love God and His Word but to radically impact our world with life and truth."

William Pitt, the youngest Prime Minister, once said  "We're to young to know certain things are impossible, so we will do them anyway!" Let this be your spirit! And go Do Hard Things!

Disclaimer:I received this book for free from the Publisher for this review, every opinion expressed here in is 100% my own.