What Radical Abandonment To Jesus Really Means
Well I just want to start out by saying that trying to put everything from chapter 1 in this blog post is not going to happen. I really would encourage you to go out and buy the book if you haven't already, because it really is just awesome. You can buy it here.
I will be trying to cover most of the main points in the chapter and give my thoughts and opinions on it along with the thoughts and opinions of my fellow Christians who are doing this study with me.
David starts the book out by inviting us to go on this journey with him. He doesn't claim to have all the answers. He might even present more questions than answers, but he wants to dive in to the Bible and figure out what it really means to be a Radical Christian
Puddle of Tears
David opens up with a story of how Christians in other countries. Here is an excerpt.
"Imagine all the blinds closed on the windows of a dimly lit room. Twenty leaders from different churches in the area sat in a circle on the floor with their Bibles open. Some of them had sweat on their foreheads after walking for miles to get there. Others were dirty form the dust in the villages from which they had set out on bikes early that morning.
They had gathered in secret. They had intentionally come to this place at different times throughout the morning so as not to draw attention to the meeting that was occurring. They lived in a country in Asia where it is illegal for them to gather like this. If caught, they could lose their land, their jobs, their families, or their lives."
Now this is still the beginning of the book..wow.
After reading this, I was just like...really? Christians in Asia are risking their life every day to be in fellowship with one another, yet there are Christians in America who complain that they have to go to church on Sundays...hmmmm.
He goes on to say how desperate people are in Asia and how they are crying out to God to protect them as they live their lives for him.
So, would you worship God if you meant risking your life?
We are very blessed here in America, yet some people take it for granted, the religious freedom we have.
Another point David makes is about the number of people attending your church. There are mega churches out there today, and David is a pastor of one of them, and there are mini churches with just around 100 believers. Many of these churches always are worrying about their attendance and how they can increase it. David mentions how they are thinking the wrong way. How many followers did Jesus have when he ascended into Heaven?....
Around 200.
So why are we worried about the numbers? Instead we should be worrying about filling ourselves with the Spirit and the Word of God.
Next I am going to go over the topic that really is interesting.
Christianity is becoming about catering to ourselves rather than abandoning ourselves. Well the Bible clearly says we are to abandon ourselves, so why do we continue to cater to ourselves and ignore the Bible? Hmm.
In Luke 9 there are many examples of abandonment. In fact, Jesus is very stern and straight to the point when answering people who want to follow him. If you want to read the verses, they are Luke 9:57-62. It's some really Radical stuff.
Unfortunately, many people like to ignore verses like this and only think of the loving and nice Jesus. While Jesus is very loving and nice, He also expects a lot out of us. We are twisting Jesus into what we want him to be, and by doing this, we end up worshiping ourselves rather than the Jesus of the Bible.
This next part of the chapter is just an interesting section. David comments on the priorities of some churches and just gives us this information to form an opinion about. He is reading to us from a magazine where it says that a Baptist church is celebrating a new $23 million dollar building with all kinds of nice things in it. Right beside that article in a different column is an article about a Baptist church sending money over to Sudan to help the people living there. Guess how much money they sent....
$5,000.
I really don't even need to talk about it anymore, I'm sure you can make your own opinions on the priorities of the church today. Once gain it gets back to comforting the self.
As we get to the end of the chapter, David talks about the treasures in Heaven and how we need to stop investing in these so called treasures of the earth that will just eventually fade away. He then asks the question, "Is Jesus worth it?"
Is he worth following to make a difference in peoples' lives?
Is he worth trying to save the soul of another person?
Is he worth suffering for?
Is he worth dieing for?....
There are so many other things in this chapter that I could point out, but I'm sure this post is getting huge enough as it is. I really encourage you to go out and buy the book. It really would make understanding this a bit easier. Ha. Well stay tuned for the next post. It will be about Chapter 2: Too Hungry For Words.
Thank you guys for reading this and please comment below if you have any comments or suggestions. You do not have to be a member of this site to comment, just click where it says the number of comments to write a comment and I would appreciate it if you put your name at the end if you are not a member of this site. Thanks again!
God Bless,
Tyler
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