10 Oct 2017 - The Multiplying Community (pt 1)

Radical ch 5 - The Multiplying Community (pp. 85-93)

"He was not only optimistic enough to think he could actually affect the world around him, but he was also confident enough to know how he was going to do it. He really believed that in obeying Jesus' command to make disciples, he was going to impact the world." - p. 86

Man, what happened to us as the American church? This is a kid in Sudan speaking with such confidence and assurance that he would make an indelible mark on the world following Christ!

"I am concerned about a general vagueness that has existed in contemporary Christianity regarding the next step." - p. 87

"You don't need to have inordinate skill or unusual abilities to make disciples. You don't need to be a great communicator or innovative thinker to make disciples. That's why Jesus says every Christian must do this." - p. 90

 Acts 2:1-13

"When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven and it filled the whole place where they were staying. And tongues, like flames of fire that were divided, appeared to them and rested on each of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit gave them ability for speech. ... And they [the crowds] were astounded and amazed, saying, 'Look, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that each of us can hear in our own native language?'" - vv. 1-4, 7-8

God didn't leave us on our own on this work of obedience in discipleship. He provided His Spirit to empower and guide us. We're not going blind or running on our finite energy. God is in the business of seeing His work through.

9 Oct 2017 - The Great Why of God (pt 3)

Radical ch 4 - The Great Why of God (pp. 78-84)

"I have blessed you for my glory. Not so you will have a comfortable life with a big house and a nice car. Not so you can spend lots of money on vacations, education or clothing. Those aren't bad things, but I've blessed you so that the nations will know me and see my glory. - p. 84

Acts 1:15-26

8 Oct 2017 - The Great Why of God (pt 2)

Radical ch 4 - The Great Why of God (pp. 69-78)

"The message of biblical Christianity is not 'God loves me, period," as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is "God loves me so that I might make him - his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness - known among all nations.'" - pp. 70-71

"It's a foundational truth: God creates, blesses, and saves each of us for a radically global purpose. But if we are not careful, we will be tempted to make exceptions. We will be tempted to adopt spiritual smoke screens and embrace national comforts that excuse us from the global plan of Christ." - pp. 71-72 

"But where in the Bible is missions ever identified as an optional program in the church? ... We have taken this command, though, and reduced it to a calling - something that only a few people receive." - pp. 72 -73

"Certainly there are great needs here. But must we insist on dividing the Great Commission into an either-or proposition? Who told us that we had to choose to have a heart for the United States or a heart for the world?" - p. 76

 Acts 1:9-14

"All these were continually united in payer, along with the women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and His brothers." - v. 14

7 Oct 2017 - The Great Why of God (pt 1)

Radical ch 4 - The Great Why of God (pp. 61-69)

"God blesses his people with extravagant grace so they might extend his extravagant glory to all peoples on the earth. This basic, fundamental truth permeates Scripture from beginning to end. Yet I wonder if we unknowingly ignore the great why of God." - p. 69

 Acts 1:1-11

6 Oct 2017 - Beginning at the End of Ourselves (pt 2)

Radical ch 3 - Beginning at the End of Ourselves (pp. 53-60)

"The church I lead could have all the man-made resources that one could imagine, but apart from the Holy Spirit, such a church will do nothing of significance for the glory of God." - p. 54

"God our Father delights in this. He delights in giving us himself. He puts his very power in us so we might have all we need to accomplish his purposes in the world." - pp. 58-59 

"Surrounded by the self-sufficiency of American culture, we can convince ourselves that we have what it takes to achieve something great. In our churches we mimic our culture, planning and programming, organizing and strategizing, creating and innovating - all in an effort that will show what we can accomplish in our own ability." - p. 59

Titus 3:1-15

5 Oct 2017 - Beginning at the End of Ourselves (pt. 1)

Radical ch 3 -  Beginning at the End of Ourselves (pp. 43-53)

"This is how God works. He puts people in positions where they are desperate for his power, and then he shows his provision in ways that display his greatness." - p. 48

Titus 2:1-15

3 Oct 2017 - Too Hungry for Words (pt 2)

Radical ch 2 - Too Hungry for Words (pp. 33-41)

"At the Cross, Christ drank the full cup of the wrath of God, and when he had downed the last drop, he turned the cup over and cried out, 'It is finished.'" - p. 36

"You will not find a place where a superstitious sinner's prayer is even mentioned. And you will not find an emphasis on accepting Jesus. We have taken the infinitely glorious Son of God, who endured the infinitely terrible wrath of God and who now reigns as the infinitely worthy Lord of all, and we have reduced him to a poor, puny Saviour who is just begging for us to accept him. Accept him? Do we really think Jesus needs our acceptance? Don't we need him?" - p. 37

"Biblical proclamation of the gospel beckons us to a much different response and leads us down a much different road. Here the gospel demands and enables us to turn from our sin, to take up our cross, to die to ourselves, and to follow Jesus. These are the terms and phrases we see in the Bible. And Salvation now consists of a deep wrestling in our souls with the sinfulness of our hearts, the depth of our depravity, and the desperation of our need or his grace. Jesus is no longer one to be accepted or invited, but one who is infinitely worthy of our immediate and total surrender." - pp. 38-39

"We realise that we are saved not just to be forgiven of our sins or assured of our own 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." - p. 39 

Titus 1:1-16

1 Oct 2017 - Too Hungry for Words (pt 1)

Radical ch 2 - Too Hungry for Words (pp. 23-32)

"What if we take away the cool music and cushioned chairs? What if the screens are gone and the stage is no longer decorated? What if the air conditioning is off and the comforts re removed? Would his Word still be enough for his people to come together?" - p. 27

"We already have a fairly high view of our morality, so when we add a superstitious prayer, a subsequent dose of church attendance, and obedience to some of the Bible, we feel pretty sure that we will be all right in the end." - p. 32

"The modern-day gospel says, 'God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved.' Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, 'You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you nee life, much less to cause yourself to come to life. Therefore you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do.'" - p. 32

2 Timothy 4:9-22

30 Sept 2017 - Someone Worth Losing Everything For (pt 3)

Radical ch 1 - Someone Worth Losing Everything For (pp. 12-21)

"[W]e are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist Him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with. A nice, middle-class, American Jesus." - p. 13

"We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look a lot like us, because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with." - p. 13 

Some things that are just too long to quote touched on the value of the exchange, the promise of Christ that surrendering everything to Him yields benefit in eternity. For example, in the parable of the field with the treasure, the man sells everything he owns for what appears to be an empty, barren field, but the man knows that in that field lies a greater reward than the value of everything he just sold. That needs to be our approach to Christ. In His demand of sacrifice and His promise of reward, we need to keep the perspective that the eternal reward of Christ is far greater than the sum of all our lifetime possessions and assets.

2 Timothy 4:1-8

"For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves, because they have an itch to hear something new." - v. 3

"But as for you, be serious about everything, endure hardship , do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." - v. 5

28 Sept 2017 - Someone Worth Losing Everything For (pt 2)

Radical ch 1 - Someone Worth Losing Everything For (pp. 4-12)

"Become homeless. Let someone else bury your dad. Don't even say good-bye to your family. Is it surprising that, from all we can tell in Luke 9, Jesus was successful in persuading these men not to follow him?" - p. 8

"Give up everything you have, carry a cross, and hate your family. This sounds a lot different from 'Admit, believe, confess, and pray a prayer after me.'" - pp. 10-11 

"[T]he kind of abandonment Jesus asked of the rich young man is at the core of Jesus' invitation throughout the Gospels. Even his simple call in Matthew 4 to his disciples - 'Follow me' - contained radical implications for their lives. Jesus was calling them to abandon their comforts, all that was familiar to them and natural for them. He was calling them to abandon their careers. ... Jesus was calling them to abandon their possessions. ... Jesus was calling them to abandon their family and their friends. ... Ultimately, Jesus was calling them to abandon themselves." - pp. 11-12

 "In a world that prizes promoting oneself, they were following a teacher who told them to crucify themselves. And history tells us the result. Almost all of them would lose their lives because they responded to his invitation." - p. 12

 I guess the big question echoes the chapter title. Is Jesus someone worth losing everything for? Is He worth losing my wife and/or unborn child for? Is He worth losing my schooling and future job for? Is He worth losing my home and possessions for? Is He worth losing my abilities and faculties for?

With my head, I know the answer is yes, but in my heart, I'm trying to intellectualise it so I don't feel the weight of these questions. My heart is in denial somewhat that the cost of following Christ could be this big.

God, please help me to let go. Please help me to put you in a place of higher honour and esteem in my heart, that my affections would not be fixated on these worldly treasures - relationships, people, jobs, income, senses - but on you. Teach me to be poor in spirit, holding the gifts and blessings you have given with an open hand, content in you, such that, should you take them, my joy and satisfaction would still be full. Oh Lord, allow me to sing to you the hymn: "Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Naught be all else to me save that thou art. Thou my best thought by day or by night. Waking or sleeping thy presence my light." Amen

27 Sept 2017 - Someone Worth Losing Everyone For (pt 1)

Radical ch 1 - Someone Worth Losing Everyone For (pp. 1-3)

"I am convince that we, as Christ followers in American churches, have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical, but that actually contradict the Gospel we claim to believe." - p. 3

2 Timothy 3:10-17

"But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from them all. In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." - vv. 10-13