I just returned from Myanmar………………..
Troubled!
I made a huge mistake.
Started reading David Platt’s book, “Radical”, before I left,
Read it in Myanmar and just finished it.
Not a wise thing to do while in a 3rd World country ruled by the military for the last 50 years
Especially, if you are comfortable with your rich American christian life.
No, not wise at all.
While there, I met Brother Samuel and his wife and his 4 children and his 12 orphan 
children….
children….All living in a small shack near the airport…
And Brother Paul who has 70 orphans outside of Yangon in a Jack Fruit Orchard.
So……..is David Platt out of his mind…….a lunatic when he says stuff like this?????
“The result is tragic. A majority of individuals supposedly saved from eternal damnation by the gospel are now sitting back and making excuses for not sharing that gospel with the rest of the world. But what if we don’t need to sit back and wait for a call to foreign missions? What if the very reason we have breath is because we have been saved for a global mission? And what if anything less than passionate involvement in global mission is actually selling God short by frustrating the very purpose for which he created us?
“WHAT ABOUT THE NEEDS HERE?”
Maybe the most common response that arises among Christians regarding the global purpose of God is “What about the needs here? Why do we need to be involved in other nations when there are so many needs in our nation?” Among Christians in Birmingham (where I pastor), I often hear this statement phrased something like this: “I don’t need to go to all nations, because God has given me a heart for the United States.” Others might say, “God has given me a heart for Birmingham.” These statements sound spiritual, but when we probe deeper, they seem more like smoke screens.
They are smoke screens because most of us really are not very concerned about the needs right around us. Most Christians rarely share the gospel, and most Christians’ schedules are not heavily weighted to feeding the hungry, helping the sick, and strengthening the church in the neediest places in our country.”
Platt, David (2010-04-17). Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (pp. 75-76). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I know what you’re thinking……Platt……don’t try to guilt me into
doing something crazy and risky! I am not a bad person…..I give to my church and I don’t lie or steal and I have never killed anyone and I pay my taxes……
doing something crazy and risky! I am not a bad person…..I give to my church and I don’t lie or steal and I have never killed anyone and I pay my taxes……Well, Platt, responds to that too:
“When we gather at the building, we learn to be good. Being good is defined by what we avoid in the world. We are holy because of what we don’t participate in (and at this point we may be the only organization in the world defining success by what we don’t do). We live decent lives in decent homes with decent jobs and decent families as decent citizens. We are decent church members with little more impact on the world than we had before we were saved. Though thousands may join us, ultimately we have turned a deaf ear to billions who haven’t even heard his name.
Discipling is much different.
Whereas disinfecting Christians involves isolating them and teaching them to be good, discipling Christians involves propelling Christians into the world to risk their lives for the sake of others. Now the world is our focus, and we gauge success in the church not on the hundreds or thousands whom we can get into our buildings but on the hundreds or thousands who are leaving our buildings to take on the world with the disciples they are making.”
Platt, David (2010-04-17). Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (p. 105). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
In Chapter 7 of Radical, Platt explains Matthew 28:19……..
The command that Jesus gave to all believers before he left this planet.
Platt says this ain’t no option, there ain’t no Plan B……YOU ARE IT! Like it or not!
“The question, therefore, is not “Can we find God’s will?” The question is “Will we obey God’s will?” Will we refuse to sit back and wait for some tingly feeling to go down our spines before we rise up and do what we have already been commanded to do? Will we risk everything— our comfort, our possessions, our safety, our security, our very lives— to make the gospel known among unreached peoples? Such rising up and such risk taking are the unavoidable, urgent results of a life that is radically abandoned to Jesus.”
Platt, David (2010-04-17). Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (p. 160). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I tell ya……Platt is starting to sound a lot like Keith Green here………and getting under my skin!
If you can remember back 30+ years.
I only know a few followers of Jesus who think like this and actually act on it……….
So what do YOU Think Like??
Feedback?