Living for God’s grace and his glory
And this is what God has shown me: “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.”
It is hard to take a look at your life and your priorities.
But in the next three chapters of Radical: Taking back your faith from the
American Dream David Platt continues to outline the problem that
Christians have when their lives and their faith are self-centred, and they
choose to ignore a world that needs Jesus. The reason that I loved this book so
much is that I really do need reminding to fight harder against the culture
around me and the elements of worldly culture that have seeped into in the
church. I need to be reminded to feel more like an alien in the world and then
be given practical ways of making my life line up with what Jesus said rather
than what pop culture says.
Platt begins chapter four of Radical with a story about a
pastor he met who had told his church that if they didn’t give financial
support to a missionary serving in Japan, that he would “pray that God would
send their kids to Japan to serve with that missionary.” We may find this
shocking, but Platt asks us to question our own attitude to mission. He
outlines God’s purpose for humankind: “He created human beings, not only to enjoy his grace in
a relationship with him, but also to extend his glory to the ends of the earth.
But there is a big
problem. Platt sees that American church culture tends to disconnect the grace of God from the glory of God. So instead of living
to extend God’s glory, Christians settle for a faith that focuses on the Me who God loves and forgets about “the global
plan of Christ.” But he explains
that we are all called to be a part
of sharing the gospel with the rest of the world. Whether we stay here or go
there we all need to be concerned with mission.
But how? How
can we take Jesus to the ends of the earth? Make disciples. Platt says that all
Christians are to make disciples, not just the professionals. Go, spend time
and build relationships. Welcome them into the family of believers. And at
church, don’t just be a receiver, but listen to be equipped to teach others.
Instead of going to church to be good, the church goes out and makes disciples.
In chapter
six Platt deals with the issue of materialism. He reminds us most of us are actually
in the top fifteen percent of the world’s population for wealth. And yet “at most we are
throwing our scraps to them while we indulge in our pleasures here.” Ouch.
He goes on to clearly and convincingly refute the prosperity gospel. And he
also questions how Christians spend their money in relation to church
buildings. Do we trust God? God loves us. When we open our eyes and look
at the reality of the world’s poor, our priorities will change. Maybe God has
given us more, “not
so we could have more, but so that we could give more?”
Platt suggests John Wesley as a model for living within our
means so that we have an excess to give away. He and his wife have begun doing
this, buying a smaller house and using their money to adopt another child. He
really does not claim to have all the answers and he does not advocate becoming
legalistic. But we have a choice. We can choose to ignore the world’s poor, not
wishing to see beyond the statistics. Or we can realise that these are real
people created in God’s image and rather than ask ourselves ‘What can I spare?’,
ask ‘What will it take to reach the ends of the earth with the Gospel?’