Let all the peoples praise You...

I am sitting here in the quiet of my comfy home and God's truths keep ringing in my ears. We have a cookout today for the new church plant and since I have been feeling under the weather I decided to stay home. With Bryant gone and the animals asleep, my thoughts keep coming back to the things the Father has shown Bryant and I over the past several months. We are dealing deeply with what it looks like to live a "radical" life. We've been reading this book by David Platt, Radical, and what God has chosen to show us is life changing. We know the things we are learning are from Him alone, because we are seeing them in every area of our life. Bryant daily ask himself and me, "Are we being hated by the world?" At first thought, it seems like a rough question...but if you look to the truth, we are told if we follow Christ the world will hate us. Now, that alone has rocked my world. I am a people pleaser by nature and desire to make everyone feel "good" - I have been shown that it's not my purpose in life to please people..but the Father alone. We have been called out of our comfort zone in so many ways...but it is soooo rewarding. We CAN'T and WON'T turn back - because we have no where else to go, but with our sweet Lord.
We, and I mean me, have taken for granted what I have been blessed with. I often found myself asking, "why me God...why do Bryant and I have jobs in this crazy economic time? why are we able to pay the bills when we know so many who are struggling to make ends meet? why was I chosen to live in America with the luxuries of running water, electricity, beds, cars, a comfy home when there are people around this world who are dying from just dirty water?" These are things I had a hard time understanding....until I read Psalm 67.
"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations."
I am humbled to put it simply, I have been BLESSED so that I can make Him known among ALL nations. We aren't taught that in our sinful, deprived world...we are taught to get more, make more, live better, etc. However, we have been given these things to bring God glory, not to store them up here. How amazing it is to know that the Father provides so abundantly for me and my desire has become to give it back, to meet the needs of His people, to make Him known throughout the nations. It is harder to do than say, especially when we live in a world that so often traps us in the "things of the world." I think about this precious child I'm carrying...I want him to grow up with the desire to bring glory to the Father, with a heart of meeting the needs of his neighbors, with the thoughts of giving away his time/money/things rather than gaining them. To be successful is not something I want to be called in this world...rather I want to be a servant in the kingdom and I desire that for my husband and son. I pray that one day this precious little boy comes to me saying "I want to risk it all to know my Father and bring Him glory...I want to go where He has me to go." Now, I am typing this with tears in my eyes because my desire for these things is so strong, and I can't wait to be able to tell him to "go, follow your Father!"

We are at the point in our life of asking what does it look like? Our desire is not what this world has to offer. How will we meet the needs of His people? How do we make Him known among the nations? What will it look like in my daily life? How do we teach William these truths when the world tells him otherwise? I think, well I know, that people will question us and why we will do the things we have been shown, but the gospel is radical, it's life changing and it's time to have our lives changed according to the Scripture.

Platt wrote this, "You and I both have a choice. We can stand with the starving or with the overfed. We can identify with poor Lazarus on his way to heaven or with the rich man on his way to hell. We can embrace Jesus while we give away our wealth, or we can walk away from Jesus while we hoard our wealth. Only time will tell what you and I choose to do with this blind spot of American Christianity in our day."

Sorry for such a long post, but my heart's desire is to share these truths and I tend to write better than I can speak! :)

For more info on Radical  go to: www.radicalthebook.com
David Platt is a pastor at The Church of Brookhills in Birmingham.