book update

i finished a chance to die a few weeks ago. it is truly one of the best books i have read and i highly recommend it for people who are ready to have how they spend their lives challenged. in one of the last chapters, amy is very ill and basically bedridden. she asks someone on her staff to cut out a cross and hang it above her bed, so that while she lies in bed day after day, she can be reminded that her "small suffering" now allows her to relate with the suffering of Christ.



wow.

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i've been reading radical by david platt for the last two weeks. again, this book evokes a range of emotions and stimulates deep thought. i had just finished chapter four and i became extremely upset that i could not go to the nations now. i mean, if i wasn't about $65,000 in debt, there's no way i'd be here.

but then i read chapter five. title: the multiplying community. my first thought was of the navigators, a group committed to discipleship and multiplicity, but it was a quick thought. dr. platt reminds his readers of matthew 28:19-20 which reads, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." please believe, after four of jeff lewis's classes, this verse is not a stranger to me.

so then why don't i live like it's truth?

"What is shocking is that when Jesus summarizes his work on earth, he doesn't start reliving all the great sermons he preached and all the people who came to listen to him. He doesn't talk about the amazing miracles he performed-giving sight to the blind, enabling the lame to walk, and feeding thousands of people with minimal food. He doesn't even mention bringing the dead back to life. Instead he talks repeatedly about the small group of men God had given him out of the world. They were the work God had given him. They were, quite literally, his life" (radical, pp. 88-89).

how often do i pray that i may do many signs and wonders for the sake of the gopel? how often do i pray that i might be able to heal miraculously, or preach with authority? these prayers are not wrong, necessarily, but oh, how i have missed it! what i should be praying for is the opportunity to make disciples! to engage boldly in this dark world in order that i might have the priveledge of imparting Christ to others through shared life!

while i struggle with not being overseas and having this mindset of sharing the gospel with those who have never heard it before, i must engage now! i must learn to not pray to be free of america and the all-too-often lack of Christ here, but to pray for the opportunity to make disciples! it is about making disciples so that more souls may worship the One who alone is worthy!

God change my attitude! i beg that you would allow me to make disciples for Your namesake! i am weak and scared, but show Your strength through such weaknesses. here i am Lord, use me!