Reading or Doing?

   Somewhere, back along the line, someone suggested to me a book to read entitled Radical by David Platt. Now I have only just begun reading, after having it on my Kindle for a couple of months at least, and I've read about 3 chapters.

   The subtitle of this book is "Taking back your faith from the American Dream" and its goal seems to be to change the way Christians in the U.S. see the church and its goals. This is to be achieved by changing individuals and small groups of committed followers of Christ, and making these folks realize what following and serving are all about.

   It is radical, mainly because it is an individual lifestyle and a church lifestyle that is foreign to the way we think here. The focus in the chapters that I have read so far, is on believers in other parts of the world, and the situations they are confronted with as they live out what they believe. Their lives are frequented by persecution, meeting in secret, a hostile society, a hunger for God's Word, a boldness in teaching and living, and a willingness to give up everything for the Gospel.

   I guess I have been drawn to the teachings in this book because this is not me, and because I see, in the lives of these men and women around the world, things that I want in my life. Most of the things are also very foreign to individuals and the church in America. We are comfortable, satisfied, and outwardly Christ followers, but not deep in our faith. Or, I am not anyway.

   So, Chambers says today:

   "We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God?"

   When I try to think deeply, I see mostly what I am not. My deficiencies are great, but maybe they are not irreversible.

   But the main question today is: Do I want to really change or do I just want to read the book?