I just got through reading, “RADICAL: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream,” by David Platt and it left me both CONVICTED and INSPIRED to live the Christian life. The premise of the book is that a lot of Biblical Christianity has been distorted by values that Americans often exalt. Platt goes so far as to say that a lot of American Churches have not only embraced values that are not Biblical, but in a lot of cases contradict the Gospel.
Platt writes, “… we have missed what is radical about our faith and have replaced it with what is comfortable,” he goes on to write that we are settling for a Christianity that revolves around OURSELVES… when the central message of the Gospel is abandoning ourselves. It would be too easy to dismiss Platt’s claims except that he basis all his conclusions on Scriptures that can’t be explained away.
Platt points out that if you were to ask the average Christian what the MAIN message of Christianity… most people will say something to the effect, “God loves ME!” and whereas that’s true… is that really the MAIN message? If it is, then the Gospel become all about ME. YES, God loves me, but He loves me so that I may, “make His ways, His salvation, His Glory, and His Greatness known to all the nations.” Wow… talk about a major paradigm shift.
