One of these books is called Radical and is by David Platt, a Pastor of a mega-church in Alabama. And even though he is blessed to have so many resources and people at his beckoning, for him its not enough. Platt is trying to reconcile the difference between the God of the American Dream and the God of the Bible. And what he shows, is that the God we learn and sing praises to is not the God that we proclaim to serve. It begs the reader to ask the question: who is God in my life? Is He the Father that is ever loving and forgiving? Or is He more? Is He the God that cannot abide sin? And the answer is a sound Biblical yes that He is both, but the fact reminds that our life and our faith doesn't show both. Platt writes that we are consumed by the fact that our relationship with God is not God centered at all, but me centered. Why? Because ask the question, "why do you serve God" and the typical response is, "because God loves me". And there it is, the me centered faith that we base our entire lives upon and proclaim to those around us. And while it cannot be denied that God does indeed love us, the answer is lacking. Yes God loves us, but He created us for His glory. In His image He made us. I have yet to find another person who gets as excited over an intimate creation with God as I do, but an important detail, nay, an important essential to remember is that we had that intimate creation so that God would be gloried. Our lives are not lived to bring glory to God as the most pivotal part of our day or existence. And yet, to not do so, is to live for God in ignorance.
I have a friend who is constantly reminding us that we are the very enemies of God. And I have to admit that when I first heard this, I was little confused. I thought that God loved us, and how many times have I sung, "I am a friend of God" and now I'm being told that I am an enemy of God? Two plus two was not equaling four. But now I'm starting to really understand. My sin, my disobedience makes me an enemy to the very God that create me. When Christ died on the cross, He wasn't just dying, but taking my sin, this thing that makes me a very enemy to my Creator, upon Himself. Christ became that enemy and threw it down. And yet, I still live in constant rebellion to God. I believe in Christ and for the blood that He gave, and yet I don't live it. I hope that now I can work more on my transformation to the image of Christ which leads to God being glorified, and less on retrograding back to the me centered Christianity that plagues this world.
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