I’m starting a thing on YouTube in which I will post a brief video devotional from the Bible every day. I think there’s a need for this sort of thing. There are millions of teenagers in the world who basically live online. This is where they hang out with friends, watch TV, get their news, buy stuff, sell stuff, get influenced, and influence others.
I’m not doing something extraordinarily new. There are other video devotionals on YouTube already. But they are few and far between, and there is certainly room for more.
I’m praying that through these video devotionals I’ll be able to encourage people all over the world to dig into God’s Word and grow in their relationship with Christ.
Check out the first one and maybe pass it along to a friend who could use some daily encouragement in the Word.
In a way, I feel a little weird writing a review of this book. It’s not really the type of book to be reviewed. I mean, sure, I could analyze the author’s arguments and major premise. I could point out how many of the chapters focus on his own personal experiences and the experiences of people in his church in order to pull our emotional strings, rather than being based solely on the Word of God. I could note that the five elements of his final challenge to be radical mostly equate to doing things that we already know we ought to be doing, and are really less “radical” than the author makes them seem.
But this is less of an academic work, and more a work just to be challenged and inspired by. And Radical certainly did both of these things for me.
I want to live a life radically devoted to Christ. The American dream often gets in the way of doing that. I get sucked into worrying about my bank balance. I get consumed with the latest and greatest gadgets. As soon as I recently upgraded my camera gear, I started thinking about the next photography purchase that would make my gear even better. Almost all of this seems completely superfluous in light of the millions who have never even heard the name of Jesus.
And even if the final challenges are less than radical, they are still good challenges. How often have I gotten used to the comfort of my life’s routine? How often have I become complacent in my devotion to Christ? All too often. This book challenges me to keep a close eye on how I live, how I think about wealth, and my purpose in life.
One problem I often have is that I try to do too many things. There are truly opportunities and possibilities all around us. But I’m learning that taking every opportunity and pursuing every possibility practically means that I will not excel within any of the opportunities and possibilities. When we spread ourselves too thin, we cannot give our best work to any of the things which we’re doing.
Instead, we need to be all about doing those few things which God has called us to. We need to be focused on doing the will of God.
This will never be an easy task, but it will be a worthwhile one. We’ll never be perfect at it, but we are to strive for it. As Paul wrote,
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Php 3:12-14)
Although I must be focused and disciplined in my pursuit of doing the will of God, I can also rest in the fact that “Christ Jesus has made me his own.” I am His, and He will never let me go. So I pursue doing His will not out of resentment or as a means to earn “the prize,” but out of joy, knowing that Christ has already earned the prize for me.
My church gave it to me for my birthday. I turned 30 years old a couple weeks ago, and my church surprised me at the end of a service with a 64 GB 3g enabled iPad.
I couldn’t believe it. I can still hardly believe it.
I never expected to be shown this level of generosity from my church. It seems like many pastors have a certain amount of tension between themselves and their congregations. But that just doesn’t exist at Grace Baptist. For some crazy reason, the church trusts me.
I certainly don’t deserve this. I’m extremely humbled by their gift.
I’ve been thinking through all the ways I can use my new iPad in ministry. I can’t see myself carrying it around as I preach (which seems like more of a distraction), but I am working on how to wirelessly control PowerPoint using it at the pulpit. I’ve also found it very useful as a planner, being able to update my google calendar and to do list from anywhere. I’ll probably switch my church website calendar to google calendars soon, too, in order to be able to update it easily from my iPad on the go as well.
There are so many possibilities!
More than the gift, though, I’m thankful for a church who loves me. I’m grateful to be given the privilege of serving alongside of them. I pray that we might together deliver God’s gift of grace to countless people in and around our community.
I received a free limited edition signed copy of this book directly from the author himself. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Not only is the book about worship, it draws the reader into worship. My favorite quote from the book is this:
How many times have we thought to do something meaningful in the way of a letter, phone call, email, gift, etc., only to ignore the impulse long enough to have missed the opportunity? That is not to say that every ‘good-inkling’ that ever comes our way is to be followed. Rather…we should measure the merits of the act and proceed if everything seems to favor the magnification of Christ even at the expense of our diminishment.
A beautiful, challenging, worshipful thought!
By the way, the cover art was designed on top of graphics I had designed, thus the reason for the free book
