Called...

Radical Chapter 4:

11 years ago I felt "called" to foreign missions. I had gone on a short trip to Spain and I was a member of a church that oozed the mission mindset. You couldn't walk down the halls of our church without seeing pictures of all the missionaries that had been sent from our church. We prayed for missionaries that had been in captivity in Cambodia for years...we had missions conferences...our pastor called us during a Sunday morning service from a secret church in China. They got it and I wanted to be part of it. When I didn't get to go after college it was still in my heart to serve full time. Then I married my husband who was in full time ministry and I kinda chalked up my burden for lost souls around the world to God preparing me for ministry. And then checked off my responsibility to take the gospel to all the nations because "I'm ministering to teenagers...so that's enough". We sent money to the convention to help with missions...we never took an overseas mission trip(not once)...we just let "others" do it for us...and now my heart breaks for what I missed out on the last 10 years. And I realize that since I have been saved by His grace I am called...period!

Platt talks about how we created for two purposes: We were created by God to enjoy His grace and to extend His glory to the ends of the earth. All through the Bible we see times where God would bless His people so that His salvation would be made known among all people. Am I fulfilling my creator's purpose? Am I using the blessings I have been given so that I can make Him known...or am I ignoring His purpose? I have lived in a "me" centered Gospel for years. We think we are the end of the Gospel..."God loves ME"...but it truly is that "God loves me so that I might make Him-His ways, His salvation, His glory, and his greatness known among all nations". I know and believe that God loves me, but what have I done with that? Kept it centered on me or pointed it back to Him? This next quote broke me...

"It's a foundational truth: God creates, blesses, and saves each of us for a radically global purpose. But if we are not careful, we will be tempted to make exceptions. And in the process we will find ourselves settling for lesser plans that the culture around us-and even the church around us-deems more admirable, more manageable, more comfortable."

I have settled for the American Dream in the past years, and yet all of a sudden God is so working in my heart to shed that dream and just do His will. I have lived a life that is admirable, manageable, and comfortable...and it ain't all it's cracked up to be!

I have said of late that I had a mission field in my backyard. I live in a small town...one that is need of Christ...but yet, what I am I doing about it? My kids come home from school talking about kids that have no food on the weekends...that wear the same clothes most days...kids that have parents in jail...and my heart breaks and I pray for them...but what am I D.O.I.N.G.???? My hearts longs to minister to those hurting in poverty stricken countries...to unreached nations...and I agree with Platt, that we have been called to extend His glory not just to areas of need here but to areas of need around the world. Not EITHER here or there, but BOTH here and there. I am in debt to the nations....I owe Christ to the world because He owns me.

Will I be willing to step out of my comfort zone and be radical? Will it matter to me if others think I have lost my mind? If people don't like me? I shared with my bible study the other night that "our radical" isn't really all that radical...it should be the norm. It should be the way we as Christians live daily. I want to impact the world and through doing that impact my kids, so that they can live radical Christian lives... so that their kids can..and so that the nations would know Him! Just 'cause we are called to...period!

Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

I’m joining in the Radical Read Along over at www.MarlaTaviano.com. Come on over...