Radical Stories
We started a sermon series on Jesus the Radical on Sunday, January 10, 2010. You can listen to the sermons from Charleston here or Teays Valley here.
Has God led you to do something Radical lately? We hope so. We would love to hear stories of how you are following Jesus, the original Radical. We’ve created this page for you to share your Radical stories!
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Matt. 8 — The whole chapter is a challenge to be radical. A Roman centurion (a Roman?? not an Israelite!) approaches Jesus with such quiet, yet unshakable faith. Jesus acknowledges his faith with something like (my paraphrase) “Wow! Look at this guy’s faith. I haven’t seen anything like it in all of Israel.” This means, of course, he hadn’t seen anything like it from those who were closest to him — those who walked with him daily. What was it about this centurion that understood Jesus’ ability and authority, while his disciples did not? Then, a few scriptures later, we find Jesus asking the disciples why they are timid and afraid. He then tells them how little their faith is. That must have stung a little when they thought about his comments to the centurion. The point is this: How can I (we)live our lives with this radical kind of faith? I’m determined to learn to walk this way. This space might be for examples of living radically, but for me, radical living is starting on the inside — to no longer settle for the status quo. As Ben said on Sunday, you can’t really sit on the fence — you’re either going to be on one side or the other.
Today I read the parable of the sower and the seeds. Matthew 13:22 states: “the worries of this life and the deceitfullness of wealth choke it.” I think that this is what keeps most of us from really embracing radical living. We are too concerned with other things to be completely consumed and concerned with living like Jesus.
Right before the series began…..Laura (my wife) said; “Ben, what are you going to do that is radical?” I was a little caught off guard. Through a small dialogue with her – I decided that what really needs some major change in my life is my prayer life. The question is how. How do I enhance it? It’s not too hard since it’s totally non-existent at times.
So, I decided to not turn on my radio in the car for 30 days. That turned into taking my radio out of the car and un-installing my XM Radio. What a blessing it has been. This will continue until the series is over.
Jesus is speaking and I am simply listening. What will radical thing will he call me to? I donno! BUT, I am in a position (for the first time in a long time) to hear it……and I WILL RESPOND!
A few weeks ago I lost a pair of shoes, but found a new way to live every week. I have thought of myself over my lifetime as a Christian. I have thought of myself over the last decade, as walking with the Lord in a 7 day a week relationship. When I realized the biggest thing I’d done in a while was give up a pair of shoes, my relationship didn’t seem near as significant as it could be. I had become complacent and satisfied.
I want to be radical! I want to let down my guard with those around me. I want to be willing to get burned, if I can set a fire for one around me. Or two. Or twenty.
I have 8 people under my roof. Ten people are close neighbors. Ten more I work with weekly. I am in touch with a dozen friends or so per week. I want them to know more about me. I want them to know more about Jesus Christ. I don’t want to be satisfied! I want to start telling and showing them now.
May the messages over the next ten weeks, the Holy Spirit, and new boldness and intent within me, make a radical impact in me and through me.
I have always loved worship. I love the closeness that I feel to God. Whether I am at home, in my car, at church no matter where I am there is nothing like it. Well I guess that is kind of a problem. I need to expand my view of what worship is.
This past Sunday I really felt challenged. I felt challenged to move beyond the music and words of worship and start looking for ways to worship God with my every day life. I mean I know I am supposed to worship God with my life and all I do but why is it that I don’t feel the closeness with God like I do when I am singing, raising my hands, etc.
I begun to ask God in prayer, why does my one action bring closeness and my other action feel like I am checking off a to do list.
I really feel I have already been answered and it is only Tuesday. The answer was almost too easy. I AM checking off a to do list.
Don’t get me wrong the doing is important but truthfully many people do great things, many do radical things that make us say WOW. However, I feel God is dealing with me to offer the things I do, as worship to Him. To really focus on Him, making even the mundane things an offering to God. Not an offering of obedience but an offering of worship and adoration. I want to find out what that is like and more importantly I think God wants me to find that out as well.
Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these will be given to you as well.” How many times throughout the day do I ask the question: is this for the good of the Kingdom? Not that I’m doing evil or wrong, but am I actively pursuing the next wise choice that furthers the Kingdom? Getting to the point where that is a filter for all of my decisions will cause me to live radically.
I have been wondering why I have felt so uncomfortable for the past few weeks. I believe it has something to do with God speaking to me about living radically. I told Sam that I felt like we have lived this way for a long time being on the mission field for 12 years, but then he said that for me right now radical living might mean giving up my right to be right in relationships with my family and giving up my ministry desires to stay home and care for my mom. This is so opposite of what I desire that I think God is definitely speaking to me.
Our homegroup is currently doing Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love” which kind of goes along with “The Radical” series. Both are trying to bring us a Christian’s “out of our box” to truly love, serve, and worship in every part of our lives. Our home group drew crosses on our hands to remind us “of the cross” throughout our day each time we use our hands. I have been feeling uncomfortable like Harriet C mentioned over the last few weeks of this series. I feel that God is trying work on my heart and make changes for Him, to worship and serve Him all day, every day. I am searching in His word and praying for a direction in the change that He is seeking, but I feel God has much more to reveal in “The Radical” series and I may have to wait till He reveals it to me through the series.
For me Radical Living goes along with something that I want in my life and our church which is passionate spirituality. Today at home group I was challenged with the question: if you died today, what would you regret. I had to think about that a while, but came to the conclusion that I would regret not going to God in prayer through out the day. I situation came up today where a few of us talked about a difficult issue. Instead of ending the conversation and going back to what we each had to do, we stopped and prayed for each other and the situation. As I write this it doesn’t seem very radical to stop what we are doing and pray, but it does seem to be part of what God is teaching me.
Our home group finished the Crazy Love study by Francis Chan during the last few weeks of 2009 and then the Radical series began in January. So I have been feeling very challenged the past few months to really reconsider my priorities. Matt challenged us, after many of us had given away our shoes as a symbol of sacrificial giving, that over the next few weeks, if the most radical thing we do is give up a pair of shoes, then we have missed the point. My prayer is that God will help me to understand how I can make a radical impact on others in the upcoming weeks of this series. It would be cool if “radical” becomes the new “normal” in my life.
My last few weeks have been an experiment in prayer. When I pray, I literally envision God leaning over from heaven, bending his ear to get a good listen, and then saying, “i’m so glad you asked for that.” I am asking for big things, I am expecting him to answer loudly and clearly, I am convinced that his desire is for me to ask so that I have eyes to see him at work. I want every word I say, every step I take, every thought I have to be ordered by him. My verse in this prayer experiment is Psalm 25:14: The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.” The Lord whispers to us, he shares his “secrets” with us, he shows us what thrills his heart and what breaks his heart. Is that not crazy? My living radically is simply asking with confidence and expectation what God wants to do through me and in me, and then listening to his reply. It’s all him!
Since this series has started, it has really grabbed my attention to becoming more diligent in scripture and prayer. Hearing the sermons stirs something up in me that seems to be content at times. As I have been praying about what radical living means for my life, and maybe it is the dedication to read more scripture, books, be a better husband, and become addicted to prayer as opposed to trying to do it on my own at times, I keep reminding myself to be still and listen because the business is sometimes hard for me to “find” time.
This past weekend, I heard a talk using the poem by Marianne Williamson “Our Greatest Fear” and it really spoke to me that maybe my fear is what I can do if I listen to God and not about what people might think if I do it.
“Our greatest fear is not that we inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who I am to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, Our presence automatically liberates others.”
Posting my thoughts on a blog definitely is something most that know me would be surprised to read, I guess I am stepping out of the boat.
I had been contemplating for more than a year starting my own business, but was not sure such a decision would be wise? After all, our national economy continued in recession and the financial outlook of our own state less than reassuring. Plus, I had a good job with an international company that included a stable, comfortable income for my family. Would the timing for a career change be ideal or the risks worth taking? Several others smarter than I had asked me these same questions. I “reasoned in my mind” that a move now could be costly, given my wife was a full time mom and we had four children to take care of. How could we afford to continue sending our children to Christian school, afford a family vacation in the summer, be able to give to someone in need, heck- even afford to pay our gas bill? These were the questions I continued to roll over in my mind. In my doubt and unbelief, I further rationalized post-poning such a step out in faith.
Throughout this twelve-month period however, I heard an occasional wisper- the voice of truth was telling me a different story. God through the Holy Spirit was challenging the thoughts of my sinful mind and human wisdom, with the eternal truths of His word. As we have been reading and hearing about Jesus the Radical, I have noticed that He confronted the Pharisees (among other things) for relying too much on their own wisdom and reason- “O yea of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves….” Math. 16:7. Like the Pharisees, I found that there had been very little faith in my decision to leave the comfort of a good paying sales job and start my own company. Hebrews 11:1 says “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see”. To borrow from Casting Crowns, I wanted to get out of the boat of comfort I had been in, “to step out of my comfort zone, into the realm of the unknown, where Jesus is”.
In late October I submitted my resignation to the company I had been with for five years and started my business in early December. As Jesus reminded the Pharisees, He reminded me of his supernatural ability to feed five thousand with five loaves and four thousand with seven loaves. And God’s word tells us if we had the faith of a meager mustard seed, we could move a mountain. Not because of my faith but because He is good and a faithful provider, my family has not missed a meal nor paid a bill late since Dec. 1. In fact, He has not only met our daily needs but has provided for months ahead (already) …even though his provision and my new business growth has come not from where I expected. What I am learning through all of this is that God is pleased and we experience more of Him when we put ourselves in a position where we must rely on Him. For me, living radically is learning to replace my human wisdom and self-reliance with simple faith that comes from hearing and responding to His gentle, loving voice.
So, I am organized. Crazy about details and planning. Everything has a plan. My time with God even had a plan. That is, until this series started. In the midst of this series, I walked a pretty major storm in my life. Everything that could possibly happen negatively to me – DID! It’s been a rough one, let me tell you. Some things were totally out of my control, while a lot more absolutely within my control. But in MY PLAN, I was blind to that.
A few weeks ago I woke early (I never wake early … until lately!) and felt God calling me to the couch. So I pulled out my bible, my journal and my reading plan. See, I had a routine. Read a chapter, journal two pages and pray for 15 minutes. Period. That worked. I could plan that. There was no “What if?” in that. I knew what was coming. I was spending time with God. After all, isn’t that what mattered most. I was faithful to my God time. That day I just sat. I could not get myself to do any of those things. I was overwhelmed with the difficulties in my life and all I could do was sit. I knew what I had planned, but my body just would not do it.
For the next hour, second by second, God changed me. I felt His hand on my shoulder as he gently whispered “Don’t plan me.”, “Don’t try to organize me”, “Just be with me.” So, for the first time in my life, I just sat with Him. From that day forward, my time with God is RADICALLY different. I sit and wait for His direction before I begin my time with Him. Sometimes I pray, sometimes I journal, sometimes I just listen. Some days I do ALL three. I am free in Him for the first time in 37 years. I am making MAJOR life choices that are RADICALLY different than the choices I would have made even six months ago. My mind works differently. It’s amazing!
I CHOOSE to live His way and not my own. I CHOOSE to sit and wait for His plan instead of making my own plan. I am CHOOSING to live RADICALLY in Christ. Not in me. Things are changing for me. BIG things. Life changing things are happening. I see my path lit in front of me … as least as far as I need it to be to live from today until tomorrow. That’s finally enough for me. No extensive planning necessary to ward off an anxiety attack. He has given me just enough light for the step I am on, and that’s ok with me.
What an awesome wake up call I received because of the Radical Series and my life storm.