Warning:

Do not read this book......

UNLESS....

you want to be challenged to your very core. The subtitle of the book is "Taking back your faith from the American dream" and it seriously will make you think about just that. Hmm....what exactly is living the American dream? Is it a nice house in the suburbs, 2.5 kids, 2 nice cars that you paid out the wazoo for, a good job, plenty of money saved up for retirement, and too many clothes? Is it defined for a Christian also by living the American church dream? Going to a church where the goal is to provide as many programs for the consumer as possible (and....the consumer is the church-goer and not the lost person)? I don't know........I'm just thinking out loud as I type this. But, these things should not be our goals. Our goal should actually be to bring glory to God. That's it. We are created only to bring Him glory. We are not created to glorify ourselves or to strive for a dream that humans created. We are to take Christ to the world. We are to glorify God.

Here is one of the early paragraphs of this book that hooked me in:

You and I can choose to continue with business as usual in the Christian life and in the church as a whole, enjoying success based on the standard defined by the culture around us. Or we can take an honest look at the Jesus of the Bible and dare to ask what the consequences might be if we really believed him and really obeyed him.

Going a little further I read this:

We do have to give up everything we have to follow Jesus. We do have to love him in a way that makes our closest relationships in this world look like hate. And it is entirely possible that he will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor.

But, we don't want to believe it. We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives. So we rationalize these passages away................

And this is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with.

A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn't mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that he receives all our affection. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are. A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger altogether. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream.

See what I mean?

This book will make you think. I'm taking the "Radical challenge" proposed in the last chapter of the book. I won't expand too much on this because I really do want you to read the book. But, it's got 5 parts.....

1. Pray for the entire world - www.operationworld.org

This website lists each country and tells you specifically how to pray for that country. There is also a book available.

2. Read through the entire Word.

Chris and I are doing this with our church this year in a form called The Story. We are also reading the kid version with Jack.

3. Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose.

We are having a MAJOR yard sale in May. We are not sure where exactly the money is going to go yet, but we will be giving for a specific purpose.

4. Spend your time in another context.

This is to be determined as to what it will look like for our family this year....

5. Commit your life to a multiplying community.

This is referring to your faith family. I want to dive in deeper to my church family and continue to build deep relationships that go beyond surface level.

Interested? We have the book if you want to borrow it.