Did you know that it is physically impossible to die from holding your breathe? (You know how kids sometimes use it as a bargaining tool? Not that I did; growing up half-blooded Italian, my arguing skills were honed ;) But the reason behind it is that our natural instinct of survival will literally not allow us to die by willingly withholding our body oxygen. Built within us is an automatic and powerful instinct of self-preservation.
I know this personally because that instinct keeps flaring up as we get deeper into David Platt's chapters. And please allow me to clarify, it's not my innate physical preservation I'm fiercely protecting (because, let's face it, God couldn't call us anywhere He didn't intend to accompany us) but it's the preservation of those "luxuries" referred to time and time again in this book--and life. I don't want to give them up.
Let me tell you, Platt is a very effective evangelist because his unswerving presentation of the Truth (that our culture so often glazes over and justifies to the point of emasculating its call on our lives) keeps prodding my heart. Each page I read makes me want to jump up, out the door and jump on a plane to serve those millions of Bedouins in Algeria! But right alongside that urgency is my list. My agenda. MY Plan B.
While our God does not--as Platt emphasizes in this chapter--have a Plan B, you can be sure that I do. I think it's inherently female (or an irrevocable trait of moms and teachers everywhere). We have our plan en route to our American Dream and the culture we live in inspires us to think it's crazy to work toward any other end. Our own hearts long for elements of it. But as Paul's words to the Romans highlighted in this chapter, our hearts are deceitful above all else. And holding onto my Plan B (and C and D...) are my own sinful attempts to eliminate my need for faith. For God. And live an entirely unfulfilled life.
This chapter began by illustrating the pop culture idea of universalism, which points to the fact that as we are all equal, our ideas are also equal; which simplifies faith to a matter of taste rather than of truth. This is the heart of most timid Christians' excuses against GOING and evangelizing, "Well, who am I to say that MY ideas are right and they're wrong? Can I call person's beliefs wrong? They HAVE a faith so... you know, that's good..."
Really?
We have to keep coming back to the cross. Because I think we lose sight of the incredible gift salvation is. The gift that millions of people are entirely unaware of. The gift that is NOT merely the luxury we treat it as. To be kept safe, hidden, preserved... in order to avoid ruffling any feathers.
Platt plainly outlined seven truths that mirror the truths Paul delivered to the Romans about the people who don't know Jesus:
1. All people have a knowledge of God
2. All people reject God
3. All people are guilty before God
4. All people are condemned for rejecting God
5. God has made a way to salvation for the lost
6. People cannot come to God apart from faith in Christ
7. Christ commands the church to make the gospel known to all peoples
Another point addressed was this idea of justice. Can a just and loving God truly deny people entry to heaven just because they never had an opportunity to hear about Him? This idea is itself phrased within a framework of American thinking. (It's popular to blame God for problems because it's easier than recognizing the part we had in causing it.) Christ's heart is for them to know His. And that is why He has been--and is--calling, sending His people to reach the unreached.
Girls, that's us.
We are the church, the plan, the means God intended purposely to deliver the gospel to the world. To reach the unreached. There is no Plan B.
Some questions to consider...
1. This chapter reminded me of the song Matthew West has out now called, "Do Something" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_RjndG0IX8). Do you think it's an accurate depiction of our call as Christians in the world today?
2. We tend to default to our lists of excuses for why we're NOT doing the things Platt challenges us to throughout this book (which, let's face it, are really just blatant references to the call God placed on our lives in His Word). I think it's important to dissect our primary excuses because they reveal the idols our hearts are clinging to. Can you identify the key excuses you keep bringing up in response to the conviction you feel as we're reading this book? What do you think God might be trying to teach you through it?
3."The will of God is for you and me to give our lives urgently and recklessly to making the gospel and glory of God known among all peoples, particularly those who have never even heard of Jesus."
There it is. God's will for your life and mine.
If you're like me, you've said countless times that you're "waiting for God to reveal His plan/will for my life." I'm so guilty of this. I've blamed God for feeling stuck in a season of perpetual waiting. But am I the one who's been waiting--or God? He delivered His call upon my life thousands of years ago. Is it possible I'm only now taking it for what it's worth? What about you?
