There is No Plan B

After reading chapter seven, I see that I have done an inadequate job at sharing the gospel. In this chapter Platt shares with us our spiritual condition without Jesus. We have all rejected God, and are guilty and condemned before him. Yet, Jesus came to live the life we cannot live, die the death we should have died, and rose victorious from death. This is the essence of the gospel. As Christians we believe this and preach this, but do we live it? We say that Jesus is the only way to God but by the way we live our lives we say otherwise. This is evident in how urgent we are to tell others about Jesus. We have the cure for cancer but aren’t willing to share it. I know I’m not doing all I can to spread the gospel. I call myself a minister of the gospel but I don’t share it, as I ought. What got me the most in this chapter was at the very end. Platt says that many of us wonder, “What is God’s will for my life?” We read books and listen to sermons trying to find something that gives us a tingling down our spine so that we know that God has “called” us to do it. Yet, we sit by twiddling our thumbs confused as to what we are to be doing, when it has already been given. God has not just called us to do something he has commanded us to do something. In Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” I shouldn’t wonder what God has called me to do when he has already commanded me to do it. I am to be about sharing the gospel where I am at and around the world. I can’t wait until I am done studying how to share the gospel in order to effectively share it. I must be about the Great Commandment even while studying how to do it better. We, and I, must remember that we are God’s plan for sharing the gospel to people who have not heard the name of Jesus. If we don’t do it, the work will not get done. We must step up to the plate and do our job and not expect others to do what God has commanded us to do.

How Much is Enough?

Chapter six is a hard one to read. Usually I read the chapter, then write out my thoughts about the chapter as a whole. Yet, for this chapter I had to stop halfway through and write. If we truly think about it we are the richest people on earth, simply by living in America. We may not have billions of dollars in our bank account but even if we have a few hundred we are richer than half the world. There is a problem in the world called poverty, and it is true that most of us (I the foremost) don’t do much to help the situation. We feel that we grown up gone to college and worked our way to the point where we can have stuff. We tell ourselves that “we did it and I don’t want to give away my money”. Yet, the Lord has truly blessed us. He has blessed us so that we can bless others. What would do if the Lord told us to give away what we had and give it to the poor? Would we do it? I don’t know if I would. So what do we do? How do take what the Lord as given us and bless others? It is not a bad thing to have stuff. I don’t think that is what Platt is attacking. He is attacking our proclivity to have an over abundance of stuff. It is the American way to rise from rags to riches, that is what we are all striving for. Yet, as a Christian that is not be our goal. I feel as though what Platt is getting at is that we live well within our means and give away what we have in surplus. This takes a lot of discipline and sacrifice to take only what we need and give away the rest. It is true that many of the things we buy are not out of necessity. We spend thousands of dollars each week on things not that we need but things we want or desire. It is not bad to have possessions but when those possessions become our object of worship and fulfillment it is time that we get rid of them and give them to people that need them. I have to admit that my life here is New Orleans is pretty good. I don’t have to worry about much of anything. I live in an air conditioned apartment in a room that is bigger than some people’s houses. I complained when I was getting ready to move down here because I was going to have to downsize. I liked my 12x12 room and an 8x10 room seemed rough. Yet, in reality I’m living high on the hog. Admittedly I don’t have much money in my account but I know that I have more in there than over half the world lives on in a day. I spent more money today washing my clothes than many people have to live on. I’m not saying I don’t need to wash my clothes and give that money to the poor, my roommates would appreciate that I wear clean clothes. My point is that, even though I am living on my own with less than I had back home , I am considered rich when compared by the global standard of living. So how can I as a “poor seminary student” make a difference for world poverty? The first thing I need to do is pray and seek the Lord on how I can serve. That is where we all must start, on our knees. There is plenty of opportunity around us, we must pray that our eyes be open and we must be willing to obey whatever the Lord tells us to do.

The Multiplying Community

What is the church? That is one of the most important questions of our day in the realm of Christianity. Is the church a place where we gather once a week, sing a few songs, hear a lecture and then go home to continue our lives? Is the church a building? What is the church? In chapter 5, Platt dives in to answer this question. The answer he gives for what is church is different from what most of us experience as church. Platt argues that church is a place where Christians gather to fellowship and learn the Word of God, not for "what can I get of out of it", but for "what can I do with what I've learned". He challenges us not be receivers but to be reproducers, to take what we have learned while in a community of believers and teach others. This is something that many churches across our nation are struggling with. We worry about how many butts are in the seats and much money was given so that we can improve our programs. I was in a new church plant in Huntsville, AL and we started the church on the foundation of gathering as a small community to learn and take the gospel to the city. Yet, as time went on we didn't have many people coming to our weekly church services. We changed our mindset to butts in seats = money. We needed money to keep the church afloat. In my opinion we lost site of our mission and the church didn't make it (for several reasons not just money). It is our mission as Christians to take the gospel of Christ to the nations. We invite non-believers to come and see what Christ has done. It is ok for non-believers in the church to come and see, to sit and learn and not do anything. But as we grow in our faith we should change from come and see to go and do. We must be about our Father's business.

It sit here at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I am here to learn how to rightly handle the Word of Truth, to effectively teach it to others. Yet, that is a call that all of us have, not just those of us who go to seminary. We are all to be about the work of the Great Commission: "making disciples of ALL NATIONS, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit..."