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radical

*I have been working on this post for quite some time; I originally wanted to post it at midnight, January 1st; I just couldn't quite seem to get it right! :P*

There is a song that we sang several times in our church in Springtown; I think it's called "Open Up the Skies". The chorus says, "We won't be satisfied with anything ordinary; we won't be satisfied at all! Open up the sky; pour down like rain; we don't want blessings, we want You! Open up the sky; fall down like fire; we don't want anything but You!" That little chorus is my heart's cry these days. Who wants ordinary? Not me! I want God and Him alone!

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." --Helen Keller
As I've been reading (or re-reading) biographies of Christians who have made a difference just over the last century, I find a common thread. They were all completely devoted to Christ, didn't care what others thought or did, but simply enjoyed the adventure of living a life controlled by an unpredictable, but always good and faithful, God. The details of their lives were different, no two had the exact same calling; yet the core, the center, the passion was the same.
My life will be different from each of theirs, I know that. Yet I also know that I want to be sold out in my devotion for Jesus Christ; I want to live to the fullest this unique adventure of life that God is leading me on. I don't know exactly what it will look like or what lies on the path ahead, and there are times when the not knowing scares me. But does it really matter if I know what is going on, as long as God knows? I don't think so. So here's my goal for this year--and the rest of my life:

I will be radical. I will be concerned only with what God thinks. I will live life, wild and free, wholly devoted to Christ with a passion that cannot be quenched.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"No Compromise is what the whole Gospel of Jesus is all about... 'For I tell you...no man can serve two masters...' (Matt. 6:24). In a day when believers seem to be trying to please both the world and the Lord (which is an impossible thing), when people are far more concerned about offending their friends than offending God, there is only one answer...Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him!"
— Keith Green (musician, prophet, co-founder of Last Days Ministries)

"Is it not God who turns the ordinary into the extraordinary when He is given a chance?"
--from "Rees Howells, Intercessor" (by Norman Grubb)

"We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are "harmless," and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places...The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!"
--Jim Elliot (missionary and 20th century martyr)

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I'm tired of the status quo. I'm fed up with mediocrity. I'm done with "average". I want to be radical. Will the world think I'm strange? Probably. But I will stand for what I believe in, and I will make a difference--because I am a difference.

Comments

Kelly Ranae said…
Be radical my daughter! I will pray for, encourage, and love you through it all. Follow Him passionately all of your days. It won't be easy, but you will never regret it.

I love you,
Momma

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