Fallen and Flawed

One radical thing I’m planning on doing is giving up my comfortable, well-paying job to go to seminary (praying it’s Southern in Louisville) and enter pastoral ministry.

And if I win, another radical thing I plan to do is that I promise to give my copy away to a friend. I can afford to buy my own copy when it hits the stores (at least until I go to seminary, haha).

I would go to seminary no doubt and mix in some short “ish” term (1 -3 month) missions trips.

I would give away most of my stuff and find some way to serve the poor (either here or in another country).

One radical thing Eric and I have been doing to the glory of God, is to severely cut back on our expenses in order to pay off a large financial debt we incurred when we were younger, and eventually open our house as a foster home, with the future hope of (God willing!) adopting an orphan or two…or three…or twenty…

We’ve been “practicing” in a sense, by turning the extra room in our house into a place for kids in crisis to stay. We’ve already had one boarder, and it has been a good lesson in where our strengths and weaknesses lie. On a personal level, it’s shown me where the Holy Spirit has been working on my heart, as well as the areas where I need to allow Him to work instead of resisting.

If we received this book, we would donate it to our Youth Group’s library. I think there are a lot of kids in our YG that could really benefit from reading this book!

I’ve always had a desire to give generously to kingdom work but because of terrible financial decisions in the past while I was still pretty much living in darkness, I’m really underwater in terms of debt.

In the past 4-5 months I came to the conclusion I need to make getting out of debt as a real priority. I cut some of my expenses (such as no more cable TV), I eat out much less and have been learning to cook, and also stopped using any credit card for any reason. I’ve also been talking to a consumer credit counselling place to work on a plan to get all of my debts paid off over the next few years (Lord willing less time than that, we will see).

I work in a field where you can make a lot of money, and I’ve often though about if my income got into the six figures what I’d do. I decided I really wanted to just have whatever budget I could be content with, and give the rest away. I’d gone somewhat back and forth about that until I saw the book Primal talk about the important of setting a ceiling on our income. How do we ever know we have “enough”, if we have no idea what “enough” looks like? That really appealed to me. But still though, what should I set my ceiling at as a single person, if I was totally debt free (no mortgage payment or anything)? $25K? $50k? $75K?

Listening to Platt’s first sermon in the radical series the other day, which reinforces how IHOP encourages people to live a “fasted” lifestyle of sacrificial giving and living below your means, I’d love to give a really huge % of my income down the road. Right now though I’m hindered by the fact I owe so much money, and I feel the right thing to do is pay it all off. So I tithe, I give of my time serving at church, but no longer give money I don’t have while leaving debts unpaid.

After that, however, I want to not just give generously however the Lord directs, but try to sacrificially live beneath my means as well. What that will look like I guess depends on how convicted Dr Platt’s message on giving is (I haven’t listened to that one yet, it’s further in the series) and how the Holy Spirit works on my heart as I learn and apply better stewardship.

God rejoices in the prosperty of his servant, it is true. But it’s also clear the main purpose of abundance is to give to those in need.

I would go to seminary and then plant a church. I.. I’m not sure what to say about it. God has always pressed on me the idea to start a church in a rather lost place and lead a congregration. I have dreams about it all the time. Not really anything like key details. Just ideas and a unexplainable peace that comes with it. When I hear or read Jeremiah 29:11 my whole heart just swells because I feel God saying I’m talking to you Luke. I know inside what he wants me to do. Right now, money is very much in the way. College and seminary isn’t cheap. Neither is planting a church. I have hope though. I know eventually when the time is right things will eventually fall in place. Until then. I’m just doing all I can to follow His will and become the man he wants me to be. Romans 8:28 helps me keep this time of patience and waiting in perspective. So yeah, that’s my radical call. Got to say it’s the first time I’ve ever made it known to anyone. Feels good. =D

Romans 8:28 has been my personal Scripture for the last year too, Luke! So much hope and reassurance packed into one sentence.

I’m almost 50 years old. I’d take what’s left of my life and serve God on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico/Arizona training indigenous ministers in America’s largest tribe.

High five! =D That verse is such a pick-me-up for life in general. =)

It would be completely radical of me to really commit myself to a gospel that doesn’t hurt sinners for the sake of politics. A gospel that can handle all of the anger that’s hiding in plain sight. A gospel that isn’t coated in sports analogies, convenient “truths”, massaged theologies, and plastic “Christians”.

There are some days that I am so over being surrounded by American Christians (and being negatively influenced by their propaganda) that I want to give up, become reclusive or monastic.

I need to be revived.

Great thoughts, everyone! Keep them coming.

Jonathan, I think you are being very wise by paying off your debt. Just think what you can do once that’s gone.

Jeremy, yes, our plastic American Christianity can be an emotional suck. Praying for you brother.

I’d become a full-time pastor instead of a part time elder and give the majority of my time to teaching/preaching the Word, counseling the flock with the Word and building Christ’s church through our local church by reaching out and building up within. I’d love to take some of the load off of our full time pastors.

I would pray like I really believed I was dependent on God for my next breath.

Jonathan Roy – the acronym IHOP and “fasted” lifestyle in the same sentance makes my head hurt.

On that note, I would make sure every child had pancakes for breakfast every morning.

One thing I have told the Lord for a long while is that if ever they find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, I’d find a way to hike into the mountain and bring the gospel to one of those unreached people groups who are unreached because it is difficult to get to them. I wouldn’t know their language, so that’s another issue. But it is something I’ve wanted to do. And if not me, maybe God would let me raise a son who could/would do it.

**just spit my coffee on the screen** j shelton, that was unbelievably hilarious. Thank you for that. Thank you!

just doin mah job.

LOL, sorry. IHOP is the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, and by ‘fasted lifestyle’ they refer to a lifestyle of heavy Bible reading, at least an hour of daily prayer, fasting a day or two weekly, and living beneath your means so you can give generously.

I have dreamed of opening an orphanage in Central America that almost completely self-reliant (grows all the food, raises animals, harvests rain water, etc) and is also a boarding school. Ideally it would teach the children there about God, science, art, and philosophy, and how to read and write well (in their OWN language). I dream of raising children who, had nothing going for them at first, into the the most ambitious, passionate, God-fearing young leaders in that area of the world. While letting them keep, develop, even embrace their own culture – not just copy North America’s. Of course that’s if money were no object.

I hope before I became ill was to go into jails and prisons to share the gospel with women in this country. God Bless all your work!

During a short ministry trip to the Dominican Republic, I encountered construction laborers. Wouldn’t it be radical if I left my life and culture to work beside and bring the Gospel to them and invest my life in theirs so that some might accept Jesus as their treasure?

That would be radical Mark, indeed!

Damian.

This has been another good post this week. Thanks.

My radical change I think / and hope will be when I can go to the Ambassadors Academy for Evangelism Training in CA (Living Waters). I live in Ontario and apart form the distance there are some other hurdles to overcome. But I am going to overcome them. I hope this will increase not only my clarity, but boldness when I preach the Gospel to people I come in contact with.

Kind Regards,

Dave

I think Denita should win.

I nominate Don for radical humility.

Presumably, by radical you mean in the eyes of others. But what others– believers or nonbelievers?
I think that to nonbelievers there must be nothing more radical than daily, moment-by-moment seeking to know and follow God’s specific will. That’s what I try to do and, despite the reality that I’m not nearly adequate at it, I can’t think of any event that would cause me to do otherwise…

al, in the eyes of lukewarm Christians perhaps? Because of course, truly ‘radical’ living doesn’t seem radical to others who are living it already. I certainly don’t fit the bill yet, but I hope to eventually.

Franco Gennaro gave a message at our church once, and he said the funniest thing I’ve never forgotten, because it does have an element of truth to it. He was talking about people who do radical things for Christ such as Dr Platt talks about, and how others may call you a fanatic if you do them. He then said something like “Do you know the definition of the word fanatic? Here’s mine. A fanatic is someone who loves Jesus more than you do.” I’ve never forgotten that.

Post college I spent a summer ministering in the inner city. I’d like to give that a shot or work in some capacity with prisoners or a ‘World Vision’ type ministry. Bottom line-it would be great to put bigger wheels on my faith and challenge myself. Not having the ordinary excuses would help.

Radical for me would be to live out the truths of the gospel, especially when I don’t feel like it- to be a loving and forgiving husband and to be the example and model my daughter deserves.

I love the title of that book!

Money IS no issue. I can’t see that families or jobs are issues either. It’s not as if God wants us to do something but doesn’t give us the wherewithal to do it.

God wants us all to live the radical way that love for Christ demands. If he calls me to start an orphanage in South America, he’ll give me the family, job, and money I need. If he doesn’t call me to do that, then it would be foolish, rather than radical, for me to go to South America.

So I am living radically now, according to most US Christians. Widowed with no job and no health insurance. I did this because I believed God wanted me to stay home with my family. It has cost us…but really what we’ve gained far outweighs what we’ve lost. We’ve given up dentists and sports programs and good educations and music lessons and, yes, even our house.

But we have gained God. When we want something, we pray and ask God for the money. That’s the greatest benefit of living this way. You pray and God answers. You rely on God for everything.

We have given up temporal things and gained eternal things.

Al, Ricky and Sally, those are humbling and wise words. Thank you for sharing. [And I appreciate your courage in the Lord, Sally.]

My daughter is enjoying reading these. We’ll pick winners late Sunday night. Reveal winners Monday.

I am the Principal of a small Christian school (k-6) in one of those economically hardest hit cities. Those with the means sends their kids to our school. But the heart of our school is to minister (we’re a church run school) to those who cannot afford to send their kids to a private school. We offer many scholarships, there are never enough to go around.

We dream and we regularly pursue ideas of starting several schools in the saddest and roughest of neighborhoods.

Our desire for children is threefold: Educate a child in a way that learning is a pleasure because they see that the glory of God is endlessly pleasurable. Teach virtues just as intensely and as thoroughly as any academic subject. Teach children the supremacy of Christ as the core of the curriculum, through every subject, every field trip, every homework assignment, every book report, every spelling list, etc., etc.

This is a radical notion in the academic and church world, but that is the dream we pursue.

Even with the issues we face in this economy the most radical thing I could do with the Gospel is…share it. The Gospel is everywhere but by believing in it, setting an example by acting it, and spreading the word might create a chain reaction to and for a stronger faith.

If money weren’t an issue, I’d spend my time in the service of others. There’s a great VA shelter here in my time that is understaffed and funded. I’d volunteer my time there…

Thanks…

I’d volunteer on medical missions to third world countries – right now, I don’t have the time or money to take off from my paying job.

Melissa, heather and Marianna, great ideas…and so good to hear from you Melissa! << Shh…she’s my cousin!

I can see the relation, D!

I would sponsor myself to write for a living… I know, it’s selfish, but man would it be fun! I would be able to write a lot about the Gospel!

Oh, and I would promote all my friends so they the world could see them and the Gospel would spread through them. Plus, then they would be able to do what they love to do!

Sounds fun to me!

If money weren’t an issue, I would:

1. Support my friend Justin to go into the mission field
2. Support the Giuliani family to go into the mission field
3. Hire a maid to clean the house and do the laundry and dishes so
that my wife would have more energy to care for more children
4. Then I would adopt children from teenagers who were thinking of abortion as their only option
5. After that, I would support my children in whatever dreams they would have
6. Then I would start giving my money away until it became an issue again.

Thanks for letting me share!

In Christ,

Manspaugh

Why, Manspaugh, that’s good stuff. Really good stuff. Good to hear from you.

Jonathan, I have to say, I lean to that same idea. Makes sense. I’m a writer. I write. That’s what I do.

if money, family, and work were not an issue, I would live a simple life of faith like George Muller. I would give it all to God and rely on Him for our every need…much like I am learning to do right now, since I’ve been unemployed almost 2 months now!
However, God is faithful! I appreciate your blog! God bless!

Rob

Since my wife and I have been trying to adopt, I would do that and I would go to seminary and spend the rest of my life teaching the Bible.

Thank you for the kind words Rob! And God bless you, too.

Jim, may God bless you and your wife…I pray that God grants your wish to adopt.