Excerpt from the book Radical, by David Platt

Here is a portion of the RADICAL excerpt that Nick Galyen shared with our church during his testimony:

I wonder if we have erected lines of defense against the 

global purpose God has for our lives.

Where in the Bible is missions ever identified as an optional 

program in the church? 

Jesus himself has not merely called us to go to all nations; 

he has commanded us to go to all nations. We have taken 

this command, though, and reduced it to a calling - 

something that only a few people receive.

I find it interesting that we don't do this with other words from

Jesus. We take Jesus' command in Matthew 28 to make 

disciples of all nations, and we say, "That means other people.

" But we look at Jesus' command in Matthew 11:28 - 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and

 I will give you rest" - and we say, "Now, that means me." 

We take Jesus' promise in Acts 1:8 that the Spirit will lead 

us to the ends of the earth, and we say, "That means some 

people." But we take Jesus' promise in John 10:10 that we 

will have abundant life, and we say, "That means me."

We have unbiblically drawn a line of distinction, assigning the obligations of Christianity to a few while keeping the privileges 

of Christianity for us all.

In Romans 1:14-15, Paul talks about being a debtor to the 

nations. He literally says, "I am in debt to Jews and Gentiles." 

Paul is saying that he owes a debt to every lost person on the face of the planet. 

Because he is owned by Christ, he owes Christ to the world.

We are in debt to the nations. In our contemporary approach 

to missions, though, we have subtly taken ourselves out from 

under the weight of a lost and dying world, wrung our hands in pious concern, and said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not called to that."