Be Radical For Jesus! Or Other Radicals Will Fill The Void!

Be Radical for Jesus! Or Other Radicals Will Fill The Void! by Kelly Durant

Acts 2:44-45 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

2. The disciples of Jesus were radical! What is a radical? Is it not a person so obsessed with a cause they perceive as just so much that their passion moves them to invest their whole life into bringing about a beneficial change to others? Radicalness can be extremely good or extremely bad! Do recall how Jesus called others? Matthew 4 18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. They quit their jobs on the spot and followed Him, isn’t that radical? At that moment they didn’t know much about what they were going to follow, but it was an obvious mission, an invitation to go on a journey with an anointed impressive teacher (Rabbi)! Inside they knew it would be well worth it! Today they will remain famous forever because they followed Jesus, the Son of God!

That radical lifestyle change today is like someone walking into your workplace or school, pointing at you and saying, “Hey walk out the door with me and follow me on a mission that’s worth much more than this waste of time!” Have you noticed that everyone that has chosen to serve God has done exactly this? They have forsaken their nets, their former jobs, or their former lives that had them trapped to go on a mystery journey of Jesus’ mission. We all know it is better to die for something than live for nothing? Today, however, sadly confused people may choose certain missions that are horrific!

I actually never fully understood enough about Jesus myself until I witnessed other radical Christians living for Him. When I discovered that following Jesus was much more than just being dedicated to going to church on Sunday and following certain ethical rules, I caught the fire to want to be radical like Him and live like Him in every way! When I was exposed to others who loved Him so much they were willing to leave behind everything to serve Him just for love, to deeply study His Word daily and then go off to be a missionary, it was then I understood that God had a mission for me. I had to see His words in practice, not just on paper to get it! Ask yourself, do others see me, loving, doing, and obeying more than in a mediocre way?

3. Most everyone, even the atheist and communists I have had conversations with, have admitted they have respect for the radicalness of Jesus! Jesus gained followers (mega millions for 2 millennia already!) giving His life suffering for a righteous cause; it was for a better world saving others to come into the Kingdom of God. And what is this Kingdom like? What was His radical movement about? As Christians we understand it more as we grow in faith, but the mis-interpretation of non-Christians of His message leads to disaster as many people are blinded by the filters of their own agendas. Without God’s truth people become blinded by the agendas sold to them by deceivers who use them as useful idiots! Radicals sometimes may even speak of Jesus fitting Him into their ideas of radical solutions to cure the ills of the community. Judas aspired that Jesus would fit into the mold of becoming a zealot leader to lead the fight against the Romans. But most radical agenda motivated people live in a dark vacuum ignoring and rejecting what Jesus taught! People who do not become a radical for Jesus either become mediocre narcissists or they become radicals for any trending controversial cause! Radical agenda puppets ironically become hypocrites ‘straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel’ as Jesus phrased it!!

Here’s an example of not understanding the ways of God, the case of a cocaine drug Lord in the 1980s, Roberto Suarez. At one time he was the Pablo Escobar of Bolivia (but he never murdered hundreds of people as Carlos did!). You may be aware that mission minded people such as myself always dream of meeting these big drug Lords with the hope of bringing them to Jesus. Actually several prominent ones have been converted over the years in Colombia and all South America, glory be to God! In Bolivia one time my wife and I actually did meet the mother of Roberto Suarez. She said he had to hide every day and she did not know where he was but she agreed to give him a salvation tract the next time she would see him! She was a Christian living a modest average life not accepting her son’s money and everyone in town knew her.