The Radical Experiment

(Warning: Long post ahead...)

I am not sure exactly when my thought process about leaving behind my personal culture in order to embrace Biblical culture began; I suppose that it goes back to the end of graduate school when, as I was looking to move overseas and not be able to take much with me, I began to get rid of most of my earthly possessions. I hoped to own very little so as to be owned by nothing tangible. I sold nearly all my books. I gave away most of my clothes. I left school with just a footlocker or two of possessions. I still have days where I miss some of those items, and yet, I have not lacked without them since then.

There were other baby steps along the way: the decision to get rid of all credit cards, the ceasing to watch certain forms of entertainment, the increasing of giving money away, letting my gray hair show. Each of those steps always had something of the same reasoning behind them: not seeing how my personal culture had taught to me live matched up from what I understood from scripture.

As I said in a recent post, I began studying the book of Ephesians in-depth this year. One of the first things the Lord pointed out to me through it was a call to walk differently than I had walked when I was in darkness, to walk different than the non-Christian world around me.

While in North Africa, I met someone who used to be Muslim and had become a Christian long before I ever came on the scene. As I observed this national friend, I began to see them make many decisions that didn’t seem to match up with what I understood from scripture from how we should live. One day, I mentioned it to a friend, who responded by telling me that what my national friend was doing was 100% in line with local culture and I could not expect them to stop doing those actions.

Even if they aren’t Biblical?

I went to the Lord about this very question. He responded by reminding me of the anthem of post-modernism, “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” But Jesus didn’t only say, “don’t judge” when He taught this now most-quoted-verse in the Bible. He went on, “condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you…Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:37-42)

The Lord’s answer to me about the culture my national friend ought to leave behind was to remove the log from my own eye. I needed to look at my own American cultural practices that I was still embracing even though they were not necessarily biblical, and see what the Lord would have me remove. David Platt said in his book, Radical, “In the American dream, where self reigns as king (or queen), we have a dangerous tendency to misunderstand, minimize, and even manipulate the gospel in order to accommodate our assumptions and desires. As a result, we desperately need to explore how much of our understanding of the gospel is American and how much is biblical. And in the process we need to examine whether we have misconstrued a proper response to the gospel and maybe even missed the primary reward of the gospel, which is God himself.” (pg. 28).

All of these things put together—the national friend (who has given up more than I can ever fathom in order to live a radical life for Christ, even though she's still learning how to do so more and more), the scriptural exhortations from Ephesians and elsewhere, the challenges to be radical by Francis Chan and David Platt—lit a fire under me. I began to really evaluate my life like never before. I desire to live a radical life of faith AND grace, and so I have been careful to not embrace legalism as I allowed the Lord to prune American cultural habits from my life. I also cannot judge any believer who is living differently than He has led me to begin to live. He has asked me to give up certain things…but I must follow the teachings of Paul in Romans 14 on this matter, especially verse 22, “The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment of himself for what he approves.”

So, today, on my birthday, as I embark on my 35th year of life...I also am embarking on accepting David Platt's challenge to the Radical Experiment. He has challenged his church (and whoever else will accept) to do the following five things for an entire year.

1. Pray for the entire world using the book Operation World. (Don't worry...I won't break my new year's resolution to buy one...there's a free copy online!)

2. Read through the whole Bible. (I already do this, but have my Ephesians study on top of this too...)

3. Sacrifice my money to a specific purpose.

4. Serve outside of my context for 2% (approximately one week) of the year.

5. Commit my life to a multiplying community (a local, growing church).

As I've been evaluating American culture in my life, the Lord has shown me some other areas that need some pruning, and so I have five other areas I will be focusing on as well this year. For right now, I won't be posting those to the blog. (Not everything needs to go on the internet, you know...!) But I will be writing here from time to time about stuff I'm learning, doing, experiencing because of the Radical Experiment.

Here's to a Radical year with God!!!

Ephesians Study

Last fall I was in NYC for a couple of weeks, and got to attend Apostles Church while there. The pastor wrapped up a several-month-long series on the book of Ephesians, where he just preached through each verse of the book. I enjoyed what I heard, and Princess William encouraged me to download the podcasts in order to listen to the entire series. I decided to do just that.

Then, around the new year, I began praying through what the Lord would have me focus on in Scripture this year. He answered, "Ephesians." And so I came up with a plan during January, and started it on February 1st. I'm a little more than halfway through my year of digging deep into the book of Ephesians, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Alot it beginning to come out of such a deep study, and so I hope to be writing more about that in the weeks/months to come.

Here's what my plan looks like, for any who are curious.

1. Read through the entire book of Ephesians every single day for the entire month of February.

2. Read a chapter a day from the book of Ephesians six days a week, every week, for the rest of the year.

3. Always read it from the same translation that I will memorize it from (ESV), so as to have the readings help prepare my mind for the memorization.

4. After five months of reading the book over and over, I began the memorization process in July. I memorize one verse a day, with review days at various natural breaking points in the passages, and at the end of each chapter.

5. Starting in July, as I was beginning to memorize, I also began the in-depth study of the book. On Sundays, I would listen to the sermon podcasts from Apostles that correlated with the passages I would memorize that coming week. I have a commentary on the book of Ephesians, and I read the chapter in it that correlates to the passage I am memorizing as I approach that passage. I also read Piper's sermons that correlate to the passage I am memorizing. Lastly, I have three Bible studies that I work on throughout the month that help me apply what I am learning from the Word to my daily life.

6. Originally, I came up with a schedule that had me focusing on one chapter from Ephesians per month from July through the end of the year. But my travels of the last month threw me off of my schedule a little bit, and I realized I needed to schedule in some review and catch up time. So, at this point, I should be finished with the memorization and in-depth study by the end of January, and will probably take February to look back in reflection of the year in the study.

Someone asked me recently how much time all of this takes. Well, my daily Scripture reading (I follow a read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan, plus one chapter from Proverbs a day, and one chapter from Ephesians a day) takes me about 15 minutes. The memorization, even with review, takes about 10 minutes. The reading of a commentary, sermon, or Bible study (which isn't every day, but maybe 3 days a week), takes anywhere from 10-30 minutes. Lastly, listening to the sermon podcast once a week takes 45 minutes.

An hour a day in the Word--which is double what I used to spend--plus an extra 45 minute sermon on Sunday, has started proving to be one of the most rewarding exercises I've ever done. I want to encourage any of you reading this that if you aren't reading God's Word at all right now, to try spending a few minutes every day looking at what God has to say to you. And if you are in the habit already of reading God's Word daily, to consider upping, or even doubling the amount of time you spend in it.

So, obviously, Ephesians has been shaping many of my thoughts over the last few months. I've been thinking through, praying through, having some conversations about, and researching about how to make some changes in my life so that I'm living out more of what Ephesians, and the rest of Scripture, talks about. As I figure some of this out, I'll be posting about here on the blog. I figured, after six months of being knee-deep in my study, it was time to write on the blog about it. :)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.