Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!" Exodus 14:15 NLT People used to call me radical; so I looked it up. Radical means "like the root." When you are radical, you are conforming to the origin of a thing rather than the superficial, distant thing that it has evolved into. That's what the first-century church was like. They were primitive, bare bones real—full of signs, wonders, and effectiveness. In the twenty-first-century church we need to be saying: "Bring it on, God! If You can rush into a room on the day of Pentecost, You can rush into this room in 2006. If You can get hold of a fisherman like Peter—denying You one minute and praising You the next—by giving him the keys to the Kingdom and launching him out to change history, then bring it on, Jesus. You can use us!

Phillip Brooks said, "You never become truly spiritual by sitting around wishing to become so. You must undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it unaided."

As individuals, and as a body, we need to be functioning in the call of God. We have to be people grounded in obedience and full of vision, ambition, and dreams in God that are so grand that we cannot do it without aid—but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). We've got to take hold of the call to be prepared. We need to sense the hand of God pushing us forward. It's important that we get ready and stay ready, because we have a call to go forward with the Gospel—to preach the Good News by how we love people; how we pray and serve and give; and by how our character shines so bright that people say, "What is up with you?"

God has called us to be His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). He has commanded us to go into the entire world and preach the Gospel (Mark 16:15). And He has promised He'll draw all of mankind to Himself when we do (John 12:32). When we are obedient, when we believe that God can and will do all that He has promised, we get to see and be a part of amazing things that we can't even imagine.

God will change this world by the radical root of His body that is striving to be obedient to His call. Let's have that be us every day!

Press on,
Pastor Jeff


© 2007 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.