Radical Love

What would you do to show radical love to your enemies?
What would you do to show radical Love to someone that blasts your name?
How do you show the radical Love of Jesus?
How do you live differently than nonbelievers? 
Are you persecuted for your faith? If not, why not? 

Dan and I and some friends went to a conference called Absolute disciple.  It was at a Mega church in Seoul, and the guest speakers were Francis Chan, and David Platt. What does a absolute disciple look like? How are we different from the world? Are we making disciples? After all isn't that a command of Jesus; to go into all the world and make disciples, baptising them. Hm. 

During this conference we were struck in so many ways by the Lord. The first session was amazing on Wednesday as we gathered with over 1700 people and worshiped in many different languages. So neat to experience God's presence in another country. Wow! Their customs touched out hearts deeply, but what was even better is knowing we serve the same God. They have such a passion to pray, a passion to boldly pray for their leaders in a way I have never seen before. 

The first session was on adoption. hm... really God? How we were adopted into the family of God and how adoption is a outpouring of God's work in us. How well do we care for the widows and orphans?
God hit both our hearts with a "Go" in restarting/continuing the adoption process.  We had been patiently waiting as the Lord told us to wait and be still in this area. So we did, but we so clearly heard him say, now is the time...

During the second day both Dan and I got attacked for sharing the Gospel. Wouldn't you know, the message that day was on being persecuted and joining in the fellowship of a suffering Saviour. How many of us consider it a joy to suffer? Think about how much you grow deeper in love with the Lord during suffering.... It is getting increasingly more unpopular to share Jesus in a world who shuns him. If the world hated him, how much more will they dislike us. What does this say for programs or leaders whom everyone loves?  Or evangelists who have a huge following? I still am working that one out...

The night session was on love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Hm... how do you love someone who hates you? how do you show the love of God to someone who wants nothing to do with you? What does radical love look like in this way? God told us to show someone radical love. While it was hard, and cost us greatly we obeyed. That obeying brought on so so so many questions from others cause it was out of the norm of what someone would do. 
What are you willing to sacrifice to show someone the love of God, and show your love to them? 

The last day was all about...therefore now go. Therefore is an important word here. Go is also important as many times we love to go to programs at church, and do things for the church and call that a radical faith. When was the last time we shared the Gospel? If we are commanded to go and make disciples  how many do I have? how many do you have? and if there are none, what is wrong?

If you are a follower of Christ, we have all authority in Heaven and on earth. Why do we get scared to use that authority? 

I can't even begin to explain the timeliness of this conference for us. Its been 6 months since we have been here in Korea, and so far its been harder than I could have imagined. Also so far its been more amazing than I could have imagined. We were discouraged a little from the hardness of life here, and it really awakened us back to the reality of why we are here. Wow! Thanks be to God for meeting us there, and reaffirming the call on our lives. We will go ANYWHERE you send Lord! We will suffer for YOUR name sake. We will not back down and water down the Gospel in anyway. The Word of God for the People of God is enough. We don't need new things or flashy programs, or anything other than the Word of God for the people of God.