Must-read book

In between packing boxes and cleaning out closets this month, I read Radical:Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt. It is one of the most challenging books that I have ever read. I have been talking about it so much with Roland and reading him so many excerpts, he's reading it now too. A couple sentences from the book summarize it well..."The American dream radically differs from the call of Jesus and the essence of the gospel...We have in many areas blindly and unknowingly embraced values and ideas that are common in our culture but are antithetical to the gospel Christ taught." ouch.

The book is incredibly thought-provoking and has left me pleading with the Lord to make my life more about His kingdom and less about my comforts and pleasures.
Here are a few excerpts that I've been chewing on:

"The question for us then, is whether we trust in His power. And the problem for us is that in our culture we are tempted at every turn to trust in our own power instead. So the challenge for us is to live in such a way that we are radically dependent on and desperate for the power that only God can provide." (But, I know, in America, we have to make choices that will lead us to that place of dependence...)

"Are we willing to fundamentally alter our understanding of Christianity from a luxury-liner approach that seeks more comforts in this world to a troop carrier approach that forsakes comforts in the world to accomplish an eternally significant task and achieve an eternally satisfying reward?"

"Though you and I find ourselves surrounded by the lure of temporary pleasures, we must fasten our affections on the one who promises eternal treasure that will never spoil or fade. If our lives are going to count on this earth, we must start by concentrating on heaven. For then, and only then, will you and I be free to take radical risk, knowing that what awaits us is radical reward."