41
" When Jesus comes to the earth in the New Testament, we are quickly introduced to him as an immigrant. Fleeing a brutal political situation in Bethlehem after he is born, Jesus’ family travels to Egypt, where they live for years as sojourners in a foreign land. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
42
" Slavery still exists. And now that I know it does, I have no choice but to do something about it. Further, now that you know it does, you have no choice but to do something about it. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
43
" Are you really saying there's only one way to God?" people immediately ask. Yet even as we ask the question, we reveal the problem. If there were 1,000 ways to God, we would want 1,001. The issue is not how many ways lead to God; the issue is our autonomy before God. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
46
" I sincerely hope that you will come to know God's mysterious, unfathomable, unexplainable, and personal love for you in Christ; that you will believe the gospel despite all of its offense; and that you will follow Christ for who he is, not for who we might prefer him to be. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
48
" The gospel compels us in our culture to decry any and all forms of oppression, exploitation, bigotry, or harassment of immigrants, regardless of their legal status. These are men and women for whom Christ died, and their dignity is no greater or lesser than our own. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
49
" The difference between [a wilderness] and culture is simply, work..All sorts of human work are significant..Maybe I should quit my menial job in order to give more meaningful time to the poor..For in working on a daily basis, we are lending our help to the development of a society that is able to sustain human life. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
50
" Are you saying it's wrong to make a lot of money?" My answer is always and unequivocally "No." What matters most is not how much you earn, but what you do with what you earn..God doesn't command the rich to stop making money; instead, he commands the rich to use their money on earth to store up treasure in eternity. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
52
" Some couch their laziness in spiritual language, saying they're waiting to figure out what God wants them to do, all the while ignoring the glaring biblical reality that God wants them to work for others' good and his glory. This trend should not surprise us in a culture that minimizes the value of work by magnifying the goal of retirement. Success..is arriving at the place where you no longer work..but Christ never called us to this sort of retirement. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
54
" Followers of Christ are the most widely persecuted religious group in the world.. the most fundamental freedom is the privilege of each person to explore truth about the divine and to live in light of his or her determinations..from the beginning God has given men and women the freedom to decide whether to worship him..God did not (and does not) remove human responsibility..the Bible indicates the importance of willful choice and personal invitation..the gospel message is fundamentally invitation, not coercion..no one can believe except willingly..faith must be free in order to be genuine..What our government calls this "right" is commonly known as the "freedom of worship," but this label can be somewhat misleading because the way it is often applied in our culture unnecessarily and unhelpfully limits the "free exercise" of religion to the private sphere..This is part of the "free exercise" of religion: the freedom of worship not just in episodic gatherings but in everyday life. And it is such "free exercise" that is subtly yet significantly being attacked in American culture today..you have a hard time conceiving how you can participate in a celebration of something that you are convinced God condemns..in your heart you can't avoid the conviction that such participation would dishonor God..while [she] is free to exalt he God in the church she attends, she is not free to express her beliefs in the business she owns..while we have certain obligations to our government, our ultimate obligation is to our God..Church history..contains other examples of shameful attempts to spread Christianity by force or military might..none of this was, or is, right..the search for religious truth is often supplanted by the idolization of supposed tolerance. The cardinal sin of our culture is to be found intolerant, yet what we mean by intolerant is ironically, well, intolerant..the very notion of tolerance necessitates disagreement..I don't tolerate you if you believe exactly what I believe..it would be wise and helpful for us to patiently consider where each of us is coming from and why we have arrived at our respective conclusions..we can then be free to contemplate how to treat one another with the greatest dignity in view of our differences..tolerance applies to people and beliefs in distinct ways..toleration of people requires that we treat one another with equal value, honoring each other's fundamental human freedom to express private faith in public forums..toleration of beliefs does not require that we accept every idea as equally valid, as if a belief is true, right or good simply because someone expresses it. In this way, tolerance of a person's value does not mean I must accept the person's views.."Hey, as long as someone believes something, that makes it right.." Either Jesus is or isn't the Son of God..I lament the many ways that Christians express differences in belief devoid of respect for the people with whom they speak. Likewise, I lament the many ways that Christians are labeled intolerant, narrow-minded, and outdated whenever they express biblical beliefs that have persisted throughout centuries..The more we become like Jesus in this world, the more we will experience what he experienced. Just as it was costly for him to counter culture, it will be costly for us to do the same..It's only when we stand up and counter the culture around them with the gospel of Jesus Christ that they will experience suffering..On the other hand, if they stay quiet, they can remain safe. But they know that in so doing, they will violate their consciences and disobey the commands Christ has given them to share grace and gospel truth with the people around them..in a country where even our own religious liberty is increasingly limited, our suffering brothers and sisters beckon us not to let the cost of following Christ in our culture silence our faith. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
55
" May we realize with them that privatized Christianity is no Christianity at all, for it is practically impossible to know Christ and not proclaim Christ..with the great cloud of witnesses that has gone before us that while our citizenship belongs to a government, our souls belong to God. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
56
" Most people in our culture-- and in the church-- believe wealth is always a sign of blessing from God, and we have almost no category for understanding wealth as a barrier to God..It's like seawater. If you're thirsty out on the ocean, you look around at all the water and think, I should drink this. But..the more you drink it, the thirstier you will become..In drinking what you think is a source of life, you unknowingly plunge yourself into death..The "more" that we want will never satisfy because it will never be enough..The gospel compels us to humbly identify what is enough for us in order to freely give away our excess to others..we are bombarded by the lie that says a higher salary requires a higher standard of living..God gives us more not so that we can have more but so that we can give more..God is our greatest treasure, and our lives will count on earth only when we invest them in his Kingdom for eternity..Instead of that money increasing our standard of living, it only increases our standard of giving..He has given us his Spirit to lead and guide our every decision as we surrender to him our every dollar..I realized that in my efforts at simplicity, I had left the realm of the spiritual and moved into the realm of the absurd. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
57
" God’s great love in Christ—Christians are compelled to willing, joyful, urgent, faith-driven, grace-saturated, God-glorifying work on behalf of the poor. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
58
" For through the gospel—the good news of God’s great love in Christ—Christians are compelled to willing, joyful, urgent, faith-driven, grace-saturated, God-glorifying work on behalf of the poor. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
59
" Without question, our greatest wealth is found in the gospel itself, for God has saved us from our sins and has given us new life with him. "
― David Platt , A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography
A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography