All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life - Softcover

Batterson, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0310341825 ISBN 13: 9780310341826

Verlag: Zondervan, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

Christians who want to take the next step in their faith walk need look no further. It's time to ante up and go all in with God.

The Gospel costs nothing. You can't earn it or buy it. It can only be received as a free gift, which is compliments of God's grace. It doesn't cost anything, but it demands everything. It demands that we go "all in," putting all that we have into God's hands. 

But why do so many Christians hesitate to do that? And when did we start believing that the Gospel is an insurance plan? We're afraid that if we go all in that we might miss out on what life has to offer. But Jesus did not die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous.

So, let's step out of spiritual no man's land and kneel at the foot of the cross of Christ and surrender to his lordship. It's time to dethrone yourself and enthrone Christ as king, and Pastor Mark Batterson is here to show you how.

Using his customary vivid, contemporary illustrations, as well as biblical characters like Shamgar, Elisha, Jonathan, and even Judas, you will be challenged to trade what Batterson calls "inverted Christianity" for true discipleship as you strip away your excuses and inhibitions and follow God completely.

It's now or never. Are you ready to go all in and all out for God?

Also available: All In student edition, video curriculum, and study guide.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. One church with multiple locations, NCC owns and operates Ebenezers Coffeehouse, the Miracle Theatre, and the DC Dream Center. NCC is currently developing a city block into the Capital Turnaround; the 100,000-square-foot space will include an event venue, a child development center, a mixed-use marketplace, and a coworking space. Mark holds a doctor of ministry degree from Regent University and is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books including The Circle Maker, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, Play the Man, Whisper, and recently released Win the Day. Mark and his wife, Lora, have three children and live on Capitol Hill.

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All In

You are One Decision Away from a Totally Different Life

By Mark Batterson

ZONDERVAN

Copyright © 2013 Mark Batterson
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-310-34182-6

Contents

NOW OR NEVER, 
1. Pack Your Coffin, 13, 
2. The Inverted Gospel, 15, 
3. Draw the Line, 23, 
ALL IN, 
4. Charge, 35, 
5. This Is Only a Test, 41, 
6. Burn the Ships, 51, 
7. Crash the Party, 63, 
ALL OUT, 
8. Rim Huggers, 75, 
9. Climb the Cliff, 81, 
10. Build the Ark, 93, 
11. Grab Your Oxgoad, 103, 
ALL IN ALL, 
12. SDG, 117, 
13. Throw Down Your Staff, 123, 
14. Take a Stand, 137, 
15. Thirty Pieces of Silver, 147, 
ALL OR NOTHING, 
16. The Idol that Provokes to Jealousy, 161, 
17. One Decision Away, 171, 
Acknowledgments, 173, 
Notes, 175, 

CHAPTER 1

PACK YOUR COFFIN

A century ago, a band of brave souls became known as one-way missionaries. They purchased single tickets to the mission field without the return half. And instead of suitcases, they packed their few earthly belongings into coffins. As they sailed out of port, they waved good-bye to everyone they loved, everything they knew. They knew they'd never return home.

A. W. Milne was one of those missionaries. He set sail for the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, knowing full well that the headhunters who lived there had martyred every missionary before him. Milne did not fear for his life, because he had already died to himself. His coffin was packed. For thirty-five years, he lived among that tribe and loved them. When he died, tribe members buried him in the middle of their village and inscribed this epitaph on his tombstone:

When he came there was no light.
When he left there was no darkness.

When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things? That faithfulness is holding the fort? That playing it safe is safe? That there is any greater privilege than sacrifice? That radical is anything but normal?

Jesus didn't die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous.

Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It's storming the gates of hell.

The will of God is not an insurance plan. It's a daring plan.

The complete surrender of your life to the cause of Christ isn't radical. It's normal.

It's time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.

It's time to go all in and all out for the All in All.

Pack your coffin!

CHAPTER 2

THE INVERTED GOSPEL

In the sixteenth century, the Renaissance astronomer Nicholas Copernicus challenged the belief that the earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus argued that the sun didn't revolve around the earth, but rather that the earth revolved around the sun. The Copernican Revolution turned the scientific world upside down by turning the universe inside out.

In much the same way, each one of us needs to experience our own Copernican Revolution. The paradigm shift happens when we come to terms with the fact that the world doesn't revolve around us. But that's a tough pill to swallow.

When we are born into this world, the world revolves around us. We're spoon-fed on the front end and diaper-changed on the back end. It's as if the entire world exists to meet our every need. And that's fine if you are a two-month-old baby. If you're twenty-two, it's a problem!

Newsflash: You are not the center of the universe!

At its core, sinfulness is selfishness. It's enthroning yourself—your desires, your needs, your plans—above all else. You may still seek God, but you don't seek Him first. You seek Him second or third or seventh. You may sing "Jesus at the center of it all," but what you really want is for people to bow down to you as you bow down to Christ. It's a subtle form of selfishness that masquerades as spirituality, but it's not Christ-centric. It's me-centric. It's less about us serving His purposes and more about Him serving our purposes.

I call it the inverted gospel.

Who's Following Who

Most people in most churches think they are following Jesus, but I'm not so sure. They may think they are following Jesus, but the reality is this: they have invited Jesus to follow them. They call Him Savior, but they've never surrendered to Him as Lord. And I was one of them. Trust me, I didn't want to go anywhere without Jesus right there behind me. But I wanted Jesus to follow me, to serve my purposes, to do my will.

It wasn't until I was a nineteen-year-old freshman at the University of Chicago that I had my Copernican Revolution. It started with this question: Lord, what do You want me to do with my life? That's a dangerous question to ask God, but not nearly as dangerous as not asking that question!

I got tired of calling the shots. Honestly, I wasn't very good at playing God. Plus it was exhausting. I stopped trying to "find myself" and decided to seek God. I couldn't read His Word enough. I got up early to pray. I even fasted for the first time in my life. I meant business. In fact, business as usual went out of business. For the first time in my life, I put Him first.

On the last day of summer vacation, I got up at the crack of dawn to do a prayer walk. Our family was vacationing at Lake Ida in Alexandria, Minnesota. The dirt road I walked down may as well have been the road to Emmaus. The cow pasture I walked through may as well have been the back side of the Sinai Desert with a burning bush. After months of asking, I finally got an answer to my question. I knew what God wanted me to do with my life.

On the first day of my sophomore year, I walked into the admissions office at the University of Chicago and told them I was transferring to a Bible college in Springfield, Missouri, to pursue full-time ministry. The guidance counselor thought I was crazy. So did a few friends and family members. Giving up a full-ride scholarship to one of the top-ranked universities in the country didn't make much sense on paper. The logical and practical thing to do would have been to finish my undergrad studies at the U of C and then go to seminary, but I knew this was my all-or-nothing, now-or-never moment. I knew I needed to quit hedging my bets, push all my chips to the middle of the table, and go all in with God.

Was it a gut-wrenching decision? Yes. Did I ever second-guess it? More than once! But the true adventure of following Jesus didn't begin until I went all in. That is the day I stopped asking Jesus to follow me and decided to follow Him.

Let me ask the question: Who's following who?

Are you following Jesus?

Or have you inverted the gospel by inviting Jesus to follow you?

Each year, I have the privilege of speaking to tens of thousands of people at churches and conferences all across the country. At first, I was shocked by the response, in a Christian audience, to a simple invitation. When I invited people to follow Jesus, about 50 percent would typically respond. What's astounding about that percentage is the simple fact that 100 percent of them thought they were already following Jesus. They weren't. They had inverted the gospel. They bought in, but they hadn't sold out. They were half in and half out.

At first, I thought this was an anomaly. How could half of us get it backward? Now I'm afraid it's normative. And if it is, then we desperately need a new normal.

Holy Dare

More than a hundred years ago, a British...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Zondervan
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0310341825
• ISBN 13: 9780310341826
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 192
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Videndum Media Solutions SpA; https://videndummediasolutions.com/en/; ; Via Valsugana, 100; Cassola; 36022; Italien