The Value of Your Christianity

I've been reading a lot lately about "radical Christianity."  Francis Chan and David Platt, among other authors, are challenging Christians to move beyond the luke-warm, dead-dog ritualism that has become the modern Christian experience into an exciting and passionate pursuit of genuine Holy Spirit-filled, "take up your cross" commitment that Jesus demanded of those who would be called His disciples.  The ideas in these books stir my heart and move me forward toward attitudes and actions that I once may have thought were extreme, just because they were out of the ordinary, contrary to the status quo.  But as I read Church history, I find that the men and women who have had the most impact on our world for Christ in centuries past have been the ones who gave Him everything that they had.  People who burned their candles at both ends and in the middle so that they could be a shining light in a cold, dark world.  These were men and women who rose early and spent hours in prayer and in the Word so that they would be prepared to face giants in the power of His might.  They were people who looked beyond the circumstances that surrounded them and saw the need of people in dark, dangerous places and offered no excuses as to why they shouldn't be the ones to carry the light to them.  These were people who actually took seriously the admonition of Christ to sell all that they had and come and follow Him.   The common element in the testimonies of the great heroes of our faith is that they had entered into a deep personal relationship with their Savior that meant more than the world to them.  Following through with the implications of that relationship was more important to them than life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.  His pleasure meant more to them than their pleasure.  That relationship, that mission, that life of faith was something worth dying for.
What has come to my mind this morning is this question, Is the level of Christianity that so many of us live, what we believe and practice as our Christian faith, something that we value enough to die for?  Are we so convinced of the truth of the Gospel that we would lay down our lives to share it with others?  Are we so committed to our Savior that we would follow Him to the cross, or to the firing squad, or to the jail cell?  We have so easily interpreted away the call of Christ to abandon all and follow Him and we've changed Christianity into something intended to make us happy and comfortable.  This mutant, cheap imitation of Biblical Christianity has led to a consumer mentality in the church that results in a loss of vision, passion, and power.  The only hope for this world is a revival of the kind of Christianity that Jesus called His disciples to embrace.  "They that live godly WILL suffer persecution...." "Men will kill you and think they are doing God a service...." "Take up your cross..." It's time we committed ourselves to a walk with God that demands something of us, but offers us something worth dying for.  The world is in need of radical followers of Christ who will live what He taught regardless of the cost.  If not you, then who?  If not now, then when?