Those of us here at Repent Amarillo have spent a good part of this last week with Janet Reitman, a contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine. She went out with us a couple of times on the street while we preached and witnessed. She also interviewed some members of our group. She says she is doing a story on a grassroots Christian movement that is rising up in America. My feeling on this is that she will write a piece that describes this movement as radical and dangerous….and she is right. But not in the way she thinks. She will probably say that this movement is a physical danger to our society and that there needs to be legislation to confront this danger. This movement is, in fact, only spiritually dangerous to the demonic realm and to its influence in the ever deteriorating moral state of our culture. This rising grassroots movement is an Elijah generation called by God to preach repentance in the last days and to make the path straight for the second coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Her article, whether she realizes it or not, will aid in the call to the scattered voices crying out in the wilderness.

This movement, this calling, is indeed radical. For too long the Christian faith in America has been dormant under the influence of materialism and pleasure seeking. For too long the true power of the Gospel of Christ has been watered down and subdued by living for self in the flesh. In these last days the Holy Spirit is being poured out on a remnant called out from a corrupt culture to preach a message radical enough to change hearts, change lives, and ultimately, the culture itself. This movement will confront the Devil in our culture head-on and by the power of the Holy Spirit will retake our nation for the kingdom of Christ and God. That is…if we answer the call. It is time for the power of the Gospel to come out of the churches and spill into the streets. This is a radical call because we serve a radical God.

Our Lord and King, Jesus Christ was a radical. He deliberately provoked the Pharisees by confronting their religious traditions with His radical teachings and His healings on the Sabbath. This rising Elijah generation will deliberately provoke the modern Pharisees by confronting their religious traditions of tolerance for sin with radical calls for repentance. Jesus told His own followers they must eat His flesh and drink His blood or they would not inherit the kingdom of God. This was so radical that many of His disciples walked away (John 6:53-58) Jesus’ teachings were so radical they provoked the children of the devil to violence. The Jews tried to stone Him twice (John 8:59, 10:31) They tried to throw Him off a cliff once(Luke 4:29). Jesus was hated for His teachings and told His disciples that if they were faithful to them that they would be hated as well(Mark 13:13). Christians today are not hated by the culture because they’re too busy enjoying its sins and blasphemies against God. Real Christians suffer persecution(2 Tim 3:12). Why? Because true Christianity is radical.

We serve a radical God. God manifesting Himself in the form of a man and dying at the hands of the sinners He came to save is radical. It was the ultimate act of  radical love. Resurrection from the dead was  a radical miracle. It was so radical that it transformed the cowardly scattered Apostles into a unified radical force that set entire cities in an uproar by preaching Christ crucified. They too were hated. They too were persecuted. Why? Because they too were radical like the master they served. You show me a Christian that does not say he/she is radical and I’ll show you a Christian who’s never met the resurrected Christ. If we want the true power of the Gospel that conquered the pagan Roman Empire and radically changed the course of human history then we are going to need to be radical in our faith. This rising grassroots movement will be radical just as our master is radical. We will radically hate sin. We will radically love our neighbor. We will radically confront evil in our culture. We will radically stand for righteousness. We will radically witness to the lost. We will radically rebuke backslidden Christians. We will be radically bold, radically righteous, radically holy, and radically loving. We will radically preach, radically pray, and radically worship. We will radically serve our Lord and King, Christ Jesus. Because we serve a radical God.

Pastor David H. Grisham

Director:
Repent Amarillo
Raven Amarillo