Risk is Right (Part 1)

This book by John Piper has been sitting on our shelf for a long time. Why, oh why have I only just got around to reading it now? It is just so good. It's a very quick read (just 64 pages) but it's one you probably shouldn't read too quickly, if that makes sense. It's very challenging and gives you lots to think about and so many verses to read and study so it needs to be taken slowly and prayerfully.

Here are some highlights: (more to come in a later post)

The early Christians gave their property and their lives for the sake of others because they knew that on the other side of death Jesus would be their great reward,

You had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Hebrews 10.34

If our single, all-embracing passion is to make much of Christ in life and death, and if the life that magnifies him most is the life of costly love, then life is risk, and risk is right. To run from it is to waste your life.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

To delay or fail to make decisions may be more sinful than to make wrong decisions out of faith and love.

Risk avoidance may be more sinful- more unloving- than taking the risk in faith and love- and making a wrong decision.

Old Testament risk takers:

2 Samuel 10.12- Joab made a strategic decision for the cities of God; he didn't know how it would turn out but said,

May the LORD do what seems good to him.

Esther 4.15-16

I will go to the King though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.

Daniel 3.16-18 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego about to be thrown into the fiery furnace:

Our God... is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace...but if not...we will not serve your gods.

New Testament:

Paul believed his trip to Jerusalem was necessary for the cause of Christ:

I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Acts 20.24

Paul had a choice, to waste his life or live with risk. His choice:

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Acts 20.24

The generation that did not risk:

Numbers 13&14

The Children of Israel were on the edge of the Promised Land but did not want to take a risk with the giants. Joshua and Caleb couldn't explode the myth of safety. The result was that thousands wasted their lives in the wilderness. 

The strength to risk losing face for the sake of Christ is the faith that God's love will lift up your face in the end and vindicate your cause.

The strength to risk losing money for the cause of the gospel is the faith that we have a treasure in the heavens that cannot fail.

The strength to risk losing life in this word is the faith in the promise that he who loses his life in this world will save it for the age to come.