Insanity of God | God Blog

Religion will cost us the tears of repentance and the blood of persecution.
- Thomas Watson

The Insanity of God

In his prologue, Nik Ripken recalls a crises of faith centered around the following questions: “Does God, in fact, promise His children safety? Do things always work out for those who are obedient? Does God really ask us to sacrifice—and to sacrifice everything? What happens when our best intentions and most creative ideas are not enough? Is God at work in the hard places? And does He expect us to join Him in those hard places? Isn’t it possible to love God and to pretty much keep living the life I already have? What does it really mean for God to tell us that His ways are not our ways? Would He really allow people who love Him dearly to fail? And, if so, is this a God who can use even holy failure for His purposes?”

In The Insanity of God and The Insanity of Obedience, Nik, his wife Ruth and children Shane, Tim, and Andrew search for answers by repeatedly putting their lives on line for the cause of Christ. While encouraging, if not compelling, everyone they meet to do the same, the Ripken's risking everything, wrestling with the essential question too few answer adequately, "Is Jesus worth it."

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my Martyrs in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

- Acts 1:8

Nik Ripken, a pseudonym for safety sake, summarizes his first book this way, "The Insanity of God is the personal and lifelong journey of an ordinary couple from rural Kentucky who thought they were going on just your ordinary missionary pilgrimage, but discovered it would be anything but. After spending over six hard years doing relief work in Somalia, and experiencing life where it looked like God had turned away completely and He was clueless about the tragedies of life, the couple had a crisis of faith and left Africa asking God, "Does the gospel work anywhere when it is really a hard place? It sure didn't work in Somalia."

Nik recalls that, “God had always been so real to me, to Ruth, and to our boys. But was He enough, for the utter weariness of soul I experienced at that time, in that place, under those circumstances?” It is a question that many have asked and one that, if answered, can lead us to a whole new world of faith.

Nik continues, "How does faith survive, let alone flourish in a place like the Middle East? How can good truly overcome such evil? How do you maintain hope when all is darkness around you? How can we say “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world” when it may not be visibly true in that place at that time? How does anyone live an abundant, victorious Christian life in our world’s toughest places? Can Christianity even work outside of Western, dressed-up, ordered nations? If so, how?"

The Insanity of God tells a story—a remarkable and unique story to be sure, yet at heart a very human story—of the Ripkens’ own spiritual and emotional odyssey. The gripping, narrative account of a personal pilgrimage into some of the toughest places on earth, combined with sobering and insightful stories of the remarkable people of faith Nik and Ruth encountered on their journeys, will serve as a powerful course of revelation, growth, and challenge for anyone who wants to know whether God truly is enough.

Regarding Ripken's follow up book, The Insanity of Obedince, NRM explains: All Christian disciples have one thing in common: as they carry the gospel across the ocean and across the street, persecution will become the norm for those who choose to follow Jesus. How believers respond in the face of persecution reveals everything about their level of faith and obedience.

The Insanity of Obedience is a bold challenge to global discipleship. Nik Ripken exposes the danger of safe Christianity and calls readers to something greater. The Insanity of Obedience challenges Christians in the same, provocative way that Jesus did. This book dares you—and prepares you—to cross the street and the oceans with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Some of Jesus’ instructions sound uncomfortable and are potentially dangerous. We may be initially encouraged by His declaration, “I am sending you out.” But how are we to respond when He then tells us that He is sending us out “like sheep among wolves”?

In light of the words of Jesus, how can modern day believers rest comfortably in the status quo? How can we embrace casual faith in light of the radical commands of Jesus which are anything but casual? Ripken brings decades of ministry experience in some of the most persecuted areas of the world to bear on our understanding of faith in Jesus. The Insanity of Obedience is a call to roll up your sleeves… and to follow and partner with Jesus in the toughest places on this planet.

“We have the high privilege of answering Jesus’ call to go,” Ripken says. “But let us be clear about this: we go on His terms, not ours. If we go at all, we go as sheep among wolves.”

Jesus gives us Himself. And He gives us the tools necessary for those who dare to journey with Him

GB Comments

As with Jackie Pullinger and her video "Go" the message of NRM’s Insanity Series is as accurate as it is challenging.

Modern Christianity seeks to offer salvation, and a relationship to God, at the fire sale price of nothing (absolutely free). Scripture, like NRM’s, attest that everything (absolutely all) is closer to the truth.

Whether our ministry field is in First World or Third World Nations, we are all compelled by Jesus, and the needs surrounding us, to give ourselves fully to obtaining the many wonderful promises and meeting the costly demands, of the Kingdom of God.

Responding to Christ's call means answering such ultimate questions as, what must I do to be saved and how can I follow Christ in today’s world. Doing so begins by understanding the quantum nature of God and His holy number.

Many posit seven, the number of Divine completion. Others three, in honor of the Trinity. Both abound in the Bible, as well as throughout nature. Yet God's holy number is far greater than either of these.

Scripture's most consummate number is actually the word "ALL." And once you see it you find it everywhere. Particularly in answer to many crucial controversies. Such as, whom does God desire saved? Which of Scripture's commands must we obey? How much miraculous power need Christians access?

"Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

Consider a few other important Scripture's reinforcing with the concept of ALL:

"John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River." Matthew 3:4-6

"But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Matthew 3:14-15

"Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." Matthew 6:29

"So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:31-33

"When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick." Matthew 8:16

"And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Matthew 10:30

"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Matthew 11:27

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

"Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick." Matthew 12:15

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." Matthew 13:31-33

"The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 13:41-42

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Matthew 13:43

"And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed." Matthew 14:35

"They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children." Matthew 15:37-38

“Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?''" Matthew 18:32-33

"Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

"Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests." Matthew 22:9-10

"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." Matthew 22:37-38

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 24:14

"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." Matthew 24:30-31

And those are just some of the more memorable ALL's from just one gospel! Seems ALL is truly mankind's the lucky number. As further expressed in a couple of final examples:

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9

"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:14-21

With "Heaven to gain and Hell to loose" Amen indeed.

For additional articles regarding radical discipleship see GB's The Heavenly Man, Smith Wigglesworth, Evan Roberts, George Müller, God's Hostage, Power From On High, Lessons From Azusa Street, The Almost Christian, Grace Of God and Issues With God.

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