A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty
By David Platt
4/5
()
About this ebook
In this companion piece to his bestselling book Counter Culture, David Platt offers sound Biblical support and practical action steps to help Christians take a courageous and compassionate stand against poverty. Drawing heavily on personal stories and Scripture, Platt encourages Christians to get involved and highlights a wide variety of ministries and organizations currently countering poverty that need your help.
The stage is set for the God of the universe to do the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the shocking, and the scandalous. And He wants you to be a part of it. It’s time to take a stand for Christ, join the fight against poverty, and counter culture!
Read more from David Platt
Because We Are Called to Counter Culture: In a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Persecution, Abortion, Orphans, and Pornography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Hunger for God (Redesign): Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counter Culture: Following Christ in an Anti-Christian Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Did Jesus Really Mean When He Said Follow Me? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gospel at Work: How the Gospel Gives New Purpose and Meaning to Our Jobs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Risk Is Right: Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5#butGod: The Power of Hope When Catastrophe Crashes In Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Sexual Immorality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Unreached People Groups Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Orphans and Widows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Same-Sex Marriage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life on Mission: Joining the Everyday Mission of God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Abortion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counter Culture Scripture and Prayer Guide Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life in Community: Joining Together to Display the Gospel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finish the Mission: Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Missions Shapes the Mission Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Expected One, Revised and Updated: Anticipating All of Jesus in the Advent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Racism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Persecution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Power in the Pulpit: How to Prepare and Deliver Expository Sermons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty
Related ebooks
The Loneliness Epidemic: Why So Many of Us Feel Alone--and How Leaders Can Respond Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cost of Discipleship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5With Justice for All: A Strategy for Community Development Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Waste Your Life (Redesign) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5MERCY EXTENDED: The Gift that Transforms Lives, Impacts Generations, and Mobilizes Multitudes for Eternity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEvangelicals Around the World: A Global Handbook for the 21st Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friend of Sinners Bible Study Guide: Why Jesus Cares More About Relationship Than Perfection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Power of Christian Contentment: Finding Deeper, Richer Christ-Centered Joy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Myth of Equality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTurning Everyday Conversations into Gospel Conversations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart Of A Healer: Trauma-Informed Biblical Counseling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy We Pray Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyone, Everywhere: Glimpses of God's Global Work Through People Like You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Unsaved Christian: Reaching Cultural Christianity with the Gospel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bent Hope: A Street Journal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDangerous: Engaging the People and Places No One Else Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tales from the Tribe: A missions-focused devotional from the jungle to your home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gospel & Abortion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReframing Poverty: New Thinking and Feeling about Humanity's Greatest Challenge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Hell with the Hustle: Reclaiming Your Life in an Overworked, Overspent, and Overconnected World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Don't Get Your Own Personal Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Follow Him: A 35-Day Call to Live for Christ No Matter the Cost Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOnly Jesus: What It Really Means to Be Saved Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Christianity For You
The Book of Enoch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God's Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pursuit of God with Study Guide: The Human Thirst for the Divine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: Fourth Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Start Again Monday: Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Eating Habits with Lasting Spiritual Satisfaction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: Creating a Marriage That's Both Holy and Hot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5NIV, Holy Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What's So Amazing About Grace? Study Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Changes That Heal: Four Practical Steps to a Happier, Healthier You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty
22 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counter Culture is an impassioned plea from David Platt for Christians to engage the world in a number of hot-button issues. He takes on such items as poverty, racism, orphan care, and immigration. I was particularly stirred by his call for Christians to confront the sex slavery industry and his call for orphan care. However, the best chapter in the book dealt with his ideas on race relations and the Gospel. He moves the conversation away from the idea of skin-tone to the idea of ethnicity. In doing so, Platt pushes the reader to consider how Christ has commanded us to declare the Gospel to all panta ta ethne, or all people groups as missiologists like to say. Borrowing ideas from Russell Moore, Platt makes a solid case for Christians to reconsider our treatment of aliens, legal or illegal. I commend him for making what will surely be such unpopular points among political conservatives (among whom I count myself....).I stop short of giving this book a five star rating in large part because Platt stops short of saying the things I want and expect him to say. In my opinion, he says much but not enough when it comes to sexual morality. While he deals effectively with the devastating effects of pornography and makes pointed, biblical cases against sexual sins (homo- and heterosexual), I wished he had taken a harder and clearer stance about how Christians should respond to the homosexual agenda in American culture, especially when it comes to politics. I found his soft position even more unsettling considering the fact that he included a chapter on Christians and religious liberty. Those short-comings aside, Counter Culture is a good book that will serve as a great primer for those who are interested in applied biblical ethics. Thanks, Dr. Platt, for sharing it with us!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Forget the American dreamlife for Christians. Let go of a focus on evangelism only, or its alternative a strive for justice, religious freedom, end of slavery and racism only. Dare to be honest to yourself, the faith you profess and the people around. In Counter Culture, New York Times bestselling author David Platt dares to open tough conversations on the fuel we put into sexual trafficking by watching porn, the supercial end of racism, when we discriminate on auto-pilot, take lives of unborn children, and promote same-sex marriages. The sojourner in our midst, of which the Bible speaks, is the immigrant next door. And did you ever realize what the command to take up your cross and follow Christ really implies? Will you stay silent? Will the Church leave thousands of ethnic groups unreached by the gospel?Or will you and your church pick up challenges like spreading the gospel while taking care of orphans, persecuted Christians and poor? Taking the whole Bible seriously is really counter culture, intolerant and radical. Though I would like to have seen chapters on the possession and use of weapons among Americans, the widespread obese and overconsumption too, this book testifies to a deep love for God and His instructions. Each chapter closes with a short summary of things to pray for, re-read in the Bible and practice. Counterculturebook.com has additional resources, links to organizations and personal stories.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I received this free as it was damaged. It was a really great read. (I was surprised by this as I saw that the author was a best-seller which usually means they haven't written anything that challenges Christians to examine themselves! )
The author Platt honestly admits that he has made mistakes in the past by taking a neutral stance in relation to controversial Christian issues. He has more than compensated for this by writing a book to encourage people to counter the Western culture and to really live out their Christian faith practically.
He covers a range of issues including abortion, same-sex marriage, poverty, sex slavery, immigration, orphans, racism, pornography, persecution. He examines the various cultural viewpoints and explains how Christians have gradually allowed themselves to conform to the culture. He challenges Christians not to hide from these issues or shy away from them but to use them as an opportunity for Gospel witness. He gives practical ways to get involved in responding biblically to all of these issues after encouraging Christians to pray for an area of service.
The author places clear emphasis on the Gospel being the most important aspect that should be at the center of all of our "works" as Christians. He explains how help without hope doesn't really help anyone. I especially enjoyed the last chapter about evangelism and the unreached.
Recommended to all Western Christians who want to challenged.
Book preview
A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty - David Platt
POVERTY
Are you rich? Before you answer that question, consider that if you have clean water, sufficient food and clothes, a roof over your head at night, access to medicine, and the ability to read a book, then relative to the rest of the world you are incredibly wealthy. You may not feel wealthy, but did you know that . . .
more than one billion people live (and die) in desperate poverty[1],
828 million live in slums,[2]
870 million are chronically undernourished,[3] and
150 million children are exploited for labor?[4]
So what do these numbers look like practically? For starters, there’s a lack of food and water. Seven hundred and eighty-three million people on the planet today lack access to safe drinking water.[5] Then there’s inadequate medical care: nearly six thousand people die every day in Africa of HIV/AIDS.[6] Even easily curable diseases and sicknesses pose a real threat: millions are dying of diarrhea, most of them kids. Or consider protein deficiency: 80 percent of brain development happens in the first three years of your life, and if you don’t have sufficient protein by then, you will pay for it with a malformed brain for the rest of your