The word means ‘of first importance, original.’ In a book simply titled Primal, (Multnomah, 2009) Mark Batterson leads his readers to reconsider the basics of being a disciple of Christ. On page 2, we learn about his tour of the Church of San Clemente in Rome, where he descends below the existing church to the catacombs that lay beneath several layers of civilizations. There Christians worshipped during Roman persecutions. “I was overcome by the fact that I was standing in a place where my spiritual ancestors risked everything, even their lives, to worship God. … I couldn’t help but wonder if we have diluted the truths of Christianity and settled for superficialities.”
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30, NIV) The author breaks down his call to basic faith by using that primal call of Jesus. We can load up our walk of faith with bells and whistles of our preferences, add our trinkets of religious traditions, but if we are serious disciples nothing replaces loving God first and others second. Batterson reminded me, with his stories, that love is an action verb, engaged with the real world where each one of us live. He reminds me that “God loves the smell of your sweat. Your sweat is sacred incense God loves it when we break a sweat serving His purposes.”
I urge you to think long and hard about what you’re pouring yourself into, to whom you’re giving the rapidly disappearing days of your life. If the foundation from which you build is solid, the structure will be too. If you want a book to help you start 2010 with some fresh thoughts about getting back to basics, Primal, would be good choice. Buy it at: http://www.amazon.com/Primal-Quest-Lost-Soul-Christianity/dp/1601421311/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261396677&sr=1-1
Mark Batterson is the lead Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife and three children.
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