Crazy Love - chapter 3

I remember a conversation I had years ago with a friend in high school. He asked, "Didn't Jesus know that He would conquer death and reign forever anyway, so wasn't His 'suffering' kind of ... contrived?"

That question stuck with me for a long time. How much was Christ's agony, crucifixion, and death "worth" if, because of His omniscience, He knew things would end up fine in the end?

One day, by God's grace my eyes were opened and I saw the twisted nature of that question. Because the answer is, it doesn't matter that He knew anyway -- the bottom line is, He didn't have to do it.

As many faithful believers before us have testified, a man will never in his own short lifetime understand the crazy depths of God's love for His people.
BUT we CAN start to taste some of its flavours, and find joy & security in His love.

From what I have observed, especially in Asian churches, the concept of "having quiet time" or "doing devotions" with God every day can become a job responsibility. The way everyone talks about it gives the impression that if you do it regularly, you are a good Christian; if not, you feel the burden of guilt and shame. Have you experienced this? I have struggled a lot in this area.

But when set against the background of God's love for me, how wrong that attitude is! My spending time in prayer and the Word should spring effortlessly out of a deep desire to just be with my Father. My view of God is the true measure of my responsive love for Him, not the regularity or length of my QTs.

I think that is why this book started with a reflection on the majesty of God, and why we sometimes need to carve out time for mini-retreats (by ourselves, in our room or in the woods or somewhere quiet) .... too often, we get dulled and forget the intensity of who the Lord is, and how much He wants us to walk closely with Him. We always need to get pulled back and start again with who God is, and then who He wants us to be in light of that.

Do you believe that the Good News is not merely the forgiveness of your sins, the guarantee that you won't go to hell, or the promise of life in heaven?

Do you love this God who is everything, or do you just love everything He gives you?

Questions for reflection & discussion (modified from the CL study guide) --

• How is your relationship with your earthly father? In it, do you see any overlap with the way you relate to God?

• Pick one word to describe your relationship with your heavenly Father. Does your “one word” reflect a reality you’re pleased with or one you’re disappointed in? If you’re pleased, then great. But if not, what one word would describe the way you’d like it to be?

• Consider using that one word as a prayer for a while, repeating it throughout the day when God’s Spirit prompts you. It could be a significant first step to praying without ceasing.

Crazy Love - chapter 2

I like how this chapter comes right after the one about God's awesome & eternal otherness. From that, we turn to the brevity & mortality of ourselves, and get a sense of how small we are in comparison to Him. Not in a degrading "you are worth nothing" sense, but in an enlightening "wow, i am not actually the center of the universe" sense.

As we move onto the next chunk of James in our peacemaking series (!), how clearly these themes are beginning to echo all around us!

On the average day, we live caught up in ourselves. That is just so, SO true...sadly. All the suggestions in the chapter 1 post are great ways to get beyond this; to remember to stop belly-button-gazing and keep our eyes looking outwards.

Anxiety. Worry. Stress.
Many of us are so defined by these words. Have you ever considered that these "emotions" are direct violations of a command from God? I think we push these words around so much that it is almost expected that we are experiencing one or all of these at any given moment. Next time, instead of simply asking God to help your _______ (presentation, assignment, meeting, exam...) go well, maybe we can try asking instead for a deeper understanding of His sovereignty/power/love/holiness...and for His peace to wash out those fears.

mini-revelation/reminder while reading this chapter --
My life is not mine, but God's.

Doesn't that go against so much that is ingrained in us? It's my time, I do what I want, no one can or should tell me otherwise.

"Why are we so quick to forget about God? who do we think we are?"

Like the Jesus Storybook Bible (^^) so wonderfully illustrates...it's all about Christ. Not Moses! Not Isaiah! Not Paul! Not me! Not you!

What is your "2/5ths of a second" going to be about? making much of God? or yourself?

How can you bring glory to God while eating a sandwich during lunch break or studying at 12:04am?

Are you ready to die well?

Death has circled around me peripherally a lot this past week. 3 of my good friends had good friends suddenly taken away (climbing accident, illness, and one unknown cause but his body was found in the Mississippi River). All were in their 20s.

Death was not meant to be... but here it is, in this broken world, and it is an alarm clock to us who are still living.

Discussion Qs:

• Those who do not believe in God also sense that it's important to live every day to the fullest. How does the Bible's teaching about this differ from the popular sayings, "Follow your dreams! Be all that you want to be; after all, you only live once."

• Can you think of anyone you know personally who lives as if each day is his/her last? What is this person’s effect on people around him/her? Does this person stand out because of his/her lifestyle?
  

Crazy Love - chapter 1

God as a handy companion; God as someone I should think about once in a while.

For the longest time, that was my attitude towards the Creator of the universe.

What arrogance! And it still pops up sometimes, as I continue to suffer from "spiritual amnesia."

The first time I remember reflecting on God as a being to be feared was in second-year university, when our theme as a Christian fellowship was "facedown" -- based on John's vision in Revelation. It started to sink in that, in the Bible (a real book!), John (a real man!) was describing the throne room (a real place!) of a Holy God (a real reality - the realest thing that can possibly exist!).

A few years later, my pastor taught a series on "The Attributes of God." Though I grew up in the church, I had not ever truly meditated on each of God's incredible attributes. I was well exposed to the phrases of "God is love" and "God is wise" (we can learn many good things from Him). But holy? eternal? all-knowing? all-powerful? just? fair? I realized that my ignorance of those attributes had horribly stunted & narrowed my view of the Lord.

Are you staggered by His awesomeness?
Do you live your life with an awareness that every action/breath/thought is completed in the presence of the Almighty? When you pray and sing to worship Him, are you mindful of the majestic holiness of the One you are worshiping?

Oh, it is so easy to forget. I do, all the time.

By His grace though, I'm starting to understand more and more about why God gave us the Bible, gave us the church (Christian community), gave us the testimonies of other saints (believers) who have gone before us, gave us praise music to enjoy ... it seems that the more we surround and immerse ourselves in these things, the less distracted we become with the world, and the easier it becomes to blow off the fog and see reality = the Lord is God, I am not.


What are some things you do to help keep the majesty of God in focus from day to day? Share some suggestions for us to try, so we can help keep each other out of spiritual amnesia.
example - I find my mood really affected by music (especially song lyrics) so I try to make a point of filling my days with songs that have worshipful words. For instance, the song below was shared with me a few months ago, and just listening to it caused my heart to overflow with praise. It's like being in His throne room! Though I know it is but a shadow! Take a listen (surround sound/earphones if possible)... do you agree?

And here are some more helpful follow-up questions from the CL Study Guide --

Stop and think about the last prayer you voiced. How did you begin? Our Father? Dear Lord? Jesus? What word or phrase did you use to start the prayer? Now, take a minute and consider the prayer you prayed before that prayer. How did you begin? Same word or phrase? Different? Sorta different or radically different? If you begin all your prayers in much the same way, ask yourself why.

Take on this scenario: You’ve just seen Jesus. One of those courtroom sketch artists has asked you to physically describe what you just saw. What do you say? Be as specific as possible. Try and figure out the sources of some of your descriptions.

Crazy Love - preface

I vividly remember the first time I heard this preface. Yes, "heard"! I had downloaded the audio version and decided to take a listen while waiting for a transfer at the Hong Kong airport...

The first sentence of the preface had me hooked.

I recall an odd kind of giddiness that arose as I listened on, realizing that I am not alone in perceiving a large gap between the character of the early church as described in the New Testament, and character of today's churches in the West. I was also excited to learn that this book was not out to "bash the church" as many others have done ... Jesus calls the church His bride and very own body. How can we bash that?

Similar to Francis Chan, I grew up "believing in God without having a clue what He is like."

Thankfully, also similar to Chan, God has been opening my eyes these last few years to see just HOW BIG and HOW AWESOME He truly is.

A quotation I came across the other day really sums up a truth I've been discovering -

Deep theology is the best fuel of devotion; it readily catches fire, and once kindled it burns long. - Will Metzger

Love is always accompanied by, or you could say expressed by, a singular devotion to the object of your love. Are you devoted to God? Is your life devoted to loving Him?

For a long time, that answer for me was NO. And I didn't know how to get out of that rut ... but God heard, and He graciously pulled me out. As my understanding of Him grew deeper, my devotion got hotter!

I am really praying that God will do the same for each of you (and me, still) especially in these coming weeks as we meditate collectively on the craziness of His love for us.

Here are some questions for discussion in the comments...pick one (or more!) and run with it. Or add some of your own. :)

• Who are you? We have about 24 people doing this together right now ... introduce yourself (I guess mainly for Jenny's sake, since she has never met any of you other wonderful people!) and let us know where you are coming from - maybe a bit about your background, your previous experience(s) with God, what made you decide to join in the reading...?

• What do you expect and/or hope to learn in the coming 10 chapters?

the Vision

this song came over the speakers as i was getting this page set up, and it suddenly hit home how well the lyrics fit with our theme of discovering God for who He really is, not just who we think He is.
plus, Matt 7, which we talked about last Friday, is even featured (the Bible pasage...not the artist).

take a listen to this acoustic goodness and buy the whole CD to support AMP if you like this one. because all their songs are this good (or better)! Bernie, you can back me up on that, yeah? :)

swimming in crazy loooove

so our first collaborative effort at getting our noses into some rich God-oriented lit will be "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. many of you have probably heard of this book, and some have even read it already! if this is your second time through, hopefully you'll have even more insights to share. :) for those who have not heard of this title, click here for a solid review.

and for a model of how an "online book club" can be run, see this example.
we don't have to follow it exactly, of course. perhaps we can take turns writing weekly posts about each chapter (and they don't have to be essay-length reflections!). and then the rest of us can interact through the comments section.

hope you can join us as we walk through this book together & give this format a try.

below is a short video put out by the author to introduce his work.