Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 8 "Profile of the Obsessed"

The first thing that Chan does in this chapter is define the word obsessed. To be honest I have never really thought much about what this word means. Most of the time I equate it to somebody who is crazy about something. This was the definition Chan gave at the start of the chapter - Obsessed: To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic. Based on that definition of obsessed, I’m not sure I have ever really been obsessed. Well maybe I have….during high school wrestling, I was probably obsessed with winning. When I was preparing for a match all my focus and energy went into the thought of winning. Thinking back on those few hours before a wrestling match, my focus slowly got more and more defined as I got closer to the match. Rarely would you find me sitting 30 minutes before a wrestling match. I would pace back and forth thinking about what I would do on the mat. I guess that is what I would call obsessed in my life. The honest truth is that I have never thought of my relationship with Christ to be something that I’m obsessed about. But that is because I thought being obsessed was a bad thing. After reading this chapter I want to be obsessed. Here is how the chapter went…Chan would give a characteristic of an obsessed person, talk about it and then give a phrase that described that characteristic in one or two sentences. The way I read this chapter was that each of these are ways we can be obsessed. Chan listed 12 different characteristics that an obsessed person could have. They are: lovers, risk takers, friends of all, crazy ones, the humble, server, giver, sojourners, the engrossed, unguarded ones, the rooted, the dedicated and sacrificers. It would take me forever to write out even just the phrase for each of these things listed. I wanted to pick a couple that really got my attention and spoke into my life. These two things really made me think about my relationship with Christ and the way they are explained help change my perspective.

Lovers

"People who are obsessed with Jesus give freely and openly, without censure. Obsessed people love those who hate them and who can never love them back."

I read the word lover and I go straight to the marriage relationship between a husband and a wife. That is what lover has always meant to me in my life. I was a little confused when he used this term to explain a way a person can be obsessed. Read Luke 6:32-36. This is the definition of what it means to love someone. Jesus is the ultimate lover. The reason I say that is because He loves us even with all our dirt. He loves us so much He gave His life. We can’t pay Him back.

Unguarded Ones

"People who are obsessed are raw with God; they do not attempt to mask the ugliness of their sins or their failures. Obsessed people don’t put it on for God; He is their safe place, where they can be at peace."

We as humans are rarely, if ever, honest with each other about everything. Most of the time we are scared about what people will think of us if we tell them the truth about ourselves. We carry this same attitude to our time with God. What I often forget is that God knows everything I have done. So even if I don’t say anything He knows it. But you know, I think there is still tension between us and God if we don’t tell Him everything. He wants us to be unguarded and willing to tell him everything we are happy about, struggling with or have messed up.
Those were just two of the 12 things Chan talked about in this amazing chapter. It was so much information that it is probably something you should go back and read again and again. Chan ended the chapter with a great short paragraph that really spoke to what we need to do with all these characteristics.

"While these descriptions combined don’t necessarily answer the question of what it looks like to be wholly surrendered to God, they represent important pieces of the puzzle. Hopefully you are beginning to imagine and pray about what this looks like in your own life."

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 7 "Your Best Life…Later"

“By now you’ve probably realized that you have a distinct choice to make: just let life happen, which is tantamount to serving God your leftovers, or actively run toward Christ.”

Francis Chan started chapter 7 with this little statement. Megan and I sometimes have trouble making choices. It can take us up to 30 minutes to decide where we would like to go out to eat. Choosing something that simple should not be a difficult task. To be honest, I have never really thought about my relationship with Christ in the way Chan described. I really have to ask the question, am I serving God my leftover by just letting life happen? It is so very easy for us to fall into the trap of just living the life and trying to be good enough. Well I don’t feel called to live good enough, I feel called to something else. There are two things I know will happen during this calling. God will change not only my life but the life of others around me. And I will fail more often then I would hope, but that is the great thing about God’s grace. Chan then moves into talking about those in Hebrews 11. By faith each person took this action because God was working in life. My desire is that I will chose to actively run toward Christ and allow him to work through me.

“Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.”

If this statement doesn’t challenge you in some way then you are either living this life already or you are giving God your leftovers in your relationship with Him. I can tell you that I fail at living this life more often then not. I don’t believe there is one way to live this life. God has a plan for each of us, so we will each live this out in different ways. I’m trying to think of a way my life didn’t make sense to an unbeliever. The thing coming to mind is going to Africa to work with churches. People understand why I go and realize it is a nice thing to do. But what unbelievers don’t understand is why I would give up my vacation time for such a trip. People also don’t understand why I put so much time and effort into teaching students about having a relationship with Christ (I sometimes wonder that myself!). The relationship I have with Christ drives me to do these things. Honestly I don’t always have time to do the things I want to do, such as watch TV or hang out with friends. I also don’t always have the time to get the things done around the house that I need to do. For example, I have been telling Megan since we moved in that I would touch up the paint around the house…and we moved over 5 months ago. Living for God means making choices about how we use the time that we have been given. Sometimes it means that we have to choose to make a sacrifice. I’m going to end this post with a statement from the book. This statement is something I would like to think about for a while.

"Christians today like to play it safe..But if we truly desire to please God, we cannot live that way. We have to do things that cost us during our life on earth but will be more than worth it in eternity"

Post your thoughts. God Bless.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 6 "When You’re in Love"

We all have an opinion about what the word ‘love’ really means. It could be so many things, from “I love my shirt” to “I love you”. But the crazy thing is what we do when we are “in love”. Let’s do something fun. If you are willing…post a comment to this post about something crazy you did because you were in love. I asked Megan the question, what is something crazy I did because I was in love? She came up with two things. First while I was in Colorado visiting my family for Christmas, I spent hours talking to her online instead of hanging out with family at night. Then the first summer we were dating, I went to five weddings with her. Four of them were for people I didn’t know, one of those I had to sit by myself because Megan was part of the wedding party. In this chapter, Chan is talking about how love is part of our relationship with Jesus our Savior. Chan says,

Is loving God—and, by extension loving people—what you are about?

Galatians 5:6 says, The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. This verse really makes me think about my faith. Does the faith I live out express itself through love? Often times I would say it doesn’t and that I need to work on that part of my relationship with Christ. I want people to see my faith through my acts of love. That may be the hardest thing to live up to, but that is part of being a Christ-follower. For people to see our faith through love, we need to grow more in love with God. The best way to do this is through prayer and listening to Him. Chan made a comment about the cycle we can enter with praying for more love.

Our prayers for more love result in love, which naturally causes us to pray more, which results in more love…

We have always been told this and it is much easier said than done. The more we fall in love with God the more we will love others. In the end a question comes to mind, what is something crazy I have done because I was in love with God?
Father, Help me to be more in love with you. Give me the desire to long after you in all the parts of my life. I want people to see my faith in you through my love for them. You are an amazing God that you would love us so much yet we struggle to love you. I want to love you more. Amen.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 5 "Serving Leftovers to a Holy God"

As I see it, a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there’s no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are “lukewarm” are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven.

Wow…I read that a few times just to make sure I was reading it correctly. That is a really hard pill to swallow. To be honest with you, after reading chapter 4, I thought I might fit in the lukewarm Christian category. Now I read this and Chan has got me scared. He goes on to quote Revelation 3:15-18 (go check it out) as his reason for making this statement. Reading that part of scripture made me agree with Chan’s statement. Thinking about the churches I have been part of and the people I have seen in those churches. It really makes me nervous about the attitude we as a church body have. Are we settling to be lukewarm? If we are, does that mean we are settling for hell? I know those questions blow my mind too. I just can’t imagine that Christ-followers in general could be okay settling for that standard.
Luke 14:33 says “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” These words are in red, in a red letter bible, for those who don’t know that means that Jesus was saying them. Are we willing to give up EVERYTHING? My prayer is that I would be willing to live this out for my relationship with Christ. God has called us to a higher standard than we have set for ourselves. Let’s reach for that standard.

I do not want true believers to doubt their salvation as they read this book. In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us. I’m not saying that when you mess up, it means you were never really a genuine Christian in the first place. If that were true, no one would be able follow Christ.

From scripture, Chan used Lamentations 3 and 2 Corinthians 12:9 to back up this statement. I’m so glad that he uses scripture to back up his points because that is what we should be doing with everything. These two views really can make a person not really know where they stand. In the end you need to answer to God about what you have done with what He has given you. As true Christ-followers we need to be willing to answer the call of God on our lives. These are the hardest steps for anyone to take. Chan ended the chapter really well and the questions he asked are what I will leave you with now.

Are you willing to say to God that He can have whatever he wants? Do you believe that wholehearted commitment to Him is more important than any other thing or person in your life? Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made?

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 4 "Profile of the Lukewarm"

When I was in the 3rd grade I had an experience I will never forget. I don’t remember exactly how things got to this point but here is what happened. While my friends and I were talking, another guy came running over yelling my name. I turned around to see this other kid that didn’t like me. He came closer and stopped just in front of me. At that point everything seemed to slow down. I watched as his right foot began to swing toward me. When I noticed he had boots on, I knew this was going to hurt. I think we all know what happened at this point. But in case you need it said, he kicked me below the belt. I fell to the ground and started crying. (I was in 3rd grade, yes I cried.)
Well I just finished chapter 4 of Crazy Love and guess what…I was about on the ground crying again. Chan really took off the gloves and put to print some things that many Christ followers don’t want to hear. The chapter is all about exactly the title. Chan creates a list of possible ways Christ followers can be lukewarm. The thing that I love about each point he makes is that he backs it up with scripture, which is probably whatt made it all hurt so bad as I read through the chapter. For space and copyright issues I can’t type out every point that Chan makes, just another reason to pick the book up and read it yourself. I want to share two that spoke directly into my life.

Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends. They do not want to be rejected, nor do they want to make people uncomfortable by talking about private issues like religion. (Read Matt. 10:32-33)

Ummmmm….does anymore need to be said? That hurts. I have always known that we are supposed to share our faith. But the question I ask myself is why don’t I share it? If I believe what scripture has to say and that Christ did come to die for my sins, then shouldn’t I want to share that with everyone? Go back and click on the scripture link and read the verse. That will give you another gut check that makes it sink in even deeper. Lord, help me to be bold in my faith and willing and able to share my faith with friends, neighbors, coworkers and family.

Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slave to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God. (Read 1 Tim. 6:17-18)

I almost had to stop reading this chapter at this point. It was getting so hard to read that I felt like putting the book down and coming back later, or skipping the rest of the chapter. What came to mind for me was when I played sports. I would risk everything to get a win whether it was football, baseball or wrestling. God has called us to sacrifice and risk things not for this world but for His eternal kingdom. I want to be known as a risk taker for the Kingdom of God. In the end the best thing we can all hear is “well done my good and faithful servant” from God.
This was two of the profiles of the lukewarm from Crazy Love. Go get the book and read the others laid out across 14 pages. It will make you realize some area that you might be living a lukewarm faith. The best part about finishing the chapter….we get a chance to grow. I don’t want to me lukewarm in my faith. I want to be on FIRE. Does that mean everything is perfect and that I’m not going to sin…..NO. My prayer is that God will help me grow and develop into the godly man, willing to risk, sacrifice and share my faith with everyone around me.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 3 "Crazy Love"

Wow, I just finished the third chapter of Crazy Love and I’m not really sure where to go with this post. The chapter was only ten pages long and it seems like that would be easy to write about. Well I think there was a reason the book was named after this chapter. It was very challenging and deep. I think what I will do is talk about a couple quotes from the book that really spoke to me.

Most of us, to some degree, have a difficult time understanding, believing, or accepting God’s absolute and unlimited love for us. The reasons we don’t receive, trust, or see His love vary from one person to the next, but we all miss out because of it.

Thinking about what my reasons might be for not receiving God’s amazing love is so hard and challenging in itself. There have been many things that have impacted the way I respond to God. One of the most clear in my mind is the way fellow Christians have treated me and my family. It is hard to say the Church in general has impacted my relationship with Christ but it is true. It has only been in the past few years that I have been able to realize that the Church is not God. The other thing about the Church that I always have to remind myself of: it is made of fallen people just like me. My prayer this week is going to be asking for help in receiving, trusting, and seeing God’s love in my life.

…when we love God. We naturally run to Him- frequently and zealously.

Just one sentence later Chan goes on to quote Matt. 22:37-38. Chan made a point that I have never really thought about. God never commands us to spend regular daily time with Him. He wants us to follow the command He gave in Matt. 22:37-38. Once we can figure out how to love God with all that we have, then we will have a passion and desire to spend time with Him. I’m amazed how often I will make excuses to not spend time in the Word, listening and talking to God. Chan ends the chapter with a series of questions. One really hit close to home.

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

Thoughts?

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 2 "You Might Not Finish This Chapter"

When I read the title of chapter 2, I had two thoughts. Either I’m not going to finish the chapter because I don’t agree with what he is saying or my life will end before I finish. Well reading this time I was not as shocked as I was the first time I read it, when I realized he was talking about life ending. Francis Chan wrote:

On the average day, we live caught up in ourselves. On the average day, we don’t consider God very much. On the average day, we forget that our life truly is a vapor.

I’m going to be honest about something for just a minute. My name is Jeremy Logue and I’m addicted to making To-Do lists. Currently, I have at least 4 to-do lists; one on my Itouch, one on a notebook in my bag, one on my desk here at home and one on my desk at work. Often times those lists involve things that are months away from being done or have already been completed. So you may be asking, what does this have to do with the chapter? Well, Chan pointed out the fact that often times we are so preoccupied with ourselves we forget about God. The quote above from the book really makes me think about the idea of making lists. Don’t get me wrong, lists are a good way to be organized, but we need to FOCUS our lives on God and ways we can glorify Him. We really don’t know how long we have on this earth (James 4:13-14).

So many of us think and live like the movie of life is all about us.

Read that quote from the book again. I had to read it like four times to realize the complexity and how much information one little sentence could hold. When I continued to read Chan helped explain just how complex it was. I will not go completely into it on here but he laid the ground work to understand just how focused we should be on GOD! Grab the book and read page 43 to understand this concept
more.

What did I take from the chapter as a whole?
I need to learn to rely on God and realize that He is the one in control. Our time here on earth is not about creating a movie for ourselves but playing a role in God’s movie. Also I’m learning that no matter what is going on in my life, I should be working to glorify God. At the end of my life I don’t want to be known for how selfish I lived my life, but for how well I did living my life for Christ (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).

I challenge you to pick up this book (Crazy Love by Fancis Chan) and allow God to speak to you through the words he has given Chan.