When you pick up a book to read and find it hard to put back down you quickly realize that it is a book that really speaks to your heart. Francis Chan's book Crazy Love is definately one of those books. The book is centered around the theme of recognizing how much God loves sinners inspite of their sinfulness and therefore in return should be pursued as the heart's greatest treasure. However, as Chan alludes to, this is really is not the case in many Christians lives. God is often pursued as something for benefit rather than as something ultimate. A secondary theme is discipleship. The book provides some scathing insight into discipleship because our words as followers of Christ do not necessarily match our actions as followers of Christ. Chan identifies that there is a problem within the church because so many profess to be followers of Christ and yet their lives give no evidence of Christ being central to their life. In other words, Chan's book proclaims the mantra of the epistle of James, "If you have faith you will have works." Very simply Chan believes that if one is overwhelmed by the crazy love of God then their life will give evidence of being consumed by God's love in loving others. Let me provide a few pertinent quotes which may wet your appetite to read this heart piercing book.
If life were stable, I'd never need God's help. Since it's not, I reach out for Him regulary. I am thankful for the unknowns and that I don't have control, because it makes me run to God (p.45).
Has your relationship with God actually changed the way you live? Do you see evidence of God's kingdom in your life? Or are you choking it out slowly by spending too much time, energy, money, and thought on the things of this world (p.67)?
My conclusion? Jesus' call to commitment is clear: He wants all or nothing. The thought of a person calling himself a "Christian" without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurb (p.85).
It struck me that many Christians flash around their 'no trans fat' label, trying to convince everyone they are healthy and good. Yet they have no substantive or healthful elements to their faith. It's like the Laodiceans, who thought they had everything until Christ told them they were poor and wretched. They were all about declaring, 'Look, we have no trans fat. We are wealthy, or we have good families, or we go to church every week.' Obviously, it's not what you advertise that counts; it's what you are really made of (p.93).
Lukewarm living and claiming Christ's name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God. And when we are honest, we have to admit that it isn't very fulfilling or joyful to us, either (p.103).
We are consumed by safety. Obsessed with it, actually. Now, I am not saying it is wrong to pray for God's protection, but I am questioning how we've made safety our highest priority. We've elevated safety to the neglect of whatever God's best is, whatever would bring God the most glory, or whatever would accomplish His purposes in our lives and in the world (p.131).
I wrote this book because much of our talk doesn't match our lives. We say things like, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,' and 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart.' Then we live and plan like we don't believe God even exists. We try to set our lives up so everything will be fine even if God doesn't come through. But true faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God's fidelity to His promises (p.168).
I think I need to read this book! Some of the quotes are very similar to my thoughts concerning the body of Christ. Are true Christians lazy in their pursuit of righteousness? If this is the case, they MUST be tormented. And if tormented, how does that play out of their psyche? What would the world be like if we daily did our job - daily exercise our right meet with God at His throne?
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