Crazy Love by Francis Chan calls professing Christians to follow their Savior in radical ways. The reader is challenged to take Jesus’ teaching seriously and put it into practice.
Learn the difference between being radically devoted to Christ and living a lukewarm religious life.
If you have ever read the Bible or even part of the New Testament and wondered if you are missing the church of the past, then you are not alone. While bashing churches is easy, it is not as easy to find a way to make a true difference. Churches need to take a biblical viewpoint as opposed to the conventional one that often rules churches today.
This shift back to the Bible can lead to radical living for Christ. To do this, we must not only realize that we are lukewarm and halfhearted but that the view most of us hold of God is inaccurate. Take the time to examine your walk and church as this study unfolds.
In this summary, you will learn:
- that God has given you a great gift, but your life is limiting other blessings;
- that true love means taking action, not just praying and waiting; and
- how you can use the guidelines God has given you in the Bible.
Approach God in prayer with awe and silence.
Today’s culture relies on quick responses, fast comebacks, and excess. Many times, this leaks into our prayer lives as we quickly come to God with numerous requests and rehearsed prayers, but what if this is not the way it was intended? Consider entering into your prayer time in silence. Stop praying. Instead, take time to be silent and stop talking at God so you can hear from Him.
In current cultural climates, we are often quick to speak but slow to listen. Solomon warns us not to rush into God’s presence with words. Are you doing that? A wiser move is to come into God’s presence and stand in awe of all that He is. Think about all the things in the universe that have been discovered over the years. Now, remember that God created every aspect and has known them for many years.
God is creative enough to make an oak tree that will have over six million leaves in its lifetime, a caterpillar with 228 separate muscles in its head alone, and humans who are intricately put together. This alone should put you in the frame of mind to honor the Creator. It is hard to find a way to appropriately respond to God’s diversity and magnitude in a world bent on ignoring Him, but this is His command.
Humans are prone to spiritual amnesia in that no matter how much of God’s glory we witness, we forget to be thankful and praise Him. In a world where hundreds of thousands of things distract us from God, we must intentionally take time to remind ourselves of Him. We are conditioned to think about what we do not have in life, and the dissatisfaction bleeds over into our Christian walks. We have everything we need in God, but this is often forgotten. So how do we get back to the right frame of mind and truly get to know God?
First, we must realize the many qualities of God. God is holy, meaning He is set apart and distinct from us. Since He is holy, we can never fully understand His presence, but we can get to know Him better. We must marvel in His perfection.
God is also eternal. Everything has a starting point for its existence, a time limit – everything except God. Though we can never fully grasp that concept, it helps us to know that God is not confined or limited in any way.
God is all-knowing. This can be an overwhelming thought but also one that is comforting. There is nothing we can hide from God. We cannot surprise Him, but we can delight Him. The Maker of a million different galaxies, species, and plants cares enough to know everything about us.
God is all-powerful. God created everything for His delight, including humans. We often think about Him as someone to do our bidding, to bless and care for us, but this is not our purpose in life. We can come to God humbly and make requests, but we are in no position to make demands.
God is fair and just. This can be scary because if we got exactly what we deserved, we would be in eternal punishment, but we have a way to salvation.
As part of prayer, we must realize the qualities of God and come before Him, acknowledging such attributes. Take time in your prayer life to stand in amazement at all God has done and all He can do. We serve a fearsome and holy God that puts us in our place as humans. He deserves our respect and honor.
Each day is special when we remember how fragile we are.
When we wake up each morning, is it with the attitude of gratefulness? Each day, each moment could be our last, but rarely do we consider this. We often take for granted that the sun will rise and set, that our bodies will perform as they should, and that what we do at any moment could be the last thing we do. We tend to justify that life happens and this will not be our last day, but this is not true.
Sometimes we have small problems, and once we voice concern over them, they become things we stress about. Problems, big or small, can be taken to God if we are also willing to take His guidance. If we approach life in this manner, then those overwhelming problems will not seem as big in light of our Savior. If problems consume us, we are telling God that He is not big enough to handle our lives.
Worry implies that we do not trust God, while stress says that the things we are involved in are more important than what God has in store. This shows a lack of patience, grace, and personal control. These two behaviors seem to communicate that sin and lack of trust are acceptable. This is simply not true…
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