Book Review: "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan

Buy it HERE.

This past summer at Men's BASIC, my church's men's ministry, we went through this book.  I have really enjoyed getting up in the morning to meet with other men who know, love and obey Jesus.  I am often challenged to do things I would not think of on my own that are good for my mind and heart to do.  The Holy Spirit is alive and at work in other people's lives and what He is asking them to teach and preach is encouraging my soul to expand and grow.

This book was a great opportunity to reflect upon that to which God has called us in Christ.  The radical transformation of lives we observe in Scripture is not anomalous.  The same Spirit is at work today in the proclamation of the same Good News of God in Christ.  But what does it look like to live that out now?  In what ways does the Gospel call us to rebel against our own culture?  In what ways does it ask us to engage our culture in order to, by the grace of God, win some?  What would you have to change in order to depend on God and His church as the video below encourages?  What would you have to change in order for others to depend upon you as a member of God's church as the video below encourages?



The point of this book is not to guilt you into doing more or to make you feel unregenerate unless you are doing the most uncomfortable thing you can imagine.  It is, however, encouraging you to participate in that which the Holy Spirit encourages you to do even if it is uncomfortable or considered crazy by others.

Being crazy is not being Christian.  Being Christian may often be looked upon as being crazy however.  Know the difference.  Sometimes the most Christian thing you can do today is the most generic, vanilla, routine, predictable, pedestrian thing like providing for your wife and kids by working hard, honoring your boss by doing what they say, driving the speed limit, being generous with your paycheck, unloading the dishwasher, etc...  Paul encourages those in Thessalonica to live a quiet life in faith and hard work.  The hard work of faith is what sets you apart and somedays the most culturally rebellious thing you will do is depend on God by faith.  This will be and is the most dramatic difference between you and those who do not know God.  It is not crazy to love your family.  It is crazy to believe that loving your family is not enough to make God happy with you.  It is not crazy to obey the Law.  It is crazy to believe that one's obedience/disobedience to the Law is not what makes someone right with God. 

God has not called everyone to adopt children with disabilities.  God has not called everyone to move overseas.  God has not asked everyone to give away everything.  God has not asked every person to work in a soup kitchen feeding the hungry.  God has not called everyone to go to seminary. 

BUT

He has called some people to do these very things.  And who are these people?  It can't always be "they" or "them." For Isaiah, it was him and he responded, "Here I am.  Send me."  God was not talking to Isaiah per se.  Isaiah overheard God asking a question and he volunteered.  Most of us must be shaken beyond our senses in order to acquiesce.  But God is not desiring the guilt-ridden and pride-powered, but rather the love-smitten and humble-hearted.

Do you love God?  Do you love Him more or less when you think about how much He loves you?  Does His love give you strength or lead to laziness?  The more we think about and immerse ourselves in the rich love shown us, the more we realize how radical and crazy His love is for us.  This inspires a response of love in kind. Would your life look any different tomorrow if you were to truly trust and depend on God fully?  When was the last time you made a decision based on your faith?  Put another way, would you need faith to do what you did today? 

Genesis! Exodus? Levitiquits..

Oh, Leviticus. How many well-intentioned Bible read-through plans have you thwarted?

Who doesn’t like rules?  Ah, most people. Most people do not like rules. Particularly when it comes to them being enforced against what we would choose to do if we were in charge (or at least if we were above the rules). Not only do we not like the application of the Law, but how about reading through the Law? For my work as an arbitrator I frequently come in contact with state statutes and case law governing the right of way at uncontrolled intersections and the duty to clear an intersection to name only a few. Reading through the laws to decipher if it contains wording that excuses or accuses my party is laborious, tedious, and monotonous. As much as we do not like being cited for breaking the Law, I think most of us would rather pay a citation than be forced to sit down and read the rules of the road for our home state in their entirety.

And that brings us to Leviticus. Talk about laying down the Law.  This is where that phrase probably has its origins.

Something I noticed in my recent read-through that was of great encouragement and may also be to you is to notice how many times the phrase “make atonement” is referenced. In the ESV translation, this phrase occurs 40 times in the 27 chapters of the book of Leviticus. Atonement is made by one on behalf of another. The offended party receives an offering from the mediator assigned to represent and minister on behalf of the offender and thus atonement is made. 

As many and meticulous are the laws of God for Israel, there is a consistent theme underlying all of them. A great deal of detail and effort are required to please God and His holiness. So much so that a sacrificial system to forgive our inability to obey had to be created if we were ever to survive its glory.

There are two things that are very clear.
(1) We are sinful and incapable of keeping or earning our place in God’s presence.
(2) God created a way to be reconciled to Him in spite of our shortcomings and transgressions.

May the book of Leviticus bring you joy inasmuch as you realize that in all of God’s laws, His holiness is made glorious; and in the Person of Christ, these foreshadows we observe in this book have been fulfilled by His substance.

Our Temple, our Priest, our Sacrifice, our Mediator, our Atonement, our Salvation, our Restoration, our Holiness.

Jesus Christ!

pop quiz hot shot

2 Corinthians 13:5

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

We periodically question or examine the salvation "status" of others.  Here the apostle encourages his hearers to examine their own faith and salvation.

A helpful way to do this is to consider the types of things that usually lead you question or examine another's faith.  What behaviors do you see that make you wonder if another is regenerate? What beliefs about Jesus pique your curiosity to consider and question another's adherence to the one, true Gospel?  What endeavors or alliances in which others participate lead you to wonder what their heart desires?  What fruit do you pick at in others?

Got your lists ready? Ok, now use all that we just covered and apply liberally to yourself.  By liberally of course I mean exhaustively, not liberally like applying them only when and where it feels good or loosely or not at all.

How do you know that you believe in Jesus? How do you know that Jesus Christ is in you? What do you believe and why do you believe it and is that in concert with what the Bible preaches?

These are great questions to ask on occassion and the hope of the apostle Paul and myself is that you would be found to have passed the exam.  The goal is not to always be in doubt.  The goal is to understand and appreciate the Gospel of God.  May it be that this exercise encourages your faith further and that if you find any disappointment in having fallen short, you find faith by which to lean on Jesus the more going forward.  May it be that this exam corrects any errors in thinking, believing, acting, or speaking in your heart, mind, and life.  May the exam diagnose accurately the disease that the cure may be all the more applied and appreciated for the Name and sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

a Christian good-bye‏

This morning in My Utmost for His Highest I read the following:

Luke 9:61 - The person who says, “Lord, I will follow You, but . . .,” is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.

I had never really pondered on this point before. When we say “good-bye” we usually mean, “See you later.” Maybe even add an alligator if you are more friendly and/or more Swamp-peopley. But the point Chambers is making is that it rarely, if ever, means “I will never be back this way again.” It usually means "Not yet.  I like my life."

As such, we say “good-bye” to carbs or to sweets or to Swamp People, but we do not mean “never again.” We mean, “until we meet again.”

Now there is nothing wrong with saying “until we meet again” to someone you will see tomorrow although I might suggest a more contemporary “see you later” or perhaps even a “peace out” if the situation warrants.  That is the correct sentiment to attach to the situation.

However, repentance and putting your face to the plow are not scenarios in which one can truly commit to endeavor with a heart and head half-committed. Yet many routinely say “good-bye” to sins they have no real commitment to mortify. It is a diet kind of "good-bye."  People like to go on diets to feel better about themselves. They abstain from something they like for a season in order to obtain a result they believe will bring them more joy than the thing from which they are abstaining. For example, I go a week without sweets because I believe that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. 

Sweets < Lookin’ Sweet

Do not diet from sin.  Die to sin. Eliminate it from your mind and members inasmuch as the Spirit grants you grace, insight, humility, ability, perseverance, and patience to do so. But be sure to do so. Learn the true meaning of “good-bye.” Learn resolve, commitment and covenant and in doing so become more like Christ and more appreciative of Christ’s resolve, commitment and covenant on your behalf before God.

Thoughts from "Bonhoeffer's Last Sermon: Confident Hope‏" by Jim Belcher

Listen to this message by clicking HERE.

Bonhoeffer is on my short list of Christian men whose name inspires love and respect.  I admire him and wish I could have known him.  I want to be his friend.  I count myself blessed to serve the same God he served.  I love hearing about him and reading from him in his published works.  I love dead mentors.  No surprises.

In this message by Jim Belcher you will get a cook's tour of Bonhoeffer and his life, work, and hope in Christ.  For a more in depth look into his life, click HERE. Bonhoeffer loved Jesus and wanted his church, suffering under Hitler, to hold tightly to the hope of the world to come in light of present darkness.  He pastored his flock through the trainwreck that was WWII Germany.  He loved God's people and God's Son. He also plotted to assasinate Hitler and was eventually hung as a traitor.  He is like the pastoral verison of Jack Bauer.  Or maybe the Jack Bauer version of Spurgeon.  Or the Chuck Norris version of Jack Bauer doing a Martin Luther impression.  Either way, the recipe calls for a lot of people I like a lotta.

Belcher quoted C.S Lewis in this message regarding eternal security found in Christ alone:

"It is written that we shall “stand before” Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is."

Bonhoeffer was a minister of this Gospel.   He preached a God of justice and wrath and love and mercy and a Son in Whom all of these are satisfied and displayed perfectly for all. 

If you love church history, WWII, C.S Lewis qouotes, or Bonhoeffer, I would highly recommend taking the time out of your day to download and listen to this message.

1 Timothy 1

Read HERE.

The aim of the Christian’s marching orders is love produced by a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. A heart pure in that it has been forgiven by God in Christ. A conscience good in that it has been reconciled to God by Christ’s work and subsequent fruit evidenced by faithfulness. A faith sincere in that it is rooted and anchored in Christ alone to deliver from the righteous wrath of God wholly deserved.
 
Many have walked away from these basic edicts. Different doctrines as Paul mentions here are often articulated even by those whose hands hold Bibles showing that is not merely illiteracy that produces false teaching. When swerving from sound doctrine, endless discussion into keeping the Law is often the alternative. If there is no true Gospel, there is only the most recent, novel strategy for fulfilling or escaping the Law.
 
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…”
 
This is true and trustworthy. In Christ God is reconciling the world to Himself in producing and sustaining faithful adherence to His provision alone. It is true that the Law is good if used lawfully. But when the Law is used as an olive branch instead of a sword, it cannot produce that which it was put in place to accomplish/teach.

The Law is a perfect representation of God’s holiness and otherness in comparison even to our best attempts to be like Him. The Gospel is a perfect and holy representation of God’s goodness and mercy in fulfilling His promises to unite us to Himself without disgracing His own holiness.

Some are teaching doctrine other than Christ and Christ alone. Hymenaeus and Alexander were a few by name in Paul’s day guilty of this distortion. There are certainly some even now doing the same.

And they have names too.

May those teaching this false Gospel be called out and may they in turn repent and be the sinners for which Christ came into the world to save.  If you insist on the Law being the way to salvation, you forsake Christ's cross and make it meaningless.  May those sitting under these teachings be given discernment to cling to whatever is good and cast away all that is evil.  May the Gospel be preached and lead many to repentance.

Would we be so bold and committed to Christ as to call out those merely masquerading?
Would we be so humble and committed to Christ as to repent when we are rightly called out ourselves?

Thoughts from "Is Today's Church Biblical pt. 2" by Francis Chan

My friend Travis Smith (or Travinci since he rarely sleeps and knows more about more than I know about less) showed me a portion of this Francis Chan sermon.  See it HERE.

This is a tremendously interesting question:  What is Church?  How much of what we do is a product of what the Bible says? How much is what people simply do and were going to do anyway? 

The Reformation revealed that we can easily settle for something other than Biblical instruction.  Periodically it is of great value for us to inquire if what we are doing is still in line with what we set out to do.

Church cannot look like it did in the book of Acts.  We are 2,000 years of history, technology, trial and error, and culture removed from the events that are recorded for us in the book of Acts.  So what was it about that church that should be that which the "now" church is about?

Descriptive and presriptive texts inform us different ways:

Descriptive texts in the Bible simply tell us what happened once.  Abraham sent out his servant to find a wife for his son.  That happened once.  That text is not a prescriptive text of "how to find a wife for yor son."  You are not in sin if you don't force your servant to be involved in your children's marital decision. 

Prescriptive texts in the Bible simply tell us what to do.  Jesus says, "Repent and believe in the Good News!"  This is a principle that transcends circumstance.  It is a prescription.  Do this!

We must pay attention to principles that represent a timeless depiction of that to which we should adhere and understand what was contextual.

A lot of what can commonly become "church" looks more like Starbucks than the body of Christ.

"Hey, let's all get together with our Macs and ignore each other!" 

Why can't you just ignore each other from the comfort of your own homes?  I don't know.  But either way, a lot of churches end of amounting to a large group of individuals having private experiences that begin and end in the context of their own imaginings. Just like coffee shops where people fill up tables to enjoy the free wi-fi next to neighbors they thoroughly ignore.

Jesus is specific and private and personal.  No doubt.  But He is OUR Lord and Savior.  There is an element to Christianity that is personal to you, but that personal conviction, testimony, gifting, etc... is meant to be given in service and joy to those who share in the fellowship of the same Spirit.

What should that look like?  How do we do church?  Is it a house? A building?  A living room? A group of people?  To where should our offerings go?  What should we do?  Who is it for?  Who should be invited?  Who should be included? 

All interesting and difficult questions with myriad responses and Biblical rationale available to defend them.

Have you thought about church?  Is Francis Chan on to something or simply easily dissatisifed?