Steve and I just finished the book, "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. It challenged us deeply to live more intentional lives for the glory of God. Essentially, the book calls out all "Christians" who don't live as God requires. Jesus said that the Christian life would be crazy to the world, but unfortunately it has become crazy to His church in the latter century. Living the way Jesus did will not be popular. It will be scary, uncomfortable, and ludicrous to popular culture. But it is the only way to live because, as Francis Chan points out a million times in this book, we will all stand before God one day. If you don't live as He requires, what will you say to Him? Where will you go? Moreover, God promises blessing to those who follow Him, in this life and the next. He has never failed on this promise, and He never will.
So what does a devoted follower of God really look like? The book gives many examples, both from scripture and in real life. People who really love Jesus, just like people who really love their spouse, desire to please Him, to spend more time with Him; they get excited to talk to Him! This love - this devotion - naturally leads to obedience. It is not a result of effort or will, but a product of being in love with the Creator of the universe - the Creator of you and me.
People who love Jesus put no stock in material possessions, but they give most, if not all of what God has given them back to Him. Yes, literally, they give most of their money to the cause of Christ. They realize that you can't take a Uhaul to heaven! People who really love Jesus spend their lives serving the poor and needy - the outcasts of society - because that is what Jesus said people who really love Him will do (See Matthew 25). People who love Jesus do not live to please themselves, they live to please God by knowing Him and doing what He requires of them.
Here are a few highlights from the book that we don't want to forget:
First John 2:3-4 tells us, "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, 'I know Him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Call me crazy, but I think those verses mean that the person who claims to know God but doesn't obey His commands is a liar and the truth isn't really in him.
Ha, witty. Really like this Francis Chan guy :-).
Do you want to see God more than you desire security?
It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our final day.
-Matthew Henry
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
1 John 2:28
A man by his sin may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. This is man's greatest tragedy and God's heaviest grief.
-AW Tozer
All that matters is the REALITY of who we are before God. (See 1 Cor 3:13-15)
Sadly, many people die while living selfishly.
If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
-CS Lewis
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So. The book was good. Chan is no CS Lewis or St. Augustine, but he gets it. And he really wants others to get it too. To be honest, this book really woke me up. God is doing a wonderful work in my heart right now, and I am so thankful. Like all the lessons I He has taught me, it takes my heart to hear it before I really 'get' it. I love to study. I love to learn new things and contemplate theology. But head knowledge IS NOT heart knowledge. I 'knew' everything that Chan talks about in this book before I read it. He didn't teach my brain anything. But the book awakened my soul.
I don't want to be rich. I have spent my much of my adult life admiring the wealthy. I am ashamed of myself. I am not going to insert any 'but its ok if you live in excess, you can still be a Christian' nuance here. Because that is just not true. Jesus said it is harder for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. He knew what He was talking about. I am already VERY rich compared to 99% of the world. I have 2 cars, a home, plenty of food and water....so much more than I really need. I want to give all that I can to the Lord. What if we all really lived the way Jesus calls? What if God's kingdom was really present here on earth? Well, we would all have the same amount of money, and no one would be in need. Can you imagine? As it is now, 1% of the entire earths' population has 99% of the wealth! How much further can we get from living the way God intends?
Every day I will have to fight the temptation to want more, because that is what the world tells me to do. But I will pray for the strength to remember Jesus. To remember eternity. To be ready for Jesus' return. I don't want him to come back and be living in a mansion with a Range parked in the garage - or whatever would equate to 'excess' for me. I want to provide for my family - to meet their needs - and to give the rest away.
I think I have finally realized that I can die RIGHT NOW. And RIGHT NOW I can be standing before an Awesome and Powerful God with Jesus as my mediator. He tells us in Matthew Chapter 10 that "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge hum before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." I want to be acknowledged by Jesus when my time here is done.
I will finish with this. We just watched the documentary "Inside Job". It is unbelievable how corrupt our financial institution is in this country. How do our largest bank CEO's walk away from the 2008 recession with hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars while the rest of us lose our jobs? GREED. Its sick how pervasive it is among our culture. Borrowing more than we can ever pay back...from the individual to the multi-national corporate level. Wanting more and more and more. And our debt only deepens by the minute. In Crazy Love, Chan tells the story of his great Aunt who loved Jesus with all of her heart and mind and soul. She would pray morning, noon, and night. She loved to spend time with her Father - her Savior. Once, when they were at a play together, Chan asked his Aunt if she liked the show. She replied yes, but that she would hate to be sitting in a theater when Jesus returned. Wow. Now that is a woman who was constantly attuned to the reality of Christ and His return.
I pity the men who have benefited from our financial crisis. Glen Hubbard, Jeffery Lane, David McCormick, Frederic Mishkin, Scott Talbott, Hank Paulson, and many more...you and I will have to stand before GOD one day. Unless you find Jesus and give Him EVERYTHING, you will get yours. Boy oh boy. But I will not join you. I will join Great Aunt Chan. I will be on my watch. I will wake each morning and ask Jesus to help me to want Him more, to give Him more, and to shine His glory on this earth during my few moments here.
I hope you all will join me.
Oh God, I have tasted thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. Oh God, thy triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing. I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered for so long.
-AW Tozer
