One of the things I love most about reading is that you never know when you are going to find what you least expected when the book begins. This is what happened to me over the last many weeks when I picked up a copy of “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski.
I picked up the book to refresh and renew myself and fall in love with God all over again. I wanted to read about others who love God so much that it is just crazy to even describe it. I found that and much more as is what God always intends if we will just keep our minds and hearts open. What I found was that crazy love and crazy living are exactly what I want. No leftovers for God. I have no plans to float downstream away from Christ. I will sprint up the escalator rather than ride on its eternal downward cycle.
Chan asks the question: Would you describe yourself-totally in love with Jesus Christ or more halfhearted, lukewarm, and partially committed? Then begins the “the profile of the lukewarm” and the unexpected…take a good hard, searching, honest look at your life; not who you want to be one of these days but who you are today and how you are living.
Here are just a few notes Chan makes about the profile of the lukewarm and the stewardship of their lives:
• LUKEWARM people give money to charity and to the church…as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living.
• LUKEWARM people give if they have a little extra and it is easy to give. God loves a cheerful giver, right?
• LUKEWARM people ask, “How much do I have to give? Instead of “How much can I give?”
• LUKEWARM people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, but rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor.
Well, you get my drift. I’m not going to spoil the rest of his descriptions of LUKEWARM church people. For every lukewarm description Chan gives is the Scripture which supports it. Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t believe Chan intends this part of his book or any part of Crazy Love to be used as ammunition to judge our brothers and sisters. Instead, I think he earnestly hopes we will examine ourselves to see whether or not we are in the faith. (2 Cor. 13:5).
There is credence to what Chan describes that he has found with the American church: “it is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity.” Lukewarm people call “radical” what Jesus expected of all his followers. Warning: To begin the transformation process to crazy love and crazy living, you have to get through Chapter Two of Crazy Love: “You Might Not Finish This Chapter.”
Glad I did.
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