Crazy Love Blog Series- Chapter 7

Chapter 7
Your Best Life Later


Here are the notes from Chapter 6 of Crazy Love:


Do you understand that it's impossible to please God in any way other than whole-hearted surrender?


What does running towards Christ and pursing love look like in daily life? 


Hebrews 11


These people were far from perfect, yet they had faith in a God who was able to come through in seemingly dire situations. 


Noah spent 120 years building an ark, and warning others of the impending judgement. Suppose the flood never come? Noah would have been the biggest laughingstock on earth. 


Having faith often means doing what others see as CRAZY. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers. 

If eternity doesn't come, and God does not exist, then as Paul says: "If only for this life we have hope in Christ we are to be pitied more than all men."  - 1 Corinthians 15:19


But since God is real Paul and the martyrs should be envied more than all people. Their suffering was worth it. 
If we allow ourselves to live recklessly for Him, then we too will see His glory. We will see Him do the impossible. 


Christians today like to play it safe. We want to put ourselves in situations were we're safe even if there is no God. But if we truly desire to please God, we cannot live that way, we have to do things that cost us during our life on earth, but will be more than worth it in eternity. 

Matthew 25:31-46


How would I change my life if I actually thought of each person I came into contact with as Christ? 


If we believe that, as Jesus said, "The two greatest commands are to love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself", than this passage has a lot to teach us. Basically Christ is connecting the command to "Love God" with the command to "Love your neighbor". By loving the least of these we are loving God himself. 

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."  - Matthew 25:40


Jesus is saying that we show tangible love for God in how we care for the poor, and those who are suffering. He expects us to treat the poor and the desperate as if they were Christ himself. 
Ask yourself this: If you actually saw Jesus starving what would you do for Him? 

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children let us not love with words or tongue, but in actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the Truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presents whenever our hearts condemn us."  - 1 John 3:16-20

Photo by: Hayley Catt

In this passage we see that John questions weather it is possible to truly have God's love in you, if you have no compassion for the poor. He uses as an example Christ's love manifesting itself through the sacrifice of his very life. 


God didn't just give a little for us, He gave His best. He gave Himself. John is saying that it is no different for us. True love requires sacrifice. And our love is shown by how we live our lives. 


One of the clearest ways we love "with action and in truth" is through giving to others. By giving I don't mean just money, although that is certainly an element of it. Another important element of giving is with our time. 


One of the most memorized verses in the whole bible says: 
"For God so loved the world that He gave..."  - John 3:16
Right there we see the connection between loving and giving evidently established.  
Giving results not only in heavenly compensation, but also gives us great joy in our lives here and now. As we love more genuinely and deeply giving becomes the obvious natural response. Taking and keeping for ourselves becomes unattractive and imprudent. 


Remember the story where Jesus fed thousands of people with one boys small lunch? In that story, according to Matthew, Jesus gave the loaves to His disciples and then the disciples passed them out to the crowd. Imagine if the disciples had simply held on to the food Jesus gave them, continently thanking Him for providing lunch for them. That would have been stupid, when there was enough food to feed the thousands who who were gathered and hungry. But, that's exactly what we do when we fail to give freely and joyfully. We are loaded down with too many good things. More than we could ever need while others are desperate for a small loaf. 

Photo by: Kayley

2 Corinthians 8:13-15


Paul was asking the Corinthian believers to give to the impoverished saints in Jerusalem. The goal being that no one would have too much or too little. 
This idea is pretty far fetched in modern day culture where we're taught to look out for ourselves, and are thus rewarded. 
The gap is so extreme in our world, that we have to take lightly passages like Luke 12:33: "Sell your possessions and give to the poor". How else can I walk out of a mud shack and back into my 2,000 sq. foot house, without doing anything? 
The concept of downsizing so that others may upgrade is biblical, beautiful, and nearly unheard of. We either close the gap or we don't take the words of the bible literally. 

Dare to imagine what it would be for you to take the words of Jesus seriously. Dare to think about your own children living in poverty without enough to eat. Dare to believe that those really are your brothers and sisters in need. 


Anyone who has ever taken God at His word when He says: "Test me in this, and see if I will not pour out so much blessing, that you will not have enough room for it" (Malachi 3:10), probably has a similar tale. 

When it's hard and your doubtful, give more.

When Jesus sent out His 12 disciples, in Luke 9:3, He told them to take nothing for the journey... Why do you suppose he said this? Jesus was forcing His disciples to trust Him. God would have to come through for them, because they had nothing else to fall back on. 


God wants us to trust Him with abandon. He wants to show us how He works and cares for us. He wants to be our refuge. 


Life is comfortable when you separate yourself from people who are different from you. 

God didn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through. 


Isaiah 58


The thing that matters most is how we use what we've been given, not how much we make or do compared to someone else, what matters is how we spend ourselves. 

For more on the book visit: www.crazylovebook.com

*Quotes from Crazy Love by Francis Chan

*Photos by me, unless stated otherwise.