Book Of The Week
I read Crazy Love by Francis Chan this week. It is a good book in ithe says his goal “is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don’t want to plateau, who would rather die before their convictions do.” He spends the first three chapters of the book examining our understanding the character and relational aspects of God. The next seven are devoted to fleshing out a relationship with God. He achieves the by causing the reader to spend time in uncomfortable realizations at how anemic the Christianity we practice is and how much Jesus calls us to.
I found the basis of this weeks sermon (Rev 3:14-22) on one of the themes he addressed in the book. He said “a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there’s no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are ‘lukewarm’ are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven.” I am not completely certain of the statement, but I don't want to test it, so the solution is to give all to God.
He then calls for us to put faith into practice. He says that we order our live so that we don't need God. Sure God is nice, but we have a back up plan if our plan does not go through. He argues that “God doesn’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.” I know in my life, I love the secure and frankly get afraid of putting myself in those positions. How about you?
I will make one critique, he addresses our need to serve the poor around us. This is good and Jesus did identify with them, but the Biblical poor are different that the poor we find today in our society. Not to jettison our responsibility to help, but some of the equations he makes are a little weak. I do agree that helping the poor is as much about us growing in obedience in faith and lessening our love material things as it is helping the person in need.
But, Crazy Love is overall a very challenging, but easy reading book. Pastor Kyle says that Chan is an amazing preacher and that you can get his sermons for free offline. This book offers a message that Christians desperately need to hear. As another reviewer of this book said "Too many of us are living too safely and too easily. But for the brief moments we spend at church each week, we are practically indistinguishable from the unbelievers around us. This is not the way it is meant to be."
Put yourself in positions to step out in faith, Pastor Phillip
I found the basis of this weeks sermon (Rev 3:14-22) on one of the themes he addressed in the book. He said “a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there’s no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are ‘lukewarm’ are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven.” I am not completely certain of the statement, but I don't want to test it, so the solution is to give all to God.
He then calls for us to put faith into practice. He says that we order our live so that we don't need God. Sure God is nice, but we have a back up plan if our plan does not go through. He argues that “God doesn’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.” I know in my life, I love the secure and frankly get afraid of putting myself in those positions. How about you?
I will make one critique, he addresses our need to serve the poor around us. This is good and Jesus did identify with them, but the Biblical poor are different that the poor we find today in our society. Not to jettison our responsibility to help, but some of the equations he makes are a little weak. I do agree that helping the poor is as much about us growing in obedience in faith and lessening our love material things as it is helping the person in need.
But, Crazy Love is overall a very challenging, but easy reading book. Pastor Kyle says that Chan is an amazing preacher and that you can get his sermons for free offline. This book offers a message that Christians desperately need to hear. As another reviewer of this book said "Too many of us are living too safely and too easily. But for the brief moments we spend at church each week, we are practically indistinguishable from the unbelievers around us. This is not the way it is meant to be."
Put yourself in positions to step out in faith, Pastor Phillip
0 comments :
Post a Comment