As of last night, I am supposed to be on Ch. 8 of Crazy Love. I must say, its an amazing book. I have not been as faithful over the past two weeks to read it but the discussions on Sunday nights are always good. Over the next few days I will write on chapters 3-7 and catch up!
Breakdown of the high points for me- Ch. 3:
Fearing God vs. reverent intimacy. Being in total fear of God can be bad. In my opinion. It's like a child always being scared of their parent or a bully at school. Sometimes when we say "Fear God" people read that as if we are truly terrified and that God is some mean man that just hits us with rules. I don't see it that way at all. My fear for him is more of a respect. I fear his wrath, yes, but respect his rules as I do my earthy father. Francis Chan says it very well in this chapter... " Fear is no longer the word I use to describe how I feel about God. Now I use words like reverent intimacy. I still fear God, and I pray that I always will. The Bible emphasizes the importance of fearing God.- But for a long time, I narrowly focused on His fearsomeness to the exclusion of his great and abounding love." I love how he puts that last statement. We sometimes let the "fear of fearing" over power how much He truly loves us and wants to have a deep relationship with us. "The God who loves us, and wants us to love Him back!" Ahh I love that part of the book. He desires us to love him. He yearns for us to come after Him like he comes after us. The whole thought of God longing for ME that was just takes my breath away. Sometimes I catch myself longing for a physical touch or word. I have even begged God to show himself to me in some way. A few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night and opened facebook and the first thing that I saw was a video post with a song by Kari Jobe. I listened to it. It's been a while since I have really spent time with worship music. And it turned into a all night thing. I laid in bed playing music and singing and just embracing the feeling that I had realized I had missed so much. I closed my eyes and felt as if I was in the arms of Jesus. And was it chilling!
I don't know about you, but I can't wait to get to Heaven and actually be in His arms! Later on in the book Chan writes "The irony is that while God doesn't need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don't really want Him most of the time." That statement is so true. We need God in EVERY aspect of our lives yet choose to push him away as if we don't need Him. Then some people might ask "why would a loving God force me to love Him?" But are we really forced? Some might say "God threatens me with hell and punishment if I don't begin a relationship with him." Fact is... we are not forced to love God. Its a choice we all will either choose to do or not to do. Loving Him and loving what He can do are two different things as well. To everyone, the blessing that God bestows on us are wonderful and well taken. But do you love Him only for those blessings? "Are you in love with God who is everything, or are you in love with everything He gives you?"-F. Chan. I can honestly say that looking back on my life I can see where both and neither have been my mindset. Times where I have been completely in love with God. Times where I sit and beg God for a blessing but don't do live our the life He has asked me to. Then there are times where I have just forgotten Him altogether. What did I expect then?
Think a few moments on your thoughts of what a "crazy love" with God would mean for you and your life. This is one thing that I still struggle with daily. Some days are much better than others. I have ups and downs and days where I can't feel God at all. It doesn't mean that He isn't there though.
