I know the God I follow is bigger than disaster

Praying for Haiti every day.



I'll be on my way there in 24 days...

Crazy Love by Francis Chan

Crazy Love
Overwhelmed By A Relentless God

For some reason this book became wildly popular on Miami's campus this past year, despite it's 2008 publication.  I bought it, but before I even read it, other students borrowed it, and read it first!  Once I finally opened Crazy Love for myself, it took more highlighters than days to read it.

Chan's clearest desire is for his life, preaching, and writing is to ignite a response, not just in word, but in deed.  Referencing the early church, Chan reminds us "After the apostle Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, people 'were cut to the heart and said... 'Brothers, what shall we do?' (Acts 2:37).  The first church responded with immediate action: repentance, baptism, selling possessions, sharing the Gospel."  Why is this relevant to us today?  Because the church today has a frighteningly different response!  "We respond with words like Amen, Convicting sermons, Great book... and then we are paralyzed as we try to decipher what God wants of our lives."  This was never the response that God desired for us!  In Chan's final chapter, 'The Crux of the Matter', he writes:

I wrote this book because much of our talk doesn't match our lives.  We say things like, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," and "Trust in the Lord with all your heart."  Then we live and plan like we don't believe God even exists.  We try to set our lives up so everything will be fine if God doesn't come through.  But true faith means holding nothing back.  It means putting every hope in God's fidelity to His promises.

Sooo-ooh many people would agree that Christian's talk-the-talk, but don't walk-the-walk, but their only response is embitterment and complaining.  This is why Chan's response is so true and refreshing.  Honesty and passion emanate from the pages of this book.  When Chan is asked "Do you think God calls you to live a radical, crazy life?" his response is simple, honest, and powerful:

It's not that this lifestyle should be crazy to us.  It should be the only thing that makes sense.  Giving up everything and sacrificing everything we can for the afterlife is logical.  "Crazy" is living a safe life and storing up things while trying to enjoy our time on earth, knowing that any millisecond God could take your life.  To me that is crazy, and that is radical.  The crazy ones are the ones who live like there is no God.  To me that is insanity.

Chan's writing overflows with passionate love for God and for others, with an exciting, deeply convicting, vision of what it looks like to really live it out.  This book inspires a new, and Biblical, way of life while enticing it's reader to wholeheartedly worship God.  I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Crazy Love and reading it from front-to-back.

Have you read it?  Post your comments!

Click here more book reviews from my library.

New Books for the month of May

Books I'm reading this May

Perfecting Ourselves to Death
The Pursuit of Excellence and the Perils of Perfectionism
by Richard Winter

Crazy Love
Overwhelmed by a Relentless God 
by Francis Chan

Forgotten God
Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit
by Francis Chan

What is a Healthy Church Member
by Thabiti Anyabwile

Titus by the Apostle Paul
Paul's brief letter to Titus teaching the inseparable link between faith and practice, belief and behavior. This truth is the basis for Paul's critique of false teaching as well as his instruction in Christian living and qualifications for church leaders.

1 and 2 Timothy by the Apostle Paul
First Timothy is a warning against false teachers as well as clear call for the church to live out in tangible ways the ethical implications of the gospel.
Second Timothy is a bold call for perseverance in the gospel in spite of suffering. Paul calls on his young coworker to continue the fight of faith, even as Paul approaches the end of his own life.


Have any comments about any of these books?  Please share them!  I'll post mine soon...

Entering the Dating World

For my senior capstone as a psychology major at Miami University I co-authored a book From Clash to Complement An Analysis of Gender Roles and Marriage with my friend, Austin.  We humorously and scientifically claimed that complementary gender roles within dating and marriage will foster the most happiness.  Our aim was to write a book that explained a radical alternative to the dating and marriage life that most people know today.  "A culture that has suffered the causalities of traditional marriages and explored the battle grounds of egalitarian relationships must turn toward a complementary understanding for refuge."  Our viewpoint was strong, and it led to quite a book... I was reading portions of it last night and thought it would be fun to share some of the more humorous aspects. 

Table of Contents
Section I Dating
Chapter 1: Playing House
                Traditional Stereotypes & Dating
Chapter 2: Romantically Challenged
                The Egalitarian Attempt to Dating
Chapter 3: The Best Date Yet
                Complementary Dating
Section II Marriage 
Chapter 4: Unpleasantville
                The Life of Traditional Marriage
Chapter 5: Two Left Feet
                The Dance of Egalitarian Marriage
Chapter 6: Peanut Butter & Jelly
                The Delight of Complementary Marriage

As introductions for each chapter Austin and I shared personal stories either from our own lives or from the lives of our friends or family members.  The most entertaining stories we included were those that recalled each of our entries into the dating world...

Romantically Challenged
The Egalitarian Attempt to Dating
Entering the Dating World
    In kindergarten I remember having pigtails, purple stretch pants, and a love for macaroni and cheese.  My mom once showed me pictures of myself wearing a cardboard cut-out of macaroni and cheese for a class performance.  I thank the Lord that aside from those pictures I have no real recollection of why I was wearing 'mararoni' and dancing around on stage.  However, one memory I unabashedly recall is my kindergarten Valentine's Day.
     We can all remember the Valentine's cards with cartoon characters or pretty princesses on the front.  The whole class swaps "Your Sweet" valentines and candy hearts to ensure that kid in the back row isn't left-out.  But that's not the memory I'm talking about.  I did the whole class valentine swap alright, but it was after I got home from that busy kindergarten day that my doorbell rang.  I skidded through the kitchen to see who was at the door, and Raymond, the cutest boy from my class, was standing at the door with a single rose!  As he handed me my first real red rose he stammered, "W-would you like to go see B-Beauty and the Beast on ice with me... and my dad?"  Dad, or no dad, I was going on my first date!  Pigtails, purple stretch pants and all - that's when I entered the dating world.  And had I see all the jerks, heartbreaks, and break-downs coming, I might have waited... at least until first grade!
    Now, eighteen years later, I still find myself in the 'dating world'.  Although, I do believe I've learned a thing or two along the way.  I have gained knowledge from the preps and skaters, the short-term and long-distance, and cheaters and the clingers.  I've been there as my friends have hooked-up, shacked-up, and broken-up.  I've spent many late night learning from 'expert' Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City's New York Times sex columnist.  I've journaled, researched, and studied; and prayerfully this journey will end with a book worth your reading and a man worth my loving.

We turned-in our book and graduated college the next week... I doubt we changed many people's minds about gender roles, but a year later I still think it's a book worth reading.

Love the Father has given to us

Everything is really all about the Gospel, and I love when I'm freshly reminded of that simple and beautiful truth.  This is an animation built on 1 John 3:1 and a song by Sovereign Grace Music entitled Prodigal. 

The Riches of His Grace

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight" Ephesians 1:7-8

God created Adam and Eve in a condition of sinless freedom, yet, they subjected themselves to slavery through disobediently eating from the tree of knowledge.  Their rebellion sold the entire human race into bondage under sin and death.  A just God ought to leave us there, entangled in sin, fully deserving of His judgment and wrath.  However, our God, both just and merciful, repurchased a people to Himself through Jesus Christ.  Through His blood we have redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses.  Such beautiful news - we are ransomed from our previous captivity and slavery, according to the riches of his grace!  Our every action earns us guilt and wrath, but God richly poured out his grace upon us through the sacrifice of his Son.  We are unreservedly offered freedom from slavery to sin and guilt through Christ's blood, an atoning sacrifice.  However, God's grace did not stop there, for he lavishes grace upon us in all wisdom and insight.  It is extended in great amounts, without limit, openhanded, extravagant grace upon grace!  We, who are so undeserving, are generously offered grace and mercy by our Creator and Savior.  This is not a God who begrudgingly allows us into His presence.  Far from that, He is a God who loves deeply and powerfully in both word and deed.  This is a God worth worshiping.