Each time I saw it, I thought of the lives it represented.

Lives I was praying for…each time I saw the box.  Wondering what God was doing in each person’s life…praying that they were being refined by the Holy Spirit.

Now it’s empty…

You see, last Spring I taught through Francis Chan’s book – Crazy Love – during Sunday School.  At the end of class on the final Sunday, I passed out note cards and a sheet that listed the “Profiles of the Lukewarm” and the “Profiles of the Obsessed” we had read about in chapters four and eight.  I asked each person to write a note reminding themselves of one lukewarm and one obsessed area that they felt they needed to work on – areas in which they (by faith) wanted the Holy Spirit to refine them over the next three months.

We prayed, people wrote, the envelopes were collected, we prayed again, and I said that I would mail the envelope back to each person in September.  I went home and set the box near our desk.

The notes are in the mail.

I hope – I pray – that they serve as a reminder and encouragement to each recipient.  A reminder of the amazing, crazy, and undeserved (but graciously given) love that God has for us.  A reminder of our call, as Christ Followers, to reflect that insane love to the world, for the praise and glory of God.

x

So why write this post?  You may be reading this and say, “So what, I wasn’t there.”  Two reasons:

1. To encourage YOU, the reader. The Apostle Paul (and others) did this.  Paul often wrote to one group of people and reported about other people’s faith in order to encourage people (Romans 1:8 & 12).  He challenged Christ Followers to think of ways to encourage each other (Hebrews 10:24).  So: If you haven’t read Crazy Love, I highly encourage it.  It (and the biblical truth on which it is based) will refine you and make you a better worshiper of Jesus.  If you have read it, are you living in light of it?
2. To challenge myself and those who lead and teach. We must always remember to encourage people to take the next step – to live the “topic” out…tangibly.  Simply teaching and not encouraging “practice” is, quite frankly, a waste of time and really doesn’t foster growth or further the Kingdom of God (Hebrews 10:24-25).  Recently, I heard Rick Warren say, “Jesus turned up the heat little by little to mature his disciples.”  Shouldn’t we, as teachers and with the love and care of Christ, do the same?  Have I mastered this?  No – thus the challenge to me as well.

Blessings & Maranatha!

³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The main reason for this rocking around in my head is because I’ve been teaching through Crazy Love this past quarter at church.  There is a ton of stuff in there (and the accompanying scripture) that is life changing and challenging – it hit me when I first read the book, now in teaching through it, its pounding me!

In these verses, Jesus talking to those who believed Him – and were probably having issues with actually living His teaching or following Him (sound familiar).  He tells them to keep at it, stick with it, remain with Him, don’t give up,…abide.  The truth may be hard to understand or apply, but truth and freedom comes from abiding.

Some notes from my ESV Study Bible:

• V31: To abide in Jesus’ word means to continue believing what Jesus has said and walking in obedience to him.  This verse shows that continuing to trust Jesus and obey him is one test of who are truly my disciples.
• V32: This verse is frequently quoted out of context, but the connection with v. 31 shows that Jesus is only talking about one way to know the truth, and that is by continuing to believe and obey his word. set you free. From the guilt and enslaving power of sinful patterns of conduct.

I have truly be challenged by God’s word and Crazy Love.  The light of scripture has shown me some areas that I need to work on – my task is to abide.  Thank God I don’t have to go it alone – the One who challenges also enables and upholds!

It got me thinking about one of the Profiles of the Obsessed in Francis Chan’s Crazy Love Chapter 8, which was this past week’s Sunday school lesson:

The Dedicated Someone obsessed with Christ is more concerned with character than comfort.  Joy doesn’t depend on circumstances or environment – it is a gift that comes from God.

How often my joy is contingent on my comfort, safety, and overall happiness.  How often my joy is circumstance-driven.  Unlike Annie, if I am tired, sick, things aren’t working the way I planned, or whatever the opposite of what I think “good” is – my default reaction is not joy.  At times, it’s quite the opposite.

Paul writes in Philippians 4:4 -  Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

James writes in chapter one of his book:

²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Of course, the JOY in these verses is beyond worldly or earthly happiness we typically associate with the word.  Its really the spiritual, enduring, fulfilled joy in the Lord who is sovereign over all things (including trials) and everlasting and never changing (unlike my circumstances).  If I believe the truth of God’s word, the good times as well as the tough times make me mature and complete.

Knowing this, I must go through life with the attitude of Annie: “OK, I’m tired, but what’s next!” or “I’m hurting, but I’m ready to please or serve!” or “God, things aren’t working as I planned, but You’re in control so I will be joyful!”

One of my favorite verses is Romans 12:1 -

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

How often I forget about the preceding two verses – at times forgetting the “Therefore”!

Romans 11:35-36 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?”  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever!  Amen.

It puts the “THEREFORE” of 12:1 in a completely different light!

I’m sure there are many other lessons I could learn from Annie; but for now, its: Always be Joyful!

I was prepping for Sunday School this evening (Francis Chan’s Crazy Love), and two things hit me smack dab between the eyes:

First, in watching the Crazy Love Study DVD, Chan says (paraphrased for this post):

Can you imagine if the early church, having seen the Son of God tortured, die on a cross, and rise again, decided to simply to get together once a week and have services, where one of them would preach and they would have really cool music, and then they would go back to life as usual?

Wow – I quickly tweeted a paraphrase:

“Imagine if the early church only got tgthr once a week for services & then went back 2 life as usual? -F Chan / wld I be writing ths? -me”

The second, was a tweet that hit my TweetDeck at 6:15 (five minutes after the tweet above).

The tweet was a link to a blog post at shaungroves.com about a pastor in India who is doing church “wrong.”  I won’t lift any of the post…you need to read it yourself and absorb the pictures to get the whole effect.

The upshot is that we (American churches) have predominantly got it wrong – as the pastor eloquently says, “Our witness is our service.”  At times, I think we get lost in the programs, the “sound”, decor, and image at the expense of our witness.  Of course, we should do everything well for the Lord, but if we don’t have the Gospel at the heart of it all, well…

OK, I’m Listening God…may Your Holy Spirit work in and on me!

So that is the Explosions part – now on to Tori…

I was surfing iTunes last night and saw that Tori Amos‘ new CD is called Abnormally Attracted to Sin.  Intrigued by the CD title, I did a Google search and found an interview where she talked about her new CD (whose title is a line from Guys and Dolls) and the impetus behind it.  Interesting article – here are some excerpts:

“I’m drawn to questioning what traditional authorities have defined sin to be. As a minister’s daughter, I’ve been exposed to the traditional belief system. [Sin] has been used to shame and control people. If you’re controlled by a religious structure, then you’re going to have a very different outlook on life and what you’re open to than if you’re not controlled by these old, crumbling concepts.

I guess I was never a Bible-thumping Christian; I was always trying to question because I had so much religion in my upbringing. I was drawn to those people and those ideas that weren’t accepted necessarily, and it’s not because these ideas in reality are “evil” — that’s just the perception that’s being given. The reality I was brought up in was, “Anything that doesn’t work within the Christian doctrine is sinful.” And that’s a lot of stuff.”

My thoughts – combining both (I write this directed toward Christ followers…me most of all!  I will not pass judgment on Tori or others who ascribe to her line of thinking.):

Just like the scientists at my company with their experiments and many people in general (Christian or non-Christian), how often we casually test the limits of God’s tolerance of sin in our lives – “lightning didn’t strike” or “nothing bad happened” it’s not so bad…  Abnormally attracted to sin…hey, we’re normally attracted to sin!  It’s almost like we rationalize and categorize our sin: murder – bad, pride – “eh, he’s a lot worse than I am!”, and on goes the limit testing.

This quarter, I’m leading a Sunday school on Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love.  A Spirit-inspired book that really challenged me when I first read it – if you have not read it, it is definitely a book to get.

Related to this subject – and from Chapter One, Chan writes:

“God is the only Being who is good and the standards are set by Him.  When we disagree [with His standards] let’s not assume it’s His reasoning that needs correction.

It takes a lot for us to comprehend God’s total hatred for sin.  You and I are not allowed to tell Him how much He can hate it.

God never excuses sin.  And He is always consistent with that ethic.  Whenever we start to question whether God really hates sin, we have only to think of the cross, where His Son was tortured, mocked, and beaten because of sin. Our sin.”

Further, I only need to read Romans 5 and 6 (as well as many other passages) to adjust my course.  I must use God’s Word as my guide and criteria for defining sin – not public or personal opinion on what is OK, tolerable, or acceptable.

Praise God for the free gift of salvation and His amazing grace!

All I can say is:

Standard Setter and Grace Giver,
You’ve lovingly defined sin for me in easy-to-understand language in Your Word.  Forgive me for naively thinking that I get to define what sin is for You at any given moment or in particular situations.  May Your Holy Spirit be free to convict me when I test the limits – and may my heart be humble and open to accept Your correction.  Kind Savior, I desire to be a slave to righteousness…help me in my attempts.

So Father, stumbling forward I go – upheld by You alone,
my kind, awesome, and loving Lord!

dennis