St. John Studies

Can I Love My Stuff Too Much?

The short answer—yes.

I know the term “rich” is relative. It depends on how much money you have. Some have more and some have less.

We are all “poor” when we compare what we have to the three richest men in the world [Bill Gates at 86.6 billion, Carlos Slim at 71.3 billion and Warren Buffet at 70.1 billion] but do we have enough?

Probably so.

We listen to the video of Pastor Chan on Chapter 7 and we know he is right. We need to give of what we have to those less fortunate.

He says go to the concordance and look up “rich” and I did. I have a Strong’s Concordance and the print is small. However, I found about 80 references to rich in the Bible.

I skipped the Old Testament and went on to the New Testament and I quickly ran into some of Jesus’s most famous sayings about wealth.   Matthew 19: 16-24 tells the famous story of the rich young man who wants eternal life and of course he learns that his wealth is going to get in the way. Jesus tells him some commandments and he is ok with those and then Jesus says “go, sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.” The rich young man goes away sad because Jesus has asked too much.

You are also familiar with Mark 12: 41-44, the widow and her coin. The rich people threw large amounts into the offering but the widow threw in two small copper coins. You know what Jesus told the Disciples, that this woman gave out of her poverty; the rich gave out of their largess.

Luke 12:16-21 recounts the story of the rich man who had a bumper crop and his solution was to build more barns to store his overflow. Jesus says that “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” The real goal of a man is to be rich toward God, not toward man. The rich man is not preparing for the time when his life will be demanded of him. He wants to build barns and Jesus says that God would call him a fool.

We could go on and on but these are just three instances where the message is that we should not focus on what we own. The accumulation of great wealth can be a stumbling block for the Christian life. We may focus on the money we need more than God.

And again, do we have enough?

Probably so.

Pastor Chan speaks of our sharing our blessings with others less fortunate and again we go to Luke Chapter 14 as we explore the idea of rich. Jesus has people at the table with Him and one says “blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”   Jesus replies with the story of the rich man who serves a banquet for his well-to-do friends. None can come. One has bought a piece of property and must go see it. One has just bought oxen and has to try them out. Yet another has just been married and cannot come due to the matrimony.

In short, no one really appreciated the invitation.

The man who arranged the banquet opens it to the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.

He says to his servants “Not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.”

Who appreciated the invitation? The people who had nothing.

Who will go to heaven? The rich man who is willing to part with his possessions.

Who will experience God’s blessing? The woman who offers up her last two coins.

Who will be prepared when his life is demanded of him?

Hopefully us…because we really have enough.

Much earlier in my life, I began to develop an interest that I still have.

I have always been fascinated with how people talk to other people. I know most folks take that for granted but I don’t.

I got so fascinated with it that I think about it every day and I have a big intellectual interest in the topic, to this very day.

I studied it in college.

One of the most fascinating topics related to everyday talk is how we see ourselves. You see, we have a self-concept, our own picture of ourselves and we try as much as possible to present ourselves in the best light to our world. That in technical terms is called impression management.

In short, it is what we do to manage our identity in the world; put another way, it is the process we go through to communicate the image of ourselves that we want others to have of us.

You see, most of us want to be liked by others, and we strive to be polite to others, hoping others will be polite to us. We want others to believe that we are a “quality” person; we want to be credible. We go out of our way to diminish our negative qualities by using various strategies for hiding our faults. We want to influence others so we can accomplish our goals in life.

We want our image confirmed.

But can we be real with God?

As we wrap up Chapter 6, we are confronted with this question and it is a tough one to answer. Honestly!

Because we play impression management with God.

Pastor Chan admonishes us to tell God how we feel. Be honest with Him and tell Him that He is not the most important thing in your life, but be sorry for it.

Tell Him to change you. Wow, that is scary.

Tell Him you want to experience true satisfaction and pleasure and joy in your relationship with Him. You know you should.

Tell Him you want to love Him more than anything on this earth. Can you say that truthfully?

Tell Him you want to treasure the kingdom of heaven so much that you’d willingly sell everything in order to get it. Can you say that truthfully? Really???

The point I am trying to make is, can we play impression management with God?

The answer is no.

God sees right through our efforts at managing our images.

We may spend hours in front of the mirror and we may practice our interpersonal manipulation strategies over and over but all that does not matter to God.

In fact, it is all a waste of time.

But people still try to do it, like God is a person with human powers.

Let’s be honest.

We do want people in our world to like us. We do want to get what we want from others with relative ease. We do want people to think we are believable and knowledgeable. We do want to experience politeness from others and want to learn to be polite so others can feel our appreciation for them.

But with God, he just wants us to love Him.

He wants our total devotion and that is where we struggle.

That word total.

We want to hold a little out for ourselves, when He wants our all.

I am going to quote the italicized words at the end of Chapter 6 because they are Pastor Chan’s challenge.

“Jesus, I need to give myself up. I am not strong enough to love You and walk with You on my own. I can’t do it, and I need You. I need you deeply and desperately. I believe You are worth it, that You are better than anything else I could have in this life or the next. I want you. And when I don’t, I want to want You. Be all in me. Take all of me. Have your way with me.”

Does this sound like a man concerned with managing His impression?

I think not.

So many people will never know Christ.

Of all the things that Pastor Chan is frustrated about, this is number one.

Some think that he just loves beating up Christians; spending a chapter labelling us “lukewarm” and accusing us of “serving leftovers to God” is evidence of that.

He should be upset.

Christians who don’t understand what their commitment to Christ means is a real problem. We need to be called out. A half-committed Christian does more to drive people away from the church than anything.

Whether you are someone who does not know Christ or someone who professes to know Christ, let’s talk about the process of moving down the believer’s road to a better life here on earth and a better life after we leave earth.

First of all, you need to let Jesus in. That is a real stumbling block for many, right at the beginning. They are not sure they want Jesus to be a large part of their lives. They like what they are doing and they are having a lot of fun.   Maybe they are doing things that they feel are not right but the pleasure is there.   Won’t I have to give up the pleasure when I let Jesus in my life? You will have to give up something all right. You will have to give up leading a double life and the associated guilt for the sins you are committing if the source of your pleasure is a sin [some pleasures of course are not sins]. Some folks like their pleasure so much that they can’t choose Jesus. They choose to live the life of the hypocrite. They have perfected the art of the false face. They can put on their contrite face when they need to and they can take it off and party when they are away from church or their Christian friends. That takes a lot of effort and can eventually cause a lot of pain and unhappiness.

Next, you need to let Jesus slowly begin to reduce the sins in your life. It won’t be quick but He will help you do it. The first thing that happens is awareness of your behavior begins to occur. The words you are saying become more obvious [especially words you should not say]. Unkind thoughts about people you are having become more obvious [you begin to think that you should be more understanding and empathic]. Desires for questionable things begin to diminish [you know you should monitor what goes into your mind and your body]. Again, this is a slow process, maybe taking years to see results but it will happen.

As the years go by, I like to think of this process as the “cleaning of your house.” Jesus comes in and begins to sweep it all out, the corners, the closets etc. He will clean it out from top to bottom if you let Him. Many of us have very dirty houses.

As time passes, learn to be quiet and listen to your Holy Spirit. Your “Helper” was always there but now if you are truly committed to Christ, you get feelings about what to do. Choices are more important for you. You see life as a series of choices and your Christ-like character is now being constructed by your new choices…better choices but you do have to listen to Jesus Christ in you. He is there and has been all along.

Don’t be afraid to ask Christ to control your life. Ask him to lead, guide and direct you to where you need to be in this world. He will. Ask Him to show you how to love Him. He will. If He shows you, you will understand. Many cannot understand the love of Jesus because we try to understand His love in human terms. His love is not based on human performance; it is a gift.   That in itself is beyond most peoples’ understanding.

Too often, the Christian is afraid to turn over control of life to Christ. They are afraid that He will ask them to do something that is uncomfortable, too sacrificial, too painful…too much of a change. He might, but that is where real growth occurs. You see Jesus is interested in your growth. Pastor Chan is also.

Have you ever watched a Francis Chan video? Have you ever seen him speak at a conference? He does this with an ease about him. He has a natural flow in his voice and a natural movement in his delivery of his message. It is like he is never forcing anything.  Powerful but natural.

I know that a person cannot make too much out of a video image but maybe this natural behavior is what we should all feel when we are flowing along in life with Christ. We are not forcing things. We are not worried about paying Christ back with our behaviors. We are not obsessed that we are not doing enough in our day. We are not concerned that we are doing things “right.” We are not compiling a list of our activities, having to justify our existence—did I do enough this week?

We did. We did what Christ asked of us.

He is still asking and we are still responding.

Pastor Chan describes the journey toward Christ in the words, “As we begin to focus more on Christ, loving Him and others becomes more natural. As long as we are pursuing Him, we are satisfied in Him.”

You see Pastor Chan wants the unbeliever to begin this journey. Most pastors fervently desire that; that is why they became pastors…to lead people to Jesus Christ. Pastor Chan wants believers to continue their journey. He wants us to quit being satisfied with the “same ole same ole” and move toward a deeper relationship.

Pastor Chan knows that two labels that we don’t want to have applied to us are “lukewarm” and “leftover server”.

Ok, let’s start!

Sometimes I get off track.

I found myself one day looking on Amazon for books and I just typed in Crazy Love in the search feature. I was interested in a negative review of the book. I was amazed at the length of one negative review written by an Adam T. Calvert. The gist of his comments was “This book is one of the most confusing I’ve ever read about the Christian life. Chan offers a mixed view of saying the Christian life is lived out of love and not out of fear-and-guilt, but then mainly tries through fear-and-guilt to persuade his readers to live the Christian life.”

I guess Crazy Love was confusing for Mr. Calvert and it was for me at one time in my life also.

Have you ever wanted to do something so much that you longed to keep doing it even though you had to stop and get on with other things in your day? I have heard of this happening to people who get addicted to drugs. I have heard of this happening to people who get addicted to porn. I have even heard of this happening to people who get addicted to playing computer games [not eating, not going to the bathroom, not going to work and not caring for their children so they can play].

Have you ever heard of someone addicted to praying to God?

Well, Pastor Chan introduces us to Grandma Clara in Chapter 6 and I just love how he describes her love for God.

“Every morning Clara would kneel by her bed and spend precious hours with her Savior and Lover; later in the day, just the sight of that corner of her bed would bring joy-filled tears and a deep anticipation of the next morning spent kneeling in His presence.”

She wanted to pray. It was the high point of her day.

This leads me to comment on Chan’s reference to the remarkable cycle. “Our prayers for more love result in more love, which naturally causes us to pray more, which results in more love…”.

This remarkable cycle is what we want to have in life, the hopeless desire for more love from our Lord and Savior.

Do we come to God out of fear and guilt as Mr. Calvert thinks?

I don’t think so.

We come to God as sinners.

I certainly had times in my life when I just could not understand why I would want a relationship with Jesus. Maybe it was “pay-back” because God had been so good to me. I owed Him something for all the blessings bestowed. That’s no fun. Maybe it was sheer guilt as I know I was actively sinning and I was inadequate and I had to make up for my inadequacies. That’s no fun. Sometimes I felt I was not going to get much for my devotion to God. I loved my earthly freedom and life as devoted Christian was not going to be fun. It was all about denial. Why would I want that? It was much more fun having the freedom to do what I wanted.

I just did not understand the remarkable cycle and the fact that God means for us to have the best life now. In this lifetime. He wants us to have life to the fullest.

Pastor Chan refers to this as “running to Christ”.

He is not describing our commitment to Christ as something that is born out of fear and guilt. He is talking about a Holy God who does not need us. God has plenty to do, yet he wants us to love Him and we should want to love Him. Because love for God results in peace here on earth.

You see “running to Christ” is really running to freedom.

Pastor Chan is not confusing. He knows that none of us is worthy of God’s love. “It is useless to attempt earning it; you will never feel ready….there really is a God who forgives everything and love [us] endlessly.”

He knows we have a choice.

We can “pay-back” God, we can serve God in guilt or we can just ignore God and have endless “fun.”

We don’t come to God as slaves.

Running to Christ is so much better, as we glimpse the corner of the bed and have joy-filled tears.

Just thinking about getting on our knees the next morning.

In Sunday School I have told this story and it is embarrassing…embarrassing to my wife.

I have a good memory or at least I think I do [of those early years] with her.

I remember how it felt to fall in love with my wife [my girlfriend at the time] many years ago. I was in high school and I remember thinking about her all day long, for days, weeks and months [maybe a year or so]. We had a long courtship and I guess that was what we needed.   When we married, we knew each other pretty well.

I just remember the 24/7 excitement and it was wonderful. I could literally close my eyes and see her face. I could smell her perfume. I could remember touching her hand.

It was insane…this falling in love stuff.   I have to emphasize the word falling because that was exactly what it felt like. I was in an out-of-control free fall…falling in love.

The second time I fell in love it was Jesus. That was 18 years ago. Same excitement, same 24/7 obsessive thinking but it was a bit different. Jesus was not around to see, smell or touch. But I did know I loved Him.

Don’t get me wrong, I was not worthy of His love. [None of us ever are]. But 18 years ago, I understood His love for me for the very first time in my life. I knew He cared for me and I was seeing Him move in my life in a powerful way.   I had declared my need to Him and I knew He was going to meet it.

What has happened over the years with my wife? What has happened over the years with Jesus?

My love has changed.

The intense stage is over and I have had some ups and downs. We all do. Just because you love someone does not mean you will always have an intense love. Just because you love Jesus does not mean that your life will be perfect all the time. It won’t be. As you spend time with your loved one, you are trying to understand them and they are trying to understand you. For earthly companions, it is a process of really knowing the person. The dating stage is “best foot forward time”; you know you want to make the best impression you can for as long as you can. You can keep it up for a few hours but you can’t keep it up forever. You have breaks from the other person so you can be the “real you.” You know, the you that you are hiding from your loved one.

As you make a commitment to your earthly loved one, you eventually have to reveal who you are. You can’t keep up the best impression stuff up too long. You have to let the real “you” show especially if you are living with your loved one.

But what about Jesus? This relationship is a bit different. God speaking to Jeremiah “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” gives you an indication of a difference in the man to God relationship. Jesus knows all about you. He knows your weaknesses and strengths and He knows what you are prone to do before you do it.

So when you say “I love you Jesus” you are committing yourself to a different type of relationship than a relationship with an earthly person [duh].

But in some ways it is the same.

What happens in a long term relationship? The sparkle begins to wear off. What replaces it? Friendship…true friendship. Lifelong friendship that lasts through the good times and bad.   For Jesus, the sparkle goes away also and what replaces it?

Spiritual maturity.

“Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death” [Hebrews 6:1].

Pastor Matt Slick lists four characteristics of the spiritually immature person: spiritual infancy is lack of growth after the new birth. The spiritual infant is concerned with self rather than service. The spiritual infant is concerned with argument rather than action. The spiritual infant looks to people rather than the Master.

You may have noticed the relational maintenance diagram at the top of this post.

With your earthly partner and you heavenly Partner, you want to reach the bonded stage for your lifetime.   Your earthy partner bonds will be broken by death but you heavenly partner bonds will continue after death [that is your hope].

You want to be bonded to God forever. He wants to be bonded to you.

Truly it is a love relationship that is hard to understand but it will change your life when it happens.

True love is hard to come by but when it is Jesus you love, it will sustain you forever.

Conflict has always bothered me.

Even before I had a relationship with God, it bothered me. I had a problem with it in the past due to the fact that I always thought I was beyond reproach. I was a “good person” and I never did anything to harm anyone.

That does not matter.

People who study conflict have this old expression: “Conflict is inevitable.”

It does not matter how “good” you are, there are those who will despise you.

For the Christian it is hard because Jesus said all the commandments can be summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Wow that is a high goal for any of us, especially when we have people around us who are really hard to love.

It raises the question: how does a Christian love the unlovable neighbor?

First of all, it is good to try to figure out the source of the conflict. Is it a content issue or a relationship issue?

Content issues are difficult enough because our world is full of issues that can cause people to disagree. Topics like civil rights for gay and lesbian individuals can cause a content conflict but even a topic like whether or not you like a movie can cause a fight. My point is, the subject does not have to be “serious” for a conflict to ensue. You just have to disagree on some content.

Relationship issues are the second major source of conflict and they are much more difficult to handle. People can disagree over a topic and eventually get over it. The old expression is “I can agree to disagree with you.” Relationship issues are rooted in problems that are personality based.

Let me see if I can give you some examples.

A person who wants to be in charge all the time is having a hard time dealing with the lack of control he or she feels when leadership has been given to another. They may lash out at anyone in authority because they feel they should be in authority.

Someone may want equal decision-making in a relationship but they are not getting that option. The other partner is making decisions without consultation and that causes conflict.

A narcissistic person may crave attention but they are getting very little. They may act out in an effort to draw attention to themselves, even if it is negative attention.

These are tough nuts to crack because the source of the conflict is deep within another person’s psychological makeup or their needs.

Often you may receive the anger, frustration and the negativity of the other person and you don’t deserve it. Their feelings are coming from a need which has very little to do with you.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5

Loving the unlovable is hard but Jesus calls upon us to do it and who said it was going to be easy to be a follower of Christ? No one.

I have no easy solution to loving the unlovable other than “do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” [Matthew 5:39].

This difficult piece of advice from Matthew is in line with what I used to counsel people who attended customer service seminars that I used to offer at the place where I worked. Do not act out on the level of the person who is acting out. That only makes matters worse. Then there are two people misbehaving. It is much better to be cool under pressure and “show” the out of control person the proper way to respond. Your behavior will be a contrast to theirs and may make them think about what they are saying and doing.   Your behavior may make them calm down. Your misbehaving may just be “pouring gasoline on the fire.”

Yes, conflict has always bothered me. It still does. As a Christian, I struggle with it even more when another Christian is having a conflict with me.

I try to focus on the fact that when I have conflict with another, we are both humans and we both have our own set of flaws. Galatians 6 [referring to sin] says “We must carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each should carry his own load.”

Yes, conflict is inevitable but it does not have to ruin your life. It will pass if you keep on remembering the greatest commandment.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Some of you from St. John United Methodist in Hopkinsville, Ky. may know that this has been the summer of sick mothers for me and my wife.

I tell you this not to make excuses because there is no need for excuses.

At the beginning of summer my mother found out she has breast cancer. It floored her and it was upsetting for the rest of us.

Like all sickness that had the possibility of being prolonged, you just work through it one stage at a time. She had surgery and we all nervously awaited the outcome.

The outcome was good…stage 1A, which means a low degree of development and even more good news, it has not spread and she did not have to take radiation or chemotherapy.

You may have seen the plural “mothers” in the first sentence.

My wife’s mother was the next one to have sickness.

Almost a month ago, she had indigestion that would not go away. She went to the local hospital only to be rushed to a larger facility where they determined she probably had some loosened plaque pass through an artery. She went back home only to have recurring symptoms and at this hospital visit, they did dual heart bypass surgery.

My wife was in the hospital so much with her mother that she was in the hospital more than at home—several days around the clock.

There will be more recuperation to come. My wife’s mother is 86 and her age requires her to have round-the-clock care at home by rotating family members. My wife’s rotation will be coming up again in a day or so.

Jesus said in John 16:33 “In this world you will have trouble.”

This is where so many people struggle. Their thinking works like this. I love Jesus and Jesus loves me. Jesus will protect me from all harm. Life will be a “bowl of cherries” from now on.

No.

It does not work like that.

One of the most misquoted verses in the Bible is “God won’t give you any more than you can handle.” Those words which come from 1 Corinthians 10:13 sound so comforting when you are going through times of trouble but one needs to look at the context of the verse for the whole truth. The context reveals that this idea is referring to tempting times. The fuller context is “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.” Most people misquote the verse so it can provide comfort in the midst of difficult times.

The truth is John 16:33 “In this world you will have trouble.”

It is stressful when trouble comes. Sometimes the trouble can be so severe that you begin to question why it is happening. Some people even begin to question the existence of God. Just the other day, I had a man tell me his sister has lost her faith completely because her son committed suicide.   She was a Catholic and at the time of the suicide her church had a hardline stance against suicide.* She could not believe anymore after the suicide happened. To this day, she does not believe in God.

In talking to my mother-in-law this morning I made the comment “I sure don’t want to have to have open heart surgery. I don’t think it is any fun.” My comment was made to lighten up the topic but she came back with the line, “Other people have it far worse than me.”

That is so true but when trouble comes, it can be so self-centering. I took her comment as a sign that she would pull through this recovery and get better, maybe because she knows that God is on her side.   She is beginning to see that others around her have it far worse and the focus is going off of her onto others.

You know God is on our side. We do not have to worry about ourselves that much. He has us covered.

The rest of the verse John 16:33 says “But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Pastor Chan says to “keep on, fight the good fight, pray continuously and do not grow weary.”

And always remember Jesus making that strong statement, “I have overcome the world.”

His strength is our salvation in our times of trouble.

*The Catholic Church has in recent years modified its harsh stance on suicide.

How much do we really want the truth in church?

Probably not much…

Sadly, the church today waters the truth down quite a lot…you know that.

I think I have used this example before but I am going to refer to it again. A few years ago, a pastor in Hopkinsville [at a Methodist Church] was asked to move along to another church. I was told by a long-time leader of the church that he just preached too much heaven and hell. They had to let him go.

What does that mean?

He talked about salvation and the opposite too much.

Threatening?

Probably. Not what the church wanted to hear.

Today’s church is obsessed with numbers. Many pastors want large crowds. I understand that. A couple of years ago, I worked hard to do a men’s study in my home. I emailed, sent letters, announced from the front of the church, put notices in the bulletin, bought the food, prepped my lesson and have no men show up. Zero. It was just me and my lesson. It hurt not to have a number.

Pastors don’t want that.

They want large crowds.

To get that, what do they have to do?

Maybe water down the truth.

Keep this in mind. I am a trained speaker by trade. I spent 36 years trying to get students to analyze their audiences before they spoke before them. What does audience analysis mean? It means asking key questions about their audience like what does your audience believe about your topic? What is their attitude toward your topic? What types of people are in the audience [race, socioeconomic level, education, gender etc.]? What do they expect from you as a speaker? I told them the key to speaking success is knowing your audience.

Did Jesus have good audience analysis skills? Was Jesus obsessed with getting the numbers?

No.

Look at Luke 8: 10. Jesus had just preached to a large crowd the parable of the sower and many in the crowd were confused.

“The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ ”

Jesus wanted quality, not quantity.

Today’s church is scared.

We are scared we are going to do something that will run people off. Pastor has a personal problem that gets rumored around church—people run off. Child care gets cancelled for an event—people run off. Service times get changes—people run off. Budget gets cut—people run off. Pastor preaches a message that steps on a toe—people run off.

It does not take much.

You see in Luke 8: 10, Jesus is saying that if you are really with me, you will get the parable. You will understand that to pour water on the seed planted on rock is a waste of time. To fertilize seed that will be choked out by thorns is a waste of time.

But what do we do in the church today?

Pour water on the rocks.

Fertilize seed that has been cast among the thorns.

That seed is not going to grow.

Church is about the worship of God. To go to church is to go to be with followers of God.

Pure and simple.

Yet what is church for many?

For many, church is just a place to go once in a while to be seen. It is just a place to go because Mommy and Daddy told you “you must go to church.” It is just a place to go to be a person who controls other people and in the process, the light gets shined on you and you like that light, you love it. It is a place to go for you to feel good about yourself; no one is going to ask you do anything really. You can do your “duty” for the week and go home and feel good about yourself for another week. There are a lot of reasons to go to church but they are not about the worship of God or the joy of being around other followers of God.

Why do people not like church?

Some who don’t go, don’t like to be in the company of people who don’t look like they are following Jesus, don’t like to be in the company of people who don’t live like they are following Jesus, and don’t like to be in the company of people who don’t act like they are following Jesus.

What is Pastor Chan saying in Chapter 5?

Church should be a place for us to go to be with God. We are challenged there. It is not all easy. God asks us to do things that may be hard. That’s ok. He is trying to sow seeds. Don’t you want to be the good soil that yields a crop, “a hundred times more than was sown?”

Or do you want to be rock. The seed is sewn but it won’t produce. All the water in the world can be poured on that seed and it is a waste of time.

*Inspiration for this post was from the Francis Chan video “If Jesus were the pastor of your church, you probably would not go there.”

When was the last time you really took a chance? Walked in faith… Let the Lord lead you… Listened to your Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit take over…

When was the last time you prayed to the Lord, “put me where you need me; I will go.”

If you take a chance, you can change your life. More importantly, you can change other lives.

Let me tell you a true story of a man who took a chance with me. I was in college and not sure what I wanted to do for a major, an occupation. I was enrolled in a class called “Introduction to Literature” and I did know that I admired my professor. He seemed to be such an intelligent man, sensitive to the meaning of books and I soon began to look up to him.

I am not sure  if he was a Christian. In fact, he probably was not, but there were character qualities that I admired about him.

I am 100% sure that he has passed away now since I am 63 and he would have to be 100 [what are the chances?].

I finished his class and it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had. I not only learned a lot but in some ways I knew that I now had a mentor. I wanted to be an English teacher because of this man. I wanted to have more lessons from him.

That’s chancy…to choose an occupation based on your admiration of a person. Essentially you are saying that “I want to be like this guy.”

Anyway, I was ready to move on in my life from Intro. To Literature and I was about to make some changes. I was moving off-campus with a new set of friends. My girlfriend was coming to college and I was very excited about that.

Then I got sick…

I got so sick that I had to drop out of college.

I was devastated. I went home to recuperate and the recuperation period was not short. I missed a whole semester while my mentor kept on inspiring other young students and my girlfriend attended her first semester of college [without me].

Second semester of my recuperation began and I was beginning to show signs of improvement. By mid-term of the second semester, I felt well enough to take a job sacking groceries in a Sureway Market. This was not the career goal I expected to have but it did get me out of the house doing something and even that was therapeutic.

I was beginning to experience another problem. The more I stayed home away from college, the more I considered not returning. It just seemed like my age group was passing me by and I was missing out. The return to college was beginning to be more than I could comprehend. It was too complex. It was too demanding. Added to this, I began to feel depression and a heavy dose of laziness.

Then it happened. One day when I had finished my “stimulating” work at the market, I went to the mailbox and there it was…a letter from someone who was willing to take a chance.

A letter from my mentor.

He took the time to pen a letter of encouragement, urging me to return to college. Telling me that the sickness that I had was bad but it could make me stronger. I needed to pick myself up and get back to school.

I don’t know why he wrote it, but it meant the world to me.

It got me back to college where I finished my degree and then went on to school even further.

He took a chance.

When you read Crazy Love, you get the impression that Pastor Chan wants you to sell your home and move to Thailand and become a Bible translator.

That’s not necessary.

He did that and more.

He sold his home and took his wife and five children to Asia to find where God would lead them. That’s fine.   He was married two weeks and then he started a church in his home which grew into a mega-church. That’s fine. From his church, he started a college. That’s fine also.

All those things are great. Those are examples of a man who is willing to take a chance, but you know the things we do don’t need to be on a grand scale to do the Lord’s work.

Make the phone call, tell your friend that you care for them, send out the card to someone who is going through a hard time, pat someone on the back and tell they are doing a good job.

Take fifteen minutes and write a struggling, lost, young man a letter, telling him his place is back at college.

I could make all the difference in one person’s life.

Take that chance.

If I could tell Professor Ben Jones what I thought about him today, I would say “I thank God for you.”

You took a chance on me.

*Comments on Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love…

Philippians 3: 13-14:  “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead press on toward the goal…”

Have you ever felt stagnant in your faith?  Have you ever known someone who is?  Are you that way now?

I stumbled across the “Plainsimplefaith” webpage run by Ben Giselbach, a pastor at Montgomery, Alabama and he makes some interesting points that tie in well with Chapter 5 of Crazy Love.

First of all, you cannot be stagnant if you are truly a Christian.  Stagnant means “still, motionless, static, stationary, standing, dead and slack.”  Either a Christian is growing stronger or they are growing weaker.  They are either moving closer to God or they are moving away.

In Hebrew 2:1, the Bible says “We must pay more careful attention therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”

What are 4 signs that you are drifting away?

1.Your relationship with God becomes “old hat.”  It is not interesting anymore; in fact, it is boring.  The amazing opportunity God has provided for you is not exciting.  He asks you to try to love Him and follow His commandments and promises you will feel a peace, you know that peace “that passes all understanding.”

Folks that is real and it is the payoff of a life devoted to Christ.

That in itself is excitement enough for anyone.

But you are not feeling that anymore.  You are drifting.

2.You don’t understand the Bible any better this year than last year.  I was talking to a Bible teacher yesterday and he is looking forward to teaching a class at church and he said something that is all too true.  “I hope I cause some people to pick up their Bibles and knock the dust off of them.”  That’s the state of things in too many churches today.  If you are not growing, Bible study has probably stopped.  You are drifting.

3.You need coaxing to grow.  You aren’t excited about worship.  You aren’t excited about attending any events at church.  You are shying away from taking the lead on anything that needs your help.  You need motivation and encouragement to get up and go to honor your God.  The problem with all this is that you should not need encouragement.  You should want to go.  You are drifting.

4.You have reached the point in life where you know you are beginning to blur the line between right and wrong in your life.  Pastor Giselbach says “Do you find yourself constantly trying to justify sinful behavior? Are you reluctant to take a stand on moral issues? Are you always willing to ‘push the envelope’ when it comes to your own moral boundaries?”  Moral stands are tough and it is hard to comb through a complex issue and figure where the truth is.  It is not bad to keep an open mind and collect facts before coming down hard on an issue.  However being wishy washy forever and having no stand whatsoever is the sign of a weak moral character.  Eventually Matthew 5: 37 comes into play: “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”  You are drifting.

“Spiritual growth is a result of a determination to grow” Pastor Giselbach says and he is right.

God does not want us to be stagnant.

Let us press on in life to the point where we desire “solid food”.  That is the food for the mature Christian.

This drifting is bad, for it is moving away from God.  It is a slow process and it occurs in increments.  We drift further and further away every day until we are no longer capable of calling ourselves Christian.  There is nothing that would distinguish you from any worldly person walking down the street.

You have forgotten your Christian goal.

You are drifting…