Crazy Love pages 83-100

This chapter was eye-opening for me. The title is "Serving Leftovers to a Holy God", and it talked about the idea of being "lukewarm" like in the last chapter. He gave many verses that helped back him up in his reasoning. One thing he said was that people are only willing to make changes in their lives if it affects their salvation. This is very true to most Christians; many of us are mainly concerned that we will make it to heaven more than our personal relationship with God. Francis said that so many people ask him questions like "Can I divorce my wife and still go to heaven? Do I have to be baptized to be saved?", these questions reveal the sins that people have done. We are so worried that we will not make it to heaven from our sinful actions, but yet we don't take the time to change our ways. Francis quoted Jesus's words in John 14:15 that say: "If you love me, you will obey what I command". This verse is very simple, but also complex at the same time. God lays out what we have to do, and we should do it, but instead we are so worried about doing the wrong thing and not making it to heaven. This chapter gives so many verses from the Bible that tell us exactly what we need to do in order to live a godly life, which I am striving to accomplish.

Favorite magazine to read

For those runners out there, "Runners World" is a perfect guide to help improve running techniques. I've had a subscription to this magazine for about two years now, and it has really helped me become a more knowledgable runner. This magazine gives the complete guide to running. It gives information for a wide range of runners, from beginners to marathon runners. This magazine gives the best types of foods that runners should eat, and it even provides the recipes to some tastey, runner-friendly meals. Exercises, to increase muscle in key areas that runners need, are provided in step by step instructions, and even include pictures of how to exicute them. Everyone who wants to become a runner, or is already a runner should check this magazine out!

Crazy Love pages 68-82

This chapter is called "Profile of the Lukewarm". Right when I heard that title I thought I had a pretty good idea of what all would be said in it. I've heard of being "lukewarm" in a relationship with Christ before, but I'd never thought of it the way Francis Chan put it. One thing that stuck out to me was when Chan said that he "rejected what the majority said", and instead he compared his life to scripture. Today in church my Pastor said that sometimes the majority is wrong, so we should always just listen to what God says. It's kind of ironic that I read this the same day that my Pastor spoke about it; to me, that's God trying to send me a sign. The next things that Francis said really stood out to me, he had a long list of things that "lukewarm people" believe and do. One of these things on the list that made me think was when he said that these people tend to do what is popular over what is right. He said that people strive to fit in based on what other people think of their actions and words, more than what God thinks of their hearts and lives. I'm sure everyone at one point or another has done things solely because they are accepted by the public. A piece of scripture that Francis quoted from Revolations 3:1 and said "I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead". This goes along with pretending to be a Christian, but not obeying what the Bible says.

Crazy Love pages 39-64

This book amazes me everytime I sit down to read it. It makes me think ten times deeper about life than I ever thought was needed. Francis made a very good point about how we think that our lives are so important, but really they are just a vapor, and we tend to live as though we will live forever. Chan says that we tend to get caught up in our busy lives and feel that we have an excuse to disobey, or forget about God. I'm definitely guilty of this, I think that everything I'm obligated to do needs to get done before I can spend time with God, but really in the end He is the only thing that matters. I worry about a lot of things in my life, whether I will do well on a test, whether I will be successful in the future; I realized that when we stress and worry about those things we are doubting God's power. We tend to forget that He has already planned out our whole lives, and he know exactly what's going to happen in it, so we should just trust him with our whole life. Another awesome point that Francis brought up, that I've heard and thought about before, is that this life is about God, not me. We always think that the little things about us are what matters in our life, but the only thing that does matter is living a life for God. One thing that kind of scared me during my reading was when Francis said that so many funerals are full of people who have to make up nice things to say about the dead person because they can't think of any real nice things to say about them. And of course you can't say anything bad about the person who has just died, so people are put in the position to make the person seem like a better person than they actually were. I would really hate it my funeral was like that. I want people to say genuinely nice and true things about me; I want everyone to know the same "me". I try to be the same person around everyone, but that gets hard when peer pressure and society seemingly forces us to act different ways than how we really act.

Crazy Love pages 1-38

I started a new book called "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan because a few of my friends have read it and said it was amazing. I'm still reading "Doctrine", but I'm just switching on and off. The first chapter is called "Stop Praying", which I thought was interesting considering this was written by a famous Christian speaker. When I started reading I understood what he meant by stop praying. Francis meant that we should stop talking at God, and instead we should just sit in awe of him. He says that we as praying Christians do so much talking at God and so little listening to him. Chan goes on to talk about how it is so easy for us to forget to thank God and to talk to him. God has made thousands of galaxies, and He is uncomprehendabley huge, but still we seem to forget about him. I am this way too, I get so caught up in the little things in my life that I sometimes forget that God is so much bigger than I am. Francis made a good point when he said that it confuses us when loving God is hard. It should be so easy to love such an incredible, loving God, but it's hard. We get so caught up in thinking about what he don't have instead of all of the things we do have. I really liked the quote from A. W. Tozer; he says "...and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart concieves God to be like". I especially liked this quote because it is very true; just because people may seem like they are a strong Christian and always seem to say the right Christian things doesn't neccessarily mean that in their heart it is the same. And since God is the only one who can see our hearts, he is the only one worthy of judging us in the end of our life. Francis quoted this from Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account". Too often we forget that no matter how hard we try to cover something up, God can always see it, and already knows it. Even though we can fool our peers about what we are really thinking, or our true intentions, God always knows our real thoughts.

Doctrine pages 37-100

These pages talk about how God speaks. The second chapter starts off with a verse from 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 which says, "So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God". This verse gives me comfort knowing that it's okay that I don't understand God's plan because He is the only one who knows it because He made it. This chapter also says that, "People want to know and be known" which I thought was very interesting and true. All humans strive to know more about the world and what's going on around them, but they also desire to be known by other people. We as humans try so hard to be socially accepted, but all that matters is God's acceptance. In these pages of "Doctrine" it also talks about how God reveals himself in the world. Even when we don't notice, or think that it is God's doing, He is always there. God reveals himself through creation, common grace, and conscience. One way God acts as a conscience is how that he has already written his morality on our human hearts. God brings missionaries to an unreached group of people to reveal the gospel to them. God even sends angels to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ, if necessary. This book makes me think deeper about my faith than I have before.

Doctrine pages 22-36

These pages in "Doctrine" continue to talk about how the Bible is a trinitarian. It says that god always works in unison and does so in history for his glory and for our good. I thought that was very interesting because God does everything for us even though we don't deserve any of it. We all sin every single day and God still loves us just the way we are and forgives our sins, I think that is truely amazing. This book states the verse Matthew 28:19 which says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". I have heard this verse many times before, but never really stopped to think about the trinity that is mentioned in this verse. It also quotes from the Bible Acts 1:7-8 which says, "He [Jesus] said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority'". I like this verse a lot because Jesus tells us that even when we aren't supposed to understand everything that happens in our lives, but that we should trust the he has it under control. The chapter sums up by saying that the trinitarian life consists of love, humbleness, relationships, and joy. It says that we should love everyone, even our enemies; I think that is very hard because it's hard to love the ones that don't have the same interests, or personality as you. It also says that God welcomes us into a relationship with him, which just blows me away that He wants a relationship with me.

Doctrine pages 1-21

I started a new book called "Doctrine, What Christians Should Believe" by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. This book is very interesting so far. It makes me think deeper about religion than I normally do. This book breaks down Christianity and answers very in depth questions people might have about the religion. The book starts out with this Bible verse: "And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven [god the Father] said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased'". That verse is from the book in the Bible, Matthew 3:16-17, and I really like this verse because it is the first time that God spoke down to earth about his son Jesus. The "Doctrine" continues to talk about how we as mankind, long for selfless, trustworthy, unending love from someone who we can trust to be faithful. It also says that we long for this kind of love, but then our longings turn into pits of selfish desire. This book says that our desire for unending, selfless love is ultimitely a longing for the Trinitarian God of the Bible. This chapter talks a lot about the trinity, which is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It says that many people confuse the trinity with being three separate things, but the Bible says that they are just three components that work together as one. I thought it was interesting how this book said that the word "Love" is spoken roughly eight hundred time in the Bible, and that the name "Yahweh" which means God, is used 6,823 times in the Old Testament. I like how this book just dives right into teaching and answering questions that people might have about Christianity.

video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozsOLdgp_y0

I thought this video was interesting because it gave me a visual of how to picture the setting as I read it.

A long way gone pages 58-100

In these pages of "A Long Way Gone", the boys find theirselves in a hut acting like their old selves again. The boys are running around and acting silly when a man enters the hut and demands them to stop, and their punishment is to give him their shoes. This turns out to be an awful punishment because they have to walk on hot tar which burns their feet. Their host brings them food and water and makes them feel all better. The cheif of the village comes to interrogate them and is fasinated by their unusual clothing. The cheif makes them dance to their rap music to prove that they know what it is. They continue on and find that the next village only has one large house and it is used for production of palm oil. They spend a night there and three rebel army men come, the boys hide away until they leave. One of the boys, Saidu was in a trance for a while. The next day they find that Saidu is not just in a trance, but he is actually dead. The boys had a quick burrial for him at the farm. The boys keep walking and grieving the loss of their friend. They finally make it to Ishmael's home town and they find that the town has been lit on fire with bombshells. Ishmael could not find his family and figures that they are dead. Ishmael starts taking his anger out on the boys with him and begins choking them and blaming them.
I can't imagine being put in Ishmael's situation. He had to go through this long, terrible journey and then only to find out that his family has died. I can see why Ishmael would take his grief out on his friends that he has been traveling with because I'm sure it's hard to accept the fact that his family is gone. I think it's interesting how every time the boys come into contact with the rebels, somehow they manage to escape. I wonder if soon their luck will run out and they will be captured by the rebels. I also thought it was a little creepy how Saidu's prediction of him dying, ends up coming true. This adds to Ishmael's grief having lost his whole family and one of his friends.

A Long Way Gone Pages 15-57

During these pages in "A Long Way Gone", Ishmael, the main character, keeps having these strange dreams in which he mixes his actual memory with imagination.  In an attempt to not have anymore of his strange dreams, Ishmael stays up all night.  Ishmael realizes that when there are no people filling a town, the town looks dead and somber, and even nature has no life to it when there are no people in it.  After many rumors about the rebel armies attacking Mattru Jong more days pass and the boys are safe with no interactions from the armies.  Later while Ishmael is cooking, the rebels attack the town and maddness fills the town.  People are running for their lives in mass chaos; the boys hop from bush to bush and eventually the rebels gave up on trying to capture them.  As the boys continue walking from their escape, they try to make food out of coconuts and fruit, but aren't satisfied with it.  They go to the market to buy food, but the market wasn't selling food because the market owners were saving the food for themselves.  While the boys are walking through grasslands, three rebels pop up and start harassing them and pointing their guns at them.  They then take them to a nearby village and start selecting people to recrute for the rebel army.  Ishmael's brother Junior was selected to be in the rebel army.  Ishmael and the other boys come into contact with other people throughout the next couple chapters and eventually ishmael ends up alone trying to find peace.  Ishmael is lost in a forest and is determined to find his way out.  He walks for days at a time and eventually comes into contact with an old man.  The old man is very selfless and is expecting death very soon.
I found these chapters very intreging and it kept me on my toes wondering what would happen next.  I thought it was very interesting how the rebels and other people were so fasinated by the boys' clothes and rap tapes.  I also felt bad for Ishmael because he eventually is all by himself trying to keep himself in mental order.  I can't imagine going through what he has to go through every day, being tortured mentally and physically from not eating or drinking or getting sleep.  I have to interact with people or else I would start loosing my mind, especially in the situation that Ishmael is put in. 

"A Long Way Gone" pages 1-14

The beginning of "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah, involves a few young boys who live in Mogbwemo and are very interested in the American rap culture. They started listening to American rap music and were blown away by it. They couldn’t believe that people could speak English so fast. Still amazed by it, they started trying to learn raps and sing them. Eventually they started dressing like the people who rap and talking like them too. They would say things like "Peace, son" or "I’m out," things they had heard the rappers say. One morning the four boys left for Mattu Jong, they packed their bags expecting to return the next day. The author adds foreshadowing that implies that they will never return back to their homeland. When they arrived in Mattu Jong, they met up with their friends who lived there. The next day the four boys waited for their friends to get home from school, when they heard the news that the rebels had attacked the mining areas, and an outburst of gunfire broke out. People were running around frantically looking for their loved ones and eventually running for their lives. They saw horrifying images of people covered in blood running scared for their lives. The four boys contemplated if they wanted to go back to their home to check on their families, or if it was too late.
I was very interested about the boys from Mogbwemo being so amazed by American rap. I thought that was interesting that they tried so hard to be like the people that are common here in the U.S. I was also interested in the fact that these young boys were allowed to walk sixteen miles by themselves to go visit their friends. People in this town don’t have a lot of material things, which helps them focus on the things that are really important, like family. They care so much about each other and don’t get caught up in material items. The foreshadowing that the author uses really interreges me to want to keep reading and figure out why the four boys won’t return to their home or ever get to see their families again.