Total for week: 103
The picture that this chapter displays is a picture of Mary with her son Jesus in her lap. Jesus is reaching up at his mother’s face in a loving way. Mary has a halo hovering over her head as she looks genuinely into her baby’s eyes.
The verse this chapter starts out with is John 1:14 which says, “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”. I had never heard this exact verse before; I had heard the concept of it, but never the real thing from the Bible. There is a song that talks about the word becoming flesh and dwelling among us which means that Jesus came down to earth to be with us. And when we see Jesus face to face, we will have seen God, and seen the truth.
Incarnation: God Comes is the name of this chapter. This was very in depth and answered a lot of questions I had never even thought about. Incarnation is used to explain how the second member of the Trinity entered into human history in flesh as the God-man Jesus Christ. This chapter explained that when Jesus was on earth he was both fully God and fully man. This concept can be hard to grasp because some people think that he either had to be fully man or fully God, and that he couldn’t be both. But this book does an excellent job of breaking down how it was possible for Jesus to be both. This book takes me deeper in thought about God than I thought was possible! I love it.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Doctrine pages 175-208
This is the sixth chapter in this book and it's called, covenant: God Pursues. Before I start talking about what I read in this chapter, I wanted to point out that at the beginning of each chapter there is a picture on the first page. This chapter's picture is of a man (I'm guessing he is supposed to represent Jesus) who is laying down with a cloud of smoke floating up from him. He looks very fatiged and in need of healing. I just thought I would share the pictures in the chapters because I think they get me thinking before I even start reading the chapters.
This chapter started out with the verse from Exodus 6:7, "I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God". I love this verse because it reminds me that God didn't just create us and then abandon us here on this crazy earth; he is here with us always and he will always be our God.
This chapter brought up the point that no matter how badly someone has sinned against us, nothing compares to the sin we have committed against God. God did nothing but bless us and pour his grace out on us and our response is to sin agaisnt him. And even after God has given us all of this and we chose to respond with sin he goes even further to give us a convenant, his saving, glorious, and loving covenant. The rest of this chapter painted a really good picture of what the covenant is and why God gave us his covenant.
This chapter started out with the verse from Exodus 6:7, "I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God". I love this verse because it reminds me that God didn't just create us and then abandon us here on this crazy earth; he is here with us always and he will always be our God.
This chapter brought up the point that no matter how badly someone has sinned against us, nothing compares to the sin we have committed against God. God did nothing but bless us and pour his grace out on us and our response is to sin agaisnt him. And even after God has given us all of this and we chose to respond with sin he goes even further to give us a convenant, his saving, glorious, and loving covenant. The rest of this chapter painted a really good picture of what the covenant is and why God gave us his covenant.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Doctrine pages 140-174
This chapter, called "God Judges", talks about our battles with sin, and why there is such a thing as sin in the first place. It starts out from the Bible verse: Ecclesiates 7:29 which says, "God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes". The verse at the beginning of each chapter really paints a sketch of what the chapter will be about, and it helps your brain start thinking about this topic. In the beginning of this chapter they talk about the fall of Satan, who was an angel, but then rebelled against God and was kicked out of heaven. God made this perfect world and created Adam and Eve and put them on earth and said they could do whatever they please, except for going near the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve was tempted by Satan to disobey God and take from the tree that God had forbade her to take from. Satan convinced Eve that God was untrustworthy and if she took from the tree then she would become like God. Adam just stood their and watched Eve be taken into darkness and he too sinned against God. God gave Adam the job of leading his familiy in godliness, but Adam failed. When God called for them they hid and then started blaming everyone else for their own sins. Adam blamed Eve for his sin and he also blamed God for making Eve.
The bright side to this seemingly dark story, is that when Adam and Eve repented, or confessed their sins, God forgave them. God replaced guilt and shame, with a clear conscience. He also changed the human view God as an enemy to hide from, to a view of God as a friend to walk with. Sin and the fall don't have the world, but God does. Even though sin seems so powerful, nothing compares to the power of God.
The bright side to this seemingly dark story, is that when Adam and Eve repented, or confessed their sins, God forgave them. God replaced guilt and shame, with a clear conscience. He also changed the human view God as an enemy to hide from, to a view of God as a friend to walk with. Sin and the fall don't have the world, but God does. Even though sin seems so powerful, nothing compares to the power of God.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
End of Crazy Love!
Total reading for week: 100 pages
This part of the book talked about giving. He gave inspiring examples of how people expressed their faith through their giving. One example was a man who would always give 20 percent of his money to the church and then his income greatly decreased and he started giving 30 percent to the church. I find that amazing that a man would have that much faith that even though you would think he would start giving less to the church to accomadate for his lowered income, but instead gave even more! That just amazes me. Another thing Francis talked about along the lines of giving was giving your time. Giving time can sometimes affect your life more than giving money can because if we let God have control of our time then he will do awesome things with it. But giving that is not motivated by love will gain nothing. If we are just giving because we feel like we should then we will not gain anything.
This chapter also brought up the idea of downgrading so that others may upgrade. I love that thought. There's a Bible verse that says "He must increase and I must decrease", which is one of the favorite Bible verses. The thought of being more like Jesus and less like my sinful-self fills me with joy.
Another thing that I liked was when Chan said that pride tells us that we've given more than other people so that is sufficient enough. We always compare ourselves to other people, which is silly because we are all different people! We all have different circumstances and lives so why do we always compare to others to see if we're doing the bare minimum it takes to be considered a good Christian?
Chan starts talking about what it is like to be obsessed with something. It means to have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic. God tells us in Luke chapter 6 to love our enemies and loan to them without expecting anything in return. I thought it was interesting how Francis brought up the point that it is so easy for us to lend things to our loved ones because we know that they will repay us somehow, but God says it is more important to lend to our enemies and expect nothing in return. God says that is true love.
The end of this book gave many examples of people who really live like that. Those examples were extremely touching and inspiring. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is feeling dry in their walk with Jesus becasue this book makes you think deeper than you ever thought you would! So go buy it!
This part of the book talked about giving. He gave inspiring examples of how people expressed their faith through their giving. One example was a man who would always give 20 percent of his money to the church and then his income greatly decreased and he started giving 30 percent to the church. I find that amazing that a man would have that much faith that even though you would think he would start giving less to the church to accomadate for his lowered income, but instead gave even more! That just amazes me. Another thing Francis talked about along the lines of giving was giving your time. Giving time can sometimes affect your life more than giving money can because if we let God have control of our time then he will do awesome things with it. But giving that is not motivated by love will gain nothing. If we are just giving because we feel like we should then we will not gain anything.
This chapter also brought up the idea of downgrading so that others may upgrade. I love that thought. There's a Bible verse that says "He must increase and I must decrease", which is one of the favorite Bible verses. The thought of being more like Jesus and less like my sinful-self fills me with joy.
Another thing that I liked was when Chan said that pride tells us that we've given more than other people so that is sufficient enough. We always compare ourselves to other people, which is silly because we are all different people! We all have different circumstances and lives so why do we always compare to others to see if we're doing the bare minimum it takes to be considered a good Christian?
Chan starts talking about what it is like to be obsessed with something. It means to have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic. God tells us in Luke chapter 6 to love our enemies and loan to them without expecting anything in return. I thought it was interesting how Francis brought up the point that it is so easy for us to lend things to our loved ones because we know that they will repay us somehow, but God says it is more important to lend to our enemies and expect nothing in return. God says that is true love.
The end of this book gave many examples of people who really live like that. Those examples were extremely touching and inspiring. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is feeling dry in their walk with Jesus becasue this book makes you think deeper than you ever thought you would! So go buy it!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Crazy Love pages 113-128
This chapter was probably one of my favorites so far. It's called "Your Best Life...Later" and it talked about how we must live our lives on earth in order to spend eternity with God. One statement that really stuck out to me was when Francis Chan said, "Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers". This really stuck out to me because it is so true. Our lives as Christians shouldn't look like everyone else's, they should reflect the fact that we find love in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Having faith often means doing things that others see as crazy. The verse: 1 John 2:6 says, "whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did". This makes me reevalute my life and see if I am really doing all I can to try to live a life like Jesus did; and if i'm being honest, most of the time it doesn't look like that. It is so hard to put aside our fears of what other people will think of us if we do certain things, but we can find joy in the fact that we will be rewarded in heaven for the things we do to glorify God on earth.
This next thing that Chan talked about blew my mind. He asked the question, "How would your life change if you actually thought each person you came into contact with as Christ?". I know I definitely don't treat every person how I would treat Christ if he was human flesh again. That really makes me want to change and treat even the most annoying kid in class as if he was Christ. Doing this takes a lot of patience and love, but if Christ did it then we should strive to do it too.
This next thing that Chan talked about blew my mind. He asked the question, "How would your life change if you actually thought each person you came into contact with as Christ?". I know I definitely don't treat every person how I would treat Christ if he was human flesh again. That really makes me want to change and treat even the most annoying kid in class as if he was Christ. Doing this takes a lot of patience and love, but if Christ did it then we should strive to do it too.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Crazy Love pages 99-112
This chapter is called “When You’re in Love”, and when I first heard the title I thought this would be about our earthly relationships with one another, but I was wrong. This chapter was all about being in love with God, and what that love should look like. It blows my mind that God actually wants a relationship with me; the almighty, powerful, perfect God wants me. The part that makes me feel bad is that He wants me, but sometimes I find myself forgetting about him. It seems crazy to think that we as humans on earth could ever forget about God because he is everywhere and he reveals himself through his works. One thing it said in this chapter that I liked was when it said “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you”. I like this a lot because it says God’s love is better than life itself; life is all we can see, so it seems to be all we ever pay attention too, but his love is way better than even life. The second part of that quote kind of makes me sad because I see so many people in my school who claim to be Christians and believe in Christ, but they use his name in vain every day, or they cuss and use vulgar language.
One of the subtitles in this chapter said “Help! I Don’t Love You”, which makes us feel kind of embarrassed because how could we not love such a loving and perfect God? It said that we need God’s help to get us to love him. This statement is true because we as imperfect, sinful people can’t love him without his help.
One thing that always comforts me whenever I hear it is in Luke chapter 6 verse 23 which says this, “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven”. This verse is a great reminder that we shouldn’t be discouraged by people on earth who try to condemn us for loving God because our reward for it will be in heaven when we can spend eternity praising Him.
One of the subtitles in this chapter said “Help! I Don’t Love You”, which makes us feel kind of embarrassed because how could we not love such a loving and perfect God? It said that we need God’s help to get us to love him. This statement is true because we as imperfect, sinful people can’t love him without his help.
One thing that always comforts me whenever I hear it is in Luke chapter 6 verse 23 which says this, “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven”. This verse is a great reminder that we shouldn’t be discouraged by people on earth who try to condemn us for loving God because our reward for it will be in heaven when we can spend eternity praising Him.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Crazy Love pages 83-98
This chapter is called "Serving Leftovers to a Holy God", and it's all about giving God parts of your life instead of your whole life. Francis Chan puts it very bluntly and says, "churchgoers whoare "lukewarm" are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven". This really stuck out to me because many people think that as long as you go to church and don't do too many bad things then you will go to heaven. But Chan says that if you are not a Christian with all of your heart and life then you are not going to heaven. Chan backs up his statement with scripture; in Revelation 3:16 it says, "Jesus says 'So, because you are luke warm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth'". This scripture basically says that God doesn't want people who aren't on fire for him to enter his kingdom of heaven. This means that Jesus wants all or nothing; he doesn't want us to pretend that we are christians if we aren't fully committed to serving him. Francis also made an excellent analogy of being a "lukewarm" christian to being a marine and only doing half of the work. You can't go into the marine and only do the work that you want to do and then skip out on the hard stuff. Another blunt comment he made was that people are only willing to change their lives if they think it will affect their salvation. One of the most popular questions that some Christians ask is, "What do I have to do to make it to heaven?". This question implies that we are only willing to do the bare minimun of what we think it takes to go to heaven and have eternal life, instead of going to hell and having eternal suffering.
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