crazy love, pt1

One of my sisters had this idea of doing a long distance Bible study. This is the first go-around. Starting in September, all five of us girls and Mom will go through this book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed By a Relentless God by Francis Chan (a man). (I clarify that because I thought Francis was a woman. I'd obviously never heard of him.)

For lack of something better to do last night, I took a sneak peek at chapters 1 and 2. The first assignment was to watch the "Awe Factor" clip. (If you want to see it, go to www.crazylovebook.com. Click on "videos" and "The Awe Factor of God.") Chan quotes Psalm 19:1-4a which says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."

"This is why we are called to worship Him. His art, His handiwork, and His creation all echo the truth that He is glorious....Because we don't often think about the reality of who God is, we quickly forget that He is worthy to be worshipped and loved. We are to fear Him."

God is holy, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, and fair and just. The more we grasp each of those characteristics of God, the more we realize who we are. With that in mind, it was convicting to hear what Chan had to say about our perception of ourselves:

"Suppose you are an extra in an upcoming movie. You will probably scrutinize that one scene where hundreds of people are milling around, just waiting for that two-fifths of a second when you can see the back of your head. Maybe your mom and your closest friend get excited about that two-fifths of a second with you ... maybe. But no one else will realize it is you. Even if you tell them, they won't care. Let's take it a step further. What if you rent out the theater on opening night and invite all your friends and family to come see the new movie about you? People will say, "You're an idiot! How could you think this movie is about you?" Many Christians are even more delusional than the person I've been describing. So many of us think and live like the movie of life is all about us. Now consider the movie of life....

....God creates the world. (Were you alive then? Was God talking to you when He proclaimed "It is good" about all He had just made?) Then people rebel against God (who, if you haven't realized it yet, is the main character in this movie), and God floods the earth to rid it of the mess people made of it."

Chan goes on to point out how this movie is NOT ABOUT US. He says:

"How is it possible that we live as though it is about us? Our scenes in the movie, our brief lives, fall somewhere between the time Jesus ascends into heaven (Acts) and when we will all worship God on His throne in heaven (Revelation). We have only our two-fifths-of-a-second-long scene to live. I don't know about you, but I want my two-fifths of a second to be about my making much of God. First Corinthians 10:31 says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." That is what each of our two-fifths of a second is about. So what does that mean for you? Frankly, you need to get over yourself. It might sound harsh, but that's seriously what it means."

I'm utterly guilty.