Lately my involuntary obsession has been with extravagant love. In my various roles as servant leader, I want to love those I serve with the same extravagance that God loved me. Like the father's prodigal love for his prodigal son--so unexpectedly lavish, so generous, and so completely and genuinely absorbed in joy for another. Like the love of the shepherd who left his ninety-nine sheep to look for the one who was lost--bold, perhaps seemingly imprudent in its unrestrained dedication. Like the God who gave up his son to save my soul--the most unexpected of all methods, the most self-sacrificial, the most extravagant. This year, I want to love that way.
While God was calling my attention to this aspect of his character and urging me to imitate it, a friend read one of the following quotes to me. I am convinced that I cannot love others extravagantly unless I love the Lord just as extravagantly. The following are mostly unrelated quotes from a book by Francis Chan called Crazy Love. If you can, take a bit of time to let these sink in.
I have taken the liberty of emphasizing certain phrases.
“What scares me most are the people who are lukewarm and just don't care. I think that if I did a poll of the readers of this book, many of you would say, ‘Yeah, I am definitely lukewarm at times, but I’m not really at a place to give more to God.’ Many of us believe we have as much of God as we want right now, a reasonable portion of God among all the other things in our lives. Most of our thoughts are centered on the money we want to make, the school we want to attend, the body we aspire to have, the spouse we want to marry, the kind of person we want to become. But the fact is that nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God; it's about eternity, and nothing compares with that. God is not someone who can be tacked on to our lives.”
“The average Christian in the United States spends ten minutes per day with God; meanwhile, the average American spends over four hours a day watching television. Perhaps TV is not your thing-maybe you don't even own one. But how about your time and your resources? How much of your money is spent on yourself, and how much is directed toward God's kingdom? How much of your time is dedicated to pursuing your life and your goals, and how much is focused on God's work and purposes?”
“Walking in genuine intimacy and full surrender to God requires great faith."
Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”
“Back when I was in Bible College, a professor asked our class, ‘What are you doing right now that requires faith?’ That question affected me deeply because, at the time, I could think of nothing in my life that required faith. I probably wouldn't be living very differently if I didn't believe in God; my life was neither ordered nor affected by my faith - like I had assumed it was. Furthermore, when I looked around, I realized I was surrounded by people who lived the same way I did. Life is comfortable when you separate yourself from people who are different from you. That epitomizes what my life was like: characterized by comfort. But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.”
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