Crazy Love!

For those of you who actually follow this blog, I would like to apologize for my silence for well over a week. I honestly don't have any excuse other than that I have been lazy. But here is a summary of last week:

Tuesday: Went out to get ice cream with Graham. Enjoyed building that relationship. Then we went to Max's for our small group study. The first half hour was spent playing carpet hockey where we all walked (or crawled) away with red knees and bruised hands. Then our small group discussion was about what it means to hate someone in comparison to disliking them and how the Apostle John spoke strongly against hating our brothers. This made for an interesting discussion and provoked some great questions.

Wednesday: Met up with another student to continue our one on one study of the Gospel of Matthew. Continued to see the heart in this particular student. I look forward to meeting with him weekly because I've always thought one on ones were the most impactful.

Thursday: Office day. Met with Mike. Tried to play street Hockey but no one showed up. Small group about loving the world, another great discussion with great questions. Then it was HOCKEY NIGHT, where I broke my skate during warm ups yet somehow managed to play some of the best goaltending to date. That's probably because Adam wasn't there to own me.

This weekend we finished up our packing for Haiti and loaded it all up yesterday. It's going to be an exciting trip. I want to get to a story about Haiti later but first I want to tune you into something I'm doing this summer.

Crazy Love.

Our program team consists of 7 members. These 7 are continuing to grow in their leadership as the year goes on. For the spring, it spent focusing on physical leadership such as organizational, communicational, and pretty much if they could follow my basic instructions. For the summer, we turn the page just a little and now we are focusing on their spiritual leadership. Even though not all of these students will lead small group come the Fall, I want them to be prepared if the time comes where they have to step in and lead spiritually. This I made very plain to them and I truly believe they are eager to grow in their faith.

This summer we are doing a book study on a book called Crazy Love. Crazy Love is written by the ex-Pastor of Cornerstone Simi Valley, Francis Chan. I say ex-Pastor of Cornerstone because within the past couple weeks he has stepped down and is moving on to do ministry in Los Angeles. Francis has always been one of my favorite authors and Pastors because of his very direct and very straight forward teaching of the Bible. Unlike some famous preachers, Francis Chan will not sugar coat his message about God. He sticks to the scripture and is faithful in teaching it without teaching around tough areas of scripture. I have always been greatful of that as a learner. In his style, the Gospel becomes more relevant and more real. It intercedes with reality in the same measure that breathing does.

Crazy Love was the first book I have ever finished in one day. If you know me well, I am not a fast reader by any means, but I just couldn't put it down. The way he speaks from his heart about the reality of who God is, what He has done, and what He is doing is convicting. He also spends time in the book laying out what scripture says about those who aren't serious about Jesus (Profile of the Lukewarm) and those who can't get enough of Him (Profile of the Obsessed). The thing about the book is that you can't deny what the Word is saying. He isn't bringing in his own theology, he is sticking to the scripture.

Teenage students are always look for something real. They are always in search of what makes sense to them and what they can connect to. Most of the time they turn to relationships, music, or sports, or movies and television. But these things cannot give you what Jesus can. Therefore, the reason why I am doing a study on this particular book is because I believe it presents God in a very real fashion. He is big. We are small. He is complex. We are simple. He is holy. We are not. He does not need us, but He deeply wants us. We do not want Him, but we need Him. Teenagers will search the world over looking for relationships to make them feel whole. They will pour their hearts out only to have them broken. But I want this particular group of teenagers to know that the Lord is the only thing they need. He is their gift. He is their treasure. And I pray that God shows them these things through this book. I pray that God becomes real to them and they desire to serve Him out of love for Him.

God's love for us is crazy. And to not love Him, is crazy.