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Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God |  | Author: Francis Chan
Publisher: David C. Cook
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
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Seller: once-upon-a-september
Rating:  243 reviews
Sales Rank: 54
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 1434768511
Dewey Decimal Number: 248.4
EAN: 9781434768513
ASIN: 1434768511
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Sometimes I feel like when I make decisions that are remotely biblical, people who call themselves Christians are the first to criticize and say I'm crazy, that I'm taking the Bible too literally
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 243
 A Paradigm-Shaking Book April 28, 2008
Tim Challies (Oakville, Ontario)
260 out of 270 found this review helpful
There are many voices critiquing the North American church today. The voices come from both within and without; from those who love the church and those who hate it. We all know that there is something wrong. But what? In many cases the prescription is the same while the cure varies widely. In his new book Crazy Love, first-time author Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, regular speaker at Passion conferences and other events, and the guy who recorded that "Just Stop and Think" evangelistic video where he walks for miles holding a surfboard, takes his opportunity to challenge the church. "This book," he says, "is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don't want to plateau, who would rather die before their convictions do." It is a book that is meant to change the way Christians live their lives.
There are two ways of critiquing the church. We can critique out of love or out of disgust. Chan is committed to critiquing the church as an act of love. In a recent interview, when asked about the emergent church, he said this: "As a pastor I hear a lot of emergent leaders talk about what is wrong with the church. It comes across as someone who doesn't love the church. I'm a pastor first and foremost, and I'm trying to offer a solution or a model of what church should look like. I'm going back to scripture and seeing what the church was in its simplest form and trying to recreate that in my own church. I'm not coming up with anything new. I'm calling people to go back to the way it was. I'm not bashing the church. I'm loving it." And his love for the church is obvious throughout this book.
The format of Crazy Love is straightforward and effective. Chan dedicates three chapters to renewing our understanding of the character of God and seven chapters calling Christians to examine themselves. Within the book are two ongoing themes that are going to get people talking.
The first theme is that we must painstakingly examine ourselves. We cannot assume we are saved, or to use the biblical metaphor, we cannot assume that we are the good soil. Chan calls the reader to a serious self-inventory through a chapter that provides a profile of the lukewarm. He concludes, "a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there's no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are `lukewarm' are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven." God wants all or nothing.
The second theme is deeply counter-cultural, going against the stream of both Christian and secular culture. It is this: live your best life later. Chan wants to see Christians living differently--living in a way that is markedly different from those around them. He wants to see Christians forgoing much of what we consider necessary, what we consider our due, in order to focus on treasures that are eternal. He wants us to get outside the realm of what is comfortable to us and focus instead on radical obedience. "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."
These two themes and a focus on the Scriptures serve to create a powerful and deeply challenging book. There is a very obvious commitment here to teach Scriptural principles from the Scriptures and to invite the reader to verify what he is writing from those same Scriptures. Not surprisingly, the book's weakest chapter is the one that depends least on the Bible. It is a chapter providing examples of men and women who have made radical choices to live radically different. At least a couple of examples are of people who are probably not the best examples overall because as they've jettisoned their old lives, they've also jettisoned too much good theology.
That small critique aside, I found that this is a paradigm-shaking book with a message that Christians desperately need to hear. Too many of us are living too safely and too easily. But for the brief moments we spend at church each week, we are practically indistinguishable from the unbelievers around us. This is not the way it is meant to be. The church could use a loving exhortation and Chan delivers well.
READ THIS BOOK! July 1, 2008
James John Hollandsworth, M.D.
109 out of 116 found this review helpful
If you can read just one book this year, let Crazy Love be the one book.
It's that good. It's beautiful, hard-hitting, easy to read, convicting, life-transforming.
Remember a time when you had fallen in love? How everything in your life seemed to change? You did some crazy stuff. THAT'S exactly how our lives should change, if we truly fall in love with God.
Here is a summary of each chapter of the book, to give you a preview. I'll say it again, READ THIS BOOK!
Preface
This book is to convince you that by surrendering yourself totally to God's purposes, He will bring you the most pleasure in this life and the next.
Chapter One
Our problem isn't working harder, but realizing who God is, how "crazy" his love for us is, and falling in love with God. Because when you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything in your life.
Chapter Two
On the average day, we live caught up in ourselves. It's crazy that we think today is just a normal day to do whatever we want with. Do you live with the fact that perhaps today you will die? Life is all about God and not about us at all.
Chapter Three
The greatest good on this earth is God. Period. God's one goal for us is Himself. Do you believe that God is the greatest thing you can experience in the whole world?
Chapter Four
Remember the parable of the soils. DO NOT ASSUME YOU ARE GOOD SOIL. Most American churchgoers have thorns that choke any seed that is in them. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it.
Chapter Five
Jesus clearly states over and over he wants all or nothing. We can not give him leftovers, we cannot give him only what doesn't hurt us or only what doesn't put us at risk.
Chapter Six
To change our hearts, what we value, what we risk, how we act, we don't need more guilt or more rules, we just need to be in love with God. Because when you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.
Chapter Seven
Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.
God wants us to trust Him with abandon. He wants to show us how He works and cares for us. He 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 true.
Chapter Eight
People who are obsessed with Jesus care more about the Kingdom than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress, live lives that connect them with the poor, will do things that don't make sense in terms of success or wealth, will seek humility, take joy in loving people, will be known as givers, not takers, will orient their lives around eternity, and will be characterized by committed, settled, passionate love for God.
Chapter Nine
There are people who really do live with a crazy love for Jesus, and if you look at their lives, it will eliminate every excuse for not living a radical, love-motivated life for Him.
Chapter Ten
How you live your days becomes how you have lived your life.
Love. Risk. Listen to the Spirit. Be committed to live each day as if it is your last before you meet Jesus.
Lifechanging May 21, 2008
JRP (VA)
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
Having read reviews of this book, I thought I was prepared. But Chan's application of scriptures regarding caring for the poor, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and being Jesus' hands and feet in this world shook my thinking. He urges his readers to stop and think, worship, apply. I am asking myself, what is God calling me to do with what I've learned? Be prepared to ask yourself the same.
What if We Took Jesus Seriously? June 9, 2008
Joel S. Frady (USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is a convicting book that attempts to answer the question, "What if we took Jesus and what He said seriously?" Chan answers that most of us would live in a radically different way than our present lifestyle. He is careful not to prescribe in definite terms how our obedience to Jesus must look, but he is also unwilling to let readers off the hook, urging readers repeatedly to examine their own lives and see if they are more conformed to the American Dream or to the Gospel.
My favorite chapter is called, "Your Best Life . . . Later." This chapter, both in its title and its content, is an obvious challenge to the health, wealth and prosperity gospel so common among TV preachers and in the lives of many Christians.
This book is well worth your time.
Synopsis June 14, 2009
Nick Middleton (Wichita, KS)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Recently I read this book with the funny title Crazy Love. In fact, I read it twice.
Chan defines who this book was written for in his Preface: "This book is written for those who want more of Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don't want to plateau, those who would rather die before their convictions do."
If you feel like that describes you, maybe this would be a good book for you to read too! I personally benefited.
The first section begins with a look at the attributes of God - specifically God's Crazy Love for us - with the goal of bringing the reader to a point of standing in awe at just how amazing and generous God is towards us.
Then Chan turns a corner in his logic and takes a hard look at the certainty of death and how we frequently live as if we'll be here on Earth forever. Chan quotes Frederick Beuchner, "Intellectually we all know that we will die, but we do not really know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us. We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true. On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go on forever."
At the end of the discussion on our mortality Chan concludes, "The truth is, some people waste their lives. This isn't meant to bash those who are gone, but rather to warn those who are alive." Profound, and too true.
The next two chapters are titled, "Profile of the Lukewarm" & "Serving Leftovers to a Holy God." These are meant to be a critical look at how shallow oftentimes many of us are in our relationship with the God whom we profess to be Lord of our Lives. Shouldn't we rather be loving this God with an all-consuming passion? Isn't this what Jesus himself requested when he said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind"? (Luke 10:27)
Chan then briefly touches on the importance of having an eternal focus - particularly storing up treasures in heaven, not on earth - before moving into a bulleted list of items he calls, "Profile of the Obsessed." These include having a giving attitude, being concerned more about character than comfort, and thinking about heaven frequently.
A number of inspirational true life stories are then shared of people who were truly sold out for God. George Mueller was probably the most inspring to me.
At the end of the book Chan concludes,
"I wrote this book because much of our talk doesn't match
our lives. We say things like, `I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me,' and `Trust in the Lord with all
your heart.' Then we live and plan like we don't believe God
even exists. We try to set our lives up so everything will
be fine even if God doesn't come through. But true faith
means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope
in God's fidelity to his promises."
Maybe the single biggest thing I took from this book was the challenge to put myself more in situations that require total faith, where I have no "backup plan" if God doesn't come through.
There is a website crazylovebook.com with supplemental materials to the book. It includes video clips which give a concise overview of his message and are also free to watch, you don't even have to register... So go check them out!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 243
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