The Book's Purpose

• Challenge believers who embrace the status quo of a society that searches for economic, political, and emotional security and ends up with spiritual complacency
• Inspire a search into the essence of the one true God, and in so doing, inspire a discarding of every false, preconceived notion of God that hinders
• Motivate followers of Christ toward a wild, crazy, intimate relationship with the Most High

The Book's Message

“This book is written for those who want more Jesus. It is written 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.”

God is our source of love and he relentlessly pursues us. God’s love is immeasurable, and though our minds are finite, when we grasp the smallest fraction of who God really is~the Creator of all that we see and of the galaxies that we can’t, the Savior who gave His Son to die in our stead, and the Spirit who catches every tear~we’ll live out the radical life of love He’s mapped out for us in His Word.

While American Christianity may have conditioned us to think and live complacently, God’s Word doesn’t make room for our comfortable, safe interpretations. As I encourage you to look through the Scriptures yourself, I’m confident that you’ll find what I’ve found on my spiritual journey~ there’s only one kind of love that God wants and accepts from His followers, and it’s all-out crazy.

Inaccurate Preconceptions

“I believe in God, just not organized religion.” This is a familiar statement from people who choose to hurl insults at the church and to avoid it like the Plague. Sadly, this attitude is often so commonplace that we as believers shrug our shoulders and barely notice it. But hearing these words should cause us to assess why so many people struggle with organized religion.

It’s time to look above and then look within to evaluate what~and who~ the church really is. As believers, we are the Church, and we need to boldly and honestly look in the mirror. This process will require dependence on God as we take risks, look inside ourselves, and cultivate a willingness to change.

Why does the established church have such a poor reputation among unbelievers? In trying to find these answers, it is crucial that we not play the comparison game with other Christians. We ought to measure our faith and our relationship with Christ not by our closest believing friends, but by God alone through His Word and His communication with us.

The crux of the problem~the reason people make such disheartening statements toward us~is that many of us view God through a distorted lens. Though we still live in this carnal world till we enter heaven’s gates, we don’t have to live with such distortion just because we’re human. We can allow God to correct our vision to see Him more accurately and more completely as He longs to be seen and understood.

Wrapped up in our inaccurate preconceptions of an all-knowing, allpowerful, sovereign God, we think that God and His angels should give us a standing ovation each time we read a verse of the Scriptures or allot 30 minutes out of our traffic-filled days to spend time with Him, praying and reading and meditating. Those disciplines are all good, but I think we forget that God has given us a choice to love Him. In fact, it wouldn’t have been real love if He hadn’t given us a choice.

However, we must understand “that God never had an identity crisis.” He is the great I AM, always has been and always will be. He knows who He is, every facet, every marvelous, minute intricacy of His being, and He is complete within Himself. He doesn’t need us, but He wants us and demands that we make Him the center of our lives if we choose to follow His footsteps. After all, that is how Jesus lived every moment, and when we grasp the truth in this and we apply it to our daily walks, those who don’t know Christ will no longer be able to use the church as their scapegoat for disinterest in Christianity.

Instead, they will have to reject God Himself because they won’t be able to fight with the way the church carries His name. No longer will they see a body of people so uninviting, seemingly no different from themselves, but they’ll see a love that’s practical, a joy that is far more than happiness, and a God that is the source of all things good.

Spiritual Amnesia: Forgetting the Awe of His Majesty and the Conviction of Our Smallness

Before continuing, take a moment and log on to www.crazylovebook.com and watch the “Awe Factor” video. Then stop and sit in silence for a while. Stop praying, even. Just meditate on the bigness of God.

It has to grieve the heart of God when He sees how few people really understand, develop, and exemplify a true fear of Him.“We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry.” But after seeing such an awe-inspiring video, don’t you grasp the fear of God more clearly? After all, why would God have created far more galaxies than the human mind can ever hope to fathom? Places that we’ve never seen and some that we never even knew existed until recently? How is it that carbon dioxide is fatal to humans though plants need carbon dioxide to survive, and then plants produce the very thing humans need to survive~ oxygen? How creative! And how unfathomable is our God!

But no matter how much we read amazing statistics, or watch awe-inspiring videos or drive through a beautifully painted sunset or see a newborn baby’s first movements, we are still hardheaded and we still forget how big the God whom we serve is.

So what is the cure for this amnesia in a world where culture conditions us to focus on everything we don’t have instead of being grateful for all we’ve been given? In a world in which the pervading attitude toward God is one of either total rejection or mere toleration for His existence? First of all, we must be acutely aware of this:

The cure is to understand His nature, the very characteristics of His being God. He is holy, meaning He is perfect. Set apart and completely other than anything else in heaven above or the earth beneath. He is eternal, not bound by the needs and limits that restrict us. He is “so far beyond our time-encased, air/food/sleep-dependent lives.” He is all-knowing. He chooses to know everything about us because He wants to, not because He is obligated, and there is no hiding from His sight. He is all-powerful. Colossians 1:16 tells us that “all things were created by him and for him.” But doesn’t it seem instead that we have it backward?

We ask Him so many questions about why so many things have gone wrong in the world, without realizing that He has every right to turn those questions back on us!

We must grasp the fact that God is fair and just. He determines rewards and penalties, and because no man or woman or child is righteous, He defines the law. Why? Because He’s God, because He’s holy, because He won’t tolerate sin and must punish it, and because He must be consistent with who He is. Sometimes we disagree with His judgment. However, “when we disagree, let’s not assume it’s His reasoning that needs correction.”

Revelation 4 and Isaiah 6 shed light on the glory of God and tell what our subsequent response should be. In Revelation, John describes the throne room of God metaphorically, though likening God and the area surrounding Him to the most precious gems. John is awed by the glory he witnesses, yet no human vocabulary can ever capture it. Isaiah gives less of a detailed description of the throne room in chapter 6, but the reader sees his humility as he cries to God, “Woe is me … I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” If we truly witness the glory of God as we allow Him to reveal His real nature to us, there is no doubt that we will cry out to God in much the same way.

Now or Later? Living for Eternity Instead of the Here and Now

Most days, if we’re honest, we don’t contemplate God or eternity that much; at least, not in comparison to how much we stress over our jobs, our checking accounts, our families, or our 401Ks. Scripture tells us that our lives are like vapors, and though we may claim we believe this intellectually, do we really live it out? If we truly believed that our heart could stop beating and our arteries stop pumping blood in the middle of this paragraph, would we live as we are living now?

For instance, take two commonly justified sins: worry and stress. Worry shows a lack of trust that God is powerful enough to handle whatever life throws our way. Stress implies that everything we’re involved in, whether ministry-related or otherwise, is significant enough to allow our tight, controlling grip on our lives and rudeness to others when they block our agendas.

Both worry and stress, however, show what skewed perceptions we have of God and our relation to Him. There’s a story being written, a movie being filmed and played out. It has no beginning and no end because God is the source of it~the author of the story and the central character in the film. How do we so often mistakenly assume that the central character is us?

To be forthright and blunt, this means we all need to get over ourselves. We need to point to God and focus on Him through good times and bad. No matter where we are in this moment, we must realize that the story isn’t ours; it never was, and it never will be. And this is actually the Good News! That it’s not about us. That it won’t end with the pain and the suffering of this world when we know Christ and follow Him.

Once we realize the story is all about bringing glory to the great I Am, then we have two choices: turn to ourselves as our own gods, in a futile attempt to control things the way we want them to be, or turn to our Maker and admit that we desperately need Him.

Living each day running to Him, embracing the unknowns, refusing to take his blessings of health and family and financial provision for granted, loving Him to our fullest capacity, will put us in the safest and most fulfilling standing with our Creator: ready at any moment for heaven, aware that we are perhaps facing the brink of eternity today.

It's Crazy because it's Countercultural

Since God is someone so totally other than us, it is easy to understand why we all, to some degree, have a hard time fathoming His incredible love for us. For different people, there are different reasons why they find it so difficult. For me, it was my relationship with my own father who passed away when I was 12 years old. My mother died giving birth to me, and since then, my father beat me whenever I disobeyed or somehow got under his skin. I definitely understood the “fear” of my father, but comprehending a father’s love was beyond me since mine never seemed to show it. Thus, just like I walked on eggshells with my father, I tiptoed around in my relationship with God, fearing His majesty~but only out of true fright~and trying my hardest not to anger Him.

Then I had my own children, and my perception of God changed dramatically for the better. Suddenly, I began to understand how much He cherishes us, how much He enjoys us and loves our attention.

Just as my small daughter bounds out of the house every day as I pull into the driveway, coming home from work, God desires our love to be bold and fervent. Daily, He wants us to show it through the way we act, the words we speak, the thoughts we think. I would never want my daughter to run out and hug me every day out of compulsion. Because my wife or I told her she must to receive love from us. No. Of course, I’d love her whether or not she chose to hug me every day. But as her father who loves her so dearly, who is so proud of her and wants to provide her with the best of everything, I look forward to those times. Because I know she’s not greeting me in her adorable, childlike way out of guilt, I know it’s genuine~from her heart.

In the same way, “Jesus didn’t command that we have a regular quiet time with him each day.” Rather, he tells us that the greatest command is to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37-38). Studying the Scriptures and powerful praying will follow without question.

Ephesians 1:8 calls God’s followers His “glorious inheritance.” Can you imagine? A God so great, so majestic, all powerful, everywhere present, who doesn’t need us at all~who actually desires us? Yet, how sad that the irony of our indifferent response still exists from Adam and Eve till today:

How dreadfully sad that is. Consider a recent question I received from a college student: “Why would a loving God force me to love Him?” At the time, I didn’t answer as completely as I now wish I would have.

I should have said, if God is someone totally other than us~we may be made in His image, but He is complete perfection and is made up of so many characteristics we can’t fathom~then we can’t interpret His actions as we would those of another person’s.

For instance, if a friend of ours tried to manipulate and force us to love him, we’d consider that to be arrogance on his part. Who does he think he is? we’d ask. But God is not a human. He is not arrogant or self-seeking, at least in the boastful sense in which we think of those terms. He is the only God, Someone who knows who He is, knows that our relationship with Him is what’s best for us, and knows that He must pursue us to the end to be consistent with His loving nature. His crazy love means that He can’t just let us go our own carnal ways without allowing us to choose Him. If He did, when Judgment Day comes and all is revealed, wouldn’t we be angry at God for not “forcing” us to love Him through any means possible? Nevertheless, God doesn’t force. He only nudges through His Holy Spirit. The choice to accept and pursue Him is ours.

The Lukewarm and the Leftovers: God Hates Both

I offer the following descriptions of the lukewarm, only partially committed person, who throws her leftovers to God, to express what may be hard to swallow~that lukewarm and Christian do not belong in the same phrase. Biblically, “lukewarm Christians” cannot exist. They may be going to church but not going to heaven. But don’t take my word that such a phrase is actually an oxymoron. Please test the Scripture for yourself. Take it literally, and don’t necessarily base your conclusions on what the majority is saying to you. The truth is, the majority can be wrong.

Search your heart, and honestly assess where you are today in your relationship with Christ.

According to Scripture, lukewarm people:

• Attend church, sometimes frequently or even every week (Isaiah 29:13).
• Give tithe to the church and to worthy causes, but only if it doesn’t hinder what they consider a comfortable lifestyle (1 Chronicles 21:24, Luke 21:1-4).
• Desire to fit in, both inside and outside the church, more than they care to hold up what is right~popularity wins over morality (Luke 6:26, Revelation 3:1).
• “Lukewarm people don’t really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin. They don’t genuinely hate sin and aren’t truly sorry for it” (John 10:10, Romans 6:1-2).
• Feel moved to hear about radical followers of Christ and their radical stories, but they don’t think the “extreme” Christian life is for them (James 1:22, 4:17; Matthew 21:28-31).
• Seldom share their faith with those in their sphere of influence because their fear of man trumps their fear of God (Matthew 10:32-33).
• Measure how moral they are by weighing their own sins against those of the secular world (Luke 18:11-12).
• Say that complete surrender and dependence on God is only for the ultraspiritual like those whose paid vocation is ministry (Matthew 22:37-38).
• Love themselves more than they love others (Matthew 5:43-47, Luke 14:12-14).
• Serve God and people, but only to the extent they feel comfortable with (Luke 18:21-25).
• Think much more about the here and now, the temporal realm, than they do about the eternal realm (Philippians 3:18-20, Colossians 3:2).
• Often don’t consider the possibility of giving as much as they can to the poor (Matthew 25:34, 40; Isaiah 58:6-7).
• Do whatever they need to do “to be ‘good enough’ ” to keep them from feeling plagued by guilt (1 Chronicles 29:14, Matthew 13:44-46).
• “Are slaves to the god of control,” would rather steer their own life, and don’t believe in risk taking for God (1 Timothy 6:17-18, Matthew 10:28).
• Feel a false security because they are known and labeled as Christians and do “Christian” activities~like attending church, voting Republican, getting baptized (Matthew 7:21, Amos 6:1). Live lives so structured that living by faith is out of the question (Luke 12:16-21, Hebrews 11).
• Only differ from the average unbeliever by perhaps drinking and swearing a bit less (Matthew 23:25-28).

When you refer to the passages listed after each of the above points, you see God’s perspective on each matter.

After doing so, wouldn’t you agree that the current state of American Christianity is rather disconcerting, to say the least? It seems “we’re willing to make changes in our lives only if we think it affects salvation.” We ask questions that show how little we’re willing to give up, how much we crave control, and how misinformed we are about who God is. “[Our questions] demonstrate that our concern is more about going to heaven than loving the King.” It is possible, then, to do “Christiany things” and still not be a believer. “To call someone a Christian simply because he does some Christiany things is giving false comfort to the unsaved. But to declare anyone who sins ‘unsaved’ is to deny the reality and truth of God’s grace.”

It must be understood here that we are all still saved by God’s grace. None of our works can earn us any favor from God; only His sacrifice and our choice to accept His sacrifice and believe in Him allows our salvation. But, if we truly believe~if we desire Him, not just the heaven He can give us or the hell He can save us from~we won’t be one of the lukewarm or one of the ones throwing his leftover offerings to a holy God.

It’s not that I want you to read this in fear that you aren’t a Christian~ fear that you’re doing things wrong, fear that you sin too much, fear that you fit too many of the descriptions of lukewarm living. Here’s the truth: We all sin. All of us fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All of us, therefore, suffer from our carnal nature and exhibit these traits of the lukewarm here and there, without wanting or meaning to. None of us are immune to these behaviors, and we’re all actually prone to these behaviors. But it’s about lifestyle.

Are we continually throwing God our leftover sacrifices~whatever love we didn’t spend on our families or our friends, whatever acts of service our energy can afford after a busy week at the office~or do we think of Him first, and crave glorifying Him as we were created to do? Do we consistently compare ourselves to the secular world, or even other members of the church, and sit contentedly as we think how holy we are in contrast?

The truth is, we are kidding ourselves if we don’t acknowledge that following Christ requires active pursuit of Him. If we just sit back and assume that we can love Him with all of our heart, soul, and strength, without engaging in conversation with Him, without reading His words to us, and without loving those who are most difficult to love, then our thinking is extremely flawed.

The crux of the Gospel is love. Love for God. Love for people, only through God’s power so that all glory goes to Him. So read 1 Corinthians 13 as a test for yourself, substituting your name for every mention of love. “For me, ‘Francis is patient . . .’ ” If you’re anything like me, you’ll start feeling like a liar after a few verses and realize how very much you need God to build this love and make it more real in your everyday life.

But to love Him with all that we have and all that we are, and to love others the same way, it’s going to require a decision set in stone, a faith unrestrained, and fearlessness about people thinking we’re downright crazy.

Love is an Obsession: the Simple, yet Profound Answer to It All

Following Christ isn’t about “a burdensome load of commands.” Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” He was talking about the fulfilling freedom you find through letting go of everything and giving God control over all areas of your life. He was talking about freedom from obligation. Freedom from rules and regs. Freedom from sin.

When we start feeling like following Him has become an obligation, like doing our homework, or taking out the trash, then there is something terribly awry. We must immediately pray for Him to give us that longing again, that hunger and thirst for Him, that desire to see His fame spread throughout the earth. And He will.

As we pray more, we will love Him more. As we love Him more, we will see others the way He sees them, and, in turn, see them more clearly and love them better. As we see the miracle in this, we’ll spend a greater amount of time in prayer, and we’ll continue to love people more and more. And it will grow and prosper into the most crazy, compelling, fulfilling, unearthly kind of love we’ve ever known or witnessed.

And, while you’re growing in this direction~understanding God better, loving Him, and loving people more~it will be nearly impossible to sin! If you’re actively pursuing Love Himself, you won’t be able to hate. You won’t be able to hold a grudge. You won’t be able to lie. You won’t be able to make decisions that you know will be grievous to the heart of God. Because now His heart and your heart will be aligned.

In the end, God promises that our love for Him will result in rewards in heaven that we can’t even fathom. But I don’t want to spend time with Him because I view it as a chore. “When I look at my relationship with God as a chore, a sacrifice, then I am getting the glory~not God.”

What we need is to be consumed. What we need is to be dissatisfied with our current state. What we need is to aim for knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection. What we need is to be obsessed~with nothing and no one else but God.

“Obsessed: To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic.” Many times, we mistakenly assume that being “nice” will prove to others that we follow Christ. However, I know several nice, upstanding citizens who don’t have a relationship with God. There’s got to be more. Something that sets Christians apart, that truly emulates the life of the Savior.

It’s love. “True love makes you stand out.” It allows you to love someone who has so deeply hurt you that, if you didn’t have Christ, you might do something rash to that person and be incarcerated for a lifetime. It requires faith, and it’s the kind of love that others see as unbelievable~crazy, in fact!

These are the characteristics, then, of the Christ-obsessed. Those obsessed with God do the following:

• Give without holding back, “love those who hate them and can’t love them back”
• “Care more about God’s kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress” Minister and befriend the poor
• Aren’t concerned with the priorities that our culture uplifts, but rather, seek to obey God even if that means making unpopular choices
• Desire to make themselves less so that God can be greater; don’t seek personal recognition
• Serve as if they can’t wait to serve again, because they genuinely love to serve and don’t see it as a duty
• Are known as givers instead of takers
• Know God cares about others just as much as themselves so are aware of hurting people surrounding them
• Realize they are just sojourners in this world and think about heaven more than earth

• Pray honestly as raw and vulnerable children who need their Father as a guide for life
• Nourish themselves through the Word continually as they meditate on it throughout the day
• Cultivate joy as a discipline and something they know will weather any circumstance since they know God is more concerned about building our character rather than our comfort level
• Cherish being children of God and thank Him for His faithfulness to them, without pointlessly seeking to earn their salvation through good works

George Mueller was no one of consequence~in the beginning. He drank, he gambled, he lived immorally. When Christ took hold of his heart, however, all that changed. He was inwardly transformed, and it showed outwardly. He moved to England to become a preacher, got married, and decided to spend the rest of his days with his wife helping the orphans off the streets free of charge, without raising support. At his death, “in 1898, over ten thousand orphans had been housed and cared for in the five orphan houses they built.” The recognition they received from newspapers revealed how incredulous unbelievers were because of their crazy love and their relentless faith to trust God for everything through prayer. But George was an ordinary man, who chose to let God use Him to do extraordinary things.