Crazy Love is an amazingly great book. Simple as that. Why?
The subtitle says it all: Overwhelmed by a relentless God.
One of my greatest fears for my own life and the spiritual life of our generation is that we have lost the sense of awe with God. As we used to say as teenagers ‘God is Almighty, not all-matey‘. It seems that in our pendulum swing Christianity we have reacted against a draconian God who is distant and impersonal, to a God who is just a genie in a bottle – there to help us achieve our potential. He does things because (as the advert says) ‘I’m worth it’.
Francis Chan and his friends (Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, etc) stand opposed to this. They are attempting to reclaim the awesome mystery and worth of the God who is worthy of all Glory. In a sense, Chan is a simple mans Piper!
My favorite quote comes early on:
‘we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He’s great and deserves to be the centre of our lives.’
One of the refreshing things about this book is that Francis is happy to allow God to be God. Very often we put God in the dock and demand He answer us. However, Francis challenges us with this:
‘Can you worship a God who isn’t obliged to explain His actions to you? Could it be your arrogance that makes you think God owes you an explanation?’
Francis also keeps the bigger picture in mind. He isn’t pendulum swinging back to a God who is distant and harsh, but rather builds a Biblical picture of an awesome God who loves us intimately and with genuine power and authority. It is extremely refreshing.
Often it seems that the emergent guys have the best writers and that is you want to read good theology it is going to be hard work. This book is very well written and is extremely easy to read. Francis gives us great theology with brilliant writing. Indeed, you don’t even realise your reading theology.
There is a set of video’s you can download alongside to help you.
This is what Francis has to say alongside chapter 1 of the book:
The great news is that it is available for free audio download all this month from the good people at christianaudio.com.
Just click here and you can get your own copy to listen to.
Just in case you have a spare 15 minutes, check out his evangelistic video below… awesome!… You won’t be disappointed!
July 2, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Just watched the video (agreed, top draw). Also just downloaded the audio. My first ever audio book. Exciting!