Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

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.

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.

God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.

Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin.

We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God. You've probably heard the expression 'I believe in God, just not organized religion'. I don't think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to live.

‎"Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people he has made?

Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.

I believe He wants us to love others so much that we go to extremes to help them.

Lukewarm living and claiming Christ's name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God.

Can you worship a God who isn't obligated to explain His actions to you? Could it be your arrogance that makes you think God owes you an explanation?

We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.

True faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God's fidelity to His Promises.

He wants all or nothing. The thought of a person calling himself a 'Christian' without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd.

When it's hard and you are doubtful, give more.

God is the only being who is good, and the standards are set by Him. Because God hates sin, He has to punish those guilty of sin. Maybe that's not an appealing standard. But to put it bluntly, when you get your own universe, you can make your own standards.

When I am consumed by my problems-stressed out about my life, my family, and my job-I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God's command to always rejoice.

Both worry and stress reek of arrogance.

The world needs Christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives.

We don't get to decide who God is.

The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His.

Are we in love with God or just His stuff?

We are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society in which spoken and written words are cheap, easy to come by, and excessive. Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of. We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry.

[Y]ou have to stop loving and pursuing Christ in order to sin. When you are pursuing love, running toward Christ, you do not have opportunity to wonder, *Am I doing this right?* or *Did I serve enough this week?* When you are running toward Christ, you are freed up to serve, love, and give thanks without guilt, worry or fear. As long as you are running, you're safe.

If life were stable, I'd never need God's help.

...when we love God, we naturally run to Him-frequently and zealously. Jesus didn't command that we have a regular time with Him each day. Rather, He tells us to 'love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' He called this the 'first and greatest commandment' (Matt. 22:37-38). The results are intimate prayer and study of His Word. Our motivation changes from guilt to love.

Many Spirit-filled authors have exhausted the thesaurus in order to describe God with the glory He deserves. His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words can't contain Him. Isn't it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?

Joy is something that we have to choose and then work for.

The irony is that while God doesn't need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don't really want Him most of the time. He treasures us and anticipates our departure from this earth to be with Him-and we wonder, indifferently, how much we have to do for Him to get by.

We have to believe it enough that it changes how we live.