We met in the gathering that does the most, by far, to spur us on to love and good works.
We are working through Francis Chan's CRAZY LOVE. At this point, it would be more accurate to say that we are struggling with it.
We are still in chapter 8, which is about being "obsessed" with living out the teachings of Jesus.
We have already had that desire, so what Chan writes in the book and what he says in the video is very important to us. And, very challenging.
It was this chapter that inspired us to offer to loan most of the money that the group has saved to people who are well known to us not to pay back money they have been loaned.
I freely agreed to join the others in making that decision but, for reasons I hope to address at a later time, I didn't entirely agree with it.
This week, Chan challenged us to live out Jesus' most radical teachings as individuals. And, we struggled to know how, in practice, actually to do that.
What's more, I believe it is fair to say that we also struggled to be sure that our repentance is so complete and our faith is strong enough to do it.
This gathering did not feel good. It was convicting.
The Greek word translated "spur on" doesn't have a pleasant connotation.
What we did last night was not pleasant but it was biblical--and spiritual.
No comments:
Post a Comment