β
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.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
The irony is that while God doesnβt need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but donβt really want Him most of the time.
β
β
Francis Chan
β
Has your relationship with God changed the way you live your life?
β
β
Francis Chan
β
God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Let me get this stright, Aya-Chan. You want me, a person who can't lie, to lie about the fact that I can't lie?"
-Frizz mizuno
β
β
Scott Westerfeld (Extras (Uglies, #4))
β
β"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?
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Draco's like... snow," said Hermione quietly, her gaze absent and distracted. "It's cold and cruel to begin with, but it's somehow beautiful, and you miss it when it's not there. And if you hold it in your hands close enough and long enough, it changes. It melts.
β
β
Bex-chan (Isolation)
β
It is true that God may have called you to be exactly where you are. But, it is absolutely vital to grasp that he didnβt call you there so you could settle in and live your life in comfort and superficial peace.
β
β
Francis Chan (Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit)
β
Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.
β
β
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window)
β
We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
I believe He wants us to love others so much that we go to extremes to help them.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
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.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Christians are like manure: spread them out and they help everything grow better, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly.
β
β
Francis Chan
β
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?
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Lukewarm living and claiming Christ's name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
True faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God's fidelity to His Promises.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
He wants all or nothing. The thought of a person calling himself a 'Christian' without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
When it's hard and you are doubtful, give more.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Kyouya my hair stylist. Mori-senpi go to the eye doctor and get him some contact lenses.
-Tamaki
What about me Tama-chan?
-Hunny
Hunny senpi.
-Tamaki
Yes sir!
-Hunny
You... go have some cake.
-Tamaki
It's just us Ousa-chan.Everyone else said they were too busy. . .
-Hunny
β
β
Bisco Hatori
β
We have to believe it enough that it changes how we live.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
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.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Both worry and stress reek of arrogance.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
The world needs Christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
We don't get to decide who God is.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
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.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
To live content with small means.
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion.
To be worthy not respectable,
and wealthy not rich.
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently,
act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes,
and sages with open heart, to bear all
cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions,
hurry never.
In a word, to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony.
β
β
William Henry Channing
β
Are we in love with God or just His stuff?
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
True faith manifests itself through our actions.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
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.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
If life were stable, I'd never need God's help.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
He knew Danny, she was a fucking chatterbox. She was always rambling on and on about music and clothes and some asshat named Chan-a-something Tater Tots.
β
β
Madeline Sheehan (Unbeautifully (Undeniable, #2))
β
Destroying what someone else cherished never brought back what you yourself had lost. All it did was spread grief like a contagion.
β
β
Shelley Parker-Chan (She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1))
β
We are made by what we are asked to bear, Ling Chan,β heβd said.
β
β
Libba Bray (Lair of Dreams (The Diviners, #2))
β
Really, Channing,β remonstrated Alexia, βdid you have to eat the manβs dog? I am convinced you will experience terrible indigestion.
β
β
Gail Carriger (Blameless (Parasol Protectorate, #3))
β
Joy is something that we have to choose and then work for.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
I prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.
β
β
Jackie Chan
β
...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.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
However tired I am, however hard it is: I know I can keep going, because Iβm alive.
β
β
Shelley Parker-Chan (She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1))
β
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.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
What someone is means nothing about what kind of person they are. Truth is in actions.
β
β
Shelley Parker-Chan (She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1))
β
God has given you this good stuff so that you can show the world a person who enjoys blessings, but who is still totally obsessed with God.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
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?
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
From start to finish, this movie is obviously about God. He is the main character. How is is possible that we live as though it is about us?
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Drying her eyes, Mother said to Totto-chan very slowly, "You're Japanese and Masao-chan comes from a country called Korea. But he's a child, just like you. So, Totto-chan, dear, don't ever think of people as different. Don't think, 'That person's a Japanese, or this person's a Korean.' Be nice to Masao-chan. It's so sad that some people think other people aren't nice just because they're Koreans.
β
β
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window)
β
Lukewarm people love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
...I don't have to worry about not meeting His expectations. God will ensure my success in accordance with His plan, not mine.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Denying desire only made yourself vulnerable to those who were smart enough to see what you couldn't even acknowledge to yourself.
β
β
Shelley Parker-Chan (She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1))
β
The core problem isnβt the fact that weβre lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because 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 Heβs great and deserves to be the center of our lives.
β
β
Francis Chan
β
Christians today like to play it safe. We want to put ourselves in situations where we are safe 'even if there is no God.' But if we truly desire to please God, we cannot live that way.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Reading is the royal road to intellectual eminence...Truly good books are more than mines to those who can understand them. They are the breathings of the great souls of past times. Genius is not embalmed in them, but lives in them perpetually.
β
β
William Ellery Channing
β
[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.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Lukewarm people think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable?
β
β
Francis Chan (Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit)
β
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.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
The greater the desire, the greater the suffering, and now she desired greatness itself.
β
β
Shelley Parker-Chan (She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1))
β
We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Why does that kid think so highly of himself?"
"Kids that think they're so smart.They're everywhere! Destroy is self-esteem!"
"Yes...I really do think highly of myself.People like me should get a taste of the ups and downs of life! Sorry I'm so envious.I will reflect upon this. Please don't be angry.
"Ah..um.."
"There, I said it now. Are you satisfied?"
........
"Bye bye!"
Beat him.....Beat him until he reaches heaven...!!!
-random people and Hiro-chan
β
β
Natsuki Takaya (Fruits Basket, Vol. 7)
β
Let us be eager to leave what is familiar for what is true.
β
β
Francis Chan (Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We've Made Up)
β
He had done what he had to do, and in doing so he had destroyed the world.
β
β
Shelley Parker-Chan (She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1))
β
Love? I always thought love was just something that ate away your sanity, left you with an inferiority complex, and filled you with jealousy...and bitterness.
Noi-chan told me all about love... and now I know the truth.
Love is an illusion. Nothing more than that.
Anyway, it has nothing to do with me. <3
So many people get hung up on love while life passes them by.
β
β
Tomoko Hayakawa (The Wallflower, Vol. 19 (The Wallflower, #19))
β
Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
β
β
William Ellery Channing
β
She didn't just want greatness. She wanted the world.
β
β
Shelley Parker-Chan (She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1))
β
Channing, come back here.β
βNo,β she tossed off over her shoulder.
βIβm warninβ you, girl, you donβt want to make me mad.β
βTough shit, tough guy. Suck it up and walk it off.β
People around them stopped and stared, nudged each other and chuckled, giving Colby a wide berth.
βLast chance,β he yelled.
Channing flipped him the bird without turning around. In fact, she ran away from him like her boot heels were smoking.
He was going to paddle that sassy little ass but good.
β
β
Lorelei James (Long Hard Ride (Rough Riders, #1))
β
God interrupt whatever we are doing so that we can join You in what You're doing
β
β
Francis Chan
β
This is the shadow of hope. Knowing that we may never see the realization of our dreams, and yet still showing up.
β
β
Austin Channing Brown (I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness)
β
Our only chance at dismantling racial injustice is being more curious about its origins than we are worried about our comfort. It's not a comfortable conversation for any of us. It is risky and messy. It is haunting work to recall the sins of our past. But is this not the work we have been called to anyway? Is this not the work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate truth and inspire transformation? It's haunting. But it's also holy.
β
β
Austin Channing Brown (I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness)
β
The home is the chief school of human virtues.
β
β
William Ellery Channing
β
Christianity was simple: fight your desires in order to please God.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
He does not have to know us so well, but He chooses to.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
...our concern is more about going to heaven than loving the King.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
If you want a fate other than what Heaven gave you, you have to want that other fate. You have to struggle for it. Suffer for it.
β
β
Shelley Parker-Chan (She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1))
β
...you will have a choice: to adjust how you live daily or to stay the same.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
May your life preach more loudly than your lips.
β
β
William Ellery Channing
β
I don't want Him to return and find me sitting in a theater.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
...we are quick to rationalize our entertainment and priorities yet are slow to commit to serving God.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Allow God to be as creative with you as He is with each of us.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Anger is not inherently destructive. My anger can be a force for good. My anger can be creative and imaginative, seeing a better world that doesnβt yet exist. It can fuel a righteous movement toward justice and freedom.
β
β
Austin Channing Brown (I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness)
β
To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable,
and wealthy, not, rich;
to listen to stars and birds,
babes and sages, with open heart;
to study hard;
to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently,
await occasions, hurry never;
in a word, to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common
β this is my symphony.
β
β
William Ellery Channing
β
You donβt like romantic shit,β Luke remarks and frowns at me.
βI donβt like watching you lay the romantic shit on my best friend, pal. Itβs disgusting. This,β I gesture around the room with my hands, βis not a movie. But I do like watching Zac Efron, Channing Tatum, and a number of other hot actors lay on the romantic shit in a movie. I have a vagina.β
βIβm aware,β Luke remarks earning a glare from Nate. βAlthough, not first-hand,β he quickly adds.
β
β
Kristen Proby (Fight with Me (With Me in Seattle, #2))
β
Full moon is falling through the sky.
Cranes fly through clouds.
Wolves howl. I cannot find rest
Because I am powerless
To amend a broken world.
Sima Zian added, "I love the man who wrote that, I told you before, but there is so much burden in Chan Du. Duty, assuming all tasks, can betray arrogance. The idea we can know what must be done, and do it properly. We cannot know the future, my friend. It claims so much to imagine we can. And the world is not broken any more than it always, always is.
β
β
Guy Gavriel Kay (Under Heaven (Under Heaven, #1))
β
When you believe niceness disproves the presence of racism, itβs easy to start believing bigotry is rare, and that the label racist should be applied only to mean-spirited, intentional acts of discrimination. The problem with this frameworkβbesides being a gross misunderstanding of how racism operates in systems and structures enabled by nice peopleβis that it obligates me to be nice in return, rather than truthful. I am expected to come closer to the racists. Be nicer to them. Coddle them.
β
β
Austin Channing Brown (I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness)
β
my mother was taught the ch'an concept of happiness, which was to find satisfaction in small things. i was taught to appreciate the fresh air in the morning, the colour of leaves turning red in autumn and the water's smoothness when i soaked my hands in the basin.
β
β
Anchee Min
β
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. this is my symphony.
β
β
William Ellery Channing
β
I want to live so that I am truly submitted to the Spirit's leading on a daily basis. Christ said its better for us that the Spirit came and I want to live like that is true. I don't want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly.
β
β
Francis Chan (Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit)
β
White people desperately want to believe that only the lonely, isolated βwhites onlyβ club members are racist. This is why the word racist offends βnice white peopleβ so deeply. It challenges their self-identification as good people. Sadly, most white people are more worried about being called racist than about whether or not their actions are in fact racist or harmful.
β
β
Austin Channing Brown (I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness)
β
When you try to talk about yourself, you dont know who you are, or what your like, or what your like to other people. And the moment you do it's a formula for yourself, and then you're imitating yourself, and then nobody likes you and they dont know why.
β
β
Carol Channing
β
Learn to want something for yourself, Ma Xiuying. Not what someone says you should want. Not what you think you should want. Donβt go through life thinking only of duty. When all we have are these brief spans between our nonexistences, why not make the most of the life youβre living now? The price is worth it.
β
β
Shelley Parker-Chan (She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1))
β
Down through the ages and in the whole world, Watt and Newton cannot have been the only ones to notice the steam from a boiling kettle or observe an apple fall. Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.
β
β
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window)
β
Worry implies that we don't quite trust God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.
Stress says the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace towards others, or our tight grip of control.
Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it's okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional. Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we've been forgiven, that our lives are brief ... and that in the context of God's strength, our problems are small, indeed.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
Jesus didn't speak of hell so that we could study, debate and write books about it. He gave us these passages so that we would live holy lives. Jesus evidently hates it when we tear into our brothers or sisters with demeaning words, words that fail to honor the people around us as the beautiful image-bearing creatures that they are.
β
β
Francis Chan (Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We've Made Up)
β
I need a love that is troubled by injustice. A love that is provoked to anger when Black folks, including our children, lie dead in the streets. A love that can no longer be concerned with tone because it is concerned with life. A love that has no tolerance for hate, no excuses for racist decisions, no contentment in the status quo. I need a love that is fierce in its resilience and sacrifice. I need a love that chooses justice.
β
β
Austin Channing Brown (I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness)
β
It is easy to use the phrase 'God's will for my life' as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. ... My hope is that instead of searching for 'God's will for my life' each of us would learn to seek hard after 'the Spirit's leading in my life today.' May we learn to pray for an open and willing heart, to surrender to the Spirit's leading with that friend, child, spouse, circumstance, or decision in our lives right now.
β
β
Francis Chan (Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit)
β
Not being able to fully understand God is frustrating but it is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable of comprehending. What a stunted, insignificant god that would be! If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. God is so much bigger, so far beyond our time-encased, air/food/sleep-dependent lives.
β
β
Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)
β
This book is dedicated to the Ancient Ones, to the Lord of Abominations, Humwawa, whose face is a mass of entrails, whose breath is the stench of dung and the perfume of death, Dark Angel of all that is excreted and sours, Lord of Decay, Lord of the Future, who rides on a whispering south wind, to Pazuzu, Lord of Fevers and Plagues, Dark Angel of the Four Winds with rotting genitals from which he howls through sharpened teeth over stricken cities, to Kutulu, the Sleeping Serpent who cannot be summoned, to the Akhkharu, who such the blood of men since they desire to become men, to the Lalussu, who haunt the places of men, to Gelal and Lilit, who invade the beds of men and whose children are born in secret places, to Addu, raiser of storms who can fill the night sky with brightness, to Malah, Lord of Courage and Bravery, to Zahgurim, whose number is twenty-three and who kills in an unnatural fashion, to Zahrim, a warrior among warriors, to Itzamna, Spirit of Early Mists and Showers, to Ix Chel, the Spider-Web-that-Catches-the-Dew-of-Morning, to Zuhuy Kak, Virgin Fire, to Ah Dziz, the Master of Cold, to Kak U Pacat, who works in fire, to Ix Tab, Goddess of Ropes and Snares, patroness of those who hang themselves, to Schmuun, the Silent One, twin brother of Ix Tab, to Xolotl the Unformed, Lord of Rebirth, to Aguchi, Master of Ejaculations, to Osiris and Amen in phallic form, to Hex Chun Chan, the Dangerous One, to Ah Pook, the Destroyer, to the Great Old One and the Star Beast, to Pan, God of Panic, to the nameless gods of dispersal and emptiness, to Hassan i Sabbah, Master of Assassins.
To all the scribes and artists and practitioners of magic through whom these spirits have been manifestedβ¦.
NOTHING IS TRUE. EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED.
β
β
William S. Burroughs (Cities of the Red Night (The Red Night Trilogy, #1))
β
But I am not impressed with Americaβs progress. I am not impressed that slavery was abolished or that Jim Crow ended. I feel no need to pat America on its back for these βachievements.β This is how it always should have been. Many call it progress, but I do not consider it praiseworthy that only within the last generation did America reach the baseline for human decency. As comedian Chris Rock says, I suppose these things were progress for white people, but damn. I hope there is progress I can sincerely applaud on the horizon. Because the extrajudicial killing of Black people is still too familiar. Because the racist rhetoric that Black people are lazier, more criminal, more undeserving than white people is still too familiar. Because the locking up of a disproportionate number of Black bodies is still too familiar. Because the beating of Black people in the streets is still too familiar. History is collapsing on itself once again.
β
β
Austin Channing Brown (I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness)
β
God will not be tolerated. He instructs us to worship and fear Him.
In our world, where hundreds of things distract us from God, we have to intentionally and consistently remind ourselves of Him.
Because we donβt often think about the reality of who God is, we quickly forget that He is worthy to be worshiped and loved. We are to fear Him.
The answer to each of these questions is simply this: because Heβs God. He has more of a right to ask us why so many people are starving. As much as we want God to explain himself to us, His creation, we are in no place to demand that He give an account to us.
Can you worship a God who isnβt obligated to explain His actions to you? Could it be your arrogance that makes you think God owes you an explanation?
If God is truly the greatest good on this earth, would He be loving us if He didnβt draw us toward what is best for us (even if that happens to be Himself)? Doesnβt His courting, luring, pushing, calling, and even βthreateningβ demonstrate His love? If He didnβt do all of that, wouldnβt we accuse Him of being unloving in the end, when all things are revealed?
Has your relationship with God actually changed the way you live? Do you see evidence of Godβs kingdom in your life? Or are you choking it out slowly by spending too much time, energy, money, and thought on the things of this world?
Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.
Jesusβ call to commitment is clear: He wants all or nothing.
Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that donβt really matter.
If life is a river, then pursuing Christ requires swimming upstream. When we stop swimming, or actively following Him, we automatically begin to be swept downstream.
How could we think for even a second that something on this puny little earth compares to the Creator and Sustainer and Savior of it all?
True faith means holding nothing back; it bets everything on the hope of eternity.
When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. Youβll drive for hours to be together, even if itβs only for a short while. You donβt mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. Youβll willingly spend a small fortune on the one youβre crazy about. When you are apart from each other, itβs painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.
There is nothing better than giving up everything and stepping into a passionate love relationship with God, the God of the universe who made galaxies, leaves, laughter, and me and you.
Do you recognize the foolishness of seeking fulfillment outside of Him?
Are you ready and willing to make yourself nothing? To take the very nature of a servant? To be obedient unto death?
True love requires sacrifice.
What are you doing right now that requires faith?
God doesnβt call us to be comfortable.
If one person βwastesβ away his day by spending hours connecting with God, and the other person believes he is too busy or has better things to do than worship the Creator and Sustainer, who is the crazy one?
Am I loving my neighbor and my God by living where I live, by driving what I drive, by talking how I talk?β
If I stop pursuing Christ, I am letting our relationship deteriorate.
The way we live out our days is the way we will live our lives.
What will people say about your life in heaven? Will people speak of Godβs work and glory through you? And even more important, how will you answer the King when He says, βWhat did you do with what I gave you?
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Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)