Since school has now started back…it got me thinking about new routines, tests, and report cards. It has been a long time since I received my last report card. If I remember right, I think I skipped my last final in college because the grade I had going into the final would allow me to graduate with a zero on the test; therefore, my last semester report card resembled my first semester report card. Neither one made my parents very proud. Apparently I chose to receive most of  my college education as efficiently as possible (without the bother of going to class).

Maybe that is why when I ran across this (see photo) a few months ago, it really flew all over me? Does Jesus grade us with a report card? Why is preaching 20% and Bible 10% Do we get 20% for just being present with a 10% kicker for being on time? Isn’t 10% on the offering kind of a double bonus? Do we get to fill it in…or does HE fill it in? I grew up filling these out each Sunday morning before church. I didn’t care much for it then and I don’t think I am very comfortable at all with it now.

As a child I think it was the guilt that I experienced each Sunday in not living up to God’s requirements or…the church’s requirements? As an adult I am mystified how we as Christians take good disciplines and pervert them into legalities in order to measure ourselves.

What do you think? Give me your thoughts in the comment section below…

My last post was simply a tease to try and get you to read the latest book by Frances Chan called “Crazy Love”. The book took my breath away and I could not find the words to justify a normal book review. Since that post, I have have had a number of people ask me to say more about the book. It’s kind of like after you watch a really good movie and you can’t seem to get it out of your head for the next three or four days. That book got in my head and I am just now able to think about it with enough clarity to write. Most of what is below are the words of Frances Chan as described by someone that has been convicted by them.

We live caught up in ourselves. If you need proof check out this interactive chart published last week on how we spend our day (see if you can pinpoint religious activity in the chart…it’s in there). Very little in our current lives propels us toward Christ. Each of us to some degree, fool our friends and family about who we really are. I often find myself phrasing my sentences to make me sound better. But the truth is we cannot hide who we are from God. How do we overcome the huge desire to focus on self? Christianity, as most of us know it, is “how much do we have to do for Him to get by?”.

We truly have as much of God as we want.

This life is a vapor and when we face the holy God all that will matter is the reality of who we are before Him.

3366ff;">First Corinthians 3:13-15 says “His work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”

We have to realize and believe that enough so that it changes how we live! Jesus said the road is narrow and few will actually find it.

Living “right ” out of fear and guilt is exhausting. When we serve out of reasons other than love, it feels like work and it is hard. The motivation is love…Galatians 5:13 says to serve one another in love. Instead of melding into the “unbelieving  Christian” world…having faith and love will often mean doing what others see as crazy…crazy love.

How we live our days is how we live our lives. I am trying to move “Crazy Love” out of my head and into my heart and then into my life. I hope you will too.    

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There is probably another post to come from this book…I am trying to find the guts to do it.