Falling in Love with God

This week in Nicaragua I have been reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. His sermons are all on online and will rock you if you let them. One of the things that Francis talks about in the book is falling deeply in love with God. He reminds us all of the feelings we have of human love. How we would go to the ends of the earth just to spend time with one that we love, how we take care of our children, and how we willingly sacrifice our own wants and desires in order to serve all the people that we love.

Are those the emotions we feel about God? Do we truly rejoice and love Christ for the sacrifice that he gave to us, his Beloved Church? Did we fall head over heels in love with God when we first met him, and do we continue to fall more in love with Him every day?

Francis goes on to quote John Piper who says this:

"The critical question for our generation - and for every generation is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?"

When I am here in Nicaragua I can't help but think about this. When in communities that are completely impoverished it is so tempting to preach a gospel that is all about the blessings that Christ gives, and not about Christ himself. When someone is facing serious tribulation, it is so natural to talk about a God that will make your struggle easier, who will come to lighten your burden. Christ does all of these things, and we should rejoice in them, but it just isn't the whole picture.

Hope comes from the Gospel. The good news of a good God. God doesn't promise an easy life, and he doesn't save people just so they can go to an easy heaven. The Gospel gives hope because it is the good news that we can have our relationship restored with the One most deserving of our love. Hope comes from falling madly in love with a magnificent God who loved us even when we were unlovable.

Pray for our team that we can remember this and that we can spread this love to everyone we meet.

-Tim

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. Psalm 63:1-5