A few months ago, I received a surprise package in the mail: it was the book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan, gifted to me from my dear friend E who wished that I would gain as much from the book as she had.

I had heard of Crazy Love on various occasions in the past, and I had even had it on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time, so the gift was very much appreciated. (Thanks, E!)

The premise behind Crazy Love is to challenge the state of complacency that plague many Christians today, and to encourage us to love God the way that He deserves to be loved. Because, as the author Pastor Chan puts it, “when you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.”

I will not do a full review of this book as there are hundreds of it out there on the web. However, I do want to highlight five items from this book that made the most impact on me, and they are:

1. The movie of life is about God, not about us. So how is it possible that so many of us live as though it is about us? Who do we even think we are?
2. Stress and worry can be a sin. By engaging in these behaviors, we are implying that God is not powerful or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives, and that the things we stress about are somehow exceptional. (This is, of course, not to say that we should just sit on our butts doing nothing. We should do all we can, but trust that anything beyond that is up to God.)
3. We should not assume that we are the good soil. (I am referring to the parable of the sower here.) If anything, most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns, which is anything that distract us from God. We should not be lukewarm — we should be willing to give everything to follow Him all the way.
4. If anything, we should be OBSESSED with God. We should be humble and always be mindful of pride. We should care more about God’s kingdom coming to this earth than being shielded from pain or discomfort. We should be more concerned with obeying God than being successful or being wealthy. (In fact, the wealthy are at a serious disadvantage spiritually.) We should give freely, and without censure. And we should not consider service a burden, because loving God’s people is a way of loving God.
5. Making investments to this life is foolish. How much time, money, and effort do we dedicate to the things of this world? Should not our investments be to Christ and the eternal life that we share with Him? A good question to ask ourselves is, “Is this what I want to be doing when Christ returns to this world?”

This book was a HUGE wakeup call for me — especially the points about stress & worry, as well as the strikes against pride and wealth. In fact, this book is one of the reasons I started to actively make time to volunteer again.

The only possible criticism I have for Crazy Love is that some people may see it as placing too much emphasis on our deeds — in other words, a works-based salvation. However, I believe that Pastor Chan’s purpose for writing this book is not so much a handbook, but a wakeup call for the Christians of America and other first-world countries.

I will end this post with a quote by Frederic D. Huntington, from Forum magazine in 1890:

It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity.

Welcome to today’s installment of Reverent Sundays, where I write about an aspect of my faith. This can deal with recent books I have read on Christianity, my thoughts on religion and current issues, as well as particular messages I find touching and/or powerful. I am aware that most of my readers are not religious, and that is fine — you are more than welcome to not read these posts if they make you uncomfortable, enrage you, or bore you to tears. I am open to debates and discussions in the comments section as long as everyone remains respectful. Enjoy!

This weekend is a crazy one for our household (and I’m not only talking about the Superbowl). For this reason, today’s Reverent Sundays will be short and to the point:

How many of you are more offended by the use of the f-word in this graphic than by its message?
(image source) 

I think an old pastor said it best when he told me, “I love Christ, and I love the Bible. But sometimes, I just hate the state of Christianity in our world, especially here in America.”

Some people think all Christians should be conservative. Some people think all Christians should be liberal. This flawed thinking divides Christians from each other.

I believe all Christians should be biblical. Sometimes the Bible teaches concepts that are by nature conservative, and in those cases we should be conservative. But other times, the Bible teaches principles which by nature are liberal. In those cases we should be liberal.

So how about we stop identifying — and as a result, pigeonholing — ourselves as belonging to certain political parties or political ways of thinking, and start being true to Scripture?

In preparation for Superbowl XLVI, Christian comedian Tim Hawkins has created this official handbook of worship signals…non-denominational, of course.  I’m sure all my Christian readers — in addition to anyone else who have witnessed passionate Christian worship — will appreciate this with a big laugh.

Welcome to today’s installment of Reverent Sundays, where I write about an aspect of my faith. This can deal with recent books I have read on Christianity, my thoughts on religion and current issues, as well as particular messages I find touching and/or powerful. I am aware that most of my readers are not religious, and that is fine — you are more than welcome to not read these posts if they make you uncomfortable, enrage you, or bore you to tears. I am open to debates and discussions in the comments section as long as everyone remains respectful. Enjoy!

The parting of the Red Sea. Joshua stopping the sun. Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

The Bible is full of miracles such as these, and whether you believe that they actually happened or not, you can’t deny that they are magnificent stories that can only be classified as miracles.

But as people who live in this modern world, we can’t help but question: if there are no awe-worthy miracles happening today (and if they were, they would surely be covered by Fox News ), why should we even believe that they happened in the past?

(image source)

There exists a common misperception behind this question. And it is the belief that the miracles of the Bible occur continually throughout biblical history.

While it is true that the Bible is filled with miracles — about 250 of them — most of these miracles occur in very small frames in history, and during three time periods in particular: during the times of Moses, Elijah and Elisha, and Jesus and the apostles.

So why then? It is because those were the times when God was confirming new truth and new messengers with that truth. It is during these times when God was creating new covenants with mankind.

And during all the other times in the Bible? There actually exist huge gaps where there are no recorded miracles from God — sometimes even hundreds of years! And the reason for this is because there was no need to confirm messages from God, and miracles usually acted as ways to confirm new word from God.

Thus brings the explanation behind the lack of biblical miracles today: because if the Bible is true and complete (which we believe), God is not confirming any new revelation and, as a result, does not have this main purpose for performing miracles. In other words, there is no new word from God that needs to be confirmed by God.

Now, I am not saying that God cannot perform miracles today, or that He never does. Being God, He can conduct a miracle anytime He wants. It’s just that He may not have a reason to publicly display His power the way He did during biblical times because all of the truths He wanted to reveal have already been revealed and confirmed.

I personally believe that smaller miracles continue to take place today, but that they almost always take place with people who have been forsaken or forgotten by the rest of the world — those who need God’s help the most, and are usually cut off or shunned from society. (And, as such, news of these miracles do not reach us.) Or, in places where Christians are persecuted for their faith, as in the case of Brother Yun.

Besides, do we not witness small miracles every day? I know that I do, whenever I look upon the faces of my daughters.

This past Saturday, I left the girls with J and his parents and joined a small group of volunteers from our church to lend our hand at the local homeless shelter.

It was tiring. It was heartbreaking. And it was totally worth it.

Prior to joining this church, I had never even considered the possibility of a homeless shelter in the area. While J and I live in an city with great income discrepancies — and are exposed to poverty on a regular basis as a result — our church is located in Bergen County, NJ, which one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, and is even home to the most expensive zip code in the country!

There couldn’t possibly be as many homeless people in the county as to even warrant a homeless shelter…right?

As usual, I stood corrected as I entered the shelter, spoke to some of its employees, and learned that all of its 92 beds have often been filled to capacity since its opening in 2009, that they are always turning away people, and that a great number of those we would be serving tonight were only there for a warm meal despite not having a place to sleep for the night.

The Bergen County Housing, Health and Human Services Center,
where the shelter is located (image source) 

Our job was to bring and prepare dinner, set up the dining hall, serve the food, and clean up afterwards. We were to prepare enough food and disposable dinnerware for 160 people. Since the cost for all this came from our church’s budget, the night’s menu was not too extravagant: fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, string beans, and brownies and cookies for dessert.

However, so many people told us that this was the best food they had received in a while that I couldn’t help but be sad. This meal, which didn’t seem that great to me and was definitely subpar compared to what I usually ate for dinner every night, was the best that most of these people had eaten in months.

It was even harder to learn that the shelter required volunteers to oversee EVERY part of the dinner — even the sugar packets for coffee! The employees warned us that if we do not set a limit of 2 packets per person, and have a volunteer standing there to make sure that rule is followed, the sugar packets would quickly be snatched up by people who would want to sell them, or hoard them for the future.

But perhaps the most difficult part of the night was limiting one serving of dinner per person. This was a rule that was strictly enforced by the shelter, and they even had a member of the staff standing by the serving line, acting as security to make sure no one would cause us trouble about this rule.

We sadly had to turn down many people who asked for seconds, or even just an additional piece of chicken. We did our best to pile on as much mashed potatoes and string beans on their plates in order to make up for this, but we still knew it wasn’t enough.

The majority of the people we served were in their 40s and 50s, but there were some young faces here and there. The youngest person I saw that night was probably in their late teens. I think I probably would have cried if I saw a young child, but seeing a pregnant woman — who told me that she wished she had a choice in the meals because her bad morning sickness did not allow her to eat many dishes that were served — was close enough. I had to blink back some tears after speaking with her, and it took everything in my power not to offer her to take my health insurance.

Seeing a man wearing a Giants jacket, I asked him if he was a fan (knowing that they would be playing in the NFC Championship game the following night). He replied, “Oh, I don’t watch football. Someone gave me this jacket, and it keeps me warm. That’s all I care about.”

Needless to say, I felt like a complete idiot.

(image source)

After our duties were complete, I drove back home in silence. I knew that this shelter was one of the better ones in the country. I knew that what we were exposed to that night would probably be considered luxury compared to other homeless shelters.

I was reminded of how, when my sister returned from a missions trip to Haiti, she told me that it’s amazing how much we take for granted every day, even just having clean — not HOT, but just CLEAN — water available at all times.

I was sad that we couldn’t do more. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but be SO thankful for what we did have.

I am ashamed to say that I haven’t done ANY volunteer work since my college days.  As someone who used to regularly volunteer at hospitals, retirement homes, mental institutions, etc. since I was a teenager, I must admit that my night at the homeless shelter seemed like a rude awakening — like a cold bucket of water had been dumped over my head to make me realize just how complacent I had become.

You can be sure that will be returning to the shelter, and seeking more ways to help the less fortunate whenever possible.