Crazy Love Chapter 4 Homework

Here's the homework for Chapter 4.
I'll see you next Thursday!


Homework:
1) Would you describe yourself as totally in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words half-hearted, lukewarm, and partially committed fit better? What evidence is there to support your answer?

2) As you work your way through the following list (you don’t have to do all of them), write down any thoughts that challenge you or realizations of things you need to work on.

a.      Isaiah 29:13

b.      Luke 21:1-4

c.       Matthew 23:5-7

d.      Romans 6:1-2

e.       James 1:22

f.       James 4:17

g.      Matthew 10:32-33

h.      Luke 18:10-14

i.        Luke 9:57-62

j.        Matthew 22:37-38

k.      Matthew 5:43-47

l.        Luke 14:12-14

m.    Luke 18:21-25

n.      Colossians 3:1-4

o.      Isaiah 58:6-7

p.      1 Chronicles 29:14

q.      Isaiah 58:6-7

r.       1 Chronicles 29:14

s.       Matthew 10:28-31

t.        Matthew 7:27

u.      Luke 12:16-21

v.      Matthew 23:25-28

3) Based on the Scripture you’ve read in this session, what stands out to you the most? What hits the hardest? Why?

4) Based on the Scripture and material you’ve covered in this session, what changes do you need to make in your life?

5) Did you answer the previous questions out of guilt and fear or out of love for God? How might more increased love for God change the way you answer the preceding questions?

6) What barriers can you identify in your life that keeps you from loving God as you ought? How can you overcome these barriers?

7) What things can you do to cultivate a stronger love for God? 

8) Look at last week’s prayer life and compare it to what you thought it “should” have looked like.

9) Write down what you believe your prayer life should look like for this coming week.


10) Spend 30 seconds at the beginning of each prayer listening to God.

11) Watch the videos for Chapter 5.

Crazy Love - Chapter 4: Profile of the Lukewarm

This Thursday at Starbucks, we'll be discussing what a lukewarm Christian is. Looking at the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-9, Francis Chan says, "don't assume you are good soil."

"Lukewarm people attend church fairly regularly. It is what is expected of them, what they believe 'good Christians' do, so they go."

Crazy Love Chapter 3 Homework

Thank you to all that showed up. I think that we're having some wonderful, thought provoking discussion and encourage each of you to keep asking the tough questions.


Here's the homework for this week.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or thoughts on them.

See you next Thursday!

Homework:

1) Answer the student’s question: “Why would a loving God force me to love Him? God threatens us with hell and punishment if I don’t begin a relationship with Him?"

2) Read Matthew 22:37-38
³⁷And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment.

One day, write down 2-3 things that you will do that day if you loved the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. At the end of the day, write down how you felt as you were doing them.

3) Write down a short list of Christian goals that you feel guilty about when you don’t complete them (start each day with a prayer, read 5 chapters from the Bible each day, serve in the church 2 hours a week, etc.) Write down the contrasting view of how someone who loves God with all their heart, soul, and mind would respond. How would they react if they didn’t complete the goal? Would they have agreed with the reason for setting goal to begin with?

4) Look at last week’s prayer life and compare it to what you thought it “should” have looked like.

5) Write down what you believe your prayer life should look like for this coming week.

6) At the beginning of one day, plan out your schedule. Then ask God how He wants to be glorified in each activity. At the end of the day, evaluate how you did. Then during your evening prayer, ask God to evaluate how you did.

7) Spend 30 seconds at the beginning of each prayer listening to God.

8) Watch the videos for Chapter 4.

Crazy Love Chapter 2 Homework

Thanks everyone for participating. It was a good discussion tonight. Next week we’ll pickup with Chapter 2 and go to Chapter 3. Here’s the homework for next time. I know they can be difficult but do your best. I truly believe you’ll benefit from them.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or thoughts on them.

See you next Thursday!

Homework:

1) List the elements in your life that keep you distracted. Include both good things and bad things in this list. How is it that the good things in your life have come to distract you from what is most important? What would it take to adjust your lifestyle and mentality in order to put the most important things back in their proper place?

2) Look at your 5 most costly items (could be assets like a house, expenses like tuition, time consuming like your job, etc.) and ask yourself what part did God play in your decisions about these items?

3) Look at last week’s prayer life and compare it to what you thought it “should” have looked like.

4) Reread James 4:14-17
¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
If James were to say these words specifically to you in the midst of your current life situation, what do you think he would tell you to avoid? What do you think he would tell you to pursue?

5) Write down what you believe your prayer life should look like for this coming week.

6) At the beginning of one day, plan out your schedule. Then ask God how He wants to be glorified in each activity. At the end of the day, evaluate how you did. Then during your evening prayer, ask God to evaluate how you did.

7) Look at 2-3 stressful/worrisome things in your life. Write down how you would handle them if God was in control of them. Then write down why you struggle to believe that God is in control of each of them. What can you do to remind yourself of God’s care and your dependence on Him in the midst of these stressful situations?

8) Spend 30 seconds at the beginning of each prayer listening to God.

9) Watch the videos for Chapter 3.

Crazy Love - Chapter 2: You Might Not Finish This Chapter

Tomorrow's Bible study, we'll be looking at chapter 2 of the book "Crazy Love."

What does it mean that we are a mist and how should that affect how we live? And why don't we live that way everyday?

James 4:14 (ESV)
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

 

Crazy Love Chapter 1 Homework

Here’s the homework list. Aren’t you excited! Actually, it really isn’t a lot
compared to analyzing scripture from Revelation. I hope this helps and that
God will use it to strengthen our walk with Him.

I’ll be adding the Chapter 2 video this weekend and will send out an email once done.

Have a great week!

Homework: 

1) Looking back to the questions that we asked previously:

“Why did You make me this way instead of that way?”

“Why are so many people dying of starvation?”

“Why is my family so messed up”

“Why don’t You make Yourself more obvious to the people
who need You?”

Remember that the answer to each of these questions was
simply: Because He’s God.

Now, take your 2-3 big, personal questions and ask yourself,
how you would respond and act if that was God’s answer to them?

2) Write down what you believe your prayer life should look like for this coming week.


3) Think of one of the attributes of God given to us in Scripture (He is Holy, He is all-knowing, He is all-powerful, He is fair and just, He is eternal, He is Creator). Pick one day this week and ask God to show you that aspect of who He is. Then, throughout the day, keep your eyes and ears open to how He is revealing Himself in this particular way. For example, God is Creator. So, ask Him to show you how He is Creator. Write down the attribute you have chosen and what God showed you.




4) Before praying choose one thing that you wished God didn’t know about you. Then while you are praying, think about what it means that He already does know.  




5) At the beginning of one day, reread

Colossians 1:16 (ESV)
¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Visualize how the day should unfold if you truly believed that all things were created through Him and for Him.

6) At the end of one day, reread

Daniel 4:35
All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”

Visualize how your responses to the day would have differed if you truly believed that God “does as He pleases”.

7) Spend 30 seconds at the beginning of each prayer listening to God. (Remember, “listening” is active, not passive and doesn’t mean just being quiet.)

8) Watch the videos for Chapter 2 (they should be up sometime this weekend).