There are actually no questions for Ch. 8 from this source. 

Chapter 7
Your best life later…
1. Pg. 111 - Do you currently feel fulfilled in your life?
2. Pg. 113 - What do you make of the statement “something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers?” Do you think that is true statement? Does your life make sense to unbelievers?
3. Pg. 115 - How did Jesus walk?
4. Pg. 116 - Do you take Matthew 25 literally? Why or why not?
5. Pg. 116 - We’ve been talking about how to love God practically. Does this now seem to mean by loving others, especially the less fortunate?
6. Pg. 117 - 1 John 3:16-20 - Does this sting you? We seem to be coming full circle on “how” to love God here.
7. Pg. 118 - It seems that falling in love with God is done through serving others, giving time to others, giving money to others, giving others concern and care. That it is a good “vicious circle,” that the more we give the more we love and the more we love the more we give and the ever closer our relationship with God gets.
8. Pg. 119 - One easy to way to think of taking the words of Jesus literally is by picturing your own children in the place of others? How does this make you feel? Does it change your perspective; bring tears to your eyes?
9. Pg. 121 - What are you preparing for?
10. Is your life characterized by comfort?
11. Pg. 123-125: Isaiah 58 - We need to check out motivations too. Read this passage, it is awesome.

“Love. Love is the most liberating freedom-loss of all. One of the principles of love - either love for a friend or romantic love - is that you have to lose independence to attain greater intimacy. If you want the “freedoms” of love - the fulfillment, security, sense of worth that is brings - you must limit your freedom in many ways. You cannot enter a deep relationship and still make unilateral decisions or allow your friend or lover no say in how you live your life. To experience the joy and freedom of love, you must give up your personal autonomy.”

- Tim Keller - Reasons for God

As Tim Keller eloquently put it, “The love of Christ constrains. Once you realize how Jesus changed for you and give Himself for you, you aren’t afraid of giving up your freedom and therefore finding your freedom in Him.”

What do you think is the greatest barrier for people in loving their neighbors?
Answer: This is probably a longer answer, but I am feeling some anthropology coming on…
It is the natural inclination of men and women to avoid disequilibrium in their lives. They want to stasis… to get set, be in their own community, in their own tribe of like-minded people. They wish to be unbothered and unmolested by those who are different around them. Thus, people spend their lives building a construct of their own making which meets their own needs among their own people for their own purposes.

In other words, they build a kingdom of self.
Jesus comes in and not only demands and breaks down our kingdom but calls us to build his. So, his agenda must be supreme- not ours. His concern for the outsider is priority over our concern to create comfort and equilibrium in our own lives. The agenda of our lives must be for His glory, not our preferences. We are to live for his kingdom- and it is a kingdom of love.
God calls Himself love. He is love. So, if we call him savior, we must live lives shaped by love. Without a doubt, this becomes difficult because the entire fallen creation teaches us to make every experience about our kingdom of self.
Jesus instead tells us to make it about his agenda. In Mark 12:29-30, Jesus declares the Shema and pronounces what we call the Great Commandment. Because of the utter greatness of God, we are to love him supremely and love others richly.
I’m always struck that the Bible always tells us to love others. But there is a reason. Most of instructions in Bible are given to people doing the opposite of what it demands. In other words, if the Bible says “Quit sleeping around,” it means people are sleeping around. If the Bible says “Love one another as I loved you,” it tells us people are not as loving as they should be. That is why the gospel of Kingdom is so remarkable. It is not just a new leaf, it is a new way of life.

We will be considering some of these questions to use in our discussion on Sunday January 17 from 8:30-9:30pm in the KTM chat room. 
Chapter 5
Points for consideration…
1. Given our discussion in Chapter 4, what do you think it mean to be “lukewarm?”
2. Do our beliefs always translate into action?
3. Francis Chan says that those who live like the lukewarm in the last chapter won’t be in heaven. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
4. Based on your answer above, what does that mean for you regarding how you answered the questions during the last study (on an overall basis), especially the last one?
5. Pg. 83 - Have you recently sat down and read the Gospels/James/Colossians as if you were reading them for the first time as Chan did? If so, what was that experience like?
6. From above; did it confirm/deny Chan’s statement that “the thought of calling oneself a “Christian” without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd?”
7. What do you think about Chan’s statement that we have made the “non-fruit” bearing Christian a means of making Christian living easier?
a. First what do you consider to be a fruit-bearing Christian?
b. Second would you consider “non-fruit-bearing” people (by your definition of what that is) to be Christians?
8. Pg. 83 - Do you agree with Chan’s interpretation of the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-9; Mark 4:2-9; and Luke 8:4-8)? Have you heard it interpreted differently? By whom?
The Parable of the Sower concerns a sower who scatters seed, which falls on four different types of ground. The hard ground “by the way side” prevents the seed from sprouting at all, and the seed becomes nothing more than bird food. The stony ground provides enough soil for the seeds to germinate and begin to grow, but because there is “no deepness of earth,” the plants do not take root and are soon withered in the sun. The thorny ground allows the seed to grow, but the competing thorns choke the life out of the beneficial plants. The good ground receives the seed and produces much fruit.

Jesus’ explanation of the Parable of the Sower highlights four different responses to the gospel. The seed is “the word of the kingdom.” The hard ground represents someone who is hardened by sin; he hears but does not understand the Word, and Satan plucks the message away, keeping the heart dull and preventing the Word from making an impression. The stony ground pictures a man who professes delight with the Word; however, his heart is not changed, and when trouble arises, his so-called faith quickly disappears. The thorny ground depicts one who seems to receive the Word, but whose heart is full of riches, pleasures, and lusts; the things of this world take his time and attention away from the Word, and he ends up having no time for it. The good ground portrays the one who hears, understands, and receives the Word-and then allows the Word to accomplish its result in his life. The man represented by the “good ground” is the only one of the four who is truly saved, because salvation’s proof is fruit (Matthew 3:7-8; 7:15-20).

To summarize the point of the Parable of the Sower: “A man’s reception of God’s Word is determined by the condition of his heart.” A secondary lesson would be “Salvation is more than a superficial, albeit joyful, hearing of the gospel. Someone who is truly saved will go on to prove it.” May our faith and our lives exemplify the “good soil” in the Parable of the Sower.

9. Pg. 87 - Do you feel needy? What do you need that you don’t have?
10. Why do you think Chan talks so much about money and material things? Why do you think the Bible talk so much about material things and money?
11. Pg. 89 - Why do we feel good about what we do give God?
12. Pg. 90 - How do you feel about token praise? Based on what God wants for our lives from the New Testament do you give Him token time/money/praise/worship?
13. Pg. 91 - How do you believe God measures our lives? (1 Cor. 13: 2-3)
14. Pg. 92 - Try the “replace with your name” exercise.
15. Pg. 93 - What is meant by James 2:17 (Faith, by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.”
16. Pg. 94 - I think what I’m having a hard time with is how we can be lukewarm, know it, and NOT care; not feel a pressure in your chest from it! How can we really GET God and what He wants from us and just say, okay, what are we studying next week? What’s for dinner? Etc…
17. Pg. 95 - Do you think that what we do with our time, money, energy, treatment of others, etc. is equivalent to choosing God or rejecting Him?

Chapter 6
When You’re In Love…
1. Pg. 98 - Have you ever met someone who is utterly and desperately in love with God and Jesus? How can you tell they’re so in love? What are they like?
2. Pg. 99 - What is the answer to our lukewarm, selfish living?
3. Pg. 99 - Why do you think God created us? What is our ultimate purpose (in your own words)? How did you come to this conclusion?
4. Pg. 100 - What does being a Christian mean to you?
5. Pg. 100 - Do you feel free in life and in your expressions of your heartfelt beliefs?
6. Pg. 101 - If we have/admit to living large swaths of our lives in a lukewarm way with respect to what God desires from us, how fulfilling and joyful has it been for you personally?
7. Pg. 101 - How do we (realistically and practically) grow in our love for God and Christ? Our love for others?
8. Pg. 105 - What can you give God?
9. What have been the most rewarding times in your life?
10. Pg 108 - Have you ever really tested God? How? In what? What was the result?
11. Pg. 108 - Have you known someone (you?) who has said I’ll come to God when I’ve straightened “this” out in my life?
12. Pg. 109 - What goes in your ________ in this sentence?

Chapter 3:
The essence….
1. Why is love such an integral part of who we are as image-bearers of God as well as fellow human beings on this planet?
2. Has the background that you came out of helped or hindered your relationship with God as it stands today? How and why?
3. Devotions have often been very difficult for me to keep up with. I sometimes just don’t want to do them, just don’t feel like it. Is not doing them when I don’t feel like it, a bad thing? Is doing them when I don’t feel like doing them a bad thing?
4. If you had your way, how would you define love (no using scripture explicitly)?
5. What are some basic definitions our culture gives to love? Do these definitions affect how we live?
6. How do you feel about the last section, namely the question asked: “Why would a loving God force me to love Him?” and the response Francis gives?
7. How do we fall in love with God?
8. What are your favorite passages from this chapter?
9. Do you trust God? Can you be “all in?” God says he will repay us 100 times over in heaven what we do for Him on earth. Do you believe that? If we say yes, why are we hedging our bets?
10. Tell me/us where you stand right now. Are you ready to move forward in this book?

Chapter 4:
The rubber hits the road…. After reading Chapter 4 maybe it is a bit clearer why I thought that our “getting God” or getting a new perspective on God is so important to me. Without a correct understanding of God the rest of the book is going to be an exercise in futility.
1. What is your first response to this chapter? Give me your thoughts.
2. Pg. 64 - What is meant by “faking it?” How can you tell (or how do you tell (rightly or wrongly))) if someone is faking it?
3. Pg. 65 - Has your relationship with God actually changed the way you live? If yes, then how?
4. Have you ever suffered for someone else? If yes, tell us about it.
5. Pg. 65 - What or is or is there a difference between “being godly enough” and knowing Christ and who he is? Do you or other Christians you know live like they want either?
6. Pg. 67 - Giving. What is that for us, here, in your town? our world?
7. Pg. 68 - Give us an example of when you’ve truly hated one of your sins.
8. Pg. 69 - What did Jesus expect of his followers?
9. Pg. 69 - Try to give an example of sharing your faith. How did/does it feel?
10. Pg. 71 - Is your love conditional? When have you loved someone who was “unlovable” or even an “enemy?” How did you “love” them?
11. Pg. 72 - How far do you think you would go for God?
12. In your mind, if you are honest with yourself, have you reinterpreted what you read about what Jesus told people to make it inapplicable to you?
13. When you look at the lives of New Testament believers and compare it with our lives today, what is different in the priorities of the two groups? What is your opinion of the differences (good/bad)? How have these differences affected us?
14. Is there a point at which we can go “overboard” with how we pursue Christian living?

(from Kurt Box, found on Amazon discussion forum)
Preface/Foreword/Chapter 1
1. After reading these brief sections, what do you see as Francis’s established main point for the book?
2. Do you “know something is wrong?” What (in particular for you)?
3. Do you lead a comfortable life? What does a “comfortable life” mean to you personally?
4. What is our (people) core problem?
5. Have you ever been in total awe of God? When?
6. Do you believe God and science are at odds or supportive of one another? Why?
7. What do think of A.W. Tozer’s quote “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us?” Why does he say that? What does he mean? Do you agree?
8. Why must God be eternal?
9. Why do you personally believe we (people) are here? Why are you here?
10. Does God’s “hate” seem strange to you? Why?
11. Do you ever stand in awe and silence? When, be specific?
12. Has this chapter changed your view of God? If so, how?

Chapter 2:
The shift in focus….
1. Paint a picture of what you think it would look like if you were to live as though you knew we were going to die (a) tomorrow; (b) next year; (c) in 5 years. Would it be different from how you live now?
2. Think of people you know, stories you’ve heard, movies you’ve seen that describe what other people live like when they know they have a limited time left to live. How does it match your thoughts above?
3. What kinds of things are keeping us from living like this?
“Intellectually we all know that we will die, but we do not really know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us. We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true. On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go on forever.” -Frederick Buechner (pg 38).
4. Think about the quote above (from Crazy Love). How true does it hold for you?
5. What is the natural way to react to stress or worry? How do you react to stress, conflict and/or worry?
6. Think about how many outside factors govern the activities of your life that are completely out of your control. How do you usually react to those things (especially if they are people)?
7. What is your reaction to having so little control (even though we tend to think we have SO MUCH control) over your own life?
8. Has this chapter changed your “life view?” If so, how?
9. If this has changed your life view how can you stay focused on this new view?
10. Can you justify how you live your life today based on this view?

We will begin with discussion of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of Crazy Love by Francis Chan on Sunday night, January 3, 2010.  The discussion will be from 8:30-9:30 Central Time.  We make it a point to start and finish on time.  These have been excellent discussions, and I am excited for the group to tackle a new book.  Please, please join us if you can! We plan to study two chapters each week through the month of January. That should cover the 10 chapters of the book.  Locally, Crazy Love was recently seen on the shelf at Borders Bookstore.  Even if you do not have the book yet, please feel free to join us for the discussion.  Study Questions to consider will be posted to this forum before the study whenever possible. Watch for an announcement on the KTM Facebook fan page when the questions have been posted or check back here.

The discussion takes place in the KnownToMe chat room. This chat room is found under the Member tab at the far right side of the home page menu bar.  You must be a KTM member to see the member menu and have access to the chat room.  There is a how to section under the log-in member tab, and we would be happy to answer any questions you have via email. Just email Don at knowntome dot net.  Some members find it helpful to check out the chat room before the event so you know where to go and how!  We can even set a time for a practice run if you would like!

Looking forward to chatting with you on Sunday nights as we discuss Crazy Love by Francis Chan.
Barbra