Amy On The Hill

Crazy Love - The Crux of the Matter by Amy on the Hill

Crazy Love - Who Really Lives That Way? by Amy on the Hill

Crazy Love - Profile of the Obsessed by Amy on the Hill

Crazy Love - Your Best Life... Later by Amy on the Hill

Crazy Love - When You're In Love by Amy on the Hill

Crazy Love - Serving Leftovers to a Holy God by Amy on the Hill

No one wants to describe their faith as "lukewarm," but many of us have lukewarm characteristics. In Chapter 4 of Crazy Love, Francis Chan lays out a profile of the lukewarm christian, and challenges us to take inventory of our own hearts. This challenge isn't meant to discourage us. Instead, it should encourage us. If God is showing us some areas where we can improve, sacred Scripture tells us that means He loves us.

We often misunderstand God's love for various reasons. For instance, Francis Chan's relationship with his father skewed his understanding of God's love. Suffering (among other issues) can also confuse our understanding and acceptance of the love of God. We consider this in light of the recent and sudden passing of my friend, Pete Achey.

Crazy Love - You Might Not Finish This Chapter by Amy on the Hill

It seems ironic to add to this statement with more words. After all, even this very true and worthwhile observation by Francis Chan adds to the barrage of words we are bombarded with in our culture. Still, recognizing a problem like this can be very helpful in taking steps in the direction of healing and freedom. Many of us are overwhelmed by the messages being streamed at us. Who do we listen to? What ideas are worth considering? Where are we being fed lies that cause discontentment? How do we break the cycle? Or perpetual state of distraction makes it hard to even focus in prayer. We often dump on God with words rather than allowing Him to speak to us, and without taking time to worship Him for his majesty. This week on the podcast, we discuss Chapter 1 of Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love. This chapter, entitled,"Stop Praying," thoughtfully addresses these issues, and aims to help us enter into a more meaningful and reverent relationship with our Creator.

Before we start calling out changes we think others need to make, we've got to take a hard look at the changes we need to make personally. "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan aims to help us do just that. We discuss this Foreword & Preface this week. We're just getting started so listen and read along!

The kick off of our reading of Francis Chan's book "Crazy Love" is finally here, and it's not too late to participate. Grab a copy of "Crazy Love," and check out the reading schedule under the Resources section of AMYontheHIll.com. Ready, set... READ!

I think sometimes we're afraid to press into hard questions about our faith. Maybe we're afraid our faith will crack under the pressure. But it won't. There are many logical, historical reasons for believing the resurrection of Jesus Christ actually happened. So we don't need to exercise our faith apart from our brains. Instead, by engaging our minds, our faith and hope will actually grow. In this podcast, we aim to celebrate the actual, historical resurrection of Jesus Christ (not just the "story" we've heard 1,000 times). To benefit fully, after listening to the podcast, please also check out Tim Keller's talk, "Jesus Vindicated" (found under the Resources Section at amyonthehill.com).

Ecclesiastes 7:2 says, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting." That sounds crazy, but its true. Its healthy for us to go into a house a mourning because in a house of mourning you think about real things. You consider your own end. You take what’s important to heart. Today on the podcast, we go into a house of mourning. We take to heart what Jesus did for us. Without a house of mourning, we don't appreciate a house of feasting. Today we attempt to digest the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ so we can better appreciate the feast of His resurrection.

Jesus the King - The Temple & The Feast by Amy on the Hill

Although life isn't always easy, we rarely describe ourselves as "desperate." Usually, we can get by on our own. We figure something out. We do what it takes and we survive. But many people living on earth today are unable to get by. They are literally not surviving. We don't like to think about that, do we? In fact, if you're like me, you probably want to stop reading this now. Maybe you're thinking about searching for another podcast to play. Please don't. Admittedly, today's podcast is a little uncomfortable, but it is intended to help us get healing. When you're sick, sometimes the medicine tastes yucky. But it helps you feel better. I'm praying, as you listen today, our discussion will have a similar effect. I'm praying we all start to heal in those places where we really are "desperate," even if we don't yet realize it.

We don’t have to have it all together to come to Jesus. Thank God! We can come as we are because Jesus paid the high price for our forgiveness and reconciliation. As Jesus’ followers, we are likewise to extend grace and forgiveness to the people in our lives. This isn’t easy because forgiveness always comes at a cost. We will need God’s help and example in Jesus if we are actually going to be able to respond in love when extending forgiveness to the people in our lives. On today’s podcast we discuss the cost of forgiveness; it is real and it can be painful. We also discuss worship and other truths we’ve been learning so far in our reading of Jesus the King.

We all can see that there is evil in this world, but it's really hard for us to confront the reality that some of that evil resides within us. Its much more comfortable to blame other people, pop-culture, unjust social policies, religion and/or corrupt politicians. After all, "other people" are oppressive, greedy, selfish and racist. We fight against those people. We're the good guys. We think our justice system will save us. Our political candidate will make this right. For some, religion is the answer. For others, religion is the problem. Though its true that there are many problems in this world, more than we could list, the Bible teaches that the root of the problem of evil can also be found within each one of us. There are no exceptions. It is a stain that prevents everyone from living the abundant life we were intended to live. And how we respond to this claim, individually, has the capacity to change everything...

Can we trust God? If God is all-powerful, why is there suffering? If God is good, why does He allow so much pain and difficulty? These are not easy questions. Nor do they have easy answers. In today's podcast, we press into these questions. We consider the power and sovereignty of God, and why true living comes only after death to our own agenda, timeline and limited understanding. Discussion is drawn from Chapters 5 & 6 of Timothy Keller's book, "Jesus the King."

It's so hard. We all struggle to rest our hope fully on Jesus. Often, we rest our hope on our "deepest wish." We want something to happen or we want to achieve something. Once we have our deepest wish, we think that all of our longings will be fulfilled. Similarly, we struggle to rest in Jesus' finished work of redemption. We try to justify ourselves by working to please God through religion. In today's podcast, we consider these struggles from a biblical perspective and by considering Chapters 3 & 4 of Tim Keller's book, "Jesus the King."