“They Say…!”

Lou Coleman

Lou Coleman

By Lou Coleman

Love will make you do some crazy things, but honey child, I want you to know that Faith will call you to do some craazzzy things. Faith will call you to believe the impossible is possible! Faith will call you to believe that after all the hell you have gone through and are going through, the best is yet to come! Faith will call you to risk it all, to dare to do the most audacious, most extreme things imaginable! Faith will have people calling you crazy, saying, you’ve lost your mind! The King James Version of the Bible translates the concern of Jesus’ family for him in these words: “He is beside himself.” The old J.B. Phillips New Testament translates it, “People were saying, ‘He must be mad!’” The 1995 Contemporary English Version, said, “When Jesus’ family heard what he was doing, they thought he was crazy and went to get him under control” [Mark 3:19-21].  Imagine that! Jesus considered… Crazy! Gone Mad! Beside Himself!

You might as well come to terms with it today; when you are sold out to Jesus, not everyone will be happy that you got saved! There will be some people in your family and among your friends that will criticize you for living for Jesus. They will call you a Jesus freak, religious nut, holier than thou, think you better than everybody else, all that and more. Well, ‘Don’t Worry- Be Happy’ because being crazy, and being beside ourselves, God no longer calls us servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, He calls us friends, for everything that He learned from His Father He has made known to us [John 15:15]. And those who would follow him, those who would be his disciples, those who would live as and be the people of the Way, are called and summoned and challenged to be just as crazy as Jesus. I tell you we need some Christians who are as crazy as the Lord. Crazy enough to love like Jesus, to give like Jesus, to forgive like Jesus, to do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God — like Jesus.  So for those of us who would follow him, those of us who would be his disciples, and for those of us who would live as and be the people of the Way, it might come as a shock, but we are called to craziness.

So to the crazy ones like me; The misfits; The rebels; The troublemakers; The ones who see things differently; They can quote us, disagree with us, glorify or vilify us; but what they can’t do is ignore us; because we change things. We push the human race forward. We understand that we are not called to just reasonable faith; we are called to “Radical Faith” in God! The woman with the issue of blood is a good example. (Mark 5:25-34). She said, “If only I could touch the hem of his garment. I will be made whole.” Radical Faith! When the four men (Mark Chapter 2) cared enough about their paralyzed friend to bring him to Jesus, remove the roof tiles so they could lower him down to where Jesus was teaching… faith enough to believe that if they took desperate measures on behalf of their friend THE IMPOSSIBLE WOULD HAPPEN; and, it did! The man received a double miracle – the salvation of his soul and the gift of full deliverance from paralysis. He took up his bed and walked home. Desperate needs demand desperate faith. I want you to know that Biblical Faith is a powerful weapon. Mountains yield to its power. Sin, Satan and sorrow bow before its authority.

I tell you, we need some crazy Christians. Sane, sanitized Christianity is killing us.  We need some crazy Christians like Mary Magdalene. Christian’s crazy enough to believe that God is real and that Jesus lives. Crazy enough to follow the radical way of the Gospel! Crazy enough to believe that the love of God is greater than all the powers of evil and death!  Know that it is ONLY BY FAITH that enables God to work on our behalf. It is ONLY BY FAITH that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). It is ONLY BY FAITH that all things happen in the life for the child of God. “Radical Faith” – “Real Faith”— “Gone Mad Faith” – “Beside Yourself Faith” – “Bull Dog Faith,” affecting the way you talk to the way you walk. Faith that turns you into a dare devil!  Follow after it and live in it! Walk the walk that you talk! It is a choice and the choice is yours! Take it on… Faith the greatest of God’s gifts to His children!  “Y’all gon’ make me lose my mind up in here, up in here…!”

[1 Cor. 1:27] God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong!

Lou Coleman
Author: Lou Coleman

About Lou Coleman