520. Teaching the Law Results in Fruitless Discussion
Unconditional Love is an Oxymoron
All of my life I have heard Christians talk about the unconditional love of God. I’ve heard, and even spoken, about the love of God being without conditions, while people tend to love with conditions. As I think about love and what love really is, I have come to an understanding that “unconditional love” is really an oxymoron.
If love comes with conditions then it is really not love. Love has to be without conditions or else it becomes manipulation.
God does love us without conditions because He is love. Love is to be the standard by which all people will know who the true followers of Jesus are. Jesus tells his first followers to love others as He had loved them.
Think about a parent. Good parents do not love their children with conditions. They love them without conditions. They love their children, not for what they do or don’t do, but for who they are. They don’t love their children in spite of their children. They simply love their children because they are part of them.
Yet, I see so many people within the body of Christ that are better parents to their kids than what they believe God is to them. They will love their kids without conditions, yet somehow believe that God conditionally loves them.
Imagine your child coming to you and saying, “Dad, I know I am so unworthy of your love. I am just a worm. I am just a sinner that doesn’t even deserve to live under your roof. Dad, I am so undeserving of your love.” You’d probably flip out and ask what drugs they had been doing. You would not stand for such nonsensical talk. You would correct them and make sure they knew that your love for them has nothing to do with what they do or don’t do.
Why do we treat our children that way, yet feel God treats us differently? Why do we believe that God gives us a standard to live by but doesn’t live by that standard Himself? Many Christians seem to believe that God is a “do as I say, not as I do” kind of parent. God expects us to forgive others, even if they don’t ask for it, yet many Christians don’t believe that God will forgive unless you confess and repent. God says that we are to keep no records of wrong, yet many Christians believe that God is keeping an account of all our sins.
Now I know that some would argue that He is God Almighty and He can do what He wants. That is true, but I don’t see that manifested in Jesus, who is the perfect image of the Father. In Jesus, I see a God that is loving, kind compassionate and merciful. I also see a God that is tough on religion, pride, hypocrisy and people unwilling to forgive. In Jesus I see a God that would rather forgive and die for his enemies than to live without them.
That is love without conditions. That is what true love is.
True love is always concerned with the other person’s well-being, value and happiness. True love is being willing to put someone else’s needs before our own. True love is always without conditions.
If we believe that God loves us with conditions then how do we know what those conditions are? Some would say that God loves us when we obey. If that’s the case then we need to stop telling “sinners” that Jesus loves them and wants to save them. That would not be true because they are not obeying God.
If we believe that God loves us when we are living right, then wouldn’t that make us worthy of God’s love because somehow we are earning his love by doing what he wants?
If I can do something to make God love me then I become worthy of his love because of my actions. That’s not love . . . that’s reward. Unfortunately that is how many people give out their love….as a reward for other people’s right behaviors.
I don’t love my wife or kids because of what they do. I love them because they simply are! Even when my kids are rebellious, testing boundaries and my patience, I still love them without conditions. I will not stop loving them because of what they do or don’t do.
Love is an emotion that we feel, but more importantly, it’s a choice we make. We love people because we see the value in them. You don’t love what you don’t value.
God values us as His creation, and as His children. Therefore, he loves us. Our value is determined by him not us, our actions or even our right believing. God can love us unconditionally because He places great value on who we are to Him.
I can love others unconditionally when I see their value over their actions. To love with conditions doesn’t benefit the person I am “trying” to love. It only benefits me as the person does what I want in order to get my love. It’s manipulation and it’s not love.
God’s love is never manipulative. His love is perfect and unconditional because He is love and he is the standard of what true love is. May we truly learn to love others as Jesus has loved us.
Eve: A Novel (book review)
As I read my Bible I often have wondered what it would have been like to have been there observing the story as it unfolds — to have seen Moses part the Red Sea, to have seen Elijah on Mt. Carmel opposite the prophets of Baal, to have seen the crucifixion.
For me it’s always good to watch movies about the Bible because it helps bring the 
story to life, to help me realize the struggles and issues real people dealt with. Instead of just reading the stories out of the Bible and having to use my limited imagination, I can see what things could have been like. It always gives me a fresh perspective and helps me to better understand what the Bible is saying.
Wm. Paul Young does just that with his latest book Eve: A Novel.
He is the author of The Shack, a controversial yet great book on the love of God and the struggles we have with evil, forgiveness and our own self-righteousness. This time he writes a fictional work about the creation of mankind as seen through the eyes of The Witness, Lilly, a young girl who washed ashore inside a shipping container on an island between our world and the next.
Eve gets the chance to see the creation of humanity. This is a compelling story that gives us a deeper glimpse into the heart of God for humanity. Many times we read the creation story in the Bible but it’s very short without much detail. Young takes the liberty to give us an understanding of what it could have been like. The heart of God, and his great love for humanity, is well depicted in this story.
I believe that some Christians will struggle with the author’s depiction of creation and the storyline. They will cry out that the theology is wrong. But they will not take notice that it’s a novel. As many Christians had issues with The Shack, I am sure they will find issues with Eve: A Novel. For those that liked The Shack, I believe you will love Eve: A Novel. For those that didn’t, well you probably won’t like this one either.
For those willing to read with an open heart and mind they will discover a well-written story that 
desires to show us the greatness of God’s amazing love, grace and compassion for his creation. It will help you to see the longing God has for man, even after Adam’s fall. It will help you to get a better grasp of our free will and the great risk God took in giving us this gift.
This is certainly not a theology book, nor it is a systemic study of God’s nature. It’s a fictional story. However, from what I understand in my reading about the book, Young took a lot of time studying creation, especially a Jewish perspective. For me, it brought creation alive. It made me feel as if I were there witnessing the creation of humanity out of the very energy and life of the Father, Son and Spirit.
A perfect Being, who needed nothing, willing to create a free-will creation, capable of loving or rejecting Him is masterfully told in a compelling tale of trust, doubt, fear, questions, reassurances, and love.
For me personally, the book helped me to see God’s love in a deeper, more personal way. One part of the book really ministered to me. There is a place in the book where Adam feels lost. God responds by telling Adam that he is never lost because Adam is in God and God is never lost. This spoke to me in a very profound way because of some personal struggles and issues I was facing. 
What I liked about the book was the way I could see God’s love for humanity through the vivid imagery the author used to tell the story. I also liked his use of everyone’s struggles, fears, and doubts. His telling of the temptation and the subtleness of the enemy (satan) was a great reminder that the devil is truly subtle and conniving in his desire to destroy humanity.
The main thing I didn’t like about the book was that it took me a while to really get into it. I struggled to get through the first couple of chapters. Unlike The Shack, the story didn’t grab me right off the bat. However, a couple of chapters in I was hooked and didn’t want to put the book down.
Overall, I really liked this book, just not as much as The Shack. I would recommend it as good read.
511. “Are You Saying People Can Do Whatever They Want?”
510. The Ten Commandments in the New Testament
508. The Love Motivation
To Give Or To Get?
I want to talk about a simple yet deep message that has been on my heart for the past few years. In life, there are two big motivators: wanting to give and wanting to get. The self-existence, as I refer … Continue reading 
I’ve Come From:
From Adam to Christ
From death to life
From old to new
From darkness to light
From works to rest
From law to grace
From judgment to righteousness
From exhausted to seated
From me to Him
From busy to content
From do to done
From anxiety to peace
From religion to relationship
From “what’s next” to “what’s finished”
From “have to” to “want to”
From temporal to eternal
From glory to glory to glory
Wynema Clark 5/26/15
The God Who Is Love
As a little girl I remember so well the desire to please my dad. I did everything I could to gain his attention and his trust. I craved that validation. Then in high school I did something I wasn’t supposed to do. He was so angry that he looked me in the eyes and told me that he was disappointed in me and could not trust me. It was a crushing blow. To lose something that I had worked so hard for and craved so much was devastating.
As a believers we sometimes view our relationship with our heavenly Father with this same kind of delicate frailty. We believe that those who pray the most and who stay the busiest “working” for the Lord have a better relationship with Him. He has to love them more. So we strive and we press in and we strive some more and we press in some more until we are burned out, spent, and anxious because enough is never really enough.
Then when you come to the end of the striving and you stop trying to be so perfect and work so hard you are finally introduced to your real Dad. Not the father of your particular religion, not the father of your interpretation of the scripture, but the God who is Love, that is your real Father. It is then, and only then, that you are able to relax because you realize that He isn’t waiting on you to get your work done. He has been waiting on you to realize that He already did all the work so He could spend His time with you. You see, it’s not about getting Him to love you. He IS love. Its really about you accepting that you are lovable because of Him. And in knowing that love, you are fulfilled in life instead of anxious. Enjoying Him and He you. That is relationship. That is love.
Ephesians 3:14-21; I John 4:9-10, 19; Romans 8:38-39; John 15:13; Romans 5:8
It Is Finished
On this day darkness met light
Sin met righteousness
Life met death
A reconciliation of all things and all people into One
Not a sin forgotten
not a nationality left out
For God so loved the whole world
For God’s plan included the whole world
And into His Son would be placed all sin
In Him would be the final seperation
In Him would be all law exacted
In Him would justice meet love
In Him would the blood make it’s final payment
Darkness fell and the earth shook
The wages of sin were deposited into the bank of eternity
Making way for the gift of God to be withdrawn
Unto all and upon all them that believe
Days later Light broke through
Righteousness came forth
and eternal Life conquered death
What was without was placed within
What is now within is being seen
Out of death came Life eternal
and it’s exceedingly, abundantly above anything we could ask or think.
Heaven on earth, Heaven in earth
It is finished!
Wynema Clark 4/3/2015
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