The Reality of God’S Love

By Carol Sparks

As Christians, we have become a community of believers focused on our needs and what God can do for us; were convinced were in good standing with the Lord. The concept of Gods love is woefully misrepresented throughout the corporate church, and weve effectively altered Gods character and diminished his holiness and sovereignty. As a result, weve become complacent about others salvation.

In The Reality of Gods Love, author Carol Sparks explores our beliefs about godly love by examining the spiritual truth in scripture. A small study packed with thought-provoking insights, it challenges some of the long-standing concepts held by the Christian church about Gods love, and it addresses the validity of some of our beliefs. Sparks discusses how the many misconceptions about the subject have altered the gospel message and diminished the effectiveness of the church.

Deeply spiritual, The Reality of Gods Love shares scriptures as well Sparks personal observations related to godly love, which is at the core of faith. It serves to give Christians a greater appreciation for Gods holiness and sovereignty and a renewed desire to bring the lost to Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973626732

Carol Sparks

Carol Sparks has been an avid student of the Bible for the past thirty years. She has taught numerous Bible studies and Sunday school classes, spoken at womens retreats, and preached for a jail ministry. Sparks is married and has three sons and four grandchildren and lives in a small town in New Jersey. This is her second book.

Book preview

THE REALITY OF

GOD’S

LOVE

CAROL SPARKS

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Copyright © 2018 Carol Sparks.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2674-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2673-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018904844

WestBow Press rev. date: 5/3/2018

Foreword

Over the decades, much has been preached, taught, and written about God’s love, but very little scriptural truth has been revealed about it.

The Bible is where God’s character and the basic concepts of godly love are revealed to humankind. For the most part, Christians are comfortable with the beliefs that have developed about this feature of God’s character.

Christians often claim that because God is love, he loves everyone; he loves us because he created us, he loves us from birth, he loves us equally and unconditionally, and he will never stop loving us.

We in the Christian community do not question any aspect of these principles and reject any argument to the contrary. We reason that our beliefs are