It's Okay to Cry

Part 2

"Its Ok To Cry" - 12-13-2010 Barrett Nugent

Its okay to cry!.......... Its okay to cry!......... It really is,

As long as we cry to the Lord.

I know from experience and from reading the Word that at times it can be hard to believe;

it can be hard to see that God loves you; it can be hard to trust in the truth that God, is still and always will be there by your side. We can't see him; at times we feel him and can hear him, but then there are times where it seems like we are alone. But we are never alone!

Psalm 139:7-10

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol (Hell), you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right shall hold me.”

Where are you? Where have you been? Where are you going?

God is with you! GOD IS WITH YOU!! Not was, IS!

Look at the verses, they are statements with apostrophes not question marks or hopes. It is God's covenant to never leave or forsake his children.

Please take a moment to be still and consider this.

Everywhere you have been, are, and will go, God is with you!

The Psalm says if you go to heaven, He is there. If you make your bed in HELL, He is there!

If you run away to the “utter most parts of the sea” where no man is or has been, “Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me!”

Whether you have been running from God in a state of rebellion, taken a turn that you thought was God's will and now are unsure, or are seeking God and just can't feel him and feel as if you are alone and He isn't listening.

Wherever you are, God is there! Walking by your side and carrying you when you don't have the strength to walk.

Its the power of His spirit that will God willing allow these words to reach in and affect your heart.

So I ask you to take a few minutes to be still and ask God to move in your heart and change you.

Sit down, lay down, take a walk to somewhere secluded, and be still.

Talk with the Lord as if you were talking to your best friend, whether you are having a good day or bad day. Thats what friends are there for right? To be there for you?

God is there for you! He is with you all the time. He wants to talk with you, He wants you to tell him about your joys, He wants you to tell Him of your fears, the things that make you want to worry.

He wants you to cast your burden on Him and allow Him to carry you.

Matthew 11:28-30

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Are you tired? Are you weary and run down? Do you just need a break from the daily grind of life?

Go to the Lord! He will give you rest.

God knows the temptations and fears we face every day, He knows there is an enemy of our souls that “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”.

Jesus himself was tempted and tried.

Matthew 26:36-44

“Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little further he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is week.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.”

Sometimes we have to pray the same things over and over, it doesn't make them any more or less true.

God still calls us to bring our petitions to the cross and submit them to the Lord.

What it does confirm is that all is done by the power of God the Father and by His will.

Another aspect to consider is the desperate manner in which we see God's children bringing their petitions to the Lord. The verse above says Jesus “fell on his face and prayed”.

Jonah 2 - recounts Jonah's cry for help from the belly of the whale.

“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying,

I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.

For you cast me in the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.

Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.'

The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.

But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay.

Salvation belongs to the LORD!

And the LORD spoke the the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.”

Each of these examples are rather desperate circumstances, Jesus is within hours of being tortured and being crucified for sins he did not commit, Jonah is inside a fish. Not knowing why he is even still alive, yet knowing that his only hope is the LORD God.

And what did he do? He called out to the LORD, “from the belly of Sheol I cried”.

Both situations of desperation; both situations God was faithful to give grace and provide a way.

What situation are you in right now? Do you believe God can provide the grace to make it through?

Do you believe God intends and wants to give grace? Do you believe God is working everything out for your better good?

He is! Even if you can't see it now, He is!

Jesus Christ was tempted in every way known to man, yet did not sin. Hebrews 4:14-16

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect had been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

“With confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need”

Because of what Christ has done we can draw near with confidence, without fear. Knowing“That we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Notice the word “receive”, we are given something. The verse does not say this is your best shot, or maybe this will work. Try real hard and hope for the best.

Because of what Christ has done, a work completely out of your control and something you can't add anything to, we can draw near. Its a gift! Its Mercy!

Mercy is defined as:

“Compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone who is it within one's power to punish or harm.

Yes it is within God's power to punish us for our sin, but because of Christ, God shows us grace.

Grace:

“The free and unmerited favor of God”

The verse says to draw near with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

How often do we need help? Daily! For some like myself, its every minute.

So where are you? What season are you in? Where do you find yourself right now?

Making it through but hoping things get better? Really tired and wearisome? About to give up all hope and end life?

Wherever you feel like you are, in God's eyes you are in the same place as everyone else.

A sinner who needs His forgiveness and love.

And He wants to give it to you! More than anything God the Father wants you to call to Him and tell him “I can't do it on my own Lord! I don't want to do it on my own! Help me!”

And He will!

I believe David says it best in Psalm 30:1-5

“I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.

Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”

So cry! Cry to the Lord, don't let the lie that crying for help is only for those who are weak and insecure.

Rather it is for those who are secure in the truth that they are weak on their own, but have a heavenly Father who is mighty to save who will hear His children's cries for help and come to their aid.

God loves you

The following is written by a good friend of mine, Barrett, who recently sent this to me. I almost cried when I heard it.

"God Loves You" - 11-4-2010

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear”

These are the words of our savior Jesus Christ, I would like to borrow them briefly and ask those who indeed have ears to hear to listen, hear what the Lord has told me and would like to once again remind His children.

It is something you have heard many times before, perhaps thousands. God willing you will hear it thousands more before the Lord calls you home. It is a simple phrase that at times completely stops a person in their tracks and breaks their heart of stone; yet at other times can be passed right on by.

Hear this please and take heart

“He Loves you! God the Father, the creator of the universe LOVES you”!

I told you, this is something you have already heard. But please do not disregard what is written above. Read it again! Think about it again, ask the Father to impress this on your heart and help you to better understand what this means for you.

Jeremiah 29:11-14

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

This was written hundreds of years before Christ- It was true the day it was written, it was true yesterday, it is true today, and will be true for all eternity.

Matthew 7:7-11

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will you Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Ask the Lord! He is faithful!

What is it in your life right now you don't understand? You don't even really have to ask, there are multiple things that rush to your mind. You don't understand why you are in so much pain, physical or in heart. You don't understand why you lost your job. You don't understand why you just can't focus.

The list goes on and on.... The fact of the matter is that there is much we do not understand, but our heavenly Father understands ALL. And as the verse says He will “give good things to those who ask him”.

“Ok”, you may say “I asked God, he spoke and gave me direction and peace in my heart. But that was yesterday and today everything seems to be going crazy again! Now what? How can I carry on? How do I know the Lord is still there? Is He really there every day, every moment? Or just when things go crazy and seem to be getting out of control?”

This is the Lord's reply:

Deuteronomy 31:6

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave or forsake you.”

Psalm 94:14

“For the Lord will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;”

“But I messed up! The Lord gave me direction and I didn't follow through, how can He still want to be there with me? How can He still love me?”

“Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, of daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgements against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:14-17

Sing! Rejoice! Dance before the Lord! The Lord has taken away the judgements against you!

God the Father rejoices over us!

Again Jesus reminds us in Luke 15 -

vs. 20b “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servant 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.”

Can you hear the celebration? Can you feel the Father's arms reaching out to meet you? Its all real!

God delights in His children and rejoices over us! And in this we can rest assured, He has us secure for ever and ever!

Romans 8:35-39

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'

No, in all these things we are more than conquerers through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

AMEN!!! NOTHING WILL SEPARATE US!!! God's words says it!!! NOTHING!!!

Rejoice brothers and sisters! God the Father LOVES YOU!!

For the Love of God Pt. 4

Pt. 4

Chp. 4 God's love and God's Wrath

A. The love of God and the Wrath of God

1) The wrath of God; scripture uses "high intensity" language
Isa. 13:4, 6:9
Ezek. 5:11-17
Revelation 14
"Wrath like love, includes emotion as a necessary component. Here again, if impassibility is defined in terms of the complete absence of all "passions'', not only will you fly in the face of the biblical evidence, but you tumble into fresh errors that touch the very holiness of God. There reason is that itself, wrath, unlike love, is not one of the intrinsic perfections of God. Rather, it is a function of God's holiness against sin. Where there is no sin, there is no wrath- but there will always be love in God. Where God in his holiness confronts his image bearers in there rebellion, there must be wrath, or God is not the jealous God he claims to be, and his holiness is impugned. The price of diluting God's wrath is diminishing God's holiness."

2) How can the wrath and love of God relate?
God hates the sinner and the sin- Rom. 1:18, John 3:36
Wrath not blind rage- entirely reasonable and willed response "not generated by the loveliness of the loved"
3) A. Misconception- OT More wrath, NT a "softer" God approaches; not true look at the cross
Wrath- OT temporal categories
Wrath -NT eternal category
B) Misconception- God's wrath mollified by Jesus
Jesus and father one in "project of redemption"
Rom. 3:21-36

B. The Love of God and the Intent on the Atonement
"Limited" is limiting and misleading
Rather say "general" and "definite" over "Unlimited" and "Limited"

"surely is is best not to introduce disjunctions where God himself has not introduced them. If one holds that the Atonement is sufficient for all and effective for the elect, then both sets of texts and concerns [L/UL] and concerns are accomated. As far as I can se, a text such as 1 John 2:2 states something about the potential breadth of the atonement"

"I argue, then, that both Armnians and Calvinists should rightly affirm that Christ died for all, in the sense that Christ's death was sufficient for all and that the Scripture portrays God as inviting, commanding, and desiring the salvation of all our of love[ God's salvinic stance to the world] . Further all Christians ought also to confess that, in a slightly different sense, Christ Jesus, in the intent of God, died effectively for the elect alone, in line with the way the Bible speaks of God's special selecting love [his love for the elect]"

C. The Love of God for the World
John 3:16
1 John 2:15-17

D. The Love of God and the People of God
1) Like a parent to his child (eg. Heb 12:4-11; cf Prov. 4:20)
Jude 21
Ex. 20:6
2) "Love of God is not to be merely analyzed, understood, and adopted into holistic categories of intergrated theological thought, It is to be received, to be absorbed, to be felt." Eph 3:14-21
3" Never, never, underestimate the power of the love of God to break down and transform the most amazingly hard individuals"
Les Miserables

"God's love so transforms us that we mediate it to others who are thereby transformed We love because he first loved us; we forgive because we can stand forgiven"

1) intra-Trinitarian love- ensures plan of redemption
2) Providential love- protects, feeds, clothes and forbears
3) Yearning inviting love, commanding love- displayed on the cross
4) Elective love-enables us to see his sheer glory and power of Christ's vicarious death
5) God continues to love us- with immutable love (romans 8) but with love of a father (jude 21)
Remain in his love John 15:9ff

"All this has transformed us, so that we in turn perceive the sheer rightness of the first commandment- to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. As that is the first and greatest commandment, so the first and greatest sin is not to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. For this there is no remeddy, save what God himself has provided- in love"

For the Love of God pt. 3

Notes and personal commentary on "The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God"(D.A.Carson)
Started 4/8/10- Completed 4/15/10
All "" are direct quotes. Notes are in summary/paraphrased form unless other wise noted. Some titles are directly quoted

Chp. 3 God's love and God's Sovereignty

The Affective Element in God's love
Hosea 11
The emotional intenstity
God is a jeolous God
Abounds in love and faithfulness- shown to Moses Ex. 34:6
God grieves Ps. 78:40; Eph. 32:10
Pities (Ps. 103:13)
Everlasting love (Isa. 54:8, Ps. 103:17)

1 John 4:7-11
'Dear Friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another' (4:11)
Model and incentive

The impassiblity of God?

The Soverignty and Transcedence of God
1) God is utterly sovereign, transcendent, and omnipotent
Jer. 32:17
2 Cor. 6:8; Rev 1:8
Matt 19:26
Prov. 16:23
Heb. 1:3
Eph. 1:11
Prov. 21:1
Romans 9;21

Enjoys all Knowledge
Matt. 11:20-24
1 Sam. 23:11-113
Job 37:16
Ps. 90:4
2 Peter 3:8
Isa 57:15

2) His Sovereignty extends over election
Rom. 9:11
Acts 13:48
Eph 1:4-5 cf. Rev. 13:7-8, 17:8
2 Thess. 2:13
Election over angels -1 Tim 5:21
Chosen race - 1 Peter 2:9

Electing love- immutable John 6:37- 40

3) Christians are not fatalists- "compatablism"
Gen. 50:19-20
(speaking about this story) " in one and the same event, God was operating and his intentions were good, and the brothers were operating and their intentions were evil"
Acts 4:23- 29
Pilate, herod, gentiles, Jews in evil act; on other hand God's appointing events

Not to stress either too much

4) God's immutability; unchangeableness
Ps. 02:27
Mal 3:6
Isa 46:8-11
Ps 33:11, cf. Matt 13:35; 25:3; Eph 1:4, 11:1; 1 Peter 1:20
"God's immutability is enormously imporatant, It engenders stability and elicts worship"

5) The sketch of God coming under attack - "open" view of God
Some scriptures to defend each postion

"Sooner or later on retreats into the recognition that, so far as we are concerned, there are some mysteries in the very Being of God The deepest of these, I think are tied to the fact that Go as he has disclosed himself in Scpriture is simultaneously soverign/transcendent and personal"

Ways to unpack that quote-
No personal level illustration of soverigenty and transcendence
"personal" in our being- attached to finite things; God is not "finite"

C. A Rightly Constrained Impassibility
Love in line with his will
Sets his affections on elect no "falling in love"
emotional but not sentimentalized love

"God loves, whomever the object, because God is love...God exercises this love in conjunction with all his other perfections, but his love is no less love for that..his love emanates from his own character; it is not dependent on the loveliness of the loved, external to himself"

"because we have been transformed by the Gospel, over love is to be self-orginating,not elicted by the loveliness of the the loved
1John 4:19
Rom. 5:8
John 4:10

For the Love of God-Part 2

Notes and personal commentary on "The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God"(D.A.Carson)
Started 4/8/10- Completed 4/15/10
All "" are direct quotes. Notes are in summary/paraphrased form unless other wise noted. Some titles are directly quoted

Ch. 2 God is love

John 4:8,16
"God is love" means what?

How NOT to proceed

1.The Word for love cannot be tied to anyone word group- "careful diachronic work has been done on Greek words for love"
Word group disintictions and arguments (see book for further understanding)

How to proceed

Text in context

John 5:17- "Sonship' is very often a functional category in the Bible. Because the overwhelming majority of sons ended up vocationally doing what their fathers did, 'like father, like son' was the cultural assumption' -Jesus did what his father did, illustrates Matt 5:9

2. Did God keep the Sabbath? 1st Centuray Jewish Arguement
Yes- God is sovereign and does not work (ie. lift anything higher than shoulders..he is bigger than universe)
No- If he rested creation would unwind and go swirling out of order

How can Jesus be God's son?
He did everything God wanted him to do

1) Did not set himself against God, or enourage ditheism but rather monotheism; Jesus subordinate and entirely dependent on the father
John 5:19-20
"Like Father like Son"
"He can do only what he sees the Father doing (subordination) because he does whatever he Father does (coextensive action). This makes his sonship unique"

2) John 5:20- Why does the Son do everything the Father does?
The Father Loves the Son and shows him all he does "craftsman shop model"
"Jesus is so uniquely and unqualifedly the Son of God that he Father shows him all he does, out of sheer love for him, and the Son, however dependent on his Father, does everything the Father does"

3.A) " The Son by his obediance to the Father doing only what God gives him to say, yet doing such things in funiction of his ablitiy to do whatever the Father does, acts in such a way as to reveal God perfectly"

b) " It is because the Father loves the Son that this pattern of divin self-disclosure pertains"

John 5:23
Romans 8:32

4) The Son's love for the Father
John 8:29, 14:31

5)Father loves the Son and shows him all that he does
John 5:20a
John 5:20b-21
"In the past God occasionally used human agents i the resuctation of someone (e.g., Elijah). Jesus is different. Because the Father has 'shown' him this, Jesus raised the dead as he please, just as the Father pleases"

Some Concluding Synthetic Reflections

"Mark well the distinction between the love of the Father for the Son and the love of the Son for the Father. The Father commands, sends, tells, commissions- and demonstrates his love fo the Son by 'showing' him everything- and demonstrates his love for the Son by 'showing' him everything, such that the Son does whatever the Father does. The Son obeys, says only what the Father gives him to say, does only what the Father gives him to do, comes into the world as the Sent One- and demonstrates hi love for the Faher prcisely by such obedience"

John 15

The model of how Jesus loves the Father should be our model in how we should love and obey Jesus

John 14:15
John 15:14-15
John 17

Distinction between slaves and friends

"not once is Jesus or God ever described in the Bible as our friend. Abraham is God's friend; the reverse is never stated."

He has shown us what the Father does and says, revealed this to us, so therefore we are his friends

" The difference of friendship is that the full information has been conveyed. It is an informational difference...of revelation not of obediance"

For the Love of God- Pt. 1

Notes and personal commentary on "The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God"(D.A.Carson)
Started 4/8/10- Completed 4/15/10
All "" are direct quotes. Notes are in summary/paraphrased form unless other wise noted. Chapter titles and underlines are directly quoted

Chp. 1

Why the Doctrine of the Love of God is judged difficult

1) The Majority of the people today believe God (it, she, he, fill in their own perfered word) is a loving God, and are not surprise by the "God loves you" phrase. But the definition of this love is vastly different than the Christian definition of love, or at least the definition that they come to has been set in a place outside of Christian theology

2) Other "complementary" truths about God are widely disbelieved such as sovereignty, holiness, God's wrath, providence etc...

"the love of God in our culture has been purged of anything the culture finds uncomfortable. The love of God has been sanitized, deomocratized and above all else sentimentalized"

"today most people seem to have little difficulty believing in the love of God; they have far more difficulty believing i the justice of God, the wrath of God, and the noncontridictory truthfulness of an ominicient God"

3) Our culture believes that all religions are the same, and a postmodern mindset has taken over. "the only hersey is that there is such a thing as heresy"

4) "Within Christian confessionalism the doctrine of the love of God poses its difficulties"

thinking through fundamental truths, to keep truths about God in balance

5) Love of God thought more easily understood than it is, overlooking distinctions

Some Different ways the bible speaks of the love of God

1) Love of the Father for the Son and Son for the Father
John 3:35, 5:20, 14:31
2) God's providental love over his creation
Gen. 1, Matt.6
3)God's "salvfic stance toward his fallen world"
John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, John 15:19
"inviting" "commanding all humans to repent"
Ezek. 33:11
4) God's particular effective selecting love toward his elect
Duet. 7:7-8; cf. 4:37, 10:14-15
" when Israel is contrasted witht he universe or other nations, the distinguishing feature has nothing of personal or national merit; it is nothing other than the love of God"

"the discriminationg feature of God's love surfaces frequently"
Mal. 1:2-3
Christ loves the Church
Eph. 5;25

5) "God's love is sometimes said to be directed toward his own people in a porvisional or conditional way- condtitoned, that is, on obedience"
Jude vs. 21
John 15:9-10
"to a thousand generations"
Ex. 20:6
Ps. 103:9-11, 13, 17-18

Three Preliminary observations on these distinctive ways of talking about the Love of God

1) The results of absoltizing and making exclusive one aspect of God's love over another, or making one the lense by which you see all the rest

Trinitarian model- between Jesus and followers; Father does not redeem Son nor vica versa

Providental love lense- God is a "mysterious force"- stance of pantheism

Inviting seeking love lense- semi-plageans, pelagians, arminians, + interested parties in God's emotional inner life

Election lense- God loves elect; hates reprobate; same assertion that has "engendered hyper calvinism"

Obediance love lense- bring people into merit theology instead of the cross

2) These views not "compartments" but complimentariasm -not "loves" but "love" God is love
All these truths are needed and needed to be held together

3) Do "certain evangelical cliches stand up"? aka "God's love is unconditional" "God loves everyone the same way"
What applies and what time is essential and important

"Christian faithfulness entails our responsibility to grow in our grasp ow what it means to confess that God is love"