Does unconditional love exist?

I have wondered for years if unconditional love exists. From my experience it's been the deepest need for my soul to be loved and accepted. I'm sure everyone wants to be loved.

It was not too long ago when I realized that the unconditional love I seek is a spiritual need that could only be met by God as it is revealed in His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus is many different things to many people. For some He was a great philosopher or teacher. For others He was a prophet and a great spiritual leader.

I personally believe Jesus was all those things plus more. He was the Messiah. He was God in the flesh. It's hard to believe that it was only 2000 years ago when the Lord came in human form.

I believe Jesus was the embodiment of love itself. He's the visible image of the invisible God. The visible expression of infinite love.

For me the bible is a tool to benefit my life instead of a rule book to control and beat other people over the head with. I believe there is truth in there to set my mind free. The general theme I get from reading the bible is that God is love. 1st John 4:8-10 "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

It was about 9-12 months ago when I finally came to that conclusion that the general theme of the bible is that God is love. I believe God revealed His unconditional love for me. He revealed to me that He would never leave me nor forsake me and that His patience with me is everlasting. His mercy is everlasting.

Everything God does is motivated out of love for His creation. I do not believe a loving God would create a blazing inferno called hell to write off any of His children. We are all God's children. 1st Corinthians 13:4-8 gives me a clear idea as to what God's love is like.

It reads: "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in inquitiy, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

I did a homework assignment and substituted the word love for God in each part of the verse. It was very liberating to my mind. Yes God is love. The truth shall set us free!

I look at this passage now as I have in the past and I don't even come close to measuring up to the description of love that God has for humanity and calls us to have for one another. I am very impatient and rude and I have selfish ambition.

I believe unconditional love exists based on my understanding of these passages. It's only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. His love will never fail to draw all of humanity unto Himself. Through Adam's sin all of mankind died but through Christ's obedience all of mankind was resurrected from the dead (Romans 5:12-19). Just as universal death came through Adam, universal salvation came through Christ.

God will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. That truth meaning everyone will come to know Christ in a personal way. The grave is not the end.

Those who don't come to the know Him in this life will certainly know Him beyond the grave and understand clearly there. God's mercy and willingness that none should perish is NOT limited to this physical existence.

Everyone will come to know that God is ALL in ALL. God loves all of humanity! Everyone will come to know His love. Everybody is saved but they just don't know it yet!

I can't wait for the day that I see the full expression of God's love which will happen when I cross over to the other side of the grave. It's hard living here on this earth but I have another 80 years left at the most. I'll be in eternity before I know it.

Time seems to fly by as each year passes by. I feel an emptiness inside right now. I see the kingdom of God through a dark glass in this flesh and blood body.

There is nothing more that can bring joy to my heart in this life than seeing others come to know the unconditional love of God and walk in the freedom that they already have but are just now discovering. That is the greatest reward to me. When you meet God you meet love and you cannot resist. This love will find you!

It in late September of 2007 when I believe God revealed to me that everybody is going to be saved. He loves all of humanity with an everlasting love. It's a love that the world cannot give us. Religion certainly can't.

It is my hope and prayer that the gospel of grace & peace of Jesus Christ will penetrate enough hearts and minds on this planet to make this world a better place.

I have a glimmer of hope that this world will get better. I hope the day comes when everyone will just have a personal relationship with God without religion.

I believe religion is defined as man's efforts to become God-like through his works, deeds, actions, behavior modification, observing rituals, behavioral control methods, church attendance, tithing, speaking in tongues, water baptism, etc.

One day self righteous religion will be done away with. Jesus Christ is full of grace & truth. He is grace! During His earthly ministry He said He did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He does not judge anyone who does not believe His message. (John 12:47). thereforee I pass no judgment on anyone who sees God or Jesus differently than I do.

To me the whole purpose of Jesus' earthly ministry was to reveal to us who we really are. When Jesus came in contact with tax collectors, drunks, theives, prostitutes, etc I do NOT believe that He saw them as tax collectors, drunks, theives, prostitutes, etc. I believe He saw children of God who may not have known who they were. A major part of His mission was to reveal to us who we are. Who are we? We are made complete in God's image. We are all sons and daughters of the most high.

It's so easy for me to forget who I am especially when I go out in my daily life and in the workplace. I get so impatient easily. Thank God He's not holding anything against anyone. He keeps no record of our wrongs! I think He's more in the business of reminding all of us of who we are instead of telling us how we should behave.

I was listening to Mike Williams the other night at link removedlink removed saying that the message of what he believes to be the gospel of grace is parallel to what the US constitution was built on. That is all men being created equal and being given the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Mike Williams is one of my favorite ministers of the gospel of grace. I've never heard anyone articulate the message as clear cut and undiluted as he does. He is an excellent speaker. I enjoy hearing his thoughts on the grace of God.

He's one of the few grace ministers who is willing to go as far to say that the grace of God has been applied to all people regardless of lifestyles and religious beliefs.

I truly believe gospel is a revelation of what's right with you NOT of what's wrong with you. The gospel is a revelation of our equality with one another and with God. The grace of God has not been applied exclusively to believers in Jesus Christ. It has been applied to ALL people. It is ALL INCLUSIVE!

I believe we are all connected spiritually with one another and with God like it or not. When a person believes that they are somehow separate from God or from the rest of creation that is not healthy. It's the root of many psychosis mental disorders.

If we all came from God then there's no way God can deny us without denying Himself. Why? because we share His DNA. That's what the entire human race has in common. If God is love then your true identity is also love. Everyone has the nature and righteousness of God living inside them!

Why don't we always see the expression of that then? It's either because a person does not know who they really are or they forget who they really are. Again it is easy to forget as we go out into the world everyday.

Religion is a big stumbling block and influence against remembering who we are. Why? because if one believes that their identity is based on how well or how bad they behave on any given day or what they do for a living or their race or their sexual preference then the expression of God's love will be stifled and suppressed in that person.

Religion (especially evangelical Christian religion) insists that one's identity is determined by what they do for a living, what their sexual preference is, their marriage status, or morality, educational background, how you dress, how you walk, how you talk, etc. This is what holds people back in bondage. It certainly did for me years ago.

No sir/mam. Your identity is determined by the DNA you inherited from God Himself!

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The Glenn Klein show where Mike Williams speaks is pretty cool. I like this format better than a sermon format actually.

I finally decided to take it upon myself to buy that gospel of inclusion book. I did so last night. I'm so excited. I'm going to read some more of it later. It cost me 25$ from a store called "books a million" in the mall.

God's love is like a consuming fire. He is perfect love. That consuming fire burns away anything that is contrary to love.

When I read about fire in the bible for the most part it's not a negative thing to fear. Fire is a purifying element. When God's love comes in contact with hate then that hatred is consumed!

I believe that the death, burial & resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ was God's method of purifying all humanity and presenting all of us faultless and perfect before Himself.

The gospel can't be good news if there is even a small part of God's creation that will not be saved.

Here's a scripture passage I was reading last night.

Romans 3:21-22 "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference

Wow. The righteousness of God without the law which is by the faith OF Jesus Christ is applied unto all people as well as upon all those who believe for there is no difference:

My faith is in the faith of Jesus Christ. That is His faithfulness. Whatsoever Christ accomplished in His death, burial & resurrection has been applied to all humanity without discrimination to a person's lifestyle, beliefs, race, gender, etc. Jesus purified this whole universe!

Everybody in this world is precious in the sight of God. I would even go farther to say not only is humanity precious. The animals and plants and all of creation is precious and pure and beautiful in the eyes of God.

The unconditional love of God is deeper than any one of us can comprehend. It's not just some generic love. His love is real personal towards everybody. God is NOT angry with anyone!

But you know something? I believe God has a much much higher opinion of us than we could ever have of ourselves. He loves us more than we could ever love ourselves in the flesh. He knows us more than we know ourselves.

I believe legalism really compounds mental illness.

The gospel of grace & peace of the Lord Jesus Christ does not promise to heal mental illness when we believe it but it will at least remove any feelings of guilt and condemnation so that a person can at least learn to live with his/her mental illness with the knowledge that nothing can separate him/her from the love of God.

Even if you have a mental illness you can at least live with the knowledge that you don't have to feel guilty in the face of God.

Most people in mental institutions come from a religious and legalistic background. I know a friend of mine who goes to a legalistic church and he wound up in the nut house because he was under the delusion that he had committed an unpardonable sin. It's really sad.

As the apostle Paul said I too am convinced that nothing can separate anybody from the love of God. Romans 8:31-39 is one of my favorite passages of scripture.

31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Since God is omnipresent and He is love then even if hell exists (which it does not) God's love is still there. I remember reading in the old testament where someone said "even if I make my bed in hell God is with me."

thereforee the only way anyone can be separated from God is in their minds. That is perceived separation from God. It's not a reality. My perception of God's presense in my life may change from time to time but His presense never changes.

I am blessed to have found a church that preaches a message of grace & freedom in Christ. I have problems like everyone else does but believing the gospel at least frees me from feeling any guilt and condemnation in the face of God.

I truly believe that being in bondage to sin has nothing to do with how much or how little I sin. It has nothing to do with any addictions I might have. It has to do with feeling guilty and condemned over the addiction.

There are 2 things that should be absent from a christian's life:

1. Guilt.

2. self righteousness.

When I say christian I mean a believer in Jesus Christ. The goal of the believer's life is NOT to stop sinning nor is it to sin less and less nor is it to try harder.

The goal of the believer's life is to grow in his knowledge & understanding of God's unconditional love & grace for himself and others. The goal is to learn how to see others as God sees them. He sees them as perfect.

My prayer is that God will continue to burn away any self righteousness that is in my mind. True repentance in the believer's life is turning from self righteousness.

Since God is perfect infinite love I think we can assume and expect that His love is expressed towards His creation at the very least as the love that you would see expressed through the best of humans.

But I'm convinced His love is much greater than that. He's not stingy with His grace & love. There is an account in the book of Acts about how the apostle Paul met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to damascus.

Now before Paul met Christ on that road he persecuted believers in Christ. He wanted to murder them. But all of that changed when Christ appeared to him. The grace of God was exceedingly abundant to Paul and he repented and started preaching the gospel of grace & peace.

My point is there is no way God would create a place called hell to destroy nor eternally torment any of His children no matter how rebellious they might get. We all belong to God. He was responsible in creating us and He alone is responsible for our salvation.

The most loving earthly parents would never punish their rebellious children by handcuffing their hand on a hot stove or locking them in a basement without food or water. No that would be cruel and unusual punishment.

If there is any punishment for sin then it has a corrective purpose to it. The good news is that all punishment was taken care of by the death of Jesus on the cross. The cross of Christ was a corrective judgment against the sin of unbelief & all sins that resulted from unbelief. (John 16:7-10, John 1:29) I believe it was the beast inside us that was burned away and nailed to the cross.

So any part of us that needed correction was done away with at Christ's death on the cross. We're new creatures in Christ. The old has passed away. Christ did not improve the old creation. He crucified it & resurrected a new creation inside all humanity. This new creation is a spiritual being inside all of us that has been raised from the dead. (Romans 6:3-8).

You know something? Life is hard enough when you go through trials and tribulations. I'm currently enduring a trial that I brought on myself through poor judgment.

Religion does not give you comfort in times of trial. If anything it compounds the trial by claiming that God is angry or that the devil has barged into your life.

I don't believe either case is the reason why I'm going through this trial. I can take some comfort knowing that nothing can separate any of us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus. Thank God for that.

Imagine if I believed God was angry with me on top of everything I'm going through I'd go totally insane.