By Love Convicted: To a Life That Is Steadfast, Unmovable, Always Abounding in the Work of Grace

By Anthony Benjamin Cosenza Ph.D.

Why do some people stand on their beliefs year after year, while others flounder? What does the courage of conviction entail? By Love Convicted offers provocative ways to sustain commitment in the midst of a world filled with confusion and falsehood. In his fourth book, the author/psychologist unfolds the spiritual nature and dimensions of conviction. Using biblical principles, Dr. Cosenza presents four keys to conviction that enable us to accept grace in our lives and remain steadfast in our ability to love. Through a deeper understanding of Gods love, we discover the remarkable ways He has enabled us to commit to spiritual truths concerning Christ. This book has implications for an understanding the spiritual nature of addictions. Those who yearn for the passion of conviction and seek to grow to greater spiritual heights of love will find this book compelling and enlightening.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 4, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440175503

Anthony Benjamin Cosenza Ph.D.

In private practice over 40 years as a psychologist, Dr. Cosenza continues to counsel and serve as a confidant for individuals, couples and families in crises. He is a lifetime member of the American Psychological Association and served as associate professor at a graduate school for two decades. Since 1980, Dr. Cosenza has published several books on counseling, spirituality and crises. Contact the author, Dr. Cosenza: COVALENT COUNSEL (COVA) [e-mail] 1.917.957.4749

Book preview

Contents

Acknowledgements

SECTION ONE

PART I

1

2

3

4

PART II

5

6

7

8

SECTION TWO

PART III

9

10

11

12

13

14

PART IV

15

16

17

18

PART V

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

PART VI

27

28

PART VII

29

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

References

About the Author

This is dedicated to my parents, Biaggio and Lucietta.

Acknowledgements

I thank God for placing loving people in my path who yearn for the truth. A special thank you to Dr. Anthony Portafoglio for his loving feedback and for reprinting several manuscripts. Dr. Richard Morra continues to encourage and believe in my biblical research. Sincere gratitude is extended to my brother, Gilbert, and his wife, Celeste, for their love and support in freely sharing my books with others.

SECTION ONE

The Reality of Conviction

A theologian once told a surgeon, You need to be more convicted. The surgeon replied, I do lots of free work for people. I am very committed. The theologian explained, "What I mean is, you need to listen to God more." He was reminding the doctor of the true meaning of conviction. It is not how dedicated we are, but how God’s love and grace impassion and embolden us to carry out His purposes.

Philippians 2:13:

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

24074.pngDocument1.jpg

After several years as a college faculty member, I was asked to be a program administrator. Not sure of what to do, I found myself reading Genesis, chapter 3, the story of Eve and how the serpent deceived her regarding the Word of God. Sensing from God that I should not pursue the job, I went ahead anyway and accepted it. After a couple of months, I was so distracted by my duties that I began to neglect the scriptures in my life. The more I gave to the job, the more they wanted. My spiritual thoughts were being robbed, and my fellowship with God became shaky. A few months later, I was asked to work five days a week instead of three. Again, I went back to God and resumed reading Genesis 3. Having now been informed a second time by God that this job was not for me, I flatly turned it down. Several times, a top administrator asked me to reconsider this position. I told him what God had shown me from the scriptures, and adamantly proclaimed, I wouldn’t accept this job if they paid me a million dollars. Since we often discussed the scriptures during our walks around the college, he finally accepted my decision. Thank God for His mercy in giving me another opportunity to listen to Him by way of the Spirit and His Word.

24076.png

Listening to God is a spiritual response to love.

I John 4:16:

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

When we accept that we are inseparable from God’s love, we will yearn to listen to Him and do His will.

Romans 8:38-39:

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


Nor 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.

Convinced of God’s love in Christ, we cannot help but to preach the Word. It becomes a part of who we are and how we deal with the daily issues of life.

I Corinthians 9:16-18:

For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!

For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.

What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power [privilege] in the gospel.

The Apostle Paul was thankful to Christ who had enabled him to be faithful by giving him the ministry of an apostle.

I Timothy 1:12-13:

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.

Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: BUT I OBTAINED MERCY, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

Mercy overlooks our character flaws and

destructive behavior patterns.

God’s mercy saw beyond Paul’s past, including his persecution of the church, so that he could remain committed to the true purposes of God.

Philippians 3:6:

Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Document2.jpg

When I was up for tenure at a college, a nun was asked to observe and evaluate my classroom performance. A year earlier, she was primarily responsible for the demise of another faculty member who was up for tenure. When I first arrived at the college six years earlier, this woman had approached me privately and asked, Why are you always talking about God. Aren’t you afraid you may not get tenure because of your fixation with Him? I looked at her straight in the eye and boldly replied, God gave me this job, and I will stay as long as He wants me here. Knowing how negative she was, I reluctantly agreed to have her evaluate my teaching. After the class concluded, she called me into her office and proceeded to tongue lash me about my teaching style and personal qualities. Up to this point in my extended stay at the college, I had always received respectable yearly evaluations from administrators, colleagues, and students. Upset by her unreasonable and ravenous insults, which I knew were spiritual attacks and vicious attempts to discredit my work, I went directly to God. What else could I do? I knew there were people on the tenure committee that cared about me and would support me, but surely this woman’s terrible evaluation was going to have a significant impact upon the committee’s decision. On the day of the tenure meeting, a key advocate for me was unable to attend. If I were going to receive tenure, it would be because of God, and Him alone. Several weeks later, I received a supportive letter from the president granting me tenure. The following week, I was pulled over by a colleague on the committee who spontaneously divulged what happened during their meeting. As I suspected, the nun had written a horrible evaluation of me. It was so terrible that the committee sent her a letter of reprimand. Because she had written such awful things in her evaluation, they informed her that she would never be allowed to evaluate another faculty member at the college. God is good. A year later, she either chose to or was pushed into retirement. This is God’s grace upon grace. Neither I nor anyone else had anything to do with the events that occurred behind the scenes. It was God’s doing.

II Corinthians 9:8:

And God is able to make all grace shall abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

PART I

Love-Based Conviction

Conviction is a spiritual dimension that originated from the God of love.

God so loved that He gave.

John 3:16:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I John 4:10:

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation [full payment] for our sins.

Jesus Christ so loved that he gave.

I John 3:16:

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he [Jesus Christ] laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

When Jesus was asked, What is the greatest commandment in the law? his response was LOVE.

Matthew 22:37-40:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart mind, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second one is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

When we love God and ourselves the way He loves us, we will so love that we will give.

I John 4:7:

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

To love God, we need to know Him through the Holy Spirit and His excellent Word.

Romans 5:5(b):

…the love of God is shed abroad in [floods] our hearts by the Holy Ghost [Holy Spirit] which is given unto us.

I Corinthians 2:12:

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit [Holy Spirit] which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

God magnified His Word above His name.

Psalm 138:2:

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

The Word of God always heals and delivers us.

Psalm 107:20:

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Hebrews 4:12:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Jesus Christ was the Word in the flesh. He embodied grace and truth. To know God’s Word is to know and value His Son.

John 1:14:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Document3.jpg

I was told the following story, which profoundly changed how I study the Word of God:

One evening, a well-known Shakespearean actor was recognized in a theatre and asked by the audience to come up to the stage to read Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want… The actor agreed with one stipulation; he would give his dramatic reading if the little elderly preacher in the front row also would come up after him to read this Psalm. The preacher modestly agreed, and so the actor gave his presentation. After he was finished, the audience applauded loudly, Bravo, Bravo. Then, the preacher came up and began to read: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… When he was done with the entire Psalm, there was utter silence in the audience. Some people were in tears. The actor came back to the stage and said, Ladies and gentleman, I may know how to emotionally deliver the words, ‘The Lord is my shepherd,’ BUT THIS MAN KNOWS THE SHEPHERD.

24117.png

Endnote

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 


He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 


Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

1

Door to Conviction

Conviction is derived from the Latin word, com+vincere, which means, come over to victory; convert; conquer; overcome (Collins English Dictionary, 2009).

God wants to empower us to overcome defeat and enter into a dynamic and committed life of victory. He has initiated this gracious process of spiritual conviction through ONE DOOR, Jesus Christ.

John 10:1-2, 7, 9:

Verily, verily, I [Jesus] say unto you, He that entereth not by THE DOOR into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 


But he that entereth in by THE DOOR is the shepherd of the sheep. 


Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I AM THE DOOR OF THE SHEEP.

I AM THE DOOR: by me