For God so Loved the World: ...And Everyone in It

By Kirk VandeGuchte and Tiffany Root

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Have you ever wondered what it really means that God loves the world? Have you ever wondered if He really loves you? Do you feel that you are able to receive this love? Does your theology match up with the Bible?

Do you have questions regarding election and predestination? Do you want to know what the Bible says on the topic? For God So Loved the World offers easy to understand language about what the Bible has to say regarding election, predestination, hope, and God's will for you.

Delve into this book and find the answers to your questions. Know what it means that God loved the world. Be assured of His love for you, and move deeper into a relationship with Him by realizing that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 10, 2011
• ISBN: 9781449716417

Kirk VandeGuchte

Tiffany Root is passionate about seeing people set free in Christ Jesus. She is the co-leader of Seeking the Glory of God, a ministry where she teaches and leads in prayer. She has also led worship services and prayer meetings at her church and in other venues. Additionally, she is involved with the Healing Rooms in Grandville, Michigan. In the past, Tiffany taught High School English, and now currently homeschools. Tiffany lives in Byron Center, Michigan with her husband, Joel, and three children, Kaylee, Wiliam, and Lydia. Kirk VandeGuchte loves the LORD and wants to share a journey of finding the truth. Kirk co-leads Seeking the Glory of God with Tiffany Root, has led worship services and prayer meetings at various churches, and has also been involved with various prayer ministries at other locations including the Healing Rooms of Grand Rapids, the Healing Rooms of Grandville, and the "W" at Mars Hill Bible Church. Kirk attended Spartan School of Aeronautics, graduated in 1979 and has been working in the aviation industry for a little over 30 years. He is currently employed as an Aviation Maintenance Tech., working on corporate aircraft. Kirk is married to and desperately love with his wife Barb. They reside in Byron Center, Michigan, have three sons, one daugther-in-law, and one granddaughter.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

God Loves Us All

Chapter 2

The Savior of the World

Chapter 3

Freewill

Chapter 4

God of Hope

Chapter 5

What Does It Mean to Be God’s Elect?

Chapter 6

Faith Like a Child

Chapter 7

Power of Prayer

Chapter 8

Faith Alone?

Chapter 9

What Do You Mean Limited Atonement?

Chapter 10

Authority

Chapter 11

Experienced Theology

Appendix A

Salvation Prayer

Appendix B

Holy Spirit Filling Prayer

Acknowledgements

We want to give all thanks to God for giving us the insight and understanding to write this book. It is certainly only because of Him that we have undertaken to write it, and we give all glory to Him.

We also want to thank our spouses for their kindness and understanding. Joe and Barb, you’re the best! Thank you to Tiffany’s children too as she spent many hours at the computer instead of playing games.

Introduction

"But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them." (Luke 6:32 NKJV)

Do you know that Jesus never asks us to do anything that He’s not willing to do as well? Jesus tells us in the above passage from Luke to love those who do not love us. That is something our God does - He loves those who do not love Him. Amazing! The love of God is amazing!

The book you are about to read focuses on God’s love for people and His desire to save mankind. Did you know that the God who created the universe, set the stars in place, and created you, wants a relationship with you? The whole purpose of creation is relationship. God desires an intimate relationship with you and with everyone else He has ever created. That’s what this book is about. It’s about the desire God has for intimacy with you.

When God created the world, sun, moon, and stars, etc., He created humankind in His image with a free will. This is a will to love Him or reject Him. The first humans, Adam and Eve, freely loved God and trusted Him. The Bible says that the Lord would come down and actually walk in the Garden of Eden with Adam in the cool of the day. How awesome! It wasn’t until the devil disguised himself as a serpent and made Eve question the motives of God, that sin entered the world.

Eve doubted God’s motives when the devil told her that the reason God didn’t want her and Adam to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was because then they would be like God, knowing good from evil. The devil frequently uses doubt and half truths to deceive us. Adam and Eve did indeed know good from evil after eating the forbidden fruit, but they did not become like God. They became more distant from God. They hid themselves from God because they realized they had done wrong and they realized they were naked. This was the start of the break in the intimacy God desires with mankind.

Some question why God would put the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden if He knew they would eat from it. The answer is that God did not make robots. He made humans in His image and likeness, with the ability to choose to do good or evil. God had to make humans able to choose life or death, good or evil, obedience or disobedience, to love or not to love, so that our obedience and love would not be forced. If it were forced and chosen for us, where would the joy in that be?

It is important to know that God did not need to make man in order to feel loved. God is love. He is perfectly content with Himself. Even the angels have a will and can choose to obey and love or choose to disobey and not love, as is evidenced with the fall of Satan and those angels that followed him.

God chose to make mankind because of intimacy. That is what He desires. It is because God so loved the world (all He created), that He made a way to save us all, even after sin and death entered the world because of the choices of Adam and Eve. The first thing God did after confronting Adam and Eve in their sinfulness was to sacrifice an animal in order to clothe His precious children with the animal’s skin. Wow! The first sacrifice made was by God and the reason was to help His children. The sacrifice of animals in order to atone (make right) for the sins of mankind continued until a little over 2,000 years ago, when Jesus came to earth in the flesh.

This is where forgiveness and healing really begins. God gave His one and only Son, Jesus, to save sinners, and we’re all sinners. Most of the world either doesn’t even know or doesn’t even care, yet Christ died for us all. God so desired the intimacy of those He created, that He sent His Son to pay the price for all of the sins of the world so that He would have ultimate authority and dominion. The Bible says that all things are now under the feet of Jesus and that every name must bow to the name of Jesus. This is God’s Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. This is the gospel we are supposed to be preaching. Jesus is the Word in flesh, and we are to bring His Kingdom to the earth through the Holy Spirit that lives in us.

God’s Word brings freedom because it is ultimate Truth. And where there is Truth, there is Freedom. We are in bondage when we believe anything contrary to the Truth of God’s Word. The following chapters explain freedom in knowing Christ died for the whole world and that each person has access to the Father, through Jesus Christ alone. There is no other way.

The Bible comes to life when the Holy Spirit breathes life into it, not before. When He does, we experience profound truth. When we read our Bibles, we need to have our spirits’ open to what God has to say, and we need hearts that are searching for truth. Then we experience life and revelation as we read.

The sword of Christ is His very own words. We read that Jesus yields a double-edged sword. One edge is the truth by which we are saved, the other edge is the same word (truth) by which we are condemned. There is no middle ground; the lukewarm are not saved. Either we follow His Word or we don’t. Either we are fully committed or not. What we think doesn’t really matter with regard to being saved. It’s only by His way that it can happen, and we are not in a position to negotiate or change the rules. We only decide one way or the other – will we follow Him or not?

Take this journey with us as we delve into what it means that God so loved the world.

Chapter 1

God Loves Us All

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

People need love to thrive. They need it to live, or they can die. The following is a quote from an organization called Touch is Great.

Arguably, it was not until the appearance of the clinical reports by Dr. Rene Spitz (1945, 1947) that the seeds of research in the field of touch were sown. Spitz’s reports reflect his anguished quest for a solution to the unexplainable deaths and pathologies of infants and toddlers in his care. The diagnosis of that era for these terminal children was marasmus (translation - the withering away and dying of no apparent cause.) Spitz finally discovered that medicine, good nutrition, and clean surroundings impacted not the least on the tragic outcome. Only what Harry Harlow (1958, 1962) was to later call contact comfort turned out to be the cure for the excruciating deaths of these children. Touch deprivation is probably most damaging to an infant because, unlike the other four senses, the neonate has an extremely small amount of control over somatosensory self-stimulation due to underdeveloped motor control capacities.

(http://www.touchisgreat.com/pb/wp_0ac8b62c/wp_0ac8b62c.html)

Touch is a way we show love, and it is necessary for survival. Our God has created us to receive love and to give love. We were created with this need for love. God Himself is love. He would not create us and then not love us, knowing that love is exactly what we need to live. If we need love, that means we are created to receive and give love. God would go against His nature to make us and then not love us. He is love and He requires us to love as well.

First John 4:16 says, And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. (NKJV) This is the love demonstrated through touch to the infants researched above. God created us to need love, so He loves each one of us. He doesn’t just love those who love Him. Remember that Jesus washed Judas’ feet too. This all came together for me (Tiffany) several years ago.

When I (Tiffany) had my first child, I received what I know now to be a revelation of the love of God that I have not forgotten. At the time, all I knew was that a light went on in my heart. I understood like never before the love God has for me. My daughter, Kaylee, was four days old, and I took her out in her stroller for a walk around the neighborhood. It was a beautiful spring day, and I love to be outside exercising. The excitement of having this beautiful baby girl in my possession was written all over my face. I was proud, and I was feeling very protective of my child. As I was walking, my thoughts were very much consumed with my new daughter and I was also thanking God for her. Then it hit me - very suddenly. God had a Son, whom He loved even more than I loved Kaylee. And He gave His Son to die for someone like me! I knew that in my head. I had known that for years, but it never hit me until I had a child of my own. And I remember thinking I would never give my daughter to die for anyone, especially not anyone like me or the other sinners in this world. But, God, He loved me so much that He gave His perfect child to die for me. The revelation (understanding) was astounding. It still is.

And this God who loved me enough to give His Son, loves you enough as well. And He loves everyone else that much too. There’s nothing God created that He doesn’t love. The Scriptures speak about God’s love for His creation, especially mankind, over and over again. Understanding the love of God is fundamental to understanding the atonement of Jesus Christ (atonement = Christ’s accomplishments on the cross).

God loves everyone the same. Romans 2:11 reads, For God does not show favoritism. Some people believe that God made certain humans for heaven and certain humans for hell. In that argument, God would have to love some people, and not love others. This goes against the very nature of God. For His Word says, God is love (1 John 4:8).

There are many scriptures that testify to the truth that God loves everyone He created, not just some people. Arguably, the best known scripture in the Bible tells us of God’s love for the world. John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Scripture doesn’t read, for God so loved the few… No, it says He loved the world. That includes all creation. God loves us all and that is the reason for the sacrifice of His Son.

Jesus even teaches that we are not to just love those who