God Is Love - Yes and No!: Help Us to See Who You Truly Are!

By Rick Greenwood

God is Love; Yes and No was written to address the lack of knowledge of God that people have today. God is more than love, His character is multi-faceted and needs to be understood. God says in Hosea “My people are destroyed by lack of knowledge”. Rick gives us much to consider and you will find it counter to what society teaches today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665571210

Rick Greenwood

Rick has studied the Bible for over 50 years and used his knowledge of the word to help many people. He was an assistant jail chaplain and bible teacher, an Elder for over 14 years where he attended church, and has taught numerous bible studies. He did not attend college but continues to educate himself constantly, so he is not brainwashed by an institution or one man's thinking. He is God focused. His life story is a heart wrenching story of getting to understand God better. Rick also spent 40 years in all aspects of the grocery business where he learned how to deal with all types of people and became an excellent problem solver.

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© 2022 Rick Greenwood. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/20/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7123-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7122-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7121-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022917418

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.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

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.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 My Doctorate In Grief

Chapter 2 Why?

Chapter 3 Listen! He that hath an Ear, Listen!

Chapter 4 God is Love

Chapter 5 Don’t poke the bear!

Chapter 6 What God Hates

Chapter 7 What about my friends?

Chapter 8 Led astray

Chapter 9 Matthew 7:1

Chapter 10 But This isn’t fair!

Chapter 11 God is Mercy

Chapter 12 Saved?

Chapter 13 What about Grace

Chapter 14 The Diabetic Christian

Chapter 15 Lessons learned

Conclusion

Chapter 16 Defeating Grief Daily, the biblical way

Chapter 1

MY DOCTORATE

IN GRIEF

I f life passed out degrees, I would have a doctorate in grief. I have come to know God and experience His love and other attributes through my struggle with grief and my other worldly battles. My parents taught me a lot about God, but nothing can quite teach you like facing life head on. I hope to show you in this book that God is love but He also is so much more. Sometimes God is not love, like the world believes love to be. Sometimes God is harsh. Sometimes God is angry. However, God’s love is always true, pure, and enduring. In loving us He also disciplines us when necessary. It is possible for God in his holiness to have a perfect love and a perfect hatred at the same time.

I know everyone has been touched by grief or will be. I will not bore you with all the grief I have endured, but I will provide some of my story and what I have learned.

My first real encounter with grief was when my mother called me in July 1993, frantically telling me to get over to their home, (about a mile away), as quickly as possible because something was wrong with Dad out in the garage. In retrospect, I think she knew what had happened, but it was too gruesome to accept. I was afraid Dad had cut himself open on a table saw or something like that since he was an avid woodworker, so I rushed over as quickly as possible. Mom would not have sounded like that if it had not been super urgent. I left my wife and our kids in the house to take care of Mom while I rushed out to the garage to help dad. I had a hard time processing what I saw.

It was worse than what I had envisioned and very hard to accept. There was Dad, hanging from a rope. I was horrified and did not know what to do. I believe I just threw my arms up, paced around and started crying.

Right after I arrived a police officer pulled up and helped me get Dad down off the rope. This was no small task as my vision was blurred from the tears in my eyes. I remember many things about that day, but God protects me from remembering Dads’ eyes. I cried for days and had to take medicine to help me sleep for a while. I did not understand why he decided to hang himself and maybe never will. Almost thirty years have passed, and I still have trouble seeing someone hanging on a rope in a movie. I still have to look away.

Dad strived to be the ultimate Christian by always helping others, being an example of clean living, and serving as a deacon in the congregation where we worshipped. My Dad hid a condition from almost everyone, he suffered from a chemical imbalance in his brain. He was a navy veteran and unbelievably held seven jobs at one time to support his family of five kids, wife, and a mother-in-law. While I was still young, he was hospitalized for a few years, and they discovered a lack of a certain chemical in his brain. The doctors said he had burned it all out by working so hard and never resting. I remember being told to be easy on Dad when he returned home from the hospital. It felt like I did not have a dad for years until we bonded again.

When Dad took his pills, he was fine, but someone told him Christian’s should not rely on medicines to overcome depression. This person said Faith and belief should be enough to get over depression, so my father quit. What foolish advice! God gives us medicine and doctors for a reason. May God have mercy on that person for suggesting such a thing. I’m sure it was hard on that person when they found out what Dad had done. Our words have consequences. This is a lesson we all need to take to heart. Please remember that!

Before dad hung himself, he took the time to write mom and each of us kids a letter telling us how proud of us he was, and that mom had done such a good job raising us. He was a humble man and did not want to take any credit for how we turned out, even though he had a major positive impact on us. I still have my letter and Mom’s too since she has now passed on.

To tell you what kind of man my father was, he even cleaned up his mess from where he punched holes in the ceiling to tie the rope around the rafters in the garage. Poor Dad, he had focused on just part of a verse. In each of the letter’s dad included this passage, but left off the last part

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but he did not include the second part of the verse, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. KJV

Dad was so concentrated on his sin he couldn’t get past whatever it was that bothered him. He was focused on whatever his mind had battled with secretly, that he seemed to forget all the positives of his life. We will never know what sin it could have been that caused him to commit suicide because he was an example of Christian life to everyone. They still joke at church that Dad was a poor salesman. He could not sell anything without telling the buyer everything that was wrong with it. I think I inherited that trait. I just want to be honest like my father.

I suddenly learned of my mortality; nothing says death is around the corner more than when your father dies. All of a sudden you are no longer bullet proof. I learned how strong my mother was. God had been spiritually preparing her through my father’s illness. She had carried on and supported our family for years by working in the restaurant business throughout my dad’s stay in the hospital.

I learned that God will never put you through more than you can handle and that He will guide you to a way of escape. I learned many other valuable lessons during that time. I’ll share more later.

My next experience was harder if you can imagine that. My wife, Rita Kay, of almost thirty years was diagnosed with cancer in November of 2003. We fought that battle together for eleven months before she ascended to be with The Lord in October of 2004. Sitting there in the hospital and getting the news of cancer was like a bombshell, worse than a punch in the stomach! The doctors said there was no hope or treatment for her cancer. It was like all the sound was sucked out of the room even though the doctors were talking. When we regained our senses, we asked how long she had to live. The doctor said she would have twelve to eighteen months, but we would have to go see an oncologist for a treatment plan, if there was one.

We cried together during her three days stay in the hospital before they would discharge her. Her red blood cell count was extremely low. After seeing the oncologist my wife did try one treatment plan but with no success. We spent as much time talking together as possible. I still had to work, putting in sixty to seventy hours per week as a store manager. Sadly, she only lasted eleven months. I had a plan to care for her knowing she would only get worse. I figured I could continue working and take care of her until the first of November. Then I could use all my vacation available and then use the family medical leave act allotment up until the end of the year. Then I could use all my vacation for the next year in January followed by more FMLA time until she passed.

My plan failed, as plans often do. Rita Kay was digressing extremely quickly near the end. I wasn’t prepared for this even though I knew it was coming. I asked a sweet sister in Christ to come sit with Rita Kay on Thursday before my vacation would start. Hospice was expected around noon so I went to work for what would be the final day before her passing. Hospice arrived early and called me to come home. They thought she may only have a day or two at this point so I did not go back to work. It was hard to watch her now. I was in panic mode that Friday evening trying my best to care for her. Hospice had warned me what would probably transpire. Around seven pm she developed what they called "the death rattle’ Friday evening about 10:30pm she would slip away to be with God.