God's Wrath or God's Love?: When God is Love

By Voice D. Jones Guy

The title God's Wrath or God's Love? was originally used as the topic for a writing course that I happened to be taking during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I decided to continue the topic because of the events which have crippled our lives throughout the first six months of 2020.

The idea for the title had been important because of the horrendous effects of the hurricane and because of the content of the sermons of several ministers during the catastrophic events that occurred during the hurricane.

As I am watching the response to the coronavirus, the multiple sickness and deaths, it has become overwhelming and deeply sad and despicable. The situation is again igniting my thinking on the subject of whether this can be "God's wrath." We must know that God's love is evident all around us. But I believe that it is certainly worth our time to consider that God needs to get our undivided attention in order for us to understand that we must make up our minds as to who we are called to be. We are God's prized possessions! He does love us, but it does not mean that His wrath will not be delivered when we fail to acknowledge Him.

God's love is alive in my belief that He does exist, that everything about God is evident in our continued existence and in our surroundings. Throughout the Holy Bible, God inspired men of faith to tell us how much He loves us. I believe that God's wrath is only expelled when it becomes apparent that human beings have lost their zeal for righteousness and after multiple failures by man to recognize the love of God.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098087357

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God's Wrath or God's Love?

When God is Love

Voice D. Jones Guy

Copyright © 2021 by Voice D. Jones Guy

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

God’s Love Is Equally Distributed in the Midst of a Storm

We Are in This Together

Moving beyond Life’s Disappointments: They Will Come

The Fruit of the Spirit Is Our Humanity

The Father’s Business Is Our Business: It Is Who We Are

What Has Skin Color Got to Do with the Love of God?

Earth Was Created Out of Love for All Human Beings

Gynesis’s Story

This book is humbly dedicated to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit whom I credit for all good things in life.

To my daughter and son, Carla Gillespie and Michael Jones, and to my son-in-law, Michael Gillespie.

To my granddaughter, Nahja, who never ceases to amaze me. Even from China where she teaches English, she manages to help her grandmother understand the mechanics and techniques for operating the computer. Thank you for providing the initial edit for this book.

To Philip, Hannah, and Kayla for your love and support to me as grandma.

To my brother, Rev. James A. Jones, who continues to enlighten my spiritual mind.

To my aunt Theodora, our family matriarch.

To my sister-in-law, Eddis Jones.

To all of my family and friends.

To Gynesis and Gia. Parents: Greg and Niala

To my hospice colleagues, our patients, and their families.

To Pastor Joy Wilkerson Yancey (Mt. Herman AME Church) for the encouragement, workshops, support, and great sermons she delivers to educate us weekly and beyond.

To the Christian Unity MB Church family.

To the Mt. Herman AME Male Chorus and to the Mt. Herman congregation.

To all those who trust in God.

Preface

The title God’s Wrath or God’s Love? was originally used as one of my topics for a writing class that I happened to be taking during a terrible storm. It was the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. The significance of the event was intriguing to me for various reasons: First, based on historical data, a hurricane of that magnitude was practically unheard of; second, the televised images of the residents struggling to survive had been overwhelming; and third, the governmental response to the devastation had been unnerving and disappointing; and the more recent decision to add a fourth has been because of the striking nature of the perceived purpose for Hurricane Katrina and other disasters based on the messages of several spiritual leaders. Why in New Orleans? The basis for their speculative opinions was so provocative to me, that I decided to continue with this topic because of the onset of a new enemy, the coronavirus. America had always managed to escape so many major events of catastrophic proportions. Because of the multiple opinions of family and friends, as well as conversations with acquaintances and strangers, the subject had become important for me to pursue. Due to the impact and destruction from so many horrific events all at once, I was compelled to continue my research on the topic, as I contemplated my original thoughts on the subject, when I asked, could it be God’s wrath or is it God’s love?

Introduction

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

—Romans 1:18)

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

—Romans 8:35

I sat in my house with nothing else to do except to peer through the mini blinds and watch the cars go by. I was doing my best at obeying the command to shelter in place. It occurred to me that the life to which Americans had become accustomed to was probably no longer possible. With every new unusual event, it is becoming more apparent that our world is in a state of increasing volatility. For whatever reasons, the world is experiencing events which most of us had not seen in our lifetime. From my vantage point, there has been a recurrence of every kind of antipathy, eerily reminiscent of a human unrestfulness, which I had hoped that we would never have to revisit.

Growing up in the south during the insidious unrest of the Civil Rights Movement had been one of the most frightening and precarious times for me and most of my peers. Back then, many of the residents in my neighborhood had traveled in packs for protection, in an attempt to level the playing field. It had been more likely that our safety would be better preserved if we traveled that way. One of the questions that has stayed on my mind is: why had it been necessary that we move about in a group for safety? What exactly were we to be afraid of? Our parents explained as best they could without referencing specific details. They had obviously been orientated to the state of societal norms early on in their lives. We had been forbidden to go into certain neighborhoods, and we had been given detailed instructions in how to address all adults, especially white people. One of the surprising elements about the delivery of our neighborhood instructions had been that the explanations had been done without speaking harshly about the groups who we had been warned to avoid. So, loaded with the substance of our parents’ stern warnings, we had gotten the message, and only then had we been free to go about our day.

Currently, we are told to stay away from one another in an attempt to potentially stop the spread of a malignant invasion by a viral enemy. When the perceived enemy was human, it had been easier to take cover, but in this situation, trying to avoid contact with something that we cannot see is not simple. It turns out that this is a virulent foe, invisible and persistent, with the capability to destroy anyone in its path, and already it threatens to leave a host of even more devastatingly mortal human damage.

Ever since the 1960s era, our country has undergone multiple undesirable and distasteful events, but they had been manageable. Every time we relax and think that things are good and we’re in the clear, back to normal we go, it seems that the harsh reality steps in and says not so fast! I’ve got one more test for you. As a country, we had experienced too many occasions of profound disruptions. I remember the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, and vaguely, I recall the gruesome death of Medgar Evers, who was shot in his own driveway. The assassin’s bullet had swept through his body in full view right outside of his home, where his wife and children had been. Remembering how each of these deaths had delivered severe blows to my psyche and how they had left a shroud-like cloud of deep sadness that had engulfed the entire country, my question had been back then: If something that psychologically and