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Love Never Fails

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Gregory:
I'm new to this website.  My name is Greg.  I'm fifty one years old, married, the father of six children and I'm an ordained Christian minister.

I just finished "The Shack" after many friends encouraged me to read it.  I loved it.  I grew up with an abusive father.  While I know God is "Spirit," I found an unnameable freedom in God manifesting in the form of an African American Woman.  I shed many tears while reading this book.  I don't know where to begin or what to thank the author for.  Maybe the reality that while I have always believed that God's essence or nature is mercy and love, The Shack has taken me to a new vantage point in this wisdom and experience.  Or maybe the fact that my experience of "Trinity" has moved from head to heart and spirit.  For sure, I can hold and hope in the reality that a living, loving God created us for relationship.  There is nothing that can deny or take away this Love for us.  A Love that will live forever.

I am deeply grateful to the author for re-focusing my ministry.  Mostly, I am grateful that he helped me get to know my God better, a God who always loves me, a God who always takes me back.

I have read many criticisms of this book from Christian "traditionalists" who insist on theological and scriptural affinity and purity from the author.  I can only respond that books should be judged by the fruit they bear - this book will bring and is bringing hope, a renewal of faith and a new trust in a living, loving God, the One Jesus came to proclaim.  We should not be suprised that the author has met criticism and negativity from some.  Jesus too was persecuted and judged by "religious" people who used tradition and scripture to attack his beautiful and loving image of God, the same people who were jealous over the peoples' love and trust in him.

"The Shack" vividly brings home again the reality that the living God can do anything and routinely does.

In His Mercy and Love,
Greg

arus:
Hi Greg, and many welcomes here.  I am so glad you got to read this book!  This book really does teach us about the Trinity, doesnt it!

Thank you for taking the time to post here  :)

Gregory:
Dear Arus:

Thank you for welcoming me.  I deeply appreciate your loving hospitality.
Yes, the Trinity, while still a deep mystery, is something that makes so much sense now to many of us because of this wonderful book - three persons in One God, always and perpetually in loving relationship.  For me personally, it is so easy to see God's inspiration in the author's portrayal of the Creator, Saviour and Sanctifier loving one another and inviting us to participate and be a part of it.  May you always know God's light and love Arus.

In God's mercy and love,
+Greg

Son of Adam:
Hi there Greg and welcome.  Glad you found your way here with us.  There are several of us ministers here.  I was a pastor for 30+ years.  I am now retired, but not from Papa.  He keeps me moving in His grace and love.  "The Shack" changed my life in more ways that one could possibly imagine, not the book exactly, but Papa speaking to me through it.

Gregory:
Dear Son of Adam:

Thank you for your warm welcome.  I'm glad that God spoke to you through The Shack too, I'm also glad you haven't "retired" from working for Papa.  Its a lifetime commission.

Love, Greg

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