Twenty-three short chapters complete with some questions to aid group discussion and a synopsis to help your personal spiritual journey comprise this book. All these are written from the perspective of the love of God, He is Father and loves me, this alters our view of the atonement, shifting it from being justification based, something that deals with sin and appeases wrath rather than the action of eternal love by which God gathers His lost unto Himself. All these things are covered in a simple straightforward way. The author has been in the Christian ministry for many years, he writes of thirty-four of them being lived as a works based evangelical, as far as he was concerned he was earning kudos with God by Christian work and service. This book was first published in 1999 at which time he says that he had enjoyed twelve years living in the love of God with his service springing from that basis in contrast to his earlier period of hard service for God. The whole thrust of the book is the relationship of love which God has to His creation. That this is an accepted idea in the churches is true, but whether there are many who live in the good of the reality of that fact the author doubts. I think he is right, the emphasis within these pages is similar to that in books written by Philip Yancey and Brennan Manning, they all present God as love, working in grace to save. Spiritual life is a matter of performance for many, the opening chapter specifically mentions ‘he loves me, he loves me not’, the old childhood chant when a little one was plucking leaves from a daisy. When good things happen to us and things run smooth the implication is that God loves us, when things are not thus and do not please, He loves me not! At points the book centers a great deal on the cross, showing it to be not so much the action of God appeasing His wrath by the death of His Son but of His love by which He wins mankind back from rebellion unto Himself. All in all a useful book, its helpful emphasis is much needed, its encouragement to live in this path of confident trust in a God who loves us and whose love as it wins our hearts will bring us to increasing joyful obedience coupled with reverent fear. These pages do nothing to encourage a ‘daddy’ kind of idea of God; a sense of profound reverence is present in them throughout. Remember, the book is simple and basic and its purpose is to shift the reader from a ‘laboring by works to please God’ kind of Christian life to one of relationship with Him established in deep affection.
