Preface
A
Book on the Internet
For a writer, a book on the internet is a strange animal because, unlike
a printed book, an Internet Book is flexible, it can be changed easily.
So this book may stay in its original form, or it may develop.
It may get edited because I'm sure that in months to come I'll look
at various pages and wish I'd written them differently, so they'll
change - for the better I hope!
Should you read it and feel you have insights, you might like to mail
them to me - tony.thomas@rochfordcc.co.uk
- and if it seems appropriate, I'll add them in, so eventually we have
something that is a useful vehicle, that is a result of collective wisdom.
So feel free, drop me a line if you've got things to say and perhaps
we can add some pages.
How
this Book came to be written
About
four years ago I was asked to speak at a particular conference and the
Lord started laying on my heart the skeleton of this book. When
I came back the strength of the message was so with me that I had to
sit down and type it up. In a matter of weeks the book was in existence
- well to be precise, two books were in existence.
Having two books on my hands I then wondered
what to do with them. I had published a book of stories and sketches
many years before but didn't feel I should go down the administration/distribution
path and so simply put a couple of copies on a shelf and left them.
However, in the course of
the last year, I have become freshly aware of the Lord's goodness to
me and to my family and, having a son in the web-design business,
decided I would like to give away this book to whoever around the world
might want to read it. That's why it's in this form in front of
you now.
My
Thanks
It
seems traditional to thank the various people that have contributed
to the book, but I want to do that, not because it's traditional but
because I am genuinely grateful.
My first thanks is to my son, Phil,
who has encouraged me into the web site business and without whom this
site would not exist.
Then there are five people who
have changed me and helped form the message of this book in me.
The first is my wife, Helen, who has on occasions almost brought me
to tears with her encouragement in my life.
Next comes Tony Morton who, when
I first met him nearly twenty years ago, I described to my friends as
the most gentle, servant hearted man I'd ever met. Tony came into our
lives and loved us and changed us. Very close behind Tony must come
our friends Dave & Marie Damp who, over the years have come and
listened to us, loved us, accepted us and cared for us and have never
given us anything less than total pastoral love and have made us feel
secure.
The fifth of these agents of change
in my life is my more recent friend in America, Eddie Romero. Over the
past five years Eddie has become a good friend, but more than that he
has been a means of sharpening me in my thinking and my beliefs
like no other.
To the six of you, I simply
say thank you so much!
And
so to the book
Ask
most Christians if they think God loves them and they'll answer in the
affirmative, yet as soon as a crisis comes, faith waivers. When,
as a Christian leader, I tell people around the world that God loves
them as they are, their eyes light up as if I'm saying something quite
unusual! Now of course that's not true; of course God loves
them, but for many of us what we know in our heads seems divorced from
heart day to day reality.
I hope as you read this book you'll see
we have every reason to feel secure in God's love, a love that has come
down from heaven to bring complete transformation on the earth -
indeed I don't apologise if you think I've laboured it too much - we
need to hear it again and again.
This book is for less-than-perfect people who are
loved by a totally perfect God. If you identify with the description
of being less-than-perfect, then this book is for you.
Tony Thomas
July 2004
..........................................................
John
3:16
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
13:34-35
So
now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just
as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your
love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."
John
15:12,13,17
I
command you to love each other in the same way that I love
you. And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown
when people lay down their lives for their friends…. I command you to
love each other.
1
John 3:11
This
is the message we have heard from the beginning: We should love
one another….. We know what real love is because Christ gave
up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our
Christian brothers and sisters….. And this is his commandment: We must
believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another,
just as he commanded us.
1
John 4:7-11
Dear
friends, let us continue to love one another, for love
comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love. God
showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so
that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love.
It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his
Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God
loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
1
John 4:21
And
God himself has commanded that we must love not only him but
our Christian brothers and sisters, too.