The Re-Release of "A Divine Invitation"

I wrote A Divine Invitation in 2002. I am about to release a second edition of the book with a new cover and two additional chapters, bringing the book from ten to twelve chapters. The following is an excerpt from one of the addiontal chapters in the soon-to-be-released edition... Please note that the book is not available yet. We are in the production process now. Watch the web site to see when the book is in stock.


How, then, does it look when mature grace-walkers bring the presence of Christ into their environment? What does it look like when we are as He is in this world? In a word – love. God doesn’t just love. He is love (See 1 John 4:8), so when our lives are an expression of the union we share with Him, what will be expressed will be a supernatural, unequivocal, unconditional, irrevocable, and indiscriminate outpouring of love on everybody else.

The truths in the other chapters of this book are vital because it is only when you understand how deeply you are loved that you will be released to pour out agape on others. 1 John 4:19 says “we love because He first loved us.” We don’t just love Him for that reason. We love everybody for that reason. When my grandchildren visit our home and dip their beach pail into the Gulf of Mexico, the pail can’t contain the Gulf so the water spills over the edge on every side. That’s how it is when we have received God’s love. It’s just too much for us, so everybody around us gets wet too.

This is where grace becomes practical. When we have fully experienced the loving grace of God, we will faithfully express it. As He is, so are we in this world. Jesus loved. He loved the down-and-outers (the Samaritan woman) and the up-and-outers (Matthew). He loved the unrighteous (Zaccheus) and the self-righteous (Saul of Tarsus). He loved the rogues (Peter) and the religious (Nicodemus.) He loved the horribly immoral (the woman taken in adultery) and the highly moral (the rich young ruler). Jesus just loved. He said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). He shares the same DNA as the One who is love. What else could he do?

Peter says that you have now become a participant in that same divine nature. (See 2 Peter 1:4). To love profusely is the normal way of life for a grace-walker. Jesus said that it is “by this [that] all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:25). If you have the spiritual DNA of Jesus Christ and His is the same as His Father’s DNA, and if the very essence of God is love . . . you get the point. It isn’t hard to connect the dots here. It is your nature to love. It’s that simple.

The focus of most churches today is on how to live, but the focus in the modern church needs to be learning to love. Empty religion is preoccupied with right behavior defined by doing the right things and avoiding the wrong ones. The lifeblood of an authentic expression of faith in Christ is loving people the way He does. Behavior can be elevated no higher than that.