God's Love for the Rest of Us
()
About this ebook
Read more from Vince Antonucci
God for the Rest of Us: Experience Unbelievable Love, Unlimited Hope, and Uncommon Grace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDevo for the Rest of Us: The Next 40 Days on Your Journey of Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRestore: Break Out of Your Past and Into God's Future Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5
Related to God's Love for the Rest of Us
Related ebooks
Looking for God: Slightly Unorthodox, Highly Unconventional, and Entirely Unexpected Thoughts about Faith Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grace-Based Justice: 95 Theses for Today & 101 Key Propositions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRetrain Your Brain: Using Biblical Meditation To Purify Toxic Thoughts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConnecting Like Jesus: Practices for Healing, Teaching, and Preaching Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/525 Keys to Life-Changing Prayer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrototype: What Happens When You Discover You're More Like Jesus Than You Think? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crazy Touch: How to Be at Home with Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNever Settle: Choices, Chain Reactions, and the Way Out of Lukewarminess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHonestly: Getting Real about Jesus and Our Messy Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Choose Love Not Power: How to Right the World's Wrongs from a Place of Weakness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAltitude: Your Next Move Changes Everything Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrace Rehab: The Power of Labeling Yourself the Way God Labels You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI'm Accepted: WALKing the Journey from Rejection to Freedom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod Is in the Small Stuff 20th Anniversary Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYes God Loves You Too: The Saving Grace Of The Holy Spirit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhole: Restoring What Is Broken in Me, You, and The Entire World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Misspelled Christian: How To Bring Heaven To Your Current Circumstances Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor God so Loved the World: ...And Everyone in It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPassionate Joy: Building a Wealth of Joy in a World Starved for Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Grand Paradox: The Messiness of Life, the Mystery of God and the Necessity of Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYour Mess, God's Masterpiece: Find the Triumphant Life Your Heart is Searching For Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen God Is Silent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Annie: Humor, Heart, and Chutzpah from an Accidental Influencer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinding Hope in the Darkness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFree to Love: How Oneness Transcends Marriage and Singleness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTransform My Thinking, God: 6 Principles to Beat Negative Thinking and Build the Life You Want Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoving Beyond Just Getting By: A Devotional On Escaping Mediocrity And Living in Excellence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBetter Living Through Selective Apathy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAm I Not Still God? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLearning to Live Loved: When a Fatherless Girl Becomes a Christian Woman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Christianity For You
Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Law of Connection: Lesson 10 from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Boundaries and Goodbyes: Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Less Fret, More Faith: An 11-Week Action Plan to Overcome Anxiety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Changes That Heal: Four Practical Steps to a Happier, Healthier You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Enoch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: Creating a Marriage That's Both Holy and Hot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Start Again Monday: Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Eating Habits with Lasting Spiritual Satisfaction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5NIV, Holy Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries with Kids: How Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for God's Love for the Rest of Us
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
God's Love for the Rest of Us - Vince Antonucci
1
DEAD PEOPLE
T
HERE ARE DEAD PEOPLE
who are not fully dead. They’re kind of alive. They’re like walking dead people. And they’re everywhere. It seems like every day there are more people who walk around like they’re fully alive, but really they’re mostly dead.
I’m talking about real life. But this does also happen to be what’s going on in a movie called Warm Bodies.
Warm Bodies is set in a zombie apocalypse.[1] The main character is a zombie named R. He used to be human and alive, but now he’s a zombie and mostly dead, and all he can remember of his name is the letter R.
R finds himself wanting to eat humans, but not only for physical sustenance. When he eats people, he experiences their memories, and it makes him feel alive for a moment. Really what R wants is to feel alive.
One day R sees a group of humans, and he finds himself attracted to a girl named Julie.[2] Later, when Julie is distracted by something, R eats her boyfriend. (Which is . . . one way to do it. The girl you like has a guy already? Eat him.) R’s attraction to Julie grows, and soon he rescues her from the other zombies. To keep her safe, he takes her back to the abandoned airplane he lives in at an airport that is filled with hordes of zombies. And there are more of the undead
arriving there every day.
That’s how the movie begins, but I want to be clear: a few paragraphs ago I was talking about real life. There are people who walk around like they’re alive, but they’re mostly dead. They are walking, living, dead people. And there are more all the time.
Turns out it’s always been that way.
You Will Surely Die
The Bible says it started back in the Garden of Eden. Whether we take the story literally or figuratively, either way God is teaching us something foundational about the human condition. We’re told that God created two people, Adam and Eve, and he gave them Paradise to live in. He gave them only one rule. (Isn’t that interesting? When God had the world the way he wanted it, there was only one rule. God is not into rules.)
God told them not to eat the fruit of one particular tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they did, they would die.
You’ve probably heard the story. Adam and Eve were tempted. They screwed up and did the one thing they weren’t supposed to do.
God had said the penalty for that was death. If someone made a movie today out of the story of Adam and Eve, this would be the point where you might get excited, because you’re about to see two people die. You’d start to wonder, How does God kill people? And, I can’t wait to see what kind of special effects they’re going to use to show them dying! Maybe it will be like that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the people kind of melt before our eyes. You’d be like, Dude, pass the popcorn; Adam and Eve are about to get toasted.
But if this were a movie, we’d be disappointed. Because it doesn’t look like anything happened to Adam and Eve. God reprimanded them for what they’d done, and that’s bad. They had to leave the garden paradise they’d been given, and that’s bad. But they