Dear Gerry,
I’m 18 years old, and grew up terrified of a God that was supposed to love me. Never before have I felt so free to love God and love people as I do now! “Hope Beyond Hell” is sooo amazing. I grew up in a traditional church that of course taught of eternal punishment. I believed, or wanted to believe, that God loved me, that His love was unconditional. But when faced with the belief that billions would burn forever, what really gets taught is that God’s love IS conditional. So I always felt condemned and terrified of a God that was supposed to love me, as if my sins were too great for Him to waste His time with me. I wanted to have the joy that most Christians spoke of, but what joy can come out of eternal punishment? But when faced with the undeniable scriptural support that this book provides that God really does love the world and that He will redeem every person, I came to genuinely believe in the unconditional Love that is God. Knowing now that God really loves me and the people around me with a love too strong to allow anything less than a full victory, I can finally love Him and the rest of the world. Because God is Love with no “buts.”
Becca
April 25, 2012
I love that statement, … “God really loves me and the people around me with a love too strong to allow anything less than a full victory” … – Add to that Jesus’ words, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”
April 25, 2012
the part that jumps out at me is the “unconditional love” statement. If you have to accept Jesus for God to love you, then that would be considered a condition. If God’s love is truly unconditional then this shouldn’t be an issue. It reminds me that Jesus didn’t come to save us from eternal punishment…he came to show us how to live a beautiful life on earth…and how to love other unconditionally.
April 25, 2012
That is so good to hear Becca! It is amazing how many of our brothers and sisters are able to have what they call joy while still believing in eternal torment. To any thinking person like yourself, that belief is contradictory. May he use you to shine a light of truth for others.
April 25, 2012
Dear Friends,
Praise the Lord ! What God tells us in His Word never changes. So we have to “Believe in Him” for our Truth for “Today.” Amen! Like the Scriptures tells us…..Don’t trust in any Punny man.
In His love and ours,
jc and lilian
April 25, 2012
Hope Beyond Hell enlightens our faith to a new dimension. I too, feared God and even hated Him because of what was taught. I reasoned, “How could a Loving God allow just chosen ones to live and the rest to die eternally. Deep down I never accepted that He was cruel. I too wanted to believe He was a Good God! All my childhood I believed in my Savior and had seen angels and special signs in the heavenly realm of He watching over me. When I read this book “Hope Beyond Hell”, I repented and was renewed in Hope, now and forever!
So get the book! Approach it with an open mind! God does say to prove all things. It is WORTH READING!
Luv in Christ, Bonnie Seibert, Mobile, AL
April 25, 2012
God is Great and grately to be praised. It is so exciting every time I hear someone “sees” this truth of the magnitude and great love of God. I am so happy for your unveiling of His heart and the go and do likewise attitude it has given you, as we are being made in His image. Work on in us God! Yeah God!
April 25, 2012
It’s amazing that an 18 year old girl can easily see the truth of God’s unconditional love and rejoice in it; while the doctors of religion are totally blind to it, that is, without a revelation from on high.
April 25, 2012
http://home.earthlink.net/~rubyybur/eonsLINK00.pdf <<< chart of "eternity"
God does have the whole creation in His loving hands. When we really pray and really study, all is evident of His purpose and His love.
April 26, 2012
What an amazing testimony. Sadly that is the case with many Christians who long to know God, myself included. I wish I had known these truths years ago!
I, too, now feel free to praise and worship our loving God, Who never gives up on us!!!
April 26, 2012
So glad you found the original good news, Becca!!
April 29, 2012
It’s Awesome to get to read about your encounter and connection with God! your strory is just the same as mine, No one really taught me who God really was and was always terrified of hell as a former seventh day adventist, i remember reading through Many Books about the final judgement day by ellen G white, My life was always kept in fear. But I was raised up in the legalism of such religion and most lay men used to teach about last days so I was both fascinated and terrified of last days!
As i grew up, i became more and more aware of my own inability to live perfect life. i would confess my sins carefully each night and try to try to remember any that i may be forgotten. I remembered what lay men had said about people in the judgment with unconfessed sin on their record. That single sin could mean being eternally lost. as i look at it now, i believe the primary reason i was so interested in those last day events was so that i could figure out how the events would transpire in order to know when i needed to get really serious about getting my life together. i might be able to gather enough strength to do a last minute sprint to the end. But i knew i could not be good enough for long enough if i started too soon!
As a teen, i became discouraged with the whole idea of living a Christian life. i grew increasingly aware of my total inability to live up to perfection. In fact, it seemed that i was getting worse. My body was developing and i was struggling with new temptations. Much of my time i was failing to resist. I would respond whenever someone would make and appeal to seek God’s forgiveness, but the next day i would fall back in to old patterns of thinking and behavior. i felt that i was a total failure. No one ever told me that grace was free gift and that my forgiveness was provided past, present and future in Jesus Christ. I thought my past was forgiven in him. But i had to do the rest i did not understand that when we are in relationship with Jesus His forgiveness is ours! He will change us. In the mean time, we are counted righteous at a every step of the way. No one ever told me the good news so i became increasingly discouraged and eventually gave up entirely on the Christian life. i decided that there was no hope for me. i was going to burn any way, so i might as well go with schooling.
i turned my back on God altogether and went into a season of complete rebellion.
During my next four years at school, i did everything i could to self destruct. As i look back on it now, i believe i had a death wish. i was so miserable. i spent those years getting high and drunk virtually nonstop. My hippie -type life style had no boundaries. Yet i found no peace or rest from the pain. Several times i attempted suicides in my desperation or in times when drug supplies were low. Life was dark blur of desperate, living Hell. But God had not forsaken me. His Love was greater than all my sin, i remember numerous times during those days when God appealed to me through people events, dreams and circumstances to draw me closer to him.
One night in February of 2001, i was on drug experience with one of my buddies, when we both began to think clearly. This was especially unusual since the drug known as ” Marijuana” commonly had the opposite effect.
That night we both started talking about God and our own spiritual hunger. We saw our lives as they truly were lost, empty, blocken and lost. We realized that our lives were on a dangerous trajectory with only death awaiting us.
We decided that night that we need overflowing, with tears streaming down our faces, that we were going to join a Jesus freak, recently victory church had sprung up at kitiko village, I joined it to find Jesus. What i didn’t know at that time was that i had invited Jesus in to my life. Instead of running away from Him,i had in my life that is nothing short of miraculous. With the team of teammates We decided to take on the message of Jesus to fellow youths, Later 4 months, Christian Youth Foundation came to existence with an aim of reaching out many youths for Jesus in Africa and the Lord has been with us and Trendemous changes are being done day by day throughout the ministry! Praise Jesus! I fell in Love with one who loved me first! I had personally experienced grace! For the first time in my life i began to understand what it mearnt to be a born again Christian. I had personally experienced in my life. My life would never be the same. i will always be grateful to God for His a amazing grace Those were wonderful days as I developed personal walk with Jesus and started learning about his Love for me. i determined at that time that i was a going to be a Christian but i never be a protestant a gain. i just wanted to be a believer in Jesus. i felt trapped by legalism of my childhood and private high school days that i could not bear the thought of going back in to that. i was a born again Christian now, and that was enough for me.Speaking as a man of God; I stand with the HOPE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL CHURCH Uganda in being a speaker for the truth and God’s word& love is the mission to which I’m devoting my life. and we as a church we reach out even to those people who are neglected& chased away by their churches, families& friends through crusades, public meeting, assemblies and conferences + in various schools and societies of Uganda.
I want tell the world now, that it’s impossible to humans but with God all things are possible, God can do the same for any body as He did for me and for Becca,
for more about my story,
visit me at my facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pastorsamuelwaswa?ref=tn_tnmn.
Many blessings,
Pastor samuel Waswa
Africa _ Uganda
May 12, 2012
What a powerful statement…. Because God is Love with no “buts.”