God Believes In Love

From the IX Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church, the first openly gay person elected to the episcopate and the world’s leading religious spokesperson for gay rights and gay marriage—a groundbreaking book that persuasively makes the case for same-sex marriage using a commonsense, reasoned, religious argument. Robinson holds the religious text of the Bible to be holy and sacred and the ensuing two millennia of church history to be relevant to the discussion. He is equally familiar with the secular and political debate about gay marriage going on in America today, and is someone for whom same-sex marriage is a personal issue; Robinson was married to a woman for fourteen years and is a father of two children and has been married to a man for the last four years of a twenty-five-year relationship. Robinson has a knack for taking complex and controversial issues and addressing them in plain direct language, without using polemics or ideology, putting forth his argument for gay marriage, and bringing together sacred and secular points of view.

An openly gay Episcopal bishop presents an argument for same-sex marriage from a religious perspective, addressing the controversial issues surrounding the debate while sharing the stories of his own marriages and how his views have been shaped by Churchhistory.

“I used to be a lesbian.” In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.

Many sincere, Bible-believing Christians are Calvinists only by default. Thinking that the only choice is between Calvinism (with its presumed doctrine of eternal security) and Arminianism (with its teaching that salvation can be lost), and confident of Christ's promise to keep eternally those who believe in Him, they therefore consider themselves to be Calvinists. It takes only a few simple questions to discover that most Christians are largely unaware of what John Calvin and his early followers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries actually believed and practiced. Nor do they fully understand what most of today's leading Calvinists believe. Although there are disputed variations of the Calvinist doctrine, among its chief proponents (whom we quote extensively in context) there is general agreement on certain core beliefs. Many evangelicals who think they are Calvinists will be surprised to learn of Calvin's belief in salvation through infant baptism and of his grossly un-Christian behavior, at times, as the "Protestant Pope" of Geneva, Switzerland. Most shocking of all, however, is Calvinism's misrepresentation of God, who "is love." It is our prayer that this volume will enable readers to examine more carefully the vital issues involved and to follow God's holy Word­--not man's teachings. "The first edition of this book was greeted by fervent opposition and criticism from Calvinists. In this enlarged and revised edition I have endeavored to respond to the critics." --Dave Hunt

As Little Cub and Grampa Bear’s fishing adventure is interrupted by mischievous otters, the young polar bear begins to question why we must love others… even the seemingly unlovable. In answering her questions, Grampa Bear gives tender explanations that teach Little Cub about the different kinds of love that is shared between families, friends, and mamas and papas. Grampa explains that all these kinds of love come from God and that it is important to love others because… “Any time we show love, Little Cub, we’re sharing a bit of his love.” This sweet tale will warm the hearts of young children as they learn about all the different sorts of love, while the gentle explanations of each provide a valuable opportunity to encourage children to share with others a “God-sized love.”

"God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16). In this famous passage, St. John expresses the heart of the Christian faith and the essence of the Christian image of God. In the same verse, he also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: "We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us." In God Is Love, Anthony Kelly, CSSR, takes this phrase as a concise and profound expression and unpacks it for thinking Christians today. He explores seven ideas that are necessarily implied in the love that God is-the Trinitarian terms, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the cross and resurrection as events within the paschal mystery; the church as the revelation of God's love being worked out in history; and finally, the ultimate hope for eternal life and heaven itself.

Holly Bea's beloved bullmastiff, Buddy, is having a bad day. Left alone to guard the house, he is taunted by the neighborhood cats, who know that he can't touch them. Buddy is worried—will Holly be back soon, or is she gone for the day, or even forever? Much to Buddy's relief, Holly returns. They go to the park, but Buddy's fun is cut short by a pack of hostile squirrels and a team of Dalmatian firedogs who challenge his self-esteem. Will this day ever end? Buddy's day is a metaphor for the doubts and anxieties children face, and a soothing reminder that God will always be there for them.