However, I also need to point out that, even if this is the greatest and most exciting news about God—it’s not the only news about God. In this book, I’ve kept to the subject of God’s love because there’s plenty to say about the topic. But I want to be certain no one draws the conclusion that since God is love, this somehow rules out His other attributes, attributes that all orthodox Christians have recognized from the beginning. God’s love cannot be allowed to obscure His holiness and His justice.

A popular song from several decades ago declared, “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” And I have to agree—as long as the love the world is given is the true love of God. I don’t know of anything the world needs now, or at any other time, more than the love of God. Only the love of God can remove the barrier of sin that separates mankind from God—“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). And only the love of God gives us hope in the face of disappointment and despair—“[Nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39).

God desires to give you the gift of His love. But a gift must be received. If someone gives you a Christmas gift, and you leave it under the tree and never unwrap it, you haven’t really received it.

My point is that the giving of a gift is one half of a transaction. The transaction doesn’t become real and doesn’t take effect until that gift is accepted, opened, identified, and appreciated. In the same way, it’s not enough that God simply offers His love. He expects us to receive it.

This has been one of the more personally rewarding projects I’ve worked on, and I’ve worked on a few. As I delivered each of these messages to the church I pastor, Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California, I was aware of the power of this topic as people interacted with the teaching. It has absolutely nothing to do with my preaching abilities, and everything to do with the eagerness of the Holy Spirit to comfort, encourage, and revitalize the human spirit with the message of God’s eternal love.

As I retold the story of the prodigal son, I felt that our people were experiencing God’s love in fresh and soul-freeing ways. Most of them had heard it as many times as I’d spoken it, yet that story never loses its power; it never fails to pull us in so that we become the characters and play out our own issues.