Ben Gatrelle

As of this writing I am currently unmarried. Which you might find odd since a lot of this book will talk about the symbolism of marriage and the type of love that a marriage should exemplify. But recently I have developed a deeper relationship with a woman who started out as a stranger but became a great friend. Now we have added romance to our friendship, and while we are still friends, we are deeper friends. In marriage we will deepen the friendship and the romance to a whole different level. Everyone who has a relationship with God has gone through similar changes and that relationship will continue to change further over time.

At first I didn't even know God. In fact the Bible says you and I were the enemies of God and strangers. And it was in this state of enmity that God did something wonderful to change the nature of our relationship to him. You see God desired to have a special relationship with us since the beginning of creation. But since garden of Eden when our great ancestors Adam and Eve introduced sin into this world, sin has separated everyone from intimacy with God. So God made a sacrifice that allowed our state of enmity to be washed away. He made a peace treaty and signed it with his blood.

Now the terms of the treaty stipulate that we can have fellowship with God if we desire. We are no longer enemies but friends. As we get to know God, as we desire more of God in our lives, as we lose ourselves in him. He says, I love you, and promises many great and wonderful things. He gives us good gifts, like a lover. He says, cast your cares upon me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He says, I will never leave you or forsake you. He says, in me there is no more condemnation and guilt, but forgiveness and cleansing. He says, here are gifts from my heart to yours: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, and they will flow out of you like a spring of fresh water.

The first thing you must know is that God loves you. For some that means you must change your views of God as a distant, hard, spiteful, unloving, uncaring, judgmental entity. Here is how the Bible describes the love of God: God so loved the world that he came in the flesh, as the Christ, and laid down his life for the whole world, benefiting those who accept this gift and become his body here on earth, called the bride of Christ, and the church. This is the model we should follow in our relationships. Sacrificial love. We should show love like he has shown love.

Now this book is not about how to improve your relationships with people and your spouse, though it may. There are plenty of great books on relationships. It is not about how to improve your relationship with God, though it may. There are plenty of great books on getting closer to God. It's not even about getting rewards for your good works, though it may increase your good works. This is about God and his love for you and for your spouse, and me and my relationships, and my neighbors, and my countrymen, and our world. It's about how God loves, why God loves, how he gives rewards and why. And it's about how we should respond to this love. What does it look like in our daily lives, in our relationship with him, with others, and what will it look like in eternity.