Preface

A Book on the Internet

           For a writer, a book on the internet is a strange animal because, unlike a printed book, an Internet Book is flexible, it can be changed easily. So this book may stay in its original form, or it may develop.  It may get edited because I'm sure that in months to come I'll look at various pages and wish I'd written them  differently, so they'll change  - for the better I hope!

How this Book came to be written

       About four years ago I was asked to speak at a particular conference and the Lord started laying on my heart the skeleton of this book.  When I came back the strength of the message was so with me that I had to sit down and type it up. In a matter of weeks the book was in existence - well to be precise, two books were in existence.

      Having two books on my hands I then wondered what to do with them.  I had published a book of stories and sketches many years before but didn't feel I should go down the administration/distribution path and so simply put a couple of copies on a shelf and left them.

        However, in the course of time, I have become freshly aware of the Lord's goodness to me and to my  family and, having a son in the web-design business, decided I would like to give away this book to whoever around the world might want to read it.  That's why it's in this form in front of you now.

My Thanks

       It seems traditional to thank the various people that have contributed to the book, but I want to do that, not because it's traditional but because I am genuinely grateful.

       My first thanks is to my son, Phil, who has encouraged me into the web site business and without whom this site would not exist. 

       Then there are five people who have changed me and helped form the message of this book in me.  The first is my wife, Helen, who has on occasions almost brought me to tears with her encouragement in my life. 

       Next comes Tony Morton who, when I first met him many years ago, I described to my friends as the most gentle, servant hearted man I'd ever met. Tony came into our lives and loved us and changed us. Very close behind Tony must come our friends Dave & Marie Damp who, over the years have come and listened to us, loved us, accepted us and cared for us and have never given us anything less than total pastoral love and have made us feel secure.

       The fifth of these agents of change in my life is my more recent friend in America, Eddie Romero. Over the past five years Eddie has become a good friend, but more than that he has been a means of sharpening  me in my thinking and my beliefs like no other.

       To  the six of you, I simply say thank you so much!

And so to the book

     Ask most Christians if they think God loves them and they'll answer in the affirmative, yet as soon as a crisis comes, faith waivers.  When, as a Christian leader, I tell people around the world that God loves them as they are, their eyes light up as if I'm saying something quite unusual!   Now of course that's not true; of course God loves them, but for many of us what we know in our heads seems divorced from heart day to day reality.

      I hope as you read this book you'll see we have every reason to feel secure in God's love, a love that has come down from heaven to bring complete transformation on the earth -  indeed I don't apologise if you think I've laboured it too much - we need to hear it again and again.

    This book is for less-than-perfect people who are loved by a totally perfect God. If you identify with the description of being less-than-perfect, then this book is for you.

                                                                           Tony Thomas

                                                                                  July 2004

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John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 13:34-35

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

John 15:12,13,17

I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends…. I command you to love each other.

1 John 3:11

This is the message we have heard from the beginning: We should love one another….. We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters….. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.

1 John 4:7-11

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

1 John 4:21

And God himself has commanded that we must love not only him but our Christian brothers and sisters, too.