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Experiencing God’s Love in the Deep, Soulful Places
Copyright ©2014 Elizabeth Pierce
All rights reserved
Printed in Canada
International Standard Book Number 978-1-927355-58-9
ISBN 978-1-927355-59-6 EPUB
Published by:
Castle Quay Books
Pickering, Ontario
Tel: (416) 573-3249
E-mail: [email protected] www.castlequaybooks.com
Edited by Marina Hofman Willard, and Lori MacKay
Cover design by Burst Impressions
Printed at Essence Printing, Belleville, Ontario
All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission of the publishers.
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible ®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by THE LOCKMAN FOUNDATION. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Copyright © 1977, 1984, Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982. Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers. Scriptures marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from The Amplified Bible, Old Testament, copyright © 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked ISV are from The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1, Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Pierce, Elizabeth, 1972-, author
Experiencing God’s love in the deep, soulful places / Elizabeth Pierce.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-927355-58-9 (pbk.).—ISBN 978-1-927355-59-6 (epub)
1. God (Christianity)—Love. I. Title.
BT140.P54 2014 231’.6 C2014-906372-5
C2014-906373-3
Table of Contents
Dedication
Author’s Note
1. What’s So Amazing About Love?
2. Love Means No Condemnation
3. Love Means Freedom
4. Love Means Rest
5. Love Means We Have Worth
6. Love Means He Speaks to Us
7. Love Means No Fear
8. Love Means We Are Cherished
9. The Deep, Soulful Places
Appendix A: Verses on God’s Love
Appendix B: In Christ
Appendix C: Spiritual Warfare Readings
Appendix D: Verses About Our God
Appendix E: Thoughts about Salvation and Forgiveness
Appendix F: Thoughts about Abuse
Appendix G: Recommended Readings
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Dedication
This book is from Him, and for Him
Author’s Note
I was three and a half when he died. I don’t remember him at all, and I don’t remember anything about the morning he died, although I was right there. I have likely repressed the memory, and I may never remember it now, since almost four decades have passed.
People tell me I was the apple of his eye. That he called me “Precious.” They tell me he was fiercely protective of me, and that he doted on me. I like to hear how my dad was with me, but I don’t remember any of it.
Funny thing is, I know I knew him. I feel it. It’s the pain bursting in my chest when I watch a movie or read a book about a child whose parent dies. It’s not empathy I feel. It’s my own loss. I know it in every fibre of my being. There’s no picture story in my head to recall…no events that flash in my mind…no smells or sounds to help me piece together the events. No memory of it at all, but I know I was loved. When I hear those stories about him, deep within me there is agreement. Some part of me remembers and says, “Yes, that is exactly how it was.” We were strongly connected.
Before I wrote this book, I had been exploring with God more of what it means, personally and intimately, to be loved by Him. As I stepped back, I could see how my entire life has been full of experiences that make up one unending love letter from Him to me. What God has shown me is that understanding His love is a lot like my experience of knowing I was loved by my dad. It’s not really something you can make sense of in your head. It’s something you have to feel and experience deep within you—at the core of who He made you.
You have your own unending love letter from Him.
Like me, you are called by God to make a difference. In my various roles as a therapist, speaker and leader, God has laid on my heart to share what truly makes a difference in a life: His love for us. This book is my attempt to show what grasping the reality of that unending love really means in the deep places where our hurts, our woundedness and the realities of our imperfect lives are hidden and often collide with His vision for our future.
Knowing the reality of His love goes deeper than anything else can, filling the crevices of our souls when we embrace the fullness of it.
I pray that you will be blessed by this book and that you will hear His heart in my words, the heart of the Author of the ultimate love story written just for you.
In Him,
Elizabeth
Chapter One: What’s So Amazing About Love?
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT)
What’s so amazing about love? Everything.
Isn’t that why our entertainment industry is saturated by romance? Isn’t that why soap operas are still alive and well today, even though the plots get more convoluted every year? It was reported that over 8 million viewers tuned in to watch the 2012 season’s finale of The Bachelorette—why? Because humans love a good love story, and most people want to believe in the fairy-tale ending of “happily ever after” and finding one’s true love.
Love is wonderful! It is better than the perfect summer day; more refreshing than a cold glass of water when you are hot; more soothing than a massage; more beautiful than the most famous painting; more exciting than the best amusement park ride; more motivating than the best personal trainer; and more inspiring than the latest motivational speaker. Love is so vital for every single human being that ultimately the desire to love and be loved supersedes most