An extremely popular book is making the rounds among Believers and non-Believers alike; appearing everywhere from prisons to monasteries. The Shack, written by William P. Young is indeed a gripping fiction and reviewers are expressing themselves.

While i do not support the ''Christian universalism'' view that the author purports. i do think the book has merit and because of that, have sent the book to close friends. However, these friends know me and know the gospel that i teach/preach and know that i do not teach universalism. My purpose in sending the book is to help the individuals see that God loves them because most Christians do not trust God's love for them, and also i hope to break the yoke created by ''church'' --Christians going to church and then behaving in any way they feel like behaving as if going to church fulfilled their obligation to God...that's a very Catholic viewpoint. The Catholic church says as long as you get to church once a year and hear mass at least from the beginning of the transubstantiation to its end, then you have fulfilled your ''Easter duty.'' so Christians often believe that if they go to church, good, bad or indifferent, then they can do whatever they want.

The truth is, you don't have to ever GO to church. ''Church'' is something that happens when a group of people ("For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." Matthew 18:20) assemble for the express purpose of praising, worshiping and teaching each other about Jesus Christ, His Father and the Holy Spirit. Small groups are best suited for this. There is obvious danger in large groups going to a building where one person does all the teaching...that person often falls prey to the enemy and becomes the CEO, or the 'star' or the 'king' of a group of people and he/she performs as such and subsequently falls into all kinds of sin. Every time i meet with at least one other person, and teach them something, help them understand something or God speaks something to them, we have church.

God has caused me to understand that all people have a valid opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as Savior before their individual judgement. The idea that God's love trumps everything is naive in that it eliminates both God's frequently mentioned justice (judgement) and His great desire that we choose Him. If His love trumped our choice, He would still have puppets who have no choice and He very clearly makes the point that we have to choose Him, and choose the right path...repeatedly. Our life is not one choice then happy ever after...we are constantly fighting the enemy and choosing the right path.

i have often wondered about the enemy, God's most favored angel, Lucifer/Satan, whom God loved so much, second only to God in power and beauty. But that is not for us to know...He says. in other words, it's none of our business; it's between Him and Lucifer/Satan; just as my sin and life is between Him and me; your sin and life is between Him and you.. Nevertheless, it seems logical that Satan believes he has a chance at some sort of power coup or he would not work so hard on us but take off for parts unknown to us--there being no real dimension that we call time.

When He told me that everyone gets the straightforward valid opportunity to choose Jesus Christ, i got the definite impression that either before or even immediately after death--since death is not an instantaneous occurrence and since time does not exist, this is certainly plausible--each individual, no matter how old or young (even fetuses of hours or minutes after conception) is presented with sufficient information, knowledge and intelligence to make a valid personal choice. Having witnessed death occurring, i can tell you that the body is created to fight for life; and does so even after the spirit leaves. Perhaps that is why there are so many near death experiences. One must always remember that time is a convention created for our benefit and does not actually exist. God lives outside of all the created conventions in which we live.

God loves us so much more than most of us believe or trust. He wants us to trust that love and to always choose the righteous path. Before we stand before Him, we will make gazillions of choices and not all of them will be righteous. Because of His love for us, we can come to Him, apologize and ask for forgiveness--then let it go, because once we do this, God chooses to let it go from the "Books" He keeps. We find this hard to accept, because we find it hard to let go when someone 'sins' (or offends) against us, even when they apologize and ask for our forgiveness. The fault lies in our anthropomorphizing The Living God. God is our loving Father but He is most definitely NOT human...nor is He a tame Lion.

So, read the book and take from it what help you can to come to the realization that God loves you unconditionally, and you can trust that love. It's not like our love, because it is perfect; it fulfills and completes us.