Embracing the Love of God: The Path and Promise of Christian Life [Hardcover]

James Bryan Smith (Author), Richard J. Foster (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 1995

Unfortunately, in today's world many people fail to experience the freedom and healing power of God's grace. Even Christians too often experience judgement, rather than the love that is the vital essence of Christian life. A visionary guide in the spirit of Celebration of Discipline, Embracing the Love of God calls Christians back to the basics -- to understanding the promise of God's love to transform our most important relationships and fulfill our deepest spiritual needs.Here James Bryan Smith launches readers on a revitalizing spiritual journey. He distills the basic principles of Christian love and provides a new model for relationship with God, self, and others that is based not on fear and judgement, but rather on acceptance and care. Smith's moving insights illuminate the gentle nature of God's love and teach readers how to continue on the path of love by embracing it day by day. For both new Christians and those desiring renewal, Embracing the Love of God offers hope, peace, and guidance for spiritual growth.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A visionary guide that calls Christians back to the basics, and to understanding the promise of God's love to transform our most important relationships.

From the Inside Flap

"By loving us, God makes us lovable."--St. Augustine

Unfortunately, in today's world many people fail to experience the freedom and healing power of God's grace. Even Christians too often experience judgement, rather than the love that is a vital essence of Christian life. A visionary guide in the spirit of Celebration of Discipline, Embracing the Love of God calls Christians back to the basics--to understanding the promise of God's love to transform our most important relationships and fulfill our deepest spiritual needs.

Here James Bryan Smith launches readers on a revitalizing spiritual journey. He distills the basic principles of Christian love and provides a new model for relationship with God, self, and others that is based not on fear and judgement, but rather on acceptance and care. Smith's moving insights illuminate the gentle nature of God's love and teach readers how to continue on the path of love by embracing it day by day. For both new Christians and those desiring renewal, Embracing the Love of God offers hope, peace, and guidance for spiritual growth.

"The most wonderful thing that can happen to any human being is to be loved. It alone speaks to the gnawing sense of insignificance and isolation we feel. And the marvelous news is that we have been loved and we are loved, each and every one of us. Uniquely and individually. At the heart of the Universe is love, divine love, personal, intimate God-love for you and for me...Once experienced at the deepest levels of the soul, no reality can be more profoundly disturbing, more radically healing, more utterly transforming." --from the foreword by Richard J. Foster.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1 edition (June 28, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060667419
• ISBN-13: 978-0060667412
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #941,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Bryan Smith (M.Div., Yale University Divinity School, D.Min., Fuller Seminary) is a theology professor at Friends University in Wichita, KS and a writer and speaker in the area of Christian spiritual formation. He also serves as the director of the Christian Spiritual Formation Institute at Friends University.

A founding member of Richard J. Foster's spiritual renewal ministry, Renovaré Smith is an ordained United Methodist Church minister and has served in various capacities in local churches. Smith is also the author of A Spiritual Formation Workbook, Devotional Classics (with Richard Foster), Embracing the Love of God, Rich Mullins: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven and Room of Marvels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God loves us as we are...not as we think we should be!, July 17, 2001

By 

NotATameLion (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embracing the Love of God: The Path and Promise of Christian Life (Hardcover)

What a great book! Jesus loves us. The funny thing is that we spend all this time trying either please or rebel against God...when all the time God's waiting here, patiently waiting to get a word in edgewise--He's waiting to tell us He loves us--and desperately. James Bryan Smith makes this crystal clear. This is indeed great and good news. God has proved and everyday continues to prove His love.

"God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

God loves us as we are...not as we think we should be...I have recommended a lot of books in my time here on Amazon. A lot of them have been rather good. But "Embracing the Love of God" falls into that rare category where I must exhort you to buy this book now...I don't even want you to finish reading this review till you do so...This book will change your life. In these past few days, it has changed mine.

Thank you Mr. Smith for this awesome book. I second your prayer (from page 40):

"May we have the courage not to run when the voice of our condemning heart would tear us from the place where we can hear the voice of God saying to us, "You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased." Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts."

If you're still reading this review and haven't got this book...go get it now.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Its Weight in Mallowcups, November 13, 2001

By 

Tracy Groot - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embracing the Love of God: The Path and Promise of Christian Life (Hardcover)

I'm not sure which book got kicked out of the top 5 most influential books in my life, but this book replaced it. I've spent the fist ten years of my Christianity picking up not only the love of God, but the baggage that often goes with religion; I've spent the last ten years in the tricky business of extricating the love and dropping off the baggage.

This is one baggage blasting book.

It's a centering book. One I could not read quickly for the need to lay it down and think. The power in this book lay in the fact that it is also the testimony of one man; and last I heard, a person's testimony ranks with the blood of Jesus as far as overcoming goes. (Rev. 12:11) And what have we to overcome? That insidious voice that accuses us before God day and night. It says day and night. (vs. 10) No let up. That's why we need the message of love pounded and ground into our faces until we jolly well believe it.

This book has helped me to identify the voice of the accuser. It has helped me to see God in the teeny tiny ways he wants to be in my life. It has helped me to embrace what I am ever thinking is for someone else.

What I am understanding is that I did not get saved once; I am getting saved all the time, inch by inch and daily, and books like these are small miracles to help. This book is good news. I can't say how grateful I am to have read it.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on God's love, March 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Embracing the Love of God: The Path and Promise of Christian Life (Hardcover)

This is the best book I've ever read on receiving the love of God personally. It is simple, concise, and always inspiring, bringing the reader to grasp the awesome gifts of God's love, acceptance, and forgiveness without the guilt or works baggage. I hope James Bryan Smith will be writing many more books. This one is a treasure, and I've already bought a second copy to give away.