Wow, my wonderful husband, Gary Amirault, author of this book has given me the last word! For most of our marriage, each have fought to have “the last word.” And here I have it and didn’t even ask to be included in the book! This may not seem like much to some of you, but this is a tiny example of the wonderful things Jesus Christ has done in our marriage.
The Christian Bible makes it quite clear that God highly values the institution of marriage and family. A lasting marriage and healthy family is also very important to me. Having been born in a family broken apart twice by divorce and having seen first hand the effects this has on the children, made it clear to me that I wanted a happy, healthy marriage and family that stayed together.
Therefore, it was perhaps the most painful moment in my life, when my marriage, a marriage I felt I worked so hard to keep together, was falling apart. There seemed to be nothing I could do to keep it together. Gary and I just couldn’t communicate anymore. We couldn’t speak more than five minutes without fighting, and usually it was over the most meaningless things.
Perhaps the most pathetic part of the situation was the fact that even after we both had become very zealous Christians, this constant battling continued, and actually became worse, instead of better.
I was brought up in a liberal Jewish family. Gary was raised by a father who was raised Roman Catholic, but never set foot in a church except for marriages. His mother was raised German Evangelical, but the horrors of going through WWII in Germany took any faith she may have received from her Church right out of her. When we married, we just decided to be the best people we could be, and not let “religion” be an issue for us.
Little did either of us realize our backgrounds (German and Jew) would foretell the next world war — our marriage. There’s no room here to tell our full story, but I want to share enough to bring some hope to those of you who are having or have had problems in your marriages or family relationships. Often unresolved problems we have had in our families as children are brought into our future marriage.
Since neither of us were raised in a strongly religious family, we didn’t think religion would be a big problem for us. And it wasn’t until twelve years into our marriage, when I discovered, quite miraculously that Jesus was truly my Messiah! This did not come about by underhanded proselytizing or anything like that. One day I had a “knowing,” or “awakening” to God’s reality that was more real than anything I had ever experienced. God is awesome!
I began to attend church while my atheist husband (yes, he became an ardent atheist) did his absolute best to show me my faith was nonsense. During his attempts to destroy my new found faith, he made a big “mistake.” He started reading the Bible to prove how ridiculous it was and how cruel the God of Christianity was, especially in the Old Testament. Two and a half months later, Gary found himself in love with a God he had denied for 37 years!
One would think everything would be wonderful for us now, both having in common a realization of a living, loving God. Please understand this change in our life was not a simple change of adding a church service or two per week to our routines. This “experience” with the Creator of the Universe effected our entire beings. Our whole outlook on just about everything dramatically changed. We thought we were going to experience heaven right here on earth. Well, sadly, this was far from the case. After the glorious joy in the beginning, came a split, which became a chasm, which ultimately became a canyon that seemed unbridgeable.
Initially, my husband got a much bigger dose of God’s love and power. This compassion took him to people who really had a lot of serious problems in their lives, like a lice-ridden alcoholic who lived under a bridge. I was quite content confining my faith to Bible studies with the ladies and attending Bible conferences. Of course I would faithfully pray daily and even attend Church twice a week. For God’s purposes, Gary was given an incredible love and compassion for people that was far more than the average Christian starts with. Along with this quite supernatural love, came some supernatural powers and experiences, not unlike those that the early Christians experienced which have been recorded in the Book of Acts in the Bible. It was quite a remarkable time, looking back on those years.
However, his zeal was just too much, not only for the children and myself, but for most of the people I attended Church with. Lice-ridden street bums just didn’t fit in with upper-middle class Christian ladies and our formal Bible studies. Gary was living the Bible; most of our Christian friends and neighbors were just studying the Bible and talking about Jesus.
Reading the New Testament one can see that Jesus performed many wonderful miracles and possessed many great powers. We discover He gave some of those powers to His disciples and those who would be added to the Church in the generations to come.
Quite remarkably, there were actually people during the time He walked this earth who were offended and even angry by the fact that Jesus performed these miracles.
He called them some very “unkind” words like hypocrites, vipers, white-washed tombs, and two times the sons of Gehenna (the city dump). Jesus’ power came from His compassion for the people. The religious leadership of His day (feeling their power over the people threatened) did not have the compassion they should have had as leaders of God’s people. They, as many Christians today, became “self”-righteous. When this happens to God’s people, whether they be Jews or Christians, they become worse than useless-they actually hinder others who are seeking God. Jesus said it something like this, “They shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for they neither go in themselves, nor do they allow those who are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:9). Gary saw that the modern Christian Church was in exactly the same condition as was Israel 1900 years ago. Jesus would have said the exact same words to the same positions of authority in the Church today. Oh, those Jews were zealous for all kinds of laws, and rituals, and their traditions were endless. (Again like many people today.) But their hearts were far from personal experiences with the living God.
Anyway, the Holy Spirit showed me personally one time, in a way I’ll never forget, that thinking I was better than others because of what I did and didn’t do is being self-righteous. He showed me self-righteousness to Him is uglier than what a cigarette does to the lungs of a heavy smoker. Have you ever seen a gross picture of a black lung? Could you even imagine God thinking your heart is uglier than that? He showed me that mine would be, especially if I let my judgments get in the way of His love for others. It is a life changing revelation only the Holy Spirit can give.
So many things (like our judgments) divide His creation, including “Christians,” as one should see clearly having read this booklet. But what I want to leave you with is that that is not the heart of God for us. He has a heart of love like most in this world are starving for, and can not find. I have come to know for certain that only He can fill the voids, heal the hurts, and erase the loneliness deep within all of us. Christians are supposed to be this love, agape, to the world. Christians are supposed to be one big family. The Church is divided into thousands of different denominations which have actually killed one another (and still do) in the name of Christ! The general problems of the Church today (like the lack of sacrificial love) can be seen more easily by outsiders than those who have a vested interested in “their” churches. The problem inside the churches is really a manifestation of the problems on the inside of their members-problems of the heart.
First, we, His people, need to find the real Jesus. Most of us do not even know Him, much less how to really receive His love for ourselves and let it overflow to others. We have really misunderstood His heart and horribly misrepresented His character to this world. We have relied on men’s teachings and not the Holy Spirit. One cannot truly reflect God if one does not really know Him intimately. No wonder the world wants to divorce themselves from us. Their problems are just magnified reflections of the problems of the Church.
As much as I know God loves us, we are in great need of a fresh revelation of Who He is, and what His plan for us and mankind is. We need to humbly turn to Him and seek His face and pray, and then He will heal us, and our land, and the nations. We need to see His heart with the eyes of His Spirit-then we will see everything and everyone differently.
Most of Israel did not recognize the Son of God when He came because He did not match up with their concept of Who He should be. I’m concerned for many Christians today because I sense that their concepts also blind them to His reality. As I said-most still don’t recognize Him. You would probably be shocked by how many unkind words Gary and I get from those who espouse the name of Christ, when we declare that Jesus loves all mankind and will ultimately draw every single soul to Himself? We get the same treatment Jesus received when He healed people. They wanted to stop Him. We have had many Christian leaders and lay-people try to stop us from declaring the salvation of the whole world through Jesus Christ. This message will also bring great healing to many badly wounded hearts and relationships.
I know that nothing is impossible with God. We are doing this booklet in honor of our heavenly Father. It is because of Him that we happen to be joyfully celebrating the 25th year of our marriage! It is too much to go into all the details, but I hope it will suffice to say that God is so real that He was able to supernaturally stop us from breaking our covenant of marriage to each other. It was a miracle because everyone, including our families, friends, church counselors (who did not believe a Christian should ever get a divorce), and even we gave up on “us.” But God did not. His Holy Spirit gave me a picture on the night before the papers for a legal separation were to be mailed, that showed me that my Gary, who the church thought was demonic and beyond hope, had a heart like King David. Was David a perfect man? Far from it! But he had a heart after God, and was honest with Him! The “yuck” that was between Gary and me, hid the heart that God could see, and He graciously allowed me to see Gary as He saw Him. This changed my heart towards Gary, and strengthened our hearts toward God and each other.
We learned that God does NOT ever give up. He is faithful and gave us, in His unending mercy, the faith we needed to overcome our own darkness. For what is darkness, but inability to see the light or the truth as God sees it. He caused us to see with His eyes of Love. He gave us hope that we could literally bank on.
We are PEOPLE of a GREAT HOPE FOR ALL MANKIND. We are blessed beyond measure and we seek to share that blessing by telling you the GREAT NEWS OF OUR GOD! We are learning to be filled with a love that cannot fail, for it is God, Himself.
We now understand that we, as God’s awakened people, are here to help shatter the man-made imitation light of God, so that the real light of God Himself within each of us can come forth. We are all His, and we are all beloved of our Father.
Whether you have a natural father and/or mother or no family at all or have a family you feel lucky to be a part of-God really is your heavenly Father and your true family is every member of the human race! You do not have to wait until you “pass on” to find out how wonderful a close relationship with a perfect Father can be. You can experience it now, here, on this side of the grave, or you can remain a coward, and/or selfish, and miss the pleasures of knowing and bringing God’s love to the earth. We all need Him in order to be complete! If you feel any desire to know Who He really is, then ask Him with all of your heart to reveal Himself to you. If you seek Him with all of your heart, you will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). It is His promise to all of us. When Jesus laid down His life for us, He knew that His (our) Father had the power to raise Him up again. He knew the real plan of God. After this happened, He sent His Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us into all truth. It is never too late to get real with God. What are you waiting for?
Immanuel means God with us. When we truly from the heart are able to love everyone on this earth with His love, then all will see “Immanuel” with us. He wants us to see everyone as He sees them — His own children whom He loves dearly enough have to given His life for. Only eyes of love can see this. Only those whose hearts have been delivered from all fears and traditions of men can hold this kind of love. Do not let men and women who do not know Him , tell you about God or what they think the Bible says. Let the Holy Spirit teach you. Let the Holy Spirit remove the “yuck” that blinds you from letting God’s love flow to yourself and others.
Christians are nothing in and of ourselves except when God moves through us. Let us all, Christian or Jew, or any other religion or even the atheist and agnostic — let us give Him our “self”-righteousness in exchange for His eyes of Love — a love that will first cleanse the recipient that he might become a receptacle of a never ending love which is poured out to all peoples of this earth. The Jewish and Christian Bibles both prophesy that all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Wouldn’t you like to be part of the deliverance of that blessing? It is for that purpose that we were formed and called. We are one family in Him. It’s time for the world to know His Peace.
The written Word of God says we are to praise Him. It is an effortless and delightful task once we get to really know Him. Please do not let your pride or the teachings of other men and women limit Who He is. Find out for yourself. We have hope for you from on high. Glory be to God, our Father, the HOPE of the World!
A final word for the Christian reader: The message of this book is usually easily accepted by those who have not yet come into the household of the faith. But as I said, some Christians are very offended by this message. Some, using human reasoning, say that if Jesus saves everyone, then why not live as you want? We can sin all we want and it won’t make a bit of difference. Hitler won’t get punished and neither will Charles Manson, so go ahead and do whatever you want to do. It doesn’t matter. They say this message makes the cross of Christ worthless-the “Great Commission” becomes a joke.
It is sad to say, but true, that Christians who reason this way reveal that their hearts are far from being full of the sacrificial love of Christ. It is clear they are “serving” God to get something in return, that is, they want something for their service that others, who have not put in the same amount of time or money will not receive. Their reasoning proves that while they may say salvation is a free gift that one cannot earn, the fact of the matter is, they are trusting in their perceived good works to get themselves a little closer to Jesus than those who have not sacrificed as much as they have.
True “sacrificial love” gives and expects nothing in return. The Christian who reasons like the one above certainly expects a return for his or her investment of time and money. This is not the love of Christ. This is the “self”-righteousness which blinds all of us, regardless of which religion we belong to.
A Christian truly filled with the love of Christ delights in giving of the goodness of the kingdom of God. They are filled with joy when they see a brother and sister restored to the heavenly Father. They do not want anything in return for this labor because they know it is God’s doing, not their own. The joy of seeing a member of their family restored is reward enough.
On the Cross of Christ, Jesus said He paid for all the sins of the world. Those who seek to keep some of the people of the world out of heaven, are actually the ones who despise the Cross of Christ. Will you deny to Christ what He has already purchased? What greater glory could one bestow upon Christ than declaring that His Powerful Love overcame all evil and sin in the world? To deny this is to bring shame to the cross. No, my friends, the message of the salvation of all mankind does not nullify the cross, it brings to light the fullness of what was accomplished there. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth will draw (drag in the Greek) all mankind unto Myself” (John 12:32). The wages of sin, according to the Bible, is death, not everlasting torture. In Christ’s death all mankind is “imputed” the righteous life which the Messiah lived while here on earth, just as death which is nothing more than spiritual separation from God, was “imputed” to all mankind in the first Adam. The second Adam (Jesus Christ) has undone everything which has caused the miseries which come about when mankind has lost its relationship with God. Here is the drawing power of true sacrificial love-it leaves no one out!
The world, and the church, are crying out for “justice.” Many say that justice will not be served by so great a pardon. People like Hitler will not get what they deserve, here again, the one reasoning like this reveals their lack of understanding of the Scriptures and their lack of sacrificial love. Salvation is not about what one deserves; it is about the mercy of God-about a God Who loved us while we were yet sinners and gave Himself a ransom for us while we were His enemies. It is about a God’s who pours out the rain on the just and the unjust; it is about a Love which conquers His enemies by His very nature-an all consuming fire of sacrificial love that would express itself in its purest form on the Tree of Crucifixion. “For God so loved, that He gave…” (John 3:16).
When this Love begins to be perfected in a Christian, we will begin to manifest God’s love. When a Christian’s love begins to maturate they no longer serve or give to get something in return, they serve because they have been conformed to the Servant of servants, Jesus Christ, Who gave His life out of His nature of a selfless love. Born first into a Jewish family, I am being softened enough to see that even Hitler needs salvation. If he knew God’s true love, he could not have done what he did. But he saw no examples of it. It was not easy for God to show me that Hitler needs the same medicine we all need — mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Surely I didn’t deserve His mercy. Neither does Hitler. No, God is not “fair.” He is more than fair! Where there is a need, Sacrificial Love seeks to satisfy. It is like water. It naturally seeks the lowest place on earth. So too, the Love of God seeks to replace the darkest and most evil places in the hearts of mankind. Come Lord Jesus and fill your Creation with your Love where there is neither “Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female,” (Galatians 3:28). Where we are all one big family forming a new Creations, a New World delivered from the bondage of corruption which has divided us for thousands of years. I have found the peace the world so longs for. The Hope of us all lies in the Father of us all. In His time, we hope you will seek Him and see for yourself these Truths. Amen.
The End.