A Word About Where This Came From

The Scriptures. Every verse here comes from the NET Bible. Where I have quoted Scripture, I have set it apart from my own words on purpose, so that you always know which is which — His word carries a weight mine never will. NET Bible® copyright ©1996–2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. Used throughout with gratitude.

The old voices. I am not the first to walk around inside this truth, and I leaned on some who went before me. Augustine, who ran from God for years before he could write down why our hearts stay restless. Bernard of Clairvaux, who nine hundred years ago wrote about loving God, and about the Spirit as the love passing between the Father and the Son. Julian of Norwich, whose long meditation on the love of God I quoted near the end. George Herbert, the country priest whose poem "Love" sits whole in the tenth section, every word of it his. All of these have been in the public hands for centuries, and I am grateful to stand in their company.

And the One who actually does the teaching. I said it at the start and I will say it once more here, because it is the truest thing in the book: I cannot teach you to love, and neither can these pages. Only God can, by His own love poured into you by His Spirit, from the inside. If anything here helped, it was only because He was already at work in you, and these words happened to be near. To Him be all of it.

Michlaude Discipleship Project All of it is free. None of it is mine to sell. For the glory of God alone.