"What are you going through right now? Is life great? Is life terrible? No matter what you're going through, there is a love that will sustain you through it all. Whether life is good or life is hard, your significance rests in the arms of God."

Love. It's a feeling that we all have and that we all desire. Yet, as Micah Berteau describes in his newest book, love is more than just a feeling. Berteau uses the story of Hosea and Gomer from the Bible (which is foreshadowing of the love of Jesus) to demonstrate what true love is in a world that is full of people being fake. The story of Hosea's unconditional love for Gomer, and how he bought her back after she returned to her sinful life, is one of my favorite stories. Every woman wants to be cherished with a love that powerful. The good news is that we are, by our Lord and Savior, Jesus. "What kind of love would pay a price to buy something that already belonged to him? Yet Jesus did. On the cross he paid the price for us. He got what we deserved so we could get what we don't deserve. Salvation. Hope. Love that radically alters everything. This is a crazy love."

We often feel separated from God or unloved as we strive to survive the pain and disappointments that we face in this life. Yet as Berteau points out: "Worldly disappointments are not separations. Just because you feel separated does not mean you are. Your disappointments do not distance you from God's love; they cause you to forget where it is and how to access it." This reminder was really encouraging to me. Even when I am feeling far from God, He is not far from me. His love for me is unchanging. His love for you and all of the world is unchanging as well. Even though we all sin and have weaknesses, He will never stop loving us. "God is ready to turn your disadvantage into your advantage."

This book was a fairly quick read for me, but it definitely packed a punch. The message of the book was comforting, encouraging, and got me thinking. It is a great read for anyone who needs to learn or needs a reminder of what true love really is.

I received a copy of this book from the Revell Reads blogger program. All opinions are my own.

There are a lot of books about God's love, but in my opinion there can't be too many. It is an area I struggled in for so long, so I am always interested in reading and/or reviewing a book on that subject.

This author is new to me, and this may be his first book. I liked his style of writing. He isn't preachy, and writes in an interesting and easy to read style, yet writes with depth. He takes a couple of different approaches to talk about God's love for us. He uses some stories from when he grew up and got in trouble, and related his dad's reactions to how God is with us. He also uses the Biblical story of Hosea and Gomer and brings out some great points and truths from that story.

Disclosure: I moved right after getting this book in the mail, and had trouble finding it after my move, so I read through it faster than normal to meet the review dates. I still got a lot out of it, but plan on going back through it at a slower pace. There is a lot of great truths about God's love in this book, and it is worth reading no matter if you struggle to believe God loves you, or if you haven't had any doubts for years.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.

People today are tired of discovering the magnitude of falseness in the world we live in, and Berteau offers a solid, easy-to-understand explanation of how and why God's love goes far above and beyond falsehood.

The author provides ample Biblical reference to demonstrate the depth of God's love for all people. He also explains how people can fail to accept God's love, even those who have walked as Christians for many years. There is a level of love that comes only from God, and no human love can compare, or become a substitute for God's love and provide the fulfillment all people seek.

Besides Biblical references, Berteau uses personal experiences to clarify the statements he makes regarding God's love, as well as offering practical guidelines in avoiding pitfalls that can rob us of the peace that living in God's love can provide.

From the images that we have of ourselves to the bait from the enemy that is so easy to be fooled by, to understanding punishment versus correction, to the everlasting concept that real love is, in one hundred ninety-five pages this book covers an amazing amount of things we all deal with in our common, day-to-day lives.

Touching on trusting God while understanding rules and the rhythm of love, this book is an eye-opener for non-believers and believers alike. If you want to understand God's love in a way that is skillfully explained, Love Changes Everything is well worth investing your time and money in.

The idea that love changes everything is one I definitely agree withbut I must say that this book was not at all what I was expecting! Perhaps I misunderstood the book blurb, but I was under the impression that this book was about how our love can change our surroundings and relationships. However, the book is actually about how living with full knowledge of God's love for us can change everything about our own lives. Micah Berteau wants everyone to know the amazing and transforming love of Jesus, and then to go forth and live loved.

The Bible is clear that God's love toward us is vast and incomprehensible. He showed ultimate love by giving His Son to die for us. Yet it can be easy to teach little children to sing Jesus Loves Me while we as adults feel like we must strive to earn His favor and stay in His good graces. Yet what could we do that would ever make us more worthy in God's eyes? He has already declared His love in the biggest, boldest ways. If we understand this, it can transform how we view Him, how we view ourselves, and how we interact with Him.

Berteau uses the story of Hosea and Gomer to illustrate many of his points. Although I had a basic knowledge of this minor prophet and his message, I had not looked into it in an in-depth way. I appreciated his insights and the way he brought the account to life.

One of my favorite parts of the book was how the author reminded us that with Jesus we have nothing to lose and nothing to prove. God has already done it all. Of course His desire is that our love prompts us to live in humble obedience, and truly living loved will help us say no to temptation because we realize God has already met our needs and can fill the deepest desires of our heart. Another of my favorite quotes comes from Chapter 10: "What if you zeroed in on God's goodness more than anything else? You would know you are loved, called, highly favored, not forgotten, and powerful in the hands of God."

I would recommend this book for anyone who needs the reminder that they are valued and precious in the eyes of our Heavenly Father.

I received my copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.

How is God like a Nintendo game?

Relative that question, there are, I'd argue, two types of people:

Those who are intrigued and would like to know the answer, and those who roll their eyes.

Which of those camps you're in will most likely determine what you would think of pastor Micah Berteau's "Love Changes Everything." If you're in the eye-rolling camp, you may want to stay away. If you're in the intrigued camp, this book may well be for you.

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and in the case of "Love Changes Everything," that includes the description on the back cover, which will tell you that this is a book about the Biblical book of Hosea.

Hosea, the story of a prophet whom God instructs to marry a prostitute and then to literally purchase her back after she leaves him, is a challenging text. There are deep truths about God there, which at a surface reading can be both beautiful and troubling.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your camp, this is not a book about Hosea. (If you would like a book that is about Hosea, one of the best may be Francine River's "Redeeming Love," a novel set during the California Gold Rush which captures the beauty and import of the book of Hosea captivatingly.)

"Love Changes Everything" does mention Hosea as much as it mentions anything. A third of the way through, for example, you'll have read a good four of five paragraphs about Hosea. But to say it's a book about Hosea is a stretch.

What it is about, as one might gather from the title, is Love. Specifically, God's love, and what it means to to be loved by God and to love God.

It uses Hosea as a way to talk about that topic, but it also uses Nintendo games and GPS and toddler cups and cabinet doors.

In fact, it uses those things more liberally than scripture. (Which is not necessarily a bad thing Berteau's claim that Martha and Lazarus' sister Mary had been a prostitute strikes me as dubious, as does one of his major claims about the Hosea story.)

Berteau uses these copious everyday analogies to personalize and humanize scripture. This is a book not for someone looking for a deep exegesis of scripture, but for someone looking for a more relatable way to connect to it. Berteau uses his own life, and the culture around us to make his points accessible, to make the Father's love as tangible as, well, a father's love.

I'll admit that I found it a mixed bag his GPS analogy that we don't always get direction while we're still going the right way resonated with me, his Michael Jackson reference that Jesus is the "Smoothest Criminal" perhaps less so. (I suspect I'm probably a little older than the target audience, so your milage may vary.)

All in all, "Love Changes Everything" is an engaging and energetic introduction to God's love for those seeking a new approach a new understanding.

(Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Handlebar publishing. Also full disclosure: I'm in the eye-rolling camp on the whole Nintendo thing.)