An Intervening Love

The Mystery of God’s Providence and the Paradox of His Grace

Thomas M. Stallter

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9798385243419
  9798385243426
• eBook ISBN:
  9798385243433
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This is the second of two books--the first is titled Finding Freedom and Grace in a Broken World: A Journey in the Purposes and Providence of God--intended to help longtime but tired believers and those at a distance or disenchanted with what they have seen in Christianity to know God better, to experience his grace from the inside, and to grow deep in their faith and loyalty to the God of the universe. The 248 themes here are intended to help readers continue to become what God wants them to be in a broken world trying to make them into something else. These words are for people who want to move from Christian routines, rituals, and information about God to flourishing faith and trust, enveloping an ongoing, intimate relationship with him in their daily lives. For he continues to move in the history of the world he created, coming between humankind and the darkness that has settled in, offering his welcoming grace to the most unworthy, bringing freedom to the oppressed, hope to the weary, and reigniting the faith of tired Christians. It is the story of his intervening love for everyone who wants it.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1. Spiritual Fog
• 2. The Truthful Way
• 3. Moral Society
• 4. Asceticism or Freedom in Christ
• 5. Christianity or Religion
• 6. Misplaced Loyalty
• 7. The Proud Heart
• 8. Moral Law Forgotten
• 9. Divided Loyalty
• 10. Service and Loyalty
• 11. Trusting the God of Grace
• 12. Justice in Society
• 13. Beliefs Must Result in Behavior
• 14. Differences Between People Matter
• 15. Imperfect but Forgiven
• 16. The Information Stalker
• 17. Social Roles
• 18. People Are Not Equal
• 19. Social Idols
• 20. Some Are Further Along than Others
• 21. Free Will in a Broken World
• 22. God Chose to Use Us
• 23. Religion or Relationship
• 24. Resolve or Rest
• 25. God’s Will Achieved?
• 26. How Much Do You Matter?
• 27. Playing Our Part Well
• 28. Determination
• 29. Choosing God
• 30. Self-Assertion or Service
• 31. Dangerous Virtues and Dark Disciplines
• 32. Perfectionism
• 33. The Paradox of God’s Gift of Freedom
• 34. Lost Values in a Broken World
• 35. Not Alone in His Plan
• 36. What Kind of Fool
• 37. The Friends We Keep
• 38. To Do Good or to Be Good?
• 39. The Seeing and the Blind
• 40. Honor, Grace, and Humility
• 41. The Pure in Heart
• 42. Ritual Behavior
• 43. He Comes
• 44. Here but Wanting to Be There
• 45. What I Want
• 46. Free Will
• 47. Cultural Filters and the Bible
• 48. Personal Barriers
• 49. God, So Different from Us
• 50. God Chooses Some
• 51. “Biblical” Doctrine
• 52. God at Work in You
• 53. I Believe It
• 54. Unreliable Feelings
• 55. Explaining God
• 56. Good People
• 57. The “Ordinary” Christian Life
• 58. The Ultimate Identity
• 59. Our Cultural Lens
• 60. Learning Is Not for the Faint of Heart
• 61. Truth
• 62. Reaction
• 63. Failings
• 64. The Mystery of God’s Ways
• 65. The Justice of Man and God
• 66. In the Ordinary Things
• 67. Quiet People
• 68. Why Go to Church?
• 69. Reminders of Sin and Grace
• 70. God Speaks with Purpose
• 71. Meaning and Purpose
• 72. Worldview Gone Wrong
• 73. Social Authority
• 74. Security
• 75. Good Things Made Bad
• 76. Cultures of the Bible
• 77. Walking Worthy of the Gospel
• 78. Our Part in Making Disciples
• 79. Information About God
• 80. Fatal Mixture
• 81. Perfect Christians
• 82. Never Good Enough
• 83. Maybe God Doesn’t Mind
• 84. A Lifetime
• 85. The Nature of Worship
• 86. Commanded to Worship?
• 87. Glorify God
• 88. To Do or Not to Do
• 89. Heaven or Hell?
• 90. Encouraging Popular Christianity
• 91. Life as a Christian
• 92. Sustaining Faith
• 93. Biblical Christians in Ordinary Life
• 94. For the Love of God
• 95. Freedom from Cultural Conscience
• 96. Early Impressions
• 97. In the Stillness
• 98. Miracles
• 99. Improvements to Worship
• 100. Glorify (?) God in Our Lives
• 101. What Is Your Name?
• 102. The Fear of God
• 103. Religion or Righteousness
• 104. Beauty with Tremors
• 105. God’s Work
• 106. Bargaining with God
• 107. God’s Sovereignty
• 108. Good Is Evil, Evil Is Good?
• 109. Look at Me
• 110. Hard Times
• 111. I Have Been Wronged
• 112. The Power of Darkness Undone
• 113. Culture and Conversion
• 114. God’s Goodness and Our Freedom
• 115. God’s Help
• 116. Human Religion
• 117. Doing Good
• 118. Faith
• 119. Quiet Loyalty in Times of Trouble
• 120. The Builder at Work
• 121. Independence Has Its Dangers
• 122. Confusion in the Church
• 123. What We Don’t Know
• 124. The Pride of the Self
• 125. Knowing or Not Knowing
• 126. I Don’t Feel Like It
• 127. Taking Others Seriously
• 128. Roadblocks to Knowing the Truth
• 129. To Be Free of Anxiety
• 130. The Value of Weakness
• 131. Personal Peace
• 132. A Broken World
• 133. The Power of Culture
• 134. Problems Reading the Bible
• 135. The Barrier of Culture
• 136. Satan Makes No Friends
• 137. The Journey
• 138. The Importance of Names
• 139. Different from Each Other
• 140. Truth and Experience
• 141. Approaching God
• 142. Beginnings of a Life with God
• 143. What Is It to Be Spiritual?
• 144. The Simplicity or Complexity of Faith
• 145. Spiritual Disciplines
• 146. Missionaries?
• 147. Motives and Ritual Behavior
• 148. The Human Jesus
• 149. Behavior and Freedom in Christ
• 150. God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways
• 151. The Good and Evil of Humankind
• 152. Personal and Social Choices
• 153. Human “Justice” Judged
• 154. The Human Heart
• 155. Theologians and Everybody Else
• 156. The Kingdom of Heaven First
• 157. Bad Maps to Knowing God
• 158. Love
• 159. Common Sense
• 160. Confusion in Difficult Times
• 161. Never Alone
• 162. Doubt
• 163. Remember
• 164. Get Busy
• 165. Simple Faith
• 166. Knowing God and His Purposes
• 167. The Fall of Humankind
• 168. Creatures of Habit
• 169. The Ways of God
• 170. The Grace of God in Christ
• 171. Confidence in Being Right
• 172. The Weakness of Wealth
• 173. Feeling Saved
• 174. Theological Maps
• 175. Human Culture in the Church?
• 176. Our Part in God’s Plan
• 177. God Uses the Most Unlikely People
• 178. God’s Providence at Work
• 179. The Real Me
• 180. Born Again—A New Beginning
• 181. The Mirror Doesn’t Lie
• 182. The Demands of Culture
• 183. Weakness and Walking Worthy
• 184. The Essentials of God’s Word
• 185. Connecting with the Message of the Bible
• 186. Sovereignty with Grace
• 187. Knowing Heads and Anxious Hearts
• 188. Self-Centered
• 189. Is God Angry?
• 190. Satan at Your Side in the World
• 191. Nature Speaks
• 192. To Love or Not to Love
• 193. Opinions or Wisdom
• 194. Mask and Ego
• 195. Fear of Hell
• 196. Blind Leaders
• 197. Human Weakness, God’s Strength
• 198. Loving Others
• 199. Impatience
• 200. Envy
• 201. Starved for Grace
• 202. Making Disciples
• 203. Fixing Things
• 204. The Paradox of God’s Ways
• 205. The Irony of God
• 206. Seeing God
• 207. God Among Gods
• 208. Risking the Local Church
• 209. The Sweet Poison of Legalism
• 210. The Other Side of the Door
• 211. The Nature of God’s Word
• 212. The Church Today
• 213. Time on Our Hands
• 214. Unreasoned Death
• 215. Unending Hope
• 216. Poor in Spirit and Pure in Heart
• 217. Obedience
• 218. A Selfless Person Who Can Find?
• 219. Forgiving Others
• 220. Trouble in the Church
• 221. Jesus and Social Justice
• 222. Biblical Thinking
• 223. To Forget God
• 224. Freedom in Christ That Honors God
• 225. Religion Is Not the Cure
• 226. God’s Great Disappointment
• 227. Those Who Are Well
• 228. Years Go By
• 229. God’s Providence Matters
• 230. Dread and Anxiety
• 231. The Disintegration of a Culture
• 232. The Power of God Today and Tomorrow
• 233. Adam, Eve, and Sin Today
• 234. Doing Good and Evil
• 235. The Ordinary
• 236. The Cross
• 237. Jesus Gives Hope
• 238. Suffering, Difficulties, and Sorrows
• 239. Better for Having Suffered
• 240. The End of All Things
• 241. God’s Message and Human Culture
• 242. The Way of Wisdom
• 243. Achieving Wisdom
• 244. Unsettling Change
• 245. The Dull Ache of Conscience
• 246. Choosing God’s Way in a Broken World
• 247. Responding to an Intervening Love