survey says...54% say God loves everyone!

I have a friend of the family who is a pastor of a nearby church. About a week ago we went over to visit. With both of us working in churches we usually end up talking about work, which is awesome that talking about work and faith are now in the same category. Pretty awesome. Anyway she said that she was at a conference recently and they took a vote of all the attendees which were comprised of about 1500 church workers of three differing denominations. The speaker for the conference asked them to vote whether or not God loves everybody. 54% said yes. This made my heart sink and immediately a number of bible verses popped in my head proving that 100% of those who attended should have voted yes. Apparently this sparked up a conversation in groups. The feeling was that less than half felt that God couldn't love people who don't love him, or those born the wrong gender, etc. I could not believe my ears. Needless to say all of those who attended this conference immediately were prayed for by me. It made me really sad that these people think that God's love would be conditional or based person to person. Even worse is that they not only claim to a follower of Christ but work in his church to proclaim his name. As for God loving everybody...i cannot begin to tell you how many bible verses would prove that. I would love to tell them that there is a major difference between loving someone and accepting their decisions. You can ask any parent out there about loving someone even when they make decisions that you cannot agree with. I am very grateful that I serve a God that loves me unconditionally, I cannot imagine that emptiness I would feel if that love was only attained by works. I am not worthy of his love nor will I ever be worthy of it. That is only one of the best things about our Maker. This is a blog is something that I have been really studying about, praying about and thinking about lately. I love God so much that I will do whatever it takes to proclaim to everyone i meet not in words but in deeds. Jesus loved prostitutes, thieves, tax collectors and the lame. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Kris