LOOKING FOR LOVE

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16 NLT)

You’ve known someone who looked for love “in all the wrong places,” in the worst places. Desperate to feel wanted, that man or woman jumped from love interest to love interest, but the results were rarely good.

But all of us, if we were honest, could admit we desperately need love. This harsh world attacks us if we have no one to love and be loved by. Our empty hearts begin to despair when love seems to pass us by.

What many hurting people -- even some Christians -- fail to recognize is that human love only goes so far. Exciting romance feels good, but it doesn’t solve every problem; in fact, it can be the beginning of even bigger troubles, if you’re not careful. Then the hurt of love gone wrong can dry out your soul. It’s not the love this world is founded on, so it can never give us all we need.

But there’s one love that every person -- weak or strong, rich or poor, single or married -- can enjoy. It won’t lead to a bad place or break a heart. It doesn’t die out, as so many romances do, and no one feels used at the end of it. God’s love is perfect, so no baggage ties it down or ruins it. Not only that, God’s love never ends. He plans to bring us into eternity through His Son, Jesus Christ. So the love that buoys us up today never disappears.

The love of the Savior, it’s the best of both worlds. 

-- Adapted from “Daily Wisdom to Satisfy the Soul” by Pamela McQuade, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission. 

#6483

FAITH BELIEVES, TRUST RESTS – Part 1 of 2

What is faith? John Patten (1824 -1907) traveled to New Hebrides (a group of islands in the Southwest Pacific) to tell the tribal people about Jesus. The islanders were cannibals and his life was in constant danger. Patten decided to work on a translation of John’s Gospel, but found that there was no word in their language for “belief” or “trust.” Nobody trusted anybody else.

Eventually, Patten hit upon the way to find the word he was looking for. One day, when his native servant came in, Patten sat back in his chair, raised both feet off the floor, and asked, “What am I doing now?” In reply, the servant used a word which means “to lean your whole weight upon.” This was the expression Patten used. Faith is leaning our whole weight upon Jesus and what He has done for us on the cross.

It all starts with God’s love for us: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  [As a result of our sin,] we all deserve to “perish.” God, in His love for us, saw the mess we were in and gave His only Son, Jesus, to die for us. As a result of His death, everlasting life is offered to all who believe. 

-- Nicky Gumbel in Alpha’s “Questions of Life: A Practical Introduction to the Christian Faith”

#6324

A PLACE IN GOD’S HEART

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”  (John 3:16-18 NKJV)

Augustine wrote (in “Confessions”): "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee."

Could it be true that there is a place in God's heart that only you can fill, that only I can fill -- that God is restless until we rest in Him?

What a thought -- that there is a place in God's heart that only you can fill! That's more than a thought; it's a truth verified in the most dramatic and convincing way: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJV)

Think about that for a moment. I don't know of a more exhilarating truth. If you love someone, you need that someone to return that love, don't you? Sure you do! So it is with God. God loves you and needs your love. God will not allow death to destroy you. If you are forever separated from God, it will be your choice, not God's. In God's heart there is a place that only you can fill.

-- Maxie Dunnam in “Living the Psalms: A Confidence for All Seasons” 

#5965

SALVATION 101 - JOHN 3:16

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)

 The heart of salvation: “For God so loved”

The breadth of salvation: “For God so loved the world”

The act of salvation: “For God so loved that He gave”

The Savior of salvation: “That He gave His only begotten Son”

The means of salvation: “That whosoever believes in Him”

The need of salvation:  “That whosoever believes may not perish”

The promise of salvation: “That whosoever believes may not perish but have eternal life”

-- Rev. David J. Kalas

#5891

TRANSLATING “BELIEVE”

“Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16b)

Bible translators in the New Hebrides islands struggled to find an appropriate verb for believe. This was a serious problem, as the word and the concept are essential to Scripture.

One Bible translator, John G. Paton, accidentally came upon a solution while hunting with a tribesman. The two men bagged a large deer and carried it on a pole along a steep mountain path to Paton’s home. When they reached the veranda, both men dropped the load and plopped into the porch chairs. As they did so, the native exclaimed in the language of the people, "My, it is good to stretch yourself out here and rest.” Paton immediately reached for paper and pencil and recorded the phrase.

As a result, his final translation of John 3:16 could be worded: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever stretches oneself out on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Stretch out on Christ and rest. 

-- Max Lucado in “Cast of Characters: Common People in the Hands of an Uncommon God”

#5668

THE CHRISTMAS GIFT

A gift is something that is given to another voluntarily and for which no payment is received or expected. It is a way we have of saying to another, “I love you” or “I think you are wonderful.”

God’s ultimate gift to us is the giving of His Son, Jesus Christ. We remember that gift in one of the best know verses of the Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” When we remember the giving of that great gift, it is appropriate that we should respond to God’s love with expressions of our love. But how can we respond to God’s love? Jesus taught that love of God and love of neighbor go hand in hand. (Cf. Matthew 22:37-40, John 13:34-35, 1 John 4:19). The giving of gifts to those we love is just one way to show that we have learned of love from Jesus. 

-- Kenneth A. Mortonson in “The Advent Instructor: Reflections on Christmas Symbolism”


#4479

THE HOPE DIAMOND OF THE BIBLE

For God

so loved the world

that He gave His one and only Son,

that whoever believes in Him

shall not perish but have

eternal life.

A twenty-six-word parade of hope:  beginning with God, ending with life, and urging us to do the same. Brief enough to write on a napkin or memorize in a moment, yet solid enough to weather two thousand years of storms and questions. If you know nothing of the Bible, start here. If you know everything in the Bible, return here. We all need the reminder. The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human. And God’s treatment is prescribed in John 3:16.

He loves. He gave. We believe. We live.

…Believe or dismiss them, embrace or reject them, any serious consideration of Christ must include them.

-- Max Lucado in “Cast of Characters”

#4330