Oh How He Loves Us!

"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:14-17)

God loves us so. His word is full of messages to us; He shows us, in ways that we can hold onto. His love does not tell us what we want to hear, but it does provide for us what we need to know.  Jesus was part of God's loving plan to save all of humanity. His love has been reaching out to His creation since the dawn of time. We saw last week that His love created us. And His love offers to us a deliverance. Because of sin, humanity had lost its communion with its creator; Jesus came to fulfill God's plan to restore that communion that was there before sin came. He was and He still is the bridge that would cross this great divide between our humanity and a great, pure and sinless God. The ONLY way to cross that great divide is to depend upon the sacrifice already given - Jesus; not by any other means.

What does this mean for us today? How does this apply to any of us? We are all sinners. We seek to please ourselves; we seek to gain what we want; we seek to gain our pleasures and desires. Most of the time, God's desire is completely left out of our wishes. The path we seek is usually our own path, and not the one God has chosen or desires for us, which is a good definition of sin. When we choose our own path, we are separate from God and a gap exists. Jesus came out of the love of God to bridge that gap for all who accept Him. Those who choose not to accept Him, choose not receive what Jesus came to bring.

God gives us all free will; His love reaches out to us, provides delieverance for us, but it is up to us to receive it. Jesus Christ was sent from the Father that we can know salvation and deliverance. This is firm evidence of God's love for us. Many people today do not believe in God. To me it takes a lot of faith for a person to believe that the world, the heavens and all that surrounds us just happened and that there is no Creator. Others believe that He exists, but they blame God for all things that go wrong in the world. God does not wish anything bad for mankind, but he did give us the will to choose. Humanity often chooses to ignore God, to separate from God and choose sin. Because of sin, the evils of this world are able to continue on and even to prosper. I wish I had a clear explanation as to why evil and bad things happen in our world; but I can only tell you that God loves you. He has made a way for us to know Him, to have a joy that goes beyond understanding. That way is Jesus Christ - the full revelation of the love of God for you. Oh how He loves us so!