Devotional Guide For the week of March 16, 2008
GOD SO LOVED
Why God loves the world
To read the Bible in one year, today read Esther 10
To Know:
³For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes
in him should not perish but have eternal life.² (John 3:16)
³God so loved the world² Really? Are we expected to believe God loves
what
happens in this world of ours? Does God know less or care less than
politicians who promise to clean up the world? Candidates routinely
rehearse
a litany of evils from which they promise to save us. News people would
starve if they waited to write stories on the love nations have for one
another. Abused children would cower if they thought God loved their
abusers. What motivated Jesus to say, ³God so loved the world?²
In 1962, my new friend became the proud father of a baby girl. Although he
deeply loved his little girl, to me she was nothing special. My friendıs
love for his daughter was in himself, not in anything loveable his little
one had done. God loves the world, not because this is a loveable world,
but
because God is a loving God.
God is love. In his first letter John wrote, ³This is love: not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice
for
our sins.² (4:10) God knows the true state of the world far better than
any
politician. He knows that evil is more awful than any newsperson could
ever
imagine. Because God is love, he is willing to save the most undeserving
sinner on earth. Undeserving sinners are welcome to trust Godıs love in
Christ. Jesus really meant it when he said, ³God so loved the world²
To Do:
Stop searching for something in yourself that you hope will commend you to
the Lord. You will search in vain. The hymn writer had it right, ³Nothing
in
my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.² On the cross, Christ ³was
pierced for our transgressions,² and ³crushed for our iniquities,² because
³the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we
are
healed.² (See Is. 53:5)
03178$-03178
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