John 3:16 – BradRiley.Org

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

The entire message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation can be summed up in these four words – “For God so loved”. God created because He loved. God saved Noah because He loved. God called Abraham, and made him the father of all who would be redeemed because He loved. God gave the promised land because He loved. He restored Israel to their homeland after their captivity because He loved. The story of God and humanity is all about love.

Too often we lose sight of the Father’s love by focusing on the difficult elements of the many stories of God’s people through time. We often think the story of God is about disobedience and punishment. Those are both a part of the saga, but they are not what the story is all about. Just as there are consequences to sin in our lives today, the many harsh punishments we see in the Bible were as such. And, punishment is actually loving if the intention is for us to learn from our disobedience. But, if we fail to see the love of God poured out over and over again in the pages of the Bible, we miss the main point.

God’s love is from before all things because His very essence is love. All that flows from Him, yes even His wrath, flows from His love. As St. John tells us, “God is light” and “God is love”, and there is no darkness in Him (1 Jn. 1:5; 4:8). And, in the ultimate act of light and love He sent His only son, Jesus Christ, into the world, that through faith, all who will believe on Him may be saved.

If God’s story is all about love, then shouldn’t ours be as well? Is yours? Believe me, I’m asking myself the same thing. Every day when we rise to look in the mirror, let us remember how much God loves us, and let that love overflow in waves of mercy to a lost and hurting world; that’s God’s plan; it always has been and it always will be, and – it’s all about love.

Grace and Peace,

+Pastor Brad

Prayer

Merciful, loving Father, thank you for loving me even when I am most unlovable, and for your just punishments of my sin. Help me to learn from them, and help me today to be a conduit of your love to everyone I meet. Let your waves of mercy overflow through me. Amen.

Image credit: http://www.hbcridgeway.org/sermons/sermon/2015-06-28/pm-its-all-about-love:-love-my-family

^“15Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Mark 10:15

Read Mark 10:1-16

It’s All About Jesus

There are very few things at which we adults do our best when acting like a child. In fact, it’s really quite annoying when you see a grown up behaving in a child like manner. St. Paul said, When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (1 Cor. 11:13). I think we all know what Paul meant by that. But, there is this one thing in life in which we must think like a child – our faith.

I’m a real theology and history nut. I love to study different theologies. I like to understand why different Christians believe as they do, and learn how they got to those beliefs. One thing I’ve observed about almost all church theologies; they’ve made things more complicated than necessary. Jesus said our faith must be a “childlike” one. But, what is a childlike faith?

I think a childlike faith can best be described as the opposite of the Jewish faith. The Old Testament faith of the Jewish people was a faith steeped in complicated laws and traditions. Certainly not all laws and traditions are bad, but the New Testament believer in Jesus Christ doesn’t need to learn all those complicated laws and rituals. In Jesus all those laws are fulfilled, and Jesus simplified it for all of us when he gave the Great Commandment recorded in Matthew 22; that we should love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love others the same.

The Simplicity of Faith

Notice how simple that is? John 3:16 isn’t too complicated either; “…whoever believes in Him shall not perish.” We might also consider that the early church grew at an amazing rate the first few decades, as the simple gospel message was spread throughout the Roman world. In fact, there weren’t even any books or letters written, that we would know as a part of scripture, for almost two decades after Jesus’ death. And, it took over 300 years before there was an official New Testament at all.

How did the church spread so quickly and so powerfully so as to transform the known world at the time? Because the message was simple – Jesus is God, the Messiah, savior of the world. Over two thousand years, various church groups have complicated things with defining the faith in more detail, and some of that was necessary as many false teachings arose leading people astray. However, we do best to remember, whatever church or denomination we belong to, that the essence of the Christian faith is simple; we must believe like a child and just accept it – believe in God, and that Jesus is God come into our world to save us from our sins.

Our Lenten season is moving quickly toward Holy Week, when we will remember the last week of Jesus’ life leading to the cross. Won’t you spend some time the remainder of this week thinking about your faith? Have you allowed it to become too complicated? If so, spend some time meditating on the Holy name of Jesus, the name by which all are saved. It’s all about Jesus. He’s the one who will raise us from the ashes.

Grace & Peace for a Holy Lent,

Pastor Brad

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Matthew 5:6

Tag: John 3:16

It’s All About Love

Raised from the Ashes: Lent – Day 33