John 3:16-18
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
I was watching a movie recently about a family of con artists. One day there was a knock at the door, and one of the children saw a policemen standing there. She froze… scared to open the door. The father opened the door and had a pleasant, innocent conversation with the policeman who was merely making a courtesy call. Afterward, the father told his family, “People in this neighborhood don’t fear the police… the police are their friends!” He added that most people in that neighborhood had no reason to expect something bad when the policeman knocked on their door… they had not done anything wrong, so they knew that nothing was going to happen.
If you don’t get anything else today from this writing, get this… God didn’t send Jesus to condemn us… to wag his finger and tell us how perfectly awful we are. We have every reason to be like those who feared the policeman. We’ve done wrong, and we know it… yet that is not why Jesus knocks on the door of our hearts. That is not why He gave His very life on the cross for us. If you don’t understand anything else today, try as hard as you can to see how much Jesus loves you! He wants you to be with Him – now and forever. He doesn’t want to see you condemned – to hell… or to an existence akin to hell on earth. He wants to capture your heart and fill you with hope and peace and joy.
The thing of it is… we will never be forced to choose Jesus. It’s all up to us. God sent Him to earth to save us… but only if we wish to be rescued. Choosing Jesus changes everything. Choosing Jesus says, “I love you for loving me.”
There are a zillion other reasons to choose Jesus… but what could be better than pure love - His… and ours in return? Have you chosen Jesus?
©2011 Debbie Robus
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