Devotional thought presented to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 04 December 2014; Arthur Meighen Retirement Home, Wednesday 18 May 2016; River Street Cafe, 27 May 2016.
Read John 3:16-21
God
loves us. John 3:16 records that He loves us so much that Jesus laid down His
life that we may live; therefore, I can’t imagine how much it must hurt Him
that some of us actually perish.
I am a
parent. Think about this scenario for a moment. The house across the street is
on fire; there are children in that house. Your child is able to save them.
Your son or daughter – your ONLY son or daughter can reach them so you
encourage her, “Go, go, go! Save them.”
Your
daughter goes. She suffers every peril in that burning house that everyone else
in there is suffering (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:14, Luke 4): There is the deadly
smoke, the fire, and the falling beams. She is successful. She gets to the
children. She is able to make an opening in the wall. She points them to the
way out. She yells for them to walk through the opening in the wall. She makes
a clear path so that all of the children can be saved and then… she dies. Your
daughter dies so that all these children can be saved. Your child dies so that
none of these children need to die but – here’s the kicker: the children do not
want to be saved. They die anyway. Your daughter dies so that they can be saved
but they choose to stay and die. They do not need to die but they choose not to
walk through the opening she died to make for them. They refuse to be saved.
This
is what it is like for God when our loved ones reject Him. He sent His Son to
this earth that is perishing. He sent His Son to this house that is on fire and
His Son died so that we may live but some refuse His love and some reject His
Salvation. He sent Jesus not to condemn us to burn in the eternal house fire
but to save us; however, like those children, some refuse to walk through that
opening that Jesus died to make. John 3:18: “Those who believe in Him are not
condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already…” of their own
accord because, John 3:19, “people loved darkness rather than light.”
But
there is good news here. Yes, the house is on fire; yes, Jesus died, but we -
as long as we are still breathing - have the opportunity to walk through the
hole in the wall that He created through His death and resurrection. We can
walk through the wall from certain death to certain life. All we need to do is
believe in Him, obey Him, and walk through that wall to eternal life with the
Father because, John 3:17, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to
condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only [begotten] Son, so
that everyone who believe in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
www.sheepspeak.com
[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, John 3:16-21: For
God so loved the world. Presented to The Salvation Army Nipawin &
Tisdale on 23 November 2008 and Swift Current on 12 March 2011. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/11/john-316-21-for-god-so-loved-world.html
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