“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16.

We, have no idea, how much God, loves this World. This verse, is one of the most quoted, of all the words of the Bible. In this hour, many of us think we have been through a lot; and many of us have. But it might help, if we think about something. “That He gave His only begotten Son,” to be mocked, to be ridiculed, to be rejected, to even be spit on, to be lied on, plotted against, called names, to be treated as a common criminal, to have his back laid with bloody stripes, to have those thorns jabbed into His head, to be driven with spikes and hung in shame.

To have a spear thrust into his side to make sure He was dead, so the religious folk of the day, could pass by, and say, “I told you so.” To have his own disciples abandon Him, to suffer in ways we’ll never know. No real home on Earth, not even His own place of burial. God loved this World so much, that He let His only Son, go through all of that.

He could have truly stopped it; you and I would have. We don’t love like that; there is nothing in us, that would allow one of our loved ones to go through such torture and suffering. It seems that so many of us, don’t even truly understand, just why God manifested himself in flesh, and walked on this Earth. Why did Jesus Christ come here anyway? Because God, so loved. He still does.

We’re watching things happen in our world today. It likely never occurs to us, that every day, God is watching how we respond to those things. We see greed beyond measure, we’ve seen the love of money, power and control, become more important than God; on a scale we’ve never seen in our time. While we fought and ranted over who our next revered leaders were to be, I saw a clip about 4,000 little children, who are now orphans. Because they lost both parents to this Ebola virus. I saw some of them, were already feverish. One man, stood in the middle of the road, shouting across to his wife; he could not go near her, because she was infected.

Every day, we rail out against people, that God loves. He created all of us; we were all created, in His image; like it or not. We like to rave on about just how much we hate sin; yet we cannot see it in our own lives. I hear a lot of people say, they love the sinner; their true actions, speak differently.

I think it might offend God, when we pretend how much we love sinners; when His love for them, has no depths, and no measure. We like to claim we know Jesus Christ; yet we don’t even know, how to love the way He did. Truthfully, we don’t even love each other, much less those in this World.

People die, thinking God doesn’t love them; because we don’t.

People don’t want to hear about God’s wrath; but it’s coming; just as sure as any of the rest of the things we say we believe. God, through His Son Jesus Christ, forgives people, for some pretty rotten things, when those who profess Him, don’t. Because He truly loves them.

Anybody, who will repent, and turn from their wicked ways, finds grace and restoration at the feet of Jesus Christ. Many of us were left to die before we found out just what kind of loving God there really is.

I am not ashamed to say today, that I love God now more than I ever thought possible. He has proven His love for me; He spared me, when all hope was lost. The only thing that He asks of me now, is that I turn and show that same kind of love, to other people.

Robert Blackburn