I'm working on a Valentines message for the Rescue Mission. Now I've got to diminish the length of the content. But there is a lot of good information here on John 3:16. Maybe you would enjoy it too if you have the time to read. - Chuck B.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God -- the greatest Lover!
So loved -- the greatest degree!
The world -- the greatest number!
That He gave -- the greatest act!
His only begotten Son -- the greatest gift!
That whosoever -- the greatest opportunity!
Believeth -- the greatest simplicity!
In Him -- the greatest attraction!
Should not perish -- the greatest promise!
But -- the greatest difference!
Have -- the greatest certainty!
Everlasting life -- the greatest possession!
`John 3:16 – words that can change everything!
About a century ago, a ruined man was walking along South State Street in downtown Chicago, headed for Lake Michigan where he intended to end his alcoholic, drug-addicted life. Suddenly he heard a familiar song coming from a building he passed. The building was Pacific Garden Mission and the song was one his mother had sung to him as a little boy. As he entered, one of the workers greeted him and began to share with him those twenty-six life-changing words from John 3:16. That night Bill Ward opened his life to the Man who died for all his sin, Jesus Christ! And he would testify for the rest of his life that, from that moment on, he never needed or wanted another drink or another drug. Bill Ward's granddaughter is the wife of Ron Hutchcraft. She wouldn't be here were it not for the night when he traded death for life.
For years, Bill Ward and his wife traveled this country, pulling a trailer with 26 words on the side: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." His great-great grandson quoted those words to his daddy. And when he told the little guy that every time he tells a group of people about Jesus, he tells them those words, he said, "Well, if I keep going to Sunday School and learning more Bible stories, maybe someday I can be a preacher - and I can tell them those words."
And now those words have come to you, demanding the verdict they have demanded for 2,000 years. God's Son has died to pay for your sins. Now what are you going to do with Him? There are only two choices. You can abandon all hope in any religion or self-righteousness and pin all your hopes on God's "only Son" who paid your death penalty. Agreeing with Jesus won't do it. Liking Him, knowing all about Him isn't enough. Either you take Jesus in total trust or you reject Him and you pay forever for the sins He already paid for. This is your life-or-death decision - eternal life or death. Would you let this be the day you commit yourself totally to Jesus, making the same choice that has transformed five generations in Bill Ward's family?
That miracle can begin in you today - the miracle that has been changing lives for 2,000 years! Don't miss this. You woke up this morning without Jesus. You can go to sleep tonight knowing He is in your heart.
Never the Same
The Bible is the world's best selling book, but hardly anyone knows what's in it. Gabrielle was at a dinner with a leader of an international Bible distribution organization as their representative in the country of Zimbabwe. The problem there is not dust collecting on Bibles, it's the Bible literally going up in smoke. The pages of a Bible in some African countries are thought to be just perfect to roll a cigarette with. So, he met one man and was offering him a Bible and the man said, "Well, I'll take the Bible," but he said, "I need to let you know that if I take it, I'll smoke it." I'm going to give it to you, Gabrielle said, "I'll give you the Bible if before you smoke it, you read it." Well, he did what he said he would do - he read it, and then he smoked it . . . until . . . well, that's the exciting part.
This man told Gabrielle, the Bible distributor, "You know, I smoked Matthew after I read it, and then I read Mark and smoked it, and then I read Luke and I smoked it," and then he said, "then I got to John 3:16, and I haven't smoked since." That man in Zimbabwe had hit the verse, I mean THE verse, and he was never the same.
You're breezing through life doing your own thing and then one day you encounter this awesome truth and you know you've got to do something with it. You can't just read it. God has loved you so much that He gave the most precious thing He had for you.
Thanks CB
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