I’ve read through the Bible, cover to cover, several times, but, sadly, I don’t have many verses memorized. Let me clarify that there are many verses I can quote but very few that I could tell you book, chapter, and verse as well. The numbers just don’t stick in my head.
Today’s verse is the exception. In fact, it may be the exception for a lot of people. Even people that have never read the Bible. A fellow named Rollen Stewart became famous for sitting in high-profile spots at televised sporting events, like behind home plates at baseball games, in the 80s. He wore a rainbow wig to catch the eye, and he always waved a sign saying simply “John 3:16.” He was probably more than a bit unbalanced (and is apparently currently serving three life sentences in jail), but there was a reason he chose that verse of all the verses in the Bible.
It is known as summarizing the message of the Bible in one verse. It does a pretty good job of it.
It talks of God’s immense love for His creation. It speaks to Jesus’s amazing sacrifice, and the marvelous outcome of accepting that gift. And it gets me excited for the future available to me if I step into the light of His love.
Dear God,
Thank you for your simple message of love, forgiveness, and hope. Forgive me for complicating it. Show me how and when to share this simple message of good news. And to keep it simple.
Paul wrote today’s verse when chastising Peter who was going along with a group of people that had decided circumcision was critical to salvation. They were segregating themselves from the Gentiles — the non-Jews — for this reason.
The Old Testament law includes a lot of behavior that makes a person “unclean,” or unfit for participation in worship. The Jewish leaders took this even farther and declared them unfit for participation in society.
One of the things that Jesus came to clear up was this notion of what makes a person unclean and unfit for the presence of God. His answer was sin. All sin. Any sin makes me unfit to approach God. Ever.
But Jesus said the solution could not be found in the law. Not in any ritual or command or effort. The one and only solution to solving the “unclean” issue was faith in Jesus.
The Jews Paul was scolding thought they were clean because of circumcision and the Gentiles were not. They decided the Gentiles could not eat with them or come to their parties or join in any reindeer games.
But if circumcision offered salvation, what was the point of Jesus’s sacrifice?
There is nothing that can make a person worthy of being in the presence of God other than Jesus.
And because of Jesus, everyone who accepts His gift is worthy and acceptable.
That means everyone. Regardless of whatever sin I think they are guilty of. Or ritual I think they should undertake. Or effort I think they should make to change something about themselves.
Everyone. Gay people. Straight people. Women. Men. Trans. Black. White. Latino. Hispanic. Undocumented. Citizen. Republican. Democrat. Ex-convicts. Current convicts. Addicts. Homeless people. People living in mansions. Pedophiles. Yes, even pedophiles. Everyone stands on equal footing with God. We all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Way short.
Back to today’s verse. That fallen life of mine was crucified with Jesus, thank God. And through my faith in Him, I live a new life that is acceptable. Not better than anyone else. Not worse either.
Dear God,
Thank you for making it so easy to be forgiven and cleansed by Jesus. I’m so glad I don’t have to know and try to obey hundreds of laws. Just the one: love. Remind me every day that I only have life through Jesus, not through being good or doing good. And remind me that I am no better than anyone else. Forgive me for looking down my nose at anyone who doesn’t seem to fit in as what I think of as “your kind of person.” Your kind of person is anyone who puts their trust in you. The end.
Why isn’t there a word for lacking the sense of smell? You are blind if you can’t see, deaf if you can’t hear, numb if you can’t feel…
Our sense of smell has always intrigued me. That something I can’t detect with any of my other senses could be so powerful is fascinating to me. A strong bad smell is like walking into a brick wall. It can clear a room. An olfactorily-challenged person (too clumsy?) would wonder why everyone is running away. They could enjoy peaceful solitude just by using rotting fish incense.
Or to me, the smell of cigarettes makes me crinkle my nose and move on. The thing is, that smell travels far. Astoundingly so. I’m often amazed by being able to smell a smoker in a different car while driving down the freeway with my windows closed. (Really!) Or while sitting at an outdoor cafe, I can smell someone smoking at a different cafe on the other side of a parking lot. I don’t think people who smoke have any idea how pervasive the smell can be. To be fair, it doesn’t seem possible. And yet, to me it’s like someone walking up with their rotting fish incense.
Fortunately good smells can be just as pervasive. I often smell something beautiful and look all over until I find the flowering plant emanating the aroma. Or if the donut shop across the street from my cafe starts making fresh donuts, I will know and start to salivate.
Today’s verse reminds me that God made me in His image. He can smell too! He created the little droplets or flecks that float around in the air that my nose collects and my brain interprets as a smell, good or bad. Magical.
God can smell, and He loves a good aroma. Interestingly, to Him, love has a really good fragrance. It is delightfully aromatic when His children love each other. It’s His favorite smell.
But He plugs His nose and turns away when sin shows up. If I want God to leave me alone, all I have to do is be selfish or mean. That kind of behavior is like a fart in an elevator to God.
Fortunately, as today’s verse says, Jesus cleared the air and provided His loving sacrifice to fill my life with the fragrance of joy and beauty.
Dear God,
I don’t want you to be repulsed by me. I don’t want to push you away with an ugly odor. Thank you for your forgiveness and for giving me the beautiful fragrance of Jesus to exude instead. Please guide my behavior so that it fills people with joy like a pleasant smell.
Growing up in a Christian church I heard about Jesus “taking away my sin” plenty of times. It’s central to Christianity. But when you hear something a lot, sometimes it doesn’t really mean anything.
That was true for me. I understood Jesus taking my sin upon Himself, and dying for it, on a very surface level. It sounds great, right? Sure.
But one day, probably while reading about some horrible story in the news, I started to think about what it really meant for Jesus.
He took my sin. He took your sin. He took everyone’s sin. Everyone who ever lived or ever will live. All the bad, despicable, horrific, disgusting, shameful, mean, selfish, greedy, sadistic, evil things we did and will do. That’s a lot.
What did He do with those things? Like today’s verse says, He made them His own. He had to. In order to die in my place, paying the price for my sins, He had to make them His sins. That means He felt the guilt and the shame and the regret. He knew those sins intimately, as if He had committed them. He saw children being abused, as if He’d done the abusing. He felt weapons being discharged, as if He had pulled the trigger. He saw hearts He’d broken and lives He’d ruined. He felt the horror of it all. While He died, hanging from a piece of wood with nails pounded through His hands and feet.
No wonder He asked God to find another way the night before.
Dear God,
Thank you so much for going through with it. What an amazing gift of righteousness you have offered. I accept with immense gratitude. Teach me how to live free from my sin and shame. Show me how and when to share this Good News of your salvation with those in my life who need to hear it.
Today’s verse is one of several “you have heard that it was said” teachings of Jesus. He took several widely accepted adages from His culture and turned them around. Some of these adages were even from the Scriptures, the Ten Commandments, in fact. On their own, they seem sensible, harmless, even good. But Jesus taught that the wisdom and interpretation of popular culture is never good enough. His followers need to be better, perfect even. Perfect in love.
Of course, that’s only possible with Jesus. I can claim my perfection through Him.
I’m wondering what adages from my current culture He might have something to say about.
“Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” That’s easy. Jesus would say that even death is not certain and governments come and go, but God was, is, and always will be.
“You only live once.” Another obvious one. Jesus would say that if I believe in Him, repent, and accept His sacrifice, I can have eternal life after this one.
“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” I’m pretty sure God doesn’t care how much dirt I have on my clothes or hands when I’m busily working to help my neighbor clean up after a fire. Sure there are a lot of commands in the Law having to do with ritual cleanliness, but Jesus yelled at the Pharisees for being “white-washed tombs” or appearing holy while being evil inside.
“God helps those who help themselves.” This sounds good, right? I shouldn’t sit around praying during a flood when a perfectly good boat floats by. But I think Jesus would say this isn’t right. Without God I am useless. That’s the whole reason He came and died for me. I can’t save myself. No matter how hard I try, I will never be good enough. I can’t earn my salvation. Only by completely surrendering to God and accepting his gift will I find my salvation.
Dear God,
Thank you so much for your Word. Remind me to continue to spend time reading it and understanding your truth. Help me to see when something in my culture is taking me in the wrong direction. Forgive me for going with what feels right instead of judging advice according to your Word.
There have been many times in my life, when listening to someone speak, I was wishing someone else were there to hear it. Someone specific who I thought really needed that particular admonishment or correction. I didn’t need it, of course, but they sure did.
As if.
Every relationship is a like an echo chamber. Whatever I send out comes back to me. If I am getting coldness, I should try sending warmth and see what happens. The thaw might take some time, but if I stay consistent, warmth will probably return to me from the other person’s direction.
On the contrary, if I am complaining and negative, I will most likely get negativity back. At this point, I’ll be tempted to complain even more. And more negativity will come back. It’s a hard cycle to break.
That’s why today’s verse is so important. I need to take the lead in being loving, genuine, gracious, kind, respectful, generous… all the good things.
It’s easy to be kind to someone who is kind and warm to me. It’s easy to smile and be generous to someone who is smiling and grateful. But that isn’t “taking the lead.”
Taking the lead means being kind to a jerk. It means smiling genuinely at the angry, frustrated face and offering a gentle word. It means apologizing even when I don’t feel that I’ve done anything to warrant offense. It means forgiving without needing an apology. It means reaching out again with a helping hand when gratitude wasn’t displayed the last time.
In dancing, whoever takes the lead decides where the two of us go. We could tango under the twinkling lights of the dance floor all night, or we could waltz right off a cliff.
Taking the lead in love is hard. Following Jesus is hard. He said it would be. But He also said the reward will be worth it.
Dear God,
Thank you for today’s verse and for reminding me that my job is to be a trailblazer of love in all my relationships. Forgive me for participating in tit-for-tat behavior or thinking things need to be fair. I’m so glad you do not treat me the way I treat you! I’m so grateful I can count on your love. Always.
When I was a very young child, five or six years old, I think, I was sexually molested by a man in our church. When I say, “in our church” I mean this actually happened in the physical church building by a member of the church, after the morning service in one of the Sunday school rooms, believe it or not.
Sadly, predators are everywhere.
Now, because this happened in the church, I’ve always struggled with forgiveness, even though it is a central tenet of Christianity. Every time forgiveness was preached, I would think of this man and tune out. When I would read Bible verses like today’s, I would skim over them and assure myself that I had forgiven the people in my life who deserved it.
But God confronts me even now. Did I deserve the forgiveness God offered me? He gave it anyway. And continues to give it.
Do I really have to forgive my molester?
The answer is yes.
My molester was revealed when he abused another young girl in our church. (I feel guilty about this. If I had spoken up, perhaps it would have stopped with me.) She was bolder than I. He was briefly excommunicated. Yes, briefly. Apparently he repented. Said he’d changed. Wanted to attend church again. So the church members decided to forgive him and allow him to return.
Thankfully by that time I had grown and gone away to college. But I remember clearly one summer when I came home, I was with friends at a local baseball game. This man walked up to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and asked for my forgiveness. I shrugged disgustedly out of his touch, and mumbled my forgiveness. I think I said, “Ok.” And that’s it.
I felt that because he touched me when he said this, he didn’t really get it. He still didn’t “deserve” forgiveness. I don’t think I have forgiven him still.
Forgiveness is hard. But God did it for me. And He does it for worse things than this man did.
Does forgiveness mean I have to like this man or agree to be around him or not grimace when I see him? I don’t know. What is the loving thing to do?
Fortunately I live on the other side of the country now. And perhaps he’s dead, who knows? I say I have forgiven him. But I’ve chosen avoidance because I don’t have answers to those other questions.
Dear God,
Thank you for your forgiveness. It is so generous and sorely needed. Please give me the ability to truly forgive this man who spoiled my innocence so long ago. Thank you that I no longer have to see him or think about him. You alone know his heart. If he hasn’t changed, please prevent him from damaging anyone else. If he has changed, thank you for the work you did in his life.
I’ve read through the Bible several times. When reading through the Old Testament stories, I get frustrated with God’s people. Over and over, God gives them amazing blessings, like water that spurts right out of a rock when they get thirsty and bread that falls from the sky every morning when they get hungry and a pillar of smoke during the day and fire at night to show them the way to go. But the stories then tell how, almost immediately, the people forget and start complaining and, even worse, start worshiping other gods. This pattern of blessing and rebellion happens over and over and over.
I think one of the purposes of all those disappointing stories is to highlight one key aspect of God’s character: His unrelenting faithfulness. Over and over His people turn their backs on Him. And over and over He forgives them when they come crawling back to Him in shame and regret.
Today’s verse says in one sentence what the whole Old Testament teaches through hundreds of stories.
God’s amazing forgiveness, love, and faithfulness are mind-boggling. As I read the stories, I have to admit I sometimes feel like God should just scrap the human race and start fresh. I would have given up on them pretty early on. But God doesn’t. Every time His people come back to Him and repent with humility, He forgives them. He may make them live out the consequences they created, but He continues to love them, heal them, and renew His promises.
What a God we have!
Dear God,
Thank you so much for refusing to hang on to your anger the way I often do. I’m in awe of your generous forgiveness. Your faithful love is awe-inspiring and beautiful. I’m so glad to be counted as one of your children. Open my eyes to times when I am rebellious and ungrateful so that I can change and return to you for forgiveness and a restored relationship.
Any time people live together or share common space, whether it be family, roommates, spouses, coworkers, church members, or astronauts in a space station, there will be chores and things that need fixing, cleaning, or dealing with in some other way. Arguments arise when the tasks are ill-defined or inequitably divided.
Currently, my husband has a full time job, while I have retired. Therefore, the majority of the household chores fall to me. Most of the time I’m OK with this because it seems fair enough. (Until he retires, that is!)
But there are other times when it really rankles me. These seem to be the times when I take care of things that he doesn’t even notice or when he does something to make my job even harder, like make extra messes or throw something on the floor that he could have just as easily thrown in the laundry basket or trash.
Today’s verse made me think of the times like these, when I take care of my husband, and he doesn’t even notice. I do it anyway because I love him.
Today’s verse says God notices. And He never forgets these acts of service, big and small.
When the work I do seems thankless, I need to remind myself who I’m really working for. Are my chores done with love? God sees that and is glad.
Dear God,
Thank you for giving my life meaning and purpose. Thank you for noticing and remembering the work I do in love to promote peace and beauty in the world. Please forgive the times when my pride brings out resentment and bitterness, when I feel I am not properly appreciated. Remind me to seek and desire only your approval.
When I was a little kid, I had to take the school bus to school. It was challenging because we lived at the top of a hill with a very long driveway. We had a rough idea of when the bus would arrive each morning, but its exact time varied quite a bit. Sometimes we would hear the bus’s groaning diesel engine as it chugged down the road towards our driveway earlier than expected. My sister and I would grab our coats and school bags in a panic and race down the hill, hoping to catch the bus before the driver ran out of patience and lurched away. We’d worn a shortcut path down the steep side of the hill, swinging around trees and leaping boulders, trying to minimize the time required to reach the waiting bus. All we really had to do was get out from the trees at the base of the hill and onto the long driveway where the driver could at least see we were on our way. At that point we were confident that he would wait.
I’m guessing his job was a bit of a challenge in rural areas like ours. If he arrived at our driveway and there was no sign of us, I wonder how he decided how long to wait. The other kids who were already on the bus were probably groaning and whining and even starting to act a little crazy like school bus kids do. He didn’t want to strand us if we were on our way. But he also had a long route and his own day to get on with.
The people already on the bus are getting antsy and impatient. They even get angry and wonder why God isn’t moving. They complain, “Come on! Let’s go already! I’m here, I’m ready!” They start to doubt that there really is a new heaven and new earth or that the current earth will be destroyed.
And yet God waits.
He is more patient than even my bus driver. And He cares more about His children. He loves us all so much. He doesn’t want to leave even one child behind. He knows the devastating consequences. So He waits.
Dear God,
Thank you so much for waiting for me when I was slow in coming. Your patience is beautiful. Forgive me for complaining about how long you are waiting for others. Show me how to be patient and gracious and teach me how to help other people find and board your waiting bus. I know there is plenty of room, and your timing will be perfect.
CamDevo 