The Ken Johnson Group / October 18, 2006 Featured Article

God so loved the world or did He?

by Ken Johnson

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3: 16 NIV

Think about it—… God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, …—how would you feel if you gave your only son to die for someone else and that other person didn’t seem to care. If that person just went their merry way never looking back, living the kind of life that they wanted to and never showing any care about the sacrifices you made for them. How would you react? I can tell you, you wouldn’t have the patience that God has had. You would be out there screaming and shouting. Wondering why they were living the way they were when you had given up everything for them. Be honest—you would—wouldn’t you?

I know that it seems like this is happening in the war in Iraq. It seems like no matter how many of our children die in Iraq that there are still people in Iraq and in America who don’t appreciate those sacrifices and just keep on causing problems. Our prayer needs to be that they will realize that we are only there to make their lives better. We are there to save many of their lives so they need to quite the infighting and get on with the better life that we have provided.

Our god didn’t send Jesus to tell us how bad we were. He sent Jesus to save us from our sins and to allow us to live a joyful life here on earth and for eternity in Heaven.

Christianity is the only Religion that promises eternal life and we need to understand that. We don’t preach that we need to kill other people; we preach that we need to “love one another.” What a novel idea. Love one another. What an exciting thought.

God never told us it would be easy either, but he did say it would be worthwhile. Being a Christian and living a Christian life 24/7 will be worth all of the hard work that it takes. The final reward—eternity in Heaven—will be worth all of the hard work.

In His Steps

Ken Johnson