“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” -1 John 3:1

The early Christian community split, divided, disagreed about how to be Christians.

The writer of I John appeals to the community to remember who they are, to remember how they are loved, to remember what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus. He exhorts them: “Look, see, how much God loves!”

I was raised to be a scientist. I majored in Bacteriology. A newlywed, I worked in a soil microbiology lab on the campus of NCSU in Raleigh. When I took a break for the birth of our daughter Marca, I intended to return to State to pursue a doctorate degree to teach and do research at the university. God had other ideas because that all changed as I tried to learn what it meant to be a parent and how human beings are formed. I became interested in the church library. My Girl Scouts at the school for the blind taught me about trust and love. Gradually, I realized I might be being called toward ordination.

My husband couldn’t imagine it. We both knew our lives would drastically change. I would ask him to consider taking just one more step in the exploration. All the way through, over a period of 7 years, he reluctantly agreed that we would take just one more step. Those steps led me to my final year of seminary at VTS in Alexandria, Virginia. I took the train home every 3 or 4 weeks. Don and the kids came up a few times. In March of that endless year, Don came up to visit. He stayed in the men’s dorm per seminary rules. One morning we shared coffee on the bench outside our dorms. Don blurted out, “ You can tell this is a Gosh Darn (actually the language may have been a little stronger) seminary. There’s no graffiti on the men’s room walls!” We burst out laughing. In that moment I understood the gift of sacrificial love. “For God so loved the world…” Don, the love of my life, put aside his plans, his hopes, his misgivings about the church and the role of women in the church, for me.

Gracious One, in whom we live and move and have our being, thank you for showing us how to trust your love, that we may be that love for others. Amen.
-Vicki Wesen

Come down, O Love divine,
Seek thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with thine own ardor glowing;
O Comforter, draw near,
Within my heart appear,
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn,
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let thy glorious light
Shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

And so the yearning strong,
With which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace,
Till Love create a place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.
-The Hymnal 1982, # 516

“…and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,[a] who loved me and gave himself for me.” -Galatians 2:20

Absolutely! I have felt God’s love profoundly over the past three years when several Christian friends have committed to checking on me every night (yes, every night) to make sure I climbed out of the tub safely. They wait for my text message at a certain time; if I don’t text, they try to text me; if they can’t reach me by text, someone from the group comes to my house & comes in to make sure I am OK. Thanks to Vicki, Helen, Arlene, & Cathey for showing Christ’s love.

Dear God, I profoundly thank you for your love expressed to me in the Christian friends who love me enough to make sure I am safe. Amen.
-Barb Cheyney

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -Romans 8:35-39

I don’t feel much like a conqueror. I feel lucky if I’ve made it through the day without killing myself or someone else. I realize the Bible tells us nothing can separate us from the love of God, or the love of Christ, and I guess it’s true – or they wouldn’t have said it. Still, I know myself well enough I have to at least stop and ask the question: Is it true? Is it really true? And if it is, what should I do?

My go-to answer is simply this. I shall arise each morning and thank God for a new day. I shall do what needs doing throughout the day to the best of my ability, and when the day is done, I shall go to bed thanking God for the day now ended. I think if I focus more on giving thanks as the parentheses that encapsulate each day, God will take these virtual grammatical marks (…) and convert them into genuine hugs. That which God embraces will NOT come unhugged by any force we will ever face – and for that, I give thanks.

God, I know within my head that your love passes all understanding, and I know that whatever I may do or fail to do will not cause you to drop me like a hot rock from your cupped hands. You hold me tight. You always have and you always will. We have your word on it, and that’s really all we need. Thank you. Amen.
-Keith Axberg

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 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 3:16-17

The Gospel of John, verses 16-17 are well-known in the New Testament.

For Christian believers, this scripture brings joy and peace for we know there is something better to look forward to when we cease to exist on this earth.

For the nonbeliever, you live this life, and when you die, that is all there is.

Other religions believe you have to strive to be perfect in order to be acceptable to God.

In the Old Testament, the Jews sacrificed animals to have their sins covered (not forgiven) by the blood of animals.

Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross that when we sin, God the Father only sees the blood sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ which makes us acceptable to Him.

Our sins are forgiven, not covered.

John 3:16-17 does not teach “universalism”: that all people will be saved.

Thank you, Father, for sending your son to die on the Cross so that we might live eternally with you. Amen.
-Bob Johnson

My earliest childhood memories do not include having a father. My parents divorced when I was a baby, and I’ve often said that if I ran into my biological father on the street, I wouldn’t know him. Sadly, he wouldn’t know me either. As a father myself, I find this a disorienting concept — as though you are forever disassociated from some part of yourself.

I believe that as a child, that sense of disassociation was at the core of my anxieties. I do know that throughout my life the feeling of abandonment has loomed large — even when surrounded by people who love me. It wasn’t until I became a parent, however, that I really ran up against the barrier that chronic anxiety can place in the way of the joy we should all feel as the creations of a loving God. Just as any disability teaches us coping skills, mine were typically expressed as brazen self-confidence and extroversion. That’s more than just an imminent front, as I’m a pretty optimistic person by nature, but anxiety still rears its ugly head, and I sometimes find it hard to summon the energy to push back on it.

What becoming a Christian has done for how I cope with anxiety has been to remind me that there is a difference between walking a tightrope 30 feet above the ground with no net, and knowing that should you fall there will always be something to catch you. That something is God’s love, as revealed by Jesus. The ever-present proof of God’s love in the world takes a lot of pressure off me and my ego.

Lord, thank you for your love, and for being the net we can fall into when our fears and anxieties disrupt our balance. Your grace is proof that although we can never be assured we will not suffer, we know we will never be abandoned. Amen.
-Michael Boss