John 3:16-21
For God So LOVES The World
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “God LOVES human beings...God LOVES the world...Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world...What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hostility....this is for God the ground of unfathomable love.”...“Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.”... “The first service one owes to others in a community involves listening to them...Just as our love for God begins with listening to God’s Word, the beginning of love for others is learning to listen to them...God’s LOVE for us is shown by the fact that God not only gives God’s Word but also lends us God’s ear...We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them."..."May we be enabled to say 'No' to sin and 'Yes' to the sinner.”...“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating....By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”...“Nothing that we despise in other men is inherently absent from ourselves...We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don't do, and more in light of what they suffer.”...“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”..."In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things the figure of Him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger and is at best the object of pity...The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought that takes success for its standard.”...“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others....not dominating, but helping and serving...It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”...“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”...“Seek God, not happiness - this is the fundamental rule of all meditation...If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness: that is its promise.”...“There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.”...“We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts...How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?"...“The blessedness of waiting is lost on those who cannot wait, and the fulfillment of promise is never theirs...They want quick answers to the deepest questions of life and miss the value of those times of anxious waiting, seeking with patient uncertainties until the answers come...They lose the moment when the answers are revealed in dazzling clarity.”...“One act of obedience is worth a hundred sermons.”...“The awareness of a spiritual tradition that reaches through the centuries gives one a certain feeling of security in the face of all transitory difficulties.”..."It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.”...“The community of the saints is not an 'ideal' community consisting of perfect and sinless men and women, where there is no need of further repentance...No, it is a community which proves that it is worthy of the gospel of forgiveness by constantly and sincerely proclaiming God's forgiveness. ”...“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless...Not to speak is to speak...Not to act is to act.”...“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”...