Week #15 Wisdom Builder John 3:16-17

What is the most extravagant expression of love you have given or have witnessed another show? I posed this question to my family as we were traveling for spring break a few years ago. I love the responses. To my amazement, my son spoke up first and said, “The movie “50 First Dates”, “.  If you are not familiar it is a romantic comedy where a man chooses to love a woman who he has to remind  every morning that she is his wife due to her amnesia. Then, my husband chimed in with “Team Hoyt” ; a father and with a disabled son who did the Ironman competition(a grueling tri-athelon).  Both of those movies are examples of love expressed with visible selfless sacrifice are inspiring. I don’t know about you but they leave me feeling lacking in my own expression of love throughout my life. How about you?

This week we are reflecting on John 3:16-17John 3:16-17
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WP-Bible plugin as we conclude the Passion Week, of the Christian faith, lwith Easter Sunday. These verses carry a familiarity for most in the Christian faith, but John 3:17John 3:17
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WP-Bible plugin has had less attention so I’d like us to reflect on these verses as a pair to fully embrace their message of God’s love.

What comes to your mind when you think of God’s love? I find it difficult to put into words a worthy description. The Apostle Paul captures it well in 1 Corinthians 13:4-131 Corinthians 13:4-13
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WP-Bible plugin: God is patient, kind, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, rejoices in truth, always perseveres and never fails.   He truly is selfless and has our best interests in mind. He knows each of us even better than we know ourselves and expresses His love for us individually in unique ways.   We also express our love for loved ones in unique ways based on our relationship and knowledge of their needs and desires.

Why do we express love?            How do we express love?

I believe that Love exists within each of us to be expressed and received within our relationships.   Therefore,  we express love because of a relationship,  have or desire, with a person of value in our life. We seek to add value to the relationship by meeting a need or desire for the person or persons based on our observation. Then, we act on our desire to express our love by doing what we have determined will best fill the need through our best intentions which typically will require some level of sacrifice.  Each expression of our love is a process.  God acted on His desire for relationship with us.  He expressed His love for humanity and desire to meet the need for close relationship with Him for humanity, you and me,  through separation from His own Son.  An unimaginable and excruciating suffering of His one and only Son, served as the perfect sacrifice for the separating sin of the world.

Earlier I referred to an example of sacrificial love given by my son, the movie “50 First Dates”.  The story reveals how selfless love caused a very self absorbed man to chose to stop living his life for himself and live it for the woman he was going to date the rest of his life.  It is a wonderful modern day picture of how someone purposefully placed the needs of others before their own, like the Lord being our sin sacrifice.

Love isn’t always received and perceived as the lovingly expression is was purposed to be.   Unfortunately, because we live in a mixed up and self absorbed world our expressions meant to convey love are often misunderstood or left noticed. Have you ever tried to express love through action or words only to feel it was not received? I have and it didn’t feel very good.

The unpleasant feeling of rejection return from time to time.  Do you think God feels rejected?  Our reflection verse is John 3:16-17John 3:16-17
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WP-Bible plugin.  In these two verses the  words state plainly God’s extravagant expression of love for the whole world.  Demonstrated for the purpose of bringing salvation and redemption from this perishing sin filled world, and eternal life in His kingdom.   God knows how it feels to be rejected too.  Still today many refuse to receive the precious gift as it was intended; in love and free of judgment.

Does it bring comfort to know we aren’t the only ones who have experienced the rejection of our expression of love?   It brings new meaning to the verses in Hebrew 4:14-16 that remind us Jesus our, High Priest, is able “to empathize with our weaknesses” for He has “been tempted in every way, just as we are— yet he did not sin.”  Jesus knows what rejection of expressed love is, He empathizes with us, and calls us to live out His example of love.  Jesus’ love is one that keeps loving even in the face of rejection.

What does it look like to love even in the face of rejection?

Pause to reflect– how is your heart responding?

Why do people have difficulty receiving love? What does it mean to receive love? I think when we are on the receiving end of another persons love sometimes their attempt to love us well gets clouded by our life experiences, our beliefs, and our current emotional state.   All of these things affect our ability to recognize a loving expression by another person. We might have a clouded view and miss it completely.  Reality is, If we can’t recognize a loving sacrifice on our behalf we are unable to fully receive the love given.

My hope is that each of us can confidently say we have received the love of God through believing in His extravagant loving sacrifice, Jesus. God gave His one and only Son to meet the whole world’s need of redemption from the curse of sin. He sent His precious Son, Jesus to save the world.  Through Jesus receiving the punishment of God for the sins of the whole world on the cross He served as the atoning sacrifice.  Even though He was rejected, Jesus gave himself in love, not  to condemn the world  but to reconcile all the people of the world to it’s creator, God.   All God asks in return for His sacrifice is for us to receive His love.  When we acknowledge His Son Jesus as our Savior.  Only then can we  experience the intended benefits of relationship with Him and eternal life.   Let’s make this week one of expressing appreciation for our God’s extravagant love~ giving us His Son Jesus Christ!

How are you preparing to celebrate Easter?

Be Alert~ Stay Strong~ Pray Always

Warrior~Princess Sherry

Welcome if you are joining me for the first time. This post is part of my weekly series “Wisdom Wellspring”. Take a moment to visit the page to learn about the heart behind the series and view previous posts.

Proverbs 4:23Proverbs 4:23
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WP-Bible plugin “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”