Good News! Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Good News! -------------------------- Date: 8/17/2002 Keyword: "love" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passages: John 3:15-16* 15. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Questions 1. What phrase is repeated in both verses 15 and 16 of John 3 above?   2. Compare man’s lust (to take) with God’s love (to give). What does this teach you about God?   Practical help Granted there are many wonderful verses in the Bible, but John 3:16 is at the top of my list for good reasons. It tells us that God’s nature is love, and we are the object of that love. This is good news indeed, since at times we don’t even like ourselves. If he were like us, he would hate us too. Because the fact that God loves us is filtered through our own self-loathing, it may be hard to grasp that right now, no matter what you have done or how badly you feel about your failures, God loves you! But the his love for you is not just a sentiment, because God backs his words with action. Every year you might exchange gifts at Christmas time. Has it ever occurred to you that the Christmas story itself marks the giving of the most important present you will ever receive? That baby placed in the feeding trough in that tiny town in Israel was placed by God into the world to rescue the world. The story of Jesus is more than just a story, it is a life placed into a historical place and time that you can find, not only in the Bible, but in other accounts as well. Actually to appreciate how important His life was in world history, you need go no further than your calendar. Our very system of reckoning dates is centered on Jesus’ life (BC – “Before Christ” and AD – Anno Domini or “Year of the Lord”). Modern dating, at least in the Western World, begins with Christ. Now let’s review John 3:16 in the context of the last few days as we have studied the passages leading up to it. Jesus was saying to the skeptical Nicodemus that he should begin his journey of faith by believing obvious things. From the obvious, as his eyes adjusted to new light, he would then be able to see the deeper meanings behind the physical world and historical events he was already familiar with. Now it’s your turn to put it together. I’ve given you some history you already know followed by the challenge to see the deeper picture. If you grasp the significance of what you are looking at here, the porn images will soon loose their grip on you and fade away. And it doesn’t really matter if you are seeing this spiritual reality for the first time or this is simply a review. God’s blessings are new every morning. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2002 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission." ---