So Loved

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 ESV
I really had a good time today going back to the most familiar scripture in the Bible. This one verse is so descriptive of the wonders of God in such a simple (uncomplimated) way; "...so loved..." I have to think about that. I don't want to skim over this word. It's a word that has eternal impact on our lives, from the hour we are saved, to the end of our lives on earth and on into eternity. This impact comes because God's word is living word and when we have revelation of it, we are changed.
Sundays One Prayer message from P. Francis Chan on God's strength is like that. Sure we know God is mighty, but do we know because we have experienced His strength or do we know because we have read about it? So loved is like that.
Just as P. Chan said, we take one breath, two breaths because God has given us the strength to do so. Our God is the all-powerful God and it is He who has so loved. We have His love because He alone is Sovereign. He takes no counsel from anyone, He doesn't need it. Because God is love, He can so love.
We have lots of new babies in TRC, thank You Jesus! A church full of beautiful kids, thank You again Jesus. When we first hold our babies in our hands, we are being taught God's lesson on so loved. It is the love that stands the test of time, and stands the test!!
This is the love that so loves the proud and arrogant. It doesn't stop when the proud go about their way doing whatever they want, the so loved of God continues to the hardest of hearts. When we see the look of the hard hearted change, we know that heart has been broken at the experience of God's forgiveness in being so loved.
My prayer today is that we will come face to face with so loved. I pray we will exhort and encourage and demonstrate to each other this experience of so loved. Imagine what would happen in our families, our churches, our neighborhoods, our country. God's so loved is full of mercy and forgivness. It doesn't hold grudges. God's so loved, sets us free because His love gave us His only Son. Imagine getting rid of the burden of bitterness because we say and believe, God so loved me.
Imagine your heart has different rooms in it, room for all the people that we love and for the God we love. This love for God encompasses the whole heart. When new people come into our lives, no one has to shift spaces, lose space or share space. The rooms our family and friends have stays the same. When we make new friends, so loved makes the heart bigger and there is more room.
There is more coming on so loved.
Jesus, you are the Author and Finisher of our faith, I pray that each of us will grow into so loved. May Your so loved come as revelation to each of us.