As we are traveling this 40 day journey together, we are doing so in the midst of the High Holy days on the Hebrew calendar.  We began on the Feast of Trumpets, and tomorrow evening begins Yom Kippur.  Today, as we open our Bible, our devotional reading falls upon a high holy text (and I do hope you are using your Bible, and not just quickly reading the scriptures on your cell phone).  Beloved, we are walking on holy ground.  I've heard it said that the Truth of God's Word is like a multi-faceted diamond.  If that is true, then John 3:16 is the Hope Diamond of the Scriptures. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Let us take time to let those words fall fresh upon our palette.  Let us savor their sweet flavor where they may have fallen flat because of their familiarity.  "God so loved the world."  God wants us to know how great His love is toward us.  Not as a mass of people, but as individuals.  He wants each one of us to know we matter to Him.  No matter how unworthy we feel, and no matter what rotten fruit we are chewing on that feeds our thought-life with the lies of the devil who tells us no one cares about us; God says otherwise. His Word lays those lies to rest, and gives us life.  And God not only told us how much He loves us, He demonstrated His great love by sending His Son to die for us. "He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

There is a plague of hopelessness in the world because of sin, for which there is only one remedy - Jesus Christ.  He is the hope of the world.  God put on a garment of human flesh to deliver His message personally; and to show us that He loves us and matter to Him.  Jesus spent His ministry going from person to person to tell them of the Father's love, and to show them His love, as He touched them and transformed their lives.  He wants to do that for every single person on the world today.  He will not leave a single stone unturned, or a tribe overlooked, until every person has had an opportunity to hear the message of God's great love for them.   Jesus went on to demonstrate the height and depth, and length and breadth of God's love when He died on the cross and paid the penalty for our sin which separated us from the Father's love.  How quickly and suddenly the entire landscape of our life would change, if we would just believe the truth that falls from the heart, mouth, mind, side, nail-pierced hands of God our Savior, rather than listening to the taunts of the enemy of God, who plays his broken record of lies to convince us that we are all alone and that nobody cares about us, especially God. Let us hold this glorious diamond up to the Light of Christ, so that those all around us, who have found themselves in a pit of hopelessness, struggling in sin, and separated from God, may have the pathway that will lead them home illuminated with the glorious message that they matter to God.

Before we run out the door and get caught up with the business and busyness of the day, let us tarry just a little longer at the  burning bush before us.  "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."  In these words we find the purpose of God, the reason He sent His Son into the world; the world They created:  He sent His Son, not to judge us, but to save us.  Rather than condemning the world that had become so wrought with the sickness and disease of sin, God sent His Son to heal it - to reclaim it - to reconcile it to Himself.  This is His world, and we are His creation, and He is Sovereign over all!  God has rescued us.  He has given us the remedy we so desperately need, but still many do not believe.  They are like patients who refuse to listen to their doctor who has given them the prescription that will not only ease their pain, but save their very life.  And the Bible says, "but he who does not believe is condemned already."  Their unbelief has kept them in the shackles of their sin, when believing is the key that would set them free. How truly dark and depraved this world is that we prefer sickness over salvation; that we would rather be slaves, instead of free.  "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (v. 19).  Let us pray for those who willfully and arrogantly close their eyes to the Light; who prefer to stumble around in this dark world, rather than walk securely in the glorious light of Christ; that they would allow the Light to penetrate that wall of hatred that guards their heart so it can be filled with the love of God.