For God So Loved The World

“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.” — John 3:16, NKJV

I grew up as an atheist, and I remained an atheist my throughout all of my teen years. Along the way, I heard the gospel several times and strongly rejected it until the Holy Spirit opened my eyes and I was converted at age 19, when my now-wife-then-girlfriend led me to Jesus. Outwardly, I was opposed to the gospel. But inwardly, when I would hear it, there was something intriguing about it. There was a voice within the voice. There was a Word within the words. I found something compelling about Jesus and His message that I couldn’t pinpoint and didn’t want to admit. Kids at school witnessed to me. A street preacher witnessed to me through eyes of compassion. A lady I worked for witnessed to me and prayed with me. A friend who had gotten saved came to my workplace and witnessed to me for an hour and a half. My wife witnessed to me.

All of these were powerful seeds that led to my salvation, but I am reminded of one particular time I heard the gospel that still stands out to me to this day. When I was eight years old, I was watching TV and landed on a Billy Graham Crusade. I had never seen anything like it, and had definitely never heard anything like it! The simplicity of the gospel shook me to my core. A light came on. I was only able to watch about three minutes of it, but that was all it took. He was preaching on John 3:16. The love of God demonstrated in the offering of His Son was very clear to me. He preached with no frills, but with a lot of passion. Later I read an interview with Billy Graham from Reader’s Digest in 1985 where he said, “I'm determined to make the message clear and simple so that even a child can understand it.” Good job, Dr. Graham! You did it.

Maybe you could make yourself like a child before the Lord today. Reflect on the gospel and its simplicity. Read John 3:16 like you’ve never read it before, and just receive the love of God for yourself. He loves you and gave His Son for you.

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This blog is taken from Robert Presson's book, "30 Days of Faith, Hope and Love." To order this book, go to cityrevival.tv/fhl
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