"Dear friends, you and I people are busy people who have much to do.  Some of us are busy with our jobs and haven't the time to spend with our families as we'd like.  Some of us work seven days a week during the summer to have enough to live on during the winter.  Some of us are working too hard at too fast a pace, and we're suffering for it.  Others see so much to do that they just give up and do nothing.

          We are busy people and we have all have our problems.  We're beset with worry, guilt and sickness.  We struggle with personal things.  Our youth don't respect their elders and elders don't listen to the youth.  Families bicker and quarrel over things that don't matter.

          Our world is in a mess and we people are in a mess, both in our health and in our economy.  Prophets of gloom shout at us to repent, and we shout at each other just to be noticed.

          Through all this shouting comes the message of John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..." "What a worn-out, overused passage!" we say.  "Just an old memorized Bible verse!"  Some might think that.  But what a wonderful gospel message we need to hear over and over again!  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..."

          Where are you at today?  What's on your mind?  Are you thinking about how to pay all the bills?  Are you thinking about fixing today's dinner?  Are you planning something for this afternoon?  Where are you headed in life?  Is living worth all the trouble you go through each day?  Do you feel like you're just existing to scratch out a living?

          Amid all the busy work and trouble of this life, you and I need to pause to hear a quiet message from God.  "For God so loved the world ..."  Wherever you are, wherever you're going, or whatever you are trying to do, this text comes at you in its simplicity and hits you like a 10-ton rock.  It brings us back to reality with the gentleness of a butterfly.  "For God so loved the world..."

          Early on the first Christmas morning, a few sheep herders came to the stable with their best wishes for the new parents.  They had been told by angels that this baby was the Son of God who would help them.  They came to see Him and to be blessed by what they saw.

          The child of Mary grew up, learning the scriptures quickly, living with an attitude that made Him different from other children.  He was gentle with people.  He lived with love rather than fear or anger.  All who knew Him couldn't figure Him out.

          The child Jesus grew to manhood without sinning, without arguing with His parents, without ever using God's name in vain or breaking any commandment.  He did what we can never do.  He did the will of His Heavenly Father perfectly.  And He did it for us, because He knew we couldn't live without struggling and competing and holding grudges towards each other.

          As a young man, Jesus was an attraction in the countryside.  People went for miles to hear His words.  They listened, often going for days and without food, just to hear someone who understood and cared for them.  He got along with everyone, but not everyone liked Him, especially if they thought He was intruding on their work, maybe doing it better than they could.  Some people were jealous of Him and started to plot how to dispose of Him.  They felt that no one could be that good.

          Then one night one of His friends betrayed Him to the authorities, His best friend denied he ever knew Him, and the rest ran away.  Alone, He went to the cross for things He had not done.  He went to the cross for the wrong things you and I have done.  They took Jesus away and executed Him like a common a thief or murderer.  He died for being kind and gentle, loving and pure.  Jesus died there on the cross, the Son of God who did nothing to deserve it.  He died at the hands of people who just didn't understand.

          Some of His friends got up the courage to ask that He be given a decent burial.  They put Him in a new grave just outside the city walls and prepared Him the best they could.  But the Sabbath was coming, so they rested.  Early after the Sabbath, the women went to finish preparing His body and they found the tomb empty.  He was nowhere to be found!  Christ the Lord had risen from the dead!

          The disciples could hardly believe it.  Even though He had said this would happen, they were dumbfounded.  Jesus had to appear to them several times to show that He was really alive.  They ate with Him, laughed and cried with Him, and listened to Him once again.

          He told them He must go away again, this time for good.  He had finished His tasks.  He promised them a Helper, the Holy Spirit, who would lead and guide them.  And as He disappeared into the clouds, He said, "Go out and make disciples in the world, teaching and baptizing them.  And I will be with you always." (Matt. 28:19)

          So the men who knew Jesus wrote down His words.  The Holy Spirit guided their writing and one of them, John, wrote this beloved verse.  He wrote it so that people who read it might not perish in stubbornness and pride, but live eternally.  All it takes is to believe in Jesus, to cling to Him in faith.

          With such a godly faith you and I can love each other as God has loved us.  We can live without fighting over how to live.  When our faith is in Jesus we will have comfort and hope that life is worth more than just struggle and survival.

          That's the old message.  That's the old gospel.  Nothing has changed it, but it has changed so many.  "For God so loved the world..."  It's still the only thing that matters in life.

          This wonderful message of God is for each of us and for our children.  We can take it or leave it.  If we leave it, we have missed a treasure.  But when we receive it in faith, trusting completely in Jesus as our Savior, then we are committing our lives to Him and to each other.  He has loved us.  Now we can love each other, because Christ lives within each of our hearts.

          You and I will fail and we will fall many times, but God will never leave us.  We will struggle with change, but He will not change.  Trusting in Him we will overcome the sins that hurt us and each other.  God's Holy Spirit is with us, He will give us His power and will never forsake us.

          It's time to do more than nod our heads at this nice verse.  It is time to start living it.  It does no good to hear an old story, and wear it on our shirt sleeves.  We must hold it within our hearts and make it known by what we do each day.

          With such a message of love in our hearts, in our words and in our hands, we can't live with strife and bickering.  We won't argue over things that are meaningless.  We won't insist our way is always the best.  We won't sit by and refuse to get involved.  We won't live meaningless lives.  We won't spend our life throwing money at things that don't matter.

          "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  May you and I hold this Word of God before our eyes and within our hearts as we go about the things God has given us to do this day and this week.  May the love God has shown us be in our every thought and action."