For thought and meditation

[rl69]

as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).

Scripture Focus: John 3

Jesus came to provide the way for us to meet God and respond to His love. To help us understand the extent of God's love, Jesus pointed back to an incident from Old Testament times. Once, when the Israelites rebelled against God, they were punished by poisonous serpents. Many Israelites died. Then God told Moses to make a bronze snake and raise it high on a pole. To be saved from death, the smitten people had only to look up at that serpent.

Jesus explained that He would be lifted up in the most incredible expression of God's love. On the cross Jesus would bear the punishment we each deserve. In order to receive the gift of eternal life, we need only to look up at the cross, believing that Jesus gave His life there for us. The cross is a symbol of unspeakable suffering and punishment for sin. It is also the symbol of God rea ching out in love and grace, offering forgiveness and eternal life. Our part is to believe that this wondrous expression of love is for us.

Insight: Have you believed the good news? God has provided in His Son the way in which you can have eternal life. Believe it . . . and receive it!

[Pine Baron]

Believe it . . . and receive it!
Thank you, rl69

[Blackwater]

Wonderful post. Looking around at all the "moderns," and how they seem enthralled by their perceived "duties" and "needs," and seeing how they reflect no real joy in their faces as they rush about from one thing to another, this really puts the Truth of the OP in great perspective. We scurry about tending to things that cannot last, while ignoring that which can never be lost. But it doesn't HAVE to be that way for ANYONE! And all we have to do is just stop for a second and think, and regain our true inner perspective, and .... surprise of surprises, we become "happy" again. And all it takes is a very simple shift in our perspective and expectations!

If we paid more attention to the advice and counsel in the Bible, we'd be SO much happier, free of fear and concern, and more joyous than most folks today believe is possible. But it's true, and is proven all the time, every day, for those who don't forget the simple, basic things, upon which everything else hinges. And all we really have to do is listen to the Lord, and less to those who encourage us to be fraught with concerns that are really more manufactured by us ourselves, than are really real. Truly, the Lord has given us all the very best advice and counsel we could possibly ever receive. And all we have to do, on our end, is just heed it!