Sunday School Simplicity (16)

I remember the many times I went to Sunday School.  So many activities, so many friends, and so much fun.  And then Vacation Bible School.  Now that was fun.  I especially loved the break time because that’s where the punch and cookies were.  These were great times to be a kid and learn about God.  Do you remember your first memory verse?  Did you learn it in Sunday School like me? 

Now I’m all grown up, life is busier, more complex, and more stressful.  Balancing marriage, parenting, and work can so easily overwhelm you.  It all too much seems like a balancing act.  Remember seeing the juggler who could spin plates on sticks while riding a unicycle?  Yeah, it feels like that.  I know I’ve even broken a few of those plates here and there.  Life has just become so complex.  Or have I just allowed myself to become entrapped by this mindset.

Consider this:  As life goes on, day in and day out, there will be lots of busyness and, at times, lots of junk to deal with.  Do I tend to be less forgiving, allowing issues to become too complex to forgive, when junk finds me?  When people wrong me, am I more interested in bringing about a guilty verdict than offering grace?  So many times I have too easily allowed myself to hold grudges.  There are times my judgment of a person could be wrong, but when I’m confident that it isn’t, I know I am less willing to forgive and forget. 

I wouldn't be surprised if my first memory verse was yours too.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  This is as easy as it gets, the foundation of the gospel.  But this verse tells me more.  If Jesus wants me to believe in him, I have to understand that he didn’t just give up his life for nothing.  He gave it up because he loved us.  And that’s the point.  Were we clean?  Were we spotless?  No.  In fact, Jesus had every reason to not love us and to hold the biggest grudge against mankind; yet, he still “so loved the world that he gave” up his life for us.

Living for Christ is no doubt difficult (John 16:33), but living for Him is simple.  Love God and love others just as he loved us, forgiving quickly, helping to wash away the guilt, forgetting was has been forgiven, and dying to self for the other.  I know forgiveness is difficult; I am not considering that it isn’t.  Dying on a cross for people who couldn’t care less, I am confident nothing tops that.

¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

John 3:10-21

16 days!