This week’s ‘Sunday Song’ is this John Hardwick children’s song. It’s simple without being simplistic; a reminder of perhaps the best known Bible verse.
It’s from the story when a man asked Jesus how to be ‘born again’; it’s the place where my faith started as a child and continues today.
For God so loved the world
He gave His only Son
And whoever believes in Him
Shall not die but have eternal life
It starts with a loving God who gave his most precious Son. The big God of ‘the world’ invites the individual ‘whoever’ to believe so that he or she can live.
This message, this sequence, of ‘loving, giving, believing, living’ was and still is a simple summary of my theology and my daily practical lived faith.
L is for the love that He has for me
I am the reason He died on the tree
F is for forgiveness and now I am free
E is to enjoy being in His company
L – Love: I believe in a loving God, whose love is seen in Jesus. This love is so broad that it includes all especially loved the weak, and powerless… so deep that He loved to the point of painful suffering and death… so long that it extends in time to me today.
I – me: My faith is personal; I am the ‘whoever’ – with the mixture of all of my weaknesses and failures, my strengths and successes. I believe in a Jesus who loves and dies for me personally.
F – Forgiveness: I’m constantly reminded of my failures, regrets, guilt… and then there are those who I can’t forgive… Jesus taught us to pray: ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ Receiving and giving forgiveness go together.
E- Enjoy: My faith’s about enjoyment! It’s not a destination reached but a way of life lived. I enjoy the continuing presence of Jesus – healing, restoring, reconciling… bringing me his love, joy, peace…
malcolmsmusings.org 