Volume 35

As you walk down the street, have you ever seen it to be bright and sunny on one side, and dark, stormy, and raining on the other side? Then how can we expect our life to always have only good things happening to us? When the rains come in our lives, why should we complain, “Lord, why me?” We know this is a sin-cursed earth; bad things just come with the territory. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:24, “God causes the sun to shine on the bad as well as the good and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”

John 3:16 has been called the golden text of the Bible, and with good reason. In it we are told of the greatest Giver, the greatest gift, the greatest love, and the greatest blessing. God so loved the world, because God is love (I John 4:8). Agape is the strongest term for the highest degree of love. God is agape. He seeks our good. He wants the best for us. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ” (I John. 4:10). “God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

We have all purchased something or at least known about, a market place where fruits and vegetables are placed in bins, such as lettuce, tomatoes, grapes, cabbages, apples and such things that we need for a healthy body. At God’s market place there are also many things available which are necessary for a good and healthy spiritual life; and they are found in the church, the kingdom of God’s dear son; Jesus Christ.

Sincerity is honest authenticity and genuine wholeheartedness. It is freedom from hypocrisy and is often a pleasure to see. What is the relationship of this wonderful attribute to the salvation of the human soul?