Upward Devotions

This year, I have been coaching and comissioning for Upward Basketball at our church.  (More on that later, as the season wraps up.) I have been in charge of written devotionals, and while I have had to write three, I've been able to tap into the enormous writing talent that resides at Western Hills for most of them.  Today's, however, I wrote myself.  This week's verse is probably the most popular in the New Testament - maybe the whole Bible, and that's the essential Gospel - John 3:16.  I thought I would share:

Being a parent is the most amazing job I have ever had, and somehow, I really had no idea what I was getting into when it happened.  I just remember holding those beautiful newborn babies in my arms and thinking, “It can’t get much better than this.”  I know you know the feeling.  Our children are our most priceless and precious gifts.

Today in their huddles, your children are learning about John 3:16, one of the most popular verses in the New Testament: “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.”  As a parent, the phrase “gave his one and only son” sticks out like it never did before I had children.  Can you imagine giving up your own child?  And doing it willingly?  It’s incredible to believe that God, the Master and Creator of the universe, loved wretched, sinful mankind enough to give his one and only son so that we might choose to live in right relationship with him. We’ve all messed up.  None of us are deserving of grace.  None of us are worthy of God’s love and forgiveness.  “But God demonstrated his great love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  God invites us into right relationship with himself by giving up his one and only son.  What an incredible sacrifice.  And it’s available for all, free for the taking.  All we need is faith.

My 4-year-old loves to jump off the top step into my husband’s arms.  I cringe because we have steep steps and the kid could fall and seriously hurt himself, but he loves it and so does his daddy.  I think faith is like this.  God is the dad and we are the kids jumping off the top of the stairs.  The older we get, the more we realize that there is danger associated with this jump.  What if he doesn’t catch me?  What if I fall?  What if, what if, what if.  The Bible tells us to have faith like a child, who doesn’t think about the “what ifs.”  He just trusts.

He just jumps.

Then I invited people to come jump with us at WH, where jumping is our mission. :)