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[[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2014_05_06|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]]
[[topics_collection_vi|| Topics Collection vi ]]
======God so loved the world - not to condemn! ...======
Tuesday, May 6, 2014. Do you know this thought about some situation or even some
person: "everything is lost here, lets get away"? In our institute, we
had some new employees, who left after a year. They just realized: the way they work
with supercomputers is not what I would like to do.
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**Everything lost? ...**
Friends of mine just broke up. The husband left the marriage after around 20 years.
Everything lost? Love lost? Yes, a lot of loss here.
It is very challenging, since the woman now needs to restart
her life completely, finish some education after raising up four kids. It is tough
and difficult, when marriages break!
When I face sincere difficulties, I tend to act in a similar way. I tend to give up
and surrender - and go away to put my efforts into something with a future. And
that might well be a good idea. When you cannot win, and you suffer, then it can be
the best choice to leave and do something else. But when you always act that way,
you will never fight for something, and never win. There will always be some difficulties
in whatever you start to do.
Faith has to face this difficulty: what is it worth to fight for, and where should
I surrender? You can surrender to different pressure and challenges. You can give up
tasks, hope, activity, relationships. When we read the Gospel of John, we will realize
that God is not giving up on us. That is a key point here. He does not surrender
neither to sin nor to condemnation. On the contrary, he comes to save, to establish
hope, to provide solutions where we were totally lost:
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**No Surrender! ...**
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16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 **For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.**
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Condemnation would be the end of hope. Condemnation would be to surrender to
sin and its consequences. But God does not condemn. God does not surrender. He
puts up hope, by mighty force. There is unbelievable might in what happens at
Calvary, at the cross. Jesus dies, and he is risen. The innocent dies, the innocent
gives himself, and is destroyed. But he is resurrected, he is changed and transformed,
he gains new life.
God opens hope through faith. Faith is the door, which we can take. It is the
liquid, which we can drink. It is the air, we need to breath! Salvation comes
through faith. There is deep wisdom and understanding in this offer. Believe in the
name of Jesus, come and live!
(Roland Potthast)
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