LUCADO ON JOHN 3:16
Max Lucado describes John 3:16 this way in his book "3:16 The Numbers of Hope" pages 8, 9:
"A twenty-six-word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with life, and urging us to do the same. Brief enough to write on a napkin or memorize in a moment, yet solid enough to weather two thousand years of storms and questions. If you know nothing of the Bible, start here. If you know everything in the Bible, return here. We all need the reminder. The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human. And God’s treatment is prescribed in John 3:16. He loves. He gave. We believe. We live. The words are to scripture what the Mississippi River is to America--an entryway into the heartland. Believe or dismiss them, embrace or reject them, any serious consideration of Christ must include them...Could you ponder the words of Christ and never immerse yourself into John 3:16? The verse is an alphabet of grace, a table of contents to Christian hope, each word a safe-deposit box of jewels. Read it again, slowly and aloud, and note the word that snatches your attention. '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.'...Whoever...a universal word... (Pages 8, 9)