"For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him  will not perish but have eternal life.”  - John 3:16

John 3:16 is probably the most well known verse in the Bible and for good reasons! It is, in many ways, the Gospel in a nutshell. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a gospel presentation without a reference to John 3:16. Max Lucado’s recent book is simply entitled 3:16.

As we start a week focusing on giving, examining the source of giving is a good place to start. Giving begins with God. The Bible is filled with references to the giving of God. He gives life, healing and food. He gives rain and sunshine. He gives a son to a weeping Hannah.  

The gift in John 3:16 is God’s ultimate gift to us. Without this gift there is no hope for the human race. This gift has given us forgiveness, life and hope. God’s giving came as a result of His loving. He loved so he gave. Over the next few days we will explore our loving response and how it should lead to giving. We will look at our loving response to God and our loving response to our neighbour.

“There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else.” Peyton Conway March