Aug.13.03: Light For The Day - "God's Ultimate Intention" -- John 3:16 (NIVUS) "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." -------------------- The attributes of God are many - love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, kindness, goodness. Yet none of these marvelous qualities would be known to humankind without the character-trait-giving God, Who by His own choice holds nothing to Himself. We have life only because He has created us by an exercise of His will.  We can receive salvation only because He wills to grant it. The ultimate testimony to the Giver of all good things is, amazingly, the saints, the redeemed ones, "7 in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." (Ephesian 2:7,8) The Supreme Giver's gift to us of salvation through Christ will resound throughout eternity. Believers will be the showcase, the tangible evidence of His ever-giving heart. Thus, while we enjoy the eternal fundamental benefits of salvation, its root lies in the reality that is the preeminent Giver - God. all of the heavenly hosts will marvel without end at that truth. -- Charles Stanley ---------------- -- Romans 5:8 (NIVUS) "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -- 1 John 4:9,10 (NKJV) "9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."