A Pastor’s Thoughts

By Pastor Leon Jicha Jr., Little Meadows and Apalachin UMC —

The Bible, to many, seems like this big scary book; it has an Old and New Testament, 66 books, 1,189 chapters, and 31,173 verses (no I did not count them all), and we seem to be overwhelmed by all it says, asks of us, and we too often get bogged down with the details.

What should you do when life seems to get complicated and you have so much on your plate that your stress levels just are overflowing? Simplify.

One simple verse, and for many it is a very familiar verse, comes from John 3:16. It reads, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

This is the Gospel in a nutshell and the overarching theme of the Bible about God’s love. The verse is about God; and what does he do in the verse? He loves. Who does God love? He loves the world, which includes all of His creation, including you and me.

How did he show His love? He gave his one and only Son. What must we do in return? We must believe that Jesus is the Son of God. What is our reward? Eternal life.

We are built in the image of God and we are to emulate His love with others. What does God ask us to do with His love?

1 Corinthians 16:14 reads, “Let all that you do be done in love.”

As we go about the busyness in our daily lives we cannot forget that we were created in love, continue to be loved, and need to love one another. We must draw in breath and take the time to show others love by what we say and what we do.

Take the time right now to send someone a card, a text, an email, or a phone call to tell them, “I love you.”

I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, I believe in the amazing love God has for all his beloved children. I pray each of you feel that love and take time out of your day, each and every day, to let someone know that you love them, just as God loves each of you.