Pastor’s Message for August 2025

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. –John 3:16 

Greetings, Friends!

From the time I was a small child, I knew John 3:16 by heart. Growing up in my more conservative home church, my interpretation of the verse was conditional and limiting. When Jesus said, God loved the world, well to me that meant God loved those who accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. It meant that one needed to have that moment where a church leader gave the familiar spiel, “with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you’d like to accept Jesus into your heart right now just raise your hand, and after church come talk to me…” I heard that a thousand times. Every once in a while I’d raise my hand just so the leader didn’t feel bad that no one wanted to be saved that day.

As I get older and see more of the world God so loves, my understanding of God’s love is not in the same place it was when I was a kid. I was comfortable with putting God’s love in a neat little box, where I had the right answer, and to literal Hell with people who didn’t have that “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” What if Jesus meant what he said, that God so loved the world? What if God’s love was for people who didn’t fit into the carefully constructed legal definitions of “whosoever believes in him?” What if the world really meant the world, the whole world, not those who checked the right boxes?

What if God’s love isn’t just for the saint? What about the skeptic, the seeker, the struggler? What about your coworker, your cranky uncle, and—yes—even you? Maybe God’s love isn’t reserved for the person who raises their hand in an awkward, kind of intimidating moment of social pressure where the preacher isn’t going to let us open our eyes and sing the last hymn unless someone gives their heart to Jesus. Maybe it’s wider, wilder, and bigger than we could possibly imagine.

But the verse doesn’t stop there.

Jesus comes not only to save, but to show—to reveal what it means to live in loving connection with the divine center of life. Through his life, his teaching, and his presence, Jesus invites us into a relationship, not a rulebook. And in that relationship, we find something extraordinary: eternal life.

This “eternal life” isn’t just a far-off promise for when we die. It’s a reality we begin to taste now—whenever we live with Christ. Whenever we love our neighbor, walk in grace, forgive generously, or cling to hope in hard times… eternity leaks into the present.

So, this month, let’s remember:
God’s love is for everyone.
Jesus shows us how to live with God.
And eternal life?
It’s already begun.

God loves you, and so do I,
Pastor Jim Sands