{"id":6913,"date":"2012-11-16T12:10:26","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T12:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=6913"},"modified":"2012-11-16T12:12:19","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T12:12:19","slug":"john-316-i-dont-understand-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=6913","title":{"rendered":"John 3:16 – I don’t understand it……….."},"content":{"rendered":"

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My dear friend, John Gompf \u00a0sent this to me, I read it at 5:30 a.m., I had to share it, please do the same!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John 3:16 – I don’t understand it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner,<\/p>\n

the people were in and out of the cold.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The little boy was so cold that he wasn’t trying to sell<\/p>\n

many papers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He walked up to a policeman and said,<\/p>\n

“Mister, you wouldn’t happen to know where a poor<\/p>\n

boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight would you?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and<\/p>\n

down the alley and its awful cold in there for tonight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, “You<\/p>\n

go down the street to that big white house and you knock<\/p>\n

on the door. When they come out the door you just say<\/p>\n

John 3:16 and they will let you in.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So he did. He walked up the steps and knocked on the<\/p>\n

door, and a lady answered. He looked up and said,<\/p>\n

“John 3:16.” The lady said, “Come on in, Son.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She took him in and she sat him down in a split bottom<\/p>\n

rocker in front of a great big old fireplace, and she went<\/p>\n

off. The boy sat there for a while and thought to himself:<\/p>\n

John 3:16… I don’t understand it, but it sure makes<\/p>\n

a cold boy warm.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Later she came back and asked him “Are you hungry?”<\/p>\n

He said, “Well, just a little. I haven’t eaten in a couple of<\/p>\n

days, and I guess I could stand a little bit of food,”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to a table<\/p>\n

full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn’t eat<\/p>\n

any more. Then he thought to himself:<\/p>\n

John 3:16… Boy, I sure don’t understand it but it sure<\/p>\n

makes a hungry boy full.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub<\/p>\n

filled with warm water, and he sat there and soaked for a<\/p>\n

while. As he soaked, he thought to himself: John 3:16 …<\/p>\n

I sure don’t understand it, but it sure makes a dirty boy<\/p>\n

clean. You know, I’ve not had a bath, a real bath, in my<\/p>\n

whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I stood in<\/p>\n

front of that big old fire hydrant as they flushed it out.<\/p>\n

The lady came in and got him. She took him to a room,<\/p>\n

tucked him into a big old feather bed, pulled the covers<\/p>\n

up around his neck, kissed him goodnight and turned out<\/p>\n

the lights. As he lay in the darkness and looked out the<\/p>\n

window at the snow coming down on that cold night,<\/p>\n

he thought to himself: John 3:16 … I don’t understand it<\/p>\n

but it sure makes a tired boy rest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The next morning the lady came back up and took him<\/p>\n

down again to that same big table full of food. After he<\/p>\n

ate, she took him back to that same big old split bottom<\/p>\n

rocker in front of the fireplace and picked up a big old Bible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She sat down in front of him and looked into his young face.<\/p>\n

“Do you understand John 3:16?” she asked gently. He<\/p>\n

replied, “No, Ma’am, I don’t. The first time I ever heard it<\/p>\n

was last night when the policeman told me to use it,”<\/p>\n

She opened the Bible to John 3:16 and began to explain<\/p>\n

to him about Jesus. Right there, in front of that big old fireplace,<\/p>\n

he gave his heart and life to Jesus. He sat there<\/p>\n

and thought: John 3:16 . don’t understand it, but it sure<\/p>\n

makes a lost boy feel safe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You know, I have to confess I don’t understand it either,<\/p>\n

how God was willing to send His Son to die for me, and how<\/p>\n

Jesus would agree to do such a thing. I don’t understand<\/p>\n

the agony of the Father and every angel in heaven as<\/p>\n

they watched Jesus suffer and die. I don’t understand the intense<\/p>\n

love for ME that kept Jesus on the cross till the end.<\/p>\n

I don’t understand it, but it sure does make life worth living.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only<\/p>\n

begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should<\/p>\n

not perish, but have everlasting life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jesus said, “If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed<\/p>\n

of you before my Father.” Pass this on only if you mean it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do Love God. He is my source of existence. He keeps<\/p>\n

me functioning each and every day. Phil 4:13 \u00a0If you love<\/p>\n

God and are not ashamed of all the marvelous things he<\/p>\n

has done for you, send this on to others.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All you do is:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1) Simply say a small prayer for the person who sent you this,<\/p>\n

“Father, God bless this person in whatever it is that You know<\/p>\n

he or she may be needing this day \u00a0In Jesus Name \u00a0Amen !”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2) Then pray for those with whom you share this and then place it in God’s hands!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Be blessed,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the pilgrim<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

……..and thank you John, both Johns, biblical, and earthly!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  My dear friend, John Gompf \u00a0sent this to me, I read it at 5:30 a.m., I had to share it, please do the same!   John 3:16 – I don’t understand it.   A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner, the people were in and out of the cold.     The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6913"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6916,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6913\/revisions\/6916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}