What is the gospel itself but a merciful moderation, in which Christ's obedience is esteemed ours, and our sins laid upon him, wherein God, from being a judge, becomes our Father, pardoning our sins and accepting our obedience, though feeble and blemished? We are now brought to heaven under the covenant of grace by a way of love and mercy.

As when things are cold we bring them to the fire to heat and melt, so bring we our cold hearts to the fire of the love of Christ; consider we of our sins against Christ, and of Christ's love towards us; dwell upon this meditation. Think what great love Christ hath showed unto us, and how little we have deserved, and this will make our hearts to melt, and be as pliable as wax before the sun. Secondly

God has never made a person he didn't love. Everybody matters to him.

While life on earth offers many choices, eternity offers only two: heaven or hell. Your relationship to God on earth will determine your relationship to him in eternity. If you learn to love and trust God's Son, Jesus, you will be invited to spend the rest of eternity with him. On the other hand, if you reject his love, forgiveness, and salvation, you will spend eternity apart from God forever.

If you want to know how valuable your life is to God, just look at the cross. With his arms outstretched, nailed to the cross, Jesus was saying, "This is how valuable you are to me. I love you this much! I'd rather die than live without you." You are priceless.

If there was no God, we would all be "accidents," the result of astronomical random chance in the universe. You could stop reading this book, because life would have no purpose or meaning or significance. There would be no right or wrong, and no hope beyond your brief years here on earth.

We must care about unbelievers because God does. Love leaves no choice. The Bible says, "There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear."18 A parent will run into a burning building to save a child because their love for that child is greater than their fear.

Thinking about My Purpose POINT TO PONDER: There is more to life than just here and now. VERSE TO REMEMBER: "This world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever." 1 JOHN 2:17 (NLT) QUESTION TO CONSIDER: Since I was made to last forever, what is the one thing I should stop doing and the one thing I should start doing today?

If you want to be used by God, you must care about what God cares about, what he cares about most is the redemption of the people he made.

If God never did anything else for you, he would still deserve your continual praise for the rest of your life because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. God's Son died for you! This is the greatest reason for worship.

God has … planted eternity in the human heart. ECCLESIASTES 3:11 (NLT) Surely God would not have created such a being as man to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The eternal salvation of a single soul is more important than anything else you will ever achieve in life. Only people are going to last forever.