Hello,

In this world full of words, now nearly 500 years ago, Martin Luther discovered something about words. Some words, he said, were live words, and some words were dead words. Some words did something to you when they hit your ears, live words. And some words carried no power in them as they were spoken, dead words. Often times they were the exact same word, but how they were used mattered to make them dead or alive. And some of them were far more powerful than others.

Take, for example, the word “love”. When said, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love,” the word “love” doesn’t pack much of a punch when it strikes our ears. However, when someone says to you, “I love you,” that word, “love”, has the power to change the hearer’s life

This distinction of words is what Jesus is all about. When God sent his Son, Jesus, to the world, God wasn’t singing a song talking about love. No, God was speaking his Word to us saying, “I love you.” If we compare it to present day communication, when Jesus suffered on the cross, died, and rose again, God was saying, “I LOVE YOU!” (All caps, bold faced, and underlined) And when we consider who was saying this living word to us, these words have the power to change who we are, how we look at ourselves, and how we treat those around us.

The one who says, “I LOVE YOU,” is the same one who Genesis 1 says spoke and everything seen and unseen was made. It is the same one who breathed life into dust and life began. It is the same one who put explosive energy in an atom and who started an explosion of energy in the sun. There is power in God’s word…universal power!

When God looks at you and says, “I LOVE YOU,” God is gathering up all that power and like a laser beam turning it directly on you. It is a laser beam so powerful that it can pierce the layers of hurt and pain that the world has inflicted on you. It is a laser beam so powerful that it can disintegrate the sins that cling to you and turn them into lifeless dust. It is a laser beam so powerful that it can slice through the thickest darkness that you can find yourself in and be a “lamp unto your feet, and a light unto your path.” (Amy Grant, “Thy Word”)

Take note, that when God speaks his Word, Jesus, he doesn’t say, “I like you,” as if God was a pimply teenager who isn’t really sure about how he or she feels about you. When God says, “I LOVE YOU,” God jumps in as if diving off a diving board with all he has to give, holding nothing back, making his proclamation irreversible. In Jesus, God says that he has fallen in love with you, and just like falling off a cliff that is something that cannot be taken back.

It is my hope that when you receive this Bungee Cord, you are hearing the living word of God saying to you, “I LOVE YOU!”, and as God’s living word falls on your ears and reaches your heart that you are so filled with joy, hope, and peace that you are just about to explode with love.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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