Why are we here? Why do we come to Farmington Christian Fellowship(FCF)? Why do we gather together? Is it for Fellowship? For Teaching? Worship? Prayer? Or is it so that we can survive college with our faith still intact?

I definitely think that fellowship is part of the answer and we also need to be taught so we can grow in our relationship with Jesus and we need a place to worship with others who believe as we do, a place we can pray for, with, and have others pray for and with us. And obviously we want to survive college with our faith in tact but that language is really defensive in essence as if Satan is more powerful than Jesus. Satan’s attacking and all Jesus can do is play defense. But when I look at Scripture I see the exact opposite.

“And I tell you, you are Peter, an don this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18)

Now take that imagery in for a moment. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What side of the battle are gates on? Offensive of Defensive? It would be quite interesting to see gates on the offensive. Obviously gates are defensive. So if Satan is on the defensive then we, as members of the church, the body of Christ, are on the offensive.

So if we’re not on the defensive but the offensive there’s got to be more of a reason as to why we’re here. Again from the imagery in that passage as well as in the Lord’s Prayer where it says “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are told to pray that Christ’s kingdom would come and God’s will would be done on earth the way it is in heaven. So how is God’s will done in heaven? Perfectly all in heaven completely obey all that God desires. So in a sense we are supposed to be agents of Christ in bringing heaven to earth. But how does all this relate to us at UMF? We’ve dealt with the big picture, the Kingdom of God is on the offensive and we are to pray for its growth. So if this is the case then clearly we are not here just to survive college with our faith instead we ought to grow and thrive in our faith and be working toward advancing the Kingdom of God in whatever context we are in, specifically for us the UMF campus.

At UMF Farmington Christian Fellowship we have a purpose statement that speaks to our purpose for getting together on this campus and that is: To Develop a community in which people from all walks of life can come together to discover what it means to be a follower of Jesus and have the opportunity to begin walking with Him.

We want FCF to be a place on campus where all those who are thirsty can come and drink the Living Water of Jesus, where the hurting can come and be comforted, where the outcasts can come and find a home, where the unlovable find love, and where people no matter where they are in life can discover what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

So we want to be a place where people can experience the love of Christ and grow in their relationship with Him. And it is my belief and my experience that as that happens, as we grow in our relationship with Jesus and one another we are able to see others through Jesus’ eyes, like the woman caught in adultery, those like woman at the well, and others. And as we see them through Jesus eyes we see how much He loves them and we begin to love them and understanding that love and knowing that love that Jesus has for us we want them, because we love them, to experience that love that Jesus has for them. This is why we do evangelism or outreach.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (I Corinthians 9:19-23)

What Paul is saying here is clear right, the idea in being all things to all people that Paul is here isn’t that he began to live like these different types of people. For instance toward say a Muslim Paul would not begin worshiping Allah as Muslims understand him. Nor is he saying that he would give in to their every whim and in that sense attempt to be what they wanted in order to earn their favor. He is not interested in earning their favor. Instead when he says he’s being all things to all people what is meant is that he mentally put himself in their shoes and tried to understand each person as best as he could in order that he might understand what it would take for them to become a Christian, to become a follower of Jesus.

So this is what Paul has done and I believe we ought to do the same but in our context this can be a bit tricky. We live in a day and age in which Christianity has a negative connotation. Everyone is skeptical of Christians especially those who want other people to become Christians. Some of this is due to past experiences with Christians who seemed to care more about getting people saved than being a loving friend. For some it is all the negative press in the recent past from all the sexual scandals from people in place of spiritual authority to Televangelists. For those who would like to consider them selves to be intellectual or intelligent it is how there is this perception that in order to be a Christian we must sacrifice our intellectual integrity because many of our professors consider Christianity to be a myth that has be explained away and I am sure there are many other reasons but whatever the reasons many people are skeptical and untrusting of Christianity and thus would feel very uncomfortable coming to something like FCF or Church. I myself when I first came was afraid that people would judge me and call me a horrible sinner. As a result it is kind of difficult to just invite people to FCF, or even a Bible Study or Small Group.

It is greatly because of this that we have other “events” or things we do. Those being things like Game Night, Movie Nights, Lost Nights, Rock Band Nights, Dinner together before FCF, the Christmas Dinner, Board Game Nights, Concerts, and other such events. Again we do all this out of our love for people who, though they are loved by Jesus have yet to experience that love, we do this so that they might. Because in coming to one of these “events” the hope is that they would see that FCF people are safe and loving and that FCF is a safe place and then they might go and might eventually be able to experience Jesus and enter into a relationship with Him.

In going back to our purpose statement this is the community aspect, we are developing a community but its not just a community of Christian friends that can hang out with and have fun with, it is more, it’s a community with a purpose that of drawing others into this loving community and eventually into a loving relationship with Jesus.

So it is a community on a mission to draw people into relationship with Jesus, but who do we want to draw in? Perhaps a better question may be who don’t we want to draw in? No One. We want as Peter said for “all to come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). We are also not to show partiality. We desire to see everyone come to know Jesus. That’s why we say people from all walks of life. No matter where they are that are in bondage to sin and in need of a savior.

This means that we want sinners to come to FVF and as I have already mentioned those like the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, the thief on the cross, the sexually active, people who cheat on exams, vulgar people, hateful people, homosexuals, etc. because we believe that everyone needs Jesus and while they are alive no one is so far from God that there is no hope for them.

In writing to the Corinthians Paul states:

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

So we see that the church at Corinth was made up of some people who had previously been all of these things but being introduced to Jesus and having entered into a relationship with Him they have turned from those things. And this is what we desire we want people who are again in bondage to these types of sin to be able to come to FCF and be set free by the power of Jesus blood. We don’t just want to send them birthday cake when they are in prison we want to see Jesus break them out.

So following our purpose statement again we want: To Develop a community in which people from all walks of life can come together to discover what it means to be a follower of Jesus and have the opportunity to begin walking with Him. We have dealt with developing a community in which people from all walks of life can come together and have begun to touch on for what purpose. The purpose being that we can together discover what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

The reason this needs to be mentioned is that often I have thought about how to make IV a place where people who are not Christians might feel welcome and comfortable and during times like those it is easy to be tempted to water down the gospel, to not say everything for fear that someone might get offended and we obviously don’t want that. But ultimately we don’t just want people to come so that we can pat ourselves on the back because we got them to come but instead that by coming they might experience Jesus. So we must preach the gospel, we must preach Jesus, and we must teach what Jesus taught and the things that Jesus taught were offensive because Jesus reveals to us who we really are, sinners and to many that is offensive. So offensive in fact so as to get him killed.

So this is our purpose here at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Maine at Farmington or Farmington Christian Fellowship: To develop a community in which people from all walks of life can come together to discover what it means to be a follower of Jesus and be given the opportunity to begin walking with Him.

This is why we do everything that we do so that people can come to know Jesus. I also think it is important to talk about what is FCF. I think naturally we would assume that FCF is a meeting on Wednesday Nights. I am not condemning that thought but ultimately FCF is a group of people not a time and location and so when we talk about a how we carry out this mission it is much farther reaching than our Wednesday Night meetings. Since it is a community it involves everything that the community does, for instance our Small Group or Bible Studies and our fun events but it is much more than just what the community does together. FCF consists of everyone who is part of the group and thus even what we do individually. We are all representatives or ambassadors of Christ first and foremost but in the eyes of those around us everything that anyone who is part of FCF does will for better or worse reflect on how people view FCF and how they view Jesus. And so everything that we do as individuals must be toward the end of: developing a community in which people from all walks of life can come together to discover what it means to be a follower of Jesus and the opportunity to begin walking with Him.

I Once was Blind But Now I See

John 9:1-7

I grew up in a semi-Christian home. What I mean by is that my family went to church and did the church thing on Sunday but really never lived like Christians on days other than Sunday. The only thing I remember my parents using from the bible were the places where it said children obey your parents. Oh we knew the basics that Jesus died for our sins and that if we would believe on him we would be saved and we did, at least in theory. I always felt convicted about the way I lived my life and was very pious at times attempting to act like a good Christian boy ought to but when push came to shove, when the way I looked in the eyes of my peers would be compromised I usually fell. I’d go on trips with my youth group occasionally and come back recharged and I’d do well for a while but eventually I fell back into my old ways. But I never did any of the real bad stuff. I never did any drugs or drank or anything like that and so I still considered myself a good kid. One of the reasons I tried so hard to be a good kid was because of my parents, I knew that they loved me. My dad had always been a part of my athletic career as a coach in many of the sports I played and my mother was always at all the games cheering me on. Then in eighth grade my parents split up just after Christmas we sat down as a family to talk about the situation, the idea as far as I could tell was that this was not permanent and so I didn’t worry about it too much. In addition to that I was a pretty good athlete and basketball player in particular and during this time basketball really helped me through. Eventually my parents got back together and things were good again. I entered high school and though that was rough my parents were back together and I was looking forward to basketball season where I would earn the respect of my classmates because of how good I was. Unfortunately my freshman basketball season was an incredible disappointment and thus I was needing to lean on my parents in order to get through the fact that basketball wasn’t going very well as 6 freshman made varsity and I was not one of them, I didn’t even start on JV. I worked really hard and was starting half way through the season. If I hadn’t had my parents I don’t know where I would have been though. During my sophomore year things fell apart. Its funny because I succeeded in making Varsity this year, though I was a swinger and ended up playing very little on both Varsity and JV. During this year my parents again split up and this time it was an argument they were having about me that was the catalyst. So now I no longer had my parents to lean back on and with basketball not going so well and not really fitting in at school my life looked bleak. Fortunately for part of this year I was involved in a youth group, one that without my even knowing it kept me for a time from getting into anything too bad. But finally I grew weak and as it was my parents love for me that had always kept me from drugs, with their being too busy caring only about themselves and their feud between each other. It was near the end of my sophomore year that I first smoked pot and it was great. Along with the wonderful feelings which it brought it also came with a bit of popularity. I now had a group of friends who thought I was cooler because I had smoked pot. I continued further down this road though not too heavily. I didn’t do it as much as most people after all and I had a reputation for being a good kid that I didn’t want to loose. I went a long time without drinking as well because my father when I was young had been an alcoholic as had many of my uncles on my mothers side and so I was scared that I might become one. But eventually I gave in to that as well, it may have had something to do with my parents getting back together during my senior year as well as their silent consent. During my parents time apart this time, there were very few rules at my dad’s place and at my moms I pretty much had free reign too though my mother was in charge. Then when they got back together, my dad moved in with my mom and he started demanding respect and that I listen to him. It was hard because I didn’t respect him. How could I, he had caused me to undergo shame at school by buying pot off a friend of mine among other things. Regardless of why When Prom came around my senior year a friend of mine made sure I had the opportunity to do some heavy drinking, and I did. It was fun though I never did it again while I was in high school because my parents did ask many questions about what I did and where I went and things like that. When I went off to college I knew that with no parents around I could get away more easily with the things I really wanted to do, the things that I thought would bring friends and popularity. So I did. I partied, mostly with old friends from high school, but I partied mostly on weekend for my first semester or two. My parents knew a little bit about what I was doing but they also knew there was little they could do about it, I was my own man now. It was about this time that an interesting thing happened. I met some people who were cool in my eyes but didn’t party. One night I was playing a video game called Halo, and I discovered that I could play against other people on campus by hooking my XBOX up to the internet. So played that night and I did okay, these other guys were good. Eventually the games ended and so I went for a walk down the hall and as I was going to saw some people come out of a room near the men’s bathroom all talking about Halo and so I was like hey were you guys just playing Halo. So we talked for a while and eventually it became a regular thing that when any of us weren’t doing homework, in class, or at a meal, we were playing Halo. Eventually after one fun night of Halo we were chatting in the hall and I discovered that two of my friends were Christians and that they were members of this club on campus, more than member actually they were leaders. I find it funny now because the name of the club was InterVarsity or IV but when I heard the name I was like what sport is that. So there was like a running joke in this group of friends that these two were starters on this IV team. That was my outward response but inwardly God was working. Through these two guys God spoke to me, not through their words but just by there mere presence. Knowing that they were cool and that they were Christians just made me rethink my current thoughts about Jesus which were essentially not yet God, when I get older then I’ll follow you but right now I’m living for me. But I began to rethink that idea and I began to see that my life was miserable despite my living however I wanted, I was robbed of joy. Oh I had pleasure but I have no peace, no joy. So I thought and I thought and about 10 months after I had met them I decided I’d give God a chance. So I came into my sophomore year decided that I was going to go to this IV thing. I told them that when there was a meeting that they needed to come and get me and I would go. So the first week they came and I said come back next week. I was afraid really, afraid that as many of them must have known the way I was living, more than the drinking and the pot, there was the music I listened to, so I was afraid that I was going to be rejected. Eventually I did go probably every other week for that semester and over Christmas break I had time think and contemplate life as well as deal with more family turmoil. It was during this time that I looked back and realized that the weeks when I didn’t go to IV I felt miserable and the ones I did go I felt much better, as if a weight was lifted off of me. So during winter break I made a decision to go to IV every week from now on, I was not going to miss it. I also bought a bible and started reading it regularly. Though I was reading it daily I wasn’t getting a whole lot out of it, I couldn’t understand what was going on, partly I think because I was reading the KJV, which is just difficult to do. So after IV one week I was chatting with the staff worker named Ross Hickey about that and he showed me his bible, it was an NIV Thompson Chain Reference Study Bible, and I could actually understand what was going on. So he told me he’d buy me one, the next week I talked to him and he didn’t have it yet. The following week he still didn’t have it. The third week he gave me his bible. This was amazing to me. I knew that for a Christian the most important thing was their bible. In addition another aspect of my upbringing was not being allowed to accept gifts from people. I remember after a baseball game where one of my friends parents bought me baseball cards and gum and I was so excited…till I got home and realized I had made a big mistake. I didn’t have to give them back but I knew never to accept something like that again. So this act of Ross giving me his bible helped me to experience grace and understand love. Now I didn’t think about it in those terms but the reason I loved IV so much was because the people there loved me, that and the message. So when I got the bible I started reading in the Old Testament despite being advised to start with the new and just took off. Over the next couple months I read all the way from Genesis to Psalms as well as here and there reading different books in the New Testament and I loved it. From there I grew and I grew to the point where I wanted to join leadership the next year. I wasn’t allowed on immediately they gave me a job to do with the expectation that I might be able to join in the spring. The job was a GIG a Group Investigating God in which I was supposed to invite unbelievers and talk to them about Jesus. It was tough and unsuccessful for the most part but I grew a lot through it. Once on leadership I grew more and more and learned from the other leaders and from Ross and a guy named Bob Killam who was also helping out. As I grew over the next couple of years I came to realize that I couldn’t see myself doing anything except working with IV so in my second Junior year I talked to the area director of Maine and he encouraged me and I worked at preparing myself for that task for the next year and a half when I started fundraising which was about a year ago.

As I look back on my upbringing on my parents and the shame that I felt from being their son, and the immense pain I and my brothers suffered, don’t get me wrong I love them but I always wonder why God didn’t provide me with better parents. Why did he allow me to grow up with parents who, at the time, cared more about their own feud that their own children. I mean doesn’t God love me. In John 9:1-7 I find the answer to that question.

But before I get to how this passage relates to my life lets make sure we know what this verse is saying. So we have this man who was blind from birth and apparently it was well known by all. The disciples, wanting to know Jesus teaching on circumstances in a sense, as “who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind?” It is obvious from the way in which this was stated that it was widely believed that if a person was born with an infirmity it was a punishment from God. Moreover that anything bad that might happen to us in our lives comes from some sort of sin. They do not ask was this a punishment from God because there was no question in the minds of people those days if it was a punishment from God. The real question was who was the cause of the punishment. Was is the fault of the parents or the fault of the child himself, who must have somehow committed a sin before exiting the womb. Apparently there was no consensus on whose fault it was and as Jesus was teaching many new things his disciples were curious as to which side he favored. Jesus, as he usually does, astounds them by stating “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Jesus has this habit of answering questions that aren’t asked. The question these disciples should have been asking was why was this man born blind, so Jesus chose to answer that one while at the same time dismissing their question. And that answer “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Imagine being the man born blind and sitting listening to a conversation that at the outset probably seemed similar to one he had heard many times always wondering himself what he could have done that would cause God to curse him the way in which he did and why if it was something his parents did was he forced to suffer in such a way. Why should a one person be punished for someone else’s sin. I’m not sure what he was thinking or expected but I am fairly confident he was not expecting Jesus to say what he did. Imagine going through your whole life thinking that something is wrong with you, that God has cursed you. What a hopeless life that must be, thinking that everything that happens to you is because God hates you, and then discovering that all of your pain and suffering did not happen because God hated you but so that his Glory might be revealed. Now I know on the surface this may look like a reason to be angry with God for putting you through this for the sake of his glory, what is he selfish or something. But for the man born blind this brought purpose to all his sufferings and revealed that not only did God not hate him, instead he was being given the great honor of being one of God’s chosen instruments, and more than that to be healed by Jesus Christ, the son of God, though he didn’t yet know that. I think two of the reasons we get upset when bad things happen are that we think this means God doesn’t love us, because if he loved us wouldn’t he spare us this pain and the second reason is this sense that our suffering is meaningless and that is why this event is so amazing. Jesus reveals to us that not only does he love us but he plans to use this event to bring Glory to himself and he has chosen us to be part of that process.

This passage is so personal to me because I feel like I am the blind man, or I was before I was able to discover IV. I have often wondered why God gave me to the parents he did. Why couldn’t he have given me to parents who would have been less selfish and sacrificed for me where my parents became selfish? I also thought that God hated me because of the life I lead which, though I must take responsibility for my actions, were very much the result of my upbringing as well as the fact that though I had been to church I had never encountered Jesus. Then I encountered Jesus through IV, through the people and the messages and the love and realized that God did love me and though I still didn’t understand why I had been born to my parents I knew that God loved me. I am sure I had read this passage many times before I realized that I was the man born blind and that the reason I had been born to my parents was so that God could show his Glory through delivering me and being a witness to the fact that even today God works miracles and that a kid who grew up in the home that I did and did the things which I did is not beyond hope.

Now for me the blindness from this story was the family I grew up in, the school I went to, but it can be anything that happens to us that is out of our control. God is telling you that this did not happen because of some sin but instead because God desires to show his power by delivering you from it and for some of you I assume he already has.

Demonstrative Discipleship

Now we all know that Jesus became flesh as a child in Bethlehem, that he grew to be a man where he spent time teaching and performing miracles before he fulfilled his purpose of coming by dying on the cross for our sins. Now all of this is so amazing on its own that it is hard to comprehend let alone move past onto other things, but as I have recently learned there is more.

One of the things we as Christians like to almost brag about is the fact that Christianity is not a religion (in the religious sense though it is in the academic sense) but instead a relationship with your creator. Which is true, God is always presenting himself as a personal God who loves all of us his children. The thing is that God is to be our Father and our relationship with him is then supposed to be similar to a good father-child relationship.

When I look back on my life and the choices I made and the personality traits that I have. I notice something profound, or not so profound depending on how you look at it. I noticed that many of the things that I do right were things that my parents do right and many of the things that I have struggled with were almost inherited from my parents, I still made the choices to do the things I did but to my credit (and everyone else who makes mistakes) I didn’t know any better. I did what I knew how to do from observing my father and mother, though I did it mostly subconsciously. How they handled situations I handled situations and even if I hated it when my parents did it I still did it myself. This was partly because I didn’t make the connection as to why I was doing it. In my head it was just the way to handle things though if I saw someone else doing it I would have known they were wrong. And looking back it was at times like this that I am so thankful for Jesus words on the cross regarding his murderers he says "forgive them Father for they know not what they do." And similarly the area’s in which my parents excelled I also excelled but subconsciously became prideful about them not knowing that I did them only because I had been shown how to by my parents. Now many of these things in which I followed my parents example I did have information which in a way talked about a better way to handle situations but I didn’t believe it, I had never seen it so how could I believe it would work. So it seems that a big part of the reason we do the things we do and handle situations the way we do it would seems is because of what was demonstrated to us and mostly through parents or at least parental figure-type people. It is important to note that this doesn’t let us off the hook because we were just doing what was demonstrated to us because we can and do often times do better than our parents and we do in fact know that what we are doing is wrong. Its also true that it works the other way too just because our parents provide a good demonstration for us that doesn’t take away from us, we’ve still done a good thing, we still could have chosen to handle the situation a different way. The point is not that everything we do depends on what was demonstrated but instead that when you’ve seen how a matter ought to be handled you have much more likely to handle a similar situation correctly yourself.

So if God is our Heavenly Father as the bible claims he is then you would think he would also know this especially since he’s the one who taught it to me, and I think he does. And it seems to me that this is one of the biggest reasons he sent his son, a piece of himself in fact, his heart, to live a perfect life and die on the cross and in so doing to suffer perfectly. Jesus spent three years living with his disciples for what reason? So they could hear more of his speaking than everyone else? So they could see more of his miracles and as a result have more faith in him? Maybe I suppose these things played into why but I think a huge part of the reason, as I am sure you have already guessed, is that he could demonstrate to them how they ought to live through his life, that they might see his life and have more faith having seen it done right. Also so that he could reprove them when they handled a situation or desired to handle a situation incorrectly and remind them or show them how to handle it. It all centers around that idea of the relationship of the Father-Child relationship that we have with God. But this essay is not just about Jesus. Its about you and its about me. Its about finding people who we can learn by their demonstration how we ought to live and follow Jesus today. Its about showing others through our lives how to live and how to follow Jesus better. Its really about discipleship.

The Truth About Love

Many people wonder what Christianity is about. The reason being is that Christians send mixed messages. Some send the message that you have to live your life by a rigid set of rules, others that no matter what you do, as long as you believe, you are fine. Now while this is a very mixed message, the reason behind both messages ultimately is love. The first group would argue that the rigid list of rules are there for our good, and by following them we will suffer less in this world. They are essentially saying "Don't put your hand in the fire" out of a loving desire to save us from the pain and suffering that accompanies being burned. The second group, out of love,
seek to ensure that you are comforted and healed from the pain resulting in being burned and that you are recieved with open arms.

Now while both of these positions are very noble; on the one hand to attempt to prevent you from pain and on the other to help you heal from the pain, they both can have devastating consequences. The problem with the first is that when someone makes the mistake of sticking their hand in the fire they yell "i told you so" instead of offering forgiveness and acceptance. The second group is attempting to show that everyone should be accepted, but the problem comes in when, out of love, they not only accept them but also accept their actions as right in an attempt show them love. Again this is noble and understandable but telling someone its okay to stand in the fire if that is the type of person that you are, is not only not helpful but also unloving.

I believe that there is some middle ground that can be found. If we take the good aspects of both of these views. We warn people that what they are doing will cause them pain, but as we are all humans we are going to mess up so when that happens to accept them with open arms letting them know that although we disagree with their actions we still love them! These two things are Truth and Grace and i believe they are key components of true love.

We must have the Truth to let people know that the things which they are doing will cause them pain or "if you put your hand in the fire you are going to get burned". And the Grace to do our best to help them in the path toward healing as best we can. The Grace to accept them as they are and the Truth to let them know there is a better way. A way that will ultimately give them more joy and more purpose in life, the more they attempt to submit themselves to their maker and try to live for Him.

This Love is representative of two key factors which are huge parts of God's character. The great dilemma is that God loves us yet we are a fallen race and sin against him constantly and even when we try, we fail. God's Justice demands payment for this sin, and this is out of his love for us and his respect of our decision to follow him or not. Yet he loves us too much to leave us in this hopeless state and so he made a way for us getting back in right relationship to him for those of us who would so desire. Another factor of his love is his Mercy, and by this he gives payment for our sins through the death of His(God's) own son, Jesus Christ, who was is in fact a part of Himself, that both God's Justice and His Mercy are both Appeased and we might be saved in the process, for his love is directed at us.