John 3

I remember where I was on Spetember 11th, 2001. I was sleeping in my bed at my parent's house when my mom came and woke me up. She said there was something on the television that I needed to see. I have to admit, I was pretty annoyed that she woke me up. I had a late class the night before and planned on sleeping in. I'm ashamed to admit that I was annoyed.

I made it downstairs just in time to see the second plane hit, and both towers fall soon after that. I thought to myself that this was the kind of stuff that was only seen in movies. I couldn't believe what was happening right before our eyes. I still can't believe it.

John 3:16 "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."

The verse that everyone knows, it has been on the eye black of football players, on signs in stadiums and everywhere this guy went.

The part of this verse that is the hardest to grasp is that "God so loved the world." It leads to questions like: If God loves the world how could this have happened? Does it mean God loves everyone that lives here? What about the terrorists flying the planes?

I follow Ricky Gervais on twitter. Some of you may know him, he is a world famous comedian and an atheist. Someone tweeted Ricky this morning, asking him not to talk about his Atheism today out of respect for the 9/11 tragedy. His response was, "We all saw what happened when religion got involved."

His response made me mad... because it was true. Religious devotion motivated the terrorists to kill thousands of people. Religious devotion led to hatred.

But that was their religion, the Islamic fundamentalists on the other side of the world. Our religion does not lead to hatred. Or does it?

The truth is, religion is flawed because we are flawed. We have all failed in one key area... No religion has loved the world. Only God is big enought to love the world.

Yes Ricky, religion got involved and it was a terrible day.

I'm just wondering if anyone has told you what happened when God got involved? It too was a terrible day when an innocent man died. But in the end love won, and it always will.