Good Tuesday morning! Ah, the coolness has arrived; what a great morning for a walk! I see that, if the weather forecaster is correct, we will be welcomed to September on Thursday night with a low of 47°. That's plenty cool for a summer night. Let's see, a hurricane is loose in the Caribbean, a volcano is erupting, war continues in Afghanistan, and disease is a problem in the flooded areas of Pakistan... seems about par for our world these days. Oh, and California is apparently overdue for a major earthquake. I think we could use another dose of God's Word this morning.
John 3:7 "So don't be surprised when I say, 'You must be born again.'"
Nicodemus has just received an answer that has set him back on his heels. A lifetime of spiritual training in the law has not saved him and Jesus has told him to start over. Not just start over on his career, but start over on all of his life. The fun part of this verse is the Greek word for 'you', which is plural. We might say, "Y'all" to include everyone. If Jesus had been born down south, he would have told Nicodemus, "Y'all gotta get borned agin' " We might chuckle over the turn of a phrase, but Jesus had an important message. He would not have let a little thing like how people talk stand in the way of the message. The 'you' included everyone, not just Nicodemus. Don't be surprised, all of us must be born twice to see Heaven. There, I repeated the Good News!
Why is a requirement to be born twice good news? We have already learned that to be born again the Holy Spirit must act on us; we cannot do it on our own. The Good News is that there is a way to get to Heaven. I don't know about you, but that is very important to me. The Law has already proven to be more than I can live up to. If I cannot get to Heaven by perfect obedience to the law, I do very much hope there is another way. Praise God for the saving work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has told Nicodemus what must happen. Now how do we get the process started? We are not quite there yet, but the answer is in this chapter. Hold on for the good news about the Good News!
Have a great day in Christ!
Bucky
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