John 3:1-8\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus\u00a0who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.\u00a02\u00a0He came to Jesus at night and said, \u201cRabbi,\u00a0we know\u00a0that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs\u00a0you are doing if God were not with him.\u201d\u00a0 3\u00a0Jesus replied,\u00a0\u201cVery truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.\u201d\u00a0 4\u00a0\u201cHow can someone be born when they are old?\u201d Nicodemus asked. \u201cSurely they cannot enter a second time into their mother\u2019s womb to be born!\u201d\u00a0 5\u00a0Jesus answered,\u00a0\u201cVery truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.\u00a06\u00a0Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit\u00a0gives birth to spirit.\u00a07\u00a0You should not be surprised at my saying, \u2018You\u00a0must be born again.\u2019\u00a08\u00a0The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cHow can someone be born when they are old?\u201d Nicodemus asked. \u201cSurely they cannot enter a second time into their mother\u2019s womb to be born!\u201d\u00a0 5\u00a0Jesus answered,\u00a0\u201cVery truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.\u00a06\u00a0Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit\u00a0gives birth to spirit.\u00a07\u00a0You should not be surprised at my saying, \u2018You\u00a0must be born again.\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Yesterday as I was drove up to the window of a fast food place I saw a young man who seemed very joyful.\u00a0\u00a0He had his back to me as he was responding to a coworker.\u00a0\u00a0The only thing I heard was \u201cWhy not?\u00a0\u00a0After all, you only live once!\u00a0\u00a0Right?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I understood that he was likely talking about doing something fun and perhaps daring.\u00a0\u00a0I smiled as I thought that I often had that attitude when I was about his age.\u00a0\u00a0But then the young man\u2019s words echoed within me.\u00a0\u00a0The Lord inclined my heart to the words.\u00a0\u00a0I felt a very urgent need to tell him that I hope he does not only live once, but that He lives twice.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I could have told him about these verses, but I would only have a few seconds, not enough to explain.\u00a0\u00a0So after he gave me my food, as he was turning away from me, I said to him \u201cYou know I hope it is not true for you that you only live once.\u00a0\u00a0I hope you live twice.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0He smiled at me and I could see that he was amused and intrigued.\u00a0\u00a0He was waiting for the punchline.\u00a0\u00a0I told him that I got that from the Bible.\u00a0\u00a0He smiled at me.\u00a0\u00a0There were a lot of cars behind wanting their food.\u00a0\u00a0I said goodbye.\u00a0\u00a0I hope that the Lord brings those words back to Him and that some Brothers and Sisters come along and water and feed that seed.<\/p>\n
Nicodemus, a man who was considered an expert in scriptures could not understand what we as Christians understand as something very basic.\u00a0\u00a0We understand that the Lord was giving him insight about spiritual matters.\u00a0\u00a0Really, Jesus was giving Nicodemus what he had come to know.\u00a0\u00a0He wanted to know if Jesus was indeed from God and what Jesus could tell him about being right with God.\u00a0\u00a0Yet, when Jesus did, Nicodemus was not ready to understand.\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes we can be so deep in wrong information which we have received that we are buried so that the light has a hard time breaking through.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he indeed was physically born into this world but that now there is an important and absolutely necessary next step.\u00a0\u00a0To every person physically born they receive life as a gift from God.\u00a0\u00a0However, after being born into this world there is another life that is an absolute necessity for all who want to live in peace with God, a second spiritual birth that again, is provided only as a gift from God through Jesus Savior and Lord.\u00a0\u00a0God gives the births of water and Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0The first is necessary to be alive on earth, and the second is necessary to be alive spiritually.\u00a0\u00a0The first is fleeting, the second is eternal.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0True is the saying \u201cBorn once, die twice.\u00a0\u00a0Born twice, die once.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>We know that when we may read in the Bible spirit in the lowercase or Spirit in the uppercase.\u00a0\u00a0One means the spirit of a person, the other meaning the Spirit of God.\u00a0\u00a0The context is everything.\u00a0\u00a0One word is used in this verse for wind and for Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0They both are right and again it determined by the context.\u00a0\u00a0Yet Jesus is also pointing out the similarities.\u00a0\u00a0These people could feel the wind and they could see the effects of the wind, but they did not know much more about it.\u00a0\u00a0Those in the world knew little about the wind and those who are born once know little about the Spirit, if they even know about the Him.\u00a0\u00a0Unless a man gives His life to over to Jesus, He may see the Spirit move upon a man, but will not understand it.\u00a0\u00a0A man cannot understand the things of the Spirit unless the Spirit lives within him.\u00a0\u00a0But when a man walks in the Spirit, He knows what the natural man cannot know.\u00a0\u00a0(1 Corinthians 2:10-16<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Family, God has called us to walk in the Spirit that we may understand.\u00a0\u00a0Let us seek to do so.<\/p>\n
Praise God for the gift of being born from above (again)!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God for the gift of Jesus to us.\u00a0\u00a0Oh, just praise God!\u00a0\u00a0He deserves it!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has\u00a0shown you, Oh man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you, but\u00a0to do justly, to love\u00a0mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.<\/p>\n
Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John 3:1-8\u00a0–\u00a0Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus\u00a0who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.\u00a02\u00a0He came to Jesus at night and said, \u201cRabbi,\u00a0we know\u00a0that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs\u00a0you are doing if God were not with him.\u201d\u00a0 3\u00a0Jesus replied,\u00a0\u201cVery truly I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[129,100,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-corinthians","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2696,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695\/revisions\/2696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}