Is He Worth Proclaiming?
Just how precious is it to you to be born again? Have you taken it for granted or do you see the value of it? Is it precious enough for you to want others to have it? Who have you presented this precious gift to this week? These are some of the questions the Lord asked me this morning and I pass it on to you.
I believe that like everything else we have, sometimes when we have had it for a long time, we take for granted that wonderful clean feeling we have inside. We take for granted the availability of the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us. We take for granted our privileges as a child of God. I repented this morning of any area of my life with the Lord that I take for granted, that I assume so much about.
The Father God paid a dear price when He sent His only begotten Son, the Son of His Love, into this world. He gave the best He had. And Jesus—oh my, Jesus paid it all. He laid down His life for me, took on my sins and sicknesses and diseases and the chastisement for my peace and well being. He did it all. He poured out His blood, first in the Garden of Gethsemane, then at the whipping post, then on the cross. A crown of thorns was shoved on his head and opened many wounds. Nails were placed in His hands and feet and opened many wounds. And a spear was placed in His side to drain out the last of the life that was left. The blood of Jesus is precious blood. And now the Holy Spirit pays a price every day to call us His temple. It is not always a pleasant temple to live in. How would you like to live in a temple when the people forget about you, forget to acknowledge that you are there, say all manner of fear and doubt against you? He ever lives to do good for us, and so many forget that.
I look at the passage in John 3:16 which is so familiar to so many of us that we pass over it lightly when we hear someone read it. We think: Oh, yes, I know that scripture so well. I memorized it as a child and still can quote it. Is that right? And what does it really mean to you? Have you stopped to look at it with your heart? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Starting at verse 3 of John 3 we see Jesus answering Nicodemus and saying: Verily, verily (or assuredly, surely, surely), I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. We must remember that the kingdom of God is the realm of God’s authority, His place of ruling and reigning. Then Nicodemus asks Jesus that famous question: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? And Jesus answers him: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The wind blows where it lists, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it comes, and whither it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
So we see from these passages that Jesus is saying that there are two births. There is the natural birth when you are born into this earth from your mother’s womb. And there is the spiritual birth when you are born into the spiritual realm from the heart of God. He says to Nicodemus that the born again experience is like the wind. It cannot be something which you see with your eyes or hear with your physical ears. It is of God. It is by faith. It is by saying out of your mouth that you accept what Jesus has done for you.
We see in Romans 10:8,9,10 what we must do to be born again. The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we speak; that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved, for with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. We see here that it is so simple: Confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth and believe in your heart that He was raised from the dead. That is it. Your sins are washed away with the Lordship of Jesus over your life. You are a new creation, a brand-new person, with your sins forgiven and removed as far as the east is from the west.
Today, ask the Lord to send people across your pathway who need to hear about Him; then tell them about Him. Is He worth proclaiming?
I believe that like everything else we have, sometimes when we have had it for a long time, we take for granted that wonderful clean feeling we have inside. We take for granted the availability of the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us. We take for granted our privileges as a child of God. I repented this morning of any area of my life with the Lord that I take for granted, that I assume so much about.
The Father God paid a dear price when He sent His only begotten Son, the Son of His Love, into this world. He gave the best He had. And Jesus—oh my, Jesus paid it all. He laid down His life for me, took on my sins and sicknesses and diseases and the chastisement for my peace and well being. He did it all. He poured out His blood, first in the Garden of Gethsemane, then at the whipping post, then on the cross. A crown of thorns was shoved on his head and opened many wounds. Nails were placed in His hands and feet and opened many wounds. And a spear was placed in His side to drain out the last of the life that was left. The blood of Jesus is precious blood. And now the Holy Spirit pays a price every day to call us His temple. It is not always a pleasant temple to live in. How would you like to live in a temple when the people forget about you, forget to acknowledge that you are there, say all manner of fear and doubt against you? He ever lives to do good for us, and so many forget that.
I look at the passage in John 3:16 which is so familiar to so many of us that we pass over it lightly when we hear someone read it. We think: Oh, yes, I know that scripture so well. I memorized it as a child and still can quote it. Is that right? And what does it really mean to you? Have you stopped to look at it with your heart? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Starting at verse 3 of John 3 we see Jesus answering Nicodemus and saying: Verily, verily (or assuredly, surely, surely), I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. We must remember that the kingdom of God is the realm of God’s authority, His place of ruling and reigning. Then Nicodemus asks Jesus that famous question: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? And Jesus answers him: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The wind blows where it lists, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it comes, and whither it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
So we see from these passages that Jesus is saying that there are two births. There is the natural birth when you are born into this earth from your mother’s womb. And there is the spiritual birth when you are born into the spiritual realm from the heart of God. He says to Nicodemus that the born again experience is like the wind. It cannot be something which you see with your eyes or hear with your physical ears. It is of God. It is by faith. It is by saying out of your mouth that you accept what Jesus has done for you.
We see in Romans 10:8,9,10 what we must do to be born again. The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we speak; that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved, for with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. We see here that it is so simple: Confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth and believe in your heart that He was raised from the dead. That is it. Your sins are washed away with the Lordship of Jesus over your life. You are a new creation, a brand-new person, with your sins forgiven and removed as far as the east is from the west.
Today, ask the Lord to send people across your pathway who need to hear about Him; then tell them about Him. Is He worth proclaiming?
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 6:35 AM
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