John 3:1-3
1) Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2) He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with Him.” 3) Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Verse 1 describes who Nicodemus is: a man, a member of the ruling council, and even a religious man, a Pharisee. Then verse 2 goes on to tell us that he understands Christ mentally; he rationalizes who Christ is by all that He has done. Yet in verse 3, Christ basically says, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you know; it matters if you’re Mine!”
These truths still apply to us today. We can look the part, act the part, and even mentally know the part, but if we aren’t Jesus Christ’s, then we are lost! Nicodemus checked all the boxes by man’s standards, but did he meet the only requirement Christ lays before him? We, too, must be careful not to put too much emphasis on our human regulations and miss the Divine one. Our faith can be built on nothing less than Jesus Christ, the Risen One of God. He is the only firm foundation; to build on anything or anyone else is foolishness that will end in calamity, despair, and a separation that none of us wants to experience.
We do not know if Nicodemus accepted Christ that night or not, but what we do know is that Christ had a lasting effect on this man, and He will do the same to us. It was Nicodemus who came to collect Christ’s body and bury Him, not one of the disciples. Nicodemus came at his own expense and his own peril to bury the Lord Jesus. I believe we see the heart-change in Nicodemus that Christ proclaimed must happen; we see Nicodemus hanging out with a disciple of Christ, thus pointing to Nicodemus being a disciple also. On top of that, the first time, he came to Christ under the cover of night, but the second time, he came in all boldness before Pilate. This shows me that Nicodemus was willing to lose his life to honor Christ. Would we do the same? Will we?
John 19:38,39- Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.
Matthew 10:39- Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
God bless! I love you all, but His love changes hearts and lives! Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!
John 3:7,8
You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The 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.”
I love Jesus’s analogy here, comparing the wind to the Spirit. We can’t control the wind or direct it; we can’t grasp it or determine the speed and force at which it blows. Think about how much more the Spirit is than the wind! So why do we try to control the Spirit? We try to determine how and where He moves, but my friends, this just shouldn’t be. We must be open to the Spirit, not trying to contain Him in our little finite boxes. The Spirit does what He wants because He is God, so why do we think we can tell Him how to operate?
We are all guilty of this at one time or another. We want Him to show up powerfully, but we want Him to do it through ways we are comfortable with and in our time frames. He is not a genie in a bottle; He is the God of all creation, and we need to start respecting Him as such. If He wants to show up at 11:59 and church gets out at 12:00, then let’s throw out the clocks and just stay in His Presence. And this isn’t just limited to Sunday mornings but all throughout our week. If He shows up when we have a million things to do, let’s do the most important thing first and spend some time with Him.
The Spirit can be harnessed by no man, and the more we try to do that, the more we move away from Him, and the more we move away from Him, the more we move closer to the world. If we want to experience the movement of the Holy Spirit more, then we have to love, honor, and respect Him with all that we are and leave Him room to move in every area of our lives. Surrender to the Spirit!
Acts 13:2,3- While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
John 3:34- For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
God bless! I love you all, but His love never runs dry! Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!
John 3:8
“The 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.”
I was thinking about my life and how it can be described as a couple things – a brick and a leaf – and how they respond to the wind. For 30+ years, I was a brick. Stubborn, heavy, unwilling to change or yield, I thought I was fine because I looked like every other brick and was doing what they were doing. God’s will blew through my life, but it didn’t faze or change me. So, it blew stronger and stronger until it hit hurricane-level force and smashed that brick to pieces in Madison Correctional Institution. God would not be denied.
Now, I’m a leaf. As God’s gentle wind blows through my life, I am carried about in His arms. I go where He tells me because I know He is the one guiding me, holding me, directing my path, and I know I’m not going alone!!! I may not always feel the wind carrying me, but I know it’s there and I know it’s taking me right where I’m supposed to be!! My life often looks like a leaf is dancing with the wind and that’s me dancing in the arms of Jesus because of who He is and how much He has done for me!!
The lesson I learned is that if God wants you to move, you’re going to move, either super-fast, scary, and feeling out of control, or you can be gracefully carried about and dance your way through life in the arms of our Savior!!!
Be encouraged and be encouraging!!! I love you all, God bless, and glory to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit!!!!
John 3:13
“No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.”
There was a study note in my Bible that said the term "Son of Man" was used 81 times only by Jesus Himself throughout the Gospels. We can gather that this was His favorite way to describe Himself because He continually used this term. Yes, it is a Messianic title. Yes, it points to the end times and the coming of the Son of Man. But I think just as important as that is the fact that out of all the things Jesus could call Himself, He chose to identify as the Son of Man. He could have demanded that we call Him by a much more glorious name by our standards, but I believe He did this to drive the point home that He came for us! That He is the Son of Man, and He is available to us both then and now.
In the Bible, if something is repeated twice, it is of great importance to pay close attention to it. How much more something that Christ Himself said 81 times? I think this term speaks of the great humility our God has and His willingness to identify with man. For He came like one of us to save us from the penalty that we had incurred. Even from the beginning, Jesus was humbly identifying with sinners and reminding us of His great love!
Luke 2:6,7- While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped Him in cloths and placed Him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them.
God bless! I love you all, but His love knows no limits! Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!
John 3:16-17
For God, so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, which whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
During the first half of my life, I equated being a Christian with a bunch of rules and boredom. “How could anyone actually enjoy being a Christian or willingly sign up for it?” were the types of thoughts I would have. I had an unquenchable desire for this world and the things of it. I would chase women, chase a high, chase a dollar, chase acceptance, and the list goes on and on. But it wasn’t until I realized I wasn’t chasing things but running from them that I actually stopped and looked around, and you know what I saw? Not what I expected to see, that’s for sure!
Everything I valued (the drugs, the woman, the money) was all gone. Everything was gone except for the Lord! The One I ran from was running after me. The One I spoke bad about was speaking life into me. The One I didn’t want a part of wanted every part of me. The One I wouldn’t give an ounce of my life to had given every ounce of His for me! Then, He broke the chains and opened my eyes, and I’m here to tell you that Jesus is still setting captives free, opening the eyes of the blind, and making the dead come back to life!
I live and breathe because He breathed His life into me! He is my everything, He is my King, His is my friend, He is my Jesus, and He wants to be yours too!!! My life is more fulfilled and complete because of the Lord than I ever thought was possible!!!! Thank You, Jesus, for saving a wretch like me and calling me from darkness to light!!!! Glory to the Risen King!
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.
Today, let’s think of all the imperfect people God has placed into our lives for us to love on them the way He loves on us. What a tall order that is! It’s not easy for us to love those around us in a way that honors Him and blesses them. People can be fickle, selfish, difficult, trying, annoying, and the list goes on and on.
Many times, we fail at this; we determine the cost or effort to be too high a price to pay and decide not to pay it. Whether we do this consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know, but we choose our lives, our sins, our flesh, our needs/wants, and it’s no longer about them, but it’s all about us. How grateful and thankful I am that God isn’t like us! How He patiently puts up with us, waiting on us to turn back to Him. He doesn’t throw in the towel on us when things get hard but continues to pour His eternal and perfect love out on His people even though they don’t deserve it!
He is faithful, He is powerful, He is merciful, and He is love! Only a perfect God could love imperfect people! He leaves the 99 to go after the 1, and when He finds the one, He throws a party! So, let’s love those around us the way God loves us! Not just in words but in actions! By obeying His command to love others the way He loves us, we will not only honor and glorify His Name, but we might just plant that seed we have been praying for!
John 15:12-14- “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.”
God bless! I love you all, but as we know, His love is perfect, powerful, and life-giving! Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!
John 3:17
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
Most of us know John 3:16, but this very next verse caught my attention today. It doesn’t mean there won’t be a judgement day – because the Bible is very clear there will be – but it means that Jesus didn’t come to punish us but to rescue us!! Jesus didn’t come to send you to Hell but to open the door to Heaven!!
He wasn’t coerced, forced or bribed. He willingly, lovingly, and mercifully stepped down out of Heaven to save us!! There was not a thing that could have stopped Him. As a matter of fact, I believe He was eager to come and heal His people!!
I could see Jesus looking at God before He left Heaven and saying, “I’m ready, Father. I’m going to save Your children!! Those children are me and you!
Thank you, King Jesus!!!!!!!!!!! I love you all. God bless, and Glory to the Risen King!!!!
John 3:17
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
Last night at Bible Study, someone used an illustration about us before we come to know Jesus, and it went something like this: Imagine someone running up to you all bloody, bruised, dirty, clothes all torn, and completely bewildered. You ask them what’s wrong, and they say, “You gotta help me. This guy is chasing me and He won’t stop. He wants to give me a bath, clean my wounds, give me the finest clothes to wear, restore my mind, and give me a life full of love, mercy, grace, and peace!!! You gotta hide me; don’t let Him catch me!!!”
Sounds crazy when he put it that way, but it instantly resonated with me that I did that with Jesus!!! The enemy had me so convinced that there was only judgment, condemnation, and shame at the Cross that I was afraid to go there. But once I got there, I found there was a love so deep, so wide, and so high that not even all the evil and sins of this world could stand against it or change it!!! Imagine my relief when I realized that God was pursuing me to love me, not to condemn me!!!
There was condemnation at the cross, but it wasn’t ours. See, Jesus’ condemnation bought our salvation, and it’s a gift that I cherish more than the breath in my lungs or the heartbeat in my chest. I stood condemned before I ever made it to the cross, but once I made it there, that condemnation turned to salvation, and so can yours!!!
Jesus is
chasing you today. Will you turn and let Him catch you???
No comments:
Post a Comment