Category Archives: genuine commitment to Jesus

BORN AGAIN: 031716 (John 3:3)

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KJ21    Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

This seems like a relatively simple verse.  It says that you can’t SEE God;  you can’t SEE the kingdom of God (KJV); you can’t GET into the Kingdom of God (TLB); you cannot BE in God’s kingdom (NCV) unless you are born again.  Other expressions for knowing God, such as ‘get saved’, ‘have eternal life’, ‘go to heaven’, ‘have righteousness’, ‘be converted’, ‘have a relationship with God’; you can’t do any of those things, unless you are spiritually transformed.  [Changed on the inside]

The word translated as ‘again’ means ‘from above’ in Greek.  ‘From above’ means by God, by Jesus, by the Holy Spirit.

‘Born’ means what you’d think it means; that you’re the child of your father and mother; you have their substance residing in you.  So you can’t be ‘born again’, ‘born from above’, have God as your Father, unless you are spiritually transformed from your natural self to God’s own child.

So ‘Born again’ means ‘spiritually transformed’.

So it IS simple.  Jesus wasn’t making some ethereal, mystic statement.  He was just telling a truth.  He was just stating a fact.  You just CAN’T have a relationship with God unless you die to yourself, trust Him and let His Spirit come to live in you.  As long as you are holding on to control of your life instead of surrendering and letting God run your life, you can’t even SEE the kingdom of God, much less be a part of it.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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OBEDIENCE 101.022116

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White lighthouse tower on St. Anastasia Island“I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye.”  Disciples Indeed, Oswald Chambers.

Matthew 7:21, 24-27: 21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter . . .” 24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. . . . 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. . . .” NLT

What is the “will of the Father”?  For us to do what Jesus says.  In John 5:24, Jesus said, “If you  [pay attention to] (heed, obey) what I say, and trust Him who sent Me, you have eternal life; you will never be condemned; you have passed from death unto life.”

But don’t just say the words.  God is looking at your heart.  He knows if your heart has been changed.

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GOING ON WITH GOD.111515

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summer landscape. mountain path through the field turns uphill to the sky at sunsetBefore I start this post, I have to tell you it only took me about forty years to reach the point of actually ‘going on with God’.  I knew about God, I even ‘knew’ God, when I was about ten years old; but I didn’t really start to ‘go on with God’, to really follow Him with all my heart, till I was about fifty.  Oh, I had several ‘close encounters of a spiritual kind’ with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit during that forty years, but I was living a divided life, trying to ‘make it in the world’, while maintaining a relationship with God.  Let me tell you, I’m living proof that you can’t serve  two masters.

I thought about calling this post ‘Practicing Christian 4’, or maybe ‘Making Disciples 4’.  In any event, the question for the day is, “What do you do now? After 1 you’ve made a genuine commitment to Jesus; 2 you have a daily quiet time where you read a little Bible, read a little devotional, you talk to God, and you listen to Him; 3 you have a relationship with a Christian mentor; 4 and you’re involved in a small group.  It’s a good start.  So where do you go from here? Continue reading →