Why? Not sure what you mean by "why." You'll need to expound.
As to what does it mean to us?
Today, thinking about what you meant by "why," I started thought about Proverbs 29:2 "God, in His glory conceals a matter. Man, in his, searches matters out." (the whole mystery thing).. That led me to what we are meditating and studying; What Jesus Demands from the World?...Matthew 28:19...teach them to observe all I've commanded.
Thus, we don't "learn" what Jesus meant by "being born again" but instead, just observe his command to be born again.
Jesus did not tell us to understand, thus not marvel.
Since Jesus came to testify to the truth, then we should listen when He commands us to be born again or perish. Ouch.
It is His call from outside space and time to those of us inside of space and time.
If we miss this point, then no other messages from Jesus matter. This is the narrow gate, the hard way ... and all who enter have been chosen from eternity past.
So why the command? It appears to me that the command is to awaken the desire for repentance and rebirth as a response to God's gifts.
I was pondering again this morning about "you must be born again" and was reminded of a couple of conversations I've had about work challenges this week. In one of those, when I asked what was the biggest challenge, the other person said "unconditional love."
Stumped was by emotion, "wow" was my response.
In this case, two people had gotten pretty upset with each other and while they were both right about something, they were both wrong also, but each about different things. Which makes it difficult to resolve conflict.
Piper, page 39, states: "look away from yourself. Seek from God what he alone can do for you....We must be born again - 'not...of the will of the flesh nor or the will of man, but God.' (John 1:13) That is what Jesus demands of the world.
Look away from myself. To take an inventory of how well you "look away from yourself" try this;
1. jot down what you do during the day, appointments, tasks, discussions, etc
2. now, write next to each item who you did the task for (truly); yourself, others, or Jesus
Jesus told Nicodemus to not be surprised at being told to be "born again." The depth of what Jesus said here in John 3 about being born again, earthly things, born of the Spirit, Spirit giving birth to spirit (notice upper and lower case), flesh giving birth to flesh, where the wind comes from being like everyone born of the Spirit.
7 comments:
Danny: You go! Will post later ...
Without the knowledge of who Nicodemus was, and few 1st time readers know, really causes me to ask "don't marvel?"
Who is Jesus kidding? The thought of being born again is something to marvel at.
But, Jesus tells, demands, that we not!
So WHY? What does it say to us today right here right now in Austin Texas
Why? Not sure what you mean by "why." You'll need to expound.
As to what does it mean to us?
Today, thinking about what you meant by "why," I started thought about Proverbs 29:2 "God, in His glory conceals a matter. Man, in his, searches matters out." (the whole mystery thing).. That led me to what we are meditating and studying; What Jesus Demands from the World?...Matthew 28:19...teach them to observe all I've commanded.
Thus, we don't "learn" what Jesus meant by "being born again" but instead, just observe his command to be born again.
Jesus did not tell us to understand, thus not marvel.
Ok ... here are my thoughts as I read:
Since Jesus came to testify to the truth, then we should listen when He commands us to be born again or perish. Ouch.
It is His call from outside space and time to those of us inside of space and time.
If we miss this point, then no other messages from Jesus matter. This is the narrow gate, the hard way ... and all who enter have been chosen from eternity past.
So why the command? It appears to me that the command is to awaken the desire for repentance and rebirth as a response to God's gifts.
I was pondering again this morning about "you must be born again" and was reminded of a couple of conversations I've had about work challenges this week. In one of those, when I asked what was the biggest challenge, the other person said "unconditional love."
Stumped was by emotion, "wow" was my response.
In this case, two people had gotten pretty upset with each other and while they were both right about something, they were both wrong also, but each about different things. Which makes it difficult to resolve conflict.
Piper, page 39, states: "look away from yourself. Seek from God what he alone can do for you....We must be born again - 'not...of the will of the flesh nor or the will of man, but God.' (John 1:13) That is what Jesus demands of the world.
Look away from myself. To take an inventory of how well you "look away from yourself" try this;
1. jot down what you do during the day, appointments, tasks, discussions, etc
2. now, write next to each item who you did the task for (truly); yourself, others, or Jesus
Jesus told Nicodemus to not be surprised at being told to be "born again." The depth of what Jesus said here in John 3 about being born again, earthly things, born of the Spirit, Spirit giving birth to spirit (notice upper and lower case), flesh giving birth to flesh, where the wind comes from being like everyone born of the Spirit.
Worth meditating on.
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