Verse of the Day - John 3:3

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." ~ John 3:3 (NIV)

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Most know John 3:16, but how many know the setting behind it? Today's verse is also well-known and comes from the same setting.

I just love to watch Jesus in action when He dialogues with people! He spoke in spiritual colors, leaving most in the dust fingerpainting in earthly black and white. Yet, He never left an opportunity unseized to draw people to the eternal, even when they were quizzically saying, "Huh?" I wonder if He thought, Gee I can't wait til they get the Holy Spirit, so they can get a clue, so they can really "get me"...

Being spiritually reborn. Hard to get your arms around, sometimes...like watching mind-bending films, like The Matrix or The Lake House. Bend your mind around the idea that, although we walk around this earth, doing all our stuff, we are part of the legion of the walking dead...the undead...without Jesus. Dead? Are you kidding? Look at me! I'm a high-paid executive of a Fortune 500 company, I have a wife and 3 great kids, we take great vacations, and my retirement is lookin' pretty sweet right now. What are you talking about...dead?

Like I said, we fingerpaint in horizontal black and white, while Jesus tries to reorient our thinking by masterpiecing with vertical color. He says, "Check this out. All your living is useless unless your spirit is born of My Spirit. Adam's sin left you holding a dead bag. Wake up and realize that what you think is life is really death wrapped in a blanket, called you. You need Me, to give you REAL LIFE, not this charade you call life. And I want you to LIVE!"

So, there you have it. The color of spiritual life on the backdrop of our black and white spiritual death. And Jesus says, "Choose life..."

And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ~ Jesus in John 3:14-16 (NLT)

Love,
Joelene