John 3:1-7
After dark one night a Jewish
religious leader named Nicodemus, a member of the sect of the Pharisees,
came for an interview with Jesus. “Sir,” he said, “we all know that God
has sent you to teach us. Your miracles are proof enough of this.”
Jesus
replied, “With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless
you are born again, you can never get into the Kingdom of God.”
“Born again!” exclaimed Nicodemus. “What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
Jesus
replied, “What I am telling you so earnestly is this: Unless one is
born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Men
can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from
heaven; so don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born
again!
The
Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by
permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois
60188. All rights reserved.
“Clean enough.” That’s
become my motto in recent years. I’ve said before that I used to be
something of a “clean freak”. Everything had to be scrubbed every
week…from the kitchen to the bathrooms to dusting the furniture and
vacuuming the floors. I even had a little entryway floor in one home that I
stripped and re-waxed on a regular basis…polishing it to a high sheen!
When
Timothy first came along, I thought I had to really clean before he
visited. Then as his visits grew more frequent – and for a longer time
span – I realized that I could not keep up with this schedule…and that
it was more important to spend time playing with him than making sure
every crumb was off our floors! Certainly by the time Zola and Nathan
arrived, I had “lowered my standards” tremendously!
I know a
woman who was so obsessed with cleaning that she almost cried when
someone made “tracks” across the carpet after she had vacuumed. She
loved those “carpet marks” that the vacuum makes! She also mopped her
floors every night before bedtime…and she scrubbed the fixtures in her
bathroom so much that the cleaner she used literally ate through the
chrome and began to disintegrate them!
Now I know you are
wondering what this has to do with being born again! See, we can be
super clean…but that doesn’t make us better people – better mothers,
fathers, wives, husbands, aunts, Sure, it doesn’t hurt to be “good”…and
we are called to be moral and upright, kind and loving, and all of those
other things that fit this description.
But what truly marks
us…what really matters…is that we are “born again” with the spirit of
God in our heart. How do we do this? We stop and ask Jesus to forgive
our sins…we recognize that HE ALONE has the power to do this…and we
admit that we cannot accomplish this of our own accord. We invite the
Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts…to live and breathe in and through
us…to guide us and walk with us each step of every day. We take on a
“New Life in Christ Jesus”…and we surrender to His will and ways.
This
is easy AND complicated, all at once! But this step is what is missing
in the lives of so many “good” people who just cannot seem to get it
together – and don’t know why. I am asking you today to surrender
completely to the love and power of Almighty God through the blood of
Jesus Christ. Let Him fill your heart, mind and soul…be “born again” in
Him and truly become a child of the Most High God. Your house won’t
instantly be spotless…but your heart and soul will be!
Spotless
houses are highly overrated…but pure hearts that belong to Christ are
to die for…and that’s exactly what Jesus did for you and me. Won’t you
give Him your heart today…and secure your place in God’s Kingdom for all
Eternity?
©2015 Debbie Robus
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