Good day dear friends. We're still rejoicing over a very wonderful time together during our PIE with the Pastor and our Fellowship Luncheon yesterday. We even had supper at the Festival Finale and I wondered if there wasn't a breakfast of some sort at the church.
I got word that The Rev. Barbara Galloway-Edgar, pastor of First UMC in Boerne, TX, suffered a mild stroke yesterday morning, but no details were yet available as to any damage. The phone message I received said tests were being run. Please hold Barbara in your prayers.
Yesterday we talked about the meaning of Christ's suffering and it boils down to our being sinful and our needing to repent from our sins and receive the fullness of life through Jesus Christ.
Here is that study guide: Monday: It becomes so easy to accumulate debt, especially of the spiritual kind because we aren’t concerned or aware about it. Yesterday’s passage came as a word of hope and promise for all who would receive it. Read again the entire third chapter of John. Keep a spiritual mind as you read it. Remember Nick at Nite didn’t get it because he wasn’t trained, though he was a Pharisee, to be spiritual. How often being “practical” keeps us from enjoying the fullness of life through Christ. What is keeping you from that fullness today? Which parts of John 3 speak to you? Why?
Here is that passage John 3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." 3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." 4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above.' 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." 9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" 10 Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God." 22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized 24 —John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison. 25 Now a discussion about purification arose between John's disciples and a Jew. 26 They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him." 27 John answered, "No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, "I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.' 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease." 31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. 34 He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath.
The recommended passage was John 3:14-21. I shared how in my seminary days I fell so easily into debt. I paid off my credit card bill and was tempted to buy a pair of boots for $36. Before I realized it the debt went into the thousands. So it is with our spiritual debt. Something tempts us, we give in, and before we know it, we owe God a lot. As Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus, we face death because of our sins. Just as the Israelites found life in looking up to the raised serpent on the pole in the wilderness, so can we find life in the sacrifice paid on our behalf by Jesus' death on the cross.
Lent teaches us to see things in the spiritual realm beyond the "practical" and physical. Nicodemus, though he was a Pharisee, did not have the ability to see with spiritual eyes, thus his missing all of what Jesus said in that initial meeting. If anything, during Lent as we examine all things, especially ourselves, we need to see the debt owed to God and how God has paid that through Jesus Christ.
What's keeping you for the fullness of life? Why keep on living in shame and guilt over things that can be erased from your life through Jesus Christ? You owe no one nothing when it comes to God's forgiveness. It's yours for the taking.
PRAYER: God of life, speak to my heart today as I seek You spiritually. Let me know that the fullness of life can be mine if I would turn away from the death that awaits me becuase of my sinfulness. I thank you for Jesus and for how He paid the price and gave me life. Let me receive that today. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day.
e.v.
