Blessed Savior, bring Your comfort, joy, and peace to this dear reader in all they may face today; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text for today comes from John 3: 1 There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. 2 Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." 3 Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to - to God's kingdom." 4 "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?" 5 Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation - the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life - it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. 6 When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch - the Spirit - and becomes a living spirit. 7 "So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above' - out of this world, so to speak. 8 You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God." 9 Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?" 10 Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? 11 Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. 12 If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God? 13 "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. 14 In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up - 15 and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. 16 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. 17 God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. (The Message)
I was watching what I thought was a comedy special by a favorite comedian of mine. At the start of what is known as his "routine," he said something about how something had touched him the last time he had been invited to present something with a famous pastor and how he knew he had to change. This routine was actually a Christian presentation in this comedian's attempt to do more than an hour of comedy without cussing. When you come up against Truth, you change. Or at least you wonder about what in you has to change for the better. Such was the case with Nick, a respected leader of a very religious group who came up against the Truth in Jesus. Nick seeks Jesus out at an hour when he believes he will not be seen and makes his questions to Jesus after declaring that he, Nick, knows that Jesus has come directly from God. Jesus, in this famous exchange reveals several powerful truths about life and especially the Christian life. 1) You must be born anew or "from above." In other words, your attitude takes on new heights when you realize there is a deeper, loftier way to see things, and that is in a God-way. This new birth means your allowing God's Holy Spirit to come into your life and guide you. 2) You gain a better life when you realize that all that God has done and is doing through Jesus Christ has been for your own good. 3) When you realize how much God loves you, you understand that love is neverending; it does not end with your death, quite the opposite the deeper realizations of that love come at the point of our departure from earth. That darkness of night brought to Nick the brightness of the light of God.
Such is the purpose of our daily journey with Christ, especially in a setting such as Lent. We focus on the spiritual, nourishing ourselves in the spiritual, and the blessings are not just spiritual but physical as well. As we prepare our hearts and minds to come to the point of Good Friday, we know how much and how deeply God loves us, so that the passion and pain of Jesus on that cross was to show us that love and pay the price for our sinfulness.
PRAYER: Loving and amazing God, bring the fullness of your light and love to my heart right now. Help me appreciate and understand better that love You have for me. Help my attitude be a heavenly one seeing beyond what the world can show. I ask this in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
