John 3 - Born of the Spirit

As I progress through John, I feel I need to remind anyone who is reading this blog that it is not an exhaustive study at all.  This is about the insights God is placing on my heart through His word in my daily reading.  I would encourage all of you to be taking in the Word daily if at all possible and also to be studying it exhaustively.

In verse 6 Jesus rightly divides the flesh from the spirit.  I am so reminded today that my faith is based out of the Spirit and not the flesh.  I cannot be born into a Christian home and just be a Christian.  I cannot go to Church all my life with my parents and by default be a Christian.  I need to be "born of the Spirit" or "Born Again".  The nature of Christianity is first and foremost based in the Spirit.  God works in us by His Spirit to give us life.  A new life that we could never have in this flesh.  What a wonderful gift, what a wonderful miracle that God works in us.  Jesus re-enforces this in verse 8 by reminding us that we cannot see and understand how this happens it is like the wind.  I love it.  God decides it, just like He decides the wind and the weather.

I will celebrate and worship my God , who gave me a new life in the Spirit.  Not by the flesh, not by the country I live in, not by the family I have but by His Spirit, a gift of Grace, something I could never earn or do.  Salvation from God to us, that we do not deserve and cannot earn.  While I deserved punishment and death for my sins - He gave me life.

What a wonderful savior!!!

John 2

As I read John chapter 2 again today a couple of statements really stood out to me.  as usual there is so much we could focus on in here but here is what God is placing on my heart.

During the wedding at the beginning of chapter 2, Jesus is approached by His mother about the problem of the wedding running out of wine.  In verse 5 Jesus mother says to the servants "Do whatever He tells you".  I really was challenged by this line.  Do I "Do whatever He tells me"?  Here we have these servants who probably did not know Jesus like we do.  Yet they brought what they saw as water to the master of the feast.  Do I follow Jesus to the point of risking being seen as stupid or silly or foolish?  We can now read and understand that the water had been turned to wine by the time the master tasted it.  But place yourself in the servants shoes, "put water in those jars, draw some out and take it to the master".  I would be thinking that I will probably be beaten for being an idiot, brining water when wine was asked for.   So often I find myself wanting to follow Jesus when I understand and what He asks makes sense to me.  I am challenged today that I need to follow with faith, even at the point of being seen as incompetent, by faith I need to follow Him.

I am not advocating that we check our brains at the door so to speak.  Rather I want to be challenged to obey when I know the clear direction He has given me even if it does not make sense to me.  This is the essence of living by faith.  Join me in living by faith this year.

John 1

As I was reading John 1 today I decided to pull out some of the text that really speaks to me.  This is not an exhaustive study but rather what God is using to engage my heart today.

John, Chapter 1 (ESV)

1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2: He was in the beginning with God.
3: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4: In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7: He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
8: He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9: The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11: He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13: who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15: (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'")
16: And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
17: For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.


This reminder not only of the Deity of Jesus but also the deep reality of why He came.  He came to enlighten us.  This may sound all new age and spacey but the enlightenment is about the light that shines in the darkness.  You see Jesus exposes our darkness through His light.  His light is our only answer for the darkness of sin in our hearts.  Through this same Jesus we are given the right to become children of God!  Not just servants, not just hired hands or mute followers, but children.  We can be a part of His family.


This same Jesus brought us Grace and Truth.  Jesus by grace offers forgiveness and through Truth exposes sin and gives wisdom.  When we surrender our lives to Him we receive grace upon grace.  I am so reminded that when we repent of our sins He extends grace to us as His children.  Then He continues to extend that grace to us as His children because we are still not free from the ties to the sinful flesh of this body in this world.  Our sin is always our own to take responsibility for but PRAISE GOD we are set free from our sin to live as His children.  we no longer have to live in our sins, we receive forgiveness and the strength to move forward away from that sin.


i am reminded that God does not want some weekend children, He does not want visitation rights.  God wants you to be all His... ALL HIS ... giving part of yourself to Him was never the deal.  ALL is the deal, anything less is some form of religion and NOT what Jesus came for.


Lets live 2011 as fully surrendered children of God.