John 3:3 - Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Happy Birthday to my dad and my brother, Ben DeGreen, Sr. and Ben DeGreen, Jr. Pretty wild, isn't it? Father and oldest son born on the same day.
Birthdays are awesome. They're a celebration of being alive. A celebration of being born.
In today's Bible verse, Jesus notes how critical it is to be born. Or we should say, Jesus notes how critical it is that, once you're born, you need to be born again.
Deep within every human being there is a longing for that celebration. For that birthday. For that celebration that is the joy of being born again.
So what is it? Being born again, that is. The short version is that you come to a point in life, like Nicodemus in today's Bible verse, where you realize that being alive isn't enough. There's got to be more to what, by itself, is a weary existence.
The "more" is a spiritual birth. As St. Augustine spoke of the "more" hundreds and hundreds of years ago, he said there was no rest for a human heart until that hunger for "more" than a weary existence was filled. And that hunger, that hole, could only be filled by Jesus, whose name literally means "one who saves".
A member of our church told me yesterday that a guy who looked different from all of us came in time for our 10:45 worship. Said he hadn't been in a church. Said he was hungry. For spiritual food. For more. For more than a weary existence.
I didn't see him. He didn't stay.
So whether we didn't feed him with hospitality or he decided he didn't like what he saw on the table, the bottom line is that guy's still hungry. For more.
I'm gonna look for him today. Would you help to look for him please? He shouldn't be hard to spot. He'll look different from you. He'll look like someone who wants more out of life. Tell him that you found more in Jesus. Then encourage him to invite Jesus to fill the hole in his heart.
If he does, then wish him a Happy Birthday.
Praise God!
(For an archive of "Day of Praise", please visit my daughter Calley's website at http://dayofpraisepc.blogspot.com/?m=1)
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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