Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." - John 3:3
Off the top of my head, happy birthday soon (not today, but soon) to my nephew, Benjamin DeGreen, to Gena Trammell, to Patti Vincent, to Brooks Melton, and to Rowena Wells.
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 while back, a member of our church told me that a new guy came in time for our 10:40 a.m. worship service. The guy said he'd never been in a church. Said he was hungry. For spiritual food. For more. For more than a weary existence.
I didn't get to meet 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 too.
If he does invite Jesus into his heart and puts his trust in Jesus, then wish him a Happy Birthday and invite him to follow Jesus with all of us who are learning from Jesus to live the new life in God's forgiveness, power, and grace!
Praise God!
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