God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.   John 3:19  NLT

Jesus announced that He was the Light of the world, yet Scripture says we loved darkness rather than light. Christ was glorious, but we did not find His glory desirable. Light exposed what darkness allowed us to hide, so we turned away from the very One who had come to save us.

Then how does anyone believe? God opens blind eyes to see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” And that call is personal. The voice that created the world becomes intimate enough to speak to one human heart.

In Genesis, His voice broke into chaotic darkness and every dead thing responded and came to life. And one day, in a way just as miraculous, that voice reached me.

No one knows whose name God will speak next. That keeps me praying for people who seem unreachable, resistant, even hostile to Christ. Saul was not inching his way toward faith on the Damascus road; he was traveling in the opposite direction. Then Jesus called his name, and the man who was zealous to oppose Christ was undone by Christ Himself. I know something of that undoing. The longer I stay near Jesus and let His Spirit search me, the less familiar my old self becomes. Sometimes I read my old journals and wince at the woman I used to be. Grace has not merely grazed my flesh. It has dismantled it.  New birth begins with foundations.

So if you sense Christ pressing against the door of your soul, do not treat it casually. Do not assume you will always hear it and have time to respond. Run to Calvary. The One calling your name is calling you out of the tomb into resurrection life.

Lord Jesus, for those who are resisting You, arguing with You, or trying not to hear You, speak with the authority that stopped Saul in his tracks. Call them by name until resistance gives way to surrender. Amen.

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. John 3:17-18 NLT

The children of Israel knew well that God judges sin. While they had often experienced His mercy, they had also suffered His judgement on their sin. For them to believe that God would send His Son for reasons other than judgement was a stretch. Never could they have imagined that a Messiah would come, not to condemn but to forgive.

Why, at the announcement of salvation, do we often prefer condemnation? We’d rather hate ourselves than let God love us. We’d rather continue in destructive patterns of sin than let Jesus re-arrange our lives. In our stubbornness, we’d rather refuse to give up our anger against a God who wounds but also provides a cure. Let’s admit it ~ we nurse our grudges against His holiness.

I’ll personalize. Let’s say that I go so far as to admit my guilt. I confess it but then wallow around in it for a while, insisting that I don’t deserve to be forgiven. Condemnation feels justified and quite comfortable the longer I wear it. I can even feel powerful as I exert my freedom to shun the Forgiver. Satan is the author of such foolishness and he celebrates when this kind of twisted pleasure keeps God’s creation from the joy of a free and forgiven conscience.

Jesus did not come into the world to judge it as proven by His own death on a cross. He paid for mankind’s sin Himself as if He was the One who committed centuries of atrocities. Oh, to have paid such a price only to see people reject the gift of this expensive pardon. For whatever reason people reject Jesus, it’s a tragic response to the humblest suffering Servant of all.

Does my own self-condemnation keep me from the joy of forgiveness? Break my pride. Amen

For God so loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

The word ‘so’ makes such an impact when speaking.  Earlier this morning, I was thinking about contrasts like the ones below.

My baby is hungry.  My baby is so hungry.

My friend is happy. My friend is so happy.

She looks thin.  She is so thin. 

I am loved.  I am so loved.  

This little word expands the effect.  It enhances the meaning many times over. 

God so loves.  Not just likes.  Not just loves.  So loves.  

And who is the blessed recipient?  The world.  Sounds so impersonal and that would be concerning were it not for the personalization of God’s specific words to His children.  He speaks to one person at a time.  He has each of us engraved, one at a time, on the palms of His hands.  When he looks down, He does not see a picture of the world.  He sees each of us.  And when He does, He so loves.  

Oh, and it doesn’t end there.  He is so invested.  He is so grieved by sin.  He is so moved by our worship.  He is so nurturing.  He is so protective.  He is so encouraging.  He is so hopeful that our faith will flourish till the end.  

But more than anything ~ He just longs for us to know that the word ‘so’ is true. We have always been so loved.  We are so loved right now.  And we will be so loved forever. 

Forgive me when I’m skeptical.  With You there is no shadow of turning.  Rest, real rest, can be mine right now.  Amen

And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. John 3:14-15

God is holy and must deal with our sin. But God is also merciful and offered His Son to pay for our iniquity. To receive it, we must turn from our sin, repent, and look to Christ to save us. This is the Gospel.

Yet, we refrain from looking to Jesus. History proves it. The last thing the Israelites wanted to do was to look at a brass snake on a pole. Seeing the serpent was a symbol of the curse God brought upon them because of their grumbling. Because of that, only some were willing to look at it – and live. The rest chose to nurse their grudge against God for whatever reason. Perhaps they felt His remedy was preposterous and, in so doing, they chose death over life.

We are asked to behold our Savior on a cross, to look upon the gruesome scene of a crucifixion. Couldn’t there be some other extension of mercy than to have to look to Jesus, beaten and bruised, suffering unspeakable horrors? Only some are willing to look – and live. Most choose to nurse their grudge against God for whatever reason. Perhaps they feel God’s remedy of His only Son is preposterous and, in so doing, choose death over life.

This is ultimately a love story. Bitten by sin, we are cursed and face a death sentence. There is only one remedy and we don’t get to decide how we’ll be saved. The One who does determine how is the Savior who took our curse upon Himself and died in our place. In our place, He was despised and rejected. Oh, but if we look to Him, repent, and cast ourselves upon His mercy, we live.

Jesus, the power of the Gospel washes over my soul today all over again. Amen

But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.  John 3:12-13 NLT

Jesus’ words to Nicodemus were upsetting.  Not only did he not believe Jesus about tangible things, he rendered himself impotent to hear and understand things intangible, the matters of the kingdom.  What qualified Jesus to speak on the topic of heaven and kingdom matters?  He had come from there!

Consider Isaiah’s words.  Who is able to advise the Spirit of the LORD? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?  Isaiah 40:13   

While I would never think of suggesting to God that I should be His advisor, I insinuate that when I argue with Him; when I listen but then walk away and ignore what He said.  My unwillingness to act on the Truth communicates that I know better than He does.  

Jesus’ teachings are difficult and strike my carnal mind as preposterous.  Nicodemus must have felt like his head was spinning as Jesus spoke to him about spiritual births, wombs, and such.  If he came for a hearty spiritual debate, he didn’t get one.  Instead, he left with his heart burning. 

Convicted.  Loved.  Stunned.  Captivated.  Changed.  These are the outcomes of an encounter with Jesus.  And none of them are catalysts for rising up to become a pious advisor to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

I know my place.  I am Your disciple, a spiritual child, a friend.  And, always Your student.  Amen

Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony.  John 3:10 NLT

Jesus tells Nicodemus, “We tell you what we know but you won’t believe our testimony.”  Who is the ‘we’ He refers to?  

John the Baptist.  The disciples.  Those who have already believed and have given their testimony.  Those who have been the recipients of miracles, through faith. These witnesses are powerful truth tellers, yet unbelief still exists in the heart of this renowned Jewish teacher.  

Because Nicodemus’ will is closed, faith can not take him any further into the kingdom.  Legalism and traditions hold most every Pharisee and Jewish leader captive.  They fear anything outside of their previous experience.  They cling to what they have always known. Meeting Jesus, the One they have been waiting for, should be enough to penetrate their unbelief.  But it isn’t.  Willful pride is a powerful thing.  

Jesus failed to do miracles in places where unbelief was rampant.  Faith was nearly impossible where the human will chose to disbelieve.  Jesus went elsewhere where the people were open to the Gospel, where the need was great enough to open them up to the presence of a Savior and Deliverer.

Can this kind of blindness exist today, even in God’s children?  Does it exist in me? Perhaps I’ve decided that God can only speak in a certain way, or heal in a certain way, or express Himself through the Spirit in a certain way.  Anything outside my comfort zone can seem heretical. Traditions can seem holy depending on our teachers.  To touch them, change them, or discard them is jarring to our identity and security.  Many traditions, even religious ones, are man-made.  They are not immutable. 

In my fifties, I began to examine my will, my biases, and open up to faith.  I’ve never been the same. 

Wake up Your church, Lord.  Show us what we are missing.  Amen

The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.  John 3:8  NLT

God breathes and His Spirit is released in the form of a wind.  Wherever it goes, the eternal touches temporal.  Adam came to life when God’s Spirit breathed life into him.

Job also knew the wind of the Spirit.  He said, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”  Job 33:4

Ezekiel saw the effects of the Spirit. “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may life.”  Ezekiel 37:9 In a vision, corpses came to life, stood on their feet, and became a great army.

The world at the end of the tribulation will see the effects of the wind when the two witnesses, the prophets Satan kills, come back to life with a breath.  “But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.”  Revelation 11:11

And, when the disciples were despondent after the crucifixion of Jesus, He appeared, told them to be at peace, and then breathed on them.  “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  John 20:21   They went from there to burn brightly till their deaths.
  
The wind of the Spirit continues to be a source of spiritual renewal.  Our spiritual fathers knew it as they made breathing prayer a way of life.  As they inhaled, they prayed ~ “O Lord Jesus,” and as they exhaled, “Have mercy on me.”  In difficult periods, I’ve made this breathing prayer a part of my life.

The Spirit of God, the breath of God, is within us.  He rises up to infuse us with eternal life, with calmness as well as resurrection power, and with spiritual understanding.  The outgrowth is a truth-thud, that moment when a spiritual mystery registers deeply within us and there is miraculous clarity.  

Breathe on me again, Holy Spirit.  Amen

Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.  John 3:5 NLT

Jesus answered Nicodemus’ questions about being born again.  He said it happens through two things: Water ~ the Word of God, and the Spirit ~ the One who brings understanding to what’s been heard.  Preaching of the Word alone is not sufficient.  It must be accompanied by the breath of the Spirit who moves over a darkened mind. Regeneration is not produced by another’s eloquence, ability to debate, or even clever exposure to Scripture. God must breathe over spiritual blindness.

Think about your favorite scripture; the one you’ve cherished for years, the one you’ve typed out, highlighted, and dated in your Bible. Share that verse with someone whose heart has not yet been awakened to Jesus.  Don’t be surprised when they are unmoved.  That’s because the wind of the Holy Spirit hasn’t yet brought the same insight to them in a personal way.  

The Word and the Spirit have also been necessary agents of change in my sanctification. There were lies about God that held me hostage. I quoted Scripture against them, but I was still held captive. I memorized promises, repeated them faithfully, and wondered in secret why they were not changing me. My lack of victory embarrassed me.  I hid my weaknesses from others, wondering why scripture appeared to be ineffective.

I needed more than a verse retrieved from memory.  I needed truth to penetrate what repetition could not reach. The Holy Spirit needed to take the Word, breathe over me as I internalized it, and then press it into human flesh. My Father longs to give His child understanding accompanied by feelings.  

  Continue to blow over my barren landscape.  Write Your Word with indelible ink on the pillars of my foundation.  Amen

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” John 3:3-4 NLT

The new birth is no small thing. Scripture is startlingly honest about my condition before Christ. I belonged to another kingdom. Jesus used severe language for it: I was “of my father the devil.” I could behave well, appear moral, even do admirable things, but the deepest center of my life was self focused. The captivity was so ironclad that I could not even see the chains.

But oh, there was a day when God lit up my understanding. Christ rose before the eyes of my heart, unseen yet unmistakable, and I was born again. The old bloodline of rebellion no longer named me. I was adopted into the family of God, and His likeness began its slow engraving upon my soul. My new birth felt like gift because Jesus bore its violence. He entered death so I could awaken to resurrection life..

Yet the invisible kingdom keeps breaking through. A hardened heart softens. Provision arrives. A body is healed. A decades-long prayer suddenly flowers. Seasons turn with unbroken faithfulness, and creation quietly reminds us that resurrection is written into God’s eternal narrative.

I remember Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem about earth being “crammed with heaven.” Perhaps the problem is not that God is hidden, but that I am still learning how to see. The kingdom is always pressing against the veil, and everywhere I look, there are fingerprints.

Give my spirit eyes 20/20 vision. Amen