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 but we all loved darkness rather than light.  Instead of Light being attractive, we were repelled.  Christ was just not desirable to us.  His glory was too bright and we shielded our eyes and turned away.  

So, who will believe if all people love darkness?  The ones God specifically calls; the ones whose eyes are opened to see His glory.  Ah, this call is personal.  This call comes to us by name.

Whenever God speaks a word, it is effective.

• God spoke a Word and this dead planet began to pulsate with life.  What once looked like Mars began to grow green.
• God spoke a Word to a dead man, a decaying man, wrapped up like a mummy, and this man came to life.  His body regenerated.  “Lazarus, come forth!” was the call.  God’s Word produced life out of death.
• God spoke a Word, called my name, and I was awakened out of spiritual death.  The call prompted me to turn and look into the face of Christ.  I understood His message of salvation and believed.  If He hadn’t spoken to me and opened my eyes, I would have continued on my death march.

Nobody knows whom God will call.  Because of that, my heart reaches out to God in prayer for those who haven’t yet heard their name spoken by God.  The call is powerful like dynamite.  It transformed a brutal murderer into a zealot.  The Damascus road was the place it happened.  Paul was the man.   I know this transformation, too.  Don’t you?  The longer I live near Jesus and soak in His Words, the more I cease to know the old me.  You’ll never know how many times I read old journals and respond out loud, “What was your problem, Christine?”  

The call is to a new life.  Don’t walk!  Run to Calvary if you are hearing your name whispered in your soul. 

For anyone battling, arguing, even deciding to ignore You, let Your kingdom come this day to their spirit.  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 NLT

The word ‘so’ makes such an impact when speaking.  I was thinking earlier this morning about some 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 socelebrant when a child returns home.  He is so nurturing.  He is so protective.  He is so encouraging.  He is so hopeful that my faith will remain till the end. 

But more than anything ~ He just longs for me to know that the word ‘so’ is true. I have always been so loved.  I am so loved right now.  And I 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 NLT

This is the Gospel.  God is holy and must deal with our sin.  God is also love and offers us mercy.  To receive it, we must turn from our sin through repentance and look to Christ. 

The last thing the Israelites wanted to do was to look at a snake, a brass likeness lifted high up on a pole. Seeing the snake reminded them of the curse God had brought upon them because of their grumbling.  Only some were willing to look at it – and live.  The rest chose to nurse their grudge against God for whatever reason or they felt God’s remedy was preposterous and refused to humble themselves.  They chose death over life.  

The last thing any of us want to do is look at the gruesome scene of a crucifixion, to someone lifted up high on a cross.  Couldn’t there be some other extension of mercy than to have to look to Jesus, beaten and bruised, suffering unspeakable horrors?   Anything else would be easier to take.  Only some are willing to look to Him – and live. The rest choose to nurse their grudge against God for whatever reason or they feel God’s remedy of His only Son is preposterous and they refuse to humble themselves at the foot of the cross.  They choose death over life. 

This is ultimately a love story.  Bitten by sin, we all face a death sentence.  We are cursed.  There is only one remedy and we don’t get to decide how we’ll be saved.  But the One who does decide is a Savior who loves us ~ so much so that He was willing to take our curse upon Himself and die in our place.  He was hung, high and lifted up, on a cross.  Our curse was put on Him and He was despised, shamed, and rejected.  Oh, but when we look to Him, consider and then repent of our sin, we live.   

Jesus, sometimes the power of the story of the Gospel washes over my soul in a fresh way.  This moment is one of them.  Thank you.  Always, you are high and lifted up.  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.  How was Jesus qualified to speak on things of heaven?  He had come from there.  That was His home before living on earth.  

How humbling if Jesus were to tell me, face to face, that I simply don’t believe him when He reveals things to me pertaining to my life.  How often I have said, “If only He would talk to me, I’d know what’s happening and what I should do next.”  But the fact of the matter is, He is talking through the Word and the Spirit, and often, I shield my ears from what seems threatening or terribly inconvenient.  

Instruction comes to me every day as I live in the scriptures.  The teaching is comprehensive to include my life on earth and what transpires in the kingdom of God in heavenly places.  It is an education I can’t get anywhere else on the planet.  God is the instructor and the only one qualified on both subjects because He made the heavens and He made the earth. He also made every living thing in both realms.

I think of 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 communicate that when I argue with Him; when I listen but then walk away and fail to do what He asked.  I’m saying through my unwillingness to act on the Truth 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 is referring 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. 

This group of witnesses, with Jesus at the center, are powerful truth tellers and 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 tradition hold most every Pharisee and Jewish leader captive.  They fear anything outside of their previous experience.  They cling to what they know, what they have always known. Meeting Jesus, the One they have been waiting for – for thousands of years, should be enough to penetrate their unbelief.  But it isn’t.  The human will 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?  Is it possible that I am closed off to Jesus because of traditional teaching?  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.  My will closes off my faith.

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.  I need to be immovable regarding Truth but flexible about everything else. 

I found out in my forties that I was wrong in my assumptions about the ways God works, moves among His people, and reveals Himself personally to His children.  After much searching, I laid aside my will, my bias, and opened up to faith.  I’ve never been the same.  I can’t believe all I was missing.

Wake up Your church, Lord.  What we think we know can keep us from You.  Show us our blind spots.  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 blows, the eternal touches temporal.  Adam, fashioned out made the dust of the ground, became a man when God breathed over 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, nearly dead bodies 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, oh, how the disciples were transformed by it.  When their souls 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 from then on.

We’ve experienced it too at the time of salvation.  God breathed over us and our spiritual blindness was cured.  We looked up and saw a Savior; we looked inside and saw our sin.  

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 longs to rise up and infuse us with eternal life.  The outgrowth is calmness and spiritual power.  He also longs to rise up and infuse us 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, as I digest this devotional.  Amen

Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.  John 3:6 NLT

What did Jesus mean when He talked about flesh and spirit with respect to the new birth?

To be born physically, the union of a man and a woman are necessary.  Coming from them, I resemble them.  I have their DNA in my bones.  I have my grandmother’s nose, my aunt’s musical ability, my father’s gentle spirit, my mother’s gift of compassion, and a combination of their gestures and facial movements.  That’s why Jesus said, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh.’

To be born spiritually, there is also a birth by a parent.  A new Father calls me His child.  He touches my dead spirit and brings it to life.  I’m given a new nature, His nature.  I’m given undeserved righteousness, His righteousness. Begotten of God, I become like the One who gave me a spiritual birth.  That’s why Jesus said, ‘That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’

But, am I more like my earthly parents or my Heavenly Father?  If I’ve been born again, my second birth is to trump the first.  The second birth is to re-define my whole identity.  It is meant to re-shape whatever has been disfigured by formation inside my human family.  My perfect Father intends to re-parent me.  He’s eager to fix what was broken and mature what was stunted.  He blesses the righteous seeds of my parents while challenging the sinful legacies. That creates friction ~ both in me and in my family.  Yet, this is what spiritual growth involves.

I can pray the sinner’s prayer, call myself a child of God, but never engage in a Father/daughter relationship. I do not experience His endearing ways. From lack of intimacy, I don’t become like the One who gave me spiritual life.  I cling to the patterns, habits, and beliefs of my earthly family.  My history normalized their dysfunction and it feels uncomfortable to step out of line.  My family might not like it if I honor Jesus before them.  I will potentially lose favor.  

Yet, this is the call.  I am to leave father and mother to follow God.  ‘The family way of doing things’ is to no longer bind me if ‘the family way’ is out of step with the kingdom.

I don’t like not fitting in.  I am uncomfortable with criticism, especially from family. Your likeness is what I seek so give me grace for whatever friction my follow.  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 is answering Nicodemus’ questions about being born again.  He reveals that it happens through two agents:  water ~ which is the Word of God and the Spirit ~ the One who opens someone’s eyes to the Word so that they can understand it.  Preaching of the Word alone is not sufficient for a new birth.  It must be accompanied by the breath of the Spirit who moves over darkened minds.  

These two change agents will always be what is necessary for a person’s eyes to be opened to their need for a Savior.  If someone only reads the Word, it is a strange language which seems to have no value.  

Think about your favorite scripture right now; the one you’ve cherished for years, the one you’ve typed out, highlighted and dated in your Bible, and perhaps even taped to your bathroom mirror.  You could write out that verse for ten unbelievers and it would mean nothing.  They would be puzzled by how life-giving it is to you.  That’s because the wind of the Holy Spirit hasn’t opened their eyes yet.  

The Word and the Spirit bring about new birth but they continue to be change agents in my sanctification. There have been lies about God that held me hostage.  There have been areas where despair ruled and faith was absent.  I couldn’t understand why I didn’t have victory.  I memorized many verses in an attempt to bring the change I was seeking but the truth of them didn’t impact me.  I was confused but was too embarrassed to admit it.  My disappointment in my faith festered in secret.  If only I’d understood then what Jesus was telling John.  It is the scriptures plus the wind of the Spirit that brings new life.  

Each of us faces one stronghold after another.  It can easily be overwhelming without the assurance that the spiritual power of the Word, and the Spirit, combine to offer deliverance and a change to a captive way of life.  We can not only know the truth but feel the truth.

Whenever you and I have an ‘a-ha’ spiritual moment, we know that the Holy Spirit is giving us understanding of the scriptures.  The Word becomes precious to us and the Spirit writes a new message on the pillars on our life’s foundation.

  Continue to blow over my barren landscape.  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 kingdom-related things that take place between people and God are invisible.  The new birth is invisible.  The washing away of sins is invisible.  The cleansing of our conscience is invisible.  God is invisible.  The Spirit is invisible.  And Jesus, once visible, is invisible once again.  

The new birth is no small thing.  Whomever I am ‘born of’ determines who I am like.  Children inherit the attributes of their parents.  I was ‘of my father the devil’ until the new birth.  I was in his clutches and, like him, my own flesh drove my decision making.  Now, I could be on good behavior but it was only because it was self-serving.  My heart was alive to sin and dead to God.  This captivity was invisible.  

But oh, there was a day when God said ‘let there be light’ to my own spiritual eyes.  Jesus came into view (though invisible) and nothing has ever been the same.  I was born of heaven and my entire nature changed. I was no longer like my father the devil.  God touched my spirit and I was born of Him.  My likeness was transformed to resemble my new Father.  I had new spiritual DNA.  (Invisible) Whenever there is birth, the one who gives birth bears pain.  My birth into God’s kingdom cost me nothing.  The pain was borne by Jesus.  

What can be seen by physical eyes todays is least important.  Real life happens behind the veil.  God’s promises are at work in my life.  Invisible.  Jesus is praying for me.  Invisible.  I am being sanctified.  Invisible.  Jesus is preparing a home for me.  Invisible.  Every prayer I pray is being answered.  Invisible.  

My faith is in One unseen and in a kingdom yet unseen.  Do kingdom things become visible in this life?  Oh yes!  We know that.  We see people change, provisions appear, diseases healed, seasons perpetuate, and God is everywhere if we look for His fingerprints. In Sunday School a few days ago, our teacher mentioned an Elizabeth Barrett Browning quote. 

Earth is crammed with heaven,

 And every bush afire with God.

But only he who sees takes off his shoes,

The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.  

Give my spirit eyes 20/20 vision.  Amen

Nicodemus said, “We know that you are a teacher come from God.”  John 3:2

Jesus said, “You are a teacher from Israel and yet you do not know these things.”      John 3:10

It’s safe to generalize.  “We all think you should do this or that.”  Or, “We all believe this is a problem.”  The person speaking feels it’s safer to do this than share his own opinion.  To personalize is so much more vulnerable.

John tells the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night.  The ruler of the Jews begins with a generalization.  “We know that you are a teacher…”  He must be speaking on behalf of a group.  Other teachers?  Other Pharisees?  Who is ‘we’?  Jesus quickly moves the topic to metaphors without pinning Nicodemus down.  Eventually however, the moment comes.  Jesus has spoken of new birth, the wind of the Holy Spirit, the contrast between things of the flesh and things of the Spirit, and all the while Nicodemus has been under the spotlight gaze of the Savior.

“You are a teacher from Israel, Nicodemus, and yet you do not know these things.”    

Nicodemus began with ‘we know’.  Jesus exposes his spiritually bankrupt understanding by telling him that he ‘doesn’t know.’  

When it comes to the kingdom, what I believe I understand best may be the very thing I understand least.  I’ve cut myself off to learn wisdom and understanding.  I’m no longer asking questions.  The most dangerous thing is to believe that the things of heaven work like the things of earth.  Earthly comparisons rarely prove relevant.  If I could have a talk with Nicodemus today, he might give this advice.  “Christine, believe me.  What you think you know, you probably don’t.”  

What I do know is this ~ “I know whom I have believed.”  

I am Your student who seeks understanding.  I begin on my knees.  Amen