<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s text Jesus\u2019 words baffled and amazed Nicodemus the Pharisee:<\/p>\n
\u2022 To experience fully what God is doing, you must be born again.<\/p>\n
\u2022 This rebirth, like your first birth, is a miracle accomplished by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Spirit leads you to believe in the power of Jesus, God\u2019s Son, to save the world from sin and to give you new life forever with God.<\/p>\n
Huh!?! Nicodemus was confused.<\/p>\n
This was not the first time Jesus\u2019 words jolted a religious leader. Jesus began doing that at the age of 12 (see Luke 2:41-47).<\/p>\n
Now, what kinds of surprises do these words of Jesus bring to us today?<\/p>\n
For people who sense that being a Christian is only about themselves and Jesus, the global scope of Jesus\u2019 words can be breathtaking. For people who assume that Christian faith can be a nice addition to their self-directed life, the idea of rebirth into a totally new life is a jarring challenge. What\u2019s more, no conversation with Jesus is just a conversation.<\/p>\n
Open yourself to the wonder of Jesus\u2019 words to Nicodemus. It\u2019s good practice for experiencing the wonder and power of the events in Jesus\u2019 life that we will remember this week on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday\u2014 when the rebirth of creation itself was launched.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In today\u2019s text Jesus\u2019 words baffled and amazed Nicodemus the Pharisee: \u2022 To experience fully what God is doing, you must be born again. \u2022 This rebirth, like your first birth, is a miracle accomplished by the Holy Spirit. \u2022 The Spirit leads you to believe in the power of Jesus, God\u2019s Son, to save<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[86,269,181,680],"class_list":{"0":"post-24675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-devotionals","8":"tag-daily","9":"tag-devotional","10":"tag-today","11":"tag-wait"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}