The New Birth

Day 31

John 3 & 4

We live in a world gone wrong. At every level people are looking for answers. There is an increasing desperation for answers. The politicians have failed. The philosophers have failed. The artists and the entertainers can only reflect our pain or distract us for a moment. The scientists and engineers have filled our world with scientific explanations and technological wonders. But they have not answered our biggest questions and our souls are still empty. We can put a man on the moon, a machine on Mars and twenty thousand songs on our iPod…and we are still miserable and the world is still wrong.

Ain’t it the truth.

The answer is Jesus. I don’t mean that as an obligatory Christian cliche. I mean that as the single deepest conviction of my life. The reason Jesus is the answer in a world gone wrong is because of what has gone wrong. It’s not really the politics or the economy or the society that has gone wrong — it’s the people who have gone wrong. We are wrong. Our hearts are corrupt and our souls are empty. Jesus says we must be born again. And only Jesus can give us this new birth. Only Jesus! Get that in your head! Not Washington, not Wall Street, not Microsoft, not NASA, not Hollywood, not the UN, not the Elephants, not the Donkeys, not Oprah or Dr. Phil.

Only Jesus can give us the new birth. And without the new birth — the new movie, the new iPod, the new CD, the new diet, the new fad, the new idea, the new boyfriend or girlfriend isn’t going to do much. It sure isn’t going to make you new. I know what I’m talking about. Jesus is the answer. You must be born again.

That’s what Jesus said to Nick at Nite and that’s what Jesus says to you.

Being born again is not just a rite of passage into evangelical Christianity.
Being born again is not just a pardon for what we’ve done wrong.
Being born again is the creation of new life on the inside.

The new birth is what can make us right.
Do you want to change the world? I do!
It’s done one life at a time by the new birth.
Jesus is currently offering the new birth.
But for a limited time only.

There’s a woman sitting by a well today.
She’s out of hope at the end of her rope.
You know what she needs.
You have her answer.
Will you tell her?

John 3:16 is the most famous.

John 3:17 is so true…
God didn’t send His Son to condemn the world but to save it.

But John 3:18-21 is true too.

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

If people don’t love the truth there is no hope. Before a person can be saved they must believe there is truth and want the truth and be willing to come to the truth and to face the truth.

Here’s something a little weird I found that goes along with John 3:18-21…

Blindman Prophecy # 25

You try to con me with ‘I seek what truth there might be’
No! You hide from the truth like daddy Adam and mommy Eve

Blindman can see through your Groucho disguise
Your talk of seeking for truth is a pack of lies

You want to find truth like a criminal wants to find a cop
You love your sin and the truth might make you stop

O get mad get mean get smart get on your pompous high horse
Blindman said the word ‘sin’ — gotta rip out his tongue or worse

You say that’s for Sunday School boy and girl to make them mind
But I went to Big Sin U. and got a degree — blind, bind and grind!

The truth is God is and you is and sin is and grace is
So grace is because you is in a big mess and God is

Love

But God’s not a magician with a magic wand to make sin go poof
It took the deeper magic of the Tree and here’s the proof–

He raised THE ONE from the dead — and baby that’s a fact!
So face the fact, cut the act, get on track and don’t look back!

Frankie boy you can keep singing your ‘Did It My Way” theme song
Croaking out your tired alibi, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong!’

Damn

Nation of those who refuse the mercy of God in their pride
Or you can trust in the One who lives again though He died

So ask yourself this little question: What year is it and why?
And then know this: The Time Divider is awaiting your reply

-Blindman at the Gate

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I’m very excited about tonight.

BZ