1 There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. 2 Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." 3 Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to - to God's kingdom." 4 "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?" 5 Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation - the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life - it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. 6 When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch - the Spirit - and becomes a living spirit. 7 "So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above' - out of this world, so to speak. 8 You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.
"Nicodemus wanted to believe Jesus,
but his head got in the way of his heart.
His heart said, “Go for it!”
“Follow Him!”
“This is the One!”
but his head asked, “How can these things be?”
He tried his best but he couldn't figure Jesus out.
Not yet anyway. He did become a secret believer and he was with Joseph of Arimathea when Jesus body was buried. But today he is wondering what it is all about, and asking “How can these things be?”
How can it be that we have to be born again...and again...and again...and again?
Born from above; of the Spirit; of the one God sent?
It can be because we do not make it be. God does!
And because we never get it all at the first time, or the second, or third.
We have to be born many times, over and over again as it slowly sinks in that God’s “love never ends and dazzling grace always is’. And it is for all! All!
In religion, Issues of the heart are deeper and more powerful than of the head. We don’t think our way into faith; we are captured by that which penetrates into the depths of our souls and there creates peace, joy, love, and hope, enabling us to say, “Lord I believe; help mine unbelief.”
It was with the heart more than the head that the unknown person spoke when it was written on the wall of a cellar in Cologne Germany during World War II -
“I believe in the suneven when it is not shining.
I believe in love,
even when I feel it not.
I believe in God,
even when He is silent.”
Unknown
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, let my heart take me where my head cannot go. And believe against all odds!”
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