DAILY PROMPT: 

Write down the first words that comes to mind when we say . . .

. . . home.

. . . soil.

. . . rain.

Use those words in the title of your post.

New Birth, what are you talking about girl?  No, I am not having another baby, (thank you Jesus)! I don’t even have all those ‘parts’ anymore!  But that still leaves the question; home/soil/rain/new birth????

How are we to be born again?  And why would I want to?  I have to admit, when well-meaning people came to me and told me I could have everlasting life, I said, “What?  I don’t even want to live my life now, why would I want it to last forever?”  Ever felt that way?

But, what I did learn is that I could get another chance, a new life. Kinda like a trade-in, only not with a car.  I could exchange my miserable lonely existence for a new life with God.  A life that would have peace, and joy, and happiness.  Sign me up…

How did I do that?  Glad you asked…  For me I had to acknowledge that I had lived my life without God.  I did what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it.  But living like that kinda left me in the psych ward (more than once), the divorce courts, and the therapists office.  Wow, guess I didn’t have it all together like I thought!

Then, I had to open my heart and mind, and ask Jesus to come in; to my life, my heart, my head; and my past, present, and future.  I needed some rearranging in the thought department, that’s for sure.

The the Bible says to Repent – I had no idea what that meant.  It sounded like more “Christian-eze.  Then I found out that it  just means “turn around”, change the direction you are going, try things a new way.  For me, this meant I would read what God had to say, and ask for His help with things.  I could go just one step at a time…It wasn’t an  overnight thing for me.

Then, I made a choice, to Believe. To believe that Jesus came to earth in the flesh, and was crucified by the “Religious” folks.  He died at Calvary; He was the sacrifice that God needed to pay for all men’s (and women’s) sin.  Kinda like someone else takes the blame at school when you were the one who did it.   But good news friends, Jesus didn’t stay dead.  Yep, he rose again.  And sent us part of himself, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Counselor to help us on our journey.  That’s the “good guy” inside me now.  I am finally comfortable in my own skin; I am home.

And the best part, getting baptized, you know – dunked.  A physical expression of what happens in the spiritual.  That’s where Jesus took all those nasty things I said/did/thoughts along with the hurtful things that others did to me and He buried them – forever.  They are gone, and I finally feel clean.  The Bible says God doesn’t even remember them anymore.  Now that is freedom!

Thank  goodness I don’t have to have this all figured out today.  I am grateful for the “new birth” in my life.  And no, I didn’t have to crawl back into my mommy’s tummy to experience it…What about you?  Are you ready for a change?

GOD’S PROMISE TO YOU:

 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

MY PRAYER FOR YOU:

Dear Lord,

I am praying today for the ones who haven’t met You yet.  The children who are lost, bruised, beaten, confused, and hurt.  I pray that You would step into their darkness and shine Your light.  You are not willing that any of them should perish/die/hurt.  I am not either. Lead us to your hurting children Lord.  Use us in this life to show them that things can change, even if they don’t think so.  Add our faith to their despair, and deliver them.  They matter, they count, they are chosen.

The world has left them for dead.  I ask you Lord, to bring them   new life.  You said you came to bring them life, and life more abundantly; release it now Lord.  Give them hope, a future, and a new reason to live, in Jesus’ Name.