Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
It’s happened again. I had another birthday! It’s hard to believe that I’m ___! So many made sure that I didn’t forget that I was getting another year older. I truly never believed that the Lord would give me this many years.
I got lots of cards that congratulated me on my birthday. Some cards told me of how much they loved me and were so proud to be a part of the family. And I got so many texts wishing me a happy birthday that it really surprised me.
One really made me laugh. It was a card that Harper had made. They came by after church on Wednesday evening and gave me a Coke and a Snicker’s along with the card. It said – “Happy Birthday Papa. Hope we aren’t too weird and funny ----- oh wait, we got it from you!” It was signed – Sutton, Millie, Harper and said – ‘We love U’.
I placed their card alongside all the others that I got. Yet I just couldn’t get that card out of my mind. It made me laugh because of the love with which Harper made it. Many of my cards told me that they loved me and told me thanks for always being there for them. Each of the cards really were so special along with the pictures and videos that came with them.
Yet Harper’s card made me stop and think. Each of us are growing older but at times we are a little ‘weird and funny’. That is just a part of who we are and the need we have for a loving Savior to bring us to new life in Him. It is a journey that takes only a few years for some while others it may take years.
I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was 8 years old. I didn’t follow Christ in the way that I should have and it took me a few years to get back on track. Truth is I was a little weird during that time. When I was 21, I rededicated my life to Christ and have sought to follow Him faithfully since that time.
In John 3 a man named Nicodemus came to Jesus and even recognized that He had come from God because of all that He was doing. He didn’t say that Jesus was weird, but that He had done things that only God could do. Then in John 3:3 Jesus said to Him -- “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Of course, Nicodemus questioned how a man could be born when he is old. He went on to say --- “He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” For Nicodemus that would have been weird. But Jesus went on to say more.
He said in vv. 5-8 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘you must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Sounds a little weird, doesn’t it? But the truth is that “… God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16). When we believe, as Peter said in 1 Peter 1:3 – “…. we are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
I may be weird, but in Christ I have been born again. I may be old but in Christ, I’ve been made new. How about you?
JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, there IS something about that name!!
Christ only, always,
Bro. Paul
