Spirit Born

Read It: John 3:4-7 (NRSV)

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’

Learn It:

As Christians we all have two births.  This isn't something that we often talk about but we truly are given new life (born again) when we are baptized, and of course we are born when we first came into this world.  But, Jesus does not say that the new birth trumps the old.  We must be born of both water and Spirit.  We must be both of this world and not of this world.  We must be people of God living for the kingdom that Jesus promises, and we need to be people who truly do live in this world.  It is being in this world that we are able to connect and interact with others.  It is how we can teach them about baptism and about what it means to be born of both the physical water and of the Spirit that God gives us through the waters of baptism.

Share It:

Talk with your family about if you have ever had a time when you felt you were truly just a plain "old" human and were there times when you just felt that you were being used by the Spirit.  What was it like?  When did you realize that  the Spirit was working through you?  Do you often think of your baptism as having given you a new life and having been born again?

Live It:

In the next week while you are at work, school, playing, relaxing or whatever you find yourself doing, pay attention to the times when you might see how you were born of the Spirit.  Maybe you find yourself praying for someone on the side of the road; helping someone who needs a hand; maybe you talk to someone about God.  There are things that we do because we are born of the Spirit.  Because we have a new Spiritual life in Jesus we do things differently, so pay attention to those moments when you do something that makes you think about how you are blessed with that new Spirit birth.

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Please post comments with your experience with the share it or live it part of this weeks post.  Let others know if you and your family found this useful.