Good morning. An
admonition we all need at times: be anxious for nothing. But you don’t know my
circumstances… It doesn’t matter, if we are standing firm in the Lord. When we
are anxious, we’re taking all the responsibility for solving the problem upon
ourselves. We think that the solution is up to us. OK smarty-pants, what should
we do? In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known to God. Seriously, and that’s it? Notice that it says
“with thanksgiving“. We are thanking God for the solution, even when we are in
the midst of the dilemma. By the way, the Greek word for thanksgiving here is
the one from which the word Eucharist is derived. Sadly our normal procedure
is: we try to solve the problem in our own ability, and then scream “help!” to
God when everything messes up. In the Old Testament, King Asa became severely
diseased in his feet. “Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but
the physicians.“ It’s not that we should not go to the doctors; it’s that we
should give God first shot at it. Next time we will see what happens when we do
make our requests known to God with thanksgiving.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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