Sharing My Heart, on Being Born Again (Part 2)

Picture Credit:  Pinterest

My post on Facebook yesterday may have been quite out of the blue, yet my "near-death scare" experience truly opened not just my eyes, but my mouth in a whole new way. What I posted yesterday I'm calling a sort of  "Facebook Manifesto" as I posted it there first and want to share it on my blog as well.

Now, for the final part of the Manifesto I would like to share.

Picture Credit:  mychurchtoolkit.com

In the mornings lately, I've been taking these lovely walks near the quarry behind my house. In my pretty urban area, it's a wonderful respite filled with butterflies, River Birch growing wild, and all kinds of prairie flowers and grasses and foot prints of the critters who freely run back and forth in this wild area. As I walked there today, I was struck when I turned on my AM radio to a podcast just starting titled "Do I Really Need to Be Born Again".

Picture Credit:  Epignosis Ministries

I think that word has been hijacked by society to mean something it was never meant to. In fact, the "author" of that phrase was Jesus himself (see John Chapter 3) when He was talking to Nicodemus (one of the Pharisees) and since many Pharisees opposed Jesus, Nicodemus had to come to him in the cover of night. As I read this, I see it was Nicodemus' statement "We all know that God sent you to teach us (etc.) ...." that led to Jesus to say "unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God." (from NIV)

I like how someone put it "Your Choice is Your Eternity"

For those that would like to listen, here's a link to the message:http://www.oneplace.com/…/do-i-really-need-to-be-born-again…

Just wanted to share a part 2 of yesterday's post that helps explain what I mean when I referred to being born again. In 2000, when I was baptized as an adult, that for me was my outward expression of the inward change that was happening in me as I was being born again.

I know this message in the link is a bit long, so I love this paraphrase about being born again from the Telling the Truth podcast post:

"....in actual fact, the emphasis is not on what you do, the emphasis is on what the Father does. He begets you! To be born again, then, is primarily an action of someone outside yourself, and it is someone who is above. You are begotten from above. So the idea of being born again is basically this: There needs to be an action from God above reaching down into my life that will dramatically change me inside."

That really explains what I feel happened in my heart way back then, and what I continue to walk out today through "fear and trembling" since NONE of us are perfected on this side of Eternity.

May the Lord bless whomever is led to read this :)

Thank you for visiting!

💜 💜 Tracey 💜 💜