Manna from John

I fell asleep before I hit send last night....I shared this tonight at our prayer meeting, but for those that were not there, I spent most of Wednesday in the truck driving. I listened to someone who talked about being saved at a young age. My mind wondered wishing that I had been saved much earlier in my life. It was just a few days before my 25th birthday that I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I had the thought that I had wasted those years. But the Lord has showed me that He has used my whole life to write my unique testimony, but even more than that, I don't need to worry about past wasted time, I need to focus on tomorrow and not waste it and to actively serve the Lord.

(ESV) John 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." 3 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 4 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?" 5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

We often hear about "born again Christians", that is redundant, If you have not had a spiritual birth, you have not been saved and are not a Christian. There is not another path to cross the great divide of sin to reconcile ourselves to God.

Being in the south, we often encounter people who are strong in religous tradition, but are very weak on the understanding that Christianity is about a relationship with Christ through grace alone. We can't muster it up ourselves or do anything to earn it. It is a gift from God that we do not deserve. Christ's death on the cross is the only thing that will satisfy God's wrath against our sin. If there was another way, Jesus would not have had to leave Heaven to suffer here.

If you don't have a true saving relationship with Jesus, talk to someone about it, the Devil uses tradition and religion to pacify our needs for God, but we will only end up frustraited.

If you do have that saving relationship, its our duty to share the good news with others. You don't have to be a pastor or scholar to do it. It's a simple message of love.

Have a blessed day,
Steve

Steve Amos

Sent from my iPad