{"id":3198,"date":"2023-11-28T09:42:17","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T14:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3198"},"modified":"2023-11-28T09:48:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T14:48:12","slug":"the-spirit-provides-new-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/28\/the-spirit-provides-new-birth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spirit Provides New Birth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here<\/a>

During the month of November, we\u2019re taking a look at 21 essential activities of the Holy Spirit, who represents God\u2019s presence in and through every follower of Jesus.<\/em>
 
Let\u2019s face it: The New York Jets of the National Football League are just awful. 
 
This was supposed to be a magic season.  Maybe even a Super Bowl season.  Last spring, with great fanfare, the Jets secured the services of future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who tore one of his Achilles tendons after taking just his fourth snap back in September.
 
Rodgers\u2019 backups have not played well.  The team is now 4-7, with virtually no chance of making the playoffs.  Last Friday, the third string quarterback threw a Hail Mary pass towards the end zone as time was expiring in the first half \u2013 only to have a Miami Dolphins player intercept the ball and return it 99 yards for a touchdown.  Black Friday, indeed.  
 
The time has come for action.  The New York Jets need help at quarterback, and I\u2019m willing to step up.
 
What if I decided to go to Coach Robert Saleh and advertise my availability? 
 
I could do a short private workout \u2013 you know, just your basic scramble drills and a chance to demonstrate my laser rocket arm.  I\u2019d let him see what I can do.  Then I\u2019d say, \u201cRobert \u2013 can I call you Bob? \u2013 don\u2019t sugarcoat it.   What are my chances of being on the Jets\u2019 roster by next Sunday?\u201d 
 
I think Coach Saleh would say something like, \u201cMcDonald, you must be born again.  Literally<\/em>.  Start by coming into the world in the 21st<\/sup> century instead of the middle of the 20th<\/sup>.  Get yourself some different chromosomes \u2013 a father who was 6-foot-five instead of five-foot-nine would help.  If you can pull that off and actually start exercising, give me a call.\u201d 
 
In John chapter 3, Jesus is approached by a man named Nicodemus \u2013 a Pharisee who is deeply impressed with his teaching.  What would he need to do to become part of this new movement?
 
\u201cYou must be born again,\u201d Jesus says (John 3:3). 
 
This is not a compliment.  Jesus is being entirely realistic about Nicodemus\u2019 chances \u2013 and our chances as well \u2013 of joining his community of lifelong learners. 
 
Nicodemus is taken aback.  \u201cYou don\u2019t mean I have to start over again in my mother\u2019s womb, do you?\u201d  No, Jesus is talking about spiritual rebirth.  We cannot participate in Jesus\u2019 vision for the future unless we display new capacities, new motivations, and an entirely new nature that is capable of responding in a healthy way to God.
 
And that\u2019s never going to happen through a rigorous self-improvement program.  We cannot personally conjure up the medicine we need to cure our sin-sick souls.  
   
The Greeks had two different words for \u201clife:\u201d bios<\/em> and zoe<\/em>.  Bios<\/em> is the root of the word biology.  Everyone who arrives in the maternity ward has received the gift of physical, organic life.  But the tragedy of our broken world is that not everybody experiences zoe<\/em> \u2013 spiritual existence as it was meant to be. 
 
Jesus declares that the reason we are here is not to improve our biological circumstances.  All of us are called to be reborn into real, lasting life<\/em> \u2013 zoe<\/em>, that is \u2013 through a relationship with him.
 
And that can only happen through the work of the Holy Spirit. 
 
Jesus says, \u201cI tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, \u2018You must be born again.\u2019 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit\u201d (John 3:5-8).   
 
We\u2019re so used to hearing about \u201cborn again Christians\u201d \u2013 and may well have been turned off by some of the foolish things they say and do in the name of Jesus \u2013 that we might have overlooked what the New Testament actually says about rebirth.
 
When we abandon ourselves to Jesus, God graciously puts a brand new nature into our bodies.  God doesn\u2019t get rid of the old hardware.  We still have the same bodies we had when we came into this world.  But now our goal is to run the old hardware with the brand new software of the Holy Spirit.
 
And as with any systems upgrade, we can expect some start-up struggles and compatibility issues. 
 
So what changes as a result of spiritual rebirth? 
 
Your eye color will remain the same.  So will your fingerprints.  Your time running your community\u2019s annual 5K race will not automatically improve.  Nor will you be empowered to go shopping for a new family of origin.  Your cooking skills will be, well, pretty much what they were before.
 
But being indwelt by the Holy Spirit means that you will experience a genuine desire to please God \u2013 an aching hunger to learn and grow.  Your identity will begin to undergo a major renovation.  You may have grown up believing you had to take care of number one, because no one else was ever going to do that for you.  But now you\u2019ll experience fresh motivation to pursue God\u2019s agenda instead of your own.
 
Here comes the tricky part.
 
When someone is born again, does that mean their same old problems disappear?  No, it doesn\u2019t.  But now they have an indwelling Problem Solver who is equal to anything they are facing. 
 
When we experience rebirth, does that mean our most wretched habits are automatically banished?  No, it doesn\u2019t.  It\u2019s true that many followers of Jesus experience immediate deliverance from something that has burdened them for years \u2013 an addiction perhaps, or an inability to forgive, or a thought pattern that has crushed their spirit. 
 
Most of us, however, find that the same old wounds and painful memories are still lurking around somewhere. 
 
But that\u2019s not the end of the story.  Now the redemptive work of the rest of our lives begins.  Equipped with fresh power and fresh hope, we learn to surrender more and more of ourselves to the Spirit \u2013 the very One who promises to provide substantial healing of our hurts and hearts.   
 
It doesn\u2019t happen all at once.  But by God\u2019s grace, it does indeed happen<\/em>.    
 
I recently read about a humble follower of Jesus who said, \u201cI am not really born again.  I\u2019m in about my second trimester.\u201d 
 
Maybe you\u2019re there, too.  But that\u2019s OK. 
 
The midwife of the Holy Spirit will make sure you\u2019re safely born into a whole new way of life.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here During the month of November, we\u2019re taking a look at 21 essential activities of the Holy Spirit, who represents God\u2019s presence in and through every follower of Jesus. Let\u2019s face it: The New York Jets of the National Football League are just awful.  This was supposed to be a magic season.  Maybe even… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[352,659],"class_list":["post-3198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-holy-spirit","tag-new-birth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3202,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions\/3202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}