Dear Ones,

 

I have been deeply comforted by something I see throughout the pages of God's Word. It is a comfort that, given all the ridiculously bad choices we have made in life, God has never utterly abandoned or forsaken us. 

 

On the contrary, God has been pursuing us right from the start of our folly.

 

Knowing what Adam had done, God called out to Adam, "Where are you?" God was giving Adam an opportunity to come clean, be honest, to humble himself in repentance and admit...confess that he had utterly blown it. He had done exactly what God had warned him against lest in dying he surely die.

 

(Death is not the cessation of human activity, it is separation...separation from God. The world is filled with the living dead. The fascination with zombies is not far off. We consume one another thinking we can draw life from another human being. In Adam...we all died.)

 

Even when humanity's trajectory was taking it from raw evil into deeper and deeper depravity, God called Noah. God then called a polytheistic pagan named Abram to trust Him, to follow where God led and to believe God. God called and Abram answered. A promise of rescue for humanity was revealed in God's conversation with Abram.

 

God called and Joseph answered, believing what the Lord revealed to him in dreams. Moses answered God as God called from a burning bush, from a smoking mountain, and in the Tent of Meeting. David heard and answered. So did Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Mary and Joseph, the Apostles.

 

And oh, by the way...God has called you. When was the last time you checked your messages?

 

Nicodemus (John 3:1-21) was another man who had been straining to hear from God. When he heard Jesus and saw what Jesus was doing, he recognized the same Voice that had called out to Adam in the cool of the evening. "Nicodemus, where are you?" He came because he had heard the call and answered in the only way he could. he asked questions.

 

He was a Rabbi & they always talked to one another by asking questions. In their questions was some truth, some insight, something to link another question to.

 

Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in a way Nicodemus could understand. He told him that he had to be "born again" in order to see the kingdom of God. The Jews of Nicodemus' day understood what "born again/anew" was all about. It was not an odd term. A Bar-Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah was an event where a child was "born again" from childhood to adulthood. Marriage was an experience of being "born again" where tow people became a brand new creation made up of two inseparable parts. Becoming a Rabbi was a "born anew" experience and to become a "teacher of teachers" was the pinnacle...the ulultimate and last "born again" experience available to a Jew.

 

Now Jesus says human effort doesn't work. It has to be a new birth coming from God...what God does; not what we do. It has all changed...from achieving to believing and finding God doing in us, to us what we could never, ever accomplish!

 

God speaks to us in ways we can understand. Sometimes it's so clear that we run as hard as we can because we KNOW what is being said. We still have the stain of an ancient lie that affects us. We have been told that God is holding out on us, that His heart is not good and we MUST find meaning on our own; not in reference to Him. Problem is, there is no destiny or ultimate meaning to be found apart from God. We fear that if we believe Him, somehow life will be constricted, diluted and minimized. We fear that life in relation to God means being unkind and punitive to those who don't believe.

 

Turns out, before anyone believed, before anyone became aware of their desperate need...God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son. He sent Him, to the end that, if anyone would believe Him, believe in Him, God would restore that person into Life, eternal life...beginning now and everlasting. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to rescue it.

 

God has pursued us to the point of becoming one of us to reveal His heart and life to us. Jesus didn't come to judge the world but to receive God's just judgment for the sake of all mankind.

 

"On the mount of crucifixion, fountains opened deep and wide. From the floodgates of God's mercy flowed a vast and endless tide. Grace and love like mighty rivers flowed incessant from above. And Heaven's peace and perfect justice kissed a guilty world in Love."