Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3.5-6Born of water and the Spirit? What’s interesting to me is that we usually associate this verse immediately with baptism, but I believe Jesus may have been trying to make a much deeper point.

Follow closely—in the first few verses of the Bible, there is some very interesting language used.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Genesis 1.1-5

The earth itself was born from the Spirit moving over the surface of the waters. At that moment, God cried out, “Let there be light.” Over and over, Jesus used this imagery of light shining in the darkness. The darkness is all of our darkened misapprehensions and misconceptions of God and what type of God we perceive Him to be. It’s the lies we have been told and that we have believed concerning Him and His character. The light, on the other hand, is the truth concerning God’s character of love as revealed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s Son.

Keep following:

“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God [His Love] in the face of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4.6

It is at the moment when the Spirit is hovering once again over the “waters” of our heart, which is without form and void, that God cries out, “Let there be light.” But it’s not literal light, like we see emanating from a light bulb. It’s the revelation of God’s love for us, shining from the life and death of Jesus Himself, in contrast to the darkness of lies we have believed about Him.

When we are “born” of this experience, born of “water and Spirit”, we cease to be simply born of the flesh, conceived of human design and origin. We become born now of the Spirit, of this new revelation of God and the truth regarding His character. Naturally, we are of the flesh—very selfish, very self-centered. But to be born of the Spirit, to be born from a revelation of God and the truth of His love, radically changes us from the inside out. It transforms and converts us from being selfish to “no longer living for ourselves but for Him who died for us and rose again.” 2 Corinthians 5:14,15. Love has awakened love.

Something to ponder this week: being born again is much more than just saying a sinner’s prayer or taking a giant bath in the front of some church. It’s a radical orientation shift that comes through encountering God for who He really is.

I wish you God’s best this week. Happy pondering.

Two days later there was a wedding at Cana-in-Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, as were Jesus and his disciples. They ran out of wine at the party following the wedding, so Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine left.” He answered, “That is no concern of mine. My hour has not yet come.” His mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Nearby were six stone water-jars similar to those used for Jewish rites of purification; each could hold twenty to thirty gallons of liquid. Jesus said the servants to “fill the jars with water,” and they filled them to the brim. “Now draw some off,” he ordered, “and take it to the master of the feast”; and they did so. Oblivious to its source, the master tasted the water, which had now turned into wine. He hailed the bridegroom and said, “Everyone else serves the best wine first, and the poorer only when the guests have drunk freely; but you have kept the best wine till now.” – John 2.1-10Wow, water into fine wine…this miracle isn’t just about “chemistry”, though. I recently received a note from a friend expressing the difficulties in “showing” the Father’s character of love to those around us. And I, no doubt, will confess that to take a self-centered human being (And we are all self-centered; I am convinced that genuine other-centered love is truly beyond the capability of any of us without something greater than ourselves, outside of ourselves, awakening and enabling that love.) and turn them into a revelation, a conduit so to speak, of God’s other-centered love is no less a miracle than taking well water and turning it to wine.

But we continually need to be reminded:

“Love is the basis of godliness. Whatever the profession, no man has pure love to God unless he has unselfish love for his brother. But we can never come into possession of this spirit by trying to love others. What is needed is the love of Christ in the heart. When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within—when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance”(Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 384).

Did you catch it? We can’t love by simply trying to love. Love comes from God (See I John 4.7 NASB and REB). Only by His love for us is love in us awakened. (The Desire of Ages p. 22) True love is as fundamentally different from our natural state as wine is from water. To restore us into the image of that love would, at least for me, be more like turning muddy water into fine wine. This miracle of unconditional love is indeed so beyond the possibility of human origin and rare that, when manifested, it makes even the most ardent Atheists stop and take note. True love is so far beyond any of our capability that John stated that everyone who does love, only does so because they have been born of God. We love only because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19 and1 John 4.7)

So, it becomes obvious to the careful reader that what is needed is less “trying” to love on our part, and more “letting” ourselves be loved by Him who did not count heaven itself a place to be desired if we could not be with Him. Only by “believing” and personally “experiencing” His love for us can love spring up in us, like a fountain of living water, and flow out to those around us. He can do it, if we only let Him.

I wish you God’s best this week.

And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51).I have a quick thought for you this week.

I was reading last night the first chapter of John, in which Jesus uses the imagery of a great gulf fixed between us and God. A mystical ladder, upon which angels are descending and ascending, crosses that gulf, descending from God Himself to us; to our surprise, the ladder is God Himself. (See also Genesis 28:12)

I had to stop and ask, what really was this separation between humanity and God? I know that for our own preservation, there needed to be physical separation between us and God’s glory after sin. But relationally, I wonder how much of the separation is truly of God’s creation and how much is our own. I know that sin produces an intrinsic separation between us and the great Lover of our souls. But has God really ever pulled back? Relationally? I believe that our sin, rather than making Him pull back, implores Him from deep within His own heart to press in closer. The greater our need, the greater His desire to save us. He does not abandon us in our moment of need, but on the contrary, He empties Himself completely to meet our need. Sin created the separation and God threw Himself across the chasm to bridge it!

“Though sin had produced a gulf between man and his God, a divine benevolence provided a plan to bridge that gulf. And what material did He use? A part of Himself. The brightness of the Father’s glory came to a world all seared and marred with the curse, and in His own divine character, in His own divine body, bridged the gulf. . . The windows of heaven were opened and the showers of heavenly grace in healing streams came to our benighted world. . . Had God given us less we could not have been saved. But He gave to our world so abundantly that it could not be said that He could love us more . . . God has exhausted His benevolence . . . in pouring out all heaven to man in one great gift. Only in comprehending the value of this offering can we comprehend infinity. O the breadth and height and depth of the love of God! Who of finite beings can comprehend it?” (White, Our High Calling, p. 12).

“God’s love for the world was not manifest because He sent His Son, but because He loved the world He sent His Son into the world that divinity clothed with humanity might touch humanity, while divinity lays hold of divinity.” (Ibid.)

Think of the imagery the God (in human flesh) used. Himself, a latter, for us! When sin created a chasm, a separation between us and Him, He used Himself to bridge the gulf, and whispers to each one of us, “Here, take my hand; I will hold on to you, and I will bring you back home.” What an incredible God!!!

“Let earth be glad, let the inhabitants of the world rejoice, that Christ has bridged the gulf which sin had made, and has bound earth and heaven together. A highway has been cast up for the ransomed of the Lord. The weary and heavy laden may come unto Him and find rest to their souls. The pilgrim may journey toward the mansions that He has gone to prepare for those who love Him” (White, That I May Know Him, p. 82).

I wish you God’s best this week.

. . . And the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out.—John 6:37Or as Peterson paraphrased it, “Once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go” (John 6:37, The Message).

I remember a sermon when I was just a kid in which a question was asked: Does our relationship with God depend on our holding onto Him or on our believing that He is still holding onto us?

My oldest daughter returned from a ski trip yesterday. I taught her how to ski when she was just a little girl, and she’s loved it ever since. But when she was very small, she once slipped off the ski lift. I think of that experience each time she and I hit the slopes. She had lifted the bar early, and then she forgot it was up; when she fell, I caught her by the hood of her ski coat. I was holding onto the back of the lift chair with one hand and her ski coat with the other. When the ground got close enough, we both counted to three and jumped. We landed, and there were no injuries. Today we laugh about it, but neither of us thought it was too funny then.

I’ve often wondered what would have happened if her safety that day had depended on her holding onto me, rather than on my holding onto her. The story would not have ended the same, I’m quite sure. Yet how many believe that their eternity depends on their holding onto God. I don’t think that’s how it works at all. I think it’s dependent on our believing that He is still holding onto us.

It was taught by the Jews that before God’s love is extended to the sinner, he must first repent. In their view, repentance is a work by which men earn the favor of Heaven. And it was this thought that led the Pharisees to exclaim in astonishment and anger, “This man receiveth sinners.” According to their ideas He should permit none to approach Him but those who had repented. But in the parable of the lost sheep, Christ teaches that salvation does not come through our seeking after God but through God’s seeking after us. “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way.” Rom. 3:11, 12. We do not repent in order that God may love us, but He reveals to us His love in order that we may repent. (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 189)

Certainly I believe that we can take ourselves out of the hands of God. But if any are lost in the end, it will be their choice, not His. On that day, those who enter into life will look into the eyes of God and simply say, “Thy will be done.” But all who are lost will encounter God Himself, Who will look into their eyes and say to them, “Thy will be done,” even though it is against everything He desires for them.

The love of God still yearns over the one who has chosen to separate from Him, and He sets in operation influences to bring him back to the Father’s house. The prodigal son in his wretchedness “came to himself.” The deceptive power that Satan had exercised over him was broken. He saw that his suffering was the result of his own folly, and he said, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father.” Miserable as he was, the prodigal found hope in the conviction of his father’s love. It was that love which was drawing him toward home. So it is the assurance of God’s love that constrains the sinner to return to God. “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” Rom. 2:4. A golden chain, the mercy and compassion of divine love, is passed around every imperiled soul. The Lord declares, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” Jer. 31:3. (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 202)

I wish you God’s best this week.

“You know that He appeared in order to take away sins . . .”—John 3.5Just a short thought this week. John tells us repeatedly that one of the primary purposes for God appearing to us “in the flesh” was to take away our sins. Matthew (1:21) tells us that He came to “save” us “from” them. After all, the wage that “sin pays” is death (Romans 6:23), because when sin is “full grown” it “produces” death (James 1:15). Paul asks the question in his letter to the Romans: “Did that which is good produce death in me?” No, it was “sin producing death in me through what is good” (Romans 7:13). Sin carries death in it intrinsically.

Yet, the good news still remains:

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!“— John 1.29 (emphasis supplied)

And Paul tells us how he did it:

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. — Colossians 2:13, 14

He forgave us for all of our sins. He canceled all we owed Him, “took it away” and nailed it to the cross.

There is not the slightest reason why every person on planet Earth should not be saved. Why anyone would choose death is a mystery even for God. If any person is lost at last, it will not be because they didn’t do enough for God to save them — it will be because they held onto the guilt of their sins, which, in God’s eyes, had already been taken away and cast into the depths of the sea.

Do you have something that plagues you today? Something hidden deep within your past but is still troubling you in the present? He loves you, you know? He took away whatever that was long, long ago on a hill far, far away. He bought you with a price, just the way you are. He LOVES you! Won’t you let Him have whatever it is that plagues you and finally stand in peace of His love? Why don’t you take a moment this week to tell Him about it.

I wish you His best this week.

The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.” Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.” They said, “Where is this so-called Father of yours?” Jesus said, “You’re looking right at me and you don’t see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father.”— John 8:13-19, The Message

I have purposely quoted this week’s passage from Eugene Peterson’s The Message, because although I know I will get a few emails from those who don’t like this paraphrase, I happen to like the way he puts these verses particularly well. I believe he hit the nail right on the head here. There are two phrases I’d like to bring to your attention specifically.

First, Jesus says here, “If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father.” Over and over in John’s gospel this is the theme. Jesus came to show us the Father, to explain Him to us. Jesus came so that we might encounter the truth of God’s character of love, that we would see him for who he really is, and that this truth might set us free.

Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”—John 14:9-10

Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.”—John 5:19-20

The more familiar we become with the kind of person Jesus was, the more we will truly come to know what the God of this universe is like. For Jesus and his Father are “One” (John 10:30).

Second, Peterson chooses a unique phrase to paraphrase what he feels Jesus is really saying here.

“My judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father.”

We must remember, Jesus knew who he was only by Faith. He had no recollection of the Eternity past. All he knew of himself, on his own, was from the time of Egypt on. (I don’t think he even had a personal memory of the famous story of Bethlehem.) Which leads me to my question. (This is more than Jesus simply saying “I have more witnesses than you to who I am.” He is saying basically, “Listen, I’m not saying this about myself; the Father is!”)

When it comes to truth, specifically the truth of God’s love, how many of us rely on the “narrowness of our own experience” when it comes to our understanding him rather than simply taking him for what he describes himself to be. David records God as telling us, “You thought that I was just like you” (Psalms 50:2). But God and His love, I am convinced, are so vastly different than everything we have grown accustomed to and conditioned by in this world. Many times, we tend to transpose our own past, our own interactions with others, onto him. We make him answer for how others have hurt us when truly he is altogether different.

The question remains, will we allow the person we see in Jesus to radically transform our understanding of the Father, or will we continue to see Him through the mist, dimly and largely misunderstood?

Something to ponder.

I wish you God’s best this week.

” Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15.13).Years ago, while doing a weekend series in New Jersey, I believe, I was asked whether or not this verse was actually true. After all, it’s one thing to lay down your life for your friends and quite another to do so for your enemies.

At the heart of this question, which we’ll attempt to answer in a moment, is a vital principle of love. First of all, the older I get, the more I am convinced that genuine love, whether for friend or enemy, and self-sacrifice are synonymous. One truly cannot exist without the other, for genuine love “seeketh not her own” (1 Corinthians 13.5). True love is not simply concerned with what it wants, but also on the needs of the other as well. Paul advised the Philippian believers as follows, saying “look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Philippians 2.4). . To the degree that principles of self-preservation are followed rather than those of self-sacrifice, genuine love begins to splinter. This statement does not imply that self-preservation is always evil; sometimes it is a necessity. The point is simply that it is incompatible with genuine love.

I realize that this idea strikes at the very core of all that we have been taught. After all, in our modern Darwinian culture, circumstances often reduce to a survival of the fittest mentality. Self-sacrificing human behaviors still confound many adamant atheists, while altruistic practices, which many have lost faith in entirely, cause the multitudes to stand in awe and scratch their heads in wonder.

“The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian” (White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 470).

All of this leads us to our answer.

From our perspective, God surely was once our enemy:

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5.10).

But from His perspective, God has no enemies. He loves everyone, giving to all, including the “just and the unjust,” the “kind as well as the unthankful.” Truly, He considers no one His enemy, as the following verse demonstrates:

“And one shall say unto him, ‘What are these wounds in thine hands?’ Then he shall answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends’” (Zechariah 13.6).

His friends. Wow! Someone once said to me that true love does not entail finding a person who will never hurt you. Instead, true love involves deciding whom you will allow to hurt you and yet choose to love them nonetheless as a result.

Consequently, I am convinced that many of us waste too much time trying to win God’s favor, when the question was never about whether or not He is our friend. On the contrary, the real question is whether or not we are His!

“Here was fulfillment of the words of scripture: ‘Abraham put his faith in God, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness,’ and he was called ‘God’s friend’” (James 2.23).

May all of us be called children of Abraham. In light of the truth regarding His great character of love, may we all embrace God, no longer as enemy, but as our Friend.

I wish you God’s best this week.

Have you ever felt haunted by a deep heart longing for something more fulfilling, more meaningful, or simply more satisfying? Yet, if someone asked you what it was you actually wanted, would you be able to discern what it was that you really desired? I have experienced that longing too, and like many others, it has happened too many times to mention. The story of my life is strewn with my personal attempts to satisfy an ever-present, aching hunger in my heart.

As I look back, one thing becomes painfully clear. The many attempts in my past to satiate my heart’s hunger have always been just that—attempts. Each vain pursuit was short-lived, leaving my soul’s thirst unquenched and in greater want than at the start. My own personal journey has left me with two heart-searching questions. First, “What is this longing that seems to be part of the very fabric of my being?” And the second, “What is it that I am really longing for?”

In my search for answers, I have been surprised to find that my experience is not isolated. In my eternal, never-fully-satisfied longings, I have found that I am not alone . . . Surprisingly, King David shared these sentiments as well. At the height of monarchal success, King David penned the words, “My soul thirsts . . . my flesh yearns . . ., In a dry and weary land where there is no water…” Growing up, I remember hearing countless times that if I could just have three things I would be happy: money, power, and sex. What is surprising is that King David had money, he had power, he even had women in his life, but he realized that his heart was thirsting for what he could not find. And here is the most shocking realization: David has the audacity to claim what he was thirsting for . . . God.

To be honest, when I first realized this, I questioned whether David really meant what he wrote. Was he just trying to be pious? So many times we say what we are supposed to say rather than what we are really feeling. But the more I pondered David’s statement, the greater I became haunted by a nagging sense. Have I missed something? Could this longing in my heart really be a longing for intimacy with God? Why was my heart so averse to this? Is there something unfulfilling about God or is the real problem similar to what I had encountered with my Dad? Maybe I just don’t see Him as He really is. Could I have the wrong picture of this God with whom I am trying to have a relationship?

I found myself in a world of doubt. Nothing I had ever heard about God was appealing, much less deeply satisfying. Then, I stumbled on other statements that caught my attention. “You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” “In Your presence is fullness of joy”; “In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” At this point, I had to come to a conclusion. Either these verses were just foolish notions, or maybe, in all the time I’d been a Christian, I had never really encountered God as He really is. I chose the second option, and embarked on a journey of discovery—a quest of seeing and believing, a journey of epoch dimensions in my heart and life. I fell to my knees with one prayer, “Dear Lord, help me to understand You, not merely on an intellectual level, but help me to see You with my heart.” I came to the conclusion that I had erred in my heart. I knew a lot of doctrine. I was well versed in the standards and lifestyle of a devout Christian. Yet, as religious as I may have been, on a heart level I had been blind to the “ways” of God. Could this be why my heart felt so empty? I wondered and prayed, “Lord, what am I missing in my religious experience?”

(Taken from the new book Finding the Father by Herb Montgomery, available now in our online store at www.renewedheartministries.com.)

I wish you God’s best.

“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” —John 15.9, 10What does it mean to keep Jesus’ commandments and therefore abide in His Love? I think this is a worthy question that welcomes our thoughts as this new year is upon us.

There are two statements I read this morning; one of them weighs heavy on my heart each time I run across it.

“There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word ‘Christian’ has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry.”—Philip Stater, Huffington Post

“If it weren’t for Christians, I’d be a Christian.” —Mahatma Gandhi

Jesus said in John 15 that if we truly keep His commandments, we will abide in His Love. This must mean that His commandments and the life of Love are intrinsically connected. Honestly, this is truly a no-brainer. So many times it is repeated in scripture:

Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is similar: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself. On these two commandments the whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets are based.” —Matthew 22.37-40

“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” —Romans 13.10

For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” —Galatians 5.14

And yet I can hear some right now asking the important question, “Yes, but what about truth? Does this mean we sacrifice truth in order to be loving?” But this question itself reveals how deeply we have misunderstood the work God came to begin on this tiny planet.

“No eloquence of words, no force of argument, can convert the sinner.” —Acts of the Apostles, p. 239

“Christ came into the world to bring all resistance and authority into subjection to Himself, but He did not claim obedience through the strength of argument or the voice of command; He went about doing good and teaching His followers the things which belonged to their peace.” —Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 4, p. 139

“Do not once forget that you are speaking for God’s truth. Your spirit, if kept gentle under provocation, will speak louder than any force of argument. Do not imperil the truth by an unwise word.” —Letter 9a, 1894, pp. 2, 4

“Love will do that which argument will fail to accomplish. Love is power.” —Review and Herald; April 26, 1887

When we care more about being right than being righteous, when we care more about being correct than being Godly, or God-like, when we are concerned about proving Biblical facts more than the heart of the one we are trying to reach, it is then that we need simply to remain silent until the spirit of Heaven once again can grace our efforts.

Happy New Year from all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries.