If you click on the blue words appearing in this article, it will take you to references, usually to Bible Gateway, an online resource for Bible research, allowing more than one version to be read. Read the article through first, and then go back to the references. If you click on the link, be sure to use your back arrow to return to this blog page.
1. If you don't know God, never heard of Jesus, or just aren't sure there is one, or if this "being" is real -- don't worry. If there is a God, he knows that, Right? So take a chance and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Don't look for signs and miracles, just let Him reveal Himself to you. (The number "1," in the Bible, is about God - the only real God.)
2. Borrow, buy, or check out (from the library) a Bible. There are lots of versions. King James is the old text in English. American Standard was Popular in the late 20th Century. The "NEW" versions all have the language updated, and many find them easier to read. However, I most often quote from the King James, because of the symbolism that runs like a thread through all the scriptures. Or simply go to Bible Gateway from the sidebar on this site and type in: Born Again. (The number "2," in the Bible, is about Blessing, in this case blessed by scripture.)
Click to go to the collection of Scriptures I am gathering to tell the story of Jesus.
3. Christians often use the phrase: to be or get "Saved." It refers to being freed from a place of sin. Sin is nothing more than being or living in a way that is contrary to how God created us to live. Never fear, you aren't the only one. In the earliest records of men, men have always known they were having difficulty living in such a way as to please other men, much less God. God gave people a set of laws when they were trying to figure out how to live, which oddly enough were to show them, it was an impossible task. He then gave them an opportunity to make a sacrifice of a lamb or other animal, depending on the law, to represent killing the human way of trying to defeat sin, and just giving it up to God to take care of. The blood was to represent a veil or layer through which God would not see our sin, but rather only see us looking to him to guide us through this life. Well, men began to live by the laws under their own steam, and when in frustration they found they couldn't, they decided to just not try anymore. Or they obsessed over keeping the law then... They missed the point! Before you begin to think this sounds like a fairy tale, think about it. Don't men do this? They want proof, evidence, signs and symbols. Even I like when God does something in evidence that He exists... isn't that where we started? So, now that we've decided that God doesn't want you to set out trying to keep his laws to get to know Him, where do you start? (The number "3," in the Bible, is about the triune God, the three ways God functions with us - As Father, Son and Spirit.)
4. Become a member of God's family. All God has ever wanted is to make it clear that we are made in his image. We are sentient beings, who love, feel, hurt, long for fellowship...etc. And so is God. What God wants from each individual is relationship. Jesus, God's Son came to earth, to try to make this understandable in human terms. He called God his heavenly Father, in order to make it clear that God wants us to became a member of his Family. Not by filling out a card and joining a church. Jesus said: "Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again." St. John 3:7 (King James Version, New Testament) He is simply saying that it is not some list of works (honoring laws or philanthrophe) that will take care of the sin issue. It is a life experience, a giving of life, by God, in a new way. You were born one time as a flesh and blood human; now you must be born, as a spiritual being, into a family relationship, with a real God as your Heavenly Father. Why does this sound child-like? Because it must be easy enough for a child to understand. (The number "4," is about building in the scriptures, generally on a secure foundation.)
5. Another New Testament Book, Ephesians 2: 8 & 9(chapter 2, verses 8 & 9,) say: By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, Not of works lest any man should boast.
Salvation, or being born again, is simply two things: a.) a gift God gives, and b.) not something you can work for. My daughter laughed as I tried to tell her of the mental picture God allowed me to visualize when I was saved as a child. I could imagine an actual box being given to me by the Spirit of God, whom of course I could not see. It seemed to me as I prayed, as if a wrapped Gift were coming to me in the air, and as I reached out to receive it, it continued to move ever closer to me until it actually entered my body at my heart. Without seeing it, I was aware that the Spirit had carried the box gift into my spiritual heart. As a child that was a powerful image, and God gave it to me so I could understand clearly what happens when we are born into God's family, and share it with others. God gives the gift of salvation, which is the birth into His family, but to accomplish this, the Spirit of God is actually indwelling our body, becoming one with our spirit. There is a lot more to learn about how this all works, which could take years. But Jesus gave the simple birthing and gift analagies so that anyone who would believe that God wants that in their lives, could simply accept it first, then learn about all the inticate things it means later, as they grow spiritually. The Spirit in us helps us to understand those things, only as God knows we are ready.
(The number "5," means gift of God, or Grace, in the Bible.)
6. It is important to see oneself as outside God's divine way of living. It should be obvious to us all that we could never live like God. We aren't God, so we could not ever make god-like choices all the time. If he is God, then he has to be bigger than anything you or I could really ever imagine. So no, we don't know how to live in a divine way. But some people still think, "well I live as a good person, so that should count." Therefore, God allows us to compare ourselves to some laws, which just might point out that we just aren't good all the time, not to God's standards anyway. Let's try the first one: Love the Lord your God with all your heart. If you are not in a one on one relationship with Him already, then it is relatively certain, He is not the love of your life. So most unsaved people are busted on this one right off the bat. Let's say you love God, and you thought he loved you, and you can't have broken that law in your own eyes. Then think about this. Have you done anything that hurt your fellow man, or yourself in your life? That is what all the other laws deal with combined. Jesus narrowed all of them into 1 - above, and 2: Love God and Love other peole as you Love yourself. The condition for not breaking this law is to have first loved yourself, and discovered a standard by which you would like for men to love you, so you will do that to them...all the time. If you aren't busted now, there is something wrong with your Law gage. WE can't do it. WE JUST CAN'T! So if we can't why did God ever Command us to in the first place? Because He was screaming at us...You NEED ME! YOU NEED ME IN YOU> will you let me come in and take care of the sin problem for you.
(The number "6," is about man, in the Bible.)
7. If you understand that you are a "sinner," unable to be Godlike without God indwelling you, and becoming a member of God's family...then how do you get to be a member? It may be obvious that asking God for the Gift of his Spirit to indwell you is the answer. But there is one thing that will unlock your spirit to be able to receive His indwelling companionship. Remember that God can see your sin, unless there is the veil mentioned further up the page. Well, rather than asking you to shed your own blood, because He wants you to continue living, (unlike some other "religions",) God created the Blood covering for your sins, himself. If you could do it yourself, you would have to die, in order to become part of the spiritual world. Make sense? But Jesus warned that it was not of works. There is nothing you can do that gets the job done to God's expectations. Once again, we are not God. We are human. Only God understands the depths of the Blood Covering. So he already planned to die for us even before He gave the laws. (See first book of the Old Testament in Garden of Eden.) To do so, he had to become like man, be a man, die as a man for the sins of men, and still remain God. That's who Jesus is. Not just God in man, but God as man, whose whole goal in life was to die for us, yet while in life try to explain that this must happen, and it must be from a loving, fatherlike God. But Jesus when he died, as our sacrifice, in our stead, AS GOD, did not stay dead. He, was after all the person from whom life and death was breathed, if he is really GOD. Are you thinking big enough yet? God provided his own covering for our sins, one which He declares He cannot see through, and sees only us wanting to be His child. In other words, He forgives us for trying to play God, and accepts us when we come as a family member before His throne. Yet he comes down off the throne to share family time, and resides in our home on our level, in our circumstances. He tore the veil between Spiritual, and physical and made them able to co-abide in a way they never had before - when Jesus died, was buried and rose again on the third day. (The # "7," means it is finished in the Bible, or complete, total)
8. If you can believe that God has made himself known to you, that He IS and He cares about you and your life, your future even into eternity... If you can understand how it is that you would never be good enough to meet the standard of a God, (any God if there was more than one and there isn't,)... but it makes sense that because you are not God, you can't live like God intended life to work all the time, flawlessly... If you believe there was a Jesus and can beleive that God sent him to take your place so that you might live... If you think God wants a relationship with you, and becasue He has never forced this relationship on you, but wants you to want it as much as He does, you are willing to ask Him for it... If you would like the Spirit of a God, that big, >to come into your heart and life, >to indwell you and keep his promise to never leave you, >to become your blood kin and meld the spiritual world with the physical world in your life... then all you need to do is ASK, BELIEVE, and RECEIVE. Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. The verses continue to ask what good father would deny his child what he is able to give - (especially if he told him to ask for it)?
(The number "8," is the number of new beginning throughout the Bible. Could this be yours?)
Pray something like: God I want you to become my Father, to receive me into your spiritual family by this new birth, as I receive you into my physical being, that I may become unified to you by blood, like any child born is of the blood of his father. See me Father, not my sin. Cover it please to never see it again. Forgive me for not recognizing sooner that I needed you in this way, to be a part of a spiritual world, and you a part of my physical world as one. I want your gift of the Spirit to come into my heart to dwell along side my spirit, to be with me now for eternity as we build a relationship of love. I believe that Jesus was born, died and was resurrected in my place to resolve my not being able to save myself from my own sins. I confess I am a sinner. I am trusting you to forgive all my sins and sinfulness. By doing this accept me just as I come, knowing no more than this, that I want you to be my GOD, my Father, my Savoir, and the Spirit that walks with me every split second for the rest of my life and into the next. And though I don't understand how you are three persons, I can see how you have made yourself availble to me in any way I might need you. For that I am thankful. I ask for the Gift, I receive the Gift, I open my heart to your eternal Gift of new life, with you as my Heavenly Father, constant companion, and friend. (Or as we say with children: Come into my heart Lord Jesus, and clean my sins away. Stay with me forever, and let me be part of your family now.) AMEN
If you asked to be born again, and believe that you are now a member of the eternal family of God, you are now my brother or sister in Christ Jesus. Make your faith a public profession in some way. Jesus reccomended baptism as a way to show all that you believe in His death, burial, and resurrection as a means of God's provision for your ability to become a Blood born member of the family, whose sins are completely covered. But you will benefit from sharing it long before you have a chance to become baptised. Start in my comments section if you please. Help your mind to become used to it. Tell someone. And God bless you as you begin this journey. Please don't let anyone add works to your agenda for salvation. But work all you want to as God leads you to share your new joy. Work is not to get God's approval, it is to grow and become strong as his child. Get into the Bible, a church, share with a friend. Test what everyone believes against the truth in the Bible. Read our Blogs, and find out more about a Savoir who loves you and wants to walk with you rejoicing.
You know what the last thing I will click on before I hit publish will be? (: Saved :) Are you?
For more understanding, see:
http://www.godlovestheworld.com/
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. St. John 1:12
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. II Corinthians 5:17
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