Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ – John 3:7
From the age of five, Paul Azinger was in love with the game of golf. By the time he was 27, “Zinger,” as he was known on the tour, was named the PGA Player of the Year. Just a few years later, at age 33, he was diagnosed with cancer. Even though he had just won a PGA championship, he said, “A genuine feeling of fear came over me. I could die from cancer. … Everything I had accomplished in golf became meaningless to me. All I wanted to do was live.” There are Bible studies on the PGA tour, and Zinger remembered what his teacher had told him. “Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living.”
Zinger sought a personal relationship with Jesus, and after bouts of chemotherapy, he returned to the tour. While he still loves golf and is now a television analyst for the tour, his life is forever changed.
Where is your life’s center? You have heard the claims of Jesus over your life and His offer to you of eternal life. If you have accepted Him, you are looking forward to the time when life is truly lived… in Heaven with Him forever. The third chapter of John tells of a learned member of the Sanhedrin who sought Christ out at night. Jesus drilled right through his head knowledge and into the heart of Nicodemus. “You must be born again,” He told him. The Bible does not say what Nicodemus decided, for he was given much to consider. But you do know, from John 19:39-42, that he was present at Jesus’ crucifixion and assisted Joseph of Arimathea in taking Jesus body to the tomb, bringing the ointment essential in Jesus’ burial.
Ephesians 2:8-9 states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Accept this gift of grace today and give the Lord thanks and praise for His redemption. “Now is the favorable time. Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Being born again is the only way. If you have never done so, come to Jesus today.
Today’s Verse: John 3:7
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: John 3:1-17
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. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
