Optimist Roundtable 7/15
By Martha Sykes
In the gospel of John, chapter 3, we can read the story of Nicodemus having a conversation with Jesus when He says, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again”. Some of us may have, at one time or another, had a similar reaction to those words from Jesus as Nicodemus did-confused, wondering, and then asking, “How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
Just to tell you a little bit about Nicodemus, he was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, the council that ruled them. Nicodemus came to Jesus because he was searching so he came to the “teacher from God”as he called Him. Perhaps Nicodemus came at night because he was afraid to be seen in the daylight visiting and talking with Jesus. At the time, the Pharisees thought their rules were just as important as God’s rules. They were often considered hypocrites to Jesus and John the Baptist.They were more concerned with their appearance of being “good” than obeying God.In the book of Matthew, they were called “a brood of vipers”.
So Nicodemus came to Jesus. He didn’t send someone to ask for him, so He must have wanted to meet him personally. Kind of reminds us that’s what we need to do is look at Jesus on a personal level. There is no one that can do that for us. It’s a personal thing that we go on our own personal journey to discover who Jesus is and what He is to each of us.
Talking about being saved isn’t easy to do, especially to someone who doesn’t believe in God or to one who doesn’t know anything about Him. It’s such a great thing to be able to tell someone with confidence in your heart that you are saved.By the grace of God we can be reborn. The big question is, “Do we invite Jesus into our heart?” That’s where He wants to be. He wants us to believe in Him and ask Him to be the Lord of our lives. God wants us to connect with Him personally, to connect to Him as One who is able to guide and direct us in our own lives, to connect to Him as Father, as One who who is here to walk with us every day. God wants us to reborn into His family, where His love reigns, where His mercy and forgiveness is unending and His Holy Spirit gives us energy and the promise of eternal life.God really wants us to know that we can have a new life with Him. If we trust in Jesus then we can set forth on a journey of faith that He calls us to make.
“Truly, truly, I say to you no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again”. These are the words of Jesus that remind us that it is a lifelong process to go on this journey of faith that leads us to Him.
