A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily
prayers this week. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin for today.
We continue our sermon series “S is for
Sacred”. Man is a sacred creation of the King of Kings.
Gospel Reading- John
3:1-8 [ESV]
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.
Devotion: A Spiritual
Connection
We have been discussing how you are a sacred creation, and
today we discuss how God marks us as one of His special creations. The Old Testament
promised that there was One coming who would be a Savior and would set up a
Kingdom for all His people. The trouble was, that the Jews of the time were expecting
a Kingdom on earth. Nicodemus, being a member of the Sanhedrin, likely knew all
the laws and teachings of the OT. Verse 5 in today’s text has Jesus informing
Nicodemus that entry into the Kingdom of God is a spiritual one [a spiritual rebirth]
and the reference to water is referring to the Sacrament of baptism. Later on,
in John 3, we find that Nicodemus is not grasping this concept. In verse 9 he
says: “How can these things be?” Today we boldly assert that God marks us as sacred
by making us heirs in His Kingdom through water and the Word.
We pray: “Lord, thank
you for our new birth to a living hope through Your Son’s resurrection. Amen”
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