Excerpts from the first sermon of 2022 for January 9-16 time of prayer and fasting.
2022 Fast Days Devotional
Day 2 -God invites us to begin again.
You may wonder, “what right to I have to start over?’
You have God’s invitation. God knows that you can not continue in your broken state, so He invites you to start over.
Jesus had this conversation with a member of the Pharisees, the elite religious sect of Judaism.
John 3:1–8 ESV
1 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.”
I don’t think that Nicodemus disliked the idea of starting over; he just thought it to be impossible. And in the natural, it is impossible! You don’t get to go back and enter the world again. But there is a spiritual world all around us that we fail to live in when we only live in the natural.
Have you been born again?
Do you remember what that was like?
In what ways do you live your life in a spiritual world?
2022 Fast Days Devotional
Day 2 -God invites us to begin again.
You may wonder, “what right to I have to start over?’
You have God’s invitation. God knows that you can not continue in your broken state, so He invites you to start over.
Jesus had this conversation with a member of the Pharisees, the elite religious sect of Judaism.
John 3:1–8 ESV
1 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.”
I don’t think that Nicodemus disliked the idea of starting over; he just thought it to be impossible. And in the natural, it is impossible! You don’t get to go back and enter the world again. But there is a spiritual world all around us that we fail to live in when we only live in the natural.