Jesus Christ, God the Son said in order to enter heaven you had to be born again. That was in the Gospel of John, chapter 3. Jesus said in (John 10:10, NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
We are in a spiritual battle, whether we realize it or not. I remember about 30 years ago, maybe a bit longer, watching action television shows. More and more often, when a psychotic killer yielding an axe or a gun came after the hero, I’d say to my husband, with disgust, “Watch, he’ll be a ‘born again’ Christian.”
Sure enough, the writer or director had him toting a Bible. What a sham!
When my sisters, who still lived at home repented of sin and asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior, my dad asked how he’d know if it was true. How does one know if someone is truly “born again?”
I told him there should be a change in their behavior. In (Galatians 5:22-23, GNB), it says, “But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.”
I also told my dad they wouldn’t be perfect. Some changes take time.
When a friend in high school and a mom in our neighborhood spoke to me about being in relationship with God, (what a concept!), I pondered this unusual idea. It took me a long while to come to this deeper faith in God. I didn’t learn of Jesus’s words in the church I attended as a child. I knew I was a sinner. Our church offered confession of our sins to a priest once a week. That removal of guilt only lasted for moments. By the time I got home, I needed to go back to confess my disobedience to my parents or some interaction with my siblings that I knew God didn’t like-I lied to them or got mad and did something wrong.
Now, when I mess up, I ask God to forgive me, immediately. Then, I receive His pardon because of His promise in the Bible to throw my sins in the sea of forgetfulness when I repent. Sometimes, I need to forgive myself and let it go!
After reading a few other verses after the fruits of the Spirit in (Galatians 5: 22,23, GNB), there are warnings to walk in a manner pleasing to God and to avoid falling because of temptation, in Galatians chapter six.
My husband tells the church we’re in that there’s good and bad in everyone. His hope is to show Jesus to others by living a life faithful to God.
When I accepted Jesus, I immediately felt a love for people that I didn’t possess beforehand. Also, the sky looked bluer, nature appeared more beautiful, like a gray haze was lifted. I felt wonder and joy and a hunger to read the Bible so I could get to know God and His ways better. I longed to share this experience with others, and I did.
So, I told my dad to watch for the fruits of the Spirit in my sisters, but in a way I hoped he’d understand. “You should see changes that show that they’re trying to please God because they love Him more.”
I remember my brother telling me it should be no problem to live the Christian life, when we were talking about our beliefs. He believed in more than just Christianity at the time. I asked him if he ever became born again, would he please tell me? I don’t know if he remembers that conversation, but he got me thinking and praying.
Jesus said if they persecuted Him, we should expect the same as His followers. I know what it’s like to be shunned for my faith. An ex-sister-in-law never got to know me because she knew I was a Christian. For example, when I visited once, she stayed in the basement while my daughter and I ate Christmas dinner with my brother.
Westerners may not believe in evil spirits like other nationalities might. Jesus spoke of “the thief,” “Beelzebub,” “Satan,” or demons and cast them out of people many times to relieve their torment.
So born again Christians may face temptations because Satan hates God and he hates God’s followers. Jesus quoted Scripture and told Satan to get thee behind Me to end the temptations without sinning. Christians can do the same. When fear comes, I quote (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV): “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
I also pray to God for others and for me. That can be hard work and sometimes requires fasting.
All those years ago, when talking to my brother, I couldn’t articulate the difficult aspects of what made being a Christian hard at times. Yet, I agreed readily, following Jesus makes for a better life here on earth in many ways. Plus, the promises of God for an abundant life certainly includes eternal life in heaven.
God has healed me so many times over the years, it’s incredible. And when I underwent surgeries often in 2023, He helped me get through discomfort and any anxiety beforehand.
I’m not perfect and God disciplines me as talked about in the book of Hebrews, as a loving Father. Yet, His mercy and grace and love and faithfulness and kindness and joy stand out to me more than the corrections over the years. Being “born again” has been given a bad rap, but that’s to be expected. The thief comes to “steal, kill and destroy” people who were all made in God’s image.
The number of people coming to faith in Jesus is rising in incredible numbers all over the world. Sadly, many Christians are falling away as prophesied about in the Bible thousands of years ago, when speaking of end times.
Are you willing to ask Jesus to show you if He is God and if the Bible is true? Are you willing to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior since He died on the cross to satisfy the judgment for your sins that Father God required?
Will you tell someone you came to faith in Jesus Christ and repented of your sins? In (John 1:12-13, NKJV), it says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
It’s a privilege to be “born again,” and my prayer is for Him to help me where I am weak so He can be shown strong, as the Apostle Paul spoke about in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12 in the New Testament of the Bible.
May God bless you and protect you from evil.
