Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Mid Lent Gospel Reading - St. John 3:13-21

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus
We have reached the middle of the Lenten season and during this day, Jesus teaches us some very very important lessons. Today's portion of the Gospel reading is a part of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, a Jewish religious teacher. Here Jesus is telling him that to enter the Kingdom of God we must be born again - born again of the water and Spirit. I would like to concentrate on one of my favorite verses and one verse which sums up the whole Bible - 
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." - St. John 3:16

Just before this verse Jesus tells us that like the bronze serpent which was lifted up on a pole in the wilderness during the Israelite's wanderings, Jesus must also be lifted up, so that who so ever looks up to Him and believes in Him to save them would be saved from eternal damnation. God has provided this way for us to be healed of sin's deadly bite because the wages of sin is death.
The above verse shows God's love for His creation. God's love is not static or self-centered, but it reaches out and draws us in. Here God sets an example, a pattern, of true love, the basis of all love relationships - when you love someone dearly, you are willing to give freely to the point of self-sacrifice. God paid the highest price for the sins of human kind - our sins, by the death of His beloved son. Jesus accepted our punishment, paid the price for our sins, and then offered us the new life that He bought for us.

What does it mean to "believe"? To believe is more than intellectual agreement that Jesus is God. It means to put our trust and confidence in Him that He alone can save us. It is to put Jesus in charge of our present plans and eternal destiny. Believing is both trusting His words as reliable, and relying on Him for the power to change.
When you accept Jesus as your personal savior, His light will shine into your life and removing all the dark places in your life. But there will always be some people who will feel threatened because of God's light and do not want to expose their lives to that light as they are afraid of what will be revealed. They don't want to be changed. Don't be threatened by their fears and do what is right. Rather than being discouraged, keep praying that they will accept the light of the world into their lives.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus
Hope you will accept Jesus as your personal savior and love Him, just as He loved you. Trust Him and come closer to Him, trusting Him to guide you in all the ways of your life, in all your sorrows and troubles and happiness. May the Lord Almighty bless you abundantly and keep you in all your ways.

Your Brother in Christ Jesus
Jobin George

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