“Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation – the ‘wind hovering over the water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life – it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom.”
John 3:5 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.
You’re not listening, are you? You must not be, because it looks like Jesus is taking the extra minute to get your attention just to tell you that you’re not listening! And what is it that you’re not listening to? You’re apparently not listening to the fact that this whole business of believing is just that — it is purely belief by faith. There’s no concrete evidence of anything other than what has been passed down to us by those who did witness the one who has uttered these words — and that which has been recorded in what we consider to be holy scripture, the inspired Word of God. So, here we have Jesus saying that unless you have full and complete faith in the provision that has been made for the one that believes, you will NOT be able to enter the Kingdom of God. It’s not your great intelligence, or your emotional capacity, or your good works, or your intuitiveness, or anything at all. Nay, it is purely your faith in the full and complete saving grace of God Almighty through His son Jesus Christ in the work accomplished by his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and in the sending of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Comforter, to support us in our pilgrimage in this life in our earthly bodies — it is in this belief and nothing else that we may be assured of life, and life eternal. I hope and trust that you do call yourself a believer!
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