John 3:1-21
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Isaiah 55:8-9
God's Thoughts are not Our Thoughts
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Man does not think like God...His thoughts are on a level higher than earth and our ways of earthly thinking...God's ways are also vastly different than our ways...This makes thinking about God, and about how near He us a challenge for us...How He is always with us with the indwelt Holy Spirit is hard to understand, because this kind of thinking is not in our thought process...We must think in terms of faith and eternities, when we think of Him...Faith is what gets us close to Him...Even a Rabbi and teacher of Israel who knew the Bible had a hard time understanding this kind and way of thinking...Nicodemus, this teacher and Rabbi of Israel, had studied the Bible in ways that man would think about God and His Thoughts...Now he was talking to Jesus, and He is explaining His spiritual way of thinking...I along with Nicodemus get confused, in our thinking and our ways of thinking about the Spiritual...
Jesus and God teach us the eternities...Jesus teaches when we have faith and believe in Him then we may have eternal life...God LOVES us and sent His Son to show us that...And if we believe in Him and His Father we shall not perish, but have this eternity, and eternal life He speaks of and teaches...These are Spiritual ways to think about God and His Son...