Maybe this word today is for you…..or maybe it is meant to be given to someone you know and love……someone who really needs it.

 

What is it that compels us to keep our faith in secret?

 

Is it

     FEAR?

     EMBARRASSMENT?

     PRIDE?

     INTIMIDATION?

     INDECISION?

 

Whatever it is….it has been happening for 2000 years.

 

Nicodemus was a well-respected religious leader who KNEW that Jesus had something that was special.  But he also knew that it might break him to expose himself by being seen with him.

 

So he met him at night.

 

John 3 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”  4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is 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 I tell you the truth, 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? 13No 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 desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 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 he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men 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 his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

 

The Lord has made us an incredible offer.  And He realizes the pressure that we have. That is why He met Nicodemus at night and it is why He will meet you in secret as well.

 

His agenda is clear.

 

He showed up 2000 years ago and declared Himself to be God.

He healed the sick and pushed a movement that the world has never seen.

Without military power, or popularity, or money, or support, He sold a few men that He was God.

He backed it by coming back from the dead after a brutal execution.

 

And now we have this word, written by one of His followers, and preserved over thousands of years.

 

There is a reason that wolves hunt the way that they do.  They invoke fear in the caribou herd. They isolate their prey.  They make sure that they can make their target run from the protection of the rest.  And then they move in for the kill.

 

The enemy has the same strategy.  He wants to get you away from those who might be able to help you.  He wants to isolate you and shame you. He wants you to live in hiding.

 

But God has a different plan.

 

God’s plan is to present to you in the privacy of your heart so that you can come out and declare Him king.

 

It is the reason that He is convicting you right now.

 

It is the reason that He is King.

 

“Born again” means that you get to start over with a new life–free from Satan, sin, and death.  It means that the wolf has no power over you. It means that you can actually be good with who you are and ask God to begin to do a new thing in you.  It means that He can begin to speak a new story over the life that you constantly mess up. It means that you are a child of the covenant.

 

Cry out to God and ask Him to write a new story.

 

It will be the best one that you have ever read…..because it will be yours.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2qzxY5a37o

 

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J