THINK TOGETHER
Have you ever heard the story of your birth? (Mom and Dad, tell your kids their birth story)
READ TOGETHER
Jesus was known for saying some very strange and hard things. Here’s one of them:
John 3:3. Jesus answered Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus, a very smart religious leader in Israel, had heard stories about Jesus and so he wanted to meet Jesus to see what he was all about. Was Jesus trying to be a king? Was he trying to change their religion? Was Jesus a trouble maker?
But when Nicodemus finally met Jesus, he didn’t want to talk about being a king or about changing religions. He wanted to talk about how to have eternal life with God. Why? Because that’s the most important thing in the world to talk about – being forgiven by God and having God’s eternal life, being born again.
Have you ever heard of being born again? It sounds strange doesn’t it? It did to Nicodemus too. All he could think of was becoming a baby again. But that’s not what Jesus meant at all. Actually the phrase born again can also mean “born from above.” And that is what Jesus meant. He meant that everyone has to be born from above, or from God. We need to have two birthdays – an earthly, physical birthday and a heavenly, spiritual birthday.
Now, I’m very sure that you’ve already had your first birthday – the day you were born as a baby. Do you remember it? Probably not. But trust me it happened. But have you had your second birthday – your spiritual birthday? How does someone have a second birthday? How is someone “born from above?” Simply by trusting in Jesus for forgiveness of their sins and by asking to receive his eternal life as a free gift. We all need to be born from above. And the good news is that we can be by simply trusting in what Jesus has done for us on the cross.
Because of Jesus we can have eternal life.
With Jesus we can tell others about eternal life just like Jesus did with Nicodemus.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Why not have a spiritual birthday party? Celebrate the spiritual births in your house together. Have fun!
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, because of you I have eternal life. Thank you for my spiritual birthday. Help me to let others know about you and your love. Amen.
TLICfamily 