Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto
him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into
his mother's womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born
again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every
one that is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered and
said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and
said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have
seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things,
and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly
things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from
heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world
through him might be saved.
John 3:3-17 (KJV)
I have experienced periods
of silence many times during my life, periods when no words would come. It is
distressing for a writer to have nothing to write. I had been suffering
writer’s block and there was a long period between my last essay and this at
the time it was written.
So I wanted to ease back into
the water with just a word.
In John 3, Jesus said
several times, "verily, verily". Actually, Jesus didn't say
"verily". That is an old English word used by the translators of the
King James Version. The translation was hardly necessary for the word Jesus
spoke is still used today across the world in many languages every day. It is a
Hebrew word that transcended the transliteration through Greek and Latin and
has been said by us all at one time or another and quite often and regularly by
some of us, although we don't usually put it where Jesus did, at the beginning
of our statement.
The word is amen.
Every time we hear a prayer we
hear amen as the last word. We have heard it that way so often many people
probably think it means "the end". We probably think after the last
scene of ancient Jewish movies a black screen with the block letters AMEN
appeared and we all went home.
It doesn't mean the end, but
when it comes at the end it means, "so be it" or "so may it
be". We in the church pretty much follow the custom as used in the synagogues. In those,
after a discourse and solemn prayer was read or said, those assembled would
respond "amen". This is more than just confirming the message; this
is taking it as one's own.
But Jesus didn't wait until
the end to say it. He started off with, "Amen, amen". Didn't he know
better?
Sure he did. It was a word
when used at the beginning had a slightly different meaning. It meant,
"this is a truth", "truly" or "surely". Jesus
doubled it up. What he was saying is, "this is the truth of all
truths".
Amen, amen, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the
kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit." John 3:5 (NIV)
Sometimes we Christians disagree on
interpretation of some passages. But in John 3 we have Jesus giving us the
truth of all truths and we cannot disagree on this and call ourselves
Christians.
We cannot accommodate the wishes of
the world either and downplay what Christ has said. These are amen, amen
statements. People who believe otherwise judge Christians as judgmental and
narrow minded as they insist we must believe as they do. But then if we would
not hold to these principles, we would not be Christians. I am not intolerant
of other's beliefs. I do not wish to force them to have my views. You can't
force faith on anyone. I am not judgmental of anyone because I don't know their
heart. However, I don't keep my belief to myself, because I love them and wish
them no harm -- ever and because the Lord commanded us to do so.
Amen, amen, I am narrow-minded
because the path is narrow and few find it. I am narrow-minded because there is
Christ and no other. Amen.
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