Born Again
A Bible Handbook Presenting God’s Gift of Grace Given Through Faith
by
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One day, when we heard the preaching of the Gospel of Salvation, we clearly understood that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for our sins. And now, knowing that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, faith was birthed within us. And Jesus is now of utmost importance to us. Maybe we have heard it many times before this day, but our hearts and minds changed with understanding and emotion on this day we came to faith. Something just clicked within us as we now reflect to understand the power of the Holy Spirit testifying within us of the Glory of Jesus unto our new birth – our Salvation!
As the previous statements describe the doctrine of Salvation, we don’t first bring any doctrinal statements to the cross of Jesus. Nor do we take along our church background in self-identification, righteousness, or justification. For faith comes to us on that day we understood and believed - the wisdom of the Gospel was now clear. So on that day of our confession, we understood the Gospel, we were moved to accept it - that He died for our sinfulness, and we repented through faith now within us by the Holy Spirit of God testifying to us and now believe!
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The previous chapters, and within the introduction, paint the doctrinal understanding of our Born Again experience, like comparing this to our physical birth when mom and dad show us our baby pictures in the days leading to our birth. For example, in one snapshot, they might share when mom wore maternity clothes. And we now see our moms carrying us before delivery, and we smile in appreciation. And then maybe she had another picture showing us our sonogram of her belly. And even another picture of us when we had our first bath, how embarrassing now!
I want to make a point regarding your and my involvement and awareness of our physical birth. As evidence of who we are, we see the time of our creation through the pictures mom and dad took of us in preparation for the day of our birth and the times we went from infant to toddler. God created us through our parents without the permission of our will or even our awareness of the early time of life, for the inception of our being happened to you and me - and not our self-awareness and self-ability to be born.
After our birth and after a point of continued development, cognitive thinking now comes to us, for we did not choose our time, place, or even our parents. But now, through growing up and learning, we can go back to see how our life began. And those pictures now confirm to us who we are. So we accept the wisdom of life through the testimony, photographs, and birth records of who God created us to be when we were born, for we had zero say as to our date of birth and who our parents are - for whom God used to create us.
And those who are adopted are an excellent metaphor for our physical and spiritual births. In the first birth, many stories are about how older adopted children now desire to know where they came from by seeking their birth parents. Again, their desire to know their birth parents may comfort the longing for who they are, for no one planned their existence at birth, but we all desire to understand the era of our creation.
And then, when adopted, it is as being chosen. Adoption demonstrates the adoptive parents' parental calling to the orphaned child. Being adopted is initiated by the adoptive parents and not the child. The love the adoptive parents bring in choosing is as God calls those into faith.
The blinders of the Gospel, now removed in preparation for faith to take hold, and we see the glory of Jesus before us, that God called us His adoptive children, and it is good to go back to understand the how’s and whys God called you and me to faith in Jesus.
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Therefore, we are born physically without the knowledge of who we are. By the time we grow and mature to think with remembrance, we then look back to see the beginnings of our lives, confirming our legacy to ourselves.
We are also born spiritually, without the ability to recognize the works of God drawing us to Himself at that moment. But then, a time later, as we grow in the truth and knowledge of our gift of salvation by His word, we see that God called us His on that day of our faith and wisdom given by the Spirit of God in the testimony of, to, and in Jesus Christ.
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And now, within our being Born of the Spirit, Jesus lives within each of us. The mystery of grace through faith revealed and enabled in us - now gives us the wisdom of the Gospel to live life by, in, of, for, and because of Christ. Now - not only our knowing Jesus and following Him - but we are now part of the Body of Christ!
Salvation from sin! Life is eternal with Jesus! His glory to always behold and to enjoy HIM - Forever!
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About the Book
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
—John 3:3
‘What does being Born Again mean?’
‘Who can become Born Again?’
‘How do I become Born Again?’
‘Is belief in God the same as being Born Again?’
Jesus spent the last three years of His life on Earth sharing the Good News of the Gospel. And yet, the world did not receive Him or His message of eternal life. But today, by God’s grace - through faith, if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, as Peter proclaimed in Matthew 16:16, and that He died for the forgiveness of your sins, your faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, by the work of the Holy Spirit, brings you to the wisdom of life in and through Jesus.
Within this handbook, I ask once again the questions you may ask regarding your gift of faith - i.e., salvation in Jesus. What does it mean to be Born Again? To be ‘saved,’ to have true faith, and to live in Jesus, and He in you? So again, bring your pen and highlighter, and join me as I share the Bible’s words with you toward your new life in Jesus!
About the Author
David retired from the corporate IT sales world at the end of 2018, spanned a thirty-two-year career. And he was blessed by God in all the roles he held during this time. David also spent time in his early work years as a machinist in a steel mill and as a trained musician at Carnegie Mellon University.
Today, as with David’s vocations of his past, God is now leading him - this time to write. Although not a pastor nor formally trained at a Bible college, David is a disciple of Jesus, with 52 years and counting of faith. He would say a faith, not of his merit, but one of Christ’s holding him each day. So within these pages are David’s love of Jesus, in his notes in study through the years. From his notes of teaching adult Sunday school lessons to sharing the Gospel at work, neighborhood, or in the grocery store. And of his passion for the Gospel to reach all who will believe!
Since writing the second edition of his first book, “The Sovereignty of God in Our Daily Lives, Revised Edition,” David has authored two other Christian bible study books. The next book he wrote is entitled “En Route to the Mount of Olives – (Matthew 24),” and is a bible study of Jesus’s words to the signs of His return and the end of the age.
And his third book, “At Heaven’s Door,” is about life upon death for a Christian and what the Bible says happens next at our last breath.
So the first three books happen to fit as a trilogy. The first book deals with Jesus’s actions in our daily lives. The second book details the signs of His second coming. And the third book is about living life eternally with Jesus.
Now, David reflects in the writing of this book, based on his first book of Jesus’s living within us - to look at what happens the day our born-again experience occurred. Now that God is calling David’s grandchildren to faith, David writes to help them understand the Bible and how they believed in faith when they said, ‘I accepted Jesus into my heart.’
David was married to a wonderful wife, Sandy, of almost 40 years until her passing in late 2021. And God blessed them with two children and four grandchildren. When not writing, he enjoys going on car cruises and hearing all the stories that people tell about their cars, for life’s journey involves people and not the cars, per se, although he has a car of his own.
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