Born Again

“The truest end of life, is to know the life that never ends” -William Penn-

The conversion story of Augustine:

There was a small garden attached to the house where we lodged… I now found myself driven by the tumult in my breast to take refuge in this garden, where no one could interrupt that fierce struggle in which I was my own contestant… I was beside myself with madness that would bring me sanity. I was dying a death that would bring me life… I was frantic, overcome by violent anger with myself for not accepting your will and entering into your covenant… I tore my hair and hammered my forehead with my fist; I locked my fingers and hugged my knees.

I flung myself down beneath a fig tree and gave way to the tears which now streamed from my eyes… All at once I heard the singsong voice of a child in a nearby house. Whether it was the voice of a boy or a girl I cannot say, but again and again it repeated the refrain “Take it and read, take it and read.”

So I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting… seized [the book of Paul’s epistles] and opened it, and in silence I read the first passage on which my eyes fell: “Not in reveling in drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ; spend no more thought on nature and nature’s appetites” (). I had no wish to read more and no need to do so. For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled.

The conversion story of C.S. Lewis:

I know very well when, but hardly how, the final step was taken. I was driving into Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when I reached the zoo i did. And yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. Nor in great emotion. “Emotional” is perhaps the last word we can apply to some of the most important events. It was more like when a man, after long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake. And it was, like that moment on top of the bus, ambiguous. Freedom, or necessity? Or do they differ at their maximum?

“unless one is born again” see below for other verses:

- who were born, not of blood… but of God

- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

- since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Born of water and the Spirit may point to

talks about “the washing of water with the word”

talks about the washing of regeneration

- “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”

Nicodemus must have become a friend of Jesus because we hear of him in two diffrent occasions

1. Defended Jesus in the Sanhedrin ()

2. Assisted Joseph of Arimathea with Jesus' burial by bringing about 75 pounds of a mixture of myrrh and aloes. ()