Spiritual Hunger

Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him: Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.


Joh 3:5 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.


Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh: and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (DRB)


Joh 3:8 The Spirit breatheth where he will and thou hearest his voice: but thou knowest not whence he cometh and whither he goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. (DRB)


1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God who liveth and remaineth for ever


1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God committeth not sin: for his seed abideth in him. And he cannot sin, because he is born of God.


1Jn 4:7 Dearly beloved, let us love one another: for charity is of God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.


1Jn 5:1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And every one that loveth him who begot, loveth him also who is born of him


1Jn 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory which overcameth the world: Our faith.


1Jn 5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not: but the generation of God preserveth him and the wicked one toucheth him not.

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Born Again. Born of water and of the Spirit. Born of the spirit is spirit. Born of the Spirit. Born again. Born of God. Is born of God.


Birth. Most of us know what that means. New life. The birth of anything is new life coming into being, right? Some of us have experienced giving birth, others have watched a birthing, we all were at one time birthed from our own mothers. We all had our own beginnings, our new life. We were a new life created, a new life born into the world. It doesn't matter if we were wanted or not, I'm not going to say that you were a new life that was hoped for because often that's not the case. You could have been a new life abandoned to strangers, or a new life abused by unloving care givers. The only true fact for us all is that we were all once a new life, we were all at one time born and took our first breath of air, giving our first cry. Helpless at birth if left to our own devices we would die quickly. Dependent upon caregivers for many years, the first few being the most dependent- knowing that in some poor, third world countries and such that children at 3, 4, and 5 years are already out there on the streets begging food and such, if they weren't cared for in some manner for the first couple years of their lives they would have died. This is our human birth, our human new life, born of the flesh. We have no control over being born. We can't stop ourselves from being born in any way. There isn't a single thing we as the unborn can prevent being born consciously or unconciously, the only thing that could prevent us from being born is our mother, or outside forces beyond the control of our mother whether health or injury by another. We have no power over our own birthing, over becoming a new life.


How does all this relate to being born again, born of God, born of the Spirit, born of water and of the Spirit? It's a new life anything newly born is a new life. If all that was meant was a continuing of living there would be no need to be born again, to put it that way in so many instances.


Nicodemus asked the question we all would have asked- What do you mean, born again? We can't go into our mother a second time to be born.


So true. This being born again had to be an entirely different sort of birth. This new birth wouldn't be out of our control. This new birth would be an acknowledgement of a new parentage and that parentage wouldn't be from an earthly source such as we know parents. Our new parents would be God, would be the Spirit of God. When you are adopted and given new parents in the flesh, you enter into a new relationship with those new parents- it wouldn't be the same as the relationship you experienced with your old parents, foster parents, orphanage care givers as substitute parents, other guardians as parents- this would be a new relationship. When we are born again of the Spirit, born of God, we are given new parentage, a new relationship.


If left to our own without ever being born again to God through the Spirit, we never enter a new life, a new relationship with God. Is it any wonder that we MUST be born again to God in order to be counted as His? We have to as knowing adults or mature children understand that we are acknowledging the need of a new life with God as our Father. We have control over this new birth, it's not thrust upon us without our consent. No one will be able to say they were forced to be born again unto God. Sure, they could be forced to go through the motions of being born again, but unless they are of their own free will with an open mind and heart unto Jesus voluntarily accepting of the new birth it won't mean anything.


Our new birth through Christ is amazing and often times people who first enter this new life being born of the Spirit feel a certain amount of excitement. Then after the new birth and the new life continues on and we begin to grow we have to realize that this new life, with our new parentage isn't something we'll ever grow up and away from. You see we are trained in our modern world that when we grow up we move off and start our own lives- often to the neglect of our parents, and often by their encouragement. It's not a wrong thing to want our children to mature and become able to care for themselves, provide for themselves and their family they'll have as they continue with the unending way of life- procreating. However, the *ideal* family does not mean never having contact again, in fact it means a continued care of family, of children looking after older parents and so on- something that has been lost a lot to modernism. A life is a continued process of aging and maturing endlessly until death. A new life born in Christ, born of God, born of the Spirit must be a life that is nurtured endlessly until death. The newness might wear off, but the way of the new life in Christ is outlined for us.


Mat 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.


A mature human beings of the flesh we have daily needs. A maturing spiritual beings in Christ we have daily needs. We tend to forget this because as fleshy beings the pangs in our belly tells us of our need for food, and the dry mouth tells us we thirst. Spiritually it is a lot easier to ignore the pangs of hunger for the Word of God. We haven't been taught to recognize that sort of hunger, but rather taught to explain it away.


A new life in Christ is necessary for us all, and a continuing maturing life in Christ is essential if we are to keep the spiritual life alive. A spiritual life can die just as a fleshly life can die. And just as we can become ill in the flesh, we can become ill in the Spirit.


May God grant us all recognition of our spiritual hunger and thrist that can only be sated in Him through the love and grace, the mercy of Jesus Christ. May we learn to feed our Spiritual self and nuture it in Christ through the Spirit so that we don't become Spiritually ill. Please Lord, bless and keep us now and forever in You, in a real, living-breathing relationship not by our worthiness, but by the worthiness of Your Son who died for us.


Amen.