New Heart, New Life

Have you ever know someone to that, after having a medical procedure, felt like they’d been reborn into a new life?

When my father was living, he was a pretty active person. He was always piddling with something…working on a car, growing the best tomatoes and cantaloupe money couldn’t buy, cutting firewood for the stove insert in our living room…all to say, his free time was filled with business. However, when he was in his mid fifties, his activity level began to taper off, and over time, his strength and stamina dwindled dramatically.

When he was 59, his strength was such that getting up, dressed, and driving to work was about all he could physically muster. And then, he began to have dizzy spells and blacking out. The most dramatic of these events happened while driving on the interstate one day, and mom had to take the wheel. The doctors did all kinds of tests, each one producing a different diagnosis.

Then finally, on a whim, his cardiologist did a hearth cauterization; the results were staggering. The test revealed that three main arteries were 100% impassible, two were 95% clogged, and another 75% blocked. In two days, he was prepped and in for sextuple bypass. It all moved too quickly for fear and the reality of open-heart surgery to sink in. The day came and went, and I remember sitting in the anteroom with the surgeon after the procedure and watching him sketch a confusing maze of spaghetti on a dry erase board. Bottom line, the surgery was a success, and in the process of working on the heart, they discovered that the back side of the organ was masked in scar tissue – the indelible sign of numerous small heart-attacks over the years.

In a day, he was sitting up. In 3 days, he was walking. In 5 days, he was going home.
In a month, he was active, energetic, and even riding a bike for exercise! When I talked to him sometime after the surgery, dad was vibrant and had great skin color. He was happy and in many ways felt like a young man. His comment to me about the whole experience was that he’d, “felt like (I) he’d been born again with another chance at life.” Shortly after that, he took an early retirement after 37 years with the same company, and enjoyed his last years with a fervor and zeal he’d never known.

In fact, rebirth is possible – even for the aged. In John 3, we see a man – a mature, learned man – who was faced with the prospect of being reborn in the image of Christ. The righteousness that he’d tried to achieve by his own means had made him old, tired, calloused, and unteachable, but the transformative wind of the Spirit had blown across the veils of his heart, and he knew that Jesus could explain the void he was left with. In the end, Jesus told him that he must be reborn in order to live – not from his mother’s womb as he supposed, but into grace received, apart from the law. For Nicodemus, righteousness would never occur from being right, but from having a heart that was being made right by the Spirit of the living God.

As you worship this week:

Meditate – on being daily transformed into the likeness and image of Christ.

Contemplate – the life you missed and will enjoy by recommitting yourself to the Master’s will for your life.

Seek – a rebirth of the Spirit in your own life, no matter your age or Christian experience.

Find – God’s righteousness and grace and the new life that comes from being reborn in Jesus.

Resounding Themes:

Washed in the Salvation of Christ
Righteousness of God
Stirring the Spirit
Surrender

Getting READY to Worship

Ready, Set, READ

John 3:5-10

Ready, Set, MEDITATE

Who is Nicodemus? By what John tells us about him, what can we assume about his character? Demeanor? Power? What are the circumstances in which he comes to Jesus? Does this surprise you?

What are some of the indications that Nicodemus is wrestling with who Jesus is? When probed for proof, what response does Jesus give Nicodemus? How does he respond to his seemingly bizarre answer?

Jesus continues to explain that the rebirth is not just physical but spiritual as well. How is this life different than the one Nicodemus already knows? What will he have to do in order to change and become like a newborn to see the kingdom of God?

Do you know someone who claims to be in the kingdom of God, but needs open heart surgery for them to fully experience a new life in Christ? Are you that person? Just as Nicodemus, what will it take for you to be reborn again into Jesus and fully devoted to him?

Ready, Set, PRAY

Lord, come into our hearts and do Your mighty work! Make us righteous with the indwelling of Your Spirit, and grant us a new birth into image of Jesus. Breath Upon us Your fresh Wind and make us young and shapeable once again!

Have Thine own way Lord, Have Thine own way
Thou art the Potter, I and the clay
Mold me an make Thee after Thy Will

In Christ, AMEN.