Searching For Truth

Devotion

2-2-10

Please bow your head before you begin today and prepare your heart, mind and spirit to receive the truth the Lord wants to share with you today.  When you have finished praying read the story below.

 

Searching for Truth

  In the darkness of the cold hearted hands of rejection, sin was nurtured and grew into the hidden acts of abuse. A broken spirit that cried for help, only found the raw and unfriendly streets of loneliness and hunger. The days and nights lost their definition and slipped into a murky haze of bewilderment for a wondering soul, lost and forgotten by the very people that should have protected and loved him.  Yet, he kept on searching.

 

Fear and hopelessness tossed him around like a ragging river on a cold winter’s night deep in the valley of death. Survival seemed worse than death itself and yet death seemed dark and scary. What would happen to this torn and tattered heart that beat with the blood of bitterness and pain?  What was he searching for?

 

  Many say he just drifted away to nothing and curled up under a cardboard box in a dark alley and fell into a final sleep.  Some say he got into a relationship, had children and then did to them what was done to him.  Others say he ended up in jail for killing a child while drinking and driving and is spending his final days on five different medications and countless therapy sessions to remind him how messed up he is.  But I say he is in heaven walking the streets of gold with the Savior’s arms around him. Why? Because I believe he found what he was searching for.  “…God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.” Ephesians 2:4

 

  Who is this man?  What really happen to him?  Where is he now?  Did anyone ever love him? Did he ever find hope for his future and peace from his past?  Does he sound like someone you know? Does his life reflect your own life? Are you searching?

 

Nicodemus was searching, even though he came from a life style far different than the man in the story; his searching was just as desperate.  It was desperate because any life that does not have Jesus in it is just like the man in the story.  Their souls are filled with fear and hopelessness and their futures end in destruction. However, Nicodemus’ search leads him to the truth, a truth that could set him free from destruction. The same truth that the man in the story above found and it is this truth you can be sure of as well. 

 

 

Let’s look at John 3:1-8 again today. Read it out loud.

It is true that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night in the cover of darkness, but a fact we must remember is that he DID come to Jesus.  He came searching out the answers to the question that he couldn’t get out of his mind. 

 

 

Take a look at verse 2. What does Nicodemus say to Jesus? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is Jesus’ reply? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How did Nicodemus respond to Jesus’ statement about being born again? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you think Jesus meant by saying you must be born of water and Spirit?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That’s right, to be born of water is talking about the flesh and to be born of the Spirit is when we receive Jesus as our Savior and His Spirit comes to live within us. 

 

It doesn’t matter what background we come from, what has been done to us or what we have done that may not have been very nice or something we are not proud of, the Lord is still waiting in the quietness of the night to meet with us and to tell us the truth and provide us hope.

 

You may know someone that seems hopeless, wandering in a world of darkness, anger, bitterness and pain.  You may know that if something doesn’t change in their life they will either become the very thing they hate or they will die lost separated from God. 

Just like the man in the story or a man of high authority like Nicodemus, God takes us right where we are in life and shows us His love and hope through the offer of being born again.  Wiping away our sins and giving us a new life as His child.

 

If you have never really understood what it means to be born again, if you have never accepted Jesus as your Savior, don’t let this moment pass without hearing Jesus speak to you.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.  That whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

 

Jesus changes lives for all those who will seek Him.  He changed Nicodemus and He changed the man in the story.  I know, because the man was my father. He did grow up with bitterness and hate for those who hurt him as a boy.  He did pass his pain on to me through physical, emotional and sexual abuse.  However, two years before he died he met Jesus in the garden, searching for truth and found Him.  Now one day we will meet in the heavenly garden and worship our Lord together.  My dad was born again, his old life was dead and buried, and he received a new life in Christ because he finally went searching for Truth and found Him.