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In the Bible, in John 3:3, Jesus says: "No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit." In the case of those of us who are born-again, our first birth took place when the uterus of our mother ruptured; and along with the water in the uterus, we came out as a baby. This was our first birth from water. Our second birth, according to 1 John 5:18 and 1 John 3:9, takes place when a baby or an adult becomes a child of God through a second birth enacted by the Holy Spirit, just as Christ was conceived in the womb of Mary, His mother. This means that when a follower of Christ becomes a born-again Christian, he has not even a trace of sin, just as Christ also was when He was conceived. In John's letter, 1 John 3:9 implies that being born again is a change as profound as if the born-again Christian also were conceived in the womb of his earthly mother by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is so because his second birth was also enacted by the Holy Spirit, exactly in the same way that Jesus was conceived since there is a commonality in both the births. The commonality is that the seed in both cases is the same--the Holy Spirit.A second remarkable thing about a born-again Christian is that after a born-again Christian becomes one, he enters a growth period that will last for the rest of his life, during which time he performs extraordinary deeds of outrageous generosity. I like to point out three examples of such extra-extraordinary deeds that I did only because I was a born-again Christian. In the interest of space, I am only mentioning one here. In this instance, once, I charged on my credit card a sum of $67,000 to help one of my distant family members who lost the lease on the place he was using for business. It took me two years to pay off that debt. It was not easy as I had to take out approximately eight other bank loans before I could pay it off. I had many sleepless nights too. The other two "extraordinary" deeds of outrageous generosity that I did can be read in my fifth reason for my writing this book described in the first part of the book. But the most remarkable of all benefits of being truly born again is that one who is born again can live holy without sin!Now I would like to announce to you about my future action plan to win over ten million people (about half the population of New York City or a little less than a third of the population of Delhi, India) for Christ, God willing, by the grace of God. I am making this announcement here as an invitation to all who want to join me in this undertaking. I can assure you that one day, He will turn our wailing into dancing (Ps. 30:11) and throw us the most amazing party in heaven described in Luke 15, saying to his servants, "Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger... So they began to celebrate." Once again, I am confident that God will be with us as He has promised me His faithfulness for this project also. Praise the Lord! Alleluia!
Br. Thomas Varkey | 9798888320174 | REL083000 | book-has-featured-image
