WE NEED TO BE BORN AGAIN.
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I've just bought a book called 'Rees Howells - Intercessor' which was recommended by a member on a different thread.
Rees Howells was Welsh and passionate about God all his life; spending hours in prayer and bible study and never missing chapel meetings or prayer meetings. But in America, where had gone to join a cousin, he was asked by that cousin if he was born again and and was shocked by the question but he had never heard the expression and was as ignorant of it's meaning as Nicodemus.
He became defensive and argued that he lead a good life. And to the question 'Are you saved?' he replied, 'I am a Christian and that's good enough for me.' But though he professed to be unconvinced the thought nagged away at him until reading a book by a Christian author he 'saw it'.
Even though he had always believed in the Saviour he was not born of Him and was dead man spiritually, and his good life and religion had never enabled him to enter the Kingdom of God. He had been complacent in his religion but once he saw the truth his complacency was shattered and he realise there was a gulf between himself and God.
In order for us all to close that gulf that exists for all us before we are born again we need to know Jesus in personal way by making a conscious choice to turn to Jesus so that we can know him and not just know about him.
Rees Howells was Welsh and passionate about God all his life; spending hours in prayer and bible study and never missing chapel meetings or prayer meetings. But in America, where had gone to join a cousin, he was asked by that cousin if he was born again and and was shocked by the question but he had never heard the expression and was as ignorant of it's meaning as Nicodemus.
He became defensive and argued that he lead a good life. And to the question 'Are you saved?' he replied, 'I am a Christian and that's good enough for me.' But though he professed to be unconvinced the thought nagged away at him until reading a book by a Christian author he 'saw it'.
Even though he had always believed in the Saviour he was not born of Him and was dead man spiritually, and his good life and religion had never enabled him to enter the Kingdom of God. He had been complacent in his religion but once he saw the truth his complacency was shattered and he realise there was a gulf between himself and God.
In order for us all to close that gulf that exists for all us before we are born again we need to know Jesus in personal way by making a conscious choice to turn to Jesus so that we can know him and not just know about him.
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bbyrd009
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Ps 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Rev 3:20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
Gen 22:18 “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
Num 11:7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium.
Mat 13:19 “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.
Mat 13:23 “And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
Luke 8:12 “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.
1 Peter 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
Jn 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Do we not understand?
All are born of seed!
First we are born physically from a physical seed.
Yet God is spirit, so it is that the Spirit provides the seed to be "born again" - or to be born spiritually speaking as opposed to physically speaking.
The seed the Spirit has is the words of God which He gets directly from Jesus Christ whose name is called "The Word of God" (not your Bible but Jesus Christ) The Holy Spirit does not speak on His own initiative but as He hears from our Lord Jeus Christ He speaks to our spirit.
Jn 16:13,14 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
The words of God that the Holy Spirit gets from Jesus Christ and gives to our spirits is the seed. Yet many don't receive those words. Some receive the words but don't understand that the devils in the air take them away. Other get those word but the worries of the world overtake the words of God, so the seed wilts away. But for the person born again that word the God speaks to them personally is received, believed, and it grows in them. And to them that have more is given, so that everyday called today the person hears more from their Lord Jesus Christ via the Holy Spirit. And so it is that the Holy Spirit guides them into all understanding by continually taking the words from Jesus Christ, The Word of God, and speaking them to our spirit, and we grow in the King and thus the Kingdom of God.
So in a nutshell (a seed container) to be born again someone must simply open up to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and listen to Him!!!
The Good News is that He is always standing there speaking to us - but who will believe such a thing and open up to Him?
i was born again 44 years ago on Dec 18th 1977. And a few years after that I was baptised by full immersion.
No it doesn't. First comes our spiritual rebirth as the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us, then our baptism, both of these event must be by choice and not coercion.
Perhaps if you hear it often enough you might want to start to question your church's teaching by daring to research it on non-catholic Christian sites. It is your own responsibility before God to find the truth, independently of what the CC teaches.
It is baptismal regeneration that makes a Christian not “faith alone”
Mk 16:16 faith and baptism
Acts 8:36-38 faith and baptism
Jn 3:5 Titus 3:5 baptismal regeneration
That’s impossible! Perhaps even blasphemy!
Truth is immutable and revealed by Christ and proposed for our belief by holy mother church!
Nowhere does it say we died with Christ or are members of Christ in his church or yours sins are washed away or you put on Christ by “Faith alone” but by baptism!
Acts 22:16
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Galatians 3:27
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
The new covenant unity:
Union with Christ the mediator and communion with God and the saints is based on “unity of faith”
“Thee faith” of the new covenant that all must believe without any error, false or strange doctrines foreign to “thee faith” of the new covenant!
“Thee faith” is found 31 times in the New Testament!
Obedience of faith: rom 16:26
Ephesians 4:1
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ...
Romans 12:16
Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
Romans 15:6
That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 13:11
Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
Philippians 1:27
Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
Philippians 2:2
Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
1 Peter 3:8
Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
Eph 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism
2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Athanasius Creed!
(From the early church)
Whoever desires to be saved must above all hold to the catholic faith.
Anyone who does not keep it whole and entire will doubtless perish eternally.
One church founded by Jesus Christ!
there is only one!
One God!
One Lord!
One savior!
One faith!
One new covenant!
One kingdom!
One household of faith!
One vineyard!
One church! (Not thousands of sects All teaching different doctrines all on the Bible alone, by the tradition of men)
Only Christ has authority to found the new covenant church! Matt 16:18-19
One shepherd one fold Jn 10:16
1 Tim 3:15 pillar and ground of truth
All men must be taught by the church!
Truth is revealed by God, fully by Christ, and must be proposed for our belief by holy mother church! Matt 28:19 Lk 1:4 Acts 8:31 eph 4:5 Jude 1:3 one faith
Unity of faith!
Four Marks of the True Church founded by Jesus Christ on Peter, the apostles, and their successors!
One, holy, catholic (universal) and apostolic (succeeding from Christ, Peter and the apostles)
The initiation or being born again into the new covenant church is baptismal regeneration!
God breathed life into Adam, gen 2:7 and we received this life from our fathers!
Christ breathed on the apostles our spiritual fathers, we receive the new covenant life of God’s grace from them thru faith & baptism! Jn 20:21-23 Mk 16:16 acts 8:36-38
Born again! Born from above!
'The Father has set his seal' on Christ (John 6:27) and also seals us in him (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:23, 4:30). Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Baptism,
Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life." 87 The faithful Christian who has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith," 88 with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God - the consummation of faith - and in the hope of resurrection.
St. Paul tells the faithful at Ephesus that they have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” This is in terms of an indelible character imprinted on the soul in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. It is not as if this invisible mark is simply decorative. Rather, through it, we are enabled to participate in Christ’s mission and in his offices of priest, prophet, and king. Eph 1:13
Sealed by God eph 1:13 sealed by God (ez 36:25-27) in the ark of salvation by baptism just as Noah was sealed by God in the ark of the flood gen 7:16
1 Pet 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us!
(Ark of Noah a type of the church, member of Christ and his church and salvation by baptism!)
(Outside the ark of Noah none were saved, outside the church (the ark of salvation) none are saved!)
Sealed in the ark, sealed in the church the ark of salvation by baptism!
explan jn ch. 3 especially verses 22 & 23
Context of Jn 3:5 “born again”
John1:26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; (John prepared the way by baptism)
John 2:6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. (Old covenant prefiguring of baptism, purification from sin)(His disciples believed because the ever Virgin mother of God interceded Jn 2:11)
John3:5 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. (Baptism)
John 3:22 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. 23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.(Baptism / water)
John 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.
Born again means Baptismal regeneration!
It's no good just quoting scripture at me theefaith, Jehovah's Witnesses do that. You need to have a testimony about how you came to be born again spiritually like all true Christians do. And to be able to converse about it in your own words with the help of the Holy Spirit.
My own testimony is that I always thought I was a Christian because I had been brought up in an Anglican church and went to a church school. Then many years later I was given a little booklet which had a list of things that people thought made them Christians but didn't and went on to described that to become a Christian I needed to have a personal relationship with Jesus who had died for me and wanted to forgive my sin. It spoke into me and my spirit was quickened by the Holy Spirit and I experienced spiritual re-birth. And a few years later, when I was no longer of the Anglican church, I was baptised by full immersion and it was wonderful and so joyous.
This is me coming out of the water:
you became a Christian when you were baptized like everyone else, (if it was done properly) I was 16 when I was baptized by pouring, 16 days old that is!
Lifelong_sinner
Well-Known Member
i love this picture. Im glad noone took my picture as i was coming back up. I was flailing and trying to get out of the tank.
So if that was when I born again - which it wasn't by the way = what about my so-called baptism as a baby, didn't that count then according to you?
At the time of the photo I had been born again for about seven years and received the Spirit and spoke in tongues but wasn't allowed by the traditions of the CofE to be 'done' again. So after God told me I need to be baptised I left and joined a housechurch.
you can only be baptized once, eph 4:5 if it meets all the requirements, even if done by heretics it is a valid baptism and gives an indelible character upon the soul, sealed!
God breathed life into Adam, gen 2:7 and we received this life from our fathers!
Christ breathed on the apostles our spiritual fathers, we receive the new covenant life of God’s grace from them thru faith & baptism! Jn 20:21-23 Mk 16:16 acts 8:36-38
Born again! Born from above!
'The Father has set his seal' on Christ (John 6:27) and also seals us in him (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:23, 4:30). Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Baptism,
Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life." 87 The faithful Christian who has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith," 88 with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God - the consummation of faith - and in the hope of resurrection.
St. Paul tells the faithful at Ephesus that they have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” This is in terms of an indelible character imprinted on the soul in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. It is not as if this invisible mark is simply decorative. Rather, through it, we are enabled to participate in Christ’s mission and in his offices of priest, prophet, and king. Eph 1:13
Sealed by God eph 1:13 sealed by God (ez 36:25-27) in the ark of salvation by baptism just as Noah was sealed by God in the ark of the flood gen 7:16
1 Pet 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us!
(Ark of Noah a type of the church, member of Christ and his church and salvation by baptism!)
(Outside the ark of Noah none were saved, outside the church (the ark of salvation) none are saved!)
Sealed in the ark, sealed in the church the ark of salvation by baptism!
The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’ Numbers 6:25-27
Context of Jn 3:5 “born again”
John1:26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; (John prepared the way by baptism)
John 2:6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. (Old covenant prefiguring of baptism, purification from sin)(His disciples believed because the ever Virgin mother of God interceded Jn 2:11)
John3:5 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. (Baptism)
John 3:22 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. 23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.(Baptism / water)
John 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.
Born again means Baptismal regeneration!
John1:26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; (John prepared the way by baptism)
John 2:6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. (Old covenant prefiguring of baptism, purification from sin)(His disciples believed because the ever Virgin mother of God interceded Jn 2:11)
John3:5 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. (Baptism)
John 3:22 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. 23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.(Baptism / water)
John 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.
Born again means Baptismal regeneration!
It's good that you quote scripture but it would be more personal if you could say things in your own words.
Behold
Well-Known Member
I was water baptized 11 yrs after i was born again.
The dying Thief on the Cross has the record, as he was never water baptized at all.
We can ask him all about that when we meet him in Glory with the rest of the Saints.
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