{"id":4036,"date":"2021-04-27T11:35:24","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T11:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/?p=4036"},"modified":"2021-04-27T11:35:24","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T11:35:24","slug":"born-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/?p=4036","title":{"rendered":"Born Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><sup>5\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus answered,\u00a0\u201cTruly I tell you, unless someone is born\u00a0of water and the Spirit,\u00a0he cannot enter the kingdom of God.<sup>6\u00a0<\/sup>Whatever is born of the flesh\u00a0is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit\u00a0is spirit. (John 3:5-6 CSB)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The term \u201cborn again\u201d has been used and abused in many ways over the years. So much so that in recent years outside of the Christian community it has been used negatively. Something to reflect upon the newly converted or over zealous.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is sad as the true weight of the title means that one has now been born of the Spirit. We are no longer the creature we once were. We are no longer simply of the flesh, but should now be guided by the Spirit within. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally, Jesus clearly states that one cannot enter the kingdom of God without being born again. Thus, we should look to the second birth as an incredible experience that opens the doors of heaven and the span of eternity to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without it our future beyond this earth is bleak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One should be proud to be considered a \u201cborn again\u201d Christian. As you cannot be the latter without the former. They are not two different things but one is a pathway to the other. One is a pathway to God. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>5\u00a0Jesus answered,\u00a0\u201cTruly I tell you, unless someone is born\u00a0of water and the Spirit,\u00a0he cannot enter the kingdom of God.6\u00a0Whatever is born of the flesh\u00a0is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit\u00a0is spirit. (John 3:5-6 CSB) The term \u201cborn again\u201d has been used and abused in many ways over the years. So much so that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4037,"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions\/4037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xplorechrist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}