I really enjoyed attending my cousin’s big birthday party last week – a surprise – both the people and how they pulled it off! Fun fun and great to share with many cousins, including meeting our littlest cousins for the first time.
Birthdays are a great excuse to get together – always nice to celebrate someone and I said to my cousin (haven’t seen her in 10 years), “thanks for having a birthday!”… She laughed – it was great to see the surprise on her face!!!
Another birthday blessing: My friend sent me a birthday card last week for my birthday – surprise – especially since it is not my birthday until the Fall – haha – we laughed – and we figured out that probably it was our mutual friend that she was thinking of – whose birthday is actually today. This dear friend was unique and surely she is up in Heaven now, and surely shuffling playing cards waiting for us to arrive – to play a few hands – I mean in eternity we must have great time opportunities to see everyone and rotate around and not miss out. Right?
Spiritual birthdays are also SO SPECIAL, my spiritual birthday took 45 years of God’s corralling and special labor!!! Spiritual birthdays get us to those Heavenly gates – it is not the work we do but the birthday Gift from Jesus to buy our train ticket – and restore us to life forever with Him.
I saw a web posting of an article that speaks about a missionary (and founder of the college campus ministries program) who wrote down some spiritual birthday advice. He may have called them laws, but I’ll call the 4 slices of Spiritual Birthday Cake: a) Jesus loves you; b) We are sinners and can’t change that; c) Jesus is the only way to God; d) Each of us must believe it ourselves, each of us must say it.
“We receive Christ intentionally and by faith.”… “to personally accept this gift of salvation…”
Now, you may not remember a specific day as a spiritual birthday, but if you do know that you Love Jesus and receive Him intentionally by faith, to be your Lord and Savior, for your forgiveness of sins, and to be your hope everlasting thru HIS power and not ours, then HAPPY SPIRITUAL BIRTHDAY on EVERYDAY! Enjoy your slice of Jesus’s life for you, abundantly. It’s another opportunity to praise God for our births and birthdays.
And Happy Heavenly Birthday to my friend in Heaven too. Oh what a view!
Amen
FYI – Bill Bright was the founder of CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ). He started this missions organization out of a great desire to reach college students. Here are Bill Bright’s four “spiritual laws”.
1. God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
The first spiritual law starts off by explaining that God loves you. Many people have never heard this before. They may have heard that God is always mad at them or does not care about their small lives. However, John 3:16 shares that because God loves the world He sent Jesus so that we could have eternal life with Him. This is why the gospel is called the good news. When we think about how excited we become over a new tv show, a skincare product, or our new favorite ice cream flavor, we are bold and confident in sharing this with others. It is convicting to think about how often we steer clear of gospel conversations with those around us. We have the greatest news ever to share, that God loves them and died for their sins so they can have hope in life and into eternity have a relationship with Him. Not only this, but John 10:10 tells us that Jesus came so that we would have life abundantly. This relationship starts now and the Lord desires for us to have fullness in Christ. This does not mean life is always easy and we always get what we want, but it means that we have eternal security and faithful love of Jesus.
2. We are sinful and separated from God. Therefore, we cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives. In order for anyone to see their need for a Savior, they have to come to the reality that they are sinful. Romans 3:23 tells us that we all sin and fall short of God’s glory. This spiritual law explains that we had right relationship with our Creator God, but we chose to sin. We rebelled against Him and broke that unity. Sin is defined as active rebellion against God or passive indifference. We see this modeled in the life of Eve’s active rebellion and Adam’s passive indifference in Genesis 3. Because of our sins, we are separated from God. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. God is holy and sin separates us from our holy God. There is nothing that we can do to erase sin. We can strive to reach Him through good deeds, religion or philosophy, but it does not address the sin that separates us.
3. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Him alone we can know God personally and experience God’s love and plan. Romans 5:8 shares that Christ demonstrated His love by dying on the cross for us. Jesus became the payment for the price of all of our sins. Then, 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 says that He rose from the dead. If Jesus just died, He would not have defeated sin and death, His resurrection was the evidence of His victory that we now share in with Him. Scripture makes it clear in John 14:6 that Jesus is the only way to God. In a world that wants to describe many ways to heaven, the Bible tells the truth that Jesus is the only way to have our sins covered and reunite with God the Father. We could not get to Him, so He came down to us. He brings us back to God.
4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives. The fourth spiritual law comes to a place of decision. It is one thing to hear this, but it is another to personally accept this gift of salvation. John 1:12 says that in receiving Jesus’ death and resurrection on our behalf, we become children of God. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we receive Christ through faith by His grace. When we receive Christ, we experience rebirth. We are spiritually reborn. John 3:1-8 tells of Jesus teaching this concept to Nicodemus. When we receive Jesus as our Savior, our hearts are made new and the Holy Spirit enters, sealing us as God’s own. Revelation 3:20 says that we receive Jesus by personal invitation. Jesus stands at the door of our hearts knocking, but we have to let Him in. God is a Gentleman, He never forces himself onto anyone. The way to receive Jesus as Savior is by turning to God and trusting Jesus to forgive our sins. Agreeing intellectually is not enough, neither is an emotional experience. We receive Christ intentionally and by faith. Romans 10:9 says, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/what-are-bill-brights-four-spiritual-laws.html
Debbie Upper 