Spiritual Christian Living

        I thank God, that here in central Texas; we are finally coming into a season of “slightly” cooler temperatures.  It is also the time of year when we start to begin thinking about the holidays and gift-giving.  It is along those lines that I would like to encourage you to give three gifts, right now, to people in your life.  It is gifts that I have learned to give generously to people around me, but often do not get in return.  I think it is because of the Spirit of Christ within me that I am able to do things proactively, regardless of the attitude, response, or demeanor of the other person.  Don’t you agree?  Is the Lord helping you to respond to others kindly?  Sometimes it is easy to tell if a person is growing in their faith, by how they conduct themselves in general conversation.  In your daily conversations, please try and give these gifts.  They are the gifts of  a listening ear , an inquiring heart , and a word of encouragement .    The first gift that I am en

     John, Chapter 3, tells the account of a Jewish Religious leader and Jesus discussing what it takes to get to heaven.  Jesus could have told him to keep doing what he was doing, or he could have told him to add some more religious duties to his life – but instead, he told him that in order to go to heaven, he needed to be born anothen .  This is another paper about various Greek words used in the New Testament.    The Greek word anothen is from the word ano meaning “from above, anew, again, or upward.”  This text has been translated as “born again”, “reborn from above”, “born anew”, and “spiritually transformed”.    This is an incredibly important passage!  I consider John Chapter 3 to be one of the most important chapters of the Bible.  Jesus is telling Nicodemus the main requirement for heaven.    Jesus spent a lot of time trying to talk to people about spiritual things.  Many times, people would struggle to understand what Jesus was talking about because it was not alw