{"id":1467,"date":"2014-04-21T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T15:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?p=1467"},"modified":"2014-04-21T09:02:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T15:02:00","slug":"jesus-teaches-of-being-born-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?p=1467","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Teaches of Being Born Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Charles Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge vowed \u201cI will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.\u201d I am going to keep Christmas all the year by remembering my Savior and studying His life each week. Scrooge isn\u2019t the only one who can\u00a0<a title=\"Vision Climb\" href=\"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?page_id=55\" target=\"_blank\">make a change for the better<\/a>. I can and you can. Elder Richard G. Scott promised, \u201cThe best way to make a permanent change for good is to make Jesus Christ your model and His teachings your guide for life\u201d (<a title=\"A Personal Study Plan\" href=\"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?page_id=238\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cHe Lives! All Glory to His Name!\u201d<\/a>). Please join me and invite your family and friends to join us in keeping Christmas all the year.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EjIlhu-yuTI?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother\u2019s womb, and be born?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and\u00a0of\u00a0the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.\u00a0The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you\u00a0of\u00a0heavenly things?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,\u00a0even\u00a0the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lds.org\/scriptures\/nt\/john\/3.1-21?lang=eng#primary\" target=\"_blank\">John 3:1-21<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Points to Ponder:<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<ol>\n<li>What does it mean to you to be born again?<\/li>\n<li>What does it mean to be born of water? What does it mean to be born of the spirit?<\/li>\n<li>In Ezekiel, the Lord promises to give us &#8220;a new heart&#8221; and &#8220;a new spirit&#8221; as part of the process of becoming born again (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lds.org\/scriptures\/ot\/ezek\/36.25-28?lang=eng#24\" target=\"_blank\">Ezekiel 36:25-28<\/a>). How has your heart been changed by believing in Jesus Christ?<\/li>\n<li>The Apostle Paul invites us to &#8220;put on the new man&#8221; and describes the process of coming closer to the light and doing more good (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lds.org\/scriptures\/nt\/col\/3?lang=eng\" target=\"_blank\">Colossians 3<\/a>). What changes have you observed in yourself during the process of becoming born again?<\/li>\n<li>How do you know that your Heavenly Father and your Savior, Jesus Christ, love you? How does their love affect your life?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<p>Click\u00a0<a title=\"New Testament\" href=\"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?page_id=673\">here<\/a>\u00a0for additional New Testament posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Charles Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge vowed \u201cI will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.\u201d I am going to keep Christmas all the year by remembering my Savior and studying His &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?p=1467\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,22,8,24,11,16,25,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-belief","category-choice-accountability","category-freedom","category-happiness","category-jesus-christ","category-mission","category-new-testament","category-obedience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1469,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions\/1469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}