YOUR BIRTH, YOUR LIFE; THE STORY THAT
MAKES BROKEN BONES HEAL.
Birth
in its simple definition is the beginning of life while Life is the period
between birth and death. Life is also the remainder or extent of one’s life.
To
start with, can a man be given birth and yet such a man does not know that he is
born? Can a man be born and yet don't have any trait to show that his father is
truly his father? Can a man be given birth and yet don't know the day of his
birth? Can a man be born and yet live a life completely different from the
person that gave birth to him? These questions are the burdens that gave birth
to this presentation.
We
have gathered once again for the second time in respect to ABB COMMUNITY GET TOGETHER tagged
“MY STORY II”. The question is: What is your story? Whatever your story
may be, can it change things positively and make broken bones heal? It is on
this premise that I deem it fit using this platform to examine the four
cardinal dimensions of birth and thereafter you and I should find a better fitting
in the one that can actually make broken bones heal. They four areas of being
born include:
1. Born by your Parent (Normal
Birth)
2. Born again (Second
Birth)
3. Born of the Water (Water
Baptism Day)
4. Born of the Spirit
(Holy Ghost Baptism Day).
You will realize from the four above
mentioned births that the birth given to us by our parents only relates to our
physical life while the remaining three (3) relates to our spiritual life. This
implies that your spiritual life which comes as a result of this spiritual
birth must control and dominate your physical life which in itself carries the
nature of sin. Therefore, we can say that physical birth begets physical life, while
spiritual birth begets spiritual life. From the little journey so far
in this presentation, you will bear with me that we have principally two (2)
types of birth:
1. Your normal birth (physical birth or natural
birth) and
2. Your spiritual birth (second birth or
born again).
Despite the fact that your physical
birth and life comes first before the spiritual birth and life, the story of
your physical birth does not carry great magnitude of change that must affect
this perverse generation positively compared to your spiritual birth. Do you know why? Hear what this man says:
I feel like cursing the day of my birth;
let the day of my birth be erased, and the night I was conceived. Let that day
be turned to darkness. Let it be lost even to God on high, and let no light
shine on it. Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own. Let a
black cloud overshadow it, and let the darkness terrify it. Let that night be
blotted off the calendar, never again to be counted among the days of the year,
never again to appear among the months. Let that night be childless. Let it
have no joy. Let those who are experts at cursing - whose cursing could rouse
Leviathan - curse that day. Let its morning stars remain dark. Let it hope for
light, but in vain; may it never see the morning light. Curse that day for
failing to shut my mother's womb, for letting me be born to see all this
trouble. "Why wasn't I born dead? Why didn't I die as I came from the
womb? Why was I laid on my mother's lap? Why did she nurse me at her breasts?
Had I died at birth, I would now be at peace. I would be asleep and at rest. I
would rest with the world's kings and prime ministers, whose great buildings
now lie in ruins. I would rest with princes, rich in gold, whose palaces were
filled with silver. Why wasn't I buried like a stillborn child, like a baby who
never lives to see the light? To quickly conclude on this type of birth, I
must say that the human birth embodies the human nature; natural evil desires;
old man; self life (Mr. Self) flesh life (Mr. Flesh). With this type of birth,
life is full of falling and rising, limitations, troubles, religiousness,
legalistic righteousness, lies, deceit, compromises, cheat, guilt, and secret
sin. This type of birth is full of weakness and shortcomings that cannot allow
one to worship his creator properly. By this first birth, we are corrupt, shapen
and born in sin. Therefore, we must be made new creatures if we must please God;
this is because no man can please God by this first birth (normal birth) no
matter how churchy or religious he or she is. Actually, to accomplish God’s
purpose for your life and destiny whether in leadership or any where life will
place you, the physical birth no matter the strength you exert cannot journey
you far, you need the spiritual birth. Though, the human birth cannot cause us
to work in victory, there is another type of birth which is the second birth.
This second birth may seem abnormal to many, yet it is what can grant us the
enabling capacity and license to worship our creator in spirit and in truth.
Oh, dear friends, do you know that you are a tripartite being - spirit, soul and body. I.e., you are a spirit, you
have a soul, and you live in a physical body. It is with your spirit that you
worship and may contact God. Your soul includes the conscious and subconscious
minds, the realm of emotions and the will. It gives you personality, self-
awareness, rationality and natural feeling. While your body is a complex
physical creation by which you relate to this world and to other people in the
world. It is on the basis of you being a spirit being that the matter of the
spiritual birth becomes crucial and expedient. The question we must unearth at
this point is the question of what is Spiritual Birth.
Spiritual
Birth could mean second birth, second begetting, born again,
born anew, born of God, born from above, spiritual rebirth, or regeneration of
the human spirit, or new birth. It is the day you gave your life completely
to Christ and yield your neck to the yoke of discipleship with Him. It is the
day you say buy-buy to the old life of sin and now operate under the leadership
of the Holy Spirit. It is the day the Holy Spirit gives birth to your own spirit;
the rebirth of your human spirit. It is the plan of salvation that Jesus
authored at Calvary. It is to experience the death, burial and resurrection of
our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Which means that: you must die to sin, to the law, to life, and even to die out to your
own will. It is a moment to acknowledge that your life of sin was buried
with Christ by baptism and that when He rose; you were raised into a new life.
It is a change from a stony heart to a fleshy heart. It is an act of God
whereby eternal life is imparted to the person who believes. It is to believe
in your heart that Jesus was raised from the dead and to confess with your
mouth that Jesus is the Lord. It is when you are inwardly changed from all
sinfulness to all holiness. It is the termination of a person of old creation
with all their deeds and the germination of them in the new creation with the
divine life. It is a point where you develop new nature, new principles, new
affections, new aims, new focus and new way of living. And lastly, it is a
spiritual newness of life to a divine beginning.
Dear friends, by the risen of this juxtapose
between the First Birth (Physical Birth) and the Second Birth (Spiritual birth),
the question is: have you experience this Spiritual Birth? Does your life
practically depict this spiritual and Christian life? This is indeed the story
that can heal broken wounds. It is this second birth that can give you the
license to go out to declare the birth of Jesus Christ this Christmas Season.
What has been your story before now; is it the story of how you gain admission?
Is it the story of how you convocated and graduated? Is it the story of how you
secured a well paid Job? Is it the story of how you got married? Is it the
story of how you use your God given talent and gift to affect your generation?
Is it the story of how you were baptized with water in your local Church when
you don’t have any trace of Christ like life in you? Or yours could be how you
followed patiently, deception-ly and schemingly a lady until you wooed her to successfully
become your girlfriend? That is not good enough a story as to change things and
make broken bones heal. It is your spiritual birth and your spiritual life that
can stand as a testimony for you in order to declare the birth, death and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ this Christmas season. From all these, It
is therefore an aberration (deviation from the truth) for you seated here to
say you have this spiritual birth when you are still operating under lust,
masturbation, sexual immorality, addiction to alcoholic drink and smoke, kissing
and romances, fornication, boyfriend and girl friend relation that has led you to
several sinful habits and discussion, willful lies, deliberate sin, secret sin,
exam malpractice, etc. To conclude this presentation, I want you to know that if
you doubt whether you are born again, it then shows that you are not born again.
On that note, you need a
gift. That gift is Jesus. You need Him in your life if you must declare the
story of your spiritual birth and that of Jesus’ birth this season. You don’t
need to pay any money for this gift. ABB COMMUNITY GET together has created a
platform for you possibly to be part of this great community (family of
believers) in order for you to have a divine beginning in Christ Jesus. It is
not by your human effort energy or strength, but ...it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is
not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast
about it. It is not
by your works of righteousness, but it is in partaking in the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Oh oh, don’t misunderstand me, for we don’t
have to literally die, be buried, and rise again. Jesus was our substitute and
did this for us. All we must do is to accept what He did by spiritually
dying (Repentance), symbolically being buried (Baptism), and spiritually rising
again (Receive the Holy Ghost). To this end, dead friend, don’t waste today’s
date in your life, for the story that will touch your world and heal broken
bones is the story of your salvation-spiritual birth which will thereafter culminate
unto you sharing the Good News story this Christmas season.
Thanks and God bless.
A PRESENTATION MADE @ ABB COMMUNITY
GET TOGETHER tagged “MY STORY II”.
Presented by
Bro.
Samson O. Daniel
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