I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 1-3.

    I have several thoughts about today’s passage. I am not sure how many of them I am going to put into today’s blog yet. The first chapter of John puts the essence of the Incarnation into a few words. As humans we have a desire to put distance between ourselves and God. In a manner of speaking we still do what Adam and Eve did in the Garden after they first sinned. We try to hide from God. We seek to put something or someone between ourselves and God. The Incarnation is God trying to reclaim the relationship He had with Adam and Eve before they sinned. It is our constant struggle to accept that God wants us. It reminds me of the thoughts I have occasionally when I look at my wife, “She wants to be with me. She really wants to be with me. How absolutely amazing, this beautiful woman actually wants to be with me.” However, that thought with God is so much more amazing. God wants to be with us. He wants to be our friend and something much more than that. The first chapter of John explains both that this is true and gives a glimpse of how amazing it is that it is true.

    When Jesus speaks about being born again, He is telling us that we need to start over. We need to let the Holy Spirit transform us into innocent babes who have none of the smear and smudge which sin brings into our lives. The Christian message is about being cleansed from sin, but I think we rarely comprehend what that really means. Being cleansed of sin does not just mean being forgiven, or even just letting go of sin and not committing sins. It means all of the twists and distortions in our character that our the result of our sins, and of the sins of others, are washed away and we are returned to the innocence of childhood. If we allow the Holy Spirit to do so, He will clear away all of the debris which sin has left in our lives.