As a young child once, I held a bible and a particular verse had caught my eye. It was from the book of Timothy in the new testament, 1 Timothy 2:5 to be exact. It said, ‘For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.’ I went to my mother and said, “mom, look at these words!” Growing up a Catholic, they were stunning words, but these words rang true to my heart! I said, “This means that I really don’t have to go to the priest to tell him my sins then, right?!” My mother read them and didn’t have an answer to them for me. I absolutely hated the idea of having to confess my sins to a priest. It seemed unnatural. It seemed impossible! But here were these words that gave me new breathing space. Little did I realize that they were then given to me with a purpose in mind for farther down the road.

Those words stayed with me, sort of, in the back of my mind just nesting there.

Fast forward to being a young and not so long ago married woman. We had one little son at the time and very periodically when my husband needed help with his restaurant I would go to help him out. Since I had no immediate parents around to help take care of my son when I needed to help my husband I employed an elderly widowed woman, named Mildred, from our small community to help take care of him. It was around this time that I started having these different feelings. Feelings of vagueness, and not being able to pinpoint what it was exactly that I was feeling. I wasn’t depressed or anxious or anything. I wasn’t down or really unhappy. But I walked around quite a bit during this time having a feeling like I was missing something. It would come and then it would go. Gradually I started feeling little by little that there was something I was definitely missing. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I was puzzled. It wasn’t an awful feeling, it was more like drifting thoughts passing by me of missing something in my life.

The elderly woman, now named Grandma Mildred, came over again to babysit one day. I was still having this ongoing, unavoidable feeling off and on so I kind of hesitatingly mentioned to her how I’d been feeling. She didn’t say much about it but she listened. The next time she babysat she brought me a two-paperback book set of the old and new testaments written by Pearl S. Buck. She said, “Here, I brought you something I want you to have.” I gratefully accepted them. One evening alone in bed, I started to read them. I was excited. What a beautiful rendering of the story of creation and the world that God had made us! I read the many historical stories. Then I came upon the story of Nicodemus that is from the new  testament in John chapter 3. Nicodemus visits Jesus at night. He is a member of the opposition, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council. But he desires to go and speak to Jesus alone because he has some important questions he has been wondering about. He wants to see what Jesus would say to him. Starting in verse 2 and going through verse 8, ‘The same came to Jesus by night, and said to 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. 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.” ‘Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered,’ “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the 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. The 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.” I sat and thought. I was stunned. And then I knew what I had been missing… I had been searching for… wondering on… and looking for. It was Jesus that I had been missing and needed in my life and I knew it! All of a sudden I understood. Jesus helped me to see it was him whom I was truly missing. I realized what Jesus had done for me and I came to him trusting and believing in him and repented of all my sins gladly. Now I am born again too and have been many decades.

Jesus helped me realize what he had done for me and I believed it. Jesus’s words had told me that he is the only one that I need to go to for forgiveness of sins. And Jesus will do the same for you too. Just as he drew me, he draws you too. You are reading this, right?! Jesus was prophesied to come into this world, to be born of a virgin, Mary his mother. Read the account in the new testament. At the appointed time He died on the cross for our sins and rose again three days later. This is the gospel. He gives you (and all of us) this gift – for free. He died for our sins so we wouldn’t have to. And he mends the relationship between God and man so it can be restored with him. And this is done only through our Lord Jesus Christ. I’m still amazed by God’s great love, sending his son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins so I wouldn’t have to be separated in relationship from him anymore and this for all eternity too! A most wondrous and amazing gift for you to have. Jesus Christ did it all for all of us. This gift is the ‘new life’ and ‘living water’ for your soul. For he is the true bread of life. Come and find peace and rest. There is nothing you can do for it, because it isn’t by works or anything you do to become right with God and receive him. Because Jesus did it all for us! Come read and believe in him. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.’ Hebrews 11:6 states, ‘ But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.’ You can just come humbly as you are and talk to him. Tell him all of your sins. Hold nothing back. And no sin is too great to wipe clean. Just look at Paul in the new testament. Paul, before becoming a Christian after he met the living God, he was called Saul of Tarsus, who persecuted and killed innocent Christians, and also witnessed and had approved of Stephen’s stoning, a true believer and Christian, before God got to him. But yet God chose Paul to be a great man of God and to write many books of the new testament. Christ’s gift is free for all who will come, with true lowliness of mind, repentant, and sincere hearts. Don’t you want to have a new life in him today? John 14:6 says, ‘Jesus saith unto him,’ “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Don’t wait, he is the answer for our life.

Read the bible. Continue in his word so you can understand all the truth he wants you to know about. This will help you to learn so much more and to grow in him. We need to go by God’s words and not words from any man if they would differ. Acts 5:29 states, ‘Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.’ Read the story behind this verse to fully understand the story. But use a KJV bible which is a true biblical translation. (There are many translations that are not biblical these days, stay away from these!) In Hebrews 4:12 it says, ‘For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow; and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.’ Read the bible and you will see.

Whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, Jesus is coming back one day!