November 21, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Jesus answered, ‘Sincerely I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.’”

(John 3.5-6)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I was asked the other day if I knew the difference between “real” and “authentic.” It piqued my interest because I have used the term “authentic” in my own thinking and scriptural reflections to speak of what is “of God” over against what is “of the world.” I do not presume to have final answers to the question but my own contemplative ideas as they help me grasp the reality and truth of God. I know what I think just as much as the next person knows what they think. Our thoughts may mess in places and we receive affirmation because of it. In other places there may be some serious conflict of ideas and interests. I do not fear the conflict. As human beings we are always in conflict with one thing or another. Hopefully, and prayerfully, it is a positive conflict from which we benefit such as walking, breathing, making good decisions for ourselves and others. Sadly, as you know yourself, not all conflict is positive. It can be destructive and fatally so. Does it have to happen?

That is a question of being “real.” For me, “real” is what we experience in the moment. It is real. It is tangible. It is visible. Our senses experience it with a sense of the past we have lived through and the future that past has invited us to consider. We may have denied both the past and the future, but in the moment, in the today in which we live, what is around us and in us is “real.” We don’t have to like it. We may not have sought it ought. It may have found us as if it were the hunter and we are the prey. It may have stumbled across us because in our own pursuits of a truth we crossed paths without being intentional toward each other. The fact that we are there in that moment is real. It may seem surreal and terribly coincidental. Regardless, it is real. No amount of denial will change the fact of that moment of reality. We may argue about the intentionality that lead us to the crossroads, but the crossroads exist, the intersection is undeniable and the challenge it presents is immutable. What happens next, in my thinking, reflects “authenticity.”

That is why I speak of the nature and character of God and the life of righteousness He has created as “authentic.” For my friend who asked the question of me, I could simply answer “Authentic is the truth of that moment offered with the full knowledge (as full as we may have at that moment) of both the risk and reward of telling the truth.” You probably can see, if you have read the reflections preceding this one, how that “inner” and “outer” perspective now comes into focus. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in the shadows of both time and place and said “You must be born again,” He was speaking of authenticity and not merely reality. He was asking Nicodemus to reveal his true intentions in that moment. It wasn’t a matter of where he had been but where was he going. Jesus changes our reality just like He changed Nicodemus’s, just like He changed the reality of everyone He met. He also changed the reality of those He had not met. How? Because Jesus was authentically true to Himself and to God. His inner nature was divine and immutable. His outer nature was twofold. His physical appearance was told to us to not be anything outstanding. He was ordinary. He was not Adonis. He was no champion of war. He was no marketing model whose look like Helen of Troy, “had a face that could launch a thousand ships.” It wasn’t His appearance that defined who Jesus really was except that His body was a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. His eyes revealed the inner nature of being God. His words spoke truth in ways that no one had ever considered. His actions bore witness to His heart, mind, soul and strength being fully committed to loving and serving God above all else. People may not have been able to describe fully what they experienced in Him or because of Him, but they knew He was no ordinary human being. They all knew it. Even the demons knew it. Why? Because Jesus was authentic. He was real in every moment and consistently so. So consistent was His authenticity that it conflicted with those who dared to shape their reality by controlling the narrative of others. They were not so invisible as they thought. The people saw it. Some tried to do something about the lies. Most feared the reality of doing so and opted to just go along. It was easier to suffer and live than to suffer and die. Jesus was different than everyone else.

How? Because of Jesus’ authenticity, He knew that it was easier to live and suffer than to die and suffer forever. No one knew it better than Jesus except for God. God’s authenticity had already explored every option of “saving lives.” He knew that in order to save lives, something had to die. God, who is the God of choices, made a choice for Himself for our sake. Nothing less would ever suffice. In order for humanity to lie, they had to be born again. The only way humanity can be born again is first to be born. The reality of the birth is symbolized by water. I believe we all understand the “reality” of that. Water makes up nearly 75% of our bodies at birth. We are sustained in the womb in protective sac of “water.” We are born into the world when that “water” breaks. We become immersed in it. It is our world. But it is not our authentic self. It is our reality. Our authentic self is what is happening within our heart, mind and soul. All of that appears to come alive in that moment of “quickening” when the reality is that we can exist apart from that “water” in which we are born. It is that “spark” of life which then determines who we are and who we are about to become. The reality of that “new” life is represented by “fire,” another name for the Holy Spirit. It is the inwardness of who we are that then exposes our authentic identity. The hardest thing is to believe in it and let it live. Thank God, He provides all that is needed for accomplishing that life, What births that? Faith! As Paul said, “Faith is the substance of the things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” For those who walk by faith, that which seemingly is unseen becomes very visible and very real. That “unseen” is Jesus Christ. He is real and authentic. He wants us to be like Him in spirit and in truth. Thank God, because of Him we can be.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.