Unlike some, I’m not all that interested in my genealogy. Sure, I really appreciate those in my family who are . . . glad to have some insight as to my roots . . . but for the most part, I’m pretty much occupied with the here and now . . . not all that concerned with happened back there and then. But as I read John 3 this morning, I realize that I need to be careful about losing sight of my spiritual heritage . . . that there’s a danger in distancing myself from where I came from as a child of God. It’s the danger of thinking that somehow I managed to figure out what others haven’t . . . the fallacy that who I am is because of what I’ve made myself . . . the deception that because I tried to pursue the Way, that God had to receive me. Nope! If I look at my spiritual roots, if I go back to the very beginning of where I came from, I’m reminded that who I am is related directly to the reality that I was born of the Spirit . . . that my spiritual roots are found in my Spirit heritage.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”   (John 3:3-6 ESV)

Born again . . . not really a phrase that’s in vogue . . . either in the world . . . or in the church, I fear. “I received Christ” . . . “I came to faith” . . . “I accepted the Lord, as my Savior” . . . all are probably more common ways we describe our salvation. We tend to recall what we did . . . and to be sure, we needed to believe in order to have eternal life . . . though, even the saving faith we exercised, was a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). But, if I consider my spiritual roots . . . if I go back to what started this pilgrim walk . . . it was the fact that I was born again . . . and that, was the work of the Spirit of God.

Any interest I have in the things of God . . . any desire I have to more deeply know my Creator . . . any sense I have of a better city to come . . . it’s all because of my heritage . . . that I was born of water and the Spirit. I was born again . . . made a new creation (2Cor. 5:17) . . . my spiritual DNA regenerated. Though I was dead in sin, I was made alive in Christ. Though I was at war with God, I was reconciled. Though I set myself as His enemy, He redeemed me to be a son. To pursue the kingdom is hard-wired in me through the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Spirit of God.

No boasting . . . no credit to be claimed. Instead, all of God’s over-flowing grace . . . all due to Christ’s all sufficient work on the cross . . . all through the Spirit’s active agency in the lives of men and women.

It’s kind of humbling . . . and, it’s kind of amazing!

And so, I sit back from the Scriptures I love . . . and thank the Spirit who wired me with a hunger and thirst for them. I pause from the pursuit . . . and I purpose to offer praise. I take a moment from the concerns of making sure I walk the worthy walk . . . and I bow my head, and lift my heart, to worship the one and only God worthy of worship. And I do it because it’s in my “bloodline” . . . I have been born of the Spirit.

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!    (2Corinthians 9:15 ESV)

Thanks be to God for my Spirit heritage.