Dear Friends,
Have you ever made a mess in your life, a mess so bad that you said to
yourself, “If only I could begin all over again”? If you have felt, or
are feeling, that way, today’s attached devotional will be a real help!
God bless you.

Because of Calvary,
John Janney

• John 3:1-8 (ESV)

  3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

THE LAND OF BEGINNING AGAIN

“I have found in the Book, that wonderful place,

Called the Land of Beginning Again,

Where the sins of the past are remembered no more

And the years, locust-eaten, the Lord doth restore.

All our filthy rags changed for a garment of grace,

And the soul is begotten again!

With a love shed abroad in our heart by the Spirit,

It is east to love one another;

That love thinketh no evil, it envieth not,

Is so humble-unselfish, with kindness so fraught.

That transformed by that love, as in Heaven above,

We shall love one another forever.

Oh, I wish, yes, I’ve found, that wonderful place

Called the Land of Beginning again.”

[Louisa Fletcher, “The Land of Beginning Again,” Best Loved Poems, edited by Hazel Felleman, (Garden City, NY: Garden City Books, 1936), p. 101-102]