Daily Scripture:Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.’3 Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’ 4 ‘How can someone be born when they are old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!’ 5 Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’ (John 3:1-8)Daily ReflectionTo be born again, how can this possibly happen? Nicodemus was puzzled, and so are we. What does Jesus mean? To become part of the new way of being that Jesus came to initiate we must experience, not only a physical Baptism, as in being dunked in water, but also an inward transformation. ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases’, says Jesus. Have you ever witnessed a little whirlwind, how it suddenly lifts the leaves and scatters them, tumbles them about like by an invisible hand? People who are driven by God’s Spirit are like that, says Jesus. You can hear them coming, you can see the positive effect of their energy on everything around them, but you cannot capture what is happening, and you do not know where they will go next. That’s the sort of people we can become, with Jesus’ help.Revd Ylva
Daily Scripture:These things are written so that you may come to believe (John 20.31)Daily ReflectionSeeing is believing. Thomas needed tangible proof that Jesus really had risen from the dead. He could only believe it if he could see and touch the risen Lord. Such physical proof is not available for us, but we have the witness of those who were actually there, and the testimony of real people whose lives were radically and permanently changed by their encounter with the risen Christ.The experience of many Christians is that faith comes first: believing leads to seeing. When you live from day to day in the faith that there is a good and loving God, life changes. You become aware of a purpose in your life. Things make sense that previously didn’t before.As Jesus said, ‘Blessed are they who have not seen, but yet believe’. Revd Rosemary
Services this Sunday, 11th April8am Holy Communion at St George's, Benenden10am Holy Communion at St Nicholas
Daily Scripture…And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. (John 11 v 41)Daily Reflection Have you ever been so overcome with gratitude that you just want to shout it out to the world! I know I have on many occasions - especially when both of our sons were born - and when they both left home!! But we do not only have the opportunity to be grateful for the big things in life. There is the ordinary - the sunshine on our face, the cool wind in our hair, cold running water in our taps - all things that we experience every day that we undoubtedly take for granted. Being grateful and saying thank you for the small things helps us to be positive in what is still a very uncertain time - and a positive way to start, is to say thank you to God for giving us this day to enjoy. Lyn Hayes ALM
