Today, we often don't even look at it like we are stuck. We feel we have the solutions to most everything. And if something gets in our way, or tries to prevent us from going where we want to go ...we can always get a stick of dynamite and blast our way through.

And if blasting our way out is not the wisest course of action, we often get our friends to help with trying something else.

Or we just try to accept reality and deal with it the best we can. Both ways of coping are commendable in their own right.  Yet, though lessons learned from the Hundred Acre Wood may help us in real life ...we do have to return to real life.

In real life, some people like go for all they can get.  You've likely heard the saying, "Shoot for the moon; don't spend all your time gazing at the stars."  But, the most we can get is not always what we think it is.  Sometimes looking up is also more than what it seems.

The wise men at the time prior to the birth of Jesus were not just excitedly following new things in the sky. They had actually read sacred writings, and were searching concisely for evidence of what they read.  They did not just plan a fun vacation ...they abandoned the comfort of their own lives, because they felt God was fulfilling some significant prophecy.  These Magi believed enough to commit to seeking what others had near forgotten, amid dwindling hopes. They believed it was not an empty promise, and that the One they had read about had not abandoned His people.

Again, there are signs in the sky.  I don't claim to know much about what they mean, but I try to look at sacred writings myself ---the Bible.  Others who study more, and feel God has given them more insight ...have given their opinions on what it may mean.  But, most of us don't know ...we only know that the further we get, the nearer we are.  And all times are important for teaching about the second birth ...not just 'end times'.

There is much talk among believers ...communicated in ways that others may not understand.  I understand some, and let me just say that terms like born again, or second birth are described by Jesus in the sacred writings ...the Gospel according to John, the third chapter.

Nicodemus asked, "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 said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

To simplify more, Jesus said, "Marvel not that I said to you, You must be born again."

And Jesus linked the old sacred writings to the life He was living on earth, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."

I kind of wondered why a serpent was used as a symbol ...and I don't know much, but I know any snake on a stick is dead.  And we must believe we can be victorious over the enemy to be able to live our own life clothed in victory.  

Yet, Jesus also had to die on a stick to fulfill the promise that the victory would certainly be in any fashion ...not temporary.

Jesus continued to say, "That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.  He that believes on Him is not condemned; but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God."

Jesus even sent His disciples out to reach those who also were to know the truth that even the dictatorship of the Roman rule could not hide.  The letter to the Romans: "For the death that He died, He died to sin ...once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.…"

To be alive in Jesus is to be born again ...a second birth.

What is that I said about not being able to hide?