HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME SEVENTY-EIGHT TIMES ON FEBRUARY 16TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🧁

  

 "When granted many years of life, growing old in age is natural, but growing old with grace is a choice." Billy Graham

 

PSALMS 92:12-15 

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God.

 

They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing,

To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

 

I was born again 70 years ago. Eight years after my mother gave me birth, Father God gave me His Holy Spirit because His Son, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin to die for my sins and give me a clean heart so that I could be born of His Spirit. Born Again!

 

The New Birth  (John 3:1-17)

 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  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.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

 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?”

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, 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.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?  Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

So, as Billy Graham said, we can grow old with grace by choice. We can choose to accept God's amazing grace when we choose to ask Jesus to forgive our sins and come live in our hearts.  Then we have power to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We are a new creation in Him. However, we must yield to Him each day to experience His marvelous grace. We must acknowledge our new birth in Jesus which makes it possible to live forever with Him one day, and be eternally young.