Think you're a "spiritual" thinker? Think again!

So you pride yourself on your "spiritual" perspective of life. Think your thoughts are such that you feel you're ascending from the "bottom" of the "sea" of life on this planet with your vision of the future coming into view like the light of the sun shining on the surface of the waters that are still a great distance above? My advice? Keep flapping your arms and paddling your feet, tadpole. You've got a  LONG WAY TO GO before you even SEE the kingdom of God.  And if you just had the thought, "What's the 'kingdom of God' have to do with being spiritual?" then we really DO have some work to do.  One of the self-designated religious rulers of the Jews back in Jesus' day by the name of  Nicodemus decided to pay him a visit one night just to try and clear up who he really was.  Jesus told him that except a man was born again that he couldn't even SEE the kingdom of God. So much for Nick's idea that he was a RULER.  How could he be a ruler of God's kingdom if he couldn't even envision it, or "see" it?  So he replies to Jesus, "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?"  To this Jesus replied, "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."  So without clearing up Nick's first question about a "new birth" that would enable a man to SEE the kingdom of God, now Jesus adds another level of difficulty to the topic at hand by stating that the same man would not only have to be "BORN AGAIN" in order to SEE the kingdom but that he would have to be "born of water" and "born of spirit" before he could ENTER that kingdom!  What the heck...???  Is Jesus saying that he had to go through THREE different births?  We-e-e-e-elllll, maybe not.  What if by the first statement that Jesus made to Nick, the one where he says the man had to be "born again," that he was simply referring to the first phase of a "new" birth.  Since Jesus is using a simile here, sort of a symbol to illustrate his point about a higher level of life, he could just be saying that the CONCEPTION of this new person has to come first before the nine month gestation period that all "NATURAL" babies go through.  So if that is the case, we now just have to figure out what Jesus meant by being "spiritually conceived." Well, the apostle Peter helps us out in his letter to the believers when he says, "1Pe 1:23  "You have been born again. This new life did not come from something that dies. It came from something that cannot die. You were born again through God's life-giving message that lasts forever."   So it's just a matter of a person hearing the TRUE, "life-giving message" of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the things concerning the name of Jesus Christ.  Once heard, if we believe it then the "incorruptible seed" is implanted into our minds and hearts.  The next phase is obedience in being baptised, (water-birth) and then trying to live an obedient life to Christ's commandments.  If we fail, which we will due to our fleshly nature, we have an advocate with the Father who will plead our cause to Him and we are granted forgiveness if we are truly repentant for those sins.  If we endure to the end then we will be granted a "spirit-birth".  Namely crowned with the power of incorruptible nature.  Born of the Spirit and we'll bear the nature of the angels of heaven.  Which I think is pretty cool.