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Crazy Good God

Crazy Good God, do you know Him? He's somethin' else! And He thinks you are AWESOME! My fifteen minute Episodes eventually became five minute Quick Deep Points. The QDPs will make you ponder! Episodes launch every Wednesday morning 5am. Since a child I was told about Jesus. Over the years there have been difficulties and losses that have heightened understanding of who He is. I was involved in numerous ministries and church leadership for several decades. There were many opportunities to see God at work. But, it wasn’t until 2012 that the Lord took me on a journey to discover the mystery of the Gospel, the wonder of Jesus’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension. All of it involves us! For over ten years (hey, I’m a slow learner!) He exposed and dismantled religious mindsets that blocked my understanding of who He really is. Crazy good! Join me on a wondrous adventure to encounter and grasp Jesus's finished work. Religious Christianity tells us there are things we have to do or say to get saved. But, Jesus said, "It is finished." What does that mean? Sounds like Jesus did it all. God just wants us to enjoy His life. He freely gives it to all. All we do is RECEIVE! This crazy good God is head over heels in love with you and all mankind. He made us in His image and likeness so He doesn't make junk! God sees the hidden treasure in everyone. The fall of man brought darkened understanding, deception, and ignorance. The first lie was Adam and Eve thought God was holding out on them and really didn't care about them. What a big fat lie! Man still believes God is distant, aloof, angry, disappointed and we must do something to get back to God. But, Jesus said, "It is finished." Now, why do we think we have to do something? Get ready to be wowed! Find out jaw-dropping truths that will expose many lies you've believed about God. If you’ve tried to serve Him and still feel guilty, must do more, just plain worn out, then listen in. The truth is renewing and the Truth is FOR YOU! If you don't know God, never heard of Jesus, or could care less about God, then check out Crazy Good God podcast. You will be surprised and discover God is actually fun! I will even share some fascinating visions and dreams God has given me. They mean even more in light of Jesus' finished work. How cool is that?! QUESTIONS COMMENTS - I'd love to hear from you! CONTACT ME nancy@crazygoodgod.org (Music by joystock.org)

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Why Nicodemus wanted to see Jesus by night Why dark useful to Light

April 06, 2022 • Nancy Teague • Episode 9

0:00 | 15:07

#09 Why would Nicodemus want to see Jesus by night? How does that relate to who we are? Would you come to Jesus by night? It really can be an amazing encounter in the dark! Jesus used that darkness to share a profound truth to Nicodemus - which actually affects all mankind. It is crazy good!

Transcript Episode 9 Who is Nicodemus

Nancy Teague
www.crazygoodgod.org

0:00:16.6 S2: Welcome to Crazy Good God, I'm Nancy Teague and thanks for listening in. To know more about me, the crazy good God podcast, and all the podcast platforms you can find me on, go to www.crazygoodgod.org In the previous podcast #8, we dug into the profound effects of Jesus becoming flesh. It is more than Jesus becoming a human being. He went to the depths of all of humanities confusion, delusions, pains, perversion, rejections, losses, ignorance, works, darkest places. Because of Jesus going there in all those hurtful places, Jesus had total identification with us, and that is why He understands us, has compassion on us, and does not condemn us. Seriously, why would God judge and condemn anyone if Jesus, His beloved son, became flesh just like us. Without doing so, there was no way He could save the world. If we grasp the magnitude of Jesus becoming flesh, we will see His finished work, His wonderful finished work unravel all the distance and separation teachings, and all the requirements that religion has put in place in order for us to get saved. It's amazing! Before we jump into just what was the profound truth that Jesus was wanting Nicodemus to get,

0:02:15.0 S2: let's look at who Nic is and see if we can relate. We just might find commonality. Now, this will be involved in John chapter 3. We know from scripture that Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. Being a Pharisee, he was upright because he followed the law and did all the rituals. He was learned. rich, smart. Nicodemus loved God in His own sincere way, as best he knew back then. Well, let's look at the inner Nicodemus. And this might explain why he came to Jesus by night: he feared people's opinions, a tendency to be a man-pleaser, wanted to be accepted by his peers, didn't want to be excluded. Now, a good part of Nicodemus, he was curious, observant, inquisitive. On the other hand, Nic was caught up in tradition, he had a mindset in his tradition, and his tradition was right! Nic’s world was small and narrow. Everything was based on the law and rituals. He didn't realize how confining and tiring it all was. He just went through the motions - because that's what he was taught. Now, please know that God does not fault us for those kind of things. He understands that for us to look beyond what's familiar is scary, confusing, challenging.

0:04:03.6 S2: We have to get out of the box! That is unsettling to say the least. Anybody relate? Perhaps in all, or some part of Nicodemus. Well, good, welcome to humanity! We all have insecurities and shortcomings, but we also have, deep inside, a God-given hunger to know Him and to know Him in truth – which is connected to who we really are. So being a Nicodemus, so to speak, that's a good thing, it's a normal thing, it's all relative to each person's sphere of being and their time on this earth. So their paths cross - Nicodemus notices Jesus, he was watching, he observed Jesus, he was intrigued by Jesus. In fact, intrigued enough to be willing to risk talking to Jesus, even though it would go against his tradition. To risk for Nicodemus meant doing it by night. And that's all good. Now, in today's verbiage, we could say, or at least it occurred to me, that John came up with a tag line for Nicodemus. In fact, John uses this tagline for Nicodemus three times when he speaks of Nicodemus’ actions. Now, let me ask you, would you like to be known by this tag line, “the one who came to Jesus by night” - that's the phrase, the tag line, John used three times when he spoke about NIcodemus.

0:05:58.9 S2: Ask yourselves - is this a negative? I realized John's description is actually a Badge of Honor! Consider this - creation itself began in the dark, there was no light, the spirit was brooding over the darkness of the deep. Then, ‘let there be light’! So, the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1, verse 5. So here we go, first evening,/darkness, then morning/light. You know, sometimes I think we freak out about the DARK! Evening, also known as darkness, was the beginning of all things. But you know what that meant?

0:06:51.8 S1: Morning, also known as light, was coming! And don't forget John's word in John 1:5, “The light shines in the darkness.” There's another scripture in Psalm 139:12 – “the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to God.” What an incredible, beautiful, wondrous mystery. So here's Nicodemus, he came in the dark and had audience with the light, Nic had no idea he was going to have a conversation in the dark/in the night with the Light of the World! Just think about that. Now, that's a Biblical pattern, it just occurred to me as I'm doing this episode, of a dream I had in 2005, when I heard the Lord say in the dream, “Look for biblical patterns to get to God's house”. There's this biblical pattern of dark and light, Jesus shining in the dark. So there's something very profound and powerful and a place of incredible confidence to grab hold of this revelation. Now, it didn't bother Jesus one bit that Nicodemus was sneaking around in the dark, wanting to have audience with Jesus. We might judge Nicodemus for that. I think in years past, decades ago, I probably looked down on Nicodemus when I read about him, it's like, Well, who are you afraid of...

0:08:28.8 S1: Ha, not realizing, as I would point the finger, I got three pointing back at me! So here we go - light spoke into Nic’s darkness, and Jesus told Nic a profound truth IN the darkness. Get that. A profound truth IN the darkness.

0:08:50.5 S2: Yet the darkness in Nic, or we could say, Nic in the dark, did not understand. He did not comprehend, and that darkness could not overcome what Jesus was trying to tell him. And at that time, when Jesus was speaking this profound truth, it was just too big for Nic’s small world and being bound by the law. We should all be reassured by this, not disheartened. It's like there's hope for all of us. In spite of Nicodemus’ initial incredulity at what Jesus was saying, Nic actually grew in his value of and love for Jesus. Let me give you two examples. He stood up for Jesus when the Pharisees wanted to take down Jesus. In John 7, verses 50-51, it says Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, said, “Does our law judge a man before hears him and knows what he is doing?”. Now, of course, the Pharisees, they ripped into Nicodemus and put him down. Well, so much for Nicodemus fearing man, right?. I mean, what was happening to Nicodemus to stand up for Jesus like that - against all his peers! In John 19:39-40, the one who came to Jesus by the night/in the dark, was the one who brought 100 pounds of expensive myrrh and aloe with which to embalm the dead body of His precious Jesus.

0:10:34.4 S2: Think about that. No fear of man here, and this was done in the light. Knowing Nic helps us relate to Him better and not be judgmental. We will be more ready to grasp Jesus’s born again statement to Nicodemus. But it is important to know Nic first. And you know what? For me, pondering Nicodemus, I began to appreciate him at a whole ‘nother level! It's like, “What a guy!” Before we finish, let's look briefly at born and born again. To be born, we were delivered out of our mother's womb, we are a baby, we come out of our hidden-in-the womb in-the-dark life into being visible. We're now in the light. It's our first experience, having life in this world - it includes breathing, feeling, eventually thinking and reasoning, creative expressions, interacting, having relationships, remembering things. Being born again, a common term used by Christians, particularly evangelical fundamental Christians - it equals getting saved. Do you know that the born again phrase became very popular during Jimmy Carter's presidency? He was 39th President of The United States, 1977 to 1981. President Carter used the born again phrase for himself, he spoke of his faith, of a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. Somehow it caught hold with many Christians and it became the way to say, “I am saved.”, “I am born again.”

0:12:27.5 S2: It also became the phrase to even ask someone, “Are you born again?” People who use this phrase, ‘I'm born again’, that also includes... ‘I'm going to heaven’! Now, the opposite, if you're not born again, then you go to hell! Is that true!? Now, that will be a whole another episode. So traditional teaching on how you get born again includes a person confesses, they are a sinner, they believe Jesus died for their sin, they need a Savior, they ask God for forgiveness, they asked Jesus into their heart, and they become a believer, a Christian. They become born again. For many, when that happened, they had a real sense of His presence, light filled them, peace, settled in some even physically felt some freshness or renewal on the inside, something changed in them, and they even changed their ways and some of their life choices. And then, as time wore on for some, His presence, the joy, the freshness, the aliveness wore off. Life happened disappointments, hardships, lost, striving, failure, guilt, etc. etc. All understandable. And that lively presence, relationship waned. But, if we know the real meaning, what Jesus was saying about being born again, it would change the way you see God's proximity, your inclusion and God's mindfulness of you, and everyone else, before time even began.

0:14:11.9 S2: That's a paradigm shift! So stay tuned for the next episode, number 10, where we're going to discover what Jesus meant when he said, “You MUST BE born again.” It launches next Wednesday, like all my podcasts. And you'll understand why Nicodemus got so shook when he said to Jesus, “How can this be!!” You just might be like Nicodemus. I am so pumped to share with you what Jesus really said. Until then - Bliss to you, and never forget, God is absolutely crazy about you!