Sun.’s Devo - You Must Be Born Again

Read: Judges 17:1-18:31; John 3:1-21; Psalm 104:1-23; Proverbs 14:20-21 How quickly the children of Israel turned to sin and carved idols. Micah lived in Ephraim with his mother. He confessed to her that he had stolen 1,100 silver coins from her. She was so happy to get the money back, she dedicated it to the Lord and sent her son with 200 pieces of silver to the silversmith to make them a carved image and a metal image. They built a shrine and made an ephod for their household gods. Micah ordered one of his sons to become their priest. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. There was no king in Israel which means that God was not their king. *** A young Levite came their way looking for a place to serve. Micah brought him into his home and treated him as a son. He let him become their priest. *** Meanwhile, the tribe of Dan had still not taken their land from the enemies. They were traveling to their inheritance to scout out the land. They came to Micah’s house and saw that he had a Levite priest. They coveted Micah’s gods, the ephod, and the Levite. *** The men of Dan found a secluded town of the Sidonians that was wealthy and had no dealings with anyone else. They brought back the report to the rest of their tribe and 600 of them went to take the city. *** They stopped by Micah’s house and stole all his gods and his ephod. They asked the Levite to come and be a priest over their tribe and he agreed. *** Micah chased them and protested what they had done, but it was their 600 warriors, against him and his household, so he had to let them go. *** They attacked the city of Laish by surprise and killed all its inhabitants, then they burned the city with fire. They rebuilt the city and lived in it and named it Dan. They set up the carved images. The young priest, whose name was Jonathan, was their priest until the land went into captivity. Jonathan was the son of Gershom, Moses’ son. *** In John, there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus. He came to see Jesus at night and told him that he knew he was a teacher from God because no one could do the things he was doing unless God was with him. Jesus told Nicodemus that unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was only seeing the things Jesus was doing, he was not seeing Jesus as the Messiah. Nicodemus, who was a teacher of the law could not understand that Jesus was telling him that his spirit must be born again. *** Jesus told him that God sent him to the world because God loves the world and wants everyone to be saved, not condemned. But, the light that has now come to the earth would condemn those who loved darkness. This light would expose what they did in darkness. But, those who walk in the light will be drawn to the light and understand that Jesus came from God. *** Lord, may you expose the evil in the world and the sin that is in us. May we learn truth so we can be totally set free to manifest your goodness in the earth.