Judges 17:1-18:31, John 3:1-21, Psalms 104:1-23, Proverbs 14:20-21
Today is the 3rd day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here, it’s great to be here with you, it’s great to be here with you together around the Global Campfire as we gather again for another day and another step forward in the Scriptures. And we have wound our way from the beginning of the year and the beginning of the Bible all the way into the book of Judges. And we read of the story of the judge named Samson yesterday. We’ll continue forward as we meet the other judges of Israel. And once again, not to be redundant, but judges covers the centuries between Joshua’s death, and the emergence of Kings in Israel. So, the judges were the leaders of Israel during or between…during…during that transitional period, those transitional centuries. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Judges, chapters 17 and 18.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we came to one of if not the most famous verse in the Bible. We can probably quote it together. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” We…we probably have heard this verse, at least, and probably a lot of us were able to quote it back as we just said it. It’s very famous all by itself, but as we’re kind of going through the Scriptures we can see that it’s not a chapter unto itself. It’s not a statement unto itself. It’s a part of a conversation. And Jesus said, John 3:16. And let’s remember, Jesus said John 3:16 as a part of a conversation that He was having with a religious leader who was named Nicodemus. And Nicodemus has instead snuck out at night to find Jesus and under the cover of the night he’s having this kind of secret meeting because he's…he's…he’s part of the religious leadership. And Jesus told Nicodemus that he wouldn’t see the kingdom of God unless he were born again. And Nicodemus is thinking that Jesus is literally saying like, you’re gonna be reborn, which is true, but in the way that Nicodemus was thinking of it, how can a person who is fully grown, and even old go back into their mother’s womb and be born again. And at its core this little conversation is the essence of the gospel. Jesus explained to Nicodemus that there is a physical birth and that is the birth that He called of water, and that there is a spiritual birth that He called of the spirit. The Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life inside of a person and that life is eternal and everlasting. And this is how Jesus explained being born again. And, so, this means that we are reborn, re-integrated with the Spirit of God with nothing standing between us and the Spirit of God within us, giving us new life, born again. When we truly believe in Jesus, the whole status, the whole trajectory of our lives changes. We are awakened to new life within us. And then Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” And as Jesus finishes explaining this to Nicodemus it leaves us with plenty to think about. Jesus is saying those who truly believe have no judgment against them but those who do not believe are already experiencing judgment. And that can be seen in this world. We just have to look around. The fact that people love the darkness more than the light is easy enough to see. And Jesus explains why. Because the light exposes what is in the darkness and tells the truth that people want to stay in the shadows where they can hide and be duplicitous and do all kinds of things that aren’t exposed. And, so, yes indeed, my friends, God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. But this rebirth is an invitation to be true, to step into the light. If we love the shadows and the darkness then we are not in the light, which leads us to consider as we should, what are we afraid of being exposed? What are we trying to hold in the shadows or in the darkness? That, if we can identify that, is what is pulling us into the darkness. When being reborn means we are being pulled into the light where there isn’t anything to hide, and there isn’t anything to lose because our eyes have been opened and we realize we have it all. We are children of the most-high God.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite You to shine the light of truth into our souls. We declare nothing off limits to You as if we could hide anything from You. We invite Your light to come into the darkness and expose what is lurking there and what is hiding there and what is manipulating us and pulling us into the darkness. May we see these things. May we see the root of these things. Lead and guide us that we might be true in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Coming soon…