A Walk Through The Word

Hosea 10:1-14:9, Jude 1:1-25, Psalm 127:1-5, Proverbs 29:15-17

Today is the 8th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we take our steps through the final, the 12th month of the year, and wind our way into Christmas, and wind our way all the way through that, all the way to the end of the Bible. And then we’ll start over again. But we’re not there, we’re here, and here is where we belong right now. We’ve been reading from the book of Hosea in the Old Testament; we will complete the book of Hosea today. Then in the New Testament, we’ve been kind of racing through some short letters, First, Second and Third John. We arrive at another short letter named June, and we’ll read all of that today. So, we’re moving along, we’ll talk about Jude, when we get there. But first, Hosea chapters 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 today.

Introduction to the Book of Jude:

Okay, so like we said at the beginning, that concludes Hosea, and that brings us to the New Testament portion of our reading today. And that brings us to the letter or the epistle of Jude, and we’ll read the entire epistle, it’s 25 verses long. And as we read it, it may have familiar themes, maybe even familiar language. Many biblical scholars accept the idea that Second Peter imitates Jude’s letter. And if that’s true, then Jude’s letter predates Second Peter and that would, that would date it into the mid-60s AD. If that’s not the case, then the letter could have been written as late as the end of Jude’s life, probably around A.D. A.D. But that might be just trivia that like, like maybe there are more important questions, like who is Jude. Who is Jude? And that has been a vigorous debate throughout church history as well, and it continues to be examined among the scholars to this day. If we’re moving in the direction of like consensus, the majority of traditional scholars would agree that Jude, who wrote this letter was the brother of James and the brother of Jesus. And even though he’s a brother or half-brother, he was not an apostle. He did not believe in Jesus during his ministry. It’s not really clear who this letter is to; it’s addressed to all who have been called by God the Father, who loves you and keeps you safe in the care of Jesus Christ. So, we could say that includes us and probably should say that includes us. We should probably say this is a letter that was intended for us to read and understand and apply to our lives, because it’s still important to us. Jude tells us in this letter that he was planning on writing a totally different kind of letter, but that he needed to step into some, some issues. And the issues were false teaching about the grace of God. This is all still with us today. This was addressed many times in the letters throughout the New Testament. Basically, what was going on is that the teaching of…of unmerited favor, of grace, the grace of God, the mercy of God upon us, is a free gift bestowed upon us when we believe. There is no way to earn God’s favor, it is a gift that is given to us. And that’s a core understanding in the Christian faith, and were taught that in the Scriptures. It’s grace. Some people began to twist that around. Some people continue to twist that around, basically saying grace covers everything that I do, so I can do whatever I want and I can do it with whoever I want. I can do what I please because all I have to do is ask forgiveness, the mercy of God will not hold this sin against me and I can’t earn God’s grace anyway, so what’s the point. I believe grace has covered me and now I will move on doing as I please, being my own God and ruling how I choose. Jude says that’s not going to go anywhere. That will not end anywhere good. And so, we should listen to it because it’s not as if we’re not trying to justify our actions all the time. And Jude is warning us against that path. And he instructs the believers to remember that these kinds of twists…twisting’s of the teachings, they were predicted, that they knew this would happen. They knew this would come, they need to bind together and build each other up to the power of the Holy Spirit and take care of each other. Which is what we’ve been learning all year through the Scriptures. It matters that we take care of each other. So we’ll read this 25 verse letter and this is our last stop before we reach the final book in the New Testament, and that book is the book of Revelation, which we’ll take us into completely different territory than we’ve been in, in the New Testament. So, let’s pay very close attention to the words of this last letter in the New Testament.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another day. We thank You for every day. We thank You that this this goes on every day, no matter what part of the year we’re in, no matter what day it is, no matter what month it is. This is the rhythm of our lives, to place Your word in our hearts and allow Your word to speak for itself inside of us, transforming us, growing us, and pulling us free from the bondage we…we get ourselves into. So, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for the letter to Jude today. All of the reminders that Your grace is not cheap. It came at a cost and when we use it cheaply, we’re missing the point, and we are not loving You. May we love You with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and may we love our neighbor as ourselves. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that’s the website. That’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Couple things; it’s Christmas time around here, so it’s all things Christmas. We have a couple of things that we do around here at Christmas time. One is our Annual Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas Party. And you can participate in that by calling in your Christmas greeting to the family here that you’ve been journeying with all year long and let your voice be heard, as we collect our season’s greetings from everyone. You can hit the Hotline button in the app to do that, or you can dial 877-942-4253 to do that. And obviously, those are familiar ways to reach out. That’s the prayer and encouragement line. It’s just for, for now, through the weekend, it’s also the holiday greeting line. And so, don’t delay, we’ll stop doing that after this weekend and we’ll start assembling that. So, this is getting to be last call. So, make sure you participate. The only rule is, if you’re calling in a holiday greeting but you also have a prayer request or encouragement, just make those separate. Don’t combine like a prayer request and a holiday greeting in the same call. We’ll get to confused, it’s too confusing for us. We can’t, we can’t stitch it together. So, make those separate. T

The other thing that is going on is an initiative where we have created a beautiful vinyl packages of the music of the Daily Audio Bible. For example, Songs for Sleep. The Promised Land soundtrack, the Heart album and the two holiday titles that we have: Family Christmas and Christmas Time. And they’re beautifully packaged, pressed on colored vinyl, like they’re collectible things. And all of the resources from this, this year is going into…into the Global Campfire and into the development of our home space on the Internet and the application that delivers the content. Just all of the apparatus for all of it, we’ll be moving into that in the new year. And so, we’re just asking for your partnership as we move in that direction. You can find these at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop, just look for the Christmas Section and you’ll find it there. And thank you profoundly for your partnership.

And if you just want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as…as the year winds down, thank you, thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your partnership. We aren’t a Global Campfire if we’re not here together. There’s no point in being here, if we’re not here together. But we are and so there’s lots of reasons for us to tune in each day, take the next step forward. So, thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

This is Salt and Light with an update on my friend, who’s daughter fell over after she got out of the shower. They tried to resuscitate her, took her to the hospital, put her on life support. She did not make it. If you could pray for that family. She died from anemia and pneumonia. The previous week, her parents and friends, said to her, you need to get to the hospital. She said she would take it under consideration. But if she died, she knew where she was going. Sadly, that prediction came true. Oh my goodness. Thank you for your prayers. I love you all so much and I pray along with you every morning.

Good morning, Daily Audio Bible friends. I’m a long time listener but I’ve only called in a couple times. When I did, I remember we were going through something very difficult. And my husband said, we need ten thousand prayer warriors. And I knew just where to go. And of course, God heard through your wonderful prayers and answered. I’m reaching out now for another prayer request. We had our house damaged in Hurricane Ian, which was over a year ago. And it’s not livable. We just moved into our 7th rental, here in SW Florida. And we are battling with our insurance company. We do have a public adjuster and they are going before us but it has been very scary, as we have not received one penny for our out of pocket expenses for rental, for repairs for our home, our personal property. And so, I am asking for prayer from all of you, beautiful friends. Would you just pray for favor that we would get an answer soon. And that this company would give us the fair amount to begin repairs on our home. I thank you so much. I believe in the power of prayer and the verse, out of Him to exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, to all generations forever and ever. That verse keeps coming back to me and I’m claiming that my God will do exceedingly, abundantly. I pray for you all. I’m going by Ever Green in SW Florida. I love you and I so appreciate your prayers.

Hi, DAB family, this is Rick from Lakeland, Florida. First time calling in, long time listener. First, thanks to everybody for their prayers. Now allow me the privilege to pray for them. I do have a couple of prayer requests, one for my Aunt Diane, who has been in the hospital on deaths door for several weeks now. It seems that, praise, she is moving in the right direction, but she’s still got a long ways to go. And the second one request I have, is for my son Josh. He’s an active duty Air Force member who had eye surgery this past week. And is in terrible pain post surgically. So just, if you get a moment, just pray for him. I know that, as he is separated from his wife and his children, that this makes that so, so much hard. And just be with my wife as she is there comforting him at Eastler Air Force Base in Mississippi and missing his own family. And of course, I’m missing my sweet wife Shari. As his family is at Tindle Air Force Base in North Florida, near Panama City. And we’re down here in Central Florida. So, and lastly pray for my sweet daughter Meg. Just that, we know that she struggles over relationships and growing, just want her heart to be 100% there for, in her life. For her to meet a Godly man, and know that she needs and wants. Alright DAB family, thanks again for listening. Have a fantastic, blessed day. Talk to you all later. Bye.

Hi everyone, my name is Daniel. I’m calling in for prayer for my mother Amy. She will be having eye surgery on December 11th in the afternoon. Recently, her, she’s noticed a difference in her vision. And after a doctors appointment, they told her she would need surgery. The recovery time is a little unclear to her. And she is worrying about what that’s gonna look like, what that means for her recovery for the holiday season. And just for her comfort in this…in this time. So, I’m asking for prayer for…for peace for her. And for a speedy and full recovery for her vision. So, thank you for all your prayers and the blessing that is the community.  

Hosea 4:1-5:15, 2 John 1:1-13, Psalm 125:1-5, Proverbs 29:9-11

Today is the 6th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today as we continue the journey, the journey we’ve been on all year. And we have a bit of well, I don’t know, what do we have, a bit of ocean, a bit of road, a bit of terrain yet in front of us. We have begun the book of Hosea yesterday; we will continue our journey through Hosea today. When we get to the New Testament, we will, well, we’ll read a whole book. But we’ll talk about that in a minute. First, Hosea chapters 4 and 5 today.

Introduction to the Book of Second John:

Okay, so like we said, we finished First John yesterday, we’re gonna read an entire book today, an entire letter. It’s called Second John. And this one was probably written pretty close after the first one. It was probably written to the same people because it’s very similar, and it’s the similarities that allow textual scholars and biblical scholars to accept John as the authentic author. And since the tradition is that John spent the later years of his life doing ministry in Ephesus, then that would be likely where Second John has its origination, probably written in Ephesus. It’s short; we’re gonna read it all, 13 verses. The first three verses will give us greetings, the next three remind us how important it is to love one another. Then three more verses speak against false teachings, specifically Docetism, which is what we were…were discussing in First John. Then a couple of verses give instructions that are different than any of the other letters, these verses advise the readers how they should behave toward a traveling minister who comes into the church and attempts to introduce one of the false teachings, and the instructions are to not bring encouragement or hospitality to that person. And then the letter concludes with its final two verses. And so, we’ll read it real quick. We’ve talked about it more than it will take to read it. And it will be easy to just let it kind of blur because it’s so much of the same territory between First and Second John. But let’s just remember, let’s just imagine. First John arrived, the people read it, they began to live into it, they began to find encouragement in it and then they began to find challenge and discouragement in it. And then this second letter arrives, maybe a couple months later, and brings that boost, brings a clear reminder of where they’re supposed to be aimed, and gives them encouragement in their hearts to love one another. And that would be the posture we take now, as we read Second John.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And even as, even as the year speeds up for us in this holiday season. The end of the year speeds up for us as we move through so much territory in the Scriptures. So, we invite You, Holy Spirit, as we walk with You, that You will lead us into all truth and show us what we need to see and hear, what we need to know, how we need to be. Show us what we need to have in our lives as we continue this journey forward, now through Second John, tomorrow into Third John, as we continue through the minor prophets. Speak to us, Father. We are listening and we need You, and we worship You and we love You, and we pray this in the name of Jesus, who has rescued us from the darkness and made us children of the light. Come Jesus, illuminate our path that we may walk in the light, as You are in the light. We pray this in Your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, it’s the websites, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Christmas time is going on around here and so, it’s time to call in your Christmas greetings for the Annual Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas Party. The way that you do that is that you either use the Hotline button in the app or call 877-942-4253. And those are recognizable ways to reach out because that…that’s the prayer and encouragement line. But right now, it’s also the prayer of encouragement and holiday greeting line. So, call in your holiday greetings now. We will, we will go for a couple more days and then we’re gonna kinda lock that down and begin assembling the party together. And so, don’t delay.

Also, for Christmas this year, it’s a little different than any other year. We haven’t got a Christmas box this year. We have pressed all of the music from the Daily Audio Bible onto different vinyl packages, a beautiful commemorative of what we do here each day and kind of what’s underneath all that we do. Some of the music from the season and seasons of the Daily Audio Bible’s existence. So, all of those are available. We will send the Christmas ornament that we have each year, out with any of those orders. And all of this, all of this initiative, all of this effort, all of the resources that come in will be invested into what is coming next for us in the new year. And it’s a complete new infrastructure for the Daily Audio Bible, with the complete new app. And so, we have worked very hard and tirelessly for years, and that should…should finally lead our community forward and be the home of the Global Campfire sometime next year. And so, this year we’re just inviting participation. And you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. Just look for the Shop and look for the Christmas Category and you will find everything there, so check that out. Thank you.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, as we wind down another year, thank you again, humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s little red button up at the top, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you very much and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good morning DAB family, it is December 1st, and I just heard the most precious little girl, asking for prayers for her grandma, Almanita. Child, I heard your prayer request, and I am praying for your little Almanita. And yes, we all have grandparents. Some of them are with us and some of them have passed. But grandparents do have a special place in our hearts and in our lives. And I am praying to the Father for His protection, for His healing. And also, for your comfort to know that God loves you, God loves Almanita and your mommy and daddy. And I wanna thank you so much for calling in and asking us to pray along with you. It is in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.

Shalom Daily Audio Bible, this is Dwayne from Wisconsin. All praise and glory to our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Calling in today for Maggie May. We have been praying for you for a number of years and now you may have an opportunity to have a residence, a home I believe it was, next to your son. So, we pray the Lord is in this. We pray this is the Lord’s will. We pray that you would get this house, for you definitely are a light in the darkness. You could be a light for your son. A light for the community. So, Maggie May, we are definitely lifting you up and praying that you will get this residency. Also, calling in for Emmie, who called in and would like us to pray for her two-year-old daughter. She took her to the doctor for two-year checkup and there seems to be an issue with her heart. We pray this is just a minor issue, Lord. And that she has heard, and it’s good news and not to something to worry about. So, we pray for that. And we wanna lift up her daughter, to You, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen and God Bless.

Hey guys, this is Katie Jo from Wyoming. I was just calling in for Kristen, aka Christ in Me, who just called in saying she’s had a bad day. That dealing with all the loss. And I just wanted you to know that a … I mean, I myself have lost both parents, my mom and then also the man who brought me back to Christ and saved my life. Poured into me and disciplined me. Also died in 2021. And I mean, I’ve lost people spiritually and physically. There was a point in my life where I, I like I had lost everybody. And so, I know what you’re going through right now. And so, this prayer is for you and for anybody else who’s experienced this kind of pain. Heavenly Father, we just come to You and we come before Your throne and we praise You and we thank You that these people were in our life. That You gave them to us, that they made their mark, they made their impact on our lives. And they brought us so much joy. And so, I just pray that You’d wrap Your arms around Kristen right now and everybody else who struggles with this, Lord. That, that we sometimes we just want them back, but we know they’re…they’re where they need to be. They’re safe with You, Lord. And so, I just pray comfort and peace and just Your…Your everlasting joy to wash over everybody who suffers from this, God. And we know that Your will, will be done. And we just thank You for these people in our lives. And we give You all the praise and all the glory. In Jesus name. Amen. Love you guys, have a blessed day.

Good morning, everyone, it’s Susan from Canada, God’s Yellow Flower calling. And Sparky, I just heard your conversation with God on the community prayer. And I just wanna say, Amen and Amen. You are so loved and respected by this community and especially me. That I just wanted you to know that everything that was said there is true and it’s from God. So know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that we want you in our lives, forever. Even for eternity. Wouldn’t that be wonderful. Oh Lord God, we just praise You for the hope that we have in You. The hope of life for eternity and not a life like we have here but a life of glory for eternity with you. Praise You Lord Jesus. Praise You God. Praise You Father. We do not _. And I’m thinking of my son here, as he’s suffering from this stage 4 cancer. We do not grieve as pagans do. We have a hope. We have a future, and we have You, Lord God. Praise You Jesus. Amen.

And John speaks specifically toward that today in what we read. And I quote, “you are from God, little children, and you have conquered them because the one who is in you, is greater than the one who was in the world.” So, John is telling his readers, like look, there’s lots of swirl. There’s lots of things to think about. There’s lots of ways to become distant and think of the Holy Spirit or Jesus work as esoteric and spiritual. And some of the false teachings are separating us from the reality that the spirit of God lives inside those who believe. And so, the spirit of God is in you and will lead you away from the deception of the world. But John’s not just trying like parse theology and have a theological debate. He’s trying to get the readers, and that’s us friends, to get our minds around what we cannot possibly comprehend. A reality that the spirit of God is within us. Because of Jesus, the human and the divine can be in collaboration like we see Jesus doing. And what would be the evidence that we are walking this path, love. John says it like this, “dear friends let us love one another. Because love is from God. And everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love, does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way, God sent his one and only son into the world, so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this, not that we’d love God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is made complete in us.” That is, that is very powerful. Jesus is the physical human embodiment of God’s love for us. A love we could see in action. He wasn’t an apparition, demonstrating these things. He was God offering Himself in the flesh, coming to be among us, Emmanual. God with us. And when we love one another, we are making that same love visible in the flesh, in our flesh. God dwells within us and loves the world through our flesh, just like Jesus did. John says it like this, “We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love and the one who remains in love, remains in God and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, instead perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So, the one who fears, is not complete in love.” So, the implications are pretty huge. We can’t see God, as John said, but we can see each other. And when we live inside the reality that the spirit of God is in us, we begin to understand that being part of the body of Christ is not just like this nice metaphor. We are physically bringing the love of God to the world, like Jesus did, because Jesus is within us. The same spirit is animating and guiding our lives. And God’s love is made perfect in us, as we live into this, and perfect love casts out all fear. In all of the Bible there are plenty of references to love. We obviously know that, but if there were a case in the Scriptures about why we must live in love, this is it, in First John. When we love, we know that the spirit of God is within us. When we love, we are the physical demonstration of God’s love to the world, the hands and feet. When we love, we are being perfected. When we love, we’re being like Christ. And so, let’s heed and take into our hearts, the council the John gives us today. Let us continue to love one another, because love comes from God.

Prayer:

Father, so often we think that we do love each other, we…we…we love, really well. And that’s because we love people who are easy to love and ignore others often. You’re asking us to be your hands and feet and we watched You in this world touch the broken and be among the people that no one else would hang around. We watched you go to the bottom because the Gospel is for those at the bottom. And we all find ourselves at the bottom. Your love conquers all and we are instructed to live in that love and not just remain in it for our own benefit but understand that we become a conduit of Your love, as we surrender to Your will, in our lives. And love casts out fear. So, Holy Spirit and show us how to love. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, it is where you find out what’s going on around here. It’s Christmas time around here. Everybody knows that. It’s hard to miss anywhere in the world. So, Christmas time around Daily Audio Bible, around the Global Campfire, consists of a couple of things. We are preparing for our annual Daily Audio Bible Christmas party. And you can participate in that by calling in your Christmas wishes or greetings to the community, your brothers and sisters who have been traveling each and every day through the Scriptures this year. You can do that by hitting the Hotline button in the app or by dialing 877-942-4253. That probably sounds familiar since I say it most every day. That’s the prayer and encouragement line. Right now, it’s also the holiday greeting line, just for a brief amount of time, probably till the end of this week. So, don’t delay. And yeah, the only thing is, it’s the prayer requests and encouragement line. So, don’t like, if you have a prayer request and encouragement, and a holiday greeting, don’t mix them all up. Call in your holiday greeting and then call in your prayer request or encouragement separately. This is the one time that you can do that. So, we can keep things separate and make a really lovely time. I love our Christmas party, virtual as it might be, I love it, I love it, I love it. I every year, it brings tears to my eyes just the journey that we have been…been on and all of the voices. It’s just touch points, all the different stories, so make sure you participate in the… in the Christmas party this year.

The other thing this year for Christmas is that we have released all of the…the different music from the Daily Audio Bible. We pressed those under five different vinyl album packages and they’re just very lovely, very commemorative. Something tangible to hold on from the Global Campfire. And anyone who picks up any number of these, we will send you the Christmas ornament from this year in the package as well. And all of the resources from these projects, from the music here is being sewn into what’s coming next year. Brand-new Daily Audio Bible app, brand-new Global Campfire home, brand-new place to move into and grow into and move forward into. So, thank you, humbly for your partnership there. You can find that in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. You’ll find a Christmas category and you’ll see them there. Thank you, thank you, humbly.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in these final days of the year 2023, thank you, humbly, humbly, we can’t be a Global Campfire if we’re not in this together, and so thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement or holiday greeting you can hit the Hotline button in the app, you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, this is Susan in Indiana. And I’m calling on behalf of Liza, Philippians 6:4. And I know she called in and asked us to pray for her family so often. So, I wanted to continue to do that. And I hope that others will with me. Dear Father, I pray for my sister warrior Liza’s family. I pray that in the wake of her passing that her family members will be drawn closer to You and come to Christ. Come to know Christ the way that Liza did and that they could all be together again at the end. I love you DAB family. And I pray this in the name of Jesus.

Good morning DAB, this is Romans 12:2, calling for Kristen, aka Christ in Me. You said that you were going through a period of grief, after losing, I believe it was two of your children, your former husband and just several people close to you. And you feel somewhat alone. I just want to encourage you today, knowing that many of us who have lost family members, particularly parents or children, feel your pain. And grief is a period that we must go through. Don’t try to go around it. Go through it. The Lord will be with you. He will hold your hand. I know Christmas season can be a difficult time, particularly when we have memories of the people we love and they’re no longer around. I want to encourage you today and I pray for you, that the Lord would be with you. There’s a Scripture that says, while we do not look at the things which are seen but of things that are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary. But the things which are not seen, are eternal. Let us hold onto that. That we have eternity and we are not living in the temporary. That God will be with you. He said He will never leave us, nor forsake us. Again, He said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. Be encouraged today. Let us all be encouraged. Lord Father, would You be with everyone today, oh God, particularly during this season, who have lost spouses, children, parents, friends even, who are close to them, Lord. May we be reminded that You will never leave us, nor forsake us. And that we will keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Amen.

Good morning DAB family, this is QD from PA. I’m calling in to pray for Kristen, Christ in Me. Hey sister, I just heard your prayer request for yourself, on November 30th. And it really touched me. I just want to pray Psalm 34:18 over you, right now. That the Lord, is close to the broken hearted and he saves those that are crushed in spirit. Father God, I just pray that You are with Kristen and that she feels Your presence, Lord. That she knows You’re near. That You comfort her, Father God. And show her the love that only You can give, Father God, and the peace that only You can give during this time for her. And to let her know that she is not alone, You are with her, You see her. You gather every tear and that You love her so, so deeply and so perfectly, Father God. And I just pray for your presence that You bring people around her who extend Your love, who are a comfort to her, from You, Father God. And Lord, just fill her with Your peace during this time. And I pray this in the mighty, precious name of Your son, Jesus. Amen.

Hi, this is Crystal of Washington State, formerly of Texas. I was just hearing Kristen, aka Christ in Me. And oh my heart hurt so much when I heard what you had to say and how you feel like you’ve lost your entire family. And my heart just breaks for you. I can’t imagine dealing with that much loss. I will be sure to say a prayer for you. And I just want to encourage you to lean into your Daily Audio Bible family. I mean you, you’ve definitely lost a lot of members. But there are a lot of members here, that hear prayers and want to encourage you to lean into us, as your Christ family. And just please, please don’t lose heart. We’re here for you. God bless.

Daniel 11:36-12:13, 1 John 4:1-21, Psalm 123:1-4, Proverbs 29:2-4

Today is the 4th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it's…it’s wonderful, wonderful to be here today. It’s wonderful to have a place to be here around the Global Campfire, as we gather again and take another step forward on our journey through the Scriptures. And our journey leads us, every day, it leads us right to where we left off because we’re reading every chapter, every verse, every book of the Bible and we’re working our way through the book of Daniel now. Today, chapter 11 verse 36, through chapter 12 verse 13 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so, as we’re working our way through this, this first letter of John, we’re seeing that it is powerful. There is so many incredible insights for us. And what we saw today in John’s writing is that people in this early church are being deceived and abandoned their faith in Jesus by following new teachings. And as we talked about earlier, there was a swirl of teachings about who Jesus was, what He meant, what He represented, what His work was. And so, some people follow new teachings, other people just got fed up of waiting, and became antagonistic to the Gospel, even antichrist, as the Scriptures say. And all of this swirl of many different teachings that were beginning to develop in the early church, one in particular claimed that Jesus wasn’t a person, He was, He was a spiritual apparition. He was not a flesh and blood human being. And so, this became a theological debate. What is the nature of Jesus Christ? And the question that was debated was whether or not Jesus was the divine simply made visible, or the divine made flesh. And that teaching that Jesus was a spiritual apparition, would later be called Docetism.