Month: December 2016

Zechariah 1:1-21 ~ Revelation 12:1-13:1 ~ Psalm 140:1-13 ~ Proverbs 30:17

Today is December 21^ST.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It’s great to be here.  It’s always great to be here and it’s especially great to be here during the busyness of Christmas week but the joy of Christmas week.  

So we’ve been moving really quickly.  Even as our year speeds up, we’ve been moving quickly through different books, especially the books of minor prophesy.  They are shorter.  And then some of the letters in the New Testament are shorter and so we’ve kind of blazed our way all the way through the New Testament and are rooted in the book of Revelation, obviously, through the end of the year.  But today we come to the second to the last book of the Old Testament and we’ll kind of camp out here until just the last couple of days of the year – the book of Zechariah.    

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

The book of Zechariah was written during the reign of the Persian King Darius, so this falls within the same general time period that Haggai which we read yesterday was written.  So Haggai and Zechariah were contemporaries with each other.  

Within the first couple of verses Zechariah reiterates what is a central theme of the entire Old Testament – return to me, God says, and I will return to you.  Throughout this book of prophesy God confirms his acceptance of authentic worship and it shows God at work.  It confirms once again God’s sovereignty and clarifies his control over the beginnings and endings of man.  This is not to say that he usurps a person’s will.  Everyone is responsible for their choices, but God is sovereign.

So as we begin and enter into the book of Zechariah, there are 8 different visions and then 2 oracles contained in this book.  Much of the imagery is clear and beautiful and just a wonderful foreshadowing of Jesus, so contained in these visions and throughout the imagery in them, we’re offered unbelievable hope and promise.  

So, reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week, we begin the book of Zechariah chapter 1 verses 1 through 21 today.  

Prayer

Father, even as we move into the book of Zechariah and we hear the recurring theme come back, come back to me.  Return to me and I will return to you, we ask that you plant that one so deep in our lives that we can never forget it, that at any point in our lives that we feel like we have drifted or shifted we can remember this –  return to me and I will return to you.  May this be the opening volley of any day.  As we open our eyes and call upon your name,  may we remember to walk with you, to return to you and you return to us.  We pray along with the psalmist:  Rescue us, Lord, from evil around us.  Protect us, Lord, from the clutches of the wicked.  You are our God.  There is no other hope.  So we hide ourselves in you fully, completely, uninhibited, naked and unashamed before you.  We fully return to you and not partially and try to just shine ourselves up so we’re in good standing.  We want to be lost in you with no way to know where we begin and you end and vice versa. We are intertwined.  We are of you.  We are for you.  We are with you in all things.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here and it is how you stay connected. Every way to connect, whether it be on social media or through the website or however, that can all be found at www.DailyAudioBible.com so be sure to check that out and see what is going on and make connections with others who are going through the Bible with you.  

Looking at the calendar counting the days to Christmas, I just realized this would have been my parents’ anniversary.  This would have been their 54^th anniversary.  Of course, my father, he passed many years ago.  My mom is not doing so great and maybe that is what brought it…  It’s a bunny trail.  Sorry to divert into a bunny trail.  I just saw the date on the calendar just now, talking and realized this would have been… So yeah, it would have been their anniversary, which has nothing to do with Christmas or nothing to do with the Daily Audio Bible, but it has something to do with me, so just sharing it with you.  

But anyway, www.DailyAudioBible.com, that is the website and if you want partner with the Daily Audio Bible, that is really where to go.  If Daily Audio Bible has been a life-giving source and the community has been helpful, then thank you for your partnership here at the end of the year.  The website, that is the place to go, but if you use the app, you can push the More button. And if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 that is the number to dial.  

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hey family, it’s Jordan from Michigan.  I’m calling because God entered Byron from Florida and directed him to send me a message, which I heard on December 17^th.  I just want to thank you, brother, for heeding God’s call and for really inspiring me.  When I heard it I cried and I felt a new sense of life coming right through me, so thank you.  I will start beginning my 30-day challenge one again, day 15.  Recently God has been putting some new friends in my life to help me with my loneliness because after my best friend passed away, I haven’t had any friends, so it has been nice to have some new friends and even though my life is a mess, I have something there for me to be thankful for.  Please, family, continue to pray for me as I go through a very serious bout of depression and as I try to get a sign from the Lord of whether or not I should be staying at this school.  I have been looking for other jobs, so thank you, family. I love you.  Goodbye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Cheryl in Arizona.  I had to stop the community prayer.  I have been listening for about the last 40 minutes and I just heard Patricia from New Orleans, LA call in and I just was completely overwhelmed by her request and her call and I just want to say, Patricia, that I appreciate your call. Thank you for the opportunity, as with just all of you to pray.  Whether I call in or not, I am definitely praying for you all.  Patricia, I heard you say that you need prayer in all aspects of your life and I was praying for you before I called and I will continue. And also I didn’t quite get your daughter’s name, but I know you said she lost her job and you were asking for prayers for her to find another job.  I do pray.  I know that the Lord hears you and all of you.  My heart was so moved with compassion and I just want to say that you’re a blessing.  All of you are.  I thank God for this community and this family and Patricia, may every need that you have, both spoken and unspoken, be met by the one who created you, who knows your frame and your heart and knows every need, including your sphere of influence and your daughter.  I pray these things and I bless you all and I love you all so much.  In the name of Jesus.  Alright, bye-bye.  And Merry Christmas to you all, too.

Hello Daily Audio Bible community.  This is David in Kansas.  It is December 17^th.  This is my prayer for healing.  Please pray with me.  Merciful Father, Almighty God, Blessed Lord Jesus, we come before you to pray healing over the members of our community, those that surround our community, those who hear the prayers of our community.  We ask for full, complete, miraculous healing and give you nothing but praise.  Lord, today I want to lift up Mark N. in Florida.  He called.  His cousin Chuck N. is going to have to have heart surgery.  We’re lifting Chuck up to you, Lord, and asking you to pour out healing and to guide the surgeons as they work on his heart.  Pastor Gene called saying that she has had chronic pain for quite a while, but may have finally discovered a reason and possibly a treatment for the chronic pain, so we’re lifting that up to and asking that this be taken care of, one less thing that she will have to worry about.  Shelly from Missouri asked for prayers for her granddaughter who is 10 and hospitalized with severe mental issues. It seems almost even as if something has possessed her, taken over her and is just affecting her mind and causing her to not act as she should, so we’re asking you for a miracle to be poured out upon this little girl for her to be restored to her family.  There was a woman who called.  Her son had hit his head and was having trouble remembering things. We’re asking for healing of that. Homeward Bound called.  Prayer for Vickie’s husband Paul who was in the head-on collision.  He is in critical but stable condition.  We are lifting up a big praise but a small praise, obviously, where we want him to be healed from this terrible collision, but there was no brain or spinal injury and we’re lifting that up to you, Lord, so hopefully he can heal and get back to normal.  That is what I have today, family.  Thank you for praying with me.  I love you. Goodbye.  

Hi family.  This is Sandy in New Hampshire again.  I’m totally embarrassed and red-faced.  I was trying to go back and fix this.  Oh, okay. It didn’t work, but I want to reach out to people that are in pain and people who are in painful situations and people who are on the verge of giving up.  You have a hard something in front of you that is like a stone, but if you could realize that before God it is just a little grain of sand.  Don’t give up.  Don’t give up.  Don’t give up.  Remember the reason for the season is Jesus.  Jesus is all those good things that people are trying to fill under Christmas trees and Jesus wants to fill everything in our hearts for good, so I want us to just realize that there is peace and rest in his presence and my prayer is that God will fill us with his presence so that the gifts we give of his presence is impactful.  I’m praying for people who are in tight spots, who just don’t know which way to go. I’ve heard people that just break my heart.  The grandma who can’t go to somebody’s house because of drinking.  Grandma, your presence is needed there.  Don’t not go to Christmas because of the mess.  Go and be that light for your grandkids.  And love on them.  Love on them.  I want you to know I’m praying for you.  God bless you.  It is just one week until the presence of Jesus is revealed, to the Lord in our celebrations.  May we reflect.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Dorothy calling and on my heart all week has been the word reconciliation and I know at this time of year we think about this.  There are so many people that come to mind, those we have hurt, those who have hurt us, and maybe justly or unjustly, things that were said or done.  Maybe it was imagined and maybe it was real, but God knows all those things and to the degree that it depends on us, I pray that we would reach out to those, even if it is hard, because God did this for us and this is the scripture that God gave me today.  Therefore anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.  The old has gone.  The new has come.  All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God would reconcile the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them as he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.  So at this time of the year when we think about loved ones and it is so hard sometimes to reach out, I just pray that we would.  And I hear your prayers and I pray for you all every day and I pray God’s blessing upon all of you and a very Merry Christmas.  Amen.  Bye family. Love you.  

Haggai 1:1-2:23 ~ Revelation 11:1-19 ~ Psalm 139:1-24 ~ Proverbs 30:15-16

Today is December 20^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and it’s a pleasure to be here with you as we’re kind of celebrating and moving through Christmas week.  It’s hard to believe but I don’t even want to get into that.  I’ve been saying that at the beginning of every month this year. It’s been a really interesting year that I’m sure we’ll get a chance to talk about before it’s over.  But right now, in all of the craziness that Christmas week can bring, we have this oasis that has been given to us, this global campfire that burns and burns and burns and we all come in out of the cold and warm ourselves and have time together and have time with God in his word.  So let’s move to that.

We’ve been moving at a fast pace through the minor prophets and we’re going to kind of continue with that and read another of the minor prophets in their entirety and then tomorrow we’ll kind of begin to slow things down and pace ourselves toward the end of the year.  

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

So we’ve come to the book of Haggai.  Judah was carried away into exile by the Babylonians and it was terrible. We’ve gone through the whole story. It was a terrible time of great sorrow, perhaps the lowest moment for the children of Israel in all of the Bible. This is about 540 BC.  Cyrus, king of Persia, invaded and then conquered Babylon and in 538, a couple years later, he issued a decree allowing native Israelites to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple and worship their God and rebuild their culture.  This was obviously a day they had been waiting for, obviously a great day of liberation for God’s people.  The book of Haggai comes about 18 years into that process.  

It is a snapshot that is immensely relevant to us today because it takes a hard look at motivations.  Through the prophetic words of Haggai, God challenges his people about what matters most to them and God also offers hopeful promises to those who will take courage, even though they have grown weary because of the realization that Jerusalem and the temple, they may never be able to rebuild it to the splendor that Solomon had built it.  Haggai invites us all to turn the spotlight on ourselves and see whether it is God’s work or our own satisfaction that we hold highest in our lives and invites us to man up or woman up in the face of discouragement knowing that God is supremely faithful and sovereign.  Then, once the light of truth comes crashing into our lives, it invites us to reframe everything, to repent, to live pure lives and it shows us that we can live courageously for God building his kingdom because he is always with us, ever present regardless of circumstance.  We are secure and as we are faithful to God, he is unquestionably faithful to us.  

So we’ll dive in and read the entire book of Haggai today, chapter 1 verse 1 through 2:23.  

Commentary

There is so much richness in the scriptures today, I don’t even know exactly where to begin.  We do this  whole series on Haggai, but it kind of speaks for itself and if you’ll go back and review it yourself and apply it to your life, it can be an incredibly powerful thing.

Doesn’t some of this ring familiar?  

Think carefully about your ways. You’ve planted much but harvested little.  You eat but never have enough to be satisfied.  You drink but never have enough to become drunk.  You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm.  The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.  

It’s fascinating because this is millennia ago and yet these issues are still among and within us now.  We feel like we’re spinning our wheels in some areas.  It can be the physical areas of finances and health and that kind of stuff. It can be the inner life that we live, the things that we are trying to set aright and do correctly and walk with God in.  It can feel this way.  In Haggai God is saying ‘hold on, hold on.  Stop what you’re doing and think carefully about your ways and then go and get back to work on what I told you to do because you are building other things and I asked you to build the temple.  You’ve gotten discouraged because some of you saw what it looked like and you know that Jerusalem is destroyed and there is just not enough manpower or centuries to put it all back together.  But I didn’t ask you to do that.  I just asked you to build it.  So consider carefully your ways because I am with you.  I am here and I will protect you.’  It is so beautiful and that is just scratching the surface.

And then we get into the psalm today.  It is a popular psalm but it is reiterating what God was saying to the people who had returned, the exiles who had come back and in particular to the leaders, Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest, but David ends up saying ‘where is it that I can possibly go that you are not?  I can run wherever I run and you will be there.  I cannot escape your spirit.’  That is also so beautifully comforting.  But it also invites us to go back to Haggai and carefully examine our ways because sometimes we’re trying to escape God’s spirit.  We want to be our own sovereign.  We want to make our own choices and build our own things when we were meant to collaborate with the Spirit of God.  There is no other way to live.  I mean, there is no other way for a human being to live.  This is how we were made.  This is how it was in the beginning.  This is how we are designed and all we have to do is look around and see the effects of millennia of horror to understand that it doesn’t work without God. It doesn’t work.  We’ve made all of this and we’re going nowhere.  We’re spinning our wheels as a species when we were called to something higher.  

So you are encouraged to go back through Psalm 139 and the book of Haggai today and carve out some space to let God speak because he is speaking.  I know it is busy.  I know that it is a little crazy out there.  Consider carefully your ways.  What is most important to you?  That speaks for itself.

Prayer

Father, we welcome you into what you have spoken through your word today. We need this.  It is so comforting.  It describes the reality we were intended to have, but it also shows us the reality we’re in and the one we’re creating for ourselves and you’ve invited us to think about it.  You’ve invited us to consider deeply what is really going on here.  So we invite you into all that.  There is nowhere we can go that you are not.  There is no way you would abandon us, but in thought, word and deed we have abandoned you in ways.  Show those to us, Holy Spirit.  Show those ways to us, that we’ve been building other things that are going nowhere.  Come Jesus, we pray.  In your mighty name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base.  It is the website and since we’re a virtual community, the website is our home, our landing place.  So it is our virtual home for all of us and it is where you stay connected and find out what is going on around here so be sure to stay connected there and find out what is up.  

We’ve been talking about the More Gathering for Women.  We have advance pricing right now so that it can be taken advantage of for the holiday season.  If you’re still kind of looking for that perfect thing that is unique and different and maybe unexpected, yeah, this is more than a trip.  It is that.  It is some travel.  It is that, but it is so much more than that.  You can find out all about it at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You’ll find the More Gathering in the Initiatives or the Events section.  It is hard to miss if you’re just scrolling, so check that out.

Of course, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we’re ending the year, if this has been a year and you feel like Daily Audio Bible and the community have been life-giving to you, then thank you for being life-giving so that it can be life-giving next year as well.  Thank you for your partnership.  There is a link.  It is on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  It can also be found in the app if you push the More button.  Then, of course, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, this is a community and we love each other well.  (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.  

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi, this is Chad from Illinois, speaking directly to Jimmy from Georgia who called in just a few days ago about having marital problems.  Jimmy, I just wanted you to know that I’m praying for you. I just want to provide a story of hope for you.  A couple years ago my wife had an affair on me, stepped out with another man, and it resulted in a pregnancy.  She lived with me for the entire pregnancy until she gave birth and then we separated for a few short months until I could __________ my heart.  A lot of prayer happened during that time for me and my wife and Zion, the little one, as well.  Come to find out, the Lord changed my heart and really turned things around in my mind.  I was able to forgive her act and realize that I had my own shortcomings that I didn’t bring to the marriage like I should have.  And today we have 9-month-old baby boy by the name of Zion. I’m so thankful to God that he changed my heart and was able to keep our marriage together and today we’re going very strong and united and better than we ever have been.  And I just wanted to share that with you, Jimmy.  I don’t know your situation and I don’t know the problems that exist, but I know that my marital problems were very bad and yet the Lord provided strength through that and we came out of the other side and we thank God for that.  I just wanted to share that with you.  God bless you, Jimmy, and thank you, Brian, for this wonderful outreach ministry that you provide to all of us.  Have a great day.

Hi, this is Michelle from Los Angeles.  I don’t call in very often.  I’ve been with Daily Audio Bible for about 9 years, but I just want to say to Byron who called in today, Byron from Florida, when you kept saying ‘God loves you,’ and you said it over and over and over, I was all of a sudden overwhelmed with just tears running down because apparently I needed to hear that as well.  And you were talking to Jordan I think.  You were calling for him, but it was just so powerful how you kept repeating it over and over.  I think a lot of us sometimes forget that, even in our worst day and our good days and how much he loves us and he brought his son into this world.  And I want to thank all you prayer warriors.  I do try to listen every day and I just hear everybody’s prayers and I pray over them.  I don’t call in often, like I said, but I’m close.  I hear your prayers.  I see you prayer warriors out there.  God bless you guys for just being so on top of it.  Love you, Brian.  Thank you for a great job, for all of you.  Okay, have a really great day.  Bye. Merry Christmas.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Tamberly J.  I am calling specifically for James’ friend, or James, the teacher in LA, his friend or student, Abbie, who was in the car accident and got hit by shrapnel and it went into her brain and she is in a brain surgery.  James, it struck me that she was thankful that if she went to heaven or if she woke from this, that she would say she was glad it was her and not somebody that wasn’t saved, and that just really touched my heart.  I am in wholehearted agreement with you that these are kingdom people and so Lord, my prayer is that you would heal, Abbie, Father. That you will give her the desires of her heart and that those around her come to know you as their personal Savior and King.  Father, that they would be led to have an attitude and be inspired by Abbie and her walk with you, Father.  Father, please don’t take her now.  Please let her live out according to your glory, bringing many, many, many people to you. In your Son’s name I pray, amen.  

Hi, my name is Max and I’m calling from Indiana.  Just need some prayer.  This holiday season has been particularly difficult.  Just feeling a lot of aloneness, a lot of just abandonment, rejection.  I went through a divorce a couple years ago and so just having to do all that split, the kids back and forth and it is hard on them, and just the whole idea that we’re supposed to be happy during the happiest time of year, but the fact is that it’s not always happy because there are things that we all struggle with.  So just appreciate your prayers.  I pray that I can have some peace and joy during this holiday season and that my kids can have a good Christmas as well.  Just thankful for you, Brian, and all you’re doing here with the Daily Audio Bible.  It’s kind of like a friend that I can lean on at any time and I really do appreciate it.  

Hi, this is Bart in Kentucky.  Byron out in Florida, you prayed.  It was played on the 16^th.  You prayed for Jordan and I want to thank you for that prayer.  It was to Jordan.  It was excellent.  But it was for all of us.  So for those of you listening, if you haven’t listened to the prayers after the podcast and commentary on the 16^th, please go back and listen to it again, the prayer. 

Zephaniah 1:1-3:20 ~ Revelation 10:1-11 ~ Psalm 138:1-8 ~ Proverbs 30:11-14

Today is the 19^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you this lovely Christmas week that is certain to be full of busyness and it even kind of gets busy in the Bible as we move through quite a few books.  Today is no different.  Today we’ll be reading an entire book in the Old Testament as we move our way toward the end of the year.  Of course, in the New Testament we are in the final book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation, but in the Old Testament we’ve come to the book of Zephaniah.  

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

The book of Zephaniah is also a book that is part of the books of minor prophesy contained in the Old Testament.  It is written in full in three chapters which we’ll read today. Although the prophetic word is for the children of Israel, it is also a call to repentance for all the surrounding nations and even the whole world.  

Zephaniah contains similar themes to some of the other books of prophesy. It announces the impending judgment of God.  It is a call to repentance and a declaration of restoration.  God always restores.  And even though these words were uttered and transcribed in the 7^th century BC, we can look at them through the lens of the 21^st century AD and find dramatic relevance there.  If we change the names and places, things look remarkably now as they did then, which is the case in so much of the Bible as it becomes this mirror into our souls.  

So we begin Zephaniah chapter 1 verse 1 through 3:20 today, the entire book of Zephaniah, and we’re reading from the Holman Christian Bible this week.

Commentary

So as we’ve been moving through these minor prophets and are kind of moving toward the final book in the Old Testament as we near the end of the year, I hope you’re seeing the arc that is contained in all of the books of prophesy. Some of the books of prophesy are longer and we’ve been through them, so the development of the story takes a little longer, but in these minor prophets, things we can read in one sitting, you see it completely where there is injustice and abandonment of the relationship, the intertwining of God and man that is broken and mankind moving in completely inappropriate and destructive directions.  

God comes and says this is not going to work and if you continue on this path, I’m going to make sure it doesn’t work because this is totally not the way it is supposed to be at all, not as individuals, not as people groups and tribes, not as nations.  It is not moving in the right direction.  It is moving in the wrong direction.  So I will come and judge this.  I will come and break it apart because it is total annihilation waiting to happen.  I will break this down.  I’m not putting up with this.  But I will take you back.  I still love you.  You have cheated on me beyond description, but I cannot not love you.  I do love you.  I will take you back if you will return to me, if you will come home, if you will come back and live faithfully.  I will restore everything that you have made a mess of, things that I cannot allow to continue because of the evil that you are creating, but if you come back, if you return to me, I will take you back and I will restore everything.

That is the arc of all of the prophets.  That is the arc of the whole Bible and it can be incredibly helpful in the arc of our own story.  We can locate ourselves in these stories very specifically at times and kind of know where we are, which begins to explain all of the things around us and what we are going through.  But it doesn’t matter where we are in the continuum, we are always headed toward redemption if we will return to God.  We will only ever be heading toward restoration if we will return and be faithful to the Lord who will not surrender us and will keep coming and coming for us.  Then if we will return, if we will repent, if we will come home and come back and live in a faithful relationship that is collaborative, we will be heading toward wholeness the whole time.  We’ve pointed these things out along the way, but I was just noticing it in reading the prophet Zephaniah today.  I was seeing it once again and it was just leaping out to me.  I’m bringing it up to us.  Even as we come to the end of the year, may we notice the arc in our own lives and even as we approach the New Year, may we go into it understanding this. It is one of the beautiful ways that the scriptures stay so dynamic and so relevant in our lives.

Prayer

Father, we are deeply, deeply grateful and now that we’ve spent another almost year in the scriptures, we see once again this is not a thick book of mysteries that no one can decipher.  It is a dynamic book that is alive and can speak into our identity.  It can go so deep that it goes down to what is only true of us.  So we invite you, Holy Spirit, to plant these words into our hearts and minds that they may affect everything about us, mind, body and spirit.  Come Jesus, we pray in your precious and powerful name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com, that is home base and that is where you find out what is going on around here, so be sure to stay connected.  The Prayer Wall is there and people are praying all of the time, so check that out.

Other ways to stay connected, like I mentioned yesterday, one great way would be the Daily Audio Bible Friends Facebook page.  So just look for DAB Friends and there is a conversation that is continually there.  There is like always somebody around, so that is a beautiful thing, as well as the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page which would be www.Facebook.com/DailyAudioBible.  So be sure those are on your list if you do social media.  Check that out.  

The date for Christmas shipping from Daily Audio Bible has come and gone, but the More Gathering for Women, that has not come and gone.  That is coming.  That is coming this April.  I’ve been talking about it.  That is something that you can still consider as a very, very unique Christmas opportunity for the woman or women in your lives.  You can find the information about it that you would want to know at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You’ll find the More Gathering.  It is pretty easy.  It is hard to miss.  All of the details are there, so check that out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here in the last days of the year, thank you so much.  Thank you so much.  We are a community and we’ve never been anything but this, so thank you for your partnership in allowing Daily Audio Bible to keep all the servers spinning out the spoken word of God to anyone who will listen to it, anywhere no matter what is going on in life, anytime no matter where you are in the world.  So there is a link for that at www.DailyAudioBible.com on the home page.  It can be found in the app if you push the More button that lives in the lower right-hand corner of the app.  Then if you like the mail the best, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253, that is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today.  I’m Brian kind of moving through Christmas week just like you are.  It’s lovely to have each other.  Really.  Really lovely to have each other this time of year and move through this together and keep the rhythm of God’s word in our lives even in some of the busiest days of the year.  So that’s it for today.  I’m Brian. I love you and I will be here waiting for you tomorrow.  

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi everyone.  This is Mary Jo in St. Louis.  This message is for my friend Paul in Barcelona.  I just wanted to tell you that I am praying for the people in Syria and I confess that it is easy in our lives to get caught up in our own little worlds and our own little prayer concerns, but on the Israel trip we were at the very north top of Israel and we stood on a mountaintop and looked over into Syria and Brian led us in a prayer, to stretch our hands and pray for our brothers and sisters in Syria.  I have to tell you that the Spirit of God moved over me in such a powerful way and ever since then I continue to pray for them.  So don’t be discouraged if you don’t see responses on social media or on the prayer line.  You do have brothers and sisters praying along with you.  And that is for everyone.  Love you all.  God bless.

Hello Daily Audio Bible.  This is Dawn in Piney Flats, TN.  I’m calling with a prayer request for my son, Tyler D.  I’m asking for some serious prayer because he is just really at a point in his life where he is completely mixed up.  I don’t know what to say.  I have two other children and they are not anything like him at all.  He has got some major issues and problems.  He’s been into a home a couple of different times for schizophrenia and he’s heard voices.  I mean, I don’t even know if it’s real.  I don’t even know anymore.  I can’t believe anything that he says.  He can’t come home.  He’s 22 and he can’t come home anymore, can’t be around his other siblings, which completely breaks my heart to pieces, that I can’t even have any contact with my own son. He calls and leaves messages on our phone.  It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even talk to him.  It’s just hard to explain.  I know there are probably a lot of moms out there that think I’m terrible, but it is just…  I believe it is demonic possession and that is why I’m asking for prayer.  Daily Audio Bible family, just please pray for Tyler D. I don’t know what to do.  I don’t know what to pray.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  My name is Dennis from the Seattle, WA area.  This is my first time calling in.  I’ve just started listening within the last couple of weeks and I’m so blessed by this ministry.  I have a couple of needs that I would like to share.  On October 14^th of this year, one day after my wife and I celebrated 26 years of marriage, we got word that my wife’s brother was killed in a double homicide.  It’s an unsolved mystery.  We don’t have any real suspects on who did this.  Fortunately, my wife’s brother knew the Lord.  He’s home with Jesus and we’re thankful and praising God for that, but we are praying for justice for these two families that were affected and that the love of God would touch each member of these families that continues to grieve the loss of their loved one.  Then secondly, I was laid off from my work of 16 years in the wireless industry earlier this year and I’ve been really struggling to find gainful employment and really, although I’m trusting the Lord for his provision and I know that he is always the one that takes care of us and meets our needs, it’s becoming challenging financially and just stressful on my wife and my relationship, so I’m just praying that God would direct me appropriately to the job and the industry that he has for me in his timing, that he is ultimately sovereign and in charge of this whole situation, but that he would __________ me financially and otherwise and help us to just rest in him and be a wonderful witness to the people around us so that we can continue to persevere in faith.  So I’m just praying for those two things and I’m lifting up all of you that I hear daily on these broadcasts, just the many needs around the world.  I praise God for all of you and thank you for this ministry.  In Jesus’ name.  Bye-bye.

This is Candace from Oregon.  I want to send my greetings to the mom and dad in southwest Florida that have a son named Danny whose dad says we need a 1000 prayers, 1000 people to pray, and I’m one of them.  Let’s pray. Lord, thank you for all that Danny has already accomplished in his life and all the traction that is going to be giving him as he moves forward, but it is really perplexing sometimes to know how to move forward, so we pray, Lord, that you will give him inspiration, that you will just light a fire in his heart for something that you have for him, Lord.  I pray this as well for my son who is just two years older than Danny and is in a transition point knowing that he has to move on now to whatever this next thing is.  Be with them, Lord, in Jesus’ name, and be with Pelham and Molly, Pelham in particular as he wants so much to be the dad that you want him to be, Lord.  We agree with Pelham in this request, in Jesus’ name.  

Hi, this is Bonnie from Virginia.  I wanted to request you all to pray for my Vivek.  His sentencing hearing is on this December 21^st at 9 a.m.  We are hoping to have him back home, that judge could grant him mercy since this is his first crime.  It is really sad at home right now.  I’m not even excited about the Christmas season because my son is not with me.  If he could get out on that day and we could have him in the house with us during the Christmastime, that would be a big, big Christmas gift for me.  Also pray that his dad found out about him being in jail and so he is now trying to reach out to show his love towards my son, but his dad is still accusing me for our separation, but I don’t know why he does not understand that he was the one who started having affairs with the other woman and has now his own other family with his wife and two children.  It is really hard in this situation, having my son in jail and my ex-husband accusing me. Please do pray for us and help me to trust in God.  Thank you and I really appreciate your prayers.  Bye.

Hi everybody.  This is Alicia from Kansas.  Happy Friday. It’s December 16^th.  I want to call and mention a few names. Anthony, you called and talked about the seizures you’re experiencing from withdrawing from a medication.  As a psych nurse and as a person who had to be detoxed off of probably the same medication, it took them a year to taper me off the drug to avoid seizures, so they had to put me back on the medication.  You’re going to be in my prayers.  Again, it took a year for them to taper me off of it, but I will be praying for this.  Pastor Gene, thank you so much for your prayer.  You are in my prayers also and on my list.  Byron, you called with a word for Jordan:  God loves you.  Sometimes I’m so ashamed to call in because I’m having such a struggle right now, but Byron, your words were just beautiful.  Jordan, I hope you heard them.  I know I did. Biola, it’s always just a blessing to hear you, to hear you pray and for my brother with the 12-year-old daughter with a porn addiction and you’ve got a porn addiction, I think alcohol, and a son with an eating disorder.  My prayers are with you.  I’ve been through all of those because of my own childhood abuse issues and being handed pornography at the innocent age of 5 years old.  Just know I’m praying for you all.  Brian, today your message was so powerful.  I’m going to actually listen to it again.  I’m so very grateful that I can come here and even though I don’t see you all, I just believe and have faith that you’re praying just like I’m praying for you.  God bless. Everybody have a great weekend.  Bye-bye.  

Habakkuk 1:1-3:19 ~ Revelation 9:1-21 ~ Psalm 137:1-9 ~ Proverbs 30:10

Today is the 18^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible and welcome to a brand new week.  This is the last Sunday in the season of Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas that we have traditionally as a Christian church used to contemplate the mystery of the arrival of God among us and with us and to also continue to long for his second advent, his return to us, so we have one more week in this season.  Of course, one week from today is Christmas Day.  

SONG played on today’s DAB “O Come O Come Emmanuel” Trinity Music http://apple.co/2hvVmei

So as we move into this final week of Advent and prepare for the hurry and scurry and mad dash that it can be toward Christmas Day, may we not forget the longing and may we not forget the mystery of what is going on here.  May we not exchange it for a lot of bright lights and glitter.  May we stay rooted in what is happening here and the reason for all the celebration. Part of the way we do that is continuing with the rhythm of the scriptures in our lives, so that is what we’ll do.

We’re in a new week.  We’ll read from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week and continuing to kind of move quickly through so many of the different smaller books of the Bible and we’ll read another one in its entirety today, the book of Habakkuk.

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

The book of Habakkuk is the eighth of the minor prophet books in the Old Testament.  We don’t know a whole lot about Habakkuk, but there is Jewish rabbinical tradition that tells us that Habakkuk was the son of the Shunamite Elisha raised from the dead in the book of 2 Kings.  

Because of the way the narrative is written, many scholars believe that Habakkuk may have been a temple prophet.  In most cases this would mean that he was a prophetic musician gifted on instruments like the lyre or the harp or the cymbals.  Some scholars believe that Habakkuk’s lyrical and poetic nature indicates that he was probably a Levite or a king in the temple as a temple prophet.

In his writings, Habakkuk is wondering aloud what God is doing in his time. He sees injustice.  He sees misfortune around him and has what seems to be some doubt.  He dares question and God dares answer.  

Once again we’re shown in the scripture that we do not know all we think we know.  In fact, we know very little of what is really going on and Habakkuk presses into that. We see in this book one of the most beautiful pictures of the story of our lives, a story of doubt and questions being transformed into absolute trust and interconnection with the sovereign Lord. So although we’ll be reading it in its entirety today, hopefully it will have a lingering impact on our lives.  I love the book of Habakkuk.  

So we begin Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 1 through 3:19.  

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your word.  Here we are in the last two weeks of this year, and we thank you for all that you have done and all that you have yet to do in our lives through your word in this year.  So even as we enter into perhaps the busiest time of the year, we are also staying very present to what you are speaking and we enter into this great mystery that you would come for us, to rescue us, to restore us.  It is unspeakably beautiful and the hope of our salvation.  So as we go through this week, this Christmas week where everything speeds up, it also becomes apparent that everything around us all over the world is telling the story.  We may have given it its own nuances and it made it a great marketing thing, but all around the world we are telling the story, the story of the Savior come to save us as a little child.  So we invite you into all of that as everywhere we notice reminders of our story. So even as we’re busy, help us to stay present to the fact that the whole earth is crying the story out and may we, with our whole hearts rejoice in it.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray in the name of Jesus, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  That is, of course, is home base for all of us.  It is where you find out what is happening inside the community.

Man, here we are!  This is Christmas week.  It feels just really to me like a couple of weeks ago it was just Christmas week last year. I mean when I sit down and think about it and lay out all that has happened in the last year, yeah, it’s been a long, hard year on a lot of levels and I can see that, but it just seems like the year went by really fast when I’m just kind of glimpsing at it real quick. Here we are, Christmas week and I’m excited to celebrate the arrival of the Savior.

Where would we be if this had not happened?  That is what Advent is about, thinking about that, that we were longing for a Savior to come and rescue us and the people who followed the Lord God waited and waited and then he came and then they didn’t even recognize his coming until the victory was won.  Then here we are now waiting for another arrival, the one that puts all things right.  So I plan to use this week in all its activities and festivities to kind of keep that kernel, that core as we move ourselves toward Christmas Day.  I hope you’ll do the same.  

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It is where you find out what is going on around here.  The Prayer Wall is there and things that people are praying for even through this season.  You can see them at a glance and stay connected and respond and dialogue can happen there.  

Of course, there is the Daily Audio Bible Friends Facebook page.  Just search for DAB Friends and you can get into the dialogue that is continually happening there.  

There are lots of ways.  If this is a season where you’re maybe a little down, maybe feeling a little alone, because I get the Christmas blues too, I hope what we can hold onto is we cannot be alone.  Jesus did come and he is within us, intertwined with us.  We cannot be alone.  But at times at family gatherings and stuff like that that happen around the holidays, if there is not much going on, then it can feel like we’re alone, but there are places to reach out.  We have each other.  I mean, we’re virtual.  We’re all over the world, that is true, although thousands and thousands of friendships and relationships have developed over the years in many, many cities all around the world.  There are places to reach out inside this community just to hear and be heard and respond and be responded to so that you know that you’re not alone.

We’ll be having our annual Family Christmas, virtual Christmas party this week. If you find yourself by yourself or the season isn’t what you’ve had in the past, it’s a little different, looks a little different this year and it has kind of gotten you maybe in the blues, the annual Christmas party is something you can play.  It lasts the length of a party and you can keep that on and hear the voices of your brothers and sisters and know that you’re not alone. So all this will be available.

Then I should mention today is the final day for any kind of shipping from Daily Audio Bible for Christmas.  And that is domestic.  So if you’re in the United States and kind of wrapping up some things and just looking for final ideas, maybe the Daily Audio Bible Shop will have some for you and then we can get those to you, but it has to be ordered today so we can get it out first thing in the morning and then that will finalize all the shipping that we’ll be doing for Christmas this year.  It gets a bit insane in the Colorado warehouse where we roast the coffee and ship everything.  It gets a little bit crazy and that craziness is slowing down, thankfully, so everyone can enjoy the holiday season.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It is on the home page and it lives there.  As we end the year together, thank you for your partnership in helping the New Year begin well.  The link is on the home page.  If you’re using the app, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner. And, of course, the mailing address, if you prefer that, is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And of course we are a community and a beautiful one at that.  If you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi again my Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Homeward Bound.  I wanted to share something very special with you that encouraged us very much and I pray it will encourage and bless your heart as well.  A few weeks ago a lady from our church, Diane, passed away.  Her family asked my husband, her pastor, to do the memorial service.  Four days before the service my husband had a dream about heaven.  He had recently taught from the book of Revelation about the colors of the jewels, foundation, the throne and the streets of pure gold. He experienced all of this in his dream and saw the amazing vivid colors, the bright light from the throne and the light reflecting off of all his people.  When he looked around he saw our friend Diane who had passed away.  He then saw the Book of Life and there was her name written there.  My husband woke up and wept because he had never experienced this before and it was so real.  We believe God gave my husband the dream to share with the family and also to share at the memorial service.  I pray this will encourage those of you who have recently lost loved ones.  Heaven is truly for real.  God bless each of you more than you could ever imagine.  This is Homeward Bound.  Bye-bye.  

Hello.  Leaving a message for my sister, Elaine O.  We’ve been separated for over four years because of something terrible we did, my husband and I to her and her husband.  I love her.  I am so sorry.  I am deeply sorry this took place.  I miss her so much.  I’m now 71 years old and I was hoping there is some way I could get to see her before I die.  I am not dying now, but time is just flying by.  I have a wonderful family I would love her to meet and I would love to meet her family.  Please, Lord, bless all of us and may we see each other.  At one time we were all such a caring family when greed got into, __________ ruined everything.  I trusted my sister with everything and I understand her but it was just an amount of money that we never, ever, ever…that I would never be able to repay and I am so deeply, deeply sorry.   I __________ the last penny to them.

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Lee from New Jersey.  Today is December 14^th and I’m listening to the December 13^th podcast, if I’m not mistaken.  I was a little bit behind.  So I listened to the end of the prayer requests from a gentleman who did not leave his name.  Hee was behind, he has been a listener for six years and he got into a fight and he got stabbed on the back of the knee.  Brother, I’m praying for you, man, because you know whenever I hear the brothers call in, situations like this, I can relate.  So I’m just going to pray for you, my brother, that God will intervene in your situation right now, that God will help you find peace, whether that be through your walk every day with God and by meeting godly people, that different people will __________ you and will help you find God and also find peace within your heart.  Also so God will give you mercy for the some of the things that you have done and, of course, that does not label you.  That is not who you are.  That is not who you are going to be for the future.  So God has given you a name already.  God has a future planned out for you already.  All you got to do is listen.  So God bless you, my brother.  Call in and give your name.  Give your name so we can all be praying for you, for you to find inner peace, to find comfort in the Lord, and to know that God loves you regardless of the mistakes that you have made, it does not matter what they are.  God bless you.  We love you, my brother.  Virtual hugs from a brother to a brother.  We’re here for you.  Keep calling in.  God bless.

Hi DAB family.  This is Joyce from California.  I wanted to call many times the past couple weeks but couldn’t because it has been really rough.  I recently heard eyewitness testimony that my parents began abusing me the day I was born, which was December 20^th.  As the day draws near, my birthday, I find myself struggling.  The abuse continued pretty much every day and it got worse and when I was a kid they leave me in this bedroom __________ made up strange stories and couldn’t be trusted so as to prevent people from believing me.  I also learned that they purposely sabotaged my studies which I wasn’t aware of.  They want me to fail out of medical school because it contradicts the stories they told about me for a long time and I think it was because they had to keep up appearances because my dad was a pastor.  After learning all this, I realized I can’t allow them in my life at this point, even at a distance.  By the grace of God, I forgave them and I treated them kindly for many years, but hearing this made me realize I have to know how to contend for the dreams that God has put in my heart.  I want to be a physician scientist after his own heart.  I know God will use our brokenness for his kingdom.  I believe he will restore and turn everything around like he did with Joseph and his 12 brothers.  There is no suffering that is an accident that he can’t use.  So please pray with me for this.  I know I’m not alone and God is pleased with me, but my heart is hurt.  Thanks family.   I love you. Joyce from California.  

Hi, this is Matt from Fargo.  I’m a long time listener but first time caller and I really need prayer today. First off, I was laid off from pretty much my dream job last Friday and this week I’m dealing with some kind of skin infection on my feet.  This is on top of a struggle I’ve been dealing with for a long time, really pretty much my whole life with a sexual sin addiction.  So I’m asking you to pray for me.  Please first off, pray for God to set me free from sexual sin.  Second off, please ask God to heal my skin on my feet and on the rest of my body.  And third, please ask God to help lead and guide me to the next employment that he has for me in my life.  Thank you so much for listening and for praying.  

Hey DAB brothers and sisters.  This is Byron out in Florida.  And Mark N., shout-out to you out in Davie, FL.  I’ll be praying for your cousin, Bucky.  I hope everything goes well with his heart surgery, but please give us a call and check in and let us know how that goes.  Your rendition of God Bless America got my heart to beating out of my chest.  I wanted to run outside and rip the nearest flagpole out of the ground and run through the streets with it, bellowing the chorus with you with tears streaming out of the my eyes.  That was awesome.  Thank you. I know we like to believe it sometimes but it isn’t true that God has only blessed America.  I want to hear what our Aussie brothers and sisters, our English ones, those in Africa, Asia, I want to hear what your guys’ version of God Bless America is whether you think you’re a good singer or not, whether it is in English or not.  I would like you to call in and just sing that so we can all get that same feeling, what it feels like from a different country because one day we know for sure that a multitude that no man can number from every single nation will be together and we’ll all be singing the same song finally, worshipping the Lamb that was slain.  I’m looking forward to that day and I would love to hear all your guys’ songs for just a picture of that glorious day to come.  I love all you guys.  Talk to you later.  

Nahum 1:1-3:19 ~ Revelation 8:1-13 ~ Psalm 136:1-26 ~ Proverbs 30:7-9

Today is the 17^th of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  It’s great to be here with you today.  I’m Brian. Of course, it is always a pleasure any time that we can continue in the rhythm of the scriptures as a community, which is exactly what we’ll do today.  So we’re at the end of another week and at the beginning of another book. We will be reading it in its entirety today, the book of Nahum

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

The book of Nahum is another book of prophesy written to the city of Nineveh, so 150 years earlier.  Even though it hasn’t been that long since we read this, 150 years earlier from this book God had sent Jonah to the city.  And when he delivered God’s message, Nineveh fell on its face and repented and was spared.  Now they’ve returned to their wicked ways and are as bad off, if not worse than they ever were.

Nineveh was the capital city of the great Assyrian Empire and its conquests were known to be very brutal.  It was the Assyrian Empire that destroyed Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel and took them into exile.  So again God sends a prophet to Nineveh, Nahum, preaching repentance and a return to God.  The Ninevites did not listen this time and the prophesy of judgment came true in 625 BC with the destruction of Nineveh and the falling of the Assyrian Empire.  

The ruins of ancient Nineveh exist until today.  They’ve even been in the news because of some of the destruction of them that has been happening.  Nineveh currently is in modern day Iraq near a city called Mosul and, of course, that has been in the news with all that has been going on. That is where Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire was and its ruins still are.  So that is where we are talking about.  

Nahum’s prophesy shows that God is merciful and he is very patient, but he is not a pushover and he is not going to stand for a nation’s sin forever. This should spur us all on to be the agents of change that we are supposed to be in the places that we live, to be the catalysts for repentance and a return to our God.  

So we begin Nahum chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 19.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for the relentless reminder today that your steadfast love endures forever.  In the Psalms we read this ancient call and response prayer and over and over and over confessed the truth that you are good and that your steadfast love endures forever.  So we invite you.  Come Holy Spirit and plant that truth right at the level of our identity.  We know it to be true and so often we’re living otherwise. We’re frantically thrashing around as if it weren’t true, so we invite you to come and bring this stabilizing reality into our spirits so that it overflows into everything about our lives. Your steadfast love endures forever, which means there will never be a moment that your love isn’t steadfast toward us.  Come Holy Spirit.  Make that a reality to us and change us in the process so that our steadfast love for you endures forever because this is a relationship that you’ve invited us to and we have accepted.  So it is required of us as well that we be faithful, loyal and intimately intertwined with you.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It is where you find out all the things that are going on around here and the resources that are here to resource this community.  So be sure to check that out.  There is still one more day left for Christmas shipping.  You can find things in the Daily Audio Bible Shop and they can still arrive for Christmas if you’re in the United States.  If you’re international, we will ship them, but the likelihood of arriving before Christmas is not something we’re super confident about.  Maybe but not sure about.  If you’re in the United States, we can still get it to you through tomorrow, so check out those things.

And then we’ve been talking about the More Gathering.  The More Gathering, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, that is instant registration.  The More Gathering is our women’s conference that we do each year and it is profoundly impactful.  All you have to do is find somebody who has been and they can tell you for sure.  It is hard to describe, but it is deeply impactful.  It is a gift of time.  It is less the gift of travel.  Travel is involved obviously.  This takes place in the Southern Appalachian Mountains outside of Atlanta in Georgia and it is beautiful there, really beautiful, but then it is the great exhale once you get there, just the exhale of not having to think about anything and just having the community around you that you’re going through the Bible with. Just the sisterhood that falls on that place is incredible and the relationships that are developed that become life-long friendships even across miles is really, really beautiful to behold. That is just to say the least. The More Gathering for Women, we bring this out this time of year because it is truly, truly a one-of-a-kind Christmas idea for the woman in your life or the women in your lives.  It doesn’t just have to be your wife.  It could be your sister or a girlfriend that you want to go with or something like that, so you can check that all out at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You’ll find the More Gathering fairly easily and all of the details that you would want to know about it are there, so check that out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we prepare to close out the year of 2016, then it is humbling that we get to do this at all and that we are about to finish 11 years, seven days a week is… I don’t have words to put to that.  I can’t believe that we’ve been able to do this together.  But that’s the thing.  We’ve done it together.  Everything we’ve ever done has just been kind of born out of what grew around this, the community that grew around this so long ago.  So as we prepare to move into our 12^th year of bringing God’s spoken word to anyone who will listen, anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night, and to build community around it so that no one has to ever feel alone again, to begin year 12 means we have to do another year together. Thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you’re using the app, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner or if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hello Daily Audio Bible listeners.  This is Marcus from Columbia, TN.  I wanted to wish all of you an amazing heartfelt Christmas wish.  I listened to Brian’s message on Obadiah and it just kind of sunk in that we have brothers and sisters that are suffering around the world.  I pray that you would think of them this Christmas with all that they are possibly even suffering through in all parts of the world.  Brian, I thank you for this amazing program.  I listen to you almost every day and I am just grateful to be a part of this community.  So Merry Christmas everybody and have an amazing, life-changing New Year.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  It’s James, the teacher in LA with an urgent prayer request.  I’ve mentioned that I faculty sponsor for our school Bible club and the president of the club came to me yesterday afternoon, __________ call in, but a very good friend of hers from her church, another teen gal, was driving two of her friends to school I believe Friday morning and in some kind of freak accident, I don’t know all the details, but apparently some piece of metal debris or shrapnel managed to get flung into her car.  She was the driver, the young lady, not my student, but her friend Abbie.  It hit her in the head, knocked her unconscious instantly, caused a car accident for her and her passengers.  Her passengers had minor injuries, but Abbie, last I heard, had brain surgeries all weekend, is still in the hospital.  My student, Claire, God bless her, said that she knew if and when Abbie wakes up from this, she is just going to say that she is glad that it wasn’t someone who didn’t know the Lord who got hit because it would be a good witness that God doesn’t take out people that don’t know Jesus.  Guys, these are Kingdom people.  We need them healed to do God’s work in the world, so please pray that they would be healed to the glory of Christ.  I ask this in Jesus’ name, guys.  Thanks.  Love you. Bye-bye.  

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Alphaio calling from Delaware.  Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is an attitude.  It is a great way to acknowledge all that happens in our lives and to glorify the one who created us and who has us in the palm of his hand.  Life can be challenging.  Many times we feel downtrodden, no energy to go on, no motivation to finish the day, and no hope for tomorrow.  God never misses any detail of our lives.  He numbered the hairs of our heads.  God sees and knows it all.  He never misses your tears, your groaning, your pain and the many pleas. I choose this day to be faithful to glorify God and being grateful for all he has done and all he has in store for our lives.  All that happens to us, whether good or bad, comes with a purpose.  And remember that God could never let anything come to your life that he has no purpose for.  Be it for the greatest error in our lives or the greatest pain, it will turn your situation to one of divine purpose.  So rest in the assurance that Jesus has granted us full life.  He prayed that we would have a full life, so lead that full life today and forever starting with an attitude of gratitude.  Thank you, Lord, for all that you are doing, all that you could do, and for your constant pursuit of us whether we are ready or not ready for you.  Give us your Spirit to guide and to lead us to your loving arms even in our lowest moments. In Jesus’ name, amen.  Daily Audio Bible family, I love you all.  This is Alphaio from Delaware.  God bless you.

Good morning.  It is December 14^, 2016, at 8:11 a.m. and I am Sally in Brunswick and wanted to just call.  I’m a first time caller to the Dabber family, but I’ve been listening as a Dabber for a little over a couple years now.  I just want to thank Brian and Jill and family for the ministry that they have for this community.  It has been a real blessing to me and to my family.  I join in with prayers as I hear the prayer requests and so I’m just calling today to bless everyone and to thank everyone for the prayers that they offer up and also to have a prayer request of my own today.  I’m seeking God concerning some decisions that I need to make, ministry decisions.  I’m an associate pastor but have been in ministry for a little over 25 years.  I’m faced with some new decisions that I need to make and just trusting God for whichever direction I will go in and just would love the opportunity to lift this up for this particular season of my life and __________ of my family.  So I thank you.  Again, just want to bless everyone during this season and say thank you for the opportunity to hear your voices and to hear your prayers of intercession go up before the Lord and to be able to join with you in the atmosphere of prayer.  So I just bless each one of you and thank God for you and your lives.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Hi, good morning family.  Today is Wednesday, the 15^th.  This is Kim from California.  I haven’t called in a long time.  I’ve had a very busy year this year.  I got married and I want to thank all those that prayed for me and my husband.  I just want to say that right now I want to ask for your prayers.  My husband is actually in Florida today and he is looking at a house.  We’re going to be moving to Florida pretty soon.  His family is back there.  We know that family is the most important.  He’s looking at a house so I just want to ask for your prayers and if this is the right house for us, if this is the place God wants us to be, please let us know and let us get the house for a reasonable cost. I also want to say that those of you that are new to the Daily Audio Bible, please know that this is a good time to catch up if you’re behind on any of the podcasts.  Everything will disappear come December 31^st. I learned this many, many, many years ago.  It is just gone.  So if you need to catch up, now is the time to catch up.  I know my time is going, but I just want to tell all those women to go to the More Gathering.  I went there 2013.  I wrote on a little stone, they have something they do, and I wrote “bride” on the little stone.  It is something that you want in your life, and 2016 I became a bride.  I got married for the first time in my life.  I’m 59 years old.  So please have faith, women.  Please have faith.  It will happen.  I have such a good, good, good husband.  My time is going.  I just want to say I’m praying for Tim in Tampa, Sarah, Danny.  I’m still praying for Nancy in Seattle.  God bless you all.  I love you.  Bye-bye.

Hello.  My name is Mary R.  I’m just calling in response to the first gentleman who called in on December 14^th. I heard your prayer request. You’re now homeless after an accident and multiple broken relationships, it sounds like, simply needing forgiveness in your own heart.  I have no eloquent words for you, my brother, other than I’m praying for you.  I heard the cry of your heart through your message. I believe in the redeeming and restoring work of Jesus Christ on the cross, as I gather you do from your message and from your years of listening.  So I will just continue to be in prayer for you as you heal, as your spirit heals, as relationships heal, and as the Lord brings all good things out of this difficult time for you.  As your sister in Christ, I send my love to you and I will remember you.  God bless you.  

Micah 5:1-7:20 ~ Revelation 7:1-17 ~ Psalm 135:1-21 ~ Proverbs 30:5-6

Today is the 16^th day of the month of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is great to be here with you as we forge our way toward the end of another of our shrinking number of weeks left in this year.  It’s exciting.  It’s exciting because we are rounding the bend without a doubt.  So let’s get to it.  We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week and we will conclude the book that we began yesterday, the book of Micah.  Today chapter 5 verse 1 through 7 verse 20.  

Commentary

We completed the book of Micah today and of course Micah is speaking prophetic words and some of them are very specific to the time and place that he is speaking them, but some of them are timeless and simple enough that if we could just simply absorb and then integrate by being awake and aware, integrate these things, it would be so profoundly helpful to us.  

He is musing about the situation that they are in and the prophesy is of judgment to come, but he is musing about how can we move back, how we can get back to where we need to be with God?  How is it that we humble ourselves and repent and actually be back in that place that we’re supposed to be?  And the way he says it is:

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high?  

And then he kind of goes through this list:  Is it that I need to sacrifice burnt offerings, the special kind? Would that please the Lord?  If I could come up with thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil, is that what we need to do?  Or even do I give up my children for my transgression? Is that what would wash away the sin of my soul?  

What we have to do here is the question that gets an answer.  

He has told you, oh man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?  

It is like boom!  Mic drop moment, right?  Mic drop, walk off the stage, what else is there to say here?  It always boils down to something simple that is very understandable but very complicated to actually live into because it requires the diminishment of our own will and desires in most cases.  But it is this will and desire of ours that runs rampant, that gets us into so much trouble.  It is this same will and desire that got us into trouble in the first place in the book of Genesis chapter 3.  So we’re always kind of looking for how it is we can invoke God when there is nothing to invoke.  He is within us.  We must walk with him in collaboration.

So Micah is talking about what about these grandiose external things we can do, right?  These big offerings.  These rivers of oil, even the idea of giving up the children, which is over the top and something God never, ever asked for.  In fact, God even says in the scriptures that kind of thing has never even entered my mind.  But we always think it is like some kind of huge, huge thing that has to be done that somehow gets God to maybe pay some sort of attention when he is paying attention. He is totally paying attention and what Micah points out is it is not in the bombastic external things.  It is in the simple internal things of the soul. What does he require of you other than to do justice, to be just in all that you do and to love kindness in all that you are and to walk humbly with your God?  If those are our practices, if that is what we do, then we are moving toward wholeness.  There isn’t really anything else required outside of just believing this.  

So especially now in this season where goodwill is supposed to be all around us as we anticipate the arrival, the celebration of the arrival of the human one come to save us and long for the total restoration of all things at his second arrival, may we just understand that if we do justly in our lives and we love kindness and we walk humbly with our God, we will be doing what we are supposed to be doing.  It may take many shapes.  It may have many nuances based on our own personal life story and those within our sphere of influence and where we even are on this planet, it may take its own shape inside of us, but it is fundamentally leading us to repentance and wholeness.  May we heed the words of the prophet Micah so long ago and apply these things so fundamentally in our lives that they are burned in like a tattoo.  They are there.  They cannot be taken away.  It is written on our hearts that we must do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with our God.

Prayer

Father, that is our heart’s cry.  The thing is we acknowledge that we can’t do this without your Holy Spirit’s involvement.  We can try to be good.  We can try to behave.  We can discipline ourselves for a certain period of time, really correcting ourselves, and those things are very, very important, but we can’t pull this off before you truly without the collaboration of your Holy Spirit.  So we ask, come Holy Spirit.  Come.  Let us do exactly this, what is good.  What you require of us is to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with you, our God.  Help us live into that today and tomorrow and every day that follows it, for all of our days. We ask this in the name of Jesus who makes this a possibility.  Come Jesus, we pray in your name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here.  The three things that we’ve been talking about every day, I guess two of them have dropped off.  We are sold out of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box for 2016.  You can obviously and of course still get resources from the Daily Audio Bible Shop in time for Christmas, but the Christmas cut-off is midnight of the 18^th, so just two days from now.  That’s if you are in the United States.  If you are hoping for something internationally for Christmas, then that deadline is past.  We will happily send things out, but we’re kind of down to it as are most people who are shipping things these days.  

But the one thing that is instant and still very, very much on the radar is the More Gathering for Women that will take place this April 6-9.  It is our annual women’s conference and it makes for really, really one of the most unique gifts you could give to a woman because you’re not just giving a trip or something like that.  You’re giving time and space to unpack and just be.  That is something we all have to fight for and rarely get.  So to have a few days where you don’t have to really do anything, you are just kind of guided through among friends some thoughts, some things to consider, and then go consider and really dig deep into your own life and the trajectory it is on and where it is headed and really have the space to hear from God and move forward and make whatever changes need to be made so that the path becomes clear, there is just a lot of value there and it is very unique.  So if you’re looking for something really, really unique for the woman, the spouse, the sister, the girlfriend, well, then check out the Daily Audio Bible Women’s Conference.  It’s called the More Gathering and you can learn all about it at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Between now and the end of the year we have the special advanced price discount that we offer each year around this time so you can take advantage of that.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here in the final days of the year 2016, then we absolutely thank you and are humbled that Daily Audio Bible means enough to you to keep it moving forward.  Thank you humbly.  There are a few ways to go about this.  The Daily Audio Bible website, www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link that is living right on the home page.  If you’re using the app, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  And really, thank you.  Thank you for helping us get ourselves into the new year safe and sound and strong.  

And of course, as always, as a community we consider one of our most distinctive things the fact that we are a loving community that shoulders each other’s burdens and prays for each other, and if you are carrying a load and you would like your brothers and sisters to help shoulder that load, then there is a number you can call – (877) 942-4253.  

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi dear family.  This is Pastor Gene M. from Bradenton, FL.  I love you very much.  Let’s pray. Father, I thank you and preemptively go on the offensive against the enemy of our souls that comes to _________, to destroy, to lie to us.  I rebuke him from our family relationships.  I rebuke him from our friendship relationships.  I go against him, Lord, because you say in your word that when we pray to you, we should ask to be delivered from evil, Father, and we ask to be delivered from evil, even before he attacks.  We know that he plans for us our __________ and to disrupt our lives. We take authority in the mighty name of Jesus and take every thought and every __________ that is not according to your counsel to the cross of Jesus Christ.  We submit it to the power of your resurrection.  O dear Father, help us.  Help us, Father, to resist.  To those of us that are married, help us to see when the enemy is attacking us, that our struggle is not against flesh or blood.  It is not against our spouses but against the enemy of our souls.  Help us as the enemy lies to us in our relationships with our children.  Help as the enemy tries to interfere as we try to minister and witness to others about Christ.  Help us when the enemy tries to plan sedition and wants to make us __________ that our devices and social media that do not bring glory to your name and that makes us win an argument but that affects our testimony with others.  Father, in the name of Jesus, Father, I pray for Alicia from Kansas and ask that you will continue encouraging her.  I pray for the daughter of my sister Melisa, pray that you will continue to strengthen her and take out all those suicidal thoughts.  I pray for the continued restoration of Abbie, daughter of my sister Jen and I pray for my brother New Creation and ask that you will continue to…

Hello Daily Audio Bible members.  Thank you for praying for everyone that you’ve prayed for all these years.  I’m calling, I don’t normally ask people to pray for me, but something has been happening to me that has made me so frightened I need to.  Father, we know that wherever two or more are gathered in your name, that you are there among them and so that is why I am calling you today, Daily Audio Bible members.  I’m withdrawing from a medication that I was given and it has been very painful because it has given me seizures.  My name is Anthony, if I didn’t say that.  But it is giving me basically convulsions and seizures and they are unpredictable.  I can never predict.  They happen all through the day and they even happen at night when I’m attempting to sleep. This has been making it difficult to meet my own responsibilities, to be there for my family and loved ones, and it has also just been very frightening for me in many ways including on a spiritual basis and I just ask if anyone is willing to pray for me that I can be healed from this condition.  The doctors don’t know how to help me right now and it has been the most traumatic experience for me.  But thank you and I’ll continue to pray for you and those of you that I hear about. God bless you.  Thank you.  Goodbye.

Hey DAB brothers and sisters.  This is Byron out in Florida.  Jordan out in Detroit, I got a message for you straight from God.  God loves you.  God loves you.  God loves you.  God loves you.  I can’t think of a time where I’ve spoken so forcefully on the prayer line, but Jordan, don’t you dare give up on this 30-day challenge because if you have nothing else to say, you can say that God loves you.  Whether you feel it or not it is the truth.  You can call in every day and just say that, but you have to keep this going.  You have to. God shows up for those who do not quit so don’t quit.  God loves you.  It is the truth whether you have a good day or bad day, whether you’re feeling it or not. It is the truth.  Don’t give up.  I am praying for you.  I’m rooting for you.  We’re all rooting and praying for you, Jordan.  Don’t give up.  God loves you.  

Family, I hope you’re all doing well.  This is Biola from Maryland.  Shout-out to you, Egbert, my brother.  I’m praying for you.  I did get your message.  God bless you, my brother.  I pray that God would continue to help you in your walk with him.  Carol?  I don’t recall, but the sister who lives in Minnesota but couldn’t go to Israel because of an accident, I am praying for you.  The word of God says that he gives his beloved sleep.  The Bible says that you shall lie down and your sleep shall be sweet and I plead that word over you right now.  I generate it in your life.  I make it active, in the name of Jesus.  Sister, when you lie down your sleep will be sweet and you’ll be fully healed, in the precious name of Jesus.  Blind Tony, I hope you’re doing much better.  I’m still praying for you, in Jesus’ name.  God bless you, my brother.  I want to pray for the brother also who talked about addiction to porn and alcohol.  Brother, the Bible says that he who the Son has set free is free indeed.  The devil is using these to make you feel condemned and give you guilt.  I pray in the name of Jesus that the power of this will be broken in your life and your daughter’s life.  She is also addicted to porn.  In the name of Jesus I decree and declare, brother, that you are set free in the name of Jesus and you will be completely free, in Jesus’ name, that when you think about porn or alcohol, it will be disgusting to you, in the name of Jesus. You will no longer have any satisfaction in looking at porn or drinking alcohol, in the precious name of Jesus. As I have decreed, so it shall be, in Jesus’ name.  Brian and Jill, shout-out to you.  God bless both of you.  Okay, people.  Women, start registering for the More Conference.  This is a plug.  Jill did not tell me to do this, but I’m telling you it’s an awesome conference. You need to start registering and start taking up your spaces before the spaces fill up.  It is awesome.  I can’t tell you how awesome it is.  God bless you.

Hi Brian, Jill, Tyler, China, Ezekiel, Cristian and the DAB family. This is Garth from Bromley Kent, UK. As a family this year, we’re doing something different over the holiday season.  We’ll be traveling with friends to places we’ve never been before. Recently I saw a few of Jill’s posts on the DAB Facebook page that have had me thinking and reflecting.  After hearing Brian’s prayer on the 12^th of December, it triggered me contemplating about intentionally experiencing Christmas in a different way.  Always prevalent at this time as you look around are joy, peace, and love. The Holy Spirit was fundamentally bringing about the birth of Christ and his fingerprint is all over the biblical narrative, so this Christmas, apart from focusing on joy, peace, and love, which are easier to do, why not intentionally look for ways of enhancing the other Fruit of the Spirit in ourselves, in our environment and in those we come into contact with:  Kindness, goodness, patience, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness.  Against such, there is no law.  Brian, Jill, and family, thank you for your sacrificial giving to the Daily Audio Bible.  The Lord continue to bless you and keep you.  May the Lord continue to make his eyes shine upon us all this Christmas as we continue to focus on him.  We ask all this in the precious name of his son, Jesus.  Amen.

Good morning Dabbers.  Today is December 13^th.  I’m a burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King.  This morning I heard many requests including a man who called and basically mentioned again how this time of the year can be difficult for some.  He lost his brother on Christmas Day.  I am praying for you.  A lady also called.  She is also estranged from her kids, and another lady, sorry I didn’t get the names because I’m driving, but you mentioned something about giving in to thoughts, negative thoughts in your mind that cause you to go into a dark place. I might be paraphrasing it, but I believe it happens to the best of us.  I just want to say this.  Whatever we focus on we empower to have complete control over our thoughts, our will, our emotion and our action.  So I am just challenging us today to focus on God.  Focus on what God has done for us this year.  In Liberia the end of the year there is a song we sing New Year’s Day. We say Happy New Year, we don’t die all, which means thank God, Happy New Year, I didn’t die.  I know it sounds like not a lot but if for nothing we have that to be thankful for.  I love you guys.