Month: January 2017

Genesis 41:17-42:17 ~ Matthew 13:24-46 ~ Psalm 18:1-15 ~ Proverbs 4:1-6

Today is January 20^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It is a pleasure to be here with you today.  We’re sneaking up on completing three full weeks of the new year, chasing down our hearts as we chase down the stories in the Bible.  Right now in the Old Testament, we’re chasing the story of Joseph.

So Joseph has been sold into slavery by his family, has become a slave, has been put in prison, all for doing really the right thing and now he finds himself standing before the king of Egypt, the pharaoh, who has had a dream which has summoned Joseph from the dungeon.  Genesis chapter 41, verse 17 through 42, verse 17 today.  

Commentary

There is so much we could talk about today.  Let’s just recap this story that is ongoing with Joseph because he’s come face to face not only with brothers he hasn’t seen in over a decade, but with the very people that trafficked him, that sold him into slavery, his own family.  So you can imagine the conflict going on in his heart, the joy and the pain all mixed together into this terribly bittersweet moment.

Where we leave the story today is as if Joseph is about to get his vengeance. He’ll get his vengeance on the people that sold him into slavery.  “You are spies.”  And they are freaking out because they are a lot of things, but they are not spies. They just need food.  Josephs says, “You’re going to stay here in prison except for one of you.  Go get your brother.  Prove that you’re telling the truth.”  It is like Joseph is going to get his true blood brother from the same mother and father, bring him to Egypt and then do away with the brothers or have some sort of vengeance, do a big reveal and give them their just desserts while he has his brother safely tucked away.  That might actually be justice, but is that what he’s going to do?  We’ll have to wait to find out.  

We leave our Old Testament reading today in the story of Joseph with everything upside down.  God has been faithful to Joseph and Joseph has followed God and stored up for the whole nation of Egypt and provided for them through this famine.  People are coming from all over the region so Egypt is becoming incredibly enriched because of the commerce.  Joseph is doing a good job.  He’s always done a good job in spite of the injustice of what has been happening to him.  But seeing his brothers, that flips things upside down.  His brothers, their lives are flipped upside down too because they’ve just been accused of spying by the second in command only to the pharaoh of all of Egypt.  Their hope for survival with food goes through this guy and this guy is accusing them of being spies and has taken them into custody.  It is a bad situation, but it is not the end of the story and we’re starting to see things come full circle.  As we look at the story of Joseph, we begin to look at our own lives and see the places that we’ve been true, only to seemingly take steps backward. But there is always more going on than we know about and as things start to come full circle, we need to be aware of that.  

In the book of Matthew, Jesus is discussing the kingdom of heaven, something he discusses all of the time.  So what is the kingdom of heaven?  What do you think about when you think of the kingdom of heaven and what it is like?  

All my life growing up in the faith I would hear discussions of the kingdom of heaven and that somehow I’m a part of the kingdom of heaven, the ongoing kingdom of heaven, but in my mind the kingdom was this thing to come. Jesus would show up on a white horse, all of the host of heaven with him, and all of the bad guys would get beat up and done away with and the good guys would prevail and this new kingdom would be established under the rule of the king, King Jesus.  And if I lived my life right, then I could be there.  I could be there on that day somehow, whether because I was alive at the time or because I had come with Jesus to be a part of that kingdom.  That was just kind of my loose perception of things, that this was something to come. It was esoteric.  How could you know what that is actually going to look like and prepare for that?  But I will come and I will be there one way or the other.  

What does that look like for you?  And just as important, what was that like for the people Jesus was talking to? This idea of this kingdom of heaven was something that they longed for as well.  They were expecting it to happen as well.  There were prophecies that it would happen, so they were looking for this person, a person that they called the Messiah.  This person hadn’t shown up yet, but one day a Messiah, a person, a chosen one would come and he would rise through the ranks and become a leader among them and he would be the anointed one.  He would be devout but also able to communicate and rally the people together to rise up and bring this kingdom, this restoration to God.  

Without going on too much of a bunny trail, it is important to kind of contextualize this whole thing based on where we’ve been in the Bible thus far. So there is this man whose name is Abram.  He becomes Abraham.  A promise is given that his offspring would inhabit a certain land, the land that he was in, and that his offspring would be vast and a nation would be formed, God’s chosen people.  So we’re in the midst of moving into that story and seeing how that came to be in the Old Testament.  And it will come to be.  But it won’t last.  So it will happen, but it won’t last.  The people will all be carried away into exile.  

As we move into the New Testament, the time of Jesus, it has been a long time, centuries since everyone was carried away.  There has been no promised land and chosen people for a long, long time. What the Hebrew people of Jesus’ time are looking for is someone to take them back to that place where they had their own land and they were God’s chosen people again.  So when Jesus shows up with signs and wonders and talks of a kingdom of heaven, they are listening.  They are wondering could he be the chosen one, the anointed one?  Could he be the Messiah?  Even the religious leaders and Pharisees are looking to see if he could be the one.  At first they are not against him, but he is not for them.  He is actually confrontational toward them because they have become confrontational toward him because he’s bucking the system.  He is dismantling so many of the traditions that give them power over the people.  But even to the most devout, he is bucking the system and breaking with tradition.

So back to the original question.  What is the kingdom of heaven?  What does that look like?  I had my ideas growing up.  These people had their ideas based on the worldview that they understood.  But neither one of those things seem to be the kingdom Jesus described.  Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.”  And as he fleshes out the description, the owner of the field decides to let the wheat and the weeds grow up together all the way until the harvest time and then they will be separated so that the wheat will not be pulled up with the weeds. In other words, the kingdom that Jesus is talking about is already happening and it is growing in and among everything else.  It is everywhere among everything else.  The weeds and the wheat are growing up together.  In other words, the kingdom is happening right now.  It is something to come and yet it is also something already here and we have to understand whether we’re wheat or whether we’re weeds. If we’re completely unaware of the fact that we are a part of something that is happening right now, oh, then we have to consider what we are in this analogy, wheat or weeds.

Then Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his field and though it is the smallest of all seeds, when it grows it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”  So if you’ve ever seen a mustard seed, you know it is a tiny little thing, but if you plant and cultivate that thing, it will become a large branch that birds can come and sit in.  But once that happens, you’re going to have a hard time finding the mustard seed. It will be untraceable, and yet this little tiny seed grows up to support an entire ecosystem around it. Is that what we’re doing, we as individuals?  Little insignificant seeds that are growing to support an entire ecosystem of the kingdom around us?  Because that is something that is now.  That is something that is happening.  Are we a part of that or are we waiting for something to come that isn’t coming the way we think it is?  

Then Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about 60 pounds of flour until it worked all the way through the dough.” If you’ve ever cooked with yeast, then you know its effect on a loaf.  But once the loaf is baked, you can’t find the yeast anymore.  If you didn’t have the yeast, the loaf would be radically different.  Jesus is describing a kingdom that you cannot put your finger on and point to, which he will explicitly explain later.  It is growing up all around us and we are supposed to be a part of it right now. We’re not waiting for it to start. We are it.  

That, my friends, is a game changer because all of a sudden we realize there is more going on to this story.  Just like the story of Joseph, there is more going on than we know about.  And we are a part of something really important and really big to what happens in our world.  Whereas Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that we read, “You are the salt of the earth.  You are the light of the world,” we are a part of something really big.  Are we living like we are a part of something really important?  Or are we stuck in just what we can see in front of us, not realizing that there is more going on than we’re aware of?  We’ll never figure it out without walking with God and being led by his Holy Spirit within us.  How will we ever know what is going on without God being able to take us into his confidence and tell us what is next for us in his kingdom?  Which is exactly what we read in the book of Proverbs just a couple of days ago.  “The Lord detests the perverse but takes the upright into his confidence.”  

So we are a part of a kingdom to come, but we are a part of a kingdom that is now.  We have a role to play in this kingdom.  We will not ever figure out that there is more going on than we can see if we do not walk with God loyally, trustworthy, so that he has been taken into our confidence and we have been taken into his.  This is a larger story than we have ever dreamed and we are smack in the middle of it. It hasn’t been a great mystery like we’ve lived for so long.  It has been in the Bible telling this to us for thousands of years.  What if here on the 20^th day of the year, just as we reach the cusp of three weeks into the Bible, we finally open our eyes and take breath into our lungs and realize this is a big deal?  That I am here right now is a big deal and this small story, all of these things that I keep twisting myself into, these webs and these relationships and these addictions and these obsessions, these are small things in comparison with what I’m invited to be a part of.  And I need to get about the business of extricating myself from the things that do not matter so that I can give my heart to the things that do.  I need margin in my life because I am a part of the kingdom of heaven and that matters right now.  

May we wake up.  It is no small thing to be the salt of the earth or the light of the world.  If we are to be either of those, we have to be awake, alert and aware.  

Prayer

Father, we invite your Holy Spirit to speak into that in our own lives. What does that look like to us?  Because we’re each writing our own story and it has its own twists and turns and it is not one size fits all.  We invite your Holy Spirit to enter into the story we have been telling with our lives and may this day be a day that the plot has a huge twist in it, that we turned away from the directions we were going that would only harm us and moved intentionally toward wholeness.  To be what you’ve created us to be we need a whole heart and we need to love you with all of it.  So come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In the mighty name of Jesus we ask.  Amen.  

Song played on today’s DAB:  Nichole Nordeman - Brave (Lyric Video) - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iyrHs960HM

Genesis 39:1-41:16 ~ Matthew 12:46-13:23 ~ Psalm 17:1-15 ~ Proverbs 3:33-35

Today is January 19^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. Yep, for the next step forward.  This will be our 19^th step and 365 steps might seem like a lot of steps, but these steps go by fast.  Here we are, already past the halfway point of our first month together.  Look at all that has happened.  Now we’re picking up the story of Joseph.  Joseph’s story is not only a powerful, really powerful example in our own lives, but it is also going to show us how this one promise to this one man named Abraham actually started to take real shape and form.  

So today, from the New International Version, Genesis chapter 39, verse 1 through chapter 41, verse 16.  

Commentary

We have to talk about Joseph because Joseph’s story unfolds over time and we have a lot of detail in it and it is such a mirror of different seasons in our own lives and offers us quite a contrast.  So the chances of any of us having experienced everything that Joseph experienced is pretty small.  This kid went through quite a bit of things.  

He’s 17 years old, he’s a young man, he’s really good looking, according to the Bible, built well and handsome.   And he’s also the beloved son of his father’s old age.  You’ll have to remember that he is the son of the beloved wife Rachel and for so long she wasn’t able to have children.  In the end she was able to have two sons and died giving birth to one of them and his name is Benjamin.  But Joseph is a beloved son of his father, so he treats him differently than the sons from these other women.  So that brings some tension of its own and then Joseph starts having these dreams and starts telling his brothers about them.  In these dreams they are bowing down to him, which does not go over well. You can imagine that if you grew up with siblings.  If one of your siblings told you that “I had a dream that you will be bowing down to me,” and you’re a teenager during this time, yeah, that is not going to go over well. So it brings a lot of animosity. There is just a lot of family politics here.  

So Jacob, whose name has been changed to Israel, sends one of his sons, one of the children of Israel to the other children of Israel, the only children of Israel that exist at this point.  He is supposed to go check on the flocks, check on his brothers, see how everybody is doing.  And the brothers decide to teach this dreamer, this teenager, this favored son a lesson and they talk about killing their own brother.  What they end up doing is throwing him into a cistern.  We see some different relationships inside the dynamics of the brothers.  One of the brothers wants to save him.  The other brothers want to kill him.  Then they come up with this plan that they are going to sell him.  So Joseph, a 17-year-old really good-looking young man who has been the star or favored son is human trafficked by his own family into slavery and ends up in Egypt.  

We can stop right there and put ourselves in Joseph’s shoes and say that is not fair.  And it is not fair, but we begin to see the posture of heart that Joseph has within him. He becomes the slave of Potiphar, a high-ranking official to the pharaoh, the captain of the guard, so a military man, a guy who knows his way around a sword, a guy probably to be feared. But he is sold to this guy, but quickly Joseph becomes in charge of the whole house of Potiphar.  Joseph could have been constantly saying this is not fair. I’m a Hebrew.  I was stolen.  I was marketed by my own family.  I don’t belong to be a slave.  I was born free.  He doesn’t go into all that.  He just sets about the work that is put before him while trusting in God and just doing well and he becomes favored in that position.  But Potiphar’s wife takes notice of this well-built, good-looking young man and wants to make him her toy.  

Every time we get to this part I’m like this is a 17-year-old kid. Maybe he’s a little older now. Maybe he’s 18.  Maybe he’s 19 years old.  So for him to resist Potiphar’s wife, that’s a pretty big feat.  Pretty tough to resist that when you’ve got a woman throwing herself at you and you’re in this particular age.  But he uses common sense and says the facts.  “I am in charge of everything.”  Like, “I essentially have a lot of freedom that was taken away from me and you’re the only thing off-limits to me.  I can’t.”  

Of course, what happens is he flees from her and she keeps his cloak and uses it to incriminate him which lands him in prison.  So he could be sitting in a cell in a dungeon saying, “Wait a minute, this is not fair at all.  I was the favored, favorite son of my father.  I have been made a slave and it’s not fair and now I am in prison for doing the right thing.”  At every turn, Joseph is doing the right thing and it is only making it worse.  Have you ever been in a situation like that? Where it is like hard to stand your ground and do the right thing and just take it?  

What we see in Joseph is a very long view.  He has remarkable ability to see a bigger picture and that what is happening right now is not the end of the story.  He doesn’t know the end of the story, but he has a trust in the God of his father and recognizes this as his only hope.  So in short order he becomes basically in charge of the prison.  We went through these stories of the baker and the cupbearer and the dreams.  The dreams are interpreted right.  The baker is executed.  The cupbearer is restored and completely forgets about Joseph for another couple of years.  Another couple of years Joseph has to serve in that prison that he does not belong in because he did the right thing.  

At the end of the reading today, we find that Pharaoh has a dream and Joseph is brought from the prison to stand before the king of Egypt.  This story isn’t over yet.  We won’t give it all away.  We’ll read through it, but let’s at least pay attention to the fact that Joseph was doing the right thing and it only seemed to make things worse. Somehow Joseph was able to stay faithful and true to God and have a long view that there is more going on than it seems. This is not the last time we’ll see this theme emerge in the Bible.  It is an important one.  There is more going on in your life right now than it seems.  When we box ourselves into the immediate, right now, then we continue to do this loop.  We keep playing the same tape over and over and over, getting more and more and more bitter, which makes us start blaming God when that is the only hope we have.  

Joseph didn’t deserve any of the things that happened to him, but wait until we see how he remembers all of this over the next couple days.  

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your word.  We thank you for the gift of your word and all of the stories of our spiritual ancestors long ago because we find in their hearts our heart.  We find in their circumstances our circumstances. They look a little different. We’re in different cultures and wearing different clothes, but the motivations and postures of heart, they are the same.  We’ve been wondering about these things in our lives.  We were trying to be true and trying to do the right thing, but it seems to only get worse.  So we immediately feel like we’re being attacked and we start to fight that rather than just asking you “are you in this?” and “where are we going?” and resting in you.  So we subtly try to fight off attacks and start blaming you for not showing up when we haven’t even asked, when we haven’t been the friend that we were talking about yesterday in the book of Proverbs, where we haven’t been the kind of person you can take into your confidence.  We haven’t been trustworthy, yet when we look at Joseph we see a completely different posture.  So Father, help us to understand there is more going on than we know about and if we will walk with you, we will have the grace that we need for this day.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible and help out a little bit in keeping everything spinning and going and moving forward every single day, then thank you.  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 in the lower right-hand corner. Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hello my DAB family.  It is Mark S. from Sydney, Australia.  Today is Thursday, I think the 11^th of January.  Look, I’m sorry I got interrupted in my last one.  Look, I’ve got an urgent prayer request.  I do want to wish you all a Happy New Year and I’m sorry that it’s not been a wonderful year for me, but I know with God’s help, not so much for me, for my son…  He’s going downhill.  He’s got such a hatred in his heart for his mother.  He wants to destroy her life and no matter what I say to him, he is becoming more and more hatred in his heart.  It’s grown totally out of proportion in his mind of what happened, probably due to some of the sin in the past, myself that caused some issues as well. I’ve tried to tell him that, but he won’t listen.  He’s doing his best.  He wants to destroy her life.  I’m praying he won’t, but I’m in despair because I’ve tried to sit down.  I’ve tried to talk to him and say that anger was killing him.  He doesn’t care.  He says as long as his mother suffers, he doesn’t care what happens to himself.  He is just so full of hatred and anger. Family, please, please pray for Damon. He is in such a pit of hell at the moment.  The devil has a strangle hold of him totally and I just need as many prayers as possible that Satan will leave him alone and that he will be in love with Jesus.  He’s totally taken by Satan at the moment and it is sad to say.  Please pray for me, family.  Love you all. Bye.  

Hey, good morning family.  This is Cherry C., Cherry Pie.  Hope everybody is well today.  I just heard the prayer line.  I heard, I think she said Anna, the 11-year-old girl that called about her grandmother and her grandmother passed.  I want to tell you, Baby, I’ve got your back.  You’re a little prayer warrior already.  I’m saying look at her.  You’re a little prayer warrior already, so I’m sure your grandmother was proud of you.  I am just for you being bold and standing up for God and just calling in.  Now I’m going to ask you guys for prayers.  I’m still trying to get my house refinanced and right now everything is going through the process, so I’m asking you all to cover me and that this will be done and God fixes it for me where I can redo my loan for my home.  You guys, you all be blessed.  I love each and every one of you guys.  Please stay encouraged.  Every day you wake up you can reset.  You can change what you don’t like.  Just push that reset button.  You don’t like what is going on in your life, hit reset. Start it all over. Write it down. Write it out.  I love you guys so much.  You have a glorious and wonderful day and you guys, I will see you.  Or not see you.  I want to see you guys.  I want to see all you guys, but I will talk to you guys soon and it seems like I’m going to see you guys.  I love you guys.  You guys have a great day.  

Good morning family.  Today is January 15^th.  This is Sheila T. calling from Texas.  I had a mighty visitation from the King of kings and I saw Brian’s mom being welcomed into heaven.  Sorry guys. I’m emotional.  I cried with joy.  There is a lot of joy in heaven right now.  She is no longer that woman with tubes.  She is so beautiful.  She has been introduced to other brothers who are already in heaven.  There is so much celebration, guys.  As we mourn, let us not mourn as the hopeless.  Let us know that one of us has been received to heaven. God delights when he receives a soul that did right, so guys, let us purpose to walk this life on that narrow path that leads to eternal life.  Don’t be swayed.  Don’t look to the left or to the right.  Look to Jesus, the perfecter of your faith.  People, God wants you to pray for Brian’s family every day.  He calls him my friend.  Brian, you are God’s friend and guess what?  You are Satan’s enemy.  So family, pray every day for Brian.  Pray for him. I come against the spirit of death over this family.  I pray, O God, that you may fill this family with your joy, your love.  Comfort them.  Surround them with your mighty arms.  Let them know how much you love them.  And we too love them.  Thank you Jesus for the mighty visitation.  I love you guys.  Bye.  

Good morning all my Dabbers.  This is Darryl from Depew.  Today is the 12^th day of January and I would like to reach out to little, I think her name was Anna, the little 11-year-old.  What a sweetheart she is.  What a believer in God and in Jesus she is.  Oh my God, I just love this little girl.  I could listen to her talk forever.  But anyways, she said that her grandma has passed away, so may her family mourn the loss but may they have many memories of grandma.  Anna, be blessed in the Lord and keep going strong the way you are.  Love you, Honey.  Bye.  

Good morning everyone.  This is Alicia from Kansas.  Today is January 12^th.  Happy Thursday.  Happy Friday Eve everybody.  I know this will get played afterwards.  Just wanted to say a couple of things.  If you could please just pray for me.  I’m trying to find balance with my children.  As I’ve shared before unashamedly before my Lord, I’m the mother of five children who have five fathers and two of my children I have not met.  Just trying to find balance and be the matriarch of my family as a godly woman, a godly single woman with just two of the children who were raised together.  They are all adults, well, except for one.  I just get plagued with self-pity and hurt feelings and get a little passive aggressive.  Just prayer that God would give me guidance and direction.  I just wanted to lift up Autumn today and say thank you Autumn for calling and I’m sorry for your grandmother’s passing.  I’m so grateful that your family is moving and that prayers are being answered.  You are a precious, beautiful child.  I’m so proud of you and I’m sure your parents are and the Lord is just celebrating you. When I was your age, I was in the foster system and already using drugs, so you keep close to the Lord, Sweetheart. Keep doing what you’re doing. We’re all so happy for you and happy that you’re grandma is rejoicing with Jesus.  Alright, everybody.  Have a great day today.  Oh, and Autumn, I love Victorious Soldier’s prayers too.  Take care all.  Bye-bye.

Hi, this Dr. Stone from the Cleveland, OH area calling for Brian. Just to let you know that I’m praying for you and pass on my condolences to you and to your family after the loss of your mother.  As I said on the Facebook page, my heart breaks with you and your family, but my heart also rejoices for your mother who moved fully into the presence of God. I’m sure she is up there with Jesus, saying “Brian, I love you and I’ll be here waiting for you.”  Thank you.  And you’re in my prayers.  

Hello Daily Audio Bible viewers.  This is Faith Butterfly from South Africa.  I just wanted to give a shout-out to a lady called Biola from Maryland. She prayed for me three years ago for my daughter, Cora and I, and I wanted to let her know that we are doing well. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for three years now and we live in Central South Africa.  There are a few other friends who I’ve introduced to the Daily Audio Bible and we are listening to it together.  My prayer request is just to pray that I will be in the center of God’s will as I seek him and that he will direct my path in important decisions I need to make.  Thank you. Bye.  

Good morning Dabbers.  I’m a burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our Lord and King.  Today I’m calling for the young lady who called.  Her name is Autumn.  I believe she is Inez’s granddaughter from Arizona.  This 11-year-old called.  I’m so sorry, I didn’t hear your first request but it is probably because I wasn’t up-to-date on all the calls by the end of the year, but I am praying for you and your family.  I prayed for you when I listened to your request and I want you to know you are totally covered. I am very impressed and I admire your spiritual growth at 11 years old.  I pray that God will continue to sustain what he has started in your life.  Praise God for your family being reunited.  I pray that this will be a good transition for you and your family.  God bless you.  I love you and hope you call in again.  God bless.

Genesis 37:1-38:30 ~ Matthew 12:22-45 ~ Psalm 16:1-11 ~ Proverbs 3:27-32

Today is the 18^th of January.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you and great to take the next step forward.  We’ve been traveling with Jacob and now we’re going to move into his son Joseph’s story.  As we move through the story of Joseph, we find a lot of connection points to our own lives.  So we begin, Genesis chapter 37, verse 1 through 38, verse 30 today.  We’re reading from the New International Version this week.  

Commentary

Think of the person in your life that you trust the most, the person that is closest to you, that you trust the most.  Then think of a person that at this point in time you don’t have a whole lot of respect for, that you don’t trust the most.  What are the differences between the two?  Probably loyalty, consistency, honesty, truth.  Probably time.  The one you trust the most you’ve probably got some miles with.  You’ve probably been through some ups and downs, some hills and valleys and mountaintops and maybe even deep deserts together.  It is probably reciprocal.  You’ve probably been there for each other, while the other person, maybe the one you struggle with or don’t have a lot of respect or confidence in has been the opposite of that in one way or another.  What we’re describing is relationship.  The person that is close to you, the person that you trust, they have your ear, you have theirs, you have confidence in each other and you can take them into your confidence.  You can tell them deeper things that are going on that you’re thinking, that you’re working through, that you’re trying to process.  You have this person and you can bring them into your confidence because you trust in them.  

When I asked the question just a second ago, bring that person to mind, some of you may have brought God even to mind, God is the only one you can truly trust. We have to understand that is also a reciprocal thing.  Relationships are shaped so that there is give and take.  So a relationship with God is not a one-sided thing where we’re doing all the asking and all the receiving and all of the talking and we’re dominating the whole thing.  That is not a healthy relationship.  

According to the proverb today, the Lord detests the perverse but takes the upright into his confidence, which means God trusts the upright and brings them near into his confidence.  This lets us know that this faith journey is not just the act of putting our trust in God and trying to walk with him but also that we are trustworthy with him, that he can put his trust in us.  It is not enough to just go to church and sing songs about how we’re friends of God and he’s awesome and beats up the bad guys for us.  This is about being in life together daily with a loyalty and allegiance that we would expect of the very, very closest person to us.  

If we want to be the friend of God, then we have to be a friend, somebody who is trustworthy and loyal to God.  We have to know that he is trustworthy and loyal to us.  This is what relationships look like and this is what is available to us.  May we live our lives in such a way that the Lord can take us into his confidence because this is what our hearts long for.  If we’ll examine our lives, we’ll see that this person that we talked about at the beginning, this one that is closest to us, the one that we trust the most in the world, if they acted toward us the way that we conduct ourselves in this relationship with God sometimes, they wouldn’t be as trusted as they are.  So are we upright?  Are we true before God?  Can he take us into his confidence?  Are we a true friend of God?  Looking in the mirror of that idea should explain a lot to us about the trajectory and shape of our lives.  

Prayer

Father, we invite your Holy Spirit into that because this is our desire, that we are your friend, that you can take us into your confidence, that we can walk through this life with a confidence and loyalty and trueness that we haven’t experienced, and yet the invitation is there.  It’s not you who has withheld yourself from us.  It’s we who have withheld ourselves from you.  So we invite your Holy Spirit into that. Bring up those areas that we have kept off-limits and those areas where secrets are being kept and we’re not being loyal and true.  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, so be sure to check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in our common mission to keep the journey fresh every day, then thank you.  Thank you for your partnership.  There is a link on the home page at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you use the Daily Audio Bible 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, 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 and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi everyone on the Daily Audio Bible.  This is Nicki from Florida and I’m calling specifically for Dorcas from New York.  Dorcas, I would love to connect with you.  I am also totally blind.  Maybe I can help.  Maybe I can be there.  Maybe I can be a friend.  I don’t know, but I have been totally blind my whole life and I also know of all of the technology.  I work for a company that makes some of it and so maybe I can give you some help. I don’t know, but Dorcas, I feel for you, Sister.  I’m sorry you don’t have a lot of help.  This must be a very hard road for you, but I would love to connect with you.  I would love to pray with you.  I would love to help you and be there for you.  You can email me.  My email address is Jesusgirl71@gmail.com.  I would really love to hear from you.  My heart aches for you.  I feel for you and I’m so sorry for what you’re going through with your work and everything else, but know that you’re not alone.  So in any case, again, this is Nicki from Florida.  I would love to hear from you or anyone.  I’m praying and listening to everything and I’m loving the Bible.  I’m on Facebook as well and I’m on the DAB Friends group.  Anyway, thank you to everyone and to Brian and Jill.  Again, Dorcas, I would love…

This is Christine with a barking dog and I’m calling in specifically for Becky. Becky, I’ve been listening to you. I feel like I have a friendship with you way back from when you were Becky from Norway.  And now I think you are Becky from Philadelphia.  I wanted to thank you that you called in the other day. It was a sad day for you.  It was your birthday and I appreciate your calling and being vulnerable and showing us all that we all have good and bad days. And yet you were so encouraging. Your voice is always so encouraging and such a welcome thing to listen to.  That was one day when you needed support from some of us.  So thank you for showing all of us that God is faithful and God allows us to have highs and lows but that you called in both to encourage and just sincerely ask for help.  God bless you, Becky, and I hope today is a better day and I hope this year to come is blessed.  

Happy New Year, Daily Audio Bible family!  I am thanking God for all of the things that he has planned coming into 2017. Thank you to all the new listeners. I promise that you will not regret becoming a part of this amazing ministry.  On that note, I just listened to January 14^th and know that Brian Hardin and his brother have lost their mother.  There are no words to say what I want to convey to you, Brian and your family, but knowing the man that you are and that you have been going on these 12 years being a part of the DAB community, I know that God is with you and you are with him.  I know that your family is going through a trying time, but as you keep saying about margin, that definitely is going to come into play here.  I appreciate so much that you didn’t take a day for yourself or a week for yourself as many of us probably would.  Again, it just goes to show the testament of your dedication to this community and this family.  I thank you from the bottom of my heart and thank God that your mom is now with him, rejoicing with him and I do believe that they are having the best party ever. Your mom and your dad are joined together and while everyone here that is left behind when loved ones pass, we do know that there is a day coming when we will all be together.  I thank you.  I thank the people behind the scenes.  You have a wonderful partner in Jill.  God definitely yoked the two of you together.  He knew the reason and it just continues to inspire me to be a better wife, a better person and a better Christian.  I love you, DAB family.  Cheers! Asia from Munich.  

Hello, this is Heather from Louisiana, a 3-year Dabber but first-time caller.  I am one of the residents from Louisiana that lost their home, personal belongings and vehicles in the flood of August 2016.  Received about 4 feet of water through our home.  It is now January and the progress on our home is minimal and it just seems everyone is backed up and in this predicament.  My family of four and my brother are sharing space with other family members as we all flooded, and I’m just kind of reaching out to God individually on my own and decided this week it’s time to reach out to my DAB family and ask you guys to pray for us also, not only myself, but my community and neighbors.  So many of us are displaced and although you might not see it, we’re struggling down here in Louisiana and we just ask that you give God your prayers to strengthen our laborers here to move expeditiously and get us back home.  We just want to go back home.  I know there is nothing impossible for God.  I’ve seen some great miracles through our community and just hope that maybe this time you could help us see a miracle down here in Louisiana. Thank you.  

Hi family.  This is Biola from Maryland.  I hope you’re all doing well.  Brian and Jill, God bless you.  Dorcas from New York, Sister, I prayed for you through the night.  I was so moved by your cry for help.  You know what occurred to me, Sister?  If you read Matthew 20 and Mark 10, these two chapters in the Bible are really important because this is where Blind Bartimaeus and two blind men cried out to Jesus.  They cried out with all their might and even when people told them to shut-up they cried out louder.  And you know what touched me?  The Bible says Jesus stood still.  When he heard their cries, he stood still and then he called them to himself and healed them. Sister, as you have cried out to Jesus, in the name of Jesus, he will come to your aid.  I pray right now that your son who is isolated from you will begin to move closer.  I pray that as the word of God has said that he will encompass us with favor and with his shield, Sister, the Lord will encompass you with favor and with his shield, so much so that people who do not even know you will go out of their way to satisfy you with favor, in the name of Jesus.  That the Lord will provide for you, that he will bring people around you to support you and help you, you’ll no longer feel lonely.  If you’re not plugged into a local body, the church of Christ, I pray that you will find a good church to plug yourself into so that you can have people that will surround you.  God bless you, my sister.  I will keep praying for you.  Becky from Ohio, I’m thanking God for his protection and deliverance for your son.  What an awesome testimony.  Our God is a good God.  Lisa, I’m praying that God would comfort you and restore all that you’ve lost.  I pray for favor with your insurance company, that they will approve full replacement for you and I pray, Sister, that God would give you double for your trouble, in the name of Jesus.  God bless you.  

Hey Brian.  This is Byron out in Florida.  On Saturday I went to go play the podcast and for some reason it wouldn’t play.  I just keep tapping and tapping the play button and it wouldn’t play at all, so I just restarted my podcast app and I tried it again and it started to play, but I couldn’t hear anything.  I could see the numbers moving, but there was no sound or it was very low.  I spent a while just fussing with it, trying to get it to work out, and finally, almost about a minute into the podcast, I got the sound working.  And just the timbre of your voice created a reflective thought in me, ‘oh no, his mom is gone.’  And I zipped back to the beginning of the podcast to see if it wasn’t so.  Brian, I’m so sorry for your loss.  I’m so sorry. You are our leader in this community and it seems that through the trials and tribulations of your life, you are emboldened to be brought ever closer to God and you bring us closer to him too.  Through the travail of Ezekiel’s birth, when your eyes got scratched up in Israel, when you broke your foot in that car accident, and through all the losses that you’ve had in the last year, your constancy in the word of God has taught us that it needs to be constant in our lives too.  I’m looking forward to the day when I can say to your mom and your dad, to their face, thank you for living the lives that they did because it has changed my life and the lives of my family.  I love you, Brian, and I’ll be waiting to hear you tomorrow.  

Hi, my name is Jessica.  I’m calling from Pennsylvania, first-time caller, but I’ve been listening on and off for about five years.  I’m calling because my husband wants to go to church and things have not been going well. We’ve been really hurt by some of the leaders there and I’m just ready to give up.  I know God has called us to church ministry, but it is really hard to get through some of the hurt and move toward forgiveness, especially when it seems like the other side doesn’t want to reconcile.  He has a meeting with some of the leaders on Friday that I think will be kind of pivotal in our decisions for next steps.  I ask you to pray for him and the leaders as they meet together and for our family of faith to decide what to do next.  Thanks family.  Bye.  

Hello fellow Dabbers.  This is the 11^th of January.  I just listened to all the prayer requests and the Holy Spirit led me to share this with you.  I am Studious Workman in Beaverton, OR.  Hear my prayer, O Lord.  Give ear to my pleas for mercy.  In your faithfulness answer me.  In your righteousness enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.  For the enemy has pursued my soul.  He has crushed my life to the ground.  He has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.  Therefore, my spirit faints within me.  My heart within me is appalled.  I remember the days of old.  I meditate on all that you have done.  I ponder the work of your hands.  I stretch out my hands to you.  My soul thirsts for you like the parched and.  Answer me quickly, O Lord.  My spirit fails.  Hide not your face from me lest I be like those who go down to the pit.  Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust.  Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.  Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord.  I have fled to you for refuge.  Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.  Let your good spirit lead me on level ground,  For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life.  In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble and in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant.  

Genesis 35:1-36:43 ~ Matthew 12:1-21 ~ Psalm 15:1-5 ~ Proverbs 3:21-26

Today is the 17^th day of January.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and I’m delighted that we can be here for the next step forward in this grand and epic adventure that the Bible is.  But before we get into that, I just want to take this one moment to say thank you for the outpouring of love toward me, toward our family in the loss of my mom.  

I have read your posts and your emails and your cards and I continue to do that in some of my maybe more sadder moments.  Grief is an interesting thing because you can be moving along fine and then have a gut punch.  I’m in that stage and I’m just trying to be present to it.  I think I have some things to say, but I’m just kind of staying present to this transition and all that it means is really important.  

I just wanted to say thank you.  You have been a comfort in ways that I can’t even express and in some cases even process right now.  So thank you. I mean, I haven’t been talking about it for a couple of days.  I’m trying to not let it take over what we do.  What we do here is take another step forward every day and so taking that next step forward every day is really important not only to what we do, but in this time of grieving.  So thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, with my heart wide open.  I love you and I appreciate it more than I can possibly tell you.  We’ll talk about it soon.  

We are here to take the next step forward in the Bible.  So today we’ll be reading from the New International Version and we’re following in the footsteps of Jacob whose name has been changed to Israel. That name change alone explains so much of what happens next in the Bible and that reverberates all the way until today.  Genesis chapter 35, verse 1 through 36:43 today.  

Commentary

In the book of Genesis we have a little bit of a genealogical record. When you come to the genealogical stuff that is in the Bible, which there is more to come later, at least for me, as a kid growing up around the Bible, I always thought why page after page of names?  This is so boring.  But once you start putting things into context you realize what is going on.

So what we have going on in the book of Genesis today is just sort of a rounding out of the story.  We’ve been following Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob and Esau and their estrangement and Jacob fleeing to the north.  We stuck with him for a couple of decades.  This is where 11 of the 12 children were born and the 12^th one was born today, Benjamin, on the way back to the homeland where Jacob lost his wife, Rachel. Meanwhile, Jacob’s twin brother Esau did live during those two decades and we get this recap very briefly in a genealogical record of his descendants who become the Edomites.  

The Edomites have a role to play later on in the story.  If we’ll remember this, it is really important because Jacob and Esau were twin brothers so every descendant after them are interrelated as blood related family.  The Edomites and the Israelites are not going to be like brothers.  They are going to be like enemies even though they are brothers. So much of that animosity still exists in that region today and all throughout the earth.  So we basically just did a recap, a filling in the story as we begin to move forward into the story in the book of Genesis.  

In the book of Matthew we have Jesus bucking tradition.  They are trying to figure out whether it is okay to heal somebody on the Sabbath, a new question for these folks to wrestle with. The Pharisees, the ultra-zealous practitioners of the Jewish faith have already gone after Jesus’ disciples for picking some grain as they walked along because they were hungry and Jesus had to defend them.  And he did it by using the scriptures.  

And then he’s in the synagogue and they are trying to trap him because he is going to heal somebody on the Sabbath and that is work and you cannot work on the Sabbath.  Jesus sort of dismantles that argument and heals somebody and for the first time in the Bible, the first time in the Jesus story they decide that they need to have him killed.  They’ve been watching him and they have not necessarily been antagonistic to him.  He has a gift.  People follow him and he is talking about a kingdom.  The way he describes it doesn’t make sense, but he’s talking about a kingdom and they are looking for a Messiah, so they are watching him.  To have a guy like this with this kind of authority in speech and deed could be very, very powerful in the movement that they are trying to get going, but Jesus just isn’t playing ball.  He just can’t be recruited and fast-tracked.  That is not why he is here.  They realize that he is willing to step right up to them and face them down, so for the first time having Jesus killed in some way is introduced.  

I think what was spoken of in the Psalms and the Proverbs, especially in terms of looking for margin in our lives is where the meat is today.  What if I were to tell you, listen, I have some secrets. If you will follow these steps, you will never be shaken.  We would want that formula, right?  That is what is given in the Psalms today.  

Whoever does these things will never be shaken, the Bible says.  So what are those things?  The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart, whose tongue utters no slander (so that cuts gossip out of the picture), who does no wrong to a neighbor (that cuts carrying offenses around out of the picture) and casts no slur on others (that cuts judgment out of the picture), who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps an oath even when it hurts and does not change their mind, who lends money to the poor without interest, who does not accept a bribe against the innocent, whoever does these things will never be shaken.

So there you go.  If one of the reasons that you’re immersing yourself in the Bible is to find what life is supposed to look like, well then there you go.  This happens quite often in the Bible.  So here is this list of characteristics that all have to be lived out from the central place inside of us, from our identity, from our heart. You can simply look at this list and contrast it with our own lives and it explains a lot, but we’re not done.  The Proverbs moves into this territory as well.

My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight.  That requires a significant amount of vigilance. If you’re a parent and you’ve ever had a toddler in your life, then this is what we’re talking about.  You cannot let that little child who has a wide-eyed wonder at the world and has no idea what danger might be, you can’t let them out of your sight.  You have to protect them.  That is what we’re talking about with wisdom and understanding.  We can never let them out of our sight.  We must preserve sound judgment and discretion, treat it like the treasure that it is.  Preserve it, care for it, cultivate it.  

So don’t let wisdom and understanding out of your sight and treasure sound judgment and discretion.  They will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.  Then you’ll go on your way in safety and your foot will not stumble.  You will not be shaken.  When you lie down you will not be afraid.  When you lie down your sleep will be sweet.  You’ll have no fear of sudden disaster or the ruin that overtakes the wicked for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared.

Both the psalm and the proverb today are worth memorizing or committing to your journal or writing down somewhere so that you can refer back to them because you cannot let them out of your sight if you want this to work.  If you want margin in your life, if you want to be stable and have the ability to operate from a balanced place, then these are the things that our lives have got to be filled with.  This is what the shape of life has to be.  If it becomes the shape of our life, then we will not stumble and we will not be shaken.  So if you are stumbling and you are shaken, well then contrast your life with these things and it will reveal the things that cannot be in your life anymore because they are making you stumble and they are shaking you.  

Prayer

Jesus, we invite you into this.  Holy Spirit, come because this is really important.  You are inviting us back to who we were created to be.  You are inviting us into this great dance where we get to play a role in your kingdom.  You are showing us clearly what that needs to look like.  Here we are at a fork in the road.  Will we slow down enough to pay attention to this very explicit and detailed information that we need for our lives or will we just move on? That choice will affect everything that comes next for us.  So come, Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus and guide us through this process of contrasting what your word says life can and should look like and how ours does look like and help us to understand the gravity of the decisions that we make, that when we make a decision we are choosing wholeness or we are choosing otherwise, but we are choosing.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  That is home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here, so be sure to check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you.  Thank you humbly.  There is a link on the home page.  You can find that link in the app if you 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, 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 and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hello Daily Audio Bible family.  For those that have been here for a while, you might recognize my voice. This is Jamie T.  Last year, 2016 was a very difficult time for me and my husband.  We’ve gone through several surgeries and my husband is still mending from surgery, so I kind of backed off on the Daily Audio Bible and just was feeling like something was missing in my life so I started up again this year.  My heart is overjoyed to hear all these people that I’ve heard before and new people that I’ve not heard before and just realizing I was missing my family.  So it is not just the reading of the Bible, which is the most important of this thing, but it’s the family.  I love you guys and I have missed you guys so.  Happy New Year!  I’m going to be listening to your voices and praying for you all.  I love you.  Bye.  

Hi.  My name is Amanda.  I’m a new believer.  I became a Christian on September 27, 2016, and I’ve been going through a lot of things and a lot of things have been very hard.  2016 was a very hard year.  I struggle with forgiveness.  It’s been very difficult for me to forgive the people in my life.  I would just ask that you help pray for me that God will take this from me, that he will just take it.  Yeah, thank you, you all.  

Family, this is Biola from Maryland.  Hope you’re all doing well.  Brian, I grieve with you over your mother’s transition and at this point I want to pray over you what has given me comfort, the priestly blessing that I know you know, that my father used to pray over us.  So I pray that as you grieve, Brian, you, your family, your children and your siblings, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you. That he will make his face shine upon you all and be gracious to you.  That the Lord will lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. I salute the warrior that your mother is, the warrior that gave birth to you and, of course, your father as well, a man of valor no doubt.  I salute the resilience that she built up within you, Brian, that causes you to be so committed to read this Bible and stay with it day in, day out every year.  I salute you, Brother.  I salute you, man of God.  And Jill, I salute you.  Definitely. You are the woman behind this stalwart of a man.  God bless you.  And I’m praying for the More Conference.  Ladies, if you haven’t registered, go and register.  I’m also praying for those who are grieving.  Lana, I’ve been praying for you, that God would wrap his arms around you and comfort you by the loss of your mother as well.  And as you grieve, you will know that God has a special heart for the brokenhearted.  There is no right or wrong way to grieve, Sister, so give yourself time to grieve. I am grieving too, but life does not stop.  Life does not stop.  And little Autumn, I am sorry to hear about your grandmother’s passing.  I pray that God would comfort you as well.  Young lady, you agreed to be a prayer warrior for the Lord.  God bless you.  I was so encouraged by your phone call.  God bless you, family.

Hello family.  This is Candace from Oregon.  It’s January 9 as I speak, Monday.  This call is for I think her name is Lisa H.  Her house burned to the ground Thursday night, Friday morning.  Single mom of two children.  Please join me now in prayer for her.  Lord, thank you that this woman whose faithfully been one of us now for many years has had her first-time call and that you have kept her, that there was no loss of life in this fire.  Thank you, Lord, that you hold her in the palm of your hand.  I pray alongside of her that her insurance will fully pay for her and that her life will be restored so well that it will be just beyond anything she could have asked or thought of.  Hold her, Lord, in the palm of your hand every hour. Thank you that you, Lord, are faithful and true.  Thank you that you love us so much.  Please bring great, great blessing and goodness to this woman and her two children and we ask this in Jesus’ name for his sake.  

Hey family.  This is Kenny and I’m from the suburbs of Los Angeles.  I’m a born again Christian by the grace of God since 2008.  If you guys can please pray for me.  I’ll list some simple prayer requests, but they are really important to me.  One of them would be for my family’s health, my dad, my brother, my two sisters.  If you can please be praying for their health just in general and then salvation for my entire family.  I wasn’t raised in church and I got saved in 2008 and I witness to my family.  My brother is really hostile towards even talking about God.  My dad wasn’t interested at all.  It’s a long story, but please just pray for my entire family’s salvation.  And for my walk with Christ in general, if you can please pray that I want to grow in holiness, of course.  I want to be a doer of the word and I just want to continuously grow every day in the way that God is calling me to live as a Christian.  I just really want to be something like in Psalm 1, the tree that is planted by the water that bears all that fruit.  I want to be like one of those trees, the water being the word of God and I want to bear fruit one hundredfold.  I just want to meditate on God’s word day and night and I want to please God with my entire life and I want to worship God with my life, the way that pleases him most.  I want to be so far away from any sin, especially habitual sin.  I do not want to relapse on any sin.  Yeah, I just want God to continue using me and I want to feel like I’m making God proud so to speak.  Yeah, if you can pray for a wife for me too, but thank you guys so much.  

Hello Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Joelle and I am calling.  I was so moved by the podcast on the 7^th of January.  It was just a very powerful epiphany in my heart.  That podcast really moved me and as we all focus on the new word margin this year, I am really wanting to model or learn from the model of the Daily Audio Bible the prayerfulness of our family here because I’m not as good at praying as I should be.  I have a lot of room to grow that way.  And just the many examples of the faithfulness in our community moved me and helped me to want a deeper, richer relationship with the Lord and with Jesus.  So I just thank each of you for the prayerfulness and the attention that you pay in our readings together.  And I also really am focusing on another aspect which is obedience and self-discipline.  So thank you for being such an important part of my faith journey.  I have so much love for all of you.  Thank you.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Joyce.  Hi Brian. I just wanted to say I’m so sorry that you lost your mom and I just wanted to thank you because you shared such beautiful memories of her and it honestly broke my heart.  I listened to you saying that about her calling out Jesus’ name and that is what happened with my grandma too when she passed.  I just wanted to say thank you for just always being here for us.  You’re always here.  You’re always loving and kind and deeply insightful and you’re here for us.  We’re lifting you up behind the scenes all the time, even if we don’t call out your name, but we love your family and we are your family and we lift you up all the time.  Just wanted to remind you what you read about in Job where you said that sometimes the best thing a person can do is just to sit with you.  So today I spent some time and I sat with you and mourned and grieved. I wanted to let you know that you’re not alone and that we’re lifting you up and we’re grieving with you.  We love you guys so much.  God bless you.  Bye-bye.

Hey guys.  I need prayer.  My name is Mike and I’m currently living in Louisiana, not sure how much longer, but I’m just getting frustrated.  I’m trying to just get my life on track which I’ve been trying for years and it’s not working.  Trying to hear Jesus and see what he tells me to do and not clear.  I get little hints like maybe go to Joel Olstean’s church in Houston, so I’m looking at medical missions conferences, but things don’t seem to line up at times and money is tight and I’m in debt.  I’m not sure where to go or what to do and I want to do something serving God and I want to do something where I’m not just broke and getting into debt.  I want to do something to help and love people.  I need help. My name is Mike.  Prayer is appreciated.  Yeah, and guidance.  Thank you.

Genesis 32:13-34:31 ~ Matthew 11:7-30 ~ Psalm 14:1-7 ~ Proverbs 3:19-20

Today is January 16^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you.  I am in the rolling hills of Tennessee and you are wherever you are in the world, but because of the time that we live in and the technology that we have, here we are together around this global campfire that is the Daily Audio Bible.  So we all come in and warm ourselves and enjoy God speaking to us through his word. I’m glad we can do this at all, but I’m especially glad we can do this today.  

We’ve been following this story of Jacob and he has been moving back toward his homeland where his family was.  He left a couple decades ago.  He needed to because his brother Esau was going to do away with him, so now he is returning a couple of decades later to find out if Esau is around, alive, what is going on.  Yesterday we discovered that Esau is certainly alive and has come racing toward him with 400 men.  We pick up today, reading from the New International Version, Genesis chapter 32, verse 13 through 34, verse 31.  

Commentary

Yesterday we were talking about margin and we were talking about wisdom from the reading in Proverbs yesterday.  Today in the Proverbs we find that God, the God of all is wise and uses wisdom to do the things that he does.  

By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations.  By understanding he set the heavens in place.  By his knowledge the watery depths were divided and the clouds let drop the dew.  

We are being invited to conduct our lives using the same resource, wisdom, that God uses.  So imagine if we lived wise lives because we walk with God and invite his Holy Spirit within us to guide every decision in our lives and then we use the wisdom of God to conduct ourselves, then we would be using the same thing God used to create all things in heaven and on earth.  That is available to us if we will only slow down enough to pay attention to it.  We all have a lot of experiences in our lives and if we would slow down enough to weigh those things out, we would find that we already have a measure of wisdom, and for the things that we absolutely do not understand or know, we have the Holy Spirit.  And if we want to know what that practically looks like in a human life, we have Jesus who gives us a beautiful picture of margin in our lives when he says:

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Isn’t that how it goes?  If we get up in the morning and go through a day and the day becomes chaos right from the get-go,  right from the breakfast table it’s chaos, and then you move into the work day and it’s a mess and having to do all this stuff and backtrack and try to find ways to make progress, and then everything else falls apart and then it’s a mess at home at night, what do we do?  We fall into bed exhausted.  But we also know what those days are like when we’re walking with God and when we’re walking with Jesus, when we’ve come to him because we are weary and burdened and he gives us rest.  There is a wholeness, a peace in our activities.  Things still happen.  It can still be total chaos, but it is not all our burden to carry and it does not define our identity.  All of a sudden we find we can systematically deal with all of these things correctly because we are using wisdom and we are walking with God as we were made to be.  May we choose to come to Jesus just like he says:

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.

May we believe him.  

Prayer

Jesus, we do believe you.  It is just often we are like sheep who have just kind of wandered around.  We’re just not even paying attention.  We’re just looking at whatever is right in front of us. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’ve wandered astray.  But that is not what today’s going to look like and that is not what tomorrow is going to look like.  We come to you.  We invite your Holy Spirit.  Holy Spirit, come.  We need you. We need you active in our lives and so we open ourselves fully in heart, mind and will to you and your ways.  Show us the path of today in every thought, word, and deed.  Come Jesus, we pray in your name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It is where you find out what is going on around here, so check that out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link right on the home page and thank you.  It is those of you who click that link that allows Daily Audio Bible to be here each and every day.  So thank you. You can use the ap as well.  If you are using the Daily Audio Bible App, click the More button.  It is in the lower right-hand corner.  And the mail works too.  The mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  

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

Hi, this is Judy in Utah, the other half of Steve from Salt Lake.  Anyway, Happy New Year everybody.  I called for a couple of people.  Candace, I was listening to the Family Community Prayers and your song, oh my goodness, it just brought tears to my eyes and moved me so much.  I’m praying for your son.  I just want you to know don’t give up.  This is for all parents with children that have addiction problems.  Don’t give up.  Don’t give up.  Don’t give up.  I have a son who is now just over 50 and I have been praying for years and he has only been clean and sober for the last five or six years.  Don’t give up.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  God is good.  For the woman that has a grandchild, they are concerned about schizophrenia, I have a daughter that is schizophrenic.  She is in treatment now, but they didn’t diagnose her until she was 30.  She is 55 now.  You’ve got to get that child treated.  Don’t worry about medication.  Prayer is awesome.  It works. But God provides us with doctors and medicines for a reason.  If our daughter had been able to get the medication she needed when she was a child, her life would have been so different.  She would not have lost her children to adoption.  Long story.  A lot of things happened in our lives.  I just want you to know don’t give up, all of you that are battling with different issues. Lana, shout-out to you.  The lady with the sadness who works in the salon, have your people write down their prayer requests.  Pray for them when you get home.  Keep them in your prayers at night.  When you go back, ask them if they’ve had any answers to prayers.  

I walk in circles around the yard.  I do this every day.  Sometimes I simply walk and think.  Sometimes I walk and pray.  And when I walk I’m not alone.  I’m walking with the Lord.  His Holy Spirit fills me up.  His peace is my reward.  He said he would keep in perfect peace the mind that is stayed on him and perfect peace is what I need when things start looking grim.  There is evil present all around.  I feel like I’m boxed in.  I know I have to walk away to not be caught in sin.  Help me, Lord, to boldly walk and know I’m not alone.  The peace your Holy Spirit gives surpasses all I’ve known. Fill me Lord.  Anoint me Lord.  I long to hear your voice.  Gently speak into my heart for making you my choice.  I’m not ashamed to lift you up.  My life is an open book.  When asked if I believe your word, you only have to look.  I try to practice what I preach, to lift my lamp up high.  So someone else can see God’s love by me just passing by.  But darkness doesn’t like the light for the clarity the light brings.  But those of us who love the light will walk like we have wings.  Because truth is light and light is love and truth will set you free.  Jesus is the light of God and all the world to me.  He said we would sometimes have to flee, we all have __________.  Do not stand and tempt yourself by trying to test yourself.  Been there, done that.  Always lost. The power of sin is too strong, but I know when I rely on him I win and don’t go wrong.  And so I walk in circles and I do this every day.  As I walk, “Lord, Lord, please walk with me and help me not to stray.” BlindTony1016@gmail.com.  Once again, my love to the Hardin family for this wonderful podcast allowing the Holy Spirit to flow throughout the earth.  Keep it flowing, y’all.  Bye-bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible.  This is Andrew.  I just want to pray for people that are somewhere else in the world and it has been raining a lot at our house and I really want to pray for people that are in other places that might have floods and so I just pray for that.  Bye Daily Audio Bible.  

Hi, this is Caroline.  I’m a carer for Anna who can’t speak because she’s got her genetic problem with her nervous system.  I agree with Cherry Pie that this year one of her resolutions is fast from negativity and  feast on positivity and which she is very happy that other people join the call.  Thank you, Cherry Pie.  Thank you, Sister.  She would like to stand in agreement with Chantelle from Detroit and Sam from Australia in praying that our Heavenly Father __________ at the moment be it __________ or fire, relationship breakdowns or troops that are taking over or whatever hardship they are going through at this time to know that there is always God.  He is __________ anything in the world that we think can push us.  She also wants to pray especially for Lisa who lost everything in a fire recently.  God will provide and tell you what to do, Lisa.  Anna loves everyone involved in the Daily Audio Bible.  Thank you especially Victorious Soldier, Blind Tony, and Brian and family for their encouraging words.  Thank you.  Thank you on behalf of Anna in __________ Australia.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible.  My name is Bob.  I’m calling from Michigan.  I have been a listener for many years, but this is the first time that I have called. Three days ago I was diagnosed with throat cancer.  During this time, I still don’t even know what stage it is, but I’m crying out to God that he gives me strength and endurance because I know he is going to send people, divine appointments to be around me that may need Jesus.  I cry out to the community to lift me up in prayer, that I might be a bold witness for him during my trials, that I can keep my eyes on him, keep my focus on him so that I might bring some Jesus to the people around me.  Let me be a bold witness for you, Lord.  I know that I must be an ambassador for you and that you will work all things out for good. My trust is in you.  I do not know what my future holds, but I know who holds my future.  God bless you all who choose to pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Hello Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Jay from New Jersey.  Let’s pray. Mighty, precious, matchless, holy and righteous God, Father, we adore everything that is you.  God, you are everything that we need.  You’ve created everything.  You are everything.  And without you exists nothing.  Father we confess and repent of any sin that we’ve committed.  God, we thank you for this light which you’ve given us.  We thank you for this moment.  We thank you for the ability to experience it.  God, we come before you in this new year with some issues that were not able to be resolved last year, but God, as your word declares, is anything too hard for you? No!  We know there isn’t.  So God, we ask that you will send your Holy Spirit now to comfort us as we wait patiently for you to move in your perfect will and your perfect timing.  We thank you, God.  We love you, God.  We praise you, God.  In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.  

Genesis 31:17-32:12 ~ Matthew 10:24-11:6 ~ Psalm 13:1-6 ~ Proverbs 3:16-18

Today is the 15^th day of January.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It’s great to be here with you at the shiny threshold of a brand new week.  And as we step through, we step into week #3 of our adventure that will take us 52 weeks and through the entire Bible this year. This week we’ll spend reading from the New International Version.  Of course, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday, following Jacob’s decision to leave Laban and move back toward his homeland.  Jacob had to flee from his brother Esau in the first place, but it has been a couple of decades so will Jacob find his brother or will he have moved away too?  We’ll find out.  Genesis chapter 31, verse 17 through 32, verse 12 today.  

Commentary

In the proverb today:

Long life is in her right hand and in her left hand are riches and honor.  Her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace.  

Isn’t that describing the life we all aspire to?  So who is she?  We need to know her, whoever this is that we’re talking about.  This her that we’re talking about is wisdom.  In other words, wisdom has long life in her right hand and in her left hand are riches and honor.  Her ways are pleasant ways and her paths are peaceful paths.  She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her and those that hold her fast will be blessed.  

That sounds like a life with margin in it, spaciousness, room.  So how do we get to know her?  How do we get to know wisdom?  We have to learn to slow down enough to walk with God.  You may be a person who prides yourself on being able to make very quick decisions and a lot of them.  I get that.  I mean, I have to make a lot of decisions in a day and some of them have to be quick, but I have learned and I learned it from my own father.  I didn’t understand until I was an adult.  When I was a teenager, I would go to my dad and go like, “Hey, here’s what I’m thinking and can I do this?”  And I would want yes or no.  Mostly I would want yes, and he would say, “I’m going to need to think about that.” And it would always drive me crazy because I’m like what is there to think about?

One time I asked him that.  I, standing there in his office, said “What is there to think about?”  And he just said, “I can’t make a knee-jerk decision on something that could have consequences.  I have to live with it.”  And that would make me crazy, but he was modeling wisdom for me, slowing down enough to weigh the consequences, slowing down enough to follow the paths and the repercussions of the choices.  So I don’t come to any major decision in my life that I don’t follow his lead at this point.  

As I became more of an adult, I began to fall into that rhythm.  That rhythm that I learned and was modeled for me by my own father is given to us in the Bible.  Part of laying hold of wisdom is slowing down enough to listen to it. We do that by certainly inviting the Holy Spirit into the choices that we make.  We invite the Holy Spirit to illuminate our path and part of that is looking down the different pathways that we can choose.  The wisdom and the margin in that is slowing down enough to know that we are reaching forks in the road all of the time and they are leading somewhere.  

So may we consult wisdom, get ourselves and our desires out of the way, the desire for the most immediate path that will bring us to something that has pleasure in it for us, and look out even further than that, what is the trajectory of this choice, and invite God in, because as we have already learned from the scriptures and as we will continue to learn all year, God is creative and counterintuitive.  It’s not that he is so mysterious.  It is that we are so backward.  It is time to reverse that.  It is time to become like Christ and to be like Christ means that we will walk with the Father and that we will create the margin in our lives, the unhurriedness that steers us away from the chaos we continually create for ourselves.  

Prayer

Holy Spirit, we invite you into that because we need this, we need this desperately as a foundational piece in our lives and decision making process. We need your wisdom and you have the wisdom of the ages.  You have the wisdom that can create the universe and that is just for starters because that is all we know about.  You are infinite.  You are eternal.  You are powerful, all-powerful and all-knowing.  And you are within us and our Father.  And you were intentional enough to come and rescue us.  So why we move through this earthly life thinking that we can manage it without you, that is lunacy.  So show us, Holy Spirit, the places that we need to slow down and consider the fact that every choice is a fork in the road for us.  Even the little choices lead places.  They alter the trajectory.  Holy Spirit, come.  Show us the direction we are to head into and help us to know the paths that lead there. Come Jesus, we pray.  In your name we ask, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base.  It is the website.  It is where you find out what is going on around here, so certainly be sure to check that out.  Check out the shop.  Check out the resources that are available there.  Maybe check out the coffee and tea club that we have and have fresh roasted or beautifully sourced tea delivered to you each day as a complement to the time that you can have with the Daily Audio Bible.  

I haven’t mentioned this yet this year, but we have a women’s conference each year and this year it will be April 6-9.  This is called The More Gathering for Women.  It is epic.  I’m not overstating.  It’s amazing. So if you’re brand new or if you’ve been around a little bit, if you’ve been around a little bit, then you know about this, but if you’re new here this year and you’re a woman and this new rhythm of the scriptures each day is bringing about a reset in you, then The More Gathering is a place to completely reset, to unplug and just give yourself a few days to be among other women moving in the same direction and give your heart the space to expand, slow down, and really look at where you’re going. You can check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com as well.  All of the details about our forthcoming women’s conference this year can be found there.  So check that out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com as well.  There is a link on the home page.  If you’re using the app, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, of course, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  Thank you, thank you humbly for your partnership.

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

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hey Brian, I just saw your Facebook post about your mom and want to let you know I love you, man.  I love you. I really do and I’m praying for you and your family.  There is no way in this lifetime I could ever thank you enough for what you’ve done for me in my life.  I just love you, Bro.  Dusty from Orlando, bye.  

Hi Brian.  This is Ben. I’ve been a listener for about five years.  I’m a first-time caller.  I just heard your announcement about your mom passing on into glory.  I am so sorry.  I know that there is comfort in knowing that you will see her again in the kingdom, but there has still gotta be a huge loss that you feel.  So I’m praying for you, Brian and Jill and the kids and the grandchild, and just know that we love you and we’re praying for you for peace and hope and comfort, just that her memory be honored for years and years to come. So I thank her for giving birth to you because you’ve been such a blessing in my life.  It’s been five years of listening to the Daily Audio Bible and my life has been transformed.  I’m not the same person that I was before.  I know you hear that a lot, but something like this, Brian, has brought me out of…  I haven’t called in the five years I’ve been listening, but my heart goes out to you and your family.  Just know that you are thought about and loved and prayed for, for you all, the best. Thank you for who you are and what you’ve done and God bless the memory of your mother’s name.  

Hey Brian.  My name is Rita.  It’s the first time I’ve been calling you.  I just listened to your reading on the 14^th of January and I heard your mom passed and I’m just calling you to tell you that we are mourning with you. The Bible says that we rejoice with the ones that rejoice and we mourn with the ones that mourn.  Yes, we know where she is and know we’re all going to be together again, but I just want you to know that we are with you in this one. We are your family.  We are here to lift you up, to support you in prayer, you and your family.  We love you and you are not alone.  We are here, Brian, with you and rejoicing with you for the fact that you know where she is.  Be strong and courageous, my Brother.  We still have a long ways to go thanks to this.  Love you.  Thank you, Brian.  

Brian, my prayers are yours and your family’s.  I am so sorry to hear of your mother’s passing, but honored to know that she is with our Lord Jesus.  I am just so grateful that Jesus had her to give you us.  Without you, Brian, we wouldn’t have the DAB and I thank your mother for that, for bringing you up and teaching you and raising you the way the Lord told her to.  So grateful for her.  Well done. Well done, mom.  Brian, my prayers are with you and your family and I thank her. I thank you for what you’ve done for us and what you’re going to continue to do for us until we all meet together in heaven.  What a reunion that will be.  

Hi, this is Rachel from __________ Scotland.  Brian, I was so moved when I heard your recording when you let us know that you had lost your mum and I just wat to pray for all those who have lost people that are dear to them over this Christmastime and the New Year and over this time.  Father God, I thank you that you are the God of all comfort.  I thank you, Lord, for those that have left us knowing you, Father God, and I pray for all those who are left behind, Father, who are uncertain of where their loved ones have gone or who are sad and just missing their loved ones. I just pray, Lord, that they would know the comfort of your Holy Spirit today, that they would know that you are very close to them, Father, in that grief and in their walk with you.  And Father God, that you would draw the rest of our families into your loving __________ and into relationship with you as well.  I ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.  I love you all, Daily Audio Bible family.  God bless and take care.  

Good morning.  I just received the message of your mother’s passing, Brian.  I’m so heartbroken for you.  I could feel the pain.  I have not lost my mother, but I’ve lost a husband and it is a hard thing to get through, so I’m praying so hard for you and Jill to get through this hard time. Brian, you’ll make it.  Your mother is in heaven.  I know she is and everybody in this family knows she is. She will be waiting for you when your time comes.  I really, really appreciate you for making this family, creating this family, and like you said, if it was not for her, there would not be a podcast, a family. There would be nothing that I can depend on for my faith.  I look forward to every day listening to you.  I’ve been in the family for over a year and I finished the Bible at the end of the year, but I’m going to continue doing what I need to do for my faith.  I’m praying for you to get through this.  I love you.  I love Jill.  I love your family.  I love all the family.  We’ll be there for you, Brian.  I love you and keep the faith.  Amen.

This is Jordan from Michigan.  Day 28 of my 30-day challenge and today I’m thankful for Brian Hardin. Let’s pray.  Dear incomprehensible maker of everything, who from the treasures of your wisdom have established three hierarchies of angels.  You have arranged them in marvelous order above the fiery heavens and have marshaled the regions of the universe with such powerful skill.  We come humbly before you thanking you for Brian Hardin.  Father, when I first started with the Daily Audio Bible, I had just lost my best friend.  He passed away in a motorcycle accident.  Brian’s voice day in and day out gave me comfort and reassured me of all the blessings that you had in store for me.  So I pray for Brian because now he is going through a tough loss and he’s lost his mother. He’s lost his mother’s physical body here on earth, Heavenly Father, but we all know that she is in a special place in heaven and I pray for comfort, for hope, for peace, and for unshakeable joy in Brian and that through this time, that you will come through and show him your unfailing love.  Thank you, Father, and we love you.  In your name we pray, amen.

Hey Brian, this is Archie from Florida.  Brian, I never really say it, and I’m sorry, how much I love you.  You’ve been like a spiritual father to me ever since I started listening and so I pray for you and I mourn with you over my spiritual grandmother and your mother.  I can’t be eloquent.  I’m not going to try to be.  I just say Jesus, comfort your son Brian.  Comfort and then hug him and love him and embrace him and just walk with him. I love you, Brian.  My heart breaks with you, Brother, Father. Alright, that’s all I’ve got, but it’s from the heart, I can promise you that.  

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Lee from New Jersey.  Today is January 14^th and just finished listening to today’s podcast and just wanted to, of course, give my condolences to Brian and family in the loss of your mother.  All the men in this community are __________ with you, Brian.  You know that already and of course your wish is our command.  We are going to pray for wisdom during this time for you, for peace, and we embrace you as a family. Even though we’re not there with you physically, virtually we are one __________ and we embrace you as a brother and we hug your neck and we’re going to love you as much as we can to help you get through this, just like the rest of the family that is going through their loss, as you mentioned.  So Brian, this one is for you.  You are our brother, our pastor, Brian Hardin, whose family has suffered a great loss which is their mother.  May she be with you at this moment.  We know she is with you at this moment and we know that she is smiling down and looking at her son and now she is saying well done and she is so dedicated to you first and foremost and then to us.  And of course, the __________.  Lord, we pray that you shine your peace and remind Brian how much you love that his mom is with you.  Although physically we will miss her, physically Brian will miss his mother, we know that she is in a better place now, no more suffering, no more pain, no more grieving.  She is now looking down and sending blessings to you.  

Hello Brian. I’m broken and I am so sorry for your loss.  I’ll be praying for God’s peace that surpasses all understanding for you and your family.  Brother, we love you.

Hello family, this is Candace from Oregon.  Brian, I just heard today’s Daily Audio Bible when you told us about your mom’s passing and so I just want to thank you for being so faithful to us, even on your hardest days.  You always tell us that we’re in this together and our hearts are broken with you. Family, please come around to pray with me for Brian.  Lord, Brian has asked us to pray that he be given wisdom and hope and comfort.  I pray that you will give these hour by hour and everything else that he needs along the way.  Bless him and keep him.  And we pray for his whole family in the loss of this dear, vital person in their lives. Thank you for all that she has meant to each one of them.  And I know that she is one of the saints who is interceding now for us, one of the saints who has gone before.  Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you. Thank you, Jesus.

Dear Brian, this is Ruth calling from Arkansas and I listened to the Daily Audio Bible on the 14^th and found that your mom had gone to be with the Lord and I want you to know that we’re praying for you, my husband and I, and although you know in your heart you’ll see your mom again, the pain of separation may seem overwhelming right now, but please know that there are many who understand and care, who will uphold you in prayer until he who loves you best heals your heart and restores your joy.  You are not alone.  I empathize with you because I know how it feels to lose (or I shouldn’t say lose) but to be separated from your mom and your dad because that has happened to me and it is like no other pain.  It is pain like no other pain, but God understands and God comforts us because he says it in his word, that he comforts us and that he comforts those who mourn and he will comfort the brokenhearted.  Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Psalm 115:15.  Love you, Brian, and you, Jill, and praying for your whole family.  God bless and God keep you.  Bye-bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible.  My name is __________.  I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for the last seven years and I just heard from Brian that he has lost his mom.  My heart goes out to you, Brian, and I pray that God will be with you and bless you, your family.  May he wrap his hands of love around you and your family, Jill, China and all them.  I just ask in the name of Jesus, Father God, that you will just touch Brian right now with your love and to bless them, that the love that he has shared with his mother would continue with him, O Lord. Father Lord, I just pray at this time that you are the God, O Lord, that comforts those that grieve.  I ask that your Holy Spirit goes and comforts Brian and Jill and the family members, O Lord, in Jesus’ mighty name we pray, amen.

Hello Brian and family.  This is Deborah from __________.  I’m so sorry for your loss.  And listening to you is such an inspiration because even at a time like this you are still positive and you really are living what you preach, what you read. You sure do understand the Bible. I’m so grateful for your mother, for both your parents.  What a legacy they have left behind.  You, Brian, for doing an amazing job and we thank God for you.  We glorify him for you and I pray peace continues in you, in Jesus’ mighty name.  Thank you, Brian.  Thank you, Jill.  Thank you. Thank you.  God bless.

This is a phone call for Brian and Jill.  This is Jocelyn in Atlanta and I just want you to know I’m lifting you and your entire family up in prayer right now.  I am so sorry for the loss of your mom here on earth but so thankful for her being able to enter heaven and be able to be with our Lord and Savior. So I just pray over you right now. God, I just lift Brian and Jill and their entire family up.  You know that they’ve lost a mother.  They’ve lost a grandmother.  They’ve lost a great-grandmother.  Father, I just ask that you would cover them with peace and with comfort and with joy and rest and just to be able to be in your presence, God.  We thank you for allowing us to come before you and ask for these things. We love you guys.  We’ll continue to keep praying of you and thank you for sharing and being so transparent, Brian.  You have a remarkable and beautiful spirit and I’m very thankful to have gotten to know you.  Have a great day family.  Bye.  

Hello Brian.  You mentioned today that you lost your mom and I just wanted to call in and let you know that my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.  Loss Is not easy but it is something that everyone goes through.  Just know that your DAB family is there backing you up.  I still think about the people that are lost every day and they’re not suffering anymore and that is what keeps me going.  They are made perfect and they’re made whole and they are home. They are with the Lord.  We’ll see them again, like you said.  That is what makes the sting go away.  God bless you, family.

Hi, this message is directed to you, Brian, as I’m sure many of the messages will be today.  Brian, if I were there today on January 14^th, I would hug you, friend, and I would tell you how incredibly proud your mom is of you and all you’ve accomplished and all that you are doing for the kingdom of God.  And yes, one day we’re all going to be together again, but separation is really, really difficult.  But we know that God still has an amazing work for us to do here on earth, and so I just encourage you, you friend.  I’m asking the Lord just to wrap his arms around you and Jill and the children and I am praying that he will comfort you in a way that only he can do.  And to my DAB family, let’s honor Brian’s mom by doing something really special.  Since we can’t send flowers, let’s send a donation to DAB in memory of Brian’s mom. I think she would love that.  Not knowing her, of course, but knowing how much she loved her son and the ministry, I think that would be an amazing thing for us to do.  Alright everyone, I hope each of you are having a most blessed and lovely day. This is Christy from Kentucky.

Hello, this is Tish calling from the Seattle area, God-given name April. I just wanted to call today.  Very touched by Brian, him sharing about the passing of his mother.  I want to send my deepest condolences to you, Brian, and your family, for the loss of your mother.  Thank you for your transparency in allowing the DAB family to share in your loss, sadness and pain as you honor your mother and lift you and your family up as well. Let’s pray.  Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that your healing touch and comfort will be felt by Brian and his family.  Surround him with your peace and love in this time of grieving. As in Psalm 34:18 which states, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, He saves those who are crushed in spirit.  Lord, we love you.  We give you all the glory, honor and praise, in Jesus’ name, amen.  Brian, I love you.  Thank you for your daily faithfulness and commitment to the DAB family __________ and reading every day.  Rain or shine, you are here.  You are seen and it is noticed and we appreciate you.  Thank you.  

Hello, this is Roselyn from sunny south Florida calling to let the Hardin family know that you have my deepest sympathy in this hour.  Just hold onto God’s unchanging hand because he is the only one that can carry you through.  I am now fatherless and motherless, but I rely upon God’s daily strength to take me through.  Cherish the moments.

Hello my DAB family.  It’s Mark S. from Sydney, Australia.  It’s Sunday the 15h.  I just heard the day before day’s podcast and Brian, I want to keep this short because there are many, many calls coming in.  I grieve for you after hearing that your mom has passed away.  You’ve made us all feel a part of your family.  I certainly feel a part of your family.  __________ through, Brian.  And the family, your whole extended family, I pray that God will send the Comforter, extend his wonderful blessing upon all of you.  I just want to say that and my heartfelt wishes go to you and your whole family.  Love, Mark S. from Sydney, Australia.  Bye.  

Genesis 30:1-31:16 ~ Matthew 10:1-23 ~ Psalm 12:1-8 ~ Proverbs 3:13-15

Today is the 14^th of January.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and it is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today.  It is a pleasure and a joy every day, but today I’m a bit flat footed, I think.  So today is a little bit of a bittersweet day for me.  A few hours ago my mom passed away.  For a long time she was one of us.  She listened every day and I imagine I’ll have a few things to say at the end, but today I read in her honor because there certainly would be no Daily Audio Bible had it not been for my mother.  So we begin, Genesis chapter 30, verse 1 through 31 verse 16 and we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week.  

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your word.  We thank you for these first two weeks, and as we look back, we’ve only begun the journey, but we have journeyed far and you have spoken true.  So we welcome that.  We invite that.  We need that every day of this year and we thank you for it in advance.  Father, at the beginning of this year we ask for wisdom, the kind of wisdom spoken of in the Proverbs, the kind of wisdom that transforms the way we do everything, that gives us insight into all aspects of our lives, relationally, financially, vocationally, physically.  We’re beginning to understand that this is a collaboration and wisdom is something that we have to collaborate in.  We can have all of the knowledge of wisdom and never put it into our lives and nothing changes except for that we know some things we didn’t know but we don’t do the things that we now know.  Give us the wisdom of your Holy Spirit, the wisdom of your kingdom.  Show us we fit into that story and how we are to conduct ourselves with wisdom in everything.  So often we feel like wisdom is just to respect and honor you and we don’t have any role to play and then we’re upset that you don’t do the things we ask you to do, when the Proverbs simply tell us that yes, this fear and awe and reverence for you is important, vitally important, is the cornerstone, but it is the beginning of wisdom.  So we want to move past the beginning of wisdom and find ourselves surrounded and blanketed by it in every area of our lives. This will give us margin in our lives, the space to see things as they really are and not to have to react in every area of our lives all the time, moving from chaos to crisis.  Come Holy Spirit, wash over us and implant wisdom in our lives. We respond to that by changing the way that we do things, by repenting.  And we do, because even in the first two weeks we can see so much has already begun to take shape inside of our hearts.  We see so many of the ways that we’ve been thrashing around, so many of the ways that we’ve frankly just been looking at things incorrectly.  Help us to reframe what we are looking at and see things as they really are.  We ask this in your name, Jesus, your strong and powerful name.  Amen.

Announcements

Okay, so I mentioned at the beginning that my mom passed away a little bit ago so it has been an exhausting few days.  I think I have a lot to say about all this and I think I want to share maybe the story, but I don’t think I can right now.  I don’t think I can get it all out.  I don’t even think I have all together.  I know I don’t have it all together.  But I didn’t want to keep it from you and I wanted to honor her in some way today because she was honorable.  She fought to stay as long as she could and way past when she should have.  She was a fighter, without a doubt.  So I didn’t want to just let it go by.  I know in maybe a week or something I’ll be in a better place to just share some thoughts on loss and hope because although this has knocked me on my back right now, I am not hopeless.  None of us are hopeless.  We have every reason to hope.  Sometimes that is all we have but sometimes it is enough and sometimes it is all we need.

I know absolutely for certain that my mom had hope.  Even when she could no longer say Jesus’ name, she still tried. She couldn’t form her words and say Jesus.  She would just say Sheshus, Sheshus over and over.  So I know, I know where my mom is, but oh, oh how I long for the day when there are no more goodbyes, which I think is what keeps me on this narrow path that we are all walking together, not only in the Bible, but in our lives.  

I know those of you who have lost someone you love, you know what I’m talking about.  Having lost both of my parents, which is just so weird to even say, it’s so fresh, I am not without hope and I long for the restoration of all things when all is made new again because what else is there?  Loss, death, they have a way of making us come to face exactly what we do believe and I do believe.  I do believe my mom is with Jesus.  I’m sure there is a whole story that I would like to tell, but not now.

I’m sure this announcement will fill my inbox and mailbox and I thank you, even in advance, because there will be no way I can respond to everybody.  Mom just, she wanted it to be simple.  She wanted it to be private, and that is exactly what it will be, but the one thing that I can ask for and know I will get, because it is one of the distinctive things that we do so well as a community is I just ask for your prayers.  It is a pretty tough pill to swallow even though I feel like I’ve been chewing on this pill for a while.  Thank you for your prayers for wisdom and hope and comfort.  

I loved my mom.  I loved her dearly.  I’m not really sure speaking of her in past tense is even right.  I love her still.  I love my mom dearly.  So I share this with you because I love you too.  I would be feeling quite a bit more unmoored if I didn’t know that we were in this together. So my mom has passed, but in reality what she has done is step into wholeness.  She was very broken.  That is over. There is no sting in that.  So I thank you for your prayers.  

I love you, mom.  And with all the gratitude in my heart, I am so thankful for who you are and I will see you again, but not yet, not yet.  

Song played today on the Daily Audio Bible:  When You Come Around – Richard Page.