Month: February 2017

Leviticus 4:1-5:19 ~ Mark 2:13-3:6 ~ Psalm 36:1-12 ~ Proverbs 10:1-2

Today is February 17^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and it is great to be here with you today, another step forward through the scriptures this year and we’ve just taken our first step into the book of Leviticus and so we’ll move back in and continue moving forward as God gives out the customs and laws of this new culture being formed in the wilderness, a people that is headed for a promised land.   Leviticus chapter 4, verse 1 through 5:19 today.  

Commentary

We’re reading about sin offerings, different types of offerings to the Lord in the book of Leviticus and like I said a couple days ago when we started this, we can read into this a lot of blood, a lot of sacrifice, and we can look into it through the lens of our time and kind of see it as a barbaric time with all of these sacrifices and all of these animals being burned up.  I get that.  It was a different time.  We’re looking thousands of years back behind us to the way people related to the elements and things around them and life around them.  But there are some things that have not changed – the fact that all of this was pointed at reminding people of something very important, something that has not gone away:  Sin is barbaric to our souls.  It is the thing that separated us and separates us from God.  So God instituted something that is stark to remind people of the gravity of what is being dealt with here in atoning for their sins.  

Jesus’ sacrifice was also a hard road that set us free from all of that. So now we can sin at will and just ask forgiveness.  That is a beautiful thing, but it also kind of cheapens the fact that sin separates us from God.  The beautiful thing is that the atoning sacrifice of Christ is available to all who call upon the name of the Lord, and so we do this.  But there would be a certain gravity now if we had to take an animal and we had to kill that animal and shed its blood and pour it out as the remission for our sins, if we had to shed the animal’s blood because of what we did.

So we can look at the sacrifices and say that yeah, that was just a different time, or we can understand the fact of sin and separation and atonement were built into this culture and it was not any easier for them to just go ‘oh my goodness, I have sinned.  Son, go grab me a lamb.  I need to go down to the Temple.’  That is not how it was.  They had to pull from their life-sustaining flock and shed blood, a process that not only required their time to contemplate what it was that had offended God, but also to take a life in exchange for that.  If we had to do that it would be very strange in this particular time and culture in the world, but you can put yourself in that position and understand how stark of an example that is.  Then we begin to appreciate the stark sacrifice of the Son of the Living God on behalf of the world.  

As we move forward through these books of Torah, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, as we move through and understand the law and understand the customs and understand what God is initiating, then we can see that everything is attached to something else.  Everything symbolizes something.  Everything is a reminder of this new identity:  Chosen people of Yahweh.  We can see that it is woven into the fabric of their identity, a complete transformation from that of slaves of Egypt to chosen people of the sovereign, almighty, highest God.  When we get that context and kind of move through these spaces in the Bible that we would think are tedious or antiquated, this makes much more sense and then we begin to realize we have a lot of symbolism in our own faith.  It looks different, but it is all attached to telling the story, the constant reminder of who we are – chosen and redeemed. Everything is intended to continually remind us of this because we forget who we are all the time.  We find ourselves being our own sovereign and trying to do everything in our own strength only to crash and burn and return for forgiveness.  

Prayer

Father, the fact that you would enter into all these time periods and tell the story of identity, reminding us who we are and helping us to understand the gravity of the things that would separate us from you, how that allows us to fall backwards again and regress and try to live on our own terms without your Spirit, and what life is that?  It was you who gave us the breath of life.  It was you who created our species in your image and what are we without you but animals?  But what are we with you?  Sons and daughters of the Most High God.  So this lets us see the gravity, the weight, the cost of sin.  It separates us from you.  It separates us from actual life.  We were not ever made as a species to be separate from you, so we embrace these things that we’re learning in the book of Leviticus.  We embrace them fully.  We look at them fully.  We commit to not just checking out and tuning out, but to embrace what you are teaching us. Come Holy Spirit, we pray, in the name of Jesus we ask, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base.  It’s the website.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here.  At the top of the list right now is the More Gathering for Women coming up quickly – April 6-9 it will take place and it will take place in the southern Appalachian Mountains of northern Georgia just outside of Atlanta a bit. So if you’re a lady, you’re invited. This can be quite the time to get away and contemplate where your life is headed, who you are, and what God is inviting you into next.  So check it out.  Could not encourage it any more than I do.  I mean, I know it is something that we do, but it is something that we do together. Everything we’ve ever done we’ve done together.  It is of the Daily Audio Bible for the Daily Audio Bible which means for you.  It is a ton of work for Jill and the team, but man, the redemption that we’ve seen over the years keeps us coming back.  It is just a beautiful thing, so check it out. More Gathering.  You can find out all the details, every detail that you would need to know at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Just look for the More Gathering.  You’ll find it easily.  We hope to see you there.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It’s on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Thank you for those who have clicked that link.  If you’re using 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.  I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi Daily Audio Bible.  This is Alissa from New Jersey and I’m calling because the Lord gave me a word. I was in prayer and I saw the narrow way going into a thorn bush and there was no way around it.  The Lord led me through this thorn bush and the thorns were scratching and poking.  I stood still and then the thorns stopped.  And he said if you want to get out, you have to trust me and follow me through the thorn bush and know that I will bind whatever wounds come your way, but if you stay here the pain will stop temporarily, but you’ll be stuck in a cluster of thorns.  So my encouragement to you today is whatever you’re going through, just know that the Good Shepherd will lead you through to green pastures and that whatever thorns scratch you and poke you along the way, you can trust him that he will bind those wounds and that you will be stronger than before.  So be blessed and thank you so much for this program.  I hope you have a wonderful day.  Take care.  

Hi everybody.  This is Lisa the Encourager and I am so, so elated tonight to hear the wonderful news about Gigi.  I have to tell you guys all a little bit more about that story.  I called in and I told you guys that I went outside (maybe you remember or not) and I called out to God because it was such a burden I had for Gigi, for her to be healed.  I went outside and I looked up at the stars, the beautiful moon, and I said, “God, I know you see me.  Please, please heal Gigi from her seizures.”  So that night the moon was a perfect shape of a smiley face.  I remember that.  I remember just looking up and just smiling and I said, “God, please just heal Gigi.”  And then I had this small whisper in my ear, you know, in my mind that said, “Gigi will be healed when it is a full moon, Lisa.  When it is a full moon.”  And I said, “O God, is that you?  So I’m just going to pray that.  I’m going to pray that.”  So every day I prayed.  I prayed. I said, “God…”  I kept looking at the moon every night.  Every night looking at the moon.  I’m thinking I want to believe as much and more than a mustard seed that what you’re telling me is true, so I kept praying and I kept praying and I kept praying for you, Gigi.  Every single night.  And Friday night my husband took me out to dinner and I looked up at the most gorgeous full moon.  I’m sure you guys saw it.  I had no idea about this super moon, this moon that was supposed to come about.  I saw the most beautiful moon and I just said, “God, thank you so much.  I know you healed Gigi.  I know you healed her.”  So I just had to tell you guys that story because I’m just so, so happy for Gigi.  I love you guys.  I thank you so much for sharing that faith with me, Gigi, and I shared it with you. I would just like to say this to God: You’re a good, good Father. That’s who you are.  And we are loved by you.  That’s who we are.  

Hey, this is Christina from Northern Virginia.  I just wanted to reach out to Lana, the woman who lost her mother and she was living with her for a while.  I just wanted you to know that I heard you and my heart just totally broke hearing your message and just hearing how lonely you are.  I’m so sorry.  I know being lonely is the worst feeling.  It is really hard.  So I just wanted to share some verses with you that the Lord showed to me when I was going through some really lonely spots in my life.  There is this verse in Isaiah 66 and it’s as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. And there is also the verse, I believe it is in John, even unto the end of the age, I will be with you.  Just know that while no one can replace your mom, you have God and he is always with you.  He is always with you.  I know you’re lonely and it hurts, but maybe you should find some community.  Maybe try a Bible study or perhaps could you live with roommates.  Just some ideas.  I’m now living with roommates and it has been such a blessing.  I just want to say I love you and we’re praying for you. Bye.  

Hi.  This is Victorious Soldier.  Just calling to pray with the Dabbers.  Oh, I’m so excited to hear, Gigi, that the Lord healed you.  Praise God.  I am just so glad.  Continue to rejoicing and as I rejoice with you, I want to definitely continue to pray with you that the Lord continues to manifest the ending of his healing, that it be into completion.  I want to pray for Rosemary about her oral exam.  I’ll definitely be praying with you and I’ll pray with you right now, Rosemary, about passing your exam.  Just trust God and just ask him to bring all things to remembrance, whatever thing that you learned, and you will be just fine.  I want to pray for Bill B. and let him know that I enjoyed his poem.  You’re very talented and I think it is good that you and Blind Tony, you all have been definitely an inspiration.  Just thank you for your poem.  I truly enjoyed it.  I’m sorry, it was Daniel who had the…  Daniel Johnson Jr.  Thank you, Daniel, for the poem.  I’m sorry.  I want to pray for Bill B. in San Antonio.  Bill B. is going through and I’m definitely praying with you.  And Elaten in Sacramento, I’m definitely praying for you. You’re going through a divorce.  You’re going through these challenges at this time, but God will bring you out.  Just continue to trust him.  As I pray right now, Gracious Father, we come before your throne of grace once again. Father, in the name of Jesus.  Lord, we just thank you for the blessing you did on Gigi.  We just lift you up and give you the praise.  O Lord, we just thank you, Lord, for touching Rosemary, Lord.  O Lord, she is endeavoring to take this exam.  O Lord, we ask that you bless her, Lord.  That you bless her in abundance, Lord, as you always do.  Let her pass with exceedingly high grades.  O Lord, touch Alton in…

Hi DAB family.  Over the course of the years we’ve had several calls about being hurt by the church and being hurt by Christians and I have never understood that.  I have just waded over in my mind and my heart and thought how could Christians hurt each other, especially if you’re attending the same church, but I prayed for those prayer requests.  Last week I was put to the test because three Christian women that I have considered very close to me hurt me in a way that I never thought was possible.  The first thing I did was I called my pastor.  And he didn’t come at me with his opinion or opinion of others, he came at me with the Bible and what the Bible says and what the word says.  It brought up the issue of forgiveness.  And I said to my husband I forgive them, but I don’t know how to move forward in the relationship.  Again, my pastor turned to scripture.  In scripture it tells us we can forgive.  It doesn’t mean that you have to let those people back into your life, but that you just move forward.  And if God gives you peace of mind to open that door and continue to go through it, then you are to obey that.  But if he gives you peace of mind to leave the door closed, then we need to obey that as well. And it has helped me.  While I have not cried tears like this in a long time, I’m looking to see what the deeper message is, what God wants me to learn from this experience and how it is to reflect in my life.  I just want to encourage all of you who have had something similar happen to you.  Don’t get bitter.  Let it go. Turn to scripture.  Ask God for forgiveness.  Ask him to forgive those who have made assumptions and opinions of you and remember the only opinion that matters is that of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thank you DAB family.  Thank you Brian Hardin and family.  Cheers.  Asia from Munich.

Hey everybody.  This is Annette from Oklahoma City.  Hello my friends and family.  I love you guys.  Hey, Jan from SoCal.  Sister, man, I’m so glad to hear you again.  I’ve missed you so much.  My arms are around you today.  Hey, I was listening to you talk about having to take math class and all that stuff and I was thinking about when I was in high school I literally failed chemistry. I could not deal with it.  I don’t know what…  The teacher was terrible.  And then I joined the Air Force and what do I do?  I get into water treatment.  Total chemistry.  Oh my goodness.  I was freaked out.  But let me tell you, I got a teacher who was amazing.  It went from something that I was just like had zero concept, zero.  I mean, I was a failure, to when I got my licenses and everything for water treatment which involves tons of math, tons of chemistry and I understand, I had to do it too, from not knowing anything to when the instructor was gone for the test, the people would go, “Nette, Nette, help me out.  Help me out.  I know you understand this,” so leading people into teaching them.  So I know that you can do this and you might be surprised that you find out that you are excellent at this.  You know, you just had to play a little catchup.  It was pretty funny because I was thinking about that. I got kind of distracted from actually calling in and the next call is Alphaio chewing my butt saying, “Nette, call.” I thought it was pretty funny.  But you’re right, you know.  I pray for you and I wish you good studies and I hope that you grasp everything quickly.  

Leviticus 1:1-3:17 ~ Mark 1:29-2:12 ~ Psalm 35:17-28 ~ Proverbs 9:13-18

Today is the 16^th day of February.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I am Brian if you haven’t figured that out by now, and it’s great to be here with you for this next step.  It’s like a big step today.  We’re moving into the third book of the Bible.  We finished the book of Exodus yesterday, which brings us to the book of Leviticus.  So before we dive into that, let’s just do a little flyover and understand what we’re going to encounter.    

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

Leviticus, like I just said, is the third book of the Bible, but it is the third book of the Pentateuch, the Torah, and it was written to the children of Israel.  We’re in the middle of the desert at this point in the story and God is establishing the terms of the covenant between himself and the nation of Israel that is being formed from the dust of the wilderness.  It’s been about a year since they’ve been out of Egypt and the law is being given.  As we pay close attention, we’ll see this sort of subtheme, this theme emerge out of the laws and statues, that all these things lead to a fellowship with God through holiness.

Holiness is a huge thing.  God tells them I’m holy, therefore you as my people will be holy.  And holy, of course, means being set apart to God. God is saying if we’re going to commune together and enjoy fellowship with one another, it will be through holiness.

If you just read Leviticus at face value you find a lot of blood in this book because there is a lot of animal sacrifice in it.  If you approach the Old Testament, a work inspired millennia ago, from the perspective of the culture you live in right now, it’s going to seem somewhat barbaric and hopelessly antiquated and maybe even gross and irrelevant.  But it’s not. It’s not.  You may wonder why they would just start sacrificing animals and why God would want such a thing and to find the answer we have to go back to the beginning six weeks ago.  We were just talking about that yesterday, how fast it’s passed.  Six weeks ago we read the account of the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve’s fall and from that moment all of mankind was separated from God and worthy of death spiritually and physically.  When God comes into the Garden in the cool of the evening looking for Adam and Eve they hide.  They eventually tell God what they were afraid of.  It was because they were naked.  And what God does is telling.  He covers them with the skins of animals.  So it was God who set this precedent of atonement and covering.  It cost something to cover man and woman. It cost the life of an animal.

We live in a culture after Christ where atoning sacrifice is no longer required. However, we just read the account of the crucifixion in Mathew and it is barbaric and it is ugly and it is bloody and it is terribly sad.  The more that we fall in love with Jesus, the more that we see Jesus in our lives, the more we will realize that this didn’t happen to someone we don’t know.  This happened to our closest friend.  But his sacrifice was once and for all.  All that we needed.  He took it all, blameless, willingly and we no longer need any other atonement.  The children of Israel do not have that luxury.  God is showing the children of Israel that to cover their sin comes at a great cost and requires the shedding of blood.  It comes at a great price.  

So we’ll see God sowing this into the fabric of the culture he is establishing. We’ll see the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and how they are to be given.  We will see the way things are to be consecrated and the consecration of priests and priest’s families.  We’ll learn what is considered clean and unclean in the culture.  We’ll discover the different festivals or feasts that must be observed and the blessings and cursings, all against the backdrop of the utter holiness and sovereignty of the Lord.  

So maybe you’ve made it this far in the Bible before.  Maybe you’ve made it all the way up to Leviticus and this is where you’ve laid your Bible down thinking you really don’t relate to this stuff. Embrace it.  You are witnessing the establishment of a culture by a sovereign God showing a fallen man the great price of sin and its consequences juxtaposed against his utter holiness.  This is all happening in the harshness of desert wastelands here there is no McDonald’s down the street.  There is no Target.  There is no mall to resupply.  This is where we find ourselves as we begin the book of Leviticus.  So we begin, reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week, Leviticus 1:1 through 3:17.  

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for this rhythm and here we are, six weeks into this looking forward to the remaining 46 that we have together as we work our way through the scriptures.  We thank you for the way that you lead us through the scriptures.  As we see the Bible unfolding before us in its context, the stories become beautiful. And we see the redemptive thread emerging that you will not simply abandon humankind.  Every page of this beautiful gift that you’ve given known as the Bible shows us that, that there is no Bible without you in it and there is no Bible without people in it.  So this shows us that we are intertwined and that you are involved because you love us. So we thank you.  As we move into the book of Leviticus and we see the way that you established the culture and issued decrees and laws that are to be obeyed and customs that are to be observed, the rhythm of the culture that you are establishing, help us, Lord, see the rhythms of our own lives that you have established.  We live at different times, so the way in which we go about things is different, but at the core, at the heart, you have called and invited us to be holy through Jesus, to be set apart as holy to you.  So as we read of the ways in which you did this in the past, we realize that hasn’t changed.  The atoning sacrifice of Jesus has certainly covered us, but we still have to participate in this holiness.  So come Holy Spirit, because truly, truly without you there is no hope of that.  We can’t set ourselves apart or we would have done that at the Tower of Babel or we would have done that in the Garden of Eden or we would have done that at any point in human history.  We can’t do that.  You can and your Holy Spirit, the spirit of the living God indwells us, is within us, is a part of who we are, so with you all things are indeed possible. So we collaborate with you today. We give ourselves to you today. We ask that you set us apart and make us holy today and that this day be consecrated to you and that this day is a holy day.  We ask that you help us realize that every morning when we open up our eyes, we are invited to participate in a holy day because we are holy people.  Come Holy Spirit.  We pray in the name of Jesus that you make these things so, that you make them true of us.  We ask this in your precious and mighty 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.  It is the More Gathering.  It is time for the More Gathering for Women that is coming up this April 6-9.  This will take place I guess about an hour outside of Atlanta in the southern Appalachian Mountains just a little bit north of Atlanta.  Gorgeous setting.  Very serene, contemplative.  Beautiful new life springing forth.  It’s amazing. So ladies, man, if this kind of keeps blipping on your radar and you feel drawn, then take the invitation. Take the invitation of the Lord to go away with him for a couple of days, to set yourself apart as holy, to devote yourself to the deep contemplation, the kinds of things that we just never have time to think about because we’re too busy with all kinds of things.  Having a few days to not be that, to actually reacquaint yourself with your own heartbeat and to find God there is a beautiful thing.  It can alter the trajectory of the rest of your year for sure. So you can check out the More Gathering for Women at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You won’t have to look hard.  You’ll find it pretty easy.  All of the details that you would every want to know, everything that you need to know you can find there.  So looking forward to seeing you in Georgia shortly.  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.  It is your partnership that keeps the servers spinning and the data being pushed through the pipeline that we know as the Internet and wrapping itself around the world every day, all day.  And it’s a beautiful thing because we know that the spoken word of God is being declared at every moment of every day, 365 days a year without fail to whoever will listen, anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night.  So thank you for your partnership in allowing that to exist.  The link is on the home page.  If you’re using the app, you can press 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.  I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Good morning Dabbers.  It’s the 12^th of February and I’m Andre from Nottingham and I actually wanted to call, I felt compelled.  As a divorced man, I want to reach out and pray and comfort those who may be going through separation and divorce right now.  It may be immediate or they are in the aftermath of that.  You know, your life isn’t over.  Your life has not ended even though it seems at times.  We all go through a grieving process, almost like somebody has died through the process of divorce and separation.  Of course, we feel the guilt and shame for our children if we have any in that situation.  I want to pray for you all as a divorced man, knowing that what seems to be the end is just the beginning.  Lord, we just thank you for second chances.  We thank you for opportunities and we thank you through failure, through difficulties that we experience, success in life, the Lord really is our teacher.  We pray for those who may be going through divorce or separation or contemplating it right now.  Give them strength, the wisdom and the help.  Give them the peace of mind, the right counsel, and be surrounded by people that love them and support them.  I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus.  Love you all.  Brian and your family, we praise you, in Jesus’ name.  All my Dabber family, I appreciate you.  This is Andre from Nottingham and love you all.  God bless.  Bye-bye.  

Hi, this is Elaine from Victoria.  I heard Bill this morning.  It’s Sunday, February 12^th.  So Bill, I have you on my heart.  And also I heard that you have heart problems and breathing problems and in the hospital in San Antonio.  So Lord, you be his breath for him.  You be his heart for him.  Lord, just take this brother and heal him in mind and body, from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.  While I’m talking about heart things, my mother who will be 100 this year has also a weak heart they discovered when my sister took her to the hospital and her legs are filling up with fluid.  I pray comfort for her, but my wish is that if she is going, that I would be with her to hold her hand.  I feel like you, Brian, with the mother that had such a heart for her children and I just want to just be there for her.  So this is my prayer.  Thank you for praying, Daily Audio Bible.  I pray for you and this ministry too, Brian.  I love you all.  Bye-bye.

Hi DAB family.  This is Will from beautiful Bozeman, MT and I just want to rejoice with Gigi.  Father, thank you so much for Gigi and how you have healed her and given her new strength and you allowed her to see through the enemy’s tricks and his lies and deception and we thank you so much, Jesus, that you are our living hope.  Thank you, Father, for the blessing that she has.  I pray, Father, for continued strength in her body, for continued renewal.  Thank you, Father, for continued healing in her body. Thank you for the encouragement she is to us.  Thank you so much, Father, for your love for her and thank you, Jesus, that Lord she is a strength to us all, Lord.  And I lift up Bill B., Lord, and pray for his healing, for his breathing.  We pray, Father, that you would restore him and renew him, Father, and that you would pour out your spirit mightily upon him.  God, we know that you love him.  Lord, bless and keep him.  in the holy and righteous name of Jesus I pray and we thank you so much, Lord. We love you, Father.  We love you, Lord.  Brian, we love you.  Gigi, we love you.  Bill B., we love you.  God loves you.  Take care. This is Will from beautiful Bozeman, MT.

Good morning DAB family.  I’m a burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our Lord and King, calling from Charlotte, NC.  What a beautiful day it is today.  I think it is probably like 70 degrees out, going for a walk.  Listened to DAB.  Gigi, I love you so much.  You are family, man.  I mean, you are family and your praise report just fills my heart with joy and I just will continue believing God with you and continue praising God with you and just for your faith.  That is more valuable than anything.  Thank you. Thank you for sharing this with us. I love you all and I’ll talk to you soon.  Bye.  

Hello Daily Audio Bible community.  This is Ken from Costa Mesa, CA.  I’m new to Daily Audio Bible.  What a wonderful resource this is for our hearts and minds, to get us close to God and to bring us together as a people though we’re scattered throughout the world.  I need prayer.  I’m a new journey with God.  I’ve been a Christian for many, many years, but have more recently become more dedicated on a daily basis.  My prayer is to draw closer to him, to be genuine, and to make it real.  To have prayer and time with him for the sake of being with him and no other reason.  Also please pray for my finances.  I’m __________ a very difficult time right now, need to get through this and a new relationship.  I place it in God’s hands to help me to just let go of all my struggles and difficulties and place them in God’s hands for real.  Thank you, community.  God bless you.  Have a great day.  

Hello Daily Audio Bible.  This is my first time calling in.  I started this wonderful app the beginning of this year.  Today is Sunday the 12^th, 2017, and I heard a lady speaking about that her husband had an affair and she is going through a divorce.  I never would have called into this.  I just listen and cherish all the prayers, but I myself have gone through this with my husband and there were 36 years of marriage and I found out he had been unfaithful.  I just want to let you know that I’m praying for you.  My husband and I have worked it out.  We’ve gone before the Lord and trust in the Lord with all your heart.  Lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he’ll direct your path.  I know you’re going through a divorce.  I’m going to be praying for you.  God can do all things, anything, so I pray for whatever path you’re on.  Just know that I am praying for you and for anybody out there who has gone through this as a husband or a wife, take that chance to trust the Lord and know that things can be beautiful again in your marriage.  Things can be healed.  There can be reconciliation.  There can be a wonderful moment of being completely, totally in love again through forgiveness, grace, grace, grace, lots and lots of grace.  I love you all so much and just trust the Lord. Thank you so much.  

Exodus 39:1-40:38 ~ Mark 1:1-28 ~ Psalm 35:1-16 ~ Proverbs 9:11-12

Today is the 15^th day of February.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It’s great to be here with you at the middle of the second month of this year, which I guess means we’re about six weeks into the year.  Can you believe that it was just New Year’s six weeks ago, Christmas seven weeks ago?  We have traveled some miles together in the Bible.  It’s been amazing.  And so we’ll take the next step forward, reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week, Exodus chapter 39, verse 1 through 40:38.  

Introduction of a New Book (New Testament)

Okay, so we finished the first gospel yesterday, the gospel of Matthew, which brings us to the second gospel in the scriptures, the gospel of Mark. Right at the outset we should acknowledge that Mark was not a disciple.  He was not one of the 12 disciples of Jesus and he wasn’t an apostle either.  He was really a long-term disciple of Peter.  So we first see him show up in the book of Acts.  He’s Mark, aka John Mark, and he lived in Jerusalem and came from a fairly wealthy family.  His mother’s name was Mary and she had a big house and a servant named Rhoda, according to the Bible.  Mary was an earlier believer and opened her home to early believers, so one of the early church gatherings.  Church tradition holds that her home may have been the place of the Upper Room where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early believers after Jesus’ ascension. So Mark was all around this all his life, even as a boy.

The apostle Peter was capture by Herod.  We’ll read about this story later in the New Testament.  He is going to be executed by Herod who would put some of the other Christians to death and it was pleasing to the people, so he planned to execute Peter, but an angel came and sprung Peter from jail and it was to John Mark’s house, to Mary’s large home that Peter first came.  All the believers were there praying earnestly for Peter and that prayer was answered by God sending an angel to spring Peter from jail.  So Peter comes to John Mark’s house and Rhoda, the servant girl, comes to the door and sees him and slams the door in his face basically because she can’t believe it’s him.  That’s a story we’ll come to later, but it shows us a little bit about who Mark is.

So John Mark has been around the gospel his whole life.  His cousin’s name is Barnabas who was a dear friend of the apostle Paul and Mark goes with Barnabas and Paul on Paul’s first missionary journey. So there is a pedigree, and rather than going into a long historical thing about John Mark, church tradition holds that he later becomes a servant or a disciple of the apostle Peter and travels all over with him and is serving even as an interpreter in Italy and especially in Rome.  Everywhere that they go, Peter shares the gospel of Jesus Christ, so John Mark has heard this over and over and over everywhere that they go as Peter is evangelizing.  He recalls and remembers all this and at some point he is even asked to write this down so people can remember all the history that Peter is giving everywhere that he goes.  So Mark eventually does.  

In a real way, what Mark is recording is really the gospel as told by Peter and most agree that Mark himself was the writer of Mark.  There is some speculation as to the time of his writing, but most scholars believe that the late 50s to early, maybe mid-60s AD was when this book was written and it was written in Rome.  Peter was martyred historically under Emperor Nero, crucified upside down actually in AD 64.  Many scholars believe really that this, what we’re about to read, was the first account of Jesus Christ ever written, that this is actually the first of the synoptic gospels, the synoptics being Matthew, Mark and Luke.  So with that, we begin the beautiful gospel of Mark chapter 1, verse 1 through verse 28.  

Commentary

After all this time out in the desert so far with the children of Israel, the tabernacle, the centerpiece of the culture, the place that God would meet with them is constructed.  We got all of the details about that.  As the scripture says, the people made it just as the Lord told Moses, so they were very intentional when it came to doing exactly what they were told to do. So we see this move from a concept into a reality today.  Then, of course, we began and moved into the gospel of Mark today, but often it is these one or two sentences that we find at the very end of our daily reading that ties it all together or speaks so directly that we can’t ignore, because this is how the Proverbs operate.  We’re given direct unfiltered wisdom, wisdom that has stood the test of time over millennia and it speaks:  For by wisdom your days will be many and years will be added to your life.  If you are wise, you are wise for your own benefit. If you mock, you alone will bear the consequences.  If you mock wisdom, you will bear the consequences.  

So there it is.  Almost ‘here is life, here is death, choose your path’ right in front of us and we are counseled every day and encouraged every day to do whatever it takes to get wisdom.  So our wisdom is basically our experience and knowledge and sound judgment that we put into action in our lives.  So I guess the older we get, theoretically the wiser that we become, but what about intimately knowing one who knows everything?  Wouldn’t the one who created the world have the most wisdom about the world? Wouldn’t the one who fashioned and dreamed up and made mankind in his own image have the most wisdom about mankind? That wisdom is not like on a shelf somewhere unattainable.  That wisdom is within us by the power of the Holy Spirit if we just will listen, slow down enough to consult.  If you’re walking around in an intimate friendship with the wisest being in existence, it’s going to rub off.  You’re going to get wiser and wiser because of it.  

This is the invitation. Wisdom can add years to your life.  We’re told in Proverbs that it was there in the beginning, that God used it to create the world, that it is more valuable than any monetary possession or any possession for that matter, that it is worth giving up everything else to have it because it will add everything from good life, long life to knowing how to navigate in this world and knowing how to navigate between other people.  It is all here, the wisdom of the ages in the book of Proverbs and the wisdom of all things by the power of God’s spirit in and among us.

Prayer

Father, our prayer is for wisdom because to have margin, we’re going to have to have wisdom.  Yet, we need wisdom more than we need any other item that we could pick in this world. So Holy Spirit, come, fill us with your wisdom, the wisdom that we need to get through this day and all the interactions that we might have and all the decisions that we need to make and all of the things that we’re contemplating short and long term and the way that we’re dealing and relating to our spouses and the way that we’re relating to our children or our parents.  In all things give us wisdom.  Our ears are tuned to your voice and we choose to slow things down enough to listen to you. Come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In the name of Jesus we ask, 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 the More Gathering for Women that we’ve been talking about is going on around here.  That is coming up pretty quick – April 6-9, a beautiful time in the southern Appalachian Mountains of North Georgia just outside of Atlanta about an hour where the new life will be springing forth after the wintertime.  It’s a beautiful setting.  It’s a beautiful place.  It’s a beautiful time.  Everything you could want to know, ladies, is at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Events section or Initiatives.  You won’t have any problem finding it.  Come.  Come. It will do your heart good, no question about it.  You will leave with a sisterhood of friends that you didn’t know and that will carry on in the journey with you.  I’ve seen it every single year, women who are brave enough to come alone not knowing anyone but just knowing the rhythm of this community and that we’re in this together and immediately, immediately the connections are made.  The friendships are there.  It’s a beautiful thing to see.  And I’ve watched people come in groups and I’ve watched mothers and daughters come and I’ve watched best friends come.  It’s amazing.  So you are invited to the More Gathering for Women this April.  Check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the collective mission that we share here together to bring God’s spoken word to whoever will listen, anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night and to continue to build community around that rhythm so that no one has to feel alone ever again, if that is life-giving to you, then thank you for being life-giving in allowing it to continue forward every single day.  There is a link on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  And, of course, 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

Hey everyone.  It’s Christy from Kentucky.  I wanted to give you a call and share something that was just so cool that happened to me last night.  I had a hard time falling asleep.  I finally fell asleep and about an hour after I had fallen asleep, I woke up and I had heartburn and the Lord just immediately laid Jacqueline from California on my heart because she was supposed to have an endoscopy and they were going to stretch her esophagus and it was going to be on the 10^th. And the Lord had brought all this back to mind and I started thinking about her and praying for her and I thought I am going to send her a text right this minute so she knows that she is on my heart.  Well, I picked up the phone and guess who had sent me a message, a private message just like five minutes before?  It was Jacqueline and I just was like really?  Thank you Jesus.  His timing is so amazing.  It is so perfect.  I just wanted to share that with you.  Anyway, Jacqueline, we’re praying for you.  I’m praying you feel better, Sweetheart, and I’m glad we’re friends. Alright everyone, I love you.  I hope you’re having a most blessed and lovely day.  

Hey DAB family.  This is Cory from Newhaven, WV calling in.  It is February 11^th and I just finished the podcast and Salvation is Mine, I am Alone in His Presence.  I literally…  My mouth just fell wide open and I got cold chills because that is me right now.  I have for weeks now been dealing with a very, very rough time in my marriage with my wife and it has been this way for a couple of years.  But I have pressed in and I have decided that I am going to walk with God through this. I’m not going to go off the deep end. That is totally…  I feel alone, but when you said “alone in his presence,” that is me.  That’s me right now.  I’ve started going back to church Wednesday evening.  I’m going to go in the morning.  I’m going to invite my wife and daughters and if they don’t go, I’m going to go by myself.  But I will be with God and he will be with me and I thank you so much for being obedient and listening to the Holy Spirit and speaking that, because as soon as you said that, it is for a man, yes, that’s me.  That is confirmation, Sister.  So I appreciate that.  I love all of you guys.  Praying for everyone and pray that you would lift us up because we need it.  I’ll talk to you soon.  Bye.

Hey DAB brothers and sisters.  This is Byron out in Florida.  I need your guys’ prayers over something.  Tonight I was privileged to be able to participate in a ministry that goes to local fairs and hands out gospel tracts and gives the gospel to people who are willing to hear it.  The Lord enabled me to be a part of the soul-winning of eight people tonight. God is so good.  And I just wanted to ask for your guys’ prayer for these individuals, that God will start in their hearts to really help them understand what has happened.  I’ll leave their names, just their first names and I just ask you guys to pray as the Lord leads.  Over Carlton, Marcus, Ansel, Antonio, Rachel, Elizabeth, Tianna, and Shondra.  Please keep them uplifted and just thank the Lord for his goodness.  I can’t believe He would allow me to be a part of the transformation of somebody’s life, but I know he did it for me and what a privilege to be able to talk with other people about it.  If you guys have any kind of ministry like that, whether going out to fairs or public places, I encourage you to get involved.  It’s a great place to get started telling people about the Lord.  Anyway, I love you guys.  I’m so glad I can share this news with my family, and just continue to be in prayer for these people and for myself and what God will have us do. Alright, love you.  Bye.  

Hi, this is Bill B. in San Antonio, TX.  I was the one that was at Audie Murphy Hospital.  In fact, twice in two weeks.  First time was for breathing problems and the second time was for pneumonia, but you know what?  I have a mighty God.  He has brought me through __________ these 86 years and I pray, Lord, that you bless everyone that prays to you.  Lord, bless those that bless you.  I pray that you help me now.  Pray for me, I should say.  I was in the hospital, Audie Murphy, four days last week and four days this week, but things seems to be a lot better now.  I ask you to pray for me, in the name of Jesus.  Thank you.  

This is Charles from Brandon, FL.  Not to be confused with Pastor Gene in Bradenton, FL.  We are nearby, but not exactly in the same part of the world. Why I’m calling is that on December 23, 2016, my family and I lost the matriarch of our family.  That would be my wife, the mother of my children, and the grandmother of the grandchildren.  We had been married almost 44 years.  You don’t hear too many people able to say that anymore and I think that is kind of sad, but we were closing in on that and we have just been trying our best to move on, crying when we needed to, praying when we needed to and reaching out to one another the rest of the time.  I would really like it if you could pray for us as we begin this new chapter.  Thank you. Again, this is Charles in Brandon, FL. Goodbye.  

Hi everybody.  This is Lisa, the Encourager.  I’m just calling tonight.  I wanted to pray for some people.  I wanted to pray for Reggie in Nairobi, Kenya.  And also wanted to pray for…or actually, I just wanted to encourage Janice from the UK.  She is so sweet to call us all the way from the UK and encourage us.  I just join you, Janice, as a sister from the United States, and just encouraging you for you encouraging us. And also, Amia, I just wanted to encourage you in your prayers.  They are really beautiful and I always enjoy hearing you pray, so I just wanted to tell you that.  So I’ll pray tonight for Reggie and his family.  Dear Lord, I just pray, God, for Reggie as he has been struggling now for 10 months trying to find a job and trying to support his family.  He’s got kids and a wife and it’s been very difficult as he transitions from Iraq to Kenya.  I just pray, God, that you will open up the doors of opportunity for him.  I pray that people will recognize his skill set, they will gravitate to him and they will find opportunities for him.  They will just open the doors and he will be able to find and meet people that can help him find a job, Lord.  And I pray for those businesses in Kenya right now that are going to be blessed.  I pray now that that blessing will turn around and go Reggie’s way and that he will be able to get a job so he can put food on the table and clothes on his children’s backs and shoes on their feet and some perfume for his wife.  

Exodus 37:1-38:31 ~ Matthew 28:1-20 ~ Psalm 34:11-22 ~ Proverbs 9:9-10

Today is February 14^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  It’s St. Valentine’s Day.  Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you out there.  Glad that we can be here together around the love story of love stories. I’m thrilled that we can take this next step forward in the Bible today . We’ll move our way out into the desert with the children of Israel where the things that God has instructed thus far to be crafted and made as the centerpieces of this new culture that are being formed, those things are being made.  Exodus chapter 37, verse 1 through 38:31 today and we’re reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week.  

Prayer

Jesus, as we read the final words of the gospel of Matthew today, we read of your victory, your resurrection after unspeakable, really incomprehensible suffering and your death.  You came back alive.  The curse we were under was broken and we were set free.  This is unspeakably good news.  When this good news came to us and we understood, we received it.  You told us in the gospel of Matthew today that all authority in heaven and on earth was given to you and that we should go tell everybody and redeem the earth in collaboration with you.  So thank you.  Thank you for the cross.  And we worship you for the victory, not only your victory, but our victory because of you. May our lives be the gratitude that we offer you.  We worship you, Jesus.  We are eternally grateful.  May this be lived out in our thoughts, words and deeds this very day.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here.  It’s Valentine’s Day, so Happy Valentine’s Day.  We’ve been mentioning the More Gathering for Women, so if you’re still looking for that perfect Valentine’s Day gift, this is the perfect Valentine’s Day gift.  You can check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  It’s not a Valentine’s Day thing, so if you’ve been kind of on the fence thinking, ‘yeah, I kind of want to go to that,’ be sure to check it out.  All the details are at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  

The other thing that I want to mention today is The Promised Land Films. In the Old Testament in the book of Exodus we’re reading about how God laid out specific instructions for things that needed to be made and those things are being made for us and we can listen to all the measurements and the different materials that were used and it is deeply fascinating, but it can kind of become tedious.  Like, what does that look like?  There is a scale replica of the tabernacle that exists down in deep southern Israel out in the desert and we’ve filmed that as a part of The Promised Land Films.  We filmed every biblical location that has been verified that we can find.  So many of the cities and places and ruins and geography that we talk about in the Bible, that is something you can see with your own eyes obviously by going there, but if you haven’t been, or even if you have, The Promised Land Films do a really good job of giving you a 360-degree view of what it feels and looks like to be in these places, what it is like where these stories happened, and of course the tabernacle was a big piece of the culture that is being developed in the Old Testament, the centerpiece in fact. So you can see that in The Promised Land Films in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, this is how we do what we do.  We do this together as a community.  We’re all in this together, this rhythm of every day, fresh every day, the Bible in our lives and our minds and our hearts, transforming us.  If that has been life-giving to you, then thank you for your partnership.  The link is on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you are using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button that is in the lower right-hand corner of the app.  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 DAB family.  This is Candace from Oregon.  Let’s pray. Lord, we bring to you all the dear ones who have called in their requests and those who haven’t.  This whole entire community we lift before you and we know that people call in, you take special notice and you have many, many of us praying for every single caller.  Lord, thank you so much that you placed Loralee in Boynton Beach in exactly the employment you wanted her to have.  Thank you for these 90-year-old Jewish ladies who are hungry to hear about Jesus Christ, the Messiah.  I pray that you will lead her and they will explore your word and find you, Lord, and find that intimate and beautiful relationship with you, in Jesus’ name. Thank you for this, Lord.  Thank you.  I pray, Lord, for Richard who called from Nairobi, Kenya and who previously has called from Iraq.  Lord, he needs employment.  He needs to be able to pay the school fees for his children.  Lord, meet the basic needs of every family member.  Let it be so clear that this is from you and give Richard really good, solid employment as the provider of his family.  We ask this in Jesus’ name and look forward to what you will be doing, Lord.  We will give you all the honor and glory.  Thank you, Lord, for Jay from New Jersey.  Please, Lord, lift his brother out of the pit that he might really come to walk with you, Jesus.  Thank you. Amen.  

Good morning, this is Lisa and I live over in Eastern Washington and I’m calling for prayer for my dad.  He’s 95. His name is Martin and he has resisted the Lord and the Lord’s reaching out to him for many, many years.  I’ve been praying for probably close to 33 years and his heart has gotten harder and harder, but I know that love will break through and I’m just calling to the Daily Audio Bible community to pray for Martin. He’s right now in a rehab and he’s not doing very well, he’s in heart failure, and I’m praying the Lord will give him a new heart, a new vision, and the ability to see Jesus and to receive Jesus before his final day.  So thank you for prayer for him and thank you for this program.  I really love it.  I listen to it every day now.  I pray for all of you too.  So thank you. And God bless. 

Greetings DAB family.  This is Motivated by the Good Shepherd’s Love.  I’m just touching base.  I realize I haven’t called in for a little bit.  Things are going okay.  I think I’m going to be in a season though that Christ is going to be walking through some things in my past and where inner healing is going to take place because I tried working with it before on my own, but this time Christ is going to be holding my hand and walking me through it.  I would appreciate your prayers as this process goes through. I’m also daily listening and praying along with the prayers of our DAB family and thinking of you often.  I love you guys.  God bless.  Shalom.

Father God, thank you so much for all the blessings I have in my life. Thank you, Lord, for those people you’ve placed in my life to lead me to you.  Father God, you know who they are.  Thank you that, for whatever reason, they heeded your call either knowingly or unknowingly and those that seemed to have brought us into the most wonderful relationship we could ever have.  Father God, we do lift up our family members to you, those who don’t know you.  We thank you, Lord, for the truths they’ve heard over the years, for those seeds that have been planted in their hearts, and I pray, Lord, that they would be watered and they would grow fruit, that their lives would be opened to you and their hearts be opened to you.  Father God, we’ve got so many loved ones we would dearly love to see saved.  We just pray, Lord, that you would be opening our lives to opportunities that we might be used in that way, Lord.  So please be at work in hearts and minds.  Father God, there are so many of us that are struggling with depression and anxiety and things like that where it just seems to be clouded, Lord.  We can’t see a way out and I pray, Lord, that your light of truth and your light of love would be shining in our lives.  Father God, I pray that you would be just so present to us, even though we may not be able to feel you there, that we know you’re there and that we can take comfort in that.  Please be guiding us, Lord.  Please be helping us each day to seek your face to be changing our hearts to be more like yours.  Be helping us this day be making those right choices and to spend it in your presence, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Good morning.  This is Jackie from New Jersey and today is February the 11^th.  I’m calling in with a praise report about my grandson.  Everything is working out well.  He lives here with me now.  I finally have him in school.  He will start Monday and I am so happy.  Thank you so much for all your prayers and thoughts and I love you so much for it.  I really would like to ask David where is he? I haven’t heard him, David from Kansas in quite a while.  And Salvation is Mine, I’m praying for you.  My sister had breast cancer and I think she is a 7-year survivor now.  She is doing excellent.  My sister-in-law, right now she’s in chemo for breast cancer and she’s doing good and I’m praying for you.  I’m praying for all my Daily Audio Bible family.  You have been so good to me.  You have helped me in all the things that I needed.  My daughter and I are not quite there yet, but give it some time and we’ll get there. Pray for my boyfriend.  He just got out of the hospital and he has diabetes and AFib, so pray for him please.  And pray for me too.  Keep my health up and I will pray for everybody that needs prayer, the ones that call in, the ones that don’t.  I love everyone.  God bless.

This is Jan in Florida.  I’m calling for Loralee, also in Florida.  You’re ministering to the Jewish widows at the assisted living facility and I just want to bless you for that and thank you for your obedience to stay there and you waited on the Lord and listened to hear the assignment that he had for you.  So Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that you bless Loralee in the assignment that you have given her.  What a privilege to reveal you to these daughters of Zion. And Lord, I ask that you would bless Rosalie, Naomi, Elaine and Janet and open their hearts and minds to the truth of your word.  Father, I ask that you would so fill them with a desire for your Holy Spirit.  Let them, even at their advanced age, know and understand that you have not forgotten them, that you love them, and that you want them, Lord.  I thank you, Lord, for their courage.  I thank you, Lord, that you have clearly touched their hearts and you have brought them in their lives to the kingdom for such a time as this.  I’m asking, Lord, that you fill them with your Holy Spirit. Give them wisdom.  Give them revelation and knowledge of you and allow them to give their hearts to you, Lord.  In Jesus’ name.  Loralee, if you can, speak to them out of the book of Isaiah because it is really all about Jesus and that is the main Old Testament book where you’re going to find many of the prophecies about the Lord, specifically Isaiah 53.  It’s totally amazing and if you can read it to them in The Voice Translation, it’s just an amazing translation that is very relatable, it’s very beautiful, it’s simple to understand, it’s something that they can really grasp and fall in love with.  Also as you’re teaching them, once you’ve read to them Isaiah 53, you might want to go in the New Testament.  There are several other verses as well.  Romans 10:16, John 12:38, Matthew 8:17, Acts 8:33…

Exodus 35:10-36:38 ~ Matthew 27:35-66 ~ Psalm 34:1-20 ~ Proverbs 9:7-8

Today is February 13^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today for the next step forward in this great adventure that we’re on together, one that takes us through the entire Bible, every word, every page this year, step by step, day by day, and today we’ll dive back into the book of Exodus, reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week.  Exodus chapter 35, verse 10 through 36, verse 38.  

Prayer

Jesus, as we come to the reading and retelling of your death, we’ve heard this story a lot of times so it is easy for us to not look at it squarely. It’s easy for us to just move beyond it because it is so disruptive.  We’re so grateful and yet now, as we’ve traveled with you in the gospel of Matthew and watched your compassion and your heart for people, watched your willingness to buck the system in order to unveil what true reality looks like, and then to go to the cross to offer the restoration of our souls, to reclaim what was lost and beyond our grasp is something that brings us to a sober place of speechlessness.  It’s a love that is beyond what we know how to comprehend and you loved us and have continued to love us well every day of our lives and so on this day as we bear witness to your sacrifice in the scriptures, we give thanks.  We are in awe that you could love us this much and we are grateful, but so many times words of gratitude fall short because the vocabulary isn’t there. It’s beyond words.  Sometimes just silence says more, and so we soberly enter into this with a grateful heart and invite your Holy Spirit to help us contemplate what this took, what a great vulnerable sacrifice you endured to redeem us. So we invite your Holy Spirit into this. Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen.  

Song played on today’s Daily Audio Bible podcast:  Sweetly Broken – Jeremy Riddle

Exodus 34:1-35:9 ~ Matthew 27:15-31 ~ Psalm 33:12-22 ~ Proverbs 9:1-6

Today is the 12^th of February.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you today as we greet a brand new week together and it’s weird that we only get 52 of these every year, but those 52 weeks lead us through the entire Bible and we are well on our way.  So happy new week to you.  We’ll read from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week and it’s the drama in the desert that is happening right now with Moses and the children of Israel.  Exodus chapter 34, verse 1 through 35, verse 9 today.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your word.  And here we are at another week and so we give our hearts to you, consecrating them to you in advance, giving this week to you.  We want to walk with you like Moses.  We want to be trusted, loyal, that you can count on us and not just the other way around.  This is a relationship you have invited us into.  So we thank you for your word because it certainly leads and guides us. It speaks to the deeper recesses of our identity.  It forms and shapes our hearts which in turn forms and shapes the way we live our lives. So we invite your Holy Spirit to continue to do that, shape, move, call, lead and enjoy intimacy together with you as we move into this week.  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’s going on around here.  It’s the More Gathering for Women time and so St. Valentine’s Day is just a couple days from now and this makes for the most unique and amazing of Valentine’s Day gifts.  So check that out.  That doesn’t mean you can’t give yourself a Valentine’s Day gift, because really that is what this becomes.  This conference becomes exactly that, get away with the lover of your soul and the space to unpack and process and just move through everything that has gone before and everything that is coming in a very, very serene location.  It’s springtime in the mountains of Georgia when this happens, and so it is time for new life to spring forth.  And that is exactly what happens.  So you can find out every bit of the information that you would need to know or want to know at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Just look for the More Gathering.  You’ll find it in the Events section or in the Initiatives and you can read all about it. We hope to see you in the mountains of North Georgia just outside of Atlanta on the top of a mountain and a beautiful, beautiful setting.  So we’ll look forward to that.  Check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you.  The mission that we have here is to bring the spoken word of God to whoever will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to continue to build community around that rhythm so that no one ever has to feel alone. And if that has brought life into your life (life into your life?  I don’t think that is proper English, but you know what I mean), if that has been life-giving, then thank you for helping it stay alive and be life-giving back so that we can continue forward.  We’ve done what we’ve done over all of these years because we’ve done it together. It’s been beautiful, so thank you for your partnership.  There is a link on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you’re using the app, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner. Of 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 guys.  This is Gigi from Gainesville.  I love you guys so much.  I can’t believe it.  This is… I’m healed.  Did you hear that?  I’m healed!  I’m healed! Thank you.  Thank you for praying for me.  Thank you.  Thank you. I have a new lease on life.  Thank you.  Oh my God!  This is crazy, right?  I just want to thank you guys so much for praying for me and interceding on my behalf. I mean, God has revealed himself to me. I now understand that the seizures were really oppression by the devil and that all I had to do was rebuke the devil and he would flee.  He has no power over us.  Jesus has already won the battle and I’m still weak and tired, but it’s something I’m going to walk into and I’m not going to give up.  I’m going to pursue this healing until I’m 110% because God has already purchased it.  I’m not going to let anything get in the way of me receiving it.  I pray the same for all of you.  I’m so impressed.  I’m so humbled.  I can’t do anything without God, but he’s never left me and he is always with me, so it is a lie to say that I can’t do anything because he is with me, so I can do all things.  I will be praying for you all now that I can think and I can do stuff and I love you guys and praise God!  Praise God! Bye.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  It’s Andy from Birmingham.  It has been a really tough year, but with God’s help here at DAB I’m being restored, which has been amazing.  I want you all to know that I love you all.  I love each and every one that writes on the prayer wall or calls in. I’m praying for you sometimes in tears and joy.  I felt like I want to give everyone a message I heard recently at my church which is don’t be afraid of big prayers this year.  I pray with you and I hope that your prayers are answered so much.  Have a great day.  God bless.  

Hi Dabbers.  I’m calling from Virginia.  My name is Rosemary.  And I’ve really been hesitant about calling in and I really don’t know why, but today I mustered the courage to call in and ask for your prayers.  I’ve had the hardest time trying to pass my oral interpreter exam for the Supreme Court here in Virginia. Statistics show that the pass rate of this exam is only like 6% to 8%, so I know the odds are against me, but I know that all things are possible with God.  My test is scheduled for March 16^th this year and so that means I have 34 days left to study.  I’ve been studying for this test for about two years on and off, so I’m asking if you could pray that the Lord would give me the focus and clarity of thought when I study and can you pray that on March 16^th at 10:00 that I would have the recall of all that I study so that I can pass my test?  I really feel in my heart that the Lord has given me this gift of interpretation since he has allowed me to make a living at it for over 10 years.  So during the times that I’ve interpreted, I always feel compelled to pray for the people.  I’m getting all tongue-tied here.  See, I think maybe that is what happens to me.  I feel compelled to pray for the individuals that I’m interpreting for.  I see people that are sick and have lost their way so I always shoot them with prayer.  So if you can remember to pray for me, perhaps this will be the year I pass my test.  I’m confident.  Thank you for your prayers in advance and thank you, Brian, for this ministry.  

Hi everybody.  My name is Alicia and I’m from Sacramento.  I’m very new to the Daily Audio Bible.  In fact, I just downloaded it last week.  So far, wow. I’m blown away.  Just looking for some reassurance and some direction and some guidance right now.  I lost my father almost two years ago and about 11 months ago I also found out that my husband was having an affair.  I’m in the middle of a divorce and we’ve been together for 16 years.  We have four children.  I did forgive him for the infidelity and for the __________ because I believe that when we say “I do” that we lay our life down for another person.  I believe that __________, I thought I could remind him. When love walked away, I thought I could take love chains and bind him and I believed in the promise, but it doesn’t look like it is working out.  Like I said, where I can forgive him for the act, I don’t know how to do the whole separation thing.  I don’t know how to not say goodnight to my children.  I don’t know how not be there for them.  I don’t know how to explain it to them.  I don’t know how to learn to not be the mother that I’ve laid my life down and still need to be for my children.  How do we do that?  I’m hurting. I went to church Sunday finally. It’s been a long time, and of course they talked about marriage and they sang that song that talks about laying your life down and believing in the promise.  Anyway, just kind of silly thoughts.  You guys can pray for me and my kids and my family to get through this difficult time. I know it is very common and __________ divorce is very final, but this is my story and my life and __________.  Thank you.  God bless all of you.  I look forward to __________.  

Hi DAB friends.  This is Bill B.  I’m asking for a prayer request for myself.  I’m in the __________ Hospital in San Antonio with breathing problems and chest pains, so I sure would appreciate your prayers.  And the Lord bless each one of you.  Thank you for praying.  Bye.  

Major circumstances have come my way, some I can affect, others leave me in dismay.  The gamut of emotions have been coming into play.  Terrible things I’m wanting to say.  But to you I pray, fighting through my feelings with all my might, tears streaming down, it aint a pretty sight.  There have been times I couldn’t sleep at night.  I fret and I strive to make sense of this plight, but can I really argue whether you’re in the right?  I want more margin.  Yes, even some space to better manage all the struggles that I face.  Not greedy, I just want to stay at pace to meet our needs as I run this race.  I must make room for your saving grace.  Time to change my state and get there quickly, for any ugliness displayed is not the real me.  But since I’ve gone to you, I can now be free to be your man wherever, whenever you need me. Now may your light shine so brightly. Amen brothers and sisters.  This is Daniel Johnson Jr. from beautiful Cincinnati, OH.  God is so good.  Just a quick shout-out to Blind Tony for your inspiration for us to continue to share ourselves creatively like this and also just want to say how much I’m grateful to the Hardin family for all the work and all of those that work behind the scenes to help keep this thing going.  May God bless you.  From beautiful Cincinnati, OH, this is Daniel Johnson Jr. saying make it a great day.

Exodus 32:1-33:23 ~ Matthew 26:69-27:14 ~ Psalm 33:1-11 ~ Proverbs 8:33-36

Today is February 11^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you at the end of another week.  And we’re just trucking along.  So we’ll go back out to the desert.  Moses is at the top of the mountain of God.  He’s been gone a while now.  The people are down below watching all this and they decide to take matters into their hands.  Exodus chapter 32, verse 1 through 33, verse 23, and we’re reading from The Voice Translation this week.  

Commentary

Let’s get our bearings here because we’re about to move out in the Old Testament.  So after the Red Sea incident where God lets the people cross on dry ground, and the armies of pharaoh, they don’t get the same treatment, the people are led to the mountain of God.  This is where God begins to speak into the culture.  This is what the people are supposed to look like.  This is how they are supposed to behave.  And he gives detailed instructions for a tabernacle, this portable tabernacle that will travel with them and sit in the middle of the congregation of the people who are a mass of people spreading out all over the desert floor.  So all these things are happening because the people have consecrated themselves and come to the mountain to meet with God.  And God has come down on the mountain and speaks to them through thunder and they freak out and they ask Moses “you be the mouthpiece.  We can’t stand in the presence of God like this. We’ll die.”  They are freaked out.  So Moses becomes the prophet, the mouthpiece of God to the people.  And he goes back up the mountain to hear from God, which is where we’ve been spending our last several days with the details of the tabernacle and the customs of the people.  There are more to come, but God is beginning to share the foundational pieces of what this chosen people, people set apart unto himself will look and live like.  

But they are waiting.  They are down below waiting.  Moses has been gone a while now, more than a month, and they are down there waiting. So you can kind of understand after over a month of just kind of camping out at the base of the mountain, wondering what is going on, especially since there is cloud on the mountain and thunder and all this kind of stuff, they are wondering what happened to Moses.  Maybe he is gone.  Then they begin to think maybe we’re on our own.  Maybe we got all the way out here and we’re free, but we have no leader.  We have no God.  What are we supposed to do?  And this is when they go to Aaron and they make this golden calf, so quickly turning their backs on where they are headed and looking backward to where they’ve been. And it’s not long before they are partying and worshiping this false idol.  

But we do this too.  We get out there in faith and then it is time to wait for the next instruction.  So we wait and it feels like we’re in the desert and we’re just waiting.  And a month goes by and we’re like where has God done?  I’m out here all by myself.  I’m free to go wherever I want to go now, but we start looking back in the rearview mirror and, like gravity, we begin to sink backward and downward and before you know it we are doing everything we ever did.  We are bowing in worship to whatever we think can lead us forward and give us life.  And that is the mirror that the Bible becomes.  

Of course, God sends Moses back down the mountain.  He had to be quite a sight when he walked into the camp with these two big stone tablets that had been written by the finger of God himself. That must have brought the volume down a little, you would think.  Word would have spread pretty quickly, you would think, and Moses dramatically breaks the tablets because they have broken his commandments before they could even move out from the mountain of God.  Of course, there is repentance and there is all this hem hawing around.  Moses goes to his brother Aaron and is like, “What in the world have you done?  What is going on here?”  

And Aaron is like, “Uhhh, I just collected a bunch of gold and threw it into the fire and this calf came out of the fire.”

You can picture a penetrating stare, a wordless stare from Moses that says a lot.  Things like “right.”  And it’s just a big mess.  And if we look at our own lives and the times that we have turned back to worship other things, to give our hearts to other things in adoration, to look to other things for life, it becomes a big mess.  

So this is a big mess.  Moses ends up back up the mountain and God is saying “I need you to lead these people. I’m not going.  If I travel with you for just a minute, I wouldn’t be able to tolerate it.”  

And Moses is like, “hold on.  If you’re not going, there is no way.  If you’re not going to come, then just take me out of the picture altogether.  There is no way.”

And God listens to Moses.  “I will do what you have said because you have gained my trust and blessing and I know you by name.”

Oh, I want that.  Isn’t that what we’re really after here?  To feel God’s presence saying “you have gained my trust and blessing and I know you by name,” the intimacy of that?  The beauty in that?  The availability of that?  Wow!  

And Moses gets to see the glory of the Lord.  He can’t face him face-to-face with his human eyes.  It will overwhelm him.  He can’t even process it.  God is beyond what we think we know.  What we think we know is barely scratching the surface.  So it will take an eternity to fully move into every aspect of intimacy with God, what we have as human beings, and Moses was able to experience, was the glory of the Lord and that is what our hearts reach for every day.  

There is one who made this possible and available.  His name is Jesus.  We’re reading of his story in the book of Matthew as he, God in the flesh, is being denied, betrayed, beaten, spit upon, lied about, tortured, mocked. Every horrible thing that a person can go through he’s going through, God is going through these things and allowing it to happen at the very hand of his own creation in order to make this intimacy possible.

The book of Proverbs today sums up the posture of heart we must take, the attitudes we must live into for this to be a reality:  Pay attention to my guidance.  Dare to be wise and don’t disregard my teachings.  The one who listens to me, who carefully seeks me in everyday things and delays action until my way is apparent, that one will find true happiness.  For when he recognizes and follows me, he finds a peaceful and satisfying life and receives favor from the Eternal.  But heed my warning.  The one who goes against me will only hurt himself, for all who despise me are playing with fire and courting death.

Prayer

Father, we have bowed to the golden calf many times.  It may have not been a golden calf.  It may have been some other issue or thing or ambition in life, but we’ve felt ourselves being pulled forward only to feel the gravity of our past pull us backward, only to find ourselves right back where we started. We’ve done this many, many times. And yet you are going to a new place and inviting us into new territory.  So even as we begin this journey with the children of Israel away from the mountain of God, we make this a moment in our own story and we’re not going back.  We’re not worshiping another false God ever again.  And we invite your Holy Spirit into what this looks like for us, what we’ve been giving our hearts in worship to and where it is you are leading us. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website, home base.  It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.  Coming up on the radar quickly is the More Gathering for Women.  It’s almost Valentine’s Day, guys.  This would be the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift for the heart of the one that you love. Not just guys.  This would be the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift for your own heart.  So I have with me here in the studio my wife Jill.  I’ve asked her to come and share a little bit about the More Gathering for Women coming up this April 6-9.  

Jill:  Hello family. It’s me, Jill, here to talk about More Gathering 2017.  Obviously, I’m so excited about More Gathering.  I say that every year, but honestly my anticipation, my excitement, it builds every year because I know what God does in this weekend.  There are so many things that I could tell you about this.  My first experience with any type of heart healing, exploration of the heart was when my husband forcibly signed me up to go to Captivating in Colorado with Ransomed Heart Ministries.  That was absolutely a turning point for me in my life with some healing, with some intimacy with Jesus, with me walking into face-to-face recognizing my responsibility I have to play in my own story.  With that comes necessary healing.  With that comes some necessary digging and exploration.  It was teaching unlike I had ever heard before, and I grew up a Christian my whole life.  So More Gathering started as Captivating and over the years it has morphed into messages that God has specifically given Brian and I in our own hearts through our own healing.  Captivating was essential in the story of my life and it was a stepping stone for us to get from Point A to Point, I don’t know, maybe we’re at like L-M-N-O-P, or somewhere around there, but this is where God has landed us.  

I cannot emphasize how much a woman needs this time away.  You don’t have to be a mom.  You don’t have to be a wife.  You just have to be woman.  You have to be a woman who craves, desires and identifies a longing for something more in your life.  And you don’t even have to have that longing.  I just think we’re kind of born with it.  I think it comes with who we are.  That is the exploration of the whole weekend, our desire for more.  I want to validate that need for more. It’s not the same need all across the board.  It is specific to your heart, who you are, who God created you to be.

So this time away, you deserve it.  I give you permission.  Sometimes we just need permission from somebody because we have every obstacle in life coming against us of why we can’t or shouldn’t go.  This time away, yeah, it’s going to require you to find babysitters and to make schedules and lists and cook meals and meal prep and everything.  I get it. I’ve done this.  Lots of women do this.  But how bad do you want it, I guess is the question.  How bad do you want it?  I guess the only way to answer that is to tell you that you are worthy. You deserve this time away.  

It’s once a year.  It’s four days out of 365, so I want you to come without guilt, without shame and what is going to require of you to get there is to fight through all of those voices, all of those lies, all of the junk.  There will be obstacles.  There will be opposition to get there.  You absolutely will have to fight through it.  Things will even come up once you register and you’ll go, ‘oh, oh, well that came up.  Oh, look at that!’  No, that is absolutely opposition that you’re going to have to fight through till the minute you leave, even after you get there to find the shuttle, everything. It comes.  We see it every year.  It’s a real thing.  Take us serious.  There is a team of people already praying for you to fight through, to war against the evil and the oppression that comes against this time.  You will have to do your part.  You will have to pick up your sword and fight to get through and you’ll have to go against the lies that say you are not worthy of this time.  You need it.    

Husbands, I want to talk to you specifically just for a second.  If you want true change in your wife’s heart, in her life, do whatever you need to do to get her there.  Do whatever you need to do, but do it just for this weekend, for her to have a time away to catch her breath, for her to listen to the reminders of who God says she is, who he created her to be, and to let her explore her heart and to have the most intimate weekend away with Jesus.  I promise you, she will not come back the same, which means you guys will not be the same, which means your marriage will not be the same.  

I could sit here and tell you story after story of things that we have seen every year, we have heard every year, but one that stands out last year to me was a friend that came whose marriage was in crisis.  And I knew her.  I knew the story and I just asked her to come.  The Holy Spirit had already moved on her heart and she said, “I’ve already been thinking about it.”  And she came. And I didn’t see her the whole weekend and I was fearful that she had left.  Like maybe it was too much.  Maybe she couldn’t handle it.  I looked for her and I did not see her one time.  She stood in the line, almost to the end of the line just to say hi before she got on the bus and she hugged Brian and she hugged me and she said, “I’m going home to fight for my marriage.”  

I don’t think this is a fix-all, a cure-all.  It’s not get her there and everything will be perfect in your life. I think it is a turning point for a woman’s heart that so desperately needs just to hear from Jesus.  So guys, send your wife.  Women, send yourself.  Moms, if you have a daughter whose heart needs some resuscitation, send your daughter.  Come with a friend.  Come with your sister.  Come with your mom.  Come alone. I promise you, you won’t leave alone. It’s an experience unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  I can’t describe it to you in words.  You have to experience it.  But come. There are so many surprises.  

There are some questions I get every year:  I don’t see a list of speakers and I don’t see a schedule. Well, there is a reason for that. We do not have the top speakers and Christian media coming to this event.  We’re not enticing you and luring you with those people.  I am proud of the fact that we do not have that.  I am proud of the fact that I have the most incredible group of women surrounded in my life who are willing to get up and share their struggles.  They are willing to get up and share their weaknesses and they are willing to get up and share their real life pain simply because that is where you’re at and you can identify with those women.  So Brian and I do the majority of the speaking, but some of these friends are just women that have walked life out with me for the last years of my life. They are the most incredible women I know.  They are coming.  They are sharing.  Live worship. There are so many surprises, I can’t even begin to tell you, but that is what we do.  You live your life by schedules and programs and texts and text reminders and alerts and alarms and we just want you to come and we want you to trust us with this weekend.  So every bit of information you need you get when you arrive at registration.  Just get to registration.  We’ll get you from registration to where you need to be after that, I promise.  I promise you.  And no woman has yet to freak out that they didn’t get a schedule handed to them before they came.  So if you can trust us with that, I promise you it will be worth it.

Okay, like I said, I could go on and on and on.  And I really need to stop.  So come.  And I am so excited that I will see you in April.  More Gathering 2017.  If you’ve already signed up, please go to the More Gathering 2017 Facebook Page.  What we want to do there is send the You Tube worship songs so that if you’re not familiar with them, you can start listening to them.  Those messages can start seeping into your heart and into your spirit and you can know them so that when it is time to worship together, that we all know the songs and we’re singing them together with one voice.  So I promise you it will be life-changing and I look forward to seeing you in April.

Brian:  Okay, well I don’t have anything to add to that.  Looking forward to seeing you in April.  You can get all the details you would want to know at this point at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Just look for the More Gathering and you’ll find it pretty easy.  

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

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Tamberly.  I am calling today with an urgent prayer request.  As many of you know, I’m a first grade teacher and I am blessed enough to work with my best friend.  We don’t co-teach, but we teach right together in first grade.  Anyway, she is being faced with significant issues with one of her students who she believes his mother has Munchausen’s and we believe that there is some significant things happening with that situation and with that young man.  He is really, really struggling.  I don’t want to go into a lot of detail, but there has been reports of abuse and things like that and now the mother is trying to go after my best friend and has hired one of the best attorneys in our town who is backed by a woman with very deep pockets.  So nobody has ever said anything, I can’t think of anybody who has ever said a cross word or a mean word or a negative word about my best friend.  She is an excellent, wonderful teacher whose heart is so much for children and I am just begging you for prayer for her.  We prayed last night.  We prayed over this young man.  We believe strongly that God has a big mission for him and his life. I just pray that you will just cover him with your prayers for his own safety.  And we just continue to pray for the truth to come out, that things will be revealed, and that the mom will be able to get some help or the help that she needs and that no weapon formed against my best friend would prosper. Her goal is not to defame anybody or to hurt anybody.  Her goal is only for this young man to be protected and for God to be glorified.  So I just truly covet your prayers and your protection for our sister in Christ.  Thank you.

Hi DAB family.  This is Will in beautiful Bozeman, MT.  It’s February 8^th and Brian, thank you so much for your commentary.  It really spoke powerfully to me concerning Jesus and the disciples and their concern for the poor and what our concern needs to be for Jesus.  It was like a mirror.  So often in our self-righteousness we overlook the fact of who we are at times, that we’re so concerned about how something that has been given and who it has been given to when actually we’re the poor.  We overlook ourselves at times.  What I mean by that is we are struggling.  We have challenges and we’re not facing the things the Holy Spirit is telling us we need to face, so we’re impoverished in spirit.  We may be physically impoverished.  Brian, you also mentioned the children of Israel and their concern about what their needs are and what Jesus talked about.  Just read Romans 8:15 where it says you have not received a spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father.  We have to remember that.  What did we receive?  What blessings we have and though things look short, we can call on our Father and lately I’ve been in this mode of wondering if I’m all alone in my life.  And just thought, reminder, today this morning, “Will, you’re not alone.”  That was kind of a prayer in my heart and God just responded, “You’re not alone.”  I just ask for your prayers, DAB family.  I love you.  Thank you so much.  God bless you.  

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Abba’s __________ coming to you from the US and I just want to say a few things this morning.  Listened to the podcast from February 1^st again.  It is extremely important.  The reading was from Exodus 13:17 through 15:18 and also Drew from the Bay Area, this message is for you.  Rest in that cloud of smoke that surrounds you. That is God protecting you from your enemies.  Fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today, for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.  The Lord will fight for you.  You have only to be silent.  God told Moses, “why do you cry to me?  Tell them to go forward.  Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.  Drew, you know that God will get the glory.  And then moving on we come to Matthew 21:23-46 and I just want to share that my notes say give the first of your best fruits.  Live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Then on to Psalm 26, pray it, pray it, pray it.  And then Proverbs 6:16-19:  Know the seven things that God hates and avoid them.  Avoid them.  Well, this is Abba’s __________, your silent prayer warrior praying for all those who call in and even those who don’t.  God bless you all.  

Hi family.  This is Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL.  Want to ask for your prayer.  My husband and I are about to call one of our spiritual daughters who is going through a true crisis in her very own marriage.  This is a girl that attended church with us and we were her pastors since she was 13 years old and she got married around two years ago and this gentleman presented himself as a Christian.  We counseled him for many, almost two years before they got engaged and it seems that he is living a double life.  Our spiritual daughter just discovered it and she is devastated and we are just asking that you will pray that God will __________ to counsel her, to minister to him in spite of our pain and feeling of betrayal, and that God’s will will be established in this situation.  We believe that God has exposed this so that he can rescue this son of ours, this spiritual son of ours from a very __________ but our humanness sometimes gets involved and our feelings are just hurt over this girl who is like a daughter to us.  So pray that God will grant us with some power and anointing in the Holy Spirit to minister not according to the flesh, but according to God’s power and his word.  Thank you family.  And I pray for my sister Karen and her nephew that has mental illness and is being indoctrinated into Islam.  I pray for his healing and deliverance.  And I pray that you, O God, will rise within him and will show him the truth and will deliver him.  I pray this in the mighty name of your son Jesus Christ.  I love you family.  Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL.

Hi family.  This is Salvation is Mine in San Leandro, CA.  Two things tonight.  One, I was given the name Alone in His Presence and I was given that to give out there to someone, but especially to a man.  I don’t know who it is meant for, but one of the men out there that name is meant for, Alone in His Presence.  The other thing is I was listening to February 6^th and I heard my brother Drew from the Bay Area asking for prayer because he is going through. So family, if you would please join me, we want to pray for Drew and whatever is going on in his life.  Dear Precious Father, our Savior Jesus Christ, we come before you right now lifting up our brother Drew from the Bay Area. Drew has said that he is going through. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that the word through is there for Drew.  He’s going through.  He will not be stagnant.  He will not be stuck in one place.  Whatever he is going through, Lord, you will bring him through.  In Jesus’ name, you will bring him through.  He will be loosed from every tie that binds him right now, Lord God. We ask you to please continue to help our brother Drew.  Keep him safe.  Help him. Lift him up.  Let him know that you are loving him, that you are keeping him, that you are holding him.  Lord, he is praying without margins.  Let him walk in blessings without margins.  Every step he takes will be one more blessing and he will give you the honor, the glory and the praise for those blessings, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  Thank you family.  Take care. Bye-bye.