February 2017 – Page 5 – A Walk Through The Word

February 7, 2017

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday February 7, 2017 (NIV)

Exodus 26-27

The valuable materials used to make the congregation tent and its furnishings are provided by the Egyptians when the Israelites make their exodus.

26 Eternal One: Make the interior of the congregation tent out of 10 curtains made of the finest woven linens. Decorate it with blue, purple, and scarlet threads, beautifully embroidered by skilled workers with images of winged guardians. ²Make each curtain 42 feet long and 6 feet wide. ³Attach five of the curtains together to form one larger curtain. Then take the other five, and attach them to form a second curtain. ⁴Make loops out of material dyed blue and attach them on the outer edge of both sets of curtains. ⁵Attach 50 more loops to the long edge on both sets of curtains so that the loops match up with one another. ⁶Make 50 gold clasps to connect the curtains together so that all the curtains for the interior of the congregation tent form one continuous piece.

⁷Next make 11 panels of tent fabric out of goat hair to cover the congregation tent and protect the beautiful embroidered curtains inside. ⁸Each of the 11 panels is to be 45 feet long and 6 feet wide. ⁹Attach five panels together to form a single wide panel. Then attach the remaining six to form a second panel. Fold the larger panel over at the front of the tent. ¹⁰Make 50 loops on the long edge of each of these panels and ¹¹50 bronze clasps to connect the panels together, so that this covering for the congregation tent may function as one continuous piece. ¹²The extra length of the leather tent panels—the remaining half panel—will hang over the back of the congregation tent. ¹³The extra length in the sides of the tent panels should be left to overlap so that the tent is covered completely. ¹⁴You must add two more layers to protect the congregation tent: an inner layer made of red-dyed rams’ skins and an outer layer made of sea-cow hides.

¹⁵Construct the supporting frame panels for the congregation tent out of the acacia wood. ¹⁶Each panel should be 15 feet high and 27 inches wide. ¹⁷For every panel, carve two tenons so that one panel fits perfectly into the next. ¹⁸You will need 20 frame panels for the south wall of the congregation tent. ¹⁹Make 40 silver bases to support the 20 frame panels, two bases beneath each panel so that each fits securely into the bases for support.

²⁰Make 20 frame panels for the north^[a] wall of the tent as well, ²¹sitting on 40 silver bases—two bases beneath each of the 20 panels.

²²For the back wall of the congregation tent (the side that faces west), make six frame panels. ²³Make two special panels for each corner on the back side of the tent. ²⁴They are to come together with the side panels at the bottom to make a strong corner and attach at the top to the first ring. This is how both corner panels should be made. ²⁵So there are to be eight frame panels on the back wall that fit into 16 silver bases—two bases beneath each panel.

^26-27Make five crossbars of acacia wood to connect the frame panels on each of three sides of the tent: north, south, and west. ²⁸Run one bar from corner to corner in the middle, halfway up the panels. ²⁹Overlay the frame panels with gold and make gold rings to hold the crossbars. Overlay the crossbars with gold as well. ³⁰Set up the congregation tent according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.

³¹As for the interior of the congregation tent, have your skilled workers take the blue, purple, and scarlet threads, as well as the finest woven linens, and make a veil that is richly decorated with images of winged guardians. ³²Erect four posts made of acacia wood overlaid with gold onto four silver bases. When the veil is complete, hang it on the four posts using gold hooks ³³suspended beneath the clasps that hold together the curtains; and place the covenant chest, which holds the sacred tablets, behind the veil. The veil will separate the two rooms and serve to divide the holy place from the most holy place.

At the very center of Israel’s camp is the congregation tent. It is the heart of the nation, a place of unique revelation, and a constant reminder of God’s presence and actions which create and form His people. Everything must be portable because this is not a settled population but a people on the move. God describes exactly how this large tent and its furnishings are to be constructed. Each layer covering the tent and the detailed work on the covenant chest, the seat of mercy, the table of presence, the lampstand, and all the utensils are physical reminders of deep, spiritual realities. The building, assembling, disassembling, and reassembling of the tent are labor-intensive; yet it is a work of obedience and devotion calling Israel to remember their special relationship with God. These are signs—located right in the center of the camp—that point to the fact that His graciousness is ever before them.

³⁴Place the seat of mercy—where sins are atoned—on top of the covenant chest in the most holy place. ³⁵Put the table outside the veil on the north side of the tent, and set the lampstand facing it on the south side.

³⁶As for the entrance to the congregation tent, have your skilled workers take the blue, purple, and scarlet threads, as well as the finest woven linens, and make another richly embroidered curtain. ³⁷Erect five posts made of acacia overlaid with gold onto five bases cast in bronze. Hang the richly embroidered curtain on the five posts using gold hooks.

27 Eternal One: Make the altar of burnt offering from acacia wood. It should be square and measure seven and a half feet by seven and a half feet. Make it four and a half feet high. ²Construct it with horns on each of the four corners so that the top forms one whole piece, and overlay it with bronze. ³Fashion buckets and shovels for the ashes, basins, forks, and fire pans out of bronze. ⁴Make a grate out of bronze, and attach four bronze rings at each of its four corners. ⁵Place the grate beneath the ledge of the altar, halfway up from the base. ⁶Make poles out of acacia wood for the altar, and overlay them with bronze. ⁷Slide the poles through the rings on both sides of the altar so that it can be moved. ⁸Make the altar out of wooden planks, and make it hollow—exactly like the pattern you were shown on the mountain.

^9-10Then enclose the courtyard in front of the congregation tent with large fabric panels made of finely woven linen on the south side that run 150 feet on silver hooks and rings supported by 20 bronze posts set securely into 20 bronze bases. ¹¹The north side is to be made the same way: hang a series of panels for 150 feet on silver hooks and rings supported by 20 bronze posts set securely into 20 bronze bases. ¹²The fabric panels on the west end of the court are to run 75 feet (10 posts set into 10 bases). ¹³The east end of the court facing the sunrise is to be 75 feet wide. ^14-15Fabric panels, measuring 22½ feet wide, are to be hung on each end of the east entrance, held up by three posts set into three bases. ¹⁶The entrance to the court is to be a 30-foot fabric screen, made out of finely woven linen richly embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet thread. It is to be held up by four posts set into four bases.

¹⁷All the posts that define the courtyard are to have silver bands and silver hooks, and be set into bronze bases. ¹⁸The courtyard itself is to be 150 feet long and 75 feet wide. The finely woven linen panels should be seven and a half feet high including the height of the bronze bases. ¹⁹As for the items used in the ceremonies held in the congregation tent and the tent pegs used both inside and outside the tent, they are to be made of bronze.

²⁰Direct the Israelites to bring you oil from olives whipped until it is clear in order to keep the lamps burning continually and producing the best light possible. ²¹From dusk till dawn—inside the tent but outside the veil shrouding the most holy place—Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning in My presence. This directive stands forever and must be carried out by the priests and people of Israel throughout all generations.

Footnotes:

26:20 Greek manuscripts read “south.”

The Voice (VOICE)

Matthew 25:1-30

25 Jesus: Or picture the kingdom of heaven this way. It will be like ten bridesmaids who each picked up a lantern and went out to meet a certain bridegroom. ^2-4Five of these women were sensible, good with details, and remembered to bring small flasks of oil for their lanterns. But five of them were flighty, too caught up in the excitement of their jaunt, and forgot to bring oil with them. ⁵The bridegroom did not turn up right away. Indeed, all the women, while waiting, found themselves falling asleep. ⁶And then in the middle of the night, they heard someone call, “The bridegroom is here, finally! Wake up and greet him!” ⁷The women got up and trimmed the wicks of their lanterns and prepared to go greet the groom. ⁸The five women who had no oil turned to their friends for help.

Ill-prepared Bridesmaids: Please give us some of your oil! Our lanterns are flickering and will go out soon.

⁹But the five women who’d come prepared with oil said they didn’t have enough.

Prepared Bridesmaids: If we give you some of our oil, we’ll all run out too soon! You’d better go wake up a dealer and buy your own supply.

¹⁰So the five ill-prepared women went in search of oil to buy, and while they were gone, the groom arrived. The five who stood ready with their lanterns accompanied him to the wedding party, and after they arrived, the door was shut.

¹¹Finally the rest of the women turned up at the party. They knocked on the door.

Ill-prepared Bridesmaids: Master, open up and let us in!

Bridegroom (refusing): ¹²I certainly don’t know you.

¹³So stay awake; you neither know the day nor hour [when the Son of Man will come].^[a]

Jesus provides a picture of the coming reality of the kingdom of heaven. As they approach the time of His sacrifice, Jesus makes sure the disciples know that soon it will be too late; the door of opportunity will close, and for many the door will remain shut. He gives them another image of the same reality to bring the picture into focus. Once they were bridesmaids waiting for their bridegroom; now they are slaves waiting for their Master. This time they are given responsibilities that will be rewarded. The blessings of the Kingdom bring risks along with the benefits.

Jesus: ¹⁴This is how it will be. It will be like a landowner who is going on a trip. He instructed his slaves about caring for his property. ¹⁵He gave five talents to one slave, two to the next, and then one talent to the last slave—each according to his ability. Then the man left.

¹⁶Promptly the man who had been given five talents went out and bartered and sold and turned his five talents into ten. ¹⁷And the one who had received two talents went to the market and turned his two into four. ¹⁸And the slave who had received just one talent? He dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money there.

¹⁹Eventually the master came back from his travels, found his slaves, and settled up with them. ²⁰The slave who had been given five talents came forward and told his master how he’d turned five into ten; then he handed the whole lot over to his master.

Master: ²¹Excellent. You’ve proved yourself not only clever but loyal. You’ve executed a rather small task masterfully, so now I am going to put you in charge of something larger. But before you go back to work, come join my great feast and celebration.

²²Then the slave who had been given two talents came forward and told his master how he’d turned two into four, and he handed all four talents to his master.

Master: ²³Excellent. You’ve proved yourself not only clever but loyal. You’ve executed a rather small task masterfully, so now I am going to put you in charge of something larger. But before you go back to work, come join my great feast and celebration.

²⁴Finally the man who had been given one talent came forward.

Servant: Master, I know you are a hard man, difficult in every way. You can make a healthy sum when others would fail. You profit when other people are doing the work. You grow rich on the backs of others. ²⁵So I was afraid, dug a hole, and hid the talent in the ground. Here it is. You can have it.

²⁶The master was furious.

Master: You are a pathetic excuse for a servant! You have disproved my trust in you and squandered my generosity. You know I always make a profit! ²⁷You could have at least put this talent in the bank; then I could have earned a little interest on it! ²⁸Take that one talent away, and give it to the servant who doubled my money from five to ten.

²⁹You see, everything was taken away from the man who had nothing, but the man who had something got even more. ³⁰And as for the slave who made no profit but buried his talent in the ground? His master ordered his slaves to tie him up and throw him outside into the utter darkness where there is miserable mourning and great fear.

Footnotes:

25:13 The earliest manuscripts omit this portion.

The Voice (VOICE)

Psalm 31:1-8

Psalm 31

For the worship leader. A song of David.

¹You are my shelter, O Eternal One—my soul’s sanctuary!
Shield me from shame;
rescue me by Your righteousness.
²Hear me, Lord! Turn Your ear in my direction.
Come quick! Save me!
Be my rock, my shelter,
my fortress of salvation!

³You are my rock and my fortress—my soul’s sanctuary!
Therefore, for the sake of Your reputation, be my leader, my guide, my navigator, my commander.
⁴Save me from the snare that has been secretly set out for me,
for You are my protection.
⁵I entrust my spirit into Your hands.^[a]
You have redeemed me, O Eternal, God of faithfulness and truth.

⁶I despise the people who pay respect to breathless idols,
and I trust only in You, Eternal One.
⁷I will gladly rejoice because of Your gracious love
because You recognized the sadness of my affliction.
You felt deep compassion when You saw the pains of my soul.
⁸You did not hand me over to the enemy,
but instead, You liberated me
and made me secure in a good and spacious land.

Footnotes:

31:5 Luke 23:46

The Voice (VOICE)

Proverbs 8:1-11

8 Isn’t Lady Wisdom calling?
Listen; don’t you hear the voice of understanding crying out?
²She’s taken her stand at the highest place in the city,
at the crossroads where everyone can see her.
³There, and at the gates, at the entrance to the city,
right in front of the city doors she cries out:

⁴Lady Wisdom: O people! I am calling to you;
I have a message for all humanity.
⁵You gullible people, acquire insight.
You naive ones, cultivate a heart that truly understands.
⁶Listen, for I am about to tell you of unparalleled excellence and beauty;
what I am about to say will set things right.
⁷I will only speak the truth;
I despise evil, so it will not pass through my lips.
⁸Everything I say promotes justice;
not one word is crooked, and nothing is distorted.
⁹Each and every word is straight talk to perceptive people,
upright and honest to knowledge-seekers.
¹⁰Accept my correction as being more valuable than your prized possession,
authentic knowledge more valuable than pure gold.

¹¹You see, no gem is more precious than Lady Wisdom—
your most extravagant desire doesn’t come close to her.

The Voice (VOICE)

February 7, 2017

02/06/2017 DAB Transcript

Exodus 23:14-25:40 ~ Matthew 24:29-51 ~ Psalm 30:1-12 ~ Proverbs 7:24-27

Today is February 6^th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and how are you all today? How is your day going? Maybe it’s just getting started and you’re still lying in bed. Good morning. Or maybe you’re laying your head down for rest. Good evening, goodnight. Or maybe it’s lunchtime. Or maybe you’re on a commute, you’re on a train, in a car. Wherever you may be, you’re at the global campfire now and no matter what is going on, we can step away from all that is going on and center ourselves round the rhythm of the word that we participate in each and every day.

So this week we’re reading from The Voice Translation and we’ll move our way back out to the mountain of God among the children of Israel who are beginning to learn new ways, are beginning to be reshaped and reformed into a new kind of people, no longer slaves in Egypt for the last four centuries, but free, new, chosen ones with a promise out in front of them and they are just beginning to learn what those customs and traditions and behaviors are supposed to look like inside this new culture. Exodus chapter 23, verse 14 through 25, verse 40 today.

Prayer

Father, our prayer today is the prayer of David sung in song so long ago as a beautiful melody that we no longer know, but the heart of his lyric and melody is our heart’s cry. We praise you, Lord. You lifted us out of a deep, dark pit and denied every enemy the pleasure of rubbing in their success. Our true God, the Eternal One, we cried out to you for help and we cry out to you for help and you mend the shattered pieces of our lives. You lift us from the grave with a mighty hand. You give us another chance and save us from joining those in the dreadful pit. So we sing and we remain faithful. We pour out our hearts to you with praise and melody. We let grateful music fill the air and bless your name because your wrath is fleeting, but your grace lasts a lifetime. You turned our deepest pains into joyful dancing. You stripped off our mourning clothes and covered us with joyful light. You have restored our honor. Our hearts are ready to explode, erupt in new songs. It’s impossible to keep quiet. O Eternal God, Life Giver, we thank you and we will thank you forever. Amen.

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home. It’s the website. It’s where you find out what is going on around here, so be sure to find out what is going on around here and where you can make connections via social media or what people are praying about on the Prayer Wall or that kind of stuff. Check it out.

I mentioned yesterday that my publisher has my latest book – Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us on sale in the e-book format for $2.99. That’s for a couple more days, until the 8^th of February. So if you hadn’t had a chance to check that out, this is a good time to check it out. Especially if you’re an e-book reader. If you’re not an e-book reader, it’s still available either as an audiobook, CD audiobook, downloadable audiobook, or book book wherever you get books. So I hope you’ll check it out if you haven’t. I think it will be helpful to you.

And I was also mentioning yesterday that we got a fresh new batch of Klean Kanteens in, the final coffee tumbler or tea tumbler you will ever need, and I’m not kidding. It is built like a tank. It will last forever. I use it for coffee because I’m a coffee drinker. It will keep your coffee hot for hours. I sit down early in the morning, which it is now, and drink my Windfarm coffee, which I’m doing now, and in the afternoon I can still drink this coffee. It’s still warm. So it’s the best there is. That is what we were looking for, what is the best there is here. And they don’t last long. We only get them in a couple times a year, like I said yesterday, and they only last a few days. So grab them while you can in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if you find the rhythm of the Bible being read fresh every day in community to be something that is life-giving to you, then thank you for being life-giving to it so that it can continue to be life-giving to you. You see how that works in a circle? That is all we’ve ever been, is a community doing this thing. And we’ve always done what we’ve done together. So thank you for your partnership in allowing the Daily Audio Bible to move on another day, another week, another month. There is a link at www.DailyAudioBible.com on the home page. Thank you for clicking that. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible 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 evening Daily Audio Bible family. This is Stephanie calling from Florida. I just wanted to call this evening to just express how wonderfully happy I was this morning when I heard Brian read from Proverbs 6, verses 16-19 and literally that word almost knocked me to the ground because when I read about the detestable things that God is displeased with and how these sins are an abomination, I thought about myself and my daily walk and how I go out and these are some of the things that I commit daily as a Christian. So it broke me. It broke me down. And the word of God says that it’s sharper than any two-edged sword and I was happy to be broken down because my goal in life is to live with my God in eternity and I want to live a life that is true and holy. And I want us all to go back and read that word. Hear what it is saying and let it speak to your soul so that we can strive to become what John 8:32 says: And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And we all want to be free. I love you all. I pray for you all daily. Brian and Jill, thank you so much for this ministry and for everyone, plant a seed in this ministry so that the word of God can get out and touch the hearts and souls of us all here on this earth. Again, praise God. I love him. I love you all. Have a good evening.

Hi Dabbers. This is Kathleen again in Mount Zion, IL. It’s funny because I would not think about calling for a long time and then all of a sudden I will want to call like two or three days in a row. But anyway, this time I did have just one thing, one thing that is really, really heavy on my heart. Last year about this time I had said I was going to pray, just call in every once in a while about my son-in-law who is Muslim and just pray that he would come to the Lord. I had kind of forgotten after a few months. I forgot to call in again about that and right now that is just the one thing that is on my heart. Of course, they live overseas and he is very saddened about all that is happening in the States right now and is afraid, although he’s not from one of those countries that have been banned, but anyway, he is just very hesitant about a lot of things right now. I just want to pray just one thing, one thing, and that is that God would reveal himself to Abdel. I have heard about many young Muslim men who Jesus himself, Jesus is appearing to them in hotel rooms. He is appearing to them. I pray for this for Abdel. I pray. Please pray with me. Lord God, please reveal yourself to Abdel, Lord Jesus, so he will know who you are. Thank you Dabbers.

Hi Daily Audio Bible. This is Alysa and I love your program. My husband and I have been listening since January 1^st and it’s wonderful. I’m asking for prayer for our friends Matt and Renee. They had a terrible house fire the other night. They lost everything and their beloved cat Shadow was killed in the fire and they are beyond devastated. Please pray for them, that God will provide for all their needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus and that he would surround them and comfort them and pray for financial provision. They just need support right now in prayer. And pray that this experience would not push them away from God but would rather draw them close to him. Thank you so much. I love you guys and keep up the good work with this program. Take care.

Hi Daily Audio Bible. My name is Amanda. This is my second time calling in. I would like prayers for…my husband and I are separated and we separated seven months ago. I became a believer after we got separated. I would just like prayers for God to tell me that I’m going in the right direction, that the choices that I’m making are the right ones. Really, really struggling with a lot of things and sometimes it just seems like so much. I just feel so defeated sometimes. I’m also still struggling with forgiveness.

Hello, this is the girl with the bumpy dog. I’m sorry, I’ve been sick for a while so my voice isn’t very clear. I was calling for Tim and Carissa and Brian actually, anybody who is in grief. Your grief passes. Your grief passes and the Lord knows how it will go. So nobody can tell you how to grieve, even someone who has been through exactly the same situation, so I just sit with you with prayers and I’m so sorry for your loss. The second thing I wanted to mention was Bernie. I so could relate to your feelings. My husband and I seem to be in that same position. We are getting through, but we’re longing for a greater relationship and I just loved the way you phrased it. I will join you in prayer if you’ll join me for return to a good foundation and to love our spouses as God has designed them to be loved. Thank you everyone for your prayers. And God bless all.

Hello family. Drew from the Bay Area. Hey, I’m calling today because I need your prayers. And I need your prayers now. I’m so thankful for this family. I am truly blessed by God, that God has a hold of me and I have this family to go to, that we have the Holy Spirit, that we have the word of God, that we have this ministry, that we are one with this ministry and that we can come together. And I am seriously surrounded by smoke. And I have no idea why I’m going through what I’m going through and I pray that things would change in my life. And I think things are changing. I pray about the margin. In fact, I just changed the word on my phone from the DAB (thank you Blessed Like Me, thank you so much for your message). I changed the header on my phone that says Prayer Without Margin because what we think is the margin where we’re living, that doesn’t exist really. It only exists because of our lack of faith. I’m praying, family, that you would help me with my faith. Pray for my faith. I know God has a hold of me and Jesus did it all. He’s got me now, but sometimes I just feel like I’m alone and that I don’t know what is going to happen next and what is the next crazy thing that is going to happen? I have no idea. Just pray for me. I love you guys.

February 6, 2017

02/05/2017 DAB Transcript

Exodus 21:22-23:13 ~ Matthew 24:1-28 ~ Psalm 29:1-11 ~ Proverbs 7:6-23

Today is February 5^th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is awesome to be here with you today at the bright, shiny, sparkly invitation into a new week. So here we go. We’ll read from The Voice Translation this week and back out to the desert where we’ll be spending some time watching, front row, a people be formed, a people be transformed from slave to chosen and all the fits and starts that happen in that process. Exodus chapter 21, verse 22 through 23, verse 13 today.

Commentary

Out in the desert at the mountain of God the people have consecrated themselves and surrounded the mountain. They are not allowed to go on it. They are not allowed to touch it, but they are hearing from God and God is beginning to speak the words that form how behaviors and custom and ritual will be conducted in this new culture. We can read into this across the millennia and go some of this doesn’t apply. We’re not doing some of these things anymore. But if you read into the spirit of what is being said you’ll see the foundation in so many of our customs and behaviors today. So we’re watching this be revealed for the first time. Things like ethics toward servants or slaves would be a part of this language. It is a part of this world we’re looking back into, but it is also a language these people understand. They have only ever been slaves themselves. So for God to speak into that posture, “you’re not going to treat people like you’ve been treated in the past. We’re not doing that going forward,” is very important. But we can tune out moving through this territory and go like, yeah, it’s ancient and doesn’t really apply today, but that is not true. We’re watching the formation of a people that affects everything and has given us the Bible. This is the formation of that culture so it does have great weight and importance to everything that comes next.

Then when we move into the book of Matthew, Jesus has made this prediction that every stone that makes up the Temple will be thrown down. That came true. That came true a couple decades later when the Romans utterly and completely destroyed Jerusalem. So the Temple that Jesus knew is not there any longer. It is gone. In the Old Testament, we haven’t even gotten to the first Temple and Jesus is seeing the second Temple. I don’t want to confuse everybody. I’m just trying to lay out how this all goes. Solomon, who we haven’t met yet, is going to build the first Temple. It is going to be destroyed and then there will be a second Temple constructed by King Herod who was probably the most prolific developer in all of ancient Israel and he will build a second Temple among a lot of other stuff that still does remain until this day. This is the Temple that Jesus knew. But for the Temple, which is the center, which is like God’s footstool where God communes and meets with the people, for this to be destroyed is kind of end of the world stuff, so that leads into this discussion about the end because the disciples come to Jesus later after he says this stuff and they are like, how will we know? How will we know? That question is still being asked today.

How will we know when it is the end? Throughout my whole life and throughout all the generations before us, we who are on the world today, people have been asking this question and making predictions and pointing out the signs of the end times. It has kind of always been a part of the fabric of what we’re trying to figure out spiritually. When is it the end? How will we know it is the end? Are we in the end times? People spend incredible amounts of money to figure this out. There are entire global ministries centered around that. The theological study of this is known as eschatology. So for those of us who are not proficient in eschatology and have not become scholars in this field, who are just kind of wondering where we are on this, we have the words of Jesus to his disciples who were not fluent in the theological constructs of eschatology. Jesus speaks clearly. “Take care that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name claiming they are the anointed one and many poor souls will be taken in. You will hear of wars and you will hear rumors of wars, but you should not panic. It is inevitable, this violent breaking apart of the sinful world, but remember the wars are not the end. The end is still unfolding. Nations will do battle with nations and kingdoms will fight neighboring kingdoms and there will be famines and earthquakes, but these are not the end. These are the birth pangs, the beginning. The end is still unfolding.”

Now, for most of my life, the idea of the end times was scary, terrifying even. For me, as a boy growing up, there were films, movies to depict these things that were terrifying and scared me right back to Jesus. But when we think about this, we realize we are a part of that story too. Of course, any kingdom to be overthrown by another kingdom, if that kingdom is not willing to surrender, will require battle and overthrow. And the kingdom of darkness is being systematically overthrown by the kingdom of light in this world and we are in the middle of that. We have a role to play in that. Everywhere that we bring light, we are bringing the kingdom. Everywhere that light is replacing the darkness, the kingdom is coming. The irony is that we have the ability to sort of be dual citizens, dual agents. We can bring light and we can bring darkness. This happens with the thoughts, words and deeds of our lives. We can bring something wonderful and light and good into the workplace today and go home and bring darkness behind the walls of our homes.

So these things are happening and are going to happen all as part of a master plan of redemption to replace all darkness and evil with goodness and light. Jesus says we need to not be deceived. So we probably need to spend some time honestly thinking about what side we’re on, because the weight of our lives matters. The things that we do and the things that we say, they actually result in things happening. Rather than trying to figure out when they are going to happen, we should understand that they are happening now and we’re a part of it. So may we go through this day and every day for that matter understanding the weightiness of the choices that we make. We are participating in this and it matters what we do.

Prayer

Father, we invite you into that because it is true. It is true that we bring darkness and we bring light by the things we do and say. We don’t need to know that as a concept. We can see it in our behaviors. We’ve learned enough to know that the things we do matter. So Father, send your Holy Spirit upon us that we might be intentionally aware that everything has a consequence one way or the other and that there is a lot at stake. You have chosen that we should be here as your ambassadors in this world and we pray that we might honor that this day, that our allegiance would be to you and your kingdom, because this is our only hope. So may we never be cavalier in the choices and words that we’re choosing. Help us to stop, pause, listen for your leading and move forward rather than just reacting to everything that happens. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base. It’s the website. It’s where you find out what is going on around here, and I have an announcement to make. We only do this a couple times a year. I guess the short story is obviously we have our Windfarm Coffee and Tea. By the way, you can get that sent to you every single month, a new varietal every single month, whether coffee or tea, and we’ve sourced the best we can find and roasted it or blended it the best we know how at altitude in the Rocky Mountains and send it very fresh to you. But being a little bit of a coffee connoisseur, a little bit of a coffee snob myself, several years ago I was kind of on the hunt. What is the best thing to drink coffee or tea, hot beverages, or for that matter cold, but what is the best thing I can drink this from, because for me, I used to always have one of those little hot plates on my desk, you know? You set your coffee mug on it and let it just keep your coffee warm, only it turns it into like liquid pencil lead. It tastes horrible over time. And I’m like isn’t there something? Because I don’t just sit and down my coffee. Like I don’t just sit down and drink 12 or 16 ounces of coffee in 15 minutes. I am a sipper and I like to sip it over time. So is there anything that can keep it hot without destroying it in the process? I was just kind of looking around and I looked for over a year. But it was in Oregon that I found this coffee shop. They were roasting their own coffee, so I’m checking all that out, and I found this tumbler. It was made by Klean Kanteen. I’m like, Klean Kanteen, yeah, these are everywhere. I know these. The only problem was it was like really expensive, but I went for it and fell in love. That was that. I had found what I was looking for. This keeps my coffee warm for hours and hours.

So I contacted Klean Kanteen just to see, hey, can we make some if these and can we put our logo on them and such? We got through all that and took the leap because they are a little bit pricey, but what I found out is that yes, as a community, we do like our Klean Kanteens. But we only get them a couple of times a year, kind of once at the beginning and once at the end of the year and we just got a shipment of them. So our Klean Kanteens are now available again and when they arrived at the warehouse in Colorado, I had SarahJane send me one because the lids have been changed to a 2.0 version and I wanted to check it out. They are spill-proof. It used to be that we had to have two lids, one that could sort of seal it completely airtight that you could just drop it and it wouldn’t matter, but then you would use this café lid to drink from. They invented this café lid that is spill resistant. And it works. I love it. And not only does it work, it keeps the coffee warm, hot even longer, so I’m ecstatic about it.

So Daily Audio Bible Klean Kanteens are available. They will only be available for a short time. I’ll only mention them for a couple of days because they will be gone. So if you are a coffee drinker or a tea drinker, then yeah, this is probably for you. You will drink out of this forever. It can keep your coffee hot for hours. I mean, if you put ice cream in this, it would keep it frozen for 24 hours, they tell me. I’ve never tried that, but I believe it. It is that insulated. I mean, this double wall, food grade, stainless steel that is clean, Klean Kanteen, so you can get yours at the Daily Audio Bible Shop at www.DailyAudioBible.com. They are available now, but like I said, every time we get them, they go really fast. So check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com.

Speaking of things that I will only be talking about for a few days, my latest book – Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is on sale until the 8^th of February. That is the e-book version. You can get all versions however you want them. If you want the book book to hold in your hands, you can get that anywhere. Or the audio edition you can get in CD audio form or like audible, like a downloadable audio book form, you can get that anywhere. But the e-book version is on sale for $2.99 until the 8^th of February. So whether that is Amazon for your Kindle or whether it is iBooks for your Apple device or tablet or wherever, wherever you get your e-books you can find Reframe for $2.99 until the 8^th of February. So grab that while you can, especially if you haven’t had a chance to check it out. If you’ve read it and you’re like yeah, I would like to have that kind of near in digital form to refer to, here’s your chance. There is a website you can go to: www.E-bookextra.com. That is kind of a clearinghouse for all those different venders. But you can just go to www.Amazon.com and find it. You can go wherever you go to get your e-books and this one is on sale for $2.99.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link on the home page. I thank you, thank you, thank you for those of you who have clicked that link and helped move the Daily Audio Bible forward another day. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible 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 and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

What up, DAB? It is Tiamonique calling from the UK. It has been a long time, I know, and I’m just calling to check in and say hi to everyone, I love everyone and yeah, I’m here. I had a fantastic year last year despite not being able to keep up with the DAB, but God did so many great things. I was able to travel and just progress my career. However, my health was really, really attacked last year and I’m still kind of on that __________ to healing. Just wanted to say to Brian I’m so sorry for your loss and we’ve all been here praying for you. So yeah, that’s it. I just wanted to say hi and I’ll talk to you all later. Bye.

Heavenly Father, I want to pray for Cynthia from Marietta, GA, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for prompting my sister to call in with the needs of her family. She is taking care of her children who have suffered horrible physical and traumatic issues, Lord, and she is doing it on her own, managing three kids and taking care of them. I can’t imagine the pressures that she must be under, Lord. I lift up Christian in recovery from a traumatic brain injury, dealing with the narcolepsy, Lord. I pray for __________, and the issues that she is having, Lord. I just ask you to manifest your Spirit in this family because you are the God of healing. You are the Great Physician. Your word says by your stripes we are healed, Lord. So I speak healing over their future so they don’t have to deal with chronic issues for the rest of their lives, Lord, but to be restored because that is what you’ve given us in you, Heavenly Father. She has held on for so long, Lord. Lord, show her that you are God in her body, in their body as well as in her life, Lord. Grant to her the peace that passes understanding, to be able to abide in any situation, Lord. And Lord, if it be in your will, restore their bodies as well, Heavenly Father, so that they can be a walking testimony to you, Heavenly Father. You have not abandoned the fatherless. You have not abandoned the widow. You never left your children out begging for bread, Lord, so touch this family and carry them. Make your presence felt in a real physical way. Oh, __________ , we love you. We’re praying for you and the Lord will show up. Wait for him. Wait for him. Speak healing over your children and wait for him. He will be there. In Jesus’ name.

Hey, hello Daily Audio Bible prayer warriors. This is Beth calling from Delaware and I wanted to lift up Gigi and thank her for her amazing faith in the Lord. We just pray for her peace and wisdom for the doctors and that, Lord, you would provide a major miracle, that she already is your mouthpiece and she will just make that blessing of a miracle taking away her seizures a worldwide occurrence, that we would all praise you and see you’re loving her and how much you love all of us as well. Thank you Gigi for being so brave and so courageous and most importantly for your faith. God is not going to let your faith be __________ at all. He is just going to continue to build that and work with you as you’ve worked with him. And dear family, if you could also pray for a couple people in my community here. There is one man, Tim, who has got ALS. He’s had it for three years and he is declining very quickly. If you could just please lift up Tim and his family and all those who have ALS. It is just a horrible disease. Lord, we just pray you would give him peace and that you would be able to meet the needs he has while he is with us. And also lastly if you could pray for my daughter. She’s got extreme anxiety. She is trying to taper herself off her medication for anxiety because her plan is to go into the military this summer and they want her off everything before she goes to boot camp and it is extremely stressful for her and she is having a really hard time with hallucinations and really scary things at night. And to make matters worse, her boyfriend broke up with her, and so she is just emotionally in a very fragile place, but we know God is a god of healing and we just pray, Lord, that you would heal my daughter Debra as well as all of those who deal with anxiety. In Jesus’ name we pray. Thank you Daily Audio Bible prayer warriors. I really, really appreciate your prayers. God bless. Bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. This is Chelsea in Central Florida. I am a first-time caller, so thank you for being willing to pray for me. I am calling for prayer. I struggle with anxiety and depression and I’m not meeting deadlines at work in part because of that right now, how it is __________ with my mental health and I need prayer for just being able to get back on track at work before I find another less stressful job as I’m a social worker and very burned out. Prayer for hope and for taking care of myself, doing the things that will help me with my depression and making that a priority and with the high demands of my job with the weird schedule hours, sometimes working late, that I would make time for things like prayer and seeing friends and exercise and all those things that will help, journaling, etc. So thank you very much. I appreciate it a lot. I’m praying for you all too. Bye.

Hello my DAB family. This is Mark S. from Sydney, Australia. Today is Thursday, the 2^nd of February. Look, I’m just checking in. Wow, margin is certainly something I need in my life and I ask people just to pray because this is one of the main reasons I don’t call and a lot of is it I just don’t seem to have time. A couple of things. Brian, your talk about your mother’s death was so close to me because my father’s death was very, very similar, but my mom was the one who was the carer for him, so she listened to your talk as well and it touched her heart. Also, a couple people called in. There was a lady that called in and another gentleman. I’m sorry I didn’t take your names. You prayed for my __________ and for restoration of my __________. Thank you so much. And Jay from New Jersey, thank you so much for praying for my son. I do believe that God will bring him back. He is still going through a period of trial at the moment, but I trust in God and he will bring him back to eventually, hopefully for my sake sooner than later. But God is in control, so I will leave that. Rest of my family, I know you’re all praying for me. There are so many things I want to talk about. In 2016 there were many miracles happening. Your prayers are helping me, family, because my relationship with my ex-wife is probably almost 80% healed from the anger I used to have, but I’ll try and get some time to call back as I’m not eloquent at speech so I would like to write it out first before telling you what happened in 2016. I love you, my family, and hopefully we’ll talk soon. Bye.

Hi family. This is Melisa from Albertville, AL. Bill B., it was so good to hear from you. Thank you for your service and I have lifted you up in prayer. Gigi or Deedee, I couldn’t hear your name good, but I’m praying for you. Sometimes I feel like you, Lord, help my unbelief. That was so beautiful and we are lifting you up, sweetheart. Aretha, welcome to the family. Girl, I’m telling you, you’re going to grow so much just listening to Brian’s teaching and just welcome. Bob, you’re an inspiration. Let’s see, Francine, I loved the poem or the writing you read for Brian’s mom. Brian, your talk on your mother was absolutely beautiful. It touched my heart. My mom and aunt went through some of the same things with my grandmother who passed away in 2010 so we understand. Let’s see, McKenzie, anxiety, I’m praying for you, girl. My little girl is going through the same thing. Tim and Carissa on the loss of your baby, I pray that the God of comfort will comfort you right now. God is able. Pelham and Molly, they lost their baby and they’re blessed with little Andy now, so we’re going to be lifting you up. Bernie from Nashville struggling with intimacy with your wife, I’m there. Me and my husband are there right now, so you all keep us lifted up. I love you family. Christy from Kentucky, it was good to hear you calling in. Pastor Gene, we love you. Love you all. You all have a great day. Bye-bye.

February 6, 2017

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday February 6, 2017 (NIV)

Exodus 23:14-25:40

¹⁴I want you to celebrate a feast in My honor three times a year. ¹⁵First, celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I instructed you before, you are to eat only bread made without yeast for the seven feast days beginning at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for that is when you fled out of Egypt. During this time, no one is to come before Me without some offering. ¹⁶Second, celebrate the Feast of Harvest in the spring when you bring to Me the first and best of the wheat crop you planted in the field. Third, celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the harvest season when you gather your crops from the fields, orchards, and groves. ¹⁷All of your men must come before the Eternal your Lord, these three times a year.

¹⁸When you make offerings before Me, do not present any bread made with yeast along with an animal sacrifice. Do not let the fat of the sacrifice remain until the next morning. ¹⁹Bring only the best crops from your first harvest into the house of the Eternal your God. You must not boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk.

²⁰Look! I am going to send a heavenly messenger before you to protect you during your journey and lead you safely to the place I have prepared for you. ²¹Pay attention to all he shows you and obey whatever he tells you. Do not cause him any trouble. He will not forgive you if you rebel against him for he carries My name in him.

The Hebrews follow a lunar calendar that has 11 fewer days than the solar calendar. Since it has only 354 days in the year, an extra month (a “leap” month) is added periodically to bring the dates into alignment with the seasons. Within this annual cycle, God sets aside several great feasts for the people to celebrate. The people are to honor their God by having days of pure rejoicing as they recall their rescue from Egypt and God’s ongoing provision. In keeping with the needs of an agricultural people, these feasts are situated around the harvests: first, the collection of the winter grains; second, the harvest of the other grains 50 days later; third, the gathering of the main crops of the field.

Month	Length	Date of Celebration	Modern Months
Nisan	30	14 Passover	March/April
		15-21 Unleavened Bread
		16 Firstfruits
Iyyar	29		April/May
Sivan	30	6 Pentecost (Weeks)	May/June
Tammuz	29		June/July
Ab	30		July/August
Elul	29		August/September
Tishri	30	1-2 Rosh Hashanah (New Year)	September/October
		10 Day of Atonement
		15 Ingathering (7 days)
Heshvan	29 or 30		October/November
Chislev	29 or 30	25 (8 days) Hanukkah	November/December
Tebeth	29		December/January
Shebat	30		January/February
Adar	29 or 30	14-15 Purim	February/March
Veadar*	29		February/March

* (added 7 of every 19 years)

²²If you are obedient to his voice and follow all of My instructions, then I will be an enemy to all of those who are against you, and I will oppose all those who oppose you. ²³When My messenger moves ahead of you and leads you to the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites—I will annihilate them. ²⁴Do not bow down to their gods, worship, or serve them in any way. Do not engage in any of their wicked practices. Instead, you must destroy every idol you find and shatter their sacred pillars into tiny pieces.

²⁵Worship and serve only the Eternal your God, and I will bless you with an ample supply of wholesome food and clean water. I will take away all sickness from you, ²⁶prevent miscarriages and barrenness, and give you long, productive lives. ²⁷My fear and My dread will move ahead of you, and wherever you go people will greet you with panic and confusion. I will see to it that all of your enemies turn and run from you. ²⁸I will unleash hornets ahead of you; and they will drive out the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites from the land before you. ²⁹Now I will not do all this in a single year, because the land would become a wasteland, overpopulated with wild animals that would roam unchecked. ³⁰Rather, I will drive them out a little at a time—a few here, a few there—until your numbers grow and you are strong enough to take over the land and its care. ³¹I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea west of where the Philistines live and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give to you all those who inhabit the land, and you will drive them all out. ³²But do not make a covenant-treaty with them or agree to serve their gods. ³³They must not be allowed to live in your land; otherwise they will cause you to sin against Me, the only True God. If you serve their gods, you will be trapped and be drawn into sin.

24 Eternal One (to Moses): Come up the mountain to Me, Moses, and this time bring with you Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel. These may come, but you must worship from a distance. ²Only Moses is permitted to approach Me; but be careful, for the others must stay at a distance. The rest of the people of Israel must stay below; they are not to come up the mountain with you.

³Moses then went and told the people exactly what the Eternal had said, and he carefully laid out God’s instructions. All the people answered as if they had one, single voice.

People (answering together): We will do all that the Eternal has asked us to do!

⁴Moses wrote down in great detail everything that the Eternal had said. Then early the next morning he woke up and constructed an altar at the foot of the mountain and erected twelve stone pillars.^[a] Each pillar represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

⁵Moses directed some of the young men of Israel to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the Eternal. ⁶He gathered half of the blood from the animals and filled the basins with it. He sprinkled the other half of the blood against the altar. ⁷Then Moses took the book of the covenant—the very instructions spoken to him by God—and read it aloud so all the people could hear.

People (responding): We will do all that the Eternal has said! We will obey every word of His command!

⁸Moses took the blood of the sacrifices and sprinkled it on the gathered people.

Moses (to the people): Look! Here is the blood signifying the covenant that God has established with you according to all He has said and all we have promised.

⁹Then Moses took Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s elders and went up the mountain. ¹⁰There they saw Israel’s God. Beneath His feet, there appeared to be paving stones of sapphire, as pure and clear as the sky above. ¹¹But God did not raise His hand against the leaders of Israel to strike them down. They beheld the True God, and they feasted and drank in His presence.

Eternal One (to Moses): ¹²Come up the mountain to Me and stay here with Me for a while. I will give you stone tablets inscribed with My law and commandments in order to provide instruction and guidance for the people.

¹³So Moses and his assistant, Joshua, got up and began the long climb up toward the summit of the mountain of God.

Moses (to the elders): ¹⁴Wait here for our return. Aaron and Hur will stay with you. If anyone has a complaint, then they can speak to them.

^15-16Moses^[b] made his way up the mountain. A thick cloud blanketed the mountain because the Eternal’s glory had settled upon it. The cloud stayed there for six days; and when the seventh day arrived, the Eternal spoke to Moses from the cloud.

¹⁷For the Israelites below, the Eternal’s glory appeared to be a consuming fire on the top of the mountain. ¹⁸As Moses walked further toward the top, he was swallowed by the cloud of God’s glory, and he remained there for a total of 40 days and 40 nights.

From above God’s glory appears as a cloud. From below it appears as a fire. As with the burning bush earlier on Mount Sinai, the mountain seems to burn but is not consumed.

25 Then the Eternal spoke to Moses.

Eternal One (to Moses): ^2-3Instruct the Israelites to bring Me a sacred offering. All those whose hearts move them are to make an offering to the One who delivered them from bondage. You should accept only the finest things: gold, silver, and bronze metals; ⁴blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fabric; fine linen and goat-hair garments; ⁵ram skins (dyed red) and sea-cow^[c] leathers; acacia wood; ⁶olive oil for the lamps; spices for anointing oil and incense; and ⁷onyx and other gems for the ceremonial vestment and the breast piece worn by the high priest.

⁸Direct them to build a holy sanctuary in My honor so that I can dwell among them. ⁹Instruct the people to follow the pattern I am about to show you for the congregation tent and its furnishings.

¹⁰I want them to build a covenant chest made from acacia wood. It should be 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high. ¹¹Overlay it inside and out with pure gold, and decorate it with gold trim around the outside. ¹²Cast four gold rings and attach them to the four corners—two rings on each side. ¹³Also, make poles out of acacia wood and overlay them with pure gold. ¹⁴Slide the poles through the rings on the chest in order to carry it. ¹⁵The poles must remain in the rings of the chest at all times; they are not to be removed. ¹⁶Inside the chest you are to store the stone tablets that I will give you as a witness to our agreement. ¹⁷Build a cover for the chest out of pure gold. It will be known as the seat of mercy—where sins are atoned—and it should be 45 inches long and 27 inches wide. ^18-19Fashion two winged guardians^[d] out of hammered gold, and place them at both ends of the seat of mercy. Put one winged guardian at each end, but have your artisans make them appear as one solid piece with the cover. ²⁰The guardians must face one another with bowed heads, their wings spread so that they reach up and cover the seat of mercy. ²¹After you put the stone tablets that I will give you as a witness to our agreement in the chest, place the seat of mercy—where sins are atoned—as a lid to cover the chest. ²²I will meet with you there. I will speak to you from above the seat of mercy between the two winged creatures that sit atop the covenant chest. From there, I will speak to you about all the commands and instructions I have for the people of Israel.

²³I want you to build a table made of acacia wood. It should be 36 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 27 inches high. ²⁴Overlay it with pure gold, and decorate it with gold trim around the edge. ²⁵Put a three-inch-wide^[e] rim around it, and place gold trim around the rim. ²⁶Then make four gold rings, and attach them to each of the table’s four corners at its four legs. ²⁷The rings need to be near the rim, so that they can hold the poles that carry the table. ²⁸Make the poles out of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. You will use them to carry the table.

²⁹Have your artisans make different kinds of dishes for the table—platters, pans, pitchers, and bowls—out of pure gold. ³⁰Place the bread of the Presence on the table and keep it before Me at all times.

This table is to be placed in a special room of the congregation tent with the elements symbolic of God’s place among His people. One of the major elements is the bread of the Presence; it is arranged in two rows of six flat loaves representing the twelve sons of Israel. There is also a pan for holding incense and pitchers for fine wine; all these elements remind God’s people of His loving grace. The golden lampstand stands nearby, bathing the room and its contents in warm light. This special room and all it contains stimulate the senses—sight, smell, touch, and taste—and serve to remind those who enter of God’s tangible blessings.

Eternal One: ³¹Fashion a lampstand out of pure, hammered gold. Make it and all its parts—its base, trunk, branches, decorative buds and blossoms, and lamp cups—out of one solid piece. ³²Six branches will extend from the trunk’s sides—three on one side and three on the other. ³³Each of the six branches will have three decorative cups shaped like almond blossoms whose buds have just flowered. ³⁴On the trunk of the lampstand, there are to be four cups shaped like almond blossoms whose buds have just flowered. ³⁵A single almond bud will sit beneath each pair of branches extending out from the trunk of the lampstand. ³⁶All the buds and branches are to be crafted out of pure, hammered gold and made to look as one solid piece. ³⁷Make seven lamps for the lampstand, and position them so that they illuminate the area in front of it. ³⁸The tools and accessories for trimming the wicks and caring for the lamps are to be made of pure gold as well. ³⁹The lampstand and all its accessories will require 75 pounds^[f] of your finest gold. ⁴⁰Be sure that you make the covenant chest, table, lampstand and all their accessories according to the pattern I have shown you on the mountain.^[g]

Footnotes:

24:4 Other manuscripts read, “stones.”
24:15-16 Greek manuscripts add, “and Joshua.”
25:5 The exact type of animal skin is uncertain.
25:18–19 Hebrew, cherubim
25:25 Hebrew handbreadth is about 3 inches.
25:39 Or one talent of gold
25:40 Hebrews 8:5

The Voice (VOICE)

Matthew 24:29-51

²⁹And as the prophets have foretold it: after the distress of those days,

The sun will grow dark,
and the moon will be hidden.
The stars will fall from the sky,
and all the powers in the heavens will be dislodged and shaken from their places.^[a]

³⁰That is when the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. All the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming; they will see Him powerful and glorious, riding on chariots of clouds in the sky. ³¹With a loud trumpet call, He will send out battalions of heavenly messengers; and they will gather His beloved faithful elect from the four corners of creation, from one end of heaven to the other.

³²Now think of the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and greenish, as soon as it begins to sprout leaves, you know to expect summer. ³³In the same way, when you see the wars and the suffering and the false liberators and the desolations, you will know the Son of Man is near—right at the door. ³⁴I tell you this: this generation will see all these things take place before it passes away. ³⁵My words are always true and always here with you. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

³⁶No one knows the hour or the day, not even the messengers in heaven, not even the Son. Only the Father knows. ³⁷As it was at the time of Noah, so it will be with the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸In the days before the flood, people were busy making lives for themselves: they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, making plans and having children and growing old, until the day Noah entered the ark. ³⁹Those people had no idea what was coming; they knew nothing about the floods until the floods were upon them, sweeping them all away. That is how it will be with the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰Two men will be plowing a field: one will be taken, and the other will be left in the field. ⁴¹Two women will be somewhere grinding at a mill: one will be taken, and the other will be left at the mill.

⁴²So keep watch. You don’t know when your Lord will come. ⁴³But you should know this: If the owner of a house had known his house was about to be broken into, he would have stayed up all night, vigilantly. He would have kept watch, and he would have thwarted the thief. ⁴⁴So you must be ready because you know the Son of Man will come, but you can’t know precisely when.

⁴⁵The trustworthy servant is the one whom the master puts in charge of all the servants of his household; it is the trustworthy servant who not only oversees all the work, but also ensures the servants are properly fed and cared for. ⁴⁶And it is, of course, crucial that a servant who is given such responsibility performs his responsibility to his master’s standards—so when the master returns he finds his trust has been rewarded. ⁴⁷For then the master will put that good servant in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸But imagine that the master’s trust was misplaced, that the supposedly responsible servant is actually a thief who says to himself, “My master has been gone so long, he is not possibly coming back.” ⁴⁹Then he beats his fellow servants and dines and drinks with drunkards. ⁵⁰Well, when the master returns—as certainly he will—the servant will be caught unawares. The master will return on a day and at an hour when he isn’t expected. ⁵¹And he will cut his worthless servant into pieces and throw him out into darkness with the hypocrites, where there is weeping and grinding of teeth.

Footnotes:

24:29 Isaiah 13:10; 34:4

The Voice (VOICE)

Psalm 30

A song of David. For the dedication of the temple.

¹I praise You, Eternal One. You lifted me out of that deep, dark pit
and denied my opponents the pleasure of rubbing in their success.
²Eternal One, my True God, I cried out to You for help;
You mended the shattered pieces of my life.
³You lifted me from the grave with a mighty hand,
gave me another chance,
and saved me from joining those in that dreadful pit.

⁴Sing, all you who remain faithful!
Pour out your hearts to the Eternal with praise and melodies;
let grateful music fill the air and bless His name.
⁵His wrath, you see, is fleeting,
but His grace lasts a lifetime.
The deepest pains may linger through the night,
but joy greets the soul with the smile of morning.

⁶When things were quiet and life was easy, I said in arrogance,
“Nothing can shake me.”
⁷By Your grace, Eternal,
I thought I was as strong as a mountain;
But when You left my side and hid away,
I crumbled in fear.

⁸O Eternal One, I called out to You;
I pleaded for Your compassion and forgiveness:
⁹“I’m no good to You dead! What benefits come from my rotting corpse?
My body in the grave will not praise You.
No songs will rise up from the dust of my bones.
From dust comes no proclamation of Your faithfulness.
¹⁰Hear me, Eternal Lord—please help me,
Eternal One—be merciful!”

¹¹You did it: You turned my deepest pains into joyful dancing;
You stripped off my dark clothing
and covered me with joyful light.
¹²You have restored my honor. My heart is ready to explode, erupt in new songs!
It’s impossible to keep quiet!
Eternal One, my God, my Life-Giver, I will thank You forever.

The Voice (VOICE)

Proverbs 7:24-27

²⁴This is why it is so important that you listen to me, my sons,
and pay attention to all I am telling you.
²⁵Do not let your mind wonder about her ways;
do not lose yourself and drift down her path,
²⁶For she’s claimed one life after another,
victim after victim, too many to count.
²⁷Her house is the gateway to the grave;
every step toward her is a step toward death’s dark chamber.

The Voice (VOICE)

February 5, 2017

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday February 5, 2017 (NIV)

Exodus 21:22-23:13

²²If two men are fighting with each other and happen to hit a pregnant woman during the quarrel causing her to give birth prematurely (but no other harm is done), then the one who hit her must pay whatever fine the judges determine based upon the amount demanded by the woman’s husband.

²³But if any further harm comes, then the standard for the punishment is reciprocal justice: a life for a life, ²⁴an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,^[a] a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, ²⁵a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.

²⁶If anyone hits one of his slaves (male or female) in the eye and blinds him in that eye, then the master is to free the slave to compensate for the loss of the eye. ²⁷If anyone hits one of his slaves (male or female) and knocks out a tooth, then the master is to free the slave to compensate for the loss of the tooth.

²⁸If a bull gores a man or woman and the injury leads to the victim’s death, then the bull must be put to death by stoning. No one is allowed to eat the bull meat, and the owner of the bull has no further liability. ²⁹But if a bull has gored people before and its owner is aware of the problem but has not confined it, and if that bull kills a man or woman, then the bull must be stoned and the owner must also be put to death.

³⁰There is an exception. If the relatives of the dead demand money instead of his life, then the owner of the bull may redeem his life in exchange for whatever is required of him. ³¹The same rule applies whether the bull gores someone’s son or daughter. ³²If the bull gores a slave (male or female), then the owner of the bull is to give the dead slave’s master 12 ounces of silver, and the bull must be stoned.

³³If someone uncovers an old pit or digs a new pit and leaves it uncovered, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, ³⁴then the person who owns the pit will be held responsible and must compensate the owner for the full cost of the animal; but the dead animal at the bottom of the pit belongs to the man who owns it.

³⁵If a person’s bull injures another’s bull and it dies, then together they must sell the living bull and split the money equally; they must also divide the dead bull equally. ³⁶Now if the bull already has a reputation for goring and the owner has not confined it, then the owner of the living bull must pay a healthy bull for the dead one, but he may keep the dead bull for himself.

22 Eternal One: If someone steals an ox or a sheep and either kills or sells it for profit, then he must pay five oxen for the one ox he stole or four sheep for the one sheep he stole. ⁴But if the stolen animal—the ox or donkey or sheep—is still alive and in his possession when he is caught, then the thief must pay the owner double. ^3bA thief must make restitution for what he has taken. If he has no means of doing so, he must be sold to pay for his theft.

²If a person attacks a thief in the act of breaking into his house and the thief is killed during the attack, then the homeowner is innocent of blood guilt. ^3aIt is different if the sun has already risen; so any homeowner who kills a thief during the day must be considered guilty of bloodshed.^[b]

The difference between these two situations is the difference between daylight and dark. If a homeowner is protecting his property at night and injures a thief, it is to be treated as a case of self-defense. But if the crime takes place during the light of day, it is not necessary to incapacitate or capture the thief; it is necessary only to recognize the thief and bear truthful witness against him in court. The right to personal property does not eclipse the right to life.

Eternal One: ⁵If someone allows his animals to graze a field or vineyard until it is bare and then lets his animals wander over onto a neighbor’s field, then he must compensate his neighbor from the very best of his field and vineyard.

⁶If someone starts a fire and the fire spreads and sets the thorn bushes ablaze, and eventually that fire burns up stacks of harvested grain and everything growing in the fields, then the person who started the fire is responsible and must pay reparations for what was lost.

⁷If someone gives his neighbor money or items to keep for him and it is stolen from his neighbor’s house, then if the thief is captured, he must pay double for what he stole. ⁸If the thief is not found, then the person who owned the house that was burglarized must go stand before God’s presence so that He can decide whether he is the one who stole the property.

⁹Whenever there is a breach of trust—regarding an ox, a donkey, a lamb, a piece of clothing, or any lost item—and the contested item is discovered in the possession of a neighbor and claimed by two different parties, then both sides must appear before God. If God finds the neighbor guilty, he must pay double for what he stole.

¹⁰If someone leaves a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any other kind of livestock in his friend’s keeping, and the animal dies or is injured or disappears while no one is watching, ¹¹then the two are to make an oath in the presence of the Eternal. The neighbor must swear he had nothing to do with the loss of the animal, and the owner of the animal must accept his statement and not demand any compensation for the loss.

¹²But if the animal was stolen while in his neighbor’s care, then the neighbor must compensate the owner. ¹³If it was torn to pieces by another animal, then the neighbor may use the remains as evidence, and not have to pay any compensation for the torn animal.

¹⁴If someone borrows an animal from a neighbor and it is harmed or dies while not in the possession of the owner, then the borrower must compensate the owner in full. ¹⁵But if the owner was there when the animal dies or is harmed, then no compensation is required. If the animal has been rented and not borrowed, then the rental fee paid shall cover the loss of the animal.

The owner who rents the animal must calculate the risk of losing the animal when he assesses the rental fee.

¹⁶If a man entices a virgin who is not promised to another man to have sex with him, then he must pay her father the bride-price and marry her. ¹⁷If the young woman’s father refuses the marriage offer because he disapproves of the man, then the man still must pay the amount of money that is customary for the bride-price for virgins.

¹⁸You are not to allow a sorceress to live.

¹⁹Anyone who has sex with an animal must be put to death.

²⁰Anyone who dares to sacrifice to any god other than the Eternal must be declared under the ban and destroyed.

²¹Do not wrong or oppress any outsiders living among you, for there was a time when you lived as outsiders in the land of Egypt.

²²You must not take advantage of any widow or orphan. ²³If you do oppress them and they cry out to Me, I will certainly hear them, ²⁴and My wrath will be kindled. I will make sure you are slaughtered by your enemy’s sword, and your own wives and children will become widows and orphans.

²⁵If you loan money to any of the poor among My people, do not treat them as borrowers and act as their creditors by charging interest. ²⁶If your neighbor gives his coat to you as collateral, then be sure to give it back before night falls—even if he has not repaid you in full. ²⁷You see that coat covers his body and may be his only protection against the cold. What do you think he would sleep in? When he calls out for Me, I will hear his cry. I am kind and compassionate as you should be when a fellow Israelite is in need.

²⁸Do not curse the one True God or any rulers of your people.^[c]

God demands respect from His people and expects His people to honor those He puts in charge.

²⁹You must not hold back or delay your offering from the bounty of your harvest or the juice of your vineyard.^[d] Dedicate every one of your firstborn sons to Me. ³⁰But dedicate your livestock—your ox and sheep—to Me in sacrifice. The firstborn of your livestock may stay with its mother for the first seven days. When the eighth day arrives, give the firstborn to Me. ³¹You must be holy before Me. Do not eat any animal that has been torn to pieces by wild beasts in the field. Toss its remains to the dogs.

23 Eternal One: Do not pass along a false report. Do not plot with evil people to give a false witness.

²Even if the majority of people are doing evil, do not follow them. Also when you are called to give testimony in a dispute, do not let the crowd pressure you into perverting justice. ³In the same way, do not side with the poor in a complaint just because he is poor.

⁴If you are walking along and come across your enemy’s ox or donkey that has wandered away, then you must return it to its owner. ⁵If you see the donkey of someone you know who hates you and it has fallen beneath its load, you must not leave it there. You must stop and help the donkey recover the load.

⁶Do not deny justice to the poor among you in their disputes. ⁷Stay far away from false accusations, and do not condemn the innocent or righteous to death. Understand this: I will not acquit those who commit such miscarriages of justice.

⁸Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe can blind those who see and twist the words of those who are in the right. ⁹Do not oppress an outsider. You know well what it is like to be an outsider living in a foreign land, for you were strangers once in the land of Egypt.

¹⁰You have six years to plant your fields and harvest your crops. ¹¹When the seventh year arrives, let your land rest and lie fallow. Let the poor and hungry among you come and harvest the volunteer crops that spring up in your fields. Whatever is left over, the beasts may eat. Do the same thing with your vineyards and your olive groves. ¹²You have six days to work. When the seventh day arrives, stop all work so that your ox and donkey can rest. When you observe the Sabbath Day, your female slave’s son and any outsider serving you have a chance to catch their breath and relax.

¹³Be careful to do all that I have instructed you. Do not even acknowledge the names of other gods or let their names spill from your lips.

Footnotes:

21:24 Matthew 5:38
22:2–4 Verses 2–4 have been rearranged to assist in the comprehension of the passage.
22:28 Acts 23:5
22:29 Meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

The Voice (VOICE)

Matthew 24:1-28

24 Jesus left the temple. As He was walking away, His disciples came up to Him and asked what He thought about the temple buildings.

Jesus: ²Look around you. All of it will become rubble. I tell you this: not one stone will be left standing.

³Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately.

Disciples: We don’t understand Your predictions. Tell us, when will these things happen: When will the temple be destroyed? What will be the sign that You are returning? How will we know that the end of the age is upon us?

In this, the last of the five major sermons, Jesus focuses on prophetic and apocalyptic themes of judgment and the end times. The disciples have been listening to the prophetic judgment Jesus has issued on the religious leaders. They have images of collapsing temple buildings, of prophets pursued from town to town, of floggings, and of blood-soaked garments. They can imagine themselves blood-soaked. When will this all happen, and what does it mean?

Jesus: ⁴Take care that you are not deceived. ⁵For many will come in My name claiming they are the Anointed One, and many poor souls will be taken in. ⁶You will hear of wars, and you will hear rumors of wars, but you should not panic. It is inevitable, this violent breaking apart of the sinful world, but remember, the wars are not the end. The end is still unfolding. ⁷Nations will do battle with nations, and kingdoms will fight neighboring kingdoms, and there will be famines and earthquakes. ⁸But these are not the end. These are the birth pangs, the beginning. The end is still unfolding.

⁹They will hand you over to your enemies, who will torture you and then kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me. ¹⁰And many who have followed Me and claimed to love Me and sought God’s kingdom will turn away—they will abandon the faith and betray and hate one another. ^11-12The love that they had for one another will grow cold because few will obey the law. False prophets will appear, many will be taken in by them, and the only thing that will grow is wickedness. There will be no end to the increase of wickedness. ¹³But those who do not waver from our path and do not follow those false prophets—those among you will be saved. ¹⁴And this good news of God’s kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, a testimony to all people and all nations. Then, beloved, the end, the consummation of all things, will come.

¹⁵You will remember that the prophet Daniel predicted this—predicted the abomination that causes desolation^[a]—when you see the prophesied desolation of the holy place. (Reader, take notice; it is important that you understand this.) ¹⁶When you see this, let those in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷If you are relaxing on your rooftop one evening and the signs of the temple’s destructions come, don’t return to your house to rescue a book or a pet or a scrap of clothing. ¹⁸If you are in the field when the great destruction begins, don’t return home for a cloak. ¹⁹Pregnant women and nursing mothers will have the worst of it. ²⁰And as for you, pray that your flight to the hills will not come on the Sabbath or in the cold of winter. ²¹For the tribulation will be unparalleled—hardships of a magnitude that has not been seen since creation and that will not be seen again. ²²Indeed the Lord God your merciful judge will cut this time of trial short, and this will be done for the benefit of the elect that some might indeed be saved—for no one could survive the depravity for very long.

²³I cannot say this clearly enough: during this time, someone will say to you, “Look, here is the Anointed One!” or “Aren’t you relieved? Haven’t you seen the Savior down there, around the bend, over the hill and dale?” Do not believe them. ²⁴False liberators and false prophets will appear, and they will know a few tricks—they will perform great miracles, and they will make great promises. If it were possible, they would even deceive God’s elect. ²⁵But I am warning you ahead of time: remember—do not fall for their lies or lines or promises. ²⁶If someone says, “He’s out there in the desert”—do not go. And if someone says, “He’s here at our house, at our table”—do not believe him. ²⁷When the Son of Man comes, He will be as visible as lightning in the East is visible even in the West. ²⁸And where the carcass is, there will always be vultures.

Footnotes:

24:15 Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11

The Voice (VOICE)

Psalm 29

A song of David.

¹Give all credit to the Eternal, O heavenly creatures;
give praise to Him for His glory and power.
²Give to the Eternal the glory due His name;
worship Him with lavish displays of sacred splendor.

³The voice of the Eternal echoes over the great waters;
God’s magnificence roars like thunder.
The Eternal’s presence hovers over all the waters.
⁴His voice explodes in great power over the earth.
His voice is both regal and grand.

⁵The Eternal’s voice shatters the cedars;
His power splinters the great cedars of Lebanon.
⁶He speaks, and Lebanon leaps like a young calf;
Sirion jumps like a wild, youthful ox.

⁷The voice of the Eternal cuts through with flames of fire.
⁸The voice of the Eternal rumbles through the wilderness
with great quakes;
He causes Kadesh to tremble.

⁹The Eternal’s voice brings life from the doe’s womb;
His voice strips the forest bare,
and all the people in the temple declare, “Glory!”

¹⁰The Eternal is enthroned over the great flood;
His reign is unending.
¹¹We ask You, Eternal One, to give strength to Your people;
Eternal One, bless them with the gift of peace.

The Voice (VOICE)

Proverbs 7:6-23

People are forgetful, so we must be reminded constantly of Wisdom and her ways. We don’t always need to hear something new; often we just need to be reminded of what is true. In these proverbs wisdom is found when one not only knows what is right, but acts on that knowledge. Foolishness, on the other hand, means a lack of understanding and wrongdoing.

⁶One day I was at the window of my house,
looking out through my lattice shutters,
⁷And there among the usual crowd of the gullible people
I spotted a naive young man.
⁸He was going down the street near the corner where she lived—that mysterious and evil woman—
taking the road that led directly to her house.
⁹At the end of the day, as night approached
and darkness crept in,

¹⁰I saw her! A woman came out to meet him.
She was dressed for temptation and devious with her affections.
¹¹Here’s what I know about her: she is loud and obnoxious, a rebel against what is proper and decent.
She’s always on the move—anxious to get out of the house and
¹²Down the street; at times in the open,
at others lurking around every corner.
¹³As I am watching them, she grabs him and kisses him,
then shamelessly tells him:

¹⁴The Immoral Woman: It was my turn to offer a peace offering,
and today I paid my vows,
¹⁵So now I come to see you.
I really want to be with you, and what luck! I have found you!
¹⁶You’ll be impressed. I have decorated my couch,
laid colorful Egyptian linens over where we will be together,
¹⁷And perfumed the bed with exotic oils and herbs:
myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸Come in, and we will feast on love until sunrise;
we will delight ourselves in our affections.
¹⁹You don’t need to worry; my husband is long gone by now,
away from home on a distant journey.
²⁰He took a bag of money with him,
so I don’t expect him home until next month.

²¹It worked! She enticed him with seductive words,
seduced him with her smooth talk.
²²Right away he followed her home.
He followed her like a bull being led to the slaughter,
Like a fool^[a] caught in a trap
²³(that is, until an arrow punctures his liver),
Like a bird flying straight into a net.
He had no clue his life was at stake; everything was about to change.

Footnotes:

7:22 Some manuscripts read “deer.”

The Voice (VOICE)

February 4, 2017

02/04/2017 DAB Transcript

Exodus 19:16-21:21 ~ Matthew 23:13-39 ~ Psalm 28:1-9 ~ Proverbs 7:1-5

Today is February 4^th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you at the close of another week and we will finish this week well by taking the next step together in the grand adventure of a lifetime that is the journey through the scriptures in a year. We’ve been reading from the English Standard Version this week, which is what we’ll do today, and back out into the desert with all of these people trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do next and God beginning to reform and reshape everything about them. Exodus chapter 19, verse 16 through 21, verse 21.

Commentary

The children of Israel in the desert with Moses are seeing a manifestation of God’s power and authority and it’s freaking them out to the point that they come to Moses and say, “you talk to God and then tell us what to do because we feel like we’ll die in his presence.” And Moses begins to become a prophetic voice, their spiritual leader, the oracle of God among their new society which isn’t really a society today, but we get the glimpses now. God issues the famous 10 commandments, things we’ve had for thousands of years and would say these are fundamental things for life, a good life, an upstanding, holy life. This is the first time these people are hearing these things. It is the cornerstone of this new culture that is being made and formed and shaped in the desert. So we can look at some of the things that are being shaped and formed in the desert because it is beginning to flesh itself out. This is how you behave toward God. This is how you behave toward each other. And we can read some of this stuff and go like, you know, some of these things have been around a long time. This is the way society is built nowadays, but it wasn’t then. This was a new way. In this entire region of the world this was a new way. So even when God is talking about how you behave toward people who are your servants, these people hadn’t known this. These regulations were not things they were used to because they had only ever been slaves and been treated one way. So they were treating people like they had been treated, and God is saying no, we are moving forward.

Then when we get to the New Testament, especially during the gospels, during the life of Jesus, those narratives, we can see very clearly in the Old Testament how God was instituting things and then in the New Testament, in the life of Jesus, what had become of them, how God was issuing rules, regulations, laws, the shape of the culture.

All cultures have laws. We have more laws than we even know how to find now, but we have a sense of how all this all works. God is instituting that for their freedom, for their wellbeing, for their prosperity, for their holiness, truly setting them apart as God’s chosen people. We get to the New Testament and we see that it has become a cage. It has become a prison for people’s souls, so Jesus, even in today’s reading, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees,” which were the religious leaders, “you hypocrites, you have twisted this whole thing inside out. You are looking only at the exterior presentation and expecting everybody else to do this when it is what is inside of you that matters.” He says, “you are like a whitewashed tomb,” so a nice, pretty grave, which outwardly looks beautiful, but inside is full of bones and uncleanness. So you appear outwardly righteous to others, but within you’re full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. This is what has become of what we are seeing being formed for the first time in our Old Testament readings. So we see the law that Moses was given to help form this people, was given to change them, was given to set them free, to give them an identity as free people for the first time and yet it had become something by the time of Jesus that had enslaved people.

The law was certainly civil, to show people some understandings among themselves and among the society about how to behave toward each other, but it was also inward, something to transform their hearts and always orient them to God in all things at all times in all places. But it had become something exactly the opposite of that and we still do these kinds of things. We get completely wrapped up in our theological formulas and dogmas and we try to squash everything around us, not realizing it is not an exterior thing, it is an interior thing. When we’re living from the inside out, then we are living as we were made to be, intertwined with God, and the only posture we can have is that of mercy and grace, kindness and compassion, all of the things that we know about the Lord. So may we understand everything about life has to be reframed into this perspective. It is all about what is happening within us.

Prayer

Father, that is really our prayer, that we can reunite with our own heart and know what is within us. If we look like a whitewashed tomb, then forgive us. We stop here and go inside where you are and invite your Holy Spirit to change us from within so that we might be changed from without. Come Jesus, we pray in your mighty name, amen.

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. It’s home base. It is where you find out what is going on around here, what people are praying about, resources that are available, events that are coming up, so check that out.

I mentioned yesterday my latest book Reframe – From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is available. It’s been available since it came out, but my publisher has the e-book version of Reframe available for $2.99 until the 8^th of February. So that includes Kindle at Amazon or iTunes, iBooks for Apple, www.BarnesandNoble.com, www.ChristianBook.com Google Play, Kobo, wherever you get your e-books. Wherever you get your e-books, you can find Reframe for $2.99. There is kind of a clearinghouse site that gives you links to these places: Www.E-bookextra.com, so you may want to check that out. Yeah, this is a great opportunity if you haven’t had a chance to check out Reframe yet, so I want to encourage you to do that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link and it is on the home page. If you’re using the app, you can get to that link by pushing 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

Hey Dabbers, this is Slave of Jesus in North Carolina. Alright, Holy Spirit, let’s roll. Brian, thank you for sharing all that stuff about your mom in that podcast. That was just amazing. And as someone who has been involved with hospice for a year, over a year now, yeah, I can definitely empathize with you in that position. Hospice, I did not want to be involved with hospice, but let me just put this out there to all the Dabbers. If you are in communication with God every single day, you’re in the word, you got some good counsel that you can bounce these “crazy ideas,” as the world would say, off of, if God prompts you to do something and you know it is a prompting in your heart and you got some good counsel that yeah, this sounds like something that would be good to do, just go do it. Sometimes you don’t have time. It might be paying for somebody’s gas. I cannot tell you… I did not want to do hospice. I was not involved with hospice. I hate medical. I hate doctors. I don’t want be around any of that stuff, but I was prompted by it and I kept getting prompted. Finally somebody said, “you know what? You should do hospice,” and I was like, okay God, I got the message. So I got counsel and even though it was a fight in my family at times, things like that, it’s a few hours a week for me and it has been one of the greatest adventures. I have been able to share my coming to Christ story probably a dozen times, but to be there with family members at that last moment, that has even been amazing. It seems like an inappropriate word, but it is an honor. It has been an honor to share that. Saving people’s lives on the freeway where I shouldn’t be stopping, I had a job with a clearance and I could lose my job by doing this, but got the prompting to do it and it turned out to be something life-saving. So if God prompts you to do something, it could be as simple as paying for gas, or prompts you to do something big as give up something really big in your life, I say do it and you’ll see amazing things happen. Love you all. Have a great day.

Good afternoon Dabbers. This is Beloved by the Beach. Happy day to you all. It is Monday, January 30^th and I’m calling for two reasons. I’m calling to respond to Gigi’s call. Sweet Gigi, I wanted you to know that I’ve been praying for you since your mom called. I remember your mom calling a while back to discuss you and your sister and the issues that you were having. I wanted you to be encouraged that I am praying for you and your sister as well as for your parents. This is a very difficult situation and you don’t understand why this is happening to you, but just like so many of the other callers have said, I’m believing that you will be healed. I also wanted to ask you family for prayers for a little baby boy named Wyatt. He just turned a year old and unfortunately last fall he was shaken by a caregiver. He sustained massive injuries and was in the hospital for a long while. He has some brain damage. He has vision problems now. He is now developmentally delayed. He is having seizure activity that has been increasing. He has a shunt in his head and they are also having problems regulating his blood pressure. All of the treatments they are doing are not healing him. As well as all this, he is just inconsolable. So I’m just begging you all to please lift up baby Wyatt. I believe God can restore this boy to full health and justice will be done for he and his family. He did nothing wrong. He was an innocent babe and he was shaken by a caregiver who obviously has problems and needs prayers as well. Thank you family. God bless.

Hi, this Victorious Soldier. Was calling back, I forgot to have the prayer for Bernie from Nashville and the lady who was suffering with anxiety. I wanted to pray for those two. Lord, in the name of Jesus, we just ask you to touch Bernie and his family, Lord. O Father, let your hand be above them, Lord. Let your Spirit be within them, Lord. You guide them and you protect them, Lord, and you bring them together and you keep them strong. Help them to pray together, Lord. Help them to be on one accord together, Lord. You be in the midst, Father, in the name of Jesus. Lord, you touch that sister and Chante who have these anxiety attacks. O Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, you bless them with your Spirit of peace, Lord. Let the peace that passes all understanding keep their spirit calm, O Lord, that they can fight the good fight of faith. Lord, you have your way and we thank you and we give you the glory. In Jesus’ name we pray. Have a great day Dabbers. Bye-bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Debbie in Des Moines. I have a praise and a prayer request, both having to do with my grandson. As some of you know, I’ve been raising my grandson Trent since he was 8 months old and he is now 7. He shares his faith on the bus and one of his classmates that he was talking to about Jesus told him to be quiet or he was going to stab him, so he came and told us and, of course, we had to go to the principal because it happened on the bus. The principal asked if he was scared to ride the bus now and Trent said, “no, because I have God Almighty on my side.” Praise God for this kid. I just thought that was awesome. Second is my 13-year-old grandson Eli came to live with us in November. The other grandmother who was raising him, Eli has had to suffer a lot in the past 10 years that he has lived with her. She is a nonbeliever. She has an older son, it looks like in his early 30s who is verbally and physically abusive to Eli. Eli has transformed since November in our house. He is now happy, healthy, in a basketball team, going to church and learning about God. I learned on Sunday that her plan was to spirit him away in April after basketball and he was to pack everything and when he went home on the weekend she was just going to take him and leave and move to Missouri. My time is up, but can you pray for Eli? I want him to stay with us. He needs to be with us where we love him, love him, love him a lot. Bye.

Hi everybody. This is Lisa, the Encourager. I am calling tonight just to share with Gigi and Salvation is Mine what I did tonight. I just hung outside and I looked straight up to a beautiful sky filled with beautiful stars tonight and even the north star is really bright __________ the moon and I would call out to God and I’d say, “God, please, please God, heal Gigi. Please God, heal Gigi.” You’re just on my mind so much and I just really want you to be healed and I’ve just been trying my best to have strong faith that he is going to heal you. So I just called up to him and I said, “I know you see me, God. I know you hear me, so please, God, heal Gigi. Please, please God, heal Gigi.” And Salvation is Mine, I did the same thing for you. I know that you are struggling right now. I know that you are going through difficulty in having confidence that the Lord’s got your back right now, so I called out to him for you too. So I just want you both to know it’s a blessing to me because I’m gaining faith by praying for you. So thank you so much. I appreciate you sharing this with me and really blessing me with having that wonderful opportunity to be encouraged by praying for you both. Also, thank you so much Pastor Gene and Christy from Kentucky for encouraging me. That was so very sweet of you both. I really appreciated it. It made my day when I heard you guys call me out. It was really sweet and especially because you talked about the painting. I really appreciate it. Love you guys so much. Bye-bye.

Hi everyone. This is Jeff from Virginia Tech calling. I just want to say thank you for all the callers who call in. I want to share with you all a little snippet of writing that I just submitted for a scholarship competition. I looked down on the earth from a window of a Boeing 737 and contemplated what my purpose was in life. From 30,000 feet I asked myself ‘how can I make the biggest impact?’ The last two years I thought the answer to that question was a degree in landscape architecture. Somehow I always knew that wasn’t right but I didn’t have the right answer. After touching down in San Antonio, Texas, I engaged myself in a Catholic youth conference that would eventually guide me to my answer. While attending the conference, other college students, missionaries, priests and nuns helped me to open my heart to ministry. During a talk, a Sister shared a quote by St. Catherine of Siena – be who God made you to be and you will set the world on fire. At that point I realized the most fulfilling way to make a difference in the world was simply to be who I was made to be. Toward the end of the conference I was sitting in my bed in the hotel room reflecting on the experiences I had so far. An epiphany struck me to change my major to philosophy. I knew this was right because it aligned with my spiritual desire to become a Catholic priest. On my descent to the airport I reflected on my experience and realized what I needed to do from this point on to continue to my ultimate goal. Today I take strategic steps to become a better resident adviser, son, and spiritual leader. Thank you all for listening. This is Jeff. Have a great day. Bye.

February 3, 2017

02/03/2017 DAB Transcript

Exodus 17:8-19:15 ~ Matthew 22:33-23:12 ~ Psalm 27:8-14 ~ Proverbs 6:27-35

Today is the 3^rd day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you as we’re moving toward the close of another week. This entire week we’ve been spending reading from the English Standard Version which is what we’ll do till the end of the week. In the Old Testament we are chasing the path of the children of Israel who have been freshly emancipated from Egypt. Exodus chapter 17, verse 8 through 19:15 today.

Prayer

Father, we pray along with the psalmist that this be the posture of our heart, that you have said ‘seek my face’ and that we can in all honesty say in response ‘your face do I seek,’ and that your will and your ways in this world are what we are chasing. May they not be hidden from us. We believe that we will look upon your goodness in the land of the living. And so we wait and we ask you to make us strong and let our hearts take courage as we wait on you. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. It’s home base. It is certainly where you find out what is going on around here. Resources are available there. You can check up on the events. The More Gathering for Women is coming up this April 6-9 and you can find out all about that at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Initiatives section. You won’t miss it. You don’t have to dig. You’ll see it. Scroll and you’ll see it, and check it out, consider coming. It could be that reset button that you have been looking for, that space in time where you have a few days to just be poured into, loved on and a generous amount of open space to just breathe and have the chance to think a lot of things through. It is a beautiful thing, so check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com as well and we’ll look forward to seeing you in April.

Another thing I want to mention is that my latest book Reframe – From the God We’ve Made to God With Us, which is a hard look at what it actually means to be in a relationship with God. I mean, we all claim to have a relationship with God, but what are we saying when we say that? What are the implications? What does that actually mean and what does that really look like? That is available and you can get it in audio or hardcover or e-book format where you can get books, but my publisher has it on sale, the e-book version right now for $2.99. So if you haven’t had a chance to read that book, I mean, it’s hard for me to go ‘‘I encourage you to read that book” because I wrote that book, but I encourage you to read that book because I think it will help you. It helped me a ton. So you can get the e-book version, whether that is like iBooks from Apple or Kindle from Amazon or any e-book reader for $2.99 until the 8^th of February. You can go to www.e-book.extra.com and find it and you’ll find the links to all the places, but you can get it at www.Amazon.com or iTunes or www.BarnesandNoble.com or www.ChristianBook.com or Google Play or Kobo or whatever you use. You can find it in its e-book format for $2.99 until the 8^th of February. So I wanted to let you know that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link on the home page and if you’re using the app, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner or if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hey fellow Dabbers. This is Joe the Protector from Georgia. Sorry I haven’t called in a while. I’ve just been busy with work and everything, but listened to the DAB this morning on the 29^th and heard Bernie from Tennessee. Brother, I just want to lift you up for what you said about your wife and your marriage and everything. I know exactly how you feel. I’m in the same situation somewhat with trying to strengthen our marriage as well. However, I’m working out of town and that just adds fuel to the fire, so to speak. My wife doesn’t care for it and she gets anxiety real bad, so it just causes some issues, but anyhow, lift you up, Brother, and I’m in prayer with you about it and I agree to pray with you about it. Let’s all men agree to pray together about each other’s marriages and then we’ll get to a better place. Alright, fellow Dabbers. That’s all I’ve got for now. Love you all and talk to you all next time. Bye.

Good morning DAB family. This is Dan in New Hampshire calling in. It is January 30^th at about 8:30 in the morning eastern time. I just wanted to… God put it on my heart to pray for families, young and old, just pray for families, that usually the winter with everything going on, financials and all that, it is tough being a young family. I’m speaking from my example, my perspective, but all-encompassing praying for families. I think that is coming from the fact that we have a new addition on the way. My heart just wants to reach out to the families that are struggling and the families that are getting by or the families that are trying to just figure it out. The only way we can figure it out is by leaning on God. I think Proverbs said it best. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. I’m praying for the families out there. Praying for the families that are looking for healing. I’m praying for the families that are just struggling to get by. I pray for the families that maybe you’re at the mountaintop right now. That is just amazing. We worship and we rejoice with you. Praying for the families that are in the valley. This community here is for all of us. Love you all. Hope you’re doing well. Hoping to put out a word of encouragement. Love you all.

Hi Daily Audio Bible. Hello Daily Audio Bible people. My name is Kevin. I’m from South Carolina. I live in South Carolina. I just had a prayer request for a couple different things. One, I was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder about four or five months ago and I’ve been on medication. I just don’t feel like myself. Although I’m sleeping at night, it has been very difficult, the depression and just not feeling like myself. So I just pray for healing of the bipolar disorder and the ability to get off the medication would be awesome. Also I need employment. I’m looking for work. Right now I’m unemployed and I’m just basically starting all over again at 46. So it’s really scary and kind of hopeless feeling, and so I’m just hoping that God gives me the opportunity to do that, to have a career and make money and be stable again because I’m in severe debt. Also a year ago I was living in Las Vegan and I was jumped by six gangbangers walking to my car and broke my shoulder and dislocated my shoulder so last year was probably the worst year of my life. I’ve been trying to recover from that injury so I ask for prayer for that as well. I pray for you guys every day. I listen to the Daily Audio Bible daily and I pray for you guys as well. God bless all of you and I appreciate it. Take care.

Hi everybody. My name is Barb. I’m from Canada and I have been a Daily Audio Bible listener for six or seven years but I’ve never called in yet and I feel like I know you but you don’t know me. Anyway, I am calling because I have a very huge burden right now. I was on Facebook the other day and noticed a friend from school, from high school, I’m 53 years old, so from high school is a while ago, and I noticed her on somebody else’s account so I friended her and wanted to see what she had been up to all these years. So I kind of creeped her Facebook, which is a little weird, I guess, but I saw that she is a witch. It just has not left my mind ever since. I just wondered if you would help me fight for her with me because I just feel like God has really put this in my way for a reason. Her name is Monica. Please, if you think to pray with me, I would appreciate it so much. Thank you so much. And I’m praying for all of you that I listen to and hear. Yeah, I love you. Hear you every day. Bye.

Yes, I want to reach out to that couple in New Mexico that has lost a child and I have two sisters that my mom lost when I was a little kid. One died at birth. Her name is Debbie. And the other died at 2 of leukemia and her name is Susie. I was 7 at the time. I’m the firstborn. I don’t remember Debbie but Susie I have memories of. It was hard on my mom. She carried that burden all the way up to her death 28 years ago last week and unfortunately I can’t talk to her about it and it was hard on her. Anyway, this is Michael, the Israelite from the tribe of Joseph and it is January 30, 2017. A couple things. Number one, in Genesis 1 God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was not formed and so on. And John 1:1 says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And further down he says and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Well, Jesus, there you go, he was with us, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end and all the stuff in Revelation. He talked to Moses. He said I am who I am in Exodus 3:14 and he said the same thing in John 8:58, before Abraham was, I am. So guess what? Jesus is God. Jesus is the word of God and we have the Bible to prove it. Thank God we have that. Amen.

Hello DAB community. My name is Jonathan. I’m calling from Kentucky. My father was just diagnosed with fairly aggressive prostate cancer. He went in for routine blood work. It came back he had a really, really high PSA. He’s been a pastor for 43 years, healthy otherwise, really full of energy, brings so much joy and just with this routine blood work it was very surprising to reveal that there is a problem. He went to the urologist. They did an exam, said yeah, this doesn’t seem good at all, had him go in for an MRI and sure enough they saw a large mass in his prostate that had spread to three, four, five lymph nodes in that area. So we get the biopsy back here in a couple of days to find out what type and stage of cancer it is. It is heavy for our family and our church family as well. He has pastored the same church 43 years, otherwise so full of life and energy and I’m just asking if you all would be willing to pray with us and we can agree together in spirit that God would just touch his body. I’m praying for 10 years of life or more for my father. He’s 71. I’m praying that God would get him to 81 and God would just miraculously touch him and heal him of his prostate cancer. So would you all pray with us? Thank you so much and I really appreciate it. God bless you.

February 2, 2017

02/02/2017 DAB Transcript

Exodus 15:19-17:7 ~ Matthew 22:1-32 ~ Psalm 27:1-7 ~ Proverbs 6:20-26

Today is February 2^nd. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s, of course, wonderful to be here with you around this global campfire that is home to us, so I’m glad we could be here together for the next step forward which is all we have to do right now. No matter how many steps you have to take and no matter how many steps you feel you have to make simultaneously in different directions, that can wait. That will still be there, but reorienting our hearts to go through his word and taking the next step forward toward all that he is inviting us into, that is the most important thing right now. So we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, moving back out to this dramatic thing that is going on out in the desert between the people of Israel and the people of Egypt and a Red Sea that was spread open wide so the people could cross. So today, Exodus chapter 15, verse 19 through 17:7.

Commentary

Let’s go back out to the desert. Let’s go back out to the wilderness for a moment and just kind of look back at the last couple of days, the things that have happened, because a full length mirror is being put in front of our eyes and there is much, much to see there.

So we went through all of the plagues that fell upon Egypt that ultimately had the Egyptians throwing the Israelites out of their country, out of their land. They wanted them gone. And they left and they left with plenty. They moved their way toward the wilderness and ended up at the Red Sea. So you have to imagine yourself at the banks of the ocean where in front of you is the water and behind you are the mountains. You’re kind of at the shores of the sea wondering where you’re supposed to go and how this is going to work when you notice dust clouds on the tops of the hills. Before long you see that the dust clouds have been created by pharaoh’s army and his chariots and they are charging down upon you. So there is panic. Even after everything these people have seen God do on their behalf and the way in which he has spared them of all of it, they are looking at the armies of pharaoh and not the mighty hand of God that is leading them. Even after all that they’ve witnessed, they are panicking because the armies are a visible thing that is charging. Their intellect and reason would say, yeah, we’re in trouble here and they are in deep trouble…on their own. They’re toast…on their own. But with God, they are not in trouble at all. Moses ends up telling them, “you won’t have to do a thing but watch and shut-up. Keep silent and watch.”

So we could stop right there. Among pastors we would say that will preach because that is our story, isn’t it? Isn’t it the way of things? We move along and God is leading and God is moving and God is faithful and he never departs from us and then we find ourselves in that kind of predicament where it is like the ocean is in front of us and the mountains are behind us and there is nowhere to go, but the enemy is certainly coming down upon us, charging us with spears and chariots. It’s on and there is nothing we can do. So we panic. “Where have you gone, God?” “Why have you abandoned me, God?” and “I guess I’ll have to do this myself.” Then we get taken out in the process when, if God has led us to the banks of the sea with mountains behind us and we are hemmed in, there is nothing to fear. Things are not always as they seem.

Moses lifts up his hands and the ocean separates for them to walk through and it is the same ocean that takes care of business with pharaoh’s army. It is as if God invites his children through the sea and to the other side and then declares to pharaoh’s army, “you shall not pass!” And that is that.

Then God leads his people out into the wilderness. We hate the wilderness seasons of our lives. They are unpleasant, and yet it is in the wilderness that formation takes place. So God leads them into the wilderness. Not the direct, close, easy route into the promised land, he leads them into the wilderness where he will reshape and reform and re-identify these people. We start to see why pretty quick because it is only a couple of days later…I mean, after all they have been through and after all that they have seen, just a few days after that, they are grumbling. “Were there not enough graves in Egypt that you had to bring us all the way out here to die?” “Why didn’t you leave us alone and let us serve the Egyptians where we sat by meat pots, where we had lots of food to eat?”

And then God gives them the food that they need, once again bringing them into a place where they cannot survive on their own. So just like at the banks of the Red Sea, they could not get out of that on their own. God had to be intertwined in the story. They get out into the wilderness, they are looking for food, they are longing for slavery again because there is no way out of this on their own, and then God feeds them because their story cannot continue without God intertwined in it.

Then a little bit after that it’s water. They’re mad and they’re grumbling and they’re going after Moses which Moses finds ironic. He is like “why are you after me? You are really grumbling against God. All we’re trying to do here is follow God.”

They have all the plagues of Egypt to set them free, they have the incident at the Red Sea to show them just what kind of power we’re talking about here, and then they’re grumbling about food, so God feeds them and then they’re grumbling about water and it is like at some point they should understand that they are where they are because God has led them where they are and God will be present and will sustain them, but they’re not getting it. It is really easy to read this story going like “how did you guys miss what happened?” And then there is the full length mirror and we have to look at our own lives and realize we do the same thing over and over.

Then we move into the book of Psalms and we read Psalm 27 today. That psalm is a beautiful picture of margin. “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple, for he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock.”

So David says yeah, there is stuff going on, but who cares? I have one thing, one thing I want, one thing I’m pursuing. So, in other words, this is the most important thing. This is the north star. Everything else is everything else, but this one thing I need and that is the thing I’m going after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.

Oh, if we could just take that and hold onto that and remember that, that yes, there are lots of things to be distracted by, but there is one thing that is more important and if whatever I’m about to do, whatever I’m about to say, whatever I’m thinking, whatever I’m contemplating, whatever I have ambitions for, if those things do not align with this one thing, then they are stealing the margin of my life because the one thing I need in abundance, the one thing that I’ve got to have to survive these wilderness situations is that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. May we take the full length mirror that has been put before us today by God’s word and look hard at ourselves, look ourselves in the eye, see where we are headed. Are we headed toward this one thing or not? And if not, that explains the way we interpret the wilderness times and we find ourselves being the children of Israel in the early days. May we move beyond that. It has been a long time since that happened. We’ve come a long way since then. We can do better than this.

Prayer

Holy Spirit, we invite you into all of that. We can do better than this. All you’ve asked is that we be intimate with you, that we follow you, that we walk throughout life with you. So Lord, this shows us where our hearts are. This shows us whether or not we’ve truly fallen in love with you. We’re certain that you’ve fallen in love with us. For whatever reason, you have fallen in love with us, but unrequited love, that is torture. We know what that feels like and we’re sorry that we’ve been doing that to you. Come Holy Spirit, we look at ourselves in the mirror and ask you to come. Come, show us the things that are just wasted space in our lives so that we might find what is true and holy and good. Come Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen.

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where the global campfire is always burning, so check it out. Find out what people are praying about, the resources that are available, stuff like that. Just stay connected. At www.DailyAudioBible.com you’ll find a section called Community. It’s where you find the Prayer Wall, but it is also where you find links to every place that we’re on social media. So if you’re on social media, we’re on social media. That is a good place to connect, a good place to talk, a good place to keep conversations going. There is a great Facebook Group, DAB Friends, where there is continual conversation happening, so you can find all those links at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Community section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link. It is on the home page and thank you. Thank you for your partnership. If you use the Daily Audio Bible 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 is it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi, I’m Robert, first-time caller in my third year of listening to the Daily Audio Bible. Been very blessed. I ensure that I’ve got the app every time I get a phone for me. Found it to be very necessary in my life to be a part of this family, be a part of this program that God has chosen to use in a way to reach out to help us, using Brian and his ministry. What motivated me to call today is that I was just so humbled by the message that Brian gave at the end of the scriptures talking about being fully human, that Jesus was fully human, the second Adam, and that is what God always planned for us to be. I never thought about that, that we’re not fully human, we’re not fully who we are supposed to be in Christ. It just humbled me because you bring in about having faith and that should be a natural thing, a natural thing for all of us as people and it just humbled me that I don’t even have that faith as small as a mustard seed. We always look down at small things, yet we should be looking up. We should be looking up, looking to God, looking to be like Christ as we walk after him. Thanks Brian for those words. Thank you all.

Hi, this is Elaine from Victoria. It’s January 28^th and I heard today your message, Brian, about forgiveness. It really spoke to me because of what happened in my past. I have released it to the Lord, crying it doesn’t belong to me. Unforgiveness, you know what to do with it, God. So thank you, Brian, for explaining why and to reveal it to my mind. And I heard this message about your mom. Like so many of us on the Daily Audio Bible, I cried too because my mom is 100. Please pray for her. They seem to be overdosing her with Tylenol, and my sister is trying to help her. I ask you to pray. Tim and Carissa, I’ve had you on my mind too, that the Lord would give you all comfort. So thank you for praying. I will be praying for all of you too and strength for you, Brian, and your family because we have a God that is all powerful. He will take all of these needs and he will answer. Bless you all. Bye.

Hi, this is Pastor Chris from the Live Free or Die state, reaching out to Brian Hardin. I just listened to your talk about your mom. I’m a little bit behind in the readings because we were on vacation, but your 2016 sounded like my 2009 with my mom also named Rosalie and my heart goes out to you. Where we were on vacation, we were speaking and staying with my mother’s last sister, and she mentioned that she was an orphan even though she is a lady in her 80s and she has been married and with her husband very happily for a long time, and I realized I too am an orphan. And you know what, Brian? Even though you are an adult and a grandfather, you are now an orphan which is a bad thing and it is a good thing. The good thing is that there is an awful lot of ink in the Bible devoted to how God feels about widows and orphans. Not only do you have the Daily Audio Bible community, your family, and your church, but you have a very special place in God’s heart as a member newly of this community. You have been in my prayers ever since I’ve heard about your mom’s death. Well, you always have been. God bless you, Brian. Keep doing what you’re doing. Thank you for your ministry. Take heart, God has a special place in his heart for you and your family. Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Mark, the baby doctor from Dayton, OH, and it has been a few years since I’ve called in. My wife Kim and I are on our fifth year of the Daily Audio Bible listening and Brian, we want to let you know that we lift you up in prayer daily, you and your family and this ministry and also all the prayers that are called in and especially at this time, Brian, we have been praying fervently for you during the loss of your mother and the mourning that accompanies that. I’m calling in actually in relation to something that I called in a few years ago. It was a malpractice trial. I asked for prayer and it was subsequently dismissed through some miraculous movement of the Lord, but as these technicalities go, this was later refiled again. I’m not going to get into the details of this interesting legal system that we have, but it was refiled over Christmas of 2015 and currently the trial is set to start, I believe, on Monday, February 5^th. So we have another week left. I feel that God is working and doing many amazing things with each day as he answers many of my prayers. I do believe that there won’t be a trial, but I’m open to anything the Lord has for me, facing it with his strength and courage. So I’m reaching out for some prayer over this next week and I’m actually calling because I just felt such a strong prompting from the Lord to call and ask for this prayer. I thank you all for that. I would like to conclude and ask for some prayer for our grandson Jonah who is turning 6. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just before the age of 3 and he recently just got an insulin pump. He is a believer in the Lord and I would ask for prayer that he would battle this.

Hello, this is Elizabeth from British Columbia, Canada, just a couple of weeks into listening to the Daily Audio Bible. Today is January 29^th and I was listening to the community prayer and I heard my sister Rebecca from Nebraska call in and sing the Shema and I was elated. Thank you, Sister, for reminding us that Jesus, our Christ, Yeshuah Ha-Mashiach, Messiah has a Jewish heritage, that our God, our Creator was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob first and that when we accept our Yeshuah or Jesus into our lives and into our hearts, we are basically becoming adopted into God’s chosen first family. I just wanted to thank you for that, for reminding us of that. In addition, I just wanted to pray for all of those who are calling in who have illnesses and cancers and various things that people are being challenged with, you’re being challenged with every day. I just want to pray a healing prayer. Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed. Save us and we shall be saved, for you are our praise. Bring complete healing for all of our wounds and sicknesses, for you, Almighty King, are a faithful and compassionate healer. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, healer of the sick in Israel and of the nations. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Amen.

Hey guys, how you doing? It’s John, just John. Just want to call in and wish everyone a Happy New Year. Sorry it has been so long since I’ve called in. Just also wanted to say that I really do love you all and I pray for you all. I do continue to. Family, I just have to make a confession here because I need to. I can’t tell you how phony and fake I feel these days trying to pray, trying to pray others, trying to feel from my heart, so I kept on wondering why. Why is that? I pray every day. I journal most every day. I read the Bible every day. I listen to Brian every day. I listen to prayers __________. It’s really me, it’s my heart. I’m just not that person I guess anymore. I’ve relied so long on my physical to power through everything and now, after a number of surgeries and two years of stomach craziness, I don’t have that anymore. So I’m just going to kind of reinvent myself and stop from being so self-centered, which is a sin, and try to focus outward. We’ve been beaten down financially. I know there are all sorts of excuses, but at the end of the day it has to touch your heart and I’ve kind of lost track of mine. My prayers feel like they bounce back half the time, but I want you to know I’m praying for you such that they have an effect. I love you all. Down to 30 seconds here, but I just want to thank all the prayer warriors. I won’t go through the long list, but Joe the Protector, I love to hear your voice. You can tell by the way every time you hear somebody’s voice, the first couple words out of their mouth, your heart raises up, like when Annette calls or Biola. So let’s just keep supporting each other, keep holding each other up. I ask you to pray for me and hope I can break out of this depression and this insanity. Love you all. God bless you.

February 1, 2017

02/01/2017 DAB Transcript

Exodus 13:17-15:18 ~ Matthew 21:23-46 ~ Psalm 26:1-12 ~ Proverbs 6:16-19

Today is February 1^st. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today and congratulations on the full completion of the first full month of the year. That’s a milestone. That is something to remember. We’ve done this. We can do this. With great anticipation, we launch ourselves into this second month of the year. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, but we’ll dive back into the story of the exodus, the emancipation of the people of Israel from Egypt and all that comes next in the formation of a culture, of a people, of an identity. Exodus chapter 13, verse 17 through 15:18 today.

Prayer

Father, as enter into this new month, in advance we give you every day of it. In advance we consecrate our hearts to you and we thank you for the work that you’ve begun in us. It doesn’t matter whether we’ve been through the Bible 100 times or whether this is the first time we’ve ever read the whole book of Genesis, your word is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It can penetrate to where soul and spirit divide. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts and it changes us and it speaks to us day by day and we can feel that already in this year. So we look forward to where you’re leading and we give this month of February to you. Our hearts are open. Our hands are open. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in the name of Jesus, amen.

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base. It is the website. It is where you find out what is going on around here so be sure to stay up with what is going on around here. Check out the Prayer Wall, the things people are praying about. Check out the resources that are available and the events that are coming up. The event that is coming up is the More Gathering for Women in April. Check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link on the home page and I thank you. I thank you humbly for those of you who have clicked that link. If you are 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

Heavenly Father, I wanted to pray for Tim in New Mexico. He called asking for prayer because his beautiful child has been taken to heaven as just a baby. Father, while we rejoice that he does not have to suffer any pain being on this earth for a number of years that we all have to experience and that he can rejoice in heaven right away, that, as Brian said, that space that baby occupied in that family’s life can never be erased and there will always be a void there. So I pray, Father, that you fill that void with the Holy Spirit. And Father, right now in this very moment fill this family up with the Holy Spirit. Reach out and touch Tim from New Mexico in his very soul so that he can know you are there with him and that the beautiful child did not pass away in vain, that he is with you and that we are all with you, Father. Heavenly Father, I just weep for this family and I pray that you be there with them through this period of darkness and that the joy that comes with the morning will happen. Thank you, Father, for giving us life. In your name we pray. Amen.

Hi Brian. My name is Elizabeth. I’m calling you from British Colombia, Canada. Just started listening to your podcast a mere two weeks ago and I’ve powered through all of your messages from the beginning of this year and I just want to say thank you. Thank you, my brother. Boy, did I ever need what you are giving us. I appreciate your wisdom, your insight, your eloquence and your perseverance in putting this out every day for people like me all over the world who are so hungry for the word of God. Thank you, my brother. Your ministry is amazing. You are so thoughtful and I really appreciate even the music at the end, how it fades out. It just gives us time for some quiet reflection on what you said. It is amazing to me what you’ve done. It is amazing to me that God has led me in my search to this podcast to hear the word of God every day. Thank you, Brian. I sent you a little gift in the mail from Canada. I hope you receive it. I want you to know that I haven’t ever sent anything to anybody, any ministry before, so that is how much you’ve moved me. That is how much you’ve touched me with this ministry. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, DAB family, for making this just a tremendous thing for everyone across the world who is hungry as I am. Thank you. Bye.

Hey guys. This is Arjen from Florida here. And it is the 25^th and I just heard Gigi’s call from Gainesville, which is one of the people whose hung out, but Gigi, I’m calling to pray for you. Father, Jesus, I come to you with no righteousness of my own, no big fancy words or anything like that, God. I come covered in Jesus’ blood and, Lord, I’m just asking to heal Gigi. That’s it. No loopholes. No theoretical healing. No, Lord, I’m asking you with the boldness afforded me by the grace of Jesus to heal Gigi. I ask that in Jesus’ name. Amen. Gigi, literally, my God, your call was an inspiration to me. Thank you. Thank you. And thank God that he put someone as inspiring as you and let your parents know that I’m praying for them too. And obviously everyone in the DAB family, you guys are in my prayers as you call in even if I don’t call in and pray for you guys specifically. You are in my prayers and I love you all.

Hi Brian and the DAB family. My name is Glenn. I’m a first-time caller. I’ve been with the Daily Audio Bible for about seven or eight years now and my first time calling in. I just love this service and I love listening to the podcast daily. It has just ministered to me throughout the years. I just want to say thank you, Brian, for your dedication. I also want to say I’m very sorry about your mom this last week. I listened to the podcast in which you talked about your mom. That was very inspirational and I’m very sorry about that. I’m calling to ask for prayer. You talked about the transfiguration and how oftentimes when we’re talking about Jesus, we go to him for instructions versus a relationship. That kind of struck a chord with me and I said wow, I kind of tend to do that a lot. So I’m just kind of asking the Daily Audio Bible if you would just pray. I’m looking for a sense of direction in my life. I’m turning 45 this week and kind of feel like I’m not where I thought I would be at 45. I need direction. So I thank you all for your prayers and I’m always praying for everybody that is on here. God bless you all. Have a good day.

Hello everyone, DAB family, this is Blessed Like Me coming at you with a message about reciprocal love, a love that goes back and forth, a love that ebbs and flows like the rivers that we see every day, the lights and the winds and so many things in life that go back and forth. But that shouldn’t be such with our love. Our love shouldn’t be something that always has to get a response. Our love should be so natural that we love without regard, a reckless regard type of love. Now my mom had that love. My mom loved me when I was in my worst state and sometimes she would give me up to God and said she could do nothing else. She would just give me away. Almost like she loved me, but she knew that love would be a love of prayer. But back to the message. The message is reciprocal love. A lot of times we call and we say I pray for you guys so now you pray for me. No, no, no. It doesn’t work like that. It works like you need prayer, so you ask for prayer and you get prayer. That is how we are for each other. It is not a you have to do something in order to get something. No, you need, we do. We need, you do. It is just like a family. A family is who we are. I love you guys. Just remember that. We love without a need to have a reason. We don’t need to have a reason to love. Like, okay, since I’ve done this for you, now will you do this for me? No, it doesn’t work like that. We love as Christians. We are called to be people who are light to this world and we get our light from God and we give our light freely. I love you so much and hopefully this message…

Hey everybody. This is Pelham from Birmingham, Pelham M. from the M. family now. We’ve got baby Anderson, Molly, me and Otis, the dog. I’m calling today because Brian just read where Jesus is telling us that where more than one comes together, God will hear it and do what you ask. I’ve been pondering this morning should I call? Should I call? We’re facing some stuff. We were blessed mightily in life now, after all I’ve been through, I know when good things happen, I need to be taking that time to prepare myself for the trials that are going to come, because God never gives up on me. He never stops training me and teaching me how to grow stronger, how to trust him on a deeper level. So I knew something was coming and something has come. So we’re up against something. My family needs prayer. I called this number because I can get prayer across the face of the earth for my problems. And that is a selfish way of looking at it, but I mean I call in need. And it’s not selfish. It’s because that is the way he designed the system. This number in my phone, I’ve got in as in all caps International Prayer. I don’t have it Daily Audio Bible. I have it as International Prayer. So I’m calling this morning to reach out to everyone to pray for our family in Birmingham, to pray for Molly and Pelham and Anderson, give us strength and help us to rebuke the enemy and all his schemes against us. He’s coming at me with the same old stuff. He’s not very creative, but he sure is persistent. Well, I can be persistent as well. Thanks guys.