Joshua 5:1-7:15 ~ Luke 15:1-32 ~ Psalm 81:1-16 ~ Proverbs 13:1
Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Today is the 12th day of April. I’m Brian. It is my pleasure and joy to be in your company today. Thanks for letting me and I’m glad that we can be in one another’s company today as a community and, man, the Holy Spirit is here with all of us no matter where we might be and we are never alone. So we’ll take the next step forward in the journey that we are on this year through the scriptures and we have just gotten to the other side of the Jordan River. We have finally, finally come into the promised land. Joshua chapter 4, verse 1 through 7:15.
Prayer
Father, we thank you for another day in your word, another day in community. We thank you for your presence in, through and among each of us this day and may each of us this day bring your kingdom into every situation, every thought, word and deed, for we all know that the story that Jesus told is a true one, that we have each been sheep that have gone astray and you came for us and you have rejoiced over us and you continue to rejoice over us. May we in turn have a heart of rejoicing each and every day for those who have been found, for those who have been rescued and come into your kingdom, and may we be agents of your kingdom in bringing that to be. Come, Holy Spirit. Show us how to live well with margin enough to even pay attention to these things. Help us know that everything that we do is a seed planted for your kingdom or a seed planted that will grow up to be weeds in our lives and in those within our sphere of influence. Help us to understand this day that it all matters. Come, Jesus, we pray. In your name we ask, amen.
Announcements
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Let’s see, the pilgrimage that we’ll be taking back to this land of the Bible is on the radar. We’ll be going the 19th of February all the way through the 4th of March back to these places like this city of Jericho where this first battle was fought. So you can find out about that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. Just look for Israel 2018 on the home page and that will get you the information that you need.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then I can’t thank you enough. I’m humbled every day that we get to be here. Every day is like a gift that we can be here and that we have been here, well, this is 12 years. This is our 12th year. Every day is nothing short of a miracle and nothing short of astounding to me and that a vast community of people who are from every stripe, I mean every denominational or nondenominational affiliation, from every culture, from every continent, from every kind of life story we can imagine and we hear so many of those nuances and complexions in a year inside this community. It’s quite amazing to have a community like this that is so loving, so compassionate, so kind. I imagine it looks remarkably like God’s kingdom and so that is remarkable. If that has been life-giving, then thank you for helping it to continue forward. There is a link on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com. You can get there if you use the app by pressing 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, we are community and so if you’re carrying some things that are better not to be carried alone, lots and lots of people will pray along with you, shouldering the burdens, and it is remarkable to know that you’re not alone. That alone is such a gift and God has done some amazing things in this community over the years. So we have several numbers set up depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas, you can call (877) 942-4253. If you’re in the UK or Europe, 44, 2036-088-078. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world, 61, 3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you right here tomorrow.
Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
Father God, thank you so much for Easter and thank you, Lord, so much for Palm Sunday and Good Friday and Easter Sunday, all these chances we have to celebrate you and celebrate you as a community, as various churches, and then also publicly in our cities, Lord. Thank you, Lord, so much for all of those processions that happen today and those processions that will happen this week and those passion plays happening in cities, Lord. Father God, I pray that you would help us be shining lights where we are. I pray that you would give us opportunities to share our faith and share the Easter story with our work colleagues, with our neighbors, and with our family, Lord. Thank you for those Easter Sunday meals we’ll be sharing with family members, family members who don’t know you. I pray, Lord, that you would be working in their hearts so that they would finally grasp what it is about and they would seek to know you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, so much for Palm Sunday and how you entered Jerusalem on a donkey, that you showed us what true humility is. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to think of ourselves less and think of you more and think of others more. Father God, I lift up our friends and people who are selling their houses. I’m thinking especially of my friend Mike, but I know there are other people in this community who are seeking to sell a house or they are seeking something to happen and it has not happened yet and we’re seeing other people get these things. Lord, I pray that you would just be a comfort in these situations and peace, that they would be able to trust you to get it done, Lord. And we pray that you would be at work in these things and it would happen. Father God, we also pray for healing, Lord, for those with bad backs and other things like that. I pray especially for Mike again. Lord, you know that situation. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Hi DAB family. This is Tamika from Carlisle, PA. I am calling because I am reaching out to you guys because I feel like since I moved away it’s the closest thing I have to a church and at first I was very ashamed to say that, and now I’m kind of proud about it because I feel like some of you guys, especially Sojourner, I feel like you guys are my family. So I come to you and I reach out for your help. This isn’t about fails or money, but I’m a single mom of four. I had to leave hair due to medical issues and I’m in the cosmetic business and I have been since 2003. I stand there about to start a brand new promotion. I used all my tax money to pay off old debts and to make sure I didn’t let other men into my household. I wanted to do this alone. I want the next man to be in my home to help me and my four kids run toward God and I realize now that is a serious order. So only for those reasons, please, please pray that God will bless this promotion so that I will have enough money for me and my kids. I don’t want anything that God doesn’t want me to have and I’ve never really wanted the goals and the sales like I do right now. I don’t want them for any reason bad, so will you please help me? Thank you so much. Bye.
Hi, this is Alicia from Kansa and I’m calling on behalf of my daughter, Keagan, in Colorado. Keagan has recently been diagnosed as bipolar and she recently has been sleep deprived for four days and she is psychotic right now and I cannot get to Colorado and they can’t get her meds right and her father won’t take her back to the hospital because she is afraid they are going to kill her there. She is afraid of the medications and I’m a psych nurse and I understand her fears, but her fears are to the point due to the psychosis but a lot __________ making sense. This girl has been normal all of her life and just has recently experienced two psychotic breaks and I’m at a loss. I’ve been crying out to the Lord. Somebody actually implied that my prayers aren’t being heard because I’m not righteous, but I know that is a lie and it’s wrong. Please pray for my daughter, Keagan. Pray for guidance for the doctors, for the right medication, for her father to take her to the hospital __________. I thank you. I’m so grateful that I can come here and just be myself and know that people are praying. Thank you all so much. Bye.
Hi beautiful family. Hello, this is Pastor Gene and I am calling almost against my will. The Lord has been putting this very heavily in my heart and the advantage of being behind is I’m always listening three weeks __________. This is not directed to any recent phone call and I hope that it is received in the spirit in which it has been offered because I felt extremely prompted by God now for a few days to share this, and that is that when we call this line, family, my exhortation and I believe this is from God humbly is that we insure that our exhortation is grounded in the word of God and not on our opinions or thoughts. We know about Job’s friends and how they spoke a lot of wise words, but none of them were aligned with what God was thinking about Job and his situation. I’ve heard over and over again in podcasts that go back three weeks to a month ago that some of us are encouraging our brothers and sisters not to pray constantly for the same thing, and yet the word says pray without ceasing. Do not be anxious for anything but may all your petitions be brought to God in supplication and prayer. The Bible says about our Savior that he constantly withdrew to lonely places and petitioned to God with cries and screams, but the Lord even makes an example of a widow that was appealing to an unfair judge and the judge was a judge that actually heard her request because of her insistence. And so, family…gosh, I’m going to have to finish this later. Love you. Bye.
And this is part 2 of my exhortation. I hope it gets played. So this is Pastor Gene again. And so over and over again the Bible encourages to pray without ceasing, encourages to pray repeatedly, encourages to not give up and I think the only time the Bible actually places a limit on prayers is when the apostle Paul tells us that he prayed three times for the same thing but God spoke to him and told him no, my power is made perfect in the midst of your weakness. So when he stopped praying, it wasn’t because God was granting his request or because he was believing God had granted it by him just praying once. It was because God told him, “Don’t pray about it anymore because my answer is no.” So family, this is a prayer line and if you have enough faith to pray for something once and never pray about it again because you thought that God has granted it in the spiritual realm with just your first time, then God bless you. Maybe that truly is God’s __________ for your life, but I don’t think we should generalize it, particularly we are brothers and sisters __________ is just a very powerful outlet. I encourage all of us, including myself, to really pursue God before we place a call, before we try to exhort, because sometimes we have a lot of passion but we don’t have a lot of compassion and we can come across as telling people stop calling already, we’ve heard you and God’s already heard you, so stop asking for the same thing over and over again and I don’t think that is anywhere in the Bible. I really struggled to place this call, guys. I love you dearly and you know when I call I just pray, but I felt God was asking me to place this call and to exhort all of us and so I’m trying to be obedient. I love you guys with all of my heart. This is Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL. Bye.
Hello Daily Audio Bible. Wow, my voice is already starting to crack. I’m thankful for this community. This is Ken from Southern California and I’ve called before. Have been in a relationship that has been difficult for me, for her, because I haven’t been able to let go. So now I’m in a place where I’m letting go and letting God. We always hear about giving it to God, letting him take our cares, don’t have anxiety, Philippians 4. The peace of God that passes all understanding. All this stuff that tells us that we need to let go and trust God. I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to do that. But I want to know how to do that. I want to give it to God and want to give up trying to control things. I always have anxiety over work, over money, over love, over this relationship. That love is what I’m talking about. So please pray for me, family. Ken from Southern California, Orange County. Thank you.