Joshua 7:16-9:2 ~ Luke 16:1-18 ~ Psalm 82:1-8 ~ Proverbs 13:2-3
Today is April 13th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today and we’ll take the next step forward. That is what we do here and that is what we do every day, another step forward as we move our way through the scriptures, completing the Bible from front to back, every word spoken out loud in a year.
So we have crossed the Jordan River, we have found ourselves in the promised land, we have seen the first battle, which was the taking of Jericho, we have seen the second battle, which was a defeat to a small town named Ai, which is not too far from Jericho and has an active archeological dig happening now in the land. That was quite confusing. A great city, the city of Jericho, one of the oldest settlements on the planet was defeated, so a powerful city, only to find defeat to a small city and the people are confused. That is where we pick up the story. Reading from the Contemporary English Version this week, Joshua chapter 7, verse 16 through 9, verse 2 today.
Commentary
Let’s think about something. How many words do you say every day? I mean, I know there are studies on this, but how many do you think? 10,000? 20,000? 50,000? How many of those words would you say are ill-tempered? How many of those words would you say have a little bit of a sting to them, some sarcasm, some meanness in them for whatever reason? And how many of them would you say are intentionally kind? We kind of weigh that in the balance and which way do you think the scale is tipping?
And then how many of those words spoken in any day are about someone else, maybe a juicy story, a nice bit of information that is just waiting to be passed along? Maybe you’re grabbing coffee with a girlfriend or maybe a couple guys are getting together, a few guys are getting together for coffee, another person that is not there comes up in conversation. How many words in a day do we spend saying things that we’ve heard and we’re passing along about someone else? Then we kind of weigh that in the balance.
The book of Proverbs, what we just read, speaks directly to that: You will be well rewarded for saying something kind, but all some people think about is how to be cruel and mean. Keep what you know to yourself and you will be safe. Talk too much and you are done for.
This isn’t metaphoric language. This is just direct, straight up talk. Sometimes we have to weigh these things in the balance because the way that the scales tip shows us the trajectory of our lives and I’m not saying that as a metaphor. I mean, our tongues kind of are the rudder for steering the ship of our lives and the things that we say, they do matter. Sometimes if we’re thinking ‘why doesn’t anybody like me?’ it’s because we don’t like anybody really. It’s because we’re not truly really in relationship with anybody. We can backstab anybody at any moment to the next person that comes along that is also our kind of, sort of fake friend, our sort of acquaintance, but we would betray them if we had to. That’s not good though because it’s not true. That’s the real problem here. It’s not true. Our words and deeds and thoughts are not in alignment with each other. So may we take the counsel of wisdom and may we remember this. When we began the book of Proverbs, it was a female voice speaking as wisdom, calling, pleading, begging, but then she goes on to say later that she was there when God created people. She was there when God created the earth and she rejoiced in what he had made and she is here to help us. So may we listen to the voice of wisdom when it comes to what will come out of our mouths today because we certainly can choose to be cruel and mean and snappy and biting and that may be our normal course of action, but we will be well rewarded if we say something kind.
Prayer
Father, we say things before we think about them a lot. We find ourselves reacting to things a lot. We don’t pause before we speak. We just speak. Yeah, we’ve scorched the earth before with things that should have never been said into this world ever, and so we ask your forgiveness for that and we thank you for your counsel from the lips of the beautiful wisdom today that we should think about what we’re saying. We should weigh those things in the balance and see which way the scales are tipping because that is informing the direction of our lives. So we invite your Holy Spirit into this moment and we’re choosing to listen to wisdom’s voice and speak kindness even in the face of someone being cruel and mean to us. Come Jesus, because we need your help. We ask this in your name. Amen.
Announcements
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. The thing that I’ve been mentioning here for a little bit is the fact that we’ll be going back to this promised land, the land where the majority of the Bible takes place for another pilgrimage. We’ve been doing this for years. My story is I didn’t care to go, but then once I went, I got it and I never looked at the Bible the same ever. I can’t. I couldn’t because just kind of understanding how far things are from each other and the dramatic change in such a small area, the dramatic change in geography and climate, it is very striking. But just to have these things in context as we move through the stories of the Bible is life-changing because you don’t approach the Bible the same anymore. You know what is being talked about. You know what it looks like. You know what it smells like. You know what it sounds like and you can put yourself in the story in a much more deep and meaningful way. So we do this because it really is a pilgrimage. Every part of our lives gets touched in some way and it’s remarkable.
So we’ll be going back February, February 19th through March 4th of 2018. You can get the details at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Initiatives section. You’ll find Israel 2018. It’s easy to find. Click that link and you’ll get the information that you need and, yeah, if this is something that has been on your list of things that you would really like to see, then you are invited. Check it out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link. It’s on the home page. Thank you profoundly for being a life-giving source to this community so that we can continue forward into the future. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, press the More button in the lower right-hand corner and if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.
And, of course, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
[Singing] I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will never die. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will never die. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will never die. [Singing ends] The Spirit and the Bride say come and let those who hear say come. Whoever is thirsty, let him come and whoever wishes, let him drink the free gift of the water of life. O Dear Jesus, I, Candace from Oregon, am one of a great cloud of witnesses who brings you praises. We thank you, Lord, with all our hearts for saving us from sin and death. We claim all the power of what you have done for us and we rise now to walk in the newness of life. Thank you, Lord.
This is Truth Speaker 5, 2, calling in to read a collaboration of scripture prepared by Jonathan Baxter, 1813-1872. I am black but comely. Behold, I was shapen in inequity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon me, saith the Lord God. I am a sinful man, O Lord. Behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. When I would do good, evil is present with me. Be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. I know that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Ye are complete in him, perfect in Christ Jesus. Ye are washed. Ye are sanctified. Ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God that ye should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Song of Solomon 1:5, Psalm 51:5, Ezekiel 16:14, Luke 5:8, Song of Solomon 4:1, Job 42:6, Song of Solomon 4:7, Romans 7:21, Matthew 9:2, Romans 7:18, Colossians 2:10, Colossians 1:28, 1 Corinthians 6:11, 1 Peter 2:9. Be blessed even now, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hello my friends and family out there in Daily Audio Bible land. Hey, this is Annette from Oklahoma City. Oh my goodness, what an amazing conference, huh? Oh! I tell you what, every one of you people touched my life. I cannot believe it. What a great time that we had learning how to overcome things and break bondage and rewrite truths in our life. And I tell you what, Biola, my sister, I love you so very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had such an amazing time with you and everyone else that I met. Hey, we had a lady from Norway, way at the top, and she is next to people from Russia at the top of her country. I would like to pray for her and I hope that she gets to spread the message not only in her country, but to the people of Russia up there and help spread the word around there. It’s amazing. I wanted to thank the gentleman from Northern California for praying not only for us, but mainly for the people who had stayed behind and when I told that to my husband that you had prayed, it was like he almost started crying because I know that it is difficult for people to let their wives go to places that are outside of their comfort zone where they can’t protect them and watch out for them. And they got their __________, eh, Lisa? So anyways, I really thank you for praying for that because the reason we want to turn our phones off is because I know like three of us got hit with sick animals and kids and had we actually looked at our phones, that would have been a bad distraction. So I thought that was kind of interesting.
Good morning DAB family. Today is Monday, the 10th of April. This is Yvonne from California. I haven’t called in a little while. I just wanted to call in to say hello to all my DAB family, to ask for prayer for this week for me. Yesterday, Sunday I started a fast for seven days, Sunday to Sunday, for 7 days this week. A fast for everything, for my __________, my sons, the obsession with the alcohol that, thanks to the Lord, is diminishing day by day. I just wanted to offer these seven days to God, to my Father, my Heavenly Father, and to praise Him and just to have these seven days to contemplate all the suffering and the leading to his death of this week and then, of course, the resurrection on Sunday. I haven’t been to a church, a physical church in a long time and I’m already making plans to go to the church where I was baptized, at Berkeley Mount Zion. I’m going to go to church after a long time this coming Sunday, Resurrection Day, and complete my fast and just worship and honor God. That is what I’m doing this week, just being very present with God and just every day and every moment trying to just ask him to be with me and to strengthen my faith, strengthen everything that needs to be strengthened in me. I’m asking for your prayers. Thank you.
This is The Greatest Trucker from Way Out West. Got a prayer request for you. A lady called in, well I’m hearing it on the 10th. Sherry from La Estancia, CA called in for her sister’s great-grandson. His name is Lester and she has been listening for two years, but this is the first time she’s called in. Lester I guess is a very, very young boy that has leukemia, he’s been in the hospital for six months and I am begging you people to pray for Lester, that he comes home well and whole. Please pray for Lester, little Lester out there in California.
Hi family. It’s Shannon from Texas and I need for you to please continue to pray with me for my friend Sonya. I’ve called in before several times regarding her and her situation with her children. Her son Conrad, the one that was shot and was actually robbing someone when he was shot and was in the hospital and he fled and she went to go pick him up from another state and had him with her here, which wasn’t a brilliant idea, but she __________ about that situation and I was at her house one day and __________ felt like I needed to go in and talk to him. She didn’t go __________ her life goes on, but he had been abusing her and was using drugs. Anyway, I just started praying about it and wanted him to go to church with us, but of course he wouldn’t go. But anyway, he ended up beating her up, nearly beating her mother up. I think he did hit her mother, so, of course, she called the police. This was after I had been praying and I know she had been praying too. Of course, this is her baby and he had been sexually abused by his father and I think after she found this out she had so much guilt that it is why she does some of these crazy things. Anyway, please pray for him. He’s back in jail which is probably where he belongs. Really, it’s not where he belongs. He needs to be healed, is what he needs, so please help me pray. Help me pray for her, this whole family, her daughters, her other son. Only God can do this. Only God can heal this woman’s heart after he has beaten his mother and his…