Joshua 16:1-18:28 ~ Luke 19:1-27 ~ Psalm 87:1-7 ~ Proverbs 13:11
Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Today is April 18th. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today, and you know what we do around here. We take steps, one per day, and 365 steps takes us through the Bible in a year. It is a wonder to behold, all the people that we get to know and all the stories that we get to encounter and then the way the Bible becomes this mirror into our own souls and we find that the stories in the Bible, they are the stories of our lives. So we’ll jump in.
We’re in the book of Joshua in our Old Testament reading and the promised land is being settled and so the division of the land, so we went through all the different border towns and all of the ways that the borders will be set up for the tribe of Judah yesterday and we’ll continue with that story. Joshua chapter 16, verse 1 through 18:28 today and we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week.
Commentary
The proverb today basically reiterates what Jesus was saying and what Jesus was saying was said to illustrate the kingdom. A ruler is going away to inherit a kingdom. He leaves people in charge. We’ve heard this story before in the other gospels. He leaves people in charge. He gives them each a mina. Let’s call it a dollar or a euro or a pound or whatever the currency is that is in the country that you live in. So one of the people put in charge takes his dollar and makes it ten. Another one takes his dollar and makes it five. And the other one hides it. We know how this story goes. Well done, to the one with the ten. Well done, to the one with the five. And depart from me, get away from me, you’re an evil servant, to the one who hides it.
So Jesus is using currency, something that we can all understand as an example of the way that the kingdom works. We are all given something to steward and what we are given is precious. It is our heart. It is our gifting and our talent. It is our intellect. It is our relationships and interactions and these all can be cultivated and built up to be more than they were when we started, just like wealth can. You don’t get a million dollars…I mean, you can inherit this stuff, but if you’re building this, you don’t get a million dollars or a million euro or a million pounds or a million whatever except that you start with the first one. And then if you cultivate and build and don’t waste and are systematic, never deviating, pretty soon you’ll have ten. Pretty soon that 10 will be 100 and then 1000 and then it will grow and grow and grow and grow, which is what the proverb is saying. Wealth gained hastily, that will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.
So there is our financial planning for the day, but if we turn this inward, into our hearts, into our spirits and understand the things that we are stewarding for the kingdom is more than financial in nature, it is everything about us, if we’re cultivating these things little by little, little by little in these relationships, that dead marriage where two people are just staying together because they are used to it, they really can’t stand each other, all the resemblance of what was love is gone, little by little if one partner moves their heart toward the other one, little by little things will change, That coworker or boss that you just absolutely can’t stand, is abusive towards you or that is abusive towards everybody or is just cynical and bitter all the time and so we just avoid them completely, what if we turned our heart toward them little by little by little by little by little? Things will change. What if we look into our own hearts and we feel dry like we’ve been in a wilderness forever, dry, can’t find direction, can’t find hope, what if we intentionally, systematically, little by little by little pour the truth into our lives and respond to it, not look for it to be magic, but respond in kind, touching everything about us little by little? Things will change.
This is how the kingdom works. What is so profound about it is it is all-encompassing. It touches everything about us and little by little can be the choice to bite our tongue instead of saying that mean thing. That is a little thing. But little by little we grow into the habit of that. That becomes the lifestyle. We learn when to speak and when to withhold because it’s not about us being right anymore. It’s about spreading redemption everywhere that we possibly can.
So may we take the lesson from Jesus’ lips and from the ancient voice of wisdom. Both are speaking the same things today so we probably need to pay attention because this affects our lives. It really doesn’t matter our status in life. It doesn’t really matter where we are right now. Everything starts with the first, with the first thing. So if it is relational, then today is the first opportunity to sow into that relationship a little bit and then a little bit more tomorrow and then a little bit more the next day and before long you’ll have ten times what you had, which is pretty much nothing right now. If we look at these things, we can see how margin is built in here. It’s just up to us to respond.
Prayer
Holy Spirit, we invite you into that. A lot of times the day is a blur. A lot of times things happen that we’re not prepared for and we’re always responding to things. It’s hard to be intentional when things go sideways in a day. But you are inviting us to kind of zoom out away from all of that and say that is not what is really going on here. There is a bigger picture. There is a bigger story. And we always have the opportunity to step back from whatever it is that is the chaos, no matter what the deadline, no matter what the obligation or responsibility because it doesn’t take a lot of time to just step back and take a deep breath and say okay, I’m an ambassador for the king. I’m a son or daughter of the king of the universe, the creator of all things. This is not that big of a deal. Yes, I’ve got to deal with it, but it’s not as big of a deal as I was making it out to be. So come Holy Spirit. Come lead us because you will lead us on a fruitful path. It will be a narrow one but it will lead to life. That is what we want, life. That is all we’re craving because it’s the gift you’ve given us and we want more of it. We want all of it. So come, Holy Spirit, and show us how we can little by little today begin planting seeds of the kingdom in everything that we have anything to do with. We ask this in your mighty and powerful name, Jesus. Amen.
Announcements
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what is going on around here. There is always something or another going on. We have announced our next pilgrimage to the land of the Bible. That will take place the 19th of February through the 4th of March, 2018. Even as we’re reading in the Old Testament the division of where the tribes will settle in the villages and towns that they will inhabit and all that, they are familiar now because I’ve been there enough and that is what happens, things begin to open up, you begin to know what we’re talking about, you begin to be able to see it and some of those places we will certainly visit. So you’re invited to come along. You can find out all of the information that you would want to know at www.DailyAudioBible.com. Just look for Israel 2018 and click it and it will show you what you want to know. Or you can visit www.DailyAudioBibleIsreal.com and that will get you there as well. So hope to see you. Looking forward to it. Even though it’s a ways off, it gives us plenty of time to prepare our hearts. It’s going to be great. So check that out.
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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
Hi DAB family. My name is Ella. I’m calling in from Boston. I’ve been listening for around a year and a half now, but it’s my first time calling in. Basically my husband and I are quite desperate for prayer about a crazy situation that happened back home in Singapore and we don’t know what else to do other than pray. Basically it is about demonic possession. There was a caretaker, a helper who takes care of his grandparent. She was sick for two weeks and my in-laws sent their helper, a Christian, to go over and help around the house and when the helper, Maji, was there, she checked in on this sick girl and saw that her eyes were weird and that her fingernails and the inside of her lips were black. Somehow from this she immediately knew that there was a demon inside of her, so she started to say “In the name of Jesus, I order you to leave this girl alone.” And then the demon started shouting at her through the girl and it actually threatened our family’s safety if she didn’t leave it alone. In the end she managed to cast the demon out, saying that she wasn’t afraid because she had the spirit of Christ in her, but obviously the rest of our family who aren’t Christian it terrified. There is only one Christian aunt and they’ve been all asking what they can do to insure their safety, what charms they can put up because they are very superstitious and Chinese. We’ve told them that the key is faith in Christ, but they said they aren’t interested and I guess they’re not ready yet, so please pray that God would really use this situation just to show them his power, that there is something special about the name of Jesus. Please pray for them. They are the Kangs. I would really appreciate your help with this. We’re still trying to get our heads around it. But thank you for your…
Hi there. My name is Ruth. I’m calling from Canada. This is the first time I’ve called in and I’ve been listening for a short while. I listen to people’s prayers and I feel the spirit if God grieving with you as you pray and ask for help in your daily life. I’m not very good at speaking, so I would like to let the Bible speak for me. So I would like to quote James 5:16: Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effect of fervent prayer of the righteous man or woman avails much. Psalm 139:1-2: O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thoughts from far off. Philippians 4:6-7: Do not be anxious for anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19: And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. And John 10:28-30: And I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one. And John 17:9-10: I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me for they are yours. All are mine and yours are mine and I’m glorified in them.
Hello my DAB family. This is Mark S. from Sydney, Australia. Today is Thursday, the 12th of April. Today I call with a heavy heart not really wanting to make this call, but out of the respect of all of you and to God, I failed God again. I fell back into sexual sin yesterday and I love you all, community, and I’m ashamed of myself, frustrated and angry because I know how much all of you have prayed for me too and I feel like I’ve offended all you as well. As I said, it is pretty hard for me to make this call, but I want to come humbly before God and ask for his forgiveness again. He’s given me so much these last few years and I know the effect of sin on me and I feel certainly separated from God at the moment and I really want to get my closeness back again, so I come before all of you, my friends, asking you just to pray for my forgiveness. It is very easy to wallow in self-pity and I had that feeling of wanting to give up, but I know that is not the right thing to do. I don’t want to trivialize the sin either. This sin is certainly terrible as well, but I do want to pick myself up and keep moving forward. I’m frustrated because I had all the resources, yet still I sinned. I’ve had all of you praying for me, yet still I sinned, so it is frustrating, family. So I certainly want to apologize to all of you because you are certainly a part of my life and I want to say thank you for everything you do for me, but I am sorry that I’ve let you down as well, as well as God. So thank you for listening to me and please ask God for his humble forgiveness for me.
David from Kansas, it is Dr. John from Jordan, NY and I loved hearing your voice, brother. I’m so glad that you called back in, especially in your despair. I want you to know that you are not back where you were a year ago. You are not back to square one. That is a lie from Satan and he wants you to be bound by that thought, that this past year did not produce fruit. I can tell you as a listener for almost 10 years now that you have produced great fruit, so you need to look back on this past year and see that it has changed you and you are not the person that you were a year ago and Satan wants you back in that trap and you have got to tell him to bug out. So find that scripture that you need, brother, and welcome back. We miss you.
Hi. This message is for Alicia from Kansas. My name is Curtis, Curtis from Cali. I haven’t called in for a long time, but I heard your message and I just hit pause on my podcast and I just wanted to call and let you know that I’m praying for you. I’m praying for your daughter, Keagan. I can understand to some degree what you guys are going through right now and it just broke my heart listening to you and I just want you to know that you will be in my prayers and my family’s prayers, you and your daughter, especially. And another thing too. You made a comment of God is not hearing your prayers because you’re not righteous. Some people are telling you that. Whoever is telling you that, Alicia from Kansas, is wrong. They don’t know their word the way that they should to be making proclamations like that. The Bible states no one is righteous except for one man, Jesus, and by his wounds we are healed. So don’t believe the lies. You keep praying and it may take time. Right now we see things very dimly and one day God will open up our eyes to see things very clearly. We may not understand the things that go on in this life, but it is all a process. Every day it is a process, waking up and giving our needs, giving our cares to the Lord every single day. So he doesn’t expect you to know everything that is going on or understand everything that is going on. He expects you to trust him and trust the process that ___ can do. Sometimes things seem unfair, but Alicia from Kansas and Keagan, your daughter, I do believe that things will work out. God always finds a way.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is my first time calling in and I want to pray for someone that I listened to actually tonight which is April the 12th, I believe. The woman whose daughter has been diagnosed being bipolar and her name is Keagan, I was so touched by your request. I just want to pray for you and your daughter right now. Father, in Jesus’ name, I lift up Keagan to you, Lord God, because you are able to do anything and there is nothing too hard for you. God, with you all things are possible and you have all power and you are able to heal and set free. Jesus, you died for us that we could have freedom, that we could be in liberty and that we could be free and you went and healed all that were oppressed. Lord, I just take authority over this spirit of bipolar, whether it’s a mental condition or whether it is categorized as an unclean spirit, whatever it might be, God, you are able. And I ask that you would set Keagan free. Lord, touch her from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet, that it would be a testimony that you did something great in her life and set her free. God, I speak healing, I speak deliverance, and I speak life. Let her live and not die, but live to declare the works of the Lord, in the name of Jesus. And I pray for her mother and her family as well, that you will comfort them right now and that you would give them to not fear and that they would be strong and courageous, knowing that you are with them, O God. Let your Holy Spirit just even be upon them and give them peace, in Jesus’ mighty name. And Lord, wrap your loving arms around them and continue to bless and prosper them, in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen. God bless you.