2 Chronicles 19:1-20:37 ~ Romans 10:14-11:12 ~ Psalm 21:1-13 ~ Proverbs 20:4-6
Today is the 27th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today, as we move into the back half of this week and continue the journey forward. We’ve been reading from the Gods Word translation this week. Today second Chronicles chapter 19 verse 1 through twenty verse 37.
Commentary:
OK. So, we remember after Solomon’s reign that the kingdom of Israel split into two. The northern and the southern. Right? The northern kingdom of Israel. The Southern kingdom of Judah. And, so, we went through all those kings and all of those stories and eventually the Assyrian Empire came in and defeated Samaria. And it fell, which is the capital city of the northern Kingdom. And the ten northern tribes were carried into exile and then vanished from history. During that conquest, the Assyrian Empire was trying to take the entire land. And, so, they invaded Judah and cities were falling but Jerusalem didn’t fall. And this was in the time of king Hezekiah. And there was all this intimidation going on. And Hezekiah went into the temple and prayed. And the next thing you know, the Assyrians are withdrawing. But they leave this really nasty note behind that their coming back. And Hezekiah takes this note and spreads it before the Lord in the temple and says, there is no hope basically. There is no hope but you. You are only hope. You are the only God. Come and save us. We see a very similar story take place in today’s reading during the reign of king Jehoshaphat, who is also a good king, who was also a reformer, like Hezekiah. So, Jehoshaphat hears that a horde is coming across the Dead Sea to attack Jerusalem and it’s a multinational force, it’s a coalition that’s coming. So, if you’re standing on the shore of the Dead Sea and looking across the Dead Sea - if you’re standing in modern day Israel and you look across the Dead Sea - you will be looking into the country of modern day Jordan. But in this time, in this biblical time we are reading about, if you looked across the Dead Sea, you would be looking into the country of Moab. And to the south of Moab would be the border with Edom. People from that side of the Dead Sea were coming across the Dead Sea with the staging area at Ein Gedi because this was a fresh water source in the desert. This is one of the places that David was hanging out in and hiding when he was on the run from Saul. So, this horde is on its way over and there is no hope. So, king Jehoshaphat is in the temple, like Hezekiah, praying the same kind of prayer, hear me God because there’s no way out of this. We don’t know what we’re going to do. We’re outnumbered. We have no way. Without you we have no way. And, so, the messaging that he receives prophetically is that, all you really need to do is go out and be a witness. You not going to fight anything. You just need to go out and see the salvation of your God before you. And, so, they did. And God confused the army’s. I mean, they were allies in their proposed battle with Jerusalem but they were different countries and they weren’t all on the same page and something somewhere sparked them off. And they started fighting each-other. And, so, out in the desert they destroyed each-other. And Israel simply got all of the loot from the battle.
Over and over we see these kinds of stories. These, against all odds stories. I mean, the story of Jesus is one of those stories. All throughout the bible we see these stories where there’s no way out. Right? You’re hemmed in and there’s no way-out. And you’re going to get wiped out. But then you’re not. Then God comes. And there is salvation. In all of these stories there is salvation. So, like, the story that we read today may have, like, historical value and even metaphorical value, which is what I’m doing right now with it. But underneath it all, it’s the story of salvation - that God comes to save. That’s the whole story, all along, throughout this great book that we are journeying through together. And, so, once again we have this opportunity to take a step back from our lives, just a moment, while we’re here around the global camp fire, where it’s safe and think, ok, I have been facing these kinds of circumstances. I have faced them in the past. I am facing them now we’re I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know how this is going to work out. And I’m driving myself crazy trying to figure that out. Every spare synapse in my brain, even while I’m not thinking about, is processing in my subconscious - how I’m going to get out of this - when you’re not going to get out of it by yourself, likely. And, so, the bible also brings us to this place of understanding that when there is no hope, there is no hope outside of God. Because this is how we’re made. This is what we’re made to be - intertwined and connected in relationship with God. And, so, what we learn in the scriptures is that, surrender is a part of that story, letting go is a part of that story, release is a part of that story - for a couple of reasons. All of these extra brain cells that we’re burning, trying to chomp out some sort of workable plan to extract ourselves from the impossible, it may or may not work. Even if it does though, we’ll wind up right back where we started. How many times do we have to go around this mountain? Right? I mean, how many times do we have to do this circle? Surrender offers us the opportunity to rest. It’s not ours to do. And maybe we got ourselves into this mess. And maybe it’s going to take a minute to get out of this mess. But it doesn’t have to be alone, solitary, abandoned. It’s none of those things. But when we fall in our Father’s arms a whole different thing starts to go on. It’s not ours to figure out. Our Father is with us and He is more powerful than anyone or anything on this planet. King Jehoshaphat came down toward the desert to the watch tower and saw that his enemies had destroyed themselves. And they were enriched because of it, without having to do anything. Sometimes we don’t really have to do anything but be still and know that He is God and listen and do what He says. May we take that reminder today. That’s the offer of relationship with God. We can take it or leave it. It’s up to us. But may we take it.
Prayer:
So, Father, we take it. We take Your mercy and Your grace. We take Your love and Your kindness. We accept that we have no right to any of this other than that You have adopted us into Your family and made us join hands with Jesus. That’s so mind blowing. It’s hard to even get our minds to even wrap around the concept - that You have loved us so much as Your created, as Your children, that we’re all in on this. We’re all part of the same story. You have brought us into this great story of relationship with You and moving through life in this world and moving through eternity together. And, so, why we turn to such lesser things is really confusing. But we do. But we’re not right now. We’re turning to You and You alone. You are the only hope in impossible situations and in every other situation. So, come Holy Spirit, we open ourselves to you. We fall into Your mercy. We fall into Your arms and we rest. Because it’s been so stressful lately. We rest. Come Holy Spirit. Fill us again. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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We’re going to do another Facebook Live in the Sneezing Jesus discussion group that’s on Facebook. And you can find that at facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus. What a great group. If you haven’t gotten in there, you should. It’s really inspiring. We’re going to do another one and talk about small groups and talk about some of the material in the book – one week from today, the third day of August, 7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. And, so, we’ll look forward to that. Make plans. Looking forward to seeing you there.
One other Sneezing Jesus thing. If you have the book and its had some meaning for you. If you would mind going back to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or wherever you got it and putting in a review for it, that would be helpful. That’s always helpful. We always get that kind of word back that we should do that and I’ve not mentioned it. And I’m not going to pound it. Just, if you have chance, that would be awesome. It’s so weird because when you write something, like, when I write something, by the time that I get it done all the way through to its launch and release date, this quite a bit of time. And, so, you just never know. But this has really struck a nerve all over the place and it’s been really, really interesting to watch because that prayer for a sneeze heard around the world is happening. And that is that is humbling. And I want it to continue because it’s the good news. It’s exactly with Paul was talking about in Romans today when he said, but how can people call on him if they don’t believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they haven’t heard the message? And how can they hear if no one tells them the good news? And how can people tell the good news if no one sends them? How beautiful are the feet of the messengers who announce the good news? Ya, that’s what’s happening. And it’s humbling that we all get to be a part of that, a part of the ongoing story. So, anyway, I say all that to say to say, come on over and get into the discussion in the discussion group and we’ll do another Facebook Live a week from today.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayers and Praise Reports:
My name is Janet. I live in Mobile, Alabama, the United States. I am coveting the prayers of the same. ___ for my daughter and son-in-law, Tony and Rachel. They have three children. Tony was injured on the job about three years ago. And those kids have been taken down the path of destruction ___ things. Please stand with me for my children and my grandchildren. They are now trying to take their house. Doctors have not been able to determine what Tony needs but he was injured on the job and he has since lost his job. He is working again but he is not making enough money to continue living where they live and how they live. And I just know that a breath, just a breath, of the Savior, would save these children from this and prove to them that ___ Lord. Because our Father is a glorious Father and loves us so much. And I just need you saints to stand with me, that their lives would be touched, and the pain would be addressed, and would have the wisdom that they need to make the right ___. I’ve been listening to the DAB for two years now and it has just been such a blessing to me and I just want to thank all of you, every single one of you saints, and I can’t wait to see you all in heaven. ___ praise God for you daily and I pray for you daily – every one of you – every one of you that are suffering. In Jesus’ name, I thank you. God bless you, one and all. Bye
Hey. Good morning ___ fellow DABbers. My name is Jill and I am calling from southern CA. Today is Monday, July 24th and I just listened to the podcast for some of the prayer requests and there was this one, four word prayer request – please God help me. So, I would like to encourage all the DABbers ___. Let us please pray for that brother in Christ who just called out ___. First of all, I’d like to say, boy, young man, I’m glad you called in. That was my prayer about eleven years ago, and off and on throughout my whole life. God hears our ___, He hears those simple ___ please God help me prayers. So, may God bless you. Thank you for calling. And let all us fellow DABbers just ___. Alright everybody. To the King. To the Kingdom. Chow and God bless.
Hello DAB family. This is Joyful Noise from Southern California. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father ___. I believe it was Caleb but You know her name and You know heart, Lord. I’m praying over her depression and she shared that she’s struggling physically. I’m not sure what that is but God, again, You know. ___ great position, God, you can heel whatever affliction she is struggling with God, whether they are emotional or mental, or physical. God, I just pray healing over her, Lord. You tell us that You ask us to come to ___ prayers and supplications as the widow to the wicked judge, persistently, Lord. And only You know why things continue when we’ve been praying God. And I just pray that You pour out Your Holy Spirit over her and Your encouragement let’s her know that she is loved right where she is God. And that You are for her not against her. And that You are with her through this all God. I just do pray, right away, instant healing God. I just pray this over her and I know the DABbers are joining me in in this prayer God. I also pray over Victoria Soldier, who I love, and I know You love her too God, who’s been praying for my son, struggling with extreme insomnia and she’s praying ___ fervently. I’ve never met her and it’s a debt I can never repay, never repay. That he’s now beginning to be healed of that and it’s being lifted. And, oh my gosh, You’re such an amazing Father in heaven. ___ children God. And I’m so thankful for that. I pray also, healing over our children. And all of the Grady’s of the world that are on all college campuses and all high school campuses and everywhere that the next generation ___ gathers. I pray many Grady’s in these groups and in these forums…
Hi DAB. This is Roxanne and today is July the 24th and I was listening today and in between two prayer requests…my brother David from Kansas…I would have sworn I heard your voice crying out to the Father for help. Feeling ____ I know it was you. I promise ___ moved when I heard your voice. And you know, my brother, if I hear you, know that our heavenly Father hears you as well. Praying for you David, that the Father would relieve you from your pain and any distress that you might have and that the Holy Spirit would give you peace in your heart. We love you David ___. Thank you so much DAB, for your faithfulness. I love you all so very much. God bless you all. God bless you David. Keep the faith my brother.
Good morning Daily Audio ___ or should I say good afternoon? This is ___ from ___. I am calling for praise reports. First, I’d like to say that I get the job as a medical technologist with a company that I went and interviewed for to ___. I was given a job offer, which I accepted. Yay! And I start on July 31st. I am really looking forward to this new adventure in my life. And the next thing I wanted to talk about was ___. About two to three months ago ___ was in and she challenged us to give to the Daily Audio Bible. I used to give to the Daily Audio Bible when I lived in another country and had a really good job and free, single, just engaged and could pretty much do what I pleased with my money with no ___. And that changed and I gave up my job and I moved countries. And we became a single income household and I felt, my husband doesn’t share my faith in many ways and ___ taking money from our household to give away in a way that he doesn’t understand because of how he looks at it and. So, I had stopped giving for a while but it was a huge burden to me and I kept saying, Lord if you give me a job, then I will give to the Daily Audio Bible ___. And then this lady about two to three months ago said, you know, no matter how small it is, give. And I decided to sit down and look at our family budget and found a way to remove a portion from it and contribute to the Daily Audio Bible family. ___ as if it’s in our budget. A step of faith. And, I want to say, to my surprise, my husband didn’t even comment on it, even if he noticed the movement, because it really didn’t affect our budget one bit. And, so, I was ___ more. And now I am looking forward to my job because I’m going to be able to post even more. So, I guess I want to say, I want to challenge part of who of maybe waiting for that breakthrough to actually contribute because my grandmother ___. Give from little so when you have much it will be much easier to give from much, if that makes sense. And so, if you just have a little, no matter how small, just start contributing from there and God will open the windows of ___. I hope you guys are having a wonderful day and I’m so happy and feel so blessed to be a part of the Daily Audio Bible family. Have a wonderful day everyone.