2 Chronicles 35:1-36:23 ~ 1 Corinthians 1:1-17 ~ Psalm 27:1-6 ~ Proverbs 20:20-21
Today is August 4th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we move forward with the next step in our adventure through the scriptures this year. We will be concluding Second Chronicles today and beginning First Corinthians in the New Testament. But first we’re reading from the Names of God bible this week. Second Chronicles chapter 35 verse 1 through 36 verse 23 today.
Ok, so, we have arrived at the doorstep of Paul’s first epistle or his first letter to the church at Corinth, also known as first Corinthians. And Corinth was a was a pretty big hotspot. It was a city of trade and commerce. It was a destination place to go in the Roman Empire. It was the fourth largest city in the entire Roman Empire at the time of Paul’s writing. And, so, being a trendy city, it had all of the things that go along with a trendy city, even today. It was a melting pot of spiritual ideas, idolatries, sexual exploration and immorality - all of the things to go with a large secularized society. And Paul writes this letter as a response to some of the things that he’s hearing that are going on in the church. So, its central theme is unity, church unity. And, so, that makes it no less poignant now that it was then. Paul talks about a lot of topics, from the way that we should behave toward one another, to the way husbands and wives should behave, to the way you should behave in church. And some the most quoted portions of the New Testament will be found in this letter, this first Letter to the Corinthians. Things like - through a glass darkly, or when I was a child I spoke as a child, and then, of course, the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians, which has been known for a long time as the love chapter - beautiful, beautiful, beautiful work on what love is, what it looks like, and what it does. So, Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth echoes through time all the way to us today. It’s like we just received it in the mail and we’re going to open this letter. And it has just as much meaning now as it did then. And, so, we begin. First Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 through 17.
Prayer:
Father, we, like king David, share the same desire, that we can remain in Your presence all the days of our lives, that we might gaze upon Your beauty. And we realize that when this is the posture of our heart, when this is what we are seeking primarily - to be in your presence, to feel your presence wrap itself around us like a warm hug, to feel your intimate awareness of us, that You want to be in fellowship with us, in friendship with us, in collaboration with us, in union with us - we seek this. This is what we want. And, so, when we seek Your beauty and Your presence everything else in our lives is automatically put into its proper perspective and we realize that some of the things that have been so deeply consuming to us shouldn’t even have a hold over us, perhaps shouldn’t even be a part of our lives. So, Holy Spirit, we invite you to lead us deeper into Jesus, to lead us on the pathway that leads to life, the narrow path, deeper and deeper. And as the world recedes into its proper alignment, we ask You to reorder our lives so that we can consistently and continually, for all of the days of our lives, walk with You in Your presence, in Your will, following Your ways on the narrow path that leads to life, guided by Your word that illuminates our paths before us. This is our prayer. This is our desire. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website to base was going on around here.
Well yeah, we had a blast last night at the Sneezing Jesus live, Facebook Live, that we did. You guys are awesome. I’ve just been very, very inspired by some of the stories that I’ve heard and it’s just really beautiful. So, we had a good time with that last night.
I remind you that, if you haven’t had the chance, Sneezing Jesus is available wherever you can get books. I invite you to take that journey because I think that journey will bring you close. It’s a kind of presence that we were just praying about, found in the book of psalms, this sort of desire for union and intimacy in all things at all times. This is available. And looking at Jesus up close and personal, it just opens up that doorway. It’s always been there for us to walk through. So, check that out.
So, we’ll be taking a Sneezing Jesus on the road for a few months of traveling around and just hanging out with the family and seeing everybody. If you’d like to see that come to your city, here’s how you get that ball rolling. Go to sneezingjesus.com, scroll all the way to the bottom, and you’ll see this little tiny form. Just fill out that form. We’ll be in touch and see if it can happen.
The other thing about Sneezing Jesus is the reviews at Amazon and stuff. If you have gotten your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or wherever, if you would be willing to take five minutes out of your day and leave a little review for that, wherever you got it…that…I mean…that’s certainly something that we’re told to do by the publishing companies…but I see that as a seed…I see it as a seed. Those things get planted. And then somebody, somewhere, along the way, maybe many years from now even, comes across this, sees what you had to say, and that convinces them that this is what they’ve been seeking, this is what they’re looking for - a clear picture of Jesus. And then that seed gets watered and comes to fruition and becomes a harvest. So, if you could take a few minutes, that will be helpful. Thank you for that.
If you want a partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that it dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link. It’s on the homepage. 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 PO 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 Prayers and Praise Reports:
Hi my DAB family. This is your sister Julie. My heart is full of gratitude for all of you and I love you. Brian, my brother, to God be the glory, the great things He has done through your family and your ministry. Thank you for making your faithfulness in making the word of God come to life for me again. This family has helped to resurrect my soul from a shipwrecked life. I felt the need to call and reach out to all my DAB family members who are silent and empty. I know that there are lots who call on a regular basis to encourage us and I’m very grateful to them. But to the silent loved ones, your situations and circumstances are not silent to God. I pray that the river of living waters wash over you and give you peace in the middle of the storm and may you have strength to look up into the face of our Father and know that you are dearly and wonderfully loved by your brothers and sisters in this family and you are a part of it. And I just want you to know that I love you and I think about you all every day because I’ve been a silent one too. And I’m reaching out to you and letting you know that you are prayed for every day. Even though we may not know your name, you are still our brothers and sisters in Christ. So, keep sneezing everyone. And I love you. Bye-bye.
Hi family. Drew from the bay area. Listen, I’m just calling in today because the Holy Spirit wants me to. I only have a second because I’m going to be late to work. But this call is for Asia and for David and for Rebecca and for Daniel J. Jr. and for Blind Tony and for sinners and for many that are struggling. The Holy Spirit wants you to know that He has you. Did Sarah doubt that she was going to have a child in the wilderness when she was an old lady? Yes, she did. Did Elijah doubt that God was going to protect him and take care of him when he was running away from Ahab and Jezebel? Yes, he did. Where is Elijah now? Did Jonah run away from God and did God take care of Jonah and bring him back? Yes, he did. Did God come through on all the promises that He made to Hannah? Yes, He did. Did he come through for Elizabeth? Yes, He did. Did he do all the things that he promised to? Yes, He did. Yes, He will. He loves you. So, take your eyes off yourself and realize God’s plans are bigger than all of us. But together we can have strength. And our lives are like a flower that just wilted this past spring and died. But the seeds that spring up the next year will even better than before, even more numerous. So, don’t doubt what God’s plans are. Just pray and worship Him. That’s all He wants from us. I love you family.
Yes. My name is Mark N. I live in Davie, FL. I’ve been a listener for about nine years. I would desire everybody’s prayers right now. I’m going through a lot and my family. My mother is in the hospice. I just got a call. She’s got 73 hours left. She’s going downhill quickly. So, please keep us in prayer. We’re losing my mother. There’s five of us. And I’ll be flying back home in the north. So, I would desire everybody’s prayer. Again my name is Mark N. Just pray for the N. family. And I thank you for your prayers.
Hi. Brian, I wanted to say thank you so much for your readings, always, but especially Romans. I appreciate how you emphasize, slowly, things in Romans. And it’s just beautiful and so important for us to understand Jesus’ love through all of this with us. And these are the tenants of our faith being read to us. It’s so exciting. And I just wanted to also say hi Pastor Gene. I just love you. And I just think of you, not only as a prayer warrior but a warrior as a testament of Jesus Christ. You know, when you’re dealing with all you’re dealing with, with kids, and you’re on that brink of dealing with depression because it’s something that you just have and it’s a thorn in your side, like Paul. And you’re such…you’re strong through it all and you are so able to help other people through that. And I just so appreciate you. And I just want to give you a quick update on my daughter. She’s healing well from the C-section. The baby is just amazing and beautiful, nursing well. And my daughter-in-law, she’s the one that lost the baby, she’s doing well. She loves God and she understands His sovereignty. And Asia, I just want to say I am praying for you and praying for the God of comfort to bless and keep you. I’m running out of time, so I just want to say I love you all and praying for you all. We all have similar…while I pray for Asia…I know there’s other people with that exact same thing. So, I’m praying for you all, in Jesus’ name I pray all these things. Amen.
Hi family. This is Charles in Ohio. It’s been a while since I’ve called. I just…I was calling with both a prayer request and a praise report. My wife and I are still not together. She’s still with this other man. But today my wife and I were able to go together with our kids to the beach today. It was the first time we were able to spend time together without arguing since we separated. And while we were at the beach we found out that her father was found dead yesterday. And on the drive back from the beach, for me to take her to her grandmother’s house, God used me in the situation to minister to her and I feel that a good part of the drive was just Jesus speaking through me directly to her. But I just want to ask that everyone would keep her in prayer, that she’d be comforted in this difficult time, and also for our family as a whole, just that we would figure out some sort of new normal out of all this.