11/14/2017 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 29:1-30:26, Hebrews 11:32-12:13, Psalms 112:1-10, Proverbs 27:17

Today is the 14th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. We’re probably far enough in the year for you to know that, but I’m Brian. It’s good to be here with you today. And I’m excited to take the next step forward. We’ll move into Ezekiel and then into Hebrews, where we will talk about faith. But first, Ezekiel chapter 29 verse one through 30, verse 26. And we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in Hebrews, as I’ve been saying most every day, Hebrews was written to Hebrews, which is not me saying, because it was written to Hebrews it has no meaning for us, it’s to say, that’s the context and context is important in the Bible. These are early Jewish believers in Jesus and they are declaring that God is doing a new thing among the Hebrew people, that Jesus is a part of the Hebrew story and that God is doing a new thing among the Hebrew people. The old covenant is accomplished and a new covenant is instituted. Well, this is not widely accepted at the time or now among the Hebrew people. And so, this letter is to restate what is believed about Jesus in a Hebrew context among the early believers in Jesus because they are on the margins. At best, these early Hebrew believers in Jesus were thought to be just a part of another Jewish sect, sort of like a weird new denomination of Judaism, who are following a rabbi named Jesus, who happened to be executed by the Romans. So, these guys are being marginalized, sidelined, cast out, mistreated, even persecuted. And if we remember the story of the apostle Paul, he was one of the persecutors. This is who he was after, Jewish, Hebrew people who were converting to following Jesus. So, they had they had considerable opposition. So, on the one hand they were adopting this way of Jesus and following Jesus teachings and believing that this rewired and reframed things that God was doing something new in the world and this would lead them to eternal life. But on the other hand, it had only made their human physical lives much more difficult to navigate. So, we can begin to see how this all fits together - a lengthy explanation of how Jesus connects to the Hebrew story and fulfills so many prophecies and brings to an end an era and begins a new one that follows in a tradition of faith in what can’t be seen but is hoped for and in. And then we walked through all of the examples, Hebrew examples by the way, of people who are deeply respected by all Hebrew, all practicing Jewish people. And, so, now the writer of Hebrews is saying look, those guys believed in a promise and hoped in it and moved forward and they moved the world and our culture forward in the process, but it was very difficult for them. So, we shouldn’t be surprised that moving this forward, that our place in this story is difficult. And, so, right now we can’t just disappear into the scenery. We can’t just fade. We have to follow our ancestors example and move this forward. And, so, the conclusion, not of the book of Hebrews, but the conclusion of this thought – ‘so then, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. And that great cloud of witnesses, being all of the examples of the ancestors that had gone before them’. This hall of faith that we walked down over the last couple of days. ‘Let’s throw off any extra baggage and get rid of the sin that trips us up and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of Him and sat down at the right side of God’s throne’. We should take great encouragement in that because it gives the lay of the land for our own lives. It’s not always going to be easy. This isn’t even about making things easy, which is one of the great misconceptions about this journey of faith that we’re on. And one of the things that deeply estranges us from God because for some reason, we think that everything is supposed to be unopposed and without challenge and easy and when it’s not we blame God for it. And we can see clues that this is somewhat happening in this time because the writer of Hebrews then begins to talk about discipline. And the way that it’s brought out is, look, a parent who doesn’t discipline their children and shape them and guide them doesn’t love them. And if that’s not happening to a child then the child’s in his legitimate child. So, they are basically saying, look, we have to endure this, we have to move through this and get everything that God has for us that’s in it into our lives. We’re being shaped. We’re being remade new for this new covenant. Things have changed and we are carrying it forward. And, so, we too, can take council found in the last verses that we read today – ‘so strengthen your drooping hands and weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet so that if any part is lame it will be healed rather than injured more seriously.

Prayer:

Father, we have to reframe some things. We actually have to keep reframing them, that the obstacles that we face and the challenges that come our way aren’t purposeless. They are an invitation to grow strong in our faith, which we need to be. And they are assisting us with stripping away all of the things that are going nowhere in our lives. So, come Holy Spirit, strengthen our faith. We embrace You, and we cling to You in all things. You are the Author and Perfecter of our faith. So, come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

Looking at the calendar, just a few days from now, this coming Sunday the 19th of November, we’ll be back out on the road bringing the Sneezing Jesus message at River Valley church in Bossier City, Louisiana. So, this will be last time we’ll be out on the road this year. Looking forward to seeing you. Come say hello. You can get all the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the events section. And we’ll look forward to that in a few days.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link, it’s on the homepage. And I can’t thank you enough for those of you who have clicked that link. Thank you. If you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And 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 Family. This is His Little Sheri from Canada. And I finished listening to the community prayer for November 4th and doodling my prayers for all of you. I have quite a long list of people I will be praying for. And just to mention a few, Kristi in Kentucky, your dad passed away on October 21st. That was my birthday. And my heart goes out to you. I’m very close to my parents. And, so, I can imagine the grief you’re feeling after losing both your mom and now your dad. I’m praying for you Kristi. A man called in, didn’t leave his name, but you were saying that you were really needing companionship, that you are feeling lonely, and I’m praying for you. I’m praying for Julie from Maryland. Thank you so much Julie, for your message to me. That made my day. And you had mentioned that you’re praying for your parents and your brother for their salvation. I’m going to join you in praying for them. Miguel, you called you in and sang Victory in Jesus. Thank you, I was singing with you at the top of my lungs…because there was nobody home. So, thank you of reminding me of that wonderful old hymn. And Lisa the Encourager, you called in and talked about the miracle of our eyes. Thank you for that. That was so fascinating. And I just felt worship rise up in my hear as you were talking about the miraculous design of our eyes. And Candice from Oregon. You called in mentioning that you’re going to be meeting with your sister. I’m wondering how that went, so please call in and update us. There’s so many more here on my list. I love you family. I’m praying for so many of you and I’ll talk to you again soon. Bye for now.

Hello my darling family. This is Janice in Goodyear Arizona calling. I send greetings to all of you and my love. And I have a special request for my brother-in-law. His name is Tim. And Tim has been through a rough time, to say the least. He lost his beautiful 35 year old daughter a couple months ago in a car accident and now the doctors have discovered internal bleeding but they don’t know where it’s coming from. So, he’s got to go through a bunch of tests and we all know how those are. Please pray that the Lord will direct these doctors to find the cause of his bleeding and stop it. And please pray, most of all, that Tim will come to a knowledge of Jesus as his Lord and Savior. And I thank you all so very much. I still keep a book, I wish I could show you all my books, it’s full of with prayers and answers from my DAB family. God bless you all. Thanks again.

Good morning everyone, this is Mike from Washington state. I’m calling on 11/11. I’d just been listening to the community prayer line today and I just wanted to say thank you to all my Daily Audio Bible family and all the prayer requesters and everything for the beautiful podcast. I’ve been listening since 2009, full time listening since 2010. And felt compelled to call today to thank Tony for his great poem about the three trees. It just really turned something in me and made me want to call in for the first time. Everybody have a great day. And love you all.

Hi. Kristi from Kentucky, this is Valerie calling from Michigan. I heard your prayer request a few days ago about the loss of your mom and dad so close together and I totally feel for you. Feel my hugs right now for you. I understand. My mom and dad died 8 months apart. And my dad died middle of August. And, so, I’ve had a little time to reflect on their lives and their presence in my life and how much I miss them. And I know you’re probably…in the beginning…your heart just hurts…you actually feel pain in your heart because you miss them so much. And that will get a little easier. God is good. Rest in Him and feel the tears…let the tears flow…let the blankets of sorrow just come upon you. It’s OK. It will get easier. God is good. He is our eternal Father and our parents are home, which is our goal, is to one day go home. And this is a hard time of year to be at a loss, to be grieving. So, I’ll be praying for you Kristi and for you too Brian, for the loss of your mom, and for all out there who are missing loved ones. Remember that we are children to our parents, parents to our children. Some day we will be parents to our parents and children to our children -  circle of life. And there’s a lesson there. God bless you. Love you Kristi. Bye-bye.