12/13/2017 DAB Transcript

Obadiah 1-21, Revelations 4:1-11, Psalms 132:1-18, Proverbs 29:24-25

Today is the 13th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s good to be here with you today. And that from the Old Testament today, we will read in its entirety, the book of Obadiah before moving onto the next step forward in the book of Revelation.

Obadiah:

The book of Obadiah has but 21 versus, making it the shortest book in the Old Testament. And, yet, it deals with a very long-running family issue. Contained in this one chapter is a prophecy of the complete destruction and doom of the Edomites. And if we look back on the beginning of our adventure through the Bible, we’ll remember the story of Jacob and Esau. And Jacob’s descendants became the children of Israel. Right? Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. He had kids. They were children. The children of Israel. Esau’s descendants became the Edomites. And they were often in conflict. When God delivered the children of Israel from slavery and bondage in Egypt, the Edomites wouldn’t allow them to pass through their land on the way to their promise land. And at other points in history, when Israel was being attacked and overrun, the Edomites stood by silent just watching it all go down. And God reached the end of his patience. And, through the prophet Obadiah, predicts destruction. We have good application for this today too, for although we’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and have been made children of God, therefore making us all family, all too often we see brothers and sisters at war with one another. We’re standing by silently as brothers and sisters are destroyed before our eyes, often on the Internet. And perhaps they’re getting what they deserve in our judgment. The book of Obadiah shows us a very clear picture of how God feels about this. And, so, we begin Obadiah chapter 1 verses 1 through 21.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we need to talk about this proverb for a second because Proverbs 29:25 is worth committing to memory, is worth carrying around with you, is worth having at your fingertips. Because heeding it can change the path that your life is on. It can change the trajectory of where you’re going. It can shift your orientation to what you think is going on around you, inside of you. Because, for the most part, as a culture, as a people, even as believers in Jesus, we don’t heed this proverb’s wisdom. And when we look starkly at what not paying attention to what this proverb is saying is doing to us, it becomes pretty clear how profoundly this is affecting us. And the proverb says, ‘the fear of man is a snare, but the one who trusts in the Lord is protected.’ Now this word fear, as it’s translated into English here, is a word that means trembling, anxiety, care, dread, as well as fear. And we all seem to carry that as sort of like a base layer of a motion somewhere down inside of us, this anxiety that’s just always on the alert. And its deep within us. It touches our identity. Our fears can speak that deeply. And then to gauge how anxious we should be in a situation, we begin the comparison game. How I am I doing compared to him or her or them? And then it feeds into all of this anxiety. And because it’s uncomfortable or painful, it feels true, and it shifts our identity and value of ourselves, and it becomes for us exactly what the Scriptures say, a snare, a trap. And all we have to do is kind of look back over the last 24 hours. Look at our interactions and find the point at which anxiety was rising up in us, fear was coming up inside of us, and for the most part we’ll find that there attached to a fear of man, fear of others in some way. And so, we’re being counseled from thousands of years ago that this is a trap. It’s exposing where our trust truly lies. And as the proverb goes on, ‘the one who trusts in the Lord is protected.’ So, when our identity is rooted in the trust of the Lord, that’s a totally different outcome than when our identity is rooted in the fear of man. And if we’ll just go through the next 24 hours, watching ourselves when we were feeling anxious, when fear seems to be overwhelming us, we can detach from that for a second just to observe - where did this come from, why is this happening, how can I follow the trail back - and we’ll find where our fears lie, and we’ll find that we’re not trusting the Lord in it.

Prayer:

Father, we take this counsel, we heed it, it’s true, and it certainly can change things. So, we begin to observe ourselves and invite Your Holy Spirit to show us how so many of our fears are connected and are trapping us, are snaring us, because we’re ultimately afraid of each other or in competition with one another, rather than resting in the fact that we are Your children and You’re protecting us, and that we can, should, must trust You. 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.

A few things are going on around here. Today is about the last day to call in your holiday greetings for the annual Daily Audio Bible family Christmas that we do each year, our kind of virtual Christmas party that we have together. So, definitely, definitely don’t delay anymore. If you’re planning on participating, all you have to do is call one of the prayer lines. So, for example, here in United States, 877-942-4253 is the number to call. And, like I’ve been saying, the only rule about this is just don’t combine a holiday greeting and a prayer request in the same call. If you have a prayer request, certainly, certainly call that in, but if you also have a holiday greeting, call that in separate. And we’re going to get to work on putting our Christmas party together. So, don’t delay anymore. If you want to be involved, call that in.

The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Boxes are going fast, as they do. We still have some available. If you’re in the United States and you want to get the Daily Bible Christmas Box in time for Christmas, because it is full of things that you'll…some things you’ll want for yourself and some things you’ll want to give away…if you want that to arrive in time…then Monday December 18th is, kind of the cutoff date for that. You can certainly order after that and we will certainly ship, but it’s kind of…we’re looking at the delivery schedules and…thinking that’s about where we’re getting close. So, keep that in mind.

Early registration for the More Gathering for women is open right now. And early registration pricing will last until the end of the year. This makes a wonderful gift idea. So, take advantage of that. And all the details about the more gathering can be found at moregathering.com or in the Initiatives section at dailyaudiobible.com. All of your questions and the details that you would want to know about it are there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we approach the end of the year then, thank you humbly and profoundly, like every day, with a heart full of gratefulness that this community exists and that the global fire burns on, and that we keep taking steps forward together. Thank you for making that possible. So, there’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or comment or holiday greeting, at the moment, 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:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible community. This is Diane O. B. in Newburg Indiana calling. And this is a prayer call and a praise report. And first of all, I want to say I am praying for this lady in California that is studying for her board exams, that had some really tragic things happen to her because her parents wanted a boy rather than a girl. I’ve been praying for you honey, every single day, and the Lord has been giving me a heart to pray for you and I believe you have the mind of Christ and you do think the thoughts of Christ. And when you take these board exams, I believe you are doing them at the end of December, you are going to pass with flying colors. And I thank You Lord for granting this wish and desire and prayer of mine. I’m going to be praying for you every day, that you have peace and no anxiety. And I’m praying for all of the others in the community. I thank you for hearing my prayer requests and lightening my load. And I just want to say do not be discouraged do not be disheartened. God loves you and He’s with you. He made you and He will take you back to heaven with Him if you have invited Him into your heart. So, God bless everybody and that’s what I wanted to say. Amen. 

Hi DAB family. This is Marked as His. I’m calling from Balsam Lake Wisconsin. I haven’t called in probably over 4 months now but I hope you all are doing well. Two praise reports. My mom, who was diagnosed with breast cancer around Easter time just successfully finished up both chemo and radiation and her prognosis looks great. So, that’s awesome, and thanks. We did get all off our corn harvest in on time and our soy bean harvest. So, thank you again for that. Right now, I am struggling with feeling very overwhelmed and attacked by anxiety and self-doubt. My cousin, who abused me as a child is getting married. And I feel very betrayed because getting married is something that I’ve always wanted and I feel like God is playing a huge joke on me, giving that gift to my cousin first. And I know I’m supposed to trust in God’s wisdom and His sense of timing but right now it is really hard. It seems like I’m getting the raw end of the deal again. So, I hope all is well with you. And thank you so much for being a family to me too. I’m so glad I turned here than other really bad coping mechanisms, that they soon pass. So, anyhow. Thank you all. Bye.

Good morning my DAB friends. It’s Margo from Australia. We have this morning had a bit of a miracle and I thought I would love to share it with you guys and you could share our joy and excitement. I’ll have to talk quick though. Some of you may remember, my husband and I are applying to join the mission aviation fellowship and as part of that my husband had to pass a class on medical for his pilot’s license. And he’s been having a bit of trouble with his blood pressure. His diastolic blood pressure needs to be under 90 and he’s been up to the doctor multiple times getting it checked and just can’t seem to get that number below 90 despite the fact that he’s quite slim and quite fit and healthy. It’s just some unfortunate reason. And he’s also been getting quite bad headaches. So, this morning he woke up with a really bad headache and we thought perhaps it might be associated with the blood pressure. So, we went up to our local pharmacy to get it checked and the diastolic blood pressure was 97, which is upsetting. But, just after that the doctor phoned and said, you have to come up today and get that blood pressure checked. It’s the last day we can do it for your pilot medical. So, we thought, oh no, we already know it’s really bad, this does not look good. So, we just straight away prayed, asking the Lord for a miracle and he went off to the doctor and guess what the number was? It was 85 and he even checked it twice. And we just praise in God because He is a God who works miracles. I can’t actually remember the last time his diastolic blood pressure was that low. It truly is a miracle and He is a God who answers prayer. And just Glory to God. He loves us. I hope that encourages you as it’s encouraged us. Bye for now.

Hi Joyce in California. Hey, this is mom Annette in Oklahoma City. And little sister, little girl, I wanted to wish you the most happiest of birthdays on December 20th and I wanted to call you and sing [singing] Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Our beautiful DAB daughter, Happy birthday to you. [singing stops]. You know, we can’t always pick the families that we’re born with but we can pick the families that we surround ourselves with. And, I’ll tell you, I know around my job, I’ve made many daughters and sons and I would wish nothing more than to have you be my honorary daughter. And I wish you the best. I wish you the success that you are looking for. I pray that your studies go well and your examinations are exemplary, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Joyce, I love you and I’m giving you a great big hug, all the way from Oklahoma City. Have a beautiful birthday December 20th, a day we will honor from now on.