Zechariah 1:1-21, Revelations 12:1-13:1, Psalms 140:1-13, Proverbs 30:17
Today is the 21st day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today for the next step forward through the Scriptures and the next step forward into Christmas week here. So, in the Old Testament, we read the book of Haggai in its entirety yesterday, which brings us today to the to the second to the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Zechariah. And we are already reading through the last book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation. So, we’ll be spending all the way through Christmas up to the last two days of the year here in the book of Zechariah and then moving to the final book, Malachi, in last couple of days of the year.
Zechariah:
Zechariah was written during the reign of the Persian King, Darius. And this falls within the same general time period that we were talking about when we read Haggai yesterday. Haggai and Zechariah, the book we’re about to read, they were contemporaries. And as we begin to read the book of Zechariah we will probably recognize pretty quick, right within the first few verses, one of the central themes of the Old Testament, one of the things that the prophetic voices were always saying, return to me and I will return to you. So, throughout this book of prophecy, God confirms His acceptance of authentic worship and it shows that God is indeed at work. It confirms God’s sovereignty and clarifies His control over the beginnings and endings of man, something that we’re also seeing in the book of Revelation. And this is not to say that God usurps a person’s free will. Everyone is responsible for their own choices. But God remains sovereign over all. And there are eight visions and two oracles that we will encounter in the book of Zechariah. And much of the imagery is a clear and beautiful foreshadowing of Jesus. And through that imagery we’re offered great hope and promise. And, so, we begin. Zechariah chapter 1 verses 1 through 21. And we’re reading from the Names of God Bible this week.
Commentary:
Okay, let’s go back into the book of Revelation for a minute. Yesterday we were talking about the book of Haggai, but up until that point we had been waiting for this seventh trumpet blow and that happened and we missed it. So, let’s go back and try to catch ourselves up. Because with the book of Revelation, like, if you blink you miss something and there’s just so much going on. So, six trumpets blew and then there was this, kind of, aside. There was sort of this side story going on in between the sixth and the seventh trumpets that we were working through. And we continued that yesterday where a temple being measured and two witnesses in sackcloth who are prophetic and speak on behalf of God being sent out for 260 days. And again, we have to pay attention to the way in which we’re reading this. We’ve looked at a lot of things through a literal perspective and understood, wow, this would be really hard to be literal. And then we’ve looked figuratively at a lot of things at what scholars have researched for centuries in order to understand the symbolism. But it’s interesting how we can move back and forth between literal and symbolic language. So, for the most part, we’ve agreed, like, a lot of this is symbolism and what does the symbolism mean, but then we move into other things and because of popular culture or novels or films or whatever, we moved back into literal. So, we have this temple being measured. We’ve seen this before in other prophetic books. And, so, from a little literal perspective, we’re imagining a third temple, another temple being built in Jerusalem. And some people are so deeply convinced that this will literally happen that preparations are being made. Like, all of the utensils that would be needed for the temple, according to the Torah, have been and are being made. And there’s even a museum in Jerusalem that you can go see some of these things. A figurative view of this would be that, what’s being measured here, is referring to this new world, this new thing that God is doing and perhaps can only be seen through spiritual eyes, while others would say this just the measure, this is the spiritual kingdom of God, the covenant being represented and this courtyard and everything around it is for God’s people. This represents the entire community of faith whose job is to be a prophetic witness in the world. And the we get to these messengers. Right? These guys in sackcloth who are profits and who are going to find themselves getting killed and then they’ll be resurrected. And we see this sometimes from a literal perspective and its zombielike and kind of scary stuff and we see it depicted in films, when all along we’ve been mostly looking allegorically. And, so, it’s funny how we’ll get pulled into literal versus allegorical symbolism and get confused. So, some people think that these two witnesses are literally a reincarnated Moses and Elijah or other prophets, while others would say, no, they’re just unnamed, we don’t know who they are. They’re like John the Baptist, who came in this spirit and power of Elijah. So, they’re just like that. While those who would look more symbolically would say, this simply represents the prophetic witness of what God is doing in the world while He’s doing what He’s doing in the world. And what He’s doing in the world is transforming it, making it new. And that transformation is causing a lot of unrest. But God will not allow His prophetic witness to be stamped out. And, so, there are two of these witnesses. And it would require two or more witnesses to testify to the truth of something, like that was a legal thing. Or the Bible tells us when there is two or more than the Lord is in the midst of them. So, these aren’t, like, real, actual prophets at all from that view, they represent the ongoing prophetic witness in the world. And if we continue to look at it through that lens, I mean, these guys end up getting killed. They’re causing a lot of unrest because of their prophetic witness. And because of what’s going on in the world everyone turns on them. They’re killed and their bodies are left to lay for three and half days. And Revelation says, those living on earth will gloat over the witness’s death, which has pulled many people more toward a literal view and let interpretations, like, oh, this must be television. Television must be being prophesied here in the book of Revelation, because that’s the only way that those living on earth could gloat over the witness’s death, because their physical bodies are laying in one place, but that can only be seen around the world. There some kind of Internet communication or television communication, which leads us back around to the problem of time that we talked about a couple days ago. Those who are more presentest or futurist in their view of the book of Revelation are looking for the signs. And, so, you have modern-day interpretations where World War II is one of the signs, the unrest in the Middle East is one of the signs, the country of Russia is one of the signs. And, so, we’re back to literal. And that’s fine, but has problems. And the top one for me, anyway, would be that this book was written nearly 2000 years ago. And the first readers of this book read it 2000 years ago. They could have not imagined television, satellite communication, Internet, or any of that stuff. They couldn’t have imagined it. So, if the book of Revelation is actually speaking about this time, now, they could have never found a way to understand it. There would be no context whatsoever. And it’s important to at least take into consideration how the first readers of this work would have understood it, because God chose to inspire it at a specific time. So, when that context is removed, well then, every generation thinks this is all going down in their time. So, for example, if we look at World War II and say, this has got to be one of the signs because nothing like that, that kind of mass destruction, that kind of loss and conflict had never happened in the world before. So, that’s got to be something. As true as that might be, humanity has been suffering through catastrophes all along. So, for example, if you’re living in the first century and your living in Israel and you’re people are warring with the Romans, but the Romans are taking victory, and they ultimately do become victorious and stamp out the rebellion and completely level the city of Jerusalem and destroy and burn the temple of God, ike, if that’s your time, you’re going, nothing worse in the world could happen than this. So, every generation has its own share of catastrophe and people look to those things for the signs. And, like I said, there’s nothing wrong with that except for context and except for the fact that everyone, everyone who has thought that to this point has been wrong. And, literally, to date, everyone who has made predictions about specific dates for specific things to happen has been wrong, which probably means that the allegorical view is the most comprehensive way of looking at most of this. And trying to understand how the first readers of this work understood it is also important. So, as I was saying, if we’re literally looking at this then there’s a couple witnesses in sackcloth that are like, they appear to be like Old Testament prophets. We don’t have them named. They prophesy, they give witness, which is the point. They give witness, prophetic witness, to what God is doing in the world, but they are opposed in dramatic fashion all the way until their deaths and their bodies lay for 3-½ days, and the whole world sees it because the Internet or television or something. But those who look at this more symbolically, allegorically, or figuratively, would say, no, these witnesses, there’s two or more, there’s two of them. They can witness to the truth of what they’re saying. They represent God’s people, his prophetic witness of what He’s doing, the good news, the gospel on this earth. They can be seen throughout the earth because they’re all over the earth and they will be dramatically opposed and it will look as if they have been killed. So, we’re not talking about people now, we’re talking about the witness of the gospel. It will look as if it has been completely stamped out and the any enemies of God will gloat the world over over this. And before all that happens they’re able to be a prophetic witness for 3-½ years, which has led to many people to make this correlation to Jesus because that’s about the length of his earthly ministry. And then when they are killed they lay for 3-½ days. And, so, there is a rough correlation there to Jesus in the tomb. And, unexpectedly, they are resurrected, following in line with Jesus. So, when this resurrection occurs a great fear falls upon all those who had seen this go down. Once the witnesses are resurrected from the dead and a great awe and fear surrounds the event a loud voice from heaven calls them back up and they go up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies watch them. So, from, you know, like if you’re looking at this literally, then that’s what happens. If you’re looking at a little bit more symbolically, then you can see the correlations to Jesus. And from allegorical interpretive perspective then this witness, this prophetic witness, that is been upon the earth right until the very, very end, it’s called up and immediately a giant earthquake happens, a powerful earthquake that kills many people and the people who had seen all this go down gave glory to God. So, some interpreters would say, this whole thing, like, the prophetic witness in the world and this seeming stamping out of God’s people, and then the unexpected resurrection causes a lot of people to turn their faith and put their hope in Christ. Other people would say, no, that’s not what happens at all. They are in great fear, great fear falls upon these people in the same way that great fear fell upon Egypt when the great plaques and the Israelites deliverance was at hand. Either way, Revelations says once this happens, the second catastrophe is over and the third catastrophe will soon be here. And finally, the seventh angel blows the seventh trumpet. And it’s like we’re expecting, like, the world to blow up at this point because we’ve been told that the second catastrophe is over and the third will soon be here. But when the seventh angel blows his trumpet something completely different happens. It’s as if we’re seeing the inauguration of the kingdom of God right before our eyes. And it’s here that we kind of need to pause and look at how we’re viewing all of this. Usually, whether were trying to read this literally or figuratively or whether we’re trying to figure out the symbols, it brings this disruption to us because we’re focused on the difficulties that appear to be happening on earth, whether spiritually or physically. And we start thinking, why do things have to be so catastrophic? Why did they have to be so dramatic? Do I have to go through that? Will I have to experience any of this? Is this really going to happen or is it symbols? And it brings a great disruption. And we lose sight of the bigger picture of what’s actually happening. One kingdom does not overthrow another kingdom without a significant amount of unrest. And we have the accountings of several thousand years of human conflict to show us that. But when Jesus came and was seemingly defeated, only to be resurrected in victory, things changed dramatically in the world. And as believers we are engaged in the story that we are reading about. We are witnesses in the world for the good news, of the good news. And what we are watching play out in the book of Revelation is the good news being consummated, the kingdom of God that we hope for actually coming to be. So, when the seventh angel blows the seventh trumpet, we’re back in heaven. There are loud voices and they are saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah and he will rule as King forever and ever. Right? So, this transition is upon us the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah. And when that’s said the 24 elders on their thrones in God’s presence how and worship God, and they have something to say. We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was because You have taken Your great power and have begun ruling as King. So, we can say God is sovereign and He could have stepped in and done this at any point, but where getting a vision of when he does. He begins ruling as King. And when this happens Revelations says the temple in heaven was opened and the ark of God’s promise was seen inside his temple and there was lightning and noise and thunder and an earthquake and heavy hail. So, we ended our reading yesterday by getting this majestic picture of the transformation that is happening in heaven and on earth as the story continues forward.
And then we get into today’s reading and we got this crazy story about dragons and a pregnant woman and war in heaven. And many commentators draw attention to this story because it contains all of the mystical elements that we are drawn to even until today because we have extraterrestrial beings. Right? Strange beings coming to earth in a grand struggle between good and evil. And a lot of movies are made, they make a lot of money depicting this kind of thing, not the book of Revelation, but the mythical qualities. And some commentators would say that’s really how you need to read this, or to understand this whole book. And I’ve heard the Star Wars phenomenon used as an example of this. We’ve had these films around, what, for more than 30 years, and they touch us mythically because they speak of the cosmic struggle between good and evil. And, so, you have some people who have never seen any of the films. You have some people who maybe have seen some of them but it’s not super connected to them, but they understand the general idea of these movies. And then you have other people that are so into it that they have costumes for their favorite characters, the ones that they want to be, and they’ll go to conventions and walk around and try to impersonate these people and have these conversations. So, for example, if you are a Star Wars buff, you really, really like it a lot, you probably have a group of friends who also like it a lot. And at some point or another you may have had conversations that lasted maybe even hours as you try to understand the deeper meanings that may be hidden in the films so that you have an awareness of what is really being disclosed, what is really being revealed. And, so, people do this with, like, film trilogies like The Matrix or series like The Leftovers. You have these conversations trying to reveal the hidden meanings, trying to find the Revelation. So, I don’t know about all that, but I do know what we’re trying to do is walk into the territory of the book of Revelation and look around. Try to get our bearings for the way that this book is been understood and acknowledge that it’s been understood a lot of ways. And, so, the vision that we read today is definitely mythic and epic and has been interpreted in a number of diverse ways. So, we began our reading today in the 12th chapter of Revelation by hearing a spectacular sign appeared in the sky. So, I guess we should we should say this is symbolic. It’s a sign. And the way that this plays out is that there’s a woman and she’s dressed with the sun and she’s got the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head and she’s pregnant and she’s about to give birth. She’s in the agony and the labor pains of giving birth. And then another sign comes into the sky and this is a fiery red serpent with seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns on its heads. And on its way down, it sweeps away one third of the stars in the sky and throws them down. And the serpent confronts, or is in front of, the woman who’s about to give birth. So, she can’t very well defend herself. She’s about to give birth. And what the serpent wants is to eat the infant the second it’s born. But the babies born and it’s a boy and he is to rule all nations with an iron scepter. And the child was snatched and taken to God, to the throne room, to the throne of God. And then the woman, after just having given birth, fled into the wilderness where God had prepared a place for her so that she could be safe for 1260 days. So, it’s hard to miss the parallels with the Christmas story. Right? With the birth of Jesus story here. Although it’s a very, very different story, leading some to believe that this isn’t about Jesus. This isn’t a picture of Jesus birth. While others would say, no, this woman is Mary and she’s having Jesus. And what we’re seeing here is simply the Christmas story from a heavenly or spiritual perspective. But these have problems. Another allegorical way of looking at this is that the woman represents God’s people on the earth, a form of true Israel. This is why she’s got a crown of 12 stars on her head and her travail in childbirth is simply the birth pains of the kingdom, to this new thing. So, after she has her baby and her baby is saved, she’s led into the wilderness, which would coincide with the story of the children of Israel and their deliverance from Egypt, from slavery, on their way to the promised land. And God prepared a place for her in the wilderness so that she would be protected for this 1260 days, which is the exact amount of time that the final witnesses, those two witnesses we just talked about from yesterday’s reading, were able to put be a prophetic voice. And by looking at it this way, we have to almost reconsider or reframe our idea of wilderness. We’ve talked a lot because a lot of the Bible happens in the wilderness or in wilderness experiences. And, so, we’ve talked a lot about the wilderness shaping and forming us. But in this picture, the wilderness is also a place of protection. And, so, where this meets with our lives is that when we find ourselves in a wilderness experience most of our prayers about our about how God can quickly deliver us from it. When actually, what God might be doing by leading us into wilderness experiences is protecting us. And then the next thing that we see in the story is that war breaks out in heaven. And Michael and his angels fight with the serpent and his minions and the serpent is defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven, the book of Revelation says. The huge serpent was thrown down, that ancient snake named devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world was thrown down to earth, its angels were thrown down with it. And this is where we get that imagery about how Satan fell. Normally, though, we think that that happened before there were any human beings created. And we think that because a serpent shows up in the garden of Eden. But let’s just talk this through for a second. We have examples in the Scriptures of what Satan or what the devil, what his work is about. And what he does is accuse in slander the true, he deceives. And we have pictures of Jesus being our advocate in heaven before the throne of God. In other words, Jesus shuts the accusations down. But it leads us to wonder if Satan is allowed to be in the presence of God in order to make these accusations. Is he allowed to move between heaven and earth, back and forth. And that kind of messes with our theology because if he’s the enemy of God, why would he be allowed in God’s presence and why would God listen anything he has to say? But there are many examples of this in the Bible. We could take the book of Job as a prime example of Satan being in the presence of God making accusations and God operating in his sovereignty over Satan. So, when we get to this war in heaven in today’s reading, it’s interesting because the battle happens and, of course, Satan is defeated along with all of his followers and they’re thrown out. But now they don’t get to come back. According to Revelation, after this happens, there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And, so, the great serpent was thrown down and his angels were thrown down with him and they were not allowed to go back. So, then, after that happens, a loud voice in heaven speaks these words, ‘now the salvation, power, kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah have come. The one accusing our brothers and sisters, the one accusing them day and night in the presence of our God has been thrown out’. Which would mean there’s no one to accuse God’s people anymore. So, that is beautiful and even exhilarating, but leaves us with a time problem. If what we’re seeing here is a vision of the very beginning of time, why are we finding that out in a book about the end of time? And what about all the subsequent references in the stories that came after the beginning of time about Satan accusing people before God and being able to move in and out of his presence? So, some would say, well, the crucifixion of Jesus, His resurrection, His work on the cross, that casts out Satan down for all time. And while others would say this is this is something that’s going to happen, but hasn’t yet happened. Which then leaves us with the same theological problems of, okay, so, Satan goes to the presence of God, he can move in and out of the presence of God and accuse us? So, I mean, you can do your own scholarship and come to your own conclusions because I don’t think it’s completely clear. Which is why I say often, in any given year of the Daily Audio Bible, we don’t know all we think we know. But I do think it’s somewhat compelling to think that this utter demise, this utter stamping out of evil in the world is something that is progressively happening. And we find out from the book of Revelation, in our reading today, that the ultimate victory here happens over Satan because of the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. And it makes us realize, we have been talking about the word of their testimony in literal terms and in figurative terms since the very beginning of this book. And whether it has already happened, whether it is progressively happening, or whether it is something that will happen, the day comes that there is no more accuser in the presence of God and evil is ultimately defeated because of the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. And, so, in the imagery Satan is cast down and he can’t go anywhere else. He’s cast down and he can’t get back to God to make accusation and he for reeks out. So, here’s how Revelation describes it. They won the victory over him because of the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life so much that they refused to give it up. Be glad for this reason, heavens, and those who live in them. So, it’s saying, be glad about this those of you who are heaven dwellers. But how horrible it is for the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to them with fierce anger, knowing that he has little time left. And, so, Satan, the serpent realizes he’s been thrown down to earth and freaks out. He goes after the woman who had given birth to the boy. So, like, depending on how you think this woman is, that will be your interpretation, but if the woman really does represent the people of God who are on the earth that would make sense. He has no one to accuse to anymore. And, so, he is just freaking out on God’s people, trying to destroy in rage and anger, which is where we ended our reading today. So, what’s challenging is piecing all this together in a linear fashion and then trying to date it and find all the signs that correspond to it and all this. This has been a problem all along. But the encouraging news is, in the end, there is no one to accuse us. In the end, the kingdom does come. In the end, yes, it causes a great unrest. But, in the end, we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word as we do every day and we thank You for all that You are speaking to us in spite of the complexities of the book of Revelation. And we thank You for everything You have spoken to us throughout this entire year. You are good. Your mercy endures forever. And in the end, there is no one to accuse us. And You have let us be a part of this story. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit to come continue to speak to us as we ponder and meditate on Your word. And come and guide us forward that our light might shine and our witness might overcome. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website…ah…should not be taking drink coffee when you trying to talk at the same time. Sorry about that, but I thought I deserved a little sip after all of that talking.
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Yesterday, we told you that we have launched the new web player. And that is part of rolling out this whole new system that the Global Campfire Initiative was all about. So, that’s in place and you can see it and use it by going to dailyaudiobible.com and just scrolling down to the second little box that says, you know, there’ll be a little box that talks about the app and the web player, just click web player. Boom! You’re in. And, as I mentioned yesterday, and as I will continue to mention as we roll out the app, when you go to the new web player, you’re going to immediately be greeted with a login screen. Now, you don’t have to login. You can click continue as a guest. No problem. However, if you login, and you have to login with your Daily Audio Bible account. So, like, if you’ve ever gotten anything from the Daily Audio Bible store or done anything on the Daily Audio Bible website before, you have one. Use that email and password that you set up. When you login then you can use everything, things that can be attached to your account. For example, it will check off the days that you listen to. And, ultimately, when the app gets out, it won’t matter whether you’ve listened on the app or the web player, whatever. It will be all across the platform. It will remember that you’ve listened to this day so you can see the days that you may have missed if you want to go back. That can’t happen unless there’s an account that it’s attached to. Or there’s a journal built into the new platform so that you can just type out some notes, some little things. If something in the Scriptures stood out to you, that you want to remember, you can journal it right within the web player or the app, but has to be attached to an account or there’s no place to put it. Or there’s a star, you’ll see a star in the new app and the new web player, that you can star days that you don’t want to forget, that you may want to go back and listen to another time. Well, to remember what you’ve stared specifically, it’s got to be attached to an account. So, by logging in, you unlock everything that it can do. And I’ll keep reminding everybody of that for a little bit. But the new web player is up and live and in the wild. So, be sure to check out. And the app is close on its heels and will update you as soon as I know anything.
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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 Prayer Requests and Praise Reports:
Good morning Daily Audio Bible people and community. This is Diane Olive B. calling from Newburg Indiana. And I’m speaking an praying over Lawrence. Shalom, Shalom Lawrence. I speak shalom shalom over you and over all of us who are dealing with sorrow and pain and suffering, even when things seem to be going good. And know that, Lawrence, I speak 2 Corinthians 4:7, that we here are on this earth with a treasure within us only earthen vessels so that the excellency of the power of God may be shown and know to be of Him and not of us. So, I’m learning something, that no matter what we face, no matter what we are going through, that we have a savior. We must guard our hearts above all else. For out of our hearts shows the issues of life. Shalom, shalom. Nothing missing and nothing is broken. And you ae healed. Embrace your healing, embrace your Savior, embrace your suffering to make you pure and holy. That is wisdom. That is glorious love the Father has for us. The Lord’s my Sheppard I’ll not want. He makes me down to lie in pastures green. He leadith me the …
Hello Daily Audio Bible family, this is Jay calling from New Jersey. Calling to pray for Greenwood Christian academy and all Christian academy’s that are out there that are struggling. Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, God we just praise You this morning, we lift You up, we magnify Your name, we bless the name of God this morning. And Father, we thank You for another day to just start or enjoy or end our day with the Daily Audio Bible, absorbing Your word into our hearts and our minds. And father, as we do this we just confess now before you and our family of any sins that we’ve committed knowingly or unknowingly. And Father, we pray and know of Your forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ. And Lord, we lift up Greenwood Christian Academy that is just struggling right now Father as they teach the next generation of believers of potential believers and they stand as a shining light of your grace and mercy in this world full of public schools and private schools that really want nothing to do with you Jesus. And Father we pray for Greenwood Christian Academy and we pray for financial blessing. Father we pray for longevity. We pray for Your will to be done for this school. We pray God that each and every teacher will have a job, each and every administrator and staff member will have a job Father. And we pray God for every other Christian Academy that is teaching children about Jesus Christ. We pray Father that You will continue to provide them what they needs financially and administratively and human capital. In the name of Jesus, Christ we pray. Amen.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family and campfire tenders. This is Nathan from Bloomington Illinois. I hope that everyone is having a joyous holiday. I know that some us don’t during this time because of certain things. But that’s just for another phone call. So, we’ve been dealing with Revelations and so many people get wrapped up in what’s this mean, what’s that mean, where am I at, where am I heading. You know, my church went through a revelation study and our senior pastor said, you know, there are several different ways we can look at revelation but the bottom line is, so what. So, I want you to reflect on where your heart is, not where Revelations is. Because we may never understand that. And Brian is doing and awesome job spelling it out for us. But the bottom line is, where’s our heart? Are we focused on what Jesus wants? Are we focused on the Christ, Jesus the Christ, who came to save us? And, if our heart is there, then it doesn’t matter were everything else lays because we are responsible for our own salvation and our, own destiny, and that’s for another call too, but, let’s not get wrapped up on what everything means. Although, focus on what Brian is telling us because there’s still a message there for us. Alright. So, I just want us to ponder this today. Hope everyone is having a great day. Have a great day. Make it a great day.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Jackie in St. Louis. I’m also known as __. I called a few weeks ago to ask for prayers for my sister Valerie. And I think all of those who did say hello to her __ listener and pray for her depression. I’d like to ask for prayers for her again. She is, besides being depressed, she is diabetic. And this week she developed a sore on one of her toes. And now that she’s been in the hospital a day or two they did a biopsy and they think there’s infection in the bone of this toe and that’s very serious. I would like everyone to pray for her. Again, her name is Valerie. I don’t know for sure yet what the plan of action is for her other than antibiotics for right now, but Please pray for her that she doesn’t have to have like an amputation or disabled from this. I’d also like to pray just for a minute for…I heard a mom…or the sister of a mom called in that wanted prayer for her autistic or Asperger’s son. I think they said that his name was Togo. I’m sorry if I don’t remember it clearly. I totally understand what you are going through there because I have a Asperger’s son as well. So, let’s pray for these moms as well. Dear heavenly Father, thank you for blessing us with the gift of children. I ask that You especially touch moms in our DAB family that have special needs children. Help the ones that have Asperger’s know that they would be able to know what to do and what is best for their children. We ask this in Your name. Amen.
This is my holiday greeting DAB family. I hope I didn’t procrastinate too long on this. Hey Brian and Jill and family, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you guys. Love you guys. I love this forum. It is so awesome. You are doing such a great thing here Brian. Words cannot express how I feel about this family and to everybody who calls in it feels like they’re brothers and sisters and you hear them calling in their requests and you pray with them and pray for them. It’s so awesome. Love you guys. Again, it’s Michael from Texas, Fort Worth Texas. Love you guys. Hope you guys have a great Christmas and happy birthday Jesus. Love you. Talk to you again. Bye.