01/17/2018 DAB Transcript

Genesis 35:1-36:43, Matthew 12:1-21, Psalms 15:1-5, Proverbs 3:21-26

Today is the 17th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is my pleasure, and a true honor to be here with you today. And I say that because, if you didn’t show up, what would be the point. I could just read this to myself, silently. So, I’m thankful and grateful that we have this time together to take the next step forward as we move our way further into the month of January, but further into the year in the Bible that we’re spending. So, we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. And today we’ll read Genesis chapter 35 and chapter 36.

Commentary:

Okay. So, Jesus has himself in a bit of hot water with the Pharisees. And it’s kind of unfolding exactly like Jesus was telling His disciples when He sent them out. Jesus is going out into the countryside and doing good, doing God’s work, announcing the kingdom, and even demonstrating the effects of the kingdom. But in the process of doing all of that He’s also, in some ways, breaking with tradition. And He’s also being suspected of blasphemy, which is a capital offense. They think He’s doing this because He’s announcing that He can forgive sins. But He’s breaking with other traditions as well. And in today’s reading we see that He’s breaking tradition with the Sabbath. So, His disciples were walking through a field and they’re getting some grain and there eating the grain and this is work. This is what the religious establishment has decided is work. And, so, they’re breaking the Sabbath. And Jesus defends this by simply opening the Scriptures to them. But then He’s put in a situation where He may heal on the Sabbath and this has also been determined to be work. And, so He does heal this man’s hand after He opens the Scriptures again and shows, like, He’s showing them why He’s doing what He’s doing. He’s reinterpreting the tradition that they have been bound to. He’s bringing light and life and health and healing, and all that’s happening is that they’re getting mad because He did it on the Sabbath. And Jesus declares Himself Lord over the Sabbath. And they decide then, in response, to try to figure out a way to kill Him, which invites us to consider our response when God begins to move counterintuitively in our lives, in a way that breaks with our tradition, in a way that we may not understand. Do we go back to the box and say oh well, God can’t or would not be involved in that, because that does, that just works against my little tidy box of understanding? When we think about it in those terms, we understand just how much like the Pharisees we can become. But why do we do that? I mean, why do we protect the box? It’s because we don’t want to get it wrong, like we’re actually coming from a good place. We don’t want to get it wrong. And, so, the question becomes, well, what does a person look like who’s getting it right? What does that look like?

Thankfully, we have the writings of the ancient King David in Psalm chapter 15 today, where we get that definition. Who may worship in Your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter Your presence on Your holy hill? Right? What does the person who is getting this right look like? We have an answer. Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. Those who despise flagrant sinners in honor of the faithful followers of the Lord and keep their promises, even when it hurts. Those who lend money without charging interest. Right? In other words, those who don’t take advantage. And those who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into this. We can see clearly that You will shake us up and disrupt us in whatever way that You want to in Your word and cause us to think more deeply about things that we had set in concrete. And, so, that’s disruptive in and of itself because it makes us ask questions that we weren’t anticipating. And this is good. And we invite You into all of it. We invite You to churn inside of us, bringing up things inside of us, reframing what we think that we know, because we can’t know You by knowing about You and we can’t know You by following recipes or traditions. We can only know You by knowing You. And we see in the Psalms what that looks like. So, we invite you into these things. Come, Holy Spirit, draw us ever closer in relationship to You. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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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 and Praise:

Hi. This is Gloria in New York. It is January 12th, Friday. And…I’m actually…I just heard a message, I don’t think you left your name, but I really appreciated the message. A thick British accent, very nice, about being backed in a corner and just God just wanting us to trust Him to get us out. And thank you for that prayer and that message. I am going back to Nevada on Monday. My mom has gotten worse. I wanted to give everyone an update because I know that there are people who are praying and I ask you to continue to pray. The reason I want to keep updating on the situations - my brother, my brother, my husband, and that pending divorce. Everything is so in limbo. Like everything, everything is in limbo. I wanted to give the update because I feel like when something breaks that we can rejoice together, like when you guys call up and give praise reports. It’s just…it’s so nice. It’s interesting when you’re listening to the podcast, it’s like you’re, oh, that was good, and then, awe, you know, you’re just…we’re going through all of our motions together as a family, everybody out there across the world. But anyway, I feel like, you know, it’s so bad right now. Tying this altogether, the message that you left, young lady, it was, yeah, I don’t know what I’m going do, I’m still so lost in all this legal stuff with my mom and she’s really not doing well. I’ve got a trust God with everything. But I feel like something…just…something has to break on some end soon, because I can’t break. So, yeah, just please continue to pray for us, for my family. Thank you. God bless you all.

All is well. I am Daniel and I share this prayer with all of my brothers and sisters listening. Father, we praise You and thank You for our Daily Audio Bible family and all those You bring onto our paths that You have already made best for us. All according to Your purpose. Father, thank You for making each one of us a masterpiece, one-of-a-kind by Your hand. Father, You have us at the right place at the right time according to Your perfect will, not our will, in Your timetable, Father, not our timetable. You are the living word and we give praise to You living inside of us. In all ways, we seek You this moment. Thank You Father that You said we are vessels, a vessel of gold used in Your highest purpose. Praise You for shaping making and molding us into the example of whose we are, a child of the most high God and You are our Father. We pray to the everlasting God. Father, You said, we have made in Your image. You said to us in Your word, I am that I am. We are blessed indeed. Father, You said, I shall lend to not borrow, that all things work together for good to those who love You for those who are called according to Your purpose, and that the wonders shall not cease, and that You will not, will not, will not fail us. Father we thank You for this day and all the long days You have promised according to Your perfect will. We are fully armored moving forward on the path You have made best for us, overflowing with the promise of Your word, more than enough abundant good, more than we can think and imagine already on our path, moving forward Father preparing us to reach that point You have in place on our paths, lifting us higher, fulfilling our purpose, reaching the destiny You framed our lives in, while we choose Your perfect will, not our will, glorifying Your name and furthering Your kingdom. In Jesus name. Amen.

Hi my Daily Audio Bible family. It’s God’s Girl in East Texas. I was listening to the January 13th podcast and a lady called in requesting prayer for her son who committed suicide on December 10th. And I just thought, oh my gosh, you know, there’s just so much pain in this life and our God, our God is there with us. I was married to a minister at one time and he nearly strangled me to death and he used to beat me a lot and then get in the pulpit and preach. I’m not telling you that for pity, but if I could write a book my book would be entitled ‘No Fear.’ And God has brought me oh mighty long way. I’m the lady with the son who’s had 7 brain surgeries. Why do these things happen? You know, God has the answers. All we can do is pray. And that’s what I do for each of you. My heart goes out to you ma’am, the lady whose son took his life. And I don’t know, I don’t have the answers, but Jesus does. And when we’re going through these things…we seem…we feel so isolated and alone, but were not. It’s just that lie of the enemy trying to make us feel like nobody cares. And Eunice, Eunice, are you’re listening to me honey, I am praying for you, I rebuke cancer in the name of Jesus. I love my Daily Audio Bible family. The Lord bless each and every one of you, and remember that Jesus is as close as the mention of His name. Take care and happy new year guys. Okay. I love you. Bye-bye.

Hi. My name is Sherry. I’m from Colorado. There’s so much going on in my mind and in my life right now. I am on a 10 day fast and it seems like the devil is just purely attacking everything, my thoughts. I work a job as a social worker that has been challenging. I am into the 24th year of my career and it is so difficult to display love and to let my life shine as a child of God, because it seems like I’m just daily, being attacked daily, when I walk into that door until sometimes I just feel like I don’t even want to go. And I pray to God all the time, in March 2019 to please release me from his job, because I can’t do it anymore. It is affected by health and each time I get up I’m thinking of how much I don’t want to go to that job. So I just ask for prayer and guidance. I ask for clarity during my fast. This is my first time I’ve done a 10 day fast. So, it is a struggle, but I know that God is able and I know that I am able to get through this with his help. It’s 2 o’clock in the morning and I can’t sleep. And, so, I know when you can sleep it’s time to talk to God. Daily Audio Bible this is my first time calling and I feel such relief. I listen to the prayers all the time. I have made a commitment that this time, the third time, I will try and listen to the whole thing. I often fall behind and miss out all the way to Revelation, but I’m determined this year. Love you all. Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is John calling from Bethlehem Pennsylvania. It is the 13th of January, and I just got through listening to this day’s program. I wanted to call in to say hi to Vicki, who called in and left a prayer request for her family, Vicki, over the tragic death of your son, who took his life back on December 10th. Family let’s pray together for Vicki. Father God, we ask You to provide comfort and strength and healing during this time of excruciating pain and grief for Vicki and her family, Father God. Lord God we ask You to have mercy on her sons soul, who took his life Father God. These are things that we just can’t get our arms around Father and we just can understand but we have complete faith and we have complete trust in You. We trust You father God. In everything that we do we ask you to bring strength and courage and peace to Vicki and her family and all those impacted by this tragedy, Father God. We ask you to bring this community together in love around Vicki, so that she knows that this family is there for her in her time of need and that we will be there for her as we continue. Father God, help her to grow in faith and to be strong in this and to keep looking at You Jesus. We ask this in your mighty and precious name. Amen.