Numbers 11:24-13:33, Mark 14:22-52, Psalms 52:1-9, Proverbs 11:1-3
Today is March 9th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today and every day as we continue to step forward. And now look at us, we’re in the third month of the year already and approaching the middle of that month. I guess I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but step-by-step, day by day, we’re making our way well into the Scriptures. And, so we’ll take the next step forward. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. And we’ll step back out into the desert with the children of Israel as they are being formed and shaped by the desert and by God’s provision in the desert. Numbers chapter 11 verse 24 through 13 verse 33 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Mark we’re moving toward Jesus passion, right? The crucifixion. And, you know, this is the right time of year to be contemplating this, deeply, as we move toward Easter. So, what we see today is Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Man, it was just, you know, a few days ago we were in the garden of Gethsemane in person. And Gethsemane is on the Mount of olives. The Mount of Olives is a big hill that’s just outside the old city of Jerusalem. So, there’s a valley between the Mount of Olives in the in the old city and that’s called the Kedron Valley. And, so, Jesus would’ve crossed across the Kedron Valley and up into the groves of olives to pray. And it’s here that we see Jesus humanity on display so clearly because He knows what’s in front of Him. And that is not that is not easy to contemplate. I mean, it’s not easy for us to contemplate what He went through on our behalf. So, if we put ourselves in His shoes, imagine how exponentially greater the torture in mind and spirit would be to understand what’s about to happen to you physically. And, so, as Jesus is contemplating what’s in front of Him, what does He do? He goes to His Father. He’s talking with His Father. And even Jesus is saying, is there any other way, is there any other way to get this done? Everything is possible for You. Take this cup from me. Yet, it’s not my will, I’m submitting to yours. But we’ve with prayed prayers like that. Everything is possible for You. Can You make this go away? Can You find another way? We’ve prayed these prayers. It’s important that we can see Jesus in the same circumstance. He’s praying the same kind of prayer and He keeps going back to His close friends who keep falling asleep, right? So, he’s with the Father and He’s crying out to the Father and then He’s going back to His friends for, maybe, some support and they’re sleeping and Jesus says something very, very interesting, something that He’s experiencing, something that should give us an awareness that God truly does understand the things that we go through. Because He comes back and wakes up His friends, shakes Peter awake and says, couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. So,, this is something that Jesus…those are the words of Jesus. So, this is something that He is acknowledging and something that He is even sensing and feeling in this moment. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We could all say that. And rather than bashing us in the Scriptures for like, you know, you’ve got to get your act together, Jesus is acknowledging that’s true. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. So, what is the antidote there? What is the equalizer? It’s what Jesus said just before that. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. This is exactly what we were talking about just a couple of days ago - vigilance from deception. How does temptation even have its way with us if we are not first seduced? The thing that we’re about to give ourselves to is going to bring us life. We’re going to exchange ourselves for something that’s going to bring us life. It’s deception. So, Jesus is saying watch. That’s what He said when we were talking about this. Watch, be vigilant, and pray. Communicate, stay in fellowship with God. This is the only way to navigate life without getting taken out by deception, temptation, and a great fall. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And what we see in the Scriptures from Mark today is that Jesus walked through that. He understands that. He knows what we go through and it will be our vigilance and a close conversational relationship with God that will be necessary in order for us to successfully navigate the things that we face. But it will be vigilance and a close conversational relationship with God that will be the only thing that helps us successfully navigate through the rest of our lives. So, even at this agonizing hour of mental and spiritual torment for Jesus He is still giving us wisdom. He is still modeling for us what our lives can be.
Prayer:
And, so, Jesus, as you well know, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak at times. And we confess that watching and praying isn’t usually what we do in the moments of temptation. We’re already too far gone. However, being vigilant over our hearts, knowing that this is the wellspring of our lives, in a close, intimate friendship fellowship with You, we acknowledge this is how You successfully navigated things that we will never have to go through, and this is a model for how it is that we navigate in advance and stay vigilant in advance before these things can take us out. So, as we continue through this season of contemplating the order of our lives, opening ourselves to Your Holy Spirit to re-order our lives and even reinterpret our lives, we realign ourselves with You. We watch, we become vigilant, we become very, very aware of Your Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. We ask You, rescue us, come for us. Father love You. We worship You. We trust You. We open our mind to You. We open our heart to You. We give our bodies to You. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I am Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Hello fellow DABbers. This is Joanne Marie. Today is March 5th and I’d like to say thank you to Jill for filling in today. You did a great job. A word of encouragement from Psalm 138. I’m changing the pronouns from I and me to us and we. And hopefully I will get a correct this time. We will praise You oh Lord with all our heart before the gods we will sing Your praise. We will bow toward Your holy temple and will praise Your name for Your love and Your faithfulness for You are exalted above all things, Your name and Your word. When we called You answered us, You made us bold and stouthearted. May all the kings of the earth praise You oh Lord and __ You the words of their mouth. Though they are saying the ways of the Lord for the glory of the Lord is great. Though the Lord is on high, He looks upon the lowly, but the proud He knows from afar. Though we walk in the midst of trouble You preserve our life. You stretch out Your hand against the anger of our foes, with Your right hand You save us. The Lord will fulfill His purpose for us. Your love the Lord endures forever. Do not abandon the works of Your hand. And again, that was Psalm 138. Have a fabulous day everyone. God bless You. Chow.
Hi. I am Elizabeth. I live just 30 miles from the Canadian border. And Nora, you called and gave a message March 5th that you’re a brand-new Christian of just three weeks and you were afraid that if you sinned or something that God will leave you. I have some Scripture for you if you could write them down. If you should sin swear whatever you are afraid Jesus would leave you. If you go to 1 John 1:9, Jesus is an advocate to the Father because it says, if you forgive your sins, if you live faithful and right He’ll forgive you from all unrighteousness. And in Hebrews 13:5 He said He would never leave you nor forsake you. In Romans 8:31-39, there’s nothing that can ever separate you from the love of God. The only way that God would ever leave you is if you left Him because He’ll never leave you. The Holy Spirit will always be with you and will continue to help you to grow in your Christian life. I’m so happy for you and God bless you. Don’t ever fear, God will never leave you. Just remember 1 John 1:9. God bless you and may you have a wonderful journey. And thank you for this podcast. It is such a blessing. This is my second year. My name is Elizabeth. God bless.
Family, it’s Redeemed in Him from Virginia and I am calling because I heard Nora’s call, I think your name was Nora from Canada. You’re a new believer and I just wanted to tell you how happy I was to hear your tears of joy and peace. And I know that you were worried and asking that if you do something wrong will Jesus leave you. And the answer is no. Jesus will never leave you and He will never forsake you. He will never turn you away. Even when we’ve sinned there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So, as a believer that’s you, that’s you and me. I just wanted to encourage you to read John 17 because this is Jesus prayer for us. And also, Romans 5 because, actually the whole book of Romans, but Romans 5 really just helps me grow in the Lord. And Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to guide you and that consciousness within us that calls things in or out. So, if you feel you’re doing something wrong then just ask God immediately to forgive you and try to stop whatever it is. And even if you can’t just ask Jesus to rescue you from it and help you with and he will.
Hello Jordan, this is Ruth calling from Arkansas. Jordan the prodigal. I don’t want to call you the prodigal Jordan because I call you Jordan the redeemed and I want to read these words to this song called Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim It. Redeemed by the blood of the lamb. See you’ve been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed through His infinite mercy. He had mercy on you as well is me His child and forever I am. And the chorus goes, redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb redeemed, redeemed, redeemed His child and forever I am. You are his child. Everything you’ve done in the past He has forgiven you. It’s all of the blood of Jesus. So, don’t call yourself John the prodigal. Don’t call yourself John the prodigal, call yourself John the redeemed. He redeemed us. And Easter’s coming soon and the celebration of Jesus rising from the dead, from the coffin, laid in the grave for three days and He rose from the coffin. He lives, He lives, He lives, He lives in our heart. He doesn’t live in a sinner’s heart. He lives in our heart the ones who are redeemed. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We’ve all been sinners but we’re not sinners in anymore. We are called the redeemed. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Say so. I’m redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and so are you. I love you John. Now remember you’re not John prodigal any longer. Okay. This is Ruth calling from Arkansas. And I will be checking on you again soon. In the meantime, I’m praying for you. Love you.
Hello. Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Jay calling from New Jersey. I just wanted to call today to be transparent, to be truthful, to be honest, to be clear. Last night I had a revelation. And it wasn’t anything profound. It wasn’t anything like God came and spoke to me, you know, like there was an angel in my room or anything like that, but what it was was a new understanding of what it means to follow Christ. See in the past I thought that following Christ was a delicate balance of going to church and pretending that you read the Bible and knowing how to have a debate with somebody who wasn’t Christian or even a Christian whose theology was not systematic, as Jill said today. You know, and my revelation last night was following Christ is not about following rules or putting on a show or being the best prayer or even doing the most in the kingdom of God. What it’s about is being obedient to the things of God. Being obedient to the teachings of Christ. Being obedient to the Holy Spirit. Being obedient to the word of God. Now, I admit this is a difficult thing to do because I sit here and I constantly beat myself up and get in really, really, really deep depressing moods over the fact that I was not a very good person, but the word of God tells us that Jesus said it himself, no man is good…