Month: March 2018

Numbers 6:1-7:89, Mark 12:38-13:13, Psalms 49:1-20, Proverbs 10:27-28

Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Jill. I’m Brian’s wife. And Brian is taking the day off again today for a day of rest, post his Israel trip and I’m sure you guys know, but I’m his wife and I can attest that the man works hard. So, a couple of days of rest is just what is in need. So, I’m here with you today. Brian will be back tomorrow. And, as we do every day, we’re here to center ourselves around the living, breathing word of God. Today we’re continuing in the New International Version. And starting in the Old Testament we’re reading Numbers chapter 6, reading through chapter 7.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You that Your word is life. Sometimes we hear words and fear is the emotion that sweeps in. Fearful of the warning signs. But we’re reminded today in Your Word that You said to not be alarmed. To fear not. That these are the signs, the beginning of birth pains. And we know that in birthing, the labor pains usually means that there is a great reward coming at the end of laboring and feeling the pain and enduring. And You said that You have overcome the world. So, we thank You God that You are the final outcome in all of this. And, so, help us Lord to not fear to not be alarmed. To stay focused. To fix our gaze and set our affections on You. Lead us. Guide us. Counsel us, Holy Spirit, as only You can do. And let us be a beacon of hope in a world that needs so much hope. A world that is devoid of hope makes the heart sick, but a hope fulfilled is a tree of life and You are life. Life more abundantly, life everlasting. So, our hope today is fixed on the risen Christ. And we love You and we thank You that You are the life, You are the truth, You are the way. Fill us with Your hope today, God, a renewed hope, a renewed sense of hope as we stand on the promise that if You are for us, who can be against us? In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Announcements:

You guys, listen. So, because we love you so much and because I want every woman that possibly wants to be able to come to More Gathering 2018, we’re going to offer for today only, today only on this 6th day of March, we are going to offer one last discount. If you haven’t registered and you are hoping to but just need a little bit of help, today is your social day. We’re offering one last discount code and it’s $50 off of registration. So, if you go to moregathering.com and register, at the end it will say promotional code and you just type in IWANTMORE. All in caps, no spaces. IWANTMORE and you’ll get $50 off of registration for today only. This is the last time before the conference that we are going to be offering any sort of discount. So just praying about it and sensing that there are some people that would really like to go but just can’t afford it and even though we do everything we can to keep costs down, it’s a long weekend there’s still expenses.

And let me just say this last thing to the ladies that are coming, that are registered to come and for those that might be coming, thinking about for your first time. You are going to have to fight to get there. And some of you might not quite understand the fullness of that yet. And some of you may have already experienced that.

Last year, one of the team members, Bonnie, who is on our board, who is one of my team members of More, had a very strong sense from the Lord that it was going to be hard to get there. And we’ve experienced hard things getting in, but after seven years, kind of felt like we had it down. And, so, we knew hard and we didn’t know…we heard the word hard and we didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I felt so privileged afterwards that the Lord warned us that it was going to be hard to get there. So, we get there a night early so that our team can get settled and set up and be prepared. And it wasn’t until we got to the camp that we realized there were really bad storms. In fact, people were texting us asking us if we were okay and we didn’t even know what was going on. Later to find out there were just major tornado warnings, which shut down an entire hub of the Atlanta International Airport. Like, shut it down. There were planes not coming in and not going. And there were thirty women that missed the conference because they could not get out. And some of them, like they’re calling Greyhound, they’re thinking about renting a car but there were no cars to rent. It was kind of mayhem. And it was hard. It was hard shuffling through that and those women realized in that moment, I’m going to have to fight to get there. And just like warring for our hearts, sometimes there’s casualties of war. Some of them didn’t make it. And some of them fought through. We had women still arriving on Saturday. The conference ended on Sunday. But they knew the desperation of them getting there. Just like the woman in Luke. She knew her need and she needed to get to the hem of Jesus. And, so, it might not be that hard this year for you to get there, but I’m telling you, when you register, you’re going to have to fight through to get there. You’re going to have to fight sickness, you’re going to have to fight attacks on your family, your kids, your husband, your spouse, your dog. It happens every year. So, if you have determined in your mind and in your bank account and in registration to sign up and have signed up, you’re going to have to fight opposition to get there. And you do not fight alone. Our team is praying for you, we are covering you, we have a specific team of intercessors just praying for you to get there, a team of intercessors praying for you while you’re on campus, and a team of intercessors that are praying for you when you go home. We take it that seriously and we ask that you do too. But do not fear, for He has overcome the world. But you’re going to have to fight. I think with the gathering being less than a month away, that is the most important thing that I can say to you is, fight to get there. And get there. Just get there and watch Jesus show up for you. But get there. So, last thing I’m going to say, enjoy the $50 code off of registration today. IWANTMORE. all in caps, no spaces at checkout. And I look forward to those hugs in April, meeting you face to face, laughing with you, crying with you, and being with you.

Okay the website, dailyaudiobible.com. That’s home base.  Everything you want to know, it’s there. And also, we are very active on social media - Facebook, Instagram, all of that good stuff. For those women who don’t know about the community on Facebook, there is a community for women - Daily Audio Bible Women. And then there is a separate Facebook page for More Gathering and if you are registered to go I would highly recommend you go over to that page and like it and just keep checking back. Some of you need rides, shared rides, hotels coming in the night before. There are always women looking to reach out with other women, sharing fears about coming. That is your place to connect with other women and look for other announcements. We like to get you familiar with the worship sets that we sing and offer at More Gathering, so we will put links to worship songs there and other great things. So check that out.

That’s it for me today. I love you. Brian will be back tomorrow. Brian loves you. And until then, love one another.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey Brian. My name is Jeff. I’m calling from Syracuse New York and it’s just absolutely wonderful to be part of your program and be involved in this community with my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Brian, I’ve been listening for about three years now. I adore your program. I love the fact that you say ‘I’m Brian and I love you’ after every podcast. That’s just something that draws me. I just sense the Spirit of Christ in your ministry. I support it financially and I would encourage everyone to do the same thing. It’s truly more a blessing to give than to receive. But Brian I’m calling today, I have a very, very serious concern. My dear life of almost 30 years has got ovarian cancer. It’s horribly destructive. It’s a very rare kind of ovarian cancer. She’s been battling it for a year and things just aren’t going well. We had a recent scan. She’s had a couple different surgeries and lots of chemo and had a recent scan at it was just horrifying. I’ve been doing a lot of projecting, a lot of fears. I don’t want to be single again. I love my wife. She directs an agency, a pregnancy center, an adoption agency nearby, and she just adores the Lord. She just loves our Lord, our heavenly Father. So, I just ask all the beautiful people that listen to this program if they would lift my wife Monica up, take her right before the throne. I love you Brian. I love you this program. God bless you guys. Bye-bye.

Hi brothers and sisters with the Daily Audio Bible. I am calling today regarding Greg S. He called whenever he had a crisis come up in 2014 and he said now he has another one and it has stimulated what he stated to be, maybe, an issue with anxiety and depression because he lost his job. Well brother, we are all praying for you. Keep your head up. Keep moving forward. We understand that you may be the only breadwinner. And, so, you are out there every day trying to get another job, trying to do what you can to take care of your family. We can understand that you’re doing the best that you can. And just keep everyone in the loop and let your family know that you love them. And that’s the best that you can do right now. Just keep going. Do every odd job you can, which I’m sure you are. I don’t know where it is that you work. Some places have more job opportunities than others. So, we are all praying that you are able to replace your job with something even better than what you had before so that it gives you a smile in the workplace. And in Jesus’ name we give you this. Amen.

Hello my name is Betty. I’m from Alabama. I’m a first-time caller. I just felt led by the Lord to call and say a couple of things that  maybe will help somebody out there. I just wanted to say that I was reading Corrie Ten Boom and she’s a wonderful offer if you ever get a chance to read her. But she was talking about to her father about why the Lord had not answered a prayer that she had asked of Him. And her father said to her, Corrie when you are going on the train do I give you your train ticket a month in advance or do I give you the train ticket on the day that you need it? And Corey said, of course, the day that I need it. Just like that our Father in heaven answers our prayers. And He answers our prayers on the day that we need it. We have to remember too when praying that there are always three answers to prayer that the Lord gives us. A definite no because an answer to that prayer could destroy us in some way. He says maybe. He never says maybe. He says a definite no or yes, he answers that. Or he might say wait. Wait until all the circumstances of your life or the circumstances that He has to work out are provided. So, don’t be discouraged when you pray. God does answer. He loves you. And He will answer in His time. And it will be a beautiful thing. Thank you.

There’s a powerful witness right here in this place
It’s the light of God’s love all over my face
All those who see me they ask me what’s up
It’s the presence of God that’s filling my cup
Love overflowing in rivers and streams
Causing reflections visions and dreams
Dreams of the future reflections of the past
Visions in fulfillment of all that I ask
It could be a gesture a word or touch
Something so small can accomplish so much
because it comes from You Father up in heaven above
filling me with mercy wisdom and love
helping me to be a blessing today
to all those my Father whom you send my way
someone who’s hurting someone in need
yet all are desiring to somehow be freed
so help us be patient and to do things Your way
help me dear Lord to have the right words to say
someone’s confused about what they heard
longing for the truth that comes only from Your word
there’s a powerful witness right here in this place
it’s the light of Your love all over my face

blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Annette A. and Asia, baby G, and also to Sherlock W. and his wife. Know that you are all in my prayers every day. And thank you once again Brian and the Hardin family for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Victoria S. Just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I’ve been listening to Brian as he’s in Israel and he’s been having a wonderful time. And I just thank God for and praying for him and that they’re all safe. I wanted to pray for the gentleman who said that he was a Christian and he and his wife both are Christians but they are living like roommates. And I really want to pray for that marriage because the enemy is trying to take away the jewel that they have in their marriage. But God says…what God has put together no man take asunder. So, I’m praying with you my brother and I just wanted to let you know that I’m praying for you and I’m going to pray for you in a minute. I’m sorry I didn’t get your name…but it was kind of faded when I was there. I want to pray….oh…your name is Phil. I like that name. Very strong name. I’ll want to also pray for the teacher in LA…and he was saying. I want to pray for Valerie as she was talking about the other person who is from Indiana. I’m also praying for you my brother. You stay strong that God is faithful. Hold on. Don’t let go. Remember God told Paul when they were on the boat, He said if everybody stayed on the boat He promised them a safe landing. Stay on the boat. Don’t get off. I want to also pray for Greg. Greg called in as him and his family is going through…and he lose his job, that God is ready to do something great for Greg. And He’s getting ready to do something great for all the other DABbers. And we just holding on to see the salvation of the Lord. Gracious Father we come before You today. Lord lifting You up in thanking You for being such a wonderful and awesome and mighty God. Lord we don’t understand that sometimes we are in a storm and we are in the storm and we are all in Your will God. But you want to show us something. You want to strengthen us. You want to show us how great You are and the great thing that You can do. And Lord you want us to…

Good morning DAB family. Thank you so much for every one of you. I just wanted to call and give glory to that because I think this is going to be my fourth year and I can tell you what a life-changing experience that’s had. It’s just…I’ve always been a church, always reads my Bible, but just the way that Brian reads it and the way he explains it, it just brings it to life. I just…I don’t know how else to say it. So, I just wanted to say that I pray…I always love to stay at the end of the prayers and just pray. Oh, I forgot to say my name is Rosie. I’m calling from Queens New York. And I just wanted to thank you. Bless each and everyone of you. Christine, back it was on January 8^th, she called in for her stomach. And needless to say I was going to the same thing. You know I’m taking antibiotics right now __. And, you know, __ things in my stomach…and…you know…have a brother who has liver problems. And, you know, we have been focusing on him because it was really a touch and go situation. And with family it’s so distant __ . So, not of God. But you what? Doing better than the rest of us __ staying in the hospital. My niece __ Paula was delivered and that’s a blessing, you know, from every care. Her __. And she’s been go good. She’s looking for God and so hungry for him. And now I don’t…you know…from our family…we don’t walk alone. It’s the three of us. So, I don’t care what we anyone of us is going though. Know that God is in control. I don’t care what the doctors tell me. I know God is in control. My brother would be healed because is a man of God. He has a heart of David.

Numbers 4:1-5:31, Mark 12:18-37, Psalms 48:1-14, Proverbs 10:26

Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am not Brian. I am Jill, Brian’s wife. It is an honor, as Brian always says, but it is. It’s truly an honor to be here with you today on the 5^th day of March. The crew is back from Israel. Brian is resting and I think that even God Himself took a day of rest after creation to look back and call it good. So, Mr. Hardin is resting today. And man, is it good to be together. So, I’ve got my coffee, got my Wind Farm coffee and my favorite More mug and Jesus is here. So, let’s read the word together in the New International Version continuing this week. Starting in Numbers 4, reading through Numbers 5.

Commentary:

You know, every time I come to the gospels and I re-read this passage of the greatest commandment, I just kind of sit with it and I just kind of reflect at the simplicity of the message, that the greatest commandment…Jesus himself answers the greatest commandment…the greatest thing that you can do, is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. And I can’t help but wonder what it would look like if we could really, truly focus on loving our Lord God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If that became our pursuit, if that became our main objective for the day, if we could, perhaps, lay aside arguing systematic theology, if we could forget about political differences, if we could stop thinking about how we’re going to get back at the people that hurt us and wronged us, if we stop focusing on what we don’t have or what we didn’t get, and if we just simply focused on loving the Lord our God with all that we are capable of doing. And then the second commandment is simply, love your neighbor as yourself. And this one always gets me because I look around where we live and I don’t know some of my neighbors. I know some really well and some I couldn’t even tell you who lived there. And I don’t know if this means the literal sense like your neighbors, but maybe it does. Maybe if we could love them the way that we loved ourselves, which then further complicates it because how many of us can say we truly love ourselves without holding ourselves in self-contempt? But this would mean that there’s no room for self-hatred. Ladies, this means that we cannot despise our bodies and love ourselves. We can’t live in a constant state of past regrets. We have to apply a forgiveness of Christ to ourselves, love ourselves first so that we could love our neighbors. Man, we could complicate it, can’t we? But if we just come back to the basics, if we just take Jesus at His word of begging the question that is already presented to Him in the gospels in saying, God, with all of the things, with all of the things in Your Word, the ones that we don’t know which ones apply and which ones do apply, but what is the one that You would say matters the most? What do we need to work on to get this right? And it boils down to love me, love your neighbor, love yourself. Love the ones you know, love the ones you don’t know, love the ones you disagree with as much as the ones you agree with.

Prayer:

So, Jesus, as this community of people who long for something more that return to Your word every single day, would You show us what it looks like to love You with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind and our whole strength? Would You deepen and widen our capacity? Would You show us what it looks like to love our neighbor as ourselves? Would You teach us with looking in the mirror and learning to love ourselves, knowing that we’re not the same person we were yesterday and we are not quite yet who we are fully becoming to be, that we could extend Your forgiveness to the places of our hearts and our lives that we need to forgive ourselves? Would You let regret propel us to repentance? And repentance is where true change can come in and the work of the Holy Spirit can begin and reform our hearts, renew our mind. You are love and You are a loving God. And it is Your perfect love that casts out fear. So, Father, we need Your perfect love and we want to extend it to a world in need and we want to extend it to ourselves. We want to extend it to our neighbors. Would You help us simply do just that? I thank You for this community, who loves each other so beautifully, so well. I pray that every single one of them would know the love of their Father, a reckless love today, every day, tomorrow, in the night. And as we feel loved, Father, would it spill over and flow out and be reciprocated to everyone we come in contact with. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Announcements:

So, I have the mic. I guess I get to talk about whatever I want to. And boy, I could talk about a lot of things. But I want to talk about what I’m most passionate about and obviously that is the More Gathering that’s coming up, in gosh, just a little over a month.

You know, every year I say that I am even more excited, which once you have a word of reference, like a word like More, you just start…you just start like becoming so aware of its content. So, I don’t mean to be

pun-ny, but I am more excited every year. And every year we pray, are we supposed to even do this? Does it look the same as last year? Does it look different? That the team, you know, is the team going to change? And I ask them to pray, are you supposed to be involved? And every year the changes are pretty much made known before we ever leave the camp for the year that we’re doing. I pretty much get a sense of the change for going ahead the next year. And just some minor changes, some major changes, but every year I get more and more sense of responsibility. And what I mean by that is the weight that this carries. That this isn’t just how many women we can get to show up so that they can have a beautiful time away on the mountain and get served beautiful hot delicious food and have unmatched scenery and make these beautiful lasting friendships with perfect strangers that live across the country but might become the most treasured friendships that you have in your life. And there’s nothing wrong with all of those things. Those are beautiful things. But the weight of responsibility that I’m feeling is…is the sacredness of what Jesus intends to do in the hearts of women that come. So, I can’t look at it as another woman’s name on a registration sheet of someone that I may or may have not met yet, but I’m feeling the weight behind it of this is a woman with a story. And every woman has a story. And, unfortunately, every story is laced with pain and suffering. And sometimes we just get tripped up by the pain and the suffering and we just can no longer live from a place of life and life more abundantly. It just becomes existence. It just becomes daily maintenance and that is no way to live for anybody. And, so, I feel the weight of that story behind the woman. And I'm…like I’m already getting stories of what women are coming and facing and leaving behind. And I’m overwhelmed sometimes. I am most humbled where I can just sit at the feet of Jesus and wash His feet with my tears, that we get a first-hand view of the healing that takes place, of the purpose that He speaks to these women of a story of nothing is wasted. I waste nothing and I will redeem everything if you let me. In my way, in my time, not yours, which is so hard for us to do. But, I mean, I could go on and on and on, but that’s it in a nutshell. This is where I have boiled away all of what More Gathering is. And this is the content. This is it in a nutshell on my silver platter that I bring and say, if you are after more in a sense of life is not over. Life is not over. Your worst days are not in front of you. Your worst days are behind you and your best days are yet to come. Because Jesus who comes to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free, that makes all things new can make all things new, including you. And, so, I’m excited about More Gathering 2018. That’s all I’m going to say. There’s still time to register and we so hope that you do. My team and I meet monthly and we are praying specifically for every heart that is supposed to be there, that every heart would be open and receptive to the more that Jesus has for you. So, there’s still time to register, moregathering.com. Unfortunately, all of our deluxe rooms are sold out. They sell fast. There’s usually a waiting list, but we do have some other options for you as well. And, of course, if you have any questions, you can email me - jill@dailyaudiobible.com and I’ll be happy to answer any of your questions.

Okay, I’m going to get out of here for today. I’ll be back with you tomorrow, one more day as Brian rests, rejuvenates, because you know what? We are people that are horrible at resting. I think just as a society as a whole life has gotten so fast that we are terrible at resting. And then you have somebody like Brian, whose mind never turns off. And, so, he can’t sit still and he’s got to be doing stuff, but this is so good for him, to just relax. Because you know what? Restoration can only happen when we rest. Rest is the root word of restoration. There’s a reason for it. We must rest to be restored. And, so, we’re praying sweet restoration, rejuvenation to every cell of his body, mind, and soul, and spirit as he rests.

If you have a prayer request, the number is 877-942-4253. That is in the USA. And if you are calling, obviously from a different country, we love that, but those numbers are listed, I believe, on the website. The website is www.dailyaudiobible.com.

Okay, that’s it. I really need to be done. This is me peace-ing out. I will be back with you tomorrow. Until then, love one another.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi I’m Borrowed Wisdom. Heavenly Father I pray thee for Brian well he’s out on his mission. I ask You Holy Father God in the name of Jesus Christ to keep them safe and sound from harm and danger, him and his family. I thank You Lord that You have blessed them boldly to preach thy word and to teach others oh God. I thank You Lord that he’s equipped Father God to give understanding clarity, Father the Lord. I pray thee for traveling mercies oh Lord and that he have victory over all circumstances and situations. I pray holy Father God to give him flexibility and a discerning spirit with everyday matters. I thank You Lord that though have blessed him bountifully to make this journey every year and to live boldly and courageous to teach thy word every year faithfully. Thank You Lord. Blessings, glory, honor, dominion, authority and victory in the mighty name of Jesus Christ before him. And I pray thee with much praise, supplication, __ and I thank You in my heart for him and his family. In Jesus’ name. Glory glory, glory.

Hey folks. To be a Blessing in California calling. Wanting to encourage you to pray always. Don’t stop praying. A friend was sharing with me about an accident that his brother…that his brother’s friend had that was life-threatening. There were no brain waves taking place. And people getting ready to say it’s not going to work, it’s not going to work. Distraught family spoke with my friend. My friend asked if he could pray with them and prayer happened and brain waves started. It doesn’t always work like that. God knows what’s best. But the point being, prayer connects us to God. It draws our heart to Him. It helps us to know what is His plan and gives us assurance to know we’re in the best hands ever, the Creator of the universe. Be encourage, be blessed. Have a great day.

Hello my beloveds. This is Candace from Oregon. And, so, it’s still the season of Lent so I need to tell you my lead story. In 2017 the first day of Lent was March 1. And about a week before that I had been listening to a lot of you talking about giving up this or that for Lent. Well, I’m not from a liturgical tradition. I’ve been in church faithfully since I was 16 and much really as a small child. I was never in a liturgical church. But just out of curiosity I just happened to say the Lord, Lord you want me to give up something for let. It was almost like an audible…as real as an audible voice…although it wasn’t. He said to me in my heart…it was as though he smiled and put his arm around me and said…how about I give you something for Lent. You know, you don’t have to listen to the news. And it was just a delightful thing for me. And, so, I said okay, because I had been really faithful to hear the news every day. I wanted to be a responsible citizen, a good voter, and that prior year was just brutal. And it was really bad for me. So, I did not hear the news again until Easter. Little did I know that 11 days later, March 11^th, I would lose my husband and really need all that emotional space that this allowed me. So, this year something just as amazing happened in regards to the first day of lent. So, I’ll tell you about that next time. Our God is just so tender toward us. Blessings.

Hey DAB family this is Byron out in Florida. Could use all’s help. Next week is going to be a very pivotal week for me because a lot of pivotal things are happening. It’s strange, because I didn’t arrange it like this but it seems like each day next week something very important is going to happen either in my professional life, in my actual job, in my calling vocation, in my ministry, and my personal development, my work with civic organizations. Like every day next week something big happening that I am either in charge of or the something that I do very well it’s just going to bring things to a whole new level. And usually when things get this intense I start getting overwhelmed, I start shutting down, that whole self-sabotage takes over. I’ve got a different feeling about this, which has to be the Holy Spirit because it’s going to be a big week. But I could definitely use your prayers, that I can look forward to into this and be prepared to just execute on a flawless level. And I know it God is calling me to these things. And I want to run into it instead of away from it. So, I really do appreciate your prayers and your guys friendships over the years have brought me to this point. And thank you guys so much. Love you all.

Hi everyone my name is Nora. I’m calling from Canada. I had recently made the decision to get to know God. And the day I got my Bible or the day after was actually when I started getting a lot of anxiety about death and death of loved ones and the end definitely. I attempted to stop my journey in getting to know God as I struggled with thoughts of wanting to end my life so they don’t have to deal with death, which is ironic. But I’ve come so far. It’s been three weeks and it’s been the most potent three weeks of my life. And having been raised on a completely different…a completely different religion, Islam. I am struggling with trusting God without doing anything. So, I guess that’s called legally exempt. And really the struggle is with what can I do…what if I do something wrong…will Jesus leave me? And you know will the enemy have a hold on me if I swear or if I sin in any way, if I gossip. So, I just would love all of your prayers for me and I just…if God could turn my life around I’d want that to be a source of faith and a testimony for other people that…even though I’m crying right now…it’s is been such a joy to get to know Jesus. And He is really peace. Thank you.

Numbers 2:1-3:51, Mark 11:27-12:17, Psalms 47:1-9, Proverbs 10:24-25

Today is the 4^th day of March. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today. Today is my birthday and I gave that up a long time ago and started just counting by Daily Audio Bible years. So, today is my 13th birthday. I’m a teenager now. So, recording for the last time from the land of the Bible, what an epic adventure it has been and we’ll talk about our last day and little bit. I’m recording a little ahead. As you hear this I’ll be way up high in the sky the over water, probably, on our way back home. But we’ll talk about all that a little bit from now. It’s a brand-new week and it’s shiny and it’s sparkly and it’s a waiting for us to live into it. And this week we will read from the New International Version and we’ll pick up where we left off. Numbers chapter 2 and 3 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this new week to spend in Your word. And we ask Your Holy Spirit to come, counsel us, and direct us, lead us deeper into Your word and into the relationship that we share with one another. Father, we thank You for this journey that we’ve been on, whether virtually or whether here in person in the land where all of this happened. We thank You for keeping us safe. We thank You for watching over all of the technology and all the logistics and all of the moving around. We thank You God for this time. And even as we begin to travel back to our homes all around the world, we invite You to come with us. We thank You for what You have planted in our hearts, those of us who are here and those of us who were with us in spirit, who were here virtually. May what we’ve experienced together go deep inside of us, transforming us, and may we carry it home, may we carry it back and live into it fully because the easy thing to do is to get back, move through jet lag, return to normal, and then look back fondly at the wonderful time that we had. We don’t want that to be the case though. We don’t want this to just be just memories. We want this to be something that has quickened us, that is made us awake, and alert, and alive. So, come Holy Spirit. We pray. In the mighty name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

So,we have completed our journey together, our pilgrimage through the land of the Bible, north, south, east, west, low lands central Galilee, everywhere. We’ve touched every era of the Scriptures, old and New Testament, pretty much. And we spent our last day together following the footsteps of Jesus last days, which brings the whole story of Jesus life and sacrifice, His profound love for us, so front and center that you just can’t look away. It's…once you’ve kind of been around the area and just understand how Jesus operated and the culture that He was in and then understand His profound willing sacrifice on our behalf. It just…yeah…it’s one of those things that…it’s hard to use words. Silence actually speaks better because you run out of…there’s just no way to describe when you become so aware of the love of God for people, and how passionate He is to be in relationship with people. So, we were able to go up on top of the Mount of Olives and began walking down the Mount of Olives visiting places along the way, places like Dominus Levitz, which is a location that represents were Jesus came into Jerusalem for the final time and looked upon the temple. And this would have probably been from the Mount of olives, that would’ve been the ancient Road, and that would’ve been the location to look down upon the temple and upon the city of Jerusalem and where he just wept over Jerusalem. And when you’re looking at it and you’ve spent some time here feeling the tension of it all, you start to get it. It just…it’s start just shake you inside. And we continued down, down the Mount of olives to a place that’s pretty famous called Gethsemane where olive groves still exist until today. Some of them very, very, very old, even a thousand years old. So, maybe not going all the way back to the time of Christ, but that have been grafted and, you know, are part of the family of the olive groves that have been on the side of the Mount of Olives for millennia. And there’s a church there that’s really designed for contemplation. Like, you don’t walk in there and it’s all cheery and bright and colorful, it’s actually much more somber. the ceilings are painted like an indigo, a deep dark blue and it’s just a place to contemplate that this is where Jesus was arrested, This is where he lost his freedom, where He headed face first into torture in a horrible earthly death that brought us life, the place where he experienced the black kiss of betrayal, and the place where he experienced such isolation because his friends were sleeping and He’s crying out to God. And, so, to be there and consider, it’s just a moving experience. And, so, then we crossed over the Kedron Valley and through the Lions gate and visited the pools of Bethesda. Had a little bit of time there to contemplate there, Jesus kindness, and the miracle that took place there at the pools of Bethesda. And, of course, walking around through there is walking along the traditional Via Dolorosa, the way of the cross. So, you know, we didn’t walk all the stations, but spending some time walking on that road, and having some lunch, visiting the church of the holy sepulcher, and contemplating all that that represents, of course, represents the resurrection as well as the crucifixion. So, and it’s one of those, you know, it’s one of those very, very holy sites that people from all over the world are trying to get into. And all forms and expressions of the faith all in one place at one time it’s, you know, you have to look inside, you have to stop yourself and say, man this mystery of eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus is hard enough to explain to myself and all of this ornamentation, all of this artwork dating back so far, is man’s attempt to explain something that is profoundly beyond us. And, so, we had a little bit of time there. And outside the walls looking at the gate and that the steps that Jesus is likely to have been walking down carrying across, standing on a platform probably at least similar if not exactly where pilot would’ve washed his hands and sentenced Jesus to die. And considering the throngs down below yelling crucify Him. It’s just…when you’re there…it’s…man…words are kind of feeling me…it’s a profound experience. We also got to experience the upper room, the location of the last supper Jesus was able to share with his friends where He got down on his knees before everyone and washed their feet and gave them a tangible example of the posture of heart that He was not only demonstrating in his ministry, but that he was commissioning us to demonstrate in our lives, which is challenging because we realize how often were not living like that. Of course, the upper room is also the place where the disciples were waiting, waiting for what comes next and the tongues of fire fell upon them as the Holy Spirit invaded the story at Pentecost. And the apostle Peter stepping forward and 3000 people who had just experienced, recently, the crucifixion of Jesus and the spread of that story how they came to faith in Jesus. And just…ah…it’s a powerful thing. We also visited the quarters of the high priest, which at the time of Jesus would’ve been Caiaphas. And after Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane He would’ve been brought back across the Kedron Valley and into the quarters of the high priest where He was interrogated and, of course, verbally and physically abused. And the ancient steps coming up out of the Kedron Valley and up into that area. They still exist. So, to be able to look at those steps and realize a bound and tied Jesus walked up those steps as he continued his journey toward the cross. And then climbing…well…first of all…just visiting the Skull of St. Peter at Delacontinue, there’s a church that commemorates this spot. And but it’s a church that exists today that is built upon the ruins of previous churches over the last couple of thousand years. And you can, continue down below the ground into the cisterns and places where the supplies kept and where people were kept when they had been arrested. And, so, just to think of Jesus down in the dungeons. For me, that’s one of the most moving places. I really can’t even explain why. I have been there a lot of times. It’s just thinking of Jesus, knowing what’s going to happen, knowing what’s coming and that He’s been bound and tied and alone. Yeah, it’s just, when you fall in love with Jesus, and He becomes your best friend then it’s hard to think about…it’s hard to think about what He endured. And, you know, with Peter being in the courtyard denying that he even knows him, it’s just tough. It’s just tough to think about Jesus going through that. Tough to think about Peter being brokenhearted knowing what he’d done. It’s confrontational to just realize that in thought, word, and deed, where no better off. So, it’s a very, very moving experience. And then we went to the garden tomb, which is definitely a setting to bring the whole thing together. And we did. We were able to just have some final discussion about our day and some final stories, some final things to think about, share communion together before moving to our farewell dinner where we just shared some of our thoughts and experiences and just enjoyed each other’s company one more time, after all the miles, all of the journey that we’ve been through, from the wilderness into the Promise Land, from being baptized in the Jordan River, to standing on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, from praying for our brothers and sisters on the border of Syria, to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea where the apostle Paul appealed to Caesar and sailed to Rome, to the holy city of Jerusalem and all of its chaos and tension and beauty, and the low lands to where David fought Goliath. I mean on and on we have experienced quite a journey together. And, so, we had a final meal together to commemorate what we we’ve been through together as a community and then we all began to move forward, pack up, depart, at all different times. We’re all on our way back to our homes. And we thank you again for your prayers over all of…not only the travel…but reintegrating. We’ll experience some jet lag, we’ll experience a kind of a listlessness, not sure where we are kind of feeling as parts of our heart arrive behind our bodies as we just begin to become whole and reintegrated and as we move back into the rich routines of our lives feeling profoundly changed and trying to hold on to all that we’ve experienced together. So, thank you for your prayers. It has been nothing short of epic and our hearts are full even as our bodies are tired.

I’ve mentioned several times along the way that we are planning to return in 2019. And if it’s on your bucket list, something that you want to experience for yourself. You can check that out at dailyaudiobible.com in the initiatives section, just look for Israel 2019. I am told that we are over half-full for that journey already. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in our common mission to bring God’s spoken word to anybody who is willing to listen to it no matter where they are, no matter what time of day or night it is, and to continue to build community around the rhythm of the Scriptures every day in our lives so that we know we’re not alone, we know that were in this together. If that has been life-giving, then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 19 96 Spring Hill Tennessee 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. And that is it from the land of the Bible in Israel. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey everybody this is Addicted to Christ down in Birmingham calling in. I’ve had several people reach out to me because my call made it a couple days ago on the show and I was really in a very, very bad place. And it’s amazing how He works. So, I needed to call and say there’s hope, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, things are getting better, and I am learning that He is always present with me. He’s trying to teach me that he’s always there even when it seems like He’s not. And it’s all about the trust. So today…so I’m doing Uber and I’m doing Lyft and I’m doing thing called Shipped – that SHIPP - just to be clear to everybody. That’s a grocery thing that you can pick up groceries for people and it’s amazing. It’s a long story but wow. I think He’s painting a miracle of the situation where I can mix a pure commission based sales job that I can easily do all of the city of Birmingham with the Uber and the Lyft, which is going to take me all over the city of Birmingham. He blessed me with that idea like an epiphany. And it just came to me that you could do that. And I can sell face-to-face. If I was in a job making cold calls and trying to sell…oh man…it was terrible. But I can do it face-to-face. So, He’s blessed me with that idea and I put this together and I’m making it work. It’s very complicated so you all pray for my safety out there on the road and my family. Everybody’s doing better. Things are getting better. Prayers are being felt everybody. Thank you. I wish I had more time. I love you all. Amen.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Rachel from north Carolina. I haven’t called in a bit but I just have a few praise reports that I wanted to share. Hopefully they will encourage you. Just found out that a really good friend of mine who was married abroad and then had to move back to the states to have her baby, her husband just got his visa. So, he’s going to be joining her soon, which is super exciting and is definitely an answer to prayer. We’ve been praying about, probably ½ year, six months or so for him to get his visa. So, that is an answer to prayer for all of you married couples who are separated from your spouse right now, I wanted to and to encourage you with that and let you know that God hears those prayers and to know that his desire is for married couples to be together are not separate. So, I pray with you that you and your spouses will be reconnected if that’s a situation that you are in. Also another good friend of mine who left for a foreign country today to bring home her son who she is adopting. I think the last prayer call that I called in with was for her. She’s adopting a child with special needs, special health needs. So, be praying for her, for her journey, for this wonderful child and his health, and the transition back to the states together, mother and child. So many, so many praise reports, so many answers to prayer. This only scratches the surface. Keep praying. Never stop talking to God and asking Him about the most basic needs.

Dear God I want to thank You for being available to us anytime of the day or night and just want to lift before You Your daughter Candace of Oregon. Lord, You know that this time of her life, this season of the year is really a challenge. And she’s been struggling with it but struggling with You. So, I want to thank You for being there for her, asking that You would dispatch angels that exceed in comfort to fill her home and to bring the purpose of heaven to her, that the Holy Spirit will draw close to her and to fill up all the gaps and holes and to wrap His arms around her and Father that You would just continue healing her, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. Thank You that we can count on You and trust You because You because You are a faithful God. There’s nothing too hard for You. Thank You for hearing and answering this prayer. Amen.

Good morning, good afternoon…evening actually. DAB family I’m a Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory of Our God and King. I have a praise report. I guess two praise reports. I’ve been asking my family to pray for me this year, to pray for my 20-year-old son, my prodigal who has been addicted to all kinds of drugs for the last three years of his life. And last Wednesday a stranger texted my phone, my son had been wandering the streets. He was literally out of his mind. They found him, rushed him to the emergency room, he had not had food or water for three days. Praise God, we were able to find a rehab facility for him to go to, an inpatient detox and rehab. So, that’s where he is not right now for 28 days. So, my first praise report is that, thank God my son is alive because he was totally out of his mind, he was hallucinating, he was not healthy at all. And it’s a miracle that he survived, he didn’t get hit by a car, or shot by somebody. or just lost forever. I praise God for that. And the second praise report is for his hamster. __ a while back, I don’t know, almost 2 weeks now. And when he came through he talked to me and was hysterical because he thought, surely, they were dead. And today I picked up his hamster from the apartment complex. And the guys up and alive and excited, moving around. And, so, thank God for miracles and I’m believing that the God who kept this hamster alive can deliver my son from addiction and can heal him permanently in Jesus’ name. I love you guys. Bye.

Good morning it’s Beloved by Him from Gloucester in the UK. It is Wednesday, 20^th of February. I just wanted to share something I read recently. It’s a quote from John Calvin about prayer. So, ‘believers do not pray with a view to informing God about things unknown to Him or exciting Him to do his duty or of urging him as if you were reluctant. On the contrary, they pray and we pray in order that they may arouse themselves to seek Him, that they may exercise their faith in meditating on His promises, that they may relieve themselves from their anxieties by pouring them into His bosom. In a word, that they will declare that from Him alone they hope and expect both for themselves and for others, all good things. You know, and I thought, that really struck me as a read that earlier this week. You know, what’s the point of prayer? Why do we pray? What’s it all about? And John Calvin’s answer really, really helped me on that front. Anyway, let’s pray. Father God, thank You for this new day we have and thank You that we can come to You in prayer and that You do know, You know everything about us Lord, You know what we need. But you want to hear that from us, You want us to share with you, You want us to come to You and be honest with You and pour out our burdens and anxieties on You because You are our loving Father. So, God I pray that you would help us to be honest, to communicate with You, to turn to You in the good times and in the bad times. In Jesus’ holy and precious name. Amen. Hope you guys have a blessed day. Love you all. Speak to you soon. Bye.

Good morning DAB community. I am a two-year listener, first-time caller. I have a prayer request for my dear friend Teresa and her husband Jack. Jack had emergency surgery yesterday to replace his aorta and three vans. I pray dear Lord for his healing, to watch over his family, and his daughter, and nurses that are taking care of him. I pray to give Teresa the strength to get through this terrible experience. She is a blessing dear Lord. So, I pray dear Lord and hope my DAB family will pray for them to. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Today is also February 28^th and it is her birthday. Dear Lord I just pray for her. She is a wonderful woman. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

Leviticus 27:14- Numbers 1:54, Mark 11:1-26, Psalms 46:1-11, Proverbs 10:23

Today is the 3^rd of March. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today for the next step forward in our epic adventure that is the Bible. And we’ve also been experiencing either in person or virtually the epic adventure through the land of the Bible and today will be our final day together. We had a great day yesterday and we’ll talk about that shortly. But first let’s dive into today’s reading. We’ve been reading from the Modern English Version this entire week. And, of course, this is the end of the week so that’s what we’ll read from today and begin with something new tomorrow. Of course, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. And, so, that’s going to lead us to the end of the book of Leviticus and then lead us into the book of Numbers. So, we’ll read Leviticus 27:14 to the end of the book and then we’ll begin the book of Numbers and we’ll read chapter 1 verses 1 through 54. And we’ll talk about Numbers when we get there, but first, concluding the book of Leviticus.

Numbers:

Okay. So, that concludes the book of Leviticus, which leads us forward into the book of Numbers. And one of the things that we may notice right away as we enter the book of Numbers is what seems like repetition, like a redundant review. And this can seem tedious, but it’s not. It’s very important because we are switching now. As we change books we’re switching from the first generation of people who were freed from Egypt into the second generation. And what much has happened under Moses’ leadership. We’ve seen God show up miraculously in their midst and his mighty power and they’ve received the law. But now that they’ve received it, they have to actually live it because God is giving the order to move out. It’s time for them to move into the Promise Land. And we’ll see spies sent into the land, we’ll see an entire generation disqualify themselves from the promise. And we’ll also find many parallels in this story that relate a little too closely to home even in our culture today. The theme of God’s holiness that we are seeing throughout the law and the fact that He requires His people to be holy threads it’s way throughout Numbers as it does throughout the entire Pentateuch or Torah. And we’ll see the harsh but true reality that rebellion has consequences. You’re planting something when you’re planting rebellion and what you’re going to reap is judgement. So, as we begin Numbers, the first nine chapters provide review and structure because God is preparing His people to move into the Promised Land. We’ll see censuses being taken, laws being given, and review of the laws. We’ll see purification and celebrations happening. And then we’ll move into the narrative where the spies are sent across the Jordan into the Promise Land where they can spy it out. And then, of course, we’ll experience the outcome of that mission. And we’ll see the old generation is gone - the first generation. We’ll see a new one with new leaders rising, warfare beginning, new laws being established, and a foreshadowing of what the culture is going to look like when they actually take the Promised Land. And, of course, with all these censuses, we’ll see a lot of counting. And hence, the book of Numbers. And, so, we begin with chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and the deep, deep encouragement that we find in the Psalm today. You are our refuge and strength. We forget that so often. You are our refuge, our shelter, our strength, a well-proven help in trouble. And You have proven this over and over and over. We’re still here. We’re still breathing. You have brought us through so much. And, so, we’re grateful and we’re sorry that we keep forgetting that the stresses and cares of life are but distractions. You are our refuge and strength and therefore we do not fear, though the earth be removed. Right? So, the ground that falls away beneath us, even if that happens, You are still our refuge and strength. Even if the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, still You are our refuge and strength. Even though the oceans roar and foam, still You are our refuge and strength. And, so, we align ourselves with this fact. You are our refuge and strength, well-proven to help us in times of trouble. And we hear Your response to that from the book of Psalms. Be still and know that I am God. And we confess that in times of shaking and trouble where it feels like the earth is shifting beneath our feet and everything is upside down, that’s really the last thing that we do. We’re thrashing, we’re running, we’re clawing, we’re scratching, we’re doing anything but being still and knowing that You are God, that You are our refuge and strength. So, Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit to calm us down that we might know through the stillness that You are God and that all our running in circles and all of our desperation really isn’t getting us anywhere. But You have invited us to be still and know. Help us to know this, Holy Spirit. There is no hope but You. And You are our refuge and strength. Flood us with this awareness, we ask. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So today, as I was mentioning, is our final day together. And we’ll be moving through the Jerusalem area, following in the footsteps of the last days of Jesus. But yesterday we got on the buses and went a bit north and kind of finalized all of the regions of this land. We have literally travelled as far north as you can go, as far south as you can go, as far east as you can go and as far west as you can go. We’ve travelled down into the lowlands and we’ve travelled into the central section. We’ve been around the Galilee. We’ve pretty much covered every geographical location. And, so, now as we read these stories we know what these places look like. And, so, we went first north to the top of Mount Gerizim, which is the mount of blessing. We’ll encounter that story, of course, the mount of blessing and the mount of cursing as we move into Joshua’s story, as we move out of the times with Moses but we’re not quite there yet so we won’t get ahead of ourselves. But we went to the top of the mount of blessing, looked down over biblical Shechem and just realized how profoundly this little area, this little town area and these mountains have had an impact on the Bible. So many things happen in Shechem and around these mountains. And, so, on the top of Mount Gerizim is one of the only remaining Samaritan villages. And the Samaritan people, of course, in the Shechem area, Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman who talked about how they had always been taught they were supposed to pray on the mount of blessing and there’s a temple that they’re supposed to pray to and yet everyone else is saying they should go to Jerusalem. And Jesus talks about the fact that it’s spirit and truth. Well the ruins of the Samaritan temple still exist on top of Mount Gerizim. So, we were able to go up there and look down upon Shechem, locate ourselves biblically, and visit the ruins that are atop that mountain before winding our way back down to Shiloh. And Shiloh also has significance because, again, we haven’t gotten to this story yet, but when the children of Israel come into the land and they bring the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, and establish it permanently at Shiloh. And it remains sort of the heart, the capital, the heart, the spiritual heart of the ancient Israelites as they move into the Promise Land for nearly 400 years. And sometimes that’s just lost on everyone because we focus on Jerusalem and the first temple that Solomon built and associate everything with Jerusalem. But before there was a Jerusalem, before David’s time, and the city of David, and that conquering, there was Shiloh. And, so, we visited ancient Shiloh. And that just began to understand the importance of that area and how it was the central heartbeat of all things early in the story of Israel in the Promise Land. And then we continued our journey back toward Jerusalem, having lunch at a nice winery, a nice lunch was served to us. We’ve been kind of running around eating a lot of falafel and shawarma and schnitzel. And, so, to have a nice lunch cooked for us and served was a really, really nice treat, nice time to be together as a community and kind of our final opportunity for that type of a lunch. Today we’ll have to grab it and go cause it’s a full, full day. And, so, after lunch we went to Nebi Samuel, which is the traditional burial site of the prophet Samuel, so we sort of connected the dots there. We had just been in Shiloh, where Samuel’s story begins and then coming to his burial place where it ends also gives an opportunity to look down upon biblical Gibeah where King Saul came from. And just discuss some of the things that happened around Gibeah because there’s some stories that are pretty sad. The tribe of Benjamin almost getting annihilated because of the things that happened in Gibeah. And, so, that’s as close as we can really safely go to that area, so we could look down upon it, take some pictures, just consider where we were in biblical history there. And then finally moving back into Jerusalem in the old city and being able to visit and pray at the Western Wall as the sun was going down. And while we were there and the sun did reach sunset, which would be the indicator of the beginning of Shabbat of the sabbath day. And, so, the religious Jewish people begin to flood into the area and pray at the wall and just rejoice and celebrate. And, so, we got to be part of just a little bit of that as they were coming in and then we headed back. Some headed into the old city to do a little bit more shopping. Some headed back to the hotel to grab dinner, get some rest, cause it’s a big day today and many will be leaving today and some tomorrow. So, it was a great, great, day and we thank you so much for your prayers over this journey and we got one more day and then a lot of people travelling to all corners of the world. I mean, we have lots of people here from the United States, but we have the UK represented, we have Australia represented, I believe we have Norway represented. So, we’re kind of from all over the place, heading back all over the place. But that’s the beauty of this community. It doesn’t matter where we are, we’re all on this journey together. So, thank you for your continued prayers as we make our journeys homeward and as we move through today. We cannot tell you how much we have felt your prayers. I mean, we have felt a canopy of prayer over us the entire journey. And it’s been quite a journey. It’s been a beautiful thing to experience so much of this land. And, so, we thank you for your prayers and your continued prayers as we make our way home.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if all that we are as a community brings life to you, then thank you for your partnership. There is a link that’s on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or, 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, 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 and Praise:

Yes hello. Today is February 26^th and I was listening to the February 24^th prayer, community prayer line, and I had just hard a heart-to-heart with God saying how I was frustrated that sometimes He seemed so far away. And then John, John who called himself prodigal came on and began to tell his story and how he feels so far away from God right now. And I felt compelled to reread the story of the prodigal son. So, I’m just going to read you a few things John. Starting at verse 11. And then he said a certain man had two sons. The younger of them inappropriately said to her father, father give the share of the property that falls to me. So, he divided the estate between them. A few days later the younger son gathered together everything that he had to traveled to a distant country and there he wasted his fortune on reckless and the immoral living. Now when he had spent everything a severe famine occurred in that country and he began to do without and be in need. And then verse 17 says, but when he finally came to his senses he said, how many of my father’s hired band have more food than I while I’m dying of hunger. I will get up and go to my father. I will say to him father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Just treat me like one of your hired men. So, he got up and came to his father. But when he was still a long way off his father saw him and was moved with compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And John, the thing that came to me when I was rereading that passage was that although God’s love is very conditional or very unconditional rather…regardless…there is…His grace…I mean…He’s full of grace…but He does require that we get up, that we go to Him, that we come before Him and say I’ve sinned. You know, so it’s, it’s just, you have to get up John…

Hello Daily Audio Bible. I’m a Christian and married to a Christian. We have two kids. One is over 25 years old and the other one is 16. And my wife is a pastor’s daughter, but we are, we’re in a very shaky relationship marriage. And my wife does not want to go seek counseling or learn about marriage or further improving our relationship and marriage. Not interested in any resources or any prayers or counseling. So, we are just living as roommates and for convenience. And I think I want to have a connection, but, yeah, we’re living in the same household but we’re living as roommates. So, if you could pray for me. And that…help…pray for her…myself that we can reconcile and improve our marriage. I appreciate it. Thank you. This is Bill from California. Thank you.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. James the teacher on LA. I’m actually calling for Pelham. Pelham, brother, today’s 26^th of February. I’m just catching on the podcast the 25^th. I heard you. And I heard your voice and I was so excited to hear you. I thought oh man, there’s good news, there is movement, the Lord’s coming through and I heard you talking about that job prospect and then I heard you talking about what’s going on at home with your wife. And brother, I got to tell you, I’ve been there. Oh, my goodness I’ve been there. First year of my marriage my wife wasn’t working. She was going to school. I was broke. We were broke, broke. Like, credit cards maxed. No money in the bank. Asking my mom for food money. Not even worrying about the rent. Don’t know if I can pay for gas to get my car to work. And it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever been through. And our marriage, brand-new, we said some things to each other. And almost 8 years in, our marriage is still not perfect, but that’s eight years. And I only…if anything I can do besides pray and say is always as forgiveness and give it even when it’s not always asked for. There is no magic recipe and it hurts. It hurts but Jesus took all our suffering and we owe it to Him. If we owe anything, it’s our loyalty. I love you brother. Hang in.

Hi this is Valerie __ and I don’t have a prayer request. I’m actually just calling for Robert from Indian. Robert I’m originally from Indiana and you are about the same age as my nephews. And I have felt compelled to pray for young men in America. And one of my nephews is doing great and the other one was failing college and became suicidal and cut off all contact with the family and disappeared for a few days. And he’s back home now, but I just really have a burden to pray for young men your age. So, my dear boy, I am praying for you and I’m so proud of you for calling and reaching out to the DAB family. And I have index cards that I write down names and prayer requests of people. And, so, I’ve added you to my index cards. And I just want you to know that I’ll be praying for you. So, take care and hello to everybody else out there.

Hi Daily Audio Bible community my name is Kim. I am from Whitehorse Yukon in Canada. I’m calling for prayer request for my husband Devan. He is a good strong man. He is kind to me and my kids, but he does not believe in God. I have faith that he will come to know the Lord but people, I cannot do it alone. Please, brothers and sisters pray with me, that Devin will come to know the Lord. And I love this podcast. I listen to it every morning as I head to work. Thank you all for being such a blessing to me.

Hello, my name is Greg Smith and I’ve been a Daily Audio family member for many years, somewhat intermittent over the years, but I called in 2014 after my heart attack. And this community had supported me with prayer. I’m in another crisis right now. And, you know, life just brings us back to family sometimes. And I just wanted to request that the community would lift me up. There’s a lot of things going on and I really don’t know…I don’t know how to describe all the details…because it’s part of a storm…just crisis can come in a lot of different ways. Right? So, anyway, I just when ask for prayer from my family for my…I deal with depression and anxiety. And yet, I’m sort of the primary provider for my family. So, I can’t really be nonfunctional. Anyway, my email is craig.n.smith@me.com. If someone would like to reach out to me, that’s the way to get a hold of me. But I just want to continue to be part of this community. I was laid off last Tuesday, a week ago, it’s February 27^th now and I’m trying to sort of redound from that impact on my family. Lots of details there I don’t need…God knows what’s going on…

Leviticus 25:47-27:13, Mark 10:32-52, Psalms 45:1-17, Proverbs 10:22

Today is the 2^nd day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is good to be here with you today. And once again coming from the city of Jerusalem. In a bit of a change of pace yesterday and went down into the low lands and we’ll talk about that. Today we’ll head into the central section of the land, a part that we haven’t seen yet. And we’ll talk about all that in a bit. Let’s center ourselves and just quiet the world and all the chaos that is never ending and allow God’s word to wash over us as we move into our day, or as we close our day or whatever it is that’s going on. Let’s open our hearts and allow God to speak to us through his word. We’ve been reading from the Modern English Version this week. And we have rounded the corner and are heading home on this week. And we’ve rounded the corner and we are approaching the final couple of days here in the land of the Bible. And that’s just how…that’s how life works, step-by-step, day by day. And, so, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday with the Leviticus chapter 25 verse 47 through 27 verse 13.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in the book of Mark we are moving toward the cross, we’re moving toward that the passion narrative again and Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. And two times in our reading today Jesus asks people the same thing. What you want me to do for you? Which is such a generous thing to be asking when you are on your way to crucifixion. Right? When you are on your way knowing you are going to be tortured to death. And they’re very different circumstances that actually invite us to consider our own hearts and our own motivations and the things that we are asking of the Lord. The first time that this happens it’s by Jesus inner circle. It’s by James and John. So, Jesus has been telling them what’s going to happen. They’re not completely understanding, but He’s been telling them what’s going to happen. And, so, they walk up to Him on the trail and say, we want you to do something for us or directly from the Scriptures, ‘teacher, we want that whatever we may ask you would do for us.’ And Jesus response, ‘what do you want me to do for you?’ And what they want is that when He enters into his glory, they can each, one sit on the right hand and the other at his left hand. So, from an earthly perspective, we can see that what they’re expecting to happen in Jerusalem is different than what is going to happen even though He’s been very clear, But whether we look at this from an earthly or a spiritual perspective, essentially, what they’re saying is we want to be right below you in the glory. We want one of us to be your right-hand man and the other to be your left hand man. And the only one above us is you and we are above everyone else. We want our share of the glory. Jesus response to that is, ‘you don’t know what you are asking for.’ Now a little further down the trail, they come through the city of Jericho and Bartimaeus, a blind man whose begging for charity hears that Jesus is coming by and so he starts screaming, ‘son of David, have mercy on me.’ And he won’t stop. And Jesus answers him. What do you want me to do for you? His response completely different. It’s not, I want some of your glory, it’s have mercy on me. I want to see. Very, very different postures. On the one hand, you have, hey Jesus I want you to do something for me. I want you to exalt me and make me just below you. On the other hand, we have son of David, please have mercy on me. To the first request Jesus said, you have no idea what you are asking for. And to the second, the blind received his sight. Now, we could look at this and say that both of these requests were self-serving, but we have to acknowledge, they come from a completely different posture of heart. I mean, on the one hand, ‘I need you to do something for me. I want you to grant me a wish’ is a totally different posture then, ‘have mercy on me’. And in this season of Lent that we’re in right now, this season that is designed to be reflective and to consider what it cost to give us a free and clear salvation, these interactions that we read about today in the gospel of Mark invite us to consider our own posture of heart as we approach God. Are we approaching a genie in a bottle asking for a wish or are we asking for mercy? Because the truth is, what else can we ask for. We have no right to be asking God for anything on our own. Through Jesus, He’s our Father, we can ask for anything, but what is our motivation? Where is our heart? Jesus, I need You to beat up the bad guys. Jesus, I need You to remove the obstacles. I need You to make my life more comfortable and better. Or is our approach more humble, ‘have mercy on me.’

Prayer:

Jesus, we acknowledge this. We’re paying attention and we’re sorry for the times we’ve come with our demands. Forgive us Lord. Have mercy on us, Jesus. We are so completely lost without You. Have mercy on us. We pray in Your mighty name knowing that You will, knowing that You already have, and that is enough. Everything else is simply out of Your kindness and generosity because You love us. So, main we return that. May we love You as You love us. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, man we’re down to our last couple of days in the land of the Bible. And yesterday after spending a whole day in the hustle and bustle and kind of chaos that Jerusalem can be, especially in and around the holier places, especially associated with Jesus, we changed up the pace. And went into another region that we have an experienced yet called the Shefela, which is the low lands. And this is some of the region between ancient Israel and ancient Philistia. So, we left Jerusalem and our first stop was at Emmaus Necropolis. There is a very ancient Byzantine church there. The ruins, they still exist there, but it’s a serene place. A place for just a little bit of a walk. It’s really, really lovely. So, we talked about the story of Jesus after his resurrection, meeting his friends on the road, and on the road to Emmaus, and explaining all the things that happened and how that set their hearts on fire. But how they didn’t recognize Jesus at first, and how it was that He was beginning to reveal himself, but disappear, reveal Himself, and then be gone right after his resurrection, and contemplated how His presence is more than a physical thing. And then just gave ourselves a few minutes, they’re precious, they’re hard to find, these centering moments, and they have to…they have to be fought for…and embraced…and walked into when we have them. So, that’s what we did. We gave ourselves just a few minutes in the morning to reconnect with the Lord as we began our day. And then from Emmaus we continued southward to the ruins of Bet Shemesh, which has biblical significance because when the Philistines captured the ark of the covenant in battle they took the ark of the covenant back to their territory and were worshiping their God. And as it turns out that was not the most healthy thing for the Philistines. Boils and plagues and all this kind of stuff begin to break out. And, so, they move the ark of the covenant to another one of their cities and the same thing happens, they keep moving it around, and everywhere that it goes trouble follows it while it’s in the hands of Philistines until they feel like it’s the God of the Israelites that’s causing these problems. So, they put the ark of the covenant on an ox cart with some cows and decide that if the cows know which way to go, like if they go back to Israel, then that was God who was judging them. And if the cows don’t really know which way to go, whatever, they will know that it’s not God, but the cows know exactly where to go and they had back into the territory of Israel, bringing the ark of the covenant back to the Israelites. And that happens at Bet Shemesh, where the ark of the covenant comes back into their control. So, a place of obvious biblical significance. And there are some ruins of the ancient city there that we visited before heading into the valley of Eli and situating ourselves. What a beautiful day. It was really, really perfect. And we walked down into the streambed and then just kind gathered around and just placed ourselves in the story that happened there. And that is the story of David and Goliath. And when you can stand in the Eli Valley, seeing how the armies would’ve been situated, understanding that the valley of Eli was kind of a border between the two, understanding that there were strong cities all along the valley, as would be associated with borders. It just all begins to come alive. So, we let it do that. We let it come alive and went down into the brook and gathered some stones to take back from there as we applied the story to the story of our own lives. And then we had some lunch. And we were able to have like a picnic lunch. Lovely day, picnic lunch, green grass, nice breeze, just a change of pace from the pace that we’ve been keeping. And that was taking place in that Bet Guvrin National Park, which also encompasses the biblical city of Maresha. And then we get to see just how this archaeological field works, how it is that these places that we’ve been visiting are identified, how it is that there excavated, how tediously and meticulously this is done. And it just…seeing some things come up out of the ground…and discovering…and it’s a touch point. First of all, it’s a touch point because you’re touching the lives of people who lived thousands of years ago and you’re discovering things, but also, this was area of great industry, especially for like everything associated with olives. So, like, olive oil, and how they would press that and how they would export it, and how they would just live. So, it’s a moment to not just walk around ruins and try to imagine, but you kind of feel like you’re really touching back in time, how people lived and really immersing yourself in that story, which again, just makes of the Bible begin to come alive because there’s so many lives and so many different time periods and how they did things over time matters. And it’s tactile. And you just feel like you’re touching history, you’re just your part of the story yourself. So, that’s always a highlight for those who participate. And it was no different. We had a great time, great weather, great everything. And then we  had one more stop, Lachish, which is another biblical city, a very, very strong city, the most powerful city next to Jerusalem in ancient Israel. And we were able to see the city gates and some of the ruins there. We didn’t spend a ton of time, but at least a touch point down in the low lands of this ancient powerful center of a city that was influential in ancient Israel before then beginning to make our way back up to Jerusalem to end our day. And it was a good day, a really, really good day, and a much needed change of pace. And got some rest and off we will go, northward today. And we’ll talk about all of that tomorrow.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link that’s on the homepage. And I thank you for your partnership humbly, gratefully. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And I’ll remind you, if this journey is a journey that you feel like you want to make, if you feel invited into experiencing the land of the Bible, we’re planning to come back next year and you can find out all about that at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section.

Also want to remind you ladies that in about a month, and we’re almost right at the one month mark, when the More Gathering for women will take place. And you check that out at moregathering.com. Hope to see you there.

If you have a prayer request or comment. There is, of course, a number you can call 877-942-4253 is that number.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi everyone. It’s Christie from Kentucky. I want to speak to Pelham from Alabama. Brother Pelham, your message just broke my heart. I am so sorry that you are walking through such financial difficulties right now and that it’s putting such stress on your marriage. I just want to say this, and for those of you that are listening that are married, you probably will agree with me that oftentimes when we have found ourselves in these types of situations, where we became so angry at the situation that our anger often poured over onto one another and we said words we wish we had never said. We wish we could take those words, put them in a box, lock them up, and throw away the key so that they would never come out again. But, unfortunately, once they’re out they’re out. And, so, the only thing that we can do at that point is to humble ourselves and come to each other asking for forgiveness and pouring out our heart of love to our spouses. And I believe if you do that, if you seek humility and forgiveness it opens up the door to communication again. You see, the enemy is trying to destroy us and he knows that when we get into a vulnerable situation that often we will let these words fly out and they are weapons that can destroy. But God gives us an opportunity to ask for forgiveness and He allows grace to enter into these to situations. And Pelham that’s what I pray for you today. Alright everyone. I love you guys so very much. And I pray that each of you have a most blessed and lovely day.

Hi DAB this is Laura Leah from __ I haven’t a called for ages. Longtime listener…almost 12 years. I want to lift up a caller today. Heavenly Father, I’m lifting up Rachel, who called in the 24^th about depression and OCD. And, You just put a huge burden on my heart for her. And Rachel if you’re listening…I’m going  to put my email out there for you, lordwilling@me.com. Please email me, but I want to tell you, the day you called…and the Lord was…I don’t know if you remember the Psalm…the end of the Psalm that Brian read…but when you called out for help and your sister-in-law gave you the word of God to listen to every day…don’t stop listening doing it…I’ve got 12 years to tell you that many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all. You said you wanted prayer for your doubting that He would heal you. Well I, I want to pull out His promises and His guarantees that He will heal you of this. And I’m living proof and there’ many, many others too. So, I want to read you what…that day that you called…it says…Psalm 40…starting with verse 11. Do not withhold Your mercy from me Lord. May Your love and faithfulness always protect me for troubles without number surround me. My sins have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs on my head and my heart fails within me. Be pleased save me Lord. Come quickly Lord to help me. May all that want to take my life be put to shame and to confusion. May those who say to me aha, aha be appalled at their own shame, but may all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You. May those who long for You, Yyour saving help always…

Hi, this call is for Deborah from Michigan who was rear-ended by the semi. First of all, I, like probably many of us, I’m just praising God that your granddaughters are unharmed. And I pray that the trauma of this event, that they escaped, not just physically from this, but emotionally and mentally as well, that they come out of it unharmed. There’s just something I wanted to respond to in what you were talking about. You were talking about being in the hospital and having a hard time praying and talking to the Lord. And I just wanted to encourage you. The Lord is always there and I know that you know that. And He hears everything that you have to say, but He also hears the things that you can’t even put into words. And you said that you had a brain bleed. So, you had some trauma to your head. You might not even be able to put everything into words right now. And that’s okay. God doesn’t expect you to. He knows all of the processes in your brain and all of the thoughts in your mind, even before you do. Like the Scripture says, even before a word is on your tongue He knows it. So, be encouraged by that. And if you’re feeling like you can’t hear Him right now either, for kind of the same reason, understand that you’re alive and that’s His message to you. And your granddaughters are unharmed and that’s His message of His love to you. And by the time you’re hearing this, I’m hoping that you’re actually going to be a lot better and rejoicing that the Lord has set you loose from that time, but even if you haven’t been yet, I pray that this will be of some comfort to you. All right. We love…

Hi family. This is Craving Peace from Pennsylvania. And first I just want to thank you, Brian, Jill, and entire family for all that you do for us for this community and thank all of you who call on a regular basis. I’m reaching out, family, for prayer. I have been struggling for some time with restlessness. I live in a small town __ and I have a son. I’m the single mom. And I want to move to New Bedford Massachusetts. I just visited this area week ago and I’ve made some friends in that area within in the last three or four years. However, family, I’m just reaching out for prayer that this will be something that the Lord will bless. There are some difficulties with this and I just pray, family, for all of you as well. And thank you so much for your prayers. And, yeah, so, hopefully, you know, I will be able to relocate and the doors will be open for this. And if not, then please help me to accept it as my path. Anyway, thanks guys. Have a good one.

Hello. My name is Dennis I’m from Southern California. First of all, I want to thank God for all that he’s been doing in my life, my marriage, my family. I’ve been a Daily Audio Bible listener for quite a while. So, this is the first time I’ve called. I heard Pelham from Birmingham, otherwise known as Addicted to Christ, call in. And he sounded so joyful and I want to be thankful for the things he’s joyful for. However, I heard the pain in his voice. So, Pelham I just want to reach out to you brother and say, I am with you, I know your pain, I’ve been there before, but God has a plan. He does. Trust me brother. So, I am praying for you and your situation and with your family, your wife. Continue to stay strong in your faith and be the priest to your home no matter what the situation is. So, I come against those things that bind you and the things that are pulling you down, the enemy that is attacking you. And just know brother, that we’re all here for you and our prayers are with you. Thank God. Amen.