1 Kings 1:1-53, Acts 4:1-37, Psalms 124:1-8, Proverbs 16:24
Today is the 6th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today and every day. And I’m excited that we can take the next step forward. The step forward today is going to lead us into a new book. And we will begin the book of 1 Kings.
Introduction to the book of First Kings:
In many ways, we’ll simply be continuing the story forward from the books of Samuel. But there are nuances. As with other manuscripts in the Bible, the books of Kings were broken apart into two for ease. At one time it was a complete single volume, but it was broken into two, 1st and 2nd Kings, for ease. And the book of Kings that we’re going into will mimic in a lot of ways the books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles that will follow. It’s the same point in history observed from two vantage points. In the books of Kings, more prominence or focus is given to the royals and their interaction with some of the key prophetic voices. And then when we get to the books of Chronicles, the priestly and Levitical offices will offer their perspective on the same stories. So as we begin this new territory, we’ll witness the end of King David’s reign and then this dramatic ascension of his son Solomon to the throne. Then Solomon will guide Israel into peace and abundance as they faithfully worship the Lord. We’ll see the temple being erected as worship and praise take an iconic place in Hebrew culture. And then Solomon will lead Israel into its finest hour. And then things will start to turn and we’ll observe it all beginning to fall apart as Solomon reaches the end of his life and reign. And once that happens, we’ll have to pay attention because it can get confusing because there’s gonna be a lot of kings because there’s going to be more than one country. After Solomon’s death, Israel will divide into two. These will be known as the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And stories of prophets like Elijah and Elisha will be prominent. And then finally we’ll watch the end of it all - military overthrow come to the land and the kingdoms fall. But all is never lost and we’ll watch the back and forth of the children of Israel as they depart from God and return to God and we’ll find out where both of those roads lead and we’ll apply both of those to our own lives. And so, with that, we begin. And we’re reading from the Amplified Bible this week. 1 Kings 1.
Prayer:
Father, we once again thank You for the gift of Your Word and the way that it is alive and present in our lives, speaking into situations. No matter what’s going on, You continue to counsel us and love us kindly through Your Word and we’re thankful. We invite Your Holy Spirit to come and plant Your Word into our lives so that it can yield the fruit of the Spirit within us as we live into it. Come Jesus we pray. In Your precious name we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here as I say most every day, but there’s always something going on around here.
Right now, it is the Daily Audio Bible Family Reunion where the global campfire comes together. This is an event that we have had on the drawing board for a while. Been looking forward to it for a long time. I’ve gotten myself super excited. It was kind of like slow to warm up to the idea, but when it all became clear, it was like, of course. Of course. This’ll be a blast. And it really just comes from some of the DNA of the Daily Audio Bible from years gone by. Back in 2012, all of 13 and some of 14, we went on this tour. And we called it the Family Gathering Tour. And I’m sure that some of you within the sound of my voice right now were at some of those events. And we traveled all over the place, all over the world. We went to the UK a couple times, we went to Australia, we were all over the United States, we were up in Canada, we went all over the place with the idea of bringing community together in the cities where they existed. So Daily Audio Bible people would come to these events not knowing each other but living in the same city and finding connections. And we live broadcast so many of those events. It was a wonderful time, but it came to an end. It was exhausting. But now we’re gonna do a family reunion. All of us can come together. You are invited. My family invites your family to the rolling hills of Tennessee. And we have a great facility, a great retreat center to have some time. But we also wanted to build time for you to explore. Maybe explore with another Dabber or maybe just explore with your family or just go on an adventure. So, we created some different things for you to do depending on your interests. And that will all get emailed to you when you do register so that you can drink in the south and the beauty of the rolling hills. But we’ll also come together in the evenings, enjoy our dinners and just go into a time where we can hang out and be community, sing together, talk together play together. We’ll have campfires afterward. It’s basically the Family Gathering Tour that we traveled all over the world. We’re just saying let’s come together around the global campfire in the rolling hills of Tennessee. Let’s put faces to those voices that we’ve known for so long. Let’s actually make eye to eye contact with people that we’ve been praying for maybe years or months or weeks. Let’s do this. Let’s come together as the global campfire in the rolling hills of Tennessee. So that’s going to take place September 1 and 2 of this year, just shy of three months from now. And that’s Labor Day Weekend for those of you who live in the United States, so we’ve got a long weekend. Come to the rolling hills of Tennessee where the global campfire comes together at the Daily Audio Bible Family Reunion. You can get all of the details and register at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re on the homepage, just scroll down to the Initiatives and you’ll find Family Reunion. Or you can click the Initiatives button up at the top and find it as well and register. All the details are there. When you register, we’ll send you a little more-lengthy email with all kinds of details, including these adventure ideas - ways to explore the rolling hills. So, check it out. I’m excited. I’m gonna be there. My family’s gonna be there. I hope you’re gonna be there too. If you’re not, we’re gonna have a family reunion without you and what fun would that be? So, I hope to see you there in September.
If you wanna partner with the Daily Audio Bible in our common mission to bring God’s spoken word read fresh every day to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm so that we’re not alone. If that is something that brings life to you, then thank you for your partnership. There is 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 P.O 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 next month, which is tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi Daily Audio Bible family. This is Paul from Houston and I just want to ask for prayer for my marriage. I’ve been married…it’ll be 20 years. I’ve been separated for almost a little over a year. And this week my spouse has gone to lawyers. And I’m, you know, I’m really just asking for prayer because, you know, God’s taken and addiction away but it’s taken a toll on our marriage. And I’m praying over my wife that God would heal her, the way she thinks, and some things. I believe there’s some sort of mental block, there is a…there is a…the thing that I am praying over, it’s like a mental illness. It’s called the borderline personality, where they devalue the person and then they overvalue other people that are not even associated with them or that they don’t have any idea of. And I’m asking that God would heal her and heal her mind, that he put his hand on her, that he would work in her. And, recently, she had heart issues. And we took her and they did a checkup. There was blockage in the heart and all that was clear, thank God. But, you know, I’m just praying that God would soften her heart, that He would work in her, and that He would give her compassion. And I just pray for all the marriages, that we can have compassion for one another, and that we can love each other the way that God intended us to love and that God would give us the…
Hi everyone, it’s Christie from Kentucky. I wanted to give my praise be to God testimony. I mentioned that we had a celebration of life for my mom and dad on the 26th of May. We had waited because it had been wintertime when we lost my dad and he wanted to wait on mom’s service. I think he knew he was getting ready to go home. So, we planned the service for the springtime and May 26th was the day we packed. There was a 90% chance of rain that day and I was so very sad because I had planned on doing a 21-gun salute for my daddy and a butterfly release for my mom. And, so, I was sad. And the Lord, He reminded me of his word He said, child, did I not say anything that you ask in my name, that I will hear and answer your prayers. Nothing is impossible for Me. And I said, yes Lord, you’re right nothing is impossible. And so, He said just ask. And, so, I just spoke to those storms and I told them that they needed to leave in the name of Jesus. And I went ahead by faith ordered the butterflies. It ended up being a glorious, beautiful, sunshiny day. And honoring my mom and dad by the release of butterflies and the 21-gun salute made the ceremony so special. And, so, this is me, Christie, giving God all praise, all glory. Thank you, Jesus for your faithfulness. He knows the desires of our hearts doesn’t He? I love you guys and I pray each of you are having a most blessed and lovely day today.
Hey everyone. It’s Karen in St. Louis. Hey, I want to ask you guys if you can pray for Crystal. This is a woman that I ran into. She was outside of one of my vendors when I was picking up products and she is a prostitute and a drug addict. And I helped her out. And…gosh I could tell you a whole story about what happened after I helped her out, which is like a massive spiritual work that __ but I won’t. I just need you to pray for her. I have…she is really wanting…I prayed with her…she is wanting to get off the street. She’s tired of it. She knows the gospel. Give you a long story about how her past…her husband was a pastor, got hooked on Percocet, became drug addicted, and then she became drug addicted, and now she’s got two kids in foster care and she’s on the street. So, I have got a ministry that I’ve got to hook her up with and I’ve been calling her, getting voicemail, and I just pray that for her heart to be receptive, that she would be sober when she gets the call, and that she would be able to reach out to this ministry that would help her to leave and stand by her with her drug addiction and the whole 9 yards. So, love you guys. Thanks, so much Brian for everything. Looking forward to seeing you guys on Labor Day weekend. Bye.
Hi everyone. It’s Karen in St. Louis. Brian, I just…I wanted to say something about Psalm 121. Kind of a testimony. About 20 years ago I was like super super sick, maybe, 20, 15 years ago something like that. Anyway, I was so sick, and couldn’t even work and doctors didn’t know what was wrong with me. They checked me for MS. They checked everything and then they just kept throwing medications at me, which was making things even worse. But there’s a song by Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, which is called Psalm of 121. And that song ministered to me like nobody’s business. I was like on my face every day praying and the Lord was saying to me, trust Me, trust Me. I know the doctors don’t know what’s wrong with you. I know it’s wrong with you. Trust Me. And, so, but I also wanted to say that that whole Psalm, I mean, my help comes from the Lord. It just continually, just points to Him. He will not let your foot slip. The Lord watches over you. The Lord will keep you from all harm. In our sermon this morning at church, our pastor was speaking about how God does protect us. And, so, I just wanted to encourage those that are out there that are sick and just praying and just struggling with pain, that our help comes from the Lord and just to continue to keep your eyes focused to him. And be well. I mean, he will give you comfort beyond belief and He can heal you. I mean, He directed me to the right Dr., who finally figured it out. It all had to do with my adrenal glands and adrenal fatigue…