1 Kings 8:1-66, Acts 7:51-8:13, Psalms 129:1-8, Proverbs 17:1
Today is the 11th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we get ourselves moving into the week and settling in for the rhythm of the Scriptures in our lives. So, this week we’re reading from the Good News Translation. We’re, of course, reading through the book of 1 Kings in the Old Testament, which is giving us the story of Solomon’s era. And then we are also reading from the book of Acts in the New Testament. That’s where we are now. And we’re listening to this man named Stephen give testimony before the Sanhedrin because he’s been accused of some pretty bad things. And what this provides us is really a beautiful review. It’s his testimony, of course, and we’ll get to the end of his testimony, but we’re getting a review of the stories that we have touched on so far as we’ve moved through the Old Testament this year. So, let’s dive in. 1 Kings 8.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of 1 Kings, we were able to get a front row seat for the dedication of the Temple that Solomon had built. And in such a real way since the beginning of the year, really since we met Abraham, we’ve been heading toward this day. Obviously, this isn’t the end of the story. We still have a ways to go in the Bible. But way back in January on the day that we met Abram than watched his story as he became Abraham and everything that came next, all of this plentiful people that had been promised to Abraham as his offspring, if we had imagined, what will it look like when this promise is fulfilled, well that’s what we’re reading right now. So, let’s enjoy the mountaintop experience as one of the stories that we’ve been following the whole year comes to its mountaintop, to the apex. It’s not gonna stay this way unfortunately, but it is this way now. So, let’s observe this. We’ve been working our way toward this since the beginning of the year.
When we get into the book of Acts and we witness the first person die for their faith in the early church era. And this, of course, is Stephen. And we also meet this person named Saul who is raging against the church. And after Stephen’s stoning, after his martyrdom, persecution breaks out in Jerusalem against the church largely at the instigation of this guy Saul. It’s probably not too big of a spoiler alert that this guy Saul… that this story’s not done either. And he will become the Apostle Paul, who is responsible for the lion’s share of the New Testament and his influence in the Christian faith is significant to say the least. And we’ll be getting to know him for the rest of the year pretty much. Now we see that when persecution broke out in Jerusalem, people fled. And, so, wherever it was that they ran to, that they felt they would be safe, they began to spread the gospel and this is how the gospel spread. Persecution did not stamp it out, it sent it far and wide wherever the people went. And we can certainly be thankful for that.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the way that it speaks to us on multiple levels, but always it orients us to You. And it is Your face, it is Your presence that we seek. So, we open ourselves to You, our minds, our bodies, our spirits, our hearts. We open ourselves to You and ask Your Holy Spirit to plant the words of the Scriptures in our lives and guide us so that we may dwell in Your presence. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check in and check it out.
Check out the resources that are available in the shop. Check out the Daily Audio Bible prayer wall. See where to stay connected on social media.
Check out the Daily Audio Bible first ever family reunion that we’ve talked about a little bit here that will be coming up Labor Day weekend, September 1st and 2nd here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. You can find out all about that as well. Just go to dailyaudiobible.com, scroll down to the Initiatives and you’ll find it there or just click the Initiatives up at the top in the navigation bar. Or you can find it in the app as well. Things are starting to fill up and it looks like we will reach capacity for our first ever family reunion. So, we’re looking forward to that. Check it out.
If you wanna partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It’s on the homepage. Thank you. Thank you profoundly for your partnership. 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:
Paul in Houston, my name is Peter R. from Southern California. And any time I hear people call in with requests for marriage and they’re in a tough spot my heart always goes out because I’ve been through that stuff. I’m divorced and it’s a hard, hard, hard thing to go through. And I think some of my most compassioned prayers come in these situations. And I wanted to encourage you that this is a phase of time. It’s a phase of life. You’re not going to be here forever. And I know in your message you said you dealt with issues with addiction and __ going to hurt your marriage. And I think a lot of times in those situations your spouse could have felt devalued. And it felt like the addictive substances were more important to you than your spouse. And it sounds like now the tables are flipped. For whatever reason, whatever’s going on with her, you’re now being valued. And the truth is, it sounds like you’ve tried to turn things around, and that you do value your spouse and your marriage more than the addictive issues and the Lord’s done a good work in your life. It’s hard, it’s hard sometimes when we really have to face and feel that pain like you’re feeling and suffering. And this is so telling of what we do to the Lord when we don’t value what he’s done for us. But stay strong man. It’s a phase of life. You will get through this. No matter what the Lord’s gonna take care of you. We’ll pray over you. We’ll pray over your wife for healing. We’ll pray over your marriage for healing man. I love you. Stay strong bud.
Hi all. This is Jim from New Hampshire. It’s been a while since I’ve called in. And, yeah, we’re trying to dig a new well and it’s gettin desperate. We’re sort of hauling in rainwater to flush the toilets because our current well this is working. The new well, they’ve dug down to 800 feet now and there’s nothing happening. It’s been two days straight of drilling and I feel like words pouring cash into a hole. Any prayer that any of you could offer would be much appreciated. I realize there are people in the world to go through much worse problems but you realize how much you take for granted when you don’t have water. Thank you all. God bless you all and have a good day or night or whatever.
Hi this is Victoria S. I’m just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I want to pray for the lady who’s having problems in her marriage with the controlling husband who’s a doctor. Lord, I just ask You to touch her husband Lord. Just touch him and humble him and help him to be that loving husband. Lord that You give her Your holy boldness and Lord help her to speak boldly and let him know what her needs are because the Bible says that husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave His life for us. And if he’s not being the loving husband he needs to be God will deal with him. I want to pray for the single mother that she said she has no joy. Dear, God has given you a beautiful child that is there to be a joy with you and not only that, He is your joy. I pray for you my sister, that God will fill you with joy and let you know that you are special. Not only are you a mother you are a person. You are His creation and He loves you. I want to pray for you that you know that, honey, He loves you. God said He loves you with a mighty love and He wouldn’t hold any good thing from you. And joy is what you need. Lord, I ask You to bless my sister. Bless her with the joy and open up to her life and let her know how special You are to her. In the mighty name of Jesus. Lord I want pray for my friend Annette. Hi Annette. It’s so good to hear from you. I wanted to pray for your friend David. And I want also pray for Jeanette’s husband who’s having brain surgery and how she’s asking for it to be complete and be accomplished. Lord we would ask You to pray for these two men. Oh Lord I want to ask You to pray and touch them Lord. I would ask You to heal them as only You can do. Lord, You be that miracle working God. Oh Lord, in the name of Jesus and show them that You can do anything but fail. Oh Lord, have Your way in her life and theirs in the mighty name of Jesus. Oh Lord, touch Brian and his family and all the people of God. And Lord I’ll give You the glory and the…
Hi DAB family. Hope you’re all doing well. This is Rockette calling from the UK. Brian, Jill, thank you for all you do and all the team of DAB. If not for DAB, I don’t know where we would be, but I thank God for your life. Jill, I pray that __ with touch you and you would recover steadily from your sickness in the name of Jesus. Father, Lord God, I just pray for all my sisters on DAB. I pray that you __ to every one of them according to Your riches and glory. Family, I’d like you to pray for my husband please. He has been going throwing to a lot of pain for the last one year. Initially it was diagnosed as having him right and now he has an enlarged prostrate and has been in constant pain for the last two or three months. And as you know, men with pain don’t deal well. I don’t know what’s going on. He went for a scan yesterday and he’s just been admitted to the hospital and just been discharged again today to come back home. And I just pray Father God that family that you help to lift him up in prayer that he will go through this pain __ that he will not run away from God, but he will run to God and he would know that it’s only God that can touch them, that can heal him. Family, I’d like you to stand with me on this and also to stand for my marriage as well, that God will __ His work of healing in my marriage and my family in the name of Jesus. Thank you all for praying. Thank you all for all you do. Love you all. God bless you. Rockette from the UK. Bye.
Hello Daily Audio Bible. This is Jeff B. From Canada preparing to go to Africa Monday but have to tell you, listening to all the prayer requests coming in for the ladies, my sisters, it’s really been touching my heart and pulling at me. And I just wanted you to know that I’m standing with you. And that as men in the body of Christ, we need to understand that when God took Eve from Adam He didn’t take her from his foot he took her from his side and that we are called for co-mission and we are called as co-heirs and that we really need to love our wives as Christ loves the church. And this is a message that’s heavy on my heart. And I believe we are in a time and a day where women are being restored and being put in their rightful place, which is beside us men. And together we lay hold and take the kingdom by force. You know, the devil is really, you know, coming against marriages, you know, because when you look at this the Bible says one puts in thousand to flight, two points ten thousand. So, just going to quickly pray Father, that You have Your hand upon these ladies, the sisters. I pray that You have Your hand of protection around them, that You would just have Your Angels about them. Lord, I thank You that no weapon formed against them shall prosper. Lord, that they would become the head and not the tail. God, that You would just place them where they need to go, that You would trade them beauty for ashes, that not one single tear that they are crying is falling to the ground. You are capturing them in a bottle Lord and everything, everything, Romans 8:28 says everything, He’ll cause all things to work together for good and that will be the case in the name of Jesus. Bless you guys. Love you guys. Leaving on Monday to the country of Uganda. I would covet your prayers. Have a very blessed weekend and just wanted to say again, I love you sisters. Bye.