1 Kings 11:1-12:19, Acts 9:1-25, Psalms 131:1-3, Proverbs 17:4-5
Today is the 13th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. And, of course, it’s a pleasure as it is every day to come together around the global campfire, join together in community and heart and allow God’s Word to speak to us. So, in 1 Kings, which is the book that we are working our way through right now in the Old Testament, we’ve been following Solomon’s reign. And I mentioned yesterday we had reached the apex, we were at the summit of a story that we began back in Genesis and worked our way all the way forward. And today we kind of move into the down side. King Solomon has brought the civilization to its apex and he has followed God, but, well, we’ll see how the story goes. 1 Kings 11:1-12:19 today. And we’re reading from the Good News translation this week.
Commentary:
Okay. In both Old and New Testaments, we’re kind of turning the page and moving into some brand-new territory. Obviously when we began today, even yesterday, I was saying this is sort of the pinnacle of where we’ve been going. And we’ve kind of crested in the Old Testament in that era and begun to move sliding downward the other side as Solomon turns away from God in his later years. And so his son, Rehoboam, becomes king in his place but that doesn’t work out so good. He takes some bad advice, threatens the people, ten of the tribes abandon Rehoboam. His attempts to regain control, they’re not successful, and he has to run back to Jerusalem. And, so, this man, Jeroboam…(inaudible) Ahijah came and said, You’re going to be king of ten of the tribes. Well, that’s it in front of us. We’ll see what kind of a king he is. But where we sit right now, this united people, the twelve tribes of Israel, that we’ve traveled with for so long, they’ve been united and they’ve brought kings into the mix but they’ve been united under one king. That’s about to change. This one people is about to become two different nations. And, of course, we will witness that as we continue our journey forward.
And then in the book of Acts, we had met this man named Saul who had been a witness at Stephen’s stoning and has been raging against the church. He has an encounter with Jesus. And, of course, we probably already know that this man Saul is going to become the Apostle Paul. And so, we’re kind of turning the page, moving a bit into his story and he’s somebody we’re gonna get to know well. Much of the rest of the New Testament are his letters. And he’s a very interesting character. A very controversial character as it turns out in his time. And we’ll get to all of that as we move forward into his story and into his letters.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We are most grateful each and every day for the gift of Your Word and we are grateful for our community. It is a beautiful thing to know that we are not alone and that we are taking a journey through the Scriptures together with brothers and sisters all over the world. And, so, we thank You. We are grateful. And we ask that Your Holy Spirit plant the words found in the Scriptures in our hearts and lives, helping us to surrender and yield the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as we continue to partner with You in reflecting Your glory upon the earth. Come Holy Spirit, we ask. 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.
One of the things that we have been mentioning is the Daily Audio Bible Family Reunion. And it’s coming up September 1 and 2, which is Labor Day Weekend. And, so, you are invited to the rolling hills of Tennessee to be together with brothers and sisters from all over. And we are certainly excited about it and it seems that you are certainly excited about it too. I’m watching reunions within reunions being formed and that’s great. All of the years that we’ve gone to Israel, all those years, we built a community among ourselves taking those journeys. Some of those friendships have flourished and are coming back together at the family reunion. All of you More ladies over all of those years, some of those are coming back together, so it’s shaping up to be what we thought maybe it could be. And, so, I hope you can come. You can get all the details for the family reunion at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Just scroll down or click the Initiatives button at the top. The cost for the family reunion is $50 per person and three years and under are free. So if you try to make this as much like a real family reunion as we can. We have this retreat center, these beautiful grounds and facilities here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. And that entrance price will include two dinners, two country dinners that we’ll share together in our evenings together and access to all of the grounds. And we’ve prepared all kinds of ideas for how to approach and enjoy the rolling hills of Tennessee and the greater Nashville area. There’s a lot to do here. This particular part of the country and our city is one of the destination places in America right now. So, there’s a lot to do and we want to help you have fun doing that and exploring and enjoying and then coming back together at dinner time and enjoying community and family and the evening time together. We’ll have camp fires afterward. It’s just…you know…a family reunion. That’s what it is. So, hope you can come. Come and be a part of a first for us and enjoy community together. Check it out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section.
If you wanna partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share as a global campfire, as a community together, thank you. Thank you profoundly. If we didn’t do this together, then we wouldn’t be able to do this at all. And, so, 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. This is Sandra from Denver and I’m calling for Jamie who left her message on May 30th. Jamie, this Scripture chain is for you today. It’s from Ezekiel 36:26 and it says, ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh’. Oh, Jamie you are so loved and you’re so wise to come to the only one who can give us help in a new heart. Love you kiddo. We’re praying for you.
Daily Audio Bible family this is Alfi calling from Delaware. Today I’m calling for two people. One, Joyce from California, I know this is a late call for me but I just wanted to say congratulations so much for making it through medical school. Your journey has been great. Your journey has had a lot of barriers and a lot of ups and downs but we have walked with you. And it’s such a realization of what God has for you is for you and the devil’s got nothing to do with that. So, you have been an encouragement and you have struggled but you have kept up the faith and I’m so glad for the Daily Audio Bible family because they are strong together. We are strong together. So, Joyce, congratulations. And I just wanted to say that as you start your career may you be the hands and feet of Jesus, that those people that come to you, that they may see the love of Jesus Christ in you. Viola, I also wanted to say congratulations for finishing your master’s program. I am so happy for both of you and thank you so much for always being faithful, for always being strong. And I just want to say, for all those who are in school too and going through your own academic struggles, know that God has your back and that this family has your back. So, I just wanted to call for Viola and I just wanted to call for Joyce and to say congratulations once more. And may God bless you. This is Alfi from Delaware. Make it a great day. Bye-bye.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. I thank God for you, each and every one of you, and as I’m able, I pray for you as often as I can. I’m calling today about particular prayer, prayer request that was made on June 7th by a woman who is married to a physician. I‘m married to a physician as well and he’s very controlling. But I’ve been able to get through a lot of his very controlling and abusive behavior because I’ve been steadfast in the Lord and He has allowed me to forgive and to overlook and to not be lightly offended. That said, I know also that it can be very, very trying. So, my sister, I would give you this piece of advice, take your husband out of the position that God should be occupying and remember he’s only a man. That said, I will join you in prayer to God. Dear God, dear Lord, dear Jesus, we call on You in times of trouble and we know Lord God that You hold marriage as very __. Lord God your first miracle was performed at the wedding at Canaan. And Lord God we thank you for the miracles that you are bringing forth in all of our lives. Lord God, strengthen my sister. Strengthen her Lord God, that she may begin ministering to her husband, that she may not fall into the same pride, and that her marriage will be restored. Lord God, I pray this for all marriages that are in trouble Lord God, that would we be able, husband and wife, to minister to one another Lord God and to keep our eyes focused on you. We pray these and all other __ in Jesus name. Amen. I love you Brian. I love you Jill. I love you DAB family. Thank you. Thank you, God.
Hi family. This is Jeanette from Charlotte. And I called last week requesting prayer for my husband Vince in his upcoming brain surgery to address symptoms related to Parkinson’s disease. I wanted to thank you so much for your prayers and to give you an update regarding his progress. You may remember that I said the surgery happens in three stages. Stage one was in outpatient procedure and was completed on June the 5th and was very successful, thanks to your prayers. He had quite a bit of pain the first day but after that the pain was almost nonexistent. Our next step is the stage two surgery, which will be the most invasive, and the one in which they drill holes in the skull and place electrodes into his brain. As you might imagine, under normal circumstances this would be a surgery that is very scary to think about but with your prayers we are confident that the Lord will give us the peace that surpasses understanding. So, please pray for Vince’s surgery on Wednesday, June 13th at 7 AM Eastern time. It is the big one. Please pray that it will be so successful that it will confound the doctors and that God will receive every bit of glory because He is the great physicians. He delights giving good gifts to His children. We believe Him. We trust Him. We thank Him in advance. We are so thankful that He is a God of kindness and mercy. We are also thankful that He allows us to intercede for each other. And family, we need your intercession desperately. Thank you so much for offering prayers to God on our behalf. It is such an amazing gift that we do not take for granted. God bless you all. We love you and we are thankful for you.