Ezra 3:1-4:24 , 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4 , Psalms 28:1-9 , Proverbs 20:24-25
Today is the 6th day of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. I keep thinking it’s July still, even though we have almost come a week into this new month. I guess I just need to catch up with myself. I’m sure I’m not alone. It is the 6th day of August. And we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Ezra 3:1-4:23 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So in1 Corinthians, Paul has been discussing the nonsense of the gospel starting yesterday. And he’s basically saying that God planned to redeem the world and that redemption, that
plan was hidden in ancient but it was revealed in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. But only for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Okay, so we can accept that because we know that that’s Christian doctrine. That’s what we believe. But if you just consider what I just said, like for your own human understanding of the world, if you have no context for your faith at all and you hear this, well then you see the rub. It makes no rational sense if you don’t believe that there is more to our existence and the physical senses that we have to interpret it. But once you’ve felt the truth of the gospel flooding into your soul, then you can’t see the world any other way. So it’s difficult to describe to a person who doesn’t see the world through spiritual eyes. And Paul explained it like this. The rulers of this world have not understood it. If they had, they would not have crucified the Lord. So how is it that we reconcile the disconnect between our own reason and the awareness that a spiritual reality exists that is more tangible than anything else in the world? How do we reconcile that? That’s what Paul was talking about today. He said, no one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit. And no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own spirit. And we have received God’s spirit, not the world’s spirit. So we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. People who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s spirit. It all sounds like foolishness to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. So in other words, all of our faculties, all of our human senses and our mind and our reason alone will not be able to reason the ways of God. God’s ways are higher than our ways. We will not be able to figure it out. So therefore, we’ll need something more than our own reason. Something beyond our own minds. And for Paul, there was only one way this would reconcile. Which brings us to one of the most quoted Scriptures in all of the Bible. 1 Corinthians 2:16. We understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. And because of that, we can look into the Spirit. We can look through the eyes of faith at what we cannot see and live within this reality.
Prayer:
Father, we want to live into this reality today. And we realize that this is absolutely true. We go in search for You, trying to use our own human ingenuity and wisdom, but there’s a ceiling. We cannot go beyond it. We cannot know Your ways without You. We cannot have an understanding of the spirit without Your Holy Spirit. And so we go through our lives falsely tethered to an awareness that can be perceived by our physical senses. But we are instructed over and over and over and over and over and over in the scriptures than there is way more to the story than that. So we invite Your Holy Spirit to well up within us, to surround us, to guide us, to counsel us, to lead us into all truth, to lift our eyes to the horizon and allow us to see Your kingdom all around us, advancing forward. And we are a part of that story. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.
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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:
Good morning Daily Audio Bible. This is John from Illinois. I’m a first-time collar. I’ve been with the DAB, my wife and I, for three years. I’m very grateful that a friend, Laura, invited us to this place. I’m so grateful for this family, for Brian and Jill, for what it has been, life-changing for us. I think what struck me most was not only the program and God’s word opening up for these callers, this DAB family calling in, caring and loving people they don’t know. I was listening this morning and my heart goes out to an Allen from Sydney. And the Lord told me very plainly, He says don’t doubt your faith, don’t question My faithfulness when it doesn’t turn out the way we want it to. And a lot of times in this life we have an idea or thought in our mind that we think that God wants us to do and when it doesn’t pan out then we question our own hope, our own faith, our own walk with God and that’s not at all how it is. The word says that he ever lives to make intercessions for us. And Psalm 27 clearly says wait on the Lord, be of good courage for he strengthens your heart. Wait, __. God has got a great and marvelous plan. Wait and be still. I’m just to get grateful for this family, grateful to be a part of this. God bless Brian and Jill. God bless this whole family.
Hi Daily Audio Bible. This is Lydia and Maryland. I’ve been listening for seven years and never called into the prayer line but my family has been hit with a very difficult situation. Our 17-year-old has tried to commit suicide three times and the doctors recommended a particular therapy that’s very expensive but we figure that God will provide. She doesn’t seem to be responding to the therapy very well but we are in the first few weeks of it. So, I am calling just to ask for, first and foremost prayers for her and over her life and that she hears God’s voice and knows that God loves her and has many works for her to do. I am also asking for prayer for our finances as we know we are willing to go into debt for this because we are believing that God is going to provide. But it’s $1000 per month, which is hard. So, again, please lift up our daughter Faith. And we are pastors, so, even pastors sometimes need prayer. And unfortunately, we can’t always go to our churches because this is our daughter’s story. But I love you and I thank God that I am able to reach out to a worldwide community. That is awesome…and…
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Scott Santee and I am calling from sunny Havana Cuba. I hope you are all are doing well. I have called before and haven’t really told much…just like a few times. I’ve been listening for…well…since Ezekiel was born and I love it. I know everybody’s voices before they give their needs and it’s just great. I was calling to let you know that I have been here for the last three weeks installing water filters. I’m actually a full-time missionary. But it’s been so remarkable, I just wanted to share a praise report about it. We, not only are able to meet their number one physical need of clean water, but also use that as a way to meet their number one spiritual need of a relationship with Jesus Christ. And this has been amazing. We’ve seen a response rate of just over 50% of the people that we share with our coming to Christ. And I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere in the world. And this last week was pretty intense. We saw a lot of opposition and people could feel, yeah know, the spiritual forces of evil working against them. And, anyhow, the Lord still prevailed and it was great and I just thought you’d want to rejoice with that. You know, you know, hundreds of people now have clean water. They don’t have to boil their water or put Clorox in it or anything. And now, the house churches and the anchor churches are following up with all the people. The community is abuzz. They’re so happy, they’re so excited, they’re talking about Jesus. It’s just great. If you’d like to learn more you can reach me at scott@filterofhope.org…
Hi. This is James Pitrineli and a day behind right now. It’s August 4th. I’m listening to the August 3rd Podcast. And funny that…Asia, in Chicago. So, we have two Asia’s now. That’s really cool, actually. I heard your call and my dad growing up is not a believer but he was verbally abusive for years on end. And I don’t know how old you are right now, if sounds like you’re an adult, or at least nearly so. That’s just really hard, first of all and think there’s a lot of people in our community who can identify. But it takes a lot of courage to admit that what’s happening is abuse and that it’s not your fault. You don’t deserve it. Even though you’re imperfect, we’re all imperfect and the Lord doesn’t abuse us. He doesn’t hurl accusations at us. That’s the enemy. In my father’s case, he had mental health issues an entire life through and the enemy will use those. And it sounds like you with your father does love the Lord, he’s got some spiritual things definitely going on. He may have some mental health things going on. But, they’re not your fault, none of them. You’re not responsible for him. Love you. Keep hanging on.