Ezra 10:1-44 , 1 Corinthians 6:1-20 , Psalms 31:9-18 , Proverbs 21:3
Today is August 10th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it’s great to be here with you as it is every day that we take another step forward. And, so, I’m glad we can come around this global campfire and be together and welcome the presence of the Lord among us, and allow God’s word to speak. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week and today we’ll pick up where we left off. We’re working our way through the story of Ezra, chapter 10 verse 1 through 44.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we continue through this letter that Paul has written to the church at Corinth, we can see Paul, he is not afraid to be direct. Actually, we find this in pretty much all of the letter writers in the New Testament. And later in the year will hear from James. He’s not afraid to be direct. We’ll hear from Peter. He’s not afraid. And we’ll hear from the apostle John again, who is also a son of thunder. He’s not afraid to be direct, but as we can see, neither is Paul. For example, he kinda shames the Corinthians today for taking each other to court to resolve issues that they should have been able to handle within the community of faith. And he condemns a number of behaviors strongly. But just because Paul was direct, does not mean that shame and condemnation was his intention? It actually wasn’t. Paul was trying to call the people in the churches to a higher standard. And not just a higher moral stand, like, just more rules to obey. He was trying to reveal to them a different, a completely different reality, one in which freedom reigned. So, in Paul’s worldview, when Jesus came that changed the entire scope of all humanity, right? Through Christ, essentially, a new humanity was created of which Jesus was the firstborn. We learned this when we were going through Paul’s last letter, the book of Romans. So, I mean, mankind had been under this curse of rebellion and of sin and that created this breach, this chasm, between humanity and divinity, between God and man, and the repercussions were ever visible everywhere, they still are. Like, I’m not telling you something you haven’t heard before. Like, this is Christian orthodoxy 101. A breach was created by sin. Man could not repair the breach. God came and rescued humanity through Jesus and did away with what separated man and God, which was sin. And Jesus resurrection eliminated the power of sin in the life of a believer. So, that is freedom, which is a different definition or a different kind of freedom than the world offers. And that kind of freedom basically says, look, you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, with whoever you choose. No matter what the problems are, you’re free to do as you like. Paul’s perspective on this and why he’s being so direct today is to say, that is not actually freedom, it’s really bondage in disguise. So, Paul says in our reading today. I am allowed to do anything but not everything is good for me. I can do whatever I want but I must not become a slave to anything. And Paul was telling these Corinthian believers that they could do whatever they wanted, but just because you have the ability to make those kinds of choices doesn’t mean they’re good choices. So, I mean, like, how can we gage ourselves? How can…how can we keep an eye on ourselves and know when we start to veer off the narrow path that leads to life into the wide path leads to death? According to Paul, we have to stay aware of what we’re becoming a slave to because slavery isn’t freedom. But we can use our freedom to become slaves and enslave others. So, let’s invite the Holy Spirit into that today. What am I becoming a slave to? What is it that I already know. I’m already moving in that direction. I’m enslaving myself. Let’s invite the Holy Spirit into that. And as we do, let’s remember, we have been set free from that. The choice is ours whether we’re going to re-enslave ourselves.
Father, we do. We invite you into that. We invite you into what we encounter in the Scriptures most every day and we invite you into this. Show us Holy Spirit. What are the things that we are beginning to enslave ourselves with when we are free? And we surrender those things to you. We’re not walking back into bondage. We’re going to live free. We’re going to live as a part of this new thing that you are doing in the world of which Jesus is the firstborn and we have also been born into it. We’re going to live in a free world and no longer be slaves of sin. Come Holy Spirit. we pray. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it’s where you find what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check it out.
Stop by the Prayer Wall. Pray for your brothers and sisters. And you can stop at the Prayer Wall using the Daily Audio Bible app as well. And that’s one of the distinctive beautiful things about our community, is that we are people of prayer.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. Thank you. Thank you for keeping the global campfire burning. There is a link on the homepage at 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:
Hello DAB family. This is Mike from Texas. It is August the 6th and I’m listening to, I think it’s the 30th of July. I’m always behind but, anyways, I just want to call in. I’ve been procrastinating here about calling in and I need to call in more frequently. And just sometimes it’s just time gets away and I don’t call. Anyways, I just want to call in and give thanks to Brian and Jill for this awesome, fantastic ministry that you have created __ to bring us every day 24/7/365. Thank you very much. And thank you for all the people behind the scenes and anybody that calls in on the prayer lines. The people to call __ thank you guys for calling and encouraging us and telling us your stories __. And we’re praying for you. And for the people that don’t call in. __ we’re praying. I just encourage anybody to call in and to put your prayer request out there because you never know who’s going to be praying for you. It could be somebody on the other side of the world and it could be praying us that’s doing it at the same time. So, anyway, I just want to encourage everybody to give to this ministry. It’s a fantastic ministry to give. You buy a couple coffee every day or whatever. You spend that money and I would encourage you to giving a dollar a day wouldn’t be a bad thing. $30 a month it’s a good start. $30 a month. And I challenge anybody to give at least $30 a month. __ DAB family community. And I just want to pay for marriage. Lord, I want a lift of all marriages to You Father God and continue to be into marriages, restoring the marriages making us like you Lord…
Hi Daily Audio Bible family. My name is Craig Gross and I am the proud Goldstar father of Cpl. Frank Robert Gross who is now in heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave the full measure for our country, 16 July 2011 and we buried him in Arlington August 19, 2011 on his birthday. And the reason why I’m calling today is because I would like all of us to pray for our soldiers who are valiantly defending our freedom of religion, our first amendment right to worship who we want, when we want, and where we want. Let us never forget that there were two great people in history who died for us, first the Lord Jesus Christ to give us spiritual victory over sin, and then the soldier who died for us to give us victory over tyranny. I want to thank the DAB family for being here. And let’s all remember, freedom is not free.
Hey DABbers, this is Adventuresome Mom from Arizona. I’ve called and once before but I’m calling again. I am just really wanting to encourage everyone to give to the Daily Audio Bible. I know God has put it on my heart for months and months and every time Brian says, hey hit the Give button, I’m like, yeah I need to do that, I need to do that. And I hadn’t. And I finally did. And I just want to encourage everyone else to give to this fabulous ministry. I know we all benefit so much and it takes so much to actually put this community together. And even if, the way I figure it is, if I would give $10 a month, that is a little over $0.25 a day. And wow, I mean know I can give $0.25 a day and I know most of us can. So, anyway, just an encouragement for everyone out there. God bless you all. I love being part of this community. Brian, Jill, your family, everyone behind the scenes, God bless you and have a great day.
Good morning DAB family. I pray that each and every one of you are well in the name of our holy Christ Jesus. Brian and Jill, thank you so much for this platform. I don’t know what I would do without this ministry and I thank the Lord for using you in such a mighty way. I’m calling with a heavy heart for the mother whose name I don’t recall but you have the 17-year-old daughter Faith who has attempted suicide three times and is undergoing a treatment that’s costing her $1000 a month. I am so sorry, first of all, that you’re going through this but you are the pastor of the church and I know that you trust in the Lord and I’m asking you in the name of Jesus, hold onto that trust. Hold onto that faith. Her name is so powerful. She has the name of Faith. Hold onto that faith. Hold onto that God we serve. Continue to serve the Lord as you are going through this storm. God will make away. I don’t know how. I don’t know when. And I’m telling you because my 27-year-old daughter attempted suicide at the age of 14. And just a few months ago I felt like she was back in that valley. But I know I had to stand in faith. I had to stand firm and trust in the Lord that He is not going to let us down. He’s going to bring us through this. We just have to believe it. Believe it. Believe in what we do not see. Believe in what we do not hear. Believe will be do not feel. We’re going to believe it and stand firm. And I’m praying with you and I know that our daughters are going to come through in the name of Jesus. Esther from New York. God bless you.