12/10/2018 DAB Transcript

Amos 1:1-3:15, Revelation 2:1-17, Psalms 129:1-8, Proverbs 29:19-20

Today is the 10th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we dive into our work week and just keep taking these steps forward. Yesterday we began books in the old and New Testament. So, the book of Joel and the book of Revelation, which happens to be the final book of the Bible and, obviously, the final book of the New Testament. So, we talked about both of those as we got going and obviously we’ll be spending the rest of our time in the New Testament in the book of Revelation. But we read Joel all the way through yesterday, which brings us to another book of minor prophecy in the Old Testament, the book of Amos.

Introduction to the Book of Amos:

Interestingly enough, Amos is probably the earliest collection of written prophetic utterances found in all of the Bible. Amos prophesied in the mid eighth century BC at a time when the northern and the southern kingdoms were both intact, like neither one of them had been attacked and carried into exile and they were experiencing widespread peace and prosperity. And ironically, Amos wasn’t a person trained for religious orders. Like, he wasn’t a priest or scribe or anything like that. It seems like…it seems he was an ordinary person, living the ordinary life of a shepherd and farmer. What’s not known is whether he was like a common laborer, like he just cared for someone else’s sheep or something like or   whether he actually own flocks and groves but it’s certain that he was educated and it’s certain that he was aware of the times, aware of his culture, aware of what was happening in the world. Amos lived in a city called Toccoa, which is about 10 miles south of Jerusalem, placing his home in the southern kingdom of Judah but oddly his mission was to prophesy in the northern kingdom of Israel. And that was probably just across the border in Bethel because Bethel was the border and there was a golden calf set up in Bethel and profits were sent into Bethel to prophesy against it. So, that’s not too far of a stretch. He probably went into the northern kingdom prophesying in Bethel because it was a hub for idol worship and commerce. As we just talked about, the northern and southern kingdoms were experiencing a kind of peace and prosperity that they hadn’t seen since the days of Solomon. So, I mean, it could seem odd that God would send an ordinary person to deliver such a severe message of impending judgment. In such a time of peace and prosperity it would have been undoubtedly a difficult message to deliver but this is what Amos was instructed to do. And, so, peace and prosperity had open the door for corruption which was running rampant and the poor were being misused out, marginalized, and oppressed, and greed ruled the hearts of the nation’s leaders. So, Amos comes along at with a word from the Lord that effectively communicated that praying upon the less fortunate was at absolutely unacceptable, which makes social justice a major theme in the book of Amos. And it would seem like after these many thousands of years, like we would understand the cycle, but it seems like we’re still grappling with the same kinds of issues. Amos vividly reveals that we’re nowhere near as powerful as we think we are and God is a much more powerful than we could possibly even understand. And we have no right to mistreat or misuse any of his creation whether that be a people created in His image or the world that He created for the people He created in His image to live on because, as Amos reveals, the world belongs to God and He is indeed sovereign over it all, including all people and all things. So, as we read the book of Amos, let’s consider our own path and choose to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. So, reading from the New International Version this week. Amos chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 15 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. It’s a common prayer in our community to thank You for Your word because the community is centered around Your word and centered around the rhythm of being in Your word. And, so, we love Your word and we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the way that it transforms us from within even when we don’t know it. It is just in our lives, in our hearts, and our minds continually speaking truth. And when truth is spoken over and over and over it has a cumulative effect and we thank You for that because You are changing us and ridding us of what is false within us, so that all that remains is true. All that can shake will shake and what remains will be unshakable and will be true. Come, Holy Spirit into what we’ve read today and into all that we will read and consider and meditate upon this week. We love You Lord and thank You for Your guidance, the guidance of Your Holy Spirit, the guidance of the Scriptures. We love You Jesus. We pray these things in Your name. Amen. 

 Announcements:

dailyaudibible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here.

And what’s going on around here is it’s time to get ready for our annual family Christmas party and that’s just a beautiful tradition that we’ve had for many many years where we’ll read the Christmas story and Jill and I will kind of talk about…just look back at the year and look forward together and then we hear from each other, our holiday wishes, our Christmas wishes from all over the world. And, so, it’s your time to participate and every year…every year after…as we’re putting it together…there’s people still calling in. Don’t wait. Just go ahead and call in and say whatever it is that you want to say to wish your Daily Audio Bible family a Merry Christmas. The number that you can use is the prayer line number and there’s only really one rule for the most part and that is, don’t call in a prayer request and a Christmas greeting in the same call or neither one of those things will get to where they need to go. So, if you have a prayer request, certainly call that in. If you want to call a Merry Christmas call in, then call that in separate. So, you can use any of the prayer lines. If you are in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number. If you are in Australia or the lands down under 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial. So, yeah, we’ll do that all this week and then we’ll start putting that together so we can enjoy a family Christmas party this year.

Also, the More Gathering for women, registration is open for that, and we’ve been talking about that for a week. And don’t miss this opportunity for the end of an era up in the mountains of Georgia. This is gonna be fantastic and the enthusiasm…Jill and I were talking about this the other day because so many of you that haven’t come before are coming…and so the enthusiasm around this…we’re just really looking forward to it. So, you can find out all the details for the More Gathering for women at moregathering.com or dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section.

And then, of course, we still have some Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Boxes for 2018 available as well in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link, it is on the homepage. 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:

Hi this is Lisa in Capistrano Beach. Family I love you all and I just want to let everyone know that as I’m listening, and I hear your prayer requests I’m praying for you right then and there. I pray for you throughout the day in the beginning and at the end and I just ask that the Lord will bless you and that His will will be done in your lives. Today I heard Margaret May out of New York and Margaret your call just stopped me in my tracks. I was cooking, and I just stopped. Tears came to my eyes as I listened to your plea for prayer. And I want you to know that I am praying for you. I know you feel alone and that you don’t have any friends, but we will pray for you. I know that so many others will pray for you as well Margaret. And then I believe the young girls name…I’m gonna say is Jordan…but you’ll know who you are. Your sister left home, and your horse died, and you felt that we might think that’s trivial but some of us don’t. I can appreciate the love that you have for a companion animal that God gave us. And, so, my heart goes out to you and I’m praying for you as well. Dear family I pray for all of you even if I’m not mentioning you by name. I hear your requests and I’m praying and I love you all. Thank you, Brian and the rest of the Daily Audio Bible ministry. I just love these podcasts every day and I listen to you…it’s been 12 years. Love you all. Take care. God bless you, bye bye.

Margaret May you have been prayed for. What you have said is not unique to you. I have struggled with much of what you have said. Do not let Satan this deceive you further. You are a child of God most high. Ask the Father to fill you and cover you with the Holy Spirit. Say out loud, I am a child of God, what He says about me is true. And remember that God does not give us the Spirit of fear. That’s in Timothy 1 and 7 - greater is he that is in me. You are of God’s little children and have overcome. First John 4. Fear started in the garden and has been with us since. God tells us to fear not many times in the Bible. Seek God’s word and speak it aloud so your own ears can hear it and take it in. Show me God’s love.

Hi, my name is Julia I’m calling from Los Angeles. I’ve been listening since July of this year. I listen every day and I just…I love the family and I’m praying for every prayer request that comes in daily but I was really moved by one of the women that called in today. She called in from Syracuse New York and I’m sorry that I missed your name when you were calling about the spirit of fear and thoughtfulness and that you had been in the room. It just like you thought it was getting worse and I just wanted to call and pray for you. So, Lord I just come before You thanking You for today, thanking You for this community that we get to be so close together even though we’re physical so far apart. And Lord I just…I come before You interceding for this woman, this daughter of Yours Lord. I pray Holy Spirit that You would come in and that You would swallow up that loneliness, and that You would swallow up that fear, I come against every demonic attack of the enemy right now and I command You to stand down and stay down by the blood of Jesus. I pray the Lord You would loosen peace in her mind and in her heart Lord. I pray that You and give her the strength Lord to come out of that room and to seek help Lord. I pray Lord a Psalms 91 covering over her that You would give her refuge under the shadow of Your wings Lord, that You would cover her with Your feathers. I pray for a dispatching of angels right now Lord to be at every doorpost and at every window Lord, covering her Lord and protecting her so that they would lift her up in their hands tonight and __ her fall on a stone Lord. Father, You say that You are the King of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. So, I pray that You would be her defender in this battle Lord, that the weapons that the enemy has used against us will not prevail. I pray the armor of Lord to be over her, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the sandals of…

Hello this is Carrie from China and now from Australia. Today’s 7th of December. I’ve been meaning to call in for quite a while with a praise report but that’s going to have to wait now because I was galvanized into action by a call from Margaret May from New York this morning. Margaret May, what a brave girl you are. You’ve being tormented with fears and yet you dialed in to call for help. I’m so proud of you. That was the very best thing you could do and now you have a worldwide prayer team behind you. In the name of Jesus, I command those tormenting spirits to cease their activity and come out of Margaret now. Loose her and set her free. I plead the blood of Jesus over you in the name of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can wash away our sin and make us whole again. I command your digestive system to work normally and except food again in Jesus’ name. And now let the peace of God guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Margaret May, if you are able fill your room with praise and worship all day, radio, tapes, whatever it takes. It will create an atmosphere that the demons will hate and finally, know that I am praying for you along with all your brothers and sisters from the DAB. Many blessings.