Genesis 8:1-10:32, Matthew 4:12-25, Psalms 4:1-8, Proverbs 1:20-23
Today is the 4th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you for our 4th step of 365 steps that will take us all the way through the Bible. So, if we just keep doing what we’re doing and getting together like this every day we’ll go through the entire Bible this year as a community, which is what we’ve been doing successfully for the last 13 years. So, this is our 14th time that we’ve come to January 4th. So, let’s dive in, we’ve been, like I said at the beginning of the year, we’re kind of moving into this year and kind of getting comfortable and finding our way and our space and what’s going on here. And, so, we’ve been talking about the different books that we’ve begun. Like, we began the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, we began the book of Matthew in the New Testament. So, we’ve talked about those books. We talked about Psalms yesterday. And, so, when we get to the Proverbs reading we’ll talk about Proverbs and then we’ll be moved in, we’ll be moved in at least into the books that we’re reading until we reach a new book. So, from the Christian Standard Bible, which is what we’re reading this week, Genesis chapter 8 verse 1 through 10 verse 32.
Introduction to Proverbs:
Okay. So, we’ve come to the book of Proverbs and this is the last book we need to kind of move into and understand what we’re reading about until we come to a new book, like I said at the beginning. The Proverbs…we need to fall in love with the Proverbs because it is an invaluable book of ancient wisdom, but not because it ancient. It’s wisdom that has stood the test of time and it’s practical and it has been practical to the human experience for thousands of years. So, this is the wisdom of the ages. And, so, we should have a relationship with that, we should get to know it because it will instruct our lives as we move through this year without a doubt. So, in the structure of the Old Testament, which is where Proverbs is located, Proverbs is the main book in what is called the collection of wisdom literature. And the other books in the wisdom literature would be Ecclesiastes, Job and part of Psalms. And these portions of Scripture are called wisdom literature because they’re more intended to speak a direct lesson rather than be a narrative where the reader follows a story and then kind of gleans the meaning from the outcome of the story, which is how much of the Bible is. The wisdom literature speaks directly to what it’s trying to teach and most of the Proverbs are attributed to the great wise man and King, Solomon, although there are a couple of other voices involved that lend their wisdom to the Proverbs. And it seems that the Proverbs may have been collected all along but weren’t really put into a collection until the time of around Hezekiah who was also a king. And most scholars think that some of the Proverbs could even predate Solomon and they were a series of oral traditions or oral wisdom that have been handed down. And we each have oral wisdom in our lives, things our parents told us, things that our grandparents told us, but this would’ve been wisdom that was wide-spread and it had been handed down from generation to generation and then finding its place into a collection Proverbs. So, Proverbs obviously is in the Bible, so it obviously has religious connotations in everything that it says and the first part of the book is the wisdom of God speaking in first person directly to the reader in a feminine voice that is identified as the voice of wisdom, which is what we’re hearing. Now that we’re four days into this, this is war hearing now. And Proverbs addresses the human experience and it transfers direct wisdom to what we, as human beings, experience both in our interpersonal relationships with each other, in our relationship with God, in our relationship with ourselves, what’s going on inside of us and it gives us the ultimate roadmap to life. It is truly the ultimate book of wisdom and the greatest collection of wisdom that mankind has. Whatever you do, the book of Proverbs tells us, whatever you do get wisdom because wisdom is more valuable than anything else. If you have wisdom everything else can be achieved and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So, I mean even that little…like that’s two sentences right…there so much there that we can meditate on it all day long. That’s how potent the book of Proverbs is. And, so, with that said, Proverbs chapter 1 verses 20 through 23 today.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another day in it. We thank You for…I mean…we’re covering some serious ground in these first few days as we just set sail and as we continue to move out into the deep, we can already feel You drawing us in. Some of us are intrigued. We’ve never really read the Bible before. We know some of the Bible stories but we’ve never read any of it in its context, we’ve never actually read the stories from the Bible, we’ve just heard them our whole lives. Some of us are becoming intrigued and even falling in love with other portions of the Bible that we’ve never really experienced before, maybe the book of Psalms, or maybe the potency of the book of Proverbs has just never really dawned on us, that we could turn to this one book with 31 chapters in it that will tell us everything we need to know about how to deal with just about every situation we will ever encounter in our human lives. And, so, we see that there’s a lot more to this story than maybe what we thought and this book that we thought was so difficult to understand and so unapproachable all these years even though we’ve believed that our eternity is based upon what is taught in this book, maybe it’s not so unapproachable after all. Maybe what we’re finding is a true friend, a friend that will speak the truth to us only and never lie to us. And, so, Holy Spirit, come, plant the words that we’ve read from Your word into our lives this day and every day as we move forward, that we submit ourselves to this discipline, we commit ourselves to taking this step day by day, every single day of this year. And we look forward to all that You will speak to us, all that You will reveal to us, and all that You will change within us because of this rhythm. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, like I have said every day of this year and like I will say every day of this year, stay connected. And this is one of the places to find out what’s going on. All the links to everywhere that you can interact can be found at dailyaudiobible.com. Now, we just talked about the book of Proverbs. And, so, one of the other things that I should mention as we’re moving into this year is the companion programs to the Daily Audio Bible, the sister programs that exist as additional resources to help you immerse herself in a relationship with the Bible. And a couple of those would be the Daily Audio Bible Psalm and Daily Audio Bible, Proverbs. And, obviously, your listening to the Daily Audio Bible and what we’re doing in community here is moving our way through the entire Bible, which will include Psalms and Proverbs, but we’ve also created Daily Audio Bible Psalm and Daily Audio Bible Proverb as companions. You know, maybe your big meal of the day, spiritually, is been listening to the Daily Audio Bible, but you need a snack, you need…like you need to immerse yourself in this and these companions would be great. Daily Audio Bible Psalms is simply going through the book of Psalms as we do on the Daily Audio Bible but it’s only the Psalms, and we switch translations every day and you can just move through the Psalms, takes about five minutes a day for you to get some more of the Psalms into your heart and mind. Daily Audio Bible Proverb goes through the entire book of Proverbs in a month. There’s 31 chapters and so we read a chapter a day. Some of the days…or some of the months…we don’t get to Proverbs 31, but the idea is a chapter a day and this takes two minutes…two minutes a day invested every day of this year and you will be pouring the unfiltered wisdom that has stood the test of time throughout all of recorded history and is thought to be one of the greatest pieces of literature of mankind and can you pour this into your life in a couple of minutes a day. And then when you actually need wisdom you will have wisdom because you’re in a relationship with wisdom and wisdom is speaking to you every day. Two minutes a day, like a pretty good deal since that’s all you have to invest is a couple of minutes of your day. So Daily Audio Bible Proverbs is a great companion when you’re listening to Daily Audio Bible at night or in the morning or on your way to work or at lunch or whatever you do…you know…that’s your rhythm, you set and establish that rhythm and then you find another place for two more minutes to pour wisdom into your life and watch what it does when you do. Of course, Daily Audio Bible Psalms, and Proverbs aren’t the only companions. There are many ways to go about this. My daughter China, whose been reading along, reading the Bible for the last 10 years, this is her 11th year. So, since she was 10 years old she’s been reading the Bible every day and she went through Daily Audio Bible kids and then she launched Daily Audio Bible teen and then she wasn’t a teen anymore and so she’s kind of grown into her calling, which is Daily Audio Bible Chronological, going through the Bible chronologically in a year. So, in the order in time that things happened. From the Daily Audio Bible, from what we’re doing here, we’re doing Psalms, you know, Proverbs we’re doing Old Testament, we’re doing New Testament, we’re moving through and we certainly place a high premium on context but the Daily Audio Bible chronological goes through the Bible in the order that happened in time. There’s also Daily Audio Bible Kids. So, going through the New Testament by kids for kids. It’s great for on the way to school, it’s great for bedtime. Check it out. And there’s Daily Audio Bible Teen. So, through the New Testament for teens by teens. There is Daily Audio Bible in Española. So, if Spanish is your native language there is a whole community that has been doing this for nearly a decade now every day in Spanish just like we do at the Daily Audio Bible and they have also the Proverbios. So, Proverbs in Spanish or Psalms in Spanish just like we have in English. If Japanese is your native tongue, then you can go through the New Testament with the Japanese team or Arabic through the Bible in Arabic or through the Bible in French. And our French team has mimicked what we do at Daily Audio Bible, going through the Bible in a year in French but they also Proverbaes. So, they also have Provers in French or Psalms…sorry I don’t speak French…so sorry for you French folks. That’s why we have brothers and sisters who are passionate about their native language. So that’s available in French. We also have Daily Audio Bible Portuguese and Chinese. So, you can check out all of those channels if those are your native tongue’s, but if I English is your native language then certainly encouraging you. You have the Daily Audio Bible, but the Proverbs and the Psalms are also available. So, three times a day you can kind of go to the word and put it in your life without…I mean…you can do all of this in the time that you’re gonna waste listening to other kinds of entertainment. So, maybe focusing on your spiritual life this year is gonna radically transform some things and these are some of the resources that are available.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link that’s on the homepage. I thank you profoundly. We are a community, and this is a community experience and what we’ve done for this, these 13 complete years and now into our 14th, what we’ve done we’ve done together and that we’re here because we’ve done this together. And, so thank you 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 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’m gonna keep telling you that. And those of you that have been around, you know I’m gonna keep telling you that because I know that some of you, this is the only time you’re gonna hear it today. And I’m gonna keep telling you that until maybe you believe it. You are not alone on this journey. You are loved, and we’ve been a community who has loved each other well. So, that’s it for today and I am Brian and I do love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
This is Chris from South Carolina and I just want to say…just reach out and say thank you to the DAB family, to Brian and Jill and his family for this wonderful ministry. I found this at the beginning of the year and this is my first full year and I have faithfully listened to this every single day and it has given me comfort during a very hard time this year. And I called in a couple of times asking for prayer requests for my marriage. I continue to ask for prayer for my marriage. I’ve been married for 30 years now. We are separated and I’m just…just praying that God would just restore my family and restore my marriage and I just want to say that this is a wonderful ministry and I have enjoyed it so much and I am wishing everyone a happy new year and for great blessings to come within the 2019 year. I am looking for great things to continue to happen. So, God bless everyone and thank you very much. Goodbye.
Hi Daily Audio Bible, this is Rebecca from Michigan, I know I haven’t called in a long time, it’s December 29th and December 24th I had to put my dog down because her heartbeat was 40 and they’re supposed to be 120 and she had fluid building up in her lungs and fluid going in her tummy…stomach…and I think she’s was dying. Anyway, she was 12 going on 13 and I just cried my eyes out because that was my walking buddy, my friend. So, this year I just want God to bless me with new friends, A new friend that will make my heart strings fly, give me the closeness to the Lord. I want to find me a walking friend because that’s what my dog did for me, she was my walking buddy and know people, they’re not the same as a dog but I really don’t necessarily need another dog. I just want some new friends, I want a new friend even if it’s a boyfriend, a girlfriend, I don’t care, but I just want some friends that I can hang out with that are godly Christian people because I’m single and a lot of the churches, they kind of don’t pay attention to the singles. I’m usually sitting by myself in church. So, I just want some friends. Please, ask God to bless me with some godly Christian friends. That would be awesome even if I have to get a non-Christian friend to introduce them to DAB, that would be great.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family, this is my first time calling but I’ve been listening for years. I am specifically calling in response to Yvonne in Chicago who left plea for prayer on 11 November for God’s direction and her obedience for that direction. Yvonne, I heard your prayer and I am praying for you. Your call resonated with me because I’m Yvonne from Tampa and our stories are similar. I too went through a divorce many years ago and I went through a major career path change as well. I currently have a godly man for a mate and my career path change has turned out better than I expected. I just wanted to encourage you sister, our God is so good and even if His answers are as we expected or desired His plan is so much better than ours. As I lift up your circumstances I just wanted you to know that I am playing for you daily. Please call back and let us know how things have transpired and how God is working in your life. I listen daily and I pray for the DABbers regularly. Thank you, Brian for this wonderful podcast and for all of the people behind the scenes that put together this platform. It has changed my life and I know so many others. This is Yvonne or EV for short from Tampa. God, bless.
Hello this is Sherry from Kansas, I did not hear the program Brian said that the word for the year was to “Maintain” or “Maintain” and when I heard that from a friend my heart sunk because I thought, oh know, that means were not going anywhere, we’re not going to move from where we are, but I looked at the definition of maintain from Merriam-Webster and it’s really strong. It’s a much more strong word and I thought it was. It means, number one to keep in an existing state, to preserve from failure or decline. Number two to sustain against opposition or danger, to uphold and defend. Number three, my favorite, to continue or persevere in, carry on, keep up. Four, to support or provide for, to sustain. And number five, to affirm in or, as if in an argument, to assert or to take a stand. And I realize that my position in Christ where I am, all of these apply to this. I need to make sure that I preserve from failure or decline. I have to sustain it against opposition or danger and I have to uphold and defend. I have to continue and persevere in, I have to carry on, I have to keep up, and I have to take a stand and assert what I believe in and what my righteousness in Christ and my position in Christ stands for. So, I just wanted to say, good word, the word “Maintain” and it is something that we need to meditate on and focus on the coming year. And thank you Brian for that word. Bye.
Hi, this is Paul in Kansas. I’m just listening to the 30 December broadcast and I heard Sharon Victorious, asking for prayer. Sharon is grieving and feeling alone, and she wonders if she can make it. Father, I lift up Sharon to You and I ask that You would comfort her and sustain her in her grieving. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would fill her and that Your love would fill her and drive out all of her feelings of hopelessness. I ask that Your love would fully invade her being and drive all the harmful things that she has been thinking. Lord, please give Sharon hope, please let her she how much we all love her and deemed her. In Jesus name. Amen.