Genesis 13:5-15:21, Matthew 5:27-48, Psalms 6:1-10, Proverbs 1:29-33
Today is the 6th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a pleasure and it is a joy to be here with you as we do this for the first time, we reach out our hand, we grab the knob, we turn it, we push forward, and we walk through the threshold of a brand-new shiny, sparkly, new week and I will remind us of this probably more weeks than not because it is a line of demarcation, like it is a new week, which gives us the opportunity to release the previous week because it has become a part of our history and we can look forward to the new week because it has not yet been lived and it is shiny and sparkly and new. And we stand here at the threshold of this new week and we get to decide how were going to live into what comes next. And when we systematically remind ourselves that His mercies are new every morning, and that we remind ourselves of these new weeks then we get a chance to reflect not only on the past week and how we managed it, but what we’re going to do to properly align ourselves with the Scriptures and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives in the new week. We have a much better chance of succeeding if we pre-decide how we are going to do this, right? A plan is always a better thing than winging it. And, so, we make the plan to step into this new shiny, sparkly, new week and walk with God in every moment and in every conceivable way and watch what that does to this week. And one of the ways we do that is to immerse ourselves in the daily rhythm of the Scripture. So, I guess the lesson as we’re moving into this new year for a Daily Audio Bible right now is that we should pay attention to the brand-new weeks that come our way as opportunities for reset and restarting and one of the things we do as each beginning of each new week, we switch translations and read from another translation, which then gives us a comprehensive view over the course of a year of all that biblical scholarship and translation has to offer us. So, we pick up where we left off, but we just switch translations each week and allow those translations and those translation teams to allow God’s word speak to us. So, this week we’ll read from the New International Version and we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. Genesis chapter 13 verse 5 through 15 verse 21 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Genesis, just to kind of keep us attached to the story that’s being told, this man named Abram is going to become a very, very, very important figure and it’s probably not too much of a spoiler alert that he will have a name change. And, once he does a bunch of stuff will click into place. This man who has followed this God that he did not know into a land that he had never been influences the world until today and deeply affects three of the world’s religions, two of the greatest number and that would be Christianity, Islam and Judaism and they all trace their roots back to this guy. And, so, we’ll watch this unfold as the story goes forward but even as we consider Abram going after his nephew Lot who had been taken captive and that he chased him all the way as far as the city of Dan and beyond, these geographical landmarks that we just kind of go by them, there just places in our imagination, they’re not. No, they’re actual places. And, so, the ancient Canaanite city gates of the city of Dan, which had other names before Dan, but these ancient city gates that probably Abram would’ve had to pass through, they’re still standing, some of the oldest gates in the world. And in February, late February, we’ll be going on an adventure to the land of the Bible. Of course, that’s all full. It’s been full for over a year, but we go into the land of the Bible and we do this virtually every year. And, so, like, even the gates that I just told you about, as we travel through the land of the Bible visiting these geographical locations where the Bible happened, yeah, we’ll be posting that all up, so you’ll be able to see all of this and the trip becomes virtual. So, so many of the places that we’ll visit in the Bible are actual places and you’ll be able to see what they look like. If you want to kind of jumpstart on that there is a resource in the Daily Audio Bible shop, it’s called Promised Land, the Essential Pilgrim’s edition and it is a double DV set that also comes with an instant digital download and there’s over four hours a content. I’ve been shooting in the land of the Bible for…gosh…I think six years in a row to amass one of the greatest collections of the landscape of the Bible that exists. And, so, a lot of this is incorporated into the promised land films and what they are is just like two to three-minute short films and each of them is a location and they’re kind of organized by where they are: North, South, East or West in the land of the Bible. And, so you can see these things for yourself as we move through the Bible, you’ll be able to zoom in, watch a quick short film, if that’s what you want to do, and immerse yourself even deeper in the geography of the Bible so that you sort of have a lay of the land as we’re reading these the stories. My whole life I was raised around the Scriptures, I was raised as a pastor son, so these stories, you know, the more famous stories in the Bible were stories I grew up knowing and I always just imagined them and then even as an adult when I kind of returned to the Bible and it became part of my life I still just kind of imagined them. And then finally after many years of being invited I went and I this is like alonmst a decade ago now, but, you know, I didn't….I just thought it was gonna be kind of gimmicky and I just didn’t want to go. I thought that it would maybe even mess with my faith in a bad way. I don’t know…I just imagined, you know, a place where Jesus did something important in the Scriptures across the street from a McDonald’s or something. I just didn’t want to see that. That’s not how it is though. And, so, you can see. You can see the land of the Bible with the Promised Land films. That’s over four hours of content and will definitely set you up as we move through the Bible. So, you can check that out, but we will be going to the land of the Bible virtually next month, late next month. So, we’ve got some time and that’s always a fun community experience.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for the story that is beginning to blossom and unfold before us as we begin to know some of these main characters that are our spiritual ancestors and begin to know their story and begin to understand that their story connects to our story and even as Jesus, we are listening to Your words that we now call the sermon on the Mount. I’m pretty sure that’s not what You wrote at the top of Your notes when You decided to give this message, but this is what we call it and we’re listening to it and it’s a deeply challenging thing. We’re right here at the beginning of the year. You begin to press in on us with the truth, You begin to come…we always are inviting You near not understanding that that’s not just a sense of comfort, like draw near to me Lord so that I can feel better about whatever’s going on in my life and I can feel comforted and I can feel like You’re gonna be here to beat up the bad guys in my life. Sometimes when we pray that You will draw near You do draw near and it confronts us with things that cannot stand in Your presence that are in our lives and this is what we begin to find as we read that what You’re telling us in the sermon on the Mount. So, come Holy Spirit, plant the word of God in our lives, interpret it for us into our own contexts and stories as we walk with You and humble ourselves and surrender our agendas, we invite You through Your word to speak on Your own behalf. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here
And I mentioned the Promised Land films just a minute ago. I mean, you can check out all of the resources that are in the Daily Audio Bible shop at dailyaudiobible.com. We have collected and continue to do that, to collect resources that are tailor-made for the journey ahead, the journey through the Bible in a year, companions to take you on that journey and accompany you through that journey as you move through the Bible. So, the Promised Land films are certainly that but check it out. Check out the resources that are in the Daily Audio Bible shop as we move forward through the Scriptures.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. I thank you profoundly and humbly that if this has been life-giving to you over the years are over the last week, if life is coming into your life because of the word of God, then thank you for your partnership. What we’ve done as the Daily Audio Bible and this won’t be the last time that I say this…I mean we’re entering our 14th year and this was never launched out of some big ministry somewhere. This this grew up out of a prompting and some obedience and out of the dust of the Internet and we’ve been a community ever since. And, so, what we’ve done over these years has been done together and everything that will be done as we go through this year will be done because we did it together. So, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you profoundly and humbly, thank you. There’s a link 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:
This is Michelle from Gettysburg. I am listening to Brian’s reading from the 31st and just praying in Thanksgiving and I think to myself, how many days this year did I just think that something wouldn’t go or God wouldn’t pull through or how is it going to turn out and here we are on the 365th day of our reading and God is faithful. God is just always faithful. So, maybe you didn’t go the way we thought or maybe things didn’t work the way we wanted them to, but God had a plan. And, good or bad in our minds or our ideas, God was good, He was good all the time. And that is a praise. Even if my mom’s health isn’t exactly what I want it to be or there was a loss this year and all the prayer requests that came over, they weren’t always happy ones and there were many losses but we forged forward and we just took the next step and we just showed up, and we showed up for the readings and we showed up for God’s word and we came because we knew He was faithful. Somehow all of our stories line us back up showing thanksgiving, showing praise, and showing up. So, by the time this gets played it’ll probably be day three of the new year and we just started and took the next step, right? I thank you Daily Audio Bible people showing up, for knowing God is faithful, for knowing that in another 367 days we will be back here praising and thanking Him again as we should each day. I love you.
Dear Holy Spirit thank you for being with me, thank you for being with us and giving us this precious community of believers. On this last day of 2018 I am contemplative as Brian said so eloquently today in his reading, contemplative especially of this new word of the year, “Maintain”. And Lord, I ask that you help us as you always do Lord as we lift ourselves up to You every day and help us to maintain the hope, the hopefulness that You are. Help us to maintain the love that You give and that You have placed in our hearts as believers in Your son Jesus Christ. Help us to maintain the trust in You in knowing that You are everything, everything in our life, and if we maintain that trust and keep You first and foremost, in all things, in all thoughts, in all words and in every day, that You will keep us in the palm of Your hand and bless us exceedingly. Help us to maintain the faith in You always. And I am so grateful for Brian, Jill, Asia…China…I’m sorry…China and I just love all of you and thank you so much for this blessed community. God bless you. Happy new year.
Good morning daily Audio Bible family, this is Dmmy from Dallas Texas. This is my second time calling this year and this year is my first year completing the entire Bible. Of course, I missed some days but I’m going to do it over again for 2019. Have a happy new year everybody.
Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible community. This is Diane Olive Brown from Newburgh Indiana calling on December 31st at 4:12 PM and I have something I found that I think will really encourage your faith. It’s called Authority and it’s an anonymous…I don’t know who did this but it’s really great. When mountains will confront the way like it and leap, arise and say be thou removed and they shall be by the power of God capped in the Sea. All the power on earth, all the power in heaven to Christ, the son of God is given and from the throne He will endue and hindrances will flee from you for all the power of being that man faith through the Lord I surely can. Faith from his power on earth to tread on serpants __ on dragon’s heaf. Where though are oh mountain high, where there though art in earth and sky, when there though art truth is the same be thou removed in Jesus’ name. Be though removed faith will restart for yonder sea arise depart. I may, I can, I must, I will, the purpose of my God fulfilled. Isn’t that wonderful? We have a purpose and we shall fulfill it. Shalom shalom.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family it’s January 1st. Happy new year. Let’s pray. God please give us the confidence to trust You to charge how things are to how You want them to be in our lives. Only You God can do that, and nothing is impossible with You God. We ask for the commitment that we need to take action. Lord, we pray that we may count our days with wisdom and realize how every day counts in the light of eternity in the saddles of our hearts. Watch over our hearts Father God. Let us ask ourselves in every situation what will this do to my heart. Help us measure our days and let us always ask ourselves, what is this going to do for my life and what is this going to do for my heart in my daily decisions. Please give us a discipline and joyful life Father God did help us to remember that our joy is in You. Help us to have a meaningful life and let us abound in pleasing You God. In Jesus mighty and precious name we pray. And we pray this prayer for all of us, especially for our children and those that are struggling. In Jesus mighty and precious name we pray. This is Nydia from New Jersey. I love you.