Genesis 16:1-18:15, Matthew 6:1-24, Psalms 7:1-17, Proverbs 2:1-5
Today is the 7th day of January, almost said December, January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and I’m still moving into this new year and I bet that in some ways you are as well, but we have set sail and we are in this new year and we’re about to take our seventh step of 365 steps that will take us through the entire Bible in a year and in the first week we have covered some significant ground. The Bible kind of launches us into the deep right away. And, so, we have met some key players that are going to affect the rest of the Bible and in fact affect the world until today and we’ll get to know their stories as we continue forward and we are certainly for the first time in the first Gospel of Matthew getting to know this man named Jesus that has certainly affected the world and radically affected our lives until today. So, we’ll take the next step forward. We’re reading from the new International version this week. Genesis chapter 16 verse 1 through 18 verse 15 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we’re just beginning our first full work week of the new year and there’s a bunch of stuff we covered in the Scriptures today, stuff that…things that we can think about all day and some of these things we need to be thinking about for the rest of our lives. So, in the book of Genesis Abram has become Abraham and that should snap some things into place because Abraham affects the world all the way until today. And, so, now there’s a promised child to an old couple that are beyond childbearing years, and this is supposed to be a son of promise that will grow to become as many as the sands on the seashore. So, we’ll have to see whether that’s gonna happen or not but that’s the promise. God has found this man Abram and this man Abram has believed God, and that belief has caused him to be seen as a righteous before God. And when we passed by that passage of Scripture you may not even have paid any attention to it or you may have heard that before, but it doesn’t mean anything. It should though. The entire premise of a man named Paul who we’re going to meet later on in the year who is responsible for like two thirds of the New Testament, this is the central thing for the apostle Paul, that Abraham believed God, and God considered him righteous because he believed. So, we’ll get into all that when we get there because today we have new things to unpack and unfold. But I want to point this out because we’re in the book of Genesis and we’re just getting going. But this one thing, that Abraham believed God, and God considered him righteous because of it is a very, very, very important thing to the Christian faith. So, just a bookmark. Remember, because we’ll be visiting this territory again.
And then as we move into the book of Matthew Jesus is still speaking and he’s speaking and he’s speaking pretty frankly about grandstanding today, about drawing attention to yourself, which is really exposing the deficits within yourself, what’s empty inside yourself. But Jesus is saying, “don’t do that, don’t do that spiritually”, right? So, don’t walk around acting like you’re more spiritual than you are because you’re only exposing yourself as less spiritual than you think you are. Do these things in secret where your Father can see them and where you can commune with Him because otherwise, if you’re doing these things, even if they’re good things, if you’re being generous or whatever, you’re doing these things so that you can be seen doing them, then that’s the end of the story, it’s a good thing that you did and you get the pat on the back that you wanted, somebody observed you doing that and then you can continue to build the false story around yourself that you’re uber spiritual when the reality is, if you were then you would do these things in secret where only you and your Father know. So, something to think about because we definitely live in cultures where we are our own spotlight and we are constantly trying to shine the light on ourselves and we do this all kinds of ways, including kind of curating our life for Facebook or Instagram, like trying to make ourselves look a certain way. It is only partly the truth. What we’re portraying is what we like to be, but we know what’s really going on and so does God. And, so, Jesus is saying, “you don’t have to do this, God knows.” And that relationship is in secret and what you do in secret is something that God will reward you for but if you’re gonna shine a spotlight on yourself that’s all there is, that’s the beginning and the end of the story, you got everything you’re going to get. So, well done, you did good, but you got your word already, you arranged for it yourself, you were looking for that little bit of dopamine or whatever to make yourself feel better about yourself and you got the pat on the back and they’re you go, that’s all there is. Jesus is trying to indicate that there’s a whole lot more if we’re walking with God. There’s a whole lot more available than just a pat on the back or Facebook like.
And then we got into the Psalms today and we’re left with something to think about and we should think about this all day today. Actually, this should probably be a point of meditation, like something to really kind of consider today, “if you conceive trouble you will be pregnant with evil and you will give birth to disillusionment.”
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that. What does that mean in our story right now? In what ways are we conceiving trouble that will make us pregnant with evil and only give birth to disillusionment? What ways have we done this? What ways are we doing this? We have been taught by Your own words Jesus, to humble ourselves today. And, so we do, and we invite Your Holy Spirit into all that we have read. We heard of a promise today to an older couple that by this time next year the promise will be fulfilled. And, so, we’ve been waiting for things for a long time. And, so, we bring that to You Lord. About this time next year what are our hopes? What should we be hoping in? What are You promising as something that pulls us forward as we walk with You? There’s plenty for us to think about today and we invite Your Holy Spirit into all of it. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its the website, its where you find out what’s going on around here
And we’re kind of moving into the year, it takes a couple weeks to get fully moved into the rhythm of the year and unpack everything that’s going on.
I mentioned the Promised Land films yesterday, that those are available in the Daily Audio Bible shop.
There’s other things in the Daily Audio Bible Shop that are available and one of those things is our Windfarm coffee and our Windfarm boutique tea. And you might think like, coffee, tea, Bible what’s going…like…why do have that stuff in the Shop? It’s because they pair well. Kind of a coffee snob around here. I pretty much like to drink good high quality coffee, have for many, many years and I drink it every day as I’m , you know, reading the Daily Audio Bible, but I’ve found over time…and by the way, I’m a tea drinker too…I drink tea almost every day during the week as well. But what I found over the years is that my routine, that includes coffee in the morning, has also become like a part of my rhythm. It’s like part of an environment that surrounds this rhythm of the Bible in my life. And, so, over time, just being kind of a coffee snob, I found coffee roasters and we’ve had our own windfarm brand of coffee for 8…at least…eight years. And, so, we roast the coffee fresh at altitude in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and then send it out and we import the tea. It’s boutique level, high quality, excellent tea, like not grocery store stuff here we’re talking about for the tea drinkers. But we realized, this is a part of a morning, afternoon, or evening ritual for most people, not everybody, not a hundred percent of people are like coffee or tea or hot beverage drinkers, but most people are going to buy a cup coffee somewhere or steep some tea at some point every day. And, so, we just began to realize we can source, we can do good and source this in raw and do this ourselves and then make it available to the community and bring the best high quality product that we can to the community that’s going to spend this money anyway and then just harvest the margin to help support the efforts of what’s happening here at the Daily Audio Bible. So, the Daily Audio Bible Windfarm coffee and tea is available in the Daily Audio Bible shop, but also we have a coffee club, like we can send it to you every month. And we do. Hundreds and hundreds of pounds of fresh roasted coffee and tea get shipped every month all over the world. And, so, you know, every time that I am grinding up my fresh coffee and doing a little bit of a pour over in the morning getting and getting ready for the day, I know where this coffee came from and it came as an outgrowth of this community that I love with all of my heart and it reminds me to be prayerful and mindful of you as I’m going into the day. And it can do the same thing for you, not only to remind you to pray for your brothers and sisters that are in community together going through the Scriptures, but also just to center yourself around the fact that this day is not going to work if we don’t walk with God. And, so, as we put these little kinds of reminders in our lives, and they can be anything like…listen…it doesn’t have to be coffee or tea. Like, you can listen to what I’m saying and go, “ya, ya, ya, ya, I’m gonna stick with my Maxwell House or whatever”. That’s fine. But as you put little things, little reminders to maintain what’s going on in your life, to maintain the rhythm, which is our word for the year, to keep things in working order. The more that we can do to help ourselves have reminders, like, that we do not have to go sideways, we don’t have to skip tracks today, like we can actually have a successful day on every level if we’re paying attention. So, this is one of the reasons for it. So, you can get coffee shipped to you, however many bags, however many pounds, whatever kind of tea…like…we have a lot of different varietals that we’ve sourced over the years. So, you know, if that’s something that’s already kind of part of the rhythm of your life, check it out at the Daily Audio Bible Shop, maybe you’d like some sent to you every month and when that box arrives it’s just one of those reminders about what this next week, this next month is gonna look like for you. So, you can check that all out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop or if you’re looking for the coffee club, like you want it sent you each month, go to the Initiatives section in the website or in the app and you can read all about it.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you. I’m humbled. I‘m humbled and surprised and delighted that we’re in our 14th year and God has been faithful and that as a community we’ve done things that have never been done before in the history of the world. And there is no community like this. It’s, quite remarkable what God is doing in and among us. So, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the 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:
Today is January 1st, 2019. This is Randolph from Toronto Canada. Brian, I wish you a happy new year to you, Jill, China, Max, Tyler, Ezekiel, Mary Jo, Mike and all those who work behind the scenes of Daily Audio Bible. I praise God for your commitment to reading the Bible every day. I’ve been listening every day for about six years now. I also want to let my fellow DABbers know that I listen to every prayer request and pray along with each of you although I don’t call often. A happy new year to all. This is Randolph from Toronto Canada. And Blessings.
Greetings to the Daily Audio Bible family. Just so blessed and so happy to be a part of this beautiful community another year. Brian, I thank you, Jill we thank you and team and to my Daily Audio Bible family. We are embarking upon a whole new year with Brian guiding us through revival. For those of you who are new, you are in for such an amazing journey. If you were looking for a different step, 2019 will make just basically drawing closer to the Lord was truly the best thing that you could have ever done for yourself this year. Within this community you will find so many prayer warriors, individuals that are there to stand in the gap for you no matter what you’re going through we are all here. So, we listen, some of us call in on a consistent basis and pray, but some of us pray on the outside, just listening and may not hear from us all the time but we are listening and truly we are praying. So, I just wanted to welcome you guys to this new step, the next step I should say, in your spiritual journey. It will be one that you will never regret and that you always look back on and say that this is truly one of God’s blessings. So, thank you again. Everyone, have a happy healthy and a very prosperous and blessed 2019. This is Sherlock from New Jersey.
Hi Daily Audio Bible DABbers. To Brian, Jill, happy new year to everyone. This is Tinese calling from Cleveland Ohio and I am just grateful for a new life and today a new year. I am praying for each and every one of you that 2019 will be a prosperous year, that you will find a deeper connection with God and that your goals and dreams that you have, you will be able to achieve those as well as just live the very best life that you can. I’m excited. I’m asking you guys to pray for me as well. I love the word of the year of being “Maintain”, that is awesome. For my personal goals I’m adding a little bit to that, I’m adding “obtain” because sometimes I just leave so much on the table because I’m fearful and I don’t maximize my opportunities. So, I also want to be able to obtain some things that God has for me this year as well as sustain. I want to be sustainable, I want to leave a great footprint for my family, for people that I have an opportunity to mentor. I want to be able to give back. So, I want to be able to have resources and opportunity and information that I have had in my life, I want to be able to pass it on to them. I am so thankful and deeply grateful for the Daily Audio Bible. I am, even more at this point my life, just profoundly…I just have profound gratitude for the blood of Jesus that covers my life. So, many times I can look back and see why I should not be here and where He has kept me. And when I get to heaven I want to get there, and I want to say, “hey God, look, I did the best I could, I went for it all in Jesus name.” And I thank God for everything that He’s doing. So, again, I’m praying for each and every…
Hello DABbers, this EZ in Georgia and for those of you that have been listening for a long time, you’ll know that every year or two I will start out to do this with all of you and then the pressures of life or the length of the program in the day will just make me feel like I can’t finish. And last year I ended up just reading the daily message, but I love this so much and I want to complete it and I want to be part of it and this is the first day of January as I record this. So, I would ask that you all…just…if you would, please lift me up in prayer that I will finish this this year, that peace will come into a lot of personal trials. My family is going through a lot of health issues and that the will of the Lord will be done in my life. I have music ministry and it’s very difficult for an artist in this day in age to get into churches because praise teams have kind of taken that kind of ministry and made it obsolete in a lot of areas. And I just pray that that will change enough that doors will open for me. I love all of you so much and I’m thrilled to be back and I’m gonna stick with it this year, I promise.