Leviticus 16:29-18:30, Mark 7:24-8:10, Psalms 41:1-13, Proverbs 10:15-16
Today is the 25th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you from the shores of the Sea of Galilee once again. We have been kind of basing ourselves here in the land of the Bible in the Galilee area as we explore…well…as we explore the intersection of Old and New Testaments in this area. We had a good time in the extreme northern country up in the Golan Heights yesterday and today we will be all around the shores, all around the Sea of Galilee. But we’ll talk about all of that, we’ll get to it soon enough but we have more important things to do than just travel logging although I think that’s an important thing to do, but not as important as the word of God being given its place in our lives in a few minutes to come and and speak to us. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Leviticus chapter 16 verse 29 through 18 verse 30 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in not the gospel of Mark today we encounter a story and it’s not an unusual story, it’s kind of like a recurring theme in the ministry of Jesus, like a deaf man had been brought to Jesus and other was hope for healing and, indeed healing was restored and it’s what happened next after that that happens throughout the Gospels. Jesus told the crowd not to tell anybody about the miracle, right, keep everything on the down low, which is so strange. Like, if you’re trying to build momentum and you have miraculous powers from God and you are demonstrating those miraculous powers it would seem that you would want everybody to know, right, so that the momentum could build, but Jesus always told people to keep things on the down low, “go in peace, don’t tell anybody about this, your faith made you well.” But in this case, the more that Jesus told people not to say anything the more they did, which isolated Jesus and that’s really the long and short of the story, it isolated Jesus in crowds of people. But Jesus must’ve been asking them to keep it quiet for more than just crowd control. It may be that for Jesus it wasn’t a big deal. Now we could say, “of course, He’s the son of God. A miracle to heal somebody’s ears or open their mouths or whatever, that wouldn’t be a big deal.” We have to remember Jesus, according to the Scriptures wasn’t only fully God he was fully man. So, what we’re looking at in Jesus is a is a fully perfect human being, how human beings were created to be from the start. So, maybe Jesus didn’t make a big deal out of these things because he was demonstrating what was supposed to be normal for people who live as they were created to be, right? Our theological understanding is that Jesus was the first sinless human being to walk on planet Earth since the very first man and woman, Adam and Eve, right? So, there’s a long gap between those two people and everyone between those two people walked with sin upon this earth until Jesus came. So, in Jesus humanity we have the opportunity to look at a picture of what it was always supposed to be like for us on this planet before sins devastation even had a footnote in the story and robbed us of our intimacy in union with God, right? We were created to be a people who look remarkably like Jesus, right? That is the goal and pursuit of our faith and because of Jesus, sin, the thing that actually separated us from this, doesn’t have a claim over us anymore unless we allow it to. So, we have to begin to understand that being Christlike actually means being like Jesus and one of the ways we do this is by understanding that we are a miracle, everything is a miracle, everything is a gift. Jesus ends up telling us in the Scriptures, as if to put an exclamation point on what we’re talking about today, where Jesus goes around and keeps things on the down low, He tells his disciples, “look, all the stuff you’re seeing me do, you can do this, you can do all of it and greater because I am returning to the Father.” So, my brothers and sisters being Christlike is not supposed to be the goal and pursuit of our lives. Being Christlike is supposed to be what is normal vanilla every day existence with all of the power that Jesus demonstrated in this world. After all the Scriptures tell us it is the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead that lives in you. So, what are you going to do with that today?
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that. What are we going to do with that today? Because this is overwhelming power and overwhelming good news. And, so often, even though we know these things we will walk right back into depression, we will walk right back into lust, we will walk right back into greed, rage will overtake us. This shouldn’t be happening, not when You have come and showed us what normal even looks like. So, come Holy Spirit because the difference between us living Christlike in us not living Christlike is our own choices. Come, Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth. We pray. In Jesus’ name. And we thank You for the swift kick in the pants to remind us of who we are today. Come Jesus we pray. In Your mighty name we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its, of course, where you find out what’s going on around here.
And what’s going on around here is that we are in the land of the Bible right now and going everywhere pretty much that there is to go. And, so, we spent yesterday going up into the Golan Heights and that’s one of my favorite days of our pilgrimage…not…I don’t know…like I can’t put my finger on. The serenity and the beauty of the geography just speaks to me and it calms my spirit for some reason, but we went up to ancient Dan. So, if we’ll remember, the borders of ancient Israel it’s from Dan to Beersheba, and now on this journey we have completed that, those ancient borders. We did it from Beersheba to Dan but we visited Dan today, saw the ancient city, the ancient ruins and there are many different eras all the way back into Canaanite times, back to the times of Abraham, and then all the way forward into the times of the kings of Israel, and then the divided monarchy when there was a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom, and there’s a temple there that’s Jeroboam. And we haven’t gotten to that story yet but king Jeroboam erected one in Bethel and one in Dan, the northern and southern boundaries of his kingdom and reintroduced idolatry. And man, there’s so many stories to tell about that but just to kind of see what happened and where it happened and why it happened rooted us in the Scriptures. And this place is right on the border with Lebanon. So, we were able to kind of look over into Lebanon and realize we’re kind of us far north as we can go. And then we went from Dan to Caesarea Philippi, which is where Jesus asked his disciples, “what are people saying about me?” And then the most poignant question, probably for any human being, “who do you say that I am?” So, we had some time to contemplate that question before lunch and then had a nice lunch together and up onto mount Bentall where we could view Mount Herman, which is a biblical geographical landmark and a very famous. And I had never seen that much snow on the mountain before. So, it was covered in snow and very beautiful. And, so, sometimes we go up there and you can’t see your hand in front of your face and sometimes it’s as clear as day. And this time it was clear enough to see the mountain but a little hazy but lots and lots of snow. And that sits on the border with Syria. So, we stood there looking at Mount Herman, certainly, but also truly considering that we have brothers and sisters all over the world across borders and we can look across the border and we did. We looked across the border into Syria and it looks serene and peaceful and beautiful just like wherever we were and but to see that fence and that border and to realize, you know, that’s a world away. And there’s a lot going on in that country. And our brothers and sisters in some cases our kind of trapped in the middle of it all. And just to remember the fact that our freedom is something that we so often take for granted. But when you’re kind of standing there and realizing that you got it pretty good, maybe you’re even spoiled, maybe you got it really, really good compared to so many people around the world. It just brings some context and just a little bit of understanding that most of the problems that we face and struggle through are not that big of a deal by comparison. And, so, we reached outward and we sent our heart and our love and we invited the Holy Spirit to love on our brothers and sisters across borders that we can’t cross and that we can’t get to and we don’t know what to do, but our prayers of remembrance and remembering them, knowing that we are in this together, we are one body is important. And, so, we focused our heart in that direction before beginning our journey back toward the sea of Galilee for the final stop of the day, which was at Bethsaida, which is truly, if not the, one of the, very top favorite places in Israel for me. It’s a personal thing. I have never gone there where I have never felt an incredible wave of peace and serenity wash over me almost as if I could just kind of wander around all day walking the little trails and exploring and how not really needing to say anything, just being there. It’s a special place. And, so, just, shared my experiences and we took some time to find our own places of serenity. Beautiful day, beautiful weather, beautiful sunset, you know, in a city that Jesus performed miracles, where some of the disciples made their hometown, where the feeding of the 4000 miracle happened nearby. Yeah, you’re just in the thick of it and, for me, getting there I just kind of…I can…I can…I can feel that I’m walking in the footsteps of Jesus and it means a lot to me. So, we spent some time there before making our way back to the hotel to get some rest. And we will be off today all around the Sea of Galilee, a busy day in front of us. And we thank you for your continued prayers as we continue this journey. 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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 everybody, it’s Margo from Australia, still currently in Uganda. I’m calling today for Much Afraid. As soon as I heard your message I wanted to call in straightaway but I just…I wanted to also spend some time in prayer. I wish that I had an amazing word from the Lord, but I have spent some time in prayer and all I keep coming back to is a favorite verse of mine, but first I do want to say it sounds as though you might be suffering from burnout. And that can put a really very negative spin on all your time there for the last 15 years and it may or may not be accurate. So, keep in mind that you quite possible are right in the middle of burnout. Yeah, as I said, I keep coming back to one of my favorite verses, which I know I’ve mentioned before, it’s 2 Corinthians 12:9. And you mentioned that you felt you were never healthy enough emotionally for doing that sort of work and that’s why I come back to this verse because it says, “His grace is sufficient for me for His power is made perfect in my weakness.” How amazing is that? For your situation I think it’s imperative that you remember that verse. If you are not strong, if you are week, if you are unhealthy in a certain area that’s where His power comes in and that’s when His power is made perfect. I really pray that you would get something from that verse and lean on that verse today and I also want to we encourage you to spend time in praise and worship. It is so therapeutic. Put on some worship songs and just praise Him. It is incredibly good for the soul and I speak from experience. Love you lot’s and I’ll be praying. Bye.
Hello Daily Audio Bible this is Duane from Wisconsin. All praise and glory to our wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today is day 96 praying for our children. It is February 22nd. Calling in for the mother have Jared who called in who is struggling so she put him into a rehab, a Christian rehab, and now she’s struggling with that decision. Just want to lift you up. Yes, that’s a tough decision. As you know, my son is in jail too and I did not speak to him. I wrote him letters but I did not go and see him for like two years. When I did go see him a month or two ago I said needed time for myself to wrap my arms arouns what he was doing and what had happened and also I needed him to understand what he did. If he doesn’t understand what he did he’s not gonna change. It was hard not to see him. It was hard not to be in communication with him. And his twin brother Nathan struggled with that too because he was __ during all that. We had to tell him he made his own decision. Your son made his own decisions to be where he’s at. So, you need to be strong, we have to wrap her arms around you. We lift you up and we pray that the Lord will come to you and give you peace. You say you’re not sure what to do, well you came to the Daily Audio Bible. Pray to the Lord and trust the people that are taking care of your son that they know what’s right and give them that opportunity. It’s tough love, it’s tough love we’ve gotat give sometimes but I believe you are doing right thing. Your son needs some tough love right now. He needs to look and see what he did and understand the path his life is on. He needs to change that. You, as his mother, me as the father of my son, I can’t change the way they are. That’s up to them. They have to do that, and they have to understand that. So, all we can do is love on them, pray for them and try to lead them in the path we’d like to. But in the end, it’s their decision. So…
Good morning Daily Audio Bible community this is Diane Olive Brown calling from Newburgh Indiana. It’s 8:48 in the morning and February 22nd, Friday and I’m responding to Believing from February 21st, Thursday. And oh my goodness, you’re all in the land of the Bible and you’ve already spent a day or two and you’re in the wilderness and your reading about the wilderness and we’re reading very dry Leviticus and just realizing that this is the __ of life that __ read through the Bible with Brian. And what a wonderful, wonderful gift you have Brian. And I’m praying for all of you on this wonderful __ and washing the word over you and keeping pace with you as you __ the Bible and I’m praying over every aspect, even your families that are not with you like Jill and Ezekiel and others. And I’m just so grateful and I’m just so thankful and I realize that God __ family and it’s important for His family and to understand that we are set apart. And no matter what we do or will we go or what __ on this earth that we live in, He is a holy God and He wants to be a holy set apart __ for himself and how much…
Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Natalie from Indianapolis Indiana. I am an 18-year-old college student who began this journey on the 1st of January. More than anything I just want to say thank you for letting me be a part of this community and this family and all the love that you share. I am right now recovering from a severe deeding disorder and to be able to get up every day and know that I will listen to Brian and the Lord’s word has really impacted my life in a way that will forever change me. Being able to fill a void that I once filled with restriction and now use God’s word to help change my life has become such an uplifting event. And I just want to say thank you and say that I love all of you guys and that if anybody’s struggling that we all understand what it can be like and that you can pull through. So, thank you so much. I love you all so much.