Month: May 2019

2 Samuel 1:1-2:11, John 12:20-50, Psalms 118:19-29, Proverbs 15:27-28

Today is the 22^nd day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a pleasure, it is an honor, and it is a joy to be here with you today to take the next step forward on our journey that is leading us through the Scriptures this year. And, so, we finished the book of first Samuel yesterday and that, of course, brings us to the book of second Samuel that we will begin momentarily, but let’s just kind of catch ourselves up.

Introduction to the book of second Samuel:

By way of reminder, since we talked about this when we began first Samuel, first and second Samuel was all a single collection of books, together with other texts that were then later on separated along the way for clarification and ease of finding things. It would’ve been pretty hard for Samuel to have written second Samuel since he had already died and we experienced his death in first Samuel and we even saw the King Saul go to a medium to try to bring him up from the dead and the last thing we have Samuel saying to anyone is to tell Saul that tomorrow you’ll be with me and he was killed among Gilboa at the hands of the Philistines in battle the next day. So, we don’t actually know who penned second Samuel, but it does seem that whoever did had first-hand first-person knowledge of the events. And second Samuel, as we move into in just a second here, it’s gonna pick up right where we left off. It’s not like we’re gonna be switching gears and complexions here. We’ve basically concluded the book of first Samuel with the death of Saul and his sons and we’ll pick up there and second Samuel will cover the life of David and his ascension to the throne and his victories and his passion for God and then then the mountaintop of his life and the trailing off, his falling away from God as well. And we’re gonna just sit here on the front row and see how much all of this applies to our lives because we’ll find ourselves in the life of David, often as we did with Saul and it gives us one more example of how pressing into God, obeying God, following God with our whole heart brings about victory and falling away from God brings about rebellion and eventually brings about destruction. And One more thing just before you get started in second Samuel to note is that, a lot of these stories we’re gonna hear them again when we get to the books of first and second Chronicles but they won’t be word for word and they won’t be from the same perspective and that’s the interesting thing about the Bible. We have this story of David and we’re reading it right now from a prophetic perspective in the books of Samuel who was a prophet and a judge of Israel. When we get to the books of first and second Chronicles we’ll read the life of David from a priestly perspective and get their commentary on these same stories, but that’s not for now, that’s for when we get there. Just a little bit of a heads up because when we get there it’ll like we’re hearing some of the same territory again wonder and we’ll wonder, “haven’t I heard this story”, which is very some similar to what we get in Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the synoptic Gospels. Nevertheless, let’s dive in. we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Second Samuel chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 11.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we began second Samuel today David finds out that Saul has been killed and he laments, “oh how the mighty have fallen” and we begin to turn our attention, of course, to David and his reaction and all the comes next. And we see that he grieved for a lost king and a lost father-in-law who wanted to do nothing more than to kill him. And it’s actually this, David’s humble posture and the way that he’s beginning to lead contrasted so starkly with Saul’s that will become apparent and compelling to the people as we move forward into the story because, you know, we can think of this Sunday school style and say, “okay I know…I know Saul was the first king of Israel and David followed him.” And we can just think, “well…Saul was killed and so they made David King and that’s just how it was.” But that’s not just how it was. Saul’s death didn’t make David Israel’s King. David inquired of the Lord, as we just read, about where he should go because he was in Philistine territory and he was a Philistine and was asking God if he should go back to his homeland. And God said, “go" and David said, “where” and God said, “Hebron”. So, David moved to the city of Hebron where he was subsequently made the king of the tribe of Judah, right? So, one of the tribes of Israel. So, now the king of Israel has died and one of the tribes of Israel have decided to make their own king and that’s David. Meanwhile, Saul has a remaining heir that’s still alive, his name Ish-bosheth and Abner, the general of the Army who survived the battle, mad Ish-bosheth king. So, that’s where we are. That’s the lay of the land as we move forward in second Samuel.

And then in John’s Gospel we move another step further into the story of Jesus final days and we just…we saw the whole situation descending on Jesus one more time, right? He’s like, “my soul is troubled. Should I ask the Father to save me from this hour?” But this is this is why came. So, Father, bring glory to your name.” And we can notice that right to the end confusion swirled around Jesus. Even though the words that he spoke spoke deeply into the hearts of his hearers and awakened their souls, and even though his ministry confirmed that He was truly sent from God, the religious traditions were so deeply ingrained that it was…that it was nearly impossible to penetrate and, in the end, impossible to penetrate. And ironically Jesus ambition wasn’t to destroy anybody’s traditions. He was living within them, but he was also critiquing them in the process and most of the people didn’t understand. And Jesus is like, “the lights only gonna be shining a little while longer, like while I’m here. So, walk in the light while you can so that the darkness won’t overtake you because the people who are walking in the darkness don’t know where they’re going. So, walk in the light while you still have time so you can become children of the light.” Okay, so these issues that are confronting Jesus as we read through them in the Gospels and in the Gospel of John in particular right now, these issues are still around. The gospel has been handed down to us over thousands of years, but over that time people have created new traditions. And even though our rich heritage and traditions in the faith are incredibly valuable, the ceilings that we put on those traditions are not very valuable. When we think we got the whole thing perfect and indestructible, right, our theology is bulletproof, then Jesus often comes to tear down our ceilings. That’s what we’re watching him…that’s why the religious leaders are so angry at him. But through this example we should understand that the Father isn’t going to conform to what we think we know. And when we’re stretched out in our faith, we think it’s so thin that we begin to doubt, and then we feel guilty about that, we’re not doing something wrong, we’re reaching beyond the ceiling because it’s not enough anymore. So, as we consider our doubts and our fears and our assumptions about our faith let’s ask ourselves whether we’re any less confused then the people hearing Jesus were because this forces us to face whether what we’ve been told is truth and we’re often forced to reach beyond ourselves and beyond what we think we know and reach for God, which is the point of faith. So, Jesus says, “I’ve come as a light to shine in the dark world so that everyone who puts their trust in me will no longer be in the dark.” This is for everybody. This is for you and this is for me, but it’s gonna require that we reach into the dark and through the dark beyond the ceilings we’ve placed on our faith and reach for the light and realize there isn’t a ceiling.

Prayer:

Holy Spirt we invite You into that because the ceilings, we’ve constructed them ourselves to try to keep ourselves safe, but they just cover over the light shining in and we’re lost in the dark again when You’ve invited us into freedom, into complete freedom. We believe that You have invited us into the light to be transformed into children of the light and we believe that that is what is going on and we also confess that we that we spend too much time in the dark. Come Holy Spirit, because we’re choosing this. Come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth, lead us into the light of the Savior today we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here.  So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected in any way that you can, and in any way that you want to.

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 for your partnership. 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 is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

1 Samuel 29:1-31:13, John 11:55-12:19, Psalms 118:1-18, Proverbs 15:24-26

Today is the 21^st day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s awesome to have this time together around the global campfire and allow God’s word to speak to us. And it’s kind of a special day. We’ll be finishing the book of first Samuel today, which has mostly been the story of King Saul. But of course, King Saul’s story is irreplaceably or irreversibly intertwined with David. So, we’ll be finishing up that story today and then moving into second Samuel tomorrow where we’ll be beginning to put our focus on David and his rise to kingship. But first, first Samuel chapter 29, 30, and 31. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we concluded, the book of first Samuel today. We also reached the conclusion of King Saul’s life along with his three heirs to the throne, including Jonathan who was in covenant with David and loved David. And, you know, David was about to go into battle with the Philistines against Jonathan, like against his fellow Hebrews because he had defected and become a Philistine to save his own life, because the king of Israel, King Saul, was intent on destroying him. So, we read the story and we know how this goes. They actually marched from Ziklag in the South, in the transition zone into the desert all the way up into the Jezreel Valley, a long way, three days journey by marching and that would actually have been moving fast. David was gonna go into battle but the Philistine…the other Philistine leaders were like, “you know, if he turns on us in the middle of this, if he’s really a warrior then, you know, things could go really, really bad for the Philistines.” So, they sent him away. They marched all the way back to Zikzag only to find out the Amalekites raided Ziklag and burned it and taken everything and everyone. So, they go in pursuit and they get all of their stuff back and destroy their enemies but as they’re fighting the Amalekites and destroying their enemies who had destroyed their city, up in the north of the Philistines have destroyed the Israelite army and have killed the king. And when they discover the king’s body they beheaded him and then they hung his body on the walls of Beth-shan. Beth-shan is a magnificent archaeological ruin in the north of Israel, just south of the Sea of Galilee a little bit. And we’ve filmed there many times. It’s included in the Promised Land films as is Ziklag. And, so, we end first Samuel with the death of Saul and we’ll pick up Second Samuel tomorrow and begin to follow the story right where we left off, but we’ll begin to be focusing upon David.

In the gospel of John, we are approaching Jesus final days. And I know that we just came through Easter and good Friday and we did everything we could to reverence the moment. And, so, we kind of find ourselves in this territory again and maybe thinking, “we just kinda went through this couple weeks ago, like a month ago.” However, this is the last time this year we will be going through this territory in the Bible. This is the last time that this story will come to us through the Gospels because we are moving our way to the conclusion of the Gospels. John is the final gospel and we’ll move from here into the book of acts and all that begins to come next. So, as we are right at the front end of this territory let’s go ahead and make a mental note to truly embrace what we’re reading and once again profoundly understand what God did on our behalf to rescue us.

Prayer:

Jesus, we do thank You. Every day we thank You. And may our lives be living thanks to You, a living memorial to what You have done, a living sacrifice to reveal Your kingdom in this world. We are so deeply grateful that our words…there is no way to string them together for them to be anywhere near the magnitude of what they deserve. Language fails in this area. We give our lives to You completely, unreservedly. We trust You and we invite You into this retelling in the gospel of John of the sacrifice that You made on our behalf. But we also ask, Holy Spirit, that as we transition between the books of first and second Samuel, and between King Saul and the emerging King David, that we continue with this journey because it is so poignant into our own lives and our own motivations. There’s so much there for us to understand about ourselves. So, come Holy Spirit into this we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s up, what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check that out.

The Shop is there at dailyaudiobible.com where resources for this journey are available, including the Promised Land films that I was just talking about. So many of these places, every place that we have been able to get to we’ve filmed to bring them close so that as we’re journeying through the Bible, we kind of drop in and see with these places look like. So, Beth-shan and Ziklag are a couple places that we mentioned today, but also Jezreel and the Jezreel Valley and Mount Gilboa where Saul was killed in battle can be seen in those films. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link, it’s on the homepage. Thank you, humbly and profoundly 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 is 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 Bonnie from Northern California and I’ve never called in before, but I’ve been listening to your program for a few years now. I regret not calling in and when my husband passed away almost 4 years ago in August. And my mom just went to be with the Lord the other day and I just find so much comfort. But I’m reaching out to Joe in New Jersey. I just heard your prayer request. You have ALS and I’m praying with tears over your condition and I am praying for God’s touch on your body. The other thing I ask is that you would pray for my friend Kim who’s just embroiled in a horrible court battle and I just want the Daily Audio Bible community to pray for her and her family. Wednesday, the…oh gee…today’s the 18^th…so the 22^nd I think…she’s going to be…I don’t know what’s happening that day but I’m fasting for three days and praying for her. So, please pray for her and her family that justice would take place. Many lies have been told about her. Thank you for praying. I love you all and I pray for you all. Thank you. Bye-bye.

My name is Joe Borman, I live in Waukegan Illinois and my prayer request is for my 44-year-old daughter whose name is Krista. She was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma cancer in March and has been getting treatment downtown Chicago and the treatments that she’s been getting have many side effects that have left her extremely tired and nauseous and in a lot of pain. There are a lot of options for treatment going forward. So, this prayer request is A), that God would just heal her. We believe that He can do that. And sometimes he uses doctors and medicine. And the prayer then is for discernment, to know which doctors to listen to, that the treatment options that she’s left with that she would have discernment on which ones to choose. Pray also for relief for her pain. Since she was seven years old she’s had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. One of the side effects of the medicine she’s taking is that that would rear up and it has with a vengeance. She has a very difficult time walking, her knees are very swollen, and painful. This is a woman who has always been a woman of God, very faithful. And we are praying and invite the world to pray with us that God could be magnified and glorified by the healing of our daughter. For her to get released from this would be a miracle indeed. So, thank you in advance for your…

Hello Daily Audio Bible friends and family, I’m so grateful for each and every one of you. I’ve been listening for many years and have only called in once but have been so blessed by each and every one. I called several years ago about my friend Danny who needed a miracle because my husband had shared we need 10,000 prayer warriors. Little did he know I knew a place where we could find them. There was work from God in my son’s life and I ask you to continue to pray for him, his name is Danny. He’s now a daddy, working hard but still facing addictions and challenges in his life. I wanted to share something with you. Sometimes God wakes me up early in the morning. Dear Lord, You call me to Your word early in the morning to hear truth. Troubles and challenge is around but You are the only anchor in the storm You hold me safely in the palm of Your mighty hand. I have nothing to fear for You did not give me a Spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. Lord as I walk through life today fill me to overflowing with love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, __, self-control. I need Your wisdom to facilitate each issue. Let me be filled with Your Spirit. Anoint my lips. Help me speak truth and love to all around me. Lord, if You want to use me, equip me. I will go to battle for You. I will be a soldier, but I need Your armor. Don’t ever let me think I can handle something without You. Help me Lord. I pray that prayer for each one of us and know that I am praying for you, crying with you, and trusting that God will work in your life for whatever you are facing. Love to all of you. This is Annie from South Florida.

Peter saw the peace of God a man in human form
Jesus walking on the water in the midst of a raging storm
tranquility serenity his disciples filled with fear
yet Jesus beckoned Peter come and Peter did drawing near
boldly and with courage he walked towards our Lord
___ and danger all around but all of it ignored
his eyes were focused on the prize he rose above the storm
he rose above the waters and he rose above the norm
but then he got distracted because the storm was all around
he felt the wind he saw the waves and he started going down
Satan’s good at doing that he gets our eyes to stray
we take our eyes off Jesus and then we have to pay
repercussions consequences doubts turn into fear
they cut us off from blessings that we should be drawing near
grapes so huge that it takes two men in addition to a pole just to pick it off the ground
two transport it and to hold overflowing blessings take them and possess
but then they saw the giants and I guess you know the rest
Israel wandered in the wilderness they were cursed for 40 years
their eyes strayed from the blessings and they focused on the fears
to us __ can become giants they can also become storms too
but keep your eyes on Jesus he will always bring you through

blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Pastor Gene. I miss the sound of your voice. Hope all is well. I’d also like to give a shout out to Alfyo from Delaware. Hope all is well my brother and know you both are in my prayers daily. And once again I’d like to give a shout out to Brian Hardin and…

Hello DAB family this is Abiding in Him. I want to pray for our dear sister in California who called on a rainy day. Lord we thank You for Your faithfulness and that the DAB continues to roll on day in and day out. And across the years have reached out to tens of thousands if not millions of people Lord and we thank You that dear sister has joined the fold heavenly Father and has trusted us with the goings-on of her heart Lord that the community can lift up holy hands Lord and pray for her and bathe her in prayer. Lord she’s at a crossroads in her life where she’s not sure that things are happening are attacks from the devil or invitations from You and I pray heavenly Father that deep in her heart will abide the peace that surpasses understanding, that exists even in the midst of uncertainty or worry or desperate circumstances. I pray for the joy so far deep in her heart that it isn’t changed by the things that she sees. Speak to her Lord in a way that only she can understand so that she can realize that the journey however it twists and turns leads ultimately to You to be closer with You. So, heavenly Father, straighten out the crooked paths Lord, open up the doors and make available the way that she is to go but to know that You even in the case of mistakes and missteps, You’re there working behind the scenes leading us closer to You. We thank You Lord for Your word. We thank You for Your Spirit. We thankful for Your faithfulness and we pray Your blessings over our dear sister in Jesus’ name.

1 Samuel 26:1-28:25, John 11:1-54, Psalms 117:1-2, Proverbs 15:22-23

Today is the 20^th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a pleasure to be here with you today on this 20^th day of the month of May. I guess that gives us 11 days left in this month. So, we’re well through the middle. And boy, we will finish this month and head into our six month of the year already. It’s crazy how quickly things go. What a busy year it’s been though, at least for me. I am learning to maintain, and I am learning that it requires maintenance to maintain and I am learning that in order to have time to do maintenance and maintain maybe there’s some things that have to diminish or maybe even fall away, but one thing remains true and that is the rhythm of the Scriptures speaking life and light and good news into our lives every single day. And, so, we’ll take the next step forward. We’re kind of rounding the bend here on our time in first Samuel. We’ll conclude first Samuel in tomorrow’s readings. So, we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. And today, first Samuel 26, 27 and 28.

Commentary:

Alright. It’s pretty dramatic happenings going on in first Samuel. Battle lines have been drawn up. David, who has been so intertwined with Saul, right, Saul’s been trying to assassinate David since he killed Goliath practically. David has had to grow up fast, he’s had to grow up in the spotlight, he’s had to learn how to be a warrior, he’s had to learn to be stealthy, he’s had to learn how to stay alive, and he finally…he’s defected to the Philistines and become a Philistine simply to stay away from Saul because he’s thinking, eventually Saul’s gonna get me. So, as it turns out, the entire Philistine army and the entire Israeli army are about to have a huge battle. And David’s now a Philistine and is expected to fight as a Philistine. Saul, on the other hand really has no voice of counsel whatsoever. Like, the isolation has become nearly total. And, so, Saul is seeking out a medium to try to get Samuel’s counsel from beyond the grave, and this happens and Samuel’s counsel as we leave today’s reading is essentially, “I’ll see ya here tomorrow.” So, ominous to say the least as we prepare to turn a corner and end the book of first Samuel tomorrow.

Then in the book of John we have the resurrection of Lazarus, which is indelibly imprinted on my mind because we’ve been there to this location several times and the tomb of Lazarus is something that’s included in the Promised Land films. And there are many things we can talk about in the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, many things that we could talk about, but let’s just focus on the aftermath, right? So, we read the whole story. Jesus is somewhere else. Word gets to him. He eventually gets there. Lazarus has died, right? And the sisters, they have a message for Jesus, they fall down before Jesus and say what we seem to find coming out of our mouths a lot, “if you had only been here”, right, “if you just would have showed up for me, this wouldn’t have happened.” So, there’s so many rich human elements in the story. But it’s a famous story and we know that Lazarus rises from the dead. What is so deeply fascinating is what happens next. I mean Bethany is on the Mount of olives. It’s just like kind of on the back side of the Mount of Olives. And, so, really it is only a couple miles from Jerusalem. So, a resurrection of this magnitude, right, a guy walking out of a tomb wrapped in linen cloths after four days in the grave, how quickly do you think that word could travel two miles. So, it’s not long before people in Jerusalem are finding out about this and it’s not long before the religious leaders are meeting about this. And what is so deeply interesting is that their response to resurrection is to plot assassination, right? So, Jesus is bringing life and their fearful that everyone will believe Him and if everyone does believe Him then the Romans will come and take the power away and maybe even suppress or destroy the religion, which ironically is something that they attempted to do much later. Like, I mean they completely destroyed Jerusalem over rebellion in A.D. 70. So, just a few decades later. So, the thing that they were trying to kill Jesus about, right, to keep the peace, didn’t keep the peace. And we just have this absolutely crystal clear example before us of how twisted we can get when we get enmeshed basically in trying to keep God in our heads, right? So, trying to get God in our heads is the sciences that we have around our religious faith and persuasion. We would call this theology or doctrine. None of these things are bad. They help us form an understanding of what it is we believe. And yet what we are seeing play out in the Gospel of John are people who have devoted their lives to trying to figure that very thing out and how to obey the rules precisely to achieve perfection before God. And their response to God in the flesh, bringing resurrection and the light into the world is to plot to kill him because of what the Roman people might do if everybody believes Jesus. Like, we have this benefit of reading to the Gospels and we can scratch our heads because we’ve come through the age of reason and enlightenment and so we have these processes for sorting out logically things. And, so we can look at this story and go, but guys, like, if everybody believed in a person who could raise people from the dead, who’s not…I mean, who’s in danger here? But their expectation is for a military overthrow of Rome. Like, this is all they can get their minds around. If there is a Messiah coming and they did believe a Messiah, a messianic figure was coming, in their mind this person was going to get everybody on the same page for battle, for military overthrow of Rome, for a rebellion. And they…this was going on before Jesus and it happened after Jesus leading to the destruction of Jerusalem. If you want to read stories of Jewish rebellions against occupiers of the land prior to Jesus, then you read the stories of the Maccabees. Jesus just didn’t fit into the paradigm they were looking for, which was a strong military type leader. Instead, Jesus is walking around bringing light into the darkness by saying, the way you overcome…a more powerful weapon then a sword or a spear is love. Love your enemy’s if you want to truly conquer them. Because the two of you can be enemies and you can kill each other but then your dad, but if one of you loves the other one and that hatred turns into love, then you have gained one another and love has replaced hate, light has replaced darkness in the world. What if this were perpetuated? And they just…they just could not get their minds around it, or probably more true, they may have been able to get their minds around it, they just believed it was an impossibility. It wasn’t ideal because we do the same thing all the time. We’ll be having a conversation and describing something that would be ideal and we’ll say, “in a perfect world…in a perfect world that would be possible.” But we’ve gotta ask ourselves, what are we doing here if we are not here to reveal God’s kingdom and see it on earth as it is in heaven - a perfect world. So, there’s plenty to consider in the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. But one of the things we should look at is how the religious people responded by plotting to assassinate Jesus and why because as we look into that we find that those kinds of seeds also live within us.

Prayer:

Father. We invite You into that. We invite You into our doubt and our fear, into our anxieties, into the things that twist us so backward that we do not see forward at all. Like we’re so confused and so deceived and so trapped that we really do functionally believe this is all there is, there is nothing more. And, so, we’ve gotta protect ourselves. We see this playing out in this story today and we see that this is in us as well and we see this in the face of an of a resurrection. So, we see how backward things can get and we invite Your Holy Spirit to show us the places inside of us where we have been twisted backward because of fear and we have been twisted backward because of betrayal and we have been twisted backward because of any number of things that have happened in our lives. We need to be facing forward, we need to be facing forward into the kingdom where we see all things are possible if we believe, which is exactly what You said in this story today. “Didn’t I tell You that You would see the glory of God if You would believe me.” And, so, we choose to believe. 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. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, the words fail me as far as coming up with new ways to say how grateful that I am for your partnership. We really wouldn’t be here if we didn’t do this together. Thank you. So, there is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. 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 19 96 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 is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

1 Samuel 24:1-25:44, John 10:22-42, Psalms 116:1-19, Proverbs 15:20-21

Today is the 19^th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you and step into this brand-new, shiny, sparkly week together. And we’re squarely moving into the back half of this month and we will continue the journey that we have begun with the book of first Samuel learning of King Saul and the dramatic intertwining of lives between Saul and David, who is on the run for his life from Saul. And Saul seems to be determined, he’s going to kill David one way or the other. This week we’ll read from the Christian Standard Bible, and we’ll pick up with that story. First Samuel chapters 24 and 25 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and as we cross this threshold and enter into this new week we thank You for the guidance Your word has brought us throughout this year so far. We thank You for the presence of Your Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth. We thank You for Your compassion and mercy spoken of in the Psalm that we just read today. Thank You for Your kindness, for Your compassion, for her long-suffering, for all of the grace and mercy that You have bestowed and extended toward us even to the point of offering us eternal life. Father forgive us for withholding grace and mercy to those around us because we do this all the time. We feast upon Your mercy and then withhold it from those around us. And we recognize Jesus that You spoke a parable about that very thing. Help us Father go into this week compassionate and merciful as You have been compassionate and merciful toward us. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, stay tuned and stay connected as we move into the week.

The Daily Audio Bible shop, of course, is at dailyaudiobible.com. You can get to the shop as well by using the Daily Audio Bible app. And there are resources there for taking this journey through the Bible in year. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link and it lives on the homepage and I thank you humbly and profoundly for your partnership. We would certainly not be here, we would have certainly vanished if we hadn’t done this together, this thing called the Daily Audio Bible that rose up out of the dust of the Internet and has become the community that we are today. We’ve done this together. And, so, thank you for your partnership. So, there’s a link on the homepage, like I said. You can also press the Give button in the app, which is 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 is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

1 Samuel 22:1-23:29, John 10:1-21, Psalms 115:1-18, Proverbs 15:18-19

Today is the 18^th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure. it is a joy, it is an honor to come here and throw couple logs on the global campfire and settle in and know that we are here together just taking a step away from all that’s going on. There’s always something going. There’s plenty of things that could pull us in all kinds of directions. There’s no challenge to find things to be anxious about or worry about and all that stuff will still be there if we really want it, but this is a time that we come together each day and step away from those things and warm ourselves around this global campfire just come in together out of the darkness and know that we’re here, we’re here together, we’re in this together and the Bible is the rhythm of our lives and it speaks to us and directs our paths. So, it’s great to be here with you today as we end another one of our weeks together by taking the next step forward and we’ve been reading from the Voice Translation this week so that’s what we’ll continue to do today and we’ve also been working our way through the book of first Samuel in the story of King Saul and this guy that just got intertwined with his story irreversibly whose name was David. And we’ll pick up the story. First Samuel chapters 22 and 23 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we, of course, thank You for another week. We thank You for the rhythm day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, allowing Your word to wash into our lives around this global campfire’s, just allowing You to speak and whatever is going on, whenever it’s going on and reorienting our hearts to You, turning our attention and our affection and our focus upon You, because we recognize how distracted we get. Here we are at the end of a week and as we look back over the week we certainly see Your presence in our lives, but we also see the ways that we’re pulled in so many directions, too many directions to actually maintain. And, so, we ask You again as we move into this year and considering maintaining and maintenance. What is out of alignment? What is too much for us? How do we begin to shrink to the point where our affections and our attention can be focused upon You? Because we admit, most of our time is spoken for and most of our time is spoken for by things that ultimately don’t matter. So, come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name as we seal this week and release it into the past and it becomes a part of our history, we also look forward to what is before us, the opening of a new week and walking through a new threshold and we want to walk with You better next week then we have this week and two weeks from now we would like that to be better. We would like to continue to move deeper and deeper into relationship with You, which is going to require us to free ourselves from the things that are occupying us that keep us from this. Come Holy Spirit we pray. We can’t do this without You. We don’t even know where to start without You. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected in any way can, in any wat that you want to.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible shop while you’re at it, where there are resources available for this journey through the Bible in a year. you can access all this stuff through the Daily Audio Bible app as well by using the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link, it lives on the homepage. Thank you…thank you profoundly 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 is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

1 Samuel 20:1-21:15, John 9:1-41, Psalms 113:1-114:8, Proverbs 15:15-17

Today is the 17^th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is pleasure, every day, to be here with you, including today. It’s wonderful to take the next step forward as we move into the latter half or latter days actually of our week. And we’re continuing to move through the back half for the back part of the book of first Samuel, which is where we’ll take our next step forward in the Old Testament today. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. First Samuel chapter 20 and 21 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we are rounding the corner on this week and preparing to close it down let’s just take a second to orient ourselves to where we are in and the stories in the old and new Testaments. So, we’ve been watching King Saul and then we saw David enter the story and we saw his rise to prominence and fame, and we’ve also watched Saul’s decline. And, you know, at this point in the story, David is convinced for good reason that Saul, that his actual intention is to assassinate him. And, so, he goes to his friend Jonathan and he’s like, “I swear, I swear I’m only a step away from death. Your dad…your dad is gonna kill me.” And Jonathan didn’t believe this, but he did very quickly learn very soon after that, yeah, in fact, Saul did want to kill David and he learned that for sure because Saul tried to kill his own son, Jonathan. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this kind of behavior out of Saul, even towards his own son. And, so, we…you know…at this point we can’t look at Saul and, not see a man whose kind of gone off the rails even though he has supreme power. It all really boils down to the fear of man, of comparison and trying to get an identity out what people think. This has allowed Saul to move into this jealousy and paranoia and rage. Meanwhile, we’re watching David hold onto God for dear life because there’s like no other way. He has had to grow up so fast and has had to become a warrior, a stealthy warrior so quickly that his instincts are certainly well sharpened. And, so, we see a final meeting between Jonathan and David where Jonathan is accepting the fact that King Saul wants David dead and he’s sending away, and we’ll pick up with the story as we move forward in our next step tomorrow.

So, then we move to the gospel of John and Jesus has healed a man who was blind since the day he was born and he did it again on the Sabbath day and it’s the Sabbath day that has Jesus in so much trouble with these people, with the religious leaders because they have, you know, spent a lot of time arguing with each other about what work is, like, what constitutes work because you’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath day and healing falls into that category. And, so, Jesus on a number of occasions, steps right into the face of that and heals people on the Sabbath day and argues legitimately, like “are you serious?” Like because the Pharisees were like, “this is happening on the Sabbath day, so it must be happening because of the devil”, right? “This man is a sinner because he’s doing this on the Sabbath day.” And this is an ongoing thing with Jesus between the Pharisees. One of the things that has them so irate and so acutely aware that they will not be able to control Jesus and rein him in. I mean the truth is, had they been able to rein Jesus and get just get him to be just like good Orthodox Pharisee, then, I mean they would’ve had a superstar rabbi on their hands. Jesus just, he didn’t come to play that game. It was not his mission to try to find prominence and yet he was able to do all of these miraculous things that were bringing him prominence and bringing envy upon him from the Pharisees. And, so, in the story that we read today, right, this man who was blind from birth sees, he goes to the temple, the Pharisees start asking questions, they’re asking like all kinds of interrogating questions and asking them from all kinds of angles and they draw the man’s parents into the mix to prove he was blind from birth because they believe this is a joke, but everybody around knows this is the man. He was blind from birth, and now he can see. And, so, they’re just after this guy and they throw him out of the synagogue simply because he’s stating the obvious. He’s basically saying, “I don’t know how to judge who a sinner is, that’s your job. You’re the religious elite, like, you spend your life studying this. So, you guys are the ones that get to determine who’s a sinful one. I don’t know whether he’s a sinner or not. I just know I couldn’t see, and I now can see because this person healed me.” So, there’s plenty for us to think about here. Jesus, for sure, messed with the theological understanding of the Pharisees when he healed on the Sabbath repeatedly. And at the same time, nobody could claim that the blind receiving site wasn’t an act of God. So, they were in a theological and in a traditional, like, impasse. And rather than simply acknowledging God’s goodness they fell back on their traditions and in the process denounced God. So, we should understand in this story that there are more types of blindness than just being unable to see the physical sense of light and shape. The Pharisees were also the blind people in this story. They were blind to what God was doing among them because it conflicted with their theological understanding of God. Isn’t funny how this is a recurring theme in the Gospel’s but it’s only usually talked about in terms of the religious elite people, the ones who were theologically students of the Torah, it’s them versus Jesus, we never bring ourselves into the mix. But God is bigger than…He’s bigger than all of the theological understandings that we can construct around him, the scaffolding that we build around him to try to explain what he does and what he doesn’t do in and on how that implicates us. God, at least as we read through the Bible, just care about that so much. Like, he’ll disrupt whatever he wants to disrupt. He will disrupt someone’s understanding anyway he chooses. And yet, this day and age, I mean, we still find ourselves in theological wars. Like we still find ourselves fighting over Jesus and what He’s gonna do, and what He’s not gonna do, and how He’s gonna do it, and who is gonna do it with and why. The theological disagreements that we have with each other, these are…they have purpose if we’re actually digging in and searching for the truth, but they don’t have much value when they’re nothing more than our attempt to be right, right, to be superior, to curate our lives so that it would appear that we’re closer to God. That makes us look a lot more like the Pharisees than it does Jesus. I mean God loves us all. We’re gonna have to learn to do the same thing. Battling over our personal doctrine isn’t going to draw us closer to God. And the funny thing is, at least in my experience, the closer we become to God, the more we realize how little we actually know. And Jesus gives us a beautiful invitation in this story to receive site where we are blind and to begin to know him well beyond our formula.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. Holy Spirit come, because so often we turn to theology and doctrine and we look to our leaders to tell us what to do, to tell us what to think and feel and how things work, when You have invited us actually into a personal relationship. It becomes tricky when we’re trying to walk in a personal relationship with You but also trying to know the rules. And this eventually leads us into building walls and walling ourselves and walling everyone else out and it leads to our own pride and our judgment of one another and then our search for an identity by comparison, and all the sudden we find ourselves being a Pharisee and King Saul and we feel like we’re protecting You. And the truth is we’re  protecting our own fears, we’re afraid to be in first person, always on, never off relationship with You because that might mean we have to live by faith, and that most of the time we won’t know if we’re doing the right thing or not, other than just knowing within our hearts that You are leading us forward. And yet that is the beginning of the journey. And we have so many examples from people in the Bible who walked with You and how counterintuitive their journey was and yet we think we can just lay out a grid of theology and doctrine and just have every eventuality accounted for in our lives and then we’re so mad when we’re walking a counterintuitive journey ourselves. Come Holy Spirit, help us to become aware that what You are doing is inviting us into a life of faith and we claim the life of faith every day. And yet the life of faith by default invites us to live beyond what we think we know, it invites us to live inside the realm of mystery beyond what we can control and beyond what we can explain. So, come Holy Spirit, draw us deeper into Jesus today. Lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. Lead us into all truth we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected in any way that you can or in any way that you want to.

The community section of the website gives the links to different social media channels that we continually update. So, stay connected there. The Prayer Wall is also there. Fantastic place to pray for each other. All of these things are available in the Daily Audio Bible app, of course. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link, it’s on the homepage. Thank you for your partnership, profoundly thank you. 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 is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, it’s Sherry from Kansas. I was just listening to the May 15^th podcast. Louise, I think you said your name was Louise, you’re from Massachusetts and you’re a senior citizen with an arthritic disability and you’re very much alone, you don’t have any family and you never dreamed that you would end up this way in your latter years, and I want you to know I’m in the same situation as you. I did have some family, but they were the ones that stole from my parents while my parents lay dying. And when I lost my parents I lost that family as well. So, I lost everybody all at once. I want you to know I understand. You’re not alone. There are people, other people like you and I in this world and I just want you…I just want to pray for you right now. Father, I lift up Louise before You and I ask You Father to give her the sense of Your presence Father and to let her know she’s never ever, ever, ever alone and Father that this entire Daily Audio Bible family will be praying for her. But I pray Father that You will connect her with someone, maybe a caregiver that comes to visit or someone in the area where she lives if she’s in an apartment building, but God I just lift her up to You and I ask that You give bring her someone God, a companion, a friend and that she also would know that You are her friend as well and God that You will move heaven and earth on her behalf Lord. Father, I thank You for it and I just pray for her to be encouraged and Lord I ask that You lift Your spirit and Father that joy would just come and I thank You for…

Hello this is Joyful Noise from Southern California. This call is for Just a College Student. I was blown away about how you introduced yourself and there is no “just” because you’re also child of God. And, you know, I just wanted to share with you how compelling your story was because you…you didn’t make any rationalizations when you asked for prayer. You said a sinful relationship or sexual sinful relationship that “I” started. You took complete ownership. That’s confession. And, so, do you know, Just a College Student, that God promises that He separates that sin from us as far is the east is from the west and you now have forgiveness. And, so, you have confessed your sin to…to the church, the Daily Audio Bible, right, and you confessed to God at the same time. And, so, therefore you’re on your way to healing. I wanted to share that with you and just what an encouragement. And just know that, you know, the kids that you will be ministering to at the summer camp, the Christian camp that you’re worried about attending, just know that they are also struggling with sin and that you, perhaps, may have a ministry or maybe somebody that you come across that you meet that is struggling with something similar. And then just know that, you know, God’s gonna use that. He’s uses all of our sins for His greater glory, doesn’t he? So, just know that you’re going to be perfectly positioned and it’s preordained by God that you going to be there. I also just really want to reiterate what you said, which is that I don’t know where I would be without the Daily Audio Bible community either, me either brother. I just want to share, Brian, you’ve been such a blessing and you shared, right around the end of March or early April, you shared that at any given moment someone is listening to and praying for…

Hi DAB family, this is Eric from Massachusetts it’s Wednesday, May 15^th. This morning on the DAB I heard two people call. One of them was from the college student from Indiana struggling with sexual sin. Yeah, I know exactly where you’ve been. And, so, I want to pray for you and the next call was a lady from Massachusetts that actually moved from Indiana to Massachusetts last year. And this lady from Massachusetts is older and lonely and I get that too. So, I want to pray for both of you. Holy Spirit, Lord I ask that You come down on these two people, this Young man in college in Indiana. I want to pray for him Lord that he seeks Your face and that he asks for help within his church community, within the people around him that he’s vulnerable and he’s willing to share what’s going on in this life Lord. I pray that he would find strength and power in Your mighty name Jesus. I also pray for this woman I think her name was Eileen from Massachusetts whose lonely. I understand. I live in Massachusetts. If you’re anywhere around the Framingham area, please reach out to me and I’ll come and visit you. My email is erchurch@protonmail.com. Lovely you family. Take care.

This calls for a college student __. Brother I’m praying for you and the bondage that you are in. You are not alone. Don’t forget that. I would encourage you to really be in prayer to whether you should go to this summer thing because it sounds like…like it could not be a good thing. I don’t know what…what it is but you did not sound like you were ready to go do that man. But really, really pray on that and think about that. Lean into God. I’ll be praying for you. Keep us updated. We all love you and are praying for you. Alright. Bye.