1 Kings 18:1-46, Acts 11:1-30, Psalms 135:1-21, Proverbs 17:12-13
Today is the 17th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you, great to be here with you today as we settle into the flow of this week out in front of us, kinda get back to work and move through the middle of the month here. So, we began reading from the Amplified Bible yesterday because it was the beginning of the week and some pretty monumental things going on in the Scriptures. We met Elijah the prophet in the Old Testament and in the New Testament the apostle Peter had seen a vision, had been summoned by a Gentile Centurion, he has gone into the house of a Gentile, which is…which is frowned upon at best, and he has seen the Holy Spirit fall upon Gentile people, which is messing with him pretty good and is definitely going to mess with the early church as we will see going forward. In fact, it’s so monumental, this shift that’s taking place, that it it’s going to change everything. And it’ll take some time, we’ll see this over the course of Paul’s writings and so forth. So, we’re gonna be spending some time with this sub theme before us. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We are right here, right now and the Scriptures are going to lead us today in the next step and the next step will take us into first Kings chapter 18.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of first Kings we’re seeing why Elijah is a famous prophet now, and we’re seeing the power of God that’s being displayed through him, especially here at this show down on the top of Mount Caramel with the prophets of Asherah and Baal versus basically Elijah, the God of Israel. And, so, when we saw this dramatic story…I can read this story now and see it so vividly in my mind because we’ve been to the top of Mount Carmel so many times and just exploring this story. I mean, it would seem like the stories over, right? The prophets of Baal and Asherah, they’re no longer with us. The people’s hearts have turned back to God and God is now sending rain on the land. So, it would seem like end of story, good job, but it’s not the end of the story and it’s got a bizarre twist to it and we’ll get to that tomorrow.
Then in the book of Acts, I mean I’ve said this a couple times as we’ve gotten into this story, that these are fundamental formation things in the early church that are taking place that affect us until today. And that’s not an understatement in anyway. You see the Peter was in Joppa and then he went down the coast to Cornelius’s house where the Holy Spirit fell upon a Gentile family and they received the Lord and they were baptized in the name of Jesus. Once Peter got back to Jerusalem and the mother church, right, the Jerusalem church, there were plenty of people going, “wait…wait…that’s against the rules. We don’t do those kinds of things. We don’t associate with those kinds of people. We don’t want those kinds of people in our church.” And we might think, “well that stuff doesn’t really happen these days” but that’s not true. It happens all the time. I was talking to a pastor friend the other day who was helping strategize for another church who wanted to plant a sister church, plant a new church in a different part of the community and he was basically just saying, “your strategies fine, but you have this beautiful building you are using for two hours a day, one day of the week basically and why…like why wouldn’t you plant the kind of community you’re wanting here in this beautiful building.” And he said one of their deacons was like, “because we don’t want those kinds of people in our church.” I was surprised that would be spoken out loud in that kind of environment, but this kind of stuff happens all the time. We segregate ourselves into like-minded people where we can all be right, and we can all convince each other that we are right. And, so, Peter’s coming back to the Jerusalem church with information that is absolutely and completely disruptive because now Jesus, the Hebrew Messiah that they are believing in that He came and offered them new life and hope for the people, well now this isn’t exclusive. Now this is open to all of the world, whereas originally the people were thinking, “well, Jesus was Jewish and he taught the Torah and you follow the customs. He certainly critiqued the religion without a doubt, but he was never saying like you shouldn’t be Jewish or Hebrew, I mean, like you shouldn’t do this anymore. He was just unveiling how it had gotten sidetracked and He was setting things right, but we were never thinking like everybody in the world could get in this.” The first believers in Jesus were Hebrew people who were following a Rabbi. They were following his teachings. They were following the Way. They were processing His critique on their traditions and their rituals and their religion. They were following the Way. They weren’t leaving one faith and converting to another faith. And, so, for Gentile people to begin to convert or follow Jesus teachings without first converting to Judaism was messing with their minds and we will certainly see how this plays out, but we will eventually be able to see how this faith in Christ that was borne out in this little patch of land within a Hebrew context grew to become far and away beyond the Hebrew context and it is largely made up of Gentile people. We’ll see this story before our eyes and the implications of it because there are significant implications for us to examine today and we’ll be examining this stuff for the rest of the year whenever the Bible brings it up. And it brings it up often.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us into this new week. We invite You fully and we see that there is disruption happening in Old and New Testaments and we realize that disruption is a part of life. And, so, Father help us this week that as we are disrupted, before we immediately label it a bad thing, help us to take a breath and to consider, “Are You in this? Are You shaking things up? Are You pulling us forward?” Come Holy Spirit we pray. As You did on the family of Cornelius, fall upon us we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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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 DAB family, It’s James here from the UK. Haven’t called in for a while but just coming in this morning. Heard the prayer request from Marcella from Brisbane. And Marcella you really touched me, you really triggered something in me that just compelled me to call in. I heard in your voice the burden that you’re carrying right now and the financial hardship that mentioned that you’re facing into. And there’s a few things that just really triggered in me, things that I wanted to convey to you. And I think this is the Spirit’s work. Marcella, you talked about starting afresh, and I know that right now that is very hard thing to contemplate. What the future looks like is really uncertain and as a provider, as a man, there is a burden on you regarding your family and how you’re going to care for them. And you need to know that God is going to care for you Marcella, that God has got plans for you and that when you start afresh and when you start to move into this new space, albeit that it’s going to be a painful process to go through, He will provide riches that you’re not…you’re not envisioning right now. It might not be financial riches, but they will be things that you can’t comprehend at this moment in time. And I just needed you to hear that Marcella. Thank you so much for your call and I’m praying for you.
Good morning brothers and sisters in the Lord. Thank you so much for your continued faithfulness and praying for each other. This is Southern Belle from Canada. My children who farm have been living in a drought the summer and it’s ironic that the people in the states in the Midwest who are drowning in mud and up here in Canada we are dry as can be. I’m asking for prayer for them. They are so fragile in their relationship due to extended circumstances with my daughter who passed away and they’ve been looking after for her estate for four years already and an abusive ex-husband that my daughter had and the children and the estate. I just don’t even want to go into it, all the convoluted mess of it all. But my son and daughter-in-law with three children of their own who are trying so hard to be faithful in their walk with the Lord and they try putting the seed into the ground and we all know what it’s like to put seed in, into our lives and to not have anything come from the fruition with it Lord. I just pray in the name of Jesus that You would send rain for their crops, that You would protect their harvest and that You would bring it to such an abundance that they wouldn’t be able to realize it. Not only my children God but for all the farmers out here in Midwest Canada. And Lord, for all those around the world God who are facing their own drought whether spiritually or relationally or whatever. We need You Jesus to be in our life, we need You to pour out Your rain. Come Lord, fill our hearts overflowing that we would reflect You, that we would be faithful regardless of the circumstances. And I pray for…
Hi, my name is Roslyn. I live in Louisiana. I have a very, very important prayer request. This is my first time to ever call and I’ve been listening since 2006. But we have a newborn, she was born a little bit early. And this week she was picked up. An ambulance came from Vanderbilt to take her up there to do heart surgery. And they couldn’t do it until she weighed 4 pounds. And she’s at 4 pounds right now. So, I’m just praying that everybody that listens to the DAB would pray for Willow. And thank you so much. I love you all. I listen every single day and I’m not going to mention any names but everybody that calls in on the prayer request, your prayers are heard and I’m sure a lot are answered in some way or another. Thank you so much for praying for Willow and I love you all. Thank you, Brian and Jill. And it has been wonderful to have this, and I hope…and I told my Bible study teacher that people around the world would be praying for Willow. Thank you so much. Have a good day. Bye.
Hi everyone, it’s Doug from Alabama. I meant to call in the past several months because it’s been a while. I always have that urge and then for some reason I don’t. But I’ll go ahead and get to the point because I only have my two minutes here. Please keep me in your prayers as far as my mental health. The last two or three months, I’m not sure if it’s because I haven’t been really sleeping well or what, but my anxiety has really just been through the roof. I’ve been having a lot of anxiety, __ attacks, I think that’s really what it is. I’ve just been really sensitive the last couple months. I’ve been trying to get into see a doctor. My psychiatrist had to cancel for an appointment on Monday because he had to go to back to India where he’s from. So, I can’t see him for a few months and I have to make a separate appointment to see a new therapist, which is money I really don’t have. So, there’s a lot of different things. I’ve got a bedbug infestation too. And, so, I wonder if that’s why I’m not sleeping very well and maybe that’s the root of it, but please just keep me in your prayers as far as my mental health because there are some days I feel like I’m going crazy, where, you know, I feel like I just need to be locked up in a room __. And also a couple of other points. Please keep me in your prayers as far as jobs because I’m extremely burned out at this current job I work at. I work as a donation tenant for a food store. So, I sit outside in the heat all day and take donations and it’s very lonely. And I haven’t really been able to handle the heat well. And, so, I’m still looking for a job too and I feel like a job would really help me. __ about up here. So, I really appreciate all your prayers. I listen to all of yours and I try to pray…like when my mind allows me. So…