1 Chron 11:1-12:18, Acts 28:1-31, Ps 9:1-12, Pr 19:1-3
Today is the 11th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue moving forward, step-by-step, day by day through the Bible this year. This is a big day because today when we get to the New Testament reading we will conclude the book of Acts, which will lead us to begin the book of Romans tomorrow. And, so, we will move into letters from people to people as we continue forward through the Bible. But we’ll talk about all that as we go through it. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s be right here and finish the book of Acts well but before we can do that we have our Old Testament reading from the book of first Chronicles. Today we’ll read chapter 11 verse 1 through 12:18 and we’re from the New International Version this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we concluded the book of acts today, as we mentioned at the beginning. And the book of Acts concludes with Paul…well…with Paul finally ending up in Rome. But yesterday we were in the ship with Paul being buffeted by the wind and the waves and all hope was lost. And then there was an island. And as it turned out, the island was called Malta. So, if you just look at a map of the Mediterranean Sea and you find Caesarea, so way at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea and Israel and then you look at where Rome is and then you look at where Malta is then you realize how fortunate it was that that they landed on Malta because if they had missed out island, well, they would probably for sure not have survived. The wide-open sea and a watery grave would’ve been out in front of them. And, so, as it turns out Paul tells everybody there gonna live and they do and the Maltese people were friendly and there’s a bonfire and a beach and a snake incident, right? And we’ve seen this with Paul before. They communicate and then people start thinking their gods and they want to worship them. So, there’s this snake that attaches itself to Paul’s hand, he shakes it in the fire, and everybody’s like he’s a murderer, and he’s gonna die and he doesn’t. So, instead of a murderer, they think he’s a God. Obviously he’s not a God and obviously he’s not trying to say that he is, but he does use the opportunity when people are listening to walk right through the open door and share the gospel of Jesus. And, so, during the three months that they spent on Malta Paul healed and ministered. And then when they sailed away they sailed away with great honor. Malta’s still an island. It’s still a place. We have brothers and sisters who listen to the Daily Audio Bible who live on Malta and we’ve heard from them over the years. Malta ended up being one of the first of the Roman colonies to convert to the faith of Jesus and they still honor Paul’s visit all the way until today.
And then we also have to talk about what we read in Proverbs because Proverbs 19:3 pretty much lays out an experience that we have all had and is kind of the normal posture of the world toward God. “A person’s own folly leads to their ruin. Yet their heart rages against the Lord.” And that is as true a statement as it gets. We’re all guilty of blaming God for whatever happens to us, right? God, as I’ve said in the book Reframe, has become the cosmic trash sheep for all of our suffering and while we’re heaping that blame we’re like taking steps backward away. We’re like…we’re trying to remove ourselves from being culpable at all. Like, if God is sovereign and all-powerful then He wouldn’t have let this happen. Have you ever heard that one before? I mean have you heard that before? Have you ever said that before? Probably heard and said many times. But when did we become above God and strong and powerful enough to comment on and make assumptions about what He does and doesn’t do. He is the sovereign Almighty God, Creator of all things. I mean, the fact is, blaming somebody else for something that you have done is a horrible thing to do, but it’s also not healthy. It’s like a disorder. It’s devastating to relationships. So, why do we continue to do it to God when He’s the only one willing to stand with us no matter what may come. Like bad things happen that we navigate ourselves into, right, our own folly, our own foolishness, and it leads to our own ruin, and then we want to blame God for what happened when actually He’s the only one that is still standing with us in it. He’s not to blame. He’s in it and can help us navigate out of it but we’re trying to transfer blame. So, a good relationship happens when people are willing to own their own lives and actions. So, it’s kind of time that we apply that not only to our other relationships, but also to our relationship with God. There’s nothing He’s gonna leave us and abandon us over if we’re walking with Him. There’s nothing He’s not gonna guide us through if we’re walking with Him, but He also loves us enough to let us walk away if that’s what we’re after. And we need to stop blaming Him and we do. Better yet, we should stop walking away at all, ever. Or as the Proverbs says, “a person’s own folly leads to their ruin.”
Prayer:
Father, we’ve experienced that on number of occasions, big and small in our lives. We can certainly appreciate and validate what’s being said here in the book of Proverbs, but we also have to acknowledge the ways that we try to shift the blame. And when we can’t find any person to put it on we put it on You and this pulls us apart. No relationship can stand like that. If we were in a relationship and the only thing that was going on was transfer…transference of blame, that’s pretty…that’s a pretty slippery slope that’s not heading in a good direction at all and we’ll end up with the ruins, the relationship. And, so, we shouldn’t be surprised in how we’re continually confused about our relationship with You, and yet even in that we want to blame You. Help us to look in the mirror today and Holy Spirit, help us to see. Help us to see what we’re doing. Help us to see that it’s not healthy. We surrender to You. You are the sovereign God and we acknowledge that when walk away from You, life does begin to spiral, but it’s not You who pushed us away, it’s we who walked away. Forgive us, God. We return to You. Come Holy Spirit we pray, in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s home base, it’s where you find out what is going on around here.
I want to remind you about…about the family reunion that’s coming up at the end of August, first part of September, over Labor Day weekend. We have a fantastically beautiful camp out on Percy Priest Lake that we just locked down for us. We needed to try to increase the capacity from what we tried last year and so we’ve done that and so there’s availability and hope you can come. And I want to mention a couple of things about that. We locked down all of the cabins there. So, as many of you can stay on site as want to…they cost a little bit more than a hotel around here, but not by much. And there the size…they’re the size of like a house. I mean they’re laid out like a bunkhouse, but they have their own shower and bathroom and all of this in it. But they’re huge and spacious and right on the grounds and we have a few of those left but we’re gonna have to release them back to the camp in another week. So, want to give you heads up on that. And also want to tell you why you should come. This past year, this year of 2019, this year of maintenance this year of maintaining, man, at least for me, one of the most poignant words, advanced words that I’ve gotten and as I hear feedback from the community, yeah, maintenance, maintaining that takes a lot of focus. And at least for me, halfway through the year now I've…yeah know, I don’t know what the second half of the year completely looks like, but halfway through here I can say, “man you can’t really be involved in what you can’t maintain otherwise you need to question whether you are involved in it, because if you can’t maintain it then you’re eventually gonna have a problem. And then just in terms of my relationship with God, I realized, if I want more of God than I have to be with God more, which means all these things that I’m maintaining, I have to question whether I should be. And one of the things that Jill and I realized coming into this year was that we…we were coming to an end of the More Gathering on Sharp Top Mountain in Georgia. We didn’t know what was next or for that matter still really don’t know exactly what’s next we just knew that was supposed to happen. And, so, in obedience we did. And at this point now we know, oh, next year were not gonna be doing all of the things that we’ve been doing. Next year were supposed to be doing some things that we’ve been trying to bring to resolution for years and also God is inviting us onto some new paths. So, we won’t be doing the More Gathering in 2020, and we won’t be doing the Family Reunion in 2020. We will be going to Israel in 2020 and that…that pilgrimage is about sold out. There’s a handful of spots left. And, so, if that’s been on your…on your list to check into, I would check it out. But I’m saying all this to say, this Family Reunion is really meaningful to us because, you know, we’ve been at this for 14 years, seven days a week, and the Lord is inviting us in the next year in 2020 to breathe and to dream again. So, this family reunion is meaningful to us because it puts us face-to-face with you and not just seeing you by voice but seeing you in person. And, so, I hope you can be there. I hope you can come to the rolling hills of Tennessee and see what all the magic is about here and visit our hometown of Nashville, which is the destination place. For whatever reason, we just watched our city explode with a lot of energy and excitement. So, Daily Audio Bible family reunion is coming up August 31st through September 2nd here in the rolling hills of Tennessee and you can find out all about it at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Just look for Family Reunion and you can find out about it in the app as well. And hope to see you there.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible then you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage and I can’t thank you enough. Summertime comes around and it’s when we have to make some of the most risky decisions with the least amount of resource to do it with as we head into the end of the year. So, 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.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi Daily Audio Bible, this is Rebecca from Michigan, July 6th. You know what Brian, I want to thank you for reading all those big names in the Bible because I think I would get totally discouraged and put the Bible down if you didn’t read them because those are huge names and it’s like you’re almost speaking in tongues. It’s like I was so amazed at how you went through all those names in the Chronicles. And I’m like whoa. So, yeah, I appreciate your reading every single one of those names in the book of Chronicles and I thank you for the Daily Audio Bible because it’s like a big world Bible study, a big world reading of the Bible all over the universe. It is like one big gigantic Bible study learning about the people in the Bible. And sometimes I think in the past some things in the Bible have been very frustrating to read but you have made it come to life, alive in our spirits and our physical world and emotional and mental. It’s like if the Bible’s just coming to life in our present day and it’s like we’re living back in time kind of like super book. I don’t know if you remember that when I was little I remember super book. But yeah, it is like amazing how you read the Bible all the time. And I actually picture myself in the shoes of those people living there or like how do they kill all these people and all. But, yeah, thank you very much Brian. I appreciate it a whole lot, you reading the word of God to us. Thank you and…
Hi DAB family this is MK and I’m really needing your prayers right now. I’m in such a bad place. I’m so angry. I currently hate my church very much I finally feel like I hate everything, and hate is such a strong word but that’s what I’m feeling. I feel so much rage towards my leaders, towards my pastors, just towards everyone right now because of a situation that occurred where there was injustice. But I need you to pray for me and that I would remember that I go to a good church, that every church has…has issues and that there is a need to…of a revival in my church and that as I a church member, a child of God, I need to pray for my church but I ask you to pray for my heart ,that I’d feel peace, that this anger would leave me and that I be able to move on from the situation with God. Please pray for me DAB family. Thank you for your prayers and I pray for blessings and prosperity in all of your lives and for more renewal in Jesus’ name I pray and I say Amen and I thank you. Bye.
Hi there, I just need to ask for some prayer. I lost my job a while…a couple of months ago and I was supposed to give up my apartment, I’m living with a friend and I recently __ thank God I recently started working again and I managed __ but unfortunately, I’m __ living __ six __ at the moment. That’s how many times I’ve thought about __ . He kind of just ignores me and still tries to have sex with me. And I’ve started drinking just because it makes it easier. And recently I’ve looked in the mirror and I realized I can’t…I can’t notice myself anymore. __ God’s really bad and he actually went there for cigarettes and I realized, that no, that’s how many times he __ interested in your body but __ he smokes or he’s interested or whatever. I’m just so run down that I don’t even try and fight it anymore, even when he’s been smoking cigarettes out. And I just sat there, and I took it. And when he tried to have sex yesterday…that’s how many times __ he said to me you’ve just gotta stop. I’m never gonna know the country. I don’t know anyone here. I can’t breathe at the moment and I don’t know how to __…
Hey, it’s Andrea from Kentucky and I just wanted to encourage you with a prayer of encouragement for an everyone. So, Father I just thank You for Your goodness and Your kindness. I thank You that You want to co-labor with us, that You want us to speak with You on a regular basis. I thank You that You are destroying the lies of the enemy and You’re destroying his darkness over our lives. I thank You that You are opening up our eyes to the truth of who You are. I thank You that You are creating a deeper intimacy within Your people, within Your body. I thank You that You are delivering us from the God of this world, that You have already delivered us from the God of this world, that You are teaching us how to be wise stewards and wise managers over every area of our lives so that we can be faithful in the small things, so that we can be ruler of the greater things. Father I thank You that You’re destroying poverty off our minds. I thank You that Your destroying the lottery kind of messaging of our minds when it comes to our finances but that we have a healthy understanding of finances. I thank You that we are increasing our skill sets in finances so that we can go out and do the will of God, to take care of the sick, to take care of the widows, to take care of the orphans and take care of those who need someone to speak up for them. I thank You that You are moving the financial mountains, the financial burdens of our life so that we can be free people, free people to pursue all that You have put in our hearts to do. I thank You that Your delivering people right now from suicidal torment just as You have delivered me from suicidal torment. I release that testimony into the airwaves to the people that are listening, and I thank You for releasing people from depression, oppression, suppression in the mighty name of Jesus and I thank You for healed relationships, healed marriages, healed bodies in the name of Jesus. Yeshua You are worthy…