Month: September 2019

Isaiah 33:10-36:22, Galatians 5:13-26, Psalms 64:1-10, Proverbs 23:23

Today is the 20^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. I am excited to be here with you today as we all just come in and find our places around this global campfire that is our community. And so, as we often say and really, as was the theme that we spoke about in Isaiah yesterday, let’s exhale, let’s return to God, let’s rest and allow his word to wash over us before we get blown away. And, so, this is a good time to anchor ourselves in the Scriptures, and in our relationship with God. So we’re reading from the New English Translation this week and we kinda crossed the center of the book of Isaiah yesterday so we’re moving into the back half. Isaiah 33 verse 10 to 36 verse 22 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, it’s a pretty regular thing in the Bible to find that paths are laid out before us and we can choose this one or we can choose that one and we get to see where both of those paths lead and then we get to choose. And so that was a case as we were reading in the book of Isaiah yesterday. And we talked about

And, so, in our reading from Galatians today we had another one of these opportunities to see a couple of paths and their outcomes so that we can choose. And in this case, the paths are that of the sinful nature and the path of union with the Holy Spirit. So, Paul says, “for the flash has desires that are opposed to the spirit and the spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh for these are in opposition to each other so that you cannot do what you want.” Okay, so the path that submits to sin fights for control of our lives but how do we know? Like, yesterday we were talking in Isaiah about just being blown off the path and we even prayed, asked the Holy Spirit to show us when the drifting starts so that we can see that and repent then, as opposed to when it’s all all chaos. So, are there any signs? Like anything that could reveal that we are choosing the path of sin? According to Paul, there are. “When we follow the desires of our sinful nature then the results are clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasure, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, dissensions, or quarreling, jealousy, fits of rage or anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other things like that” is what Paul had to say. So, let’s spend a minute with that. I mean…I mean we can understand how sexual immorality would be on that list, right? We can understand how lustful pleasures would be on that list because those are like A list of sins. So, we think. We can understand why drunkenness would be on the list. Those are A listers. But what jealousy, what about envy, what about outbursts of anger. Because according Paul…there on the same list. Have we ever thought about the fact that those are walking the path of sinful nature as well? And we might be like, alright, listen, we’re free from the law, so I’m not going under another law. What’s the big deal. Everybody gets mad. Everybody gets angry. For Paul, the big deal was that those kinds of behaviors, those kinds of sins don’t lead us to anything other than more bondage. And when we started our reading from Galatians today Paul was talking about supreme freedom. And, so, Paul’s trying to reveal that freedom in Christ is boundless. There is no limit to that freedom. But it’s a choice, and we have pretty good built-in indicators. Like one…I mean…when you’re looking at what somebody else has and thinking, “I’ll never be able to get there. I’ll never be able to do that” like, when you’re comparing your life to somebody else’s life and jealousy and envy are all around you, how free did you feel? I mean, how free were you in that moment? I mean, did you get a sense of wholeness and shalom that just kind of overwhelmed you out of nowhere where all of a sudden you were at such peace that you hadn’t felt that way in so long. The last time you had an outburst of rage, right? Like, when was the last time lust gave you this immense sense of God’s presence and this joy this spiritual joy that was just coming up from within you, right? So, it’s kind of built in. Paul gave us a list and he does that a lot. So, we got a list, but we kinda got a built-in spiritual gauge. And when we’re walking off the path, we’re not going to be experiencing the presence of God and an overwhelming sense of calm and peace and strength. So, Pal’s like, I’ve told you this before, I’m telling you it again, if that’s the life you’re gonna live, if that’s where you’re gonna go then…then you’re not gonna inherit the kingdom of God. So, thankfully what Paul didn’t say is that anybody who fails in any of those areas is hopelessly lost. Its…it’s the person that lives into that way of being, the one who walks that path will not inherit the kingdom of God. So, are we walking that path? So, I mean we can look at the A listers and go like, “I’m not walking that path”, but Paul didn’t like…he didn’t categorize what he was saying. So, are we walking the path or not? And is the path that we’re walking on going to end up where we hope it does? Because Paul gave another path, a counter path, an opposite path. And he says the fruit of the spirit, so like if you’re gonna walk the path of the spirit, then the outflow of that, the fruit of that will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And as an aside, Paul illuminates that there are no laws against those things. So, we have some contrasting paths today and we need to examine ourselves to understand which path we’re on and we’re probably on both of those paths and how can you end up in two different places? And, so, we need to decide which path leads to the place that I am hoping to end up and then follow that path. And whatever path we are walking will absolutely be borne out in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds

Prayer:

Father, this is challenging, and Your word challenges us constantly. And we need it. And sometimes we’re very, very deeply convicted because the lights have come on and the darkness has been illuminated and we can see clearly what’s going on and we ask for that, that the light of truth by the power of Your Holy Spirit would shine into the dark recesses of our hearts illuminating what’s really going on. What path that are we walking? Because so often we walk ourselves into a wall and then blame You and are angry at You when we walked there. And perhaps we were confused about where we were walking, but that’s not Your fault, You never left us, and You promised to lead us into all truth. And, so, we gotta do our part and listen and obey. So, come Holy Spirit and show us again what path we’re walking. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here so be sure to stay connected.

The Prayer Wall is in the community section at dailyaudiobible.com and all the different social media places we were interacting is in the community section at dailyaudiobible.com.

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com together. As you can see, Daily Audio Bible is home base, right, I say it every day, but it is. It is where we find out what’s going on. So anyway, thank you. Thank you profoundly for your partnership. So, there’s a link on the web site…on the homepage. 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, Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request for comment you can press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or the number to dial is 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. Let’s have a great weekend. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling tonight to talk to some of the DABbers. I wanted to say hi to Jerry the new listener and want to continue to pray with you that you keep the faith in your marriage. I want to pray for the family of the father that committed suicide and left those precious kids and his mother and family. Lord, I just want to __ just continue to pray with that and the kids going to school and the challenges that is happening in our nation of the separation and people in the devastated areas. Gracious father we praise You today. Lord, we know that You’re a God that can do anything but fail. We know that Your ways are not our ways. Lord we know that You are a mighty God You’re a God that can do anything but fail. Lord we ask You to touch that family of that man who wind up taking his precious life. Oh Lord whatever the devil __ make that man think that he couldn’t hold on, that he didn’t have anything to live for. Those precious babies, I pray that You know that You have something to You live for, You have to live for the legacy that Your father left You. You have to live for the legacy that Your mother left You and the legacy that Jesus gave You. He has a plan for Your life. It’s for a future and a hope. We pray for the saints. I pray for the missionary that was going through and she needed strength. Lord You give her the strength like You give her the strength like never before. Oh Lord You have Your miracles. Lord You stretch out Your hands on the DABbers. You know the needs. You know the thoughts, You know the intents of their heart. Lord we ask You to bless Lord. We ask You to open up the flood gate of heaven Lord and bring them out of the blessing. Lord You work miracles Lord. You decide. You direct Lord. You protect Lord. Oh Lord…

Hi this is Susie from Colorado. I’m just calling in with an update. I wanted to say thank you from the deepest part of my heart for all the prayers and the compassion that you showed by praying for me. I had just gotten back from Haiti about a little over a week ago and called in pretty distraught feeling really cut up bruised and hurting and you know just tired. You know I’ve been working in Haiti 25 years and I just had had…kind of had it. I’m feeling so much better. I tell you about 70% recovered and I…I want to thank Duane from Wisconsin for lifting me up in prayer and Dave Steinhearst and Sheriff I believe it was. I did try to email you. My husband thanks you all for praying for us. Also, I heard yesterday, today’s the 14^th, Jude and Anya lost their dad to suicide and Jude found him deceased and I know that Jude is only in 10^th grade and I…I…I’m so sorry. My heart is lifting you up to the Holy Spirit every day. And the boy whose getting bullied at school, it was so encouraging for me to hear him praying for blessings and love for those who are being the bullies. Tat just…you are something very very special and I just want you to know that we all will be praying for you…you all. Thank you. God bless. Bye.

Hi, my name is Liliana. I need prayer. My boyfriend __ just yesterday morning went in for surgery for leukemia then later on the hospital contacted me saying that he’s in a coma and has lost a lot of blood. I just need desperate prayer. Thank you. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible.

Hi, this is Ben from Ohio. I just heard about Jude and Anya losing their father to suicide. And, so, I want to pray for them now. Father God, I pray that You would go and You would touch the hearts of these two Young people. Jesus, please intercede on their behalf. Please go and rescue these two Young people as they bore the loss of their father as they have, You know, as they were morning of their loss of their family and now they’ve got to mourn the loss of their father. Lord I just pray that You would go and You would work this for good Lord. I pray that You would only as You can only in Your power could something good and fruitful come out of this. And so we are trusting You father, we’re just trusting You Jesus, we’re trusting You Holy Spirit to go and intercept these children, these Young people hearts Lord to keep them from going into bitterness or self-destructive behavior or…or doubt Lord. I pray that this would be a catalyst for hope and rescue and pursuit of the You Lord. And I pray this all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family it’s Jay from Nashville Tennessee. Listen guys, God is so good. I’m calling with a praise report, obviously, because you can hear it in my voice. And, you know, I was going to a spiritual retreat and on this spiritual retreat I was told I can’t bring any electronics - no phones, no laptops, no watches, nothing, right? And the problem was, right before I had to go in my project management class, I had a 49%, that was my grade, a big fat F. And I called up the team and I said, listen I need to bring my laptop, I need to bring my phone and I need to bring my iPad because I’ve got to get these papers and these quizzes and things done or I’m gonna fail my class. And before I left, I prayed, and God spoke to my heart and said, “have I ever let you down before.” And I thought, “God you’ve never let me down.” So, I left my laptop, I left my phone, I left my watch, I left my iPad and I trusted that God would give me the ability to get that work done in the five hours that I would have left before the deadline when I got home. So, I got home from this retreat. And I mean when I tell you I cried like a baby at this retreat, I cried like a baby. Long story short, I get home and I’ve got five hours left. I sat down and I prayed, and I said, “Lord whatever your will is in this moment I trust in it.” And I sat down, and I started typing and my fingers moved at the speed of light. I could not keep up with the information that came from God. I got all the tests, all the discussions, all the posts, all the papers. I went from a 49 to a B. God is good. Trust in God. He will provide. I love you guys.

Isaiah 30:12-33:9, Galatians 5:1-12, Psalms 63:1-11, Proverbs 23:22

Today is the 19^th day of September. Welcome…welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. It is great to be here with you today and every single day, actually, every single day of my life to be here with you for the next step forward as we continue this rhythm that is life in the Scriptures. So, today we are reaching pretty much the center of the book of Isaiah. So, we have…well when we finish today’s reading, we will have reached the middle of the book and then when we reach the New Testament we will continue our journey through Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia. We’re reading from the New English Translation this week. Isaiah chapter 30 verse 12 through 33 verse 9 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have reached kind of the center of the book of Isaiah and the book of Isaiah can seem difficult to follow if we’re trying to read it like this kind of cohesive story like a narrative story because it seems like the books jumping all over the place. He’s talking about all kinds of different things to all kinds of different people and that’s because he is. This is not a single narrative story. The book of Isaiah is this collection of the utterances of God through Isaiah. So, they don’t all happen at the same time. They didn’t all happen for the same reason and they weren’t all spoken to the same people. But certainly, as a collection we can see an arc. Isaiah certainly does predict some pretty troubling times, but the messages eventually begin to turn toward hope and restoration. And we experienced some of that today. In fact, Isaiah gives us a clear path spoken thousands of years ago landing right in our lap today, clear paths that we can choose. So, just take a deep breath for a second and listen to this because we could all stand to hear this, but for some of this…some of us…this is just like a life raft. “For this is what the Master, the Lord, the Holy One of Israel says. If you repented and patiently waited for me you would be delivered. If you calmly trusted in me, you would find strength.” So, what is…what is essentially being said here? Calm down, return to God, and find rest and in that rest, we’ll again discover our strength. Of course, the alternative to that is something that we can also choose. So, continuing the passage, “but you are unwilling. You say no, we will flee on horses, so you will indeed flee. You say we will ride on fast horses. So, your pursuers will be fast.” So, basically, we have two paths, one that leads to quiet confidence and strength in God and one that relies on our own strength and will never allow us to outrun whatever it is that is chasing us. If we follow that path, then we’re given a picture of where it will lead. 1000 will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier. At the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away until the remaining few are is isolated as a flagpole on a mountaintop or a signal flag on hill. And you can see that imagery in your mind, a lonely flagpole on a mountaintop. So, here we are. What path are you going to choose today? The first path is to take a deep breath, take a long exhale, repent, return, rest. You are not in this alone. You are not alone. You are not abandoned. In fact, take a deep breath. That’s the proof. You wouldn’t have the breath of life in you if God were not willing to sustain you. Or we can take that same breath and whip ourselves up into hyperventilation because we are so full of anxiety and running running running and we can’t get ahead, right? We’re fleeing, but we can get ahead because our pursuers are fast as Isaiah says. So, what is your path of choice today?

Prayer:

Father, the correct path is clear and that is the path we want to walk, the one that is calm, the one that is serene. And that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that are gonna happen that are gonna disrupt us, but it is from within that we are walking with You and observing these things that are happening. But these circumstances that come against us, they cannot penetrate to where we are in relationship. We want that, but it does require our surrender. It requires our continual returning to You, and we do that, we repent, we return to You, we come back to You, we are sorry, forgive us Father, but at the same time we know that this kind of repetitive for us, this is kind of a big circle for us. We do come back to You, we do, re-center ourselves in You, but then the world seems to blow us away, like the circumstances of life seem to blow us off the path and then we have to return again. Help us to understand that that’s okay. We just invite Your Holy Spirit to help us become more aware because a lot of times we become aware when things have gotten out of control. Help us to become aware that we’re getting blown away before we do so that we can once again anchor ourselves in You and walk this path that You’ve set before us. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask, expectantly. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base and we’re you find out what’s going on around here. So, check it out.

Check out the Prayer Wall that’s in the Community section and pray for or ask for prayer. This is an ongoing thing, 24 hours a day, so you can always check in there.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. We’ve been mentioning all of this brand-new fun that’s happening around here based around the Global Campfire. And, so, you can find this new Global Campfire section in the Shop. And there are a number of items in there just made to be constant reminders that we’re in community as we take this journey. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link, it lives on the homepage. 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 a comment, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, little red button at the top and off you go or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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:

Dear heavenly Father, I pray that You will be with Jay of Nashville. Thank You so much for placing him on my heart these past few days to lift him up before You, asking that You would draw close to him and that You would be the God of all comfort that we know that You are, but especially now at this time when Jay is experiencing deep loneliness. Dear Jesus, You know that is like, being in the midst of a crowd and being lonely, people not understanding who You are or what You are all about, people deserting You when You thought they had Your back. And, so, God I’m just praying that You would send Your Holy Spirit in a mighty way, that You would fill Jays’ heart and mind with thoughts of You, bring Your word to life for him, bring the right people into his life who will be an encouragement and help him on his walk with You. And Father when those temptations come to go back to ways and do things that he knows exactly where they will end up. Father I pray that You will raise a standard against that desire and implant within his heart Your desire. Help him to be a blessing to other people, to find ways to nourish and be nurtured that will glorify You and will keep him and his eyes focused on You. I praise You God for doing that and thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I’m Seeker of Northern California and I wanted to thank first of all, thank Jill and Brian and China and the amazing super support team of the Daily Audio Bible. What a blessing you are all of us. This ministry has been such a powerful force to show obedience and learning and fellowship. Thank you. And my love to all the regulars who call in to pray. I love you guys. It’s so amazing to hear you and to be inspired to be a prayer warrior. I pray for each person who calls. I’ve been listening for about five years and I pray for each one who calls and try to imagine them in their facets of their prayer, of their need. My prayer request is for my daughter who’s a law enforcement officer in a large California city. As you can imagine, her job is tremendously difficult and last April she left her husband of 14 years, with whom they together, they have wonderful 4-year-old son. And she only says that she’s been unhappy, and they’ve grown apart and she won’t explain more, and she doesn’t wish to be pressed about it. Her husband is devastated and he’s a good man. We love him very much. We’re devastated. So, I beg your prayers for healing. My husband and I have been praying daily for healing for her and for her husband and for her son. So, please pray for him for this little family. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Thank you all.

Hello, my name is Susan I’m calling from Canada and I need prayer for my son and I. My son who’s 40 has stage IV cancer. It’s a very rare and advanced cancer. He’s on clinical trials to see if that will help him. He has had four surgeries in less than a year and he’s also battling a horrible stubborn infection. So, I pray for his healing and we also need the strength and the stamina to go through this together. He is a wonderful man who loves the Lord. He is very ill, and I have had to do things for him that no mother should ever have to do for their son. So, just pray for healing for him and strength and courage and trust for us both. Thank you.

[singing starts] From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea. Creations revealing Your majesty. From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring. Every creature unique in the song that it sings. All exclaiming, indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky, and You know them by name. You are amazing God. All powerful, untamable, You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same. You are amazing God. You are amazing God. [singing stops] Father God, thank You so much for the beauty of Your creation.  Thank You so much for the night sky, all of the stars, it’s indescribable, it’s beautiful, it’s magnificent, I pray Lord that You would open our eyes to see the glory all around us. We lift up Lord our family, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues who don’t know You, who see these things but haven’t joined up those dots yet. May they see these things Lord, the beauty of the ocean, the beauty of the night sky, the beauty of a new born baby, and know that it was You that created it. May they see You Lord, and may Your name be praised. In Jesus’ name, Amen. This is Michaela from Gloucester currently here on the south coast. Bye.

Hey DABber family its addicted Olia from Minnesota. Just wanted to call in…and had little bit of a slip last week. I am now back today 4. I don’t know. It’s a struggle but it was kind of cool. I almost…I was so close to using the other day and I just decided to listen to the community prayer, and I heard a couple people praying for me and just like that my craving one away. Yeah, just amazing, that these strangers, you guys are praying for me just showing love. I’m really learning what that means. So, thank you.

Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Hello Daily Audio Bible. I’m a first-time caller. I’ve been listening for over a year. My name is Maria from Colon Michigan, magic capital of the world and today I need your help. I’ve been alone now for five years. I was forced to divorce my husband because he wanted me to join him in bisexual relationships. All I have had is my mom and dad. Yes, I’ve been lonely but that has been all I needed. Just after the divorce he died. I took that really hard. I now have fresh news that my mom has cancer. Her name is Danny Smith. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how. How do I? I have no friends and I am alone besides when Ian with them. I will not cry when I’m in front of her. But when I’m alone it’s hard. Wednesday we go in and learn what kind of cancer and treatment options. Please say a prayer. And by the way, before this I was too shy to make call. God bless you all and I have been praying for you.

Isaiah 28:14-30:11, Galatians 3:23-4:31, Psalms 62:1-12, Proverbs 23:19-21

Today is the 18^th day of September. Can you believe it? This month is just flyin by, isn’t it? We have like already crossed the center of the month and are in the back half. And I didn’t even realize that until just now. Nevertheless, here we are and we’re where we’re supposed to be and we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, we’re stepping out of the chaos of life and just letting God’s word become a part of our day, and a part of our thoughts and allowing you to seep into our hearts and transform us. So, we’ve been reading from the New English Translation this week, which is what we will continue to do until this week is over. And we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. Isaiah chapter 28 verse 14 through 30 verse 11 today.

Commentary:

Alright. Since we met the apostle Paul in the book of Acts and began in the book of Romans to read his writings, we’ve spent plenty of time kinda digging into the theological challenges that were going on in Paul’s time so that we could better understand where he’s coming from, especially here in this letter to the Galatians. And, so, we’ve looked at why his views would have been perceived as controversial or heretical to religious Jews and for that matter even religious Jews who had begun to be followers of Jesus and we’ve explored the Jew / Gentile issue so that we could understand better the cultural challenges that the early church was actually facing. And, so, now we can wonder why it even matters, like these are old arguments, these matters are settled, right? What does is it have to do with me? Paul’s writings made it into the Bible. That’s got to be good enough. It’s been a long time since any of this stuff would be life-threatening for most people. So, let’s look back once again at what Paul said in our reading from the letter to the Galatians today and see if we can bring this struggle just a little closer. So, Paul says, “the law had become our guardian until Christ so that we could be declared righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we’re no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.” Okay, buckle your seatbelts, this is going to be disruptive. We can read what Paul…well…what we just read out of the book of Galatians and just go, “Great. Like, that’s great news. I don’t have to even think about the Mosaic law. Thank goodness because we read that when we were reading Leviticus and I can’t imagine trying to adopt that into this modern world. Thank God I don’t even have to think about it. God sees me righteous before Him through faith.” And that would be a reasonable, common way to look at things now. But when Paul is referring to the law, he is essentially referring to the Torah, what the Jewish Hebrew people would’ve understood as Scripture, right? So, the Bible that we have, the one that we’re reading through in a year, it didn’t exist like it does now when Paul wrote this letter, right? So, the Gospels that tell the story of Jesus ministry and life hadn’t been written yet. The New Testament was in no way formed, right? So, Paul would’ve had no way to get up in front of a group of people and refer to anything from Matthew to Revelation when he wrote the letter to the Galatians. Like, he could refer to his own letters, but there was no cohesive New Testament at all at that point. If there were a Bible in this context, it would’ve been the Torah. And if we were to read this passage again and replace the word law with the word Bible, then we would immediately begin to see why people were struggling so much against Paul. So, let’s do it. “The Bible had become our guardian until Christ so that we could be declared righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.” So, you see, like if the apostle Paul were alive today saying all that, he wouldn’t probably get all that far And, so, we can see the struggle that he had as he did his ministry, which kind of does bring us to something a little on the delicate side. What is the Bible? Is it God’s holy word that instructs us on how to live our lives? Like, we would probably agree that's…that’s fair…that’s fair. Okay, what if we could obey everything the Bible says? For that matter, let’s just whittle it down. What if we could obey everything the New Testament says? Would following the rules alone make us right with God? Right? So, you see how this issue is still alive and raging today? Do you see how much of our faith is consumed by getting everybody to be in line with the rules? And, so, let’s just pick up what Paul is saying to take this further. So, Paul’s like, “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.” Alright. Me reading those words to you. You even backing it up and listening to those words again, those words, reading those words does nothing. Having faith in the reality that those words are describing changes everything, which in part is the point being made here. Adhering to a set of rules or even claiming some allegiance to a belief system can’t save you. The Bible can’t save you or me. But the Bible points the way to the God who can. So, if we’re processing these words every day and doing this ritual of being in the Bible looking for the recipe, like what commands do I need to obey then we are missing the point. There is a God who is behind the Bible and the Bible points us to God. But if we just listen to the words it’s not doing anything. If we don’t reach out in faith, we aren’t gonna find God. We will…we will have simply read a bunch of words about God. And as we’ve talked about so many times before, knowing everything about a person does not mean in any way that you are in a relationship with them. So, Paul, what he’s trying to say here is, “faith is the key.” If we do not step beyond what we think we know and into a relationship with God by faith then we haven’t really gone anywhere, which brings us to consider our own journey. Are we worshiping and defending the Bible because a lot of people are? Are we worshiping and defending a certain theological position about the Bible or adhering to a certain doctrine in the Bible? Not that anything…not that any of the things…I do those things but if that’s where we stop then we’ve lost the spirit of the whole thing. We’re waging a battle over what people can and can’t do. We’re trying to manage each other’s behavior when God is right there saying, “come to Me. All you who are weary, come to Me.” Like, this whole book is supposed to show us how to come to God, not so that we’re better equipped to manage everybody’s sin and point out everybody’s sin who goes to church with us. So, basically have we read words that tell us that we could die to who we once were without Jesus? Or by faith have we actually died to the person we once were? If we look at ourselves, we find that we’re very often trying to obey the rules so that God will even notice us. Paul, on the other hand, spent his life trying to reveal the God behind it all, the God who has adopted us into His own family as His own children.

Prayer:

Father, certainly this…this does bring it near. Certainly, this does bring some of the early struggles that we can see in these letters home. And we find that, no, these issues that we might consider irrelevant or ancient are very alive and very present with us today. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit into that today. Why are we doing this? Are we doing this because we’re scared about the afterlife? Are we doing this because we believe that You are there, and it would be good to have You on our side? Or have we reached across a chasm in faith into the dark only to find that You were reaching back, and You have loved us with every breath we’ve ever taken? Are we taking your word and trying to dissect it like it’s a science experiment or are we allowing your word to wash over us and lead us to your heart? Come Holy Spirit, we pray, into that question. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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Isaiah 25:1-28:13, Galatians 3:10-22, Psalms 61:1-8, Proverbs 23:17-18

Today is the 17^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s, like every day great to have some time together to come around the global campfire to release everything else that’s going on and to let God’s word speak and wash into our lives. And, so, we will continue with the next step which is the next step, the one in front of the one we took yesterday and that will lead us back out into the book of Isaiah. Today we’ll read chapter 25 verse 1 through 28 verse 13 and we’re reading from the New English Translation this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So, this is what Paul had to say today from our reading from the letter to the Galatians, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us because it is written, “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. Alright, that’s just a couple of verses there, but those couple of verses pretty much encapsulate Paul’s theological position for presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to his fellow Hebrews, and his hope for the Gentiles, and it pretty much outlines what we would now call the doctrine of justification through faith. So, I mean, the way that the story of the apostle Paul goes, he ends up dying, he ends up being martyred, killed, executed for his convictions. So, we can surmise probably pretty steadfastly that he believed what he was talking about because he died for it, that he believed that Jesus had given him this revelation personally. So, Jesus comes to this Pharisee and begins revealing himself to this Pharisee, Saul, whose name becomes Paul. And we think, “well…Jesus just showed up, talked to Paul, told him how things were. Paul’s like, “hey that’s cool. Thanks for all that clarification. Sorry for persecuting the church. Off we go.” But that’s not how matters of belief and faith usually work in a person’s life. Usually, like changing the way that you believe is a process and slow and you tread lightly and there’s a bit of disruption involved to say the least. And, so, we have to imagine that Paul went through this. His scriptural understanding was disrupted by a revelation of Jesus Christ and as he accounts himself, he went away, like he spent a lot of time trying to figure this out way before he became a controversial figure in the early days of the church. And here’s the deal. From the book of Acts we know Saul – Paul – we know what kind of a person that he was. We understand that he was devout and dedicated to God, but his understanding of that led him to believe that he should persecute and stamp out people who were following Jesus. So, this is an about-face. This is a disruptive thing. Paul’s experiences with Jesus flew in the face of all that he thought that he knew about God and all of the traditions of his people who were God’s chosen people, right, and not to mention, this kind of unraveling his theological training. So, following Jesus forced Paul to go back through the whole story of the Hebrew people, which is his ethnicity and it forced him to consider Moses because Moses was the chief person people were adhering too. He lead the people into the promised land and the law came from him, or through him and his legacy. So, Paul has to think about the whole thing, the whole story while he’s coming to his conclusions about the law. So, Paul is looking to the story that happened before Moses for the answers, which of course would bring him to Abraham who entered into a covenant with God and through that covenant a relationship with Abraham’s offspring began, so a relationship with his chosen people began. And God made a promise to raise up a people through Abraham, through which all the nations of the world would be blessed. And, so, for Paul this promise found in the Hebrew Scriptures and known by Hebrew people, especially Hebrew scholars, this promise explicitly meant the Gentiles as well as the Hebrews - the non-Hebrews, as well as the Hebrews - all nations of the world will be blessed. And he realized that the whole story began with a promise and not a law, right, a promise and not rules, which was a big distinction for Paul, and we have seen it and we will e it throughout the rest of his writings. Abraham believed the promise through faith and God considered him righteous because he believed him, not because he obeyed a rule but because he trusted and put his faith in God. So, when this promise to Abraham was made there was no law. Abraham couldn’t have obeyed the Mosaic law. Moses wouldn’t be born for hundreds of years. 430 years to be specific according to the apostle Paul. So, if you’re following this line of reasoning, then the law isn’t something that could be the means that could make a person right before God, because Abraham and everybody who believed the promise after Abraham, including Moses didn’t have a lot to obeye in the first place. Alright, so we can look at this and we can go, “ok, that’s making some sense…I get it…like…I see the rub here…I see what’s going on.” But man, to the people who were hearing Paul, this sounded profoundly heretical, even blasphemous, which is interesting because he was simply telling his fellow Hebrews their own story and attempting to reveal Jesus in that story, which is why he says in our reading today, “is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise could be given because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ to those who believe”, which is basically how we arrived at the doctrine of justification through faith. That has been passed down throughout the generations of the Christian faith and still impacts our hearts today.

Prayer:

Father, we enter into that. There’s a lot to process but where we enter it now is at the place where we actually live our lives because the truth is…the truth is we are constantly looking for the right rules and the right recipes, the right formulas, the way that it’s gotta be, the way that we gotta position ourselves. And for that matter, and probably more importantly, we spend a lot of our time looking at how everyone else should be positioned and how they should be living out their faith when what Paul is saying here, what we are reading here is, that’s not how it works. It works by faith, by believing in the promise and that core, deep, unmovable faith, unshakable faith in us changes the way we behave in this world. So, in so many instances throughout all of our history and throughout all of our lives, we’ve had the cart before the horse in so many profound ways. We’re hearing the message that Paul is speaking through Galatians and still find ourselves just as upside down wondering about the rules as they did. So, today Father we set aside all of that, all that we think that we know, all that we think we’re supposed to be doing, all that we think will get your attention and get You to do something and we exhale, and we simply obey what’s being said here. We believe, we have faith, You are the sovereign God, You have sent your son to rescue us, we have been rescued, we are your children, and this isn’t about following some subtle sort of program. This is about being in love. So, come Holy Spirit as we go through this day, may we rest in that. May we stop trying to figure out, “well, I messed this up so God’s not going to do that”, like, may we put that away and understand we are your children and we come running to You and we apologize, we repent for the things that have estranged us in any way. We want to be in lockstep with You in everything that we do. So, come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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Community Prayer and Praise:

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible community, this is Diane Olive Brown calling from Newburgh, Indiana at 415 in the afternoon and I just finished my reading for September 11^th and I had to eat some humble pie today and realize that I have this little quirk that when I want something I want it and I want it right away. And I realize that that’s not something that I can be proud of or brag about, and it’s kind of annoying to my family. And casting my care upon the Lord. When I have a son, who is addicted to drugs, casting him onto the Lord. He’s my care, my major care. And the girls, his sisters are trying to boss him around and boss me around. And Jeff is trying to get everyone to be in harmony and unity. And I realize that I’m a part of the problem because I can’t seem to be able to cast my care upon the Lord and leave it with Him. I did that. I did that one…one time and the Lord just made me feel how proud he was of me and he took…he did take care of David. So, this is a constant battle and no matter how many times I have to put it back in his hands, I’m doing that now. And, so I appreciate…I appreciate the Scriptures. I appreciate Brian. I appreciate my Daily Audio

Father God thank you, that you are Sovereign, thank you that you love us, thank you that you are a God of peace and love and hope. Lord, we lift up the country of Cameroon today we pray for peace in that nation. Lord we lift up its leaders and pray they would be seeking the best they for their country, that they’d be seeking peace. We thank you Lord for those who love you in leadership and we pray that they would be seeking justice, that they’d be loving mercy, and that they’d be walking humbly with you. Lord for those who don’t already know you we pray that they might come to know you, that You’d be speaking to their hearts and minds so that they would seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with you. Father God thank you so much for brother Xavier and the work he’s doing in Cameroon and the others like him who are working with children. Lord we pray your protection over those children and their families, and we pray Lord that you’d be providing their needs. And Father God we also pray for wisdom for Xavier and his colleagues and pray that that you’d be giving them wisdom on what to do, how best to bless these children, how best to help them cope with what’s going on. Father God, we pray for your healing touch in Cameroon for those who’ve been hurt physically, for those who’ve been hurt emotionally, for those who’ve been hurt mentally. We pray for your healing touch. Lord, thank you so much for brothers and sisters there and pray that you’d be watching over them and loving them making Cameroon a country of peace, hope, and love, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Every night as the stars look down their watchful gaze unblinking
the people sleep in cradled crown into soft pillows sinking
A few look back as restless thoughts as their minds meander
deeply pondered or lightly rocked
their souls our makers lander
sweet peace is not a gift to those who harbor thoughts ungracious
and ingratitude hurl and deathly throws against the one who saves them
how can it be the one who died has lost his life to save me
such selflessness does ill betide a savior lost unworthy
a lustful heart within my breast lurked always with loathing
inner black with falsehood dressed
a wolf in lambswool clothing
Though nothing in my hands I bring reads better nothing pleasant
For to my sin these hands still cling from history dark to present
but low beyond that darkening gloom a storm of light undying
for Jesus lives unbound untombed deaths jealous ends belying
thus every record every line of Gods holy indightment is rendered void and by voice devine and banished by his lifes end
beyond the doorway God decreed that portal posed by death
I know for by his word set free I’ll praise with every breath
Oh magnify the Lord with me come sing with all creation
for greater end no eye can see I pray for our salvation.

Mighty warrior 917 or 919

Hello DABbers, good afternoon, this is Aby from Maryland today is September 13^th 2019. I just wanted to put in a quick prayer request. I ran into one of my college mates and we were talking and he informed me that he recently has been diagnosed with a very rare auto immune disease that, you know, attacks his body. And this person is the most…he’s healthy…he works out, he eats right. It’s so hard to…it’s so hard for him to believe that this could happen to him. And I just want to lift him up in prayer. His name is Tossin. Please pray for him, that God restores good health. He said, if you have good health, if you have good health be thankful. And I want to encourage everyone, no matter what you may be going through, the most important thing right now is that we have good health and that is something to be thankful for. And for those who are going through some type of sickness, I lift you all up in the mighty name of Jesus. Our God, he’s the one who heals, I know that He has the power. He’s able to do exceedingly beyond what we can think for or ask for. And I pray the peace of God be you, the peace of God guard your heart, guard your mind, guard your body. In Jesus’ name. I love you all so much. It’s been a while since I’ve called in but I just want to thank you, thank Brian and his family. Everything going on with DABbers, you have been the rock for me in my walk, in my faith walking with God. So, thank you so much. Have a good day.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is To Be a blessing in California. I’m calling to ask that you join me in prayer for my friend’s cousin. I called a couple weeks ago and shared the story that her cousin’s son had been doing flips on the beach and landed on his neck. He is paralyzed. He is to be released from where he’s at and to be sent home, which is shocking to me but that’s what’s going to take place. Her friend, her cousin, excuse me, her cousin needs help knowing who to call to get the right resources available for him. The insurance company will not be paying for his care, his rehabilitation possibly, but not for the care that he needs, which is 24/7 care. So, if you would pray for her cousin that she would be given wisdom, that the right people would come to walk with her, that she would receive the support that she needs at this time. She lost her husband a couple of years ago. She has two other sons and now this…it seems to be like quite a bit handle. Thank you so much for joining me in prayer for her and also for my friend who is also looking to support her as she can. My friend is looking at how to have a relationship with Jesus. So, pray that she will receive the blessing of knowing him, and that God will give me the right words to say when we speak to invite her into that relationship and to show her. Thank you so much. God bless.

Good morning DABbers, I guess you could just call me Lost for right now and needing Jesus. I l know that he is the only way that I can get through this. I just got fired yesterday and they couldn’t tell me why, just that I wasn’t a good fit. And I had been there for a few months and I just don’t know where to go from here. I don’t know why this happened and I know that God is in control of all things, and he’s in control of this too and that he has something out there for me, but I just don’t know what and I don’t know where to go and I just pray so much for you guys. And, so, please pray for me. I love listening to your stories and your successes and just I have one if my own that I Just need you guys help with too. I just wish everyone the best. Thank you…

Isaiah 22:1-24:23, Galatians 2:17-3:9, Psalms 60:1-12, Proverbs 23:15-16

Today is the 16^th day of the month of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, and it is a joy to be here right now with you as we all just kind of come in around the global campfire, exhale, and, yeah, we’re moving into a new workweek, lots of stuff’s gonna happen, but we have this time every day to just step away from it all and let God speak through his Word. So that’s we’ll do. We’re reading from the New English Translation this week and we will continue our journey through the book of Isaiah today. Chapters 22 through 24.

Commentary:

Okay. So, what we’re reading as we read through the letter to the Galatians today brought us back some of the things that we were exploring as we journeyed through the letter to the Romans. But now we’ve got the benefit of a little bit of context. We’ve come some miles since then, so we’re beginning to get completely familiar with the struggle that was happening in the early church. And even in today’s reading we can see pretty clearly…I mean…we can look at the apostle Paul and revere him, but we can see pretty clearly why he was hated so badly by the religious Jews and why this even spilled over into conflict between the Jewish people and the Gentile believers - so, like Hebrew believers in Jesus and Gentile believers in Jesus, which is the reason for this letter. So, Paul said something very, very famous today, very quoted, one of the most famous verses in the Bible. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” And it’s famous because it succinctly declares our reality as believers and that’s what we’re living into. But why did he say that? Like, it’s a pretty audacious thing…like…you don’t just walk up to somebody and go, “hey, I’ve been crucified with Christ. I don’t live anymore. Actually, I’m not living. This is Christ living in me.” Right? Like, is a pretty audacious thing to say. We say it all the time and it’s famous and we understand it, but why did he say it? This is Paul’s disassembly of the Mosaic law as a means to be justified before God. And that kind of language was the very thing that had so many people literally wanting Paul dead. So, we look around at the religious wars and theological debates and…that are happening today, and we realize, “oh, this kind of things been going on all along.” So, Paul’s argument was that the law only could lead to death, right, that it could only reveal how you failed. So, there’s a rule and you can obey that rule and obey that rule and obey that rule until you break that rule. But once you broke that rule you failed the law. And nobody had been able to just like live into the law and never break the law and therefore be able to declare themselves righteous before God outside of Jesus. So, the law shows your failures and condemns you. So, for Paul, the only…the only way to respond then was to die to the law so that he could find a way to actually live for God and this was accomplished by completely releasing, letting go of everything that he thought that he was, all that he was without Christ, to die to that, surrendering to the life of Christ within by faith. Now, like I seriously understand that this is kinda like Christianity 101. Like, these are fundamental things, but you gotta zoom back, like step away, or zoom up and get a birds eye view, just step back for a second from all of the tradition and all of the theology and all that you think that you know and just put yourself in the position of hearing Paul but not having been raised in this tradition, right? So, let’s say you’re a Hebrew person and your entire life you have been told to obey the Mosaic law. Like, that’s the purpose of your life, it’s to try to obey the Mosaic law. This is how you will find right standing before God. And, so, you will go through all of the rituals and sacrifices and traditions so that you can…so that you can be right with God and have a sense of community. And somebody from your group…and this is Paul…like..so a pharisee…like a leading person in your group that teaches people comes along and says, “it's…it’s different than this, we’re never gonna get there from here. None of us can fulfill the law.” And He’s simply speaking to a frustration that’s bubbling under the culture. Like, everybody knows that. And, so, Paul’s like, “we’re never gonna get there but somebody did, and that was Jesus, and you crucified him. You could…he was right in front of your face fulfilling the law right before your eyes and you killed him. But God raised him from the dead. And, so, now we don’t have to obey the law anymore. We don’t have to do that stuff anymore. We’re dying to that because all it was ever intended to do was to show us that we couldn’t live up to it. Its purpose was to show us that in our own strength we could only ever fail at becoming righteous before God. But then Jesus came and obeyed. The son of God came and died for the sins of the world. And now, if you are willing to let go of who you were and believe in Jesus then you will have fulfilled the law.” This is a bit of a tough sell for people who never heard this before. And, so…and because Paul had been a religious Pharisee, like he’s considered an apostate, like a heretic. And, so, the other religious leaders who are trying to live into and live up to this law, they think what he’s saying is absolutely off the rails because, I mean, because Paul’s basically subverting a belief system that he was raised in and suggesting that it was replaced by a new covenant that could only be found in Jesus and this covenant wasn’t a covenant of judgment, but one of grace and faith rather than trying to obey a set of rules and regulations and traditions and customs, which…I mean…this unnerved the Hebrew people that are listening to Paul. You can only imagine how this would unnerve you. So, most of us…I mean…the Daily Audio Bible is a vast community around the world. Most of us would say that we are following Christ, we are Christian people, we are following Jesus. So, what…what would it take…like…who would that person have to be the come along and go like, “it’s not the way you think it is, it’s a completely different way.” I mean, who could sit down and actually have a rational conversation and explain this to you without you getting angry, unnerved, upset, upside down, calling all your friends, having these conversations, posting all this stuff on social media. Like, Paul was a lightning rod and he wasn’t trying to invite people into a new religion. The bridge that was so hard for people to cross with Paul was that Paul was trying to say, “this has always been the Hebrew story. Like…like we just missed some key, really important factors. So, we’ve been living toward certain things and trying to use them in ways that they were never going to work. And, so God in His kindness, sent His Son to show us what life is supposed to look like and to reinterpret what is…what is become nothing more than a cage for us.” But that was a pretty, pretty, pretty far bridge for people to cross. And, so, the Gentiles had a much easier time of understanding this, whereas Jewish people…even Hebrew people who believed in Jesus, but believed they were to continue to practice what they had all always practiced as a Jewish person. They had a hard time wrapping their minds…like this is why the Jerusalem Council came to be. They had a hard time wrapping their minds around what my…what life might even look like without the law, because the Mosaic law was like the centerpiece of it all. It’s their Bible, it’s the Torah, it’s how they’re supposed to live. So, for Paul to kinda come along and say, “all that was supposed to do is to show you that you cannot achieve righteousness on your own.” Like, they had never lived any other way. And, so, this is a really hard thing for them to get their minds around or even how to live it. But Paul believed that Jesus had revealed this to him personally and that’s what he said and that’s why he wouldn’t back down. God had done too many things to reveal this to him, too many Gentiles were receiving the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives with no…with no prior understanding whatsoever of the law, right? So, Paul could look at this and go, “God is doing something here and it’s outside the law, it’s happening, I’m witnessing it, I’m seeing it. So, the way to righteousness can’t be through the law. The law can’t have anything to do with it. These people have never even heard of the law.” And, so, that’s why Paul’s like…I'm…I’m quoting Paul here, “The only thing I want to learn from you is this, did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort. Have you suffered so many things for nothing if indeed it was for nothing? Does God then give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?” Again…I mean…this is stuff…like we could take it as an encouragement. Like…we wouldn’t…we wouldn’t take those words necessarily as some kind of confrontation because we believe. But…and…I mean…the reason that I’m spending so much time here right now is this…this is Paul’s theological position, this is his argument, everything that he’s talking about hinges on this. And for Paul to begin to unpack and unravel his own faith he had to go back to the beginning, not Moses but Abraham, which…which put people in theological dilemma when they began to argue against Paul in favor of the law because Abraham didn’t have any law to believe in or obey either. There was nothing he was supposed to follow and obey to be made right with God. God viewed Abraham’s faith and saw him as righteous because of it. And, so for Paul, he’s saying to his fellow Hebrew brothers and sisters and for that matter to all Gentiles, “look there is a way and does make sense. We forgot the plot. Like…we’ve been in this law thing for so long that we forgot that things were happening before God ever gave the law and people were being made righteousness before God because…because of their faith. And, so…and so there must be a way through faith to be made right with God instead of us trying to spend our whole lives trying to obey these rules that we cannot obey. There must be a way. And there is. It’s through Christ our Savior, who came here in plain sight and lived this out in front of us and we killed him.” So, for Paul, the religious leaders of which he was one had transformed the covenantal relationship God offered into a set of rules that controlled the people. And since everything boiled down to whether or not one was obeying the law than there was no freedom to be in any kind of relationship with God. The law was this constant reminder that they could never be righteous. So, we have plenty, plenty of ground to cover in the book of Galatians. But this gives us again, a good chance to get the back story to…to really live into what’s really going on here when we read these letters and understand how unsettling and disruptive, and for that matter how massive the gospel of Jesus, the Good News is, and was.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that as we continue to make the journey through Your word this year. We invite Your Holy Spirit as we explore all these avenues all these little trails that we get to go down all the things we could talk about begin to understand in in our Bibles. So, as always, we invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, and we pray that expectantly, that’s what You’ve promised You would do, and we open ourselves to You. In the same way that the apostle Paul was inviting his Hebrew brothers and sisters to set aside what they thought that they knew, we do the same and invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, and like I say every day, where you find out what’s going on around here because it’s where you find out what’s going on around here

So, the last couple of weeks we’ve had some new resources that we’ve finally been able to bring to the light of day, and that includes our new portable coffee solution. Our Windfarm brand of coffee and tea is something we’ve had going for well over a decade here, but we could never…I mean…we got the invitations for K-cups and all this kind of stuff but we could never find a way to keep coffee fresh because those solutions, they get stale really quick. And we finally found a portable solution where you can steep your coffee. And, so, the coffee’s freshly roasted and then nitro sealed so it gets the oxygen out of the container and then slow the deterioration process down, which allows them to last a long time. And, yeah, we finally found what we were looking for on that. So, those are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the coffee and tea section.

And we released the new Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 where we just tweaked some things on the bindings so it would lay better and tweaked the think a little bit and just dialed it in. So, those are available in the lifestyle section of the Daily Audio Bible shop along with all the writing paraphernalia, all of the Black Wing pencils. And it’s the stuff that I use every day.

But we also released the Global Campfire line last week and that…that is something really really excited about because I we wanted to create a logo that represented our community. We have a Daily Audio Bible logo. We use it all the time, obviously, and we wanted to create something that represented the community aspect of what we do. And, so, we did that. And, so, we’ve created a number of resources that are lifestyle in nature, things that you use and that you see and that bring a sense of connection.

For example, we created a Global Campfire commemorative coin. I don’t know about you…like…I’m like a national…national Park card-carrying lover. So, like, I have an annual national Park pass and all this and I love to visit our national parks here in the United States because just they’re…they’re treasures of beauty. But when you go there, and you go to a ranger station or whatever there’s all kinds of stuff you can get but they have these little coins or pins or things like that that commemorate your visit. And I’m a sucker for that stuff. I have a whole bowl full of all the places that I’ve been with these little commemorative coins and pins and stuff. So, it’s like…I can’t be the only one…I can’t be the only one in the world who loves this kind of thing, these reminders. And, so we created the Global Campfire commemorative coin for a couple of reasons. One for just that, as a…as a collectors thing…like a thing that you see and it reminds you, “I went through the Bible. I went through the Bible in community or…and I’m still going through the Bible in community.” But also, it’s just a touch point. It’s the kind of thing that you can put in your pocket and it’s just a little bit bigger than…here in the United States…I can only speak of our currency…like I’ve got all kinds of currency from all over the world, but I don’t event know what it’s all called. But if you have like a quarter, like a quarter dollar here in the United States, you know, about the size of a quarter. And this is more like the size of, say, a half-dollar. So, it’s easy to kinda carry around in your pocket. And whenever you reach in your pocket and you feel it, it reminds you, “I’m not talking alone. I’m not by myself. I’ve got brothers and sisters all over the world who are going through the same things I am just like the Bible says.” And it’s a touch point when you…when you touch it or when you’re holding…holding it to pray, pray for the community or pray for your brothers and sisters that we pray for every day. So, it’s a beautiful reminder and those are available in the Shop.

We printed Global Campfire postcards. We have always been in the habit as a community of leaving little business cards or postcards places all around the world…all around the world in all kinds of random places…wherever we go. And since we were launching this Global Campfire logo, we created these beautiful postcards, really eye-catching, really hefty…weighty…weighty…they’re like good postcards and they’re eye-catching. So, if you leave one sitting somewhere, it’s gonna draw someone’s eye to the Global Campfire but when they flip it over, they’ll see, “oh, this is the Daily Audio Bible and how to get it and how to listen.”

So, that’s a couple of the other items in the Global Campfire line…I guess it’s line. I don’t know that we really have a line of products, but I guess we do now. And I wasn’t really thinking of it in that way, but these are the resources that we have identified. Like these things, we can carry with us, these things, they’ll be constant reminders. And it seems like we constantly need to be reminded that we’re not alone because it doesn’t matter how great of a time we have in the Scriptures or whatever. Life then comes rushing…the world comes rushing at us and…and asks us to give us its complete devotion, like we have to completely focus on all the different things that we’re doing and so very easily we forget. We forget that there’s something greater, something bigger, something larger happening that we’re a part of and that is that we are the children of the most-high God, revealing His kingdom in this world. So, we’ve tried to create some reminders. And you can find them in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There’s a whole section called Global Campfire. You can find all that there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission that we share in common to bring the spoken word of God and offer it to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night no matter when it is and to build community around that rhythm, if that is meaningful to you then thank you for your partnership. There’s 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 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.