Month: September 2019

Isaiah 6:1-7:25, 2 Corinthians 11:16-33, Psalms 54:1-7, Proverbs 23:1-3

Today is the 10^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a great day to be together around the global campfire with you. And, so, we just exhale, right? We just roll our shoulders and twist our neck just exhale. These moments here are sacred moments that we come in out of whatever is going on and we just have a safe place to be together. And, so, in my mind anyway, that’s where the global campfire came from. There’s just a fire, we’re here, we’re peaceful, we have this space. Whatever is swirling around in our lives it’ll still be there, but we have this oasis to allow God’s word to wash over us and into our lives. And, so, let’s just take a deep breath and let it go and take the next step forward. We’re reading this week from the English Standard Version and working our way into the book of Isaiah. Today we’ll read chapters 6 and 7.

Commentary:

Okay. There’s some really, really good stuff for us in the Scriptures today, some stuff for us to really take to heart. So, there were two stories that we encountered today, one in Psalms and one in second Corinthians that both kind of boil down to the same thing and that is that life…like isn’t always easy and a lot of life is spent problem-solving, right, facing opposition and resistance and enduring through it.

So, in our Psalm today, which happens to be Psalm 54, David had been running for his life from King Saul’s assassins and King Saul himself, but someone had told the king where he was. So, he was in this life or death situation, everything was opposing him from basically every side, everything was a slog. He was running for his life. Everything was resistance. He was trying to stay alive, which makes his prayer pretty clear. “Come with Your great power oh God, rescue me, defend me with Your might, listen to me, pay attention to me, right? Strangers are attacking me. Violent people are trying to kill me. They don’t care anything about You.” So, that makes that Psalm very clearly when we understand where it’s coming from. David is not having an easy time at all.

And then in second Corinthians we start this boasting that we talked about yesterday. Paul feels like he’s been undermined by people who are trying to validate themselves through association with the “super apostles”, but what they were teaching was a little bit different than what Paul was teaching. And, so, he’s in this position where, you know, there looking at Paul going, “well…these guys walked with Jesus., these are “super apostles”. So, Paul now has to validate himself. And, so, he’s like, “are they Hebrews? I’m a Hebrew. Are they Israelites? I am too. Are they a descendent of Abraham? I am too. Are they a servant of Christ?” And then he’s like, “I know this sounds like I’m crazy, but I served Him more. I worked harder. I’ve been put in prison more. I’ve been whipped more. I’ve faced death, more.” Like, he’s bragging about all that he’s had to go through. What he is boasting about is how hard his life has been since he started following Jesus and bringing the good news, right? So, life wasn’t easy for Paul and life wasn’t easy for David and that is just the tip of it all, right? We have been going through the Bible together for all of these months and we see that the stories that we see in the Scriptures are full of challenges. And we have plenty of examples of people who buckled under those challenges and when resistance came, they caved. And we have many examples of people who faced resistance and challenge and endured it and grew stronger, but the common thing is they all faced challenges and hardships. So, why are we so surprised? Like, why are we so angry? Why do we get so upset when we have to face them ourselves, especially in light of the fact that Jesus told us this was can happen? Right? Remember in John, if the world hates you remember it hated me first. So, we have to face that sometimes. Resistance, challenge is normal. It’s normal. It’s part of life. And Jesus, and for that matter, the Bible never claimed that that it would be anything different. And, so, here’s the thing. We need resistance. Like, we need challenge. It’s actually a necessary part of life. It’s how we learn. It’s how we grow. Resistance makes us strong, right? Like, if you’re hitting the gym, what are you doing? You are…you are making your body endure some sort of resistance so it can grow strong. So, the choice has always been ours. We can buckle under that. We do. We run away. We get mad. We start screaming at the sky. We start treating each other badly. Like, we buckle, or we can rise up. And the Bible shows us both of those roads. So, if you’re at this place…and believe me…I have been at this place…I’ve been at this place many times…even this year where you feel like you kinda…like it’s too much, you’re gonna buckle, you’re gonna cave. You can do it. You’ve been doing it. You’ve here. Somehow you made it. So, you can do this. You can do this. And you’re not alone. Everyone in the whole world faces the same kinds of oppositions and resistance. It may be that we’re enduring and its personalized into our own story, but we all face challenge. And the thing is about us, people, if you look at world history and the things that people have gone through, if you look at biblical history and look at the things that people went through, people can go through an awful lot when they believe in why they are doing it and what they’re doing. And, so, that is what becomes central here for us today. We’re facing hardship. The only way is to endure. The only way forward is to endure and allow the endurance to make us lean and strong. The question simply is, “do I believe in this enough to endure it?” And, so, maybe our prayer isn’t that God will make things easier so that we can grow weak. Maybe we should ask him to teach us to endure so that we can grow strong because this is what we need. This is how we grow.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. It’s hard to ask You to help us grow stronger. What we really want, what be ideal for us is that we can do whatever we want, and You be the strong one, but You’ve invited us into a relationship, You’ve invited us to collaborate with You in revealing Your kingdom in this world. And, so, You need strong, mature sons and daughters and this is what we do for our own children. And, so, come Holy Spirit, help us to reinterpret some of the things that we are going through that we’ve been complaining an awful lot about because it’s hard. And we complain about hard a lot. And, yet…and yet with You we can do very hard things. So, come Holy Spirit and show us what that looks like in our lives right now. What are the things that we’ve been misinterpreting, things that are actually going to make us very strong, things we need, but we’re just spending all of our energy trying to get away from them rather than simply enduring and growing strong and walking through it with You? Come Holy Spirit we pray in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Song:

Easier – Manic Drive

Every single step
The further I get doesn’t seem to get easier
It doesn’t seem to get easier
I’m running out of breath
But You wouldn’t give me strength if it’s meant to get easier

If it’s meant to get easier
So help me I’m asking please
There’s gotta be another remedy
I’m running out of my options
I’m running out of my options so
So show me how to get
How to get

Stronger
Stronger

Don’t expect it to get easier
Not until You make me stronger
No it doesn’t get easier
So show me how to get
How to get

Stronger
Stronger

Don’t expect it to get easier
Not until You make me stronger

Makeshift happiness
Mistaken being blessed with artificial exteriors
Fabricated with smoke and mirrors
We can never reach new heights
Without obstacles to climb

No, getting there isn’t effortless
I’m gonna need a hand with this

So help me I’m asking please
There’s gotta be another remedy
I’m running out of my options
I’m running out of my options so
So show me how to get
How to get

Stronger
Stronger

Don’t expect it to get easier
Not until You make me stronger
No it doesn’t get easier
So show me how to get
How to get

Stronger
Stronger

Don’t expect it to get easier
Not until You make me stronger

I’m gonna break through even if it hurts
Don’t want no medication it just makes it worse
Cause if I’m numb to the freedom
I’ll never come through if I’m comfortable
No I’ll never leave this room

No it doesn’t get easier
No it doesn’t get easier

So show me how to get
How to get

Stronger
Stronger
Don’t expect it to get easier
Not until You make me stronger

Isaiah 3:1-5:30, 2 Corinthians 11:1-15, Psalms 53:1-6, Proverbs 22:28-29

Today is the 9^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a pleasure, it is an honor, it is a joy, and it is a calling to be here with you today as we take the next step forward into our week, get things all going and the next step forward in our year and the next step forward in the Scriptures. So, we began the book of Isaiah yesterday and we’re gonna be camping out in Isaiah for a little bit. So, let’s take that next step by reading Isaiah chapters 3 through 5 today. And we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week.

Commentary:

Okay, so we are obviously working our way through the letter that we know as second Corinthians, a letter that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. And, so we’re starting to get an opportunity here to revisit and review and re-see some of the tensions that were happening in the early church. And as we observed while we were navigating through the book of Acts, and then some in the book of Romans, you know, it’s really easy to put these rose-colored glasses on and look back at the formation of the church and go, “what a blissful amazing time, tongues of fire are falling from heaven, people are coming to Christ, it’s a beautiful time of unity, but that’s actually not story, it’s not even the biblical story. And so many of the things that were challenging early on are the very things that are still challenging us today. So, we get just a little bit of a glimpse of that in today’s reading when Paul starts talking about “super apostles”. And he’s not talking about super apostles like, you know, these are the Avengers for Jesus, like their superheroes. He was using that term in a negative way, kind of condescending way. And scholars have been debating about who these super apostles are for a very, very long time, but probably this is the deal. People who probably came out of Judaism who were Hebrew people and who understood Jesus as a Hebrew in a Hebrew context, they just were not on board with this kind of nonexclusive thing that was happening in the world where Gentiles, like anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord, like anyone who believes that God raised Jesus from the dead and believes that Jesus was the son of God, like anyone who believes that Jew or Gentile, so anyone could be saved. Very, very different from the way Hebrews had grown up in Judaism. So, as we’ve talked about in the past, these people, even though they had come to Christ and were following Jesus teachings, they would expect anyone else who wanted to do that to convert to Judaism. Like, they were not changing religions. At least that was their understanding. On the other hand, there were those including the apostle Paul who were like, “no…this is very, very inclusive. God is saving the world now. Like has gone from an exclusive chosen people to now through that chosen people God has sent His Son to save all the people.” So, like that’s a pretty…pretty big paradigm shift, and we still do indeed struggle today with who gets to be in. So, you can see in the stew that we just kind of made for ourselves, a lot of people thought a lot of different things. So, people who had different convictions about Jesus had started to visit these new churches that were being planted all over the Roman Empire on Paul’s missionary journeys and other people’s missionary journeys. And Paul had established these churches, right, through great persecution, with a lot of suffering, with incredible marginalization, right? It was a difficult job. He was getting stoned and left for dead. Like, all kinds of things have happened to Paul and he has suffered to plant these churches and then there are people who are going in behind him with different convictions about Jesus. And the way that they were teaching had nuances that Paul’s teaching didn’t, and it seems as if some of these people were finding traction, like they were being validated because they were associated with people who had actually walked with Jesus during His ministry. And those are probably the “super apostles”. And Paul couldn’t claim to be a super apostle. He never met Jesus during like His earthly ministry. While he was on earth in the flesh Paul never met Jesus. So, you know, tough time for Paul to say, “well…I have met the cosmic Christ…I have met the resurrected Christ. He came to me on the road to Damascus. I met him and he told me these things, and this is what I’m teaching.” Tough for Paul to make an argument against the people who were actually the disciples of Jesus Christ walking with him in his earthly ministry. So, like, I mean you think about it. Think about it. Your sitting in church one day or you’re just sitting on a park bench and there are a couple of people trying to share the gospel and one person’s saying, “I know Jesus personally, like walked with Him, I heard His voice. Like, I literally watched Him heal people. I heard what He taught.” And then you have another person who’s like, “I also know Jesus. I may know Him even better because He came to me after His resurrection and taught me what He taught me and sent me to who He sent me too.” So, you’re like…you’re sitting there and if that’s the decision you gotta make, think about…think about it. So, these people, whoever these people are, are, you know, kind of bringing their allegiance back to the living disciples who are probably leaders in Jerusalem. And even though there was a church council making decisions about Gentiles and Jews, it was a contentious thing. So, anyway, these people are visiting the churches and Paul considered like that…that they were using their association with these, quote unquote, “super apostles” as a way to validate themselves and he looked at that as boastful and self-serving. And, so, he’s in this position where he needs to respond, but in order to respond he has to kind of come to their level and start boasting himself, right? Bragging and boasting and like self-validation and drawing attention to yourself, that…that’s like not considered a good thing. Like, that’s not healthy behavior, but he’s like backed into a corner, as if he doesn’t have a choice. He didn’t want the Corinthians to be confused. He didn’t want them to be swept away into all kinds of nuanced things that…that he wasn’t teaching from the beginning. And, so, he was concerned. So, in yesterday’s reading and even today’s reading, we’re kind of  watching Paul dance around this and squirm around this because like this is like a no-win situation when you have one group of people saying, “while I’m so great because of this”, and then you have another group of people going, “well, I’m even greater than that because of this and this and this and this.” It’s like, you can’t be validated by comparison. But the Corinthians are being influenced negatively so…so Paul has to start to talk about how he has struggled to bring the gospel to them in the first place. And this is the boasting that we’re gonna hear for the next little bit. So, I mean, we just talked about this, but what’s in it for…like what’s in it for us? Like, what can we do with all that? Was Paul just super insecure? I mean, maybe so. Maybe he was. He’s a human being. He’s moving forward just like the rest of us are. So, maybe so. But Paul actually said why he was doing what he was doing and why he was going to do this boasting and explain how it was that he was absolutely as valid if not more valid than the “super apostles.” He said, “I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband and that’s Christ.” So…so as we go forward and into tomorrow, we’ll hear this boasting that Paul’s setting up, but even before we start hearing this boasting, we should consider how it is that we are trying to validate ourselves in our faith. Are we legitimate because we can drop names or outmaneuver someone with Bible verses or, you know, win a theological debate or is our validation in the complete knowledge that we are nothing and have nothing to boast in other than Jesus?

Prayer:

father, we invite You into that because it brings up a bunch of stuff. It brings up how it is we attempt to create an identity. And so often this identity is…is created by comparison to other people when we are truly nothing…like there’s nothing to compare to. There’s nothing outside of You. And, so, come Holy Spirit, and once again remind us of our true identity, that we are Your sons and daughters. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, and its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here, as I say most every day because it’s true every day. So, stay connected in any way that you can.

Visit the Daily Audio Bible Shop or the Prayer Wall or the Community section and just stay connected as we continue our journey through the Scriptures this year.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share as a community, and that mission is to bring the spoken word of God to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm of daily coming together and allowing God’s word to speak to us, something that we’ve lovingly kind of called the Global Campfire. But if that brings life and good news into your life, then thank you for your partnership profoundly. There is a link that is on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer the mail, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, of course, if you have a prayer request or comment, there are a number of ways you can reach out. You can press the Hotline button in the app. It’s the little red button right next to the Give button in the app and move forward from there. Or there are a number of phone numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you’re in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 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.

Isaiah 1:1-2:22, 2 Corinthians 10:1-18, Psalms 52:1-9, Proverbs 22:26-27

Today is the 8^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you as we twist the knob and swing open the door on a fresh, shiny, sparkly, new week. Today is the 251^st day of the year and we’re moving into some new territory. So, for a long time once we got to like first Samuel all the way through the books of Kings and Chronicles, we were following the story of King David, of King Saul, of all the different kings that lead Israel along the way up until their exile. And more recently, we switched gears and moved our way through some wisdom literature. So, the book of Job and the book of Ecclesiastes, the book of Song of Solomon, which Jill and I read over the last couple of days and that’s always fun. So, here add this shiny, sparkly, threshold of a new week we are moving into some new territory and beginning to hear some prophetic voices. We will begin with the book of Isaiah and will be…you know…Isaiah’s a longer book. So, we’ll be camping out in here for a little while. So, let’s kind of fly over its.

Introduction to the book of Isaiah:

Isaiah, like I just said, he was a prophet, so this is a prophetic book. It’s part of the Old Testament major prophets and the major prophets also would include Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, and Ezekiel. And the fact that this is classified as one of the major prophets doesn’t mean that it’s like more important, like the major prophets are more important. There classified as major works because of the amount of material that are contained in the document. And, so, Isaiah contains 66 chapters, which makes it one of the longer books of the Bible. So, Isaiah, his name means “the Lord saves”. And as we’ll see from his writings, he’s a very passionate Old Testament prophet and this is interesting, Isaiah is referred to and quoted often throughout the New Testament, even Jesus quoted from Isaiah eight times in the gospel narratives. Isaiah was such an important text that He recited from the book of Isaiah, the 61^st chapter at the launch of His ministry, right, when He said, “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” Jesus was quoting Isaiah when He announced His own ministry. So, Isaiah obviously lived way before Jesus. He lived in that the second half of the eighth century BC, and it seems that he was at least a part of the upper-class, maybe the aristocracy because he had access to royalty and commoners didn’t just have free access, but it appears that Isaiah did. And even though he lived in a time that was full of upheaval he was still able to deliver messages directly to kings over a long period of time. So, he wasn’t just like some crazy peasant that was coming in from the countryside and demanding to see the king. It seems that he had access and he had access to five different kings. He prophesied during five different reigns- Isaiah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh. And then according to Jewish and for that matter Christian tradition Isaiah was martyred by being sawn in half at the order of King Manasseh. So, that’s a tradition. It’s not explicitly referenced in the Bible. In the book of Hebrews saints are being described, the saints of old, and the book of Hebrews said some died by stoning and some were sawn in half and others were killed with the sword. So, maybe there’s a slight reference. Anyway, it’s one of the longer books in the Bible, as we already mentioned and it’s kind of divided in half. So, like the first 39 chapters, which is the territory that we’re immediately gonna be heading into discuss God’s judgment. So, it’s a very sobering thing to read through. And then we get onto chapter 40, all the way through chapter 66, then the discussion changes to God’s comfort and his restoration, which is very hopeful. And since we’re moving into the some of the prophetic voices, it’s important understand that prophetic literature is full of metaphor and symbolism as well as allegory. And Isaiah is no different. So, just like we talked about when we started the Song of Solomon, there are some lenses that we can use to look through at these prophetic writings. And, so let’s invite the Holy Spirit to lead us toward what we need to see as we begin the book of Isaiah. And we’ll read from the English Standard Version this week. Isaiah chapter 1 and 2.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us safely here to the threshold of this shiny new week that we’re living into. And as we step into this new week we invite Your Holy Spirit to be in our thoughts, words and deeds, everything about us, all of our interactions, all of our postures of heart, all of the conflicts that are in our lives that need to be sorted out, all of the things that are going on, we invite You. This week is stretching out before us and it’s all fresh and waiting for us to live into. May we be telling Your story this week and not our own. Come, Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

Hey, something’s going on around here, sort of. It’s my son Max’s birthday today. So, happy birthday, Max.

And it’s the first day of the week. So, we’re marching into some new territory together. And a good place to know and stay connected is dailyaudiobible.com. The Daily Audio Bible Shop is there, the Prayer Wall is there. All the different links to the different social media channels that we’re part of are there. So, stay connected any way you can.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, thank you profoundly. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment you can press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button in the header at the top and go from there 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:

Hi, this message is for Jasmine in New York, I believe, the intern who did not match into a categorical or I’m sorry into an advanced year. I am currently a third-year resident out in California. I know the struggle, I know what you’re going through. I just wanted to let you know that I’m thinking about you and praying for you as you ramp up for this next application cycle. You are a strong woman. I commend you for everything you’ve gone through with the previous match and now everything you’re about to endure with this upcoming match. I also wanted to say that I really appreciated the prayer you left on the line for the patients that you take care of. Your words were beautiful, and I’ve now adopted that prayer into my own practice. So, no matter how tough it gets, no matter how many interviews you do or don’t get, I just want to remind you to keep up the fight because…

Hi, it’s Nicola and I’m calling with a praise report and also a call for action. I’m calling from Scotland. I called a month ago, basically saying that I had to face my ex-employer who was emotionally and financially abusive and it was a situation where I felt like David facing Goliath and I called for strength and because I knew that God wanted me to go through this even though it was very frightening and scary. Anyways, I went through with it and it ended up having the best possible outcome. My employer kind of folded and agreed to give the full amount of money that she owed me for stealing and also paying all the fines. I did not expect…it was a lot more money than I expected and it’s a huge blessing considering I’m moving internationally and starting graduate school and I was floored, and I know that was because of you guys. So, the second part is, I want to ask, I think we need to all be donating more on a monthly basis to Daily Audio Bible. Think about what this community has done for you. And as we know, we cannot live on food alone. And think about how much money you spend on food every month and how much you spend on Daily Audio Bible every month. If we put our money where our mouth is then we should be spending more on Daily Audio Bible a month then we should be spending on our food and I say that as a graduate student. And, so, once I’m all settled I’m gonna start paying regularly every month again because this is very…there is very few places like this and if we don’t financially support it and take care of that then it won’t last forever…

Hello, you all this is Andrea the Strong and Brave Prayer Warrior, but this time asking for prayer for myself. We were on the way home and someone that was probably drunk almost hit us like five or six times within the course of about five minutes. It was pretty scary. Hopefully the guy driving me tried to call the police or something. Luckily, I’m fine, I’m safe and everything, but you guys, I thought I had mastered my mouth. I guess I need to be in the word more because let’s just say I said some things that weren’t very becoming. So, anyway you guys just pray for me. I thought that this…I pretty much had this anxiety thing under control and I probably do it’s just…it happened just today. So, anyway, all right, God bless you everybody. Brian and Jill thank you so much. God bless. Bye.

Hi DABbers, this is Lisa calling from East Tennessee and I have not called in in a very long time, but I have listened and do listen regularly for the last five years. I missed being at the reunion this year. My family and I did attend last year it was so wonderful and I’m certain it was wonderful again this year as well. Hope everyone had a blessed time. I just wanted to call with a brief prayer request for myself. I’m sitting in a parking garage outside of my work on my way home for the day and I just really need prayer and wisdom regarding work. I’ve worked in healthcare for 25 years just about and if you know anything about healthcare it’s really changed, and it’s just gotten to a point where it’s very difficult for me to wake up every day and still love my job. I love my patients, I love what I do, I worked hard for a degree as a therapist and have only ever wanted to do that but it’s come to a point in my life where I just, I don’t know where to go and where to turn and I just need some wisdom and really some prayer that the Lord will present me with some kind of an opportunity. Whether or not it’s healthcare, it really…at this point I’m open to anything. I work in a very difficult hospital environment with very, very sick patients and staff that’s burnt out and constant changes with management and other things. And I just really would like to be lifted up for that. I know so many of us are praying about work and jobs and the things that we need. So, I will keep all of you in my prayers for those same things for everyone….

[singing] In the eye of the storm you remain in control and in the in the middle of the war you guard my soul. You alone are the anchor when my sails are torn. Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm. [singing stops]. That song was written by Brian Fowler and Ryan Stevenson. This is Candace from Oregon. I want to tell you the lyrics at the end of this song. “The Lord is my shepherd”, this is…they are quoting Psalm 23. “I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid for you are close beside me.” This is, in particular, for I think it’s…is it Sue from Colorado. You called September 3^rd and called before. You’ve ministered faithfully in Haiti and I would like everyone to join with me in prayer right now for Sue from Colorado. Lord, thank You for this dear servant. Thank You that all the lies of the enemy are really quite pitiful because You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And You surround this dear woman, this servant, You surround her in Your love. You have redeemed her. You came to earth and we claim all that You did on her behalf for her healing and just…

Song 5:1-8:14, 2 Corinthians 9:1-15, Psalms 51:1-19, Proverbs 22:24-25

Today is the 7^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you as we end another of our weeks together. And as end another of our weeks together we’ll be concluding another book today. We started the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon yesterday and that we talked about that and Jill joined me for the reading, which is tradition around here for the song of Solomon and she’ll be joining me again today as we conclude the Song of Songs. So, we’ve been reading from the New Living Translation this week, which is certainly what we’ll do today, Song of Songs 5 through 8.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for another week that we’ve been able to spend in your word. We thank you for the portion of Scripture that we’re moving through, the Song of Solomon and all that that brings up in us. And, so, as we close the books on another week in this great adventure that we’re spending together this year, we release it. We let it become a part of our history, knowing that what lies ahead is where you are leading and that we are right here now, and this moment is a gift from you. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

The Prayer Wall lives at the Daily Audio Bible website as well. So, there’s a great resource, a great way to reach out for prayer and a great way to reach out with prayer.

The Daily Audio Bible shop lives at dailyaudiobible.com as well with resources for the journey that we are on together. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, humble, humble gratitude, thank you. As we’ve said maybe hundreds of times, what we’ve done we’ve done together and we’re a community. And, so, thank you for your partnership if you feel part of this community. So, there is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And if you have a prayer request comment there’s a couple things you can do; one, you can press the hotline in the app, little red circle at the top and share what’s happening in your life, 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:

Good Afternoon Daily Audio Bible family, I’ve never called in before but I’m calling today to just say how grateful I am for this family and this amazing opportunity to hear God’s word like this every day. In addition to what I’m reading on my own it just helps me so much. I listen to it while I’m getting ready in the morning, I listen to it while I’m driving to an appointment that I’m scared to death about. It’s just amazing and I’m so grateful. I have a phenomenal church family that I love with all my heart and we are really really family, but you guys are also my family and am just blown away by how God is using the technology that He has created to continue to get the word out to everyone about how magnificent He is. Love you guys and thank you so much.

Hi this is Mike from Savant in England. I just want to congratulate Brian you on this update. It’s truly unique in that the red button…you just press it and say a prayer, I mean, incredible. And even now I can listen to the Daily Audio Bible on the go, I don’t need to download it and it’s just bare if you use a 3G 4G 5G network on it. So, that’s incredible. Anyway, my times ticking down. I just want to pray for the DABbers for you for all of you again if you’re suffering if you’re in pain or disease I just speak to that now and say be held in Jesus’ name, be held be restored in Jesus’ name. Just pray for people with financial difficulties. I understand that but the word of God is a true light and is a great help. We’ve all of that in our situation. Also, I’ve been around since 2010, I first listened to the Bible. The word last year for me was home. So, I came home. There were this year’s transform or tran or just tran or transforming. So, I’m just surprised to see that is happening. So, my two minutes is nearly up. I just thank you again Brian and Jill and the DAB family. What a great community to be in. The love of the Lord always be with you.

Show me God’s love, James 4:17. I wanted to ask for prayer for my brother, he’s been incarcerated for 12 years and he will be getting out on the 13^th. I don’t know when this might be heard but if you will agree with me in prayer about him because he spent one third of his life behind bars, he’s 33 years old. I appreciate anything that you can pray on his behalf including separating himself from the people that he’s befriended and that he’s relying on. He’s making some choices that I wouldn’t make but I’m trusting God with his life. So, please agree with me based on Matthew 18 verses 19 and 20, that God will touch his life and keep His hand and his life and draw him closer to Him as well as whatever prayers you think would be appropriate. Thank you very much. Show me God’s love.

Hello, this is Angelique calling from Washington state and I am wanting to pray for Deborah, she left a message for prayer on September 4 podcast. She has a son, his name is Borhaj, she called from Spain and he left the Lord and so now he’s a prodigal. And, so, I know what that’s like. I have a 21-year-old who was in a diving accident last summer and he actually just last summer came to the Lord and was baptized, and God used a girl to wake him up spiritually. So, he was an atheist for almost 3 years. So, I am going to pray for your son Borhaj. And, so, here we go. Heavenly father, we come before you right now, we lift up Borhaj to you, a 29-year-old young man and we pray God for his salvation. We pray that he would…I know he accepted you Lord when he was younger, and he’s walked away. So, we pray God that the lies that he’s believed about the world and everything Lord that you would replace the lies with truth and that the scales from his eyes would come off, fall down Lord. We pray…his mom says that he struggles with having a bad temper sometimes toward her and others and that alone God we…I pray Lord in your name that his bad temper that he struggles with…

I’m calling from Philadelphia Pennsylvania and I just started to listen to Daily Audio Bible and I’m so grateful. I’m calling for prayer request for my husband who was involved with another woman for several years in our 39+ marriage. My husband __ to the Lord, he is a Christian and I’m praying that the Lord will bring him back and possibly restore our marriage if it’s his will but if not, I need wisdom to know what to do with the rest of my life. I am Christian and have been baptized and I love the Lord, but the situation has brought me back closer to the Lord and I just ask that you will pray for my husband. He’s unhappy and he won’t reach out for help and I love him dearly and I hope our marriage is restored but whatever the Lord wills. God bless you all and thank you.

Song 1:1-4:16, 2 Corinthians 8:16-24, Psalms 50:1-23, Proverbs 22:22-23

Today is the 6^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a pleasure and a joy to be here with you today as we take the next step forward, stepping forward into the back of this week for sure but stepping forward in the Scriptures and we’ve reached another special point in our year where we’re encountering some territory in the Old Testament that we haven’t encountered before. So, today and tomorrow we’ll be reading a book known as the song of Solomon or the song of songs, which is indeed a radical departure from the territory that we’ve been spending in Job and Ecclesiastes, which definitely took us deep into the idea of endurance and the reality of suffering as well as meaninglessness and chasing the wind. So, we’ve been in some unique territory that has allowed us to actually open up and think some things through that we normally avoid. However, moving into the song of Solomon is like putting on a completely different hat, like we’re going into completely different territory.

Introduction to the Song of Solomon:

This little work, this poem is short but it’s potent and its potently beautiful, and its part of the wisdom literature in the Bible. So, in this Song of Songs we’ll discover that human sexuality is indeed a celebrated part of the biblical narrative but this poem as many other layers. So, like from a literal perspective it’s the story of the passionate consummation of love between a man and woman who are completely lost in each other. And just…if we just left that alone, if that’s what this book means then it is a witness to marital love and the bliss of passionate physical relationship. So, it stands alone that way, but the ancient Jewish tradition looks at the poem allegorically. It’s poetry, right? So, you can look at it poetically. So, from this perspective, the story that’s being told in the Song of Solomon reveals God’s passionate love for his children, who are the Hebrew people and this view is totally, totally supportable in other areas of Scripture in both the old and the New Testaments. In the Christian tradition, the Song of Solomon’s is an allegorical look at Christ’s passionate love for His church and a foreshadowing of His desire for His bride. So, in this case, all of those can be true and we can just allow the Holy Spirit to lead us as we approach the Song of Songs because there’s a number of lenses that we can we can look through. So, invite God as this is being read. But no matter how we approach the Solomon it’s a very meaningful portion of Scripture that speaks to us on different levels. And since it is love poetry, it’s become a tradition around here for my wife Jill to join me in the reading. There are male voices and female voices that occur in this poem. And, so, let’s drink deep of the beautiful poetry that we find in the Song of Solomon.

Prayer:

Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father for Your word. Thank You for the way that it just continues to touch different things in us, and it comes to us as a live thing as a friend who speaks the truth to us no matter what’s going on in our lives. And, so, so many times we may come to the same passage and find it speaking something so much more poignant to where we are on any given day, and we thank You, we thank You for this guidance. And as we spend this time moving through the song of Solomon, come Holy Spirit, reignite our love, our love for our spouse, our love for You as our Father, our love for Jesus as our Savior knowing that as passionate as we can imagine being, our passion pales in comparison to Yours for us. And, so, we walk into Your embrace and it feels safe and it feels like home and we invite Your Holy Spirit to continue to lead us into all truth as You promised. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, and of course it’s always home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

And this week we released a couple of things, the steeped windfarm coffee, portable solution finally, finally, where we were able to get…well…you steep the coffee. So, it’s like a teabag and that sounds weird but when you think about it it makes perfect sense. Like, if you drip coffee, it’s in a coffee filter. So, what if you used a coffee filter and wrapped up a single serving portion of coffee and you were able to steep it and what if you were able to nitro seal the oxygen on it so it would keep, so it would be fresh. Boom. So, we’ve got that. Those are in the Shop right now in the Coffee section as well as our brand-new Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 an improved version of the 1.0 version. So, you can find that in the lifestyle section at the Daily Audio Bible shop. So, check those things out. They are…well…they’re created for the journey and they are available as resources in the shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then thank you. Thank you profoundly and deeply for that. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are 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 press the Hotline button in the app the little red circle at the top and share what’s going on 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.