Month: September 2019

Ecclesiastes 10:1-12:14, 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, Psalms 49:1-20, Proverbs 22:20-21

Today is the 5^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we take another step forward and move ourselves closer to the weekend where we’ll just start another week because our relationship with the Bible is ongoing and we continue to journey through this year. So, we’ve been journeying through the book of Ecclesiastes for the last few days and we’ll continue to do that today, but we will conclude the book of Ecclesiastes today before continuing our journey in second Corinthians. So, we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Ecclesiastes chapters 10, 11, and 12 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we finished Ecclesiastes today and the meaninglessness of it all. And, like I said when we began this book, it used to be one of my very least favorite parts of the Bible, kind a depressing, kinda cynical, kind of pessimistic, kind of down. Now, I guess over the years I’ve seen just how brutally honest this book is and for that matter how futile it all is just running, running, running, wondering where were going, wondering how this is all gonna work out. So, yeah Ecclesiastes can seem kinda pessimistic, but it’s kind helpful to understand that Solomon is writing from a subtractive perspective. Like, we haven’t ever really encountered this before. That is would be called apophatic, right? So, when we usually declare something, we declare what it is, like we affirm it. That’s cataphatic, instead of saying what it’s not, which is what we do a lot. Like, a lot of times when we’re looking at our lives and trying to define it, which is really impossible, it’s so multi-faceted…if God is so big, we are so small, but we are still so big to ourselves, like, we are more complicated than we can figure out. And, so, a lot of times we’re defining our identity by what we’re not, right? “I don’t say that. I don’t do this. I don’t believe that etc. etc.” So, we’re used to both…we’re used in both kinds of speaking but we here’s Solomon looking back over his life. And when we met Solomon, he had just become king, hid he’s father David had died. Like, we went through his whole reign and how he brought everybody, brought ancient Israel to its apex. But we’re kind of over that hill now, we’re in the back half of life. Solomon is facing the end of his life now and he’s looking back over all the pursuits and the different challenges that he took and the different injustices that he was able to bear witness to, the pleasures that he found. And it’s interesting because getting to the end of it all he looks back and sees that it was mostly wasted useless activity. So, he had applied all of his energy in the pursuits of beauty and wisdom and he’d searched all over the world for the answers to the unanswerable questions, but according to Ecclesiastes, he still couldn’t find what he was looking for. So, he took a sobering look at everything and started subtracting away from life, all that he found meaningless, only to find out that that was most everything and concluded that if we are not fundamentally aware of the sovereignty of God nothing does make any sense. So, what do we take away as we prepare to move forward into the next book of the Bible? What do we take away from all of this from…we basically have been sitting with Solomon, one of the wisest people to ever live, and we’ve been given his take on things? So, we would consider that valuable if we were sitting with the wise old sage in a café today. But we have this. What do we take away from somebody who’s done it all and then stepped back and saw that it didn’t mean as much as he thought? That’s found as the book of Ecclesiastes ends. Here’s what he says. “That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion. Fear of God and obey his commands for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.” So, Solomon is concluding basically what the whole Bible comes to. Give your heart in surrender and reverence to God. Offer yourself faithfully and loyally in worship. Give yourself to relationship with your heavenly Father. Honor God and do what he says to do. This is what everybody’s supposed to do and the only way to find actual meaning. So, let’s sit with that today. It is a fact, we don’t like to mention it, but it is a fact that every day that we live is one day closer to our death. And Solomon’s looking at it squarely instead of just denying it all because he’s using it as a reference point that everybody has. And, so, he’s weighing out the space between here and there and looking back at all of the time that was wasted and deciding, this next stretch is perhaps the final stretch. And with that kind of perspective you can then go, “okay. I can turn around and look at my past and find a lot of meaningless activity. I can look forward toward my future understanding that it ends in my death and I can decide now, is the space between here and there going to be meaningful or meaningless.” And then we can use the book of Ecclesiastes to at least be a guide in helping us avoid chasing the wind.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that all that was spoken in the book of Ecclesiastes because it brings us into some stark realities, into some reflection, and into some contemplation about what the future may look like. And, so, we invite You into all of it and we acknowledge it is all meaningless without You. There is no point. So, come Holy Spirit and may we walk with You, may we never walk away we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

I mentioned yesterday about a couple of new things that are in the Daily Audio Bible Shop that we are excited about.

One of them is our first ever portable coffee solution. We added…we added an item to our Windfarm coffee and tea line and it’s a steeped coffee version that I’ve been enjoying quite a bit. It’s very very convenient. And like, I don’t need to say the whole thing again, but we’ve been looking for years for something that’s bot gonna get stale. Like, coffee does get stale and it’s really bitter and that’s when you can tell, you know, it’s gone bad. And, you know, how do you treat a portable solution that’s gonna last? And, so, we did find, finally, this solution where a…sort of like the material that creates drip coffee, like those coffee filters, you put coffee in that and that make it like a teabag and then you can steep your coffee and its nitro sealed, so the oxygen is pushed out of it so it can’t deteriorate quickly. So, it stays fresh. And we’re excited about that. I’m using them all the time. I mentioned I used them in Israel last year and that was sort of what got the ball rolling because now you can have a good cup coffee anywhere and everywhere that you might travel and it’s just really convenient to have the office or around the house. So, those are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Coffee and Tea section.

And then we also released our Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 and that can be found in the Lifestyle section at the Daily Audio Bible Shop. And we’re big into journaling, we talked about that, and we always will be. It’s really…really important actually, I think, at least for me to write things down in my own hand. And it just helps me to process in a way that is much, I don’t know, more holistic than just typing it on a word processor or in some kind of journal. And, I mean, obviously we’re not against digital journals. We have one in the Daily Audio Bible app and it’s a great place to write down thoughts, especially as the Scriptures speak but in terms of just can journaling out your days, the story of your life, it’s a beautiful thing to be able to write some of that down in your own hand, not only for your own review, but for future generations. And, so we’ve been working hard on continuing to improve our journey. I mean, a journal’s a journal, but this is really good paper, really good ink, really receives pen and pencil well. We worked on the binding so it would lay flat better. Yeah. So, we just made some improvements to it. I love it. This is what I write in most every day. So, the Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 is available in the Shop as well. So, check those out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage and my heart is full of gratitude each and every day that we exist, all of these years, day by day seven days a week. We could’ve never done this alone. We’ve done this together as a community and I thank you profoundly for your partnership. So, the link is 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 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, there is a Hotline you can press that’s right in the app, the little red button up in the header, that is your hotline no matter where you are in the world, or if you prefer the phone, 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.

Ecclesiastes 10:1-12:14, 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, Psalms 49:1-20, Proverbs 22:20-21

Today is the 5^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we take another step forward and move ourselves closer to the weekend where we’ll just start another week because our relationship with the Bible is ongoing and we continue to journey through this year. So, we’ve been journeying through the book of Ecclesiastes for the last few days and we’ll continue to do that today, but we will conclude the book of Ecclesiastes today before continuing our journey in second Corinthians. So, we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Ecclesiastes chapters 10, 11, and 12 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we finished Ecclesiastes today and the meaninglessness of it all. And, like I said when we began this book, it used to be one of my very least favorite parts of the Bible, kind a depressing, kinda cynical, kind of pessimistic, kind of down. Now, I guess over the years I’ve seen just how brutally honest this book is and for that matter how futile it all is just running, running, running, wondering where were going, wondering how this is all gonna work out. So, yeah Ecclesiastes can seem kinda pessimistic, but it’s kind helpful to understand that Solomon is writing from a subtractive perspective. Like, we haven’t ever really encountered this before. That is would be called apophatic, right? So, when we usually declare something, we declare what it is, like we affirm it. That’s cataphatic, instead of saying what it’s not, which is what we do a lot. Like, a lot of times when we’re looking at our lives and trying to define it, which is really impossible, it’s so multi-faceted…if God is so big, we are so small, but we are still so big to ourselves, like, we are more complicated than we can figure out. And, so, a lot of times we’re defining our identity by what we’re not, right? “I don’t say that. I don’t do this. I don’t believe that etc. etc.” So, we’re used to both…we’re used in both kinds of speaking but we here’s Solomon looking back over his life. And when we met Solomon, he had just become king, hid he’s father David had died. Like, we went through his whole reign and how he brought everybody, brought ancient Israel to its apex. But we’re kind of over that hill now, we’re in the back half of life. Solomon is facing the end of his life now and he’s looking back over all the pursuits and the different challenges that he took and the different injustices that he was able to bear witness to, the pleasures that he found. And it’s interesting because getting to the end of it all he looks back and sees that it was mostly wasted useless activity. So, he had applied all of his energy in the pursuits of beauty and wisdom and he’d searched all over the world for the answers to the unanswerable questions, but according to Ecclesiastes, he still couldn’t find what he was looking for. So, he took a sobering look at everything and started subtracting away from life, all that he found meaningless, only to find out that that was most everything and concluded that if we are not fundamentally aware of the sovereignty of God nothing does make any sense. So, what do we take away as we prepare to move forward into the next book of the Bible? What do we take away from all of this from…we basically have been sitting with Solomon, one of the wisest people to ever live, and we’ve been given his take on things? So, we would consider that valuable if we were sitting with the wise old sage in a café today. But we have this. What do we take away from somebody who’s done it all and then stepped back and saw that it didn’t mean as much as he thought? That’s found as the book of Ecclesiastes ends. Here’s what he says. “That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion. Fear of God and obey his commands for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.” So, Solomon is concluding basically what the whole Bible comes to. Give your heart in surrender and reverence to God. Offer yourself faithfully and loyally in worship. Give yourself to relationship with your heavenly Father. Honor God and do what he says to do. This is what everybody’s supposed to do and the only way to find actual meaning. So, let’s sit with that today. It is a fact, we don’t like to mention it, but it is a fact that every day that we live is one day closer to our death. And Solomon’s looking at it squarely instead of just denying it all because he’s using it as a reference point that everybody has. And, so, he’s weighing out the space between here and there and looking back at all of the time that was wasted and deciding, this next stretch is perhaps the final stretch. And with that kind of perspective you can then go, “okay. I can turn around and look at my past and find a lot of meaningless activity. I can look forward toward my future understanding that it ends in my death and I can decide now, is the space between here and there going to be meaningful or meaningless.” And then we can use the book of Ecclesiastes to at least be a guide in helping us avoid chasing the wind.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that all that was spoken in the book of Ecclesiastes because it brings us into some stark realities, into some reflection, and into some contemplation about what the future may look like. And, so, we invite You into all of it and we acknowledge it is all meaningless without You. There is no point. So, come Holy Spirit and may we walk with You, may we never walk away we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

I mentioned yesterday about a couple of new things that are in the Daily Audio Bible Shop that we are excited about.

One of them is our first ever portable coffee solution. We added…we added an item to our Windfarm coffee and tea line and it’s a steeped coffee version that I’ve been enjoying quite a bit. It’s very very convenient. And like, I don’t need to say the whole thing again, but we’ve been looking for years for something that’s bot gonna get stale. Like, coffee does get stale and it’s really bitter and that’s when you can tell, you know, it’s gone bad. And, you know, how do you treat a portable solution that’s gonna last? And, so, we did find, finally, this solution where a…sort of like the material that creates drip coffee, like those coffee filters, you put coffee in that and that make it like a teabag and then you can steep your coffee and its nitro sealed, so the oxygen is pushed out of it so it can’t deteriorate quickly. So, it stays fresh. And we’re excited about that. I’m using them all the time. I mentioned I used them in Israel last year and that was sort of what got the ball rolling because now you can have a good cup coffee anywhere and everywhere that you might travel and it’s just really convenient to have the office or around the house. So, those are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Coffee and Tea section.

And then we also released our Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 and that can be found in the Lifestyle section at the Daily Audio Bible Shop. And we’re big into journaling, we talked about that, and we always will be. It’s really…really important actually, I think, at least for me to write things down in my own hand. And it just helps me to process in a way that is much, I don’t know, more holistic than just typing it on a word processor or in some kind of journal. And, I mean, obviously we’re not against digital journals. We have one in the Daily Audio Bible app and it’s a great place to write down thoughts, especially as the Scriptures speak but in terms of just can journaling out your days, the story of your life, it’s a beautiful thing to be able to write some of that down in your own hand, not only for your own review, but for future generations. And, so we’ve been working hard on continuing to improve our journey. I mean, a journal’s a journal, but this is really good paper, really good ink, really receives pen and pencil well. We worked on the binding so it would lay flat better. Yeah. So, we just made some improvements to it. I love it. This is what I write in most every day. So, the Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 is available in the Shop as well. So, check those out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage and my heart is full of gratitude each and every day that we exist, all of these years, day by day seven days a week. We could’ve never done this alone. We’ve done this together as a community and I thank you profoundly for your partnership. So, the link is 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 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, there is a Hotline you can press that’s right in the app, the little red button up in the header, that is your hotline no matter where you are in the world, or if you prefer the phone, 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.

Ecclesiastes 7:1-9:18, 2 Corinthians 7:8-16, Psalms 48:1-14, Proverbs 22:17-19

Today is the 4^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you as we continue through this week. And like was saying yesterday, continue getting moved into this month, this brand-new month that we’re just a few days into. It is a pleasure to be here on this day right now with you as we move forward and take the next step. So, in the Old Testament, we have been working through the book of Ecclesiastes, which is what we will do today. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Ecclesiastes 7 through 9.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s talk about sorrow on this wonderful day today. Let’s talk about sorrow. What do you think about when you hear the word sorrow? What does that bring up inside of you? Some of you might be like, well…it brings up Ecclesiastes to me. It sounds like the book of Ecclesiastes.” So, is sorrow a good thing or a bad thing? Like, let’s take that step back for second and just look at it. Is sorrow something positive or is sorrow something negative? Is it something that we should embrace or is it something that we should at all costs avoid or is it just something that…that we really…that no matter how much we prepare for that we really can’t embrace or avoid, it’s just something that happens sometimes and we have to endure it? So, I mean…I…I have experienced plenty of sorrow in my life. I’m sure that that is true for you too and we each have our story to tell, but I can say that, at least for almost all of my life, like sorrow…I could say for all of my life…for all of my life…sorrow isn’t something I get up in the morning and go like, “how can I find more sorrow”, right? Like, how…like “I’m feeling pretty good today, what I need is a good scoop of sorrow, where can I find that?” So, even though like, I don’t seek out sorrow…even though I don’t know anybody who seeks out sorrow, I don’t know anybody that hasn’t found sorrow, right? So, it’s something that we generally try to avoid pretty much at all costs, and something that no matter what the costs we can’t avoid and we usually think about it like it’s a dark thing, it’s depressing, it’s distressing, it’s disruptive, it’s a condition that you enter into and endure and try to escape as soon as possible. So, like the apostle Paul who is writing in second Corinthians, which is the New Testament letter that we’re working through, this guy was not unfamiliar with suffering, right? We walked through the book of Acts, we listened all the way through the book of Romans, and now we are in these letters to the Corinthians, and we see that, you know, he doesn’t have a bunch of friends, like there’s not a lot of allies for the apostle Paul. He has a ton of enemies and suffering is like a part of his story, but he makes a really fascinating distinction about hardship when it comes to sorrow. So, Paul says from our reading today, “the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience”, right? So, let’s just stop there for a second, take a deep breath and once again allow the Bible to speak for itself and disrupt us however it needs to go into because we go into a relationship with the Bible with so many assumptions and then we actually get to know the Bible and we’re like , “holy cow…this is way way way way way more where the rubber meets the road…like this is right down at the base level of life”, right? So, “the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience” Paul says, “it leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret that kind of sorrow but worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” So, according to the apostle Paul there is a kind of sorrow that leads us somewhere good, like it’s something that we should experience. We should feel sorrow when we find ourselves wandering into what we know is not right. It should disappoint us. It should feel like we’re losing something. It should distress us, right? So when we…when we walk into sin and our eyes are wide open we should experience the gravity of what’s happening because…because we’re stepping in and cutting off the process that God is doing within us, the process of sanctification. We’re cutting that lifeline off and willingly walking back toward death. So, it should be distressing. We’re betraying our source of life which isn’t healthy, which isn’t good, which isn’t leading anywhere helpful. We should feel sorrow because, like Paul said, it leads us away from sin and results in salvation. Whew…there’s is plenty, plenty, plenty, to think about there…like…and should be…what a week we are having out of the gate already. The Bible is well…it has literally brought us to all kinds of stories. We’ve been on mountaintops and we’ve been in deep ravines. Now we’re actually where we live. And, so, let’s reconsider sorrow today. Like I said, like I don't…I’ve never got out of bed and, like, “I’m feeling a little too, happy today. Where can I go get some sorrow”, but when we do have this experience where…where it’s kind of bubbling up inside of us what we normally do is try to avoid it, try to get away from it, try to change the subject, try to move in another direction, try to go to our to do list and, you know, get busy. All of those things when what we might need to do first before we do all of that is stop and feel it and invite God into it and ask the Holy Spirit what it’s about. Certainly, it may just be sadness and certainly there may be reasons to be sad, but we can invite the Holy Spirit’s comfort into that. But sometimes we’re feeling something that we can’t name. It’s a sorrow, it’s an anxiety, it’s something that we can’t name. We’re not sure exactly what its origins are. But if we would stop and retrace our steps we would see, “oh, this is what it feels like to be absent from God. Like, He would never remove His presence from me, but I’m withholding. Like with my eyes wide open I’m walking…I’m trying to resurrect what was dead and not allowing the life of Christ to conduct…this intimacy to continue to flow through me. That, according to Paul, is something God wants us to be aware of and wants us to sense and feel.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into this. This is this is parenting stuff here. Wow, how You love us and how You parent us and how You care for us. Now You have expectations that we will grow and that will become more and more aware of what’s going on. So, Father if we experience sorrow over these next days as we make this a part of the habits of our lives we realize sorrow…we can feel it and run from it or sorrow can come and we can embrace it and look at it for what it is and invite You to interpret it for us. So, rather than just running away, help us to stand still and allow your Holy Spirit show us the next steps and interpret what is going on inside of us. 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.

And somethings going on around here today, something new. Actually, there’s gonna be plenty of things new going on here as he move through the rest of this year, but today is a day that’s been on the calendar and I’ve been looking forward to this day. We got a couple of new things in the Daily Audio Bible shop.

So, let’s start with coffee. We…well…I mean…I guess it starts with me because I’m a little bit of a coffee lover, a lot of a coffee lover, a little bit of a coffee snob. And, so, good coffee is good coffee and bad coffee is, at least to me, kind…it kind of taste like liquid pencil into me if it’s horrible but good coffee is good coffee. And, so, we’ve had good coffee for a long time. We started our Windfarm brand of coffee, a good decade ago just as a way of supporting the Daily Audio Bible and representing…I mean it pairs well with a devotional time, a time of reflection, a time to slow down and have your morning coffee or your evening tea or whatever. And, so, we started all that from Ezekiel chapter 37 where the Lord takes Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones and tells him to call to the four winds. And, so, we just thought, what if he did this all the time, that would be spiritual windfarm. And, so, that’s where our coffee and tea name and brand was born. So, we’ve been doing that for a long time and over the years we’ve been asked repeatedly, very repeatedly for a portable solution, usually like a kind of a little cups, those little cups, the Keurig K cup kind of thing, that type of solution. And the problem is there’s no good way to do that with actual good fresh roasted coffee. It’s usually really really old, really low-quality coffee that, you know, needs a lot of cream or sugar or whatever. So, we just haven’t been able to find this good portable solution because good coffee is fresh ground and then, you know, French pressed or poured over and it’s delicious when it’s like that, when it’s made how it how it is best enjoyed. And it was last last December, I ran into this product in a coffee shop and got some samples and they went to Israel. So, they were a couple months old when they went to Israel. And they like…coffee…like fresh roasted coffee…that’s a perishable product. So, the longer that you go the more bitter it’s gonna taste. And one way to mask that is to burn it, to over roast it and that’s a style. But anyway, this product was like, you know, going to last for an indefinite period of time. So, a couple of months later I’m in Israel and I took these little packages and drank my coffee and I was surprised. And, so, we did some investigation to see if you can make them for ourselves. And we can. And, so, we now have windfarm steeped coffee in the shop. They come in little packets of 10. So, 10 cups of coffee that are fresh roasted but that are portable. So, how this is portable is they are packaged…this is so cool…like a teabag. I know that sounds weird, but, you know, the filters that you use to do your drip coffee or to do your pour over coffee, the e container of coffee is made out of that material, like coffee filter material. It’s just fashioned like teabag and you steep your coffee, you dunk it in your hot water and then you let it sit however long you want, however strong you want it to be. But the thing is, the packages are nitro sealed. So, the oxygen is pushed out of them and the nitrogen is there. And, so, they are kind of frozen in time, as it were, keeping them fresh and then when you open it then the oxygen gets to use it and you use it like regular coffee and its…I mean…pretty fantastic. So, we finally have this portable solution that we can be proud of and put our name on and know that we’re serving up excellence while continuing a brand and a reminder of the valley of dry bones and the four winds of life breathing around the world. So, the steeped Windfarm coffee is now available in the Daily Audio Bible shop in the coffee and tea section. And you won’t miss it. If you go there you will see it and can read about it and look at it and hopefully enjoy it. That’s something I happen to be doing as I am speaking right now. So, go grab them while you can. They’re in the shop now.

And we have another product in the store to announce today, a product that we’ve had in the past, but a product that we have refined and that is the Daily Audio Bible journal. So, it’s been over a year since we launched the new Daily Audio Bible journals. They are beautiful. They are finally crafted. They are made out of really good paper. They are wonderful to write on. It’s something that I do every day, nearly every day of my life. And journaling has been a part of our story as a community here, I guess, just about as long as I can remember because I’ve personally been a journaler for as long as I can remember. And it just…I found myself going through the Bible, writing copious notes after every reading just, you know, learning the Bible. And, so, our first journals, it just came out of this…like, man…if this is God’s Word and God’s gonna speak then somebody ought to be taken notes, especially if it just sticks. And, so, you know, really something that speaks into your life it should be written down because we forget everything. And, so we had our first versions of the journals way back but then the last…I think beginning of last year, or late 2017, I can’t remember, but we launched these new Daily Audio Bible journals that are just really beautiful, great pencil or pen holder on them, they hold together, they lay flat, they got up a little ribbon to mark the page, like everything right. Like, just thinking, if I were making my journal that I would want to journal in, what would be in it? And that’s what we figured out and styled it and it’s got a beautiful, very subtle embossed logo from the Daily Audio Bible. It’s great. And that kind of came out of me finding the Black Wing pencils and just kind of going back to old school sharpening a pencil, writing in my own hands and just encouraging us, like, there’s something to that, there’s something tactile to that. Like, there’s is plenty of digital solutions, like there’s plenty of ways to do this, but there’s something about actually taking the time to do it and enjoying the experience of it. So, that’s kind where the Daily Audio Bible Journal came from. And, so, we had lots of them and we’ve moved through them and then earlier in this year we began kind of going, alright what would version 2.0 look like? Like what would we tweak now? And, so, we made some tweaks to the binding so that it’s just a little tighter, it’s just a little better constructed and lays flat better. So, it’s just a little more compact and holds together better and I love that. That was one of the things. And we tweaked the paper and the ink it’s printed on the paper for a little bit…for a little better experience. And, so, now journal 2.0 is available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop as well in the Lifestyle section.

So, we’ve got two new things in the store, a portable solution for Windfarm coffee, steeped coffee, and our daily to journal 2.0. Those are in the Shop now and we’re excited about them and hopefully they’re resources that will be helpful as you continue your journey through the Scriptures and as we continue our journey through life together at this point in history. So, check those things out in the Daily Audio Bible shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link that lives on the homepage and I thank you profoundly for your partnership, profoundly and humbly. We would not be here. We would not be doing any of this if we do not do this together and I thank God that…that we do…that we do every day. So, there’s a link 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 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 hotline button up at the top right next to the Give button between the words Daily Audio Bible and Give, that’s where the little Hotline button. So, you can press that no matter where you are in the world and reach out or there are a number of phone numbers that you can use if that’s what you prefer depending on where you are in the world. If you’re in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you’re 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 call.

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

Ecclesiastes 4:1-6:12, 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:7, Ps 47:1-9, Proverbs 22:16

Today is September 3^rd. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we continue to move into this week and into this month. A little discombobulated. August went so fast, but here we are, September 3^rd. And the next step is right here waiting for us to take. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week and continuing our journey through the book of Ecclesiastes today will read chapters 4 through 6.

Commentary:

Okay. So, this book of Ecclesiastes that we are reading from the pen of the wise King Solomon is a disruptive book to say the least, right? Because we’re experiencing his observations on basically futility, right, the futile experiences of life on earth chasing the wind, the meaninglessness. But honestly though, let’s take a step back. Yes, it’s disruptive because it’s supposed to be disruptive. What Solomon seems to be doing is saying out loud the things that we feel sometimes, but that we don’t say out loud because there seems to be a rub, like this disconnect with all of the famous verses of victory and prosperity for ourselves and the overwhelming love of God, which is a fact. These things are in the Bible. You know, let’s look at where Solomon is coming from. He has experienced it all. He has had nothing really in his path that he didn’t have the resource or the ingenuity to overcome and he’s applied basically this ability to everything in life. He’s explored all of the different ways that people live their lives and he comes to this meaninglessness because we’re all holding onto things that we have to learn to let go of including this life, which is very disruptive, right? Like, to understand okay, slowly, systematically, all the things that I build up to arrange for the life that I’m living, these are all things that I am not taking with me and that I have to let go of, which lets us know that there must be something even deeper to be experienced than all of the things that we run around trying to accumulate in our lives to give it meaning. So, Solomon in so many ways is coming to the conclusion, “enjoy what you have, enjoy your lot in life, be where you are, understand that it’s a gift from God and all of the other stuff that you’re chasing after may, in fact, be meaningless, may in fact be chasing the wind.” So, Solomon made a bunch of observations just in our reading today. So…I mean…like…let’s…let’s just look at a couple of the things that he said today. “I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors, but this is meaningless like chasing the wind.” Right? So, that’s like disruptive. As factual, as true as it might be, that’s disruptive because it makes us take a step back and go, “why am I on the hamster wheel? Like, what is it I am running to or from? Where am I actually going? Am I am motivated in life because I am trying to keep up? But what if there weren’t anything to keep up? Would I then enjoy my lot in life and stop trying to compete in a meaningless competition that doesn’t do anything but make me chase the wind? Solomon also says today, “too much activity gives you restless dreams. Too many words make you a fool.” Right? So, there’s like so much in that sentence alone. Our culture is like an always on, you wake up in the morning, you put your feet on the floor, and you start running until you collapse in bed and you fill yourself with everything you can and then you also try to keep up with the Joneses and you also try to keep up the culture, right, so that you can have relevance to what’s going on in the world. “Too much activity gives you restless dreams. Too many words make you a fool.” In other words, all of this activity and words aren’t helping. We have to create room because we’re walking in circles that are meaningless. According to Ecclesiastes from a reading today, “to enjoy your work and accept your lot in life, this is indeed a gift from God. God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past.” So, like, it…it’s easy enough to just go, “is that what I’m experiencing? Am I like settled? Do I feel satisfied? Have I let go of the things that are pulling me in all kinds of directions that I don’t want to go in anyway? Am I in this unspoken competition with my friends and family and neighbors? Like am I trying…what is the point? And it’s easy to realize that if we are not pressing in deeper with God, which means that we are letting go of the world, then we are moving in circles that are meaningless like chasing the wind.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into that this very day because this is huge. It goes all the way to what motivates us to do the things that we do. And in all honesty as we sit with it we realize that we are compelled in many directions that are neither healthy nor helpful they really are like chasing the wind that really are meaningless in the end, and yet we’re on this train and everybody else is on this train and we’re just running, running, running, running and we rarely sit down with the idea that maybe some intentional letting go is what will actually open up space in our lives so that as You said in your word today, You can keep us so busy enjoying life instead of enjoy or attempting to accumulate all of the stuff that we think is going to make us enjoy life. You’ll make us so busy actually enjoying life that there isn’t really a lot of time to brood over the past. Help us with this Lord. There is no way we’re gonna untangle ourselves and achieve this on our own except that it’s relatively easy to move in this direction. It simply requires that we begin to let go. So, come Holy Spirit into all of this we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And still kind of in the afterglow of the Family Reunion and also just…it’s a lot of work…so it’s kind of to get it all kind of put away and packed. So, many memories. Yeah. It’s gonna…it’s gonna to do my heart good for a long time. It was good to see you all once again and I pray that you’ve reached home safely. It was a joy to be together and until we meet again.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If what we do is as a global campfire bringing God’s spoken word to anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to let this rhythm build community centered around the Scriptures, if that brings life to you, then thank you for your partnership. 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 as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can just press the brand-new Hotline button in the upper pane of the app right next to the Give button or you can dial 87-942-4253.

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:

Hello everybody this is Lisa the Encourager. I’m just loving this new red, hot button. It makes it really easy to call in. So, tonight I wanted to call in for Summer and I’m sitting out on my front porch on this beautiful evening and listening to the birds and a few things chirping around me. So, I hope that’s not too distracting, but I am saying all that because I hear Summer from Ohio and I think about what a beautiful name you have to remind us of a beautiful summer day and I just want you to know that you called in with a lot of strife in your past life and a lot of regrets it sounded like, in the way that the children were handled and the way that the ex-husband came in after he had a restraining order and you were going through some really difficult times with your depression. So, summer I just want you to know that you need to look forward and look up because right now there’s nothing gonna change what has happened in the past with the kids or with you. So, today I challenge you to look up and look forward from this point forward because God is with you and I’m going to be praying for you. Dear God please take care of Summer. Help her to realize that You are with her and that You are with her children and her grandchildren and that You will be there as she prays for them and continues to love on them and be a wonderful mother and grandmother God, that You will take care of her and those beautiful children. Help her to rely on You, trust on You, for you have faith in You and call upon Your name over and over and over God. Help her to know and have faith and trust in You that you will be there for her.

Hi DAB this is Jeanette from Denmark. I am calling with thanksgiving. It’s nearly 10 years now that I’ve been listening to the DAB and by husband for three or four. We’re so happy every day that we listen and respond and pray together with our American friends and family in Jesus. We have a prayer request. We have a brother who is suffering. He believes deeply in Jesus, but he’s had a depression he’s suffered against for many years. And right now, he’s in a testing time. Please pray that he would take strength and take a hold of Jesus hand and realize that he’s not just responded to things, that he has a place and having to gather with the Lord and that he can stand strong together with his King that there is nothing that can stand against him, no weapon formed against him shall prosper. Please pray that his child will come home and feel secure and that his wife will be completely rejoicing in renewal. Thank you. Amen.

Hi, this is Rachel __ this is my first-time calling in. I started listening to the Daily Audio Bible around Memorial Day, a little bit before that and I want to let everybody know that I love it. I love the community and I just wanted to give a prayer of thanks. Dear God, I want to thank You for the Daily Audio Bible, Brian and Jill and everyone who’s a part of the team and the family. I want to thank You for this amazing strong community of prayer warriors that is helped to build. God You said that if we ask in the name of Jesus it is your will, our prayers will be answered and if one or more gather in your name that You are there, and You show up in your presence. God, I know that there are many of us listeners who are praying for these requests that are aired, and in that way, we are more than one gathered together. God, I want to thank You for the faith of these Daily Audio Bible members. Together we are strong and new people join and listen every day as we invite our friends and family and others to join and listen to the Daily Audio Bible and they change and grow, and their faith increases. So, I just want to thank You for this community as it grows, and our faith grows, and as we become a presence where we are unstoppable together. So, thank You God for answered prayers. Amen.

Good morning DABbers, this is Kathy in Oregon. I called to request some prayer. I’m going through a difficult time. This morning on my way to work my husband is an alcoholic and things just aren’t going well. We’ve been together for 20 years and I feel like our wagon is driving down into the ditch and I almost started crying when I heard Brian say, “you don’t have to carry this alone.” I’m involved with celebrate recovery. I’m not an alcoholic but trying to figure out what my role in here is. And sometimes I feel pretty alone. There’s not too many people I can reach out to. Just __ . Thank you so much for this opportunity. I hope you have a blessed time. Wish I could be there at the global campfire on the East Coast. But knowing that Jesus is here, He’s with me, He’s gotten me to where I am to today. Thank you for your prayers and thank you for the support and encouragement. I kind of think I’m going in the right direction. Thank you.

Hi, this is Andrew and I’m calling to ask for prayer regarding some difficult situations in my life. I just ask that you all pray for my wisdom and my ability to love and I pray that you…that God may guide us to have broken contrite hearts ready and soft for confession, repentance, and new beginnings. Thank you for the Daily Audio Bible. Listen to it every day for several months now. It’s been my root for my devotionals and helps me be grounded in the daily hustle and bustle. Thank you.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3:22, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, Psalms 46:1-11, Proverbs 22:15

Today is the 2^nd day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it’s great to be here with you as we just kind of move in…move into this new month. And it’s been a great beginning to this new month here that at the Family Reunion in the rolling hills of Tennessee. We’ve had a blast. So, Godspeed. Safe travels to everyone heading back to their neck of the woods. It was a joy to spend some time with you and let’s spend some more time together right now by taking the next step forward in the Scriptures. So, yesterday we concluded the book of Job and, of course, Job took us into some new territory to explore and apply to our lives. Today…today we’re going to begin one of my favorite books of the Bible, Ecclesiastes.

Introduction to the book of Ecclesiastes:

I used to not even enjoy the book of Ecclesiastes because it’s kind of cynical and it kind of makes you feel like…like what’s the point of it all, but I have found so much richness in those thoughts. Like, yeah, what’s the point of it all without God? Like, what's…we’re running around chasing the wind and never really actually enjoying where we are, which is one of the things that Solomon who wrote this book really tries to stress. Like you need to appreciate what’s happening right now and what you have right now. So, Job, as well as Ecclesiastes, which we’re about to read as well as the book of Proverbs and the book of song of Solomon and some of the Psalms, these are all part of the grouping of books that is known as wisdom literature. So, as we went through Job and as we go through Ecclesiastes, we are learning of the wisdom tradition in the Scripture. So, like I just send Ecclesiastes has traditionally been ascribed to the Solomon and that’s been up for debate like most everything else in the Bible among biblical scholars over centuries, even millennia. And that's…so…Solomon’s been debated for different reasons, but the book probably did originate with Solomon. And then maybe was translated and updated just like translations are modernized even today. Solomon was known to be the wisest man in the world. It’s what he prayed for and he was the most powerful and wealthy man of his time. And…I mean…his father, King David set him up so that he was able to pursue whatever his heart desired no matter what he dreamed up. Like, he could do anything. And as the successor to King David on the throne. He had all of the resources at his disposal, he had a thousand of the most beautiful women in all of the world as wives and concubines. He had royalty. He had the wisdom of God. Like, this is a guy that pretty much has everything a person would aspire to. And, so, it becomes interesting because for somebody who has it all Ecclesiastes can be way out of character. Like, we would…we would expect, like some kind of memoir of greatness from a man like Solomon. Like…just…you can only imagine, we just have a glimpse into this great King’s life. So, you can only imagine the things he saw and did. But he writes Ecclesiastes, which, you know, we can read like a depressing rent but if we start looking below the surface, this book is a truly deep look into our own hearts. We’re all pursuing something, dreams, goals, things that we are aspiring to, but not very many of us, if any, really ever just get to do whatever they want whenever they want. Like, we always have some kinda carrot hanging out in front of us that gets us up out of bed in the morning and keeps us moving. We can always say, “if I had that, life would be better, right? If I could do this thing than my life would be better.” There’s always something new that we can find to chase but what if there weren’t anything new to chase? Like, what if we actually did have it all? I realize most of us are like, “I would like to have that problem. I would like to see how I would deal with that problem, that I have all of the resources at my disposal that I can imagine, and I can do whatever I want whenever I want. I would love to have that problem.” The interesting thing is, where hearing what it’s like to have that problem in the book of Ecclesiastes because Solomon, he did pursue, and he did achieve everything he wanted to do but later in his life all these beautiful wives that he had began to seduce him into idolatry. And, so, what we see in Ecclesiastes is one of the musings of a very wise older man looking back over all of his endeavors and finding his life meaningless without God, which is a perfect next step following all that…that we began to consider in the book of Job. And, so, having said all that, we begin today the book of Ecclesiastes. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week and we will read the first three chapters of Ecclesiastes today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for your word and once again, we thank You for bringing us safely into this new month. And as we continue through this month and into all of the territory that You will bring us into we’re definitely encountering rubbing up against things that we haven’t encountered thus far in the Bible. And, so, our hearts are open because we’ve seen what You can do through your word. We’ve seen how You reach us where we are and continually remind us. We feel like we are being pulled forward. You are pulling us forward because You are maturing us, fathering us as your sons and daughters. And, so, in the book of Ecclesiastes we’re learning that there is a place for everything. And, so, much of the time of our lives we spend chasing the wind. We have an ideal, we’re chasing an ideal and missing the fact that we are here right now and have so much. So, help us Holy Spirit as we continue forward to contemplate these things. We invite your Holy Spirit to give us a contented heart as we take the next steps forward. 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.

It’s a holiday here in the United States today, it’s called Labor Day and a national holiday. So, day off. And man, we had a great time last night at the family reunion. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful time together. And I kind of officially closed our family reunion. Many stayed over today and will be together for part of the day today and then starting the migration back toward our homes. And, so, all of you who were here, thank you for coming. It does our hearts good to see you. It does our hearts a tremendous amount of…well…it brings our hearts a tremendous amount of happiness, just to be able to make those connections and know like, this labor is not in vain, it’s not just solitary, it’s not just, you know, us, me behind a mic and us doing our thing. Like, on the other side of this are brothers and sisters that we’re sharing the world with and we’re sharing mission with. And, so, thank you for coming and the until we meet again…until we meet again. And, so, for those of you who weren’t able to make it or whatever, I feel the same way. Somewhere down the road I hope that our paths cross. I hope that in this life we can shake hands and hug necks and tell stories. And I realize that’s probably not possible, at least 100%, but I do believe that we will one day meet and that the labor that we shared, this labor of the rhythm of the Bible in our lives every day, that it will have mattered and that it will have instructed and informed us on the roads that we should choose. And those roads all lead to the same place. And we will one day be together for eternity, I believe that. So, not to get overly sentimental, but it was good. It was good to have this family reunion and I’m excited about the road ahead.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you humbly and deeply for your partnership. If you’re using the 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 right next to the Give button in the app, little red circle is your hotline, or you dial 877-942-4253. And that is it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

And as always if you have a prayer request or comment you can press the hotline on the app, little red button up at the top of the app, you can press that button and start talking 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:

This message is for Jesse, Jesse from Washington. Today is August 27^th. I listened to your prayer request and your…you were actually praying and stating the truck driver now all of a sudden, his name escapes my memory, but I wanted to pray for you. It sounded like your life, you are gardening, and you are attending so many different things with your daughter having her tonsillectomy and adenoids and getting married and your wedding invitations going out and a  new building and you were having to stay up until 1 o’clock in the morning for your business. I’m actually gardening right now in the fall in Nebraska and it just it came across me. Like sometimes we garden in too many places. Sometimes we don’t fertilize correctly. Sometimes we need more water, which sometimes happens when it gets close to the fall. So, Father I just lift up Jesse to You. I pray for he and his wife to be as…he said he was a month behind Father, but I pray by the time that he listens to this Father, I pray that he is doing well. I pray that his daughter has recovered from surgeries. I pray that his business is prospering. I pray that the fertilizer in the water and the plants that they have planted are in the right places with the right sunshine, with the best nutrient rich ground that is there. And Father, I pray that You would give him guidance that if those plants are in the wrong place or if that fig tree isn’t producing fruit as You say in Luke 14, I believe it’s Luke 14, it’s either Luke 14 or Luke 12 where You say cut it down…

Hello Daily Audio Bible, I ask that you pray with me from Ephesians chapters 1 and chapter 3 for all believers everywhere. Dear God please give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know You better. Enlighten the eyes of our heart so that we may know the hope to which You’ve called us and so we may know the riches of the glorious inheritance we have coming to us and so that we may know the incomparably great power for us who believe, the same power that You used to raise Jesus from the dead. And Lord out of your glorious riches strengthen us with might through our spirit in our inner being so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through us and we may each be rooted and established in love and we may have power together with all believers to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge so that we may each be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Glory to him who is able to do more than all we ask or imagine. In Jesus precious name. Amen. And I agree with Jane from Nebraska whose prayer was played on August 17^th. Lord, fill us like water. Fill every void in us. Fill every inch of us. Fill us up Lord with your living water so that none of us are lonely but we always walk with You. And Lord let that light through…through us shine for a world who needs You and bring each person on this planet to You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Good morning family, this is for all of you, Brian, Jill, China, Ben, the staff, SarahJane and my fellow DABbers. You know I…I just want to call and say I love you guys. You guys get me through every single day. I’m not going to name names because we’re all important, we’re all important and this is just me telling you that I need you guys. I love you guys. You know, I pray for you guys. I don’t call as often as I should, and I know that. You know, I too have been going through some challenges but I’m okay. I’m okay because I know I’m not alone, I know I’m not alone. And, you know the joy of the Lord just dwells in my heart and I’m just learning to just go through these challenges knowing that God is there before me, beside me, behind me, above me, below me. So, I just want to let you all know how much you mean to me, that each and every day that I listen, and I pray alongside you. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. May the Lord continue to bless all of your loved ones and may He do what only He can do within each and every one of you and provide for all of your needs. In Jesus’ name. Esther from Flushing Queens.

Hello DAB family this is Paula the child advocate from the LA area calling. I haven’t called in a while, but I did want to call today and wish all of you who are going on the family gathering a blessed time together in community. I’m sorry I won’t be there to join you, maybe one of these years, but you’ll all certainly be in my prayers. Also, I wanted to give a shout out to two first-time callers, Samantha and Bobby. It was wonderful to hear your voices and to all of you first timers. It’s great to hear you. Thank you for calling in. I know sometimes that’s a little hard. I have trouble myself. I wanted to give you a little update family. My son Tyler and his wife Areli have been living in Tijuana waiting for almost 2 years for her visa to come through so they can move to Los Angeles where he has a job waiting. It’s still taking time family, so please keep them in your prayers. They get discouraged at times, so they really need your prayers. And a quick update about myself. You know, we lost our home to the wildfires in California last November and I’ve had some health problems and I recently fell and broke my arm. So, it’s been a tough time and I hear a lot of you saying how tough it’s been for you too and I want to tell you we can all get through this together. I see God at work in all these trials I’ve been put through. I see the silver lining because I know everything that’s happened, it could have been a lot worse. So, I am hoping you too when you going through these trials that you can see that God is still there with us. And even though it looks really bad and you’re in pain and your crushed and depressed, please remember we’re praying for you and God is there by your side. I love you family. God bless you all. Bye for now. Paula from LA.

Hi DAB family this is Shel from Arkansas and today is Wednesday, August 28^th and I just ask for prayers for me and my family please. My 62-year-old brother was bludgeoned to death by his son on Saturday and my family and I were having a hard time and I just ask that you pray for us. I ask also that you pray for me because although I don’t question God on any of this, I’m just finding it hard to pray. And, so, I ask that you pray for me until I get the strength to pray. Thank you so much.

Hello DAB family members this is Ruth calling from the natural state, beautiful natural state of Arkansas. I have a prayer request for…well I’m praying a prayer for falling away Christians. Mainly, I’m praying for the young people. There’s so many of them nowadays that have fallen away. One is in my family, well I have a couple of them in my family, my grandsons, they’re in their 20s and 30s. They’re not little guys they’re adult men and they have fallen away. And I have a prayer and I want to give you it very quickly before my time is up. So, Lord I am praying for those who have walked away and turned to the world, may they do like the prodigal son and come to their senses coming back to You with repentance in their heart before it’s too late. I pray this prayer in the precious name of Jesus. Lord, I know You are concerned about everything that concerns your children just like we are concerned about things that concern our children. Now, I know that You are going to answer this prayer because You are already said in your word that You __ all to be saved who come to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, I know this prayer is going to be answered but only in your time. And I pray that they will have the mind to do this, to come back to you, and I will be calling again with another prayer for our fallen away, mainly our young people, but actually all of our people, fallen away family members come to the Lord and the ones that never accepted you, my prayers are even stronger for those that have never accepted you before it’s too late Lord before it’s too late. God bless you I love you all.