Month: October 2019

Jeremiah 28:1-29:32, 1 Timothy 1:1-20, Psalms 86:1-17, Proverb 25:17

Today is the 16^th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you as we move through the center of a week, another one of the weeks that make up our year. And we’re working our way through the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament and then when we reach the New Testament, we will move into another letter from the apostle Paul. This is a personal letter. So, the first time we’ve read a personal letter this year. And we’ll talk about that when we get there. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Jeremiah chapter 28 and 29 today.

Introduction to first Timothy:

Okay. So as we talked about at the beginning today we’re moving into a personal letter from the apostle Paul and this letter was written to a man named Timothy who was a protégé of Paul and this is…this is the first letter of a collection of three different letters, two of them to Timothy and one to a man named Titus. These are personal letters and their known in the Scriptures as the pastoral epistles or the pastoral letters because…because of what they are. So, it’s been centuries now, centuries, that biblical scholars have debated about whether the apostle Paul was the author of these letters himself, or if these were pastoral letters that indeed carried the name of Paul that were written in his name. And that debate actually continues vigorously until the present time. So, scholars who favor the view that Paul was not the actual author of these letters do this by observing the structure, the church structure that is in these letters, the polity, the hierarchy, the way that it’s run. So, the scholarly speculation is that some of the things that are talked about in these pastoral letters, as far as structure, these were things that were invented later after Paul’s lifetime, which would then make the letters…well…later than Paul. And there is a…there’s a difference in the language from the other epistles of Paul. And, so, this has also been noticed by scholars. Now the biblical scholars favoring that the tradition is true, Paul was the author of these letters, they do that in part because the letters authenticate themselves, right? So, the author identifies himself as Paul in these letters and the earliest of church fathers made use of these letters. And, so, even…even though scholars know there’s a difference in the style of language in these letters, following the traditional view, they would simply say, “that…that’s because they’re personal letters.” Like, he wasn’t writing to a church, wasn’t necessarily planning that the letters were to be passed around among the churches or for that matter even passed around among the pastors. They were personal letters. So, they were meant to be read aloud. And, so, that that would make…that would explain that, which kinda brings up why they’re called pastoral letters. They’re personal correspondences to two different pastors, Timothy and Titus, who had been sent to directly care for churches that had been established by the apostle Paul. And, so, these churches needed a strong leader who understood the teachings of the apostle Paul regarding the Christian life and how Christian community and Christian worship should be established. So, Titus, we’ll talk about Titus when we get to the letter written to Titus, but the first of the pastoral letters was written to Timothy who was a young man who grew up in the shadow of the apostle Paul. So, we met Timothy when we were reading the book of Acts. His mother’s name was Eunice, his grandmother’s name was Lois, and they were early believers from the city of Lystra which is now in modern day Turkey. So, Paul introduced the faith to Timothy and then Timothy became a loyal disciple or follower or companion of Paul. Paul loved him. He called him many times his spiritual son and he directly mentored him in the faith and raised him up in church leadership. So, Timothy traveled pretty extensively with Paul. He’s mentioned by name in six of Paul’s other letters and often when Paul wasn’t able to travel Timothy was his first choice to go in his place, which means that Timothy was often sent to serve and assist in a pastoral capacity to assist the churches. And, so, when this letter that we’re about to read was written the apostle Paul was nearing the end of his ministry. In fact, he was nearing the end of his life and Timothy had become the pastor of the church in Ephesus and it was written from a spiritual father to his son in the faith so that, as a father, as a spiritual father, Paul could offer guidance and counsel in the task of pastoring a church in Ephesus. And it’s a…it’s a loving letter. It’s full of hope. It gives us clues to what the apostle Paul thought was most important to give to those that he had raised up in leadership, the coming generation. And it’s also the letter that teaches us to fight the good fight of faith. And, so, we began. First Timothy chapter 1.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we read in its context one of if not the most famous verses in the Bible, Jeremiah 29:11. It’s funny. As I was growing up this wasn’t like the most famous verse in the Bible. That would’ve been like John 3:16 but like in the last decade or so this has become one of most popular verses in the Bible, “for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Right? So, like, even as I read that some of you were saying it along with me, you’ve got it memorized. This is a very popular verse. And, so, every year when we pass this territory we have to talk about this very famous verse because it’s so interesting how we read things into the Bible and make them mean things that perhaps they don’t mean. So, these words for sure bring comfort into most situations that they’re spoken into, right? Because they offer hope in confusion or in times that we’re just suffering through, but if you’ve quoted this verse to yourself or if you’ve quoted this verse to other people who you see struggling and who…who you want to encourage and you don’t have any idea of the context that this verse comes from, then it can be surprising because Jeremiah 29:11 is for sure an affirmation of God’s good plans for the future and for a hope but the whole story is way more compelling for our lives and perhaps even more deeply meaningful for our lives than…than the way that we use this verse all the time. So, let’s just understand what’s going on here. Jeremiah is in Jerusalem, but Jerusalem has been conquered and it's…I mean the inhabitants were in the process of being deported, to a foreign land they had never known. The things that were happening to these people were inconceivable because their God had brought them into this land and put His name on this land and dwelled in this land and His temple was in this land. So, they’re thinking basically, “God’s gonna protect his land whether we obey pay God or not.” And, so, the drift had been happening but now Jerusalem has been conquered and people are being deported and the Hebrews had seen the crushing destruction of the lives that they used to know and the destruction of their…their capital city and they were being uprooted and relocated where nothing was familiar, and families had been torn apart. Lots of people had been killed in battle. And, so…so you can only imagine, this is just a time of great unrest, people just longing to go home, although the home that they knew was gone and the people that they loved maybe were gone. And, so, they were just hoping for some sort of restoration. And Jeremiah had been prophesying from Jerusalem’s surrender. Right? And we’ve talked about that before because this is a message that is inconceivable to them. “How can we surrender? We’re God’s chosen people. How can we surrender?” And Jeremiah, the prophet of God is saying, but I’m speaking for God, “I am…I am speaking as God to you…this is what God is telling you to do.” So, Jeremiah wrote this letter and he sent it from Jerusalem to Babylon by way of the ambassadors to the exiles who had already been deported to Babylon. And it’s in that letter that we find Jeremiah 29:11. So, like, if it wasn’t in a letter, if he was just trying to write a note of encouragement and it only contained Jeremiah 29:11, like only a couple of sentences. Then…then fine. And even Jeremiah would’ve been fine, but that one verse wasn’t the whole contents of the letter. And the letter’s instructions were incredibly disruptive. Here are the instructions. “Build homes and plan to stay.” In other words, plan to stay in a foreign land in exile, right? So, “build homes and plan to stay, plant gardens and eat the food they produce, marry and have children and find spouses for your kids so that you can have many grandchildren, multiply, don’t dwindle away, and work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile.” Ahhh…this is like tough stuff because it’s like, “pray for the peace and work for the peace and prosperity of the people who conquered you.” Right? “Pray to the Lord for it. Pray for its welfare. Its welfare will determine your welfare.” And the letter goes on to tell the exiles that the prophets who are telling them that this is gonna be over quick, there’s a resolution coming, God is going to come and rescue you and take you back and it’s gonna be like it used to be. He’s like, “they’re not telling…they’re lying to you.” So, we see we have a very, very encouraging couple of sentences encased in a very disruptive letter. “This is what the Lord says” Jeremiah writes, “you will be in Babylon”, in other words, you will be exiled “for 70 years and then I’ll come and do for you all the good things I promised and I’ll bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” right? that’s how we get to this verse. So, even though these prophets were prophesying a speedy resolution, even though obviously the displaced Hebrew people were trying to get information about the rest of their family, like, all of this stuff that’s going on, even though they’re hoping God will see that they’ve learned their lesson quickly and that they can go home, that’s not the plan, that’s not the plan, it’s not the plan He has for them. He told them, “the plan I have is gonna take some time. 70 years to be specific. And rather than them being angry and bitter and obstinate and rebellious and stiff-necked like they had always been when they were enjoying prosperous times, they were supposed to establish roots in this foreign land, in this land that had conquered them. And rather than isolating themselves and resisting the whole time they were supposed to thrive where they were until God brought them back to their homeland. So, we personalize Jeremiah 29:11 because it assures us that God’s in control and that He’s got a plan and that hHs plan is that we’ll experience hope for the future, but the full context of Jeremiah’s letter isn’t about the immediate accomplishment of anything or the quick resolution of any kind of difficult season. The message is that they should exhale and thrive where they are because it’s going to take some time. And, so, they should thrive while they’re waiting. Man, which is essentially the backdrop of life…life on earth expect…expecting the fullness of God’s kingdom as it is in heaven. Right? Aren’t we here, doing the same thing? Isn't…isn’t it the same message that we are allowed to thrive here while were waiting? So, if you feel like life has basically exiled you and Jeremiah 29:11 is like posted on your refrigerator and on your bathroom mirror and in your car like…so like that you have this word of encouragement to keep going, awesome, perfect. God’s promise is of a hope and a future and that is a solid foundation. But rather than expecting that to come instantly and immediately in a way that like that our culture is used to, like instant gratification, maybe…maybe Jeremiah 29:11 gives us permission to come down, to exhale, to…to realize maybe things aren’t as we would like them but we have full permission to thrive where we are while we’re waiting for things to change. I mean God hold these exiles in this letter, “do not dwindle away” and “work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it. Its welfare will determine your welfare.” And, so, let’s invite the Holy Spirit to begin to reveal what that might look like in our own lives in its context. Like what does this look like in our own lives as it looked like the people who received this letter and not just to sentences of this letter. God has plans for you. He has plans for me. He has plans for all of us. He has plans for our species. We were, after all, created in His image and one day He will restore all things. These are good plans. They are plans for a future and a hope and they’re not plans for disaster. It just…it just might look different than you thought. And it might look different than I thought. But if we set aside those expectations, what we think we know and simply hope in God and trust fully in the goodness of our Father, well then, it’s like the apostle Paul said, “I figured it out. I figured out how to be content in whatever’s happening. We have permission to thrive where we are and multiply and not dwindle away and stay in it as long as it takes, endure as long as it takes. In this letter that was gonna be 70 years. That’s practically a lifetime. S

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, what does this mean for us? We’re all facing all kinds of different things. And, so, it’s not a one-size-fits-all thing and yet I believe that Your word has spoken to each of us in our own way. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit into all of the contemplation and all of the consideration that…that comes to mind and heart as we contemplate this letter that contains this famous verse. Show us how to thrive while we wait. Show us how to multiply and not dwindle away even…even when it’s very, very disruptive and very difficult. Come Holy Spirit into all of this we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyausiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you with all humility for those who have clicked that link over the course of this year. We…we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t do this together as I’ve often said, because it’s always been the truth. So, thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen or, if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Jeremiah 26:1-27:22, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18, Psalms 85:1-13, Proverbs 25:16

Today is the 15^th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you. Welcome to the middle of the month. And, yeah, lunchtime today is middle of the month. So, let’s pass through it together and take the next step forward on the trail that we’re following that is leading us through the Bible this year. So, we are in the book of Jeremiah and we’ll continue that by reading the 26^th and 27^th chapter today. And we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we’re moving through Jeremiah today, God instructed Jeremiah the prophet to into the temple courtyard and say some things that were sure to get Jeremiah in trouble. And, so, Jeremiah’s gotta go into…and we gotta…I mean the temple isn’t in Jerusalem. It was destroyed, right? It was destroyed and well…the final…the most recent temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, by the Romans, but here in Jeremiah we’re talking about Solomon’s Temple, the temple of God, like the identity of the Hebrew people, the place where the God of Israel dwelled. I mean, this is a big deal for them. And, so, Jeremiah’s supposed to go into the temple courtyard at the temple and say, “this is what the Lord says. If you will not listen to me and obey my word I have given you, and if you will not listen to my servants the prophets, for I sent them again and again to warn you, but you would not listen to them then I will destroy this temple as I destroyed Shiloh.” And Shiloh…I mean…before there ever was a temple for 430 years, Shiloh was the place where the people went to meet with God, where the tabernacle dwelt. So…so this prophet is saying that God is gonna wipeout the place where he set His name, in Jerusalem. He said, “I will make Jerusalem an object of cursing in every nation on earth”. So, Jeremiah did obey, but he got in a bunch of trouble, which isn’t shocking. Jeremiah walked into the courtyard of the holiest site in the holiest city and foretold its destruction. So, like, yeah, like we were just saying, like everything that gave the Hebrew people their identity he’s prophesying it is going to go away and be destroyed. So, we can understand why a mob would form around this. We can understand why people would be angry and wanting to do away with Jeremiah, but why did God send Jeremiah? L why did he send him to do that? We find that out in God’s conversation with Jeremiah as He’s sending…as He’s sending him. “Perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways. Then I will change my mind about the disaster I’m ready to pour out on them because of their sins.” So, it’s very easy to continually read through the prophets and see the foretelling of destruction and some really, really, horrible events, and for that to subtly shift our view of our Father, of our heavenly Father. But once again we’re watching God give options through his prophets. Jeremiah’s simply stating the direction that the people were heading in and where that was gonna end up, what its outcome would be. But another reality was possible. They could repent. So, fundamentally, God sent Jeremiah into the holiest site in the holiest city to tell the people that if they would change their minds, right, repent, He would change His mind too, which is pretty huge. And as we know from the Scriptures, a mob formed, Jeremiah was in the middle of it, he was dragged before the Jewish council, a bunch of people had like a blood vendetta, they were going to execute him because he spoke against the temple. Does that not sound familiar? This is the same accusation that would be aimed at Jesus 600 years later. And, so…so, once the tempers and stuff cool down and everybody was debating about what to do with Jeremiah he eventually was released, but God was about to send him to do something just…that would be just as inflammatory. He told Jeremiah, take a yoke, put it on your neck, right? Use leather straps and hook it up to yourself and send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Amon, Tyre and Sidon through their ambassadors who are visiting with King Zedekiah in Jerusalem. And the message that Jeremiah was supposed to speak instructed all of those kingdoms, all of them, including Israel, to surrender to the Babylonian Empire. I mean…just…if I were there at that time hearing Jeremiah, I don’t know that I would’ve given it…like paid any attention at all because the temple was in Jerusalem. This is the place where God put his name. These were God’s chosen people. Like, they had this specific identity. To surrender to another nation was to surrender to another nations God at that time. So, God is speaking through Jeremiah that he is involved in this surrender like one way or another. Whether through conquest or surrender He is wiping the slate clean. He has had enough. And the people just cannot in any way get their minds around this. Not to mention the fact that a lot of other prophets were in complete contradiction to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah then had the opportunity toi talk to the King of Israel. “Why do you insist on dying?” Right? “And all the people with you. Why would you choose war and famine and disease which the Lord is going to bring to every nation that refuses to submit to Babylon?” And as we continue forward we’ll see that the king, he wants more clarity on this, but he cannot like…he cannot surrender his nation to Babylon, not only because he doesn’t want to give up his authority and power but because of fear of the people. Like if they’re gonna mob Jeremiah for going into the temple complex and prophesying that people should surrender what are they gonna do to a king who does surrender? Like this is not a good situation. And, so, you know, as we read today, Jeremiah’s prophecies and his pleading didn’t work. And we can see why. It’s no small thing for a nation to surrender and be assimilated into another nation or an empire. And as we know, Babylon did conquer and did destroy the land and the people were exiled, which…which is going to bring us to perhaps the most famous verse in the whole Bible, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Prayer:

Father we have some context for the things that will be said tomorrow, and we have some context for what’s happening in the prophet’s lifetime. We can see just how difficult the situation was. And, so, we find ourselves often in difficult situations to navigate as well. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit that we might see the counterintuitive ways of Your kingdom in our lives. Come Holy Spirit, we pray into all of this in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, little red button up at the top and start talking or you can dial 877-942-4253.

Jeremiah 23:21-25:38, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, Psalms 84:1-12, Proverbs 25:15

Today is the 14^th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s good to be here with you today as we continue our journey through the center…the center week of the month. I guess we’re pretty much…well…I guess like halfway through the day tomorrow we’ll be halfway through this month. So, we’re taking the journey and the journey is pulling us forward, and the next step forward in the Scriptures will take us back into the book of Jeremiah. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Jeremiah 23 verse 21 through 25 verse 38 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, Psalm 84. That's…that’s one of my personal favorite verses in the Scripture just because of the passion just the description, the longing for the presence of the Lord, like the deep deepest reaching and longing. And, so, I’ve thought like, yeah, we can describe what’s written there as passion, we could describe it as desire. And it’s interesting, like passion and desire in our culture, they…I mean…usually that’s an erotic thing, right, something sexual or like an elite athlete, somebody like really going, passionately going after a goal or a deep unwavering desire, like this focus. And neither one of those things are bad. Like passion…having passion and desire in either of those ways in the right context, it’s totally appropriate. So, like we’ve probably pursued ambitions in our lives with desire, with passion. And many of us are aware of what passionate and intimacy is like, but do we ever think of passion and desire when think of our spiritual relationship and intimacy with God because…because that’s what’s being described in Psalm 84 today, right? “I long, I faint with longing enter the courts of the Lord with my whole being, body and soul. I will shout joyfully to the living God.” That’s passion, that’s desire. And obviously as a species, as humans, we have plenty of passions, but have you felt that kind of passionate and desire for God’s presence because we certainly give our desire, our passion to things and even to people who are withholding that from God, the one who most passionately loves us. And that's…it’s not like we’re withholding on purpose like we’re withholding ourselves from God on purpose to spite Him or something. We’re just usually not even paying attention. This isn’t even a category. We don’t even think of our spirituality in these terms. We think it’s something that stabilizes us and something that’s our ultimate destiny, but we don’t always think about how we real, how immediate, how pervasive the presence of God is if we’re just paying attention. And we’re not always paying attention to where our passions are leading us, but whatever passions we have those are first born out of…out of the seeds of desire. So…so the psalmist is basically saying that the presence of God even…even in the humblest position, like even with the lowliest status is still better than anything else and we would agree with that even if it’s just like in theory. So, how do we actually find this place that the psalmist is describing, this place where our passions and our desire is fully given over to God. Well the Psalm answers that question. Like the Psalm unpacks itself. “Worship”, and…ahhh…that…we start down that path and we’re starting down a path that it is seriously full of baggage. Like, worship is a word that means a lot of things to a lot of people. Like, I wish we had this nonreligious sort of word that didn’t have the baggage but…but worship is anything that we’re willing to give ourselves to and extend our heart toward, to offer ourselves and not withhold in hopes of receiving life in return. So, the psalmist had been in God’s presence had tasted this union with God and the way that he achieved this place, this awareness was through worship. So, worship isn’t just something that happens at church, like it’s not the songs that we sing or the clapping of the jumping up and down or, you know for that matter, the somber, contemplative silence. And worship isn’t just like, you know, something like a magic tonic we have in a bottle for depression or for grief. It is where we focus our passionate desire in hopes of finding life. It’s where we extend ourselves passionately, which means that anything that releases our heart in that way can be worship, which means that life can be worship. So let’s go into our day-to-day, no matter what’s going on, no matter whether we’re in the depths or we’re in the heights or we’re somewhere in between, which is where most of us always live. Let’s think about what we’re doing today and consider whether or not it can be an act of worship. Can we be aware of God’s presence in and among us and in what we do and say and think today because being intentional about this, becoming aware that God is always with us is what we’re actually looking forward, we’re just usually not paying attention. And that lets our desires and our passions be led toward distractions where we are offering ourselves in worship to something that isn’t even alive. So, when I was growing up there was a hymn that was often sung and I can’t remember all the words but it was like, “turn your eyes upon Jesus”, right, and one of the phrases was, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about passionate desire for the presence of God.

Prayer:

Father, it is You we seek in all things. We can’t confess that we are consciously seeking You in all things all of the time, but this is ultimately what we are after, to be united with You. You are God, You are the creator of all, and You have loved us by simply being unwilling to abandon us. And we haven’t really loved You the same way. We’ve abandoned You plenty of times, but we see in the Psalms today, a posture of heart that is describing what we long for. And, so, Holy Spirit help us to become more aware of Your presence. Help us to not withhold ourselves from You by just trying to perform the day in our own strength. Help us to collaborate with You in revealing Your kingdom today we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s where you find out what’s happenin’ around here

Daily Audio Bible Shop lives there where resources for the journey through the Scriptures in a year are available. So, check that out.

Of course, we’ve been talking about the God of Your Story, which was a two-year effort to try to distill what we talk about, the commentary things that we talk about, from the Scriptures each day into written form into a 365-day devotional. That’s now available everywhere, including the DAB Shop. And when you get it from the DAB shop all of all of the proceeds from it support the Daily Audio Bible. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the commission that we share together each and every day to bring the spoken word of God to whoever will listen to it wherever they are and to talk about these things in community. If that has made a difference in your life then thank you for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t do it together, which has pretty much always been the case. So, thank you. 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 button at the top and just 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.

Jeremiah 22:1-23:20, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, Psalms 83:1-18, Proverbs 25:11-14

Today is the 13^th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a joy and a pleasure to be here with you today beginning a new week. And, so, we just reach out and collectively grab the threshold and swing the door open and walk into this shiny, sparkly week that’s waiting for us to tell the story and waiting for us to live into. And this is the middle of the month, we’ll be crossing through the center of this month as we…as we journey through this week. And, so, let’s dive in. We’ll read from the New Living Translation this week and we’ll continue our journey through Jeremiah and when we get to the New Testament today, we’ll be beginning another letter from the apostle Paul. Same people, the Thessalonians. This letter is known as second Thessalonians, but we’ll talk about that when we get there. First, let’s read from Jeremiah chapter 22 verse 1 through 23 verse 20.

Introduction to second Thessalonians:

Okay. So, as promised, we’re gonna begin another letter today, called second Thessalonians. So, it’s Paul’s second letter to the church in the city of Thessalonica, a church that, as we remember from the previous letter, was born in persecution and had actually never experienced peace. Like, they were never…they were never free from persecution. So, over the years some biblical scholars have questioned whether or not Paul wrote this letter. And that’s really a theological thing because there are theological nuances in second Thessalonians that aren’t found in any of the other letters that Paul wrote and the tone is a bit different. But even so, the majority still except this as an authentic letter of Paul. Certainly, the earliest of church fathers in our long and illustrious church history certainly affirmed and quoted this letter. So, it has a long, long history. And Paul probably wrote this second letter to the Thessalonian congregation really just a short time after the first one because it seems as if you wanted to further clarify and broaden what he had been saying previously in the other letter. And he also felt the need to correct specific things, some inaccurate assumptions. For example, Paul wanted to emphasize the importance of people working to provide for themselves, right? Working to provide for their families and the community because some were quitting their jobs and just living idly, waiting, waiting for Jesus to come back and meddling in everybody else’s business. And, so, Paul ended up in this letter as we’ll see, telling the brothers and sisters that if they weren’t gonna do their share of the work then they weren’t going to get their share the food. Like, they couldn’t just leech off each other. But to make it even more complicated and certainly more confusing for the Thessalonians, there’d been some misleading communication that was going around and it was going around in Paul’s name. And the idea was that Jesus already came and they just missed it. So, for a church that’s been persecuted for and on behalf of the name of Jesus to find out you missed it, he already came, like, that’s horrible to even think about. So, Paul sets the record straight. He never said that. He would never say something like that. This is total false…totally false. But Paul’s not writing this letter only just to make corrections. The believers in Thessalonica were…like Paul had a special place for them because he rolled into town under persecution, the church was formed in persecution, he had to flee persecution. Like, these people had never known anything but pressure. So, Paul cares a lot about what happens to their faith and he thinks a lot about them, and they needed to be encouraged because they had plenty to discourage them because were always under fire. So, Paul wrote that their endurance wasn’t being overlooked, like it wasn’t going unseen and it was doing something, and we need…we need to hear this. Like, even right now, we need to hear this. It does something. It was making them worthy of the kingdom of God and he encouraged them that in the end justice would prevail. So, the second letter to the church in Thessalonica, just like the first one, gives us a clear view of people who were pretty seriously under pressure but who were remaining faithful to God and in love with Jesus and enduring. And this is a fine enough time to say it, this idea of endurance, this is just gonna come up so much. Like we are not gonna be able to escape it as we continue through our year, And, so, we begin. Second Thessalonians chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and as we move into this new week we…we have anticipation, we have an expectancy that You will speak to us in ways that we need to know that as we’re moving through this week and we are…we are encountering things that we weren’t prepared for that Your word will already be speaking into those things. And, so we pray Holy Spirit that we would have eyes to see and ears to hear, and that we would obey Your prompting. Come Holy Spirit into all of this we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s where…it’s where you stay connected and how you stay connected and how you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check in, check out the Reece's…Reece’s…the resources that are available on the Daily Audio Bible shop full for this year-long journey that we take each and every year.

And if you want to support the Daily Audio Bible, if you want to partner with the mission that we have here to bring the spoken word of God every day read fresh brand-new for anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to keep building community around that rhythm, if that has meant something to you then thank you for your partnership profoundly and humbly. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or 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 up at the top and just start talking or you can dial 877-942-4253 if you’re in the Americas. If you’re in the UK, you can dial 44-20-3608-8078 and if you are in Australia are that part of the world you can dial 61-3-8820-5459.

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 Daily Audio Bible this is Rebecca in Michigan and it’s October 8^th today. You know what I’m thinking, I was thinking about birds and flowers. I know that’s so weird there’s a verse in the Bible that says God sees the birds and he calls __ the flowers and you are and more important than either one of them. So, you know, I stopped and watch these little birds and I throw bread down to them and one time I threw a waffle down to them and when I’ve thrown these pukes is of waffle to them, this one little bird he dived down to get it and this big bird started __ dive down to them and get it too and that little bird was just like flapping his wings and trying to take off with that __ from that big bird so he could eat that waffle. The waffles must’ve been good if a bird wants to eat it. But then if you stop and look at flowers and how beautiful they are and even the honey, the hummingbirds come and suck out of the nectar of the flower and it’s like…it’s amazing and then you’ll see the bigger birds like the eagle or the hawk looking for pray and something to eat. And just stop and think, you are more precious than a bird and you’re more precious than a flower. Your heavenly Father wants to provide for you, and He will supply all your needs according to your riches and glory in Christ Jesus. So, I pray today Father that…that everybody out there, that all their needs will be supplied according to the riches and glory in Christ Jesus because they are more important than a bird or a flower and yet You feed them and You cloth them….

Hello, my DAB family this is Mark Street from Sydney Australia today is Wednesday the 9^th of October and I’m just calling because I was really excited at the end of the podcast today. I heard Sinner Redeemed. Sinner Redeemed, I certainly remember you and I’m excited to hear that you’re back on the prayer line again and I’m hoping that we will all hear you a bit more. And I want to pray for you because you said that you wanted some prayer as well. So, heavenly Father, der heavenly Father we come to You offering Sinner Redeemed up to You. You know what he needs, You know what he wants, and You know what’s best for him Lord. So, we offer him to You, that You will help him the way that You want him to be helped Lord. Lord we ask this in Your name. Love you family. Talk to you again soon. Mark Street from Sydney Australia. Bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Dorothy from Dustin and I just listened to the podcast this morning on October 10^th and Brian’s prayer at the end, “don’t mistake challenge for abandonment, challenge spread the gospel.” And I’m thinking today particularly for those who are going through a struggle or difficult time especially for Carl and John and anybody else. And this is something that I read in a book and I want to read it to you. It’s called my identity in Christ. “Because of Christ’s redemption I am a new creation of great worth. I am deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, totally accepted by God and absolutely complete in Christ. There has never been another person like me in the history of humankind nor will there ever be. God has made me an original, one-of-a-kind, really somebody.” And this verse Jeremiah 31:25. “For I will satisfy the weary soul and every languishing soul I will replenish.” God bless you everyone. Thank you, Brian and the Hardin family for this wonderful podcast. Have a wonderful day.

Hello, my name is Mary Jane I’m a Pilipino nurse calling from Saudi Arabia. I’ve been here for almost 7 years. I’ve been listening to Daily Audio Bible for one year now and I finally caught up with the daily readings. So, I just wanted to call and say that I think this this program is really, really good. It gives you encouragement for every little thing that you need strength with, strength in life. I wanted to ask for prayers from everyone. I’m trying to get back home to Hawaii. I got deported back to the Philippines when I was maybe 25. And, you know, I did a bad…I did lot of bad things when I was young, didn’t know of the Lord, nothing. I guess when you get older you realize what you did was really, really wrong. And I’m asking for prayers to reapply back to Hawaii so I can be with my family. I think this program really helped me a lot to give me strength. And if I could ask for prayers when I refile again. Thank you.

Hi this is Andy from Birmingham I’d like to leave a message for Cindy the Sinner from Seatle. So, I heard you went through the performance management or performance improvement process recently and you’re still in it right now. And I went through that back in 2016, 2017 and it got me to some of the lowest points in my life, points I’d never thought I’d get to, places I never thought I’d get to sort of mentally. It was awful in many ways. But the main point is, I was told by boss to stop work because what I was doing was so bad. Ironically what I was doing has ended up being something which now I’m using and actually only using in my job. So, it was…I felt there was a spiritual element to it all but more importantly than that, when I was told to stop where I spent a lot more time with the Daily Audio Bible, three times a day listening to the Daily Audio Bible, praying on the Prayer Wall and watching Him literally give me things for my job when I was doing nothing and that…that really blew me away. So, I just wanted to encourage you. That was it. And I want to say keep going. Just wait for Him. Wait for His…the doors He’s going to open for you in your life and watch how He blesses you despite what seems like a really awful time. Just…just hold on and know and that people like me are praying for you. So, God bless.

Jeremiah 19:1-21:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:4-28, Psalms 82:1-8, Proverbs 25:9-10

Today is the 12^th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a joy and a pleasure to be here with you today as we bring ourselves to the conclusion of another week. And they just don’t stop, do they? They just keep going by and that’s how…that’s how life gets added up. We tell the story through our days and weeks and months. And, so, here we are at the end of another week, but not at the end of the Bible and certainly not at the end of the…of the books that we’re reading right now which are Jeremiah and Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Although we’re going to conclude that letter in today’s reading. So, let’s dive. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Jeremiah chapter 19, 20 and 21 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for another week in Your word. It is a constant thing that…that we thank You for these things because we’re thankful for them, but because You keep bringing us through them. And we mark the time, but we also mark the transformation and the change that You are that You are making inside of us. We look back over the past months and we see that You are transforming us in ways that we wouldn’t be able to easily put into words. You’re shifting our thoughts and deeds. You’re shifting our motivations and Your shifting our understanding and we are growing. And, so, come Holy Spirit and help us to continue to grow in the faith that is set before us as we continue this journey through the Scriptures. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that is always…has always been and I don’t know if it will always be…who knows…what technologies are out in front of us, but it is a home base right now. It’s where you find out what’s was going on around here. So, stay connected in any way that you can.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share in common to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and to build community around that rhythm of life, if that’s you, then thank you for your partnership and allowing this to keep going every single day. 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 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or you can just press the Hotline button at the top of the app and off you go.

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 Daily Audio Bible family this is Liz the soccer mom from Toronto. Today is October the 8^th and I just finished listening to the October 7^th podcast. And it’s really fascinating how God manages to kind of really poke you some days because I didn’t realize until I heard Carl’s prayer again that I had actually listened to the whole podcast yesterday. So, there’s two things. One was that the message itself that we were…was being shared with us yesterday was the idea of eating out of two bowls and how we can kind of do both and it was a real reminder to me. God really sort of revealed that yeah, I’ve been eating out of both bowls and I’ve been crying out to Him for some answers to some things and couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting the answers. And, you know, there it was. It’s like you were eating out of two bowls. And I’ve been asking for like show me a way to kinda like start from fresh and here it was. You’ve been eating out of two bowls. And I didn’t hear yesterday. I listened to the whole podcast and I was reminded again that I have just been too busy to feed myself properly and I’ve been getting sick. And we can talk about that in terms of the physical and also the spiritual and it was a really strong reminder to me. So, thank you Lord for Your messages that Brian is able to get through to us and thank You Lord for getting through us. So, shout out to Carl. You are not forgotten. We love you. Take everybody. Bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Jeanette calling from Canada and I have a praise report and I thank you for all those who have been praying for me, especially that gentleman who prayed for my daughter and I. Well, unexpectedly my daughter has a job and it’s not even the way I thought it was gonna be. She has been volunteering in her given profession at this…at this facility and the person who’s in charge is often sickly and they have hired my daughter for three days per week on a temporary…in a temporary position until this person returns. But it is…God is so amazing because this wasn’t at all what I expected. I knew she would get a job but it’s just like a couple days after we all prayed. And I am so grateful and so grateful for all of you. And, so, I lift up all the people that are praying today. I think of the lady who has infertility. You know, I am praying for you because we have experienced that with family members. And, so, God is good, and God is gracious. And I’m praying that He will hear You, He will answer, and you will have the children that He wants you to have. In the meantime, hang in there. God is with you. Thank you all. Have a blessed, blessed day in Jesus’ name.

Hey everyone, this is Jay calling from Nashville. I’m calling for call. Carl man I’ve been in your shoes. No job, not knowing when, where, how, whatever was going to happen, but I want you to know brother, God is our father and He does know what we want but just like a child will tug on their father’s pant leg until they get their attention over and over and over again until that father finally breaks his concentration on whatever else it is he’s focusing on and looks down to his child and says, “what is it that I can do for you?” That is how we must go to God. At one point in my life I was without a job and I was living in my car just like you. And I began to pray and nothing and nothing would happen. And six months went by, a year went by. Nothing happened. And finally, after I realized that there was some growth that was happening in my life a job popped up out of nowhere and that job turned into the position that I have today. So, I’m gonna pray for you brother. Almighty God we thank You so much for your grace and Your mercy. Father we call upon You now in the precious name of Your son Jesus Christ to show Yourself to our brother Carl. He’s feeling forgotten, he’s feeling as if there is no other option. He’s feeling abandoned. Lord, please remind him, please show him, please bring him close to Your heart and reveal to him Your will for his life and please God provide a job and money so that this man can meet his needs and…

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Lori and Texas this is my first time to call in. I just heard from John the prodigal asking for prayers for Jake, his son who has given up and feels as if he fails at everything. And I would like to say a prayer for Jake. I have been through similar things with my son and I would like for him to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that light is Jesus Christ. So, heavenly Father I would just lift John and Jacob to You, and I would pray that You would lift up Jake’s head and that You would let him find your hope again. Give John the strength as he prays for his son to pray without ceasing, to never give up, to always hold onto Your promises, to know that You have plans for us and they’re good plans and they’re perfect plans and they’re good. So, Father just, I’m asking You to give hope and life and encouragement to these two men and also to the whole community of believers as they…as they login and listen. And thank you so much Brian and Jill for bringing us all this blessing. Goodbye.

Jeremiah 16:16-18:23, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-5:3, Psalms 81:1-16, Proverbs 25:6-8

Today is the 11^th day of October. Welcome to the daily audio Bible, Brian is great to be here with you today how you doing by the way, everything, everything going well I hope it is time we all have our struggles we are all dealing with the swirling issues of life. But we have come to the right place mean to let God’s word speak to us every day illuminates the path, even if just for the next step, but the next step in the right direction is the right step inside, let’s take that step forward reading from the new International version this week. Today, Jeremiah chapter 16 verse 16 to 18 verse 23

Commentary:

Okay. So, how may we have we have some stuff to talk about today and that’s well, as God’s word washes into our lives and washes over us and sets our minds or rights gives us the mind God’s kingdom, so, so sorry about God’s plan pray I God has a plan I have said that are thousand or more times in my life anyway more say to each other like this when something goes wrong God is, or even our own lives like something’s not working the way that we thought was good to be inwards like encouraging ourselves God has a plan, it’s a probably all set. It’s encouraging each other encouraging ourselves but Jesse like does God have a specific plan for each one of the little hiccups in life and struggles that we go through with her there a big patch or a small patch does, he does have a plan and any fees God I plan we keep saying that he does his plan is just his plan like that he keeps a mystery. And, so our job is to figure that out but we don’t really know whether or not he’s got a plan of what that plan actually is because we were thinking about God’s plan usually not thinking about God’s plan were thinking about our hardship is thinking about his plan because we don’t like where were or because watching something terrible happened in the world and so will shake our heads and I just got a plan understand it all will all be revealed eventually in time and it’s sad easy that’s easy. That’s the easy way because of God’s got a plan. Then we have an excuse to understand we were going your God’s got a plan that we have no culpability because of his plan. So, if the sorrows were facing as individuals or as people or as humanity, if these can all be pinned to the hogs plan well then everything is, God’s thoughts so we can look at the mess we made of things or look at the mess that happens in the world’s advance from time to time and just go this is my fault. God has a plan essentially means God is to blame for everything. So, Jeremiah. Today the voice of the Lord through Jeremiah today talks about this God talks about his plan for himself. So, let’s read about God’s plan. God set if at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed and if that nation I warned repents of its evil then I will relent and not inflict on it. The disaster I had planned an event another time I announce the nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted. And if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will consider the good. I had intended to do for it okay. So, we see that you, God has a plan and it is a perfect plan and part of that plan is the full restoration of humanity, but according to the Bible right God’s word spoken through Jeremiah human beings have a role to play in plan so that the choices that we make those choices actually matter. And they matter to us individually and within our sphere of influence and they matter as well. As the human species is all of us and, accordingly Jeremiah God is willing to change his plans accordingly. So, so, one level we might be like well will then there’s no way to know God’s plan. So the word of what we do here well… Look at this through something that is very familiar to us. The biblical concept of sewing and reaping in this Huntress the biblical concept is what happens every year seedtime and harvest is where our food comes from. So, weighing and reaping. So if we will reap what we sow then we can hardly write blame God for the yield of the weeds in our hearts instead of a crop of the fruit of the Spirit’s going to be able to plant selfishness or envy or immorality are the things that Paul talks about all the time attribute to plant those things in the soil of our hearts. And then expect somehow magically the fruit of the spirit is good sprouts. So, God does have a plan and what part of that plan completely invited to collaborate in that plan. In fact the plans not going to work if we don’t collaborate because God is not powerful enough because this is the plan to work through his people on this planet to restore what was lost and he’s current praying that plan to fruition and it’s going to be redemptive and this is what supposed to be happening in us every day, day by day, moment by moment as were set apart as were sanctified as were made holy happens in our personal lives happens in the whole body of Christ. It happens throughout the coming and if there’s anything the Scriptures show us, to be in a relationship with people he wants to collaborate in life with us, that this is a joy to him that this is his plan and desire. So, God’s plan does not give us an excuse for being absent in our own lives. His plan is that we fall in love because he has fallen in love with us his plan is that we would fall in love with and be in a relationship, a collaboration in life together with him in revealing his kingdom in bringing his kingdom and the restoration of all things. This is a big plan and it’s a good plan and were invited to be a part of the plan. And, so let’s fully live in today understanding, we can walk the path of destruction as part of the plan for everyone who wants to walk the path, but if we turn from our wickedness returned from the things that are pulling us away from true love was in the plan can change the

Father, we invite you into that because we want to walk the narrow path that leads to life and will we want to stop blaming you and everyone else, for everything that happens to us and everything that we do. And I’m sorry that we just blow it off so easily got plans of this bad thing happen always have to accept it’s when the truth is I we were never collaborating with you and we walked into the ditch. We walked into the wall we got lost again and the time is too short for that. Life is too short for that we want to walk with you within your perfect plan to restore all things, including us so we invite your Holy Spirit into the impact of force inside of our hearts today to know that we are a part of your plan and that we can live within the center of its come Jesus we pray. In your mighty name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

daily audio Bible.com is the home base, it is a website, hence the.com is a website, but it is home base for us as a virtual community spread out all over the world. It’s nice know where home base is and that’s where it is we find what’s going on around here. We have been talking for Justice Goetsch just a hair over a week now by this new release, the God of your story, which is a resource that that could not have at least in for me could not have been created were not for the rhythm of life that we share here at the daily audio Bible going through the Bible each year. And I couldn’t of been done if I just done at one time it’s been 14 years. It’s been every day for all of these years just just in the Bible and then I just try to sit down and go through all of the years find a path and write that path write a 365 day devotional that’s follows the path that we follow with the daily audio Bible which is the one year past the one year Bible path basically is 365 days of written commentary on the Bible what we’ve read each day in the Bible. So, it could be a good look any more like the daily audio Bible and our community than it does because it’s because it was created for us. So, I’m praying that everyone in this community has a copy of the God of your story as this tangible reminder and this tangible place to go to and that the the written word is certainly different than the spoken word and we talk about all kinds of different things over the years but God of your story follows a path through the Scriptures that represents us well. So you get that@dailyaudiobible.com in the shop or in the God of your story.com and will just take you there. As I’ve mentioned a number of times all of the proceeds from this book, they go to supporting the efforts of the daily audio Bible this resource was born out of the daily audio Bible. And, so, eyes fell to my heart, it should serve doing here is seeing in your copies at said in the shop daily audio Bible.com also mentioned, my other two books sneezing Jesus and reframe, we have we have still have some of those in their available for for five dollars buys many of them as you want for five dollars each which is cost 70. A copy of the God of your story. When you get as many sneezing Jesus and reframe his you want if you want them for five dollars each and I will never be able to match giving them away will never be able to do that for last because we can’t get them for less. So take advantage of that if your partner with the daily audio Bible you into that daily audio Bible.com as well. There’s a link that their lives on the homepage 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, TN 37174 and, of course, we have a prayer request or comment there are a number of ways you can reach out what’s refusing the daily audio Bible app, you can press the Hotline button in the top next to the give button is a little red button will be able to visit over there are a number of phone numbers you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas 877942. 4253 is number to call if you’re in the UK or Europe for four 2036 088078 is the number to dial or if you are in Australia or the part of the world 61 38820 5459 is the number to dial. That’s 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 a comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or you can press the Hotline button that’s found in the top…at the top of the app. You can’t miss it. It’s the only red button up there. You can press that and just be instantly connected.

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