Month: December 2019

Malachi 3:1-4:6, Revelation 22:1-21, Psalms 150:1-6, Proverbs 31:25-31

Today is the 31^st day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you today on this last day of the year, New Year’s Eve. Tomorrow we will be stepping into a new decade. So, we are enjoying the final hours of a decade and it’s just…ahh…these…these last days of the year they get me, they just bring me into this melancholy place where it’s like, wow! I know tomorrow is like…you know…like tomorrow we’ll begin the journey again, but we’re…we’re at the end of the journey and I just think back over just this year alone, over all that we have been through together and all that we’ve been through individually and God’s faithfulness in it all and I think, wow, this is the last day of the decade, and every single day of that decade we were here reading the Bible. We didn’t miss a day, and yeah, that just…I hadn’t thought of it until today. And it’s just, wow, this is where we are, the last day of this journey. And we can talk some more about that in a little bit, but it is our custom, it is the tradition, it is what we do is to get into God’s word and that is the reason for all of what we do as a community. And, so, let’s join hearts and let’s conclude the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, we will read Malachi chapters 3 and 4 today and we’ll conclude by reading from the Christian Standard Bible.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for bringing us to this place. It was one year ago that we began another journey to sail the high seas of the Scriptures and allow them to guide our paths each and every day. It’s in some ways hard to believe that the year has passed, but that’s how it is. And father, I just have this…this overwhelming sense of humility that today concludes 14 years every single day offering…offering this the Scriptures spoken, read fresh, and thank you. Thank you for all that you have done through that effort and it’s changed…changed…changed me completely. And I am grateful. And I am thankful for my brothers and sisters all over the world who have shared this journey that we walk through and in and with each other every single day. And, so, we come to conclusions like this and it gives us a moment to just pause and reflect on the meaningfulness of it all and all you’ve done as we look back at this year, all that you have done. Some of it’s just been wonderful and some of it’s been really, really hard, and some of it’s been really, really deep and it’s really, really easy to get distracted in the difficult times, but when we have the presence of perspective, when we get down the road and we look back, we realize that these challenges that we face, they teach us to endure and they teach us to be strong. And, so, yeah,  there’s been some hard patches for sure but we are stronger for it and we know, we know that you will continue to lead us forward. And, so, come Holy Spirit we pray. Seal this reading of your word this year in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

Well…well…that’s it. 14 times I’ve come to the end of the year and thought, “what do you say? What do you say at the end of the year? What do you say to sum up the adventure of a lifetime, going through the Bible in community among friends all over the world? How do wrap up all the stories that we’ve followed in each other’s lives? How do you wrap up all the tears that we’ve shed for one another? How do we wrap up all of the moments that we laughed out loud and rejoiced? How many times has God’s word been there right when we needed it most, telling us just what we needed to hear? How many days has God’s word spoken deep truths into our lives that have been accumulating, right? They’ve been accumulating over this year and so now we have new spiritual muscles that we never even knew about. Now, we actually can do what I said we should do at the end of this year on this day. Look in the mirror. We looked in the mirror at the beginning of the year and we should be able to look in the mirror now and yeah, see a person who’s a year older, but also see a person who’s a year wiser, but also see a person who is being renovated utterly from within by the most-high God. So, yeah, I…there’s just no way…I just sent a bunch of words and that’s just scratching the surface of all that could be said. But we have reached the end of another year and…and this is the conclusion of the 14^th year. So, tomorrow as we enter a new year and a new decade, we’ll also be entering year number 15 and that…that is something that I can’t even…like it just doesn’t seem that long ago. It’s such a strange thing, you know, I can’t believe…I can’t believe that I stuck to this much less that anyone else stuck to it with me. I can’t believe that we get to do what we’re doing in bringing God’s word to anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and build a rhythm of community around it so that we’re not alone on the journey and that makes all the difference in the world. So, I think I’m just kinda…I think I’m just talking because I don’t want to say goodbye. I hate having to do that. And I mean I know that tomorrow’s another day, even though we’re stepping into a new year and a new decade, it’s just another day and we begin the journey again, but this journey, this one is coming to a close. And I know that many, many, many, many of you will be boarding for the voyage of the new year tomorrow and we will set sail and we will be setting sail with thousands of new brothers and sisters whose stories and lives we don’t know yet but we will and they will know us and we will become one community and we will become the community that…that sales the high seas of the Bible next year, but I know…I know that I’m saying goodbye to some of you and you will move on into other things and I pray, I pray, I pray with all earnestness that that the Bible will remain a part of the rhythm of your life in some fashion. And, so, I know I’m saying goodbye but I’ve said goodbye to lots people and in lots of cities and lots of towns and lots of countries and I’ve stopped saying goodbye to the Daily Audio Bible community. I hate it. And, so, I just say what I believe is true - until we meet again. So, for those of you who are moving forward into and two new chapters of your life, until we meet again. It will be my goal is as long, as long as there is breath in me to be here waiting for you tomorrow. And for…for all of us who will disembark this year and re-embark on the voyage of the new year together tomorrow then I will be waiting for you here tomorrow and I guess that just leaves me with…with a prayer of benediction over this entire community.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he lift his countenance upon you and give you peace. May the strength of God to go with you. May the wisdom of God instruct you. May the hand of God protect you. May the word of God direct you. May you be sealed in Christ this day and forevermore. Amen.

Song:

Hold Your Head Up High – Darlingside

How it rambles ‘round the moon
A let-go-of balloon
Nothing is forever, everything is soon

And my father as he stands
A perfect cartoon man
Heavy-sighed and open-eyed, I heard him speak

Hold your head up high
Hold your head up high

Rise it up, it’s fine terrain
The time will come again
And misery’s no rest for weary gentlemen

See that humankind is you
Like all the rest, down to
The scratches on the album that you’re singing to

Hold your head up high
Hold your head up high

Through the light and through the shadow
I won’t wait it out, wait it out

Hold your head up high
Hold your head up high
Hold your head up high

Biting clovers in the lawn
A solitary fawn
Underground, the new life thunders up and on

Malachi 1:1-2:17, Revelation 21:1-27, Psalms 149:1-9, Proverbs 31:10-24

Today is the 30^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure and a joy to be here with you on New Year’s Eve eve. And man, just, we are about to dock at shore, and we are about to complete another revolution around the sun, and another revolution through the Scriptures. And what a joy, what a joy its been. We’ve got these couple of days out in front of us. Let’s just pay close attention what the Scriptures are speaking to us as they draw themselves to a close. And that is going to bring us into the Old Testament today and the final book of the minor prophets and the final book in the Old Testament, which is called Malachi. And every time we encounter a new book, we sort of fly over it and talk about it and try to get some orientation and context for what we’re reading. And we’ll do that right now with Malachi. This is the last book we’re gonna encounter this year. This is the last time we’re gonna do this.

Introduction to the book of Malachi:

So, Malachi’s obviously gonna last us two days, today and tomorrow, when we…when we complete our year together. And the name Malachi means my messenger, which is why biblical scholars have been debating about whether…whether Malachi is the name of the author or whether Malachi is the name of the book and it was written by somebody else. And the title is my messenger. But for our purposes, we’ll assume the author was a prophet of God named Malachi. And this book would make Malachi a likely contemporary of other prophets like Ezra and Nehemiah, but nothing is known about Malachi outside the book of Malachi, which is something we’ve grown accustomed to as we’ve moved through the minor prophets this year. So, we remember because we spent a lot of time working through the stories of exile. So, we remember that Babylon defeated the southern kingdom of Judah and conquered Jerusalem and took the people into exile. And then later, the Persian Empire defeated the Babylonian Empire and allowed Hebrew exiles to come back to their homeland. And, so, Malachi…Malachi lived about 100 years after the Persians defeated the Babylonians and it had been more than a half a century since the temple, spurred on by the prophetic voices of Haggai and Zechariah had been rebuilt, but the promises that the people were living into and hoping in, the promises of restoration and their return to prominence, those had remained unfulfilled. And, so, the people were in fact in their ancient homeland, they were the returned exiles, but the glory of their former days had not returned, and their homeland wasn’t theirs, they were a part of an empire, and they were discouraged. And…and…and…as a part of the Persian Empire, they were just a little province far, far away from the capital. And, so, they were tiny and distant and felt forgotten. And because of…of these circumstances, the people lost their interest in the worship of God, like the passion for God even though God had brought them out of exile. We’re…we’re in the future now. So, we have new generations that never knew what happened. And, so, they lost their passion for God. And then we’ve seen this so many times in the Scriptures, then there is a moral decline in the culture as their spirits are declining and so it begins to come apart at the seams and disintegrate. So, like…like the Mosaic law demands that sacrifices that were offered to God were to be spotless and were to be without blemish, but the priests had begun to use blind, blemished animals for sacrifice. And the law was just becoming further and further into irrelevant as like the north star for the Hebrew culture. And, so, into all of that Malachi comes. And Malachi’s probably the final prophetic writing of the Old Testament age. And he comes and he rebukes the doubt and speaks at their faithlessness and calls them to return to God, which is such a recurring theme in the Bible. And, so, after Malachi, after this was written, it would be four century’s, 400 years before God would send another prophetic voice and that prophetic voice is found as we begin the New Testament, the voice of John the Baptist, which would mark the beginning of the new or what we would call the New Testament era. And it’s like okay 400 years, like what happened? What happened between the Testaments? And if…if we want that…if we want to understand those stories that…that have been documented, in part, we can turn to what we know as the Apocrypha. So, in many…in many Christian traditions around the world, some of these books or all of these books are considered Scriptures. And then other people avoid them. Hey, I kind of grew up avoiding…like I didn’t know. I just knew there were these other ancient books, but I didn't…I didn’t know. I couldn’t…I couldn’t, as a kid even make sense of the Bible, so much less the Apocrypha. So, some people just like hold them suspect, or just like kind of stay away. And it’s interesting when you…when you open up a Bible because some…some printed Bibles have all of the…all the apocryphal books in them while other Bibles don’t have them in there at all. And I’m not telling you one way or the other what you should or shouldn’t read. I’m…I’m just saying, some of the material of the stories that took place between the Old and New Testament periods are found in the writings known as the apocryphal books and they definitely…I’ve read many of them and recorded many of them. You can find them in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. But many of them tell the stories that lead us between the Old and into the New Testament era and the coming of the Savior, but that’s what happened between the Testaments and that’s not exactly where we are. We are still entering the final book of the Old Testament’s unknown is Malachi. And, so, we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. And today we’ll read Malachi, chapters 1 and 2.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for Your faithfulness to us. We thank You for Your long-suffering and patience with us. We thank You for Your kindness toward us. Oh Father, we don’t deserve any of this, and yet You have bestowed it upon us freely. So, as we prepare Lord, one more day, one more day together on the journey of this decade, that we might feel Your presence strongly as we look back and feel Your guidance strongly as we look forward, and to feel the unspeakable presence of Your overwhelming love for us as we’re here, right now, in the present. We love You, Lord, and we thank You for all that You’ve spoken into our lives in all that You have yet to speak to us through Your word this year. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, of course, be mindful of that. Stay tuned. Stay connected in any way that you can.

Oh, my goodness friends, like land is in sight. We are gonna reach the shore tomorrow. I cannot believe that tomorrow is the last day of the year. So, this…this is a good day to…to reach out to your friends and family, those if you plan to take the journey next year, those that come to mind and come to heart that you would like to journey with, to take the journey with you in the coming year through…through the Bible and what that does in our lives in the course of a year, this is a good time to reach. It’s funny, we know the end of the year’s coming, we know the end of the decade’s coming and it’s like we should get to December 31^st and then we should have like a few days there just to sit there and appreciate the time. But, you know, it just doesn’t do that. The 31^st will end and the first will begin just like every other day and we’ll set sail again. So, this a good time to invite those that you care about for the journey into the new year.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in these last hours of this year and decade then I thank you as I’ve said humbly, profoundly, gratefully, deeply. I am grateful that man, tomorrow, tomorrow will complete 14 years, seven days a week. That's…I’m gonna wait till tomorrow to think about that because it shakes me up inside and, yeah, then a flood of just so many memories begin to come back. I just can’t believe it. But anyway, I am deeply, deeply, deeply, deeply grateful that we’ve been able to be in community and allow God’s word to center us in a rhythm of life that has carried us in transformative ways this far and I’m glad that we can be on that journey together and I’m glad that we can do that together. So, there’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or just press that Hotline button that’s in the Daily Audio Bible app at the top. It just lives there. And, yeah, anytime no matter where you are, day or night you hit that button start talking because we’re in this together and that’s the hotline. So, you can press that.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey everybody it’s Margo from Liberia. I really want to thank Brian for something that happened a couple of months ago. I did phone in at the time, but my Hotline button wasn’t working so I was reminded of it this morning. I can’t remember the date, but one day at the mission hospital I spent quite a few hours helping to stabilize a newborn baby. He came in basically almost dead and we managed to resuscitate him, get his vital signs back to pretty much normal. And it was quite amazing, it seemed supernatural, and I remember feeling so happy and just quite victorious that day. And the next day I went in and discovered that he had died overnight. And I remember I was so devastated and I kind of just lost the plot and thought just, “you know what. I can’t do this” and I actually went home. I remember I cried all the way walking home and boy did I question God that day. You know, like, “God why did You bring me here to see these things?” Anyway, I put DAB on when I got home, and the Lord spoke to me so beautifully through Brian’s commentary that day and I felt so loved by God that he would speak to me that way. The timing was amazing. So, during the commentary Brian said, “when you feel crushed, overwhelmed, and opposed don’t mistake the challenge for abandonment”. And I just remember weeping, kneeling on my __ floor saying, “God I don’t understand but thank You that You have not abandoned me. I know that I’m not here alone.” So, thank you Brian for letting God use you that day and for all the other days that God uses the DAB. Okay. Love you all heaps. Bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Rebecca from Michigan December 23^rd. I know the New Year’s is coming up, so I want to pray for you guys. Father God, I pray for everybody in DAB to have a wonderful new year day and that they’ll be safe driving to and from wherever they’re going. I pray that this year will be a special year. 2020 is the eye vision. So, I pray to have perfect vision this year and accomplish a lot of stuff this year. I pray I can continue to stay with DAB again for the next year and I maintain the whole year like I have been now, and that God has just totally changed my life through listening to His words and changed the life of the DAB people. I pray financially you would change my life, that you help me get my dad’s __ paid off and my student loan and my car paid off this year. And I pray you teach me on tithing and the importance of tithing to the church and helping other people out who are in need and giving to those who need food or shelter, clothing, and places to sleep and a job. I pray you provide all those needs and I pray you provide everybody here with mental health and emotional health and physical health and financial health and that you will bless them and give them more abundance. And I pray that they’ll be feeling God’s presence through the whole time on DAB. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. I pray for Brian and Jill and his…

Hi, this is Lawrence. I’m listening to the podcast of December 22^nd and I just heard Mary’s call. Mary said her husband had died two days ago and that she really needed prayer at this time. Mary, I want to tell you, you are getting prayer for me and I’m sure you are getting it from everybody in the DAB community. God bless you in this very difficult time.

Good day my Daily Audio Bible family. I received my Christmas box today December 23^rd and upon looking at the Christmas bulb with the word “maintain” it finally struck me what that word might mean for me. I’m always looking ahead, looking ahead at different situations, that when we get through this situation this will happen, and when we get beyond this crisis this might change. I think God wants me just to be still and maintain a sense of being in the moment, being in right now, being thankful for this very moment, quit looking ahead, quit thinking that the other side of the rainbow is going to be happier and better because it’s been a long, long journey and I’m tired. Thank you all for everything that you do for each other here on this beautiful line. Have a Merry Christmas. I love you all. Bye.

Hello family this is Lady of Victory calling from Illinois. I am a first-time caller and I am just blown away. Today is Monday, December 23^rd and I was listening, again a new listener, and I was listening to both Beloved regarding the inappropriate sister…stepsister as well as a guy I believe from California about his son Kevin from getting out of jail and just felt prompted to want to call in. God, we lay our DAB family before You, God for stepsister who has been inappropriate to husbands and God Kevin. We are trusting You Lord God that You would give them the right things to say, the right attitude to have, the right behavior to display Lord God that will show Your presence God and not to give any airtime, if You will, to the enemy God but to let them know that You are with them God and that You are going before them to make every crooked place straight Gpd. We pray specifically for Kevin, that he will get rid of the anger Lord God, that when he comes out that he will be a Father to his 11-year-old son God, that he will be able to hear You and hear You well God. Prayerfully he has heard from You well while he has been in prison incarcerated God and You have gotten a hold of his heart and arrested his heart God to be the Father that he needs to be to Kevin. And as well as beloved God, help her to know that You said that marriage is sacred and that the marriage bed is undefiled. And, so, we come against the enemy and any attack that he is coming against our fellow DAB family in any way form or fashion. We come against it, Satan in the name of Jesus and we thank You for victory. And we look forward to hearing the report in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hey DAB family this goes out to Carla Jean in Las Vegas concerning your adult children, Dakota Hazel concerning your newest grandson Liam, Alexis in Texas concerning Andrew, and Jerry from Duluth Minnesota concerning your son Stephen. [singing starts] It’s not in trying but in trusting. It’s not in running but in resting. It’s not in wondering but in praying that we find the strength of the Lord. Oh. It’s not in trying but in trusting. It’s not in running but in resting. It’s not in wondering but in praying that we find the strength of the Lord [singing ends]. Be encouraged family. Know that I’m praying for you and God is with you. Your 10-day-old brother, new brother in DAB, Kingdom Seeker Daniel from South Holland Illinois. God bless you guys. Love you.

Zechariah 14:1-21, Revelation 20:1-15, Psalms 148:1-14, Proverbs 31:8-9

Today is the 29^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is great to be here with you as we sail through these last couple of days of the year and…and disembark from the journey that we’ve been on all year. Obviously, of course, we’ll be beginning a new journey into a new year, but we are…we are on the home stretch. So, we’ve got a brand-new week and before this week is over, we will have entered a new year and a new decade. So, new is all around us and we will be experiencing the coming of the new this…this week in profound ways if we pay attention. And one way that we certainly do pay attention what’s going on inside of ourselves and in our lives is to pay attention to what the Scriptures are teaching us each and every day, which is why we come around the Global Campfire in community and share this time every day. So today, the next step forward would take us back into the book of Zechariah this week we’ll read from the Christian Standard Bible. And today, Zechariah chapter 14.

Commentary:

Alright. Let’s talk about justice because this is important…an important thing to talk about as we move into a new year and as we’re considering our priorities and the things that we’re resolving to accomplish in the new year. And the idea of justice may not be on the short list of New Year’s resolutions. And the word itself immediately takes us into the political arena. And, so, that can get supercharged in a quick minute but that’s not actually where we’re going here. We’re talking about this because the Bible brought this up today for us to talk about. The Bible in the last chapter of the book of Proverbs told us, “speak up for those who have no voice. For the justice of all who are dispossessed, speak up, judge righteously and defend the cause of the oppressed and needy.” So, I suppose globally and culturally we could, you know, we could politicize this and start bending it to our will, but that's…that’s not…that’s not the point…that’s not what I’m trying…that’s not what we’re doing here. We have been instructed from the Scriptures and the Scriptures have spoken into our lives. And, so, it’s up to us to figure out what we’re supposed to do with what the Bible is telling us. So, the proverb isn’t like dispensing suggestions for a more comfortable life or isn’t just kind of stating things that might be good to aim toward, it…it’s actually giving action words to what it’s saying, right? So, speak up is an action, right? Speak up for those who have no voice. In other words, be the voice of the voiceless. Speak up for the justice of all who are dispossessed. Speak up, judge righteously. These are actions. And defend, this is an action, the cause of the oppressed and needy. So, the voice of wisdom isn’t giving us things to think about. The voice of wisdom is suggesting things that must be participated in. And its super easy to get very surface-y and and…and…and get very supercharged. The rhetoric starts flying and the talking points come out, right? Oh….and as we move here in the United States into a new year that happens to be an election year then its just gonna get…its gonna get louder and louder and louder. So, here we are kind of out in front of all that and here’s the Bible saying, “you know, wisdom would be that that justice was on your radar.” Like I said at the beginning, this kind of thing, like justice, this probably isn’t on our New Year’s resolution list but that doesn’t mean it’s not important for the new year. It’s very important for the new year because…because the sense of justice that we have, that…that shapes us, the sense of what is right and what is wrong and what is just and what is unjust. And we have spent this entire year working our way through the stories in the Bible. And some of them very, very in depth. And, so, we have seen what happens to people when…when justice is blurred, when justice is suppressed. And if we ignore this idea of justice then we’re ignoring something that we believe is a foundational fundamental characteristic of the God that we serve. We believe that He is just and good, that His mercy endures forever. So, it’s not…it’s not something we can just ignore or just think that it has nothing to do with us, that the way that we participate in justice is to cast a vote or the way that we participate in justice is to stand back and ask God to be just and bring his justice to the poor and needy. But we’ve been on a journey together all year and the Bible has never given us those kinds of instructions about anything. Instead of that, if we begin to understand what we’ve learned from the Bible this year then we’ve…then we’ve become aware that the voice of wisdom is calling out from every corner and those who are looking for her will find her. We’ve been told that the Holy Spirit, the same one that raised Jesus from the dead, the Spirit of the Almighty God indwells us, is within us, and is transforming us day by day setting us apart as holy, sanctifying us to Him. We are His hands and feet. We are the flesh and bone that brings God’s light and blessing to the earth and one of those blessings are supposed to be that…that the poor and helpless are treated justly, especially if they have no voice. And…and how that hits us and what that means for our lives in the coming year, I…I have no idea. It will be different for all of us, but we shouldn’t just get sucked into that this idea is only a political idea. These are the ways of God’s kingdom. This is what He’s asking us to participate in, and it may not be waving signs, right? It may be just finding the needy and helping however…however possible. I’m not here to say like, “here are the three fundamental ways we should participate in this, and here’s what we should do and here’s what God’s gonna do because that.” Proverbs is speaking the voice of ancient and deep wisdom into our lives and ancient and deep wisdom, the wisdom of God, says that justice matters to humanity. It is our dignity. It is the work of God through us in this world. And it’s being brought up because the Proverbs have brought it up today, like on this day, but this is a great day for it to be brought up because we’re thinking about what the New Year’s gonna look like and this needs to be a category. Not so much a category that we, you know, have outlines all of the different things that we might do, but a category to invite God into. “God, how do I look at this world and see through your eyes what would be just and righteous and then how can I, in my life, participate in that? What does that look like for me in the coming year? How can I simply be aware? That would be a good posture as we pray ourselves into this new year.

Prayer:

And, so, Father we’re at this threshold of a shiny, sparkly, new week and we’re walking into this new week and it’s going to lead us into a new year. And as we move into that new year it’s going to lead us into a new decade. And, so, big new beginnings are upon us and the Proverbs have brought up this idea of the voiceless and the helpless and…and…and a posture toward them. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to begin speaking to us in this regard and to begin opening our eyes and breaking our hearts in this regard, so that our hearts and our motives and the trajectory of our lives lines up with Your will and Your heart. We are Your children after all. You have adopted us and made us Your sons and daughters and turned us loose upon this world to reflect Your glory upon it and part of that is that we pay attention to justice. And, so, come Holy Spirit in whatever way that You want to, in whatever situations You…You allow us to encounter in the new year, we ask that You help us be awake and aware. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Can you believe it? Like this is the last Sunday of the year, the last beginning of a week for a decade. So, that’s kind of what’s going on around here. So, all the preparations to do…well…to turn this ship around and get ready to set sail again in a few days. And just all of the activity that goes around that as well as just moments of trying to be thoughtful and in reflecting and reflective over all that has taken place in last year. So, you’re probably doing the same thing, I mentioned that yesterday, you’re probably doing the same similar…we all kind of do similar things as we prepare to turn the page and move into a new year. So, I hope you are encouraged and excited about the journey in front of us as we begin again in a few days.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in these remaining days of the year, thank you, thank you, thank you with all of my heart. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can just press the Hotline button, the little red button in the app at the top and begin to share from there or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Zechariah 12:1-13:9, Revelations 19:1-21, Psalms 147:1-20, Proverbs 31:1-7

Today is the 28^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you as we close down and release into our history the final full week of the year 2019, leaving us with only three days left in our journey together through the Scriptures this year. So, we can see…we can see land. We set sail a year ago, almost and now we have…and now we are approaching the end of our journey, but we are not there. So, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s immerse ourselves in this rhythm that will lead us through the rest of this year. We’ve been reading from the Good News Translation this week, which is what we’ll do today. And we’re reading from the book of Zechariah. Today, Chapters 12 and 13.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And wow! Wow! You have brought us to the end of the last full week of this year and we sit with that. So, many things that we could reflect back upon that You have done in our lives through Your word and that have happened in our lives this year, so much to think about. And that’s what we do this time of year, we start looking back, the whole culture does it. It’s in or magazines, it’s in our television programs, we’re reflecting back on things that happened in the last year, people that we lost in the last year, just reflecting as we prepare to move forward. And we read in the Psalms today that You take pleasure in those who honor You, those who trust in Your constant love. And as we look back over the years, we can see clearly that this is true, we can see the times that we have trusted in Your enduring love, that Your love endures forever. And we can also see times when we weren’t sure about that and we can see times when we even almost lost it and just didn’t know. And yet, here we are. Like we’re here and Your faithful love does endure forever. We’re here and You have brought us here through so much. And what we see in the Psalm is that You take pleasure in those who honor You and those who trust in Your constant love. We want You to take pleasure in us God. That is what our hearts long for, that You would delight in us as a Father would his children. And we see from the Psalm that You take pleasure in those who honor You and to trust in Your love. And, so, here we are contemplating what the next year might look like and the things that…the furniture that we want to rearrange in our lives for the new year and this is just blinking like a neon. It should be the thing that we want most in the new year, that You would take pleasure in us and our way of participating in that, in that collaboration will be that we honor You and trust in Your constant love for us, that we don’t set our faith in an expectation of what You might do, but that we would set our affection on You and You alone no matter what You do because whatever You do is good and just and righteous and right. And, so, we must trust in Your constant love and honor You in it. Oh…that is one heck of a New Year’s resolution, to set a goal that we might be Your pleasure. It’s a big one but it seems that all we must do is honor and trust in Your love. And, so, Holy Spirit come. May we follow where You are leading and may we recognize that when we find ourselves in seasons of doubt and perplexed…being perplexed, most of the time we have veered from the path, we have stopped talking with You, we have stopped talking with You, we have stopped the rhythm of our lives that is leading us on the narrow path. Help us to recognize these things. You are the first person we blame on so much that You have nothing to do with. So, come Holy Spirit, take pleasure in us, may we honor You and trust in Your constant enduring love for us. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And we’re just in preparations for the clock to strike midnight on the 31^st, right? And then everything begins again. And there’s an incredible amount of preparation for that to take place. And so, we’re in the middle of that. And in many ways, you’re probably involved in the same sort of thing, thinking through how to enter into the new year by finishing this one well. And, so, definitely we’re praying for one another in that. This is the last weekend of a decade, and we’re gonna go into a new week, and before that new week is out, we’re gonna be in the new decade and in the new year. So, that brings with it an enormous amount of excitement and an enormous amount of reflection, at least for me. I look back and it’s just…in some ways it’s a blur, but there are…and you look back and you see those moments that really really jump out and you’re like, “that was an important thing.” Like my daughter got married this year. That was an important thing. There’s so many of those. And, so, yeah, I encourage you to do the same. It's…it’s good, it’s good to reflect back on God’s faithfulness in our lives. And even in the difficult times. I have had a couple of really difficult times and last year that I now can look back and say God was faithful. Of course, He was. Of course, He was. He always is. Why did I endure so much suffering that was unnecessary? Of course, He was gonna be faithful. So, yeah spend some time in reflecting as we go through this weekend.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the final days of the year 2019 then I thank you with all of my heart for your partnership. There is a link, it lives 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 in the app.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DABbers, this is Lucy in Alabama I’ve been listening to Daily Audio Bible since 2015 and I’m a first-time caller. I could really use your prayers. I have been dealing with illness my entire life and never could understand why I always sick when I was growing up. It wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and then shortly after that common variable immune deficiency. The CVID means that I was born missing a gene that would’ve help me fight upper respiratory infections and I was born with no immunity to pneumonia. That made sense because I almost died of pneumonia when I was six. There is a treatment for the CVID and it’s almost a blessing that I was diagnosed with this because it is a treatment that adds the…what is missing in your genes, it adds it back to your blood. And I had checked with my insurance to see if they would cover it when I started another job in 2016 and they would cover it. And by hematologist discovered that my platelet count was getting high while he was checking my blood count and it just kept getting higher and higher and he stated that he needed to do a bone marrow biopsy in February of 2017. It was when I had that only marrow biopsy that he diagnosed me with Essential Thrombocythemia which is a fancy name for bone marrow cancer. I could really use your prayers. It’s hard being sick all the time. Thank you.

This is a prayer for Diane Olive Brown from Treasured Possession. Gracious heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, I lift Your daughter up to You Father God who is hurting, who…who needs to know the love, the security, the hope, the peace that only You can offer. Our earthly fathers Lord God are a reflection of You, and she is losing her earthly father Lord. I pray that he goes into Your hands Father God. I ask Lord God that You would fill her to the full and overflowing of Your Holy Spirit, give her experiences Father God of Your outrageous love that goes beyond all we can ask, think, or understand. Wrap Your arms around her. You are her Father Father God. You are her Father for eternity. I pray Lord God that You would just hug her and hold her and give her Your piece and bless her in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I thought that I was standing tall but really I was down
smiling broadly ear to ear trying to hide the frown
believing I could do all things while running from the doubt
saying straight and narrow is the path but walking in and out
confident and self-assured trying to hide my fear
growing stronger day by day get dying every year
life is one big paradox we say and still don’t do
help me Lord to reconcile and surrender all to you

blindony1016@gmail.com. Like to give a shout out to Sherlock and Kim and Michelle from LA and David Michael, know you all are very much loved thought of often and prayed for every day. And once again Brian and the Hardin family, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.

This is Holly from Glendale Arizona I would just like to pray for Mary whose husband passed away. Mary my husband passed away three years ago, and I would just like to let you know that the Lord will be with you through all this sometimes day by day, sometimes moment by moment. Seek Him and He will guide and direct each step along the way. I will be praying for you. I will remember you. Reach out to us in times of need. We are there for you. God bless you through this season. We will remember you and your family. I know it’s difficult. It does get easier. You always remember. He will always be a part of you and I just want to let you know that I care about you and I will be praying for you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Hello DAB family this is Eleanor from Albuquerque New Mexico I have never called before, but I have been listening to the DAB from partway through the first year. I am sure there are others like me who have never called in but are listening and praying. Many prayers go up for those who are in need and you won’t know about them, but God knows about them. I wish you all a blessed Christmas and a wonderful new year. God bless you.

Greetings everyone this is Toni from Germany I don’t know when this will be played, if it will be before the new year or after but happy 2020. I…last year I had made a proposal that with the word of the year that whenever we are meeting people for example when they’re giving us customer service or when we are perhaps giving customer service or when we meet someone on train or somewhere, a stranger or someone we don’t know and they ask how are you doing, last year the word was Maintain. And, so, to indicate that we are part of the Daily Audio Bible just in case they are we can say I’m maintaining. So, I think perhaps we can do it this year and say I’m settling or something to that effect, I’m getting settled, I’m focused on being settled. And I think that could be our key phrase or word that should trigger others to know that we are part of the Daily Audio Bible. Someone in the Christmas party said that her word was endure. My goodness, the two really resonate for me together. Settle and endure. Scott, from Portland Oregon, I’m…I’m laughing at what you said. I identify with everything that you said except for I do make it more than two times a month to church. God bless everyone. I hope you’re enjoying the holiday season and I especially think about those who are alone and who are suffering for whatever reason. May God be with you. Amen.

Zechariah 10:1-11:17, Revelation 18:1-24, Psalms 146:1-10, Proverbs 30:33

Today is the 27^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you, kinda in between, right, like this feeling that Christmas has passed, like we’re moving forward and we have this sense of the arrival of the new year and new beginnings coming but we’re kind of in between right now. And, so, this is gonna be…well…it’s a different kind of week, a disruptive week where we get to kind of think about what the next year might look like. And, so, as we do every day, no matter what time of year and no matter what we’re experiencing, we turn to the Scriptures and we allow them to speak into our lives as part of the direction for our lives. So, we’re reading from the Good News Translation this week and we will continue our journey through the book of Zechariah in the Old Testament today, chapters 10 and 11.

Commentary:

Ok. So…so at the beginning today we were just mentioning like here we…like we’re in this in between…between the Christmas holiday and the beginning of a new year. And, so, there’s this week and it's…it’s like a unique week out of any other week of the year just because its book ended by major holidays. I mean Christmas, obviously, perhaps the most major holiday on the planet and then that leaves one week until a new beginning comes and we…we sense that in this week, that…that a new beginning is coming. And, so, because of the fact that we have this new year in front of us and that’s a big thing, like marking a new year is often a line in the sand for a lot of people about a lot of things. It’s just…this is the kind of the week we get serious about thinking about what we might like life to look like in the coming year. And, so, you know, this is…this is when we renew the gym membership, right? This is…this is when we crack open the books about nutrition and we start thinking about how we might like to feel in the coming months, how we might like to look one year from today when we’re between the holidays again. And it’s also time, the world over, and this isn’t a unique thing, I’ve noticed this…this all of the years of doing the Daily Audio Bible. This is…this is the time that we think about our spirituality in ways that we don’t the rest of the year. And, so, this is the time that a lot of people go looking for…for things like the Daily Audio Bible. A lot of you found this community and became a part of this journey that we’re on at this time last year and that’s happening right now in the lives of many brothers and sisters who are here today, like just checking things out…like hi…welcome, glad you’re here. Hopeful… Hopefully your boarding for the journey through the Bible next year. This is what happens this time of year. But one of the things we might notice as we are doing this kind of contemplation, and I do this kind of contemplation every year, “like what’s the next year supposed to look like? What is in my life right now that is not serving any purpose? What needs…like is just wasting my time? What do I need to move out so that I can move other things in? What do I need to move out to make space for nothing but God?” I think about these things too. We all think about these kinds of things but a lot of times, I would say most of the times, what we’re thinking about his exterior things. “How can I balance and get in order my environment, my exterior environment? How can I lose that weight? How can I position myself to get the promotion that I want or to beat out the other candidates for something down the road? How can I clean my closets this year? How can I get rid of the clutter that’s hidden everywhere but I know that…that I just pushed things to the margins in my home, maybe even in my life? How do I get rid of all this clutter?” Obviously, the rhythm of our lives containing the Scriptures in them…obviously, what we’re doing every day, allowing God’s word to speak into the day, absolutely gives us direction for the path ahead in every conceivable way because here we are toward the end of the year, there’s just a few days left, and we can see that on this journey through the Bible this year just about every part of our lives internally and externally has been touched in some way by the word of God. But as we move into the new year there’s one specific portion of the word of God that can be utterly invaluable as we look for practical advice into the actions that we take and that is the book of Proverbs.

What we find by immersing ourselves in the wisdom that has been collected or the advice that is calm as a result of the wisdom of the ages that are collected in the book of Proverbs is that Proverbs councils us that fundamentally, we can move all kinds of furniture around in our exterior lives, like we can move all kinds of things around but if the clutter is inside of us, it’s still not going to bring us that sense of calm and peace and awareness and interaction and integration - the things that were looking for in our lives. Proverbs helps us get to the bottom of why we are motivated to do just about anything, but at this time of year, why we are motivated to make these changes. We want to make these changes because fundamentally, we want our lives to go more smoothly. And yet if our lives are in turmoil within us. No amount of organization outside of us is going to fix that. Proverbs helps us get to the bottom of why we do what we do and what we find in this ancient book is that the heart of people…like people were motivated after the same fashion thousands of years ago because the conflicts that we feel within ourselves, they’re the same. The exterior is simply different clothing. So, like we read one verse from the book of Proverbs today. “If you churn milk you get butter. If you hit someone’s nose it bleeds. If you stir up anger you get into trouble.” Alright, so we can be like, “if you churn milk you get butter. Is that really wisdom? Doesn’t everybody kinda know that? Like, if you hit somebody in the nose then it bleeds. Isn’t that obvious? Like, is that…how is that going to help me in my interior life? Like, how does that help?” What the proverb did here is state three obvious things, two of them very obvious - the beating of cream yields butter, the striking of the nose causes bleeding. Those are external and very obvious things. And then it tells us one more obvious internal truth that is just as true as these obvious external ones - stirring up anger causes quarrels. So, if we just think about the new year what do we want? Usually we want peace, right, more serenity of some sort in some area of our lives. That’s why we would make changes. If we are feeling an imbalance in our body, like we’re just carrying around too much weight or whatever, we just don’t feel good, that would motivate us to perhaps stick to it in the coming year and get our…get our physical bodies to feel the way that we would like to feel or…or any of the other things that we would change. So, do you want more quarreling and divisiveness in your life in 2020? Like, is that what you want? Because the Proverbs is telling you how to get there. Stir up more anger. If you stir up more anger it will give you more quarrels just like beating cream will give you butter and hitting someone in the nose will cause it to bleed. If you want less quarreling, less trouble, less divisiveness in your life, then the answer isn’t to turn more butter or to punch other people in the nose. The answer is to stir up less anger. And as we move out of the Christmas holiday and toward the new year, I mean, we still may have friends and family around from out of town, or we may be still out-of-town or whatever but we’ve been disrupted enough to…to see that stirring up anger causes quarrels. I mean, we can see that when we’re fighting for a parking place at the mall because of the 75% off sales that are going on. We can we can find the materials to stir up anger out of just about anything, but if we would recognize what wisdom is telling us - stir up less anger, have less conflict. That’s as obvious as stirring cream into butter. And yet so often we still are confused about how anger got stirred up and why we are in this conflict. So, we can see that we have to pay attention. We have to pay attention to what’s going on inside of us to where we can feel and become aware that anger is being stirred up inside of me. And if I don’t see this now and find out why and go into the situation and correct the situation, whether it’s with another person, or whether it’s just with ourselves, if not, this is going to whip up into some kind of conflict in my life and I’m trying to avoid that. So, I’m stopping here, I’m stopping the churning, and I’m looking at what’s really going on before it gets out of hand. This is amazing advice for our lives out of one verse of the Proverbs. And, so, we obviously read a portion of Proverbs every day.

There’s also the Daily Audio Proverb going through one chapter of the book of Proverbs every day. So, going through the entire book of Proverbs every month. Proverbs are meant to be heard over and over and to be contemplated. So, we spent a bunch a time right now, right, like 10 minutes or more like we were just talking about one verse of Proverbs. We were considering, we were contemplating, we were focusing in on, we were asking of the Scriptures, “what you saying for our lives?” And if we could do this with any of the Proverbs, just one proverb a day, one verse of Proverbs a day, one little section, whatever that you can focus in on and apply to your life can change and will change a lot of things in the coming year. So, while we’re making our New Year’s resolutions about getting in shape, and decluttering, and getting better promotions, and getting rid of the old this and getting rid of the old that, let’s think about how we might want to get very friendly with the voice of wisdom in our lives in the coming year. That might be the greatest New Year’s resolution we could possibly make for ourselves and for everyone around us.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into that. This really is that time where we are thinking about these kinds of things. It’s actually a gift that we have this disrupted week to think about these kinds of things because it allows us to consider how we might finish this year strong and how we might begin the new one strong. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to bring wisdom to us. Come Jesus we pray. In Your mighty name, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

I guess we’re like…we’re like in the in between where we are getting ready to like, disembark this particular voyage and then start a new voyage into the new year. And we talked about some…some of the things that…that we’re focused on that and we feel like the Lord is bringing into our lives, we talked about that for the new year on the Christmas program that we always do. So, there’s a couple of words as we move into the new year. One, that’s maybe more like the decade and one that’s for the new year, “Vision” being for 2020 and moving into this new decade. And we just talked about…not…that…that’s a word that a lot of people are using, “Vision 2020”, you know, seeing clearly. But I have spent a lot of time thinking about, “what does clearly seeing even mean spiritually, what does that look like?” And I just realize everything that we need to see, we…we can if we have eyes to see. Everything we need to hear, we can if we have ears to hear, which is what Jesus continually told us. And, so, I’m like OK, the kingdom is everywhere, the kingdom is now, the kingdom is happening. We know it hasn’t reached its fullness, but Jesus told us it is now, and it is in and among us. So, what if we have vision for that? What if that’s what we’re looking for instead of everything that’s wrong? Because we get very, very obsessive about things that are wrong in the world or in our lives. What if we spent this new year looking for the things that were right? What would that do to us, if we spent a whole year looking for the things that are right, the things that God is doing, the opportunities that we have to participate in good in this world? And, so, that’s Vision and then Jill really felt strongly, the word “Settle” - settle into the new year and beyond. And so, we’re just praying into that. Settle for her means settle, like settle down, like calm down. But settle also means to plant roots, to become rooted and stable and unmovable and unshakable. And, so, yeah, we’re living into that and you can do the same. As we prepare to move into the new year, we can pray into that. What does that look like for you? What words is God giving you over your new year. That’s what’s going on around here.

Obviously, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here in these final days of the year, the gratefulness is real and in the humility is real and the awe that…that we get to do this together every day, that’s real. Thank you for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t do this together. So, there is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can dial 877-942-4253 or you can just press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at top and start…start sharing your story from there.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

This is a message for Scott in Utah who is suffering from ringing it in the years. Today is December 19^th and I heard your message. Today I want you to know Scott that I am praying for you. I’m very sorry to hear your sadness and your, almost, despair and I hope that you reach joy soon.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family, I’m gonna take a page out of one of our sister’s books and just to stay anonymous but I just need some prayer. I don’t really know where else to go. I’m driving home from a worship rehearsal and, you know, it just occurred to me, if I drove in front of a semi-truck that I could probably be with the Lord tomorrow but then of course, you know, the…the Bibles really clear about you know, not…not approving of suicide. I feel really far from God. I don’t know why I would want to be in this relationship with Him, where he’s always right and I’m always wrong, He’s always good and I’m always bad. You know…please just pray for me. I’m kind of at the end of my rope. I can’t really talk to a family and I don’t have any friends that I can go to about this because I’m not very close with any of the people at my church. Thank you.

Good morning DABbers this is Jeanette from Canada and I am in desperate need of your prayers. My mom is in a care institution with terminal breast cancer in Maryland and I’m going to be joining my sister who lives there along with my brother from Boston to spend the Christmas and the new year with her because this may be the last time we will have a Christmas with her. But I also am experiencing extreme generalized peripheral neuropathy, which I do believe comes from post chemotherapy or one of the drugs that I have been taking for it or radiation…I don’t know. But this is just something that is almost unbearable. It is so difficult, and it has no rhyme or reason. It’s like electrical current running all over your body at various times and frequency strengths and I’m at my wits end and I have to fly. So, I truly, truly need some prayers to anchor me and I’m expecting that this will be healed because I have asked the Lord and many people are asking. Yet in the meantime, I have to be patient and wait. So, I’m asking you to join me in prayer and help me for…as I as I fly because if this is so troublesome, I don’t know…flying will be very difficult. So, I’m depending on you my family. And I just love you all. Thank you so much for praying. Amen.

Good morning family it’s Daniel and Arizona it is December 20^th. I just wanted to put in prayer request, kind of an interesting prayer request, but I wanted to pray for drivers and commuters. I do a lot of driving to work. I’ve been driving about an hour to work in about an hour back and in the afternoons, I’ve got a pickup my kids and I just…I want to pray. There’s just so many angry people out there and it totally manifests in the way that they drive and I mean I…I don’t know any of their stories or what’s going on in our lives but I just I can just see people who are…are hurting or whatever. And I just want to pray for all the people. Again, I’m just seeing it manifest in the way that they drive, and I just felt like that was on my heart, to pray for people who have commutes and long drives. And this would be…driving would be a time for peace. And I don’t know, for me, it’s a time of listening to the Bible and reflection and being quiet. So, thank you. Have a good day family.

Father God thank you that you are Sovereign, thank you so much for this world and this universe you have created for us. Lord, we lift up the nation of Australia to you. Lord, we pray for rain. Lord we pray that you would be restoring the nutrients in the soil, restoring the moisture in the soil, restoring what needs to be there for a good harvest in the next season or even in this season Lord. Father God we do lift up those in Australia who rely on the land, the farmers, and also all the __ effects of all the people who are affected by this drought Lord. We pray Lord that you’d be providing their needs. Father God we thank you so much for the firefighters who are fighting those bushfires and trying to protect people and protect land. Lord we ask for you to be at work and Lord we pray for an end to this drought that Australia can have the right kind of rain to recharge the rivers, to recharge the reservoirs, to recharge the groundwater. We ask your blessing on Australia and we trust in you for the future, the next season and the season after that Lord. We pray that you’d be healing any damage done by this prolonged drought. In Jesus holy and precious name. Amen. All right guys, Michaela from Gloucester I hope you have a blessed day were of you are. Bye.

Hi all you, lonely ones this is Rachel from Pennsylvania and I was thinking of you and I just wanted to say hello, happy holidays, happy new year. I know this is not the holiday party greeting but, you know, I was just thinking about you, so I wanted to say hello and let you know that I will also be thinking about you throughout the time between Christmas and New Year’s. I want to pray that you guys have comfort and joy and you find something to occupy your time with that brings you happiness and that God will be with you and help you to get through the holidays if they’re tough for you, with…with a happy heart. And, yeah, I guess…I don’t know…I don’t know names, but I know Prodigal, you came to my mind, so happy new year. All right. Bye.