12/12/2019 DAB Transcript

Amos 7:1-9:15, Revelation 3:7-22, Psalms 131:1-3, Proverbs 29:23

Today is the 12th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you around the crackling global campfire and I we have come in out of the out of the swirl of activity that is constant in our lives and just allow God’s word to speak into our experiences and into our relationships and into everything that we do and say. So, let’s take that next step forward and allow that to happen. We’re reading from the Common English Bible this week. And today, Amos chapters 7 through 9.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have been moving, not only moving through the…the rapid pace that…that happens in December around the world, but also, we’ve been moving through a lot of territory. So, let’s just catch up with…with where we are on our journey.

And Amos, God gave the prophet visions of His plans to send locusts and fire to destroy the land. And Amos is like, “God, if this happens, nobody’s going to survive. We’re…we’re too small to handle this.” And God heard Amos’ prayer. God was giving Amos prophetic visions, things that were planned but had not happened. And Amos pleaded before the Lord and God said these things will not happen. But he gave him a third vision, a plumb line and he revealed to Amos what’s happening here is that I’m going to measure, I’m gonna test the people with this plumb line and I’m not gonna ignore what they’re doing anymore.

So, then we moved into Revelation and since we began the book of Revelation, we’ve been reading little small notes, like very brief letters from Jesus to seven different churches – the church in Ephesus, in Smyrna, in Pergamum, in Thyatira, in, Sardis, in Philadelphia, and in Laodicea, which…which is the little letter that we just finished a few minutes ago. So, we’ve concluded these introductory letters to these seven churches. And these churches were all in the province of Asia and they were all a little different, very specific to the churches, but they all contained words of encouragement, words of warning, and the message that we have been rubbing up against for quite a while now, the message of endurance.

And then we got into the Psalms today and David’s giving language to what it looks like to have a content and humble heart. And we got to know David as we took our journey this year through…through the books of Samuel and Kings. And…and so obviously we’ve been traveling with David through the Psalms. This entire year. So, we know he was a king, we know he was powerful. So, we can imagine the arrogance and pride that could build up inside a person’s who’s sort of in control of everything around him. And, you know, what so David is writing about is that he finds contentment in his life through humility, contentment like a child who’s just been weaned from his mother and is just with his mother - calm, protected, secure, content, safe. This is what David’s saying it feels like to be humble and content in God, a supreme reminder for today as we go into the day, a supreme reminder for the season of busyness that we’re in. So, David’s basically saying look, I’ve learned that pride and arrogance aren’t going anywhere, frantic anxiety isn’t going anywhere. I found that at the end of all things God is powerful and in control and when one stays humble before God there is contentment to be found.

Proverbs talks about this too in our reading today but just very directly, “Pride ends in humiliation”, right? “Humility brings honor.” Again, supreme reminders for the season that we’re in right now. A season where we’re rubbing up against all kinds of people in all kinds of contexts that we’re not used to seeing them in, we’re rubbing up against people that are gonna be coming in from out of town, you know, that are family and we just assume the place in the family that we used to be. And all the sudden arrogance, pride, competition, all of these dark things come flooding into a very bright season. And, so, again, the Scriptures have come to us out in front of things and just said, “hey, here’s some things to remember for your day, here’s some things to remember for your life. And, so, let’s take them to heart.

Prayer:

Father, we do. We do take these things to heart. We invite Your Holy Spirit to…to be involved in all aspects of our lives. And that’s an easy enough thing to say but as we’ve learned from the Scripture, we can say lots of things about lots of things including our faith, but if our lives do not correspond to what we’re saying then our faith is dead. And, so, in order to engage in this contentment that is described in the Scriptures today, we have to collaborate, we have to be still like a child with its mother, safe in its mother’s arms nourished and full. We have to rest in the fact that You are caring for us. We have to trust in the fact that You are nearer than our next breath. In fact, our next breath is the evidence that You are continually giving us the gift of life. And, so, may we collaborate by resting in You today. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the home base, it is the home page, it is the website, it is where you go to find out what’s going on around here in a virtual community like ours. And its certainly Christmas time and so that is what’s going on around here.

A couple of things going on around here this week. One, our annual Christmas party is coming up and in preparation for that we take one week out of the year and open up the floodgates and we call in our…our holiday greetings, our Christmas prayers, the things that we would say to each other around this time of year to those that we love and care about and have followed their stories all year and prayed for each other and journeyed through the Bible together. It’s time to…to call in and wish each other a Merry Christmas and happy holidays. So, that’s happening this week so that we can begin assembling that next week and it’s very easy because we use the same tools that we use to call in prayer requests. So, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can just press the little Hotline button at the top or if you prefer using the phone you can call 877-942-4253. And there is a rule. Because it’s the prayer line and because we’re using the prayer line for our holiday greetings during this week, if you have a prayer request but you also want to call in a holiday greeting, don’t make them happen in the same call. Call in your prayer request and then call in your holiday greeting in a separate call, if that’s what you want to do. But you can call in your holiday greetings now and we’ll be taking them until the end of the week, a couple more days and then we’ll get to work on putting it together.

And the other thing is the Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas Box for 2019. We have packed this box…I mean it’s got the God of Your Story in it, a signed hardback first edition copy of the God of Your Story. It’s the only place you can get this. The Journal 2.0 for the Daily Audio Bible is in there and the Christmas ornaments for this year, and the coffee and tea, and the Christmas card…you just…you can see it all at dailyaudiobible.com in the Christmas section of the Shop. So, just click Shop and go into the Christmas section and you’ll see all of this. And we have packed this box full of resources that pretty much have never been in the box before. And…ahhh…it’s one of my favorites that we’ve ever done. So, while supplies last they are available. The shipping cutoff for Christmas arrival will be this coming Wednesday. So, be aware of that. And if supplies last until then, we will continue to ship them until then. But you can find them in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

Okay. If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, as we…as we reach the conclusion for another year. I cannot thank you enough. If we didn’t do this together, we wouldn’t be doing this. And, so, I am grateful that we get to do this and that we get to do it together. So, there’s 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 of the mailing address, if that is your preference, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment or right now for this week a holiday greeting, you can press the Hotline button in the app and I just start sharing or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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