Month: December 2019

Hosea 4:1-5:15, 2 John 1:1-13, Psalms 125:1-5, Proverbs 29:9-11

Today is the 6^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we move into the weekend and continue the voyage that we are on together through the Scriptures. So, we began the minor prophets and are working our way through Hosea in the Old Testament. We concluded the first letter of John, also known as first John yesterday, which means we get to the New Testament today we’ll be talking about second John. Actually, we’ll read that entire letter today. But first, Hosea chapters 4 and 5 and we’ve been reading from the English Standard version this week.

Introduction to second John:

Alright. So, like we mentioned a couple minutes ago, we’re going to read in its entirety a letter from the apostle John that we know as second John. And this letter was…was probably written just a little while after the first one, the one we just finished yesterday and it was probably written to these same people because the letters are similar, and these similarities are one of the reasons that most biblical scholars accept John as the authentic author. And since it’s believed that John spent the later part of his life in the city of Ephesus, then it’s probably from Ephesus where he wrote this letter that we call second John. And the letter’s short, it’s 13 verses and the first three of those verses are…are greeting and then the next three verses remind us of the importance of love which is something that we…we got in spades while reading first John specifically involving each other. And then the next three verses speak against the false teaching of Docetism which…which was what…which we talked about in first John. And then the next two verses are giving instruction that’s not in the first letter. And these verses tell the readers and tell us how to behave toward a traveling teacher or preacher who tries to come in and introduce false teaching into the church. And the church is not to encourage or offer hospitality in those situations. And then the last two verses conclude the letter. So, we’re gonns read it and it’s gonna go by and it’d be easy to let first and second John kinda blur together because we’re just covering…it’s like we’re covering the same territory. But let’s just imagine that between the conclusion of first John yesterday and our reading that we’re about to do of second John today that months have gone by and the impact of that first letter has reached its peak and is beginning to fade and diminish because the challenges go on in life and we keep facing them and then this second letter comes along a few months later when the readers needed the encouragement, needed the boost and…and clarity, a reminder of what the first letter had instructed. And then we will see that we are again being reminded to love one another and we should get in the habit of reminding ourselves of that on a continual habitual basis. And, so, with that we read second John.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we’ve already said on a number of occasions just…just the observance of the fact that the year is speeding up and…and that is happening here in the Scriptures as well as we move through shorter letters and shorter writings. And, so, we’re moving at a quicker pace as we move through this final month. And, so, once again, our prayer remains constant, that You would lead us into all truth and that we would stay fixed upon this rhythm that we began all of these days and months ago when we set out on the journey of a lifetime to move through the Scriptures this year. And, so, come Holy Spirit, plant the words that we’ve learned from first and second John this week into our lives that we must love one another and that this…this isn’t something that we just simply say. And really for that matter, it’s not just simply some things that we do that are kind or benevolent, it’s who we are, it’s what we are. You are love, we were told this week and You abide within us, we were told this week, which means that love abides within us and must overflow out of us so that You can love the world through us. And as we move into the weekend this really fundamentally begins with those who are closest to us. So, may Your love pour out of us flooding those that are near us that we love as we move into the weekend. And may we consciously realize that it’s not just us trying to be sacrificial or it’s not just us loving those that we love, but it’s You loving through us. And as we begin to sense You loving through us we realize how loved we are. So, come Holy Spirit help us participate and collaborate in loving the world in the days ahead we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And I guess the thing that is most prevalent, prevalently going on around here is what’s going on everywhere else, it’s…it’s Christmas time, it’s the holiday season. And, so, we have brought out the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2019, which is an annual tradition and we have packed it full of mostly things that have never been in a Christmas Box before, brand-new resources, some of the most popular Global Campfire resources, the brand-new written resource the God of Your Story, which is the 365 day, one year devotional that follows the rhythm and the path of the Daily Audio Bible. And the new Journal is in there. Your choice of coffee or tea, fresh roasted coffee being roasted as it’s being sent and so that it arrives fresh or our boutique tea, and some of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards. And, incidentally, you can get the Christmas cards separate from the Christmas box. Just look in the Christmas section in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. They come in packs of 20 for five bucks and they come with their matching envelopes, they’re beautiful, we make them every year. There wonderful way just to…well…first of all, to share Christmas wishes with your loved ones but a fantastic way to invite those who…who…who may need the Bible and their life every day, to have this resource and take the journey with you. And you can walk the journey with them in the coming year. So, the Christmas cards are in the Christmas Box as well as, like I said, a number of Global Campfire items that we made this year. And the…and the Daily Audio Bible Christmas ornament that is only found in the Christmas Box with Daily Audio Bible 2019 on it and our word for the year, “Maintain.” So, you can find all this in the Christmas section of the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link on the homepage and I thank you with all of my heart for your partnership as we move through this holiday season. Thank you. So, there’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Hosea 1:1-3:5, 1 John 5:1-21, Psalms 124:1-8, Proverbs 29:5-8

Today is the 5^th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we buckle up and take the next…I was gonna say buckle up and take the next step forward but buckling up and taking a step…like that’s a mixed metaphor, right? So, let…so let’s just move into our time in the Scriptures today. So, we finished the book of Daniel yesterday, which means that were gonna begin a new book and this book is called Hosea and we have also come to the final grouping of books in the Old Testament, and they are known as the minor prophets. And there are 12 books, Hosea being the first and we’ll work through these 12 books obviously, in a pretty quick fashion because we’re running out of year, but from Hosea to Malachi, these are the minor prophets. So, let’s get some context.

Introduction to the book of Hosea:

Hosea probably lived about eight centuries before Jesus. So, about 800 years. And he saw the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel, which was his homeland. And we haven’t talked about that for a while. We’ve been mostly dealing with the Babylonian exile and the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, but we will remember that the northern kingdom was taken away and carried into exile by Assyria. Many biblical scholars think that Hosea’s prophecies eventually were collected together in the southern kingdom of Judah after the Assyrian conquest after the 10 tribes were taken into exile in being assimilated. Now the theme of marriage is used in the Bible, often to represent God’s love for his people. It’s covenantal language. And, so, marriage is a covenant. And this theme is…is vivid in the book of Hosea and is fitting because we've…we’ve come this far in the year. So, we’ve watched God’s people chasing other gods for months. We’ve watched God’s people committing spiritual adultery for months. And we’ve watched what that’s done to God’s heart. We’ve watched what that’s done to the people. We know where that road leads but when we place it in the context of marriage all of a sudden, things become very immediate and very close to home. And God’s reaction to being betrayed by the people that He loves, that’s understandable, He’s a scorned lover. Like, His heart is broke. He’s longing for what was lost and thinking about what His love is doing with…like…you understand, right? You understand how marriage brings things really immediate. And the book of Hosea brings it the most immediate, the most clear in the Bible because God asked Hosea to use His life to speak as like living prophecy. So, God asked Hosea to marry a prostitute and her name was Gomer. And this represented the idolatry, the adultery, the spiritual adultery of Israel. And, so, Hosea and Gomer had children together and God instructed that each child was to be given a prophetic name that was to speak directly to Israel and then eventually Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea. So, he divorced her, which represented God’s casting away of Israel. And then God told Hosea to go get Gomer back. And, so, he pursued her, and as it turned out he had to buy back the woman who had committed adultery and broken their covenant and played the harlot. And he did! He bought her back, representing the lengths that God’s willing to go in order to be reunited with those that he loves. So, we’ve also been working our way through first John and we’ve been talking about the love of God, and we’ve been talking about the profound effect of the love of God on the world and how we are loving the world…God is loving the world through us. So, the…the portrayal of God’s love in the book of Hosea should show us very clearly what we’re talking about because it’s potent and it’s a picture of His love for each one of us. And when we get that it’s overwhelming, like when we understand how profoundly God loves us, when we have a glimpse of that, it’s overwhelming, but the flipside of that, the dark side is that we also have to look at the ways that were betraying that love. And Hosea helps us to see the impact of our betrayal on the heart of God. And, so, we begin. Hosea chapters 1, 2, and 3 today and we’re reading from the English standard version this week.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another step forward in Your word. And as we move into this book, Hosea, and for that matter, as we move through the minor prophets toward the end of the Old Testament, we invite Your Holy Spirit. We have a lot to learn in a short amount of time to cover that territory even as we’re moving through the rest of the New Testament. So, Father we…we acknowledge that this indeed is the point of the year where things seem to go into warp speed, and it does at times feel like we’re gonna blink our eyes twice and we’re gonna be in a new year. And, so, we recognize that as the rhythm of a year and we see that in front of us. And, so, again, we are committing ourselves. We will finish this year strong because that is the only way to begin a new year strong. And, so, come Holy Spirit and lead us where You will that we might learn from You all that we need to know to finish the story of this year strong. And, so, we calm ourselves and we will look for You and everything and we will look to Your word to guide our steps. Come Holy Spirit we pray into all of this. Lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its the website, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay…stay connected.

I’ve been mentioning because it that seems like everybody in the world’s mentioning something similar, it’s Christmas time around here. And wow! It’s…I guess I’m just noticing the influx of media being sent my way about things that I might want for Christmas or that I want to get for somebody else for Christmas. It’s like this stream that just never ends and I…maybe it's…I just…I think it’s always been this way…maybe I’m just noticing more. And, so, I’ve had these discouraging moments where I’m like, “man, I don’t even want to talk about the family Christmas. I mean just everybody’s talking about something.” But the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas box…we don't…we don’t make the Christmas Box to make money. We actually try to pile as many resources and discount them as far as we can and pile them in there because they’re for the family, the family that has been on this journey. And, so, there’s just some of our most popular things that we put in there that are like a great way to get these resources for the journey ahead. And we believe in all of these things. Like, we didn’t make them randomly. We made them…some of them over years. Like the God of Your Story over…well…it’s taken 14 years, right, and then two years to get this in…in written form. It's…it’s to help. So, yeah, it’s just been this kind of weird battle inside my head but the family Christmas Box is a valuable thing and it is a good thing and it's…it’s a worthwhile thing and there really are things in there that…that you want and that will serve you in your life and there are things in there that you may want to give away because they’ll serve someone else’s life. And that’s why we do this. So, I guess I’m not gonna…I’m not gonna struggle with it because I’m telling you about a resource, but we’re not trying to hock stuff here. It’s not…that’s just not what this is about. But there are resources that are valuable to the journey in the Christmas Box. So, check it out. Got of Your story’s in there. I just talked about that. The Journal 2.0 is in there and I talked about that yesterday. And the Global Campfire candle and the stickers and the postcards and the pop socket. All these things have been so popular. And for us, we made them because we made this Global Campfire logo this year just to represent our community. We created resources that were about that, that were touch points to the community. All of the Global Campfire stuff…it’s when you see these things, when you use these things, when you touch these things, they…they’re supposed to be tangible reminders of the community that we share here centered around the rhythm of God’s spoken word in our lives every day. So, anyway, you can find out all the stuff that’s in the Christmas Box at dailyaudiobible.com in the Christmas section in the Shop. And, so, check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well and I can’t thank you enough. It’s one of the things where words aren’t capable of expressing…expressing the gratitude that I feel. Thank you for your partnership now and over the years. So, 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 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 or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Daniel 11:36-12:13, 1 John 4:1-21, Psalms 123:1-4, Proverbs 29:2-4

Today is the 4^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you as we continue our journey through this first week of the 12^th month of the year. And we find ourselves in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament and in the letter that we call first John in the New Testament. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Daniel chapter 11 verse 36 through chapter 12 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. Back…back a few months ago when we were reading the book of Ephesians, which is a letter that was written by the apostle Paul, we…we discussed how…how grand of a vista we were looking, at how the good news is actually so good it’s almost too good to be true. And we encounter that kind of a vista today in this letter that we’re reading, known as first John. And the implications are so profound that I mean…words…words fail. I mean what’s being said about who we are is so profound that, if it ever seeped past our head and into our hearts and was fully activated within us our world, which I mean, the way we live our lives would be forever transformed, which is the point. So, let’s just kind of work through what we read today. Obviously, John is speaking about false teachings and false prophets and testing spirits and like understanding what the truth is. And basically, there was just a lot of discussion and a lot of teachings about who Jesus was. Like we have reached a point now that Jesus’ ministry is over, and He has ascended to the Father. And now, as the message, the good news spreads throughout the world, people are trying to…to sort of reverse engineer what’s going on, to understand what’s happening. And, so, lots of different teachings were kind of sprouting up. And, so, John confronts one of those today. It was a teaching that claimed that Jesus wasn’t really a…a…a human being, that He was more of an apparition more of it like a ghost, he was a spiritual being but not a flesh and blood human. So, we remember in John’s Gospel, at the beginning of John’s Gospel, he says that, “the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” So, the question here then became, “is the divine simply being made visible? Like, is He not a human being? He’s a being, a spiritual being that is…has been made visible so that we can see him but he’s not a human or has the divine been made flesh as John claimed?” So, this idea that Jesus was like a spiritual apparition, this would be called Docetism later on. So, John addresses this and I’m quoting John, “by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” So, our eyes could glaze over going and we could be like, “well…this is just like a theological issue, right? This…like…this doesn’t actually affect the way my life is lived. It’s just…yes…I want to understand the truth but this is just a theological truth that doesn’t actually touch my…my world.” John’s actually arguing that it does touch our worlds profoundly that Jesus came in the flesh. So, John’s saying, “look. You can know the spirit of a person by their posture toward Jesus.” And then he encourages them. “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Okay, so that’s a super famous verse, but it’s setting up something very, very important. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Okay, so lots of people are saying lots of things about Jesus, lots of teachings that are divergent are occurring and John is saying, “you know how to see what’s true by understanding how people relate to Jesus.” And what John is teaching is that the Spirit of God isn’t distant, isn’t esoteric, isn’t hard to understand like all of this swirl of false teaching was suggesting. Instead, this Spirit of God is within those who believe and is a greater than the deception of the world. It’s important for John that Jesus was a flesh and blood human being and divine at the same time because Jesus came to rescue humanity and model humanity. So, even though what John’s saying can look highly theological because it is, the implications are very practical because Jesus came as a human being and was the divine…was God made flesh. And if through the work of Christ humanity can be redeemed and restored to God, in other words there is no chasm of sin any longer, then God, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, indwells you, indwells us, lives within our flesh, which means we can become Christlike because of the work of Christ, right? The human and the divine occupying the same space at the same time within us. Yeah, that’s mic drop kind of stuff, that’s like holy moly! We talked about this when we were working through Paul’s letters, but if God indwells you and you are moving around the earth how can you ever feel like God has abandoned you when He is within you. But how do you know? Like, I mean how you know this? What is the evidence of this? Love. I’m quoting John. “Beloved let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God”, right? Not that we did him a favor by loving him, but “that he loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so love us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.” Okay. So, Jesus was the physical human embodiment of God’s love for us, a love that we could actually see in action. It wasn't…it wasn’t that we could see a vision of it or an apparition of it. It was given to us by God in the flesh as we are. When we have one another we’re making the love of God, that same love, visible in the flesh, our flesh, just like Jesus did. John explains it like this. So, I’m quoting John. “So, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world”, right? So, we’re seeing a description of the fact that we are supposed to be becoming Christlike as he is. This is pretty big stuff here. We can’t see God as John pointed out and as we know, but we can see each other. And when we understand that our reality is that the Spirit of God lives inside, within us, then we begin to understand that the body of Christ isn’t an example or a metaphor, it’s a reality. We are physically bringing the love of God to the world in the same fashion that Jesus did, as He is, Christlike because it’s the same Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is guiding our lives and when we die to ourselves and live into this reality then the love of God is made perfect in us and perfect love casts out all fear. So, when we love God is loving through us and love is pouring out into the world and when we love we are being perfected and when we love we’re being as He is, Christlike. So, the bottom line here is that we have a job to do. Like our job isn’t to wake up every morning and try to figure out our problems and try to say the right prayers so God will bestow blessing on us so that we can be comfortable. We’re supposed to be loving the world as Christ in this world, the hands and feet of Jesus, the body of Christ. We are a part of that story. that’s who we are and we are empowered after the same fashion that Jesus was to do this job, not because we earned it, not because we’re somehow…we were born this way, but because of Christ’s sacrifice and God’s love for us even when we were His enemies. God has elevated us back to who we were created to be, intertwined with Him in this world, revealing His love. That’s pretty big stuff and maybe…I mean…you sit down and think about it and you’re like, “this is too good, this is too big., I can’t get my mind around this.” Grab your Bible and…and just start working your way through first John chapter 4 just like what we just did. This is what the Scripture says. This is who we are. This is what we’re supposed to be doing and it’s going to require endurance to do it, as we have been seeing and as we will continue to see as we move forward. But be encouraged today. The Spirit of God is within you and the evidence of that will be how you love today.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into all of this. We ask that You lead us into all truth and we open ourselves completely to You. We ask that You would plant what we’ve read here from the Scriptures into our lives today. We pray that the soil of our hearts would be fertile and that these spiritual truths and realities that are…that are fundamental of…fundamentals of this faith, that they would not be fundamentals anymore, they would be realities that we would live into these things and wouldn’t think of them as theology or wouldn’t think of them as metaphors, but think of them as our reality. What You have done for us is so monumental that it’s hard to get our heads around and we are grateful, and we are thankful. And we’re also seeing how subdued and suppressed we’ve lived our lives. If the Spirit of the living God is within us there’s nothing we can’t do. So come Holy Spirit, may we be willing vessels for Your work in this world. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is home base, which means that’s where you find out what’s gong on around here, which is what I say most every day if not every day. That’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, stay tuned and stay connected in any way that you can, and in any way that you will.

It’s Christmas time around here. So, we’ve been mentioning the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2019. And pretty excited about this Christmas Box. I love them…I mean, I love putting them together every year and just kind of thinking through, but this is a really, really comprehensive Christmas Box. It’s got some of our most popular resources in it and…and really most helpful. So, this year we have the God of Your Story, which is the brand-new book that is a 365 day devotional that really follows the rhythm of the Daily Audio Bible, is kind of the gold of the Daily Audio Bible journey that we take each year. And, so, we have a signed hardback first edition copy of the God of Your Story in the Christmas Box this year. And this is the only place to get that. I went and signed a whole bunch of these until my hand was cramping and for the Christmas Box this year. So, they’re only available in the Christmas Box. We also have the Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0, brand-new journals for journaling your way through the Scriptures. And I’ve talked about why I think that’s important, not only just for the rhythm of our lives, but also that we find that rhythm in the Bible, write things down so that you don’t forget, right? Memorialize things so you don’t forget what happened. And journaling is…is one way of memorializing, of doing that, writing down what happened, what God did so that you don’t forget. And that becomes really, really helpful in the future when things get foggy because you have the story…you’ve been journaling the story of your life with God and His faithfulness. And, so, when you can’t see forward sometimes you can refer backward and see like, “oh my gosh. I remember going through that. I did not think I was gonna make it. But I’m here and I have wrote the story of how I got here. And, so, I know that this story hasn’t just stopped because things are foggy right now. The story continues on in God will be faithful.” That’s what memorializing things does and it’s so helpful. So, the Journal 2.0 is in there. Let’s see…we have the Daily Audio Bible Christmas ornament for 2019 that is exclusive to the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box. It says, Daily Audio Bible 2019 on it and our word for the year, which has been “Maintain.” And, so, your choice of our DAB blend whole bean coffee, fresh roasted. And it will arrive at your door fresh roasted or you can choose our boutique tea if you’re a tea drinker. A pack of the Christmas cards, 20 Christmas cards and their envelopes. The Global Campfire pop socket for your phone or device. The Global Campfire candle, which surprisingly smells like a Global Campfire. Two of the Global Campfire stickers and five of the beautiful global campfire postcards. So, it’s packed full. It’s packed full. You’ll see when it arrives. So, check that out. It’s all available at dailyaudiobible.com in the Christmas section. And they’re going pretty quick, so grab them while you can.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage and I'm…I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart from the deepest place in me that can find gratitude…like I’m thankful. I'm…I’m also in awe. Like gratitude and awe are not constants in my life, but they visit me each day when we get to this point because I’m grateful that we’re about to complete 14 years seven days in…seven days a week without missing ever. I’m grateful. And that would’ve never happened if we didn’t do this together. And, so, I’m in awe that God has let us be this…this community wrapped all over the world doing things that have never really been done before, but in ways that are so profoundly deep and matter in our lives in a year. What a journey this has been. So, I’m thankful for your partnership and there is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can just press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner if you want to or you can use the mailing address, which 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 if you are using the app, just press the little Hotline button, the red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Daniel 11:2-35, 1 John 3:7-24, Psalms 122:1-9, Proverbs 29:1

Today is December 3^rd. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in our year and take the next step forward on this path that we have been following for this year through the Bible, which will take us back into the book of Daniel in our Old Testament reading and back into the letter, the first letter of John in our New Testament reading. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Daniel chapter 11 verses 2 through 35.

Commentary:

Alright. Let’s talk about what we read in first John today because if we can grasp what we read in first John today it’s one of the most poignant, pivotal, important…I’m trying to like think about other words, this is like bedrock stuff for how we’re supposed to live a life of faith, like what it’s supposed to actually look. So, like John…John asks a question, “if anyone has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him”,  which if you think about it causes us to pause for a second and just think, “what is the purpose of God’s benevolence?” Like, “what is…why…why would He bless anybody in any way?” Like, “is He blessing us for our good behavior? Is He blessing us because He just simply loves us more and wants us to benefit more, or does He love and bless us so that He can then love and bless through us, or because of us, or in collaboration?” And before we go any further, let’s like jump out of first John and go back to the gospel of John and see that John quotes Jesus. So now from John’s Gospel I am speaking the words of Jesus. “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples”. So, all of the sudden we’re starting to see James and Peter’s point being made in John’s letter and that is fundamentally that we can’t claim a faith that does not change our actions in any way, right? Like, we can claim anything but if we’re not living that it’s not true. So, taking that further, we can’t claim to walk in the love of God if there’s no love flowing out of us into the world, right? True faith, true love compels us into action, which is…which is what John said. So, let me quote John from first John. “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything.” So, what we’re being told here is that love is the thing, and love cannot be fully expressed in word alone or talk. It must be done in deed and in truth. So, in another words it’s offered not as a manipulation, it’s offered freely as an honest true gift and borne out in the actions of our lives. And, so, John gives us a gauge. “By this”, which is our love in action, “by our love in action, we will know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him.” Because if our heart is condemning us and we are loving in deed and in truth, well then we know we are on the right path and God is greater than our heart or any kind of condemnation that will come against us. We’re certain of God’s love and that His love is within us when we see Him loving through us. And we see him loving through us when we open the floodgates and let love flow out of us. This is where it gets really helpful. This is where the layers start peeling back. We started talking about what was the purpose of God’s blessing upon us in the first place. And if we look, any kind of blessing that we get we usually try to hoard. We usually live from a place of lack. We usually live as if what we have obtained is in limited supply, which then leads us to be very self-absorbed about just about everything in our lives, which according to John then reveals that God’s love is absent from the equation. So, there’s an example that I like to use…because…well…because it’s biblical. And we’ll go back and see this for ourselves in February when we go back to the land of the Bible. There’s this geographical body of water known as the Dead Sea. It’s known as the Dead Sea because it sits at…it’s the lowest point on earth, right? There’s nothing lower. So, when water flows into the Dead Sea there’s no way for it to continue its journey, it has reached the bottom, like the lowest point on earth. And, so, it stays there, becomes stagnant and there’s no life in it. Water flows into it but can’t leave. But just north of there is another very famous body of water known as the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is also below sea level. In fact, it’s the lowest freshwater lake in the world. Water comes out of the mountains and fills the Sea of Galilee, which has a tributary known as the Jordan River. And the Jordan River flows out of the Sea of Galilee bringing life all along the line and eventually dumps into the Dead Sea. So, let’s just…like if we think back to the time when Jesus walked to this earth until today water has continued to flow out of the mountains into the Sea of Galilee, out of the Sea of Galilee down the Jordan River and into the Dead Sea. We’re talking about billions and billions of gallons of melting snow and rainwater and fresh living water that has flowed out of the Sea of Galilee since Christ lived around it. It’s still full of water. Billions of gallons have flowed out of it and it’s still full of water and it’s never grown stagnant because new water is constantly flowing into it. What John’s trying to tell us here is that there is no lack, there is no shortage of God’s love, but we will only ever experience that kind of life and that kind of awareness when we’re not trying to hoard and look at everything from a sense of lack. When we throw open the floodgates and allow everything that flows in to flow back out then we do not become stagnant, then we do not become a lifeless, like the Dead Sea. So, are we living in lack spiritually, physically, in any way? Are we living in lack because we have habitually been selfish? Then what we are witnessing is ourselves becoming stagnant and we will not find life in that direction. But if our hearts actually have been overcome with the love of God then that is gonna require more than us just saying it. It’s going to propel us to love in every way that we can think. And what we’ll find is that the more we’re willing to love the more full we’re going to become. No matter how much love flows out of us we will be filled again with God’s love because there is no lack, and he’s loving the world through us and this is the only way we will ever get a sense of fullness, wholeness. When we start to hoard then that is all there is. We have…my dad used to use an example, he’d say, “get all you can. Can all you get. And sit on the lid” as an example of this kind of behavior. When we do that though, even if the can is full that is all there will ever be. When John is telling us, when the Bible, the Scriptures, are telling us, we are tapped into the author of life, and the energy that is flowing through that connection is known as love. And if we’re willing to give it away, we will never be in lack of it. So, I mean it’s hard to ignore that we’re moving full force into the holiday…into the Christmas season. This is something we need to carry with us through this season. The greatest gift we will ever be able to offer is an open heart. God can do miracles through the open hearts of his children. And yet if we’re going to be closed off and stagnant then we can say whatever we want to say, there is no life there. So, it’s a matter of which direction we want to head in  from here.

Prayer:

Father, we want to head in the direction of love. It’s just that sometimes people are hard to love and because that’s difficult it exposes all of our brokenness and then all of a sudden we’re just wallowing in brokenness when You have come to make us full and whole and all we have to do is surrender and find ourselves in an ocean of love that is inexhaustible. Show us how to live like that because that would be becoming Christlike. That is the direction we are supposed to be heading in. We can’t get there on our own. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to once again illuminate our path and lead us into all truth. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And we are certainly in…in the Christmas season. I think yesterday was cyber Monday. Yeah. And, so, we have the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box. We bring that out every Christmas and pack a box full of some of the most popular resources that we have and ship ‘em all over the world and just pray over them. And it's…it’s fun because there’s things in the box that you’ll want to keep for yourself but there’s also things in the box that you…you may want to give away as gifts and just to pray over those things and just understand that they’re going out all over the world through…through this community. And it’s a beautiful thing to see God working in the world that way. So, we have the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box. It’s available now. The international ship date for that cut off was yesterday. We’ll…we’ll ship them anywhere in the world, but we felt like kinda yesterday was the cutoff for Christmas arrival, where it was safe for Christmas arrival. But we’ll ship anywhere in the world. Here in the United States we’re still good, although they are going fast so we may run out of them. So, check that…check that out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop. There is a Christmas section and it has three items in it: the Christmas Box for this year that we were just talking about; the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards which can be purchased separately. They come in packs of 20 with their matching envelopes for…for $4.99. So, fivce bucks. And yeah, I mean, you can’t…you can’t beat that…that's…there’s no margin is what I’m saying. We make these as resources to give to you to use to invite your friends and family on the journey with you next year but there not…there not Daily Audio Bible advertisements. There just Christmas cards, but they leave generous space for you to write and the only thing that says dailyaudiobible.com on it is just on the back where it would say Hallmark. And it’s just their real easy to…to…to use. So, those are in the Christmas section as well as our Christmas album, Family Christmas, which you can order from Daily Audio Bible Shop but you can also stream on Spotify or Apple music or wherever you get your music, Amazon music, wherever you get your music you can find it. Just search my name and look for Family Christmas. And that is a soundtrack that we have created for the season and it’s beautiful and lush and relaxing and contemplative. It’s a great thing to listen to with just the Christmas lights and a cup of hot cocoa or whatever. I do it every year. I mean it was created to be that…to set that atmosphere. And, so, check that out as well.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage and I thank you, I thank you here as we approach the end of the year for your partnership. 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, if that is what you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is number to dial.

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

Daniel 9:1-11:1, 1 John 2:18-3:6, Psalms 121:1-8, Proverbs 28:27-28

Today is the 2^nd day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we…well…as we move in and get comfortable with the month that’s gonna go by pretty quickly but the final month of the year. And every time we move into the new month of December, I remember this day, because this would’ve been my father’s birthday. And obviously without my father or my mother, I wouldn’t be here, and I would’ve never had the privilege of spending these moments together each and every day as we continue our journey through the Scriptures. So, remembering my father today. And in terms of the Scriptures we will be moving back into the book of Daniel for our Old Testament portion today and into first John when we reach the New Testament. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Daniel chapter 9 verse 1 through 11 verse 1.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s talk about Dow’s today. What brings us to doubt? In our faith or in life in general, what leads us into doubt? For me, and I think for most of us, doubt enters the story when we expected something to happen that didn’t, right? An unmet expectation. So, in spiritual terms we think God didn’t do what He promised, or what we asked Him to do is taking longer than expected. And, so, we get anxious and we’re not content, and then we start spiraling and then eventually we’re led into doubt. Doubt is sort of this response we’re throw our…our hands up and go, “I don’t know what I think anymore.” And, so, there’s like roots…little seeds of all kinds of bad things mixed in there, which makes is very, very vulnerable to deception and then our faith weakens and becomes dormant and at that point some…some walk away…completely walk away from their faith. And some are super vocal about it, like they become anti-faith, they become anti-God, they become anti-Christ. And that’s where we begin in this letter from John today. John says, “children, it is the last hour and as you have heard an antichrist is coming. So, now many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us. In other words, they used to be a part of who we are, but they left because they were not of us, because if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they are not of us.” Okay, so we…we’ve been talking about the apocalyptic worldview throughout…throughout our time in the New Testament but we talked about it recently and it plays heavily into what’s going on here, what John is writing about because the obvious question that comes up here is, why didn’t some of these early followers of Jesus become antichrists? Why did they leave the faith when it appeared that the end was so near?” Why did that happen. It happened for the same reasons this kind of stuff happens to us. We were expecting something that went unmet, we were led into doubt, we were then susceptible to deception, then the next thing you know we’re like in a different universe from where we started. The people John’s writing to hear had faith in the imminent arrival of Jesus, like that He was coming back any moment and they, because they were putting their faith in Him, were finding themselves inaugurating the kingdom of God. Instead of all of that happening though, time went on and they started getting ridiculed instead of elevated. They were marginalized instead of becoming the status quo. They were receiving persecution instead of comfort. And even though they were being taught to endure eventually their stamina ran out when the timetable didn’t work out. And, so, they threw their hands up in the air and walked away. And on one hand you can kind of understand because they were signing up to be marginalized, to be ridiculed, to be persecuted. They were signing up to suffer and endure because that’s part of the story, and its part of our story. It’s part of the story, but many were walking away. And as John said, “they didn’t really…like…they didn’t belong with us. If they belonged with us, they would’ve stayed.” Into this little crockpot that we’re stirring around, or this’ll stew that we’re making there were a lot of questions being asked about how this all works theologically, like how do we understand the gospel, the son of God, the sacrifice, the resurrection, faith? How do we understand all this? So, questions were being asked and many people were coming up with many kinds of explanations. Things like the true nature of Jesus, whether He was human or whether he was truly divine, or whether he was both of those things, which eventually brought on confusion. And confusion is an incubator for doubt and conflict. And, so, you have people who are being pressured by their culture, marginalized, and pushed to the sidelines of their culture, and being mistreated by their culture, and being confused by what they’re being told about their faith. So, they’re going through some pretty tough…tough things. And John was trying to communicate to those things the essentials, like the absolute core of the faith, and he was aiming it at their doubt. He said, “anybody who denies the father and the son is an antichrist. And anyone who denies the son doesn’t have the father either.” Because in this context, many people were leaving back into Judaism, leaving Jesus behind but going back to Yahweh, like going back to God. And John’s saying, “like you don’t get one without the other. That’s not how it works.” And he wasn’t trying to keep…keep his readers…keep those who were following the in the faith from asking questions about their faith or trying to understand their faith through asking questions of it. That wasn’t the point. He was reminding them that what they heard from the beginning wasn’t something that was a moving target. The gospel that they learned from the beginning wasn’t changing. It hadn’t changed. No matter what questions were being asked, no matter what conclusions people were coming to, no matter what kind of a confusing stew it was becoming, what they’d been told from the beginning hadn’t changed. It was still the truth. But it went even deeper than that. It was not just, “hey hold onto the things I told you” or “hold onto the things you heard from the beginning.” He was trying to show them, “look…lots of people are going to say lots of things all of the time. This has always been going on. But you have something, and you need to not forget it. You have what you need.” So, quoting John again, “I’m writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray but you have received the Holy Spirit and He lives within you so you don’t need anybody to teach you what’s true. The Spirit teaches you everything you need to know and what he teaches is the truth. It’s not a lie. So, just as he’s taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.” Okay, so we can understand now the situation and who John was writing to and why he was, and we can even understand and put ourselves in that position. But let’s actually do that. Let’s put ourselves in that position now because there’s no shortage of thoughts and ideas and questions and teachings. There’s no less of a stew then there was then. In fact, there probably is more, and we all face unmet expectations. We cry out to God for certain things thinking…expecting certain other things to happen and when they don’t, then we have the same opportunity to be led into doubt, which will lead us into deception…well…which would ultimately lead us to become anti-Christ. So, there’s nothing that John was writing about to these earlier believers that we can’t relate to here. And what John is ultimately saying is, “you have what you need to be led into the truth. You have the Holy Spirit of the Almighty God within you. This is what you were told from the beginning, that the divine, that God, that the most high loves you, forgives you, wants to collaborate with you, and wants to be in union with you, wants to join with you, will be within you. Through the power of his Holy Spirit you have what you need. You don’t need to run around to every little thing trying to figure out every eventuality. You don’t need to ask all of the questions and then go seek all of these answers outside of God. You don’t need to go looking for endless opinions. The spirit of truth indwells you by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has promised to lead you into all truth.” So, if you’ve been in the process of resetting expectations, if you have suffered long and feel like there’s no progress, if life’s circumstances is leading you to throw your hands up in the air, doubt, and walk away and even become anti-Christ, rethink that. What you are looking for is something you already have.

Prayer:

And, so, Holy Spirit it is You that we are speaking of. And, so, we invite You into that. We become aware that Your presence never departs from us. We become aware that maybe we grow impatient in listening for Your direction and maybe we jump the gun and make a mess, but You are always there. And if we would walk with You at Your pace, we would do ourselves a grand favor. And, so, we become aware of You and we become aware of our doubts and all of the back-and-forth that we’ve been enduring, and we invite You and all of it. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth 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.

And we’re fully like…if we’re not fully we’re fully moving into the holiday season. And, so, that's…that makes for us considering others and finding gifts for others. And, so, the Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas Box for 2019 is available in the Daily Audio Bible shop. And it’s always the goal with the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box to put things…just to stuff it full of resources. But just to make it a lovely choice, like things to keep, things that you want, things you want to give away. You just kinda get to think that all through. This is no different. We’ve put things in this Christmas Box…most of this Christmas Box has never been in a Christmas Box before because these are brand-new items. So, check them out. The God of Your Story, a signed first edition hardback version of the God of Your Story is…is in the box, a brand-new resource. Our Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0, the Global Campfire candle, your choice of…of our whole bean Daily Audio Bible blend coffee, fresh roasted and sent to you. Or if you’re a tea drinker, our boutique tea. The annual Christmas ornament that is found only in the Christmas Box with our word for the year, “Maintain” on it is there. Daily Audio Bible Global Campfire pop socket for your phone or your tablet or your mobile device. 20 of the 2019 Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards with their matching envelopes. Two of the Global Campfire stickers and five of the Global Campfire postcards. So, it’s a well-rounded box. In fact, it’s chock full. It’s stuffed full. We can’t really put anything else in there…it’s full.

So, that can all be found in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Christmas section where you will also find our Christmas album called Family Christmas, which is just a beautiful, classic, musical experience of the holiday season. It’s your hot chocolate music. It’s your wind down Christmas music. Right? There’s like shopping music, it’s super festive and lots of jingle bells clanging and all that, you know. But then there the contemplative Christmas music that’s just kind of wind down, setting an atmosphere of peace and calm and joy. And, so, that’s what the Christmas record is aimed at and that’s what I think it does. And, so, it’s available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Obviously, you can get it at Spotify music or wherever but just letting you know it exists. Make it a part of your Christmas holiday season. And it’s just one more touch point, it’s just one more way that we stay connected to each other.

And you can get the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards individually, not individually but in packs of 20 outside of the Christmas box in case you need like 100 of them or whatever. Their five bucks for 20. You can't…like you’re not gonna beat that. So, it’s a wonderful way to…to share the season, and to invite those that you love along for the journey in the coming year. And, so, all those things are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. So, check them out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you with all of my heart…with all of my heart for your partnership as we move through this season and move toward the end of the year. So, there’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request a comment you can just hit the Hotline button in the Daily Audio Bible app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey Daily Audio Bible this is Ted from East Stroudsburg Pennsylvania. Please bear with me but I just have to brag about the Daily Audio Bible. My daughter Rachel started listening to DAB a few months ago. She’s an audio learner and always struggled to read the Bible. Well, Brian brings it alive for her. She listens in the car with her five-year-old son Benny, the little guy who’s been calling in lately. She’s…she has him listening to Genesis, adult Genesis and he loves it. Then she started…I’m sorry…one day she bought some coffee and she got DAB cards. She started giving these cards to friends and family then she started leaving them in lunchrooms, restrooms, on counters in restrooms…restaurants, you get the idea. And then she started to hand them out to strangers too and Benny wanted to help. Now he hands them out as well. He’s excited and he knows what he’s handing out. Recently they were in a pizzeria and it was packed. He went up to each table and explained, “it’s the Bible” and handed each one a DAB card. He even got the waitstaff. He does this everywhere that they go. They a DAB missionaries in their corner of the world. God bless you all Daily Audio Bible family. Thank you.

Hello DAB family this is Karen from Hemet and its early, early in the morning on Thanksgiving morning. Wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving and it’s a sad one for my family today because my husband of 36 years passed from this life into Jesus arms yesterday morning. He’s been in a battle with Parkinson’s dementia disease for 10 years now. Had to say goodbye. I was so happy to know he is not suffering any longer and I can picture him in Jesus arms, but sadness is pouring over me like ocean waves right now. I appreciate your prayers. I appreciate you. I’m thankful for Daily Audio Bible that saw me through this painful journey. Keep us in your prayers. Have a blessed time with your family. Hold them close. Love you guys. Goodbye.

Hey DAB this is Melody in Ohio, first time caller, I am in about my 11^th year of listening and I love listening to the word of God every day. My husband and I have made it a rhythm of our life and it’s just an amazing community and amazing thing. Thank you, Brian for following God’s lead and doing this. And I wanted to pray for Vicki in Arizona who lost her son two years ago. And Father I just pray for my sister in Christ. I pray that You would heal the brokenhearted, that You would let her literally feel her hands being lifted by this community Father. I pray that she would give her joy beyond her circumstances and that You would give her peace in her dreams and sweet sleep at night. And Father thank You that this is not the end, that eternity waits for us and we just thank You for Your peace and Your presence in our lives and just pray for all of the brokenhearted this holiday season Father. I pray Your comfort and we just thank You for the hope of You. Thank you, family. God bless and have a happy Thanksgiving.

Morning guys it’s Michaela from Gloucester in the UK. And two weeks from today the UK is going to the polls again. We’ve got another general election. Today is Thursday the 28^th of November. So, I would really value your prayers for us over these next two weeks on election day and then beyond. Just pray that people would use their vote, that their voice would be heard even if they think it wouldn’t make a difference, that they would turn out and they would cast their vote so we can get a true picture of what people think. And whatever happens on election day and whatever happens with the results I pray that whoever is elected in will work together for the good of the people. I also want to thank God for all those people out there who are willing to stand up and perform a difficult role of representing our people because I can imagine how hard that is trying to…trying to do that…I don’t know. Yeah, thank you so much. Father God thank You for this opportunity that we have in the UK to cast our vote on who we think should be representing us in parliament and who You think should be leading us. I pray Lord You’ll be giving us wisdom as we cast our vote and I pray Lord that we would make the most of this opportunity that we have a democratic right I pray that we would be using it and I pray Lord whatever happens that they would be working together for the good of the people and that ultimately that they might come to know You and that Your name will be praised. Thank You for all the Christians who are in politics and I pray Your blessing upon them. May they be ambassadors and lights in Jesus’ name Amen.

Hey DAB family this is Micah in Awe. Vicki from Arizona, I just heard your message. I lost a best friend to suicide in 2006 and it was so hard. I can’t even imagine how much worse it would be to lose your son and also your husband in that same timeframe. Your attitude is pretty astounding to me that you’re setting yourself to worship and that…I mean…it was two years ago but that still has to be so painful and I’m sure it will continue to be painful. But you requested joy and the Lord has that for you. The Lord has joy. I’m praying that He’ll pour out the oil of gladness on you and as you requested, He walks you by that date. He will be there for you. He will be your strength. Your faith already has determined it and you know it. I’m praying for your sister. I’m gonna add you to my daily prayers. I heard the message about Adelaide struggling with cancer, eight-year-old. Praying for you now. I’m praying for the eradication of leukemia and all cancer. I ask all of you to join me in praying for solutions to cancer and the eradication of cancer. Pretty radical prayer but God’s a pretty radical God. Bless you all in this holiday season, all of you that are in pain, let us know, we want to shoulder…shoulder your burden, God wants to shoulder your burden. He can be your strength. You’re not alone out there. We’re all here for you.

Hi, it’s Sherry from Kansas. I am reminded of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens where two men are endeavoring to put together a fund to buy meat and drink for the poor and for the homeless because it’s this time of year where they suffer the most. I want to remind people in the hustle and bustle of the holiday to think of those who are homebound, who have no family, who have no money, who cannot even get out to look at Christmas lights and they sit at home alone and they have no one to celebrate the holidays with. If you don’t know where to find some people like that, go to the senior center or the department of aging or go to a housing project where elderly people live and think about doing something for them, maybe offering to take them out or offering to go to the store or bringing them a special holiday treat. I love you all. I know many of you already do that, but I just wanted to remind you that not everyone has family, not everyone participates in holiday, not everyone can. God bless you all. Thank you. Bye-bye.