Month: January 2020

Genesis 3:1-4:26, Matthew 2:13-3:6, Psalms 2:1-12, Proverbs 1:7-9

Today is the 2^nd day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you as we take step number 2 of 365 steps that will lead us not only through a year of our lives together, but through the entire Bible. So, obvious, this is our second step. So, we just set sail, just kind of moving out of the harbor, land is still in sight, we’re headed out into the deep. And we realize that even as we began this journey yesterday, even on day one, the Bible gives us plenty of things to consider. And, so, here we are now to take the next step, day two. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week and our next step is back into the book of Genesis and we’ll read chapters 3 and 4 four today.

Introduction to the book Matthew:

Okay. This brings us to the New Testament, and we began the book of Matthew yesterday, but we didn’t spend any time kind of flying over it or just kinda understanding the context of it very much because we were focusing on Genesis. And we’re just kinda getting moved in, we’re just getting moved into this year. So, let’s talk about Matthew for a second before…before we read it. So, Matthew is obviously the first book found in the New Testament but…but Matthew is part of a grouping of four books that are the first four books of the New Testament. These are called the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and they each give us an account of the life of Jesus. So, we get this wonderful benefit at the beginning of the year to begin moving our way through the Bible alongside of the stories and messages of Jesus our Savior. Matthew was one of the apostles of Jesus. So, Matthew…well…he was eyewitness, rights? He had first-hand knowledge of the events that…that he recorded in the book of Matthew. And Matthew had a…had a radical transformation in the presence of Jesus, previously had been a tax collector. So…so, he was not well-liked socially but then this Rabbi comes along to this person who is not liked socially at all and invites him to come and follow him. So, he does. So, this…this first witness, this first gospel of the life of Jesus that we have, Matthew, is coming from a man who had a decent life. Although he was not well-liked, he had steady reliable paycheck. He was working for the Roman government and there were plenty of perks that went along with that. He was pretty much able to abuse the people by extracting taxes that were more than they owed kind of at will. So, although he was not like he was fairly well connected and was making some money. And he left, he just left, he left it all and took the leap of faith to follow a man that he believed was the son of God. So, that’s who’s writing us this book. That’s the story that’s being told and the story is…it is aimed at Hebrew people, so Jewish believers. And the Hebrew Scriptures we…we would we would understand them as the Old Testament today. And the gospel of Matthew quotes from the Old Testament more than any of the other Gospels do because the book of Matthew, it seems that its mission is to show Jesus fulfilling the Mosaic law and fulfilling the prophecies of one to come, a Messiah, an Anointed One, a Deliverer. And we’ll get to know this Jesus pretty well in the book of Matthew. There…there are over 20 parables. These are wisdom stories that Jesus told, and we’ll encounter them. And Jesus also begins speaking about something that we won’t really stop speaking about the entire year and that is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus said that it was near and that it was now that it was happening and that it was present within and among us. And we’ll talk about that. But for now, that gives us a little bit of context for…for the territory ahead in the book of Matthew. And, so let’s get to that. Today we will read chapter 2 verse 13 through chapter 3 verse six.

Commentary:

Alright, there are probably a number of directions we could go in today, plenty of things to talk about but we probably need to stick in the book of Genesis because we saw a story today that…that…that changed…that changed the story, that changed everything and affects us today profoundly. So, yesterday we had this little rare glimpse into a time of perfection and then today we saw that come to a close. So, like, we don’t have to go blow-by-blow, this is one of the most famous stories in the Bible. So, there’s a serpent, there’s a tree and there’s a man and there’s a woman at that tree looking at that tree and there’s a serpent’s asking questions. “Did God really say you couldn’t do this”, right? “Did God really say you…you can’t eat this?” So, he’s responding, “yeah, he did say that, that we can’t eat it, we can’t touch it, we’re not supposed to do any…anything like this or we’ll die. Okay. What we are about to see is a shift in consciousness, a shift in awareness of how things work. So, prior to this event, Adam and Eve, God’s children, His first children are in complete union and intimacy with Him, in fellowship with Him, they don’t understand the concept of separation from God. They’ve never known anything like that. It’s not a category for them. The idea that…that rebellion against God, disobedience, would carve a chasm between them and God, like they had never experienced sin or its repercussions. They wouldn’t even have known what…what that was or wasn’t like. They’d have to have faith that sin existed because they had no experience with it other than God’s warning, “don’t eat…like…like…you can have whatever you want, I’ve made this entire place for you to explore and enjoy and steward and care for, and you can have it all, except this one tree, this one tree with this one fruit.” So, a couple of really important things to just kinda begin to wrap our minds around because they affect our journey through the Bible continually. So, this tree. It’s really easy to wrestle inside of our minds about this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why put a tree with…with such dire consequences in front of these people to tempt them when they don’t really know what’s going on? So, what’s the point here? What's…why the tree? And now we have to take a step back and just explore love and just explore relationship. And those things we as human beings are still experiencing and so we…we all know what these are. And, so, we know that love is not something that can be coerced out of some…someone, right? Like you could not enslave a person and…and…and be brutal to them and tell them that they will not stop receiving this kind of treatment until they love you, right? Because that person’s going to do whatever…like at some level they will behave in whatever way they think you want them to behave, but that wouldn’t actually be love. That would be modifying behavior to look a certain way to simulate whatever the aggressors trying to get. Love, like actual love is something that can only be given freely. Like, you can’t sell your love. You can sell your body. But that…that’s not selling love. You can’t sell love. Love is given, its freely given and requires a choice to love. And love does not enslave, love actually can’t be love if there is no way out of it, right? Like if there is no way out, well then, you’re entrapped and that isn’t love. So, God creates humanity on this planet, created in His image and He loves them, but true love has to be given back freely and love isn’t love if there is no way out. And, so, we have this tree in the garden and God’s simply saying, “just don’t eat this. Just trust me in this one thing. The rest of the world is yours, its your playground, its perfect, its how I intended it to be for you, just don’t eat this one thing. This is their way out and they took it. And what I said a second ago, that what we are reading here in the third chapter of Genesis is a shift in consciousness. I mean, I know that sounds kind of…kinda weird, like “okay…okay what…what kind of spiritual path are we gonna be walking here as we walk through the Bible here?” Let me just go back to the Scriptures here and let’s look at this story. The serpent told Eve after she had replied that they shouldn’t eat it or touch it, or they’ll die. the serpent said you won’t die, which is a complete contradiction to what God said. So, all of a sudden, this possibility of a different reality is introduced and then the serpent attempts to describe what that reality would be like. And I’m quoting from the Bible. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon you eat it and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” So, the serpent is fundamentally saying there is another reality that God has kept from you, has withheld from you that you are not aware of. This God is maybe keeping secrets from you, things that you might need to know, things that you should probably be aware of. And He doesn’t want you to eat from this tree now because you’ll die because you will become aware of things that you are not aware of. You will have a shift in consciousness or in awareness. And, so, they ate. And I am again quoting the Bible. “At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.” Okay. So, in fact their consciousness shifted, and they became aware of things they had not been aware of before and the first thing they felt was ashamed. And the next thing they did was figure out how to cover themselves. Boom! That is how life on earth is lived today – naked, ashamed, and trying to hide. Look at your own life and see if it’s not true. Heck, look at the technologies we use, look at social media, a wide-open platform for us to lie about our lives, to curate our lives and make them look like they are different or better in some way than they actually are. But that’s just like a modern iteration. And believe me, I’m not like bashing social media, we’re on it too. All I’m pointing out is, look how easy it is to hide. And here’s the thing about hiding, you can’t be known if you’re hiding. And the thing is, we as people created in the image of God deeply, deeply desire to be known and understood and accepted. In fact, that’s why we hide. Because we believe that if all were revealed then that the end of us. And we’re not realizing that we are all, everyone, we are all trapped like this. The good news though about that is that there actually is good news about that, and we will be exploring that good news as we continue forward into the life of Jesus.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You. We thank You for bringing us successfully into this new year. And here we are, this brand-new year, we’re just moving in and You are already…You are already right here with us explaining things, unpacking things and helping us to move forward and we are so grateful. And today we…we did, we witnessed something very, very sad, something that really, really changed the course of humanity, and we acknowledge that we can see those repercussions, like it…we see this now. And it’s easy for us to just go, “okay, let’s move from there to Jesus and let’s find how I get my salvation”, but we’re pausing here for a second Father and acknowledging the heartbreak that You must’ve felt in these moments that we read about today where You had loved and given of Yourself and in some way it was communicated that You aren’t not enough. And, so, humanity, we…we have run around trying to fill every void and prepare for every eventuality with all of our knowledge of good and evil and we have filled our heads with knowledge that is simply not revealing Your kingdom. We are not moving forward without You because we can’t. And, so, we bear witness to a very, very, very sad scene that we find in the Bible today and we invite Your Holy Spirit to allow us to sit with the repercussions and understand and begin to understand the story that we are getting ourselves into as we move forward into the Bible. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that’s the website and that’s we’re you find out what’s going on around here. And I mentioned that yesterday, just…just to say get…get familiar there with what…what’s going on. That’s…that’s the portal into the community, its one of the ways that we stay connected.

Another way that we stay connected is that this is a community that over the years, has…has really left me in awe od and all of how well we pray for and love one another. And, so, I just want to share a couple of different ways to reach out in that way.

At dailyaudiobible.com, in the Community section, there is a link that says “Prayer Wall” and if you using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can just press the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and get there as well. And the Prayer Wall is…is sort of like an ever-present place to go for prayer and to offer prayer. So, use that as a resource if you’re shouldering some burdens that you just shouldn’t carry by yourself. There is a community of brothers and sisters who are on the same journey moving through the Bible together that will pray for you and in turn ask that you will pray for them. So, the Prayer Wall is a great resource for that.

And then another way is…is what you hear at the end of a Daily Audio Bible, when you hear the voices and the stories and the struggles and the joys of life inside this community as we move forward. And there are a couple of ways to access that. The primary way would be using the Daily Audio Bible app. There is a little red Hotline button that lives at the top of the app and you press that button you’re able to share right from within the app, but if you prefer the phone, there are several numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas 877.-942-4253 is the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number. And if you are in Australia are that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

So, that’s kind of our little lesson for today. This is a community certainly desiring to work through the Scriptures and talk about it and do that in a year, but it is also a community of prayer and love and acceptance for one another. So, check that out. Check out those resources. If you’re kind of curious about what you can or can’t say in a prayer call, you can….I mean there aren’t that many rules, but you can see that at dailyaudiobible.com in the FAQ section.

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 thank you profoundly, humbly for those of you who have clicked that link over these years. 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 have prayer request or comment, you can dial any of those numbers that I mentioned a second ago or 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello DAB family, hello Brian and Jill and Merry Christmas to everyone. This is Tracy calling from Edmonton Canada. I would like prayer for something that I’m doing for Christmas. My family is all coming over, I’m hosting everyone for the Christmas dinner and we weren’t going to be exchanging gifts and I just felt strange about that and I remembered that I had purchased about 10 copies of the Sneezing Jesus hoping that I would either do a Bible study or something. Anyway, I realized I have these and so that is what I’m giving out to each of my family members most of whom are not saved. So, my prayer request is that you just pray over these books and the people that I am giving them to that they will see Jesus in this new light and that there will be opportunities for the Holy Spirit to speak within them and that they may reach out back to me if they have questions or want to talk about it. But I left it as no pressure. So, I would love prayer for that. I would love to see all of my family members come to see the glorious faith and the saving power of Jesus. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s and we will be talking and listening in the near future. Thank you. Bye for now.

Good morning DAB family it’s Terry the trucker it’s Christmas Eve morning and I am in Brady Mississippi heading to the house, 6 ½ hours and I’ll be home. So, Merry Christmas to each and every one of you. I’m a little late, but better late than never. Annette Allison, congratulation on your grandbaby. So glad to hear that all is going well despite the circumstances under which the baby was born. That is truly a blessing and I pray that continue. Diane Olive Brown, my heart broke when I heard you just start speaking. I could tell by the sound of your voice that something wasn’t right. You broke my heart to hear what you said. I lost my dad many years ago. I was at my anniversary dinner with my wife and I got the call, unexpected but nonetheless very painful. But to know that someone is in their last days makes it harder. I pray that you get to go spend time with him and I pray that God comforts you. Just like you said, God don’t ever leave us, we know He’s there. But we’re human. It’s hard. It’s not to hurt and be sad. So, I want you to know I’m lifting you up in prayer. I’ll be praying for you daily. I love my DAB family and I’m praying for each and every one of you. God bless you.

This is Lori from Central Ohio and I’ve been listening often on for a few years, but this is the first year that I have successfully maintained through the entire year. As Brian chose the word maintain this year, I initially thought I’m just going to maintain, I’m going to maintain a job I was considering stepping away from, I was going to maintain a number of things but what I did not realize at the time was it was to maintain growing closer to God. This year brought the DAB supporting me through my sister’s cancer, Joni, and her death. It has brought me through strength as my son has faced legal issues. Thank you for your support and your love and your prayers. Blessings to you throughout the rest of this year and the new year. And I also want to encourage you to give a one-time gift between now and the end of the year. Just considering it like another stocking stuffer or Christmas present and let’s flood the DAB with one-time gifts between now and the end of the year. Blessings to you friends.

Hey…I’m calling in for some…some prayer requests and my name’s Jim I’m from Ohio and I’ve been a DAB listener…gosh it’s going on 10 years now and I just…it’s Christmas Eve so I want to wish everyone a blessed and happy Christmas. A really good friend of mine I’ve known for a long time way back from our days in the Marine Corps, his wife Gina is…went into the hospital last night and she had a brain aneurysm and she was in the OR for seven hours and they still aren’t able to correct it and she’s…she’s in a very tough situation. And Glen, my friend, he’s her husband and their two daughters are the same age as my two daughters and their college students. They’re really going through an awful lot right now, especially Christmas Eve. I just came from the hospital and she…she needs a lot of prayers and their family. So, yeah, just please pray for Glenn and Gina and her daughters Holly and Chloe. And, so, yeah, that’s, that’ I what I wanted to do, just ask everybody to pray for them. Thank you and have a very Merry Christmas. I love you DAB community. Thank you.

Good evening DABbers this is Running Desperately to Jesus. I’d like to welcome Daniel from Illinois into the family. You have chosen an awesome family Daniel. You will find so many people and so much love until it’s overwhelming sometimes. Although you will never…maybe never see everyone, maybe you will and never know who they are, but you will feel as though we are standing right there with you. We pray with you, we cry with you, you and your wife. We listen to each other’s burdens. We give words of encouragement and this is such an awesome family. If we had to make up a family, this is the family that I’ve chosen. So, Daniel, welcome again, Daniel from Illinois. This is running desperately to Jesus.

Good morning this is Marilyn calling from Farmington New Hampshire Merry Christmas to everyone and this is really a thank you to Brian and the DAB but thank you Brian for your amazing commentary this morning on Christmas day. In fact, I cried the whole time while you did your commentary but is just really touched something deep and my…my soul really resonated with everything that you are saying like I’m sure everyone’s. It was just like…wow! You blew it out of the park Brian. It was the best Christmas message that I could’ve heard because I know that you are making all things new in our family in my…in our blended family in our children. I know that you are making all things new. And there’s a groaning, such a groaning in my heart and my soul to just go deeper. And anyway, I’m just saying thank you Brian because that was just like, wow! It was an awesome Christmas message. Merry Christmas to everyone. I love DAB I’m so grateful for this and love you all. God bless. Bye-bye.

Genesis 1:1-2:25, Matthew 1:1-2:12, Psalms 1:1-6, Proverbs 1:1-6

Today is January 1^st welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian happy New Year everybody it’s great to be here with you. Welcome aboard. We are about to set sail on a journey that will last a year. We will travel all the way around the sun, and as the earth travels all the way around the sun, we will make our way through the entire Bible and the Bible will invariably touch every aspect of our lives. So welcome, welcome aboard and for those of you returning for another year and another voyage, welcome back. I am so glad to take this journey again with you, it is beyond words. And for those of you who have found your way here somehow, whether somebody invited you or whether you just stumbled upon this, whatever the path you’re here and in the coming days and weeks you will find out that that is that is meaningful. You are embarking on a journey that will in fact affect your life in a positive and profound way. That’s what the Bible does. So welcome, welcome, and happy new year and off we go. And every time that we begin a new journey, and this is the 15^th journey through the Bible, so this is the first day of the 15^th year the Daily Audio Bible. We have we been working our way through the Bible seven days a week for 14 complete years, seven days a week without stopping. So, this year will be no different, but this year will be very different because every year is very different. And I as we kind of settle into the rhythm that will take us through the year these first few days, we just kinda need to get acclimated to how this all works. So, I’ll be sharing some different things each day for the next, I guess about, week until we get all those things covered and then we’ll be sailing smooth out into the deep beyond the shore. But today this is our launch day and we will launch at the beginning and the way that the Daily Audio Bible works is that we will read a portion of the Old Testament, a portion of the New Testament, a portion of Psalms and a bit of Proverbs every day as we take steps forward every day through the Scriptures. So, today is a rare day because we’re gonna be starting four different books - Genesis, Matthew, Psalms and Proverbs. And every time we encounter a new book we usually just take a step back, get a little context, understand what the story is, understand who the players are, who the voices are, what’s going on, why it’s being written - so that…so that we can put ourselves in the position of the early hearers of these writings and understand how they applied to their lives so that we can more adequately interpret how they apply to ours. So, we won’t talk about all four of the books that we’re beginning today, we’ll take one at a time over the next couple of days and just get our bearings. And, so, let’s begin at the beginning, which is the book of Genesis.

Introduction to the book of Genesis:

And the book of Genesis is famous because it contains the story of creation. And, so, often if you’ve never taken a journey through the Bible or read the book of Genesis before you think that’s kind of what’s in there. The…the very very early stories of early Earth, the early creation stories. But what’s interesting but Genesis is that this book covers more time than any of the other books in the Bible, about 2500 years pass between the beginning and ending of the book of Genesis, which ironically is more time than the rest of the Old Testament combined. So, there’s a lot more to Genesis than the story of creation. Like, the first 11 chapters of Genesis will cover a couple thousand years and a couple thousand miles before…before slowing down the warp pace and then beginning to focus on several specific generations of people who we need to know and we actually need to know well because they and their ancestors shape the rest of the Bible and continue to influence our world all the way till today. And Genesis is also a part of a group of writings, a larger group of books that…that encompass the first five books of the Bible which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And it’ll take us a minute to come carve our way through all those books, but this grouping is called the Torah or the Pentateuch. And we’ll discuss that more as we continue our journey forward through the next days and weeks in front of us. But we’re at the beginning so let's…let’s go. We’re reading from the New Living Translation for the remainder of this week. And today, Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as you can see, we have begun our journey in the book of Genesis, and we talked about what the book of Genesis was going to tell us. But man, even in today’s reading alone there’s so much for us because we have a baseline now, we have an origin story. We are told that we are intentionally here, God created us in His image and allowed us to be here as His children upon this planet. And we have a rare view, actually a very, very rare view that can pretty much only be found here in the first pages of the Bible and that is a look into how things were supposed to be, like how this was supposed to go. Genesis has given us a little peek into a time when things were perfect, a time when things were as they were meant to be, a time that things and every life was whole. And obviously, you know, we don’t need to look too far to understand that there is brokenness everywhere, including inside of ourselves at the moment and that we can’t look at the world and go, “oh, its as it should be, its whole.” So, this little view in the book of Genesis, at least gives us a glimpse into when things were as they were supposed to be. And this is what our hearts are souls deepest longing is after - wholeness, completeness. There’s a word, a Hebrew word that kinda seeks to…to say this and it’s a popular word, shalom. I mean, if you’re living in Israel and say shalom, that’s a way of saying hello or a lot of times it’s interpreted, peace, like peacefulness. But it’s like the deepest origins. The deepest meaning here is, wholeness, completeness and the Bible has given us a picture of what that looks like. And it should call out to the deep places inside of us because we are longing for this. Like, we spend the majority of our lives trying to make arrangements for ourselves to feel, at least, to feel whole. So, like, we’ll rearrange all the furniture in our lives, we’ll get rid of people, we’ll bring people in, like we’ll change jobs, this that and the other, all in an attempt to make things more comfortable and better and more whole, at least in our view. And yet, we have to acknowledge there’s a God view of what wholeness looks like and it’s a bit different then what we think it looks like. And the Bible will do a really good job over the course of this year, poking and prodding and challenging and questioning and giving us continual opportunities to consider the path that we’re on because the Bible continually will bring us to a fork in the road. We will encounter so many forks in the road, I don’t even know how many there are. Just continually, we will come to a fork in the road where we are given an illuminated path to destruction and an illuminated path to life and then we get to choose which path we’re going to walk on. And, so, right here on day one, we gotta get in our minds that what we do matters. And we will explore that a bit more tomorrow.

And then as we began the New Testament today, and we’ll talk about Matthew tomorrow as we get into tomorrow’s reading, but we can see now that we read the genealogies of Jesus. And its funny.  Genealogies are like notoriously like glaze your…your eyes glaze over, your mind checks out, “what are all these names in the Bible about?” And we will certainly be talking about that as we go further, but these names are all people we’re gonna meet along the way. Many of them were kings of Israel and we will meet them when we get to the books of Kings, but Matthew is trying to establish Jesus genealogy for…for reasons, and we will see this as we go forward because the book of Matthew, the mission of this gospel is to show how Jesus fulfills prophecies that had long been foretold but I don’t want to jump ahead of ourselves. We’ll talk about that some more tomorrow.

We also began the book of Psalms today. And how’s this for day one, in terms of advice for life. “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners or join in with mockers, but instead they delight in the law of the Lord meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit in each season leaves will never wither, and they will prosper in all they do.” You see the forks in the road that I’m talking about. There’s one right there. You can follow the path to destruction by following the advice of the wicked and hanging around with sinners and joining in with mockers or you can follow a path that will allow you to prosper in all that you do. And that path would be delighting in the law of the Lord and meditating on it day and night. And become like a tree that’s planted by a riverbank, right? The water source is right there. And, so, your bearing fruit and your leaves don’t wither, and you prosper. It’s right there, and it’s worth just spending some time today silently or in prayer just asking, “God help me see these paths, help me know the way to walk, help me to delight in you, help me to be like a tree planted along the riverbank, that's…that’s what I’m looking for, wholeness, fullness. So, there’s some things to think about there.

And Proverbs will, on a regular basis, give us like one sentence that says volumes if we will slow down and think about it. And we will talk about that some more as we move forward.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for allowing us to cross the threshold into a brand-new year and beyond that into a brand-new decade. This really is a fresh new starting point and everything that flows from here is going to be borne out by the choices that we make. And here at the beginning of this decade we are inviting Your Holy Spirit to come and lead us into all truth. This is what the Scriptures say You will do. We are told of a narrow path that leads to life, and few find that path. And we, Lord…Lord, we want to be one of them and we will never find it on our own. We were never meant to find it on our own. And, so, come Holy Spirit, be a light to our feet, a lamp to our path leading us a day by day forward in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And that is something that you’ll hear me say just about every day because…because we are a community and we are wrapped all around the world and there are tens of thousands of us here. We actually kinda get to know each other and a feel connected in spirit as we go forward, but we’re still…were still wrapped all over the world in every conceivable time zone. And, so, dailyaudiobible.com is this portal, it’s like home base for a virtual community like this. This is where you find out what’s going on around here. So, check that out. I'll…I’ll talk about different aspects of it as we can move into the into the decade together, but that’s a good jumping off point for today. That’s a good thing to get familiar with and find out what’s going on there, but mostly I just want to talk about beginnings, new beginnings.

Yeah, this is the beginning of year, 15 but this is a new beginning for me. And you may have been here for the last decade or the last year. This is a new beginning for you. And you may have stumbled here today by accident or maybe just the last week, couple weeks, been thinking a little bit more deeply about your interior life. You know, your spirituality, what’s actually going on inside of you because what’s going on outside of you can be chaotic and…and…and confusing. And, so, when you’re confused inside and you’re confused outside then pretty much confused and that can lead into all kinds of really, really challenging and dark places. I don’t know how you got here. You may have got here because you jumped off the ship yesterday and re-boarded for a new year or you may have just accidentally come here today. I just…it doesn’t matter how we got here, we’re here right now and this is the first day of a  new decade and the next 10 years can be profoundly different than the last ten if we’ll want them to, if we’re willing to allow God’s word to unpack us instead of us trying to unpack it. You may be listening today thinking, “oh my gosh, I cannot believe I’m going to listen to something religious. Like I…I can’t. I don’t like those kinds of people and I’m not so sure about their Jesus. I don’t know. I think…I think what I’d like to say to you…I think what I’d like to say to everybody is, don’t believe everything you’ve been told. We’re going to go through the Bible. We’re going to read every word of it together and we’re going to talk about it and at the end of this we’re gonna know what the Bible says and we will have wrestled through whatever we need to wrestle through, but my own faith journey is one in which I realized one day, “I don't…I have been professing my faith for a long time. I’m not sure I know God, because everything that I’ve ever been told about God is something somebody else told me.” And that is what brought me to the Bible all these years ago. I thought, “I’m…I'm…I’m searching…I’m searching for God and yet I'm…I’ve never read this book called the Bible that apparently my entire future hinges upon. I…I just know the famous verses that everybody quotes. I don’t know why they were said. I have no idea what’s going on in that book. All I know is every time I’ve ever tried to get into the book it’s like, “what is going on?” And I just didn’t understand but I decided I’m gonna read this book with an open heart and open mind and I’m in read this book as if God will speak to me. And if I read this whole book, and He doesn’t speak to me, and there is no God, and there is nothing out there, then I read one of the most famous books in the world. Everybody should read it. But that’s not happened. What I found is that God created us in His image and never intended to be separated from us, and in no way desires any kind of separation from us and we will see the lengths He’s willing to go to. And, obviously, you can go, “well, you’re just pointing to the cross, blah, blah, blah. That’s obvious.” Oh, you’re gonna see a lot more ways that God is incredibly intentional about staying connected. The reason we have a Bible, is because God was unwilling to be left out of our story. The Bible isn’t the biography of God. If you take people out of the Bible there is no Bible. This is the story of God with us. So, it really doesn’t matter how you got here. You are here and everything after this is what matters. 365 days from today we will be beginning a new year. What your life looks like when you begin that new year, 365 days from now is going to be made up of the choices and decisions that you make. The Bible can really, really help with that. So, I…I welcome you. I am thrilled to take this journey together. I am thrilled that you are here no matter who you are, no matter where you are, no matter what time it is, no matter what’s going on, no matter how it is that you got here. This is a new day. This is a new year. This is a new decade. Let’s live into this with all of our hearts.

Song:

Cold - Leslie Odom Jr.

You lost yourself on empty promises
Broken on the way
All you’ve ever known are dishonest men
Who don't ever change

So you're keeping all your secrets
By you wrapped up tight
You’re who I believe in
So why say goodnight?

Don’t listen to all you’ve been told
You can come in from the cold
And you know the safest place to be
Is right here next to me
Won’t you come in from the cold?

Wanna help you ease the feeling
Weighing on your mind
You’re looking for a reason
Running out of time

You’re keeping all your secrets
By you wrapped up tight
You’re who I believe in
So why say goodnight?

Don’t listen to all you’ve been told
You can come in from the cold
And you know the safest place to be
Is right here next to me
Won’t you come in from the cold?

I know your heart’s telling you, “Run now”
Run so far away (Run so far away)
The self is trying to reach out (Trying to reach out)
Shine a light into the grey (Light into the grey)
I know how hard it is to take a chance when it calls your name
So I pray (I pray, Oh I pray, I pray)
I pray

Don’t listen to all you’ve been told
You can come in from the cold
And you know the safest place to be
Is right here next to me

Won’t you come in from the cold?
Won’t you come in from the cold?
Won’t you come in from the cold?