Month: February 2020

Leap Day:

Today is the 29^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. This is the odd day, the leap day that comes around every four years. And it’s so interesting that we find ourselves preparing for the final day of our journey here and the land of the Bible and that’ll be taking place on this leap day. And in some ways that’s a happy thought, in some ways it’s a sad thought. Ad this is an important…a really important day on the tour. But since it’s the 29^th day of February, since it’s leap year day…I mean…we don’t have a specific portion of Scripture to read for today. I thought we could just talk about some of the different things that we’ve experienced. So, I have Jill here. She’s been on the tour with us and she’s gonna share and I’m gonna share, I guess. I guess we’re gonna share. That’s the plan.

Brian: So, yeah, do you have…our journey begins in the wilderness. Are there moments for you that were, that were significant in the wilderness?

Jill: The wilderness was hard. I thought I would do a little bit better acclimating this time around and it actually ended up being worse. It took me off guard and I was literally thinking, “I cannot wait to get out of the wilderness or the desert or just, you know, this phase of the trip.” Like, I said, because it was harder this time around. And I thought, “second time” I’d have it down and “piece of cake.” And it wasn’t so much. So, maybe just all of the reflections that other people have talked about just about having to go through the wilderness, but not really wanting to at all. It’d be so easy to stay stuck there. Like it really is in your face reality of how easy it would be to stay stuck instead of having to get to…to go through, to be intentionally deliberate about getting through it. So, yeah, the wilderness was hard. I love…I love the desert. I love that first day of just the vastness of nothing. I…as somebody who has grown a fondness of silence and space. I love it. I think it is just stunning and beautiful to look at. It’s mind blowing to see how far it goes on, how…how far nothing goes on for miles and miles, like as far as your eyes can see. So, there’s the stark beauty of the wilderness of the desert.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. I like when we get to the bottom of Israel, the bottom tip to the city called Eliot and it’s on the Red Sea and just looking into Saudi Arabia, looking into Egypt, looking over onto Jordan, and being in Israel, and just like, it’s…we get to that point and I realize, man we are…we are here, we are in this stark desert and it just always seems to be a moment that I always remember from all the of the different trips. And then we head north, and the tabernacle is really remarkable, because we spend so much time reading about it in the Bible. And it’s, you know, this many cubit’s, and this many curtain holders, and just all of the different things that have to be built. And, so, to have that in context makes that make some sense. And just to walk-through that is always good. And yeah. I mean the story of the wilderness on this pilgrimage is the story of the wilderness of our lives. By the time that we complete those days we’re ready for the promise land. And, so, coming into the Galilee last time you were here was a different season of the year. And, so, this year they’ve had a lot of rain. And, so, it was just gorgeous. Very, very green. What was the Galilee like for you?

Jill: Galilea is gorgeous. I am a woman who loves her garden and so to see the lush crops of Israel and how they take pride in their vegetation, it was…it just did my heart so good. And the green…there were parts of it where the hills, the sky, the clouds just melded right into the mountains and the hills and it just literally took my breath away. Valley of the doves, especially. I thought was so beautiful. But yeah, who doesn’t love Galilee, the water, the sea of Galilee? It’s just…it’s gorgeous. That’s my language. Water’s my love language. So, I just…I felt my store…my…my soul was restored in a much-needed way, especially after being sick in the dry…in the wilderness. Yeah. Loved it.

Brian: Are there any places in the Galilee that…that you felt like God was moving in your life? Like, I mean, we don’t necessarily have to go region by region that we’ve gone through. What places are gonna be memories for you?

Jill: Well, I mean I think, you know, everyone has, everyone will have a different place because we’re so individually made and it’s just different things speak so specifically to our hearts. But it got me last time and got me even better this time, Peter’s Primacy is…ahh…I’ll get teary…but it is probably by far my favorite place here. Just…and I have to say…the shore was flooded…it was so much more flooded this year than last time. And I was…I was so anxious to walk out onto the beach and sit up on one of those rocks, like I did last time and just be. And I was disappointed that the shore was all the way back to the back of the building and I couldn’t…there was only a certain part I could walk to and then I was kinda stuck. But I just looked out and it was where the sea ended, and the sky began. You could not tell the difference. And I just have these moments where I am envisioning Jesus preparing breakfast for His disciples for the…for His closest friends, for His comrades, for His…the men that He has been with through thick and thin, the men that betrayed Him and denied Him and He still chose them. And I love to cook. I love to grow food. I love to cook food for my family. And it’s probably my love language of just making people happy through food. And, so, to think that Jesus loved His own enough to go to the water and prepare breakfast. And just…I’m just…I’m out there and I’m envisioning Him calling them in, you know? Like, “it’s done.” It’s ready.” And just the whole story of, you know, Peter denying Him, and Him just asking Peter, you know, “Peter, do you love me?” And ultimately, it’s, “if you love me feed my sheep.” And I love to feed His sheep, so that…it…it sounds even kind of cheesy, but it just is so specific to my heart that it shows me that humanity of the Savior that I love so much. And then of course the boat ride. That just always takes my breath away. You know, it’s hard to kind of have intimate moments in a group of a hundred people but just being able to go to the front of the boat, which looks like the back of the boat. But to be in awe of Jesus when He got out and walked on the water. And I just stand in awe, I just stand amazed at who He is, not really what He’s done when I’m here. But it’s for who He is. And that He loves us so much. I really…I’m always awestruck at His love when I’m here because this is the place that He chose to be at, and this is the place He chose to be intentional with people’s hearts. I just love that so much…I love that I get to see up close when I’m here.

Brian: Yeah. I do too. And we just had…well you mentioned the sea of Galilee. It’s…I just can’t remember ever seeing it this full. And that's…that’s been so needed. It’s been kind of re-seeding because they’ve been having to use the water. And, so, to have a full back up, like you said, at the church, to almost all the way up to the rocks which, I’ve never seen it like that before and it’s just beautiful. And the hills are just green, and the new flowers are coming out, the yellow flowers all over the place. And, so, being at the Mount of Beatitudes and being able to read The Sermon on the Mount. That was just really meaningful. It always is, but on a lovely day it’s just really spectacular. And, so, the…the Sea of Galilee isn’t the only thing that’s full. The Jordan River has been full, and it’s been flooding down in the desert and that’s usually where we go to baptize people and this…we had to kind of move to another location…the Jordan River. And that is always one of the most meaningful things for me, but it was particularly meaningful because Ezekiel made his…made his decision to be baptized on his own. Like he…we didn’t throw him in the water. We didn’t ask him. He wanted this. And, so, to come down into that cold water, make his profession of faith and go under that water and feel the shock of it and get out and climb up on me. It was just…never gonna forget that.

Jill: Yeah. That was obviously…that was…but it’s also personal. And, so, it's…you want to share it with thee world but wanna kind of keep it to yourself too because I’m telling you that boy could not get in the water fast enough to do that. And if just people knew the back story of just the general anxiety that he has had over the last couple of years of being afraid and being away from us and just looking at us to see if it’s okay to talk to people sometimes where, “am I gonna get in trouble?” And I was trying to hold him back so he could be the last because I didn’t want him to be freezing waiting in a group of people because I love the baptisms and I want to see everybody. He would not wait to the end. He just wanted to go so bad and everyone graciously let me go to the front and watch him. And such an unbelievably beautiful moment and just walking back with him he was just smiling from ear and he said, “mommy, it feels like Jesus is hugging me.” It was just unprovoked, genuine, genuine feeling that he had, and he was…you could tell he was really proud of himself for…for making that decision. And, of course, everyone was so gracious…gracious in telling him how proud he was…they were of him. And, so, it was a really special moment here this year.

Brian: Yeah. That is…I mean that is always a highlight for me and most everyone gets baptized. So, that's…just it takes a little while but it’s just a really, really…it’s one of those moments where it seems like things start clicking, things start making sense to everybody. Like that, “I’m really here. I’m walking in the footsteps of Jesus.” And we had done the marriage…the marriage renewal ceremony before that, and that’s also amazing. It’s just amazing how meaningful something can be when you’re really trying to be in the moment with God. And being here helps with that tremendously because that’s the whole focus. And, so…

Jill: I wanted to say something about that because this is only my second time, but you said something at the beginning of the ceremony. I…I was amazed at the amount of people renewing their…their vows. But you said something at the beginning where you said just close your eyes and take a moment and think of how far you’ve come in the journey of getting here in your marriage. And that…you can feel the weight that in the room. And just being there with you…before I sat in the back and this time, I got to be up front with you. I got to see people’s faces and it was incredible, the amount of the men who were teary during that. I guess I just always think that women are far more emotional beings. But you could see the men physically moved by the weight of just that pause in that moment and that was really special to be able to see that and share that this year.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, I agree. I…it’s such an honor to be a part of that moment and be included in that moment with anybody. And to be able to do it on this trip is just humbling. And I mean there are many…we could start talking about stories in the group…just all that happens as lights go on in different places, and it’s just like, “oh. now I finally see this. I will never think about that story the same way again now that I’m walking here.” And, so…I mean…there’s a day we go up on the Golan Heights and I love it up there. It’s so fertile and it’s…there’s less people and…and it’s super super green this year. Like they’re having a really, really…it looks like a really great year. And, so, you know, getting to the Syrian border and just understanding how fortunate that we can be and just praying for those brothers and sisters who…I mean, just…they are trapped because of all kinds of different circumstances. To face outward, that’s something that’s really meaningful for me each year.

Jill: Yeah. I mean…I don't…I think we could share a million different stories and people probably just don’t want to hear about our experience but there was one lady in particular that we were in the gift shop together afterwards that just couldn’t stop sobbing and she said, “I just didn’t now. I just didn’t know that this existed.” And, so, there’s been these little moments, like you said, of awakening that you’re just witnessing in the group throughout, all throughout the grouping. I think what I love so much is that we…we don’t have to be the ones to fix it for people. I love just sitting in the questions with them and being a part of that too. There was another precious lady from our group who came by herself and yesterday she just had an “ah-ha” moment that I got to be a part. I loved that I got to be a part it with her, just witnessing it. And She said, “I’m already known. I just have to be…” And that is such…I just feel like it’s such the journey of awakening, like of…of the moment you realize it’s like, “God already sees me. He already knows me. He already loves me. I don’t have to strive. I don’t have to do. I just have to be.” And that was such a beautiful moment to share that with her yesterday right before the…the wall where we prayed together. So, really, really special moments like popping up all over the…the trip but those “ah-ha”, like being part of people’s awakening is maybe the greatest joy of what we get to do together.

Brian: There’s no question about it. And this whole thing is…is geared and aimed and tailored for God to move…like it’s…you’re right…we’re not here to fix anything that…we’re here to focus our affection and our attention and our hearts on God and open ourselves completely to whatever He has for us. And when…to bear witness to that. It’s hard actually sit here and talk about places anymore because like, you know, it’s not really a travelogue. By the time we get to this point in the trip so much has happened that our hearts are all full and our minds are all full and our bodies are all tired and it’s been a pilgrimage it’s been a long and difficult journey to someplace holy. And, so, even getting to Jerusalem and going through that, just finding how different it is from any other place on earth but any other place that we visit on this trip as well. It’s just amazing. And, so, like we’re sitting here on leap day getting ready to go through the final day together and walk in the footsteps of Jesus by following Him on his last days and I just think ahead to that and it’s been an honor to be here.

Jill: I agree. And even just like you said, you know, moments talking with people and their…the shift, just a visible shift in our son’s heart, our 19-year-old that’s with us too on this trip that just, you know, you hope and you long for that can happen on its own and only God can do and being…being able to witness that too is just, you know, does a mom’s heart good. Yes. Such beauty. Such beautiful moments, such beautiful moments in the relationships made with the people in the group together, how they care for each other, how they care for the bus driver, how they care for the tour guide, how they care for feeble and the tired and the lonely. And really, sometimes I feel like we just have to get out of the way and let them do it and it’s so beautiful to watch.

Brian: Yeah. It’s unbelievable beautiful. It’s one of the beautiful things about the Daily Audio Bible community. You, like, you can listen every day and be involved in people’s stories and praying for another and then you do get the opportunity to be around when we get the opportunity to be together. It’s the same thing and really is a beautiful thing to watch. So, I…my body is tired, and my mind is full, and my heart is full, and we have this one more day and then we’ll be making our journey home. And, so thank you for your continued prayers. This day that’s in front of us is one of the most important days and we have to live into that. It kind of puts the exclamation point on our journey together. So, keep continuing to pray for us over the journeys…the journeys home. So many of us are going in so many directions after this. But I believe that we are knitted together, and we’ll never forget the time that we had here in the land of the Bible in 2020.

Jill: I agree. So, where do we do:

Brian: dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on.

And well, we’ve just been telling you what’s been going on here. And we got one more day and then long, long journey home. And our prayer is that transformation has begun and will continue long, long, long after we return. In fact our prayer is that we won’t ever be the same again, that by compressing time and…and going through all that we’ve gone through over these last week and a half, that that will change the way we live when we reenter our lives with eyes to see and ears to hear in ways that…that we hadn’t considered before. And, so, thank you for your prayers over that.

And it feels a little weird to have…have this time on a day and not have any Bible to read. I don’t ever I guess go through a day that I don’t read the Bible. So, let me just end out time together with the 23rd Psalm, a Psalm inspired by a place, a place that we were able to see, a notoriously dangerous portion of the Kedron Valley opening up down in Jericho, the valley of the shadow of death.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointist my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for that promise and we thank you that it’s rooted. We’ve been able to even understand how that came to be said and how deeply important it is to our journey of life together with you and life together with one another. And, so, we thank you Holy Spirit for all that you’ve done and all that you are doing. Come Jesus we pray in your mighty name, we ask. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Harold this is Asia from Chicago. I am so happy to hear that you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and that, yes you are part of our family and we love you. You are my brother now and I am your sister. We’re family. I think it’s really cool that you’re running the Chicago Marathon. Maybe I can come and watch. I’ll try to like, get a sign of something and I can root for you as you run. That would be so awesome if I could see you and meet you and just like give you a hug face-to-face. So. here’s a…a virtual hug through this podcast and eventually, you know, whatever will maybe link up at some point. But I just wanted to say, so proud of you, so happy that you’re running this race with us, not just the marathon but the spiritual race that we’re running together. You have no idea how much this has blessed my day. I’m going through a lot right now and just hearing that you are now part of the family it’s seriously turning my day around. So, I live in Roscoe Village if you’re familiar with that neighborhood. And, yeah, I can’t wait to see you run. I’m gonna…I’m gonna support you dude. I’m gonna support you and I’m gonna get my…my sister and my brother, we also listen…like my actual immediate sister and brother…we also listen to Daily Audio Bible. Yeah, everybody that lives in Chicago, let’s all root for Harold. We should root for him when he runs his marathon. Yeah, okay, cool. I’ll talk to you guys later. If you could please be praying for me, going through one of the hardest seasons of my life. I’m surviving but I want to be doing more than surviving. But, yeah, God’s getting me through it. Love you guys. Be praying for me. Harold, again, love you brother. Welcome to the family. This is Asia from Chicago.

Hi everyone, this is Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada. My heart is just breaking as I heard the sister of Karen called in to say that Karen, her husband Andy, they have two sons Theo and Ben. Ben committed suicide and was found by his mom. Also, that Karen is the caretaker of her dad who’s in hospital with a brain hemorrhage and their non-Christian family. And my heart just breaks. As a parent we don’t want our children to go before us and especially in such tragic situation. And they don’t know you as their Savior. So, God of all comfort, wrap Your arms around about them, draw them close. Open their eyes to see You. Give them seeking hearts and send someone their way, Lord God who would help them to understand who Christ is and how You can be their source of strength at this time. Be with the whole family. Lord God give them wisdom, understanding. Sometimes I don’t even know what to pray. My heart is so grieving, but You know. And, so, I lift them up to You Lord God. Be with them now. Give them all that they need for such a time as this and at the end of all of this Lord may they come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. And I thank You that her dad will be healed, and he’ll be home to be with the family to help to pour out his love on his daughter and the remainder of the family. And I give You praise in Jesus’ name. If you hear a pur pur that’s my cat Nicole. He’s joining with me in prayer this morning. Bless you.

Hey family this is his little Cherry in Canada. And guys I just wanted to share something with you that I’ve discovered in the last few months. It’s called adoration. I don’t know how much time you spend specifically on adoration in your relationship with the Lord, but I would highly recommend it. It has changed everything for me in the last little while. Adoration is different than coming to God with your prayer list or having your, you know, devotion time when you read a certain amount of Scripture. And adoration is just simply getting alone with the Lord, telling Him what He means to you, loving Him, lavishing your love on Him like Mary did when she poured the ointment on Him. And I’ve never found anything that has softened the soil of my heart like adoration. And as I’ve been giving more time to the Lord in adoration, I’ve found that, although my situations haven’t necessarily changed, I feel differently about those same situations. I just feel differently about everything because I’ve turned my eyes upon Jesus and looked full in His wonderful face and the things of earth have grown strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace because He is so beautiful. He is so wonderful that simply to see Him, simply to kiss His feet reminds me that He’s the only thing that matters. So, I highly recommend family that you spend lots of time in adoration.

Today is February the 21^st, 2020 and I’m calling to request prayer meeting today. I have a saying, “today’s me tomorrow is you.” We take turns in this lifetime don’t we DAB listeners. I developed a small lump in my right breast and am going to the doctor to have it checked out at 3:30 PM. I would appreciate your prayers over me, and I will also keep you updated. And I want all of you to know I always pray for all the requests coming in and I love you all and this is Angel from California. God bless.

Hello this is Pink Paint. It’s February 22^nd and this message is for Artifact in Bakersfield California. I don’t know why but God really highlighted you to me. And my friend I am partnering with you on prayer. I’m praying for complete restoration for you, complete healing and I ask you pray for me as well and let’s watch what God does.

Today’s February 22^nd and this is Wide Spread Jesus out of Omaha Nebraska. I’m a first-time caller and have been listening since April of last year. I’m so grateful for the Daily Audio Bible app and the strong community of prayer warriors. I’ve had multiple thoughts of calling over the past few months and never have. So, today is the day. At first, I didn’t listen to the prayer wall but once I started it’s been profound in my faith. I pray with the prayer requests from day-to-day and I’m filled with great joy when I hear the praise reports. This community is truly a blessing. I’ve been praying for the Diana Davis family, specifically Michael and his brother. It’s obvious Diana Davis was an amazing woman of God that impacted many. It reminds me of my mom when I lost her to breast cancer at age 15 which was 23 years ago. Stay strong and seek God for all things for one day we will be reunited with our moms in heaven. I also want to give a shout out to Harold from St. Louis. Amen brother, welcome to the kingdom of God. I’ve been following your calls and when I heard you give your life to Jesus, I shouted out with praise and glory to God. That’s what life is all about, being disciples of Jesus and honoring the God Almighty. Thanks to Brian and the DAB community for all you do. You are all loved. All praise and glory to God. Amen. God bless you all.

Hi family this is Lori from San Diego and today is February 22^nd. I want to give all those who are struggling with sobriety a message of hope. I was like the man in the cave tortured by demons that called themselves Legion. I tried for many years to get sober. When I got a DUI and totaled my car, I knew I was going to die. So, I tried one more time. Fear is a great motivator and kept me sober for three years. But in my third year of sobriety I realized the one thing missing in my life was God. I had never given Him a chance. I had such anger towards Him because I was born with alopecia and was horribly bullied as a child. I decided that if I was going to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him that perhaps I should try to get to know Him. In 2018 I tuned into DAB every day and for the first time in my life I read the Bible. During that year I was convicted to go to the holy land, and I went on the 2019 pilgrimage. A year ago, today I was baptized by Brian in the Jordan River. I went last because I was so terrified about taking my wig off in front of people which I had never done before but my desperate need for freedom from all bondage gave me the courage. Real freedom means I have nothing false within me and nothing to hide from anybody. So, I took my wig off and I stepped into that river. I didn’t feel cold or even water on my scan. What I initially felt was unworthy and shame but when Brian dunked my head under the water, and I came back up I was freed. Everything that I believed defined me floated into the Dead Sea and I was reborn. Today I have six years of sobriety and I love the Lord with all my heart. So, my message to you is this. Please don’t give up on yourself or on God. He is more powerful than any legion of demons. Give God a chance to allow the sunlight of the Spirit into your heart. God is your biggest fan and He loves you. If He can save a wretch like me there is nothing He won’t do for you. God bless you. I love you.

Leviticus 22:17-23:44, Mark 9:30-10:12, Psalms 44:1-8, Proverbs 10:19

Today is the 28^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today coming to you from the holy city of Jerusalem where we…well…we spent the entire day kind of in and around the old city and…and all of the different things to see here in Jerusalem. Today will be escaping and going down to the shephelah, which is the lowlands for the day. So, that’s exciting. It's…it's…it’s beautiful to see the green lush open land again after being more in a metropolitan, kind of large congested area. So, that will give us a breather and get us ready for our final day of this pilgrimage tomorrow. So, let's…let’s get into the Scriptures. Let’s see what the Bible has to say to us today. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Today Leviticus chapter 22 verse 17 through 23 verse 44

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Mark today Jesus is moving around the countryside teaching, doing ministry, doing what he does, and John comes to Him with this really, really interesting situation. He’s like, “we saw somebody trying to cast out demons in your name and we tried to put a stop to it because he wasn't…he wasn’t one of us.” That is sort of the first rumblings of an issue that was…that was certainly going on among the Hebrew people but then bled its way into the early church and still continues until this very day. Even though Jesus spoke very very clearly from His own lips about how He saw it. So, like as believers, we usually kind of…we usually find a group, we might call it our church community, but we sort of find a group of friends, other believers and we…we stick together. And that’s community. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If we’re defining ourselves as believers in Jesus, we’re following the way, we are practicing our faith, knowing that we have not mastered anything, that…that we’re in process and that we’re walking with God and we’re walking together then we’re the body of Christ. It just gets weird once we decide we have to define precisely what that means. And then we get our theology books and start with our dogmas because invariably at some point we will think we have it right and someone else, some other group, some other people who don’t see things the way we see them, they have it wrong. So, the ultimate question then becomes “who gets to be in the kingdom? Who gets in? And is that something that a human being, no matter how judgmental, and no matter how much authority they seem to hole, do they have any say in it at all?” After all it is God’s kingdom. But we can get ourselves so segregated into our group that we then can’t even fathom the concept that God could use anyone to do anything that thinks differently than we do because they’re not really in. So, John was seeing somebody that they didn’t know that was not part of their group casting out demons in the name of Jesus and he tried to shut it down because he wasn’t part of the group. Same thing was going on with the Pharisees toward Jesus and now it’s in Jesus’ inner circle. And unfortunately, it’s always been with us and is still with us today. But Jesus said “don’t stop him. Anyone who is not against us is for us.” And then He went on and He had a little child and He uses the example. What He was saying was, “like anything that’s done for anyone who belongs to Christ, even something as little as like a glass of water isn’t gonna go unrecognized.” So, in our own lives may we understand that if and when we encounter God on the move, whether through a group of people or a person or something that we don’t understand, let’s quit with the labels, let’s understand that we are at a crossroads. And as we’ve been talking about in all kinds of situations, let’s understand that wisdom will be there and just the humility of knowing none of us have this all sorted out. That’s why we’re practicing our faith. That’s why we’re all undergoing the process of sanctification, the process that sets us apart and makes us holy to God. We’re all at different points in our journey. Criticizing everybody else’s journey does not further ours. It actually walls us off and it doesn’t take long before we look like the Pharisees. May we offer grace, the same kind of grace we would like to see as we love our neighbor as ourselves.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into that because what freedom it would bring, what freedom it would bring. And we confess, the reason these kinds of things usually happen is truly based in fear. We do not want to get it wrong, not with You, not with You. The implications are far, far, far too dire. And, so, we live in fear that we might get it wrong when we will get it wrong. But You have offered us an open door. We can always return. We can always repent. And that is for everyone, not just for our group. So, come Holy Spirit and give us grace. May we see the kingdom at work in our world today and may we understand that we are a part of it. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, we’re like down to our last couple of days in the land of the Bible for this pilgrimage and that’s always kind of…of a mixed…mixed feeling. We’ve been in motion for so long now and it’s just our heart…heads, hearts, just bodies, everything. We’re full, empty and tired and elated. And, so, it’s just all of that. And, so, yeah, longing to be home but hating to leave all of that just kinda comes. Yesterday, ooo, it was a long day around Jerusalem. Beautiful day, thank God. It was a beautiful, beautiful day but we…we were…we were working and we saw a lot, covered a lot of ground. I’m trying to think if I can even remember it all.

We got up early, like ½ an hour early to get in the line, queue to…to be able to go on to the Temple Mount. And that’s pretty extraordinary on a clear blue-sky day. The dome just kind of stands out. It…it’s just a really…it’s a remarkable place with definitely conflicted history all over the place over all kinds of time. But that’s kind of the nature of Jerusalem. That’s been the story pretty much all along. So, yeah, you can feel the tension, you can sense…you can sense that because it’s ancient, it’s always been. And, so, there’s just a lot of jostling around. But a beautiful morning up on the Temple Mount.

And then we came down and went to the pools of Bethesda. And this is where Jesus healed a man that had been…had been suffering there by the pools on a…basically on a daily basis for 38 years. And Jesus came along and said, “do you want to be made whole?” And that’s a challenging thing. That’s a challenging thing to consider, especially here on the pilgrimage. It’s like…it’s like so much comes down to that. “Do you want to be made whole?” Not “can you” or “should you”. Like, “do you want to this and the collaboration that happens with God when we say yes to that?” And, so, yeah, spent a little bit of time, kind of pondering that and putting it in our hearts. It’s a beautiful church from the Crusader era right there with the acoustics that are really breathtaking as well. And often it’s really full, really hard to get in there but we managed to get group in there, and Jill lead us in…in a song and just could hear the echo of our voices just bouncing all around. It’s really majestic. It’s a lot of fun to do. It’s just a really, really unique experience. It’s like you’re in a huge cathedral and you are, but just being in Israel in this ancient church and singing to the Lord and just hearing the echo of it is…is wonderful.

So, we did that and then many…many of us walked on the old walls. You can kind of walk a portion of the old walls, beautiful views and you gotta climb some stairs, but beautiful views. And then coming down and also just little small sections of the city that from the Roman era as well as like the wall, a portion of the wall of Jerusalem from the time of King Hezekiah. And that is also pretty remarkable, see how wide the wall is. Even though it’s like all buried, you know, you can’t see how high. And it’s a small section but just kind of see like, “this is…the this is what a wall at this time, a fortified city at this time would’ve look like.” And their thick. I’m thinking, I don’t know, we’re like above it, I’m thinking 30 feet maybe 35. Maybe…I don’t know. I’m not so good with that and I didn’t have a tape measure, but really really thick. So, you know, it's…it’s easy enough to imagine the kind of battle the…like the kind of ongoing onslaught that it would take to breach a wall like that. And we read of those kinds of stories in the Scriptures, especially the tactic of surrounding…like starving the city basically and weakening everyone’s morale. And there’s plenty of stories that we will encounter in the Bible about that including Hezekiah’s story when we get to it.

Then there was some lunch in the Jewish quarter and then to the Jerusalem archaeological Park, which is again, it’s…I mean there’s a lot to see but it is really spectacular. Your down below the walls of the old city. So, like the southern temple steps are there. Part of the steps that what would’ve continued up to the temple when it was there. And some of them have been re-created but some of the original steps are there. And, so, that’s one of the places that you can be where…where you’re…you have just a pretty near certainty that Jesus would’ve walked there, that Jesus would’ve taught things on those steps and would’ve been there. And, so, for us to be there and not only have that touch point with Jesus, but also to open up the book of Acts and read the story of the Holy Spirit’s coming and Peter’s first message, and 3000 people following the way of Jesus after that and being baptized and considering where…where that might’ve taken place and understanding that the temple complex is really the only place that would have that kind of resource to do that many baptisms. So, that’s a likely scenario. And just having that touch point is great. Like all these things are great by themselves and you start stacking them up and it’s really great and then just kind of following all of the archaeology around the old walls and then making our way over to the Western wall and being able to go to the wall and join with brothers and sisters all over the world and…and pray, touch the wall.

I took Ezekiel to the wall this time. I mean, we prayed and that was…that was really sweet to watch his little hand reach out and touch the wall. Probably should’ve took pictures of that, probably would’ve wanted to remember that, but it just seemed like a moment that needed to live in memory. I don’t know. Sometimes you have these moments where you’re like, “I really really should video this or I really should take a picture of this”. But maybe that, you know, maybe that ruins the whole thing. Maybe this is just a moment that we have. So, that…that…that happened and was beautiful.

Then we went into the, what’s called the rabbinical tunnels. So, a lot of archaeology has been done under the ground along the walls of the old city because the temple mount itself, the second Temple era, this is during Herod’s development phase. And he was crazy. I mean you read about it. He was crazy. But he was a fantastic developer and so much of his fingerprint on this land still stands today, including…including the, you know, the Temple Mount, the whole support system to hold up the Temple Mount, like all these massive retaining walls. But they sort of disappear. You have this like one little section of that with, you know, with the western wall or the Wailing Wall as it has been known. But it continues. It’s just, you know, the cities built up. But archaeologist have for years been working beneath the ground. And, so, you can kind of go down there and see all of that, basically walk the whole length of the Temple Mount under…under the ground and see that, “yeah, these are the same. This is the same Herodian era all the way down.” Ssee some of the Roman era. There’s opportunities where they had like glass, you could look down all the way to the second Temple period, the time of Jesus, see the street down below. So, that’s pretty…pretty fantastic as well.

And then we finally…finally got back to our hotel pretty exhausted. We did a lot of walking. But it was a beautiful day and we made it…we made it and we saw a lot in Jerusalem today and we got sort of the…the full force of the city…like the change of complexion that Jerusalem brings. So, the wilderness, very different. The Galilee, very different than the wilderness. The Mediterranean coast, very different than the Galilee. Jerusalem, very different than the cost. So, we’ve kind of experienced all of that and it’s been wonderful and today we’ll be heading into the low lands and I’ll be telling you about that tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued prayers and…over all of this…and as we prepare…even though we have a couple days left…as we prepare to reenter our world as we go home and prepare for that. Thank you for your prayers over all of that.

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 profoundly 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, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Leviticus 20:22-22:16, Mark 9:1-29, Psalms 43:1-5, Proverbs 10:18

Today is the 27^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today for the first time coming…well not for the first time ever but first time on this journey coming to you from the city of Jerusalem, the holy city. We made our…our ascent up to Jerusalem yesterday and we’re in for a bit of culture shock today. It’ll be a very, very different experience than the rest of experiences we’ve had so far because we’re in…Jerusalem as the holy city, right? But it's…it’s also a city, a large city here in the Middle East that's…that has everything a city has, and we haven’t really been in any big cities. So, things like the crush of traffic and…and all the goes with it. It’s something that’s beginning to be a part of our experience on this pilgrimage. But we can talk about all that in a little bit at the end. Let’s still ourselves and just come in out of the cold and come around the Global Campfire and let God’s word speak. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. And today Leviticus chapter 20 verse 22 through 22 verse 16.

Commentary:

Alright. Let’s talk about the proverb today. I mean just think about…think about a person in your life right now that you’re just…just not getting on with, right? Like somebody at work or just somebody you know, like it’s just…it…things are not going well. Maybe you don’t know this persons story, they’re just a coworker or something that they seem to always be after you or on your nerves for something or it is…it’s just not working out or…or maybe there’s somebody in your life that’s offended you, they…whether they know it or not they’ve offended you. And, so, you got a nice healthy weed growing in the soil of your life, this bitterroot inside of the soil of your heart. I…I feel pretty confident that we…we’ve all had these kinds of experiences before, but what do we do with them? Because a lot of the time we water that weed by just kind of reliving the situation over and over. And sometimes, like we’re replaying the conversation in a way that it never happened or we’re…we’re dreaming of a confrontation that we can have in which we say all the right things to that person, and they are speechless before us. We’re sort of like dreaming how we might have some sort of mini revenge. So, which plants all kinds of dark seeds around that seed of bitterness that we keep watering. And, so, we get pulled into all kinds of places that are not healthy for us and we’re not paying attention that we’re at a crossroads where wisdom can speak. And, so, maybe we just blow right past that crossroads and start blasting that person. Like…like we tell our friends about our day at work about that person that they don’t know, or we go out to the coworkers or whatever and they don’t know and we’re just shredding them behind their back. But while we work alongside that person, we pretend everything’s fine, everything’s good. The proverb says, “the one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.” So, the crossroads here in these kinds of situations is, “okay I’m offended. I’m hurt. I’m angry. I’m mad and I don’t think this is going to get any better. I'm…I’m done with this.” Then the crossroads is what we do next. Are we willing to become a liar and a fool over this offense.? I mean, is it really worth that? Are we gonna continue to water this root of bitterness until it’s a tree of bitterness in our lives? Are we gonna be foolish? Alandering our brother and sister and, in other words, engaging in gossip about them, that…that’s more time consuming and takes a whole lot more energy than just going and having a humble conversation and restoring relationship with the one that we’ve been offended by. And they may not receive this. They may hate you. I don't…I mean who knows the circumstances? But are we willing to be a liar and a fool over it? That’s the question at the crossroads. And, you know, I know how this goes because I am a person and I face all these kinds of things too, right? Like, we can bristle up and could be just like, “well, you just don’t understand this person. Like you just don’t understand how they are.” Proverbs she has such a way, doesn’t she? Because it’s just a simple question. Okay. Okay son. Okay. Okay daughter. Okay. Okay this has happened. Yes. It’s happened. What are you gonna do? Is this worth becoming a liar and a fool over? Let’s meditate upon that as we go through all the interactions that we are sure to have today.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. We probably have no way of even gauging the amount of trouble we’ve gotten into from our words. There’s probably no way to even count how many times we have been a liar and a fool according to wisdom’s voice in this kind of scenario. But a lot of that has been because we just…it’s our culture and it’s our ignorance but You have come today and given us the voice of wisdom at the crossroads and it’s always there and we’re just…we just often blow through but we’re learning, we’re learning to practice wisdom. And, so, Holy Spirit come, and may the voice of wisdom guide our steps today in all of our thoughts, words and deeds we pray and ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, as I mentioned at the beginning we have arrived in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is very, very different than any of the other places that we’ve been in this country. We’ve been everywhere. We’ve been all over the place. There’s really only one more region in this land that we will encounter. So, we’ve done the coast, we’ve done all the way down through the wilderness, all the way as far south as we can go. We’ve been as far east as we can go. We’ve been as far north as we can go. We’ve made it back to the coast.

And today we were kind of in the land of Samaria, basically. We left the coast this morning and then came in land before beginning to work our way southward where our first stop was Shiloh or Shiloh. And obviously an important place in the Bible. Sometimes we don’t realize how important because we focus so much on the Temple era like when there were kings in Israel and so there’s a temple in Jerusalem. But before there was ever a Jerusalem with a temple in it there was Shiloh. This was the first place, the first permanent dwelling for the tabernacle, the first capital, heartbeat, spiritual center for the tribes of Israel as they came into the land. And that went on full almost 4 centuries. So. a very very long time with a very very long story that touches many many different places in the Bible. The prophet Samuel is most notable there. But, I mean the children of Israel lost the Ark of the covenant by taking it from there into battle, which brought an end to the high priest Eli. But Samuel’s mother Hannah had prayed for a child that she could dedicate to the Lord and all of that story happens in Shiloh. And it's…it’s pretty remarkable to stand there and realize this really, you know, when the children of Israel finally did cross the Jordan and begin moving into this land and building communities in the different areas that they had inherited and that had been divided up and we’ve read all those different divisions. When this began to happen then Shiloh is the place where they go out to worship God. And, so, it’s pretty remarkable to see where the tabernacle would’ve once stood and understand that, man this is…this where the holy of holies was, this is where the ark of the covenant was. It roots you in these stories. And we had a nice day. The last couple of pilgrimages that we had gone to Shiloh it was…we were battling with the rain and cold…and which makes that place a bit more challenging to navigate but a beautiful day today. So, we were able to just kind of see it at its best and enjoy it.

And it was Ash Wednesday yesterday. So, the…the beginning of the season of Len. And I mean…I talk about lent when we go into lent, this season on the Christian calendar that points our hearts…well it’s intention is to prepare us for Easter, to prepare us for what we’re celebrating when we celebrate Easter, the resurrection of Jesus by allowing us to have a season where we understand what it cost to give us our freedom and eternal life through Jesus and to kind of sit for a season with the weight of what our sin does in our lives and how it continually pulls us from God. Like there’s no benefit, there’s like no benefit to sin. So, you know, a lot of times people are fasting things if they’re observing Lent. And fasting is part of that story. But a lot of times you’ll hear people they’re fasting candy bars or something like that when…and I told our group…you know the thing that we’re supposed to be fasting here is sin. And what we’re supposed to be doing is understanding that this season is one in which we open our hearts to God, allowing him to take out whatever doesn’t belong and to move around whatever He needs to and to put into our lives whatever He wants to as we just move through a season of openness that then allows us to sit with the cost and then move into Good Friday. And like really, really, you now, understand that this Jesus that we love and that we’re learning about, the way His ministry ended was His execution even though this was the plan. It’s…when you fall in love with Jesus then you don't…at least I can’t stand it…you know…I hate that this happened, and I rejoice. But it’s supposed to be that way. We’re supposed to sit with that so that as we celebrate the resurrection on Easter then it…it means something. We’ve walked through a season preparing our hearts and we’ve rejoiced with all of our hearts the relief of it all, the release of it all, that Christ is risen indeed, and our sins are dealt with. That's…that’s the season. And, so, a lot of times there’s an Ash Wednesday service in many different churches and you where ashes, you known, on your hands or on your forehead for the day. We just took an opportunity to…to enter into that tradition as we were getting ready to go to Bethlehem and most…most of us did

And, so, from there some launch, a beautiful lunch at a winery that we like and just preparing our hearts the crush of the urban center that we’re going into and just a very, very different culture and way of doing things. And that's…that…that’s Jerusalem and that’s Bethlehem, which is just kind of a suburb of Jerusalem.

And, so, we went to Bethlehem. And man it’s usually so crowded that if you want to go down into the grotto and see that star that commemorates, that marks this place, that…that…that believers have come to for centuries and centuries and centuries, you have to kind of wait in line. There’s other believers from all over the world that want to see this place because it’s one of the most holy places, like a geographical place. Not that that’s what Jesus was after, but it’s one of the most holy places to go to say, “this is where the Savior was born in Bethlehem.” That’s meaningful. But a lot of times there’s like…there’s churches that’ve been built up over these places and then you can go down below into earlier foundations and kind of find bedrock and see how over time, these places have been built up and destroyed and rebuilt and then destroyed again and then built stronger and then challenged again. And that’s kind of how a lot of these places are. The Church of the Nativity is like that. So, we did go into the grotto and didn’t have to wait quite as long of a line. It was pretty remarkable. And visit that spot and, then go down below into the caves where you can finally go, “okay. there were caves here. Okay I see. You know this is all built up over the top of all of this.” And we went down there. Haven’t been able to get down into their either for a couple of…of tours because just…the crush of people. You just can’t move, can't…but today we got a big group, so we take up some space, but we were able to do these things. And, so, it was nice. I haven’t been able to enjoy them myself for a couple of years but it was nice to go down there and sing a Christmas song and understand like we’re in Bethlehem and this is the Christmas story. And, so, we did that before then moving toward Jerusalem, checking into our hotel, and getting some dinner and preparing for a big long day around Jerusalem today. And I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow.

And we thank you for your continued prayers over us. We’re kind of on a more intense part of this journey, even as we’re tired and kind of have moved through a lot of travel, a lot of jostling, and a lot of heart work, and a lot of knowledge has been imparted to us, and we’ve seen a lot. And, so, our hearts are full, our brains are ready to explode. And now we get into like the more intense time of navigating around a lot of other brothers and sisters who have made their journey here from all over the world to have the same kind of experience that…that we are at some of these places. So, thank you for your prayers.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage and I thank you humbly 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, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Leviticus 19:1-20:21, Mark 8:11-38, Psalms 42:1-11, Proverbs 10:17

Today is the 26^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you. Coming to you today back on the Mediterranean coast. We began our journey, our pilgrimage to the land of the Bible on the Mediterranean coast quite a way’s south from where we are now, but we’ve made a big circle and we’re back on the coast to the north. And we’ll talk about all of that. We spent yesterday kind of in the Jezreel Valley and before this day’s over we’ll find ourselves finally arriving in Jerusalem, which is a very, very different experience than any of the places that we visited so far. So, we are continuing to move forward in this pilgrimage. Thank you for your continued prayers. Talk a little bit more about what we’re doing at the end but we’ve come here for one thing in particular and that is to hear the word of God and allow it to become a part of our day and to wash into our hearts and plant good seeds in the soil that’s there. So, we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Leviticus chapter 19 verse 1 through 20 verse 21 today.

Commentary:

Okay. In the Gospel of Mark today Jesus lays out some criteria about what it might look like if you want to follow after him, if you want to follow the way that He is illuminating and kind of hidden in plain sight in this little dialogue is something that we…we really need to think about and get a discerning heart about. So, first, let’s just kind of look at what Jesus is saying, like a disciple, a follower, like what…what they would look like. He said, “if anyone wants to follow after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.” Basically, Jesus is saying if you want to follow Me then follow me by doing what I do. And then He goes on to say, “whoever wants to save His life will lose it, but whoever loses His life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose His life. What can anyone give in exchange for his life?” Okay. So, we could say that those are some characteristics of a disciple of Jesus Christ, someone willing to deny themselves and carry the burden of the gospel when following Jesus forward in the face of the darkness, to be the light in the darkness, knowing that darkness hates the light because the light exposes what’s in the dark, knowing that going in and knowing that it will be difficult, a difficult road, that it will be costly, but knowing that this would be living as the apostle Paul said, “as a living sacrifice” that “it’s no longer we who live, but Christ who lives within us so that we are as Christ in this world”, right? So, the converse will be true. The person that…that only embellishes themselves and their ego and their identity, they won’t deny themselves, they aren’t self-sacrificial in any way whatsoever and will not carry any burden of the gospel or bringing light into the dark, they just try to protect themselves and save themselves and save their lives and save their identities, they’re gonna lose it. But whoever knows on the front end that these things, these entanglements, these attachments, these hang-ups will lead them in no way closer to Jesus. Those who know that are willing to lose that life in order to find actual life. Okay. So, you can be like, “okay. that’s a…that’s a…that’s a really good way of unpacking that so that it makes sense but I’ve kinda heard this about a thousand times in my life. I kinda get that. Well if you get it, is it what your life looks like? But let’s take this way, way deeper. It’s often that I hear people tell me or I hear stories of people saying what kind of attack they are under. Like, so I hear it all the time, “my family is under great attack right now” or “we’ve been in a season. It seems like all the dark forces are coming against us.” This is a…this is a pretty common thing to hear, especially if you’re in ministry, but by what definition are we saying these things. In other words, how is it that we’ve verified that we are under attack from the evil one who has spent special attention on us today or this week or this season and is somehow getting away with it? These things only happen when we’re facing hardship or difficulty or pressure, that the life that we want to live or the life that we’re trying to live is being thwarted and is only because we’re not getting what we think we deserve or want or desire then…then we are being…then we have come under attack. Now, I’m not saying this is not possible. I’m saying, when we find ourselves in a position, we find ourselves at a crossroads. And what we have heard from the Scripture is that at that crossroads wisdom will be there and we need a discerning heart at that crossroads. Here’s why. When we face hardship, when we face seasons of challenge and they can be deep challenges, they can be brutal at times, we all know that…like, I’m not saying anything we don’t know, life has its difficulties and challenges. This is a promise. This isn’t a surprise. This is something that we’ve been told like in black-and-white, like clear clear, clear, from the Bible. So, if we have our wits about us and we’re going into a season and we’re feeling a season like, “man the unexpected is happening and it just feels like the bottom is dropping out.” I just had a season like that last summer. I sat down on my couch one day and I said, “Jill, have you noticed that nothing…nothing is going smooth. Like everything is hard right now. Like nothing is going smooth.” I’m sure that’s been…I’m sure you’ve experienced this at times. And, so, if we have our wits about us and we understand the words of Jesus then we understand, “okay. What I’m facing here is an opportunity to deny myself and take up my cross and endure and keep walking forward, because whatever life I think I’m losing in this is life I’m going to find, it’s false. I’m going to find what’s true. The truth…the truth is that…that that would be the appropriate posture, but often these things, they will work as an attack. They work because we let them work. We let it estrange us from God because somehow, He didn’t come through. But what if He was saying, “yeah, I am coming through for you. You have no idea what I’m freeing you of through this fire. You’re gonna come out on the other side pure as gold”, right? Well, if we think God is letting us down and this whole attack thing has taking us out, then the opportunity for wisdom and growth was there but we fell for the bait and we’re estranged from God. But can we also acknowledge that the…the flipside of that coin can also be true. What if all hardship, all challenge, all difficulty that is currently in your life were removed and massive amounts of financial blessing came into your life suddenly? And your cares, because now you have…you have your feet under you and you have some power and now your cares are floating away, would you ever say to a friend, “I am really under attack from the evil one right now?” Probably not right. We would say, “no. The evidence of God’s blessing’s pouring down from the sky are all around me.” And yet, wouldn’t that be an equal crossroads, where we would look for wisdom and discernment? For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? So, if we think about the times that we have faced challenge in our lives…I mean aren’t those the times usually that we go running for God and the times where we feel like we’re in control that we drift away from God? So, what is a greater deception? What is a greater seduction? Perhaps when we find ourselves at a crossroads, either one that is challenging or one that is looking like the wind will be at our back for a while and we’ll be coasting, these are crossroads. We need discernment. When the evil one tempted Jesus, when he said, “you can have all of this. I’ll give all of this to you. You can have it all if you bow down and worship me”, right? That was the tactic, not worship me or I will have you killed. We need discernment about the challenges we face in life and we need discernment about the seasons where the challenge goes away because we can be seduced away from God either way, it’s not one or the other. We need wisdom and discernment. What Jesus told us is to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. Let’s allow that to be something that we meditate on today. What does that look like for us?

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into this. There's…there’s plenty to think about here because it’s true, we base our judgment or blessing or cursing or good or evil, kind of based on the…on how our culture informs us. And, so if it’s pleasurable then it’s good and if it's…if it’s challenging and it’s something to be endured, then it’s bad, which is simply not the case and simply not supported in the Scriptures. So, give us wisdom so that we might understand, at every crossroads the narrow path that leads to life and that we would stop blaming You for things You had nothing to do with or giving credit to the forces of evil for things You have done in our lives to free us. Come Holy Spirit we pray into all of this in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, here in the land of the Bible where we are continuing our journey, a journey inward, a journey outward, a journey in the land, all kinds of journeying is happening within us as we move about.

We left the Galilee yesterday and we made one more stop on the way out, Cursee on the northeast side of the lake, land of the Gerasene’s. There’s a story of Jesus throwing a legion of demons into a herd of swine. And, so, there is an ancient Byzantine monastery, the oldest one in Israel as I understand it there to commemorate the spot. And we just took some time there to reflect on that story. And the reality that when the people on that side of the lake saw this man who had been possessed and untamed, basically, in his right mind and swine floating in the Dead Sea, like it was deeply confusing. And obviously something significant had happened but they asked Jesus to leave. And we just kind of thought about the ways that we…we follow in those footsteps.

And, so, when we left there, we drove along the east side of the lake southward and then away from the Sea of Galilee, south to an ancient Roman Decapolis city called Beit Shean. Amazing, amazing ruins from the Roman Empire and earlier and later. And we went into the amphitheater and took some seats to kind of look out over the city and we opened the Scriptures and spoke about the death of Saul because this city, Beit Shean is named in that story. So, King Saul the first King we haven’t gotten to this as we’re going through the Scriptures this year, but we will. He went to battle with the Philistines and ended up being killed. He and his three sons were killed on Mount Gilboa. And when…when the…the next day after the battle and everybody’s coming…coming to kind of take the loot off the bodies and stuff they found Saul and they cut off his head and sent his armor away and celebrated their great victory delivered to them by their gods and the took Paul…or Saul’s body and hung it from the walls Beit Shean. And, so, some of those ancient walls exist. And, so, we just rooted ourselves there before exploring. It’s probably one of the greatest Roman era ruins in Israel.

And then we started working our way across the Jezreel Valley passing by Megiddo…Har…Megiddo…Mount Megiddo…Har Megiddo…Armageddon. And then we drove by there and then up to lunch. And then up onto the top of Mount caramel we’re you can really see a wide panorama of the Jezreel Valley and we just opened the Scriptures, again considering the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal and the show down and the fire on the mountain and the execution of Jezebel’s prophets and then Jezebel’s threat that sent Elijah on the run back into the wilderness only for God to come to him and ask, “what are you doing here back in the wilderness?” And this is really poignant when your kind of making this journey because we’ve been in the wilderness. We know what the wilderness is like, not only in our lives. We spent plenty of time reflecting on that but what it’s actually like to go through it because we just did it several days ago. So, just kind of considering that and applying it to our lives and understanding that Elijah was invited to come meet with God but it wasn’t in the wind on the mountain, it wasn’t in the fire, it just…it wasn’t in the grand display of power on the mountain. It was in the still small voice. And, so, we kinda put that in our hearts to consider as we moved down off the mountain and back to the Mediterranean coast.

And the coastal city, Roman era city of Caesarea Maritima and it’s pretty spectacular right on the coast. More than pretty, it's…it’s very spectacular just to see it, understanding the apostle Paul was arrested and carried Caesarea Maritima away from Jerusalem and held there for a couple of years and eventually making an appeal to the Emperor. As a Roman citizen he had that right. And, so, from Caesarea he sailed to Rome. So, we had a touch a bit of that story before then moving to our hotel for the evening. And a long day and ready for a good night’s sleep.

And today we will…we will be off from here and heading into the interior a little bit while making our way down toward Jerusalem and we’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued prayers, especially over stamina and fatigue. It’s just kinda starts to set in and there’s a lot going on every day. And, so, we just need the energy to finish well and have open hearts to all that God has yet in store for us as we continue the journey.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. Thank you humbly with all my heart for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app 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.

As always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello Daily Audio Bible this is Steve. I’m calling to request prayer for my son Santiago. Where currently at the hospital. He went through surgery yesterday because he fell on his bike and started puking blood but we found a perforation. The doctor closed the hole and now we just need prayer for recovery. We estimate for two weeks but, you know, we pray for God to, you know, shorten the recovery time. So, DAB family this is Steve from Texas. Please pray for my son Santiago. Thank you. God bless you.

Harold from St. Louis. Oh, welcome brother welcome. This is Heather in Atlanta, February 17^th still wet, soggy, soggy, just dreary day. You brought so much sunshine, so much sunshine. I am so glad. I’m on the side of the road just bawling my eyes out. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. I want you to know that the day that I heard your call back in January was the day that I stopped living in fear and for the first time in five years, I asked for help, I begged for help through this family, the DAB family. You were the one who I don’t know why I just something about your story made me…if this man and not even knowing Christ can pick up this phone and just communicate with someone Heather what is stopping you. And Harold thank you so much and welcome so much just welcome. There are great things in store for you. I wish I could come watch you run. Oh, Harold welcome son. Welcome. I just want to tell you I love you and thank you for everything and how wonderful it is to hear you encouraging people to call in and I look forward to the day that I get to see your face one day Harold. Welcome, welcome love. Everybody else, I continue to cover us all in prayer and I just want to say I love you. Brian and the entire Hardin family I continue to cover you in prayer throughout our journey through the holy land. I love each and every one of you. Oh Harold, oh thank you sir. Thank you. I’m gonna jump back on I 75 back north y’all. I love you everyone have a wonderful …

Hi this is Rachel from Pennsylvania let’s pray. Dear Lord, I want to lift up to You those who are struggling with sickness, those who have contracted the coronavirus and the flu virus. I just want to pray that You be with them and with their families. I pray that the viruses are contained and don’t spread to other caregivers and other family members. I just pray that You will, for those who are infected, that You will protect them and give them strength and energy, keep their fevers down. And we just pray that they do not end up needing to be hospitalized and if they are hospitalized that You’re there with them in their…in their hospital rooms watching over them. I just pray that…that…that they have quick recovery and that…that those family members that are there and exposed or the caregivers that You just protect them and that they don’t contract the virus. And we also want to lift up, I think it was El, I couldn’t understand exactly the…the full name but of child called into pray for himself and his family who contracted a cold or a virus and also his grandmother who had an injured leg. So, I want to pray for that child and his family. And I just want to lift them up to You Lord. Please heal them quickly and swiftly and completely in Your name I pray. Amen.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Dorothy. I posted on the Prayer Wall a couple times and I just wanted to give a praise report. Thank you so, so, so much for praying for me. God heard your prayers. I’m healed I mean of that medical…I see it as a general medical issue, it was possible immunodeficiency disorder that was I a genetic thing and I was supposed to get the diagnosis today to start immunoglobulin treatment monthly, which is very, very expensive, which most people cannot afford. And I’ve been crying every day and just…but anyway long story short the doctor told me today that I can make antibodies and that my immune system is like everybody else’s. And he really didn’t have an answer. And pretty much told me last month that adults don’t heal. So, I’m healed. I asked him, “can I go around licking doorknobs now” and he’s like, “ahh no. Let’s wait six…” So, they’re going to pull the antibiotics and monitor me for six months to check if I get sick but according to the blood test I’m healed. I’m a normal person and not to say…there’s a lot of things wrong with me but thank you. And I just wanted to encourage you that prayer works. And thank you so much for those that did. I love you guys. I was suicidal when dealing with this and your guy’s love for each other is…made…gave me the community I needed and kept me going. So, thank you. I love you guys so much. Bye.

Hi there, DABbers this is Vonnie in Northern California calling on let’s see Wednesday, February 19^th and I just heard Harold call in. I am jumping for joy Harold and you can’t imagine how the angels in heaven are dancing and singing over you and welcome to the family brother. We’ve all been praying for you and we’ve been inspired by your calls. And thank you so much for calling in and letting us know. We will just keep on praying for you and for others who are listening to the program and, like you said, are afraid to call in. Oh Lord, please bless Harold and take care of the others who are in such need right now Lord, all the ones that you’ve laid upon our hearts to pray for. Thank you, God for intercessory prayer for the ability to bring our needs before you. We love you God and we are so grateful for the family of God. All right have a blessed day everybody.

I was just listening to Harold the marathon runner come in and call in and tell about hearing so many people praying for him. I haven’t called in about it, but I have been praying for you ever since I heard that. And I just knew that you were going to be saved and I’m praising the Lord for your salvation. Thank you, Jesus. I love you Harold.

Hey is Kim in Las Vegas. Harold I just heard your prayer request that you accepted Christ and I’m in tears. It’s good to have you and the family. You know, it was…it’s good news to hear this morning. I needed to hear it. And God I just thank You for bringing our brother into Your fold Lord, that he’s part of our family Lord. We were pulling him in and drawing him in and You were drawing him further Lord to You and into this family. And I pray that he would lean on You Lord and he would know that he has thousands and thousands of family members around the world praying for him always Lord and I just thank You for this victory. It’s in Your son’s name I…

Leviticus 16:29-18:30, Mark 7:24-8:10, Psalms 41:1-13, Proverbs 10:15-16

Today is the 25^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and a pleasure to be here with you today. And this is the last time I get to say this, from the…from the shores of the Sea of Galilee. We will be…we’ll spending a little bit of this day in the Galilee region but we’re…we’re leaving and heading west all the way to the Mediterranean coast today where we’ll end the day. So, this is our last day and we’re saying goodbye to the Galilee. That’s always a little bit of a sad thing. This is such serenity. I…I…it’s my favorite place. I love to be in this region. So, we’ll be leaving today but we’ll talk about all…all of our moving’s around and what we did yesterday and all that in a little but let’s dive into the Scriptures for today. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Leviticus chapter 16 verse 29 through 18 verse 30.

Prayer:

Father thank You for Your word. Thank You for another day in Your word. Thank You for the way that day after day after day there’s this cumulative effect inside of us that we can feel transformation happening with in us even though we may not be able to explain it, kinda like seed and soil when the farmer doesn’t know how it happens but it does and that’s what’s taking place within us and we can sense it and we’re grateful for it. And, so, we continue to open ourselves to You. We continue to stay open to Your direction and leading in our lives. And, so, Holy Spirit we invite You to plant the word of God into our hearts, into the soil of our hearts today. And again, we invite that You help us to see where the good soil is in our heart and where some work needs to be done. Come Holy Spirit into all of this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, here in the land of the Bible, we will be leaving the Galilee today and heading essentially through the Jezreel Valley and back to the Mediterranean coast tonight. So, it’s always a little…sad’s not the right word, but it’s the Galilea’s a beautiful, beautiful and…and quite serene place and then that kinda changes as you move away from the Galilee. We had a just beautiful day yesterday, gorgeous, beautiful, perfect climate, sunshine, lovely at…and the see if Galilea’s very, very still. And the water is up so high. Some the places that we visited, it was just amazing how much rainfall, how high the Sea of Galilee is.

So, we began our day yesterday…yesterday at the Mount of Beatitudes. And this is the traditional site where the Sermon on the Mount was given. And I mean the Bible says Jesus was outside of Capernaum up in the hill overlooking the sea of Galilee and that’s with the Mount of Beatitudes, that’s where this chapel is. And, so, we just began our day there and just went to the Sermon on the Mount, just allowed the words from the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety. It’s just basically, I read it. Like, what if we were sitting here? What if we were one of them? Instead of just trying to expound on everything like, let’s just take this in. And, so, that’s what we did and took some time to contemplate it and think about it. And, I mean as we’re walking in the footsteps of Jesus and kinda visiting the places where so much of His ministry occurred, we also spent a lot of time thinking about it. And, so we did that at the Mount of Beatitudes.

And then we went to the church Peter’s primacy. This is the place where after Jesus resurrection Jesus came back to Galilee any He cooked breakfast on the shore for His friends and asked Peter three times if he loved Him and invited him to feed His sheep and we just went into that story realizing that the last words that Jesus speaks in the in the New Testament is “you follow me”. And we…we considered what that looks like, or each of us. We each have an individual story to tell. We each come from so many different kinds of backgrounds. What does that look like? What does that mean? Like, so often we’re gauging how well were doing that based on how well somebody else is doing it and our judgment of that, but we just read the Sermon on the Mount and realized that’s not going…like that doesn’t go anywhere. What does it mean personally, “you follow me”?

And then we went down to the to the water. This is a place that you can get right to the water and usually there’s kind of a bit of a beach. It’s washed away. It was remarkable how high the water is but at the same time…how beautiful…how beautiful it was. I can’t remember ever…ever seeing that much water in the Sea of Galilee. So, this is a really, really good thing for this nation.

And, so, we departed there and went to Jesus hometown, His adult hometown, Capernaum, where He based His ministry. And there’s some really fantastic ruins of the fishing village Capernaum, including a pretty dramatic synagogue that was built later after the time Jesus but…but the a foundation is from the synagogue at the time of Christ. And, so, that is always pretty striking because you can see it, you can see the foundation and just know, like Jesus ministered, like He taught in this synagogue, He lived here, He knew people here, He laughed here, He ate here, He slept here. Where in the middle of it all, but it is a ruin. And, so, it’s like kind of a disconnect there until we realize that the message that Jesus was speaking was about having eyes to see and ears to hear, a kingdom that is within us, that this journey that…that we’re on, He’s within us and this kingdom is everywhere. And, so, then we begin to look around and see brothers and sisters flooding into Capernaum to see the same kinds of things that we’re seeing ands to chase the same kinds of things that we’re chasing. But we are the kingdom. And the life it’s in Capernaum isn’t in the rocks and isn’t really even in the fact that Jesus was there, it’s the fact that we were there. Jesus was there within us. Just to kind of put that into perspective was helpful as we moved through and looked at things. And just, yeah, I mean, that Jesus lived here at Capernaum is amazing.

Then we went and had a bite of lunch before and actually did a little bit of little bit of shopping time in the Galilee before getting on a boat and going out on the Sea of Galilee and it was really truly beautiful. Many time’s that we’ve been here there’s been wind and waves and wind advisories, but it was like glass out there today. It was just amazing. And, so, we kind of sailed toward the Mount of Beatitudes where we could even see the chapel that we had begun our day in the distance up on the hill and just shut everything down, shut it down to complete silence to drink that in and to taste of it and to allow moments for the Holy Spirit to be a part of the story that’s being told here in our hearts as we move through this journey. Complete silence, serenity, just to kind of hear the water lapping up against the side of the boat and the birds coming along, circling around us and just be still and know that He is God. One of my favorite…one my favorite things to do, especially so serene. I…I’m sure I’ve been out there and it’s been that calm….I just can’t remember. It was…water was really high and it was really calm. A beautiful, beautiful day out on…on the lake.

And then from there our final stop of the day as the sun set, and probably…I'm…it’s for sure one of my favorite places in all of Israel Bethsaida. And Jesus did ministry in Bethsaida. And it’s one of the places, at least for me…and not a lot of people go there. So, it's…it’s not overrun. And in fact, we had the place to ourselves for the most part today. And, so, just to kind of have that. And just the way that the city sits and because it’s not visited a lot it’s like stepping back in time in a way. It's…it…it’s almost as if this is what it would’ve been like. This is what it would’ve looked like. The pathways that we can walk around here, this is what it would be like. And I told the story of the first time I was ever there because it captured me, and it’s never let me go. Like that place just feels as close as anywhere that I’ve been in Israel as where I feel as if things are…things are similar to how they would’ve been. And, so, even though their ruins and the buildings are knocked down, so it’s not a living city it also has been built up and developed and, you know, there’s not a big church over something. It’s just kinda there and there’s jst beautiful pathways to walk…and walk with God and just spend time considering all that we’ve been through so far this journey as we prepare to leave the Galilee.

And that’s what we’ll be doing today, leaving the Galilee and heading toward the coast as I mentioned earlier.

Thank you for your continued prayers as we continue to move through all of the different phases and seasons of this story and this pilgrimage and all the different things that are being rearranged in our hearts. Thank you for your continued prayers over all of it. We feel it, we sense it, appreciate it, are deeply grateful for it. And tomorrow, after today happens, I’ll tell you what it was like to leave the Galilee and the different places that we visited. And, of course we’re continuing to post pictures and videos on social media of all the different places that I’m describing, the different places that we went to and visited. So, you can check that out as well as Israel 2021, the pilgrimage that we’ve got planned for next year around this time. You can find all the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section, Israel 2021.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link it lives on the homepage and I thank you with all of my heart 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, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, we you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877 942-4253.

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