Leviticus 24:1-25:46, Mark 10:13-31, Psalms 44:9-26, Proverbs 10:20-21
Today is the 1st day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you. It’s always fun when we begin a new week and a new month at the same time. And this is one of those days where we get like a complete fresh reset to live into a new month and live into the first week of that month. And, so, let’s do it with all our hearts. So, coming to you for the final time, from the holy city of Jerusalem. We concluded our…our journey our tour of the land of the Bible yesterday. I’ll tell you about that in a little bit and today will be the long, long, long travel back. So, thank you for your continued prayers over all of that – the…the travel and the reentry and all of the jet lag and there’s kind of a collapse that happens. I don’t know if it happens to everybody, but I think most people. You finally get back to your own environment and, yeah, it just starts…finally, you’re kind of like, okay I’m in super familiar surroundings and so much has been going and you’re just like, ahh…collapse I guess is the right word. So, that’s out in front of us and thank you for your prayers over that. But let’s do what we have come to do on this first day of the third month of the year. We’ll read from the English Standard Version this week. Leviticus 24 verse 1 through 25 verse 46.
Prayer:
Father again, we thank You for Your word and here at this threshold of a brand-new shiny week and a brand-new sparkly month we are grateful that You have brought us successfully through each and every day of the first two months of this year. In some ways it’s hard to…it’s hard to comprehend that we’ve…it just feels like it was just New Year’s, but here we are entering the third month of the year and by the time we finish this month, well things…things will be…begin to show signs of change and we will be moving our way into the springtime. And, so, we mark where we are. We’re here now and we’re grateful for all that You’ve done in our lives through Your word so far. We can feel the changes happening in our hearts and we are so grateful. And Father as we end this time in the land of the Bible here in Israel and prepare to make our journeys for…for us here all over the world to different places and for us personally traveling back to the United States and making our way back into the rolling hills of Tennessee, we…we thank You for giving each and every one of us the traveling mercies that we need and the strength and the stamina and the health that we need. Come Holy Spirit into this month we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
Okay. So, as I mentioned at the beginning, yesterday was the last day together on our trip and the last day is centered in Jerusalem and its oriented around the final…the final steps…the final days of the life of Jesus. And, so all of the kinds of places that we read in that narrative that’s the places that we were…were visiting, like the Mount of Olives. And just walking down the Mount of Olives and seeing Jerusalem and kinda putting ourselves in the position of Jesus coming into the city. That…that would’ve been the way He came into the city across the Mount of Olives and then He would’ve seen the temple and then, you know, the Bible says He wept, “oh Jerusalem…Oh Jerusalem. How I long to gather…gather you and you weren’t willing”. And, so, just to kind of be on the Mount of Olives looking down upon the…the Temple Mount. Of course, the temple was destroyed back in A.D. 70, so the dome of the rock is there, but just to…that’s where the temple was. So, to be able to look across there and I don’t know, you put yourself in the position of Jesus and you realize that the weight of the world, maybe the weight of the universe is on His shoulder. He’s just…He longed for them to understand and they weren’t ready, and He was going to bear the suffering before Him. So, it’s just kinda stuff like that and then on down to the bottom of the Mount of Olives into the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed, “If there’s any other way to get this done, if there’s any way for this cup to pass.” And the chapel that is built there at Gethsemane really is…it’s one of…I think it’s one of my favorite chapels that…I mean there’s many ornate beautiful unbelievable chapels but just because the architecture is so centered around the…the moment…the moments that…that happened in Gethsemane. It’s dark it's…it’s made to be dark. It’s made to be silent. It’s beautiful. It’s got this huge beautiful blue roof with this gold all around…it’s beautiful but it’s sobering. It’s meant to be like, yeah, you’re walking into a place, this is the place where Jesus was arrested. This is a somber place to commemorate. And, so, we spent some time there and then the quarter of Caiaphas the high priest, the ruins of this which is kind of across the Kedron Valley from the Mount of Olives, where Jesus would have been brought after having been arrested, there's…there’s ruins that still exist. And, so, and there’s a chapel there too. And again, it’s breathtaking. All of these…these chapels that are built in some of these places are…well they’re meant to be places of contemplation. So, you walk into them and almost against your will whether you’re paying attention or not your eyes are drawn upward to the ceiling and that’s the intention, like, that’s the intention of it all, so that you sit in quiet and your eyes are lifted and you’re just kind of in a space that’s designed to speak to your heart that there’s way more…like that there’s this vast spiritual realm, there’s way more going on. And, so, so that’s great. And then you can kinda move down because this is Caiaphas’s quarters. So, this is the place where…where Peter went, right? And this where he’s standing outside warming himself by the fire being accused of being a disciple and cursing and denying that he even knows Jesus. So, and the dungeons below are still there. And, so, we always go down into the dungeons and I mention…I mention…mention it most every year, it's…that place…I don't…I’m not sure what it is because like I should be numb to it by now because I’ve been down there so many times over so many years and I’ve been all over the place and…but that place…that place…I don’t know it’s just…I just can’t stand it. I just…I hate thinking about Jesus tied up down there by Himself. I don’t know what it is but it’s just like this moment where He’s being held while all of the…the people in power, religious power, are like making as much of an arrangement as they can to have Jesus killed by the Romans. And Jesus is just down there, spit dripping out of his beard and red marks all over Him from being slapped around and that’s just the beginning. Like that was the appetizer and what’s coming next is He’s gonna be beaten almost to death unrecognizable and then crucified to death. I just…yeah…but anyway it’s deeply, deeply, deeply moving to have the experience. And then back, back to the walls to the old city there’s a place where at least this is far as archaeology can go and when you have archaeology and you have many many many layers of archaeology, then you have to, you know, you have to start making educated guesses about what everything is. But just that there's…there’s remains of some steps that were, you know, kind of almost like a side entrance, a private entrance into the Roman garrison in the…the palace for Herod. And, so, this would’ve been where kind of where the mob gathered and yelled, “crucify Him” and you can sort of see some steps and understand that very, very likely, these steps Jesus would’ve stepped down these steps carrying a cross. So, that’s just the kind of stuff we’re centered around. Of, course, the church of the holy sepulcher, which is…well it contains a portion of a very small portion of Golgotha, which was…like…like a large hill, a very long large hill. There’s like a bit of it preserved and, of course, the tomb…the tomb of Jesus. And, yeah, that’s also…like it’s hard to put some of this stuff into words, especially tired now. I mean just having had all these experiences and how to process it all. But you go in there and you at once are not…you’re like…I don’t understand where I’m at, how does this all work. And it’s confusing. It’s very ornate. And its…you know…you have like a little bit of distance in your mind you because you’re looking for this garden, you know, you’re looking for this hill where a cross was, you’re looking for all these things and they’re all encased inside of a building now because so many of these places have been just destroyed and desecrated over years and over, over, over millennia,. But the tomb, yeah, just to know this is the spot where the most pivotal moment in human history ever happened, the resurrection. So, so…that’s…all of these things carry with them all of these kinds of deep moments connected to our soul as we follow Jesus and then we end up in the garden tomb, which is…it’s a beautiful place to end. And it…it…it does provide that sense, that…that sense of the garden. And, so, to be able to be there and receive communion together and end our trip together is always a bit bittersweet, always full of a lot of emotion and then…and then we move to our final dinner together, our farewell dinner, which is also always bittersweet, but really, really filled with joy and just a sense of family just a sense that we experienced something together and that will always matter. Like even as we go our separate ways it’ll always matter. And, so, that’s that and today is…is a travel day.
So, thank you. Like I said at the of beginning, thank you for your prayers over travel and over reentry and…and all that goes along with it. I can’t thank you enough for raising a canopy of prayer over this…this journey. We felt you. We knew you were there. We…we knew we were doing this together all around the world. And, so, yeah, it’s been fun. Tired, ready to be home, but it’s been a joy as it always is to be able to lead people deeper, deeper into the Scriptures and apply those to our hearts and lives so that…so that we’re transformed so that we’re changed. So, that’s been an honor. And that’s it. That's…that’s it from Israel. I’m, Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey Daily Audio Bible family it’s doctor Kanio here from London I pray that everyone is well. It’s the 22nd of February and Brian I have to say that I am loving the way that you are reading the book of Leviticus with so much __ and so much clarity. You are bringing a book that perhaps most of us would run away from into…into perspective and I __ have to grapple with some of the things that have arisen in this book. And I did love the fact that we were reading Leviticus alongside the gospel of Mark whereby we’ve got the passage of the woman with the issue of blood and how poignant her story is because now I understand that she just wasn’t experiencing a physical healing but it was also in emotionally healing, that emotional aspect of being ostracized from your…your community, for being set apart for wrong reasons. She was also healed from that and I love the way that Jesus responded to that perhaps feeling of shame that she had. And I do encourage anyone that’s also experiencing shame perhaps this is something you have no hand in. She didn’t have a choice as to whether she was going to endure this bleeding. It was by no fault of her own to our understanding. But Jesus was still able to carry her shame and to publicly declare that she is free. And how beautiful that even when we do experience shame Jesus came so that we might be free from shame and He declares us as free from the things that once held us bound and we are no longer unclean, but we can come into His presence. So, I do want to encourage people to enjoy the book of Leviticus just as I’ve been enjoying it. And Brian thank you so much again for…for reading with so much passion and…and allowing us to connect with the stories as well. Thank you so much.
One more thing, this is Pink Paint again. But the precious lady from Northern California, Jared the Encourager, and His Little Cherry from Canada, the three of you have literally bought beachfront property in my heart and I don’t know you personally, but I do. And after hearing your messages I played them over and over and over again and you guys, Jesus used you to give me hope.
Good morning DABbers this is Darrell from Depew. Brothers and sisters, can you please prayer. I have a very, very good friend of mine, a pastor friend of mine who is having surgery this coming week. I think his surgery will be Tuesday which will be the 24th. He’s got back surgery. He is a warrior of God, first of all. He was a paratrooper and how this incident happened with him was he jumped out his plane the one day and the parachute never opened. It’s been 30 years he’s been suffering with this pain in his back. So, I am asking all my friends and family and the DABbers around the world, pastor CT. Father, I know that You have a plan for him. I know You have a team set up already for the surgery with You being the Jehovah Rapha, the healer of all Father. Please, please Father have him come through this surgery with peace and wisdom and knowledge of You. Amen.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Brandy from Arizona. I’ve been listening for a couple of years now and I just wanted to say good morning and thank you Brian and Jill and the entire team that brings the Daily Audio Bible to my phone every day. As so many of my DAB brothers and sisters have said, you guys are an integral part of what starts my day, helps me focus, helps me understand who I am and whose I am. And I am just so fortunate to not have to do life without you. I have struggled to find a…a home church and I will continue to look but I do not feel like there’s a void because I come to the mantle of the Daily Audio Bible family every day and I get to hear the word of God, I get to praise, I get to worship and I get to pray for my fellow brothers and sisters as well as be prayed…being prayed for. I just have to say, Terry the Trucker, Blind Tony, Victoria soldier, there are just so many of you that have broad light and life to me over the last couple of years as I have listened. It’s just been an amazing experience, and this is just complete, complete, complete praise for the love and the fellowship and the kindness and the encouragement and the learning, the intensity and the intelligence that you guys bring to me every day. I love each and every one of you and I thank you. Have a blessed day everyone.
Hi DAB family this is Abby I’m calling from Dublin Ireland. I’m not originally from here I’m actually from Nashville Tennessee but I am married to an Irishman and we’ve been living here in Dublin or I’ve been living here in Dublin for about six years now. I just wanted to call and say hello. It’s my first time calling. I’ve been listening for a couple of years now and I just wanted to thank Brian and everyone that calls in. It’s been such a huge blessing in my life to find this community and this podcast and I just want to pray for if there’s anyone else, you know, living here and Ireland that is a listener, you know how hard it can be here. It’s quite cynical of any sort of faith or relationship with Christ here in Ireland as I know it is in a lot of places. It was quite a culture shock for me coming from living in Tennessee in the south and, you know, you can be a lot more open with your faith. So, it’s something I struggle with here. So, I just wanted to pray for anyone that’s living in a place where it’s kind of hard to be bold with your faith, but God’s grace is with us. So, I just wanted to pray for you and encourage you and also just to say hello to everyone. Thanks guys. Love you all.
Hey, everyone this is Tony the narrator. I just text…I just had a text conversation with my ex-wife who got me to North Carolina and she’s in Britain right now and I was supposed to bring her here, but her new boyfriend has. And…sometimes being a Christian is the most painful thing in the world. We were really friendly…you know I was really friendly but…oh God. Weeping and gnashing your teeth, I’m so grateful to Jesus that this is as close to hell as I’m ever going again. Please pray for me guys. I love you. I’m exhausted. Take care of yourselves everybody. I love you. Bye-bye.
Lord, I’m so thankful for You. You give me hope in all things. You love me like no other. You care about the details of my life. You direct my steps. You use me to help and encourage others. You stand with me in all situations. You discipline me out of love. You challenge me. You speak to my heart. Thank You for being with me always. Thank You for creating me, for loving me when nobody else did, for drawing me to You, for being so patient with me, for forgiving me for all of the choices I made that grieved You and for never giving up on me. Thank You, Lord. I will praise Your name as long as I have breath. I will dedicate the rest of my life to serving You. I will be faithful to You as You have been to me. I will proclaim Your goodness to all who will listen. I will live a life pleasing to You Lord. Shape me into a vessel You can use for Your glory Lord. I surrender all. Amen. This is Danny from Southern Oregon hoping You all have a blessed day. Bye now.