Month: March 2020

Numbers 32:1-33:39, Luke 4:31-5:11, Psalms 64:1-10, Proverbs 11:22

Today’s the 21^st day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you as…as we end another week. Ahhhh…you guys…like we’re gonna be out of March before long, but I…let’s note…let’s not even think about it. It’s great to be here with you today as we take this next step forward in the Scriptures. And we are continuing a lengthy journey through the book of Numbers. And, so we will continue that journey today before getting into the book of Luke. Numbers chapter 32 verse 1 through 33 verse 39.

Commentary:

Alright. Let’s talk about fishermen today. Our reading has Jesus moving around the Sea of Galilee to the villages that are basically on the northwest shore and a lot is happening. He is speaking with authority. He has eyes to see and He’s inviting His hearers to open their eyes and see the kingdom that is among them, that is within them. So, people are hearing His words, hanging on His words but then kind of going back to their homes and villages and talking about His words. So, this is beginning to spread around the Sea of Galilee, to the point that He can’t really get anywhere. Like people are crowding Him wherever He goes. So, like, if He’s even on His way to the next village He could get stopped in some field somewhere where the people are just gathering around this message. It’s actually a beautiful thing. Truly, the kingdom of God is being revealed in the Galilee and Jesus is the flashpoint. It really doesn’t start going sideways until the scribes and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law start showing up to protect the people, find out what’s going on around here. But here in this moment we have Jesus moving freely about and people are flocking like a magnet. And on one such occasion He’s kinda being crowded down to the shore and if they keep going there gonna push Him into the water. He’s down on the shore, people are gathered all around Him, He has nowhere to go, He sees a couple of boats, He climbs into Simon’s boat and then He teaches the crowd. It’s a beautiful moment. And then once He’s done teaching each He…He…He could go back to the shore and get back into the crowd but He invites the boat to go out deeper and there’s such a rich metaphor in that because that’s how God works with us. And, so they row out a little and Jesus is like, you know, “let the nest down.” And Simon is a professional fisherman. Like he’s there with James and John and they’re a team and this is what they do for a living. And they’ve been out all evening. At the same time this is like…this is the Rabbi everyone’s talking about and He’s in the boat. And the people are on the shore…like you gotta a obey and so he does and there’s so many fish, right? There’s so many fish these other boats gotta come. And it's…they’re full, they’re sinking, and they get back to shore and it’s such an overwhelming blessing of God. Just for the use of the boat for a little while. It’s like such a windfall. Maybe they can pay off the boat now. I mean, maybe they can get some new nets now. What goodness, such goodness of God. So, Simon, he…he…he…he gets it. Like, there’s things he may not get. We may see Peter saying things from time to time before he thinks about them, but he gets it. He knows he’s in the presence of something far different than anything he’s ever been around, and this is holy and he’s not and he knows it. And, so he…he confesses it. “Just leave me…leave me…leave me alone…I don’t deserve to be anywhere near you. I’m a sinner.” And that is an appropriate response to God when …when we realize like the damage that we’ve done, the darkness we’ve perpetrated like when we come face-to-face with…with our own lives and the ways that we’ve navigated and we come face-to-face with holiness, that’s a proper response. God’s response in the person of Jesus wasn’t like, “Yup, you’re right, you need to get away from me I’m holy. Be far from me and never return until you wander and find holiness on your own.” His response was what He responds to everyone who has this realization that they are woefully separated from God and there is a God and He is inviting us back when we realize that. Jesus invited him to become a fisher of people. He didn’t send Peter to seminary. He didn’t teach him how to do theological battles. He just said, “come on, let’s do this. You are skilled at a craft. You are a fisherman. Let me show you how to harness what you know and apply it into people’s lives. Let’s do this.” And James and John are there too. They’ve been a part of the whole thing. There’s these two boats full of flapping fish that represent a financial windfall. And the most riveting thing about this story is that they just left them flapping there in the boats on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. They left it all there and followed Jesus on the spot. We don’t know what happened to the fish after that. Probably a great blessing for the villages around the countryside. But for us, we can very easily put ourselves in this position because the question then becomes, what am I looking for here? Am I looking for the windfall? Am I following God because I believe he will supernaturally bless me, or would I leave blessing behind have God?

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into that question. It’s not that You don’t bless us. We are so blessed and it’s not that You don’t provide and it’s not even that You don’t provide windfalls at times. It’s about why. It's…it’s about what’s underneath it all. This is how we get eyes to see and ears to hear, by actually looking within ourselves and seeing what is driving us. What is our hearts motive because that sets the trajectory? And we find that when our motives are mixed, we experience the dissonance of that and the anxiety that it brings. And yet, what we’re seeing is if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, we can see what’s really going on, what’s driving it. And this begins with us. So come Holy Spirit, are we looking for a boat full of fish or are we in the presence of holiness and nothing can compare. Come Holy Spirit into that as we navigate this day. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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So, stay connected in the Community section of the website or in the app as well. You can find all the different social media channels and different places to get connected as well as the Prayer Wall. So, stay connected in this time of…of isolation. There aren’t any germs around the Global Campfire. So, if it’s getting cold out there there’s a place to keep warm.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link that is on the homepage, it just kinda lives there. Thank you. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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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:

Hey everybody it’s Margo and Liberia. I am not even sure what I want to ask for. I am just so confused and kind of stressed right now. I know everybody is. I am, you know, not alone in this. This virus, for those of us living overseas, it’s very hard to know how to deal with it and what’s the best options for our, you know, the people that we’re surveying and also ourselves. And I feel fear coming in, not that I’m afraid of the virus. My husband and I are quite healthy, but the fact that if this country shuts down and transport options shut down, you know, if something serious, an accident or something does happen for me or my husband then our options are limited and maybe we can’t get medevacked out which I know I’m privileged to even have that option that so many don’t but I’ve got all these thoughts going around my head and yet at the same time I desperately would have…I don’t want to be evacuated out of here because, you know, this could be the time they need me most. We’re trying to make preparations at the hospital and it’s just totally overwhelming. All the children are, you know, at our malnutrition clinic could potentially be completely defenseless. It is just the most horrific situation for a country like Liberia. So, I know everyone’s praying about this but maybe just remember us here in Liberia in your prayers. And I…I just…I’m disappointed because I want to trust God and, you know, the fear comes in and it’s just so confusing. I will trust God, but we all need prayer. So, yeah, thanks for praying. Love you guys. Bye.

Hi, DABbers this is…this Victoria Soldier haven’t been around in a little while. Been praying for you all here. I want to pray for Joe the Protector. I heard you Joe and my heart is out to you. You’re protecting us and the devil is trying to unprotect your daughter but he’s a liar and I rebuke him in the name of Jesus and bind him and cast him out of that life. Lord, you touch that young woman, you bless her and let her know she is what God says she is and not what the devil says she is. Lord we rebuke it in the name of Jesus. Lord we just ask you to encourage Joe, you to strengthen him every day, Lord in the name of Jesus. Lord I want to touch…ask you to touch a Burning Bush and I say hi to Burning Bush and to Candace And, also to Brandon about the young babies committing suicide. Lord that the devil is trying to steal our babies and I’m with you. I’m praying with you and I’m in agreement with you and all the DABbers of the mind of our young people, that God will control their mind and let them know who they are, let them know who to go to when things get rough and let them know that…that God is able to change anything, that God is the answer to whatever the question is. Gracious Father will lift You up in the name of Jesus. We lift You up with the challenges. Oh…my precious sister that her husband that she’s in the hospital and her husband died. I think her name is Denise. I…I’m praying for you also my sister in what…in you’re going through. You said three years it’s been since you…since your husband has died, and I wanted to just encourage you to Lord to strengthen her. Lord you strengthen those who lost parents, who lost loved ones. You strengthen those lord that…that are having the…

Hello, I’m Duncan from Fredericksburg Texas. I am a senior citizen. The most important thing, I am a committed follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. I happen to be totally blind. I’m almost 74. My wife Sharon died back in October, so I’ve been widower now over five months. God has definitely worked on me and with me and has supplied my needs and I’m learning new skills, so I’m…but I want to encourage all of us during this time Brian would call it of a disruption. And it has affected all of us and will affect all of us. And my only prayer is that, wouldn’t it be wonderful if when Easter Sunday happens things can begin to turn around for the better, like a resurrection. This is the Lenten season and I am praying for you all and for myself, that not only will our needs be supplied but that we can walk through this. Let’s invite God to lead on and walk us through. Let’s ask for His mercy on the people of this earth and especially on those so that others will come to know Him. Let’s lean on each other even if we can’t even hug or handshake which I still do as people allow me too, but there is going to be more isolation and I know that one way or another I’ll get through it. God bless you. Be encouraged. He is our refuge and strength.

Good morning Daily audible family. My name is Laura I’m calling from Georgia and today is March the 17^th and I just listened to today’s message. Brian you are such a blessing and you are anointed beyond… Your words was what I needed. I have it, but it was more reassurance, that through dark times we are supposed to be who we are called to be, which we are called to be God’s people, His chosen. We’re supposed to walk in love, walk in hope, walk in belief, that through anything that’s happening in this world God has us. He has us. And that’s been my comfort and that’s been my peace and I pray that for everyone through this time. Love on each other. Don’t walk in panic. Don’t walk in fear. The reality is we all are leaving this earth by one way or another. How do you want to leave? What mark do you want to leave? God bless you all. I love my DAB family and I’m truly thankful for you. Continued blessings to everyone. Peace.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Stephanie from Bangalore and I’m calling on the 17^th of March. Just wanted to give you an update. I had called in January and was upset about the fact that it seemed like my husband and I would likely never get pregnant do to my age and some other things. Well, it turned out that I was pregnant actually at that point, although far too early to have known. And when I called back on the 25^th of February that’s what I was…was saying. But we lost the baby and I miscarried a little over a week ago on the 9^th of March. And, so, you can imagine we’re going through a lot of grief right now. I know I’m not alone in the grief of miscarriage and that helps but it’s still hard. And, of course, I’m in India with very different cultural attitudes towards miscarriage. And, so, that’s also hard. And, of course, in the middle of all of this, this whole pandemic thing has started here as well. And, so, it’s…it’s making me feel even more isolated. And again, I know I’m not alone in that as much at that sounds funny, isolated and alone. But just please be praying for us, that God would give us wisdom and peace and that if it’s His will He would give us more children.

Numbers 30:1-31:54, Luke 4:1-30, Psalms 63:1-11, Proverbs 11:20-21

Today’s the 20^th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you. It’s an honor it’s a joy. What it joy that we get together like this for a few minutes and focus our hearts attention on the Scriptures, focus our hearts affection on God and just allow the word to speak to us. What a joy. So, we’re continuing to move through the book of Numbers and the book of Luke in the New Testament. Today we will read Numbers chapter 30 and 31.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there’s a really, really huge, huge lesson for us to learn from the gospel of Luke today and it really encompasses the…the entire reading, even though it seems like we encountered a couple of stories of like Jesus being tempted in the wilderness and then Jesus being way back up in the Galilee in Nazareth announcing His ministry. They connect because of the way Jesus conducts Himself, the way that He operates, the way that He sees and does. He’s teaching us a lesson. So, for starters we find Jesus in the wilderness, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed. It’s been like right in front of his from the beginning, but have you noticed how much time we have spent in the wilderness in the Bible so far? It’s an irreplaceable backdrop to the stories that the Scriptures are telling us. And what the Scriptures are showing us in those stories is that the wilderness brings utter dependence on God, which brings transformation and it also brings a lot of thrashing around and complaining and moaning and groaning. I suppose we could just stop right there because that’s the story of our lives. We spend more time in wilderness seasons than we want to, or that we think that we deserve. Even though, as we look back in retrospect, we see just how much transformation and formation happens in those seasons. But usually when we’re in those seasons all we want is out of the season. So, like anything that will show us the clear path out of the wilderness, the quickest, we just pretty much fall for it. Jesus is in the wilderness outside of Jericho. It is the desert. He is making His way eventually back to Nazareth. He’s a long way from Nazareth, like 70 miles. And he’ll have to climb out of the desert and into the transition and up into the lush Galilee. And the devil comes and tempts Jesus. It’s obviously a super famous Bible story. But as we’ve mentioned before when we’ve passed this territory, he’s coming to Jesus with an easy way out of the wilderness, an easy way to get what he seems to want, the fastest way, the pain…the most painless way to get what he wants. That’s kind of our default and we’ve probably learned a number of times that we can get into a deeper wilderness trying to find…take the fast way out of the one where in. The fastest way out of the wilderness, friends, at least in my experience is to learn the lesson the wilderness is teaching you. That changes the entire dynamic of the experience. And Jesus rejected this easier path. And, so, He walked back to Nazareth and the Bible says, that the evil one retreated and waited for another opportunity. That opportunity would come in Nazareth. Jesus entered the synagogue and announced Himself. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” Now, of course, everybody’s around the synagogue, the famous Rabbi, the hometown boy who’s made it…making it big is back in town. And, so, Jesus announces that prophecy is being fulfilled but what they really want isn’t any of that. They want Him to perform a magic show. Like, they want Him to do some miracles and signs. They want to see a show. They don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear what Jesus is announcing. Like He’s announcing something huge in their Hebrew faith, the fulfillment of a prophecy and they just want Him to perform tricks. And eventually their provoked. Like, they’re provoked against Jesus, who has just had a showdown with the evil one in the desert and the evil one is waiting for an opportune time. And, so, Jesus comes and announces that He’s fulfilling prophecy and the people decide they should probably throw Him off a cliff in response. And that’s how the story goes. This kind of mob mentality escorts Jesus to this cliff and then He passes right through them and goes on His way. You see how Jesus deals with things? If you’re in the wilderness, and the easy way out is before you and you follow that path without discerning at all, without at least inviting God to show you whether or not the lesson of this wilderness has been learned. And not all wilderness journeys are sent to us by God. We navigate ourselves there quite readily. It seems to be like the one place that we know how to get to in our lives is the wilderness. But once we are there it is not purposeless. And sometimes the easy way out is not the easy way out. And it takes courage to stay one foot in front of the other marching through the wilderness toward the promise. That takes a whole lot more courage than taking the detour that promises an exit. If we keep going, we’ll get out of the wilderness. It will be lush and fertile, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to face the voices of rejection, the voices of ridicule, the voice of contempt and scorn, even the voice of hatred. What if we could just let that pass right through us? What if we could pass right through that and go on our way? We can if we accept things as they are and continue moving forward day by day step-by-step. And, so, let’s take these things to heart today, meditate upon them today, consider them in our lives today.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You. Thank You for the opportunity to do just that. We invite Your Holy Spirit to plant these words from the Scriptures into the soil of our lives today and help us to live into them. Help us to continue to watch. As we’re walking through the Scriptures, we’re walking with You. May we not miss anything that we need to see. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth we pray. In Your precious and holy name, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. That makes it home base for us as a virtual community. And, so, it’s good to know that.

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Of course, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can get to all of the things on the website as well from within the app. You just push the Drawer icon…well…the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and that’ll open up the drawer and give you the selections. So, be sure to check that out.

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link and it lives on the homepage. And I thank you. Thank you profoundly and with all humility for your partnership. If you’re using the 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 and share from there or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. First Peter 2:9. Please pray with me. Lord, my precious Savior it is your bronze slave, Treasured Possession speaking before you thanking you for my courageous sisters and brother who are saying it’s time to face the truth. They did not blame anyone. They did not make excuses for their sin. They just confessed and have repented and desire to be made whole. To have the root of pain removed so that they can operate in the fruit of the Spirit of love and self-control. Lord, you have said those who are forgiven much love much and you are looking for sisters and brothers who worship you in Spirit and truth. I lift these sisters up to you today Lord, the one who desires to be free of jealousy, the one who desires to be free of self-pity, and my brother also of courage who wants to get self-control over his eating and my sister who wants to be fray…free of binge eating. Father, I know you will never love us more today than you will in eternity. The work we have been asked to do is believe in your son Jesus Christ. And Lord relay all our burdens down today as we are called out of the darkness of rejection, self-pity, fear, abandonment and crimes perpetrated against our will. All curses spoken over us are made null and void in the cross of Christ. We receive the love of Jesus for us, the healing of our minds, will, and emotions, the healing of our bodies and say yes to be made a new creation in Christ. And it is in Jesus’ name we ask these things.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family today is March 14^th. Michaela from Gloucester, I heard your prayer. It was yesterday or possibly on today’s podcast you said you were struggling. I just want you to know that I love it…I love your prayers. They always touch me on such a deep level and I’m always finding myself agreeing to them in the Spirit. So, Michaela I just want…I’m just asking God on your behalf today to lift you up. And I want you to know that you mean something to this community, if that helps. So, thank you Lord for Michaela. Thank you, Lord for the gift that you’ve given her of prayer. May that gift increase. May her hard times be made less and may she grow stronger through them with your help and by your grace. And then there was God’s Girl, all your anxiety. Lord I just lift up God’s Girl to You. My God, may her…may she find strength to push through that anxiety, strength in You Lord and may she also become stronger as she works through this latest attack or this latest whatever that’s gripping her. May she also become stronger as she works through it with You Lord. May she have eyes to see and ears to hear what You are showing her Lord, the truth of what You are showing her. May Your truth shine through. Hey…and His little Cherry, that description of that pink sunrise and how it made you think of Pink Paint was beautiful. Pink Paint you are loved. His little Cherry you are loved. Be blessed family. Amen.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family my name is Julian Miller and I am from Atlanta Georgia and I’m calling in today because I heard from a podcast a couple days ago from Veronica from Oklahoma or Oklahoma City. And I just want to say that my heart went out to you after hearing your voice and hearing your call for help. And I just want you to know that I feel for you and I’m praying for you. I’m praying that these impulses and these binges and this…this feeling that you feel like you can’t control or like you’re trapped, I just…I just ask that the Lord would continue to release you of that and that you would not fall into despair or feel like there’s no way out. I am a fitness coach here in Atlanta Georgia and I meet people all the time that are…feel like there over weight or in a situation where they can’t get back from it and it’s part of my job to reignite encouragement and life in them, to know that there is more life for them, that there is a future, there is a way to lose weight and to become more healthy. And I just hope that you’re not ashamed for calling in. I heard that in your voice, “like, I can’t believe that I’m saying this.” And I just want to say that we…you…you have a family here. It doesn’t matter what the problem in your life is, that you can always call in and ask for prayer. I love you sister. I’m continuing to pray…pray for you and lift you up. Please do not despair. Hope is on its way. God has so much for you. Release that to Him.

Hi Candace, this is Dorothy out in California. I just wanted to call and let you know that I’m so glad you’re calling in and I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s passing. You are very loved, and you are not alone. We are here for you, your Daily Audio Bible family. Keep calling in. We love you.

Hey guys this is Val from Vegas. I’m calling in because I…I made a promise that I was gonna call in on the 15^th of every month. I’m in the hospital. I just got out of isolation. I have double pneumonia and I need your prayers. __ to ask it makes me feel so selfish when there’s so many other needs in the world but I could really use your prayers that the doctors will figure out how to treat me and that I can get out of here and that it can be a testimony and that God can get the glory. Honestly, I feel so defeated and I’m trying to understand and recognize that God loves me, but have you ever felt like he’s mad at you? Please pray that I can get out of the hospital soon.

Good morning. Blessings Flow here again. I also wanted to say, God’s girl in Canada, God bless you sister. I’m praying for you. Thank you so much for calling in. And I’m in agreement with you that anxiety and depression will not prevail in your life in the name Jesus. And that God will have God’s way in your life. I’m praying for you this morning and I just wanted to say, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you God’s girl and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon and give you peace. I’m praying for you also my sister called and with PCOS and was requesting prayer about losing 100 pounds. I’m so proud of you. You have nothing to be ashamed of. We’re in agreement with you. Nobody is looking down at you. No one is saying, “how could you call in with that. That’s so silly.” Yes, and amen. We are in agreement. We are proud of you. We’re cheering on. And I just thank you for your boldness to call in about that. This is Blessings Flow in Pennsylvania and I don’t know why I’m up at six something a.m. but many of you are on my heart and I know it’s…it’s not about me. It’s about the Lord and you and God’s love for us DAB family. And I’m so humbled just even in these last couple months to be a part of this family. God bless you. Blessings Flow in Pennsylvania.

Good morning DAB this is Judy I’m from Delaware. I just want to express my love and appreciation for all you who pray every day for everyone. I’d just like to see some extra special prayers for my family, that we are able to keep our love for one another together, that we are able to maintain our prayer life in the midst of all this turmoil. I’d just like to also see some special prayers to everyone who listens to DAB and brings forth prayers for the world every day. Brian thank you so much. Thank you to you and your family for all that you bring to the table for us every morning in spite of…I know there must be days where your heart is heavy as ours. But you still and enlighten us with the Bible, with the words. And I’m just so thankful to have you and to have a place where I can come and listen and know that there’s so many others listening with me. Thank you again. And everyone be blessed and be safe.

Numbers 28:16-29:40, Luke 3:23-38, Psalms 62:1-12, Proverbs 11:18-19

Today is the 19^th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today around the Global Campfire where we show up. Day after day we show up and in community take the next step forward through the Scriptures. We’ve been working our way through the book of Numbers for a while now, and few more days. I think we’ll finish the book of Numbers next week. So, let’s take that next step forward. Today we’ll read numbers chapter 28 versus 16 to 29 verse 40 and we’re reading from the Message this week.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We read a lot of names in Your word today. We were tracing back the family line from which You came into the world and we read these names and their funny and interesting names and hard to pronounce names but every one of those names is…is a life and family and a story and laughter and weeping and joy and sadness like everyone else’s life. Every one of those names was a life lived carrying the story forward. And as we moved back through the story, back through those lines there were names we recognized, people that we’ve met in the Bible. Their stories have become known to us and they carried the story forward. And even as we continue to go back, we realized we were going all the way back to the beginning, all the way back to You. You are the giver of life and every single one of us were we able could read name after name after name after name after name after name after name leading all the way until us. We got here through millions and millions of choices of people who would’ve gone before us, but we have all come from You. We are Your children. You are our Father. We acknowledge You. We are nothing without You. You have given us life and You gave life to all the generations before us. And, so, we honor that. It’s how we got here. And yes, life can be confusing and we can feel disoriented a lot of the time not knowing exactly what’s going on, but it’s becoming clearer and clearer as we have eyes to see and ears to hear and we are grateful for this gift to be here now. And may we meditate on that today - the gift that we are here and what it took to get us here over all of the generations. Thank You for allowing us to be. And Father we give our lives to You and ask that we might honor the gift of life today. Come Holy Spirits we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, it’s where you find what’s going on around here. And, of course, you can access all of that, all of this, all of whatever I’m gonna say in the app as well.

Reminding you of the Prayer Wall that lives at dailyaudiobible.com and is constantly underway, constantly. It’s a germ-free prayer space by the way. So, don’t hesitate.

And while you’re there you can explore some of the other aspects of the website including the Daily Audio Bible Shop where there are number of resources that are…are there. They’ve been created for the journey that were on the including some of the…the different books and writings and maybe for slowing down a little bit. We have some time for that. I…I would suggest I think right now Sneezing Jesus, short little book that explores the life of Jesus, but also the way in which the gospel that we take for granted often, it’s just like all around us, how it spread, like a virus, how it was transmitted person to person who then infected more people who then infected people so that it spread all over the world and has come to us easily, but that wasn’t always so. Many, many, many millions of people suffered along the way for us to have what we have. And instead of spreading an infection or instead of infecting the world with darkness, what would our lives look like if we were completely contagious with the kingdom of light? Not a bad exploration for the times that we’re in. That’s available at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop or anywhere…anywhere you can get a book. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you with all of my heart for your partnership. We wouldn’t have a roaring Global Campfire that we can come around every day if we weren’t in this together. And. so, I thank you. Thank you that we are. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Numbers 26:52-28:15, Luke 3:1-22, Psalms 61:1-8, Proverbs 11:16-17

Today is the 18^th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you as we move ourselves through the center of a week. And I guess we’ve passed the center of the month, but not too far. So, we’re kind of in the middle of things right now. And it’s great to be here in the middle of it all with you. But we can’t stay here. We gotta take the next step forward. And, so, let’s do that. We’re continuing our journey through the book of numbers and today we will read chapter 26 verse 52 through 28 verse 15.

Commentary:

Okay. So, let's…so let’s keep filling in all the surrounding stories we’re moving through with…with some context because some interesting things happening in both Old and New Testaments today. So…so…so Moses, and we’ve been traveling with Moses for a while now, and he’s gone through a bunch…and we’re not done with him…but here in the book of Numbers God has told him, “this is your time, your time has come. Your leadership is coming to an end. It’s time for you to be gathered to your ancestors to die.” Moses won’t be leading the children of Israel into the Promise Land, and they just done this big census revealing that that generation that needed to wander passed. And, so, it looks like it might be time now to consider going into the Promise Land, but Moses won’t be leading them. A new leader will need to be appointed and that new leader was named today. His name is Joshua. And he’s kind of been Moses right hand for a while. So, what we see happening then is the consecration of Joshua as this new leader. Moses is preparing the way for Joshua so that Joshua can lead the people into freedom.

And then we flip over into the gospel of Luke for today and we see essentially the same thing happening. John has come out of the wilderness. Now he is baptizing people at the Jordan River, preparing the way of the Lord at a very similar place. According to the Old Testament they’re outside of Jericho on the other side of the Jordan River. So, in modern terms they would be across the Jordan River in the land of Jordan. John the Baptist came in out of the wilderness to the Jordan outside of Jericho, calling the people back to the very place that they had entered the Promise Land, calling them back to their story, calling them back to their identity. And then here comes Jesus down into that same water to be baptized and not to lead his people across the Jordan into a physical Promised Land, but to lead his people into complete and utter spiritual freedom in the kingdom of God, reuniting the promise with the land. Another thing interesting about these parallels is Joshua and Jesus because in Hebrew they’re essentially the same Yehoshua or Yeshua, which means God’s salvation. So, it’s a rare occasion that we find ourselves in the Old and the New Testaments in the same geographical area in the desert at the Jordan River outside of Jericho. So, that’s interesting and fascinating and gives us some depth for the journey that…that we can continue to be on as we walk the path of the Bible

But then,…then Proverbs, of course, offers us concise wisdom for today, as simple as it can possibly be, as true as it can possibly be, “when you’re kind to others you help yourself, when you’re cruel to others you hurt yourself.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into all that we’ve read today, into all we’re learning and have learned today, but we invite You into this proverb as we take it into our day. Help us to remember the simplicity of it, just the bald-faced truth of it. If we’re kind today, we will be helping our self. If we’re cruel today, while we may be hurting other people, but we will also be hurting our self. Help us to realize that. Help us to realize that we are in this together and kindness begets kindness and cruelty gives birth to cruelty. Help us choose the former rather than the latter today we ask by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, always stay connected in whatever way that you can, in whatever…whatever way that you want to.

Of course, the Prayer Wall is at dailyaudiobible.com and that’s always happening. And all these things can be reached from the Daily Audio Bible app as well. So, check them out.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Now in this time where we’re kinda quarantined and isolated and disrupted all the things we were talking about yesterday, the Global Campfire continuing to burn and be this place that we can go is as invaluable, at least to me. And in the Daily Audio Bible Shop we have an entire line of Global Campfire stuff just to remind us that there is this place, that we are in community no matter where we are in the world and no matter what’s going on in the world. So, check those…check that out. There’s a whole section in the Daily Audio Bible Shop called Global Campfire. And, so, check that out.

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

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

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

Numbers 26:1-51, Luke 2:36-52, Psalms 60:1-12, Proverbs 11:15

Today is the 17^th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and what a joy it is to be here with you today as we come in and out of whatever is going on and just situate ourselves around the Global Campfire. And I…I just love that image, our…our faces in the firelight and we’re just intently listening to God’s words speak into our lives in this little oasis that we have before reentering our day in the world outside that…that it can be crushing but we come here and we become strong and we center ourselves in God’s word and we know that we’re not alone and that changes the atmosphere of the day. And, so, what a joy…what a joy to be here to take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And, so, let’s do that. We’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. Numbers chapter 26 verses 1 through 51.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Luke today there is a pretty huge contextual piece for us to understand as we continue our journey through the Gospels and walk alongside Jesus for the first months of this year. And, so, today we have this…well we are given the awareness that Jesus family is a devout family and that He is grown in body and Spirit, but they have an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover. And we’ve mentioned it before, that’s a 90 mile walk one way. So, 180 miles on foot or cart. That’s a pretty good-sized journey and the terrain of the journey isn’t the best either. So, we get these little clues, like this is part of the rhythm of Jesus life. He’s accustomed to going to Jerusalem. It’s not a foreign place to him. So, it’s not going to be a foreign place to Him later in His ministry. He knows what’s up there. But the back story that’s apparent in this story gives us a lot of clues about how Jesus was perceived. So, for starters when He was born and He was brought to the temple for the sacrifice according to the law of Moses, there were prophetic voices there, respected ones. An older woman who’d spent over 80 years worshipping God in the temple, she would’ve been known, she would’ve been respected. So, her words would’ve been heard by the common people coming in and out that that would’ve mattered. And the old man, Simeon, same thing. So, there’s like this buzz around this child from the get-go. But now in today’s story Jesus is grown to be 12 years old and they’re making their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover and He stays behind when his family leaves. And they would’ve traveled is…traveled as kind of caravans for safety and just community. It’s a long ways. So, Mary and Joseph don’t figure out Jesus missing until they’ve already gone one of the days that journey. Now they can’t find Jesus and they gotta take another day to get back and search for Him. And, so, they’re gonna be traveling back to Nazareth on their own. And they frantically search the holy city. And this is not like a little village. This is big city. You can only imagine…you can only imagine what that would feel like as a parent, but in the end they do find Jesus and Jesus is in the temple and Jesus is with the religious leaders. He’s with the scribes and the Pharisees. He’s with the priests and they are amazed at Him. That’s very fascinating because two decades later, they’re all going to turn on Him and have Him killed. But let’s not just think that Jesus appeared in a vacuum of the Galilee and did ministry and that part of the region among the common people, a place known for its zealotry. Today we see Jesus at 12 years old before the religious leaders and their amazed by Him. He’s already on the radar. So, when He does get older and does begin His ministry, we see often the Scriptures telling us that religious leaders from Jerusalem take that 90-mile trip up to the Galilee to find out what’s going on with this guy. And some of them would remember that this is that little kid that stayed back here to talk to us. So, it's…it's…it’s interesting to kind of look into these stories and understand that there’s this back story to the way that Jesus came onto the scene and did His ministry.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You for that. We thank…because knowing You and having the benefit of the Scriptures to allow us to observe You and look at You as You did Your ministry on this earth giving us an example for what our lives cam and must look like, we are grateful. And anything that helps us to understand story better is helpful. So, we thank You for that and we invite Your Holy Spirit to plant the words that we’ve read today from the Scriptures into our hearts, minds and lives, that they may yield fruit for Your kingdom. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, our precious Savior. Amen.

Commentary:

Okay, so I don’t know if you noticed or not but there’s this nasty virus going around. And I started paying maybe closer attention to it as we were preparing to depart for the pilgrimage to Israel a few weeks ago. So, I remember landing on the big plane in London and boarding another big plane for Rome. And Italy had seven cases of this virus at the time. And then we moved through there to Tel Aviv and began our journey in like a week later. Italy was beginning to go into lockdown. And then we moved through our pilgrimage and just kind of counted the days and we were all feeling fine. We’re like, “we’re in the clear. This is fine” and we moved through our Israel pilgrimage and then got back home safely and lots of places, including Israel started to lockdown. And then things started to escalate some in the United States and now there’s all kinds of measures to kind of keep us sequestered from each other, so we don’t pass this around. This is working out pretty well for like people like my son Ezekiel who’s been back…we’ve been back from Israel for a couple weeks, he’s been to school for two days because schools been closed and he can’t practically turn television without hearing that the latest update. And I’m not one to usually comment on world or political or the…whether related or these kinds of events and there’s a couple reasons for that. The first reason would be who cares what I have to say about world events? Who am I? Why does it matter what I think? There are so many people who are so smart and have so much to say and there is no shortage of…of ways to find out what people are saying about things. And, so, I just, you know, why add to the noise? I mean, it’s not my…it’s not my role to comment on everything that’s going on and add a Bible verse to it. Secondly, back when the Daily Audio Bible was just getting going and had kinda become this podcasting phenomenon I got a piece of advice that always, always, always has stuck with me and that is fly above it all with what you do. Let the Bible speak for itself. And I’ve tried really, really hard over all of the years to do that, to create this space that we are in right now. Like we are around this Global Campfire. This is a place that we go to every day and it…it’s a space that we have created collectively but individually in our hearts, and it is beyond the reach of all the things that are going on around us. It’s a place where we just come and exhale and allow God’s word to wash into our lives and we leave this place refreshed and able. At least that is the intention. And, so, you know, I thought this morning about 15 years, this, seven days a week, when hasn’t there been some sort of crisis somewhere? When hasn’t there been some sort of election? When hasn’t there been some sort of political maneuvering? When hasn’t there been things to fight about, or debate about? When have there not been things to be afraid of? I mean everything from a previous scares about infectious diseases to the rise of ISIS, we’ve moved through all these things together day by day by day. So, I wouldn’t normally have any words about coronavirus. It’s just that at this point it’s affecting the world and this is an opportune time for us to practice what we’ve been exploring all year long, eyes to see, ears to hear, because at this point this virus is causing all of our governments to in one way or another invite us to isolate ourselves so that this can go away, which is causing a ripple effect of disruption in small or large ways, and it begins…like you can feel the tension of it, the unknown of it. Like for most of us we’re like…we don’t understand. There’s this is very very big reaction. All this news is a very very big thing that…and I feel fine, but we also see a little fraying things in society like, you don't…a run on the grocery store to get cases of toilet paper. And if we have eyes to see and ears to hear we can see the sobering reality of how fragile all of our societies, and even we ourselves really are and how much we actually are in this together whether we like it or not. And what I’d like to say is, as we move through the Bible and many of us here have moved through it several times, what we see is that the Bible is full of stories of disruption, whether created by man or whether it was just a thing that happened. It’s full of the stories of disruption and what people do with it? And what the Bible tells us is that at every crossroads, wisdom is there at every turning point. Wisdom is there. So, I don’t have any advice on whether or not you should have several cases of paper towel. I don’t have any advice on how to kill the virus, or how long we should stay away from each other or what practices we can use to avoid these things. There is plenty of really good advice out there for these things. But what I would like to point out, at least spiritually is this is disruptive, whether it’s in a small way or whether it’s in a big way. This is disruptive. Normally, our course of action in times of disruption is to try to bulldoze it away. Make it go away as quick as possible so that we can return to the status quo. And what I want to suggest here is that we don’t do that. That we embrace the disruption and invite wisdom, invite the Holy Spirit to come into this disruption because it’s a time, it’s an opportunity all over the world to read think some the things. And man, we are in this season called Lent. What…what…I was gonna asay what better time…there is no good time for infectious disease to be racing around the world…and yet, because this is happening, because it is disrupting things and we’re all shaken in some way, this is an opportune time to invite God into it. What needs to change? Not just to make this go away. What needs to change within us that we have this opportunity to see now because we’ve got a glimpse of our fragility? What needs to change so that we might live healthy in body, in mind, in spirit. I hate disruption in life in general always. It's…I never welcome it. Who does? But I’ve learned over these years, God is there in those disruptions. He is there when we get shaken loose of something and He uses these times to right our course. So, like I said a number of times this isn’t normally what I would talk about but I see the disruption and I see it happening globally and if we would awaken, if we would revive, if we would have eyes to see then we will see the kingdom and we will see that God is inviting us forward through this and that this disruption is an opportunity for some things to get shifted, to get rearranged, to be re-prioritized before it all goes away because when it does go all away we’ll forget that it even happened. And yet, this is an opportunity to invite God.

Prayer:

Father, even though we just prayed, we’re coming to You again about this and we do intercede. We do intercede. Lord have mercy on the earth, have mercy on the people of the earth, have mercy on Your children. And yet, we acknowledge that we have a preconceived notion about what that’s supposed to look like. And what we’re doing here is embracing the disruption that is happening, inviting Your Holy Spirit into our lives. What are You saying through this? Now that things, the status quo has been disrupted, what are You saying? How do You want to move us around? How You want to shape us in this? Infection…infectious disease can certainly spread from one person to another, but so can Your kingdom. Show us how to infect the world with light and life and good news and healing and hope and courage. And in this time of disruption may it spread like wildfire to all the ends of the earth, to all the lives that are affected either directly or indirectly. Show us how to be light in the darkness, even as You continue to transform us from within. This is our prayer God. Make us aware of Your Holy Spirit’s movements in the world and in our lives and families. Come Jesus we pray. Nothing is off limits to You. We are open. Change us through this we pray in Your mighty name. Amen.

Song:

Life is Beautiful - The Afters

Through the window
I see you waiting
You are smiling
‘Cause I’m coming
Your eyes are a story
An ocean of memories
Pictures of faces and places

And all of the things
That make us feel like we have it all
All of the times
That make us realize
We have it all
We have it all

Life is beautiful
Life is beautiful

Living and dying
Laughing or crying
If we have the whole world or have nothing
I know there are long nights

But we’ll make it
With every sunrise comes a new light
And all of the things
That make us feel like we have it all

All of the times
That make us realize
We have it all
We have it all

Life is beautiful
Life is beautiful
Life is beautiful

A father’s love
A wedding dance
New Year’s dreams
A toast with friends
A soldier coming home from war
The faith, the hope of so much more

A brand new life, a mother’s prayer
Shooting stars, ocean air
A lover’s kiss, and hard goodbyes
Fireworks, Christmas lights

These are things that make us feel alive
These are the times that make us realize
Life is beautiful
Life is beautiful

These are things that make us feel alive

Life is beautiful

These are the times that make us realize