Month: May 2020

1 Samuel 12:1-13:23, John 7:1-30, Psalms 108:1-13, Proverbs 15:4

Today is the 12^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you. One month ago, today was Easter Sunday. Can you believe it? And here we are a month later continuing to move forward in the Scriptures and in life and together in community. So, what a joy it is to be here with you today taking that next step. This week we’re reading from the New International Version and we are working our way through the book of first Samuel. And, so, we reached the place where King Saul who was coronated, became the king, the first king of Israel. And, so, we’re getting to know Saul and we had a chance to get to know him a little bit as a person, but now we are going to get to know him as the king of Israel. And even as we do that, we’re preparing to say goodbye to the prophet, to the last judge, to the priest Samuel. So, today from the New International Version. First Samuel 12 and 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, here’s the…here’s the scenario that is shaped up in the first Samuel. Obviously, Samuel had some things to say to the people about this new king and he reminded them that they…that God was supposed to be their king and he testified against them, but he basically said that if they and their king would follow God then God would be in the midst of them and protect them and be their God, right? So, Saul begins to reign. The Philistines, so the enemies of Israel, encamp against them, right? So, they’re like drawing up battle lines. Saul does the same. And Saul is supposed to wait for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice and give further instructions about this ensuing battle, but while they’re waiting people are getting a little jittery about the fact that they’re waiting to go into battle and they could die. And, so, people are kind of slinking away here and there and it’s like Saul’s trying to keep his game face while he’s waiting for Samuel and Samuel still doesn’t show up. And a week goes by and Samuel still doesn’t show up. And, so, Saul decides, “okay, the people, the army is deserting me, and I have an encamped army against me, and the people are losing heart.” And, so, he decided to offer the sacrifice to God himself. In other words, to take matters into his own hand. And the reason that he wanted to take matters into his own hand was because of the fact that people were deserting him. So, he does this sacrifice and at the end of it, Samuel shows up and it’s not a good scene. Basically, what Samuel tells Saul is that his kingdom is coming to an end, even as its basically just beginning, that the kingdom has already been stripped away from him and God has selected another. So, when we saw Saul’s coronation that was in yesterday’s reading, we saw Saul was hiding, like hiding out at his own coronation. He’s afraid of man and what people think and we get the first clues of that. In today’s reading we see it on full display and it’s such a big deal, like it’s such a fatal flaw that God is going to select somebody else because this wasn’t really about ultimate and deep reverence for God, this was about Saul’s fear of being deserted by the army and Saul’s fear of what people were saying about him and what they were going to say about him. So, you know, where this kind of starts getting personal is when we start thinking about how we are swayed by the opinion of other people, like this…the swirl of it all, how we are trying to curate and fit ourselves into a certain mold so that good things, right, good things, so people say good things…not…not that that…that’s a bad thing to have people speak well of you. The point is the motivator, like what’s going on in your heart. What are you motivated to do this? And maybe we’ve been in these circumstances where we felt the leading of the Lord and we began to do what we were told, which led us to a period of waiting. Because this is what happened with Saul. He assembled the Army. They’re all lined up but he’s in a season or a time of waiting for the prophet to come and give further instructions. So, we can all find those kind of scenarios in our lives, where we’re told to do something, we’re prepared to do it and then there’s a period of waiting. And it’s like everybody is just kind of slinking away and maybe doing some talking or whatever. And, so, we try to take matters into our own hands to try to hold the whole thing together as if God can’t hold it together. But really what’s going on inside of us is that we fear whether or not God’s come through. It’s that we fear what others are gonna say. So, Saul is showing us in vivid detail this path of life and we’re nowhere near the end of our learning. But even as we get to know Saul, this first king, it’s like every day there’s something else to learn about the fear of man and where that road will ultimately lead when we’re trying to get an identity from the opinions, the ever-changing opinions of people instead of getting the opinion from our Creator who isn’t continually changing His mind about us based on the winds of change or culture or based even upon our performance. This is leading Saul down a treacherous path. It will lead us down the same treacherous path.

Prayer:

Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit to remind us of who we are, children of the most-high God. What else can be said about that? What kind of social media post can we post today that will make us look so great that will outdo that? And in knowing that this is who we are, like there’s nothing else above that, that we are Your children. So, we don’t need to prop ourselves up in some kind of smaller way. We’ve already won it all, it’s already all ours. You are our Father. And, so, Lord, even as we go through this story in first Samuel, we see these roads that Saul is gonna walk down. Show us how we get off the path and walk down the same roads so that we learn here, and we walk through this assured of who we are and where we’re going and who You are and where You’re leading. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on, it’s where the community gathers. It’s where the Global Campfire sort of is.

The Prayer Wall is there. Check it all out in the Community section.

Check out the resources that are available in the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. If…if what we’re doing, this rhythm of life day by day, step-by-step, through the Scriptures is life-giving to you than thank you very deeply and humbly for your partnership. So, there’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or 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 upper right-hand corner of the app, 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.

1 Samuel 10:1-11:15, John 6:43-71, Psalms 107:1-43, Proverbs 15:1-3

Today is the 11^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we move forward and take the next step in our journey or sail the next mile or whatever metaphor we want to use for forward movement. We’re moving forward into this shiny new week and living into it for all that it’s worth. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week and we’re moving our way through the book of first Samuel. So, we’ve met Samuel, we kinda know his story even from before he was born. We know that he grew up under the high priest and was trained as a priest. We know that he’s a prophet and a priest and the final judge of Israel. And now we’re in the process…I mean…it may not seem like it but we’re in the process of a humongous transition in the story of the ancient Hebrew people. They’ve asked for a king. So, they want their kingdom or their country to be a monarchy. They want a king to rule them all and to organize them in some sort of way. And we have met a person and his name is Saul and Samuel’s telling him that he’s gonna be the king. That’s pretty hard for Saul to believe but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s pick up the story. First Samuel chapter 10 and 11 today.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of first Samuel, today we have turned the page, like we have entered a new era. We now have a king in Israel and that changes the dynamic, right? So, this begins to bring to close…to a close time of the Judges. And we read the book of Judges and we know that everybody was doing whatever they wanted, and it wasn’t working out all that great. And, a judge would emerge and would lead the people for their lifetime usually but, you know, then as soon as the vacuum…as soon as they were gone and there’s a void then it just kinda filled in with everybody doing whatever they want until some other catastrophe was upon them. And now they want a king, or they wanted to king and just kinda be done with that back-and-forth just to have a sovereign to rule them. And we met this guy and he became the king, Saul. So, now there is King Saul, the first king of Israel. Here’s where it kinda gets interesting. Remember that last story we read in the book of Judges, that horrible story about the man from Ephraim and the concubine and she gets killed, raped to death, basically and then parts of her are sent to different places, the regions, the tribes and everybody comes together against Benjamin. And then there’s this war and tens of thousands of people die and in the end the tribe of Benjamin is obliterated, like there are 600 people left in the tribe of Benjamin. It’s been essentially wiped from the face of the earth and we saw all the people mourning over that, like just realizing the loss of it. So, how they kind of try to repopulate…like to give the men that were left wives so that the tribe wouldn’t just completely disappear. But, you know, if you have a tribe of Judah and there are 30,000 people who can fight and, you know, that represents maybe 100,000 people or whatever, that’s a very, very different thing than 600 people are left in this tribe. So, you’re…you can be like, “okay. Thank you for that review. That was a nasty story, I didn’t need to hear that story again. What has that got to do with now? What has that got to do with what we’re reading?” Actually, kinda has a lot to do with God’s redemption in all things. So, Saul was not the firstborn, right? He didn’t have any rights in his family. He was not the first of his family. He was not the first of his clan. And he was not from the most populous or powerful tribe of Israel either as we might suspect. He was from that try that tribe, the of Benjamin. The one that was nearly wiped out provided the first king of Israel. And we see what he did. Like what he’s trying to rally people against the ammonites, he cuts up a sacrificial animal and sends it out to summon the people and they come, and they become victorious and this firmly places Saul on his throne. Unfortunately, he won’t firmly be placed on his throne for long but that is a story for another day. And there is a lot that King Saul can teach us about some of the darker avenues of our lives. And the first lesson was taught, in today’s reading. Saul was named as the chosen one to be the king of Israel, and Saul could not be found because Saul was hiding…hiding at his own coronation. And this little clue into the fear of man, that Saul can be swayed by what people think about him, this is gonna cause some problems but we all face that to some degree, some of us in very severe…like we can’t do anything without thinking about what people are going to think about us. If we watch the story of Saul we can learn an awful lot about that road,

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for bringing us into this new week. We thank You for bringing us into this new era in the Scriptures. We invite Your Holy Spirit to quicken us, to make us alert and aware as we move through these next days because there’s so much for us to learn about ourselves. And, so, we open ourselves to You. Come Holy Spirit as we continue the journey forward in the Scriptures, we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

If you’re, you know, if you’re struggling with some things there’s a Prayer Wall there at dailyaudiobible.com. And you can get to this in the app as well. But people are praying continually there and people are reaching out for prayer there. And it’s a great place to go for that. So, be aware that the Prayer Wall is there.

Check out the different social media links. This is…these are places that we are connecting in moving together in community. Check out the Daily Audio Bible women’s group. You can find the links to that in the Community section. If you are a woman and you’re not there then you’re missing out on a sisterhood as we move through the Bible that Jill leads up and is continually encouraging, encouraging, encouraging. And, so…so be aware of that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, 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, 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 I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

1 Samuel 8:1-9:27, John 6:22-42, Psalms 106:32-48, Proverbs 14:34-35

Today is the 10^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we approach and move into a shiny, sparkly new week that is out in front of us, just waiting for us to live into and tell our story with. This gift of life that is before us is…is the gift from God and we get to make of it through our choices, through our thoughts, words and deeds whatever we like of it. And we can choose to honor God in it, which is what we’re choosing to do, in part, by meeting here around the Global Campfire every day and just allowing this space to exist, this safe, warm place that we have to let God’s word wash into our lives. So, let’s do that. We are getting to know Samuel. And, so, we’ve kind of learned his origin story, this…the story before he was even born and his mom…his mother Hanna and her prayer to God and for Samuel being raised up in Shiloh at the tabernacle and then we’ve gone through the loss of the Ark and Samuel’s emergence as the final judge of Israel. And, so, we will…we will continue that story. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. First Samuel chapters 8 and 9 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And even as we begin a new week so often the things that we think about are the things that we need to do and the things we need to accomplish in the span ahead. And then, often when we think of our relationship with You, we’re wondering similar things, “what am I supposed to do to make God happy? Like, what is God requiring of me?” And thankfully, as we begin this new week that question was answered in the Gospel of John from Your own lips, Jesus. And, so we’re thankful for that. You were asked that question, “what must we do to do the work God requires?” And so often we are internally asking that, “how do we find ourselves in Your will and in Your good graces?” You answered the question, “the work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” And, so, as we begin this new week, we do indeed declare that. We believe in the one God has sent. We believe that to be You, Lord Jesus. So, as we move into this week, we pray that we would become more and more like You, Christ like, Your hands and feet in this world. And we pray that Your Holy Spirit would guide and lead us into all truth. Come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth as we open ourselves to the truth. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

So…well…here in the United States today is Mother’s Day. So, I don’t want to let that pass by. Happy Mother’s Day mother’s! It’s pretty safe to say that none of us would be here without you. And, so… yeah…might be…I…I mean…a day for celebrating mothers, I don’t always mention these kinds of holidays because they are commemorated at different times of the year in different countries around the world. So…but…I was thinking about my own mom today. So, yeah, lost her a couple years ago. And, so, was thinking about her, was thinking about my wife, I was thinking about all you mothers. Happy Mother’s Day. It is an honor to be your sons and daughters. Thank you for bringing us into the world. Happy Mother’s Day.

And then, let’s see, dailyaudiobible.com is the website, and that is how you stay connected. Like, that’s the portal of entry, that's…what…where you get connected. And there is a Community section there that will give you social media links and access to the Prayer Wall. And this kind of how you step in and make points of connection. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. Within the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer the mail, 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, which is the little red button at the top, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian it is great to be here with you for a brand-new week I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DAB family this is Abba’s Joy I am just calling. I just want to say thank you to Brian and I want to lift up his family right now during this time because it’s hard, it’s challenging, and the DAB community and Brian’s readings is what’s keeping me moving forward. And I just want to say thank you to Brian and to everyone who is part of this Campfire. And I just want to shout out to Blind Tony. I haven’t heard him in a while and I just pray all is well. And Tony the truck driver, I always love hearing from him, and I believe it’s been a minute and I just pray everything is going well with you. And I’d like to just pray or share a verse for those teachers, especially this is teacher’s appreciation week and also now parents who have now become homeschool teachers, educators. It’s been challenging as a teacher myself to juggle work and family and children and sometimes we lose sight. And, so, here’s a reminder. Galatians 6:9 says, “and let us not grow weary while doing good for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” So, I encourage everyone to stay in the Word, walk by faith because God’s blessings and strength will be provided to us as His children. I thank you guys so very much. I love you. God bless.

Lord I just want to say thank You. Lord I just want to say thank You. Lord I just want to say thank You for everything that You’re doing in people’s lives, for everything that You’re going to do. Lord just touch everyone in the sound of my voice. Lord continue take our mind, body and soul. And Lord just do…have Your way. Lord if it is Your will Lord it shall be done. Lord continue to keep us, continue to love us, continue to do us and be us in our lives. Lord I want to say thank You for everything that You’re doing and that You have done Lord. Lord because You don’t do anything else Lord You’ve done enough. Lord and I just want to say thank You for everything that we have Jesus. Lord just touch those hospitals, touch the police, touch the nurses, touch the president, Lord just going touch everybody. And Lord this too shall come to pass Jesus. Lord You can do any and all things. And Lord I just want to say thank You and in Jesus’ name. Amen. Make sure y’all give. I love You guys.

For God so loved Elijah that He gave His one and only son Jesus, that if Elijah would believe in Jesus Elijah would not die forever but Elijah would live forever with Jesus in heaven. Hey, my little buddy Elijah, this is Kingdom Seeker Daniel from Chicago. Hey buddy. I love you man, but you know what? God loves you so much more and He is fighting for you. He is going to protect your mind, your heart, and your whole household. But don’t you worry one second, the devil will not win. You know why Elijah? Because the Bible says, greater is Jesus that lives inside of Elijah than the devil that hangs out in the world. So, you already win. You have the victory Elijah and I want you to know God is so proud of you buddy. We’re praying for you we love you and God’s got your back. You hang in there, man. God bless you buddy.

Hey everybody this is Pelham calling from Arab, actually right now I’m in Albertville Alabama, Addicted to Christ calling. I want to…it’s Cinco de Mayo and I just wanted to…I tried calling earlier and it dropped the call and apparently I wasn’t supposed to call at that time but now I’m standing in the back office in the cutting department and he said go ahead try again. So, I’m trying again. And this is still making me laugh but, Cinco de Mayo, and guess what people are going out and buying Corona’s to drink right now. So, hopefully that you know…don’t drink the Corona, don’t drink it, come on. Prodigal, I heard your call today on the show. By the way, I’m sorry to everybody because I have been very focused on myself, and I am now being told by the Holy Spirit, “hey Pelham, one of your things is to care about others. In fact, that’s your main reason why you still breathe.” So, He brings me the people I’m supposed to focus on. The girl who has the daughter who was on the streets, I think your name was Sonny. I’m…really was man attention when I was driving, and the Lord was speaking to me and I am a doofus. So, I might have your name wrong but let me talk with Prodigal. Prodigal that Glock, He wants you to see actually the Word of God. Your Glock is your sword and you are a trained assassin sent forth by the Lord to rebuke the enemy and break the chains that he’s put on his people…on the Lord’s people. There’s a time right now for us to fight to, to realize that we are sharing in His suffering only so that we can handle the glory that’s coming because the glory is coming. I don’t know if you all see it yet but if you’re suffering, guess what that means? You’re still alive, He loves you and He’s preparing you for something. Prodigal, man your call, it helped me. That shovel help me dude. I love you people…

Hi DAB family this is Rebecca Joy from Illinois calling in for the second time. It is May 5^th today and I wanted to kind of touch on that something Brian said after all the verses today because he was talking about the difference the Spirit and then your thoughts and your emotions. And, my gosh, if I did not live by my thoughts and my emotions even a few years ago or even last year I…oh…geez, it’s so…so tiring. It’s so tiring. And I’m sure that people who are like me who have really bad anxiety and sometimes even falling into depression, man, it is just, it’s one of the worst things that you can feel and life because you just, it’s…it’s like you’re on a treadmill that keeps going faster and faster and you overthink things and I…I know for me I was trying to…I was trying to do better and much like Brian said, I was trying to find God in what I could feel and what I could think but every single time I didn’t think the right thing or I didn’t feel the right thing I would just…I would feel worse and worse and I would attribute that to me being a bad person and I didn’t understand what was wrong with me because if…if I was a Christian wasn’t I supposed to be getting better at this? But my middle name is Joy and I’ve learned more about what that means in the past few years. It’s taken a while for me to understand fully, but my…my gosh…if I only knew…if I only knew how much joy and love and just God in general does not count on your feelings or your thoughts about yourself. Whatever those things are, whatever you’re feeling negatively that’s not God, that’s fear, and I hope you remember that. Be blessed.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Mira Martha from Georgia it’s actually my second time calling in. Tonight, I wanted to call in because Cindy the flute player’s message just really pricked my heart. Lord we all are struggling right now with this COVID and the struggles that are caused by all of this and I just…Cindy I…I want to pray for You and… Lord, thank You for all You are and Your guidance. And Lord I come to You tonight just asking that You be with Cindy and comfort her and give her wisdom and give her guidance what Your plan is. It’s so hard for us to see Your plan in the midst of turmoil or __. I pray that You’ll help her find the job that that is going to help her prosper and help her spread Your Word Lord. And I also ask that You pray for that You help her find a place to live or send the right people her way to help her stay where she is, whatever Your will is Lord. But I pray that You just be there for her and comfort her and give her the guidance that only comes from…form You Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Good morning I’ve never done this before my name it is Vincent. Hello. And I heard Cindy the flute player. The sadness in your voice reminds me of the sadness I sometimes feel in my heart. I don’t know much but what I do know is that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you. So, I pray in agreement with you that you find your job, your home, and your way and that you keep your faith as I need to keep mine. I ask in return that this Campfire group pray that I find love in my life. And as Brian says, I love you. You people are amazing.

1 Samuel 5:1-7:17, John 6:1-21, Psalms 106:13-31, Proverbs 14:32-33

Today is the 9^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you, yeah, as we close down a week, bring another one of the weeks that we have together to a close. And it’s been a great week. We’ve moved through a lot of territory, complete…concluding the book of Judges, into the book of Ruth, and meeting Samuel and getting to know the last judge of Israel, and a priest and a prophet that had significant influence over ancient Israel, and obviously in the Bible. So, continuing to…to influence us until today. So, let’s dive back into that story. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week, which is today. First Samuel chapters 5, 6, and 7 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for leading us through another week in Your word. And if we just pay close attention to what the last thing we read for this week will be, “wisdom is enshrined in an understanding heart. It’s not found among fools.” And, so, Father enshrine wisdom within us. Give us an understanding heart as we move forward and navigate the days ahead. We thank You for Your guidance. We thank You for Your presence in and among us and all around us. We thank You for the comfort of Your Holy Spirit and we pray all of these things with gratitude in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base. And that is where the Prayer Wall lives. That is where the things that are going on like in the Initiatives section. That’s where you find those things out. That’s where the Daily Audio Bible Shop lives.

And if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access these things as well. But this is how you stay connected. This is home base. And, so, stay…stay connected in any way that you can, any way that you want.

You’ll find all the different social media channels that we are interacting or announcing things on. Those are in the community section. The Prayer Wall is there. The Daily Audio Bible Shop is there. So, check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you profoundly. Thank you humbly. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudibible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button, which is in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, yeah, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is that little red Hotline button at the top, or you can press…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…well…next week, which happens to be tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning family this is brave from New Jersey I’m calling regarding the prayer point that sister calling herself Worthy and Redeemed in Nebraska calling in on April 25^th about her daughter her 10-year-old daughter whose having an eating disorder because of the past rape from her brother and also her son who is also confused, gender confused, due to the molestation by that same brother. And she’s in the middle of a spiritual battle. My sister, I’m calling to encourage you, to pray for you, that the Lord Almighty that sees all things, knows all things, and who all things will visit your home and Lord that the enemies, the…the…the…the seed that the enemy is trying to scatter around your house will be pulled and uprooted and your house will come together, you will build a new foundation. As we are praying, we are lifting you up. Holy Spirit visit this home. Lord destroy all the work of the enemy concerning this family. I pray this over their 10-year-old daughter especially. I call You that You will restore her, her strength, her dignity, her value. You will pull together Yourself Lord everything that she is lost through this ordeal. I pray for the son to, that Lord You will just redeem him, make him a man that You have created them to be, a strong and beautiful and mighty warrior in Your kingdom. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Walta the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King. It is 8:41 May 4^th and I just heard Elijah’s prayer request praying for Satan to not tempt him. And Elijah I pray for you, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may He cause His face to shine on you, may He cause you to get to know Him better. I pray that God will visit you and make Himself so clear to you, clearer than He was to the kid Samuel when Samuel was called to Him. I pray that God will bless your parents for allowing you to do this and I pray that you will find richness in God’s word. I know God answered your prayers already because he said, “__ little children to come to me for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” And I know God hears your prayers before He hears any of our prayers. So, thank you for calling. And God bless. God bless.

Hi everybody this is Tony the Narrator. This one’s a special shout out to Elijah. Elijah, little brother, could you pray the same praying for me please because we’re all going through that my friend. We’re all trying desperately to listen to Jesus, and we’re all being tempted by Satan because this is part of a big war that’s been going on since the beginning of time. And basically, Satan’s trying to steal us away from Jesus. But Jesus came so that when He died on the cross, He was able to pay for all of our sins with His blood. Okay? So, yes, it’s right for us to feel wrong about the things that we do wrong but not forever. We shouldn’t let these things eat us up and beat us up. Okay? What we do is we turn to Jesus and we say, “Lord I know what I’ve done is terrible, I’m really really sorry, I’m not going to do it again with your help.” And then what you do is you pick up your Bible and you start reading. I recommend reading the book of John. It’s very, very, very good Elijah. Anyway, little brother, it was a joy to hear your voice. Please call back in again. God bless you and God bless everybody in the DAB. Love you all. Bye-bye.

Hi, my name is Terry and I’m a first-time caller second-year listener and I just want to give God praise for this podcast and for Brian and his family. This is truly a blessing, it’s encouraging, it’s motivating and even challenging. The word says, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” So, I’m grateful to be able to grow in my faith daily as I listen to the word of God being spoken and even explained by Brian. I pray for those who call on this podcast and I’m grateful to be able to get the opportunity to pray for them. Please know that during this coronavirus that we are to claim the victory and not the virus and know that God is in control. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of his family as I share it with many people as has been shared with me. Thank you again. God bless and I love you all.

This is Elise from Cape Cod Massachusetts I’ve listened for about a year now and this is my second time calling. I’m a senior citizen alone in the world and I have severe spinal stenosis and arthritis and I have been in a lot of pain. And I just…it…suddenly last night…acute. And I’ve had two major neck surgeries and I just need mercy and healing and grace and strength right now. Thank you. God bless.

Heavenly father I lift up to you little Elijah in a prayer I agree with Father. Each of us…each of us needs to listen to you. Each of us needs to draw near…draw near to you Father. And in Christ Jesus you have made it possible. Come on to me all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, Jesus said. Father thank you for your goodness and love. Thank you that we can come to you and ask for strength and power to resist the devil and to receive the good things that you have through us…for us through your word. I pray you’ll just guide Elijah, draw him closer to You in Jesus’ name.

Hello, this message is for Joe the Protector who called a few months back regarding his daughter who wanted to become a sex worker and he wanted prayer for that. And I just wanted him to know that I’ve been praying for him. I’m sure others have been praying for him and his daughter and his family these months, especially during quarantine time a lot of things and just be worse too. So, praying for you Joe and your family and your daughter. This is Chris in the California gold country.

1 Samuel 2:22-4:22, John 5:24-47, Psalms 106:1-12, Proverbs 14:30-31

Today is the 8^th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we approach the end of another week. And we’re approaching the end of the first full week of this month and…yeah…we’re continuing to move forward, step-by-step, day by day. This is…this is what we do. What a difference it makes to have this rhythm of life here together around the Global Campfire every day one step forward. So, we…we…we stepped into the book of first Samuel today and we talked about that yesterday but just by way of quick reminder, Samuel was the final judge of Israel. So, we read the book of Judges and now we are in first Samuel. He served…he’s just a little kid right now where we are in the story, but he served as Israel’s final judge bringing them into the age or era of the monarchy where they had a king and we’ll get to that over the coming days. Right now, we’re just getting to meet everybody. Hannah Samuel’s mother was childless, and she prayed at Shiloh before the Lord and Shiloh was the capital, like the tabernacle was permanently situated there for almost 4 centuries long, long, long before there was ever a temple in Jerusalem. And, so, she’s there and she’s praying and God gives her a son and she dedicates him to God and his name is Samuel and she brings him back to Shiloh and gives him to the priest, Eli, who is beginning to train him along with his own…his own children, his own sons Hophni and Phinehas and there is a stark contrast between Eli’s biological sons and the one that he’s kind of raising up in the temple Samuel and we’ll see that more and more clearly as the days go by. So, we’re reading from the New Living translation this week. Today, first Samuel chapter 2 verse 22 through 4 verse 22.

Commentary:

Okay. So, Jesus is having a conversation with the religious leaders and they’re questioning Him and wanting to know about His authority, all these things that…that are common as we moved our way through the Gospels Jesus is having this discussion with them and He tells them some very poignant things today. And one of the things that He…He says is just…man…like it goes right to the heart. At least it goes to my heart when we pass this territory because it’s like I’m guilty of the same thing. I’ve done the same thing for years and yet Jesus is giving immense clarity. So, speaking to these people Jesus says, “you search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the Scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.” So, honestly, like if I’m just going back into a part of my story, for me…I’m a Pastor’s son. I grew up around the Bible but before the Daily Audio Bible ever began, I just, you know, realized I’m a mile wide and an inch deep. There is no depth to this faith whatsoever. I’m not even sure its real. And, so, I turned to the Scriptures, as I should have, as we should and I, you know, spent like the next decade giving my all to the study of the Scriptures. And it’s not like I don’t give my all to that every day now. I study the Scriptures every day, but what I was looking for was God. Like, what I was looking for was how to understand God and I thought that the more I could know these Scriptures the more I could know God, only to find out the Scriptures are there to point the way to God. They can’t become God. The Bible isn’t God. And yet, the Pharisees and scribes of the time, they’re studying the Torah, they’re studying the Scriptures of their time, they’re trying to obey them as best as they can, they’re trying to control everybody else to get them to do the same thing and they had become God. Like the plot of the story had been lost and we’ve mentioned this many times in the Old Testament. We’re like there’s the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. And this is what Jesus is getting at here. That’s when He says, “you search the Scriptures because you think they give you…they give you eternal life, but the Scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.” And then He goes on, “your approval means nothing to me because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. I came in my Father’s name and you rejected me, but if people come around in their own name and…and…and toot their own horn ten you gladly welcome them. No wonder you can’t believe. You…you honor each other. You gladly honor each other but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who is God alone.” And then He goes on, “yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father, Moses will accuse you.” So, why is He referring to Moses?” Because they are studying the Mosaic law and trying to flesh it out and…and…and use it to control the people. And Moses teachings for them are the Scriptures. So, He’s basically saying, “the Bible is gonna condemn you because it showed you the way…it told you about me and you still don’t believe it.” And that is entirely possible. I mean there are fantastic biblical and cultural scholars who do nothing for a profession outside of studying the times of the Bible and don’t believe it. We can know the Bible back-and-forth and not know God. And knowing everything that there is to know or that you can know about someone doesn’t mean you’re in a relationship with them. Trying to wrestle through that and this particular Scripture was one of the inspiring things about that, you know, led me to write the book Reframe and really explore, “what is…what are we talking about when we’re talking about a relationship with God?” And, so, this leaves us with some things to think about today. Like are…are we studying the Scriptures so that they will draw us deeper into a relationship with God or are we studying the Scriptures to find out what we’re supposed to do? Are we studying the Scriptures and calling that a relationship? And then we just have to think about whether that could work in any other relationship in our lives. If like, say you’re married, could you just read about your spouse and call that a relationship or do you have to actually offer yourself completely? Like do you have to open yourself? Do you have to be present and offer your presence in order for a relationship to happen? In so many ways this is what Jesus is telling the religious leaders and they won’t listen. Like we know that, but they don’t listen, they don’t have the eyes to see that Jesus keeps talking about. And stepping into a relationship with Jesus means that, yes, we study the Scriptures. We do this every single day, but the Scriptures will lead us to a leap of faith and that leap of faith will be beyond, it will be into what we don’t understand. We are talking about the most-high God after all. But it’s not faith if you control it. By definition faith is reaching out for…for what we cannot see but we do perceive. It gives substance to what we hope for and the Bible leads us to understand that reality. So, we have to wonder in our own lives, “what is it that I am calling my relationship with God? Is it doing everything that I think I should do? Is it devoting devotional time each and every day?” These things can be part of it but when we’re studying God and not being with God, then that’s not a relationship by any definition. So…so that’s…that gives us some things to think about. But then we can think, “well I’ve been going about this maybe in the wrong way. And, you know, how…how do I find that…that sweet spot?” Listen, God for sure will take us where we are and lead us forward from that place or this place. He wants to be in a relationship with us, one that we are intertwined in, one that we collaborate in, one…one that we do life together in. We’ve been reading the stories of the Bible and God will not give up. Like, if we if we have learned anything so far, He won’t stop. He might get exasperated. He might punish even. But He will not give up. He will not stop coming. So, it’s not like we gotta figure this out and get ready. It’s that we gotta take a leap of faith and believe, which is the message of Jesus. Or let me just…let me just use the words of Jesus instead of my own words. Let me just read from our reading in the Gospel of John. “The father who sent Me has testified about Me Himself. You have never heard His voice or seen him face-to-face and you do not have His message in your hearts because you do not believe Me, the One He sent to you.” So, you see, we can become all the scholars that we want and still not know God and we can have no scholarly training and leap into His arms and have a relationship. Right now, what I desire more than anything is to just be in His lap instead of in the laboratory trying to figure Him out. I have found that it is a whole lot easier to figure out somebody that you know than it is trying to study somebody at a distance.

Prayer:

Father, that is our desire. It’s built into us. We long for You. Life pulls us toward You. We can’t do it without You although we try all the time. Ironically, You want this. You want us even more. You were willing to come for us and give Your life for us. You want this relationship and yet we muddy it up with all kinds of things all the time. When, no matter what, it all comes back to a leap of faith. And, so, Holy Spirit, strengthen our faith that we might walk in Your will and Your ways, that we might live in a dynamic, always on, never off relationship with You. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, and that makes it home base for us around the Global Campfire. So, being aware of that is good and I try to mention it just about every day so that we’re aware of it because that’s where you take the journey deeper.

Now if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can do all these things from within the app, it’s the portal into community. So…so, just be aware and explore.

Explore the Community section. The Prayer Wall lives there. It lives within the app as well. That’s always happening. People are always praying at the Prayer Wall or asking for prayer, So, know that that’s a resource…that’s a place to reach out. And there are many points of connection on social media as well, those are in the community section. So, check that out. Stay connected.

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 is on the homepage. And I thank you. I thank you for your partnership beyond words. We would not be here if we were not throwing some logs on together. So, thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if that is your preference, 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, 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 I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Diane from Newburgh Indiana this is an infantryman from Georgia. I just wanted to let you know you that you sang a song from Mr. Rogers that was aired on the April 27^th podcast. And let me tell you, I was on the way to work as a military and essential employee during the COVID-19 response in Georgia and I just want to let you know that I was listening to that podcast on the way to work on just another one of many groundhog days over the past 45 days where we’re confronted with the need to go into work with so many sheltering at home and so many dealing with the economy as it is and all the stresses that come with that. Anyways, I found my 40-year-old combat arms military self, singing along with you and bawling my eyes out to Mr. Rogers lyrics as I was passing through base security and heading to the joint force headquarters. Now I’ve served overseas in combat in Afghanistan and I’ve been employed in response operations at home from Hurricane Katrina to COVID-19 and I’ve not felt this appreciated for my service in spite of all the overtures so as such until your simple musical tribute which resonated with my childhood. And I just wanted to say thank you from a soldier of war to a soldier of faith.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Debbie in Texas, it’s Sunday, May 3^rd. This is my first time calling in. I’ve been listening since January. I think my story is so much like everyone else’s. Just so appreciative of Brian and his ministry and his family’s ministry to reach out to all of us. I can’t remember everyone’s names as I’m trying to recall this and record this and I’m nervous. So, I pray for all of you along with the prayer requests and I just ask that maybe you would just also say a prayer for me. Really too much to go into and just not super comfortable anyway saying what’s going on in my life. But anyway, huge changes. So, I thank you. I lift you all up and I hope you all have a great day. Thank you. Bye.

Hi this is May 3^rd, and this is Sam and I’m calling from Barcelona Spain and my prayer is for the gentleman that called today regarding his mother in New York being confined with coronavirus. I want to pray for her. And as a coronavirus survivor I know it means to be cooped up in a very small room for 20 days. So, praying for your mother and for your family. Dear Lord, You are the giver of life and the taker of life and You have the whole world in Your hands and under Your control. So, we thank You for those that You provide and grant salvation and healing from this virus. And for those that You do not Father, we ask that You give them comfort, that You give them light, that You give them years to hear Your voice and Your word and Your message of hope and eternal life. And I’m praying for this mother that is having difficulties being confined Lord. And I pray that You send her understanding, that You send her peace, and that You surround her with a great support group that would be able to withstand this time. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

Fear is not my friend. Fear is not my friend. It is __ worm tongue hissing in my ear pretending to protect me while feeding off my pain. What a sick and twisted codependency. It has left me small and hard and gray. Fear has been my counselor for a long time, but I’ve finally seen through its slithering disguise. I have divorced fear and its poisonous comfort, and I will resist and reject every attempt it makes to worm its way back into my affections. I have a new comforter now the spirit of adoption. Daddy. Daddy, my heart cries and He answers with truth. There is so much joy and beauty ahead Cherry. He isn’t pretending. He sees. He knows. “What if” used to torment me, now what widens my eyes with wonder.

Sweet Elijah from May the 3^rd, I just want you to know my love that it is okay to lean on others when you’re feeling struggles and temptations all around you. Satan is like that. He likes to get in and try to trip us up and first he’ll…he’ll make it seem okay and then we need to…when you follow him, he’ll say, “see, God’s not gonna want you now. See, what do you do that for? Now you’re not such a good Christian.” But I want to tell you something, God loves you no matter what. And every time you get a thought or temptation, if you just kind of quickly close your eyes really quick and say, “Lord I can’t handle the situation, can you please help me?” And you know what? Jesus promised in His word that He will do that, that any time we call upon Him He will step in and He will help us, He will give us a way out. So, you just keep praying, you keep coming back here for support, keep reminding us that you need us to pray for you and we certainly will. I know this is a hard time right now. It’s a hard time to be growing up but things will get better because God loves you and He will do everything He can to keep you safe. I’m gonna put you in my prayer book and I’m gonna pray for you every time I pray for my grandchildren and my children. And I just want you to know that you are His precious child, His precious gift. You take care my darling and any time at all you…you call here and tell us what’s going on. This is Paula Living on the Rock standing…

Oh wow…rejoice with me Daily Audio Bible family of God. Thank you for your prayers. Early this morning my third grandchild was born, and mama is doing great. Dada’s doing great. We went and picked up little baby number three’s brothers and brought them home and they stayed the night last night and we were notified via text that all is well. So, thank you for praying. So grateful, so grateful. Please welcome Valentine is his name, into this world. God bless You all. Lord God shower down a blessing upon all the women that have a desire in their heart to be a mother Father God. I pray Lord God that You would bless them in Your favor and grant them this gift in Jesus’ precious and holy name. And bless all the mothers with toddlers and bless all our children Father God of every age. We love them dearly and we are Your children God and we are so grateful. Praise You Lord. Praise You Lord Jesus’ name. Amen. This is Treasured Possession. God bless you.

Good morning been a listener since January 15^th, and I’ve needed it so much to just keep my anxiety low and my sadness high and it’s really helped to encourage me. And I finally had to call in. There’s been something on my heart since then and I thank you Walta, Walta the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King a week ago, Saturday on the community prayer talked about generational transference and I’m in the middle of that right now. My son is 19. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was six and it’s been very difficult for me to handle but the __ it was more important than, you know, Jesus above anything and here at 19 he’s claiming to be an atheist and agnostic and my heart is broken. And Walta thank you for praying for our children. You mentioned about that we take our kids to church and they watch and do what they see us do. And he’s been at church since he was born and now, he wants to do things his way and God is not a part of that. So, I do pray for that generational transference, that he will connect to Jesus, that God will be an option for him to long, thirst, understand and be in love with Him. So, I’m just thankful that you encourage me to call in. My name is Carrie, his name, his Jared and I pray that God, it has to be the Holy Spirit that’s only going to work in his heart to save him. So, thank you Walta for encouraging me and I pray that everybody will pray for my son. It’s pretty heartbreaking. This is the worst blow then really the diagnosis of muscular dystrophy…