08/29/2020 DAB Transcript

Job 31:1-33:33, 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, Psalms 43:1-5, Proverbs 22:8-9

Today is the 29th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you as we reach the conclusion of another of our weeks together. And this concludes the last full week of this month, August. Before we get through another one of our weeks together, we will embark on the journey through another month. But like we often say, we’re here, this is where we are and we’re here now and we’re here to take the next step forward, which will lead us back out into the book of Job. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week, which is what we will do today. Job 31, 32, and 33.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we came to one of the most popular famous verses of Scripture in the New Testament today when Paul says, “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom”, right? So, we sing that in songs, we quote that, we repeat it to ourselves, it’s famous. What kind of freedom is Paul talking about though? Because if we can grasp what Paul is saying today, it's…it's…it’s like a mind-blowing thing. Seriously, there are the things that we encounter in the Scriptures that if we will just slow down and not make them a theological metaphor of some sort, just actually think about the reality that Paul is describing, it is mind blowing stuff. And today is one of those days. So, Paul does say, “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom or there is liberty.” So, we kind of have to start out going, “well…where is the Spirit of the Lord then?” And we realize when we start thinking about that how often we’re trying to get into the presence of the Lord where this freedom is but we have to go somewhere, like we have to be in some sort of mystical state or we have to be in church or like where…where is the Spirit of the Lord where I can enter that presence and find freedom? According to the Bible, we can never escape His Spirit. Like, according to the Bible if we make our bed in the…in the depths, if we go up to the highest heavens, if we go to the far side of the sea, even there His Spirit will guide us. So…so there is nowhere that we can escape from His Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. So, we could say wherever we go there is liberty. Wherever we are in whatever state we’re in - and I don’t mean like state of the United State, I mean like whatever condition we’re in - there is still freedom. That is the…the crux, that is the mind-blowing thing that Paul is saying today, but he’s saying, “in order to live into that, in order to even recognize that you have to understand that you haven’t been seeing it that way. You haven’t been experiencing it that way. You’ve been looking at your life through a veil.” And this is where Paul turns back to Hebrew tradition and the law and his own education and his own understanding. And he talks about Moses. And we spent a lot of time with Moses as we were getting into our year. So, we know the story of Moses and freeing of the slaves from Egypt, but we remember when they went out into the wilderness where we spent so much time earlier this year that God called Moses up on Mount Sinai and the people build a golden calf and the whole story and he came back down but they were supposed to come meet with God. That was the instruction. They were supposed to purify themselves as an entire community and come up on the mountain of the Lord and meet with God. And, so, they drew near, God descended upon the mountain and it terrified them, they were afraid. And, so, they backed off and essentially inaugurated Moses to be a prophet. God invited all the people to hear from him and the people backed off and appointed Moses and said, “you go up before the Lord, you listen to what the Lord says, you come tell us, and then we will obey it.” And that’s what happened. So, Moses goes into the presence of the Lord and comes back down and his face is glowing, right? Remember this. His face is glowing and it’s freaking the people out because the glory of the Lord is upon Moses. And, so, they’re afraid of Moses. And, so, Moses puts a veil over his face so as not to disturb the people in order to do his work, the work of the Lord in leading the people. So, Paul takes that picture and essentially says, “God’s people have been looking through a veil ever since. The glory is behind the veil, but the veil is in front of the glory and essentially that’s the problem. You’ve been looking at it through a veil ever since.” But let me just quote it from Paul from second Corinthians. “Their minds became as hard as stones for up to this day when they read the old covenant (which is the Hebrew Scriptures the Torah) the same veil continues to hide that glory. This veil is lifted only through the Anointed One. Even today a veil covers their hearts when the words of Moses are read, but in the moment when one turns toward the Lord the veil is removed. And by the Lord what I mean is the Spirit, and in any heart where the Spirit of the Lord is present there is freedom, there is liberty.” So, as Paul has explained, especially in the book of Romans, the law exposed the ways in which people fail and fall short, this old covenant. With the coming of Jesus and the inauguration of this new covenant we are shown the ways in which we are free from those failures because we have been made righteous before God through Jesus. That’s how we get to this famous Scripture. That’s it in its context. When a person turns to Christ, the veil is removed and all of a sudden, the glory of God can be seen without a…a veil and we can see that we are free. These things that…that keep estranging us from God are not a category, they’re not supposed to be a category, tight? If freedom exists where the Spirit of the Lord is and we can’t escape the Spirit of the Lord, then freedom is always with us and always available and when the veil is removed we can see that and live into it and experience it from glory to glory, like continually, always, like as a way of life. So, knowing that we’re free from sin, eternally free…ahh…eternally free, what a complete and utter relief and the implication of essentially opening our eyes, right. the veil removed, having eyes to see and ears to hear. The implications of this are astounding. And, so, I won’t paraphrase, I’m just gonna quote it from the Scriptures. “Now all of us with our faces unveiled reflect the glory of the Lord as if we are mirrors. And, so, we are being transformed into His same image from one radiance of glory to another just as the Spirit of the Lord accomplishes it.” That is crazy stuff to think about, that the process of sanctification is transforming us completely into the likeness of our Savior, of God, a mirror image. I don’t know if that blows your mind or not. It blows my mind to think about. It brings all of the things that I can obsess about or worry about or fret about or concern myself with or distract myself with into some kind of context. Like Paul has this way of leading us to a place where we can see this vista and realize that that’s the reality we are headed toward and that’s what we are living into and it is a way bigger story than we are living than we are choosing to live. And today is one of those days. We reflect the glory of the Lord upon the earth. We are, as Jesus would have said, the light of the world if we choose to live into the removal of the veil. So often we just want the veil. Like we just choose the veil and then stay confused about it all when the clarity here is, the veil has been removed. Our job is to reflect the glory of the Lord upon the earth. That is quite a calling, quite an invitation, quite a purpose for life. And, so, let’s live into that.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You. It is Your glory we are reflecting. So often, we try to get a little bit of it and shine it but then make sure that there’s a bunch of it shining back on us so we’re recognized. This isn’t about us. We don’t have any glory. We are wandering in the dark without You. And yet You are inviting us to participate in Your glory to be transformed into Your likeness to be a part, a vital part, of Your work in this world by shining the light. We are humbled. We recognize for sure we don’t deserve any of this, It is way beyond anything we can earn, it is way beyond anything we can arrange for, it is way beyond anything we can accomplish. It is the highest of heights and You have invited us into it. You have lifted us out of the mire and set us in the heavenly’s. You have invited us to be a part of Your story. And, so, often we’re just to trying to make You a part of ours. But we come to moments like this and clarity comes bursting in and we see the bigger story and we understand how small we’ve made You and how weak we really are without You. And, so, we invite You as we move to close this week for sure. But as we close another month and move into September in a few days, we want to live into this fully. And, so, we begin by opening our hearts to it. Remove the veil. Let us see clearly. And not just right this minute but perpetually. May we live into our perpetual freedom. There is nowhere that we are going to go that You are not. And wherever You are there is freedom. May we see that, may we live that in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

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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:

Hi this is Victoria Solider just calling tonight to pray for some of the DABbers I wanted to talk to… to soe of the DABbers and pray them. I wanted to pray for the lady who called about praying for the policeman nationwide. That is a…a really good idea. What we need to pray for is the eyes and the heart of our policeman. We know that they’re out there, we need them, we know that they’re…they’re doing a…that they’re doing a magnificent job, but we need to pray for those who are not seeing right. Like Jesus prayed for the man who was blind, and he touched him, and he said he’s seeing men as trees but when he touched him again, he seen men as men. We need to pray for those police officers who were doing the wickedness of shooting people and doing people wrong instead of trying to cover it up but we need to pray that God will open up their eyes and convict them that they will have a heart do every…to treat everyone right because righteousness is what exalts a nation. We all need to pray for our police officers. We need to pray for our leaders, and this is where we need to be. We need police officers and police officers need…need the protection also. So, my…my heart is deftly out for playing for lease nationwide and that…that they won’t do the evil stuff of…of wanting to take a life when they know it’s not right in their heart to do. The lawful shouldn’t have to stop them but their heart should stop them, the heart of God. And I just pray for that heart for every…every…every cop whether it’s a __ thing or just an evil thing. Lord you have your way. And I want to pray for…for our…for our…for the ones I have on my…my list still…the…the ones who are going…suffering cancer, the one who…

Hello this is Toss and Turning from Illinois my first time calling, no, maybe my second time calling. I’ve been listening for quite a few years now and I keep thinking about Barb in Canada and I have the same thing going on here at home. I have two sons that live at home from my second marriage that are in their 30s. One, the youngest has diabetes and doesn’t seem to want to move on and the second has a girlfriend and he’s in and out. And I have my oldest son that’s in a wheelchair. He got involved in drugs when he was in his early teens and he’s 52 and always depended on me to help him and angry with me when I don’t. And my husband is in his 80s and he has heart problems. So, there’s a lot of things going on here that I could use prayer for and I’m praying for you Barb in Canada and all those that have adult children living at home. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible for being there.

Good morning DAB family this is June in Maryland I want to thank everyone so much for praying for me so much. I’m feeling so much better. Just got cleared to go back to work. So, I am good. Thank you, God and thank you all family. I am calling to ask for prayer request for one of our coworkers who also had it. Six of us on my unit got it. My unit was shut down for two days and it was just crazy. So, she actually is older and just not doing so well. She ended up going to a hospital and then moved into the ICU and now she’s on a ventilator. So, I’m just asking you all to pray for her. I __  for her, of course, I have family so I don’t want to say her name but she…God knows who she is and if you guys can just pray for her, keep her your prayers, pray for a speedy or miraculous recovery and let this be a testament to God and His glory and let everyone see it. Thank you all. Love you all. I’ll call back later. Bye.

Good morning friends I’m way behind in my listening. Today is…I don’t know…August 26th it’s a Wednesday but I’m way back on biggest 18th and, you know, I’m not really beating…beating myself up about being behind but, you know, it’s like I always think about it, like I have to listen to as many as I can. And, you know, some days I just don’t make it. Like yesterday I just overslept and, you know, it was a pretty bad day. I’m not saying those two are connected but I’m just telling you to facts about my life. Yesterday, Wednesday, I missed the Daily Audio Bible. Yesterday, Wednesday, was one terrible day because I had to mandatory report. As a teacher I have too, and it doesn’t matter who tells me what’s going on I have to tell, and I believe that. I believe I should tell, and I always do. This one is the third time I’ve ever had to do it and it was the worst. But then this morning I wake up feeling a little dejected from, you know, still the lingering ugh from yesterday and I stumbled downstairs and I plug in my phone to charge it and I hit my trusted friend, the Daily Audio Bible and what of all days of all days friends is he, is Brian reading to us Esther. Thank you God for allowing me to get eight days behind so that when I would turn on my Daily Audio Bible today Lord God you would have my very favorite Bible story and you would have Brian telling me that yes, it’s a wackadoodle year but what if God has me ready for such a time as this. I see you God. I see You working on in my life and I love You and I praise You and I’m so excited to tell everyone about you. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible for always being there for me. I love you. Peace.

Hi DAB family this is Hopeful can you please pray for my husband Chris who is not a believer. He’s gonna be going on a three day silent meditation retreat August 28th through the 30th and I’m gonna be really praying for him that he would just really open his heart up to Christ and…and maybe…and pray maybe for the first time in a very long time. He doesn’t believe in prayer and has been coming to church with me very consistently off and on over the last 5, 6 years but just really consistently over the last couple of years and he’s just so close. And just this meditation retreat can…can definitely pull him away from Christ but I’m just praying that this will actually draw him closer to Him. It’s hard to encourage him to believe in prayer when he knows that I pray for children every single day and that’s just not something that we’ve been blessed with yet. And, so, I am still believing. We are, you know, as I had mentioned before we are in our mid-40s and it’s…my doctors have pretty much deemed it impossible based on my past history of…of endometriosis and all kinds of problems but I am still believing and I am believing with all the other women out there who have called in with infertility. We’re going to be this, and this is not the end of our story. So, anyway please pray for Chris this weekend. I love you guys. I…I pray for you every day. You inspire me to be a better Christian and thank you so much Brian for all of your commentations that have really blessed me.