Isaiah 45:11-48:11, Ephesians 4:1-16, Psalms 68:19-35, Proverbs 24:3-4
Today is the 25th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here. I cannot believe it is almost the end of September. I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We got…we got…we have some days to go, but man here we are getting ready to bring another month in for a landing in just a few short days. But everyday matters. Every day that we spend in the Scriptures matters. And, so, we have a few days left in this month and we can choose to embrace and end strong and finish well as we prepare to go into the final quarter of the year, but I’m getting ahead of ourselves here. So, rather than staying ahead of ourselves let’s center ourselves right here right now where we are, the 25th day of September, the 269th day of this year. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Isaiah chapter 45 verse 11 through 48 verse 11.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we continue our journey through the letter to the Ephesians, this…this letter keeps telling us the story is bigger than you think it is, there’s a lot more at stake, you have to open your eyes and see what’s going on here, this is of big deal. And, so, we’ve been kind of looking…looking at these different vista points as we make our way to the letter. And today, basically, the letter is telling us something we probably don’t like to be told, but need to be told, “it’s time to grow up.” And we might be thinking, “well…I'm…I’m up in years, you know, I'm…I’ve…I’ve been a grown-up, I’ve been an adult for a long time now. I don’t need to grow up.” But, yeah, we…we probably have areas that we need to grow up in. For example, let me just quote what this letter suggests we should do. “Always be humble and gentle.” Like, I’m gonna go on but let me just pause there. Like are we that? Then we could say, “yeah. I’m mature in that area”, but if not, then there is some growing up to do. “Always be humble and gentle. Patiently put up with each other and love each other.” So, we’re seeing that maybe we all have some growing up to do. I continue to quote. “Try your best to let God Spirit keep your hearts united. Do this by living at peace. All of you are part of the same body.” In other words, we are all in this together and it will not work any other way. Just like our bodies, right? Our hand can’t just divorce itself from our body and it could be…it could be lopped off in some terrible accident but the hands not gonna live and the body’s gonna suffer. This is what Paul’s been saying all along in his letters. So, continuing. “All of you are part of the same body. There is only one Spirit of God, just as you were given one hope when you were chosen to be God’s people. We have only one Lord, one faith and one baptism. There is one God who is the Father of all people. Not only is God above all others, but He works by using all of us and He lives in all of us.” Again, like that last thing, “He lives in all of us.” Chew on today. God lives in you. And all the things that are being suggested in this letter are things we can live into. We can choose not to. And honestly, most of the time we do choose not to, but that doesn’t mean it’s not available and that it’s not real. Maybe we don’t have eyes to see. Maybe there is some growing up to do. So, the letter continues to tell us that in order to become mature, in order to grow up, that Jesus has equipped the church. There are apostles and prophets and missionaries and pastors and teachers so that we could all grow and learn to serve and understand that we are part of one body and then when we grow strong, we are all growing strong. And when we are weak, we are all weak. We are one. We are one body, and this is gonna continue, these gifts that God has given to help us to mature and grow. According to Ephesians this is going to continue until we are united by our faith and our understanding of the Son of God, then…and I’m quoting…”then we will be mature just as Christ is and we will be” brace yourself… “and we will be completely like Him.” That’s where this story is headed and according to the letter to the Ephesians and I’m just mostly quoting all of this, according to Ephesians “we must stop acting like children. We must not let deceitful people trick us by their false teachings which are like winds the toss us around from place to place. Love should always make us tell the truth, then we will grow in every way and be more like Christ, the head of the body. And Christ holds it all together and makes all of its parts work perfectly as it grows and becomes strong because of love.” So, maybe we do have some years under our belts. Maybe we do have lots of experiences upon this earth, but are we, for all of those experiences and all of those years, are we still spiritual children? Are we still immature? And if that were the case would that not explain so much about the rest of our story? Because so often we are confused at ordering our world around us with our senses is the key when actually life is inside out. If we are spiritually mature our world, our lives will fall in line accordingly because we will be spiritually mature. We will be closer day by day step-by-step into the likeness of Christ or re-quoting Ephesians, “we will be mature, just as Christ is and we will be completely like Him.” I mentioned where we are in the year at the beginning of our reading today and I was like yeah, we’re out in front of ourselves. There’s still five more days or whatever left this month, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But maybe just knowing that there are these days left in this month and then we will be turning into the final quarter of the year, maybe taking these days to consider our spiritual maturity, to consider maybe it’s time to grow up and stop being little kids in this. Maybe that’s what we spend our next few days preparing for and considering and meditating upon as we continue the journey forward because I would wager that a year like no other, this year, has done a lot of things but one thing that it has certainly done is expose different levels of immaturity in our lives. And I also would wager to say that, in order to finish this year well, this very very weird strange year we’ve been a part of and all the strangeness that is still out in front of us, we’re gonna need spiritual maturity. And, so maybe there’s nothing more important to focus on today and in the coming days.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit we invite You. We invite You because You have promised to lead us into all truth. We are counting on that. And as You lead us, we are being made mature, we are growing up, we are being transformed into the likeness of the Savior. This is the goal, and this is what we are after. This is what our hearts long for. This is what we are crying out for. It’s just that growing up exposes that we’re not. Becoming mature exposes, the areas that we’re not. And then we squirm, and we don’t like it because growing up takes work and requires responsibility and we don’t usually think of this in spiritual terms. And yet the quicker that we grow up spiritually and become mature within, the quicker we will be able to act with wisdom without. Come Holy Spirit we pray into this 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:
What’s up everyone? It’s Evan Olson from Greenville South Carolina just calling in a prayer request for my friend/coworker. Quite a divine appointment from God really. I just put in my two weeks at the pizza place I’m working at and then God presented a great opportunity for a job for me and my wife __ us before but…anyways I worked tonight…I prayed after I put my two weeks in and my coworker his name is Alex and he was standing in the back doing dishes and I just said I’m gonna go talk to him because he never really…he just started like a week ago and I just figured I’ll go talk to him. So, I walked up to him and talked to him and I mean the next thing I know he was telling me about stuff he was going through. His wife has cheated on him. He is going through a lot of suicidal thoughts. He’s tried commit suicide 17 times. I asked him if I..I asked him if I could call into this show and request prayer for him and he said yes and it was just amazing because, well, the Spirit just presented an opportunity and I invited him to church and everything and I just request prayer…prayer for him because he’s in a really tough spot right now. Thank you everybody. I love the Daily Audio Bible, longtime listener first-time caller.
This is Kitty Cat from Pennsylvania. This name was given to me by my beloved brother Tad and he’s actually also a DABber. He listens to Daily Audio Bible. I listened about four years and I just…I…this is my first time calling in for a prayer request. My prayer request is, after 65 years of really really excellent health…health…I’ve been so blessed in my life…I was diagnosed about six months ago with __ cell cancer in my face that unfortunately travels to some nerves. Now I went for 33 rounds of radiation and…and my prayer request is that while I wait for the test results that the anxiety will just be gone and that I can just be a shining light to my family and my friends and everyone, you know, and…and hopefully try to help them go through trials as well. And this, you know, obviously I hope the news is good and I pray for good news that I’m cancer free in November but I ask that you just pray that the fear is taken away…I…and I just can be a shining light during this time. And I listened today Psalm 63, O my word, that’s great. My soul clings to you, my soul thirsts for you. Your steadfast love Lord is better than light. And I love the Daily Audio Bible. And I just…I’m so thankful that you can pray for me. Thank you this is Kitty Cat from PA. Bye-bye.
Hi this is Jesse I am a resident in a hospital in Georgia. First of all, God bless everyone. And I’m having some problems at my residency. I just ask that God would give me the knowledge and wisdom to do right. I am being evaluated now so I’m just asking for God’s favor and I would ask if you can all join me in that prayer. And I will also ask for His grace and thank Him for it. I’ll say a prayer. Father, I only come before you and I just give you the thanks for everyone on this network. I thank you Lord God for letting them know you, letting them know who …who to come to and who to trust. I thank you for creating us. I thank you Lord God for the love that you’ve placed in us to give to others. And I pray now Lord God that every miracle in everyone’s heart of God will be made manifest Lord God before their eyes. And I thank you O Lord. God bless everyone. I love you.
Hey everybody this is Pelham calling from the great state of Alabama. I can’t even give you a city anymore because the Lord is moving me around, protecting me, healing me, binding up my broken heart and trying to show me the extent of His love, which is infinite. But I’m…I’m making this little call here today for Terry the Trucker. I’m trying something new. I’m gonna try to start caring about others instead of caring about myself. Wow…let’s see how long that lasts. But Terry, your call played like five days ago or a week ago something like that and I wanted you to know that I remember the first time you contacted the DAB. I remember…I remember the first time that you reached out and boy it feels like a lifetime ago but I wanted you to know there’s a guy in Alabama that’s praying for your peace and your strength and for your family and I’ve got to confess I probably need to listen to your prayer request again because there’s so much going on in my world that I can’t pay attention for longer than a few seconds. And the Holy Spirit has been gently nudging me to try something new and try to stop focusing on me and focus on others. And I’ll tell you, that’s not easy. But the Lord is so cool that He gives us the…the opportunity to experience how hard His job is getting the deal with all of his children and all of the forgiveness and the cross. I love you guys. Just wanted to say I’m alive. Bye.
Good day DAB family my name is Ron from the Philippines and I’ve been living in Dubai for 12 years it’s my first time calling using the app. Firstly I’d like to thank the people who have prayed for me on the Prayer Wall. They have been great blessing and encouragement and right now I’m just asking for more prayers because I’ve recently just lost my job and I only have a month to stay here in Dubai to try to find a new job otherwise I will need to go back home which is going to be tough. And, so, I need your prayers for God to direct me to the path that He wants me to go to. I’m also asking for prayers for comfort because there are bad days where I would sleep with a heavy heart, have nightmares, and wake up with palpitation. And, so, I’m just praying for God to cover me with this piece. I’m also facing the fact that I might not get anything after 12 years of service because I still have a loan and they would probably involuntarily put my benefits to the bank to pay off the loan. I’ve talked to the company and it seems that there’s no way, but I know that God will make a way and God will provide. And, yeah, I just thank you because I know that once you hear this a lot of people would be praying for me for an…an…an amazing job opportunity as well. And that gives me hope and strength and I know that this is a great testimony in the making. I am very grateful for this app for strengthening my faith immensely and for the people who are going to the same thing. We just need to trust God and He has amazing plans for our lives. God is good in God is Sovereign and we take comfort in that. Thank you, family, God bless you all.
Good
morning Daily Audio Bible community today is September 21st 2020 and
it is 1:40 AM in the morning Central Time here in Newburgh Indiana. This is
Diane Olive Brown shalom, shalom I’m putting my log in the fire and I want to
go back to the 17th when I don’t know if it was a little girl or
little boy but the song was so pure and so holy and I just wanted…I won’t be
able to sing it like they…that little person did. [singing starts] Dear God
please all the people that are in the fire. Please help them to be safe and not
get harmed. Please help them to know that You are with them. Dear Lord, we love
You so much. Dear Lord, we love You. You’re in our heart. We are in Yours too.
Please help all the people to learn about You [singing stops]. Thank you little
one.