Isaiah 54:1-57:14, Ephesians 6:1-24, Psalms 70:1-5, Proverbs
24:8
Today is the 28th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we…as we move into our work week and work our way through the final days of this month. We’re reading from the Lexham English Bible this week and we’ll do what we do every day, we’ll pick up where we left off. In the Old Testament, that would be Isaiah chapter 54 verse 1 through 57 verse 14 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we’ve been working our way through the letter to the Ephesians and today we concluded the letter to the Ephesians. And some…some of the more famous passages in all of the New Testament are in the letter to the Ephesians. And we’ve examined some of that as we’ve taken the journey. But as we concluded today again, some very, very famous stuff gets said. Like, even in closing, this letter packs a punch. It’s…it’s just like, if we would slow down and ponder, then it's…it’s less of a cliché or less of just a famous verse pulled out of context or a famous set of verses out of context that we just keep saying over and over and over again, but they’re not rooted in the rest of the letter in the sentences that are around them and the thing that’s being talked about. So, let’s look at it for a second. So, quoting from Ephesians. “Finally”, which is a way of like saying in conclusion, “become strong in the Lord and in the mind of his strength.” Like, that’s just one sentence. But if we slow down and ponder that, it’s like, “yeah” we might have heard this a thousand times, which is why it doesn’t have the effect that maybe it should sometimes. “Become strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength.” We’re talking about God and the might of God’s strength. Just to become aware that this is even a possibility should blow our minds. “Become strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil”, right? The strategies. “Because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.” Okay, so, the letter to the Ephesians has just given us a context and orientation to…to life…like what’s going on, but how much of our daily lives are we even aware of what the Bible just said? And if this letter is correct and true in what it’s telling us then it explains an awful lot about the confusion we face daily trying to figure out what in the world is going on, right…right? If we are not fighting against enemies that have flesh and blood then why are they…those the only battles that we fight? Like, why are those the only battles that we usually engage in? If there really is a spiritual realm and this spiritual…which we believe…but this spiritual realm then has influence and impact on the way we live our lives in this world. Well, if that’s not even a category, if we’re not even considering that this is a possibility well…well…well then, we have a veil. Remember when we talked about veils back in second Corinthians then we’re not seeing clearly. And when we’re not seeing clearly that brings confusion. And is it any wonder? Of course, it’s easy enough to go to the other extreme. And, you know, look for the devil underneath every rock, blame the principalities, the dark lords for making us oversleep and being late to work and getting yelled at today. Like, you can take it to the other extreme, which leads us to the awareness of what we have been aware of all along. There is no way to navigate this life without the Spirit of God’s presence, without the Holy Spirit’s guidance that is always with us, that will always lead us on the path of wisdom. Wisdom will be at every fork in the road saying, “this is the way, walk-in it.” Like, this is what the Bible has been teaching us all year. We can’t do this without God. We can try to do it in our head. We can’t contain God in our head, and we cannot figure out every problem of life in our head. We can just try to engage with our senses. It is not enough. We can go far off the deep end spirit…in spirituality. It is not enough. Only God, only the Holy Spirit of God that is within us can help us to navigate any aspect of our lives. And we can think, “Okay, you know, I…I get it. Like I get what’s being said here. I even believe this is the truth but it’s hard to know like how you…how you do this. How you continually listen for the leading of the Holy Spirit in every encounter, in every engagement, in every decision, and every everything and while the world is flying at us a million miles an hour, while everything around us is pressing in and demanding our focus and our attention. Like, how do you do it? Just because the Scriptures have made us aware, how do we live into this? The letter gives us some answers on that. We have been given resources for this. It’s called the armor of God. So…so, nobody is going to go to work naked today, right, probably? Like nobody is gonna get out of the shower and then just grab the keys jump in the car and drive to the office, righjt? Nobody’s gonna be pumping gas naked today or going to the grocery store naked and probably nobody’s gonna really be walking around their house for very long naked today. We don’t usually walk around naked. But why are we walking around naked spiritually so often? Why…why do we go out the door spiritually naked and then try to take on the day only to get crushed by the day? Because we’re walking around naked. There’s armor that has been given to us. According to this letter. And it begins with the belt of truth. That holds the rest of the armor together. So, if we’re gonna put on the belt of truth and then take it off the second we get out into the wild and we’re gonna deceptive and we’re gonna be deeply nuanced in that we do, well then nothing else is going to be held together. If we’re not gonna walk in truth, then it’s all gonna fall apart. Once we’ve got the belt of truth on, we have this breastplate. We have body armor, the breastplate of righteousness. And we’ve learned over and over and over and over and over in the Bible, we can’t earn our righteousness. This isn’t our breastplate. This is the righteousness of God and it covers our hearts when we walk out into the wild. And we’ve been given shoes, right, to walk around in. This is the awareness that peace is available. The good news of peace is available in every step we take. These are our shoes. Every step that we take makes us aware of the good news of peace, that everything around us because we are there, has the potential for the good news of peace. And we have the shield of faith that extinguishes the stuff that’s flying at us continually. Nothing can penetrate the shield of faith. We can drop the shield and get taken out. We can lay the shield down and get taken out. Nothing can penetrate the shield of faith if we’re holding it up, if we’re suited up. And our helmet is salvation, the awareness that nothing can take us from the presence of God. Nothing can take us from His hand. We are safe. We are saved. Salvation has come and been bestowed upon us. This protects our minds. And the attacks so much are on our minds trying to lead us into the darkest of dark places. But when we realize, “wait a second, I’m safe. Like none of these bunny trails I’m going down, all these fears and worries, all the existential angst even, like if I’m wearing the helmet of salvation, I become aware that I am safe in all of it, in all of the things that come against me and all of the things that I think about. I’m safe. I have a home base to return to.” And, so, we’re protected. That’s the point. That’s the point being made here, is that if we become aware of what has been bestowed upon us, we can navigate in this world understanding that we are protected. But it’s not just defensive. It’s not just like, “okay I’ve got my armor on.” We’ve also been given the sword of the Spirit, which is an offensive weapon. Like, we just don’t have to take it. We have a way to fight back. We have the sword of the Spirit, which, according to the letter here is the word of God, which, like we might think, “well…you know I’ve been reading the Bible, I’ve been listening to the Bible every day so I guess O got the sword. I guess when I read…when I listen to the Bible then I’m swinging the sword at the devil and he’s afraid. And I’m just swinging it in circles and all these bad principalities are staying away from me. But again, as we’ve talked many times, it’s not just about hearing. Like, it’s not just about hearing all this stuff, it’s about living into it. As we will learn later, you can’t just be a hearer you’ve got to be a doer of the word of God. God spoke about His word in Isaiah today in our reading. He said that it will accomplish whatever He sends it to do and it will succeed wherever it is sent. Like, that’s the power that that’s at our side, that we can draw out, that we can wield. And then last, we’re to pray in the Spirit at all times. Like…like what’s being said here isn’t that we just ignore everything else that’s going on around us, ignore everybody else that’s going on around us because we’re continually talking to God, we’re…we’re praying in the Spirit. What’s being said here is that the connection, the ongoing conversation never ends. It’s always available. It’s always on. It’s never off. And when we develop the gifts that have been given to us to where spiritually we understand that we are in constant contact with God. There is nowhere we can run from His Spirit. I think what we’re seeing here as we close Ephesians, if you’ve ever wondered how the Savior navigated life on planet Earth, this is how He did it. He may have used different terminology to describe it. He may…may not have described it as armor, I don’t know. But this is how He operated. This is what is available to us. Because of Christ nothing that He had has been withheld from us. We have everything He had. It’s just a matter of whether or not we are aware and paying attention and doing all that we can to live into this.
Prayer:
Father, that is our desire - to be fully mature, to be fully suited up and strong. Not so that we can just make it through another day. That’s never been the point. So, that we can be the light in the darkness. So, that we can be a part of Your ongoing work of reclaiming this world. We are a part of that story and You have given us what we need. We live so often as if we are lacking something. But You have given us all that we need. May we become aware. Once again, may we have eyes to see and ears to hear. Come Holy Spirit, lead us today. May we be in continual conversation with You today. May we always be aware of Your presence in our lives. May we not move in any direction without considering where You are leading. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. What a day. May the Lord bless and keep you. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey, everyone it’s Margo here from Australia/Liberia/UK. I don’t know where I’m from but right now what I do know is that I’m in Australia. So, we made it. I can’t really even believe it. Thank you for praying. Thank you to His Little Cherry that God would just flick us with His little pinky finger over to Australia. And that is exactly what He did. We got bumped off three times and managed to get on our fourth flight. Some people have been bumped off 10 times. So, it just really feels like this is a miracle. So we’re in another state to our home state but that’s fine. We’ll do our quarantine here. I was nervous about we have mandatory two weeks hotel quarantine in Australia and we’re now on day three. I was nervous about it because what bothers me is that we can’t go outside and get fresh air. And I just hoped that maybe we would have a window that could open. And on the way to the hotel in the bus my verse of the day came up and it was “whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you’ve received it.” And, so, I thought I’ll just pray, “God if there’s any way we can have an opening window I would be ever so grateful.” And when we got to our room, I discovered we don’t have a window that opens but guess what? We have a balcony. I can actually go out on the balcony. I can’t even believe it. It is like God has just blessed me beyond more than I can even imagine. I get fresh air. I can get some sunshine. I’m gonna make it through this two weeks. Thank you again for your prayers. My next prayer is going to be trying to get us back to Liberia. Hopefully will be next year. But hey one step at a time. All right guys love you all heaps. Bye.
[singing starts] my love who is Lord who’s the king who wields the sword who is the king on his throne who have we sat on the throne in the heart who is King but the Lord seek his face seek his honor seek his grace hold him there his forgiveness supplies your healing your repentance is unwielding all the things that were before your freedoms at the door come inside into his grace his love is anew come into the love of God honor him at the mountain hear the thunder hear the roar Jesus is our precious Lord we kneel down we cry our tears we shared our burdens so many years Jesus is Lord and God Jesus is Lord and God [singing stops]
Hello Brian Jill and all. God, I love you so much. I’ve been a listener for O probably seven years and I’m so blessed that this has come into my life. What I’m calling about is a prayer request for my grandson Bryson. I am so very blessed with seven natural grandchildren and six additional grandchildren from some folks that we raised. But Bryson is special. At one-year-old he was diagnosed with traverse myelitis. He was not mobile at all from his neck down when he went to the ER. And he has since been able to gain some mobility in his arms. He can open his hands. He cannot walk. He’s three now or will be three very shortly. The breathing treatments he had while he was in the hospital ruined his teeth. He’s just had all of his front teeth removed and the back teeth can’t at three. He has to wait until he’s 5, 6, 7 years old until he gets his front teeth back. At three he is so very embarrassed about this and of course the pain that happened as a result of this a couple days ago. Anyway, he has brought so much light into our lives. We all love him so very much and we…we pray confidently that he gets to heaven, number one. But if God can make his journey on this earth more palatable that would be an additional blessing. So, please pray for my grandson…
Hey this is Hank from Texas I actually just moved to Florida recently for my girlfriends job she’s pursuing, you know, she’s got a good opportunity here and I was able to get a good job myself here on the Atlantic coastline. But, you know, there’s just a couple things. I’ve been praying a lot lately __ for the Lord __ in our relationship __ which is great and…but we’re coming up on, you know, just the brink of a year. We’ve been, you know, going into the next month and I wanted to just, you know, she’s concerned about, you know, being engaged for more than a couple years __ get married in a few years and does not feel differently and I feel like the Lord definitely played a huge role in this relationship I…I..I can feel__ that next step, you know, at least the next several months and I do want, you know, I want the Lord to make that point clear and I do…I do want there to be a conversation around that detail. It’s been happy but I just __ the Lord just continues to follow our relationship and develop my thoughts around it. And I’ve been able __ for a while and pursue the opportunities __ just a beautiful adventure that we’re all on here. It’s my first time calling in but I’ve been listening ever since I’ve been __ up in Dallas Texas…
Hi dear family this is Janice calling from Goodyear Arizona a suburb of Phoenix. I just wanted to say that I’ve been listening every day. You’re all in my prayer book. And Denise today is the 24th and I heard your prayer request about being lonely in your marriage. And honey I have been there. I have been there for years and years and years and years and I just want you to know you’re in my prayers and I’m praying that the Lord will send an older woman with wisdom and compassion and that you and she can have fellowship and that the Lord will fill your marriage in new ways. But it’s gonna have to happen from the inside out and God can do it. I’ve seen him do it here and I just want to praise Him for that, and I want to tell you don’t give up. Do not give up. Do not stop praying and neither will I. And I love you. God bless you all. Bye. Talk to you soon.
Hello DABber family this is Jody from Pennsylvania. God bless you Brian for your DAB ministry. I’m a new DABber since March and I’ve been so very blessed. I’m calling to ask for prayer for a young teenager. Her name is Desiree. She’s 18 years old today. I am calling on her birthday September 24th. Desiree was Diagnosed with cancer in her leg when she was ten. She eventually had her leg amputated. Since then she has had surgery in her lungs to remove tumors. She now has a very aggressive cancerous tumor in her right lung, several cancerous tumors in her left lung and cancer in a lymph node in her art which is inoperable. Throughout all of this Desiree has capture Jesus joy and she’s been a wonderful witness of God’s love in her life. So, DABbers I am asking all who are listening to pray for God’s miracles healing for her body. Thank you. God bless you all. And God bless our prayers for Desiree.