11/23/2020 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 45:13-46:24, 1 Peter 1:13-2:10, Psalms 119:33-48, Proverbs 28:11

Today is the 23rd day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today for the next step forward as we continue the journey that we are on that’s taken us from Genesis to Revelation all the way through the Bible this year. And at this point we find ourselves in the Old Testament in the book of Ezekiel and in the New Testament we’re working our way through first Peter. This week we’re reading from the New International Version. Ezekiel chapter 45 verse 13 through 46 verse 24.

Commentary:

Okay. In first Peter today…well in first Peter the letter itself, Peter is working to encourage people that are downtrodden in one way or another. And I feel like in any year that’s appropriate and applicable. Of course, we’re all always going through something or another, but this year in particular we’ve all been going through a lot of things together and have found confusion about things together and have found our fragility together and found out some of the things that we’re…the…the stable things in our lives are shaky and so we feel the ground shifting beneath us. And in times like this, in times where the status quo has been disrupted than we work really hard to reestablish the status quo because that's…that’s when we can just go back to sleep in our lives and try to keep moving forward toward the most pleasurable experiences that we can have in life, but with all of our thrashing about when things…when the status quo is interrupted, with all our thrashing about when we can’t put things back together the way that we want them to be, we can’t domineer and control everything, well that’s kind of the point where what’s really going on inside of us gets exposed. That’s when the pride comes out, right? That’s when even the hopelessness and the terror and the fear and all the other things that can accompany all of the emotions of the disruption of the status quo can emerge. And then it’s what we do with that that’s gonna really matter. And a lot of times we angry, angry spiritually, disrupted spiritually, angry at God, walk away from God, move into rebellion or we’ll hold on tight to God and move through the storm but we can have a tendency to be back and forth. Peter says today and I quote, “you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then, but now you must be holy and everything you do just as God chose you is holy.” On one hand we can look at that and…ahh…just more…more scriptures that can reveal the way that I fall short on a daily basis. And then we can feel sort of the subtle condemnation that even estranges us from God because we’re trying and we’re failing. Or we can look at what Peter’s saying here as an invitation forward. Not that we have to try are very, very best to combat the bad thoughts and things that go on in our head or the actions that we take, but there’s an invitation into holiness. God is holy. God has chosen us and grafted us into His family, has placed His Holy Spirit within us to comfort us. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead indwells us. This is an invitation to holiness. Holiness is to be set apart to God, to realize that the chaos and the fray, we just don't…I mean we have…let’s say we have 100 years to live, well in a century enormous things can trance…be transformed in the world, enormous things can happen, but nowhere near as much as a millennia, a thousand years. And we don’t have that span. So, we have the span of life on earth that has been given to us and we live into that as if everything is happening for the first time because it’s the first time it’s happening to us. But we are reading a letter that’s a couple thousand years old and it’s still speaking to us. So, the chaos that is in the world, the kinds of things that are in the world that disrupt us, disrupt our status quo and throw us into dissonance, this isn’t new. It’s always been going on. And God is inviting us near. We know we can’t set ourselves apart unto God all by ourselves by sheer discipline. We will fail. And yet God is inviting us near. If, as the Bible tells us we are partakers of His divine nature than that also means His holiness covers us. You must be holy because I am holy may not be grounds…I mean, they may be grounds for conviction and repentance but it’s not there to condemn us. It’s there to pull us forward into what’s being described. You must be holy because I am holy must be possible then. And this begins when we get our eyes off of everybody else’s life, and we get our eyes off the swirl of chaos that could suck us in so easily and we get our eyes on the author and finisher of our faith. And, so let’s going to this day considering these things, considering holiness an invitation into the furtherance of our transformation, our sanctification. Holiness will lead us to wholeness and we usually find that we surge forward in these areas when we find ourselves under pressure. We’re not gonna look back on this year in a couple of years and just be hashtag 2020 and it’s a throwaway year. This is not a throwaway year. What we’re going to find is that we grew more this year than we anticipated. We learned more. We moved forward. The disruption forced us to stop standing still and to take steps forward. And if our steps forward are toward our Savior than our steps forward are toward holiness and our steps forward are toward wholeness, who we were created to be

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. We have examples of what that looks like in Your life as captured in the Gospels. We see the essence of what is true and what is holy, and we see it lived out facing opposition. So, You have given us an example of what this looks like. Holy Spirit help us to live into this we pray in the name of Jesus. 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:

It’s Friday, November 20th and this is soaring on Eagles wings from Canada. Duane from Wisconsin I just finished listening to your prayer request and oh my heart is so broken for you as you are just shedding tears over your son. He’s now out of jail and he needs a place to stay. And I also know that your other son Nathan has a drug addiction and all the brokenness in your voice as your crying out to God and I am joining you and your family as you pray for these sons of yours. Mighty God in heaven You created them. And You see this Young man now who is out of jail. He has a child that’s going to have a first birthday. I pray God that You would arrest him where he is and help them to see that he needs Jesus. I pray for Duane and his wife in making the decision about should they take them in or should they not. Guide them Father God for wisdom on high and I pray in the name of Jesus that Satan will no longer have a hold over the views boys, that they will be set free to become men of God and serve You, be examples in their community and…and…and for their parents to see where God has taken them from and where He’s taking them to. And, so, I join You in the mighty name of Jesus. I call down heaven for You Duane. Your family, Your sons, deliver them Jesus I pray, and we praise You and thank You in the mighty …

Good morning DAB family this is Mama Bear from Southern California today is November 20th, 2020. I need you all to please keep my brother and his family in your prayers. Today we found out he has stage IV cancer, stomach cancer. And my brother is not a believer. And I’m asking everybody please pray that his heart is softened to the Lord that he accepts Jesus. And I pray for healing for him too. And I pray for his beautiful very young family, three girls all under the age of nine with an amazing young wife. I ask for healing but most of all salvation. He’s very stubborn and hardheaded and we sure could use all the prayer he can get. I thank you so much. God bless you all. And I listen to all of you every day. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Hello DAB family this is Beautiful Heart from New South Wales Australia. I haven’t called in for a little while. Things have been busy, so I guess for everybody. But I’m just ringing because I was asked…would like to ask for some prayer. I am moving house, relocating about four hours north of where I’m currently living and relocation is always fun but I would just love…love prayer around my relocation, that it would go smoothly and just that I would really trust…trust God through this time and through settling in in my new home in my new circumstances. I’m extremely blessed to be able to take my work with me and become a remote employee. So, I don’t need to be looking for a new job and I will be moving a lot closer to family while moving away from some of my other family. So, it is a move tinged with sadness but also joy in what the Lord is planned. And I would just, yeah, just love your prayer family around this entire move. Thank you so much. I look forward to sharing a praise report with you soon. Okay. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Good morning today’s November 20th and I am giving thanks for Duane from Wisconsin. My brother I just heard your call that you called in on the 17th and we so appreciate you for what you’ve done and praying for our children and now I want to let you know that I am praying for your son Nicholas. And I want you to know that you are loved and you are being held in prayer and so is Nicholas for wisdom and discernment for unity for you and your wife as you have to speak to your son and see where he will wind up living, if he has a place to live. God will help you my brother. God is a not a respecter of time. And, so, even though this is being recorded three days after you left your message, I want you to know that I am praying for you. I love you my brother. I thank God for you and for all of you that are praying for our prodigal children. So many of us like His Little Cherry from Canada, we have children. I raised my son in the ways of the Lord he’s a good young man, he…but it’s not being good. I’m praying for the Lord to bring him back, and that’s His promise to us, to instruct your children in the way they should go. So, and for those that are just not seeing anything God is in control. I thank the Lord for our brother Duane from Wisconsin. God bless you and know that I am praying for all of our prodigal children.