Numbers 28:16-29:40, Luke 3:23-38, Psalms 62:1-12, Proverbs 11:18-19
Today is the 19th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and honor to be here with you. We’re rounding the corner on another week. We just keep moving forward, step-by-step day by day and when we do that without stopping, we actually make progress on our journey and we will indeed complete this journey if we keep putting one foot in front of the other. And that’s no different than any of the rest of life. We will complete what we do not quit. We will finish what we’ve started if we keep going and finish what we’ve started, which is what we’re gonna do. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. We got the news in the book of numbers yesterday that Moses time was short and that it was time for him to prepare new leadership for the emerging generation, that he wouldn’t be going into the promised land, but his assistant had been with him for a very long time, Joshua would emerge as the new leader. And, so, we will see that come to fruition as we continue put one foot in front of the other and take steps forward. Today, Numbers chapter 28 verse 16 through 29 verse 40.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Numbers we’re kind of working through annual festivals and we’re still, you know, this is a portion of the law so it can be repetitive and even feel redundant because it’s explicit, it’s very clear.
And then we move into the book of Luke today and we’re reading the genealogy of Jesus, like tracing the family story back all the way to the first man and to where humanity originated with God.
And then we flipped over the Psalms, “my soul waits calmly for God alone. And even more accurately, “my…my soul waits in silence for God alone.” I’m not…I’m not sure I could stress how important of a statement that actually is. Let’s think about…let’s think about the way we interact with God. What does that look like for you? you know, it can include prayer, right? Where we wake up in the morning and we acknowledge God and are grateful and maybe tell Him some of the things that we’re facing today or maybe we are remembering our children or our spouse, family, our extended family. Maybe we’re just praying over people that are in our communities are friends of ours. Maybe we move through the day and have ongoing conversations with God. Maybe we talk to Him at a red light or maybe we talk to Him before we eat dinner or maybe we talk to Him before we fall asleep or maybe we fall asleep talking to Him. The point is that when we interact with God, we’re usually doing almost all the talking. It’s us that’s filling the world with words. And yet the psalmist suggests that there are other ways to be in God’s presence, there are other ways to pray. Maybe we should listen more than we speak. It’s funny because we’ll maybe sit down to give God five minutes of conversation or whatever and we run out of words to say and we don’t know exactly what to do but we know we need to do it and so we just, you know, we talk about all the evil things in the world that needs to be corrected and we’re just talking about ourselves and what would improve the world and our lives were God to…to intervene on our behalf in some way or another. What if He would like you to intervene in some way or another on His behalf because He is a job for you to do but we don’t listen. I’ve done a pretty deep dive for an extended period of time in this area just realizing that a one-sided conversation isn’t really that much of a conversation. And what the early monks and those in monastic orders and the mystics of the Christian faith understood was that some of the most valuable prayer that you could ever be involved in is one in which you present yourself in silence before God and wait, whether…whether He says anything or not, wait to just be comfortable in the silence with God like you can be comfortable with somebody that you really love and really know where something is going on that’s beyond words alone, that there’s an intimacy there that transcends what you can say. When you begin to practice that it’s kinda odd at first because it’s like nothing’s happening, you’re just sitting there, and you just realize how disruptive silence can be. You just begin to…like even just trying to sit for five minutes in silence or ten minutes in silence and you become so acutely aware of how addicted to distraction we are, like how we can’t actually be still. And if we can’t be still, then how can we be still and know He is God? And, so, is it any wonder that we really don’t functionally live as if that’s true? It’s a verse we share. It’s a verse quote but it’s a…it’s also an invitation to deeper intimacy. “For God alone, my soul waits in silence.” Maybe we can carve out a little silence for ourselves over the weekend. It’s shocking how restorative it actually is to kinda move past the distractions and needing to check the phone every 30 seconds, twiddling, twiddling, twitching, twitching to just be still and breathe and know that He is God.
Prayer:
And, so, Father, we…we confess. We…we do most of the talking and that’s, You know we try to develop the narrative that tells the story of our lives and we have to additionally acknowledge that we avoid silence. It’s disruptive. We don’t know what to do with it. And that’s just it. There’s nothing to do with it but rest, be still and know. And, so, help us Father to begin this even if it’s just a one minute practice that we do twice a day or something, just that we acknowledge You, that we sit with You, that we’re before You without some other plea or ask, without some other ask, that we just present ourselves before You in full-blown worship beyond words in silence that speaks far more than our words or our vocabulary is capable of. Come Holy Spirit, lead us deeper into Jesus we pray. In the precious 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:
Good morning this is Pamela from Pennsylvania. I would appreciate your prayers. I’m going to invite my husband to be a part of this community, the DAB and to listen to the regular DAB every day. I’ll give you some the back story to that. We’ve been separated for six years now and prior to that it was a very, very unhealthy environment. The enemy did many things, outlandish things to manipulate him and manipulate me to harm one another. In saying that, I think the degree of harm to me was…was much greater. But the enemy has been trying to get at me for many, many years and has been successful. I’m recently learning how to live free from the enemy’s attacks and standing in victory, standing firm. So, I believe it’s a good time to introduce my husband to the things that have been feeding me. He has now finally come to remorse and repentance. So, I would appreciate your prayers as we go through this first step. Thank you very much. God bless you all. Bye-bye.
Hi DAB family this is Sparky From Texas. And I was just gonna call and see if you guys could pray for me a little while. I have real bad depression and it’s…it’s pretty painful and you don’t necessarily know how to deal with it sometimes. But I just wanted to ask for some prayer, if I can work from home and everything else. I’m just trying to stay the word, keep my focus here, but I know we have a very powerful community and if you could pray for me, I’d greatly appreciate it, for some clarity. And it’s just a tough time. I love you guys. I appreciate the prayers. Bye-Bye.
Hello DAB family this is Melissa in Arkansas and this is the first time I’ve called in to respond to somebody’s prayer request but for some reason I am today. I’m not sure why I don’t pray out loud in front of people. So, I’m a little nervous about this but I feel like God told me to do it. So, this is what I’m doing. Please forgive me. But it’s not a very…I don’t pray very elegantly but I’m just…it’s March 16th and I just got through listening and a lady called in and she called herself C and she said she’s been dealing with postpartum depression since December and was just having a hard time seeing God’s light. So, I just…Father I just pray for C. I just pray that You show her Your light and grab her in Your arms and give her some comfort Father and let her know that You’re there. Just let her see You in a big way. Lord help her through this. I know dealing with depression and postpartum and all of that is really hard and you just feel alone. So, I just pray that You just show up like I said in a big way and bless her and bless Your family. And thank You Father. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning DAB family this is Tina here from Cross Harbor which is on the East Coast of Australia. Could you please, please pray for our friend Robbie. He’s a much loved church musician, songwriter, preacher, lover of Jesus, one of God’s really choice ones. And about 12 years ago or so he suffered a work injury and was severely poisoned. And at that time, he became like a baby in the way that he functioned and his ability. But through God’s miracle and the love and care of his wife Bronnie who helped him with brain retraining and diet and chelation and much, much prayer he recovered almost fully. Well, this year he began to relapse of three days ago tried to take his own life in the most horrible of ways. I can’t even describe it. Bronnie rushed him to hospital the surgeon operated, though it was touch and go he did survive that and he’s now on 24/7 supervision. His family and his church family all are in shock and disbelief. He’s in and out of psychosis and says he’ll do it again. Please pray. It’s…it’s not Robbie. It’s just not the way he is. Could you just pray that Bronnie can get him into a rehab facility, the one that she has her eye on, is safe and will get them the help he needs. So, appreciate you guys. So appreciate DAB. Thanks family. Bless you all. Bye.
Words of life even more than before reaching all the way to our wayward way. The ache so deep beyond our sleep the aching abyss of our souls. [singing starts] You alone can reach us here in the dark. You alone bring us out of the cold. Lord you shine so bright unbearable light hope of all the ages. Appreciate what you have you tell me. Where you are and watch who you are with. Richer than richly you pour out blessings in this moment now [singing stops]. Half a body still lingers here without the love of my life but Lord you enliven this half the remains with [singing starts] music bike rides and students [singing stops] dear young ones struggling too. You Lord made the magic of falling in love. You will see us through. Jesus, lover of our souls you will make us new. I will walk in the ways of your commands [singing starts] when you enlarge my heart [singing stops]. You’ve been here from the start and long before, but your great goodness open every door. You’re the mystery were invited to know in whom dwells all the treasures of wisdom. Christ Jesus our Savior, love defined, love imbued. Wholeness now and forever more our strength our joy our song.