1 Samuel 10:1-11:15, John 6:43-71, Psalm 107: 1-43, Proverbs 15:1-3
Today is the 11th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today. It’s always great to be here with you, it’s always…this is an oasis. Like this is…this is a place I want to be. I love being in this space where we come around the Global Campfire. And we’re here together and we come from all different kinds of backgrounds and none of this really works on paper. But we…we’ve come here because we just desire to know what the Bible is saying and to hear all of it and to let all of it be a part of our lives and let each part of it challenge us and…and pull us forward in life. And it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. So, it’s a joy to be here with you as we take this next step forward. And that next step leads us back into the book of Samuel, 1 Samuel, where yesterday we have met this man named Saul. The people have demanded a king and we’ve met this person named Saul. He doesn’t know he’s gonna be king yet but we kinda do. And that’s where we pick up the story. 1 Samuel 10 and 11. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week.
Commentary:
OK, let’s start briefly right where we left off in the book of Proverbs - “a tender answer turns away rage, but a prickly reply spikes anger.” Where would be an immediate place maybe that we could test whether this actually is wisdom or if this is a false verse in the Bible. “A tender answer turns away rage, but a prickly reply spikes anger.” Is that actual wisdom? I think social media. We…we need about 14 seconds and we can find that this is the truth. If we want to get more personal, then we could maybe think about our dinner table. Maybe not constantly, hopefully not constantly, but that one reply that’s prickly, that can turn in otherwise fine day into a living nightmare. And, so, maybe if we would just kind of carry that around inside of ourselves, keeping it ready, that we can pull it out anytime and remind ourselves - a tender answer turns away rage or wrath. Here’s the thing if you’ve noticed about wisdom, like as we’re learning the voice of wisdom moving through Proverbs and just kind of listening to these bits of advice, we generally can come to something like this and go, “a tender answer turns away wrath or rage. I believe that. That’s true.” But how is it that we actually enter into putting this is a…as a behavior, as a response in our lives? It seems that the only way to really access wisdom is to slow down enough to listen like wisdom is a category to be heard. So, usually when we’re doing a prickly reply that’s going to spike anger, we are reacting to something else, and we are doing it without even a beat, like without even taking a deep breath before we go in. So, we try to go in with more force than whatever we felt was coming against us. And, yeah…but slowing down even just for a breath…like even if we could just train ourselves to take a deep breath before we respond we would reduce the amount of confrontation in her life dramatically. So, part of learning to be wise or to hear the voice of wisdom is that we build into our own lives a pause, a sela, a pause before we react to anything about anything because a pause doesn’t have to be 14 days while we think it over. A pause can be one breath and we can pause for one breath about anything. Something to think about anyways.
And then we move back into first Samuel and…well…Saul has become Israel’s first king. So, we have…like we’re in completely new territory now. This is a new era that we have entered into called the monarchy. So, now we have these tribes that are all together as one nation with a monarch, a king to rule over them. And that’s how the story will go forward. We’ll…we’ve got a bunch of twists and turns, but that’s how the story goes forward. And, so, that’s the territory we will remain in, And I’ve mentioned that Saul has a lot to teach us about our…ourselves and we get clues of that today. At Saul’s coronation is just this scene where, pretty much I mention it every year because it always catches me. There are things, there certain things in the Scriptures that when we pass by the territory it always catches me. It’s always a challenge. So, you know, Saul, he didn’t know what was going on when he went to look for those donkeys. He didn’t know what was going on when he met Samuel. And obviously something was up, but even when Samuel told him you’re gonna be the king he didn’t really tell anybody else. Kinda kept that to himself. You sort of can understand why that’s pretty weird. Like, when…if you’re in a nation it’s never had a king and you’ve been told you’re gonna be the nation’s first king…well…yeah, you may not go broadcast that around. But as it turns out Saul was anointed king. And Samuel drew lots, right? He called out the different families and there were witnesses there from the tribes looking at how he’s doing what he’s doing, and he calls out the family and they get right down to the man, the man Saul who is supposed to step forward into his destiny, his anointed destiny that God is giving him a kingdom and he’s not there. He is, as the Bible puts it, and…and I love it, he’s hiding in the baggage. I…I love that because it’s so immediate and…and relevant. Like it's…it’s like a relevant thing that we can understand because we’re all hiding in our baggage and it’s keeping us from stepping forward into our destiny. It always has been that way. There are times…there are times we step forward, but this is always a challenge, to step away from the baggage and actually believe there’s a destiny that is not your past. Ahhh…ahhh…if we could stop carrying that stuff around, we could be free. I just…you…you wonder sometimes…well…how can we know what goes through the mind of God. But it’s like, He came to set us free from this stuff. He came that we don’t have to be false anymore and we don’t have to hide in the baggage, and we don’t have to hide who we are. We can step forward in the full light of truth and be that because we’re not dependent on anybody else to give us an identity. And, so, we can just be the light in the darkness because our identity comes from God. If you’re just one person doing that, we saw that…that life in Jesus and we saw how the darkness rages against that. But that’s not the idea. The idea wasn’t that Jesus would model that and be killed for it. The idea that was that…that he would model it and then His spirit would indwell all of us so that it’s unstoppable…because…because there’s too much force and power of light and life and good news in the world, so it overtakes the darkness and swallows it up in victory. We’re…we’re so busy just looking around at the darkness being worried about the darkness that we don’t understand that we’re the antidote. We’re the light. It’s just that we usually participate in the darkness even more than we do the light sometimes. And that ought not be. We don’t have to hide in the baggage. We can step forward. We are anointed ones too. This is the good news of the gospel. If we can’t accept this is the good news of the gospel and live into it…well…what are we doing? Some more things to think about today.
Prayer:
Jesus come. Jesus come into all of this. Holy Spirit fall upon us. Open our eyes, even if we could just get a glimpse so that we can’t un-see that Your kingdom is advancing, is unstoppable and we are invited and we participate by our love. Come Jesus we pray in Your precious name. Amen.
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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi, I’m Kaylee and I just wanted to thank God for helping me eat again when I had a problem. Because my food was going slow in my esophagus and now God helped me to be brave and to eat more. So, if you ever have a problem like, kind of like this one you can just trust God and then you can do whatever you need to that’s bothering you and that’s hard to do. You can just trust God and He’ll help you through it like He helped me through eating with my problem.
Good morning DAB family. Long-time listener, I don’t call in very much but wanted to let you know I pray for you all the time. I usually listen when I do my walk in the morning and often times, I’ve got my hands in the air with my phone lifting you up to God as…as you ask for prayer. I’m calling for prayer this morning. And by the way, I’m going to call myself Pathfinder. I am going to visit my mom today, flying down to see my mom. I haven’t seen her for a couple of years. Part of that is due to the pandemic, part of that is due to the fact that we’re just not very close and don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. And I’m not gonna get into that cause it’s not important, but what’s important is that she is my mom. And because I was going down, I went to look for a Mother’s Day card and just…there was just no card that I could relate to, to give my mom which was really, really sad. It was eye opening for me. And, so, I’m calling to ask for prayer that as I visit my mom that the Lord guards my mouth, that the deadliest weapon is my tongue and that it keeps silent unless it’s being, you know, controlled by the Lord. So, I know I’m probably not the only one out there with these types of issues. And I would really appreciate people praying for me to make this visit with my mom and my family a blessed one. Thank you very much. God Bless.
Hey DABbers, this is Slave of Jesus from North Carolina. Alright Holy Spirit let’s roll. I am at a campground for Mother’s Day, and I wanted to send you guys a text…a text that my wife sent me. And for those who have been around a while knowing my journey from being a hardcore atheist to Jesus’ freak and my wife’s difficulty in dealing with that. I’m gonna read this poem that she texted me. It wasn’t today but I guess it was from Facebook. So, there can be some good things that come out of Facebook. Oh Lord when I grow weary, please help me to remember each and every day to count my blessings and not my crosses, to count my gains and not my losses, to count my laughs and not my tears, to count my joys and not my fears, to count my health and not my wealth, and most of all to count on God and not myself. Hey, so that’s a pretty good poem. Probably rivals Tony there. And we got another wordsmith or what he calls himself. I can’t remember your…your moniker off the top of my head. But love hearing you guys poems. That is definitely not an original by me by any means, but I thought it was pretty relevant and kind of a claim of victory in what we’re doing. So, love you all. Have a great day.
Good morning, good morning, good morning. Giving all praise glory and honor to my Lord and savior Jesus Christ who is the head of my life. This is Walking in the Wilderness in Georgia, Laura. Today is May the 8th and I heard a prayer request from a young lady by the name of Eve from Texas. Sweetheart, oh my goodness. I am so praying for you. I’m so sorry for your husband stepping out of the marriage with somebody that was, I guess a part of y'all’s daily life and how she seeped into your, you know, your family, your children. And my heart hurts for you. But sweetie, God is bigger and stronger than any infidelity. And I’m praying your…His strength for you as you are also the caregiver of your aunt. You’re trying to start new endeavors business wise. Every day look in the mirror and say that you are worthy, you are loved because you are a child of the true King and He is where you draw your strength. He is where you get your power from. He is where you get the biggest love from. You can do all things through Him who strengthens you. You will be in my daily prayer’s young lady. Keep u updated. Stay strong. Stay in the word and His will. Peace DAB family.
Daily Audio Bible family this is Alfio calling from Central Valley CA. How’s your day going family? Just wanted to call to give an update about a prayer that I’d sent a few days ago about my best friend’s mom who had a stroke. She has made some progress and went through surgery and she’s recovering. Finally, she’s off the vent, although she’s still a little bit unresponsive. But she’s still showing a little bit of signs of improvement. So, family just continue putting her in your prayers. I just also wanted to give an encouragement. Going through the journey of the Bible, especially the first portion of the Bible from Genesis to where we are in the book of judges, there’s one thing that repeatedly just keep coming to the forefront and that is God is always faithful. It may take a long time according to our estimation, but God’s promises never fail. He has said that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He says that He’s not mem that He should lie. And that is a confidence that we can hold onto, that what God says shall come to pass. So, no matter the desert experience that you’re going through, no matter that you’re struggling with anything that you are struggling with, know that God has your back. He will come through for you family. I keep you in my prayers and I just wanted to say happy Mother’s Day this weekend to all the moms. Make it a great day. Alfio from California. Bye bye.