2 Kings 18:13-19:37, Acts 21:1-17, Psalm 149:1-9, Proverbs 18:8
Today is the 2nd day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we move into this 7th month of the year and get settled in for the next few weeks. That’s all we have right, that’s how long these months are so by the time we get settled into one month we’re moving into a new one. But right now, were getting settled into the 7th month of the year and we’re continuing our journey through the Book of 2 Kings we’re reading from the New International Version this week, 2nd Kings chapter 20 verse 1 through 22 verse 2.
Commentary:
Okay, it could be noted that as we move our way through 2nd Kings that we are only dealing with the kings of Judah at this point, and that is because there are no more kings of Israel. There is no more Israel. They were carried off by the Assyrians into exile and so we’re dealing with the kingdom that remains the kingdom of Judah and its kings and we can see that it’s the same kind of back-and-forth at the same slow decline. So, we have this kind of reforming King Hezekiah who follows the ways of the Lord and for his lifetime, that’s how the people go, but then his son Manasseh who reigns for 55 years right, so a long time, he does more evil than any of his predecessors have done. And then his son Josiah comes to the forefront and we’ll get to know Josiah a little bit better tomorrow, but we see that he follows in the way of his ancestor David fully so we assume he’s a good king. It’s just back and forth, back and forth over the generations in a steady slow decline.
Then we turn to the Book of Acts and we’ve been traveling with Paul now for a while on his missionary journeys and we saw his decision to go back to Jerusalem and we saw that he was counseled pretty stringently everywhere he went not to go back to Jerusalem, even prophetic words, telling him of, you know, of captivity and hardship, but he already knew that as he says he already knew that the Spirit had told him that there was hardship and suffering in his future and captivity and so, no matter what he had to return to Jerusalem because he felt like God was telling him. So, everybody along way is telling him not to do this and he’s finally like, you’re breaking my heart. You know, why all this crying you’re breaking my heart; I have to go. Like, I’m willing to die there if I have to die in Jerusalem for Jesus’ sake then that’s how it goes, but I have to go there and so we watch that happen and now today he has arrived, and he is come to the brothers and sisters that are in the Jerusalem church and they have welcomed him but certainly they’re concerned they’re concerned about his well-being. There are many many many many people in Jerusalem that have been hearing about Paul from all over the Empire he’s kind of enemy. He was once a Pharisee a leading zealot. He was very very very much on the radar and then he found a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus introduced himself and nothing was ever the same again. And so, now he’s like enemy number one. To a certain degree and we’ll watch that because yeah, we just kind of scratched the surface here Paul was seen in the temple, people who had seen Paul out on his missionary journeys recognized him and we have another mob. It’s like there’s a lot of mobs happening in the early church centered around Jesus. So, there’s a mob in there trying to kill Paul, Paul’s rescued by the Roman soldiers, but they gotta pick him up and carry him, to get him away from the people that were trying to assault him. So, this right here, basically what we see today is Paul’s arrest. It’s not his first time, he’s been in trouble before for the gospel of Jesus Christ. But this particular arrest is different because pretty much Paul’s not going to experience freedom again. Briefly and he’ll have a little bit of freedom but he’ll always be watched. He’s always on the radar. He’s pretty much in custody for the rest of his life. I point that out here just to say watch, watch what happens. It’s really ironic. Paul has been all over the Roman Empire on these missionary journeys. But the kind of people that he is going to be able to share the good news of the gospel with are people that he would have never had access to on any of those missionary journeys. Oddly, it’s his captivity that gives him access to really powerful and important people and he shares the gospel. So, let’s watch this as we continue our journey through the Book of Acts.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You for Your word. Thank You for bringing us this far giving us the chance to settle into this 7th month and look back and you see six months of this year and You have been faithful. So, we acknowledge that we worship You, we adore You, we give our hearts to You completely, nothing withheld, nothing off-limits. Come Holy Spirit and lead us forward as we continue our journey. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com that’s home base, that’s the websites that’s where you find out what’s happening around here. It’s where the Prayer Wall is that can be found in the Community section. The Daily Audio Bible Shop is there resources are available there for the journey that we are on and not…our journeys is taking us toward our Daily Audio Bible holiday this coming Wednesday the 7th of July we’ve talking about it for, I guess, a little over a week now. But yeah, the Long Walk is a day to go for a Long Walk with God and I’ve been explaining how nature plays a role and even how the resource Heart a Contemplative Journey can play a role in starting the conversation allowing us to deeply immerse ourselves in our own emotions and invite God into the things we’ve been feeling and moving through in the first 6 months of this year. So, that resource is available for the Long Walk and you can get at the iTunes shop or Google, wherever you can buy music, just look for Heart or look for my name Brian Hardin and you should find it. So, that’s all coming up just after the weekend. Of course, here in the United States it’s a major holiday weekend Independence Day for us, which is my wife’s birthday as well and so that’s coming up over the weekend. So yeah, we’re just gonna transitioning through here into the center of the month, make plans on 7th of July to go for a Long Walk with God. We’ll put a post on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page for the Long Walk and you can post in there, your pictures or little videos and it becomes a really beautiful mosaic. I love it. I love going on the Long Walk but I also love coming back and just looking through all the different pictures of all the different places in the world that happened today, all the little windows into each other’s lives. It’s a joy so make plans for that. That is coming up on this coming Wednesday, the 7th of July.
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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.
Prayers and Encouragements:
Hey siblings, it’s your little sis, His Little Sharie in Canada. Just wanting to share something that really impacted me on Sunday. I took my walker to church for the first time and it was weird and awkward for me and for everybody. I think everybody seemed to be very, I don’t even know how to describe it, but they know I have an MS diagnosis they’ve been praying for healing for me and to see me walking with a walker, I think, just made everyone sad and no one really said anything to me, no one…they tried to, I don’t know, I just, I just felt like no one knew what to say or do and so they didn’t say or do anything except for our pastor. She didn’t really say much she just looked at me with this look you know that real authentic compassionate look and she gave me a hug and it was one of those long awkward I’m letting go of you hugs and I don’t know. The thing was she didn’t say anything. But and she didn’t know what to say like everybody else. But she saw me and she hugged me and it just felt so, humbling in that moment, but also nourishing and so it just taught me a lesson that when you don’t know what to say when you don’t know what to do on don’t just walk away, don’t just default to not saying anything. Maybe just see the person and let them know that you see them and that you love them maybe just give them a hug.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Amanda again in the Boston area. I’ve been an avid listener daily now for just over two weeks and this simple practice of doing this every day has completely transformed me and my family already and it’s just been such a blessing so I’ll start off by saying thank you DAB family. I wanted to just briefly touch on the prayer that we heard from RJ today who was calling in response to Lonnie’s prayer from a couple days ago about her son who is wayward and addicted to alcohol and all that and how RJ called in to pray for her and to remind her and the things that he said were exactly what I needed to hear, faint not. My sister, that I love dearly, her name is Dana is also an addict and whether she’s a wayward soul or a soul that needs to come face-to-face with Jesus for the first time I am unsure but I know her addiction is in the way so RJ’s words were so comforting, uplifting and the reminder and his testimony on his life has given me so much hope today. That I will see my sister addiction free, bondage free and in the arms of Jesus one day. So, please, oh, I praise Jesus for the news that RJ’s life was changed and I ask that you join me in prayer for praying for my sister Dana that her addiction will be no more and her life will be turned around as she surrenders to Jesus. Thank you all, love you.
Hello my dear DAB family this is Maria a missionary in Mexico. I have been a little bit absent because we are visiting the states for the summer. We’ll head back down in August but it’s been a little hard to keep up with everything. I wanted to give you an update and thank you all for praying for our coworkers they were in training to become missionaries down in Mexico. They had passion for the indigenous people down there and are going to begin working with them. She got COVID and she was 6 months pregnant and she and her baby died family so please pay for her husband. Renzo I want to say that brother your prayers encourage me. I want to give a shout out to you and just thank you for calling in. Thank you for your passion for Jesus and your love for people and to please keep doing that. Fred from Iowa, your prayer request aired on that community prayer quite a few months ago. I want you to know that you’ve been in my prayers ever since. Let’s pray family. Heavenly Father, Lord of the harvest send forth more laborers into this great harvest we pray as You’ve commanded us to do Lord. There’s so much need. I pray especially for this man who lost his wife, I can’t even imagine and also his firstborn child, it’s just too difficult to even comprehend. I pray you would comfort him, the whole mission community, the church families, her family, his family, everyone involved Lord, it’s just, it’s so sad Father and it will be for so long. Give them special grace during this time of morning. Thank You for Renzo my brother, thank You that his first love for you is strong I pray it would continue to be and his love for people would continue to shine forth and draw more to Yourself Lord. I pray for Fred that You would give him strength to do the right thing even when it’s hard. Thank you for my brother, encourage his heart today. In Jesus name. Amen.
Hey there. So, I just listened to Brian teaching on Paul’s leaving Ephesus and asking Him if there is anything people had against him. And it just kind of reminded me that as Christians we’re called to love but we always screw up. We always have beef with other believers; hatred and unforgiveness, non-communication. I know I’m hurtful to other people, I’ve been hurt by other, other believers and I’ve hurt others. And I have unforgiveness and they do as well. So, even though we are called to love one another and we’re made different in Christ we still have that sin and that horrible hatred, the unforgiveness and the blame others and the victim mentality nature. Instead of just fessing up to our responsibility and confessing our sins. The older I get actually, the more I’m seeing the way of the world is just to lie and to leave things out and to not confront issues but to kind of work around, make things politically correct but unresolved, unloving. So, it was just something that I observed and see in myself. I loathe it in myself and others, but it’s there and I don’t think it’s going to go away. Just this sin cloud that keeps on consuming. Guess it won’t go away until we die. So, I guess pray for that. I’m Mike in New York. Pray for me, pray for my relationships and pray for yourselves. Alright, love you, bye.
Hello DAB family, I hope you’re all doing well it’s Sarah from London. Hopefully I can say this all in two minutes. But it’s been a while and I just wanted to check in and say a massive hello to you all. I have been praying for you when I hear your requests but I just wanna give God all the glory. I really wanna give him all the glory all the praise cause He deserves everything. In January I sent a request for prayers to have a closer relationship with God and thank you for those that prayed for me and thank you for those that called in to encourage me as well. For so long I had allowed distractions to get in the way and I remember in particular a gentleman by the name of Darrell from Atlanta thank you so much and I hope you hear this you called in to give some encouragement and some advice and that really helped me you mentioned something on the lines of reading and praying, even when you don’t feel like it. I listened to that over and over and over again. And wow, it’s the 30th of June today and I have been reading the Bible non-stop. I never knew the Bible could be so transforming and today my relationship with God has done a 360. And I can’t do without it now, I can’t do without that relationship, I need it so much and I feel so much more peace in my life since January. I have given 100% of my time and God is actually revealing so much to me in many many ways. I don’t have the time to say it all today. But I’m just so amazed. I just want to encourage those that may feel that they don’t hear from God let me tell you, let me tell you He speaks in so many ways. You have to spend the time He will show you so much. Thank you so much the Hardin family for all you do. I love you all, God Bless you all.