Hosea 10:1-14:9, Jude 1:1-25, Psalms 127:1-5, Proverbs 29:15-17
Today is the 8th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today around this Global Campfire together as we continue our journey of fellowship through life, through a year of life together, and the span the entire Bible, every sentence, every word, every paragraph every chapter, every book. And the last couple of days in the New Testament we have moved through a book a day. They have been letters, but we read them in their entirety. So, we read second John and third John yesterday, which in the New Testament will bring us to Jude and we will read that in its entirety today, which sets us up tomorrow to encounter the final book of the Bible. We’ve got a ways to go in the Old Testament but the final book in the New Testament, which happens to be the final book in the Bible, which is known as Revelation. And then about the time that we settle into Revelation we’ll find things accelerating in the minor prophets. And some of those it’ll take a little…it’ll take a couple of days but a lot of them we’ll read in one sitting just like we’ve read second John and third John. Nevertheless, this is the nature of how it goes. Things get busier in life and then it’s like we’re moving rapidly here in the Bible although we’re just kind of moving at the same general pace. And, so, let’s lock-in and continue this journey, a journey that we will finish strong. We have been reading in the Old Testament from Hosea. We will conclude the book of Hosea today. So, it’s fresh territory, old and new Testaments tomorrow, but that’s tomorrow and today is today. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Hosea chapters 10 through 14.
Commentary:
Okay, that brings us to Jude. 25 versus. So, yesterday was a 13-verse letter, little notes called third John. 25 verses today in the epistle of Jude and it may sound very familiar to second Peter, Peter’s second letter that we read…what…last week? Many scholars over many centuries have noticed similarities between second Peter and Jude and some have concluded that second Peter is…is based on Jude’s letter or that Peter wrote second Peter after reading Jude and wanting to communicate the same kinds of things, wrote a similar letter. And that that’s true, then Jude’s letter does predate second Peter and that would date Jude somewhere in the mid-60s. So, at the same kind of time that a lot of writings that end up in the New Testament were being written. If the similarities, like literally have nothing to do with each other than…than Jude, might be later. Might be in the latter part of Jude’s life somewhere like AD…in the 80s, so like 20 years later. And that may or may not be interesting to you. I…I find that kind of stuff interesting. But maybe more interesting is, who is Jude? Which is also a question that’s been raised throughout our church history and is still a matter of scholarly research. The majority, if there is a consensus, the majority of traditional scholars believe Jude, who wrote this letter, was the brother of James, and half-brother of Jesus our Lord. So, that would be very good evidence for why a letter like this would be preserved and carried forward if it was part of Jesus actual human family, but it’s important to note, as with James even though these men did grow up around Jesus and knew the Lord, they didn’t believe in Jesus during His ministry, and Jude did not believe in Jesus during His ministry. It’s also not clear exactly who Jude is writing this letter to. It’s address to everyone who has been called by God the Father who loves and keeps you safe in the care of Jesus Christ. So, that…that could be anybody ever. So, that means it could be us. This letter, we can take the Bible that way for sure, but in the very real sense, since this is written to everybody loved by God and kept safe in Jesus then this letter is written to us. Interesting irony about Jude is that it appears that he had intended to sit down and put pen to paper on a completely different topic. He was intending to write a totally different letter but instead he had to write a letter about a false teaching that was going around. And the issues aren’t new. We’ve heard them in other letters. So, we get a pretty good glimpse of some of the thought of the early church. And this particular thing that that Jude wants to correct is about the grace of God, because as Christians we are taught that there’s nothing we could do, right? It is a gift. We can’t do anything to earn our way into righteousness before God. It’s a gift. And we’ve kind of had that fleshed out between James and Peter and John that it is a gift, but it should change you irreversibly so that your life changes and the way that you live changes accordingly because of the honor and respect that you have for the gift and for the…the relationship that you have with God, so faith without works is dead. Jude’s kinda writing about the opposite end of that spectrum. There’s nothing you can do to earn this. There’s nothing that can happen to take it away from you, so you can do whatever you want. Faith doesn’t specifically need works that align themselves with the gospel. You can’t earn this anyway. You can do whatever you want trusting in the gift of mercy and grace, right? So, if you just follow the reason, then sin has been eradicated through the blood of Jesus. Sin has no claim to our lives anymore. Therefore, we can’t sin, we can do whatever we want, we’re free from sin. And as we will find, Jude spends most of this letter disagreeing with that idea. And this is indeed our last stop before the final book of the Bible which is known as Revelation and we’ll talk about that tomorrow, but Revelation is very very different than any other thing that we’ve encountered in the Bible, for the most part. And, so, let’s enjoy this…this letter, the letter, known as Jude.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for yet another day. All of these days, they have added up to bring us all the way here to this point in the year where there are far few many…far fewer days remaining than the amount of days that we have accomplished so far. And again, we are grateful. It’s a busy time, but if we were able to take a few minutes and just consider this, consider how different it is to have the Scriptures in our lives every day and how they have spoken to us in so many key moments throughout this year. We are deeply deeply grateful. And as we continue to move rapidly through new territory again, we ask Holy Spirit that You come, awake in our minds, give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see, open our hearts that we might receive in the fertile soil, and we even pray that more specifically, even over tomorrow where we will come into two brand-new books, and this will only continue as we continue this journey forward. And, so, Holy Spirit lead us into all truth. You have promised to do this, and we are resting in that promise. We’ll pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the home base and that is where you find out what’s going on around here. And everything is Christmas time around here, everything is Christmas time pretty much everywhere right now as we’re moving day by day closer and closer.
So, a few things going on about Christmas around here. One, we are preparing for our annual virtual family Christmas party and the way that we do that is call in our Christmas greetings to the community as we realize we have traveled nearly a year together every single day. And then Jill and I usually sit down, have a little conversation looking back over the year and then we have all of these calls from all over the world that are so beautiful. And, so, don’t leave your voice unheard. If you want to call in, don’t procrastinate. Just a couple of days here and then we have to kinda shut that down and go into…go into production for it. So, here’s what you do. We have a Hotline button in the app. I talk about it most every day and we have a phone number, 877-942-4253. Mention that most every day as well. This is the prayer and encouragement line. And that is what it is for except for about a week out of the year where we also use it to call in our holiday greetings for our annual Christmas party. And, so, if you have a holiday greeting then call it in. If you have a prayer request or encouragement, then call it in. Just don’t make them combined into one single call, then there’s no place to put them. Call them in separate but don’t procrastinate.
Also, for Christmas this year is the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas box for 2021, and that is available on the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Christmas category. And packed into that box this year is The God of Your Story, which is kind of a written…it’s the written version of the kinds of things that we talk about each and every day as we’re moving through the different territories in the Scripture. And, so, that is included in the box. Daily Audio Bible Journal 3.0 is in the box. Global Campfire candle. Your choice of Windfarm coffee or tea. The annual Christmas ornament for 2021, it can only be gotten in the box is in the box, as well as a Global Campfire pop socket, Global Campfire…couple of them, Global Campfire stickers and a series of five Global Campfire postcards and a mystery item from the vault this year will be included in the Christmas box. And, so, that’s available at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop in the Christmas category.
We also have Promised Land, photographs from the land of the Bible our brand-new…well…book of photography from the land of the Bible, a beautiful coffee table piece, a beautiful gift idea, a unique gift idea. And that can be found also in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Christmas section.
And then all of the different Daily Audio Bible Christmas albums, music that we have. Those are available wherever you listen a stream or download or buy music using your device. So, Christmas time by Maxwell Hardin, our brand-new Christmas album for this year is available. Family Christmas, a beautiful, orchestrated Christmas album full of all of the classic carols that we know and love is available. And then the single that we put out last year, O holy night, by Jill my wife, that is available as well so you can stream that right in and set the atmosphere for your Christmas holiday season. And, so, check those things out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here at the end of the year, thank you. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t together in this. That has always been true. It is true today. And, so, thank you, humbly, humbly for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement or holiday greeting right now you can hit the Hotline button in the app, or you can dial 877-942-4253.
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:
Hello everyone, it is officially December the 5th 2021. This is Christina Follower of Christ. I wanted to say to everyone I thank you for all the prayers that you have given to me and my family. We go to court on Tuesday. Hopefully everything gets dropped. But I’m very thankful for everything that has been given to me and has been offered and the help that I’ve received not only from my family, from my fellow DAB followers and family. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you and everything that you have done. And many people don’t hear how much they are appreciated, but you are loved and you are appreciated. And even though that everybody goes through tough times you just gotta keep pushing forward taking one day at a time, one step at a time especially during these holiday months when you don’t have someone with you that you wish was there every single day to help you through everything that you go through. And I am thankful that I have my family, majority of my family and I have you all because if it wasn’t for me being able to listen to Brian every day and like we listen to Ezekiel I don’t know how we would have got through this. So, thank you. Please keep praying for me and my family and happy holidays.
Fam it’s Sparky. I wanted to take a moment and pray for Whitney from Alabama. Father God we…we come to You and we just request Your presence through this holiday Christmas season for Whitney and her family. Father help them to…to feel You and know that the loved ones who are gone, who have passed, they’re not gone Father they’re present and they’re with You. Father they are right in the spot that we all dream of being, they’re right there with You Father God. We just ask that You touch her family. Help her to feel the security of Your love and feel the arms of Jesus Christ wrapped around her family Father God. We love You and we pray for…we pray for when You come back God and we all feel the presence of Your awesome awesome personality. And God You have a personality and give it to this family. We thank You for all Your blessings. It’s a new son Jesus Christ name we pray. Amen.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible community, To Be a Blessing in California. This is the season where joy and laughter and community and lights and celebration takes place and people say Merry Christmas all the time and yet it’s hard to be merry sometimes for people who are experiencing grief or sadness, loneliness, those who are walking this journey and the lights are very dull because our hearts are hurting. I want you to know that I’m so aware of that experience. It’s happened to me for loss of being able to have children and loss of a relationship, several of them, having an ex-husband ask for a divorce the day after Christmas, asking for a separation today after Thanksgiving. So, I know how hard it is to walk this…during this time and yet I also want to acknowledge that our God is faithful. He will help us through. He has helped me through. And while it might seem that no one understands that people just won’t get it God gets it and there are many here who get it. Psalms 147:3 talks about God binding up those wounds and healing the broken hearted. And while you may not feel it today claim His promise and know that He will do that because He is faithful. And while it might take time choose Jesus every day. He is the gift for us.
Morning DAB family this is Stan from Maryland I’m just calling in with just a couple prayers and I want to lift up a couple people that I haven’t heard from in a little while around…well…in the winter time last year there was a woman, I believe her name was Hannah Ken or Hannah and I'm…I apologize Hannah you were either from New Zealand or Australia I don’t remember which one, but around this time last year in December you lost your father and I think your family also suffered another loss but overall you know we’re back to this time of year and I just want to let you know that you’re not forgotten about. We're…we’re praying for you and just praying that your family around this Christmas time that you still have peace and joy with one another even in the midst of missing your father. God just lift up Hannah and just her whole family and pray that You would just bless them, and You would give them peace. Give them unity and love for one another. Help them to be the comforters to one another that…through Your Spirit. Also want to lift up Jermaine up in Rochester and anyone else who is…Jermaine I don’t know if you’re still in Rochester, if you’re still serving time but I just want to lift you up and pray that God would strengthen you. And heavenly Father I ask that You would strengthen Jermaine. I pray that You would watch over him. I pray for any of our brothers or sisters that are incarcerated away from their families during the holiday Lord. I pray that You would bless them Lord, and be close to them and You would be right there with them comforting them speaking kindly to them. Lord help them to be a witness for You. Help them to be Your rocks Your people where You’ve placed them, but God give them comfort during the season. Pray this all in Jesus’ name. Have a good day everyone. Bye.
Hi this is Carolyn Texas and I’m calling for Whitney. And I just heard her prayer request for losing her dad and how he was a…also a dad to her kids. And I understand completely. I just lost my daddy in July, and he was a good daddy to me and to my…my children. So, I understand where you’re coming from. Just ask God to bless you and…and help you and all that you do that your Christmas be blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name I pray. Amen.