Amos 7:1-9:15, Revelation 3:7-22, Psalms 131:1-3, Proverbs 29:23
Today is the 12th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy to be here with you today as we greet another week together. We get to…we get to greet a new week two more times before this year reaches its conclusion and then like the great reset we get to start all over into 52 new week beginnings. But I guess that means this is the 50th time we’ve greeted a new week together this year and I am profoundly grateful that we get to come to the beginning of a new week and consider it a fresh start. This is also the third Sunday of the season of Advent. It’s no secret that the end of next week brings us Christmas day. And, so, next week is the fourth Sunday in the season of Advent, a season that leads us and leads our hearts toward Christmas. Whether you’ve ever had an Advent calendar or observed that or been involved in anything around Advent before that’s entirely up to you but it is a long-running Christian tradition, a season and its intention is to set our hearts correctly toward Christmas, allow us to experience a season of longing, knowing that so long ago many were longing for a rescue, for a Messiah, for a Savior. And he came with great rejoicing. There was joy to the world. And, so, we put ourselves in that position as we anticipate Christmas, but we also realize that that longing that never really quite goes away that’s so deep inside of us is a longing for all things to be made new again, is a longing for the second Advent, which means arrival. So, the first advent of Jesus we read about in the Gospels. Jesus is born, He arrives, He came. The wait is over. Now we, much later, find ourselves celebrating that fact, but also longing for His return. And this is essentially what Advent is about. And, so, as these themes kind of come up or as you see them around, then you just can embrace that. Think about it, meditate on it, put your heart in that position, allow yourself to feel that longing even as we step forward together. And our first step forward into this new week will, at least in the Scriptures, will lead us back into the book of Amos. We’ve spent the last couple of days reading from the book of Amos. We will reach the conclusion of Amos today. We’ll read from the New International Version this week. Amos, chapters 7, 8, and 9.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for this shiny sparkly new beginning to a brand-new week, a week that will take us through the midpoint of this final month of the year. We are grateful for your kindness and the gifts that you have bestowed upon us and the ways that you have transformed us from within and continue to reprioritize and realign our thinking, which eventually transforms our actions. We are so grateful. Thank you, Jesus for the many gifts that we have been able to experience together this year. And we look forward with anticipation into this brand-new week for all that you have to speak to us through your word. And, so, Holy Spirit, we invite you to come into all of this. Continue to make us aware of your guidance and presence in all things. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning DAB family this is Steve from Alabama, Albertville AL. I just wanted to call in a praise report. A couple months ago I called in for prayer for my cousin and his wife. Her name is Donna. Her prayer was to be able to stay alive while going through cancer to see her granddaughter be born. She’s still alive, she’s still fighting. She believes in God and now her prayer is to see her granddaughter’s first Christmas. She’s struggling and our family is with her, and I just want you all to lift Brian and Donna up for this season and give her strength, give her encouragement. And I just thank you for the praise report that she has made it this far. I love you guys. I’ve listened to the DAB every day for the past 13 years and I just am encouraged myself through every prayer request, every praise report, and I just thank you. I thank everybody in this podcast for what you do, and I pray that you will continue to pray, continue to do your work because it does matter. I love you guys.
Hi DAB family this is Robert P from Tennessee reaching out for help. My wife of 31 years is struggling with in stage liver disease. Her name is Bonnie, and I would appreciate any prayers that anyone would direct in our direction. I’m watching her suffer and slowly dwindle and numerous trips to the hospital, numerous stays in the hospital and it tears my heart out. I’ve posted a couple of prayers on the prayer wall under wife of 31 years, and I do feel…I do feel prayers, but I need my family. This is difficult and I’m at a loss to know what to do. I know God has me. I know I belong to him, and I know she belongs to him but please pray for direction because I don’t want to see her suffer. It hurts. I feel like I’m alone in this. I know I’m not. I’ve got two wonderful daughters and they come alongside and help what they can but this is a burden I feel I must carry. So, please family. Please pray. Robert P from Tennessee subaruman.rp@gmail.com.
Hello DAB family this Thankful and Still and I wanted to share my thanks, my gratitude with those of you that have shared your testimonies. You have no idea how much they’ve encouraged me. And, so, I’m so thankful for you opening up and sharing. In particular the ones that come to mind are Royal, are Quora the Contrite Spirit. I have Sparky in mind, Trent, Jessica and California. So many of you have shared just the intimate details of God’s work in your life and the things that you’ve overcome. So, I’m so thankful that you’ve followed the guiding of the Holy Spirit. And I just want to say that every now and then God, He pauses, I read this this morning and I’ve seen it. He pauses, the God of the universe pauses, and He looks down upon us, each one of us, you. I’ve seen that happen over the past few days with me being, you know, just coping with growing pains, you know, my eldest son leaving home and it not being expected and not really knowing where he was. But then, you know, things come together and God has just looked down upon us in this time and me and my son and…and I can see Him at work. And, so, remembering that He’s faithful, He will complete the work that He’s begun in each of us for His glory. And if you feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit to do something kind, to do something out of love, to do something for someone, please follow His guidance. Please follow His leading knowing that He will give you the strength, He will give you the words and the courage to do whatever it is that He's…He’s wanting you to do. You're…you’re a part of something so much greater, so much greater than we can imagine, this master plan that he orchestrates. So, I thank you for sharing, those of you that shared. I thank you for your prayers. God bless each of you.
Hey guys it’s Beloved and Boston, Amanda over here. Haven’t called in in a couple of weeks but of course following along and praying daily. Thank you again DAB family and Brian and his family for all you do for me in particular. But I just wanted to share a quick prayer request for an am man named Robert. He is the husband of a cousin of mine who I have not seen in over 12 years. And yesterday I had posted poem on my Facebook that had to do with Christ and an explanation as to why. And after 10 plus years of him not contacting me over Facebook…he used to harass me a lot, kind of bully me a bit about God online…he surfaced and started up again. And this time around I’ve grown so much closer to the Lord that all I had was sadness and love for him instead of anger. And, so, my responses were filled with Christ’s love. So, I praise Jesus for that first off. But I just pray that something must be going on that has made him reemerge, that has made him want to attack and justify his own choices. And, so, to me that opens up the opportunity for my seeds, Christ’s seeds to be planted and to flourish and to come to harvest. So, that’s what I pray for. I pray for his salvation. I pray a plentiful harvest in Christ’s name in his life and that it will have a trickle effect down his entire family. Please just pray for Robert’s salvation. Thank you.