Zechariah 2:1-3:10, Revelation 13:1-18, Psalms 141:1-10, Proverbs 30:18-20
Today is the 22nd day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is fantastic to be here with you today. It's…it’s fantastic to be enjoying Christmas week together with you even though we’re celebrating with all our friends and family and kinda moving our way toward Christmas day it is fantastic. We’ve been through all of the different seasons together and it is fantastic that we can walk together through the Christmas season. And, so, let’s dive in and take that next step forward. We began the book of Zechariah yesterday and we talked about Zechariah as we began and I mentioned that Zechariah’s gonna carry us all the way till the 29th day of December, I believe, just a couple of days before the end of the year. And, so, we’re gonna take the next step forward into the book of Zechariah, one of the great sources of text from the Hebrew Bible that discusses a coming…a coming one…a coming Savior. And we touched on that little bit even with our first reading yesterday, but today is today. We’re reading from the Voice this week. Zechariah chapters 2 and 3.
Commentary:
Alright. So, this is Christmas week and…and in the book of Psalms today we got about the best advice imaginable for the coming days. And actually again, this Psalm isn’t about the Christmas holiday in 2021. It’s about life and this should be the way that we live every day. We’re kind of moving into the holiday season where we’re gonna be reunited with probably family, maybe friends, maybe even people we haven’t gotten to see for a couple years because of all that’s been going on in the world, but maybe people that we see often enough. But when everybody’s altogether than everybody kind of falls back into the some…some sort of role that we played in our family or whatever. And, so, those old hurts can kinda creep in or those…you know…those kind of words that…they look like they’re nice but inside there’s like a razor blade or something. And these little things that have always been offensive to us or have hurt us even from child or whatever, they can come up and creep in and boom! Then everything’s blown and we just feel like a child again. Psalms speaks to what…what we could do before any of that, before any of that happens or before we do that. Because maybe it’s us. Maybe we’re the one that has daggers hidden in our paragraphs. So, I quote from the Psalms. “Guard my mouth oh eternal one. Control what I say. Keep a careful watch on every word I speak. Don’t allow my deepest desires to steer me toward doing what is wrong or associating with wicked people or joining in their wicked works or tasting any of their pleasures. Let those who do right strike me down in kindness and correct me in love.” And, so, this is written by King David a long long time ago. But you can see if we listen to that counsel right now, predetermined and pay attention to the triggers that can blow the whole thing up and move forward then we’re seeing that we can choose in advance before anything gets said, before anything happens how we’re going to handle it if and when it does. It’s not a good time to remember this verse, you know, after the volume is at 10 and you can’t unsay what’s being said. The way to avoid some of that conflict is to predetermine and pay attention. Because the Bible has taught us very vividly out from a number of angles that we are light, and we are of the light. and we should have no darkness and we should not be participating in the darkness. It’s best to remember that from the peace and serenity of the light. It’s much more difficult to try to enact anything like this when we’re in the pitch black darkness and it’s a raging inferno of words that are not helpful. These days now and leading into Christmas, this is a time where our soul, especially if we’ve kind of been paying attention through Advent and stuff, we…we should be rejoicing. We shouldn’t really sense of joy to the world. We should really understand that God came for us and we have no business perpetuating darkness at a time that commemorates the light of the world coming to rescue us.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that and we predetermine, we decide in advance that we’re not gonna take the bait, that we’re not gonna get triggered that, that we’re not gonna cave, that wherever there is darkness if we experience it or witness it, we will do all that we can to replace it with light and good news and love and joy. We will certainly fail if we try to do this in our own strength. Only with Your guidance can we navigate this, only with us being aware that we’re not moving through Christmas alone. We’re going through it with You together. We’re celebrating together and nothing’s going to take that joy away. So, we’re paying attention to what’s being said. We won’t succeed at that without You, but You would never leave us. And, so, we have to confess that so often we’re not paying attention and we need to and that needs to be a habit of our lives or just…just the normal for us, is that we are paying attention because You are present. And, so, come Holy Spirit. We have an amazing opportunity here to practice this, to put it into practice. And, so, come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
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It’s Christmas week. That’s what’s going on around here, kinda counting down the days and they’re some of the more busy days. And, so, let’s remember what…we talked about this. We talked about it even back in October saying this is final quarter of the year and by the time this quarter is over we’ll be at the end of the year, but we’ll also be right in the busiest time of the year for most people. And, so, staying locked into this rhythm that we’ve had all year can really help us navigate. And, so, let's…let’s finish strong because the way to begin our New Year’s resolutions and to begin strong is to end well and to end strong. And, so, let’s do exactly that as we…as we share the final stretch of our journey.
Man, if this journey has been meaningful to you, if our rhythm every day step-by-step day by day moving forward through the Scriptures and through life, if that has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership here in the waning days of this year. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com or 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, of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that is the little red button up at the top. Tough to miss. Looks like a Hotline button. You can hit that from anywhere in the world 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:
DABbers it’s Kara Contrite Spirit. I don’t usually get nervous making my calls but I’m just…I’m feeling a little nervous. This is a plea in desperation to all of you guys, you prayer warriors. I need prayer cover for, you know, I always call for my son Nish but this is…I’m asking for prayer cover for him and also for my area, for my…I live right next to a light rail station and the powers and principalities I feel are working here hard core through meth. That’s what I’m focusing on right now. And they work through one particular young man. He’s homeless. He seems to think that the steps to the light rail station are his office for selling drugs. And there are a lot of children in my building. I’ve actually seen him talking to children and he’s been known to talk to children. There’s been posters put up on the doors of all the residents of my building. The authorities knew about him. I see him sometimes talk to, you know, 20 people a day and he's…it's…it's…it’s Satan working through him. I know my son gets drugs from him too. And it's…he’s been doing this for like three years. My son has been back here a year and it’s just…I need your help guys. Please help. I thank you so…
Good morning family it’s Saturday morning the 18th of December. I’m out walking my dog and just finished listening to DAB and I’ve heard the prayer requests and this song came to my heart. I might have sang it and sent it before. I obviously can’t remember but I just want to do it again. [singing starts] When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word what glory he sheds on our way. While we do His goodwill He abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey. For there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey [singing stops]. Obey the word of God. Obey the path that His word shines the light on that you’re supposed to walk. And then in the unknown, in the darkness trust trust trust His faithfulness. Trust He is there. Trust His promises that say He never leaves us no forsakes us. Trust His word that says I am the Lord I change not. Hallelujah. Trust and obey. Be blessed my family. I love y'all. Praying for you. Jesus. Hallelujah.
Hello DAB family this is Carol from upstate New York I’m calling to ask you folks if you would please uphold my church in prayer. Today our pastor, Father Steve died from Covid. He had been sick for a few weeks, but he was young, he was fit. We…I guess he just was one of the people that you wouldn’t expect that would pass away from this illness, yet he did, and his loss is huge. He leaves behind six children, a wife who he adored, he just loved her dearly. And if you would pray for them, but especially for his youngest child who he and his wife just adopted from foster care just about five weeks ago. They went to court and the adoption was finalized. This is gonna be a huge loss for this little boy and as it is, all of us. Our pastor was an amazing man. He ministered to the poor. He preached the truth. He was just a blessing to everybody. He…no one had anything bad to say about him. He was just beloved. So, if you could please keep us all in prayer I would so appreciate it. Thank you.
Hello DAB family this is Colorado Cab and at the end of today’s message I just feel compelled to pray with you a very similar prayer that I pray every time after I hear the requests that are recorded each day. Lord Jesus thank you for today. Thank you for each and every caller that was brave enough to call in and either offer prayer and encouragement to others or to just boldly ask for prayer themselves. Dear Lord Jesus for every caller that’s recorded we know that there are thousands who do not call in. I ask your blessing upon all those who write on the prayer wall, the Facebook page, those dear Lord Jesus who call out privately from their homes and prayer from hospital beds, their cars, prison cells, homelessness. Dear Lord Jesus we know that there are missing and exploited people all over the world right now calling out to you in prayer. Be their refuge dear Lord Jesus. Come to their aide and bring them comfort. Dear Lord Jesus please come. There are so many who need you. You know each and every one of their names and you know every hair on their head. So dear Lord Jesus I stand in agreement for all the prayers that are recorded but dear Lord Jesus also for the thousands that are not. I ask all these things in your precious sons names Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sovereign Lord we lift up our world to You. We thank You for it, the beauty of Your creation and the places where we are. Lord thank You for all of the countries and all of the…all of the nations represented on this podcast that’s part of the community and all of those on the sister podcast as well and all of those not represented. Thank You, Lord for all the different countries in the world and all the different people. And we pray Lord that…we lift up their leaders, lift up our leaders Lord and pray that You’d be giving them wisdom as they have to make difficult decisions every day. I pray Lord that they would be making the best decision to serve their people. And Father God we…we lift up the health services of all of our different countries and thank You for each individual that makes…that makes it…that is a part of it and we pray that You’d be giving them strength and energy and inspiration and motivation and whatever they need to continue serving the people. Lord You know what they need, and we thank You that You are the provider and I ask that You would provide. We entrust our world to You Lord. Thank You that we can trust in You. Thank You that You love us. In Jesus’ holy and precious name. Amen.