Genesis 48:1-49:33, Matthew 15:29-16:12, Psalm 20:1-9, Proverbs 4:20-27
Today is the 24th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today as we gather in our little safe oasis around the Global Campfire, set aside everything else and simply focus and relax as the word of God washes into our hearts and lives and gives us instruction counsel. So, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. We have been traveling first with Abraham right and then Isaac and then Jacob, whose name is Israel and that he had a bunch of kids, the children of Israel. Then we kind of zoomed in on one of those children of Israel, named Joseph and followed his path all the way to slavery in Egypt and his ascension to be second in power over the whole land. We’ve witnessed Joseph’s brothers come and finally you understand that the very person that they trafficked is second in command in Egypt and so they bow before him as he had dreamed long ago. And eventually they make it back to Canaan and tell Jacob or Israel, their father, that his son Joseph is still alive. Then we traveled with Jacob and the 70 of his household down to Egypt where they are reunited with Joseph. They have settled in the land of Goshen, in the land of Egypt and today we will say goodbye to Jacob, whose children are the children of Israel. A family that the Bible pays extraordinary attention to. Today, Genesis chapters 48 and 49.
Commentary:
Okay, our reading from the book of Proverbs today is very difficult to ignore and probably extraordinarily unwise to ignore, since this is the book of wisdom. But encapsulated in today’s reading is an entire posture for life and if wisdom truly is what we’re seeking then it gives us a gauge so, let’s just walk through it. My son, be attentive to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings, that’s pretty clear. Listen to me, let them not escape from your site, keep them within your heart. So, what wisdom speaks we should not lose track of it. We shouldn’t let it out of our site, we shouldn’t let it out of our heart. If we would do that it would be life to those who find them and healing to all their flash. Life and healing is something that we all want and that we all seek. And seeking wisdom is the path to what we seek and then we move on, and this is so important, keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. So, everything about us flows from our hearts. Even Jesus was talking about this in the book of Matthew. It’s not what goes in your mouth that defiles you, it’s what comes out of your heart and through your mouth. And think about it, if you believe and have it accepted and received Jesus and believe that He is with in you, then where is He? In your heart. There is nothing more central in our lives above guarding our heart, the place where God dwells within you. And then we go on, put away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you, pretty self-explanatory. All of the nuance and spin that we bought on things in different situations to mask other things, that’s crooked speech and the way we can shade the truth or manipulate people with our words, that’s devious. Proverbs tells us to put it away from us. It’s not leading anywhere good and then moving forward, let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you. So, basically if we’re driving a car, we need to stay in our lane right, and if we’re weaving all over the place, we’re either going to injure somebody or ourselves or we’re going to get pulled over and arrested but isn’t that generally how life works? If were moving in a direction, we’re moving toward something, we’re walking a straight path then we’re likely to get to where we’re going. If, what we mostly do is, try to figure out what we can get away with than our gaze isn’t straight before us, we’re not looking directly forward and as the Proverb continues it builds on that, ponder the path of your feet, which pay attention to where you’re going, that’s important. It’s important in a car and it’s important in life. The Proverb says then all your ways will be sure and then building on top of that, do not swerve to the right or the left, turn your foot away from evil. So, the Proverb isn’t breaking down categories of what you can and can’t do and what you can and can get away with and it still be okay. The Proverb is giving us the underlying wisdom that we can apply to all of the situations in our lives. So, we were looking at the fourth chapter of Proverbs today, the 20th through the 27th verse, and it would be worth revisiting maybe throughout the day, maybe throughout this week, it could change the complexion of what this week could look like. But this is wisdom and truth for life itself. And if we’ll but pay attention it could save us from so many train wrecks.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You for Your word, yet again as we will do most every single day because we are grateful, we are grateful for the way that it touches all of the different parts of our hearts and our motives and our actions and our words. And we want to walk the narrow path that leads to light in a straight line, but there are things pulling us in every direction all the time and there’s no way to sort it out or cut through it without the power of your Holy Spirit. And so, Holy Spirit come and teach us to be wise and lead us deeper into Jesus, and lead us into the truth, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, that is the website and its definitely where to find out what’s going on around here and how to get connected around here. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can access all these things by pushing the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. And we were just talking about Proverbs and so importantly, that I just mention again Daily Audio Proverb, that is another channel here in the Daily Audio Bible family and that is like five minutes or less of an investment of time in any given day, but that five minutes or less day-by-day, step-by-step allows us to move through the entire book of Proverbs every month. So, we get to go through it 12 times in the year, that’s the wisdom that is found in the Scriptures poured into our lives and if we’re beginning to get the picture here, life, at least according to the Bible and according to the Savior Jesus, is an inside out thing, not an outside in thing. So, if wisdom is within us, it can certainly come out of us, especially when we need it and when do we not need wisdom. So, check out Daily Audio Proverb in addition to Daily Audio Bible, as we move through the entire Bible in a year.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, humbly, deeply, profoundly, thank you for your partnership, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t here together. So, there is 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 P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.
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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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hey good morning, DAB family. This is Aussie Bear in Australia. It’s Wednesday, the 19th of January and it is 5:45 AM. I’ve just finished listening to the podcast from yesterday and the prayers at the end of that and the first three, the first three cabs off the rank, were from three brothers in Christ and I just felt really moved to pray for all three of them because they are three men who are really struggling and so I just wanted to pray for them. So, they are for Michael the Greatest Trucker and for Jesse, Jesse in New York and Eric in Tampa, Florida. So, heavenly Father, I just ask for Your blessing and Your love and grace and mercy to flow over these three men who are struggling. They all are struggling for different reasons and I just ask for You to carry them through the next few days and through these struggles that they’re facing. And Lord, I just also ask for Your blessing over the face that these men exuded so much courage to be able to get on and ask for prayer and to lay themselves out vulnerable before the DAB family with their struggles. I know for a lot of men, that’s a hard thing to do because there’s, there’s a stigma attached to being a bloke and you know, to not be vulnerable, to be strong all the time. And I mean, that’s such a façade and I just ask for You to honor the strength and the courage that these men showed in getting on here and asking for prayer. And I ask this in Jesus name.
Good morning, DAB family this is LaChula calling from the City of Angels. Today, is January 19 and today, a year ago is when I started listening to the Daily Audio Bible and haven’t stopped. I know many of you have completed the year on December 31st but today is my completion of the year. And I just want to thank God for the person that I am today is not the same person that I was on January 19th of 2021. I am beyond grateful to God, to my husband, who introduced me to the DAB and to the entire Hardin family who continue, Pastor Brian, to inspire and encourage and to speak from a place where the Holy Spirit dwells. I just thank the DAB Community, this Global Campfire has brought me through so many seasons with my family. I thank you and I just want to wish everyone a beautiful, blessed day. And I’m praying for you brothers and sisters. You inspire me by calling in and being courageous and transparent in speaking from a place where some people might say it’s brokenness, I say it’s vulnerability and that that we are Jesus hands and feet. And if we don’t pray for one another, then who will? I just thank you again DAB, you are amazing and have a great day. Bye.
Hi Daily Audio Bible fam, my name’s Mannie. This is my 5th year tuning in and unfortunately, I’ve never been able to stick to it for an entire year. I usually fall off the wagon by October. But this year is gonna be different. I’m making a commitment to stay consistent and to really soak in the word of God and to incorporate it into my life. I pray for everyone this year. I pray that this year is filled with peace and laughter and courage and love and happiness and humility and compassion for ourselves and others and for our friends and our family. I pray this year is a year of remarkable change, remarkable growth. That we may be more focused on our path to You Lord. And that we may be willing to learn and to be patient. Lord, continue to shower us all with Your grace, with Your mercy and Your love. Amen. Have a great year everyone. Have a wonderful, wonderful year.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Anne in Tyler, Texas and I wanted to let you know that I have been very intentional about sending a link through text and email and telling people I meet the blessing of Daily Audio Bible and I’m now on my 14th delightful year being blessed by this ministry effort. Thank you Hardin family and I’ve had the blessing already this year or receiving back a handful of people responding that they are listening new to Daily Audio Bible or they used to listen and now they’re coming back on board and so I wanted to encourage everyone to try to be intentional about sharing the link and telling people about it. Show them the app on your phone, say oh, it’s so easy to download in your app store, it’ll change your life and you’ll go through the whole Bible in a year, how often would you read that? It’s easy to listen. So, God is using the ministry and I’m so thankful for it and we can help evangelize the world by sharing an easy resource. So, go at it fellow community DABers in sharing this good news. Thanks, God bless you all. I love you and I love praying with you when you call in.
Hi, DAB family this is the Farmer’s Wife in chili upstate New York. I am calling for prayers for my husband and I just recently found out I’m carrying our first child. And it’s a lot to take in. We’re excited for this child, we’re both very nervous. And I have a history of struggling with depressing and my and am really working hard to combat that. And our financial situation is very strained. I have a very advanced degree but I haven’t been able to find work that brings joy which is difficult. And we’re just, it’s a new adventure, becoming parents for the first time. One that we are trying to leave our baggage behind and start anew. But it’s very overwhelming and I’m not to the point where I’m super excited yet although we both love this child. It’s just really overwhelming so we ask for your prayers.