Month: January 2022

Genesis 24:52-26:16, Matthew 8:18-34, Psalms 10:1-15, Proverbs 3:7-8

Today is the 11^th day of the month of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is a great to be here with you today around the Global Campfire that is the community here. What a blessing that it is that we have this space, this serene calm place to enter into every day together and just relax and let the Scriptures come alive in our hearts. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week, picking up where we left off yesterday. Genesis chapter 24 verse 52 through 26 verse 16 today. And by way of reminder, we are moving into the second generation. A wife for the son of promise, Isaac is being searched for, and Rebekah has been found. But does she want to leave her homeland and go marry Isaac in a land far away. Let’s continue the journey.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have met Abram whose name became Abraham. We know this. We’ve been following and tracking that story. Today we reach the conclusion of Abraham’s life. He lived to be 175 years old according to the Scriptures. And although his life and story have come to an end in this narrative, the book of Genesis, Abraham effects the world until this day. For example, Hebrews, the Jewish people. Those who are practicing Judaism that, we who are Christians and those who practice Islam all claim an allegiance to this guy, Abraham. And although we’ve reached the end of the narrative story of his life we’re gonna hear about Abraham through the rest of the Bible. We know that the son of promise that Abraham and Sarah had was named Isaac and we’ve been traveling through that story. Now Isaac has a wife. Her name is Rebekah and they have subsequently had twin boys, Esau and Jacob. And very quickly in the narrative, they’re grown men. Esau is a hunter and an outdoorsman, and Jacob sticks more close to home. And the Bible basically tell is Esau is kinda the favorite of his dad Isaac because he’s kind of a man’s man, whereas Rebekah loves Jacob, more of a mama’s boy. And that’s actually going to factor in as we continue the journey as we read what we read today. And we see that Isaac and Rebekah, their family has settled near a place called Gerar. And that place exists as old as it is. It has been identified by archaeologists. I’ve walked that place. It’s…it’s really never been excavated into kind of a place you can visit and make some sense of, but there are ancient ruins just sitting there and it’s still a place where shepherds care for their sheep. But it’s pretty interesting that when Isaac gets there, he meets King Abimelech and…and says that his wife Rebekah is actually not his wife, she’s his sister. It’s not until Abimelech sees Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah that it comes out that she’s married Isaac. And when Isaacs pressed on why he lied like that he said he was afraid for his life. The interesting thing is that his dad did the same thing in the same city to the same king. So, there is a little bit of trickery in the family line and that also comes into play as the story goes forward.

And then we flip over into the book of Proverbs and once again two sentences give us an orientation and context for how to live. “Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.” So, that…those…those are the instructions. And we could say, yeah that's…to some degree that's…that’s wisdom that is known. We know we’re supposed to turn away from evil. We know wer’e supposed to fear the Lord. It’s not a matter of whether or not we know or understand this, it’s a matter of whether or not we pay attention and are aware and live into this. But those are the instructions. And then the next sentence sort of incentivizes the behavior. We get to see what the promised outcome of living this way will be. So, let’s read this whole thing again. “Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.” If the Bible is telling us the truth, and I believe it is, then this is something that we should know. There is a reason to live this way. And, so, let’s meditate on that as we move through our day.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. Every day it comes washing into our lives. Every day there is something we need to know. Every day there is something for us to be planted into our hearts. And, so, Holy Spirit come and do just that. Plant this in the soil of our hearts. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is where you find out what’s going on around here. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, which you can get free at any…wherever you…wherever your app store is you can access all these things from within the app as well. So, certainly check them out.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. In the Daily Audio Bible Shop you’ll find our Windfarm coffee and tea. And, so, here’s the deal. I am a bit…a bit…a novice coffee snob and I am also a tea drinker and it wasn’t too long in my Daily Audio Bible journey of showing up every morning, every single day behind the microphone preparing and reading the Scriptures that I realized, yeah, my morning coffee is a part of this story every single day. And I love coffee. And I love all the different ways of roasting coffee. All of this kind of stuff. It’s been well over a decade now that we began roasting our own coffee varietals and importing our own boutique teas because when we’re looking for something for the community here it’s something that will take this journey this relationship with the Scriptures further. And it might be like…well…coffee doesn’t exactly feed my spirituality. And I could say that too but I could also say but it is a part of my every day routine. It is a part of the rhythm, and it is associated with the Scriptures because it’s something that I do with the Scriptures every day. I mean, just to my left here is my cup of coffee. And so, we just started thinking, what if we could roast fresher? What if we could ship quicker? What if we could bring a really superior experience to something that people do every day anyway and then tie that to the rhythm that we have each and every day step-by-step day by day through the Scriptures. And, so, Windfarm coffee and tea was born, which is something that you can find in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. We even have a coffee and tea club. We roast coffee fresh, import the tea and send it out to everyone who has subscribed to it. As much coffee as you want, whether it’s a bag or several bags for the month. We ship it out once per month at the end of the month fresh roasted so that it arrives fresh and ready to go to you. And we just thought, what if we can make something superior, but something that everybody is likely to participate in on a daily basis anyway? And So often we’re going through drive throughs getting our five dollar cups of coffee a day. What if…what if we could bring something better and what if that little bit of margin could just be a little bit of help to keeping the servers spinning every day, keeping the lights on every day. And, so, Windfarm was born. And Windfarm, I think it’s still a cool name. But it’s a name that comes from the book of Ezekiel actually. The prophet Ezekiel…there’s a story in that book. We’ll get to it obviously before this year’s over. But he’s looking out over a valley of dry bones, a battle had happened there. And, so, the carcasses, the bodies had just been left there where they fell, and they had become skeletons. And God asked the prophet if they could live again. And Ezekiel said only the Lord would know something like that. And then the Lord instructed the prophet Ezekiel to call to the four winds, the breath of life, and he called to the four winds, the breath of life, and an army came back from the dead. It’s one of my…one of my favorite Bible stories. But then I realized we are constantly calling out to God. We may not be calling out to the four winds, but we are constantly calling to God on behalf of one another. We are constantly rejoicing in the Lord for what He is doing and what He has yet to do in our lives. And I just started thinking, what if that prayer is like a spiritual windfarm. We are constantly calling life into places that need life. And, so, that’s how our Windfarm coffee and tea was born. And you can…you can find it all the different varieties or have it shipped to you every month, just go into the Daily Audio Bible Shop and look for coffee and tea and you’ll find it there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if bringing the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night, if that represents life and good news to you than thank you for your partnership. 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 PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, 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:

Hi, I’m Angie from Texas. I’m new to the DAB family and even though I’ve been a Christian since I was 16 years old, I’m 51, just recently my faith has changed into something deeper and more connected to the Lord. Has…something has shifted and changed. My son was…my son is 32 years old and on December…mid-December he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. He’s had surgery, had most of his colon removed and he’s going to go on, once he heals, onto chemo. He was given a certain amount of time, but I know, we know that he will be healed. I ask the community to pray for him.

Hello this is Paul from Wales happy new year. Wonderful to have done another year with you all as a family. My real message is for the man that I’ve run over the past few days and the prayers have been short…shared. There’s no excuse for abusing your family. It’s been on my heart. I’ve wrestled with it for the past couple of days, that a man ringing up with suicidal thoughts and depression and asking for prayer. And how do we be real and how do we speak in love? So, I turn to the scriptures. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 13. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 1 Timothy 5. But if any one does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 Timothy 4. Let no one despise you for your youth but set the believers as an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity. I’m not a perfect man, far from it. I lost my temper New Year’s Eve. My daughter recently lost a baby. And I let things get on top of me and I shouted. And I screamed in an empty house. But we’re called to be men and men of faith and we’re…we’re called to act like men and do everything that we can in love. We will make mistakes, but brothers join me this year in pursuing Jesus heart.

Good morning Brian good morning DABbers it is Florida Charlie Oscar Pappa. I just wanna say welcome to 2022. I completed another year. I’ve been a DABber Brian for approximately 6-7 years now and it’s changed my life entirely. Not only have I grown spiritually, I’ve grown in my personal life. I’m also a Bible college student and listening to the Bible and reading the Bible and hearing your commentary and reading commentary. it just…it…it gives you a threefold strand spiritually and I just want to say thank you Brian for what you do. The people that call in and pray, continue to call in and pray. We are people that are praying for you. We might not all call…call your name or say your name but we are praying for you. If you have a need, if you have any requests call in. And then also __ sow into this ministry. Ephesians talks about if a man, if someone sow’ into you your spiritual, what is it is for us to sow our…sow are natural. Amen? So, let’s continue to pray for each other, support each other, and help each other, especially in this year coming because 2022 is gonna be a great year for Christ. Amen? So, you all have a blessed one and take care. Bye-bye. This is Florida Charlie Oscar Pappa.

Hi, this message is for the caller who called in on December 9^th talking about how you had placed your mother in a memory support facility. I’m sorry. I know that I played…prayed for you right before and I just cannot recall you guy’s name. This is Reba the nurse from Nebraska. I work at a Mary memory support facility and I also, I too had to place my father in the very facility that I am now working at because I had been up for 36 hours straight as he went into delirium and then after that we just never could get back him back to baseline. So, let me just pray for you and just pray for the facility and pay for the people that are taking care of your mom and pray for your mom. Heavenly Father I just thank You and praise You so much for just Your hand upon us and our choices that with the infinite possibilities of what we can do - time and skills and things given to us Father. You work Your will for those who love You and who serve You. Father I just pray for this gal. I pray for her mother. I ask that You just bless her with caregivers who are…just who will walk with her as her mind changes. Father I just pray for her that You would give her the stability that she needs, that she would have good health Father, that she would have no falls, that she would just in the in the essence of dementia Father live the fullest life that she can in this facility Father. I pray for the caregivers. I ask that You give them insight. I ask that You give them guidance. I ask You give them knowledge to care for her both in mind body. And Father what we know…

Hello Eleanor, this is Greg from Bothell WA and I heard you on January 3^rd asking for prayer. Eleanor you are a child of God, you’re a Princess in the Kingdom of God and you have no reason to believe that God can’t make you, sanctify you and make you holy and help you take those thoughts captive to His obedience. Just press into Him. I love you and I want you to know that none of us are good parents in ourselves. None of us are good people in ourselves, that Lord Jesus is the one that allows us to step into those roles that we need to be in. I want to encourage you to keep listening and keep praying for others and we will be praying for you. I’ll be praying for you. Lord Jesus I just pray for Eleanor right now that she would…she would feel Your comfort and presence in her life, that she would know that You have her, and that in Your care and her children in Your care. I rebuke in the name of Jesus the spirit of suicide and I cover her in the blood of Jesus, that no weapon formed against her will prosper but that she will see her glory in her life start to manifest in new in mighty ways and Jesus’ name. I love you, Eleanor. It’s OK to be afraid sometimes. But fear your Lord Jesus and not those other things that come to your mind. Cast those on Him and He will care for you. He’ll take care of you and your children. Amen.

Genesis 23:1-24:51, Matthew 8:1-17, Psalm 9:13-20, Proverbs 3:1-6

Today is the 10th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and I guess that we have made it about 1/3 of the way through the first month of the year. So, well done on making it through a week and ½, step-by-step day-by-day. This is how we will work our way through the entire journey and reach our destination at the end of the year. So, this week we are reading from the Christian Standard Bible and picking up where we left off yesterday, Genesis chapter 23 verse 1, through 24 verse 51.

Commentary:

Okay, so like we were talking about at the beginning, we are one third of the way through the first month of the year. So, we’re a week and ½ into our journey and we have met a lot of people already and there’s a lot of people that we have yet to me and so it’s really easy to come through, like these are sort of disembodied stories, like, like the book of Genesis that we’re going through like, all of these stories are separate stories when in fact we’re being led somewhere. So, from time to time we’ll pause and reflect back and tie the story together. Basically, in this first week and ½ in the book of Genesis we’ve covered over a thousand years of time and traveled a thousand miles. So, basically when we began the journey a week and a half ago, we began to hear the origin story and how things got the way that they are and then we followed along the story of Adam and Eve and their offspring and the spiral downward as mankind used its knowledge of good and evil to attempt to become its own sovereign. This leads us to a place where there is only evil among people, which leads to a flood and we meet this person named Noah which is a reset. We follow that story and then we met a man named Abram. Now, that his name has been changed to Abraham we know who he is and it’s his family, this promised offspring, numerous as the sands on the seashore, that we will be traveling with the rest of the way. So, in today’s reading Sarah, Abraham’s wife dies and she is buried in the cave of Machpelah which is a place and actual place, even until today. So, Abraham buys this cave to bury his dead in and we watch kind of this ancient negotiation taking place, this burial cave it seems to be the first piece of property actually owned by Abraham, even though the Lord has promised him all of the land. And after Sarah’s death, Abraham sees that it’s about time to be thinking about a wife for the son of promise, Isaac. So, he sends his servant back to his family where we meet Rebecca. So, we use this time for a little pause and a little reflection back because now we are moving into the next generation. Abraham, and now we’re moving into the generation of Isaac. And just as a heads up, we’ll then move into the generation of Jacob, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God identifies himself many times this way, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These aren’t just random righteous people, Abraham is the patriarch, Isaac is the son, Jacob is the grandson, we’re moving through generations in the same story. And so, hopefully that gives us a little bit of context. Then if we move to the last thing that we read today in the book of Proverbs, and we have one sentence that covers two verses that pretty much give us a roadmap or a posture for how to live life. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways know him and he will make your paths straight. We’re basically being told that we don’t know all that we think that we know. And if that is all we are leaning on then there is most certainly a ceiling. But we also have the option of trusting the Lord with all of our heart, which means trusting God beyond what we think we know about Him or anything else. The Christian standard Bible, what we’re reading from this week say’s in all your ways know Him. Other translations say in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. And certainly, we understand the distinction metaphorically between a straight path and a crooked path and the truth probably if we’re being honest is that we’re quite familiar with what a crooked path looks like, which is why we would desire a straight path. If we want to walk a straight path then we’re shown how, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways know Him and He will make your paths straight. So, a straight path is made by the Lord. He will make your paths straight. We can’t make a straight path for ourselves. If we hadn’t figured that out by now. But there is a way, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit into that. It would be easy enough for us to simply declare we do; we do trust you Lord with all of our heart. When the truth is there are probably many areas of life that we don’t. We invite Your Holy Spirit to begin to reveal these things to us. Show us when we’re not trusting You with all of our hearts and You have given us reactions in our bodies that give us indications about this, things like anxiety that can be crippling or any of the triggers of our lives. It’s actually pretty easy for us to differentiate when we are trusting You with all of our heart and when we are not. We are usually just not paying enough attention. So, in this year when we are paying attention to awareness and becoming aware of what is going on inside of us and around us, we invite Your Holy Spirit into this: what are the areas in our lives that we are not trusting you? And Holy Spirit, come, comforter, come to us, reveal these things to us that we might fully trust You more and more each day we pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here and as I say most every day can do that in the app as well. And if you don’t have the app then check it out at your app store whatever device that you have but the app has some features that are really, really important. For example, you can check off the days that you are listening to, find out the days you may or may not have missed. But as these days accumulate and as we check the boxes and as we move through the Scriptures into the different sections of the Bible every time that we complete a section we get a badge, we get awarded, we get that and that stays in our account there we go back and see the different sections of the Bible that we’ve been a part of and can see that we are making progress and see how far into the Scriptures that we are, so definitely check out the Daily Audio Bible app.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, thank you, humbly. We couldn’t do this if we didn’t do this together and so thank you. 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.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button up at the top, looks like a Hotline, hard to miss 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey everyone, it’s Margo in Liberia. And I try to remember each year to phone in and just say a prayer for the new year because I just think it’s so important at the beginning of each year to orientate ourselves towards the will of God in our lives and towards using our lives for glorifying Him. So, Father I pray for each one of us as we are listeners of the DAB. I pray that You would continue to sanctify us, make us more like you. Help us to grow into Your image and to spread the fragrance of Christ wherever we go. I want to pray for joy and peace and happiness for us this year, sure, because I know I want those things but more than that I pray that we would use our lives to glorify You. That we will wake each day remembering how Holy You are and what You’ve done for us and the fact that we are saved by You. Father, help us to serve You and love You and Honor You with every bit of our strength. That there would be nothing in our lives that is more important than You. Help us to know the truth, to not be deceived, to not be desensitized by the things we see in the world, to believe in lies that are told to us by the world or even by our brothers and sisters. Father, please help us to love You more every day and this year would just be the start of more and more years where we devote ourselves to serving You and loving You and glorifying Your name. Let us be truly Your instruments. We love You. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Love you guys.

Good evening Daily Audio Bible, this is Deb from Michigan. I am calling in to just say thank you, so much for all the encouragement I’ve been hearing and the prayer requests that I’ve also continued to hear. The thread of hope on this line is immense. And for as much as there is so much tragedy in this world right now, there is still hope. And I hear it from all of you who call in to encourage and pray for one another and that is so huge. We are not alone, God is faithful, His mercies are new every morning. And so, I just wanted to say thank you to you guys. I want to shout out especially to the gal, the sweet sister who was encouraging us about the break up she just went through and how God was so kind to her by allowing that person to walk away because He knew that she wouldn’t. I so identified with that because I literally went through the very same thing right before Christmas and I had even prayed that God would take the scenario out of my life because I knew I loved so deeply that I would not walk away myself, so He was so good and kind to me to do that. And I am the better person and he is a better person too. So, I just wanted to encourage you all and say thank you again for being here. Love you.

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier, want to say Happy New Year and glad to be able to start all over again with our journey. I wanted to pray for Man of Wrath, I want to cover him and his family. I just wanted to be an encouragement for the fact that when you make mistakes, don’t worry about them. But God knows, He gave us an advocate with the Father that if we do sin that He can ask for forgiveness and God is merciful. God sees the sorrow in your heart for not sinning against him. Lord, You continue to touch Man of Wrath, he wants to be a good father, he wants to be the man you called him to be. We ask that You crown his head with the knowledge, You direct him and keep him. In the mighty name of Jesus. We ask that You touch Elenore, I want to pray for her and her family and her young children. And Lord, You have Your way, we ask You to touch that family, You touch that marriage. You have Your way. You be in the midst, Father. You help them to come together and to laugh together and just begin to praise God for all the things they have. Some young families wish they had a baby but ya’ll have a baby and a marriage and let God, ask God to come in and make it work. God can do exceedingly and abundantly above all we ask all those things. I wanna pray for DABers also who have COVID, I wanna pray that they be healed and that it doesn’t hinder and God would open doors that no man could close. In the name of Jesus. Lord, You have Your way. In the name of Jesus. Thank you Lord for China, thank You Lord for Brian. Thank You, Lord for 2022, we ask that You bring life and favor to all your DABers.

Praise God for this ministry, I praise God for everyone who listens each day, I thank God for allowing me to find this app, I thank God for the person who suggested the app. I am grateful what God is doing and the life of myself and my family. And, I’m so grateful for the word of God that is being spoken each day. I thank God for, we’re in day four. And I’m just blessed to be apart of what God is saying through this ministry. God Bless you all who are listening.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible community, Global Campfire time. Put your log on the fire, warm your hands. Breath the breath, the fresh air breath of God Himself. Whether it’s with Brian or Jill and China or with Ezekiel. And take this time, take a deep breath, sit down with your dearest heavenly Father, your best friend. If you’ve never invited him in, to be born again, invite Him, invite Him to come in, welcome him to come into your life. He knocks at the door of your heart, open that door, invite Him to be your best friend. And sit with him, let him put his big, strong arms around you. Trust in His word. Trust Him this day, this 5th day of January 2022. And just lean against his breast as He holds you and let His word wash over you and cleanse you for this day. Don’t just know about Him, know Him. I pray this for you my dearest friends. Be His best friend and let him …

Hey Daily Audio Bible this is John from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I hope you’re doing well, Happy New Year. It is the 5th of January and I wanted to call in to encourage anyone new or anyone returning to the Daily Audio Bible. Whether this is your first time going through the Daily Audio Bible together, congratulations on making that decision or your second, third, fourth, fifth, maybe 17th year, whatever the case might be or for anyone that’s started before but never finished that was me, years ago, I’ve been listening since 2012, wasn’t able to really complete each year. I’d get about halfway through the year and fall behind and then get frustrated and what I should’ve done was listen to the advice of people a long ago that said, if you miss a day don’t worry about it, just pick up on the day that you’re on, just keep going forward to just take another step, you’re in God’s word it’s gonna be okay. So, my encouragement to you is just take a day at a time. And don’t worry if you get behind and I just keep on going. You’re around thousands and thousands of people around the world that are going on this journey together and probably thinking the same thing. So, I wanted to encourage you, I wanted to pray for Brian as well. Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this Community. Thank You, that we can come around the Global Campfire each and every day, day-by-day, step-by-step. And yes, on the fifth day of January we can turnaround on this journey that we’re on and we can look at the land behind us. We can look in the other direction, we can see the great deep that we’re going into and we’re just so thankful that you’re gonna be there with us and guiding us Jesus. Thank You for the transformation that Your making in us through Your word. That’s what we are here for Lord Jesus, to hear Your word and to have it change and transform our lives, Father God. Thank You so much for Brian, Lord Jesus for his faithfulness for his dedication and his loyalty and commitment to You. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Genesis 20:1-22:24, Matthew 7:15-29, Psalms 9:1-12, Proverbs 2:16-22

Today is the 9^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we begin a brand-new week a fresh start, where we can take all that we’ve absorbed and all that’s been kinda worked into the soil of our lives through the Scriptures last week and live it. And the cool thing is that every new week is a fresh start. No matter how we may mess a week up, when we come to the beginning of a new week it’s a fresh start. So, this week we will read from the Christian Standard Bible. Of course, we will be picking up right where we left off, which will lead us back out into the book of Genesis. Today, chapters 20, 21, and 22.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And we thank You for bringing us through the threshold into a brand-new week and we embrace this week. We are on our way. And as we finish this week and move into the next week, we are establishing a rhythm. And You are speaking. The Scriptures are touching us, they’re orienting us, they’re giving us a north star, they’re giving us clarity and direction. And, so, we open ourselves to Your direction, to Your counsel, to Your leadership. We trust You. And as we trust You more and more, giving more and more of our control over we find that we are safe with You, and we find that there is no turning back because You are good. And, so, Holy Spirit, we invite You to lead and direct us in this brand-new week and we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello, my DAB family this is Mary from Georgia. I just want to say how good it is to be back with you all for another year as we journey through God’s word together. I can’t wait to see where He takes us this year. I was listening on January 3^rd, and I heard a sweet Mama call in asking for prayer her name is Eleanor. Eleanor, I want to speak to your heart. I will be praying for you. I know exactly how you feel. Oh, my goodness, exactly. Your story is my story. And I have three children who are not so small anymore but during their little years it was so hard, so hard for me not to be an angry, almost violent mom. And I just want to encourage you that God already saw this. He already saw you in all of your motherhood and everything that you do each day long before He gave you children. He loves you so much and He chose you to be the mother for these kids even though we don’t know what we’re doing, do we? But He saw it all and He’s not disappointed in you. He is so proud that you are trying so hard. And you’re gonna fail. We all fail as parents, every single day. But God picks us back up and He brushes us off just as we are His children, and He helps us keep going. So, I am praying for you sweet Eleanor, that God would sustain you through the very dark and scary times, that He would remove the fear and the dread that you have and that He would give you the grace to sustain.

Hey guys first time caller, Remorseful Sinner here. I’m calling for a prayer request because the enemy is attacking me big time. After this new year I started to throw away everything that was evil in my home like my tarot cards. I got involved in all of this witchcraft stuff after getting involved with a guy who was really into it. And then I got diagnosed with HPV and I’m just so sorry. I sinned against myself and against God after promising to be celibate. I was just so hurt When I found out my ex-husband was already dating somebody before our divorce was final. And…and it opened up doorways to things that are so wrong. And I identify with Sean 3:16 because of that. So, I am awaiting results for other SDV testing and I’m just so scared. And the enemy started attacking me again. Just like Man of Wrath. Today I was woman of wrath. And a history of…and a history of…of being very verbally abusive too. And…and it…and it just all came out and I was doing so good. So, please pray for me because I really need it. I came to…to…to my local church to confess to God and all the lights were out. Just scared…

Good morning DAB family this is Mountain Girl from New Mexico. First, I’d like to thank Brian for the beautiful benediction on December 31^st that he prayed over all of us and spoke to us. I’m gonna print that out and say that. It was just beautiful, and I was so blessed by it and by this whole program. Looking forward to __ getting into 2022. I’d also like to pray for Eleanor. Father I…I pray for Eleanor and how she was just feeling like she’s a terrible mom. And I just pray Lord that You would fill her with Your joy and Your peace and Your energy and Your faith and Your love. And Lord may she go forward and just love her children well and show them the love of Christ. And may she find her value in who she is and You Lord. And I just pray Lord that she would be encouraged. I pray for Man of Wrath. And I pray for covering for his family. I pray for healing and restoration from verbal abuse. And I pray Lord that You would heal his family. I pray You would heal him. I pray that Your love would be shed abroad in his heart. And I just pray Lord for health and restoration for this family Lord. You know all the details. And I just pray for healing for Man of Wrath. I pray for healing for Eleanor. I pray for Sean 3:16. And I pray Lord for the mistake, for him in dealing with the mistake he says he made and dealing with the consequences of it that are crippling. And I pray Lord for deliverance. I pray for restoration and healing. And I pray Lord that through this trial he would come to love You and know You more and follow You more closely and cling to You. And I just pray for Your help Father whatever that may be that Your will would be done in his life.

Hey guys how you doing? This is Lazarus. Hoping to shake the dust of a really lousy 2021 off my sandals. I walked to a new village where there’s light and grace. Anyway, I’m calling today in response to the Man of Wrath and the situation that he finds himself in that he created. So, having been there, done that, been abusive, done all the wrong things, been addicted, done all that stuff I just offer a couple of words of broken wisdom. By broken I mean I’ve done it all, broken it all up. First of all, you have an amazing opportunity to have recognized where you are and fix it. Sounds easy but it takes…just takes every day. Just start focus on it. Second of all, I would change your name. It’s almost like you’re proud of your wrath. I would dump that really quickly my friend. Love you. Don’t take it as criticism. But if you’re man of light maybe that would be change some of yourself perception, some of your behaviors and make you a little…a little more effective as you try to recover. Because if you don’t pull your head out of rear end you’re gonna find yourself alone in the world like I have for the last six years and it’s ugly. So, take some advice from a guy who’s done it worse and harder than you and didn’t recognize the end of the road was coming quickly and smashed into the side of the mountain. There was no tunnel, there was no light. You have an opportunity, a rare opportunity to fix things. So, I encourage you to do that my friend. You…I hope you take this the way I intended it and use it to light your path. Anyway, love you all family. Pray for you every day. Pray for you Brian, Jill, everybody. God bless you all. Have a blessed 2022.

Hi DAB family this is Ausie Bear in Australia. I was just ringing up with a prayer request. My friend Robin was in hospital. This is her second day in hospital after being attacked by her brother. Her brother has schizophrenia, and something set him off yesterday morning, early yesterday morning and he attacked her. And, so, he’s been taking to the psychiatric facility in a town about 40 minutes away from us and she’s up in the hospital recovering from her injuries. So, this is the second time this has happened. And after the first time he was able to come home, which I think was a mistake. And…but she's…she’s hoping that he’s not able to come home again this time because it’s not safe for her. Like she’s in her 70s and he’s in his mid-50s. He’s a lot stronger than she is and…and yeah…she’s just a little woman. And, oh my gosh this is just such an awful situation. So, if you guys could pray for my friend Robin and for this whole situation, I would really appreciate it. Thanks guys. Love you. Bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is New Eyes in Chattanooga TN and I just heard a prayer request for a friend Eleanor who’s a new listener. And I’m sure that she’s going to get a lot of encouragement from this community because this is an awesome community. Eleanor you are immediately loved by this family of believers and prayer warriors. I want to encourage you and lift you up. My oldest child is 18 and parenting never stops. It is difficult but I will tell you this, that our Lord God gave you these children. He gave them to you because he needs you to have them, and you need them too. And He is the most perfect parent. He will love your children more than you ever can and He loves you more than anyone else in the world. He loves you so much. He knows you in and out. He knows exactly where you’re weak and exactly how He can help you and build you up. And do not worry about your children because He has them in the palm of His hand. He will always be their perfect parrot. You do not have to try to be perfect. You just talked to him. You keep talking to other people, reach out and tell people how hard it is. You will not be alone. There is always someone who will say I understand. So, I’m telling you right now I understand…

Genesis 18:16-19:38, Matthew 6:25-7:14, Psalm 8:1-9, Proverbs 2:6-15

Today is the eighth day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we reach the conclusion of our first full week of the year, has been a good week and it’s been a good first full week of the year. Lots going on, we’re trying to establish all these new rhythms in our lives. Well, we can see that the Bible is already speaking and touching the tender areas of our lives and speaking into those things that we need to hear. So, let’s dive in for today, we have been reading from the New International Version this week. Today, Genesis chapter 18 verse 16 through 19 verse 38.

Commentary:

Okay so, we need to go back into the book of Genesis here. What a disturbing story we have encountered in this first book of the Bible. A story that we would today call incest. Although the story is, generally speaking backward to the kinds of stories that we would hear. In this case, we have two young daughters and an older father, and the daughters have decided that they need to get their father drunk so that they could try to get pregnant by him, how did we get here and what are we supposed to make this. To even begin to try to unravel such a disturbing scene, we kind of need to go back to the beginning of the story that’s being told here. Abraham who we have begun to travel with this week and will continue to travel with, had a divine visitation, God had been hearing about what was going on in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was going to check it out. Has a visit with Abraham, a meal is served, they’re about to leave, God sort of asks himself a rhetorical question. Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham and God have now entered into a covenant, nothing is supposed to be withheld and so Abraham is told what the Lord intends to do, to go check out if the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah has got any validity to it and then we have this long and quite beautiful scene actually that sets up the story that we are heading into, that ends up with two girls and their father in a cave trying to get pregnant. Abraham says some pretty straightforward kinds of things to God and I quote “will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked, what if there are 50 righteous people in the city, will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people in it, far be it from You to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike, far be it from You will You not the judge of all the earth do right”. So, I can easily in my own mind say I am way less of a man than Abraham. I read the Bible but you’re not gonna find any stories in the Bible that that I’m involved with. And so, Abraham is in covenant with God and so we guess, he has this type of intimacy that could speak to him. I can’t imagine speaking to God like that. But in many ways, this is important, this is part of the story. It’s an important part, it’s leading us to something. So, Abraham and God almost have a bit of a negotiation where, where Abraham is negotiating down the number of righteous people, the threshold for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as it were. So, Abraham keeps saying you know, if 50 people were there, what about 40 you know what about 30, what about 20, he keeps bringing the number down and God keeps responding the same way, if there are that many righteous people, I wouldn’t do that, I would do such a thing, I will relent, I will not destroy it. So, as readers what are we supposed to start getting the impression of? We’re supposed to start understanding that God is the judge of the world and is righteous and does only what is right and is perfect. He has no intention of destroying the wicked and the righteous together, the righteous will preserve everything, if they exist. As the story goes, they don’t exist, God goes to Lot in the city, Lot takes them into his home putting them under his protection. That’s an important thing in the culture at the time, if you bring somebody under your roof than they are in your care and must be respected, hospitality in this case is the important thing, is the understanding among people. The next thing we know they’re in Lot’s house, the house is surrounded by the young and old man who want these guys to come out for sexual relations. Lot basically goes and says, how could you do such a thing, I brought them under my roof, they’re under my protection. I have two virgin daughters let me send them out to you. And like in our modern world we’re like, yeah right, that’s a great idea yeah, I would do that, of course somebody knocks on my door that I don’t know but I realize they’re important and I bring them into my house and other people want those men, so I’ll give them China my daughter. I can’t imagine something like that, and you need to understand that you’re not supposed to, you’re not, like this is not a story that is supposed to make us feel good or comforted. This is a story that is supposed to make us feel disrupted and we are in the book of Genesis, we are a long way back in history, we are in a tribal time, we are also in a very patriarchal time in the world and in all the cultures. Whereas our current time in history, humanity has begun to move forward. So, even though there may be many patriarchal remnants in the world and there are and in just about every culture and there are, there aren’t too many cultures in the world where virgin daughters get thrown to an angry mob of males. Although the world is not devoid of that kind of atrocity even today. So, we can look at this and go, such antiquated old stories in such an old, un-relatable time but that’s not true. We have a massive human trafficking problem in the world. Massive atrocities happened to women. So, we can be mad at God that this kind of stories in the Bible when maybe we shouldn’t be looking down our nose at God, we should look at Lot and go, dude can’t even imagine what you’re doing here. What was God’s response in the situation? He blinded the mob, nobody had nonconsensual sex with anybody. They were blind they couldn’t even find the door, according to the Bible. I’m not saying that rape didn’t exist at that time and all kinds of atrocities didn’t exist at the time I’m just saying in this story, although Lot had offered his daughter’s, the power of God blinded the people keeping them from doing anything. And they’re working with Lot to get him out of the city and there’s all this kind of negotiation. Can’t go to the mountains, can I go to this little village I gotta get outta here, but I won’t survive. They hurry him out of town, and they run away, and Lot’s wife looks back and she’s caught up in the destruction and they continue to flee, and they end up living in this little cave. And so, let’s look at the lay of the land with the daughters here. Are they sitting in the cave in the fire glow going you know dad is a really handsome man and we should have sex with him? That’s not what’s happening here. These girls are in trouble, and they are trying to figure out how to navigate what is going to become of them. Their mother is dead, the man that these girls were betrothed to are dead. Their home is destroyed, they aren’t from around there, they came with Abraham from a land far, far away, they are foreigners in this land, and they are in a extremely patriarchal world. Their family line will be destroyed without an heir, their father has lost everything so he’s not going to be able to move into another city showing wealth and prosperity and making arrangements to introduce his daughters to suitable spouses and making that happen. He has nothing left, there’s no respect left. Lot can claim his daughters and protect his daughters. But he’s not gonna live forever. And if there just kinda wandering around this older man with some beautiful women, Lot could easily be killed, what would happen to the girls then? They’re most likely looking at a life of slavery or prostitution, what we would call human trafficking today. That’s the outlook for them, almost certainly if there isn’t a male heir. So, there in a situation where it’s like the only way is the wrong way. And it’s interesting because as the story reads in the book of Genesis after the encounter with God and Abraham negotiates the number of righteous people down and all that, the next day he gets up and goes and looks down over the valley and he sees all of the smoke from the destruction. So, he’s aware of this, why Lot and his daughters aren’t doing everything they can to navigate their way to wherever Abraham is, is a mystery. The daughters made a decision, two sons were born, one to each daughter. The Bible tells us that that is the origin story of the Moabites and the Ammonites. Did God tell the daughters to do this? That’s not in this story. Did God condone this or want this to happen? That’s not in this story either. The part that God plays in this story is that He will not destroy the just and righteous along with the wicked and evil, even to the point that we begin to understand that a small group of righteous people can preserve everything. And we don’t see God scheming in his master plan that these daughters are going to have sex with their father Lot. But we do see is that God goes down there, finds Lot and saves their lives. The things that happen after that are human choices, made by human people and it becomes clear we can make mess of things, even while we are being rescued, when we begin to take matters into our own hands. So, this gives us some things to ponder.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit into that pondering, it’s pretty distraught, disruptive story with a lot of layers to it and we invite You to assist us in seeing the ways we blame You for things that You didn’t do, or we create circumstances that were unnecessary. We also recognize the difficulties that the human experience was and is, the struggles that we face now that were so entrenched in this knowledge of good and evil or we are the sovereign and we have to have the final say and make the final decision when what we are constantly going to see over and over and over repeatedly is, you are the sovereign Lord and the best move that we can make in any set of circumstances is to trust You. So, come Holy Spirit into this, lead us forward we pray expectantly, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, that’s the website of course and that’s where you find what is going on around here so, check that out. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, of course you can access those things from within the app by using the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner, check it out. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop and the resources that are there for the journey. Check out the Community section where the Prayer Wall lives, we were talking about that yesterday. It is an invaluable resource, a lot of things can happen in the year, and it is good to be people of prayer, it is good to be facing outward toward one another in prayer so that when it’s our turn and we need prayer, there are those facing in our direction. So, check out the Prayer Wall.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you humbly. It is, it is truly, I was gonna say unbelievable but we’re here so it’s believable, it’s just close to miraculous to me that we’re here and we’ve been here, this is year 17 every day. That couldn’t happen, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together and so it’s awe-inspiring that we’re here. So, thank you for your partnership. 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.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

That’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello, my beautiful DAB family, this is your sister Ashley from California, and it is Sunday, January 2nd. For all of you new ones out there, welcome. And I just want to come on here and encourage you. First things first though, guys we just have to take it a day at a time like that is the way that I got through last year and this is the way that I’m gonna get through this year too. But I just want to encourage you keep showing up and give yourself some grace. You don’t have to be perfect every day. And I want you to also, know that what God has in His word for you each and every day won’t return void and that’s from Isaiah 55:11. Each time you listen God has a purpose for it and when we’re going through this, I think Brian starting saying this last year but if you ask for God to give you eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart soft enough to receive the truth you will find so much richness in the word and as you walk through each day and in your life. And I just want you all to know that I am praying for God to use you with strength to be faithful and that you will fall in love with the word. I’m also just asking for prayer for me because I’m a teacher and I have three weeks of winter break. But I’m asking for strength to go back into work and maintain healthy habits and walk in the truth. So, I wanted to welcome all the newbies and what and say yeah for a new year, for everybody else. This is my second year with the DAB and I’m just excited. And let’s do this, welcome.

Hello DAB family, my name’s Dale. And this is my first-time calling in. And I just recently completed listening to the bible for the first time and I wanted to take this next year to start listening to the prayers after since I tend to shut it off before they come through. And tonight, a prayer came across from a gentlemen called Man of Wrath and he’s struggling with a self-destructive nature and verbal abuse and stuff towards his family especially during the holidays. He knows the Lord forgives him, but I pray that, I pray that his family would forgive him for his actions as well and be patient with him. And I pray that the Lord would just lift him up and have him help him have victory over these self-destructive tendencies. And I wanted to encourage Man of Wrath, he’s not alone. There are many other men out there who struggle with the same issue, and I pray that the DAB family would lift us all up and pray for our families that they would continue to forgive us for these attacks, I guess they are at times. We don’t mean to be this way, but we do love our families and we just pray that they would forgive us. I just wanted to lift this gentleman up in prayer. And know that he is not alone, that the DAB family is praying for him. Thank you so much.

Hey, DAB it’s Val in Vegas. Happy 2022. Okay, couple quick updates ya’ll. That Christmas party, I mean come on, really? Ah, best part of my Christmas was the Christmas party, thank you to everyone that called in. It was so joyous, oh so joyous. And Happy New. And I wanna let you guys know I got a new boss, praise God!! Yes, yes, yes, yes. I literally just got off the phone with her and she’s amazing. Oh God, thank you guys. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a bad work situation, but it can just ware on you in so many ways. Oh, thank You, Lord God. I’m just so grateful for ya’lls prayers. For God moving. A new role, more money, large territory, a new boss even a new director. Oh God, You went all the way. Thank You, Lord Jesus. I’m sorry guys I’m a little out of breath right now because I literally just hung up the phone and I had to do a praise dance all through my apartment. Oh God, I’m so grateful. It’s almost too good to be true but that’s just how the Lord runs and that’s how He works. And guys remember, if He’ll do it for me, He’ll do it for you. And then, one last thing, oh my gosh, on that last day when I got all those badges, all those precious badges, oh my God. This last year in going through the Bible was like no other before and it just literally brought me to my knees. Thank you for the badges, Brian. Thank you for everything that you and your family do. Oh, I love you guys so much. This probably sounds like a rambling but oh I just had to call in and let you guys know I got a new boss, thank You Jesus. Okay and this is my ending now I love you and so does Jesus.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible friends and family. I’m so happy to be able to actually come to you this morning. My name is Ray from Canada. I just want to thank Brian and his family for the great work that they do in preaching the word of God throughout the world. I also want to put in a prayer request today. I need prayer so that I could spend this year getting closer to God that I know in my heart I love but I keep living a life that basically is not pleasing to Him sometimes. I think I may be a sexual addict. I know that I regret actually participating in this and I just really do need prayer for my family to help me overcome this so that I could live with a good conscience before God. Once again, family, I hear your prayers, I try to faithfully listen each and every day to listen to the prayers of others and to pray for those that actually touch my heart and I just hope that God would do a miracle in my life this year and help me to castaway every idle in my life so that I could actually love Him more like He deserves to be loved. In Jesus name I pray this. Amen.

Hey ya’ll, this is Asia from Chicago. I’m really thankful to be here able to leave a message. Everybody that’s been praying for me these last few months. I really, really, really appreciate it. It’s been extremely hard, it’s gotten a lot harder since the last time I called in so seriously everyone, thank you for praying for me. But the reason why I’m actually calling in today is because it is January 3rd and I just finished listening to the prayers at the end of today’s episode and I’m calling in for three people: for Man of Wrath and for Elenore and for Shawn. Man of Wrath and Elenore are first time callers. Yeah, I just hear, I hear the brokenness in all three of your voices. I hear how humble you all are and how down. Elenore struggles with suicidal thoughts a lot, a lot lately, a lot in general. Man of Wrath, my dad was very abusive toward me for a long time and so, when I heard your voice, I just was heartbroken to hear. Cause I was just like wow, like, I know as a recipient and I have also have said and done things that were really hurtful toward my loved ones and also, thinking of you as well Shawn of making a big mistake and regretting it. And Lord, I just pray for all three of these beautiful people. I pray for them to feel compassion towards themselves, and my time is up. I love you guys. This is Asia from Chicago. Love you family.

Happy New Year to the Daily Audio Bible family. This is Richard, Rich Martin or Taxi Martin from Montréal. And I wanted to start the year, 17 years of Daily Audio Bible has been going on. I’ve not been going 17 years, maybe 5, I’m not sure anymore. But this year, I want to be diligent to be with you guys in prayer and listening to Brian reading the word of God. Starting the day or finishing the day listening to the word of God. So, I’m just saying a quick hello there, seeing that I will be with all you guys and I’m praying for you that you will have blessing, prosperity, heath, hallelujah and that God would give you breakthrough and that you know God more and better. In this beautiful journey around this Global Campfire, like Brian says. Love you all and can’t wait to hear you guys again in this new year that we’re starting together. God Bless.

Genesis 16:1-18:15, Matthew 6:1-24, Psalms 7:1-17, Proverbs 2:1-5

Today is the 7^th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is a joy; it is a privilege, it is an honor to be here together with you as we find our place around the Global Campfire, come in out of the cold. There’s always a place here. And what we realize is coming around the Global Campfire is also permission; it’s giving ourselves permission to do something that is deeply beneficial for our souls and our lives. Give ourselves this little space. we have a little oasis. No matter what…what our traditions going to be, whether we listen first thing in the morning or in the afternoon or at night or whenever. There is an oasis every day, a little place where we can lay down our burdens and simply allow the Scriptures to wash into our lives and give us a little bit of a reset. And, so, often what we need to hear is we do. So, let’s get started for today. We’re reading from the New International Version this week and we will head back out into the book of Genesis back alongside Abram and pick up the story where we left off yesterday. Genesis chapter 16 verse 1 through 18 verse 15 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we covered a lot of ground again today. Couple things little mile markers along the way. Abraham and Sarah have a promise. It’s an impossible promise, but they have a promise from God. And that is that they will…they will have a son in their old age. And, so, what we see as a response to that. We see Sarah saying how can I…basically…how can this happen? This isn’t going to happen. How can this happen? And then she begins to think about how maybe that it could happen, like to fill in the blanks about how to get from this impossible situation into that promise. She has a servant named Hagar and she decides the way this promise can be fulfilled is to give Hagar to Abraham as another wife. Abraham will then have sex with Hagar and maybe she…and maybe this is where the son of promise will come. Can we just pause there for a second and let the Bible become a mirror into our own soul? How often have we, along our faith journey felt a sense of promise, a sense of destiny, a sense of hope in something that we believe is going to materialize, and we believe that this is something that God is speaking to us? And, so, maybe we wait and maybe it’s not happening fast enough and maybe we laugh because it’s so impossible. And then invariably what we do? We try to figure out where we went wrong and how it might be and how to sort of navigate into whatever it is that could make this happen. And then what do we try to do? Make it happen. And how often has not gotten us into big trouble? And then how often have we gotten mad about that, mad at God because He promised? And then we decide to make it happen and then the mess that we made is somehow His fault. In this particular story with Abraham and Sarah God had said what God meant and then they decided how they would fulfill God’s promise for him, which did in the end produce a son. It also produced a lot of hardship. Hagar and Sarah were at odds with each other as you can only imagine. It causes problems between Abraham and Sarah and their marriage as you can imagine. And eventually Hagar is just sent away with her son. Like get outta here. And, so, she goes into the wilderness of Beersheba, which is an actual place where she assumes she will perish. She wasn’t a part of what God had laid out to Abraham. She was co-opted into this plan to make this promise come true on behalf of God. So, now she has a son and she’s kicked out. And what a lonely, hopeless place to be in. So basically, we have Abraham and Sarah, who have involved Hagar and then kicked Hagar out. And she didn’t do this, so is she cursed by God? Does God despise her? We see that God comes for her and a promise is given. “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” She says, “you are the God who sees me.” And that last part, “You are the God who sees me,” that's…that’s famous. But now we have a little bit of context for where that comes from.

Next little mile marker we should talk about from our reading today that one of the signs, like this first initial sign of a covenant between God and Abraham is circumcision, which, you know, kind of a weird way to enter into an agreement, right, or a contract or a covenant. So, it’s easy enough to see it as strange or bizarre. And why is reshaping a man’s penis so important to God? But as the sign of an everlasting covenant that has to do with your descendants…well…starts to make some sense. Since we’re talking about such an important and sensitive part of the body for a male, how would Abraham ever have the opportunity to forget. I don’t want to be like overly crude here, but he couldn’t even go to the bathroom without being reminded that he’s in a covenant with God. And if this child of promise is going to be…to be born after conventional standards, then the organ that was circumcised is going to have to be involved. And if this sign of the covenant is passed forward to the generations than the idea of offspring in covenant or under the covenant becomes much more clear and apparent.

And then let’s jump into the book of Matthew today. Jesus is talking about motivations, the “why” we do the things that we do. Like for example the “why” we would help a person who is less fortunate than us, that needs food, or that needs shelter or needs help in some sort of way. Why would we help that person? If the reason is so that we can be seen doing it, or so that it creates some kind of post for us on social media so that we can tell the story of our good deed and how awesome we are then was the motivation way to help somebody in need or was the motivation to be seen helping somebody in need? Jesus does this kind of stuff all the time because He’s cutting through the layers and the masks that we hide behind in getting to the truth. He’s inviting everyone to examine themselves. And we’ll see it over and over and over. It’s like there’s a story behind the one that’s being told and the story that’s behind the curated version is the truth. And we need to get comfortable with the truth because it will set us free. And we…we lie to ourselves all the time justifying just about anything, creating some sort of story that will make it okay. Jesus is making it pretty clear that our interior life is where the truth is that. You can say anything but how you live is the truth.

And also in our reading from Matthew today we encountered one of the most famous things in the New Testament, the Lord’s prayer, right? I mean we can all…in fact, let’s pray the Lord’s prayer together. “Our father who art in heaven hollowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thyne is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” That is how Jesus taught his disciples to pray when they asked Him. Like I said, this is one of the most famous portions of the New Testament. What is a little bit less famous is what Jesus says in the next breath. Like, the topic hasn’t changed here. We’re not moving into a different story. And, so, the location hasn’t changed. It’s all part of the same exchange of words that Jesus had already been speaking. So, we could probably most of us recite the Lord’s prayer. We just prayed this together. Then Jesus takes a breath and says something that should flatten us. “If you forgive other people when they sin against you your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” There’s like no loopholes listed here. There’s not the…there’s no fine print. He means what he is saying. And if what He is saying is the truth then forgiveness isn’t a good idea, it’s essential for life. And we’ve all gone through things where we’ve had to forgive. And we’ve all done things in which we’ve had to be forgiven. And it would be easy enough to go, “you don’t know what he did to me. You don’t know what she did to me. You don’t know what they did. You don’t know what I’ve been through. I…my heart is locked up and closed off. I can’t forgive.” The thing is, forgiveness will have to become a category in our lives. Something that is an initial response, something that we simply do, that we become in the habit of doing. When we are trespassed against we forgive the trespass. And it co0uld feel at times that this is an impossible command, like this is an impossible thing to live up to. Why would God burden us with letting everybody do…just walk all over us and we just let it go. The idea here isn’t to be a doormat. The idea here is that if we collect trespasses, the sins that have been perpetrated against us, we collect them. Where do we put them and store them? We store them along with the emotion and the circumstances in our hearts? If that is going to be a lifelong practice, then we will have a heart full of unforgiveness. We will forever be chained to it. We’re gonna have plenty of opportunities to talk about things like forgiveness on our journey through the Scriptures but for today it needs to become an essential category because Jesus is essentially saying we will be forgiven the way that we forgive, which is an important thing to know and something that can explain an awful lot.

Prayer:

Jesus, You haven’t given us something that’s going to simply put us in bondage. You have given us keys to freedom - letting go, releasing to You. And we confess that this is really impossible at times. It feels impossible at times. But it was impossible for Abraham and Sarah to have a child. And even though things got messy for a minute they believed. And, so, we believe You. We believe that if we forgive, we will be forgiven, if…if we release, we will find freedom. We’re right at the beginning of the year. And, so, we have the opportunity to walk with You in these things, we begin to release things that have been stored up in our hearts seeping poison into our lives for so long. But now we can begin to think of what it might even look like to be free from that. And, so, we begin to take the first step to walk with You in this because it looks different for each one of us. We all have a story that is brought us to this day. And You know that story. You know it better than we do. And, so, as impossible as it might seem in certain circumstances, we reach for You, we believe You. Teach us to forgive Lord we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Song:

Holy Water – We the Kingdom

God, I’m on my knees again
God, I’m begging please again
I need you
Oh, I need you

Walking down these desert roads
Water for my thirsty soul
I need you
Oh, I need you

Your forgiveness
Is like sweet, sweet honey on my lips
Like the sound of a symphony to my ears
Like Holy water on my skin

Dead man walking, slave to sin
I wanna know about being born again
I need you
Oh, God, I need you

So, take me to the riverside
Take me under, baptize
I need you
Oh, God I need you

Your forgiveness
Is like sweet, sweet honey on my lips
Like the sound of a symphony to my ears
Like holy water on my skin
(On my skin)

I don’t wanna abuse your grace
God, I need it every day
It’s the only thing that ever really makes me wanna change

I don’t wanna abuse your grace
God, I need it every day
It’s the only thing that ever really makes me wanna change

I don’t wanna abuse your grace
God, I need it every day
It’s the only thing that ever really makes me wanna change

I don’t wanna abuse your grace
God, I need it every day
It’s the only thing that ever really makes me wanna change

Your forgiveness
Is like sweet, sweet honey on my lips (yes, it is)
Like the sound of a symphony to my ears
It’s like holy water

Your forgiveness
Is like sweet, sweet honey on my lips
Like the sound of a symphony on my ears
It’s like holy water on my skin
It’s like holy water on my skin
It’s like holy water