Numbers 32:1-33:39, Luke 4:31-5:11, Psalms 64:1-10, Proverbs 11:22
Today is the 21st day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is fantastic to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward which leads us back into the book of Numbers, which is a book we are drawing to a close on. A couple days left and then we’ll be moving forward away from the book of Numbers. But today we are firmly in the book of Numbers, and we’ll read chapter 32 verse 1 through 33, verse 39.
Commentary:
Okay. We have a really intriguing story and the gospel of Luke. One of my favorite stories because it gives us a glance into the life of Jesus… some of Jesus disciples as they are coming to faith in Jesus. We get to witness this moment of faith where everything changes. And then we get to look at our own lives about that moment for us and examine it, examine our lives going forward. So, basically Jesus is getting a reputation by what He’s saying and doing. And word is spreading because people are being healed and set free where He goes. So, He is on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and there are crowds following Him kind of pressing in on Him and He sees a couple of boats and He sees fishermen cleaning their nets. They had been fishing and so they’re cleaning their nets. And there’s a couple of boats. And Jesus jumps into a boat and asks to be rowed out. That right there, in and of itself is a little strange. You don’t normally just go hop into somebody else’s boat, like even in front of them just hop in the boat and sit down or you don’t jump into somebody’s car, right? You jump into somebody’s car, and they don’t know you are here, kind of waiting and seeing if they’ll drive you the other end of the city or whatever, that’s not gonna work out great. That’s gonna freak a lot of people out. But Jesus also has a growing reputation so it’s not out of bounds that they would know about this teacher traveling the little villages around the Sea of Galilee, fishing villages. And, so, they rode Jesus out, which gives Him a little bit of space between the crowds and himself since He was pressed to the shore. So, it gives Him a little space to teach and allow the water to be a natural amplification system so that everybody could hear Him. And He gets done with His message. And, so, here is God showing up for these guys. You’ve been fishing all night and caught nothing. So, Jesus is like, let’s go out into the deep water, lower your nets, catch some fish. Peter, who becomes the apostle Peter, is an experienced professional fisherman. This is what he does. This is what they do. And, so, he’s like…well…we’ve been at it all night. Like we’ve been fishing all night and we didn’t catch anything. But if You say so I’ll do it. And they do. And they take in a massive haul of fish. So much so that this boat, that Jesus has been sitting in, right, is sinking because of the hall of fish. It’s so great that they have to call…call to other people to come and help. James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who also become disciples of Jesus. They come and they help, and they get to shore, and God has shown up for them. Like this is a level of prosperity that could change some things. They have been blessed. And then we get to see this through Peter’s eyes. Peter sees this man of God that may be the son of God, may be the Messiah, understands that this is this person is good through and through, and His reputation about things that are miraculous or unexplainable is true. He’s seen it. It just happened to him. He was just blessed by God in a way that could bring a level of prosperity that could at least push the debt collectors away. And Simon’s response is the moment of faith, the moment when he realizes he doesn’t deserve anything. And I quote from the gospel of Luke. “When Simon Peter saw this, he knelt in front of Jesus and said, leaver me Lord, I’m a sinful person.” That is so beautiful and reflects our own faith journeys in one way or another. I know we stand on promises about who we are in Christ, and we accept all of that as children, sons and daughters of the most-high God and that that’s a game changer like and that’s a…that’s more than a game changer it’s an entire life changer. But oftentimes we major on this without forgetting there was this moment, where we knew we were in the presence of something so far beyond us. And when we began to realize we don’t deserve to be here, we don’t deserve anything. And for all the good we thought we were in the face of purity, in the face of absolute, unrelenting love, we realize how woefully inadequate we are in every possible way. We don’t deserve to be in God’s presence. He came for us. And Peter knew who he was and knew the presence that he was in and knew he didn’t disserve it and said, “leave me, Lord, I’m a sinful person.” And it’s here with kindness that Jesus tells him He’ll be fishing for people, not fish anymore. And then the riveting sentence at the end of our meeting today. Simon and his partners brought the boats to shore, left everything and followed Jesus, which means they left the hall of fish that could give them margin in their lives, maybe even a little taste of prosperity. The very kinds of things that we are on a repeated basis, asking God to do for us. They got it, but in the presence of God, they left it to be with Jesus, which gives us a little bit of an encapsulation of the posture of heart that happens at the moment of faith when we leave behind who we were and go all in, bet the farm, like whatever metaphor we want to use - all in, to be close to Jesus. This story should humble us, it should inspire us, but it also should give us a posture because as we will continue to learn for the rest of the year, a relationship with God isn’t a fair-weather thing, it’s an all or nothing invitation. And, so, we can certainly take time and consider what has kind of gotten cluttered and what has gotten in the way of that. Whatever that is, whatever is between us and our Lord, it may not be a bad thing but it’s not where it needs to be. Anything between us and our Lord has to either be removed or put somewhere else. But this story also reminds us of that moment when we believed, and everything changed.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for this. We thank You for the opportunity to reflect upon this. Even as we look in the Scriptures through the eyes of Peter, we can find ourselves, we can locate our hearts here. And, so, Holy Spirit, we invite You to come into these places. What has gotten cluttered? What…what has gotten between us? We want nothing between us. Maybe even better said, we need nothing between us. That is what we need. We want lots of things but what we need is to walk with You where You are going. And, so, come Holy Spirit as we reflect upon these things in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi, I just want…my name’s Alicia…I just want to pray for the mom whose daughter is struggling with anxiety. I just want to say that I completely understand where she’s coming from. I’m currently 32 weeks pregnant and I’ve just been having intrusive anxious thoughts about dying. It just kind of hit me. And then I completely understand because, you know, it's…it’s like my mind is telling me I’m going to die and my oldest son is 3 and I have a set of twins and I’m pregnant with my fourth. So, it’s just very challenging and struggling. So, I just wanna pray for you and…and I want you to, you know, to understand is that, you know, God has all glory. And we should just always praise Him and just ask Him to help us through difficult times because we are only human, and He understands that we’re human and that we struggle from time to time. So, I just wanna say I’m just praying for you, and you know, I just I truly hope that things get better, and I just ask for your prayers as well because I just want these thoughts to leave and I…I just want to wake up and feel so much better. But I just give God all glory and all praise. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Dear prayer partners this is Anonymous. I’m calling for Grace. Her persecution stirred my soul and I hate that the bullies, prosecutors are touching the very bone marrow that is breaking her. She feels that. Well, may we all stand together in prayer for her, that the Lord light her path, that she can see the path for her to tread. Grace, we are with you. We’re praying for you. We’re lifting you up and the Lord is with you. You are not alone. We love you. We cherish you and even more so does the Lord who gave His Son for you. So, whether it be the opportunity for a new job or whatever I don’t know but the thing is is that something positive must be coming your way. We pray for you and Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hey Daily Audio Bible this is Ashley in Ohio and about three years ago at this time I had called in asking for prayer for my brother and sister-in-law David and Laura. They had just lost their son Denver about a month previous, and we were getting ready to really grieve what would have been his very first birthday. I…it’s good to…it’s good to see what God has done and it’s good to share updates and that’s what I want to do today. I wanted to share with you that my family and I, we are going to a state park this weekend to send celebrate Denver’s twin sisters. It will be their second birthday. And wouldn’t you know that Denver’s birthday is March 19th. He would have been for this year. And the twins, their birthday is March 20th and they’ll be two. But not only that, Denver also has twin brothers that showed up this past December and it is the most marvelous and magnificent display of God’s ability to bring beauty from ashes that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. So, I just want to thank you for your prayers and I want to give God the glory for what he has done. Certainly, there is no replacement for Denver and his presence here on earth is greatly missed but there is absolutely no denying that the Lord has been at work and the Lord has been kind and He’s been more than gracious to show us beauty out of ashes. So, I just want to thank the Lord for Denver’s siblings as we celebrate together this weekend, Dylan and Jade and Eli and Casey. Thank you, Lord Jesus.
Greetings everyone this is Toni from Germany, and I would like to leave a message for grace who called…you called in I think it was about a year and a half ago about experiencing, you know, being the target of bullies and you don’t know you can continue. And what comes to my mind is this, can you ask yourself and maybe ask others around you who are familiar with what’s going on what might the Lord be inviting you to do? Is there something that He may be inviting you to do in response to what’s going on? So, I would go, and I would say that it could be something that is outside of your comfort zone. And I would say too that underneath that for you to act you may need to really appreciate yourself, value yourself to understand your worthiness, maybe even doing affirmative type prayers - I am beautifully and wonderfully made, for example. So, I sign a lot of times my emails and correspondence with grace and peace. And when I do, I’m going to commit to praying for you Grace. But I believe you’ll find a solution. So, be hopeful and, yeah, just really look deep inside as to what action the Lord may be trying to get you to take. God bless you. We…
Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Richard the taxi driver from Montreal. I just…I just had to call because I heard our sister Diana. I don’t know if she’s from Burgundy or whatever. And…but this testimony and this heart that you have for this lady about her getting a husband and then testifying that you’ve been married 50 years and you’re you’re the one that the balloon is the husband is hanging onto. Wow that’s so their ministry that’s such a beautiful testimony. Every time you pray Shalom Shalom nothing is broken nothing is lost it’s so true because in Jesus Christ, we have it all man. We have it all. So beautiful testimony again Diana and let me just end a prayer for you. Lord, I pray that Your Angel be around Diana and her husband. May You fill them with Your Holy Spirit right now. May You rest them with Your heavily blessing because they’ve been a blessing for our community here at daily audio Bible. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for testimony like that of faithfulness and walking with the Lord and being a blessing to others. I’m so happy that they called the Daily Audio Bible family prayer and I encourage her to keep on calling and other people to call and be a blessing to others. Bless her Jesus. It is Richard signing off and I love you and I’m praying for you, and I love you Brian for what you’re doing. Wonderful podcast. Shalom Shalom. Bye-bye.