Joshua 19:1-20:9, Luke 19:28-48, Psalm 88:1-18, Proverbs 13:12-14
Today is the 19th day of April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is great to be here with you today. We are already through the center of another month, feels like we didn’t begin that long ago. But we’re already through Easter, wow, day-by-day, step-by-step, we move very intentionally through the Scriptures and just shows us, this can be done and, imagine what can be done in our lives day-by-day, step-by-step, if we stay true, if we walk a straight path. And one of the things that illuminates that path, of course, the Scriptures and so we gather here around the Global Campfire, releasing the cares of this life, for a little while. We may not want to pick them back up but they’ll be there if we want them. But for now, we’re setting them aside to let the Scriptures illuminate our path. So, we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week, Joshua chapters 19 and 20.
Commentary:
Okay, so throughout our journey, so far, we have encountered some really, really sad scenes in the Bible. We’ve kinda talked about them as we passed by. I mean the Bible is full of humanity. It’s full of its ups and downs, it’s full of the stories of people going their own way and returning to God and then going their own way. Remember back within the first couple of days of the year, we’re in the Garden of Eden reading a very, very sad thing, “What have you done, what have you done?” And there’ve been other places like Moses, speaking directly to God and asking Him to send somebody else. We encounter another sad scene in the Gospel of Luke today. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, it’s a pretty big celebration, they have Him on a colt and they’re declaring Him King. And, of course, the religious people who were against Jesus are still really against Jesus and trying to get Him to shut this crowd down and try to figure out how they’re going to do away with this Guy. He’s too powerful among the people, they can’t, He can’t just disappear with nobody noticing. How are they going to do this? And Jesus has been carrying, well, I don’t know, we don’t know, but we can, can you imagine knowing that you are walking to your death and the kind of death you will die, will be that you will be tortured to death and then nailed up, hung up before people with nails through your hands and feet. So, He reaches the crest of the Mount of Olives, on His way into Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives, of course, is still in Jerusalem and it still has a crest and when you crest the Mount of Olives you can see down into the old city of Jerusalem. I have walked down that slop many, many times, There is a place there, that’s up on the slope, it’s actually where some of the most famous pictures of the old city of Jerusalem are taken because you’re looking across from the Mount of Olives and the Kedron Valley runs at the base of the Mount of Olives. You’re looking across into the old city and of course the Temple Mount. When Jesus crested of the Mount of Olives, He would’ve been looking down upon the Temple of God. A temple made to worship Him. And it seems like, it just, it just hit Jesus full force. And Jesus, according to the Gospel of Luke, began to weep. That is sad. That is sad to me, anyway. Jesus, who came and revealed the kingdom and ignited the hearts of people and healed and restored and set people free. But Jesus, the Son of the living God, is brought to tears. And He said, “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes.” And of course, we know how the story goes. We’ve literally just walked through the Easter celebration, and so we know how this story goes and us moving into this territory in Luke allows us to revisit what we’ve just visited. But it’s what Jesus says that just flattens me. There are some…there are some things in the Bible that just hit me between the eyes, no matter how many times I’ve read them. And so, personalize this, like take it on board in your own heart and consider that you, that Jesus is talking about, to be you and hear the words of Jesus, “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace.” It almost brings tears to my eyes, because Jesus is weeping because they should have known better. They should’ve seen this; they should have known. It was right in front of their faces the whole time and they were blinded to it. But then I think, we should know better too. This should be a very, very different place because we are here. We are image bearers, carrying the light of the world into the world and revealing the kingdom. And yet, so often we are participating in things that are anything but that, anything but that. And we should know better. And so, I hear those words of Jesus, “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace” because we should understand the way to peace. We have been given the path. So, as we continue to come forward out of Easter reveling in the gift of our salvation and the opportunity for an intimate relationship with the most high God, then we should also allow Jesus words to penetrate our hearts and continue to transform us.
Prayer:
And that is our request Jesus. We understand that we don’t know all that we think we know, but so often, we think we still know it anyway. We think we are wise and we think we know what we’re doing and we think we’re defending You and standing up and fighting our brothers and sisters over You and over what we all think about You. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace,” is what you’ve told us in Luke’s Gospel, and we should know it, we should know it by heart. But we confess that we don’t. And so even though You have given us gifts that are beyond imagination and rescued our very souls, we confess that we have much to learn and we will not learn it in our arrogance, we will learn it in our humility. And so, we humble ourselves before You and asked that You would come be the great comforter, lead us away from the things that are going nowhere, and lead us on the path, the narrow path that leads to life, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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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.
Prayers and Encouragements:
Hello, this is regarding parable of the prodigal son. That was just an amazing, such and I thank God for that. I was both, I was a prodigal daughter and the daughter living with the parents and that’s latest I’m living with my mother in her house. My father passed away three years ago. And I was there, I was, I was like, looking outside of myself at relatives and family members and judging and criticizing. You know, I just, anyway the message just…just spoke to me, big time. And again, for both…both siblings and I praise God, I thank Him, cause He is so gracious and He loves us. He definitely, just wants to love us more that we can imagine. And anyway, I was…I was gone for couple of months until recently. I was gone on a job assignment and I was…I was alone a lot. I had four days off. I only worked three days during that time and I praise God, I thank Him because He was calling me to draw closer, near to Him and he did. And He showed me so many things and He definitely answered my prayer when I asked Him to search my heart and why was I responding and reacting the way that I did, my attitude. And He helped me recover from that. Jeez, I was just so humbled and I had a breakthrough. This is more than two minutes what I would like to express about Him but I’m just so grateful for His word. And I’m grateful for His truth. Thank you Holy Spirit. God Bless you all, Amen.
Hello, Daily Audio Bible, it’s your girl Val in Vegas. I just wanna say, Happy Good Friday. It’s Friday the 15th, praise God everyone, we’ve made it. And this weekend ya’ll, He has risen. Right now, I just wanna pray for peace for anyone and everyone listening to this call. I tell ya, as I started to grow my relationship with the Lord, spending more time in prayer, talking to Him on a continuous basis. What I find is, it is true. There is a level of peace that surpasses all understanding. I mean the human mind can’t even grasp it. Admist the trauma and tragedy man, when you are just fully aligned with the Lord, there’s not any firing dart that comes to you, that the Lord doesn’t give you peace about it. And we know at the end of the day, what our Father does, is make crooked roads straight. So right now, Heavenly Father, I want to pray for Your peace Lord, for anyone that’s listening to this call, God right now rain on em, peace Lord, peace, peace, peace. Oh, it is truly priceless, Lord God. We thank You Lord Jesus, for Your peace God. One of your final words, my peace I bequeath, I give to you my peace. Lord Jesus, we take that peace, we run with that peace, we walk with that peace, we crawl with that peace. Lord Jesus, thank You for that peace, Lord. The peace that surpasses all understanding, right now God, rain peace on your family, Lord Jesus. Happy Good Friday. I love you guys and I’ll see you next month.
Yes, I want to take on the name, To God be the Glory in Minnesota. This is my first time calling in and I need prayer for my brother-in-law. His name is Nick. My sister and her two children live in Montana. And he is dealing with some issues at work, drug related. Doesn’t help his mood or his drinking. He is an alcoholic and he tends to be even more of a bad mood when he purchasing. So, if my DAB family could help me in praying for my brother-in-law, Nick, my sisters names Valerie and then she has her two children, Madison and Isabel. And that the Lord will work in mysterious ways and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit and know that Satan is trying to control him by his drinking. Thank you, I appreciate this family greatly. And for the blessings that Brian and his family has taken on. So, just thank you for everything again. To God be the Glory in Minnesota. Thanks.
Hey family, this is James in Fort Worth, Texas. It’s been a minute. I think the last time that I called was right around the same time last year for my daughters Ryan’s birthday. To those of you who don’t know, Ryan passed away January of 2020 from a severe asthma attack. That’s where I can describe my mental state at that time was just, pure insanity. I felt like I was going in sane. Nothing made sense. How can a father, raise his family, you know, support his family and raise his kids and I couldn’t save the one who looked to me in a moment of life and death? I wanted God’s power; I couldn’t save her. And I was angry with myself, I hated myself, I hated all of myself, I hated looking in the mirror. But I’m gonna tell you what, God’s delivered me from that. You can’t have refined goals without first going through the fire. And I went through that fire. And I praise the Lord and thank Him for bringing me on the other side of that. I look at today, I’m not the same person that I was, you know. I’ve been going strong in the word for the last two years trying to become the man that He meant me to be. I want to thank the Lord for my beautiful wife, Camille. The pure definition of one flesh. I want to thank Camille for sticking with me during the time that I obviously wouldn’t at my best. And I praise the Lord for her. We both DABers now. We both study the word together. There are so many of you that encouraged me on a daily basis. Thank you Brian and the Hardin Family, Victorious Soldier, Blind Tony, Little Sharie in Canada, Val in Vega, Sparky, Renzo – brother keep doing what you’re doing. I pray for all of you and I’m blessed to be in this community. Praise the Lord and thank you
Hey DAB brothers and sisters, this is Byron out in Florida. To Karen in New York, I heard your call. First of all, I just want to praise God for delivering you from the grip of alcohol, as a coping mechanism. I’m very thankful for what He’s been able to do in your life. Because it obviously directly impacts so many other, especially our most vulnerable. As the father of a special needs child, I can understand the challenges. I face people who step up to serve those kids who may be passed over by others. And this little boy that you mentioned, I want life him up specifically Lord. Because you’re right, he needs love, he needs grace, he needs mercy, he needs to be protected and not discarded or ignored or pushed aside or controlled Lord. He needs Your grace and mercy and I thank you Lord, that You have empowered Karen to serve this young man and to help him Lord. And so, give her the wisdom Lord, that she needs to approach him. Give her the understanding of Your child to relate to him. And raise up others, who can come around this little boy and get him to where he needs to be in You. Because he’s Your child. We saw what You did to the maniac that everyone had discarded and left in the tomb Lord. And we call back this boy to You, to Your family, to Your love and to Your heart. And so, we pray a protection, a blessing hedge around Karen and him and family. In Jesus name, Amen.