Month: June 2022

2 Kings 8:1-9:13, Acts 16:16-40, Psalms 143:1-12, Proverbs 17:26

Today is the 25^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m it’s great to be here with you today as we bring another week to its conclusion and take the next step forward in the Scriptures. We have been working our way through the book of second Kings in the Old Testament. So, that is the next step forward because that’s where we left off. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Second Kings chapter 8 verse 1 through 9, verse 13.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another week in Your word. We thank You for bringing us through another week of life. And, so, now we are at this point where we look back. So often as we begin a week we look forward and see this week out in front of us that has yet to be written, a story has yet to be told. But here we are at the end of the week looking back at that very week that we looked at and now we can see. Did we walk with You? Did we cling to You? We can certainly see that You have brought us through. And, so, we are grateful, and we mark this moment. We are grateful that You have sustained us and that You will guide us by the power of Your Holy Spirit. So, as we release this week and prepare our hearts for the next one, we come with a grateful heart into Your presence thanking You for all of the days that have gone before that You have brought us through and all the days that are yet before us that You will bring us through. Lead us, teach us, guide us, correct us. Lead us into the truth we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base, home of the Global Campfire and it’s where to find out what’s happening around here.

We’ve been talking about something that’s happening around here all week and that is something coming up on the seventh day of July. It’s our own little Daily Audio Bible holiday and it’s something that we call the Daily Audio Bible long walk. And I was talking several days ago. I think this is the 14^th year of doing the Daily Audio Bible long walk. So, we’ve been at this for a while. It’s super simple to participate in this little Global Campfire holiday. It’s a day that finds itself very near the center of the year. So, here we are moving through the center of the year, and this is a time to carve out a little bit of time. Some time for reflection, maybe some time for pre-flexion, time for us to look forward and look back and recognize the grace of God in our lives through all of it. It’s an opportunity to go out into nature, whether near or far. Maybe down the block from where you live is a park and that’s where you love to go. Great! Maybe you have a favorite spot, t’s a couple hours away and you carved out the day for this, a day to be with God and go for a long walk and be able to pour out everything that’s in your heart and have no hurry, no rush, not…no alarms going off, no deadlines going off. Time, space, to drink in the beauty and allow the beauty of creation to be restorative to us, to pour out our hearts and have space and time and silence to allow God to fill us again and speak back and aim us in the direction that we should go. It has…I mean I have done it all of these years and it has paid huge dividends in my life and resetting and not just barreling through like we are prone to do. But resetting. Resetting some priorities. Looking at what the second half of the year is supposed to look like. And that part that I said, emptying out our hearts, being able to just not be in a rush, to be able to say everything that comes to mind, everything that’s in our hearts and listen back. It’s beautiful. And, so, yeah, that’s the thing that we do by ourselves with God but it’s something that thousands of us are doing together on the same day all over the earth. And, so, it’s a community experience as well. We post a Daily Audio Bible long walk post on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and invite everybody, like wherever you go, whatever it looks like, whatever your day is like, take a picture, shoot a video and come back and share your day, your story and all the sudden we have this beautiful mosaic of our community, little windows that open up into the beauty of God’s creation all over the earth. And I love it. And I’m looking forward to it. That is coming up the seventh day of July, so put that on your calendars.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if you find being around the Global Campfire is life-giving to you then thank you for being life-giving. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together all of these years. And, 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 PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, of course, we are a community that loves on one another by praying for each other and if you are shouldering burdens that are crushing you, you don’t have to do that alone. You can reach out. 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 DAB family this is Larabell from the Arab United Emirates. I’m just praying over some prayers please. So, my husband did vasectomy many years ago many years ago before we met each other. Before we got married, we agreed that we wanted to have children of our own. So, he did a surgery to undo the vasectomy and then we’ve been trying for a child without success. Then when he went to…to…went for checkup he found out that the tubes had…they’re blocked, the tubes were blocked again, and we don’t know how and the surgery was a very painful process for him. I don’t want him to go through that again so we decided to go for IVF. We literally used our last savings to do the IVF and…and we had…I was pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl and we lost the babies. Their names are Destin and Destiny. We lost the pregnancy. Now my husband hasn’t worked for a long time since COVID, and we lost a lot of money that we invested in Ukraine because of the war. We literally used our last money for this, and we are in a long-distance relationship. He’ll be coming to visit again soon. We don’t have the money to do the IVF again. We don’t know when or how we will have it, but I believe in miracles. I just wish that by some miracle I could take in. I…I don’t know if it’s too much to ask but I just want…I just want our babies and I know God can do it for us. So, please pray for us. Would you pray for us please?

Hi this is Red. Hey I’m calling in reply to Brian from Florida who had a great job, has a great job and because of stress and not seeing his family he’s thinking about making a change. And a lot of his friends think he’s crazy because of the money he is making. Well, I’m gonna tell you from experience Brian I’ve been faced with that three times. First time I changed jobs I had to take a $25,000 pay cut and then I was a firefighter chief. I retired from that job and last 15,000 and then another time a company bought up a company I was with, and I had taken another 15,000. And all those times it was hard, and it was tight, but we prayed to make the right choice and God came through each time. So, when there was a firefighter I did that for 40 years and 18 is a Fire Chief in a small community, lots of calls. I don’t know how many birthdays, anniversaries, thanksgivings, Christmases I missed because I was out on the runs. And you can’t get that back. Family is important and money cannot buy any of that time back. I’m trying to make it up with the grand babies, but you just can’t get that back. So, let’s pray OK. Father give Brian the wisdom the knowledge and the discernment to make the right choice. Let him know that you’re always faithful. You’re amazing. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hey everybody this is Jonathan from Denver. I just wanted to call in and kind of follow up, give a little bit of an update and praise report. I think I last called in near the beginning of the month maybe end of May and I was really struggling feeling kind of left behind and like I had wandered off too far. And just this week I’m really experiencing a turning around and it feels like my heart is being softened. Feels like things are getting easier, feels like even when I run into day-to-day challenges, I am not forgetting that Christ is there for me. So, I just wanted to thank you all for your prayers know that I’m listening and I’m praying for you. I’m a few days left behind but I’m getting caught up and I love you all. Thank you so much.

Hi this is Pure Heart from Tennessee and I just wanted to call in to pray for Aaron in New York State that had just been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Aaron I just wanted to say that the Holy Spirit did something to me as you were telling your story and you said that you just want to walk the path, whatever path God had for you. Man, it’s like something just burned from the inside out. Not sure what it meant but I mean it hit me like a ton of bricks and I just want to pray for you right now. God, I just thank You that You are the great physician. I thank You that there’s nothing too hard for You. And Father God I thank You that when man say no You can still say yes, that You are the author and finisher of our faith. Lord You’re our creator and Your word Father God tells us that You know our beginning and our end. It’s not up to man. And Father I just pray right now Father that You would just heal Aaron, just confound the doctors in the name of Jesus. Lord, I ask You to touch whatever they thought they’d seen in Aaron and just make it disappear in Jesus’ name. Lord, I stand with my DAB family and asking in faith Father God that You would just work a miracle for Your glory Father God and for Aaron’s good. Lord, I pray over…

Katie calling from Boston this message is for you. This is Simone calling in from Houston and I want to encourage you. When I tell you baby girl that God is a mind stabilizer, He can do that. I am 46 years old, and I have fought depression for over 30 years. Less than ten years ago I attempted to take my life. It has been difficult; it has been hard. I was on five or six different medications for depression because they didn’t know what it was because it was so severe. And I challenged God. I went to Him, and I said, you know, this is Your word, this is…You said…You told me that there’s nothing wrong with me so I’m going to believe You and stand in Your word. I found an amazing therapist. I did talk therapy and I just learned how to hold steadfast to God’s word. And today, over 10 years later I have not taken a single medication for depression and my bouts are less and less and when they do happen it’s not as long, maybe a day. So, just trust and believe that God can heal you and deliver you from it. I am proof. I am praying for you. Please continue to stand on His word. Stand on His word, stand on His word. Keep coming back here for encouragement. Just immerse yourself in the word of God and just hold onto His word because, you know, He will provide everything that you need and He will deliver, and He will heal. And His word again will not come back to him void. So, I will definitely keep you in prayer because I understand your fight. And stay encouraged sweet girl. Praying for you.

2 Kings 6:1-7:20, Acts 15:36-16:15, Psalms 142:1-7, Proverbs 17:24-25

Today is the 24th day of June, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you guys today, around the Global Campfire as we gather and move forward together, which takes us back to the spot that we left off and that is second Kings, at this point. And we are kinda traveling alongside the prophet Elisha, getting to know him as well, as well as all of the kings that reigned during his time, his lifetime, his ministry and so, let’s pick up the story second Kings chapters 6 and 7 today.

Commentary:

Okay, let’s go in reverse order today and start with the book of Acts and work our way back to what we’re reading in second Kings. I just want to point out what the Bible tells us in the book of Acts, and that is that, Paul and Barnabas got into a pretty significant argument. A pretty significant disagreement, to the point that they needed to part company, after they had traveled all over the Roman Empire, preaching the good news, they needed to part company and continue that work in the name of Jesus separately. And the disagreement, is over a person Mark, John Mark. Though very, very likely the author of the Gospel of Mark, the very first gospel ever written. So, Mark was on that first missionary journey but in the city of Pamphylia he left them and returned to his home and that struck Paul, really wrong. As if he wasn’t fully and completely devoted and so he didn’t want Mark on this second missionary journey. And so, they had a disagreement and that disagreement left them still passionate for the Gospel and still called to speak the Gospel and in fact, to travel throughout the known world and speak the Gospel but not together. And so, we are embarking on Paul’s second missionary journey and it’s a whole new cast. Paul is the same person but he won’t be traveling with Barnabas this time or Mark, he’ll be traveling with Silas. And we will continue to follow along with that missionary journey, as we continue with the book of Acts.

But now, back in the book of second Kings. So much happens in our reading today an ax head floats back to the top of the water, miraculously. The Aramaeans, who are wanting to kind of ambush and fight against Israel, they can’t really make their plans, because Elisha hears from the Lord what the plans are and the Israelites are prepared. So, the Aramaeans find out where Elisha is, surround the city and when Elisha’s assistant wakes up and sees the Army, he freaks out and of course Elisha asks for his eyes to be open and then he can see that there are more with them, than any number of Army that is against them. They are struck with blindness. So, the key, like they can’t understand exactly what’s going on. And so, Elisha, the person that they’re trying to capture comes out and says this is the wrong place and they believe him and he’s like, I’ll show you the right place and they believe him and he marches them right into the capital of Israel, which is the city of Samaria, the northern kingdom. And some, this Army gets inside the city walls and then their eyes are opened, right, and this should be like a mighty victory, this Army could be destroyed, they have nowhere to go, but instead what Elisha instructs is that they should have food and water and be sent back to their master. That actually ends the ambushes and the fighting by the bands of Aramaeans who come to raid the land. So, in other words, God shows up and deals with the problem in a way that only God can. The Aramaeans are shown mercy, at the same time that they’re shown the very power of the God of Israel, the most high God. And so, respect for the most high God and respect for the mercy that was shown ends the conflict. And then, we have the story of the Aramaeans coming back at a later time to besiege and take the city, the capital city of Samaria. And so, they’ve surrounded and blockaded the city and people are beginning to starve, like all the resources that were inside the city are depleted and no one can leave and go get more and so whatever’s in the city is what’s in the city. That’s what they would do, starve them out, weaken them, demoralize them, wait until they were weak and until they could break in and put…put up little resistance. And so, that’s what’s going on here. The King of Israel becomes so demoralized and frustrated that he decides, he’s not waiting on the Lord anymore, because the Lord isn’t showing up and he’s going to behead Elisha, the prophet of God. Elisha has advanced warning about this and he tells the king about this time tomorrow, essentially, about this time tomorrow, the problem will be over. Of course, that’s hard to believe, but that’s what happens and it’s really interesting, the lesson for us to learn and how this happened. There are four lepers outside the city, they can come into the city, but if they come into the city, they’re going to die like everybody else in the city. They’re lepers and so they’re not being picked on so much outside the city walls and they can kind of scrounge around but they’re still going to die eventually. And so, they decide really, they have three options in they’re all bad options and there’s only one option that has even the remotest chance that they could live and that is to surrender to the enemy. If the Aramaeans kill them, they were going to die anyway but if they live, maybe they can find a morsel of food and live. And so, that’s what they do, they go to the Aramaean camp to surrender and seek mercy and nobody’s there. And that’s fascinating because the Lord had given the sound of a mighty army coming and so they fled. It’s like a ghost village out there, this blockade that has been starving the city to death and putting people through unbelievable atrocity. It’s like a ghost town out there, there’s nobody there. And so, these men, they go into camp or into a tent and they eat and they plunder. And they go into another one and they get some more stuff and they hide the stuff. And it’s like, they have everything they could ever need. And then they realize, people are still starving just like they were starving, back in the city of Samaria people are dying and they look at each other and say some really fascinating things. What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. The implications start to become apparent, because what’s going on here? These lepers have discovered that they have been rescued, that everybody can live. God has rescued them. And so, they’re enjoying the bounty, the benefit of being rescued and not having the fear that they had just moments before, but nobody else knows that. And they realize, it’s not right what we’re doing out here. This is a day of good news and we’re keeping it to ourselves. When we look at this through a spiritual lens, we have to realize that we were all surrounded and starving. And were going to be defeated and weakened and demoralized, our enemy was trying to stamp us out. And then we found out we were rescued and that the enemy has been banished and has no authority over us in any sort of way at all, anymore. We have been rescued forever and we can easily bask in that, when there are, there are people who are still starving and dying and are surrounded and don’t know that rescue is here. And so, we find ourselves, kind of with the same sentiment, what we’re doing isn’t right. This is a day of good news and we’re keeping it to ourselves. Something for us to think about, pretty strongly today. Maybe, even today, is the day to not keep it to ourselves.

Prayer:

And so, Holy Spirit, we invite You into that, we know that we have all been guilty of enjoying the blessing that You have poured down upon us, in the rescue of our very souls. And we can very, very easily, kinda think that we need to hoard that, that we have the out crowd and the in crowd, when what our role is, is to eliminate that, so that all can know, so that all might be rescued, so that we might be doing Your work in this world, telling the good news, that rescue is here and you don’t have to stay stranded behind these walls anymore. You can come out, freedom is here. Holy Spirit let this sink into us, so that we can understand that every thought, word and deed, everything about us is about You. Come, Jesus we pray, in your mighty name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base and that’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. We’ve been talking about it. It’s coming up in less than two weeks now, two weeks from yesterday. The Daily Audio Bible Long Walk that occurs every seventh day of July, it’s our own little, private holiday. And it’s so simple. It’s a day that we carve out some time, set it aside, go out into the beauty of God’s creation, drink it in, and go for a long walk with God. Not only to awaken our senses to all the life that is happening around us and all that God has just showered us with that we mostly ignore, but also to regroup and reset, to actually have some time to speak out before the Lord everything that’s in our hearts, like the empty out everything that’s going on and have time to not leave anything back, like just to empty it out of us and to give space and time for God to respond and fill us again, anew, as we contemplate what the second half of the year is supposed to be aimed at. And it’s beautiful because we’re doing this for our own lives and our own relationship with God, but we’re not doing it alone, even though we’re doing it alone. We’re doing it alone with God but our brothers and sisters all over the world, around this Global Campfire are also enjoying the beauty of where they are, on this earth. And what makes it a community experience is that, we put a post on our Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, for the Long Walk and then invite everybody like, look while you’re out there, while you’re enjoying it, snap a picture, take a video, something to commemorate the day that you spent. And they’re so many of us who have pictures and videos like from…from years and years and years of doing this. Maybe this is your first year. This is where you start that collection of mementos, of remembrances, of the times that you set aside and go for a long walk with God and what that did to your life and to the rest of your year and we come back and share and post a picture, post a video, into that post and all of a sudden, we open windows into the world. Like beauty all over the earth, all over the earth, and then we get to share together, in each other’s stories. It’s a beautiful thing. I love it very much. It’s a treasure around here. And so, make plans for that on the seventh day of July, the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. I’m looking forward to that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If the mission that we share in common around the Global Campfire, to bring the spoken word of God, read fresh, every day and offered freely to whoever will listen, anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night and to recognize that that’s a rhythm, we show up every day and we begin to realize, this isn’t a solitary endeavor. We are in this together and it makes all the difference, to move through the Scriptures and through a year together in community. And if that has been the life-giving thing to you then thank you, humbly 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, the little red button up at the top 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.

2 Kings 4:18-5:27, Acts 15:1-35, Psalms 141:1-10, Proverbs 17:23

Today is the 23^rd day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and move forward together on our adventure through the Scriptures this year. And the trail leads us back out into second Kings where we are getting kinda moved in and getting to know the lay of the land and getting to know the prophet, Elisha. And we kinda left the story in the middle yesterday. A woman and her husband had built Elisha a room on the top of their house. He had begun to stay there. He wanted to do something nice for her. In the end he told her about this time next year you will have a son and she did and that’s where we pick up the story. So, today second Kings chapter 4 verse 18 through 5 verse 27.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Acts today we have this retelling of what is known as the Jerusalem Council and in an understated way the Bible tells us something that happened that so monumentally shifted things. And we talked about this just a few days ago when we were with Peter up on top of the roof and the sheets coming down with the unclean animals and him going to Caesarea to minister to Cornelius who was a Roman centurion, a Gentile, and yet the Holy Spirit fell upon his household, and they were saved. Well…Paul and Barnabas are off on a missionary journey throughout the Roman empire, and they are indeed going to the Jewish community in whatever city they go to but so often they’re pushed out by the Jewish community, but the Gentiles are listening, and the Lord is doing a mighty work among Jew and Gentile alike even though they are facing an incredible amount of opposition. So, Hebrew people, Jewish people who were religiously devout, fully committed to the Mosaic law, fully committed to obeying God’s through the law, they never really had the concept that accepting Jesus was some kind of new religion of some sort. It was a Jewish thing. Jesus was the Hebrew Messiah. Things indeed were being fulfilled but for the Jewish people. And the whole thing was in a Jewish context. And, so, it’s not unfair to see how they would assume that. So, even Pharisees, even religious scholars were believing in Jesus, but again they never thought it was outside of a Jewish context. And, so, some believers went to some of the other churches and among the Gentiles and preached that the Gentiles…and I’m quoting from the book of Acts, “the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” They said, “unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” Well, that’s going to be a problem for Gentile people who don’t understand why circumcision would have anything to do with anything. Like you would need to be in a Hebrew context to understand the meaning of circumcision and the covenant that it represents. So, this causes confusion, confusion among the Gentile believers who are like, “are we doing this right? Is this the way to go? Like what are we supposed to do here?” This causes Paul and Barnabas to go to Jerusalem where the Jerusalem Council occurred. And people argued at this Council as told in the book of Acts on both sides. So, on the one side you have Hebrew believers in Jesus who believe Jesus was fully in a Jewish context and was for the Jewish people and what His work did was for the Jewish people. And, so, if you wanted to be in with Jesus you needed to kinda convert to Judaism and begin to obey the Mosaic law, the law of God and then honor Jesus and worship Him as the Jewish Messiah, the anointed One, of God, whereas people like Peter and Paul and Barnabas had already seen what God was choosing to do. They had been out in ministry among Gentile people and were watching God make the decision. Like if the Lord sends his Holy Spirit upon people well then God’s making that decision. And that was the argument in favor of the Gentiles. And, so, ultimately a decision was made that, no Gentiles don’t need to convert to Judaism and begin to try to bear the burden of the Mosaic law when even Jewish people have never been able to bear that burden. They shouldn’t be burdened in other words. Gentile people shouldn’t be burdened with things that they don’t even know what they are. Like they have never ever, ever had that contextualized. They’ve been Pagans worshiping many false gods and now they want to come to the one true God. And, so, they don’t need, you know, a mile long list of rules and regulations that they gotta even understand what the context is before they can begin to serve God. And, so, they wrote a letter and sent it back. And that is beautiful and that indeed affirms all are welcome. Like all of us who are Gentile are welcome into the family of God. But that’s not the end of the story and we’ll see it crop up throughout the letters of Paul, especially. Because even though a determination or a decision was made at the Council not everyone was on board with that decision. That has been true throughout all of church history. There are many church councils that we can look at and there were a lot of debate and a lot of people branded as heretics after the fact when they wouldn’t get on board with what everyone had decided. And, so, not everyone was on board with the Jerusalem Council. This is profoundly monumental though in the life of the church, not only because of…because of its inclusiveness, inviting everyone in the world to come to Jesus, but because of the social repercussions. Up until this time Jewish people were considered strange, but a people who were practicing a very ancient religion and were supposed to separate themselves. And, so, they’re in the Roman Empire and they are allowed to worship only their God. Like they have a little bit of, essentially, religious exemption because in the Roman Empire this is a polytheistic culture. They worship many many gods and it’s wide open. In the Roman Empire you can worship any god that you want to worship but there are also the gods of the Empire and those gods everybody has to worship. You can worship any other gods that you want to in addition, but you have to give your loyalty to the gods of the Empire, the gods who made Rome great. Obviously, that will not work for a Hebrew person, and they were given an exemption. They did not have to do that. They didn’t have to go sacrifice to the gods of the Empire etc. etc. etc. but everybody else did. What we see happening at the Jerusalem Council is a distinction is being made. People aren’t going to welcome Gentile’s wholesale into the Jewish community. And, so, a line gets drawn and people who are following Jesus then began to be separated from Orthodox practicing Jews because these Christians, Jewish or Gentile, they are allowing Gentiles, they are allowing something that’s not allowed. And, so, it could be argued that they’re not really practicing Judaism anymore. And that’s what happens. They get shoved into the margins where they don’t have any place of refuge. And as Christians resist they get marginalized themselves until they are…well…for a period of time really considered the problem and tremendous persecution breaks out. So, understanding that what we read today really really affected the world going forward is important for us to sort of understand the lay of the land or the context, how this all happened and how it is that the faith was passed down through all of the generations until we had the opportunity to believe as well and participate in the family of God. And, so, let’s remember this because it’s really important to our history.

Prayer:

Father, we love You. We love Your word. We thank You for Your word. We thank You for Your kindness in our lives to allow us to have it and that we can pour over it and look into the stories and see how things moved out from Jerusalem and how they ended up in our time and in our hearts. And Father, we see that the early church has to grapple with things that they don’t understand and deal with problems that look pretty complicated, and we thank You for Your guidance certainly in that time, by the power of Your Holy Spirit but we also face things are pretty complicated in our own lives and we need that same power. We need Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. And, so, that is what we pray for once again. Come Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that’s homebase and where you find out what is going on around here. And we’ve been talking about what’s going on around here this week.

Our Daily Audio Bible family holiday is coming up on the seventh day of July, also known as the Daily Audio Bible long walk, an opportunity for us to carve out a little bit of time, to set aside a single day out of the year to recognize that we’re in the middle of the year and regrouping is often a good thing and reflection is a good thing. So, we take that day and go out into nature, into beauty, maybe a lake that’s nearby, maybe a park that’s down the street, maybe a national Park that’s hours away, maybe somewhere that no one else would find beautiful but it’s very very meaningful to you, we go there, and we take a long walk with God. Like, time stands still. No hurry. No rush. An opportunity to say everything that’s in our hearts that we been meaning to find time to say having a conversation with God, with no alarm to tell us our time is up with God. It’s an opportunity to go for that long, long walk like you would when you fell in love and realize how beautiful the world is that God has made and how He is loving us and restoring us through beauty and how interesting it is to see how much life is all around us all happening all around us and we’re so rarely paying attention. And regrouping and paying attention to what the second half of the year is going to look like. It’s been a remarkable thing to do as a community all over the world all of these years and it’s something that I look forward to personally every year. Like to know that there’s a day that is set aside for exactly this. And obviously if we’re going for a long walk in nature somewhere beautiful by ourselves spending the day with God it’s like a solitary thing to do, but it’s also a beautiful community experience here, which makes it the Daily Audio Bible holiday for us because even though we are where we are, there are thousands of brothers and sisters all over the world that are doing the same thing where they are. And, so, we put a post on our Facebook page for the Daily Audio Bible for the long walk and just invite you. Like, when you go you’re probably gonna have your phone with you, you’re probably not gonna go without your phone. The trick is to not be on your phone all day in this time that you’ve set aside to go for a long walk with God, but you probably want to take a picture. You might want to shoot a video. You might want something to remember the day that you spent on a long walk with God. And just choose a picture that you took or choose a video or whatever and post that to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page in the long walk post and all of the sudden we get to do it all over again. Like we get to kinda scroll through and see the amazing beauty of the earth all over the world all on the same day. And it’s so fun. I love it. I love it so very very much. Looking forward to that coming up on the seventh day of July. So, that’s two weeks from today. So, make plans for that. I’m very much looking forward to enjoying it together as a community for another year.

And, as always, if you want to partner with Daily Audio Bible here as we approach the summer months, thank you profoundly. Thank you humbly. We wouldn’t be here if we were not in this together around the Global Campfire. 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 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. That’s the little red button at the top or there are a number of phone numbers that you can dial. In the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to call, if you’re in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world you can call 61-3-8820-5459.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Posting later in the day today…

2 Kings 3:1-4:17, Acts 14:8-28, Psalm 140:1-13, Proverbs 17:22

Today is the 22nd day of June, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today, as we do what we do every day, gather and take the next step forward together. And we are getting ourselves moved into the Book of second Kings and the times of the prophet Elisha and the kings that were in that time period, both in the northern Kingdom of Israel and in the southern Kingdom of Judah. So, let’s pick up the story, 2 Kings chapter 3 verse 1 through 4 verse 17 today.

Commentary:

Okay, a couple of things for us to sort of us to stay in the story with or at least to look at from the portion of the stories that we’re reading right now. In the Book of 2 Kings, Elisha is clearly the leading prophet in the land, as he’s taking on the mantle of Elijah. And in one of the scenes today with Elisha, he goes to a city named Shunem and there’s a lady there, she’s married to a man, and they have means, they have some resources, and they end up building a room for Elisha to stay in when he’s passing through and he begins to do that. And he begins to inquire, what could be done for her, what they could ask the king or even military commanders, or the Lord, what does she need. And she kind of, essentially says, I have my home and I have my own people, like I have what I need but what she doesn’t have is a child. And so, Elisha calls her and tells her, about this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms. That is her greatest hope. And so, she’s like, no, my lord, please, don’t mislead your servant, right. Like, don’t get my hopes up for no reason. This has been a hopeless place in my life. Really interesting what Elisha said, when he told her she would have a child, about this time next year. That is a very similar scene to what Sarah, Abraham’s wife, heard, when the promised child Isaac, was to be born. And as it turned out, the woman became pregnant and about that time next year, she gave birth to a son. 

Then, in the Book of Acts we well, we actually concluded Paul’s first missionary journey. Today, they made it back to Antioch. So, they had been out and about in the different cities and we saw this seen today, that is almost comical if it weren’t so tragic, just how erratic things were for the people bringing the Gospel of Jesus. So, we’re in a city called Lystra. And the Apostle Paul is speaking, he’s teaching the good news. And there’s a person who has been lame and never walked and Paul can see that he has faith and he calls them out right, like in the middle of church, like right in the middle of it all. Stand up on your feet and the person stood up on their feet and began to walk. This is a sign and a wonder in a pagan town. So, they determined that yes, indeed this is miraculous. Yes indeed, this is divine. It is of the gods and so they decide that Paul and Barnabas are actually Zeus and Hermes and the next thing you know a crowd is gathering from the city and the priests of Zeus are coming with animals to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas. So, that’s the height of heights, right. Like, nobody that I know has ever wanted to be sacrificed to, but nobody’s ever tried to offer a sacrifice to them, to appease them, so that they would extend their goodwill upon them. This is what’s happening. So, Paul and Barnabas are freaking out about this, this is like the exact opposite of what they’re after, they’re trying to reveal Jesus. They are trying to expose God to these pagan people who are worshiping false gods and instead, it seems that the people think that they are those false gods, embodied. So, they got to run into the crowd and say we’re not gods, we are humans. Instead, the crowd turns on them and stones Paul and leaves him for dead. That is a massive shift to be happening on the same day. Like, one extreme to the other. Paul wasn’t dead though. But, man, he was left for dead. So, I mean a person who gets stoned to death, you can only imagine broken bones and the blood and the suffering of something like that, it seems hard to kind of imagine. Paul was fully stoned and left for dead and he gets back up and goes into the city. And they just continue their journey. That’s a miraculous thing in and of itself that they just continued their journey, strengthening those who have come to believe, but it is also a picture of the fact that the good news of the Gospel has always faced resistance from the very beginning. In fact, the kind of resistance that they are facing right now, is really unheard of, for most of us. This kind of resistance and persecution certainly does exist in the world and people do, indeed, die for the name of Jesus, because they will not denounce their faith, in certain parts of the world. But, for most of us, this isn’t really an issue. But what we need to see here is, is that it was an issue for the early church. They had to learn to find joy while they were enduring hardship. Otherwise, immense discouragement would descend upon the people and they would fall into depression and fall away right. So, they had to find a way to encourage themselves. One of the things that we will see, as we continue through the New Testament, is that one of the ways that they found, to encourage themselves was to embrace endurance. As we continue on in our journey in the New Testament, and get into the letters, we will see that the theme of endurance is everywhere. Everywhere, people are having to endure. So, I’m just pointing it out right now, because we’re seeing it. Like, this is part of the recipe of the early church, enduring hardship and finding joy, just to be associated with the name of Jesus, just to know you are in the family of God, just be in, brought them joy and when they suffered, they counted it joy, because Jesus had suffered. And so, to suffer along with Jesus, alongside Jesus, as Jesus did, was considered something to hold onto dearly, which really is in a sharp contrast to the way that we perceive things usually. And so, let’s consider those things that we are having to endure right now and how we look at those things. And let’s begin to realize that just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s bad. And these difficulties that we face and learn to endure, shape us, just like the wilderness and we are seeing endurance shape the early church in the book of Acts.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we don’t like endurance, we would prefer not to participate in endurance. We would prefer that we could just ask You to take everything away and that it would just go away. And yet, we would become very, very weak, when we actually need to mature and become strong. So, help us to properly interpret the things that we have to endure, because sometimes there are things that we have to contend for and we are pleading with You. At other times, You are inviting us in, to walk-through something because we are going to gain knowledge and wisdom that we cannot get any other way. Help us to have a discerning heart. Help us to listen to Your Holy Spirit, so that we understand and properly interpret what’s going on with us. Come, Holy Spirit, into this, we pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, that’s where you find out what’s going on around here. I mentioned yesterday and will continue to mention that we have something special coming up on the seventh day of July, and that is our own little Global Campfire holiday, known as the Daily Audio Bible long walk. And I kind of unpacked that a little bit yesterday but I think the first long walk was in 2008. So, this would be the 14th one, coming up here, 14 years in a row we’ve had this holiday, so it’s a tradition around here and it’s quite simple. We have reached the halfway point of the year and as we move through the halfway time in the year, it’s a good time to reflect, we’re halfway through. So, we reflect back on where we’ve come from but we’re also, so we’re just kind of re-setting ourselves for the second half of the year, so that we finish strong, and so, in the middle, is where we find ourselves and we just simply give ourselves permission to take a day. Not a random day, an intentional day off to spend with God. We may talk to God every day. Hopefully we do. Hopefully lots. Hopefully it’s an ongoing conversation but so rarely do we have the time to have uninterrupted time with most anybody, including God. And so, all of our communications are quick texts, quick posts, quick calls. We don’t ever really have the time to just let time stand still. Although, we have the capacity for that. If we’ve ever fallen in love, we know that time can stand still and we do all kinds of romantic silly things, long walks being one of them. Where so much communication can happen. So, we take a day, in the middle of the year. The 7th of July and go somewhere beautiful and that somewhere beautiful for you can be the closest park to where you live or can be hours away, to a place that’s so beautiful and has so much meaning for you. It doesn’t really matter, the important thing is to go outside and enjoy what God has made, what He has bestowed upon us to enjoy. And we take a day and we’re spending a lot of the time in silence and we’re not filling our minds with all kinds of visual and all kinds of inputs. We’re just observing the beauty of creation and drinking it in, it’s very healing, to just walk and sit and watch the squirrels and the bunnies and hear the birds and the breeze on our face. It’s so restorative but then to be spending that time with God, where we actually are unhurried and uninterrupted, where we can say everything that is in our hearts. Everything that needs to be said and also take unhurried time to just walk in silence and feel the presence of the Lord and hear as He responds to us and gives us advance words about what the second half of our year is supposed to look like. I mean, this can sound like something that we should do on a regular basis and that’s true but we just don’t. But as we’ve, kind of immersed ourselves in the Scriptures and we’re halfway through and we’re moving toward the second half, this is the time, to give ourselves a day of unhurried time in our lives. I mean, every day, we come around the Global Campfire and so often I say like we’re just exhaling, we’re releasing everything that’s going on, we’re giving ourselves permission for a few minutes of this day, to be devoted to the Scriptures. And all those anxieties and all of the stresses that come with life, we can go get all those things, like we can pick up where we left off, but it’s remarkable how often the Bible is speaking so specifically to us, that, when we leave the Global Campfire and go back into our day, our posture has changed. Some things have shifted, we’ve reminded ourselves of the story that we’re in and what’s most important to us, becomes more and more clear. Imagine what a day with God could do, to reprioritize the trajectory of our lives. And so, make plans for that, for 7 July. There will be thousands and thousands and thousands of us all over the world, going for a long walk with God. And so that’s a very individual thing, but what makes it a communal thing is that we can share with each other. And so, we’ll put a post for the Long Walk up on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, and we can all come back and share pictures or videos. Cause, that’s the thing, like, we’re on this Long Walk and we don’t want to forget. So, maybe we take pictures and but we can share those things and they become, those pictures become windows, into each other’s lives. Whether it’s a little video that you took of where you are, or little video of you, kind of talking about where you are and sending greetings or pictures, whatever. Something that commemorates your Long Walk and we get to share those together and it’s beautiful. It’s absolutely stunning to me, not only to see the beauty of creation all over the world and to be able to get a glimpse into where brothers and sisters are and what it looks like where they live and to be able to share the same thing, myself. But just to drink in the beauty all over the world and just to hear the stories as we share with one another of our Long Walks, makes it a community experience. And so, that is coming up on the seventh day of July, which is two weeks from tomorrow. So, let’s make plans for that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. We couldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together and so thank you, profoundly for your partnership, as we head into the summertime. 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.

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

2 Kings 1:1-2:25, Acts 13:42-14:7, Psalms 139:1-24, Proverbs 17:19-21

Today is the 21^st day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is awesome to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire together, take the next step forward together. That next step actually leads us into a brand-new book. We concluded the book of first Kings yesterday with the story of Ahab and Jehoshaphat and Micaiah the prophet and 400 other prophets who are hearing different things and a battle that took Ahab’s life. Now we begin second Kings, and there’s not a whole lot for us to discuss. Like these books - first Samuel, second Samuel, first Kings, second Kings - like these were all one text at one point. So, we’re moving into second Kings, but its delineation was made at a much later date. One thing that we will do is continue through the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel, but we will also get a good…we’ll get to know prophet Elisha, who will succeed Elijah who was sort of the profit that we dealt with in first Kings. But as we move into second Kings, we are essentially picking up right where we left off. And, so, let’s do that. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Second Kings, chapters 1 and 2.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we begin the book of second Kings, we were able to witness the departure of Elijah and sort of the transmission of his authority, his prophetic authority upon Elisha. And Elijah went up in a whirlwind, chariots of fire. And Elisha saw that and Elijah’s cloak foul from the chariot as he’s departing. And, so, Elisha has the cloak of Elijah. He goes back to the Jordan River, hits the water and it splits so that he’s able to walk over. Other prophets see this. And, so, Elisha has taken on the role of Elijah. And we will see Elisha often as we continue to move through second Kings.

In the book of Acts, we are journeying with the apostle Paul on his very first missionary journey. And, so, he is going to places where the gospel of Jesus has never been fully taught if it has ever even been heard of. And what we see is that the gospel of Jesus draws people to it. They want to hear about this, but not everybody is accepting of it, which is exactly how it was when Jesus Himself was walking the earth and conducting His ministry. And yet many do believe. But if we notice now that the gospel is spreading forth from Jerusalem throughout the Roman Empire and now Paul is traveling…like a traveling missionary throughout the Roman Empire things were not easy. In fact, it’s easy enough to say that what Paul is experiencing on his missionary journey is what he had intended to perpetrate upon people who believed in Jesus. He was on his way to Damascus to do the same kinds of things that are happening to him when he saw the bright light and met Jesus. Now he’s on the receiving end of this persecution and once again we see that persecution, pressure, stress on the situation is actually what was a catalyst to spread it out throughout the world. They didn’t have it easy. They walked a difficult road. If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here. And, so, when we consider the times of the early church or the times of the book of Acts let’s remember that. We often look through rose colored glasses like it was a utopian kind of time. But as we actually read the accounts of the time in the Bible, we see that God’s grace was sufficient and his Holy Spirit was indeed leading them, but it was not easy.

And then finally we read from Psalm 139 today which is…which is one of my favorite Psalms personally, find tremendous, tremendous comfort in it. And, so, let’s go back to some of the stanzas in that Psalm and absorb them very, very…let’s focus our attention for a second. “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens you’re there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast.” I love that passage, I love it so much because it in effect says, there is nowhere that I can go to be outside of your presence. Wherever I go, even if it’s in the depths, even if it’s on the other side of the world, wherever I go I cannot escape your presence. I find a tremendous amount of comfort in that. It helps me know that the feelings of God’s presence aren’t something that have to be conjured up. We don’t have to like whip ourselves into it so that we can become aware of it. It’s never taken from us. We are in God’s presence now, right now, and we will remain in his presence all day. Where can we go that He is not? What if we were aware of it all the time? What if we were perpetually aware that we are in God’s presence, and there is nowhere that we can go that He is not? What a comfort. What a relief. We spend so much of our lives trying to figure out where He is and what He is doing when we are in His presence if we would become aware of it.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, come. Open our eyes. Give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear. Make us aware that You are everywhere. We are in Your presence and our request that You lead us deeper, deeper into Jesus, deeper so that we become more and more aware. Make us rooted in this. Make this a nonnegotiable in our lives and in our hearts and in our minds. You are here. You do not abandon us. We are in Your presence. Lead us we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, well normally I would say dailyaudiobible.com and…and all of that but there is an important thing to announce and make us aware of. dailyaudiobible.com is the website by the way, and the app is available in the app store.

But we are at the time just preceding our own little Global Campfire Daily Audio Bible holiday that takes place every year on the seventh day of July. And I think this will be the 14^th seventh day of July that we’ve observed this. And those of you who have been around for more than here already know it’s the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk.

And, so, let me tell just an abbreviated story. Daily Audio Bible began on the first day of January 2006. And, so, every day, seven days a week since then this is where we’ve been, around the Global Campfire moving through the Bible together each year. It was the seventh day of July 2007, so like a year and a half after the Daily Audio Bible began that there was a big prayer gathering here in Nashville in the rolling hills of Tennessee at our football stadium. And proceeding that there was like a walk through the Nashville area. Tens of thousands of people, like the streets are closed down. And people are walking through. Not randomly like it was chaos. It was planned. But tens of thousands of people kinda walking through the streets and it was silent because that was the point was to kinda silently prayer…pray and walk into the stadium. So, there’s tens of thousands of people walking through the streets of Nashville in silence before the Lord, interceding, and praying on the way to going into the stadium. And Jill and I, our family, we participated in that. And if we remember, like if we go back to that point in time all of these little things that we do right in the palm of our hand like broadcasting live from wherever we are to Facebook or to YouTube or to Instagram or anything, this stuff hasn’t been fully invented yet. It is definitely not available in the palm of our hands. But this day of prayer that happened in Nashville was televised in certain areas. And, so, it was one of these times where we’re physically in this location and praying but other listeners to the Daily Audio Bible are throughout the earth being able to watch and participate. And, so, we’re able to kinda like create posts. And not in real time, interact in any sort of way that we could today. But at the time it felt like, wow, we’re really doing this and we’re really doing this together. And, so, the next year which would’ve been 2008 we just commemorated that beginning moment of really feeling connected in real time, and again not like what we can do today but at the time this was really really cool, and we began the Daily Audio Bible long walk. And it’s really simple. We have reached the halfway point through our year, the seventh day of July is close to the middle of the year. It’s like here we are halfway through our journey through a year, halfway through our journey through the Scriptures and the halfway point is a really good time to take a moment to reflect, to look back at the first half of the year and to look forward to the second half of the year. And what better way to do that than to take one day out of the year and give it to God. And that’s not to say that we’re not giving ourselves to God in every moment of every day. But to take a day and go for a long walk with the Lover of our souls, our Creator, the One who knows every hair on our head, the One who has hopes and dreams for us, the one who is Fathering us, our Lord. We certainly talk to God every day. But to take a day to go out into the beauty of creation to find somewhere beautiful whether it’s right down the street from us set up park or whether it’s several hours away, a meaningful place to us that we find beautiful, we take this day and we go there and we take a long walk because it’s so rare to have unhurried time with anybody but we so rarely have unhurried time with God. We always may be worshiping or asking for help, but it’s always on the go it feels like. We never have a day where we can just go and enjoy everything that the Lord has made and enjoy just being together with God, enjoying His creation and actually having the time to say whatever we need to say and actually having the time in silence to listen and hear God’s response to us. We just so rarely if ever have that opportunity. And it’s not because we can’t have the opportunity it’s because we don’t take the opportunity, we don’t prepare for the opportunity. And, so, the seventh day of July has been that for us all of these years, a special little Global Campfire holiday where we give ourselves permission to take a day. And the seventh day of July is two weeks from this Thursday. And, so, we take this day and do just that, have the time, a day away with God, a long walk, an unhurried walk. I’ve often over the years invited us just to kinda look back to the time where maybe we fell in love and how time wasn’t really a thing in that zone. When you fall in love it doesn’t matter you do the craziest things, like go for walks in the rain and find it to be romantic. Like later on you’re like, I’m not going out in the rain, I don’t wanna get wet. But when we fall in love it just doesn’t matter what we’re doing. Just us being together, our souls being knit together, it just…time stands still as it were. July 7^th is about remembering falling in love with the Lord, remembering what that’s like, rekindling that, our first love to go and enjoy what God has made, enjoy the day and just be able to verbalize everything that’s going on, not just a quick immediate spur of the moment anxiety inducing kinds of things that we need God to do for us, but just to let time stand still and enjoy fellowship with God. And it’s remarkable when we go out into beauty how restorative nature can be. Like, a long walk in a park in silence is really remarkable, at least it has been for me. Like just how much life is happening that I’m not aware of and that I’m not paying any attention to. A long silent walk and the little critters of the earth and birds and the wind in the trees and the swaying of the flowers, it’s all happening. We’re just so busy we rarely take the time to notice, but on the 7^th of July we take the time to notice and not only say everything that we need to say and hear everything that we need to hear but also re-group reset and launch into the second half of the year feeling like we’ve found right side up again, like we’re not just swirling around trying to figure it out. Like our feet are on the ground again, we are rooted again. And it’s a beautiful thing. We as a community moving through the Scriptures together, we are all over the world in every time zone on every continent. And, so, it’s not like we can all gather together and take this gigantic, tens of thousands of people walk. But we still can. It’s an individual, thing. It’s a time that we spend with God. But it’s also a time that where aware that our brothers and sisters all over the world are doing the same thing. And then we do a post on Facebook on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and invite everybody to post their pictures from their long walk into that post. And, so, over the course of a couple of days they all…all come in as they’re happenings. And we’re all over the world so it’s happening in different time zones. It is like little windows are opening up into each other’s lives and we get to look through those windows and kinda see what it looks like where you are, what it looks like where I am. Maybe some of the things that you were impressed by or that the Lord revealed to you or showed you during your long walk had become such an encouraging kind of reset and restart as we move through the second half of the year that we’ve just always continued to do it. And, so, that is coming up on the seventh day of July. And, so, make preparations for that. Give yourself permission maybe to take a day off. Give yourself permission to go on a long walk with God. And, so, we’ll continue to talk about that as we get nearer and nearer and then the day will arrive. It’s one of my favorite Daily Audio Bible days. I love watching pictures come in from all over the world, some remarkable…I mean…the beauty of God’s creation is staggering. And to be able to get glimpses into places we may never be able to visit or go. Just know we have brothers and sisters everywhere, and just to see the beauty of God’s creation all over the earth on a single day is awesome. So, plan for that. The seventh day of July, the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. It’s our own little holiday here. And we’ll continue to talk about that as we continue day by day toward that day. So, make some plans for that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission here to bring the spoken word of God to whoever might be able to listen wherever they may be on this planet no matter what time of day or night that it is and to build community around the rhythm of showing up around the Global Campfire every day, if that is meaningful and life-giving then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are 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. That’s the little red button up at the top 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:

Good morning DAB family this is steadfast Stacy in Arizona. First a quiet thank you too Blind Tony for his faithful poetry ministry and to the Hardin’s for their faithful work with DAB. Such a blessing to me and my family. This prayer is for K J in Southeast Asia. Thank you for calling again and helping us know about your prayer needs for Mackenzie and her nut allergy. Thank you for the miracle of being able to connect with us. We were missionaries in that part of the world and understand the darkness and I’m just honored to pray for you. Father in heaven please take care of Mackenzie and her team and K J and help with that situation Lord to Your glory to make that team healthy and cohesive and deal with their physical spiritual and medical needs. Lord, give them unity with each other and clear direction as a team as they minister to the local church and try to be Your hands and feet in a dark place. Thank You that Your light shines so bright in dark places. And thank You for the opportunity to pray for them in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family my name is Christina I’m a first-time caller I’ve been listening since the 1^st of January, and it’s been such a moving journey from me. I was listening to today’s Bible reading and I heard a gentleman caller who needed prayer because he is having a hard time in the last few years and he’s listening to a lot of fellow believers around him telling him certain things about salvation that I’m feeling is really just affecting him. And Lord I just pray for this gentleman. I just ask that You give him the words that he needs to hear. And a lot of people around us, a lot of other humans will say things and they have a lot of things to say sometimes but is that really what You have to say Lord? And I ask that You heal his heart and give him the support that he needs during this time Lord and that he knows it’s what You say that really matters. Doesn’t matter what other people say. He needs to listen to Your word and listen to what his word says to You. Lord, I’m just new myself to this community. I’m a recent Christian about a year ago and I was just asked to serve as a worship leader and begin training on that and I’m just so excited. I’ve been singing my whole life and I feel that the Lord has set me up for this moment and I just ask for prayer during this time that I am a good steward of…of this position. And I’m just so thankful for Brian and his whole family and for this whole community. God bless you all.

Hello DAB family today is Wednesday June 15^th my name is Tiffany and I’m from South Central Ohio. This is my first-time calling in. And while listening to the prayers and the requests after today’s reading I heard the heart cry of a young man who did not give his name and the Lord really touched my heart for him. Whoever you are Sir I want you to know that I’m praying for you and to remind you that you are so precious to our Lord. There’s not one thing about who you are or what you’re going through that he is not intimately aware of. And it is by his love and grace that he will keep you and continue to work deeply in your heart and life. He’s not a God who abandons his beloved. So, stay the course young man and know that you are not alone in your journey. You are in good company and our loved dearly by your fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. And I pray that the Lord encourages your heart and gives you the strength to continue after Him. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Tammy from the Adirondacks. I just got done listening to the June 15^th podcast and there was a young man who called in. You…you were saying that the past couple of years have just nearly killed you and people are telling you that you have to be strong. And I don’t know…I…what I do know is…I am…I’m a new Christian, saved myself. And what I do know is what I have read in what the word has told us is when we are weak, He is strong. You asked the Lord into your heart, you asked for forgiveness, you repented for your sins. And you're…if you’re living a life that is pleasing doing the best that you can, you’re going to mess up, you’re going to make mistakes. But the Lord knows that. He knows that. You’re…He’s not expecting perfection. He’s just expecting you to come to Him. He is expecting you to come to Him when you’re weak. He’s expecting you to come to Him when you’re having a hard time. He’s expecting you to come to Him when you’re lost or broken. That’s what He wants to do is help you. He will restore your heart and your mind and your soul. That is what He wants. He wants the broken ones. So, don’t get discouraged brother. Don’t get discouraged. It took me…it’s taken…and I’m still figuring out…but don’t get discouraged. You are on the right walk. You are walking with the Lord and that’s all He, that He asks of us. Love you. Be blessed.

Greetings from Springfield MO from the Midwest Soul Sister. I am praying this morning for the gentleman, the godly man calling up for prayer for his family and his marriage in Dubai. God I just pray that You would come alongside this gentleman God and remind him that You see him, that he is on Your radar, God that You would come and minister to him. God, I pray unity over his family. I command in the name of Jesus that order would be brought out of this chaos God, that You will help him Lord and lift his eyes towards You. God that he would be brave and courageous and remind him that Your favor rest on him. So, God I just pray that he would turn his eyes to You, and he would find refuge in Your promises in the name of Jesus.

Hello this is Jennifer calling from the Seattle area and I’m calling in regards to a per request sent out by Patrick, a retired police officer in the Seattle area. He said he has retired and is now going to work helping with wellness for police officers. And I’m so happy to hear that. My ex-husband is a police officer and has struggled so much with PTSD and trauma from the things that he’s witnessed on the Police Department over the years. So, I would just love to sing a prayer right now for Patrick and for all law enforcement servants. So, heavenly Father I pray for Patrick. Thank You for giving him this opportunity to work with police officers. He’s been in the trenches. He knows what it’s like and he’s a believer. So not only can he offer them ways to cope but perhaps Lord he can offer them the hope of Jesus. And, so, Lord may Your light shine brightly through him as he has this opportunity. May Your Holy Spirit work through him. I thank You that he’s excited to get started and pray for every officer that he’s going to touch, that they would be blessed and that You would give them hope. And Lord I just pray for all law enforcement around our country and even around the world. It is a hard job, and it hardens hearts. Oh God I pray that You would work in the hearts of the police officers, that You would protect their lives, that You would keep them safe, that You would bless their families, that You would protect their families, and Lord that You would point them to You. I pray for even a revival in the police offices around the country Lord, that strong Christians would stand up for what they believe in and be willing to share You with others. So, we pray this all name Jesus. Amen.