7/26/2022 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34, Romans 9:25-10:13, Psalm 20:1-9, Proverbs 20:2-3

Today is the 26th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today. Today and every day as we gather around the Global Campfire. Ah, I love this place around the Global Campfire. I love this time that we get to spend, letting everything else go. It's…it’s not going anywhere. Maybe it is, but if it’s a care or concern or an anxiety, we can go find it, right, or it’s going to come try to find us. But this little place, it’s really just set aside for a few minutes as we seek God and dive into the Scriptures. And, kind of come out the other side maybe re-oriented to things. And so, I love it that we can be together, today and take the next step forward. And we have been working through a couple of main books, the book of second Chronicles in the Old Testament and the letter to the Romans in the new and we’ll, well we will continue the journey until we complete them and we will complete them by taking steps forward every day, day-by-day and so let’s take the next step forward and the next step forward in second Chronicles will be chapters 17 and 18 today.

Commentary:

Okay, let’s catch ourselves up with what the apostle Paul is writing in the letter to the Romans. It’s easy to understand Paul as an apostle to the Gentiles because that’s where he spent so much of his time but if we remember his missionary journeys. He’s going to the Jewish people his own people first; he’s going into the synagogues first. It’s just that what he is saying, in terms of the inclusiveness that Gentiles can also be welcomed into the family of God, is a difficult thing for them to understand, a difficult bridge for them to cross. So, Paul gets into a lot of hot water, a lot of the time. But if we look more closely, we see Paul is coming from a Hebrew context. He is not trying to introduce or create a brand-new religion and he’s not making up heretical stuff, even though he’s been branded as a heretic. Essentially what he’s trying to show through the Hebrew lens, through the Hebrew story, is that Jesus was an expected part of this story and basically, over time they had got what was given to them by God. They had turned it sideways and it wasn’t working anymore, which is a hard thing for a person, that’s a hard thing for a person to navigate, a person of faith. So, the tension around Paul is understandable. It was a similar tension around Jesus. It was also a similar tension around John the Baptist. Paul is an educated, trained Pharisee, this is his worldview. This is what he knows, this is the lens that he’s looking through and he is explaining to fellow Hebrews how Jesus connects to the story as the Messiah, like how this is a continuation of the same story. And what Paul is unpacking is that it’s the law that is gotten sideways because the plot of the story has been lost. When the law was given, and we read all of this already, when the law was given, it wasn’t a set of ethics and behaviors that everybody needed to follow, in order that there could be a hierarchy of control so that the people could be controlled and kept moving in the same direction. It was that, everything that they had to do in their lives had an underpinning, a spiritual underpinning, as they celebrated, as they observed ritual, as they sacrificed, as they lived through their lives, as they got to the beginning of a new week and celebrated and observed Sabbath. As like, a male entered into covenant with circumcision and so therefore, was marked intimately, always, forever, to be reminded they are in covenant with God. All of these things had a spiritual underpinning so that, the way that they lived was connected to God, not just a set of rules to be obeyed so that they could be controlled and everybody could be kept sane. Everything was to remind them of their true reality as chosen people because they had a job to do, to reveal to the nations the goodness of God, by being a people set apart to God so, that everything the they did connected them to God, so that this was observable from the outside that, these people are very different than the other tribes all around us. These people are different. But by the time we get into the first century in the time of Paul, the law, you obey the law to be made right with God and the law is a set of behaviors and ethics and rules that you have to obey perfectly, to be restored and made right, righteous before God. And nobody could do it. But they didn’t need this law to hold their culture together because now they weren’t like a sovereign under themselves. They were in a land that was part of the Roman Empire. So, under Roman rule and governance. The Hebrew people were allowed to worship God and they were allowed to observe the Mosaic law. They were just, they needed to keep it together, because they were notoriously marginalized, and they were notorious for being zealots. So, Paul is essentially arguing that they’ve lost the plot. And so, to put this in Paul’s own words and it just quote from Romans, “what is all this mean, it means that the Gentiles were not trying to be acceptable to God, but they found that He would accept them if they had faith. It also means that the people of Israel were not acceptable to God. And why not? It was because they were trying to be acceptable by obeying the law, instead of by having faith in God.” So, Paul is arguing that the law can’t redeem but there is a Redeemer and the law has a purpose and it’s to intimately connect people to God in everything that they do, as opposed to the rules that, you want to find the outer margins and find out what you can get away with or as a means to control people. But what Paul was running up against was the same thing that Jesus was running up against, the law had become something different. It was certainly the rules, the underpinning to pull the culture together, but it was also a source of power, that could control people, they were to put their heart, their heart and soul into obeying the law, instead of putting their heart and soul into trusting God, knowing that God’s law in every way set them apart. And Paul explains it like this and I quote, “I know they love God. But they don’t understand what makes people acceptable to Him. So, they refuse to trust God and they try to be acceptable by obeying the law, but Christ makes the law no longer necessary for those who become acceptable to God by faith.” So, kind of the bottom line here if we’re looking at this to apply to our lives, it’s to consider how we feel about God. Like, do we live our lives thinking that at any moment He could crush us like, because we would deserve it, because we’re trying to be good Christians, we’re trying so hard to adhere to what we think we’re supposed to be doing and you know, it reveals how inadequate we are in maintaining that and how imperfect we actually are. We know that there is grace and mercy. But so often we still think there is kind of like God up in heaven, angry, upset, perturbed, kind of disgusted, sort of just tolerating us because…because we…we just keep messing up. That is not a dissimilar feeling to what Jewish people under the law we’re feeling. What Paul’s trying to say is, that’s not really what’s going on. That’s not what’s going on here. When we put our faith in Jesus, we move from death to life, we die and become a new creation. It’s faith that’s the bridge that we cross and once we have crossed it, in our hearts, we have been made perfect before God, through Jesus. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn’t matter what nation you come from, anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Or putting the words back in Paul’s mouth and reading from the letter to the Romans, Paul explains it like this, “so you will be saved if you honestly say Jesus is Lord. And if you believe with all your heart that God raised Him from death, God will accept you and save you if you truly believe this and tell it to others. The Scriptures say no one who has faith will be disappointed, no matter if that person is a Jew or a Gentile. There is only one Lord, and He is generous to everyone who asks for His help. All who call out to the Lord will be saved.” And it’s really interesting, if you honestly say Jesus is Lord, there is actually quite a bit in that statement because as a Hebrew person, as a Pharisee, Paul knows all too well that you can’t say the name of God, so they would use descriptive words. Words like Adonai, which means Lord, which means ruler or master somebody with authority and power. So, to say Jesus is Lord is a declaration Jesus is God, one with the Father, as He said. That’s where you put your faith, that’s what you believe. And you believe that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. There are an awful lot of us, on a lot of different journeys and we wind our way to the Global Campfire through all kinds of stories. We all got here somehow and some of us are here checking it all out, just wanting to know what the Bible says to make a kind of determination about whether it has any value or not. Maybe we’ve gone through the Gospels and we’ve gotten to know this Jesus now, it’s hard to unknow that and maybe this is that moment, like maybe this is the moment where faith arises and you’re able to say no, Jesus is Lord, He is Lord, I believe this. If that’s you, welcome to the family, this changes everything. You are right where you belong.

Prayer:

So, Father, we love You. Jesus, we love You. You are Lord and we are thankful for these understandings. We can make ourselves crazy trying to clean up so that you might even…even possibly tolerate us or we can realize there’s nothing we can do to make You tolerate us, in our own power and strength, we couldn’t never, ever, no matter what rule or law, or ethic or behavior we’re trying to modify or obey. We couldn’t never ever achieve righteousness before You and so You made us righteous. You did what we could not do and that wells up in our hearts so that we say Jesus, You are Lord. And that is our hearts cry and our point of meditation today. You are Lord. There is no other. Come, Holy Spirit, and lead us into all truth. We pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good evening, dear, Daily Audio Bible family. I am calling tonight to ask for prayers for a dear friend and for her husband. My friend, I’ve had since we were 14, and she became ill after her second COVID vaccine and began getting weaker and weaker. And has become so weak she cannot walk. She became bed ridden. A doctor tried to help her with a surgery. It ended up paralyzing her vocal cords. She can’t talk know. She’s also developed Alzheimer’s and only weighs 95lbs and she’s very near the end. And now her husband who may…may have thyroid cancer and Shelly and Jean. Please, please pray for them Lord. God please help them. Please family, help me pray for them. And lift them up to God, comfort, love peace, healing. Thank you, thank you for this platform and thank you family for praying with me. Thank you in Jesus precious name. This is Vicky from the Dessert.

Greetings DAB warriors. I can use your prayers as I am going to a friend’s memorial today who lost the battle with alcohol addiction in this world. And we’ll see a great many of his and my friends who could use a word of truth in their lives. I need a covering of spiritual as well as physical shielding as right now the COVID numbers are not kind in our area for any kind of gathering, alone with which I will want to embrace everyone there. So, much appreciate this resource and could use that. This is the day of but I also know that our God is a God of space and time and He hears the prayers of the righteous. Thank you again.

Hello DAB and DABC, this is mama on her knees in Colorado. My husband and I have listened to your podcast for the last 5 years. We start our day with our cup of coffee and listen to Brian. I have also listened to Jill and China and I’ve enjoyed you all as well. At the, at the end of the podcast with the community calling in, that’s where we hold you all up in prayer and love all the things that you have taught me in my spiritual journey. So many rich things in that. We have also held you up in prayer for your joys and your sorrows. I come to you know with a heavy heart. My husband and I have been married for almost 40 years and raised two beautiful children. But we kept everybody in church activities and just were very involved in bringing them up in a Christ centered home. I feel like we’ve given them that foundation but as adults we all have to find our own journey, our own faith path. And I’m just asking for prayer for our son. He is struggling. Satan has a hold on him and his life is just falling apart. We as parents need wisdom on what to say or do. All’s I feel like we can do is pray. So, I’m just asking for you all just to remember him and his family. There’s three children and they’re all precious. I know God loves him more than we do. So, thank you family. I love you all.

Hi, this is Nate from Michigan. This is my first-time calling in. Just started listening a few months ago and have been blessed and so, thank you, to Brian for being diligent about scripture reading and the word of God. And then thank you for all those who’ve called in and just been able to listen and find how much that helps soften my heart. Today, I’m calling to just ask for prayer. My old boss and friend is a roofer, as I am still. And he took a fall on a roof, last week. And is in critical condition in the hospital. He is cognizant and has had a couple surgeries. Things are looking positive but spinal cord injuries, pelvic injuries, some ribs broken. So, he has a family, he has a wife and four kids. And just overall a heavy thing to happen. And then, just to think about what happens next with work and financials and the list of jobs that he already had. So, just overall just asking for covering and prayer for Brian, is his name and his family. Thank you all.

Hi, this is Ridlyn from Alberta. I was just listening to the podcast from the 23rd and heard Jonathan from Denver and just wanted to encourage you. You’re not alone. Many times, I’ve done the same thing where I was, should have been doing something way more productive and I just wasn’t and wasted part of a day or a whole day. And felt really crappy afterwards but you can’t get the day back but you can repent and ask Jesus to take you forward in the way that He would have you to and you can move forward and He can still use you and bless your life as you seek to follow Him. So, I just want to encourage you in doing that and to keep on searching His face.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday July 26, 2022 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 17-18

King Jehoshaphat of Judah

17 Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king and strengthened his defenses against Israel. He assigned troops to the fortified cities in Judah, as well as to other towns in Judah and to those towns in Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.

3-4 When Jehoshaphat's father had first become king of Judah, he was faithful to the Lord and refused to worship the god Baal as the kings of Israel did. Jehoshaphat followed his father's example and obeyed and worshiped the Lord. And so the Lord blessed Jehoshaphat and helped him keep firm control of his kingdom. The people of Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, but even after he became very rich and respected, he remained completely faithful to the Lord. He destroyed all the local shrines[a] in Judah, including the places where the goddess Asherah was worshiped.

In the third year of Jehoshaphat's rule, he chose five officials and gave them orders to teach the Lord's Law in every city and town in Judah. They were Benhail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah. Their assistants were the following nine Levites: Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-Adonijah. Two priests, Elishama and Jehoram, also went along. They carried with them a copy of the Lord's Law wherever they went and taught the people from it.

10 The nations around Judah were afraid of the Lord's power, so none of them attacked Jehoshaphat. 11 Philistines brought him silver and other gifts to keep peace. Some of the Arab people brought him 7,700 rams and the same number of goats.

12 As Jehoshaphat became more powerful, he built fortresses and cities 13 where he stored supplies. He also kept in Jerusalem some experienced soldiers 14 from the Judah and Benjamin tribes. These soldiers were grouped according to their clans.

Adnah was the commander of the troops from Judah, and he had 300,000 soldiers under his command. 15 Jehohanan was second in command, with 280,000 soldiers under him. 16 Amasiah son of Zichri, who had volunteered to serve the Lord, was third in command, with 200,000 soldiers under him.

17 Eliada was a brave warrior who commanded the troops from Benjamin. He had 200,000 soldiers under his command, all of them armed with bows and shields. 18 Jehozabad was second in command, with 180,000 soldiers under him. 19 These were the troops who protected the king in Jerusalem, not counting those he had assigned to the fortified cities throughout the country.

Micaiah Warns King Ahab of Israel

(1 Kings 22.1-28)

18 Jehoshaphat was now very rich and famous. He signed a treaty with King Ahab of Israel by arranging the marriage of his son and Ahab's daughter.

One day, Jehoshaphat went to visit Ahab in his capital city of Samaria. Ahab slaughtered sheep and cattle and prepared a big feast to honor Jehoshaphat and the officials with him. Ahab talked about attacking the city of Ramoth in Gilead,[b] and finally asked, “Jehoshaphat, would you go with me to attack Ramoth?”

“Yes,” Jehoshaphat answered. “My army is at your command. But first let's ask the Lord what to do.”

Ahab sent for 400 prophets and asked, “Should I attack the city of Ramoth?”

“Yes!” the prophets answered. “God will help you capture the city.”

But Jehoshaphat said, “Just to make sure, is there another of the Lord's prophets we can ask?”

“We could ask Micaiah son of Imlah,” Ahab said. “But I hate Micaiah. He always has bad news for me.”

“Don't say that!” Jehoshaphat replied. Then Ahab sent someone to bring Micaiah as soon as possible.

All this time, Ahab and Jehoshaphat were dressed in their royal robes and were seated on their thrones at the threshing place near the gate of Samaria, listening to the prophets tell them what the Lord had said.

10 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah was one of the prophets. He had made some horns out of iron and shouted, “Ahab, the Lord says you will attack the Syrians like a bull with iron horns and wipe them out!”

11 All the prophets agreed that Ahab should attack the Syrians at Ramoth and promised that the Lord would help him defeat them.

12 Meanwhile, the messenger who went to get Micaiah whispered, “Micaiah, all the prophets have good news for Ahab. Now go and say the same thing.”

13 “I'll say whatever the living Lord my God tells me to say,” Micaiah replied.

14 Then Micaiah went up to Ahab, who asked, “Micaiah, should we attack Ramoth?”

“Yes!” Micaiah answered. “The Lord will help you capture the city.”

15 Ahab shouted, “Micaiah, I've told you over and over to tell me the truth! What does the Lord really say?”

16 (A) Micaiah answered, “In a vision[c] I saw Israelite soldiers wandering around, lost in the hills like sheep without a shepherd. The Lord said, ‘These troops have no leader. They should go home and not fight.’ ”

17 Ahab turned to Jehoshaphat and said, “I told you he would bring me bad news!”

18 Micaiah replied:

I then saw the Lord seated on his throne with every creature in heaven gathered around him. 19 The Lord asked, “Who can trick Ahab and make him go to Ramoth where he will be killed?”

They talked about it for a while, 20 then finally a spirit came forward and said to the Lord, “I can trick Ahab.”

“How?” the Lord asked.

21 “I'll make Ahab's prophets lie to him.”

“Good!” the Lord replied. “Now go and do it. You will be successful.”

22 Ahab, this is exactly what has happened. The Lord made all your prophets lie to you, and he knows you will soon be destroyed.

23 Zedekiah walked over and slapped Micaiah on the face. Then he asked, “Do you really think the Lord would speak to you and not to me?”

24 Micaiah answered, “You'll find out on the day you have to hide in the back room of some house.”

25 Ahab shouted, “Arrest Micaiah! Take him to Prince Joash and Governor Amon of Samaria. 26 Tell them to put him in prison and to give him nothing but bread and water until I come back safely.”

27 Micaiah said, “If you do come back, I was wrong about what the Lord wanted me to say.” Then he told the crowd, “Don't forget what I said!”

Ahab Dies at Ramoth

(1 Kings 22.29-35)

28 Ahab and Jehoshaphat led their armies to Ramoth in Gilead. 29 Before they went into battle, Ahab said, “Jehoshaphat, I'll disguise myself, but you wear your royal robe.” Ahab disguised himself and went into battle.

30 The king of Syria had ordered his chariot commanders to attack only Ahab. 31 So when they saw Jehoshaphat in his robe, they thought he was Ahab and started to attack him. But Jehoshaphat prayed, and the Lord made the Syrian soldiers stop. 32 And when they realized he wasn't Ahab, they left him alone.

33 However, during the fighting a soldier shot an arrow without even aiming, and it hit Ahab between two pieces of his armor. He shouted to his chariot driver, “I've been hit! Get me out of here!”

34 The fighting lasted all day, with Ahab propped up in his chariot so he could see the Syrian troops. He stayed there until evening, and by sundown he was dead.

Footnotes:

  1. 17.6 local shrines: See the note at 11.15.
  2. 18.2 attacking the city of Ramoth in Gilead: The Syrians had taken control of Ramoth (see 1 Kings 22.3,4).
  3. 18.16 vision: In ancient times, prophets often told about future events from what they had seen in visions or dreams.
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Romans 9:25-10:13

25 (A) just as the Lord says in the book of Hosea,

“Although they are not
my people,
I will make them my people.
I will treat with love
those nations
that have never been loved.

26 (B) “Once they were told,
‘You are not my people.’
But in that very place
they will be called
children of the living God.”

27 (C) And this is what the prophet Isaiah said about the people of Israel,

“The people of Israel
are as many
as the grains of sand
along the beach.
But only a few who are left
will be saved.
28 The Lord will be quick
and sure to do on earth
what he has warned
he will do.”

29 (D) Isaiah also said,

“If the Lord All-Powerful
had not spared some
of our descendants,
we would have been destroyed
like the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah.”[a]

Israel and the Good News

30 What does all of this mean? It means that the Gentiles were not trying to be acceptable to God, but they found that he would accept them if they had faith. 31-32 It also means that the people of Israel were not acceptable to God. And why not? It was because they were trying[b] to be acceptable by obeying the Law instead of by having faith in God. The people of Israel fell over the stone that makes people stumble, 33 (E) just as God says in the Scriptures,

“Look! I am placing in Zion
a stone to make people
stumble and fall.
But those who have faith
in that one will never
be disappointed.”

10 Dear friends, my greatest wish and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know they love God, but they don't understand what makes people acceptable to him. So they refuse to trust God, and they try to be acceptable by obeying the Law. But Christ makes the Law no longer necessary[c] for those who become acceptable to God by faith.

Anyone Can Be Saved

(F) Moses said a person could become acceptable to God by obeying the Law. He did this when he wrote, “If you want to live, you must do all the Law commands.”

(G) But people whose faith makes them acceptable to God will never ask, “Who will go up to heaven to bring Christ down?” Neither will they ask, “Who will go down into the world of the dead to raise him to life?”

All who are acceptable because of their faith simply say, “The message is as near as your mouth or your heart.” And this is the same message we preach about faith. So you will be saved, if you honestly say, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. 10 God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others.

11 (H) The Scriptures say no one who has faith will be disappointed, 12 no matter if that person is a Jew or a Gentile. There is only one Lord, and he is generous to everyone who asks for his help. 13 (I) All who call out to the Lord will be saved.

Footnotes:

  1. 9.29 Sodom and Gomorrah: During the time of Abraham the Lord destroyed these two cities because their people were so sinful.
  2. 9.31,32 because they were trying: Or “while they were trying” or “even though they were trying.”
  3. 10.4 But Christ makes the Law no longer necessary: Or “But Christ gives the full meaning to the Law.”
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Psalm 20

(A psalm by David for the music leader.)

A Prayer for Victory

I pray that the Lord
will listen when you
are in trouble,
and that the God of Jacob
will keep you safe.
May the Lord send help
from his temple
and come to your rescue
from Mount Zion.
May he remember your gifts
and be pleased
with what you bring.

May God do what you want most
and let all go well for you.
Then you will win victories,
and we will celebrate,
while raising our banners
in the name of our God.
May the Lord answer
all your prayers!

I am certain, Lord,
that you will help
your chosen king.
You will answer my prayers
from your holy place
in heaven,
and you will save me
with your mighty arm.

Some people trust the power
of chariots or horses,
but we trust you, Lord God.
Others will stumble and fall,
but we will be strong
and stand firm.

Give the king victory, Lord,
and answer our prayers.[a]

Footnotes:

  1. 20.9 victory … prayers: Or “victory. He (God or the king) answers us.”
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Proverbs 20:2-3

An angry ruler
is like a roaring lion—
make either one angry,
and you are dead.
It makes you look good
when you avoid a fight—
only fools love to quarrel.

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

07/25/2022 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14, Romans 9:1-24, Psalms 19:1-14, Proverbs 20:1

Today is the 25th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as…well…this is our last full week in the month of July, the seventh month of the year and it’s a privilege and an honor that we can be together and step-by-step move through this week together as we continue our journey through the Scriptures which leads us back to second Chronicles in the Old Testament and the letter to the Romans in the New Testament. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week and picking up the story and second Chronicles today with chapters 14, 15 and 16.

Commentary:

Okay, let’s take a look at what we read in the book of Psalms today. Psalm chapter 19, it’s a favorite of mine because at some point for some reason I memorized Psalm 19 when I was a kid. And, so, I’ve kind of always loved Psalm 19, not so much because of what it says but because I knew what it said. But now as a person who is an adult and grown and has a family and as a person who has devoted my life to reading and interpreting and understanding and teaching Scriptures, I love this psalm. Basically, we begin with…with worship and declarations about the Lord and then there are some like truth statements that are then fleshed out and then there’s a prayer of repentance and kind of a closing meditation. And, so, Psalm 19 begins telling us the heavens keep telling the wonders of God and the skies declare what He has done. And the Psalm is essentially saying, look, every time the sun comes up, every time the sun goes down, every time the moon comes up, every time the moon…like every time this happens, nature itself, the heavens themselves are declaring the glory of God. Whether we observe it or ignore it, it is there, it is true, it is happening and it affects every single person alive on earth, right? We would be profoundly affected and terribly confused if not gone if the sun didn’t come up tomorrow. Every day this rhythm happens. It’s happened since the second we were born. We’ve never been without it. We wouldn’t even know how to live if that rhythm of day and night that’s constant were eliminated. Every day that we open our eyes and there’s daylight, we are reminded yet again that the Lord is sustaining us, all of us, He’s sustaining everything in the cosmos. And Psalms points out that all this happens without a word. All of this happens without it being explained. It doesn’t take paragraphs or pages. It happens. It’s a faithful thing that happens. And because this happens, it’s saying something, it’s pointing us to something, that God is sustaining us. And then we have these core statements of truth. The law of the Lord is perfect. And then that’s kind of unpacked. The law of the Lord is perfect, and here’s why. It gives us new life. His teachings last forever, and they give wisdom to ordinary people. So, as the sun comes up and sets every day and comes up again and sets again regularly, predictably, faithfully, so we also are to understand that God’s teachings last forever, and they give wisdom to ordinary people. And then we have another statement. The Lords instruction is right. And then here’s why. It makes our hearts glad. His commandments shine brightly, and they give us light. So, following the instructions of the Lord, obeying his commands make our hearts glad and give us light. We’re looking for those things, right? We want our hearts to be glad and we want to see where we’re going? Then we must seek the Lord’s instruction and obey His commands. And then we have another statement. Worshiping the Lord is sacred. And again, it’s unpacked. So, here’s why. He will always be worshiped. All His decisions are correct and fair. They are worth more than the finest gold and are sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. And, so, we begin to understand that offering our hearts in surrender, and worship to the Lord, offering ourselves to God, giving ourselves in worship to the Lord brings our hearts to a place of trust where we rest as the sun comes up and goes down. We rest in God’s decisions knowing that He is righteous, that he is correct and fair. And understanding that the decisions of the Lord as we walk with God become more valuable to us than gold and become more sweeter to us than honey. And, so, what we begin to realize is that as we meditate upon and rest in the steadfastness of God and His righteousness, His rightness, His goodness, His wisdom we are led to a place that Psalms brings us to, which is the prayer. By your teachings Lord I am warned. By obeying them I am greatly rewarded. None of us know our faults. Forgive me when I sin without knowing it. Don’t let me do wrong on purpose Lord or let sin have control over my life. Then I will be innocent and not guilty of some terrible fault. Let my words and my thoughts be pleasing to you, Lord, because you are my mighty rock and my protector. That’s beautiful and gives us wisdom, insight, and instruction.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You here as we meditate upon these statements as we meditate upon these truths that are laid out for us in a way that we can very clearly understand. And we do come to the same place where we have to say the same thing. Let my words and my thoughts please You, Lord, because You are my mighty rock and my protector. There is no other. There is no other hope. And, so, all of our hope is in You because You are steadfast and constant. You are our Creator and our Father. And, so, we trust You completely with this day as the sun moves from the sky and we trust You with this night as the moon makes its journey knowing that Your mercies will be new in the morning. Come Holy Spirit into this. Comfort us, lead us, instruct us, guide us, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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It is Ezekiel’s birthday today. Ezekiel, our little man who reads Daily Audio Bible Kids each and every day is celebrating birthday number 10 today. So, we are certainly excited and celebrating that and so grateful for him and for his life and all that he means in our family, but certainly all that he means in the Global Campfire community as well. And, so, that’s one thing that’s going on around here today, celebrating a happy birthday for Ezekiel.

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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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi to my DAB family it’s Rosie from British Columbia. Special shout out to God Smiles. So thankful to hear you on July 22nd. And yeah, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed hearing from you, and you sure have been on my heart. The last few weeks I’ve been really praying for you and really sorry you’ve been having a rough couple weeks. So, I just bless you. I’ve been having a challenging time with one of my sons. I have three boys and my oldest is really struggling. And, so, I’ve been posting on the Prayer Wall and have been so grateful for the prayers that have been prayed on our behalf and just beyond grateful. So, thank you so much. So, about that. On last Sunday I woke up and started to pray for my son and I just sensed Lord saying what if just for today you lived like everything in your life in a lives of your kids was just perfect? And I thought…well…that’s a strong word, perfect. Well, I made the decision on Sunday to go through the day like I had no problems no worries no concerns from my family. Wow! What a day. It was a great day and a really turned a corner in my heart that day. I lived like the Lord was holding my family and His hands which of course He does. So, that’s my encouragement to you today. Live…live for a day like you don’t have any problems, like the Lord has it all in His hands busy ‘cause He surely does. Blessings and love and so thankful for my DAB family.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Jeremiah God Gives Good Gifts. Just wondering if anyone wants to get down with some answered prayer, Hallelujah. I had my meeting with my parents, and it was amazing. Thank you so much for your prayers and your support. God’s presence was there, and I was just filled with this just unspeakable peace. Anxiety and fear and worry wanted to come after me and I just said no I’m going to hold on to my peace and was able to communicate with them, just that I had forgiven them, that I didn’t hold anything over their heads. And they were able to sincerely apologize. It was amazing. And just walking out that forgiveness, walking out that piece, all of the hooks that were in my back since I was a little boy, they were gone and God’s peace and joy just filled my heart. And, so, I just want to encourage you that we gotta walk this out, we gotta walk out this faith. And even if we have suffering for decades, through endurance, through character, through forgiveness God has healing for us. God has new life for us. He is so worthy. I just wanna lift up my voice lift up my heart to him and just exalt him today. Let’s exalt him together. Wherever you’re at just lift up your hands. [sing starts] I exalt thee. I exalt thee. I exalt thee oh Lord [singing stops]. He is worthy, He is worthy, He is worthy. We love you Jesus thank you so much for your answered prayers for your faithfulness for your love. Hallelujah.

Hey DAB family this is Connie from Rhode Island. My friends Rick and Aaron told me about this app, and I’ve been loving it. I’ve probably only been listening for a month or two now. So, I’m probably one of the baby dabbers. I do have a prayer request. Personally, I had a shoulder procedure yesterday where they took the calcium out of my tendon that had formed. So, I’m just praying for healing that God would heal that tendon and heal up that hole where the calcium was so that I don’t end up getting a tear because then I would need a full-on surgery which I would like to avoid. And I have to say I just love this app and I love hearing the prayer requests. Of course, I love the word being read by Brian. It’s so beautiful and just hearing the word every day. But the prayer requests really touched my heart. And Justin with your anxiety…I hate to say your…let’s not even say your…it’s not your anxiety, it’s from the devil, right? You reminded me of my son with anxiety. And he suffers on and off with some depression issues and you just broke my heart with that. But I’ve been praying for you. And as you all are calling in and sending in your requests, I agree with you and prayer for each and everyone. I already love you guys. I’m so grateful for you. God bless.

Hi this is Donna from California and I listened to you July 22nd. Today the podcast was just amazing. Brian you’re doing such a fine fine job of breaking down Romans and the teachings of Paul in ways that are just so graspable. So, thank you. And I wanted to respond to Rula from Australia. And she was the first caller today on the prayer line. And she…you Rula, you called in I think one of the most heartfelt prayers that I have heard in a long time anywhere. It just…I know there are people who have the gift of praying out loud and who do just a fine job of…a beautiful job of putting forth…composing a prayer and just doing it just like that. And I…I also don’t have that gift. I struggle with finding words. And I think what you said was just so from the heart. And you spoke…and you know it reminds me there is a scripture that, you know, when…when we don’t know what to pray God…God…the Spirit is in there and it intercedes…it inter…you know…it already knows what…the Spirit, He…He knows what…what to bring out. And I find myself relying on that more and more and more instead of my own perfectionistic tendencies to try and get it right and get it right and then just getting more and more frustrated. But I just wanted to let you know that it was a…it really touched me what the words you spoke. I love you sister.

Good afternoon I just listened to Val from Vegas. First, I want to say how happy I am for this format. It has really blessed me, and I’ve been spreading the word about DAB. But I just want to thank Val from Vegas, your uplifting spirit. You are such a bright light my sister. And I thank you for that prayer you gave about mental health and healing. May God continue to bless you. And every time you come on there you are so bright and cheerful and I really appreciate this. And this format has been such a blessing. And May God bless and keep everyone. And I hope this continues to grow. Brian and his family, kudos to you. May God continue to uplift you and bless you as you continue your work. You are appreciated and I thank you all. God bless and keep you all. This is Mal in college.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday July 25, 2022 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 14-16

King Asa of Judah

14 Abijah died and was buried in Jerusalem. Then his son Asa became king, and Judah had ten years of peace.

Asa obeyed the Lord his God and did right. He destroyed the local shrines[a] and the altars to foreign gods. He smashed the stone images of gods and cut down the sacred poles[b] used in worshiping the goddess Asherah. Then he told everyone in Judah to worship the Lord God, just as their ancestors had done, and to obey his laws and teachings. He destroyed every local shrine and incense altar in Judah.

The Lord blessed Judah with peace while Asa was king, and so during that time, Asa fortified many of the towns. He said to the people, “Let's build walls and defense towers for these towns, and put in gates that can be locked with bars. This land still belongs to us, because we have obeyed the Lord our God. He has given us peace from all our enemies.” The people did everything Asa had suggested.

Asa had a large army of brave soldiers: 300,000 of them were from the tribe of Judah and were armed with shields and spears; 280,000 were from Benjamin and were armed with shields and bows.

Judah Defeats Ethiopia's Army

Zerah from Ethiopia[c] led an army of 1,000,000 soldiers and 300 chariots to the town of Mareshah[d] in Judah. 10 Asa met him there, and the two armies prepared for battle in Zephathah Valley.

11 Asa prayed:

Lord God, only you can help a powerless army defeat a stronger one. So we depend on you to help us. We will fight against this powerful army to honor your name, and we know that you won't be defeated. You are the Lord our God.

12 The Lord helped Asa and his army defeat the Ethiopians. The enemy soldiers ran away, 13 but Asa and his troops chased them as far as Gerar. It was a total defeat—the Ethiopians could not even fight back![e]

The soldiers from Judah took everything that had belonged to the Ethiopians. 14 The people who lived in the villages around Gerar learned what had happened and were afraid of the Lord. So Judah's army easily defeated them and carried off everything of value that they wanted from these towns. 15 They also attacked the camps where the shepherds lived and took a lot of sheep, goats, and camels. Then they went back to Jerusalem.

Asa Destroys the Idols in Judah

15 Some time later, God spoke to Azariah son of Oded. At once, Azariah went to Asa and said:

Listen to me, King Asa and you people of Judah and Benjamin. The Lord will be with you and help you, as long as you obey and worship him. But if you disobey him, he will desert you.

For a long time, the people of Israel did not worship the true God or listen to priests who could teach them about God. They refused to obey God's Law. But whenever trouble came, Israel turned back to the Lord their God and worshiped him.

There was so much confusion in those days that it wasn't safe to go anywhere in Israel. Nations were destroying each other, and cities were wiping out other cities, because God was causing trouble and unrest everywhere.

So you must be brave. Don't give up! God will honor you for obeying him.

As soon as Asa heard what Azariah the prophet said, he gave orders for all the idols in Judah and Benjamin to be destroyed, including those in the towns he had captured in the territory of Ephraim. He also repaired the Lord's altar that was in front of the temple porch.

Asa called together the people from Judah and Benjamin, as well as the people from the territories of Ephraim, West Manasseh, and Simeon who were living in Judah. Many of these people were now loyal to Asa, because they had seen that the Lord was with him.

10 In the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's rule, they all met in Jerusalem. 11 That same day, they took 700 bulls and 7,000 sheep and goats from what they had brought back from Gerar and sacrificed them as offerings to the Lord. 12 They made a solemn promise to faithfully worship the Lord God their ancestors had worshiped, 13 and to put to death anyone who refused to obey him. 14 The crowd solemnly agreed to keep their promise to the Lord, then they celebrated by shouting and blowing trumpets and horns. 15 Everyone was happy because they had made this solemn promise, and in return, the Lord blessed them with peace from all their enemies.

16 Asa's grandmother Maacah had made a disgusting idol of the goddess Asherah, so he cut it down, crushed it, and burned it in Kidron Valley. Then he removed Maacah from her position as queen mother.[f] 17 As long as Asa lived, he was faithful to the Lord, even though he did not destroy the local shrines[g] in Israel. 18 He placed in the temple all the silver and gold objects that he and his father had dedicated to God.

19 There was peace in Judah until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's rule.

King Baasha of Israel Invades Judah

(1 Kings 15.16-22)

16 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's rule, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and captured the town of Ramah. He started making the town stronger, and he put troops there to stop people from going in and out of Judah.

When Asa heard about this, he took the silver and gold from his palace and from the Lord's temple. Then he sent it to Damascus with this message for King Benhadad of Syria: “I think we should sign a peace treaty, just as our fathers did. This silver and gold is a present for you. Would you please break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel and force him to leave my country?”

Benhadad did what Asa asked and sent the Syrian army into Israel. They captured the towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel-Maim,[h] and all the towns in Naphtali where supplies were kept. When Baasha heard about it, he stopped his work on the town of Ramah.

Asa ordered everyone in Judah to carry away the stones and wood Baasha had used to fortify Ramah. Then he fortified the towns of Geba and Mizpah with these same stones and wood.

Hanani the Prophet Condemns Asa

Soon after that happened, Hanani the prophet went to Asa and said:

You depended on the king of Syria instead of depending on the Lord your God. And so, you will never defeat the Syrian army. Remember how powerful the Ethiopian[i] and Libyan army was, with all their chariots and cavalry troops! You trusted the Lord to help you then, and you defeated them. The Lord is constantly watching everyone, and he gives strength to those who faithfully obey him. But you have done a foolish thing, and your kingdom will never be at peace again.

10 When Asa heard this, he was so angry that he put Hanani in prison. Asa was also cruel to some of his people.[j]

Asa Dies

(1 Kings 15.23,24)

11 Everything Asa did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his rule, he got a very bad foot disease, but he relied on doctors and refused to ask the Lord for help. 13 He died two years later.

14 Earlier, Asa had his own tomb cut out of a rock hill in Jerusalem. So he was buried there, and the tomb was filled with spices and sweet-smelling oils. Then the people built a bonfire in his honor.

Footnotes:

  1. 14.3 local shrines: See the note at 11.15.
  2. 14.3 sacred poles: Or “trees,” used as symbols of Asherah, the goddess of fertility.
  3. 14.9 Ethiopia: See the note at 12.3.
  4. 14.9 Mareshah: About 40 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem.
  5. 14.13 the Ethiopians could not even fight back: Or “not one of the Ethiopians survived!”
  6. 15.16 queen mother: Or “the mother of the king,” which was an important position in biblical times (see 1 Kings 2.19).
  7. 15.17 local shrines: See the note at 11.15.
  8. 16.4 Abel-Maim: Also called “Abel-Bethmaacah” (see 1 Kings 15.20).
  9. 16.8 Ethiopian: See the note at 12.3.
  10. 16.10 Asa was also cruel … people: Or “Asa also started being cruel to some of his people.”
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Romans 9:1-24

God's Choice of Israel

I am a follower of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is a witness to my conscience. So I tell the truth and I am not lying when I say my heart is broken and I am in great sorrow. I would gladly be placed under God's curse and be separated from Christ for the good of my own people. (A) They are the descendants of Israel, and they are also God's chosen people. God showed them his glory. He made agreements with them and gave them his Law. The temple is theirs and so are the promises that God made to them. They have those famous ancestors, who were also the ancestors of the Christ.[a] I pray that God, who rules over all, will be praised forever![b] Amen.

It cannot be said that God broke his promise. After all, not all of the people of Israel are the true people of God. 7-8 (B) In fact, when God made the promise to Abraham, he meant only Abraham's descendants by his son Isaac. God was talking only about Isaac when he promised (C) Sarah, “At this time next year I will return, and you will already have a son.”

10 Don't forget what happened to the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. 11-12 (D) Even before they were born or had done anything good or bad, the Lord told Rebekah that her older son would serve the younger one. The Lord said this to show he makes his own choices and it wasn't because of anything either of them had done. 13 (E) That's why the Scriptures say that the Lord liked Jacob more than Esau.

14 Are we saying God is unfair? Certainly not! 15 (F) The Lord told Moses that he has pity and mercy on anyone he wants to. 16 Everything then depends on God's mercy and not on what people want or do. 17 (G) In the Scriptures the Lord says to the king of Egypt, “I let you become king, so that I could show you my power and be praised by all people on earth.” 18 Everything depends on what God decides to do, and he can either have pity on people or make them stubborn.

God's Anger and Mercy

19 Someone may ask, “How can God blame us, if he makes us behave in the way he wants us to?” 20 (H) But, my friend, I ask, “Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did? 21 (I) Doesn't a potter have the right to make a fancy bowl and a plain bowl out of the same lump of clay?”

22 (J) God wanted to show his anger and reveal his power against everyone who deserved to be destroyed. But instead, he patiently put up with them. 23 He did this by showing how glorious he is when he has pity on the people he has chosen to share in his glory. 24 Whether Jews or Gentiles, we are those chosen ones,

Footnotes:

  1. 9.5 Christ: Or “Messiah.”
  2. 9.5 Christ. I pray that God, who rules over all, will be praised forever: Or “Christ, who rules over all. I pray that God will be praised forever” or “Christ. And I pray that Christ, who is God and rules over all, will be praised forever.”
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Psalm 19

(A psalm by David for the music leader.)

The Wonders of God and the Goodness of His Law

The heavens keep telling
the wonders of God,
and the skies declare
what he has done.
Each day informs
the following day;
each night announces
to the next.
They don't speak a word,
and there is never
the sound of a voice.
(A) Yet their message reaches
all the earth,
and it travels
around the world.

In the heavens a tent
is set up for the sun.
It rises like a bridegroom
and gets ready like a hero
eager to run a race.
It travels all the way
across the sky.
Nothing hides from its heat.

(B) The Law of the Lord is perfect;
it gives us new life.
His teachings last forever,
and they give wisdom
to ordinary people.
The Lord's instruction is right;
it makes our hearts glad.
His commands shine brightly,
and they give us light.

Worshiping the Lord is sacred;
he will always be worshiped.
All his decisions
are correct and fair.
10 They are worth more
than the finest gold
and are sweeter than honey
from a honeycomb.

11 By your teachings, Lord,
I am warned;
by obeying them,
I am greatly rewarded.
12 None of us know our faults.
Forgive me when I sin
without knowing it.
13 Don't let me do wrong
on purpose, Lord,
or let sin have control
over my life.
Then I will be innocent,
and not guilty
of some terrible fault.

14 Let my words and my thoughts
be pleasing to you, Lord,
because you are my mighty rock[a]
and my protector.

Footnotes:

  1. 19.14 mighty rock: See the note at 18.2.

Cross references:

  1. 19.4 : Ro 10.18.
  2. 19.7 : Pr 9.10; 4 Macc 1.17.
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Proverbs 20:1

Words of Wisdom Are Better than Gold

20 It isn't smart to get drunk!
Drinking makes a fool of you
and leads to fights.

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday July 25, 2022 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 14-16

King Asa of Judah

14 Abijah died and was buried in Jerusalem. Then his son Asa became king, and Judah had ten years of peace.

Asa obeyed the Lord his God and did right. He destroyed the local shrines[a] and the altars to foreign gods. He smashed the stone images of gods and cut down the sacred poles[b] used in worshiping the goddess Asherah. Then he told everyone in Judah to worship the Lord God, just as their ancestors had done, and to obey his laws and teachings. He destroyed every local shrine and incense altar in Judah.

The Lord blessed Judah with peace while Asa was king, and so during that time, Asa fortified many of the towns. He said to the people, “Let's build walls and defense towers for these towns, and put in gates that can be locked with bars. This land still belongs to us, because we have obeyed the Lord our God. He has given us peace from all our enemies.” The people did everything Asa had suggested.

Asa had a large army of brave soldiers: 300,000 of them were from the tribe of Judah and were armed with shields and spears; 280,000 were from Benjamin and were armed with shields and bows.

Judah Defeats Ethiopia's Army

Zerah from Ethiopia[c] led an army of 1,000,000 soldiers and 300 chariots to the town of Mareshah[d] in Judah. 10 Asa met him there, and the two armies prepared for battle in Zephathah Valley.

11 Asa prayed:

Lord God, only you can help a powerless army defeat a stronger one. So we depend on you to help us. We will fight against this powerful army to honor your name, and we know that you won't be defeated. You are the Lord our God.

12 The Lord helped Asa and his army defeat the Ethiopians. The enemy soldiers ran away, 13 but Asa and his troops chased them as far as Gerar. It was a total defeat—the Ethiopians could not even fight back![e]

The soldiers from Judah took everything that had belonged to the Ethiopians. 14 The people who lived in the villages around Gerar learned what had happened and were afraid of the Lord. So Judah's army easily defeated them and carried off everything of value that they wanted from these towns. 15 They also attacked the camps where the shepherds lived and took a lot of sheep, goats, and camels. Then they went back to Jerusalem.

Asa Destroys the Idols in Judah

15 Some time later, God spoke to Azariah son of Oded. At once, Azariah went to Asa and said:

Listen to me, King Asa and you people of Judah and Benjamin. The Lord will be with you and help you, as long as you obey and worship him. But if you disobey him, he will desert you.

For a long time, the people of Israel did not worship the true God or listen to priests who could teach them about God. They refused to obey God's Law. But whenever trouble came, Israel turned back to the Lord their God and worshiped him.

There was so much confusion in those days that it wasn't safe to go anywhere in Israel. Nations were destroying each other, and cities were wiping out other cities, because God was causing trouble and unrest everywhere.

So you must be brave. Don't give up! God will honor you for obeying him.

As soon as Asa heard what Azariah the prophet said, he gave orders for all the idols in Judah and Benjamin to be destroyed, including those in the towns he had captured in the territory of Ephraim. He also repaired the Lord's altar that was in front of the temple porch.

Asa called together the people from Judah and Benjamin, as well as the people from the territories of Ephraim, West Manasseh, and Simeon who were living in Judah. Many of these people were now loyal to Asa, because they had seen that the Lord was with him.

10 In the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's rule, they all met in Jerusalem. 11 That same day, they took 700 bulls and 7,000 sheep and goats from what they had brought back from Gerar and sacrificed them as offerings to the Lord. 12 They made a solemn promise to faithfully worship the Lord God their ancestors had worshiped, 13 and to put to death anyone who refused to obey him. 14 The crowd solemnly agreed to keep their promise to the Lord, then they celebrated by shouting and blowing trumpets and horns. 15 Everyone was happy because they had made this solemn promise, and in return, the Lord blessed them with peace from all their enemies.

16 Asa's grandmother Maacah had made a disgusting idol of the goddess Asherah, so he cut it down, crushed it, and burned it in Kidron Valley. Then he removed Maacah from her position as queen mother.[f] 17 As long as Asa lived, he was faithful to the Lord, even though he did not destroy the local shrines[g] in Israel. 18 He placed in the temple all the silver and gold objects that he and his father had dedicated to God.

19 There was peace in Judah until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's rule.

King Baasha of Israel Invades Judah

(1 Kings 15.16-22)

16 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's rule, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and captured the town of Ramah. He started making the town stronger, and he put troops there to stop people from going in and out of Judah.

When Asa heard about this, he took the silver and gold from his palace and from the Lord's temple. Then he sent it to Damascus with this message for King Benhadad of Syria: “I think we should sign a peace treaty, just as our fathers did. This silver and gold is a present for you. Would you please break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel and force him to leave my country?”

Benhadad did what Asa asked and sent the Syrian army into Israel. They captured the towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel-Maim,[h] and all the towns in Naphtali where supplies were kept. When Baasha heard about it, he stopped his work on the town of Ramah.

Asa ordered everyone in Judah to carry away the stones and wood Baasha had used to fortify Ramah. Then he fortified the towns of Geba and Mizpah with these same stones and wood.

Hanani the Prophet Condemns Asa

Soon after that happened, Hanani the prophet went to Asa and said:

You depended on the king of Syria instead of depending on the Lord your God. And so, you will never defeat the Syrian army. Remember how powerful the Ethiopian[i] and Libyan army was, with all their chariots and cavalry troops! You trusted the Lord to help you then, and you defeated them. The Lord is constantly watching everyone, and he gives strength to those who faithfully obey him. But you have done a foolish thing, and your kingdom will never be at peace again.

10 When Asa heard this, he was so angry that he put Hanani in prison. Asa was also cruel to some of his people.[j]

Asa Dies

(1 Kings 15.23,24)

11 Everything Asa did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his rule, he got a very bad foot disease, but he relied on doctors and refused to ask the Lord for help. 13 He died two years later.

14 Earlier, Asa had his own tomb cut out of a rock hill in Jerusalem. So he was buried there, and the tomb was filled with spices and sweet-smelling oils. Then the people built a bonfire in his honor.

Footnotes:

  1. 14.3 local shrines: See the note at 11.15.
  2. 14.3 sacred poles: Or “trees,” used as symbols of Asherah, the goddess of fertility.
  3. 14.9 Ethiopia: See the note at 12.3.
  4. 14.9 Mareshah: About 40 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem.
  5. 14.13 the Ethiopians could not even fight back: Or “not one of the Ethiopians survived!”
  6. 15.16 queen mother: Or “the mother of the king,” which was an important position in biblical times (see 1 Kings 2.19).
  7. 15.17 local shrines: See the note at 11.15.
  8. 16.4 Abel-Maim: Also called “Abel-Bethmaacah” (see 1 Kings 15.20).
  9. 16.8 Ethiopian: See the note at 12.3.
  10. 16.10 Asa was also cruel … people: Or “Asa also started being cruel to some of his people.”
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Romans 9:1-24

God's Choice of Israel

I am a follower of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is a witness to my conscience. So I tell the truth and I am not lying when I say my heart is broken and I am in great sorrow. I would gladly be placed under God's curse and be separated from Christ for the good of my own people. (A) They are the descendants of Israel, and they are also God's chosen people. God showed them his glory. He made agreements with them and gave them his Law. The temple is theirs and so are the promises that God made to them. They have those famous ancestors, who were also the ancestors of the Christ.[a] I pray that God, who rules over all, will be praised forever![b] Amen.

It cannot be said that God broke his promise. After all, not all of the people of Israel are the true people of God. 7-8 (B) In fact, when God made the promise to Abraham, he meant only Abraham's descendants by his son Isaac. God was talking only about Isaac when he promised (C) Sarah, “At this time next year I will return, and you will already have a son.”

10 Don't forget what happened to the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. 11-12 (D) Even before they were born or had done anything good or bad, the Lord told Rebekah that her older son would serve the younger one. The Lord said this to show he makes his own choices and it wasn't because of anything either of them had done. 13 (E) That's why the Scriptures say that the Lord liked Jacob more than Esau.

14 Are we saying God is unfair? Certainly not! 15 (F) The Lord told Moses that he has pity and mercy on anyone he wants to. 16 Everything then depends on God's mercy and not on what people want or do. 17 (G) In the Scriptures the Lord says to the king of Egypt, “I let you become king, so that I could show you my power and be praised by all people on earth.” 18 Everything depends on what God decides to do, and he can either have pity on people or make them stubborn.

God's Anger and Mercy

19 Someone may ask, “How can God blame us, if he makes us behave in the way he wants us to?” 20 (H) But, my friend, I ask, “Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did? 21 (I) Doesn't a potter have the right to make a fancy bowl and a plain bowl out of the same lump of clay?”

22 (J) God wanted to show his anger and reveal his power against everyone who deserved to be destroyed. But instead, he patiently put up with them. 23 He did this by showing how glorious he is when he has pity on the people he has chosen to share in his glory. 24 Whether Jews or Gentiles, we are those chosen ones,

Footnotes:

  1. 9.5 Christ: Or “Messiah.”
  2. 9.5 Christ. I pray that God, who rules over all, will be praised forever: Or “Christ, who rules over all. I pray that God will be praised forever” or “Christ. And I pray that Christ, who is God and rules over all, will be praised forever.”
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Psalm 19

(A psalm by David for the music leader.)

The Wonders of God and the Goodness of His Law

The heavens keep telling
the wonders of God,
and the skies declare
what he has done.
Each day informs
the following day;
each night announces
to the next.
They don't speak a word,
and there is never
the sound of a voice.
(A) Yet their message reaches
all the earth,
and it travels
around the world.

In the heavens a tent
is set up for the sun.
It rises like a bridegroom
and gets ready like a hero
eager to run a race.
It travels all the way
across the sky.
Nothing hides from its heat.

(B) The Law of the Lord is perfect;
it gives us new life.
His teachings last forever,
and they give wisdom
to ordinary people.
The Lord's instruction is right;
it makes our hearts glad.
His commands shine brightly,
and they give us light.

Worshiping the Lord is sacred;
he will always be worshiped.
All his decisions
are correct and fair.
10 They are worth more
than the finest gold
and are sweeter than honey
from a honeycomb.

11 By your teachings, Lord,
I am warned;
by obeying them,
I am greatly rewarded.
12 None of us know our faults.
Forgive me when I sin
without knowing it.
13 Don't let me do wrong
on purpose, Lord,
or let sin have control
over my life.
Then I will be innocent,
and not guilty
of some terrible fault.

14 Let my words and my thoughts
be pleasing to you, Lord,
because you are my mighty rock[a]
and my protector.

Footnotes:

  1. 19.14 mighty rock: See the note at 18.2.

Cross references:

  1. 19.4 : Ro 10.18.
  2. 19.7 : Pr 9.10; 4 Macc 1.17.
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Proverbs 20:1

Words of Wisdom Are Better than Gold

20 It isn't smart to get drunk!
Drinking makes a fool of you
and leads to fights.

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

7/24/2022 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 11:1-13:22, Romans 8:26-39, Psalm 18:37-50, Proverbs 19:27-29

Today is the 24th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today and a joy and a moment full of excitement to be here with you to greet a shiny, sparkly, new week. And we mark our weeks because there’s 52 of them that we get to move through each year and this is another beginning, and we remind ourselves we get 52 chances. Well, His mercies are new every morning so, we get a new chance every day, but it is nice to know the space of a week, we can create chaos or we can participate in Shalom. And that will manifest itself based on the way that we conduct ourselves this week. So, at the beginning of a brand-new week, we remember it’s in front of us. We may have made a mess last week, that doesn’t mean that has to continue now, we can begin the cleanup process now. And as we continue to move forward week by week by week, with a fresh start, we can remember we’re telling the story here, we’re walking with God and telling the story of our lives through the conversations that we have and the choices that we make. One of the best choices that we can make, is to allow the Scriptures to be a part of the conversation. So, it is wonderful to be around the Global Campfire today with you, as we take that next step forward. This week we will read from the Contemporary English Version and obviously we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday, and that leads us back into the book of second Chronicles. Yesterday, we kind of moved through that apex time of the height of Solomon’s reign and the quick demise of Israel itself. When…when 10 of the northern tribes rejected Solomon’s son Rehoboam to be their king. And so, now we are in a time where the monarchy is divided, the nation of Israel is now the nation of Israel which are the 10 tribes in the north and the kingdom of Judah, which also encompasses the holy city of Jerusalem in the south. Jeroboam is king in the north; Rehoboam is king in the South. And let’s pick up the story, second Chronicles chapters 11, 12 and 13 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for this brand-new week that we have entered together and as we acknowledged at the beginning, this is a time of gratefulness, it’s a fresh start. So, as we continue our journey through second Chronicles and through the letter to the Romans this week, as we get deeper and deeper into the letter to the Romans, quicken our hearts, awaken our minds and spirits that we may drink deeply from these truths, that describe our reality in You. Holy Spirit, come and lead us into all truth. We ask this so often but there isn’t a time we don’t need that and so come and reveal truth to us that we might walk in it. We pray this in the precious and mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey, this is Tom from Lovett, Texas. I could sure use a lot of prayer. As probably with most people, life goes up and down. Right now, I’m in a down place a hard place. Health issues are going on that need some answers for. God’s done it before, I know He can do it again. So, if you pray that would be awesome. Thank you, I do enjoy the group here, the Daily Audio Bible family and hearing good things and prayer requests. And also thank You God for that. God bless you.
Father God, my name is Robert Giles and I pray Lord in Jesus Holy and Mighty name, God for those that are less fortunate in this world and don’t have the power of God to escape the pull of darkness. I pray God, as I work with the homeless God, many of whom suffer from addiction Lord, and mental health issues God. I pray for them God, that they would seek the light of the Lord God. I pray God for my job, Lord, that you would cover the walls Lord, with Your Holy Spirit God. That you would give me the power Lord, to continue to walk while I show the right way and leave a light.

Hello DAB family, I’m just going to label myself as Broken. I have two things, the first one is the hardest. My younger daughter has cut off all communication with me. Yesterday, I ran into someone who is a mutual friend and she said, your daughters okay. Which just brought all the up again. So, I really need prayer for that. Second, I was in a big accident four years ago. Lots of things were broken and I’m a concert organist and I play piano and big pipe organ for worship. But I haven’t been able to. My wrist was broken in that accident and I didn’t even know. So, I have a specialist appt and I dreamed last night that they said it was too late. But I don’t believe that. It can’t be too late for me. I place both things in God’s hands but I really need your prayers. Thank you so much, bye.

Good morning, everyone, my name is Womey and I want to be known as Standing on the Promises of God. I am a first-time caller. I have been listening to Daily Audio Bible for many years. I would like to use this opportunity to say a good thank you to Brian Hardin and his family. I pray that this ministry shall continue to touch lives in Jesus’ name. I would also like to pray for God’s children’s that are experiencing a relapse, a recurrence, a resurface of cancer of mental illness and whatsoever disease out there. I pray for you, Nathan, that’s the message was read, was played on the 16th of July. I also pray for you Travis; the message was played on the 13th of July. God, his name is El Roi, Travis, and He has seen your tears. He has wiped your tears away. So, God’s sees you. And I believe that whosoever the Son has set free, has been freed indeed. So, we believe for freedom of mind, for peace of mind, concerning your life, in Jesus’ name. I would also like to pray for Jeremiah whose message was played first on the 10th of May and then he left another message which was played on the 18th of July. Jeremiah, I want to just thank you for your follow-ups and say that you have inspired so many of us. And yes, I am a firm believer in taking a break from toxic relationships because one also needs healing. So, we thank God and God has healed you from every bitterness, rough, slander, malice according to Ephesians 4:31. So, go in God’s grace, travel well with you, God shall give you wisdom and strength and He shall help you to speak truthful and kind words to your parents. Thank you very much.  

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday July 24, 2022 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 11-13

Shemaiah the Prophet Warns Rehoboam

(1 Kings 12.21-24)

11 After Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem, he decided to attack Israel and regain control of the whole country. So he called together 180,000 soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

Meanwhile, the Lord had told Shemaiah the prophet to tell Rehoboam and everyone from Judah and Benjamin, “The Lord warns you not to go to war against the people from the northern tribes—they are your relatives. Go home! The Lord is the one who made these things happen.”

Rehoboam and his army obeyed the Lord's message and did not attack Jeroboam and his troops.

Rehoboam Fortifies Cities in Judah

Rehoboam ruled from Jerusalem, and he had several cities in Judah turned into fortresses so he could use them to defend his country. These cities included Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Beth-Zur, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, 10 Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. After he had fortified these cities in the territories of Judah and Benjamin, 11 he assigned an army commander to each of them and stocked them with supplies of food, olive oil, and wine, 12 as well as with shields and spears. He used these fortified cities to keep control of Judah and Benjamin.

The Priests and the Levites Support Rehoboam

13 The priests and Levites from the northern tribes of Israel gave their support to King Rehoboam. 14 And since Jeroboam and the kings of Israel that followed him would not allow any Levites to serve as priests, most Levites left their towns and pasturelands in Israel and moved to Jerusalem and other towns in Judah. 15 (A) Jeroboam chose his own priests to serve at the local shrines[a] in Israel and at the places of worship where he had set up statues of goat-demons and of calves.

16 But some of the people from Israel wanted to worship the Lord God, just as their ancestors had done. So they followed the priests and Levites to Jerusalem, where they could offer sacrifices to the Lord. 17 For the next three years, they lived in Judah and were loyal to Rehoboam and his kingdom, just as they had been loyal to David and Solomon.

Rehoboam's Family

18 Rehoboam married Mahalath, whose father was Jerimoth son of David, and whose mother was Abihail the daughter of Eliab and granddaughter of Jesse. 19 Rehoboam and Mahalath had three sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. 20 Then Rehoboam married Maacah the daughter of Absalom. Their sons were Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.

21 Rehoboam had 18 wives, but he also married 60 other women,[b] and he was the father of 28 sons and 60 daughters. Rehoboam loved his wife Maacah the most, 22 so he chose their oldest son Abijah to be the next king. 23 Rehoboam was wise enough to put one of his sons in charge of each fortified city in his kingdom. He gave them all the supplies they needed and found wives for every one of them.

King Shishak of Egypt Invades Judah

(1 Kings 14.25-28)

12 Soon after Rehoboam had control of his kingdom, he and everyone in Judah stopped obeying the Lord. So in the fifth year of Rehoboam's rule, the Lord punished them for their unfaithfulness and allowed King Shishak of Egypt to invade Judah. Shishak attacked with his army of 1,200 chariots and 60,000 cavalry troops, as well as countless Egyptian soldiers from Libya, Sukkoth, and Ethiopia.[c] He captured every one of the fortified cities in Judah and then marched to Jerusalem.

Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah had gone to Jerusalem to escape Shishak's invasion. And while they were there, Shemaiah the prophet told them, “The Lord says that because you have disobeyed him, he has now abandoned you. The Lord will not help you against Shishak!”

Rehoboam and the leaders were sorry for what they had done and admitted, “The Lord is right. We have deserted him.”

When the Lord heard this, he told Shemaiah:

The people of Judah are truly sorry for their sins, and so I won't let Shishak completely destroy them. But because I am still angry, he will conquer and rule them.

Then my people will know what it's like to serve a foreign king instead of serving me.

(B) Shishak attacked Jerusalem and took all the valuable things from the temple and from the palace, including Solomon's gold shields.

10 Rehoboam had bronze shields made to replace the gold ones, and he ordered the guards at the city gates to keep them safe. 11 Whenever Rehoboam went to the Lord's temple, the guards carried the shields. But they always took them back to the guardroom as soon as he had finished worshiping.

12 Rehoboam turned back to the Lord, and so the Lord did not let Judah be completely destroyed, and Judah was prosperous again.

Rehoboam's Rule in Judah

(1 Kings 14.21,29-31)

13 Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king, and he ruled 17 years from Jerusalem, the city where the Lord had chosen to be worshiped. His mother Naamah was from Ammon. Rehoboam was a powerful king, 14 but he still did wrong and refused to obey the Lord.

15 Everything else Rehoboam did while he was king, including a history of his family, is written in the records of the two prophets, Shemaiah and Iddo. During Rehoboam's rule, he and King Jeroboam of Israel were constantly at war. 16 When Rehoboam died, he was buried beside his ancestors in Jerusalem, and his son Abijah became king.

King Abijah of Judah

(1 Kings 15.1-8)

13 Abijah[d] became king of Judah in Jeroboam's eighteenth year as king of Israel, and he ruled from Jerusalem for three years. His mother was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel from Gibeah.

Some time later, Abijah and King Jeroboam of Israel went to war against each other. Abijah's army had 400,000 troops, and Jeroboam met him in battle with 800,000 troops.

Abijah went to the top of Mount Zemaraim[e] in the hills of Ephraim and shouted:

Listen, Jeroboam and all you Israelites! The Lord God of Israel has made a solemn promise that every king of Israel will be from David's family. But Jeroboam, you were King Solomon's official, and you rebelled. Then right after Rehoboam became king, you and your bunch of worthless followers challenged Rehoboam, who was too young to know how to stop you.

Now you and your powerful army think you can stand up to the kingdom that the Lord has given to David's descendants. The only gods you have are those gold statues of calves that Jeroboam made for you. You don't even have descendants of Aaron on your side, because you forced out the Lord's priests and Levites. In their place, you appoint ordinary people to be priests, just as the foreign nations do. In fact, anyone who brings a bull and seven rams to the altar can become a priest of your so-called gods.

10 But we have not turned our backs on the Lord God! Aaron's own descendants serve as our priests, and the Levites are their assistants. 11 Two times every day they offer sacrifices and burn incense to the Lord. They set out the sacred loaves of bread on a table that has been purified, and they light the lamps in the gold lampstand every day at sunset. We follow the commands of the Lord our God—you have rejected him! 12 That's why God is on our side and will lead us into battle when the priests sound the signal on the trumpets. It's no use, Israelites. You might as well give up. There's no way you can defeat the Lord, the God your ancestors worshiped.

13 But while Abijah was talking, Jeroboam had sent some of his troops to attack Judah's army from behind, while the rest attacked from the front. 14 Judah's army realized they were trapped, and so they prayed to the Lord. The priests blew the signal on the trumpet, 15 and the troops let out a battle cry. Then with Abijah leading them into battle, God defeated Jeroboam and Israel's army. 16 The Israelites ran away, and God helped Judah's soldiers slaughter 17 500,000 enemy troops. 18 Judah's army won because they had trusted the Lord God of their ancestors.

19 Abijah kept up his attack on Jeroboam's army and captured the Israelite towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, as well as the villages around them.

20 Jeroboam never regained his power during the rest of Abijah's rule. The Lord punished Jeroboam, and he died, but Abijah became more powerful.

21 Abijah had a total of 14 wives, 22 sons, and 16 daughters. 22 Everything Abijah said and did while he was king is written in the records of Iddo the prophet.

Footnotes:

  1. 11.15 local shrines: The Hebrew text has “high places,” which were local places to worship foreign gods.
  2. 11.21 other women: This translates a Hebrew word for women who were legally bound to a man, but without the full privileges of a wife.
  3. 12.3 Ethiopia: The Hebrew text has “Cush,” which was a region south of Egypt that included parts of the present countries of Ethiopia and Sudan.
  4. 13.1 Abijah: In 1 Kings 15.1-8 his name is spelled “Abijam.”
  5. 13.4 Mount Zemaraim: Probably located on the northern border of the territory of Benjamin.
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Romans 8:26-39

26 In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don't know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words. 27 (A) All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God's people. 28 We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him.[a] They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose, 29 and he has always known who his chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like his own Son, so his Son would be the first of many children. 30 God then accepted the people he had already decided to choose, and he has shared his glory with them.

God's Love

31 What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us? 32 God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won't he freely give us everything else? 33 If God says his chosen ones are acceptable to him, can anyone bring charges against them? 34 Or can anyone condemn them? No indeed! Christ died and was raised to life, and now he is at God's right side,[b] speaking to him for us. 35 Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death? 36 (B) It is exactly as the Scriptures say,

“For you we face death
all day long.
We are like sheep
on their way
to be butchered.”

37 In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. 38 I am sure that nothing can separate us from God's love—not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, 39 and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Footnotes:

  1. 8.28 God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him: Or “All things work for the good of everyone who loves God” or “God's Spirit always works for the good of everyone who loves God.”
  2. 8.34 right side: The place of power and honor.

Cross references:

  1. 8.27 : 4 Macc 10.18.
  2. 8.36 : Ps 44.22.
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Psalm 18:37-50

37 I kept chasing my enemies,
until I caught them
and destroyed them.
38 I stuck my sword
through my enemies,
and they were crushed
under my feet.
39 You helped me win victories,
and you forced my attackers
to fall victim to me.

40 You made my enemies run,
and I killed them.
41 They cried out for help,
but no one saved them;
they called out to you,
but there was no answer.
42 I ground them to dust
blown by the wind,
and I poured them out
like mud in the streets.

43 You rescued me
from stubborn people,
and you made me the leader
of foreign nations,
who are now my slaves.
44 They obey and come crawling.
45 They have lost all courage,
and from their fortresses,
they come trembling.

46 You are the living Lord!
I will praise you.
You are a mighty rock.[a]
I will honor you
for keeping me safe.
47 You took revenge for me,
and you put nations
in my power.
48 You protected me
from violent enemies
and made me much greater
than all of them.

49 (A) I will praise you, Lord,
and I will honor you
among the nations.
50 You give glorious victories
to your chosen king.
Your faithful love for David
and for his descendants
will never end.

Footnotes:

  1. 18.46 mighty rock: See the note at 18.2.

Cross references:

  1. 18.49 : Ro 15.9.
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

Proverbs 19:27-29

27 If you stop learning,
you will forget
what you already know.
28 A lying witness makes fun
of the court system,
and criminals think crime
is really delicious.
29 A stupid fool should expect
to be punished.

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

07/23/2022 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 8:11-10:19, Romans 8:9-25, Psalms 18:16-36, Proverbs 19:26

Today is the 23rd day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s awesome to be here with you every day. It’s awesome to be here with you around the Global Campfire as we move forward on our journey. And this journey is well underway. We’re well into the Scriptures, but we’re in a journey that takes us all the way through, and we do that, step-by-step day by day. And, so, we’re here for the next step. And that next step leads us back to second Chronicles in the Old Testament and the book of Romans in the New. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week which is today and then we’ll move forward tomorrow. But for today second Chronicles chapter 8 verse 11 through 10 verse 19.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You indeed for another week to spend on this earth together in community day by day moving through the Scriptures. And as is so often the case, we find ourselves in a state of gratitude because the Scriptures speak to our lives. They inform our lives. They inform our choices. They bring the voice of wisdom to us and reveal the crossroads in our lives. And we confess, there’s plenty of times we’re not paying attention but that’s not because it’s not available and it’s not there. So, we thank You for wisdom. We thank You for mercy. We thank You for grace. We thank You for freedom. All of the things that we are learning about in the letter to the Romans right now. We thank You for these things. Holy Spirit come, and as we cooperate by surrendering and submitting ourselves before You give us eyes to see and ears to hear, that we might see clearly the path that we are walking together with You forever. We pray this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

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Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources in the Shop for the journey that we are taking together through the Bible in a year, through a year of our lives in community. And, so, there are a number of resources for all kinds of ways to be connected and take the journey further and deeper in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you humbly. Thank you. We could not be here…we could not be here if we were not in this together. 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, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

This is Grant from __. I just want to take a moment this morning to pray for all of y'all out there. I don’t know what all your problems are, but God does. I just pray that, Lord that you please just be with all the people that need you, please just bless them, take care of them, and love them. Please just guide them in the direction that you wish for them to take. Please help all those that are having mental issues and cancer, fighting cancer and all. Lord, you know all their problems. Lord, I ask you please just be with them, bless them. Give them your love. Take care of them. I pray these things in your name Jesus. Amen. Love all y'all. Hope you have a great day. Hope the Lord is with you. Take care.

Hey family this is Mindy calling from Ohio and I was calling hopefully to encourage our sister Ashley from California. I heard your prayer request and it made me just think of something that has encouraged me in the last day or two. I heard a message from a pastor that talked about things that we can’t do for all of eternity. We can praise God. We can worship God. We can all of that for all of eternity, but we can’t do it in the midst of our brokenness or in the midst of our pain and our loss. But we have that opportunity to do that here now for such a short time. And it really made me think of what else can’t we do in eternity. And I’ve just been thinking just this morning of, we can’t show the radical love of God to the lost. We can’t tell people that don’t know Jesus about Him. We can’t love people that don’t love us. We can’t do any of that for all of eternity, but we have right now to be able to do that and to be able to sacrifice our way to God and to just give Him that gift of just a sacrifice, just to lay it at His feet, to be instruments of His righteousness in a lost and broken and dark world and bring light into darkness. All of these things we won’t be able to do for eternity, but we can do them now. So, sister I just hope this encourages you and just helps you be the shining light that you’ve been to us when you call in, to be that to your family in the midst of everything you guys are going through. And we’ll be praying for you. OK. Love you guys. Bye.

Good morning DAB this is Pamela from Texas. I just want to encourage you. If you don’t listen to the prayers afterwards to take the time to listen because whether they’re praying for you or not sometimes what is said will speak directly to you. I heard a word on June the 12th. She didn’t even give her name. She just started out my sister in Christ from Texas I feel I have a word for you from the Holy Spirit. And I don’t even think she was praying for me. She was probably praying for someone else in Texas. But what she said I know was a word for me directly from the Holy Spirit and it really resonated with me and spoke to me because of what I was going through. And I don’t call in very much but I’m going to start calling in because I do pray for those requests that God lays on my heart to pray for. And I am encouraged by this podcast and the prayers that everyone prays and how everyone prays for all of us. So, I know that I need prayer and I just wanna encourage everybody to pray and to listen to the prayers because sometimes those prayers will speak to you. Thank you, Brian. I love y’all. Have a great and Jesus filled day. Amen.

Hey everybody this is Jonathan from Denver. I’m calling in need of prayer today. I had some time off this week, took a little extra time off and I was planning to kind of go on my version of the long walk because I wasn’t able to on last Thursday. But instead, I kind of wasted a lot of that time and I sort of spiraled and I didn’t end up doing any of this stuff that I wanted to do. So, I’m just feeling really down and like I am not serving the Lord well and like I’m preventing myself from doing God’s will, which just feels lousy. So, I just ask that you would pray for me as I continue to go through this week. I’m back on and listening and I’m hoping that just hearing more of the word will help me. But your prayers are really coveted, and I thank you for this community and for all that you do for me. I’ve been feeling quite…quite isolated from any sort of faith community. So, this is really a godsend. So, thank you.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday July 23, 2022 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 8:11-10:19

11 (A)Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.”

12 Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord (B)that he had built before the vestibule, 13 (C)as the duty of each day required, offering (D)according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the (E)three annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. 14 According to the ruling of David his father, he appointed (F)the divisions of the priests for their service, (G)and the Levites for their offices of praise and (H)ministry before the priests (I)as the duty of each day required, and (J)the gatekeepers in their divisions at each gate, for so David (K)the man of God had commanded. 15 And they did not turn aside from what the king had commanded the priests and Levites concerning any matter and concerning the treasuries.

16 Thus was accomplished all the work of Solomon from[a] the day the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

17 Then Solomon went to (L)Ezion-geber and (M)Eloth on the shore of the sea, in the land of Edom. 18 And Hiram sent to him by the hand of his servants ships and servants familiar with the sea, and they went to Ophir together with the servants of Solomon and brought from there (N)450 talents[b] of gold and brought it to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba

(O)Now when (P)the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her. And when (Q)the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his cupbearers, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.

And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the[c] reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me; you surpass the report that I heard. Happy are your wives![d] Happy are these your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you (R)and set you on his throne as king for the Lord your God! (S)Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” Then she gave the king 120 talents[e] of gold, and a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones. There were no spices such as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

10 Moreover, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, (T)who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum wood and precious stones. 11 And the king made from the algum wood (U)supports for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, lyres also and harps for the singers. There never was seen the like of them before in the land of Judah.

12 And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked (V)besides what she had brought to the king. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.

Solomon's Wealth

13 (W)Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 14 besides that which the explorers and merchants brought. (X)And all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land brought gold and silver to Solomon. 15 King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels[f] of beaten gold went into each shield. 16 And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; (Y)300 shekels of gold went into each shield; and the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. 17 The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. 18 The throne had six steps and a footstool of gold, which were attached to the throne, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, 19 while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. Nothing like it was ever made for any kingdom. 20 All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. Silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. 21 For the king's ships went to (Z)Tarshish with the servants of Hiram. Once every three years the ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.[g]

22 Thus King Solomon (AA)excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. 23 And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. 24 Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and of gold, garments, myrrh,[h] spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. 25 And Solomon had (AB)4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 26 (AC)And he ruled over all the kings (AD)from the Euphrates[i] to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. 27 (AE)And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. 28 (AF)And horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all lands.

Solomon's Death

29 (AG)Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, from (AH)first to last, are they not written in the history of (AI)Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of (AJ)Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of (AK)Iddo (AL)the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat? 30 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. 31 And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in (AM)the city of David his father, and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

The Revolt Against Rehoboam

10 (AN)Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, (AO)where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. And they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all Israel came and said to Rehoboam, (AP)“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” He said to them, “Come to me again in three days.” So the people went away.

Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men,[j] who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” And they said to him, (AQ)“If you will be good to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” 10 And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us’; thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. 11 And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.” 13 And the king answered them harshly; and forsaking the counsel of the old men, 14 King Rehoboam spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by God that the Lord might fulfill his word, (AR)which he spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

16 And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. (AS)Each of you to your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So all Israel went to their tents. 17 But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. 18 Then King Rehoboam sent (AT)Hadoram,[k] who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and the people of Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam quickly mounted his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

Footnotes:

  1. 2 Chronicles 8:16 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew to
  2. 2 Chronicles 8:18 A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms
  3. 2 Chronicles 9:6 Hebrew their
  4. 2 Chronicles 9:7 Septuagint (compare 1 Kings 10:8); Hebrew men
  5. 2 Chronicles 9:9 A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms
  6. 2 Chronicles 9:15 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
  7. 2 Chronicles 9:21 Or baboons
  8. 2 Chronicles 9:24 Or armor
  9. 2 Chronicles 9:26 Hebrew the River
  10. 2 Chronicles 10:6 Or the elders; also verses 8, 13
  11. 2 Chronicles 10:18 Spelled Adoram in 1 Kings 12:18

Cross references:

  1. 2 Chronicles 8:11 : 1 Kgs. 3:1; 7:8; 9:24
  2. 2 Chronicles 8:12 : ch. 4:1; 15:8
  3. 2 Chronicles 8:13 : [Ex. 29:38]
  4. 2 Chronicles 8:13 : Num. 28:3, 9, 11, 26; 29:2
  5. 2 Chronicles 8:13 : Ex. 23:14; Deut. 16:16
  6. 2 Chronicles 8:14 : See 1 Chr. 24
  7. 2 Chronicles 8:14 : See 1 Chr. 25
  8. 2 Chronicles 8:14 : ch. 7:6
  9. 2 Chronicles 8:14 : [See ver. 13 above]; [Ex. 29:38]
  10. 2 Chronicles 8:14 : See 1 Chr. 9:17-23, 26
  11. 2 Chronicles 8:14 : Neh. 12:24, 36
  12. 2 Chronicles 8:17 : 1 Kgs. 9:26
  13. 2 Chronicles 8:17 : [Deut. 2:8; 2 Kgs. 14:22]
  14. 2 Chronicles 8:18 : ch. 9:10; [1 Kgs. 9:28]
  15. 2 Chronicles 9:1 : For ver. 1-12, see 1 Kgs. 10:1-13
  16. 2 Chronicles 9:1 : [Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31]
  17. 2 Chronicles 9:3 : [See ver. 1 above]; [Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31]
  18. 2 Chronicles 9:8 : 1 Chr. 29:23
  19. 2 Chronicles 9:8 : ch. 2:11
  20. 2 Chronicles 9:10 : ch. 8:18
  21. 2 Chronicles 9:11 : [1 Kgs. 10:12]
  22. 2 Chronicles 9:12 : [1 Kgs. 10:13]
  23. 2 Chronicles 9:13 : For ver. 13-28, see 1 Kgs. 10:14-28
  24. 2 Chronicles 9:14 : Ps. 68:29; 72:10
  25. 2 Chronicles 9:16 : [1 Kgs. 10:17]
  26. 2 Chronicles 9:21 : ch. 20:36, 37
  27. 2 Chronicles 9:22 : 1 Kgs. 3:13
  28. 2 Chronicles 9:25 : [ch. 1:14; 1 Kgs. 4:26; 10:26]
  29. 2 Chronicles 9:26 : 1 Kgs. 4:21
  30. 2 Chronicles 9:26 : Gen. 15:18; Ex. 23:31; Ps. 72:8
  31. 2 Chronicles 9:27 : ch. 1:15
  32. 2 Chronicles 9:28 : ch. 1:16
  33. 2 Chronicles 9:29 : For ver. 29-31, see 1 Kgs. 11:41-43
  34. 2 Chronicles 9:29 : 1 Chr. 29:29
  35. 2 Chronicles 9:29 : 2 Sam. 12:1
  36. 2 Chronicles 9:29 : 1 Kgs. 11:29
  37. 2 Chronicles 9:29 : ch. 12:15; 13:22
  38. 2 Chronicles 9:29 : 2 Sam. 24:11; See 1 Sam. 9:9
  39. 2 Chronicles 9:31 : [1 Kgs. 2:10]
  40. 2 Chronicles 10:1 : For ver. 1-19, see 1 Kgs. 12:1-20
  41. 2 Chronicles 10:2 : 1 Kgs. 11:40
  42. 2 Chronicles 10:4 : [1 Kgs. 5:15]
  43. 2 Chronicles 10:7 : [1 Kgs. 12:7]
  44. 2 Chronicles 10:15 : See 1 Kgs. 11:29-39
  45. 2 Chronicles 10:16 : See 2 Sam. 20:1
  46. 2 Chronicles 10:18 : [1 Kgs. 4:6; 5:14]
English Standard Version (ESV)

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Romans 8:9-25

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact (A)the Spirit of God dwells in you. (B)Anyone who does not have (C)the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of (D)him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[a] from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies (E)through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Heirs with Christ

12 So then, brothers,[b] we are debtors, (F)not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you (G)put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are (H)led by the Spirit of God are (I)sons[c] of God. 15 For (J)you did not receive (K)the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of (L)adoption as sons, by whom we cry, (M)“Abba! Father!” 16 (N)The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then (O)heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, (P)provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Future Glory

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time (Q)are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for (R)the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation (S)was subjected to futility, not willingly, but (T)because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that (U)the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that (V)the whole creation (W)has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have (X)the firstfruits of the Spirit, (Y)groan inwardly as (Z)we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, (AA)the redemption of our bodies. 24 For (AB)in this hope we were saved. Now (AC)hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we (AD)wait for it with patience.

Footnotes:

  1. Romans 8:11 Some manuscripts lack Jesus
  2. Romans 8:12 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 29
  3. Romans 8:14 See discussion on “sons” in the Preface
English Standard Version (ESV)

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Psalm 18:16-36

16 He (A)sent from on high, he took me;
he (B)drew me out of (C)many waters.
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were (D)too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into (E)a broad place;
he rescued me, because he (F)delighted in me.

20 The Lord dealt with me (G)according to my righteousness;
according to (H)the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
21 For I have (I)kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For (J)all his rules[a] were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I was (K)blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
24 So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

25 With (L)the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
26 with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with (M)the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
27 For you save (N)a humble people,
but (O)the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 For it is you who light my (P)lamp;
the Lord my God lightens my darkness.
29 For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can (Q)leap over (R)a wall.
30 This God—his way is (S)perfect;[b]
the word of the Lord (T)proves true;
he is (U)a shield for all those who (V)take refuge in him.

31 For (W)who is God, but the Lord?
And who is (X)a rock, except our God?—
32 the God who (Y)equipped me with strength
and made my way (Z)blameless.
33 He made my feet like the feet of a (AA)deer
and set me secure on (AB)the heights.
34 He (AC)trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand (AD)supported me,
and your (AE)gentleness made me great.
36 You (AF)gave a wide place for my steps under me,
and my feet did not slip.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 18:22 Or just decrees
  2. Psalm 18:30 Or blameless
English Standard Version (ESV)

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Proverbs 19:26

26 He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother
is (A)a son who brings shame and reproach.

Cross references:

  1. Proverbs 19:26 : ch. 10:5; 17:2
English Standard Version (ESV)

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

07/22/2022 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10, Romans 7:14-8:8, Psalm 18:1-15, Proverbs 19:24-25

Today is the 22nd day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is truly an honor and a privilege, to be here with you today, as we gather around the Global Campfire and take our next step forward through the Scriptures. It is awesome to be here together with you, today. So, let’s take that next step forward, which will lead us back into the book of second Chronicles and the reign of King Solomon. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, second Chronicles chapter 6 verse 12 through 8 verse 10.

Commentary:

Okay so, in the letter to the Romans today, Paul had some things to say that everybody should be able to fully, completely, understand and relate to. Even though, this letter is thousands of years old, it’s immediate. Paul said, I don’t understand my own actions. I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate. We can probably all relate to that; we probably have all found ourselves in those predicaments before. And how does this work, with all that Paul has been saying about being free from the claims of sin and the law just being there to reveal our transgression like, how does this work? He’s saying, basically, I know what’s right, but I can’t do it. Paul goes on to say, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So, it’s not I who do it, it’s sin that’s with in me. So, Paul is saying this battle between good and evil, right and wrong, darkness and light, is a war that is waged within ourselves and the choices that we make reveal the Victor, and what becomes apparent is we can’t do this anymore than anyone could obey the law perfectly. So, what do we do? Paul says, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then, he goes on to say something very famous; there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death. So, the law is a good thing because it reveals sin, which is a bad thing. But the law cannot save you from your sins, it can simply reveal them to you, only Jesus can remove them from you and save you. The law is a revealer, not a Redeemer. The work of Christ didn’t condemn the law, it condemned the sin that the law reveals. Or quoting Paul “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God is done with the law, weakened by the flesh could not do by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh”. And then, He goes on to say, for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit, for to set the mind on the flesh his death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. And we live in the tension between the two. And if this sounds like a fairly, highly theological formula, just consider that there is a practical option here. We can walk by the flesh or walk by the Spirit, we can follow the path of sin to its conclusion or we can turn to the Spirit and walk the path of peace. And so, when something comes up in our lives, whether it’s a compulsion or an addiction or a person or an item or whatever, when we feel pulled toward that thing, knowing that it’s not good for us, what if we just try what Paul is saying and understand that we can turn to the Spirit and walk by the Spirit, turning away from something that will be harmful for us and reaching to God for mercy in the moment, to give us the strength that we need. Like, what would be the downside of just trying to live that way, the way that Paul is suggesting. What if we practice it today and if Paul is right, and I believe he’s right, maybe we can practice it tomorrow and then practice it the next day and keep practicing it and see the fruit of it, see how it begins to shape our lives.

Prayer:

And so, Holy Spirit, we certainly need You in that, we’re talking about You, we’re talking about turning to You, when we turned to other things for comfort. You are the comforter, and we turned to all kinds of other things to bring comfort to us that really just steal things from us in the end. And we are grateful and humbled and do not deserve forgiveness. We don’t deserve the mercy, that You bestow upon us every single day, but we do accept it. We can’t earn it, but we do accept it. And in response, we should just turn away from it and do everything that will destroy us. We should turn to You, who have offered such grace and mercy in our lives. So, Holy Spirit, that’s what we do now, we turn to You and walk with You, but we ask for Your help as we feel the pull to all kinds of other things throughout the course of this day, in the coming days because this is the nature of life. May we turn to You, the one who actually knows it’s a narrow path that leads to life. Holy Spirit, come into this we pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home, home base, that’s the website. That’s where you can find out what’s happening around the Global Campfire. The Daily Audio Bible app does that just as well and that can be acquired at the App Store that is associated with whatever smart device that you use, just search for Daily Audio Bible. You should be able to find it, so certainly check that out. Check out the Community Section; this is where to get connected on social media and follow Daily Audio Bible when there’s announcements, etc. etc. as well as, to get connected with others, so check it out. Also, in the Community Section is the Prayer Wall and that can only be found on the website or in the Daily Audio Bible app, that’s here for this community, we who are taking this journey, step-by-step, day-by-day through the Scriptures. So, if you are carrying burdens that are crushing and too heavy, you don’t have to do that alone, there are brothers and sisters around the world, that will pray for you. Or maybe your heart is just leading you to encourage another brother or sister who is getting crushed by life. That’s also a place to go Daily Audio Bible Prayer Wall and that can be found in the Community Section, so check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if being around the Global Campfire is an encouraging piece of your day and in your life, then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi family, this is Rula from Sydney, Australia. I was just calling to answer one of the prayer requests that was made on the 15th of July, Justin from Virginia. I just wanted to reach out to you. I’ve recorded a message over 20 times and I have struggled to place words together to pray for you, not because I’m not praying with you or praying for you but because I just struggle with prayer and I struggle with words. So, I’ve tried to pray for you, to record the prayer but I just don’t know what to say. Because that’s just me, I don’t know what to say. I can’t, it takes me forever to type an email for work. It takes me forever to string together my thoughts. It takes me forever to put together a prayer. I’m praying for you, I love you. I heard your cries; I heard your prayers. And I know the whole family is praying for you. And I was listening to, in my attempt to record something or to pray for you, I thought, I’d listen to the podcast on the 18th of July and I’ll tell you what Justin, it, everything, from the reading, from Brian’s words and from the prayers that happened afterwards and even to the two minute silence at the end of the prayers. All of it spoke to my heart and it’s exactly what I wanted to say to you. I just wanted to say when the enemy attacks, just plug yourself into the word, plug yourself into the Daily Audio Bible community and into the Daily Audio Bible. And that gives you strength and that gives you a peace that transcends all understanding. Praying for you Justin. Be strong.

Hello everybody. This is God’s Smile Puddle and Peter Puddle. The reason why we said that, is because in the UK, yesterday and today it is really, really hot. It’s above 30 degrees. I know a lot of you, American, USA, are in Fahrenheit. So, you’ll have to work that out but, yeah, were in Centigrade over here. We rarely go over the 20’s the low 20’s here in the UK. We’re not climatized to this at all, are we Peter? No, and we’re only having two days of it so, you know, ha ha ha, weeeee. We got three fans running in the house, we have no a/c over here in the UK because you know, by the time the heat comes, it’s gone at some point. Yeah, it’s going tonight. I hope it goes. Back down to 20 degrees tomorrow. Sleeping with no clothes on, no covers. Bed clothes on, ah, well, be clothes on. I stand corrected, Peter, shall we sing quickly. Have we got time to sing? We’ve got a minute, come on, let’s squeeze it in. Father in heaven, How we love you. We lift your name in all the earth. May your kingdom be established in your graces. And your people declare your mighty works. Blessed be the Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come. Blessed be the Lord God Almighty, who reigns forevermore. Thank you Lord that You reign. I’ve been through a bit of a storm these last few weeks. So, I’ll be quiet and times ticking away. Kiss kiss, bye bye.

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier, just calling to pray for the person that, the precious little boy that’s 18 months old that choked. I want to pray for that mom and that little precious boy that God will work a miracle of the kind of God he is. Gracious Father, we just ask you to touch that precious little baby and what he’s going through Lord. Oh Father, and touch that mother and that family. Lord, in the name of Jesus, you are a miracle worker, nothings impossible for you. You touch those doctors, you touch their mind Lord, everlasting to the everlasting. Father, you have your way. You touch Father, those who are going through anxiety, those who are going through depression. Lord, and you also, we ask you to touch Renzo, Lord, and encourage him and let him know that the Lord is with him. He said he would never leave us, nor forsake us. Let it be in the praise, God, and let God have his way. When the praises go up the blessings come down. Let God have his way. And I say that to those going through anxiety and to praise up the Lord. And even in your anxiety, He will give you joy unspeakable and full of glory. And Lord, we give you the glory. I want to thank Brian and Jill and all and tell Jill a belated Happy Birthday. And to all the people of God. Joe the Protector, it’s good to hear from you. We are still praying for your daughter. And I’m still praying for Blind Tony’s family. And all the people of God. Have a great day. Love you all.

Good morning my DAB family. It’s Susan from Canada, God’s Yellow Flower calling. And I just heard July 20th I think it’s Janet from the UK, who’s mom had a bad fall and she has to fly to the U.S. to make a decision. So, let’s pray family. Lord God, you know this situation better than anybody. You know exactly what’s wrong, where the bleeding is, you know Janet’s mothers lifespan. You have every step planned from before she was born. So, we pray Your hand in this whole situation. We pray for a smooth travels for Janet to come to the U.S., we pray for traveling mercies and safety. And we pray for wisdom and strength as she goes through this very difficult decisions she has to make and seeing her mother so very, very ill. We pray, Lord God, in the blessed name of Jesus, that you would grant Jan this wisdom she needs. Jesus, Jesus, the strength she needs, the courage she needs and the rest she needs. She needs rest in You, dear Lord. Bring her the peace that surpasses all understanding. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Hello, this is Leanne, Lily of the Valley. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for a few years now. I’m from Florida. And I just want to say, thank you Brian and Jill for all that you’ve done and continue to do for us. But I’m calling to pray for the young lady that’s in London and going through the nursing test. Just keep the faith. I am doing the same thing with taking the state board test in Florida. It’s not easy but just knowing that God is in control. And the right time is your time. And I’m calling regarding the young man that saying that he’s too old to, to become a pastor or a priest. You’re never too old if that’s what God calls you to do. I am coming in from the nursing field and now, I mean an accountant and now I’m going into the nursing field. I thank God for every step that he has made in my life. And he will continue to do the same for you. Thank you Daily Audio Family, love you guys.