8/7/2022 DAB

Ezra 4:24-6:22, 1 Corinthians 3:5-23, Psalm 29:1-11, Proverbs 20:26-27

Today is the seventh day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today, as we greet a brand-new week, shiny and sparkly, all waiting for us to enter into moment-by-moment, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day. It’s all out in front of us and it is such an honor to be around the Global Campfire with you today, as we take the next step forward on our grand adventure, that leads us through a year of life and through every verse, chapter, book, word, of the Scriptures. And so, we’re picking up where we left off yesterday, so that we can accomplish that goal. That will lead us back into the book of Ezra in the Old Testament; in first Corinthians, in the new. This week, we will read from the Christian Standard Bible. So, let’s pick up the story in Ezra, a letter has been sent to put the returning exiles, who are desiring to rebuild the temple of the Lord and rebuild Jerusalem, to put them in a bad light and this is ultimately successful for a time, the work gets halted for a time. That’s kind of where we left things off, as we ended yesterday. Let’s pickup today, Ezra chapter 4 verse 24 through 6 verse 22.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for the Scriptures and the gift that they are and what Paul was saying today in first Corinthians, is certainly something that we can relate to and are guilty of, we often put our faith or some of our faith in our leaders. And invariably, that gets us pulled into different camps, because we are loyal to our leader or our pastor or whatever, we are loyal to that group and invariably that group is against another group, in some sort of way. And so, we get divided into camps. Paul was saying like, who am my, who is Apollos, who is Cephas, like we’re just co-laborers who happen to tell you the truth and raise you up and lead you to go forward, but we’re not like team leaders, who are against one another. Paul tells us everything is ours. Whether it’s Paul, whether it’s Apollo’s or Cephas or even the world or even life or death, or even things that are happening now, or things that are in the future. Everything is ours, that is mind blowing. Everything is ours and we belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. We are God’s temple, and the Spirit of God lives in us. We have it all. It is not our leaders who need praise. It is You, who need praise for bringing leaders into our lives that can help us along the journey. Thank You for that today and may we rest in that, as we move into this week. We are a temple for the Spirit of the living God, who indwells us, who lives in us. We don’t belong to a certain person, we belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Thank You for this, Lord; thank You for this reminder in the Scriptures but thank You for this reality. Who are we? Who are we to ever arrange for such a thing? Who are we to ever deserve such a thing? And yet, in your kindness you’ve considered us worthy? You have grafted us into Your family as sons and daughters and we are humbled. And may we take that humble posture and glory in You and all that we do, that what You have done for us may spill out into the world and that we may be the bringers of Good News. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, this is Dawn Rising in Michigan and I just have a prayer request for a man named Robin. He and his girlfriend were riding a crotch rocket and hit a deer at 70mph in front of my house. And it was bad, the tree, the bike ended up in our tree and he walked away, and his girlfriend had surgery but she’s fine. And so, I, during the accident and waiting for the ambulance you know, I just kept saying, praise God, thank God that you’re walking. And he was like, yeah, thank something. He was just very dismissive and so I just want to have my family wrap him in prayer, lift him up. They’re gonna be fine but I want his spiritual healing and I want him to acknowledge Jesus Christ was his Savior, is his Savior. And so, anyway, his name is Robin and his girlfriend’s name is Kathy. If my family could lift them up in prayer, I would appreciate that family. Thank you, bye.

Hello DAB family, this is Morning Star from Canada calling. And today is August the 3rd. And I just finished listening to our readings for today and the prayer requests after. And I was thinking, when I first started Daily Audio Bible, probably 8 years ago now, I didn’t listen to the prayer requests. I just, when Brian finished his commentary, that was kinda when I pressed stop. But a few years ago, I began to continue and listen to the prayer requests and the praise reports. And I encourage people, if you are just a new listener or you’ve been listening for a long time, and you haven’t listened to the praise reports and prayer requests, I encourage you to do that because it really does build community. You get to know people. You get to hear their voice and recognize their voices. You get to be part of their lives, part of their stories and they become part of your story. So, I just encourage you to do that. But this morning, I just want to quickly pray for the prayer requests that came in today, August 3rd. And they were from Grant, with a heart condition; Maggie, who has terrible loss in the last few months; Joel, for his brother; and then lastly Jonathan. And so, Father, I just bring these people before You. You know their needs, You know their hearts, Father. And I just pray that You would complete the work that You have begun, in each one of their lives. Father, I pray that You would restore the joy of their salvation and that Your name would be glorified in all of their situations. We give them all to You today, Father. In Jesus name. Amen. Bye

Greetings, DAB family, this is Matt calling from St. Louis. I’ve been listening for the past couple of years, but this is my first time recording a prayer. I wanted to encourage you, Amanda, from Colorado. Thank you, for sharing your prayer request. And also, pray for you. But as a word of encouragement, just wanted to let you know, over the past couple of years, I had some health issues, some unemployment and the Lord has met us in our place of need and surprised us, in times of trial. And of course, the trials aren’t all over and there’s still struggles but we have seen Him increase our love for Himself and for one another as a result of these trials. And we’re forever grateful for that. So, I wanted to pray for you Amanda, for your husband and your family. So, Lord, I pray that You would provide for Amanda’s husband in surprising ways in the coming months. I pray that You would draw him closer to Yourself and that You would direct him to a job that he would be surprised by, as I was, myself, last year in were you directed. I pray the same would be true for Amanda’s husband. That You would surprise him not only with the, the kind of job that he did not expect and just finds himself loving, but also with Your provision. I pray for their children, that You would bless them as they raise a child recently diagnosed with Autism, I’m not sure if diagnosed is the right word but recently they found that out. And I pray that You would give them Your grace, Your love, Your compassion, Your direction and understanding. And for their child struggling with anxiety, I pray for Your peace. Bless them, draw them closer to Yourself, closer to one another. Surprise them with Your love, surprise them with Your care, Your tenderness, in all that they now face. So, I lift them up before you, Lord. In Christ name.

Hi DAB family, this is Terribow from United Arab Emirates. I have this testimony that I need to share with us. Two minutes is so short so I’m going to be very fast about it. So, I have, I booked a flight on the 2nd of this month trouble with my 10-year-old daughter to go back home to Cameroon. We are from Cameroon. And, I had it set up from the 2nd to the 9th of August, except this one duty among those days, I was trying everything to swap with another colleague and failed. My money could not help me. I could not get rid of this one duty. So, I got tempted and even my friend advises me to just call sick, you know, they were like, just call in sick, they don’t do anything about it. You don’t have to go to work, you can travel. But deep inside I knew that was wrong cause number 1 I’m not sick and number 2 it was like inviting Satan upon myself. So, I just kept praying to God to please keep me from falling into sin and at the end of the day I could not swap that one duty. So, I had to move our flights to the 15th of this month. And that cost me a lot of money. And again, from the 15th to the 22nd of this month, I have days off except one duty that I was trying to get rid of. And I was like, Father, please, whatever lessons I need to learn from this experience, help me to learn them but please don’t let me fall into sin, help me, help me to do this right. I just need someone to take this duty away from me and give me days off so I can travel. Long story short, today, someone took the duty and I have enough days off and I can travel home with my daughter. Every year I travel home to spend at least one month back home so she will not, back home with my mom, so she will not forget where she came from. You know, and I am so grateful that God did it for me and I did not yield into that temptation of taking the easy way out. So, just join me in thanking God. It’s a miracle for me and I had to share it with you. Thank you so much.

This is Shelly in Oklahoma. Good morning DAB. So, I was thinking this morning as I was mowing and listening to the DAB how much I look forward to this time every morning. And then I thought, is there any good thing, that I can claim I’ve done every day since 2009? Because that’s how long, I’ve been listening. I know, DAB is older than 2009 but that’s the summer that it rocked my world. So, Brian and his family, through illness, blindness, birth of a child, death of a parent, children’s weddings, car accidents, international travel, just to name a few things that would have blind-sided me. Brian, and his family, have been faithful and loyal to God. And because of this, I can listen to God’s spoken word, every day or night, at my convenience. So, no, I can’t think of any good thing that I have done, consistently every day for at least 13 years. But Brian and his family, can. Would you please join me in tithing today to this powerful ministry? This is Shelly in Oklahoma.