Month: August 2022

Nehemiah 1:1-3:14, 1 Corinthians 7:1-24, Psalm 31:19-24, Proverbs 21:4

Today is the 11th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today, today and every day. What an honor for us to gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward in the Scriptures together. And yesterday, we concluded the Book of Ezra, which brings us to some new territory in the Old Testament.

Introduction to the Book of Nehemiah:

Today, we will begin the Book of Nehemiah. And so, let’s just get a little bit of orientation to what we will read. Nehemiah’s not that long of a book but it’s packed full, packed full of things for our own lives. And Nehemiah himself is quite an example of a leader whose goal isn’t to be a popular leader whose goal is to actually lead the needle in the right direction. And so, there’s a lot to unpack there. Nehemiah is part of a group of books in the Old Testament known as the Books of History. And we’re pretty much picking up where Ezra left off, in fact, Ezra and Nehemiah, at one time, were one text. Which leads many scholars to come to the conclusion that Ezra was at least, one of the authors of Nehemiah. Although, that isn’t known for certain, that’s definitely a tradition. Nehemiah, was a Hebrew, was one of the Jewish exiles that had been carried away into exile. And it is the Persian Empire that has defeated the Babylonian Empire so, Persian kings are now in control of the Jewish people. So, Nehemiah is part of those Jewish people. And the Persian kings are obviously more favorable to the Jewish people, even allowing them to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and worship God there. Cause the Persian king has a lot of different territories, with a lot of different gods, that are being worshiped and so, he essentially, wants all of the gods appeased, all of the gods in his favor.  And so, he sent the Hebrews back to rebuild and begin the worship of the Lord, their God and their ancestral homeland. And Nehemiah has been following that story and he’s able to follow that story because he’s a servant to the king of Persia. And so, he hears things, he kind of knows what’s going on. And he begins to imagine what’s going on, he begins to imagine Jerusalem and that there are people there, his brothers and sisters, his fellow Hebrews who are there, reestablishing the worship of God, rebuilding the Temple. So, he’s thinking about what that looks like, and he begins to think about the fact that, the Temple is being erected but there’s nothing to protect it. And the Temple is truly a symbol for the Hebrew people, this is the place where God lives, this is where God dwells, this is where God meets with human beings. Like, this place that’s being built or rebuilt is the place where God is going to come and commune with the people. And in Nehemiah’s mind, it’s sitting there and there’s nothing to protect it. Any band of raiders, strong enough, could come in and destroy this place where God touches humans on the earth. And so, a fire begins to brew in his belly. He wants to see that Temple protected; he wants to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem to protect it. And this fire in his belly becomes fire in his bones until he can’t take it anymore. Which we’ll see. And Nehemiah eventually gets to go to Jerusalem, and he faces all kinds of opposition. So, he’s got this fire in his bones, this thing from God, this calling in his life, this determination to obey, and he faces nothing but obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. So, if he’s actually going to fulfill what he has dreamed of, he will have to be willing to persevere, which we will see that, he is. Because he’s pretty clear what’s happening, his heart is right, he wants to protect the Temple of the Lord, this is God’s Temple. And so, Nehemiah can’t protect it, he can help build the wall, but God will have to show his favor upon them. And so, he believes in his utter dependence on the Lord. And we will see that a wall begins and it’s moving along at record time. And Nehemiah returns to the king of Persia to give a report and to go back to work. Then, later on he’s allowed to go back to Jerusalem, and he finds similar things to what Ezra found. Basically, there’s a strong wall now and a weak people. And so, Nehemiah steps into that and reads God’s law to the people, which causes a tremendous amount of repentance, as the exiles return to God. So, there’s a lot here for us, including simply watching Nehemiah and the… his demeanor, his character, the way that he makes the choices that he makes as a leader. It helps us when we are thinking what might be burning in our belly, what might be becoming a fire in our bones, as we watch Nehemiah face the obstacles that he does. And so, with that we begin, Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 14.

Commentary:

Okay, so a few minutes ago we were talking about Nehemiah and kind of, doing a little bit of an overview of the material that we were heading into. And I mentioned like, if we just watch Nehemiah, there’s a lot for us. And so, we saw Nehemiah get news of the exiles in Jerusalem, we say this spark an idea and then we saw him sit with this idea before the Lord and begin to intercede and pray before the Lord. He hasn’t told anybody, anything. He’s heard news and he’s begun to take that to the Lord because something is bubbling within him. And so, he intercedes, praying before the Lord as the passion inside of him begins to build. Like, he didn’t just get this idea and then immediately run to the king. He got this idea and then immediately ran to the Lord and interceded before the Lord and asked the Lord to make a way for him, if this is what he’s supposed to do. And so, he didn’t come before the king until he was ready to come before the king with this news. And so, when he presented it to the king, he was given affirmation. He was sent to do this. We see that he had a plan, before he ever started.  And then, he makes the trip, and we know this is a many months long trip, from the book of Ezra. So, he eventually arrives in Jerusalem, and he doesn’t come with flags waving and an entourage, saying I have come from Persia and here are my papers from the king, here’s what we’re gonna do. He actually gets to Jerusalem and rests up. He’s there for three days. He hasn’t said anything, to anyone about what is in his heart to do and what he has been authorized to do. And then he goes out at night, looking at the walls. Nobody knows what he’s doing. He didn’t tell anybody. He goes and inspects the building site. Basically, he goes and inspects what’s going to need to be done and he doesn’t say anything to anyone, until he’s got his own bearings, before he then presents the fact that the Persian King has authorized the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. By the time he does present this, everybody’s hands are strengthened. Like, they’re encouraged to do this thing and they begin the work. So, Nehemiah didn’t start with a marketing campaign. He started with an idea that he ran to the Lord with. And then he systematically, quietly, step-by-step, day-by-day, moved forward from there. That’s a good lesson for any of us, making any kinds of plans about much of anything. And so, let’s consider that today, as we consider our plans.

Prayer:

And Father, we love You and we are so grateful that You even allow us to participate in life. But as we participate in life, we get all kinds of ideas about things that we would like to do and most of those things we don’t do but sometimes there’s a fire inside of us. May we learn from Nehemiah’s example, about how to walk that out. We pray this and ask this, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Prayer and Encouragements will be posted later this evening.

Ezra 10:1-44, 1 Corinthians 6:1-20, Psalms 31:9-18, Proverbs 21:3

Today is the 10^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and settle in and take the next step forward together. And to take the next step forward we’ve got to go to the place where we left off so we can take the next step and that leads us back into the books of Ezra and first Corinthians. In the book of Ezra, Ezra has arrived at Jerusalem, only to find out that the people, the exiles, the people who should’ve known better, are mixing with the people in the lands around them taking wives in marriage, giving sons in marriage, essentially doing the very things that led them into idolatry and to their demise. And, so, Ezra has humbled himself, tore his robes, lifted his hands the sky and essentially said, what can we say about this? What can we say? And that’s where we pick up the story. Today Ezra chapter 10.

Commentary:

Okay. In first Corinthians we can see, at least at this portion of the letter, Paul is not pulling punches and is being extraordinarily direct in what he’s trying to say so that nothing can be misconstrued. He is trying to be clear to people that he knows and to people who are participating in things that they know they’re not supposed to be participating in, things that they know are wrong. And the parallel continues with Ezra because that’s what the people in Ezra’s time are going through. And easy enough to read into first Corinthians, especially what we were reading today as Paul shaming the Corinthians. But if we look closer, is he shaming them in, you know, the way that we understand shame today, in the way that shame is something that is talked about a lot or is he exposing? Is he shining the light so that they can see and be exposed to the light what they are hiding in the dark? What seems to be happening here isn’t that Paul wants to heap condemnation and shame upon the people. He's…he’s inviting them to open their eyes and see that they have been called to a higher standard, that they have been invited into actual true freedom. And some of the things that they are participating in and allowing are not going to lead to freedom but actually bondage and enslavement, which in Paul’s view was not how things are supposed to go. So, for Paul, Jesus being raised from the dead is so huge, but it denotes a shift, a complete shift in the species of human beings. And we talked about this when we were going to the letter to the Romans. Jesus was resurrected into new life from the dead. So, He was the first born into new life, life from death. For Paul that started something new and all we who believe are reborn or born again to new life in Christ. The claims of sin have been dealt with. There is nothing that has claim to us other than that which we give authority to. So, he talks about a bunch of things today, like taking each other to court and like why would you do that? Like are there are literally no wise people among you that can help sort this out? Why do you traipse before unbelievers and allow them to have authority and make a judgment? Like, don’t you know that that’s what you’re being nurtured into by your Father, that you are to rule and reign? Can’t you sort this out? Why do we need to be a humiliation to ourselves by the conduct that…that we participate in. He talked about a number of things in this way. And in so many ways what Paul is doing is discussing what freedom might actually be. Because we think freedom is that we can choose whatever we want whenever we want with whoever we want, regardless of the consequences. That’s freedom. We are free to do as we please. From Paul’s perspective that’s not really freedom that is an open door to bondage or put that in Paul’s words, “everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” That should not be really all that foreign of the concept. We can make our choices. We can choose to get into that argument and shouting match and World War III. We can choose to commit adultery. We can choose to leave our family and those that we love. We can…we can choose whatever we want and pretty much nobody can stop us. We can choose those things and say I exercised my freedom, I needed…I needed to move in this other direction. I’m outta here, or whatever the case may be. For Paul, that’s not actually freedom. Just because you can make a decision or a choice doesn’t mean it’s a good decision or choice that will lead you into shalom, into the way things ought to be, into wholeness and peace. So, we have freedoms to make choices, but those choices then are allowed to matter. And, so, for Paul, just kind of pulling up a blanket of freedom and saying everything under this blanket is my freedoms, I can do whatever I want isn’t necessarily giving or bringing you freedom. For example, you could take your blanket and…and get a hive of killer hornets and put it under that blanket and climb under the blanket with them and say I’m free to do this. Sure. You’re probably not going to enjoy the repercussions and at that point you probably won’t consider it freedom. The thing is though, life is so full of like of these gray areas and knowing how to choose long-term freedom over time in the thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of choices that we have to make even in a day. It's…it’s like some…sometimes hard to know. So how can we know? Basically, kind of following the reasoning of Paul, we have to be willing to take a step back enough so that we how perspective enough to take some inventory about ourselves and about the way and the why we do what we do. We have to be able to observe ourselves at least enough, be self-aware enough to understand what we have given authority to in our lives, what we are willing to be a slave to. Paul says, everything is permissible for me, but I will not let anything master me, right? I will not allow anything to dominate me. I will not enslave myself to anything. If we think about the things that maybe we have been enslaved to in the past or in the present, that’s what we’re talking about here, the things that are mastering us and not the other way around. We have but one master and we are supposed to be slaves to righteousness, living sacrifices. There is one master, one authority and when our full faith and trust is in that authority knowing that that authority, speaking of the Lord, loves us and wants the absolute best for us and knows the absolute best for us we place our trust in that and walk in that direction and away from anything that would thwart that process of relationship with God, anything that would get between us and God. And, so let’s give it some thought today. What are we allowing to be our master, to master us? And are we really free because we choose to allow that to master us?

Prayer:

Father again, we thank You for the Scriptures. We thank You for Your word in our lives and the way that it touches everything about us as we move through a year. We are grateful for this opportunity for self-reflection about the things that we have allowed to master us. Holy Spirit, come. Reveal that to us as we contemplate it. You are the master You are the Savior. There is no one else and You indeed will lead us into wholeness and completeness, and shalom. So, come lead us into all truth, even all truth about ourselves and why we do what we do and what we allow to master us. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base, home of the Global Campfire, it’s where you can find out what’s happening around here. If you have the Daily Audio Bible app, which you should, it’s free and you can download it from whatever store, app store is connected to your device. And it is definitely the best way to stay connected and to move through the Scriptures together around the Global Campfire. So…so, check that out.

And while you’re checking that out, check out the Community section. This is where there are links to get connected on social media to the different channels that we are participating in. This is also where the Prayer Wall lives. And the Prayer Wall is always available to us, always. We can always go and pray for each other. We can always go and ask for our brothers and sisters to pray for us. And that can be found in the Community section, either on the app or on the website.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you humbly. Thank you. We wouldn't…we wouldn't…we wouldn’t be around the Global Campfire if we weren’t all around it together. And, so, thank you profoundly 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 if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey this is Chris calling from Brooklyn. I just want to thank God for allowing me to wake up today first and foremost. I need help getting this anxiety out of my way, getting this depression, this stress, this pain that’s within me. So, if you could, somebody please pray for me. Finding a job. Giving all the devil that he wants around me. Please. I’m first-time caller and this my first time calling so please play help me out. Thank you.

Hi DAB this is Hopeful, and I heard another Hopeful and I, of course, I love that name. So, I can Still Hopeful. And Hopeful I just wanna let you know I’m praying for you and your husband. And just wait God it’s gonna do something incredible. And it’s been over a year that I’ve called in and I have an incredible praise report. So, one of my last calls I was letting you all know that my husband was on his way to a meditation retreat. And it’s been…let’s see it’s been a little over a year and on his way to the retreat, on his way home I believe someone actually pulled a gun on him at a red light and the Lord kept him safe from anything happening. And he didn’t tell me for a while and then long story short he is a believer. He is a Christian. And I never thought…I didn’t know if I’d ever see that. It’s a miracle. And I just wanted to thank you so much for…I always get so emotional…I want to thank you all so much for your prayers and support. I love, love, love this community. It has changed my life. It’s been maybe six years or seven that I’ve been listening, and I just love you all so much. And as you know it’s been a while so we are still trying. We still haven’t been successful…successful in having any children yet but I’m waiting for the next miracle. So, I am still hopeful and…and I'm…we just pray Lord Father God for everyone in the DAB family who is struggling with infertility Father. We pray for breakthroughs. And Lord if we can’t have children that I just pray that you’d open up doors of adoption or just your will in Jesus’ name.

Hi this is Chris from California. I’ve been a listener for the last three years and a friend of mine shared this resource with me and I’m so thankful for this community and how much it has meant to my life. And I’m very grateful. And today I'm…I’m calling in for prayer for my family, specifically my marriage. My wife and I are separated. We’ve been married for 26 years, and we have three children, and our family is so hurt right now and so broken. But I know that God can heal. And I pray that you’d lift us up and I’m praying for God to do a miracle because I don’t see a lot of hope. And I pray you guys lift my wife Gin up and her heart would be open to restoration and reconciliation and a new beginning. And I pray that God would do an amazing thing and that He would get the glory and that it would be a testimony to what the power of God can do. And, so, if you’d lift us up and keep us in your prayers, I would so appreciate it. Because I know that anything is possible with God. God bless you all.

The image was there but you couldn’t yet see it
the film has to be developed in a solution that will free it
and then a beautiful image of a picture you’ll see
and those same truths that apply to film also apply to you and me
because we also bear an image of our father from up above
kindness, patience, joy, and peace, longsuffering, compassion, love
but unless you’ve been washed and Jesus’ blood and enveloped in his spirit
you’ll never see his image you can’t feel it or draw near it
we’re created in God’s image so God is clearly there
our lives are like a negative so handle with care

blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Mark Reef down under. Hope all is well. Haven’t heard from you in a while. And also, Byron from Florida and Biola. Haven’t heard from you in a while either. Hope all is well. Know you’re all loved and thought of often daily in my prayers. Once again Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowing y'all. Alright. Bye-bye.

Good morning, DAB this is Penny from southwest Missouri, and I just heard Shelly from Oklahoma and I just want to say kudos to you sister, and I am with you there. I have been a listener for…well 13…15 years I don’t even know but I do know that I’ve been around the world literally, figuratively just with life and the one consistent in my life has been Daily Audio Bible and I know it has carried me through. Being able to listen to the word and absorb that every day literally changes your life. When you’re looking for this missing puzzle piece or the right prayer or the right friends to pray for you all you need…I mean you do need that of course…but to drench yourself in the word of God every day maybe several times a day. Listen to it over and over. It has miraculous powers. And I am just so thankful that we have this community and I’m like you Shelly, I listened for years and didn’t continue listening to the prayer requests. It was just all about me and I’m sorry, but I guess that’s the truth. But once I started listening to the requests and the praises my life just has been filled with so much joy. I love all of you. I love your voices. I love your accents. I love your prayers. And this is a church. This is a community and I’m with you Shelly. There is no greater place to support as far as I’m concerned. This is like the early church, and we love each other. You guys have…

Hey Sean from the UK this is a message about Romans 7 and about addictions. [singing starts] that which I would not, that do I do. I wish I wouldn’t do it but I’m already through. My spirit wars within me and I can’t get any rest. I’m doing all these crazy things. My flesh is such a pest. But I thank God that I am His for he will take me, break me, wake me, wash me, heal me, cleanse me, save me. I thank God that I am His [singing stops]. Sean I am a Jane Ruth from Nebraska and this year I will celebrate 37 years clean and sober. That is a blooming miracle and I do it one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time. And you know it’s a miracle because every year it seems like I do a little different addiction because the addictions are not always the same. But the miracle is that there’s no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. I just wanted to say I’m standing with you and I’m praying with you one day at a time. Sometimes it’s one hour at a time, sometimes it’s one minute at a time. But remember that if God be for you who can be against you. And there’s no one that’s greater than you because greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world. All those with addictions remember greater is He that’s in you than he that is in the world. This is Jane Ruth in Nebraska. I love you.

Ezra 8:21-9:15, 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, Psalm 31:1-8, Proverbs 21:1-2

Today is August 9th, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful. It is a treasure and to treat, and a joy and all kinds of really wonderful things, to be here with you today around the Global Campfire and what a joy it is to even have a Global Campfire to join each other around. And what a privilege it is, to come around this Global Campfire for the reason that we do, which is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures together. And so, let’s get to that, we are in the book of Ezra in the Old Testament and Paul’s letter known as first Corinthians in the new, and our next step for leads us back into Ezra today chapter 8 verse 21 through 9 verse 15.

Commentary:

Okay so, we have an interesting parallel between the old and new Testaments today. So, between Ezra and first Corinthians. So, Ezra makes his journey to Jerusalem. It’s a long journey that takes many months, they are protected along the way and everything is done on the up and up, with integrity and honor to God. Ezra has been given permission to make this journey, by the king of Persia and the king has generously offered the resources that would be necessary for the task. And so, the journey is made but when is Ezra arrives in Jerusalem, what he finds is that, the exiles are going back to what they were doing that ultimately undermined who they were and began mixing with the People’s nearby, which was leading them back toward idolatry. This undermined them in the first place. We have gone through the books of Samuel and the books of Kings and the book of Chronicles and we’ve seen this. And these are exiles who are returning to Jerusalem, they know better. They are betraying God and Ezra is devastated by what he sees and he mourns it, he is appalled by it, and for good reason. And so finally, the evening sacrifice, when it’s time for the evening sacrifice and Ezra gets up off the ground and prays, like he falls to his knees and lifts his hands to heaven and essentially says what…what can be said? Like, what can we say? The things that sent us into exile in the first place of the things we are doing, what can we say? Or just keeping it in Ezra’s words, “My God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face toward You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads and our guilt is as high as the heavens, our guilt has been terrible from the days of our ancestors until the present. Because of our iniquities, we have been handed over, along with our kings and priests, to the surrounding kings and to the sword, captivity, plundering an open shame. As it is today, but now for a brief moment, grace has come from the Lord our God to preserve a remnant for us and give us a stake in His holy place.” Then he goes on to say, “what can we say in light of this, we have abandoned the commands You gave to your servants the prophets.” So, it is a devastating scene for Ezra and certainly a demoralizing scene for us to look at. And we can look at and go, what are you guys doing, you know the way, the way is clear before you. Why would you do something like this when you got back to the land?

Then, we flip the page into the New Testament, into first Corinthians and kind of zoom forward, many centuries and we have Paul, who is also appalled at what he is hearing that believers in the church, the body of Christ, are doing. And I quote from Paul, “it’s actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles. A man is sleeping with his father’s wife you are so arrogant. Shouldn’t you be filled with grief?” And then he goes on to say, “your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven, leavens the whole batch of dough?” And so, we are dealing with the same posture of heart. And so, what is the lesson that kind of bubbles forth from both of these stories today? It is that that mixture, intermingling, mixing with sin, in ways that we know are wrong, will destroy us. It was true before the time of Ezra, it was true during the time of Ezra, it was true during the first century and the emergence of the church of Jesus and the development of the New Testament. It is true today. If we are going to intermingle with what we know is wrong and we are going to find ourselves in a heaping steamy pile of deception. And from that heaping steaming pile, we are going to have to rationalize why it’s okay for us to do what we know is not okay to do. And as we well know, it’s not going to end anywhere good. Nothing good is going to come of it. And when we had the rationalize and justify ourselves in certain ways, than we establish our own normal, but we’re still heading in the wrong direction. And way this works in life, at least in my experience and my observation, we can go on a long time, feeling like we’re getting away with it, or that it’s okay, until destruction comes. It’s like we are complicit in deceiving ourselves. So, from a practical perspective, it’s easy enough for us to just simply take a step backward, maybe another one, maybe another one, may be a few, so that we began to get perspective on what it is were doing, what it is we’re thinking, how we’re rationalizing. And the thing is, everybody’s got their own stories. And so, whatever is bubbling up within our own hearts as we think about this right now, that's…that’s the first place to focus and begin to ask ourselves, what am I rationalizing? How am I justifying what I know isn’t right, what I know isn’t healthy for me? And we might rationalize or think about it and go well, I’m, I’m free. I have freedom in Christ and it’s true. We do have freedom. We even have the freedom to destroy ourselves but is that the goal? Because it seems like the goal would be utter and complete freedom, the kind of freedom that comes from having nothing false within us, which leads us to consider repenting, changing, changing our minds and going in a different direction. And so, may we spend some time giving this some consideration and allowing the Holy Spirit of God within us to well up and to begin to shine the light of truth into some of the dark recesses of our own hearts. If we really want to be free, then we need to consider jettisoning the things that would keep us in bondage and ultimately destroy us.

Prayer:

So, Holy Spirit, come into that, comfort us and rebuke us, reveal to us the places that we’re deceiving even ourselves, to our own detriment. Show us the ways that we are intermingling and mixing with what we know is not right. We ask that You would lead us into all truth, and we ask expectantly in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home of the Global Campfire, it’s home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. The app is all of that in the palm of your hand and the app can be gotten from your app store, whatever app store works with your device. So, check it out. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources in a number of different categories, whether that be things to wear, things that are write with, things to write in, things to read, things to listen to. Also, our entire line of Wind Farm Coffee and Tea, so, things to consume along with our daily word of God around the Global Campfire every day. It’s nice to come around the Global Campfire with a couple coffee. I do it every day, a cup of Wind Farm coffee to my left just about every single day. All these things can be found in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission here, to bring the spoken word of God, read fresh every day and offered freely to anybody who will take the time to listen and to build community around that rhythm of showing up every day at the Global campfire, if that is life-giving and has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership, as we continue to navigate the summer months. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayers and Encouragements will be posted later this evening.

Ezra 7:1-8:20, 1 Corinthians 4:1-21, Psalms 30:1-12, Proverbs 20:28-30

Today is the 8^th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here together today around the Global Campfire gathering to take another step forward through the Bible and through this year. So, let's…let’s do exactly that. This week we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible, and we are moving our way to the book of Ezra in the Old Testament and first Corinthians in the New. So, first Ezra chapter 7 verse 1 through 8 verse 20 today.

Commentary:

Okay. In first Corinthians today we’re kind of continuing with the thought that began in yesterday’s reading and that was Paul’s pointing out or calling out the fact that certain people were following certain people. Like certain people were following certain leaders and sort of putting their allegiance in their leader. And, so, the problem is that at any point that maybe one leader says something a little bit different than another leader says it or explains it a little bit different than another leader does then all the sudden we have our loyalties and allegiance to the leader that we follow. And, so, over time because nobody can say the same things nobody is the same person, even if everybody believes the same thing, but if there are discrepancies which there have been since the very beginning well then you follow the certain leader that you trust but over time, that becomes your camp, which isn’t a bad thing, your tribe, that’s not a bad thing but then when your tribe has to be the one that’s right over and against another well then you’ve put your trust and faith in a person. And, so, you say, well I’ll just trust this person. They’re my spiritual authority. They’re my spiritual leader. And those things are all fine and appropriate. But those things do not absolve us with an actual relationship with God. Like, the leader that we trust to tell us the truth, they can’t be in the relationship with God for us. And, so, what invariably happens then is that we trust one certain person and absolve ourselves from actually having to walk with God and wrestle through life following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Fundamentally, underneath it all, Paul is trying to say that’s not going to work. A relationship with God by proxy, that’s not going work. And who are we? Which is really the main point. Who are we? And Paul’s talking of himself and Apollo’s in this case, so leaders that people are following. Or just to put it in Paul’s own words. “Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollo’s for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying nothing beyond what is written. The purpose is that none of you will be arrogant favoring one person over another. For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive?” And there’s a flip side of this for the leaders and that is that, like serving God’s people is a difficult job. And, so, like to all the sudden have to measure up to keep all and be ranked by people and to need some sort of dog and pony show for the people is an undue burden in an already burdensome job. Leaders are people who are following God as examples and are teaching people to follow God. The endgame, the win is that people follow God not that we accumulate a large amount of people who follow us. And I know often it’s easy to…to look at a popular person may be in ministry and go wow, what mighty things God is doing through that person. And maybe they’re speaking the complete truth and are really great at it. And, so, it’s easy to think, man that must be nice, to just walk with God and study the Scriptures and communicate it to people. And wow, maybe I could do that. I wish I could do that. Paul basically pulls the curtain back on…well…on what’s behind the curtain of leadership of this nature. Paul says and I quote, “I think God has displayed us the apostles in the last place like men condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the world both to Angels and the people. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are dishonored. Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty. We are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless. We labor working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure it. When we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now we are like the scum of the earth like everyone’s garbage. I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children. For you may have countless instructors in Christ you don’t have many fathers. I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So, I urge you to imitate me.” We could say, O well there it is. It’s like a backhanded way of Paul gathering in more followers for himself. He wants everybody to imitate him. So, he’s saying, who is Apollo’s and who is Paul, and who is Cephas but really he;s saying he’s the main guy we should imitate him. I guess we just need to take a step back and say all right, if that’s true what are we to imitate? And what we are to imitate is what Paul just said. “In the last place like men condemned to die, a spectacle to the world, both to Angels and the people, fools for Christ, weak, dishonored, hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless, laboring with our own hands. When we’re reviled, we bless. When we’re persecuted, we endure it. When we’re slandered, we respond graciously.” That’s what’s behind the curtain. If we want to be that leader then Paul’s suggesting that we imitate him and what he’s had to do in order to provide the gospel to people. He says we are weak, but you are strong. We say that the God but what Paul is saying in this context, is we leaders are weak but you have been made strong. You are distinguished, but we remain dishonored. So, fundamentally, and we will hear this from Paul explicitly as we continue through his letters, the treasure Paul seeks is the hearts of people who are passionately willing to be a living sacrifice following Jesus as a disciple being reborn as a new creation upon this earth and modeling a new humanity. But if what we’re going to do is carve ourselves up into camps and follow certain people and those certain people become our way to God the whole thing is backward again. And, so, we’re not only getting a glimpse into the goings-on in the early church but we’re able to see that it’s still going on. This has been part of the story. And, so, may we remember it’s not a cult of personality we’re after here when we’re looking for a spiritual leader. It’s not to be at the most popular place in town. It’s to follow a leader who leads us to follow Jesus not to give us a sense of belonging in some camp where we can be against or over somebody else’s camp. Because as Paul articulates and will continue to articulate throughout his letters, there’s only one camp, it’s called the body of Christ. Everyone belongs. Everyone has a part. No one can say to anybody else I don’t need you. That’s not true. We understand our leaders are servants who are modeling what it looks like to follow Jesus and that we get to serve alongside them, which is very different than being their servants. When we understand that it is the blessing and affirmation of the Lord that we seek, not the blessing and affirmation of a certain person then we avoid the kinds of things that Paul is pressing into as he writes his letter to the church in Corinth.

Prayer:

Father, we…we thank You for our leaders. We thank You for those who are in our lives that model what it looks like to walk with You. And that help us to learn to seek Your face and obey You and understand our desperate need. We are utterly dependent upon You. And this is as it should be because You are all powerful and completely capable. And, so, we honor those that You have put into leadership, and we pray for them because it is a difficult job full of all kinds of pitfalls. Help us to serve our leaders by serving You and help those of us who are leaders in a spiritual capacity to serve those within our sphere of influence by serving You. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, home of the Global Campfire, that’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. So, check it out. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app then all of that is already in the palm of your hand. So, check it out. And if you don’t have the Daily Audio Bible app, maybe you can check that out. You’ll find the Daily Audio Bible app in the app store that is connected to your smart device, whether that be a tablet or telephone or whatever. Just search for Daily Audio Bible and you can download the Daily Audio Bible app right into the palm of your hand.

Check out things like the Community section. We are a community taking this journey step-by-step day by day around this Global Campfire. And it’s good to know. And we can get connected. There are all the different links to connecting on social media can be found in the Community section. But also, that is the home of the Prayer Wall. The Prayer Wall is a place and it’s always open and it’s never closed. And, so, no matter where you are on the earth, no matter what time zone you may be, you can always reach out and share your story, ask brothers and sisters to pray for you and they will. We’re a community that prays and encourages each other. Maybe…maybe you want to pray. Because obviously, sometimes when we turn our focus off of ourselves and the problems and the things that we’re enduring and just reach out in prayer for our brothers and sisters for what they’re going on it gets our minds off ourselves and can change the entire atmosphere of what we’re going through. We can do that at the Prayer Wall as well, just go and read and see where the Holy Spirit’s leading and then allow people to know, hey I’m praying for you. I know what that feels like. It’s a great way to stay connected to the journey that we are on through the Bible this year. And, so, check out the Prayer Wall. That is in the Community section on the web or in the Daily Audio Bible app.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to whoever may listen wherever they may be whatever time it may be to and build community around that rhythm around the Global Campfire, if that is life giving to you then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that would be the little red button that looks kind of like a hotline button up at the top. It’s the only button that looks like that. So, you can press that no matter where you are in the world 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 Hands to Heaven. Father God, I lift up the silent ones to You tonight. You know them by name Lord, the ones listening to this in the dark of night with tears streaking down their faces. Their hearts are broken God. Their lives shattered. Their minds are screaming that life wasn’t supposed to be like this. They can’t even put together a complete thought in two minutes much less a prayer request. So, they lie in the dark smothering socks in their pillows desperately seeking a way a way to survive a pain so sharp that even breathing hurts. They lie in the dark and they wait for time to pass for the pain to ebb for the blessed oblivion of sleep to come. They’re Your children Lord and they love You, but they hurt so badly right now that they’re only prayer is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I lift these hurting hearts to You Lord, and I ask that You comfort them. I asked that You encourage them with the knowledge that while we may not be able to hear their cries You do. Help You’re hurting children remember Your promises God that You will never leave us, that You are near to the broken hearted, and that You rescue those who Spirits are crushed. Draw them into Your harm’s Father and hold them tight in Your loving embrace. Give them hope Lord, that even if they feel that they can’t hold on any longer Your grip on them will never fail or falter. And one day Lord let theirs be the voice that speaks for the silent ones. Let their story be the light in someone else’s darkness. In Jesus’ name I pray. This is Hands to Heaven. God bless you all.

Blessings dear DABbers this is Carol from Canada. I would like to be known as Abba’s Daughter. Hallelujah! How great is my Father in heaven? Brian thank you for your commentary on July the 28^th…the 29^th after reading Romans 12 as presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice. I have learned so much from that reading on that day. The Holy Spirit work opened my eyes in ways I’ve never experienced before, made me realize that even though I love the Lord and did what I could and other things to love others and to serve an anger issue that’s been unresolved for 50 years plus put a hinder in my spiritual walk with the Lord causing impatience, bitterness, hatred and all of the above sinful things, my language, everything that is disgusting to the Lord. And, so, with this I realized that coming to Jesus for healing, that He start…the healing process has begun as I’m relying on my Lord and trusting in him and everything that we’re going through in our trials of life with my husband and the things that we are facing and that I’m trusting in my Lord for He’s healing into my heart. And I want to say my dear brothers and sisters, don’t give up hope. Jesus loves us in ways we can’t even imagine. I’m 65 years old and have come to know how much Jesus loves me, a believer for 12 years. Hallelujah. We praise you Jesus, and we thank You. And I pray my dear brothers and sisters that you will find the same peace, although suffering with the…

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Vicki from the desert. I need your prayer tonight because I’m feeling just so much. I don’t know if it’s condemnation or conviction. So lost and I just want your prayer right now. I need to…I don’t know what I need. So, please pray for me. This is Vicki from the desert. Thank you.

Hello DAB family this is God’s Tree for I have many branches, but I am rooted in every word of God. I’m calling to stand on behalf and in the gap for Darren in California who’s having some struggles and some demonic warfare on his job. It’s threatening his livelihood and his ability to take care of his family. And I want to stand in the gap for him and for all of those who are struggling on their jobs, who are struggling to take care of home. And know that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. And know that whatever the devil made for bad that God made for good, that there’s more that’s going to come with this situation if you stand still and in trust in God. So, I’m standing in the gap right now and ask that you do the same with me. Dear heavenly Father in the name of Jesus on behalf of Darren and his family, on behalf of all those that are in similar situations God I ask right now in the name of Jesus that You send Your angels God to defeat the enemy and whatever obstacles whatever weapon is formed against him that it would be not only just removed but it would be destroyed and annihilated never to rise its head up again Gd. And I pray in the name of Jesus God that You do an outpouring of blessing on this situation to the point that they have no choice but to believe that it came from You and that You get the glory Father God. We thank You for everything You’ve done Lord. We ask that You lift up Darren. He stood in the gap for all those Father and right now we’re standing in the gap for him. Lord just be with him and comfort him and lift his spirit up and take the despondentness out of his heart and out of his voice and let him have a spirit of praise and joy God for the sun is going to shine in the morning. We thank You for it. In Jesus’ name I do pray. Keep your head up. God’s got us all. Amen.

Hey DABbers this __ currently in Ohio. Just want to pray for Travis for his friend Lindsey that her mom just passed away. So, God we just ask You right now that You will come around Lindsay, that You will be with her and just show her Your amazing love God. And I just thank You that it sounds like that Lindsey is a believer and we pray that her mom, yeah, who was a believer too and that her mom is rejoicing now in heaven. And God would You just give Lindsey a dream of that, that she could see, she could see her mom rejoicing. So, we just ask You God for that. And in Yeshua’s name we just thank You, for Holy Spirit for Your comfort. God we can’t do it without You. It’s all with…with You. And I think it’s Julie…sorry if I got your name wrong dear…from Kentucky. It was right after that the very next call. So, I understand what you’re going through about being alone. And, so, yeah, I’ve been alone my whole life basically. I've…yeah. But Yeshua, you know, He’s always with us. So, He is our husband it says in Psalm 68:5 I believe. Don’t quote me on that. I’d have to look it up. But he is our husband. He is creative. He’ll give us strategies to make our money go further. He’ll comfort our heart when we’re sad. He even watches when we __. And He's…He’s so excited and He’s so jealous to spend time with us. So, I just ask God would You just speak to my friend in…in Kentucky God. Would You just…

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.