Isaiah 57:15-59:21, Philippians 1:1-26, Psalms 71:1-24, Proverbs 24:9-10
Today is the 29th day of September, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather and take the next step forward together, which is what we do every day. And what a beautiful rhythm it is. We can always look forward to being back together the next day. And, so, we’ve been working our way through the book of Isaiah. We still have a little ways to go. We’re most of the way through, but a little ways to go. And, so, we will continue that journey. We’ve been reading from the Good News Translation this week, which is what we’ll continue to do this week. So, today Isaiah chapter 57 verse 15 through 59 verse 21.
Introduction to Philippians:
Okay. So, yesterday we concluded in our New Testament reading the letter to the Ephesians and we did a little reflection, looking back at what Ephesians was telling us in these grand views of the gospel, these grand views of what it…what the implications are to our own lives. And, so, now as we continue our journey through the New Testament today, we’re opening the letter to the Philippians, another of Paul’s letters. And as I have mentioned before, there’s like not very many things in the Scriptures that haven’t been debated by scholars along the way over thousands of years. And this touches the letters of Paul as well, whether all of them were actually written by Paul or some of them maybe have…may have been written later in Paul’s name. But following along with what Paul taught and for all of the tools that are available to the historian or the linguist or the textual critic or theologian so many things boil down to the best scholarly assumption that can be made and what can and cannot said. But there are letters of Paul that are…that have consensus generally and are undisputed and Philippians is one of them. And when I say disputed, I don’t mean like disputed like it belongs in the Bible or that it speaks truth. I’m talking about when, where, how, who. Some of these things we don’t know for sure. What we do have is the gift of the Scriptures to inform and transform our lives and the apostle Paul has certainly helped shape the way we look at our faith. But when it comes to the letter to the Philippians, we believe Paul authored this letter. We believe Paul was incarcerated in prison in Rome when he wrote it. We believe it is one of the earliest Christian documents that have been preserved. For example, the letter to the Philippians would’ve been written before the Gospels or the book of Acts. So, it’s a very early Christian document. We know that Philippi where this letter was written to the Philippians in Philippi were in the Roman Empire. It was a Roman colony in the region of Macedonia which is now today northern Greece. Philippi was a prosperous city in the Roman Empire but the church in Philippi wasn’t wealthy. They were rich in other ways, though - rich in love, rich in their concern for Paul. And Paul acknowledges and expresses gratitude for this. The brothers and sisters in the congregation in Philippi knew that Paul was in prison, and they sent one of their members named Epaphroditus all the way to Rome to find out how Paul was getting along and how he was doing and to bring resources, to bring a gift from the congregation to encourage him. And it did. Paul was overjoyed and Epaphroditus stayed a long-time serving Paul while he was under arrest. And while he was with Paul, he became deathly ill, nearly died, but God did restore them back to health. And, so, Paul was determined to send Epaphroditus back to Philippi carrying this letter, which is a personal greeting and shares of his personal circumstances. But the letter isn’t just like, hey thanks for sending Epaphroditus. He almost died, but God restored him to health. Thank you for the gift. I love you guys. Hope to see you soon. Love Paul. Like he has more going on here. Paul speaks of the joy of our salvation in the letter to the Philippians. And if we’ve been in a dry season or just trying to find our joy again, we can drink deeply from Paul’s letter knowing that he’s writing this while he is awaiting a life and death sentence. And, so, knowing that, famous passages that are found in Philippians like, “we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us” can have a deeper meaning. The world has been a crazy place all along. We see some crazy times in the Bible. And, so, we can look at our world and go it’s never been more crazy than this, but it’s been crazy all along. And, so, we…we live in times of uncertainty at all times and Philippians helps us to rejoice in what is certain, and where true hope and where true joy can be found, which is in Christ alone. And, so, we begin. Philippians chapter 1 verses 1 through 26 today.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this brand-new territory that we are moving into, the letter to the Philippians. And we confess Lord, there are dry seasons where we can’t seem to remember where we laid our joy down. And, so, we’re having a hard time retracing our steps to find where we lost it. May this letter compel us to rejoice in the joy of our salvation. We love You. We cling to You. You alone are God. You are the only one who can rescue us. You are the only one that knows the way to life. And, so, Holy Spirit come and lead us, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com. That is home base, it is where you find out what’s going on around here. Alternatively, the Daily Audio Bible app puts that in the palm of your hand. And you can download the app free from whatever app store is connected to your device. So, check that out.
And as I say often, check out the different sections. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Check out the Community section. Get connected in any way that you can or in any way that you want to.
And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well or in the app by pushing the give button in the upper right-hand corner. So, if the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to whoever may encounter it wherever they may be whatever time of day or night it may be, and to build community around this rhythm of showing up around the Global Campfire every day, if that is life and good news to you then thank you for your partnership. Like I said, there is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press to 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 and you can hit that Hotline button from wherever you may be in the world or there are a number of numbers that you can dial if you want to be old-school and dial in on the phone. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. In the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.
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 Saved by His Grace and happy valley and I’m listening to today’s podcast and a woman has just called in named My Heart Belongs to Jesus and I have to say of all the people who call in your name fits you perfectly because of your wonderful prayer for your husband’s uncle who sounds like a person who is beyond redemption. He’s hurt people all of his life including your own daughter and yet you are concerned that he’s been injured and is dying and doesn’t know Christ and you want him to know Christ. You definitely are a part of the body of Christ my friend and I will join you in prayer for your husband’s uncle and for all of those whose lives he has harmed and for your husband’s family. Your heart for them and your concern for their eternal lives humbles me when I have trouble forgiving others. Thank you for your call. May God bless you richly and I will join you in prayer. God bless you. Bye.
Hey this is Jane Truth from Nebraska and I wanted to share something with you. Back when I was at Rivercrest Bible Camp in Fremont NE I had a counselor at camp and I went there from when I was like 9 years old until, I don’t know, somewhere into my teen years and one of the counselors had sat down with each one of us girls that were in her cabin and had given us a life verse. And she gave me the verse John 16:13. But when He the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what He hears end He will tell you what is yet to come. Now an interesting thing that has happened since I realize how important that verse was in my life is that I’ve been realizing that since I’ve been at the Daily Audio Bible that I have the mind of Christ. Now I did a lot of drugs, and I did a lot of alcohol and I did a lot of stupid things but one of the verses that has become really important to me is that I have the mind of Christ. And I keep thinking about how important the word of God has been in my life and the idea of truth and the word of God. And I think about how amazing it is that we each have the truth in the word of God. And this is so profound that everyone of us have the truth of God. Think about that people. Amazing.
Good day DAB family this is Mark from New Hampshire. It’s been almost two years since I last called in when I asked for prayer for my grandson Ezekiel Alexander who was born having seizures. I wanna let you know that he’s a month away from two years old and he’s perfect. The cat scans or MRIs showed that he had lost one sixth of his brain capacity because of a stroke at birth. And I know because of all your prayers that God healed him. He is perfect in every way. He has a beautiful personality and a great sense of humor. He’s at or beyond everything that he needs to be for his age and it’s just a miracle that after having such a traumatic brain injury during birth that he could be just such a perfect and wonderful young man and a young boy. And I know that God did this, and I know that you all prayed that. And, so, I want to thank you all so much. I am especially asking though at this moment prayer for my sister who was struck by a truck when she was crossing the street. She has some brain bleeds and is in critical care and I want to ask you to pray for her as you did with my grandson, that God would heal her injuries and that there would be no lasting effect. I want to thank you so much. I want to let you know how much I appreciate this ministry and all of your prayers and that my wife and I pray for you all every day. Thank you so much.
Hey listeners it’s __. My daughters going through some of the same issues. She’s been trying to have kids. Can’t. But I know that she would make a great mother and I know that for a fact. You don’t have to prove anything to anybody. All you gotta prove to is God. And you know that you would be a good mother. So, just walk in there with her your held high and answer the questions like you know you would. Don’t let it bother you that you have to prove yourself to them. We all have to prove ourselves at some point in time in our life. And it’s not right that we have to do that but just keep your head up. I know you're…you’re a good…you’d be a good mother. My daughter would be a great mother. So just keep…I’ll keep praying for you. Keep praying about it and God will find a way and push it through for you. Just don’t let it put so much stress on you that…that…that you can’t handle it. Just kind of…I don’t know…pull it off your back. Put it on God. He’ll take care of it. I promise you that. You just give it to Him. I’ve lived it and I’ve seen it. Just don’t give up. You’ll get there.
Good morning this is Sue from Bullet Texas. I’m a first-time caller been listening for a long time, and I love listening to the prayer requests and the prayers that y'all offer and ask for. I’m calling today to ask for prayer for my best friend Cindy who four years ago lost her husband suddenly. And having walked through that, two months ago her daughter, son-in-law, and one of her grandsons were killed in a very tragic car accident. Cindy is now raising her six-year-old grandson who survived some traumatic injuries in the same accident and they’re having the memorial this week for the three family members that they lost. So, I ask for prayer for Cindy as she walks through this grief again and her whole family as they go this week to honor those that they lost. I also ask for strength for her as she takes on the task with joy and some fear of raising a 6-year-old in her 60s. So, that’s not going to be easy, but she has so much love for him, and I know she can do it. But I just ask for prayers for her at this time. I’m also asking for prayers for my daughter who just lost a baby yesterday in a miscarriage. Her name’s Bailey. Thank you.
Good morning DAB family it is Sunday September 25th. I just heard Renzo’s plea for some prayer. He’s graduating from high school this coming May and his desire is to be a Christian rap artist. Renzo I’ve heard you several times. I love hearing your sweet voice. I love hearing any young person who loves the Lord and is in this community. It just really warms my heart when I hear you and I certainly am praying for you and your success in the rap music delivery of God’s word because I’m quite sure you’d be very successful. Regardless, I love the fact that it’s in your heart to do this. I just I have a warm spot for young people who love the Lord. My own daughter who’s 34 is not a believer and I pray daily that someone will cross her path that will bring her to Christ and that she does see me as a good example of someone who led a wild and crazy life and has turned to Christ. I also am praying for you Val in Vegas. And I so understand your shoulder pain. I’ve been there. And, so, I’ve been meaning to call in and pray for you for a few days now and I just heard Renzo and I said OK I just gotta call. So, I love this community. I pray for you all all the time. There are so many that I’m praying for right now. I can’t name all the names. I do write them down though and you’re always in my prayers. I love you DAB family and Hardin family. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.