Jeremiah 51:1-53, Titus 2:1-15, Psalms 99:1-9, Proverbs 26:17
Today is the 27th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we gather and move forward a step at a time a day at a time through the Scriptures. And our step forward today will lead us back into the book of Jeremiah. So, we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Today Jeremiah chapter 51 verses 1 through 53.
Commentary:
Okay. So, let’s talk about meddling and then let’s talk about dogs and then let’s talk about ourselves. So, first, meddling. Nobody likes a meddler, typically, like the person that gets involved in all kinds of things that they don’t belong involved in or inserts themselves into anything that is none of their business or is continually having…having a running commentary about anything and everything, a person who really really really really really really likes their opinions and often assumes that everybody else likes their opinion just as much as they do. And, so, they offer it unsolicited about everything. Meddler’s, people inserting themselves into the stew, changing the recipe. I don't…I mean, there probably are people in the world that enjoy being meddled with but I don’t know any personally. I don’t believe I’ve ever met anybody that likes that. Typically a kind response to a meddler is you should mind your own business or tend to your own problems, but that would be a kind response. A lot of times when a person that’s being meddled with, they get angry and so the response isn’t kind, right? If I wanted your involvement or if I wanted your opinion I would’ve asked for it. Now let’s talk about dogs. I have a dog. I have a couple dogs. I have a dog that I like a lot though. Her name is Lucy and I love my dog. Actually, she loves me. She’s our family dog. We love her. She loves us. She’s devoted us and we’re devoted to her and care for her and she’s got personality. She’ll sit at the door and wait for us to come home with her little butt wagging, and she’ll go and get toys and bring them out to play with. And if she gets scolded you can see the look in her face. She’s feeling ashamed and she shows us her personality all the time. You can be playing with her and she can start growling. Like she can grab a piece of rope and I can grab the other end of the rope and shake her head around and she can try to pull the rope like we’re playing tug-of-war and growl. I can get down on the ground with her and wrestle with her and play with her. She can pretend like she’s gonna bite me, right? Like I can put my hand in her mouth and she can be growling at me but I know she’s playing. I know she’s not gonna bite me. If I sneak up on her, though like she’s laying on the ground and she’s got her head in her paws and she’s just kinda laying there and she’s fallen asleep and if I just kinda sneak up on her and grab her by the ear’s she’s gonna freak out. She might actually bite me. She’s not gonna exactly know what’s going on and she might retaliate. She might feel like she needs to defend herself. Before she can figure out what’s going on she might bite me. And now let’s talk about ourselves. And I quote from the book of Proverbs today. “Interfering in someone else’s argument is as foolish as yanking on a dog’s ears.” In other words, inserting ourselves into something that is none of our business, meddling in someone else’s argument, someone else’s business is as foolish is sneaking up on a dog while it’s asleep, even if it’s a friendly dog, and grabbing it by the ears. And we can imagine…I mean many of us have dogs and if we sneak up on them and grab their ears, we might get bitten. It would be foolish to do that, just as it is foolish to insert ourselves in someone else’s story, in someone else’s argument that is none of our business. And if we would take some time to pause and reflect upon the times which we have meddled and inserted ourselves into something that isn’t our business, typically, that doesn’t work out well. Typically, we get bitten or get snapped at. And if we make this a habit in our lives than we probably feel misunderstood. But we’re getting snapped at a lot and it’s affecting our lives because we are inserting ourselves where we do not belong. And if the wisdom of the Proverbs is true, which it is that gives us opportunity to pause and reflect upon our behaviors realizing that we cause a lot of the conflict by inserting ourselves into other people’s conflict uninvited. And, so to heed the voice of wisdom today we have to be able to observe ourselves, which is so much of the story, watching what we do and then understanding why. So, like, why do we stick our noses where they don’t belong? Why do we feel the compulsion to have a running commentary on everything, even things that are non-none of our business, that aren’t our argument? There could be any number of reasons for why we do the things that we do, but at some point we will have to observe what we’re doing and then be able to ask ourselves, how will sticking my nose in this, like how will inserting myself in this help anything? Am I being instructed? Am I being led or am I just a busybody in this scenario? How is this going to affect my relationship with the people involved? How is this going to affect my relationship with the Lord? How is me getting involved in this going to affect God’s kingdom? If we can take a moment and reflect upon those things before we get involved and if the answer is like there’s no redeeming value for me offering my opinion or stirring up the pot here then maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe we shouldn’t. Probably we shouldn’t. Actually, if we’re listening to the voice of wisdom from the book of Proverbs, we shouldn’t. It’s like grabbing an unsuspecting dog by the ears. Some things for us to ponder today.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite you into that, especially the part about observing ourselves before we do something as opposed to reflecting back on how we shouldn’t have done that. We need your wisdom and guidance. We need to understand that everything we do is a witness for you as your children, as ambassadors for you, our king and your kingdom. We represent you. We often don’t give that the gravity that it deserves but getting involved in something that you have not invited us to be involved in is not a recipe that works out well in almost any scenario. And, so, this is important. We stir up a lot of trouble that doesn’t need to be there. We get involved in things that have nothing to do with us. We waste time and energy that could be well spent in other areas. And, so, thank you for this wisdom. It’s a corrective wisdom but thank you for this wisdom because we heed this wisdom than what it gives us back is energy and time and relationships that aren’t stirred up. So, come Holy Spirit into this very, very practical wisdom that we must heed. We pray this in the precious and mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello this is Delight in Me and I just want to pray for September. You called in saying that you feel lost. And I just want to encourage you that you’re not lost to God. He knows exactly where you are and He’s right with you and I wanna pray. Lord, I pray that You helped September come to feel Your presence. Help him to know that there’s nothing that he can do, that everything has been done by You because You love him so deeply. You love him with an everlasting love and You…You long to just have him turn to You and just place his trust in You. So, September, I encourage you to just rest in the knowledge that God loves you and there’s not anything that you can do except to just have relationship with Him. And I do. I love you. I do I pray that God will make His presence so known in a… I understand what you’re saying and I…I feel like I’ve been there. As a pastor’s daughter I think it can be confusing. For me personally I got caught up in being on display in the church I think and that that confused me. Anyway, time is ticking…
What’s up Daily Audio Bible. I’m Deforest from out here in Louisiana and I wanted to ask for a prayer request. This is my first time doing this, but I’ve been listening for about three or four years. And I recently pretty much lost my family. I was supposed to get married October 1st. Today is October 23rd. And I have a problem with women and sex. And that’s not really the full extent of what broke up my family. But I’m just…I’m tired of battling this. I am so tired of battling it. And I and the __. And I feel like Paul. I do what I don’t want to do. Even though I know I shouldn’t do it I still do it anyway. So, I’m just asking for some prayers so I can start my own ministry and spread the word of God. But this sexual…desires that I have…I’ve had have held me back from doing it because I don’t wanna be a hypocrite or I don’t know just not be prepared. So, I wanna settle down, have a family and to live in my purpose and just get myself together. This has been going on for way too many years and I’ve been programmed to think and act a certain way and now it’s time for me to break it and I'm…only God can break it because I can’t do it. I’ve tried myself too many times. So, pray for me.
Hey DAB family this is your sister Ashley from California and wow it has been a while the last few days. Brian I just want to say thank you for this platform because without it I don’t know how I’d be inviting the word into my situation besides prayer. Y'all, my son Jackson who I called in and you’re praying for for issues with school. You guys, God has been so good because we found out that he had a 11 by 5 by 5 mass in his chest and abdomen, which it’s anterior but it’s like near his heart, it’s pressing down on his heart and he is been diagnosed with AL a leukemia and he started getting treatment for it on Friday and he is in the best hands. We’re UCLA here in Los Angeles. And guys God has just shown up and the best ways and it is so beautiful. I may not be grateful for this situation but I’m definitely grateful in it. But I could really use your prayers everybody. If you could please lift the doctors and the medical team up, my family, me. God, just He’s making a way. And I know His ways are higher than mine and I just know that He will give me peace here. And, so, I’m trying to thrive here and not to just survive here. So, if you all could lift us up, I would really appreciate it. DAB family you mean the world to me. And I’m praying with you as I listen. And I know that the Lord is here, and I know He has His angels fighting on my behalf and I am so grateful. But please pray for us. I love you all. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.
Hey y'all this is beloved on the beach. It is early on a Monday morning. I’m many weeks behind but I just had to stop the prayer request. I think there’s still one more to be played from October 12th and just got stopped in my tracks listening to a man, UPS driver, a brother in Christ who is or has now at this point faced a really hard day Lord driving through South Dakota I think he said and it bringing up trauma from his past. And I just wanted to say and point out if you hadn’t noticed it already that at 8 years old was the last time you saw him and you now have an 8-year-old son yourself and that God is so poetically writing a redemption story for you, my brother. And I am just so proud of you have as a sister in Christ following far away listening to this prayer request in this vulnerability that you modeled for all of us especially Christian men or men in general in this world that you showed a vulnerability. You spoke truth and trauma and shared your tears and then you begged for prayer and community to come alongside of you in that Lord. And so…I mean to come alongside the Lord with you in that. And I am just so encouraged and I am going to continue and pray for you and I just know that healing is coming that some has already come. And we praise You for that your Lord that You continue with the ripples of healing. We love you.
Hey, this message is for September. I just heard your call in this morning. This is Anne in the Trenches and I just wanted to say I heard so many people pray for you in your struggle with faith and I appreciate your honesty about the __. You should just drop, you know, drop it off or whatever and that that’s not necessarily helpful. But I’m hoping whatever I say this morning will be. We’ll see. Firstly, I think there’s different groups of Christians, right? And I used to be terrified that it wasn’t doing enough, or I wasn’t enough. And, so, I would end up in a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth and…or when I was a little kid, I remember I was left home alone a lot and I just thought for sure that the rapture had happened and that I wasn’t taken. Anyways, so just know that this doubt and fear that you have, you’re not alone in it. But I wanted to add in, you said something about God not coming to your rescue. You didn’t say those exact words, but you might not see God do it, but I just watched and listened to so many of His people coming to your rescue. And, so, I just wanted to say, yeah, He will chase you down. He just did and it was beautiful to watch. But to be honest I just remember thinking man people are really bothered by this. Like so many people called in to pray for this guy who said he didn’t know if he was a believer. And, so, I just want you to know that your prayer was actually already answered, and the Lord will send His people. Not everything is a miracle that God swoops in and does Himself. Quite often He sends His people…