Leviticus 20:22-22:16, Mark 9:1-29, Psalm 43:1-5, Proverbs 10:18
Today is the 27th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a joy to be here with you today, as we gather around the Global Campfire, take the next step forward together, and just enjoy the peace and serenity of the Global Campfire. This place that we come every day, that is a place of peace, a place for us to center ourselves in the Scriptures and allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us and sounds great to be here in this space with you today, to take the next step forward. And that will lead us back into the book of Leviticus. Today, we will read chapter 20 verse 22 through chapter 22 verse 16.
Commentary:
So, let’s just hang out t in Proverbs for a second. One sentence, whoever conceals hatred with lying lips and spreads slander is a fool. Let’s just think about that person that’s in our life, maybe at church, maybe at work, who knows where, that we just can’t stand. Just can’t. They say offensive things all the time. Maybe we’ve been offended, maybe they just something that’s not true about us. We just avoid them. But it’s not really just avoidance, we use, we strike back covertly. Maybe they said something at some point and it’s just stuck and we get still burning inside of us, we’re still mad about it. Everybody has experiences like this from time to time. It’s just how do we deal like, what do we do with that. Cause a lot of times when there’s an offense, it gets stuck inside of us. We keep thinking about it. We keep reliving the moment. We can find ourselves more angry later on than we ever were in the moment, we just keep replaying it over and over. So, anytime that person comes up in conversation or whatever, we’re pulled back into that and you don’t have anything good to say. And maybe just to kind of even the scales, at least in our own minds and hearts, we go to our friends and tell the whole story about that person, we gossip about them, tear them down. We call them into question, we call their character into question, we call their family and we call whatever we can into question. And you know we have to actually be in that person’s presence, and we just fake it, like there’s nothing wrong. Like that’s not, like just saying it, we know that’s not healthy, we just do these kinds of things. The Proverb says whoever conceals hatred with lying lips and spreads slander is a fool. What that one sentence does is force us to consider our thoughts, words and deeds toward this person. Does the gossip and slander about this person take any less energy than just going to the person, even if there isn’t reconciliation, to just call things into the light and move toward peace with one another. Like, is all of the covert things that we might do to even the scales and diminish this other person, take less energy and does it bring us more wholeness? And we might approach this person, who may be not responsive in any sort of way. And so, us just approaching them and holding out an olive branch and saying man we have gotten sideways, and I feel like we could actually work better together. Maybe that doesn’t work, maybe the person doesn’t want anything to do with you at this point. But moving in that direction is a better choice than being a liar and a fool. And I get it, people are complicated, we’re complicated, and things go sideways all of the time, and we have all kinds little offenses that we can deal with. But what if we didn’t though, what if we didn’t, what would life be like if we weren’t carrying all of that around. So, this Proverb can actually step right up to us, look us in the eyes and we may not like what it’s suggesting and now we have to think about all this stuff. But the Proverbs aren’t here for condemnation purposes, they’re here to cut through, to cut through the fog, to give clarity, to bring truth and now we have heard it. And now we should wrestle with it in our lives. We don’t have to listen to the wisdom of the Proverbs. We can ignore it. But what if we heeded it. So many of these times in the Bible steps right up to us and says something we have to ask ourselves, even if we don’t like the changes that it might suggest that we need to make inside of our hearts. Like, what’s the downside? That we may have to be more humble, that we might have to be more long-suffering in order to put what is broken back together and do the work of God in this world. Because the flipside is that we have to be more arrogant and more dishonest, that we have to make a fool of ourselves, according to the Proverbs. So, what’s the downside of paying attention to what Proverbs is saying and incorporating it into our lives and in our relationships. Because what the Proverbs is…is telling us is that our re-actions to things can make a fool out of us and a liar out of us. So, let’s give it some thought. Today we might even catch ourselves moving in that direction and maybe we stop ourselves because there’s no downside to putting what’s broken back together. This is the work of God.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we invite You into that interpersonal relationships at work, at church, at home everywhere we go. Everybody’s got their stuff, we all have our brokenness, we all have our stories and some of them have been very difficult stories indeed. So, we find ourselves reacting to all kinds of things, in all kinds of ways. You are inviting us through the voice of wisdom here, to take a beat. And if we do this, and we begin to do this repeatedly, like we don’t just react, we don’t just follow the old path, we take a moment and think about what is actually going on. Inviting Your Holy Spirit, so that we might humble ourselves, so that we might actually be Your ambassadors in this world. So much can change with such little repentances, with such little changes. So much of life can change with just a little changes. Help us to make these, show us how, help us to not react, may our reactions be to turn to You and seek You, as we move forward. We pray this in the precious name of Jesus who modeled this for us, so that we have a picture of what this looks like in the Gospels, make us like You, make us whole. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hello, this is Z1 praying for Junk to Treasure. We hear you sister. My grandma, God’s Chosen, wants me to pray for your requests. So, that’s what I’m here to do. Junk to Treasure, I am praying for God’s hand of support for Junk to, for you during these difficult situations. You are her refuge and strength, God, her present help in trouble. Hold her hand and do not let her fall. Life, here on earth, is filled with trials and tribulation. Let Your grace be upon her during the trials of anguish. 1 Peter 1 verse 3-4, 2 Corinthians verse 4 through 17. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all. An eternity with the Lord, we will know no longer have to fear hard times, because everything will be made perfect. I pray God gives you strength during this season, send plenty of help to help you grow closer to God and His Holy word. Amen. Don’t worry, we all hear you, we’re all praying for you. And when you are sad, we are sad in our hearts because we love you. You’re a part of our family and we’ve got your back. So, thank you for listening to this prayer and I hope this has lifted your spirits. And this is not of me, but it is of God and God will give you the strength you need to overcome these tough times. And He will bring these tough times to an end with His sword of justice. All in good time. God’s plan is for you. God has got a good plan for you. God knows where your life will go to. So, keep it up. Good work sister. We love you. Thank you. Bye.
Hi, everyone. I just wanted to quick, come on here and ask for prayer. Kind of reluctantly, I don’t know why. But I guess I’ve just been in this long season of discouragement. Just mental health diagnosis in the last three years, PTSD and bipolar and no very stable. I’ve been on long-term disability through my previous job. It’s been a year and a half now and that disability will be up in October. I thought it was gonna be a little longer. But, honestly, I have struggled my entire adult life to work full-time for you know, any, sustainable length of time. And I’m really, really anxious and nervous and just fearful and I know the enemy is the one trying to discourage me. I know the Holy Spirit’s giving me discernment about that. And I just have this sense that the Lord wants to use my story one day, that, you know, He wants to be glorified in this. That He’s got some kind of plan that’s way bigger me but I don’t understand right now. I’m just really anxious. I just feel like I’m up against impossible odds, right now, financially. Like, there’s always just enough. He’s so good, He always provides. I have so many blessings. I have a degree and I managed to get it and a career that I love, eventually, I hope. That I’ve been doing on and off before I got really unwell. And I just really need prayer. I know He’s building me up in this season, showing me the warrior I am in Him and building my trust with him. But my strength is just failing, every day, and the enemy is relentless. So, encouragement would really be appreciated and prayer.
Good morning, Daily Audio Bible Family. I’m calling in for prayers for my life. I’ve been wanting to set it down, but it has really been challenging because I’ve been in a relationship, but things are not working. I am thinking of moving on. It hurts that I would give in this much and nothing comes out of it. I do not know if it’s my perception towards marriage. Cause I haven’t had this pleasure of a family, you know. In Africa, when you’re both 30 and you have a good job, you, the pleasure of the family to see you settle down becomes really, really high. And I’ve not really been getting an easy with family. So, I want to use this Lent period to really focus on my relationship with God and while I’m doing that, I was the one, my Daily Audio Bible family to put me in their prayers. I would love to encounter someone who values me as much as I value her. Who would choose to compromise as much as I would choose to compromise or maybe less. I just want to be in a relationship with someone who understands me. Because I believe if that relationship is to last, we all have compromises that we should make. So, put me in your prayers as we go through it. And I’m hoping to come back here with a testimony. Probably sometime. Thank you Daily Audio Bible.
Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, Daily Audio Bible Family. This is Matthew from the United Kingdom. Today is the 22nd of February 2023 and beginning of Lent. And this is the period when one would come and think about our life and repent of our sins. I sometimes pray for brothers and sisters whose problems are presented on this platform. Thank you Brian Hardin for all that you do, for this, for the Holy Spirit to flow in this platform. This morning, or whatever it is, whatever time it is, wherever you are, let us lift up our brother team. Before his throne of grace and mercy, and ask for more of his mercy in the life of team. Team, today is the day that begins repentance. Team has repented before you and for that ___, asking for restoration. For that, I stand with team, and ask you Lord, for restoration for team. Asking You, Lord, that You cleanse team from all unrighteousness, oh God. Lord, that You would restore team, full unto You and restore his ministry back to him. In the name of Jesus. Father, if we say have no sin, that the truth is not in us, for all of us have sinned and have fallen short of your glory. You said, if we confess our sins, that You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Hi DAB family, my name is Evelynn, I’m calling from Berlin. Good afternoon, yeah, about two months ago, I called for prayers for my mom, who was going through stage 4 breast cancer. Today, makes one month exactly that she passed. She went to be with the Lord. Yeah, it’s been hard, it’s been hard without her. Especially for my dad. I can hear the pain, I can see the pain in his eyes. First there girls, three girls, it’s, it’s, it’s just been hard. So, I’m calling for prayers that you stand in the gap, you pray alongside with us, as we get through this process of trying to figure things out. You know, and yeah, I’m also asking for prayers over my mind, over the spirit of fear, anxiety and worry. That’s, you know, having a family member go through such, is kind of hard. So, yeah, heavenly Father, I ask that You’d stand by everyone who is going through loss, who is going through a grieving process. I ask Lord Jesus, that You stand by us, that You support us, that we feel Your love, Your support, Your embrace around us during these trying times. In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you so much. Bye.