2 Kings 1:1-2:25, Acts 13:42-14:7, Psalms 139:1-24, Proverbs 17:19-21
Today is the 21st day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and here we are, center of the week. Moving through the middle of another one of our weeks together and it is fantastic to be here with you today as we do what we do, take the next step forward together. Our next step kinda…sorta…leads us into new territory. We finished the book of first Kings yesterday. And, so, we’re gonna begin second Kings in just a moment. It’s just that there’s not a whole lot to talk about here. These…these manuscripts were broken apart for the ease of finding things. And, so, we’re not moving into new territory. We don’t need to come to this overview of what’s going to be happening. We’re continuing this journey through the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel and sort of what was going on during their reigns. And, so, we’re moving through history pretty quickly. Sometimes we slow down and get more details on certain kings and others we get like a paragraph when actually a whole generation goes by in that paragraph. But as we begin second Kings we will see a transition. We had a prophetic voice in the book of first Kings. His name was Elijah. And we will watch a transition between Elijah and his successor Elisha. And, so, let’s dive in together. Today second Kings, chapters 1 and 2.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we’ve launched ourselves into second Kings and we talked about the territory that we’re going into. And then we got into the book of Acts and we’re seeing now Paul, who is the apostle Paul and Barnabas on this missionary journey, and what we’re seeing is that everywhere they go and begin to share the good news it causes a reaction. It’s not like a passive thing and there is a reaction of either an open heart where people are just overjoyed at the immense good news that is being preached or they are antagonistic toward it. It’s kind of not a passive thing. And, so, we’re seeing that everywhere that Paul goes so that people are stirred up against them and people are stirred up for them. We’ll continue to see this pattern as we continue this journey of the spread of the gospel of Jesus and the formation of the early church.
And then we got to Psalm 139 today. It’s…it’s a favorite one of mine because when I read it it seems like there’s a question there. And the question is, where is God not? Where…where isn’t He, rather than the question we ask all the time, where is He? The Psalms like if I go to heaven You’re there. If I go down to the realm of the dead, You’re there. If I go east or I go west You’re there. If I go to the far side of the ocean You’re there. You will guide me. Your strength will support me. So, if this passage of Scripture is true then what’s being indicated is that there is no where we can flee from God’s presence, which then brings up the question, why are we always looking for it when it’s right here right now? So often that…that’s motivated by a need for like an emotional connection, some sort of sense of His presence, but it seems that that’s more about us than it is about God. It’s like us, getting ourselves into a place where we can experience the presence of God in worship and then we kind of equate that experience with the presence of God because it is the presence of God that we’re actively experiencing. But His presence doesn’t go away. We don’t have to conjure Him up in some sort of way, so that what…that God is drawing near and now we are in His presence. So, what the Psalm seems to be indicating is there’s nowhere you can go that’s not in His presence including heaven and the realm of the dead. So, it would be safe to say that in this life there is nowhere we can flee from the presence of God. And that awareness is a bit of a game changer because it means that God is present to us no matter what we feel like or no matter what is going on. So, why not…why don’t we just practice that awareness today and consider that everything you do, every thought you have, every conversation that you participate in, every action that you take no matter where you are matter what’s going on God is present. He is not distant. He is near. That should be comforting and maybe even sobering because it brings up other questions, like what would I not want God to bear witness to and what do I not want Him to know about or what embarrass me if I really thought that God knew about that? Typically, when we think of things in those terms we are simply naming the things that are trying to seduce us away from God. So, why don’t we practice reality today? Let’s practice reality. We are in the presence of God. Every breath we take, every move we make He’ll be watching over us. Let’s practice this awareness today and then reflect upon how it influenced the day we lived and then become aware that we can live every day aware of God’s presence everywhere.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit come into this. We so often are back and forth looking for where You went when You didn’t go anywhere. It’s that we probably did. Help us to settle into this awareness that there is nothing that we can do. We are in Your presence now, and all we need to do is become aware of it. Lead and guide us today as we practice this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s all for today other than to tell you the truth. I love you and I’m grateful for the journey we are on together and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello DABbers John from New England calling with a great
belated praise report and a prayer request. A little over a year ago I called
in in the middle of the night I was suffering from muscle spasms in my left leg
were waking me up and causing me pain ruining my life and thanks to prayers
from Victoria Soldier, Steve, and many others and some good counsel on the Prayer
Wall the problem was healed and I’m forever grateful for that to all of you.
Thank you. Prayer request for my son’s fiancé Nicole who two years ago went
through 12 hour surgery to remove avocado size tumor from the back of her head.
A small piece was left behind it was that was covered in nerves and that has
grown back now two years year later and it’s the size of a golf ball. A few
weeks ago she went through some radiation therapy to try to mitigate it and
won’t know until September whether it was successful and I just ask that you
pray for my son’s fiancé Nicole that this procedure was successful and that
this tumor doesn’t come back and that it is permanently…is permanently healed so
that he and she enjoy life and she doesn’t have to be constantly worrying about
this and struggling with it. Also, I just want to say many thanks to Brian,
Jill, China, the whole Hardin family for the blessing of Daily Audio Bible,
which for me last 17 years or so and my wife has become part of our daily
ritual. Of course, the Daily Audio Bible Chronological, my evening ritual. Life
changing. Thank you. God…
Seeking your face at the start of my day
I found that for me there’s no better way
in fact you said to acknowledge you in all of my ways
and to bring all of my thoughts in subjection to Christ whenever my mind and heart
strays
cause trouble surrounds me wherever I go
health problems family problems bills a sack full of woe
should I try to work it all out with the strength of my own hands
or stand in faith and wait on you ignoring my heart’s well thought out but
impatient plans
because you said the wisdom of man is foolishness to you
and I know all your words are faithful and true
so I’m seeking your face at the start of my day
cause I know that for me there’s no better way
bindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Alta Lee Maxwell. I want to give you best wishes and congratulations on your…on your getting married and I pray that you and your husband have many fruitful happy years together hopefully in service to the Lord. And once again Brian and the Hardin family I want to thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow keep it…
Daily Audio Bible family this is Lawrence in Atlanta. I’ve been listening for over 15 years and this ministry has brought me joy, has helped me through some of the toughest times in my life, and has been the single most rewarding thing that I’ve done to get to know God and have community with fellow Christians. I’m coming to you today because I’m just broken, and in need of prayer. My marriage has been really tough over the past 14 years. God’s blessed us with wonderful children and blessed us with successful businesses but the relationship between my wife and I has been very dysfunctional and unhealthy in a bunch of different areas for years. And over the years I’ve built up a lot of resentment and anger towards her and I’ve acted out and I’m afraid that what I’ve done has destroyed my family. So, I formed an emotional relationship with someone I work with and my heart more than anything wants to be with that person, wants to spend time with them instead of my own wife. My wife is devastated. She’s hurting so bad. All my family and friends around me are furious with me for not wanting to work it out with my wife. My heart is hard. It is not softened. I’ve asked God to soften my heart towards my wife but I…it’s just not what I want. And I feel that what I…
Hi beautiful family, this is Prisoner of Hope. I am lifting up Bernie and your marriage. Father, he is struggling, he and his wife in their marriage and they need Your help. They need Your strength to keep going and Your wisdom to know what to do. Please help them to love one another in the way that You love them and just help them to forgive and heal and work on restoration. Please protect their beautiful children as they go through this. A man called in asking for a financial provisions for his family. Your dad’s in Kansas your mom passed away a couple years ago and your grandmother recently passed away. And then Remorseful Sinner, you need a financial miracle as well. I’m gonna pray for both of you. Lord please help this man and Remorseful Sinner to manage and steward what finances they do have with wisdom and diligence. Please help them with their debt, be their Jehovah Jira and grant their lives the financial breakthrough that they so badly need. And please especially help Remorseful Sinner to have energy and lift her out of any depression and give her what she needs so she…she can go out and find a job. Searching for Beauty, it looks like you’re stage 4 cancer. I want to pray for you and your daughters. Almighty God by the power of Your healing hand may Searching for Beauty experience health, strength, and peace. Just please alleviate the suffering that she’s going through and continue to help her in her relationship, the relationships with their daughters and extend her life to be with them according to Your will. Manita you are just going through a really tell real time. You didn’t say what, but I just love you so much and I’m going to pray for you. Dear God, please give Manita strength, courage, love, encouragement, comfort, and a fresh portion of Your hope to help her with whatever she’s going through. Thank You that You are on the throne Lord, always our God. Please be near to her and rescue her from her fears and hurst and help her to remember that this trial will not last forever. We ask all these things in the beautiful and powerful mighty name of Jesus. Amen.