2 Kings 18:13-19:37, Acts 21:1-17, Psalms 149:1-9, Proverbs 18:8
Today is the 1st day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today as we walk into the seventh month of the year together. Today is the 182nd day of the year. And we reached the halfway point yesterday as we ended the month of June. And, so, here we are launching ourselves into the second half, the second half of the Scriptures, the second half of the year as the adventure continues. And we concluded our first half of the year with a somber…with a couple of kind of somber and more sobering stories. In the Old Testament, the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and carried all of its people into exile, thereby bringing an end to the northern kingdom of…of Israel. And, so, as we move forward now there is no northern kingdom of Israel. And then in the book of Acts we saw Paul sailing back through Ephesus and the leaders of the church at Ephesus coming to see him as he continues his journey back toward Jerusalem. And he lets them know that they will never be able to see each other again in that life, in this life in person. The Holy Spirit has given Paul some advance words about what he will face as he continues his journey to Jerusalem. And we’ll all get to experience that as we continue in the days ahead. But that’s how we kind of landed our first half of the year. And let’s step forward into the second half. And that obviously leads us right where we left off and that happens to be the book of second Kings. And today we’ll read chapters 18 verse 13 through 19 verse 37.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your word. And here at the threshold as we begin this brand-new shiny sparkly month and move into the back half of the year we…we are grateful. We are humbled by Your generosity toward us and loving us and caring for us and being patient with us and guiding us and directing us. We are grateful for all that You have done in our lives thus far in the year and we are also declaring that we are open and look for…looking forward to all that You will teach us and all of the things that You will reveal to us as You continue to direct us forward. May we have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a willing heart to obey we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is homebase, that is the website, that’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And here we are in the month of July.
And, so, just a few days from now, the 7th day of July, which is a week from yesterday, the 7th day of July is our own little Global Campfire holiday around here that we love…lovingly call the Daily Audio Bible long walk because that's…that’s what it is. It’s that. It’s this day on the calendar that we carve out that we defend, that we take because we need…because we need it. It’s a day for our hearts. It’s a day for God. It’s a day to go for a long walk, bringing our full presence, our hearts and walking with God giving ourselves to Him again. Going for a long walk, the kind of long walk that you do when you’re in love with somebody. The kind long walk, right, hand in hand, slow stroll, maybe even fast-paced. Doesn’t really matter. The point is together. And on those walks time goes away. Like wasting time…like what we would think of as time wasted away from productivity is actually time invested into actual life and relationship, what we are made for, what we are working so hard for. It’s a day to say that’s my day. It’s the middle of the year. I need to regroup. I gotta second half of the year I gotta live. I cannot go blindly into that. I gotta lot that’s going on inside of me. I’m going to go and spend the day with the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. I’m gonna spend my day and I’m gonna say at all and I’m gonna listen, and I’m gonna listen and obey. So, that’s a beautiful thing to do. Go somewhere beautiful. Go for a long walk. Take the day. Spend it enjoying the lavish gift of the earth that God has given us that He offers to us each and every day. Enjoy it. Let it fill you up. Let it restore your soul. It’s unbelievable even what birdsong can do to a person’s mental health. So, everybody pick somewhere beautiful wherever you may be in the world. We’ll all be all over the world. We’ll be walking with God. Imagine that. Our community all over the world walking, literally walking with God. What makes it a community experience is that after we spend our day, maybe we took a picture while we were out there, maybe we took a video wherever we went. We want to remember the day ourselves and commemorate it ourselves and remember what God may have spoke to us ourselves. So, we come back to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page - facebook.com/dailyaudiobible and we will have a post there on the 7th July for the long walk. And as we complete our long walks, we can come back and post our pictures and videos and stories and that makes a story all of its own, the story of the day, the story of us all going and walking with God and we can hear from each other and what we heard and what we saw. And its lovely. So, make plans for that. It’s less than a week away. It’s the 7th of July, this coming Friday. The Daily Audio Bible long walk.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are 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, of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello I’ve been listener since I think about 2010. One of my good friends for a long time is laid up with cancer dying and I just ask for you all the pray for her. Her name is Katie and also for her girl. She’s about 11. Lilly Ann. Katies in hospice. And anyway it’s really heartbreaking and I don’t know…I would love for the Lord to heal her. But I just ask for you all to pray for Katie and Lily Ann. Thank you.
Hi DAB family this is Rebecca from Missouri. I am brand new to the Daily Audio Bible having just found out about it a couple of weeks ago and I’m loving it. I’m praying with all of you. And I ask for your prayers. Today marks one month since my dad passed away. This happened on May 26th. He was 64 years old, and he died after having a series of four strokes over the course of just under a year. And my mom is 63 and they were married for 44 years. And my mom went straight from being a 19-year-old living with her parents to a 19 year old bride. So, being alone is new for her. And I ask prayers for my mom Julie. And she’s a Christian and so was my dad. But this is hard on her big time. And, so, I ask that you pray that she gets friends to hang out with, finds things to do, keeps busy, goes traveling, all of the things that she can do now as a widow, that…that she just misses my dad less and less because it’s hard on her right now. Lord just please protect my mom and love her. Let her know that there’s so many people who love her and are there for her. She has neighbors, she has family. Let her know that she can lean on us all that she needs to and keep her from feeling like she’s a burden because she’s not, not at all. Thank you, Lord, for such a good mom and for giving me such a good dad in Jesus’s name Amen. Thank you everyone.
Good morning DAB family this is mummy’s Little Rock from Arkansas. I just wanted to call in. I listened to the June 25th prayer request for that day and Sharon from Tacoma WA called in. I believe that was your name. But her mom is now having to enter hospice and she was just feeling so overwhelmed. And Sharon I just…oh…I totally felt your call having gone through that with my mom 2-½ years ago, just feeling like, oh my goodness, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what’s gonna be best for her, the hospice care team. It was just all overwhelming and also very heartbreaking because we know the end was near…we knew the end was near. And, so, having to deal with all of that as well as being kind of thrust into making decisions was just so overwhelming. And your voice just took me right back to that moment where I had to make decisions for my mom as well, my brother and I. And I just want you to know that God hears you, that He loves you, and He’s holding you. And although I kind of knew that…I always knew that but just…I just needed strength to get through and I would pray every single moment every day to just ask for strength. And I promise you the Lord will give that to you. He gave it to me. I don’t know how I made it through without God. I know that He was there pushing me and pulling me and helping me to get through. So, just know that you’re loved and you are supported and you will get through this as well. God bless you.
Hello DAB family, Bubba Dee from Tennessee currently in Minnesota. I want to pray for today June 27th Eyes of a Dove you’re going through all those troubles with Ryland. Know that you’re not the only one. Parenting for a high schooler for me personally has been the toughest time in my life and still walking through a few things. And I’m gonna lift you up dear sister. Heavenly father I’m asking for Ryland, I’m asking that he would come back to you, come back to understanding what responsibility is, come back to understanding what he is made for. Lord we wanna pray purpose for Ryland. I’m asking God that you meet him what he is. I pray his mom is praying and pouring and even losing it but that all of this would testify to him of Your love and of Your good plan for his life. Just that through the Eyes of the Dove, his mom, he would see how You care for him, how much You want him to succeed, how much You want him to be a person who’s responsible and trustworthy and faithful. We bless him. As a community we lived Ryland up to you heavenly Father. We ask that he would come back to his senses. We now all this is possible. We saw this in the parable of the prodigal and it…
Morning DAB family this is Trucker Justin from Pennsylvania. I just listened to the June 18th podcast and heard Bernice request for his marriage and family. I’m telling you brother I was there last year separated from my wife and kids and I thought it was pretty much over but I pursued fellowship with my church and pursued God and He brought in some brothers into my life that have been through the same thing and they encouraged me and I just want to encourage you and pray for you. So, heavenly Father I would ask for Bernie and anyone else who’s having trouble in their marriage, Father I pray that You would just soften hearts and reconcile these men and women together. Father, restore the love and the peace that they have in their marriages Father and if there’s any sin that needs to be repented of and put away Father I pray that these men and women would have the humility to…to deal with that. So, heavenly Father we thank You for what You will do and I ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.