1 Chronicles 9:1-10:14, Acts 27:21-44, Psalm 8:1-9, Proverbs 18:23-24
Today is the 10th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you. It’s great to be here with you every single day that we get to gather, which is every day around the Global Campfire, and take the next step forward. And so, how if you been since yesterday? I hope all is going well, things are well here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. And even better that we can gather and take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And so, let’s do that, we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week. We have been working our way through the book of First Chronicles and we’ve been working through the…the…the genealogies in the Chronicles and we’re still in them. But we are nearing the end of them. So, let’s dive in and let’s move forward together today, First Chronicles chapters 9 and 10.
Commentary:
Okay so, in the Book of Acts we are traveling with the Apostle Paul again. He’s not on a, like a formal missionary journey because he’s not a free person, he’s sailing to Rome to stand trial before the emperor. Which doesn’t make him less on mission. This is very different but here we are traveling with Paul again and it’s like Paul can’t travel anywhere easily. Everywhere Paul goes, he’s bringing the gospel and it’s bringing tension. So here we are on a ship with Paul. They’re in this massive storm, they’ve been thrown around by the sea for two weeks. They’ve been fasting, they’ve thrown everything that they can overboard. They think they are going to die. Paul comes forward and says, I warned, I warned us all about this. This was totally avoidable, but the Lord has come and told me that none of us are going to die. The ship will be lost. But all of us are going to live. So, here’s Paul in the middle of this hurricane type storm, that’s completely carrying this ship, wherever it will. Paul has received word from the Lord, and now he’s encouraging the terrified people, and these are experienced sailors. These are hardened mercan-, like these are soldiers and prisoners and he’s encouraging everybody to eat something because they’re gonna need some strength. They’re not going to die. The ship will be lost. They need to eat, and people find encouragement in this, and they eat along with Paul. And sure, enough pretty soon, they begin to sense, there may be land somewhere. And so, they’re…they’re checking the depths of the sea and they see that it’s getting shallower and shallower. And so, they’re getting concerned. And exactly what Paul says is going to happen, does happen, they run the ship aground, it hits a sandbar, it begins to break apart because of the storm. The people have to jump over and head toward land. So, we can look at this and go okay, these are the Acts of the Apostles. This is what happened, this is the story of what happened after Jesus. And so, now we’re understanding what happened to Paul. Then we turn and apply it into our lives and just think of what that would feel like to be on that ship, having been tossed around for a couple of weeks, having become systematically hopeless for any type of rescue or even surviving. We could think of those kinds of situations where everything seems upside down, that we’re being tossed, and we don’t know where we’re headed. And we think we’re going to crash. The seas are choppy, life’ seas get choppy sometimes and sometimes were in an actual bona fide storm. One of the things that we can look at, is exactly what Paul said, this was avoidable, we didn’t have to go through this, but since we are going through this, be encouraged, all will not be lost. We will not lose ourselves in this story, is what Paul is telling them. We’re going to lose stuff but we’re not going to lose ourselves. So, we can certainly take comfort in the stormy seas in our lives by looking at this story in the Apostle Paul’s life. We can also flip over to what we read in our reading from the Psalms today. And I quote, “when I look up at your skies at what your fingers made, the moon and the stars that you set firmly in place. What are human beings that you think about them. What are human beings that you pay attention to them. You’ve made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur.” I mean if that’s true, if what’s being said from the Psalms is true, then God has crowned us with glory and honor and knows us, and knows who we are, and wants to be in this relationship. And that is true whether we’re in a storm that we made, whether we’re in a storm that we didn’t make or whether we’re not in a storm at all and the sea is like glass in our lives. So, regardless of where we find ourselves, and we all…all experience the choppy waters of life. I really wish that, I really wish that weren’t so, but I can tell you that we all experience these things. It’s a matter of what we do, and Psalm eight points us in the right direction.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we pray Lord, how majestic is Your name throughout the earth. There is no one like You. There is nothing like You and You know who we are. And so, Father, some of us are crying out from the middle of the storm, we feel like we’re going down and we feel like there’s no hope. We reach for You, may we feel Your hope that this is not the end of the story. And other, others of us are feeling like things are going really well right now. We’re in this moment where we can appreciate Your blessing and having brought us some things. And so, we recover, and we rest, and we restore this place. We get to experience both, we prefer the calm seas but the stormy seas certainly come, and they certainly tether us to You, we hold onto You for dear life. And so, regardless of where we are Lord, how majestic is Your name throughout the earth. You made Your glory higher than heaven, from the mouths of nursing babies, You have laid a strong foundation because of Your foes in order to stop vengeful enemies. When I look up at Your skies at what Your fingers have made, the moon and the stars that You set firmly in place. What are human beings that You think about them. What are human beings that You pay attention to them. You’ve made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur. You’ve let them rule over Your handiwork, putting everything under their feet. All sheep and all cattle, the wild animals too. The birds in the sky, the fish of the ocean, everything that travels the pathways of the sea. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name throughout the earth. We declare this, we pray this. We believe this in the name of Jesus. 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 everyone. It’s CeCe from North Carolina. I’m just calling in just to reflect on the reading that Brian did today. After hearing him read that they ripped apart the temple that Solomon built to dedicate to the Lord was just really sad. He spent 7 years building it and putting it together and measuring and making sure everything was perfect. And it just gets destroyed and demolished because they didn’t keep their word and that’s really saddening to me. I just pray that you know, when you dedicate something to the Lord, you cherish it and you keep it upright and you don’t let people destroy it and I feel like that’s what people are doing to people’s face now. Making them think that they shouldn’t believe or turn away from the Lord. And you know, it’s just very disheartening because that’s what we see right now. I just pray that whatever hope and faith that you have within yourself, you keep ahold of it. You cherish it because in the end, that’s gonna save you. So, that’s just my reflection for today. Not really a prayer but I pray for everyone. And I hope you all have a good 4th of July. Amen.
Good morning family. It’s Jay from the Bay. I’m just calling to ask for prayer for two people. Last week I came into work and one of my favorite patients, I discovered he passed away. Which hurts my heart because the last thing, conversation that we had was him saying how much he hated God because He gave him cancer. And He just kept putting him through things. Of course, I said, don’t say that. He loves you. I believe he had a change of heart after that conversation. But the last time I saw him he was in shambles and disarray and not like his normal self. And I’m really sadden by that. He wasn’t close with his family, and when they called his family to let them know they were like okay. We don’t care. And that hurt my heart even more. So, I’m just praying that he made peace with God before his transition. And my second prayer request is for a co-worker. I came into work on Monday and our management let us know that our co-worker was (oh Jesus) killed. He was riding his bike home to his partner, 10+ years and somebody hit him. Hit him so hard he died instantly. And the man left. The person who hit him, left the scene. So, it’s really, really hard cause he was just the sweetest little thing he could be. The most talented nurse ever. So, if you guys could pray for that, for us, for our whole team, for their families and souls and etc. That would be great. Thank you guys. I love you all. I hope you having a blessed day.
Good morning, this is Dr. Mack from Alexandria, Virginia. I’ve been listening to all the prayer requests for the members of this platform. And I’ve been praying along with each one of you . Wondering which one of these prayer requests that I should focus on. I decided to pray for each one of them. So, for those who have been praying for reconciliation of marriages, I pray that God would grant you the request that you have prayed, earnestly. For those who have been praying for healing and deliverance from substances, I pray that God would deliver you, in the name of Jesus. And those of you who have been praying for the return of children back to the homes and for those who are in prison and need to be delivered from imprisonment, physical, spiritual, emotional, oh God who hears and answers prayers will hear you. Father, in the name of Jesus, may you bless this community and the blessing that only you alone can give. Blessings of peace, finances, reconciliation of marriages, bringing hope to the hopeless, strengthen the weak. This spirit of peace and happiness for a spirit of heaviness in the name of Jesus. Thank you also for Brian and his family. Bless us all today, even as we look to you, for you are deliverance, your peace, your mercy and your provision. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Hello DAB family, this is Diana from Florida. And I just wanted to thank Pastor Brian for his beautiful commentary on the July 5th podcast, right at the beginning, before we got started with the Book of 1st Chronicles. Because the explanation that you provided about the importance of the names of the genealogy of the Book of 1st Chronicles was absolutely breath taking. I could not get over that. As somebody who’s been in love with the Bible for so many years and initially struggled immensely with the genealogies because you’re reading through all these names and you don’t always understand who these people are, why does this matter. Is this important? You tend to check out. But over the years I’ve come to understand it and realize the value of the genealogies and have found such an immense value in the genealogies in the Book of Matthew. And the genealogies even in the Book of Genesis. But always struggled with the Book of 1st Chronicles and even some of the genealogies in between. And your explanation really helped open my eyes to see that the names of these people mattered and that the reason for the genealogy, was so that the people of Israel would not forget the point, that they would not forget where they were coming from, even though they were in exile and it served as an encouragement to them to know that one day, they would be reunited and they would be back in the Promised Land. And that’s amazing to me.