1 Chronicles 9:1-10:14, Acts 27:21-44, Psalms 8:1-9, Proverbs 18:23-24
Today is the 11th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today as we do what we do, find a place around the Global Campfire, and relax and exhale and allow the Scriptures to speak into our lives. We don’t have to be working out any problems. We don’t have to be wrestling or chewing through any issues. This is a place to come and allow the Scriptures to speak to us where we open our hearts and simply allow the Bible to speak. And, so, let's…let’s do that. Moving back to where we left off yesterday will move us back into the book of first Chronicles where David will become the king. First Chronicles chapter 11 verse 1 through 12 verse 18 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Acts we finally see how Paul ended up making it to Rome. We left our reading yesterday with everybody jumping off a ship that was falling apart in a great storm that…and the ship had run aground. And, so, everybody is…is trying to get to land, but they have no idea where they are. As it turns out they had shipwrecked on the island of Malta. And I remember one year pulling up the map seeing where Malta is and greetings to our…our brothers and sisters in Malta. We have Daily Audio Bible listeners who live on the island of Malta, which is pretty cool. But I looked…looked it up, looked at where Malta is in the ocean, trying to imagine this storm that was pulling this ship wherever it wanted to go. And if they hadn’t shipwrecked on Malta there was nowhere else really to shipwreck. They would’ve been on the bottom of the ocean in a watery grave. But as it turns out everybody did make it to shore. They did discover they are on the island of Malta and the Maltese people were kind and friendly and knew what was going on and built this great bonfire to warm up everybody from the storm. And that’s where we have this scene where Paul’s collecting sticks to kind of add to this bonfire and a poisonous snake jumps out and…and bites him on the hand and is just kinda hanging there and everybody sees this. The Maltese people see this, and they determine this man, Paul, must be a murderer. He escaped the sea, but he will not escape the snake. Of course, nothing happens to Paul. There waiting for Paul to swell up or have trouble breathing or to fall over dead or something, but nothing happens to Paul. He just sits there and goes on about his day. And they see this and then they determined that he’s not a murderer that has escaped the sea but will not escape the snake. Rather, he’s a God. This is not the first time this has happened to Paul. But I just want us to pay attention to the fact that these are extreme opposite things. This man must be a murderer. He has escaped the sea, but this snake will kill him. God will judge him. He will receive justice. To go from that place to this person is a God. Those are extremely different things, which shows us just how wide and varied the assumptions are when people encounter the presence of God. Anyway, Paul has to go through the process of getting…again of declaring that he’s not…he’s not a God. And then we watched as the people stayed on Malta until fair weather and that the Lord did His work on the island of Malta - healing and good news being spread among the people. And then when the winter season was over, they were on an Alexandrian ship and they had to bounce around a few places, but eventually Paul does land in Italy and makes his way to Rome. And as we arrive at Rome with Paul, we also concluded the book of Acts.
And, so, tomorrow we will be moving into some brand-new territory, and we’ll talk about all this. We will not be leaving Paul. We will be rather moving into Paul’s letters. And the first letter that we will encounter is a lengthy letter from the apostle Paul known as the book of Romans.
And then lastly, we…we turn into the book of Proverbs today and a very very important truth is spoken. People’s own folly corrupts their way. Let’s stop there. Like, that…that’s half of the proverb. People’s own folly, right? Their own actions, their own mistakes, their own sidesteps, their own willfulness, their own action corrupts their way. And in the proverb goes on, but their hearts rage against the Lord. So, in other words, people are responsible for ruining their own lives with their own foolishness and then they blame God for it. And that is a truth to pay attention to. We are all guilty at one point or another of blaming God for something that God had nothing to do with that we are totally responsible for. God is like the cosmic trash heap for everybody’s suffering, even if we bring it upon our own self. And, so, if we find ourselves shaking our fist at the sky saying how could you allow this to happen to me it…it may be that the response is God asking, why did you allow this to happen to you, son? Why did you do this sweetheart? Like, why are you blaming me? Do you want out of this? Let me show you the way. But I didn’t do this to you. But we blame God for things that he doesn’t do all the time then we’re not culpable. God is the sovereign one, He is the all-powerful one. So, He’s gotta be responsible. Man, stepping back and thinking about that, thinking about what we’re talking about here, it’s that somehow we feel like…like we’ve risen to the position where we can assume and comment on what God will and will not do. And let’s just think about this in our other relationships. If what we do is sidestep and deflect away from our own deficiencies and blame somebody else for what we do, that is not a recipe for any kind of lasting or deepening relationship. So, why do we find ourselves doing this to the only one who’s willing to actually stand along with us no matter what we get ourselves into and lead us regardless? It’s actually important that we stop blaming God for things that we do. Healthy relationships usually work when both parties own their lives, own their actions, confess and are committed to one another. God has promised not to abandon us. There’s nothing that He can’t guide us through and out of even if we’ve made the mess ourselves. If we’ll walk with Him and follow Him and obey Him and not blame Him for what we’re doing because He loves us enough to let us walk away too. And He’s patient enough to wait for our return. Maybe our move here is to stop moving away, is to actually let this settle. No matter what comes our way, o matter what we navigate ourselves into, or no matter what comes our way out of the clear blue, God will not abandon us. And, so, maybe the words of the Proverbs ring true for us. Maybe it’s time to stop ruining our lives with our own foolishness and blaming somebody else and raging at God, the only one who knows the way forward.
Prayer:
Father, firstly, we rejoice and thank You. We’ve moved through this territory of the book of Acts, the immediate happenings after…after Your ascension Jesus. And, so, we are looking forward to the territory in front of us as we deepen our understanding of the faith. But we also invite You into what we’re talking about in Proverbs. We get frustrated. We don’t understand why things are that…they are the way they are sometimes. And then sometimes things are the way they are because it’s how we made them and we don’t want to accept the responsibility. And, so, it’s easier to deflect the blame and we confess that we’ve done this toward You, and we are sorry. You would never leave or forsake us regardless of how we feel. And so often we find ourselves estranged from You for things that we’ve gotten ourselves into. We are sorry. We humbly repent. We ask once again that You would give us eyes to see and ears to hear, that You would indeed lead us into all truth. We depend on You. We trust You and we are…we are truly sorry for the times that we’ve blamed You for things You had nothing to do with. Forgive us Lord, we pray 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.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning everybody this is God’s Smile here. Do you want some good news? Do you want a praise report? Well just listen to this. So, yesterday was Peter’s birthday and it started off tough for me but by the time the afternoon came I was able to get on my feet and cook him his favorite meal. And we managed to get that done. And my son Tom was poorly sick. So, I said to Peter shall we take a dish down for him. He lives about 40 minutes away so it’s a good drive. And Peter said how about you having a drive Hellen. You’re looking OK. And I thought, yes why not. Now bear in mind it’s 15 years plus since I’ve driven and then it wasn’t very often. And, so, I got in the car I adjusted the seat. My little legs couldn’t reach the pedals from where Peter once sat and started the car and off, we went, and we drove to Tom’s. I wasn’t nervous at all I was just filled with such joy that the Lord could give me enough strength and life to drive. And I wasn’t nervous at all. And it was just like I'd…I’d driven yesterday, you know. And, so, when we dropped off Tom’s meal Peter said the beach isn’t far. Do you fancy having a drive? And, so, we went to the beach. My favorite place. And it was…the wind was howling but oh my goodness it was so good to feel that wind on our faces. Isn’t God good? Isn’t He good hey? Kiss, kiss. Times running away again. Love you.
Hey Daily Audio Bible it’s Lucas. I…I finally moved away from my parents place __ here to move closer to work. So, no more driving an hour there in an hour back two hours every day. I’m grateful for that but right now me and my wife, we picked out a bad neighborhood and it’s full of meth heads. Like there are good people there. It seems like we, you know, take care of each other because, you know, I met one guy and, you know, he was really nice, and he helped replace a doorknob and in our mobile home. And speaking of that, the mobile home we’re living in it’s really beaten up. The landlord ’s willing to fix it but it’s been beaten up by other bad tenants. It’s been affecting work. I’ve been living in it not even a week like with all the unpacking it’s been constant constant work. And I messed up at work with a simple job and I pissed off one of the guys that are above me. This simple job and he’s threatened to tell the office and possibly have me eliminated. So, I…I really need prayer please. I…I feel like I’m at my breaking point here. So, please pray for me. Thank you.
Hi, my name is Rhonda and this is my first time calling but I’ve been listening for a while to the Daily Audio Bible, a couple years now. I’m calling because I feel like I’m consumed and I know that God is with me but my families experiencing extreme hardship financially and my husband is also sick. He is in need of a kidney transplant. Our taxes are consuming us. My husband has had multiple businesses, but the taxes is one area where he has not been able to get ahold of it and handle them the way that we should and now I’m dealing with bank levies and I’m dealing them coming after my wages and I feel like I’m going to lose my mind. And yet I keep hearing God say or keep listening to words where God is saying I’ll be with you, I’m not gonna let the storm overtake you. But I feel like the person in the Bible saying Jesus help me with my unbelief. And, so, I’m asking for prayer because I just need this to stop. It’s really hard and it’s bringing so much stress in my marriage and in my family and in my home. So, if you could just pray for God to give us a way and show us the light, help us get rid of this debt that I believe that is now over $200,000. It's…it's…it’s a lot. I just appreciate your prayer. Thank you.
Hi this is Donna from California. Getting caught up on a couple days I got behind. And July 5th the last caller I think you said your name is Morning Lift. And I…I’ve listened to your prayer request a number of times now and it just breaks my heart. There’s so many, it seems, like or maybe I’m just in tune with more of these but other marriages they’re breaking up. I think Lawrence called in. I called in a prayer for him too, but I went through this. I’m on the other side of it and I’m older now and I just want to give you all a perspective from somebody who’s been through it and over it. And Morning Lift you’re call just really broke my heart because I…I did that to my former husband. I had biblical reason for ending my marriage. There was a lot of trouble. And I’m happy to say we’re good friends now but when he got the divorce papers that broke him. It actually sent him to the emergency room with an outbreak of hives. And, so, your call really convicted me about that. I regret what I did. I had…I felt justified and falling in love with other men. I never crossed the physical line, but I certainly crossed it, you know, every other way and I’m sorry about it. So, if anyone…if this speaks to anybody if…if you’re hearing it's…it’s not worth it. Stick to your marriage. Do your part no matter what they’re doing. Follow God and…and…and seek to serve your spouse. I love you all.