Month: August 2023

And so, they go up a notch and they start telling Job that God would never do something like this. If God did this to you then, you deserved it in some sort of way. Maybe we need to talk, explore that a little bit. Let’s talk about that a little bit. And of course, Job is adamant about his innocence. So, once it becomes really, really clear that Job’s not just speaking from grief and anxiety and everything. That he’s actually trying to say he’s innocent and does not deserve this, well then, his friends have a dilemma because now they’re put in the position of defending God, and that’s Job’s problem. You guys are sitting there on God’s side defending God, but you don’t have anything to tell me that I don’t already know. And so, none of us can actually get to the end of the road. You’re despising me because I’m claiming innocence before God. But I am innocent before God and nobody, there’s no one to prove it. Like we’re all stuck here at an impasse. You are certain that you know what God is going to do and what God is not going to do, and that you know the ways of God. But you don’t know the ways of God any more than I do, and this happened to me. And so, there’s a missing piece somewhere and the only person who knows is God. But wherever I go, I can’t find Him. And this goes back and forth, and back and forth and it gets more and more intense until they are arguing and insulting each other. We might even refer to our reading from Proverbs yesterday about the mocker and say, yeah, we can see the at some point things shifted and got personal here. And so, they’re having a full-on argument and then everybody runs out of things to say. And then there’s a fourth character, Elihu, who’s been sitting there silent, and he begins to speak up and he has a lot to say, and it took a couple days to get through all that he has to say. And then, and then the Lord showed up. And He said, who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words, brace yourself like a man. I have some questions to ask of you and you’re gonna answer me. Man, like I can’t come by this portion of Job, when God shows up, I just sat and thought what that would be like. I see Job’s plight. We’ve read Job’s plight and we wrestle with it in our own lives when we’re asking why, and we don’t have the answers. And so, we can see all of the turmoil in the book of Job being very, very human. Trying to figure this out and then God shows up. And I just think about that. Man, I just, that would be so like, what would, how would we describe, like overwhelming, terrifying, probably like literally mind blowing, awe-inspiring, hopeful, yet like fearful. I mean, God shows up in the storm and begins to speak. God is being heard by these people’s ears, that’s amazing. It’s an amazing scene and God does begin to ask questions and He begins to ask questions that don’t have answers. That no human being has the answers to and we’re beginning to see there’s a lot that we don’t have answers for. We start asking the questions that are existential because we’re suffering but we don’t have the answers to just about anything. We can go through our lives with all of this confidence, when we’re not feeling depressed, when we’re not feeling anxious or any of the darker emotions. We can go through with confidence like we are holding the world by the horns, we got this, we are in control. We are no more in control, then, than when we are suffering, we don’t have the answers. But Job just has to stand there and be asked questions that he can’t answer and that’s kind of where we leave things today. And we will conclude the book of Job tomorrow. And Job has gotten what he wanted. What he wanted was to find God and speak directly with God about his plight. And so, he gets the chance to say what he needs to say, and we’ll get to hear that tomorrow.

And then in Second Corinthians, we’re watching Paul defend himself. He’s been accused. Like there’s just kind of accusation that Paul made the whole thing up, that this…this Jesus thing in all the theology that he formed around it, this is his way, he like made this religion up to manipulate people, to exploit people and to control them. And Paul’s kind of responding by essentially saying look, I get what you’re saying here, but trust me on this one, if that’s what I were going for, if that were the goal, this is not the job I’d be doing. Like this isn’t what I would be doing. If I wanted exploit people and control people and manipulate people that I wouldn’t be doing a job that constantly gets me persecuted to the point of death. As we can hear from his own pen basically, from these letters. Paul believed absolutely that God was transforming humanity through Jesus Christ. His death was one thing, but his resurrection, that was the thing, the firstborn of a new kind of human, one reunited with God. This is Paul’s deep conviction. He believed that, that that which was dying would eventually be swallowed up by life, in the end. And that all that we are going through right now, all of the hardships, all the things that were saying why me about, this is part of it, this is what it looks like to see all things being made new in the world. So, Job has questions of endurance and suffering. Paul has questions of endurance and suffering. But Paul’s conviction is it’s not purposeless, this is going somewhere. So, let’s consider that as we consider our own valley seasons.

Prayer:

And Jesus, as we think, I mean, some of us are in the depths of the valley right now. We literally can’t find the sunshine anymore. We’re under such deep, deep problems, circumstances that we don’t know how to navigate. Anxiety that it’s just like a ball of rubber bands that we can’t untangle. Depression that’s like a cloud that just follows us everywhere we go. Some of us are in that place. Others of us are up at the top and we’re just walking at sea level and we’re just making our way. And then others of us are on the mountain tops right now. We’re all over the place in our stories and in our experiences, and You are in all of it. But we have a hard time interpreting the valley seasons. We have hard time interpreting lots of things; we don’t know all that we think that we know. But You have told us that there is a Comforter, there is a spirit of truth that will lead us into all truth, while comforting us on the way. And so, come Holy Spirit, and comfort us, and lead us into all truth, lead us on the way that we should go and help us to interpret our circumstances appropriately, through the lens of the fact that this is all going somewhere. It’s not purposeless. Nothing gets wasted. All things are being made new. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base and that is certainly a place to find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app will do that and a lot more, especially as we make progress on our journey through the Scriptures. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible app, that’s free and it is at the App Store that works with your phone or tablet. While you’re checking things out, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there like Promised Land films, where you can kind of zoom in and actually look at the places that we’re reading about, situate yourself in those stories. Or the coffee table Promise Land, photograph addition, where you can kind of just thumb through and imagine these different stories that we’re reading about. Or different reading materials, different books to take deep dives on things. Or the coffee and tea in the Shop. Or the different categories, things to wear, things to write with and journal with. Check it out.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at…at the same place dailyaudiobible.com, or in the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, 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’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey DAB family, this is Rachel calling from Pennsylvania. I just wanted to call and pray for all the youth. Whether they be going back to elementary school, high school, college, or just recently got out. Father, I lift them up before You today and I gave thanks unto You for them. I cover them in the blood of Jesus, Lord. I cover the mind, their thoughts, their will and emotions under the blood of Jesus Christ. And I come against every spirit that would attack their mind, their identity, their purpose, like fear, anxiety, suicide. Whatever it may be that they’re struggling with, addiction. Because they all have a purpose, God. And they’re under so much more attack and adversary than previous generations. But I know they are important to You and they matter. So, Lord, I thank You for each and every one of them. And I pray that each one of them that’s listening, whatever they’re going through, that they would know that they are loved by You and You’ve never left them, nor forsaken them. God, I thank You for this generation because they are the generation that will seek Your face and help us all. I just thank You for them, Lord. Cause I feel like they need encouragement right now, cause they’re so many things coming against them. And so many people putting them down. And they are, at times, suffering in silence. But Lord, You see and You know everything that they’re dealing with. So, I give You all the glory and I thank You for them. And I pray that they all be encouraged, every single one of you. Renzo, I’ve heard you call in few times. And the one young lady who prayed for her friend Quill, who is experiencing hardships. Every single one of you, you are loved by God. And I pray that the Lord strengthens you and keep you. And I just wanted you to know that I, I hear, and I see you guys and I am praying for you. In Jesus name. Amen.

Good morning DAB family. This is Delta Alpha Foxtrot, just chiming in. I’m heading home from Erin’s home in Rocksdown, Texas to my home in San Antonio, Texas. And I just wanted to ask you guys for some prayer for my mom. She had a stroke back in December and my sisters and I have been her, been cycling through giving care. She’s getting a lot better physically. But there’s definitely some spiritual depression going on there. She gets sad and very emotional. I think its, a lot of it’s tied to my brother’s death. My brother was an addict; he passed away a couple years ago. And so, I think there’s some spiritual oppression going on there and I want to ask the family to pray against that for us and to cast that spirit of sadness, of depression into the hands of Jesus for final judgement. Thank you. God bless you. Just wanted to give a shout out to Blind Tony, I heard you playing the flute, maaaaaan. I heard the flute come on and I was like aww, this is lovely. And then when I heard your voice, I was like, that’s Blind Tony playing the flute!!! I love it. Alright folks. It’s your boy, Delta Alpha Foxtrot, calling from the south and central Texas Front. God bless you all.

Hi, DAB family, this is Single and Still and I’m calling in response to the beginning of July’s community prayer. Lord, I just lift up sons to You, sons that are grown and that are struggling with mental illness and one that was a brother that I heard about. So, I lift up son Nathan to You, our brother Nathan too, as they recover from alcoholism and there’s mental illness diagnosis and just the struggle. The struggle with drugs and how to cope and how to be able to function under these circumstances. And I pray for freedom from the dependencies of substances to try to live I guess what we call a normal or functional life. And I pray freedom and I pray healing in Jesus name. And I also pray for Jason, I think Margarie that’s your son that sometimes you know, with alcohol, that Lord, just like when one of my sisters on the DAB says, that it would be just gross that the desire would be such a letdown whenever they consume alcohol or drugs of abuse. So, I lift up our sons. I pray for healing. I pray for salvation. I pray for udder dependence on You Lord, every step of the way. Every step, of every day, and other children that are suffering and struggling through this. And Sparky, I just wanna thank you for your testimony. And others that have shared how the Lord has helped you to overcome different battles, especially with alcohol. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Hey, my incredible DAB fam, this is Kingdom Seeker Daniel and Lady of Victory. And family, we just want to stop by and pray for our dear sister Little Leaf. Sis, we heard you and we hear you. And our hearts are going out to you. I personally want to applaud you, first of all for pressing through an extremely hard place. And I just wanted you to know God is with you. And even in the uncertainties of your decisions, He is with you. And as you continue to lean into Him for wisdom, knowledge, and guidance, he’s gonna help you through to make the right decision. So, Father, I pray for our dear sister, Little Leaf, that You would give her the grace to wait on You, to wait and hope as You are at work in her husband’s life, who is obviously disturbed and not in his right mind. Father, we’re praying that You would bring him to his right mind. And cause, Lord God, a turn-around in this man’s heart. And I pray, that in the meantime, that You will continue to keep Little Leaf, guard her heart and walk her through, in Jesus name. We even pray, God, for the little baby and God, even the other woman, that You would turn this situation around for Your good. For their good and for Your glory. God, and we ask that You would let Little Leaf know that it’s okay not to be okay. And I too, applaud you for just standing, standing strong in the face of adversities. And you remember, when you can’t trust His hand, trusts God’s heart. He loves you. Amen.

Job 37:1-39:30, 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:10, Psalm 44:9-26, Proverbs 22:13

Today is the 31st day of August, the final day of the month of August. So, here we are in the depths of the summertime, at least here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. I realize that is, like it’s well, I was gonna can say the heat of the winter, it’s the chill of the winter in the southern hemisphere, but it’s nice and toasty here at the end of another one of our months together. And we have all gathered around the Global Campfire for a primary purpose, that is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And so, as we end this month, we find ourselves situated in the, well at the, at the end of a couple of books. We are in the book of Job, which we will continue forward into the next month, and the book of Second Corinthians, which we will also carry over into the next month. But in order to do any of that, we have to take the next step forward. And our next step leads us into Job and today, before we finish our reading, God will show up. Job 37, 38 and 39.

Commentary:

Okay, so, we are wrapping up the book of Job, we will conclude the book of Job tomorrow and in today’s reading, God shows up and starts speaking. And if we remember, when we started this journey, we watched the unthinkable happen to Job. Right, really just impossible to process that that kind of tragedy, that level of tragedy, that systematically could happen to any person. Like it’s the worst day in history for a human being, basically. And we watch Job respond by grieving, and deep sadness, and worshiping God, and just waiting, just waiting, even when everyone had written him off and told him, like his wife even told him, curse God and die. Which is so distressing. But he's…he’s waiting, and his friends show up and they sit Shiva and then they start having a conversation, and Job begins to share what happened and what’s going on. And he begins to share that he’s really, really confused by it all, because he’s a righteous man, and he’s done everything, like he’s literally watched his every move and every step, to not make a misstep before God, that he’s dedicated his life to being righteous. So, he’s very, very confused about the complete destruction of life as he knew it. And he would, he would love to talk to God about it, so that he could find out why. Why this is happening. It’s then that his friends begin to speak, and they begin to comfort Job. And then Job begins to say that yeah, that’s not helping. I already know that.

The council is don’t bring it to the conflict. It can be really tricky and really hard to do in the heat of the moment when things are just getting amped up and then boom, all of a sudden five minutes later you’re like, how did we get here from there? Like, we were having a fight but now we’re in World War III. What is going on? How did we get here? Maybe the mocker and maybe we can learn from our missteps because it’s never worked out because doesn’t work out. We have to go into a conflict with a good and open heart believing in the good of the one with whom we are in conflict. We have to come believing that our hearts are good towards each other and we want to solve a problem. If that’s not true that gets unveiled pretty quickly. And if the mocker enters into the story then the truth is that it was never a problem to solve. It was always a battle to fight. I mean, there’s nothing to defend if you’re not being attacked. And if we can start from this even place that our hearts are good towards each other and we have a problem to solve, and if we can keep our focus on that then if the mocker shows up, it looks like the fool that it is, and we may find that we’re being the mouthpiece. So, let’s…let’s just take this ancient wisdom to heart. It’s coming to us from the word of God. Let’s take it to heart and just imagine what life might look like with…how many hours of anxiety and grief that we can get back if we start resolving conflicts without bringing the mocker into the conversation.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come into this. We are counselled over and over about the things that we say and the power in our words. And here we are looking at ancient wisdom from Proverbs telling us what we already know to be true. And since we’re reading from the book of Proverbs this has been a truth that has stood the test of time for thousands of years. This is true of we human beings. We need to be in control and so we’re willing to dominate when what the gospel offers us is surrender. Surrender to the Almighty, the all-powerful one so that we can appropriately resolve conflict and love one another. Come Holy Spirit. Teach us what to do with the mocker within us we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base, and you can find out what’s happening around here there. You can also download the Daily Audio Bible app from the app store that works with your device and that’s a free download and puts everything in the palm of your hands. So, check that out.

Check out like the Community section. This is where to get connected and this is also where the Prayer Wall lives. I talk about it often because it’s so vital and so important to know that there is a place that is always on and never off and that we can go and share our story and that we can go and…and hold each other up. If our life is going great, it’s a great place to go and encourage each other. When we hit the wall its place to go and be held up and…and be surrounded by brothers and sisters. And, so, that is the Prayer Wall. That’s in the Community section on the website or in the app. So, check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible…well…first of all, humble gratitude. We couldn’t have a Global Campfire that burned…we couldn’t have anything if we didn’t have it together. And, so, it’s us in this together. Thank you, thank you profoundly. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re 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, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you. I do. I do and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise: Coming soon…

Job 34:1-36:33, 2 Corinthians 4:1-12, Psalms 44:1-8, Proverbs 22:10-12

Today is the 30th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today. We’re in the middle of the week but we are definitely at the end of the month. And obviously we’ll be concluding the month tomorrow. We’re also really navigating ourselves to the end of some of the territory that we’re in in the Bible. We’re reaching the conclusion of the book of Job. A couple more days. We’re reaching the end of second Corinthians. So we’re about to just reset everything over the course of the next week. But, you know what, we’ll navigate that all that together. And we are here right now around the Global Campfire today for this next step forward. And our next step leads us back into Joe. And we met another character in the story of Job yesterday. A person named Elihu has been sitting and listening to Job talk to his friends, but he’s younger. So he’s trying to be respectful, but as things are winding down, as the argument gets more and more circular and more frustration is happening Elihu finally says, hey it’s my turn to talk. And, so, he has plenty to say, as we have already heard. And we will continue to listen to Elihu today. So, Job, chapters 34, 35, and 36.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have some profound advice in a couple of sentences in one verse from the book of Proverbs today and it reads, “drive out a mocker and conflict will leave. Quarreling and abuse will stop.” I mean this verse stops me at “conflict will leave”. Like, that’s got my attention. And you go on, “quarreling will stop. Abuse will go away.” Like what…what are we talking about here? You have my attention. The answer is drive out a mocker. And you probably agree with it. We might have to sit here and think about it for a minute but we probably agree with all this. That…that’s true. Mocking does inflame things and then…and then things just go crazy. So, we could agree until we have to go look in the mirror and realize that sometimes that’s us, the mocker, the lengths that we’ll go to to be right in an argument. So, now the proverb should have pretty much all of our attention. So, let’s just think about conflict for a second. I mean conflict is when people are kind of moving in a direction and they cross paths and…and there’s an impasse of some sort. Conflict is present, a problem is being surfaced. And resolving these conflicts are what we spend a heck of a lot of our energy doing all day every day in some form or another. But when we’re not getting a conflict resolved the way we wanted to be resolved and we’re not willing to give ground a compromise or try to find a way forward…well then we bring out the special tools, right? We put on the mocker mask. We bring out the scorn. We bring these awful things as strategies for resolving a conflict because we couldn’t do it the way we wanted and we’re not getting what we want so now it’s down to domination. And, so, we’re no longer looking at a problem that needs to be resolved, a problem that is causing a conflict that we have to find a way forward on. We instead diminish the person so that we can attack the person and dominate the person and be right. And mocking does that. The mocker has contempt against the other person or people. And, so, their position, their point of view is diminished. We judge it inferior as we rise up in our righteous indignation and scorn and contempt and mocking and we have lost the battle at that point because now it’s person against person and the problem is just sitting there. And then the gloves come off, and things get personal, and things get vicious, and things get hellish. The ancient wisdom from the book of Proverbs tells us that if we don’t invite the mocker into the mix then fighting and quarrels and abuse and insults will disappear, which allows people to participate in resolving a conflict. The mocker is in each of us in any number of ways.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, this is a message for Agent of Grace, who phoned in today, the 23rd of August. You’re having problems with your marriage. And your husband’s alcoholism is affecting you and the family. Just phoning in to say that I hear you and I walk your walk. And after 32 years of marriage, I am still loving the sinner and hating the sin. Love the man, hate the bottle. And just praying that you would have strength and that God would give you comfort and that you would know friendships outside of your husband’s friendship and that God decouples what surround you and give you strength and give you friendships that you’re missing with your husband. That is what I have. I met some lovely friends in the church. Couples who walk with God and who love one another, and it makes me fierce jealous, and it makes me sad that I don’t have it. But I know that God is with me, and my children understand why I stay. My kids are grown up now, 30 plus and 26. So, it’s a lot easier with grown children. But they’ve grown up with an alcoholic father. And they understand how difficult it is. So, love you, praying for you. Thank you.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Beloved Cheryl in Tacoma, Washington. Today, is Thursday, August 24th and I had called in two months ago for prayers for my mother, whom I thought was on her way to heaven. She went into the emergency room severely dehydrated, and she has a lot of other health problems. And it was not looking good. I know many of you prayed and she got into a nursing home, and she has been doing pretty good. She’s eating a little bit more and things have been looking good. She’s stable. Her mind is not well. But she is stable and seems happy where she’s at. Now, my stepdad has decided he doesn’t want to pay for it anymore. He’s only paid for two months, and he has the money, he just has decided he doesn’t want to pay for it anymore and he wants to bring her home. And he’s an alcoholic and not a good caregiver. And this is not a good situation. And I live over an hour away. Just please pray for my mother Judy. And that I need a miracle. I need a miracle, something to happen here so that she can stay well cared for. Thank you. I love you all and pray for you. Thank you.

Good morning my fellow DABers. My name is _ and I’m calling from France. Today is the 25th of August 2023. I started listening last year but it’s my first time calling into pray for people who have been praying in the background for every prayer point that is here. I want to show that this families praying, even if you didn’t call in, we are praying. We fulfill families with prayer at every prayer point. And so, I believe that people are praying. And today a sister called in to say that she’s in a financial situation. Her _ is bad. I couldn’t get the name. I’m not too good with names. And sister, I want you to know that you’re not in this alone. The Bible says in the book Deuteronomy 8:8 in that it is He that give us power to make well. So, it is God that give us power, give us idea, give us money. And I know that’s sin speaking to you right now. But we move forward. It might look as if it’s a closed door, but God is right there with you, making a way. Just listen, He will speak on a way out. I want to share my faith with you. And if you’re that people that in this situation free in that, that’s sin call. This called, we make a way for us financially. When it seems that’s costing down, He will be there whispering to us, that’s Him lifting up. Because He is God and never feel. And for the second sister that called that she needs to move to her mother’s house. And we feel in prayer, be encouraged in the Lord. And this sin called will not abandon you.

Hello DAB family. My name is Sebat from . You can call me Kingdom Girl. Because I’m from the Kingdom of the Suto and I’m in the Kingdom of God, hallelujah. This morning I want to pray for, for Chelsea. You are a mom, a wife, and a nurse, I think that’s what she said. Who has suffered two miscarriages in the past and she is now pregnant. Hallelujah. First of all, I want to congratulate you. And I thank God that you’re gonna hold that baby. I understand your fears. I understand your fears and your anxiety. But the Bible says with prayers and supplications, may all our requests be made unto the Lord. So, this is why we are here together as a family, to make our supplications and our needs to be known unto God. Let’s just pray, Father, we thank You for Chelsea, oh God. We thank You for a healthy pregnancy that she has ahead. We thank You _. Kids are the, are Your blessings, oh God. Father, I thank You for the fruit of the womb. And I thank You that You shall give her peace that surpasses humanly understanding, even in the midst of the, in the midst of anxiety and all fears that she might face. You are still God and there is none like You. We worship You. Hallelujah. Thank you DAB family. I love this podcast with all of my heart. Oh my God. And I love you all. I love you all.

This is the offer of the Gospel, like this is the good news and that we will continually be transformed. May we remember what’s going on here. We get sidestepped by the world all the time. It’s a cloud over us, pulling us in every kind of direction and then there’s all the spiritual anxiety about whether or not we’re getting this right. Whether we follow the recipe well enough, for God to actually hear us and maybe even come help. It’s bigger than this friends. He has come, and we are free. May we experience it today.

Prayer:

And Jesus, we love You. Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, give us eyes to see, remove the veil. Let us see what’s happening here and may we leave behind all of the deadweight, so that we can run with freedom into Your arms and live that way forever, we ask. In Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base and that is where you can find out what’s going on around here, so check it out. You can check out the Daily Audio Bible app, that does everything that I’m talking about that the website does and a lot more. That can be found at the App Store that works with your device, free and does a lot more than website. So, check it out. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. That is one of the categories in the website around the app and there are categories in the Shop that have a number of resources in them for the journey that we are on. Yeah, like check out everything from the Daily Audio Bible journal and things to journal with, all the way through to the Wind Farm coffee and boutique tea that we roast fresh up in the mountains and send fresh right to your door. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what we’re doing here, showing up for each other around the Global Campfire each day and taking another step forward in our lives, if that is life-giving to you, thank you, humbly, thank you, profoundly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, 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 am Brian, I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Paul’s arguing, Jesus fulfills all of this. His redemptive work, His willing sacrifice shows us the path to be free from the failure and become righteous before God, not in our own strength, not in anything that we could do, not in adhering to a law or a set of ethics, or rules, or philosophies. By just realizing that He wants to set you free. You are entangled and He wants to set you free. Just believe Him. And then Paul describes what happens, like, what will happen if we would just believe Him, and it brings us to a very famous passage. And so, I quote, “whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. This Lord is the spirit, wherever the Lord’s spirit is, there is freedom.” Now, this is a famous passage of Scripture, wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And so, we pass that around, all sorts of applications and I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with that. I’m just saying the context here, the freedom that were talking about here, is the freedom to open our eyes and see that we are free, and then walk into the freedom, believe that it’s done, believe that all those commandments that we can never measure up to have been fulfilled. We can’t do it, but God came, God came to fulfill that for us. In Jesus, we are free and not just free, like any time we’re visiting the Middle East and somewhere near wherever Paul was whenever he said this, like free wherever we are forever, wherever we ever may be. If there is freedom wherever the spirit of the Lord is and we turn ourselves to, Psalm 139 and read, I can never escape from Your spirit. I can never escape Your presence. If I go up to heaven You’re there. If I go to the grave, You’re there. Then we realize freedom is available now and always. What we need is eyes to see it and a willingness to live into it. And that is the good news and that is indeed good news but that’s not all the news, that’s not all the implications. So, Paul fleshes this out more. He says look, as all of us reflect the Lord’s glory with faces that are not covered with veils, we are being changed into His image with ever increasing glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. Okay, the implications of what Paul saying my brothers and sisters is that when we open up, when…when the veil is removed and we can see things as they are through like, see things the way God is seeing things and we enter into that, we give ourselves fully to that, then transformation is taking place. And that doesn’t mean transformation so we’re not so irritable. Yes, I mean all of these things but it’s way bigger than that, like okay all these little hard parts of my life will get shaved off, it’s bigger than that. We’re being changed into the image and likeness of God. Whoooo, that’s a big, that’s a big sentence. Now I’m not saying we’re being transformed into God, that one day, if we keep on this road, we’ll be God. I’m saying that a plan was always that we would be in His image, that we would be His partners, that we would collaborate, that we would be in a relationship. That it would be an adventure, that life is to be lived and this portion of our existence as humans is so short. We’re supposed to be revealing God by being transformed into His image or likeness. Christ-like, like Christ. We’re supposed to live into it. It’s supposed to transform us and as we we’re reading yesterday, that transformation should give off an aroma, the aroma of Christ wherever we go. We have been given permission to be ourselves, free, fully engaged heart, mind, and will. Walking in collaboration with God in this world.

Job 31:1-33:33, 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, Psalm 43:1-5, Proverbs 22:8-9

Today is the 29th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today, it’s wonderful, wonderful, this is a wonderful place to be on any given day as we gather around the Global Campfire, and so, glad that we can have some more time. What a gift we can have this time together, isn’t it? It is for me. It’s a gift that we can have this time together and I’m excited for us to take the next step forward. We have been working day-by-day, step-by-step through Job and I just kind of dealing with human suffering and thinking about our own lives and the things that we face. Listening to Job’s friends and hearing the echoes of things that have been said to us and things that we’ve been said. And Job is just deeply committed to what he thinks is impossible, that he might find God. That he might be able to talk to God directly because human wisdom is failing and is coming up short. And so, let’s continue with the dialogue. As we begin today, Job is still speaking, he was speaking all of yesterday’s reading. He continues to speak today, Job chapters 31, 32, and 33 today.

Commentary:

Okay so, we had a fairly short reading in second Corinthians today that packs a punch because of the implications. I mean, we understand what Paul’s actually saying here. The implications of the gospel become really clear. And so, Paul was discussing veils today and he’s using that example of vail and we know what a veil is right. You put a veil over your face, like a bride, she has a veil over her face and she walks down the aisle. So, we know what a veil is. So, Paul is contrasting the Mosaic law and the redemptive work of Christ to fulfill it, and he goes back to the early stories that we’ve read, as we began our year. He goes back to the origin stories. He goes back to Moses because this is where the law flowed from, and so, this is where the allegiance is. He goes back to Moses and says look, here’s the story though. Like if we go back to our own text, here’s the story. God wanted to speak to His people around the mountain and they were terrified of Him speaking to them. And so, they told Moses, you go, you go up the mountain and you hear from God. And you come back and tell us what God has to say. And then we will obey you. You be the mouthpiece for God. The invitation was this direct interaction, they chose this prophetic voice, Moses. Moses went into the presence of God, but when he came back down the mountain, his face was glowing from being in the presence of God, which freaked all of the people out. So, Moses put this vail over his face to cover his face. And he would look through the veil and see the people and people would look at him and see the veil. And Paul is essentially saying, yeah and we’ve been looking through the veil ever since. Paul says it like this, and I quote, “their minds became closed. In fact, to this day the same veil is still there when they read the Old Testament. When they read the Torah, the law. It isn’t removed, because only Christ can remove it.” So, let’s just remember where Paul is always going. We learned a lot about this when we were reading through the letter to the Romans. Paul’s conviction is that the Mosaic law, which is what governs the people trying to figure out obey those commands, that that is a good thing, and that it is a valuable thing. It’s just a miss purposed thing. The law shows our failures, it reveals our transgressions, it shows us that we have stepped over the line into sin. It leads to death because the only thing that it shows is our repeated pathway to death by transgressing the law. So, it’s a good thing because it shows that. But the only thing that it ever shows is that we’re going in the wrong direction, a direction that’s moving away from righteousness before God.