Ezekiel 40:28-41:26, James 4:1-17, Psalm 118:19-29, Proverbs 28:3-5
Today is the 20th day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you today, like every day. It’s great to be gathered together around the Global Campfire, everybody has a place, we’re all cozy together. It’s a safe oasis for us to simply allow the Scriptures to come into our lives. So, let’s do exactly that and focus our heart and attention on God’s word. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week and continuing our journey through the book of Ezekiel, today chapters 40 verse 28 through 41 verse 26.
Commentary:
Okay, so, James is doing what James does in giving us a nice quick kick in the pants today on our relationships. He asked this question today. And it really should perk all of our attention because we kind of all want to know. The question is, what is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Right, we want to know the answer to that. What is it that is bringing tension into a relationship that erupts into a conflict. But then James leads us to consider that maybe it’s not the other person. He says, don’t those conflicts come from the evil desires at war with in you? In other words, before it ever becomes a conflict with another person, there’s already something going on within ourselves. That’s putting a mirror up in front of us; that snaps things into perspective. And he goes on to explain that these conflicts, they happen inside of us, because we have desires that we think we’re entitled to. We’re not getting what we think we deserve in some way, and we perceive that maybe somebody else is. And so, conflict and attempts to take things by force cause quarrels and fights among us. And we find that we’re lacking, or that we perceive that we’re lacking in our lives, and then we try to balance the scales because we’re in competition with everybody else. So, we try to force our will upon other people. We’re absolutely not going to get anywhere. We’re not going to get fulfillment. We’re looking in the wrong place. And James says it like this, you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong. You want only what will give you pleasure. James is trying to drill down; he’s trying to get down to the base of it all. And he tells us: don’t you realize that your friendship with the world, makes you an enemy of God. If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. So, let’s just kind of reverse this out a little bit and think about it. If we’re going to use the system of the world to gain identity and to compete with one another to try to do better or worse or to be worshiped because we can throw ourselves into some kind of spotlight. If we’re gonna use this system, we’re not in the kingdom of God operating the way that the kingdom of God works. We’re making ourselves an enemy of God. I’m just like standing here thinking about this as we’re talking about it. And I’m like man, I don’t, I don’t want to be at odds with God, like at all, for any reason, at all. That’s a big deal, to make yourself an enemy of God. Who’s gonna win that one? So, this sense of lack and this sense of competition and this sense of identity and all these things that we jostle around and have quarrels and fights among us. If we just be honest and think about it. We’re saying, God’s not coming through and we deserve more. We are entitled to more than we have, God isn’t enough and so, we look outside the relationship to get what we need. We’re gonna go get our needs met outside the relationship. That’s not gonna work in my house, and I don’t think that’s gonna work in your house either. And so, that shouldn’t work in our relationship with God. And so, James, sums up what he saying to us today with very famous passage of Scripture that kind of ties this all together for us. Here’s what you do: humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come close to God and God will come close to you. Wash your hand, you sinners, purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done, let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up in honor.
Prayer:
And so, Father, that’s where we find ourselves in this posture of humility, with head bowed. Seeing ourselves for who we are and what we’ve done. We tell ourselves the story of ourselves, and we lie to ourselves all of the time, and we have to face the implications of what we do and the impact that it has on people. We realize that our lives matter because it’s having impact. And it’s not always having the kind of impact that would be anything like Your kingdom. It’s all about our own kingdom. It’s all about our own desires and wants and what we’re gonna take and what we’re entitled to. We’ve been invited by James today to humble ourselves and so, here we are, resisting the urge to be entitled to something that we’re gonna take. We humble ourselves before You and come close to You. You are the only source of life. The only place of meaning. The only opportunity for fulfillment. Come, Holy Spirit, we humble ourselves before You. Forgive us, lead us into the truth we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
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And so, I have something to tell you about, but it happened a couple of weeks ago. But now, we have the all-clear to talk about it. So, our daughter China and my wife Jill, they head up Daily Audio Bible Chronological, on the Chronological Channel. And so, everybody over there kind of knows China’s been pregnant and she stepped away to have the baby and she did, a couple weeks ago. And we’ve been just kind of nesting and settling in. But China has had her daughter, her second daughter, and her name is Finley, Finley Beck Brave and she was born on 21st of October. A whopping nine and a, well 9 lbs. 2 oz. and she is the current joy of our lives. She’s very mild-mannered little thing, and we all love taking turns with her and loving on her and welcoming her into our story and becoming a part of her story as we all continue the stories that we are telling stories of our lives in relationship to God. So, thank you for your continued prayers over China and Ben as they adjust to having a newborn and adjust to having another child. And as we continue to take steps forward day by day in our lives and in the Scriptures and in community, but we want to welcome officially welcome Finley, Finley Brown, the newest addition to the Daily Audio Bible family here.
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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:
Hi, Daily Audio Family, Daily Audio Bible Family that is. Thank you for your prayers. I wanna have a, give a praise for my son Mitchell. This is Brian in Huber Heights, Ohio. When I went to visit him, he brought his Bible out and he was reading it to me. And he’s been reading his Bible and seeking God. I just wanna ask a prayer request for him. They’re having trouble releasing him because his behavior in the past has been so, so horribly bad that he’s gotten kicked out of several rehabs and really, he’s burned a lot of the bridges that can help him. I just pray that and ask you to pray that he gets the right case management, the right case manager. Goes to the right rehab and has housing, that he would not be homeless anymore. Also, wanna continue to ask prayer for my ex-wife Kathy and I, that God would heal our lives and bring us together and reconcile us. And for my other two children, Matt and Ashley, that they would start seeking God and find a church and seek God with their lives. Bless Ashley with a healthy baby, my first grandchild. I have so much to be thankful for. Praise You, God. And I really thank Brian Hardin for this ministry, it is wonderful, it is a life changer. And I tell everybody I know about it. And I do pray for everyone here on this and on the Prayer Wall. Thank you very much. God bless.
Salutations, my DAB family. It’s His Little Songbird from Alberta, Canada. And I’m gonna address a few, a few prayer requests today. Sheena from Saskatchewan, in two weeks you go to court. I’m praying for both you and for my, for grace and for mercy and for God’s will to be done. Kingdom Seeker Daniel and Sam from Seattle, you also have court about the same time. I will be holding you all up in prayer as well. From Junk to Treasure, your son, sounds like he’s losing his job and his cars been sabotaged. One daughter fighting with her husband. Another daughter has a grand, or as a child that is having to go into the hospital with seizures. Father God, we just, I wanna lift up this entire family to You, Lord. I ask for a hedge of protection around them and for the blood of Jesus to be covering each and every member of the family, right down to the children, Lord. I’m asking for Your protection from Satan’s darts and from his evil schemes. And Lord, I’m asking that all assignments against the family, From Junk to Treasure, from her, all the way down to the end, Lord, I’m asking Lord, that the assaults of the enemy and the assignments of the enemy will be cancelled. That’s it. Done. Lord, I ask that You give this family Your strength, Your courage, Your determination, and Your will. Father, I ask that You shine Your face upon them, Lord, and I ask for Your favor on each and every member of her family. And I thank You so much for this, Lord. Amen.
Precious brothers and sisters across this globe, my name is Linda, in Wilsonville, Oregon. And I’m calling to ask that you will lift my 44-year-old daughter in prayer for a miracle. She has been newly diagnosed with a stage 4, triple negative breast cancer that has now affected her spine, her liver and her lungs. She’s in sever pain in her lower extremities. She has been treated for a different diagnosis for a year and a half, along with her daddy, who we lost in April. And she is now enduring this tragedy of cancer. She has two young children, a loving husband. She’s very strong and doing everything she can: dietary, wholistic and conventional interventions. She needs a miracle of healing and I know our sovereign God is capable of that. Please, pray with us for that miracle. I thank you with all my heart.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible. This is Brian from Huber Heights, thanking everybody for all your prayers for my son Mitchell. He is, they are considering releasing him from the mental hospital. I want that to be the right time and with all the things set up for him to go to rehab and having housing. Also, my other two children, Matt and Ashley, Lord, for all three of my children’s salvation. For my ex-wife Kathy and I to reconcile. I have, something I do want to ask for prayer about. I’m going to have a CAT scan tomorrow, which will be Friday, the 17th, to find out whether I have any issues in my lungs. I was exposed to asbestos in a job I was at for 23 years. Praying that the test will all come back negative. And I do wanna say one thing, one thing comes to mind when I listen to the Daily Audio Bible and it’s a verse from Acts, Acts 18:9-10. When it was speaking to Paul about him being afraid to go someplace. One night, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, do not stop speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you. No one will attack and harm you because I have many people in this city. There’s many, God has many people on the Daily Audio Bible, and I thank Brian Hardin and his family and all that makes this possible. It’s a real life-changer. God bless everyone and thank you.