Daniel 5:1-31, 2 Peter 2:1-22, Psalm 119:113-128, Proverbs 28:19-20
Today is the 28th day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today as we continue forward on our voyage through the Bible. And continue our voyage through the holiday season, as we approach the landing of this year. We’re out in front of that, that’s our destiny. But we’re not there yet, we are back in the book of Daniel at this point in the Old Testament, and our next step forward leads us to Daniel chapter 5 today.
Commentary:
Okay so, in Second Peter today, we watched Peter sort of go off against these false teachers. And these were people who had come to faith and maybe even come to prominence in the faith but were falling away from the essentials of the Gospel and they were leading others to do the same. And it wasn’t just like doctrinal or like theology matters. These people were using the gifts to exploit the weak. And Peter said it like this, they will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you, with eyes full of adultery. They never stop sinning. They seduce the unstable. They are experts in greed and accursed brood. So, that’s pretty direct and Peter’s pretty inflamed about it. We need to understand something here because false teachers are getting labeled everywhere, all of the time in this modern day and age of the Internet and this kind of stuff. So, we have these kind of labels all over the place and the false teacher that Peter’s talking about aren’t people who are wrestling with their faith in pursuit of Jesus and binding revelation and understanding. Like, wrestling with our faith struggling and growing and reaching, reaching and reaching for God, that’s part of our Christian tradition. Peter’s distinction is, is that the false teachers here are intentionally and maliciously deceiving God’s people for personal gain. They know what they’re doing. And Peter’s upset about it. And this is what he has to say about it. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it, and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would’ve been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them, the Proverbs are true. A dog returns to its vomit and a sow that is washed, returns to her wallowing in the mud. So, Peter’s speaking forcefully against false teachers who lead people into sin and people who know the truth and fall away into sin. And in that context, he quotes from the book of Proverbs something very poignant, a powerful image. A dog returning to its vomit. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that before. If you’re a dog person, you probably have. I’ve had dogs most of my life and I’m familiar with this concept and its gross. It’s disgusting. Right, and it’s even more disgusting when they let it cool off and then go back and chop it. It’s disgusting, a dog returning to its vomit and eating it. Let’s consider the starkness of what’s being said here. What sewage are we returning to because we’ve been deceived into believing that it’s something that is good and desires for us, when we know better. What kind of crap are we eating here. And what influences do we have over those around us that we might invite them into the same vomit to eat it with us. This is the opportunity that the Bible always brings us, a chance to look in the mirror and say what am I doing. What is going on here, Jesus? I surrender. These are tough questions. Why would we choose crap over the banquet God has prepared for us? Let’s invite the Holy Spirit into this because as the Scriptures told us today, we are a slave to whatever controls us.
Prayer:
And so, Holy Spirit come. There are so many entanglements, so many hooks in us, pulling us in so many directions and most of them are unnecessary. Some of them just drag us down for so long, we need to be free, we need to stop returning to our own vomit and repeating and repeating and repeating the same thing. Holy Spirit come, there is no freedom without You. We cannot set ourselves free. All we can do is collaborate with You and obey You. So, come, lead us into freedom we ask, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that’s the website and that’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Obviously, it’s Christmas time. It’s hard to miss the fact that it’s Christmas time. Everything is full of lights and blinking and so, we are about ready to do our annual Daily Audio Bible Christmas party. Our Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas that we do each year. So, here’s the deal, for the next about 10 days, it’s your opportunity to call in your Christmas and holiday wishes to the community here. And you can do that by using the numbers that we have and the Hotline. Now, typically these are obviously for prayer requests and encouragements. You can also for the next few days, call in your Christmas greetings and we will get those and assemble them together and make our annual Christmas party. And Jill and I will get together and we’ll have a fireside chat, and we’ll talk about where we’ve been and where we’re going. And things like maybe our word for next year, and just have some time together. And then we’ll hear from each other. I love literally getting a cup of hot cocoa and listening to this. It makes me cry every year, just, just the family. The family that we’ve become on a journey like this. Showing up for each other every day like this. It just matters a little doesn’t it. It’s like, it’s good to have this, it’s good to have each other. It’s good to be together. So, you can call in your holiday greetings now on the Hotline or at 877-942-4253.
And also, Christmas time around The Daily Audio Bible this year is centered around what’s coming next year. The 2.0 Daily Audio Bible app, brand-new from the ground up, will be landing sometime in 2024. And so, for this year, we’re not doing a Christmas box. We’ve pressed up all the different music, all the stuff that you hear underneath the Daily Audio Bible. And some other things. We’ve pressed up all the music from the Daily Audio Bible onto five different vinyl album packages. And vinyl has made such a resurgence that it’s, it’s a way to hold your music again. And I remember them from when I was a kid, and I loved it then, and it’s come back in. It’s a way to hold a commemorative piece of the Global Campfire and have that near and dear while sowing into what’s coming for us as a community here in the new year. So, we have pressed up the Sleep album, songs for sleep. The Promised Land album soundtrack from the Promised Land films. We’ve repressed Songs of the Heart, and that’s got all new packaging, brand-new packaging. Family Christmas and Christmas Time, Max’s album that came out last year and was really a big surprise. Everybody loved it. And so, that’s on vinyl as well. So, you can get those in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Just look for the Christmas section and you can find them there.
And we love you and thank you profoundly for your partnership, as we push forward into what’s coming next. And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. Obviously, you can do that 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 button, the red button up at the top, you’ll see it. It looks like a Hotline. You can press that or you can dial 877-942-4253.
And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you, let’s all run away from that vomit, let’s get as far away from that as we can. I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
I just heard the prayer request from Eyes of a Dove. Sweet sister, I just pray that the Lord would just wrap you in His wings and give you comfort and give you peace at this time. Lord, I just ask that You would, whatever is going on in her body, Lord, I pray that You would just heal it. In Jesus name. And Lord, that she would be able to just go on with her weekend as she waits but she would be at peace knowing that You are there and that You are working in her behalf. I just pray this in Your mighty name. Amen.
Hi DABers, this is Kristen, aka Christ in Me. And I am calling in to pray for the prayer warriors. I’ve seen attacks on the prayer warriors. I’ve felt attacks on myself. And I would just pray that the enemy would not be able to prevail in these situations, Lord. I pray that You would put a hedge of protection around each of the prayer warriors. Lord, keep them safe from the enemy, from his arrows, Lord. That we would be able to concentrate on You, Lord. And that we would be able to continue to pray, Lord. And do Your will, in Jesus name, that we could be mighty warriors for You, Lord. So, that we could do Your will, Lord. And I just pray Your arms around us, Your wings around us. Give us peace and comfort and that we would not fear. And that we would be strong, we would stay strong for You, Lord. And we would continue on this path of being warriors for You, Lord. And we just thank You, Lord, that You’ve chosen us and that You are using us and that I just pray that You would continue to strengthen us in Your will. In Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family, it’s Doctor John from Jordan, New York. I come to you with urgent prayer request for my dad. He went into the hospital on, yesterday, with coughing and wheezing and ended up basically with a respiratory arrest. And ended up on a ventilator, which actually, he did not want. They didn’t have his living will. So, my sister came in, was able to get the vent withdrawn and the medication stopped. But by that time they had stabilized him. He’s still unconscious. And stabilized, having some respiratory issues. They’d also given him antibiotics, which he had not wanted. And cause he really is ready to join my mom in heaven. So, if you could pray for my dad. Honestly, I would prefer for him to pass and to have comfort and be kept comfortable. They are giving him medicines to keep him comfortable. And that we would have peace as a family with this process. We went through it with mom. It was 4 days and we prefer it not for dad, to be there for four days, waiting to pass. So, please keep our family in your prayers. I love you guys. I appreciate you. Take care. Doctor John from Jordan, New York.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is John O’par, calling in from South Sudan, except that today I’m actually in Uganda. I’m going to Compala this morning to submit my application for Visa at UK visa. Anyway, it’s been a while that I have called in. But I’ve been following with the community, praying along, thanking God for the praise reports. And also noting that the many members of this family are going through so much struggle. But I, as usual, I just want you to know, that we are on the winning side. We are on the winning side, regardless of what is happening in your life. The Lord is with you. I want to thank God for Ben and China, who have their new newborn. I can’t remember the name right now. I also want to thank God for the Hardin Family, the entire Hardin Family. And the DAB technical team for the amazing things that are happening. May God bless every one of you. May you continue this race because we have won. In Jesus name. Amen.