Hosea 10:1-14:9, Jude 1:1-25, Psalm 127:1-5, Proverbs 29:15-17
Today is the 8th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we take our steps through the final, the 12th month of the year, and wind our way into Christmas, and wind our way all the way through that, all the way to the end of the Bible. And then we’ll start over again. But we’re not there, we’re here, and here is where we belong right now. We’ve been reading from the book of Hosea in the Old Testament; we will complete the book of Hosea today. Then in the New Testament, we’ve been kind of racing through some short letters, First, Second and Third John. We arrive at another short letter named June, and we’ll read all of that today. So, we’re moving along, we’ll talk about Jude, when we get there. But first, Hosea chapters 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 today.
Introduction to the Book of Jude:
Okay, so like we said at the beginning, that concludes Hosea, and that brings us to the New Testament portion of our reading today. And that brings us to the letter or the epistle of Jude, and we’ll read the entire epistle, it’s 25 verses long. And as we read it, it may have familiar themes, maybe even familiar language. Many biblical scholars accept the idea that Second Peter imitates Jude’s letter. And if that’s true, then Jude’s letter predates Second Peter and that would, that would date it into the mid-60s AD. If that’s not the case, then the letter could have been written as late as the end of Jude’s life, probably around A.D. A.D. But that might be just trivia that like, like maybe there are more important questions, like who is Jude. Who is Jude? And that has been a vigorous debate throughout church history as well, and it continues to be examined among the scholars to this day. If we’re moving in the direction of like consensus, the majority of traditional scholars would agree that Jude, who wrote this letter was the brother of James and the brother of Jesus. And even though he’s a brother or half-brother, he was not an apostle. He did not believe in Jesus during his ministry. It’s not really clear who this letter is to; it’s addressed to all who have been called by God the Father, who loves you and keeps you safe in the care of Jesus Christ. So, we could say that includes us and probably should say that includes us. We should probably say this is a letter that was intended for us to read and understand and apply to our lives, because it’s still important to us. Jude tells us in this letter that he was planning on writing a totally different kind of letter, but that he needed to step into some, some issues. And the issues were false teaching about the grace of God. This is all still with us today. This was addressed many times in the letters throughout the New Testament. Basically, what was going on is that the teaching of…of unmerited favor, of grace, the grace of God, the mercy of God upon us, is a free gift bestowed upon us when we believe. There is no way to earn God’s favor, it is a gift that is given to us. And that’s a core understanding in the Christian faith, and were taught that in the Scriptures. It’s grace. Some people began to twist that around. Some people continue to twist that around, basically saying grace covers everything that I do, so I can do whatever I want and I can do it with whoever I want. I can do what I please because all I have to do is ask forgiveness, the mercy of God will not hold this sin against me and I can’t earn God’s grace anyway, so what’s the point. I believe grace has covered me and now I will move on doing as I please, being my own God and ruling how I choose. Jude says that’s not going to go anywhere. That will not end anywhere good. And so, we should listen to it because it’s not as if we’re not trying to justify our actions all the time. And Jude is warning us against that path. And he instructs the believers to remember that these kinds of twists…twisting’s of the teachings, they were predicted, that they knew this would happen. They knew this would come, they need to bind together and build each other up to the power of the Holy Spirit and take care of each other. Which is what we’ve been learning all year through the Scriptures. It matters that we take care of each other. So we’ll read this 25 verse letter and this is our last stop before we reach the final book in the New Testament, and that book is the book of Revelation, which we’ll take us into completely different territory than we’ve been in, in the New Testament. So, let’s pay very close attention to the words of this last letter in the New Testament.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another day. We thank You for every day. We thank You that this this goes on every day, no matter what part of the year we’re in, no matter what day it is, no matter what month it is. This is the rhythm of our lives, to place Your word in our hearts and allow Your word to speak for itself inside of us, transforming us, growing us, and pulling us free from the bondage we…we get ourselves into. So, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for the letter to Jude today. All of the reminders that Your grace is not cheap. It came at a cost and when we use it cheaply, we’re missing the point, and we are not loving You. May we love You with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and may we love our neighbor as ourselves. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that’s the website. That’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Couple things; it’s Christmas time around here, so it’s all things Christmas. We have a couple of things that we do around here at Christmas time. One is our Annual Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas Party. And you can participate in that by calling in your Christmas greeting to the family here that you’ve been journeying with all year long and let your voice be heard, as we collect our season’s greetings from everyone. You can hit the Hotline button in the app to do that, or you can dial 877-942-4253 to do that. And obviously, those are familiar ways to reach out. That’s the prayer and encouragement line. It’s just for, for now, through the weekend, it’s also the holiday greeting line. And so, don’t delay, we’ll stop doing that after this weekend and we’ll start assembling that. So, this is getting to be last call. So, make sure you participate. The only rule is, if you’re calling in a holiday greeting but you also have a prayer request or encouragement, just make those separate. Don’t combine like a prayer request and a holiday greeting in the same call. We’ll get to confused, it’s too confusing for us. We can’t, we can’t stitch it together. So, make those separate. T
The other thing that is going on is an initiative where we have created a beautiful vinyl packages of the music of the Daily Audio Bible. For example, Songs for Sleep. The Promised Land soundtrack, the Heart album and the two holiday titles that we have: Family Christmas and Christmas Time. And they’re beautifully packaged, pressed on colored vinyl, like they’re collectible things. And all of the resources from this, this year is going into…into the Global Campfire and into the development of our home space on the Internet and the application that delivers the content. Just all of the apparatus for all of it, we’ll be moving into that in the new year. And so, we’re just asking for your partnership as we move in that direction. You can find these at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop, just look for the Christmas Section and you’ll find it there. And thank you profoundly for your partnership.
And if you just want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as…as the year winds down, thank you, thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your partnership. We aren’t a Global Campfire if we’re not here together. There’s no point in being here, if we’re not here together. But we are and so there’s lots of reasons for us to tune in each day, take the next step forward. So, thank you 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, 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 and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
This is Salt and Light with an update on my friend, who’s daughter fell over after she got out of the shower. They tried to resuscitate her, took her to the hospital, put her on life support. She did not make it. If you could pray for that family. She died from anemia and pneumonia. The previous week, her parents and friends, said to her, you need to get to the hospital. She said she would take it under consideration. But if she died, she knew where she was going. Sadly, that prediction came true. Oh my goodness. Thank you for your prayers. I love you all so much and I pray along with you every morning.
Good morning, Daily Audio Bible friends. I’m a long time listener but I’ve only called in a couple times. When I did, I remember we were going through something very difficult. And my husband said, we need ten thousand prayer warriors. And I knew just where to go. And of course, God heard through your wonderful prayers and answered. I’m reaching out now for another prayer request. We had our house damaged in Hurricane Ian, which was over a year ago. And it’s not livable. We just moved into our 7th rental, here in SW Florida. And we are battling with our insurance company. We do have a public adjuster and they are going before us but it has been very scary, as we have not received one penny for our out of pocket expenses for rental, for repairs for our home, our personal property. And so, I am asking for prayer from all of you, beautiful friends. Would you just pray for favor that we would get an answer soon. And that this company would give us the fair amount to begin repairs on our home. I thank you so much. I believe in the power of prayer and the verse, out of Him to exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, to all generations forever and ever. That verse keeps coming back to me and I’m claiming that my God will do exceedingly, abundantly. I pray for you all. I’m going by Ever Green in SW Florida. I love you and I so appreciate your prayers.
Hi, DAB family, this is Rick from Lakeland, Florida. First time calling in, long time listener. First, thanks to everybody for their prayers. Now allow me the privilege to pray for them. I do have a couple of prayer requests, one for my Aunt Diane, who has been in the hospital on deaths door for several weeks now. It seems that, praise, she is moving in the right direction, but she’s still got a long ways to go. And the second one request I have, is for my son Josh. He’s an active duty Air Force member who had eye surgery this past week. And is in terrible pain post surgically. So just, if you get a moment, just pray for him. I know that, as he is separated from his wife and his children, that this makes that so, so much hard. And just be with my wife as she is there comforting him at Eastler Air Force Base in Mississippi and missing his own family. And of course, I’m missing my sweet wife Shari. As his family is at Tindle Air Force Base in North Florida, near Panama City. And we’re down here in Central Florida. So, and lastly pray for my sweet daughter Meg. Just that, we know that she struggles over relationships and growing, just want her heart to be 100% there for, in her life. For her to meet a Godly man, and know that she needs and wants. Alright DAB family, thanks again for listening. Have a fantastic, blessed day. Talk to you all later. Bye.
Hi everyone, my name is Daniel. I’m calling in for prayer for my mother Amy. She will be having eye surgery on December 11th in the afternoon. Recently, her, she’s noticed a difference in her vision. And after a doctors appointment, they told her she would need surgery. The recovery time is a little unclear to her. And she is worrying about what that’s gonna look like, what that means for her recovery for the holiday season. And just for her comfort in this…in this time. So, I’m asking for prayer for…for peace for her. And for a speedy and full recovery for her vision. So, thank you for all your prayers and the blessing that is the community.