Joshua 11:1-12:24 ~ Luke 17:11-37 ~ Psalm 84:1-12 ~ Proverbs 13:5-6
Today is April 15th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today and yeah, this is the end of another of the weeks and we find ourselves smack in the middle of another month. So whatever is going on, this may be first thing in the morning, so welcome to a new day, or this may be the end of a day after a long, long week, this is the end of a week and let’s finish it well by orienting ourselves to God through his word. We’ve been doing that by reading the Contemporary English Version this week, which is what we’ll do today. Joshua chapter 11, verse 1 through 12:24 today.
Commentary
In the book of Luke, Jesus is talking about God’s kingdom. The Pharisees are asking when this kingdom he’s talking about is going to come and Jesus says something that we kind of move past a lot and just incorporate into our Christian culture or our own set of assumptions about what this is going to look like and we miss what Jesus is saying very, very plainly.
The Pharisees are asking when is God’s kingdom going to come. We seem to have that same question. But that question was answered directly by Jesus. It is a bit of a paradigm shift, at least it was for me when I finally paid attention. So, do you want to know when God’s kingdom is going to come? Here’s the answer. God’s kingdom (and this is Jesus talking here, so I think we have it on good authority) isn’t something you can see. There is no use saying, “Look, here it is or look, there it is. God’s kingdom is here with you.”
What I began to realize over the years of crossing this territory is that I want the same answer the Pharisees wanted. When is this going to go down? When will all things be right again? Only to find out Jesus is saying it doesn’t work that way. That is not what is happening here. The kingdom has already begun. It is happening right now. It is right here with you right now. You are a part of that, not metaphorically. You are a part of that for real. It’s advance or retreat depends on how you live today, right now.
This kingdom, as we know from scripture, has a fulfillment. Yes, all we have to do is look around and know that the fullness of the kingdom has not ended. It is not complete, but we wait and we wait and we wait for something to happen that is not going to happen the way we keep imaging it. We are a part of this story. How it is that you live today is an advance or retreat for the kingdom within your sphere of influence and we are all a part of this.
For me, that paradigm shift was huge because I had always thought somehow I’ve gotta keep my nose clean. Somehow I’ve got to stay sparkly for Jesus and make it through my death so that I can be a part of this thing long term. That was sort of the motivation for being a good boy if I could. But what Jesus is saying is far more immediate than that. It’s happening now. It’s here with you. It’s here within you and what you do with that is a collaboration with the sovereign God and his purpose and work in this world, which changed the whole equation about what today means. We live so much of our lives trying to get out of here into God’s kingdom or into some place where we don’t have to worry about behaving and being good boys and girls anymore when it is now.
So may we each give some thought, some mediation, some contemplation to that today because it really does change the implications of this day. When you walk through your days knowing you are an ambassador for the king and the kingdom and it’s not a metaphor, it’s a real thing, that God has entrusted upon us to advance and bring and flourish in and welcome others into the orientation to life and the self-absorption of life, it gets restructured. So may we bring God’s kingdom today because it’s here with us.
Prayer
Jesus, help us with that. Help us know what that looks like in our story and with our history. Help us know what that looks like within our sphere of influence, within our families, within our churches, within our workplaces and our communities and our regions. Help us know how to operate within your kingdom that is now, knowing that what we do matters and it matters greatly. Come Holy Spirit, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what is going on around here, so be sure to check it out. The Prayer Wall is at www.DailyAudioBible.com where people are posting prayer requests and receiving responses, a great place to reach out and have people reach back.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link. It’s on the home page. I can’t thank you enough for your willingness to click that link. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
Good morning Daily Audio Bible. This is Orinthea in Indonesia. I am very joyful this morning. God is doing the same great work he’s been doing all year this school year, but he’s been talking to me this weekend, over the past weekend about some very sensitive topics that I’m teaching teenagers in my technology course. We’re discussing some of the pitfalls of being in the technology age, the digital age, sexting, pornography addiction, gaming addiction, and I’m in an East Asian school so it is very difficult to get the children to open up at all, let alone about such sensitive material, so please pray with me that this will be an opportunity for God to plant seeds in them to help them to establish their worldview and have a strong faith and understanding of why they don’t share their bodies online or they don’t spend all of their time in video games, helping them to understand that they are the stewards of the life that God has given each of us. So I really want them to have those nuggets, even if they aren’t facing those challenges now. But in the midst of teaching all of that, I was blessed with a motorbike on Friday, a semi-automatic bike which makes it even more challenging to figure out how to ride it. I had driven this bike before, but this time, the first time I did just fine, it took a little while, jumped a curb once or maybe twice, but I got into a rhythm. This time I had two very minor crashes in my practice time and God has just been teaching me so much.
Father, I want to thank you for your successful More Conference. Thank you for your deliverance, your validation and encouragement for each woman that was there. Thank you, Lord, that although the devil tried to create obstacles in the path of many, you removed each one and you made a way. Thank you Lord for the words of wisdom, insight, and revelation from Brian, from Jill, from every speaker, O God. We bless you, dear Lord. I pray that every agreement that was broken will remain broken and will not be picked up again, in the name of Jesus. Ann from Florida, I’m praying for total healing and good health for you. I take a sword to the spirit of fear and anxiety and I bind them in the name of Jesus. Sister, I will keep praying for you like I promised. I’m praying for the YWAM missionary, Kristen, and I thank you so much for your encouragement. God bless you. I lift you, Sharon, and Stephanie and Brittany up. I pray that God will continue to use you mightily in his kingdom and for his glory. I cancel every plan of the devil concerning you and your families and I cancel and neutralize them. I declare them null, void and of no effect over your life, in the name of Jesus. Special shout-out to More Conference first-timers Robin and Abby from Florida, Marin from Norway, Bold River from Virginia, Stephanie from Virgin Islands, Mary in Georgia and all the lovely, warm-hearted, and beautiful women I met for the first time. Everyone on Jill’s team and those I reconnected with at the conference, you know yourselves, many blessings and grace to you all, in the name of Jesus. Keep hope alive and know that our God who promised will keep his promises to each one of you, in the name of Jesus. Denise from California, I’m standing in agreement with you concerning your mom and pray for complete and total healing for her, in the name of Jesus. Also praying for your ___, that God will make their hearts tender for him. I tear down every veil and scale from their eyes and I declare that they will be set free to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, in the name of Jesus. Ruth from California, I’m praying for Isaac, that Jesus, our Jehovah Rapha, the son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings over him, in the name of Jesus. God bless you. Biola from Maryland.
Hi. This is Kate S. from California. This is my first time calling. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for about eight years. It’s been a while. I first found the Daily Audio Bible just out of desperation. I was in an abusive marriage and was just crying out to God and trying to follow him and I ____ across the Daily Audio Bible and it really has been an amazing ___ for me. I’m calling today for prayer. Never called in before, but I figured I really just desperately need prayer for my two little girls. On the same day this year as the Israelites were led out of Egypt with the Daily Audio Bible reading, God led us out from this abusive situation and it has been quite a ride. I’ve seen his hand in the whole process, but it has been quite difficult, too, for my girls and for ___. I just need wisdom, wisdom in parenting, wisdom in handling it. It has been a really messy and ugly process as far as the divorce proceedings so far. I’m just crying out to God to bring justice. It’s been difficult. For wisdom for me and for my girls. Right now they are in a process of being super confused going back and forth and hearing all kinds of stuff on the other side. Just need God’s covering and protection. Just asking, too, for God’s peace and…
Good morning Dabbers. This is Walta calling from Charlotte, Liberian Walta calling from Charlotte. I just want to share this. It’s been a while. I confess that I have not been listening to the Sunday prayers and today I started back at listening and I want to encourage everybody out there who has not been listening to the Sunday prayers to do that because it is so, I don’t even know how to explain it, it is like you have an opportunity to just have a prayer meeting with multitudes of people and I just really missed that. I don’t know why I stopped to listening, but anyway a theme I’ve heard today is just loneliness and for those of us, I’m newly divorced, divorced last year after 10 years of marriage, not something that I anticipated and I understand and I feel the disappointment and just the sense of failure that goes with that, especially disappointment when the spouse is…infidelity and stuff like that, so my sister in North Carolina, I am praying for you, but I’m praying for all the Dabbers who have found themselves single at this point in their lives and just don’t know what happens next. I just want you to know that you did not cause this to happen. You cannot change the partner and you have no control over things that other people do, but you can pray. And you can trust God. And you can trust God with your heart and that is what I’m doing right now. I’m trusting God with my heart. And so I just want to challenge you to do that. Every morning wake up, take out your heart and just put it before the throne of God and say, “God, I’m trusting you with my heart today. I know that you are God and your will be done, in Jesus’ name.” I love you all. I love you all. I do love you all. Bye.
Hi family, this is Salvation is Mine in San Leandro, CA. I wanted to call in today and pray for our elderly who are sick. So family, would you please join me in praying for them? Dear Gracious and Heavenly Father, Our Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, we come before you right now lifting up our elders who are sick and don’t understand what is going on or may be struggling by themselves, Lord God, because family has abandoned them. Lord God, we lift them up to you right now. They have been with you since the beginning of time. They have loved you since the beginning of their lives, Lord God, and right now they need you. They need the Comforter. They need the Healer. They need you, Lord God, to wrap your arms around them and let them know everything is going to be all right. O Lord God, their bodies are breaking down and they just don’t understand why. Lord God, just please comfort them and help there be family and friends around them to take care of them and to be with them in their last hours if this is their last hours, Lord God. We ask you to bless the caregivers that are helping them as well, if they are in hospice or in nursing care or being taken care of by homecare people. We ask that they be kind and Christian and that they would love them as if they were their own. Dear Heavenly Father, we just ask you to just blanket their spirits with your love. Let them feel that you are constantly with them. Please send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit to them to help and guide them. In Jesus’ name I pray. Thank you for praying with me, family. This is Salvation is Mine in San Leandro, CA.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family. ___ women of DAB. ____ pray for our wonderful godly women who call in especially. There are so many times that they’ve called in ___ situations, but I’ve seen with the community here you can be built up, that you can be strengthened by God, that you can cope where others would fail, that you can thrive in desert-like conditions because God is with you. So I say prayers here and on the Prayer Wall ___ and I say watch and see how God changes your ___. He changes despair to hope, and anxiety or depression to joy. ____ even today on the 12th, I think it is Dominica, Alicia who called in and Barbara and Jolene’s daughter Casey on the wall. I hear your prayers and I’m praying for you. ___ many of our family of which I could friend and talk to you and each one of you that I could give encouragement to because your requests impact me and I would say take heart. Do not be afraid. Jesus is with you. You ___ Jesus and he is watching, but he doesn’t see as you see. He is always working in your waiting. He is looking to build you up so that you can stand strongly with him, so strong, in fact, that you would know all you need is him. God bless you all today, you wonderful family. In Jesus’ name, amen.