1 Chronicles 24:1-26:11 ~ Romans 4:1-12 ~ Psalm 13:1-6 ~ Proverbs 19:15-16
Today is the 17th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today as we dive headfirst into this week and, of course, at first into the scriptures for today and we’re reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week. So, back into the book of 1 Chronicles we go, Chapter 24 Verse 1 through 26 Verse 11 today.
Commentary:
Alright so, we’re in the
letter to the Romans, obviously, and we talked a lot about the apostle Paul as
we were going through the book of Acts, trying to fill in the back story, why
he’s such a lightning rod, why people want to assassinate him, why there are
mobs forming around him, and this is largely due to the fact that they believe
this devout Pharisee has become a heretic and left his faith and is trying to
entice others by dismantling everything they’ve believed all along, when the
reality is that Paul’s argument is: None of that is true. I’m not trying to
leave anything behind. I have found how it works. I have found how Jesus fits
into this story. It’s the same story and God is continuing it and completing it
through Jesus.
And so this letter to the
Romans is to the Roman Church, people who were following Jesus, but it’s a
mixed church, it’s an integrated church with some Jewish believers and some
Gentile believers. And Paul is speaking, in particular, about circumcision
today, which is one of the outward representations of devotion to God in the
Jewish faith. So, for them, you can’t be in the Jewish faith if you’re a man
and you are uncircumcised. So, sorry for all the penis talk today, but I think
I can safely blame it on the Apostle Paul. Circumcision was a very big deal
within Judaism and some of the things Paul is trying to explain were getting him
on the hot seat as if he were saying it is no big deal. We’ll see this crop up. We’ll see this very
issue crop up as we continue forward in the New Testament. But underneath It all, Paul is saying, if you
have this symbolic thing that you’ve done ritualistically and you have no idea
what’s underneath that, like you have no idea why, the why of that, then you
have built a dogma around a tradition you don’t even understand, which is no
less true in the Christian faith, and Paul is equating this to like action,
work that will by default justify you and make you righteous before God.
So what we are talking about
today in the Book of Romans is kind of controversial at this time because Paul
is zooming out and going back to their ancestral father, Abraham, like the guy
that started the whole thing, that has made them to people that they are, and
saying, hang on a second. Abraham believed God and God then took that belief,
that faith, and looked at him as righteous because of it, but (and it’s a big
but) we have to remember that Abraham, when this happened, wasn’t circumcised.
It was only after this that circumcision was given to him as a symbol that was
in his flesh - like he couldn’t ever take a bath, get naked, go to the bathroom,
whatever, without being reminded of his righteousness and covenant with God. It was a symbol of this state of being that
he had entered into, because God bestowed it on him, differentiating the idea
of working your way into this or receiving it as a gift. Works versus Grace. So,
in effect he’s saying, look, you can jump through the hoops and you can follow
all the rituals that you want, you can follow whatever recipe you want that you
think is going to make you righteous before God but that’s not how it works. Those
rituals, those symbols, those works are as a result of what has been given to
you, bestowed upon you by grace. The symbols,
the recipe, the rituals, they don’t mean much unless they are attached to
something far deeper within you. You’re just kind of going through the motions,
thinking that if you can follow that recipe it’s all good when the only way
it’s going to be all good is if you, like our ancestor Abraham, believe God and
receive this gift that you cannot possibly earn your way into. And for them, the earning their way into it
was by following the law to a tee, which no one could do, which is a pretty big
deal. A really big deal for us now as we understand our faith in Jesus, but an
even bigger deal for the Jewish people who had been practicing a faith all
along of trying to obey the law perfectly, trying to work their way to God. This was part of the tapestry of their entire
worldview and being in the world. Everything was oriented to doing, to obeying
this law.
And so Paul coming along and
saying all this is sort of reframing things. It’s very disruptive because it’s
a new way of looking at the same thing that reveals that the story is much
bigger then maybe previously thought. And
so Paul is this lightning rod in the middle of all of this. Paul is preaching a
message that is inclusive and expansive in that he’s saying the Gentiles can be
grafted into this story and are supposed to be grafted into this story, which
is in part where the circumcision talk comes from because he’s saying Abraham
wasn’t circumcised when he believed and then God gave him circumcision as a
symbol of what had already taken place.
So why are we thinking that can’t still happen? But he’s also saying none of us have been
able to achieve perfection in the law. The law is what shows us sin. The law, actually
because we can’t keep it, shows us our powerlessness to achieve that perfection
before God and yet God came to be here and give us righteousness and give us
what we cannot possibly do ourselves.
And so it is the heart of the
Christian faith, but it’s such a beautiful thing when you have some context and
see how disorienting and disruptive what he’s saying is that what we take for
granted wasn’t something we could always take for granted and watching this
unfold, which brings us to consider what are the things that we’re wrestling
with right now? I mean, how is it that we have tried to close the whole thing
down and own it in some sort of recipe that must be followed, when the reality
is we cannot possibly achieve perfection before God without God. We can’t possibly earn our way forward into
this by just being that good. We cannot receive the divine nature of God that
Jesus offers us on our own, in our own strength. We can’t earn our way into it.
It can’t happen. We’re not capable of doing it without God. That’s the story of
the human race. That’s the story of the Bible
since Adam and Eve, trying to figure out how to make it work without God when
we were never made to do anything without God.
Prayer:
God, Father, without You we
can do nothing. You’ve been pretty clear about that in the scriptures, not only
explicitly but within every story and every person that we meet. And Your word
shows us our flailing struggle to try to wrap our minds around our own
helplessness but also our struggle to try to make this work on our own terms, to
try to take the knowledge of good and evil and find our way back on our own to
perfection. And it can’t happen on our
own because the state of Shalom, of perfection, that we see at the very
beginning and in Jesus was deeply and utterly and hopelessly intertwined with
you. So come Holy Spirit, show us the recipes that we’ve been trying to follow
to make it work. Not that they’re bad
things or choices or activities or postures, but because when we try to achieve
them without Your indwelling we will never get there. Come, Holy Spirit we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
Dailyaudiobible.com is the
website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here
and a few things. Obviously, last week
we gave birth as a community to this work Sneezing Jesus, and I can safely, I
think, announce that the audio edition of that work is now available. I know it
was becoming available even as we released. Here’s the thing. Last time, my
last work, Reframe, had a bit of a delay with the audio release, several months,
largely because there was a CD edition of it in the world before there was a
digital audio downloadable edition and so that was staggered. So we had been working toward the
downloadable audio edition for a while trying get them as close as possible,
but when you are trying to roll something out all over the world in all kinds
of formats and places, you don’t just push a button and it happens. It’s a bit
of a tedious process. I’m pretty sure, pretty much everywhere that does
downloadable audio editions has it now. For example, here in the United States,
probably the two primary outlets for audio books would be Audible and iTunes
and it’s available. I even saw that Audible had it on sale, I think $4.95 is
what I saw. I don’t know if that is
still the way it is, but I think so. Anyway, so those of you who ordered Sneezing
Jesus and working through the book, who are also like, I’d love to have it read
to me, I read the audio edition of the book and so that’s available. And
wherever you are in the world, wherever it is that you go to get your audio
books, it should be there now. So Sneezing Jesus, audio edition is available.
The other thing is we have a
great discussion group going around Sneezing Jesus. We are discussing and talking
about it. Come jump into that and this Thursday, just a couple of days from now,
we’ll do our first little live broadcast about Sneezing Jesus and we’ll talk
about it, but it’ll be in the Sneezing Jesus group discussion page. So, you
have to be in that group to be able to see it, so it’s at facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus
and that will be at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time which is where I am in the
Rolling Hills of Tennessee. So you have to maybe Google it depending on your
time zone. If you’re in the United
States that would be 8 p.m. on the east coast and 5 p.m. on the West Coast and
I’ll just come down here in the studio and turn it on and share some thoughts
and take some questions and we’ll just see where all of that leads us, but make
some plans for this Thursday and I will look forward to seeing you there.
And then the other thing is
the Sneezing Jesus tour. So this fall and into next year we’ll be doing some
traveling and bringing this message and we are looking forward to that. I have
done some pretty grueling travel and speaking schedules and tours in my life.
This is not going to be quite Iike that. I’m not going to do quite as many
cities as I’ve done before, just keep a little margin in my life this year; however,
if you would like to see Sneezing Jesus come to your city, your church, here’s
how to get some of the ball rolling. Go to sneezingjesus.com and so that’s like
the portal for Sneezing Jesus, and scroll all the way down to the bottom and
you’ll see that there’s a little form down there. Fill that out and we’ll respond and see if we
can make that happen.
If you want to partner with
the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. Thank you,
thank you, thank you for your partnership as we move through the thick of the
summertime. If you are 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
PO Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.
And, as always, if you have a
prayer request a comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.
And that is it for today. I’m Brian. I love you, and I’ll be waiting for you here,
tomorrow.
Community Prayers and Praise Reports:
Good morning Dabbers, this is Walta,
the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and
King. Today is Friday, July 14th
and I just heard Paula, the child advocate, and I heard your prayer and I am so
touched in my heart because when you were speaking about other people calling
and praying versus you praying, I just saw that woman, no, not the woman, the
scripture where Jesus talks about this man going into the church, going into
the temple and praying these loud prayers and telling God all these things and
the man was just quiet in the back and just crying and saying Lord forgive
me. And what I saw was the sincerity of
the prayer. The Bible says the
effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person availeth much. Your prayer was so effective and it hit the
nail and you talked about loneliness, those who feel alone and honestly I’ve
been struggling with that last week and I praise God for you and thank Him that
you were able to step out and just let the Holy Spirit speak through you. I
strongly believe that God listens to the prayers of your heart and your prayer
is just you verbalizing what’s in there.
And so, to you, and all the other Dabbers out there who don’t pray
audibly for fear of not being able to meet a certain standard, take her
challenge and call in and pray and let God bless others through you. I love you
all and I’ll talk to you later. Bye.
Hi beautiful family. This is
Pastor Gene all the from Bradenton, FL. I love you guys. Praying for each one
of you. Please join me in prayer. Lord, You are so good, we love You, we praise
You, we give You thanks for Jill, we give You thanks for Brian and the
inspiration and anointing You have given him. Father, thank You for helping him
pen Sneezing Jesus. Father, we pray for each one that has been able to purchase
from one book to several of them, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that each one of us is going
to read the book, put it in the hands of somebody else, and most importantly, practice
the principles of looking at Jesus as God Man inspiring us to spread love,
hope, and light wherever we are. Father, I pray that every person that we will
place a book in their hands will be blessed, will be strengthened, will be
encouraged to become Your followers and Your witnesses. Father, I want to pray
for my sister Judy from the Midwest. Father, you know that she’s working in a
very hostile environment where she feels she was about to be assaulted the
other day. She is intent in being the
light and the salt in her work environment and I, who can completely relate to
what she is trying to do, pray that You will grant the desires of her heart,
that You will affirm her and establish her and make her a beautiful testimony
and that You will cover her and protect her.
Father, if it’s Your will to deliver her from that place, please do so
in the mighty name of Jesus, but if it’s Your will for my sister to stand in
the midst of the fire and overcome and be the church that many of those people
attend just by looking at her life, then let it be so. And in the name of
Jesus, Father, I bless my brother John, who called very sad because his wife is
moving away and they are thinking about a separation. Father, in the name of
Jesus, You make all things new. Make my
brother John’s marriage brand new. I
pray for all you guys in Jesus mighty name.
Pastor Gene. Bye.
Greetings to my beautiful DAB
family. This is Candace from Oregon. I owe a debt of gratitude. Wow, big time.
I owe thanks to Brian and Jill and everyone who’s a part of this family. I am
so upheld by this daily experience that I’ve gotten to be in now for about three
and a half years now and I just can’t tell you how the kind of growth and
strengthening its been and spiritual growth and it’s getting real, getting more
real, and getting more into relationship with Jesus. Jen from SoCal, thank you
for your prayers for me. I feel them and I know many people are praying for me.
And really I feel it and I need it. Boy,
I need it. This is probably one of the toughest years of my life, no doubt, but
only God knows that. And he can carry us through anything. I’m on the Eucharist
chapter of Sneezing Jesus. Wow, there you go. There’s your proof. He can get us
through anything. He called Lazarus out of the grave. He walked to His own grave for us. There’s
nothing too difficult for him. There’s nothing too big for him to handle. Thank
you Jesus. Thank you so much. We love you. We love you back.
Hi DAB family, this is
___________ from Phoenix. I am actually calling with a praise report. Quick
back story. I found out a year ago, last
June, that my husband was having an affair and we’ve gotten a little closer
over the last year. The praise report
today is that he is going to lunch with my pastor. He thinks it’s just lunch because he’s not
working, but he really likes the guy and he’s actually willing to sit down with
a pastor and hasn’t been willing to do that for at least the last four years.
Other huge praise report, I know it won’t be heard before it happens, but if
you could be praying that that relationship would form. Second praise report. His attitude has significantly changed towards
me. He is more attentive. He’s been living at home pretty much for the
last few months, but the last week since we got back – we’d been gone for a
week on vacation - he’s been very attentive, wants to know what I’m doing, who
I’m talking to, just things that never happened before that he didn’t care
about, so that’s a great attitude change and I’m very excited about that. Third thing which is also a big prayer
request, we have our mediation hearing for a week of separation this upcoming
Wednesday. Prayers that all that can be
worked out so that we do not have to go to court for, that we will work to reconcile
and call the whole thing off. Either way, that God’s will be done for the best
and that we will keep moving forward towards him coming back to God and back to
his family. Thank you so much for your
prayers.
Hi family and friends. The is
Deb in ____. Today is the 14th of July
and I’m calling because of Grady’s call and ____ call and just really and truly
calling because the Holy Spirit moved me to call and to pray for Grady and to
remind you how much you’re loved and that even though some others, like myself,
don’t call often, we are listening and we are praying and I love what’s been
happening a lot lately of just praying while we’re here so because Grady called
and asked for help with reaching his friends for Christ and I know many of us
have cried out for the Father to send laborers into the Harvest, I think Grady
is an answer, in part to that prayer, so join me as we pray for Grady. Lord, we
know that you love all of your children. We know that you love all of the
population of the earth and would love to see all those that would receive You
be saved to come into a closer relationship with You and that’s where Grady’s
heart is. Give him wisdom. Give him
guidance. Give him the right words at the right time and the courage to speak
them. Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, well up in him with the ministry that each one
needs and give him strength to say his course, to not be tempted, to not fall
away, and to not fail in Your assignment but Lord, help him to remember that
it’s not his strength and that the failure isn’t the way we see things but
you’re with him to help him to obey and that we are here praying for him in the
background. You all have a wonderful day.
Know how much your Father loves you and know that you are important and
that if you are sneezing, God bless you.