Author: Daily Audio Bible Transcripts

Isaiah 41:17-43:13, Ephesians 2:1-22, Psalms 67:1-7, Proverbs 23:29-35

Today is the 23^rd day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy to be here with you today as we come around the Global Campfire together and just…well…like we say…let it go, release. Whatever the cares of this world are we can pick them up at the door when we leave if that’s what we want to do. But it’s possible, it’s just possible that as we orient ourselves to God through the Scriptures, we…we may leave this space looking at things a little bit differently and that may give us what we need to navigate. So, let’s just kind of leave it. Let’s exhale. Let’s just take a deep breath and let it go as we enter into our time in the Scriptures today. So, we’re reading from the Contemporary English Version working our way through the book of Isaiah. Today, Isaiah chapter 41 verse 17 through 43 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, I have been on top of many mountains in my life. I have…you may have too. Some of you live on top of mountains or live in mountains somewhere in the world. But if you’ve ever been to the top of a mountain, like you are actually at the summit of the mountain well then you can kind of look…like you can do a 360. Like there’s nothing above you anymore and you may be able to look 100 miles or you may be able to look way down into that city you are in, you know, so long ago before you drove up or  hiked up or whatever. You…you may be able to look far off into the mountain wilderness and see peak after peak after peak just cascading off into the distance. And to me, Ephesians is kind of like that mountain top experience in the Bible or even the journey. Like if you drive up to the top of a mountain there’s gonna be a lot of turnoffs along the way where you can kinda get a vantage point on your way to the summit and everywhere you look you’re just like, “this can’t be real, this is so beautiful. Like, this is a postcard. This is unbelievable.” And that’s kinda how Ephesians reads to me. So, like just reading from what we…what we read from the letter today, “you were saved by faith in God who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God’s gift to you not anything you have done on your own. It isn’t something you have earned. So, there is nothing you can brag about. God planned for us to do good things and to live as He has always wanted us to live. That’s why He sent Christ to make us what we are.” Okay. We could be like, “okay. Yup. Theologically I understand that. That's…that is kind of laying out the good news in a nice bite-size morsel” or we could slow down and understand we are on a journey and this is a vista and what’s being said here is that God wants us. Like we’re not earning our way into anything. He wants us and there’s nothing we can do to puff ourselves up like we’re super spiritual. He can see right through that obviously but so can everybody else. We haven’t earned anything. We can’t earn this. It was bestowed upon us. It’s a gift because He wants us. He planned for our lives and sent Jesus to make it possible. Okay. So, there…there’s no…there’s like little chart with stars on it for good behavior that we can earn, and if we get enough stars then we get to the next level of heaven or something or even get there at all. This is a gift. It’s something that we receive by faith, which…which basically at its essential core simply means that we believe that it’s true. We didn’t God. God found us. Like, we didn’t choose God He chose us personally. He came near and we reached out and He reached back, and we embraced, and this fantastic gift of salvation was given. We didn’t earn it and He’s not gonna take it back and nobody can take it from us. We can reject it, but it can’t be taken from us. No one can steal it from us. And since we can’t earn then we have…like there’s nothing to be puffed up about. The only thing we can rightfully be is humbled, humbled with such unbelievable undeserved kindness. So, I know that you know because we sing songs about it and you might hear it in church and might recite it, that God knows who you are, that you are His child, that He knows your name. But have you ever just like slowed down enough to think about what we are talking about. The most-high God, the Creator of all things…I mean just look around you…just look at the trees…just look around and understand that all of this was set in motion by God, the most-high God. This isn’t our planet or our nation. This is God’s creation. He owns all of it and we fight over which part of it we get to steward. This is His, He made it and we are here because He loves us. That is a lot to take in when you slow down enough to see how good the Good News is. And, so, may we…well…may we relax. Remember those cares of the world we were talking about at the beginning, like we can pick all that stuff up when we leave the Global Campfire here but what good is that gonna do? The most-high God has come for us and chosen us. Certainly, whatever we’re carrying around that’s bringing us stress and anxiety right now pales in comparison to that. The most-high God, who created the world that we live on and this place is His, He can handle whatever is we’re draggin’ around. And maybe we’re draggin’ around a bunch of stuff because we think it gives us some sort of value or some sort of identity when there is no greater identity than to be the child of the most-high God. Like that’s winning the lottery. That’s the cosmic lottery. There is nothing ever that’s going to be better than that. So, whatever’s leaning by the door that we can pick up when we leave, we need to look at it with a whole new set of eyes, eyes to see and ears to hear.

Prayer:

Father we thank You that You have chosen us, that You came to find us. We keep thinking we found God, we found Jesus…we…You came for us. You were always there. Just one day we had eyes to see and things have never been the same because we can’t unsee Your goodness. We can be blinded to it and be distracted away from it. That is the work of the world. You have called us to rise above it all and see hundreds of miles to see the grand vista peak after peak after peak of Your glory. And we will move from glory to glory because we are Your children. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth. Come Holy Spirit and give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s been home base for 15 years now, it’s home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here, it’s where the Global Campfire is, it’s where the community that we share virtually finds connection points of. So, check that out.

Check out the Community section. That is a good place to find all the different links to where we are on social media. The Prayer Wall also lives there. And the Prayer Wall is a constant, always on, never off resource, a way to reach out in prayer or a way to reach out for prayer. And, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you. It’s with all my heart I thank you that we continue to do this together day by day step-by-step. So, thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the app, the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if that’s your preference, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the red button up at the top and you can begin to share from there or there are number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are. If you’re in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 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 and Praise:

Hello this is Smiley Gail from Canada I’m calling today to…for the first time and I’d like to lift up Terry the Trucker to You Lord. He’s lonely and he’s hurting, and he’s worried about his family, but I just pray that You would heal his granddaughter and make his home safe for him to return to. And Lord while he’s in his truck isolating, I just pray that You would meet his every need. I pray also for all the people who are in AA and Al-Anon and groups like that who are suffering during this pandemic because they can’t get together like they usually do. And I pray those who aren’t in those groups but should be, that You would lead them in. And Lord I pray for my own family members who are struggling with addictions to alcohol and other substances, that You would help them to find freedom and put them in touch with other people who would support them. And I just ask Your blessing on the woman who called in who was a special needs children worker and that you would restore her to her job in Jesus’ name I pray this. Amen.

O Lord God who thou has made the heavens and the earth by thy great power. Father Your ruling over all things and it’s Sunday and it’s Your day it’s a day of worship but Lord there’s so many…so many people suffering, so many people in fear and hurt who need You and need Your help. Thank You for the woman who reached out for the first time after listening for seven years to ask for prayer. I pray that her husband will be completely exonerated and that the relationship between him and his family and their extended family will be healed. I pray for the woman who feels like she’s being attacked from all sides that You will give her strength and that You will give her somebody to lean on. I pray for Terry the Trucker who is, I guess You could say, a full-time trucker now. I pray that You will give him courage and give him strength to bear through and bear up and to not be afraid. And I pray that the COVID symptoms and everything will pass, and his family will be clean soon so that he can be with them again. Father I pray that You will renew a right spirit in us all and a spirit of joy and trust in You. Thank You that You’re here. Thank You for this family. And it’s in Jesus’ name that I pray. Amen. This is Mark Turner from New Jersey. I love you all.

Hello from beautiful Cincinnati Ohio this is Daniel Johnson Junior how y’all doing? Thank you to everybody that prayed for me when…after I called in earlier this month…last month. The situation is still very dire for us financially…don’t know exactly how we are going to make ends meet but working out some things to get that happening. Wanted to share something that I kind of…that I was thinking about from Brian’s reading on Friday, September 18^th from Galatians chapter…chapter 3 verse 23 through 29. And just to echo what Brian had said…shared the Bible is just a boo. What we do because of it, how we live because of it, that’s what matters. It reveals the extent of God’s love for us and urges us to respond to that love by committing our own styles to His ways. It got me thinking, well, you know, a marriage certificate is just a piece of paper. What we do as married couples because we’re married, how we live in marriage, that’s what matters. Yes, the wedding and may have been awesome and we got that piece of paper to show that were married but unless we live it out in our daily commitment to our spouses it means nothing. The same way, a birth certificate, yes, even a birth certificate is just a piece of paper showing that you were born. By itself it’s only that but what you do because you were born, that’s what matters. And I was reminded about what Paul writes in first Corinthians 15. He says, “by the grace” and this is NIV, “by the grace of God I am what I am and His grace to me is not without effect.” So, brothers and sisters let’s live out what we read in the Bible and what we have understood in the Bible so that God’s grace will not be without effect, that the Bible will be more than just this book that we rely on. God bless you all from beautiful Cincinnati Ohio. Make it a great day.

Hey, my precious DAB family this is Kingdom Seeker Daniel from Chicago. I want to speak to Melissa. Your husband is being wrongfully accused for molesting a family member many years ago. I want to pray for you sis, but I just want you to know I…I know this story all too well. And, so, my heart is right there with you. And, so, family let’s pray for our sister and our brother. Dear God, our Father we thank You that You all the Lord of hosts. You are the God of armies and You are in control of everything. You know our down sitting from our uprising. You know exactly what is taking place with this accusation that’s being formed against Melissa’s husband. God, will You be the judge and the jury O God on this matter and will You expose the works of Satan as he is attempting to bring down a family and a man’s life in particular. God, I pray that You would be the one to rescue our brother from this wrongful accusation. Will You allow truth to prevail. Will You allow justice to prevail. And would You allow mercy to prevail in the name of Jesus. We thank You God that You are the one that vindicates us, and we are believing that You will vindicate Melissa’s husband according to Your divine will. Will You strengthen my sister, encourage her and comfort her to know that all is well because You see all. In Jesus’ name. Be encouraged sis.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Laura in West Palm Beach Florida. I’m calling to pray for Terry the trucker. Terry, I heard your message this morning on this 20^th of September that your granddaughter has COVID. And I want to tell you Terry that I’m praying for your granddaughter for healing, for quick recovery, for no one else in the family to have any…any symptoms of this COVID as a result of her sickness and I pray that she would soon be well. I pray that you would be well while you’re waiting and quarantining yourself in your truck and Terry that you would stay well and not get this disease. I pray that your fear would be replaced with faith and I pray Father…heavenly Father that You would just protect his family. Lord I pray they would see Terry’s faith and they would be encouraged, that they would recover from the sickness as a family Father because when one person in the family hurts they all hurt and that’s how we feel about you Terry. This family is praying with you. This family is lifting you up to the Father because He didn’t bring you this far to leave you Terry. We love you.

Hi, DABbers. Hi Brian and thank you for your ministry and thank you DABbers for all your prayers. I’m sorry for my English. It is not my first language. I want to reach out for a prayer for someone I know. He needs very much help because he’s very young in faith and he has to grow a lot as a man to be able to care for the people around him and for himself and to grow towards what God has purposed for him, towards the image of the son of God. Please pray for him because my time and abilities haven’t been as good as I had hoped. Thank you all. Bye.

Isaiah 39:1-41:16, Ephesians 1:1-23, Psalms 66:1-20, Proverbs 23:25-28

Today is the 22^nd day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today just like it’s great to be here with you any day, every day. And that’s what we do, every day we get together and take…take another step forward in our adventure through the Scriptures. We…our…are about…I’m thinking 75% through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament and we will be beginning a new letter in the New Testament, the letter to the Ephesians today and we’ll talk about that when we get there. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Isaiah chapter 39 verse 1 through 41, verse 16 today.

Introduction to the letter to the Ephesians:

Okay. So, we are entering into the letter to the Ephesians today. So, let’s just kind of talk about it for a minute and get our bearings. Ephesians…well…on a personal note, reading Ephesians, getting to this place every year is a joy because the things that are in this letter are mind boggling things. Like there are things in the letter to the Ephesians that we will read and then think about what’s being said, and then apply that to our own lives and realize that this is good news that’s almost too good to be true, like this is how good the good news actually is. And, so, it’s a joy to kind of reach this letter because it gives us these mountaintop views that are…they go on forever it seems. Just unbelievable what is true of us because of our faith in Christ. But, we’ll see that Ephesians is very different than, for example, the letter that we just read, Galatians, which leads biblical scholars to debate, and they have been debating for century’s, hotly debated out whether Paul wrote this letter or not, whether Ephesians is Pauline or is more of Paul’s school of thought or maybe even an actual school that Paul trained and taught people up and then this material came later. That’s, again though, that’s a hotly debated thing. Ephesians is one of the disputed letters of Paul in the Scriptures, has been for a long time, way before any of us who are alive today were alive. Like, it’s not a new thing. It’s very old and those who would argue in favor of Paul authoring these would just simply say like, that the way….the reason that some of the language is different, the reason some of the terminology’s different is…is just the way these letters were passed around and copied, the way that…the way that they were given. Like Paul would’ve spoken, dictated out loud to a scribe and different scribes wrote different letters. Some of them even pop up in the letters and basically go like, “hey me too…like…hey hello” when Paul is kind of closing his letters down. So…so, those scholars then would say, “it's…it’s these things. Like that…that’s what creates these nuances.” Nevertheless, this is a letter that was sent to the church in Ephesus. And Paul had spent time, about three years establishing this community. And that the time of Paul Ephesus was one of the more important cities of the Roman Empire. So again, another urban centered community of faith, mixed community, Jew and Gentile. Ephesus was a port city. So, all kinds of goods coming from all over the world and all kinds of goods going out from there. So, you can see people coming in and out of there. It was just a melting pot. Ideas were coming in. Ideas were going out. Culture was being imported in. Culture was being imported out. But Paul wasn’t writing Ephesians to combat a false teaching as we’ve witnessed in other letters or to correct some sort of a misbehavior as we’ve seen in other letters or to answer specific questions about how to live into this faith in Christ as we’ve seen in other letters. And that could be because he knew these people. He spent years among these people and…and was writing this letter to…to give…to give them a mountaintop vista, like I said before, of where their faith is headed and what this all means. There are…there are passages that we’re gonna go through in the letter to the Ephesians that we could ponder, like literally meditate upon for days, weeks, maybe even a lifetime. It’s that remarkable. And the truth is, we’ve headed through all kinds of territory recently that have allowed us to go deep inside of our hearts and explore the emotions of our hearts, especially in terms of suffering and…and to contemplate that. And, so, now as we reach the letter to the Ephesians, we get the opportunity and just gaze upon the beauty of the promise of the Good News. And, so, let’s dive in. Ephesians chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for…for new territory that we keep moving into. As we keep taking steps forward we come to all of the different facets of this beautiful library really that is the Bible, all of these different books, spanning millennia telling us an ancient story of who You are and leading us into relationship with You. And then we enter in and live this out. And, so, as we come into the letter to the Ephesians, we invite Your Holy Spirit to speak to us in the days ahead about how this is not only good news, this is really big news. What You began at the cross is like…we know it’s revolutionary, but it profoundly shifts everything if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. And, so, we’re asking for that as we move forward. Come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth. Plant the words spoken today in our hearts and may they yield the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, like I say about…I don’t know…365 times every year because it is. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. It’s how you dive into community, it’s where the Prayer Wall is, it’s where resources in the Shop are, various resources for the journey of a lifetime moving through the Bible together in a year. And it’s also the place that if…if you want, you can partner with the Daily Audio Bible and I cannot, as….as I also say many, many times, I cannot thank you enough. We literally truly wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. And, so, the Global Campfire is us…it’s us doing this together, it’s this rhythm of us being in this together. And, so, if…if that is meaningful to you than thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button, it’s in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement 877-942-4253 would be the phone number to call but you can also press the red button, the Hotline button in the app no matter where you are in the world and begin to share right from there.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey this is Jared calling from Duluth Minnesota it’s Saturday, September 19^th at 1 AM in the morning. Day 262 of the year, day 511 since April 26^th, 2019 where God has woken me up every night and…to have my DAB time. The prayer requests today were just such a blessing to hear. Some of the old-timers of Biola from Maryland and Duane from Wisconsin. So thankful your son is gonna soon be getting out of jail. And thank you so much for praying for my kids and so many kids in the DAB family. And the new caller, Openhearted Overcome in Michigan, thanks for calling. And Joe the wife whose daughters stopped going to church and praying for Joe the protector and Tammy from Texas and Val in Vegas. Thanks for just sharing on the 15^th what a tough day it was and guilt in a sense for being okay when there’s so many not okay. And for Abigail in Oregon for your baby that was a loss and your husband who is…who is grieving and for the Oregon fire’s. So many cool things happening and God I…and challenging things as well. And God I thank you for all those who’ve prayed for my kids who have two of my four kids are bipolar and I suffer with it as well. I appreciate you…your prayers during this time. It’s been kind of a rough season right now, but God is good. Thank you again for all that you’ve done. God bless. Bye.

Hi, I’d just like to pray for Abigail from Oregon. And yes, we have been praying about all those who are being affected by the fire…the wildfires in the Pacific Northwest in California. And I’d just like to pray for you now Abigail and for your family and community and friends there. Lord Jesus You are our rock and refuge. This is got to be such an unsettling unstable time and one where there these dear people don’t know for sure what will happen to their homes or their churches or their physical communities. But we look to You and I just want to pray specifically for Abigail who has lost a child and now is in danger of losing a home and church and all these different things. And I pray that they can experience Your supernatural provision and Your pouring out of Your Spirit during this time that they, despite the pain and the unsettledness and the disruption, that they experience Your perfect peace that surpasses all comprehension in the beautiful precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Good morning DAB family my name is Vincent and I am Vincent Walking in Love or at least I try to. I have one minute and 47 seconds to tell you that God must be extremely pleased with this communications, how much love and care there is from seemingly all over the world. I want to say that on the 17^th, I don’t know if anyone heard, well I’m sure you did, that young lady, that little girl that sang and has the voice of an angel. You should sing again and say your name so that I could properly thank you. I wanted to tell Val in Vegas that…to keep going and God’s got you. Joe, I’m praying for your family, that they come back to you. I want to say God bless Tammy in Texas and Susan from Canada. God’s lovely flower, God’s Yellow flower, that I greatly appreciate your prayers they are truly heartfelt. And Abigail from Oregon, I feel your pain. God bless you. Pray for me family that I find love with the one that I love, miss Becky, and that God helps me to find my purpose. I’m getting too old to find out what I’m going to do when I grow up. Vincent Walking in Love. God bless.

Hello people I’m Sean and I am a sinner. I am despicable and I really, really, really can’t stand myself. And what I’m asking for is for your prayers. Our God, our Lord Jesus Christ has told me to do stuff, he’s told me to write and I’m having great difficulty with that and I just want your prayers please.

The Lord bless you and keep you
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you
I pray he gives you peace
and that all that you have will increase
that your blessings never ever cease
and that your life be one big gigantic feast
but the truth of the matter is the road is long and rough
the battles are hard and tough
your best is never enough
and Satan will always call your bluff
but I still know you can make it
I know that you can stand
the Lord will not forsake you and there’s not much he’ll demand
keep your eyes upon his promises
let your vows be firm and true
let your friends be in his service
let your strength his renew
don’t be afraid to call his name when problems are too tough
and you might have to do some fasting too when prayer just isn’t enough
but whatever problems come your way whatever storms may arise
if you stay connected to the Lord in the end you’ll win the prize
honesty and integrity are things you should possess
and if humbly you just ask for strength he’ll give you all the rest
the Lord bless you and keep you
the Lord make his face to shine upon you
I pray he gives you peace
and that all that you have will increase
may your blessings never ever cease
and your life be one big gigantic feast

blindtony1016@gmail.com I’d like to give a shout out to the little girl that sang the song. It was a wonderful song, had a lot of purity in it and I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much. And once again Brian and the Hardin family, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.

Hey family it’s Jesse from Washington. I need some more prayers. Looks like gonna be going to court and it’s looking like it’s going to get super ugly and I just…first praise report that I’ve felt all your prayers and all the negative stuff that’s been happening over the last week, it’s just multiple just nightmare situations and, you know, in…in it I felt, you know, I felt peace simultaneously with just the fear and shame and anger and every…every negative emotion a person can have, you know, in these situations and it’s…it’s…it’s been all of them. So, God’s there, I know you guys are there. And I thank you for just…your love and your prayers and just pray for accountability, I pray for the truth to come out. You know it’s gonna come out for me too, so I’m prepared no matter what happens. I know God’s got me. I pray for repentance for me, true repentance for forgiveness for my…for my sins. You know on both sides I hope we can work that out. I hope that, you know, a guardian ad Litem is, you know, assigned that they have, you know, eyes and ears and hearts to hear and see the truth and I’m just ready, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, you know and I know that no matter what happens God has me and I’m prepared, I’m prepared for whatever he has for me because I know no matter what it’s going to be okay even worse case scenario I know it’s going to be okay and I know he has me because he’s been here every second with me through this. So, I love you. Thank you, family.

Isaiah 37:1-38:22, Galatians 6:1-18, Psalms 65:1-13, Proverbs 23:24

Today is the 21^st day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today. It’s great to be here with you any day and every day as we take steps forward. That’s all we…that’s all we do. We step forward every single day and we are always moving forward in our lives and in the Scriptures. And, so, let’s move forward. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Isaiah chapters 37 and 38.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we concluded the letter to the Galatians today, which means we’ll be moving into some new territory tomorrow. And Paul’s kinda been landing this plane, this letter to the Galatians basically by outlining some paths, especially in yesterday’s reading when…when we came to be the fruit of the Spirit which is a famous passage…passage of Scripture. And Paul is contrasting the fruit of the Spirit as one pathway, a pathway that leads to eternal life. He contrasts that with other choices, with another path that we can choose, a path that leads to destruction. And he ends up saying, “look…the fruit of the Spirit, like love, joy peace, long-suffering, kindness, gentleness, like there are no laws anywhere that would forbid you from the fruit of the Spirit. Like doesn’t matter what kind of rule you live under, nothing is gonna outlaw the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Like, where do you find a law against kindness or perseverance or long-suffering or patience?” And, so, in today’s reading, as we…as we conclude the letter, Paul’s saying like, “here…here’s the posture, here’s where you should center yourself.” And I just…I guess…let me just read this section. Let me just quote Paul rather than try to put it in other words it’s very clear. “You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand. And if you think you are better than others when you really aren’t, your wrong. Do your own work well and then you’ll have something to be proud of but don’t compare yourself with others. We each must carry our own load. And share every good thing you have with anyone who teaches you what God has said. You can’t fool God. So, don’t make a fool out of yourself. You’re going to harvest what you plany. If you follow your selfish desires, you’re gonna harvest destruction, but if you follow the spirit then you’re gonna harvest eternal life. So, don’t get tired of helping others. You’ll be rewarded when the time is right if you don’t give up”, right? It’s a…it’s a theme of endurance that becomes more and more and more hard to get away from the further and further and further we go into the New Testament. And then he says, “we should help people whenever we can, especially if they’re followers of the Lord.” Okay. So, the beauty of some of the…some of the writing style Paul is that we’ll get these concise kinds of paragraphs or sentences or…that we can almost even make a list and go, “okay. how much of this describes me? Like is what he…did…did what he say here in Galatians have…does it resemble me? Like, do I believe I’m obeying the law of Christ when I help…when I give a helping hand? And do I think I’m better than somebody else or am I always lost in comparison? So, this gives us some things to consider and meditate upon today. But probably primarily, one of the things that we should meditate as we leave Galatians behind for this…this year is the fact that the law of sowing and reaping shows up here. Like what you plant is what you get. It’s a natural law that we all accept, right? If you throw corn out on your field, then you do not expect pole beans. You expect corn. If you’re going to pick some fruit and you come to an apple tree then you do not expect strawberries, you expect to yield what was planted. And we just sort of get disconnected with the fact that that is a spiritual law as well. That is the truth of our lives. We are living the harvest that we planted. Our lives are as they are because of what we planted previously. And, so, in so many ways what Paul is trying to encourage any he encourages in this direction in many letters,  “like what if you started planting the fruit of the Spirit and didn’t stop that so that season after season after season this is what you were reaping. This is going to lead you to the harvest of eternal life but if you’re gonna plant the fruit of the spirit, like this row over here is for the fruit of the Spirit…this little section of my life I’m gonna plant through the fruit of the Spirit of here, but the rest of the field of my heart, it’s going to be a mixture of things.” Well then, that’s what you are going to harvest. And, so, what if we did plant the fruit of the Spirit systematically over and over, season after season after season? Then the truth is we would always be harvesting the fruit of the Spirit. We would have left over to give away, which is the point. It would be bursting out of us into the world. We would have a pantry full of canned fruit of the Spirit that we can go get any time…like we would be abundantly immersed in the fruit of the Spirit. That’s available. That’s the thing of it. That’s available. It just depends on what we’re…what we’re gonna plant. And the choice is ours.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, well up from within us, make us aware of Your presence in our lives. We become aware of the shape of our lives. We look out across the fields of our heart and we see what’s growing there and we may have some work to do. And we can’t do that work on our own. We need You. And, so, as harvests come and go, as harvests come that we didn’t want. And as they go when it’s time to plant again in their place, we plant the fruit of the Spirit, which means we’re gonna have to live according to this. And, so, make us aware, make us present to what we are putting into the soil of our hearts. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, and that…yeah…website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

Its where things like the Prayer Wall live. And…yeah…that is a fantastic place to be aware of always. You can always reach out for prayer. You can always offer prayer at the Prayer Wall no matter what time….what time of day it is, no matter what time zone you are in, and no matter how different our time zones are from each other because we’re all over the world. So, as I speak this it’s tomorrow somewhere, you know, and the Prayer Wall is…it just isn’t paying attention to what time zones we’re in. It’s paying attention to the fact we’re reaching out. And, so, beware of that. Check it out in the Community section.

Check out the resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop for taking this journey deeper. And, of course, you can get to all the things I’m talking about within the Daily Audio Bible by pressing the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. But check these out. Stay connected in any way that you can.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible that can be done at dailyaudiobible.com as well. Of course it can be done within the app also by pressing the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174. And I thank you humbly, deeply. I mean how many times have I said it already this year? It's…it’s in awe inspiring thing to do what we’re doing together. Like that we show up every day and we take the next step and it doesn’t really matter…like the time zones we were just talking about…it doesn’t matter. No matter where we are, we’re never listening to this alone. Someone somewhere is in the is with us. And that is a remarkable thing to know that each day we gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step. So, I thank you that this even exists because it exists because we’re together. We’re in it together. So, thank you.

And then of course, if you’ve a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DAB family this is D also known as A New Day in Florida and I had called in at the end of August feeling really lonely. Have lost my husband four years ago and my mom three years ago. Don’t have children and it’s just been really difficult. And I listened to the Community Prayer and I heard a woman mention me. She did not give her name, but she definitely understood that I did not stumble onto this and I’m so grateful for this app and for Brian and the Hardin family. And thinking of Mike from Missouri who also mentioned me and praying for me. There’s a particular backdrop to the story that I didn’t give the day that I called to pray, and I hope I can finish it before the two minutes. But I’m a September 11^th responder and my husband was a responder and we came here so that he could heal up and he actually was killed here in Florida and a motorcycle accident. So, that’s kind of the backdrop. And I think all the loneliness I was feeling is because it was leading up to September 11^th. And I also want to thank a woman who took the time to mention September 11^th and pray for those who were affected. I didn’t get her name, but she was on the Community Prayer podcast as well. Okay, my time is running out and thank you guys so much. I love you.

Hello, my dear Daily Audio Bible family missionary in Mexico. I had been missing you. Oh, my goodness it’s good to be back and hearing the community prayers and catching up. So good to be caught up again with the Bible reading. My husband has been doing a lot of ministry flights just like Margot’s husband, my husband too is a missionary pilot. And anyway, yeah, so he was gone and I was kind of holding down the fort and very busy with our family and home schooling and all the stuff going on. But oh my goodness it’s so good to hear all your voices and I’m not gonna even try because there’s so many of you I just go, “it’s so good to hear his voice, her voice” and I love you all very much. I’m calling in today because a coworker of ours, a wonderful lady named Barbara has a tumor and she has been a huge blessing to so many different people in so many different countries. She’s worked in Columbia, in the Philippines, here in Mexico, and…well…before she became a missionary, in Australia. She’s just kind of been everywhere and knows everyone. She’s one of those kinds of people. She was our daughters, our oldest daughter’s kindergarten teacher way back when she…when our daughter was in kindergarten. She is going to be going in for surgery and we’re just really playing that she can use the surgery that uses the gamma knife, which is a much less invasive surgery rather than doing the more invasive surgery that might end up messing with her nerves in her mouth and her cheek and stuff. So, please be praying for Barb. But we love her so much. She is a blessing here. She’s one of our…she’s a neighbor of ours here. We live in a community outside of town and…and she just loves everybody, and everybody loves her and she has helped so many people come to know Jesus. And, so, I appreciate your prayers family. Thanks.

Hi beloved DAB this is God’s Life Speaker. And for someone who always wants to be speaking life words because I believe them, and their God’s words, and He calls us to hire places I feel like I need your prayer. I have called in before for our 20-year-old son. I don’t even know where to begin. He’s… he…he is lonely. He is depressed. He’s everything negative and everything of the opposite that I would desire him to be, right? And I know God doesn’t desire him to be the way that he is choosing right now. And he talks about just wanting to be dead though I’ve asked him directly if has plans to hurt himself because when he was a teenager, he did threaten to kill himself. And that was a hard time, but we got through that by God’s grace, but now he’s away at school. Even though he’s only a little bit from our house, he stays there and he’s just in this deep place. And I ask him if…if he’s inviting God into this place. And he practices a different religion than us. And we believe the Bible and he believes the Bible plus all these other documents. And I just feel that his head is full of knowledge and I want this relationship with God to occur, to lean on Him. And all I can do is pray. And all I can ask is for your prayers. And I will continue to speak life into my son believing that God will bring this family back under one roof so that we can worship him together in the house of God. So, I just ask for your prayers. My son’s name is Joshua. Thank you, DABbers. I’m praying for all of you. I love you.

Hello DAB family or maybe I should say greetings to the DAB nation. You are a holy people, a royal priesthood, a people set apart. This is Louise from Arkansas. I called about a month and half ago to ask for prayers for my son Peter Thank you so much for the people that prayed. It meant so much to me and hear somebody else pray for my son other than me. But today I’m…and I wish I had a wonderful testimony about great things that God had done in his life but so far as I know everything remains the same. So, today I’m calling about my daughter Melody. She’s going to be 35 on the 20^th. I figured a good way to celebrate was to call and ask for prayers since I can’t really celebrate with her. Please pray she will turn her car heart back to Jesus. Once she walked to God but life has been hard and she has turned her back on God. Thank you for your prayers.

Good morning DABers this is __ from Juba in South Sudan. I’m…I’m basically calling to ask for prayer because for the first time I am traveling from Juba for the first time this year, traveling from Juba to Nigeria. I will be in Nigeria for about a month and a half before coming back to work. I need your prayer for travel mercies and for continued protection from the coronavirus and also that whatever the reason I have to travel to Nigeria that God will continue to use me for His glory there, that I will continue to make impact for the kingdom of God when I get to Nigeria. The airspace is just opened and making it possible for me to be able to travel. So, thank you once again and thank you for being there. Thank you, Brian and Jill and China and Ben and Simon and Ezekiel, all that is behind DAB. May God bless you. May God keep you. May God strengthen all of you. May God meet you at the points of you need. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hello DAB family it’s Tim from Edinburgh in Scotland in the UK. I phoned a couple weeks ago for prayer about some eye surgery for a detached retina. I’ve been really calm and…post-surgery…just resting in Jesus. And as I said to some folks, we needn’t pray for physical healing or the job offer or the lost nc-nak to be found but sometimes we just need to pray and to hear Jesus say, “it’s okay. I’ve got this. I’ve got you. Your safe. Rest easy.” So I’ve been resting easy and today, which is the 18^th of September I was heading into the eye hospital for the follow-up appointment and I just had time to listen to DAB and a verse from Scripture which just leapt out at me was Isaiah 29:18, “eyes of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.” So, I went in for my appointment and the consultant was very happy. My vision is just wonderful. I can still drive. I can still cycle. I can still work. So, thank you for your prayers and most of all, Jesus, thank You for Your love and healing. Amen.

Isaiah 33:10-36:22, Galatians 5:13-26, Psalms 64:1-10, Proverbs 23:23

Today is the 20^th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you as we…as we step into a brand-new week and like we often mention, it’s sparkly and shiny and new, and it’s out in front of us. And, so, let’s live into it with all of our hearts this week. We will read from the Contemporary English Version throughout this week and continue our journey through the book of Isaiah. Today chapters 33 verse 10 through 36 verse 22.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the threshold of a brand-new week that we are stepping into. We thank You for Your faithfulness. We thank You for Your kindness, we thank You for Your patience. With all humility, we humble ourselves before You. You alone are God and You alone will we worship. And, so, as we go into this new week, we set our hearts and our affections upon You. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is our home, it’s…it’s where the Global Campfire burns, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. It's…it’s where we find out how to get connected. So, check that out.

Check out the Community section in the website, that gives all kinds of different links to different places to get connected on social media. Check out the resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop - things to read, things to write with, things to write on, a whole Global Campfire line of things that are just part of the journey, part of being in community together. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link that has a permanent residence on the homepage. And thank you, humbly and profoundly for everyone who’s ever…ever clicked that link. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top and share from there no matter where you are in the world, or you can dial 877-942-4253. That’s the number for the Americas. Of course, you can use any of these numbers from anywhere, but that’s the number in the Americas. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number and then if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Oh, my goodness father God thank you and bless Kathy from Kentucky and all 12-Step members, Celebrate Recovery members and all of us needing physical hugs and loving touches Lord. In Your supernatural way we ask that by the power of the Holy Spirit that You would fill our hearts, fill our needs and desires to tactfully fill Your loving presence if it be Your will Father that You would renew and refresh us in our faith and continue to use this DAB community as a portal of Your love. We lift up each and every DABber to You this day Lord. Thank You for all You have done, are doing, and will do through us, for us and in us. To You be all glory and honor and praise Father. Pour out Your wisdom, comfort, and love overflowing to all those we come in contact with so that we may overflow into others lives Lord. Thank you Lord for God’s Smile and Peter. Bless them and keep them. God Smile you brought such a great smile to my life today. You and Peter were having…on your joyride and you brought so much joy as I was walking in my backyard and looking at what the smoke has kind of done to that…to our forest here in Idaho. But Lord thank you for happiness and thank you for God’s Smile and Peter. And Lord continue to bless them and as they bring joy to us in the DAB community. I love you all of my family. In Jesus’ name. I love you. This is Julie from Idaho. Have a wonderful blessed day.

Good afternoon DAB family this is Lady of Victory on Wednesday, the 16^th of September. I am calling in for Kathy from Kentucky. And Kathy what a blessing it was to hear from you to pray for the 12-Step program people. You know, a lot of times we forget about those people that are not in our immediate circle and I didn’t even think about, you know, people who are in groups like that, how in order to stay recovered they depend on the camaraderie of the group like you…like…like the 12 step. So, I imagine this would be hard. And then when you said the overdoses and the relapses and suicide that is taking place is just disheartening. And, so, God we come before You not only on behalf of Kathy but her 12-Step group and those that are just meeting around the country God in such a time as this because things are so different that it’s not…they’re not able to come together like they normally would to kind of keep them together and hold each other accountable. God I ask that You would just keep the hearts and the minds of those people Lord God so that they can recognize that God it wasn’t the people that were there it was You keeping them keeping them…keeping their hearts and their minds stayed on You and keeping them sober and recovered. So, Father I ask that You would just extend Your grace and Your mercy towards these people who are in these the 12-Step programs who are struggling God to continue in their sobriety. We know that You have the answers God and we ask that You would do it only You do when You step into a room.

Hello, my DAB family this is Melissa. My husband and children and I have been listening to the DAB for seven years now. I have never called in but have often prayed over the many requests. What a gift to realize the family of God we are in. We come to you now in desperate need of prayer support from our brothers and sisters. My husband is being wrongfully accused of molesting a relative many years ago. The accusation is based on a lie and we don’t know why they would accuse him of this. What is being claimed would put him in prison. We need your prayers to be rescued from these accusations, that the Chargers would be job and they would be complete healing in his family. We feel this is a spiritual attack and know the battle is the Lord’s. We seek to glorify the Lord in our thoughts and actions in the midst of this trial. Please pray with us. Thank you.

Good morning family audio Bible I am calling out of desperation. The Lord calls me Raised. I am being bullied at my job. For a long time, I’ve just been waiting and praying and fasting and asking the Lord what…how that I can make better but it’s just getting worse. I work with special needs children and I love my job and I love my children __ an unhealthy situation and job. Would you please pray for me? I’m being attacked at every side and I just need your prayers.

Hello, my DAB family it’s Friday __ the 17^th. I called today to ask you all to pray for my family, my granddaughter. My granddaughter tested positive for the virus. Now I can’t go home on the weekends. I have to stay in this truck until she’s clear. If I go around her or if I’ve even been exposed, I don’t have any symptoms. I really fear that if I do get it I don’t believe…I don’t think I would come through the miracle due to the fact that I spent 15 years in the oil field around silica sand and breathing in that dust. So, I know I’ve got damaged my lungs, silicosis. There’s nothing that can be done about that. I don’t have a spleen. I’m scared. I’m scared for my family. I’m scared for having to it in this truck for God knows how long. Just ask you all to pray for us. And I keep you all in my prayers each and every one of you daily. Have a blessed day and thank you very much. This is Terry the trucker.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is All the Treasures from Wyoming with another urgent prayer request. We have a newborn baby named Breklin who was born the cord around her neck and she also aspirated amniotic fluid and then she started having seizures. She was airlifted to Denver for stabilization and we are asking for prayers for her to heal completely and that with there would be no deficits from the seizures or from the cord being wrapped around her neck and that her body would her lungs would clear out the amniotic fluid. Thank you all so much for praying. I’ll keep you updated.

Isaiah 30:12-33:9, Galatians 5:1-12, Psalms 63:1-11, Proverbs 23:22

Today is the 19^th day of September Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you as we bring to a close another one of our weeks together and what a week it is been, so much for us to ponder and consider. So much, so good…like so good the territory that we’re moving through right now. And, so, let’s dive in and…and close out our week together. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Isaiah chapter 30 verse 12 through 33 verse 9.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another week. And, yeah, every single week we get to the same point and we essentially say the same thing, we mark the time, we thank You for Your faithfulness, we thank You for all that Your speaking into our lives through the Scriptures, all of the many complexions, all of the different facets, this beautiful gift that You have given to us to pour over and to meditate upon and to drink deeply from because it points us to You. And may we, as Paul is saying, press through in faith knowing that You are our Father and that You are good and that You love us and that You are present. And, so, as we release this week and seal it and it becomes a part of our story, a part of the past, a part of our history, we’re here and we’re here now and we recognize Your faithfulness because we wouldn’t be here now if You hadn’t loved us first. And, so, with assurance we look into the future knowing that You are there and when we arrive You will be there. You are faithful even when we are not, and that is remarkable, unspeakably good news. But we don’t want that to be our story, the story of a faithful God and our unfaithful heart. Draw us deeper Holy Spirit, that we may never look to the right or to the left, that we might look only where You are going. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, it is…yeah…where you find out what’s going on around here.

It’s where the Prayer Wall lives, it’s where the Shop is with resources for the journey through the Bible in a year in community. And that’s what we’re doing here. And, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if…if the community that we were just talking about, if that’s good for your life, if that’s light in your life, if that’s good news in your life, if the Bible in community like this is…is…well…is working for you than thank you for your partnership, we’re in this together. And this doesn’t exist if we don’t stay in this together. And, so, thank you for your partnership. There’s 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, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you’ve a prayer request or encouragement 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 and Praise:

Hey everybody this is Abigail from Oregon again. I called in about a month ago with regards to losing my baby and just were asking for prayer for that and I and I think you so much everyone who’s prayed for me. It’s weird because I never even heard my own recording and yet I heard people praying for me. It’s crazy and I’m so thankful for that. So, we’re doing a lot better. Unfortunately, we’ve evacuated due to the fires now. My family home is in grave danger. There’s a fire that’s less than half a mile away from our home and church where we’ve spent…my dad’s spent 50 years pastoring. And, so, we’re all evacuated to a local camp and we’re doing well as far as morale but of course it’s super, super scary in thinking about our home and our church and I know that we are one of millions right now that are facing the same exact fears. And so just be praying for all of us. I’m sure that many have already been praying for Oregon and Washington and California but here’s just another personal account of people who are in the midst of the fire right now, literally and figuratively. And, so, yeah….and also be praying for my husband. He is finally looking towards getting grief counseling for himself with regards to losing our baby and this is a huge deal because he’s had a lot of trauma in his past and this is just kind of the last final straw. He’s finally seeking help and it’s a huge answer to prayer from me and a lot of other people that have been praying for him for years to get help. And now he is looking towards it, but he is not made the call yet. So, yeah, anyways, just praises and prayer requests at the same time. Thank you all and we hope to update you soon with the progress on the fires are here in Oregon. Again, this is Abigail from Oregon calling with prayer with regards to this slater fire in southern Oregon.

Hey, DABbers it is the 15^th of the month, this is your girl here Val in Vegas just want to give a shout out to everybody. I really love and care about you guys so much. To be honest todays been a tough day, just world and, I don’t know, I’m feeling some kind of guilt about being okay and so many people not being okay. And I don’t know…I just…my frequencies just not as high as I like it to be today but I just wanted to call on the 15^th like I said I was going to do this year, stay loyal and faithful to it. You guys mean the world to me and I tell you, I don’t know where I would be without this community, without the prayers and praise reports, and just the fellowship. I love you guys. I care about you so much and I’ll see you next month.

Hey the DABbers this is Joe I called in a couple of weeks ago and my…my wife and my daughter and my son, you know, stopped wanting to go to church with me and I’m the only one going and I’m just kind of ousted. But I just wanted to give a shout out and I’m so encouraged from Joe the Protector from Georgia. Man, I’m praying for you. You’re like…there is somebody out there that has the same thing. How great God is that He brings us together. Whoa…hold me to get the Lord. O I gotta get through this. Susan from Canada, wow, thank you for your prayer. Whoa…I need more of you. I need more of that. O and I know I can feel it, the Lord is moving in so many different ways I don’t have enough time to tell you everything that’s happening. The encouragement, I can see it…it’s like…O…I’m so excited I can’t hold myself down. And also, Tammy from Texas, I’m praising God that your husband got that job and I’m so sorry that it’s far away. But I’ve been out in the field too and I know my wife and my family have been alone too but I’m back home now. But I’m praying for your you and your colon cancer and that would…would disappear and I pray the Holy Spirit would encourage you too. Your…your testimony just made me smile and tear up and laugh in great encouragement from the Holy Spirit. And you…you just I…I…I love how there are so many that are so…I can see the vision, I can see the future and hold onto the Lord. I praise God for all of you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible this is Duane from Wisconsin all praise and glory to our wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today is September 15^th and I’m calling in with a…a praise report. I talked to my son Nicholas who is in jail. He will be getting out shortly and seems to have been watching a pastor, I forget the name, while he’s been in jail and just listening to…to the word of God and spending some time in that. So, I encouraged him when he gets out to find a local church and just find a pastor and talk with him. You know, let him know, say hi, you know, a pastor might help direct him in the direction he needs to go. So, let’s lift that up and continue praying for him. I want to thank all of you that have prayed for all my children. What a blessing it is, this community we have, and I thank you all for such a great kind and uplifting words for all of us. So…and continue to lift up his girlfriend Carma. She’s due October 1^st so that’s coming up. Pray everything is going well. So far it is, she delivers a healthy baby. And my stepdaughter Jackie, she’s __ to have a C-section here pretty soon. So, we’ll have grandchild number seven coming so that’s exciting. Thank you all for lifting them up. And just want to thank Brian and Jill and your family and all those behind the scenes for doing such a wonderful job and we have this community and can lift each other up in times of need and make each other laugh at times as well. So, again thank you all. God bless you all. Stay safe and remember that the God that has saved us is the same God that can save all of our children.

Hi family this is Biola from Maryland I hope you’re all doing well. Brian and Jill God bless you God bless your ministry. You know family as I was listening to all the prayer requests and some praise reports my heart was overwhelmed. And the Lord reminded me of Isaiah 65:24 that says that before you call, I will answer. And while you’re yet speaking, I will hear and also Ephesians 3:20 it says that He is the God that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we may ask or even think. So, He knows it all. And when we’re praying the Lord is listening. He’s so faithful and He answers. First of all, I want to pray for Lenny. Lenny I’m so sorry for your loss. Your daughter-in-law passed away from COVID recently and for Joe’s loss, I pray that the Lord will strengthen all of you, He will give…give Joe peace, He will give the children Alex and Lily peace and He will give you wisdom to know how to navigate this. You know, I pray that He will comfort you in your grief in the name of Jesus. And I am thankful Prodigal. Look at you Prodigal. I am thankful that God is turning your son’s life around. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord for that. Brother Joe, I heard your prayer request. You see God that has a God that has a heart for prodigals. He’s the God of the prodigal son. He’s the one that told the story of the lost coin. He’s the one that told the story of the lost sheep and I pray that God will bring your wife and your daughter back in the name of Jesus, that He will fan the flames back into the hearts and they will come to know the Lord. Brother you just keep holding on, keep trusting God, keep praying for them, keep being the believer that you are, and the Lord is doing something. He’s working right in them in the name of Jesus. And I’m praying for every single person in the family who has lost loved ones to this COVID or to any other thing and who has cancer or anything. I pray that the Lord will touch you all and comfort…

Hello Daily Audio Bible family I am a new listener and a first-time caller. I want to thank you for the blessing of this ministry, for every person who is dedicated in prayer and who listens and who blesses me every single day. Thank you, Brian and Jill and China and Ben for all you’re doing. This is the Openhearted Overcomer, that’s the name I am going to use. I’m located in Michigan. I want to pray for all of us right now that, whatever we are trying to overcome the Lord will allow us in the name of Jesus to overcome. We are all overcomers and we can do it in the name of Jesus. I pray Father that each person who seems to have an insurmountable obstacle that is listening within the sound of my voice today will be able to summon the strength that only your Holy Spirit can provide in the process of overcoming. I pray for each and every one of us because we truly are all overcomers in this life. You have overcome the world Lord and we will overcome it as well. Thank you again for this wonderful ministry. It has blessed my life since January the 1^st and I plan to listen every day until I close my eyes for the last time. I love all of you and I pray that we will all continue to overcome in the name of Jesus.

Isaiah 28:14-30:11, Galatians 3:23-4:31, Psalms 62:1-12, Proverbs 23:19-21

Today is the 18^th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian is good to be here with you today. We’re here for the same thing that we come here for every day, to take the next step forward on our adventure through the Scriptures and do it together in community. And, so, here we are, let’s go, buckle up. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week and continuing our journey through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament today. Isaiah 28 verse 14 through 30 verse 11.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’ve spent a lot of our time this week talking about the letter to the Galatians and trying to put ourselves in the position of those hearing Paul, trying to explore from their viewpoint, their perspective, the culture they were in, how this message was treated, how it was heard, how it was interpreted, how and why Paul seemed to be so controversial, controversial enough that people wanted to assassinate him, which is pretty controversial. So, we’ve looked at it from some different angles, like cultural Jew / Gentile angles - how Jewish people would’ve looked at Gentile people, especially Roman people, as their oppressors and how there’s like all of that baggage involved in trying to find some sort of unity. And maybe the Romans being citizens, having more privileges and rights than Jewish people, you know, kind of coming into a mixed community with a level of arrogance. Like all of these things play into the world of the first century in Palestine or the province of Syria. We’ve also looked theologically, like religiously at why Hebrew people would be so confused. Because what Paul is saying is good news but gosh, the things that have to be set aside to get there will be to fly in the face of religious and cultural tradition. And of course, we’ve also talked about how the Greek speaking Roman citizens of the time who worshiped a pantheon of gods and didn’t really have any kind of separation. God’s were everywhere, involved in everything, would look at what Paul’s saying…well…just as Paul put it, nonsense. We’ve looked at these things and we’ll continue to look at these things, but we get to this point in…in the letter to the Galatian, and nearly every year I’m struck by it and nearly every year I talk about it because it gives us the chance to bring the tension and disruption really, really close, like so close that some of the things I’m about to tell you are probably gonna be disruptive, things that are like, “O my gosh, I had not thought about it like that before. That is…that is mind bending stuff. Like I have to think that through.” So, I’m gonna quote Paul here. “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So, then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.” Okay, we can listen to that and go, “yup…that’s what I believe. That I’m free from…Christ has come and set me free and now I’m free.” Here’s where it’s about to get disruptive. When Paul says law, he is referring to Mosaic law, he was referring to Torah. There was no New Testament at this time at all…at all. There was nothing called the New Testament at this time. It’s essentially Paul’s ministry and writings that reveal this concept of a new covenant inaugurated by Jesus, a new thing happening in the world. So, the only thing that would have been known as Scripture or Bible, of course Bible is a more recent word, but Scripture, Torah. The only thing that would have been known as the revealed word of God at this time would have been the law. So, to understand the tension that they were dealing with and accepting what Paul is saying, it’s easy enough for us to take these three verses that I just quoted…four verses that I just quoted and replace “law” with “Bible”, and then all of a sudden all of the tension that they would’ve been feeling. And hearing Paul becomes our own tension. So, let me read this again. “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the Bible”, right? So, what Paul’s saying is “under the law”, which is Torah, which is the Scriptures that had been revealed. “We were held captive under the Bible, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So, then the Bible was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith,” right? That is disruptive stuff, which puts us squarely in the position of kind of being a religious person hearing what Paul is saying as he unpacks the Good News. But it’s hard to…hard to get that concept that God is doing something new and that new thing is fulfilling the old thing and now by faith we are out into the great wild frontier to find out and flesh out this new thing without a guardian. And do we not for the most part look at the Bible as…as that fall back, as that baseline, as the thing that we go back to and say, “okay. Contrary to this is a “no”. Encouraged by this is a “yes”. This is the Bible. These are the Scriptures. This is the word of God. So, if somebody comes along and says that has been fulfilled and God is doing something new well then you see, you gotta leap, you gotta stretch. So, to try to actually enter in now then to what Paul is saying, we then to try to apply it properly and understand the concept and wrestle with the idea, have to then look at the Bible and say, “what is exactly is this? What…what exactly is my relationship or my posture toward this…this book, this a series of documents that is contained in this holy book?” Most of us would say, “this is the revealed word of God. These are the stories and examples of people who lived before God. This…these are the roads and pathways where lives can go. This gives us wisdom. This is something that is a revelation.” And we probably would most mostly agree with that. That’s…that’s what we all think. That’s what I think. But if we obey everything that’s in the Bible. In fact, let’s just say the old…le4t’s just say that Paul’s right as we believe as Christians and say, “the old covenant, we need the old covenant, we need a read it, we need to understand it because there’s no way to understand the New Testament without a Hebrew context. Like the don't…they’re not separate from each other. So, let’s say the old covenant is fulfilled and the new covenant that this is…this is what we’re dealing with now. And let’s just say the New Testament. If we can obey everything that’s in the New Testament, would following those rules make us righteous before God? Right? Because we’re living into this and trying to live up to it and trying to live into it and so often there this subtle idea than, the more…the better we can do it the closer that we’ll be to God, the more righteous we’ll become, the more God will pay attention to us and, boom, we are just doing the same thing that Paul is saying you’re free from. So, let me just pick up where we left off as I was quoting from…from Galatians, quoting Paul. I continue. “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” That’s pretty big stuff. The unity that Paul is claiming that God is doing in the world through Jesus, this new thing that’s happening in the world, this essentially new species of human being upon the planet of which Jesus is the firstborn, in that way of looking in that kingdom there’s no slave or free, there’s no male or female, there’s no Jew or Greek, which is essentially Jew or Gentile. We are all one in Christ Jesus. That’s the revealed word of God in the New Testament. Why do we not live into that? Why do we not live that way even if we agree with it? Because the words, just the words, the sentences, versus, they don’t do anything. They’re words, they’re sentences that have to be activated. Like we have to understand those words and by faith believe in that reality. So, the versus, the words in between the two covers of the Bible, they’re just words until we live them, until we believe in their reality, until we reach in faith believing that it’s true. And that’s kind of what Paul has been saying throughout all of what we’ve read in his letters so far. It’s not the rules. You might need the rules as some sort of de facto baseline to know how well you’re doing because we don’t do well with mystery, but the rules aren’t gonna save you anymore than the Bible can save you. The Bible…and listen, the…the Bible is my life. I love the Bible. The Bible…the…the Bible, like, pick up your Bible and carry it around. Like if you have…it doesn’t matter if you have a giant large print Bible that you’re carrying it around in a backpack or a little mini New Testament that you carry around in your purse. It’s wonderful that we do that but it’s not gonna be some sort of magic force field that’s gonna keep bad things from happening to us because we have a book that we’re carrying around. That book leads us to the revelation of God’s love for us and the lengths that He’s been willing to go to in order to get our attention that we might be restored to Him. But just carrying around a Bible doesn’t do anything. We have to live into what it says. And the main thing that we have to understand is the Bible’s revealing God. God is behind the Bible. If we don’t press through to God by faith, then we haven’t gone anywhere. We just read a book which is the same way a relationship with God works. Understanding everything that we can possibly know, and I mean there so…there’s been so much scholarship done on the theology of the Bible that…that there are…there is no end to the literature that can be read and studied over millennia of what people thought. So, it’s impossible to absorb all that, in one brain, in one lifetime. But even if we could, even if we knew everything that everybody ever thought about God than that’s all we know is everything that everybody thought about God. Do we know God? Does God know us? This is the experience that Paul is preaching. He’s chosen that although he is religiously educated and has done everything to live up to what he believed would make him righteous before God, he has found that he cannot get there on his own. He cannot behave well enough to become righteous before God. But God came to him and Jesus revealed Himself to Him and he experienced God and that changed his life. And that’s why he’s saying the things that he’s saying. He’s saying the path that you are on has lost its plot and it will not take you where you think you are going. You are going to have to reach out in faith to get there, which means you are reaching into the dark to get there and you are not always gonna know that you’re getting there. Just like the early church, right? Just like the arguments and confusion that they were experiencing. It’s reaching out and allowing our faith to be perfected as we go in fits and starts. And it’s okay because we can fall back into that pillow of grace we were talking about yesterday knowing that the transformation that’s happening within us is not something we can do. It’s something God is doing in us by faith. So, that is a heck of a lot to take into our weekend and consider and ponder. And it’s good. It’s good that we can encounter things in the Scriptures that are disruptive enough to make us go, “wait a second. I need to spend a little more time pondering, meditating, praying, seeking God. And, so, may we do that.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for the opportunity to reach to You by faith knowing that You are there, that You have reviewed Yourself to us so many times, that You continually are revealing Yourself to the world. We can’t look anywhere without seeing Your fingerprints. And, so, give us eyes to see and ears to hear that we have to reach for You through faith. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, it’s how you stay tuned and stay connected in any way that you…that you can.

So as…I mean…we mention these things often because they are important. The Prayer Wall is in the Community section and the Prayer Wall is a place that if you need prayer then you can go and just let go and people will pray for you. Or maybe you’re just overwhelmed with life and it’s become very, very self…self-focused because of all the stuff that’s going on. Like, turning outward changes the atmosphere, the way we look at things to realize that we’re not the only one going through stuff. Like, everybody is going through…like we are all going through stuff. And, so, to just reach out in prayer makes a difference, makes us feel connected, makes us become more and more aware that we aren’t alone and we’re not the only one. So, be sure to check out the Prayer Wall.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the main homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174. I cannot think you enough for your partnership other than to just say the truth, like we wouldn’t be here, none of us, this wouldn’t be happening if we hadn’t done this together over the years. And, so, thank you for your partnership.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement outside of the Prayer Wall which we just talked about, you…there’s also a Hotline button in the app at the top, you can’t miss it. It’s a way to reach out 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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DABbers this is Shielded in Colorado. My heart goes out to Stephanie and the family in Oregon who lost their sons. I’m praying for all the people who have lost children. It is probably the hardest thing you will ever go through in your life. I lost my son four years ago and it’s been a journey. One thing I have learned is that you have to wade through it and experience it. You can’t run away from it. No matter where you go or what happens it’s just there. I want you all to know that I’ll be praying for you and all the other people who have lost children. It’s a special kind of grief and it’s…it can be hard. But my thoughts and prayers are with you. Love you all. Amen.

Hi everyone this is All the Treasures from Wyoming and I heard a prayer request for Vincent who has been hearing voices and I just wanted to lift up anyone in the community who is dealing with mental illness or who has family members who are dealing with mental illness and I wanted to pray some of Psalm 91 over Vincent and all the others who may be dealing with this. Vincent and all of the family who deals with mental illness, you dwell in the shelter of the most-high and you will abide in the shadow of the Almighty and you will say to the Lord, Lord you are my refuge and my fortress and it’s in you who I trust. For the Lord will deliver you from the snare of the fallow, from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions and under His wings you will find refuge because His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night or the arrow that flies by day nor the pestilence that stocks in the darkness nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand but it’s not gonna come near you because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the most-high who is your refuge. No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Lord God thank you so much for your word of truth. Thank you, Father for the privilege and the honor to stand in the gap for those who are suffering. God bless you DAB family.

Good morning everyone it’s Susan from Canada God’s Yellow Flower and I just want to pray for our brother in India who is suffering from brain atrophy. And I don’t know the cause of it all, but it must be very distressing. So, dear heavenly Father we just come before Your holy throne and we ask a healing upon our brother dear Lord that his brain and its function would be restored to normal even better than normal because You are such a powerful and holy God that we know that You can do miraculous things, things that seem impossible to us. So, we pray dear God a full recovery from this, this condition he has. And that Lord God You would bless him mightily to the power of Your holy and. Bless his family, bless his home dear God and fill his home the power of Your Holy Spirit that no evil could come in and You would just watch over each and every one of his family and draw them all into closer step with you. Dear God, just bless him in all ways and bring healing within his whole body. In Jesus’ precious and holy and wonderful name we pray. Thank You for Your love father. Amen.

Hey, DABbers this is Keira from Denver and I would like prayer for my son Nish. He’s homeless, he’s in another city for me, Albuquerque. It was about four years ago that I kicked him out. It was just me and him living in my place and he was still using, and I had just quit meth. And, so, I kicked them out of tough love, and I thought he would go to a friends or something I guess. Well, he ended up literally walking from Denver to my mother’s place which is deep in the mountains. And long story short, I had gone and visited him a year ago and the year before that and he offered to…I offered to help him to come back and he said he was good. He’s living so austerely. He has nothing and when he gets some items, I was told that the police take it away and then it builds back up. He lives in tunnels and eats garbage and somehow, he gets drugs. But, you know, obviously there’s real mental issues there. And I really miss him. He’s a sweet soul. I really wish him to find Jesus. When I kicked them out, I didn’t know Jesus, but I do now and I have told him. So, at least there’s a seed there. But I am asking the Holy Spirit. Guys please pray for me for strength and wisdom. I’m asking the Holy Spirit what I should do next. I really need to go and see him and find him. Please pray for me for strength guys. I really need it.

Hi this is Cecelia from Texas and I keep telling myself I’m gonna call more and more often and I don’t but I do pray in agreement and even in addition to the prayers that I hear at the end of the podcast and the community prayers, although I’m behind the community prayers. But I’m determined. I think God’s timing is perfect and that the prayers will go forth and produce. But today I heard Stephanie, God’s Chic and I…I’m a nurse as well and she told about her loss…losses and I can see the temptation to just not feel with that sorrow, that pain. And, so, am asking for God to put salt on her hurts, to bolster her up Jesus, to comfort, to be the lifter of her head Father God, that you would put a ram rod, steal, God infused, support system on her back Lord God. I love you Father and I know that You are faithful in Jesus’ name.

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible brothers and sisters it’s September 15^th this is Sunset Cindy in Washington state where we are experiencing raging fires and heavy, heavy smoke. I’m looking out my window and can’t see even a couple yards past my yard but that’s not the reason I’m calling in. I’m not calling in for my situation, I’m just calling in to welcome Kelsey to the family. She called in to give a report about the family in Eastern Washington who experienced the fire in the worst possible way by losing their little one-year-old son Arielle and they are both critically burned in the hospital and Jamie the mama is pregnant. So, I’m just praying, Lord Jesus please lift this family up and protect them and give them comfort and bring them the support they need. And I would like to pray Psalm 147:3 over this family. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. And, so, I just pray that He lifts up that family, the Highland family, and all of the people that are affected by this fire. Keep everyone safe. Keep the first responders safe Lord Jesus. And we pray your comfort and peace for all those that are experiencing loss. Thank you, family that there’s a place we can come. Thank you, Brian and his family that they have provided this resource for us all to come together around the world and pray for those that are in distress and need comfort in Jesus’ name Amen.

Isaiah 25:1-28:13, Galatians 3:10-22, Psalms 61:1-8, Proverbs 23:17-18

Today is September 17^th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today just like it is great to be here with you any day. It is a great to be alive upon the earth no matter how crazy things get upon the earth. The life breath of our Father is within us. We are here. Our ears are open, and we invite the Holy Spirit to speak through the word of God as we do every day. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Isaiah chapter 25 verse 1 through 28 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Galatians, the letter to the Galatians from what we read today we…we arrive at justification by faith. And that’s a theological term for sure. And…I mean…you know our eyes can glaze over with theological concepts easy enough. I like them…I love them actually, but it’s easy enough to…that it becomes cliché - justification through faith. But what is the essence here? And…and we’ve been talking about how Paul was controversial and we’ve even been kind of putting ourselves in the position of his hearers to understand like how complex and how difficult it would’ve been for them to embrace what Paul is saying and why they thought he was a heretic, but we should understand that this could not have been an easy road for Paul. We met Paul when his name was Saul and when we met him he was persecuting people who believed in Jesus trying to stamp this message out, even being present at the first…the first recorded martyrdom, that of Stephen, where Saul’s there holding everybody’s cloak while they’re killing, like throwing rocks at Stephen until he dies, which cannot be a good way to go. Paulk’s on his way to Damascus to continue the same, right, when he meet…when he meets Jesus. And, so, you can only imagine like the complete rewiring of a whole system that you have given your life to, the just…the complete disruption of it all for Paul so that he has to go and just really examine what it is he believes as it’s being revealed by Jesus. And, so, we can see why Paul would start at the beginning with Abraham and move forward. And we can see why things would start to click for Paul, once he does that because he begins to realize there isn’t any action, there isn’t any kind of obedience to a certain rule or set of rituals that is gonna make us righteous before God. Maybe if somebody could actually live into those things, maybe God is saying, “okay, if you can do all this then you can be righteous, but nobody can, nobody could. So, that can’t be the endgame.” So, Paul goes back to the beginning of the story, he goes back to Abraham, he finds out Abraham believed and that belief, that faith in God and what God had said, that trust in the experience that he had had, that this was real and wasn’t gonna be stolen from him, that God had spoken to him, and he believed it, that was counted to him as righteousness. And righteousness was Paul’s goal. That’s why he was such a strict Pharisee. That’s what they were trying to do, obey the law and be made righteous before God ultimately. So, Paul’s like, “hang on”, basically, “hang on. Abraham didn’t have a law to obey and he still was made righteous before God.” In fact, and as we read in our reading today, “the law didn’t come for 430 more years. So, what about all those people? Like were they able to be made righteous through faith in God? Because that was the only way. There was no rituals, there was no system of organization…organizing the people around something. They believed and were made righteous. This is the origin of justification by faith.” And, so, then, having that laid out, having that perspective unpacked, then Paul says, and I quote him, “is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” It’s back to his original, his…his constant argument. The law shows you that you are impossibly separated from God and dying that way unless you can achieve it, like unless you can live a perfectly. But you can’t and Abraham didn’t either. He believed. He believed. He trusted God. And, so, for Paul, he’s like “that’s all we have to do here. Like, that’s the long and short of it. We have to believe and allow that belief to transform us because we are experiencing the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is transforming us from within and leading us forward into life.” I mean we could just…you know…put an exclamation point there or whatever, and just go, “there, that’s the story, like that’s what he’s saying”, because that is what he’s saying. We just have to acknowledge based on all of the back story that we have…that we’ve entered into is that, as good of news as this was it was like too good, right? Like too good, too simple. Like “really, that’s it. I believe and then I die, and I’m resurrected, and I relax. I…I…I fall into the soft pillow of grace and I am then enveloped by the arms of the one that I can now call Father, Abba, God, the God that I’m so afraid of, that I’m following all of the rituals to try to…to try to stay on His good side. The hoops that I’m jumping through, the levers that I’m pulling, the recipes that I’m building, the stew of my life that I’m trying…trying to whip up, all of that’s not gonna get me there, like that doesn’t do anything? All I have to do is believe and let God transform me?” That is good news friends. That is the good news. And it was difficult good news for many to embrace. And then we gotta look in the mirror. What recipes are we making? What rituals are we following? What hoops are we jumping through? What levers are we trying to pull to get the same thing to get the attention of God and try to stay on His good side when it’s all done? All we have to do is believe and fall back into it, ease back into it. Yes, yes, we have to fight the flesh. Yes, we have to live into sanctification. Yes, it requires a lot of things, primarily endurance, but we’re not in this alone, we’re not navigating alone. It’s done. Our Father loves us enough to…enough to be so intimate with us that He dwells inside of us. He is within us. It is His work of sanctification. It is His work of conversion. It is His work of restoration and renewal. It’s not our work. We keep trying…we keep trying to be made righteous. We can’t. We can’t be made righteous. We can believe and become righteous because of the gift of God that is constantly at work within us. May we live into this good news. May this good news accelerate inside of us the transformation happening, moment by moment, day by day step by step as we continue our journey through life with our Father.

Prayer:

Father You are so good. When we understand this, You are so good. And, so, much that You have made available to us through faith we’re still trying to earn and we’re still feeling guilty every single step of the way because we can’t earn it. When You have to find moments of exasperation, I suppose You don’t, Your God, but You have to have these moments where it’s, “like my darling, my son, my daughter, my precious one, You don’t have to do this, it’s done. Let’s enjoy being together. Let’s enjoy life together. And as You live into this and it transforms You then You will be doing what You’re supposed to be doing. You will be shining brighter than You can possibly know.” Help us live into this. Come Holy Spirit, well up from within us. Help us to live this today. We ask in the name of the risen Christ. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is…is home, it’s where the Global Campfire, it’s where a virtual community like ours can get connected. And, so, check it out.

There are several sections if you haven’t ever been. Check out the Community section. It’s how to get connected. It’s where the Prayer Wall is. Check out the Initiatives. This is some of the things that are going on that are featured. Check out the Shop. Resources are available there specifically for the journey that we’re taking together. So, be aware and check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at the website as well, or in the app and just press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, we’re a community of prayer and we love each other well by praying for each other and caring for each other. If you have prayer request, if you’re carrying the burdens that you’re trying to shoulder, they just happen to be crushing you, maybe you don’t have to do that completely by yourself. Maybe just calling in, just letting…just releasing it, just saying it out loud and releasing it and knowing that no matter what happens thousands and thousands of people are going to pray for you. That makes a difference, a pretty profound difference. So, you can always reach out. There is a hotline built right into the app that no matter where we are on this big blue planet, as long as there’s an Internet tower somewhere, we have a hotline. We can reach out. So, be aware of that. That’s in the app 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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi everybody it’s Carla Jean from Promp Nevada I’m calling with praise report. Many of you remember that last year I was divorced from my husband of 25 years and at the beginning of this year I lost my job and I was homeless and he allowed me to stay in his guestroom and we rekindled our relationship and on Friday, September 11^th on what would’ve been our 27^th wedding anniversary we were remarried. I know that many of you had prayed and I’m just so thankful for this community. And today on the 13^th Brian read from second Corinthians 13:11, “rejoice, strive for full restoration. Encourage one another. Be of one mind. Live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you.” Thank you, my brothers and sisters for encouraging me, for being of one mind, and for living a life of peace. Please know that I pray for all of you every single day. I love you and I’m just rejoicing. God bless. Bye.

Hi this is Paul from Wales my DABber name is Why I Follow Jesus 365 which I run on Facebook but today I was out on mission again. I’m just grateful for the way that following the DAB has absolutely changed my life over the last five years. And saw another two people saved this morning. That’s either the 28 or 29. Got three people in the message book waiting to discuss Jesus. Be praying for them for a while. And just want to give a praise report. God’s at work. It’s fantastic. It’s going brilliant and none of this would’ve happened if I hadn’t started with DAB. And it’s just changed my life to walk the walk and be encouraged. That’s were called to do. And as much as giving mission and telling people God loves you and has a perfect plan for your life it really is about us learning to be obedient. And until we do as He tells us people won’t be saved and it’s just hopefully an encouragement for somebody no matter the difficulties in the challenges. And the other fantastic thing is I learned this week to really follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance in my personal life over things like buying cars. And none of that what I even have attempted to consider before DAB. So, thank you bless you take care stay safe in America, terrible what I’m seeing on the news. You’re in my prayers. Take care.

[Singing starts] dear God please help all the people that are in the fire. Please help them to be safe and not to get hurt. Please help them to know that you’re with them. Dear Lord, we love you so much. Dear Lord, we love you. You’re in our heart. We’re in yours too. Please help other people to learn about you [singing stop’s]. Thank you.

Hi, DABbers this is Kari from California I am also a longtime listener in the first-time caller. Today is Monday the 14^th I was just listening to the prayers and Sue’s from California I heard your prayer and just wanted to call and thank you for calling in for the first time to ask for prayer for your family. I was so touched by your message and will be praying for you and your family but also just encouraged by the faith that all of you have as you’re in the midst of all these challenges and a lot of unknown. You are standing strong in your faith and your encouragement has encouraged me and will encourage others. So, Lord we just lift up Sue’s and her family Lord. We lift up her husband who’s on hospice now and we just ask for Your intervention Lord. Be with the family as they walk through this time with him. Lord lift up Sue’s and ask that You would just take this depression away Lord, that You would flood her with Your peace and encourage her for her daughter and this cancer Lord. We ask for a miraculous healing. We rebuke this in Your name Father, and we claim healing for her daughter that she wouldn’t even have to start this chemo in October. And for her son, whatever is going on there that he’s not ready to share Lord that we also ask for healing for him. We ask for healing for Sue’s colon and we just ask Your grace and peace and mercy on this family. DABbers I love you all. Thank you for this community. Have a blessed day.

Hi, good morning this is Jeanette from Denmark. I’d really appreciate some prayer. I have recently had a virus and my body’s been trying to get back to normal after it. And I take some medicine to help keep my immune system up and when that is playing together with an infection it usually means I don’t sleep very well. I want to share what the Lord comforted me with last night while praying, that, yes, He is our God who sees us but He’s not a human being like people who only can look. He’s our shepherd who sees us through everything. When Abraham’s son Ishmael was together with his mother, the Egyptian slave in the desert, God didn’t just let them go. He sent an angel to provide water and encouragement. And our God is the very best shepherd we have. He’s more powerful than everything that is around us, no matter what it is. I love you guys over in the states. I am…I’m praying for you guys during the election season. Remember to guard the door of your heart. Be careful what goes in your eyes and your ears and have peace. The Lord sees you. The Lord knows you and He loves you.

Hi, Brian hi DABbers this is Emily in Seattle. I haven’t called in a while. I just wanted to let you know that things are good. Things are really good. I’m still dealing with my vision loss and that isn’t fun but everything else in our life can be summarized in one word, grace. The grace is abounding more and more in these last days and I pray you guys feel His grace as much as I do and are experiencing His grace even through all the hardships that we’re going through in these last days of COVID and everything happening in the world. And I just wanted to let you know that I love you all very, very much. God bless you guys so, so much. Keep listening to the DAB. Keep out there with your faith. Keep the faith going. You got this. I love you all. Bye.

Isaiah 22:1-24:23, Galatians 2:17-3:9, Psalms 60:1-12, Proverbs 23:15-16

Today is the 16^th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we cross the center of the week together, hump day, and…and move to the back half, but we’re in the middle of the week. And…well…I guess we’re not quite in the middle of the book of Isaiah yet but we’re well on our way. We’re reading from the English standard version this week. Isaiah chapters 22, 23, and 24 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in Galatians today, again we’re exploring some of the foundational understandings theologically of our faith itself and again we encountered one of the most famous passages in the Scriptures “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.” And we should probably understand the context that was said in because…because it’s foundational to the Christian faith. And the reason that he said it, the context of it is why Paul was so controversial in his time. And admittedly, some of these concepts, they…they might sound somewhat familiar because it wasn’t too long ago that we read the letter to the Romans. And, so, a lot of this is laid out in Romans and we’re revisiting it here in another letter. This is the gospel that Paul moved around the Roman Empire preaching. So, fundamentally the problem and I say that loosely…I say that in the context of what we’re talking about. The problem was the Mosaic law, really a battle for its validity because Paul is coming against the Mosaic law, setting it aside as he believed had been revealed by Jesus. And I should probably clarify that. Not so much setting it aside, like it’s existence but setting aside its relationship to people, people who believe in Jesus. Paul’s argument was that that law was a vehicle to expose failure, to show sin. You break the law, you transgress against the law, you become aware that you have failed. And nobody, no matter how they tried, could ever succeed. They could never stop transgressing the law. So, no one would ever find their way into a righteous life before God. So, for Paul, the only way to escape it, as he explained in other letters, is to die to it, right? If your dead, then no human law that applies to alive human beings applies to you anymore. Your dead. And you remember the example that he used about marriage. Like if a person…if a woman is married and her husband dies then she’s not bound to that covenant anymore, she’s free because her husband has passed away. He’s gone now. So, for Paul, you die to the law so that you can then live for God. You release everything that you were without Christ and you surrender to His authority in your life, you believe upon Him and are resurrected into a new life that has died to those rules and regulations. Admittedly, that is a bit of a reach. Like that is a bit of a problem for a person hearing it who had been raised in this culture because the law, the Torah…I mean…you are essentially…you are essentially kind of saying like “I’m dying to the Scripture. Like I’m dying to this law that we know of as revealed by God. I’m dying to that so that I can live for God.” You can kind of see the disconnect here. And, so, some would claim…well…they did…they essentially pledged allegiance to kill Paul. Like he’s an apostate, this is a heretic. This is a person who has been trained religiously and has walked away from their faith. Like they need to die. Like they want him gone. I mean they thought he’s like reinterpreting the Scripture to the point that he’s amending a brand-new religion. So, we would all have to admit, that…I mean…that would be difficult…that would be a difficult path to follow if someone comes along and says, “new revelation from God has been given on the earth for Earth’s people and here’s what it is and here’s how it sets aside what had previously been engaged. Here is the way forward. Here’s what God is doing now.” But then we’d also have to admit that that is effectively what the Savior did, the work of Christ as we believe it. As disciples of Christ it was a game changer, like a complete revolution upon the earth in the way that we understand and relate to God and how we relate to one another and where this is all going. But we would still have a pretty hard time setting aside the Bible to get there. And yet, as Paul claimed and as the New Testament claims, I mean Jesus was fundamentally executed because they considered Him to be a lawbreaker and a blasphemer, one who was making claims that only God could make, one who was revealing the way forward. Like, we believe in Jesus and so we understand that like He is reinterpreting the law because the plot of the story had been lost, the spirit of the law had been lost. And, so, there’s only the letter of the law, there’s the rules. And the rules aren’t animated by the Spirit anymore. And, so, they don’t have the weightiness, it’s just about obeying rules. This is kind of what Paul’s arguing but as we enter into and engage with this we can see like, this is difficult, this is a difficult leap. And, so, for Paul he has to go back to the origination of the Hebrew story to prove his point. And his point was, “yeah, Moses gave us the law. God revealed through Moses, but that story had been going on for centuries before Moses was ever born and it started with Abraham and there was no Torah for Abraham to obey. There was no Torah for him to read. There was no Bible as we know it at all. So, God revealed himself to Abraham and the story began and then it continued on all the way until the time of Christ and all kinds of things had developed around it, a whole system of life had developed around it. And then Jesus comes and reinterprets things, unites things and says, “this is the way to go forward.” But in order to follow Christ then, you have to die to some of the previous things and acknowledge that God is doing something new in the world.” So, you see the hurdles. And yet for Paul, the Holy Spirit was working among people, like…like there was evidence of this spiritual renewal, this…this spiritual revolution that was happening. There was evidence for this. People were following Jesus because of the movements of the Holy Spirit, this evidence that is happening. And the Holy Spirit was working among anybody who believed. It wasn’t just Hebrews. Like everybody that the Holy Spirit came upon, everyone who believed was experiencing this. And, so, Paul at some point had to look Torah and look at what he actually was experiencing and we see the Paul chose his experience over the letter of some law, some rules that he had already done everything he could possibly do to live into only to realize it was a dead-end, like he couldn’t get there, he wasn’t going to be made righteous before God. And, so, I quote Paul from our reading today, “let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain? Does He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith - just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness? So, for Paul, having re-received these revelations from Jesus, and this is what he’s teaching, and this is what he’s experiencing, and like there’s no way he’s gonna turn back from what he’s experiencing no matter who calls him crazy. And like we said yesterday, he held true to this all the way to his own death. Like he was executed for believing this. So, for Paul he had already died. Like he had already died to who he was and the fact that he still walked upon the earth was a grace of God living within him to continue the mission forward. And, so, we get to enter into this and wrestle with this and sort of see now why this is so difficult, like why what we take for granted and what we understand theologically as it was being formed was such a difficulty for people in Paul’s time.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for that. We thank You for the opportunity to look at it with eyes wide open, understanding that what Paul said is true - it's…it’s nonsense or its heresy depending on how You’re looking at or it is the absolute truth that is borne witness in our own hearts by the power of Your Holy Spirit. And, so, we thank You for this. We thank You that we have these examples that what we are experiencing in our hearts is real. And we may not be able to prove that we’re not crazy, but we’re not. We have died to who we were. We have been raised up unified in union with You, Your spirit within us, Your divine nature is something that we get to participate and partake of, and live into. And that is good news. That is the Good News. And, so, come Holy Spirit and help us to press in and live it out and be a light in the darkness, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is how you find out what’s going on around here in the community. All of the things that are at dailyaudiobible.com pretty much also are in the Daily Audio Bible app. So, check them out.

Check out the Prayer Wall. That’s in the community section where we are continually praying for…for one another. That’s one of the most beautiful things about us. Really, I mean honestly, we are…we are literally all over the map. I mean we’re all over the globe, but that’s just geographically. Like that’s just where we start. We are all over the map in all of the different stripes and flavors of our faith. Like we shouldn't…it just shouldn’t work, but we are bound together because of our determination to allow God’s word speak for itself, and our determination to be in community with each other carrying, like reaching out in spirit and in truth to our brothers and sisters all over the world and it’s a beautiful thing. So, yeah, stay connected in any way that you can. Check out the Prayer Wall. It's…it’s in the Community section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this unique mission that we have to just keep reading…to just keep going, to just step-by-step by step, day by day, month by month, year by year, keep going and allowing God’s word to speak out into this world as it kind of lands in our hearts, if that’s mattered, if that makes a difference to you then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, and if you’re not, why? You should. You should be. It’s the portal into community. But anyway, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner there, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button which is the little red button at the top in the app, you can’t miss it or there are numbers that you can dial depending on where you are in the world. In the Americas 877-942-4253. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello this is Catherine calling from Maryland. I just wanted to call after listening to the September 10^th episode today and I was struck by what Brian said at the very end, that this is a community that loves to pray for one another. This isn’t just a community that prays for one another, this is a community that loves to pray for one another. Maybe you’ve said that before Brian but it…that just struck me today that that was…really that is what is really special about this community, creating the beloved community that Jesus directed us to do by loving and caring for one another, helping each other bear burdens and rejoicing together. And I just thank you for this amazing community to hear God’s word every day but also to practice where you’re supposed to be. And then the first caller, you didn’t leave your name, but you sort of hit on all of these things too. What a way to start today and what a privilege and blessing it is to be a part of this community and to not only hear the word of God but to pray for one another and to be connected to one another across the continents and oceans and miles. So many of you, right, keeping prayer as does everyone else. And, of course, pray alongside each and every one of you. So, God bless you. May God bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you today and every day. Amen.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Rebecca Joy from Illinois calling from a wonderful rainy September afternoon. Oh my gosh…and from my walk if you can hear the cars going by. I love these kinds of afternoons. I’m such a rain person. But anyway, I wanted to call in for a few prayer requests. So, I’m back in school. I am…I’m going to a university in Chicago; however, we are all online so it’s a weird weird time and I am an animation major and it’s weird do you do art at home. So, please pray for just the people at the University, for people at college, for people at school who are just doing stuff at home. It’s very hard to do it home. And please pray for the community of people that I am around. I love these people. I love art majors. There’s so…there so crazy and I love them. But please pray that I can be a good witness to them because I know a lot of them are not Christian, they don’t know Jesus and I want to love them and encourage them and…ah…I want to show in Jesus. So, please pray that I can do that. Also please pray for my two friends, they are struggling so much with their mental illnesses and I can just…I can feel it in the way they can talk and it’s so oppressive. So, please pray for healing for them. I love them so much. I just I…I know what they feel, and I don’t want to see them suffer. And also, please pray for me. Please pray for, you know, just a continuation of looking to God, trusting Him. Just pray that I can stand firm. O my gosh it’s so hard to stand firm sometimes you guys. But pray for that. Pray for just, help me to love, I guess. I really need that sometimes. But yeah, thanks guys.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family I’m Regina from California I am a new listener to the Daily Audio Bible. This is my first time calling in and I’ve been listening since the beginning of the year and I’ve really enjoyed this. It is bringing me…brought me peace of mind and wisdom through Jesus. Anyway, I’m calling in because I’m in a tough spot. I recently graduated college and, thank God I found a job and the opportunity to move in with my family…with my friend’s mom and her and I moved here out of my home with my parents yesterday and was so excited. I start my job tomorrow. Unfortunately, today, the day after I moved in, my friend’s mom decided that she no longer wants a renter in her house. So, I am in a very rough situation and to where…find out where I’m going to live, if I’m supposed to keep this job because I need to find a place to live in this area if I’m going to keep it. So, I am asking for prayer for peace in what I’m going through, discernment to figure out what to do, and just help me have grace on her mom because I…I don’t feel it right now. I don’t understand why or what just happened. I’ve been lost…so please send out prayer. I don’t even know if this is a sign that I’m not supposed to keep his job or not but please pray for me. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible.

Good morning this is Duncan the Piano Man from Fredericksburg Texas. Almighty God I just heard the request for prayer from the lady from…from the Niger…Niger region there and just here about the floods and not only the floods but the persecution that’s happening in Nigeria especially. Father I know our nation has promised to…to…to help persecuted Christians, at least they did in the beginning. Lord, we can’t go back on those promises. I’m just asking Father and I know there are a lot of others asking with me that you would please supply the needs of all those Father who are in the flooded area. I think also a people Father who are being hounded for their faith, not just in Nigeria but all over the world and even here in this country. Then I think of the fires that are burning out of control in California and Oregon and Washington and I have friends and family members who have been threatened by those fires. I ask you Lord to please have mercy and send rain. And then Lord we’re still in the grips of this albatross, this accursed 19 pandemoniac. I’m asking you God to strengthen us to get through it but also asking that you lift this awful curse in the name of Jesus Christ and in the power of His shed blood. Our Lord Jesus we give this week to you, although people will be listening to it days later. Thank you for hearing our prayer Jesus. We come boldly in Your name asking and also believing Father that you may have something better for us that we don’t even know. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

This is Kathy from Kentucky to let you know we need prayer in the 12 step groups. Some of the churches…well the church we’ve been meeting at has asked us not to come back because of COVID and we didn’t do anything wrong, but we had to find a new meeting place. So, far we’ve been meeting on zoom and people are hungry for the in-person meeting. So, we are trying to start the in-person meetings again. These are very important for alcoholics. The zoom meetings are not just quiet enough for some folks. I’m gonna keep the zoom meeting going at my house and because I’m in a high-risk age group and then we’ll try to have a hybrid meeting. But the 12 step groups all over the world are struggling. Zoom is okay but is not the same as hugging a person and that’s what we need, we need that human touch. So, pray for us. A lot of relapses, overdoses, and suicides going on right now. And, so, we all need __ and pray for me as I live alone and I’m trying to hold our group together until things get better. And I am an introvert. It’s easier for me living alone but I’m also scared. Thank you. Kathy from Kentucky.

Hi family this is Dawn Rising from Michigan and I like prayed for my nephew. I feel like he’s under spiritual attack where he’s hearing demonic voices and suggestions in his head and I just ask that you pray for his deliverance. I know my sister is also leading a life of sin currently. She knows her actions are wrong, but she just is in an earthly position where she likes it. So, I feel like our families under attack. So, please pray for my nephew Vinny that he will be delivered from this and will come out strong Christian man. Thank you everybody. Bye.

Hello everybody it’s a Sunday afternoon and the sun is shining, and you notice anything different? Can you hear it? Honk your horn Peter. __. I’m out, I’m in the car. Hey! We’re going…what are we going to find Peter? Oh gosh __ cat litter. Yeah, you see I’ve got a little new hobby. I’ve been starting to collect Cacti and I’ve been reading about it and apparently cat litter is good to mix with the compost. And, so __. So, we’re going to go and find some cat litter. It has to be the clay type I believe. So, I thank God. It’s taken me til 2 o’clock in the afternoon to get showered and get up but I’m so grateful. You know, we don’t look at how long these things take us do we? And we don’t look at what we can’t do and just thankful, that even though I’m gonna jump into a wheelchair when I get out of the car, that I’m out. You know, there’s so much blessing if we can stop and look up and instead of looking down. I thank God for His life in me and then you. And Father God I ask that you would bless all my dear friends, my family, here on DAB. I thank you that Your love father, Your arms are big enough and long enough to scoop us all together and told us. And You must be smiling Father. You must be smiling as You’re looking at us as we are enjoying Brian and the Daily Audio Bible and your presence. Oh, my goodness. The time ticking away. Say bye-bye Peter. Bye-bye Peter. Bye-bye everybody. Bye.

Isaiah 19:1-21:17, Galatians 2:1-16, Psalms 59:1-17, Proverbs 23:13-14

Today is the 15^th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is…it’s great to be here with you today as we continue this journey, the journey of this week and the journey of a lifetime through the Scriptures day by day step-by-step. And, so, glad that we can be together, glad that we get this time together, glad that I can be here in the rolling hills of Tennessee and you can be wherever on this big blue planet that you are and that we can still be together. And it’s not just me and you. It’s all of us. We’re all in this together on this journey. And, so, what a joy, what a privilege, what an honor, what a miracle even. Like what a crazy thing is this that we live on this earth and something exists called the Internet and it allows us to be together like this. So, feeling grateful today. But let’s dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. We’re in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament and we’ve just gotten going in the letter to the Galatians in the New. So, today Isaiah chapters 19, 20 and 21.

Commentary:

Okay. So, today is a bit of a context day as we move further into the letters of Paul and specifically into this letter to the Galatians because although there’s really important theological things to be said in the book of Galatians that inform our understanding of our faith, the context for why these things were said in the first place is actually really super-duper important and we’ve touched on some of this in the other of Paul’s letters, and we touched on this a little bit yesterday when we were just getting going into the…the letter to the Galatians.  But basically, today we kind of get Paul’s testimony about how his…how the gospel had come to him in the first place. And, so, I guess it's…I guess it’s important to note that Paul’s version of how that happened in Galatians is a little bit different than how it’s portrayed, for example, in the book of acts, but this is in Paul’s own hand. This is his own testimony. And we have this Damascus Road experience where a bright light send him to the ground, right, and he can’t see and it’s Jesus talking to him and he’s on his way to persecute the church. And that holds true throughout all of the testimonies of Paul’s conversion but Paul says in Galatians that he…he wasn’t really influenced by the people in Jerusalem, like he had essentially been living into the faith for 17 years, for more than 17 years and that he had not received the truth of the gospel from any person, that he received it as a revelation from Jesus. He’d only met Cephas or Peter once and I mean that was like 14 years ago. And the only other like important leader in the Jerusalem church Jesus ever met was or that Paul ever met was Jesus brother James. So, Paul’s claiming that the gospel he’s preaching is a direct revelation from Jesus himself. This creates some problems, especially the Jew / Gentile problem that we…we have talked about it on a number of occasions. So, I don’t need to go back into it again. We probably understand that territory but in Galatians today we hear about people sneaking into this spy on…on the meetings that Paul’s having and these are Judaizers, these are people who believe that…that you have to convert to Judaism in order to follow Christ. In order to be a disciple of Christ you have the first follow the Jewish religion. Paul is obviously adamantly against that notion. And it seems from the Scriptures that God was doing a new thing because the Holy Spirit was coming upon the Gentiles. And, so, that’s how they finally had to agree, like “we’re not making a decision here. God has already made the decision. We just have to support what God is doing.” This is a big deal because in so many ways it kinda renders Judaism obsolete. Paul is saying the law the Torah is fulfilled, the old covenant is done, a new covenant has been ratified through the blood of Christ, we are living in a different time under different circumstances, we’re going forward in a different new direction that God is leading. I mean it’s hard to take that leap. It’s a huge leap of faith, especially if you’re a Jewish person who has only known it one way. To take that leap is difficult. To understand that Christ fulfills the obligations of the law and that through Him so can we. That’s good news, but it’s difficult news to embrace. So, that’s like the theological or spiritual thing but it's…it’s deeper than that. Like Jews and Gentiles did not like party together at all. They…they weren’t social in any real way. Jews were separatists. They were thought of as strange by the rest of the Empire and they wore it as a badge of honor, to be separated, to be set apart as holy. So, a Jewish person looked at a Gentile person, a Roman, essentially as an occupier, as their oppressors, the people that were marginalizing them, the people that were pushing them to the outskirts of society. So, it would be difficult for them to just open their arms and embrace the people that they felt were oppressing them. It would be hard for them to have any sort of meaningful relationship because there is inherent prejudice there, right? There’s inherent fear of those with the privilege of being a Roman citizen. Like, they could do things that would be detrimental to the Hebrew community if they all got together to be happy together and then something goes sideways. And, so, Paul in his letter to the Galatians is basically like, “I had to even confront Peter, the apostle Peter, like the one who got out of the boat and walked on the water to Jesus even though he went underwater.” Like Paul’s confronting him because he…he’s not being consistent. He’s coming around Gentile believers in churches and fellowshipping with them and having really open community with them until people in the Jerusalem church are around and then he’s being all separatist and all ‘follow the law’ and…and…and not being hospitable. So, we’re seeing…we’re seeing the tensions that existed as the faith began to grow and flourish. We’re seeing what was going on here through these letters. And we can wonder like, “why such…it just doesn't…like now 2000 years later we’re mostly Gentiles. Like some of these things don’t seem like that big of a deal. Like it all got settled somewhere along the line and here we are.” But these kinds of tensions still exist. They just have different iterations, there just from different perspectives, but they still exist. And why is Paul being so defensive? Like, what’s he after? Ultimately, well, first of all he’s defending the revelation of Jesus Christ that he received. This is what he believes. This is what he is convinced of. This is what he will die for…and he does. He did die for it. But beyond that it’s freedom. He, as a Pharisee, had done everything he could possibly do to live up to a relationship, like to get himself in a position to have the knowledge and awareness and relationship with God. And no matter how hard he tried he failed. And then Jesus is raised from the dead and reveals himself to him and he begins to realize we’re free, we’re free from all of that. Like there’s a whole new thing going on. Freedom is given to us, spiritual freedom to be in direct contact and in relationship with God. This is a big deal. This isn’t going to happen the ritual and adherence to some sort of ethics or law. Christ has done it all and restored us to God, and now we can call God Father, Abba. We can enter His presence. This a big deal. This is his conviction. Like I said just a second ago, then that renders that whole culture the…under Torah, the whole culture, the way the whole thing was set up becomes somewhat obsolete. And that’s a difficult controversy. This is why people want to kill Paul. This is why Paul ultimately gets killed. This is also ultimately why we believe what we believe as Christians, that freedom has been given to us, that we have been…been made right, we have been justified because we have faith in Christ and freedom comes from that. Freedom, that a set of rules, even if we could live up to them can’t provide. So, this gives us some context. They were wrestling, which explains why we often are wrestling. Ironically, we’re wrestling over freedom. And in the coming days as we move through Galatians, we’re gonna get a good glimpse of that. And as we continue through the letters of Paul, some of like…some of the stuff is unbelievable when we are told what Christ has done, and who we are, and what that means. But those are in the days ahead.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You that we can look into it and we can see an honest view of the struggle. We…all we have to do is just look around in the world and see that there is an honest struggle continually going on in some direction and what we are grateful for is that You are the sovereign God, You are the Lord of all, no matter what we think. No matter what we think You are the most-high God, and You will have Your way. And our desire is to be in the middle of that, what You are doing in us and in this world. And, so, we open ourselves to You, Holy Spirit. We open ourselves to Your leadership, to Your comfort, to Your correction, to Your guidance. Come and do what You’ve promised. Lead us into all truth we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey DAB family this is Allie from Oregon. Hey, I’m just calling to ask for prayer for all of the communities around the Pacific Northwest and California area that are currently being affected by fire or the threat of fire. Just ask that YTou would, Lord that you would help provide peace and provide safety to the families that are in jeopardy or the families that are already lost their homes as well as for all of the first responders, firefighters, volunteers that are coming together to help with this. It’s been…it’s been a long week and I know that there’s a lot of people that have lost their homes or their homes are in jeopardy. So, we just pray for peace and through all of this that Your will be done and that You would cause people to come together. And Lord I also pray for work in progress. I know he called as well for California and we lift California up as well, that You would just touch them and bring these fires to an end. Thanks guys.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Kelsey from Washington state and I am new to Daily Audio Bible but I’m so thankful to have this opportunity to listen and hear God’s word together. Thank you, Brian. Right now I’m sitting on our back porch looking up at the sky and it’s a little bit hazy with smoke from all the wildfires but I wanted to call in to ask for prayer for a family that I know who has been deeply impacted and is going through tragedy due to the wildfires here in Washington. I want to lift up Jacob, Jamie, the Highland family who, you know, they’re in the hospital in critical condition right now and they lost their little one-year-old, Arielle to the fire’s here in Washington. And please just pray for their recovery, pray for, you know, this long journey that they have ahead and for just comfort from the Lord, you know, in relation to the loss of their son. He was beautiful. And also, for I…I…heard also that Jamie is pregnant and for this baby and just protection and protection from…for both of them from infection because their bodies have…have severe third-degree burns. Thank you so much, your prayer’s means so much. God bless you all. Thank you.

Hey family this is John the Prodigal. Hey, I’ve got a celebration actually believe that or not and a couple of prayer requests. Number one my son who was on heroin, we went through 25 doctors and finally found a doctor to work with him. Got him on the prescription that they took him off of after seven years cold turkey. He has no knees, blew em’ out skateboarding and he’s in constant pain. So, he turned to heroin. Anyway, he’s in good shape now, he’s happy now, got him turned around and that’s has everything to do with your prayers. I also ask for your…so I said it’s a celebration. I also ask for prayer for…for Jane a friend of mine who’s living in London. She is living in a church there and every night she runs in fear of being stabbed or raped. A good friend of hers was attacked…was shot in an attempted rape there. And, so, I tried to help her out as best I can but I, as you know I am totally broke, but I’ve done what I can. To that end I’d also ask your prayers for me. I’m trying to reinvent myself, rebuild my business, build back and the love of God and with God in my sites instead of me. And, so, my pride is broken. I’ve been humbled. I am a Job and trying to rise again. And with that I’d ask…I’d ask any more prayers for me I feel selfish when I do but I just wanted to let you know that I’m praying for you all and the man who called for the son with muscular dystrophy to people who are divorcing like me yo all those who are suffering and praying with depression. I feel for you all. I’ve got it all and I’ve got your facts. And so does God. So, you make a blessed day. Know I love you, know I pray for you all every day even though I don’t say your names. You’re in my heart. God bless you thank you Brian and Jill. Have a good day. Bye.

Good morning everybody hey this is Annette Allison from Oklahoma City. Get your seatbelt on girl. Hey isn’t the Lord cool? I’ll tell you what he is just amazing. __ inspiring stories of hope here recently that He is just amazing. My son, my stepson who is in the Air Force, his career has been tried to be put down and destroyed by a guy who is just like new in command and trying to make a name for himself and my stepson who’s just as straight as an arrow, I’ll tell you he is such a good good young man. It’s a truly amazing to me. The Lord has just taken this whole situation and turned it for the good and has really shown my stepson what the path of faith really looks like. And I’m just so proud of how he has stayed the course and how the Lord has turned all this around and for good. He even got a promotion and a recommendation out of this. It’s amazing. And my stepson James is doing excellent. He went to a…a little prison camp situation where they teach the kids how to behave basically and has come out smelling like a rose, top of his class, and is working and doing very, very well. I’m so proud of these kids. Anyway, I love you guys. Have a wonderful day. Bye-bye.

This is BB in Florida I’m requesting prayer for my niece Nancy who at the present time is in the hospital battling cancer. The cancer has traveled through her spinal column into her brain and the prognosis that the doctors are giving them is not good. I’m asking for prayers to come against the excruciating pain that she is under with severe headaches and backaches. She has not been able to eat or to keep medicine down. I’m asking that for prayers for the pain management team to find the right combination of medicine for her that they will no longer be chasing the pain, but they will be able to stop the pain completely. She’s been in the hospital now for about two weeks and it’s very hard on the family as only one person can be in her room with her at a time. Just pray, Father God that He would grant this family and all those of her friends, peace and strength, that the doctors would have words of encouragement today for this family. We serve a faithful God and a loving God, and I just pray for His mercy, Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Hi this is my first time ever being on this site asking for prayer. I have been actually reading since almost the first of the year and so love this site. And I come to you burdened about my children. I have two sons who are not serving the Lord at all, as far as they could possibly be from the Lord. And it’s such a burden. And I just pray that my brothers and sisters in Christ can uplift my two sons Lee and Austin. And my prayer is that I’ll be able to spend my days worshiping with them and that we can be one in spirit. And I pray for my husband to be strong as a leader so that he will be able to show these sons of ours what needs to be done in order to be a child of God and a man of God. My name is Sherry and I look forward to seeing the results of these prayers. Thank you so much.

Hi everybody this is Stephanie. I’m the Lord’s Chic from Oklahoma. As many of you know my son passed away about three months ago and my mom the year before. I am 55 years old and after decades of being clean I have fallen back into bad habits. It started with food and then it went to tranquilizers and painkillers and diet pills and I’ve had a drink for the first time in literally decades. I picked up a pack of cigarettes last week. I just…anything I can do to make the pain go away but it doesn’t go away. So, I’ve been a Christian for a really long time. My husband has absolutely zero knowledge of all this. So far I’m completely functional with my job and family but I…I need to stop completely. And, so, today is day one. I just really need for you all to pray for me before I completely ruin my career and my family. Nobody knows about this. I have a best friend in Oregon that I’ve confided in, but I mean if they were to pull a tox screen at work would be cooked and my nursing license would be gone. So, you know, some of this is prescription some is not. I just need a lot of prayer please. I need to get back and trust God the way they used to. Thanks.

Isaiah 15:1-18:7, Galatians 1:1-24, Psalms 58:1-11, Proverbs 23:12

Today is the 14^th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and an honor to be here with you today as we get fully moved into this new week that we’re…we’re working our way into and through. It is a…it is a joy to come around the Global Campfire together, hear God’s word speak, hear the Scriptures spoken aloud, listen to what they say, meditate on them, think about them, invite the Holy Spirit into them and move into our day with some clarity and direction. We’re working our way through the book of Isaiah right now in the Old Testament, and then once we get to the New Testament today we will be entering a new book, another of Paul’s letters, this one known as the letter to the Galatians and we’ll talk about that when we get there. But first we’re reading from the English Standard version this week. Isaiah chapters 15, 16, 17 and 18 today.

Introduction to the letter of Paul to the Galatians:

Okay. So, as we said at the beginning, we are entering some new territory today now that we are at the New Testament and we are opening the letter to the Galatians which is…is one of the foundational pieces or foundational documents that form New Testament theology, like the gospel of freedom and grace, justification through faith. These are all spoken of in this letter, but they’re spoken of for a reason. Paul is battling some controversies and reiterating what it is he’s teaching. And, once again, we have to dispel with the myth that the early church was just unbelievably harmonious and full of unity. If we could just get back to that place, we could get back to where we’re supposed to be. This has not been the story. This is not the story that’s in the New Testament as we read it and it’s not the historical story. In fact…I mean here’s the thing, before there was a New Testament and all of the letters that we’re reading that are the New Testament, like before they were made the New Testament, they were letters that were passed around, documents that were passed around, and the ones that we have in the New Testament, they weren’t the only writings, Christian writings about what people thought and believed and had persuasions and convictions of surrounding Jesus and how…how to live a Christian life, how to live the faith that they were being given. Over time the letters and documents that we have that make up the New Testament now, these are the ones that sort of were preserved and held in esteem, sort of rose to the top with a cohesive type of message that could be adhered to. Because at some point if like…if there’s an…if God is doing a new thing and it’s being documented and there is no document and people are not people of the book, but they are rather people of the experience of what they sense the Holy Spirit is doing in…in them and in their community and in the world, well then you can have people all over the map with different nuances bringing parts of their story into the mix, and there’s nothing to fall back on. So, there were lots of things being said and believed about Jesus in the earliest of days. And one of the primary controversies is well documented in the New Testament and that is between Hebrew believers and Gentile believers, the ultimate question about who gets to be included. Well, this “who gets to be included” argument went on and has gone on and continues to go on until this very day. So, Paul talks about freedom and grace and justification through faith and all of these things in this letter to reiterate what it is that he is teaching. And it’s not unlike what we were reading in second Corinthians, right, where he has to essentially boast, kind of defendant himself against quote unquote “super apostles”. So, let’s just understand that, but let’s also understand Galatia and where this letter is being sent to. Galatia was a province in the Roman Empire. So, Galatia’s not a city, it’s a region in the Roman Empire, which is now part of a modern-day Turkey. So, in previous eras Galatians were known as Gals or Celts. And we know from…from identification in the Bible of five different churches in Galatia that were established during Paul’s first missionary journey. So, there was a church in the city of Pisidia, one in Antioch, one in Iconium, one and Lystra, and one in Derbe, and Paul addresses this letter to the churches in Galatia. So, we can assume pretty safely that Paul wrote to, at least those communities. There may have been more that we don’t know about. What we can deduce from this letter is that as with the church in Corinth others had come to visit these churches in Galatia and there was nuanced teachings about Jesus that Paul was not on board with. And in particular this Hebrew understanding of Jesus, the fact that Jesus was a Hebrew, that he was a Hebrew rabbi, that he commented on Torah, that his teaching was within the Jewish community, it was considered then by the Hebrew people who believed in Jesus a Hebrew thing that they were not converting away from their Judaism, they were just following Jesus teachings and how to live it out whereas Gentiles were receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, with no knowledge of the law or Torah or any of that. And, so, controversy, right? Because it’s like, who gets to…do we…are we all in? Do we get to be in. For Hebrew people this is a problem because their religion is an exclusive one that separates them from everybody else. So, to include Gentiles means to include the whole world because everybody who is not a Hebrew is a Gentile. So, they have some hurdles to overcome. And that…that never really got figured out, like not everybody was ever on board until today. And, so, there were those who visited these churches of believers in Galatia and they came and told the Galatian people that they needed to essentially convert to Judaism, they needed to follow the Hebrew customs and the practices and rituals in order to follow Jesus and that included things like male circumcision to adhere to the Mosaic law. And Paul, obviously we’ve read enough of Paul to know that that is not his position at all, and he is completely against that because in his view, Jesus has fulfilled the law. A new covenant has been initiated. And, so, there’s no point in trying to live up to the old one. It’s accomplished. It is finished. And now there is a new covenant that Paul is…is leading people into. And he’s not happy about what people are saying. We’ll find out…we’ll find that out for ourselves. What’s not unclear…what is unclear and makes Galatians maybe a little tricky to…to date is whether or not the Jerusalem Council had already happened when Paul wrote this letter. So, like if the Jerusalem Council that we read about in the book of Acts had not happened and Paul is just like defending an issue…like he’s out on the front lines of this issue, if the Jerusalem Council had already happened then Paul’s simply reiterating what had been decided and he’s not happy that people are undermining what they been decided by the church. If this letter’s written before the Jerusalem Council then it’s one of the earlier writings of Paul, maybe one of the earliest Christian documents we have. Most scholars don’t think that particularly. They…the consensus of scholars believe that First Thessalonians is the earliest Christian document in existence, period. Of course, we haven’t got there yet. But that’s the lay of the land. Like that’s what’s going on as we go into this letter. And it doesn’t take too much effort for us to understand that these types of issues that are bubbling in this letter are still bubbling today. And, so, it’s not too hard for us to locate our own hearts and maybe allow God to change our minds, allow…allow us to repent or for us to…to live into what we already know as true. But anyway, let’s dive in. Galatians chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the many complexions that it leads us into and the many different stories and even controversies that existed and that exist and for the opportunity to explore these things, wrestle with them, think about them, meditate upon them and seek understanding as we are led by Your Holy Spirit. The anchor that we have is that You have promised to lead us into all truth and so we seek. And, so, as we move into new letters, the letter to the Galatians and as we continue to move forward we invite You to lead us forward in lockstep hand-in-hand step-by-step day by day with You as You guide us in our lives. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

[singing starts] raised you up on eagles wings bore you on the breathe dawn made you to shine like the sun and held you He’s holding you in the palm of His hands [singing stops]. My sweet sister Rosie from Oklahoma this is Soaring on Eagles wings from Canada and I just want to tell you how much I love you. And I’m so proud of you that you faced your fears and was obedient to what the Lord wanted you to do and you aired that very painful part of your life so it may be it may be of help to someone else. But look what the Lord has done for you. He’s healed your mind, He’s healed your body, He’s given you this ministry to pray for our children and grandchildren, He’s given you the sweetest, gentlest spirit that comes across to all of us your DAB family and I appreciate what you do for our children. I pray for you and your children, that your relationship will be cemented in the Lord and that you will see all your children serving Jesus. Thank you for what you do. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This family loves you. We surround you with our prayers and we thank God every day for what you’re doing. Every time we think of you, we pray for you. God bless you. God keep you safe, you and your children in Jesus…

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Sue’s from California I’m a longtime listener and first-time caller. My husband and I just celebrated our 42^nd wedding anniversary today. God is so good, and He’s always been a part of our family. My family desperately needs your prayers. My husband is on hospice. He has Parkinson’s disease and dementia and today it was confirmed that are 25-year-old daughter has cancer. It has spread to her pancreas and lymph nodes. It cannot be removed surgically so she will begin chemotherapy in October. My 35-year-old son has something going on in his body also, but he doesn’t want to tell me because of everything else going on. I have major depression, diabetes and something’s wrong with my colon that I’m trying to get treated. This year has been the hardest time of our lives. We have many people praying for us, and I’d like you to pray for us too. We know God has a plan and a purpose for our lives not to harm us but to prosper us. We have very strong faith and we know God is with us and will bring us through this. Some days though when it all hits the fan like today it’s hard not to feel like it will never end and is hopeless. But God is good and faithful. Thank you, DABbers for your love and prayers. This is Sue’s in California.

Hey this is Daniel in Tennessee as well but I’m gonna go by my trail name now seeing though is I’m responding to Daniel in Tennessee. So, Running Bear, which is my wife would totally enjoy me going by my trail name. She was AT Princess and she passed away three years ago and me and the kiddos have definitely experienced a lot of suffering in our lifetime and walked through a long, long, long journey. Still in that journey. But I wanted to let you know Daniel in Tennessee that we are praying for you and our heart grieves for you guys in this very long journey that is incredibly hard of watching someone that you dearly love suffer and being helpless not to able to take that away from them. We get that and we’ll definitely be praying and praying that you see God’s faithfulness and His fingerprints on your life and on the life of the community around you. And, so, I hope that not only does the word come to life in a greater way, but that you guys will be able to find rest in spite of everything. All right, blessings upon you guys.

Hi DAB family this is All the Treasures in Wyoming with a quick update on our sweet Emily. She is out of the hospital. She is…has been transferred to a long-term rehab facility to help her with all of the deficits that still remain from her having those blood clots that caused her to code and her kidneys to fail. Our family is amazed as am I, I am in awe again of God’s goodness, His faithfulness, His mercy, and just thank you all so much for praying cause I know He answered your prayers in regards to this. So, thank you so much and to God be all the glory.

Hi everybody from my Daily audible Bible family this is Carmen in Germany and I just had to call in now because, listening to Brian’s reading or his commentary this morning was like it just turned on a light, it was like bonb. You know, if you’ve ever had that just something go, wow, I mean, it’s like cut through the brain fog. And I wanted to share it with you because, I don’t know, maybe it will be helpful to somebody else. But anyway if you want to listen to what I listened to it was September 10^th about 20 minutes maybe a little bit less than 20 minutes into his reading, second Corinthians, he’s talking about Paul and, you know, the endurance that he had to endure basically. But anyway, the thing that really resonated with me or hit me was that I’ve been praying so often for the wrong things. You know, usually I pray for God to make everything go away, make the pain go away, make the difficulties go away, make the, you know, burdens, whatever go away. And Brian said, you know, maybe we’re praying for the wrong things. Maybe we need to pray for strength because through all these things that we go through we…we come out stronger. And, you know, a few years ago when my husband left me I thought I was at the bottom of the pit, wherever, but anyway it’s been three years now, I haven’t seen him, he’s filed for divorce and I thought I would never get through this time but I’ve come to realize that I’m getting stronger. I have become stronger and my relationship in the Lord has become stronger. So, this was just so encouraging to hear and I’m going to be asking God for __ now for strength. I just wanted to share that. Love you guys.

Hi, DABbers this is Kara from Denver. I have a…sort of what I consider a strange prayer request. It’s for my ex Nathaniel. And we were together seven years. We had three kids, one was an abortion and the other two are with separate adoptive families. So, I know at least are doing well. But we had an extremely tumultuous relationship and we did a lot of hard drugs and he has schizophrenia. And we both have sobered up at least. This was seven years ago that we broke up. But I really just would like to lift him up. I will always love him and care about him even though that part of our lives is…is over. And I request…I asked him specifically if he wouldn’t mind if…he wouldn’t mind if I prayed for him here and he said he didn’t mind. So, I consider that really…really progress and really great. So, if you guys wouldn’t my lifting him up. He just got done with a long probation and he is just looking to start living his life. I know he’s with someone else now and I just…I just…I always, yeah, that…that’s it guys. I would just really appreciate that. Lift up Nathaniel and thank you very much. I love you all you guys so much.

Hi guys this is Grin Life from Texas my name’s Tammy and I’m the one that recently on the Prayer Wall had asked for prayer because my husband lost his job and we’ve been looking for seven months for something. But I just wanted to shout out to the Lord that, you know, they…we found something and it’s even better than what we could imagine. And in the midst of all this I was diagnosed with colon cancer stage IIIC, which is the highest stage III, and I’m undergoing chemotherapy. But God is so good. I just want to let you all know that in the midst of suffering, it’s bittersweet, God blesses you. I’ve had friends and family come from all over giving me cards, bringing me food, just loving on me because the work my husband God is out-of-state. So, he’s gone and is not here with me. But it’s okay, God is carrying me. He really does sustain you. And I just want you guys to be encouraged that whatever you’re going through whether it’s those down in the hurricane area or the fires in California and Oregon or in your financial crisis or guys that have called in and said your…your wives or children don’t know the Lord and you’re the only one serving, hang in there, fight, fight on your knees and know that God will come through. It took us seven months but we knew, we knew God would come through for us and he will for you too and just keep a smile on your face and trust that He loves you and He sees you and keep walking in righteousness and faith and love and know that you will be blessed and you will have a story and I just want to…I just want to pray for all me DAB friends and family that you would hang in there, that God would come through and speak to you somehow, someway, through the word, through a friend, in your dreams and your visions and put peace over your heart, fill you up, which…