Author: Daily Audio Bible Transcripts

1 Chronicles 12:19-14:17, Romans 1:1-17, Psalms 9:13-20, Proverbs 19:4-5

Today is the 12^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today. How are you? How are you? Just checking in here. Where at the threshold. We’re about to step into this shiny sparkly new week that’s here before us. So, just kind of check…checking in, understanding that this week, there may be lots of plans for this week, but none of those things that happened yet. We may have much to accomplish before this week is out, but it’s in front of us. And then there’s always the serendipity of the unknown that is out in front of us because we don’t know the future. So, here we are at this threshold looking into a new week. And every time we do this we get the chance to…to make some internal decisions about how we’re gonna live this week, just some motivating factors, right, some postures of our hearts that will dictate how this week goes for us. And, so, let’s live into it well. And as I have said before, one of the ways that we do that is to continue with the rhythm of allowing God’s word to come into our lives each and every day as we gather around this Global Campfire and hear from God through His word. So, we’ve got a brand-new week and we’re gonna read from Lexham English Bible this week. And we’re still in the book of first Chronicles in the Old Testament, but when we get to the New Testament today, we’re entering a completely different genre of literature. We’re entering a portion of the New Testament that we will be in for quite a while. They are letters. So much of the New Testament is letters to churches and today we will begin the letter to the Romans. And we’ll talk about that when we get there, but first first Chronicles 12 verse 19 through 14:17.

Introduction to the book of Romans:

Okay. So, yesterday we concluded the book of Acts, and we concluded the book of Acts with Paul finally arriving in Rome. And he wanted to go to Rome. He had been wanting to go to Rome but he's…he's…he’s arriving in Rome as a prisoner to stand trial before the Emperor for what the Hebrew people were claiming he did back in Jerusalem. So, Paul’s been incarcerated now for couple of years, but in the book of Acts we got to know Paul. We traveled with Paul on his missionary journeys. So, we’ve been by land and sea with Paul including a harrowing shipwreck on the island of Malta. So, weve kinda got…gotten to know Paul through his travels. Now we’re going to begin to get to know Paul through his letters, so through his words. And here’s the thing. Most of the theological underpinning for the Christian faith are things that Paul wrote and interpreted. Like he’s highly, highly influential. In fact, I pretty much believe there would be a almost unanimous consensus among biblical scholars that the faith as we know it wouldn’t exist without the writings of Paul although Paul never actually met Jesus in life during his ministry at all. What happened was, Paul met Jesus, what we would know as the cosmic Christ or celestial, like the risen Christ, who had ascended but was appearing to Paul in visions and instructing him. And we should also remember Paul was a Pharisee in Jerusalem. So, he is an educated religious person, a literate person in a sea of illiteracy and a person trained in the Mosaic law and its interpretation and its implementation because, you know, when you have the Mosaic law given say a couple thousand years ago and you’re trying to interpret it today then you understand like there are new things going on. So that’s how it was for Paul 2000 years ago. We’re 2000 years into the future still. And, so, things have changed. And, so, you have to look at the Scriptures and go, “okay. How does this work in the world that exists right now?” And, so, Paul had been engaged in this activity as a Pharisee. Once he had this experience with Jesus things shifted dramatically for Paul and he began to see Jesus threaded through the story of the Hebrew people, Jesus as the Messiah but Jesus also as the inclusive savior of the world, that anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord can be saved, that all Jew or Gentile are welcome, that as we’ll learn from the letters of Paul, there is no Jew, there is no Greek, there is no male, there is no female, there is no slave, there is no free. In Christ, we are equal, which most certainly was not how things were on the outside, like in the outside culture and world that Paul lived in. Another thing that’s fastening about the letters of Paul is that some of Paul’s letters are the earliest Christian writings that we have. Paul was writing letters to churches that had been established before the Gospels were even written down. I mean, the history of the earliest Christian times is so fascinating because they didn’t have a New Testament to refer to. And, so, the gospel was passed around orally. The stories of Jesus and things were eventually written down about all kinds of stuff was written down. But Paul’s letters had been being passed around during this time because they’re some of the earliest Christian writings that we have. And, so, they have endured indeed until today. This letter, Romans, probably was written in the city of Corinth where Paul spent some time and some…some of the greatest accomplishments for the kingdom were achieved and probably somewhere in the mid-50s AD. And, so, when he finishes this letter, he sends a Deaconess, a woman named Phoebe from a church in Cenchreae, which is just outside of Corinth. She was to hand-deliver this letter and make an introduction to Paul to the church in Rome. And the church in Rome wasn’t established by Paul. This wasn’t one of his churches and there’s only conjecture about how the gospel got to Rome. I guess if you want to speculate…once you get into speculation that’s what you’re doing, your speculating. But the speculation is that somebody, maybe even a small group of somebody’s who were influenced by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Jerusalem who were either there who had witnessed this happening ended up carrying the story and the gospel back to Rome and a church was established there. And Paul writes this letter to encourage them. Also, to give them the gospel as he understood it as it was given to him by Jesus. And what we’ll notice is a bit of a contrast because, I mean, like I said, there’s a lot of stuff going on in the earliest early church and there was a lot of contention over allowing Gentiles to be considered followers of The Way, the disciples Jesus. And we’ve talked about this in the past and we’ll talk about it some more, so I’m not gonna go into it right now, but there was a lot of tension and this is why Paul was on the hot seat in Jerusalem, because…because the Jewish people, including his fellow Pharisees were hearing the Paul was out around the world saying nobody had to obey God’s law anymore, the Mosaic law anymore. And this is where we will begin to see a contrast in what Paul’s thinking is. So, as a Pharisee, as an educated Hebrew leader these people are studying Moses, right? They’re studying the law of Moses, the law God gave through Moses. Paul…this…this meeting with Jesus had to be so disruptive to him that he had to go back to the beginning of the story. Well, we would think, “the beginning of the story is Genesis and Adam and Eve”, but for Paul, the beginning of the story is Abraham, the first person called by God to go into a land that he didn’t know. Like the first person to originate the story that would become the Hebrew people. So, not Moses but Abraham is the beginning point for Paul. And when he begins there and tells the story forward it includes Moses, but it’s a different viewpoint. And we’ll see why. Fundamentally, we’ll see why because Paul will argue Abraham didn’t have a law to obey. He didn’t become righteous because he obeyed perfectly a law. He became righteous because people believed what God told him. And that is a fundamental difference in the Christian faith and in the writings of Paul. So, let’s get to it. Romans chapter 1 verse 1 through verse 17.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us into this brand-new week. And as we enter this brand-new week, we enter a brand-new book of the letter of Romans, letter to the Romans. And, so, the complexion of what we’ve been reading changes and we invite Your Holy Spirit as we take this journey through the book of Romans to help us understand why we believe the things that we believe and what that means, the implications of what that means. Come Holy Spirit, open our eyes that we might see and become aware of what You are doing in and among us. We ask this in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its’ the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, check it out. Stay tuned, stay connected.

Check of the Initiatives section. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop that has resources that accompany us on our journey through the Scriptures. Check out the Prayer Wall in the Community section. Stay connected, stay tuned in any way that you can, in any way that you want to.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link and it lives on the homepage and I thank you with…with all humility for your partnership. We share in a common vision that is to bring the spoken word of God to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night, and to build community around that rhythm so that as we take this journey we know we’re not in it alone, we know that we are in it with our brothers and sisters all over the world. And if that has been a life-giving thing to you then 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 in the upper left…upper right-hand corner. The Drawer icons in the upper left-hand corner - 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 can hit the Hotline button in app which is the red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey guys this is Tiffany from New Mexico from the four corners area and I have a lot to say and only two minutes to say it so I’m gonna try to make this fast. But I was thinking of you all this morning and I wanted to take a moment and tell you just how much I love and appreciate you all. I didn’t know several years ago, I had no idea when I started listening to DAB just how vital this community would be to me, this family, all of you, the body of Christ. You have made such a significant impact on my life. You have helped me get through some of the most challenging times and you have helped me celebrate some of the best times and I know that you will continue to be there. And specifically you guys have prayed me through several health challenges, you guys, many of you set my boys birthday cards when they had to celebrate in quarantine. And some of you have become my very, very close friends that I know I could lean on for anything. In short, you guys have helped renew my hope, and my faith and my heart for the body of Christ and I know you will continue to. And I want you to know that my family pray for you daily and we will continue to encourage all of you how we can. And again, we’re praying for all of you. I want to give a shout out to my friend Barbara, my friend Lois, Kathy, Paula, Pastor John, thank you guys for all of your love and for caring about me and my family. And actually, that goes for all of you. Thank you. And I will continue to be praying for you guys and I will pray specifically for all of you during my long walk today. So, be encouraged. Have a great day.

Hello, my beautiful sisters and brothers this is Dawn calling from New York on our long walk day. Giving thanks to God for this special time that we’ve set aside. Grateful for the beautiful Heart production from Brian. Thank you so much and just praying for everyone. What a year and asking God to renew our hearts, give us strength, courage, hope as we move into the second half of this amazing 2020 year we are journeying together. God bless all of you. I give thanks to God for you.

Hey DAB family this is Nelly I’m just calling just asking for your prayers. I probably recorded this a couple times. Just to be completely transparent I am struggling so hard with my voice just…just speaking out. I want to be used by Christ. I want to be a speaker of truth. I want to minister. And I feel this calling, but I feel also this amount of fear and second-guessing my…my words and knowing what to say. So, just praying that God gives me a voice of wisdom, a voice of strength and truth with grace. I’m just really wanting to be used by Him in any way I can be, and I don’t want to be afraid to speak out anymore. So, will you stand in prayer with me? Thank you.

This is Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada and I listened to Monday, July 6^th’s podcast and I heard the cry of Woman of Honor. She has done all that she could possibly do – fasting, praying waiting. She’s now at the point of no return and thoughts of death assails her. Well my dear sister, I understand what you’re feeling, and I just want to take you to the throne of grace. I just read something that says, “when you come to the end of your rope and patience seems to fly away settle back into God’s waiting arms.” Father God You have seen all that she has done, You hear her cry, You see her tears. She can’t do anymore, that’s what she said. She’s at the point of no return. And, so, now I pray that You would take over and You will do only…what only You can do. You see her pain. You hear her cries. Father, Abba Father, touch her today, revive her, give her hope again. Remind her that her hope is in You and You alone. And the enemy often times tries to take us down but I’m praying for her Lord. I’m standing in your corner sister. Hold on tight to the…

Good morning this is Adrian from Maryland. This morning we are praying for Oligna and his family with premature baby Dji. Oligna not just lost his daughter, Dji’s mom. She died a week after the baby was born. And Dji is still in the NICU because he was born two months early and something happened to his mom and she died. This is tragic for the family. They’re are going to need a ton of support. So, Lord please take care of Oligno’s family and Dji’s family as…as Dji comes home from the NICU at some point and they learn to take care of Dji without his mom. Please wrap Your arms around them, love on them and give them the strength and support that they need to learn how to live together without their mom and daughter. Thank You so much Lord. We love You so much. You’re such a good and faithful God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Good morning DABber family this is Walta the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King. Guys today I heard Alina’s call praying his daughter…praying for his family. He just lost his daughter a week before we called. Father God on praying for his grandson Dji. God, I pray that you will to protect that baby. I pray blessings upon that family. God made that baby be a blessing to the family. Lord I pray that you will comfort…comfort their souls and their hearts as they grieve the loss of their daughter. God, I pray for trusting in God. Her son battles with mental illness. For the first time God I pray that in the name of Jesus You will send Your ministering angels to that hospital that he will…not only will he yield to taking his medication but God that You will help them find the right…the right…just the right medication for him. I pray for healing God. I know You can heal with and without medication, so we just commit that boy into Your hands Lord. He is Your son first God. We pray for divine intervention in the name of Jesus. I pray piece in her heart in the name of Jesus as she waits. Sam from Texas called in. She is a survivor of coronavirus and she’s praying for Spain. God, I pray not only for Spain for the world Lord. I pray that You will touch the heart of believers that we will begin to stand in the gap and pray the sickness out of our nations in the name of Jesus. God protect those who have not yet contacted…contracted the virus and pray for those who are battling the virus and I pray for healing in the name of Jesus. Finally, Lord I pray that as we go out Lord that we will be witnesses to You Lord. Help us to speak and act justly, be examples. In Jesus’ name we love You Lord. Amen.

1 Chronicles 11:1-12:18, Acts 28:1-31, Psalms 9:1-12, Proverbs 19:1-3

Today is the 11^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we bring another of our weeks to a close. We’re also going to be bringing one of our books to a close today, the book of Acts, which means as we conclude today we will achieve another one of our badges, this one for the New Testament history badge, which is the book of Acts. But we can talk about that in a little bit because we have not achieved it yet. So, let’s dive in. First from the Old Testament’s first Chronicles chapter 11 verse 1 through 12 verse 18. And we are reading from the English Standard Version this week.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us another week, day by day step-by-step, which is how it is every day, always. No matter what day, week, month, year it is we have established a relationship with Your word and we have established a rhythm and come together in community and we thank You because as we end every week we look back and see Your faithfulness to us. Even if it’s been a difficult week, we see that You are guiding us and that You are present. And, so, as we end this week, as it becomes a part of history we look forward to all You will do in the coming week and we are here right here, right now, worshiping You and thanking You for Your mercy and Your kindness and Your patience, we’re worshiping You for who You are, the most-high God. We can’t even begin to get our minds around it - the most-high God. We worship You because You are our Father and we love You. And, so, we release this week into our history and invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth as we move forward. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and home base and where you find out what’s going on around here.

I mentioned at the beginning so we concluded the book of Acts and so those of us who are using the Daily Audio Bible app and kind of checking off the days, that will lead us to the achievement of the New Testament history, which is the book of Acts. And that…that badge shows up in our…in our app and that shows up in the in the Achievements section. You just push the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and see achievements and we can kind of see where we are as we move through the different sections of the Bible. And it should also just pop up and show us we’ve accomplished this. So, well done. We continue to be on our way and tomorrow we will get to know this apostle Paul that we've…we’ve gotten to know him by his travels, like his itinerary and some of the history, some of the things that happened, some the places that he went to, some of the things that he had to say, but we’re gonna get in-depth into his letters as we move forward in these weeks ahead of us. So, excited about that for sure.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It lives on the homepage. Thank you profoundly for your partnership as we continue to move through these summer months. Thank you. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the 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 can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

I just want to say thank you Daily audible Bible you’ve been a real blessing to me for at least eight years. This is only my second time of calling and. I’m Brenda from Michigan. I have a niece that deals with OI for short - osteogenesis imperfecta - where her bones are brittle, and they break. She’s 29 years old now and she’s having a lot of difficulty breathing, severe difficulty. And I am praying and asking the Lord to do a supernatural miracle in her life. We just give you many thanks and thank you for all the faithful’s. I love being a part of this. Thank you, Brian and family very much. Good night.

Good evening DAB family this is Marinotha from Georgia and this message is for All the Grace and He shines. I’m a few weeks behind. I was just listening to June 22^nd and you called in and sang a beautiful song and it just lifted my heart and we’ve had it really hard. We’ve…my son on July 4^th fell into a fire pit and has 2^nd degree burns on his leg. We came home from the hospital today and he’s going to be okay, but we’ve got a long road. So, just thank you for making me smile for the first time in a few days. And please be with our family and be with my son Corban as he heals from these horrific burns. Thank you DAB family for being here for me. Thank you all. Good night.

Hi family this is Biola from Maryland I hope you’re all doing well. Brian and Jill God bless you. Jill, happy birthday again. Family I want to pray for my brother from Sudan, Donald. God bless you. You’re my Nigerian brother as well as my brother in the Lord. I pray that God will comfort you and…and jut wrap His arms around you over the murder of your brother in Nigeria. Family I called in that one time to ask for prayers for our missionaries to Nigeria. They’ve been terribly persecuted by militant Muslims especially in the north and you can see what happened to our brother Donald’s brother…younger brother even though he’s a medical doctor helping them. Missionaries in northern Nigeria have been persecuted. I know of a family that the militants broke into…into their compound and shot the father, the mother, the children. But, you know, I want to give God praise that the bullets that went into them to not go into vital areas. So, the doctors were able to fish out the bullets. And then I know of pastors who were beheaded…beheaded in Nigeria. You know, please pray for missionaries both in Nigeria and around the world. My prayer in the name of Jesus is that the devil would cease and desist. You know, using this people in the name of Jesus that they will come to their knees and they will come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And if they don’t cease-and-desist I pray that the Lord will deal with them in the name of Jesus. Sister I heard your prayer, the sister that has been separated for several years. I pray that the Lord will bring a restoration in your marriage in the name of Jesus. God bless you family. Biola from Maryland.

Good morning this is Running Desperately to Jesus last time I called I know I spoke of having my grandson with me but today I’m asking for prayer. The flesh has caused me to sin against the temple of God. It has even impacted my relationship and faithfulness to God. I have not walked away from God and I made a promise I never would no matter how low of my behavior became. Met a guy, red flags all over, but because I got tired of being lonely, fell into justification of the reason why he treated me. Well yesterday I went by his house shows me how much or how little I think of myself, basically put me out, stood me up didn’t give any type of reason why put me out. I say all of that DABbers to let you know I need prayer. I think very little of myself. I let this person treat me and speak to me any way just so that I could get the moment of affection be it just holding me, saying all the right things. And now I feel like trash. Running Desperately to Jesus. I’m just asking…

Good morning DAB family Abby here from Maryland. Today is July 7^th and I am out on my walk and I just want to thank God for all that He’s been doing in each and every of our lives. I want to give God the glory and thank Him for this day for the opportunity to be still in His presence. Thank you, Brian, thank you the entire Hardin family. May God continue to keep you. Brian I was really moved by your exultation this morning on today’s reading of July 7^th, especially in the book of Proverbs where someone who’s offended can be like a castle or city gates. It’s hard to please the person or appease the person. And I’m praying that may we extend grace when we have been offended and may we ask for mercy when we have been the one who has offended someone, grace to humble ourselves always under the mighty hands of God. So, you guys have been amazing, you’ve been awesome in my life. I lift each and every one of you into God’s hands. May He keep you. May He watch over you. May He lift His face of continence upon you and give you peace. And as we go into the next half of this year my prayer is that God’s grace covers us, God’s mercy keeps us. May He watch over us. May He be our King of Kings and Lord of lords. You all have a good day. Abby here.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Melody from Canada and this is probably the most personal prayer request I have. It’s July 7^th and after hearing Brian talk about offense and this __ I just realized that I’m offended by God. I…because of things I’ve gone through - being raped, by a little brother dying - just other…other really hard things it’s hard for me to trust God. It’s hard for me not to be offended by Him. And the whole theology of end day judgment, I believe in it, I believe in accountability. But because I’ve been rejected and traumatized, the idea of God, the lover of my soul rejecting anyone and subjecting them to eternal torment is just…it’s so…it just makes me so angry and I don’t understand how…anyway I know this…there’s like all different views but I…I want to know the truth and I want to be able to be at peace with God and love Him and trust Him and know that I’m chosen by Him and just be at peace with how He runs the universe. And, so, I’m hoping to talk about that with Him on my long walk today. So, if you could pray for me as always feels like this tug-of-war of not being able to completely trust. And just this…I guess the original lie of God is holding onto power…somehow, He’s actually not good. So, yeah, I really want breakthrough on that, and I pray for all of us today on our long walk. I pray that we’ll all be able to do it and really meet with God, really engage with Him and hear from Him for the rest of our year. Love you guys.

1 Chronicles 9:1-10:14, Acts 27:21-44, Psalms 8:1-9, Proverbs 18:23-24

Today is the 10^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you. What a joy to have another day. Here we are at the end of another week. So, yeah, congratulations on that to all of us. We have made it day by day step-by-step all the way to the 10^th day of July, which is, you now, a third…a third of the way through the seventh month of the year. So, we’re…we are indeed moving along in our voyage, and yet…and for all that we’ve seen there is so much out in front of us. So, let’s dive in. We’re in the book of first Chronicles. We’ve been reading through the genealogies, which are famous and we’re working our way through these names and these families and the story that’s told through those names of exile and separation and hope and defeat and everything else involved in human life. But most importantly, they’re here so that they will not be forgotten. I means, this is one of the ways. The genealogies is one of the ways for the people to know who they were and where they came from and for that matter who their God was. And, so, let’s dive in. We’ve been reading from the English Standard Version this week. First Chronicles chapters 9 and 10 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we are, you know, in first Chronicles we’re moving into the narrative part of this book and we’re revisiting some of the story of Saul and his death today and we will continue that story and like…like I said when we began it may sound familiar, because we are moving through the same stories, but we are moving through the stories from a just…a different perspective. When we were going through Samuel and Kings, we had this focus on the kings but now we’re looking at the same stories through more of a priestly viewpoint. And, so, that’s what’s going on. And, so, we’ll kind of continue our way through some of the stories that we have become familiar with as we’ve read through the books of Kings.

Paul, in the book of Acts is…is back on a ship but he’s not on a missionary journey per se. He’s on a journey to Rome to stand trial before the Emperor. And there has been some problems with the travel indeed. And, so, you know, basically what we’ve gone through now as they’ve been drifting in the open sea, and a storm that will not stop for the last couple of weeks and pretty much hope has been lost for survival but then they realize they were approaching land. And, so, we are going to find ourselves shipwrecked on an island that we will soon discover is called Malta. And, of, course Malta is still an island. It still exists until today.

Then we get to the Psalms, and David is just pondering the vastness of God, the power of God, the Majesty, “how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory of above the heavens.” Just worshiping God for his vastness for the unfathomable power, the unfathomable creativity. “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?” Right? So, he’s just like finding his place in humility before the Lord. Like, “how is it that you who I can’t even comprehend, how could you pay any attention to me at all?” And then he goes on to say, “you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings”, talking about humanity, talking about us. And this “heavenly beings”, this has been translated a lot of ways, probably for an obvious reason. Like it’s been translated, “angels, a little lower than the angels” in the Septuagint. It’s translated “heavenly beings” here but the earliest manuscripts are “God, you have made him a little lower than God and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet.” Could we consider what he’s saying here for a second? I mean even if even we…even if it bends our mind to say, “you have made him a little lower than God”, which is what the Hebrew says. Even if we’re like, “okay. I can’t do that, but I can be a little lower than the angels, that we have been crowned with glory and honor from God and He has given dominion over the works of his hands. Like we are stewarding what He has made.” Well, that’s quite a responsibility across the board because He has made people, He has made the world, He has made the animals and all of the species. And we’re supposed to care. We’re supposed to steward all of this. And what an invitation. I mean what…what an invitation from God to collaborate in His creation, and the maintenance of what He has created. What gift that He would entrust that to us, that He would entrust the fact that we should care for each other because we are created beings in His image. What a gift. What an invitation, that we should care for the world that He’s given us, or that we should care for the bodies that He’s given us, or that we should care for the beauty all around us. What an invitation from God. And, so, of course, if…if we open our hearts to this, we come to the same conclusion, we come to the same place as David. “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Prayer:

Father, that is our declaration. That is what our hearts cry out when we become aware of Your presence and the vastness of Your power and glory that is crying out from the universe itself. We look into the night sky and we look thousands and thousands of…if not hundreds of thousands of light years away at light that has been burning from something that You set there for us to see it. You are vast, You are almighty, You are the most-high God. And, so, our hearts join in across time back thousands of years to join hearts with David’s words as they were being penned, “how majestic is Your name in all the earth O Lord! How is it that You would pay any attention to us? And yet You do and we are humbled and we want to join You in Your work of caring for and collaborating with and in Your creation. Come Holy Spirit and show us what that looks like, what that looks for each of us because we all have all kinds of stories and we’re all over the world in different places and come from different persuasions and different cultures. And yet we are all created in Your image. And we open ourselves to Your use today. Come Holy Spirit lead us we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Song:

How Majestic is Thy Name - Keith Green

Oh Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is thy name in all the Earth.
Oh Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is thy name in all the Earth.

Thou has displayed thy splendor above the heavens.
Thou has established strength from mouths of infants,
To show all thine enemies.

Oh Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is thy name in all the Earth.
Oh Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is thy name in all the Earth.

For when I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers.
The moon and the sun which thou hast appointed.
For what is man, that thou dost take thought of him,
And the son of man, that thou dost care for him.

Hallelujah Lord our Lord,
Oh how I love you.
Hallelujah Lord our Lord,
Oh how I love you.

You’ve made man a little lower than all of the angels,
And crowned him with glory to rule over your creation.
And under his feet,
You’ve put the beasts of the field,
The birds of the heavens and what passes through the seas,
The birds of the heavens and what passes through the sea.

Hallelujah Lord our Lord,
Oh how I love you.
Hallelujah Lord our Lord,
Oh how I love you.

Hallelujah Lord our Lord,
Oh how I love you.
Hallelujah Lord our Lord,
Oh how I love you

1 Chronicles 7:1-8:40, Acts 27:1-20, Psalms 7:1-17, Proverbs 18:22

Today is the 9^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and an honor to be here with you today as we move ever deeper into the summer and the summer heat. And I know those of you in the southern hemisphere are experiencing winter and moving into winter, which is always so odd to think about, but it’s the world we live in and it’s the one we’ve got, and it’s such a beautiful gift from God. So, it’s great to be here with you wherever you are on this big beautiful blue planet we call home for now. And let’s take the next step forward in the Scriptures on the adventure of a lifetime that we find ourselves in this year. So, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Today first Chronicles chapters 7 and 8. And yeah, as we began Chronicles, we’ve been working through genealogies, lots and lots of names, fathers who fathered who fathered who fathered and how the people came to be. But within the next couple of days we will kind of come…come to a conclusion of the genealogies and move into the narrative, but today we’ll continue with what we’ve been doing. First Chronicles chapter 7 and 8.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we can talk about, you know, the genealogies and the movement forward. We could talk about Paul.

Now Paul’s on his way to Rome to stand trial before the Emperor and is having a rough go. They’re being tossed around the ocean, the Mediterranean Sea trying to get to Rome.

But let’s focus on one solitary verse today and perhaps this is the thing to meditate upon all day long and it’s from the book of Psalms. “Behold the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.” So, you know, probably everybody who’s listening to me understands the nature of things, where babies come from and how long it takes to incubate a baby before birth can be given to the baby and that’s called pregnancy. And then birth is given and then there’s the new child. And, so, this happens over a period of time and it’s all very intimate, right? Conception is about as intimate as two people can get. And pregnancy, I’ve obviously never been pregnant, but I’ve been through pregnancies and watched my wife and watched the changes in her and the way that she is getting to know the baby and the way we’re thinking and dreaming about the baby and feeling that baby kicking. And, so, this is pregnancy leading way to birth. “The wicked person conceives evil.” This is very intimate. “And is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.” So, if we become intimate with evil, right, allowing it within us…I don’t want to get overly graphic here, allowing it within us, we can be impregnated with mischief that will give birth to lies, which should tell us that we should be very careful about what we are letting inside of us. This is just a different way of discussing the law of sowing and reaping, right? You reap what you sow. You give birth to lies after you have been pregnant with mischief because you have been intimate and conceived from evil. Now understand what we’re reading here. This is poetic language. So, those of us who are like, “give me the literal way to just kind of…just tell me what to do. I don’t want esoteric thinking or meditating.” Just…then you’re not gonna get that out of poetry. It’s hard to get that out of songs because what art does is open us up to deeper, wider, higher truths, a larger awareness because talking about certain things, where do you…how do you get there? Like, how do you describe love with…without getting into any kind of poetic language whatsoever because you are talking about something that is bigger than the word itself or bigger than a phrase. So, we have poetry here and in poetic language. So…so, the Bible isn’t telling us, “if you think an evil thought it’s like you are having sex with evil and you’ve gotten yourself pregnant and you’re gonna do bad things.” It's…it’s a poem and it’s here for us to meditate upon and consider what we are allowing within us, what we are allowing to be conceived within us and it’s using this language to help us understand that this is very intimate what we’re doing and it can lead us into deep darkness.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. And as we think it over today, we invite Your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit come and show us the places that we are getting too intimate with evil. We need none of that. We need intimacy and oneness in union with You and You alone and we want nothing else. So, come Holy Spirit. Indwell us, fill us, lead us in the way that we should think. Lead us into the things that we should say, lead us in our actions today we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here around the Global Campfire and the community we share. So, check it out.

Check out the Community section, that's…definitely gives you the links to get connected.

Check out the resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop that are created for this journey. Also, the resource, of course, this isn’t in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, you have to get this at the iTunes store or at the Google Play store, but the new resource called Heart, a contemplative journey that has just released and is vastly more popular than I was expecting. And, so, so grateful…so grateful that this reaches the ears of…of so many and yea…just the feedback that I’ve heard has been so encouraging that journey that I took for so long just trying to pour my own heart out in musical form, just to like speak beyond words to the depths of my own soul and the prayers that kind of were coming from that in my own life, to see that, yeah, I wasn’t…I’m not alone, we’re in this together and that this has been an encouragement. That has been…that has been a true joy. And, so, Hearts, a contemplative journey. Even though we released it for the long walk and it’s perfect for the long walk, it’s perfect for any time we need to re-center and re-orient and that sems to be needed now more than ever. We just have a little bit of time to step away and remind ourselves, we are the children of God. He’s got us. He’s got us. All we have to do is slow it all down enough to become aware that. His presence is all around us. So, Heart, a contemplative journey is…is…is that journey. And, so…so, that's…that’s available at iTunes, the iTunes Store or the Google Play store. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the 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.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

1 Chronicles 5:18-6:81, Acts 26:1-32, Psalms 6:1-10, Proverbs 18:20-21

Today is the 8^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and a privilege and an honor to be here with you today as we take the next step forward. Hopefully you had a good long walk yesterday. I love seeing all the pictures. I had a wonderful time myself. Feeling refreshed and ready to hear from the Scriptures today. So, we’ll go back into the book of first Chronicles that we’ve been working our way through. And we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. First Chronicles chapter 5 verse 18 through 6 verse 81 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So in the book of Acts today, Paul is again given the opportunity to share the message of Jesus and he does it while he’s offering his own defense against the accusations that the religious leaders of the…of the Jewish people had…had leveled against him that had kept him incarcerated. And, so, like today he’s defending himself while sharing the gospel with the new Roman governor whose name was Festus before King Herod Agrippa the second and the king’s sister Bernice. And there’s a ton of speculation that the king and his sister Bernice were involved in an incestuous relationship and they were both the children of Drusilla who was the wife of the previous Roman governor, Felix. And Paul spent a lot of time with Felix. The book of Acts tells us the Felix sent for him often, was even kinda hoping for a bribe. So, it’s important to just see. You know, Paul traveled all over the Roman Empire, establishing churches among the people, but now, because of his incarceration, because of the things that have happened that have got him under arrest and because he’s defending himself, he’s now sharing the gospel with the most influential people in the world at least this time and in this region. I mean since he was arrested in Jerusalem, he has shared the gospel with two Roman governors, the Jewish high Council, a king and two of the king’s sisters. And he just he just shared the gospel. Like he didn’t try to work it, you know, like to work it so he can get free. Like he just shared the gospel. It was his imprisonment that had opened the door to him even being in front of these people and he’s facing all kinds of opposition. This is the same way Jesus was treated. This is the same way Jesus told His followers that they would be treated and for that matter that we could find ourselves being treated. So, you know, things come against you, come against you, come against you, knock you down, knock you down, knock you down. You start throwing your hands up in the air going, “like, what do I gotta do to have a single day of smoothness.” I gotta confess I have I have done this. So, I’m speaking from experience. But what we see in the New Testament is the long view, a greater view an eternal view - eyes that are open to the fact that even if human life is taken away it’s not going to end life, this greater view that God’s will is going to be done and He’s going to do it through His people, and if it takes a long time that He is merciful and patient but we’re all participating in the march forward and we have to march ourselves forward so that we can collectively be marching forward. We all have a role to play. We all have a part in this, and with the greater view, God’s intention is to restore all things, to make all things new and we are marching forward on that path than that allows immediate circumstances to have context that still allows for hope even in the darkest of times. And we’re seeing this in the life of the apostle Paul as he goes really through his prison ministry, prison years.

Prayer:

Father as we continue this journey we invite Your Holy Spirit to continue to apply Your word to our lives, giving us awareness, opening our eyes, giving us context because we lose it all the time, ever day, all the time we lose the plot of the story. And yet Your word continues to show us the narrow path and return us to it and we are grateful. And, so, come Holy Spirit and plant the words from the Scriptures in our hearts and minds so that they become a part of our lives today. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that’s home base for all things around the Global Campfire, all the things that are going on around here. So, check that out.

We had the Daily Audio Bible long walk yesterday and it’s been beautiful as it is every year to see the different long walks that have been posted up to the to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and enjoy that. And O, I had a great time myself so needed, so needed. So needed, to just mark a day on the calendar and go like, “this day right here I have nothing to do but be with God and just let the day unfold. So, I trust that was a beautiful time for you as well. And you can see all…all that I’m talking about on the Facebook page for the Daily Audio Bible.

And we released a resource called Heart, a contemplative journey yesterday. That the certainly was a conversation starter for the long walk but it is really meant to be that at any point in time that we need to step away and we need an oasis that we need a reminder that we need to remember the goodness of God and His presence in all of the things that we feel and to help us interpret how we’re feeling as opposed to just feeling like we live in a washing machine on spin cycle all of the time. So, that resource is available, and you can get it at the iTunes store or at the Google Play. So, certainly check that out. Search for…you can search for my name or you can search for Hearty, a contemplative journey. And let’s keep the conversation going.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you humbly, profoundly for your partnership as we move into and through the summertime. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. 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, 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 get the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

1 Chronicles 4:5-5:17, Acts 25:1-27, Psalms 5:1-12, Proverbs 18:19

Today is the 7^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is a joy, it is an honor, it is a privilege just to be in your presence today, just to be here to take the next step forward as we gather around the Global Campfire and just let it go. All the stuff that’s going on, it’s gonna be there in a little while and we can pick it back up and carry on or we can reemerge out of this time with maybe some new perspective and a reminder that we’re not alone, we’re in this together and God will never abandon us. And, so, let’s just still ourselves, open our hearts to God’s word. We have been spending the last couple of days getting into the book of first Chronicles and we’ve talked about it. We’ve talked about first Chronicles. We’ve talked about genealogical names that we’re reading right now. And we’ll continue to read those names today, but hopefully since we talked about it a little bit yesterday, they’ll have some gravity. And soon enough we’ll…we’ll come out of that genealogical section into some of the stories in first Chronicles. We’re also nearing the end of the book of Acts. As we end this week, we will also end the book of Acts. So, let’s dive in. First Chronicles chapter 4 verse 5 through 5 verse 17 today. And, we’re reading from English Standard Version this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we can see we’re continuing with the genealogies in first Chronicles.

We can see that Paul, even though he’s like incarcerated and has lost his freedom he’s still on a missionary journey. It’s just that he’s not traveling around. Because he’s incarcerated people are coming to him. So, Paul’s testifying and we’ll continue this tomorrow, but Paul’s testifying with a proconsul in charge of the region on behalf of the Romans and a king today. He’s sharing the way of Jesus with people that he would scarcely even be able to see much less have a conversation with.

And then we get into the book of Proverbs. So, have you ever been offended in your life? That’s kind of a silly question probably. Have you ever been the offender? Have you ever offended anyone? Which is probably equally a silly question, but what does that feel like? What does it feel like when you are offended and the offender is trying somehow to make things right, but you are still in the steam of the moment? Or what does it feel like when you’ve done that? Like, you have made an offensive, you’ve said something to your spouse or whatever. And even as the words are spilling out of your lips, your like, “this is not something I should be saying.” And an offense happens, and you want to go and try to make this right, but you can’t because they’re unyielding. “A brother offended” the Proverb says “is more unyielding than a strong city and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.” Couldn’t be stated more simply than that, couldn’t be more true than that. When we find ourselves locked in an offense, we pull up the castle gates, fill up the moat and become an unyielding strong city. You are not getting in here. Some of this is…is a natural reaction but so often then we do not deal with these offenses. We let some time pass and then maybe there’s just a quick sorry or hug or whatever but the thing is left unresolved and so it’s still in there. And offense after offense after offense after offense and building up over time makes us an offended person. We’re very easily offended because we’ve been hurt and not dealt with it for so long. And, so, that begins to become a stew inside of our hearts that begins to bubble and percolate and boil over, all these unresolved things. And then we’re led into all kinds of assumptions because we’re in isolation. And before you know it, we are a very isolated, very resentful unhealthy person. So, you can look at today’s proverb and say, “yes, I identify. It’s just simply stating a fact. I don’t know exactly what to do about it.” And maybe a natural thing to do is to think that maybe, “well…I just have to be less offensive. Like I’ve gotta have tougher skin and not be so offended.” But actually, it’s not that, it’s dealing with the offense. Because the proverb is talking about a walled city, castle bars, like a closed…closed off unavailable heart. So, nothing…nothing is flowing. Nothing is coming in and out. There is no flow. Everything is walled off and undealt with. So, maybe the antidote here is humility. Maybe the antidote here if you are the offender is true deep humility. And maybe the move here for the offended is grace. Because we consume the grace of God every single day, every single moment. We depend on the mercy of God and He is depending on us extending that mercy into the world. So, if an offense can lock a person down, right, make them all walled city then imagine what repentance can do. Imagine what loyalty and grace and mercy and love can do. Maybe like Jericho, the walls can come tumbling down.

Prayer:

Father. We acknowledge there’s all kinds fences that are broken in our lives - broken relationships, broken stuff. Like, we are broken people and we seek You because there is no way to be restored. We are utterly helpless to change ourselves. And, so we come, and we come believing You will be gracious and merciful, and we come believing that by the power of Your Holy Spirit You will lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. And sometimes the narrow path that leads to life means that we have to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. And sometimes it means that we have to repent. Sometimes it means that we have to deal with things that are making us all walled city. And, so, whether we are the offender or the offended, because the truth is, we can identify on both sides of this coin. None of us are just perpetually offended, but we do know offending. We are all guilty and we all understand what’s going on here. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to help us deal with some of this so that the walls can come down, so that life can happen. And, so, Father when we offend, let us be humble. Let us first seek restoration and reconciliation in all humility. And when we are the offended help us Father to extend grace and mercy because it’s not gonna be that long before we need it to be extended to us. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And today is the 7^th of July so I’m probably talking to a lot of you who are out walking, out on a long walk just kinda getting into your day with God, taking that long walk and drinking in the beauty of nature, just getting eyes to see, like to look differently to become aware that life is happening all around us and we were unaware because we were so busy or we were so full of anxiety or fear or whatever. But this is like a reprieve from that, just a break from that, a re-centering, a time to just pour out our hearts, a time to be still and know that He is God, time to listen for His leading and direction as we…you know…as we’re here, like pretty, pretty close to the dead center of the year. And, so, first half of the year has had its trials and it’s been weird and strange, but now we’re heading into the second half of the year and what is that supposed to look like. And, so, that’s really what the long walk is all about. And, so, I’m with you. I’m on the same journey and doing the same thing. And every year it’s so meaningful to just have one day to let it go and ask our Father…like show me how to aim myself, give me the north star and I can follow when it gets so crazy because it’s been so crazy. Show me where I should head so that I don’t get off to the left or off to the right, so that I’m not off in the weeds off the narrow path that leads to life. Show me what I need to know. And I love that He does, and He loves us and that He walks with us when just slow it all down and get comfortable in His presence. So, enjoy your time.

I’ve been mentioning this new resource that released today at midnight. So, it’s available now. It’s called Heart, a contemplative journey. And I thought, after creating all this, I thought this is really…in our community here, this is this is perfect for the long walk because it gets the conversation going. It’s like a guided prayer and then music plays over us as we invite God into all of the different emotions that…that this project contains and lot of the different emotions that we’ve all been feeling. So, it just kind of gets us into that place where we can then…ahh…relax and be with God on this long walk. So, you can find this project and download it today. It’s all available in the iTunes store or in the Google Play store. You search for Hearts, a contemplative journey or you can search for my name and it should come up. And it’s here to accompany us for part…for part of the journey, for part of the day, for a little part of the day to kind of, like I said, move us into the space that we need to be in to just enjoy fellowship with God. And, so, that’s available and is a…is a great accompaniment to the long walk. So, check that out.

And those of you who are all over the world to doing your long walks, wherever it is that you went, wherever it is that you are, out in nature, out in beauty, just snap a picture, maybe you want to shoot a little video and post that to…like as a comment to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible and then we will post them up on the page and just watch as the day unfolds and look at all the different little windows into each other’s lives. And over the next day or two it’s just a beautiful thing to see. So, looking forward to that like every year.

And, so, yeah, I know we’ve already prayed, but let me pray over our long walk. Jesus it’s simple. We’re slowing down the world and stepping away from the world that we’re in but not of and becoming aware that we’re not of it. But this world that You have created is magnificent and Your presence is permeating it all. And, so, come Jesus as we spend this time with You getting reacquainted with the lover of our soul. We love You. Be in and among and through and above and beneath and around us. Give us direction and clarity for the second half of this year we pray. In Your precious name, we ask. Amen.

Song:

In the Garden – Marvin Sapp

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses

He speaks and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet that the birds they hush their singing
And the melody that He sends to me
Within my heart is still ringing

And, and He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me that I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry, tarry there
None other has ever, ever known
None other has ever, ever known

None other has ever known
None other has ever known
None other has ever known

1 Chronicles 2:18-4:4, Acts 24:1-27, Psalms 4:1-8, Proverbs 18:16-18

Today is the 6^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue our journey forward. And we’ve just recently, yesterday, moved into some new territory in the Old Testament as we begin the books of Chronicles. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. First Chronicles chapter 2 verse 18 through 4 verse 4.

Commentary:

Okay. Just a couple things to point out as we get moved into this new week. In the book of first Chronicles we’re reading a lot of names and, you know, who fathered who and who his son was and then who his son was and then who his son was and then who his son was etc. etc. etc. and this is kind of, you know, the famous portion of the Bible where people are like, “why are all these names in the Bible?” And even as a kid I would encounter this and be like, “why? Why’s this in the Bible? Like, why would we even read this? Who even cares about this?” And…and that kind of holds true up until today where it’s like, “why all the names?” And, you know, when I first began to do this the names, you know, they’re just…they’re…they’re unusual names and difficult to pronounce names, tongue tying kinds of names. So, even I would come passed this and go, “great, this is the Bible. Yes, we need to read this. Yes, yes, yes. But why is this in here anyway?” Until I began to realize this is coming from exile. And then everything started to make sense, because I’ve places where there has been exile and destruction and war and genocide even. And, so when we come to this portion of the Scriptures, we usually talk about this a little bit because when we understand a little bit better it makes us actually want to hear those names. So, I've…I mean I’ve been places in the world that have commemorated the Holocaust in World War II, the, you know, the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people. And there are museums, many throughout the earth that take a look at this. I’ve also been to places like Rwanda in Africa where genocide took place and that…they…they have a completely different way of doing things there. They’ve in some cases just left…left the bodies that have become skeletons where they fell. Like they've…or they’ve collected the bones of people who were just massacred even in places like churches. They just kind of…they didn't…they’re just…their skeletons are there in part so that the horribleness of what happened won’t be forgotten. And it's…well…it’s difficult indeed, but it also makes you never forget, which is kind of the point. The point is to remember so that you don’t have to go this way again, so that nobody, future generations won’t forget either, so that they can come back and see where the road leads if things get out of control. And then of course there are like national museums throughout the earth for some of the atrocities that have happened. And, although I haven’t been to every one of those in the world I’ve been to several and in these usually you usually find a quiet room. Maybe it’s dimly lit. Like in my mind’s eye right now I think of the national genocide memorial in Kigali in Rwanda. And there’s…there’s a room there that’s quiet and there are clothes…there’s clothing there of people that were wearing those clothes when they were murdered. And there’s thousands of photographs of people who were lost. And then this kind of a big round place you can come sit in the middle of the room just, you know, sit quietly and you begin to hear a quiet voice saying name after name after name after name, never-ending so that those names will be spoken out so that they will not be forgotten. And, so, that what happened that took them off the earth will not be forgotten either. So, here in Chronicles Israel as we’ve known it all along the journey that we’ve taken to this point, those people, those 12 tribes are gone. They have no ruling over themselves whatsoever. They have no land. They have no nation. The promised land is gone. The 10 tribes in the north have been carried into exile by the Assyrians and they are gone. Judah has fallen to the Babylonians and the Babylonians have exiled them into Babylon. The homeland is lost. People have been killed. Families have been torn apart. People are all over…all over the place and these names are to remember who they are and what happened to them. And, so, in a real way when we read these names, we’re kind of participating in that same kind of thing. We’re saying them aloud so that they’re not forgotten because the intention here, like the Babylonian intention…intention is to move everybody out of Judah, move them somewhere else, move other people into Judah, so that at some point within the next couple of generations there’s only the Babylonian Empire, like everything’s Babylon. Nobody really has allegiance to some kind homeland and some kind of localized gods and all this kind of stuff. So, they’re trying to obliterate that whereas here in first Chronicles the Hebrew people are trying to not forget who they are, where they came from, and who God is. And that changes things.

And then we flipped over into the book of Acts. We’ve seen Paul go to Jerusalem, even though he knew what was going to happen and it did happen and he is under arrest and he’s had to be spirited out of Jerusalem to Caesarea on the coast where he can be protected because there’s an assassination plot where people have vowed not to eat or drink until they kill Paul. So, it’s pretty serious and Paul for the first time now is Caesarea gets to begin to state his case because the Hebrew people, the elite religious leaders have come to accuse Paul. And, so, what we see now is Paul beginning to share the gospel as a part of his defense and in the process he is sharing the gospel with people that he would never be able to meet with likely, like that he would never be able to sit down and have a conversation with. So, he is sharing the gospel to more powerful people than he had access to. And we see Felix today, summons Paul number of times, even though he’s hoping for a bribe. Paul is able now to have access to powerful people that he would’ve never been able to get to any other way. And, so, we’re seeing the gospel continues even though Paul has lost his freedom.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the…the way that it reaches into our lives and touches us in so many ways on so many levels. Sometimes it disrupts us. Sometimes we take a step back and go, “wait. What?” Sometimes immense revelation comes flowing into our hearts where things we’ve been struggling with for so many years, all the sudden clarity comes. We are thankful for this. We are thankful for the living word that continues to be alive within us and we thank You for the opportunity to be here every day to take the next step forward. And, so, Father plant the words that we’ve read into our hearts today and may they yield the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts, and may that spill out into the world and may we bring light and good news to everyone within our sphere of influence. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and its home base and it is where you find out what is going on around here.

And what is going on around here is tomorrow. Tomorrow is the 7^th of July, which may not look like a holiday on your calendar but it’s our own, it’s our own little Global Campfire holiday, something that we call the long walk. And it’s exactly that. I’ve been talking about it for the last couple weeks. It’s as simple as it sounds. Go for a long walk with God wherever it is that you find beautiful, wherever it is that you can go that you can drink in the fact that God is sustaining this world and pouring out beauty upon us to remind us constantly, but we’ve got our heads in our anxieties and our stresses so much that we not… we’re not even opening our eyes to notice and it’s getting crazier and crazier and crazier the more that we try to do it on our own. And this is that moment where we stop the world and we focus on resetting ourselves for the second half of the year and we have the conversations with the Lord that we need to have that we’ve been too busy that we just haven’t been able to just without interruption just pour ourselves out and we haven’t had the time to sit and listen and be still and know. And, so, every seventh of July we take that day for this purpose. Regroup, reset and move forward into the second half of the year with renewed purpose and renewed awareness of…of what’s going on in our own lives but what’s also going on like we’re participating in as we move forward in time together on this earth. And, so, that's…man…that’s tomorrow.

And we have a new resource, Heart, a contemplative journey that releases tomorrow and will be available for the long walk. You can get it at…at the iTunes store and get it at the Google Play store and have it ready. Like, preorder it today and will be waiting for you tomorrow for your long walk. And it is…it is a conversation starter. It takes us through an hour of guided prayer and contemplative music and leads us to our own hearts, helps us to acknowledge the things we’ve been going through, the things, the emotions that we’ve been feeling and maybe why those emotions have come, and how maybe we’ve misinterpreted things, and invited God…invite…invites God into the midst of it all and is a perfect way to begin the long walk and just move into a different space because that’s really what we need, is to get out of all that’s going on and rest for a day and re-center ourselves on what is true for a day so that we can move into the second half of the year in Spirit and in truth. So, I’m looking forward to it. I hope you’re looking forward to it. It’s definitely a solitary thing to do but it is a community thing that we do. Even though we’re doing it alone all over the world are doing it together. So, I’m just saying wherever you go, and whether you just got in the backyard or whether you go hours…whatever…wherever you go, whatever you do. Maybe you want to take a picture. Maybe you want to take a little video. Maybe you want to remember this day. And post that comment that…at the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and then we’ll post it up and we just have these windows into the beauty of the earth, into the beauty of the long walk all over the world and just little windows into the places in the world we all live and the beauty of the day. So, I’m looking forward to that and I hope you are too.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link that lives on the homepage. I thank you with all of my heart for your partnership. 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 can hit Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17, Acts 23:11-35, Psalms 3:1-8, Proverbs 18:14-15

Today is the 5^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today. I trust you are doing well wherever you are on this big beautiful planet that God has given us as a gift to dwell upon. And what a joy it is that we share in this particular patch of history together. And, so, that’s what allows us to be here now and take the next step forward. And that next step forward is going to lead us into a new book. So, we concluded the book of second Kings in the Old Testament yesterday and the book of second Kings ends in a very dire kind of way. So, while we were moving our way through second Kings, the Assyrians invaded the north, right, and the 10 tribes of the nation of Israel or conquered and deported or exiled and new people were brought in. And Assyria is in control of that region but then in yesterday’s reading we saw the Babylonian Empire invade Judah and a lot of back-and-forth over a lot of years. They were kind of a vassal state, etc. etc. but ultimately Babylon came and surrounded Jerusalem and broke in and destroyed it utterly including demolishing the temple of God and burning Jerusalem to the ground and deporting or exiling Jerusalem, but also Judah. So, yeah, the thing is that we need to understand is that these people that we’ve been traveling with since the book of Genesis, we watched them form, we traveled with them. It’s over. Like ancient Israel as we knew it is over, the people are in exile. The people of the north, the kingdom of Israel, they’re gone. They’ve been assimilated. They’ll never be cohesive tribes ever again. Meanwhile, the people of Judah are exiled in Babylon and we’ll continue this story and see that the remnant is allowed to return to Jerusalem eventually, but things are never ever, ever gonna be the same. So, we just crossed a threshold and we’re kind of moving into what comes next, because what came before is no more.

Introduction to the book of Chronicles:

And, so, today we’re moving into the book of…books of Chronicles, so first and second Chronicles. And we’re not really sure who wrote, who collected the Chronicles, but there are Jewish traditions that suggest Ezra the priest was involved in this. And there isn’t even a total consensus among biblical scholars about the dating of the Chronicles, but we can generally assume that these were written probably four, four and a half centuries before the common era, so before the time of Jesus. And if that’s true, that would make the writings contemporary with the priest Ezra. So, what we’re gonna do is begin to read this and all of a sudden, things will probably sound familiar, like, “didn’t we read this already? Like, I remember this” because first and second Chronicles is gonna cover a lot of the same territory that we were covering while we were moving through the books of Samuel and the books of the Kings but the whole story is coming from a different perspective. Chronicles will look at the same history that we’ve just gone through, but it will be looking through the eyes of the priests, whereas we have previously been…been looking at the Kings. So, we ended Kings, second Kings yesterday as Judah was…was defeated and the exile began to Babylon. And, like I just said, that ended the ancient era of the promised land. The books of first and second Chronicles that we’re heading into now would have then been composed or written down from this exile. And for lots of reasons, but one reason would be the empire building tactics at this time were to deport or exile people into other conquered lands while rotating in other conquered peoples, right, so that a common story could be built while the ancient homeland story would be eradicated over time. So, these things are written down to remind the children of Israel who they even are and where they came from and what their origin is and who God is. And, so, it’s chronicling this. And, so, the first nine chapters that we’re about to cover, they’ll be a lot of genealogy. And this is the part of the Bible, we get to these hard to pronounce names and we start wondering, “like, why am I reading page after page of names?” But as we go through this we’ll see that these names are important, they tell a story. They tell generation after generation after generation. This is exile, people have been killed, families have been split apart and sent to different regions or cities. Things aren’t gonna be the same again. But then there’s these names, these names in the book of Chronicles, and they’re there as a testament, as a witness to the people that were there and who they were and how they all lined up together to be this common family, the children of Israel. And, so, let’s dive in. First Chronicles chapter 1 verse 1 through 2:17. And we’ll read from the English Standard Version this week.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word as we do every day because it is the context for why we are even here, and the centerpiece for why there is a community around this Global Campfire. And, so, we are grateful for Your word and the rhythm that it brings into our lives, day by day step-by-step forward. Certainly, forward in time, forward through a year, forward to life, but forward in life as well as we learn and grow and deepen our understanding and press into deeper depths of relationship with You. And, so, we are grateful. And as we move into this shiny sparkly new week, we invite Your Holy Spirit to lead and guide our steps in all that we do and all that we say and all that we think. Come Jesus we ask. In Your mighty name, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and its home base, of course, and its where you find out what’s going on around here.

And it’s just a couple of days from now. The day after tomorrow is the 7^th of July and we’ve been talking about the 7^th of July I guess for the last week and half, two weeks. It’s the Daily Audio Bible long walk. It’s a day that we go for a long walk with God, open our hearts to all that He has to say, say everything that we need to say uninterrupted and just allow a day with God to refocus and re-center us. It’s incredible what getting still can do. And, so, that’s coming up on Tuesday. Go somewhere…I mean it’s simple. Go somewhere beautiful weather near or far and take the day and go for a walk and…and enjoy the serenity of nature, the beauty of God’s creation and feel God’s presence all around you and say what you need to say and hear what you need to hear.

And this year we have a new resource that’s just perfect for the long walk. It’s called Heart, a contemplative journey and it’s kind of a guided prayer and a musical healing journey. It’s something that’s kind of come out of my own life over the last couple of years and it’s just fantastic conversation starter for the long walk. So, check that resource out. It is available for preorder at iTunes in the iTunes store or in the Google Play store, you know, where you get your music. And just search for Hearts, a contemplative journey, or you can search for my name and you’ll find it and it’ll to be available on Tuesday in time for the long walk. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. And I cannot thank you enough as we move into the summer months for your partnership. 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 can in the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

2 Kings 23:31-25:30, Acts 22:17-23:10, Psalms 2:1-12, Proverbs 18:13

Today is the 4^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today. Happy 4^th of July. It’s a major national holiday in the United States, Independence Day. It also happens to be my wife Jill’s birthday, so she gets a grand celebration every year. So, happy birthday, Jill. And here we are at the end of…end of another week together. And this week…this week transitioned us from one month to another and we’ll spend our first full week in the month of July, beginning tomorrow. But we are here and let’s take the next step forward. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Second Kings chapter 23 verse 31 through 25 verse 30.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another week together in Your word. We thank You for bringing us safely and successfully into this, the 7^th month of the year and Father we thank You for our freedoms and I…I thank You for the birth of the little baby who would become a girl who would become a woman and would one day become a wife, my wife, and I thank You for her. And Father as we move forward into this month fully in the coming week, we invite Your Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. Direct our steps, direct our thoughts and emotions, direct our intentions, guide our wills. We surrender to You. We throw our hands up in surrender, and worship. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. It’s the 4^th of July so it’s like a major national holiday in the United States. It’s my wife’s birthday as I mentioned earlier. So, that's…that’s for sure what’s going on, at least in my neck of the woods and I certainly wish Jill a happy birthday. I don’t think any of this would here without…without my wife. The greatest things in my life have to do with her. So, I am personally grateful. And, so, those of us in United States we’re takin’ a day, but then in a couple of days from now, Tuesday the 7^th of July, we as a community take a day and it’s called the long walk.

And we’ve talking about it so your pretty aware of what’s going on, but it’s a long walk that I’m looking forward to. I…I think we are all probably generally on the same page. Like I’m more worn out halfway through the year then I remember just because it’s been so strange. And I went into the year and thinking, just this year of “Vision”, it’s 2020, we’re gonna see clear. And I, you know, you come into that with preconceived notions and I feel like actually we’re…we’re opening our eyes. Like we’re seeing things and in ways that we haven’t before. It just hasn’t been easy. And, so, this 7^th of July just to have a day to walk, to pray, to contemplate, to rejuvenate, to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation that unfolds before us all of the time, constantly, but we’re rarely paying attention to have that, to regroup, resettle, refocus the move into the second half of the year is very valuable thing this year.

And I’ve been talking about the resource that releases on the 7^th of July in time for the long walk, it’s called Heart, a contemplative journey. And it really is a conversation starter, a way of moving into the long walk, a way of acknowledging and opening our hearts to the emotions that we’ve been feeling and invite God into those things. Allowing Him to speak into those things is gonna be really helpful. So, that’s available for preorder now. It releases on the 7^th of July in time for the long walk. It’ll just be there waiting for you. So, at the iTunes store at the Google Play store just search for Heart, a contemplative journey or you can search for my name and be able to find there. So, those are the things that are coming up and I’m really looking forward, actually really looking forward to Tuesday. So, make plans to take some time. Go for a long walk with God.

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 profoundly and humbly for your partnership. 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 can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little button, red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

2 Kings 22:3-23:30, Acts 21:37-22:16, Psalms 1:1-6, Proverbs 18:11-12

Today is the 3^rd day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we continue the journey that we set sail on so many months ago. And now we’re out in the middle. We’re out in the deep. And, yeah, the second half of the year has some depths for us. So, let’s get to it. We are in the book of second Kings in the Old Testament, and we’ll be finishing up second Kings in the next couple of days. But today we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible. Second Kings 22:3 through 23:30.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the Old Testament, the book of second Kings today we read of the King Josiah and of his phenomenal, like very, very comprehensive reforms in the land of Judah. This came because the book of the law was found. So, it’s interesting. The book of the law had been hidden in the temple because the temple and been used for all kinds of things for a while, even bringing other deity worship, like idol worship into the temple. So, king Josiah’s having the temple repaired and the book of the law is found and its read in his presence and he has it read in everyone’s presence, essentially saying, “this is the direction we’re gonna head into. We’re gonna obey the law. We’re gonna obey the law that was given as our origin story, one of the things that pulled us together and knit us together as a people.” And, so, we read of him moving throughout the land and destroying the worship of any false God and restoring the worship of the God of Israel to the people.

Then we get into the New Testament, the book of Acts. We traveled with Paul all the way back to Jerusalem. Then we saw what the fuss was about yesterday because he…he gets arrested and we didn’t get much further than him getting arrested today. He had to be carried out by the guards because the people were trying to get at him. So, all we did was basically get to the steps of the barracks where Paul is having a conversation with a one of the officers that had taken him into custody and they think he’s somebody else but he’s like, “no, I’m actually a citizen and I want to address the people.” That’s where we are right now. Paul has waived his hands on the steps and this mob that’s been trying to get at him even to kill him hushes and then he begins to speak to them in Aramaic and they hush even more, and he begins to tell his testimony. This is where we see Paul was a Pharisee, he grew up in Jerusalem, he studied under Gamaliel, he was very very strict, he was very very much against the way of Jesus until he met Jesus. That’s essentially what he’s sharing today and we will continue with his testimony tomorrow.

And then in the Proverbs we read, “before his downfall a person’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.” In other translations we find instead of pride, haughtiness. A person’s heart is haughty before his downfall. What we’re essentially pressing into in Proverbs is the arrogance that we can feel when we feel as if we are in control, like that we…like everything’s going our way and we have made it that way and we are in control and then we look around at everybody else who isn’t, like everybody else whose…whose struggling and things we’ve mastered and our heart grows proud and we then demand honor. And this leads us to a downfall. Conversely, as the Proverbs does, we flip the coin and find out if we had just been humble in the first place honor would’ve come without our pride and arrogance and demands and suppressing people and looking down on people, which is only gonna lead to our own downfall. So, the trick here then is, if we want to be honorable then we have to be first humble.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. If we want to be honorable, we need to first be humble. And we are instructed in Your Word to humble ourselves under Your mighty hand so that in due season You will raise us up. And, so, all we can do right now is to say it. But even as we say it, we begin to shift our hearts posture. We humble ourselves before You God. We humble ourselves before our brothers and sisters. We repent of our arrogance. We repent of the constant feeling of competition, that we’ve got to be doing better than somebody else to even have an identity. We don’t have to be anything. We are Your children. We have it all already. We are just unaware of it. So, come Holy Spirit. May we walk in humility today and may that be honorable in Your site. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobble.com is home base and that’s the website and that is indeed how you stay connected.

The Prayer Wall, resources that are available in the Shop, Initiatives, things that are going on.

And it’s coming up, the 7^th of July is just a few days from now and that’s what’s immediately on the calendar. That is the Daily Audio Bible long walk. A day that that is our own little community event. Every seventh of July we just acknowledge where at the middle of the year and a lot has been going on and that has never been more true than this year, but it’s always true. A lot has been going on and probably if we acknowledge it, we’ve been more frantic then…then we would like, and we need to regroup. And the best way that I have found for that kind of thing is to go for a long walk with the One who knows me better than I know myself and just to get out into beauty to get quiet, to get silent, to hear the song of the birds, to hear the wildlife or the crickets, the insects, to just become aware that life is bursting out everywhere and I am mostly unaware of its because I am preoccupied with the cares of this life. And it’s very easy over time to just get lost, right? And then we’re just kind of…just trying to get through the day, just trying to get through the week, just trying to get to the next thing, to the next place, to the next goal that seems like it’s gonna bring wholeness when it was available. So, we do this every year and it’s very personal, very individual, but it’s something that we’re doing together. So, wherever you go, whether that’s that you just walk out your front door and go for a walk or whether that’s that you make some preparations and go and have a picnic with God and the whole 9 yards or whether you drive hours to a place that so…means something to you, it doesn’t a matter, Just wherever you go, maybe snap a picture. You’ll want to remember that you did this. Like you’ll want to remember your long. Take a little video or whatever, but you can post that as a comment to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and then we’ll post it up on the page and we’ll have these windows that open up. But even just looking at the pictures, just looking at the different places in the world, the beauty that is out there is also rejuvenating and healing. And to know that we did this together as our brothers and sisters around the world, it's…it’s beautiful and it resets some things that need resetting. We need to hit the reset button on some stuff. And, so, let’s make preparations for that on the 7^th.

We have this new resource. It’s called Heart, a contemplative journey and it is a guided prayer and musical exploration of some of the things, some of the emotions, some of the things that we’ve been facing and it just invites God into those places and it will open our hearts to him as we spend the day together on the 7^th of July going for a long walk with God. So, Heart is available for preorder now. Like at the iTunes store just search for, “Heart, a contemplative journey” or my name or whatever and you’ll find it or same with Google…Google Play. Just search for it and you’ll find it and you can preorder it. It releases on the 7^th of July, so it’ll be there waiting for you as we move into the long walk. So, check that out as a companion to this journey, And I am really looking forward to hearing…to hearing the stories. Really, I love it every year but this year we have a specific resource. It’s like the conversation starter and really really looking forward to that. 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 and it’s on the homepage and I thank you, I thank you for clicking 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 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or just hit the Hotline button, the little red button at the top in the Daily Audio Bible app and you can share right from there.

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