Author: Daily Audio Bible Transcripts

1 Samuel 12:1-13:23, John 7:1-30, Psalms 108:1-13, Proverbs 15:4

Today is the 12^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you. One month ago, today was Easter Sunday. Can you believe it? And here we are a month later continuing to move forward in the Scriptures and in life and together in community. So, what a joy it is to be here with you today taking that next step. This week we’re reading from the New International Version and we are working our way through the book of first Samuel. And, so, we reached the place where King Saul who was coronated, became the king, the first king of Israel. And, so, we’re getting to know Saul and we had a chance to get to know him a little bit as a person, but now we are going to get to know him as the king of Israel. And even as we do that, we’re preparing to say goodbye to the prophet, to the last judge, to the priest Samuel. So, today from the New International Version. First Samuel 12 and 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, here’s the…here’s the scenario that is shaped up in the first Samuel. Obviously, Samuel had some things to say to the people about this new king and he reminded them that they…that God was supposed to be their king and he testified against them, but he basically said that if they and their king would follow God then God would be in the midst of them and protect them and be their God, right? So, Saul begins to reign. The Philistines, so the enemies of Israel, encamp against them, right? So, they’re like drawing up battle lines. Saul does the same. And Saul is supposed to wait for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice and give further instructions about this ensuing battle, but while they’re waiting people are getting a little jittery about the fact that they’re waiting to go into battle and they could die. And, so, people are kind of slinking away here and there and it’s like Saul’s trying to keep his game face while he’s waiting for Samuel and Samuel still doesn’t show up. And a week goes by and Samuel still doesn’t show up. And, so, Saul decides, “okay, the people, the army is deserting me, and I have an encamped army against me, and the people are losing heart.” And, so, he decided to offer the sacrifice to God himself. In other words, to take matters into his own hand. And the reason that he wanted to take matters into his own hand was because of the fact that people were deserting him. So, he does this sacrifice and at the end of it, Samuel shows up and it’s not a good scene. Basically, what Samuel tells Saul is that his kingdom is coming to an end, even as its basically just beginning, that the kingdom has already been stripped away from him and God has selected another. So, when we saw Saul’s coronation that was in yesterday’s reading, we saw Saul was hiding, like hiding out at his own coronation. He’s afraid of man and what people think and we get the first clues of that. In today’s reading we see it on full display and it’s such a big deal, like it’s such a fatal flaw that God is going to select somebody else because this wasn’t really about ultimate and deep reverence for God, this was about Saul’s fear of being deserted by the army and Saul’s fear of what people were saying about him and what they were going to say about him. So, you know, where this kind of starts getting personal is when we start thinking about how we are swayed by the opinion of other people, like this…the swirl of it all, how we are trying to curate and fit ourselves into a certain mold so that good things, right, good things, so people say good things…not…not that that…that’s a bad thing to have people speak well of you. The point is the motivator, like what’s going on in your heart. What are you motivated to do this? And maybe we’ve been in these circumstances where we felt the leading of the Lord and we began to do what we were told, which led us to a period of waiting. Because this is what happened with Saul. He assembled the Army. They’re all lined up but he’s in a season or a time of waiting for the prophet to come and give further instructions. So, we can all find those kind of scenarios in our lives, where we’re told to do something, we’re prepared to do it and then there’s a period of waiting. And it’s like everybody is just kind of slinking away and maybe doing some talking or whatever. And, so, we try to take matters into our own hands to try to hold the whole thing together as if God can’t hold it together. But really what’s going on inside of us is that we fear whether or not God’s come through. It’s that we fear what others are gonna say. So, Saul is showing us in vivid detail this path of life and we’re nowhere near the end of our learning. But even as we get to know Saul, this first king, it’s like every day there’s something else to learn about the fear of man and where that road will ultimately lead when we’re trying to get an identity from the opinions, the ever-changing opinions of people instead of getting the opinion from our Creator who isn’t continually changing His mind about us based on the winds of change or culture or based even upon our performance. This is leading Saul down a treacherous path. It will lead us down the same treacherous path.

Prayer:

Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit to remind us of who we are, children of the most-high God. What else can be said about that? What kind of social media post can we post today that will make us look so great that will outdo that? And in knowing that this is who we are, like there’s nothing else above that, that we are Your children. So, we don’t need to prop ourselves up in some kind of smaller way. We’ve already won it all, it’s already all ours. You are our Father. And, so, Lord, even as we go through this story in first Samuel, we see these roads that Saul is gonna walk down. Show us how we get off the path and walk down the same roads so that we learn here, and we walk through this assured of who we are and where we’re going and who You are and where You’re leading. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on, it’s where the community gathers. It’s where the Global Campfire sort of is.

The Prayer Wall is there. Check it all out in the Community section.

Check out the resources that are available in the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. If…if what we’re doing, this rhythm of life day by day, step-by-step, through the Scriptures is life-giving to you than thank you very deeply and humbly for your partnership. So, 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 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 upper right-hand corner of 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.

1 Samuel 10:1-11:15, John 6:43-71, Psalms 107:1-43, Proverbs 15:1-3

Today is the 11^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we move forward and take the next step in our journey or sail the next mile or whatever metaphor we want to use for forward movement. We’re moving forward into this shiny new week and living into it for all that it’s worth. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week and we’re moving our way through the book of first Samuel. So, we’ve met Samuel, we kinda know his story even from before he was born. We know that he grew up under the high priest and was trained as a priest. We know that he’s a prophet and a priest and the final judge of Israel. And now we’re in the process…I mean…it may not seem like it but we’re in the process of a humongous transition in the story of the ancient Hebrew people. They’ve asked for a king. So, they want their kingdom or their country to be a monarchy. They want a king to rule them all and to organize them in some sort of way. And we have met a person and his name is Saul and Samuel’s telling him that he’s gonna be the king. That’s pretty hard for Saul to believe but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s pick up the story. First Samuel chapter 10 and 11 today.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of first Samuel, today we have turned the page, like we have entered a new era. We now have a king in Israel and that changes the dynamic, right? So, this begins to bring to close…to a close time of the Judges. And we read the book of Judges and we know that everybody was doing whatever they wanted, and it wasn’t working out all that great. And, a judge would emerge and would lead the people for their lifetime usually but, you know, then as soon as the vacuum…as soon as they were gone and there’s a void then it just kinda filled in with everybody doing whatever they want until some other catastrophe was upon them. And now they want a king, or they wanted to king and just kinda be done with that back-and-forth just to have a sovereign to rule them. And we met this guy and he became the king, Saul. So, now there is King Saul, the first king of Israel. Here’s where it kinda gets interesting. Remember that last story we read in the book of Judges, that horrible story about the man from Ephraim and the concubine and she gets killed, raped to death, basically and then parts of her are sent to different places, the regions, the tribes and everybody comes together against Benjamin. And then there’s this war and tens of thousands of people die and in the end the tribe of Benjamin is obliterated, like there are 600 people left in the tribe of Benjamin. It’s been essentially wiped from the face of the earth and we saw all the people mourning over that, like just realizing the loss of it. So, how they kind of try to repopulate…like to give the men that were left wives so that the tribe wouldn’t just completely disappear. But, you know, if you have a tribe of Judah and there are 30,000 people who can fight and, you know, that represents maybe 100,000 people or whatever, that’s a very, very different thing than 600 people are left in this tribe. So, you’re…you can be like, “okay. Thank you for that review. That was a nasty story, I didn’t need to hear that story again. What has that got to do with now? What has that got to do with what we’re reading?” Actually, kinda has a lot to do with God’s redemption in all things. So, Saul was not the firstborn, right? He didn’t have any rights in his family. He was not the first of his family. He was not the first of his clan. And he was not from the most populous or powerful tribe of Israel either as we might suspect. He was from that try that tribe, the of Benjamin. The one that was nearly wiped out provided the first king of Israel. And we see what he did. Like what he’s trying to rally people against the ammonites, he cuts up a sacrificial animal and sends it out to summon the people and they come, and they become victorious and this firmly places Saul on his throne. Unfortunately, he won’t firmly be placed on his throne for long but that is a story for another day. And there is a lot that King Saul can teach us about some of the darker avenues of our lives. And the first lesson was taught, in today’s reading. Saul was named as the chosen one to be the king of Israel, and Saul could not be found because Saul was hiding…hiding at his own coronation. And this little clue into the fear of man, that Saul can be swayed by what people think about him, this is gonna cause some problems but we all face that to some degree, some of us in very severe…like we can’t do anything without thinking about what people are going to think about us. If we watch the story of Saul we can learn an awful lot about that road,

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for bringing us into this new week. We thank You for bringing us into this new era in the Scriptures. We invite Your Holy Spirit to quicken us, to make us alert and aware as we move through these next days because there’s so much for us to learn about ourselves. And, so, we open ourselves to You. Come Holy Spirit as we continue the journey forward in the Scriptures, we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

If you’re, you know, if you’re struggling with some things there’s a Prayer Wall there at dailyaudiobible.com. And you can get to this in the app as well. But people are praying continually there and people are reaching out for prayer there. And it’s a great place to go for that. So, be aware that the Prayer Wall is there.

Check out the different social media links. This is…these are places that we are connecting in moving together in community. Check out the Daily Audio Bible women’s group. You can find the links to that in the Community section. If you are a woman and you’re not there then you’re missing out on a sisterhood as we move through the Bible that Jill leads up and is continually encouraging, encouraging, encouraging. And, so…so be aware of that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. 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 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, 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 Samuel 8:1-9:27, John 6:22-42, Psalms 106:32-48, Proverbs 14:34-35

Today is the 10^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we approach and move into a shiny, sparkly new week that is out in front of us, just waiting for us to live into and tell our story with. This gift of life that is before us is…is the gift from God and we get to make of it through our choices, through our thoughts, words and deeds whatever we like of it. And we can choose to honor God in it, which is what we’re choosing to do, in part, by meeting here around the Global Campfire every day and just allowing this space to exist, this safe, warm place that we have to let God’s word wash into our lives. So, let’s do that. We are getting to know Samuel. And, so, we’ve kind of learned his origin story, this…the story before he was even born and his mom…his mother Hanna and her prayer to God and for Samuel being raised up in Shiloh at the tabernacle and then we’ve gone through the loss of the Ark and Samuel’s emergence as the final judge of Israel. And, so, we will…we will continue that story. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. First Samuel chapters 8 and 9 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And even as we begin a new week so often the things that we think about are the things that we need to do and the things we need to accomplish in the span ahead. And then, often when we think of our relationship with You, we’re wondering similar things, “what am I supposed to do to make God happy? Like, what is God requiring of me?” And thankfully, as we begin this new week that question was answered in the Gospel of John from Your own lips, Jesus. And, so we’re thankful for that. You were asked that question, “what must we do to do the work God requires?” And so often we are internally asking that, “how do we find ourselves in Your will and in Your good graces?” You answered the question, “the work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” And, so, as we begin this new week, we do indeed declare that. We believe in the one God has sent. We believe that to be You, Lord Jesus. So, as we move into this week, we pray that we would become more and more like You, Christ like, Your hands and feet in this world. And we pray that Your Holy Spirit would guide and lead us into all truth. Come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth as we open ourselves to the truth. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

So…well…here in the United States today is Mother’s Day. So, I don’t want to let that pass by. Happy Mother’s Day mother’s! It’s pretty safe to say that none of us would be here without you. And, so… yeah…might be…I…I mean…a day for celebrating mothers, I don’t always mention these kinds of holidays because they are commemorated at different times of the year in different countries around the world. So…but…I was thinking about my own mom today. So, yeah, lost her a couple years ago. And, so, was thinking about her, was thinking about my wife, I was thinking about all you mothers. Happy Mother’s Day. It is an honor to be your sons and daughters. Thank you for bringing us into the world. Happy Mother’s Day.

And then, let’s see, dailyaudiobible.com is the website, and that is how you stay connected. Like, that’s the portal of entry, that's…what…where you get connected. And there is a Community section there that will give you social media links and access to the Prayer Wall. And this kind of how you step in and make points of connection. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. Within the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer the mail, 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 is it for today. I’m Brian it is great to be here with you for a brand-new week I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DAB family this is Abba’s Joy I am just calling. I just want to say thank you to Brian and I want to lift up his family right now during this time because it’s hard, it’s challenging, and the DAB community and Brian’s readings is what’s keeping me moving forward. And I just want to say thank you to Brian and to everyone who is part of this Campfire. And I just want to shout out to Blind Tony. I haven’t heard him in a while and I just pray all is well. And Tony the truck driver, I always love hearing from him, and I believe it’s been a minute and I just pray everything is going well with you. And I’d like to just pray or share a verse for those teachers, especially this is teacher’s appreciation week and also now parents who have now become homeschool teachers, educators. It’s been challenging as a teacher myself to juggle work and family and children and sometimes we lose sight. And, so, here’s a reminder. Galatians 6:9 says, “and let us not grow weary while doing good for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” So, I encourage everyone to stay in the Word, walk by faith because God’s blessings and strength will be provided to us as His children. I thank you guys so very much. I love you. God bless.

Lord I just want to say thank You. Lord I just want to say thank You. Lord I just want to say thank You for everything that You’re doing in people’s lives, for everything that You’re going to do. Lord just touch everyone in the sound of my voice. Lord continue take our mind, body and soul. And Lord just do…have Your way. Lord if it is Your will Lord it shall be done. Lord continue to keep us, continue to love us, continue to do us and be us in our lives. Lord I want to say thank You for everything that You’re doing and that You have done Lord. Lord because You don’t do anything else Lord You’ve done enough. Lord and I just want to say thank You for everything that we have Jesus. Lord just touch those hospitals, touch the police, touch the nurses, touch the president, Lord just going touch everybody. And Lord this too shall come to pass Jesus. Lord You can do any and all things. And Lord I just want to say thank You and in Jesus’ name. Amen. Make sure y’all give. I love You guys.

For God so loved Elijah that He gave His one and only son Jesus, that if Elijah would believe in Jesus Elijah would not die forever but Elijah would live forever with Jesus in heaven. Hey, my little buddy Elijah, this is Kingdom Seeker Daniel from Chicago. Hey buddy. I love you man, but you know what? God loves you so much more and He is fighting for you. He is going to protect your mind, your heart, and your whole household. But don’t you worry one second, the devil will not win. You know why Elijah? Because the Bible says, greater is Jesus that lives inside of Elijah than the devil that hangs out in the world. So, you already win. You have the victory Elijah and I want you to know God is so proud of you buddy. We’re praying for you we love you and God’s got your back. You hang in there, man. God bless you buddy.

Hey everybody this is Pelham calling from Arab, actually right now I’m in Albertville Alabama, Addicted to Christ calling. I want to…it’s Cinco de Mayo and I just wanted to…I tried calling earlier and it dropped the call and apparently I wasn’t supposed to call at that time but now I’m standing in the back office in the cutting department and he said go ahead try again. So, I’m trying again. And this is still making me laugh but, Cinco de Mayo, and guess what people are going out and buying Corona’s to drink right now. So, hopefully that you know…don’t drink the Corona, don’t drink it, come on. Prodigal, I heard your call today on the show. By the way, I’m sorry to everybody because I have been very focused on myself, and I am now being told by the Holy Spirit, “hey Pelham, one of your things is to care about others. In fact, that’s your main reason why you still breathe.” So, He brings me the people I’m supposed to focus on. The girl who has the daughter who was on the streets, I think your name was Sonny. I’m…really was man attention when I was driving, and the Lord was speaking to me and I am a doofus. So, I might have your name wrong but let me talk with Prodigal. Prodigal that Glock, He wants you to see actually the Word of God. Your Glock is your sword and you are a trained assassin sent forth by the Lord to rebuke the enemy and break the chains that he’s put on his people…on the Lord’s people. There’s a time right now for us to fight to, to realize that we are sharing in His suffering only so that we can handle the glory that’s coming because the glory is coming. I don’t know if you all see it yet but if you’re suffering, guess what that means? You’re still alive, He loves you and He’s preparing you for something. Prodigal, man your call, it helped me. That shovel help me dude. I love you people…

Hi DAB family this is Rebecca Joy from Illinois calling in for the second time. It is May 5^th today and I wanted to kind of touch on that something Brian said after all the verses today because he was talking about the difference the Spirit and then your thoughts and your emotions. And, my gosh, if I did not live by my thoughts and my emotions even a few years ago or even last year I…oh…geez, it’s so…so tiring. It’s so tiring. And I’m sure that people who are like me who have really bad anxiety and sometimes even falling into depression, man, it is just, it’s one of the worst things that you can feel and life because you just, it’s…it’s like you’re on a treadmill that keeps going faster and faster and you overthink things and I…I know for me I was trying to…I was trying to do better and much like Brian said, I was trying to find God in what I could feel and what I could think but every single time I didn’t think the right thing or I didn’t feel the right thing I would just…I would feel worse and worse and I would attribute that to me being a bad person and I didn’t understand what was wrong with me because if…if I was a Christian wasn’t I supposed to be getting better at this? But my middle name is Joy and I’ve learned more about what that means in the past few years. It’s taken a while for me to understand fully, but my…my gosh…if I only knew…if I only knew how much joy and love and just God in general does not count on your feelings or your thoughts about yourself. Whatever those things are, whatever you’re feeling negatively that’s not God, that’s fear, and I hope you remember that. Be blessed.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Mira Martha from Georgia it’s actually my second time calling in. Tonight, I wanted to call in because Cindy the flute player’s message just really pricked my heart. Lord we all are struggling right now with this COVID and the struggles that are caused by all of this and I just…Cindy I…I want to pray for You and… Lord, thank You for all You are and Your guidance. And Lord I come to You tonight just asking that You be with Cindy and comfort her and give her wisdom and give her guidance what Your plan is. It’s so hard for us to see Your plan in the midst of turmoil or __. I pray that You’ll help her find the job that that is going to help her prosper and help her spread Your Word Lord. And I also ask that You pray for that You help her find a place to live or send the right people her way to help her stay where she is, whatever Your will is Lord. But I pray that You just be there for her and comfort her and give her the guidance that only comes from…form You Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Good morning I’ve never done this before my name it is Vincent. Hello. And I heard Cindy the flute player. The sadness in your voice reminds me of the sadness I sometimes feel in my heart. I don’t know much but what I do know is that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you. So, I pray in agreement with you that you find your job, your home, and your way and that you keep your faith as I need to keep mine. I ask in return that this Campfire group pray that I find love in my life. And as Brian says, I love you. You people are amazing.

1 Samuel 5:1-7:17, John 6:1-21, Psalms 106:13-31, Proverbs 14:32-33

Today is the 9^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you, yeah, as we close down a week, bring another one of the weeks that we have together to a close. And it’s been a great week. We’ve moved through a lot of territory, complete…concluding the book of Judges, into the book of Ruth, and meeting Samuel and getting to know the last judge of Israel, and a priest and a prophet that had significant influence over ancient Israel, and obviously in the Bible. So, continuing to…to influence us until today. So, let’s dive back into that story. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week, which is today. First Samuel chapters 5, 6, and 7 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for leading us through another week in Your word. And if we just pay close attention to what the last thing we read for this week will be, “wisdom is enshrined in an understanding heart. It’s not found among fools.” And, so, Father enshrine wisdom within us. Give us an understanding heart as we move forward and navigate the days ahead. We thank You for Your guidance. We thank You for Your presence in and among us and all around us. We thank You for the comfort of Your Holy Spirit and we pray all of these things with gratitude in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base. And that is where the Prayer Wall lives. That is where the things that are going on like in the Initiatives section. That’s where you find those things out. That’s where the Daily Audio Bible Shop lives.

And if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access these things as well. But this is how you stay connected. This is home base. And, so, stay…stay connected in any way that you can, any way that you want.

You’ll find all the different social media channels that we are interacting or announcing things on. Those are in the community section. The Prayer Wall is there. The Daily Audio Bible Shop is there. So, check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you profoundly. Thank you humbly. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudibible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button, which is in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, yeah, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is that little red Hotline button at the top, or you can press…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…well…next week, which happens to be tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning family this is brave from New Jersey I’m calling regarding the prayer point that sister calling herself Worthy and Redeemed in Nebraska calling in on April 25^th about her daughter her 10-year-old daughter whose having an eating disorder because of the past rape from her brother and also her son who is also confused, gender confused, due to the molestation by that same brother. And she’s in the middle of a spiritual battle. My sister, I’m calling to encourage you, to pray for you, that the Lord Almighty that sees all things, knows all things, and who all things will visit your home and Lord that the enemies, the…the…the…the seed that the enemy is trying to scatter around your house will be pulled and uprooted and your house will come together, you will build a new foundation. As we are praying, we are lifting you up. Holy Spirit visit this home. Lord destroy all the work of the enemy concerning this family. I pray this over their 10-year-old daughter especially. I call You that You will restore her, her strength, her dignity, her value. You will pull together Yourself Lord everything that she is lost through this ordeal. I pray for the son to, that Lord You will just redeem him, make him a man that You have created them to be, a strong and beautiful and mighty warrior in Your kingdom. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Walta the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King. It is 8:41 May 4^th and I just heard Elijah’s prayer request praying for Satan to not tempt him. And Elijah I pray for you, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may He cause His face to shine on you, may He cause you to get to know Him better. I pray that God will visit you and make Himself so clear to you, clearer than He was to the kid Samuel when Samuel was called to Him. I pray that God will bless your parents for allowing you to do this and I pray that you will find richness in God’s word. I know God answered your prayers already because he said, “__ little children to come to me for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” And I know God hears your prayers before He hears any of our prayers. So, thank you for calling. And God bless. God bless.

Hi everybody this is Tony the Narrator. This one’s a special shout out to Elijah. Elijah, little brother, could you pray the same praying for me please because we’re all going through that my friend. We’re all trying desperately to listen to Jesus, and we’re all being tempted by Satan because this is part of a big war that’s been going on since the beginning of time. And basically, Satan’s trying to steal us away from Jesus. But Jesus came so that when He died on the cross, He was able to pay for all of our sins with His blood. Okay? So, yes, it’s right for us to feel wrong about the things that we do wrong but not forever. We shouldn’t let these things eat us up and beat us up. Okay? What we do is we turn to Jesus and we say, “Lord I know what I’ve done is terrible, I’m really really sorry, I’m not going to do it again with your help.” And then what you do is you pick up your Bible and you start reading. I recommend reading the book of John. It’s very, very, very good Elijah. Anyway, little brother, it was a joy to hear your voice. Please call back in again. God bless you and God bless everybody in the DAB. Love you all. Bye-bye.

Hi, my name is Terry and I’m a first-time caller second-year listener and I just want to give God praise for this podcast and for Brian and his family. This is truly a blessing, it’s encouraging, it’s motivating and even challenging. The word says, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” So, I’m grateful to be able to grow in my faith daily as I listen to the word of God being spoken and even explained by Brian. I pray for those who call on this podcast and I’m grateful to be able to get the opportunity to pray for them. Please know that during this coronavirus that we are to claim the victory and not the virus and know that God is in control. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of his family as I share it with many people as has been shared with me. Thank you again. God bless and I love you all.

This is Elise from Cape Cod Massachusetts I’ve listened for about a year now and this is my second time calling. I’m a senior citizen alone in the world and I have severe spinal stenosis and arthritis and I have been in a lot of pain. And I just…it…suddenly last night…acute. And I’ve had two major neck surgeries and I just need mercy and healing and grace and strength right now. Thank you. God bless.

Heavenly father I lift up to you little Elijah in a prayer I agree with Father. Each of us…each of us needs to listen to you. Each of us needs to draw near…draw near to you Father. And in Christ Jesus you have made it possible. Come on to me all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, Jesus said. Father thank you for your goodness and love. Thank you that we can come to you and ask for strength and power to resist the devil and to receive the good things that you have through us…for us through your word. I pray you’ll just guide Elijah, draw him closer to You in Jesus’ name.

Hello, this message is for Joe the Protector who called a few months back regarding his daughter who wanted to become a sex worker and he wanted prayer for that. And I just wanted him to know that I’ve been praying for him. I’m sure others have been praying for him and his daughter and his family these months, especially during quarantine time a lot of things and just be worse too. So, praying for you Joe and your family and your daughter. This is Chris in the California gold country.

1 Samuel 2:22-4:22, John 5:24-47, Psalms 106:1-12, Proverbs 14:30-31

Today is the 8^th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we approach the end of another week. And we’re approaching the end of the first full week of this month and…yeah…we’re continuing to move forward, step-by-step, day by day. This is…this is what we do. What a difference it makes to have this rhythm of life here together around the Global Campfire every day one step forward. So, we…we…we stepped into the book of first Samuel today and we talked about that yesterday but just by way of quick reminder, Samuel was the final judge of Israel. So, we read the book of Judges and now we are in first Samuel. He served…he’s just a little kid right now where we are in the story, but he served as Israel’s final judge bringing them into the age or era of the monarchy where they had a king and we’ll get to that over the coming days. Right now, we’re just getting to meet everybody. Hannah Samuel’s mother was childless, and she prayed at Shiloh before the Lord and Shiloh was the capital, like the tabernacle was permanently situated there for almost 4 centuries long, long, long before there was ever a temple in Jerusalem. And, so, she’s there and she’s praying and God gives her a son and she dedicates him to God and his name is Samuel and she brings him back to Shiloh and gives him to the priest, Eli, who is beginning to train him along with his own…his own children, his own sons Hophni and Phinehas and there is a stark contrast between Eli’s biological sons and the one that he’s kind of raising up in the temple Samuel and we’ll see that more and more clearly as the days go by. So, we’re reading from the New Living translation this week. Today, first Samuel chapter 2 verse 22 through 4 verse 22.

Commentary:

Okay. So, Jesus is having a conversation with the religious leaders and they’re questioning Him and wanting to know about His authority, all these things that…that are common as we moved our way through the Gospels Jesus is having this discussion with them and He tells them some very poignant things today. And one of the things that He…He says is just…man…like it goes right to the heart. At least it goes to my heart when we pass this territory because it’s like I’m guilty of the same thing. I’ve done the same thing for years and yet Jesus is giving immense clarity. So, speaking to these people Jesus says, “you search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the Scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.” So, honestly, like if I’m just going back into a part of my story, for me…I’m a Pastor’s son. I grew up around the Bible but before the Daily Audio Bible ever began, I just, you know, realized I’m a mile wide and an inch deep. There is no depth to this faith whatsoever. I’m not even sure its real. And, so, I turned to the Scriptures, as I should have, as we should and I, you know, spent like the next decade giving my all to the study of the Scriptures. And it’s not like I don’t give my all to that every day now. I study the Scriptures every day, but what I was looking for was God. Like, what I was looking for was how to understand God and I thought that the more I could know these Scriptures the more I could know God, only to find out the Scriptures are there to point the way to God. They can’t become God. The Bible isn’t God. And yet, the Pharisees and scribes of the time, they’re studying the Torah, they’re studying the Scriptures of their time, they’re trying to obey them as best as they can, they’re trying to control everybody else to get them to do the same thing and they had become God. Like the plot of the story had been lost and we’ve mentioned this many times in the Old Testament. We’re like there’s the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. And this is what Jesus is getting at here. That’s when He says, “you search the Scriptures because you think they give you…they give you eternal life, but the Scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.” And then He goes on, “your approval means nothing to me because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. I came in my Father’s name and you rejected me, but if people come around in their own name and…and…and toot their own horn ten you gladly welcome them. No wonder you can’t believe. You…you honor each other. You gladly honor each other but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who is God alone.” And then He goes on, “yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father, Moses will accuse you.” So, why is He referring to Moses?” Because they are studying the Mosaic law and trying to flesh it out and…and…and use it to control the people. And Moses teachings for them are the Scriptures. So, He’s basically saying, “the Bible is gonna condemn you because it showed you the way…it told you about me and you still don’t believe it.” And that is entirely possible. I mean there are fantastic biblical and cultural scholars who do nothing for a profession outside of studying the times of the Bible and don’t believe it. We can know the Bible back-and-forth and not know God. And knowing everything that there is to know or that you can know about someone doesn’t mean you’re in a relationship with them. Trying to wrestle through that and this particular Scripture was one of the inspiring things about that, you know, led me to write the book Reframe and really explore, “what is…what are we talking about when we’re talking about a relationship with God?” And, so, this leaves us with some things to think about today. Like are…are we studying the Scriptures so that they will draw us deeper into a relationship with God or are we studying the Scriptures to find out what we’re supposed to do? Are we studying the Scriptures and calling that a relationship? And then we just have to think about whether that could work in any other relationship in our lives. If like, say you’re married, could you just read about your spouse and call that a relationship or do you have to actually offer yourself completely? Like do you have to open yourself? Do you have to be present and offer your presence in order for a relationship to happen? In so many ways this is what Jesus is telling the religious leaders and they won’t listen. Like we know that, but they don’t listen, they don’t have the eyes to see that Jesus keeps talking about. And stepping into a relationship with Jesus means that, yes, we study the Scriptures. We do this every single day, but the Scriptures will lead us to a leap of faith and that leap of faith will be beyond, it will be into what we don’t understand. We are talking about the most-high God after all. But it’s not faith if you control it. By definition faith is reaching out for…for what we cannot see but we do perceive. It gives substance to what we hope for and the Bible leads us to understand that reality. So, we have to wonder in our own lives, “what is it that I am calling my relationship with God? Is it doing everything that I think I should do? Is it devoting devotional time each and every day?” These things can be part of it but when we’re studying God and not being with God, then that’s not a relationship by any definition. So…so that’s…that gives us some things to think about. But then we can think, “well I’ve been going about this maybe in the wrong way. And, you know, how…how do I find that…that sweet spot?” Listen, God for sure will take us where we are and lead us forward from that place or this place. He wants to be in a relationship with us, one that we are intertwined in, one that we collaborate in, one…one that we do life together in. We’ve been reading the stories of the Bible and God will not give up. Like, if we if we have learned anything so far, He won’t stop. He might get exasperated. He might punish even. But He will not give up. He will not stop coming. So, it’s not like we gotta figure this out and get ready. It’s that we gotta take a leap of faith and believe, which is the message of Jesus. Or let me just…let me just use the words of Jesus instead of my own words. Let me just read from our reading in the Gospel of John. “The father who sent Me has testified about Me Himself. You have never heard His voice or seen him face-to-face and you do not have His message in your hearts because you do not believe Me, the One He sent to you.” So, you see, we can become all the scholars that we want and still not know God and we can have no scholarly training and leap into His arms and have a relationship. Right now, what I desire more than anything is to just be in His lap instead of in the laboratory trying to figure Him out. I have found that it is a whole lot easier to figure out somebody that you know than it is trying to study somebody at a distance.

Prayer:

Father, that is our desire. It’s built into us. We long for You. Life pulls us toward You. We can’t do it without You although we try all the time. Ironically, You want this. You want us even more. You were willing to come for us and give Your life for us. You want this relationship and yet we muddy it up with all kinds of things all the time. When, no matter what, it all comes back to a leap of faith. And, so, Holy Spirit, strengthen our faith that we might walk in Your will and Your ways, that we might live in a dynamic, always on, never off relationship with You. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, and that makes it home base for us around the Global Campfire. So, being aware of that is good and I try to mention it just about every day so that we’re aware of it because that’s where you take the journey deeper.

Now if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can do all these things from within the app, it’s the portal into community. So…so, just be aware and explore.

Explore the Community section. The Prayer Wall lives there. It lives within the app as well. That’s always happening. People are always praying at the Prayer Wall or asking for prayer, So, know that that’s a resource…that’s a place to reach out. And there are many points of connection on social media as well, those are in the community section. So, check that out. Stay connected.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link and it is on the homepage. And I thank you. I thank you for your partnership beyond words. We would not be here if we were not throwing some logs on together. So, thank you 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 the mailing address, if that is 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 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:

Diane from Newburgh Indiana this is an infantryman from Georgia. I just wanted to let you know you that you sang a song from Mr. Rogers that was aired on the April 27^th podcast. And let me tell you, I was on the way to work as a military and essential employee during the COVID-19 response in Georgia and I just want to let you know that I was listening to that podcast on the way to work on just another one of many groundhog days over the past 45 days where we’re confronted with the need to go into work with so many sheltering at home and so many dealing with the economy as it is and all the stresses that come with that. Anyways, I found my 40-year-old combat arms military self, singing along with you and bawling my eyes out to Mr. Rogers lyrics as I was passing through base security and heading to the joint force headquarters. Now I’ve served overseas in combat in Afghanistan and I’ve been employed in response operations at home from Hurricane Katrina to COVID-19 and I’ve not felt this appreciated for my service in spite of all the overtures so as such until your simple musical tribute which resonated with my childhood. And I just wanted to say thank you from a soldier of war to a soldier of faith.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Debbie in Texas, it’s Sunday, May 3^rd. This is my first time calling in. I’ve been listening since January. I think my story is so much like everyone else’s. Just so appreciative of Brian and his ministry and his family’s ministry to reach out to all of us. I can’t remember everyone’s names as I’m trying to recall this and record this and I’m nervous. So, I pray for all of you along with the prayer requests and I just ask that maybe you would just also say a prayer for me. Really too much to go into and just not super comfortable anyway saying what’s going on in my life. But anyway, huge changes. So, I thank you. I lift you all up and I hope you all have a great day. Thank you. Bye.

Hi this is May 3^rd, and this is Sam and I’m calling from Barcelona Spain and my prayer is for the gentleman that called today regarding his mother in New York being confined with coronavirus. I want to pray for her. And as a coronavirus survivor I know it means to be cooped up in a very small room for 20 days. So, praying for your mother and for your family. Dear Lord, You are the giver of life and the taker of life and You have the whole world in Your hands and under Your control. So, we thank You for those that You provide and grant salvation and healing from this virus. And for those that You do not Father, we ask that You give them comfort, that You give them light, that You give them years to hear Your voice and Your word and Your message of hope and eternal life. And I’m praying for this mother that is having difficulties being confined Lord. And I pray that You send her understanding, that You send her peace, and that You surround her with a great support group that would be able to withstand this time. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

Fear is not my friend. Fear is not my friend. It is __ worm tongue hissing in my ear pretending to protect me while feeding off my pain. What a sick and twisted codependency. It has left me small and hard and gray. Fear has been my counselor for a long time, but I’ve finally seen through its slithering disguise. I have divorced fear and its poisonous comfort, and I will resist and reject every attempt it makes to worm its way back into my affections. I have a new comforter now the spirit of adoption. Daddy. Daddy, my heart cries and He answers with truth. There is so much joy and beauty ahead Cherry. He isn’t pretending. He sees. He knows. “What if” used to torment me, now what widens my eyes with wonder.

Sweet Elijah from May the 3^rd, I just want you to know my love that it is okay to lean on others when you’re feeling struggles and temptations all around you. Satan is like that. He likes to get in and try to trip us up and first he’ll…he’ll make it seem okay and then we need to…when you follow him, he’ll say, “see, God’s not gonna want you now. See, what do you do that for? Now you’re not such a good Christian.” But I want to tell you something, God loves you no matter what. And every time you get a thought or temptation, if you just kind of quickly close your eyes really quick and say, “Lord I can’t handle the situation, can you please help me?” And you know what? Jesus promised in His word that He will do that, that any time we call upon Him He will step in and He will help us, He will give us a way out. So, you just keep praying, you keep coming back here for support, keep reminding us that you need us to pray for you and we certainly will. I know this is a hard time right now. It’s a hard time to be growing up but things will get better because God loves you and He will do everything He can to keep you safe. I’m gonna put you in my prayer book and I’m gonna pray for you every time I pray for my grandchildren and my children. And I just want you to know that you are His precious child, His precious gift. You take care my darling and any time at all you…you call here and tell us what’s going on. This is Paula Living on the Rock standing…

Oh wow…rejoice with me Daily Audio Bible family of God. Thank you for your prayers. Early this morning my third grandchild was born, and mama is doing great. Dada’s doing great. We went and picked up little baby number three’s brothers and brought them home and they stayed the night last night and we were notified via text that all is well. So, thank you for praying. So grateful, so grateful. Please welcome Valentine is his name, into this world. God bless You all. Lord God shower down a blessing upon all the women that have a desire in their heart to be a mother Father God. I pray Lord God that You would bless them in Your favor and grant them this gift in Jesus’ precious and holy name. And bless all the mothers with toddlers and bless all our children Father God of every age. We love them dearly and we are Your children God and we are so grateful. Praise You Lord. Praise You Lord Jesus’ name. Amen. This is Treasured Possession. God bless you.

Good morning been a listener since January 15^th, and I’ve needed it so much to just keep my anxiety low and my sadness high and it’s really helped to encourage me. And I finally had to call in. There’s been something on my heart since then and I thank you Walta, Walta the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King a week ago, Saturday on the community prayer talked about generational transference and I’m in the middle of that right now. My son is 19. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was six and it’s been very difficult for me to handle but the __ it was more important than, you know, Jesus above anything and here at 19 he’s claiming to be an atheist and agnostic and my heart is broken. And Walta thank you for praying for our children. You mentioned about that we take our kids to church and they watch and do what they see us do. And he’s been at church since he was born and now, he wants to do things his way and God is not a part of that. So, I do pray for that generational transference, that he will connect to Jesus, that God will be an option for him to long, thirst, understand and be in love with Him. So, I’m just thankful that you encourage me to call in. My name is Carrie, his name, his Jared and I pray that God, it has to be the Holy Spirit that’s only going to work in his heart to save him. So, thank you Walta for encouraging me and I pray that everybody will pray for my son. It’s pretty heartbreaking. This is the worst blow then really the diagnosis of muscular dystrophy…

1 Samuel 1:1-2:21, John 5:1-23, Psalms 105:37-45, Proverbs 14:28-29

Today is the 7^th day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you as we continue the journey that we are on, the voyage that sails us through the entire Bible in a year. Today is…well…I mean it’s a special day because we’re moving into a new book in the Old Testament, this is the book of first Samuel, but we’re also kind of migrating into a new era in the story of the ancient Hebrew people found in the Old Testament. So, basically, we’ve…we’ve worked from Moses, right? And then he handed the reins to Joshua, who led the people into the Promised Land and settled the Promised Land. And then when his life was finished, we entered the time of the Judges, which last…which lasted for centuries. And we saw that was a difficult time, a lot of back-and-forth with the people around them, a lot of back-and-forth in their understanding and relationship with God. And then we concluded the book of Judges and moved into the book of Ruth, which is a beautiful story. We just finished it yesterday. So, it’s a beautiful story, but it takes place during the time of the Judges. Now we’re moving into first Samuel.

Introduction to the book of first Samuel:

And Samuel, as it turns out, is the final judge of Israel before the time of the Kings, the monarchy. The people demand a king and its Samuel who will bring Israel its first king. So, as we kinda move into first Samuel we’re gonna first learn about Samuel, like his story. We’re gonna kinda get his story even before he’s born. And then, like I said, we’ll follow his life all the way…all the way through his death and, ironically, even after his death briefly. Samuel will introduce Kings into…into the story of Israel. The first king’s name will be Saul and then later, before we’re done with Samuel, we’ll meet a man named David. Of course, we’ve heard about David…well…we’ve been hearing about David in the Bible tin he Psalms and stuff. But David, kinda entered the scene yesterday in Ruth as we learned of the ancestry. Now, as far scholarship for the books of Samuel…well…I mean more than the book of Samuel…scholars generally…like no biblical scholars agree on everything ever…like this is the way of things, but generally it’s believed that the material that’s in the book of books of Samuel were probably the writings of three different prophets – Samuel, Nathan, and God. And originally there wasn’t a first and second Samuel. They were separate texts. Actually, there wasn’t even just a book of Samuel that included those two texts. It was all grouped together as the books of the Kings or the books of the kingdoms. So, basically when the Old Testament was translated out of Hebrew and into Greek it was called the Septuagint, and this one kind of massive corpus of the kingdoms was…was divided into four different texts known as the books of the kingdoms. And then later, when…when the Old Testament was translated from Greek into Latin, which was called the Vulgate they became the books of the Kings. And the irony is that…like right now in the Scriptures as we know them, we have first and second Samuel and then first and second Kings. At this time when we’re talking about it was first, second, third, and fourth Kings. So, that can get confusing, but this is how we kind of arrive at the books of the Bible that we have today. So, what is now known as first and second Samuel, the books that we’re about to read, at one time those were actually first and second Kings and…and first and second Kings as we know it now was known as third and fourth Kings. We have the books as we understand them now due to the publication of the King James Bible in 1611, which is not that long ago when we’re talking about ancient history. So, that’s how we got first and second Samuel. Samuel, as a person, we’ll…we’ll see as…as we move into this new territory, was very influential and very respected for very good reasons and…and he was the final judge of Israel, but he was also a prophet of God and that was a huge difference because he was a prophet of God, a judge of Israel, and a priest of the Lord. So, during the time of Samuel everybody’s doing what was right in their own eyes, but Samuel kind of steps into this as a prophet and people that historically understood God using prophets to speak and lead them, for example Moses. So, the people believed that Samuel was…was speaking directly for God and was something that they understood. That’s how they had been led out of Egypt. And, so, we’ll watch how this all plays out as we begin. First Samuel chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 21 today.

Prayer:

Father, we take a proverb heart – “people with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.” And Lord the last thing we want to be right now is foolish. And yet we confess on our own we are very foolish people and we show that foolishness a lot. We just try to mask it a lot, try to hide it a lot. And yet what You’re showing us in the Proverbs is that we could stop using all of that energy and actually apply that energy to gaining understanding and control over ourselves, understanding fully that this will never happen in our own strength. We will have to surrender to Your authority in our lives. And, so, we do that. And even as we move into the book of first Samuel, we will begin to see the contrasts of this very proverb played out in vivid color before us in the stories ahead. And, so, come Holy Spirit, give us an understanding heart. Give us the wherewithal to take a deep breath and control ourselves before we react to anything, especially in anger and hot temperedness. Come help us Father. We don’t want to be foolish. We want to be wise when looking for wisdom. We’re looking for eyes to see and we can’t do that without You. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit and we open ourselves up to You fully. Come into all of this we have prayed. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s how you stay tuned and stay connected in a virtual world like we’re living in here around this Global Campfire. So, be aware. Be sure to…to stay connected.

One of the great ways to be connected is in the Community section. By the way, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access all this stuff as well. But different links to the different social media channels that we are on and are engaged in conversation etc. etc., you can find those in the Community section of the website.

And I mention often the Shop because the Shop has been formed and crafted over…over time, resources that…well…they accompany me, they accompany us on the journey here at the team and…well…they in different ways, they accompany thousands of people all over the world. So, check out those resources for encouragement or just sort of a sense of community. Like we have t-shirts, and there, hoodies and stuff like that. Just…yeah…wear your colors. It’s nice to know you’re a part of something, nice to feel connected to something. It’s nice to know you’re moving in the same direction and you’re not alone. And, so, there are number of resources in there that just kind of convey that, just the sense of belonging, that we’re moving on this journey together. But there are number of resources just to encourage the journey to…to make the journey deeper. Like, the point of going to the Bible in a year isn’t just a revolution around the sun, it’s a revolution in our lives. So, we’re doing everything we can to make that a meaningful life changing experience as we continue our journey through the Bible. So, check out the resources in the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is 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 mail, 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 and share from there 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.

Ruth 2:1-4:22, John 4:43-54, Psalms 105:16-36, Proverbs 14:26-27

Today is the 6^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we move to the center of another of our weeks together. So, yesterday we began the book of Ruth, even as we ended the book of Judges and we talked about it being a breath of fresh air and…and it is. It’s a beautiful story of character. Today we will conclude…it’s a short story…so we’ll conclude the book of Ruth today. So, we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Ruth chapters 2, 3, and 4.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank for this story, the book of Ruth that we have been able to enjoy over the last couple of days. We thank You for story of character and loyalty and uprightness because it’s severely contrasted with what we’ve worked our way through in the book of Judges. And, so, we…we have this picture of what it looks like for everybody to go do what they want and over centuries what that does to people individually and collectively. And we have this picture here of uprightness, of goodness, of loyalty, of humility, of mercy, of not taking advantage. We thank You for this contrast between Judges and Ruth. We also thank You for showing us and beginning to set up the story that will lead us to King David who we will meet before too long. Thank You Father for ministering to us through Your word each and every day, giving us things to apply into our lives and hearts and to think about and to change and to repent of and to find comfort in. Like, You are constantly present and we thank You for leading us and directing us through Your word and we invite Your Holy Spirit to keep bringing up things into our hearts, into our minds, that we need to ponder, that You are leading us into as we move through this day. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base. It is our place on the World Wide Web, on the Internet, it’s the place where the Global Campfire burns. It’s the place where virtual community like ours calls home. So, be familiar and stay tuned and stay connected.

There are a number of links to stay connected to the different social media channels that we’re on. You can find those in the Community section.

There are resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Check those out. We’ve crafted them over years to be companions on the journey through the Bible in a year. So, yeah, check out coffee that we have there, our own coffee and tea. Write down your journey. We’ve encouraged this many times because we see this precedent set in the Bible to not forget what God has done. So, we have the Daily Audio Bible journal and Blackwing pencils and all of that kind of paraphernalia, stuff that I use to journal with every day. That’s there because it’s so crazy how quickly we forget, you know, but when we’ve written things down, especially when we’ve actually written them down with our own hand in our own penmanship as bad as might be, we’re saying something, we’re witnessing, were testifying even if to our own selves God’s faithfulness in our lives. And we have journals that we can refer back to. That makes a difference when things get pretty foggy out there and they do from time to time. So, yeah that’s in the Daily Audio Bible Shop along with a number of other resources for this journey. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, I cannot thank you enough. I thank you with all of my heart. This is how the Global Campfire exists. That is…this is how we are here. Thank you for your partnership. So, 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 have a prayer request or encouragement you can dial 877-942-4253 or just hit that Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top and you can share from there.

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, DABbers this is Mike In Awe in Kansas City Missouri I wanted to call in and pray against anxiety and confusion in relation to this virus. I think a lot of us have been going through it. I had a lot of anxiety at the beginning of this and I’ve really had to press into the Scriptures and pray and started ignoring all news related to it but I’m still doing my part like hand sanitizing and wearing a mask when I go to the store. Anyway, Lord, please bless the mental health of Your people Lord. Help us to increase, enjoy, in n wisdom, imagination, kindness, love, peace, purity, and patience Lord. Bless us with these things. Help us to see the truth that You are in control Lord, that You are all-powerful during this time, nothing has caught You off guard. Nothing is stronger than You Lord. Nothing can happen to us. You know us individually Lord. The Scripture say that You’ve counted the hairs on our head, and nothing will befall us, nothing will happen to us outside of Your approval. And help us to lean in on that Lord. Help Your Psalms 91 promises Lord that You will keep the us under the pinions of Your wings, metaphorically. Help us keep that in our heart Lord. Help that to resonate with us and become who we are Lord that we know that You’re our shield like David said, You’re our glory, the lifter of our head Lord. Bless us with joy abundantly during this time that we can see the trickery of the enemy and that we can rise above it in joy, that we can share Your life with others. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Hey there DAB family this is Catherine the South African from Houston calling. I’m a little behind on my DAB listening and I had listened to April 18^th today and I heard Val from Vegas. And Val am so glad to hear you, are doing so well and that everything turned out so well for you. I am thrilled to hear the joy in your voice, and you gave me so much joy. So, God bless you and I hope that’s…you just continue to get stronger and stronger. And then there was a lady called Good News Cindy I think and she called and really made me smile just thinking of all the things that she’s enjoying about COVID if there’s…if one can even look at it in that light. But it made me think about what I’m grateful for and there is so much, there is so much to be grateful for. You touched about having time to be outdoors and take…to be…take notice of things that you’d otherwise miss when you’re at work. And we’ve been spending so much time outdoors just appreciating how beautiful the area we live in is, seeing spring slowly come and…well…quite quickly in Houston, take over. But the thing that I most value is that the fact that my husband’s home. He’s been furloughed. I’m working from home part time and we just have this amazing time together and it occurred to me, the next time we’re probably gonna be sitting around, “what do you feel like doing today love” is probably going to be when we’re both retired. And, so, I encourage married copies to just love each other and just enjoy this time together because goodness knows it’ll probably be a long time before we get something like this again. I love you all so much family and I just love this podcast. Thank you, Brian, thank you everyone involved and all you listeners. I love you and pray for you.

Alicia from Pennsylvania calling. I just heard some woman talking about her daughter and I just wanted pray for them. Lord, just give that mother the words to be able to talk with her daughter. Her daughter had said that she hadn’t slept in four days and I feel like I can relate to that and just the amount of mental strain that that brings. Crying on the floor in the fetal position for an hour, like just reminds me of my teenage years. And my mother was so…I know…I know that those times weighed so heavy on my mother’s heart and that she would have done anything to help me. And I just couldn’t hear her at the time. And I want to just tell you that there’s hope. I’m medicated now for bipolar and I have never felt better emotionally and I would say the only main difference between her and me is that I have seen God work in my life and I just pray that she does experience something in her life that shows You that You are real and that You’re here in that You are with her Lord. Lord I just pray that You lift them up, just let them be able to put in Your arms all the things that they can’t explain that have happened to them. Lord just help them to put it aside and to find the silver lining and to find the love that does exist. In Your name I pray. Amen.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Cindy the flute player. I’m just going to be straight up and not stay on here very long. I lost my job. I have not been able to secure employment and today I found out that I have to leave my…my home. So, I don’t have any words, but I want you to know that I appreciate this group, this family and I’m praying for you out there. Been fasting and praying and so, what’s Your reason? There must be a really strong reason why He’s put me in such a trial like this. I don’t know what needs to be cultivated or eliminated or…I don’t know…I don’t know a lot but I know that He really is our only hope. So, anyway, talk to you later. Bye.

Good morning DAB fam this is Stephen from Alabama May the 1^st and I just want to make everyone…and praise God for this ministry. And I hope everyone realizes the value of this ministry, the incredible immense value from the insight that we get from Brian to just this week Miss Brown singing Mr. Rogers. I wept as well when I heard that. And Miss Brown I’ve adopted you as my third grandmother. My…my grandmothers have both passed on to heaven. And, so, I’m adopting you and I don’t know that we will ever leave this side of heaven, but I can’t wait to hug your neck in heaven. I also want to reiterate what Nicole who called in who’s gone through the incredible tragedy in her life and difficulty. I too, in the nine years I have been listening to the Daily Audio Bible, I’ve gone through…I went through about four or five years of…of failures in business. Our personal income dropped about 80% from where it once was. A couple years ago I had a virus, very similar…very, very similar to this virus that’s going around now. Caused me to have pneumonia. Never been in a hospital a day of my life. Had pneumonia. Attacked my heart. Gave me heart failure. About a year ago this month I had a pacemaker defibrillator implanted. So, through that all I was…God gave me an incredible amount of peace simply because I showed up every day and pressed play. And that’s my encouragement to you. Jesus said this life is still gonna be difficult, but if you will just show up and push play, Jesus…and Brian has done all the hard work. Just push play and let God speak. God bless. Love you.

This is an encouragement for my sister who is dealing with husband that is abusive and selfish and trying to take away the child that he said he never wanted. And I understand. I went through that myself. All I can say is that God is able to do so much more than you can ever ask, think, or imagine. After my situation was over God had provided a way for me to be the sole provider of my child and also gave me an amazing husband that I love so much. And we would never have been able to have children. So, it’s an amazing thing. God works through our trials and our battles are His battles. So, put on your armor every day. Gird your loins, expect to fight, but then just submit fully to the hand of the Lord and trust Him because He will deliver you. He is your deliverer. He loves you and your daughter beyond measure. May God bless you and keep you. May God make His face to shine upon you and give you peace. May He cover you with His pinions. May He protect you. May He give you outrageous strength and eyes to see and ears to hear above all the noise that the enemy is throwing at you. And it’s in Jesus’ precious and holy name I pray for you and ask these things. I love you. Treasured Possession.

Judges 21:1- Ruth 1:22, John 4:4-42, Psalms 105:1-15, Proverbs 14:24-25

Today is the 5^th day of May welcome to the daily by both Cinco de Mayo it’s good to be here with you today as we come together and dive in and take the next step forward in the Scriptures. This is a good day. Today we’re going to conclude the book of Judges and then move our way into the book of Ruth and…ahhh…comes at a really really good time. So, we’ll talk about that when we get there. But first, let’s conclude the book of Judges. We…we began a pretty treacherous story yesterday that left us like with one tribe missing because of Civil War and some terrible injustice. And, so, we’ll conclude that story today. Judges chapter 21.

Introduction to the book of Ruth:

Okay. So, that concludes the book of Judges, which now brings us to the first page of the book of Ruth. And like I was saying earlier, especially when we get to this time of year, all that we’ve gone through in the year, and it’s been a super unique year to say the least, but also we get to this point in the year and we’re kind of moving through Judges and we just need, it’s like we need a breath of fresh air at this point and it comes and it couldn’t come at a better time. We’ve seen anarchy. We’ve seen just the chaotic extremes of what it looks like when everybody does what is right in their own eyes and this kind of systematic rebellion, this wave of back-and-forth over centuries with God and just the challenges that the people were facing even just to be led. So, Ruth comes in and like a breeze and just begins to transition us into the next season. And we’re moving into new eras in the Bible, but Ruth is this story, basically it’s a story…there’s more than three people in it but it’s a story of three major players, Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. These are people who, in spite of opportunity for exploitation or whatever, like choose to do the right thing, even though they’re going through some really tough, difficult, trying times. And we should be able to relate. And what we see in the book of Ruth is that when people have character and they use that character and cultivate wisdom and think things through and make correct choices and follow those choices then God’s faithful, He is ever present. But Ruth also gives us this breath of fresh air where we’ll get to see this beautiful portrait of women, strong and full of character in the Scriptures. And it’s because of Ruth and Naomi’s faithfulness that eventually King David would be born and through the vine of King David Jesus would come. And, so, we begin. The book of Ruth chapter 1.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of John, Jesus is having a conversation with the woman at the well, today. So, this is a very, very famous story. The woman is a Samaritan. We’ve explored Samaritans before, especially in the story of the good Samaritan. So, Jesus has done a somewhat rare thing. Most of Jesus ministry is centered in the Jewish culture among the Hebrew people. So, He’s kind of left and He’s among the Samaritan people when He has this conversation. And it’s interesting that in Jesus time among the Samaritan people they believed. They heard Him with their own ears, and they believed. He was unpacking things for them that they believed, and they believed in Him, whereas the Jewish story is a different one. The people could see something different about Jesus, but the religious leaders denounced Him continually. And Jesus said something really interesting in the conversation that He was having with this woman, “but the time is coming, indeed, it’s here now, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those will worship him that way for God is Spirit. So, those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” So, how do we do that? How do we worship in Spirit? And even bringing that question up obviously puts a massive amount of theological forks in the road. And we can go down all these forks in the road to explain this but why don’t we just get simple? Are we a spirit? Do we have a Spirit? As believers, we certainly believe that we do. We would even declare that our Spirit is the truest essence of us, like it is the real deal. It’s the real us or that everything that’s real about us flows from there. And if we generally believe that we are kind of made up as a tri-human being, a being that has a body and a soul or a mind or a brain that can certainly direct our body, but a lot more is going on in our head than our bodies ever do. Like, we’re thinking all of the time and then we have a Spirit, the true essence of life within us, that which has been granted by God. So, then being able being able to say, “I am not my body. My body is certainly something I must care for. It’s the temple of God, the Holy Spirit within me, I must care for, it is a part of my experience and a part of my existence. But I am not only my body. I am not only my mind”, right? Like, “I am not only the things that I think about.” And I’ve been thinking about thoughts a lot lately. It’s like you could be sitting still and just kinda listen to some music or just be really quiet and just try to concentrate and be still before God or whatever and it’s amazing when you get still how many thoughts are happening that you can observe. Like, how…how is it that you choose the one that you’re gonna, that you’re gonna go down, the path that you’re gonna go down. There’s so many opportunities to think about so many things and we choose one and then we go down a rabbit hole and it can completely change our day, it can completely change our emotional life, it can change everything. How is it that we choose the things that we do? How do we take those things captive? I’ve been thinking a lot about that and realizing I think a lot like most…I’m a thinker and I’m an introvert and most my life is in my head, but to try to get to a place to say I am not my thoughts any more than I am my body any more than I am my emotions that come and go, something true about me is here, like there’s something deeper than all of these things that is the truth of who I am. And I think we all know and sense this, we just mostly stay in the realm of thoughts or feelings. And yet, at the depth of our being is a…an eternal Spirit, maybe we could say the truest part of us. So, Jesus seems to be saying here, especially in the context of the conversation He’s happening is, “it doesn’t matter where you go to do your worship, it matters that you do it truthfully from the truest place in you, a place that can have union with God in Spirit.” This is the point that you can kind of branch off into any number of theological or dog…dogmatic teachings. Like go down that path. How then do I do this? Like how do I activate, how do I engage in Spirit? And in the Christian faith that can range in a number of directions from, “you can’t do this because you are completely corrupt. But one day you will be able to when you are whole” all the way to, you know, “you’ve gotta speak in tongues” and that’s the evidence that you’re…that you’re engaging with the spiritual realm and everything in between. For me, having walked many of these paths, for me I am…where I’m at now is just trying to find some point in my day to be still and know that He is God instead of running around frantically thinking about how He is God and getting all whipped up into every care of this life trying to invoke Him to do things for me. I’m trying to at least find someplace that resembles what Jesus is talking about, someplace where I can get past thinking thoughts about God and being still enough to know, which is deeper than thinking or feeling, to know that He is God.

Prayer:

So, Jesus we take to heart the things that You have said. We believe them. We engage with them. We allow them to enter us and our thoughts and our emotions and everything that is beyond that. We want to worship in Spirit and in truth and we can go in all kinds of directions, but Spirit and truth have to be involved. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit into our Spirit, into the truest places of who we are, the places that are made in Your image and we just open ourselves up to You. We’re always, always using words. In fact, we’re talking to You right now and I’m using words but there is a language in love that is beyond words, and those of us who are in love with somebody on this earth with a spouse or somebody that we love that we’ve been with for a long time and we’ve gotten to know, like, even though the getting to know never ends, even though we can never know everything about the one that we love, we have those moments where we’re still and we know and it’s beyond words, and this is how we want to sit with You. The way this is described in the Scriptures is like a weaned child that his mother’s breast – calm, safe, beyond words, true. So, come Holy Spirit and help us to find some space in this day for that and every day for that, that we might go deeper in this relationship that You have invited us into. Come Holy Spirit into this we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here as I say just about every single day to remind us. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here, it’s how you stay connected. So…so, be familiar.

Be familiar with the Community section.

Be familiar with the Shop. There are resources there for the journey that we are on together. So, check it out.

You can certainly, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, also access these things, including the Prayer Wall from within the app by pushing the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner.

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

Judges 17:1-18:31, John 3:1-21, Psalms 104:1-23, Proverbs 14:20-21

Today is the 4^th day of the month of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we move into our first full week of this brand-new month, the fifth month of the year. And we…we have been taking a journey through the book of Judges. And simply by way of reminder, you know, we…we’ve followed the journey of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and then Joseph in slavery in Egypt and wandering in the wilderness and finally we got to Joshua and crossed the Jordan River and the settling of the Promised Land. And judges is the story of the several centuries that followed Joshua and the way in which the people without a like…like a supreme leader, they did what they thought was right in their own eyes, which has definitely created a different way of doing things and we see the children of Israel back and forth and back and forth with God and with their enemies and those surrounding them. And today we get to a rather troubling story. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Judges, chapters 19 and 20 today.

Commentary:

Okay. What a troubling, disconcerting, horrible convoluted mess of a story we have going on in the book of Judges today. Really, at least in my opinion, one of the most horrific stories that we could find in the Bible and this is a story that’s really old, thousands of years old. So, like trying to read it through modern lenses makes it even more convoluted. So, we have like to set that aside for a second and go back in time and try to move through this story to make any kind of sense of it. We have this man who lives in the remote Hill country of Ephraim who makes his way to Bethlehem and meets a concubine, takes a concubine, a secondary wife or a common-law wife. Like, this is about as close as we could…could get. And we can look at that go, “yeah, not so much because that’s not really in the cultures that we live in although it’s in the world.” But, like I said, we have to like, set aside our 3000 year in the future judgment against an ancient culture and just go, “this is the story. Like, this is what…I’m not judging it with 3000 more years of history in a completely different culture in a completely different part of the world. I’m just looking at the story.” So, this was common in this time. So, he has a concubine, brings her home. Things don’t work out. She leaves, she returns to Bethel have. Four months later, he follows her to Bethlehem to renew the relationship to reconcile. The woman’s father welcomes him. They spend days eating and drinking and visiting and getting reacquainted together then they’re ready to leave and she’s ready to leave with him, but the father, right, the guys father-in-law basically, he’s like, “stay another day…stay another day” and he keeps doing this until finally, even though they had planned to leave a couple days ago and even though they had planned to leave first thing in the morning they end up leaving a few days later in the evening like as the day is well underway. And, so, they leave Bethlehem, they get past Jebus, which is Jerusalem, that’s 6 miles and then they go another few miles to Gibeah because they want to stay in an Israelite controlled town. And I don’t have to retell this blow-by-blow, we just we just read it. They are taken in by an older man who happens to be from the same kind of area in Ephraim that this original man is from. So, they have this going on and they go to his house. The house is surrounded. All kinds of nastiness is about to take place. It’s very, very reminiscent of some of the depictions of the story in Sodom and Gomorrah, which is an ancient story by this time. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah goes all the way back to Abraham’s time, so we’re well into the future but there are similarities here. They want the guest. They want the man, the man from Ephraim, they want him to be sent out so that…well…probably…as he claims later, so that they can kill him, but it seems as if they wanted to do other things before they killed him. So, as it turns out the concubine that had left in the first place, she’s shoved out the door and over the course of the rest of the evening raped to death, which is shocking. And we find this in the Bible and it’s like some of these other stories where we’re like, “wait a second. This is the Bible. What is going on? Where is God in this story?” So, let’s pause for a second and just ask that question. “Where is God in this story?” Because up to this point in the story we would be hard-pressed to find Him anywhere in this story. None of the things that are happening in this story were commanded by God. He wasn’t involved in any way. The man met a concubine. He took her. He took her home. She left him. He followed her. Like there’s no angels in this story telling anybody what to do. They reconcile. They leave. Why didn’t they leave in the morning? Why didn’t they leave in the morning when they could get all the way home? God didn’t tell them to stay. The woman’s father compelled them to stay, even days longer than they had planned to stay. Where’s God? Like why is this His fault? This is what we do in these kinds of stories and try to go, “I don’t understand this, but it’s very disruptive and troubling, and it’s in the Bible so this has gotta be God’s fault.” And yet He’s not telling anybody to do anything. The story that we began today begins by informing us that in those times Israel had no king. So, it’s like as the story’s beginning, we’re being kind of told, “this is a crazy time. This is a very unsettled time.” And we are told over and over in the book of Judges, “everybody does what’s right in their own eyes.” And, so, what we have unfolding before us in this story isn’t some horrific things that have happened at God’s instructions. What we’re seeing is what it looks like when people do what they think is right in their own eyes. And we can be…I mean…like the story goes on, that the man takes the woman’s body and cuts her up and sends pieces of her to all the 12 tribes of Israel. Like it’s a gruesome kind of story, but it certainly got the attention of all the 12 tribes who assembled together. So, we can look at the story and go, “This is a horrific story and I don’t know how I have to feel towards God. And how can…what kind of weird time did these people live in? And how could they let people get away with something like this?” But that isn’t the story. As these gruesome parts of this woman’s body are sent around the nation, the nation assembles together with a massive outcry against injustice, literally saying nothing…nothing…like nothing this horrible has happened in Israel and they assemble 400,000 people against 25,000 people and they’re demanding of the Benjaminite’s, “give us the perpetrators. They need to be executed for what they did.” So, less we think like this is just permitted, like this kind of behavior is permitted, even in ancient culture, there is a massive outcry against this. So, the other tribes go to Bethel where the Ark of the covenant is. This is where we’re for the first time hearing here of God in this in this story and He’s telling them that they have…that they have to go and attack Benjamin like that justice has to be pursued here. And they do. And Benjamin is a victorious and over 20,000 people die. And, so, they’re back in Bethel going, “what did we do wrong? What do we do? Do we keep going?” And the Lord’s like, “attack them again.” So, like, even though they lost, God is saying, “no. Continue to press. Like press in toward justice here.” And they do and they lose again. And they go back to the Lord and the Lord’s like, “press in again” they will be delivered into your hands tomorrow.” And, so, like in all of this battle and stuff, in all this anarchy of the whole thing there’s still a beat in between here. Like repentance can happen in all of this destruction, but it isn’t meant to be. The Benjaminite’s remain rebellious in this situation, and as it turns out are utterly destroyed. We leave the story today with 600 people left in Benjamin. Like an entire tribe of Israel through Civil War because of the violent horrific unthinkable crime has basically made the 12 tribes of Israel 11 tribes of Israel. As we continue this story through tomorrow and then, even as this, the reverberations of this story kind of bounce their way all the way until we get into the times of the Kings, we’ll see that even a horrific story like this one does turn its arc toward repentance, towards restoration, towards some kind of hope. But are we left with to contemplate today in such…such a troubling story? The first thing that we can say is that God didn’t ask for this story to ever take place. One of the major things that the book of Judges shows us because it says it all the time is that there was no king, like there was no supreme leader and everybody was doing their own thing. So, one of things that we can say is that this is what that looks like. Then if we backtrack that into our own lives we realize that following our own way, doing whatever it is that seems to be the right thing in the moment, whatever, can lead us into some very disorienting twisted scenario’s, which leads us to the other thing we can say about this. We saw the systematic decisions that were being made in this story, right? The man meets a concubine. That’s a decision. Takes her to Ephraim. That’s a decision. She leaves him. That’s a decision. He follows her. That’s a decision. They reconcile. That’s a decision. They overstay what their plans were. That’s a decision. They left late instead of the morning. That’s a decision. They went to Gibeah instead of Jebus even though it was getting late. That’s a decision. Once they were in danger the man gave his concubine up to the crowd. That’s a horrible decision but it’s a decision. So, we could say that our decision’s, our choices, even the ones that seem completely insignificant actually do matter. Things build upon things that build upon things that build upon things that then build our lives. And Judges is in part, helping us see what that looks like when it runs amok and everybody’s doing what they want no matter the consequences it might have.

Prayer:

Father we invite You into this. It is indeed a troubling story and it’s gonna take some time for us to continue reading before we can find any hope in it. We have watched in this story, seemingly insignificant decisions compound themselves into Civil War and the destruction of many lives. And, so, we see the danger of walking away or drifting away, assuming it doesn’t matter and just going our own way. We see not only in this story but throughout the book of Judges that’s not true. What we do actually does matter. That’s how our lives are formed, based on the choices that we make and the actions that we take because of those choices. And, so, we pause here. Our story isn’t leading us down the path of a horrific story like this one, but it is no less twisted when we go our own way. So, come Holy Spirit. Lead us into all truth. Give us eyes to see the narrow path that leads to life. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, its where you find out what’s going on around here, it’s how you stay connected around here. So, be sure to be aware and be sure to check it out.

The Community section is where you get connected.

The Initiative section is kind of what’s going on.

The Shop is some resources for the journey through the Bible in a year.

And, so, yeah check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then it's…it’s like I’m taking off my hat and holding it in my hands just to say thank you, like I’m humbled, humbled just about every day that we’re still here…like that we’re here as a community and this campfire is roaring and we’re making this journey together. If it has been a life-giving thing to you then thank you for your partnership. There’s 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 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.

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

Judges 17:1-18:31, John 3:1-21, Psalms 104:1-23, Proverbs 14:20-21

Today is the 3^rd day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a pleasure to be here with you as we…well…we continue to move in fully into this brand-new. It’s before us but now we’re crossing the threshold into a new week, our first full week of the month of May. And it does my heart good to be here with you around the Global Campfire and I hope the you feel the same. So, we’ve got a brand-new week we’ll read from the New Living Translation this week and we will continue our journey through the book of Judges by reading chapters 17 and 18 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for this new week and we thank You for this new month and we thank You for all that You have brought us through not only in recent times, but in our lives and we thank You that You continue to lead us forward, step-by-step, day by day, minute by minute, second by second. We thank You that we can never flee from Your presence. You are always with us. You are within and among us. Give us eyes to see, give us vision to see Your kingdom and our place in it as we move through and navigate this week being guided by the presence of Your Holy Spirit. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home-base, its where you find out what’s going on around here in our virtual community around the Global Campfire. So, stay connected. Stay connected in any way that you can. We’re all on this journey together. And this is…I mean…we are obviously all on the journey of life together on planet Earth at this point in history but we’re also on a unique journey that is specific to us, we’re making our way through the Bible here around the Global Campfire so let’s stay connected. So, yeah, dailyaudiobible.com.

The Community section will keep you connected. The Shop will keep you resourced.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that dailyaudiobible.com and I thank you profoundly and humbly. 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 is 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 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:

Hey DAB family this is Living in His Presence Scooter in Tuckahoe. My mother’s going through some challenges. She’s quarantined in New York City and while she still symptomatic they’re looking to send her back because of time limits and procedural snafus and red tape silliness. So please, if you can pray for my mother it would be appreciated. And Diane Olive Braun I wanted to thank you so much for singing Mr. Rogers bringing your joy and your voice back in…in this way it was just a real gift. I remember when you first came on at least the first time I heard you, you were speaking of having lost her voice but it’s there, it’s still beautiful and it was a real gift. So many are loved, are so dearly loved by me and my wife Diane. I’ll be calling back to lift all of you up later. Not enough time to do it now. Be blessed everyone.

This is Kim from Florida and I apologize for not calling my prayer…my praise report in sooner. I asked you to pray for my best friend having major brain surgery, by the way her name’s Teresa. Talk about raising hallelujah, wow! God showed up in a miraculous way and I believe it is because so many people prayed. I don’t fully understand the dynamics between the prayers and God, I just know it’s a synergistic platform that works. So, they were able to remove the entire tumor, all but one tiny little speck attached to that major blood vessel. She is walking and talking and doing great. She is tired and weak right now because she had a major brain surgery on her central nervous system. So, healing must continue but praise the Lord. Now we just need to pray her or two sons into the kingdom. Thank you again everyone for praying. It works. God is good all the time and all the time God is good. By now.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Bimbola Lagos. I’m calling to say thank you to Nicole from Florida for calling in. I found her message so encouraging, that no matter how dark the times are just stay in the Word and the Lord himself will walk you through things. Oh, I am so encouraged, and I decided to __ and __ to the word of God than ever before. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Jill. Thank you for all the people that call in and those that listen. God is good and this community’s…

Hi, my name is Jill. I just want to call in and thank Nicole from South Florida who I heard today. Today’s the 29^th and it has been one month since my husband passed away and I really needed to hear Nicole, what you said, because I almost fast forwarded because your voice was just so cheerful, and I am not. But I’m glad I listened because I really needed to hear that after you said your husband passed away a couple years ago, I think, that there was joy and that the Lord would bring joy in the morning. And I’m hopeful for that. So, I just want to thank you again because I…I really needed to hear that after a night of praying and feeling like maybe God wasn’t listening. So, thank you Nicole. And I would just appreciate prayer for being able to go on and figure out who I am after 25 years of marriage and leaving…my best friend leaving to go and be with the Lord. So, thank you.

Hi Nicole from South Florida I want to tell you that your testimony of the way the Lord brought you through those difficult days after your husband died and you staying in the Word, that was such a beautiful testimony. It’s a true word of encouragement. I’ll be praying for you and you just continue to stay in the Word as you find that blessing. Thank God. Praise God for what He’s done and what He’s gonna continue to do in your life. This is Randolph from Canada.

Brian I am in the middle of your comments for today’s lesson, the 29^th of April and you’re talking about, “weren’t our hearts on fire” and immediately I thought…I cut back to reading the first book you wrote about what caused you to start Daily Audio Bible. And you talk of us sitting around the Global Campfire. So, He ignited a fire within you that you have shared with us and it’s been going on these many years and will continue. I think that is just wonderful and I praise Him for lighting a fire in you so that through Daily Audio Bible that flame will never go out. As long as we are alive and pass it on it will never go out. Thank you, Brian and thank You Jesus for doing this. Thank you. Amen.