Author: Daily Audio Bible Transcripts

2 Chronicles 32:1-33:13, Romans 15:23-16:9, Psalms 25:16-22, Proverbs 20:16-18

Today is the 2^nd day of August…I almost said June…no idea…2^nd day of August, a brand-new month we’re moving into and the next up forward leads us back into the book of second Chronicles. We have a couple of days left in second Chronicles before concluding the book. And, so, let’s take the next step forward. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. And today second Chronicles chapter 32 verse 1 through 33 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. In second Chronicles today we are moving through the story of King Hezekiah, who was a good and faithful and loyal King to God. And we’ve met Hezekiah before back when we were moving through second Kings. And, so, this is not unfamiliar. But the lesson that is embedded in this story as we apply it to our own lives becomes really important. So, the Assyrian Empire has invaded the land under the rule of their king Sennacherib. And Sennacherib sent a message to Jerusalem, and he said, “on what are you basing your confidence that you remain in Jerusalem under siege? When Hezekiah says the Lord, our God will save us from the hand of the king of Assyria he is misleading you to let you die of hunger and thirst. Do you not know what I and my predecessors have done to all the peoples of the other lands? Were the gods of those nations ever able to deliver their land from my hand? Who of all the gods of these nations that my predecessors destroyed has been able to save his people from me? How then can your God deliver you from my hand?” And there’s more to what he had to say but that's…that pretty much encapsulates what’s going on here. And what is that kind of speech? That is called intimidation. It is intended to demoralize. It is taunting. It is intended to weaken resolve. It’s basically a form of psychological warfare. And just take a pause. Let’s kinda take a step back and think about the demoralizing taunting intimidating voices that we have encountered in our lives or perhaps that are a part of our story right now. In so many ways it’s just a junior form of psychological warfare. And what does it do to us? It stops us in our tracks, right, and makes us think with doubt about what we thought we knew. It makes us not so sure. It saps our energy. It can break our will. And the irony is that this type of attack is actually very very effective. It can cause us to question everything and become totally uncertain. Ironically, they’re just words. They’re not things that are happening, they’re words that are intended to show us what will happen even though there is no way anyone can be certain of those things. The king of Assyria had his own certainty. “Has anyone ever been able to stand up to us before? What makes you think your God can stand up to us now?” And, so, even though Sennacherib and his army are not there and cannot actually attack and destroy the city without a siege, even though they’re a distance away, their words bring them close, and the work is being done. The work of warfare is being done psychologically on the people. That happens to us, whether it’s the demoralizing doubt that we face in our lives that we sometimes call an attack, a spiritual attack or whether it’s a demoralizing person in our lives that is sapping our strength and affecting our will and desire to do what is right. These things ruin confidence and introduce fear when they are words that do not have corresponding actions. They may have corresponding actions, but it’s going to look different than the taunt. The taunt is there to tear us down. So, if you’re in Jerusalem and the mighty Assyrian Empire has invaded your land and the king is sent his emissaries to taunt and demoralize you and tell you what is going to happen to you, you may indeed be fearful. But the story as told in second Chronicles, ends very different than Sennacherib the king of the Assyria was predicting. And I quote from second Chronicles. “King Hezekiah and prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this and the Lord sent an angel who annihilated all the fighting men in the commanders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So, he withdrew to his own land in disgrace and when he went into the temple of his God some of his sons, his own flesh and blood, cut him down with the sword.” That’s a very different ending than the taunts and intimidation that was hurled at the walls of Jerusalem. Let’s remember this when we feel demoralized, when we feel taunted, when we feel intimidated. We can spend all of our energy biting our nails to the quick and fretting and being filled until we’re sick with anxiety or we can do everything that we know to do to be faithful and loyal to the mission that God has asked us to accomplish and we can put our trust, we can cry out to God and allow the voice of truth to speak louder and more clearly than anything that would intimidate us into doubt and denial and failure. And, so, let’s give it some thought today. What are those voices that are really there and do nothing but intimidate us or taunt us into believing lies about the future and lies about ourselves?

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite you to come into that. We have all faced this. Ae all do face this from time to time in all kinds of different ways. And even as we’re considering this now we…those voices, those ways bubble up inside of us and we’re all aware of our own stories. And as we look at those stories, we can see how we’ve been led into fear and intimidation and how we have settled and how we have caved and all kinds of things we can see as we look back over our lives, but we are also realizing that so many of the threats are just words. They’re words. Things can come against us, but they don’t work the way the threats work usually. So, often the threat is there giving us a picture of something so much worse than can even possibly happen and we just settle in cave when you have invited us to be true and loyal and faithful. And, so, Holy Spirit come. Identify the voices that are in our lives, whether they’re the voice of a person or group of people or a set of circumstances or just a set of fears that we’ve carried with us our whole lives. However, that voice of intimidation is speaking to us Holy Spirit, help us to identify this. Show us the root of this and show us that you are in this with us and we can trust you. We ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, that’s where the Global Campfire is, that’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And, so, check that out. The Daily Audio Bible app is also available from your app store, whatever that app store might be and that’ll let you find out what’s going on around here as well. So, check it out.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop that are created for going through the Bible in a year together in community as we are. And, so, you take the journey deeper, wider, or more colorfully. Just browse through the different categories of Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission here to continue doing what we do around the Global Campfire every day and take the next step forward together, if that is life-giving and meaningful to you, thank you profoundly for your partnership. There is 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 is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up 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 this is Candace from Oregon. I just listened to Brian giving his talk about Romans 12. Oh, my goodness. You know just one more example of the strengthening again from this ministry. And, so, I thank God and I thank you Brian. I’m about to lose a pastor me and my church. You know we are switching to a new pastor. We don’t know who the new one will be. But the old one we’ve had for many decades, and he has been more than a pastor to us. He’s been a really good pastor, but he’s been a really good friend. And wow! It just really just a huge __ for us, for me and for many and for them. They’re going into a completely different kind of life. So, would you pray with me now? Lord, I pray for Carl and Lori Leak and I ask you Lord to make them…just to pave the way before them as they move from Oregon back to Michigan where they have children and grandchildren. Bless them with sweet surprises Lord and make the December 13^th farewell retirement party everything you want it to be Lord to honor you Lord and honor what is taking place here in this ministry and to honor Carl and Lori. Be with my church or Kels church as we seek out this new pastor and bless him and his family as well in Jesus’ name I pray. And thank you for the stability of Daily Audio Bible in my life and in so many others.

Hi, it’s Shannon from Texas and I’m sure people have been calling in for this, but I would like to call in again and ask for prayer for rain, literal and spiritual, a physical and spiritual rain and all of these areas. I’m in Texas and anyone who lives in Texas right now knows that it is a serious drought, and this month has…we’ve got to get some relief for our crops. We have to have rain. And we have authority and dominion over the elements when we understand the Kingdom. So, I’m believing and know that you guys will believe in with me. And, so, it is. Shalom. Love you.

Hey everybody this is Philip My Cup from Michigan. Just calling real quick to give a little update and ask for some prayer. My wife and I had a beautiful baby girl. We’re just so blessed with that. God how perfect. It’s just…what a change in my life to have a…just to be a father. Everybody says it. It changes in your body like a switch and it’s honestly not something I knew until it happened. Its…holy crap am I just blessed with that. And, you know, just giving huge thanks to God for…my wife is recovering so well, the baby’s just amazing. So yeah, thank you for that Lord. Just this evening my father-in-law Sean was in an incident. He was physically assaulted. Just brought my mother-in-law to the hospital to be with him and I’m just asking you guys to lift Sean up in prayer and just to be with my family, you know, as we go through some…my family, my in laws, me, everybody, we try to battle with forgiveness and we try to deal with the healing process of Sean. And we just pray for the medical staff and the police officers, EMS drivers. And I don’t remember your name but the girl that called in about the identity thing. I should mention I’m a little bit far behind on my readings after having the baby. But yeah, I’m gonna follow your suit and ask that we pray for the people that assaulted my father-in-law and just on their behalf we could all repent against their…their wrongdoings and just get the enemy out of the situation. I’d appreciate it. Love all you guys. Love hearing from you. Hope you have a great day.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Wrapped in His Unfailing Love, Dorothy from Destin. I wanted to share with you something that God gave me. I saw a little girl in my mind’s eye. She was maybe two or three and she was having a fit in the middle of a Walmart let’s say, just tired and couldn’t have what she wanted, and she was just crying and throwing a temper tantrum and her dad came to her and picked her up and put her head on his shoulder and she began to settle down and she walked through the store, and she began to fall asleep. And to me that was just a manifestation of what God does to us when we are in the midst of all our problems, and we don’t know what to do and we’re just wringing our hands. And all he wants us to do is rest in Him. But we have to ask Him. But the Lord waits for you to come to Him so that he could show you His love and compassion for the Lord is faithful, a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for him to help them. Isaiah 30. So, rest in the shadow of His wings. Rest in His love. And when things are seeming like they’re out of control God knows and He has you. I love you family. Thank you Brian for this wonderful ministry. God bless you all.

Good morning DAB community this is Penny, One Penny Saved from southwest Missouri. And I’m on a walk and just thought I would call in to offer support and hope to those who are struggling with addictions or compulsive addictive behaviors and to keep in mind that I went through years in bondage and the word of God is what will heal you. And of course, addiction and anxiety are Satan’s way to kill and steal and destroy us because it literally rocks world. And I just want to remind you to play God’s word and make sure those beautiful words are going out into the air because Satan hears those too. And first thing in the morning, start off with the word so your mind does not wander. With me it was like while I put on my makeup or got ready for the day, that’s when my mind would wander into places that I have no business being. And if I play the word first thing in the morning my thoughts will be captured and reigned in into the right place, which is of course praising God, listening to DAB, praying for others. I love you guys. Hang in there.

2 Chronicles 30:1-31:21, Romans 15:1-22, Psalm 25:1-15, Proverbs 20:13-15

Today, is the first day of the month of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. Brand new, shiny, sparkly month here for us. And we’re really just getting moved into this brand-new week that we’ve begun. Today, is the 213^th day of the year, which means it’s our 213^th step together as we move through the year and through the Bible. So, it is great to be here with you today, like it is every day. In fact, thank you. Thank you for being together with me today, thank you for letting me be together with you today, as we immerse ourselves in the Scriptures and allow them to speak into this day and into our lives. And our next step will lead us to the point of the previous step. And that leads us back into the book of 2^nd Chronicles. I mentioned yesterday, before this week is out we will have concluded 2^nd Chronicles and the letter to the Romans and so, before this week is out we’ll be in new territory all together. So, we’re really moving into a brand-new month and kind of resetting a lot of things during this week. But our next step still leads us forward in the book of 2^nd Chronicles and today we will read chapters 30 and 31. 

Commentary:

Okay, in Paul’s letter to the Romans we’re kind of picking up something or a theme that has already been going on in the book but was begun to be unpacked in yesterday’s reading. And that is, what are the postures like, how do we posture ourselves toward one-another, in such a way that it promotes unity? Like, how do we live with so many people, with so many stories, so many convictions. What are the postures that we can hold onto that if we live in these postures will promote unity among us? And it’s not so hard for us to look out over Christendom and realize there are plenty of people who feel a lot of different ways and have a lot of different convictions that oppose one another and there are conflicts. But there were conflicts at the time of Paul as well and much of that boiled down to the Jews and the Gentiles who had not been in fellowship or communion with one another and didn’t even fraternize with one another.  So, the Hebrew people, and we’ve talked about this before, the Hebrew people, Jesus was the Hebrew Messiah and when He came into this story, He came into this story as a Hebrew person and He grew up as a Hebrew and He talked from the Hebrew scriptures. And He was thought to be a Hebrew prophet. And, not all, but so much of His ministry was centered among the Jewish people. And so, the people who had become to believe in Jesus, who were Jewish, they had a claim to Jesus, basically. Saying look, all of the things are in a Hebrew context. Jesus is the Hebrew Messiah. Jesus observed the law and was aware of it. In fact, we believe he fulfilled the law even though He got in trouble over the law’s interpretation, at times. So, for the Jewish people, they’re like, this is the next step in the Jewish story. For this to include Gentiles and for them to be given like a different set of rules, invariably created some conflict. Because the thought was, certainly a Gentile can be included in the story but they need to convert to Judaism and follow God’s law and incorporate themselves into the culture and then follow Jesus. And they weren’t really in position where they could just decide we don’t like them anymore, let’s just make a new denomination. And we’ll make our charter this way and this theology and this way we are guarding the truth. And then when people don’t agree with that anymore they go form their own little clan, make a new denomination so that there are thousands and thousands and thousands of them in the world. They didn’t have this kind of freedom or luxury. And Paul, he was a trained Pharisee. So, he knew this argument and he knew this tension very well and he has simply like, if we’re really boiling it down, Paul is trying to say to the Jews, Jesus isn’t just the Savior of the Jews. He is that but that’s not all He is. He is the Savior of the world. Or to just quote from Paul and put it back into his own words, “I tell you that Christ has become the servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth so that the promises made to the Patriarchs might be confirmed and moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.” And then Paul quotes from the Hebrew scriptures, from 2^nd Samuel, from the Psalms, from the book of Deuteronomy text from the Hebrew scriptures that bare this out, “Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles, I will sing the praises of your name,” or “Rejoice you Gentiles with His people,” or “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, let all the peoples extoll him.” Or from the book of Isaiah, “The root of Jesse will spring up one that will rise to rule over the nations. In Him, the Gentiles will hope.” So basically, there is a pretty generous, maybe over-the-top amount of conflict going on. And when I say maybe over-the-top a little bit cause these kinds of conflicts had made people make pacts to assassinate people like Paul. So, that’s like high level confrontation if you’re going to hide, ambush and kill somebody over what they believe. Paul’s trying to say basically, calm down this was foretold. It’s just that people didn’t calm down. The idea of an inclusive kingdom like, that everyone could become a part of the story when the Jewish people had been told they were set apart and Holy. They could not get their minds around this inclusiveness, that everyone who comes to Jesus in a leap of faith, reaching out in faith, that person isn’t a Jew or a Greek or male or a female or a slave or a free-person, that person is a new creation, a child of God. And so, there were disagreements and conflicts. And this conflict may have been over Jews and Gentiles and 2000 years later, we may look out across the globe and say the Gentiles won the day because the church is largely made up of a majority of Gentiles. But I don’t know if you’ve notices, Gentiles aren’t all on the same page either. And so, so much of what we’re talking about boils down to a fight about who gets to be included. Who gets to be in. And many people in this day and age have many varying opinions about that. And so, we just have to take a step back and ask ourselves like, can somebody who doesn’t believe the same way that I do about certain aspects of the faith but they do believe in Jesus like I do. Like, are they, are they in? Or a person who does some things or lives a certain way or has certain practices that we weren’t raised to do. We were told those things are wrong and so, we have these convictions from our own story that we apply to them and we think that they’re sinning. But they truly believe that Jesus is Savior and has died to take away their sins and they have reached out in faith and have accepted this gift. We spend a tremendous amount of energy on things like this. And if we like, we’ve just took a step back let’s take another step back and realize, we can fight it out however we want to fight it out. We don’t have a say. We are talking about the position of God. God is the judge. God will say what’s going to happen. And God can look at a person in a way that a human being can’t. God looks upon the truth of their heart. I’ve been a human being like, as long as I can remember, literally. And I know that human beings can be dishonest and deceptive and deceitful. I know that human beings can pretend to be something that they’re not. And I know that human beings can fool other human beings even over a very long stretch of time. I also believe that God isn’t fooled by any of it. God see’s the truth of the matter. God has all the power. God has all the authority. God is the judge. And so, we spend a lot of time really trying to defend the theological framework or walls that we build around ourselves so that we can lob shots at somebody who doesn’t see things that way. Even to the point of feeling like they can’t possibly be anything but deceived and it’s very, very sad that they’re probably not going to make it. It’s just that us feeling that way, doesn’t have anything to do with anything. God will look upon the heart. God will make the judgement. And in so many ways, this is where Paul lands this. And I quote from the letter to the Romans, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement, give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and with one voice you may glorify the God of our Father, Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another than just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God.” And so, again, just going back to maybe 14, 13, 14, 15^th chapter of Romans. Just kind of listening to what Paul is laying out, seeing that there are postures that promote unity and postures that don’t. Understanding that we already know that to be true. We’ve been humans and we’ve been in human conflict in some sort of way, even from childhood. So, we understand that there are certain ways that we behave that cause conflict and certain ways that promote unity. And often we’re willing to, we’re willing to engage in conflict in order to be right or to defend our rights. But that is very, that is very self-focused, it is about us. When the posture of heart that we are to have is one that exemplifies, reveals, worships, illuminates Jesus the Savior of the world. And so, it’s actually worth some time, even if it’s just 5 minutes of silence, just a few minutes to think about how much conflict we get ourselves into or how much conflict we get drawn into and how much energy that takes and how much of it is unnecessary expenditure of energy that could be applied to something good. Which isn’t to say that all conflict is bad like, conflict is how we grow. Especially if conflict is properly and respectfully done where it’s a sharing of a disagreement and the ideas that are behind that agreement with the hope of actually learning. And we find in those kinds of conflicts nobody’s completely right and nobody’s completely wrong. And we find meat in the middle and learn some things that we didn’t know before. But if the whole thing is about us being right then we go to war. And we do everything that we can to like, just destroy the argument of the other person. And so, we have to wonder like, is all that energy, if we win those battles have, did we keep God on the throne? Did we successfully defend God so that He didn’t fall out of heaven? Nothing that we have to say and nothing that we think can stop the power of God. And so, so often we think we’re defending God. We’re actually trying to defend our own insecurities. Some of these things are a waste of energy. And if we just imagine what we may be able to do with that energy and time if we were able to harvest it and recover it back into our lives and not waste it on fruitless conflict, especially among the brothers and sisters in the Lord? Ah, we could put a dent in some things. And so, let’s give that some thought today. 

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite you into that, we are all guilty. Everybody knows what’s being talked about here, everybody knows what interpersonal conflict is like. Everybody knows the battle to be right. Everybody knows that those battles usually end up in a draw and nobody’s happy with it. What if we just changed our whole perspective and understood that our postures in the way that we interact with each other are representing You, they’re not about us. There about revealing who you are to the world and what a dramatic shift has happened in our lives because You loved us, even when we were in conflict with You. Come, Holy Spirit, into this, help us to get a vision for how much energy and time we could recover, if we didn’t waste it on fruitless conflict. We ask Holy Spirit, that You would lead us into all truth, in this and every matter. We ask this in the precious name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here, it’s home of the Global Campfire. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, which you can get for free at the app store that’s connected to your device, so certainly check that out and use that, you can get to all these things as well. So, check out the Community Section whether in the app or on the website. There you will find links to all the different social media channels that we participate in and that’s a good thing to know, especially if there is some type of announcements, etc. etc. But also, the Community Section is home of the Daily Audio Bible Prayer Wall. Which is a place that we can go no matter what’s going on, no matter what time of day or night that it is, whether we are overjoyed with victory and can’t wait to share or whether we can’t sleep because we are being crushed by the weight of the world. We can always reach out and ask for prayer from our brothers and sisters and share what’s going on. We can also always go there and pray for one another and encourage our brothers and sisters that they’re not alone, we’re here praying for them, we’re walking with them. And it is a beautiful, beautiful thing about us. It’s a beautiful thing about us as a community around the Global Campfire. We pray for one another, we care about each other’s stories. We accept each other where we are on the journey, knowing that we’re all stepping forward, one step at a time together. And so check that out, that’s in the Community Section of the app or the website. 

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If the mission to bring the spoken word of God, read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone, anywhere, anytime and to build community around the rhythm of showing up every day and taking the next step forward. If that has been life-giving to you, then thank you, humbly, for your partnership as we continue to move through the summertime. There is 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 is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174. 

And of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement. We we’re just talking about that beautiful distinction about the community here, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can certainly, certainly go to the Prayer Wall. That’s the little red button up 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. 

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello DAB, this is God’s Tree for I have many branches but I’m rooted in every word of God. I want to give a praise report to those who are suffering with depression and thoughts of suicide. Listen to this praise report. I’ve been with DAB since about 2007 and I had a best friend who was suffering. He had lost everything, his wife left him, he lost his job, he lost everything and he was on the edge of suicide. And I ministered to him and I prayer for him and I tried to lift him up and then I had to let go and let God. And then I had called in about three years ago when my brother tried to commit suicide. We were able to intervene and we were able to get him the help that he needs. And I praise God, years kept passed, it’s been three years, my brothers is doing good, he is preaching God’s word. He has a beautiful home and a family and a business and he is flourishing. And my best friend he has his own company now, he has people working for him, he has a home and he has travelled all over the world. And he praises God every step of the way. Know that it is not at the end of your rope, it’s just that you got to tie a knot and hold on and let God carry you the rest of the way. So, don’t give up, trust God. He’s gonna show you some absolutely beautiful things. You’re going through for a reason because your blessings are just around the corner. And I give God honor, praise and glory for His blessings and being faithful to us. God loves us unconditionally so, hold onto that. He loves you no matter how lonely you feel. He’s right there with you. Ya’ll continue to pray for me and my family as I pray for you. Bless you Brian and the whole Hardin family and DAB as a whole. This is God’s Tree. I love you.

Good afternoon, DAB family, God Bless you all. Travis from Canada, you called in saying that last summer you pastored a church for your internship in Nordic, Canada. And these people are now being evacuated due to forest fires and a lot of uncertainties of not knowing whether or not they can return to their homes. Father God, like Elijah, Father God, we declare the rains, we declare the rains to come down, Father God, saturating every part of that fire, Father God. In the name above all names, Father God. That every part of that fire, Father God, from the East to the West, to the North, to the South, Father God, is gonna be saturated with the rains of heavens, Father God. Glorifying You Jesus, Father God, in the name of Jesus. And that these families will return to their homes, Father God, in the name of Jesus. And find all things intact, that there will be no loses, Father God. In the name above all names, Father God. Hopeful from Ohio, I am so happy to hear, Father God, that you Hopeful have been, you know, encouraged by the DAB that was shared to you by your co-worker, in the name of Jesus. Know that I am praying for you and that I am believing that you are going to take the steps of bravery, even though you feel you haven’t done so. But just calling in is a sign of bravery, in the name of Jesus. I’m also believing that this spirit of pornography that has attacked your husband, your marriage, your home is gone in the name of Jesus. I declare that to be canceled and eradicated from your home, your life, your husband, in the name above all names, Jesus. That spirit of pornography can no longer have your husband. We command it to leave right now, in the name of Jesus. Betty, from Hamburg, New York. Thank you for that praise report that your son has awakened from this catatonic spirit. We are believing for more awakenings in him, in the name of Jesus. Esther from Haines City.

Hey everybody, it’s Annette Allison from Oklahoma City. Long time, no hear. Hey, one of my aunts and uncles had come over to my house and they were visiting from out of town. And those of you who have been praying for my brother, he’s doing so well. Biola, I know he’s been on your prayer list forever and I thank you for that. Lots and lots of people have been praying for my brother Charlie. He’s in a halfway house now out of federal prison, okay. And he’s doing exceptionally well. Well, everything was so positive and my aunt grabbed the phone and we were messaging, facetime thing. And said, Charlie, Charlie, you know boy, you need to get God in your life and this conversation was going on back and forth, you know, and he’s like oh yeah, things are going great. He says, you know, about three years ago, something happened to me and it really made me go down on my knees and learn how to accept Christ back into my life and I just want to you guys, I want to love this story cause I want to say, it’s probably right about the time that everybody started praying for him. So, I just want ya’ll to know that on a good thanksgiving thing here, praise report, that my brother has given his heart over to the Lord and is swallowing books about God and Jesus like all over the place. And I just, I cannot tell you, thank you, thank you, for your support enough. And everything else is going great as well. I love you all and have a wonderful, wonderful day. Bye Bye. 

Hello, my DAB family, this is Cameel from Charlotte, calling. And I wanted to let our brother Skip Morgan know that I am praying for you. Praying in reference to your gastric illness. Praying for healing, comfort and peace. Praying that the healing hands of our Lord Jesus, who is the great Physician. I’m praying that He touch you and rid you of your pain and discomfort. Skip, I am constantly keeping you in prayer. Also, Cyncal from Nester called and in reference to your son’s home invasion, Lord have some mercy, have mercy. I pray that things are getting better. I pray that the Lord would continue to bless them, cover them, keep them. And also, for Scott from Minneapolis, your son Tyler was injured by a stray bullet. I’m praying for, he and for your family. Also, Janet in the UK, you lost your mother but you know that she is with our Lord and Savior. I’m praying for you all. I’m praying for the gentleman that are incarcerated. Bruce and we also want you to know that we’re praying for you and your family. Thank you for your letters from Clarence, Bruce and also our brother Ellis. Thank you and God Bless you all and have a great day. 

Hey DB, hey DAB family, this is my first time calling, as you can tell. My, the nerves are there. This is my first time calling. I’ve been listening to everyone calling for their prayers. First and foremost, I want to thank Brian and his family for this. Guys, I do need your help. I would like to pray for my sister. Literally, the most talented chef that I’ve ever met. Probably in the world but I’m a little biased. She feels the world is against her and I know that that’s not her, I know that’s the devil. I try to move closer to God and I try to bring her with me. And I realize this isn’t something I can do alone so, I’m asking for your help. It gets tough but you know, that’s why we turn to God. Just appreciate this platform to call in and ask for your help. Thank you. 

2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27, Romans 13:1-14, Psalm 23:1-6, Proverbs 20:11

Today is the 30^th day of July. Wow, one more day, we get to end a month as we start a new week tomorrow. One more day in this 7^th month of the year. And so, we here are with today and tomorrow. And I’m excited to see what the scriptures bring into our lives, things for us to be edified by and uplifted by and challenged by. And so, let’s dive in. We’ve been reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Which is what we’ll do today. And picking up where we left off yesterday we’ll lead us back into the book of 2^nd Chronicles. Today, chapters 26, 27 and 28.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And we have now come to the full completion of this month, with only one day remaining. So, we look back over this month and we thank You for all that You have spoken into our lives, all that You have touched, all that You have comforted, all that You have challenged. And the way that You have led us forward, step-by-step, day-by-day. And so, come Holy Spirit and plant what we’ve read this month into the soil of our lives, that the fruit of this Spirit may burst forth in abundance, spilling out of us into the world. And we pray along with what the Apostle Paul said in the letter to the Romans. Jesus, may You be as near to us as the clothes we wear. And Holy Spirit, come, as we continue to contemplate and consider what life looks like if our posture were to live it as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to You. Come, Holy Spirit, into this we pray. In the precious and mighty name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And the Daily Audio Bible app can do the same thing in the palm of your hand. You can get that in whatever app store that you use, so just search for Daily Audio Bible. Check out the, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of resources in a number of categories. Whether that be fun or community aspects, just things to wear and be a part of a community together as we move through the scriptures. Whether that be written resources to take the journey deeper or spoken resources to take the journey deeper. Just check out the different categories in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Everything that we have developed there over the years is for this community of us, for us and to give us strength and empower us to take the journey that we are on, through the entire Bible, every verse, every word, in a year. 

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If being around the Global Campfire every day is life-giving and encouraging, thank you for your partnership. We couldn’t do it if we weren’t in this together so, thank the Lord, we are in this together. And thank you for your partnership as we move through summer time. There is a link on the homepage at dailyauiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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

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

2 Chronicles 29:1-36, Romans 14:1-23, Psalms 24:1-10, Proverbs 20:12

Today is the 31^st day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today as we take the next step forward together. And of course, this is the last day of the month of July, the seventh month of the year. And, so, well done. Seven months we’ve been together, and this last step will conclude this month and then we’ll just start a new month. That’s what we do, just keep going forward day by day step-by-step. But it’s good to be here with you at the end of this month of July. We are ending a month and starting a brand-new shiny sparkly week. And, so, something ends, and something begins, and we keep moving forward. This week we will read from the New International Version. We will also conclude the book of second Chronicles this week. We will also conclude Paul’s letter to the Romans this week. So, a lot of endings and a lot of new beginnings happening in the next week as we get settled into the new month of August. But here we are, last day of July. Let’s take the next step forward together. And that leads us back into second Chronicles. Today, second Chronicles chapter 29.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we…we are grateful. We appreciate. We sit here and appreciate that You have brought us to the final day of the seventh month of the year, that You have brought us this far. And there is plenty far to go, but You will bring us through. And, so, we are grateful in this moment of time. And as we move forward into this week and into a new month and ending books, and beginning new books, Holy Spirit come and lead us into all truth. This is a continual prayer. This is our desire. This is what we need, that You would lead and guide our steps and that You would illuminate in the Scriptures what we need to know to live this life according to Your purpose and according to Your will. Align our will with Your will so that we might be of one mind, collaborating, and putting things back together again. Come Holy Spirit we pray into all of this and we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello DAB family Will Beverlin here from Strasburg Virginia. I’ve been listening for I think probably almost 10 years now. Multiple times calling in, multiple prayer requests have come in. My stepson was killed two years ago in an accident and called in for that. But there’s a gentleman on the 26^th who called in about losing his friend to alcohol addiction. Well, I am in sympathy with you because I have just lost my father to the same thing just this past Sunday and he had taken several falls. He was 69 years old and for decades I had been trying to influence him to put down the alcohol and embrace his family. Last couple of years he went to a lake house he owns and isolated himself and just…where there was no accountability and essentially, he…he self-medicated himself to death, if you could put it that way. So, please prayers for the family. Going down right now to finish making the final arrangements for his final disposition if you will and from there, we’ll do memorial services and things like that for friends and family as they’re able to attend. So, please pray for the wisdom and strength of me that I can be a shining light for the gospel amongst my family and that…for traveling mercies and all the like. I thank you guys very much. I love this community. I am very faithful listening every day. So, thank you very much for everything. Goodbye.

Hi DAB family it’s Testimony in Progress in Northern Queens in the UK calling. I just…I just dropped off my stepdaughter at her friends and I just feel like I need to ask for prayers for her. Her name is Tia and she’s 22 years old and she’s suffering from fear of being on her own like, really bad. She’s always on the phone and she’s always on the FaceTime. She even sleeps with FaceTime with someone. She can’t just be on her own. And I was…and I was…probably because God’s knocking on her door now because I’ve been praying for her for years now. But she’s just…she’s just scared of being on her own. She always needs someone around. And I just think…I just think it’s really damaging her because she’s suffering now mentally and like she can’t work properly. She always has to call in sick because she’s struggling with mental health issues. And I just…I just really don’t want her to suffer like that. Can you please pray for her? Thank you.

Hello DAB family this is Jared from Ohio. I’ve been trying to figure out whether or not to call in but I mean things are going really good for me, but I’ve got some craziness going on too and I’m super excited to hear from Jonathan in Denver and don't…don’t give up because it sounds like you moving in the right direction. I’ve been praying for you for a while now even since the middle of last year. But I got a lot of transition going on in my life right now. So, if you would pray for me and my family and my church. We are looking for a new pastor because God has called our senior minister to a…to a new ministry and I know he’s going to do great things. So, but it’s a…it’s a hard transition for me. And just about 5 minutes ago there’s been an explosion on the other side of work. And, so, I wanted you guys to pray for that situation. And I don’t even know what all is going on with it but…but I know you guys are so generous in the prayers and just the ability to to love on people and to…and to share your concern and to share God’s love with people. So, I just appreciate that about this community, and I thank you so much. And Travis you’ve been on my heart too. Just I…I…I see her passion. I hear your love and wanting to do things in God’s way and I'm…and I’m praying that that you can accomplish that. So, I know I’m rambling about 5,000,000 different things but I…I appreciate this and just the opportunity to be able to call.

Hi Brian, this is Cory in Green Bay Wisconsin and I wanted to thank you for…for 10 years of your podcast, I’ve been listening to it. I started listening to it when I was living in Scottsdale about 10 years ago and I was going through a painful opiate painkiller addiction and I was brought into rehab and I came across your podcast. And after about eight or nine months I decided to become a Christian and I got baptized in Scottsdale. And I actually met you. You were out in that area about 10 years ago when I met you and your family. It was very pleasant. Now I’m living in a Green Bay and I’m having another very difficult time. I lost my job and I’m a little concerned, a little bit nervous but I feel confident every day when I…I listen to your podcast and the community of prayer that you offer for everybody. And I want to thank you and I want to ask your community to pray for me and help me get through this…this current crisis I have here. Thank you Daily.

2 Chronicles 24:1-25:28, Romans 12:1-21, Psalms 22:19-31, Proverbs 20:8-10

Today is the 29^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is wonderful to gather, come around the Global Campfire together, take the next step forward together and just be together as we move forward through this year. So, we have come together to take the next step forward in the Scriptures, and that next step forward is, of course, the next one after where we left off. And,so, we will go back into the book of second Chronicles and today read chapters 24 and 25.

Commentary:

Okay. What is the most sensible way to serve God? That is kind of an undercurrent question that sort of flows through my life. Like am I doing it right? How do you know if you’re doing it right? Where do you aim? How does this work. What is the most sensible way to do this? Paul takes a stab at actually answering that and going back to Romans 12 and really spending some time with it ourselves will be really really helpful because it’s kind of laid out. Paul says, “to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing, that’s the most sensible way to serve God.” And, so, for starters what does that even look like. From the perspective of Paul’s readers sacrifice is not an unusual concept. They’re very very familiar with animal sacrifice. And, so, understanding what a sacrifice is and what happens with a sacrifice is pretty clear to them. What Paul is suggesting is that they look at themselves that way, as a sacrifice, but as a living one. And, so, to practically look at this we understand that a sacrifice dies and yet a living sacrifice lives sacrificially. According to Paul this posture is the most sensible way to serve God. And, so, we shouldn’t blow by it. But Paul has a bunch of other things to say in the 12^th chapter of Romans about what this looks like. For example, “don’t think you’re better than you really are" or “use good sense and measure yourself by the amount of faith that God is giving you” or “if you have gifting’s use them” or “in sincerity love one another.” Like, don’t fake love each other. Be sincere in your love for others. “Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other as brothers and sisters, and honor others more than you do yourself. Never give up. Eagerly follow the Holy Spirit and serve the Lord. Let your hope make you glad. Be patient in time of trouble and never stop praying. Take care of God’s needy people and welcome strangers into your home. Ask God to bless everyone who mistreats you. Ask him to bless them and not to curse them. When others are happy be happy. When they’re sad, be sad with them. Be friendly, be hospitable with everyone. Don’t be proud and feel that you know more than others. Be friends with ordinary people. Try to earn the respect of others and do your best to live at peace with everybody. Don’t try to get even. Let God take care that. Revenge is the Lords. Don’t let evil defeat you but defeat evil with good.” These are all characteristics or postures of what it looks like to obey and be a living sacrifice before the Lord, and it’s worth kind of winding back and listening to this again or opening up the Bible and going to the 12^th chapter of Romans, and just really pondering. Because we ponder some of these things and say, okay I feel as if I’m doing that with all of my heart, but this other thing is a real stronghold that gets me into trouble all of the time. Hind of moving through some of these characteristics allows us to see where there is work to be done and allows us to invite the Holy Spirit into that work as we live our lives as a living sacrifice. And, so, let’s spend some time here today contemplating meditating upon seeing how we may excel in one area, but really, really need to work on some other areas that are hurting people, or that we’re carrying around bitterness and won’t release people. And, so, we’re in bondage as well. There’s so much for us to think about today and as each one of us thinks about it it’s going to materialize in our lives different. Differently because we have different stories and different relationships, different occupations, different everything. But it will mean something to each one of us as we invite the Holy Spirit to give us clarity on what it looks like to live our lives as a living sacrifice.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into that. We need You here. We need You now. As we are contemplating these things reveal to us the places where we can be encouraged and need encouragement, reveal to us the places in which we need to focus and allow repentance to change us. Holy Spirit come into this, all of it. Transform us. Lead us into all truth. Lead us deeper into Jesus. And we pray this in His precious and holy name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home, home base, home of the Global Campfire. That’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app can do that as well. So, whatever app store works with the your special device just search for Daily Audio Bible and you can download the app from there. It’s free and it’s a fantastic way to take the journey. And, so, check that out.

Check out the Prayer Wall in the Community section. Be aware of that. Actually just check out the community section because there are links there to get connected on social media and the different channels that we are connected to. And, so, yeah, that’s the prayer wall and social media. These are different ways to connect.

If you want to partner with the daily audio you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. Thank you, thank you for your partnership as he navigates the summertime. There is a link on the homepage of the website 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 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 or there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. In the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-38820-5459 is the number to call.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

[singing starts] Happy birthday to ya. Happy birthday to ya. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to ya [inging stops]. Happy birthday Ezekiel. Oh my gosh brother. Dude you’re a decade. You’re getting old man. But with age comes wisdom. Man, you know what, I got a quick story to share with you Ezekiel. 10 years ago, your father was in the parking lot of the hospital asking us to pray because Jill was having some complications with your birth. And I remember falling to my knees and asking God to bless this birth but not only the birth to bless your life. May you always follow the Lord’s path Ezekiel. May you never stray from it. May all your days be blessed. And may you always stay in God’s word brother. Man, you encourage me so much. You have no idea. You’re little short 10 years on this earth has made such an impact on so many people brother. I said I wasn’t going to cry but you already know I’m a crier. Oh try it it’s detoxing. Anyway, brother I love you. Ezekiel you’re like my little nephew. I’ve been rolling with your dad for a long time and brother you just keep on rolling man. Keep doing what you’re doing. Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

Good morning everybody this is Joyfully Joe. It’s July 25^th and I was just listening to my Daily Audio Bible. As a matter of fact, I listened to your exposition Brian I don’t know about four or five times. It was so beautiful to me, such a comfort. I love that passage of scripture. And right now in my life I am just seeking to praise God for his word, seeking to pour into myself God word because I’m in a really hard spot with my mom. I know I’ve told you guys this before. I hope you’re praying for me because I need it. She says…in her dementia she says really mean things to me. And I’m not crying about that because I’m on that road of forgiveness. And Hallelujah Jeremy, I’m just praising God for your good road that you went on. And but anyways this is my life right now. I love the way this psalm ends. Everything about it that you read and exposed Brian just hit my heart so beautifully and I thank you for it. Let my words and my thoughts be pleasing to you because you are my mighty rock and my protector. So beautiful. And I just pray DABbers that…or I ask you to pray for me that my words would be pleasing and kind to my mother regardless. In Jesus…

Hello Daily Audio Bible I’m just asking…I’m reaching out for some prayer regarding my child __.  Apparently, my child’s mother boyfriend who is raising my daughters and will not me see them and it’s just causing it's…it's…it’s causing lots of stress and pain and I chose to want to have the right attitude towards this young man who is…who is being the father for my kids. Just something I can’t do anything about at that moment. It’s in the courts but I need…need God to give me peace, to give me the right heart as I’m going towards anger and bitterness and that doesn’t help anything. So, I just pray that God will give me peace in the midst of this and also my relationship with my father. Sometimes I blame my father for a lot of things in my life and I just wanna have a good attitude and a good relationship with my father. I’m trying to move on in God’s will and this thing is like a dark cloud over my life and I just want peace. I want peace. Thank you, community. Thank you for your prayers.

Hi DABbers. So, this is __ from Ohio currently and a lady just called in and I was so encouraged. I’m so sorry I did not get your name, but you were talking about your three boys. And you said that God said, what if you just acted like your day was perfect, that your life was perfect? How would you act? In when she said that my spirit leapt. I am not kidding. I was like wow! And, you know, that’s called joy. Is that a revelation? It is for me. Wow! So, I just thank you for that dear sister. And wow has my whole perspective just shifted. Wow! I am full of joy. Things…things are perfect in the Lord. So, we just thank you God in Yeshua’s name. And then right after that…and man I didn’t get your name either. So sorry. But a man called and he’s singing I exalt thee. And I was like wow, I just feel so full of the spirit right now. That’s so awesome. And, so, I just want to say hi. I’m so encouraged. You know I don’t know if I can do any more encouraging but that really encouraged me those back-to-back messages. So, have a great day DABbers and be strong and encouraged in the Lord. Yeah…in Yeshua’s name. Amen.

This is Jersey Jane for Jesus. I was listening to the July 26^th and heard Nate…I believe his name is Nate…call in for the first time. He’s fairly new to listening as I am. I only started in January. He was asking for prayer for his boss who fell off a roof and was in critical condition with broken ribs, spinal cord injury, other injuries. And Nate, I lift your boss and his family into the arms of Jesus, that Jesus blood will cover your boss and his family, will help to heal him, will give him the opportunity to have great faith and love. I just feel very badly for him because one moment he was well and working and the next, that split second where we can collapse. But our faith gets us through. Jesus is there. Hold onto His hand and His love. Have your faith. And Nate, I lift you up for asking for prayer for Him. And for all the DABbers, all of all of whom are there for other people, people they don’t know…

2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21, Romans 11:13-36, Psalm 22:1-18, Proverbs 20:7

Today is the 28th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you as we round the corner and push to conclude another one of our months together in a few days and continuing our journey, step-by-step and day-by-day. Right now, through the book of second Chronicles and the letter to the Romans. And so, let’s dive in, we’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week, second Chronicles chapters 21, 22 and 23 today.

Commentary:

Okay, let’s look at what we’ve read from the book of Psalms today and let’s think about honesty. And we are just a couple of steps away from concluding the seventh month of the year and so, we are past the halfway point so, we can look back over this year so far. And probably as we look back, we can see some peaks and valleys right, some ups and some downs. And if we’ve been taking this journey since the beginning of the year than we can also see this thread of constancy of the Scriptures being in our lives, through it all. But that doesn’t mean everything’s been easy, it’s because we’ve been reading the Bible every day. And as we look to the Bible today, we see again what we’ve seen all. It wasn’t so easy for the people in the Bible either. And so, David, who we’ve gotten to know fairly well. We know of his life and how he came out of insecurity as a young shepherd boy and became a national hero and killed a giant and ultimately became the king of Israel, but not before he had to learn a whole lot of stuff that he probably never thought he needed to know, like how to stay alive when the king wants to assassinate you. So, David has had plenty of ups and downs in his life and we know from the Scriptures that David was a skilled musician and so, it’s not an unusual thing to think of a musician wanting to pour their heart out as a songwriter and try to find the right words that actually capture the emotion of the situation or the right metaphor that can speak pages and pages and pages of information with just a picture. And so, how’s this for a picture “my God, why have You deserted me, why are You so far away. Won’t You listen to my groans and come to my rescue? I cry out day and night but You don’t answer and I can never rest.” Yeah, so that kind of paints a picture of pretty good desperation. Does it not? And oddly enough, aren’t those words that even Jesus quoted from the cross, why you forsaken me. The interesting thing is that if that is in the Bible, because we just quoted from the Bible. If that is in the Bible, then how is it that we get pulled into pretending that these things, these emotions, these feelings, these circumstances, that they don’t exist, that they’re not real. Part of it is, certainly the cultures that we live in. We have a need to live up to the culture and the culture generally speaking, tells us to keep our best foot forward and a smile on and a happy face and fake it till you make it, and then shake and bake it. As Christian people, we also have these ideas like we’re in the world but not of the world. We’re set apart, we shouldn’t be like the world, we should be distinctly different and yet even in our subculture, the…the Christian subculture around the world, we walk in to any kind of gathering or whatever, as in overcomer, for the most part, and that is sort of the mask that we wear, even if it feels like the bottom is falling out of our lives. And then we become aware of all of the different kinds of superficial relationships that we have because like, if we’re in church and we’re doing the usual, how’s everybody, how are you, how are you? We’re expecting everybody to say good, doing great, I’m an overcomer, all that. But if somebody’s like the bottom of my life is falling out and I don’t know if I can live through this day. We often don’t know how to enter into that story, other than maybe to quote some kind of victorious verse of some sort and say some kind of victorious prayer. We do this kind of stuff all of the time. It’s just, that’s not, that’s not how the Bible does it. We don’t, hear in our faith gatherings very often “my God, why have you deserted me, why are you so far away from me, won’t you listen to my groans and come to my rescue. I’m crying out day and night, but you’re not answering and I can’t rest.” And yet, that’s just a quote from the Bible. And so, the question is, are we being honest because a lot of time, we’re trying to overcome the feeling of being down in some way or challenged in some way, by simply amping up like, the praise and that is right and good and proper and helpful. But so often, it’s like, we do that without acknowledging how things really are first and letting that place that we are actually in and that thing that we are actually struggling with to be named, and for that broken place to be the place of worship an honest place. If we think about the deepest relationships in our lives, is that not what we expect, honesty. And honesty sometimes can be difficult and cause difficult conversations to happen, but isn’t that what we’re looking for, the truth. We want to trust in the truth between us, that binds us together in relationship. So, why would we think that God wouldn’t want us to be honest? And honesty isn’t always a yelling match at the sky, just so you can get out the anger. Honesty is being where you are and pouring it out before God. Maybe music is involved, maybe poetry is involved. Maybe journaling is involved, maybe speaking aloud is involved, maybe quietly contemplating is involved, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we be honest, be honest about the things that we’re using to distract us and pull us in all kinds of other directions. Be honest about what we’re trying to get through or overcome, or move beyond. One of the most honest moments in the Bible for me, is in the book of Job. When Job, after losing it like, literally losing everyone and everything, determines that he needs to find God. And even if he finds God and God kills him, he will still trust in God. Honesty is all throughout the Bible. So, as we have these couple of days and we’re bringing another month to a close, maybe that is a place to meditate upon, as we prepare to embark on a brand-new month, and as we head deeper into the summer months here in the northern hemisphere. This is a good time to sit down, reflect, and get honest. Because honesty gives us a place to move forward from that’s true, instead of false fabrication and pretending and posing. And so, may we find some time and some space, have an honest conversation with the Lord today and in the coming days.

Prayer:

And Father, we begin that conversation here right now just talking about it, being honest about it. This can be hard to walk the narrow path that leads to life, to navigate, to know and then to deal with all of the stuff that flies at us all the time. It can very easily bring us to a place of desperation, it can very easily bring us to a place of depression, it can very easily become anxiety in our lives that is so balled up inside of us, we don’t even know how to start untangling it. We can never remember everything that the anxiety is attached to, anymore. So even to pour out our heart before You and speak honestly and truthfully about what we’re experiencing. We need Your help, even for that. We can’t even figure our own selves out and yet You know all about us. Even in desperation, David cries out from the day I was born, I have been in Your care and from the time of my birth You have been my God. Don’t stay far off when I am in trouble with no one to help me. So, we confess Lord, we don’t know ourselves as well as You know us. You know everything and we need You desperately. So, we humble ourselves before You, lowering ourselves and acknowledging Your mighty power. Holy Spirit, come into the broken places inside of us and grant us eyes to see perspective and healing balm to restore us. We ask this in Your name, Jesus. The name above every name, the only name we can flee to. We run to You. And ask for You to restore us. We ask in Your name. Amen.

2 Chronicles 19:1-20:37, Romans 10:14-11:12, Psalms 21:1-13, Proverbs 20:4-6

Today is the 27^th day of the month of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together as we navigate and continue to move forward in the Scriptures. We are navigating the book of second Chronicles in the Old Testament and the letter to the Romans in the New. And that’s what we will obviously continue to do until we finish one of them and then we’ll move forward. But for now, this is kind of where we’re camped out. So, let’s take that next step forward. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Second Chronicles chapters 19 and 20.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of second Chronicles we have an interesting story about King Jehoshaphat. And certainly, Jehoshaphat is chronicled in the books of Kings. And, so, we’ve heard of him before, and even some of the stories like this one with the prophet Micaiah and all of the other prophets prophesying that King Ahab will be successful. And Micaiah has the bad news that he’s gonna die in battle. So, we have crossed that territory before but we have this other story with Jehoshaphat today that doesn’t show up in the book of Kings, and it’s an interesting one, because three nations, the Moabites, the Ammonites and Meunites from on the other side of the Jordan River, so the east side of the Jordan River. They have gathered together at the lowest point on the earth which is the Dead Sea and they’ve crossed over, and they’re at En-Gedi, which is a place and I’ve been there many times. There’s just a beautiful little tiny waterfall there but it’s such a barren desert we really are like so close to the lowest point on earth that the Dead Sea, it’s very very barren there. So, freshwater coming down from the hills from Jerusalem is not only beautiful, but certainly life-sustaining and lifesaving, especially at the time that we’re talking about before, you know, water could be pumped anywhere or anything like that. So, they’re gathering where they can have access to fresh water with the intentions then of following the Kedron Valley up to Jerusalem to attack. And that’s when Jehoshaphat finds out about it. Like they are already in his land. They are already on their way. They are a massive army, and the Israelites and King Jehoshaphat are not prepared. And, so, in some ways it’s kind of interesting to think about a figure like Israel’s first king, King Saul, because we spent so much time getting to know King Saul to think about like how he would respond to this because typically any kind of crisis that came against him or anything that was going to make him look bad he hind of freaked out in all kinds of directions. We even have to think kinda like, how would we be? Hard to put ourselves in the position of royalty with three allied nations coming against us, but we can put us ourselves in a position where unexpectedly we have opposition coming against us that we didn’t see coming. And, so, where does our heart turn in that moment. Like Jehoshaphat could’ve just tried to figure out what sort of defenses they had, tried to bring the Army is close to Jerusalem as possible so that they could at least defend the city. They could’ve sent ambassadors down to the other armies to ask, you know, what the problem is, what is going on. Or as we’ve seen in other stories, and in other cases, maybe they could of got all the gold that was in the Lord’s temple and sent it down to the Dead Sea and said just go home. This is what you were to have fought for. Here you go. Go home. Just none of that happens and Jehoshaphat was afraid, like terrified. The Bible says Jehoshaphat was afraid. That’s kind of an important point, especially as we consider our own lives because when we are in terror or we are afraid we’re not always thinking the most clear, we’re not making the wisest decisions all of the time, maybe none of the time. So, Jehoshaphat has gotten some pretty bad news that his country is being invaded. And that’s kind of a life or death piece of information. He’s been told the size of the forces that are coming against him, and he is afraid. Typically, a bad time to make wise decisions. And what Jehoshaphat does is not hide it from anybody, not try to spin it in some sort of way, not try to figure out how against all odds, they might be able to save themselves. He invites everybody to fast. And they fast before the Lord and then the king and the people come together at the Lord’s temple and the king has humbled himself, and he prays. You, Lord, are the God our ancestors worshiped and from heaven you rule every nation in the world. You are so powerful that no one could defeat you. And he continues praying and pours out before the Lord. These armies that are coming against us are people that we’ve encountered before, and we were not allowed to attack. We were not allowed to fight. They were spared and now, now that we’re in the land that you promised us they’re coming against us to take it away. Not only from us but to take it away from you, Lord. And he confesses that they’re outnumbered and then he says we won’t stand a chance when this army attacks. We don’t know what to do. We’re begging you for your help. So, here’s a king who has an invading army and he’s not blustering, he’s not posturing, he’s not spinning. He is humbling himself before God and his people confessing the truth. We don’t have any hope outside of you, which is really the ultimate lesson, right? Remember when we were learning the lesson of the wilderness. We are utterly dependent upon God, ultimately. And with all of the other judges and kings that we have met this is a rare occurrence. And how this works out is that people are praying, they have fasted, they are worshiping and the Lord speaks to someone named Jahaziel who was a Levite and he speaks up the prophetic utterance that essentially says, I hear you, you don’t have to be afraid, you don’t need to be discouraged. I will fight for you. Here are your instructions for the battle. And they’re told to march down from Jerusalem to a town called Ziz and the enemy army will be coming up from the Dead Sea in that direction. And the Lord said he would be there for them. And, so, Jehoshaphat doesn’t go like, whew…great, awesome, let’s feast, let’s dance, let’s just party now. He stays humble. He bows down with his head to the ground and everyone worships. And the ultimate outcome of the story is that the children of Israel obey the utterance from the Lord. They go to the place that they’re supposed to go. But what they find is that it’s really a good place to be a spectator. And what king Jehoshaphat ultimately does is have worshipers in front of the army leading the army. And, so, they are marching into battle while worshiping the Lord. The three enemy nations become confused. The Ammonite and Moabite armies band together and completely destroy the Edomite Army. And once that’s done then they turn on each other until everyone is wiped out. It’s an amazing story. But as we consider our own responses to bad news and the terror that arises because of the bad news we need to remember this story, a posture of humility confessing what is a reality, no matter we’re feeling. The reality is we are utterly dependent upon God. Everything that we try to do in our own strength ultimately fails. We can fake it all we want but we eventually crash. We are utterly dependent on God, which is the way we are made, which is the most healthy and safe place to be. What king Jehoshaphat and the Israelites learned was, although they had a tremendous amount of fear and terror about what was going to happen, what they feared wasn’t actually about to happen. And, so, when we find ourselves in that kind of a circumstance a lot of times we turn to anxiety. A lot of times we let our mind race. A lot of times we can’t get the sleep that we need, which just compounds the problem. What we see king Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel doing is moving to worship and utter humility, humbling themselves and not only crying out to God for him to come save them but worshiping the Lord, which is truly good advice to us the next time we face the unexpected fears that come our way.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this story that we were able to read today about King Jehoshaphat and his posture. And we ask Holy Spirit that You let what we’ve read, and what was discussed here to become our posture. We begin to think about what directions we get pulled into when we become afraid or intimidated. And give us the insight into how that’s worked out for us and help us follow this example, to humble ourselves and worship You, knowing that we are utterly dependent upon You. We pray this in the beautiful name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, home of the Global Campfire. It’s the website. It’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app will do that as well and that can be downloaded from whatever app store is associated with whatever smart device you might have. So, check it out.

Check out the Community section. This is where the Prayer Wall lives, a resource that is always on, never off. We can always reach out for prayer we can always reach back with prayer always. So that’s in the Community section and, yeah, remember that. Day or night, rain or shine the Prayer Wall is available and has been for…my goodness, you know…day or night for well over a decade. So, check that out. The Community section also has different links to follow Daily Audio Bible on different social media channels that we participate in. It’s how to get connected in any way that you want to, or any way that you can. So, certainly check out the Community section whether using the app or the website.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to whoever may encounter it wherever they may be on this planet whatever time of day or night it may be whatever season we may be going through, if that is life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. We would not be here if we were not in this together. And, so, thank you. There is 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 is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up 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:

Hi DAB family this is Rob Still worship dude and Nashville TN. I haven’t called in a while but I listen every day and pray along with you guys and I’m so very very grateful for all of you intercessors who are praying for those who call in. Thank you guys for calling in it’s an encouragement and to hear from you. Hey, I want to lift up the sister who called herself Broken. She’s a concert organist and played piano for church worship services. I have been in that role of working with church organists. And you said you had a car accident a couple years ago and had many broken bones and problems with your wrist. And the same thing has happened to me. I’ve broken both my wrists and my arm at different times and had not such great prognosis sometimes. So, I just want to pray God healing for you and we just come against fear and the name of Jesus. And I pray for healing for the loss and the grief. And you also mentioned you have an estranged relationship with your daughter. And right now, Lord we just pray for the God of hope just to fill her and fill all who are dealing with loss of relationships, loss of health. And God you are almighty, and your essence is love. And Lord we know that you want each one of us to do well. So, we call upon the Lord and we ask for divine healing and supernatural participation in our regular everyday lives Lord. I pray that she would be blessed my brothers and sisters and especially for Broken in the name of Jesus. Be encouraged. He is the God of hope.

Hi DAB family this prayer is for Jonathan from Denver. He called in on July 23^rd and there was a woman who called and just said that how important it is to listen to the prayers and that sometimes they speak directly to you. And he called in and it just spoke directly to me. So, I don’t call it often, but I wanted to call in and pray for him. So, Lord I lift up Jonathan to You right now. He said he’s feeling down and he’s not serving You Lord and I just want…just want him to feel Your love, Your grace, Your peace, Your mercy right now God. Just lift him up, strengthen him. Strengthen him so that he could do what You called him to do. Not because he has to but because he loves You so much that he wants to and he’s doing it and Your strength and not his own. And don’t let him stay in that shame or condemnation. There’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So, help him to not stay in that place Lord and just lift him out of that and give him opportunities to love others and to serve You. And also, just thank You for his faithfulness in listening to the DAB and help him just to continue to do so Lord and just soak in Your word and spend time with You and grow closer to You in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family it’s Travis from Alberta Canada. Last summer for my internship for Bible school I was given the opportunity to pastor a church in a little town in Alberta called Nordic and it was a life changing experience. And I love that place so much and I love the church family there. And right now, they just really need your prayers. They are on a town evacuation right now because of forest fires and a lot of…a lot of…of the families that were in my church at Nordic are having to flee their homes and don’t know if they’re gonna come back to a home or not. And, so, just be praying. Be praying for them. Be praying for Nordic Alberta. And, yeah, thank you all so much. God bless you. Bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Hopeful from Ohio. I’m actually calling to share both a praise and a prayer request. Praise is I’ve just been so encouraged. I’ve only been listening for a few weeks after my coworker shared with me this ministry and I just feel so encouraged. It’s been a part of my morning routine and I just really love the community. I love getting the word spoken over me as I get ready for the morning. So, I just want to thank you for all your faithful prayer and just wanted to let you guys know that I’ve been praying with you in all these things and hurting with you. And yeah…so thank you for this ministry. I also wanted to submit a prayer request both for myself and for my husband. I just felt the Lord’s prompting and calling me to get uncomfortable. I’m very fearful by nature and have felt He wants me to take steps of bravery but haven’t done that and I don’t want to sit in fear I want to be faithful. So, I pray for that. I also pray just for my marriage. My husband has been struggling with addiction to pornography and just this past week I had to kick him out for a night and set some boundaries due to the repetitive nature of it. And I just feel very worried for my marriage. Worried for him, sad for him, sad for me. And I know there are lots of other couples probably struggling with this or even singles. And, so, I just ask that you lift him up in prayer, lift us up in prayer. We need your help. We need the Lord’s help and just a miracle to happen to help here. Thank you…

Good evening Daily Audio Bible family my name is Betty I’m calling from Hamburg NY offering a praise report I have to share. I just heard Standing on the Promises praying for my son and others. My son is Nathan and I have to share that earlier this evening I got a call from the hospital and Nathan woke up. He’s been asleep for two weeks or in a state of catatonia…whatever…for two weeks and today he woke up. And isn’t it just like God because I heard the prayer today for him. So, thank you Lord for answered prayers. It’s a step in his journey of healing period. And, so, sometimes we forget to share the praise. So, that’s what I wanted to do today. Thank you all for your prayers for my son Nathan. His journey continues. Praise the Lord.

2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34, Romans 9:25-10:13, Psalm 20:1-9, Proverbs 20:2-3

Today is the 26th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today. Today and every day as we gather around the Global Campfire. Ah, I love this place around the Global Campfire. I love this time that we get to spend, letting everything else go. It's…it’s not going anywhere. Maybe it is, but if it’s a care or concern or an anxiety, we can go find it, right, or it’s going to come try to find us. But this little place, it’s really just set aside for a few minutes as we seek God and dive into the Scriptures. And, kind of come out the other side maybe re-oriented to things. And so, I love it that we can be together, today and take the next step forward. And we have been working through a couple of main books, the book of second Chronicles in the Old Testament and the letter to the Romans in the new and we’ll, well we will continue the journey until we complete them and we will complete them by taking steps forward every day, day-by-day and so let’s take the next step forward and the next step forward in second Chronicles will be chapters 17 and 18 today.

Commentary:

Okay, let’s catch ourselves up with what the apostle Paul is writing in the letter to the Romans. It’s easy to understand Paul as an apostle to the Gentiles because that’s where he spent so much of his time but if we remember his missionary journeys. He’s going to the Jewish people his own people first; he’s going into the synagogues first. It’s just that what he is saying, in terms of the inclusiveness that Gentiles can also be welcomed into the family of God, is a difficult thing for them to understand, a difficult bridge for them to cross. So, Paul gets into a lot of hot water, a lot of the time. But if we look more closely, we see Paul is coming from a Hebrew context. He is not trying to introduce or create a brand-new religion and he’s not making up heretical stuff, even though he’s been branded as a heretic. Essentially what he’s trying to show through the Hebrew lens, through the Hebrew story, is that Jesus was an expected part of this story and basically, over time they had got what was given to them by God. They had turned it sideways and it wasn’t working anymore, which is a hard thing for a person, that’s a hard thing for a person to navigate, a person of faith. So, the tension around Paul is understandable. It was a similar tension around Jesus. It was also a similar tension around John the Baptist. Paul is an educated, trained Pharisee, this is his worldview. This is what he knows, this is the lens that he’s looking through and he is explaining to fellow Hebrews how Jesus connects to the story as the Messiah, like how this is a continuation of the same story. And what Paul is unpacking is that it’s the law that is gotten sideways because the plot of the story has been lost. When the law was given, and we read all of this already, when the law was given, it wasn’t a set of ethics and behaviors that everybody needed to follow, in order that there could be a hierarchy of control so that the people could be controlled and kept moving in the same direction. It was that, everything that they had to do in their lives had an underpinning, a spiritual underpinning, as they celebrated, as they observed ritual, as they sacrificed, as they lived through their lives, as they got to the beginning of a new week and celebrated and observed Sabbath. As like, a male entered into covenant with circumcision and so therefore, was marked intimately, always, forever, to be reminded they are in covenant with God. All of these things had a spiritual underpinning so that, the way that they lived was connected to God, not just a set of rules to be obeyed so that they could be controlled and everybody could be kept sane. Everything was to remind them of their true reality as chosen people because they had a job to do, to reveal to the nations the goodness of God, by being a people set apart to God so, that everything the they did connected them to God, so that this was observable from the outside that, these people are very different than the other tribes all around us. These people are different. But by the time we get into the first century in the time of Paul, the law, you obey the law to be made right with God and the law is a set of behaviors and ethics and rules that you have to obey perfectly, to be restored and made right, righteous before God. And nobody could do it. But they didn’t need this law to hold their culture together because now they weren’t like a sovereign under themselves. They were in a land that was part of the Roman Empire. So, under Roman rule and governance. The Hebrew people were allowed to worship God and they were allowed to observe the Mosaic law. They were just, they needed to keep it together, because they were notoriously marginalized, and they were notorious for being zealots. So, Paul is essentially arguing that they’ve lost the plot. And so, to put this in Paul’s own words and it just quote from Romans, “what is all this mean, it means that the Gentiles were not trying to be acceptable to God, but they found that He would accept them if they had faith. It also means that the people of Israel were not acceptable to God. And why not? It was because they were trying to be acceptable by obeying the law, instead of by having faith in God.” So, Paul is arguing that the law can’t redeem but there is a Redeemer and the law has a purpose and it’s to intimately connect people to God in everything that they do, as opposed to the rules that, you want to find the outer margins and find out what you can get away with or as a means to control people. But what Paul was running up against was the same thing that Jesus was running up against, the law had become something different. It was certainly the rules, the underpinning to pull the culture together, but it was also a source of power, that could control people, they were to put their heart, their heart and soul into obeying the law, instead of putting their heart and soul into trusting God, knowing that God’s law in every way set them apart. And Paul explains it like this and I quote, “I know they love God. But they don’t understand what makes people acceptable to Him. So, they refuse to trust God and they try to be acceptable by obeying the law, but Christ makes the law no longer necessary for those who become acceptable to God by faith.” So, kind of the bottom line here if we’re looking at this to apply to our lives, it’s to consider how we feel about God. Like, do we live our lives thinking that at any moment He could crush us like, because we would deserve it, because we’re trying to be good Christians, we’re trying so hard to adhere to what we think we’re supposed to be doing and you know, it reveals how inadequate we are in maintaining that and how imperfect we actually are. We know that there is grace and mercy. But so often we still think there is kind of like God up in heaven, angry, upset, perturbed, kind of disgusted, sort of just tolerating us because…because we…we just keep messing up. That is not a dissimilar feeling to what Jewish people under the law we’re feeling. What Paul’s trying to say is, that’s not really what’s going on. That’s not what’s going on here. When we put our faith in Jesus, we move from death to life, we die and become a new creation. It’s faith that’s the bridge that we cross and once we have crossed it, in our hearts, we have been made perfect before God, through Jesus. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn’t matter what nation you come from, anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Or putting the words back in Paul’s mouth and reading from the letter to the Romans, Paul explains it like this, “so you will be saved if you honestly say Jesus is Lord. And if you believe with all your heart that God raised Him from death, God will accept you and save you if you truly believe this and tell it to others. The Scriptures say no one who has faith will be disappointed, no matter if that person is a Jew or a Gentile. There is only one Lord, and He is generous to everyone who asks for His help. All who call out to the Lord will be saved.” And it’s really interesting, if you honestly say Jesus is Lord, there is actually quite a bit in that statement because as a Hebrew person, as a Pharisee, Paul knows all too well that you can’t say the name of God, so they would use descriptive words. Words like Adonai, which means Lord, which means ruler or master somebody with authority and power. So, to say Jesus is Lord is a declaration Jesus is God, one with the Father, as He said. That’s where you put your faith, that’s what you believe. And you believe that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. There are an awful lot of us, on a lot of different journeys and we wind our way to the Global Campfire through all kinds of stories. We all got here somehow and some of us are here checking it all out, just wanting to know what the Bible says to make a kind of determination about whether it has any value or not. Maybe we’ve gone through the Gospels and we’ve gotten to know this Jesus now, it’s hard to unknow that and maybe this is that moment, like maybe this is the moment where faith arises and you’re able to say no, Jesus is Lord, He is Lord, I believe this. If that’s you, welcome to the family, this changes everything. You are right where you belong.

Prayer:

So, Father, we love You. Jesus, we love You. You are Lord and we are thankful for these understandings. We can make ourselves crazy trying to clean up so that you might even…even possibly tolerate us or we can realize there’s nothing we can do to make You tolerate us, in our own power and strength, we couldn’t never, ever, no matter what rule or law, or ethic or behavior we’re trying to modify or obey. We couldn’t never ever achieve righteousness before You and so You made us righteous. You did what we could not do and that wells up in our hearts so that we say Jesus, You are Lord. And that is our hearts cry and our point of meditation today. You are Lord. There is no other. Come, Holy Spirit, and lead us into all truth. We pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app is all that in the palm of your hand and you can get the Daily Audio Bible app, wherever the App Store is that’s connected to your smart device so just look for Daily Audio Bible and you’ll find that. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources, all kinds of resources whether that be Wind Farm Coffee or Tea, roasted fresh and delivered fresh to your door or the entire Global Campfire line of fun things to kind of carry around with us and wear our colors and remember that we’re on a journey in a community working our way through the Bible together or things to write in like the Daily Audio Bible Journal 3.0 our latest edition of the Daily Audio Bible Journal or the Black Wing pencils that I’m very fond of journaling with. Or there are written resources like The God of Your Story or Refrain more Sneezing Jesus. Things to take the journey deeper and wider. Check out all the resources available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, humbly, thank you for your partnership as we move through summertime. If the Global Campfire is a life-giving source in your life, then thank you for being life-giving. There is 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 is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good evening, dear, Daily Audio Bible family. I am calling tonight to ask for prayers for a dear friend and for her husband. My friend, I’ve had since we were 14, and she became ill after her second COVID vaccine and began getting weaker and weaker. And has become so weak she cannot walk. She became bed ridden. A doctor tried to help her with a surgery. It ended up paralyzing her vocal cords. She can’t talk know. She’s also developed Alzheimer’s and only weighs 95lbs and she’s very near the end. And now her husband who may…may have thyroid cancer and Shelly and Jean. Please, please pray for them Lord. God please help them. Please family, help me pray for them. And lift them up to God, comfort, love peace, healing. Thank you, thank you for this platform and thank you family for praying with me. Thank you in Jesus precious name. This is Vicky from the Dessert.

Greetings DAB warriors. I can use your prayers as I am going to a friend’s memorial today who lost the battle with alcohol addiction in this world. And we’ll see a great many of his and my friends who could use a word of truth in their lives. I need a covering of spiritual as well as physical shielding as right now the COVID numbers are not kind in our area for any kind of gathering, alone with which I will want to embrace everyone there. So, much appreciate this resource and could use that. This is the day of but I also know that our God is a God of space and time and He hears the prayers of the righteous. Thank you again.

Hello DAB and DABC, this is mama on her knees in Colorado. My husband and I have listened to your podcast for the last 5 years. We start our day with our cup of coffee and listen to Brian. I have also listened to Jill and China and I’ve enjoyed you all as well. At the, at the end of the podcast with the community calling in, that’s where we hold you all up in prayer and love all the things that you have taught me in my spiritual journey. So many rich things in that. We have also held you up in prayer for your joys and your sorrows. I come to you know with a heavy heart. My husband and I have been married for almost 40 years and raised two beautiful children. But we kept everybody in church activities and just were very involved in bringing them up in a Christ centered home. I feel like we’ve given them that foundation but as adults we all have to find our own journey, our own faith path. And I’m just asking for prayer for our son. He is struggling. Satan has a hold on him and his life is just falling apart. We as parents need wisdom on what to say or do. All’s I feel like we can do is pray. So, I’m just asking for you all just to remember him and his family. There’s three children and they’re all precious. I know God loves him more than we do. So, thank you family. I love you all.

Hi, this is Nate from Michigan. This is my first-time calling in. Just started listening a few months ago and have been blessed and so, thank you, to Brian for being diligent about scripture reading and the word of God. And then thank you for all those who’ve called in and just been able to listen and find how much that helps soften my heart. Today, I’m calling to just ask for prayer. My old boss and friend is a roofer, as I am still. And he took a fall on a roof, last week. And is in critical condition in the hospital. He is cognizant and has had a couple surgeries. Things are looking positive but spinal cord injuries, pelvic injuries, some ribs broken. So, he has a family, he has a wife and four kids. And just overall a heavy thing to happen. And then, just to think about what happens next with work and financials and the list of jobs that he already had. So, just overall just asking for covering and prayer for Brian, is his name and his family. Thank you all.

Hi, this is Ridlyn from Alberta. I was just listening to the podcast from the 23rd and heard Jonathan from Denver and just wanted to encourage you. You’re not alone. Many times, I’ve done the same thing where I was, should have been doing something way more productive and I just wasn’t and wasted part of a day or a whole day. And felt really crappy afterwards but you can’t get the day back but you can repent and ask Jesus to take you forward in the way that He would have you to and you can move forward and He can still use you and bless your life as you seek to follow Him. So, I just want to encourage you in doing that and to keep on searching His face.

2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14, Romans 9:1-24, Psalms 19:1-14, Proverbs 20:1

Today is the 25^th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as…well…this is our last full week in the month of July, the seventh month of the year and it’s a privilege and an honor that we can be together and step-by-step move through this week together as we continue our journey through the Scriptures which leads us back to second Chronicles in the Old Testament and the letter to the Romans in the New Testament. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week and picking up the story and second Chronicles today with chapters 14, 15 and 16.

Commentary:

Okay, let’s take a look at what we read in the book of Psalms today. Psalm chapter 19, it’s a favorite of mine because at some point for some reason I memorized Psalm 19 when I was a kid. And, so, I’ve kind of always loved Psalm 19, not so much because of what it says but because I knew what it said. But now as a person who is an adult and grown and has a family and as a person who has devoted my life to reading and interpreting and understanding and teaching Scriptures, I love this psalm. Basically, we begin with…with worship and declarations about the Lord and then there are some like truth statements that are then fleshed out and then there’s a prayer of repentance and kind of a closing meditation. And, so, Psalm 19 begins telling us the heavens keep telling the wonders of God and the skies declare what He has done. And the Psalm is essentially saying, look, every time the sun comes up, every time the sun goes down, every time the moon comes up, every time the moon…like every time this happens, nature itself, the heavens themselves are declaring the glory of God. Whether we observe it or ignore it, it is there, it is true, it is happening and it affects every single person alive on earth, right? We would be profoundly affected and terribly confused if not gone if the sun didn’t come up tomorrow. Every day this rhythm happens. It’s happened since the second we were born. We’ve never been without it. We wouldn’t even know how to live if that rhythm of day and night that’s constant were eliminated. Every day that we open our eyes and there’s daylight, we are reminded yet again that the Lord is sustaining us, all of us, He’s sustaining everything in the cosmos. And Psalms points out that all this happens without a word. All of this happens without it being explained. It doesn’t take paragraphs or pages. It happens. It’s a faithful thing that happens. And because this happens, it’s saying something, it’s pointing us to something, that God is sustaining us. And then we have these core statements of truth. The law of the Lord is perfect. And then that’s kind of unpacked. The law of the Lord is perfect, and here’s why. It gives us new life. His teachings last forever, and they give wisdom to ordinary people. So, as the sun comes up and sets every day and comes up again and sets again regularly, predictably, faithfully, so we also are to understand that God’s teachings last forever, and they give wisdom to ordinary people. And then we have another statement. The Lords instruction is right. And then here’s why. It makes our hearts glad. His commandments shine brightly, and they give us light. So, following the instructions of the Lord, obeying his commands make our hearts glad and give us light. We’re looking for those things, right? We want our hearts to be glad and we want to see where we’re going? Then we must seek the Lord’s instruction and obey His commands. And then we have another statement. Worshiping the Lord is sacred. And again, it’s unpacked. So, here’s why. He will always be worshiped. All His decisions are correct and fair. They are worth more than the finest gold and are sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. And, so, we begin to understand that offering our hearts in surrender, and worship to the Lord, offering ourselves to God, giving ourselves in worship to the Lord brings our hearts to a place of trust where we rest as the sun comes up and goes down. We rest in God’s decisions knowing that He is righteous, that he is correct and fair. And understanding that the decisions of the Lord as we walk with God become more valuable to us than gold and become more sweeter to us than honey. And, so, what we begin to realize is that as we meditate upon and rest in the steadfastness of God and His righteousness, His rightness, His goodness, His wisdom we are led to a place that Psalms brings us to, which is the prayer. By your teachings Lord I am warned. By obeying them I am greatly rewarded. None of us know our faults. Forgive me when I sin without knowing it. Don’t let me do wrong on purpose Lord or let sin have control over my life. Then I will be innocent and not guilty of some terrible fault. Let my words and my thoughts be pleasing to you, Lord, because you are my mighty rock and my protector. That’s beautiful and gives us wisdom, insight, and instruction.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You here as we meditate upon these statements as we meditate upon these truths that are laid out for us in a way that we can very clearly understand. And we do come to the same place where we have to say the same thing. Let my words and my thoughts please You, Lord, because You are my mighty rock and my protector. There is no other. There is no other hope. And, so, all of our hope is in You because You are steadfast and constant. You are our Creator and our Father. And, so, we trust You completely with this day as the sun moves from the sky and we trust You with this night as the moon makes its journey knowing that Your mercies will be new in the morning. Come Holy Spirit into this. Comfort us, lead us, instruct us, guide us, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is where you can find out what’s going on around here.

It is Ezekiel’s birthday today. Ezekiel, our little man who reads Daily Audio Bible Kids each and every day is celebrating birthday number 10 today. So, we are certainly excited and celebrating that and so grateful for him and for his life and all that he means in our family, but certainly all that he means in the Global Campfire community as well. And, so, that’s one thing that’s going on around here today, celebrating a happy birthday for Ezekiel.

But whether you’re using the app or the website you can always find out what’s happening around here.

Check out the Community section. That’s where to get connected. That’s where the Prayer Wall is.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources that are available for the journey that we are on through this year. Check out the Initiatives section. Just check it out. Get connected in any way that you want to.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone anywhere any time, if that is life-giving to you than thank you profoundly for your partnership. There is 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 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 or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi to my DAB family it’s Rosie from British Columbia. Special shout out to God Smiles. So thankful to hear you on July 22^nd. And yeah, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed hearing from you, and you sure have been on my heart. The last few weeks I’ve been really praying for you and really sorry you’ve been having a rough couple weeks. So, I just bless you. I’ve been having a challenging time with one of my sons. I have three boys and my oldest is really struggling. And, so, I’ve been posting on the Prayer Wall and have been so grateful for the prayers that have been prayed on our behalf and just beyond grateful. So, thank you so much. So, about that. On last Sunday I woke up and started to pray for my son and I just sensed Lord saying what if just for today you lived like everything in your life in a lives of your kids was just perfect? And I thought…well…that’s a strong word, perfect. Well, I made the decision on Sunday to go through the day like I had no problems no worries no concerns from my family. Wow! What a day. It was a great day and a really turned a corner in my heart that day. I lived like the Lord was holding my family and His hands which of course He does. So, that’s my encouragement to you today. Live…live for a day like you don’t have any problems, like the Lord has it all in His hands busy ‘cause He surely does. Blessings and love and so thankful for my DAB family.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Jeremiah God Gives Good Gifts. Just wondering if anyone wants to get down with some answered prayer, Hallelujah. I had my meeting with my parents, and it was amazing. Thank you so much for your prayers and your support. God’s presence was there, and I was just filled with this just unspeakable peace. Anxiety and fear and worry wanted to come after me and I just said no I’m going to hold on to my peace and was able to communicate with them, just that I had forgiven them, that I didn’t hold anything over their heads. And they were able to sincerely apologize. It was amazing. And just walking out that forgiveness, walking out that piece, all of the hooks that were in my back since I was a little boy, they were gone and God’s peace and joy just filled my heart. And, so, I just want to encourage you that we gotta walk this out, we gotta walk out this faith. And even if we have suffering for decades, through endurance, through character, through forgiveness God has healing for us. God has new life for us. He is so worthy. I just wanna lift up my voice lift up my heart to him and just exalt him today. Let’s exalt him together. Wherever you’re at just lift up your hands. [sing starts] I exalt thee. I exalt thee. I exalt thee oh Lord [singing stops]. He is worthy, He is worthy, He is worthy. We love you Jesus thank you so much for your answered prayers for your faithfulness for your love. Hallelujah.

Hey DAB family this is Connie from Rhode Island. My friends Rick and Aaron told me about this app, and I’ve been loving it. I’ve probably only been listening for a month or two now. So, I’m probably one of the baby dabbers. I do have a prayer request. Personally, I had a shoulder procedure yesterday where they took the calcium out of my tendon that had formed. So, I’m just praying for healing that God would heal that tendon and heal up that hole where the calcium was so that I don’t end up getting a tear because then I would need a full-on surgery which I would like to avoid. And I have to say I just love this app and I love hearing the prayer requests. Of course, I love the word being read by Brian. It’s so beautiful and just hearing the word every day. But the prayer requests really touched my heart. And Justin with your anxiety…I hate to say your…let’s not even say your…it’s not your anxiety, it’s from the devil, right? You reminded me of my son with anxiety. And he suffers on and off with some depression issues and you just broke my heart with that. But I’ve been praying for you. And as you all are calling in and sending in your requests, I agree with you and prayer for each and everyone. I already love you guys. I’m so grateful for you. God bless.

Hi this is Donna from California and I listened to you July 22^nd. Today the podcast was just amazing. Brian you’re doing such a fine fine job of breaking down Romans and the teachings of Paul in ways that are just so graspable. So, thank you. And I wanted to respond to Rula from Australia. And she was the first caller today on the prayer line. And she…you Rula, you called in I think one of the most heartfelt prayers that I have heard in a long time anywhere. It just…I know there are people who have the gift of praying out loud and who do just a fine job of…a beautiful job of putting forth…composing a prayer and just doing it just like that. And I…I also don’t have that gift. I struggle with finding words. And I think what you said was just so from the heart. And you spoke…and you know it reminds me there is a scripture that, you know, when…when we don’t know what to pray God…God…the Spirit is in there and it intercedes…it inter…you know…it already knows what…the Spirit, He…He knows what…what to bring out. And I find myself relying on that more and more and more instead of my own perfectionistic tendencies to try and get it right and get it right and then just getting more and more frustrated. But I just wanted to let you know that it was a…it really touched me what the words you spoke. I love you sister.

Good afternoon I just listened to Val from Vegas. First, I want to say how happy I am for this format. It has really blessed me, and I’ve been spreading the word about DAB. But I just want to thank Val from Vegas, your uplifting spirit. You are such a bright light my sister. And I thank you for that prayer you gave about mental health and healing. May God continue to bless you. And every time you come on there you are so bright and cheerful and I really appreciate this. And this format has been such a blessing. And May God bless and keep everyone. And I hope this continues to grow. Brian and his family, kudos to you. May God continue to uplift you and bless you as you continue your work. You are appreciated and I thank you all. God bless and keep you all. This is Mal in college.

2 Chronicles 11:1-13:22, Romans 8:26-39, Psalm 18:37-50, Proverbs 19:27-29

Today is the 24th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today and a joy and a moment full of excitement to be here with you to greet a shiny, sparkly, new week. And we mark our weeks because there’s 52 of them that we get to move through each year and this is another beginning, and we remind ourselves we get 52 chances. Well, His mercies are new every morning so, we get a new chance every day, but it is nice to know the space of a week, we can create chaos or we can participate in Shalom. And that will manifest itself based on the way that we conduct ourselves this week. So, at the beginning of a brand-new week, we remember it’s in front of us. We may have made a mess last week, that doesn’t mean that has to continue now, we can begin the cleanup process now. And as we continue to move forward week by week by week, with a fresh start, we can remember we’re telling the story here, we’re walking with God and telling the story of our lives through the conversations that we have and the choices that we make. One of the best choices that we can make, is to allow the Scriptures to be a part of the conversation. So, it is wonderful to be around the Global Campfire today with you, as we take that next step forward. This week we will read from the Contemporary English Version and obviously we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday, and that leads us back into the book of second Chronicles. Yesterday, we kind of moved through that apex time of the height of Solomon’s reign and the quick demise of Israel itself. When…when 10 of the northern tribes rejected Solomon’s son Rehoboam to be their king. And so, now we are in a time where the monarchy is divided, the nation of Israel is now the nation of Israel which are the 10 tribes in the north and the kingdom of Judah, which also encompasses the holy city of Jerusalem in the south. Jeroboam is king in the north; Rehoboam is king in the South. And let’s pick up the story, second Chronicles chapters 11, 12 and 13 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for this brand-new week that we have entered together and as we acknowledged at the beginning, this is a time of gratefulness, it’s a fresh start. So, as we continue our journey through second Chronicles and through the letter to the Romans this week, as we get deeper and deeper into the letter to the Romans, quicken our hearts, awaken our minds and spirits that we may drink deeply from these truths, that describe our reality in You. Holy Spirit, come and lead us into all truth. We ask this so often but there isn’t a time we don’t need that and so come and reveal truth to us that we might walk in it. We pray this in the precious and mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey, this is Tom from Lovett, Texas. I could sure use a lot of prayer. As probably with most people, life goes up and down. Right now, I’m in a down place a hard place. Health issues are going on that need some answers for. God’s done it before, I know He can do it again. So, if you pray that would be awesome. Thank you, I do enjoy the group here, the Daily Audio Bible family and hearing good things and prayer requests. And also thank You God for that. God bless you.
Father God, my name is Robert Giles and I pray Lord in Jesus Holy and Mighty name, God for those that are less fortunate in this world and don’t have the power of God to escape the pull of darkness. I pray God, as I work with the homeless God, many of whom suffer from addiction Lord, and mental health issues God. I pray for them God, that they would seek the light of the Lord God. I pray God for my job, Lord, that you would cover the walls Lord, with Your Holy Spirit God. That you would give me the power Lord, to continue to walk while I show the right way and leave a light.

Hello DAB family, I’m just going to label myself as Broken. I have two things, the first one is the hardest. My younger daughter has cut off all communication with me. Yesterday, I ran into someone who is a mutual friend and she said, your daughters okay. Which just brought all the up again. So, I really need prayer for that. Second, I was in a big accident four years ago. Lots of things were broken and I’m a concert organist and I play piano and big pipe organ for worship. But I haven’t been able to. My wrist was broken in that accident and I didn’t even know. So, I have a specialist appt and I dreamed last night that they said it was too late. But I don’t believe that. It can’t be too late for me. I place both things in God’s hands but I really need your prayers. Thank you so much, bye.

Good morning, everyone, my name is Womey and I want to be known as Standing on the Promises of God. I am a first-time caller. I have been listening to Daily Audio Bible for many years. I would like to use this opportunity to say a good thank you to Brian Hardin and his family. I pray that this ministry shall continue to touch lives in Jesus’ name. I would also like to pray for God’s children’s that are experiencing a relapse, a recurrence, a resurface of cancer of mental illness and whatsoever disease out there. I pray for you, Nathan, that’s the message was read, was played on the 16th of July. I also pray for you Travis; the message was played on the 13th of July. God, his name is El Roi, Travis, and He has seen your tears. He has wiped your tears away. So, God’s sees you. And I believe that whosoever the Son has set free, has been freed indeed. So, we believe for freedom of mind, for peace of mind, concerning your life, in Jesus’ name. I would also like to pray for Jeremiah whose message was played first on the 10th of May and then he left another message which was played on the 18th of July. Jeremiah, I want to just thank you for your follow-ups and say that you have inspired so many of us. And yes, I am a firm believer in taking a break from toxic relationships because one also needs healing. So, we thank God and God has healed you from every bitterness, rough, slander, malice according to Ephesians 4:31. So, go in God’s grace, travel well with you, God shall give you wisdom and strength and He shall help you to speak truthful and kind words to your parents. Thank you very much.