Author: Daily Audio Bible Transcripts

Exodus 29:1-30:10, Matthew 26:14-46, Psalm 31:19-24, Proverbs 8:14-26

Today is the ninth day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is awesome to be here with you today and a joy to continue our journey together. And that journey leads us back into the book of Exodus today for our Old Testament reading. And we are at Mount Sinai still, Moses still up on the mountain and the laws, customs, rituals holidays, all the things that will shape this newly forming people in the wilderness is being revealed and so we pick up the story, Exodus chapter 29 verse 1 through 30 verse 10. 

Commentary:

Okay so, in the book of Matthew, the first of the four Gospels, we are entering into a story that we will hear in each of the Gospels, but for we who believe in Jesus, this, this is an agonizing story, but it is also the story of our salvation. And so, we’ve seen that one of the 12 disciples, the one named Judas Iscariot was ultimately a betrayer and he went to the the Hebrew religious leadership and negotiated a price. The price on Jesus head, 30 pieces of silver, 30 pieces of silver to betray God. And when we look at the story obviously, we we know this is wrong and in what we read today, we see the disciples going, it’ll never be me, like I will never deny you even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you, but they did. And when I allow this to become a mirror, I’m guilty There have been times my life in thought or word or action that I’ve been willing to betray God for a lot less than 30 pieces of silver. We all have, we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. And so, when we come to this point and this is the first time this year that we’re coming to this point, it’s important for us to not just blow by this, it’s important for us to know that God most high, the one giving Moses the laws that are going to shape the people on the top of Mount Sinai, that God came here incarnated into a human body to rescue us, and that God has been betrayed by humanity over and over and over repeatedly and we are guilty. We’re the ones supposed to be executed but through Christ we have been pardoned and the gratitude that should come from that should shake us to the core and so let’s embrace this story each time it comes up. 

We also witness a very famous scene known as the last supper and let’s remember that that’s actually what this is His last supper, His last meal and it’s at this meal that He breaks the bread and passes the cup. Generally speaking, all Christians, no matter what tradition or flavor or stripe continue in this tradition what has come to be known as the Eucharist or communion or the Lord’s table or any number of things. And this observance comes from here, from the last meal. 

And then we see Jesus and His disciples go to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus in anguish prays and His prayer is a very human prayer. If there’s any way to get me out of this, if there’s any other way. If we try to put ourselves in this position, obviously, we can’t put ourselves in the position of Jesus. But if we just consider the scenario that we know we’re eating our last meal, we know that we’re about to be arrested and we know we will be condemned to die. That is very weighty, that is a very grave and from the narrative in the gospel of Matthew we can see that it is taking a toll on Jesus because it’s not only that He knows He’s had His last meal and that He’s about to be arrested and tortured, it’s that He also knows that all of the people that He has poured His life into, all of the miles that they have traveled together, they’re going to abandon Him. I hate that so much but there have been seasons in my life that I have been guilty of the same thing, we all have. And will continue obviously, with the story tomorrow, but for us to just sit with that, to just consider that, helps us to begin to realize that the things that we take for granted did not come cheap and we may not be able to arrange for our own salvation but we have a debt of gratitude that we can’t pay. But one of the ways that we express that gratitude directly to God is by being aware of the least of these, which is exactly what we’re talking about yesterday. And so, let’s consider this as we move through our day. 

Prayer:

And Jesus, what can we say, we are all guilty of betraying You in one way or another and yet You have remained faithful and have rescued us and have loved us, despite it all. We don’t deserve any of it. We don’t deserve to be able to talk to You, we don’t deserve life itself. It has all been given to us as a gift and we are well aware of the ways that we have squandered it, but we are beginning to awaken. The Scriptures are speaking loud and clear day by day, step-by-step, and we are learning but knowledge itself won’t do it. We surrender to Your goodness and Your kindness to us and we repent of our rebellion. And we ask Holy Spirit that You would come and continue to shape us into the image of our Savior and we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. 

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, that is home of the Global Campfire where we gather each and every day. Of course, the Daily Audio Bible app is essentially the same thing so, check it out. Check out the Community section, that is a good one to know there are links there to the different social media channels that the Daily Audio Bible is involved in and those are reasonably good to be aware of if we’re making an announcement or just sending out an encouragement, if you do social media than it would be good to be connected in hat way. But the Community section is also the home of the Prayer Wall and that resource has been an invaluable resource for a very, very large number of years now, for thousands and thousands of people because it’s always there. There is always a place we can go and ask for prayer. There is always a place where we can go and pray for each other and so that, the Prayer Wall lives in the Community section, either in the app or the website so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission that we share together to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen, anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm so, that we know that this isn’t a solitary endeavor that we’re alone on it’s…it’s sharing our lives for a year as we move the Scriptures. If that brings life and good news into your heart and soul in your experience of life then thank you, humbly 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 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. 

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, this is Lisa from Virginia. I’m just calling in for Dave from the UK. Dave, I heard your prayer on the 31st of January on Monday and I usually listen when I’m at the gym in the morning. And your prayer request stopped me, tears just filled my eyes. I too have twin boys that are 18, they actually turned 19 on Thursday, February 3rd. I also have a daughter who is 21 who has seizures since she was 5 months old. So, it was a double whammy. I can understand and relate but not fully understand. Having to see your child in pain all the time that one would really do me in. And then to have your other boy have seizures and unexplained seizures. So, I just reach out. I’ve been praying for you everyday and I’ve been meaning to call in. It’s Saturday, February 5th and I’m finally able to make the call. And I just pray for you and your wife. I understand how much of a toll a special needs child takes on the whole family and I can understand the twin relationship and the guilt that goes with that. So, just know you’re being prayed for from Virginia, for your wife, for your two boys and you said you had a third child as well. I’ll be lifting you all up in my prayers, I pray for comfort for your son the cerebral palsy, I pray for relief from the seizures and a stop to them for your other son. And I pray for your wife and you that you find some rest and some wisdom to know how to deal with this. Like us, the parents are really more the expert than the doctors when it comes to your child. So, I hope you find some answers for both of your boys. You’re in my prayers. 

Good morning DAB family, God bless you all. Three months ago I started to experience some sort of anxiety and fear again, over my daughter Sarah. And the dark places that her mind wanders to and I having lived a life of the wilderness and being in those dark places, that’s exactly what I started to revert myself as her mom, fearing for her and her life. And I started to realize just this week, that you know, I was set free from that, I’m a new creation in Christ and those dark places will keep me trapped there with the enemy. And I wasn’t allowing God to just continue to work in my life and therefore hindering Him from working in Sarah’s life cause of my fear, my unbelief’s. So, I just want to share with those people who are in that wilderness right now, who feel like you know, you have been delivered but then you revert back to those dark places because that’s all you’ve ever known your entire life, like I did. God is with you, God is with us you know, He is with the people we love and we have to stay strong, we can’t believe the lies of the enemy. He is a liar, he is the father of lies and that is what we know of him. We have to be able to discern God’s voice and I’ve been doing very poorly of that this past week especially. But, thank God my Aaron’s and my Herr’s that I was able to reach out to in the name of our Jesus Christ, to hold me up when I was too weak to do that my own. And I am praying for each of you who are in that wilderness to reach out to your Aaron’s and your Herr’s because we need each other. We can not do this alone. I love you all, Esther from Haines City. 

Hello family this is Biola from Maryland. Brian and Jill, God bless you. Lord, bless your ministries. I’m calling for Jackie from Canada. Sister, you had said that you doubted even those that are His, you are going through a season in your life where everything seems hopeless. You were wondering if your calls are being played. Well, Biola from Maryland heard you and I’m calling your name, Jackie from Canada. And I just want to encourage you sister. You’re in a season in your life where you don’t understand what is going on but God is for you, God is working, God sees you. The word of God says that God is Jerova El Roi. I you remember, that name came about when Hagar the maiden of Sarah, was chased out by Sarah after she gave birth to her son. But God sees her, God actually sent an angel to help her. Now sister, let me tell you, you might be in the winter of your life right now. When it’s winter, it’s cold and hard and difficult bu that doesn’t mean something great is not going on. We see what is going on in the winter when spring comes and we see all the flowers spring forth. So, sister hold on to God. Psalm 25:3 says that those who hope in Him can never be disgraced. If all else fails, sister, you don’t know what else to do. You said the only thing you have left is prayer, prayer is powerful. Praise is also powerful, Psalm 2, just keep praising God. Praise God for where you are right now even though you don’t feel like it. And I’m trusting God that you will get a break through. Prodigal Princess, God bless you, what a testimony. May God make your testimony permanent. The brother who called who says that he was a pastor and is trying to get a job, I pray that God will also give you a breakthrough. In Jesus name, God Bless you. 

Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Dr. Kinayah from London. I pray all of you are well. I wanted to call in to pray for Maryland who said that she’s in a dry place in her walk with God and likened it to being in the wilderness and I just want to pray over you this word of encouragement that God’s love for you and for all of us, endures our driest season. His love is not scared of those times but in fact He permeates you and surrounds you with His presence. And I pray that even in the dry season, even in the wilderness you will know more of God and you’ll become you know, refreshed in His presence, that you will no longer feel dry, in fact you’ll feel watered because you are a child of God and He loves you even in those dry seasons. He is that pillar of cloud that guides you and I pray that over you. I also want to say thank you to Brian, your word this morning, little-by-little is what I needed to hear as I’m concluding the first part of my thesis and my doctorate. It is literally little-by-little, word-by-word, day-by-day, step-by-step. And I pray that over our entire community that we will continue to preserver and we’ll take each step forward with God who will lovingly give us the next one. God bless you all. 

Hi, this is Ivy from Missouri. Brian, I just really enjoyed the message today. I guess the main words that I’m hearing and I need to keep hearing is little-by-little. I’ll admit I’m just feeling very overwhelmed with thinking that I need to do so much and get it all done and I know that that’s not what God wants me to do. I’m just coming upon the two-year anniversary of my husband’s death and I still have a whole room of clothes and belongings to him. I know I need to get to it, but maybe not all at once or like you said, little by little. Everything in my life just seems to be so overwhelming. I’m praying for all of you guys and every time I hear your prayer request I life you up. And I guess I’m asking the same thing, just we need to keep each other up and help us get by doing little by little and definitely focusing on You Lord. Help me to focus, I just feel like I’m either feeling depressed or lonely. I don’t know but I know you’re there. I just need to learn to do what I need to do little by little and to stay focused. I love you all, in His grip. Amen.

Exodus 28:1-43, Matthew 25:31-26:13, Psalms 31:9-18, Proverbs 8:12-13

Today is the 8^th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today around the Global Campfire. And we’ll collectively take the next step forward together in the Scriptures which brings us back into the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. And just by way of reminder we’re at Mount Sinai with the children of Israel. Moses on the summit and God is speaking giving him the laws that will shape and govern the people. Today, Exodus chapter 28.

Commentary:

Okay. So, Jesus has been talking about the end or the time of the end and He’s continuing that discussion. For example, yesterday there were a couple of stories, right, that showed us vigilance, preparedness, awareness, awake-ness. Today. He reveals something really important for us to understand about the kingdom of God and that basically is climbing the ladder towards some sort of notoriety or like even in ministry to become like a celebrity in some sort of way, like that’s not that impressive to God. This is God most high. But when we’re awake and aware and vigilant and understand that those…there are those who are less fortunate than us we’re to…we’re to try to help in whatever way we can, because in helping in this way we are doing it for God. This is tangible, concrete work for the Lord, and it’s done to the Lord. He receives it as if it was done to Himself or quoting Jesus, “whenever you did it for any of My people no matter how unimportant they seemed you did it for Me”, which helps us understand this idea that we are the hands and feet of Jesus in this world is more than a metaphor. And we could read this and go well, “how do I…how I quit my job, get my…like how do we dedicate our lives to this then? I want to do these things for the Lord.” And some people are definitely called in that direction, to use all of their lives seeking justice or provision for those who have none, which is beautiful. But what we’re being told here is not unlike what we were being told yesterday about vigilance and preparedness and awareness. If we are living our lives aware of more than what is going on in our lives only, like if we’re not self-absorbed in self-focused and sort of isolated, but rather aware, realizing that we are to live our lives as a living sacrifice to God then we realize that our lives posture is one of availability to help when we can where we can however we can. And what does that look like? “When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat. And I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me. When I was naked, you gave me close to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me. When I was in jail, you visited me.” It’s a posture of doing what we can when we encounter opportunity. And sure, we can boil this down and go, “well…that’s sort of the golden rule and everybody knows that.” But if we look at the world and the cultures that we live in we realize that we know this, and we know goodwill toward one another is a good positive thing and loving one another is a healthy good thing but we’re also programmed to think that it’s about us. And the more visible we are, the more powerful we are, the more rich we are, whatever this is what success looks like. This is what it looks like to make it in this world. What Jesus seems to be indicating here is that to make it in God’s kingdom is different. So, climbing the ladder of notoriety or whatever in this world is actually climbing in the wrong direction in God’s kingdom because in God’s kingdom there is no lack. It is much more of a “we”, a “we” are in this together than in an “I”, I what “I” am going to achieve and accomplish. And again, these are not like foreign concepts to the Christian faith. They’re foundational. So, the question then becomes, which kingdom are we operating in? What direction are we going in?

Prayer:

Father, once again, we invite You, we invite Your Holy Spirit in…into this question. Where are we going? Are we aware? Are we paying attention? What kingdom are we serving here? Where is our allegiance? And what needs to change? And what does this need to look like in our story? Because it can be different for each one of us and is different for each one of us? And, so, Holy Spirit come into this story that we are telling and help us to become intimately aware with the fact that when we do it for the least of these, we do it for You. And we pray this in the mighty name of Jesus who modeled this for us. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is our home base, it’s the website, and its definitely where you find out what’s going on around here. If you are using the app you can do the same from within the app. So, check it out.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of categories there with a number of resources in each category. So, whether it’s something to write with or write on or some written resources to take the journey deeper or things to listen to like the music of the Daily Audio Bible or having our Wind Farm coffee or tea shipped fresh to your house it’s in the Daily Audio Bible Shop all centered around the journey that we are on through the Bible in a year in community sharing our lives together. So, check that out

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible thank you humbly. Thank you for your partnership. We couldn’t do what we’ve done if we didn’t do this together. And, so, thank you deeply. 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 which is the little red button up at the top or you dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Peggy in California. I have tried to make this recording at least a dozen times and can’t get through it. So, I’m going to try again. Before I do let me just tell you how much I love you all and appreciate this family. I’m calling today to ask for prayer for my son Mason who’s been struggling for a couple of years. We are coming to find out he’s been dealing with some pretty heavy stuff. And I know he needs Jesus in his heart. He needs peace. So, I would pray for that and ask you too as well and I ask you to pray for his twin brother who this also affects. He…he tells us he feels what his brother feels. So, even though the struggle is not the same for him or he’s not dealing with it he feels it. So, he is dealing with it, I guess. Anyway, I would just really covet your prayers. And I just want to give a shout out to Annette from Oklahoma City. I just heard her on the February 4^th podcast, and she really brightened my day. Can’t tell by the way I’m so emotional right now but she did. So, thank you. God bless you all.

Hello DAB family this is Thankful and Still and I was just calling in response to a lady on the January 29^th community prayer and encouragement. I didn’t catch your name, but you were sharing that you are a year sober and recovering heroin addict and I’m just…I was so touched by your testimony. It gave me such hope for my loved ones for…for recovery and that God, when we lean on Him is going to take us through step by step. So, Lord I lift up this…this young lady who shared her testimony and I pray God that You would encourage her along Your path of just total surrender to You and…and dependence upon You God for…for every breath, for every thought, for every decision and for a godly lifestyle. It’s just so exciting and I…and I praise You God. I thank You for the work that You’re doing in her life, and I pray that You would surround her with others that that encourage her and live a life that is glorifying to You Lord. I thank You for her testimony and bless her in Jesus’ name. And Keira, I’m praying…I’m praying for your son Nish. I’m praying for this transition, you know, and…and for his decisions in this. Thank you for having faith too…and sharing, you know, and just know that I’m praying for you both. Again, just an amazing testimony of God's…of God’s hand in your life. So, thank you so much. God bless you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible people this is Nadine from Egypt. I sent before to lift my friends name in prayers and someone did and God listened and he was much much better. The cancer was healing, and everything was fine and then suddenly as if the devil is fighting over his spirit he collapsed. His lungs is not working. He is on a ventilator. I want to pray for God’s will to be done. Although deep inside I want him to be good and I want what I want for him but I’m so limited and I want you to help me and aid me in prayers, that my faith in Sammy’s life it’s a week but I know Sammy if he gets better, it’ll be a great testimony for Jesus. He’s a great man with a great character that affects everyone around him. I want you to help me and aid me in prayers for Sammy that even if he’s on sedation and he can’t feel anything that God will go and visit him, and the Holy Spirit will lift his soul and put him in a better place and let God’s will be done. But I really want him to be better. I’m so confused on this point. I want him to be better. I want what I want for him and his family but yet I want God’s will to be done. I want God to have mercy on him and mercy on his family. Please help me in prayers for Sammy from Egypt.

Bless __ DAB family this is Marcy from New Jersey. I just want to share this testimony with you. I know I’ve shared it in the past, but it just feel led in the Spirit to encourage someone that’s going through something today. 10 years ago, the doctor diagnosed me with lupus. While I was in hospital I was listening to Brian. I…I was listening to him before I got this diagnosis, so I continued to listen to him. And God healed me through that word. God healed me. God heals. The word of God is powerful. The word of God works if we work it. The only thing that gives God access to our situation, the only thing that allows the door to be opened where God can come in and reach us is our faith. We must grow in faith family. We need to move from a place of passivity where we’re just listening to Brian Reba scriptures. We need to put this scripture into practice. The Bible said let us not be hearers of the word only but doers. We must do the word. We must do the work that is required. God heals. God is still healing. He hasn’t rested from healing. I have never returned to that place of sickness. God has made me whole. He has restored me completely. I was on dialysis. I was recommended to have a kidney transplant. God showed up and healed me. I want to release this to somebody that may be going through the same diagnosis with lupus that you’re healed. Exercise your faith and receive your healing. Dave in the UK, I am praying for you. Remain in faith. Look to God not your situation. Remember to turn God for every little thing and God is gonna bless you. I’m praying for you…

Oh, heavenly Father please be with me, and I ask everyone to pray for me for my children and me. I’m all alone in this country and I have no one. I’ve gone through domestic abuse, and the scars are really deep. I’m still scared of my ex-partner. He still has control over me financially and has not given any help. I pray to the Almighty and to my heavenly father to please help in sorting out a few things which we are in the process of. Please pray for me. Please send your guardian angels so that they influence the spirit of my ex-partner so God can understand my situation and what is required. I ask everybody to please give your blessings and prayers so that what I desire for my children’s best interest may be __. In the name of Jesus, I ask. Thank you.

Exodus 26:1-27:21, Matthew 25:1-30, Psalm 31:1-8, Proverbs 8:1-11

Today is the seventh day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today, as we do what we do in take the next step forward together in life and in the Scriptures and that will lead us back out into the book of Exodus. And so, we are with the children of Israel who have left slavery and are now encamped around the mountain called Mount Sinai. Moses is up on the mountain God, is beginning to reveal to Moses what the law will be what will shape and govern this brand-new culture being formed in the wilderness so the children of Israel are below the base of the mountain was this is at the top, God is speaking to Moses and we are listening, Exodus chapters 26 and 27 today.

Commentary:

Okay, a couple of things for us to consider today, first in the book of Matthew, Jesus is telling stories about the kingdom of heaven, but prior to Him giving these illustrations He had been talking about the like the end like, the end of all things and He described that and He ended up saying when you see things around you that look like the end understand that that’s the beginning of the end, it’s birthing pains. The idea that all things will be made new is like a birth. So, anyone who has had a child or attended, been there for a birth you know that things get, they get pretty amped up right there before the new life comes and there’s travail and pain and pushing and all of this and then new life comes and everything that it took to bring that new life into the world then begins to recede, new life has come. Jesus instructs, this is a way to look at the future, this is a way to look at what’s happening and then He gives some examples that reveal the posture that we should have in the process and so, He gives the example of a master who left and entrusted some of his resources to three of his servants in different increments. And we saw the first person, when he gives an account to the master had taken the resource and doubled the resource and gave it back to the master. The second person had less but he did the same thing, he doubled what the master had gave him and returned it to the master whereas, the third person hid what he was given, he hid it in the ground, he was afraid and the master was displeased. The second story Jesus told was about the girls waiting for the groom to come for the wedding and some of them had enough oil in their lamps and some of them didn’t and so, when the groom came, he came late and those that didn’t have enough oil they had to go in search of oil but by the time they got back the doors had been shut. So, if we look at these stories, what do we see as characteristics, we see vigilance, we see commitment, we see a preparedness, awareness, readiness, which brings home Jesus point, you don’t know when these things are going to happen, be ready all the time, be diligent all of the time, don’t hide what you’ve been given waiting for more so that you can do the thing that you think you’re supposed to do, use what you have, be diligent and vigilant now, this is the posture of a person who is awake and aware of what’s happening, a person who’s paying attention and this really is the posture of the faith journey. We have every conceivable distraction to keep us from paying attention to the fact that we are being transformed. When we are paying attention, when we are vigilant, when we are diligent, when we are awake and aware, our lives have a completely different trajectory than when we are distracted and unaware and it’s even worse when we are distracted and unaware and pretend that we’re being diligent and vigilant and have all kinds of things to say as an expert but this is the famous passage where Jesus describes the father saying, well done, thou good and faithful servant and the person who got to hear those words was the person who did not hide the treasure they were given. Which once again, gives us clarity that we need wisdom, we need to be seeking wisdom and awareness more than any other ambition that we have which brings us to the voice of wisdom today and she describes herself standing at every crossroads. In fact, let me just reread from the Bible “with great understanding wisdom is calling out as she stands at the crossroads and on every hill.” Unpacking that means that as we navigate the crossroads of our lives and the decisions because that really is the crossroad right, the choices that were going to make, wisdom is there in the moment are we aware, are we vigilant, are we diligent, are we awake, are we paying attention? She’s at every crossroads and on every hill, I continue “she stands by the city gate, where everyone enters the city and she shouts, I am calling out to each one of you, good sense and sound judgment can be yours, listen because what I say is worthwhile and right, I always speak the truth and refuse to tell a lie, every word I speak is honest, not one is misleading or deceptive. If you have understanding, you will see that my words are just what you need. Let instruction and knowledge mean more to you than silver or the finest gold. Wisdom is worth much more than precious jewels or anything else you desire.”

Prayer:

And so, Father as we consider, diligence, and vigilance and awareness and preparedness we confess that we’ve been all over the map. We have been pulled in every imaginable direction and offered every conceivable distraction, help us, help us, come Holy Spirit, help us to slow down at these crossroads and seek wisdom above all things as we navigate this beautiful gift of life that You have bestowed upon us. Come, Holy Spirit wake us up we pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website and certainly how to get connected to hear. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can find all those things from within the app as well. And if you’re not using the app, you can get it free from wherever you get apps, whatever app store you are using, so check that out. On the web or in the app, there is a Community section, and in the Community section are links to the different social media channels that we participate in. So, chances are if you’re doing any social media stuff, we’re probably there too and it’s a good idea to follow the daily audio Bible, if there is an announcement of any sorts etc. etc. so check that out. The Prayer Wall also lives there in the Community section and the Prayer Wall allows us 24 hour a day, seven day a week access to asking for prayer, requesting or reaching back in faith with prayer for our brothers and sisters and encouraging them and so be familiar with that, it’s always available.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what we are is the Global Campfire Community, if this place that we can come, this serene place that we can meet each day and allow the Scriptures to speak into our lives and really inform our days, if that is meaningful to you then thank you, humbly for your partnership. We wouldn’t be in this or anything else, if we weren’t in this together and so thank you, thank you kindly for your partnership and humbly. There is a link at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are 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, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s 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:

Will be posted later today.

Exodus 23:14-25:40, Matthew 24:29-51, Psalms 30:1-12, Proverbs 7:24-27

Today is the 6^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we reach out our hand and twist the knob and throw open the threshold and walk into a brand-new shiny sparkly week. And most of the time when we throw the door open on a brand-new week, I say something similar because it’s a reminder. It’s in front of us. It’s the future. We are walking into it step-by-step day by day. And, so, what this week looks like, that story hasn’t been told. It’s for us to tell. And we will tell it with the actions of our lives, and we get to choose wisdom or foolishness. What would this week look like if we operated in wisdom every day in all of our interactions in all of our motivations. And let’s say like we did that last week and so now we’re going into this week, what if we continued that process? That would be us doing our part in collaborating in this great work of being transformed and sanctified. And, so, let’s choose wisely what we’re gonna do with this week. One of the things that we will do this week is that we will gather around the Global Campfire like this every day and take the next step forward. In the Old Testament, we are working our way through the book of Exodus. We have basically moved through the freedom, the freeing of the Egyptian slaves and they have left and gone into the wilderness. They are now at the mountain of God, or Mount Sinai, and God is beginning to give to Moses what will eventually become the law that establishes and governs this people who are former slaves who don’t know how to be anything but slaves. Now a culture is being developed in the desert. And, so, we have begun to see some of the statutes and rituals and customs and holidays and things that will shape this people. And, so, we’ll pick up where he left off yesterday. This week we will read from the Contemporary English Version. Exodus chapter 23 verse 14 through 25 verse 40.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in our reading from the book of Exodus today we have something that is very helpful, very informational and something that we need to consider when we are feeling impatient. So, the children of Israel…and we know who they are…these former slaves are at Mount Sinai where God is beginning to lay out what will organize and control this brand-new culture that is being established. We were already told from the Bible that when the slaves left Egypt, they didn’t go the shortest route into this land of promise and just move in. They hadn’t been battle tested and God carried them or lead them directly into the heart of the desert, a place where there’s like no way to survive, a place where they’re learning really important lessons about trust and dependence. There is some change, some fundamental change that has to happen inside of them so that their identity can shift away from slavery and away from Egypt and toward the future and freedom. This is the big shift. They don’t know how to be anything else. So, if we just pause right there and, you know, allow this to kinda become a mirror into our own lives we can think of the times when we felt like we’ve heard a promise or instructions about the way that we should go and we begin to move in these directions only to find out things are not easy, they’re very, very difficult, they’re very hard. Well, at that point, we often can throw our hands in the sky go like, “what the heck? I’m obeying. What is going on here? Why every time that I try to do the right thing and be obedient and be loyal and true, is it so hard?” And trust me I’m pointing this all out to us because I’m just as guilty. But can we just observe the fact that the wilderness was going to be hard no matter what and the wilderness is the pathway to the promised land in this story? And, so, when we move through the wilderness and things just get harder because we get obedient there may be some fundamental deep things that have to shift within us before we can move forward. And if there’s one thing that the Bible teaches us, and it teaches us a lot of things, but if there’s one core thing that we end up knowing very well from the Scriptures is that endurance is part of it. So, let’s kinda move back to Mount Sinai. These former slaves who are being remade into chosen people could very easily be thinking, “okay. We are clear of Egypt. God has done away with that problem. We are moving forward into this promise land if we could just find enough water and wonder why it’s taking so long.” In our reading today God says, “I will make the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites panic as you approach, but I won’t do all this in the first year because the land would become poor and wild animals would be everywhere. Instead, I will force out your enemies, little by little and give your nation time to grow strong enough to take over the land.” And, so, it can be incredibly helpful when we either feel like we’re in a wilderness season or we feel like we’re being obedient, but everything is completely difficult in every conceivable way. If we could just remember three words, “little by little.” That is how all growth happens, right? So, if you’re a parent and you’ve had a baby, you know, that…and maybe they’re grown or at least grown up from where they were, it happened little by little. Here we are in the second month of the year and so those of you are still holding true to all of the different New Year’s resolutions that you may have, maybe one of those resolutions is to drop a few pounds and to get strong. And if you’ve been going to the gym, well by now you…you are noticing the fruit of your efforts. But it was little by little. And if you achieve that goal, it still will be little by little, but you will get there if you do not faint, if you do not stop. And some of the core things that are being learned are discipline, self-discipline, control, the gaining of strength, moving into that strength, maybe a rewiring of why we go to certain things for comfort that aren’t going to ultimately be healthy for us. There’s all kinds of stuff that we’re learning all of the time, but when we have this instant gratification kind of concept, especially with God we’re missing the fact that even though we may know where we’re going, or we maybe even have a promise that we believe will be fulfilled we have to grow into that and be ready for that and it will happen little by little. And, so, as we’re facing some of those goals and objectives or challenges or hardships, remembering those words, little by little, that can be a rescue when we’re feeling pretty tapped out.

Prayer:

Father, thank You for this. Thank You for this story, for these examples, for how You’ve lead, Your people in days gone by. We see that You are comprehensive and so often we are simply focused on whatever the goal is when You are growing us up to be fully mature and strong, members who can carry Your authority in this world. Help us to remember that we pray. In the precious name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello this is Landa from New York. I’m reaching out to the one woman in Canada. Today is February 2^nd and she was…my heart just was so touched. She didn’t think anyone is really praying for her. And I want her to know just because you don’t hear your name or someone doesn't…you don’t hear it…like you think someone’s praying for you, believe me there are people out there that are praying for you. I pray for people all the time, lift them up and I don’t call in with that. And forgive me for that, but I wanted to let you know that you are so loved by Christ. And it’s like what we learned today, we’re in that wilderness and that’s when we grow, that is when we grow. And just lift your eyes up to Jesus, just lift them up and just have that faith knowing it’ll be OK, it’ll be alright. What does Jesus have for you? You sound like a wonderful person, and I want you to know that I love you and I’m praying for you. I just wish I could have remembered your name. I’m so sorry but you were from Canada. Thank you and I love you. Bye-bye.

Hi DAB this is Ken from New Hampshire. I’m calling for my bride Marylin. She’s going through a…a wilderness town right now. She’s…the devils beat her down and he's…he’s really pushing her face in the mud right now and I’ve done everything I know to do. I just know that she needs some people to come alongside her. She needs some prayer to help her lift her heart up to lift her eyes up, lift her gaze up Lord. So, I’m just going to pray right now and ask you to agree with me. Father in the name of Jesus I ask you to bless my bride, Marilyn. I ask you to lift her up from her wilderness experience right now, from…from where the enemy’s got her right now and I ask you for you to bless her, for you to give her a new perspective in her heart and in her mind God. And Lord, I thank you for this community that comes alongside and that helps each other. Thank you, Lord in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hello this is Bobby from Spring Hill Tennessee. I wanted to lift up the lady in Canada who said she has the faith of a mustard seed. I want you to know that I’m praying for you and that things will work out, that you’re able to get your baby and that you’re able to…all your wants and needs will be met. I heard your prayer, so I know God has. So, I’m looking forward to hearing your praise reports in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi this is Marilyn from New Hampshire calling on Wednesday February 2^nd and I just listened to Brian’s wilderness commentary and…which was amazing. And also, all the prayers today were about being in the wilderness, and I can really relate to that because I really feel like I’m there also. I’m in a really low spot. I’ve been a Christian for about 30 years, and I feel very dry. I want too…I’m stubborn, I feel like I’m resisting God. I know His word, but in my head…and I just really want to live a surrendered life. I think I can control it all and it doesn’t work that way. It's…just…I really need prayer. And I need prayer because I compare myself to everyone else and I like seem to never measure up because God doesn’t have enough for me. And when I compare myself to everyone else, I really lose Marylin. Like Marilyn’s not like even there ‘cause I’m looking at everyone else and their walk with God and my walk with God just seems pitiful. Anyway, I need prayer. Thank you for your prayers. I just need some faith, some…some…be closer to God. Anyway, I love you all. Thanks for your prayers. Bye-bye.

Jackie from Canada this is Soaring on Eagles Wings, your sister from Canada on February 2^nd. I just heard you and your prayer request. You’re feeling so despondent. I…God isn’t answering your prayer, your business isn’t doing as you’d like it, you’ve been trying to get pregnant, and you haven’t. And it brought tears to my eyes when I listened to you because I sense your pain. Well, our Father says in Isaiah 65 verse 24, “before they call I will answer. While they’re still speaking I am here.” Abba Father, you’ve heard Jackie’s prayer request. You’ve seen her tears and you know and understand that pain in her heart. I pray that you would wrap your loving arms around her and draw her close to your bosom and so that she will remember that your word says you’re as near as the mention of your name, you will never leave her or forsake her. I pray that your Holy Spirit will warm her heart as He comforts her. Lord here her prayer request for having a child. I pray that you would grant her favor so that her womb will receive this gift from you, and she can rejoice and all her other prayers for her business and the loneliness she’s feeling oh God. Send her people around her who can…who will support her and stand with her and remind her of the goodness of God. You make all things beautiful in your time and I pray that you make all things beautiful in Jackie…in your time in Jackie’s life.

Exodus 21:22-23:13, Matthew 24:1-28, Psalm 29:1-11, Proverbs 7:6-23

Today is the fifth day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it is awesome to be here with you today as we continue our journey forward, bringing ourselves to the conclusion of the another one of the weeks that we get to spend together. We’re in the place now, when there’s way more weeks that we still get to spend together than there are weeks that we’ve moved through but the weird thing is we keep doing this. We’ll reach the midway point and they’ll be fewer days. But right now, we’re still getting ourselves going but we are definitely far enough into see that there is plenty for us in the Bible this year and so let’s dive in. We’ve been reading from the Common English Bible this week, Exodus chapter 21 verse 22 through 23 verse 13 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and as we bring another week to a close, we take to heart what we just read in the book of Proverbs and certainly this is got a lot of detail about a foolish man being cunningly seduced into adultery. And so that’s stark enough for us to clearly understand. And if we take one step back from just that particular activity alone, we realize that anything that will seduce us into evil is wrong, anything that will seduce us or skewer our relationship or connection to You is wrong, it will only lead us down a path that leads to destruction, and the truth is, most of the time, we know better. We just put ourselves in a position we can’t get back out of or we’ve allowed something to go too far. We need to counsel of Your Holy Spirit to save us, to rescue us. It is our hearts desire to be true and to be true before You so that we might be unashamed before You, made righteous by You by the blood of Jesus that we might have this permission to be true and that we might then live true, instead of in the shadows. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where we find what’s going on around here and so be sure to stay tuned and stay connected in any way that you can. Check out the Daily Audio Bible shop, whether using the app or using the web. There are a number of resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop that are specifically well, have been invented and created for the journey that we are on whether that be just to wear our colors and have some Global Campfire gear or whether that be written or listening resources to take the journey deeper. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, humbly, humbly, we couldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be here, if we were not in this together. So, thank you humbly 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 P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And of course, 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

This is Dr. John in Illinois, this message for Dave of the UK. Dave, I just want to tell you brother to hold fast, to stand still and watch God work and there is no better place for you to be right here than in this community, with DAB, with your brothers and sisters, listening to the word read fresh every day. God’s word is perfect and true, it’s just and it’s right, it’s life-giving, it’s healing, it’s restoration. And I’m just gonna tell you that God’s the same God yesterday, today and forever. We listen to today the story of Moses, fleeing the Egyptians and God providing a miracle but He provides a miracle every single day, a miracle hope and restoration and healing. And I just want to tell you that I can’t name all the names, I can’t remember everybody that’s called in but I do, you need to understand that there are millions of them, just like me, that every day we listen and every day we pray with you and we stand with you. And maybe we don’t mention all of our names but brother, there’s a whole army, there’s a whole family of brothers and sisters out here, there standing with you in your plight. And I would ask you even for my own family. My wife is going into surgery in two days, she’s been fighting breast cancer and six years ago they told us we had little chance to survive. And we started the DAB and it’s been life-giving. It’s been healing, it’s been restoration to us, it’s been wisdom and counsel and I thank God for this podcast for Brian, for Jill, for the Hardin family, for all they’ve done. But for all of you out there, for the DAB family. God bless you. So, stay right here brother, this is the best place you can be with people that love you, will support you every day. God bless.

Good morning this is Janus and I have a prayer request to submit for myself but also for all of us as we go through Exodus, I’m reminded of something. I know that it’s easy to see how the people are complaining and to even criticize and think that it’s just so unreasonable with everything they’ve experienced and all the miracles and you know, for them to be complaining seems crazy. However, I am a survivor of sex trafficking when I was a teenager. I’m in my 40s now. So, this has been some years past, but the trauma and the fallout, definitely has followed me in various ways and infiltrated in every aspect of my life and has caused me to, I guess it’s the root of it, to have such a low understanding or feeling of self-worth and that has caused a complaining spirit in my heart. I don’t think I verbalize it often. I’m glad that I don’t but I know I feel it in my heart. I just am generally quiet about it. The heart is what is important. So, I know that I all of have been or a lot of us can relate to being set free from some kind of slavery, whether it was actual slavery as I was or if it was some addiction or something else and my prayer is that we would be able to get past ourselves and past our trauma and not complain and wander in the wilderness and instead to believe the promises that are for us. I pray this for all of us and I ask for you to do the same. In Jesus name. Amen.

Hello DAB family this is Christina calling in from Kansas City, Missouri. I just want to say I’m a first-time caller, this is my first year listening in and I actually was invited by one of my clients, I’m a hairdresser, by my client, Laura. I told her I was struggling to figure out ways to get the word in and you know with my busy schedule and everything and she suggested this app to me and I started listening around January 20th and I have listened to every single one from the first all the way up until now. I had been listening probably 2 to 3, sometimes four times a day just to get caught up. I am caught up now. So, I’m excited you know, for the journey that God will have me on this year and I’m excited for this community. I’m blessed to hear all the prayers and just how tight this community is and I also want to say to Brian that your voice just captivated me and it just drew me in and I know that’s the Lord using you and I’m very thankful for that. So, this is really good for me. I listen going into work. I listen leaving work. I it's…it’s a really good thing. And so, I just want to say thank you to everyone and just everything you guys are doing here is such a beautiful thing and if you guys can lift me up in prayer. You know, I have you know, four children and I’m married and just lift up our family. We, we kinda fallen in our faith a little bit and I just want to get back on track with everything and I just want to serve God in and…and love others and just…just pray for us and thank you for all that you guys do. In Jesus name. Amen.

Hi, this message is for the Jackie out of Canada, I believe she said. This is New Envision Growth calling from New York and I just wanted to, if I could give you a virtual hug, I would. Your call just really just really resonated to me. I understand exactly where you’re coming from. And I just want to tell you to keep the faith. I know that seems a little corny and cliché, but it is the truth. I was diagnosed with endometriosis and 2017 so I understand that difficulty with having infertility issues and being surrounded by people who have, you know, your support and love you but to me, unless you’re really going through it you don’t know what it feels like. And I’m still believing and hoping on my miracle child, I’ll be 46 this year and I’m still believing. At the end of the day, I’m gonna believe the report of the Lord and I know that God can do the impossible. I know that He’s still in control and you, even said yourself, you have a mustard seed faith and that is all you need. I had to ask myself one day, if it never happens for me, if I’m never able to conceive, will I ever stop loving God? No, I will never stop loving Him. I will always give Him a yes because I know that His way is better than mine. I don’t know, but He knows all, He is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving. He is our Father and He will never leave us nor forsake us, even when it seems like no way out. And even with the relationship, maybe it didn’t work out for reason. Just continue to trust in Him. Continue to have that faith and I’m praying and believing for us all that have these issues, that it’s gonna happen.

Hey, DAB family. I just wanted to call in as a first-time caller. My name is Cody. I love for you guys to call me Phil 4:13, cause I love everyone’s usernames on this app. And look, today’s February 2, 2022, it’s 2 AM as I’m recording this and I just felt the urge to call, because it’s been a month since I started listening to the Daily Audio Bible. You know, January 2 was the first day and it was in a car, it was a road trip from Virginia down to Tampa Bay. So, pretty long one. Long story short, I actually was the one driving and we got into a car accident, my first every car accident. Luckily, everyone was okay and my car and the car in front of us. You know, we were still able to go down there, but Lord knows I was not the one who was gonna be in the driver seat anymore. So, with my brother in the driver seat, he decided to play the first day of the Daily Audio Bible and I absolutely loved it. So, from that point on, I made it a routine to listen to this every time I brush, usually it’s past midnight. So, I’d have the next day’s recording and it’s just so nice to end the day with that and yeah. Just a little praise offering for the Daily Audio Bible for just providing this opportunity to listen to the Bible all the way through and looking forward to the rest in this journey with ya’ll. I love you guys and God bless.

Exodus 19:16-21:21, Matthew 23:13-39, Psalms 28:1-9, Proverbs 7:1-5

Today is the 4^th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we continue our journey forward through the Scriptures this year. And today we will pick up where we left off yesterday. We are in the wilderness with the children of Israel who are being remade. They are…they are transforming from slaves into God’s chosen people and a lot of lessons are being learned. So, yesterday Moses learned lessons about delegation and getting help. His two sons and his wife have come and joined the camp of Israel after all of the things that happened in Egypt. And now God has told Moses that He is coming to the people to speak with the people, and they are to prepare. And, so, we’ll pick up the story there. Exodus chapter 19 verse 16 through chapter 21 verse 21.

Commentary:

Okay, so there are a number of things we should observe from today’s reading both from Exodus and from Matthew because in some ways we get a little bit of a before and after view. We’ll talk about that in the second. First off, God had told the people to prepare themselves, to purify themselves, and to come to the mountain that He had descended upon that He was going to speak to the people, but upon the mountain were smoke and thunder and lightning and all matter of things that terrified the people terrified them of God. And, so, in the end they came to Moses and said, “Don’t let God speak to us. You listen to God and then you tell us what God said and then we will obey God by obeying you.” And this certainly does give us the foundation for the…the role of the prophet in Hebrew life, especially in biblical Hebrew life. But let’s remember, God didn’t say to the people, “you come near the mountain, I’m gonna talk to Moses, Moses is gonna talk to you.” What God said was, “I’m gonna speak to the people.” He was gnna speak directly to the people. And they rejected that in favor of an intermediary. And we can think, yeah, whatever, that’s no big deal, but it…it does become a larger issue in the writings of Paul, which we haven’t gotten to yet. But let’s remember this moment at Mount Sinai because it’s something that we will touch on in the future as we get a little bit further into the year. But we are also reaching a point now that…well…the 10 Commandments for example, were given in today’s reading. And, so, the things, the laws, the statutes, the customs, the holidays, the rituals, all of the things that would form a culture and bind it together, these things are beginning to be revealed in the wilderness to Moses. And this will go on for quite a while. We remember, these people only know how to be slaves in Egypt. So, those are the customs that they know and the things that pull them together, Egyptian slavery and how to navigate it. When where they’re headed his into a promised land where they will be self-governing under God. And, so, God begins to reveal what becomes known as the law or the Mosaic law, which is to form and govern the Hebrew people.

If we move into the book of Matthew from our reading today, we will have moved forward a couple of millennia. So, in our Old Testament reading we are at the very beginning of God starting to reveal the customs and cultures and statutes and the things that He expects it will form this people. In Matthew all of the law has been given, all of the people have gone through all kinds of things that people would go through in a couple thousand years. The law has been interpreted and reinterpreted, and we hear Jesus saying, “how terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you shut people out of the kingdom of heaven. You don’t enter yourselves and you won’t allow those who want to enter to do so.” So, that’s like a little bit of the before and after. It’s like the law is just beginning to be given in Exodus. In Matthew we see God made flesh commenting on the very people that are to lead God’s people in obedience to the covenant of the law. And it is that very law that impart turns the religious leaders against Jesus for things like profaning the Sabbath Day or blasphemy. Those things are against the Mosaic law, at least against the way that the Mosaic law was being interpreted. And, so, over the course of time we’re goona have the opportunity to look at this and through the lens of the apostle Paul we’ll have some interpretation that fundamentally boils down to the spirit of the law or the letter of the law. The letter of the law are the words as their written. The spirit of the law is that before the law was given there was a set of circumstances or behaviors or something going on that required that this law be defined in such a way, the spirit of the law. And we don’t have time to dive into all that today, we couldn’t dive into that just today. That will emerge over time as we move through the law and move deeper into the Gospels. But right here on the front-end as the law is just beginning to be revealed it’s good for us to at least kinda understand these categories. Like, if…if in our nations, because all of our nations have rules and regulations and even customs and rituals, but we have laws and by the letter of the law, if the law is broke, it’s a black-and-white thing which really doesn’t leave any room for mercy or for context. And this is pretty important in the New Testament as the understanding of the Christian faith is being revealed.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for the majesty of Your word. We thank You for the Scriptures and all of the different nuances. Each day is touching something different, whether that being enlightening us with knowledge or that being cutting us to the heart and causing repentance. And, so, we are grateful. And Holy Spirit as we move into this territory in the wilderness, we ask that You lead us into all truth. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is a home base, it’s the website, and it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Like I say most every day, you can do that from within the Daily Audio Bible app as well, which can be downloaded from whatever app store that you use for your device.

Whether on the app or on the web be familiar with the Community section, that is where different links to social media channels that we participate in are available. And the Prayer Wall lives there in the Community section as well, which is a resource that’s just always there for us to reach out for prayer anytime day or night. We can reach back with prayer and encouragement there day or night anytime. It’s always available, so be aware of that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission to continue to bring the word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to whoever will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night, if that has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. Thank you humbly, 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, TN 37174.

And, of course as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement there are a number of numbers that you can use to dial-in depending on where you are in the world. First of all, if you’re using the app, you can press the Hotline button. It’s the little red button up at the top. And then it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you can share right from there or there are a couple of numbers that you can use. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, this message is for a little Kayla praying for her friend Azarah. So, Kayla thank you for your faithfulness and standing in the gap for your friend. And God we just ask for Azarah right now, You will touch her body, You will heal every cell, everything that’s not from You God You will remove it from her body, that her body will be restored to new…restored to normal. So, I just ask You Lord for…to touch Azarah’s body God, that she is healed right now in the name of Jesus, that she will wake up in the morning and be completely healed. The doctors will be astounded and…and she’ll say,” well…of course. My friend Kayla prayed for me. That’s why. That’s why I’m healed.” So, we just thank You God. We just ask You to lift up Layla and Azarah’s friendship God, that they would be like…like closer than two sisters God. So, we just thank You and ask You for this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning, everybody. Hey this is Annette from Oklahoma City. I would like to respond to the gentleman who was trying to get into the ministry and then found that his past was creeping up on him a little bit. Brother, boy oh boy I have been there myself. Before I got into the Daily Audio Bible my life was a mess and I didn’t really care too much about if I lied to people. I had a filthy mouth. I had a dirty mind. I was probably everything that the…the New Testament says that you shouldn’t be, like don’t be thinking on these things. I…I think I hit every one of them. And then I got real sick and I had limes disease and it messed up my memory pretty much. I mean a lot like. A lot of my life’s missing. It’s really weird. And then sometimes I see people from my past that I haven’t seen in a long time, and it makes me go, “Oh no. I can’t. I can’t remember. How did this go?” You know, “was I awful to this person? Did I say something bad?” You know? And…and all I can do now is go…I look at that person and I go, “you know what? I…I…I remember you and I would like to tell you that I’m sorry if I ever hurt you or offended you.” And that’s where it leaves me today. So, now it makes me afraid, like I hope I don’t hurt somebody you know. It makes me very conscious of my actions today. Almost like I had to just dump all my friends. I was very lonely for a long time because when I realized where these people put me, I was like I don’t want to go back there again. So, I’m gonna pray for you and I just hope that you take a stand against yourself. And I mean that you understand what’s right and wrong and hopefully, you know, you can get yourself squared away. And it just takes time. It takes time for people to learn how to trust you again. And…but if you prove yourself to be an honorable person, you know, and you just you focus on the things that are good and right you’ll make it. You’ll make it and the Lord’s gonna reveal a path. Maybe He just needed to stretch you a little bit more. Okay? I love you. You have a great day everybody. Bye-bye.

Good morning DAB family this is Laura in Colorado. I just have a prayer request I’d like to put before you guys. I know we have so many prayer warriors here. My family is feeling called to foster a baby girl. I work in the NICU. And this baby needs a place to go, and we really feel called to be ever come be a part of our family, temporarily if that’s what’s necessary. So, would you please pray with me for that? There’s a lot of moving parts and right now some uncertainty and just need wisdom and clarity and for God’s will to be done over this little life. So, thank you family for all your prayers.

Hi everybody it’s beloved in Texas. I just want to play for __ from Nebraska. Girl I’m __ too and I know what that’s like. And I know it’s a completely different animal and your mind races and you just don’t seem to know what end is up. And the bad part is is when you’re depressed you don’t even care. You don’t care which end is up. So, I just want to pray for you right now. I just pray for peace, clarity, and a joy that surpasses all understanding in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning, DAB family this is Laura in Haverhill Florida. I’m calling this morning on February 1^st to pray for Dave from the UK. Dave who has two…has 18 year old twin sons, I pray for Dave and his wife that they would be strengthened, their faith would not fail, that they would not give up and Lord that they…they would trust You with the lives of these boys. I pray for the one of the wheelchair Father who had cerebral palsy. Father, please give this child relief from pain. Please help him to be able to have sleep, sweet sleep at night, Father that he would be able to not give up, that his faith would stay strong, and Lord that You would heal his boy, that You would heal him, that You would take away the pain. Father, I pray for the other son that is dealing with the seizures every week. Lord You know what’s causing the seizures and I pray Father God for healing for this boy. Oh, Father I know that when we see our children suffer that Lord its hard on us because God we love our kids so much. And I can only imagine how much You love them, how much You love us. Father I pray that Your love would be overflowing in this home, that You Father would protect their hearts and minds from doubts from giving up, from anger, from distress, from depression. Lord I pray Father for strength for all of these all of these people in this family. And…and Lord I just pray for healing, complete healing in Jesus’ name. Thank You, Holy Spirit.

Exodus 17:8-19:15, Matthew 22:34-23:12, Psalm 27:7-14, Proverbs 6:27-35

Today is the third day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian. It’s a joy to be here with you today, like it is every day as we come in and gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together and I’m glad for the campfire because it’s chilly outside here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. But hopefully it’s warm in our hearts all around the world. So, this week we’re reading from the Common English Bible and picking up where we left off yesterday brings us back into the book of Exodus and we are fully in the wilderness at this point. The story that began with a man named Abram, who became Abraham has flourished into a vast multitude of people who are now following God into the wilderness under the leadership of Moses, Exodus chapter 17 verse 8 through 19 verse 15.

Commentary:

Alright so, in the book of Exodus, Moses gets some pretty timely and important advice from his, from his father-in-law Jethro, who has brought Moses family back to him in the wilderness. So, Jethro gets a firsthand account of all that God has been doing in the way that He set the Israelites free from their captivity in Egypt. And let’s remember Moses, the Moses that asked God to send somebody else at the burning bush like, it wasn’t his aspiration to become this mighty leader of all of these people, this is what God invited him into. And so, Moses has been obeying what the Lord tells him to do. But other than that, he doesn’t really know what to do and so, they’re figuring it out. And so, we’re seeing this form all around us as we’re reading the story. So, as the story goes, Jethro is observing Moses and Moses spends his days making judgments for the people who have conflict with each other like, he’s the judge, he makes the choices, but this is all day, every day. And so, if you’ve ever been a leader of any kind of group of people and you think like, all day every day, my job is to solve people’s problems without any backup, without anybody to share the load, then you know that that is the recipe for complete burnout and Jethro tells Moses this. Basically, you’re gonna burn yourself out. This isn’t really going to be good long-term for anybody, it’s not going to be good for you, you’re gonna be exhausted. It’s not gonna be good for the people, this is too much of a burden for anyone person to carry and your exhaustion isn’t going to give them good, wise choices. So, Moses listens to his father-in-law and begins a process of appointing people to help, of delegating responsibilities to honorable people who can serve and help. And just prior to that we experienced Israel’s first kind of military conflict with the Amalekites and Moses had gone up on a hill with his brother Aaron and another leader named Her. And when he lifted up his staff and his arms and the people could see that than the Israelites were winning the battle but when he had to put his arms down to rest that they began to lose the battle. So, that had to figure out a way to keep Moses arms up. So, for a while it’s, so he can rest his arms on stones but in the end they have to hold his arms up and that’s legit. I mean, have you ever tried to hold your arms up. Like, if you just hold your arms out at your side, you can hold them there. And I remember this even from gym class, our gym teacher when I was a kid showing this because none of us believed it. You hold your arms out at your sides, and it feels like I could do this all day every day but five minutes later and you’re realizing that you can’t. And so, what we see here is that one of the first lessons that are being learned out in the wilderness is a lesson for Moses. The lesson Moses is beginning to understand is this particular assignment cannot be done by one person, the entire formation of a people and a culture is underway. And Moses capacity for human leadership is finite and this helps us to consider the fact that we often overextend ourselves in ways that are not sustainable and when we have more on our plate than we can handle or too many plates spinning or too many balls up in the air or whatever metaphor we want to use the end result is that things begin to fall through the cracks and we experience exhaustion and burnout. And culturally we have been programmed basically to think that we can do anything as an army of one. But in terms of our faith journey, we are not an army of one, we are a body, a part of a larger whole. And so, becoming aware of our limitations and then scaling back to what we can actually handle sustainably or understanding that we need more help if we’re going to expand in certain ways, this is not only healthy, it’s wise. So, as we’re considering what is out in front of this, out in front of us for this year, including all of the resolutions we may have made. It’s important for us to be aware of what roots us and gives us an anchor but also what is balance. Balance that gives us room and space in our lives for plenty of exertion but plenty of recovery. This is not only how our bodies remain healthy and strong, this is how are soul, how are interior life, how our mental health, how our spiritual health is maintained. So, as we’re thinking of all the things, we want to accomplish this year, weighing out how that is going to happen, is vital. Otherwise, we’ll end up burning ourselves out and not getting any of it done.

Prayer:

So once again, Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for all of these examples that some of them really, really lead our hearts into important places of consideration and some of them are practical on how to actually live this life in this world. And we thank You for the counsel of the Scriptures and we thank You for the leading of Your Holy Spirit. And so, Holy Spirit, we ask that You come into this. What are we overextending ourselves in, what is just raw ambition without counting the cost? Where do You want us to focus our energy, we pray that You reveal these things to us as we consider them and as we walk with You throughout this day. And we pray this in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, it’s the website, it’s where you can find out what’s going on around here and like I say most every day, you can find that all out using the Daily Audio Bible app as well. So, the app can be gotten from wherever you get apps, whatever app store that you use, it’s free and the best way to move through the Scriptures in a year so, check it out. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop either on the web or in the app, there are a number of resources there that are available for the journey, including like the wind farm coffee and tea that we have that pairs awfully well with Bible study and contemplation something that I drink from every single day. You can find out all the different varietals. In fact, you can even have coffee or tea shipped to you each month if it’s part of your daily, morning routine and it is for an awful lot of people to want to drink coffee or to drink tea in the morning or even in the evening and so, check that out. Check out our wind farm coffee and tea in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174. I thank you, humbly, humbly, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together and so thank you, thank you for your partnership.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top that looks like a Hotline button 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

Hi Daily Audio Bible Community, To Be a Blessing in California. Brian, I think you were talking either on the 27th or 28th of January about Jesus, I release this to You. A million times a day, a thousand times an hour right, and I just love that. That’s been such a blessing because it enables me and anyone else who will invite Jesus into those spaces to let Him take the lead, recognize that ‘yup, need help again, oh, made that mistake again, can’t believe that I’m back here again’, cause I need You Jesus and more than that, I want You to make my life transformed, rooted and ground in the love, the power, the victory of Jesus. I just, it’s astounding and I’ve used it multiple times, multiple times over the past few, few days. And I’m encouraging others to do the same. If you would also please just continue to pray for a family member who is in crisis. You know, I recognize that Jesus knows how to take care of them and as much as I want to do everything I can, I … I have no idea what I would do but Jesus does. I’m continuing to pray for each of you as I hear your names come up and to know that God is with you, He loves you, He’s got you, He’s not going to leave you alone, He will never abandon you. So, whenever the enemy tries to deceive you into believing that you’re not worth it, God could not, whatever the verbiage might be, let him know that God is victorious in your life. To Be a Blessing.

Good morning, afternoon, evening, wherever you are. Fam, my name is James coming to you out of the wonderful Eastern state of Maryland. And really, praise and a prayer request. Praise is that this past month, just being consistent in reading. It’s now the 31st of January, we finished a whole month. Not only here, in the Daily Audio Bible but I’m also going through a podcast, not a podcast but a reading plan in a Bible app. And I haven’t felt this much focus or determination in a very long time. In fact, last time I did, I was actually reading through and practicing the Bible itself. Now, I’m a little bit older, a little bit more mature, whatever that means. I found a great, great, great, stronger ability to practice with the presence of God. It’s been great, I hope you all have the same and I pray for me as I do for you all. You can get through and stay focused and know why to stay focused, as we practice what we’re reading each and every day. Spring is right around the corner. So, I hope to warm up with you all and we continue on through this together and God speed and God Bless.

Morning my DAB family. This is ___. I don’t usually ask for prayer for myself that much. I don’t pray for myself that much and I just ask that ya’ll pray for me. Me and my wife are kind of struggling a little bit with finances. My daughters husband lost his job right before Christmas and we ending up having to buy Christmas for our three grandkids, ages 6, 3 and 2. And having trouble with my truck, it’s acting up. And my health just isn’t good, I’m on oxygen full time. Still have bad back problems. Just kind of struggling right now and if you could, just pray for me and my family. I continue to pray for all ya’ll. I try to pray for everyone if I can, when, soon as I, after I hear the prayer requests. I just want you all to know that I love you and I appreciate having this app to listen to everyday. Getting something to look forward to every morning. Lot of mornings I get up early, real early, just to listen to, cause I’m excited to hear the next chapter, the next morning. So, I just appreciate all the prayers that I can get. I thank you and love you. Bye.

Hey, Daily Audio Bible family, good morning. I’m just thankful to be here on this journey with you guys. And it’s a blessing to be here. I’ve been reading from the 1st of January and now we’re in the last day of January. And I’m thankful to be here. I’ve been learning so much and I’m trying to keep my feet with the Lord and being more closer to Him. And this app actually has made me become closer with God. I’ve had so many ups and downs in life and I try not to…to…to put it in a way that it affects my relationship with God but either way I turned my life back to Him and I just want to thank you, thank you Lord for what You have done for me and have a blessed day my family.

Hey, DABers this is Jaws of Life from New Hampshire. I, it’s been well over a year since I last called, probably nobody remembers what I was dealing with but my wife wanted a divorce and I was praying for reconciliation. I live underground now because it’s over, she’s hellbent on following through and is not communicating with me, it’s a lawyer and she’s divorcing me. And it’s hell for a Christian. I feel like I don’t fit in anywhere. I go to church and see all the couples and families and her I am and it’s just really painful. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg you guys, the pain that I’ve been through. Just please pray for me. I’m really praying that the Holy Spirit will visit me in a mighty way, come inside me and help me to move towards the future and cope with this. I love you guys. I’m sorry I was gone for so long but I was ashamed. Bye.

Exodus 15:19-17:7, Matthew 22:1-33, Psalms 27:1-6, Proverbs 6:20-26

Today is the 2^nd day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here today gathered around the Global Campfire for what we’ve come to do, to take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And by way of reminder, we are in the book of Exodus. The children of Israel have crossed through the sea. the Egyptian army has been swallowed up by the waters. What seemed like a situation in which they were boxed in with nowhere to go and no hope turns into redemption. And, so, let’s move forward. We’re reading from the Common English Bible this week. Exodus chapter 15 verse 19 through 17 verse 7.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Exodus on our journey with the children of Israel or the Israelites we find ourselves fully immersed in the wilderness. And let’s remember, there are no paved roads, there are no automobiles or buses or vans or trucks. There are no lights, electricity hasn’t been discovered yet. We’re thousands of years before that. And as we’ve seen pretty clearly from our reading today, there’s not a lot of water out there nor is there a lot of food. The wilderness that the Bible is speaking about is an actual place. And I’ve roamed around that wilderness many times. Now of course there are roadways and there are automobiles and electricity etc. etc. but it’s still a barren wilderness. You would not want to be lost out there. And the Bible has told us that God took them directly out into the wilderness instead of taking them the shorter route through Celestia. They hadn’t seen battle and they would return to slavery in Egypt. And we’re going to be camping out with them in the wilderness for quite a while. The wilderness is the geographical backdrop for a lot of the Bible but something extraordinarily important has to happen in the wilderness. The children of Israel have been slaves for 400 years. Nobody in that party was 401 years old. Nobody had known anything other than slavery. They were born into it. They didn’t know any different. To be a slave to the Egyptians was the only identity they had ever known. If that is your mentality, then that’s what you carry into everything. But that mentality isn’t going to get them into the promised land where they are a chosen people set apart and holy, a priest to the nations. That’s not gonna happen while they continue in their mentality of this Egyptian slave. So, a pretty large move in their identity has to shift. They have to become former slaves, who are now chosen by God. And doesn’t that sound similar to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are former slaves to sin, but now new creations in Christ. The vehicle that God has chosen to make this shift happen is the wilderness. In the wilderness they can certainly grumble and complain which they are doing and which they will continue to do, but they won’t survive by grumbling and complaining and they won’t survive in their own strengths. They can begin to understand that they are chosen when they begin to understand that they are utterly dependent upon God for everything. So, think about the wildernesses of your own life, the seasons where it’s dry and barren and you’re trapped and grumbling. And think of the times that you’ve been able to move through that. The lessons of the wilderness are the deepest, most pivotal, most influential, most shaping things that happen to us in life. We hate wilderness seasons. I hate them too. I’m not talking as if I’m a master here. These are the lessons from the scriptures that teach us how to live. And one of the categories that we might need to change is that hard is bad. Hard his hard. It’s difficult. But it’s the difficult seasons in our lives that actually shape the convictions that we live into. And, so, we’re in the wilderness now with the children of Israel. They’re gonna be hanging out there for an entire generation and we will have a lot of stories to encounter as we move through this territory. But let’s pay attention to the wilderness. Some of the most crucial lessons for the children of Israel are discovered and put into practice in the wilderness. If we can embrace that, then we can begin to get context and begin to embrace the wilderness seasons of our own lives.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that, into what we’ve read today and what we’re contemplating right now. The wilderness, it’s not something we sign up for, but it is something that we all experience and how we interpret the seasons of wilderness in our lives shape us. And so often we find the wilderness makes us bitter and cold and angry and it’s not until later in hindsight that we can see that shaped us profoundly. Some of the deepest convictions that we have have come through hardship and trial. And we don’t like it. Nobody likes to go through those seasons. And yet we have to confess that the things that we learn in those seasons stick and the one fundamental thing that we must recognize and realize and live into is that we are utterly dependent upon You for everything. And, so, come Holy Spirit. Help us to learn this. Help it to become part of who we are, our deepest conviction. The safest place for us to be is utterly dependent upon You. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that’s website, that’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can find all that out from within the app, as well as a bunch of other stuff. So, if you haven’t downloaded the app you can get that free from wherever you get your apps, whatever app store that you use. So, check that out.

On the web or in the app there’s a Community section and that is good to be familiar with. In the Community section is the Prayer Wall, which is always available to us. We can always pray for each other and we can always ask for prayer. It’s always available. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission that we’re on to move through the Scriptures together day by day step-by-step, the next step forward together, if that is life-giving to you and then thank you 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:

Hey DAB family it’s Pam His Ransomed Soul in New Jersey. And as Victorious Soldier always says I’m calling in to pray for some of the DABbers. Ty, I’m asking God to give you the strength and endurance you need in your faith walk, victory over the enemy’s mental attacks and for calm and sound mind for you. Marjorie, I hear the frustration and the deep concern in your voice for your mom who’s bipolar and has begun drinking. Father God please come alongside Marjorie’s mom and take away the desire the thirst the need to drink as you bind these demonic forces who are attacking and afflicting her mind and cast them far from her. Bring healing to her mom and bathe this household in the shalom of Christ and help Marjorie to trust you more as she surrenders her mom in this whole situation into your capable and faithful hands. In Jesus’ mighty name. Amen. Carla Jean. Darling my heart is so heavy for you in the loss of your best friend’s husband Andy. I’ve been praying for safe travel for you as you fly out to New Hampshire to be with Nicole and her family. I can’t even begin to imagine the emotions you must have felt receiving Andy’s call to say he was going to end his life. So, may our good and gracious Father give peace comfort and strength to you too as exit well list and Nicole and her children. And may Jehovah Jireh offer extreme and generous provision for them in the days and weeks to come. In Jesus’ holy name. Amen. Keep running the race family. Keep pressing on and pressing into Jesus.

Hello this is Prodigal Princess from Massachusetts. I’ve never called in before, but I’ve been listening for a long time…well…not as long as some of y'all but I’ve been with you about two years off and on. My dad shared this application with me a couple of years ago. While he, you know, and many many others were praying over me and praying over my life I was trapped in addiction and sin I would…I would play the Daily Audio Bible almost every day sometimes. I was deep, you know, in…into really hard drugs and a lot of really just like hellish stuff. I’m a recovering…a long…I’m a recovering heroin addict and I remember I was still using and, you know, I’d be preparing everything and having…having to get high one more time so I wouldn’t be sick that day and…and listening to…to the proverbs and it just really spoke into my life and seeds were planted and seeds were planted since by youth. I’ve now been free of drugs alcohol for almost a year and a half again. I was serving in…

Hello family, it’s Jackie calling from Canada and family I don’t even know how or where to begin. I just feel at the very bottom of myself. I feel like God has forgotten me and that my prayers don’t go anywhere. In the last few weeks everything I have wanted four has come back negative. I was waiting for an answer for a space, and they came back and said no. I’ve been trying to get pregnant and that isn’t happening. I’ve been trying. There’s a guy I really like and had a good really year of being friends and it seems like that’s not going anywhere. My business is going slow, and I just feel so alone. I’m surrounded by people that love me, my girlfriends and…they all belong to someone and I’m just…I'm…I’m alone. And, so, I keep wondering am I completely irredeemable. Is this why nothing? I mean, like I pray and I fast and I’ve done everything, but I feel like my faith is abandoned. I feel like I’m at the complete bottom of myself that I don’t have…I feel helpless. But I also know the only thing I have is prayer. I don’t have any faith right now. I have a mustard seed of faith and I know that that’s sufficient. But I’m just coming to your family to pray for me. I…I call and sometimes…I hardly ever hear my name really. I hardly ever hear my prayer or my name but today I just…I need…

Hello, my name is Lydia from Maryland. I’m calling for…oh dear…I forgot your name darling, I’m so sorry from Virginia whose husband had serious heart surgery. Please know that I am praying for you. I feel your pain. You’ve got so much on you right now. Lean on God. I know that sounds easy to say but please lean on Him. I’ve seen what He can do. [singing starts] Turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace [singing stops]. Okay. Now you get some sleep knowing that God is in control, and I am praying for you. You’re frustrated, you’re tired. It’s because you care. You have a heart. Remember God’s heart is so big He can take care of this. I love you and you will be…you will remain in my prayers. Take care of my friend. Bye for now.

Hi how are you DAB family I’m calling from Norway. I just need your prayer. I’m trying to lose weight for my health. So, please pray for me. Thank you. God bless you all. I love you.

Exodus 13:17-15:18, Matthew 21:23-46, Psalm 26:1-12, Proverbs 6:16-19

Today is the first day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today. Add another beginning, the second month of the year. So, this is our second reading of a new month of 12 and as has been proven over and over many years those of us who make it through this month are likely to make it through the whole year. So, let’s buckle up and move forward together and do just that, make it through the whole thing together in community around the Global Campfire. So, on this first day of the second month we will do what we do every day and pick up where we left off yesterday, which was last month and in the Old Testament we are moving our way through the book of Exodus, the children of Israel and we’re pretty clear on who they are now and where they came from and the fact that we’re reading their story. They’ve reached a monumental moment. They have been cast out of Egypt. Their days of slavery seem to be over and they have moved into the wilderness where we pick up the story, Exodus chapter 13 verse 17 through 15 verse 18, today.

Commentary:

Okay so, on this first day of this second month of the year, also known as February, we have encountered a lot of things we could talk about, not the least of which is these things that the Lord hates from the book of Proverbs. I mean, some of them we can go, okay, yeah, I see that and some of them might land pretty close to where we live. So, it’s certainly worth further contemplation. Then we turn backwards into the book of Matthew from our New Testament reading today, Jesus is in Jerusalem, He’s in the temple complex and He’s teaching so, He’s not out in the villages, He is where the elite scholars and scribes and priests are, the clergy, right, like the ministers the pastors. They called them different things then and it was set up in a different order. But people who were leading this spiritual health and well-being of the population, people who were charged with the responsibility of leading people into the truth and revealing God. So, for us to understand the context here, Jesus is there. Jesus, God made flesh. And so, they’re asking Jesus, who gave Him permission to do the things that He’s doing. Like, by what authority does He have any right to do the things that He is doing. So, when we take one step back and look at the situation, we have people who are responsible for the spiritual well-being of the population and to lead them to God and they’re asking God how He has permission or authority to do what He’s doing. Jesus just cuts through all of it and says I have a question myself and it’s about John, right. Was he from heaven or was his authority from humans? Well, we have read enough of the book of Matthew to know the story of John the Baptist and his coming and his ministry to prepare the way of the Lord. So, from our reading we know that he was ordained and sent by God but the people who were responsible for leading people into the truth didn’t believe he was sent from God, nor did they believe in Jesus, God made flesh. So, if they can’t answer that question then there’s no point in Jesus trying to explain His authority. It wouldn’t matter what He said, they wouldn’t believe it. So, they had a little side meeting and decided they had an answer, they didn’t know. And so, Jesus said, well then there you go, you’ve given the answer, there’s nothing that I could say, so I’m not answering your question either. And then He starts telling a story, which he often does, a parable. And we can look at it and feel like He just dismisses the scribes and Pharisees, etc. and He turns back to a crowd and starts telling a story and continues to teach but He’s giving an illustration. It is really important and one that exposes the religious power of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So, as the story goes, there’s two sons and a father comes to each of them. He comes to his firstborn son and says, need you to go work in the vineyard and the son says I’m not gonna, like he just rebels against his father, I’m not going to do that. But then he thinks it over and he obeys his father. The father goes to the second son and says, I need you to help in the vineyard today and the sons like absolutely dad, I’ll go right now. But then he doesn’t go and Jesus question after the story is which one did the will of the father and the religious leaders answered that the first one had done the will of the father. So, the first one said he wasn’t going to obey but then did obey. The second one said he would obey but then didn’t obey. So, both of the sons said things that were incorrect. Talk is cheap. The one who actually got up and instructed his body to get up and get moving and obey, the one that put the instruction into action and lived it, is the one who did the will of the father. This is a fundamental thing that Jesus continually spoke of when He was interacting with the religious leaders and underneath it all, its lip service isn’t going to cut it right. Just saying, you can say anything, it’s what you do that reveals your heart and character. Jesus sums it up, saying, I assure you, I assure you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering God’s kingdom ahead of you. And so, to boil it down we add something very important to our lives because we wear all kinds of masks and we may adjust our personality into any given situation. We can become whatever we need to become, we can say whatever we need to say but there is a character and a posture of hearts that will eventually reveal what’s going on because our actions say much more than our words and when our words and deeds are in alignment there is great peace and freedom there because we’re not pretending to be anything but what we are. In another passage that we will encounter Jesus unpacks it by saying let your yes be yes and your no be no. Certainly this can be very, very difficult and challenging in the culture that we live in in the world where nuance and spin are everywhere. But what Jesus is doing here is giving us permission to be true and that is a vital thing to learn on this faith journey.

And then we flip back into the book of Exodus, the children of Israel have moved into the wilderness and they’re camped by the sea. The Egyptians are kind of getting their wits about them after the devastation that is happened to Egypt, culminating with the death of the firstborn throughout all of Egypt. They start asking themselves, what did we do by letting them go because the repercussions aren’t just that they let a bunch of people leave the territory of Egypt, the repercussions were that the entire society, the entire economy, everything is built on having this slave labor. And so, Pharaoh one more time decides I’m not letting them go, let’s go get them. And they do, they go. Children of Israel, 600,000 people on foot plus children, so like a million people and all of the livestock like a moving city, a good-sized moving city are camped by the waters. When they hear the rumble in the distance. And probably a fairly large dust cloud indicating that an army is coming and they see the Egyptians and they freak out. Moses why didn’t you just leave us alone. We were better off being slaves to the Egyptians, we told you just leave us alone, it would’ve been better to be a slave and to be dead here in the desert. So, their grumbling and they’re going to grumble the whole time, there’s a lot of grumbling in front of us, but it’s a mirror. If we can remember this, it’s a mirror, we have an awful lot of grumbling in our lives too. Which is not to say that that wouldn’t be a terrible and terrifying circumstance, here behind you, you have the sea and in front of you, you have an army approaching you. You don’t have anywhere to go, you’re in the middle of the wilderness, you’re not even going to be able to hide. But let’s let that be a mirror for a second because there are times in life where we feel pretty well boxed in right. There’s no way to go. There’s nowhere to move, the sea is behind us and the enemy army is racing toward us and we’re totally freaked out and panicking. What God said to them, He says to us through the Scriptures and it might be what we really need to hear when we’re in panic mode. God said, don’t be afraid, stand your ground and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never ever see again. The Lord will fight for you. You just keep still.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we invite You into that. That sounds wonderful. It is actually much more hard to do, to simply be still and trust. Instead of getting frantic and trying to do something to fix the situation. Sometimes our fixing of the situation is to dig the hole deeper and make it more impossible. But to trust you to listen and obey and keep still, maybe what we need to hear. So, come Holy Spirit, we pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website. That’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And so, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can check everything out from there. So, yeah, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop, there are a lot of resources in there that have been developed over the years to draw this journey deeper and wider, things to write in, things to write with, things to read, things to listen to. Promised Land: Photographs from the Land of the Bible is available, brand new coffee table edition that allows us to kinda look into some of the places that we are visiting as we move through the stories of the Bible, that is a fantastic resource. The God of Your Story which is 365 dated journey through the Scriptures, just like what we’re doing here every day, that is a way to take the journey deeper and there are plenty of resources for that, taking the journey deeper in the Daily Audio Bible Show, so check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. I thank you humbly. If the mission to bring the spoken word of God, read fresh every day and offered to whoever will listen to it, anywhere on this planet, anytime of day or night and build community around that rhythm, if that is meaningful to you, then thank you humbly 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 1996 Springhill, 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.

Prayers and Encouragements:

Hello there, my name is Dave, I’m from the UK, small market town between England and Wales. Just asking for prayer cover. I’ve got three kids and married, 21 years. I got two, I’ve got twin boys of 18. One with special needs all his life, he’s a wheelchair user. He has Cerebral Palsy. He’s in awful pain at the moment and the amount of drugs we’re giving him to try to…to provide some sort of normality of life. He has around 3 hours, 4 hours tops of sleep, the rest of the time he’s in pain and he’s crying and there’s nothing I can do but take him to the specialist and I can’t, we can’t seem to stop the pain. I’m just praying for healing, for endurance and pray he doesn’t lose his connection and faith with God. Cause obviously, after 18 years of continuous pain, it wears you down. My other son, last year, developed, never had it before but has developed seizures and tics and he was a ___ level ___. He was extremely ___ and he has about 25-35 seizures a week. And as you can imagine, their whole world has stopped and turned upside down and flipped. Just pray for my family. Pray for me so I can lead them, patience and perseverance. Just pray, thank you.

Hello DAB family this is Sarah from London, it’s the 26th of January at 6:48pm. I just thought I’d send something quick because it was such a profound moment for me this morning actually from Brian’s reading. And it was a part that when God instructs Moses to tell __ that the people go and Moses asks God, who should he say sent him, then God says to Moses, that he should tell Pharoah that I Am Who I Am sent you. Like wow, I Am and that actually gave me chills it just literally woke me up. Gave me chills and it just makes me realize how powerful God is even though I know that.  Even if I know that to have a God that does not have to explain Himself because of who He is. And that did hit me in a very different way today because it just shows how powerful and amazing and an all-knowing God that we serve. And He never changes. He is the same God, yesterday, today and forever. And although life has it’s challenges, we go through difficulties, ups and downs, just so much trauma can happen in our lives, but we must not forget that you know, that God will never let us down. You know, He is always there for us. And let’s be encouraged because the God that we serve is just so amazing and really, really loves us. So, I just thought I send something short, but it just shows how just great our God is. So, let’s be encouraged and I love you all.

Hello Daily Audio Bible. This is Irene, I wanted to call in and ask for prayer with a really, different kind of a prayer but I hope I can make it clear. I used to have really, really bad anxiety and my parents told me that at the end of the day, no matter how many therapists and whatever you can go to, which I’ve actually never been to a therapist, God is the ultimate being that can take your anxiety away and you need to learn to surrender your anxiety to Christ. I’ve been doing that for probably the last three years. I’ve just you know, come up with this phrase “Lord, I surrender my anxiety to you” anytime an intrusive thought comes in that’s what I’ve done. But I feel like I’m taking God’s grace and His kindness and His mercy on me, for granted. You know, when you’re so anxious and that anxieties pulling away and it’s barely there or you just feel it going away, you’re so thankful. You know, sometimes I would cry, thank you God that was so happy it was going away. But now that that really bad anxiety hasn’t been around for a while, I feel like I’m becoming one of the nine lepers that took God’s or Jesus’ healing and just jumped and leaped and just ran away and never came back to say thank you. And that one leper that is noted in Scripture came back and he, you know, he thanked Jesus. And I just, I feel like, or I just really want prayer about my heart and that I would come to Jesus thanking Him like that leper. I don’t think I do that enough and I want to have a much more grateful heart towards God. I know that I take His love for granted and I just need prayer. I hope that makes sense and I hope you have a great day.

Hey, DAB it’s Refined by the Fire in Ohio. Hey, this reading today, Brian, oh, gosh, I always know, I always know when my mind wants to race through what it is you’re saying. I know that I need to slow down, possibly back it up, listen to it again and then my whole entire fleshly being is screaming at me like, no, you got things to do, there’s you know, things that are more fun, sparkly shiny squirrel out the window. Man, but I knew that I should do that. And when you were talking about just how sad it is that Moses was given this great opportunity and he’s like send somebody else. And, man, that just nailed me today because I have been avoiding, procrastinating, I have just been, send somebody else God with this situation.  And, you know what, I’m gonna stop, right now. I am gonna make the phone call that I need to make and arrange the appointment I need to go see somebody. So, thank you for being willing to listen to the Spirit and to share that with us. And thank God for the Spirit and how He works is such a gift. It’s just amazing. So, thanks everybody. Hope you’re well. Talk to you soon.

Good morning, this is Caleb from West Virginia. I’ve been a listener for several years, but this is my first-time calling in. Brian, I just wanted to let you know what a tremendous blessing your ministry is to me. You’ve been there through the birth of my children, you’ve been there through the death of my father, you’ve been there through major transitions in my life, through all of the chaos. I always knew every day that I could listen to the Word of God read around the Global Campfire and I’m so thankful for you Brian, for your family, for your ministry and for the DAB community.

Exodus 12:14-13:16, Matthew 20:29-21:22, Psalms 25:16-22, Proverbs 6:12-15

Today is the 31^st day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today. It’s kind of a little mini celebration day, right? Because here we are about to complete the first of 12 months. And there has never been a January 31^st…well…I shouldn’t say ever cause I can’t remember every January 31^st but in the last long while many many many years we get to January 31^st and I’m like, “how did we get here so fast. We just…it was just Christmas.” And the funny thing, at least for me in this rhythm is that we get to December and I’m like, “how did we get here so fast?” Where did the year go? It’s almost Christmas.” And time…sometimes it feels less linear and more porous…like it’s sometimes moving fast and sometimes moving slow but however it is we got here. Here we are, the last day of the first month of the year. And as we approach the last day of this first month of the year, we are reaching the conclusion of one of the episodes in this long story of the children of Israel. There’s been this showdown because the children of Israel have been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, for four centuries. There’s nobody alive there that has any other identity than that of a slave. And God has decided to set His people free and continue forward the story of the promise of a land for His chosen people. And, so, we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week. Exodus chapter 12 verse 14 through 13 verse 16.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we end our first month together of this year let’s just kind of look back at where we’ve come from, especially in the book of Genesis and Exodus. And we’ve kind of recapped all along the way because it’s so important, as I’ve said the number of times, to remember this is the same story, the story of a family of people. And, so, we know that that begins with Abraham. And then we know Isaac and Jacob and we’ll probably recall that Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, and Israel had children. The children of Israel. And then went all the way through the story of Joseph with a lot for us to consider about our own lives and we followed all the way through Joseph’s life until his death. And then we flip the page out of Genesis and into Exodus, but we flipped the page a couple hundred years into the future. Now this is a massive amount of people. They’ve been in one place for centuries and they have procreated. They have replicated. They have grown in numbers tremendously until the Egyptians were afraid. They enslaved the children of Israel, and they were slaves. So, when Moses shows up on the scene, a little baby in the Nile River, and is raised up and educated as a royal but then has to flee for killing an Egyptian and he meets God in a burning bush, it’s a different chapter, but it’s the same story of the same people. And we watched Moses try to get out of his assignment, but he has obeyed and he has confronted Pharaoh and things only got worse before they got better, which is often a recurring theme in the stories found in the Scriptures. We, in a time in the world and in cultures where instant gratification is like pounded down our throats as something that’s a right, something that we deserve, often miss the fact that there is a long view, there is a lot going on, there is much going on that we don’t understand. And, so, we are compelled to trust, to humble ourselves and follow. And, so, we have watched the showdown between Pharaoh and God, and we have watched Pharaoh be very obstinate. “Who is the Lord? I don’t know the Lord. I’m not listening to you.” And even once he knows who the Lord is he’s constantly going back on his promise to let the people go or he’s trying to change the terms of how they’re go, or when they’re gonna, or how long they’re gonna be gone because Pharaoh’s in an awkward position. Pharaoh has been raised to believe that he is a son of the gods, that he is a deity to be worshiped himself. And although Egypt may have many gods, the God of the Hebrews isn’t one of the gods of Egypt. So, there is no foreign lesser God coming into Egypt and demanding things. And this hardens Pharaoh’s heart in the same way that our hearts can grow hard when somebody comes in and tells us what we’re going to do, somebody we don’t know, somebody we may not have any respect for and they demand we’re going to do something a certain way, our hearts can become hard, like resistant. “No. you’re not going to tell me what to do.” And, so, Pharaoh carries that out all the way until the end, until final plaque and the firstborn of Egypt die. And then they throw this family, the Israelites, the children of Israel, they throw them out, of Egypt. And as they’re leaving, they ask for things and they are loaded down with the riches as they pillage Egypt on their way out the door. And that is the ground that we have covered in the Old Testament in the first month of the year. And as I’ve said we’re paying close attention to this so that we can understand, this is the same family, this is the same story.

Even when we go into the book of Matthew and go millennia into the future, it’s still the same people. It’s still the same family. Jesus has come to this family, the children of Israel. And their religious leaders are opposed to the very one who set them free from slavery.

As we continue into our second month we will see these children of Israel move into the wilderness. And the wilderness is such a stark thing but it’s also a major backdrop for so many of the pivotal and developmental things that happen in the Bible. And, so, as we go forward we’ll be heading to the wilderness.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for this first month of the year and that we’ve been able to be here every day and that we’ve been able to take steps forward together. And just looking back over this month You have spoken so much. So much has been challenged. So much has been comforted. So much in one month. And, so, we are eager. We are hungry and thirsty for more and we ask that You lead and guide us into all truth and we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here, which you can also find out using the Daily Audio Bible app. And if you’re not using that you can download that for free from wherever you…whatever app store you use. So, check that out. There are a number of features in the Daily Audio Bible app that allow us to…to get the sense of the progress that we are making. We can check off every day that we’ve listened to. And when we move through the different sections of the Bible, we’ll be alerted that we have completed a certain section of the Bible. We’ll be able to see the percentages, how far into the Bible, how much left there is. Check that all out. It’s available in your…in your app store, wherever you get your apps.

Also check out the Community section, whether in the app or on the web. That is where the Prayer Wall lives and that is an always on, never offer resource available to us, no matter what’s going on. We can always pray for our brothers and sisters. We can always uphold them in the spirit and reach out in prayer. But we can also always share what’s going on in our lives, what burdens we are shouldering that are crushing us and find that we never had to be alone. And that is a beautiful thing. That is a beautiful beautiful thing about this community. And, so, be familiar with the Prayer Wall. That is in the Community section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible thank you, humbly, humbly, with humble gratitude. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together around the Global Campfire. And, so, thank you 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:

Hey, God’s awesome warriors it’s Sparky. I wanted to call in a praise report in a…in a weird way. I’d called in about not going and helping across the alley and I got a phone call last night and it was pretty late, and it was my friend that I’d grown up with my entire life. We’re from Texas and we were…we used to ride bulls together and we just grew up together. But when my life kind of went South we…we didn’t talk much after that. And it’s been probably a good four or five years since I’ve spoken to him. And he had an electrical problem. And, so, went out and got he and his wife fixed up and their new baby. And the heater wasn’t running. And he just thought the world of that. But I’ll tell you what, I thought the world of getting to see my friend. And we sat there and caught up and he talked about how I’d kind of gotten myself into mess. And I said, yeah, I can take that now. And I tell him, it’s God’s blessings. Sometimes things just happen that are really cool and it’s not a “praise me”, it’s “praise him” to get to see a friend.

Hi Daily Audio Bible I am really struggling today. My father passed away Friday a few days ago. Today’s Tuesday and we’re burying him on Saturday, and I have school all week. And my mom passed away two years ago. And I’m just feeling so alone and overwhelmed. I’ve got an important test on Friday before his visitation and funeral this following weekend and work and I just ask for your prayers. I’m just feeling like I don’t know what I’m supposed to do and that really questioning my life that I’ve done anything close to what God had for me. So, just pray that I can find the path for what God has for me to do next and that I will end this will life well myself. Thank you.

Hi Daily Audio Bible chronological family I’m calling from Oregon and I would like to get prayer for a trailer that I need to have sold. I cosigned for someone for a camp trailer and a family member that passed away. So now the responsibility has fallen on me. And I’m retired on a limited income and I’m believing the Lord to help me get this sold. It's…it’s in an RV place on consignment. So, I would appreciate prayer for that. This is my first time of evert calling in and my first time of following this group. So, thank you and God bless you. Bye-bye.

Hello DAB family DABalonians it is doctor John from Jordan New York. I just want to put a word out to all the new DABbers and welcome you and tell you great job getting here. This is a fantastic journey. For those of you that are new Christians, this is the best place to be. There’s nothing better in your Christian walk than learning the Bible. So, back in the day, way way way way way back when, when we were young DABalonians and Brian was talking a lot about the process, he called it, “the journey is the destination.” So, that as we go through the Bible, and…and those of you who’ve been through it know, that the destination is not December 31^st and just getting through the Bible. The destination is the journey of going through the whole Bible. So, stay with it. Stick with it. You will not be the same. I am not the same as I was when I started in this 15 years ago. So, you love you DAB. Love you family. Make it a great day. Keep it real y'all. Bye-bye.

Hey DAB family I’m just calling to say praise the Lord. I just feel so alive and happy, and the Spirit has just filled me full of happiness. I have no idea why. I’m just feeling like life is just full of whatever you want it to be. Just stepping outside breathing in the negative 14 degree weather here in Minnesota just makes you smile. God bless you all. This is Faith from Minnesota.