Author: Daily Audio Bible Transcripts

Ezekiel; 10:1-11:25, Hebrews 6:1-20, Psalms 105:16-36, Proverbs 27:1-2

Today is the 4^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is…it’s wonderful, truly wonderful to come in and take a seat around this Global Campfire with everybody and let the cares of this life diminish, allow them to kind of be put into context in their proper place and just relax for a minute. We have permission. We have permission because we’re here to learn from the Scriptures, and to allow them to speak into this day. And, so, it’s wonderful to be here with you today. We will be working our way further into the book of Ezekiel, as well as the book of Hebrews today. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Ezekiel chapters 10 and 11.

Commentary:

Okay. So, yesterday the voice of wisdom out of the book of Proverbs gave us this one sentence that was very stark about lying and making victims out of people who you lie to. And, so, hopefully we did. We prayed about that yesterday and hopefully we’ve contemplated that. Today we have wisdom again speaking pretty directly to us, giving us a wise counsel, wisdom that we can actually incorporate into our lives and the way that we behave and the way that we live in this world. So, Proverbs says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” In so many ways this is an invitation to be present in the present. Maybe a more popular pun or proverb would be “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”, right? So, we can find security in our well laid plans, but we have no idea. I mean, we can’t even accurately predict what will be happening one hour from this very moment. I mean, we may have an idea, but we have no control over all of the little things that a day can bring, just the millions of sensory inputs in a day. And I’m a planner. I’m…I’m like this. And, so, I’m like yeah, I get this because we can be so lost in some other time, right, like the future. We can be so lost in planning for the future that what’s happening right now never even really registers. So, we live in a place that isn’t happening or we’re stock in the wounds of our past. And, so, we spend so much time regurgitating conversations that had…even one…that we had, even yesterday’s conversations. We keep playing them over and over. But the thing is, that’s not happening either. The only place where something’s happening is now. And, so, rooting ourselves in that, at least being aware that life is happening now, and we best live it fully, is wisdom. The proverb goes on to say, “let another praise you and not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips.” And we probably all know folks like that who, even if they call you up, what they wanted to call you up to talk about was themselves, right? Or if you have coffee, what you’re meeting about isn’t to catch up on things. It’s for you to sit there and listen to them catch up with you on what’s going on in their life and how their children are just doing wonderful in sports and they’re just acing everything at school and, I don’t know, on and on and on. You know what I’m talking about. On and on and on in sort of a self-absorbed balloon that just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more and more and more full of hot air. And I suppose we could psychoanalyze and go, “well there’s something underneath all that.” And that would be true, but what the voice of wisdom is starkly saying is that’s not a good idea. Like that’s not healthy behavior. That’s not walking in wisdom. And, so, it’s easy enough for us to say I know people like that. It’s a little harder to say, “yeah, I am like that.” What wisdom is essentially saying is that true affirmation isn’t something that you have to force people to do. You have to force people to sit down and listen to you spew about how awesome things are for you so that you can, in some sort of psychological way, feel that your superior or have some sort of dominance in the situation. That’s not going anywhere. It’s just like we were talking about yesterday. We have the identity of identities. It has been bestowed upon us- children of the most-high God. That can’t be earned. We can’t compete with each other over it. It’s something that is. And becoming self-absorbed to the point that all we can really talk about is our kids and our job and our vacation ultimately reveals that we’ve lost the plot. And again, that doesn’t mean you don’t catch up with your friends and tell each other what’s going in your lives. This is an example. But again, wisdom pushes deeper and says, “what’s motivating us? Why are we always doing this? Why in any 10-minute conversation are eight of those minutes spent on ourselves, one of those minutes on listening, and one of those minutes in silence? Like why do we dominate about ourselves in so many situations? What is that? What is going on there?” And again, wisdom has given us some things to think about because what we’re being told is, yeah, you can do this stuff. It just doesn’t work. It’s just…like if you know that kind of a person, who every time that you meet with them you can’t get a word in edge wise because they’re too busy telling you the stories of how awesome things are or even how bad they…I mean it can be in reverse, just how bad things are. You know people that all they can do. You can talk to them, check in on them and all they’re gonna do is bring you down for an hour of nonstop how bad it is for them. Ultimately, that kind of behavior, whether extreme positivity or extreme negativity, right, it eventually becomes repellent. You eventually go, “wow I don’t know if I got time to invest in that right now.” And, so, we find excuses to avoid it. So, the thing that the person wants, which is to be seen and heard actually works against them because people don’t want to see and hear it anymore because they’re so full of their own experience, Some more things for us to think about that are direct and that are clear and that are straight into our lives from the voice of wisdom today.

Prayer:

Father, we invite you into that again. We have all experienced this. We have probably all participated in this to some degree or another, but we also know the extremes of it. We’ve experienced the extremes of it. Maybe we have perpetuated the extremes of it on some other people, but we know what we’re talking about here. We know what we’re getting at. And we know that some…to some degree, we… we’re all guilty. And, so, again just like yesterday Holy Spirit, we invite you into…to exposing to us the wise of these things because that’s where the gold is, that’s where the transformation can happen. That’s where a complete change can happen, if we can get to the root of things. And, so, Holy Spirit, we invite you to lead us into the roots of some of these behaviors so that we can understand ourselves better and so that we can understand each other better. Holy Spirit, come. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, that’s the website, that’s how you find out what’s going on around here unless you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, which you can get free from your app store, whatever app store you have and you can access all the different sections that are in the website or within the app by pushing the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner.

So, yeah, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of resources and a number of categories there, but they are all centered around taking this journey together through the Scriptures. So, check out the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well, unless of course you’re using the app and then 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 that’s in the app, little red button up at the top or there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas, you can dial 877-942-4253. If you’re in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is 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 DAB family this is Aussie Bear in Australia. It’s almost 10:00 PM on Sunday October 31^st and today marks exactly a year since I left a job that I absolutely loved because of workplace bullying. I was at that job for four years and for that entire four years I was bullied by a coworker. And it got to the point where I had to leave. And today is exactly a year and in the last few weeks I’ve been really convicted and…and encouraged by God to pray for the woman who bullied me. I still see her almost daily because where I worked was at a supermarket and I live in a small town and there’s only one supermarket and she still works there and of course I have to go there on a regular basis. So, I still see her. And I’ve dealt with so much anxiety in the last 12 months since leaving that job but still having to see her on…on such a regular basis. And she’s still cold and horrible but I…I really feel prompted to pray for her. But I’m struggling with that because I don’t like her. That’s the honest truth. I don’t like her. She’s not a nice person. And…but I just really feel really convicted. And…I mean…I’m usually dead to the world by now but she’s in my mind. And, so, I just feel like God’s really pushing for me to change my thinking toward her. And I just I really need help with that. So, if I coan get you guys too pray with me and help me pray for this woman. Her name is Jody.

Good morning DAB family God bless you all Terry Shield of Faith I am praying alongside you. I am praying for full time job for you in the name of Jesus. I am thankful that the Lord has allowed your family to stay together in the name of Jesus. I am believing in the name of Jesus for the full restoration of your daughter. I am believing that the Lord is going to use these doctors to help her in the name of Jesus and she’s going to be fully recovered in the name of Jesus. A woman from Egypt called in regard to your two friends. Sammy I am praying for you in the name of Jesus. I am praying for your healing. Father God I am asking you to come to Sammy Father God. Reveal Yourself to Sammy that he’s able to see You in the midst of his great pain Father God. Show him that You are their Father God. Hold him Father God with Your everlasting love in the name of Jesus Father God. I am praying for your friend whose husband left her and the kids to be with another woman who also left her family. Father God I am praying in the name of Jesus for restoration of marriages Father God and families Father God, that that relationship will end and that they will each return back to their homes Father God in the name of Jesus. God’s Smile, yes God always provides, and we are so blessed when we are able to see these provisions in our trials. Thank you, Jesus. Father God, I can see You in everything, Father God. I love you and Peter. God bless you both and I’m so glad that you’re healing well. Yes, He is our footstool. He is definitely our footstool. May we worship Him. Yvonne from Chicago feeling super blessed for your birthday and the DAB for many years even though you went through some really challenges in your…in your divorce. I am praying for you, that God continues to bless you, that He can give us more than we can ask or imagine. Amen. Hallelujah. Oh, family I love you all. I love you. Esther from Haines City.

Hi DAB this is Thankful and Still and I was calling to pray for the son of joyful noise. You called in and how it’s been along hall with mental health and…and…and depression and…and suicidal thoughts and the…being under attack. You said you were taking a road trip. So, I just pray that…that God have victory into this all and He strengthen you as a parent step by step and that your son would have joy and that God would refresh him as well through this. I know it's…it’s a long journey and I just pray for resilience in it all in Jesus’ name. And I pray for disciple who loves. I pray for your daughter every time I pray for my own children. So, I will just continue to pray for him and for you as a parent. And I do seek your prayers today. I’m picking up my son now from school. He hasn’t seen a therapist. He’s refused for about four months. And I finally got an appointment with one that he's…he’s gonna go see today. So I’m just praying that Lord you would help my son to be receptive, that there would be good chemistry between them and that the unprocessed traumas of the past would be processed and that the un-delt with hurts, disappointments would be dealt with, and especially the anger that results from it all, that You would help my son to have a focus on the future and just help me to provide support along the way lower. May Your Holy Spirit guide and lead and work the way only You can Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you.

Hi this is a friend from Pennsylvania. I’m calling for prayer for one of our dear friends, Dave. Dave has been in the hospital for over a month now from COVID related injuries. He got sick in early September, and he continues to be in the hospital, first on a ventilator and then he had a tracheostomy. He has been on a paralytic for too many weeks now and we’re praying for his recovery. He is a Christian. In fact, there are many people that are listening to Daily Audio Bible including myself that are listening because of Dave. I want to ask for prayer for him. I want to ask for prayer for the doctors and for his family. His wife Kathy has been a tower of strength through all of this. They have three children, two older children who are in college and one who still in high school. I pray for strength for the family. I pray for strength for Kathy as she has been, as I mentioned, a tower of strength through this sharing daily updates about her husband. And I pray that this week would be the week that his lungs would start to respond. They don’t seem like they’re very damaged. They’re just not responding. Please lift him up in prayer that he might be healed from this horrible disease.

Hello DAB family this is Elaine in Colchester England. I haven’t called in before I’ve been listening to daily audio Bible for four or five years now. I need you to pray for my son Daniel. He’s very low about himself. He’s 13 and he thinks that nobody likes him and he's…he’s no good. His father had mental health problems. We don’t see him anymore, but he was calling him nothing and worthless behind everybody’s backs for years. Daniel told us after he left. And, so, he’s got these core beliefs from a young child that he really is no good and he started to want to not live anymore, and my heart is breaking and I’m so worried and I have got help but I really ask for your prayers. And I thank you for them. Thank you for Daily Audio Bible. And I listen every night and I…I really appreciate it. Thank you, Brian.

Hello Daily Audio Bible and fellow DABbers. My name is Paul and I’m calling for the first time from Washington and I’m pleading with you for prayer, that…I’m a father, I have a daughter and she is choosing to follow the world and it really concerns me. The schools have had a huge influence on her and I’m just pleading as a father to you people out there please pray for my daughter who I…I’ve been praying for her every day and I’m just asking you as a father even if you don’t have children please pray for my daughter. My name is Paul and I’m very concerned about her, my wife and I and it’s become a real struggle. And I’m seeing the way that the world it'…it’s become a battle of good and evil. And please I’m pleading with you, begging you, please pray for my daughter. Thank you. I know that so many people out there if you pray, please help. Thank you. Bye.

Ezekiel 7:1-9:11, Hebrews 5:1-14, Psalm 105:1-15, Proverbs 26:28

Today is the third day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you just like it’s great to be here with you every day as we find our place around the Global Campfire and move forward together, which will lead us back into the book of Ezekiel, we’re just getting going in the book of Ezekiel. Today, Ezekiel chapters 7 and 8 and 9.

Commentary:

Okay, can we zoom in on the Proverb because again today we have one sentence that speaks literally volumes into our human experience. So, once again wisdom is calling from the crossroads and speaking to us what is true and what is right and it says it in a stark enough way that we can’t kind of make it a gray area. So, the Proverb says, a lying tongue hates its victims and a flattering mouth works ruin. So, I doubt that anyone within the sound of my voice doesn’t know what a lie is right, and a blatant untruth or more popularly, a partial truth that is nuanced in such a way that it is effectively a lie. So, if we’re on the same page about what that is, then what the voice of wisdom is saying, from the Holy Scriptures is that a lying tongue hates its victims, and it even uses the word victims as people who are on the receiving end of a lie. And we could be like yeah, well, what’s another translation for that, victimization of a person who is on the receiving end of a lie that can’t be right, but it is. I mean if we want to go absolutely literal. We are literally talking about and oppressed person who is crushed. That is what happens to the person on the receiving end of a lie, according to the voice of wisdom found in the Holy Scriptures. So could it be more stark and should we not, should we not pause for a second and just think about it because our culture is built on these nuances. These partial truths that get spun in all sorts of directions and then regurgitated as fact all over the place. All of the time. So, if we’re in the habit of puffing up the truth, like making the story more interesting than what it actually is and what actually happened or what the actual situation is then that’s a lie. If we’re diminishing the truth, making it less and using it to manipulate or if we’re simply lying so that we don’t get exposed, it’s a lie. And we are hating on the person we are peddling the lie to. I know that’s pretty hard-core. I didn’t write this book though; I’m reading this book and this is what the book of Proverbs says, in the same Proverb in the same sentence because this entire Proverb is one sentence it says a flattering mouth works ruin. So, being a liar is hating on the people we are lying to and a flattering mouth, so using flattery works ruin, which doesn’t mean words of affirmation, kindness, speaking something kind and affirming to somebody about something that they done is flattering and we should stop complementing each other. Flattery is that used in a manipulative way so that in one way or another we gain something, whether that be deeper access to this person or their life. Whether things that we want from them or need from them that force us to kind of use words that we wouldn’t normally use in a way that we don’t really mean. Yeah, basically we’re counseled very vividly against this type of behavior. It does not lead to a good outcome. It’s foolish. It’s not wisdom and we’re getting that conclusion from the voice of wisdom. And so, let’s just take this strong medicine like grown-ups and examine the ways that we are hating on people, that we are acting foolish, that we are setting up scenarios that don’t end well and maybe invite the Holy Spirit into the why. Why do we react this way, why do we do this, why do we embellish the truth, why do we diminish the truth, why are we always in a situation where we’re on the defense and we’re always lying to protect ourselves even when it’s not necessary, why are we doing these things, what is underneath that? Because as we talked about in the book of Hebrews, what was it yesterday, this is alive and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and it can reach the place where soul and spirit divide. We basically flip the page and watch that exact thing happen to us. This is right at the level of our identity. This is as deep as it gets. Why do we do what we do when we know it’s not going to work out? And then as we’re considering, maybe we should also consider that we have been invited into a life of freedom. Freedom in Christ, which is freedom to be true because we’re not leeching an identity off of each other. We don’t need to lie to somebody else to make ourselves look better so that they look better at us. We are children of the most high God. There is no higher place to get, we have, there’s no aspiration for us that’s higher than that, we have an identity, basically, we have the identity of identities, we’re children of God. We actually don’t need to lie to each other or manipulate each other. We actually have freedom to be true.

Prayer:

So, Father, we invite You into that. It is a constant thing. It is a constant thing in the world that we live in as you know, it is a constant thing to be so deeply nuanced that it’s, that it’s a lie and we have participated in all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons, but we’re hearing loud and clear from the voice of wisdom that this isn’t going to go anywhere and so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to reveal to us the wounds and motivations, the things that compel us in a direction that is not healthy or good or profitable. Come, Holy Spirit, as we contemplate this today, as we consider, as we even observe ourselves in these situations because their regular, they face us on a daily basis. And so, Holy Spirit come into this, we need You. We need You not only to expose this to ourselves but then to begin to change that, to be transformed in that area to allow sanctification in that area. Then we have to be aware and open to You. So, help us Holy Spirit. We pray, in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website and that is where you find out what’s going on around here, so do indeed stay in touch anyway you can anyway that you want to. Be familiar, as I say often and should, the Community section, this is where to get connected on social media, the channels that we participate in. It’s a good idea to follow Daily Audio Bible somewhere so that if there is an announcement or whatever, it can show up in your feed. But there are also groups there to connect and interact with and the Community section is where the ever-important Prayer Wall lives because the Prayer Wall is always there, always available and it’s situated inside this Community, so, it’s just with in the Community here. Always, you can go and find people to pray for and it’s so good for the soul to reach out in prayer for others, even people who we may never meet, people that we know by voice and that we know by heart. We can pray for one another, we’re not alone in this world, we’re a body, we’re a family, the family of God. It’s also a place to go if the bottom is fallen out of some aspect of your life and you’re just kind of in freefall and don’t know exactly how you’re gonna land, you don’t have to do that alone. People pray all the time at the Prayer Wall and so check that out, it’s in the Community section at dailyaudiobible.com or in the app you just push the little drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and you can get to the Community section there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at the website as well. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. The mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174. And thank you, humbly, humbly for your partnership, we wouldn’t be, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t here together. So, thank you.

And if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can at 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.

Ezekiel 3:16-6:14, Hebrews 4:1-16, Psalms 104:24-35, Proverbs 26:27

Today is the 2^nd day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is fantastic to be here with you today as we get ourselves moved into this 11^th month of the year. We’ve been transitioning through quite a bit of territory but we’re gonna camp out in the book of Ezekiel for a while in the Old Testament as well as the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament. So, today we’re reading from the English standard version. Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 16 through 6 verse 14.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in the book of Hebrews today we encounter a very very famous passage of Scripture – “for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” So, that certainly gives us a bit of context for why we show up here around the Global Campfire every day and why we would try to set aside all of the distractions for a little while, so that the word of God could wash over us and into our lives so that we could actually be paying attention to it. It gives us a great amount of context for why we would do that. And let’s look at what it says it’s doing or that it is. The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. So, let’s just look at those two. This is a living document which doesn’t mean that your copy of the Scriptures snores at night, right, because it's…It has a beating heart and its human. It means that over the ages, it still does something to the souls of mankind, right? So, when we come here and immerse ourselves in the Scriptures sometimes it tells us exactly what the next step for us is. Sometimes we think it’s saying nothing to us, but it is within us, transforming things. And sometimes we can go through a passage of Scripture this year and then come by again next year and it speaks volumes in and different way - alive, living and active. And sharper than any two-edged sword, so we get the concept of a sword, a double-edged sword which means it’s sharp on both sides. So, no matter what direction you’re swinging in you have a powerful blade that can…that can cut through the crap in our lives. We just have to be cognizant that this is…as powerful as a double edge sword. And, so, you take the Bible or portions of the Scriptures, you start swinging them at people then…yeah…people get cut. What we need to understand is that that double edge sword is to cut through the clutter and the confusion and the gray in our own experience because, as the Scripture continues, it pierces to the division of soul and spirit, which…there isn’t a time that I encounter this Scripture, and certainly we encounter it every year when we pass by Hebrews, but this is a popular Scripture, so we hear it many many times through the course of a year. It’s quoted often. And when I hear it I think. Where is the division of soul and of spirit? Who can…who can even point to where that is? It’s…wherever that is however that is, it's…it’s at the depths of us. It’s at the essence of us. We don’t have any….there’s no x-ray to find where soul and spirit divide. We may be able to find where joints and marrow, divide, but not of soul and spirit. And the Scripture says that the word of God can pierce to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow. In other words, it can touch everything about us. In fact, the Scripture goes on to say it can discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And it does. Does it not? Has it…I mean if you’ve been around here for very long the Bible…the Bible isn’t afraid to speak the truth, it isn’t afraid to look us in the eye, it doesn’t look away, it doesn’t pander, it just is there speaking the truth. And often in someone else’s story from a very very long time ago we find our own thoughts and motivations. The intentions of our own hearts are exposed because of the Scripture. This is why we’re showing up every day. This is how powerful this is. And that’s the end of that very famous passage. But the verse following that…well…let me just read the whole thing in context. “But the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His site, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” So, in other words, God already knows, He can already see into our soul and spirit. He can already see the thoughts and intentions of the heart, but the word of God can reveal them to us. The word of God can bring to the surface the things we are trying to hide, even from ourselves or the things that we are trying to avoid, all of the disassociations, all of the stuff that we’re trying to stuff down and ignore, the stuff that gets shoved down into the basement of our hearts, the word of God can even go there.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You yet again for the Scriptures and for the ability to show up and meet around this Global Campfire every day, that the word of God might penetrate us, that it might expose what’s really going on and cut through so that we might see the truth that is being offered to us. So, often we’re trying to get our facts and truths from places like social media and what we’re doing is regurgitating opinions. But when we come here there is no pandering, there is no agenda, there is no how many likes can I get, there is no how good can this make me look. You’re just speaking the truth in a tangible way in a way that we can hold in our hands. And we thank You for that gift and we invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us deeper in our understanding of this gift. And as we grow in understanding may our very lives be transformed so that we are transformed by the power of Your word that can penetrate into the very depths of who we are. And we open ourselves and welcome that. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website, it’s where you find out what’s happening around here. So, do indeed check it out as you can or as you will.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a lot of resources there that are for the community here and have been developed for the community here for the journey that we’re on. Everything from the music that you hear in the background of the Daily Audio Bible to written resources that take the journey deeper or the Global Campfire department, little section of the…of the Shop with Global Campfire items or our Windfarm coffee and tea you can order and will be roasted and sent to you fresh or you can have it sent monthly. However many bags of coffee or however much tea you drink in a month, you can have that sent to you. So, check out the resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to whoever will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night, and to build community around that rhythm so that we are not in a solitary endeavor, we are in this together, if that brings light and life and good news into your world than thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Michael from Harrisburg PA. It’s the first time I’ve ever called in. I’ve been listening to Daily Audio Bible for five years on and off and this year especially it’s been my rock. In January both my mom and my dad passed. My Grandfather also passed in December. And then on my birthday August 28^th my mentor my best friend drowned in the Swatara Creek. And I felt like I was…no one else could understand what I was going through and I listened to the community prayer this morning, the 20…I guess it would have been the 30^th or the 29^th I guess it would have been last week and I heard a woman’s voice I think it was either Tamberly or Kimberly and I heard that she both lost her mother and her father. And I just want to say sister that I love you, I’m wrapping my arms around you and praying that God continues to show peace past all understanding because that is…that is exactly what you will be experiencing. Just be strong, find those who you love and can talk with and just know that your…your request touched my heart and allowed me to call for the first time. Have a great day.

Good morning DAB family my name is Island Girl. I have been listening to this podcast on and off for probably about 2 ½ years now but it’s my first-time calling in. I’m calling in because I know the power of prayer. I’m calling in because I need the family to help me, please to pray. My mother is in the hospital. She has been battling the COVID-19 virus and she has some underlying issues such as diabetes and hypertension going along with it. I called because I know the power of prayer. I called because I know that where two or three are gathered touching anything then God is in the midst to bless, and God is in the midst to hear and deliver. So, I’m asking you please to help me to pray…

Hi DAB family it’s October 30^th this is Child of God. I just heard Tamberly’s request for prayer after the loss of her parents and I can so relate. I still have both my parents. They’re living at home. My mom is 90 my dad’s 94 but it’s a struggle for them. And they are so dear to our family and I…my heart just goes out to you in your loss. I’m lifting you up.

Yes, my name is Rodney. I became paralyzed like six months ago not knowing, you know…I’m 38 years old, just new to me. I’m just gave my life back to the Lord two Sundays ago and about three weeks ago my wife left me. We were married 11 years. We have a daughter together. Things, you know, hit me real hard at one time and, you know, I’m still getting over the, you know, everything, you know, I just…I gave up and now I’ve got bed sores I’m back in the hospital again. But if you could just keep me on y'all’s prayers and just pray, you know, that my wife open her eyes and see that I need her or if not if the Lord don’t have that in his plan then, you know, to just let me have a peace of mind. I thank you all very much and I do. This audio bible has helped me tremendously. I listen to the proverbs every morning and I listen to the chron…chronicle thing every day and it's…it’s a blessing to me and I thank you very much and hope everybody has a blessed day.

Hey this is Andrew from Washington just calling in for the person who called October 25^th asking for prayers for struggles in life feeling bad about trying glorify and praise God and then falling back into the same struggles. Just want to say my friend you’re not alone. I'm…I’m there with you as many of us are. There’s an army of prayer warriors behind you and with you praying for you such as God’s Smile, Tony truck driver, Lorinda from Florida, Radiant Rachel, Blind Tony, Victoria Soldier, the Hardin family, Aussie Bear from Australia, Kingdom Seeker Daniel, Immaculate Margaret, the list…the list goes the list goes on and on if there’s more time but we hear you and God hears you and you have Jesus who’s your defender. So, I encourage you to come boldly to the throne…to the throne of grace. Ask him every time…every single time you go through a struggle, and you’ll see victory. So, don’t give up. Keep pushing forward, keep fighting. God bless and may your day be full of grace today.

Thank you God for giving me everything that I’ve asked
you freed me from my demons and my true self is now unmasked
time is running short now as they say this too shall pass
I praise and thank you constantly there’s not much that I ask
the relationship I have with you I pray will always last
last is first and first his last a simple little verse
some men go from good to bad some from bad to worse
help me just be patient God and follow where you lead
help me not be selfish and consumed with lust, pride, and greed
where the two are gathered I know that you’ll be there
keep my mind’s eye simple God strip my ego bear
make me over in your image God I’m flesh but still I’m clay
fill me with your spirit God and renew my strength each day
one and one are usually two but you and I are one
finish God the work in me you clearly have begun

blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Just James who just got out of jail or out of prison after 32 years. You and the other brothers, I just want to say your testimonies powerful brother and God is faithful and true and your strength He will definitely renew. You know. Keep the faith. And once again Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowing y'all. Alright. Bye-bye.

Ezekiel 1:1-3:15, Hebrews 3:1-19, Psalm 104:1-23, Proverbs 26:24-26

Today is the first day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, welcome to the 11th month of the year. Today is the 305th day of our journey which contains 365 days in it and seems like we reach this point, the 11th month of the year and by the time this month is over its Christmas around the world and we’re all focused in on the holiday season. We’ve already talked about that and we’ll talk about it some more, we’ve already talked about that and determined what we’re going to do is finish strong and all we have to do in order to do that is show up, show up every day as we continue our journey through the Scriptures and we are led once again into a bit of a transition. So yesterday, we concluded the book of Lamentations, which today leads us as we begin a new month into the book of Ezekiel.

Introduction to the Book of Ezekiel:

And so, let’s just kind of get a lay of the land or orient ourselves because we are moving into a new book with a new voice but we are still in this Babylonian exile time. So, we went through Jeremiah and all of the warnings and prophetic instructions from God, we saw nobody paying attention to those warnings, we saw those prophecies then come true and then we mourned it in the book of Lamentations. So now, we’re in a new month and moving into a new book known as Ezekiel but we’re not changing much in terms of time like, we haven’t jumped a couple centuries, we’re in the same time period. Ezekiel was an educated person deeply loyal to God, deeply loyal to God’s people. He came from a priestly family, and often he was instructed to symbolically prophesy or act out a prophecy in some sort of metaphorical or literal way, not unlike Jeremiah and they were prophesying at the same time. So, Jeremiah prophesied a bit before Ezekiel, but then also was prophesying at the same time as Ezekiel. They were just prophesying from two sides of the same story. Jeremiah was prophesying from Jerusalem and so, we were there, we were there watching all of this go down as we read through Jeremiah. Ezekiel’s prophecies were from the other side. They were from exile in Babylon. There was a lot going on in the world at that time. So, the Babylonian empire conquered the Assyrian Empire and if we just remember, it was the Assyrian Empire that conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and took them into exile where those 10 tribes disappeared. So now, the Assyrian Empire’s conquered by the Babylonian Empire, so now these superpowers, Babylon and Egypt, their clashing with each other and their clashing essentially in the land of ancient Israel because that little strip of land that was like to control, that is to control the trade routes between continents and all of the different countries that we just talked about, they all had interaction with ancient Judah or Israel. Like, at one point or another Israel was subdued by all these different empires it’s just that the city of Jerusalem was still standing. So, if they fell into a situation where they were about to be utterly destroyed than they would make some kind of treaty, pay tribute, be a vassal, essentially a, sort of a country with allegiance to another and we read about this when we read Kings and Chronicles, just the back and forth of all that happened and we read, as we read through the Kings, the decline, generational decline in leadership among the people and idolatry and just all of the stuff that we’ve gone through. It has led to this place where when Babylon destroys Jerusalem the ancient Israel of the Bible that we’ve read so far, it is over. So, it’s 597 BC, the Babylonians, they conquer Jerusalem and that’s when exile begins. So, they begin deporting people into different regions of the Babylonian empire. Ezekiel was among those first to go into exile. So, then Babylon puts it like a vassal king, a king to kind of rule and reign but not as a sovereign unto himself, as a client king for Babylon and that kings name was Zedekiah. And Zedekiah ended up rebelling against the Babylonians. Even though Jeremiah is prophesying against that kind of action and gives totally different advice. The rebellion still happens. And so, the Babylonians come back. So, in 588, they come back and lay siege, takes two years and then the walls are breached and yeah Jerusalem is utterly and completely destroyed. So, from the time of the Babylonians take over until the time that Jerusalem is completely destroyed is a little over a decade. Ezekiel, during this time, is exiled in Babylon and he prophesies of the destruction of Jerusalem. Jeremiah is prophesying the same thing from Jerusalem. And as we know those prophecies came true. Jerusalem was destroyed which is tremendously sad but after that, after the destruction then the prophetic utterances from Ezekiel become some of the most hope filled messages that we can find in the Bible. There’s also some interesting features about Ezekiel because of his visions. So, he has visions and they almost feel like science fiction in a way, especially when you think of them coming from thousands of years ago, there just cinematic. There are other places in Scripture that are like this, for example the book of Daniel or the book of Revelation. And so, because it’s so highly symbolic, those that study eschatology, the study of the end of all things or the end times, certainly use Ezekiel as part of that study along with Daniel and Revelation, many of the other prophecies in the Bible. So, as we approached some of that territory in Ezekiel, we can decide, I’m gonna figure this out. Right, just sit here and intently listen and try to sort out what the symbology is, we would be entering into something that’s been going on for a very, very long time and has been argued about for a very, very long time and that’s fine. But if eschatology isn’t something we’re seeking a degree in then we might want to just let the words, the metaphors, the imagery come to us. Just allow it to wash over us, and allow the Holy Spirit just see what it’s bringing up inside of us as we encounter those portions of Scripture. Let’s dive in, let’s get going. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 15.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the gift and we thank You for these 300+ days now that we have been together on this journey. We thank You for this new territory that we’re moving into in the book of Ezekiel and we open our hearts, we open our hands to You. We ask that You lead us, even as these next week’s how they start speeding, speeding us toward the conclusion of a year and things get more busy. We thank You that we have this anchor. So, we invite You, Holy Spirit, come, lead us into all truth, we become aware of Your presence that is always near us, always available. So, we seek it, come Jesus we pray in Your mighty name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base and it’s where you find out what’s going on around here and man what’s going on around here right now is this is the first day of the 11th month of the year. We’re like in the 11th month of the year. I’m still trying to get my head around it because where did those first 10 months ago, but that’s how it works, where they went was day by day, step by step forward. And so, we find ourselves here, beginning to move into, into what becomes, the more busy parts of the year. And it’s just great, it is great to have taken this journey this far in this year, together. And we’ve come this far through the Scriptures and we have come a long way and we have a ways to go. Some really, really important things for us out in front of us. So, it’s good to be here. Fresh start. Brand-new month and if we keep going we will finish strong together at the end of the 12 month and that’s always exciting. So, yeah, we just keep taking one step forward each day and we will arrive at our destination. One of the ways that we do arrive at our destination is that well, we show up every day and it’s more than just showing up every day and listening the Scriptures, although that’s completely fine but because were showing up every day, we’ve gotten into a rhythm and we’ve gotten into a rhythm, together with tens of thousands of people all over the world. And one of those beautiful distinctives that has arisen out of that rhythm is that we pray for each other, we love each other through prayer, we hear each other stories and because we’re spread all over the place, the primary way we can get involved with one another is through prayer and it’s a beautiful thing. So, there are a number of ways to engage: the Prayer Wall is a primary way, that is found in the Community section at dailyaudiobible.com or in the app by pushing the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. The Community section, there’s a bunch of stuff in their, links to different social media channels that we participate in but the Prayer Wall is there, day or night, 24/7. If you’re getting crushed, you don’t have to be alone, but if you just can’t sleep or you’re just in a good place, it’s wonderful to reach back out knowing that things kind of go in cycles and we may be on top of things right now, but there also may come a day where we need our brothers and sisters to hold us up and the Prayer Wall is a great place to go for that. Also, 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 no matter where you are in the world, no matter what time zone it is, what time of day or night it is, you can share from there or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And if you want to partner the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com, there is a link on the homepage or in 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 that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi friends this is Erin in Michigan, I’m a teacher. I teach seniors in high school and on Tuesday a student brought a gun to school and a lot of kids saw it on the bus and one junior high student went in and told and the rest just kept it to themselves. So, then yesterday there were three fights, two of them before 9:30 AM, and O friends, are students are crying out, every behavior is a communication and their telling us that they don’t feel safe and that they don’t feel loved and that they don’t belong. So, family if you’ll pray with me, Father God, Father God, I cry out to you, our children, are in crisis. Our children are faced with the world that says snitches get stiches and that fighting is the way to go and fighting is the way to get that respect and that fear and Lord God we just pray over our students, we pray over our teachers our administrators Lord God our families, moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, Lord God and I just lift them up to You. Help our students, help our students in the school that I teach in, help our students across the nation, Lord God, help every single student understand that guns are not the answer, that violence and fights are not the answer, Lord God, that standing by watching it, videotaping it, posting these fights are not the answer. Help our students to stand-up, help them feel empowered to take back their school, Lord God, everyone just wants to feel safe and Lord God, help us, help us teachers to love our students, to build those relationships, to look them in the eye and to help them know that they belong. Father God, You are the only answer, You’re the only answer, we’re in crisis. We call out to You Lord God, help our schools, help our students, help our teachers, help our security staff, help our administrators Lord God, help us to be bold in Your love and Your belonging. In Your Holy and precious name. Amen. Thank you, family. Love you.

Hello my DAB family. This is Terry the Trucker. Quick praise report, new jobs going great. No stress, I can go at my own pace, I can work whenever I want to work as long as I do ten loads a day or 10 loads a week, 620 miles a day, I believe it was 620/640, I love it. Anyway, prayer request: called in about my sister, she’s taking care of her grandbabies. My nephew and his wife, they’ve been separated for I think about two years now, they’ve both been on meth. He was arrested today October 27th around 10am. The charge was manufacturing and delivering of a controlled substance, over two grams, under 4. He runs around a really sketchy crew. We’re praying that it’s not true, I mean, yes he is making bad decisions, yes he is on meth, he can’t be around his kids, my mom’s too old to be doing this, my sisters just at her wits end. Sisters name is Tina, moms name is Nellie, my nephews name is Brandon. So, I just ask you all to lift him up in prayer, pray that he can, I pray it ain’t true, pray that he can get his life straight, comfort for my mom and my sister, financial support. And always remember this is Terry the Trucker and I’m praying for you as I travel up and down these Texas highways. Ya’ll have a blessed one.

Hey, this is Tear from Texas. I wanted to just give a little praise report for my father. He basically has been going to visit my grandma again in my grandparents’ house. My grandpa, his dad passed away about a year ago and it had been very hard for him to cope with his death. And just, you know, cope with his house being different now and him going over there and him not being there. And I am just glad that in the same time that my mom and I are praying for him is healing that he’s taken the first steps to healing. I don’t think anyone can ever truly heal from losing a parent and I sure don’t want to think about that right now, but I was glad that as an adult you know, God allows us to still heal from things that happened to us as a child, things that happened to us as adults. And I just pray that every family new and old can heal from trauma, from you know, toxic habits that plagued a lot of households. New and old households can you know, stop the cycle of those toxic habits of those behaviors that you know, just come with being human. We hurt people or we forget that we hurt people, I just pray that every person in a family within Christ can conscientiously grow from there past, from their mistakes and be able to speak out and about their hurt and their pain and that we can all heal and grow and learn within Christ. In these blessings, I ask, in the sons Holy name Jesus. Amen.

Hi this is Victorious Soldier just calling to pray with some of the DABers. I wanted to tell you all thanks so much for the prayers you’ve given me, you’ve been such a tremendous blessing, you’ve lifted my spirit and my soul and I just want to say thank you. I love you all so much you’re such a, such a precious group of friends and safe people of God. And I just pray that life and savior for everyone. Whatever your need that God has it. I wanna pray for a couple of the DABers also. I wanna pray for Janet regarding her husband and I wanna pray for Kristen Fletcher and her son Paul. I wanna also pray for Mark and I wanna pray for those who are going through with mental illness. I want to pray for the lady who’s been married 27 years, has five kids and the husband has gone. I wanna pray that God would touch his mind and give him the power to come back and do what is right and what is good and what is wonderful to a wife that gave him the 5 kids and that God gave to him, the good things that God has given to him. I want to pray for Jen also and I want to pray for Jasmine from Burbank and all the challenges that she’s going through. And I want to pray for all the people of God and those that who’s going through with family members who’s going through with these challenges that we’re going through with the COVID. We just want to ask You to have Your way and I want to pray for Collen Powell who died and we miss him dearly and thank You for the __ he made in his life and we give You the glory Lord. We just ask You to have Your way. Your mighty name, heal and deliver and provide. In Jesus name

Good morning, this is for Tom and Susan from Phoenix, Arizona. From the October 28th broadcast requesting prayer for restoration of his marriage. My heart hurt when I heard the pain in your voice Tom and I do pray that God heals your marriage, restores that marriage. Just stay faithful in His word, continue to pray and hope and pray that He heals you and I will continue to pray for you. A Scripture to the member is, that I pray that the God of hope fills you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit Romans 15:13 and then just remember He does heal the broken hearted. It’s the scripture from Psalm that I leaned on many times. Again, I’m continuing to pray for you. This is Tracy from Tennessee.

Lamentations 4:1-5:22, Hebrews 2:1-18, Psalms 103:1-22, Proverbs 26:23

Today is the 31^st day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today. Kind of…well…kind of a transition day. This is the last day of the 10^th month of the year. First day of a brand-new week. And this week will lead us into the 11^th month of the year. So, we are obviously nearer to the conclusion of our journey than we are to the beginning of our journey. And what a journey it has been. And what a journey it will continue to be, as we step-by-step day by day take the steps forward necessary to bring us to the conclusion of the year and the conclusion of the Bible. So, over the last few days we’ve been moving into new territory. In the Old Testament the book of Lamentations and in the New Testament the letter to the Hebrews. And, so, that’s what we will buckle up and move into as we conclude this month and move into the next. We got a are brand-new week here. We’ll read from the English Standard Version this week. Lamentations, chapters 4 and 5 today.

Prayer:

Thank You, Father for Your word and for bringing us into this shiny sparkly new week that also ends an entire month. And, so, as we prepare in the next day to transition into the 11^th month of the year and fully into this week we invite Your Holy Spirit to speak to us through the territory that we are moving through now, the mournful dirges of heartfelt anguish coming from the book of Lamentations that give language to what this feels like, and to the letter to the Hebrews, which provides so much of the underpinning of our…of our faith and our doctrine, what we believe. And, so, we need You, Holy Spirit to come and illuminate, enlighten us. Lead us forward into Jesus. Lead us forward into the truth. Be a lamp for our feet and a light to our path that we might see with clarity where You are leading. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

This is pastor John from Mississippi today is October 26^th. I’m calling in for the lady who is struggling and wants to be closer to the Lord and just wants and ear to hear. I just want you to know I’m one of the ears that is hearing and I’m praying for your peace and for your growth in the Lord and for your awareness of His presence in your life. And I’ll be with this young lady, this…this sister in Christ. And show her your love and your grace hoping that all things are made new. In the name of Jesus I pray. I hear you sister. Amen. This is pastor John signing out.

Hey family how are you? My name is Terry. I go by Shield of Faith. I live out in New Joliet IL. I haven’t really worked in four years but the reason I’ve been out of work is my own fault. It’s my own sins that have caught up with me. I lost my last job and I…I realize, you know, the repercussions of my transgressions and…and I want to pray. I’m looking at a job at a local university and I hope they hire me to do what I do. I just want to…I just want to serve. I just want to have a regular schedule and a regular gig and it’d be fantastic if that were to come through for me. But, you know, praising God that, you know, I haven’t lost my house and I have been able to work here and there and that my family is still with me and behind me. I also want to pray for my daughter who’s…we have, you know, we’ve been going through all sorts of testing wandering what is the problem. She loses vision in the right eye. We’re thinking she may have MS. There are certain vitamin deficiencies that are happening with her and we’re not sure why or how. Could be a thyroid issue. It could be so many things but only the great Healer knows. And I know that God puts us…gives us these trials that we may overcome them in His name and let the glory be to God. I also, you know, as a musician I get to play with my church family and that brings me healing and joy and…and…and fellowship as we all need with. You know, thank you God and I pray for you people. Thank you, Hardin family for all this. And praise be to all those…the saints that have gone before. Amen.

Hi, I’m Sending You from Egypt. I just want to thank you so much for such an app that makes a difference in my life. I look forward every day to hear what God has to tell me through this app. God bless you. I have two prayer requests for two dear friends. I know you’re going to support me in those prayers and God is faithful and He’s going to listen. One is for Sammy my friend. He’s in the hospital he has cancer. He has a lot of pain. He can’t see God’s hand in such pain and he’s so angry at God and he doesn’t want to hear that He’s a loving Father because what kind of father that would put his son in such pain. So, I’m praying…I want you to lift him up in prayers that he can actually see God’s goodness in the middle of this pain or take the cancer away. The second one is a dear friend. Her husband is leaving home and he is in a status of confusion and depression. And there’s another…there’s another woman that is actually following up with him and wanting him to leave home as she also left her children. So, it’s destruction like __ to both families, her family and his family. So, I want to pray that he changes it bind as his wife is going to sit today and talk with him. Thank you so much.

Hello brothers and sisters in Christ this is your brother Chad from Jomo. I’m calling because I was inspired by a brother that’s incarcerated. I believe your name was Terry Clansbery or Terry Clansberg. I know it was Terry. I heard that part really clear. Brother I’m thinking about you. I’ve been there and I know that you’re in a…in a place that usually is…is just drenched in darkness. So, I am just so blessed that you were able to tap into the Daily Audio Bible and the community while you’re in there. I can’t think of a better community for you to be tapped into while you’re…you’re paying your penance where you’re at. I pray that you get out soon. Brother while you’re in there I’m going to pray that you are a salt and light in the darkness of others, and you could be a passage for others to find Christ. So, Father in Jesus’ name I just wanna bless my brother Terry. I want to pray for him. I want to thank You Father that You have touched his heart and renewed his life in the…in Jesus Christ through salvation through Jesus Christ. And I just want to ask Lord that You please bless him right where he’s at and enrich him with Your word, enrich him with Your spirit, and help him Father to be a bright shining light in the darkness of where he’s at and in the darkness of other’s lives, that they may also find the path to Jesus Christ. Let him be that beacon Father for others to find salvation in Jesus’ name. And bless him Father and keep him safe from all forms of evil. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Father I also want to pray from all my other family members in the DAB land, that You keep them strong, help them to stand in this time of great challenge and tribulation, help them to stand on the word and stay true to Christ in Jesus’ name. Family I love you. This is brother Chad from Jomo. You guys have a blessed day. Have a blessed holiday's…holidays. We’re in the season. Enjoy. God bless you. I love you all so much. See you soon. Well…talk to you soon. Bye.

Good morning, everybody this is God’s Smile here. You know, this last week or two I’ve just been aware of the provisions God gives us that can be so easily overlooked sometimes when we’re in trials or, you know, going through stuff. I’m just aware of his peace. We have a lovely quiet home and Peter comes home and, you know, his wife’s waiting for him, little old me. And I’m waiting for him. And we enjoy each other’s company. And we get tea together when we can. And just sitting together listening to DAB, Peter doing his jigsaw, me doing my coloring. We’re like 2 little bookends. We’re slipping into old age very nicely. And…and God is so good, isn’t He? He’s so so good. Despite my tears, despite the pain, this peace that He gives us that we live in, just…I just cannot put it into words. The…it’s the atmosphere isn’t it? You know, you are aware of it, the atmosphere that surrounds us, His grace. I’m aware that He is close and ministering angels are close. [singing starts] Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His foot stool. Worship at His footstool. Holy is He [singing stops]. Kiss, kiss everybody.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Ivan from Chicago, and I am super blessed and excited today. One, being it my birthday. And I’m just so grateful to God for another birthday and I’m grateful to God for the Daily Audio Bible family that I’ve been able to be a part of for many years now. I believe I started during a tumultuous time in my life going through an unexpected divorce and just at a low point. And God allowed me to connect with the Daily Audio Bible to encourage me. And that’s been many years ago. And I’m thankful for today, October 27^th that God has blessed me with faith, God has blessed me with hope, God has graced me through times of uncertainty. And I’m just so grateful to God and I just wanted to call in today to just bless and encourage each and every person as they go through. And I’ll leave you with Ephesians 3: 20. And now to him who’s able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that worketh within us. I’m so grateful that God has done immeasurably more than I could ever imagine in these years of my life. And I’m looking for so much more to more. I’m believing God for salvation and deliverance for…for family members such as my brother who’s, you know, struggling with some addictions and other things and just encouraged in the Lord…

Lamentations 3:1-66, Hebrews 1:1-14, Psalm 102:1-28, Proverbs 26:21-22

Today is the 30th day of October, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today on the eve of the last day of the 10th month of the year. So, as we begin a new week tomorrow, we’ll be ending a month and yesterday we moved into new territory in old and new Testaments. The book of Lamentations in the Old Testament we talked about that yesterday and the letter to Philemon which we read in its entirety yesterday. Which brings us to new territory in the new Testaments. The book of Hebrews and will talk about that when we get there. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Lamentations chapter 3.

Introduction to the Book of Hebrews:

Okay, that brings us to new territory, another letter. It’s a pretty lengthy letter. It is known in the Scriptures as Hebrews. And I’m gonna say something right now because it needs to stick for us to really appreciate what the letter to the Hebrews brings to the table for us in our understanding and even our understanding of context centered around the Christian faith. Hebrews was written to Hebrews. Okay, Hebrews was written to Jewish people. The early believers in Jesus who were Jews and not Gentiles. And Romans does a good job of this, but Hebrews probably of all of the New Testament writings really contextualizes the Christian faith within Judaism because the here’s the deal week, we have the Christian faith and most of us are Gentile people and so we weren’t immersed in Mosaic law or Hebrew culture, ever, and the Gentiles, at that time, like the Jewish people stayed away from everybody else. They were separatists, they were set apart and holy, like that’s how they lived. They had their kind of own internal way of doing well, life. Then Jesus came into that culture, into that way of understanding and began to teach as a rabbi teacher of these customs and traditions and laws. He reinterpreted plenty of things but it was with in that context that he did his ministry. And so, the Christian faith arose out of Judaism. So, sometimes some of the intricacies that are involved there can just kinda go over a Gentiles head 2000 years in the future. But if we can remember the Hebrews was written to Hebrews and keep that in front of us, then we can understand that a lot of things are being unpacked that help us see that and give us that context. So, we don’t really know who wrote Hebrews. That’s not a new thing, that’s very, very old thing. There’s been seasons and traditions where Paul is credited as the author of the letter to the Hebrews. Many people believe that until this day, but most, most scholars don’t. Most scholars would believe that is super unlikely. But whoever did write Hebrews was a very good, well thought out, communicator and was clearly educated and was clearly educated and understood the Jewish, what was a Jewish person, understood and was immersed in the culture and could speak with authority about it. So, there are other candidates, lots of other candidates who have bubbled to the top like Barnabas. Or maybe Apollos, and there are other people that believe may be Hebrews was written by a woman and that that has been obscured over time. I don’t know, nobody, like we can argue the persuasive ideas but nobody can speak with absolute authority. There are some things that that help kind of place it. Like Timothy, who was a protégé, like a son in the faith, we read the pastoral letters to Timothy from Paul. Timothy’s mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews. So, this is probably somewhat contemporary with Paul’s writings, it could be that Hebrews was written a little bit later after Paul had died because Timothy was younger and so he would have lived longer after Paul of course Paul was executed. It’s also clear that things were starting to heat up against the Christians. They were being marginalized. They were being kind of isolated and persecution had begun. Maybe not like mass killing of Christians, but definitely the pushing to the outer boundaries of society. At this time, it wasn’t a popular or good thing to be a Christian in the Roman Empire, so they we’re being ridiculed and just thought of as weird, like weird people pushed to the margins. We have this kind of stuff that happens in all societies and has been part of the human story and so it’s still with us today. It’s not unusual in many circles for Christians to be portrayed as weird, right, backward, irrelevant. So, this is going on and what was happening as people were trying to kind of disappear. They just kinda backing…backing away, trying to disappear into the woodwork, in either keeping their faith very under wraps or just going back to the traditions of Judaism, just living as a Jew, which had its challenges already. That behavior, like the pressure coming and what it’s causing, which is people to kind of fade, really is the meat of what’s going on here in the letter to the Hebrews. Hebrew’s kind of steps forward and says don’t go back to what you were. Like, you’ve come so far. Don't…don’t go back, move forward. Hold fast, right don’t waiver, don’t hide, don’t disappear, don’t lose the faith. And it uses the Hebrew or the Jewish backdrop as a way to explain why not to lose the faith, like what’s actually going on here unpacked from the traditions of Judaism. So, with that, let’s dive in and settle in for the letter to the Hebrews, today chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us right to the doorstep of another month. We thank You for all that we have learned in this month. We are so deeply grateful. And as we move into this letter to the Hebrews, as it brings home so many of the different concepts and things that we have read from the Scriptures, as it brings them into clear focus, we ask Holy Spirit that You give us clarity, that we may understand what You are saying to us, that we may understand where You are leading us and that we may in turn honor You with our lives as we live as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to You, which is not possible in our own strength but is possible because of Your mercy and grace and leadership. So, we humble ourselves and submit to Your leadership. Lead us, we pray, in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base. That is the website for the Daily Audio Bible and that’s where your find out what is going on around here. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app just press the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and you can get to places like the Daily Audio Bible Shop, all kinds of resources there for taking this journey deeper and wider, further. Things to kind of journal your way, the Daily Audio Bible journal, journal your way through the Scriptures. We even have all kinds of black wing pencil stuff there, that’s what I use. I fell in love with, I don’t know, old-school, old-school sharpening a pencil and writing things down in my own hand. And I don’t have good penmanship but it sticks a lot better if I write it down then if I type it out and make some kind of checklist or whatever, if I’m journaling my thoughts or what’s going on in my life or what I’ve read in the Scriptures, writing it down is for me it’s like so much, it sticks so much more and so the Daily Audio Bible journal, as well as all kinds of things to write with are there in the Daily Audio Bible Shop as well as a bunch of other stuff. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop and see if there isn’t something there that can take your journey a little bit further.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, well, first of all thank you, humbly, humbly, it’s awe inspiring that there is a community of people around the world, around the Global Campfire taking this journey step-by-step, day-by-day forward, each and every day and I’m deeply grateful to be on this journey together with you. And if that rhythm and this community around the Global Campfire makes a difference in your life, then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Prayers and Encouragements:

Good morning DAB family. Finally, I figured I’d call in and oh, my name is James, just James. I’ve been listening since December 2020. Which was the time when the COVID was sweeping through the prison and it was quite a still moment in the prison. I’ve been locked up since I was 21, I just got out after 30 years. And, man DAB and listening to the family and everything is such a blessing. And … hearing the way that Brian reads the word of God and the prayers and just being able to be connected to the family of Christ throughout the whole world is a tremendous blessing, especially when you’re in there and you don’t have any family, so many people in there. And I pray for Blind Tony and Kingdom Seeker Daniel and it just, not just the pillars in the DAB family but also everyone that calls in and all the prayers and just each and everyone. And I’ll call back more when I can but I just wanted to let everyone know that it’s so wonderful to be a part of the family. Alright, God Bless.

Good morning, everybody its Annette Alison from Oklahoma City. Hello, my friends. I want to thank all you people out there in Daily Audio Bible land. I had the dreaded COVID. I did survive obviously so I’m calling you now. My lungs hurt and it’s kind of hard to breath still and I have some ikky in my just sinus stuff I can’t get rid of it and nothing seems to work. I’ve done the sprays the medicines, everything, you name it. Man, I just thank you all for keeping me in your prayers and thoughts. And many of you called and text and messaged and I can’t thank you all enough. I’m praying for all those out there who are still are getting down in it. So, anyway, hey, I love you all, have a wonderful, wonderful day. Take care, bye bye.

Hi, Daily Audio Bible friends this is Kimberly. I’m calling in to request prayer. It’s been a long two months and I don’t know if anybody heard my prayer request. I believe it probably played on the weekend but I was needing to take care of my parents who contracted COVID and I was able to get over to their house and see the state of how they were doing. And they told me that they were doing better than I found them to be. Anyway, we had to take them, my brother and I needed to take them to the hospital because their O2 stats were not good. And I was able to spend the last four days with my mom in the hospital helping her pass into Jesus’ arms. Two weeks later my father also passed. They were very difficult times but very precious and very traumatic and God was so near. But I’m broken. And I cherish your prayers. I love them so much and I miss them so much. And, while I’m comforted that they are with Jesus right now it doesn’t fill the gap in my heart and the gap between now and when I get to see them again. Seems very long. And I just ask for protection over my thought life. That I can continue to endure it. And lean on Jesus and praise His name. I love you guys. Thank you so much for praying.

Hello family it’s Sharon from Salem, Oregon. I’m calling to share what God did in our church this weekend as an encouragement and also as a request for prayer. We had a guest speaker over the weekend from Amsterdam who shared about his ministry and toward the end of his message, he just honestly, transparently led us in this prayer of repentance and really called us to even come down to the front of the church and get on our knees before God and many of us did that. And it was powerful to see God’s spirit moving in our church which is a very traditional church that’s been around in our city for a long, long time. But God is moving, He’s awakening in us something that’s been slumbering for a long time. He’s awakening in us the heart of the good shepherd who leaves the 99 to seek the one who’s lost. And I just confess that my heart has been cold, my heart has been apathetic and God is awakening that compassion, that hunger for the lost to know the shepherd. So, I just want to praise God because I’ve been praying for many years for revival in my city and I know many others have too and God is, He’s stirring us up, He is preparing us. So, come Lord Jesus, help us to be your hands and feet and light and I pray that amongst all of our churches Lord, awaken us, help us to be ready. In Jesus name. Amen.

Hello, it’s Nobody Gets Left Behind from Colorado. Just checking in with the Global Community, here, just love you guys. I’m just wanting to call in for the lady that didn’t leave a name or an area that she’s from. I just want you to know that you’re not alone and I heard you, I heard your voice, I heard your pain and mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I bind the struggle sister. I bind the spirit of depression in the name Jesus. I’m very proud of you for calling, this is the place to do that, is to ask for prayers. Because you’re gonna be lifted up so many prayers. And I just want you to know that I love you and many, many of us love you and you’re not alone and we hear you. I also just wanted to give a shout out to Blind Tony, just very thankful for your last poem. I did post that on our Colorado DAB Bible study group. We just, we love you guys, you have a big team out here in Colorado. And shout out to all of you that are listening. We love this platform. We love you, Brian, we love you, Jill. We don’t know what we would do without you guys, without this family, without this community. And that’s my log that I’m throwing in. I just wish you all beautiful week, week 43, let’s get it. I love you guys.

Hello, this is Dave from Texas. I want to say a quick prayer this is what August; no October 26 and I’m hearing the message from the anonymous brother that called and talking about how he was backsliding a little bit and struggling with certain sins and he just wanted his voice to be heard and I can definitely relate with that. And I just wanted to tell him that it does get better with time, and the great thing about our relationship with Christ is that He doesn’t have an expectation on, you know, what you can do for Him. It’s a good sign that you are putting your efforts into watering that plant that is your relationship with Christ and it’ll happen, it just takes time. And I’m probably, you’re not ashamed, it’s a good thing because a lot of people get caught up in that trap that is shame and seclude themselves, which is the exact opposite of what you want to do. So, I wanted to let him know that his voice was heard and you know, I wanted to give just a mini praise report and encouragement because I went to school and I was trying to find a good climate to grow my faith, you know, the Daily Audio Bible is great and I look this as my primary church. You know, I pray for you guys every day. But I was able to find brothers, you know, people on campus that I can, you know, relate to and to talk to and share my stories with and what not which is important. So, I pray for all the college students who may not be able go to Sunday service like they used to, you know, back home before COVID. And that they can find, you know, good relationships and a good climate to grow in their faith. Which is very, very important. Thank you, guys, love you guys, praying for all of you guys, Brian, the family and yup, thank you.

Lamentations 1:1-2:22, Philemon 1:1-25, Psalms 101:1-8, Proverbs 26:20

Today is the 29^th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today. It’s kind of a day of transition for us because Old and New Testaments both bring us brand-new territory today. And both of those territories that we’re moving into are very different than the other territories we’ve encountered so far in the Scriptures. This…this new territory we’re going into in the New Testament we will move through it in one day, today. It’s a letter and we’ll read the whole letter today. In the Old Testament we’re moving into territory that we…that we honestly don’t usually embrace. We try to avoid it. We’re moving into mournful territory and a book called Lamentations. And lamenting is something that we try to…those of the kinds of things we suppress and try to press down unless they just spill over, just lamenting.

Introduction to the book of Lamentations:

So, this book of Lamentations is…is actually poems. Its five poems and they’re…they’re poems of lament and there poems lamenting the fall and destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem, which is what we witnessed as we concluded the book of Jeremiah yesterday. And we…we can look at this and go, “that happened a very, very, very long time ago, thousands of years back in history. And, so, yeah, we don’t need to lament the destruction of Jerusalem. It got rebuilt. It’s a thriving metropolis in this day and age.” But to kinda be in the right mindset to go into this, we need to understand that these people…everything that gave them an identity, a spiritual identity in the temple of God, a national identity in a capital city of Jerusalem, it’s destroyed. So, you have to think about it in terms of like Mexico City is destroyed or New York City or Los Angeles is destroyed or London is destroyed or Sydney is destroyed or Cape Town is destroyed. And I’m not saying any of those cities are up for destruction. I’m saying that’s the magnitude that these laments come from. Their national capital, their identity, their spiritual heritage, it’s destroyed. And, so, you can only imagine the soul wrenching feeling of just as upside down is life can get. You’re being taken away by force to a new…a new land away from your homeland because the homeland that you had is no more. It’s destroyed. Jerusalem’s walls have fallen. Armies have rushed in. Babylonian soldiers have entered the temple complex, entered the temple, entered the holy of holies, and stole things and destroyed and desecrated. The stench of death is in the air. Blood is in the streets. Thick black smoke from fires all over the city because the fires are burning the city up. The city is being destroyed. The name for this book Lamentations in Hebrew is Ica and that means how, how, how, could this happen to us. Of course, with the benefit of reading Jeremiah just before this we know how it could and how it did happen. Warnings had come for decades. Nobody was listening. And then when it was going down everybody’s trying to figure out how to get out of it instead of embracing what’s happening, which is what the prophet Jeremiah was saying. And, so, we know that Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 B.C. So, approximately 586-ish years before the ministry of Jesus. And it’s likely that these poems of lament were written shortly after the destruction. So, in the Hebrew culture, even until today the ninth day of Av in their calendar Lamentations is read. It’s a day of fasting. It’s a day of remembering. It’s a day that commemorates the fall of Jerusalem. And each of these poems gives a backdrop for that, but it also gives a backdrop because it’s accessing this deep, deep lamentation. That’s the right word, this deep longing and anguish in the soul and it’s being given voice. Again, that lets us know like this…there’s a whole book dedicated to this in the Bible. So, giving voice to the feelings that…that we encounter in our lives. That is not only okay. It’s helpful. It…it let’s it be said. It lets it out. It…it frees us in some sort of way. Like, we've…we’ve hit this bottom place of sadness where it feels like there’s no way to be more sad then we have reached the fullness of the grief or of the sadness and in that place it’s possible to find hope because we’ve reached the bottom of it, the fullness of it. And we acknowledge it and we let it be what it is knowing that the only place to go from here is a step forward and that step forward, even as small as it is and insignificant as it is is a new beginning. And, so, that is the language that we are headed into in the Old Testament, the book of Lamentations. Today chapters 1 and 2.

Introduction to the letter to Philemon:

Okay. And that brings us to some new territory as we turn the page now and move into the New Testament. And, so, we come to the final letter from the apostle Paul and it is a…another personal letter. We read…well…we read first and second Timothy and then Titus and those are known as the pastoral letters and they are personal letters, but they’re personal letters to sons in the faith who are pastors with counsel as…as pastors. This letter to Philemon is really short. We’ll read it all in one day, today and it’s likely that this letter to Philemon, this kind of personal note was delivered to Philemon along with the letter that is in the Scriptures, the letter to the Colossians because Philemon was a leader in the church at Colossae. But this isn’t one of the pastoral letters and it’s not a letter to a pastor. This is a personal note to Philemon who was probably one of the more influential but church congregants in Colossae, probably a person of wealth. According to the letter there was a congregation that met in his home and Philemon had a servant named Onesimus. Onesimus ran away from Philemon, probably stealing from Philemon. And, so, as a runaway slave there's…well…justice will be served on Onesimus if he gets caught, right? And if he stole from Philemon then we’re talking death penalty. So, Onesimus flees Colossae and flees away from his master Onesimus ends up in Rome, probably to disappear. Like this is a big city where you can disappear. But Paul actually was in Rome as well and he was under house arrest, awaiting his trial. And the twist or the serendipity of it or…or God’s providence in it was that Onesimus ended up in contact with Paul. And as Paul begins to teach and Onesimus begins to listen Onesimus becomes a follower of Jesus and then Onesimus stays in Rome serving Paul’s needs willingly. He’s a runaway slave but he’s choosing to serve Paul. So, a little later in the story then Paul writes the letter that we know as Colossians. And it was his intention to send Tychicus, who’s a person that we’ve heard of who’s been a messenger for Paul before. He was sending Tychicus to hand deliver the letter to the church in Colossae, but he also writes this personal note to Philemon and he sends Onesimus back, back as a brother in Christ, not back as a returned runaway slave although Onesimus may have a penalty. And he’s committed crimes. And, so, he…if Philemon wants to press into it Onesimus could die. And you can almost hear the way that Paul would counsel Onesimus. It’s not in the letter, but if we just kind of look at the back story here, Paul’s in prison, he has been through an awful lot on his missionary journeys. And we…we’ve analyzed all of that. We’ve read all of it and looked at all of it. He struggled a lot. So, for him to say to Onesimus, “you’re gonna have to take this step of faith. Yes, yes, your life could end. It is a possibility. But I’m sending a letter. You’re gonna have to take the step of faith and go back and do what is right.” And, so, Onesimus did obey and…yeah…that would’ve been frightening. But this letter serves to kind of stand in the gap there. Like Paul’s presence is in this story. And, so, this little note does pack a punch, showing us forgiveness and it and it teaches us that no matter how…like we don’t own slaves and we’re very against that now, but we may be in authority over people and our authority over them may hold consequences. For example, if we are the boss at a company and we have employees or people who work for us and we’re the department head or something and we have the power to end their job then that can tremendously affect their lives. So, Paul points out, like if you are over somebody and they are a believer then they are to be treated as family, brothers and sisters in the Lord. But the whole story itself really does show us that God works things together for the good of those who love Him. And with that the letter to Philemon.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word and this new territory that we have entered into in the book of Lamentations and Philemon. And because we’ve gone through Philemon today that means we’re moving into new territory again tomorrow. And, so, we thank you for this. This is how the year goes and this is how the Bible goes as we reach shorter and shorter books. We move complexion and territory. And, so, we invite your Holy Spirit into all of the transitions that…that happen in the Scriptures, but that happen in our lives too. We have determined to be strong and to finish strong. And, so, as we reach almost the end of another month seeing the weeks out in front of us that is our commitment. We have journeyed every day of this year and that is what we will continue to do. So come Holy Spirit. There is so much…so much left for us to learn and glean and plant and harvest in our lives from the Scriptures. And, so, we invite you to lead us into all truth. And we ask this 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. So, check it out. Stay tuned and stay connected. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access most if not all of these things from within the app by pre-pressing the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner.

And that will get you to the things like…like the Community section where the…the Prayer Wall lives, where there’s always a resource day or night to reach out toward one another, either asking for help in prayer or asking God to help people that we are reading about and hearing their stories and responding to them. So, certainly check out the Prayer Wall.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com also. There is a link on the homepage. And thank you. Thank you. If the journey that we are on is meaningful and life-giving than thank you for your partnership. It…it wouldn’t be a journey at all if we weren’t in this together. And, so, thank God that we are. So, there is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill, Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello DABbers this one goes out to a special young lady named Asia from Chicago. I was thinking about you. I’ve been thinking about you. This is Asia from the city of angels. Must be your twin sister somewhere. And I just wanted to reach out to you and just give you a hug, just let you know that you will be OK, That God has you, that whatever you’re going through it will come to pass and to be still and to just hold on and know that you are enough. You are enough in the eyes of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, that He will never leave you nor forsake you. That’s a promise that you can hold on to. I’m just thinking about you and I’m praying for you. God bless you.

Hello DAB family this is Anne from Arizona. I am so encouraged to hear Janice calling in and telling us about the miraculous that’s happening to her husband. It is so encouraging when believers call in and talk about the miracles and the answered prayer. I am so encouraged because indeed God is a good God. So, family continue to call in and to tell us about the answered prayer. It definitely encourages the body of Christ for us to continue praying and for us to continue uplifting others and even for our faith to be lifted up and to be built because indeed God is a God who answers prayer and He’s a God who does the miraculous. So, thank you. Also want to thank the lady who called in who is looking for a job because she was…she needed a job to…to stop the boredom being at home. And this was a while back. So, I’m also encouraged that you called in and you told us about God answering your prayer. So, this is Anne from Arizona, and this is October the 25^th.

Hello DAB this is Tyra from Texas. This past month…these past few weeks I’ve been burnt out. I went from having high levels of stress and anxiety to just being tired and not wanting to do anything and just feeling very blah. But I kept within Christ. I struggled and I failed, and I got back up and it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions and I don’t wanna say I’m tired, but I am, you know, seeking rest, seeking peace, and seeking the same joy and the same, you know, experiences from God that I did if…the month before. I know things are never perfect, but like today’s sermon said, you know, Bible reading to endure and to keep going and to keep going with God and that we can’t do things ourselves. So, this is just some encouragement from me. Everyone, you know, who’s still in school, still trying to struggle with school and work, keep going, endure, find people, find a family that you love and trust. Bear your heart to Christ and to God and leave it all of the altar. Leave it all in your prayers and prayerfully we can all make it through this, you know, trial…these trials that we’re all in. So, thank…

Hi DAB, this is Shiloh from Missouri. I’m just calling for those going through emotional, spiritual pain. I know what it feels like to have deep emotional pain and hurt. And Lord I just pray that Your Holy Spirit, Your angels and Your people be sent to those who are hurting today. Let Your Holy Spirit just wrap them in a big hug and let them feel that promise that they will get through this, You will be there with them to see them through on the other side. You’ve been with me Lord time and time again and You’ve always got me through. And there is redemption, there is hope, there is happiness, there is joy. Let those things be brought to Your people today who…who are hurting and even those who are not Your people who are alone in the dark hurting by themselves. Let them find Your light in Jesus’ name.

Hey, I just wanted to praise and thank God for our brother, I believe his name was Terry Claims that’s an incarcerated brother and he said he began his walk on January 3^rd and found the Daily Audio Bible and has been listening. I thank you brother for calling in, encouraging me and hopefully others that you are out there and you’re finding your way to God and you will be out there wherever you are just praising God and bringing…bringing others…showing others the glory of God. I thank you for showing that to me. And keep the faith and stay strong and stay with us.

I am just responding to the young lady that called in to thank the community for prayer when her local church family had let her down even though she had admitted that she had contemplated suicide. This resonated with me as this has happened to me also. And what I’ve learned is do not put your trust in people because we are human and will disappoint and let people down; however, God will never ever let you down. So, just keep praying to God who knows your situation. And just want you to have a relationship with Him and He will come through for you. Of that I have no doubt. So, God bless you and I am praying for you.

Jeremiah 51:54-52:34, Titus 3:1-15, Psalm 100:1-5, Proverbs 26:18-19

Today is the 28th day of October, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you, just hanging out here around the Global Campfire. As we come together and offload the burdens and cares and concerns of life, kind of leave them, I don’t know, back at the beginning of the path that leads out here to the Global Campfire, I don’t know. Just leave them, we can go get them, they won’t go away. They are the cares and concerns of life. So, it’d be great if somebody stole them, or they did run away, but we can go back and get them so let’s not worry about giving ourselves permission to be at peace for a few minutes because this is our place right, this is the place would come around this Global Campfire and we’ve come to seek wisdom from the Scriptures, we’ve come to take the next step forward together. And so, often when we take just a little time, even though we might think this day is crazy or this week is crazy or my life is upside down and it’s crazy and I don’t have time for anything, we do though, we do, we have time for peace because it’s been given to us as a gift and if we can get quiet, the way we’re looking at things becomes significantly less frantic and we don’t feel the need to just keep reacting. We can begin to be proactive; we can begin to think about where we want to be heading, in the directions that we want to be going as the Lord leads us and we do this by showing up every day, in part, allowing the Scriptures to wash into our lives, into our minds, into our hearts and give us direction and clarity. So, it’s awesome to be here with you today, awesome that we can take this next step forward together and today’s step will lead us for the final time this year into the book of Jeremiah. We will conclude the book of Jeremiah today. We’re reading from the New International Version this week; Jeremiah 51 verse 54 through 52 verse 34.

Commentary:

Okay, a couple of things to pay attention to today or take note of. We concluded the book of Jeremiah today and the way the book ends is with the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. Now, we’ve been moving along with kind of exile language and battles and we’ve sort of known that this is coming and even known that it happened but let’s take note of it here because we’re once again seeing the end of the Israel we’ve been following since the book of Genesis. This whole family of Abraham and all of their journeys. Their 400 hundred years in slavery, their formation as a people, the giving of the law, the conquering of the promise land that is the land we’re talking about here and the holy city of Jerusalem and God’s temple being built. We’re reading of the destruction of that and it’s never whole again. We’ve watched his family, the family of Abraham become 12 tribes and then we watched the tribes split into two nations who were at war with each other some of the time. And then we watch the northern kingdom be carried away into exile and now Judah is destroyed, as well as the city of Jerusalem. It’s over. There will be people who get to come back, but they’re never in charge again, even in the time of Jesus ministry. They weren’t in charge again right. That’s why they wanted a Messiah; somebody to go into Jerusalem and storm all of these government buildings and take over and take charge again. Obviously, Jesus was revealing the kingdom of another kind. But the point is what we read today is the end of the kingdom of Judah. We also concluded Titus, Paul’s pastoral letter to Titus today, which means we have concluded the pastoral epistles and in tomorrow’s reading we will encounter the final letter from Paul in the New Testament and actually, it’s a very short letter, we’ll talk about it tomorrow, but we’ll read it in one day, so we have one day left with the apostle Paul for this year and then we will be moving forward into to other letters of great significance. But let’s also look at what the voice of wisdom is speaking to us from Proverbs today. We talked about grabbing a stray dog by the ears yesterday and that that is like inserting yourself into a conflict that isn’t yours to insert yourself into. Today’s Proverb is no less poignant. Like a maniac, right, can we just take this slow, like maniac, shooting flaming arrows of death right. So, this is a person that you don’t want to be in proximity to, because this is a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death. I don’t want flaming arrows of death being shot at me by a maniac and I don’t suppose that you do either. Let’s finish this, like a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death is one who deceives their neighbor and says I was only joking. So, a person who lies and then says it was a joke, who belittles and then says it was a joke, who is deceptive and then says it was just a joke. We’ve probably encountered scenarios like that. Maybe we are the offender and what’s being pointed out in the Proverbs today and typically if this happens right, and then the persons like it was just a joke, I was just joking and they get called out on it then what’s the response, to place all of the shame back on us by saying, can’t you take a joke right, and then this becomes a circle. It’s just like craziness. It’s the person who hurt you on purpose and then says I didn’t mean anything by it. When you know they meant everything by it. Sometimes this is the norm. The kind of norm that happens in certain kinds of relationships that they can be abusive. So, if…if you’re the person that’s always hurt by people who make you feel like you can’t take a joke or they didn’t mean it, then you have this Proverb here telling you, you’re not the crazy one, you’re in the proximity of a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death. How’s that for a stark analogy. But if that’s you, and that is the way you do things is to kind of snipe at people and then say you were just joking and they should be able to take a joke and you didn’t really mean it the way that they took it, even though you know that that’s deceptive and you did mean it. Well, if you want to be a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death, then continue on the path that you’re walking. But if it’s a stark enough analogy to get our attention. Then, once again, we should examine ourselves and the way that we behave, the way that we try to hurt people and then get away with it and make it their fault, because it was just a big joke. Just a big misunderstanding. You didn’t mean it that way. And look, sometimes we don’t mean it that way. Sometimes, something gets misunderstood and some feelings get hurt in a relationship or whatever and we actually did, that was not the purpose. That’s not what the Proverbs is talking about here. The Proverbs talking about intentionality and just like yesterday, like I seriously don’t know like if we could all raise our hands and see each other. Nobody’s going to say yeah I want to be a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death with my words. That’s my goal in life. None of us want to be that, none of us would confess to being that, but we may need to own up to the fact that we have been that by hurting people and then pretending that it was just a big misunderstanding.

Prayer:

And so, Father, even as we conclude Jeremiah and conclude the letter to Titus and prepare our hearts to move forward into new territory. Tomorrow, we are right here right now and wisdom is speaking loud and clear these last couple of days and so we invite Your Holy Spirit into this. We want to walk in wisdom, we will have to be willing to be self-reflective enough to own our stuff. If we want to become wise and so we are inviting Your Holy Spirit to help us see the ways that we, in big or small ways, participate in behaviors that are not going to do anything productive. Holy Spirit, come we pray, in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website, that is where to go to find out what’s happening around here, or the app the Daily Audio Bible app will get you there as well by pushing the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a bunch of resources in there, some of them just centered around the idea that we come around the Global Campfire together each day and so there’s a whole Global Campfire section in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. But then there are also resources for going deeper, things to read, things to listen to, The God of Your story, which is a written 365 day, it’s kind of written in devotional format, it’s 365 day dated book, but it is, well, it is in written form what was mined from the first 13 years of the Daily Audio Bible and written down, which is totally a different way to engage with the material than an auditory, than listening. So, yeah, it works fantastic as just taking each passage that we read each day deeper. Like, maybe listen in the morning and review kind of the God of your story in the evening to help it sink in a little bit deeper. Or, if you’re ever away from the Internet and you have to go old school and crack open the Bible and want to kind of continue that Daily Audio Bible rhythm then God of Your story is a resource for that. They’re all kinds of resources in the Shop so, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want a partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what we’re doing here, around the Global Campfire this rhythm that is constant, that is daily, bringing the spoken word of God read fresh daily and given to whoever will listen to it, wherever they may be in life or on this planet, no matter what time it is, no matter what’s going on, it’s there. If that is life-giving and meaningful to your life than 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’s the little red button up at the top or there are a number of telephone numbers that you can dial depending on where you are in the world: in the Americas, that would be 877- 942-4253, if you’re in the UK or Europe 44-2036-088078 is the number to call, and if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61 3 8820 5459 is the number to dial.

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

Jeremiah 51:1-53, Titus 2:1-15, Psalms 99:1-9, Proverbs 26:17

Today is the 27^th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today. And we’ve come. We’ve come for the same thing that we come for every day, the next step forward in the Scriptures around the Global Campfire as we continue our journey. And wow! We are approaching the end of another month and at this point there’s not too many more of those left. But I don’t want to think about that right now. I want to be here where we are taking the next step forward, moving together deeper into the Scriptures. So, today we will move back into the book of Jeremiah, where we’ve been camping out. We are going to finish the book of Jeremiah in tomorrow’s reading. But today is today. So, Jeremiah chapter 51 verses 1 through 53.

Commentary:

Okay. When we come to this proverb in chapter 26, “like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears”, that always perks me up because we have dogs and it it’s like imagery that we can truly relate to quickly. “Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel, not their own.” And as the years go by and I read this proverb I think it’s more about the Internet than dogs. But let’s look at it. If you have a dog, then you kinda know how dogs are. We’ve…we’re dog lovers. We love our dogs. We have a couple of dogs, one big and one small. And Lucy’s our big dog and she is the sweetest dog…sweetest dog I’ve ever been around to be honest, and she actually likes her ears scratched. She loves that love, but I know that if I were to sneak up on her while she’s asleep and grab her by the ears she would freak out. I don’t if she would bite me or not. It just depends on how surprised she was. Our little dog Maggie would for sure freak out and snap. But the proverb’s talking about a stray dog, sneaking up and grabbing a stray dog who doesn’t know you by the ears. That’s probably not a good idea. What the proverb is telling us that what also is not a good idea is rushing into a quarrel that is not yours. And I don’t know, to that sounds like social media because that kind of behavior is going on 24 hours a day seven days a week. We may not always be experiencing it, but it’s always going on and a lot of the time we’re adding to the noise for no real redeeming reason other than our insatiable need to be seen. But typically we don’t like it aimed at us, right? If you have a friendship with somebody and that person, like you sit down to have lunch once a week once a month, I don’t know, whenever you get together and what they want to talk about is their opinions about everything and then they insert their opinions and everything about what you’re sharing as well and…and they dive into every…every conflict that they can because they have an opinion about it. I saw some clip from a comedian a couple months ago. It was simply begging the question, is it…is it actually necessary that everybody express their opinion about everything that happens in their life. And it was funny, but the question was, ultimately, can anybody not express their opinion for one hour about anything? And I guess in this Internet age if you…if you just start perusing the Internet, you’ll find that it doesn’t seem like it’s possible. Everybody’s got something to say about everything. People are constantly inserting themselves into places that they were not invited and do not belong into conflicts that are not their own, which usually just perpetuates more conflict, right? If you’ve got somebody inserting themselves into your life uninvited with an opinion about something, they’re inserting themselves into a conflict that you’re having but you haven’t invited them and they habitually do this, probably eventually, no matter how long-suffering you are…you’re gonna snap and you’re gonna snap at them like a stray dog whose ears have been grabbed by a stranger, unannounced, uninvited. So, I think we get the meaning here of what wisdom is speaking into our lives today. With wisdom, I guess it’s a matter of whether or not were listening. And, so, the first thing we should do is just examine ourselves, inviting God into it. Are we…do we insert ourselves into places that we don’t belong way more often than we should? And why? Why? Why are we doing that? But if we can identify that we do…that we do do that and it’s probably not healthy and…and we kind of sort through maybe some of the whys we should also examine just how much energy it’s taking to be involved in these things. I mean seriously, because when we think about how much energy it’s taking then we start thinking about how much time it’s taking. And when we start thinking about how much time it’s taking, we’re talking about our very lives, how much of our very lives it’s taking to participate in this kind of behavior that very rarely ever ends well. I suppose it’s possible that you could grab a stray dog by the ear, unannounced, uninvited and surprise that dog and it doesn’t freak out but that is certainly not the norm. And, so, why do we insert ourselves and spend our lives, at least a portion of our…the gift of life on this planet in ways that aren’t going to work or end well and we already know it? And what if we took all that energy and applied it to something that would work out well in some facet of our lives? Imagine the energy we could reclaim by just staying out of things we don’t belong in and not having opinions about things that don’t have anything to do with us? It’s at least food for thought.

Prayer:

Father, thank you for the Scriptures. Thank you for the advice from the lips of wisdom today directly aimed at us from thousands of years ago but landing squarely because it applies to us. This is timeless wisdom, and we live in a time where we need to consider what wisdom is saying. So, help us Holy Spirit to examine ourselves. Are we offering endless opinions about nearly everything? How much of our lives are we wasting doing that? Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobile.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you where you find out what’s happening around here. It’s the place to go and get connected. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access pretty much all of the things that you can access on the web by pushing the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner of the app screen.

So, one of the things that you’ll find in there is the Community section. This is where to go to find the different links to the places that we are…well…that we exist on social media and interact there. So, check that out. The Community section is also the home of the Prayer Wall and that’s something that is mentioned often because it should be. It’s a constant reminder that there is a place to go to matter what time of day or night it is and share your story. But it’s also a place no matter what time of day or night it is to go and…and hear other people’s stories, read other people’s stories and engage in prayer and uplift, kind of hold each other up and let one another know that we’re here. We’re not out here out randomly. We’re…we’re here. There’s actually really people who pray for one another. And, so, the Prayer Wall is definitely a place to check out for that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that dailyaudiobible.com, also there is a link on the homepage. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174. And thank you, humbly, deeply, profoundly for your partnership. A journey we are on is a journey to be taken together and wouldn’t be taking this journey if we weren’t in this together. And, so, thank you humbly for your partnership.

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 of the app screen, looks like a little red button. It’s hard to miss. You can just press that no matter where you are in the world, 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.

Jeremiah 49:23-50:46, Titus 1:1-16, Psalm 97:1-98:9, Proverbs 26:13-16

Today is the 26th day of October, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is fantastic to be here with you today, as we continue our journey forward taking the next step forward, which is going to lead us back to the book of Jeremiah. We will finish the book of Jeremiah this week and it is a longer book and so we’ve camped out for a while now, but we are reaching its conclusion. When we get to the New Testament, we will enter a new letter from the apostle Paul. Of course, we finished second Timothy yesterday so, we sort of bid farewell to the apostle Paul because that is thought to be the last writing of his life, and it’s pretty well indicated in the letter itself, but we still have a couple short letters left to work with as we move through the New Testament that are from Paul and Titus is one of them. So, we’ll talk about that when we get there, but first we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Jeremiah chapter 49 verse 23 through 50 verse 46.

Introduction to Book of Titus:

Alright, so as we we’re talking about just a few minutes ago when we started today, we have a new letter to move into, this is known as Titus. It is a letter from the apostle Paul. Although many scholars dispute these pastoral epistles in terms of whether Paul wrote it or whether it was in the next generation of Pauline school of theology and thought, not that there was such a thing, but this was passed down and then these were written by a later generation. And we already talked about that when we talked about I Timothy. The reason, well, there’s a number of reasons that specific kinds of scholars would think things like this and it’s not to denigrate the New Testament in any way it’s just thought that certain structures, certain ways of doing things in the early church, church governance type things were developments that didn’t happen in Paul’s lifetime and it’s not a new phenomenon, like, this is been thought, these kinds of disputes, have been thought for a long time, centuries. But tradition certainly gives us this from Paul and it is part of the three letters known as the pastoral letters. And we’re like a little bit out of order because we read I Timothy and probably in time chronologically, what would’ve happened is that I Timothy and Titus were likely written simultaneously or pretty close together, whereas II Timothy is thought to be the last thing Paul wrote. And so, the way that the scenario goes is that Paul was imprisoned in Rome, was kind of house arrested, like had some mobility, had some freedoms but was still under arrest to stand trial before the Emperor and was subsequently released from that first imprisonment. And so, Paul goes on another missionary journey then and during that travel is when I Timothy and Titus were probably written and then was rearrested under Emperor Nero and was thrown into the dungeon that he described in II Timothy that we read yesterday and then from there, was executed. And so, if Paul’s released and Titus accompanies Paul to the island of Crete and they’re going to share the good news there and the Cretans had never heard the good news, they didn’t know about Jesus and they were known to be very carnal people. But when Paul shared the good news, faith arose and a little church formed. So, Paul left Titus to form the church and to form the leadership around the church so that they could navigate their culture like all of the other churches. And this wouldn’t be work that Titus was completely unfamiliar with. Paul had sent him to do this kind of thing to be an ambassador, carrying the letters to different churches, going into difficult situations in churches and reporting back to Paul. This would be something that Titus had experience with and so Paul then leaves Titus on the island of Crete to form this church and then departs. And while he’s traveling, then, right, I Timothy, a letter to his son in the faith and the pastor in Ephesus, Timothy and also writes a letter and sends it back to the island of Crete to Titus. Certainly, encouraging Titus to continue his work. The work that had been assigned, but also now it’s in writing, right, so Titus has this letter that grants him apostolic authority from the apostle Paul and it’s in writing and so as we’ve seen in other letters from Paul people came in after Paul left and tried to change all kinds of things and started questioning all kinds of things, especially Paul’s authority. So now this late in the game, Paul understands some of this, so this letter in writing authorizes Titus to essentially work in Paul’s name in organizing this congregation that is being established in Crete. And church governance structure that’s found in the pastoral epistles tells Titus about pastors and criteria, and deacons and criteria to look for in them, very similar to what we read in I Timothy. But for Paul to put it in writing in a letter to Titus and send it back not only gives Titus, Paul’s authority but also gives instructions so these Cretins who have accepted the good news they don’t know what a deacon is a pastor is and so Paul puts it in writing for Titus so that Titus can say see this, this is how we do this this, this is what Paul is telling us to do. And again as we move through those portions of the letter, we will recognize this criteria and again anyone in seminary or moving toward ordained ministry is likely to encounter these passages in the New Testament, it is likely to be a part of a discernment process, it’s likely to be part of, of the ordination process because as, as we’ve talked about before, it may look like an easy job, but it is not an easy job to lead God’s people. So, with that in mind, Titus chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and thank You for this new territory that we are in the letter to Titus and even as we round the corner and move to conclude the book of Jeremiah, we invite You Holy Spirit, to come, lead us into all truth, lead us into what we need to absorb from the Scriptures and apply these things to our lives, shifting paradigms, changing the entire story because that’s what You do and that’s what You have done. You have changed our entire story. The ending of our story is very different than the one we were living before we understood how desperately You love us. And so, we are grateful and we come to the Scriptures each and every day to be fed by You that You might lead us into all truth, that You might lead us in the way that we should go. That You might give us context and understanding. Holy Spirit, come we pray in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here so, like always stay tuned, stay connected in any way that you can and in any way that you want to. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop either on the web or in the app. There are resources there for the journey that we are on, everything from fresh roasted coffee that can be delivered to you or freshly sourced tea that can be delivered to you or even, even our Windfarm travel packs, steeped coffee, which is my go-to for travel but I’m a little bit of a snob when it comes to coffee, not everybody’s like that, but yeah, we have the solution where you can steep your own Windfarm coffee that’s available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Written resources, things for you to write in, the Daily Audio Bible Journal, the black wing pencils, things to wear, just check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop to extend this adventure of a lifetime that we are sharing together as we continue our journey through the Scriptures.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage. And thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. It’s awe-inspiring that day after day, for all of these years we keep taking steps forward together, together. And so, thank you for your partnership. 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 or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello DAB family this is Tony the Truck Driver. Just checking in, I know I haven’t called as much as I used to but I’m still listening every day, still praying for everybody and all that, I was just real encouraged to call in cause I heard my brother, CoolBrother2003, gave me a shout out and it just dawned on me how many lives we’ve touched, you know, praying for each other and over the years I’ve been listening for probably about the same time, over ten years. It just, never stops amazing me, the community and the family that we have here, that we can pray for each other and just be connected. I just want to thank Brian and Jill and the whole DAB family for this platform and thanks you guys, just never-ending doing God’s work. And I just want to encourage everybody that we continue to do His work, to be His hands and His feet in this world. With so many things going on that we have thing Global Campfire to come to that we could just fellowship with each other and pray for each other is amazing. And I just wanna give a shout out to everybody there, Asia this morning, I know she’s been listening for a while. We just lift you up Asia. Whatever you’re going through, the Lord knows you and He knows what you’re going through and just trust Him to see you through. And for everybody here DAB family, I love you. Let us continue to be His hands and feet. Shout out to my brother Blind Tony and let us just continue to do our Father’s work. Thank you DAB, love you guys. Bye Bye.

I’m calling from Georgia and I was just calling to say how grateful I am to the Daily Audio Bible with all the people who call in for prayer requests, for the reading and just the explanation of the Scriptures. Like many of you, I’ve had my spot on my porch, 5/530, the darkness and my dog. And I just sit here and pray and hear what is said and it is just a very, very refreshing time of my day. And I just wanna say I’m thankful for it, all the work that goes into it and all the people who are so willing to participate and share. My prayer request is I am a teacher and a coach in the public school system. And I just want to claim Ephesians 6 that I will work as if I’m working for the Lord that I will shine for Him and be a difference that people see. I wanna be successful at it, I want to be helpful and I want God to be glorified to do what I do. So, I just ask that you pray for public school teachers and coaches as we are in the midst of an educational world that doesn’t necessarily want God to be a part of it. So, thank you.

Hi Daily Audio family. My name’s Kate, I’ve been listening to Daily Audio Bible for a good ten years now. This is my first time calling in actually. I’m in the UK here and just asking for prayer for mine and my husband’s financial situation. My husband was running a business that really struggled through the pandemic and just about came out the other side and then it just, a couple things happened where it just kind of fell, fell flat really. So, he had to get a job. He’s looking to close the business that was six months ago but now He’s just lost that job, it was a temporary position. We thought it might go on longer but he just left the job and then the business just took a severe turn in the last 24 hours as well. So, financially it’s not good for the business and us personally. There’s gonna be a lot of debt involved and his lawyers were taken out in our names and it just is gonna fall back on us. So, if you could pray for our financial situation, my husband could get a job and that we could pay of these debts. We have two small toddlers, if you could pray that everything is covered. We would really appreciate that, thank you. And then just pray that we just continue to walk in peace. We know God’s got it but it’s hard emotionally sometimes, especially in the last 24 hours, there’s been a lot of tears. So, thank you so much for praying, love you all.

Hello everyone. I don’t know how to say this and I have been trying over and over and over again to say it. I just want someone to hear that I am going through some struggles, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I have confessed and I believe that Jesus is my savior but I have walked away and not been as active as I used to be. And I go through a struggle that many of us also do. And it’s very depressing. It’s a very depressing thing to want to know and to glorify God and yet fall into the same, same struggle over and over again. I’m just asking for prayer. Just asking for an ear to hear my voice and to know that I am not alone in this struggle. Thank you for hearing this. Have a great rest of ya’lls day or night, whatever time it is.

Good morning, everybody this is God’s Smile here. I’ve been having quite a few thoughts this week as I do with the Lord and I thought I’d just share with everyone. It’s no great revelation it went in deep and it just blessed me. I was thinking about seeds and you know, seeds can line a package in the drawer or in your green house or in the shed and their dormant, there’s all the potential in them yet nothing happens while there in that package. And what happens to the seed it gets planted into a dark place; it gets planted into the soil. And I was thinking about our lives and seeds and the growth in God and most of all pain comes from, sorry our understanding and growing comes from planted in that dark place being placed being found ourself put in. And this seed needs a couple of things: it needs light, warmth and water. And that’s what God does to us, He brings His light upon the soil of our life and He waters it and feeds us with His word. And the warmth of His love upon us and all these things encourage us to grow our roots deep and to spring forth and push through that dark place. I was also thinking about bread too, and you know bread needs to be left to rise up to be allowed to have time for it to grow too. These pictures are just really strong in my mind and I just wanted to share them with you. Time’s ticking away again would you believe it. I love you everybody.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible, this is Aussie Bear from Australia. I’ve been just listening to the community prayers and encouragement this morning, it’s Saturday the 23rd of October and it’s just before 8am. And, I just heard a caller from Sydney, Australia, I mean, hello fellow Aussie, that just makes me so excited to hear another Aussie voice on this platform. But listening to her call, my heart just wanted to embrace her and surround her in prayer and in love and in sistership. She was talking about how she’s dealing with a lot of the aftermath from childhood abuse and I am I just wanted to tell her you are so, so courageous, you are so brave to have made the call that you made and to open up the lines for us, as listeners, to pray for you. I just, I don’t know, I went through childhood abuse myself so I can empathize with what you’re dealing with and I just pray that you know that you are being prayed for that you are being loved on and that God has you, God has you. Even though there’ve been probably so many times when you feel like you’re in the dark and that you are so lost, you are not lost to God. And He loves you and He’s got you and He will walk every step of this journey with you. And so, I just wanted to say I love you and I’m praying for you. God bless you sister.