1/3/2024 DAB Transcript pt2

It’s a beautiful book containing some of the most heartfelt poetry and musical poetry ever written and every emotion that we explore in our human experience is explored in the Psalms. There are like heart cries that are so passionate and broken, it’s like hard, it’s hard to believe that they came from thousands of years ago because they feel so immediate, we know what that feels like. And they bridge the gap of time, and we realize that the human heart and the things that we go through are the same. We’re wearing different clothes and using different technology, but the things that go on inside of us are the same. And we’ll also see these mountaintop experiences of absolute tangible presence of God in the Psalms. David, who we haven’t met yet, he’s a king of Israel. And we’ll get to know him really, really well, as we move forward. He was a master musician and so most of the Psalms were penned by him, and even though we’ll get a pretty good biographical sketch of King David as…as we move forward, his heart is really exposed in his art and his craft in the way that he expresses himself. But there are other writers in Psalms too: Solomon, the sons of Kora, Asaph, Ethan and then there are a number of anonymously written or unknown authors that are in the Psalms. But ultimately the purpose of the Psalms is to bring the people together and give them language and to enrich their worship experience and the songs that would’ve been song in the public and in their private homes as they went around and did their business and went about their daily lives. And they’re collected together, and they’ve stood the test of time, and we sing and quote from them now. They’re power is unmatched, it’s some of the beautiful, most beautiful literature in all of the world. Scholars think that Psalms were written over, like a long period of time, maybe from about a thousand years before Christ, until maybe about a hundred and 70 years after. Three different periods in Israel are covered, the first would be during the reign of David and Solomon, which we’ll read, all of their poetry. The second would contain songs written when the children of Israel were taken into exile in Babylon and getting very close up story, picture of that, that exile when we get there. And then the third section would be writings from when they were able to leave exile and return to their land and rebuild. So, we have a large time span, different cultural points in their existence, but the Psalms are cohesive in their purpose: to bring glory and honor to God in authentic, heartfelt way and every conceivable situation that we face in life. So, we started the Psalms a couple days ago, now we’re moving into them. Today we will read Psalm chapter 3, a Psalm of David, regarding the time David fled from his son Absalom.

Commentary:

Okay so, in the first few days, we have a bit of a context for the stories that are unfolding in front of us in the different sections of the Bible. Yesterday, in Genesis, we learned about the fall of mankind from a place of perfection. What we would know as shalom or peace and wholeness, the way things are supposed to be with complete intimacy…intimacy with God. We watched murder, we watched death come into the story. Things that we were never supposed to experience. So, in Genesis today, we jump a thousand years into the future, and we saw how devastating the results had become. The human race had become so corrupted that they were acting like animals with only evil intentions. So much so that God’s heart is broken, and He regretted making them. To see us so far from what the plan was, to see us so far from the perfection that He had made and the intimacy that He had offered, it grieved him. But then we met Noah, the one righteous man. And we saw this thread of redemption start to pull its way into the Bible right here. And this thread of redemption weaves its way through the rest of the Bible. We saw the earth being reset in a great flood.

And as we’re reading in the gospel of Matthew, we’re meeting Jesus. And so, we followed him as he went into the wilderness because we had met John the Baptist and Jesus was baptized. So, we saw Jesus go into the wilderness where He is tempted by the evil one. And while in the… in the wilderness the evil one was tempting Jesus with an invitation to not go through with His mission. So, basically take the easy way out. I’ll give You everything You came here to get. All You have to do is bow down and worship me. We understand what’s going on here though. We just read about Adam and Eve right, just a couple days ago. And they were perfect. There was nothing bad going on and then they rebelled right. We haven’t seen a perfect person upon the earth until now, here in the gospel of Matthew, we’re looking at Jesus, the first perfect person to be upon the earth since Adam, which is why we’ll find Jesus called the second Adam in Scripture. He is a perfect representation of how things were supposed to be. If we remember in the garden of Eden, there was a tremendous deception. What we’re watching in the Gospel of Matthew is this same sort of humanity distorting, temptation and deception being put before Jesus. But we’re just seeing Jesus make a different choice. He stayed true. He was faithful and loyal to the Father. He rebuked the evil one and sent him away. All we have to do though friends is understand that’s not just Jesus, that we are confronting similar deceptions and distortions of who we are and what we are every day. And we’ll either respond like Adam and hide right, Adam and Eve and be naked and ashamed and hiding, or like Jesus and casting away, turning away from what will distort us and deceive us and ruin us. Each day we…we have plenty of forbidden fruit right, and all sorts of various shapes and sizes and in all kinds of categories. We have forbidden fruit. Or we can know God. Right, we can have our knowledge, or we can have God and walk with Him and live with Him intimately in every thought and word and deed. And so, that might be a big thing to think about for life but what about just like today. Is it forbidden fruit today or is it to know God today. And we can make that choice and see how things play out.

Prayer:

And Father, we invite You into that. Come near to us, Holy Spirit and allow us to see the truth before us, allow us to see the path that we are walking. Show us where that is leading. Help us to find the narrow path that leads to life. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, it’s the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app does that and much more. It puts it in the palm of your hand. So, just search for Daily Audio Bible at the App Store that works with your device and jump in from there. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources for our journey that we are on. Check out the Community Section. This is where to get connected and it’s also where the Prayer Wall lives. So, get familiar with that. It is a resource always available to us around the Global Campfire here.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If this mission that we share to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day, and offered freely to anybody who will listen, wherever they may be on this planet, or wherever they may be in their lives, and to build community around the rhythm of just showing up here each day to take another step forward. If that is life-giving to you, then thank you, humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, TN 37174.

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

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

1/3/2024 DAB Transcript pt1

Genesis 5:1-7:24, Matthew 3:7-4:11, Psalm 3:1-8, Proverbs 1:10-19

Today is the third day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you as we take our third step. We got 362 more steps after this to get our way through the year together in community, and all the way through the Bible, but we’re here and we’re in a great part of the story where everything begins to unfold for us. So, let’s dive in and take that next step forward, that will lead us back into the book of Genesis. And today we will read Genesis 5, 6 and 7.

Introduction to the Book of Psalms:

Okay, that brings us to our reading from the Psalms today, and like we said on day one, we’re kind of moving in here this first week. Just getting acclimated, getting used to, sort of the rhythm of things. And so, we started in the Old Testament in Genesis, and we talked about that. And then we talked about Matthew yesterday, because we’re in the gospel of Matthew. So, let’s talk about the Psalms today. The Hebrew word for Psalms is Tehillim, which means praises. And what we read when we’re reading from the Psalms is a collection of 150 songs and hymns and different congregational singings and individual songs and poems of worship. It's…it’s basically five books in one and they’re classified by who wrote them or the theme or the purpose of their use. Some of them give praise to God. Others speak of God and His character or His abilities and actions. Some are songs of repentance and lament, others are songs of thanksgiving, some are songs of the sense to go up to Jerusalem and worship. No matter what the circumstance, the book of Psalms is meant to bring praise and glory, adoration, reverence, honor to God in all of the circumstances of our lives, whatever it is that we’re facing, even if we’re crying out in anguish, there’s language for this, purpose for this. And that is found in Psalms.

1/1/2024 DAB Transcript

Genesis 1:1-2:25, Matthew 1:1-2:12, Psalm 1:1-6, Proverbs 1:1-6

Today is the first day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is awesome to be here with you today, as we gather around a place that we will gather for the next 365 days around the Global Campfire, where we gather in a nice, peaceful, oasis each day, to allow the Scriptures to kind of wash into our lives, orient us to God, and give us the direction and clarity that we need. Sometimes that is the rescue that we need. Sometimes it is the word that we need. Sometimes it is the correction that we need, but it will always be what we need. So, it is great to be here with you today, as we embark on our 19th voyage around the sun, our 19th voyage through the Bible together. This begins year 19 of the Daily Audio Bible. So, that is exciting. It is exciting to be here with you, those of you who have been here all these years, those of you who’ve been here for maybe half of these years, those of you who have been here for a year and those of you who are brand-new today, welcome to the family. Over the next couple of months, as we can settle into the rhythm here, we will become that, a community, a family showing up for each other every day, loving one another, praying for one another and involving ourselves in each other’s stories, as we find our story in the Bible. So, how this works, if this is brand-new for you, is that we will read a little bit of the Old Testament, a little bit of the New Testament. We’ll read from the Psalms and we’ll read from the Proverbs each day and we will make our way through the entire Bible, reading every book, every chapter, every verse as we move through and there’s so much treasure for life out in front of us and we need to dive in. We need to set sail or whatever it is, we’ve all landed here. Here we are. So, let’s begin.

Introduction to the Book of Genesis:

And obviously we have to begin every story at the beginning, and that’s how the story begins in the book of Genesis, that we will begin in a minute. In the beginning and it’s an important first step to us because it gives us the orientation about where we’ve come from and the context that we need to observe our lives and understand where it’s going. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and that will launch us into this adventure. And we’ll travel through all the miles. We’re gonna meet so many fascinating people who will become friends of ours, our spiritual ancestors, their stories and their hearts will be revealed to us, and we’ll find ourselves in their stories. And since we’re about to begin, we need to orient ourselves to the territory that we encounter in the Old Testament. When we think about the book of Genesis, normally we think about the creation story. The irony is that Genesis covers more time than any other book in the Bible. So, there’s the creation story and then about 2500 years pass within the pages of Genesis, which is more time than the rest of the Old Testament combined. So, as we begin Genesis, we have these first 11 chapters and we cover a couple thousand years and a couple thousand miles and then we’ll slow things down and we’ll meet specific generations of people and it’s the family that we watch get shaped in the book of Genesis that influences the rest of the Bible and influences our world until today. And then also, Genesis is a part of a larger grouping of writings that encompass the first five books of the Bible. That’s Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And this grouping is called the Torah. And so, we are beginning with the Torah or the Pentateuch, right now as we begin Genesis chapters 1 and two today.

Commentary:

Okay, so, this is day one of 365 days. And we’re just getting going and so, we talked about the book of Genesis. We probably noticed that we started four books, today, Matthew, Psalms and Proverbs as well. And it would just be a really, really long thing to try to orient ourselves to everything we’re reading all at once. And so, tomorrow we’ll talk about Matthew, just give ourselves little birds eye view of what reading in Matthew. And then we’ll do the Psalms and then we’ll do the Proverbs. And after a couple days here, we’ll be moved in and we’ll be kind of out into the deep and setting sail. And we’ll just get oriented to the community here and all that’s going on over the next few days. But on this first day, as we read in the beginning, we see that God was careful and intentional with His creation, and that our experience as human beings have been fashioned after the image of God. And that the life source within us is from the breath of God Himself. So, according to the Scriptures, we’re being told that this just didn’t all just happen by chance, this happened with intentionality. Each of us are supposed to be here. We each bare the image of God, who is, is intertwined as we’ll see from the Scriptures, so deeply intertwined with our story, that it’s deeper than cells and atoms. And also also, as we’re reading today, we got this amazing, rare view that will not last all the way. Like tomorrow, it’s all going to change. And so, today, on day one, we get this rare view of how things were supposed to be for us. How humans were supposed to be before the story got shifted, a perfect world, perfect people, created in God’s image. So, if we just take a small step back and look around us, then we get this sobering sense that the story somehow shifted over the last several thousand years. And we will get to that over the next few days.

Prayer:

But Father, we thank You for Your word, we invite Your Holy Spirit into this year, into every day, every verse, everything that we do and say, we invite You to lead us into all truth. This is what we have come for, to surrender, to orient ourselves to You, to get clarity and to fall in love with You, as You have loved us. So, come Holy Spirit into this year, into this community. Hover over us, lead us in the way that we should go. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

Alright, so dailyaudiobible.com is the website, that’s where you can find out what is going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app is also available, and you can download that from whatever app store works with your device, just search for Daily Audio Bible, put that on your phone and you can kind of track your progress. All kinds of things are in the app, so check that out and stay connected.

There are places to get connected when you go to the website or the app. One of those is the Community Section, and I’ll talk about that today. The Community Section is definitely where you can get connected on social media, but it is also the place where a very unique thing to this community lives and it’s called the Prayer Wall. And that is always there and it is always on and always available. So, as we begin our journey through the year, we always have a place to reach, we’re not alone. And if the bottom falls out, we can go and share our story, and our brothers and sisters will come around us and encourage and pray for us. And if we are having a mountaintop experience and we remember what the deep valleys feel like, we can go pray for those who are in the valleys, holding each other up, building each other up, loving each other. As we literally stay on the same page as a community, because we’re going through the Bible, and that’s what we’re here to do and that’s pretty much what we do. And so, get connected, stay connected in any way that you can, in any way that you will.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, and thank you, profoundly for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. So, thank you for that.

And let’s just take a deep breath, here we are. We have just left the dock like, we can still see the land if we go out and look. We’ll be out in the deep soon enough, where we won’t see land for a long time, but we’re just leaving on this journey. And it’s gonna be, it’s going to be amazing because the Scriptures are alive, they tell us they’re alive and sharper than any two-edged sword, and that is true, they will become a mirror. They will force us to face ourselves and that is what we need, to face ourselves. We can go through the Scriptures and look at what everybody else should be doing, until we realize oh, this is about me. I should be making these changes. So, the Bible will challenge us to grow and so, I give the challenge on the 1st of January, go look in the mirror, give a good long look. Really look at yourself until maybe you want to look away. Just see where you are today, because this is where you are today. But if every day is immersed in the Scriptures, if you take that one-year journey every day, when we get to December 31st which was like yesterday. When we get there this year, you can look in the mirror again, and you will be looking at a different person. You will be shocked at how things have changed in the way that you view the world and your place in it. And so, I encourage you, buckle up. This is the adventure of a lifetime and I’m excited to be here. And it really doesn’t matter where you are or where you are in life. You may think I’m here, like I’m around a bunch of spiritual people. You’re not. Some people have been believers and reading the Bible for their entire lives, and some of you have just stumbled here. You’re so hung over from last night, you can’t believe what you’ve done. You can’t live with yourself as you go into the new year. So, you stumbled here looking for God for something, for someone, somewhere, for some kind of clarity. That’s great, you’re right where you’re supposed to be. Welcome to the family. All of us are absolutely, completely broken and we’ve come here because these words show us that there is a path to wholeness, and it doesn’t have to stay this way. And it doesn’t have to be this way. And so, let’s lock arms, let’s lock hands, let’s lock hearts, and let’s do this together. We don’t have to stay where we are. We can go forward from here, into a life that is beyond imaginable.

01/02/2024 DAB Transcript Pt2

And it’s definitely…and we’ll see this…it’s definitely coming from the point of view that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies that were expected that He was the Expected One, the Messiah, the Savior, the Anointed One. He was expected and He fulfilled these prophecies and that proves Him to be who He is. And we’ll see that Matthew works really hard. We’ll see Jesus fulfilling a lot of prophecies, but we’ll get to know Jesus. And this is what we’ve come for, to get to know Jesus, to understand who He was, what He said, what He did. What was His personality like? What was His style like? In the gospel of Matthew, we’ll find 20 parables and we’ll see that Jesus uses this kind of teaching method that was very much a rabbinical tradition, to use parables that would illustrate a much deeper meaning. So, can hear a story and then put yourself in a position and…and allow it to sink into your heart and see this…this the symbolism. And it’s so rich and deep with meaning and it creates this sense of emotion or feeling that is beyond just the words. And we’ll see Jesus teaching that way and it’s beautiful. And then we will also see in the gospel of Matthew these rumblings that we will continue to hear of, rumblings of something called the kingdom of heaven, something that was coming, something that was already here, something that was happening now. And Jesus is the King of this kingdom. And, so, today we read from the gospel of Matthew chapter 2 verse 13 through 3 verse 6.

Commentary:

Okay. So, today as we read in the book of Genesis, we watched one of the saddest stories play out in all of the Bible and this story is known as the fall of mankind and it actually shapes the trajectory of the rest of the Bible. So, we’ve encountered a story right at the beginning of a larger story and it will play out that we will see God’s willingness to come here in person as Jesus to rescue creation. So, in the garden of Eden we read today. God offered Adam and Eve the tree of life, and He told them that they could not eat from a tree known as the knowledge of good and evil. And it’s kind of easy to wonder, like, what’s the point of…of prohibiting? Why? Why keep something away from them and even give them this option? But that tree gives us a pretty incredible picture of how deeply God is invested in an actual first-person relationship with us. Because, well, I mean you’ve been in the world. You can…you can fake love, right? Like you can fake that you love somebody, but actual true love, that’s not something that can be faked. Like even somebody that’s enslaved and is beaten, that…that…their behavior can be completely shaped, but authentic and true love is something that is freely offered from someone’s heart. And when that love is given, there is a vulnerability that is deep and can really really hurt us. Love can’t be true love if there’s no way out of it. And, so, what we’re looking at in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil appears to be that, the option to leave. And what we watched was a deception. A deception was hatched and our ancestors, our first mother and father dreamed of becoming like God. And they forgot that they already were created in His image. And, so, they chose to eat and there were devastating repercussions. And the depths of the repercussions are felt in God’s own heart in this heartbreaking question that we may have found ourselves asking somebody that we love who has betrayed us. What have you done? That is one of the saddest things we’re going to find. And there are some pretty sad things in the Bible, but that’s one of the saddest things that we’re going to find because lots of us know what it feels like to be betrayed by somebody in some way and have that question, why. Why did you do this? What have you done? I was naked so I hid was what Adam responded. And that pretty much tells the whole story, right? Because aren’t we all hiding? Aren’t we all wearing the mask that we put on every day called our personality and take it out into the world so that we can get things done. We’ve been hiding ever since. We see it every day in the way that…that we conduct ourselves, the way that we present our best selves while hiding all the broken parts. They had perfection and a trade was made. There was true love and it was exchanged for knowledge. And if we look at our story as the human species we’ve been trying to use that knowledge to make ourselves sovereign and we’re not doing all that great if we look at our history. We’ve worked to be…be our own god, but this has not brought us to God, back to God, or made us God. We won’t find our way back to God. God will bring himself to us and He is and that is the story that we are reading as we read the Bible.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for another day, another step as this all begins to unfold before us, as we begin to find our lives in a greater story, as we find purpose in deeper meaning and as we challenge all that is false in us because You have invited us to the truth. And, so, Holy Spirit come and lead us into all truth. Plant what we’ve read into the soil of our lives. And may when harvest comes in a few months, may the fruit of the Spirit be evident in us. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

01/02/2024 DAB Transcript Pt1

Genesis 3:1-4:26, Matthew 2:13-3:6, Psalms 2:1-12, Proverbs 1:7-9

Today is 2nd day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s fantastic to be here with you today. I hope everybody is getting acclimated to the journey that we are on and that your accommodations are satisfactory here around the Global Campfire as we make this journey. This is our second step of 365 steps. And they go by pretty fast. We’re here at step two, and it seems like a long journey but wow, it’s like we’ll be at step 90 then we’ll be at step 180 and be halfway through and we’ll wonder where the time went. So, it’s great to be here at the beginning of the journey, fantastic that we are underway. I’m excited for the next step forward and today. That will lead us back into the book of Genesis. We’re at the beginning. And we will read Genesis chapters 3 and 4 today.

Introduction to the gospel of Matthew:

Okay. So, this is day two of our journey and we’re just getting moved into all of the different territory that we are moving through in the Bible right now. And, so, when we began yesterday, we started the Old Testament in Genesis, we started the New Testament in Matthew, and we also started the Psalms and Proverbs. And, so, let’s just talk about Matthew before we get into it today and just get oriented there. The gospel of Matthew is one of a grouping of books in the New Testament known as the Gospels. And there are four of them – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And each of these Gospels give us an accounting of the life of Jesus, who is our Savior. Matthew was one of the 12 apostles. So, he had first-hand knowledge of…of what he was witnessing to and the events that he recorded. Matthew, as were told, was a tax collector. And, so, he was not a liked person. We’ll see that in the New Testament, that the tax collectors were known as heathens and socially outcast, mostly because the way it worked in those days was that…well…the tax collectors, they felt like betrayers of their people. So, this is the Roman empire in the first century. And we’ll get to kind of know the time because we’re moving through this time as we move through the New Testament. We’re in the first century and so the land that we’re kind of parachuting into to observe the Gospels is the ancient land of the Israelite people, the Hebrew people, but at this point it’s part of the Roman Empire. And, so, they are under Roman rule, and they are Hebrew people that are separatists. And, so, they are separated but they’re also kind of ostracized, they’re in the margins. It’s very easy to persecute them. They’re considered less than standard. They’re not citizens of the Empire. And, so, there’s a lot of persecution that happens. And taxes being collected from these people was one of the jobs. And, so, if a person had a bunch of money, they could buy a license from the Roman government to collect taxes and then they would hire people to go actually get the money. And those people who went and got the money could, you know, pad what was owed a little bit and line their own pockets. And, so, they were just considered betrayers of their own people. This is somebody that Jesus chose to be really really close to Him. And when Jesus called Matthew, he left everything. And, so, from that perspective, this is a person whose writing gave up the life that they knew that…that was stable and perhaps lucrative and exchanged it for a huge leap of faith to follow somebody that you believe was the son of God. And, so, that’s what we’re reading when we read Matthew. Most scholars think this…this is dated somewhere, maybe 60s A.D.-ish. And it’s very much a Jewish book. It’s very much aimed at Hebrew people. So, when we’re reading the Torah right now, when we’re reading the Old Testament, we’re reading the Hebrew Scriptures. Matthew quotes the Old Testament more than any other gospel does.

12/30/2023 DAB Transcript

Malachi 1:1-2:17, Revelations 21:1-27, Psalm 149:1-9, Proverbs 31:10-24

Today is the 30th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, wow guys. Tomorrow’s the last day of our journey. We have made it through almost another year, we’re not there. But wow, we’ve done it. And congratulations on that. We’ll talk about that more tomorrow, but here we are, encountering the last book that we will encounter in the Bible, and that is in the Old Testament and that is the book of Malachi, the last of the minor prophets. It’s the last book that we’ll get into this year.

Introduction to the Book of Malachi:

The name Malachi means ‘my messenger’ and so, scholars have debated about, is that a name, like is this book named after a prophet named Malachi, or is this book called my messenger and it was written by somebody else. For our purposes, we’ll assume that the author was a prophet of God, and his name was Malachi. And he was probably a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, which we read not too long ago. But there’s nothing outside of the book that is known about him. He lived about a century after the Persians defeated the Babylonians and started letting the Hebrew exiles go back to Jerusalem and start rebuilding their homeland. And it had been more than 50 years since the temple, which…which was erected and spurred on by the voices of Haggai and Zechariah, which would just read, had been rebuilt. But the promises that restoration and prominence would come back to them, that didn’t happen. And so, the people were in their ancient homeland, but the glory of their former days did not come back. And so, they were discouraged, and they were a distant tiny people in a province of the Persian Empire. And because of those circumstances, the people became disinterested in their passion for God wasn’t working out. Right, and so, the moral and spiritual decline that we’ve watched so many times in the Bible, happened. They stopped sacrificing pure, spotless, blemish free sacrifices that they have been commanded by God. The priest started using the blind and blemished animals. And the law was receding to become less and less of a relevant plum line for their culture. And so, into all that Malachi comes, probably the last prophet of the Old Testament age, just rejecting that, rebuking the faithlessness of the people and calling them to return to God. And so, we’ll read this and after Malachi, it would be 400 years before another prophetic voice came, in the voice of John the Baptist, which would bring about the onset of what we, what we know as the New Testament era. And we may wonder about the 400 years, what was going on in those 400 years. In part, we can turn to…to writings from that time, from the in between. They’re known as the Apocrypha and they’re many Christian traditions that some of these books are considered as Scripture. Others don’t hold them as Scripture. There’s a lot of versions of the Scriptures that include the Apocrypha, others don’t. And this isn’t really me saying hey, so we’re getting to the end of this and there was 400 years, and maybe you should read the Apocrypha. It’s just, it’s writings from the time between the Old and the New Testament and tells a story that kind of leads forward. Maybe the best way that we can understand this is what was written in the Geneva Bible, that was, that was a…a English version of the Bible before the King James version and it included the Apocrypha. So does the King James version, by the way. But in the Geneva Bible it says these books were received to be read for the advancement in furtherance of the knowledge of history and for the instruction of Godly manners. So, there are writings that are not in the Bible and biblical but are from the time between, what we’re about to read in Malachi and what comes as the New Testament begins in the book of Matthew. But I guess that’s enough, that’s enough for now. Let’s actually get into the book of Malachi. And today we will read chapters 1 and 2.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us to Malachi, the last book that we will encounter, all 66 books now, and we’ll conclude them all tomorrow. And so, we stand here thankful for Your faithfulness to us, Your presence in our lives, the direction that You have given us, the clarity, the patience and understanding and long-suffering. We love You God. May we love You in spirit and in truth, and may we love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, that’s where you can find out what’s happening around here. The Daily Audio Bible app will do that. Just look for Daily Audio Bible in the app store that works with your device. And yeah, what’s going on around here is that were about to end another year. So, let’s get ready. I guess we’re packing up all our stuff, doing some laundry, getting ready to switch rooms maybe and…and start over again. The day after tomorrow and I’m excited to be back in Genesis and Matthew. And so, but we’re here and that’s what’s going on around here. And so, check it out if you can.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as the days of this year come to an end, thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is 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 will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

This is From Junk to Treasure. And I have a prayer request for my grandson Trenton. Just a couple weeks ago, he was in a car wreck where he was in the back seat of a friends car, and his friend had a wreck. He was treated and released. Last night, in the middle of the night, he was in a different vehicle with the same friend and the guy had a wreck and it rolled the vehicle four or five times. Trenton’s phone went dead and we have no contact with him now. And we are having trouble finding out what hospital he is in. And so, I need prayers for my grandson to be located, for the hand of God to hold him until he can get treated or we can get ahold of him to find out what is going on. He was just at church Sunday morning for the first time in years. And then, he has another car, involved in another car wreck from a friend that was driving. So, we need him covered in prayer and my daughter is a nervous wreck because she can’t find him. And his phone is obviously is still dead because it went dead as he was calling her to tell her he needed help. So, thank you very much for your prayers.

Hello DAB family, this is Janus calling from Haytensville, Maryland. I don’t know if this is gonna air before New Year’s or not, but I want to encourage my family to know, you are not alone. There’s so many on the DAB line that is praying for you. We…we weep when you’re hurting, we rejoice when you give your testimonies and we just pour in and pour in. So, you’re not alone, we’re mom’s, we’re dad’s, we’re sisters, we’re brothers, we’re aunt’s, we’re uncles’, we’re cousins, we’re nieces, we’re children, we’re grandparents. You are not alone. God has given you so many family members and we love you. So, please, go into the New Year knowing, you’re not alone. God loves you so much that He’s given you the DAB family. And prayerfully, you also have other family members but know that you are loved. And God is at work in all of us. Be encouraged. God blesses. Bye bye.

Hi beautiful family, this is Prisoner of Hope. Anna in Florida, I’m praying for you and your husband, you’re going for your RN and he’s partially disabled and your raising your 9 year old grand-daughter. I know you need a lot of favor and so, we’re praying for your situation. Jessica Rosenbloom, you’re going back to work, you’re nervous and panicky. I’m praying that you’ll stay sober, I’m praying for your children Nova and Loki. Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, from Rochester, Virgina, you’re sisters having severe attacks from the enemy. And then also, your husband is sick, so just praying for peace and rest and submission to the Lord. Eyes of a Dove, as a safety officer you’re gonna be gruelled by a CI agent Tom and then, it’s gonna be scary and overwhelming and stressful so we should just praying for this situation. His Leaning in Illinois, your brother was attacked by a guy named Nathan. We’re praying that he’ll be able to overcome this attack. And that Nathan will submit his life to the Lord. Christy from Ohio, you called about a job situation. You were let go from the 13th and you need a job, so we’re praying for God’s favor there. Hilla from California, your step-mom took, had her house taken away from her from a scammer. So, we’re praying that God will rectify that situation. And then God’s Trinkit, your seven year old granddaughter is in a bad place and you can’t get her out of the household that she’s in and they’re keeping her from you. So, we’re praying for this situation. Lord, we know that You are a good God to those who follow You. Please, Lord, may each of these people experience your blessings and favor. May you heal them so that they can mount up with wings like eagles and be strong as You renew their strength, Lord. And Lord, for those who need salvation, or need to turn their lives over to the Lord, just humble themselves before you. We ask that You would draw them in, encourage them, soften their hardness of hearts. Be a blessing to them. Help them to know their need for You. We ask all these things in the beautiful name of Jesus. Amen.

Oh dear Father, You know who this is, Manita. My DAB, this is Manita. My sweet siblings. This prayer is for Andrea. Father God, I come with thanksgiving in my heart, I come to thank You for You are a living God, You are our Heavenly Father who cares for us. You are the one who tells us cast your cares onto me and I will, because I care for you. Yes, Your word is just so faithful and so sweet, and so beautiful and it’s just so powerful in our lives, Father. So, I come before Your presence, Father, asking You for Your daughter, dear God, I’m before Your presence at this moment, Father. I just heard her prayer request, Lord. She’s not claiming anything in her life, Father, in her health. Father, in the name of Jesus, I come before You and to thank You for her victory, to thank You for her healing, dear God. Whatever it is, whatever it is that she’s going through, dear God, she is not claiming it. And praise God for that, I love that. When we say, I have this, I have that, you know, I feel like we are claiming it, you know. We should say, they found this in me, or the doctor said this and this and that, whatever. You know, but in the name of Jesus, we will say that we are not claiming whatever it is. She’s not claiming whatever it is that she’s going through. I love you Father, and I know that in the name of Your son Jesus, she’s going to hear a good report from the doctor. And I thank You for listening to us. In Jesus name. Amen. I love you my sister Andrea. Big hug. Love you, bye.

12/28/2023 DAB Transcript

Zechariah 12:1-13:9, Revelations 19:1-21, Psalm 147:1-20, Proverbs 31:1-7

Today is the 28th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here in the week between, right that week between Christmas and New Year’s where we start thinking about bigger things and goals for our lives and it’s important that we keep the Scriptures the front and center of our journey. And so, let’s take the next step forward together as we do every day. We are in the book of Zechariah as we wind down our way through the Old Testament, and today we will read chapters 12 and 13.

Commentary:

Okay, so, we were talking a little bit yesterday about how reflective we get. I get so reflective this week between. There’s a lot of work to do to get ready for the next year but it’s kind of a different sort of week. And we do get reflective and we do get like, we look back at what happened in the year and there are news programs like that and magazines like that and all these opportunities to consider the past, especially like the past 12 months. And here we’ve been taking steps every day, day-by-day, step-by-step to get here in the last 12 months. And we’ve been reflecting over the last couple of days about New Year’s resolutions. The kinds of stuff that we do this, this time of year, the things that we’re going to change, things that we’re not gonna put up with anymore, the things that we have to accomplish, the goals that we need to set. And Psalms gives us something to consider as we’re considering the next 12 months. The Lord is pleased with those who fear him, those who wait for His mercy, those who open His unfailing love. So, if we think about this in terms of like, I don’t know, like let’s say we’re saving for retirement. So, we put a little bit of money away and it’s accruing, it’s supposed to be building up and…and maybe gaining momentum so that we have the resources that we would need to live after we stop working. And so, we do this, we put this money in and we have the hope that it will mature, the hope that it will become what it’s supposed to be when we’re going to need it. The Bible is saying those who put their hope in God’s unfailing love, those who fear Him and wait for His mercy, this is pleasing to God. God delights in that person. When we think about our New Year’s resolutions, are we thinking about pleasing God at all. We might be thinking, I need to read the Bible more. I mean, I need to spend more minutes in prayer, but pleasing God as a New Year’s resolution. I mean, we’re resolving to make all kinds of changes that will make our lives better. At least, that’s what we think. But what would make our lives better and more in the center of things then pleasing God, becoming the Lord’s delight. And so, may we consider what we are investing in, where our hope is. Is it in that bank, is it in that job, is it in that person, or is your hope invested in God. Are we waiting expectantly for God’s unfailing love and the Lord’s delight, or are we more interested in the waistline, like what is, what is going on here, as we consider what we want to change in our outward life, let’s consider what’s going on inside of us. And let’s resolve to be pleasing to the Lord.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we invite You into that as we wind down these days, take these next final steps through this year and march our way into a brand-new beginning and a fresh start to be pleasing to You, to bring You delight. This is our aim, Holy Spirit come, and show us how to do that. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, it is the website, it is where you find out what is happening around here. And we’re getting ready to change over into a new year. That is what’s happening, but you can always check out what’s going on here. Check out the Community Section, the Prayer Wall lives there, we’re always praying for each other, we’re always asking for prayer there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, as we wind down the days of this year, then thank you deeply, profoundly, humbly, we can’t do this if we don’t do this together. Thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is 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 will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey guys, it’s Katie Jill from Wyoming. I’m calling to encourage Marilyn from New Hampshire, for your brother David whose struggles with alcoholism. I just wanted to give you a testimony of my life. My dad, who I had no relationship with all my life, because he was an alcoholic and I mean, he’s been drinking for 45/50 years straight. I mean, I never saw him. Had no, I hated him so much. And me and my mom believed and then me and my brother came to the Lord. And but I’ve just, God’s just been working in my dad and so, it’s so funny. I am with like Youth with a Mission. And so, after I came back from my school worship in Switzerland, and my dad just saw how much I had changed and he, God just did something with that, with all those changes. And my dad just started listening to worship music. And he had already restored our relationship. Like, I had wanted no relationship with my father. Didn’t even pray for it. And God just restored it and I was so happy and I was praying for his salvation. I had the whole church praying for his salvation. And after that school, he just started listening to worship music and stuff that he wouldn’t normally do. And he gave his life to the Lord. And I will tell you this, he stopped drinking overnight. It’s amazing. And so, right now, I mean, he has COPD and he’s really struggling with that. And he’s really discouraged but he’s really trying to quit smoking. And I just wanted to tell you that and encourage you with that, that God is always working. Thanks.

Hi family, this is Prisoner of Hope. His Little Songbird in Canada, praying that you’ll be able to get your dog Toby’s teeth cleaned without paying a bunch a money. And then for also your friend pumpkin, that she’ll have favor with her cancer being gone and for her three brothers who don’t know the Lord. White as Snow in Tennessee, you lost your job. Praying you’ll be able to find a different one or maybe the same job but just in a different location. And for others who have been affected by this as well. God’s Little Bird, you had a job interview and you said you know it’s come and gone but you know that God can hear your prayers. You’re absolutely right. We’re praying that the Lord will lift up, lift away any anxiety that you feel and that He will provide for you. Raven, you need to find a job and you’ve been denied for a home loan, so you need to find a home too. And then you have surgery coming up, or you need surgery and you’re stressed and worried about finances. We’re praying that the Lord will come through for you. Lost in Texas, you’ve been out of work and you had this amazing opportunity to open up, so we’re praying for God’s will either way. You just said that you’ve also been alone during the holidays, so we’re praying for God’s comfort for you during this as well. And then Rebecca from Michigan, praying for God’s direction for a new job and home. You’re stressed at your current job. So, we’re just lifting you up sister. Lord, we just come to You. In Proverbs 8, it says, does not wisdom call out. Indeed, God’s wisdom does call out. And those who respond positively and prayerfully to this, find blessing and favor from the Lord. So, we pray for that. We do ask that these people who need your favor, that You would give them Your comfort and Your peace and Your strength, and direction and love. May they receive everything according to Your will. And for those who don’t know You Lord, we lift them up, that they would know Jesus in a personal way. That they would receive Your healing, mercy, love and guidance and that they would, You would change their hardness of hearts into a heart of flesh, that they would accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. We ask this in His powerful name. Amen.

Abba’s Daughter, Sadie M, this is God’s Life Speaker. I heard you on the community prayers, I think it was somewhere around the 10th of December. And you were in despair. You felt like you could not get your mind wrapped around truth. And it was just consuming you. But by now, I’m sure this all behind us and you have passed this semester and now we are looking at surgery coming up here, I think about three weeks. Right after your phone call, at about the 3 hour 18 minute mark there, Taken With Love came on. She was amazing. It was like she was speaking right to you, to all of us. But she said we had, we had gone 345 days into the year, believing Him and His word, and walking the miles, seeing the fruit of our labor in prayer. And she’s right. She was speaking life over all of us. And we speak it over you. That in the name of Jesus, these thoughts are taken captive. And that they will not destroy what we know to be true. So, speak it out loud, Sadie, and say what you know is truth. Even if you don’t want to believe it in the minute, you know that His word is true. So, find some scripture that you will declare over yourself, in the name of Jesus, I declare that I am healed by His stripes. In the name of Jesus, I do not have a spirit of fear. In the name of Jesus, He goes before me, behind me, beside me, and with me. And carry on, Sadie. We all need to speak truth. We know it, and we need to overcome it. And we do that by the power of prayer. Like Take it With Love, was talking about. We pray it for you. Lord Jesus, we pray health and healing over Sadie M, all of us Lord. That You would right our minds and we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family, we love you. It’s the day after Christmas. And I just saw some concerning news from my friend. I just know the Lord has got His hand on Reese but my friend from work has a daughter, I wanna say she’s 9-11 years old. She has been getting sick intermittently and had had seizures, a few, like last week. And now she is sick again and admitted to ICU and they don’t know what’s wrong. And they’re monitoring her. Her seizures and I don’t know if they’re doing, I haven’t gotten a lot of details but it looks like they’re doing some sort of intercranial pressure monitoring. So, it’s something that seems pretty concerning. And my friends just so worried. I just ask that you guys would join me in lifting little Reese up to our heavenly Father. Lord, we know You have this in Your hands. And I just have a feeling that You, You have this under control and that You’re going to help her recover really quickly, Lord. And we just praise You. And we just ask that You would help this family with answers and that You would touch Reese with Your healing hands. Lord, help her to get better quickly. Help them to find out exactly what’s wrong right away, and Lord, may Your hand just heal her completely, even if it’s by Your own hands Lord. If it’s Your will, will You do this. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you family. Talk to you soon. It’s Susana in Texas. Bye.

12/26/2023 DAB Transcript

Zechariah 9:1-17, Revelations 17:1-18, Psalm 145:1-21, Proverbs 30:32

Today is the 26th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today, probably overly full bellies from yesterday. Trying to figure out what happened to our systems. Big day of like exchanging things. Oh, after holiday sales and all of that. So, well, welcome to the post-Christmas festivities here around the Global Campfire, it’s always kind of the same. It’s a peaceful place, God’s word is spoken here, straight from the Scriptures. No matter what’s going on in our lives, we can come in here and be here together. There’s no time that anybody is listening alone, and we have this place to re-center ourselves in the word of God and be oriented to God through his word, so that we know how to live our lives. And so, let’s take that next step, post-Christmas step, that leads us back into the book of Zechariah. Today we’ll read Zechariah chapter 9.

Commentary:

Okay, so, it’s the day after Christmas, right, so a lot of laying around but then a lot of also, I don’t know, visiting people are still around or just feeling tired from all of it. Maybe exhausted. It’s been an exhausting month. We’ll have leftovers today. Maybe exchange some gifts. Maybe today’s the day that family leaves and heads back to whatever state they’re going to, or maybe today’s the day you leave and you’re on your way back. But it’s today, like Christmas comes and then boom it’s over and our hearts start slowing moving away from the Christmas season and we start focusing on what’s to come. Slowly move away from what was and looking forward to the New Year. And what we just read in the book of Proverbs today, offered us wise counsel that it must inform us as we move forward. If you have acted like a fool by exalting yourself or if you’ve been scheming, put your hand over your mouth. So, no matter how we have conducted ourselves over the last couple of days, it’s not likely that we haven’t exhibited or encountered pride. We notice this in the overinflated versions of ourselves that we portray, that kind of curated versions that get put out there online. In fact, the last couple days, we’ve been around a lot of people probably that we’re not always around and maybe we’ve endured hours of conversation with people that we love that just compare themselves to everything: gifts, careers, spouses, kids, choices. Maybe we’ve made people that we love endure hours of us doing that kind of posturing. Proverbs is saying hey, why don’t you try this other path. Why don’t you shut your mouth. Why don’t you put your hand over your mouth. That’s ancient wisdom from thousands of years ago, so this has been going on for thousands of years among the human race. And it can seem harsh at first, put your hand over your mouth, but it’s freeing. We’re being given permission that we don’t have to do the game, we don’t have to play the comparison game, we don’t have to play the gossip and slander game. According Proverbs, that only makes us look like a fool and we don’t have to do it. We can…we can bite our tongue and leave those prideful words inside. They don’t need to be born into the world, we’re allowed to be who we are and we’re allowed to do that honestly. And that doesn’t have to be gained by comparison. We don’t have to go into this new year false. The word for next year is truth. Not only to explore the truth of the Scriptures, but to actually walk with the mirror in front of our face and see just how much false that we allow. We don’t have to go into the New Year false. We’ve been given permission to be true. We don’t have to go into the new year falsely inflated. I mean, we’re probably going into the New Year wanting to lose a few pounds. Maybe we can lose a little pride and a little arrogance while we’re losing a few pounds. We’ve learned all year that our identity can only be found by embracing the long-suffering mercy of God. And we’re nothing compared to that. But compared to each other, there is no comparison, we’re children of God. We don’t have to pose. We don’t have to hide. We don’t have to curate. We don’t have to present this image of spirituality in ourselves, it’s like what we hope to be, but it’s not what we are. It’s foolishness, it won’t get us anywhere. We’re wearing a mask, it’s not true. Let’s be true and grow in maturity and be who we are. When we were reading through Paul’s letters, he told us that we are all invited to reflect the glory of the Lord upon the earth. Think about that. We get to be ourselves and be true with nothing to hide as we reflect the glory of the Lord upon the earth. Hey, that’s a good New Year’s resolution. Let’s write that one down for the New Year and let’s live into it.

Prayer:

And Holy Spirit, come into that we pray, lead us into all truth, lead us away from what is false, not only the things that we need to avoid, but the things that are within us that need to not be there. Holy Spirit come, lead us forward in all truth as we humble ourselves before You and pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, it’s the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app will do that, put in the palm of your hand, and you can just search for Daily Audio Bible at whatever app store works with your device. So, check that out. It’s Christmas time around here. We still have the Christmas vinyl albums that we, that we had during the Christmas season. Thank you for your partnership on those.

Those of you who want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the final days of this year, thank you deeply. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if ever 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:

Hi siblings, this is He Knows My Name. And I’m calling to pray for Manita’s son, Lucas who had an accident at work and he’s now, according to the doctors, blind. Father in Heaven, I wish to commit him to Your hands. Your son Lucas, Father, he was not born blind. Father, You give sight to the blind. You make the lame to walk. You make the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak. Nothing is too difficult for You to do. And Lord, You are more than able. I pray, oh Father God, You will please restore the sight of Lucas to the glory of Your most Holy name. Father, please work Your miracle in his life. Oh Lord, will You stand in the congregation of Your truth and You testify of Your goodness, oh Father. May You please meet me him at this point of need. Wherever else he feels pain or discomfort, Father, may You take the pain away. May You provide the finances that is needed. That he would receive the proper medical attention that he deserves. Pray oh Lord, that You will use him as a point of contact to reach out to every other person out there that has one or one kind of deformity or another due to accident, due to sickness or anything, anything at all Father. Will You stretch Your hands over them. May You heal them, oh Lord, from head to toe. And make them whole, oh Father, as You make whole, the son who came back to tell You thank You. It will come back to glorify Your name, to thank You, to testify to Your most holy name. The wonderful works, oh Father. May You make him whole. In Jesus mighty name. I’ve prayed with thanksgiving and adoration. Amen. He is healed in the mighty name of Jesus. He will see again. Thank you.

Good morning, DAB. My name’s Andrea. I’ve called in a few times for my son and his friend Ethan. But I need prayers. I just got a bad report from a doctor. I had a couple of ultrasounds to try and figure out what was going on in my abdomen. And I was blindsided by the information. I’m not gonna name it, cause I’m not claiming this. But I would appreciate any sort of prayers for complete healing for my body. I will be going to an OB/GYN soon to find out if there is a course of action here. But I’m standing on God’s word that I’m healed by the blood of Jesus. But I’m asking for prayers. I’m also asking for continued prayers for my daughter, Reign. That she would come home to Jesus. And I pray for everyone here. And I hope everybody has a really good holiday. And may God bless you and keep you. Thank you.

Hello, this is Dabs from Hampshire in the UK. And this prayer message is for Susan, God’s Yellow Flower and her son Keith. I just wanna pray for you both. Dear Lord Jesus, we pray that You will be with Keith and his mum, Susan, over these coming days and weeks. With this return of the cancer. Lord Jesus, we pray that You will give both Susan and Keith a renewed sense of peace. A renewed sense of strength and courage, knowing that You’ve been with them throughout this journey that Keith has been on. And that You will continue to be right by their side each and every day. And I pray Lord, for complete healing. Healing over Keith, we pray. I just pray Lord, that You will be with them both over Christmas. And You will just give them a sense of peace. Sending much love and prayers. Bye bye.

Hello my DAB family, this is Mark Street from Sydney, Australia. Today is Friday, the 23rd of December. And just wanting to call in and pray for Susan, God’s Yellow Flower and Keith, her son. Susan, I just want to pray for you. I don’t have any words of wisdom but I just want to pray for you. Dear Heavenly Father, You’re a parent to all of us. We know that You hurt so much when we fall away. So, we lift up Susan and Keith to You, Lord. She is hurting so much for her son Lord, and You know that _ Lord. Lord, Your way is the best way. Lord, heal Keith again and bring him back _. ___But Lord we do know, that Your will is best. Lord, comfort Susan. Let this be a wonderful season for Susan and Keith and her family. That they will feel your love. Bring them a happy season, a prosperous season for health, as well, Lord. In Your name, I pray. Susan, I know I’m one of many, but I ____Love you all.

12/24/2023 DAB Transcript

Zechariah 6:1-7:14, Revelations 15:1-8, Psalm 143:1-12, Proverbs 30:24-28

Today is the 24th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you today, it’s Christmas Eve. Here we are, last day of the Advent season. And it’s Christmas eve and so Merry Christmas to everybody as we kind of settle in to the festivities and the goings-on of the next couple of days. It’s wonderful to be here with you to spend Christmas Eve for a few moments together around the Global Campfire. And we will simply take the next step forward as we do every day, and our next step forward leads us back into the book of Zechariah, and we’ll continue with Zechariah’s visions and they may sound similar to what we’re reading in the book of Revelation because this is apocalyptic literature, highly symbolic. So, it’s interesting for us to hear this, the symbolism of Zechariah, or in Revelation, just ask ourselves, what am I considering symbolism, and what am I, what do I literally and…and why? And just kind of explore the things that we see and hear. Let’s take that next step forward now. Zechariah chapters 6 and 7 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so, it's…it’s Christmas Eve right, and that’s, that makes it the final day of the Advent season. Tomorrow, we commemorate the arrival of Jesus. So, there’s joy in our hearts. There’s probably a lot on the to do list, still to go for, for tomorrow, maybe tonight is a candlelight celebration at church, maybe even like a midnight service to ring in the arrival of Christmas and the…the arrival of the Savior. And through all of this we’ve established this rhythm, every day, moving through the Scriptures and the Scriptures continue to speak to us. We’re reading in Zechariah today and we heard what the prophet had in a visionary experience and what it reminds us of. Zechariah said this is what the Lord of Heaven’s armies says, judge fairly, show mercy and kindness to one another, don’t oppress widows, orphans, foreigners and the poor and don’t scheme against each other. We can see in the prophecies that Christmas isn’t a blackout date where we can just do all those things during Christmas because it’s a different time of year and everybody, everybody does different things. Like, there’s no blackout. This is what we’re supposed to do all the time. And if there were a season to judge fairly and show mercy and kindness to each other, wouldn’t that be now? May we do that and as we do that, let’s consider what we saw in Revelation. John sees what looks to him to be a sea of glass that’s on fire, very hard to comprehend but this is what he’s seeing and next to that sea were those who had endured and God gave them hearts and they were singing to the lamb in worship and their words were great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God the Almighty, just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear You, Lord, and glorify Your name. For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous deeds have been revealed. That may not be like a well-known Christmas Carol that we might sing today, but it’s a song wholly appropriate for the arrival of the king of all. Right, we’re celebrating this…this first arrival of the Savior, as we celebrate Christmas. But we are also longing for the second Advent for a return, and as we read Revelation, we’re prophetically hearing what that worship will look like in advance from a time that we long for, when all things will be made new again and all things have been made new again. Because of the arrival of Emmanuelle, because God came to be with us. And so, may we rejoice today, may we treat each other with kindness and mercy. May we extend the love of God to everyone that we interact with. May we look in the mirror and extend the love of God to the person there, and may we open our hearts to the joy of Christmas.

Song played: “Silent Night” Sleeping At Last