Category: DAB Transcripts

Leviticus 27:14- Numbers 1:54, Mark 11:1-26, Psalms 46:1-11, Proverbs 10:23

Today is the 3^rd day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and I’m faking like I’m not tired. But safely back in the rolling hills of Tennessee. So, good to be home. But, yeah, you leave parts of yourself behind…like things have to catch up. And, so, jet lag can be so disorienting. But right now these hours are a good time. So, it’s great to be here with you and to move forward in the Scriptures. And today we will conclude the book of Leviticus, and I then we will begin the book of Numbers and we’ll talk about that we get there. But first, Leviticus 27 verse 14 through 34.

Introduction to the book of Numbers:

Okay. So, that concludes the book of Leviticus, which brings us to the opening pages of the book of Numbers. And as we go into the book of Numbers we’ll encounter like review and it might feel redundant. It might be like, “haven’t we just…like didn’t we hear this already?” And, so, that can be tedious, but there’s something going on underneath this that’s important because we’re now switching from the first generation of…of Hebrew slaves that came out of Egypt and moving toward an emerging generation of people. And much…much has happened under Moses leadership. So, they’ve seen God show up miraculously in their midst and His…His mighty power is among them, and then they received the law, but now they have to actually live the law because…because God’s giving the order. It’s time to move out. It’s time for them to move into the Promise Land. Like now they have the law, now they’ve established themselves, now it’s go time. It’s time to go to the Promise Land. And, so, we we’ll see in the book of Numbers, spies that are sent into the land and kind of get this first glimpse of what this land of promise might look like. And we’ll also watch…watch this generation completely disqualify themselves from the promise. And there’s plenty of parallels for our lives. So, let's…let’s just dive in to the third book of the Old Testament, the book of Numbers chapter 1.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Mark, Jesus has entered Jerusalem. This is His final visit. This…He has not been arrested yet, but we’re in that story. An it’s so weird because it’s like just a couple days ago…just a couple days ago we were like walking the path that we were reading out of the gospel of Mark. So, it’s like immediately poignant…poignant to me in spite of being jetlagged and everything. It’s like very, very immediate. And one thing I want to point out as we’re going through the story this time is the cleansing of the temple. And we can make a theological statement about the cleansing of the temple but let’s just make a practical statement about cleansing the temple. Let’s just imagine what’s happening here because a lot of times we can read through these stories…like when I read them…I’ve heard this story of Jesus…I mean this is a flannel board Sunday school story for me. And, so, I always thought like, “of course, Jesus, you know, he would, you know, tip over the money changers. Like, of course He would cleanse the temple, and everybody should get on board and there’s no problem.” Now on the flannel boards it was always like a really small thing. You know, like he let some birds go and he tipped over a table with coins and they fell out on the ground. It was like a small thing. That’s not the story. So, like…and I’m thinking like, “what kind…how could we do this?” Let’s picture…let’s picture our local courthouse, okay? And if we’re in a big city, then there’s probably like a, you know, a larger courthouse made out of stone and there’s big stairs and you go up into it and these are the halls of justice. And maybe your famous, maybe you’re not. Maybe if…maybe people…you’re well-known. Jesus had become well known. So, maybe you’re kind of well-known, but you don’t go to that courthouse to stand outside on the sidewalk with a sign as you’re permitted to do because you have a disagreement with a case or with the justice system or whatever. Your protesting, which is your right but instead you actually walk up those stairs, go in, go through security, go in and start disrupting inside in the different courtrooms, you start throwing things around and you start yelling, “this is all corrupt. This whole system is not what it was intended to be.” Like you’re saying these things and you’re throwing things around. That’s kind of similar to the scenario we have going here. So, it’s almost as if Jesus is provoking this. Doing what I just said in a courthouse would have you more than arrested, more than quickly. What Jesus was doing would have been considered vandalism at best and profaning the temple. So, things that would get Him arrested and it’s like He almost purposely pulled the last straw because at this point, they are determined to destroy Jesus.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You for the opportunity as we read through the Scriptures that we can encounter this story a number of times and see it from a number of perspectives and explore it thoroughly because this is the story of why we are here and why there is hope. And, so, we thank You for allowing us to just peer into the story and have context and be able to visualize it and we ask that You open the eyes of our heart. Give us eyes to see we ask in Your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

What is going on around here? I don’t know. What’s going on around here is I’m trying to figure out where I’m at. That’s how jet lag works. Every year I get back I know I’m back. Everything looks like how I left it. It’s…it’s my house. Like it's…this is…this is where I live, but it also feels foreign because I’ve been on such a…such a journey that has some much emotion and heart locked into it that it’s almost as if part of me is still there taking the next flight and all of me has not assembled yet. That takes a couple of days to kinda get switched back over and start feeling like your feet are on the ground again. I doubt that I am the only one who has ever experienced this. I doubt that I’m the only one experiencing this now for all of us who have…or who are returning from our pilgrimage to Israel. So, hang in there. I’ve done this a lot of times. It gets better. It just takes a couple of days. Take it easy. It’s fascinating how much got poured into us, how much knowledge and how much heart, just how much we were rooted in that story. And it’s just way, way, way, way, way too much to comprehend. And I said all that at the beginning of the journey when we are having our opening dinner. And it’s just way, way…but it’s all there. Like all the experiences that we have and all things that we see, we may not be able to consciously bring them up but they’re there. And over the next month’s they’ll just continue to seep into our lives and keep informing us so. It’s good, good, good to be home and that’s kind of what’s going on around here. So, thank you for your prayers as we make this transition back.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage and I…I am grateful beyond words for those of you who have clicked that link. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Dear heavenly Father I just want to come to You today Lord and lift up all the stay at home parents, the moms the dads the grandparents Lord that stay at home with her children. God, I pray right now that You would give them extra energy Lord extra comfort. God, I know it times it…it feels for…for me I feel isolated or lonely Lord Jesus like no one understands but God I know that’s just the enemy. And God I pray right now if there’s anyone that feels like that, that stays at home with their kids on a consistent basis Lord that You would uplift them, that You would know that what they are doing matters Lord, that they are sowing seeds into the next generations coming up behind them. God, I ask that You would drown out the noise of the enemy, that they would know that they are precious in Your sight Lord Jesus, what they are doing. God these children are such a precious gift from You. Lord You say in Your word that children are gifts from the Lord. And God I believe that, and I thank You. Thank You from my children Lord. Thank You for all these other DAB family members Lord who get to pour into their kids every day. Thank You Lord that I get to see them throughout the day, for the ones I get to send them off to school, for the ones that come home from school, I’m here and I thank You that is a privilege I don’t take lightly. But God I know sometimes I feel so by myself God. So, fill me today, fill others today. For those who are struggling Lord Jesus just give them a new fresh awakening, a fresh touch from You. May Your Holy Spirit overflow in their lives and the joy of the Lord be upon them. We pray all these things in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Truly Thankful Taylor from the DFW Metroplex. Love You guys blessings in Jesus Christ. Have a wonderful day. Bye-bye.

Good morning this is Wanda Manning from Kansas City. I guess you could call me Sword for the Lord from KC. I just wanted to tell Michael Davis that I got your message this morning. I’m listening to the 23^rd so I’m about a day behind but I wanted to let you know how encouraging it was to hear from you and hear how well you and your brother are doing. And I’m so grateful to God that your auntie and your cousin are taking great care of you guys. Man what a voice of encouragement to come across the virtual lines this morning because to hear from you I’m sure just like myself you have encouraged so many others with just the…the joy that’s in your voice and just to hear that you’re pressing forward and that you’re continuing to believe God for all His goodness and all His great grace and mercy for you and your family. So, I’m just so encouraged by your call this morning, so encouraged by your words this morning and so thankful that you chose to share with us again an update on how you and your brother are doing. I’ll continue to keep you guys lifted up in prayer. Thank you again for sharing. Sword for the Lord in KC. Bye for now.

Hey family it’s Jesse in Washington. I’ve been meaning to call for a week or so. I need prayers from my marriage. It’s just been so hard the last few months and it’s like the more blessings we get the harder our relationships…our relationship gets. And it’s clearly, you know, a spiritual attack, but I just wish there was a break from it, you know. It’s just…it seems like it’s one thing after another and getting so burnt out on my efforts bearing so little fruit. And I know that’s the game but it’s super frustrating. I’m…I’m tired of feeling lonely. I’m tired of not having anyone to talk to or no one that will listen to me. I just have this like weight on my heart and I don’t know what to do. I mean, keep moving forward obviously. It just doesn’t seem like it gets easier. It seems like every time we make progress it just steps that bar up and now, we have to fight even harder. And I guess maybe that’s part of…part of the game too but it’s just hard. I’m tired of my heart feeling so heavy, you know? And I’m tired of apologizing for…I guess perceived wrongs or putting myself in the grave for other people’s offenses. And I…I…I’m not perfect at all. I’m just…it’s getting…

Hi DAB family it’s Carla from Las Vegas. I am driving around in Las Vegas today and listening to the community prayer from last Saturday and wanted to pray for a few people. Carrie from Utah I heard your request for prayers about your marriage. I am praying for your marriage. Dustin you were leaving the hospital, you’re in pain. I am praying for you my brother. Arielle, I heard lots of prayers for you and I just want you to know that I joined everybody in praying for you. Harold, I was hooping it up when I heard you praying for other people because we’ve been praying for you and the gift goes on. His little Cherry from Canada, yes, you have been missed. I actually remember the mud pie story and I actually remember what I was doing when I heard your initial call about the mud pie. I was mowing my lawn with my earbuds in. So, yes, you are somebody that’s very precious to our community. Praying for the Israel trip. I’m watching all the pictures you’re posting and I’m thankful for all of those. Michael, thank you for calling in to let us know how you and Elijah are doing. You continue to be in my players. Charisse, I am still praying for you. I pray that you are out of the hospital now and with your children. Julie, thank you…Julie from Texas thank you for calling about the twins being home and healed. Thank you, Jesus. I’m asking for prayer. I’m still looking for a job. I’m actually on my way to a job interview right now. I have started dating my ex-husband. He’s pretty sick. And, so, I’m asking for healing for him. It’s chronic illness and…and it’s been ongoing. So, it’s…it’s kind of all-consuming. I am leaving tomorrow to go visit my granddaughter in Colorado. She’s five months old. I can’t wait. And just a reminder that Lent is…Lent starts today and it’s a season where we, leading up to Easter, where we can love more and more deeply. I love you all. Have a great day. Bye.

Hi family this is Terry from Southern California. Today I was listening to the podcast and I heard Tina, a brand-new listener and she was calling to just let everybody know that she’s enjoying the podcast and that she’s also found a little church and how she didn’t grow up, you know, with the word of God. And, you know, Tina when you are talking you kind of reminded me of myself. I’m much older than you are now, I’m in my 50s but I too didn’t get to know the Lord until I was in my 20s. And _ the church at all and I’ve been on this journey now for over 30 years…about 30 years. And, so, I just want to just applaud you and just say a blessing over you that you have made the best choice ever and that you just continue on this pathway. I used to say if I could __ ride that Disney land used to offer but it will be an adventure, it will just help out some rocky places but the most beautiful thing about it is you won’t go it alone knowing that you’ll have the DABber family, you’ll have the church family and you will have people praying for you all the time. And I just want to encourage you Tina to stay on the journey, never take your hand out of God’s unchanging hand. I’m so grateful that God changes not. He’s the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And, so, God bless you and we will be lifting you up in prayer. Thank you for calling in. I look forward to hearing your…your praise reports and your prayer requests as well. And to all the DABber family, always know I’m lifting everybody up in prayer. Continue to lift by family up in prayers too. I have teenagers and as you guys know I trade off __ and I continue to put him on the altar because, you know, he’s a young man making…

Hey DAB family Broken Tony here, here with my beautiful wife __ . You want to say hi? Hi everyone. We just wanted to call in and say thank you for everyone for all the prayers that you prayed and to give thanks to God right where it belongs for the healings that He’s bringing to our family and the blessings that He brings to our family. Want to…just be so grateful for the DAB family. Listen, call in. If you haven’t called in, call in when you have a need. Get on the DAB friends on Facebook. Put your needs down. You have an incredible community, one of the greatest church communities that exists out there. Use it, that’s wat we’re here for. Prayers work. It worked for us. Guys, we love you so much. Thanks again.

Good morning DABber’s it is 4 AM in Florida this is Florida Charlie Oscar Poppa giving a hello. I’m reaching out to the DABber family because I need prayer. I need prayer for my family, prayer for my parents and my siblings. Some days you try to, I guess, kinda do everything on our own and try to help and do as much as you can to help your family members and do things right but it’s just some days it gets too much. So, if you guys just could keep me in prayer. I’m here right now working, getting ready to get off shift. Had a busy night. And also, if you could keep the law enforcement family in prayer. These…these…these cities really need Jesus. When you go out and about and you patrol your area and see the hardships that people are going through, the demonic strongholds, it really takes a toll on you. But I know God is faithful. And, so, just keep me in prayer, keep my family in prayer and pray for our nation. Thank you. Love you all. Look forward to hearing you all on the prayer line. God bless. Bye-bye.

Leviticus 25:47-27:13, Mark 10:32-52, Psalms 45:1-17, Proverbs 10:22

Today is the 2^nd day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today. I know I said goodbye from Jerusalem yesterday, but kind of saying goodbye from Jerusalem today too. I got looking at a calendar and was like, if there’s any flight delay whatsoever, like there’s no margin of error, if there’s anything I won’t be back, I won’t be back, I don’t know where I’ll be. So, I am reading this just to be wise…so, from Jerusalem. Though by the time you’re hearing this, well hopefully I’m sleeping right now and that we arrived back yesterday afternoon. But I’m gonna play it safe because we have never missed a day in…well this is the 15^th year and that’s not gonna happen. So, we have one more day of reading from Jerusalem and it’s great to be here with you today. And we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. And today, let’s remember like we’re getting lots of rules and regulations and laws and lots of instructions and craftsmanship, all kinds of stuff, a whole culture is being built, but we’re still at Mount Sinai. So, we’re still around this mountain where we’ve been since the children of Israel left Egypt. And, so, we’re still there, still hearing the giving of the law. So, today Leviticus chapter 25 verse 47 through 27 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we went through the gospel of Matthew. We certainly went through the story of Jesus, you know, His arrest and trial and execution and resurrection. We read that and we’re moving into that territory now again in the gospel of Mark. And I just want to point this out again because it’s so poignant to our lives and so interesting in the Scriptures. So, like, let me just read a couple verses. “And they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him and after three days He will rise.” And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Him and said to Him, “teacher, we want you to do whatever you ask of…whatever we ask of you.” And He said, “what do you want?” And they said, grant us to sit one at Your right and one at Your left hand in your glory.” Okay, what’s so fascinating is that Jesus is saying to His friends as He’s walking to Jerusalem where these things are gonna to take place that He’s going to die, that He’s going to be killed, that He’s going to be mocked and ridiculed, that He’s going to be spat on, that He’s going to be beaten, and that He’s going to get killed, that He’s going to be executed. And all they can think of to say in the gospel of Mark, like the next breath is James and John asking for seats at His right hand and His left. What’s poignant about this is that they are still…the they don’t understand, even though He’s telling them what’s going to happen. They’re looking for an earthly kingdom. Whatever Jesus is saying He’s saying. He talks in parables all the time. Sometimes He’s hard to understand. They’re thinking these things as they’re moving. And, so, they’re not completely tracking with what’s going on here. And, so, they’re expecting Jesus to go to Jerusalem and like the revolution is going to begin. And although that’s very true, it’s not in any way as they are expecting. God’s kingdom is a heavenly kingdom. It’s a kingdom that is here within us and among us. We…we talked about that at length going through Matthew because Matthew’s gospel captures Jesus revealing the kingdom of heaven basically more than…than the other gospels. So, we’ve been looking at this, but we still so often are looking for it with our senses, our five…like we’re looking for it to be upon this earth. Like where is the kingdom upon this earth? The kingdom upon this earth is everywhere you look if you have eyes to see. And if you feel like you can’t see it then go look in the mirror. So, let’s continue to pay attention to that because I mean, the word for our year, one of the words for our year, is “Vision”. And it’s not like that you can see, it’s that you have eyes to see. It’s that we actually don’t take this is a weird metaphor, but we actually go like, “I have to look differently. I have to look from within. I…I have to look for the goodness of God in the world.” And its growing everywhere. It’s holding back the darkness. We keep thinking like the darkness is overwhelming the world. And, yeah, it’s pretty rough out there, that’s never not been true. Like we’re reading texts from thousands of years ago in the Scriptures, and it was true then. Yes, the darkness is here. The light keeps the darkness from overwhelming us. And according to Jesus, we are the light of the world. So, let’s not miss it. Let’s not waste our lives waiting to die so we can graduate into this. Let’s understand that our lives are full of purpose because we are holding back the darkness. Let’s not…let’s not miss it because when Jesus was here, the Son of the Living God most high we missed it. Let’s not miss it anymore.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite you into that and it…I mean we’ve asked so many times and we’re going to continue asking, give us eyes to see and ears to hear your kingdom. And we’re asking specifically, let us see it today as we move through this world doing our work having our interactions may we see goodness, may we see the goodness, may we see the light and know that we’re not alone, that we are part of holding back the darkness. We pray this in your mighty name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And it’s all…it’s…it’s been this pilgrimage that we’ve been on for the last couple of weeks that has come to a close. And, so, now it’s all about reentry and getting back in the saddle and…and getting reoriented. If you’ve been following along with the trip, then you can see all the different pictures and stuff that we’ve posted on social media and all the videos. If you haven’t then you can go back and see all the different things we did at facebook.com/dailyaudiobible or Instagram is just Daily Audio Bible.

If you want to go one step deeper into these places, the Promise Land films are a fantastic resource for that as we continue our journey through the Bible. There is like 71 difference archaeological locations that we have identified and filmed over the years in the Promise Land films. And, so, all of the major places that we experience in the Bible you can experience and see visually from lots of different perspectives in the Promise Land films. So, that’s great.

And reminding you that…so we have to start talking right now like…but we’ll be coming back in 2021. And that trip is organized and planned and open for registration. It is indeed filling up fast. And, so, you can check that out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Just look for Israel 2021 and you can get every detail that you would need to help you make that choice and discern if this is your time. Hope to see you in the land of the Bible next year.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t a community and we wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t doing it together. And that has been the story since the beginning. And, so, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

And that is it for today I should be somewhat conscious and able to read English words tomorrow. So, I love you I’m Brian and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family this is Lady of Victory is about 8:18 on Tuesday the 25^th of February and I am a listening to Brian on 25^th of February and my heart is overwhelmed…my heart is overwhelmed as I am listening to the prayers at the end. And I specifically want to reach out to Tina for her encouragement. She says she’s a first-time caller and a new listener as of January 1^st and how she encouraged us to continue to pray for our adult children. And Tina I just wanted to say to you, you have no idea how you ministered because, you know, as believers sometimes we’re like, “God are you hearing us? Are we making a difference?” And my husband and I are really trying to seek out what God wants for us. God what do You want for the season? And I, you know, we are season believers. And, so, it’s not like we’re just like walking around aimlessly like, “where do You want us God?” But just in this season it’s like God where do You want us? What are You saying? And, so, for you to encourage us the way that you did was so powerful. And I just want to thank you so much. And, yes, you are going to be saved because your heart is ripe for it. And God has…God has been waiting on you all this time to get right where you are. And, so, all you have to do is say, “Lord I am a sinner and I need You in my heart, I need You in my life to take over my life and be Lord. And I surrender, I submit my will to Your will.” And right there, you’ll be saved. He said, when we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that He’s Lord then that’s it. And, so, I encourage you sister, do exactly that and thank you so much for your encouragement. We love you.

So, this is my first day listening to the Daily Audio Bible. It was definitely amazing and a great way to start my day. I want to thank Dana the one who told me about the app. I love listening to everyone at the end of each session. I feel a connection to everyone just through, you know, our faith and God and I just pray for all of you and that all your hardships and that everything works out for you. I just want to put a prayer request out there for my fiancé. We’re going through a rough time right now and everything’s been going well so far but I’m just praying for further blessings from God because I know He’s been watching over us during this time. But I just want to thank you guys for creating this app and this ministry. It’s truly amazing.

Hi Daily Audio Bible I love you guys and I am so blessed. I do ministry and everyone who prays, please pray for me. I’m in the hospital with a very bad infection. It’s the second time in the hospital in two months and it can get very discouraging. So please pray for me. Thank you. And please join in praying for everyone out there who’s afflicted with the coronavirus. I just pray that God would break through in the midst of this horrible epidemic. Okay. God bless you.

Hello beloved DABbers this is Chris from Michigan. During the February 22^nd community prayer, we heard Daniel from Singapore seek prayers because of the Hunan virus, which we in the states call the coronavirus. Daniel said this is attacking churches almost as if it were from the evil one. So, please let’s all stop right now and pray together. Father God fill us with Your Holy Spirit as we pray. Lord, David prayed at Eranas threshing floor and You answered his prayer and stopped the plague on Israel. So, please hear our prayer. Lord we don’t have the authority of David over his people that we come in the name of him who has authority over us, Your son Jesus. We ask that You would stop this plaque wherever it is right now in the name of Jesus. We ask that those who have been exposed to the virus that will not fall ill nor will they pass it on to others. We ask that those who have fallen ill will be healed. We ask that the plague would be stopped in every nation on earth. We ask for this to happen today in the mighty name of Jesus. We praise You Father God for You’ve asked us to pray this prayer and You hear us as we pray. All glory be to Your name. Amen.

Hello DAB community I have never called in. I’ve been listening silently for a few years. I just want you to know that I do listen to the prayers and I tell everybody about it. I…I just called in because I was so personally touched by just hearing about the two boys that their mother passed away. I had been thinking about them and praying about them and carrying them in my heart just wondering if they’re okay, talking to my husband about it. And to hear them talk and let us know how they’re doing. I just cried and just thank God that they’re doing okay, and they just sound so beautiful on the line. I’m just so grateful and I hope and pray that they will continue to be all right. And the one legacy that their mom left them was a faith in God. That’s the best thing you can do for your child. And never give up on your children, never give up on anybody but especially your children. I…I….I’m so touched by that and how much God has given them joy and that they know that their mother is in a better place. That is…that is just…that…that made me…gave me peace. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Love you guys.

Good morning DAB family this is your brother Mark from beautiful Florida. I don’t think I’ve ever left my tag or moniker. I’ve often called and sang and prayed for people, but I’ve never left anything or acknowledged my existence. So, here I am this morning. I want to pray and challenge all those people out there that are calling in for our brother Harold. Harold, you have made such an impression and left such a mark in our community. I can only come to the conclusion that everybody who’s thrown their support in for you, for your run, needs to throw their support in and go and evangelize people. To me this this just shows that people are hungry to share the gospel right where they’re at. And, so, DABbers, I just want to challenge you to do that today. Go tell it on the mountain. Tell everybody. Uncover that gospel light you’re hiding and that you use just to crawl under the shell. Challenge yourself. Go talk to a couple people today right we you’re at. Pray for them. Tell them that Jesus loves them. It’s a fun thing to do and it makes you feel good too. And you’re doing your job for the Lord. As Jesus said, go forth and make disciples of all nations baptizing them and telling them what I told you in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and low I’ll be with you always. He promises this. Don’t be afraid, He’s gonna be with us to the end of the age. DABbers I’ll talk to you soon, this is Mark from Florida.

Father God thank You so much for this new day and all of the opportunities before us and all the blessings You have in store for us this day. Help us Lord to grasp with open hands and also help us to recognize when we are at a crossroads when we do have a choice between the narrow path that leads to life and the easier wide path as well. Help us Lord to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow You. Lord, thank You for today and a reminder of what today is, Ash Wednesday. All go to one place. All are from the dust and to dust all return. One day Lord we will die unless You come before that, but anyway. But Lord it’s not left there for as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Thank You, Lord that though we may die that is not the end because Christ came and redeemed us so that we might have life everlasting. And I pray Lord that You’d help us to remember that hope as we face the disappointments of life, as we face death, that You’d be with us Lord. Lord, I also want to pray for India at this time and pray for wisdom for the government and the authorities as the people are rioting. And we do Lord, we pray for peace and we pray for calm and we pray that love would reign, especially between the Hindu and the Muslim community. Please be at work Lord and please be protecting people and property in Jesus’ holy and precious name. Amen.

Leviticus 24:1-25:46, Mark 10:13-31, Psalms 44:9-26, Proverbs 10:20-21

Today is the 1^st day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you. It’s always fun when we begin a new week and a new month at the same time. And this is one of those days where we get like a complete fresh reset to live into a new month and live into the first week of that month. And, so, let’s do it with all our hearts. So, coming to you for the final time, from the holy city of Jerusalem. We concluded our…our journey our tour of the land of the Bible yesterday. I’ll tell you about that in a little bit and today will be the long, long, long travel back. So, thank you for your continued prayers over all of that – the…the travel and the reentry and all of the jet lag and there’s kind of a collapse that happens. I don’t know if it happens to everybody, but I think most people. You finally get back to your own environment and, yeah, it just starts…finally, you’re kind of like, okay I’m in super familiar surroundings and so much has been going and you’re just like, ahh…collapse I guess is the right word. So, that’s out in front of us and thank you for your prayers over that. But let’s do what we have come to do on this first day of the third month of the year. We’ll read from the English Standard Version this week. Leviticus 24 verse 1 through 25 verse 46.

Prayer:

Father again, we thank You for Your word and here at this threshold of a brand-new shiny week and a brand-new sparkly month we are grateful that You have brought us successfully through each and every day of the first two months of this year. In some ways it’s hard to…it’s hard to comprehend that we’ve…it just feels like it was just New Year’s, but here we are entering the third month of the year and by the time we finish this month, well things…things will be…begin to show signs of change and we will be moving our way into the springtime. And, so, we mark where we are. We’re here now and we’re grateful for all that You’ve done in our lives through Your word so far. We can feel the changes happening in our hearts and we are so grateful. And Father as we end this time in the land of the Bible here in Israel and prepare to make our journeys for…for us here all over the world to different places and for us personally traveling back to the United States and making our way back into the rolling hills of Tennessee, we…we thank You for giving each and every one of us the traveling mercies that we need and the strength and the stamina and the health that we need. Come Holy Spirit into this month we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, as I mentioned at the beginning, yesterday was the last day together on our trip and the last day is centered in Jerusalem and its oriented around the final…the final steps…the final days of the life of Jesus. And, so all of the kinds of places that we read in that narrative that’s the places that we were…were visiting, like the Mount of Olives. And just walking down the Mount of Olives and seeing Jerusalem and kinda putting ourselves in the position of Jesus coming into the city. That…that would’ve been the way He came into the city across the Mount of Olives and then He would’ve seen the temple and then, you know, the Bible says He wept, “oh Jerusalem…Oh Jerusalem. How I long to gather…gather you and you weren’t willing”. And, so, just to kind of be on the Mount of Olives looking down upon the…the Temple Mount. Of course, the temple was destroyed back in A.D. 70, so the dome of the rock is there, but just to…that’s where the temple was. So, to be able to look across there and I don’t know, you put yourself in the position of Jesus and you realize that the weight of the world, maybe the weight of the universe is on His shoulder. He’s just…He longed for them to understand and they weren’t ready, and He was going to bear the suffering before Him. So, it’s just kinda stuff like that and then on down to the bottom of the Mount of Olives into the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed, “If there’s any other way to get this done, if there’s any way for this cup to pass.” And the chapel that is built there at Gethsemane really is…it’s one of…I think it’s one of my favorite chapels that…I mean there’s many ornate beautiful unbelievable chapels but just because the architecture is so centered around the…the moment…the moments that…that happened in Gethsemane. It’s dark it's…it’s made to be dark. It’s made to be silent. It’s beautiful. It’s got this huge beautiful blue roof with this gold all around…it’s beautiful but it’s sobering. It’s meant to be like, yeah, you’re walking into a place, this is the place where Jesus was arrested. This is a somber place to commemorate. And, so, we spent some time there and  then the quarter of Caiaphas the high priest, the ruins of this which is kind of across the Kedron Valley from the Mount of Olives, where Jesus would have been brought after having been arrested, there's…there’s ruins that still exist. And, so, and there’s a chapel there too. And again, it’s breathtaking. All of these…these chapels that are built in some of these places are…well they’re meant to be places of contemplation. So, you walk into them and almost against your will whether you’re paying attention or not your eyes are drawn upward to the ceiling and that’s the intention, like, that’s the intention of it all, so that you sit in quiet and your eyes are lifted and you’re just kind of in a space that’s designed to speak to your heart that there’s way more…like that there’s this vast spiritual realm, there’s way more going on. And, so, so that’s great. And then you can kinda move down because this is Caiaphas’s quarters. So, this is the place where…where Peter went, right? And this where he’s standing outside warming himself by the fire being accused of being a disciple and cursing and denying that he even knows Jesus. So, and the dungeons below are still there. And, so, we always go down into the dungeons and I mention…I mention…mention it most every year, it's…that place…I don't…I’m not sure what it is because like I should be numb to it by now because I’ve been down there so many times over so many years and I’ve been all over the place and…but that place…that place…I don’t know it’s just…I just can’t stand it. I just…I hate thinking about Jesus tied up down there by Himself. I don’t know what it is but it’s just like this moment where He’s being held while all of the…the people in power, religious power, are like making as much of an arrangement as they can to have Jesus killed by the Romans. And Jesus is just down there, spit dripping out of his beard and red marks all over Him from being slapped around and that’s just the beginning. Like that was the appetizer and what’s coming next is He’s gonna be beaten almost to death unrecognizable and then crucified to death. I just…yeah…but anyway it’s deeply, deeply, deeply moving to have the experience. And then back, back to the walls to the old city there’s a place where at least this is far as archaeology can go and when you have archaeology and you have many many many layers of archaeology, then you have to, you know, you have to start making educated guesses about what everything is. But just that there's…there’s remains of some steps that were, you know, kind of almost like a side entrance, a private entrance into the Roman garrison in the…the palace for Herod. And, so,  this would’ve been where kind of where the mob gathered and yelled, “crucify Him” and you can sort of see some steps and understand that very, very likely, these steps Jesus would’ve stepped down these steps carrying a cross. So, that’s just the kind of stuff we’re centered around. Of, course, the church of the holy sepulcher, which is…well it contains a portion of a very small portion of Golgotha, which was…like…like a large hill, a very long large hill. There’s like a bit of it preserved and, of course, the tomb…the tomb of Jesus. And, yeah, that’s also…like it’s hard to put some of this stuff into words, especially tired now. I mean just having had all these experiences and how to process it all. But you go in there and you at once are not…you’re like…I don’t understand where I’m at, how does this all work. And it’s confusing. It’s very ornate. And its…you know…you have like a little bit of distance in your mind you because you’re looking for this garden, you know, you’re looking for this hill where a cross was, you’re looking for all these things and they’re all encased inside of a building now because so many of these places have been just destroyed and desecrated over years and over, over, over millennia,. But the tomb, yeah, just to know this is the spot where the most pivotal moment in human history ever happened, the resurrection. So, so…that’s…all of these things carry with them all of these kinds of deep moments connected to our soul as we follow Jesus and then we end up in the garden tomb, which is…it’s a beautiful place to end. And it…it…it does provide that sense, that…that sense of the garden. And, so, to be able to be there and receive communion together and end our trip together is always a bit bittersweet, always full of a lot of emotion and then…and then we move to our final dinner together, our farewell dinner, which is also always bittersweet, but really, really filled with joy and just a sense of family just a sense that we experienced something together and that will always matter. Like even as we go our separate ways it’ll always matter. And, so, that’s that and today is…is a travel day.

So, thank you. Like I said at the of beginning, thank you for your prayers over travel and over reentry and…and all that goes along with it. I can’t thank you enough for raising a canopy of prayer over this…this journey. We felt you. We knew you were there. We…we knew we were doing this together all around the world. And, so, yeah, it’s been fun. Tired, ready to be home, but it’s been a joy as it always is to be able to lead people deeper, deeper into the Scriptures and apply those to our hearts and lives so that…so that we’re transformed so that we’re changed. So, that’s been an honor. And that’s it. That's…that’s it from Israel. I’m, Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey Daily Audio Bible family it’s doctor Kanio here from London I pray that everyone is well. It’s the 22^nd of February and Brian I have to say that I am loving the way that you are reading the book of Leviticus with so much __ and so much clarity. You are bringing a book that perhaps most of us would run away from into…into perspective and I __ have to grapple with some of the things that have arisen in this book. And I did love the fact that we were reading Leviticus alongside the gospel of Mark whereby we’ve got the passage of the woman with the issue of blood and how poignant her story is because now I understand that she just wasn’t experiencing a physical healing but it was also in emotionally healing, that emotional aspect of being ostracized from your…your community, for being set apart for wrong reasons. She was also healed from that and I love the way that Jesus responded to that perhaps feeling of shame that she had. And I do encourage anyone that’s also experiencing shame perhaps this is something you have no hand in. She didn’t have a choice as to whether she was going to endure this bleeding. It was by no fault of her own to our understanding. But Jesus was still able to carry her shame and to publicly declare that she is free. And how beautiful that even when we do experience shame Jesus came so that we might be free from shame and He declares us as free from the things that once held us bound and we are no longer unclean, but we can come into His presence. So, I do want to encourage people to enjoy the book of Leviticus just as I’ve been enjoying it. And Brian thank you so much again for…for reading with so much passion and…and allowing us to connect with the stories as well. Thank you so much.

One more thing, this is Pink Paint again. But the precious lady from Northern California, Jared the Encourager, and His Little Cherry from Canada, the three of you have literally bought beachfront property in my heart and I don’t know you personally, but I do. And after hearing your messages I played them over and over and over again and you guys, Jesus used you to give me hope.

Good morning DABbers this is Darrell from Depew. Brothers and sisters, can you please prayer. I have a very, very good friend of mine, a pastor friend of mine who is having surgery this coming week. I think his surgery will be Tuesday which will be the 24^th. He’s got back surgery. He is a warrior of God, first of all. He was a paratrooper and how this incident happened with him was he jumped out his plane the one day and the parachute never opened. It’s been 30 years he’s been suffering with this pain in his back. So, I am asking all my friends and family and the DABbers around the world, pastor CT. Father, I know that You have a plan for him. I know You have a team set up already for the surgery with You being the Jehovah Rapha, the healer of all Father. Please, please Father have him come through this surgery with peace and wisdom and knowledge of You. Amen.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Brandy from Arizona. I’ve been listening for a couple of years now and I just wanted to say good morning and thank you Brian and Jill and the entire team that brings the Daily Audio Bible to my phone every day. As so many of my DAB brothers and sisters have said, you guys are an integral part of what starts my day, helps me focus, helps me understand who I am and whose I am. And I am just so fortunate to not have to do life without you. I have struggled to find a…a home church and I will continue to look but I do not feel like there’s a void because I come to the mantle of the Daily Audio Bible family every day and I get to hear the word of God, I get to praise, I get to worship and I get to pray for my fellow brothers and sisters as well as be prayed…being prayed for. I just have to say, Terry the Trucker, Blind Tony, Victoria soldier, there are just so many of you that have broad light and life to me over the last couple of years as I have listened. It’s just been an amazing experience, and this is just complete, complete, complete praise for the love and the fellowship and the kindness and the encouragement and the learning, the intensity and the intelligence that you guys bring to me every day. I love each and every one of you and I thank you. Have a blessed day everyone.

Hi DAB family this is Abby I’m calling from Dublin Ireland. I’m not originally from here I’m actually from Nashville Tennessee but I am married to an Irishman and we’ve been living here in Dublin or I’ve been living here in Dublin for about six years now. I just wanted to call and say hello. It’s my first time calling. I’ve been listening for a couple of years now and I just wanted to thank Brian and everyone that calls in. It’s been such a huge blessing in my life to find this community and this podcast and I just want to pray for if there’s anyone else, you know, living here and Ireland that is a listener, you know how hard it can be here. It’s quite cynical of any sort of faith or relationship with Christ here in Ireland as I know it is in a lot of places. It was quite a culture shock for me coming from living in Tennessee in the south and, you know, you can be a lot more open with your faith. So, it’s something I struggle with here. So, I just wanted to pray for anyone that’s living in a place where it’s kind of hard to be bold with your faith, but God’s grace is with us. So, I just wanted to pray for you and encourage you and also just to say hello to everyone. Thanks guys. Love you all.

Hey, everyone this is Tony the narrator. I just text…I just had a text conversation with my ex-wife who got me to North Carolina and she’s in Britain right now and I was supposed to bring her here, but her new boyfriend has. And…sometimes being a Christian is the most painful thing in the world. We were really friendly…you know I was really friendly but…oh God. Weeping and gnashing your teeth, I’m so grateful to Jesus that this is as close to hell as I’m ever going again. Please pray for me guys. I love you. I’m exhausted. Take care of yourselves everybody. I love you. Bye-bye.

Lord, I’m so thankful for You. You give me hope in all things. You love me like no other. You care about the details of my life. You direct my steps. You use me to help and encourage others. You stand with me in all situations. You discipline me out of love. You challenge me. You speak to my heart. Thank You for being with me always. Thank You for creating me, for loving me when nobody else did, for drawing me to You, for being so patient with me, for forgiving me for all of the choices I made that grieved You and for never giving up on me. Thank You, Lord. I will praise Your name as long as I have breath. I will dedicate the rest of my life to serving You. I will be faithful to You as You have been to me. I will proclaim Your goodness to all who will listen. I will live a life pleasing to You Lord. Shape me into a vessel You can use for Your glory Lord. I surrender all. Amen. This is Danny from Southern Oregon hoping You all have a blessed day. Bye now.

Leap Day:

Today is the 29^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. This is the odd day, the leap day that comes around every four years. And it’s so interesting that we find ourselves preparing for the final day of our journey here and the land of the Bible and that’ll be taking place on this leap day. And in some ways that’s a happy thought, in some ways it’s a sad thought. Ad this is an important…a really important day on the tour. But since it’s the 29^th day of February, since it’s leap year day…I mean…we don’t have a specific portion of Scripture to read for today. I thought we could just talk about some of the different things that we’ve experienced. So, I have Jill here. She’s been on the tour with us and she’s gonna share and I’m gonna share, I guess. I guess we’re gonna share. That’s the plan.

Brian: So, yeah, do you have…our journey begins in the wilderness. Are there moments for you that were, that were significant in the wilderness?

Jill: The wilderness was hard. I thought I would do a little bit better acclimating this time around and it actually ended up being worse. It took me off guard and I was literally thinking, “I cannot wait to get out of the wilderness or the desert or just, you know, this phase of the trip.” Like, I said, because it was harder this time around. And I thought, “second time” I’d have it down and “piece of cake.” And it wasn’t so much. So, maybe just all of the reflections that other people have talked about just about having to go through the wilderness, but not really wanting to at all. It’d be so easy to stay stuck there. Like it really is in your face reality of how easy it would be to stay stuck instead of having to get to…to go through, to be intentionally deliberate about getting through it. So, yeah, the wilderness was hard. I love…I love the desert. I love that first day of just the vastness of nothing. I…as somebody who has grown a fondness of silence and space. I love it. I think it is just stunning and beautiful to look at. It’s mind blowing to see how far it goes on, how…how far nothing goes on for miles and miles, like as far as your eyes can see. So, there’s the stark beauty of the wilderness of the desert.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. I like when we get to the bottom of Israel, the bottom tip to the city called Eliot and it’s on the Red Sea and just looking into Saudi Arabia, looking into Egypt, looking over onto Jordan, and being in Israel, and just like, it’s…we get to that point and I realize, man we are…we are here, we are in this stark desert and it just always seems to be a moment that I always remember from all the of the different trips. And then we head north, and the tabernacle is really remarkable, because we spend so much time reading about it in the Bible. And it’s, you know, this many cubit’s, and this many curtain holders, and just all of the different things that have to be built. And, so, to have that in context makes that make some sense. And just to walk-through that is always good. And yeah. I mean the story of the wilderness on this pilgrimage is the story of the wilderness of our lives. By the time that we complete those days we’re ready for the promise land. And, so, coming into the Galilee last time you were here was a different season of the year. And, so, this year they’ve had a lot of rain. And, so, it was just gorgeous. Very, very green. What was the Galilee like for you?

Jill: Galilea is gorgeous. I am a woman who loves her garden and so to see the lush crops of Israel and how they take pride in their vegetation, it was…it just did my heart so good. And the green…there were parts of it where the hills, the sky, the clouds just melded right into the mountains and the hills and it just literally took my breath away. Valley of the doves, especially. I thought was so beautiful. But yeah, who doesn’t love Galilee, the water, the sea of Galilee? It’s just…it’s gorgeous. That’s my language. Water’s my love language. So, I just…I felt my store…my…my soul was restored in a much-needed way, especially after being sick in the dry…in the wilderness. Yeah. Loved it.

Brian: Are there any places in the Galilee that…that you felt like God was moving in your life? Like, I mean, we don’t necessarily have to go region by region that we’ve gone through. What places are gonna be memories for you?

Jill: Well, I mean I think, you know, everyone has, everyone will have a different place because we’re so individually made and it’s just different things speak so specifically to our hearts. But it got me last time and got me even better this time, Peter’s Primacy is…ahh…I’ll get teary…but it is probably by far my favorite place here. Just…and I have to say…the shore was flooded…it was so much more flooded this year than last time. And I was…I was so anxious to walk out onto the beach and sit up on one of those rocks, like I did last time and just be. And I was disappointed that the shore was all the way back to the back of the building and I couldn’t…there was only a certain part I could walk to and then I was kinda stuck. But I just looked out and it was where the sea ended, and the sky began. You could not tell the difference. And I just have these moments where I am envisioning Jesus preparing breakfast for His disciples for the…for His closest friends, for His comrades, for His…the men that He has been with through thick and thin, the men that betrayed Him and denied Him and He still chose them. And I love to cook. I love to grow food. I love to cook food for my family. And it’s probably my love language of just making people happy through food. And, so, to think that Jesus loved His own enough to go to the water and prepare breakfast. And just…I’m just…I’m out there and I’m envisioning Him calling them in, you know? Like, “it’s done.” It’s ready.” And just the whole story of, you know, Peter denying Him, and Him just asking Peter, you know, “Peter, do you love me?” And ultimately, it’s, “if you love me feed my sheep.” And I love to feed His sheep, so that…it…it sounds even kind of cheesy, but it just is so specific to my heart that it shows me that humanity of the Savior that I love so much. And then of course the boat ride. That just always takes my breath away. You know, it’s hard to kind of have intimate moments in a group of a hundred people but just being able to go to the front of the boat, which looks like the back of the boat. But to be in awe of Jesus when He got out and walked on the water. And I just stand in awe, I just stand amazed at who He is, not really what He’s done when I’m here. But it’s for who He is. And that He loves us so much. I really…I’m always awestruck at His love when I’m here because this is the place that He chose to be at, and this is the place He chose to be intentional with people’s hearts. I just love that so much…I love that I get to see up close when I’m here.

Brian: Yeah. I do too. And we just had…well you mentioned the sea of Galilee. It’s…I just can’t remember ever seeing it this full. And that's…that’s been so needed. It’s been kind of re-seeding because they’ve been having to use the water. And, so, to have a full back up, like you said, at the church, to almost all the way up to the rocks which, I’ve never seen it like that before and it’s just beautiful. And the hills are just green, and the new flowers are coming out, the yellow flowers all over the place. And, so, being at the Mount of Beatitudes and being able to read The Sermon on the Mount. That was just really meaningful. It always is, but on a lovely day it’s just really spectacular. And, so, the…the Sea of Galilee isn’t the only thing that’s full. The Jordan River has been full, and it’s been flooding down in the desert and that’s usually where we go to baptize people and this…we had to kind of move to another location…the Jordan River. And that is always one of the most meaningful things for me, but it was particularly meaningful because Ezekiel made his…made his decision to be baptized on his own. Like he…we didn’t throw him in the water. We didn’t ask him. He wanted this. And, so, to come down into that cold water, make his profession of faith and go under that water and feel the shock of it and get out and climb up on me. It was just…never gonna forget that.

Jill: Yeah. That was obviously…that was…but it’s also personal. And, so, it's…you want to share it with thee world but wanna kind of keep it to yourself too because I’m telling you that boy could not get in the water fast enough to do that. And if just people knew the back story of just the general anxiety that he has had over the last couple of years of being afraid and being away from us and just looking at us to see if it’s okay to talk to people sometimes where, “am I gonna get in trouble?” And I was trying to hold him back so he could be the last because I didn’t want him to be freezing waiting in a group of people because I love the baptisms and I want to see everybody. He would not wait to the end. He just wanted to go so bad and everyone graciously let me go to the front and watch him. And such an unbelievably beautiful moment and just walking back with him he was just smiling from ear and he said, “mommy, it feels like Jesus is hugging me.” It was just unprovoked, genuine, genuine feeling that he had, and he was…you could tell he was really proud of himself for…for making that decision. And, of course, everyone was so gracious…gracious in telling him how proud he was…they were of him. And, so, it was a really special moment here this year.

Brian: Yeah. That is…I mean that is always a highlight for me and most everyone gets baptized. So, that's…just it takes a little while but it’s just a really, really…it’s one of those moments where it seems like things start clicking, things start making sense to everybody. Like that, “I’m really here. I’m walking in the footsteps of Jesus.” And we had done the marriage…the marriage renewal ceremony before that, and that’s also amazing. It’s just amazing how meaningful something can be when you’re really trying to be in the moment with God. And being here helps with that tremendously because that’s the whole focus. And, so…

Jill: I wanted to say something about that because this is only my second time, but you said something at the beginning of the ceremony. I…I was amazed at the amount of people renewing their…their vows. But you said something at the beginning where you said just close your eyes and take a moment and think of how far you’ve come in the journey of getting here in your marriage. And that…you can feel the weight that in the room. And just being there with you…before I sat in the back and this time, I got to be up front with you. I got to see people’s faces and it was incredible, the amount of the men who were teary during that. I guess I just always think that women are far more emotional beings. But you could see the men physically moved by the weight of just that pause in that moment and that was really special to be able to see that and share that this year.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, I agree. I…it’s such an honor to be a part of that moment and be included in that moment with anybody. And to be able to do it on this trip is just humbling. And I mean there are many…we could start talking about stories in the group…just all that happens as lights go on in different places, and it’s just like, “oh. now I finally see this. I will never think about that story the same way again now that I’m walking here.” And, so…I mean…there’s a day we go up on the Golan Heights and I love it up there. It’s so fertile and it’s…there’s less people and…and it’s super super green this year. Like they’re having a really, really…it looks like a really great year. And, so, you know, getting to the Syrian border and just understanding how fortunate that we can be and just praying for those brothers and sisters who…I mean, just…they are trapped because of all kinds of different circumstances. To face outward, that’s something that’s really meaningful for me each year.

Jill: Yeah. I mean…I don't…I think we could share a million different stories and people probably just don’t want to hear about our experience but there was one lady in particular that we were in the gift shop together afterwards that just couldn’t stop sobbing and she said, “I just didn’t now. I just didn’t know that this existed.” And, so, there’s been these little moments, like you said, of awakening that you’re just witnessing in the group throughout, all throughout the grouping. I think what I love so much is that we…we don’t have to be the ones to fix it for people. I love just sitting in the questions with them and being a part of that too. There was another precious lady from our group who came by herself and yesterday she just had an “ah-ha” moment that I got to be a part. I loved that I got to be a part it with her, just witnessing it. And She said, “I’m already known. I just have to be…” And that is such…I just feel like it’s such the journey of awakening, like of…of the moment you realize it’s like, “God already sees me. He already knows me. He already loves me. I don’t have to strive. I don’t have to do. I just have to be.” And that was such a beautiful moment to share that with her yesterday right before the…the wall where we prayed together. So, really, really special moments like popping up all over the…the trip but those “ah-ha”, like being part of people’s awakening is maybe the greatest joy of what we get to do together.

Brian: There’s no question about it. And this whole thing is…is geared and aimed and tailored for God to move…like it’s…you’re right…we’re not here to fix anything that…we’re here to focus our affection and our attention and our hearts on God and open ourselves completely to whatever He has for us. And when…to bear witness to that. It’s hard actually sit here and talk about places anymore because like, you know, it’s not really a travelogue. By the time we get to this point in the trip so much has happened that our hearts are all full and our minds are all full and our bodies are all tired and it’s been a pilgrimage it’s been a long and difficult journey to someplace holy. And, so, even getting to Jerusalem and going through that, just finding how different it is from any other place on earth but any other place that we visit on this trip as well. It’s just amazing. And, so, like we’re sitting here on leap day getting ready to go through the final day together and walk in the footsteps of Jesus by following Him on his last days and I just think ahead to that and it’s been an honor to be here.

Jill: I agree. And even just like you said, you know, moments talking with people and their…the shift, just a visible shift in our son’s heart, our 19-year-old that’s with us too on this trip that just, you know, you hope and you long for that can happen on its own and only God can do and being…being able to witness that too is just, you know, does a mom’s heart good. Yes. Such beauty. Such beautiful moments, such beautiful moments in the relationships made with the people in the group together, how they care for each other, how they care for the bus driver, how they care for the tour guide, how they care for feeble and the tired and the lonely. And really, sometimes I feel like we just have to get out of the way and let them do it and it’s so beautiful to watch.

Brian: Yeah. It’s unbelievable beautiful. It’s one of the beautiful things about the Daily Audio Bible community. You, like, you can listen every day and be involved in people’s stories and praying for another and then you do get the opportunity to be around when we get the opportunity to be together. It’s the same thing and really is a beautiful thing to watch. So, I…my body is tired, and my mind is full, and my heart is full, and we have this one more day and then we’ll be making our journey home. And, so thank you for your continued prayers. This day that’s in front of us is one of the most important days and we have to live into that. It kind of puts the exclamation point on our journey together. So, keep continuing to pray for us over the journeys…the journeys home. So many of us are going in so many directions after this. But I believe that we are knitted together, and we’ll never forget the time that we had here in the land of the Bible in 2020.

Jill: I agree. So, where do we do:

Brian: dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on.

And well, we’ve just been telling you what’s been going on here. And we got one more day and then long, long journey home. And our prayer is that transformation has begun and will continue long, long, long after we return. In fact our prayer is that we won’t ever be the same again, that by compressing time and…and going through all that we’ve gone through over these last week and a half, that that will change the way we live when we reenter our lives with eyes to see and ears to hear in ways that…that we hadn’t considered before. And, so, thank you for your prayers over that.

And it feels a little weird to have…have this time on a day and not have any Bible to read. I don’t ever I guess go through a day that I don’t read the Bible. So, let me just end out time together with the 23rd Psalm, a Psalm inspired by a place, a place that we were able to see, a notoriously dangerous portion of the Kedron Valley opening up down in Jericho, the valley of the shadow of death.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointist my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for that promise and we thank you that it’s rooted. We’ve been able to even understand how that came to be said and how deeply important it is to our journey of life together with you and life together with one another. And, so, we thank you Holy Spirit for all that you’ve done and all that you are doing. Come Jesus we pray in your mighty name, we ask. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Harold this is Asia from Chicago. I am so happy to hear that you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and that, yes you are part of our family and we love you. You are my brother now and I am your sister. We’re family. I think it’s really cool that you’re running the Chicago Marathon. Maybe I can come and watch. I’ll try to like, get a sign of something and I can root for you as you run. That would be so awesome if I could see you and meet you and just like give you a hug face-to-face. So. here’s a…a virtual hug through this podcast and eventually, you know, whatever will maybe link up at some point. But I just wanted to say, so proud of you, so happy that you’re running this race with us, not just the marathon but the spiritual race that we’re running together. You have no idea how much this has blessed my day. I’m going through a lot right now and just hearing that you are now part of the family it’s seriously turning my day around. So, I live in Roscoe Village if you’re familiar with that neighborhood. And, yeah, I can’t wait to see you run. I’m gonna…I’m gonna support you dude. I’m gonna support you and I’m gonna get my…my sister and my brother, we also listen…like my actual immediate sister and brother…we also listen to Daily Audio Bible. Yeah, everybody that lives in Chicago, let’s all root for Harold. We should root for him when he runs his marathon. Yeah, okay, cool. I’ll talk to you guys later. If you could please be praying for me, going through one of the hardest seasons of my life. I’m surviving but I want to be doing more than surviving. But, yeah, God’s getting me through it. Love you guys. Be praying for me. Harold, again, love you brother. Welcome to the family. This is Asia from Chicago.

Hi everyone, this is Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada. My heart is just breaking as I heard the sister of Karen called in to say that Karen, her husband Andy, they have two sons Theo and Ben. Ben committed suicide and was found by his mom. Also, that Karen is the caretaker of her dad who’s in hospital with a brain hemorrhage and their non-Christian family. And my heart just breaks. As a parent we don’t want our children to go before us and especially in such tragic situation. And they don’t know you as their Savior. So, God of all comfort, wrap Your arms around about them, draw them close. Open their eyes to see You. Give them seeking hearts and send someone their way, Lord God who would help them to understand who Christ is and how You can be their source of strength at this time. Be with the whole family. Lord God give them wisdom, understanding. Sometimes I don’t even know what to pray. My heart is so grieving, but You know. And, so, I lift them up to You Lord God. Be with them now. Give them all that they need for such a time as this and at the end of all of this Lord may they come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. And I thank You that her dad will be healed, and he’ll be home to be with the family to help to pour out his love on his daughter and the remainder of the family. And I give You praise in Jesus’ name. If you hear a pur pur that’s my cat Nicole. He’s joining with me in prayer this morning. Bless you.

Hey family this is his little Cherry in Canada. And guys I just wanted to share something with you that I’ve discovered in the last few months. It’s called adoration. I don’t know how much time you spend specifically on adoration in your relationship with the Lord, but I would highly recommend it. It has changed everything for me in the last little while. Adoration is different than coming to God with your prayer list or having your, you know, devotion time when you read a certain amount of Scripture. And adoration is just simply getting alone with the Lord, telling Him what He means to you, loving Him, lavishing your love on Him like Mary did when she poured the ointment on Him. And I’ve never found anything that has softened the soil of my heart like adoration. And as I’ve been giving more time to the Lord in adoration, I’ve found that, although my situations haven’t necessarily changed, I feel differently about those same situations. I just feel differently about everything because I’ve turned my eyes upon Jesus and looked full in His wonderful face and the things of earth have grown strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace because He is so beautiful. He is so wonderful that simply to see Him, simply to kiss His feet reminds me that He’s the only thing that matters. So, I highly recommend family that you spend lots of time in adoration.

Today is February the 21^st, 2020 and I’m calling to request prayer meeting today. I have a saying, “today’s me tomorrow is you.” We take turns in this lifetime don’t we DAB listeners. I developed a small lump in my right breast and am going to the doctor to have it checked out at 3:30 PM. I would appreciate your prayers over me, and I will also keep you updated. And I want all of you to know I always pray for all the requests coming in and I love you all and this is Angel from California. God bless.

Hello this is Pink Paint. It’s February 22^nd and this message is for Artifact in Bakersfield California. I don’t know why but God really highlighted you to me. And my friend I am partnering with you on prayer. I’m praying for complete restoration for you, complete healing and I ask you pray for me as well and let’s watch what God does.

Today’s February 22^nd and this is Wide Spread Jesus out of Omaha Nebraska. I’m a first-time caller and have been listening since April of last year. I’m so grateful for the Daily Audio Bible app and the strong community of prayer warriors. I’ve had multiple thoughts of calling over the past few months and never have. So, today is the day. At first, I didn’t listen to the prayer wall but once I started it’s been profound in my faith. I pray with the prayer requests from day-to-day and I’m filled with great joy when I hear the praise reports. This community is truly a blessing. I’ve been praying for the Diana Davis family, specifically Michael and his brother. It’s obvious Diana Davis was an amazing woman of God that impacted many. It reminds me of my mom when I lost her to breast cancer at age 15 which was 23 years ago. Stay strong and seek God for all things for one day we will be reunited with our moms in heaven. I also want to give a shout out to Harold from St. Louis. Amen brother, welcome to the kingdom of God. I’ve been following your calls and when I heard you give your life to Jesus, I shouted out with praise and glory to God. That’s what life is all about, being disciples of Jesus and honoring the God Almighty. Thanks to Brian and the DAB community for all you do. You are all loved. All praise and glory to God. Amen. God bless you all.

Hi family this is Lori from San Diego and today is February 22^nd. I want to give all those who are struggling with sobriety a message of hope. I was like the man in the cave tortured by demons that called themselves Legion. I tried for many years to get sober. When I got a DUI and totaled my car, I knew I was going to die. So, I tried one more time. Fear is a great motivator and kept me sober for three years. But in my third year of sobriety I realized the one thing missing in my life was God. I had never given Him a chance. I had such anger towards Him because I was born with alopecia and was horribly bullied as a child. I decided that if I was going to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him that perhaps I should try to get to know Him. In 2018 I tuned into DAB every day and for the first time in my life I read the Bible. During that year I was convicted to go to the holy land, and I went on the 2019 pilgrimage. A year ago, today I was baptized by Brian in the Jordan River. I went last because I was so terrified about taking my wig off in front of people which I had never done before but my desperate need for freedom from all bondage gave me the courage. Real freedom means I have nothing false within me and nothing to hide from anybody. So, I took my wig off and I stepped into that river. I didn’t feel cold or even water on my scan. What I initially felt was unworthy and shame but when Brian dunked my head under the water, and I came back up I was freed. Everything that I believed defined me floated into the Dead Sea and I was reborn. Today I have six years of sobriety and I love the Lord with all my heart. So, my message to you is this. Please don’t give up on yourself or on God. He is more powerful than any legion of demons. Give God a chance to allow the sunlight of the Spirit into your heart. God is your biggest fan and He loves you. If He can save a wretch like me there is nothing He won’t do for you. God bless you. I love you.

Leviticus 22:17-23:44, Mark 9:30-10:12, Psalms 44:1-8, Proverbs 10:19

Today is the 28^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today coming to you from the holy city of Jerusalem where we…well…we spent the entire day kind of in and around the old city and…and all of the different things to see here in Jerusalem. Today will be escaping and going down to the shephelah, which is the lowlands for the day. So, that’s exciting. It's…it's…it’s beautiful to see the green lush open land again after being more in a metropolitan, kind of large congested area. So, that will give us a breather and get us ready for our final day of this pilgrimage tomorrow. So, let's…let’s get into the Scriptures. Let’s see what the Bible has to say to us today. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Today Leviticus chapter 22 verse 17 through 23 verse 44

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Mark today Jesus is moving around the countryside teaching, doing ministry, doing what he does, and John comes to Him with this really, really interesting situation. He’s like, “we saw somebody trying to cast out demons in your name and we tried to put a stop to it because he wasn't…he wasn’t one of us.” That is sort of the first rumblings of an issue that was…that was certainly going on among the Hebrew people but then bled its way into the early church and still continues until this very day. Even though Jesus spoke very very clearly from His own lips about how He saw it. So, like as believers, we usually kind of…we usually find a group, we might call it our church community, but we sort of find a group of friends, other believers and we…we stick together. And that’s community. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If we’re defining ourselves as believers in Jesus, we’re following the way, we are practicing our faith, knowing that we have not mastered anything, that…that we’re in process and that we’re walking with God and we’re walking together then we’re the body of Christ. It just gets weird once we decide we have to define precisely what that means. And then we get our theology books and start with our dogmas because invariably at some point we will think we have it right and someone else, some other group, some other people who don’t see things the way we see them, they have it wrong. So, the ultimate question then becomes “who gets to be in the kingdom? Who gets in? And is that something that a human being, no matter how judgmental, and no matter how much authority they seem to hole, do they have any say in it at all?” After all it is God’s kingdom. But we can get ourselves so segregated into our group that we then can’t even fathom the concept that God could use anyone to do anything that thinks differently than we do because they’re not really in. So, John was seeing somebody that they didn’t know that was not part of their group casting out demons in the name of Jesus and he tried to shut it down because he wasn’t part of the group. Same thing was going on with the Pharisees toward Jesus and now it’s in Jesus’ inner circle. And unfortunately, it’s always been with us and is still with us today. But Jesus said “don’t stop him. Anyone who is not against us is for us.” And then He went on and He had a little child and He uses the example. What He was saying was, “like anything that’s done for anyone who belongs to Christ, even something as little as like a glass of water isn’t gonna go unrecognized.” So, in our own lives may we understand that if and when we encounter God on the move, whether through a group of people or a person or something that we don’t understand, let’s quit with the labels, let’s understand that we are at a crossroads. And as we’ve been talking about in all kinds of situations, let’s understand that wisdom will be there and just the humility of knowing none of us have this all sorted out. That’s why we’re practicing our faith. That’s why we’re all undergoing the process of sanctification, the process that sets us apart and makes us holy to God. We’re all at different points in our journey. Criticizing everybody else’s journey does not further ours. It actually walls us off and it doesn’t take long before we look like the Pharisees. May we offer grace, the same kind of grace we would like to see as we love our neighbor as ourselves.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into that because what freedom it would bring, what freedom it would bring. And we confess, the reason these kinds of things usually happen is truly based in fear. We do not want to get it wrong, not with You, not with You. The implications are far, far, far too dire. And, so, we live in fear that we might get it wrong when we will get it wrong. But You have offered us an open door. We can always return. We can always repent. And that is for everyone, not just for our group. So, come Holy Spirit and give us grace. May we see the kingdom at work in our world today and may we understand that we are a part of it. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, we’re like down to our last couple of days in the land of the Bible for this pilgrimage and that’s always kind of…of a mixed…mixed feeling. We’ve been in motion for so long now and it’s just our heart…heads, hearts, just bodies, everything. We’re full, empty and tired and elated. And, so, it’s just all of that. And, so, yeah, longing to be home but hating to leave all of that just kinda comes. Yesterday, ooo, it was a long day around Jerusalem. Beautiful day, thank God. It was a beautiful, beautiful day but we…we were…we were working and we saw a lot, covered a lot of ground. I’m trying to think if I can even remember it all.

We got up early, like ½ an hour early to get in the line, queue to…to be able to go on to the Temple Mount. And that’s pretty extraordinary on a clear blue-sky day. The dome just kind of stands out. It…it’s just a really…it’s a remarkable place with definitely conflicted history all over the place over all kinds of time. But that’s kind of the nature of Jerusalem. That’s been the story pretty much all along. So, yeah, you can feel the tension, you can sense…you can sense that because it’s ancient, it’s always been. And, so, there’s just a lot of jostling around. But a beautiful morning up on the Temple Mount.

And then we came down and went to the pools of Bethesda. And this is where Jesus healed a man that had been…had been suffering there by the pools on a…basically on a daily basis for 38 years. And Jesus came along and said, “do you want to be made whole?” And that’s a challenging thing. That’s a challenging thing to consider, especially here on the pilgrimage. It’s like…it’s like so much comes down to that. “Do you want to be made whole?” Not “can you” or “should you”. Like, “do you want to this and the collaboration that happens with God when we say yes to that?” And, so, yeah, spent a little bit of time, kind of pondering that and putting it in our hearts. It’s a beautiful church from the Crusader era right there with the acoustics that are really breathtaking as well. And often it’s really full, really hard to get in there but we managed to get group in there, and Jill lead us in…in a song and just could hear the echo of our voices just bouncing all around. It’s really majestic. It’s a lot of fun to do. It’s just a really, really unique experience. It’s like you’re in a huge cathedral and you are, but just being in Israel in this ancient church and singing to the Lord and just hearing the echo of it is…is wonderful.

So, we did that and then many…many of us walked on the old walls. You can kind of walk a portion of the old walls, beautiful views and you gotta climb some stairs, but beautiful views. And then coming down and also just little small sections of the city that from the Roman era as well as like the wall, a portion of the wall of Jerusalem from the time of King Hezekiah. And that is also pretty remarkable, see how wide the wall is. Even though it’s like all buried, you know, you can’t see how high. And it’s a small section but just kind of see like, “this is…the this is what a wall at this time, a fortified city at this time would’ve look like.” And their thick. I’m thinking, I don’t know, we’re like above it, I’m thinking 30 feet maybe 35. Maybe…I don’t know. I’m not so good with that and I didn’t have a tape measure, but really really thick. So, you know, it's…it’s easy enough to imagine the kind of battle the…like the kind of ongoing onslaught that it would take to breach a wall like that. And we read of those kinds of stories in the Scriptures, especially the tactic of surrounding…like starving the city basically and weakening everyone’s morale. And there’s plenty of stories that we will encounter in the Bible about that including Hezekiah’s story when we get to it.

Then there was some lunch in the Jewish quarter and then to the Jerusalem archaeological Park, which is again, it’s…I mean there’s a lot to see but it is really spectacular. Your down below the walls of the old city. So, like the southern temple steps are there. Part of the steps that what would’ve continued up to the temple when it was there. And some of them have been re-created but some of the original steps are there. And, so, that’s one of the places that you can be where…where you’re…you have just a pretty near certainty that Jesus would’ve walked there, that Jesus would’ve taught things on those steps and would’ve been there. And, so, for us to be there and not only have that touch point with Jesus, but also to open up the book of Acts and read the story of the Holy Spirit’s coming and Peter’s first message, and 3000 people following the way of Jesus after that and being baptized and considering where…where that might’ve taken place and understanding that the temple complex is really the only place that would have that kind of resource to do that many baptisms. So, that’s a likely scenario. And just having that touch point is great. Like all these things are great by themselves and you start stacking them up and it’s really great and then just kind of following all of the archaeology around the old walls and then making our way over to the Western wall and being able to go to the wall and join with brothers and sisters all over the world and…and pray, touch the wall.

I took Ezekiel to the wall this time. I mean, we prayed and that was…that was really sweet to watch his little hand reach out and touch the wall. Probably should’ve took pictures of that, probably would’ve wanted to remember that, but it just seemed like a moment that needed to live in memory. I don’t know. Sometimes you have these moments where you’re like, “I really really should video this or I really should take a picture of this”. But maybe that, you know, maybe that ruins the whole thing. Maybe this is just a moment that we have. So, that…that…that happened and was beautiful.

Then we went into the, what’s called the rabbinical tunnels. So, a lot of archaeology has been done under the ground along the walls of the old city because the temple mount itself, the second Temple era, this is during Herod’s development phase. And he was crazy. I mean you read about it. He was crazy. But he was a fantastic developer and so much of his fingerprint on this land still stands today, including…including the, you know, the Temple Mount, the whole support system to hold up the Temple Mount, like all these massive retaining walls. But they sort of disappear. You have this like one little section of that with, you know, with the western wall or the Wailing Wall as it has been known. But it continues. It’s just, you know, the cities built up. But archaeologist have for years been working beneath the ground. And, so, you can kind of go down there and see all of that, basically walk the whole length of the Temple Mount under…under the ground and see that, “yeah, these are the same. This is the same Herodian era all the way down.” Ssee some of the Roman era. There’s opportunities where they had like glass, you could look down all the way to the second Temple period, the time of Jesus, see the street down below. So, that’s pretty…pretty fantastic as well.

And then we finally…finally got back to our hotel pretty exhausted. We did a lot of walking. But it was a beautiful day and we made it…we made it and we saw a lot in Jerusalem today and we got sort of the…the full force of the city…like the change of complexion that Jerusalem brings. So, the wilderness, very different. The Galilee, very different than the wilderness. The Mediterranean coast, very different than the Galilee. Jerusalem, very different than the cost. So, we’ve kind of experienced all of that and it’s been wonderful and today we’ll be heading into the low lands and I’ll be telling you about that tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued prayers and…over all of this…and as we prepare…even though we have a couple days left…as we prepare to reenter our world as we go home and prepare for that. Thank you for your prayers over all of that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you profoundly for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Leviticus 20:22-22:16, Mark 9:1-29, Psalms 43:1-5, Proverbs 10:18

Today is the 27^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today for the first time coming…well not for the first time ever but first time on this journey coming to you from the city of Jerusalem, the holy city. We made our…our ascent up to Jerusalem yesterday and we’re in for a bit of culture shock today. It’ll be a very, very different experience than the rest of experiences we’ve had so far because we’re in…Jerusalem as the holy city, right? But it's…it’s also a city, a large city here in the Middle East that's…that has everything a city has, and we haven’t really been in any big cities. So, things like the crush of traffic and…and all the goes with it. It’s something that’s beginning to be a part of our experience on this pilgrimage. But we can talk about all that in a little bit at the end. Let’s still ourselves and just come in out of the cold and come around the Global Campfire and let God’s word speak. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. And today Leviticus chapter 20 verse 22 through 22 verse 16.

Commentary:

Alright. Let’s talk about the proverb today. I mean just think about…think about a person in your life right now that you’re just…just not getting on with, right? Like somebody at work or just somebody you know, like it’s just…it…things are not going well. Maybe you don’t know this persons story, they’re just a coworker or something that they seem to always be after you or on your nerves for something or it is…it’s just not working out or…or maybe there’s somebody in your life that’s offended you, they…whether they know it or not they’ve offended you. And, so, you got a nice healthy weed growing in the soil of your life, this bitterroot inside of the soil of your heart. I…I feel pretty confident that we…we’ve all had these kinds of experiences before, but what do we do with them? Because a lot of the time we water that weed by just kind of reliving the situation over and over. And sometimes, like we’re replaying the conversation in a way that it never happened or we’re…we’re dreaming of a confrontation that we can have in which we say all the right things to that person, and they are speechless before us. We’re sort of like dreaming how we might have some sort of mini revenge. So, which plants all kinds of dark seeds around that seed of bitterness that we keep watering. And, so, we get pulled into all kinds of places that are not healthy for us and we’re not paying attention that we’re at a crossroads where wisdom can speak. And, so, maybe we just blow right past that crossroads and start blasting that person. Like…like we tell our friends about our day at work about that person that they don’t know, or we go out to the coworkers or whatever and they don’t know and we’re just shredding them behind their back. But while we work alongside that person, we pretend everything’s fine, everything’s good. The proverb says, “the one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.” So, the crossroads here in these kinds of situations is, “okay I’m offended. I’m hurt. I’m angry. I’m mad and I don’t think this is going to get any better. I'm…I’m done with this.” Then the crossroads is what we do next. Are we willing to become a liar and a fool over this offense.? I mean, is it really worth that? Are we gonna continue to water this root of bitterness until it’s a tree of bitterness in our lives? Are we gonna be foolish? Alandering our brother and sister and, in other words, engaging in gossip about them, that…that’s more time consuming and takes a whole lot more energy than just going and having a humble conversation and restoring relationship with the one that we’ve been offended by. And they may not receive this. They may hate you. I don't…I mean who knows the circumstances? But are we willing to be a liar and a fool over it? That’s the question at the crossroads. And, you know, I know how this goes because I am a person and I face all these kinds of things too, right? Like, we can bristle up and could be just like, “well, you just don’t understand this person. Like you just don’t understand how they are.” Proverbs she has such a way, doesn’t she? Because it’s just a simple question. Okay. Okay son. Okay. Okay daughter. Okay. Okay this has happened. Yes. It’s happened. What are you gonna do? Is this worth becoming a liar and a fool over? Let’s meditate upon that as we go through all the interactions that we are sure to have today.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. We probably have no way of even gauging the amount of trouble we’ve gotten into from our words. There’s probably no way to even count how many times we have been a liar and a fool according to wisdom’s voice in this kind of scenario. But a lot of that has been because we just…it’s our culture and it’s our ignorance but You have come today and given us the voice of wisdom at the crossroads and it’s always there and we’re just…we just often blow through but we’re learning, we’re learning to practice wisdom. And, so, Holy Spirit come, and may the voice of wisdom guide our steps today in all of our thoughts, words and deeds we pray and ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, as I mentioned at the beginning we have arrived in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is very, very different than any of the other places that we’ve been in this country. We’ve been everywhere. We’ve been all over the place. There’s really only one more region in this land that we will encounter. So, we’ve done the coast, we’ve done all the way down through the wilderness, all the way as far south as we can go. We’ve been as far east as we can go. We’ve been as far north as we can go. We’ve made it back to the coast.

And today we were kind of in the land of Samaria, basically. We left the coast this morning and then came in land before beginning to work our way southward where our first stop was Shiloh or Shiloh. And obviously an important place in the Bible. Sometimes we don’t realize how important because we focus so much on the Temple era like when there were kings in Israel and so there’s a temple in Jerusalem. But before there was ever a Jerusalem with a temple in it there was Shiloh. This was the first place, the first permanent dwelling for the tabernacle, the first capital, heartbeat, spiritual center for the tribes of Israel as they came into the land. And that went on full almost 4 centuries. So. a very very long time with a very very long story that touches many many different places in the Bible. The prophet Samuel is most notable there. But, I mean the children of Israel lost the Ark of the covenant by taking it from there into battle, which brought an end to the high priest Eli. But Samuel’s mother Hannah had prayed for a child that she could dedicate to the Lord and all of that story happens in Shiloh. And it's…it’s pretty remarkable to stand there and realize this really, you know, when the children of Israel finally did cross the Jordan and begin moving into this land and building communities in the different areas that they had inherited and that had been divided up and we’ve read all those different divisions. When this began to happen then Shiloh is the place where they go out to worship God. And, so, it’s pretty remarkable to see where the tabernacle would’ve once stood and understand that, man this is…this where the holy of holies was, this is where the ark of the covenant was. It roots you in these stories. And we had a nice day. The last couple of pilgrimages that we had gone to Shiloh it was…we were battling with the rain and cold…and which makes that place a bit more challenging to navigate but a beautiful day today. So, we were able to just kind of see it at its best and enjoy it.

And it was Ash Wednesday yesterday. So, the…the beginning of the season of Len. And I mean…I talk about lent when we go into lent, this season on the Christian calendar that points our hearts…well it’s intention is to prepare us for Easter, to prepare us for what we’re celebrating when we celebrate Easter, the resurrection of Jesus by allowing us to have a season where we understand what it cost to give us our freedom and eternal life through Jesus and to kind of sit for a season with the weight of what our sin does in our lives and how it continually pulls us from God. Like there’s no benefit, there’s like no benefit to sin. So, you know, a lot of times people are fasting things if they’re observing Lent. And fasting is part of that story. But a lot of times you’ll hear people they’re fasting candy bars or something like that when…and I told our group…you know the thing that we’re supposed to be fasting here is sin. And what we’re supposed to be doing is understanding that this season is one in which we open our hearts to God, allowing him to take out whatever doesn’t belong and to move around whatever He needs to and to put into our lives whatever He wants to as we just move through a season of openness that then allows us to sit with the cost and then move into Good Friday. And like really, really, you now, understand that this Jesus that we love and that we’re learning about, the way His ministry ended was His execution even though this was the plan. It’s…when you fall in love with Jesus then you don't…at least I can’t stand it…you know…I hate that this happened, and I rejoice. But it’s supposed to be that way. We’re supposed to sit with that so that as we celebrate the resurrection on Easter then it…it means something. We’ve walked through a season preparing our hearts and we’ve rejoiced with all of our hearts the relief of it all, the release of it all, that Christ is risen indeed, and our sins are dealt with. That's…that’s the season. And, so, a lot of times there’s an Ash Wednesday service in many different churches and you where ashes, you known, on your hands or on your forehead for the day. We just took an opportunity to…to enter into that tradition as we were getting ready to go to Bethlehem and most…most of us did

And, so, from there some launch, a beautiful lunch at a winery that we like and just preparing our hearts the crush of the urban center that we’re going into and just a very, very different culture and way of doing things. And that's…that…that’s Jerusalem and that’s Bethlehem, which is just kind of a suburb of Jerusalem.

And, so, we went to Bethlehem. And man it’s usually so crowded that if you want to go down into the grotto and see that star that commemorates, that marks this place, that…that…that believers have come to for centuries and centuries and centuries, you have to kind of wait in line. There’s other believers from all over the world that want to see this place because it’s one of the most holy places, like a geographical place. Not that that’s what Jesus was after, but it’s one of the most holy places to go to say, “this is where the Savior was born in Bethlehem.” That’s meaningful. But a lot of times there’s like…there’s churches that’ve been built up over these places and then you can go down below into earlier foundations and kind of find bedrock and see how over time, these places have been built up and destroyed and rebuilt and then destroyed again and then built stronger and then challenged again. And that’s kind of how a lot of these places are. The Church of the Nativity is like that. So, we did go into the grotto and didn’t have to wait quite as long of a line. It was pretty remarkable. And visit that spot and, then go down below into the caves where you can finally go, “okay. there were caves here. Okay I see. You know this is all built up over the top of all of this.” And we went down there. Haven’t been able to get down into their either for a couple of…of tours because just…the crush of people. You just can’t move, can't…but today we got a big group, so we take up some space, but we were able to do these things. And, so, it was nice. I haven’t been able to enjoy them myself for a couple of years but it was nice to go down there and sing a Christmas song and understand like we’re in Bethlehem and this is the Christmas story. And, so, we did that before then moving toward Jerusalem, checking into our hotel, and getting some dinner and preparing for a big long day around Jerusalem today. And I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow.

And we thank you for your continued prayers over us. We’re kind of on a more intense part of this journey, even as we’re tired and kind of have moved through a lot of travel, a lot of jostling, and a lot of heart work, and a lot of knowledge has been imparted to us, and we’ve seen a lot. And, so, our hearts are full, our brains are ready to explode. And now we get into like the more intense time of navigating around a lot of other brothers and sisters who have made their journey here from all over the world to have the same kind of experience that…that we are at some of these places. So, thank you for your prayers.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage and I thank you humbly for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Leviticus 19:1-20:21, Mark 8:11-38, Psalms 42:1-11, Proverbs 10:17

Today is the 26^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you. Coming to you today back on the Mediterranean coast. We began our journey, our pilgrimage to the land of the Bible on the Mediterranean coast quite a way’s south from where we are now, but we’ve made a big circle and we’re back on the coast to the north. And we’ll talk about all of that. We spent yesterday kind of in the Jezreel Valley and before this day’s over we’ll find ourselves finally arriving in Jerusalem, which is a very, very different experience than any of the places that we visited so far. So, we are continuing to move forward in this pilgrimage. Thank you for your continued prayers. Talk a little bit more about what we’re doing at the end but we’ve come here for one thing in particular and that is to hear the word of God and allow it to become a part of our day and to wash into our hearts and plant good seeds in the soil that’s there. So, we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Leviticus chapter 19 verse 1 through 20 verse 21 today.

Commentary:

Okay. In the Gospel of Mark today Jesus lays out some criteria about what it might look like if you want to follow after him, if you want to follow the way that He is illuminating and kind of hidden in plain sight in this little dialogue is something that we…we really need to think about and get a discerning heart about. So, first, let’s just kind of look at what Jesus is saying, like a disciple, a follower, like what…what they would look like. He said, “if anyone wants to follow after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.” Basically, Jesus is saying if you want to follow Me then follow me by doing what I do. And then He goes on to say, “whoever wants to save His life will lose it, but whoever loses His life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose His life. What can anyone give in exchange for his life?” Okay. So, we could say that those are some characteristics of a disciple of Jesus Christ, someone willing to deny themselves and carry the burden of the gospel when following Jesus forward in the face of the darkness, to be the light in the darkness, knowing that darkness hates the light because the light exposes what’s in the dark, knowing that going in and knowing that it will be difficult, a difficult road, that it will be costly, but knowing that this would be living as the apostle Paul said, “as a living sacrifice” that “it’s no longer we who live, but Christ who lives within us so that we are as Christ in this world”, right? So, the converse will be true. The person that…that only embellishes themselves and their ego and their identity, they won’t deny themselves, they aren’t self-sacrificial in any way whatsoever and will not carry any burden of the gospel or bringing light into the dark, they just try to protect themselves and save themselves and save their lives and save their identities, they’re gonna lose it. But whoever knows on the front end that these things, these entanglements, these attachments, these hang-ups will lead them in no way closer to Jesus. Those who know that are willing to lose that life in order to find actual life. Okay. So, you can be like, “okay. that’s a…that’s a…that’s a really good way of unpacking that so that it makes sense but I’ve kinda heard this about a thousand times in my life. I kinda get that. Well if you get it, is it what your life looks like? But let’s take this way, way deeper. It’s often that I hear people tell me or I hear stories of people saying what kind of attack they are under. Like, so I hear it all the time, “my family is under great attack right now” or “we’ve been in a season. It seems like all the dark forces are coming against us.” This is a…this is a pretty common thing to hear, especially if you’re in ministry, but by what definition are we saying these things. In other words, how is it that we’ve verified that we are under attack from the evil one who has spent special attention on us today or this week or this season and is somehow getting away with it? These things only happen when we’re facing hardship or difficulty or pressure, that the life that we want to live or the life that we’re trying to live is being thwarted and is only because we’re not getting what we think we deserve or want or desire then…then we are being…then we have come under attack. Now, I’m not saying this is not possible. I’m saying, when we find ourselves in a position, we find ourselves at a crossroads. And what we have heard from the Scripture is that at that crossroads wisdom will be there and we need a discerning heart at that crossroads. Here’s why. When we face hardship, when we face seasons of challenge and they can be deep challenges, they can be brutal at times, we all know that…like, I’m not saying anything we don’t know, life has its difficulties and challenges. This is a promise. This isn’t a surprise. This is something that we’ve been told like in black-and-white, like clear clear, clear, from the Bible. So, if we have our wits about us and we’re going into a season and we’re feeling a season like, “man the unexpected is happening and it just feels like the bottom is dropping out.” I just had a season like that last summer. I sat down on my couch one day and I said, “Jill, have you noticed that nothing…nothing is going smooth. Like everything is hard right now. Like nothing is going smooth.” I’m sure that’s been…I’m sure you’ve experienced this at times. And, so, if we have our wits about us and we understand the words of Jesus then we understand, “okay. What I’m facing here is an opportunity to deny myself and take up my cross and endure and keep walking forward, because whatever life I think I’m losing in this is life I’m going to find, it’s false. I’m going to find what’s true. The truth…the truth is that…that that would be the appropriate posture, but often these things, they will work as an attack. They work because we let them work. We let it estrange us from God because somehow, He didn’t come through. But what if He was saying, “yeah, I am coming through for you. You have no idea what I’m freeing you of through this fire. You’re gonna come out on the other side pure as gold”, right? Well, if we think God is letting us down and this whole attack thing has taking us out, then the opportunity for wisdom and growth was there but we fell for the bait and we’re estranged from God. But can we also acknowledge that the…the flipside of that coin can also be true. What if all hardship, all challenge, all difficulty that is currently in your life were removed and massive amounts of financial blessing came into your life suddenly? And your cares, because now you have…you have your feet under you and you have some power and now your cares are floating away, would you ever say to a friend, “I am really under attack from the evil one right now?” Probably not right. We would say, “no. The evidence of God’s blessing’s pouring down from the sky are all around me.” And yet, wouldn’t that be an equal crossroads, where we would look for wisdom and discernment? For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? So, if we think about the times that we have faced challenge in our lives…I mean aren’t those the times usually that we go running for God and the times where we feel like we’re in control that we drift away from God? So, what is a greater deception? What is a greater seduction? Perhaps when we find ourselves at a crossroads, either one that is challenging or one that is looking like the wind will be at our back for a while and we’ll be coasting, these are crossroads. We need discernment. When the evil one tempted Jesus, when he said, “you can have all of this. I’ll give all of this to you. You can have it all if you bow down and worship me”, right? That was the tactic, not worship me or I will have you killed. We need discernment about the challenges we face in life and we need discernment about the seasons where the challenge goes away because we can be seduced away from God either way, it’s not one or the other. We need wisdom and discernment. What Jesus told us is to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. Let’s allow that to be something that we meditate on today. What does that look like for us?

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into this. There's…there’s plenty to think about here because it’s true, we base our judgment or blessing or cursing or good or evil, kind of based on the…on how our culture informs us. And, so if it’s pleasurable then it’s good and if it's…if it’s challenging and it’s something to be endured, then it’s bad, which is simply not the case and simply not supported in the Scriptures. So, give us wisdom so that we might understand, at every crossroads the narrow path that leads to life and that we would stop blaming You for things You had nothing to do with or giving credit to the forces of evil for things You have done in our lives to free us. Come Holy Spirit we pray into all of this in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, here in the land of the Bible where we are continuing our journey, a journey inward, a journey outward, a journey in the land, all kinds of journeying is happening within us as we move about.

We left the Galilee yesterday and we made one more stop on the way out, Cursee on the northeast side of the lake, land of the Gerasene’s. There’s a story of Jesus throwing a legion of demons into a herd of swine. And, so, there is an ancient Byzantine monastery, the oldest one in Israel as I understand it there to commemorate the spot. And we just took some time there to reflect on that story. And the reality that when the people on that side of the lake saw this man who had been possessed and untamed, basically, in his right mind and swine floating in the Dead Sea, like it was deeply confusing. And obviously something significant had happened but they asked Jesus to leave. And we just kind of thought about the ways that we…we follow in those footsteps.

And, so, when we left there, we drove along the east side of the lake southward and then away from the Sea of Galilee, south to an ancient Roman Decapolis city called Beit Shean. Amazing, amazing ruins from the Roman Empire and earlier and later. And we went into the amphitheater and took some seats to kind of look out over the city and we opened the Scriptures and spoke about the death of Saul because this city, Beit Shean is named in that story. So, King Saul the first King we haven’t gotten to this as we’re going through the Scriptures this year, but we will. He went to battle with the Philistines and ended up being killed. He and his three sons were killed on Mount Gilboa. And when…when the…the next day after the battle and everybody’s coming…coming to kind of take the loot off the bodies and stuff they found Saul and they cut off his head and sent his armor away and celebrated their great victory delivered to them by their gods and the took Paul…or Saul’s body and hung it from the walls Beit Shean. And, so, some of those ancient walls exist. And, so, we just rooted ourselves there before exploring. It’s probably one of the greatest Roman era ruins in Israel.

And then we started working our way across the Jezreel Valley passing by Megiddo…Har…Megiddo…Mount Megiddo…Har Megiddo…Armageddon. And then we drove by there and then up to lunch. And then up onto the top of Mount caramel we’re you can really see a wide panorama of the Jezreel Valley and we just opened the Scriptures, again considering the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal and the show down and the fire on the mountain and the execution of Jezebel’s prophets and then Jezebel’s threat that sent Elijah on the run back into the wilderness only for God to come to him and ask, “what are you doing here back in the wilderness?” And this is really poignant when your kind of making this journey because we’ve been in the wilderness. We know what the wilderness is like, not only in our lives. We spent plenty of time reflecting on that but what it’s actually like to go through it because we just did it several days ago. So, just kind of considering that and applying it to our lives and understanding that Elijah was invited to come meet with God but it wasn’t in the wind on the mountain, it wasn’t in the fire, it just…it wasn’t in the grand display of power on the mountain. It was in the still small voice. And, so, we kinda put that in our hearts to consider as we moved down off the mountain and back to the Mediterranean coast.

And the coastal city, Roman era city of Caesarea Maritima and it’s pretty spectacular right on the coast. More than pretty, it's…it’s very spectacular just to see it, understanding the apostle Paul was arrested and carried Caesarea Maritima away from Jerusalem and held there for a couple of years and eventually making an appeal to the Emperor. As a Roman citizen he had that right. And, so, from Caesarea he sailed to Rome. So, we had a touch a bit of that story before then moving to our hotel for the evening. And a long day and ready for a good night’s sleep.

And today we will…we will be off from here and heading into the interior a little bit while making our way down toward Jerusalem and we’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued prayers, especially over stamina and fatigue. It’s just kinda starts to set in and there’s a lot going on every day. And, so, we just need the energy to finish well and have open hearts to all that God has yet in store for us as we continue the journey.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. Thank you humbly with all my heart for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello Daily Audio Bible this is Steve. I’m calling to request prayer for my son Santiago. Where currently at the hospital. He went through surgery yesterday because he fell on his bike and started puking blood but we found a perforation. The doctor closed the hole and now we just need prayer for recovery. We estimate for two weeks but, you know, we pray for God to, you know, shorten the recovery time. So, DAB family this is Steve from Texas. Please pray for my son Santiago. Thank you. God bless you.

Harold from St. Louis. Oh, welcome brother welcome. This is Heather in Atlanta, February 17^th still wet, soggy, soggy, just dreary day. You brought so much sunshine, so much sunshine. I am so glad. I’m on the side of the road just bawling my eyes out. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. I want you to know that the day that I heard your call back in January was the day that I stopped living in fear and for the first time in five years, I asked for help, I begged for help through this family, the DAB family. You were the one who I don’t know why I just something about your story made me…if this man and not even knowing Christ can pick up this phone and just communicate with someone Heather what is stopping you. And Harold thank you so much and welcome so much just welcome. There are great things in store for you. I wish I could come watch you run. Oh, Harold welcome son. Welcome. I just want to tell you I love you and thank you for everything and how wonderful it is to hear you encouraging people to call in and I look forward to the day that I get to see your face one day Harold. Welcome, welcome love. Everybody else, I continue to cover us all in prayer and I just want to say I love you. Brian and the entire Hardin family I continue to cover you in prayer throughout our journey through the holy land. I love each and every one of you. Oh Harold, oh thank you sir. Thank you. I’m gonna jump back on I 75 back north y’all. I love you everyone have a wonderful …

Hi this is Rachel from Pennsylvania let’s pray. Dear Lord, I want to lift up to You those who are struggling with sickness, those who have contracted the coronavirus and the flu virus. I just want to pray that You be with them and with their families. I pray that the viruses are contained and don’t spread to other caregivers and other family members. I just pray that You will, for those who are infected, that You will protect them and give them strength and energy, keep their fevers down. And we just pray that they do not end up needing to be hospitalized and if they are hospitalized that You’re there with them in their…in their hospital rooms watching over them. I just pray that…that…that they have quick recovery and that…that those family members that are there and exposed or the caregivers that You just protect them and that they don’t contract the virus. And we also want to lift up, I think it was El, I couldn’t understand exactly the…the full name but of child called into pray for himself and his family who contracted a cold or a virus and also his grandmother who had an injured leg. So, I want to pray for that child and his family. And I just want to lift them up to You Lord. Please heal them quickly and swiftly and completely in Your name I pray. Amen.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Dorothy. I posted on the Prayer Wall a couple times and I just wanted to give a praise report. Thank you so, so, so much for praying for me. God heard your prayers. I’m healed I mean of that medical…I see it as a general medical issue, it was possible immunodeficiency disorder that was I a genetic thing and I was supposed to get the diagnosis today to start immunoglobulin treatment monthly, which is very, very expensive, which most people cannot afford. And I’ve been crying every day and just…but anyway long story short the doctor told me today that I can make antibodies and that my immune system is like everybody else’s. And he really didn’t have an answer. And pretty much told me last month that adults don’t heal. So, I’m healed. I asked him, “can I go around licking doorknobs now” and he’s like, “ahh no. Let’s wait six…” So, they’re going to pull the antibiotics and monitor me for six months to check if I get sick but according to the blood test I’m healed. I’m a normal person and not to say…there’s a lot of things wrong with me but thank you. And I just wanted to encourage you that prayer works. And thank you so much for those that did. I love you guys. I was suicidal when dealing with this and your guy’s love for each other is…made…gave me the community I needed and kept me going. So, thank you. I love you guys so much. Bye.

Hi there, DABbers this is Vonnie in Northern California calling on let’s see Wednesday, February 19^th and I just heard Harold call in. I am jumping for joy Harold and you can’t imagine how the angels in heaven are dancing and singing over you and welcome to the family brother. We’ve all been praying for you and we’ve been inspired by your calls. And thank you so much for calling in and letting us know. We will just keep on praying for you and for others who are listening to the program and, like you said, are afraid to call in. Oh Lord, please bless Harold and take care of the others who are in such need right now Lord, all the ones that you’ve laid upon our hearts to pray for. Thank you, God for intercessory prayer for the ability to bring our needs before you. We love you God and we are so grateful for the family of God. All right have a blessed day everybody.

I was just listening to Harold the marathon runner come in and call in and tell about hearing so many people praying for him. I haven’t called in about it, but I have been praying for you ever since I heard that. And I just knew that you were going to be saved and I’m praising the Lord for your salvation. Thank you, Jesus. I love you Harold.

Hey is Kim in Las Vegas. Harold I just heard your prayer request that you accepted Christ and I’m in tears. It’s good to have you and the family. You know, it was…it’s good news to hear this morning. I needed to hear it. And God I just thank You for bringing our brother into Your fold Lord, that he’s part of our family Lord. We were pulling him in and drawing him in and You were drawing him further Lord to You and into this family. And I pray that he would lean on You Lord and he would know that he has thousands and thousands of family members around the world praying for him always Lord and I just thank You for this victory. It’s in Your son’s name I…

Leviticus 16:29-18:30, Mark 7:24-8:10, Psalms 41:1-13, Proverbs 10:15-16

Today is the 25^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and a pleasure to be here with you today. And this is the last time I get to say this, from the…from the shores of the Sea of Galilee. We will be…we’ll spending a little bit of this day in the Galilee region but we’re…we’re leaving and heading west all the way to the Mediterranean coast today where we’ll end the day. So, this is our last day and we’re saying goodbye to the Galilee. That’s always a little bit of a sad thing. This is such serenity. I…I…it’s my favorite place. I love to be in this region. So, we’ll be leaving today but we’ll talk about all…all of our moving’s around and what we did yesterday and all that in a little but let’s dive into the Scriptures for today. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Leviticus chapter 16 verse 29 through 18 verse 30.

Prayer:

Father thank You for Your word. Thank You for another day in Your word. Thank You for the way that day after day after day there’s this cumulative effect inside of us that we can feel transformation happening with in us even though we may not be able to explain it, kinda like seed and soil when the farmer doesn’t know how it happens but it does and that’s what’s taking place within us and we can sense it and we’re grateful for it. And, so, we continue to open ourselves to You. We continue to stay open to Your direction and leading in our lives. And, so, Holy Spirit we invite You to plant the word of God into our hearts, into the soil of our hearts today. And again, we invite that You help us to see where the good soil is in our heart and where some work needs to be done. Come Holy Spirit into all of this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, here in the land of the Bible, we will be leaving the Galilee today and heading essentially through the Jezreel Valley and back to the Mediterranean coast tonight. So, it’s always a little…sad’s not the right word, but it’s the Galilea’s a beautiful, beautiful and…and quite serene place and then that kinda changes as you move away from the Galilee. We had a just beautiful day yesterday, gorgeous, beautiful, perfect climate, sunshine, lovely at…and the see if Galilea’s very, very still. And the water is up so high. Some the places that we visited, it was just amazing how much rainfall, how high the Sea of Galilee is.

So, we began our day yesterday…yesterday at the Mount of Beatitudes. And this is the traditional site where the Sermon on the Mount was given. And I mean the Bible says Jesus was outside of Capernaum up in the hill overlooking the sea of Galilee and that’s with the Mount of Beatitudes, that’s where this chapel is. And, so, we just began our day there and just went to the Sermon on the Mount, just allowed the words from the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety. It’s just basically, I read it. Like, what if we were sitting here? What if we were one of them? Instead of just trying to expound on everything like, let’s just take this in. And, so, that’s what we did and took some time to contemplate it and think about it. And, I mean as we’re walking in the footsteps of Jesus and kinda visiting the places where so much of His ministry occurred, we also spent a lot of time thinking about it. And, so we did that at the Mount of Beatitudes.

And then we went to the church Peter’s primacy. This is the place where after Jesus resurrection Jesus came back to Galilee any He cooked breakfast on the shore for His friends and asked Peter three times if he loved Him and invited him to feed His sheep and we just went into that story realizing that the last words that Jesus speaks in the in the New Testament is “you follow me”. And we…we considered what that looks like, or each of us. We each have an individual story to tell. We each come from so many different kinds of backgrounds. What does that look like? What does that mean? Like, so often we’re gauging how well were doing that based on how well somebody else is doing it and our judgment of that, but we just read the Sermon on the Mount and realized that’s not going…like that doesn’t go anywhere. What does it mean personally, “you follow me”?

And then we went down to the to the water. This is a place that you can get right to the water and usually there’s kind of a bit of a beach. It’s washed away. It was remarkable how high the water is but at the same time…how beautiful…how beautiful it was. I can’t remember ever…ever seeing that much water in the Sea of Galilee. So, this is a really, really good thing for this nation.

And, so, we departed there and went to Jesus hometown, His adult hometown, Capernaum, where He based His ministry. And there’s some really fantastic ruins of the fishing village Capernaum, including a pretty dramatic synagogue that was built later after the time Jesus but…but the a foundation is from the synagogue at the time of Christ. And, so, that is always pretty striking because you can see it, you can see the foundation and just know, like Jesus ministered, like He taught in this synagogue, He lived here, He knew people here, He laughed here, He ate here, He slept here. Where in the middle of it all, but it is a ruin. And, so, it’s like kind of a disconnect there until we realize that the message that Jesus was speaking was about having eyes to see and ears to hear, a kingdom that is within us, that this journey that…that we’re on, He’s within us and this kingdom is everywhere. And, so, then we begin to look around and see brothers and sisters flooding into Capernaum to see the same kinds of things that we’re seeing ands to chase the same kinds of things that we’re chasing. But we are the kingdom. And the life it’s in Capernaum isn’t in the rocks and isn’t really even in the fact that Jesus was there, it’s the fact that we were there. Jesus was there within us. Just to kind of put that into perspective was helpful as we moved through and looked at things. And just, yeah, I mean, that Jesus lived here at Capernaum is amazing.

Then we went and had a bite of lunch before and actually did a little bit of little bit of shopping time in the Galilee before getting on a boat and going out on the Sea of Galilee and it was really truly beautiful. Many time’s that we’ve been here there’s been wind and waves and wind advisories, but it was like glass out there today. It was just amazing. And, so, we kind of sailed toward the Mount of Beatitudes where we could even see the chapel that we had begun our day in the distance up on the hill and just shut everything down, shut it down to complete silence to drink that in and to taste of it and to allow moments for the Holy Spirit to be a part of the story that’s being told here in our hearts as we move through this journey. Complete silence, serenity, just to kind of hear the water lapping up against the side of the boat and the birds coming along, circling around us and just be still and know that He is God. One of my favorite…one my favorite things to do, especially so serene. I…I’m sure I’ve been out there and it’s been that calm….I just can’t remember. It was…water was really high and it was really calm. A beautiful, beautiful day out on…on the lake.

And then from there our final stop of the day as the sun set, and probably…I'm…it’s for sure one of my favorite places in all of Israel Bethsaida. And Jesus did ministry in Bethsaida. And it’s one of the places, at least for me…and not a lot of people go there. So, it's…it’s not overrun. And in fact, we had the place to ourselves for the most part today. And, so, just to kind of have that. And just the way that the city sits and because it’s not visited a lot it’s like stepping back in time in a way. It's…it…it’s almost as if this is what it would’ve been like. This is what it would’ve looked like. The pathways that we can walk around here, this is what it would be like. And I told the story of the first time I was ever there because it captured me, and it’s never let me go. Like that place just feels as close as anywhere that I’ve been in Israel as where I feel as if things are…things are similar to how they would’ve been. And, so, even though their ruins and the buildings are knocked down, so it’s not a living city it also has been built up and developed and, you know, there’s not a big church over something. It’s just kinda there and there’s jst beautiful pathways to walk…and walk with God and just spend time considering all that we’ve been through so far this journey as we prepare to leave the Galilee.

And that’s what we’ll be doing today, leaving the Galilee and heading toward the coast as I mentioned earlier.

Thank you for your continued prayers as we continue to move through all of the different phases and seasons of this story and this pilgrimage and all the different things that are being rearranged in our hearts. Thank you for your continued prayers over all of it. We feel it, we sense it, appreciate it, are deeply grateful for it. And tomorrow, after today happens, I’ll tell you what it was like to leave the Galilee and the different places that we visited. And, of course we’re continuing to post pictures and videos on social media of all the different places that I’m describing, the different places that we went to and visited. So, you can check that out as well as Israel 2021, the pilgrimage that we’ve got planned for next year around this time. You can find all the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section, Israel 2021.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link it lives on the homepage and I thank you with all of my heart for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Leviticus 15:1-16:28, Mark 7:1-23, Psalms 40:11-17, Proverbs 10:13-14

Today is the 24^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you, once again it’s always so fun to say from the shores of the Sea of Galilee, which is where we’re kind of camping out here. We spent the day yesterday in the North country. So, went all the way as far north as you can. So, we were bordering Syria and Lebanon and investigating the Golan Heights. And today we’ll be all around…all around the lake. We can talk about that in a little bit. Let’s dive into the Scriptures and allow them to speak because that’s what we need today. So, we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Today, Leviticus chapter 15 verse 1 through 16 verse 28.

Commentary:

Okay. The book of Leviticus, right? I mean today we get to one of these great passages of Scripture where we get to talk about male members and emissions and discharges and menstruation, you know, like all the kinds of stuff we wish we could talk about every day. And it sets up another vivid contrast by the time we get to the book of Mark, but let’s not so hastily leave behind menstruation and discharges and emissions. I mean, like let’s talk about it. Why is this in the Bible? Like, why are any of these things in the book of Leviticus in the Bible? We’ve talked before about what’s going on here. These are the regulations. These are the laws. This is what will hold this culture that is being formed together. This is what they will do. We’ve also noticed in the past that every command there…is connected to a spiritual reality or a spiritual underpinning. So, that what’s being baked in here is that everything that they do reminds them of who God is and who they are. And, so, we’re reading some pretty tedious things that they have to observe. And, you know, like just every little thing we’re saying, “man what a hardship it would’ve been to try to live like that.” But we have to not forget they’re in the wilderness and there are no conveniences. So, something is emerging here out of all of these rules and regulations. Like, wow, “this is pretty tedious. Personal hygiene things. How to take care of mold and mildew. What to do with a skin rash. Like how to properly give offerings to God.” Like there’s a lot going on but when you realize when these things become a part of their story, everything that they do reminds them of their identity and their God. So, you know, the things that we read about today, personal things, very personal things would be the sorts of practical things you would want to consider if you are in a…a…a mobile community that has over a million people, right? Like, if you’re in a mobile portable community even with thousands of people you wouldn’t want to be exchanging blood or to come into contact with each other’s blood or discharges, right? You wouldn’t want to be in contact with people’s secretions of any sort, because if there’s a communicable disease you may get it, you may spread it, it could spread through the entire community, it could be a very big problem. We’ve noticed this before. And, so, we can we can see the practical reasons that this law would be established at this time, but underneath it all, underneath all of it, I mean, there are practical reasons for all of these things for this culture, but underneath all of it something is emerging, that there is clean and that there is unclean. There is clean and proper physical hygiene and there is unclean hygiene, right? There are ways to keep your dishes and utensils clean or leave them unclean. But if you leave them unclean then your foods gonna rot, like it’s gonna get…gonna get nasty and eventually make you sick. Like that’s not going to work in this kind of culture. It doesn’t work in ours. In our modern era we have all a lot of new inventions about how to stay clean, physically, like how to take care of hygiene. They didn’t. So, they had to be meticulous about it. But underneath it all is a spiritual reality. There is clean and there is unclean within you.

So, if we stop here in the book of Leviticus and then just like get in our time machine and warp forward a couple millennia, get in the first century and come back up alongside Jesus again we see that these keepers of the law, the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees, they’ve come from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus to question Him and they’re talking about these things. “Why don’t your disciples, wash their hands? Why are they washing with ceremonially unclean hands? Why don’t they follow the traditions of the elders?” And then this is once again where Jesus is basically saying, “you’ve lost the plot. You’ve lost the spirit of all of this. Underneath it is a spiritual reality that you of lost and forgotten. And, so, now all you have is an ancient rule you’re trying to obey. Obeying that rule isn’t going to do anything for you if you don’t understand how it is there to remind you that there is clean and unclean inside you.” So, Jesus is saying, like “it’s always been about your heart not about controlling you or anyone else and not about giving you the power to control everybody else. It’s always been about your heart and you are ignoring that altogether. So, you’re running around trying to make everybody obey rules that they’ve lost the plot. They don’t know the spiritual connections” or to just state it succinctly, like Jesus, “you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.” So, and basically in…in different words, Jesus is saying, “it’s been your interpretation of the Scriptures that you have made orthodoxy and you have interpreted this wrong and you are enslaving all of the people because you forgot the plot. You forgot the heart and you won’t give it up because it gives you power.” And Jesus calls that hypocritical.

So, what can we get out of Leviticus today with all of our bodily stuff going on? There is clean and there is unclean. And we are encouraged to be clean in body, in mind, and in spirit and Jesus said, “from within”, right? From within. This whole thing is about our interior lives from within. Out of people’s hearts come evil thoughts, right? So, that’s an interior uncleanness. Sexual immorality. That’s an interior uncleanness and an exterior uncleanness. Theft’s, right? That’s exterior. Murder. That’s exterior. Adultery, that’s exterior, but it also first has to happen inside of us before it can be acted out. Greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. Jesus is basically saying, “you guys, you spiritual leaders are all focused on the outside. You want everybody to look right. You want everybody to obey the rules and inside them nothing is being cultivated at all. “You’re…you’re keeping them…you won’t go into the kingdom and you’re keeping them out” is what he told them in one exchange. So, friends a thought for us to consider today to invite God into is in all of the areas of our lives – body, soul, and spirit. What is unclean?

Prayer:

Father, we invite you into that question. We invite your Holy Spirit today to begin to reveal to us. Help us to be observers of ourselves today. Help us catching ourselves in uncleanness that we just don’t even pay attention, that we’re just not even aware of. Help us to become aware because the things that we allow into our heart can defile us and make us unclean. And’ we’re gonna need your help. You told us to guard our hearts with all diligence, but even all of our diligence, all of it will not be enough without the guidance of your Holy Spirit. We can’t do this without you. We were never made to, and we don’t want to. And, so, come Holy Spirit. Lead and guide us today as we consider clean and unclean and we pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, we are still here at the Sea of Galilee. Today will be centered all around the Northwest portion of the Sea of Galilee which is…which is where Jesus did most of His ministry, at least as is found in the Gospels. And, so, we’ll be following in those footsteps today.

Yesterday we went up into the North country into the Golan Heights and it’s very, very beautiful. So, I enjoy the serenity of going up there. Just…it’s very, very fertile. They’ve had a lot of rainfall. Thankfully we didn’t experience any rain yesterday. But first stop, Corazon, which is a city that’s named as a place where Jesus did ministry. Cursed the city. Woe to you Corazon, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and those three places exist, and they are uninhabited archaeological ruins. Corazon first then up…up…up…so…so here’s the thing. The Sea of Galilee is below sea level, like 700 feet below sea level. It's…it is the lowest freshwater lake in the world. So, it…it’s kind of down in a bowl. And, so, climbing back up to sea level and above you have to go up. And, so, that’s what you do. You go up onto the Golan Heights. And, so, we went all the way up onto the Syrian border near the Lebanese border. So, this is as far north as our journey will take us, which is far north as we can go and us. So, we’ve been North, South, East and West now. And all the major bodies of water, we’ve covered that.

But we visited the ancestral tribal home of…well the tribe of Dan. And then there’s a Canaanite gate there that’s always interesting. It’s always interesting because you’re looking so far back in the time, you’re looking back into Canaanite times pre-Abrahamitic times. So, all the way back into the book of Genesis. And there’s other history there too. History from…from what’s known as the divided monarch. Like when the…when Israel…like we’re not this far into the Scriptures yet, but when Israel does come into the promise land, they eventually want to King to unite them all and that happens but it…it doesn’t last for too long and then the kingdoms divide. And, so, the northern 10 tribes were known as Israel and the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin was known as the kingdom of Judah. And at the time this is King Rehoboam of Judah and King Jeroboam of Israel. And Jeroboam didn’t want his people from the 10 tribes to continue to go down to Jerusalem for worship because that would’ve kept their hearts down in Judah. And, so, he built these two temples, erecting a false idol to worship and whole new way of doing things on the borders so that people wouldn’t travel. And we visited one of those…the ruins of one of those temples and just discussed stories, stories that are found in the Bible. And then just discussed owning our relationship with God, taking responsibility for our part of the relationship instead of just heaping upon God every little thing goes wrong in our lives and how that might look in any other relationship and just kinda considering that.

Then we went to Caesarea Philippi, which is just 15 miles north of the Sea of Galilee and is a place that Jesus visited and it’s famous because this is a place where he said, “upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” And that was a purposeful statement. There…there’s a pagan center of this ancient Roman city. This is a Gentile city of the Roman Empire, not a place that Hebrew religious people would go but Jesus went there to make this statement. And, so, the god, Pan had been…was being worshiped there at the time of Jesus. Pan is a half man half goat god and he could instill “PAN”ic in his enemies and was the God of fertility. So, all kinds of weird things going on there. There’s a massive cave opening that Baal had been worshiped at and it had been known as the gates of hell. So, Jesus is making a statement that’s rooted in the geography there. And, so we pondered that fact before having some lunch and then heading up on top of Mount Bentall and seeing Mount Herman.

And there’s a ton of snow on Mount Herman. She never really likes to reveal herself completely. It’s been a rare time being up there where there is not some clouds. And, so, she was kind of shrouded and mysterious, but we could see all the snow up there. That’s right on the border of Syria. So, we faced outward. We’d been doing a lot of inward searching, a lot of soul-searching, a lot of contemplation about our own lives and finding ourselves in the stories of the Bible. And, so, we just took some time to like stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing outward and just remembering that there’s brothers and sisters all over the world that are being persecuted and that feel trapped and that are trapped just because of a where they were born in. So, we took some moments to just sit with that and…and truly appreciate the freedoms that we have while being forced to kind of face the fact that this is not the way of things in all the world.

And, so, so that’s kinda how we ended our day. That…that’s still about an hour, I guess, from the Sea of Galilee. And, so we…we drove back down and got in early. This the one time we get to kinda take a breath, have just a little bit of a lighter day, just catch our breath because all the other days are full, full, false. So…so, that’s kind of what our day was like on Sunday.

It was so lovely to be a in the Dan area just kinda walking on the trails and hearing the birds just calling out to one another on a Sunday morning. Just felt like they were leading us in worship. And it was so serene and peaceful and beautiful. So, a beautiful day.

And today, like I said, we’ll be spending it around the Sea of Galilee and we’ll talk about that tomorrow.

We’re continuing to post pictures and videos and stuff on social media on Instagram and Facebook so you can kind follow along with the tricks…trip, see what we’re seeing and look into the land of the Bible and see, kind of at least a glimpse of the places where things happened in the Scriptures.

Reminding you that we’re making plans to return here in a year, another pilgrimage in 2021. And, you can get all the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Just look for Israel 2021 and you can get the details there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the home page, and I thank you profoundly and with all humility and gratitude for your partnership. We…we can’t do this if we don’t do this together and it’s a beautiful thing that we do. 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, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Leviticus 14:1-57, Mark 6:30-56, Psalms 40:1-10, Proverbs 10:11-12

Today is the 23^rd day of February I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you. This is the Daily Audio Bible by the way. I just had like a complete brain freeze. There’s a lot to keep my brain right now. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible coming to you from the shores of the Sea of Galilee as we continue our pilgrimage through the land of the Bible for this year. It is wonderful to be here with you as we greet a brand-new shiny, sparkly week and walk into it together. And lots of times at the beginnings of the week I remind us, hey, the week is in front of us. It’s not been lived yet. Like all of the choices that we make are gonna make up the story of this week and we’re out in front of it. We can set our hearts in the right direction to make the right choices and follow the voice of wisdom this week. So, let's…let’s live into that. And let’s also do what we have come around the Global Campfire today to do, let’s allow God’s word to speak into our lives. So, it’s a brand-new week. We’ll read from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Leviticus chapter 14.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us safely into this brand-new week. And we were mentioning that we mark this time most every week and just pay attention to the fact that this is a reset and restart no matter how off-track last week may have gotten or for that matter, no matter how perfectly it may have been for us. This a new week and if we walk with You into this week, if we listen to Your word and pay attention to what You’re bringing up in it, if we meditate on what You’re saying to us, and we live into these things we will slow down enough to hear the voice of wisdom at every crossroads. And that’s what we want because we don’t want it to just be one week. We want it to start stacking up week after week after week after week walking in wisdom and…and be…be transformed by it in the process. And, so, we’re thankful that we get a reset, just a moment to reflect on where we are where we’re going. And Father, for those of us here in the land of Israel as we spend the next few days around the Galilee here walking in Your footsteps like we’re reading out of the Bible places like Bethsaida today knowing that before we leave the Galilea we’re going there. And, so, thank You for…for letting us find ourselves all of the sudden in the Bible. We thank You for that. We thank You for…that we live at a time that we can share that, we can share these experiences and allow everyone in the community who wants to kind of see and go deeper and understand deeper…more…deeper…what these places look like, what it was like when You ministered on earth because these hills are the same hills and this Sea of Galilee is huge. Like this is the same one. And, so, it's…it’s riveting, and we thank You for this. Come Holy Spirit into this week, into all of our decisions, into all of our thoughts that are gonna form those decisions and from all the things that come out of our mouth, all the conversations that we’re gonna have that are also gonna inform those decisions. Come into every aspect of our lives. We invite You fully. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, here in the land of Israel we are…we are well underway on our pilgrimage and we’re here in the Galilee and we had our first day kind of in the Galilea although we…we haven’t been centered around the Sea of Galilee yet. We have seen plenty of the have the Galilee region and its very, very, very, very different than the wilderness and we ran into some rain today but not…not too bad, a little mud today, which is always a good time. And…but…but we did have a wonderful, wonderful day.

We began our day at the valley of the doves. This is part of the ancient road system, part of the…the trail way that would’ve led from places like Nazareth down to the Sea of Galilee and it’s a beautiful place to just kind of find some serenity. It…it can be challenging to find it. And, so, we found it and we centered ourselves into it and made it kind of like a little oasis in our mind and heart, a place we can go back to.

And we just invited Jesus into the day before making our way then further westward to Cana, where there is a church that’s been there for a very very long time since a Byzantine era and commemorating the spot of Jesus first miracle, which happened to take place at a wedding. And, so, many of the couples that are on this trip participated in renewing…in a vow renewal ceremony there at Cana of Galilee. It’s always a moving thing. It’s always an honor. It’s always a beautiful thing to just look out over all of the couples and realize how many years of marriage that we’re talking about, how many years of just staying faithful that we’re talking about and adding it up and realizing probably centuries are involved. And just seeing God’s goodness through the highs and the lows and the rocky times and the dark times and the in the wonderful times. And, you know, just all that marriage is. So, just commemorating the moment there where Jesus turned water into wine and just realizing that it’s a miracle that…that we can stay together, that we can do life together in the highs and the lows and just honoring God in all of it is beautiful. And, so, we did…we did that, and it was that, it was beautiful.

And then we moved on to Nazareth and Mount Precipice, which is a fantastic view…like you look out over that view and it’s like all Bible related, Like you look in so many stories of the Bible from there, like Mount Tabor where…where it is believed the Transfiguration of Jesus happened and Mount Gilboa where Saul lost his life and with his sons in the battle with the Philistines. And then down just below Mount Gilboa the story of Gideon. And it’s a huge valley. So, it’s the Jezreel Valley. And the city of Jezreel is down there with its ruins. The story of Jezebel. And then way across the valley you can see all the way to Mount Carmel today. So, there’s so many biblical stories. And standing there on Mount Precipice in Nazareth, this is believed to be the place where Jesus was…where He came out of the wilderness after being tempted, He came back to Nazareth and opened the scroll from Isaiah and essentially announced what He intended to do, that a prophecy was being fulfilled. And as it turns out this is His hometown and in the end there gonna throw Him off a cliff and He just passes right through them and moves on His way and we talked about that a little bit in our own lives before grabbing a little bit of lunch before moving back toward the…the Sea of Galilee for baptism.

And, so, we all got ready to be baptized in the Jordan River. We couldn't…we normally do it outside of Jericho. It’s just…the Jordan River is flooded. This has been a very, very wet rainy winter for them. Apparently one of the biggest if not the largest on record which is…which is a good thing. Like the Sea of Galilee, we’ve been coming here for many, many years now and I haven’t seen it is this full, like it’s been receding and now it’s filling back up. So, that’s a wonderful thing that the countryside has the blessing of rain. And it’s green and it’s lush and it’s beautiful and it’s coming alive with blossoms and wildflowers and it’s gorgeous. So, we talked about baptism and then we got into the cold water and baptized many and what an honor. That’s one of the greatest honors that I get to feel as a minister, just to…to share that moment of transformation and what it represents in our lives. It’s something that we don’t ever forget. And I don’t forget it either. It’s just an amazing, reverent, holy moment.

And then from there we moved up onto the Golan Heights and looked out at over…over one of the Decapolis cities, the ruins of the Decapolis city called Hippos-Sussita, it’s on the side of the lake where the Gerasene’s lived. So, Jesus came over and three are stories here like casting the evil spirits into the swine and we’ll…we’ll get more into that story a little bit later in this trip, but it’s also just a pretty breathtaking view of the Sea of Galilea…very unique view of the Sea of Galilee from way up above.

So, we took some pictures there and then made our way down to dinner and then…then our live broadcast last night which is…which is always a wonderful time went. I mean by this point we’re pretty tired but it’s just good to be able to give voice, to hear other stories, to give voice, to like let some of it out because we’ve been at it for several days now and each day is very full. And, so, it’s nice to just kind of exhale and release some of that and get some sleep. So, it was a wonderful first day in the galley.

And today we’ll be going up into the Golan Heights, spending our day up in that region, making our way all the way as far north as we can go and as far east as we can go. So, indeed looking for that but it hasn’t happened yet, so I’ll have to tell you about it after it does which will be tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued prayers for us. We feel it, we sense it, we appreciate it, we love you for it. We love being involved in this together. We just love posting all the pictures and the different things that we’re doing and just and being involved in this as a community as the Bible really begins to come to life for us as we see the places where these stories that we’re reading about in the Scriptures where they happened and rooting ourselves there. And, so, we thank you for your continued prayers

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. Thank you humbly, thank you profoundly for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t do this together. And, so, it’s awe inspiring thing that we are doing this together and that it’s such a rich community that we share as we go through the Scriptures. So, thank you for your partnership.

Also reminding you that the pilgrimage that is planned for 2021 is open for registration. You can check out all of the details about it dailyaudiobible.com in the initiatives section. Just look for Israel 2021 and you can read all about it there.

And I guess that’s about it for today.

If you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit that Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey DABbers this is Mike in Awe in the Kansas City Missouri area. Today while I was listening to Victoria Soldier, her pray for others, I thought to myself how important prayer is in the eyes of God. Like, any of us that are actively engaging in prayer are of so much more importance and significance in the eyes of God than like the wealthiest CEO running the biggest corporation that isn’t engaging in prayer. It’s the most important thing on earth like, maybe next to just like making disciples, but prayer is like involved in that even. So, I just want to encourage all of you who practice prayer or those of you that don’t really but could, prayer is like the highest vocation, the highest art that you can perform on earth in the eyes of God. And the eyes of God are the only thing we should be concerned with, like what He thinks. So, anyway, Lisa I heard your pray for your mom. I’m praying for your mom’s recovery from back pain and good health. And Beth in Auburn, boldness and faithfulness to you to share your faith with you brother. Samuel, protection and strength in front of the judge. I want you to be able to be…I’m praying for you to overcome addiction and healing from your social anxiety. Pink Paint, we share February 10^th birthdays and I heard the pain in your voice and I just want hope and joy for you. I’m praying for hope and joy. Laura in South Florida and Victoria Soldier you’re vocational prayer warriors and you’re of the highest order and I thank you and honor you today. Bless you all and have a great day. I love you all.

Thank you God for love and grace
and for this great big smile that’s on my face
and all this love within my heart
that sanctifies and sets apart
and there’s that sparkle in my eye
and that’s love for you that just won’t die
thank you for the Sabbath day
a time to read your word and pray
a time to stop and introspect
and on your goodness to reflect
thank you God for everything
foods to eat birds that sing
a place that I can lay my head
a mattress I can call my bed
children family friends and foes
good times bad times trouble woes
through it all you’ve walked with me
you’ve loved me as you’ve talked to me
from this world you’ve set me free
and I owe my all dear God to thee
so here upon this Sabbath day
I lift my hands and heart to pray
I acknowledge you in all my ways
and I come to you in total praise

blindtony1016@gmail.com. Like to give a shout out to Michelle from LA and Drew from the bay area. Love you both and know you’re in my prayers daily. And once again Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family it’s Michael Davis again. Just wanted to give another update on my mom and my brother and I. And, so, my mom did end up passing away unfortunately on February 5^th at around 10:05 PM but I’m not distressed about it or anything like that because I know she’s in a much better place now, that place being heaven. And, so, as far as my brother and I go, thankfully we’re not separated and my…one of my cousins and aunts are taking care of us and they have been since my mom had been going through cancer basically. And, so, it’s basically like a whole new family right now. But my mom will always be part of my family and I really do miss her. And, so, thank you all so much for your prayers. And speaking of prayers, I listened to the Daily Audio Bible prayer line for February 15^th, the weekend prayer line where all the prayers come in. And, so, just thank you all so much for your prayers for my mom especially JoAnn from Happy Valley. Thank you so much for your input as well and I agree 100% with you with everything you said there. And then Michael thank you so much for your prayers well. And just to relay his message, anyone that feels alone and just wants to know that their prayers are being reached out for, just listen to the weekend prayer line. And, so, it’s just very satisfying because, you know, we get to hear each other’s walks of life, what we’re all going through and how we all just need help sometimes. You know, we just need some prayer answered from the Lord. And, so, hallelujah you in Jesus’ name. Thank you all so much. And just continue to pray for my family and I. Just pray that my aunt and cousin will continue to take great care of us that my brother and I won’t be separated, and I will definitely want to update you all on that. Thank you all and have a wonderful blessed day.

Good morning, afternoon, or evening my fellow DABbers this is Cindy from Georgetown. And two years ago, I was so blessed to be one of the pilgrims on the 2018 trip to Israel. That experience was heart changing and I know it will be for those so fortunate to be with Brian and his incredible team. Let us pray. Just Lord we lift up the pilgrims, Brian his family and his team, the tour guides, hotel and travel coordinators, leaders and bus drivers for health, safety, for good weather, for little jetlag - get some sleep Brian - for fellowship and an open heart. You will walk in Christ’s footsteps and hear His voice on the Sea of Galilee, the Mount of Beatitudes and in Brian’s challenging messages. We are with you and we love you. God is with you.

Hi family this is Mary Jo in St. Louis. This message is for Christie in Ohio. I’m so sorry for the loss of your sister. I’ve been praying for you and your family and I wanted to tell you that when you first called in under the name of anonymous to tell us about your sister’s suicide you weren’t anonymous to me. I don’t know you personally, but I heard your voice and I knew you instantly. I said that is Christie. So, I’ve been praying for you. And when you called back in to tell us that that anonymous person was you, I was like, “yes! I knew it was Christie.” Well, it was kind of a revelation to me because a lot of times we feel kind of anonymous in this world. We feel like people might not know us or recognize us, but God knows us. Just as I knew that was Christie’s voice, God knows us, God sees us even when we feel unseen or unknown. I think that was a little reminder to me that God sees, and God knows, and God cares, and God loves us. And it also reminds me of this community, how awesome it is that we know each other just by our voices. And let me tell you, if you ever get an opportunity to meet your fellow DABbers in person it is the coolest thing. Some people look completely different than what you imagine. Like, I always somehow picture Pelham as a blonde and he’s actually a brunette, you look totally different. Some people I’m like, “yeah”. But when you meet them in person and you hear their voices it’s that instant connection, that DAB family connection. It’s so awesome. But even if…there’s no way we could possibly all meet each other on this earth but in heaven someday and Brian will be standing there in the corner with a big DAB sign and we can all connect and see each other and rejoice in the Lord. All right. God bless you everyone.

Hey DAB family this is Tony the Narrator here in England. I want to tell you what my DAB word of the year is. I’ve decided on it and I hope you pray…I hope you get on board with it a little bit. It’s “mine”. So, my word for the year is “mine”. And let me explain. I’ve been listening, I’ve just realized this year for six years to the Daily Audio Bible. This Daily Audio Bible family is mine. You are all mine. When I hear your pain and your suffering, that pain-and-suffering is mine. When I hear your joy and your happiness, that’s mine. So, whether you’re Blind Tony or you’re Brian Hardin or your Toni in Germany or any of you, you’re all mine. And that is such a precious, precious wonderful gift that…that only we get to share because we’re part of the DAB family. I’ve also taken it to my church, and I’ve sent to parents, “you know your kids, their mine. And you know your parents, their mine. And, you know, you too, your mine.” And I’ve actually received a couple of hugs for that. But, yeah, so my word for this year is “mine”.

Good morning DABber family this is Walta the Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory Our God and King. I’m praying for Mark today. Mark you called in that you have been a listener since 2019 summer and you’ve been diagnosed with COPD and I heard your prayer request and it broke my heart, especially when you mentioned that part of your treatment required that you have a friend or family to take care of you and you stated that you had no one. I can tell in your voice that Mark, I don’t know you but I can feel that you are a man who has always been independent, a hard-working man, somebody who stands on his own 2 feet. And, so, I know that this situation is more humbling for you than just…just the fact that you’re sick. But I want you to know that just as Jesus told the man who was laying near the pool when He asked him, “do you want to be made whole? Do you want to be healed?” And the guy says to Jesus, “I have no man to put me in that pool”, well, Jesus healed him anyway. And, so, I want you to know that even though you may have no one standing up right now saying, “you know what Mark, go ahead and do the treatment. I got you”, Jesus is your man. He’s got you and He can do above and beyond our expectations and our understanding. So, even though you think you may have one or two or three different choices, you know, options A, B, and C, Jesus is your option C. Christ is your option and He can do exceedingly abundantly above your expectations. So, I just want you to know you’re not alone. I’m praying for you. I’m praying against the spirit of fear in Jesus’ name. I’m praying that God will increase your faith in Jesus’ name. I’m praying for healing over your body and your soul and spirit in Jesus’ name. And I’m even praying that God will wake up those relationships around you so that you know you’re not alone. I will keep praying for you. Love you so much and God bless. Keep us posted. Bye.