Category: DAB Transcripts

Daniel 5:1-31, 2 Peter 2:1-22, Psalms 119:113-128, Proverbs 28:19-20

Today is the 28^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. 28th day of November, friends. That only gives us a couple of days to finish this month strong and move into the 12^th month of the year. And, so, that’s what we’ve come here to do. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. We have begun the book of Daniel, which we will continue to read and then we began second Peter yesterday and we will continue with that letter we get to the New Testament, but first Daniel 5:1-31.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in our reading from 2 Peter today, we experience a bit of a tirade from the apostle Peter against false teachers. And these were people who had come to faith and even to prominence, right? So, like even to standing, maybe even teachers, but they were falling away from the core essentials of the gospel and then were leading other people to do the same. And it wasn’t just matters of doctrine. These people were using their gifting to exploit the week. So, quoting Peter, “They have done evil and they will be rewarded with evil. They think it’s fun to have wild parties during the day. They are immoral and the meals they eat with you are spoiled by the shameful and selfish way they carry on. All they think about is having sex with someone else’s husband or wife. There is no end to their wicked deeds. They trick people who are easily fooled, and their minds are filled with greedy thoughts, but they are headed for trouble.” So, I mean, we can see why Peter is less than fond of these people. And if that wasn’t clear enough, all we have to do is hear what he has to say. “These people are no better than senseless animals that live by their feelings and are born to be caught and killed. They speak evil of things they don’t know anything about but their own corrupt deeds will destroy them.” So, he’s being blunt. He’s being like James I mean, we’re not…were not confused about what he’s trying to say; however, it should be noted that the kind of false teacher Peter described, this is not…this is not the same as this modern custom that we see of mislabeling as a false teacher anybody who asks important and difficult questions of our faith. That is not the same thin. Wrestling with our faith in pursuit of revelation and understanding and insight, this has always been a part of the Christian tradition. But when dogma turns into cement then we’ve got a problem. And, you know, if you’re a little more on the legalistic persuasion you could even think that what I’m saying is wishy-washy, but the reality is just in the Bible. The church was struggling from the very, very beginning and it’s all throughout the letters. And what were some of their earliest struggles? Some of the earliest struggles were whether or not Gentile people could even be Christians. That was a big struggle and they had to wrestle, and they disagreed, and it was a mess in the early church. And so much of the writings from the apostle Paul and like even what we’re reading in second Peter, so much of the persecution that had broken out was because of this decision. So, wresting and asking questions, pursuing understanding is a part of our tradition. Peter’s distinction was that false teachers were intentionally, right, like, they weren’t pursuing understanding or seeking God, they were intentionally and maliciously deceiving God’s people for their own personal gain. He describes them like this, “These people are like dried-up waterholes and clouds blown by a windstorm. The darkest part of hell is waiting for them. They brag out loud about their stupid nonsense and by being vulgar and crude they trap people who have barely escaped from living the wrong kind of life. They promise freedom to everyone, but they are merely slaves of filthy living because people are slaves of whatever controls them.” So that last thing Peter had to say should catch us for second. If there’s is one thing that we could recite before we engage in any conversation or before we make any decision today, anything that we could put in front of ourselves that could change the course of the day for good it would be, “I am a slave to whatever controls me.” So, let’s put that into practice today. Every conversation, right, every decision - I am a slave to whatever controls me - and see what that does for the day. But Peter wasn’t discussing mantras, like things we can say to help us get through the day. He was discussing the characteristics of false teachers and we finally found out why he was so upset as we came to the conclusion of our reading today. So, Peter says, “When they learned about our Lord Jesus, when they learned about the Savior, they escaped from the filthy things of this world, but they are again caught up and controlled by these filthy things and Now they are in worse shape than they were at first. They would’ve been better off if they had never known about the right way. Even after they knew what was right, they turned their backs on the holy commandments that they were given. What happened to them is just like the true saying, a dog will come back to lick up its own vomit.” Alight. So, even though Peter is speaking pretty directly and forcefully against false teachers who were leading people into sin, it was the people who fell into sin that Peter was concerned about. And, so, in that context we’re left with some pretty poignant imagery - a dog returning to its vomit. So, we’ve probably all seen it right? Like,  Rover is out in the yard or in the kitchen and barfs. And if they’re left alone they’ll walk in a circle a couple times, right, and then come back with their nose - nice full nostril inhale. And maybe a couple more circles and then they’ll come back and eat it. That’s disgusting, right? So, here’s the kicker. When we return to our sinful past. It’s like puking in a bowl and eating it like soup. It should sound disgusting, because according to Peter it is disgusting. So, let’s consider the starkness of what is known to be the final writings of the apostle Peter’s life and let’s apply that starkness to the context of our own lives. Exactly what sewage are we continually returning to because we have been deceived into believing that it’s somehow desirous. What influences do we have over those around us that we might invite them to do the same thing? Because this is what Peter was talking about in our reading today. These are tough but they’re important questions. Why would we choose eating out of a toilet over the banquet God has prepared for us? Let’s invite the Holy Spirit into these questions because we are a slave to whatever controls us.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. There’s just a lot there. There’s just a ton there. We do find ourselves making big circles and little circles in our lives and we end up where we started on some things and it’s like returning to our vomit when we are…when we are returning to things of old or like resurrecting something that’s dead and trying to carry it around like it’s alive, and it weighs us down, it beats us up, and then we blame You. And there’s just a lot here. And, so, we invite You into it. We don’t want to live this way. We don’t have to live this way. We can walk one step forward every day toward sanctification and holiness, it’s our prerogative. You offered the path. You’ve paved the way. And most the time we’re just not choosing to walk it. So, thank You for the starkness today of seeing what we’re doing as returning to our own sewage and eating it. Help us to remember that imagery Lord as we continue to walk forward with You so that we can see things as they are, not as we have been deceived to believe they are. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And for the last week we’ve been talking about the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2018. And yes, that is available. And yes, you can find it at dailyaudiobible.com in the shop in the Christmas section.

However, we have another announcement to make today and there’s no one better to make this announcement then the most beautiful redhead in all of the world, my wife, Jill

Jill: Thanks babe, flattery…flattery gets you everywhere. So, it’s true. We have a very special announcement. Every year when I get ready to announce More gathering, I say that I’m more excited this year than any other year and I say that because it’s true you. You would think it gets old but the anticipation, the excitement, the palpable energy, it’s true. I get more excited every year about what God is gonna do. With that being said, this year, More Gathering 2019, I have the bittersweet pleasure of announcing that this is our final year at Sharp Top camp in Jasper Georgia. This has been what Brian and I have been sensing the last couple of years and we just…we waited…we waited to make sure that our sense was right, that it was from the Lord, that it wasn’t just us feeling tired or, you know, just emotional, or just feeling the distance of travel. It was something that we were sensing and did not even no it until we came together and had a conversation. And both of our senses were the same. And, so, after much prayer, much consideration, this will be the last year that more gathering will be in Jasper George. Now, with that being said, I cannot at this time announce what More Gathering 2020 will look like, because I don’t know at this point. I am not worried. I am not anxious. I am not concerned with where were going. I believe God knows. I fully believe and trust that when I’m supposed to know, He’ll make that inevitably clear and I’m actually quite excited, quite tickled about that because that’s the journey with God. We walk blindly by faith. We trust Him to provide. We trust Him that He knows, that He’s already taken care of it. And, so, we’re just gonna walk, and we’re gonna obey, and we are going to celebrate this last year together at Sharp Top in Jasper George 2019. Now, if you’ve been on the fence and said, I need this mountaintop experience, which you hear other women talk about, this is the year for you to come. This is it. This is the last chance. And I can tell you that if you’re wondering about any of it - the lodging everything - it is the most spectacular food experience. Sit down hot meals. The grounds are phenomenal. It’s just…the whole thing…I cannot say enough how impeccable the camp has served us, the staff, the team at Sharp top. I am eternally grateful for all that they have done. They have exceeded every single expectation in the weekends that they have provided for us. That part I will absolutely miss, the excellence that we are served with, the excellence that a just operate every day in. Like, well done. Well done young life and Sharp Top. So, here’s the deal. We usually offer some sort of discount up to a certain time. If you take part in that, you’ll save money. We have done away with that this year. We have we are offering the absolute lowest price possible to make it affordable for you to come. So, if you’re waiting for, you know, a promotion our discount, that’s not happening this year. This is the rock-bottom flat rate price that we can offer to you. Now if this is your first time and you have never been and you need a private room, I’m gonna tell you right now, those private rooms are gonna be to first to go. They will go fast and we never have enough to sell because everyone wants a private room. Don’t let that stop you. There’s something beautiful happens in the rooms. The friendships that are forged, they last a lifetime. I mean, it’s truly amazing and spectacular to see those friendships and how they blossoming and the reunions that women continue to have year after year because they went through something deep and beautiful together and together is how it’s supposed to be done. So, this is it. This is your last chance to come to the end of an era and we’re gonna celebrate together. That’s what we’re gonna do, celebrate the end of an era together and we are going to celebrate going forward. Sign up dailyaudiobible.com or moregathering.com. Now, the last thing that I want to say ism we always, always have women that cannot afford to go that want to be able to be there. And maybe you know that you absolutely cannot go but you can afford to send somebody. I wish I could tell you the gift that it is that you would be giving to a woman in need. I wish I could tell you the transformation that I see on women’s physical faces and the posture that takes place over the course of the weekend of women who just walk in bearing the burdens of life and literally carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders and leave free because they know who they are because God has met them there and spoken specifically to the spirit of who He calls them to be, who he says they. And seeing freedom take place…well…I can tell you…there’s no greater gift. It takes all of us. It takes all of us doing our part and doing what we can. If that’s you and you know that you can help give and you would like to be a part of that and that way you can email me at jill@dailyaudiobible.com. And for those of you that can. I just want to say thank you in advance. Thank you for the gift of freedom that you have already given to some women. A lot of times assistance comes in at the end and there’s not enough time for women to get all of the pieces in order that they need to come because where women. You know, we’ve gotta take care of the food and the kids and all of the things that we take care of. So, we’re mentioning it now while there’s time for women to get all of the things done. So, that’s it. This is the big announcement. It’s the last year at Sharp Top. We hope that you will join us for the end of an era, the final the final frontier in Georgia, in Jasper Georgette. We are gonna finish well and strong and then we are going to wait with anticipation to see what God does next.

Brian: Amen to that. And yes, to everything you’ve said, everything that Jill has said is right. So registration for the More Gathering 2019 that will take place in the mountains of Georgia for the final time is open now at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. And if this has been something that you’ve desired to come to for years then this is the time. And we always…you know…like…we could weight to the beginning of the new year to start talking about the More Gathering, but it is such a unique and fantastic Christmas gift that we talk about it now because it’s like…give the gift of freedom…the gift of more in life. We think that is that is the gift we are all looking for. So check it out. You can you can register for More Gathering 2019 now.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the common mission that we share to bring the spoken word of God to anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to keep building community through things like the More Gathering around this rhythm so that we know that we know that we’re not coping through this alone, we have brothers and sisters all over the world. If that has brought light and good news into your world, then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible 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 the number to dial.

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

Daniel 4:1-37, 2 Peter 1:1-21, Psalms 119:97-112, Proverbs 28:17-18

Today is the 27^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is a pleasure to be here with you as we enjoy these final days of this 11^th month together. So, we’ve been reading from the Contemporary English Version this week, which is, of course, what we’ll continue to do throughout the rest of this week, but when we get to the New Testament today we will be beginning a new book, a new letter, known as second Peter and we’ll talk about that when we get there, but first, we are in the book of Daniel, chapter 4 verses 1 through 37 today.

Introduction to 2 Peter:

Okay. So, like we said at the beginning, we are beginning another letter and things are just going to speed up as we continue to move to the old and new Testaments. There’ll be a season in December where it’s like we’re beginning a new book every day, but the letter that we’re beginning today is thought to be the final writing of the apostle Peter. Now, it’s only fair to at least point out that the authenticity of this letter has been questioned and it’s not like a new thing, like somebody trying to dismantle the Bible or something like that. This goes all the way back into antiquity. And, so, by authenticity, we don’t mean that the letter exists or that it was inspired by God, or that it belongs in the Bible, but mean that the author matches the name of the letter, right? So, that the author was the apostle Peter. Acceptance of this is something that happened over time and over time the letter was fully considered Scripture, but by the fourth century. So, in more modern times of scholarship it’s the stylistic differences that have been observed between first and second Peter. So, those who would defend Peter’s authorship would say that he, you know, was probably illiterate and whatever he could write, maybe couldn’t write like a whole letter. And, so, he would dictate to a secretary or someone helping him what he wanted to say. And, so, the differences between first and second Peter would be because he dictated the text to a different person. So, kind of the net /net of all of this is that, all in all, there are compelling reasons to consider this letter as we do the book of Hebrews, right? So, the author is unknown. But there are equally compelling reasons to consider the author to be the apostle Peter as named in the letter. So, if the apostle Peter wrote a second Peter, it would’ve probably been in the late 60s AD and he was martyred shortly thereafter. It’s church tradition that holds that Peter was crucified upside down at his own request during his death, during his execution even though the Bible doesn’t explicitly verify this. And Peter doesn’t explicitly say to whom he’s writing in this second letter of Peter. He says he’s writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. So, we assumed that he was writing to the same people that he’d previously written to because he refers to the first letter in this second letter, but if he’s writing to you who share the same precious faith we have then, I mean, then he’s writing to us too…like…that criteria matches a lot of people. So, you know, whereas the point of first Peter was to bolster and give instructions to believers about how to ensure the pressures that are coming against them. Second Peter’s point is about false teachings and evil behavior from within the church. And we should probably be giving Second Peter just as much gravity as we did Second Timothy knowing that Second Timothy was the final words of the apostle Paul. You know, we gave it the gravity that it was due, and we should do the same with Second Peter knowing that…well…knowing that Peter knew he was about to die. And he says as much in the letter. And, so, this is a man who walked with Jesus along the Sea of Galilee, right? This is a man who saw Jesus perform miracles. This is somebody who laughed out loud and heard Jesus laughing out loud. This is a person who cried with Jesus, lived with Him, ate his last supper with Hi, and then denied Him and watched Him die, but this is also a man who saw Jesus raised to life again. This is the man who preached the first sermon after the coming of the Holy Spirit, right, with the tongues of fire at Pentecost, where 3000 people chose to follow Jesus right at the origination of the church, that these may be the final living words of the apostle Peter. And, so, they should carry weight in our lives. And we’ll see that he chose to use those final words as a means of encouragement, encouragement to maturity, and to combat false teaching, and remind us of the certainty that Jesus will come for us. And, so, with that being said, we begin today, Second Peter chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word. And as we acknowledged just a little bit ago, things do speed up. Certainly, they speed up in time because of the holiday season that we are in. And they speed up in the Scriptures as we move closer and closer into the minor prophets and in some of the shorter books in the New Testament, some of the shorter letters. And, so, it’s as if the Bible speeds up even as our lives speed up. And it’s an important time that we put into practice all that we’ve learned all year long about the fact that our intimacy with you is something from within and not from without. And we acknowledge that everything from without is being disrupted in this season. And, so, it’s easy for us to lose touch with ourselves, with our hearts, with you because of all the festivities and all of the activity. So, come Holy Spirit we pray as we move through these final days of this 11^th month of the year. Lead us into all truth we ask in Your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And, yeah, we’ve been talking about the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box for a few days. And those are those are flying out. So, if you haven’t had a chance to look into it yet, this is this is an opportunity where we try to gather as high an impact of resources that we have and bundle them together so that that its as cost-effective as this possible. So, these resources cannot only get into your life but into the lives of those that you choose to give them to. And this is good Box. There’s the Promise Land two DVD set - over four hours of content that allows you to immerse yourself in the land of the Bible and kind of fly in and look around at the places that we’ve been visiting all year. So, that’s in the Box. Then, my books, Reframe and Sneezing Jesus, two books that really go together in terms of spiritual transformation and just…you know…just trying to unpack some of the jargon of our faith. Like, what do we mean when we say we’re in a relationship with God? And what is it that Jesus coming to earth and dying for our sins is supposed…what is that supposed to do for our humanity? We know that’s supposed to do for our eternity but what is that supposed to do now? These things are explored in these books and they’re my best shot. I mean, there my best shot of wrestling and wrestling and wrestling with my own faith. And, so, those are in the Box. My friend, Robert, has written the book named “Going”…or titled, Going Solo. And I wrote the forward to that book. And its it’s the journey of a single parent. And I wanted it in the Box this year for a couple reasons. One, because it’s an honest look at this topic. It’s not just full of, you know, trite little promise kinds of pat on the back sort of things, you know, little encouragements. It’s like down in the mud. It’s like down in what it’s really like and how to find hope in all of that, that season that can be very lonely when you’re going solo but you have kids that are depending on you. So, me just saying that…I just…I mean…there are tens of thousands of you who know exactly what I’m talking about because you’re walking that road. But I don’t believe there’s anybody that doesn’t have someone in their lives walking down a path. And this is a great resource because it does not pander at all. Like, it’s an honest friend. So, that’s in the Christmas Box. The annual Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb with our word, “Hope”, on it for the year 2018 is in the Box. A pack of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for this year, those also contain our word, “Hope” on the front of them and they’re beautiful, beautiful this year. So, a pack of 20 of those with their matching envelopes, those are in the Box. And our own, one-of-a-kind, Black Wing pencils that are labeled with Daily Audio Bible on the side. We can’t even sell them. We just approached Black Wing to see if we could get them and made they were gracious enough to make them, and we can put one in the box but we can’t sell them, you know, like in boxes of 12 like Black Wings go, but they’re in the Box or it’s in the Box as well. And something else, a surprise from our vault, one additional resource. We have a number of resources but some of them we don’t have enough in stock to give everybody. So, we decided let’s use these, let’s get these into the hands of people. And, so, a surprise item is well. So, you can find all of this at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop, in the in the Christmas section. And, so, check it out. You also buy the cards, just a pack of 20 cards and envelopes, like if you need more cards. I mean we don't…I mean we make these and we go to the labor of it every year because its part of our community experience, but these resources…like…we’re not making them to make money off of you. So, you can get 20 cards for five bucks. And I don't…I mean…that's…I think that’s as good as it would get anywhere. We’ve made them as resources for the community so, that you can invite your friends and family along on the journey with you next year if you want. So, check all that out at dailyaudiobible.com.

Also, don’t forget the family Christmas CD, our music that I created a couple of years ago. I love Christmas music. I always have my whole life. And before I was doing this my life was the music industry as a record producer. So, that’s something that I have always loved and have had to give up in some ways to do ministry, but still love to create. And I created this a couple of years ago and just a very, very contemplative, orchestrated, peaceful Carols. And, so, you can get that at dailyaudiobible.com as well or he know if you like iTunes or what wherever, wherever you get your downloaded digital music, just look up Family Christmas, look up my name and you can stream it all you want, but make it a part of the Christmas journey, especially as we approach the Advent season and the season to contemplate the mystery and the overwhelming display of love, that God would come in person to rescue us. I think that the family Christmas album sets that tone well. So, make that a part of your season as a part of the community experience that we share here.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. I thank you profoundly. Like, we literally…the global campfire would not continue to burn if we didn’t throw logs on it, and that’s something that we each do. And, So, thank you, thank you for your partnership. 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 the number to dial.

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

Daniel 2:24-3:30, 1 Peter 4:7-5:14, Psalms 119:81-96, Proverbs 28:15-16

Today is the 26^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today. I’m buckled in here in the Daily Audio Bible chair with the Daily Audio Bible mic in front of me and a nice steamy cup of Windfarm coffee just sitting here to my left, being kept warm by Daily Audio Bible Clean Canteen. It’s all things Daily Audio Bible. And off we go into a new day and a new work week. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. And we started the week, which was yesterday, we started the book of Daniel. And, so we will continue Daniel chapter 2 verse 24 through 3 verse 30 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in our reading today from the New Testament we concluded the apostle Peter’s first letter. And it will be hard to not notice that the theme of endurance was like running throughout the whole letter. And we’ve spent plenty of time discussing the fact that a lot of the letters in the New Testament were written to marginalize believers who were trying to avoid persecution, right? Unrest. So, it’s interesting when we’re talking about a topic like this, it just kind of goes by us. Like, we think back on how those people were under pressure and then we may even take it a step further and think about the persecuted believers who are in the world today, but we don’t really have a grid to understand what we’re talking about, not really, because the truth is, I mean, the majority, the vast majority of us haven’t faced any kind of persecution. We may have phrased marginalization for some reason or another and so we know, kind of, what that’s like, but like out and out full-blown persecution we don’t really understand the grid. So, let’s just take a minute because this theme of endurance, as I’ve said, like, a lot of times, it’s not gonna let go. This is going to follow us all the way to the end of the year. And there’s a reason for it. I mean, the message of endurance and staying true was the message that was given to people who were being persecuted. So, it was a message of encouragement to tell them to hold on. And that’s a message we still need to hear. So, during the earliest years of the church it was not illegal to be a Christian in the Roman Empire, but Roman society and the culture in the Empire were polytheistic. In other words, they believe that there was a plethora of many god’s. So, for them, god’s were everywhere and they were involved in all kinds of human activity, right, for good or for mischief. And people could worship whatever gods or goddesses that they wanted. It was expected that the gods of the Empire, right, the ones that made Rome great, these were to be worshiped by all in the Empire. And Christians wouldn’t do this, so, it immediately made them stand out. Now, Jewish people, they wouldn’t do is either, they would not worship the gods of the Empire, but they were tolerated because they were following a very ancient religion. And, so, for a time, since Christianity, since The Way, right, following Jesus, came out of a Jewish context, for a while Christianity was perceived basically as just a sect of the Jewish faith, right, like the adherence to a specific rabbi. But as we will recall through the letters of the apostle Paul in the book of Acts, there was a rift in the early church about Gentiles. And when that got settled in favor of the Gentiles, right, like an inclusive gospel that welcomed anyone who believed, then this didn’t work with Judaism, which was very exclusive. So, plenty of Jewish people were believing in Jesus, but they wanted anyone coming in from the outside to convert to Judaism and then follow Jesus. So, when that’s not how things shook out then the Jewish community denounced the message of Jesus and then Christians no longer had sort of this protection of Judaism, right? Like, they were no longer considered part of the Jewish faith. So, they didn’t have the cover of this ancient religion in the Roman Empire anymore. And, so, they were expected to begin to worship the gods of the Empire, which they wouldn’t do. And, so, they came under a lot of pressure to conform and a lot of marginalization and thus we see why in the early church writings the message of endurance. So, our earliest brothers and sisters in the early years of the formation of the church were in a real, true struggle with stereotyping and the harsh realities of bigotry and slander. Like, they were in a constant struggle and they didn’t have any way to fight back. So, the only option was to rise above the noise and let their lives speak louder than the accusations no matter what happened to them. And some pretty terrible things were being said about them and, you know, some of that stuff is still contained in ancient writings. For example, we call each other brothers and sisters, right? Part of the family of God, the body of Christ. We take these things for granted and it’s just the language of the church, it binds us together. But if you’re outside looking in it looks very weird. So, like, they call each other brothers and sisters. And this has been written about. Like, this was in incestuous religion were people love each other when they meet each other and they immediately call each other brother and sister. And then, you know, what happened in a church service was under speculation. And the rumor was that, you know, they would come into like a church service in this already incestuous situation because everybody thinks are brothers and sisters and then they go away and they close the door and that they…basically things turn into a meal that turns into a terrible orgy and they worship the penis of their priest. And it’s like…a lot of pretty horrible things were being said and these people, like, they’re being hit from all sides, they’re being hit from marginalization in the Empire, just in society itself and they’re also being…all kinds of stories are being told about them from the Jews. So, like, there’s nowhere from them to go. So, when we see things in like some of Paul’s letters about the Eucharist, like communion service and how it had turned into like a drunken meal. And Paul is like, eat at home. Like we can see now, all of the stuff that’s swirling around about these early believers. So, we just have to think like, what would that be like? What would that be like for us? And I mean, you know, it’s very easy go, well, it’s getting that way. You know, I’ve been hearing that my whole life. We are not facing what they were facing. But what if we were? What if culture shifted and the persuasion of the culture in the country that we live in toward our faith began to marginalize us in the ways that I’ve just described? Ike, if you were a nonbeliever, how quickly would you be running to sign up for this religion? And if you had put your faith in Jesus and you were walking with God and like the transformation that comes from following Christ was happening inside of you and you knew that the distortions of your culture were completely false, like, how do you respond? Endurance. What else is there? So, having a better understanding of these challenges helps us understand why this encouragement is so prevalent in the New Testament, which makes, you know, some of Peter’s closing thoughts like come into crystal clarity for us. So, you know, in light of what we’ve just talked about in terms of the circumstances that our early brothers and sisters were facing, understanding Peter’s words have to make perfect sense. So, I’m quoting Peter, “it is no shame to suffer from being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by His name for the time had come for judgment and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s good news? And Peter’s encouragement, which is one of the most famous quotations in the Scriptures, “be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack. You must resist the devil and stay strong in your faith. You know that all over the world the Lord’s followers are suffering just as you are.” So, you know, gotta talk a lot about endurance in the final days of the year because the Bible talks a lot about endurance. And now we know why. Like we understand the context of what our brothers and sisters were facing and why these letters were written the way that they were. And like I said earlier, like not very many of us have ever needed to endure like the early believers did, but if they did not stay true, it’s pretty unlikely that we would be here. Our faith was handed down by the few who chose to stay true and it is our calling to do the same thing. It’s easy enough for us to get self-absorbed and focused on all the things that we’re having to endure in our lives and lose sight of the fact that we are enduring for a reason and that is to carry the gospel forward to its conclusion and that conclusion is that our Lord Jesus will rule and reign forever. You are as much a part of that story as they were. So, the question just becomes whether or not we’re going to endure and stay true because future generations are depending on it. Our brothers and sisters that we’re reading about from the early church, they didn’t know. They didn’t know the impact of staying true. They didn’t know what it was gonna do to affect future generations. They had no idea that this was gonna spread all over the world. We have no idea what our staying true is going to bring but staying true is more than us just reaching the end of our journey and finding union with God. Everything we do is going to reverberate in our family line and affect the branches on our family tree. So, we need to do our part and we do our part by overcoming. And how do you overcome something if you have not endured?

Prayer:

Father…I mean…this is not the first time that we come into your presence on this topic and it’s none of our favorite. We have subtly been told over time that, you know, that us coming into a relationship with you should mean that we don’t have to endure anything…things just progressively get better and better and better, rather than the fact that we’re being transformed from the inside out and the way that we look at things is completely different. And, so, we continue to look through the world’s eyes at what you are supposed to provide for us as if you are the magic product that will make our lives complete. And, so, when we encounter seasons where we have to endure and we’re facing suffering or hardship we feel as if you have left us, and that we’re all alone because we think that we’re not supposed to have to endure anything, that you’re just gonna fix everything. And yet the Scriptures are so clear, and we are encountering it every day now as we move into the end of the year and the final books of the Bible. Our brothers and sisters who were there when this all started, they had to endure. We look at your life Jesus and you had to endure. We look at people like the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, and they had to endure. But somehow, we think it’ gonna be different for us and we don’t. And yet endurance is a part of our human experience and it is not purposeless. This is how we become strong. And, so, we have to confess, yeah, we want to be strong, we just don’t want to go to the gym. We want to be healthy, but we just don’t want to eat right. And this is the story of our lives. And, so, it spills over into our spirituality. We want union with you. We want intimacy with you. We’d like to walk around 6 inches above the earth, but we don’t want to endure anything. Forgive us Lord for choosing to stay week. Come, Holy Spirit, help us to become strong even if this means we must endure. Come, Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Song:

To Obey is Better Than Sacrifice – Keith Green

To obey is better than sacrifice

I don’t need your money

I want your life

And I hear you say that I’m coming back soon

But you act like I’ll never return

Well you speak of grace and my love so sweet

How you thrive on milk, but reject My meat

And I can’t help weeping of how it will be

If you keep on ignoring My words

Well you pray to prosper and succeed

But your flesh is something I just can’t feed

To obey is better than sacrifice

I want more than Sundays and Wednesday nights

Cause if you can’t come to Me every day

Then don’t bother coming at all

La, la, la

To obey is better than sacrifice

I want hearts of fire

Not your prayers of ice

And I’m coming quickly

To give back to you

According to what you have done

According to what you have done

According to what you have done

Daniel 1:1-2:23, 1 Peter 3:8-4:6, Psalms 119:65-80, Proverbs 28:14

Today is the 25^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we turn the knob and walk through into a fresh, sparkly, shiny, new week. And we’re at the one month mark, one month from today will be Christmas day. And that being the reality, this is the last week of November. Before we end this week we will be in the final month of the year. So, let’s take the next step forward. And the next step forward actually leads us into a brand-new book, we concluded the book of Ezekiel yesterday. And, so, now…well…we’re going to enter into one of the most interesting books in the Old Testament, the book of Daniel.

Introduction to the book of Daniel:

Daniel is a prized book for it’s historical account, but it’s not just the book of history, it’s a book of prophecy and it’s prized for its sweeping prophetic visions. In fact, Daniel’s visions have been consulted over millennia in the studies of the end times. But in his life, Daniel was a contemporary of Ezekiel, right, the book and we spent a lot of time in cause it’s a lengthy book and concluded yesterday. So, Daniel and Ezekiel were contemporaries writing in the same time period. And Daniel was taken into exile when Jerusalem fell to Babylon, which was in 597 BC. So, we have a pretty good understanding of how difficult that season, that time of exile, that time of conquest when Jerusalem fell was from other stories that we’ve heard in the Bible. So, we know that the circumstances weren’t the best for Daniel and all those who had been exiled from Jerusalem. But, kind of like Joseph, through the struggle Daniel was favored by God. He was gifted. And he was a smart young man who rose to become an influential advisor and authority in the Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and then beyond. So, here’s the interesting thing. Even though Daniel was in exile and he was most certainly the Hebrew and he was a prophet, he wasn’t a prophet for or against Israel. Like, the visions that we’ll encounter when we go through the book of Daniel are not particularly Jewish, which gives Daniel unique voice. But before we get to those visions there’s some stories that we’ll have to cover. And, so, during the first half of our time in Daniel we’ll read the story of Daniel’s life. And as we’re doing that we going to encounter some of the richest stories in the Bible. Some of the most popular stories in the Bible, like the story of Shadrach Meshack and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace or the story of Daniel himself being thrown into the lion’s den. But then as we move more into the back half of the book the focus will shift to Daniel’s prophetic visions of four great world empires. And like some of the other prophetic utterances in the Bible, the imagery from Daniel is almost cinematic and highly symbolic. And this is the portion of the book that has been and continues to be scrutinized by those who are scholars of the end times, eschatological scholars. So, if that’s your thing or, if that’s your discipline of study, or you’re just curious, then the book of Daniel is certain to be a centerpiece of that study. But whether or not the end times is your passion, Daniel’s portrayal of God’s sovereignty over all the kingdoms of man is powerfully revealed. And, as I said at the beginning, you know, before we’re out of this week. we’re gonna be in the final month of the year. And, so, Daniel’s gonna carry us into the final month of the year. And let’s jst settle in and enjoy the rhythm, one day forward, step-by-step. And we’ll enjoy the rich heritage of God’s faithfulness and this striking prophetic imagery that’s found here in the 27^th  book of the Old Testament, the book of Daniel. And, so, we begin. We’ll read from the Contemporary English Version this week. Daniel, chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 23 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for a brand-new, shiny, sparkly week. And we thank You that it’s all out in front of us. And although we may have many things and appointments and obligations that are scheduled for this coming week, we haven’t lived into it yet, and we choose at the outset, at this threshold that we will walk with You in all of our ways. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to not only plant the word of God in our lives and hearts so that it provides the guidance that we need for the days ahead but we also invite Your Holy Spirit, we want intimacy with You God. We want to walk with You in fellowship, in friendship, in every meal, in every decision, in every conversation, in every activity. Come, Holy Spirit. Help us this week to end this month well and strong as we seek to move into the final month of the year, strong and focused on all that You have to speak to us in the remaining days. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And it’s Christmas time around here. The Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2018 is now available and now shipping while supplies last. So, be sure to check that out in the Daily Audio Bible shop. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards are all available…in fact all of our resources for the season are available in the Christmas section in the Daily Audio Bible shop. So, be sure to stop by and check that out.

I want to remind those of you who are international, who are outside of the United States what I’ve been saying. This Wednesday, this coming Wednesday is the cut off for international shipping. That’s the safe date that we think that we can still get things to arrive for Christmas. Of course, you can certainly order as long as you want, as long as we have them, and we’ll ship them, but if you’re hoping for the Christmas Box arrive in time for Christmas then, if you’re outside the United States, it needs to be ordered by Wednesday. If you’re inside the United States we got a couple weeks, although, I don’t think they’ll be around a couple weeks, but we’ll see. So, you can find all that in the Daily Audio Bible shop at dailyaudiobible.com in Christmas section and you can get all of that from the Daily Audio Bible app as well.

If you want to partner the Daily Audio Bible here as we begin to approach the end of the year then I thank you profoundly. I thank you with all of my heart. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. 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 comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi everybody, it’s Lisa the Encourager, I mean neighbors. How y’all doing? I’ve really missed you but I really have been right here by your side. I’ve been listening and praying and crying and loving on each and every one of you from the distance. But I wanted to call tonight after getting encouragement from Mary saying that I was missed and just telling me that, you know, she was just really encouraging me tpo call back again. And I definitely wanted too. I love each and every one of you. So, tonight I just wanted to call and encourage those and pray for the DAB family who have lost loved ones this year, especially as we approach the holidays, and especially for Asia. And I just want all of us that have, including myself, I lost my father-in-law this year, my husband’s dad, Jerry Starling, and I just want us to find a greater purpose and loving on the ones who are still with us and just help us to push through and show our loved ones you know what we are still capable of while we’re on this earth and while we hear and just shower them with our love. And let’s just do all we can to please our Savior and remember that we are never alone when God is right by our side. So, I’m going to pray for each and every one of you lost of what one is here. Dear God, I pray for my Daily Audio Bible family and friends and neighbors. And I just pray for each one of them that lost a loved one this year and they have that deep sorrow and pit and emptiness inside of them. God, I just pray that you would help them push through and just try to work on a loved ones that are here and their friends and just do everything in their power Lord God to use what they have, what You have given them…

Hello, this is Anne from Charlotte North Carolina. I just wanted to say how thankful I am up for Daily Audio Bible. I’m winding up my 10^th year listening. It’s hard to believe it’s gone by so quickly. And I’m so thankful to Brian and his family that he didn’t decide after one year to quit. And I just pray that God leads Brian and his family to continue this for a long time because I know my life is dependent on the daily listening to the word and the community that helps me not to feel alone every day. And listening for 10 years I am always hearing things I’ve never heard before. And when Brian was introducing the book of James as the half-brother of Jesus, I thought, I wonder if people that knew James would say, boy you look like your brother. I never thought of that before, but these were real people just like us, sinners in need of the Savior and the power of his blood in their lives and in ours. And I’m thankful that we have the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from sin, to give us newness of life every day. That’s our hope in this life and the next. So, thank you Daily Audio Bible, just for being there. I love you all. God, bless.

Hi, this is Diane calling from northern Minnesota. This is my second call in 10 years of listening to the DAB. I’m asking for prayer. Monday the 26^th, I’m having surgery. They liken it to a shark bite. They’ll be removing a chunk of my thigh and lymph nodes because the melanoma and I’m scared. I’ve worked in health care for 44 years and only see the bad things, the worst. You never get to see the good because they don’t come back to us. So, please pray that it has not spread to the lymphatic system. I covet your prayers. God bless you family.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family, this is your sister Julie in Southern California. I haven’t called for quite some time but I have been praying for you and praying with you. And I just envision all of us right now sitting, right now, in front of the global campfire with Brian and holding our hands…holding each other’s hands sitting around the campfire…and just being thankful and grateful for each other and I just want you all know how grateful and thankful I am for all of you. This Daily Audio Bible has saved my life. It’s helped save my life. I’ve come out seven years ago…it’s been almost 8 years now…from an affair. And it was my doing. And my husband has since then…we have been restored. It’s just so amazing…there’s no way…I was suicidal and everything just because of my shame and guilt. But you guys helped me get through it just by listening to you. I never contested to all of you but I am now and I just want to thank you. That is a miracle. And this Thanksgiving I am grateful for Daily Audio Bible, each and every one of you and there’s too many of your name that have impacted my life in such a valuable way. Brian, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and I love you. And I love your family. And for all of you, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord lift up His face and shine on you. May He lift up his countenance on all of you and give you all His peace. Happy Thanksgiving family.

Daniel 1:1-2:23, 1 Peter 3:8-4:6, Psalms 119:65-80, Proverbs 28:14

Today is the 25^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we turn the knob and walk through into a fresh, sparkly, shiny, new week. And we’re at the one month mark, one month from today will be Christmas day. And that being the reality, this is the last week of November. Before we end this week we will be in the final month of the year. So, let’s take the next step forward. And the next step forward actually leads us into a brand-new book, we concluded the book of Ezekiel yesterday. And, so, now…well…we’re going to enter into one of the most interesting books in the Old Testament, the book of Daniel.

Introduction to the book of Daniel:

Daniel is a prized book for it’s historical account, but it’s not just the book of history, it’s a book of prophecy and it’s prized for its sweeping prophetic visions. In fact, Daniel’s visions have been consulted over millennia in the studies of the end times. But in his life, Daniel was a contemporary of Ezekiel, right, the book and we spent a lot of time in cause it’s a lengthy book and concluded yesterday. So, Daniel and Ezekiel were contemporaries writing in the same time period. And Daniel was taken into exile when Jerusalem fell to Babylon, which was in 597 BC. So, we have a pretty good understanding of how difficult that season, that time of exile, that time of conquest when Jerusalem fell was from other stories that we’ve heard in the Bible. So, we know that the circumstances weren’t the best for Daniel and all those who had been exiled from Jerusalem. But, kind of like Joseph, through the struggle Daniel was favored by God. He was gifted. And he was a smart young man who rose to become an influential advisor and authority in the Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and then beyond. So, here’s the interesting thing. Even though Daniel was in exile and he was most certainly the Hebrew and he was a prophet, he wasn’t a prophet for or against Israel. Like, the visions that we’ll encounter when we go through the book of Daniel are not particularly Jewish, which gives Daniel unique voice. But before we get to those visions there’s some stories that we’ll have to cover. And, so, during the first half of our time in Daniel we’ll read the story of Daniel’s life. And as we’re doing that we going to encounter some of the richest stories in the Bible. Some of the most popular stories in the Bible, like the story of Shadrach Meshack and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace or the story of Daniel himself being thrown into the lion’s den. But then as we move more into the back half of the book the focus will shift to Daniel’s prophetic visions of four great world empires. And like some of the other prophetic utterances in the Bible, the imagery from Daniel is almost cinematic and highly symbolic. And this is the portion of the book that has been and continues to be scrutinized by those who are scholars of the end times, eschatological scholars. So, if that’s your thing or, if that’s your discipline of study, or you’re just curious, then the book of Daniel is certain to be a centerpiece of that study. But whether or not the end times is your passion, Daniel’s portrayal of God’s sovereignty over all the kingdoms of man is powerfully revealed. And, as I said at the beginning, you know, before we’re out of this week. we’re gonna be in the final month of the year. And, so, Daniel’s gonna carry us into the final month of the year. And let’s jst settle in and enjoy the rhythm, one day forward, step-by-step. And we’ll enjoy the rich heritage of God’s faithfulness and this striking prophetic imagery that’s found here in the 27^th  book of the Old Testament, the book of Daniel. And, so, we begin. We’ll read from the Contemporary English Version this week. Daniel, chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 23 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for a brand-new, shiny, sparkly week. And we thank You that it’s all out in front of us. And although we may have many things and appointments and obligations that are scheduled for this coming week, we haven’t lived into it yet, and we choose at the outset, at this threshold that we will walk with You in all of our ways. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to not only plant the word of God in our lives and hearts so that it provides the guidance that we need for the days ahead but we also invite Your Holy Spirit, we want intimacy with You God. We want to walk with You in fellowship, in friendship, in every meal, in every decision, in every conversation, in every activity. Come, Holy Spirit. Help us this week to end this month well and strong as we seek to move into the final month of the year, strong and focused on all that You have to speak to us in the remaining days. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And it’s Christmas time around here. The Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2018 is now available and now shipping while supplies last. So, be sure to check that out in the Daily Audio Bible shop. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards are all available…in fact all of our resources for the season are available in the Christmas section in the Daily Audio Bible shop. So, be sure to stop by and check that out.

I want to remind those of you who are international, who are outside of the United States what I’ve been saying. This Wednesday, this coming Wednesday is the cut off for international shipping. That’s the safe date that we think that we can still get things to arrive for Christmas. Of course, you can certainly order as long as you want, as long as we have them, and we’ll ship them, but if you’re hoping for the Christmas Box arrive in time for Christmas then, if you’re outside the United States, it needs to be ordered by Wednesday. If you’re inside the United States we got a couple weeks, although, I don’t think they’ll be around a couple weeks, but we’ll see. So, you can find all that in the Daily Audio Bible shop at dailyaudiobible.com in Christmas section and you can get all of that from the Daily Audio Bible app as well.

If you want to partner the Daily Audio Bible here as we begin to approach the end of the year then I thank you profoundly. I thank you with all of my heart. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. 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 comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi everybody, it’s Lisa the Encourager, I mean neighbors. How y’all doing? I’ve really missed you but I really have been right here by your side. I’ve been listening and praying and crying and loving on each and every one of you from the distance. But I wanted to call tonight after getting encouragement from Mary saying that I was missed and just telling me that, you know, she was just really encouraging me tpo call back again. And I definitely wanted too. I love each and every one of you. So, tonight I just wanted to call and encourage those and pray for the DAB family who have lost loved ones this year, especially as we approach the holidays, and especially for Asia. And I just want all of us that have, including myself, I lost my father-in-law this year, my husband’s dad, Jerry Starling, and I just want us to find a greater purpose and loving on the ones who are still with us and just help us to push through and show our loved ones you know what we are still capable of while we’re on this earth and while we hear and just shower them with our love. And let’s just do all we can to please our Savior and remember that we are never alone when God is right by our side. So, I’m going to pray for each and every one of you lost of what one is here. Dear God, I pray for my Daily Audio Bible family and friends and neighbors. And I just pray for each one of them that lost a loved one this year and they have that deep sorrow and pit and emptiness inside of them. God, I just pray that you would help them push through and just try to work on a loved ones that are here and their friends and just do everything in their power Lord God to use what they have, what You have given them…

Hello, this is Anne from Charlotte North Carolina. I just wanted to say how thankful I am up for Daily Audio Bible. I’m winding up my 10^th year listening. It’s hard to believe it’s gone by so quickly. And I’m so thankful to Brian and his family that he didn’t decide after one year to quit. And I just pray that God leads Brian and his family to continue this for a long time because I know my life is dependent on the daily listening to the word and the community that helps me not to feel alone every day. And listening for 10 years I am always hearing things I’ve never heard before. And when Brian was introducing the book of James as the half-brother of Jesus, I thought, I wonder if people that knew James would say, boy you look like your brother. I never thought of that before, but these were real people just like us, sinners in need of the Savior and the power of his blood in their lives and in ours. And I’m thankful that we have the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from sin, to give us newness of life every day. That’s our hope in this life and the next. So, thank you Daily Audio Bible, just for being there. I love you all. God, bless.

Hi, this is Diane calling from northern Minnesota. This is my second call in 10 years of listening to the DAB. I’m asking for prayer. Monday the 26^th, I’m having surgery. They liken it to a shark bite. They’ll be removing a chunk of my thigh and lymph nodes because the melanoma and I’m scared. I’ve worked in health care for 44 years and only see the bad things, the worst. You never get to see the good because they don’t come back to us. So, please pray that it has not spread to the lymphatic system. I covet your prayers. God bless you family.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family, this is your sister Julie in Southern California. I haven’t called for quite some time but I have been praying for you and praying with you. And I just envision all of us right now sitting, right now, in front of the global campfire with Brian and holding our hands…holding each other’s hands sitting around the campfire…and just being thankful and grateful for each other and I just want you all know how grateful and thankful I am for all of you. This Daily Audio Bible has saved my life. It’s helped save my life. I’ve come out seven years ago…it’s been almost 8 years now…from an affair. And it was my doing. And my husband has since then…we have been restored. It’s just so amazing…there’s no way…I was suicidal and everything just because of my shame and guilt. But you guys helped me get through it just by listening to you. I never contested to all of you but I am now and I just want to thank you. That is a miracle. And this Thanksgiving I am grateful for Daily Audio Bible, each and every one of you and there’s too many of your name that have impacted my life in such a valuable way. Brian, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and I love you. And I love your family. And for all of you, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord lift up His face and shine on you. May He lift up his countenance on all of you and give you all His peace. Happy Thanksgiving family.

Ezekiel 47:1-48:35, 1 Peter 2:11-3:7, Psalms 119:49-64, Proverbs 28:12-13

Today is the 24^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is an honor and a pleasure to be here with you today as we close down another one of our weeks. And this week went fast…this week went fast, and it seems like the weeks only get faster as we get toward the end of the year. And man, we’re getting there. One month from today’s Christmas Eve. So, that’s how close we’re getting. But no matter how fast the days get we have rhythm and we step out of all the things that are pulling us in so many directions and just allow the word of God to wash over us and today is no different. We’re reading from the Good News Translation this week. Ezekiel chapter 47 verse 1 through 48 verse 35 today.

Prayer:

We thank You Father for another week in Your word. And, once again, we kind of reach this line in time and we look back and can declare Your faithfulness. You have been faithful, and we worship You. And Father, as I we put another week into our past and allow it to become a part of our history, we also look forward with anticipation to all that the new week will bring and all that the season holds for us. Holy Spirit come, allow us to immerse ourselves and deeply meditate upon what this season represents because You’re coming, Jesus, changed humanity and we are changed because of it, but all too often we find ourselves dabbling and meshing ourselves and trapping ourselves in things that You have freed us from. We have walked back into slavery when we have been set free. And, so, we spend this time contemplating what it means to be set free because You came for us. So, come Holy Spirit. We release another week into our past and we walk with You into a bright future. Come, Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And the Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas Box is what’s going on around here right now and it is available. It’s chock-full of things that you’re gonna want to keep and full of things that you’ll also want to give away as gifts. So, be sure to check it out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop, in the Christmas section, and you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com or you can also do it from the Daily Audio Bible app and see all the goodies that we have the Christmas Box for this year. They will sell out. I say this every year and they do. So, don’t delay, especially if you are international. If you are outside the United States, yeah, especially don’t delay. The 28^th of this month, which is middle of next week will be the cutoff date for international. I mean, you can order all the way until they’re gone, but we feel like if we don’t get these orders in by the 28^th, those that are going outside of the United States, they may not arrive in time for Christmas. So, just be aware of that. If you are within the domestic United States then, yeah, we have some time…a little bit more time on that. So, do indeed check them out.

And one of the things in the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box this year is a pack of 20 of our 2018 Christmas cards. If you are Christmas card sender, then check them out. You get those separate, There the only thing from the Christmas Box that you can get separate. You can order as many of those as you want separately. And it’s a good deal. I mean, five bucks for 20 cards and envelopes and there beautiful. They have the word for the year this year, “Hope” on the front of them. And you can see them at dailyaudiobible.com. But check those out. Invite your friends and your family. Invite those who could use a journey like this next year, to take the journey with you as we gear up and go through the whole thing again. This is the best time of year to invite those that are in your life who you see are kind of floundering and could use the stability of a rhythm and a community and the Scriptures in their life every day. This is a great time. So, the Christmas cards are available, and all this can be checked out at dailyaudiobiblebible.com.

If you are partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that it dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage…couldn’t thank you enough. We’re in this together. So, thank you 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 comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Beautiful family, this is pastor Gene from Bradenton Florida. I always say, “my beautiful family” and I always say that “I love you” and I just want to tell you guys I really mean it. I don’t know where I would be without you guys. This has been the best…one of the best adventures of my life, going on five years and I’m so grateful. Actually, this is my fifth anniversary and I’m grateful. I’m grateful to Brian, I’m grateful to Jill, their family, I’m grateful to each one of you. Thank you so much for having me. Please join me in prayer. Lord Jesus, thank you for your love and your kindness. Father, we lift up our brother Rafael from Delaware and we ask for your blessing upon him, strengthen him, fill him with you joy and the reassurance that you are with him. We pray for our sisters, __ from California. Father, we glorify you and we rejoice on the progress, but we pray for a permanent change of every member of her beautiful family, of change that it’s rooted on a __ with Christ by every member of my sister’s family. That is my prayer father. Father, I pray for our sister Janet __. Her husband survived cancer but due to his cancer he cannot find a job. I pray in the name of Jesus that my brother will not release that information because it’s illegal if anybody’s taking that into consideration. Defending a position to get it is against the law. So, in the name of Jesus I pray that you will change that and that you will open doors for my brother. Father, I pray for our sister Christina. Her daughter Grace has a lot of emotional issues. I pray that you will deliver __. I pray that you will show her your love and your kindness. I pray that you will give my sister Christina strategies to strengthen her relationship with her. And father I pray, we pray, for our sister Alex and her husband who are going to infertility treatment. They feel like there on the end of the road and this is where you can show up and do a mighty work. We believe you and we believe in pray in Jesus’ name. I love you family. Pastor Gene from Bradenton Florida. Bye.

Hi, this is Kate the nurse from Seattle. I just got a message from my granddaughter. I’m gonna call her Ash, she’s 22. We live in Washington state and I think she’s in Arizona, but I don’t know. She’s been gone for half a year, three quarters of the year. She is addicted to heroin and wrote this poem that was frank, and frankly, for an old lady, shocking and horrific about how she feels about heroin and the need for it above all else. And I know that she has given her heart to Jesus at one point and I know she was in rehab and left early in Spokane for a while and was doing very well. And I’m just…please pray for her…please pray for her to choose the Lord first and for her safety, for her health because I’m not sure how much she’s healthy and for a good place to live. Thank you so much family. Again, Ashland, please pray for her heroin addiction. Thank you.

Hi, this is Diane from Pennsylvania and I’d like to make a prayer request for my girlfriend Anita who is starting chemotherapy today. And she had a big surgery about three weeks ago that was 8 ½ hours

and she does have stage IV cancer. And I’m just praying for successful chemotherapy and very minimal side effects. Also, I wanted to update you that my granddaughter Elizabeth is making steady progress and she has been able to be taken out of a very abusive situation…family situation. And, so, I’m so thankful for your prayers. And I also wanted to ask…request that people would consider given a Thanksgiving gift to the Daily Audio Bible because we feast on the word every day and I know it takes a lot of money to keep those servers going and to just have this happening every day for all of us all around the world. So, maybe you could consider a Thanksgiving gift for our Thanksgiving feast that we eat every day. Thank you so much. This is Diane from Pennsylvania.

Dear family, I am so nervous on this call and I’m so thankful, like Brian said that we don’t have to carry things alone. We have an emergency court this morning for custody of a grandchild. It’s not a good situation and I just pray that we get him today and I also ask prayer for his mother. She needs some help. You know, we all need help but the environment that he would be going in with her is just not good and I’m scared, and I just ask for prayers. I pray for you too. Thank you. Bye.

Ezekiel 44:1-45:12, 1 Peter 1:1-12, Psalms 119:17-32, Proverbs 28:8-10

Today is the 23rd day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today. And, I guess, traditionally this is the beginning of the holiday season, black Friday. And, so I guess we can say it’s the most wonderful time of the year. And thankfully the rhythm of our year takes us right through the most wonderful time of the year and we just continue to take steps forward, which is what we’ll do today, of course, because it’s what we do every day. We’re reading from the Good News Translation this week. Ezekiel chapter 45 verse 13 through 46 verse 24.

Commentary:

Okay. So, even though the postures that the apostle Peter is writing about in his first letter, which we’re reading, even though those things are intended to be lived out every day, we mind find it, what’s being said is particularly relevant to the time of year we’re moving into now. I mean, because this is the time that our schedules start to fill, right, and they fill with joyful festivities but it's…along with all of that comes plenty of challenges, right? The rest of our year kind of gets disrupted. And in that disruption, we may find ourselves like feeling that something’s missing or fighting for our place, right, whether we’re fighting for a parking spot at the mall, which some of you probably are today, or within the family dynamics that arise around the holidays. And Peter gives us counsel in advance out in front of things on how to face trying times like these. So, quoting Peter, “Be obedient to God and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant. Instead be holy in all that you do just as God called you is holy Scripture. The scripture says be holy because I am holy.” So, obviously Peter’s not talking about holidays in the 21st century, he was talking about the shape of our everyday lives but since we’re headed into one of the most uniquely stressful times of the year, the counsel becomes immediately available. I mean…just…we read a lot of words today but if we just remember these, “you must be holy because I am holy”, right? That can be a rescue when we’re absolutely exhausted, when were emotionally spent, when we’re pulled into challenging environments, when we’re rubbing up against all kinds of stuff that just comes at this time year. Because often when we’re stressed out, right, we’re trying to find ways to cope and we’re overwhelmed and. And, so, we move toward trying to be in control…we try to control the environment, or we become incredibly opinionated or we become extremely judgmental. And, ironically this isn’t a new 21st century phenomenon among human beings. On the heels of Peter’s encouragement to live holy lives he had this to say, “You call him Father, when you pray who God judges all people by the same standard according to what each one is done.” So, we have to remember that we are each individually on a journey with God, especially in these stressful times like the holidays. None of us have been appointed that the spiritual judge over our peers or our family. God will handle it and He is impartial because He knows what’s really going on. So, in instead, Peter offered an alternative thought that relieves us of our control and returns us to a place of gratitude. And here’s how he says it, “Now by your obedience to the truth you have purified your selves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart. For through the living and eternal word of God you have been born again as the children of a parent who is immortal, not mortal.” So, to be able to achieve or to live into this kind of love, even in spite of the stressful times, Peter goes on, “Rid yourselves then of all evil. No more lying or hypocrisy or jealousy or insulting language.” And oddly these are the kinds of behaviors we get pulled toward around the holidays when things are starting to fray, right, when it’s all starting to get to us. So, we can lavish gifts upon people while simultaneously being deceitful, hypocritical, jealous and full of all kinds of unkind things to say. And this is not unlike James observation that God can be worshiped, and His creations can be cursed out of the same mouth. And he had something to say about it and we should remember, “Surely my brothers and sisters, this is not right.” And the same conclusion applies to what Peter is saying. And then from our reading today, lastly, Peter gives us the “why” of all of this in a stunning reminder of who we really are, “you” and this is quoting Peter, “you are the chosen race, the Kings priests, the holy nation, God’s own people chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God who called you out of darkness into His own marvelous light.” And we have to acknowledge that the seasons we are entering is centered around that that absolute truth. Like all around the world we’ll begin to consider the arrival of the Savior who has called us out of darkness. And maybe this is the first time you’re realizing just how close to Christmas we are with all that’s just happening around us this week. Let’s carry into the season with us this reminder, something that we can continually tell ourselves. “You must be holy, for I am holy.” Let’s bring that into a season that celebrates the coming of the Holy Child and just allow that, that reminder of holiness and the invitation that we are being given to be holy and carry that into this season and let it shape our experience and be an influence for our decisions because we always have a choice. We can do good.

Prayer:

Father, we invite you into this, this what we’re talking about. We must be holy because you are holy and we certainly invite you into that because we can’t be holy on our own. We need to interact and collaborate to be intertwined with you. So, come, Holy Spirit. But we also pray over this coming season, out in front of us now, of joy and celebration that brings tremendous challenges to certain lives in all kinds of ways. We need you. Come, Holy Spirit we pray into the days ahead we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And today is Black Friday and…well…I talked about it a couple of days ago but that means that the Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas Box for 2018 is now available and it is packed full of things that you’ll want to keep for yourself and things that you’ll want to give away. And this year’s Christmas Box is a good one. We have the Promise Land double DVD set that is always popular around here because…well…frankly it allows us to go in with a window and look around basically at the places that we have visited so often in the Scriptures. And double DVD set has over four hours of content to just really, really immerse yourself in the land of the Bible. So, that is in the Christmas Box. We’ve also included the last two books that I’ve written, the first one called Reframe in the second one called Sneezing Jesus. And these are both books of spiritual transformation. They are…I mean…literally when I sit down to write, I’m writing because I feel like I don’t have a choice…like I’ve reached a point of wrestling that I need to begin to put things on paper, that’s where things start. But in my heart and in my mind, I’m always writing toward someone and that someone is our community. So, if you have been taking the journey through the Bible and haven’t taken the journey through Reframe or Sneezing Jesus, they’re in the Christmas Box this year. And man I wrote it, so, it’s hard for me to say you really should read this, but I wrote it to be read by our community, people who are hungry for the Scriptures and are truly pressing in to the relationship with God that is offered through Jesus and actually trying to live this faith and actually allowing this faith to transform us. I’ve written these things that journey. So, both of those are included in the Christmas Box. And one additional book called “Going Solo”, written by my friend Robert. And it is about the solo parenting journey. There are plenty of single parents in this community, but there’s probably none of us that don’t have a single parent in our lives. And Robert went through a season of being a single dad under some pretty dire circumstances. And he shares this story. So, but it’s not just like a book of commiseration or a book of tips and tricks. Like, it’s not…it’s exactly what a single parent who is overwhelmed needs to hear with no one expecting anything in return. It’s just pouring life into a tattered soul. So, if you are on the solo parent journey then, yeah, this for you. But if you’re not, you know someone and this is for them. We also have our Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for this year and they’re very beautiful and they have the word for the year imprinted on the front, “Hope”. So, there’s 20 cards and 20 envelopes in the Christmas Box. You can order the cards…like if you send out more than 20, you can order your Christmas cards from Daily Audio Bible. They’re not big advertisements for the Daily Audio Bible. They say Daily Audio Bible on the back, like where Hallmark is…would usually be. That’s it. But they are a fantastic way to invite your friends and family along for the journey with you in the coming year. So, yes there’s a pack of 20 of those in the Christmas Box but you can order as many of them as you want separately at the Daily Audio Bible Shop. And we’ll talk about that in the second. Also included is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb for 2018. And I think this is the seventh year we’ve done this. Of course, the word “Hope” is on Christmas bulb. And I have a one of these for every year that we’ve been doing it and it goes up on the tree every year and I look at that little place on the tree, and it reminds me of all the journeys, all the miles, all the words, all the life that goes into a year of the Bible. So, that reminds me of all the journeys we’ve taken and just brings you into our home. And I know that that’s become a tradition for many of you and that’s true for you as well. So, the Christmas ball is in the Christmas Box. Also, we’re lovers of the Black Wing pencils and we have those in the Daily Audio Bible shop with all of our writing paraphernalia, which by the way, those writing kits are awesome Christmas gifts. So, you can check that out. But this year we were able to work along with our friends at Black Wing and get the Daily Audio Bible imprinted on some pencils. We’re not allowed to sell them like in boxes of 12 or as individuals but we’re allowed to put them in the Christmas Box. And, so, there’s is a Black Wing Daily Audio Bible, one-of-a-kind, in the Christmas Box this year. And then, of course, your choice of our Windfarm coffee or our Windfarm boutique tea. And lastly, a surprise, a mystery. And everybody will get the mystery, but everybody won’t get the same mystery, but one additional resource of some sort will be in the Box this year. So that’s the Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas 2018. It’s a good one and it’s available now on the Daily Audio Bible Shop. So that’s at dailyaudiobible.com and then you click Shop and you’ll see the Christmas section and you’ll find all the stuff. Of course, you can access the shop from the Daily Audio Bible app as well. So, we always sell out of these. I recommend if you want one that you get one sooner than later. Those of you who are outside of the domestic United States, including our neighboring nations of Canada and Mexico, the cutoff date for us and kinda feeling confident that everything would arrive for Christmas, is the 28^th of November, which is less than a week. So, if you’re international and you’d like this to arrive for Christmas, then I wouldn’t delay. We will send them, of course, after the 28^th internationally, but not sure the gonna arrive in time for Christmas. So, don’t delay on that. If you’re inside the United States then, you know, there’s a little more time but wouldn’t wait, they sell out every year. So, check all of that out in the Daily Audio Bible shop. It’s Christmas time. Here we go.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here as we approach the end of the year, then obviously, I can’t thank you enough. My humble gratitude is beyond my words because every day that we sit down to come together like this is another day that we’ve done something in collaboration with God and His word, but also in community together. We just wouldn’t be here if we didn’t do it together. So, thank you. There’s a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. 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 comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

hi, my name is Gwen Kavune and this is my first time calling the Daily Audio Bible. Today is November 19, 2018. I am so glad to be a part of the daily audio Bible. I really love hearing Brian and his commentary on the Bible each day. I’ve been listening for…since late in October and I really, really enjoy listening to the commentary, like I said. This is such a great venue for hearing the word and it’s great for me to because I am blind. So, this is a great way for me to hear the word of God. And hearing the prayer…being able to have a place to leave a prayer request is great. And to have other people agreeing with you and prayer is a great thing. I love having that available to me and having other believers out there supporting and encouraging me. That is so great. And I enjoy hearing from others and I enjoy…I’m sorry…I enjoy the poetry from Blind Tony. You do a wonderful job. Your gifted…

This is Judy and Steve in Salt Lake and this call is for Christine with the bumpy dog. Christine, we heard your call, not the first one, but the last one __ and we just want you to know that we are praying for you and we’re sending you a virtual hug. And I would’ve called sooner but I couldn’t talk. Just know we love you and we’re praying for the peace that passes all understanding for you, for healing according to God’s will. Whatever comes next, we pray that you are strong and that you know His love for you is never-ending. And we pray this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

Hi everyone, it’s Karen in St. Louis. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for all your prayers for my 60^th. Got a couple of texts from Marlene that were so encouraging and Shannon from Salem, your song your prayers and Josh from Indiana, your prayers were just like from God for my heart and I’m so grateful. I’m grateful for this community and am so grateful for Brian, Jill, and the family that’s answered the call. And I’m most grateful to Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith. And He’s our ultimate hope. And, so, Brian, I loved your commentary today on James and talking about the faith and works and then also going into our tongues. All these things that we’re going through in most of the fall, I think about Paula and the devastation that you’ve incurred and Christine with the bumpy dog, my heart goes out to you sister. And, so many others, you know. But this kind of encouraged me because we are on a journey. And in Hebrews 12:1 it says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And I just think about how it is constantly just looking to Jesus. And I thought about what you said Brian, at the family reunion, and about how you said that you never felt so close to the Lord is when you are suffering. So, brothers and sisters, take heart in this Thanksgiving where we give thanks to Jesus. I love you all. Bye-bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family, this is Becky from Orlando. I am calling in right now for Paula the child advocate. I just heard that you lost her home. I am so, so, so sorry that that happened in the wildfires. I hadn’t heard your original call and, of course, my eyes started tearing up when I heard that. I’m so sorry for your Paula. I’m gonna keep you in my prayers for you to find a house and some temporary housing in the meantime and just for some comfort. So, I’ve got you in my prayers and I’ve also got Christine with the bumpy dog in my prayers also. I’m praying for God’s healing touch on you for the chemotherapy to do its thing and to heal you and for you to find relief and for you to be able to get back home. So, I’ll keep you both in my prayers and I love you all very much. All right. Have a good day. Bye-bye.

Ezekiel 42:1-43:27, James 5:1-20, Psalms 119:1-116, Proverbs 28:6-7

Today is the 21^st day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is a pleasure to be here with you today as we move forward with the next step that invariably, if we keep taking them, will lead us to the end of the year and the end of the Bible. And what a journey it has been this year, indeed. So, the next step will take us back into the book of Ezekiel. We’re reading from the Good News Translation this week. Ezekiel chapter 42 verse 1 through 43 verse 27 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we concluded the letter of James today, and as we find in many of the letters of the Bible, the final words of these letters give incredible encouragement and practical life postures that we can actually get our minds around and live into. And as we look at James thoughts we have to remember that he wrote this letter to Hebrews, to Jewish brothers and sisters who had been forced to flee or to relocate because of the marginalization and persecution that was being faced. So, quoting James, “be patient then my friends until the Lord comes. See how patient farmers are as they wait for their land to produce precious crops. They wait patiently for the autumn and spring rains. You also must be patient.” So, for a person facing hardship like the people that were the recipients of this letter and for that matter like any of us who are facing hardship, those are words that give us a reason to take the next step, a reason to continue on, which means that they are speaking to each of us on some level. And what’s happening here is that James is reminding us that a process is taking place, one that requires that we be patient and practice endurance. And, obviously, at times this is very difficult because we live in a culture…and man…we are about to experience it full force…we live in a culture that promises instant gratification. And as we move into this holiday season everything’s gonna be thrown at us. But sanctification does not work that way. It’s not an instant gratification thing. It’s more like a farmer, right? A farmer can’t plant seed and harvest a crop the next day. And, so, sometimes this long wait, patiently waiting through the seasons, it just discourages us and in the discouragement we find ourselves behaving more like the children of Israel, right, grumbling through our wilderness experience. And, so, in the face of patience and endurance James gave a reality check. And , so, I’m quoting him again. “Do not complain against one another, my friends, so that God will not judge you. The judge is near ready to appear.” Right? So, in our season of waiting and endurance and being patient we can find ourselves discouraged and then we can find ourselves becoming cynical and then we can find ourselves lashing out other people and basically doing all of the things…like if we just read the book of James in reverse then we’ll find ourselves doing all the things that we’ve already covered. James is basically saying, you know, this is the way it works. You are you are being sanctified, you are being transformed, and that’s a process, and you’ll have to be patient in that process, If you try to take matters in your own hands, that won’t work. If you try to leech off other people, that won’t work. If you try to intimidate other people or wound in some way with your words other people, that’s not gonna work. There’s only one way this works. And, so, you can settle down and be patient and move through this season. It is not purposeless. Indeed, it may be hard, but it is not purposeless. And when you come out the other side of this you will be strong and there is no other way. This is how it works.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into this process. Some seasons we are soaring, and our spirits are high and we’re enjoying all that You are doing in our lives and then in some seasons You invite us to go deeper. And that may be that we face external opposition or that may be that we’re just tilling the inner soil of our hearts and You are going after some things there that don’t need to be there anymore, and they need to be purged out and cleaned. And these seasons are more difficult, and they are the seasons that are a lot harder to endure, obviously. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit into this. May we always keep our hearts tuned to what You are doing because if we are walking with You, then You will show us what You are doing in our lives and we will not be confused. And when we enter a patch that may be a little bit more difficult or challenging we will know this is not purposeless. There is gold here. And, so, come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here as I mention often, like, as in every day because it’s where you stay connected, its where you find out what’s going on around here.

And man…we are…so, tomorrow’s Thanksgiving and that doesn’t mean something to everyone within the sound of my voice but to those of us who are residents in the United States, that’s a national holiday, it’s a day of giving thanks. And it, you know, Thanksgiving precedes a day known as Black Friday. And that’s the day…that’s the day…right…when Christmas season kind of begins and the shopping starts and all of the sales and incentives and all of this begin. And it’s this way around the world. And this is how our cultures work. Each year we bring out the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box and this year is no different. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box for 2018 is now available as of today couple, a couple of days in advance of Black Friday. We always sell out of these. And their purpose is to cram as much resource into one Box as we can possibly do - some serious stuff, some fun stuff, some stuff that you’ll want to keep and some stuff that you’ll want to give away as gifts. And I think this is a really helpful Box this year. So, here’s what’s in it: Our ever popular promised land series, the two DVD set that allows you to kind of zoom in and actually see and experience the places where the Bible happened. Like so many of the stories that will we’ve gone through in the Scriptures up until this point, they’re actually real places that still exist mostly in archaeological form. And over many years, we have painstakingly filmed every detail so that you can actually experience where these stories happened. So, that the double DVD project is in the is in the Christmas Box for 2018. And I’ve spent quite a little…no…I spent very little time this year so far talking about any of my own writings, any of my own books. I don’t know why…I just…you know…there’s a tension in me to talk about something that I’ve created and that I think would help you and that I think should get. It’s hard for me to like hawk that while at the same time I’ve included two of my books in the Christmas Boxes this year for a reason. And they will both books that were hard, hard, hard fought for. The first one is called Reframe - from the God we’ve made to God with us. And it was a very, very long struggle to really name and put into language what we are talking about when we are talking about being in a relationship with God. How does that even work? What is the shape of it? Like, rather than just saying, yeah, I’m in a relationship with God and that relationship amounts to me trying to give thanks at mealtimes and as I fall asleep in bed, as I’m going to sleep. Like that’s my relationship. And I go to church every Sunday. Like, is that a relationship with God? Because that wouldn’t be a relationship with anybody else. So, what is a relationship with God. And that was the first of a series of books, I believe, that are on spiritual transformation, like really trying to begin to dismantle and look at how we got here and why we believe what we do and what we’re talking about when we say some of these things. So, what is a relationship with God. That’s Reframe. And, you know, I’ve heard from hundreds and hundreds of people that Reframe’s something that they read every year, like at the beginning of every year just as a reset because it is a reframe. So, that’s in the Box. And my second book of spiritual transformation is called Sneezing Jesus. And man…we had the sneeze heard around the world when this released and it was kind of book 2 in this spiritual transformation process where, you know, leaving Reframe and saying, okay, now I understand that I am in a relationship with God and here’s how that looks. The question became, who am I in a relationship with? Because you can say I’m in a relationship with God and the Holy Spirit leads me but what does that mean, right? Like when we started distilling this stuff down we start finding that we are at a loss for the right words to describe something that is nearly indescribable. And, so, Sneezing Jesus was my attempt to…well I mean the book of John says that the word became flesh…and like…this this is my attempt to make the flesh become word. And its book 2 because if we are in a relationship with God, then what are the implications of that? Like what is our life really supposed to look like? Because we have the daily obligations or just the rhythms of our faith. Like, what we’re doing now. Like the Daily Audio Bible and having this rhythm every day. We have these things in our religion and our faith but for the most part we’re living, we’re biding our time hoping for an eternity that is better than now, where all is well, nothing is broken, nothing is lost, there are no more good goodbyes, and all our questions are answered. But is that the human experience? Is the human experience simply to be born and wait to die so that actual life can begin? Because is that we were going for here? Sneezing Jesus explores Jesus humanity, a portion of Jesus that we don’t actually focus a lot on. We know He was a human being and that He physically died on the cross, but we mostly think about Him as divine, as the son of the living God. And we should, He is. But he’s also equally, fully, according to the Scriptures, human. And, so, Jesus gives us the one true example that we can look at and say that’s what it’s supposed to look like, that’s how my life is supposed to look, right, which brings a literal meaning to the term Christ like. So, that’s Sneezing Jesus. And I believe that there are two more books in this transformation, a series of that’s what it’s called, I think. They’re not written yet. I’m wrestling with them. Like, I have to wrestle, wrestle, wrestle, wrestle, before I can even say something and then I have to wrestle for all of those words. But these first two are out and available and they are in the Christmas Box this year. Additionally, is another book. This book is called Going Solo. It was written by my friend Robert. I actually wrote the forward to his book because it deals with the topic that I think we are under supporting and that is the single parent journey even within the church. I mean Robert is a super humble guy and he’s never gonna grandstand but he has been one of the most influential people in the Christian music industry. So, like if you think of bands like…with…you know…little startup bands with names like Third Day. Well, it was Robert who brought them to light. However, he went through an incredibly traumatic season of being a single father to his daughters. And he tells that story. But beyond that, Robert is a visionary. So, having to walk through that season and finding how difficult it is to actually find your place and find any kind of support, especially when you’re just frantically running…like…there’s no time. Even if great things were available…like…your just exhausted all the time trying to maintain everything. So, he wrote. He wrote a story. But he wrote a story in such a way that it’s like a warm blanket, like when you’re exhausted and you’re walking this solo parenting journey. And, you know, like, you can’t just call someone up and share your heart. It’s gotta be like a give-and-take. And, so, you can end up even more exhausted. Like, there’s no one to just pour into you and to your brokenness, into your emptiness, into your loneliness. Yeah, that’s what Going Solo, that’s what this book is, it’s pouring into the exhausted single-parent and nothing is expected in return. It’s like a balm for the soul and I think it’s an important topic. And I know that I know that I know that there are tens of thousands of solo parents in the Daily Audio Bible community. And this is for you. But I also know that there’s probably no one listening to me that doesn’t have a solo parent in your life and this is for them because…listen…this isn’t a trite little book of…you know…well-worn promises and a pat on the back. This is honest, this is real, this is authentic, this is…this is where you are if you’re walking the solo parenting journey. So, Going Solo is in the Christmas Box this year. We have also included, since we are big fans of the Black Wing pencil around here and we’re big fans of journaling our way through the Scriptures around here. Last year we put a black wing pencil in the Christmas Box. We’re doing that again. These pencils, I love. I use these pencils every day of my life. But this year we were able to work with them and get Daily Audio Bible imprinted on the pencil. Like, we can’t sell them. That’s an unfortunate thing. We can’t sell them this way. They would not let us sell them this way, like in boxes of 12 like Black Wings, but we were able to include one in the Christmas Box. And, so, the Daily Audio Bible Black Wing edition is in the Christmas Box. Of course, annually we have the Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb. And I think this is the sixth or seventh one. I put them my tree every year. We put them on our tree. And it’s…for me…having each one of those bulbs from each one of those years…I look at those bulbs and I say, “that is one revolution to the whole Bible.” And it reminds me of that journey, but it also reminds me of the Daily Audio Bible community that I love dearly, like with all my heart. And, so, it a way of like bringing you into our home at Christmas time. So, we’ve been doing these bulbs for, I don’t know, six or seven years. I’ll have to count them. Of course, our word for the year is “Hope” and the Christmas bulb includes the word for the year on it. And you can only get the Christmas bulb in the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box each year. We only have limited quantities of these Boxes and then they sell out. So, we need all the stuff for all the Boxes. So, the Daily Audio Bible 2018 Christmas bulb is in the Box. We also include a pack of 20 of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for the year. Now, those you can get separately in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. But these are beautiful. They’re beautiful this year. And on the front, they say our word for the year, “Hope.”  And these aren’t like…those of you who have been around kind of know the situation, but if this is your first Christmas with us, these are not like fake Christmas cards that are really, you know, an advertisement for the Daily Audio Bible. They’re not that. The only place they say Daily Audio Bible on them is on the very, very back like, where it would say Hallmark or whatever card that you bought. Inside there’s a verse of Scripture from the Christmas season and blank space for you to write. If you want to invite your friends and family to take the journey with you, then the Christmas card is a great way to do that. But this is part of our family experience. And, so, sending out the word “hope” here at the end of the year to all of our friends and family is a way of ceiling, that this has been a year of hope and it’s been hard-fought right? I’ve had to fight for hope all year and I don’t think I’m alone. But I have found that if you fight for it it exists and it is there and it’s never absent if you’re really looking with all your heart. So, to give hope is what we’re trying to do with the Christmas cards. Now there’s a pack of 20 of them and they include their envelopes and everything like that and that’s in the Christmas Box for 2018 but you can get them separate in the Shop as well. If you’re gonna send out more than 20 cards etc. etc. And then lastly is our Windfarm coffee or tea and your choice of coffee or tea. And I will be roasting, roasting, roasting the coffee. Our Windfarm coffee is roasted at altitude in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. And it’s delicious and you know, I drink it every day pretty much. Got my coffee mug just to my left as I speak. So, you can choose that or our boutique coffee or our boutique tea, which is delicious and is also something that that I drink. So, I said that’s it, lastly. But truly lastly we’re also throwing in a mystery item. We just kind of went through warehouse and we just have some additional resources laying around but not…like not enough for the whole Box or anything like that. And, so we thought that yeah, let’s, let’s include some of these resources. And, so, can’t tell you it will be. But everybody who gets a Christmas Box will get something else additional to what I just said. So, there you go. There’s the family Christmas Box for 2018 and it’s available now. Just go to dailyaudiobible.com and go into the Shop and find the Christmas section and you will find what you’re looking for.

Okay. So, with all of that having been said, these will go fast, they will sell out, they always do. But you, those of you who are international, who are not in the United States, and yes, that includes the house of you who are in Canada. We’ve gotten emails in the past about this like when they of arrived late from our Canadian brothers and sisters who are like, it’s not like I’m in Europe, I’m in Canada. But ironically you’re in a different country, which forces us to ship international, which slows the whole thing down to molasses. And we have a situation worked out with our friends at FedEx who allow us to be able to ship internationally at pretty close to domestic rates, like, way cheaper than regular international it just takes longer. So, having said all of what I’ve said, one week from today is the international cut off. Like one week from today, if you haven’t ordered your…by one week from today…if you haven’t ordered your Christmas Box and you’re not in the United States then we’re not sure…like we absolutely…we’ll send it…but we’re not sure it will get there for Christmas cause sometimes, you know, it takes several weeks. So, you will get it but if you wait, you may not get it in time for Christmas. If you are in the domestic United States then we’ve got some time on that, but they will sell out. So, there it is, the Christmas Box for 2018.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share to bring God’s spoken word every single day without fail into the world, read fresh, and to continue to build community around that rhythm, if that is bringing life to you, then thank you for being life-giving back to Daily Audio Bible. If we didn’t do this together we wouldn’t be doing this. And that’s fact. So, there is a link on the homepage at dailyaudibible.com. 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 comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, this is Stephanie, the Lord’s Chic in Oklahoma and I was calling because Scott from Michigan called. And brother, thank you so much. That day I was really wondering if I was in the right field altogether. I’m an ER nurse and over time I’ve developed anxiety that at times can be crippling and have come to find out that as ER and ICU and paramedic, that we develop PTSD just like the soldiers do. But we can talk about it. We’re not allowed to say, hey, I’m feeling like I can’t take this anymore, if I see one more person to another bad thing to another person I’m just gonna lose it. And we’re warriors on those front lines. And after decades of doing this I’ve wondered if I can keep doing it. But if the Christians pull out than who’s going to be there? Thank you so much for calling that day because I was really thinking about maybe I just need to hang it up. So, my heart and love to you my brother, not only in Christ but in medicine. And I hope that you’re doing well. And to all the nurses and doctors and paramedics and firefighters in California, my love and prayers to all of you.

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I wanted to say hi to Paula and let her know that I’m praying with you. Paula I don’t judge California because California’s the place where I received Christ as my Savior and I really believe that God is with it. I don’t understand was going there but I know that God is able and I’m praying that Lord, that you send down the rain like never before. Lord You send down the rain and You open up the windows of heaven for Your people for all they’re going through. Lord, let them look up to You knowing You are able, that You are able to do exceeding, that something that’s good is coming out of this. And Lord we’re looking for it Lord. We’re looking for Your rain, Lord. We’re looking for You to have Your way, that Your people will look up to You and say Lord, there’s no other God but that You are the living God. Oh Lord You continue to touch Your people, You continue to provide. You said You provide their every need according to the riches and glory. Remember what He did for Job. He gave Job more than He ever even had before. Just keep Your trust in him. Oh Lord, and I talked to my sister for Thanksgiving. My sister, don’t worry about Thanksgiving. Just thank God for the fact that You are there and You’re there to be a light and somebody needs Christ even in our own families. Lord I know what You’re going through because I’m going through the same in mine. I will not be with mine, but I will be there in heart and just trust that God will save and God will deliver and only God can heal even in families with challenges. Lord You touch Your people, You open up the doors no man can close. Help us to be thankful in knowing that God is faithful, that God is holy, and He said He’d never leave us nor forsake us and that He will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. And Lord we give You the glory and the praise and honor. You touch Brian and their family and all the people of God and Lord we’ll give You the glory and honor and the praise and…

Hi this is Terry from Southern California. Hi Daily Audio Bible family. Just calling, I just want to lift up Paula. I heard your prayer request. I know Paula you live up in the fire area where so many homes were destroyed, and you lost your home. And I just want to let you know that we’re praying for you and we’re praying for your family and we just want the peace that surpasses all understanding, that God will give us peace whose eyes are stayed upon him. And, so, I just wanted to lift you up in prayer for comfort, for encouragement, and that whatever the future holds I know that God is holding the future for you and your family. And we want to pray for everybody who is impacted, not just the fires in the Thousand Oaks area of California but also in Northern California that so many people have lost so much in life, have been lost, and some are not found yet, but we still serve a God that owns the cattle on a thousand hill and the tide that looks low. So, we know that He can give us a peace that gets us through this time. So, Paula, I just want to let you know that we’re praying for you and I just pray that God’s peace would just be with you and your family. Amen. Bye.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family, it’s James the teacher in LA. Just an update as far as my mom and her condition. I called in and said that she…that her doctor discovered a precancerous growth in her uterus. And this coming Wednesday the 21^st of November, she’s scheduled to have a hysterectomy. And it’s supposed to be a procedure in such a way that it’s actually pretty low key. I’m freaking out a little bit because, honestly the last time I had a parent calling me telling me that they were going through some stuff and it’s right around a holiday time, it was summer and I talked to my dad and he had a friend in town who was supposed to be helping out and while I was away he passed unexpectedly. And I’m freaking out a little about thinking about thus happening again because my wife and I gonna travel out of town for Thanksgiving. So, I just talked to my mom. She’s sure that she’s going to be an okay. She knows that we had our plans set before her surgery was set and she’s not…she’s not upset that we’re not gonna be there. She’s not concerned about the outcome of the surgery. But I know she doesn’t know the Lord. And I keep talking to her about it. And then two days a week, she just kind of keeps pushing away, pushing back. So, please pray family. Yeah. And everybody please drive carefully out there this holiday season. All right. I love you guys. Thank you. Bye.

Ezekiel 40:28-41:26, James 4:1-17, Psalms 118:19-29, Proverbs 28:3-5

Today is the 20^th day of no November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a pleasure to be here with you today. It’s great to have this time to step out of it all, whatever the chaos may be, whatever swirling, Yeah, this is a busy week, there’s a bunch going on as we approach the holidays. So, we have this opportunity to step away, just take a deep breath and move into a different space and just allow God’s word to speak. Whatever’s going on, it will still be there. Whatever we’ve got a deal with it sure would be better to deal with it with the Council of the Scriptures in our lives. And, so, we step away and take the next step as we’re moving through the Scriptures this year. We’re reading from the Good News Translation this week. Ezekiel chapter 40 verse 28 through 41 verse 26.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of James we began our reading with a pretty simple question but it’s a loaded question. And the question is, where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? So, let’s think about it, where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? It’s worth a moment. What is the root cause of the tension within that then erupts into conflict without? Well, James gave us an answer. They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting with in you. I mean in that question and answer there’s a zip, there’s like a crackle in that. We’ve gotta slow down here. We’re being told something very important and we’re being told very directly. Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting with in you. James is explaining that conflict arises due to our sense of us not having what we desire or us not having what we think we deserve in some way. And when we get the feeling that there’s something lacking, right, or we get the jealousy kind of coming up inside of us, envy because something that we desire is unattainable but someone else has it. And when we do this kind of stuff, we will turn probably to domination tactics, right, to take it by force from others or to diminish the joy that someone else may have so that they don’t get to enjoy what they have because we’re jealous. Thus, quarrels and fights among us. And it’s complicated to open up a door like this because there’s so many nuances connected to so many different things inside of us, but we have to at least acknowledge this wasn’t that complicated for James’s. His view was that when we find a deficit inside of ourselves and we try to balance the scales by attempting to force our will upon somebody else then we’re gonna come up empty because we’re looking in the wrong place. So, James summed it up like this. You want things, but you cannot have them. So, you are ready to kill. You strongly desire things, but you cannot get them so, you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. And when you ask, you do not receive it because your motives are bad. You ask for things to use for your own pleasures. So, you know, once again were brushing up a blunt style of James. But it gives us an opportunity to…I mean…sometimes when something is so stark and blunt there’s nowhere to hide, it’s in the light, there’s nowhere to run. Like, you have to take a second and actually use the opportunity to explore what’s going on in the inner terrain of our hearts. And it’s easy enough to get condemned, but James wasn’t trying to hurl condemnation. He was working his way to the root cause of all of this. And here’s what he had to say. “Don’t you know that to be the world’s friend means to be God’s enemy? If you want to be the world’s friend you make yourself God’s enemy.” So, basically when we try to get our identity by following the way of the culture, right, the world, then we’ve gotten it so backward that, according to James, we put ourselves at odds with God, which is not a small thing friends. And that could explain a lot. Like, if we were to look at this in terms of putting our faith into action, right? Because yesterday we went through this “faith without works is dead”, then we would have to admit that the behavior that James is describing in our reading today is our declaration that God is not enough. Therefore, we need to look outside the relationship for what it is that we lack and we’re willing to go to battle to get what it is that we lack or feel like we deserve. So, yeah, try doing that with your spouse tonight. Darling, I am unfulfilled, and I have to admit that you are not enough. And, so, I’m going to need to look outside the relationship for what I lack. Right? Try that over dinner and see if it produces quarrels and fights among you. So, looking at all this leads us to, what I do you know? You know, what’s my next step? And thankfully, James has something to say about that. And it comes by way of a very, very famous passage. And this brings up a good point to point out famous passages again. We have just spent a few minutes discussing the context of what was in our reading from James today, which leads us to a famous passage of Scripture that we use continually but now we understand that the context of this passage is the question, “what is causing the quarrels and fights among you” and then the exploration of the inner terrain of that question. So, in terms of next steps - what are we supposed to do now that we know this - here’s what James has to say. “Submit your selves to God. Resist the devil and he will run away from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash our hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you hypocrites. Be sorrowful cry and weep. Change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.” So, that’s some humbling and convicting stuff there as we consider the things that are keeping us twisted up inside in conflict and quarrels all the time. So, let’s spend some time with James today. Let’s spend some time with this passage. There are keys to life in here that if we would begin to employ them would change the atmosphere. Like, no joke, would change the atmosphere around us. So, let’s invite the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts today to the places that our loyalties are divided because this is the source of the conflict within. these are the places that we’re trying to find an identity that only God can really give us. And, ultimately, this is what’s causing quarrels and fights among us.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit. Come, we invite you into that, every single one of us, we invite you into that. We become aware of our divided loyalties. We become aware of our selfishness. We become aware of the conflict and quarrels among us because of what we feel is lacking inside of us. And you are inviting us in the book of James to draw near to you, to come close to you, and you will come close to us. And when we are close, we are complete, we are whole, nothing is lacking. In your presence, there is the fruit of the spirit. In your presence there is unspeakable peace. We don’t have to go looking for how we can pilfer identity from what someone else may have achieved or as that we want. We are whole. We are at peace. All is as it should be when we are in your presence. And, so, it’s us, it’s not you. You’re not hiding, it’s us and we are commanded and given instructions to draw near. So, we do. We draw near to you. Come, Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check in and check it out.

Yeah, a little bit later this week and we’re gonna be on, right? It’s going to be…the holiday seasons gonna be upon us with Black Friday coming and we’ll talk about that we get a little closer because we always have the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box. And it’s a good one. And, so, we’ll talk about that later but that’s coming up.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It’s on the homepage and I couldn’t thank you enough. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t doing this together and that’s the fact. So, I thank you 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 comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Ezekiel 39:1-40:27, James 2:18-3:18, Psalms 118:1-18, Proverbs 28:2

Today is the 19^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is always, always, always a pleasure to be here with you, and that includes today, that includes right now. So, it’s great to be here with you to take the next step forward as we continue to move through this month and through the Scriptures. We’re reading from the Good News Translation this week. Ezekiel chapter 39 verse 1 through 40 verse 27 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we moved through the middle of James in today’s reading and if we’re paying attention then the profound implications of the letter of James continue to become more and more clear. James, his like main argument has been that faith is indeed where the story with God begins. However, faith without works is dead, right? So, faith without some kind of corresponding action isn’t a faith that is alive. So, quoting James, “show me how anyone can have faith without actions. I will show you my faith by my actions.” And then he gives like searing example. “Do you believe that there is only one God?” Right? So, like, if we were asked this question we would say yes. And James would respond, “good.” “The demons also believe, they believe there is only one God and they tremble with fear.” Right? So, he’s using this as an illustration to say okay, faith without it transforming you and in transforming you changing the way you do what you do, right, in other words your works or your actions. If they are not complementary, if they are not together then…well…then…we’re no better off than the demonic because they also believe what we believe, that there is only one God. In fact, they may have a more intimate knowledge of it than we do and they tremble with fear. So…ughhh…so this is why, like, the reformer Martin Luther didn’t appreciate the letter of James because so much of the apostle Paul’s work and for that matter what Martin Luther stood on was by faith alone - sola fide. So, if you are Protestant, then yes, the doctrine is…it is a gift…it is by faith. There’s nothing you can do to earn it. So, if you are Roman Catholic or are of the Orthodox Church or any non-Protestant church, then good works is the doctrine that you are taught. Good works are part of the conversion process. So, it seems like we got a pretty glaring discrepancy because on the one hand, we can hear from the apostle Paul it’ by grace alone, by faith alone, we can hear these things from the apostle Paul and then we can turn to James and find faith without works is dead. And, so, trying to define exactly what this all means, this is one of the reasons that we have different persuasions in the Christian faith. But I wonder if it’s really all that big of a discrepancy. I mean, I think we’ve lived long enough in our lives to understand that on our own we are not going to be able to perfect ourselves. And I have tried hard in my faith. I have tried hard. And no matter what I do I can perfect myself. And, so, we probably all feel the same. Maybe a few of you out there have perfected yourself and I would love to meet you. For me, I have to lean into grace every single day and mercy every single moment. And the only way that I can even believe that God would be merciful to me, a sinner, is through faith. And Paul and James are neither one arguing against that, right? It is through faith. In fact, James includes the reference to Abraham, sort of the centerpiece of Paul’s theology. So, I mean, like, the bottom line is, if you are shown mercy and grace in any area of your life do you not respond to it? Let’s say you’re late for work. Your rolling down the highway, you’re going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, your frantic, it’s a mess, and you get pulled over and are like. great this makes matter so much worse, and the officer says hey, you were going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. And you’re like, I’m so sorry, I’m running late and he lets you go. Are you gonna just go 10 miles an hour over the speed limit or will that grace cause you to actually obey the law and pay attention, right? Or maybe last week you got in a big fight with your spouse. It was a mess, it was really ugly, it was World War III, things were said that can’t be unsaid, it’s been kind of a Cold War in the house for several days now. And one spouse comes to the other and says, we were both wrong but I’m sorry for my part and I’m forgetting about the rest of this and forgetting about your part. Well, that’s probably going to lead to an embrace, like a work, an action. It’s probably going to lead to the restoration of something because something that was broken has been restored. So, maybe we can’t perfect ourselves before God and come into His presence in the end and say…with demands…I deserve to be here. I am here because I am perfect, and you have to acknowledge my perfection. None of us are gonna be able to do that. The only way that we can reach for perfection and actually put it on is through faith. However, if we do that, if we lean into the grace and mercy of God through faith, then it’s got to change the way we do what we do. Our actions become the outward representation, the physical expression, of the faith that we claim we have within. Like, if by faith we are…we are leaning into the mercy of God for all of the missteps on any given day, and we are looking through faith to the fact that sin is not a part of our story before, that God is making us perfect because He is perfect and He is within us, well then, that should be represented in every area of our lives and everything that we do. Hence, faith without works is dead. Where this all becomes a theological quagmire is whether your works have anything to do with your salvation. Paul would say, your salvation is a gift. James would say that salvation is a gift, but you better spend your entire life appreciating a gift you don’t deserve and that must be evident in the things you do. And one of the things that we do is talk. And for James, one of the ways we put our faith into action is evidenced by the way that we steward what we say. So, he likened our tongues to a bit in a horse’s mouth or to the rudder of a small ship. It’s a small part of our body, right, or a small part of a boat, but it steers the trajectory of our entire lives. In fact, James is bold enough to tell us that we can burn our entire lives down around us with our tongues. And we probably have. We know that there is power in words. We usually don’t think about the power of our words were saying them, but there is enormous power in our words. And it’s in the harnessing of that power, and using that power for good that we find ourselves challenged. But James point wasn’t there is mighty power in what we say, it was the duality that we use that mighty power, for good and for evil, which is bringing his “faith without works is dead” point home. So, quoting from James speaking of our tongue. “We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse other people who are created in the likeness of God. Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My friends, this should not happen.” So, since our tongues have such power to bless and such power to curse, maybe the first and fundamental step that we have to take in putting our faith in the action and actually showing and demonstrating our faith, maybe the first step is to harness and control our tongues. We all know what can happen when we lose control and say things that we shouldn’t say. Like, we have the power to be angels of mercy or a stone-cold killer all on the same day and as James is telling us, this isn’t right, this shouldn’t be happening. So, plenty to consider from this little letter of James today, plenty to confront ourselves within today. And let’s do that. Let’s invite the Holy Spirit into the ways that we are and the ways that we are not putting our faith into action because, as we’ve learned, one of the ways we can immediately respond is to harness the power of our tongues for good. If we can control our tongues, since it’s steering the ship as it were, right? So, since it’s guiding the direction of our lives, if we can control our tongues the rest of us is going to follow, my body and soul, and will set us on a path that will put our faith in action in everything we do.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. There’s a lot there but it does kind of boil down to this one action point, this one thing that we are commanded to do and can do if we’re paying attention, and that is to harness the power of our tongue. We are using that power for good and for evil and we are being encouraged to use it for good period and not use it for evil. And what would happen in our lives if all that we did was harness our tongue for good and for the use of Your kingdom? It would certainly change the trajectory of our lives and put our faith into action. So, come Holy Spirit we pray. This is a tall order and we cannot do this on our own. We need Your grace and we need Your mercy but we also need Your guidance and we submit ourselves to Your authority and we give the authority of our tongue to You. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay connected.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage and I thank you profoundly and 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 comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Dear Heavenly Father, sovereign Lord, You who are faithful and true, full of mercy and grace. Lord, please be very near to our sister Paula, the child advocate from LA who lost their home, her and her husband, in the fire. Lord, thank You that a cross still stood in the yard and an annual plant. And Lord, thank You that You will be present every step of the way to lead them forward into goodness and blessings such as they could never have imagined. Thank You, Lord that You hold Paula and her family in the palm of Your hand. And we pray for all the victims of these fires and of the shootings in Thousand Oaks and at the synagogue. Lord, please come…come to comfort and restore and show us the next right thing and power to live in Your love and believe You Lord and all Your promises to us. In Jesus’ name I pray. This is Candace from Oregon.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Deborah from Providence, Rhode Island. Brian, family, and all behind the scenes, thank you for all that you do. Paula, the advocate, I heard you and I am praying for you and your family. I’m so sorry for what has happened, but you seem to be strong and I know you will come out of this stronger than ever. The new caller, I believe is Justin, welcome. You have joined a wonderful caring, loving community, that we’re all hear from you. Asia, I heard your call two weeks ago and I am praying for you. And all the other callers that have called in, you may now heat your name, but we are all praying for you. You may not always call but we are praying. I know I pray every day. I’ve been listening to DAB since 2006 and I haven’t missed a day and every day, every caller that calls in, I pray for them, I glorify God for them. And I thank Brian and his family for such a wonderful opportunity to come together and pray for others. Deborah from Providence, Rhode Island. You all have a blessed one.

Good morning, this is November 16^th and this is Kris from South Carolina. And I’m just calling to ask for some prayer. Still…still separated and there’s days that I really struggle. I know that I’m supposed to hang on. God, He spoke to me in the last year. Trusting and believing and He put an end to this…put a stop to the divorce. And my husband and I have been married for almost 30 years and we haven’t been living together for five. And it’s been really hard. I still see him as the love of my life and I miss him. He had an affair, he moved out. And since then we had moved on but he appears to be with someone else. And I still love him and I’m still praying for him. And it’s hard because the relationship with my son is also strained. He lives with his dad and I don’t get to see him that much and I don’t get to talk to him that much. And I feel like I’m the bad guy in all of this. And all I’m doing is just praying, believing, and trusting for my entire family for restoration in my family, restoration in my son, and restoration with my husband. And sometimes I really struggle. And nights and weekends are the worst. And I just really need some prayer over this. Thank you so much for everything and for this Daily Audio Bible family. Have a good weekend. Thank you.

Hello, this is Christine with the bumpy dog and I am in a hospital because I have acute leukemia. I came into the hospital the end of September. The chemo I took doesn’t seem to be working. So, they did another bone biopsy, but it’s been such a horrible couple of days and the nighttime is always worse. Please pray for me that the Lord would heal me from this cancer. I thank you for your prayers for my family. And I just want to go home. Thank you. This afternoon someone had to be resuscitated across the hall. I’ve moved my room five times. I’m just so very frazzled and tired. Thank you for keeping me in your prayers.