Category: DAB Transcripts

1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17, Acts 23:11-35, Psalms 3:1-8, Proverbs 18:14-15

Today is the 5^th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you as we all assemble around the global campfire coming out of the darkness we warm ourselves together in community and allow God’s word to wash over us and into our lives. And today we will be beginning a new book, the book of first Chronicles.

Introduction to the Book of First Chronicles:

So, let’s just kind of fly over this for a second. Not completely sure who wrote the books of Chronicles. There’s a first and a second Chronicles, but Jewish tradition, going pretty far back, has Ezra as the author. The books of Chronicles date to about 450 to 425 BC. So, there about four centuries, roughly before Jesus came. But in first and second Chronicles, I mean, we’re going to be recovering a lot of the same territory that was covered in first Samuel, second Samuel, and then first and second Kings but we’ll be looking at it from a different perspective. We’ll be looking at the stories, and we’ll be looking at the same stories, but we’ll be looking at them through the eyes of the priests and kind of get their take on what happened. As we just completed the book of second Kings, we see that the children of Israel are in exile and they’ve been taken away by the Babylonians and it’s been pretty brutal. The books of first and second Chronicles were written from the exile. They were written to remind the children of Israel who they are, who God is, how to worship Him, and what to do when they return. So, the first nine chapters will cover a lot of genealogy and, you know, we’re kind of at that point in the Bible. And all the genealogies can be tedious. And we wonder why we’re reading names. Once we understand why they’re there, to tell a moving story. The children of Israel are in exile. Many families have been torn apart. Many will never see each other again due to death, slavery, forced relocation. So, these names, these genealogies, their knit together so that the people can remember where they came from and who they are and each name has behind it a story of life and loss. Of course, this won’t be the last time this happens to the Jewish people. So, these genealogies matter. And as we go back to some the territory we’ve already covered, once again we’ll see God’s faithfulness, God’s forgiveness, His mercy, but also His righteous justice. The children of Israel know firsthand what it looks like to serve God and the repercussions of their own actions as they turned their back on Him. And none of this has changed. We all face the same things in our own lives. So, as we read through these stories, the echoes through history can remind us of who we are and encourage us deeply to follow God and walk in His will and His ways. And, so, we begin. We’re reading from The Voice Translation this week. First Chronicles chapter 1, verse one through 2:17.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we get going in first Chronicles we can see that we are retelling the generational history of the people, and this certainly gives a backdrop of the people and players in the stories that will be told.

In the book of Acts, we can see that Paul, had he not had the protection of the Roman government, of which he was a citizen, he’d be dad. He would’ve been beaten to death by the Jewish people. What is this all about though? Like, it’s really easy to get lost and say, okay ,Paul was a devout Pharisee, then he became a follower of Jesus. There were other followers of Jesus and there were not assassination plots. I mean, why such rage against Paul? It’s a pretty complicated issue on a number of levels. First of all, Paul’s back in the holy city, Jerusalem and this is not an unfamiliar city to Paul. Paul has been a trained up Pharisee, living in Jerusalem for his life, his adult life. He’s not unknown to all of these people. He’s not to some kind a rogue person who keeps traveling around the empire saying things and shows up in Jerusalem. Like, they know who he is. The problem is what he appears to be doing is heretical to them. He seems to be an apostate, a person who is left his faith. And as we can see with these devout Jewish people, that’s worthy of death. So, we can understand why a mob would form or, you know, an oath of allegiance – I’m not gonna eat or drink until I kill this guy – you can see where that comes from. But why though? Why do they think Paul is an apostate. This is because, to them, that’s exactly what he is. And it boils down to two reasons and neither one of them directly relate to Jesus. I mean, everything in Paul’s life relates to his encounter with Jesus, but at this point in time people who believe in Jesus are just kind of a sub- sect of Judaism and so they’re tolerated by religious Jews, at least to a degree. Paul has done a couple of things that are a step further. For starters, he’s gone to the Gentiles, a people that the Jewish people insulated themselves from. Anyone who was non-Jewish was a Gentile and the Jewish religion was a separatist thing. You had to be a Jew, You had to convert if you wanted to worship God. For Paul to go out among the Gentiles speaking of this Jesus was separating him from his Jewish heritage and customs. And to make matters significantly worse, his language was that the law of Moses had been fulfilled in Jesus and was no longer something that they had to adhere or live under because it would only reveal their inability to be in relationship with God in a righteous way because nobody could obey the law. So, Paul had to spend a lot of time, a lot of theological wrestling as a Pharisee. And as he’s converting to Jesus, looking at the story of the Jewish people. And we’re looking at the story of the Jewish people in first Chronicles as we read down the generations. And we found a name in the genealogies today, Abraham. Abraham started everything, not Moses. And that was Paul’s really long-running argument. Abraham is the origination of this story. Abraham didn’t have a law to obey. Abraham believed God, he put his faith in God and God considered him righteous because of it. That was like a game changer for Paul. We all know how things go, right? You tell somebody something and then it gets rebroadcast and told out of context. Without the full context it seems like it’s something different. That’s kind of what’s going with Paul. He’s got this reputation going around that he is an apostate, that he has left his Jewish heritage, that he is preaching against the law, that he is claiming that Gentiles can be included in this new covenant. And, so, to the religious Jews. He has become a heretic. They don’t leave this at all. So, now we kind of can understand why a couple hundred people need to escort Paul out of Jerusalem, like, armed military soldiers to get him out of there. And they take him to Antipatris, which is about halfway. Basically, from Jerusalem to Caesarea is a journey to the north west. Caesarea is a coastal town right on the Mediterranean coast and it was very Roman, whereas Jerusalem was obviously a very ancient city. Antipatris still exists today. Some of the Roman roads that go through there are still in existence. You can still see chariot tracks on some of those roads. And, so, it’s interesting to be there and just understand the apostle Paul came through here on his way to Caesarea. But now we kind of understand why he’s under such heavy guard, it’s to protect his life, not because he’s that big of a criminal. It’s to protect his life. God is using the Roman army to protect Paul from his own people, but still allow him to speak to them, to tell them the story. And we’ll see this continue as we move forward.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the way that it sweeps into our lives and informs us and counsels us and corrects and rebukes us and pulls us forward each and every day into relationship with You. We are grateful for that. And, so, we invite You, Holy Spirit, to come, plant the words that we’ve read today in our lives. Lead us into all truth, we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Just a couple days for now, day after tomorrow, is the Daily Audio Bible long walk. The 7^th of July. It’s our 11^th annual. So, make plans for that. Go somewhere beautiful. Take a long walk with God. Let Him speak to you. Speak to Him, worship, enjoy nature. And take a picture or video wherever it is that you go and you can post that to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page Facebook.com/dailyaudiobible and we will all enjoy each other’s long walk. And it’s always been a beautiful thing. So, plan for that on the on the 7^th.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. Thank you for your partnership. Thank you, humbly, especially here in the summertime. 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey Daily Audio Bible family. This is Billy from Montgomery. I wanted to put a prayer request out there for my wife. She had a colonoscopy today and everything went fine with that but then they did an x-ray on her lung. She has some issues in her chest and then they found a spot in her lung that was questionable. That’s what the doctor said. They do not know what it was but it was questionable. Anyway, that is all we know now. We just need to be covered up in prayer and hope that it is nothing. Anyway, I just want to put that prayer request out there. My wife’s name is Natalie and I will talk to you all later. All right, bye for now.

Hey everybody, this is Pelham in Birmingham calling. I just finished listening to June 30^ths  reading. Brian, you just finished reading Acts. Brian, I don’t know if it’s just your voice this year or if it’s just the world and I know it’s happening in everybody’s life, but Brian, I was in tears saying goodbye to Paul. That was one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever experienced in the Bible, his departure, and them hugging him in a circle, crying, knowing they aren’t gonna see their friend again. The way you read it man, it was like I was there. I felt like I was saying goodbye to one of my best friends. And it made me think, what if I couldn’t contact you guys? Or what if I didn’t have any connection to anyone that knew anything? And then, I can thank my Lord, I can fall down on my knees and I can thank Him for giving you a mission 14 years ago and for you just taking that one step in the right direction and look at what that decision has done to the world. Brian, thank you. Everybody, thank you. The Daily Audio Bible is a revolutionary thing and that decision that you made 14 years ago Brian was a revolutionary decision. It caused and causes revolutions of light and its increasing. Just as fast as the darkness seems to be increasing the Army is being encircled. Thanks for your prayers guys. Blind Tony thank you. I love you everybody.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. It’s Jim, the teacher from LA. Summer break has been good to me. Sorry I’m out of breath. I was out for a run. Only the second…second time since February cause teaching and having a family and getting a Master’s degree is not always good for your health but you can get back into it and maybe that’s encouragement for someone out there but that’s not why I’m calling. I’m catching up on old broadcasts, listening to prayer requests back to back and a woman called in about her daughter’s baby and not having a proper umbilical cord, having only two chambers and not three. You know, it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, a strand of two cords is stronger than a strand of one and a strand of three is not easily broken. As I know that they speak that to couples at weddings often times to say that you need both partners and the Holy Spirit. That that baby needs mom and dad and the Holy Spirit. And God can work miracles and He can certainly work in the uterus, the heavenly secret place where we are woven together. So, pray with me family. Father God, as you are weaving this baby together in her mother’s womb in the secret place of the earth, weave a new chamber to that umbilical chord, we pray that this cord will be a three stranded cord, unbreakable for this child who has been attacked by the enemy even before coming into this world. She’s already in this world. You’ve already given her life, you’ve already given her breathe and spirit in your kingdom. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Love you family.

Hi fellow DABbers. It’s Lanna calling from Canada and I desperately need your prayers. I’m going in for surgery on the July 9th at 1 o’clock. I have to have a wisdom tooth extracted which has a cyst lying underneath it and I’m asking for your prayers. I’m quite anxious about this. And I guess, since my mother’s passed away I have to face everything alone now, except I do…I do have Jesus, and I have you as a family. I have no other family except I do have a cousin, yes, that lives out west but I have no family here, just my friends and you guys. So, please pray for me that everything will be okay. Thank you. God bless.

2 Kings 23:31-25:30, Acts 22:17-23:10, Ps 2:1-12, Pr 18:13

Today is the 4^th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. It’s a big holiday here for us who live in the United States. This is Independence Day. This also happens to be my wife, Jill’s birthday. So happy birthday my love. She is doing a great job encouraging many, many, many of the women in this community. So it’s a day of celebration and it’s also a day. And every day, no matter what’s going on, we take the next step forward in the Scriptures, centering ourselves. And God will speak to us through his word. So we’ll take the next step. We’re reading from The Voice translation this week. 2 Kings 23:31-25:30.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we today completed 2 Kings. And 2 Kings concludes with Jerusalem being destroyed by the Babylonians. And with this story of King Zedekiah trying to escape and being captured. And pretty grizzly scene there where all of his sons are killed before his eyes and then his eyes are put out. And it’s a pretty tragic scene. Pretty catastrophic for those who lived in Jerusalem and it brings to an end the Israel that we have been following since we met Abraham back in January in the book of Genesis. Obviously, this does not bring an end to the people. But this united monarchy known as Israel that formed when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land and solidified under King David’s rule and then was brought to its apex with Solomon’s rule. We remember how the story goes. The country split into two. The northern tribes were called Israel and the southern tribes were called Judah. They’re both gone now. Assyria came and conquered the northern tribes and carried them away. And now Babylon has invaded and taken Judah into exile and destroyed Jerusalem. So, this is effectively the end of ancient Israel as we have known it. A remnant of exiles will be able to return. They will begin to rebuild and there’s much for us to know there, but this is the end of an era. And this did not have to happen, as we see through the voices of the prophets. Even the events that we’re reading about today. We will revisit them when we get to the prophet Jeremiah who is right in the thick of this, speaking into this. It didn’t have to happen. The rebellion of the people and the systematic falling away and chasing after other gods deteriorated and undermined everything that they were and it’s the end of this part of the story.

And of course, in the book of Acts, we’ve turned a page and we’re fully focusing on the Apostle Paul, but his story has turned the page and we’re in a new era of his story. And we see that Paul was arrested in our reading from yesterday. A mob formed around Paul trying to beat him to death. Roman soldiers captured him and then Paul was able to share his story under to the protection of the Roman military to the very people who were trying to beat him to death. So, he was able to share the gospel. In today’s reading, which is the next day, the Roman officials had discovered Paul was a Roman citizen so his treatment changed. He was about to be flogged and once he was discovered as a Roman citizen that went away. So, he’s safe under the protection of the Roman military. They call the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council together. Paul gets to go before them under Roman guard and shares the story with them, which certainly causes a stir. But Paul is protected. So, what we’re seeing is that Paul certainly has been arrested and has lost the ability to just go wherever he wants to go, but the Roman military who are protecting Paul to try to figure out what’s going on, is allowing Paul to share the gospel with people who otherwise wouldn’t listen to it. And this is going to be a recurring theme.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the stories found in it, the nuances of life, all there for us to discover and apply to our lives. And we find ourselves so often in so many of these stories. And You’ve offered us the wisdom of where the choices and the paths lead and we thank You for that. We invite Your Holy Spirit to come. Lead us on the path today, the narrow path that leads to life. Lead us into all truth. We ask in Jesus name Amen.

Announcements:

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

It’s a big holiday so everybody’s got the day off in the United States today. Maybe not everybody, but it’s a national holiday. But we have our own little tradition, our own little holiday, coming up this Saturday, the 7th of July, which is the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. So, certainly make plans to participate in that. Go somewhere beautiful, go for a long walk, spend some time with God. Say all the things that you need to say. Listen to all the things that He needs to speak. And just disrupt yourself enough to get out into nature and hear the quite, hear the stillness. And wherever you go, take a little video, take a picture, take something to commemorate your long walk but you can share that on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And we will share in each other’s long walks all over the world starting on Saturday. So, make plans for that. It has been a tradition for over a decade and it’s always been a beautiful thing. So, make plans to go for a long walk with God this Saturday.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. And I thank you humbly and deeply for those of you who have clicked that link. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the button in the upper right-hand corner. Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DABbers. I am a Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory of Our God and King. I just heard a prayer request coming from a heart broken father whose son Tanner passed away, whose son had cerebral palsy. And I just want him to know, I know today’s your anniversary, I think one month anniversary, with the DAB. You are on the right track. I want to know that I am praying for you and your family, and indeed your right that God heals the brokenhearted and you’re right that your son Tanner is __ with Jesus in heaven today. And I pray that God will allow you to see the gift that He gave in the life of Tanner and that God will show you that all things work together for good and He will help you to see that good in Tanner’s life brought you and your family. I pray that God will show you that Tanner’s life not only impacted your family but the rest of the world. And just hearing your prayer request, I didn’t know your son but I was moved by your request and I want you to know that his life has already touched me. And I will continue praying for you and your family. Love you guys. God bless. Bye.

Hey. It’s Cole from Canada. First time caller. I just want to thank everybody for prayers, that you give out. And I need some prayer for myself right now dealing with my anxiety and depression that I’m going through, the situation that I’m going through right now. I feel very lost, very, just wandering around with no real purpose in life right now. And I just ask that people would pray for me and that I can be better, that I can serve the Lord better, that I have a purpose for my life that I feel. That’s all. I just thank you for your prayers. Thank you.

Hi. This is Victoria and I’m calling from Alabama. And I am calling because I just want prayer. I always…I just covet everybody’s prayers. Today, I am struggling as I am just going through…I lost my husband on May 15^th. He passed away from cancer and it just all happened so fast. I feel like I am doggy paddling as fast as I can and it’s hard to just handle everything that’s coming at me and in different directions and I want to keep my focus on God and I get so frustrated at all these details that keep coming up. I need to, I mean, I’m just being really real but I have his ashes and my son passed away in December and I have this kind of burial plot. I’m trying to sell his truck. And there’s just so many details that I feel overwhelmed sometimes. And then just asking you to pray that I would have wisdom and things that just seem so hard right now to become easier, which I know that God wants things…He says the burden is easy…it’s light. And I just think this is a small part of my life, if I could just get through it, you know, God’s gonna make a way where there doesn’t seem to be away. I keep saying that to myself, I can do all things with Christ who lives in me. And then, you know, something else will hit or another call will come in and I’m like, gosh, I don’t know what to do about this one. So, just pray for me for wisdom and peace. That’s my prayer, wisdom and peace for Victoria from Arizona. I appreciate it. Have a blessed day.

Hi. This is Scottish Tom calling from the Cleveland Ohio area. I did put a post on Daily Audio Bible Friends on Facebook. I said I would call back when I got into the USA. Things went through hell with my mom. Recently, just for the last two weeks, the leukemia was back. The chemo wasn’t working and she had gotten a pretty bad infection. And she told me two weeks ago I should probably think of coming over and there was no rush, you know, being a week or two and then the next day I got a call from her doctor saying I really needed to get there ASAP. So, we recently jumped on a plane, five hours later and we got there the next afternoon and she was still alive. She was very unresponsive though, but she did muster the energy to get up and set up and she was hugging me and my wife and telling us that she loved us. And then she passed away the next morning. And I want to thank everyone that has been praying for my mom and I ask you to continue to pray for her soul and pray for myself, my wife, and my dad, who is still back in Scotland. He seems to be doing okay. He’s now getting back to normality after we left. So, he’s got quite the people that are going to look after him over there. So, once again thanks for your prayers. And I just wanted to keep you all informed. Thank you. Bye.

2 Kings 22:4-23:30, Acts 21:37-22:16, Psalms 1:1-6, Proverbs 18:11-12

Today is July 3^rd. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great, as it always is, to come together around this global campfire and spend some time together, allowing God’s word to wash over us and wash into our lives and form us and to do it together in community. It’s great to be here today and every day. And so today we will take the next step forward, picking up where we left off. We’re reading from the Voice translation this week. 2 Kings 22:3-23:30 today.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in 2 Kings, we read the story of Josiah, who was a king who’s perhaps the greatest reformer. Definitely one of the greatest reformers in ancient Israel’s history. And we saw what he did. He went on a rampage for God as it were when he discovered the book of the law that was in the temple. It had become obscure. And it was read and he realized just how far from the path that they had wandered. He spent the remainder of his time as king setting thing as right as he could. And as the Bible said, there was no one else like him ever. So, we read of his life and events and times and legacy and we left the Old Testament reading today with his son taking his place on the throne. And we’ll have to see where that story goes tomorrow.

Then in the book of Acts yesterday, we saw a mob form, we saw Paul being beaten to death until he was rescued by Roman soldiers. And he was taken into custody. And we begin to see the counter intuitive ways of what’s happening because of Paul’s incarceration, even today. Because the mob is following Paul, screaming, trying to get at him. The soldiers have to pick Paul up to get through the crowd and to try to save Paul, though it’s a pretty tense situation. But Paul reveals himself as a Roman citizen to the Roman guards. They had mistaken him for someone else, but now they’re holding in custody a Roman citizen which changes everything. And Paul asks for permission to speak to the mob. So, the people who were going to and would have killed Paul by beating him to death are now his captive audience. And under guard of the Roman soldiers, under their protection, he is speaking the gospel to the very people who were trying to kill him. And that will become Paul’s story going forward in all of his travels. Paul could have never shared the gospel story, his own testimony, to that mob. They would have killed him. But he was able to share the gospel story with the very mob that wanted to kill him because he got arrested. So, we will witness the counter intuitive ways of the Lord through the Apostle Paul as we continue forward through the book of Acts and then into his letters.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your ways. Your ways are higher than our ways and Your ways are often counter intuitive to us. But Your ways are always good and righteous and right. And so we ask, Holy Spirit, come. Reveal Your ways to us. Show us what this day is supposed to look like for us and give us clarity and wisdom and awareness. And help us to slow down enough to walk with You so that we might know and follow Your ways. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And the one thing that’s going on around here right now is what’s coming up this Saturday. I mean, there’s other things going on around here. Tomorrow is a big national holiday for those of us who live in the United States. It also happens to be my wife’s birthday. So, there are other things going on around here. But what’s going on in the community happens on the 7th of July. We have our little holiday, our own little tradition. It’s called the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. And it’s simple as can be. Doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you can participate. Just mark the day off. Take that day and give it to God. Go for a long walk. And let this be one of those times where you had all the time you needed to say everything you needed to say. Just to talk through everything that’s going on in all of your relationships, your work environment and in your ambitions and in your hopes and in your dreams. Just take the time to talk about it all. And take the time to listen. And it’s a great thing to go somewhere beautiful. Go out into nature where there is some stillness, where you can disrupt the normal flow of your busy life and just breathe and see the rhythms of nature that God has created. And allow that to speak because it does. It’s all created by God and it all bares his glory and speaks of his glory. And so, we go out into nature and just disrupt ourselves. It can be very, very (meaningful). So, that’s what’s happening and thousands of us will be doing it all over the world. What makes it a community experience is that when we’re on our long walk, we know that someone else is too. And just take a picture, shoot a video wherever you go, whether it’s across the street or across the country. Take a picture, shoot a little video or something. Keep that as a commemorative of your long walk. But you can also post it up to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page. Just go to facebook.com, search for Daily Audio Bible. Or facebook.com/dailyauiobible will get you there. And we get to watch the windows open into each other’s lives as we experience each other’s pictures from their long walks and maybe some things that God spoke or just how you were feeling or what the day was like for you. So, make plans for that this Saturday, the 7th of July.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what we’re doing together as a community is bringing life to you and bringing transformation to you, than thank you for your partnership so that we can continue to move forward. There is 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 P.O 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi. I want to praise God for his love, mercy, and grace. I am a pastor’s wife and I’d like prayer for my two adult children, one son who recently married whose marriage is in deep trouble and a daughter who has been away from the Lord since her teenage years and now serving in the United States Army but not serving the Lord’s army. Thank you so much for remembering those two children who are a great burden to my heart. Thanks and God bless you all. Have a great, wonderful time serving the Lord.

I know the plans that I have for you
plans not to harm but to prosper you
behold I am making all things new
return to me and I’ll return to you
what an awesome promise from our Lord
that I, even I could be restored
sins forgiven, past ignored
blessings in and on me pour
God I’m so glad that You’re not like men
because You’re more patient with me than my most patient patient friend
because I return to You again and again
and again and again I return to my sin
and not just in some mistaken airing way
but blatantly disobedient day after day
forgive me Father please forgive me now
because I do want to serve You please show me how
I read your word I fast I pray
and I still fall short every single day
that’s why I thank You for your mercy and your grace
and for Your open arms and your smiling face
and You let me know even though I fail
victory is mine I will prevail
and I thank You for telling me every day Father the battle is not yours
because I still need help staying out of those revolving doors
because even though I’m out of Egypt Egypt is still in me
and even though there are no bars walls or chains I know I’m still not free
Father give me more of your Holy Spirit
I love Your voice and I long to hear it
and one more thing Father grant me please
an open broken heart on bended knees

blindtony1016@gmail.com. Blessed Like Me and Show Me God’s Love In This life, I hope you’re both still hanging in there. Haven’t heard from you in a while. Know you’re still loved and prayed for every day. And once again Brian, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flown’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.

Hi family this is his little Sharif in Canada. It’s a July 1^st today. Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians. Last month I called and shared with you prayer plans as a creative way to pray and this month I’d like to tell you about mosquito bite prayers. Mosquito bites are one of the most effective triggers for prayer that I’ve ever discovered. And I call them trigger prayers. They’re just prayers that are triggered by something. For instance, you can decide that every time you hear a certain song on the radio you’ll pray for a certain situation or every time you see a chickadee at your birdfeeder you’ll pray for a certain person, etc. etc. Well, recently, after I spent today in the country I came home with a bunch of mosquito bites and I was scratching like crazy but then I thought, maybe I can turn these bites into prayer somehow. So, I decided that every time they itched, which seemed like every 60 seconds, instead of scratching I’d pray for people I knew who were battling addiction. And, so, that’s what I did. And I found myself praying all day for people like Terry the truck driver and other DABbers fighting addictions, that God would deliver them and give them supernatural strength to resist temptation. So, maybe that’s something that you’d like to try this summer. Mosquito bite prayers, another creative way to pray from the banqueting table of prayer. God bless you family. Bye for now.

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible family. This is Akeem from Edmonton Alberta Canada. I just wanted to say hello and God bless you all in 2018. Today is July 1^st. Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends and family. Anyway, I just wanted to check in. I haven’t called in for a while. I just wanted to let you know guys, I’m listening and I’m praying with you all. And 2018 has been amazing. God has been working wonders in my life and with my family and I hope He’s been doing great for you as well. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to Brian and Jill and the family for this wonderful podcast. And I’m just checking on my sister, Nora. She’s from Canada I believe and she hasn’t called for a while. And she’s got an Islamic background. Family, so I hope God is great with you and you are keeping good with Jesus and He’s just working in your life. Take care everybody. Thanks. Bye.

2 Kings 20:1-22:3, Acts 21:18-36, Psalms 150:1-6, Proverbs 18:9-10

Today is the 2^nd day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we buckle in and take the next step forward in our adventure through the Scriptures this year. And we’re just getting moved in to this shiny sparkly second half of the year as we move into the month of July. So, let’s take the next step. We’re reading from the Voice translation this week. 2 Kings 20:1 - 22:2 today.

Commentary:

Alright. As we continue through the book of 2 Kings, we finish the story of Hezekiah’s reign and then things kind of went south from there in a very bad way for the next half century. And this is what we see, an increasing decline, until eventually nothing will be left. But Hezekiah, who was a good and honorable and loyal king to God. And some of his innovations and some of the things that he built, they still exist. There’s a water system that’s in Jerusalem. There’s the early one from David’s time, very small tunnel, and then there’s a more advanced one built in Hezekiah’s time. Some of the ancient walls of Jerusalem from Hezekiah’s time still exist. Not a lot, but a little bit of the wall from Hezekiah’s time exists in Jerusalem. 

And we get into the book of Acts and we’ve traveled around with Paul quite a bit. We’ve been on the road a lot with him in a lot of different cities. But he’s made his way back to Jerusalem. And we remember, as we read through the book of Acts, as he’s making his way back to Jerusalem everyone is telling him not to go. At every stop he’s warned, but he kept insisting that the Holy Spirit is telling him that he’s gotta do this. And so he’s obedient. And he does end up in Jerusalem and he meets with the Jerusalem church. And some controversies are addressed about Paul because Paul had become a very controversial figure. And we’ll get to see why when we get into his letters. We’ll understand very very clearly why there is controversy around Paul. But it’s alluded to in the book of Acts that Paul, being a Jew and being a Pharisee, has abandoned essentially his Jewish faith and the practice, the customs of that faith. But he’s in the epicenter. He’s in Jerusalem and so the Jerusalem church is largely made up of Jewish believers who are continuing to practice their Jewish customs and continuing to practice their religion that way. But they have come to believe that Jesus is their Messiah. So, there’s a rift and we’ve mentioned it before and we’ll really truly understand what’s going on as we move forward in the New Testament. But the leaders of the Jerusalem church encourage Paul to practice a vow. To actually do the rites of purification and actually be Jewish like he is. Paul agrees to that and they’re in the process of doing this purification vow when Paul is recognized. And we just read the story. A massive mob has tried to beat him to death, he’s rescued by Roman soldiers and taken into custody. That’s a big distinction because for just about all of the rest of Paul’s life, he will be incarcerated in some way. But as we’ll see from the book of Acts, it’s not going to slow Paul down. In fact, in very counter- intuitive ways, it’s going to protect Paul and increase his influence. And we’ll begin to see that in the coming days.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the constancy of it in our lives, the way that it transforms us. The way that we can come together in community like this. It’s a beautiful thing that You’ve allowed us to be in the world at this time when we can participate together as a community no matter where we are, and we’re grateful. Thank You Jesus for Your kindness, Your love and Your sacrifice to redeem us. We love You and we worship You, Lord. And we pray these things in Your name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

I mentioned the new update to the app yesterday. Just reminding you to update, especially if you have vision challenges. This particular update was aimed at accessibility. And so if that’s you, it’s available. Update now. But if that’s not you, still update. There’s a lot of bug fixes in it as well, and every time we do an update, things get more and more efficient and stable and a brand new sparkly platform that’s being built. So, be sure to stay up-to-date in your app.

The other thing that we’re talking about is what’s coming up this Saturday. The 7th of July. The Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. An opportunity to mark on your calendar some time that you’re going to go for a long walk, somewhere beautiful, and enjoy a day with God. Where you’re unhurried, where you’re uninterrupted, where you have the time to say the things that are going on, everything that you’ve needed to talk about and to give space for the Lord to respond and lead and guide and shape what the second half of the year is going to look like. That’s the Long Walk. What makes it a community experience is that we’re all doing it together on the same day. And we just take our phone or a camera or something. We shoot a little video, take a picture that commemorates the day, something that we’ll want to remember anyway. And that can be posted to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And then it becomes a community experience. So, make plans for this Saturday. I’m making plans. I’m looking forward to it myself. So, that’s this Saturday.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you. Thank you profoundly for your partnership, especially in the summertime here. 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 P.O 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi. Good afternoon from Sydney Australia. My first time ringing in. I’m a couple days behind on the Daily podcast but heard a gentleman that was the Uber driver. I’m not sure your circumstances but just…I just felt like you needed to take it a bit easier on yourself man. It’d sounded like you’re beating yourself up too much. I just felt like you just need to take it easy and get you’ll get through what you’re going through buddy. I’m praying for ya. Cheers. Thanks for all your work guys.

This is Jim from North Eastern West Tennessee near Kentucky Lake and Land Between the Lakes. I call today with a grieving heart. Today for me is June 29^th and tomorrow will be one year since my precious 12-year-old son, Tanner, passed away from this world and onto the stable ___ of heaven. He had severe cerebral palsy and certainly with a battering of health problems and issues he had while here on earth. Even though his family and friends here miss him greatly, we know he has left his wheelchair behind. And he’s spending his teenage years skateboarding with Jesus. Tomorrow also marks the last day of the first month of me listening to the Daily Audio Bible. Please, DAB family, lift my family’s grieving hearts up to heaven in prayer. Jeremiah 31:13 says, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

Hi. This call is for Pelham. Pelham, I want you to close your eyes for a moment brother. You’re my brother and you’re the brother and sister of all those that are listening now and you’re not alone. We are one. You’re served Pelham from Birmingham and you’re going through a struggle. And you have been appointed to go through this struggle from the Lord. This struggle that you’re going through, it’s not easy. But Sir, I say Sir as a knight, you are being hardened like a samurai sword. You have to go through the fire, be tested, take a beating in order that you can be strengthened for the battles to come. So, don’t look back. Don’t think that your addictions are you are because that’s who you were. Who you are now is who you will become for eternity. You have a mission. Your mission is to live up to God’s calling for your life. Proverbs 3:5-6. Don’t look back my brother. We’re with you and around you there’s a ring of fire. They’re chariots of fire. There are other warriors cheering you on. Never, never doubt when you’re in the smoke and in the fire that you don’t have an army all around you. Peace brother. We are with you.

Hello DAB family this is Chantey calling from Michigan, formerly of Detroit. I am calling in to say hi to everybody, to say I love you all. I’m still here. I’m still listening. I’m still praying for you all. I’ve still been going through but God has still been carrying me through. I’ve had some really down days. I’ve had some really great days. And I am just calling in just to let you know that I’m here and that I’m still praying for you. And I want to let Chandra in Baltimore know, I hear you, I’m praying for you. Salvation is Mine, I’m praying for you. __ my sister. I love you so much. The mom of five who’s taking care of her elderly mother and her husband is looking for work. As of July 5^th they don’t know where they’re going to stay. And I want to let you know…and…plus your dogs…and, you know, your pets, you want them all to be able to stay together. So, I’m with you and I am praying for you as well as your situation. I’ve been there, not knowing where you’re going to stay but if God can take care of me and my family he can do the same for you and yours. I am praying for Byron’s wife in regards to her anxiety. I deal with it too and my advice is to live your life despite dealing with the symptoms of it. And I have those days where I’m literally at work and I have rush to the bathroom to cry through a panic attack. And just rest on Philippians 4:6-8. I know it’s not easy but, oh, I could go on and on. So, I’ll have to call back in again. Whatever. I just wanted to say to Pastor Gene, I love you so much. I am praying for you. I am dealing with some of the same things at work. And, so, I am lifting you up and also regards to the summer camp…

2 Kings 18:13-19:37, Acts 21:1-17, Psalms 149:1-9, Proverbs 18:8

Today is the 1^st day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today. This launches us into the back half of the year. So we’ve got a brand-new month and we’ve got a brand-new week. And they are shiny and sparkly and we’re walking into them together. We’ll read from The Voice translation this week and we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. 2 Kings chapter 18 verse 13 through 19 verse 37.

Commentary:

Okay. So as we enter our first day of the second half of the year and enter the first day of this seventh month of the year, Paul has announced his intention to go to Jerusalem. In fact, he heads into the foothills and arrives in Jerusalem today. Paul’s story is going to change from this point forward but he won’t decrease. His impact will only increase and we’ll be entering into that story and kind of following through it for most of the rest of the year.

In the book of Proverbs, here on this first day of the seventh month, we’re given some counsel that, if we would heed it, if we would actually pay attention to it, it would change the way we do things and would revolutionize many of our relationships. Whispered gossip is like a delicious first course, it is devoured with pleasure and penetrates deeply. And we’re all aware of gossip, you know, the chatter, the constant chatter, the constant chatter about someone who’s not present to speak on their own behalf, right? So, stories are invented, pieces of information are gathered and passed around inside of community, behind the back of someone, and that’s gossip. And, as the proverb indicates, it’s tasty, right? It’s this slick a little delicacy, like a first course. You take these bits of information and they’re spoken in hushed tones and entire realities are fabricated out of little bits of incomplete information. And it’s tasty. And, so, we pass it around to each other. But according to the proverb, it penetrates deeply. And, a more literal way of saying it, it goes down into the innermost parts. So, gossip is something that you take in through your ears and you speak out through your mouth, but receiving them into yourself allows them to seep deep inside of you. So, the question becomes, do I want to be perpetuating that and do I want that stuff inside of me? Do I want the rumors and the things that I know are half-baked? Do I do I want those half stories inside of me causing offenses toward people inside of me when I know they’re not the complete story? Isn’t this the very kind of stuff that I want to try to get out of my life as I seek to imitate my Savior? Isn’t this the stuff I should be staying away from? The answer, of course, is yes. The things that we say and the things that we say in the form of gossip, these are recurring themes that show up in the Bible. They’re relationship killers. They’re community destroyers because you get that kind of stuff deeply embedded into a number of people’s lives and it’s not gonna turn out pretty. It messes up a lot of stuff. So, as we move into this second half of the year, we have the opportunity, right here at the threshold, to say that the second half of the year is gonna look different. I’m not I’m not participating in that. I’m actually doubling down on my relationship and friendship with God. If I have something that I need to say out loud about someone, I’m going to speak on their behalf to God. I’m not gonna spread it around because I don’t want that stuff deeply penetrating anyone and I don’t want to seeping into my own life. 

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we come into your presence at this threshold of the seventh month, heading into the back half of the year, and we become aware of the things that we say and the effects of those things being spoken out into the world. We surrender ourselves to your authority and ask for your guidance that will lead us into all truth and it will illuminate the narrow path that leads to life. We don’t want gossip to be part of that story, a part of our story. And, so, we invite your Holy Spirit to counsel and lead us into the things that we should say and who we should say them to. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of Jesus we ask. We thank you God for bringing us this far. We thank you for the first six months of this year, every day. You’ve spoken volumes into our lives and transformed us in ways that we could’ve never even accessed in ourselves. You are a mighty God and we worship you. We invite you. Come, Holy Spirit, and to the days ahead into the second half of this year. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

So, a couple of things, a couple of things to talk about. We have just released the next update to the Daily Audio Bible app - 1.0.1.1. And big release for a certain segment of the community around the global campfire here. and that is those with eye sight challenges in the blind community. So, we have certainly continued to improve efficiencies in the system since the beginning of the year and implemented a number of features just to stabilize the system. So, we’ve been working on that all year. And so, with this new update a number of bugs have been squashed and a number of efficiencies have been introduced, but, in particular, the most noticeable thing about this new update is that we have built out the accessibility features into the app for those with challenges, especially eye sight challenges. So, if that is you, make sure to update. Actually, be sure to update no matter what, because a lot of times there’s been little bugs that we’ve fixed. And, so, little problems, they can just go away. I mean, development, it’s a process. It’s an ongoing, ever changing process of perfecting things over time, kind of like our walk with God. But staying up with the latest updates in the app will always keep you as close as we are to perfecting it. So, if you are in the blind community and you’ve been using the Daily Audio Bible app, but you haven’t been able to use the new one because of those features, go ahead and download it and then let us know how it’s working for you. So, the latest update is available now.

The other thing that we’re talking about, the event that we’ve been talking about will be happening. The 7^th of July is the Daily Audio Bible long walk. That’s this coming Saturday. And the long is just a tradition we have in this community. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of weeks. So, I think we’ve all got the drill. Go somewhere beautiful. Carve out some hours. Give the whole day to it if you can. Go for a long walk with God right here in the center of the year, same things were just praying about, re-centering ourselves, asking the Lord to give us advance words and clarity on the direction that we’re heading in, and saying anything that we just have not had the time to talk about, and letting him talk back, letting him speak back into our lives. That’s what the long walk is all about. And it’s an individual endeavor, but it’s a community endeavor at the same time. Wherever you go. Whatever you do, take a picture. Shoot a little video with your phone or something. You can upload that to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible, and we get to enjoy each other’s long walks. And, so, this is our 11^th annual. So, it’s been a tradition for a while and it’s always a beautiful thing to watch…just…almost you get to go on a little vacation in all the pictures and videos as they come in. So, prepare for that this Saturday. I’m looking forward to it myself.

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

And as always, if you have a prayer request or 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello. This is Steve from Texas. I’m asking for prayer request for my father-in-law. He was walking to the park at night and he got mugged by some young people. Please, you know, pray. Right now I’m heading back home to make sure he’s okay. But thank you for all your prayer in advance. May God bless you. Bye.

Hello. This is Gregory from London England. Today’s the 27^th June. I’d just like to say thank you to Miguel from Santa Rosa who gave us the Scripture, Psalm 94 verse 9, He who planted your ear does He not hear? He who forms your eyes does He not see? We just need the Scripture so much in our lives and particularly to know that God hears us. And, I mean, this community, DAB, Daily Audio Bible is an example of people who are willing to listen. And beyond all of us, God hears and answers prayer. So, that’s for anyone who’s in the middle of a situation that just needs to hear this at this time. So, I am inspired to broadcast today’s Daily Audio Bible all over my contact groups and cell groups and so on. Now, I am wondering if I could get some prayer for my mother. She had a diagnosis of a form of cancer. She’s in and out of hospital. Well, at the moment, she’s 84 years old so it seems shall be there for a while. She’s __ but we pray for her. My wife and I go to the hospital and pray for her. And she’s stable but to see someone so feeble and hopeless, that makes us know that we need help and strength from the Lord. And am praying for her, that she will receive strength from the Lord, whatever healing can be done in her life, let it be done. My other prayer request is regarding work. I work as a teacher, it’s on-and-off, agency work. I’m looking to start paying back my student debt by earning more generous…

Hello. This is Evaun. I’m calling for the New York City area and I want to say thank you for Brian, to Drew in the bay area, to Blind Tony, to Pastor Gene, to Annette and to many others who have been instrumental. God has used you so much to bring me out of a back-slidden condition. I was aware of the Daily Audio Bible about nine years ago and I have been struggling to continue and to try to read through God’s word. I covet your prayers for myself and my family. I also want to say to Bridget, who lives in the New York City area, that the things that are surrounding mass, the violence that we see is just a wake-up call for us to come together and pray. I’m with you sister and all that you’re experiencing. I’ve been going through things as well in the New York City area. And, so, I join with you, believing in God to bring peace to our area and uniting us because, as a united body we will be able to do the will of God. I thank you for this fellowship and I pray for the Hardin family, that God will keep you strong and healthy and able to continue to do His will. Thank you brothers and sisters. Hope to speak you again. God bless. Bye-bye.

Hi family. This is Viola from Maryland. I hope you’re all doing well. Brian and Jill, God bless you. Oh, wow, the family event is full. Brian, you’ll have to make this a yearly thing. God bless you my brother. Be expecting something from me real soon. And I’m encouraging my brothers and sisters to please give to Brian’s ministry. He can only run it with funds and God has placed us in his life and I know we can help him with that. Alfi, God bless you for the shout out. Thank you so much. I am so relieved. I’m building my masters. Even though brother, I tell you, I’ll be starting my PhD this year. So, pray for me while you think of me. Oh, my sister with the controlling husband, I heard your prayer request and my heart just went out to you. I’m praying that God will give you wisdom and understanding. Sister, listen, if you believe you’re in danger, please seek help. Don’t just sit down in there. We’ll be praying for you, that God will give you wisdom to know what to do. You know, I like the trends that’s going on in the Daily Audio Bible now. You guys are following 2 Corinthians 1:4, where God says with the comfort that we have been comforted we comfort others. I like the sister that called in to give my sister encouragement. And I like the brother that called in to give people who have an alcohol or drug problem encouragement and how God delivers you. When we keep doing that it shows that God is still in the business of healing, of delivering. __ , I’m praying for your husband. I’m praying for healing for him in the name of Jesus. I pray in the name of Jesus that God will use this to bring him to Him in the name of Jesus. __ a way that He brings the Holy Spirit __ . __ that the Holy Spirit would keep on __ him relentlessly in the name of Jesus. Cecelia from Texas, God bless you my sister. Thank you for the shout out. I’m praying for restoration for your son’s marriage. In the name of Jesus I pray that God will bring them together. I pray for __ and her daughter. I pray that there will be restoration there in the name of Jesus. And I’m am praying for that friends son, Eric, that was in the car accident. Father Lord, I pray that you will touch even this man oh Lord God. Holy Spirit, I pray that You will just move in his life. Lord Jesus, I __ with __ …

2 Kings 17:1-18:12, Acts 20:1-38, Psalms 147:1-20, Proverbs 18:6-7

Today is the 30^th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. Congratulations. Today marks the halfway point in our adventure through the Bible this year. And what an adventure it has been together. So, let’s dive in and take the next step forward and cross through this halfway point. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week, which happens to be today. And we’ll go into the second half of the year choosing a new translation as we begin a new week. 2 Kings 17:1 - 18:12 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we cross this threshold, the halfway point of the year, we see the ending of Israel. The ten northern tribes broke away from David’s family after Solomon’s reign. They have been conquered and they have been taken away. They were assimilated into the Assyrian empire. So, from a formal historical perspective, they left the stage. They’re the lost tribes of Israel, they’re gone. And people were brought into the land to resettle it, which was the way of empire building at the time. If you conquered one people then you conquered another people and you swapped them and intermingled them, then over generations they would become one people, people of this empire, but wouldn’t have this national identity that they once had. So, new people are in the land.

Then in the book of Acts, as we’ve reached this halfway point in the year, we’re about to turn the corner and follow a different kind of story. We’ve been traveling with Paul freely. I mean, not freely for him. He’s been suffering persecution wherever he goes. Wherever they go, they cause disruption. But he’s been able to move around. Now he’s on his way back to Jerusalem and that part of the story’s going to change. And we’ll be mostly spending our second half of the year with the Apostle Paul and with the Apostle Paul’s letters as we move through the New Testament not completely but the majority of the time. So, we’ll get to know Paul pretty well. We’ve gotten to know some of the backdrop, some of the challenges that the early church was facing, especially the Jews and Gentiles intermingling with one another. And we will see that come out in Paul’s letters quite a bit, so we’re poised. But let’s take a deep breath. We’ve made it halfway. This has been good. God has been faithful. He has been merciful and kind. And He’s spoken profoundly through His Word on so many occasions. He has certainly brought us this far, and he will certainly continue to carry us forward through the rest of the year and through the rest of our lives.

Prayer:

Father, we are grateful. We are grateful that when the road stretches out before us, You are here and You are there and everywhere in between. And we rest in that. We rest in the fact that You are our father and You are good and we trust You. Thank You for bringing us through this first half of the year, Lord. And we look forward with great anticipation to everything that You will speak to us in the coming months. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen.

Song:

“Carry Me” by Paul Alan

Say you’ll hold me ever near Emanuel

I feel you and I know that I am not alone

When the tide is angry let the billows roll

I know that there is peace just beyond the storm

And if the road is long

You will carry me

And all my strength is gone

You will carry me

I will lift my hands

You will carry me

Like the child I am

You will carry me

And if tomorrow brings a bitter yesterday

I’ll hold on and believe in the sweet reality

Of love and hope and faith that come what may

I know that you’ll be here and holding on to me

Lay me down in a daffodil field where the still waters flow

Set my eyes on the horizon and the picture of home

Sail with me miles over even my highest hopes

Cause where ever you are- that’s where I want to go

2 Kings 15:1-16:20, Acts 19:13-41, Psalms 147:1-20, Proverbs 18:4-5

Today is the 29^th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today around the global camp fire as we take the next step and move forward on our adventure through the Scriptures this year. So, in the Old Testament we’re moving our way through the book of 2 Kings and we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. And we’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. 2 Kings, chapters 15 and 16 today.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in the book of 2 Kings, you know, we are working our way rapidly, sometimes just a paragraph on a king, which represents an entire reign. Some of these rains are very short. Some of them are lifetime reigns between Israel and Judah’s Kings. What we’re watching in the north in Israel is a continual deterioration. Like, they’re not trying to follow any lines of succession and keep a society together. It’s like, somebody becomes king and they become a target almost. Somebody comes and tries to find a way to assassinate them and then they take over the throne, which is simply eroding the society. And it will come to complete ruin. In Judah, we do have back-and-forth but the Kings are usually following the traditions of their father and holding as a high example, David’s reign, but not all is well with them either. We read of King Ahaz of Judah today, who sacrificed his own child, which according to the Bible, was one of the reasons God displaced the people who were there before the Israelites. So, we can see we’re heading in the wrong direction.

Then, in the book of Acts today, we’re in the city of Ephesus. A riot is breaking out because the gospel that Paul is preaching has potential impact on certain segments of the economy. And that segment in specific has to do with the Temple of Artemis, where pilgrims from all around the region who worship Artemis come to Ephesus on pilgrimage. So, the tourism industry, the trinket industry, the idol industry, this is all being effected and that will stir up a ruckus in Ephesus. So, once again, we see an example of the gospel coming into a region and causing great disruption because spiritual freedom overturns false constructs and disrupts much. It does the same in our own world and in our own lives. Freedom invites us to walk out of bondage. But when bondage is all you’ve ever known it seems normal. And, so, walking into freedom feels disruptive. We saw this all throughout Jesus ministry. We see this all throughout the book of Acts in the ministries of Peter and Paul and it is the same today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the ability to look back, way back, thousands of years, thousands and thousands of years and see that the story continues forward in the heart of people. It’s just like ours. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to come, plant the words of the Scriptures in our lives today. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Man, tomorrow’s the last day of June. One week from tomorrow, one week from tomorrow is the Daily Audio Bible long walk, a day that we set aside every July 7^th and go for a walk. It’s that simple. Go somewhere beautiful. Go for a long walk with God in the center of the year looking back at what He’s spoken through His word and what He’s brought us through to get us to this point and resetting, looking for His counsel and guidance about what the next six months of this year are to look like and to just enjoy fellowship, just having unhurried, uninterrupted time with God somewhere beautiful. So, make plans for that on the seventh. Wherever you go, take a picture or shoot a little video or something. Post that back to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible and then we have this collective long walk happening all over the world and we get to look into the beauty of where we are because we’re all over the world. So, we get to look into the beauty of whatever picture you took. We get to look at that and enjoy your long walk. So, make plans for that on the 7^th July.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that it dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It’s on the homepage. 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DABbers. This is Walta, A Burning Bush That Will Not Be Devoured For The Glory Of Our God And King. I just heard a prayer request from a man of God whose mother is in hospice and his son is in recovery. He has returned home. I think his name is Tom. My brother, I just want you to know that everything we go through, God uses it for His glory. A year ago I was in your situation, in fact, months ago. My son is still in recovery. Unfortunately, my mother’s passed. I’m saying this to let you know that God who has brought me through will bring you through. And the words of encouragement that God gave me regarding my son has been this. I have been given a responsibility to love and care for God’s son. Your son is God’s son and you are just the one that God has trusted to love him through whatever he is battling, whatever he is going through. Do not give up praying for him every single day. And Father God, I pray for Tom’s son right now. And God, I pray that you will release him from whatever bondage the enemy has placed on him. God I pray for all our kids who have been put in bondage by addiction. We command those genes chains to be loosed right now in the name of Jesus. And Father God, we give you the glory. And I pray for strength and energy for Tom and for all of us in this situation. Help him to love his aging parents. Help him to be there and consistently pray for them during their last moments knowing that You will never leave them or forsake them God. You are there with them in their last days and You are there with our kids. And we thank you Jesus that we can do nothing God. You are there and You are taking care of them. We love You Lord. My brother, take courage in Jesus’ name.

Hello DABbers. My name is Denise. I am a first time caller. I’m asking for prayer for marriages in general, myself, my marriage included. It seems as if we are trying to make it just with the daily grind and forget to put our marriages ahead of work. So, I just ask that you would pray for marriages in general. I pray that God would restore and renew each and every marriage and that He would become the foundation. I just thank you…and…

Good morning Daily Audio Bible. This is Cory M. from Jacksonville Florida. I wanted to respond to Alyssa from Texas and her cry concerning overcoming promiscuity and other things where she said that she’s stepping outside of God’s will. Sister, I just want to encourage you to focus on God’s grace. You know, the word tells us that the grace of God teaches us to __ on godliness and __ . And, so focus on that. Don’t focus so much on your behavior. Focus on adoring God. Focus on reading the word. Focus on confessing the word, that, you know, you are a new creature. Focus on those kinds of things. Yes, of course, you know, confess your sin and repent. That’s fine. But don’t…don’t focus on how…you know…the sin…don’t focus there. Put your focus on God’s grace because He’s abundantly able to transform you. You cannot change yourself. Right? You have to have the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. And then secondly, I would like to have you all be praying for me. I will be heading to Uganda July 22^nd to minister in __ and I would appreciate your prayers. Thank you so much. I so enjoy this community. I’ve been walking and doing this with you all for about seven years. I don’t call often but I do hear your prayers and I join you in prayer. So, friendship, loyalty, and love in Jesus. Bye-bye.

Good morning brothers and sisters of the Daily Audio Bible family. Today is Wednesday, June 27^th and I’m calling to pray for Not Shaken, her son Brian and his two girls. Father God, we lift this family up. You, Father God, know what they need and You Father God fight our battles. I pray that Not Shaken continues to just put everything at your feet Jesus because You have a plan. And Father God, in Psalm 138, it was said that, though I walk in the midst of trouble You will revive me, You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemy and Your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. Your mercy endures forever. Do not forsake the works of your hand. So, Not Shaken, the Lord will perfect that which concerns you. And that which concerns you is your son Brian and your two granddaughters. I just pray Father God…and I don’t know why…I guess it’s just human nature that the people that love us the most also can just hate us the most. He just really hates himself, probably, and just is projecting that on you. I agree, it’s great that you have the girls there so you can give them some sense of normalcy. I don’t know what the answer is but I know who does. As Pelham said, let’s refer you and continue to refer you. I know You are Lord and referring to the one who made you perfectly and the one who made Brian. Father God, You can do all things and we just lift up Brian to You, Your beloved son, who You fearfully and wonderfully made. You reveal Yourself to him, remove the blindness that he has. The devil wants him to stay the way he is but we know that You are greater and You can do all things. We lift up Brian so that You will change His heart. Holy Spirit, just come upon him and reveal Yourself to him so that all the glory may be to you and the girls may see that their father is completely changed be…

2 Kings 13:1-14:29, Acts 18:22-19:12, Psalms 146:1-10, Proverbs 18:2-3

Today is the 28^th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. As we prepare to take the next step forward. And we’ve taken quite a few steps and they have led us to this point and we’ll keep taking steps until we get all the way to the end of the year and the end of the Bible. We’re reading from the God’s word translation this week. And the next step is the one after the last step. So, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. Second Kings chapter 13 and 14.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the thread that it has become in our lives, the constant that is in our days, leading us, directing us, transforming us, and counseling us. And we take the Council that we found in the Proverbs today, not to just talk to hear ourselves talk, not to just have an opinion about everything, that that is actually foolish. Come Holy Spirit into that. Help us to be people that are thoughtful before we speak. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And it’s the Daily Audio Bible long walk that’s coming up on the calendar. That’s next. And that takes place on 7^th of July, which is a week from this Saturday. And it’s a day…it’s just little tradition we have around here. We’ve been doing it for over a decade now. Every 7^th of July we just all go somewhere beautiful. All of us who can carve out a few hours or a whole day to go for a long walk to disrupt the normal flow of things and go somewhere beautiful and just listen, listen to nature, talk to God, be uninterrupted, be unhurried, and be unhurried in his response, listening, walking with him. And we do this, obviously, individually, because we’re all over the world but what makes this a community experience is that we just say, wherever you go, whatever you do, capture it, capture it for yourself by taking a picture or little video or whatever. And you can post that back to the daily Audio Bible Facebook page, facebook.com/dailyaudiobible, and then we get to participate by just looking into these little windows, these little pictures that we’ve taken and be in each other’s long walk. And it’s a beautiful thing. So, make plans for that on the 7^th of July. It’s a Saturday this year. It’s not obviously always a Saturday, but this year it is, which makes it simpler for our schedules. So, plan to participate in the Daily Audio Bible long walk this year. If you’ve done it for years, then you’re looking forward to it as I am. If this is your first year even considering it, then, well, think about it. What good would it do for your soul to take a day out of your crazy schedule and walk with God? What might that mean to your inner life, where the anxieties may be mounting? What would it be to release all of that, talk at all through with God? So, that’s the Daily Audio Bible long walk.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share around this global campfire to bring the spoken word of God to anyone who will listen to it anywhere that they are any time of day or night. If that brings life and good news into your life, then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey, what’s up everybody? It’s Miguel from Santa Rosa. Psalm 94:9 says, He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He formed the eye, does he not see? This word has been placed on my heart over the past several community prayer lines as I hear so many prayers come in, such a variety of things that we are all struggling with. And I believe that one of the biggest lies that can be placed out there from the enemy is a lie that your alone, that nobody hears you, especially for those that call in a prayer request and don’t necessarily hear somebody call in to pray for them. I want to encourage you. You are heard. You are heard and not just by people but by God. He who planted your very ear, does He not hear you? He who formed your eyes, does He not see you?. See, you are not alone. You are heard. Your prayers are heard and I can’t pretend like I know every single struggle out there, that I know what it’s like to walk through what you’re walking through, but we’re created by the same God. He loves you and He hears you and there will come a day when every effect of sin is wiped away, every pain, every suffering. Be blessed brother and sister. You are heard. You are seen. You are loved.

Hi everyone. It’s Karen in St. Louis. Bridget, my sister in New York, I am just grieving with you. I just heard your phone call. I’m gonna to pray. Father God, gosh, we live in such a broken, broken world and I just sometimes…sometimes I just pray come quickly, come quickly Jesus. Lord, I just want to lift up Bridget and her daughter to you and her whole family and this little two-year-old that is left behind Father God. I just pray that you are ministering angels would be about them, that they would sense the prayers of the saints lifting them up, that they would be buoyed and lifted up high on Eagles wings above all of this. I pray against sending PTSG for Bridget’s daughter. I pray that this would draw her closer to you Lord, that she would cling tightly to you, that she would walk with the Lord because you are the Father…

This is Candace from Oregon calling in for Pelham who is the parent with Molly and husband of Molly. Thank you for calling. Thank you for crying out to us but more importantly to Jesus. There is just nothing, well, very few things in life that are more satisfying than marriage. And you know that but now you know, of course, and have also known that there is very few things that are this difficult. And marriage is…it’s impossible except by the Holy Spirit, the power of our Lord. And it was His idea that He alone can make it happen. So…we’re…please family…come around Pelham with me and let’s pray. Let’s pray for a miracle. Lord thank You for our brother. Thank You that he knows that when he’s at his most desperate point he needs to look to You, that You are his hope and his salvation and You are Molly’s hope and salvation and their child as well. And I pray Lord that You will break all the ploys of the enemy, that You will break these things down in the name of Jesus, that Your love will come into this situation in the most beautiful unexpected ways. Please Lord, we know that just when it looks impossible…it is impossible for any one of us…You alone, you alone can take any two people and translate between them. Sometimes we feel like we’re speaking a foreign language we try to talk to each other. Holy Spirit, come and translate. Help them to actually hear each other. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

DAB family. I want to pray for Keisha. Lord, Keisha reached out to You through the community because she’s been feeling alone, she is concerned about her weight that she gained, and depression and said that she had a generational curse of depression. She’s concerned about her marriage and many other things. And Lord I just ask you to reach into your daughter’s heart and let her know without a doubt that she is loved by You and speak to her in a way that only she can understand so she can know he is not alone and never alone, that when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, all curses were broken and that the evil one cannot lay his hand on us and that her mind can be freed to realize who she completely is in Your eyes, the only eyes the count. Keisha is a princess. She is royalty Lord. And one day her outsides will match her insides and she will shine like the stars of heaven Lord. Until then Lord, purify her mind, purify her heart and give her peace and let her know that she is loved beyond the green and You are making her into something more beautiful that could ever be described. We thank You Lord that You do the same with all of us. Speak to us sister Keisha in a special way. In Jesus name.

2 Kings 10:32-12:21, Acts 18:1-21, Psalms 145:1-21, Proverbs 18:1

Today is the 27th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we take the final steps of the month of June and the next step in our adventure through the Scriptures this year. We’re reading from the book of 2 Kings in our Old Testament reading and we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. 2 Kings 10:32-12:21. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Acts, we are clearly following the Apostle Paul at this point. We began the book of Acts following the Apostle Peter and then it transitions and we follow the Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys. And so we’re traveling around with Paul as new churches are being planted and we’re seeing that they’re being opposed and Paul is being opposed pretty much wherever he goes. Probably because of the way that he operates. He’ll go into a town and go to a synagogue and be among the Jewish people and share the story. Usually that causes great disruption and some people are on board and some people are not on board. And then those who are not on board really stir up trouble, which leads to lots of persecution for Paul and lots of being on the run. He’s in Corinth in our reading today where he spent a year and a half and kind of did the same thing but then finally got thrown out of the synagogue and just moved next door. Just moved next door and set up shop and continued to speak the word about Jesus, the good news, the gospel. And it just gives us such a glimpse into the times when the gospel first began to be taught. And we will continue to follow this story all the way back to Jerusalem where things will take a change. And Paul’s ministry will actually become more influential and powerful in some very counter-intuitive ways.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for all of the lives that are represented in it, all of the choices that were made, all of the roads that were chosen. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit’s guidance on the roads that we are choosing and the paths that we are walking down. And we pray along with the Psalmist today we will highly praise You God, the king. We will bless Your name forever and ever. We will bless You every day. May we be a blessing to You today Lord. We will praise Your name forever and ever. You are great. You should be highly praised. Your greatness is unsearchable. And yet You love us as children. So, come Holy Spirit into this day. May we bless You. May Your heart be glad and smile as we move through this day together. In Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And the next thing up on the calendar is coming up soon. It’s July 7^th, which is a week from this Saturday. And that is the day of the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk, an annual tradition that we have around here in the family. It’s a day that we set aside to go for a walk with God. I’ve been talking about it for a few days, so we kind of have the understanding. Just go out into beauty and go out with God. Give yourself space to say everything that you have needed to say for a long time. And leave space to allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide and direct and respond. And take your phone or take a camera or something. Take a picture, a little video wherever it is that you go, wherever you do your long walk. Post that back up to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And then we’ll enjoy each other’s long walk. We’ll have these little windows into each other’s lives and hear from each other what the Lord was speaking, what you’re sensing, what the day was like for you. So, make plans for that. The 7th of July. I’ve got my plans. I look forward to the re-set every year. And those of you who’ve been around for a long time, I hope you do to. So, plan for that. July 7^th.

If you wanna partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It’s on the homepage. Thank you. Thank you. 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 P.O 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey everybody. This is Pelham from Cahaba Heights. It’s the tiny little city inside of Birmingham that I live in, a little hamlet of Cahaba Heights. I’m calling today because today’s show the day that Ozzie J. in Japan. And you experienced a 6.1 earthquake. And five people died at the epicenter. And I want you to know, my thoughts are with you. I’m honored to hear from you. You’re doing an amazing thing Ozzie. I’m praying for you. I’m honored to pray for you. Michael from North Georgia and Sandy, your wife is sick and she’s coughing up blood clots. She’s in North Georgia right now you said. This was on the 23^rd. If she’s still there, she’s still there and she’s right where she supposed to be. The cardiologist doesn’t agree with the lung doctor. Let’s take this thing up to another physician. You asked. I hear you. I know a better physician. I know the one that gave those doctors the ability to argue with each other over what’s wrong. He’s the physician. So, I’m going to pray that he does what he knows…

I am Jonah and I am Daniel
I am Thomas, Job, Laban and Nathaniel
I am Peter I am Paul I am a fitful ship I’m __ and Saul
I am all of the above yet I’m still uniquely me
Struggling every day to be the best that I can be
And just like all the above-mentioned men
Full of power and purpose but struggling within
Every blade of grass is different just like every leaf on every tree
Your uniquely you and I’m uniquely me
Yet in many ways all of us are the same
Trying to get to heaven on the strength of Jesus’ name
And every single one of us was created in God’s image
He gave us all the measure of faith and every day we scrimmage
Fighting hard to do what is right
Surrounded by darkness seeking the light
And sometimes were weak and sometimes were strong
Sometimes where right and sometimes wrong
But we still have to struggle every day to do what is right
God’s word and the spirit will strengthen us when we fight the good fight
All of us want to hear well done when we’ve finished the race
That’s when we come to the realization that it was only by grace
Blessed assurance Jesus is mine
If you just hold on tightly to that one thought everything else will be fine

blindony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Sherlock and Dean S. Hope you’re both doing well. Know you’re in my prayers every day. And once again thank you Brian for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flown’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.

Good morning DAB family. It’s Sunday morning. I don’t even know what today is, June something. Anyway, the reason I’m calling is for Keisha. Keisha you broke my heart the other day. First of all, I too am proud of you that you called because the evil one wanted to keep you down and keep you away from other believers praying for you and encouraging you. My daughter has the self-esteem problem. Even in her separation from her husband now she has voiced that to me. I was in my 30s or early 40s when I realized that God made me who I am. God is not surprised at the struggles that I have. God is not surprised when I gain weight or lose weight. He’s not surprised when I am so depressed that I don’t want to talk to anyone, but He made us perfect. Psalm 139 his mine. I own it. It’s mine. And I pray that you find a verse that speaks to you so clearly that every time you hear it or every time you have a thought that that first comes to mind. Father God, I pray this for her and for anyone else that is in that same struggle. In Jesus’ precious name and by His power, by His stripes we are healed. Amen.

Hello. This is Not Shaken. I had just left prayer not too long ago and it was so long that every time in the past I’ve ever left a prayer I’ve always felt like I put it out there and that was good and that was done but I did not…there’s no way to tell anyone how awful this is. And it’s so hard to, in the first place, to have my son Brian here and the hate that he puts out toward me in particular. And all we do is help. We, for the sake of his daughters, we clean up after him in his room, their room that they share. And he just treats…I can’t say anything without him screaming vile profanity at me. And on the other hand I’m feeling so grateful that we do have his children and I just…there aren’t enough words to say what’s going on here. And he just need help. He needs to do what God wants to do for the sake of his girls __. Please pray for us. And I just…I have so much to say and I can’t come up with words. Thank you for your prayers.

2 Kings 9:15b-10:31, Acts 17:1-34, Psalms 144:1-15, Proverbs 17:27-28

Today is the 26^th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. And it’s a pleasure and an honor as it is every day to step in here around the global campfire and step in out of everything else that’s going on and allow God’s word to speak over us as we spend time taking the next step forward. So, we’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. 2 Kings 9:14-10:31.

Commentary:

Alright. So, we can see quite a bit of chaos happening as we move through the generations of the kings in 2 Kings. And there’s always a lot of chaos every time there’s an overthrow of a kingdom. So, that’s essentially what we keep seeing happening. A king may be on a throne and he may have his progeny all set up to create a dynasty, but someone overthrows all of that and that’s what we saw happen today. And this is from Ahab’s line. And you remember this story. Ahab had this very, very tumultuous relationship with Elijah. And there was famine in the land and then there was a showdown on the top of Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal, who Jezebel was loyal to and she was married to the king. But we’re a little bit further in the story. Ahab’s gone. Jezebel’s kind of the queen mother and Jehu shows up on the scene. And there was a prophecy after Jezebel had killed Naboth to get that vineyard for Ahab, right? We just read all this a few days ago. So, things were not going to end well for Ahab, for the house of Ahab, or for Jezebel. And we saw the completion of that today. And all of this took place in the city of Jezreel, which is a bit south east of Samaria, which was the capital city of Israel at that time. The ruins of Jezreel still exist today, although it’s not like a major excavation site, interpretive site. You can go there, but a lot of its still under the ground. We have filmed there. It’s kind of at the base of Mount Gilboa where King Saul was killed. Also in the region where Gideon choose his three hundred person army back in the book of Judges. So, these places are real and a lot of them can be seen in the Promised Land films that we talk about every time we come to one of these places, Jezreel being one of these places. And quite a grisly story we encountered today happened in Jezreel.

We get to the book of Acts and we are on a mission with the Apostle Paul and we’re moving from city to city to city. And again, it’s one of these situations where we look at the book of Acts often with rose colored glasses and say it was a harmonious, beautiful powerful time of the planting of the church, but as we read of this time, we see it’s got plenty of controversy, plenty of conflict and everywhere that the gospel goes it stirs up a ruckus. So, Paul is moving around. He comes to a city called Thessalonica today where a church is planted fairly quickly, but under persecution. And it remains under persecution and Paul has to be spirited out of town and goes to another town and eventually things get stirred up and then he goes to another town. He has to keep staying with people as long as he can until it gets too dangerous for him to stay alive and then he has to move on. And so that is how so many of these churches were planted. And this church that we saw planted in Thessalonica today, we’ll get to know them a little bit better because Paul will write a couple of letters to them that are also preserved in the New Testament. So, we’ll get to talk about some of these churches in more detail as we get to the letters of Paul. But we can see that Paul isn’t on an extended world tour holiday vacation. He’s not on the Pauline speaking tour where thousands of people are coming to hear what he has to say and paying good money for it. It’s not that. He’s going into a town, he’s from Jerusalem, he’s a Pharisee. So, he can go into a synagogue and get a voice and he begins to teach about Jesus. And some people freak out and get mad, some people wanna know more and some people believe and then it kind of goes from there until a church becomes established with whatever time that they have among the people. But had it not been for these pioneers like the Apostle Paul, like the early apostles, like the early church and then the next generation and the church fathers, we wouldn’t be here. This wouldn’t have been passed down. This is how it spread though. This is how it happened. We’re bearing witness to that in the book of Acts.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word and how we can be enmeshed in stories that are a thousand years apart, that can be thousands of years old. And showing us relevant, needed things for our hearts and spirits and lives today. We thank you for this gift of your word. And we invite your Holy Spirit to continue to speak to us and to continue to plant the Scriptures in our hearts and lives. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And it’s the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk that’s coming up next on the calendar. It’s a week from Saturday. The 7th of July. And this has become a tradition. We’ve been doing this for more than a decade now, every July 7. As a community, we circle it on the calendar, get as much of that day open as possible, go somewhere beautiful whether near or far to where we are and go for a long walk. Doesn’t have to be a power walk, doesn’t have to be fast. It can be a long stroll. It’s just a long walk. It’s a living metaphor for our lives and what every day should look like. This is just a time that we’ve consecrated, right? It’s just we’ve set it aside for this. And we just go out into nature, allow a change of scenery to be a positive disruption. To allow nature to be beautiful and observed and enjoyed. All of God’s creation that is so exquisite. And to walk. And to talk. Talk over what’s been going on. All those things that even if we talk to God about them, that they’re quick. It’s rushed. We’re too busy. We’re too over scheduled. And so we don’t really have time. Everything always feels frantic. What if we just set out a few hours to actually go for a walk and have that full talk where everything that keeps piling up we finally get to say? We finally get to talk over, think over, invite the Holy Spirit into, allow God to speak back. I mean, we’ve been so busy that maybe we can’t find as much time as we want to spend with God. Imagine how that is for him. There may be many things he’s wanted to say, we just don’t have time to listen. This is that time. Just go. There’s no rules about it. Just go somewhere beautiful and disrupt yourself enough to get out of the routine, go for a long walk. Say it all. Listen back. Review what you’ve learned in the Scriptures this year at the half way point and invite the Holy Spirit to aim you in the direction that you should go in the second half of this year. That’s what this is all about. And so it’s a solitary thing. You do it by yourself. But you won’t be doing it by yourself. They’ll be thousands of us around the world walking and doing the same thing. So, take a camera or something. Shoot a picture wherever you go. Take a little video. You can post that back to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And then we get the beauty of enjoying each other’s long walks. We can just look for a quick moment at a picture or a little video and get a little window into each other’s lives and it’s a beautiful thing. So, make plans for that. That’s the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. July 7th. A week from this Saturday.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link that’s on the homepage. 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 P.O Box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee, 37174. And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you’re in the UK or Europe, 44-20-3608-8078 is the number. If you are in Australia or the lands down under, hopefully you’re keeping warm, as it’s in the wintertime, which is so weird cause it’s so hot here in the summertime. Anyway, if you are in Australia the number is 61-3-8820-545.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. Let’s pray. Father, you are holy, holy, holy. We pray you keep guard over our lips so that we may not fail in keeping your name holy. Your kingdom come is our hearts desire. Your will be done in our lives is the reason we live. I ponder heaven and long for it here. Thank you for the word for it guides us how to pray not our will but yours. Thank you Jesus for your work on the cross granting everyone who trusts in you for forgiveness of sins before a holy and just judge. We live in your grace to abide in you by your word. Protect us from the evil one and help us stay clear of temptations. Holy Spirit, empower us to be bold witnesses for you just for today, the power to be bold and love like Jesus never shrinking back from your truth for your word is truth. Blessed be the name of our God forever and ever. The wisdom and might are His and He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with Him for His dominion is an everlasting dominion and His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are repeated as nothing. He does according to His will in the Army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth no one can restrain His hand for sake of him. What have you done? Empower us today. Holy Spirit come. Thank you Jesus. Amen.

Hi DAB family. I’m just calling today with a praise report and a prayer request. I’m standing right now in the same spot that a year ago my son was driving a vehicle that flipped over and was crushed and he and his two…people that were in the car with him, they were unscathed. They got out with just a few scratches to the amazement of everyone including the police and the first responders. Everyone said that the hand of God was with them. As I stand in this area, I see where there are still pieces of glass from the windshield when it crushed. I can still find that here in this area on this corner. And, so, I just want to give praise to God that he miraculously saved my son and his two companions. He was 18 at the time he’s 19 now. And my prayer request is that God would reveal himself to him as to what He’s got in store for him and why he was saved from such tremendous harm or most likely death that day. Thank you all. I love you.

Hi family. This is Shannon from Salem Oregon. I would love for you to be praying for my husband Brett and me this week. We leave on Sunday, June 24^th and we’ll be flying to Chicago. We’ll be there for a couple days for a conference. And this is a chance for my husband to network with people in evangelistic ministry and share with them the software that he’s been helping develop these last couple years to help them follow up with new believers that come to Christ at these evangelistic events. It’s really important that he’s able to make good connections and that people can start using this software. So, I’d appreciate your prayers for that, for God’s favor and for His open doors. After that conference Brett and I will be flying to Pennsylvania where Brett will be a speaker and I will be a music artist for big festival there. And that’s the first time we’ve ever been on the lineup for the festival. So, it’s a really exciting time for us and I would just so appreciate it if you would pray for God’s favor and His protection and His power on us, that the things that we say, the connections we make with people, the things that I sing and play, that the Lord would be in all of that and would use us as His mouth pieces to touch hearts and draw people to Himself. I’d also appreciate your continued prayers for my family members who are not yet walking with the Lord. And I just so appreciate you, family and am so thankful to have you praying and giving us extra support this week as we are excited and nervous and knowing that where walking into some big opportunities. And just pray that…

[singing] I need you, you need me, where all a part of God’s body. Stand with me. Agree with me. Agree with me. We are all a part of God’s body. It is His will that every need to be supplied. You are important to me. I need you to survive. You are important to me. I need you to survive. I pray for you. You pray for me. I love you. I need you to survive. I won’t harm you with words from my mouth. I love you. I need you to survive. It is His will that every need be supplied. You are important to me. I need you to survive. You are important to me. I need you to survive. [singing ends]. __ up in prayers. I love you guys. Jenny from Arizona.

Hi. My name is Melissa from Texas and I want to thank Brian, Jill, and the Hardin family and the DAB team for building this community. I want to call for prayer and to repent of my sins. I’m 26 and am very blessed and although I did not grow up with my father in my life, I have a wonderful family and life. And I know the promises that God has for me and I want to be a good and faithful and obedient servant. And God has blessed me tremendously. And sometimes my actions and thoughts seem to scoff at the sacrifice that Jesus made in dying the cross for my sins. And I have a bad habit of promiscuous behavior and I struggle with sobriety and self-worth and loving myself and depression sometimes and anxiety. And I know that God can and will heal me, but my actions and behavior and thoughts have to change. So, I wanted to ask for you to pray for me to have the courage to quit the destructive behaviors in my life and fully let God into every part of my world, even the things I’m afraid of letting go of. Thank you. I love you all. And I pray for you every day.