Category: DAB Transcripts

Ezra 7:1-8:20 ~ 1 Corinthians 4:1-21 ~ Psalm 30:1-12 ~ Proverbs 20:28-30

Today is August 8^th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today. And a fine day that it is, no matter what’s going on outside in the weather, no matter what’s going on in our lives right now. It’s a fine day to spend some time together as a community and take the next step forward in the scriptures. And, so, that’s exactly what we’ll do. We are reading from the Good News translation this week. Ezra chapter 7 verse 1 through 8 verse 20.

Commentary:

Ok, so, yesterday in First Corinthians we were talking about how Paul was saying, look you can’t get an identity by who follow. You can’t get an identity any other way. We are all built upon the same foundation and we are building upon that foundation, which is Christ. And what we build matters but in the end, it’s all in God’s hands. His judgment is His judgment and what we think about that has no bearing and what we walk around telling each other about what God is going to do, we are, like, talking in a way that we don’t understand. We’re trying to use the world’s wisdom to make us seem wise, when, actually, God looks at that wisdom and sees it as nonsense. So, there is only one foundation and we are all built upon it and struggling for identity and who we follow or our rituals and customs, that’s not going to get us there. It’s all already ours. Paul continues, obviously because we’re just in the next day and we’re reading the next portion of the letter, he continues with some of that thought, he expands upon that thought, which is a bit of dismantling the places that we naturally gravitate toward to get identity. Right? In judging each other. And Paul is saying, I don’t even judge myself. And that’s not to say that I can just do whatever I want. I just understand that I have a conscience that’s clear before God. But that doesn’t mean I’m innocent. It’s just…this is the best I have and the Lord is the judge and we should apply that to ourselves and to each other. So, quoting from First Corinthians, ‘you should not pass judgment on anyone before the right time comes. Final judgment must wait until the Lord comes. None of you should be proud of one person and despise another. Who made you superior to others? Didn’t God give you everything you have? So, then how can you boast as if what you have were not a gift?’ I mean, this is a huge invitation because Paul’s saying, this struggle for identity by competition by comparison by who you follow, by who don’t follow, by who you read, by who you don’t read, by who you listen to, by who don’t listen to, by what church you go to, by what by what denomination you are part of, these things are kind of beside the point and none of you should be proud of one person and despise another. Who made you superior? Everything you have is from God. Stop pretending it’s not a gift. It is for all of us. And it’s interesting, because Paul pulls back the veil on ministry. So, he’s basically inferring, you want to follow me, you follow Apollos, you want that to be your identity? Let me tell you with this is really like. So, to quote Paul, ‘it seems to me that God has given the very last place to us apostles. We’re like people condemned to die in public as a spectacle for the whole world of angels and of human beings. For Christ’s sake we are fools. To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty. We are clothed in rags. We are beaten. We wander from place to place. We wear ourselves out with hard work.’

So, there it is. This is what you’re following. This is what it really looks like. And every pastor in the sound of my voice, God bless you. You know this is true. And everyone in the sound of my voice that has a pastor, you need to know, this is how it is. It is hard, hard work. I love being in ministry but it is the hardest thing I have ever done. But it sends me to my core on a daily basis. There is no way to survive without this foundation, this sure foundation of Christ. And, so, whenever you’re looking at the person with the microphone who’s on the stage saying words or you’ve got your earbuds in and you’re listening to somebody saying words that’s in ministry, and you think, O, I just wish I could do that or O, I just wish I could have a relationship with Christ like that. Trust me you can. And trust me, this is not easy. And, so, Paul’s just kind of demystifying the whole thing, sort of, like, pulling back the curtain and saying, OK you guys keep trying to find an identity on, like, you’re of Apollo’s, you’re of Paul, you’re of Peter, you go to first Baptist, you go to first assembly of God, you go to first United Methodist Church. I mean, on and on we could go. Paul’s saying, behind the identity you have are people who are working themselves crazy to pour out their lives for you as servants. Paul says it like this, ‘we wear ourselves out with hard work. When we are cursed, we have to bless. That is hard work. When we are persecuted, we endure. That is hard work. When we are insulted, we answer back with kind words. Again, that is hard work.’ And it’s the work that we’re all invited into. All of us, not just pastors and teachers. We’re all invited into this collaboration of building upon the foundation that is Jesus Christ. And then, in a little bit of his own defense, Paul says, look, I’m not telling you this, like, I’m not pulling back the curtain, I’m not saying the things that I’m saying to make you then feel sympathetic toward me because this is such a hard job. I’m not trying to make you feel ashamed. I am just trying to instruct you because there may be many voices in your life or as Paul says, you may have 10,000 guardians in your Christian life but you only have one father. And Paul is looking at the Corinthian church through the Father’s eyes. He planted this. He’s cultivated and nurtured this. And, so, he’s saying, like, in your union with Christ, I’ve become your father because I brought the good news to you. And, so, if you’ll look at me that way then I’m begging you to follow my example, the example of not being judgmental, of understanding that God is over it all, of understanding that Christ is the foundation upon which we are building, the understanding that there is no identity in comparison and competition. It’s not how this Kingdom works at all. It’s nonsense to God. Try to live that way. And I mean, this can be kind of condemning. Like, we can go, like, wow, he’s kind of coming right at it. But it’s not that. It’s an invitation to freedom. It’s this plea. You don’t have to do this. It’s not going anywhere. It’s all already yours. There is actually work to be done but it’s not against each other. There’s such freedom and invitation in that.

Prayer:

Father, once again, just like yesterday, here we are, inviting You to dismantle these false constructs that we have arrived at to find an identity, even an identity in our faith that is nonsense to You. But we don’t want to live that way, not when You are inviting us into freedom. But it requires a reframing of a lot of things that we thought we knew - about each other, about Your church, about You. It forces us to come clean and it forces us to come as individuals before You. And, so, here we are. Holy Spirit, dismantle whatever You want to take down. Things that we’ve been working on for years, You have permission to smash that. Things that we’ve thought our whole lives, if they are leading us away from truth, then dismantle them. We’re with You. We entrust our identity to You, fully. Which means, You can dismantle whatever You want to and insert whatever You want to. We are here to serve You. We are here to collaborate with You. We are here to be friends. We are here to be in love. And we have done everything but that. And, so, forgive us God. We step away from all of that, that false creation of an identity, and step into an identity with You and You alone. Come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Be sure to check it out.

And, while you’re there, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, there’s a link that lives on the homepage. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the More button in the lower right hand corner or if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill TN 37174.

And of course, if you have a prayer request or comment, if you’re shouldering burdens that…that are just too heavy…and that you shouldn’t be carrying by yourself…there’s tens of thousands of people that will pray for you. The number you can call is 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

This call is in response to a message I just heard tonight. It’s Friday night. It is late. It’s August 5th now. Jake, I am praying for you my brother in Christ. You called about your father taking his life and I want you to know that I will continue to pray for strength for you. And I want to give you a Psalm. This is Psalm 29:11 - The Lord gives strength to His people. The Lord blesses His people with peace. Clearly, you are one of His people. You reached out to Him in your pain and your brothers and sisters here, we hear you and we love you and I’m sure there is a lot of prayer coming your way. God bless you my brother in Christ.

Hi. This is Elaine from Victoria and its Saturday, August 5^th. And I heard Jake Oaks pain about his father committing suicide. I know this pain. I had a stepson, he might as well have been called my son, because I was close to him, and he committed suicide. So, I know that grief that you are feeling. But I want to encourage you from Isaiah from the Old Testament. Isaiah 41:10. So it’s, do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And He is holding you, Jake, by your hand. Go with this today, knowing that God is walking you through this very difficult, stressful time. I love you. I love you Brian for this ministry and all your family and all the Daily Audio Bible family. Bless you all today and go with God. Amen.

Hello. This is the greatest trucker from way out west listening to the Daily Audio prayer line on the 5^th of August and at the end the last caller was Jake Oaks after his father had taken his life last weekend. I don’t know when that was. Jake, I want you to know that we are praying for you in the most fervent way that we could pray for you and your family in this hour of confusion and despair. And I don’t really have any words to describe how I feel about what happened with your family there. It’s hard to understand and hard to comprehend and my brain doesn’t even want to go there I guess. We are going to be praying for you brother so that prayer has power to heal your family. In Jesus name.

Hi everybody this is Alicia from Kansas. It’s August the 5^th. And I just listened to the readings and then the prayers afterwards and I’m calling to tell Jake, whose father took his life this past Tuesday, or whenever. Jake, I’m praying for you and I know there are hundreds if not thousands of others that are praying for you and your family. I am grieving with you and I love you precious one. Lord, Father, I thank you and I praise you so very much for Jake for his vulnerability for reaching out to his prayer family. Lord, Father, I pray that you’ll be with Jake. Wrap Your arms around him. Lord, Father, may he feel Your presence. I thank You and I praise You for his heart. I thank You and I praise You for his family. I pray, Lord, Jesus, that we would be faithful to You and to Jake, Lord, God and continue to lift him up in prayer in Your holy and precious name, I pray. Amen. I love you sweet brother. Bye-bye.

Ezra 4:24-6:22 ~ 1 Corinthians 3:5-23 ~ Psalm 29:1-11 ~ Proverbs 20:26-27

Today is the 7th day of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in the scriptures this year. And we’re kind of getting into the thick of the story in the book of Ezra now. So, we listed all of the people who came out of exile back to Jerusalem to rebuild and we’ve begun to see that, even though there was the decree of the emperor to allow this, there were people back in the land that had no interest whatsoever in the Hebrew people being able to come back to their homeland and rebuild anything. And, so, there is some political intrigue and we’ll continue with the story. Ezra chapter 4 verse 24 through chapter 6 verse 22 today. And we’re reading from the Good News translation this week.

Commentary:

Alright, as we continue with Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, also known as First Corinthians we kind of run into this issue that is a bit of an issue for the early church. And that’s basically the exaltation of the messenger. So, the one speaking the word, their kind of thrown up on this pedestal. And honoring the person in that position, that’s not the issue. It’s that they were trying to own this person, own this person’s a message and say, we are the right ones and everything else is nuanced or wrong. And this kind of began with the issue of whether or not gentiles were allowed into the Kingdom of God. Because that was a new and big thought, especially for the Hebrew believers. And so, there are people in this time of the early church, definitely speaking the gospel of Jesus, but nuancing how you arrive there. And, so, people would be, like, I am of Apollos, which is essentially saying, whatever Apollo’s is saying that’s what I believe. Or I am of Paul, which is saying, whatever Paul says, that’s what I believe or Peter or whoever. Paul is basically disavowing that notion by saying, who is a Apollos, who is Paul. We’re simply servants. We just happened to be the ones that were there and led you to believe. But we’re part of a larger story, a greater whole, and each person needs to be doing the work that the Lord gave them to do. And, so, it doesn’t really matter your name or your status. In my case, Paul is saying, I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God that made this whole thing grow. And, so, without that component none of this matters at all. This all comes back to God. And we are all collaborating. Or as Paul would say. We are partners working together for God and you were God’s field that we working in. But God is the foundation of it all. And, so, what Paul continues to do is invite us to own our lives, our actions, our faith, everything, instead of simply saying, this person’s my pastor, this person’s my leader, this person’s, like, a spiritual influence in my life, whatever they say, that’s what I believe. So, the way Paul puts this is, you are God’s building. And using the gift that God gave me, I laid the foundation. Someone else is building on that foundation. But each of you must be careful how you build because Jesus, and this is me paraphrasing Paul, because Jesus is the only true foundation. There can be no other foundation laid. But what gets built on that foundation, that’s where you come in. Some are going to use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation. Others will use wood or grass or straw. And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the day that Christ exposes it. So, like, what Paul is saying is, there is a foundation, it is sure, it is true. We are all building upon that foundation. We are all built upon that foundation. And we have to own our actions and faith and lives and relationships as we build upon the foundation because at the end of it all when I go be able to say, well, I was just following so-and-so and whatever they said, I believed that. I’m of Apollos, I’m of Paul, I’m of whoever. Paul’s saying, hey, look, fine but there is one foundation and you are building something upon that foundation in your faith and in the end you won’t be able to say, I was just following so-and-so. You will have to answer, individually, to God for what you built. And if what was built, and I’m quoting from First Corinthians now, if what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the fire of exposure before God, then the builder will receive a reward. But if your work is burned all up, well then, not so much. But you, yourself, will be saved. You’re on the foundation but it does matter what you build. And then Paul returns to this example that was all through Romans, this idea of how backward we look at things, how the world’s wisdom, the most wisdom that we have is, actually, nonsense to God, and then how the gospel seems like nonsense to the world. He returns to that theme in this context by saying, you should not fool yourself. If any of you think that you’re wise by this world’s standard you should become a fool in order to be really wise, which is simply echoes of what Jesus had been saying throughout all of His ministry. What this world considers to be wisdom is nonsense in God’s sight. So, nobody should be boasting about what man can do, what their leader said, and what they believe in. There should be no boasting in that. And there’s a reason though. It’s not really humility that Paul’s talking about. It’s bigger than that. It’s a lot bigger than that. Paul is saying, look, these are kind of like small arguments - I follow so-and-so, I do this this way, this is my custom, this is my ritual, it is right and you are wrong - this is all beside the point. The point is, and I’m quoting from First Corinthians again, actually, everything belongs to you - Paul does, Apollos does, Peter does. This world belongs to you - life and death, the present in the future - all these are yours. And you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. So, Paul is saying, this kind of jostling for identity and who you’re following or what you’re doing to build upon the foundation, this search for yourself, you’re going about this the wrong way. It all already belongs to you because of the foundation, Jesus, you are a joint heir in God’s Kingdom. It’s all already yours. So, you don’t have to be following this one person and he’s the only person and whatever he says or whatever she says, that’s what you do and that’s what you believe. You’ve got to own this but in owning this and in building upon this foundation you should be aware that it’s all already yours. In other words, we already have what we need. We are all heirs to this Kingdom that we are a part of and it’s all already ours because we belong to Christ and Christ belongs God, which means we belong to God through Christ.

It’s pretty huge stuff. We need to slow down and examine our motives in our faith. What are we after here? What are we going for? What are we trying to reach for? What are we trying to build? Who are we trying to follow? Why are we trying to follow them? Is it because we’re too afraid to own our own faith and enter into a first person relationship in collaboration with God? What are the motives here? Because at the end of it all what we’re going to discover is, it was all already ours. We don’t have to be jostling for this identity in someone else, only in Christ, the foundation, which allows us to pursue God with all of our heart, mind, and strength, personally, and walk in collaboration in this life with him and not need to find some sort of substitute that we follow instead in order to get an identity. Our identity can be found in Christ and Christ alone.

Prayer:

Father, we give up then. If that’s what you’re saying, then we throw up our hands and surrender. And what we’re surrendering is our identity to You so that we are truly in pursuit of ‘it no longer being we who live but you who lives within us’. And, so, it is only You who can give us an identity. And we’ve been following the foolishness of the world, the wisdom of the world that is nonsense in your site, and trying to get an identity some other way. So, we invite You into the deepest parts of ourselves because when we’re talking about identity, we certainly have the layer of personality, the things that we present, but underneath that there is our identity. We’re inviting You into that place, the truest most guarded, most fragile, most true place within us. We invite You there to give us our true identity, sons and daughters of the most-high God. And you have already invited us and grafted us into your family. It’s all already ours. Come Holy Spirit and awaken this within us because if we believe this was true, if we believe this were true down in the deepest parts of our identity, at the truest place inside of us, so many of the constructs that we have built upon this foundation to arrive at an identity, they fall down. They’re like straw. They’re like hay. Because they’re not going anywhere. It’s all already ours. So, come Holy Spirit, dismantle what You must, rearrange what You will, order us properly, bestow upon us an identity that is unshakable because it comes from You and You alone. We submit ourselves to You and we walk with You away from the things that don’t matter and into a life of collaboration. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check it out. Check out the Daily Audio Bible shop for resources that are available. Check out the Prayer Wall. Pray for someone while you’re there. Plant seeds. Build something beautiful on this foundation of Christ and Christ alone through prayer at the prayer wall. It’s a great place to connect. And you can find out everywhere we are on social media. And we are likely wherever you are. So, let’s connect and let’s stay connected. That’s what we are as a community. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, in the mission that we share, this global camp fire that warms and illuminates our path every day. We do this together. That’s how it’s always been done. If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the More button in the lower right hand corner or if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill TN 37174.

And of course, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, there are a number of numbers you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078. If you are in Australia, that part of the world, 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hello Daily Audio Bible listeners, this is Diane Allice B. from Newburgh, Indiana. I’ve been watching and listening and just gaining so much out of my Daily Audio Bible readings. And lately I’ve been listening to the community prayer requests and I want you to know I’m praying over you, especially those who are wanting children. I have a good praise report, that me and my prayer partners, and our prayer groups have been praying for many, many, many years for grandchildren. And in December of 2014 my daughter had a grandbaby. And, also, she got married, then she got pregnant, and then she moved from her place in San Antonio Texas to Evansville Indiana, 3 blocks from the University of Indiana, where my husband is chair of the physics department. So, don’t ever give up. Don’t ever give up. Keep your prayers going. If you’re looking for a husband or a wife or a child, I have been there. My sister, my little sister had miscarriages and our prayer team prayed through two girls for her that have now graduated from college. So, nothing, nothing, nothing, is impossible to God. You just keep it up keep it. Keep it up. Keep after your heart. Your heart desires a husband or a wife or a child? God’s got that for you. Shalom, Shalom.

Hi, good morning. This is Carey from California. Today I would like to lift up my baby brother to all of you for prayer. I lift him up to Christ because he doesn’t believe that prayer works. He just is always going through so many trials because he’s an alcoholic and he can’t handle it. And last night he wrecked the work truck and he’ll probably lose his job, again. And blames everybody but himself. I just pray that he would find complete healing and grow close to God again because that’s where he will be saved. I just need healing for my baby brother so I can have him back, have the brother that I love back. I thank you everybody for your prayers.  

Hi DABbers. This is His little Sherri from Canada and there have been a couple of ladies who called in recently who really grabbed my heart - Karen in St. Louis and another lady in Houston, I think, who talked about their overwhelming longing for a mate. O, I feel like there’s so much I could say but I think the Lord just wants me to remind you today of something you already know. He understands. He really does. And not in some ‘I’m God so I know everything’ abstract way. He actually knows how you feel. I mean, imagine Jesus, a 30-year-old man, still single, watching another one of his brothers or sisters get married. His nieces and nephews running around the wedding, squealing and climbing up on their grandmother Mary’s lap. I can’t imagine that in moments like that, Jesus didn’t feel twinges of longing. Don’t you think? I mean, the fully human Jesus must have felt lonely at times but, ultimately, he chose to trust that his dreams would come true in God’s time and in God’s way and they did and they will. Right? And you’re a part of that. You’re a part of His bride. So, I am praying that God would give you a human husband and a family but to be honest my more, sincere, prayer is that you and I and women especially would experience the reality of Hosea 2:16, in that day declares the Lord, you will no longer call me your master, you will call me my husband. So, I carry you in my heart ladies. I’m praying and I’ll keep praying. God bless you today.

Morning everyone. This is ___ Jill and the family. ___ I’ve only been listening for about a year but it’s still amazing, even how on my bad days how it can be really difficult to get going. But you’ve been doing this for over 10 years, apparently, and that’s just amazing. So, thank you for your ministry and thank you for your family. I pray blessings over all of you in the name of Jesus. I hope that you continue to keep going with this ministry and feel strengthened each day and I pray God will ___ and that you continue to be loyal. Thank you for your loyalty again and your reading. Bye-bye.

Good morning DAB family. This is Shirley from south eastern Washington. I just got through listening to the DAB and reading it along with Brian. Brain and Jill, thank you so much for this ministry. It reaches so many and I look forward to it in the mornings. I want to say thank you to Drew in the Bay area for that word of encouragement. It helped me. I’ve been praying for healing for a while now and I’m believing that God is healing me. And for those who are praying and feel discouraged, don’t, because God is there. He’s always listening. He’s always there. Never give up. He never gives up on us. Thank you again, Drew from the bay area. God bless you all. Have a great day and a great weekend. Bye.

Ezra 3:1-4:23 ~ 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4 ~ Psalm 28:1-9 ~ Proverbs 20:24-25

Today is the 6th day of August. I was going to say July and as you know, I often mess up my months, especially at the beginning of new month. And I was going to do it. I’m confessing. It’s the 6th day of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Here we are at the threshold of a brand new, shiny, sparkly, new week, a week that we will be made new again in, moment by moment, a week that is out in front of us and we consecrated to God in advance. It’s going to be a great week. And one of the things that we do as a community here that helps that rhythm stay true in our lives is that we come to the scriptures each day. So, it’s a brand-new week. And we’ll read from the Good News translation this week. And we can pick up where we left. Ezra, chapter 3 verse 1 through 4 verse 23. And what we’re talking about here, because we have had sort of a list of names, sort of like, oh, are we still back kind of in the Chronicles and all that? No, I mean, we had a list of names, kind of written down, as people came into exile, this a attempt to remember, to not forget who they were. And then we get into Ezra and we have this list of people going back, people returning from exile. And it’s the returning exiled people, it’s their story that we’re in now. So, Ezra chapter 3 verse 1 through 4:23.

Commentary:

OK. So, yesterday as we really, kind of, begin to sink into this Letter to the Corinthians, Paul’ talking about nonsense. He’s saying that this gospel, this message, this good news, seems like nonsense to people who are completely unaware of it. It just looks like something crazy, something nonsense, because it can’t be proved by any means that people have devised to measure such things. You can’t put spirituality on an excel spreadsheet. You can’t describe the movement of God’s Spirit in the world and in our own lives on some sort of grid or into some sort of foolproof recipe that, if you just follow these steps exactly, then you will always find God’s movement. We have the bible to show us that God moves how He moves and how He moves is right and correct and just and true and loving and kind because that’s who He is. But how He moves is how He moves. It’s going to be right. But whether we understand it or can put it on a grid or can scientifically measure it or not is not important to Him. So, Paul’s saying, it looks like nonsense to lots of people but that does not make it any less wisdom. We’re talking about the wisdom of God here. So, are we going to say that the wisdom of God is actually true wisdom or are we going to say that the wisdom of man is actually true wisdom? And if we’re going to say that the wisdom of God is actually true wisdom then we have to acknowledge that our own wisdom, our own methods of dealing and coping with the world, are probably backward. And Paul uses the people of Jesus’ time as an example that this wisdom was in the world. It was in the world in the person of Jesus himself, God in the flesh, the human God speaking God’s wisdom from His own mouth. And none of the rulers of this world knew this wisdom, Paul says. Because if they had, they never would have crucified the Lord of Glory. Fair enough. Point taken. But this wisdom from the Spirit of God is available. And Paul talks about the Spirit. It’s like, only your Spirit really understands the complexities and depths of who you really are. No one else gets to go that deep within you. And only the Spirit of God fully understands the depths and complexities and beauty of who God is. But we haven’t received this worlds spirit, instead we have received the Spirit of God. I mean, can that sink in for a second? God’s Spirit within us does understand the complexities of who we are, everything about us, even more about us than we know about ourselves. And He has allowed His Spirit to reside in us so that we also have access to what He’s thinking about things in this world, how He wants to involve himself in humanity, how He wants to collaborate in our lives personally. We don’t have to sort this all out, segregated from God. It’s not us and then God somewhere else hopefully whispering something in our ear that we can then process and make decisions about. It’s much more integrated than that. The way that Paul boils it down is a very good way -  we; however have the mind of Christ. Which means that we have the mind of God, if Christ is God, if Jesus is God. And he is. That means we have access to the mind of God on anything and everything as long as we understand that we are not going to be able to make Him fit our mold, that we’re not going to be able to make Him be crushed into whatever it is that we’re doing so that He can tell us how to do whatever we’re doing. It’s the opposite of that. We surrender everything that we’re doing. We surrender everything that we are, everything we think we know, everything that we will ever hope for. And we begin to live our lives with God in this world only to realize this is what we were created to be. This is how it’s supposed to be. This is how it was always supposed to be. It’s a way, way, way bigger story then we’ve been living in. And basically, Paul says, don’t believe me? You don’t believe me? I mean, you think this is working for you? When there is jealousy among you and you quarrel with one another, doesn’t this prove that you still belong to this world, that you’re still living by its standards and measures and grids and recipes? And where we end today is not the end of what Paul is saying about this but where we end the day is an example. Paul’s saying, some of say, I follow Paul and others of you say, I follow Apollos and isn’t that just acting like worldly people? Aren’t you just throwing heroes of the charts again? That is not how this works. You will not find yourself comparing yourself to somebody else. You will not find your identity by saying I follow this particular person or I like this particular person or I stay away from that guy. I wouldn’t even listen to what they have to say because so many of these other people say they’re a heretic. And I won’t listen to that woman because of this or that and the other and it’s like we’re lost in the weeds here. We have the mind of Christ and we’re trying to use the mind of Christ to live by the world’s system of things and they were never meant to go together. It’s almost opposite, the way that we should be living. And this is straight from Jesus. Go read the Sermon on the Mount and find that it’s backward, the way that this world works. But we don’t have to. We don’t have to work that way. We don’t have to live that way. That’s exactly what’s being described when we are told to be in this world but not of this world. So often, I mean my whole-life, I’ve thought, OK I am in this world, but my home is somewhere else. I’m supposed to be somewhere else. I’m not of this world. When actually, I am a human being made for this world. At least for right now, I’m supposed to be here. And I’m not just supposed to be here waiting for something that isn’t going to happen. I am supposed to be here, intertwined with the God, having the mind of Christ, allowing God’s wisdom to envelop and overwhelm everything else that’s going on and to live with clarity and purpose in relationship with God, being with God, collaborating with God in His work and in this world. That’s a big story. That’s a huge story. That’s the invitation of the gospel. That’s the good news. May we continue to wake up. That has become such a rallying cry to me, that I will continue to wake up. And I hope it’s the same for you because the world is at stake here and we have a role to play. Our humanity, our species, our brothers and sisters of the human race, this is at stake and we have a role to play.

Prayer:

Father we want to fit perfectly into that role. We want to be people who look like Jesus, who do what Jesus did, who operate in this world as human beings like You modeled for us, and like You created us to be. And that requires that we disengage from the world’s system of measurement and that we disengage from finding our identity in comparison. If we could just do those two things, radical shifts would happen within us. And we’re inviting your Holy Spirit to guide us in that so that the day does come that we have become sanctified to the point that we’re really not moved by the world’s systems and what it considers valuable. That we have lost ourselves in a relationship with you and everything else is in its proper context and that we no longer look to each other, fighting against one another to try to find an identity. Our identity is wrapped up in relationship with You. There is nothing else for us. There is no other way that we’re going to get it. There will always be a hole and it will always empty out until You have filled us. And, so, fill us Holy Spirit. Come, indwell us. Be within us, collaborating in this life. We surrender to You. We want you to guide us. Come Jesus we pray in your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check it out. Check out the resources that are available. Check out the prayer wall.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you - profoundly, humbly, literally. We would not be here if we did not do this together. Thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the More button in the lower right hand corner or if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hi, my name is Debbie. I am in California. I walked with the Lord for a while and then turned my back on Him. And now I have been diagnosed with cancer. And I would like to receive prayer so I can walk with Him again and he can give me strength to get through what I need to get through. I just found out and I logged on to listen to the bible and this is the first station I went to. I really enjoyed the readings and the people that were talking after. So, I ask if you can please, please pray for me for strength to walk with Him again, to believe, to guide, to have stronger faith. Thank you so much. I will listen every day and I just appreciate prayer. Thank you.

Hi. My name is Betty from Southern California. I’ve been a listener for many years and this is the first time I’ve called. I’m calling for prayer for my daughter, who had a minor surgery, a laparoscopic surgery, but they punctured the bowel. She’s been in intensive care for over six weeks and it’s going to be a very difficult recovery. Please pray for her, that she can recover, that she can heal. And I just ask just this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi. My name is Jason. I called a while back in regards to my marriage and it had gotten…my marriage had been destroyed…and recently…about maybe thirteen months ago…my wife and I reunited. We reunited our kids. And listened to a brother on the call today, today is August 2^nd. And he was just pouring out his heart about his walk with God that had diminished and he lost his family. I just want to tell you, hold on brother. Things may look grim and impossible right now but we serve a God that can make the impossible a stepping stone into greatness. Hold on, don’t give up. No matter what, do not give up. Keep fighting. I promise you it will be worth it in the end. God, bless you. And thank you Brian and your wife for this wonderful, wonderful moment that you’ve created for people to share and to give their testimony. God, bless everybody.

Hi. This is RC and the first time I’ve called in. But I heard someone call in. It was on yesterday’s program and he was just distraught over bitterness and feeling like God had let him down…and…man…I’ve been there…and I just want you to know…my heart was breaking for you. It’s such a struggle to try to figure out…ya know…what is our part….what is God’s part…which promises can we claim and things like that. And…my brother…I just…my heart aches for you. I’m praying for you. I love you and I can empathize. Ya know…we feel like we do a lot of things to deserve God’s grace and one thing I think I’m kind of learning is, God loves us. He will never leave us. But on this earth, there will be struggles and there are things that we must do. We must cling to Him. We must stay close to Him. When things are going well we can’t turn our back on Him. I’m not saying that’s anything you’ve done but I will be praying for you. I just had to call as quickly as possible and just let you know I’m with you and I love you and I’m praying for your family. Cling to Him no matter what and I love you. And please pray for me and my family. We’re going through a business loss and tremendous financial loss and trying to figure out handle all that in a Godly way…and the debt that’s left and those kind of things. I appreciate all of you and pray for many of you. Bye.

Ezra 1:1-2:70 ~ 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5 ~ Psalm 27:7-14 ~ Proverbs 20:22-23

Today is the 5^th day of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you as we end another week. And this is the first weekend in August. So, we end this week together with a beginning. We finished the book of Second Chronicles yesterday, which brings us to the book of Ezra. And Ezra will pick up, historically, where Second Chronicles leaves off, with the children of Israel in exile in Babylon, having been carried off for their rebelliousness to God, which we covered in detail in the previous readings. So, the book of Ezra is going to cover about eighty years and it will include three different kings in Babylon - Cyrus the Great, Darius, and then Artaxerxes, all who provide favor and cover for the Israelites, who are returning to their homeland. Cyrus the Great begins the process desiring, literally, to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem for the worship of God. And about forty-two-thousand Israelites, who have been in exile in Babylon, crying and weeping for the day that God would restore them, they finally get to make the trip back, under the leadership of a man name Zerubbabel, to rebuild Jerusalem. And, of course, they and their leaders are going to face all kinds of opposition both through intimidation of those nearby people who have been kind of in the land as it was dismantled and they’ve just kind of been there for the last decades and don’t necessarily want returning people to come in. And they’ll be opposed through political maneuvers but they will stick to the task. And it’s a great reference point for us in our own lives. This becomes a really, really poignant piece of scripture that applies to our lives as we persevere, as we stick to what we know God has given us to do in our calling in life, regardless of what seems to be caving in and around us, whatever our position we may face. Ezra later returns with a second group of returning exiles, the remainder of the exiles that are in Babylon, with the blessing of the king.  And then Israel is fully restored to its homeland. So, let’s embrace Ezra, not only for its history but as metaphor for your own life. And we’ll definitely find ourselves in these pages, without a doubt. And, so, we begin. Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 70. And we’ve been reading from the names of God Bible this week, which is what we’ll finish doing today.

Commentary:

OK. I was talking about this particular passage of scripture from First Corinthians when we did the Facebook Live in the Sneezing Jesus group the other night. Here’s the thing. It’s hard, it’s actually hard for me at this point not talk in terms of Sneezing Jesus or in terms of my previous book, Reframe, when we’re in the New Testament because both of those works were my deepest dive, like, they were me looking for where is the bedrock in certain aspects of our faith. So, with Reframe, it was, what is a relationship with God. And with Sneezing Jesus it was, what does it mean to be Christ-like, is that real, or is that metaphor and ambition, what is Jesus humanity mean to mine, does it matter that I’m a human being right now. And Paul talks about both of those things in this particular passage of scripture, when he is simply unpacking what reality is. And, so, if we move back through this passage of scripture it’s just so enlightening and so helpful to the way that we look at the world. Paul says - and he’s just getting going in this letter by the way, we’ve just got past the introductions, right, the hello, the “hey, it’s me Paul and I’m writing to you” stuff. So, Paul kind of gets against this letter going by saying, the message about the cross is nonsense to the people who are being destroyed. Right? The people who are destroying themselves by the choices that they are making to reject and renounce and move away from God, to stay devolved, to stay sub human, to stay as they were. But this same message about the cross that’s nonsense to them is God’s very power to us who are being saved, who are being sanctified, who are being awakened, who are being made new again as human beings. So, with that in mind then Paul asks, where is the wise person, where is the scholar, where’s the persuasive speaker of our time, hasn’t God turned that wisdom of the world into nonsense? Because the world with its wisdom, right, with its knowledge of good and evil, what mankind did after the fall, to try to recreate shalom, to try to be like God without God, the world with its wisdom was unable to recognize God in terms of His wisdom. So, God did something kind. He decided to use the nonsense of the good news that we speak to save those who believe. Jews ask for miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom. So, Paul is saying, basically Jews and Gentiles, because the Greeks were the gentiles for Paul, the predominant group of Gentiles for Paul. Jews are looking for miraculous signs, Gentiles are looking for wisdom. Right? So, people of faith are looking for signs from God. People that aren’t particularly religious or have a pantheon of gods, they’re looking for wisdom. Right? I mean, we can look at this in our own world. Christians ask for miraculous signs and secular people are searching for wisdom. Devout people want a sign from God or the gods, where other people use their knowledge as god and say, if it doesn’t measure up to this, it doesn’t exist. So, Paul takes that and juxtaposes it, but our message is that Christ was crucified and that is a ridiculous message. I mean, think about it. That is a ridiculous message. We walk around talking about a man who was crucified -  a horrible death, of course, terrible, brutal execution, absolutely - and that’s the big-game changer? You see how ridiculous this is? This offends Jewish people, Paul says. And, of course it does. This was their fear from the Romans. And it makes no sense to people aren’t Jewish. But to those Jews and Greeks who are called, He is the Christ. God’s power. Right? The signs. And God’s wisdom. Gods nonsense is wiser then human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Right? So, no matter how you look at this nonsensical story of the gospel of Jesus Christ, no matter where you are coming from on it, it all leads to God, who is more powerful than anything that we can ever dream up. And, so, Paul is invites us, brothers and sisters, think about who you were when God called you to faith. Not many of you were wise. Not many of you were in powerful places or positions. Not many of you were upper class people. But God chose you anyway. He chose what the world considers nonsense. Right? So, he put the crown on your head when you were nothing. The world would have never done that for you. The world throws people up the movie charts, the music charts, the book charts. The world throws people up and celebrates their giftedness and worships them until they fall down and then they start with the next person. And Paul is saying, you were not that at all. God came down and put the crown on your head and you were nothing and that is nonsense to the world. But he did it to put the world’s wisdom to shame, to show that it’s backward, its opposite of the way the world is operating. It is God’s grace and kindness and His choosing of us that matters. We cannot earn our way toward it. Even if we become the most celebrated human being on the face of the earth, we cannot earn our way to God. He came or us specifically and rescued us intentionally. And while it may look like nonsense, it is the salvation of the world. And, so, Paul’s point is, you can’t brag about this. You can’t walk around being super Christian. That’s an oxymoron. All of us were rescued in a nonsensical way -  at least to the world’s way of thinking. But what this gospel reveals is the backwardness of the worlds system. God game and chose you. You have nothing to brag about. The only thing you can brag about is the same thing Paul was bragging about - Christ crucified, Christ alive within me rescuing me, Christ who knows my name, Christ who lives his life out through me. I have nothing in myself to brag about. I am a partner. And Paul says this, you are partners with Christ Jesus because of God, a partner. A partner with Jesus in this world. A collaborator with Jesus in this world. Jesus is the wisdom from God. Jesus is the approval from God. Jesus is the holiness before God. Jesus is the ransom from sin.

Wow! That’s the big story of what’s going on here. That’s the good news that were supposed to be sneezing into the world everywhere, with everything that we’ve got, in every way that we can. And this is not an obnoxious thing. This is the simple weight of our lives, the impact of our lives being light in the darkness. Paul describes this kind of posture and this behavior of sneezing it forward, of spreading the good news, spreading it like a virus, spreading it like something that will take hold and grow and be nourished and flourish and replicate itself. Paul talks about that very posture. He says, brothers and sisters, when I came to you I didn’t speak about Gods mystery as if it were some kind of brilliant message. He’s like, I didn’t come to show you the next big thing, which is what their culture and, for sure, what our culture is looking for. I didn’t come with this gospel to show you that it was the next big thing. When I was with you I decided to talk about only one thing, Jesus Christ, who was crucified. When I came to you I was not strong, I was weak. When I came to you I was afraid and very nervous. I didn’t speak my message with persuasive intellectual arguments. Right? I didn’t get into theological battles, thinking that if I could win the argument that I could win a convert. I spoke my message with a spiritual power. Right? Something from within. Something welling up from within that just is. Not something that I needed to prove. Something that just is so that your faith wouldn’t be based on human wisdom but on God’s power. And isn’t that how the gospel comes to each of us? And isn’t that how we sneeze it forward?

Prayer:

Father, we come to You and we’re humbled. Were humbled by just this small little passage from an ancient letter because it fillets things. It opens them up. And all the sudden what is inside is exposed and we have to admit that we’ve tried to intellectualize this and we’ve tried to frost it and we’ve tried to bake it and we’ve tried to broil it and we’ve tried to microwave it and we’ve tried to cook it on an open fire. We’ve tried every conceivable way to make it work in a palatable way, when Paul is just showing its not palatable. That was never the point. The point was restoration, redemption, a complete reversal of the order of things. And, so, yes, we can see clearly how this is nonsense. And yet this is the wisdom of God. It’s this juxtaposition of the cultures that we live in, what we declare as nonsense, what we declare is illogical. As if we are the de-facto people that get to make these decisions. Then You come in and say it’s backward. The things that you think are the next big thing aren’t. The next big thing comes through a cross and defeat because in that utter helplessness and hopelessness the power of God comes with the resurrection and restoration. And, so, yes, we will never earn our way. Yes, we will never become holy enough or perfect enough before You to say that on our own You must acknowledge us. It is only because You have come personally to rescue us. And we have nothing to brag about. And that posture of our lives and hearts, that we have nothing to brag about. And we are not trying to create something to brag about. We are simply trying to throw ourselves on the truth of Your rescue of our souls through the cross through Your death, burial, and resurrection. That’s all we’ve got. It’s all we’ve ever needed and we accept fully. And we ask Your Holy Spirit to transform us, to continually transform us, to continually remind us not to go back to the old ways of thinking, that we are being made new. And while that may not be understandable to everyone in our sphere, the weight of our lives, the transformation of our lives, the impact of this truth on our lives, that is compelling. And that is how we spread the good news. That is how we sneeze Jesus. Help us, Holy Spirit, to come into this place and live from here. We ask this in Your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

That Facebook Live that I was talking about. You can still see that. It’s one of the posts at the Sneezing Jesus discussion group, which is at facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus. If you are going through the book. If you are interested in what it looks like for you to move the gospel forward, then it’s a great place to ask questions and have conversations and share stories and be encouraged by one another. It’s an excellent resource. So, you should check that out.

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 here in the summer months. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the More button in the lower right hand corner or if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hey Daily Audio Bible family. It’s doctor John from Jordan, New York. Cherry C., thank you for the shout out. I’ve been praying for Malcolm and I want specifically pray. In Jesus’ name, I ask you to provide Malcolm with a ticket home to honor his father and be able to provide for him. I ask that the price of that ticket will be less than $425 so that they can afford it and be able to complete the service for Malcom’s father. Jen, Prayer Warrior Princess, which, of course, I love your moniker, thanks for the shout. I just love this community and how we get to fellowship around the world. I truly believe that this is a vision of heaven on earth, where we care for one another and pray for one another in Spirit and in truth and help to have God’s will done here on earth through the prayers of the righteous. And none of us are righteous except through the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ. So, thank you all, for everyone, what you do, and how you love one another. And as our poet, Tony, says, keep it flowin’ y’all.

Hi DAB family. This is Will from beautiful Bozeman, Montana. I’ve been in the background just listening and praying for others and learning. Asia, I heard you sister. I’m praying for you. And I just want to share this with you and with everyone else. God said to Paul, My grace is sufficient for you for My power is made perfect in weakness. He said, My grace is sufficient for you for My power is made perfect in weakness. He said, My grace is sufficient for you for My power is made perfect in weakness. And, I know that many who are hurting, I just want to be sincere in what I’m saying for Jesus said, blessed is he who is not offended on account of me. So, take His words. Trust Him. And then He said, come to Me all you of heavy laden in burden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your soul. Now, what is that yoke? I call this my Sneezing Jesus moment as I thought through this process. It’s His grace. Now, in saying all this, that grace is sufficient for you. That is not a time to shrink back. It is not a time to retreat but for each and everyone to stand firm in God’s truth, to stand firm in who He is, for every word that He shared in these scriptures is not a point of shrinking back. So, hold on firm to your hope, your faith, your truth of who God is. And remember also, that if you can see hope then it’s not hope. So, true hope is something you’re holding onto by faith, knowing that the One who created life is the One who is able to do it. I love you all. You guys are such a blessing to me. Love you DAB. Thank you, Brian and Jill.

Hi. It’s Stanley from Maryland. Daily Audio Bible family, let’s  pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for who You are. We thank You because You are God. We thank You because You are our Father and You love us. We thank You because You know every single thing that we’re going through and You’re sad with us and You’re happy with us and You rejoice with us when we rejoice in You and You cry with us when we cry.  Thank You for who You are God. Psalm chapter 37, verse 23 and 24 says, the Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in the details all their lives. Though they stumble they will never fall for the Lord holds them by the hand. Thank You, God, for this word. And we just love You today no matter what we are going through. I hope that this encourages anyone who’s struggling with something or who feels like giving up. God knows. He delights in every detail of your life.  And though you stumble, you will never fall because He knows you and He holds you by your hand. So, I love you today. Bye.

The is Alyssa from New Jersey, AKA Zion Sinner.  And I’m calling to encourage Lawrence from California who called in. Lauren, God hears your cry. And you may have walked away from Him but He’s never walked away from you. God doesn’t lose His sheep. And He wants you to know that He’s with you and He never left you. And I want you to know that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Even during that dark night of your soul, when you walked away, there’s still no condemnation because you’re in Christ Jesus. You’re still in Him. And, so, Lawrence, I want you to know that, with God, all things are possible. Restoration is possible. He is the king of restoration. So, I pray in the name of Jesus that you will have an encounter with the Lord, that you will continue to stay hungry for him, and that the fruit that you bear from that will be the evidence that your family needs to be willing to work in the restoration process. I thank you, Lord, for Lawrence. I thank you that he was vulnerable enough call in and cry out in front of the entire world that listens. Lawrence, your tears are in Gods bottle. He collects your tears. He wipes tear from your eye. And though weeping may last for a night, joy comes in the morning. So, be encouraged my brother. Your joy is coming. Your joy is coming. Morning is coming. Its darkest before the dawn. And the Lord is here and He never left to. He’s not angry with you. And He just loves and. And He’s just standing there with arms wide open, ready to put the ring on your finger, the sandals on your feet, and the robe upon your back. So be blessed my brother and take care.

My name is Jake O. and my father took his life over the weekend. We just found out Tuesday. You can probably hear it in my voice…I’m struggling today. But…it’s not easy.  ___ Nation Guard ___ oak.  It’s way too early. It’s wrong on so many levels.  It’s not easy. And I know that without prayer and without God ___. I just need your prayer. My family needs all the prayer it can get. Thank you. Thank you.

2 Chronicles 35:1-36:23 ~ 1 Corinthians 1:1-17 ~ Psalm 27:1-6 ~ Proverbs 20:20-21

Today is August 4^th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we move forward with the next step in our adventure through the scriptures this year. We will be concluding Second Chronicles today and beginning First Corinthians in the New Testament. But first we’re reading from the Names of God bible this week. Second Chronicles chapter 35 verse 1 through 36 verse 23 today.

Ok, so, we have arrived at the doorstep of Paul’s first epistle or his first letter to the church at Corinth, also known as first Corinthians. And Corinth was a was a pretty big hotspot. It was a city of trade and commerce. It was a destination place to go in the Roman Empire. It was the fourth largest city in the entire Roman Empire at the time of Paul’s writing. And, so, being a trendy city, it had all of the things that go along with a trendy city, even today. It was a melting pot of spiritual ideas, idolatries, sexual exploration and immorality - all of the things to go with a large secularized society. And Paul writes this letter as a response to some of the things that he’s hearing that are going on in the church. So, its central theme is unity, church unity. And, so, that makes it no less poignant now that it was then. Paul talks about a lot of topics, from the way that we should behave toward one another, to the way husbands and wives should behave, to the way you should behave in church. And some the most quoted portions of the New Testament will be found in this letter, this first Letter to the Corinthians. Things like - through a glass darkly, or when I was a child I spoke as a child, and then, of course, the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians, which has been known for a long time as the love chapter - beautiful, beautiful, beautiful work on what love is, what it looks like, and what it does. So, Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth echoes through time all the way to us today. It’s like we just received it in the mail and we’re going to open this letter. And it has just as much meaning now as it did then. And, so, we begin. First Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 through 17.

Prayer:

Father, we, like king David, share the same desire, that we can remain in Your presence all the days of our lives, that we might gaze upon Your beauty. And we realize that when this is the posture of our heart, when this is what we are seeking primarily - to be in your presence, to feel your presence wrap itself around us like a warm hug, to feel your intimate awareness of us, that You want to be in fellowship with us, in friendship with us, in collaboration with us, in union with us - we seek this. This is what we want. And, so, when we seek Your beauty and Your presence everything else in our lives is automatically put into its proper perspective and we realize that some of the things that have been so deeply consuming to us shouldn’t even have a hold over us, perhaps shouldn’t even be a part of our lives. So, Holy Spirit, we invite you to lead us deeper into Jesus, to lead us on the pathway that leads to life, the narrow path, deeper and deeper. And as the world recedes into its proper alignment, we ask You to reorder our lives so that we can consistently and continually, for all of the days of our lives, walk with You in Your presence, in Your will, following Your ways on the narrow path that leads to life, guided by Your word that illuminates our paths before us. This is our prayer. This is our desire. Come, Holy Spirit.  We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website to base was going on around here.

Well yeah, we had a blast last night at the Sneezing Jesus live, Facebook Live, that we did. You guys are awesome. I’ve just been very, very inspired by some of the stories that I’ve heard and it’s just really beautiful. So, we had a good time with that last night.

I remind you that, if you haven’t had the chance, Sneezing Jesus is available wherever you can get books. I invite you to take that journey because I think that journey will bring you close. It’s a kind of presence that we were just praying about, found in the book of psalms, this sort of desire for union and intimacy in all things at all times. This is available. And looking at Jesus up close and personal, it just opens up that doorway. It’s always been there for us to walk through. So, check that out.

So, we’ll be taking a Sneezing Jesus on the road for a few months of traveling around and just hanging out with the family and seeing everybody. If you’d like to see that come to your city, here’s how you get that ball rolling. Go to sneezingjesus.com, scroll all the way to the bottom, and you’ll see this little tiny form. Just fill out that form. We’ll be in touch and see if it can happen.

The other thing about Sneezing Jesus is  the reviews at Amazon and stuff. If you have gotten your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or wherever, if you would be willing to take five minutes out of your day and leave a little review for that, wherever you got it…that…I mean…that’s certainly something that we’re told to do by the publishing companies…but I see that as a seed…I see it as a seed. Those things get planted. And then somebody, somewhere, along the way, maybe many years from now even, comes across this, sees what you had to say, and that convinces them that this is what they’ve been seeking, this is what they’re looking for - a clear picture of Jesus. And then that seed gets watered and comes to fruition and becomes a harvest. So, if you could take a few minutes, that will be helpful. Thank you for that.

If you want a partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that it dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link. It’s on the homepage. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the More button in the lower right hand corner, or if you prefer the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hi my DAB family. This is your sister Julie. My heart is full of gratitude for all of you and I love you. Brian, my brother, to God be the glory, the great things He has done through your family and your ministry. Thank you for making your faithfulness in making the word of God come to life for me again. This family has helped to resurrect my soul from a shipwrecked life. I felt the need to call and reach out to all my DAB family members who are silent and empty. I know that there are lots who call on a regular basis to encourage us and I’m very grateful to them. But to the silent loved ones, your situations and circumstances are not silent to God. I pray that the river of living waters wash over you and give you peace in the middle of the storm and may you have strength to look up into the face of our Father and know that you are dearly and wonderfully loved by your brothers and sisters in this family and you are a part of it. And I just want you to know that I love you and I think about you all every day because I’ve been a silent one too. And I’m reaching out to you and letting you know that you are prayed for every day. Even though we may not know your name, you are still our brothers and sisters in Christ. So, keep sneezing everyone. And I love you. Bye-bye.

Hi family. Drew from the bay area. Listen, I’m just calling in today because the Holy Spirit wants me to. I only have a second because I’m going to be late to work. But this call is for Asia and for David and for Rebecca and for Daniel J. Jr. and for Blind Tony and for sinners and for many that are struggling. The Holy Spirit wants you to know that He has you. Did Sarah doubt that she was going to have a child in the wilderness when she was an old lady? Yes, she did. Did Elijah doubt that God was going to protect him and take care of him when he was running away from Ahab and Jezebel? Yes, he did. Where is Elijah now? Did Jonah run away from God and did God take care of Jonah and bring him back? Yes, he did. Did God come through on all the promises that He made to Hannah? Yes, He did. Did he come through for Elizabeth? Yes, He did. Did he do all the things that he promised to? Yes, He did.  Yes, He will. He loves you. So, take your eyes off yourself and realize God’s plans are bigger than all of us. But together we can have strength. And our lives are like a flower that just wilted this past spring and died. But the seeds that spring up the next year will even better than before, even more numerous. So, don’t doubt what God’s plans are. Just pray and worship Him. That’s all He wants from us. I love you family.

Yes. My name is Mark N. I live in Davie, FL. I’ve been a listener for about nine years. I would desire everybody’s prayers right now. I’m going through a lot and my family. My mother is in the hospice. I just got a call. She’s got 73 hours left. She’s going downhill quickly. So, please keep us in prayer. We’re losing my mother. There’s five of us. And I’ll be flying back home in the north. So, I would desire everybody’s prayer. Again my name is Mark N. Just pray for the N. family. And I thank you for your prayers.  

Hi. Brian, I wanted to say thank you so much for your readings, always, but especially Romans. I appreciate how you emphasize, slowly, things in Romans. And it’s just beautiful and so important for us to understand Jesus’ love through all of this with us. And these are the tenants of our faith being read to us. It’s so exciting. And I just wanted to also say hi Pastor Gene. I just love you. And I just think of you, not only as a prayer warrior but a warrior as a testament of Jesus Christ. You know, when you’re dealing with all you’re dealing with, with kids, and you’re on that brink of dealing with depression because it’s something that you just have and it’s a thorn in your side, like Paul. And you’re such…you’re strong through it all and you are so able to help other people through that. And I just so appreciate you. And I just want to give you a quick update on my daughter. She’s healing well from the C-section. The baby is just amazing and beautiful, nursing well. And my daughter-in-law, she’s the one that lost the baby, she’s doing well. She loves God and she understands His sovereignty. And Asia, I just want to say I am praying for you and praying for the God of comfort to bless and keep you. I’m running out of time, so I just want to say I love you all and praying for you all. We all have similar…while I pray for Asia…I know there’s other people with that exact same thing. So, I’m praying for you all, in Jesus’ name I pray all these things. Amen.

Hi family. This is Charles in Ohio. It’s been a while since I’ve called. I just…I was calling with both a prayer request and a praise report. My wife and I are still not together. She’s still with this other man. But today my wife and I were able to go together with our kids to the beach today. It was the first time we were able to spend time together without arguing since we separated. And while we were at the beach we found out that her father was found dead yesterday. And on the drive back from the beach, for me to take her to her grandmother’s house, God used me in the situation to minister to her and I feel that a good part of the drive was just Jesus speaking through me directly to her. But I just want to ask that everyone would keep her in prayer, that she’d be comforted in this difficult time, and also for our family as a whole, just that we would figure out some sort of new normal out of all this.

2 Chronicles 33:14-34:33 ~ Romans 16:10-27 ~ Psalm 26:1-12 ~ Proverbs 20:19

Today is the 3rd of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is good to be here with you today. I was looking around, like, feeling, like, I’m missing something crucial. And it was. My coffee was on the wrong side. I have this, like, little preflight check. It’s not written down or anything. It’s just, my own little internal, like, OK we’re ready to go. Now we are ready to go. So, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. It is the 3rd of August. We are…well…tomorrow we’ll finish the book of Second Chronicles. Today we’ll finish the Letter to the Romans. So, Second Chronicles chapter 33 verse 14 through 34 verse 33 today. And we’re reading from the Names of God Bible this week.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the way that it follows us into and through all of the transitions of our lives. And so, there’s transitions of a new month and we’re about to finish Second Chronicles and move into some of the stories from the exile. You have led us through breathtaking territory in the book of Acts and the Letter to the Romans this year. And as we conclude that and prepare to move forward into First Corinthians, we invite You in advance and we take to heart what You said in Your word today about gossip. Forgive us Lord, for the times that we have told secrets that were entrusted to us as sacred confessions. Your word gives us council not to associate with a person whose mouth is always running and is always open and is always talking. And so, Father, we ask You to help us not be that person. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Immediately what’s going on around here is tonight we’ll be doing the Facebook Live from within the Sneezing Jesus discussion group at Facebook. And it will take place at 7:00 p.m. Central Time. 7:00 p.m. here and in the rolling hills of Tennessee. Which means of you are in the Eastern time zone, that will be 8:00 p.m. If you are in the mountain time zone the United States, that will be 6. If you’re on the west coast, that will be 5. And it will be different depending on where you are in the world but it’s easy enough to figure it out by just Googling the time difference between Nashville and wherever you are. And it’s a great time to get together. We all get to be in the same place at the same time even though we’re all over the place…and this is via internet…we still get to be in each others presence and that’s a lot of fun. So we’ll look forward to talking about some small group stuff and answering some questions and just spending some time together. So, we’ll see you tonight. You need to be in the Facebook group, the Sneezing Jesus Facebook group though, or you won’t be able to see it. So that’s easy. Go to facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus and that’s all there is to it. And I look forward to seeing you there tonight.

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

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hi this is Victoria S. I’m calling tonight. I want to call in tonight especially to pray for Sherry. Oh, my sister my heart is with you. And I know that the God we serve is a mighty God and I’m asking Him right now to lift you up my sister. I’m asking Him to take you above that depression like the wings of an eagle my sister. I’m asking Him to do the exceedingly abundantly above all. Oh, you have a future and a hope. God has a purpose in your life. Oh, Lord, use my sister Lord. Use her Lord. Oh, Lord remove that depression Lord. Oh Lord, regulate her mind Lord. Strengthen her on you every hand Lord. Oh Lord let her see the Savior. Oh Lord let her see the Savior do His miraculous work. Oh, Lord in the name of Jesus. There’s nothing You can’t do Lord because You are God. Oh, Lord You heal my sister Lord. You heal her Lord with Your mighty hands Lord. Oh, Lord in the name of Jesus. Oh, Lord you help my other sister Lord, who wants another baby. Lord, You can do incredible things Lord. Oh, Lord give her the desires of her heart and let her keep her trust in You. Oh let her know she may have to wait a little while and she may not have to wait but just keep her trust in You. Keep waiting and trusting and looking for the heal because heal comes as your help comes from the Lord. Lord, I thank you for touching your people. Oh, Lord those that have a need today Lord. Oh, Lord I ask You to supply their needs. Thank you for supplying jobs. Thank you for supplying ways. Thank you for healing bodies and delivering souls Lord. Oh, Lord in the name of Jesus and Lord we will give You the glory. Lord, we will give You the praise Lord. You said the fervent effectual prayers of the righteous will deal with much. Oh, Lord…  

Hi family it’s Shannon from Salem Oregon. Lately the Lord reminded me to, prompted me to send in a donation. And I just want to encourage my brothers and sisters to, if the Lord is stirring in your heart to support DAB, please listen and just respond in obedience. I used to work for a non-profit and I know that it just doesn’t go unless people are generous. So, the Lords been generous to us and I just want to encourage you follow the Lords leading if He’s been prompting you to send in a gift. And I want to encourage my sister Candice who lives in the same state as me here in Oregon. I would love to meet you sometime. So, will you email me shannon@innocencefound.org. And Jenn in SoCal, I’d love to connect with you too. And, Blind No More Tony, that’s the name I’m declaring over you as one sister called in. I love that. I wonder how your eyes are doing and praying that the Lord heals you. (singing) The Lord lifts me and keeps you family. The Lord makes His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord has the confidence to call on you and gives you peace and gives you peace. The Lord lets you in peace. Love you all.

Hi it’s Allison from Scotland here. And just listening to the community prayer line and heard Kevin from South Carolina. And just wanted to pause it and phone in and just say, Kevin, I’m going to be praying for you and understand. I, too, have bipolar and I suffer from anxiety also. I’m going through a period of limited stability right now, praise the Lord, and I pray that for you too. I also understand what you are saying about your career. I haven’t worked for 10 years now because of all the various medications and various other stuff that’s going on. So, I get that. And I recently, too, have been questioning about, what is my career? Do I go back to what I did? Or do I…so, I get that and I want you to know that I absolutely will be praying for you. And I also just want to say, Victoria S., I just absolutely love, love, love, love, love, love hearing your voice and hearing your prayers. It’s like…I hope you don’t take this offensively…it’s like a mom hug. Now…I was going to say like a sister hug but it feels more…it feels more than that and…just…no body in my bloodline is a believer and it just feels like mom’s praying. It feels like…it’s just really nice…and…I hear your voice and your prayers and…it’s just…it’s so comforting and so wonderful and we’re so lucky to have each other. So, lot’s of love to all and we’ll fix it. Love you. Bye.      

Hi. My name is Liz and I just sat and looked at the call button for a really long time before I pressed it. And then I remembered that Satan has been keeping me from making this phone call for a while. And I’m reaching out today, finally, for my marriage because I think we finally hit rock bottom….and you name it…rivalry, hostility, anger…it’s at the core. And I resisted calling. And, so, I’m asking for everyone to pray for me. My name is Liz and my husband’s name is Nate. We just need complete restoration. And I know that God is faithful to restore us. And if you would just pray, specifically, for my anger and actual hate in my heart towards my husband just be replaced with fruit so that I don’t walk around feeling like a hypocrite. So, thank you for praying. And I just want everybody with mental illness and depression and anxiety to know that my heart goes out to you, that I’ve struggled with that too. But God has healed me from it, so, I know that He can heal you too and I’m praying for everybody that calls in with that. God bless you and thank every…

2 Chronicles 32:1-33:13 ~ Romans 15:23-16:9 ~ Psalm 25:16-22 ~ Proverbs 20:16-18

Today is the 2nd day of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s good to be here with you today. How’s everything going? How you settling into this new month? I think we are all settling in well because we’re continuing the rhythm of bringing God’s word into our lives every day. Gosh, I can’t even imagine a day without the bible at this point and I hope you feel the same. There’s just been so many rescues from God’s word, like, so much good news, so much good counsel, so much of a mirror into my own soul. I can’t imagine not having that. Thankfully, we do. And, so, with that said, we’ll dive in. We’re reading from the Names of God Bible this week, which is simply an English translation that preserves the original language. Anytime God’s name is invoked, its left as it was, even though everything else is in English, which we understand. So, we have a few days left in second Chronicles and we have a couple of days left in the Letter to the Romans. Second Chronicles chapter 32 verse 1 through 33 verse 13 today.

Prayer:

Father, many of us feel as is described in the Psalms today. And we’ve all felt it. We’ve all felt lonely. We’ve felt depression. We’ve had our heart troubled. We’ve been distressed. We’ve suffered. We’ve felt misery. We know what this feels like. And, so, like the psalmist, we ask that You turn to us and have pity on us, that You relieve our troubled heart, and bring us out of distress, that You see our suffering and forgive our sins, that You see that there are things pressing all around us, coming down on us, and we need Your protection. As the psalmist, said, protect my life and rescue me. And we pray that God. Don’t let us be put to shame. We have taken refuge in You and there is no other hope and there was no other hope and there is no other place for refuge. We just see it acutely when we’re in the wilderness. We just see it clearly when we’re facing hardship and opposition. So, come, Jesus. We throw ourselves on Your mercy and we humble ourselves before You. We hide ourselves in the shadow of Your wings. We draw near to You. Come and do what You said You came to do. We open ourselves to it, that you might heal our broken hearts and set us free. Come rescue us. Holy Spirit, we ask in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Tomorrow night, so, the 3rd of August, 7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. And, just, kind of, Google the difference between wherever you are and 7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. And we’ll be doing another Facebook Live, talking about Sneezing Jesus in the Sneezing Jesus discussion group, which you can find at facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus. And we’ll talk about small groups and other things and take some Q&A and just hangout. Right? Just spend some time together. So, looking forward to that very, very much. Hope to see you there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link and it lives on the homepage. And thank you, for those of you who have clicked that link. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the More button in the lower right hand corner or if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hello my name is Lawrence ___ from California. It’s a very hard call for me to make. I’ve been a believer for 20 years. Some time ago, I walked away from the Lord through disappointment that turned to bitterness that turned to anger. I had disappointment in my marriage and my career and in my life. I was a prayer warrior. I loved to pray. I would pray for other people, unbelievers mostly. And their problems, which, at times were similar to mine, would be fixed. But my problems would not. They would linger. And I became bitter. And over time I walked away from the Lord. It was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life and it cost me my marriage and my family. And all I want is for the Lord to restore me and restore my family. And once again, I’m before Him and His people, risking being disappointed again because I have to reach out to Him in my need even though I felt He has turned away from me so many times and disappointed me. But now I know that I need Him anyway. Even if that’s true, that He did, I still need Him. I’m hurting very badly and in a very bad place in my life and I know that I need Him. So, I’m asking for prayer for me and for my family. Thank you.

Hello everybody. This is Eddie from Vegas. Just calling about the woman who called in. Her name is Sharron from California. I just wanted to let you know that I heard your cry. Don’t give up. I wanted to share verse with you, that is my life verse, because I was in a bad place in my life and I tell people that this is my story. So, I’m going to share it with you. It’s Psalm 40 verses 1 through 3. I waited patiently for the Lord to help me and He turned to me heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what He has done and be amazed and they will put their trust in the Lord. So, Sharron, I just want to pray for you. You know. I want you know that the Lord, He here’s your cry. I want you to know that I’m praying for you and that I know that many others are. So, please, hear whatever we have to say. I don’t know. I’m a little nervous about this. But I just want you know that you are deeply loved by a lot of people even though you don’t know them. You’ve been listening for a while. So, just know that your loved and just don’t give up.  Hang in there because God’s going to work this out. He hears you. He knows you. He loves you.  He’s loved you all your life before He even knew you, an everlasting love, more then we can ever understand or fathom. So, just know that there are hard times in our lives but Jesus went through the hardest of all for us and He loves us. So, just don’t give up.

Hi. My name is Donna from New Hampshire. I’ve been listening to Daily Audio Bible for about a year and cannot even put into words what a blessing this has been to my life and what an honor and privilege it is to be a part of this family. So, thank you Brian for amazing, amazing work. We’ll be calling you saint Brian one day because I believe that this day and age, you are truly living in saintly and godly life. You are blessing so many lives. I’m calling for a prayer request for my daughter Jessica who is 17. She’s had some bouts with depression for the last two years. And, although when I look at her now she’s happy, she’s beautiful, and she’s, like, an amazing person, I don’t see her as depressed.  And sometimes in our talking she’ll say, mom, you don’t see my heart, you can’t feel what I feel sometimes. And I just want to ask for prayers for Jessica, that God can heal her heart and her mind and her soul. I’m always trying to talk to her about God. I’ve raised all my kids in the Catholic faith and I’m constantly trying to remind them of His love and His faithfulness, even though I’m not sure that they always understand or believe that. So, just for prayer that Jessica…she’s afraid…you know…that she’ll have depression her whole life and I keep trying to assure her that God will heal her. I pray also. I listen every day and am brought tears so many times listening to other people who are calling in with depression and hopelessness. And just know that you are so much in my heart and in my mind and prayers, everyone that calls in that has depression, that God will heal you. Never give up hope. Never give up praying for healing. God bless…

Hi DAB family it’s Joe from Connecticut. I want to thank you for your prayers for my family and ask for your continued prayers this week as we battle spiritual warfare in our lives and as I go into a very important meeting this week with a perspective new employer. I ask for your prayers, that God’s will be done in this meeting and that if it is His will, and whatever that may be, that it will be done and there be no outside influences from the darkness or evil spirits. My good friend Alex from the DAB has a great daily prayer asking God to send his angel armies before us, to send 10000 heavenly angels to protect us and all those we are to be contact with, so that His will is done in and through our lives. So now, I offer up my own daily prayer to my DAB family that I believe that fits in especially well with Brian’s current reading of Paul’s Letter to the Romans. God, my heavenly Father, I give You my life that I may do Your will. I prostrate myself here before You today and every day as I am nothing without You. I am the dust of the earth, the sinner. It is only through You and with You and in You that I am a disciple here to do Your will. Jesus have mercy on me, purify me, renew me, and redeem me. I give you my life. Forgive me for all my sins and take away my ego, my lust, my greed, my envy, my anger, my pride, my gluttony, and my laziness. Make me an empty vessel Lord, that I may be filled with Your love and faith and of all Your graces to do Your will. Let me be a reflection of Your light and love upon the world. Holy Spirit, increase my faith today and every day, that each day there will be less of me and more of You and Jesus in my heart and mind and that people will see Jesus through me. Thank you, God, for calling me here today and every day to be with You, that I may do Your will today and all the days of my life through eternity. Amen. I love you DAB family and keep…

Kisses from God so tender and sweet
Expressions of love that have made me complete
They removed all resentment and replaced it with pride
A love so abundant that it can’t be denied
Our love makes us different and it always should show
Our love for each other lets the world know
That our God is living
He was in the grave but He rose once again with all power to save
And the love that He gives us, we give back to others
We all are God’s children, which makes us all brothers
Your encouragement is God’s kisses, expressions of love
Tender and sweet from the Father above

Blindtony1016@gmail.com. Like to give a shout out to Dean and Kim S. and Michelle from LA. Hope all of y’all are doing well.  Anyway, once again, my love to the Hardin family for their dedication and perseverance for making God’s word heard and felt throughout the entire world. And the Holy Spirit is flowin’. Keep it flowin’ yo. Alright. Bye-bye.

2 Chronicles 30:1-31:21 ~ Romans 15:1-22 ~ Psalm 25:1-15 ~ Proverbs 20:13-15

Today is the first day of the month of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here. Great to greet you within this brand-new month that we get to share together. And we kind of need to buckle up. We are going to be spending some time in 10 different books of the bible during this month. So, we’ve got some ground to cover and it’s going to be magnificent. And that will unfold as we move forward. But the next step forward takes us further into the book of Second Chronicles and further in the book of Romans, when we get to the New Testament. So, from the Names of God bible, which is what we’re reading this week, Second Chronicles chapter 30 verse 1 through 31 verse 21.

Commentary:

OK. In the letter to the Romans, Paul continues to talk about unity and that’s not an uncommon topic even today. In fact, it’s kind of a topic of discussion constantly. And, so, what Paul is saying is applicable but there are some distinctions that are different. What Paul is talking about in the church of Jesus is unity between Jewish Hebrew believers and Gentiles, that we would all become one. When we are talking about church unity today we are largely talking about, like, denominational unity or theological unity. And those things are definitely up for discussion. That’s the wrestling that we’ve been doing since…well…since the early church. But for Paul, there weren’t a bunch of stripes and flavors of the faith. You know. There weren’t a bunch of denominations with theological nuances. There was this one main issue that crops up all the time - whether a person needs to be converted to Judaism before they can become a follower of Jesus or whether this is open to all, to gentiles as they are. And, so, this is what Paul is trying to draw people together into understanding and we see some of how he’s arriving there - how it is that Paul, a Pharisee, could see the teachings of Jesus and then see how they connect with his faith and his story, moving it dramatically forward, blowing the doors off the exclusivity of the worship of Yahweh and expanding it into the whole world so that everyone is welcome through Jesus. And, so, Paul references the scriptures in order to show how it is that he came to understand this. So, Paul says, everything written long ago was written to teach us so that we would have confidence through the endurance and encouragement which the scriptures give us. So, he’s saying, I’m not denying the scriptures at all. They’re the basis for everything that I’m saying. And, so, may God, who gives you this endurance and encouragement, allow you to be in harmony with each other by simply following the example of Jesus. And then we will all have the same goal, we’re all following Jesus, and will praise God for it. So, accept each other the same way that Christ excepted you. Now, we could stop there, before we get to these scriptures that Paul is referencing and just say that is a bit of a golden rule. Like, maybe it’s not THE golden rule, like the do unto others rule, but that’s pretty much a golden rule of the Christian faith. If we would accept each other the same way that we have been accepted by Jesus, if we will simply be Christ-like in this and accept one another and accept that we are all on a journey toward the same thing in Christ, we would be cultivating a unity by default. We would remember that this isn’t about us converting somebody to our persuasion. This isn’t about making someone in our own image. This is about humbly following Jesus, understanding what he pulled us out of, and looking around and seeing that everyone else is being pulled out of something to and it’s a process. Now, if you have achieved perfect union with Christ and have risen above it all, completely, well then, this may not apply to you; however, I’m pretty sure it does because I’m pretty sure we are all in process. But anyway, to what Paul is saying, as he references the scriptures to reveal to the Jews and the Gentiles alike, that from the beginning the whole world was going to be redeemed through Jesus. Paul says - here’s one scripture - that is why I give thanks to You among the nations (which is plural) and I will sing praises to Your name. So, not just Israel but the nation’s, which would mean non-Jewish people, gentiles. And then Paul says, and the scripture says again, you nations (plural again), be happy together with His people. And then Paul says again, praise the Lord all you nations, praise Him, all you people of the world, which would, by default, include Gentiles. And then Paul quotes Isaiah, there will be a route from Jesse, He will rise to rule the nations, (plural) and He will give the nation’s hope. So, instead of nations, for our time, we could insert denominations and arrive in a similar place. We are all invited to this party. We are all invited into this kingdom. None of us has a corner on it. No one can box it up and sell it. This is the Kingdom that is in and among us and is advancing whether we participate or not. But we’re fully invited to engage with all of our heart, mind, and will. We’re fully invited to engage in becoming Christ-like and when we remember that that is the goal and not domination by theology over somebody else. It’s simply losing all of that. To become Christ-like is the goal. Then we can hear the benediction that Paul pronounces as he ends this section of the letter - may God, the source of hope fill you with joy and peace through your faith in Him, then you will overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:

So, Father, we invite You into these places that we segregate ourselves from each other, even from our brothers and sisters, because they think different, because they are different. For whatever reason, big or small, we continue to find our identity by creating groups of likeminded people. And that’s OK. But then we get ingrown in that group and think we are the right ones. And we have this subtle arrogance about everything that we do. Forgive us of this. We are reminded today that we must accept each other the same way that You accepted us. May we look at the world, everyone, through those eyes. Come, Holy Spirit, because You have come for us all. Come, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

And that is a good way to begin the month of August friends. That is a good way to begin a month. It’s going to be amazing.

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

Immediately, kind of, on the radar. The biggest blip on the radar is two days from now, August 3^rd. We’ll be doing another Facebook Live in the Sneezing Jesus group. And like I’ve been saying…man…there’s been some fantastic stories there that have really inspired me and inspired each other. It’s a great conversation around Sneezing Jesus. But, we’ll be doing another Facebook Live, 7:00 p.m., Thursday night, August 3^rd. And you need to be in the group to be able to see that. But it’s easy. Just go to facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus and you’ll be in. So, we’ll talk a little bit about the book but we’ll also talk about small groups and ways to bring this message into a small group setting. So, look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share as a community, which is to bring God’s spoken word to whoever will listen to it, wherever they are, whatever time it is, and to keep building community around that rhythm of daily interaction with the scriptures so that no one has to go through anything alone, so that we know we’re not alone. If that has resonated and been life and light to you, then thank you for your help in keeping the global campfire burning each day. So, there’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If your using the app you can press the More button in the lower right hand corner or if you prefer the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hi family. This is Viola from Maryland. Brian, I got the 12 books, Sneezing Jesus and in the middle of studying and doing my assignments doing my master’s program, I finished reading that book, Sneezing Jesus. What a compelling book. I’ve already downloaded the audio book from iTunes for $4.95. And I’m going to be listening to that as well. Family, I want to encourage you to go and get more of those books. We want to keep Sneezing Jesus on the top charts, so that people will wonder why it’s there and they will get it themselves and read it. God, bless you, Asia, my sister from Munich and everyone on this Podcast who is trusting in Jesus for one thing or the other. I want to say to you, He’s a miracle worker. He’s a miracle worker and He will do a miracle, a miracle today. He will do a miracle, a miracle today. Powerful healer, is our Sneezing Jesus. He will do a miracle, a miracle today. He will do a miracle, a miracle today. Asia, don’t let the devil harass you. You know the Lord says that who ___ he sets free indeed. And there is therefore no condemnation to do so in Christ. Don’t let the devil tell you otherwise sister. The Lord is not punishing you and not punishing you because of anything you’ve done in the past. Look, my prayer is that God will give you a second miracle baby but even if He doesn’t it doesn’t mean He’s punishing you. Sister, I pray in the name of Jesus that the Lord will touch your body, the Lord will heal you, inside and out, in the name of Jesus, and He will give you…if that is what He wishes…He will give you that second miracle baby very soon, in the name of Jesus. And I want to thank everyone that transcribes this Daily Audio Bible, your work has not gone unnoticed. God, bless you.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. It’s ___ in Houston. I’m calling because tonight I’m just having a breakdown. It seems like marriages and family just escape me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted since I was a little girl - to be like my mom. And now I’m in my thirties and it seems like relationship after relationship has just not led anywhere and I know I’m supposed to surrender it to God, and surrender my dreams, but the dreams won’t die. And I want to be completely open to God taking that opportunity for me. You know, I really really do because I really do love Jesus. And I want to be with somebody who loves Him too and I don’t want to be with someone who doesn’t, I really don’t. But it seems…I don’t know…they just…I don’t know…I’m just feeling unlovable. But I know God loves me. And I need people to pray for me. I really feel alone right now and I thought of you all. And I hear you all call in and pray for one another so much and pray for me before. And I thought you are a safe place to go and ask for prayer. Thank you for praying. I’m sorry to me such a mess. But I found it better than sitting here feeling alone, reaching out to the body of Christ. Alright. Love you guys. Bye.

This is Aimee from Arkansas. Brian, I just want thank you, so much, for that great book. Oh my goodness, it’s awesome. And after reading Romans 12 today, we just have to go out there and we have to be light in the darkness. We’ve got to surrender ourselves totally to His will. Someone told me that they pray for people at restaurants and so I started doing that. I would ask the waiter or waitress if they needed prayer because we are going to pray for the food and…just that little thing…you would be amazed at what people say. Some of them start crying and saying, yes. And one girl, who I would never have thought that she would even receive it, she came back and she said, I told my friend, and would you pray for her too. So, even things like that…just…we’ve got to be the light to the world - on the phone, when we’re out in public, just sneeze it forward. We’ve got to show the world what they’re missing. They’re searching for something. They just don’t know what. But it’s Jesus. We’ve got to bring that to them and just be the light. Have a great day. Bye.

Hello. My name is Amalee and I’m calling from central Florida. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for about 3 years and I’m calling about a call I heard on the 30^th…today is the 30^th…from Sharon of California. Sharon, your description of yourself and your problem, it’s like you’re describing me. I also suffer from depression. But since I’ve been listening to Brian and reading the bible and placing more trust in Jesus, I am defeating that. Please, you need to trust Jesus. Trust Him. Have faith and trust Him. He doesn’t have to reveal his plan for you. He is helping you. You just don’t realize it. The little things…you just don’t realize it…that’s Jesus helping you. By the way, I have multiple myeloma, which is the cancer of the bone marrow. And if I break a bone it won’t heal. And that would give me septicemia. And I will die. So, please pray for me also, not just Sharon, which I’m praying for and will continue to pray for her. But pray for me, Amalee. Thank you all. God, bless you all, especially Brian and Jill. Good night.

2 Chronicles 29:1-36 ~ Romans 14:1-23 ~ Psalm 24:1-10 ~ Proverbs 20:12

Today is the 31st day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a good to be with you today at the end of month number 7. Today is the 212^th day of the year, which means that here in the rolling hills of Tennessee things are hot and sticky and humid and fertile and green and beautiful and hot but it’s all good. It’s nice and cool here in the studio. Nice cup of coffee to my left readied and this month well. Reading from the names of God Bible this week. Second Chronicles chapter 29 verses 1 through 36 today.

Commentary:

OK. The apostle Paul is leading us into some interesting territory in the book of Romans. Interesting, because in this kind of stuff is still going on. And interesting that it was already beginning to form in the minds of the early believers then. And that is this idea that we can arrive at unity through complete uniformity. So, that if all moving in the same direction, believing exactly the same thing, like, cookie stamping out our faith, and our faith journeys, then we’ll all be going in the same direction. So, Paul says a lot of things and uses a few examples to illustrate the things that he’s saying. He says, welcome people who are weaker in faith. But that’s not an invitation to argue with them over your differences of opinion, your theological differences, or even your behavioral differences. And then he uses the example of food, which must have been an issue at that point in time when he’s writing this. Right? So, some people are eating anything. Some people are eating only vegetables. And depending on which side of the equation you’re on you sort of argue over whether you can do this. So, a person puts a big bite of steak in this mouth and says I’m a carnivore and I’m going to eat this. Or as a vegetarian, it might be a more healthy thing to do - treat the body as a temple, would be this. So, Paul is saying, look…and this is really a brilliant and wise way to look at issues like this…Paul’s saying, look, God has excepted all of these people as his servants. So, who are you to criticize someone else’s servant? What gives you the right to criticize someone else’s servant because they’re not doing what you do or what your convictions are or how you would like to order the world? What gives you the right to do that? The Lord will determine whether his servant has been successful, Paul says. And then he talks about holy days with the same thing in mind. Some people observe certain specific holy days for certain specific reasons on their faith journey. Other people think every day is a holy day. So, Paul’s given a couple of examples but we can see all kinds of examples in the world today, all kinds of battles being waged over theological formulas and behavioral differences and all kinds of stuff. So, Paul’s conclusion, why do you criticize or despise other Christians? Everyone will stand in front of God to be judged. All of us will have to give an account of ourselves to God. So, let’s stop criticizing each other. Instead, we should decide never to do anything that would make other Christians have doubts or lose their faith. So, one, when stop passing judgment on each other for our differences. Stop trying to make other believers in our image rather than in Gods image or in our understanding or persuasion rather than understanding we will all stand before God and it will all burn away and we will all find out we had things wrong and that He still loved us and collaborated with us and died for us and was with us and was within us, all along. And two, we’re not going to get an identity by running around condemning people. Like, just watching how people do things different than the way that we believe and, so, then we get an identity by saying I’m not. It’s like trying to find an identity by saying this is what I am not. As opposed to having an identity that is, this is who I am. So, Paul is saying, look, we have to be sensitive to each other in our differences because some of us can move into certain territory that other people couldn’t because the Holy Spirit hasn’t allowed them too. And conversely, they may be able to move in areas that we’re not allowed because the Holy Spirit won’t allow us in those areas. Simply because we all have a story and paths will need us somewhere. And, so, we can’t just flaunt this. We can’t make someone else fall or stumble because of the flaunting of our own freedoms. We have to be aware. Or as Paul says, let’s pursue those things which bring peace and which are good for each other. So, going back to his example of food, he says, don’t ruin God’s work because of what you eat. All food is acceptable but it’s wrong for a person to eat something if it causes someone else to have doubts. Alright, so you’ve got to be aware of your actions and what you’re doing. And Paul concludes, so, whatever you believe about these things keep it between yourself and God. The person who does what he knows is right shouldn’t feel guilty. He’s blessed. But if a person has doubts, then he’s condemned because he didn’t act in faith and anything and that’s not done in faith is sinful.

It’s interesting that so much of our faith journey is about modifying our behavior and it’s so interesting that this was going on all the way back to the beginning of the church. Like, we just want to conform ourselves to a certain set of standards that we believe are the image of Christ. And, so, if we can just get our behavior in line with certain convictions and then everyone could get on the same page, then we be moving in the right direction, which is sort of beside the point because these things only happen from within us. These changes that, actually, stick, that are actually transformational, that make us different then we were, they happen within us. So, does this mean that we can just do whatever we want then, as long as we keep it a secret and it’s just between us and God? No. There are plenty of things that human beings should avoid in general and we find those things outlined in the scriptures and even in the writings of Paul and even in the book of Romans. So, as humans, there are things that are never going to be good and we should avoid those things - period. What Paul’s talking about is a layer up. The kind of ways that we try to get identities from each other by what we do and don’t do. They segregate us. And then we try to make that the issue - the way that we can overlay our convictions and instill them in someone else so that they will be made in our image. That is counterproductive and we don’t offer each other the grace of the journey, the fact that the transformation is happening inside of us and it takes time - walking with God. It takes time for things to form and settle and become solid. We have to have grace for each other in this journey because, the truth is, for all of our dogma, underneath all that, is a flailing, frail person. Behind our personality is a real being reaching for God. And, so, when we throw our dogmas around in a way we are just revealing our own unrest inside. And our Father, he’s not ruffled. He’s not taken aback. He’s right here, fathering us, if we’ll let Him and stop trying to parent everyone else around us. Just allow ourselves to be fathered by our Creator, Father. Then He will lead us into what is healthy and good and nourishing and right for us. And do we not think that He, by the power of His Holy Spirit, can do that for everyone else? Does He need us to be the perfectionist of the family, always pointing out everything everyone else is doing wrong? I think I can handle it. He sustains the world and offers your next breath as a gift. I think He can handle it. Let’s have some compassion for each other, for ourselves in his journey, as we open ourselves fully to God and allow Him to lead our life where it is going.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You and into that. Because it’s kind of loaded. Because we have certain convictions and we can see somebody moving in a direction that seems as if it’s going to be harmful. And, so, as brothers and sisters we step into those breaches, and You lead us into those things. It’s just when things begin to twist, when things begin to shift and it’s really more about our convictions and super imposing those on everyone else that all of the sudden we become dogmatic and in a cage. We’ve become boxed in and it’s getting smaller and smaller and more constricted. And, so, we release that. We release ourselves. We release everyone else. And invite Your Holy Spirit, in freedom and in truth, to lead and guide us on the narrow path that leads to life. And it is a narrow path and few find it. But we want to be the ones that find it. And we want to stay on that path, walking with You and being transformed by You in a very personal and individual way. And, so, we don’t become unaware of everything that’s going on around us. But we become hyper aware of what You are doing inside of us so that it’s no longer we who are looking at the world and judging it. We are looking at it through Your eyes. Eyes of what could be instead of what is. Eyes of achieving the impossible instead of suffering the limitations. We ask You to help us look at ourselves this way and everyone else as we continue the work of spreading the light and good news of continuing to sneeze this into the world, drawing all people to You. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

This is the last day of July and we are going to be moving into August tomorrow. July, of course, was the month that we finally gave birth to Sneezing Jesus. And we’ll be doing another Sneezing Jesus Facebook Live at the discussion group for Sneezing Jesus, which is facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus.  We’ll do that on August 3^rd, which is coming up here in a few days. It will be at 7:00 p.m. So, make plans for that.

The other thing about Sneezing Jesus is, if you have that book, and you wouldn’t mind taking a couple minutes to plant seeds - I mean, the whole thing is about planting seeds - but if you’d go back to like Amazon or Barnes noble or wherever you got it and leave a review for it, that is legitimately planning a seed. That legitimately makes a difference for those who will come into contact with it in all kinds of different ways, whether that be through word-of-mouth, or interviews, or media, or whatever…the things that happen…those little seeds planted there of your story, that matters. So, if you feel you can take the time to do that. That would be awesome.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here in the thick months of the summer time. Thank you for your partnership. There is a link at dailyaudiobible.com right on the homepage.  If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the More button in the lower right hand corner or if you prefer the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

This is Candace from Oregon calling with words of encouragement, especially for those who might be in really difficult times of struggle. I want you to really keep in mind…this is for me too…that our Lord, Jesus, He knows all about what we’re going through, down to the most excruciating details of it and He will not abandon and us and He will see us through. A friend, dear friend, Gary B. has made it clear to me that we’re not on a cruise ship, we’re on a battleship in life and the scripture really bears that out. It says in first Thessalonians 5 verse 8, since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. We have that. We have this hope and it is sure, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Even though we mess up every day. That is not too big an obstacle for Him. That’s why He came. And He died to pay for all of that and deliver us from it. And you can’t earn His salvation. He has got your back. And He’s going to see it through by His great grace and mercy and love. So, look to Him…

Hi my name is Dee and this is, actually, my first time, I guess, calling in here. I’ve been a listener since the beginning of the year and my prayer request, it’s really urgent to me. I’ve had chemical depression for 28 years and for the last 2 years I’ve been unstable with my meds. I don’t know why. Possibly going through menopause also. So, my meds have been ineffective for very long. And I’m just really, really in bad spot and I’ve been really suffering so last 2 years on and off with this - pretty much on all the time. I’ve been on multiple medications that the doctors of tried unsuccessfully. I’m on my fourth one now within two months. Anyway, the anxiety is extremely high all the time. It’s coming to a point where it’s really hard for me to work and I support myself, I’m not married. So, I need income. I just don’t know where else to go, what else to do. And I love the Daily Audio Bible. It gets me through each morning I listen to it. I just wanted to call this in and ask for prayer, please. Thank you all and God bless you.

Hi everyone this is Karen in St. Louis and I’m having to re-record this because I was just so broken up you couldn’t really understand me. I’m asking for prayer for heart encouragement, deep hear encouragement from the Lord. And I’m praying for a mate. I’ve been single all of my life. When I became a Christian at 29, I dove right in and just really wanted to get to know this God that saved me. And I love Him with all my heart. And here I am 30 years later, still with this unmet desire that nags at my heart, real heavy and hard sometimes. I know part of that is because I don’t have that family connection, that bond. My parents are gone. I have family members on Facebook that literally block me because, I guess, I post Christian stuff and they don’t want to see it. And I love them. I try to love them as best as I can to reach out but it’s like there are walls up and I know there’s a ton of walls up around everybody in my family. We had a very, very dysfunctional family growing up. So, anyway, God has put some wonderful women in my life and the church that has helped to encourage me and that I’m able to encourage. But I do minister people and I pour out and I pour out and I’m just longing for someone, just to be able to give me a hug or just to have my hand. But it’s going to be OK. And, so, anyway, I just covet your prayers. Thank you.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. This is Stan the Perseverer from Maryland. I am calling because I just finished reading or listening to the Podcast for the 26th of July. And as I watched the sun go down and I listened to the word and heard the prayers and confessions that you all made, I just felt so connected to you all and I’m thankful for that. This morning I was really wrestling with a pounding headache and felt so alone. And tonight, as I listened to the Podcast, I realized that with you all out there, I’ll never be alone. It’s been a hard couple years for me and this morning I was thinking and wondering, God, what do You have for me? I’m 62 years old and I want to walk in faith and do something great. Although, I even know that that’s not in my hands for the rest of the season in my life. So, I just wanted to give you a shout out and say thanks for be who you are and covet your prayers for insight, God’s insight, into what He has for me in this next season of life, after divorce. I love all of you. God bless you. Bye-bye.

2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27 ~ Romans 13:1-14 ~ Psalm 23:1-6 ~ Proverbs 20:11

Today is the 30th of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you at the threshold of a shiny, sparkly new week that we are going to a walk into together. And this week or going to read from the Names of God Bible, which I enjoy because it’s all English. But when we come to a name of God then it then it’s the Hebrew name, the original name, in the original language. And we will be making a lot of transition this week. We will transition out of the month of July and into the month of August. We will transition out of the books of Chronicles and we will also complete and transition out of the letter to the Romans. So, a lot in front of us this week. So, let’s dive in. Second Chronicles chapter 26 verse 1 through 28 verse 27 today.

Commentary:

OK. So Paul is continuing to, sort of, lay out this…I wouldn’t call it a grid…but sort of an overview of what life can look like, should look like, in this faith. And we went over some of that yesterday and he continues today. By coming to the same conclusion that Jesus came to and that has been in the world forever. It all comes down to love - loving your neighbor as you love yourself. Because if you can do that then you are obeying God. For example - and he uses the 10 commandments - never commit adultery. Well, if you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you’ll be fulfilling that. You won’t commit adultery. Never murder. If you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you’re not going to murder. Never steal. If you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you’ll never steal. So, on and on it goes. And comes down to love. We are all in this together. We are all part of a body. We each have a unique position in this. We need to be in that to its fullest…fullest…and not be looking around at what other parts of the body are doing, so that we can try to not be who we are, so that we can try to be but somebody else is. We are all in this together and we must love one another. The thing is, if we would do that…seriously…if we would do that, things will change all around us. If everyone would do that in the world, the world would change overnight – dramatically, radically, overwhelmingly. But if we would just do this, then our world would change dramatically. The temperature in our homes would be different. The posture of heart that we have toward each other would be different. It’s pretty simple and pretty difficult to live into. And impossible to live into without union with God, without walking with God, without relationship with God, without God being intertwined in that story. It’s not possible. But Paul breaks it down in today’s reading by basically summarizing everything that we’ve been talking about when we went through the book of Acts and everything that we’ve been talking about as we’ve gone through the book of Romans. What does a person who is Christ-like do? What does that person look like? What does this really mean? Paul says, look, you know the times that we’re living in and it is time for you to wake up. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first started this. The night is almost over and the day is near. So, we should get rid of the things that belong to the dark and take up the weapons that belong to the light because that’s what we’re bringing into this world friend - light and good news. That’s what this is about. So, Paul says we should live decently, as people who live in the light of day. This other crazy stuff - the drunkenness, the wild parties, the sexual immorality, the promiscuity -  we know all of those things. Right? Those are all on the A list. But also on Paul’s A list is rivalry and jealousy. Those are all included in some of the other stuff that has traditionally been so bad. Rivalry and jealousy are just as bad as wild parties and immorality. So, think about that for a minute. Those things belong to the dark. They need to be gone. We live in the light of the day. Paul says, instead of those things, live like Jesus. Or in other words, be Christ-like and forget about satisfying the desires of your corrupt nature. That was then. This is now. You are not that person anymore. That person died and you have been raised up anew, a new creation in Christ, Jesus. Wow! It’s so clear. And we all get a taste of it. It wells up inside of us and we can see it. But then we just assume that we don’t have to cultivate this lifestyle. So, we will rush off into this overjoyed that we have finally seen it only to find out the second it gets opposed we’re just going to slide backward. What Paul is doing is giving us a description of where we should be heading. And we should never stop heading in that direction. We have to be vigilant every single day. We have to move in this direction in a straight line for a long time in order to succeed, which ultimately brings us face-to-face with whether or not we really want this, whether or not we really want this life. Because it really is a different kind of life. It really is an invitation to be in the world in a different way - to be in it but not of it.

Prayer:

Father, we want to be in the world but not of it. We want to be here because you made us human beings to be here. But the constructs that we’ve made all over the world, that we would know as culture, it’s been a mixture for a long time and you’ve invited us to live higher, to live truer. That the culture is based on so many…thousands and thousands of little lies…that we tell all of the time, trying to craft ourselves in our own image, in our own perfect image, and then try to display that into the world, when you’ve invited us to wipe that clean and reflect your glory, to be fully present here, to be in this world, but to be reflecting heaven into it. On earth as it is in heaven. And that’s really what we do want. We can surrender ourselves but it really does come down to: how much do we really want this? Because we try to blend, we try to mix that all in all of the time. We want to find our identity in something other than You. And this is constant. And, so, right now, we surrender that identity and invite your Holy Spirit to live through us in this world, which isn’t to say that we’re passengers along for the ride. This is an invitation to a collaboration in this world - a deep intertwining with you - an awareness that it’s not possible for us to be alone in this world no matter what we’re going through. Most of the things that were going through we got ourselves into. What would it look like just followed you? Oh, the joys of thoughts like that. And they’re all available and it’s all possible because nothing is impossible with You. So, come, Holy Spirit, we pray.  We surrender our will and our ways and our identity and our agenda to You. Come, Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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The next Sneezing Jesus Facebook Live that we’re going to do is in a few days, August 3^rd, which is Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. So, you can Google the difference between where you are and Central Standard Time and then you’ll know when it is for you. But we’re going to talk some more at the Facebook discussion group for Sneezing Jesus, which has been amazing, really amazing. If you’re not in it, come check it out. It’s at facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus. And, so, we’ll look forward to seeing you live on Thursday night.

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hi. I’m Sharron from California. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for five years. I’m a first-time caller. I’ve suffered from major depression most of my life. I’m an older woman and I’m giving up because I don’t see no light at the end of the tunnel. I feel miserable every day and my family doesn’t understand. I’ve turned to God…but God…I don’t know what his plan is for me. I just can’t live in this misery anymore and I don’t know who to turn to besides God. But I feel He doesn’t want to help me. Please pray for me because I don’t know how much more I can take. What…sad…empty…lonely feeling of… Thank you and God bless you all.

Hi DABbers this is His little Sheree from Canada. A few days ago, I called to make a public declaration of love confessing that I’ve officially given my heart to this beautiful community. And since then, the Lord is like, so, you love the DAB Sheree? Yup? Going to put a ring on it? And, of course I knew exactly what He meant. So, I’ve signed up to make a monthly donation to the Daily Audio Bible and it just feels right. I have been listening to this Podcast since the beginning of the year and I’m glad that it’s free to anyone willing to listen. That’s the way it should be, I think. But I’m just not content anymore to date this ministry - you know, hold hands and snuggle up to the campfire and then kiss goodnight and go home…no big deal. There’s a time to commit. You know? There’s a time to put a ring on it. And I think that’s for someone out there listening today. So, that’s it for now. Love you DABbers. This is His little Sheree from Canada. God bless you today.

Hi everybody. This is Lisa the Encourager. Hope you guys are having and will have the most encouraging day today. I’m calling tonight because I heard you -  I heard you David from Kansas - on July 24th calling out to God: “God please help me”. And I heard you. So, I have just a few verses for you David and then I’m going to pray for you. So, the first one I have is Psalm 9:17 - May the favor of the Lord our God rest on you David, establish the work of our hands for us, yes, establish the work of our hands. Philippians 4:13 - David you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. Colossians 3:24 – David, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward, it is the Lord, Christ, you are serving. Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you, David, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you David and not to harm you David, plans to give you hope and a future David. Proverbs 16:3 – Commit to the Lord whatever you do David and He will establish your plans. Dear Lord, I pray tonight for David from Kansas, God, as he is struggling and he needs You. He’s calling out to God and I know You hear him. And we all hear you David. All of your Daily Audio Bible friends hear you and we love you and we are thinking about you and we are praying for you and we want you to be able to be successful and to be happy again and we want you to know you’re loved. Dear Lord, please…please…

Hi family. Drew from the bay area. Listen, I was calling in, mainly to…actually to…to prayer / fast for Edgar…especially if you could skip a meal. Praise report is he had at least four good days after I called in about him and he’s been having the police come. He’s been very upset. This is the young man I was telling you about that is in a wheelchair and is causing major disturbances for his family and his neighbors. So, if you would pray for him, especially on the 28^th, just maybe fast, skip a meal. That would be great. Also, I want to give a shout out to Salvation is Mine from San Leandro but you know I’m praying for you. Mark S. from down under, praying for you in Australia. Praying for revival here in the United States. Want you also to pray for a Muslim family I gave Sneezing Jesus to. I think millions of Muslims come to faith once they feel the presence of Jesus. And pray for a new roommate for me. I’ve got to find a roommate that’s going to be a great fit. I’m moving into a new place and I would appreciate your prayers. I love you guys. Bye.

Hello DAB family. This is Joyful Noise from Southern California. I have a praise report - a couple of them actually - and I also want to lift up Kayla in prayer again. And I think it’s Kayla, although it might be Caleb? It’s girl’s voice. So, I’m just going to say Kayla from Kansas - I think it was – who struggles with depression. I prayed for her earlier this week but I just felt compelled to call back in and let you know, Kayla, if you are listening to this that we don’t stop praying if you don’t hear from us. And I just want to encourage you, and I don’t know why God compelled me to do this, but I just want to encourage you that prayer doesn’t stop after you hear our voices. That we continue to pray. And I know that there are many that are continuing to pray for my son on the call. And I called in…oh…it must have been…gosh…several weeks ago now…almost a month ago. I just know that people continue to pray for him. So, please know we don’t stop praying for you. And that we’re to go to God, as the widow to the wicked judge. Right? Over and over and over again. And how much of a great Father He is and what a great wise and righteous judge He is. But still He wants us, really, to go to Him over and over again, bringing everything to Him through prayer and supplication – make it be known to the Lord. And I promise you that I’m going to continue to do that Kayla. Also, I have a praise report. I shared with a friend that’s struggling a little bit with some relational stuff and her family. I shared the Daily Audio Bible and she started listening and loves it. So, yay. Thank you, Lord. And thank you Brian and Jill for all that you do. Also, another praise report. I was reading into the Sneezing Jesus book and my son, who some of you have been praying for, and he does love the Lord and he is just such a light in a dark world when he’s not all caught up in the stress of never sleeping. Gosh. You know, the enemies been at him for over a decade but it’s slowly going…you know…getting better and…