Category: DAB Transcripts

Job 1:1-3:26, 1 Corinthians 14:1-17, Psalms 37:12-29, Proverbs 21:25-26

Today is the 22^nd day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you. I’m here in the rolling hills of Tennessee and you are where you are, but we are still together around the Global Campfire as we take the next step forward. We have just begun yesterday the book of Job, which kinda laid out the context of the story. Job’s friends have come to his side. They have sat for a week in silence. Job has begun to speak about how he wishes he had never been born. And now today we will begin to hear from Job’s friends. And Job, of course, a conversation is beginning. Job chapters 4, 5, 6, and seven today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Job, we…as we were talking about the beginning, we’ve learned what happened to Job. We saw Job have the worst day that really I can even imagine. He literally lost everything, including his children in a day. In like wave after wave or blow-by-blow these disasters coming and before the days over Job is in a life that doesn’t look like his life at all, but we also began to understand who Job is by watching what he does once he receives blow after blow of tragedy. He greev. It’s terrible. He tears his clothes. He throws ashes on his head. He falls to the ground. We can imagine all that. But then he worships says essentially everything that I have was given to me. The Lord is given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed to be the name of the Lord, which is indeed a riveting way to begin a book. And then his wife, you know, he’s got all these sores and boils and his wife tells him to curse God and die. What a horrible thing to say to your spouse. And Job doesn’t call her names are curse her or any of the…or send her away or anything like that. He says, should we not receive the bad with the good? And then Job’s friends, they make their journey and they come and sit with Job and as we read yesterday they sat in silence for a week until Job spoke, which is what they were waiting for. This is the practice called Shiva, which is a way of being in grief with someone. It’s just a little different than the customs that we are accustomed to during grief. In Shiva, you come, and you do exactly what his friends did, you sit. You sit with the person who has been devastated and you sit, and there’s no pressure to say the right thing. You’re not really supposed to say anything. And there’s no pressure on the grieving person to then have to become the caretaker of those who are here to take care of them and make them feel okay and take care of their needs and…and speak and tell them that everything’s gonna be okay. Nobody’s expecting anything. And, so, we sit in silence and what you are offering is more potent and more powerful than anything you could say. You are offering your presence. You showed up. You’re there. You’re present in it. And when the grieving person wants to speak you speak and when they want to eat you eat. When they don’t want to talk, you don’t talk. When they want to sleep they sleep. And this is what we’re…it’s beautiful, really. And this wat we’re seeing playing out in the book of Job, as his friends come to be with him in his moment of absolute devastation. And then the conversation began. Job who spoke first. That’s what everyone was waiting for, and he said he wished he’d never been born. And we hear the first response from one of Job’s friends. His name is Eliphaz and he’s trying to comfort Job. And his message to Joe is basically that things happen for a reason and that if he would trust in God the Lord would certainly be merciful and rescue and restore him, which sounds like the kinds of things that we say when we’re trying to be the voice of comfort. And that’s a really interesting thing about Job. Job’s friends say the kinds of things that we say. It’s just in this case, Job isn't…it’s not that he’s not accepting what they’re saying, he just becomes more and more agitated about it because they can’t say anything that he’s actually looking for. They aren’t able to provide the answers that he seeks. He has been on the other side before. He has been the one offering words of comfort. In this case he knows what can be said and he knows what human wisdom can provide and if they’re not able to provide something beyond that, it’s not that he doesn’t care if they’re there it’s just they’re not helping him. Job wants God to personally explain exactly what it is that he did wrong because he feels like judgment is upon them from the hand of God, and he doesn’t know why. And, so, as we continue in these days in front of us in the book of Job let’s watch both sides of this. Let’s watch what his friends are telling Job and understand that there’d be some familiar things there. Let’s also watch Job and how he responds and how as they his friends lay out all of their wisdom, he is more and more clear that they don’t have what he is looking for. He wants an audience with God. He just doesn’t know where to find Him, but he will as we will see soon enough.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the different complexions of it and all of the different nuances of it and…and the way that it speaks into our souls no matter what we are experiencing. And in this case now we are in a time where we are experiencing words about suffering, words about cosmic justice, things that we wonder about, things that we don’t understand, things that we wrestle and grapple with. And, so, Holy Spirit come and lead us forward. Give us insight, give us awareness, take us further and deeper we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s homebase, it is the website, it’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app does the same thing. You just push the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and that pops open the drawer and then you can navigate from there. If you don’t have the Daily Audio Bible app, today is a good day, it’s a decent day anyway to check it out. Try it out. Just search for Daily Audio Bible in the app store that is associated with whatever device that you use, and you should be able to find it and download it for free from there.

Check out the different sections of the website or in the app like the Community section. There are links in the Community section to get connected on social media, which is not a bad idea, especially if we have announcements and stuff. If you’re kinda following along then those will probably show up in your feed. It’s quite an art to get things to show up in people’s feed, right? But if you’re following along than it probably will show up in yours and so you can daily be encouraged or just confining what’s going on around here. So, the links are there in the Community section of the app or the website. But also, in the Community section you’ll find the Prayer Wall. And the Prayer Wall is, as I have described it many times, always on, never off, always available to us. No matter where we are in life or on this earth, we can always go there and share what’s going on and ask our brothers and sisters no matter where they are to pray for us. But it’s also a place that we can go and hear the stories from our brothers and sisters and pray for them and let them know that they’re not alone and that we are praying for them. That is such an important distinctive of the community here around the Global Campfire. It’s such a unique thing actually. Been doing it long enough now to kinda know, like no, this is…this is rare, this is special. We’re moving through the Scriptures together in community. We are all human beings, and we all understand that we’re being challenged by the word of God every day and that we all have our struggles and for some reason we’re willing to love each other through them in community as we show up around the Global Campfire every day. The things that we have shared with each other are so transparent. Over the years it’s miraculous to me sometimes that we’ve found a place where we can actually open our hearts and know that our brothers and sisters actually care about us and are walking the journey with us. And, so, certainly check out the Prayer Wall.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you humbly as we navigate another summer. Thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up at the top. Looks kinda…looks kinda like a hotline…only thing that looks like a hotline, so you probably can’t go wrong, little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

Job 1:1-3:26, 1 Corinthians 14:1-17, Psalm 37:12-29, Proverbs 21:25-26

Today is the 21st day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today, as we walk into a brand-new week together, throw open that threshold, step into it together and look out at the vista, it’s all waiting to be written, the story of this week, is all waiting to be told. And it’s exciting, to see what this week is going to shape up to be and it’s wise of us to allow the Scriptures to inform what this week is going…going to be like as we gather around the Global Campfire, each and every day for the next step forward. Our next step forward, leads us into some brand-new territory.

Introduction to the Book of Job:

We’ve finished the book of Esther yesterday, which brings us to the book of Job, which is truly one of the most beautiful pieces of literature in the Bible and a genuinely, honest wrestling with the problem of evil and why we suffer. It’s asking the questions that we either ask or that we’re too afraid to ask, which is basically, why is this happening to me? Why? And then wrestling with it and trying to find that answer. And this book that we’re moving into, it’s…it’s disputed, at least in terms of when it falls into the historical context. There’s not a lot of details in the book of Job that give clues to other events or other times, which leads to a lot of speculation, not just random speculation, the like scholarly attempts to truly sort this out, but it’s different people have different opinions. Some believe that it has archaic Hebrew words that are, that have fallen out of use and that maybe no one even really truly knows what they mean. There are Hebrew words in the book of Job that aren’t really used anywhere else in the Bible. So that leads some to believe maybe, Job was around the same time that Abraham was, or Jacob was, or maybe even before that. While other scholars believe this is written by a scribe coming out of exile so, making it much more recent. And so, the person that wrote this down, didn’t fully know Hebrew and so that would account for different kinds of usage of words. Others believe this is very ancient and collected probably through oral tradition by Moses. And the truth is we can take our pick of what our conviction is and what we think. The truth is that we just don’t fully know. What we do know is what is in the book of Job and what it is dealing with, which is unwarranted, undeserved, suffering. And in just a few minutes, as we begin the book of Job, we’re going to see why like, Job has the worst day of any human being, I can even fathom or imagine. And we will see that and then what we need to do is begin to watch Job, watch what Job does and we can imagine that if Job loses a lot, which he does, like everything in a day, that he would be grief stricken, maybe angry, maybe a lot of things, not the least being in shock, but we need to watch him and how he conducts himself because he is suffering tremendously and he truly believes it’s for no reason. There’s no reason that he should receive the kind of judgment that he is receiving, and he believes that the judgment is coming from God. So, that leaves him with a bunch of questions, he believes he is a righteous and upright man before the Lord. And so, it doesn’t make sense why the Lord would strike him down. What Job wants, is a conversation with God so that, he might understand, so that he might bring his case, as we’ll hear him say, bring his case before the Lord and explain like, I don’t understand why you’re doing this to me. I have been faithful and loyal to you. And as Job is contemplating these things and suffering through these things, his friends show up and they sit with him and it’s beautiful because they don’t say anything for like a week, just like sitting with Job in his grief, but eventually they do start talking, which is really the rest of the book of Job. Job wants God, his friends are trying to help him sort out why these things have happened to him, they’re giving him the kind of advice that we give each, other all the time. Like when we hear the different things that Job’s friends say, we can just dismiss them because we know that Job wants God and that God’s gonna show up, but if we’re just listening to them, they are trying to help Job understand, through their own idea of God is, and Job essentially has to tell them, there isn’t anything that you know, that I don’t know. So, I know all of the things that you’re saying. I’ve said all these things before, but things have changed for me, and I need an actual audience with the Almighty. I actually need to hear what God has to say and not what other people have to say because I already know that human wisdom. And before it’s over, Job will get what he wants, it just won’t be anything like he thinks. What we end up learning is, there is a lot more going on than we are ever aware of, that God is all powerful and good and so let’s begin. We’ll read from the New Living translation this week, Job chapters 1, 2 and 3 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for this brand-new week that we are entering into, and we ask Your blessing over it. We ask Your wisdom, to hover around us and that we would be aware of it, that every step may be a correct step, that every conversation would be a good life-giving one, that the things that we have to do, the obligations and responsibilities would be carried out as acts of worship to You. And we thank You for this brand-new book that we are entering into, completely changing the complexion of so many of the things that we have talked about so far. But in so many ways, tying them all together, as we move through the book of Job come, Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth. And may we consider the posture of Job after finding out that life, as he knew it was…was over, had vanished in one day. He grieved, he cried, he tore his robes, he fell to the ground and worshiped. May this picture stick with us as we move through the coming days. May we consider this posture deeply we ask. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Song played today “Blessed Be The Name” Brent Bourgeois

Esther 4:1-7:10, 1 Corinthians 12:1-26, Psalm 36:1-12, Proverbs 21:21-22

Today is the 19th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you around the Global Campfire today, together, as we settle in and move forward together. We began the book of Esther yesterday, very dramatic book but a beautiful story that we are in, and we will continue that journey through the book of Esther today and then conclude Esther tomorrow, it’s not that long of the book. But if we remember from yesterday, we met Hadassa, we met Esther, we saw how she became the queen of Persia. We also met a man named Haman, who hated the Jews because of Esther’s uncle Mordecai wanted to exterminate the Jews. And the king, not understanding that his queen is a Jewiss, has gone along with it. And given the people, the Hebrew people, into Haman’s hand. And in the king’s name, he has sent out orders, throughout the entire empire. And on a specific day, in the 12 month of the year, everyone was to be prepared to kill all of the Jews that are within their vicinity and to plunder them. So, as we pick up the story today, that news is just arriving to Haman actually, that news is just landing everywhere. So, let’s pick up the story. Today, we will read Esther chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Commentary:

Okay, we’re not finished with the book of Esther yet, but we can certainly see that the arc of the narrative, we have reached a point where Haman the enemy of the Jews, is no longer an enemy of the Jews because he’s no longer on the earth. He had planned to hang the queen’s uncle Mordecai, Esther’s uncle. But instead, Haman was humiliated, needing to actually honor Mordecai and then when payment finally does get to the banquet with Queen Esther and the king, Esther outs him and it’s pretty clear that his intention was to destroy her people, and that doesn’t go so well. And so, we can clearly see that Esther was born for such a time as this and we will conclude the book of Esther tomorrow.

And then, as we’re reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians today, Paul’s talking about spiritual gifts, what their purpose is, and how it’s all connected. And one thing that we should have gotten from our reading in first Corinthians today is that, we all have a place, we all belong and it’s more than just having a place or belonging, it’s that we’re all irreplaceable in this story. And so, Paul is answering another question that was sent to him by the Corinthians and he describes these spiritual gifts that people do and are granted spiritual gifts from God. Everybody is given a gift from God. But it is all from the same Spirit of God. So, there not a bunch of Spirits, offering competing gifting, it is all from the same Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is the source of all the gifting’s and the gifting’s are all bestowed upon people to serve the greater whole, otherwise known as the body. And so, we should stop there for a second and just understand that the gifting’s that we may have been given, are not to set us apart over other people, they are given so that we might serve other people. Our gifting’s are not to bring us worship, that would be idolatry. Our gifting’s are to be used to serve the whole body. And Paul talks about different gifts that are given from God, like the gift of wisdom or special knowledge or great faith or the ability for healing to take place, or the miraculous to take place or prophecy to take place, or the gift of discernment, or the gift of speaking in unknown languages and the gift of interpreting those unknown languages. Paul is saying that the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that gives all the gifts, gives gifts as he desires. But the reason for the gifts are, to serve the whole body. Or to just put it right back in the Paul’s own words, “just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free people, and we were all cause to drink one Spirits Furthermore, the body is not one member but many.” And this is a concept that we should be able to understand enough right, if we’re a human being. We have a beating heart. We have a brain, we have eyes, we have a nose, we have mouth, we have senses, we have fingers, we have toes, we have knees, we have all of the different parts of our body, and they are individual parts. Like, I can point my finger and say my finger is pointing, but my figure is connected to my hand, which is connected to my arm, right. The body is all interconnected. It’s one body. Paul is saying, that is how it is spiritually, we are all part of the same body, many members, doing many functions, same body and all of the functions are bestowed upon us by the same Spirit of God. Paul goes on to say like, look, the foot can’t say I’m not a hand, and so, I’m not a part of the body. It doesn’t work that way. The ear can’t say because I’m not and eye, I’m not really part of the body, that’s not how it works. Paul says, if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be. If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be. But now God has arranged the members in the body, each and every one of them as he desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But as it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need for you or again the head to the feet, I have no need for you. This isn’t true. And this isn’t how it works. And so, we should get an immediate sense of being a part, an irreplaceable part. We belong and no other member of the body can look at us and say, I don’t need you, or can look at our gifting and say I wish I was you or I wish I had what you have. That would also be misguided. We all belong, and we are here to serve one another, in the same way a body does right, your finger doesn’t just rebel. Your foot doesn’t just rebel and send a note up to your brain saying I’m not going to be a part of the body anymore. All of the parts of our body serve a function that sustains life, we are all part of the body of Christ. We do the same thing in service to one another. So, let’s remember this as we move through this day. We belong, we’re irreplaceable. No one can say to us, they don’t need to us, that’s not true. We all function together as a body, we all need one another. And the gifts that God bestows upon the members of his body, are to serve the body.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You for this picture, one that we can truly understand. We thank You for this example, that tells us that we do have purpose and place, we belong. Thank You, we know that we don’t deserve to belong, we don’t deserve to be grafted into Your family and yet we are. And so, with humble gratitude, we thank You for your kindness towards us and ask forgiveness for the ways that we’ve been unwilling to be a part, while criticizing other parts of the body or lusting after other gifting’s. Come, Holy Spirit, calm us down, we belong, we’re where we need to be. Lead us into all truth, we pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home, home base. It’s home of the Global Campfire. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here, so, check that out. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can check out the different sections in the Daily Audio Bible by pushing the little drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner, that pops open the drawer and then there are things like the Community Section or the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there for the journey that we find ourselves on together, ways to go deeper, ways to go further and actually bunch of stuff just to have fun and associate ourselves with each other, around the Global Campfire. And so, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. Thank you, we would not be here if we were not here together and we are here together and what a beautiful thing it is that we can share this stretch of road, this piece of our story and this piece of our history together, as we move through the Scriptures. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the app, you can press the Give button, in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Coming soon…

Esther 1:1-3:15, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, Psalms 35:17-28, Proverbs 21:19-20

Today is the 18^th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today like it is every day as we gather around the Global Campfire and move forward together. Yesterday we concluded the book of Nehemiah which means we’re in new territory today and some favorite territory. For the next couple of days we will enjoy the book of Esther in the Old Testament.

Introduction to the book of Esther:

And the book of Esther is quite a dramatic story to tell indeed. It’s about a young girl, her name is Hadassah, and she was an orphan. She was also an exile in Persia. And just so we understand this, we’re still in the same time period we’ve been in, the time of the exile, the time when the children of Israel or the Hebrew people were taken into exile by the Babylonian Empire. Babylon was conquered by the Persian Empire and the Persians are a little bit more favorable to the Hebrew people than the Babylonians had been allowing for stories like Ezra and Nehemiah to take place. And the story of Ezra is situated in the same time. So, Hadassah is an orphan, an exiled orphan in Persia, which would not be unusual. She was raised as a daughter by her cousin Mordecai, who was of the tribe of Benjamin. It also wasn’t unusual for exiles to…to take on more localized names so they wouldn’t seem so foreign. And, so, Hadassah was given the name Esther, which translates to be “star” or maybe “morning star” in Jewish tradition. And we know from the story itself is that Esther was stunning. She was absolutely beautiful in her appearance, and she was kind of a quiet mannered young woman with no big ambitions, especially ambitions of royalty. But King Xerxes had a falling out with the Queen. Her name is Vashti. She…she humiliated him at least in his mind, she humiliated him, and he banished her. And, so, eventually a new Queen was needed. But around the same time, there’s another figure that enters the story. Hs name is Haman, and he becomes a high official, but he hates Hebrew people. He hates the Jews. Haman was a descendent of King gag of Amalek, and we’ve heard of the Amalekites before the Hebrews in the Amalekites were hostile to each other. This goes all the way back to their origins, which are Jacob and Esau. And we’ll remember that when we read to the books of Samuel. Samuel executed King Agag after Saul had defeated the Amalekites in battle. And, so, Haman hates the Jews for this which causes a lot of conflict between Mordecai, Esther’s uncle who is treating her like a daughter and Haman, who expects to be honored since he’s a high official of the king and everybody has to bow down to him. But Mordecai won’t bow down. And, so, Haman decides in response he's…he’s got a plan to completely annihilate the Jews from the Persian Empire, like everyone to be killed, which basically sets up our drama. We have a beautiful Hebrew Jewish Queen, Esther, and we have a high official Haman intending to wipe the Jews from the earth and we have a king in between them who will make the decisions and bring this story to its conclusion. The book of Esther is the basis for the festival of Purim for the Hebrew people today, and this…this festival of Purim was established in the book of Esther by Mordecai, which will see. And we’ll also see many parallels in the book of Esther that…that apply to our lives and bring us hope, hope that God will show up hope, that what we’re looking at as circumstances doesn’t always dictate how things are going to turn out, that everybody is important and has a role to play in God’s kingdom, that even we are here for such a time as this. And, so, let’s begin. Today we will read Esther chapters 1, 2, and 3.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for each and every day something new is there waiting for us to consider and contemplate and incorporate into our lives. And, of course, we…we don’t have the self-discipline to do everything right. If we could make ourselves perfect, we would’ve done that. But nobody can do that, but You and we thank You for coming for us transforming us. And we thank You for this new territory in the Scriptures that we are in right now, the book of Esther. And as we contemplate what we’ve already talked about just kind of flying over the book of Esther to get orientation and now as we’re in the thick of the story as we think about Esther today as we think about an unlikely person pulled into a very high-stakes dramatic story, what we are learning and what we will learn is You are the only hope. You allow us to stand in and be a representative and be in a place for a time. But it’s You who work Your will and Your ways. So, we trust You and we look forward to the next step forward in the book of Esther tomorrow. Come Holy Spirit plant what we’ve read into the soil of our lives. May we cooperate with You as You prune and weed the things out of our lives that don’t belong, so that the fruit of the spirit is healthy and bountiful inside us. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website, it is indeed where you can find out what’s going on around here, so check it out. The Daily Audio Bible app is also available and that’ll allow you to check out all the same things. The app can be downloaded from whatever app store is connected to your smart device. Just search for Daily Audio Bible and it’s free and you’ll be able to download it and have the best Daily Audio Bible experience. So, check that out.

Check out the different sections. Check at the Community section. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. This is a resource we talk about often because it is a beautiful thing to be aware of and a beautiful place to visit. Always…always brothers and sisters are asking for prayer and sharing their stories. Always brothers and sisters are responding with prayer and encouragement and so it’s just this beautiful reverberation of the Global Campfire out into the world. We are not alone on this journey. We are in this together and we are here for one another. And, so, certainly be aware of the Prayer Wall. That can be found in the Community section as well as different links to get connected on the social media. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you humbly. Thank you. The story has always been true, we wouldn’t be in this if we weren’t in this together. It’s a community experience to move through the Scriptures together. And that makes a huge difference to know that this isn’t a solitary adventure or even discipline. We’re in this together moving through a year moving through the Scriptures. If that has been life-giving in your life, then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s little red button up at the top or there are several numbers that you can dial depending on where you are in the world. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. If you’re in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia are that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you not be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

Nehemiah 12:27-13:31, 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, Psalm 35:1-16, Proverbs 21:17-18

Today is the 17th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today, as we come around the Global Campfire, find rest for our weary souls, find a place to just kick back and relax and allow the Scriptures to speak into our lives, as we take the next step forward together. In the Old Testament we have been reading through the book of Nehemiah and Nehemiah himself has given us plenty to consider, in terms of leadership. We’ve also gotten lots of lengthy and thorough lists of people who were involved, let’s remember what’s going on here. The exiles are returning from exile to rebuild Jerusalem and trying to sort out who’s who and who’s from where, this is an entire population that was deported and has come back, it’s like 70 years later. So, a lot has changed and we get the chronicling of who was involved in that. Today, we will conclude the book of Nehemiah and so, let’s dive in Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 27 through 13 verse 31 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so we concluded the book of Nehemiah today and we saw the wall that Nehemiah had dreamed about, and interceded about, and allowed to burn in his soul about, approach the king about like, the whole story. The wall is a real thing now, it’s not a dream anymore, and we saw the wall be dedicated with two groups of people, kind of moving opposite each other with praise and worship on the top of the wall and there two different camps, kinda going all the way around the perimeter of Jerusalem and that must’ve been a very, very satisfying day for Nehemiah because we watch the fact that, they were opposed in every conceivable way from intimidation, to threat, to politics, to inside jobs, like it was a struggle to build this wall. And then, Nehemiah returned to Babylon and went back to King Artaxerxes, later on, he was allowed to go back to Jerusalem. When he got back to Jerusalem, he found the people drifting again, drifting away. They had a grand time of worship and renewing the covenant and dedicating the wall, but by the time Nehemiah gets back, they’re falling away again, all kinds of things going on that are bothersome. For example, a man named Tobia, and we should recognize that name because he was one of the chief intimidator’s, coming against Nehemiah with all kinds of discouragement about the wall and threats. Tobia, has been allowed to have a private room for his own use, inside God’s temple, because a man named Eliashib was put in charge of the temple’s storerooms. And Eliashib and Tobia were related and so Tobia gets this room inside the temple, which was infuriating to Nehemiah and we watched everything get thrown out of that room and that room be being used as a storeroom, as it was intended in the first place. Then we also see that the Levites and the singers, people that were there to continually remind the exiles, the people, who they were, who God is, where they came from, they’re being neglected and so they don’t have resources to live on. So, they have to go back to farming and they have to go back to their…their family land so, that they can provide for their families, which meant that the temple service, the things that were supposed to remind the people continually, were negatively affected. And then, the Sabbath is not being paid attention to, which negatively affects everything and has infuriated Nehemiah again, to the point where he’s like kicking out the merchants, the foreign merchants, that are coming to do business in Jerusalem and lock in the gates. And people are still coming to try to sell their goods outside the walls on the Sabbath and Nehemiah runs them off like, this is not going to be profaned, you are not profaning the Sabbath. And then the people are also mixing with those around them, once again. So, very similar things that we saw in the book of Ezra, we’re seeing in the book of Nehemiah. People that were exiles, who should have known better and should have fully understood the story of how they lost their homeland in the first place, have been given permission to return to their homeland and worship God and they’re going right back to what they were doing that destroyed them in the first place. So, you can look at this story and go okay Nehemiah is…is a really good leader and shows us a number of systematic steps that we should check in on as…as we move through our lives and our leadership of things. But it would be easy enough to look at the end of the story and go, did any of that work though. So, you did everything right and nobody is on board, you have a wall around Jerusalem, it’s strong and tall but you have a weak people, who are stiff-necked and doing everything they can to continue to destroy themselves. Did it work? And that brings us to really a final look and a final lesson from a leadership perspective, from Nehemiah. Nehemiah would’ve been discouraged when he got back to Jerusalem and we watched in today’s reading alone, how many times he said, Lord, don’t forget what I did, remember me for good, remember…remember what happened here. Remember what I did, because he can see the direction that the people are going in and that’s a discouraging scene. But it also seems to contain a lesson for us as leaders, we can’t always influence people in any direction that they don’t want to go in. We can present the truth, but ultimately, we have to be responsible for ourselves and our own obedience, which is what we watched Nehemiah today, doing as he continually turns to God and says, don’t forget what happened here, remember me for good. But we can’t necessarily make everybody be on the same page, that is more in the realm of the Holy Spirit. What we can do, is obey God, obey God, obey God, and do it in front of everybody and allow it to be true and not just for appearances. We get to be true and a true witness in any situation, whether we feel like we’re winning or not. So, when we have given it our all, done everything that we can, and been obedient then we can remember Nehemiah and how Nehemiah turned to God and asked God, for him to remember.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You for this example, and this way of looking at things, because so often we have the idea that if we obey you and do everything right, then everything is gonna work out great and everybody’s gonna follow and it’s gonna be perfect. When we are no less stiff-necked than our ancient brothers and sisters that we read of in the Scriptures. In fact, we can be a lot more hardheaded and a lot more stiff-necked and a lot more rebellious, it seems. So, leading and influencing for good can sometimes be lonely and a place of misunderstanding. Thankfully that has not been left out of the Scriptures and we have examples like Nehemiah to give us a posture of heart. Sometimes, when we find ourselves being discouraged that we’re either not leading well, or finding the taunting voices, or the intimidation, we can feel like we’re failing when we’re doing what you said to do, which means that we have placed an outcome and an expectation on our obedience. And when our expectations aren’t met, then we find ourselves disappointed. We can look into the story of Nehemiah and find, he faced every kind of obstacle and completed the task and still, had to battle with discouraging things and he turned to You, as he did the entire way. That You might remember that he was faithful. So, may we be faithful in what You’ve tasked us with. And may You remember this, for our good as we set aside and surrender our expectations. We pray this in the precious and mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base and the Daily Audio Bible app, is also home base and they kind of do the same things. You can get the app from whatever app store works with your phone or tablet. Of course, the websites dailyaudiobible.com, so, check it out. Check out the different sections like the Community Section, that is where different links to get connected on social media are, that is where the Prayer Wall lives. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop, that is where resources for the journey can be found.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if you are finding that finding a place around the Global Campfire, each day, is a life-giving and worthwhile thing to do, then thank you, as we navigate the hot months of the summer. Thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button, in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up at the top and share your story from wherever you are in the world from there. Or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good evening DAB family, this is Smiling Up to Jesus in New York. I wanted to take a moment to pray for our sister, Allissa, who called in from Colorado. Wow, congratulations Allissa. Just announced that you are pregnant and it’s sounds like you’ve been going through so much. You said you were experiencing kidney failure, you’re on dialysis and I just want to lift you up in prayer, right now. Lord, we are so thankful for Allissa and all that You are doing through her. We can just tell from her call that she is so full of faith, Lord. She is after Your own heart, Lord. And we are just so inspired. Lord, we pray for miraculous healing for her, for her kidneys, Lord. And we pray for her beautiful baby, who’s growing. We pray for the baby’s health and strength and wellness, Lord. And we trust you Lord, and we’re so grateful for all Your doing in her lift. And we know, that everything that You’re doing is for her good and for our good and your good, because You are such a good God. And we thank You, in Jesus precious name. Amen. God Bless everyone.

I pray Lord, this is Prisoner of Life. I have so much struggle going on, it’s overwhelming. I need people to pray for me that I get strong, I get sturdy. Being out here in the free world is very dangerous. I get pulled in to situations of life and I have to concentrate on myself. I ask the good Lord to help me every day because I’m easily influenced by things I shouldn’t be. So, I ask, that you guys pray for me cause prayer is a strong tool that we have and I know that. So, this is Prisoner of Life from Arizona. Please, keep me in your prayer so I can continue this journey doing it on the inside was easy. But out here, it’s a struggle. Life, on life’s terms. Boy, I’m 63 years old but I’m still dealing with that. Who would have known. Keep me in your prayers, please. That’s all I ask, nothing more.

Good morning DAB family, God bless you. This is Bridget from New York City and I just wanted to pray for the young man from Brooklyn. I’m sorry I don’t remember your name. But I do remember your prayer request and you keep on coming back to me. I’m originally from New York so, I get it. And I just want to lift you up. So, Father God, I just thank You for this young man that has started listening to the DAB and that has started to, to understand his need, my God. Father, we cannot do anything in this world without You God. I’m reminded of how often we go backwards, and we seek things according to our strength, according to our mindset, according to our mentality and how many times we feel let down by You because we’re leaning on our own strength. My God, I just, I pray that this young man, Father, would begin too truly lean on You. That, he himself, would pray Father, over this depression, in the name of Jesus, my God, that he himself, would know that You did not create him as a depressed person, Father God. That, he himself, would know God, that You have given him the gift and the tools and the mindset, to be able to be able to get work, to be able to do and function the way that You desire, God. So, I pray that he will get to know You deeply. That he would get to know Your desires for him, Your plans for him, God. That he would be so in love with You Lord, and so into Your word, my God, that he would see God and that he would respond, Lord, and that he would return with an answer on what You’ve done. In Jesus name.

Hi, Daily Audio Bible family, this is Renzo in Florida and I just want to pray for DABer by the name of Michael. Father God, in Portugal, Father God. I pray for his sister’s situation, I pray for Michelle, Lord God, I pray that she’s completely freed from her drug addiction, Lord God. Let her to be completely, trust and anchored in Your Lord God. God, change her life. Let her just, get away from this addiction, Lord God, that is enticing her and wrapping her up in sin, Lord God. I just pray that she is completely healed and redeemed and if she’s not already born again, Father God, I just pray that You just change her life, Lord God. In Jesus name, Amen. And I just want to ask You DABers, if you guys could just pray for me. I feel like there’s sometimes when I hear a direction in my everyday life or I hear somebody like, tell me a direction of something I need to do. I feel like I freeze up and then I don’t do it right. Or like, if I’m told to do something, it’s like I freeze up and then somebody has to show me how to do it. And then, then I do it right. I don’t know what’s going on but I just, I would just ask for prayers that I could just stop being like anxious about that type of stuff. Or just like, anxious about my future or what God has for me cause it’s all in God’s hands and that just what I have to remember. But yeah, if you guys could just pray for me on that, about that. Thank you, guys. Love you guys, Jesus loves you too. Bye.

Hello, from beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio, it’s Daniel Johnson Jr. It’s just after 6 o’clock on Monday, August 15th. I am out for a walk this morning on this path that I’ve walked many times before over the years, while listening to the Daily Audio Bible. And my heart is just stirred right now. I reached back out, maybe about a couple weeks ago, and said that I am on the verge of losing my job. I fit so well with the culture but I’m just not able to get the level of, you know, to meet the metrics that I’ve been given to produce. And it looks like, well, I’ve been given until the end of this month to make that happen. And I’m not sure if I’m gonna be able to do it. While, there is some of that doubt and of course, God can do all things. I’m also not sure if I want to do it. Just I’ve been feeling very burnt out from all of the work that I’ve been doing. And so, at the same time as trying hard to produce, I’m also looking for my next job. And so, I ask your prayers in that regard. Because here comes another time of transition, another plot twist. And I am ready for it, as much as I can be. I’m trying to get myself ready for it. But at the same time, I just know that most importantly, among all of the basic needs that I have, the most important one is Jesus, cause, I can do all things through Him, who gives me strength. So, from beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio, this is Daniel Johnson Jr. God bless you, make it a great day

Nehemiah 11:1-12:26, 1 Corinthians 10:14-33, Psalms 34:11-22, Proverbs 21:14-16

Today is the 16^th day of August Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today, it was great to be here with you yesterday and will be great to be here with you tomorrow, but it is really great to be here with you today since this is happening right now so I’m glad…glad that we can gather around the Global Campfire and take our next step forward together. And that next step will lead us back into the book of Nehemiah. We’re reading from the Evangelical Heritage Version this week. And today Nehemiah chapter 11 verse 1 through 12 verse 26.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in our reading from first Corinthians today Paul seems to be answering a question that at its core, basically boils down to can we be guilty by association, which is a really good question? So, basically what we have going on here is that Corinth is a pagan city. And, so, polytheism is being practiced within the city, which means many gods are being worshiped. And there’s many temples and many ways to worship these gods. And as we have learned from the Scriptures, people do sacrifice to false gods. And, so, the sacrificial system is in place, which actually creates a market, the meat market. Sounds a little bit weird in our day and age of very very nicely packaged grocery stores where we just go and and grab whatever meat, if we’re meat eaters we’re going to eat, but at this point in time, the meat market is populated by the sacrifices of people who have been sacrificing. So, if you go into the market, it’s like virtually impossible to understand whether or not the hamburger you’re going to buy was sacrificed to a false idol or or…or where it came from or what its origin is etc. etc. And the people in the church of Jesus were…were just kind of wondering like how do we parse this? How do we sort this out? How to we have the proper discernment? Can we…like if we don’t know any better can we just eat the meat? Or what if we have friends that are pagan and we know that they worship false idols, and they invited us over for dinner, can we go? Can we be friends? Can we meet with them? Which in so many ways boils down to, can we extend and receive hospitality from one another? And then to make matters even more complicated, how do you associate vocationally with coworkers and…and authorities, bosses in your lives who are pagan and who do worship other gods. But maybe, I don’t know, maybe you’re a carpenter and maybe you are a part of, like at guild, a group of carpenters and this guild believes that a certain God protects the whole guild. And, so, they have like a weekly or monthly or whatever, they…they do something to appease this god, whether it be a sacrifice or some other kind of observation. Well then your kind of an in trouble if you’re a Christian, or if you’re a Jew because you can certainly go to the guild or whatever you’re a part of and say like, I’m a Christian and so I worship Jesus and this is how that goes. But that could actually very very much affect your job or your status among your peers who are all like, why is this one guy not on board with all of us being protected by our local got. And that’s not so hard to even understand in our own day and age. Maybe we don’t have a guild or we’re a part of a union of some sort that forces us into some sort of sacrifice to a pagan God, but the idea of needing to get on board and conform and stay on the same page with your group, that’s everywhere. So, we should understand what the dilemma is here. And, so, in answering this, Paul’s answering quite a comprehensive question. On the one hand he’s saying the idols that are being worshiped aren’t real gods. They’re man-made things. And, so, when people worship them, they’re worshiping nothing at all. And when people sacrifice…well…Paul goes so far as to say that sacrificing to demons, so you don’t want to eat me sacrificed to demons. But Paul’s basically saying, hey, like the meat that you’re talking about here, that’s not really the issue. The issue is how what you do affects those around you. So, if you go by a pound of meat the meat market and you’re not asking every vendor where this meat came from and whether or not it was sacrificed to an idol of some sort. If you’re just going grocery shopping then go grocery shopping. But if somebody volunteers, hey this meat was sacrificed to this particular pagan God. Well, then you have that awareness and now other people around you and so the decision you make becomes different than just grocery shopping. You’re actually being a witness in the moment. Or if you’re invited over to some friends house who you know are pagan and they put food in front of you and you guys are having a nice time of fellowship enjoy yourself. Have a good time but if somebody in the group in that family says, hey by the way, we know we are Christians and you know were not, and the hamburgers were having and I were sacrificed to such and such a god, well then Paul says you pay attention to that other person’s conscience. They cared about what you were going to feel enough to tell you and they’re telling you for a reason so that you don’t step out of bounds with your own conscience. In that case, then respect them, or to just quote it in Paul’s own words, “if one of the unbelievers invite you over and you wanna go, eat whatever you are served without asking questions for the sake of conscience, but if someone says to you, this is from a sacrifice, then do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. I mean the other person’s conscience, not your own.” And Paul goes on to say, “why is my freedom judged by somebody else’s conscience?” So, Paul is teaching a posture of…of being aware and caring for those who are around us not just so that we can just exploit our freedoms so that we can care for those who are around us that we are a witness to for Jesus. But underneath it all, there…it’s almost like the unspoken question is, how far can we go with this? How far can we push the boundaries? And also how can we know, in so many variable kinds of circumstances, how can we know how to navigate this? And Paul answers the question. “Whether you eat or drink or do anything else do everything to the glory of God. Do not give offense to Jews or Greeks, or God’s church just as I also try to please all people in all things by not seeking what is best for me but for the many so that they may be saved.” That counsel and advice right there speaks to a myriad of circumstances in our own lives. We may not be able to relate to this meat market whether or not meat was sacrificed or not, but we can certainly relate to the concepts that are underneath it, the things that make us question how far can I push this? What are the boundaries? Can I push the boundaries? Sure, you can. You can do whatever you want to do. But taking the advice from the Scriptures, whether you eat or drink or do anything else do what you do to the glory of God and try to be conscious of those around you and not give offense. And you do this by seeking what is best for the many instead of what is best for yourself because you are a living, breathing example, a witness to them so that they may also come to know Jesus. That is solid. Like, that is solid and pure good advice for the way that we conduct ourselves in the various circumstances that we find ourselves in. And, so, let’s remember this today and let’s carry this with us today. Whether you eat or drink or do anything else do everything for the glory of God.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. That is our desire, to please You, to obey You, to fellowship with You, to make You happy. And, so, Holy Spirit lead us in whatever we do today, whether we eat or drink, or anything else. May it be to Your glory and Your praise. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is where you find out what’s happening around here unless you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, which will get you to the same place and tell you the same thing. So, certainly check them both out.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a bunch of categories in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, but everything there is geared toward the journey that we are on together as a community through the Bible this year. Whether it’s to take the journey deeper or whether it’s to have fun on the journey and associate with the Global Campfire and know that we’re in this together and remind ourselves each day that we’re on a journey together and we’re depending on each other, or things to journal in or with, or music, the music that’s behind the Daily Audio Bible to just have there to meditate and pray. All kinds of resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if you’re finding that the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered to anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night, and to build community around that rhythm, the rhythm we all share, the oasis that we all come to around the Global Campfire every day, if that is life-giving to you than thank you humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

Nehemiah 9:22-10:39, 1 Corinthians 9:19-10:13, Psalm 34:1-10, Proverbs 21:13

Today is the 15th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today as we approach the center of another one of our months together on our journey. It’s great to be here with you today, great to just exhale, let it all kinda slip away for a little bit, focus our attention on the Scriptures, focus our affection upon the Lord and take the next step forward together, which leads us back out into the book of Nehemiah. And we’ll pick up the story from where we left off, today Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 22 through 10 verse 39.

Commentary:

Okay in first Corinthians, Paul is continuing to sort of layout his formula of ministry. He’s answering questions that he had been asked, let’s remember that like, this is a letter and so, Paul answers questions that we don’t know exactly what those questions were, we can just sort of determine it by the way that he answers it. But he, he says like, about the thing that you wrote to me about and then he answers this, and so, there’s some of that in all these letters because it’s kind of a back-and-forth. Like, they couldn’t text each other, they couldn’t email each other. They couldn’t check up on anybody’s status. So, these letters were a way of communication when they were apart. And so, Paul was talking like, in yesterday’s reading that carries over and gets concluded in today’s reading, some of the different things about freedom and his philosophy of ministry. So, he was saying yesterday, like, it’s right and appropriate and proper that the person who comes and teaches you or brings the word of God into your life and gives you counsel, that that person is able to supply and support his family by doing this like, it’s a job. And then Paul kinda goes on to say but I don’t like, I haven’t done that, I haven’t put a burden on anybody but it’s right and good, because it’s actually a comprehensive and full-time job. And Paul has talked about freedom, freedoms from the perspective of a person saying I can do whatever I want because I’m free. Paul’s applying this to his ministry outlook by saying I’m free, and we know Paul was free like, he’s a free Roman citizen, but he’s free in Christ, but he is found it meaningful to look at himself as a slave to everybody. So, he’s completely free but he is humbling himself and trying to behave as a servant and kinda taking on that posture changes the way you look at everybody. If you’re not superior and looking down at somebody because you’re better than they are, if, even if you are, even if you got more money, got a better job, have more kids, have a bigger house, have better cars like, whatever you, whatever criteria you want to create, even if you are those things, to humble yourself from within and look at everyone as if you are their servant, changes the way you look at everyone. Or pulling this back in Paul’s own words and I quote, “to the Jews I became like a Jew, so that I might gain Jews. To those that were under the law, I became like a person under the law. Thought, I myself am not under the law, so that I might gain those who are under the law. To those who are without the law, I became like a person without the law, though I am not without God’s law, but I’m within the law of Christ, so that I might gain those who are without the law. To the weak, I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may save at least some and I do everything for the sake of the Gospel, so that I may share it along with others.” And it is indeed, a game changer when we are not vying for superiority. It is a game changer that when we humble ourselves, looking at everyone as an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to serve. However, it’s a whole lot easier to say things like this than to live things like this and be like this. And so, we can listen to that posture and that is a game changer to just, no matter what status in life you are in, to understand that you are here as an ambassador of the kingdom of God, to reveal the kingdom and introduce people to Jesus. And in God’s kingdom, nobody is superior to anyone. None of us deserve anything. That might be something we can do, if we are consciously paying attention but we would have to say at minimum, it takes incredible vigilance and awareness and self-awareness and self-discipline. So, Paul gives us a picture of what that looks like, one that they could certainly understand when he wrote the letter, but when we can very easily understand today. And I quote Paul, “do you not know that when runners compete in the stadium, they all run, but only one receives the prize, run like that to win. Everyone who competes in the game’s exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable victor’s wreath, but we do it for an imperishable one, that is why there is nothing aimless about the way I run.” Right, and so, Paul’s running is to look at everyone and try to serve them and to fit into their context, as opposed to trying to draw them into his story, he tries to get into their story, right. So, if there Jews, he understands that story, he enters into that story. If they’re Gentiles, he’s been among them, he understands them, he acts like the. If they’re weak, then he enters into their weakness. This is his diligent, vigilant way of running and he is running to win, and it requires incredible vigilance and awareness, to live within that posture. And so, Paul is saying, and I quote, “that is why there is nothing aimless about the way I run. There is no pummeling of the year, in the way I box. Instead, I hit my body hard and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be rejected.” So, we are getting insight from Paul’s own testimony about himself and his ministry philosophy, we are also getting counsel that was given to the early church. So, these are the postures that they’re trying to espouse, as they go out into the world and conduct their lives. And they apply to us in the same way. And it’s not hard for us to understand like, if we’re gonna live for Jesus, then let’s live like a runner who has disciplined themselves and made it to the stadium right, an elite athlete, who is trying to win. That’s the picture before us, which right, it’s gonna take self-discipline, awareness, vigilance, humility, and self-control. But this is also the path to true freedom.

Prayer:

And so, Holy Spirit, we invite You to come into that, we confess, we have biases, we have stories, we have convictions, we have all kinds of things that are going on within us, that would keep us from looking at another person and allowing us to be humble enough to humble ourselves and’s see if there’s anything that we can do, on Your behalf to serve. And just to have that posture, doesn’t mean that we go out walking down the street and we can’t get anything in our lives done. Because we’re just trying to see who we might serve in some way, it’s being available always at a moment’s notice, as opportunity arises, that we are aware that we are Your ambassadors and can do so much good and so small amount of time, if we’re just paying attention. Help us to put this in practice today, because as we practice these postures of heart, we’re going to be doing good in the world. And as we practice, we will get better, like a self-disciplined runner who makes it to the stadium, like a boxer who trains their body to be able to take a punch and also to give one. We confess, we’re not all that self-disciplined and we’re not all that self-aware. And so, we need Your Holy Spirit to guide us, and lead us, to shine the light of truth into the dark recesses of our hearts. So, come, Holy Spirit that we might change the rhythm and continue to become aware that opportunity to love our fellow human beings, on Your behalf and in your name, those opportunities are everywhere. Come, Jesus, and lead us we pray. In your mighty name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, home of the Global Campfire. It’s where, you can now find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app will do the same thing and more, and you can download the app free from the App Store that is connected to your device, so check that out. Check out the Community Section, whether in the app or on the web, that is where to get connected, different links to the different social media channels that we participate in, different groups etc. can be found there. That is also the home of the Prayer Wall, and the Prayer Wall is an always on, never off, resource available to the Global Campfire community moving through the Scriptures together. So, no matter what time of day or night it may be, if the bottom seems to have dropped out of your life for a minute and you’re tumbling and you’re not sure which way is up anymore, you can come share your story, knowing that brothers and sisters will respond and pray for you. Or maybe you’ve been through that before and you know what it feels like, and you know that it makes a difference, to know that you’re not alone and that somebody is praying for you. Then you go to the Prayer Wall, and we pray for each other and let each other know where praying for each other. It is, like I said, always on, never off, doesn’t matter the continent you’re on, doesn’t matter the time zone you’re in, doesn’t matter what’s even going on, there’s a place to come reach out and that is the Prayer Wall and that can be found in the Community Section, so 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 or if you’re using the app, there is a Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app and share from there. No matter where you are in the world, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayers and Encouragements:

Giving all praise, glory and honor to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who is the head of my life. This is Laura, Walking in the Wilderness, in Georgia. And today, is August the 10th but I’m a day behind on the DAB. I just heard, yesterday, August 9th prayer from, or call in from Audrey from Reno Valley, California. Sweety, your message was, I know a gift from God right to me because I haven’t had relations with my 35-year-old Chris, who has an addiction. Which his addiction has torn him away from his family, his friends. He has a daughter who’s six, who lost her mother last year and so, he has not stepped up and taken a role in her life at all because of the addiction. But hearing your testimony was a blessing to me. I was having a shout, praise fest over here for you. And I’m gonna continue, and then to hear your son, halleluiah. Thank you, Jesus, for your power, your grace and your love. I will continue to lift you and your son up in prayer. Oh, what a mighty God we serve. God can deliver, He can, and He will. Oh, I love my DAB family. Everybody, have a blessed day. Peace.

Hi, DAB family, my name is Olu, I’m calling from the UK. Today’s August the 5th. I’ve been a listener for four years; this is my first time calling. I felt compelled, you know, call for the first-time in response to Shawn who reached out for prayer. Shawn, you said that you were a drug addict. That you’ve fought, you’ve walked away from God’s word, the Bible. And now, you’ve come back to the Bible, and you felt that you needed to reach out and ask for prayer. I can hear the, you know, I can hear from your voice that you know, this is not something that you wanted in your life. And thank you Shawn for reaching out, you know, I really appreciate that. And as I was listening to you, what came to mind was the prodigal son. I think you’ll find that in Luke chapter 15 verse 11 to the end of the chapter. Shawn, my brother, my message to you is to read that particular portion of Scripture and pray. And I’ll be praying with you; you’re not alone. Again, thank you for reaching out. My thoughts will be with you. Amen.

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier, just calling to pray for some of the DABers. I want to pray for Rosie from Oregon, congratulations! Praying for your new job, victory, glory to God. I also want to pray for Audrey and say that the praise report of her precious son. I pray that God keeps you and take way that desire and give you, give you victory like never before my brother and the mother that is so excited. I’m praying with you and rejoice highly. I also want to pray for Tom, he’s going through some things. I wanted to pray for you for the victory, Tom. You can make it, God is faithful and He’s just. I also want to pray for the Danny from Oregon. I want to pray for Judy, the first-time caller, that she grew up with a dad to go to Quebec. Just want to pray for them and just praise for the young man who’s going through the drug rehab and those who are going through anxieties and depression, that God would lift these where that He’s willing. He’s willing and able, Lord, take away the desires from my precious brother. Continue to take away the desires Lord, and knock down the cobwebs of life, that he can live a victorious life like never before. Father, You have Your way. You continue to bless that mother to rejoice with her son. Father, we thank You for Your blessing, we thank You for those who are going through the names I called Lord, that sister that just put in for that new job. Lord, You be with her and You guide her and give her the victory, Father. You have Your way. Give her joy like never before. And You be with her as You always have. Lord, we just thank You for being with Brian and Jill and also a special prayer for my precious China and just let her know that we love her, and that God loves …

Hi, it’s Wednesday, August 10th. My name is Soul Sister by the Sea in North Carolina. And I just heard Christ from Brooklyn call in asking for prayer for anxiety and depression. And Chris, I grew up in Brooklyn and I have struggled with anxiety my whole life. And I have to say that actually I surrendered my soul and my heart to the Lord, due to that blessing. And often, I’ve struggled, overtime, you know, seeking out different solutions for it. And I want you to know that you’re not alone. That in Christ, very often, it’s what we feel, we struggle the most with that drives us to the foot of the cross. And I want you to know that there are a lot of us out here who struggle with that, but that God can be your peace in the midst of the storm. I would encourage you to find fellowship with other believers. Don’t isolate and I would also pray that you would find out ways to also address your physical health, cause a lot of times you know, our surroundings and how we take care of ourselves, I’m talking about our bodies being a temple today, are really important: your sleep, your exercise, your nourishment. But most of all, just know you’re not alone. I’m gonna pray for you every day, as I pray for, I have a child that struggles with this. I still have my ups and my downs. I hope to hear back from you soon on the program just saying that, you know, you’re holding His hands closely. And just every time that you get to these places where you’re struggling, you just remember that He is with you and that you’re being uplifted by your Soul Sister by the Sea here in North Carolina.

I’m calling to pray about Vicky from the Desert. This is Topdemerick from Alexandria, Virginia. Vicky called to say she didn’t know what she needed, and she wanted us to pray for her. So, let’s pray for Vicky. Lord Jesus, we lift up your daughter Vicky before You. Lord, God Almighty, You who know all of our needs, we pray that Vicky will be touched by Your Holy Spirit. That You will bring strength unto her, Lord God, for whatever she’s going through, at this time. We pray that she will find comfort, we pray that she will find strength in You dear Jesus. Touch her from the top of her head to the soul of her feet. Whatever it is that the enemy is doing, we bind it, in the name of Jesus. Bind every spirit of condemnation, in the might name of Jesus. Cause Vicky, there’s definitely no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We pray, dear God, that You would cause that Vicky would find acceptance and love in You, Lord God. Touch her at this moment. And every person of God in DAB that is feeling condemned, we need strength, oh God. We pray that You would touch them right now and let them know, dear God, that You are by their side and that whenever they call, You will answer them. So, Father, thank You for hearing our prayers. Give You all the praise and the glory. For it is in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Hello, Daily Audio Bible family, my given name means famous fighter. I have been listening to Daily Audio Bible for many years and I’m a first-time caller. I need to call in and say a special thank you to Hands to Heaven. I am one of the silent ones. I am standing at the end of a 30-year marriage that was filled with emotional, sexually and spiritual abuse. I wondered, how could I call in for prayer, what would I say. I had allowed myself to become silenced. As I walk this very dark valley, crying out to God for healing, for hope and for change. I daily listen to Brian cover me in God’s precious word and God began changing me. There was no judgement in what he read. God’s word is so incredibly powerful, and it spoke love, peace and new life to me. And as he shared his commentary, I never felt the twisting of Scripture that wasn’t being spoken over me in other parts of my life. The Daily Audio Bible became my lifeline and it helped me be able to stand and say “nope, that is not how God sees me, He loves me and created me perfectly”. And as I listen to the praise and prayer requests and prayed along, I often cried, sensing, that although the prayer being offered was for someone else, God meant it for me as well. So, thank you, Hands to Heaven, for praying for me, one of the silent ones. I’m silent no longer and I pray that others like me will know that God absolutely cherishes them and adores them and is holding them beneath his wings, just as He has been holding me.

Nehemiah 8:1-9:21, 1 Corinthians 9:1-18, Psalms 33:12-22, Proverbs 21:11-12

Today is the 14^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and greet a brand-new week. Out in front of us much to discover, much territory to cover, and life to live together in community around the Global Campfire. And, so, brand-new week. We’ll read from the Evangelical Heritage Version this week. And of course, we’ll be picking up where we left off, which is in the book of Nehemiah. Today, chapter 8 verse 1 through nine verse 21.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the Global Campfire. We thank You for one another to be together taking these steps forward as we move through the Scriptures. We thank You for all that You have spoken to us and all that You have yet to speak to us through the Scriptures. And as we move forward into this brand-new week, Holy Spirit we be aware of Your presence around us always, that we don’t have to conjure You up we simply need to become aware that You are already here. And mainly be aware of that in all of the moments, in all of the decisions and everything that we choose and all that we think and what we choose to say. May these things that shape our lives be informed by Your truth. Come Holy Spirit, and lead us into all truth, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

Nehemiah 5:14-7:73, 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, Psalm 33:1-11, Proverbs 21:8-10

Today is the 13th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today, today and every day. Literally, every day. It’s wonderful to gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together. So, that next step forward leads us to the place where we left off, which happens to be in the book of Nehemiah, in the Old Testament. And so, let’s dive in and take the next step forward, which will be Nehemiah chapter 5 verse 14 through 7 verse 73, today.

Commentary:

Okay so, in the book of Nehemiah, we see this completion of a dream, a goal, to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, but we probably should have noticed is that, as they got closer to the conclusion, to the completion of the goal, things got more difficult. Which can often be the case right, in any kind of project that we are on, finishing, just finishing is so difficult sometimes. And that’s when the whole thing can fall apart, after we’ve used all of the energy to get somewhere just finishing, can be a problem. We see Nehemiah continuing forward, continuing to turn to God and he explains some things that even reveal more of his heart. Though the why, what’s going on inside of him, because he has been appointed a governor and he is entitled to certain things to get, to get paid. In certain ways, things that he is allowed to impose upon the people so that, so that he’s enriched, and he’s cared for and what Nehemiah showed us in his narrative today was, although there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s not what he did. Like, he carried a burden of his own, so as not to impose a heavier burden on a people who are already working really, really hard toward a goal and who had already been exploited by their own people. And so, he’s paying out of his own pocket to support himself and those that he is charged to care for so that, the people are burdened and so that the…the goal can be achieved. So, that they can finish, so that they can continue to move forward. Nehemiah, even reported to us in the reading today that Jerusalem had a wall around it, and it was spacious inside right, because Jerusalem had been destroyed. So, there’s a city wall but it’s spacious inside, it’s ruins on the inside and he comments that they did not buy any land. We can be like, whatever, who cares but this is Jerusalem, and this is a city that has a wall around it now and he has led the building of that wall. And it would seem like at walled city called Jerusalem, that the real estate inside that wall, would be valuable and would only grow. And so, for him to comment that, he didn’t even mess with that, he didn’t even by any land, like a ground-floor opportunity that he created, and he didn’t exploit the opportunity. So, that reveals a lot about what’s going on inside of Nehemiah and his heart toward this is goal of rebuilding the wall. And then this ridicule and threatening and taunting and threatening ambush, this kind of stuff, actually turns political. Nehemiah’s enemies wanted to come down from Jerusalem, come down from the wall and have a summit meeting, because rumors are flying around that Nehemiah wants to make himself king and he’s gonna finish this wall and he’s going to declare himself king and he’s got false prophets ready to prophesy and he’s gonna take over. And surely that’s going to get back to the king of Persia, so they’re trying to intimidate him to come to the summit meeting with they’re likely to taken captive or kill him and they even have trusted leaders inside the city trying to set Nehemiah up, trying to get them to flee to the temple where he will look weak because the enemy is coming and Nehemiah’s like, how can, I mean, I can’t do that. How can a person in my position, go run and hide in the temple? But then he realizes, they’re trying to discredit me, even some of the people on the inside here, are trying to discredit me. It’s almost as if, Nehemiah had a compass that pointed to his true North and he consulted that at every single step of the way to make sure that his orientation was correct and that true North was that he turned to God in everything, knowing that he had a mission to accomplish, that God had provided for and it cared for and affirmed and that was what he was there to do. He wasn’t there to acquire rental property inside the city of Jerusalem. He wasn’t there to leave the project, to go deal with the politics of the situation, even though those, they were threatening that the politics were threatening and were they to be believed, Nehemiah would be arrested and probably executed, back in Persia. There was a goal and that was the purpose for Nehemiah being there and he was passionate enough about…about it, to be paying out of his own pocket to sustain his work there, and those around him. And so, we get another incredible picture of goals and dreams and leadership, which is something that Nehemiah really brings to the surface, as we consider our own lives.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You, yet again, for more and more examples of this leader, Nehemiah and how he accomplished the building of the wall of Jerusalem, to protect Your temple and how he turned to You and how You turned to him. May we apply this to our own lives, our own goals our own dreams, the things that You are planting within us. We pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, it’s where you can find out what’s happening around here. The Daily Audio Bible app can do that as well. And you can download the app free, from whatever app store is connected to your phone or tablet or smart device, search for Daily Audio Bible and you should be able to find that, so, check it out. While you’re there, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there, in a bunch of different departments, bunch of different categories, of different kinds of resources that have been developed over the year, for taking this journey through the Bible together, around the Global Campfire. In fact, there’s an entire Global Campfire line of things to just connect us, like there’s a Daily Audio Bible like, a commemorative coin I know that sounds weird, but I carry it around. If I reach my hand in my pocket and I touch that, it’s like, we’re all together like, we’re in this together, we’re a part of something together, something that is, really life-giving in this world, the word of God, spoken aloud, out into the world. So, yeah, just check out the resources and the Global Campfire department or in any of the different categories at the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if being around the Global Campfire gives a sense of not being alone and that we are on a journey together, and that the Scriptures in our lives every day do matter and do make a difference in giving us counsel, about the way that we should go. If you found life in the Scriptures around the Global Campfire together, then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage and dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello DAB, this is Allissa, from Colorado. I called quite a few months back to let you guys all know that my kidneys were failing. And you all are so amazing and prayed for me and I so appreciate that. So, my husband and I have been trying to get pregnant with our second child and have been struggling with secondary infertility for over two and a half years. And, of course, we found out, with the kidney failure, that’s probably why we weren’t getting pregnant. Anyways, my kidneys got so bad that I started dialysis in May, and I’ve been on for a couple weeks now, on dialysis. But anyways, about a week and a half ago, I found out that I’m pregnant and we were not even trying. So, yes, total miracle. It is less than one percent that dialysis patients are able to get pregnant. So, this is a miracle, but the reason I’m reaching out is because I’m obviously scared. I’m very excited, I’m praising God so, so much. I’m six weeks along now. There is a percentage, a risk, a pretty high risk of leaving my baby. Dialysis patients often do. And so, I’m just asking for your prayers for my sweet little growing baby. That it would grow to full term, that God would bless, his or her life. And that if it’s his will, that I will be able to see this baby and hold him in my arms. But if not, that God would give me the strength to trust Him through it and to praise Him anyway. And just to trust, no matter what happens and to lean on Him. So, I’m just praying for a miracle. So, if you could all join me in praying for my baby, I’ll keep you guys posted. I have an ultrasound in a little over two weeks. Thank you so, so, much. God bless you all. I’m so thankful for this community. I listen every day. God bless and have a wonderful day. Bye.

Hi, this is Bonnie from Virginia. Today, is Monday, August 8th. And I heard hands to heaven calling. It made me feel that she was really praying for me. This morning, I was crying and, in my tears, thinking about my life and living at my daughter and son-in-law’s house. My daughter has stopped going to church and is married to a guy who is not a believer. And in my culture, parents, we’re supposed to live with the son, but my son left home, so I had to move out from my apartment, since my daughter asked me to come live with them. I didn’t know that she had stopped going to the church, because she was planning to go to different church then mine, where we all three were attending before. And now, I see that my daughter has all the Hindu, I mean, son-in-law’s faith, god and art and statues, decorated at the house. There is no prayer, no worship, nothing in this house. And it really makes me feel very sad, regret myself moving out my apartment. And now, I’m not able to rent apartment because I do contract interpretation job and I do not make enough in order to qualify to rent an apartment. Thinking all these things makes me very sad and I really don’t find God …

Hello, Daily Audio Bible family, this is Justin from Virginia and I have a bit of a praise report and just ask for your continued prayers. So, last time I called I was going through a really rough time. A lot of anxiety and stress issues. But I feel God has worked some miracles. So, when I was having kind of, some of my darkest moments, I actually got physically sick from all of it. My dad actually came out and visited me and it was some of the best bonding time, I think I’ve ever had with him. It was great, it was really a blessing. That and seeing a counselor and doing some other things, I think has really helped. God has really worked through that. You know, I still have the same job, I haven’t been blessed with a new one yet but even that, I feel, is a bit less of a burden then it was before. So, God is good, and He’s moved in mysterious ways and used some really challenging moments in my life over the past few months, to apparently, bring me closer to my dad and other things. So, just, I wanted to give a praise report and let you know I’m doing better but to also ask for your continued prayers as I’m trying to get a new job and trying to find, continue to find peace and grow in Christ. So, love you everyone. Thank you, once again. God be praised.

Hey family, this is Kent. And, last week I heard Shawn from the UK call in, asking for prayers with his addiction to drugs. This morning, Travis, from Alberta called in to pray for Shawn. Well, Shawn, you’ve been on my mind, I have been praying for you because I know what addiction is like. And Travis, this morning, your prayer felt like it was for me, as well. My addictions are not the same as Shawn’s, an addiction is still, something that I deal with. So, thank you Travis, for that prayer and those thoughts and those words of encouragement to Shawn and to me. And Shawn, know that you are prayed for, and I love you both, brothers. Thank you.

Good morning, my name is Angie and I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee, this is my first-time calling in. Today is August 9th and I was listening to the prayers, and I heard Jed on there from Quebec, Canada, 19 years old. Super encouraging. I am a single mom. I raised three, almost by myself. I’ve been single for 11 and a half years and his prayer request for his mom, really touched my heart because my kids pray for me for a Godly husband and it just got me thinking that there’s a lot of us single women, who are waiting for Godly men. And it’s probably a sign of the times, where it seems like there are more spiritual Godly minded woman, then men. But my prayer request is that the Lord would raise them up, that the Lord, would raise these men up. That He would pour out His Holy Spirit on men and right them and put their eyes on Him. Cause there’s a lot of us ladies who would really love Godly husbands who are just one fire and head-over-heals in love with Jesus. Thanks fam.