Category: DAB Transcripts

Nehemiah 3:15-5:13, 1 Corinthians 7:25-40, Psalms 32:1-11, Proverbs 21:5-7

Today is the 12^th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian coming to you from the steamy rolling hills of Tennessee, where we are in the thick of the summer. And it’s a great to be here with you today as we gather. Like every day, we gather around the Global Campfire move forward together. And, so, our next step forward leads us back into a book that we began yesterday, the book of Nehemiah. And, so, we’ll read from Nehemiah first before arriving back in first Corinthians, Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. So, we are reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Nehemiah chapter 3 verse 15 through 5 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, when we were talking about the book of Nehemiah and getting going in the book of Nehemiah one of the things that I said is that if we just watch Nehemiah himself and the way that he conducts himself as a leader there’s a lot, a lot for us to take counsel in as we consider our own calling, as we consider the passions that we feel like our burning in her bones and as we seek the Lord’s direction. And, so, we watch this idea to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem materialize in Nehemiah. And then we watch Nehemiah pray and wait and plan and think and pray and then invite the king into the story and seek the king’s favor to go to Jerusalem, which he got. And then we watched him look the whole situation over in Jerusalem before he ever told anybody what was going to happen. And then he cast the vision and everybody working really really hard and things were progressing fantastically ahead of schedule even, which is what we would want, right, if we got this idea, and it starts to burn inside our heart and we pray and intercede and everything starts to fall in place and there’s like affirmation and permission to move forward and resources are there. And, so, we move forward. What we would want, everything to go smooth. And, so, things began smoothly, but anybody who has ever done anything probably knows like if you’re…if you’re on a long-term project of some sort obstacles are going to materialize in some way. Things aren’t going typically to just go all the way smooth, no problem. Let’s move onto the next smooth sailing win for us. Typically, we have to face challenges. And challenges did arise in Nehemiah’s story among the people. First of all, it’s just the taunting and ridicule and demoralization of the other people around who did not want to see this project up and move forward in any way and so they just start ridiculing and taunting people, intimidating people, right? And, so, they’re just out there going who do they think they are? They think they’re gonna build a wall? Even a fox could knock this wall over if it ran on top of it. They’re just like intimidating and demoralizing the people with their words. If you’ve ever been on a lengthy project that you are pouring your soul into, you are going for it with all of your heart and you have the words of discouragement all around you, that takes the energy, that takes the wind out of the sails and that was true for Nehemiah. Nehemiah didn’t go after the taunting people to get in a big big argument, a shouting match, all kinds of threats wasting all kinds of more energy. He turned to the Lord, basically saying, don’t forget what they’re saying. Like you sent us here to do this. Hear what they’re saying. He reaffirmed his dependence upon God for success, and they kept building. And that’s something for us to see. Nehemiah turned to God in the obstacles and kept moving forward regardless of the taunting and pretty soon they were half done. There was a wall around Jerusalem. It wasn’t a great wall, but it was half as high as it needed to be. They were halfway done. And then these taunting voices turned into threatening voices that…that they are…that…that that the enemies of the Jews who were rebuilding the wall will be attacked. And, so, the threat of just ambush and killing indiscriminately because people are spread out all around the city or the threat of a full on attack against the people in the city was actually a real thing. So, Nehemiah’s got a situation where they’re trying to rebuild this wall, but they could be attacked at any moment of any day at any time. And, so, Nehemiah turned to the Lord and then began to guard day and night the worksite. Nehemiah had to make some hard decisions because he needed to arm half of the workforce, while half of the workforce continued to build which means they had to slow to half pace, essentially, and everybody had to wear a weapon and be ready, which would slow things down further. And yet they were prepared if they were attacked, and they didn’t stop moving forward. So, they had obstacles coming against them that were real, even life-threatening and Nehemiah turns to God and arms the people to defend themselves and they keep going. Progress has slowed down considerably, but they keep moving forward. And then we saw this problem happening among the Jews, a demoralizing thing for a leader like Nehemiah to realize that…man, not only do we have threats from the outside, we have threats from the inside. Like everything is difficult. Maybe we have felt that at times, as we’re working toward something. Everything is difficult. Every step I take is hard on. Sometimes it’s like that. And we’re watching that in Nehemiah’s life. And in this case, people with money are exploiting people without money. They’re trying to build this wall. They’re trying to stay faithful to it. They’re also trying to feed themselves and their families. And there’s a famine. And, so, those with resources are exploiting those without resources and they’re exploiting their own brothers and sisters. And Nehemiah actually confronts his own people who are part of the same mission after the same goal. He confronts them, saying, look, look we’re doing everything we can to buy everyone back that we can and here you are like turning around and exploiting them and reselling them into slavery. Like, this is ridiculous. And once the perpetrators were confronted, when the light was shined upon the situation then they had to acknowledge what they were doing and they had to acknowledge that it wasn’t right and they had to agree to give back everything that they had earned through exploitation, which they did and to stop preying on their own people. So, basically in this rebuilding of the wall in the reading that we read today, we watched its leader Nehemiah face, taunting, ridicule, demoralization, the threat of attack, the need to create an armed force for security to protect themselves, the slowing of the project to half speed, problems from within the ranks, people going after each other inside this workforce, people exploiting other people. And Nehemiah is continues to turn to God and be devoted and to endure and to persevere because there is a goal in mind and that is that the temple of the most high God would be protected by a wall around the city. Watching Nehemiah should inform our aspirations may be convictions, dreams, goals, the things that we’re going after. What’s being modeled for us is character in  leadership with a clearly stated goal and a willingness to endure to see that goal accomplished.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for the opportunity to have dreams and aspirations and goals, that we have the opportunity to take risks and move into things, and that Your spirit is here to guide us. May we learn from this story of Nehemiah. Because a lot of times we get a dream and the dream begins to fade when the dream actually becomes hard work and the dream fades more when we get discouraging words and the dream almost disappears when we feel threatened and the dream completely goes away when we feel betrayed from the inside, all things that we watched happen in our reading today. And yet we didn’t see the dream go away. We saw that it was continuing, and that Nehemiah was turning to You, and adjusting, adjusting and pivoting in such a way that things could continue to move forward toward the goal. Let that speak into our lives and into our situations we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base, home of the Global Campfire that has been ongoing now for a long time. That’s where you find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app will allow the same thing and more. So, check that out. You can download the app for free at whatever app store is connected to your device. So, certainly check into that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission that we share to continue to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm so that we know we’re not alone we’re in this together, if that is life-giving to you 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 Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app 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:

Hi, my name is Brooke I am calling in for the first time and I’m calling in because my family and I help a elderly woman who was previously homeless and, you know, we rent her a home and just try to help her to have some stability in her life and she struggles with mental illness and some other health problems. And anyway, it’s just very taxing because of her mental illness. You know, she just has very strong reactions to things and sometimes, you know, goes through spurts like right now where she won’t talk to me and she’s mad at me for things that I didn’t do and, you know, for not really reason at all. And anyway…and it just feels really hopeless sometimes. And I decided to call in because I just was thinking, you know, about her situation and other peoples situations with mental illness and how hopeless it can feel and I just know that it cannot be hopeless because God is capable of anything. And all of the ways that we fail and feel like we can’t help He can. And, so, I just asked that you would pray for my friend her name is Leda and just pray for her mental illness and for a miracle and that for hope, that there would be hope in this situation. Thanks. Bye.

Good morning beautiful dab family this is Latula from Los Angeles and I heard yesterday’s message August 7^th and I was so touched by one of my fellow callers that called out the consistency and the commitment of the Hardin family how every morning they are for the last 13 years in her life speaking life, speaking words of promise, speaking words of wisdom and interpreting what the Holy Spirit has put into our brother Brian Hardin. And for the last year and a half…maybe almost two years I think I have been listening to the Daily Audio Bible consistently and I’ve grown. I feel myself just closer in my walk with the Lord and the long walk especially, the beautiful July 7^th long walk. And I was so touched that she proclaimed, you know, like let us tithe, let us tithe into this ministry that is consistently there for us day and night the spoken word available and accessible to all. And that's…that’s something that touched my heart and I’m encouraged, and I’m touched and I’m going to act upon this call of action, and I plan to start tithing into this ministry. So, I encourage anyone who is also just getting pointed to, that we continue this beautiful G;obal Campfire. In Jesus’ name I pray. Thank you, Brian Hardin you are my pastor also, not just the one I go to. I do go to my pastor Justin and Marissa they’re amazing. Just so I love you all. Have a great day.

This is Larry from Iowa and today I come to you with…guys with sad and also a glad heart. It’s to do with part of my family. My…my sister passed away earlier this year. And at the same time my brother-in-law, her husband bond had cancer earlier and he went to chemo, and it went away. And this was about six months ago. And Bob is a firm believer in the Lord. And the cancer has come back now, and he just spent a week in the hospital taking chemo and the chemo wasn’t working. And, so, they returned him to his home and called in Hospice. And I just ask you to pray for Bob and let him have the peace that passes all understanding or heal him, whatever the Lord desires. I thank you. I listen to you every morning and I hear you guys pray. I just ask you to pray for Bob today. Thank you.

Good morning DAB family my name is Sandy I want to be known as I’m Rooted. I’m from Lancaster CA. I have a client, I’m a hairstylist, I have a client that has a sister, her name is Rasheeda. I’m so sad because she’s been missing since August the first. She was last seen with two guys and a girl. They found her car burnt up and she’s still missing. And I would like for everyone to pray for her, that she would be found real soon. She has two children and I’m just I’m just really sad. I did her hair for a while. But just to think that somebody has taken her and what they could have done to her. But I know God is in control of all things and that He will bring her home safe. So, I know with all of us coming together and praying that God will answer the prayers because His word says when more than one are in agreement that His will will be done. So, DAB family let’s come together and pray that Rasheeda would get home safe to her children. And that I pray for the young people that’s involved…that’s involved with this and I hope that God will put the right things on their mind and their heart to do the right thing also. Have a blessed day DAB family.

Hello, my name is Patrick from Calgary AB Canada. I’m just asking for prayer because I’ve been a sickly person ever since I was born and seems like one thing after another. I’m 62 now and I just keep getting sick. I keep ending up in the hospital, chronic sickness. And I know it’s an attack of the enemy. I know he wants to try and take me out but it’s not going to happen because greater is He that is in me than he is that is in the world. So, I’m asking for prayer that I will just experience freedom from chronic sickness. It’s gotta stop. It stops because the Lord says that He intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. So…and I know that people are praying around the world and appreciate all the prayers for this to go and be done with once and for all. Because God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power of love and a sound mind. I have bipolar disorder too and I just want to be healed. I’m sick of this bipolar. Just tired of it. Just tired of the enemy’s attacks. And I know it says in James 4:7 to resist the enemy and he shall flee. So, I try to do that on a daily basis…well actually on a minute basis because he attacks my mind. But anyway, I appreciate all the prayers. Thank you so much DAB community. Bye for now.

Hello this is Maurice Woodson calling from Indianapolis IN and I’m calling about my pastor friend John from Pittsburgh. His wife of 48 years was called home to heaven a few weeks ago and he and his children sent her on a wonderful home going service. At this time I’m calling to request prayer for him and his family as they go through the grieving process of losing a mother and a wife. And I ask for John for prayer for him because he has to continue to be a pastor as he grieves the homegoing of his wife. God bless you.

Nehemiah 1:1-3:14, 1 Corinthians 7:1-24, Psalm 31:19-24, Proverbs 21:4

Today is the 11th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today, today and every day. What an honor for us to gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward in the Scriptures together. And yesterday, we concluded the Book of Ezra, which brings us to some new territory in the Old Testament.

Introduction to the Book of Nehemiah:

Today, we will begin the Book of Nehemiah. And so, let’s just get a little bit of orientation to what we will read. Nehemiah’s not that long of a book but it’s packed full, packed full of things for our own lives. And Nehemiah himself is quite an example of a leader whose goal isn’t to be a popular leader whose goal is to actually lead the needle in the right direction. And so, there’s a lot to unpack there. Nehemiah is part of a group of books in the Old Testament known as the Books of History. And we’re pretty much picking up where Ezra left off, in fact, Ezra and Nehemiah, at one time, were one text. Which leads many scholars to come to the conclusion that Ezra was at least, one of the authors of Nehemiah. Although, that isn’t known for certain, that’s definitely a tradition. Nehemiah, was a Hebrew, was one of the Jewish exiles that had been carried away into exile. And it is the Persian Empire that has defeated the Babylonian Empire so, Persian kings are now in control of the Jewish people. So, Nehemiah is part of those Jewish people. And the Persian kings are obviously more favorable to the Jewish people, even allowing them to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and worship God there. Cause the Persian king has a lot of different territories, with a lot of different gods, that are being worshiped and so, he essentially, wants all of the gods appeased, all of the gods in his favor.  And so, he sent the Hebrews back to rebuild and begin the worship of the Lord, their God and their ancestral homeland. And Nehemiah has been following that story and he’s able to follow that story because he’s a servant to the king of Persia. And so, he hears things, he kind of knows what’s going on. And he begins to imagine what’s going on, he begins to imagine Jerusalem and that there are people there, his brothers and sisters, his fellow Hebrews who are there, reestablishing the worship of God, rebuilding the Temple. So, he’s thinking about what that looks like, and he begins to think about the fact that, the Temple is being erected but there’s nothing to protect it. And the Temple is truly a symbol for the Hebrew people, this is the place where God lives, this is where God dwells, this is where God meets with human beings. Like, this place that’s being built or rebuilt is the place where God is going to come and commune with the people. And in Nehemiah’s mind, it’s sitting there and there’s nothing to protect it. Any band of raiders, strong enough, could come in and destroy this place where God touches humans on the earth. And so, a fire begins to brew in his belly. He wants to see that Temple protected; he wants to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem to protect it. And this fire in his belly becomes fire in his bones until he can’t take it anymore. Which we’ll see. And Nehemiah eventually gets to go to Jerusalem, and he faces all kinds of opposition. So, he’s got this fire in his bones, this thing from God, this calling in his life, this determination to obey, and he faces nothing but obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. So, if he’s actually going to fulfill what he has dreamed of, he will have to be willing to persevere, which we will see that, he is. Because he’s pretty clear what’s happening, his heart is right, he wants to protect the Temple of the Lord, this is God’s Temple. And so, Nehemiah can’t protect it, he can help build the wall, but God will have to show his favor upon them. And so, he believes in his utter dependence on the Lord. And we will see that a wall begins and it’s moving along at record time. And Nehemiah returns to the king of Persia to give a report and to go back to work. Then, later on he’s allowed to go back to Jerusalem, and he finds similar things to what Ezra found. Basically, there’s a strong wall now and a weak people. And so, Nehemiah steps into that and reads God’s law to the people, which causes a tremendous amount of repentance, as the exiles return to God. So, there’s a lot here for us, including simply watching Nehemiah and the… his demeanor, his character, the way that he makes the choices that he makes as a leader. It helps us when we are thinking what might be burning in our belly, what might be becoming a fire in our bones, as we watch Nehemiah face the obstacles that he does. And so, with that we begin, Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 14.

Commentary:

Okay, so a few minutes ago we were talking about Nehemiah and kind of, doing a little bit of an overview of the material that we were heading into. And I mentioned like, if we just watch Nehemiah, there’s a lot for us. And so, we saw Nehemiah get news of the exiles in Jerusalem, we say this spark an idea and then we saw him sit with this idea before the Lord and begin to intercede and pray before the Lord. He hasn’t told anybody, anything. He’s heard news and he’s begun to take that to the Lord because something is bubbling within him. And so, he intercedes, praying before the Lord as the passion inside of him begins to build. Like, he didn’t just get this idea and then immediately run to the king. He got this idea and then immediately ran to the Lord and interceded before the Lord and asked the Lord to make a way for him, if this is what he’s supposed to do. And so, he didn’t come before the king until he was ready to come before the king with this news. And so, when he presented it to the king, he was given affirmation. He was sent to do this. We see that he had a plan, before he ever started.  And then, he makes the trip, and we know this is a many months long trip, from the book of Ezra. So, he eventually arrives in Jerusalem, and he doesn’t come with flags waving and an entourage, saying I have come from Persia and here are my papers from the king, here’s what we’re gonna do. He actually gets to Jerusalem and rests up. He’s there for three days. He hasn’t said anything, to anyone about what is in his heart to do and what he has been authorized to do. And then he goes out at night, looking at the walls. Nobody knows what he’s doing. He didn’t tell anybody. He goes and inspects the building site. Basically, he goes and inspects what’s going to need to be done and he doesn’t say anything to anyone, until he’s got his own bearings, before he then presents the fact that the Persian King has authorized the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. By the time he does present this, everybody’s hands are strengthened. Like, they’re encouraged to do this thing and they begin the work. So, Nehemiah didn’t start with a marketing campaign. He started with an idea that he ran to the Lord with. And then he systematically, quietly, step-by-step, day-by-day, moved forward from there. That’s a good lesson for any of us, making any kinds of plans about much of anything. And so, let’s consider that today, as we consider our plans.

Prayer:

And Father, we love You and we are so grateful that You even allow us to participate in life. But as we participate in life, we get all kinds of ideas about things that we would like to do and most of those things we don’t do but sometimes there’s a fire inside of us. May we learn from Nehemiah’s example, about how to walk that out. We pray this and ask this, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, home of the Global Campfire. That’s where you can find out what’s happening around here. You can do the same thing with the Daily Audio Bible app, which can be downloaded free from the app store that is connected to your device. So, check that out. Check out the different sections in the app or on the website. The Community Section, that is where to get connected, that’s where the Prayer Wall is. The Daily Audio Bible Shop is available with a bunch of resources and a bunch of categories for the journey that we are on. The Initiatives Section shows us some of the things that are particularly important to be aware of.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission here to continue to do what we do, every single day and come around the Global Campfire together as a community to absorb what we do, which is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures every day. If that is life-giving to you, 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 on, well in, on, in the upper-right hand corner. Or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that is the little Hotline button looking, red button up at the top of the app screen. Or there are a number of numbers you can dial, in the Americas 877-942-4253. If you are in the UK or Europe, 44 2036 088078 is the number to dial. Or if you are in Australia or that part of the world, 61 3 8820 5459 is the number to call.

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

Prayer and Encouragements will be posted later this evening.

Ezra 10:1-44, 1 Corinthians 6:1-20, Psalms 31:9-18, Proverbs 21:3

Today is the 10^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and settle in and take the next step forward together. And to take the next step forward we’ve got to go to the place where we left off so we can take the next step and that leads us back into the books of Ezra and first Corinthians. In the book of Ezra, Ezra has arrived at Jerusalem, only to find out that the people, the exiles, the people who should’ve known better, are mixing with the people in the lands around them taking wives in marriage, giving sons in marriage, essentially doing the very things that led them into idolatry and to their demise. And, so, Ezra has humbled himself, tore his robes, lifted his hands the sky and essentially said, what can we say about this? What can we say? And that’s where we pick up the story. Today Ezra chapter 10.

Commentary:

Okay. In first Corinthians we can see, at least at this portion of the letter, Paul is not pulling punches and is being extraordinarily direct in what he’s trying to say so that nothing can be misconstrued. He is trying to be clear to people that he knows and to people who are participating in things that they know they’re not supposed to be participating in, things that they know are wrong. And the parallel continues with Ezra because that’s what the people in Ezra’s time are going through. And easy enough to read into first Corinthians, especially what we were reading today as Paul shaming the Corinthians. But if we look closer, is he shaming them in, you know, the way that we understand shame today, in the way that shame is something that is talked about a lot or is he exposing? Is he shining the light so that they can see and be exposed to the light what they are hiding in the dark? What seems to be happening here isn’t that Paul wants to heap condemnation and shame upon the people. He's…he’s inviting them to open their eyes and see that they have been called to a higher standard, that they have been invited into actual true freedom. And some of the things that they are participating in and allowing are not going to lead to freedom but actually bondage and enslavement, which in Paul’s view was not how things are supposed to go. So, for Paul, Jesus being raised from the dead is so huge, but it denotes a shift, a complete shift in the species of human beings. And we talked about this when we were going to the letter to the Romans. Jesus was resurrected into new life from the dead. So, He was the first born into new life, life from death. For Paul that started something new and all we who believe are reborn or born again to new life in Christ. The claims of sin have been dealt with. There is nothing that has claim to us other than that which we give authority to. So, he talks about a bunch of things today, like taking each other to court and like why would you do that? Like are there are literally no wise people among you that can help sort this out? Why do you traipse before unbelievers and allow them to have authority and make a judgment? Like, don’t you know that that’s what you’re being nurtured into by your Father, that you are to rule and reign? Can’t you sort this out? Why do we need to be a humiliation to ourselves by the conduct that…that we participate in. He talked about a number of things in this way. And in so many ways what Paul is doing is discussing what freedom might actually be. Because we think freedom is that we can choose whatever we want whenever we want with whoever we want, regardless of the consequences. That’s freedom. We are free to do as we please. From Paul’s perspective that’s not really freedom that is an open door to bondage or put that in Paul’s words, “everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” That should not be really all that foreign of the concept. We can make our choices. We can choose to get into that argument and shouting match and World War III. We can choose to commit adultery. We can choose to leave our family and those that we love. We can…we can choose whatever we want and pretty much nobody can stop us. We can choose those things and say I exercised my freedom, I needed…I needed to move in this other direction. I’m outta here, or whatever the case may be. For Paul, that’s not actually freedom. Just because you can make a decision or a choice doesn’t mean it’s a good decision or choice that will lead you into shalom, into the way things ought to be, into wholeness and peace. So, we have freedoms to make choices, but those choices then are allowed to matter. And, so, for Paul, just kind of pulling up a blanket of freedom and saying everything under this blanket is my freedoms, I can do whatever I want isn’t necessarily giving or bringing you freedom. For example, you could take your blanket and…and get a hive of killer hornets and put it under that blanket and climb under the blanket with them and say I’m free to do this. Sure. You’re probably not going to enjoy the repercussions and at that point you probably won’t consider it freedom. The thing is though, life is so full of like of these gray areas and knowing how to choose long-term freedom over time in the thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of choices that we have to make even in a day. It's…it’s like some…sometimes hard to know. So how can we know? Basically, kind of following the reasoning of Paul, we have to be willing to take a step back enough so that we how perspective enough to take some inventory about ourselves and about the way and the why we do what we do. We have to be able to observe ourselves at least enough, be self-aware enough to understand what we have given authority to in our lives, what we are willing to be a slave to. Paul says, everything is permissible for me, but I will not let anything master me, right? I will not allow anything to dominate me. I will not enslave myself to anything. If we think about the things that maybe we have been enslaved to in the past or in the present, that’s what we’re talking about here, the things that are mastering us and not the other way around. We have but one master and we are supposed to be slaves to righteousness, living sacrifices. There is one master, one authority and when our full faith and trust is in that authority knowing that that authority, speaking of the Lord, loves us and wants the absolute best for us and knows the absolute best for us we place our trust in that and walk in that direction and away from anything that would thwart that process of relationship with God, anything that would get between us and God. And, so let’s give it some thought today. What are we allowing to be our master, to master us? And are we really free because we choose to allow that to master us?

Prayer:

Father again, we thank You for the Scriptures. We thank You for Your word in our lives and the way that it touches everything about us as we move through a year. We are grateful for this opportunity for self-reflection about the things that we have allowed to master us. Holy Spirit, come. Reveal that to us as we contemplate it. You are the master You are the Savior. There is no one else and You indeed will lead us into wholeness and completeness, and shalom. So, come lead us into all truth, even all truth about ourselves and why we do what we do and what we allow to master us. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base, home of the Global Campfire, it’s where you can find out what’s happening around here. If you have the Daily Audio Bible app, which you should, it’s free and you can download it from whatever store, app store is connected to your device. And it is definitely the best way to stay connected and to move through the Scriptures together around the Global Campfire. So…so, check that out.

And while you’re checking that out, check out the Community section. This is where there are links to get connected on social media to the different channels that we are participating in. This is also where the Prayer Wall lives. And the Prayer Wall is always available to us, always. We can always go and pray for each other. We can always go and ask for our brothers and sisters to pray for us. And that can be found in the Community section, either on the app or on the website.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you humbly. Thank you. We wouldn't…we wouldn't…we wouldn’t be around the Global Campfire if we weren’t all around it together. And, so, thank you profoundly 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 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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey this is Chris calling from Brooklyn. I just want to thank God for allowing me to wake up today first and foremost. I need help getting this anxiety out of my way, getting this depression, this stress, this pain that’s within me. So, if you could, somebody please pray for me. Finding a job. Giving all the devil that he wants around me. Please. I’m first-time caller and this my first time calling so please play help me out. Thank you.

Hi DAB this is Hopeful, and I heard another Hopeful and I, of course, I love that name. So, I can Still Hopeful. And Hopeful I just wanna let you know I’m praying for you and your husband. And just wait God it’s gonna do something incredible. And it’s been over a year that I’ve called in and I have an incredible praise report. So, one of my last calls I was letting you all know that my husband was on his way to a meditation retreat. And it’s been…let’s see it’s been a little over a year and on his way to the retreat, on his way home I believe someone actually pulled a gun on him at a red light and the Lord kept him safe from anything happening. And he didn’t tell me for a while and then long story short he is a believer. He is a Christian. And I never thought…I didn’t know if I’d ever see that. It’s a miracle. And I just wanted to thank you so much for…I always get so emotional…I want to thank you all so much for your prayers and support. I love, love, love this community. It has changed my life. It’s been maybe six years or seven that I’ve been listening, and I just love you all so much. And as you know it’s been a while so we are still trying. We still haven’t been successful…successful in having any children yet but I’m waiting for the next miracle. So, I am still hopeful and…and I'm…we just pray Lord Father God for everyone in the DAB family who is struggling with infertility Father. We pray for breakthroughs. And Lord if we can’t have children that I just pray that you’d open up doors of adoption or just your will in Jesus’ name.

Hi this is Chris from California. I’ve been a listener for the last three years and a friend of mine shared this resource with me and I’m so thankful for this community and how much it has meant to my life. And I’m very grateful. And today I'm…I’m calling in for prayer for my family, specifically my marriage. My wife and I are separated. We’ve been married for 26 years, and we have three children, and our family is so hurt right now and so broken. But I know that God can heal. And I pray that you’d lift us up and I’m praying for God to do a miracle because I don’t see a lot of hope. And I pray you guys lift my wife Gin up and her heart would be open to restoration and reconciliation and a new beginning. And I pray that God would do an amazing thing and that He would get the glory and that it would be a testimony to what the power of God can do. And, so, if you’d lift us up and keep us in your prayers, I would so appreciate it. Because I know that anything is possible with God. God bless you all.

The image was there but you couldn’t yet see it
the film has to be developed in a solution that will free it
and then a beautiful image of a picture you’ll see
and those same truths that apply to film also apply to you and me
because we also bear an image of our father from up above
kindness, patience, joy, and peace, longsuffering, compassion, love
but unless you’ve been washed and Jesus’ blood and enveloped in his spirit
you’ll never see his image you can’t feel it or draw near it
we’re created in God’s image so God is clearly there
our lives are like a negative so handle with care

blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Mark Reef down under. Hope all is well. Haven’t heard from you in a while. And also, Byron from Florida and Biola. Haven’t heard from you in a while either. Hope all is well. Know you’re all loved and thought of often daily in my prayers. Once again Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowing y'all. Alright. Bye-bye.

Good morning, DAB this is Penny from southwest Missouri, and I just heard Shelly from Oklahoma and I just want to say kudos to you sister, and I am with you there. I have been a listener for…well 13…15 years I don’t even know but I do know that I’ve been around the world literally, figuratively just with life and the one consistent in my life has been Daily Audio Bible and I know it has carried me through. Being able to listen to the word and absorb that every day literally changes your life. When you’re looking for this missing puzzle piece or the right prayer or the right friends to pray for you all you need…I mean you do need that of course…but to drench yourself in the word of God every day maybe several times a day. Listen to it over and over. It has miraculous powers. And I am just so thankful that we have this community and I’m like you Shelly, I listened for years and didn’t continue listening to the prayer requests. It was just all about me and I’m sorry, but I guess that’s the truth. But once I started listening to the requests and the praises my life just has been filled with so much joy. I love all of you. I love your voices. I love your accents. I love your prayers. And this is a church. This is a community and I’m with you Shelly. There is no greater place to support as far as I’m concerned. This is like the early church, and we love each other. You guys have…

Hey Sean from the UK this is a message about Romans 7 and about addictions. [singing starts] that which I would not, that do I do. I wish I wouldn’t do it but I’m already through. My spirit wars within me and I can’t get any rest. I’m doing all these crazy things. My flesh is such a pest. But I thank God that I am His for he will take me, break me, wake me, wash me, heal me, cleanse me, save me. I thank God that I am His [singing stops]. Sean I am a Jane Ruth from Nebraska and this year I will celebrate 37 years clean and sober. That is a blooming miracle and I do it one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time. And you know it’s a miracle because every year it seems like I do a little different addiction because the addictions are not always the same. But the miracle is that there’s no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. I just wanted to say I’m standing with you and I’m praying with you one day at a time. Sometimes it’s one hour at a time, sometimes it’s one minute at a time. But remember that if God be for you who can be against you. And there’s no one that’s greater than you because greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world. All those with addictions remember greater is He that’s in you than he that is in the world. This is Jane Ruth in Nebraska. I love you.

Ezra 8:21-9:15, 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, Psalm 31:1-8, Proverbs 21:1-2

Today is August 9th, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful. It is a treasure and to treat, and a joy and all kinds of really wonderful things, to be here with you today around the Global Campfire and what a joy it is to even have a Global Campfire to join each other around. And what a privilege it is, to come around this Global Campfire for the reason that we do, which is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures together. And so, let’s get to that, we are in the book of Ezra in the Old Testament and Paul’s letter known as first Corinthians in the new, and our next step for leads us back into Ezra today chapter 8 verse 21 through 9 verse 15.

Commentary:

Okay so, we have an interesting parallel between the old and new Testaments today. So, between Ezra and first Corinthians. So, Ezra makes his journey to Jerusalem. It’s a long journey that takes many months, they are protected along the way and everything is done on the up and up, with integrity and honor to God. Ezra has been given permission to make this journey, by the king of Persia and the king has generously offered the resources that would be necessary for the task. And so, the journey is made but when is Ezra arrives in Jerusalem, what he finds is that, the exiles are going back to what they were doing that ultimately undermined who they were and began mixing with the People’s nearby, which was leading them back toward idolatry. This undermined them in the first place. We have gone through the books of Samuel and the books of Kings and the book of Chronicles and we’ve seen this. And these are exiles who are returning to Jerusalem, they know better. They are betraying God and Ezra is devastated by what he sees and he mourns it, he is appalled by it, and for good reason. And so finally, the evening sacrifice, when it’s time for the evening sacrifice and Ezra gets up off the ground and prays, like he falls to his knees and lifts his hands to heaven and essentially says what…what can be said? Like, what can we say? The things that sent us into exile in the first place of the things we are doing, what can we say? Or just keeping it in Ezra’s words, “My God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face toward You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads and our guilt is as high as the heavens, our guilt has been terrible from the days of our ancestors until the present. Because of our iniquities, we have been handed over, along with our kings and priests, to the surrounding kings and to the sword, captivity, plundering an open shame. As it is today, but now for a brief moment, grace has come from the Lord our God to preserve a remnant for us and give us a stake in His holy place.” Then he goes on to say, “what can we say in light of this, we have abandoned the commands You gave to your servants the prophets.” So, it is a devastating scene for Ezra and certainly a demoralizing scene for us to look at. And we can look at and go, what are you guys doing, you know the way, the way is clear before you. Why would you do something like this when you got back to the land?

Then, we flip the page into the New Testament, into first Corinthians and kind of zoom forward, many centuries and we have Paul, who is also appalled at what he is hearing that believers in the church, the body of Christ, are doing. And I quote from Paul, “it’s actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles. A man is sleeping with his father’s wife you are so arrogant. Shouldn’t you be filled with grief?” And then he goes on to say, “your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven, leavens the whole batch of dough?” And so, we are dealing with the same posture of heart. And so, what is the lesson that kind of bubbles forth from both of these stories today? It is that that mixture, intermingling, mixing with sin, in ways that we know are wrong, will destroy us. It was true before the time of Ezra, it was true during the time of Ezra, it was true during the first century and the emergence of the church of Jesus and the development of the New Testament. It is true today. If we are going to intermingle with what we know is wrong and we are going to find ourselves in a heaping steamy pile of deception. And from that heaping steaming pile, we are going to have to rationalize why it’s okay for us to do what we know is not okay to do. And as we well know, it’s not going to end anywhere good. Nothing good is going to come of it. And when we had the rationalize and justify ourselves in certain ways, than we establish our own normal, but we’re still heading in the wrong direction. And way this works in life, at least in my experience and my observation, we can go on a long time, feeling like we’re getting away with it, or that it’s okay, until destruction comes. It’s like we are complicit in deceiving ourselves. So, from a practical perspective, it’s easy enough for us to just simply take a step backward, maybe another one, maybe another one, may be a few, so that we began to get perspective on what it is were doing, what it is we’re thinking, how we’re rationalizing. And the thing is, everybody’s got their own stories. And so, whatever is bubbling up within our own hearts as we think about this right now, that's…that’s the first place to focus and begin to ask ourselves, what am I rationalizing? How am I justifying what I know isn’t right, what I know isn’t healthy for me? And we might rationalize or think about it and go well, I’m, I’m free. I have freedom in Christ and it’s true. We do have freedom. We even have the freedom to destroy ourselves but is that the goal? Because it seems like the goal would be utter and complete freedom, the kind of freedom that comes from having nothing false within us, which leads us to consider repenting, changing, changing our minds and going in a different direction. And so, may we spend some time giving this some consideration and allowing the Holy Spirit of God within us to well up and to begin to shine the light of truth into some of the dark recesses of our own hearts. If we really want to be free, then we need to consider jettisoning the things that would keep us in bondage and ultimately destroy us.

Prayer:

So, Holy Spirit, come into that, comfort us and rebuke us, reveal to us the places that we’re deceiving even ourselves, to our own detriment. Show us the ways that we are intermingling and mixing with what we know is not right. We ask that You would lead us into all truth, and we ask expectantly in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home of the Global Campfire, it’s home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. The app is all of that in the palm of your hand and the app can be gotten from your app store, whatever app store works with your device. So, check it out. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources in a number of different categories, whether that be things to wear, things that are write with, things to write in, things to read, things to listen to. Also, our entire line of Wind Farm Coffee and Tea, so, things to consume along with our daily word of God around the Global Campfire every day. It’s nice to come around the Global Campfire with a couple coffee. I do it every day, a cup of Wind Farm coffee to my left just about every single day. All these things can be found in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission here, to bring the spoken word of God, read fresh every day and offered freely to anybody who will take the time to listen and to build community around that rhythm of showing up every day at the Global campfire, if that is life-giving and has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership, as we continue to navigate the summer months. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app 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.

Prayers and Encouragements will be posted later this evening.

Ezra 7:1-8:20, 1 Corinthians 4:1-21, Psalms 30:1-12, Proverbs 20:28-30

Today is the 8^th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here together today around the Global Campfire gathering to take another step forward through the Bible and through this year. So, let's…let’s do exactly that. This week we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible, and we are moving our way to the book of Ezra in the Old Testament and first Corinthians in the New. So, first Ezra chapter 7 verse 1 through 8 verse 20 today.

Commentary:

Okay. In first Corinthians today we’re kind of continuing with the thought that began in yesterday’s reading and that was Paul’s pointing out or calling out the fact that certain people were following certain people. Like certain people were following certain leaders and sort of putting their allegiance in their leader. And, so, the problem is that at any point that maybe one leader says something a little bit different than another leader says it or explains it a little bit different than another leader does then all the sudden we have our loyalties and allegiance to the leader that we follow. And, so, over time because nobody can say the same things nobody is the same person, even if everybody believes the same thing, but if there are discrepancies which there have been since the very beginning well then you follow the certain leader that you trust but over time, that becomes your camp, which isn’t a bad thing, your tribe, that’s not a bad thing but then when your tribe has to be the one that’s right over and against another well then you’ve put your trust and faith in a person. And, so, you say, well I’ll just trust this person. They’re my spiritual authority. They’re my spiritual leader. And those things are all fine and appropriate. But those things do not absolve us with an actual relationship with God. Like, the leader that we trust to tell us the truth, they can’t be in the relationship with God for us. And, so, what invariably happens then is that we trust one certain person and absolve ourselves from actually having to walk with God and wrestle through life following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Fundamentally, underneath it all, Paul is trying to say that’s not going to work. A relationship with God by proxy, that’s not going work. And who are we? Which is really the main point. Who are we? And Paul’s talking of himself and Apollo’s in this case, so leaders that people are following. Or just to put it in Paul’s own words. “Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollo’s for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying nothing beyond what is written. The purpose is that none of you will be arrogant favoring one person over another. For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive?” And there’s a flip side of this for the leaders and that is that, like serving God’s people is a difficult job. And, so, like to all the sudden have to measure up to keep all and be ranked by people and to need some sort of dog and pony show for the people is an undue burden in an already burdensome job. Leaders are people who are following God as examples and are teaching people to follow God. The endgame, the win is that people follow God not that we accumulate a large amount of people who follow us. And I know often it’s easy to…to look at a popular person may be in ministry and go wow, what mighty things God is doing through that person. And maybe they’re speaking the complete truth and are really great at it. And, so, it’s easy to think, man that must be nice, to just walk with God and study the Scriptures and communicate it to people. And wow, maybe I could do that. I wish I could do that. Paul basically pulls the curtain back on…well…on what’s behind the curtain of leadership of this nature. Paul says and I quote, “I think God has displayed us the apostles in the last place like men condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the world both to Angels and the people. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are dishonored. Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty. We are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless. We labor working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure it. When we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now we are like the scum of the earth like everyone’s garbage. I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children. For you may have countless instructors in Christ you don’t have many fathers. I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So, I urge you to imitate me.” We could say, O well there it is. It’s like a backhanded way of Paul gathering in more followers for himself. He wants everybody to imitate him. So, he’s saying, who is Apollo’s and who is Paul, and who is Cephas but really he;s saying he’s the main guy we should imitate him. I guess we just need to take a step back and say all right, if that’s true what are we to imitate? And what we are to imitate is what Paul just said. “In the last place like men condemned to die, a spectacle to the world, both to Angels and the people, fools for Christ, weak, dishonored, hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless, laboring with our own hands. When we’re reviled, we bless. When we’re persecuted, we endure it. When we’re slandered, we respond graciously.” That’s what’s behind the curtain. If we want to be that leader then Paul’s suggesting that we imitate him and what he’s had to do in order to provide the gospel to people. He says we are weak, but you are strong. We say that the God but what Paul is saying in this context, is we leaders are weak but you have been made strong. You are distinguished, but we remain dishonored. So, fundamentally, and we will hear this from Paul explicitly as we continue through his letters, the treasure Paul seeks is the hearts of people who are passionately willing to be a living sacrifice following Jesus as a disciple being reborn as a new creation upon this earth and modeling a new humanity. But if what we’re going to do is carve ourselves up into camps and follow certain people and those certain people become our way to God the whole thing is backward again. And, so, we’re not only getting a glimpse into the goings-on in the early church but we’re able to see that it’s still going on. This has been part of the story. And, so, may we remember it’s not a cult of personality we’re after here when we’re looking for a spiritual leader. It’s not to be at the most popular place in town. It’s to follow a leader who leads us to follow Jesus not to give us a sense of belonging in some camp where we can be against or over somebody else’s camp. Because as Paul articulates and will continue to articulate throughout his letters, there’s only one camp, it’s called the body of Christ. Everyone belongs. Everyone has a part. No one can say to anybody else I don’t need you. That’s not true. We understand our leaders are servants who are modeling what it looks like to follow Jesus and that we get to serve alongside them, which is very different than being their servants. When we understand that it is the blessing and affirmation of the Lord that we seek, not the blessing and affirmation of a certain person then we avoid the kinds of things that Paul is pressing into as he writes his letter to the church in Corinth.

Prayer:

Father, we…we thank You for our leaders. We thank You for those who are in our lives that model what it looks like to walk with You. And that help us to learn to seek Your face and obey You and understand our desperate need. We are utterly dependent upon You. And this is as it should be because You are all powerful and completely capable. And, so, we honor those that You have put into leadership, and we pray for them because it is a difficult job full of all kinds of pitfalls. Help us to serve our leaders by serving You and help those of us who are leaders in a spiritual capacity to serve those within our sphere of influence by serving You. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, home of the Global Campfire, that’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. So, check it out. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app then all of that is already in the palm of your hand. So, check it out. And if you don’t have the Daily Audio Bible app, maybe you can check that out. You’ll find the Daily Audio Bible app in the app store that is connected to your smart device, whether that be a tablet or telephone or whatever. Just search for Daily Audio Bible and you can download the Daily Audio Bible app right into the palm of your hand.

Check out things like the Community section. We are a community taking this journey step-by-step day by day around this Global Campfire. And it’s good to know. And we can get connected. There are all the different links to connecting on social media can be found in the Community section. But also, that is the home of the Prayer Wall. The Prayer Wall is a place and it’s always open and it’s never closed. And, so, no matter where you are on the earth, no matter what time zone you may be, you can always reach out and share your story, ask brothers and sisters to pray for you and they will. We’re a community that prays and encourages each other. Maybe…maybe you want to pray. Because obviously, sometimes when we turn our focus off of ourselves and the problems and the things that we’re enduring and just reach out in prayer for our brothers and sisters for what they’re going on it gets our minds off ourselves and can change the entire atmosphere of what we’re going through. We can do that at the Prayer Wall as well, just go and read and see where the Holy Spirit’s leading and then allow people to know, hey I’m praying for you. I know what that feels like. It’s a great way to stay connected to the journey that we are on through the Bible this year. And, so, check out the Prayer Wall. That is in the Community section on the web or in the Daily Audio Bible app.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to whoever may listen wherever they may be whatever time it may be to and build community around that rhythm around the Global Campfire, if that is life giving to you then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage 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 would be the little red button that looks kind of like a hotline button up at the top. It’s the only button that looks like that. So, you can press that 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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

This is Hands to Heaven. Father God, I lift up the silent ones to You tonight. You know them by name Lord, the ones listening to this in the dark of night with tears streaking down their faces. Their hearts are broken God. Their lives shattered. Their minds are screaming that life wasn’t supposed to be like this. They can’t even put together a complete thought in two minutes much less a prayer request. So, they lie in the dark smothering socks in their pillows desperately seeking a way a way to survive a pain so sharp that even breathing hurts. They lie in the dark and they wait for time to pass for the pain to ebb for the blessed oblivion of sleep to come. They’re Your children Lord and they love You, but they hurt so badly right now that they’re only prayer is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I lift these hurting hearts to You Lord, and I ask that You comfort them. I asked that You encourage them with the knowledge that while we may not be able to hear their cries You do. Help You’re hurting children remember Your promises God that You will never leave us, that You are near to the broken hearted, and that You rescue those who Spirits are crushed. Draw them into Your harm’s Father and hold them tight in Your loving embrace. Give them hope Lord, that even if they feel that they can’t hold on any longer Your grip on them will never fail or falter. And one day Lord let theirs be the voice that speaks for the silent ones. Let their story be the light in someone else’s darkness. In Jesus’ name I pray. This is Hands to Heaven. God bless you all.

Blessings dear DABbers this is Carol from Canada. I would like to be known as Abba’s Daughter. Hallelujah! How great is my Father in heaven? Brian thank you for your commentary on July the 28^th…the 29^th after reading Romans 12 as presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice. I have learned so much from that reading on that day. The Holy Spirit work opened my eyes in ways I’ve never experienced before, made me realize that even though I love the Lord and did what I could and other things to love others and to serve an anger issue that’s been unresolved for 50 years plus put a hinder in my spiritual walk with the Lord causing impatience, bitterness, hatred and all of the above sinful things, my language, everything that is disgusting to the Lord. And, so, with this I realized that coming to Jesus for healing, that He start…the healing process has begun as I’m relying on my Lord and trusting in him and everything that we’re going through in our trials of life with my husband and the things that we are facing and that I’m trusting in my Lord for He’s healing into my heart. And I want to say my dear brothers and sisters, don’t give up hope. Jesus loves us in ways we can’t even imagine. I’m 65 years old and have come to know how much Jesus loves me, a believer for 12 years. Hallelujah. We praise you Jesus, and we thank You. And I pray my dear brothers and sisters that you will find the same peace, although suffering with the…

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Vicki from the desert. I need your prayer tonight because I’m feeling just so much. I don’t know if it’s condemnation or conviction. So lost and I just want your prayer right now. I need to…I don’t know what I need. So, please pray for me. This is Vicki from the desert. Thank you.

Hello DAB family this is God’s Tree for I have many branches, but I am rooted in every word of God. I’m calling to stand on behalf and in the gap for Darren in California who’s having some struggles and some demonic warfare on his job. It’s threatening his livelihood and his ability to take care of his family. And I want to stand in the gap for him and for all of those who are struggling on their jobs, who are struggling to take care of home. And know that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. And know that whatever the devil made for bad that God made for good, that there’s more that’s going to come with this situation if you stand still and in trust in God. So, I’m standing in the gap right now and ask that you do the same with me. Dear heavenly Father in the name of Jesus on behalf of Darren and his family, on behalf of all those that are in similar situations God I ask right now in the name of Jesus that You send Your angels God to defeat the enemy and whatever obstacles whatever weapon is formed against him that it would be not only just removed but it would be destroyed and annihilated never to rise its head up again Gd. And I pray in the name of Jesus God that You do an outpouring of blessing on this situation to the point that they have no choice but to believe that it came from You and that You get the glory Father God. We thank You for everything You’ve done Lord. We ask that You lift up Darren. He stood in the gap for all those Father and right now we’re standing in the gap for him. Lord just be with him and comfort him and lift his spirit up and take the despondentness out of his heart and out of his voice and let him have a spirit of praise and joy God for the sun is going to shine in the morning. We thank You for it. In Jesus’ name I do pray. Keep your head up. God’s got us all. Amen.

Hey DABbers this __ currently in Ohio. Just want to pray for Travis for his friend Lindsey that her mom just passed away. So, God we just ask You right now that You will come around Lindsay, that You will be with her and just show her Your amazing love God. And I just thank You that it sounds like that Lindsey is a believer and we pray that her mom, yeah, who was a believer too and that her mom is rejoicing now in heaven. And God would You just give Lindsey a dream of that, that she could see, she could see her mom rejoicing. So, we just ask You God for that. And in Yeshua’s name we just thank You, for Holy Spirit for Your comfort. God we can’t do it without You. It’s all with…with You. And I think it’s Julie…sorry if I got your name wrong dear…from Kentucky. It was right after that the very next call. So, I understand what you’re going through about being alone. And, so, yeah, I’ve been alone my whole life basically. I've…yeah. But Yeshua, you know, He’s always with us. So, He is our husband it says in Psalm 68:5 I believe. Don’t quote me on that. I’d have to look it up. But he is our husband. He is creative. He’ll give us strategies to make our money go further. He’ll comfort our heart when we’re sad. He even watches when we __. And He's…He’s so excited and He’s so jealous to spend time with us. So, I just ask God would You just speak to my friend in…in Kentucky God. Would You just…

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

Today is the seventh day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today, as we greet a brand-new week, shiny and sparkly, all waiting for us to enter into moment-by-moment, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day. It’s all out in front of us and it is such an honor to be around the Global Campfire with you today, as we take the next step forward on our grand adventure, that leads us through a year of life and through every verse, chapter, book, word, of the Scriptures. And so, we’re picking up where we left off yesterday, so that we can accomplish that goal. That will lead us back into the book of Ezra in the Old Testament; in first Corinthians, in the new. This week, we will read from the Christian Standard Bible. So, let’s pick up the story in Ezra, a letter has been sent to put the returning exiles, who are desiring to rebuild the temple of the Lord and rebuild Jerusalem, to put them in a bad light and this is ultimately successful for a time, the work gets halted for a time. That’s kind of where we left things off, as we ended yesterday. Let’s pickup today, Ezra chapter 4 verse 24 through 6 verse 22.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for the Scriptures and the gift that they are and what Paul was saying today in first Corinthians, is certainly something that we can relate to and are guilty of, we often put our faith or some of our faith in our leaders. And invariably, that gets us pulled into different camps, because we are loyal to our leader or our pastor or whatever, we are loyal to that group and invariably that group is against another group, in some sort of way. And so, we get divided into camps. Paul was saying like, who am my, who is Apollos, who is Cephas, like we’re just co-laborers who happen to tell you the truth and raise you up and lead you to go forward, but we’re not like team leaders, who are against one another. Paul tells us everything is ours. Whether it’s Paul, whether it’s Apollo’s or Cephas or even the world or even life or death, or even things that are happening now, or things that are in the future. Everything is ours, that is mind blowing. Everything is ours and we belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. We are God’s temple, and the Spirit of God lives in us. We have it all. It is not our leaders who need praise. It is You, who need praise for bringing leaders into our lives that can help us along the journey. Thank You for that today and may we rest in that, as we move into this week. We are a temple for the Spirit of the living God, who indwells us, who lives in us. We don’t belong to a certain person, we belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Thank You for this, Lord; thank You for this reminder in the Scriptures but thank You for this reality. Who are we? Who are we to ever arrange for such a thing? Who are we to ever deserve such a thing? And yet, in your kindness you’ve considered us worthy? You have grafted us into Your family as sons and daughters and we are humbled. And may we take that humble posture and glory in You and all that we do, that what You have done for us may spill out into the world and that we may be the bringers of Good News. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, this is Dawn Rising in Michigan and I just have a prayer request for a man named Robin. He and his girlfriend were riding a crotch rocket and hit a deer at 70mph in front of my house. And it was bad, the tree, the bike ended up in our tree and he walked away, and his girlfriend had surgery but she’s fine. And so, I, during the accident and waiting for the ambulance you know, I just kept saying, praise God, thank God that you’re walking. And he was like, yeah, thank something. He was just very dismissive and so I just want to have my family wrap him in prayer, lift him up. They’re gonna be fine but I want his spiritual healing and I want him to acknowledge Jesus Christ was his Savior, is his Savior. And so, anyway, his name is Robin and his girlfriend’s name is Kathy. If my family could lift them up in prayer, I would appreciate that family. Thank you, bye.

Hello DAB family, this is Morning Star from Canada calling. And today is August the 3rd. And I just finished listening to our readings for today and the prayer requests after. And I was thinking, when I first started Daily Audio Bible, probably 8 years ago now, I didn’t listen to the prayer requests. I just, when Brian finished his commentary, that was kinda when I pressed stop. But a few years ago, I began to continue and listen to the prayer requests and the praise reports. And I encourage people, if you are just a new listener or you’ve been listening for a long time, and you haven’t listened to the praise reports and prayer requests, I encourage you to do that because it really does build community. You get to know people. You get to hear their voice and recognize their voices. You get to be part of their lives, part of their stories and they become part of your story. So, I just encourage you to do that. But this morning, I just want to quickly pray for the prayer requests that came in today, August 3rd. And they were from Grant, with a heart condition; Maggie, who has terrible loss in the last few months; Joel, for his brother; and then lastly Jonathan. And so, Father, I just bring these people before You. You know their needs, You know their hearts, Father. And I just pray that You would complete the work that You have begun, in each one of their lives. Father, I pray that You would restore the joy of their salvation and that Your name would be glorified in all of their situations. We give them all to You today, Father. In Jesus name. Amen. Bye

Greetings, DAB family, this is Matt calling from St. Louis. I’ve been listening for the past couple of years, but this is my first time recording a prayer. I wanted to encourage you, Amanda, from Colorado. Thank you, for sharing your prayer request. And also, pray for you. But as a word of encouragement, just wanted to let you know, over the past couple of years, I had some health issues, some unemployment and the Lord has met us in our place of need and surprised us, in times of trial. And of course, the trials aren’t all over and there’s still struggles but we have seen Him increase our love for Himself and for one another as a result of these trials. And we’re forever grateful for that. So, I wanted to pray for you Amanda, for your husband and your family. So, Lord, I pray that You would provide for Amanda’s husband in surprising ways in the coming months. I pray that You would draw him closer to Yourself and that You would direct him to a job that he would be surprised by, as I was, myself, last year in were you directed. I pray the same would be true for Amanda’s husband. That You would surprise him not only with the, the kind of job that he did not expect and just finds himself loving, but also with Your provision. I pray for their children, that You would bless them as they raise a child recently diagnosed with Autism, I’m not sure if diagnosed is the right word but recently they found that out. And I pray that You would give them Your grace, Your love, Your compassion, Your direction and understanding. And for their child struggling with anxiety, I pray for Your peace. Bless them, draw them closer to Yourself, closer to one another. Surprise them with Your love, surprise them with Your care, Your tenderness, in all that they now face. So, I lift them up before you, Lord. In Christ name.

Hi DAB family, this is Terribow from United Arab Emirates. I have this testimony that I need to share with us. Two minutes is so short so I’m going to be very fast about it. So, I have, I booked a flight on the 2nd of this month trouble with my 10-year-old daughter to go back home to Cameroon. We are from Cameroon. And, I had it set up from the 2nd to the 9th of August, except this one duty among those days, I was trying everything to swap with another colleague and failed. My money could not help me. I could not get rid of this one duty. So, I got tempted and even my friend advises me to just call sick, you know, they were like, just call in sick, they don’t do anything about it. You don’t have to go to work, you can travel. But deep inside I knew that was wrong cause number 1 I’m not sick and number 2 it was like inviting Satan upon myself. So, I just kept praying to God to please keep me from falling into sin and at the end of the day I could not swap that one duty. So, I had to move our flights to the 15th of this month. And that cost me a lot of money. And again, from the 15th to the 22nd of this month, I have days off except one duty that I was trying to get rid of. And I was like, Father, please, whatever lessons I need to learn from this experience, help me to learn them but please don’t let me fall into sin, help me, help me to do this right. I just need someone to take this duty away from me and give me days off so I can travel. Long story short, today, someone took the duty and I have enough days off and I can travel home with my daughter. Every year I travel home to spend at least one month back home so she will not, back home with my mom, so she will not forget where she came from. You know, and I am so grateful that God did it for me and I did not yield into that temptation of taking the easy way out. So, just join me in thanking God. It’s a miracle for me and I had to share it with you. Thank you so much.

This is Shelly in Oklahoma. Good morning DAB. So, I was thinking this morning as I was mowing and listening to the DAB how much I look forward to this time every morning. And then I thought, is there any good thing, that I can claim I’ve done every day since 2009? Because that’s how long, I’ve been listening. I know, DAB is older than 2009 but that’s the summer that it rocked my world. So, Brian and his family, through illness, blindness, birth of a child, death of a parent, children’s weddings, car accidents, international travel, just to name a few things that would have blind-sided me. Brian, and his family, have been faithful and loyal to God. And because of this, I can listen to God’s spoken word, every day or night, at my convenience. So, no, I can’t think of any good thing that I have done, consistently every day for at least 13 years. But Brian and his family, can. Would you please join me in tithing today to this powerful ministry? This is Shelly in Oklahoma.

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

Today is the fifth day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. Coming to you from the rolling hills of Tennessee. And I pray all is well with you in the rolling hills of wherever you are and maybe are not in rolling hills maybe you are on flat planes or maybe you are coastal or whatever, wherever you may be, it is wonderful to be here with you now, today. And in the Scriptures yesterday, we began a letter from the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth, otherwise known as first Corinthians. We also concluded the book of second Chronicles in the Old Testament and so that leads us now into some brand-new territory, the book of Ezra.

Introduction into the Book of Ezra:

And basically, we’re…we’re picking up where we left off, at least in terms of…of time, the children of Israel have been carried away into exile. So, just small review, we remember that after a King Solomon, Israel broke apart into two different nations, the kingdom of Israel in the North and the kingdom of Judah in the South and there were 10 tribes in the North, the kingdom of Israel who were eventually carried away into exile by the Assyrian Empire and they were completely conquered and they were assimilated into the Assyrian Empire because they disappeared from history as cohesive tribes after that. The kingdom of Judah, where Jerusalem is, lasted over a century longer but were eventually conquered and carried into exile by the Babylonian Empire. And so, as with the book of, the books of Kings and the books of the Chronicles we move through the different kings of Israel and Judah, but we come to an end. There is a last King and that is because they were conquered and carried away. Eventually, the Babylonian empire was conquered by the Persian Empire and the Persian kings were considerably more favorable to the Hebrew people. So, we’re kind of picking up where second Chronicles leaves off as we start Ezra. And Ezra covers about 80 years and there will be three Kings: Cyrus the Great, Darius, and then Artaxerxes. And generally, they are kind to the Hebrew people and allow them to return to their ancestral homeland. In fact, Cyrus the Great begins this process and we kind of saw that as we we’re ending second Chronicles. He literally wants to rebuild God’s temple in Jerusalem for the worship of God. Cyrus wants all of the gods, of all of the lands that he now controls to be happy. And so, he is allowing the Hebrew people, those that want to return to Jerusalem to rebuild, to go there and about 42,000 Israelites are the first wave to return from exile. And they will be under the leadership of a person named Zerubbabel, which we will meet. And you can imagine, 80 years have past, a bunch of people are returning, there are people that are in the land that a been using the land, the exiles want to rebuild the Temple, rebuild Jerusalem and so they’re going to face opposition, largely the kind of opposition known as intimidation, but we’ll also see a bunch of political maneuvering. And we’ll also see that the exiles, they stay true to the task and then before Ezra ends, we see a second wave of exiles being allowed to return to their ancestral homeland in Israel. And there is actually an awful lot in Ezra and the book that follows, Nehemiah, that is extraordinarily relevant to our lives today. So, there is a lot for us to learn and a lot for us to consider. And so, let’s get to that. We’re reading from the New International Version this week, Ezra chapters 1 and 2.

Commentary:

Okay so, there is a lesson for us in the portion of first Corinthians, the letter the Paul wrote, for us today. So, have you ever thought about what we actually believe as Christians? Like, have you ever tried to, sort of step away from the faith part of it and just look at what we believe? When…when we do that, we can see that, if faith were not in play then it’s hard to make sense of it all. It sounds foolish. It sounds like foolishness and that’s not a new development. It was considered foolishness in the time of Paul as well. So, I…I quote from first Corinthians, “for since, in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him. God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” So, what Paul is beginning to lay out here, is this lesson that I was talking about. God can’t be found in the confines of our personal intellect or experience alone. Paul told us, in our reading today that, in effect, God’s weakest thought is still far above humanities greatest thoughts and God’s weakness is stronger by far than the greatest human strength. So, no matter how much we can accumulate in our brains and reason out about who God is and what He is like and what He will and will not do, we do not have the capacity to even reach God’s weakest thought. Like, He is far above us. And so, through our own human wisdom we can’t explain God. Or, let me just put it in Paul’s own words, “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were like when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God.” So, this really resonates with me, particularly because I have devoted my life to understanding God and knowing God, to understanding the Scriptures, to diving as deep as possible. What I have found very, frustratingly as a person who is a thinker, that faith is required, faith is the way for everything to make sense. Without faith, it doesn’t. Which has led me to understand over many, many years, I don’t know all that I think that I know. None of us know, all that we think that we know, about anything but we definitely do not know all that we think that we know about God. At the same time, we know what we know and we reason what we reason and what we are invited to when we, when we come into a relationship with Jesus, is to take this leap of faith that supersedes any of our intellect or any of the things that we think we’ve figured out about God, we have to leap into an unknown. It is our faith that makes it a known. Generally speaking, that would be perceived as foolishness, but it is actually this foolishness that gets us to the end of ourselves, we literally have to take a blind leap of faith and reach beyond ourselves and then we encounter God. And then we realize that the ways of the Lord and following Jesus are rarely ever going to fit into our intellectual framework. And yet at the very same time, those of us who have taken that leap of faith into the arms of Jesus as it were, realize that this is the only way life makes any sense at all. The foolishness, as Paul called it, of our blind leap of faith is what makes life makes sense. So, trying to approach God as an intellectual exercise, so we can figure it all out, gives us all kinds of problems. And yet, as an intellectual exercise, can we figure our own selves out? Do we not do things that we don’t understand why we chose to go that route? And so, if we can’t perfectly understand and figure our own selves out, and what would make us believe that we are wise enough to figure out the Almighty most-high God? We figure out the most-high God, if we want to call it figuring out, by taking a leap of faith and entering into a relationship with Him and surrendering our control and submitting ourselves to Him, giving up our rights and offering our lives as a living sacrifice. That sounds foolish. In most any other kind of context, we would advise against such behavior. And yet, for those of us, again, who have taken that leap of faith and surrendered ourselves and our destiny to God, this is the only way actually find peace. To actually realize, we don’t have anything, about anything, figured out, but we have a Father, who loves us and desires to Father us in this world, teaching us what we need to know, which can only be done through faith. And so, as we ponder this today, may we acknowledge that we don’t know all that we think that we know, but faith has led us here. And we don’t have anything to brag or boast about, all we really can do is marvel at the unspeakable love that is impossible for us to comprehend, that came to rescue us and revealed to us what life is supposed to look like. And then we get to participate in revealing that to the world.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we love You. We acknowledge that You are most-high. There is none higher, there is no one like You. And we don’t really care if it seems foolish to put our faith in You. This is the only thing that has ever made any sense. So, may we live into this and may it spill out of our lives, that we may be an example to everyone in our sphere of influence. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is where you can find out what’s going on around here, unless you’re using the Daily Audio Bible and then you don’t need to go to the website because you have it in the palm of your hand and you can find out what’s going on around here. So, the app can be downloaded from the, well, from the App Store that works with whatever device or phone that you’re using, just search for Daily Audio Bible and you should be able to download it from there, it’s free and it is the best way to take this journey through the Scriptures. And allows us, well, it allows us a lot of things. But one of the things it’s awesome about it is it allows us to keep track of where we are and allows us to take some notes if we want to. And star certain days that we want to remember so that we can refer back to, stuff like that, all kinds of things. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible app. And while you’re checking things out, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of departments and categories with a number of different types of resources for the journey that we are on. Check out the Community Section, that is where the Prayer Wall lives, that’s where different links to get connected on social media are, so certainly check those things out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. Thank you, if you find that being around the Global Campfire together is…is a source of light and life and hope and good news, 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 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey DAB family, this is Vicky in Texas and I’m asking for prayer for you to sew a blanket of prayer over Owen and all the young women and men, heading to start their careers or moving into college for the first time, including my own sweet son Russel, who we’re taking to the University of North Texas on August 18th. And I am already struggling with the grief of his absence and it’s not even here yet. So, this prayer is also for all the other parents who are sending their children out into the world. It’s a miracle that I had this baby, all babies are a miracle but because of a series of medical problems, it truly was a miracle that I even got pregnant and was able to retain the pregnancy and have this boy. When I found out I was pregnant I remember dropping to my knees and dedicating him to God, just telling God I knew that this baby was more His then mine. That I would raise him to know God and serve God and I hope I’ve done well with that. I have truly been blessed to be his mom. He has been a joy all 18 years that he has been in my life. Never has there been one of those times where I thought, oh my gosh, this is a teenager, I can’t wait for him to leave. But now it’s time to watch him grow into the man God wants him to be. It’s no longer so much that he’ll be under my wings and my teachings but truly just sending him out to be under God’s wings and God’s protection. It’s truly time I gave him over to God, like Jocabed letting go of Moses and Hannah letting go of Samuel. So, God, please grant me the peace and faith that those women had. And please wrap all of our children in your wings. Together with my fellow DABers, I bind the catastrophizing voices of the enemy, who tries to box us and our children in with fear to keep us from faithfully handing ourselves and our children over to You. I ask you please to bless all these children. Bless you Owen, bless my son Russel and bless all of us parents.

Hello Daily Audio Bible, Shawn here from England, UK. I’ve fallen by the wayside lately. Suffering from severe crack and heroin addiction. I’m a binger and when I binge, I’m completely out of control. I’m pushing everybody away from me. I’ve stepped away from the Bible. Today, I’ve come back to the Bible after a couple of weeks away. It’s been 11 days but I spent over $2,000 pounds on drugs. And I’ve hurt some of the people that I love the most in my life. I’m stuck, I don’t know. I wake up depressed every day. I know is from no fault but my own and I need to come off the drugs. I need to get better for myself and I know I could be really well if I wanted to, really well. I don’t know what I don’t do the things that I want to do, you know. I do the things that I don’t want to do. I don’t want to take crack and heroin. I don’t what comes over me, something just come over me and bam, all hell breaks loose. So, I’d appreciate it if people would pray for me. I’m very selfish in the fact that I can just call in like this. I feel selfish asking for prayers cause I need to help myself a little. But I’m always listening guys and I’m always praying for you. Not like that, I’m not saying I should be prayed for just because I pray for other people but I really would appreciate some prayers if you can. Yeah, thanks for listening. God bless you all.

Hello, Daily Audio Bible. I am calling in anonymous today. Some of you recognize my voice. I’ve been on a couple of times. I’m calling in to confess my sins. Because James 5:16 says that we should confess, it’s says confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Lord, I thank You, you know, for just waking me up today. But you all, I ask that you all pray for my strength in God. I decided a year ago that I was going to abstain, you know, from, I was going to wait until marriage. But a lot comes with that and there are, you know, things the enemy uses, you know, to veer us off from that faith. So, I ask that ya’ll pray for my strength in God. Pray for my patience and my faith in the Lord. Cause it’s difficult. It’s difficult waiting on the man that God has for me. However, I know that it’s possible and I know that I just need to stay prayed up and stay in my word. Sometimes I feel this spirit coming over me and just this dark, this darkness coming over me and you know, just darkness of submission to sin and I don’t want to. I don’t want to but I do intentionally every now and then and I just want to be free from that. So, I ask that ya’ll pray for me and continue to pray for me as I continue to pray for you all. God bless you all, I love you all. This is an amazing platform. Brian, thank you so much for Daily Audio Bible. God Bless.

Hey, Daily Audio Bible family, this is Billy from Montgomery with A Trinity Stone. I wanted to put a praise report out there for my Kiros. We have, we go into Stayton Correctional Facility in Elmore, Alabama. We did a Kiros in June and there were 22 guys that accepted crosses on Sunday. And basically, that means there’s 22 more believers in Jesus Christ. So, that’s awesome, I’m very, very happy about that. And also, we go back in once a month to do a reunion group meeting with those same guys and other guys. So, we need prayers for that, going back in to do a reunion group. Also, there is another Bible Study we’re going to create out there. It’s called Every Man a Warrior. It’s a Bible Study that is awesome because you’re actually talking directly with the creator, nobody else. It’s a, it’s an awesome Bible Study. There’s gonna be 15 guys that are gonna sign up and do this Bible Study. It’s gonna be led by one of the prisoners inside. His name is McArthur Duncan and he is leading this Bible Study. So, I would just like prayers for McArthur and these 15 guys that are going through this Every Man a Warrior Bible Study. Anyhow, I will talk to you guys later, love ya’ll, talk to ya’ll later. Bye for now.

Hey DAB family, this is Brian in Florida. I’m reaching out because I need some brothers and sisters to partner in prayer with me. I have, through no fault of my own, been facing a lawsuit that somebody has placed and I have been dealing with this now almost 7 years. And the sum of money is huge and I believe I have a promise from God that this case is gonna be dismissed and it is dragging on and on. And my prayer is that I will stand in faith and keep my eyes focused on Christ because He gives me perfect peace. And that me and my family will be protected and for the promise, case dismissed. If you’ll pray with me, that would be wonderful. God bless you.

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

Today is the 6^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we reach the conclusion of another one of our weeks together and continue our journey forward. During this week we made some transitions both in the old and the new testaments into new books. So, in the Old Testament we’re in the book of Ezra and in the New Testament the letter…well…first Corinthians, a letter by Paul to the church in Corinth. And, so, we will settle into that rhythm and continue that journey and we won’t be making another transition into another book until later in the week next week. So, we’re kinda camped out here and Ezra and first Corinthians for a bit. So, let’s dive in. We’ve been reading from the New International Version this week, which is what we’ll do today. Ezra chapter 3 verse 1 through 4, verse 23.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We are so grateful. Our hearts at times are overwhelmed with the goodness that You’ve given, that You’ve given us something tangible to hold in our hands that leads and directs us into following Your Spirit by faith, which is…which is a leap of trust into Your arms. And You’ve shown us how this is done and given us so many examples of what it looks like. So, we are so deeply grateful to You for the gift of the Scriptures and so deeply grateful that You have given us to each other to take this journey with through the Scriptures. And, so, as we seal up and release another week knowing that it becomes a part of history there’s only one way to go and that’s forward. And, so, we go forward together. We thank You deep gratitude for what You’ve spoken to us in this way can we look forward with great anticipation for what You have to reveal to us in the coming week and then the coming months. Come Holy Spirit lead us into all truth we pray. We trust. We’re grateful and we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, that’s home base, home of the Global Campfire, that’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app will do the same thing for you. You can get that at the app store that’s connected to your device. So, search for Daily Audio Bible.

Check out the different sections like the Initiatives section, where there are different things that we’re featuring, different things that we’re doing.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there for the community around the Global Campfire as we go through the Bible together in a year.

Check out the Community section. It would be pointless…well…it wouldn’t be pointless…I was gonna say it would be pointless for me to show up here in front of the mic every day and nobody else is there, it’s not a community. So, it wouldn’t be pointless. It would be solitary. But this has never been a solitary thing. It’s always been something we’ve done together 17 years almost now. And, so, check out the Community section. That is where the Prayer Wall lives. That’s where different links to get connected on social media are. And, so, check it out and get connected in any way that you want to.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you humbly. Thank you. We would not be here if we were not in this together. And, so, thank you for your partnership as we continue to navigate through the summertime. 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 or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Skip Morgan in Sydney Texas. Yesterday was a terrible day for me. I just got so many issues mostly health but when I was listening to the prayers from Monday August 1^st, Camille from Charlotte, her encouragement and knowing that she’s just one of hundreds of people praying for me and I thank you so much Camille and everyone in the Daily Audio Bible. The program has transformed my life. I’ve been a Christian for many years, but I’ve never really focused on the word of God. And I just thank you, thank you, thank you so much. I’m so grateful. And yesterday’s message from Charlette…from Camille just couldn’t have come at a better time. Thank you I love all of you. Bye-bye.

Hi, I’m asking for prayer. I have a lung infection I’ve had it since March, and it won’t go away, and I have asthma and I have sleep apnea and just other health problems. And, so, I’m asking for prayer that these __ I can’t take a lot of antibiotics and the one they’re giving me isn’t working and they can’t give me anything else. So, please pray that this lung infection will go away. Thank you very very much. I pray for all of you. Thank you very much. I’m in Pennsylvania. Thanks. Bye-bye.

Hi, I was just calling in response to Hopeful in Ohio who I just heard her request on…I think it was aired on July 27^th. I’m doing a little catch up. I just wanted to say that I am gonna be praying for you and your husband as you battle together on this addiction. And the first part of your request of you just asking for prayer for yourself and feeling like God’s calling you to do brave things. I think as you were talking, I was so relating to you because I feel like the same way. I’m by nature more of a shy fearful person not one to like, step out and share my faith boldly or do big things brave things. And, so, I totally can relate to…to your heart in that and in feeling like God is calling you to do something and being scared. And, so, I will be praying for you as I remember you when I think of my own struggle in that area. And in that praying for your marriage too, that you would…your husband would have victory and your marriage would be saved and that he would have freedom from that addiction. God is more than able to free from that. And I just pray that that would be so.

Hey family this is Travis from Alberta Canada. Maggie from Massachusetts I just heard your…your call. You recently lost your mother and brother after just coming back __ again. And I just…I want to pray for you. Heavenly Father, I thank You for Maggie, thank You for Your daughter and the love You have for her and the care that You have for her. You are intimate with all her ways and all her thoughts and all her feelings. God, I pray that as she deals with…with sadness and anxiety and just the thought of losing her mom and brother, God I ask that You would come and bring healing. Heal her heart, mend her brokenness, wipe away every tear, fill her with Your joy, be near her oh God. May it just be so evident that You are close to her right now oh God. We pray that You just give her peace, that You would be with her as she is dealing with sorrow. I thank You that You’re so close and so near and You…You mourn with us. Thank you for Maggie. We pray this all in Jesus’ name. Amen. I’m praying for you Maggie. God bless you. Bye.

2 Chronicles 35:1-36:23, 1 Corinthians 1:1-17, Psalms 27:1-6, Proverbs 20:20-21

Today is the 4^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as it is great to be here with you any day and every day. And it’s fun to be here with you as we move into this new month that we are in and kind of moving through this week making some transitions. We finished the letter to the Romans yesterday which will lead us to first Corinthians when we get to the New Testament. And we have also been reading second Chronicles in the old Testament. We will conclude second Chronicles today. And, so, Let’s dive in. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Second Chronicles chapters 35 and 36.

Introduction to first Corinthians:

Okay. So, that concludes the book of second Chronicles, but it also leads us now to the opening of a letter called first Corinthians. And this is a letter from the apostle Paul sent to the church in the city of Corinth. And Corinth was a place that Paul spent considerable time and faced considerable opposition from the Hebrew community there. So, he focused a lot of his time on the Gentiles. A church sprang up and this is a letter to…to that congregation. And in the first century during the time of Paul, Corinth was an important city within the Roman Empire. In fact, it was the fourth largest city in the entire Roman Empire at that time. And, so, we can think of the large cities in the nations where we live around the world. I even look that up myself, like what is the fourth largest city in the United States where I live, and that seems to be Houston Texas. So, that’s a big city, I’ve been there many times and although we’re in the 21^st century and we’re talking about the first century, the kinds of things and the melting pot of people that you find in a metropolitan area - the food, the thoughts, the religion, the hobbies, the sports, like all of the stuff that you would expect, or what would have been expected and Corinth. So, all of the benefits of congregating together and becoming a large city with all kinds of services and goods but also the melting pot of bringing a lot of people together with different spiritual ideas or idolatry, idol worship or sexual experimentation like the kinds of stuff that you find in a large secularized city. What we find in this letter, known as first Corinthians, is that Paul is responding to things that he is hearing that are happening in the church in Corinth. And Paul certainly talks about unity in the letter to the Romans that we just completed, but unity is a major theme in this letter to the Corinthians. And since we live in a world that is very full of division and divisiveness and even manipulative divisiveness to pull people in the corners and make people at odds with each other, especially over things like governance, this is just as poignant now if we have ears to hear, as it was in the first century when this letter was delivered to the church in Corinth. But first Corinthians is also very famous, or has some very, very famous quotes and sayings. For example, if you’ve ever heard, “now we see through a glass darkly, but then face-to-face.” That comes from this letter or, “when I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things.” That comes from this letter. And then of course the 13^th chapter of first Corinthians is one of the most famous passages or chapters in all of the Bible called the love chapter where Paul lays out and describes what love is and what love does. And, so, let’s dive in and enjoy this letter, a letter written to people who knew Paul and that Paul knew. And these letters from Paul to the churches…well…they give us all kinds of stuff. They give us theology, they give us doctrine, they give his advice and counsel, but they also give us a glimpse into what was going on with our brothers and sisters as the church was emerging and developing. And, so, let’s begin. First Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 through 17 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word as we do every day. We are grateful for the gift of the Scriptures in our lives for every conceivable reason because it informs every way that we live and challenges our thoughts and intents. So, thank You for that. And as we are in this week is kind of moving into a new month and transitioning from books into new books, we thank You for all that You have taught us through the Scriptures this year. And, so, as we have concluded second Chronicles and we move forward tomorrow into the book of Ezra and as we have just begun this letter to the church in Corinth, Holy Spirit come and lead us into all truth. Guide our hearts meditations. Guide the things that we think about as we ponder what the Scriptures are saying to us. Lead us into all truth. And we pray along with the psalmist. One thing we ask from You, Lord, one thing that we seek is that we might dwell in Your house all the days of our life, which is forever to gaze upon Your beauty and to seek You. Come Holy Spirit and lead us we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website, it’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. So, check it out. The Daily Audio Bible app can do the same thing and let you check out the different parts of the Daily Audio Bible. So, if you don’t have the Daily Audio Bible app go ahead and download that from the app store that is connected to your device and check it out from there.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there in a number of categories for the journey that we are on through the Bible in a year.

Check out the Community section. That is where to get connected on social media. It is also where the Prayer Wall lives. And, so, get connected in any way that you can, any way that you want to.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you humbly. We…we have been at this thousands and thousands of days in a row, many many many years in a row now, and that has been because we’ve been in this or on this journey together and we couldn’t do this when were in it together. And, so, 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…well…first of all, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up at the top or there are a number of numbers that you can call depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. By the way, I suppose it doesn’t matter which of the numbers that you can call. If you want to make an international call I think…I think it will work. But regardless, if you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is a number to call.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey DAB family it’s Travis calling from Alberta Canada. While I was at church this morning, I got some really bad news that our friend Lindsay and her family were in a really bad car accident last night and unfortunately my friend Lindsay lost her mom. And it’s just going to be a really really hard time for her. She already deals with depression and anxiety already. And, so, just…just be praying for my friend Lindsey and her family. And, yeah, please just be praying. Pray that God just heals her heart, heals her family, and draws her close, closer than ever before. Thank you, family. God bless you.

This is Kathy from Kentucky. Just want to ask everybody to pray for me. I continue to live alone and struggle with things like keeping my weight down before my doctor appointment on the 16^th, mice in my house, juggling my finances trying to keep up with inflation on gas and groceries. It’s just not as easy to live alone. So, I just ask you to pray for me. I see a new therapist this morning. I’m clean and sober 30 years but I still have issues. And I just ask your prayers. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Christy and Kathy from Kentucky this is Lori from Kentucky. I don’t know if any of you are in the flood area but I just wanted to let you know that I am thinking of you and praying for you hoping that you’re safe and your families are safe and just adding you to my prayers along with those people who are in the flood area and have been affected. And I just wanted to let you know I was thinking of you. Hope you are all well. Take care.

Good morning family I’m Deborah from Florida. I am a long team caller…I mean listener…excuse me…but at first time caller. I want to pray for the DAB family and to encourage some of you out there. First, I want to pray for Caleb who called in on July 17^th. Caleb, you called in from New Mexico about needing prayer for your marriage. So, I want to pray now. Everybody join me. Heavenly father I come before you and the throne of grace and ask that you penetrate hearts of him and his wife Lord. I pray healing, strength, restoration, and wisdom for both of them. Heal the wounds of the heart that may have been created. Give them your strength and compassion for each other. Open their hearts to you O Lord and give them wisdom in all of those circumstances and situations for answers while giving you the glory. Lord, I ask that you also bless and protect all the DAB family, give them your strength, courage and compassion and love for each other in the mighty name of Jesus I pray. Amen. Love you DAB family. Have a wonderfully blessed day. Bye now.

Hey DAB family this is Darren in California, long time listener, back…back to the original year. I know the last time I called for prayer was about five years ago because I was calling to pray for children and this community prayed and I now have a son and a daughter, two beautiful babies. So…so grateful. And I know the power of prayer in the DAB community. I’m calling to ask for prayer. I’m facing some spiritual warfare at work and it's…it’s really bad. The enemy comes to steal kill and destroy. The spirit and them does not like the spirit in me and I could use your prayers. They are trying to force me out and causing incredible hardship on my family and for my ability to take care of my wife and my kids. They can come against me with all kinds of strategies, but I ask you to join me as we pray to our God, the God of heavens armies. And I believe that God is bigger. I know he is bigger than this situation. So, stand with me please DAB family. I love you guys. Brian and Jill, I love you. You know I do. And God bless you.

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

Today is August 3rd, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you today, as it is every day, as we gather around the Global Campfire together. Find a place and exhale on let it go and relax. As we come together and enjoy each other’s company, take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And so, let’s get to that. We are continuing our journey through the book of second Chronicles were also continuing our journey through Romans. Today, we will conclude Paul’s letter to the Romans and I believe tomorrow, we will conclude second Chronicles so, we’re moving into some new territory over the next couple of days, but right now we’re in the process of finishing well what we’ve started. Today, second Chronicles chapter 33 verse 14 through 34 verse 33.

Commentary:

Okay so, we have come very near to the end of second Chronicles, one day left there and today we met Josiah the good and reforming King. We also finished the book of Romans today, a letter in which Paul lays out the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the fact that everyone, regardless Jew or Gentile, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of background or circumstance or status, everyone is invited to be a part of the restoration of the world. Jesus redeemed and is restoring all things, making all things new again, and we are invited into that story. And then when we look into the book of Proverbs and seek wisdom and the voice of wisdom in our lives at every crossroads, we are told again something that the Proverbs speak of often and that is, what we say matters. And so, the Proverb today said “a gossip betrays a confidence; so, avoid anyone who talks too much.” So, essentially if you want something held in confidence that you are confessing or working through or wrestling with or trying to get clarity on, a gossip may not be the best place to do that offloading. Because a gossip betrays a confidence. So, who is a gossip? I mean, basically, if you’re the kind of person who hears juicy morsels of personal or private information and then you can’t wait to share that information. And the way to share that information is to kind of frame it like a concern but your deeply in the know. Then you’re probably a gossip. And that probably sounds offensive to hear but nowhere near as offensive as what you do when you betray a confidence. And we might wonder like, why does Proverbs, why does the Bible itself continually kind of, circle back to themes like this, that what we say matters, that things happen through our words. It’s probably because it’s always been and always will be important that we guard what comes out of our mouths. And I sincerely doubt that that’s a big stretch like, that what…what I just said that we should guard what comes out of our mouths, that that is a revelation that no one’s ever thought of before. Oh, I should pay attention to what I’m saying, wow, that explains so much. We all know this, we’ve all been on the giving and receiving end of this. We actually know from life experience that what the Proverb is saying, although it’s ancient, although it’s thousands of years ago, it is very, very true right now. Gossip destroys relationships. I mean, think about when you’ve been gossiped about and found out about it. Did that deepen your trust and relationship with the one who was gossiping about you? And when you are a gossip, sharing the juicy morsels and the person finds out that you’ve been gossiping about them, do they feel deeply committed and loyal to you? We are counseled in the Scriptures, including today, but in many other places in the Bible to avoid these kinds of things. Or let me just quote the Proverb again “a gossip betrays a confidence; so, avoid anyone who talks too much.” We are being counseled to not be on the giving or receiving end of gossip. And so today, like most every day were left with some things to think about that we can carry through the day with us and ponder, watching ourselves, watching the directions that we get pulled in, watching the way that we fall into habits of reacting to things, that may include gossip. But when we catch ourselves, we see it in action and we remember the counsel of wisdom in our lives and we can change. When we make a decision to stop dispensing gossip or ingesting gossip, it’s remarkable how gossip begins to disappear from our story. That doesn’t take it out of the world. People who are gossip’s, who have lost a person that they can gossip too, often find another place, but it’s not a part of our story anymore. It’s not affecting us; we’re not picking up offenses that we don’t actually have. We’re not filling in blanks that we don’t actually know. We’re not wasting time from the precious gift of life that we’ve been given, on things that don’t do anything good. And so, let’s give that some thought today.

Prayer:

And Jesus, as we ask every day, as the Scriptures lead us to pondering things most every day, we invite You into this. We have no way of demystifying everything about why we do what we do or untangling the mixed motivations that we have in our lives but we don’t have to figure out everything. We have to surrender and trust and follow Your leadership. And so, Holy Spirit, the great Comforter, come, heal us, comfort us, but reveal to us, the ways that we perpetuate problems that are destructive, by the way that we construct our sentences and the things that we choose to say and disclose. Especially when those things were said in confidence. May we never again betray a confidence through gossip. We pray this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that’s where you find out what’s happening. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can do the same thing and you can get the app free from whatever app store is connected to your phone or tablet or smart device so, check that out. Check out the Community Section. This is where the Prayer Wall lives, we talk about the Prayer Wall often because it’s a fantastic resource. It is a place that’s always happening, always on, never off, always available. We can always go and pray; we can always go and ask for prayer. And so, that can be found in the Community Section, it’s the Daily Audio Bible Prayer Wall. Also in the Community Section are different links to get connected on social media and so, check it out. Get connected in any way that you can or any way that you want to.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If the mission to bring the spoken word of God, read fresh, every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen, anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm so, that we are in this together and no one is alone. If that is meaningful to you, then thank you for your partnership, especially as we navigate through these summer months. 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 of course, 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey family, I’m Jeberson and I’m a very long-time listener but I don’t call often. I’m calling today to share a praise report. So more than a year ago I started getting heart palpitations and sometimes it will last for days. I’m a well fit guy who is also a runner and I’m in my late 30s. So, I started every single part of my practice, it could be coffee, or it may be because I am running a lot. So, I have plenty of theories. So, for an example, I would just stop running four weeks and I will still have palpitations and then again, I will start running and the palpitations I won’t have it. So, I tested every single theories. And then, finally, I went to the doctor and upon testing and they didn’t find anything like, they were like, my heart is just fine. So, now I was scared. I mean, I was scared as of, I don’t want to leave my family alone to fend for themselves. And so, again I keep on continuing to test my theories, but eventually like nothing. So, I came to the realization that I could never figure this out. So, then I started praying that, you know, I don’t know what is this. But God helped me and every day I use to pray. And all of a sudden couple of months back it just were used and became nothing and today it’s been, it’s been a month, I guess, since I have…have any palpitations. So, yeah, I just wanted to share this as a praise report and thanking God. And also, to boost the family that never stopped praying.

Hi, DAB family. It’s July 30th and another scorching hot day in beautiful BC Canada. My name is Grant. My wife and myself have appreciated listening to the word and praying with ya’ll for several years now. Today, I’m requesting prayer for healing for myself. I’ve had a heart condition with other complications for several years and would appreciate you joining with us in prayer for healing. We have a great God as David said in Psalms, you are the one who forgives all our sins. You are the one who heals all your diseases, give Him the glory and praise for what He has done and what He is going to do. And just appreciate everybody out there for the…the blessing to be part of His family and for this ministry and opportunity we have to bless each other, to encourage, to hear the word. Be encouraged. Just thank you very much.

Hi DAB brothers and sisters, this is Maggie form Massachusetts. This is my first-time calling. Today, is the 30th. I’m reaching out for prayer for deliverance from depression and anxiety and also physical healing for me, as well as my husband. I’ve just lost my mom, who was estranged for me for, since last May but had been in and out of my life for several years. And my family had been estranged from each other too and me. I lost her in April after just reconnecting with her in March after her diagnosis of cancer of the kidneys. And I had reconnected with my brother Stephen, who I miss the most growing up. And I saw him two days before my mom passed. And sadly, I tragically lost him on May 3rd, just one month exactly after losing my mom. He ended his life. I’m having a really hard time. I have a wonderful, loving husband but he has had a hard time trying to be there for me and my daughter, who is also, who’s not saved and in a very toxic relationship. So, I’m just reaching out really for prayer. I’ve only been listening for a little over a week and just grateful that I can call for prayer and connect with all of you. So, God bless you all, thank you.

Hi, my name is Joe, Joe Cane from Seattle. I need prayer for my brother. He was released from prison a couple years ago and he recently had a relapse and went back into using drugs. He is now becoming homeless because she’s been evicted from his place. I want to come up beside him and help him. Help him be restored by loving him. I’m asking God to put him in a safe place and to open his heart to receiving the Holy Spirit. And that he recognizes that he doesn’t, he can’t do this alone. That he needs the help of the Holy Spirit, to seek God for strength. And I just ask this in Jesus name, that he finds a place to live, that he finds people to love him and show him love. And if that person is me, give me the strength and the opportunity to do it. In Jesus’s name. His name is Matthew, thanks.

Hey DAB Family, this is Jonathan from Denver. I just wanted to call in and say hey to Jared from Ohio, tell you that your prayer is a blessing to me and your message today on the 31st is a blessing to me. And it also reminded me of something that I did not even process or think about at all, which is that this July marks one year since starting listening to the Daily Audio Bible. You know, it’s been busy and crazy and I didn’t even stop to think about that. And just to think that there are people that have been following through in prayer that whole time is really, really special and it’s followed me through a lot of ups and downs, a pretty major breakup. A lot of life changes and it’s just such a blessing to know that I have this family where I can know that I am understood, that you will be there through everything that I go through. So, I just wanted to thank you for that. And offer bit of a praise report. Last week, I called in feeling pretty lousy but I’m feeling better. God is very, very good to me. He gave me a very particularly special and restful time listening to the Daily Audio Bible this morning out on the back porch, just drinking coffee. It was beautiful. And also, to kind of bare myself out a little. I am now one-week clean off pornography, which is the first time in a long time, that’s happened. So, thank you all for your prayers and know that I’m praying for you Jared. I’m praying for your work situation, for your church situation and I’ll be looking forward to hearing that praise report. Thank you.