Category: DAB Transcripts

1 Samuel 15:1-16:23, John 8:1-20, Psalms 110:1-7, Proverbs 15:8-10

Today is the 14^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you as we bring another one of our weeks to a close together. So, congratulations on that. We were looking out over this week just a week ago saying it was all new and how we have lived it and told the story and we just keep moving forward together. And, so, let’s do that. We’re working our way through the book of first Samuel and immersing ourselves in the life and times of Israel’s first king, king Saul. Today first Samuel 15 and 16.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word and another week as we continue this journey and make our way into the center of another month. And we just keep moving day by day and you keep speaking, day by day through the Scriptures, through the guidance of your Holy Spirit, through the fellowship of brothers and sisters around us. We thank you. We thank you for what you have begun to speak to us in the book of first Samuel as we look into Saul’s life and as we watch and be more concerned with his image than with who he actually is or could be. May that be our story Father we pray. May we be image bearers of the most high God, and nothing else. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home, that’s home base. It’s the website, it’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app does the same thing in the palm of your hand, and you can get the app wherever…well…wherever the app store that’s connected to your phone is. Search for Daily Audio Bible and you’ll have that and that is the most comprehensive experience moving through the Bible in a year and that allows us to kind of check off our days, find out if we’ve missed anything, take some notes that we don’t want to forget, maybe even “star” an episode that we don’t want to forget, we want to review and go back to later in the year or just remember it. All kinds of stuff packed into the app. So, check that out.

Check out the Community section where…where we get connected and that’s where the Prayer Wall is.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there for the journey we are on through the Bible in a year in community. So, check that out.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what’s happening here immersing ourselves in the Scriptures, day by day, step-by-step, to gather the next step forward together, if that is life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the hotline button in the app. That’s the 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 will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi Daily Audio Bible it’s Laura Lee in Boynton Beach I’m calling in to encourage and pray for Jeremiah in Michigan, Giver of Good Gifts. Jeremiah, I totally want to ask the Lord to continue to empower you to walk out that simple step of obedience to reach out after a season of boundaries that needed to be…I come from a lot of abuse, a lot of manipulation, control, greed, all of that. And with my mom having the dementia now that…that unforgiveness tries to raise itself up against the will of God __ nothing to love Him. And that looks different with parents, it looks different with siblings. And I just…Lord, heavenly Father You are able, and You are willing, and You will guide and strengthen each step of what that looks like. We have given up our rights to hold anyone accountable against what they do to us and we’re not responsible for their change but when they see what You’ve done in our lives may it be a great witness of Your great power, Your love, Your mercy and Your strength to do what reconciles, what restores, and what empowers love, which is always sacrificial because Your Son and His sacrifice and Your sacrifice of giving Him to us and the work of the Holy Spirit. All of that on our behalf when we didn’t deserve it, nor could we earn it. So, yes, I pray You bless the meeting with his parents. I pray that his parents have open hearts and open minds and open eyes in Jesus’…

Good morning DAB my name is Jesus I’m calling from South Florida and this morning I am calling on a prayer request for my sister Jones from upstate New York. She called for the prodigal children. I myself and in a waiting time and trusting God that He will bring my daughter back home. The situation at home where my wife and her couldn’t get along and that’s our daughter, that’s our blood daughter and she left…and she left, and she has been out of contact with us for a while. But anyway, sister Jones from upstate New York I am thankful that you called. Happy belated Mother’s Day to all of you. And I want to thank you so much sister Jones for having the heart and patience and trust in the Lord God that he would bring your children home. My children also, my daughter also has two boys and a girl and but she also knows the Lord and was just derailed by the ways of this world, you know. I pray…I pray for all the parents especially mothers who patiently wait on the Lord in the name of their prodigal children back home. And the Lord will give us the trust that we need and help and the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to pray not just for our needs for the parents that are waiting on the return of their children. Dear God oh Holy Spirit you’re the one left behind to guide us. I pray that you’d be the lead that we need, the guidance that we seek. As you hold within us the trust that we need to have in God to know that one way or another whether our children come back, may they just be safe in his presence God. I pray this with my heart wide open and…and thank you sister Jones for upstate New York for bringing your message and may the Lord guide your children back home…

Dear family and friends this is Heather from California. Just wanted to let you know couple things. First, my husband Dike who’s been at the hospital in rehab for a month, he’s coming home tomorrow praise the Lord thank You Lord and thank you for praying for us. And pray for him to be able to get home and be relaxed and help us with the caregiver and, yeah, that the Lord will watch out for Dike because I have a long room with my mom. Praise God her white count has got up. But we do have some issues that are going on with her liver now. The enzymes are pretty high. So, we need prayer on that that the enzymes…that the medicine works so that way she doesn’t have to be off of chemo for too long. And, so, I’m just so thankful to you guys. I can’t even sign you how blessed. Like 13 weeks has been so crazy and it’s gonna be crazy still because…anyways…it’s been crazy because my husband’s gonna be here and I gotta go take care of my mom and thank God for my sister-in-law Becky that she’s gonna help me with my mom because caregivers are very expensive. Oh, my goodness. Thank You Lord for family. I just want to let you guys know that I get up every morning and read with you guys, so I feel like I’m not alone. And I know that God is always there and always with me, and my family and I just want to tell you guys how much I love you. And thanks Brian. You are the best bud. I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate your daily “I love you. We’ll see you tomorrow.” Thank you, guys. Love you.

Hi DAB family this is Joanna from this Pacific Northwest, and I am on a sick day today which is actually kind of nice. I’m just sitting at home drinking tea and listening to the DAB. And this morning I was struck by just how beautiful this community is that we’re from all different backgrounds and cultures and political sides and whatnot but we all can come together on our love for Jesus and our pursuit of His word and I just…I love that. So, I just wanted to pray and encourage you all this morning. Jesus thank You so much that Your…Your community is founded on I love for You Lord. Thank You that You have blessed You us beyond what we see in this world, beyond the limits that our culture and our understanding of each other has but Lord Your Spirit comes in unites us. You give us love and peace and joy and gentleness for each other. You give us healing and insight and such tenderness and compassion from You that we can share with each other. So, Jesus I’m just so glad to…so glad follow You, so glad for this community and for my church community. And we just praise You this morning Jesus. I pray this in Your name Lord. Amen.

1 Samuel 14:1-52, John 7:31-53, Psalm 109:1-31, Proverbs 15:5-7

Today is the 13th day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, and it’s wonderful to be here with you today. Just like it’s wonderful to be together any day. Especially, centered around what we’re doing, which is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures, together. And so, truly, wonderful to be with you today, around the Global Campfire. We are working our way through the Book of 1st Samuel. 1st Samuel introduced us to Samuel and his leadership as the final judge of Israel. And then, we were introduced to Israel’s first king, that Samuel anointed, and his name is King Saul. And so, we’ll spend the rest of the time that we have in 1st Samuel reviewing the life of King Saul and some of his interactions with Samuel. And so, let’s pick up the story. We’re reading from the New International Version this week, 1st Samuel chapter 14.

Commentary:

Okay, so again, in the Book of 1st Samuel we are watching Saul and his reign and his style of leadership and once again, we’ve seen that he’s navigated himself into a really awkward position. And we know that Saul has a pretty profound fear of man, we’ve already been able to witness this day-by-day and today is no different. It’s just that the thing that he was trying to avoid, which is to look weak before his men, is the very thing that he navigates himself into. And so, Jonathan, the Prince of Israel, the son of Saul, decides to go check out what’s going on with the Philistines and he believes that the Lord has handed them into the hands of Israel. And so, they have this criteria and there’s a cliff and they climb up this cliff and a battle begins and Jonathan slays a bunch of Philistines, and that begins to cause an up roaring of the Philistine camp. And so, that amps up until the Israelites, including Saul, can hear that there’s commotion in the Philistine camp. And so, something’s going on. And eventually, they realize that they have a military opportunity to defeat the Philistines in this battle. And so, Saul makes all of his troop’s vow not to eat a thing until the enemy has been vanquished. It just turns out that fighting in hand-to-hand combat burns a lot of calories. And so, the men become exhausted and in capable of pressing into this battle further because they don’t have any energy. And eventually they’re so famished that you know, they’re killing livestock and just eating the livestock with the blood still in it, which is obviously against the Mosaic Law. So, Saul’s decision to be like, decisive in his leadership position, actually limits what is possible and what is capable to be done by…by the Army. Meanwhile, Jonathan, who started this skirmish, got the whole thing going, and initiating the victory for Israel, he doesn’t know about this vow. And so, he eats some honey and he is refreshed and restored until he finds out that there was a vow and he wasn’t supposed to eat anything. This ultimately comes down to Saul deciding that somebody in the camp has sinned and must die because they have sinned against the Lord in a way that is worthy of capital punishment. And in the end, the fact that Jonathan had eaten some honey comes out. And now, Saul is in this really awkward position because he has vowed that the sinner was going to die even if it was his own son, which it turned out to be in this case. And so, Saul is going to kill his son, the heir to the throne of Israel in order to remain this decisive leader. It’s just that, the men know that Jonathan brought about the victory, this all began with Jonathan and he didn’t know about the vow. And so, they stand against their king and say “surely as the Lord lives, not a hair on his head will be touched, it was God, through Jonathan, that brough about the victory”. So, Saul, probably was relieved that he didn’t have to watch his be executed but he also, ends up, looking weak, which is something that he’s trying to avoid, even if it would cost him his son. And so, we can see that these issues are pretty deep in Saul’s life and we’re not finished experiencing them. In fact, if we’re paying attention, this mantle of leadership that is on Saul, is beginning to really destabilize him. And it’s not to much of a stretch for us to consider what we would do to avoid humiliation or looking weak. And what kind of insecurities are destabilizing us.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the story of King Saul. And we thank You for what it surfaces in our own lives as we consider. Certainly, we don’t have the type of decision to make like a king would, but we definitely experience the kinds of insecurities that Saul seems to have. And so, Holy Spirit, come and speak to us in those places. The erratic things that we will go to in order to avoid looking weak. The things that destabilize us to the point that we are constantly pretending to be something different that who we are. You have created us to be who we are. It matters that we are, who we are, in Your Kingdom. Help us to realize that we don’t have to pretend. You’ve invited us into freedom, may we walk in it. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home, home base. The Daily Audio Bible app is home base as well, if you have app, which you can download from whatever app store is connected to your device. And so, either way, you’re at home base. Home of the Global Campfire and it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, check out the Community Section; that is where links are provided to get connected on social media, that’s also where the Prayer Wall lives. And the Prayer Wall is a distinctive and beautiful resource of the community here because it’s always on, never off, you can always share what’s going on and ask our brothers and sisters to pray for us. We can always go there and read other people’s stories and pray for them and let them know that we’re praying for them and that what they had to say resonated with us and let others know that they’re not alone. We let each other know that we’re not alone because we’re not alone. And the Prayer Wall is a fantastic resource for that, so check that out. Also, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there in several different categories, whether it’s stuff to wear or stuff to write with or stuff to write on or stuff to listen to or stuff to read. All kinds of resources there that have been developed over the years for the journey well, for the Global Campfire experience. Going through the Bible in community together in a year, so check out the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you profoundly, thank you with all humility. We couldn’t, well, first of all, it’s crazy that we can do something like this at all. And I do marvel at that at least once a month, even though, this kind of technology has been around for a while, it’s still technology that emerged in our lifetimes for the most, for most of us. And so, even a generation ago, what we’re doing is science-fiction. And so, we are at this point in time, in history where every day, we can show up. Every day, we can take the next step forward and every day we can become familiar with the beautiful body of Christ around the world as we learn each other’s voices and each other’s stories. And so, if that is a life-giving and hopeful experience, thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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

1 Samuel 12:1-13:23, John 7:1-30, Psalms 108:1-13, Proverbs 15:4

Today is May 12^th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you around the Global Campfire. Come on in. Find a place. There’s always room. And we gather here to take the next step forward like we do every day through the Bible, next day forward in life and in this year. And our next step leads us back into the book of first Samuel, where we have met Israel’s first king. His name is Saul, and we will be spending some time now moving through the stories of Saul’s life and there are plenty of things for us to learn along the way. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. First Samuel 12 and 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’re getting to know Israel’s first king, king Saul and I mentioned that there’s a bunch of stuff for us to examine in his life because it becomes a mirror into our own lives. And Saul as the king as a leader has a bit of weakness and that is the fear of man. He is very interested in what people are thinking about him, how things are appearing and that clouds his leadership. And that is not to say that leaders shouldn’t be aware or even concerned with what people that their leading think or feel. Like, that’s important. But Saul is the king. His loyalty is supposed to be to God on behalf of the people. But he’s more concerned with what the people are thinking and saying, then obeying God, which is not going to work out. Like, if there’s anything we’ve learned so far from our time in the Bible is that following those pathways, they don’t end up anywhere good. So, yesterday as Saul is anointed the king of Israel we found that the tribes…the tribe of Benjamin was called forward then the clan then the family and then Saul and Saul’s hiding. In today’s reading Saul’s son Jonathan, the prince of Israel has stirred up some trouble with the Philistines and so there’s going to be a battle and Saul has assembled some troops and they are preparing but Samuel had said wait until I get there for a sacrifice. Saul waits a week, notices that some of his men are beginning to withdraw. Maybe they have a little bit of a gossip session going around. Who knows, but Saul sees that his strength seems to be diminishing as the king while they wait for the prophet Samuel. And, so, Saul decides to offer these sacrifices to God in front of his men to sort of hold things together. About the time that he completes the sacrifice Samuel shows up and is wondering what in the world is going on, because God had commanded Saul to wait for Samuel. And, so, Samuel inquires, like what’s happening and that’s where we see in Saul’s defense. That’s where we see what’s motivating him. So, Saul says, and I quote, “when I saw that the men were scattering and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash I thought now the Philistines will come down against me and Gilgal and I have not sought the Lord’s favor, so I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering. And, so, Saul basically gives his recipe for disobeying God, right? I mean, he saw that the men were scattering, that Samuel didn’t show up at the time he said, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash and those three things together whipped up into his mind, allowed him to make a decision to disobey the Almighty God who had made him king of Israel. What is the recipe for us? What sets of circumstances would need to happen in order for us to override what we know is right in disobey God? What has to happen to trigger us to start doing things in our own strength again? Probably a lot less than an assembling army of Philistines. We are all guilty, but if we look into Saul’s life, if we see what happens right here we see that it goes nowhere good. Samuel replies to Saul, you have done a foolish thing. You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. If you had, He would’ve established your kingdom over Israel for all time, but now your kingdom will not endure. And he goes on to tell him that the Lord is looking for someone pure in heart, someone after God’s own heart, someone who won’t have a recipe for disobedience. And that is what’s going to happen. So, Saul just got anointed in yesterday’s reading as the king and in today’s reading it’s all over. Now, from today’s reading week we learn that Saul was 30 years old we he became the king and he reigned for 42 years. And, so, what Samuel is telling Saul that is going to happen didn’t happen that very day. It took some time to happen, but the idea that Saul would have a dynasty and that his son would sit in his place on the throne as king and then his grandson and then his great-grandson, and so on and so forth, Saul will be the only one of his family to ever be king. And, so, it allows us to just kind of wonder, what if Saul didn’t have that weakness? What if his heart was after God and obeying God above all things? What would this story look like? Which allows us to look at our own story and wonder the same kinds of things and those are worthy of considering. We’ll get to sort of see the answer to that question. It’s gonna take some time, but there’s gonna be another king, and the next king is a very flawed very human person but is a man after God’s own heart. So, not only do we have Saul as a mirror into our own lives and the things that we fear in the things that kind of pull us in all sorts of directions, but we’ll be able to contrast that with the next king. And it’s gonna to take it little bit of time like I said, but his name will be David and we’ll meet him soon and we’ll get to know him long before he ever becomes King.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You. We thank You for where we are in the Scriptures, we thank You for where we are in the yearly and we thank You for Your love and kindness and graciousness and compassion for us as we take this journey. And Holy Spirit as we consider even what we were just talking about today, what three things would need to happen for us to decide that the best move in our lives is to be disobedient to You and willingly do what we know is not right? That’s a hard question. It’s a very situational thing but the answer should be, we would never do anything. It would be the most unsafe thing to do, to openly rebel against You. And yet we’ve done that so many times we wouldn’t even be able to keep track. And thankfully You’re not keeping track either or we would be utterly doomed. But You have loved us and forgiven us and restored us and You continue to restore us, and You continue to sanctify us and set us apart. And, so, as we embrace that process, part of that is to reflect upon our own lives and our own motivations. What are we afraid of that would make us disobey You? Holy Spirit, we invite You into that question as we consider today, and we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, and you can find out what’s going on around here there. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can do the same thing. The Daily Audio Bible app can be acquired at whatever app store is connected to whatever device that you use. Just search for Daily Audio Bible and you can download the app for free. And it’s a fantastic way to engage and move through the Scriptures in a year and kind of keep track of what’s going on and where we are in the grand scheme of things as we take this journey through the Bible. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what’s happening here around the Global Campfire brings life and good news and hope and joy and encouragement, not to mention the voice of the Scriptures into our lives every day, if that is meaningful and matters 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. 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. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DABber family this is the Burning Bush that we not be devoured for the glory of our God and king. I’m calling to wish China Jill and all the DABber family moms happy Mother’s Day. I pray to God that you’re having a blessed day, that you’re acknowledging the blessing that God has given to you to be able to birth humans on this planet or to parent humans on this planet. So, God bless you. For those who are estranged from their kids right now, I am praying for you that God will fill that gap in your heart and that God will warm the hearts of your kids towards you. I pray for healing in those relationships. For those of us who have lost our mothers and are struggling how to celebrate this day, I pray for all of you and all of us that God will continue to assure us of His presence and that He’s a parent of all the parentless. But anyway, I just wanted to share that with all my family today. I love you guys. Love you, love you. May God bless and keep you. Amen.

Hey, my DAB family this is big shoes tiny feet from Norway. I just want to thank you for the work you’re doing Harden family and also DABC for doing an amazing job. And it brings me really closer to God and it changes me every day. And also, I just want to shout out to God’s Smile in Cheeky Peter. You guys, you lift my spirit every time. It doesn’t matter how bad of a day I’m having you guys just cheer me up. So, just thank you for calling in and being who you are. Bye.

Mother’s days coming to a close and I hope that all you mothers out there have had a very blessed day, any mother who is not just biological there have been those who have been adopted moms. Some are waiting to be moms, and some are care givers for other children. Whatever kind of a mom you are may the Lord bless you and keep you strong as you continue to care for the children you love. Today I’m asking for prayer for my friend and sister, God’s Yellow Flower. She had to be taken to hospital by ambulance this afternoon and she may have had or in the process of having surgery at this moment. Her daughter and son-in-law are away on a cruise and it’s her son Keith with the fourth stage cancer and her two grandsons that are at home. She may be in hospital anywhere from two to five days. Could you please send a concert prayer up to our heavenly Father for her? This is a difficult moment. And, you know, she will be concerned about Keith and Keith will be concerned about her. But please just pray with me for her.

Father God thank You for this day You have given us. Thank You for the weekend. Thank You for all of the ways in which You have blessed us and all the opportunities we have had to serve. Open our eyes Lord to see what You are doing and how we can help. Help us to be salt and light. Help us to be Your ambassadors and to be a good witness to our communities and our work colleagues and our family. Please be at work in their hearts and minds. Lord, we lift up the care givers to You thinking especially of our brother David and his wife penny and son Zach. Thank You, Lord for their love and desire to help and to care. Please be giving them what they need. Lord, please be giving guidance and wisdom on what to do. We ask You just to be at work in the whole situation. We do pray for healing Lord and for restoration. Please be blessing their marriage and the other caring relationships out there. Please be at work Lord in just giving them what they need and restoring them and guiding them. In Jesus’ holy and precious name. Amen.

Good morning. First, I’d just like to say what a blessing and a gift from God this ministry is to me and how thankful I am to hear the word of God being read to me in this season of life. It’s just bringing great understanding and teaching me to really listen and pay attention. So, I’m so thankful Brian for your gift in this ministry to read the word to us. Thank you. Praying for many of you as I hear your voices and your hearts and believing and standing in agreement as you lift your prayer requests up to us and the praises. Just so thankful I can rejoice when we hear the praises and the testimonies. This morning as I heard the little girl call in about her brother, they had called a while back, and I just thought of the scripture, out of the mouth of babes God has ordained praise. And, so, this morning I stand with this little girl as she’s asking prayer for her brother who it sounds is a prodigal, that he would come home. And I was reminded that the Lord sees her brother and knows exactly where he’s at. And, so, Father, we thank you this morning that you hear the hearts of this little girl and her family, their prayers. You hear them. There’s not one thing that they care about that you don’t care about. And, so, we stand with her and her family today believing for the return of the brother, that his heart will be totally surrendered to you, living for you, and there will be a testimony behind their prodigal life that says you reached into the depths of his darkness and brought him back into the light. And, so, we thank you this morning God for his return in Jesus’ name. Amen.

1 Samuel 10:1-11:15, John 6:43-71, Psalm 107:1-43, Proverbs 15:1-3

Today is the 11th day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today as we continue…continue forward in the Scriptures, which leads us back into a pivotal book in the Old Testament. We’re reading the books of Samuel; we’re reading first Samuel right now. And Samuel is in the process of appointing Israel’s first king. That’s where you pick up the story. First Samuel 10 and 11, today.

Commentary:

Okay so, we have met Israel’s first king, King Saul. And there’s many fascinating things about King Saul, not the least of which is, that he was Israel’s first king and we saw that coronation. We say that everybody wasn’t on board until he took them into battle the first time, we watched all of that. But we also watched Samuel call forth the tribes to appoint a king and it gets really interesting here because, as he’s looking over the 12 tribes of Israel, it’s the tribe of Benjamin that was chosen and in the end Saul from Gibeah is chosen to be the king of Israel and that could be like well, whatever, that’s no big deal, but let’s go back to the Book of Judges. The last story that we read in Judges is of the annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin. We remember, all of the people came together at Mizpah and then went into battle against Gibeah, a city of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, there back at Mizpah anointing of Benjaminite, a person from a tribe that had been nearly wiped off the map all together, there were only 600 men left. It is from this tribe that came Israel’s first king, King Saul. Saul’s gonna teach us a lot. There’s a lot of ourselves that we’re going to see and a lot of things that Saul does because Saul is tremendously afraid of what people think of him. He is far more interested in what things look like, then in doing what is right and this is gonna cost him and it’s gonna cost the people. And it cost us when that’s our story. And we see the first clues of this at the ceremony to anoint him king because, you know, the tribe of Benjamin gets called forward and then the clan gets called forward, then the family gets called forward and then the person gets called forward and when Saul gets called forward, he can’t be found, he is hiding. He is hiding. They have to go find him to bring him to be coronated king. Samuel had told him he was the anointed one, much before that, in private. So, now this is all happening and Saul is to step into his destiny, his calling, his anointing. And he’s hiding. And that right there, is probably a lesson for some of us, even now, even as we’re just getting to know Saul, at least as a king. And so, let’s watch this story closely in the coming days, we have much to learn about ourselves, even as we learn about the times of ancient Israel.

Prayer:

So, Father, we invite You into that, often, when we feel like we’re supposed to step forward, we’re the ones that are hiding. Often, when there’s the destiny in front of us, but there’s also the risk and there’s also the danger, then we’re hiding. That obviously looks different for every single one of us based on the stories that we have told thus far in our lives. We don’t want that to be our story going forward, though. And so, Holy Spirit, come, into this, help us to consider the ways that we are hiding out from the very, very thing we are supposed to be stepping into. Come Jesus, we ask in Your precious name we pray. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, home of the Global Campfire. The Daily Audio Bible app is the same thing. Well, it’s not the same thing, but it’s connected to the same thing. And so, the Daily Audio Bible app can be downloaded free from wherever you get apps, whatever app store you use for your device, so check that out. Check out the resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Check out the Community Section where the Prayer Wall is and lives and is always available.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that in the app or at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link on the homepage. If it’s the app that you’re using, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Thank you, humbly for your partnership, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together as a community. If we weren’t the Global Campfire together, we wouldn’t be here at all. And so, thank you.

And if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button that’s hard to miss, it’s up at the top of the app screen, looks like a Hotline button and just press that from anywhere 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Greetings to you, my DAB family, this is Walking in the Light in Tennessee. God is so good and He is so merciful and we get to depend on Him, His grace and His mercy. I’m calling with some prayer request, just been going through a storm, a terrible time of one issue, after another, after another. I’m not going to go into all of them, I’ll name a few. My, a tree hit the roof of my house, didn’t go, penetrate into the roof, but damaged still. My son, my oldest son, who is an alcoholic has come home to live with me and I’m working with the grace of the Lord and the help of the Lord, to restore him to wholeness and to health. My car, I had some kind of an issue and has gone to the dealership to be repaired, it’s now in the third week and they can’t get the part and, at least they say they can’t get the part, and so I’m having to rent a car. All of these are financially stressful. I lost one of my fathers in the ministry this past, over the last two weeks and it’s just been a very, very stressful time. I still have two other sons, great sons. One of them won’t visit the home as long as the other son is here. And then, of course, my younger son is in another city. So, I need your prayers, just feeling the stress of it all. I know that God is good. Love you all and ask that you would lift me up. Walking in the Light in Tennessee. And let my heart be encouraged as your hearts encouraged, in the precious name of Jesus. Love you all and God is still good. Amen, Amen, Amen.

Hello, is there anybody else out there who is a day behind on your Daily Audio Bible app? Every so often, I have to catch up. And that’s what I did this morning. Today is the 7th and yesterday was the 6th and that’s when we finished the Book of Ruth. Oh my goodness, what a gem. What a glorious, wonderful book. And that woman, Ruth, she was a woman after God’s own heart. I just get such a treat out of that meeting. I just wanted to say with tomorrow being Mother’s Day, for all of you young mamas out there, mine our grown and I have grandchildren now. I just want to tell you, hold on tight. Read God’s word. Trust in Him daily. Take those moments to be at His feet cause you need that strength. You are raising our future children and you want them to desire and to see you, to be like you, a woman of God. And when things get rough in the home, children are going crazy, the laundry is piling up, dishes in the sink, your husbands frustrated, remember, when it’s a whirlwind, a storm in your home, be the temperature. Calm it down. Be kind and loving and patient. I know it’s hard but just trust the Lord, be the temperature. And Jill and Brian, thank you, this is my 7th year reading and listening to the Daily Audio Bible, thank you so much for giving us this daily gift and yearly, continuous doing this. God Bless you all and Happy Mother’s Day mamas.

Good morning DAB family. This is year seven and this is your sister Ashley from California. And I was just coming to respond to a couple people from today. So, Richard the Radio Manager, God Bless you brother. I can relate to the overwhelming work situation and how the emotional life can be hard to return to the songs that give us hope and strength to move forward before. But, in Psalm 40 verse 3, God promises us to give us a new song. And I just want to encourage you brother, to keep leaning into Him, keep remembering His goodness. Your new song will be a light to others to see God’s goodness and trust Him. And I just also wanted to come on here and thank Victorious Soldier for that encouragement and hope. And I also wanted to thank Nurse Joy and you both encouraged my weary heart. You are both blessings. And tomorrow is Mother’s Day, here in the United States and so, I just wanted to come on here and wish all the moms a Happy Mother’s Day. Those that are hurting, those who are joyful and those who are longing to be mothers. God Bless you all and God will, God will provide if it is, in His perfect timing. So, I love you all. I am continually praying for you all. Thank you. Bye.

Hello DABers, Bubba D from Tennessee. May 7th, submitting another prayer request. Richard the Radio Station Manager, Father, lift up my brother asking that You would give him true Sabbath, true understanding of what it means to give all the cares to You. And he’s expressed that the burden has not been light, the yoke has not been easy. Father, I pray that You would help him to disconnect from a anything, everything, one day a week, just to reflect, just get centered back into that first Sabbath of Adam and Eve, no sin, nothing. Spending there day, realizing what’s really, truly means, the commandment resting in God, resting with God, walking with God, still creating things because the relationship is creative. Restoring life, just like Yushua, Jesus was doing on Sabbath days, restoring life. Father, I pray that Richard would just have that deep revelation from You, maybe even go through some the verses in the Bible about what it means to restore life, his own, in this case, Father. That he would realize that burnout is not Your will, but walking in restful communion with You and knowing the priorities is only 20% of what he does that actually when amount to 80% of things in his life that will matter most for him and his loved ones. In Jesus name we ask. Amen. God bless everyone.

This is John Ransom calling from Budapest with a message for David from the UK, who phoned in on 8th of May. David, my heart really goes out to you, to have your wife with a mental breakdown. And with all that collateral damage, all around the orbit of her life and your life, I can only imagine how distressing and absolutely dark, it has to be in so many moments. And yet, I just want to encourage you that the Lord is with you in every moment. You know, there’s a song that says that I could go down to the depths of the sea and You would still be there. You know, where there is light there is no darkness. I just want to encourage you, that He truly is with you and will not forsake you in this moment, that’s the first thing. And then, I would just like to pray for you right now and ask everyone listening to pray and give their Amen. Father God Abba, you know, You know what the situation is. You know the causes, You know the history, You know everything. I just ask that you would envelope David and his wife with Your peace, with Your love, with, give him hope in his heart, give him clarity in his mind, give him that peace which passes all understanding that we can only know if we set our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. I pray that You would just lavish him with resources, open doors of resources, people stepping forward to help him. And many, many different ways during his day, during the visits in the hospital, that you would strew love notes across his path, so that he could see in very personal way how close you are indeed, with to him or with him and his wife and we ask this in Jesus name. Be encouraged my brother and we just hope and pray for the healing of your wife. Amen.

1 Samuel 8:1-9:27, John 6:22-42, Psalms 106:32-48, Proverbs 14:34-35

Today is May 10^th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it’s always great, always. It’s wonderful to be here together today as we gather around the Global Campfire and move forward together in the Bible in the year in our lives. And as we move back in, we’re of course going back into the book of first Samuel. We have learned who Samuel…well…like I said yesterday, we knew of Samuel before Samuel was born and we’ve gone all the way through his life and now he is the final judge of Israel and is leading the children of Israel. But a person can only live so long, and Samuel is aging and his sons are not the kind of people that the children of Israel would like to succeed Samuel. They aren’t like their dad. And, so, they want a king over them so they can be like the nations that are around them and that is the territory that we are heading into. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. First Samuel chapters 8 and 9.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in the book of John today we read something very simple but very profound, like so profound that it’s bedrock, its core, it’s essential. So, Jesus had just miraculously fed the 5000. The next day they can’t find Jesus. And, so, they go looking for Him and then they find Him, and they have a conversation and Jesus basically says, you’re looking for me because you got fed. I fed you and you’re looking for me, not not because of the signs and wonders that I’ve been doing but because I filled your tummy. And then Jesus says like, don’t work for food that’ going to spoil work for food that’s going to bring you into eternal life. And this conversation leads to a very important question that they ask Jesus. “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Like, we just push pause on that for a second. That is a question that whether spoken or unspoken is a part of every day. What do I need to do to do the work of God? What do I need to do to do what God requires of me? And if we think about it we can think of all of the activity that we believe we are doing on behalf of God. And these are probably very very good things to do, right? Like, read your Bible. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Be kind, be aware. Go to church. Listen to Christian music. Be faithful to your faith community. Any number of things. All good things. We could say, yeah that’s what I do to do what God requires of me because that’s kind of how I’ve been taught. But Jesus answers this question very simply, and it is profound. To finally understand clearly what God requires, what the work of God requires. So, they ask Jesus, “what must we do to do the work God requires” and Jesus answered, “the work of God is this, to believe in the one He has sent.” Like, I’m pausing on purpose. That’s what we’re supposed to do. That’s the requirement. All of the other things are byproducts of our belief in the one that God has sent. In other words, to believe in the one He has sent is the activator to any of the other things that we would do on our faith journey. But we can get ourselves so wrapped up in obligations and requirements and all of the things we’re failing at and feel as if we’re nowhere near the work of God and we’re not even close to what we should be doing. And, so, condemnation comes, and we can get buried in it like we will never measure up. And that is true. We will never measure up. Jesus has already measured up. And the thing that we have to do is believe that. And it’s funny how the people respond after Jesus says such a simple thing that is required. They then respond by saying well what sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Ironically, He had just fed them, like the day before, miraculously. So, you start getting the idea that there’s nothing that He could do that would make them believe. They either do or they don’t. And we run around looking for these kinds of signs to. We need the proof when faith itself is the proof. Faith gives substance to what we hope for and evidence to what we cannot see, at least according to the Scriptures. It all boils down to; do we believe or not? And no matter what we do to try to seek this proof it is always going to lead us back to a place of faith in what we can’t prove and in what we can’t see, but that we hope in. We’re going to have to believe.

Prayer:

Jesus, we do believe. And this is so fundamental that we might think, I already know that. Of course, everybody knows that’s how You do this, You believe. But then we spend so much of our time and energy trying to figure out what You want. You want us to believe and that faith changes everything. And, so, as fundamental and foundational as this is we realize that we say we believe but then functionally can be all over the map. And, so, we declare we believe. We believe that You came to rescue us and that the Father sent You to do just that and everything else is an outpouring from that place of belief. You are the Son of the living God. There is no other hope, but You and we believe and we declare this in Your name, the name above every name, the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home, that’s home of the Global Campfire. And, so, certainly check it out. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you’re at the Global Campfire as well.

So, you can check things out from there like the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a bunch of resources in a different…a bunch of different categories for the journey that we are on through the Bible in a year together. And, so, check them out. All kinds of different things, written resources like the God of Your Story, which is a…well…it’s a 365-day dated book that moves through the rhythm of going through the Bible in a year. And, so, sometimes we talk about things that are themes in the God of Your story and sometimes we talk about totally different things, but it moves through the rhythm of the Bible in a year like we do at the Daily Audio Bible. And, so, it’s a fantastic resource for going deeper but also if you’re ever unplugged or unplugging on purpose from the Internet you can continue your rhythm, continue your journey, read the Scriptures, read some thoughts about what we’ve read today. Basically, what we do here Daily Audio Bible. You can find that in the God of Your Story or like Reframe. Reframe is a book written to take a deep dive into what we are even talking about when we say we are in a relationship with God because everybody says that and everybody believes that, but how does that take shape? What does that relationship look like? How is it supposed to be lived into? That would be Reframe. Or the resource, Sneezing Jesus, which is a portrait and a love letter and a look at what Jesus’ humanity means to our humanity. So often in my life and so often here at the Daily Audio Bible we are certainly reading the Scriptures and allowing them to read us back, like because they do. They touch different points in our lives and cause us to consider why we do what we do, but I am often looking to the Scriptures “for how do I live today?” Like, how do I make it through this day in the will of God walking with Jesus and being an ambassador in this world? And, so, we turn to Jesus because He is our example. He’s our Savior. But He is our example of what it might even look like to be a human being. And, so, what does Jesus’ humanity show us about our own. And there are all kinds of other resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop as well. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission that we share in common to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to whoever will listen because we believe this is the word of God, and so anyone who listens at all for any amount of time is…is Hearing that voice. And when we make that a rhythm, the rhythm of our lives that we show up every day then we show up together and we know we’re not going through this alone. We know we’re going through this with tens of thousands of brothers and sisters all over the world. And what a difference that makes. And if that is a life-giving resource in your world 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, 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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

This is __ from Florida calling on May 6^th in response to the last prayer request was for the fine husband who’s calling for the __ of his wife who just had his kid and is suffering from, you know, hormonal imbalances and stuff following that birth. So, Father God I lift up that family to You right now and I ask Lord God that You would heal that wife’s body and __ her hormones so she can start enjoying the family that they are creating with a new child and that You will restore joy in their home. And Lord Jesus, help that husband recognize that for the sake of his wife and to calm her heart down and to love her…love her in a way in a way that he’s trying to. And thank You so much for that Lord God, that he’s hanging in there and that he’s reaching out to us, reaching out to this community for help and prayer. Father God, I thank You for answering this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning, DABbers this is I am Michael in Scottsdale AZ and I just was so touched today listening to this trucker who called in. I’m sorry I can’t remember your name my brother, but you were calling to ask for prayer about your brother who passed out at work with pneumonia, and they discovered that he had some kind of very contagious disease. And I just want to lift him up. Father, I want to lift up James in the name of Jesus, Father. You are in control. This situation it’s not a surprise to You and we all know and believe that You’re gonna work all things together for James’s good and the whole family through this situation. And Father in the name of Jesus I just pray Father God You would send Your angels and put a hedge of protection around all the doctors that are working on him, all the nurses and all the staff that are around him Father, that none of them will contract this disease and it will not spread, it will stay right where James is and be extinguished and exterminated and that he will have a full recovery in the name of Jesus. And we just declare, enemy what You meant for harm God is on the throne, He has the final say and He’s gonna turn this thing around for good in the name of Jesus. God bless You My brother and have a wonderful…

Good morning DAB family this is Joan from upstate New York. In two days, we celebrate Mother’s Day here in the United States and this is a message for all parents but especially at this time of year for moms who have been standing in the gap for their prodigals. In my case it has been close to 30 years as a stand in the gap for my children who were introduced to Jesus in their middle school years but as time passed, they chose to have lifestyles that were not actually God’s plan and design. And early on I had conversations with them and yet one son in the midst of this decided to distance himself from me and I haven’t seen or talked to him in 13 years. It’s really painful because he was a delight to raise as well as his brother and sister. But I encourage myself and you other moms in this time period to find a verse that boosts your spirit. Mine is Isaiah 54:13 - all my children will be taught of the Lord and great will be their peace. And that’s what we want for our children, the piece of Jesus. So, at this time of year although it’s wearisome at times in the waiting and I admit that, we still we remain confident that Jesus is Lord and we have not been forgotten. So, happy Mother’s Day as we stand in the gap. Thank you, Hardin family, for all you do. It’s an amazing encounter every day.

Good morning my name is Claudia I’d like to…I’m calling…I just listened to today’s broadcast…podcast and heard Terry the Trucker come on and afterwards and ask for prayers for his brother-in-law James. Terry, I want you to know that I will…will continue to pray for you and for James and your sister. I pray that the same God who made you, made her, made him we’ll reach down and touch every part of his body that’s been affected by this infection. Like the lady who came up behind Jesus in the crowd and touched Him, just the hem of His coat, that he will receive His healing. His family needs him, you need him. God loves him. Terry, you have my word as your sister in Christ. I will continue to pray. I ask for his complete recovery in Jesus’ precious name. Amen. I love you, Terry. I love you family. I appreciate all you do in your job. I appreciate you as a brother. Amen. In Jesus’ name.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Jeremiah from Michigan God Gives Good Gifts. I’m calling in today to ask for prayer. It’s a long story but there’s been a lot of abuse in my family – control, manipulation, lies, fear - and with my parents and with my brother in particular. And the last year or two I’ve had to put up some pretty big boundaries with them to protect myself and to protect my family. And this last few weeks God’s led me through a beautiful season of forgiveness and has taken out some roots of bitterness and indebtedness in my heart. And now He’s been challenging me to a simple step of obedience to reach out to my parents and have a meeting with them and my family. And I’m just asking for your prayers and support. There’s a lot of strongholds of the enemy - pride, fear, manipulation, control, greed - and I don’t wanna fall back into those things. But God’s been challenging me to owe no man anything but love. And, so, I want to reach out who would love and forgiveness and peace. And I don’t really have a lot of expectations except for that the Lord’s will would be done and that I would be able to be obedient to Him. Thank you for your prayers. I’m praying for you daily. God bless you all.

1 Samuel 5:1-7:17, John 6:1-21, Psalm 106:13-31, Proverbs 14:32-33

Today is the ninth day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian is great to be here with you today, from the rolling hills of Tennessee and to wherever you are, I hope it is a wonderful day as we gather to take the next step forward together. And that next step, leads us back into the new territory that we’re just getting into, the Books of Samuel and the story of the prophet Samuel’s life and he’s a very influential person in the story of the ancient Hebrew people. And we’ve already talked about that, quite a bit and gotten into the story and found Samuel’s family, his mother Hannah and how Samuel came to be and came to live in the Tabernacle in Shiloh and how the high priest Eli had some evil sons, how those evil sons to the Ark of the Covenant into battle with the Philistines and all was lost. The Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines and then the high priest Eli found out about it, he fell over dead, broke his neck. So, that’s kind of what we are in right now as Samuel emerges, like this is sort of the backdrop for his life, this is how we grew up. And so, let’s pick up the story, we’re reading from the New International Version this week, 1st Samuel chapters 5, 6 and 7, today.

Commentary:

Okay so, as we continue to move into the Book of first Samuel, we’re certainly watching the story unfold, before our eyes. We started the story before Samuel was born and now Samuel is an adult. And in today’s reading, we see Samuel ascending to power, due to the great respect of the children of Israel of him, as a prophet of God. So basically, the children of Israel or the Israelites, and the Philistines were continually jostling for position in being in control. We see them in the Scriptures as one of the great enemies of the children of Israel and that’s because they bordered each other, the territory bordered Israel and Philistia, bordered each other and so, there were all kinds of skirmishes along these border towns. So, it was in one of these battles that the Ark of the Covenant was lost and it wasn’t the custom to bring the Ark of the Covenant into battle but they did and they lost and they also lost the Ark of the Covenant. And we read the whole story of how the Philistines captured it and then started taking it to their different major capital cities, there were like five main cities of the Philistines: Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath and Gaza. And I’ve personally have been to four of those five, if there are ruins in Gaza, I have never been to Gaza, it’s not safe to go there but I have talked to people who have been there and they say there’s really not much archaeology to be found there. But the ruins of the other four Philistine Capital Cities do exists, some of them in better archaeological situations than others. And I have like, personally, found a fascination with the Philistines because they appear so much in the Bible. But nevertheless, they take the Ark of God to their capital city of Ashdod and put them in the temple of Dagon and Ashdod has been, there are, there is archaeology there, but that…that is a modern city in Israel, right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and that’s when Dagon falls down right, a couple of times and the second time he’s broken up into pieces and then kinda, plague begins to break out and obviously from the narrative in the story of first Samuel we know that the Philistines are aware of the God of Israel and the God of Israel is legendary for what happened in Egypt. So, as a Philistines start moving the Ark from city to city, because plague breaks out, the people, the Philistines are starting to freak out and they don’t want anything to do with this Ark and just the presence of the Ark and Dagon’s statue falling over and being broken and plague breaking out, they have a pretty clear understanding that they are offending a very powerful God, which ultimately is what has them sending the Ark of the Covenant back to Israel. And we read that story of the cows and how they went not to the left or the right just straight to Beth Shemesh and Beth Semesh is also well, it's…it’s a place where people live, it’s modern but there’s also ongoing excavation and it’s definitely becoming a major archaeological site and of course the children of Israel are thrilled to have the Ark of the Covenant back. It’s a symbol of who they are. It’s something that has been traveling with them for centuries, all the way back to Moses and so they rejoice, but they also, some of them, 70 of them, want to take a peek and that does not work out. They had been forbidden. And so, it didn’t work out, they died. And so, that brings a bit of dread and a certain, certainly a great amount of respect for the Lord and for the Ark of the Covenant and the people of Beth Shemesh eventually and by the…the people of Kiriath Jearim to come get the Ark of the Covenant, which they do. That whole set of circumstances there, and all of the backdrop, turns the people’s hearts back to the Lord. They weren’t against the God of Israel, they just had other gods as well, which is like spiritual adultery. In fact, that’s the language that God uses about idolatry. So, if the children of Israel were a bride and God was the husband, then they were also fooling around with other lovers on the side. Samuel’s presence, the return of the Ark, creates a climate in which they reconsider. And so, from our reading today, then all the people of Israel turned back to the Lord. So, Samuel said to all the Israelites, if you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then get rid of the foreign God’s and commit yourself to the Lord, and serve Him only and He will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines, and that’s what they did. Samuel summoned them to Mizpah and interceded for them. And the Philistines came to wage battle and under Samuel’s leadership, then the children of Israel defeated the Philistines, which elevates Samuel, clearly, as the leader or as the judge. A judge of Israelis, he’s the final judge of Israel. Before we and our extensive time with Samuel, we will be introduced to Israel’s first king and that is certainly coming in the days ahead.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You, we thank You, as we have before for all of the people that are in the Scriptures, all of the lives, all of the situations, all of the times. And we can look back at some of these things and really, from where we sit, they look incredibly antiquated. The world isn’t like that anymore, for the most part. We don’t do things the way that we did in the past, for the most part, and yet, when we look deeply into these stories, what we see are human beings, with human hearts, and human emotions, and human impulses, and we realize, it may look different, the way that they did things back then, but the things that drove them to do the things that they did, are very, very much still with us today, it just looks a little different. We have different technology, in different clothes, but our hearts and what motivates our hearts, remains the same. So, as we continue into these stories, come, Holy Spirit, and help us find ourselves in these stories, allow Your word to be a mirror into our own souls, changing us. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home, homebase, and home base in the palm of your hand would be the Daily Audio Bible app which lets you access everything from there and you can download the app free, from for any app store that is connected to your device. So, check that out. That is certainly a primary way of going through the Daily Audio Bible and being able to keep track of things, take notes, keep track of where we are and even indicate certain days where the Scriptures spoke, you can star those days, that spoke to you, so that you can review them as you continue the journey through the year. That’s just getting started, so check out the Daily Audio Bible app.

Check out the Community Section. The Community Section has different links to different social media channels that were on and so that’s good to know, especially if we have an announcement to make or whatever, if you’re following along, you’ll probably get it quick. But the Community Section is also the place where the Prayer Wall lives and the Prayer Wall, that’s the only place that it’s at and we can always go there, no matter what time of day or night it is, no matter what time zone were in, no matter what continent were on, we can go there and pray for our brothers and sisters, read some stories, hear what’s going on in people’s lives, pray for them, let them know we’re praying for them. We can also go there and share her own story and what it is that we are struggling to carry alone, right now and know that our brothers and sisters will be there for us, to pray for us. The Prayer Wall is a beautiful, beautiful resource and so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission here is life-giving, brings good news and hope, then thank you for your partnership. This has always been a community affair and we wouldn’t be here, if we weren’t in this together and so thank you. 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:

I’m still a little behind but I just listened to May 2nd and wow! You guys have blessed me so much. It, I think I took up about every single one of your call-ins. That was just, I almost had a loss for words that you guys were just thinking about me so much. I’m just so blessed that God was able to talk me through all you guys. I just kept on hearing my name, I was like, whoa, they’re actually praying about me. But I just, you guys have given me so much more assurance and peace in what you guys have said. I can’t, I’ll have to go back and listen, I can’t, like, remember it all on the top of my head. But you guys have blessed me so much. I know that God, God’s got me. And ah, you guys have made my day, so much, made my week. Thank you guys so much.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. I’m Vicki from the desert and I want to give a praise report and I also want to encourage any families or people who are struggling with alcoholism or drug addiction. I was involved in the drug world and drank alcoholically for many years. I started probably at 13 and continued until I was about 35. Today, May 5th, I am celebrating 31 years of being clean and sober and I’m so grateful. And I have used twelve-step programs but at the heart of it is, that there was no human power that could help me. The only power that helped me was my God, my Jesus and I prayed for Him to lift this obsession, to set me free from the binds of alcoholism and drug addiction and He has. And He has kept clean and sober for the last 31 years and it is possible, all things are possible with God. And I’d like to say that that’s really the only way that’s possible. We need to cry out to God and we need to ask Him to remove this obsession, to drink and use drugs and destroy ourselves. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible, love you all. Bye Bye.

Good morning, everyone, this is Kelly from the High Desert in California. First time calling and I’m calling because my spirit was prompted after listening to the May 5th recording of a gentleman asking for prayer for his wife. They just became parents; they have a 4-month-old baby girl. And his wife is going through some post-partum depression. I can totally relate and I understand, I went through that myself. After having two babied, back-to-back. I can totally understand what she’s going through. And I wanted to uplift her and her husband in prayer. I’m sorry I did not quite catch the name. Heavenly Father, we just come before You, Lord God, to give You the praise and the glory Father. We thank you Lord God, for Your mercies are new everyday Lord. I just come before You Lord God, to uplift this new mother, Lord. Father, she has a new baby at home Lord God, a four-month-old baby girl Father. A gift from You to her, Lord. Father, and I just want to lift her up to You and lay her at Your feet, Lord God. Father, we come against the spirit of anxiety, Lord. We come against the spirit of fear, Father. In Your name, Lord God, we bind those spirits, right now, in the name of Jesus. We send them back to the pit of Hell, Lord. They have no room in this mother’s heart or this mothers faith. Father, I ask that You would encourage her, Lord. To comfort her, Lord God, and to hold her in the palm of Your hands, Father. Father, we just ask, Lord God, that You continue to reveal Yourself to her in Scriptures, in dreams Lord God. Even when she stares out into the, just stares out of the window, Lord God, that she she’s You, Lord God, in the air, in the sky, in the clouds, Lord God. Let You be a reminder that she is loved and Father, You are there with her in each and every step of this and You strengthen her as a mother, Lord.

Hi, I’m Borrowed Wisdom. This prayer is for Kathy from Kentucky. Heavenly Father, we are glorified under your name with thanksgiving in my heart. I pray to Thee for Kathy. Lord, she’s dealing with shame because of an addiction and that’s the past. Being in recovery and getting help is the first start of victory. And I thank You Lord, that Thou has given her the strength to go ahead and seek for help and to go forwards and not backwards. Lord Jesus, You went to the cross on Calvary for us all. And Thou word says to look unto Thee, Lord Jesus. The author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy, that was set before us, endured the cross despite the shame and He’s set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heavenly Father, I just bless, praise, honor and worship Your holy name. I thank You for victory in all that You have done for us. I pray that Kath, oh God, would remember that the prize for the high __ in Thee Christ Jesus is worthy and that shame takes no form in her mind, body, soul and spirit. We rebuke the spirit of fear, we rebuke the spirit of despising, deception, manipulation, and anything that is coming against her in the name of Jesus Christ. And we proclaim the joy of the Lord, which is her strength and for her to hold on, carry on and be strong, not in herself but in You. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Hello DAB family, this is Saved by Grace from California. Just want to pray for the gentleman who is asking for prayer for his brother who has a rare disease and he’s in the hospital. Father, in the name of Jesus, we just come to You, thanking You and praising You for Your healing power. Lord, we lift our brother up to You and we pray for Your healing power to restore his whole body, whole. Father, we pray that You would touch him from the top of his head to the very souls of his feet. Let Your healing power, just penetrate through him, removing all sickness and disease. We pray that You give wisdom to the CDC to the doctors, that they would know and find a cure or a treatment, Father, that would bring, that would restore his body, Lord. We believe, Father God, and we thank You. And we give You the glory in advance for this victory over this situation, Lord. Be with the family, give them peace and comfort them and help them to look to You, Father God, and not the circumstance or the situation. These things we pray, in Jesus name. Amen.

1 Samuel 2:22-4:22, John 5:24-47, Psalms 106:1-12, Proverbs 14:30-31

Today is the 8^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you as we…as we twist the knob and open the threshold and step into a brand-new shiny sparkly week. And we get to do this 52 times in a year, roughly and this is one of them. And, so, we have all these resets, and this is a reset. It’s in front of us and I…I remind us most every week of that, I remind myself of that. No matter what was going on last week this is a new week, and we can stack day upon day upon day of good and make it a good week. And, so, let’s do that. And one of the ways is the rhythm that we have here, taking some time around the Global Campfires to step away from…from all that’s going on and allow the Scriptures to wash into our lives and inform us and speak to us and comfort us and rebuke us and correct us. And, so, let’s get to it. We began to read the book of first Samuel yesterday and we talked about that yesterday. We will of course continue the book of first Samuel today. This week we’ll read from the New International Version. And today, first Samuel 2:22 through 4:22.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the Scriptures. We thank you that they’re a tangible thing that we can actually hold onto and hold in our hand and to know that there’s insight and wisdom for life. Thank you for this gift and thank you for the gift of this brand-new week that we’re moving into and this brand-new territory that we’re moving into the Scriptures. Help us Father to understand and to discern. Help us to gain wisdom and insight. Help us to find ourselves in these stories that we might be changed and corrected. We pray this in the beautiful name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family it’s Amanda in Nebraska and I just want to say how much I just love this community. I love the prayers that come in. I love that we can send in requests and know that they are being heard around the world and that we’re praying for people around the world. I love hearing all the different accents. And I don’t remember who it was, but a lady had commented how she loves hearing all of our background noises, the animals, the…you know, whatever is going on in the background. And it does feel like we’re right there with you, like we’re sitting in the kitchen having a Coke and just enjoying each other’s company. It’s such a unique setting and a unique opportunity that we have I feel like and I just…I love it and I appreciate each of y'all and I pray as your prayer request come in and I…I just can’t say it enough how much I just love this community. I love learning about Jesus. I love hearing commentaries. I know I kind of sound like I’m gushing but…but that’s how I feel. And in a time when we can’t live by our feelings this is a feeling that I can live by and honor God and honor each of you as we lift each other up. I’m running out of time so I will call back with my prayer request. You all have a fantastic day and can’t wait to get on and hear everybody’s voices.

This is from Treasures to Treasure, and I have asked for prayer before on this issue. And as I was standing here to disturbed in my spirit looking out my picture windows at the property from my ancestors the waiting time for an answer just seems overwhelming sometimes when I know how much my daughter is homesick and that I am homesick for her. And in my prayers, I was reminding our Father of all the prayers that have went up from strangers that have agreed to pray over the matter and for my DAB family praying and for family and friends praying. And, so, my dear friends I’m just asking if you will please lift this prayer request up for my daughter’s family home to be returned to her. And I’m unbelieving for another home for my other daughter to be able to give her grandson a permanent home out here beside us. He has several disabilities, and she has a couple other kids with a few issues and if you could just lift us up and remind the Father of our faithful prayers and our longings and desires I would greatly covet those prayers in praying in agreement. Father God your word says that if we pray and we believe that we have this confidence that you hear us.

Hello DAB family this is Annie and I would just like start off for saying thank you for everyone who has praying for my brother __ . We are asking for more prayers now. It really helps us. But we are asking for more prayers now because we don’t know where he is and the only thing we want for him is so he can return safely back into God’s wings so he can always be obedient to God forever. So, we would…me and my family would really appreciate it if more people could pray for my brother. And, yeah thank you guys.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family I am kind of new here. I have only been listening for a couple weeks now and I just wanted to say hi. I’m new here. I really love you guys around the Global Campfire here. Brian, thank you. Just wanted to…I just wanted to say hey I'm…I’m only 13 years old but I really enjoy having this opportunity to be able to listen to the Bible because I don’t always have enough time to…to read it. So, thank you and you all are in my prayers. Thank you. Goodbye.

Hi this is David from Norwich in the UK. I would appreciate your prayers for myself and family. My wife Penny has had a mental breakdown approximately 4 weeks ago and she spent the last three weeks in hospital, and it’s been very struggle…a journey and the things she’s saying, the accusations she’s saying against me are making it very hard and where are we gonna go next to __ the hospital whether I should be advocating to come out of the hospital for her to return home. I __ and the pressures are just getting too much on our relationship and __ I don’t see any way forward. I’m just holding on to the ropes but it’s getting tough. And I need to make decisions…and the right decisions that will help us both to get through this. So, appreciate your prayers. Thank…

1 Samuel 1:1-2:21, John 5:1-23, Psalm 105:37-45, Proverbs 14:28-29

Today is the seventh day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and, in case you forgot, and it’s great to be here with you today, as we move forward together, the next step forward in the Scriptures. And so, even as we reach the conclusion of a week, we are at the beginning of a brand-new book and we’re moving into some new territory.

Introduction to the Book of I Samuel:

We have been camped out in the centuries of the judges, as we move through the Book of Judges and then we read the book of Ruth, which comes from the time of Judges, which brings us to the book of first Samuel. And oddly enough, Samuel was the last judge in Israel and its Samuel that leads us to the monarchy, or the time of the monarchy. Samuel leads us to be introduced to Israel’s first king, and we will meet him in this book, his name is Saul, and Saul has plenty to teach to us about ourselves, as does King David who follows him. So, we have first and second Samuel before us. First Samuel will introduce us to Saul, second Samuel will introduce us to David and then following the two books of Samuel, we will read first Kings and second Kings about the time of the monarchy. So, a lot of the biblical scholars believe that what we are about to read, contained in the books of Samuel, were, may be recorded by three prophets and Israel, Samuel being one of them. But also, Nathan and Gad. And, interestingly enough, there wasn’t a first and second Samuel, it was all one text, and it actually gets more, a little bit more, convoluted than that because first and second Samuel and first and second Kings were all grouped together as one specific, continuous text. So, when the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament as we know it, was translated out of the Hebrew language, into the Greek language, which was called the Septuagint, then the books were divided into four different books and they were known as the Books of the Kingdoms. And then later, when the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into the Latin language, which is called the Vulgate, they became the Books of the Kings. So, we have first Kings, second Kings, third Kings, and fourth Kings. So, it can get a little bit convoluted there, is that what we now know as first and second Samuel, was actually at one time first and second Kings and what was known as third and fourth Kings, is now known as first and second Kings. So, the way that we have things now, first Samuel, second Samuel, first Kings, second Kings, that came to be out of all biblical history, within the last 400 years when the King James Bible was translated into English in the year 1611. So, as we begin the book of first Samuel, we’ll get to know who Samuel is, where he came from, what his family story is, how he came to prominence, and then we’ll see why he was a respected judge in Israel. If fact, the final judge, that brings them their first king. And that is largely because everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes and there was no king in Israel, as the Book of Judges told us, over and over. Then, Samuel steps into that having heard the voice of God and been called, being called to be the prophet of God. And so, when he begins to speak on behalf of God as a prophet, that’s something historically that the Hebrew people understood, more. Like Moses was a prophet of God, who spoke on behalf of God and led the children of Israel. And so, that’s something that they understood, this direct speaking for God. And so, Samuel leads the people forward. And with that, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the Modern English Version this week. First Samuel chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 21.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and another week in your word and we thank You day-by-day, step-by-step, all that comes in through our minds and ears and flows down into our hearts and how there’s a lot in there being cultivated. And we ask, Holy Spirit, that You come, plant what we’ve learned and what we are learning into the soil of our hearts and may we collaborate when You show us the weeds, may we collaborate in pulling them out, so that we are fertile garden that yields a mighty harvest. And we thank You for this new territory that we’re moving into now with the books of Samuel. Lead us, teach us, guide us, lead us into all truth, lead us on the narrow path that leads to life, make what we read be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home. That’s where you find out what’s going on around here and the alternative is the Daily Audio Bible app, that also lets you know what’s going on around here and a lot more and so, check that out. You can get the app free from the App Store that’s connected to your device. Check out the Community Section, that’s where to get connected. That’s where the Prayer Wall lives, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there for the journey that we are on.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission 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, something that we call the Global Campfire, so, that we know we’re not alone. Tens of thousands of us are in this together and on this journey together. So, thank you for your partnership, we wouldn’t be here at all, if we weren’t in this together.

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

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good afternoon, good morning DAB family, this is Samone calling from Houston. And I just wanted to give a praise report. Yeah, blown away and overwhelmed. I’m sitting at my doctor’s office at my yearly physical and my niece calls and she is my sisters only child. And my sister passed away from breast cancer almost four years ago. And, three years ago, and her father died, my nieces father died before she was born. So, she’s about to be 30 this year and she’s lost her mother and she’s never known because he died before she passed. I digress. I’m sitting in my doctor’s office and she calls me and when she calls, she’s like, turn on your video and she shows me a pregnancy test. Her and her husband have been struggling with infertility for the whole marriage, which is been about 7, going on 8 years. And, a year ago they adopted a child which was also their God child. And, I kept saying to her, I believe God is going to open your womb. I believe God is going to open your womb. And He did. She found out just two days ago, she’s pregnant. And guess what, she’s almost through her first trimester. She’s 13 weeks. So, this message is for all the couples struggling with infertility. God hears your prayers; He hears your cry. And we never gave up, we were at faith. We were touching and agreeing, fasting, praying and believing God. And after seven, almost eight years of marriage and they’re young, in there 30s. He finally did it. Stay encouraged.

Hi, I’m calling from Colorado. This is my first time calling. I’ve always debated whether I should could call before, any other times. I’ve come through like a wall and like a deep depression. I’ve always contemplated calling and asking for help, but thankfully God has given me the strength in listening to all of your prayers and hearing you guys sing. It’s given me enough strength to move forward and continue. And just hearing everyone’s has given me the call to, the courage to be able to talk and finally ask for help. It’s been a tough couple of years, you know, last year I had lost my job and it’s been a financial wreck. This year, I had a miscarriage and that was really hard on me. I prayed to God and everything, He’s been able to comfort me and be there for me and thankfully he blessed me once again with a baby and I’m currently pregnant. Over the weekend I did get into a car accident so it just adds to my financial stress. And it’s just a lot going on right now with the pregnancy, the finances, trying to pay for all of my pregnancy appointments and trying to pay for all the miscarriage and all the hospital visits and now this car accident. It’s been quite a bit and I know God has given me a couple signs and a couple things I should read and focus on but I just feel like, I’m kind stuck. And I know a lot of people are in the same boat, you know, interest rates have gone up and like, it’s very difficult. But I have the confidence that everything will be better and I just want everyone to pray for me if you can. Thank you, guys, so much.

Good morning DABers, it’s Richard the Radio Station Manager. I’ve been listening over the years. I’ve been around on the phone lately. I need your help. I find myself more and more stressed about the little things but also finding the current work that I’m doing can be very stressful and I’m, instead of resting in God and understanding His yoke is easy and His burden is light, and He’s not in the earthquake and He’s not in the fire and He’s not in the tornado. He’s in the still. Those things aren’t bringing me comfort like they used to. I just, I suppose I’m reaching out to you in this time of need. I’ve got another pressing need at work and unfortunately my emotional life seems to overwhelm me. So, just asking for your prayers.

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABers. I wanna first give a high congratulations and send a prayer to my precious DABer who became a Chaplain in the National Guard. I wanted to say congratulations, praise the Lord. I couldn’t think of a much better person for it. And God knew that you for it. Father, we just ask You to bless him, we bless him everyday that they go into that office, everyday that they serve. Lord, that you would come and give him the wisdom and knowledge, you give them what they need and you guide their footsteps, Father. We thank You for blessing this precious one with the Chaplain, Father. In the name of Jesus. We just ask You to touch the other DABers that are with the lady whose son has autism and wanted to pray for that precious child. I wanted to pray for Lady of Victory, want to pray for those that are going through in their marriage, want to pray for the woman who wanted to have a baby late in time and that she got married late in time. I can say, I’m one of those and I had my first child, I was about 40. So, God is able to do anything. He done Sarah and He did me. And just be encouraged. And I pray Lord, that You bless her womb, Lord. That you bless her to provide, so bless her womb and provide her with a child, Father. In the name of Jesus. We just ask You to touch those that want to get married, those that have a desire to get married. We ask You to show them the heart of the person that they want to marry and let them be yoked with Him. Father, we just ask You to touch those that want to have a baby. We just ask You to bless their womb, Lord. You have Your way, Father. You bless that child; they would be a child that You’re calling them to be. Thank Father, in the name of Jesus. We just ask you to touch the DAB …

Hi, wonderful Hardin Family and Daily Audio Bible community, my name is JoyAnn or Nurse Joyful B, as I call myself when I called back in January. I wanted to tell you a praise. The day after I submitted my prayer request, the Lord started in motion something so beautiful. My prayer group leader called me that following day, had a financial need and I’m a woman who is currently separated from my husband, he’s not yet a believer. And she set in motion, where I was able to receive a nearly new car that is safe and beautiful, it’s my Jesus car. And I love that the Lord provided for me because in Isaiah 54:5 it’s says “For your maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel”. And in verse six, “For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and like a youthful wife when she was refused.” And I’m weeping because my husband refused me because of my faith. We’ve been married 37 years but at least the Lord is my husband and he provided me with a beautiful car. And so, He will provide for you all, as well. I know there are so many women in my shoes that are hurting, their husbands don’t yet know the Lord, but I pray for you. I remember ChrisAnn and Gloria and others over the years and may the Lord comfort your hearts. There are so many of you out there that long for your husband’s salvation. So, thank you for praying for me and thanking the Lord for me for this provision, which is just one of many. I love this community; it is such a comfort. God bless you.    

Ruth 2:1-4:22, John 4:43-54, Psalms 105:16-36, Proverbs 14:26-27

Today is May 6^th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is awesome to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire. We find a place and let it go and let the Scriptures speak for themselves into our lives. Around this Global Campfire is on my favorite places to be in the world. And, so, let’s dive in for today. We finished the book of Judges yesterday and began the book of Ruth yesterday. We talked about the book of Ruth. Today we’ll read the rest of the story and complete the book of Ruth before moving ahead, and as confusing as it might be, moving ahead to meet the last judge of Israel as we move into the book of first Samuel tomorrow. But that’s tomorrow and we’re here now and we have the rest of the story of Ruth out in front of us. We’re reading from the Modern English Version this week. Ruth, chapters to 3 and 4 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we concluded the book of Ruth today and it is a gorgeous story and such a story of hope and such an uplifting story in a season where we’ve been through all kinds of tragic stories in the Scriptures. But if we remember back to the beginning of the story it begins in a tragic sort of way. There’s famine in the land. Ruth and her husband and their sons leave and go to the land of Moab where they live for a decade and the sons grow up and so they get wives, Moabite wives, one of whom is Ruth, but everybody dies except for the ladies. The women remain alive Naomi, Orpah and Ruth. Naomi is in the depths. She’s overwhelmed with sadness. She is leaving a land that she has come to know, a land that she’s lived in for a decade to return back to her homeland now that the famine is over, but she’s going home a widow. She’s going home with nothing. And Orpah, one of the daughters-in-law goes back to Moab and disappears from the narrative. So, we don’t know what happened t her. But Ruth will not leave Naomi. She clings to Naomi. She says, “wherever you go I will go. Wherever you die will be buried. Your God will be my God, your people will be my people.” This is…this is a loyalty that gains a reputation quickly when they get back to their homeland in Israel. And, so, Ruth’s reputation is growing, and then she begins to do what is provided for in the Mosaic law. She goes into neighboring fields where she’s able to glean whatever is left over. She is a widow Naomi is a widow and widows are provided for after this fashion. But she catches the attention of Boaz and then we know, we just read the story. Turns out he’s a family redeemer and Naomi begins to see what’s going on here and what’s possible here for Ruth and she guides her through the process of allowing Boaz to know that she’s available, but she doesn’t have to give her dignity away to prove it. And, so, she ends up lying at the feet of Boaz, who wakes up and freaks out as anyone would, and, especially, there is a strange woman in my bed at my feet. That's…well…I don’t know what that feels like, but I think that would be weird. Boaz thought it was weird, but he also knew what it meant, and he begins to also counsel about what needs to happen. And as Naomi told Ruth, he’s not gonna rest until this matter is settled. And the matter is settled, and Ruth and Boaz are wed, and they have a child, a son, and they name him Obed and he brings great joy to a very bitter heart, the heart of Naomi. And Obed grows up and he is the grandfather of King David who we will meet soon enough. This story could have gone any number of ways. May we remember that this is happening at the time of the judges when there is no king in Israel and everybody does what was right in their own eyes. This story could have gone a number of ways. And Ruth could have had a very very different life and/or death being young and vital and foreign. But what we see is people going through hard times and holding on to their integrity, people going through disruption and hardship and being overwhelmed and grieving holding onto their character truly understanding what the message of the wilderness is, that they are utterly dependent upon God for everything. And they hold onto their integrity, and it is honored. May we take that lesson on board in our own lives because it’s a very, very gray world where anything is situational and we can justify anything and any shortcut, but integrity and character are things that are cultivated by the way that we handle disruption and handle grief and handle anger and handle misfortune. Most of the time our character and our integrity is revealed in the extremes of life. In the extreme hardship of life our character is going to be revealed, but also in the extreme abundance of life our character will be revealed. We see integrity and true character in the story of Ruth, and it was honorable to God and God blessed it. And the story changes here. This integrity and character is leading to a king of Israel. So, it is very very easy for us to think about the wrong choices that we make and where those roads are leading and how we don’t want to be on those roads but it’s worth considering where our integrity and our character are leading us because we are being led somewhere good, somewhere righteous. That is the path we want to be on. And, so, let’s give it some thought today.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite you into that thought. Thank you for the story of Ruth. We thank you for what we can glean from it. We thank you that it causes us to consider our own integrity and where that is leading us and for what price we will sell it out. And we need to know these things. We need to strengthen these things. Make us people of integrity and character we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home, its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app is home base as well right in the palm of your hand. And you can download the app from whatever app store is connected to your device. So, check that out. Just search for Daily Audio Bible and you should find no problem.

Check out the Community section. That’s where the Prayer Wall is. That’s where to get connected.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. That’s where there are resources for the journey that we are on together through the Bible this year.

And, as always, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission that we have to show up every day take the next step forward to the Scriptures, if that is life-giving to you and 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, it’s Katie here from Nebraska. I wanted to give a shout out to Owen because I’m 18 as well and it’s pretty scary and you don’t know what you’re gonna do with your life. You don’t know how you’re going to manage college and everything else. It’s pretty scary to think about. And I just wanted to say God has a plan for you and I don’t want you to be afraid. I’m slowly learning that and I’m pretty stubborn. So, it’s been taking me awhile to figure out that I don’t get to rule what I get to do. And, yeah, I just wanted to tell you that. Bye.

This is Kathy from Kentucky. I have an issue that has gone all the way back to my childhood and that issue is shame. That has followed me for most of my life. I know that I had a hard time overcoming shame when I was going through treatment for my depression. So, also, I realized now that I stayed in a job for 20 years where I was not treated with respect at all. And because I don’t know if I just didn’t think I deserved better or what. But anyways I’m in recovery from drugs and alcohol year 30 years clean and sober. But shame follows a lot of us who are recovering from addiction. So, I ask your prayers for that. Thank you. Kathy from Kentucky.

Happy Monday DAB family this is Jason from Louisiana. Today is may the 2^nd. I’m catching up. I’m about a week behind and I’m calling today to encourage the lady who called on April 26^th, the very last person who spoke. Your son is named Josh, he’s 22 years old and he’s facing some legal issues. First, I want to say I am praying with you in agreement for favor and a miracle regarding this but I also want to encourage you that regardless of the outcome of this next few weeks in the courtroom it’s not the end of the world regardless of the outcome. I’m going to share my story. I was in a similar situation. At 26 I was arrested, and I was facing some really serious legal issues and we prayed for a miracle. Long story short the miracle for me ended up being sitting in prison for 3 ½ years and finally surrendering my heart fully to Christ after two years in prison. And, so, I’ve been out for over eight years now and serving the Lord loving life and I am who I am today because of what I’ve been through. So, I just want to encourage you with your son Josh that no matter the outcome of the next few weeks God is in control. I’m reminded of two scriptures today. Isaiah 55, his thoughts are not our thoughts his ways are not our ways. And also, Romans 8:28. You know in my situation and even your sons I believe this and I will speak this over him, that what the enemy may have meant for evil regarding your son Josh the Lord is going to and is turning it around and using it for good. So, you be encouraged today. God bless you.

Good day DAB family I wanted to reach out today 18-year-old just turned 18 and now facing adulthood. And you are amazing and just even calling and asking. And God will guide you. Stand firm. And even as we get older, we are all faced with challenges. And Susan God’s Yellow Flower, you touched me today for the words that I needed to hear. And maybe it is time I just stand on top of my pile and put the cross there as the only thing it’s doing is creating anxiety and not trusting God for my future. And I need prayers for that, to just let it go. Never been this way until this past couple of years and it’s just really hitting home. And I feel lost and alone. I know that’s not true. I have a hard time talking to people about this. And I know that God is there, but I feel alone. Maybe He’s carrying me now, but it just ask for prayers and it’s just Humbled in California. Thank you, DAB family.

Hello DAB family this is Terry the Trucker today calling in and I’ve got a prayer request and a praise report. for it. The prayer request is my brother-in-law James passed out at work the other day. They carried him to the local hospital, and then they transferred him over to a bigger hospital in Waco. And come to find out he’s got some kind of an infection in his lungs. He was…he had a rash for a long time and his local doctor was treating him with steroids. The local doctor overdid it and kept him on steroids so long that his immune system actually dropped to zero. He came down with pneumonia and passed out at work. Come to find out the infection that he’s got is highly contagious. They did an MRI. We’re waiting to find out if it’s done any damage to any other parts of his body, his brain, veins, organs. They say he could be in their hospital all the way up to December. It’s pretty serious. The CDC, the contagious disease center is working with the doctors to help treat him and figure out what to do but the infection is actually from soil, from dirt. He’s __ welder. Yeah, but as I said his body is exposed, covered with galvanized particles. But it’s pretty serious. I ask you to lift up James and my sister Tina…they…as they go through this. Thank you for your prayers. I want you to remember I always pray for you. God bless.

Judges 21:1- Ruth 1:22, John 4:4-42, Psalm 105:1-15, Proverbs 14:24-25

Today, is the 5th day of May, Cinco de Mayo. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is great to be here with you today, as we move forward, every day, step-by-step, together, through the Bible. And so let’s dive in. We are moving into some new territory in a few minutes. So, we have been moving through the Book of Judges, which once again, is the time period between Joshua’s death and the end of his leadership and leading us all the way until Israel anoints it’s first king. And as we have born witness, it was a tumultuous time, where there was no king in the land and everyone did what was right in their own eyes, as we’ve been told over and over in the Book of Judges. So, today, we will conclude the Book of Judges and then move forward, into the Book of Ruth and we’ll talk about the Book of Ruth before we begin it, in a few minutes. But first, Judges chapter 21.

Introduction to the Book of Ruth:

And that concludes the Book of Judges, which brings us to the opening of a new book. A Book of Ruth and Ruth isn’t a place that we’re gonna be able to camp out for that long, a couple of days and we’ll move through the short Book of Ruth. But it’s a beautiful story of loyalty and absolute trust in God through the lives of three major characters that are in the story, one of them, of course, being Ruth, another being her mother-in-law, Naomi, and the third being a man named Boaz. As it turns out, the faithfulness and loyalty to God and each other, of these people, brought about the circumstances that led to the birth of King David, and subsequently Jesus. This book shows us that when we are people of character, seeking wisdom, and making wise decisions, then the faithfulness of God hovers all around that. And after all that we’ve seen in the Book of Judges, the Book of Ruth really gives us a beautiful depiction of valent women of character. Nobody really knows exactly who wrote the Book of Ruth, there is Jewish tradition that talks about the Prophet Samuel writing it. Although biblical history scholars don’t necessarily think that’s possible. They think maybe, this was written after Samuel died in the time of King David. But the time period that we are referring to, in the Book of Ruth, refers to the time of the judges. And so, now let’s make this really confusing, at one time the Book of Ruth, was incorporated as a part of the Book of Judges and there was no Book of Ruth. But then, later on, it was separated as a story from the time of the judges, but not about a judge. And we were just talking about the prophet Samuel, who we didn’t meet in the book of Judges, but who was the final judge of Israel. We will meet Samuel, in depth, when we reach first and second Samuel. So, in the Book of Judges, we’ve seen some really beautiful things but we’ve seen some really, really trying, challenging, disruptive things as well. And so, the Book of Ruth comes like a breath of spring air, washing over the countryside, as we move forward in the story of the Bible and the story that the Bible is leading us into. So, let’s begin, Ruth chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for everything about it. We thank You for the way that it comforts us, guides us, illuminates our path, disrupts us, shakes us, shakes everything that can…can be shaken and encourages us to shake away all of the things that are holding us back or weighing us down. We thank You for the counsel of the Scriptures, we thank You for the lives that are found in the Scriptures and what they mean to us, not only as we study them and get to know them over time, but also for the stories that are represented and how they apply to our lives. And so, even as we move forward from the Book of Judges and into the Book of Ruth come, Holy Spirit, allow us to see what true character looks like. We pray this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is certainly home-base, to find out what’s going on around here, around the Global Campfire, so check that out. The Daily Audio Bible app is also a fantastic resource for finding that kind of stuff out. Which you can download free from your app store for whatever app store is connected to your device. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop and check out the Community Section, get connected in any way that you can or that you want to, links to social media channels that we participate in our there and the Prayer Wall is there as well, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Thank you so much for your partnership.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, no matter where you are. Or there are a number of numbers that you can call: in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number dial, if you are in the UK or Europe 44 2036 088078 is the number dial, and if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61 3 8820 5459 is the number to call.

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, this is Judy in Salt Lake City again. My daughter just called me and told me that her daughter, my granddaughter, lost her two boys to the state. Please pray, that my granddaughter can get her life together. She’s got mental health issues, like my daughter does and we adopted her oldest son, so. There’s no way that we can adopt the great grandkids too. And on top of that, my husband just had his daughter, from a teenage relationship, bake in his life and she’s dealing with a very aggressive breast cancer. So, if you guys would pray for Star, to get her life together, and get her boys back and for Jaime to be able to beat this cancer it would be really great.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family, this is Renzo in Florida. And I just want to pray for one of the DABers. Forgive me if I forgot your name, I think it’s Amy from Atlanta. But, Father God, I just pray for Amy from Atlanta and I pray for her son as he is dealing with bullying at school and how he has to take a certain test because of his autism and I just pray as he’s even going through puberty Father God, I pray for her son, Lord God. I pray that he’s just covered by the blood of Jesus. Let him just keep, walking with you God. Father God, I also pray for the bullying that he’s dealing with at school. Let the kid whose bullying him, let him to be born again, let him to stop having anger issues. Maybe, even if it’s your will Lord God, let them to become good friends, God, cause You can do the impossible, God. We just know that God, so just please rectify it, if it’s in Your will, Lord God. And we just thank You for everything that You do Lord. And, Jesus name we pray. Amen. God bless you guys, Jesus loves you, so do I. Bye.

Hi family, it’s Mykayla from Gloster. Here, it is Sunday, the 1st of May, it’s almost the end of Ramadan. Though, my 30 days of prayer is slightly on hold. The final few days will be coming, at some point, in the near future. So, I’ve got a full flat at the moment. Both my sisters are down for the long weekend, which is lovely. But yeah, disrupts the routine, but it’s really nice to have them. The reason why they felt the need to come down is not so nice. So, on Friday, my mum got diagnosed with breast cancer. And so, they both live in London, so they were actually able, so, that was a Friday. So, they were actually able to come down on Saturday cause it’s a three-day weekend. They’re able to stay until Monday. So, they feel as if, they can be here and help mum prepare for what she’s gonna have to, she’s gonna have chemo in less than 10 days, she’s gonna start that and then surgery. So yeah, helping with all of that’s involved, so it’s really nice to kind of share the worries and what we can do and to, all that sort of stuff. So, really value your prayers on that front. If you could pray for Debrah, my mum. Yeah, other than that, I’m not really sure how I’m doing cause yeah, but ultimately, I trust God. I knew this was a possibility that, she’d had test. And I think from that it was a, whatever happens, I trust you. Whatever happens, You’ll get us through. So, yeah, thanks family.

Hello DABers, this is K from Quanis, Ohio. This message, this prayer is for God’s Yellow Flower. I heard your heart, I felt you. Most importantly God heard you before you even uttered a word, He heard your heart and He caught every tear. Keep praying, keep trusting, God is still faithful in the midst of everything you’re going through. And what I heard, immediately, through your trauma, through your pain is that God is stretching you. He is stretching your faith. So, you’re gonna have to dig deep and rest in Him and abide in Him. The prayers that you prayed before when your husband died, that’s the same prayers that you need right now. So, rest in Him. He’s gonna cover you, He’s gonna keep you, He’s gonna give you the words to pray. So, that you can dig deep and get your heals, set them in the ground and stand, despite everything you’ve been blown. You’re gonna be like the Matrix, you’re just gonna dodge from side to side. And they’re gonna bounce off of you because you’re living what you’re preaching, what you’re saying. So, when you pray, pray and when you call back, you’re gonna have a praise report. So, all might not be well but you’re trusting God that all will be well and you’re speaking into existence as if it has already happened. So, stand and trust and know that God is God. And there’s no god above Him and that He can do all things. God Bless you.

Hey guys, this is JP from North Carolina. I’m a big fan of the Daily Audio Bible and this community. It’s just been like a lot of people say, such a blessing to me and my spiritual walk. I mean, you know, being in communion everyday with the word and with Brian and his family and all of you other DABers. It really does bring a sense of connection to the Lord through community. So, I mean, it’s just, I’m just so grateful. But the reason why I am you know, putting this little message in is, just to request in prayer for me and my wife. My wife and I just, we’re blessed by having, having our first little girl about four months ago. She’s four months old now, she’s healthy, everything’s great, we’re so blessed, we’re so grateful. But during this time, there’s been a lot of attack on my wife. And she’s going through, what we think is a pretty severe post-partum and she’s just being hit with just deep sadness every day and anxiety. And we’re in prayer, we’re in the word and the wilderness just continues. So, we just, request prayer from our fellow DABers and our family around the campfire to pray for her and for me, just to get through this and to remain faithful to the Lord and not to lose our…our faith in Him, through this hard time. Thank you, guys, so much. We continue to pray for the other people that we hear come up with their needs and we rejoice alongside you with your prayers, your praise reports. Okay, thanks guys.