Category: DAB Transcripts

Genesis 1:1-2:25, Matthew 1:1-2:12, Psalms 1:1-6, Proverbs 1:1-6

Today is January 1^st welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today as we begin a journey, a journey that’s going take us a year, a year-long journey. That’s up pretty long journey, but by the time we finish this journey, we will have spent a year together in community around what we know around here as the Global Campfire and we will have read every sentence, every paragraph, every word in the Bible, which in so many ways is the adventure of a lifetime. It is incredible, what is in this book. It is amazing how it touches every aspect of life and shows us how to live. I mean, by the time we finish our journey the one that we are boarding and setting sail on right now as we speak, by the time we conclude this journey the Bible will have touched nearly every aspect of the way we live, and it will do it in profoundly enriching ways. And, so, it is fantastic to be here with you on day one of 365 days. And this begins year number 17. So, 17 years ago today this story began, not the story of the Bible, but the story of the Daily Audio Bible, and every day since that day, we haven’t missed a day. We’ve been here around the Global Campfire taking the next step forward together every single day. And, so, it is in honor and a privilege and a joy to be here with you today as we embark on our journey through the Scriptures. So, if you took the journey last year, or maybe the last decade or whatever welcome back. I cannot wait to see how this year shapes up and what we learn and glean from each day, day by day in the Scriptures. If this is day one for you, welcome aboard. We’ll have so much fun as we take this journey. And basically, what we’ll do each and every day is read a portion in the Old Testament, read a portion in the New Testament and read a little bit from the Psalms and a little bit from the book of wisdom, the book of Proverbs each day. And since this is day one of the year, that means we’re like starting from scratch, so we will be beginning four different books - the book of Genesis, the book of Matthew and then obviously Psalms and Proverbs. And typically, when we…when conclude a book and then move into some new territory, the next book, we’ll talk about it, kinda do a little fly over, get a little bit of orientation to what it is we’re going to be spending time reading. But since we’re starting four different books today, that’s a lot…that’s a lot to do on day one. So, we’ll orient ourselves to these four books over the next four days. It’s just kinda moving in, moving into the rhythm that we will have as we go through this year. It’s like we’ve boarded this big vessel. We have our own room, our own space, and we gotta kinda move into it because we’ll be journeying for a year.

Introduction to the book of Genesis:

So, most of us probably know that the first book of the Bible is the book of Genesis. But the book of Genesis is a part of a grouping of books known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, and this grouping comprises the first five books in the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And often we think of the book of Genesis we consider the…the story of creation and the origin, the beginning of the story, the origin of man. And that’s obviously a very important story but it’s not the entire story of the book of Genesis. It actually encompasses the first few chapters. Genesis actually covers more history than any of the other books in the Bible. About 2500 years are covered in the book of Genesis. Genesis actually covers more time in history than the rest of the Old Testament combined. So, we’ll start at the beginning, the beginning of the story, the creation story and go all the way until the children of Israel, who we’ll meet, we’ll follow them all the way until they end up in the land of Egypt and become a numerous population. So, basically the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis will be covering a couple thousand years. And we’ll also travel a couple thousand miles. And then things will slow down, and we’ll have a couple centuries to deal with as we get to the end of the book of Genesis. And the children of Israel that we just mentioned, the Old Testament of the Bible is largely centered around these people and their story and how God revealed himself to them and through them. And they have an awful lot to teach us because they’re not so different than we are. And, so, let’s begin. We’ll read from the New International Version today and then through next week as we get moved in on our journey. But today Genesis chapters 1 and 2.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have taken an important first step. Obviously, the first step in our year and we’ll keep stepping forward all the way through the year, but a first step in the Bible, one that gives us important information and important context for where this journey is gonna take us. And, so, we begin in the beginning, right? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That’s important to know. And all the things that were created in the following days were on purpose by design. So, that gives us a sense of understanding that we’re not all accidents upon this earth by some sort of random chance. We’re here because we’re supposed to be here. It was intentional that we would be here. According to what we read today we bear the image of God, created in his image, to be image bearers upon this earth. And it is the breath of God that breathed life into humanity. And we’re getting the briefest of glimpses in the book of Genesis right now to a time when everything was as it was supposed to be. It was perfect. Something went wrong somewhere along the way, right? Because we can look at the world that we’re in right now and say that it is less than perfect. It is beautiful and lovely and sustains our lives, but less than perfect. And we look around at each other as human beings and know that we are far from perfect. Although we may be created in the image of God something happened somewhere and we’ll be getting to that story as we continue forward.

And then as we began the New Testament today in the book of Matthew, we…we read a lot of lineage, a lot of names. And the genealogies that are found in Scripture, so many people like refer to them as, “why is that in the Bible?” But these names that we read today, we’re gonna get to know these people. The story of the generations leading up to the birth of Jesus is a story of many generations of life, of laughter and tears, like everyone else in the world. And as we begin the book of Matthew we are also beginning a new story, a story of God made flesh, a story of God, this creator God that we’re reading about in Genesis, incarnating Himself, becoming human and living among us not only to rescue us but also to model for us what humanity is supposed to look like, which is what we, who are Christian believers in Jesus are trying to live into - like Christ, Christlike. And there will be so many opportunities for us to explore that as we take this journey.

So, there’s gonna be plenty for us to discuss and we can’t discuss it all in one day, but we will be able to talk about a lot of things step-by-step day by day, including where you’ve landed here, what this Daily Audio Bible is and how it works. In the coming days we’ll kind of unpack some of that. Like a said, it’s as if we boarded a large vessel and we’re unpacking and we’re getting settled in for a long journey, a journey that will take us through a year of our lives together with tens of thousands of brothers and sisters that are wrapped all the way around the globe. But this is day one and this is where we begin, in the beginning. We read the genealogies of Jesus but if we think about our own genealogy, just think about it. Your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, your great-great-grandparents spanning way back into history, people that we don’t even know their names, we don’t know anything about their lives, but the choices that they made compounded until we existed in this world. And every single one of us have come here today because of billions of choices that were made over the generations that landed us here. And here we are, regardless of what continent we live on or what time zone we’re in. No matter our station in life, whether wealthy or impoverished, whether healthy or struggling with our health. Whether a long-term disciple of Jesus or cracking open the Bible just to find out what’s in it. We’ve all got here by the decisions of those who’ve gone before us and at some point, we made a decision to push play and now we’re in this together. So, no matter how you got here. Whether it was planned all along our whether you had all long New Year’s Eve night and have woken up super hung over and depressed and have decided to turn toward spirituality. No matter how we got here, we’re here and we’re in this together. No matter who you are or what you’ve done I’m so happy, I’m so happy we can take this journey. We’re all in this together and I cannot wait to see where this journey takes us.

Song:

Relate – For King and Country

Has life hit you so hard that you’ve been knocked down?
Have you gone too far to find the middle ground?
Did they raise you so high just to pull you back down?
Have you been so lost you could never be found?

‘Cause I’ve been real, I’ve been fake
Been a sinner, been a saint
I’ve been right, I’ve been so, so wrong
Yeah, I’ve made my mistakes

I don’t know what it’s like to be you
You don’t know what it’s like to be me
What if we’re all the same in different kinds of ways?
Can you, can you relate?
We both know what it’s like to be hurt
We both know what it’s like to feel pain
But I think it’s safe to say we’re on to better days
Can you, can you relate?

Can you relate?

Have you ever been left when you should’ve been loved?
Has there ever been a time when you stayed but you should’ve run?

'Cause I’ve been real, I’ve been fake
Been a sinner, been a saint
I’ve been right, I’ve been so, so wrong
Yeah, I’ve made my mistakes

Now, I don’t know what it’s like to be you
You don’t know what it’s like to be me
What if we’re all the same in different kinds of ways?
Can you, can you relate?
We both know what it’s like to be hurt
We both know what it’s like to feel pain
But I think it’s safe to say we’re on to better days
Can you, can you relate?

Can you relate?
Can you relate?
Can you relate?

I don’t know what it’s like to be you
You don’t know what it’s like to be me
But by the grace of God we’ll see each other’s heart
Can you, can you relate?

Malachi 3:1-4:6, Revelations 22:1-21, Psalm 150:1-6, Proverbs 31:25-31

Today is the 31st day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and as it has been 364 other times this year, it is great to be here with you around the Global Campfire and this will be the last time that we gather around this Global Campfire this year. Hopefully not our last time. Hopefully we gather around the Global Campfire again tomorrow and start a new journey but this is certainly the last time that we will gather around the Global Campfire this year. And I don’t know for some reason every December 31st I come to this microphone with a pit in my stomach. Like, it’s a joyous thing, we have accomplished, we are about to read the last, the last chapters and verses of the Bible. We will have read every single bit of it. That’s a joy but that we’re bringing things to a close for this year, that’s melancholy, but as it turns out there’s only one way to go right, and that is forward, the next step forward together, which is what we have been doing all year and it has brought us to this place. So, well done. And here we go our last reading from the Old Testament leads us back into the book of Malachi, today chapters 3 and 4.

Conclusion:

And this concludes the Proverbs. And friends, this concludes the Bible. Oh friends, well done, well done. We made it. We started our journey January 1st of this year and we have reached the last day of this year and every day in between we have taken the next step forward together that has led us through the entire Bible. Well done. And I’m just sitting here like I end up every time that we reach the end of the journey with this kind of empty feeling inside a little bit optimistic about tomorrow, but a little bit of a emptiness inside that we’re done. We accomplished what we set out to do, and this marks 16 complete years, seven days a week and we haven’t missed a single day since the Daily Audio Bible began. And if my calculator is right, that’s 5843 consecutive days that we’ve been at this. I think there’s been three leap years, I might have that wrong, it could be 5844 days, but I think we’ve only had three leap years, I don’t, maybe, I don’t know. A lot of days. A lot of life. A lot of change. A lot of good, a lot of hard. A lot can happen in a year but 16 years that’s life-changing for anyone. And so, I look back at myself 16 years ago, and it would’ve been 16 years ago today I guess, that would have been the very, very first recording of the Daily Audio Bible, a journey that I didn’t know if I could complete but thought that I probably could complete a year and read all the way through it in a year out loud, not really knowing what I was doing, but knowing plenty about audio engineering and planning about technology so, like I technically knew how to do it but didn’t know what I was doing. I’m not sure that I still do but I thought if I read it out loud and there’s a handful people that they go through it together, I’ll probably stick to it. I’ll get through that year and then that’ll be that I’ll get that time back in my life to fill in with other things and then I don’t know that I can listen myself read myself the Bible or whatever. I had no idea that it was like going to change everything. Everything about life as I knew it in that moment, now 16 full years later I look back and I’m like, I’ve done this long enough to grow up to be born and grow up and get a driver’s license. Children have been born in my home. Some of my children have grown and found spouses of their own and got married and had children of their own. Two of them arrived this year. This 16th year. Think about how things change in 16 years in your life and there are those of you who are here who weren’t born yet which, which is crazy to me. God has been faithful and all of the time I scratch my head and wonder how is it that I got behind this microphone. How did that happen but it did and I am grateful. After 16 years, like I don’t know what to do without the Bible as a part of my everyday life. I kinda started this thinking if I can really, really pay close attention and read the entire Bible one time through, I will have fulfilled my duty as a believer. That’s what we should do everybody should read their Bibles and yeah I can continue to study it but I’ll kind of have a lay of the land. I had no idea there isn’t a time that I read through the Bible right. I mean, some of you have been here for years. Every time we move through the Scriptures it’s speaking to us in a different sort of way, hitting us right where we live. So, that the 16 revolutions around the sun for change, for the next step forward. So, I sit here going, we’ve come a long, long way, but I also sit here, eager, knowing that we have a ways to go. There is so much more for us and for how to live that can be gleaned from the Scriptures as we continue to do what we do every day, one step in front of the other day-by-day, step-by-step, the next step forward together. So, thank you, thank you for taking the journey, it would’ve been a very, very lonely journey all alone, but being able to walk into the Global Campfire every day and find a place and move forward together, that makes all the difference. If this is your first time through the entire Bible, congratulations. When we read it all the way through, we realize there’s a lot more to this. There’s a whole lot more to this than I thought. And all of the people that we got to meet along the way, all of the different stories that we got to encounter, all the opportunities that we had to allow the Scriptures to become a mirror and that we’re looking at ourselves in the Scriptures. What a gift and what a, what a joy it is to share that gift together. So, this is it. I always want to procrastinate just gonna keep riffing and talking about whatever because I don’t want it to come to a close, because I’ll have to push stop and that will be it, there will be no more left in this year. So, for those of you that plan to show up tomorrow and board a brand-new voyage, I’m looking forward to that. I am, I am very, very much looking forward to that. For those of you who may be moving in another direction, now that you’ve gone all the way through the Bible, I hope you won’t forget your journey and I hope you will remember that there is a Global Campfire burning and it never goes out, we’re always here and that is the intention. At least that is my intention is to continue bringing the spoken word of God read fresh every day as long as I have breath. So don’t be a stranger, we’ve all been through a lot together over the last year and I think, I think that is about it, right. That’s, that’s it for today and that is it for this year.

Prayer:

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He lift his countenance upon you and give you peace. May the strength of God go with you. May the wisdom of God instruct you. May the hand of God protect you. May the word of God direct you. May you be sealed in Christ this day and forever more. Amen.

I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here next year.

Song

Malachi 1:1-2:17, Revelation 21:1-27, Psalms 149:1-9, Proverbs 31:10-24

Today is the 30^th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian. New Year’s Eve Eve, right? It was like a week ago and it was Christmas Eve Eve. Seems like a bit more than a week ago but here we are. And as we take the next step forward, which there’s only two steps left in this voyage but today we will begin the final book that we will encounter. We have involved ourselves in every other book of the Bible up to this point. Today we will begin the book of Malachi, which we will obviously conclude tomorrow.

Introduction to the book of Malachi:

Malachi’s the last book of the Old Testament. It’s the last book in the grouping known as the minor prophets. So, it’s the 12^th of the 12 Minor Prophets. So, it’s pretty clear where we are in our journey through the Bible. Malachi, the word, means my messenger, which is why scholars have debated about this book. It’s title, is this somebody’s name or does this book mean my messenger? It…it’s referring to the contents of the book. A traditional assumption an assumption that we’ll work on is that Malachi was a prophet of God. It's…it’s likely that Malachi was contemporary with Ezra and Nehemiah, but there’s nothing known about Malachi outside of the book of Malachi. Based on the subject matter, Malachi lived probably about a century after the Persians defeated the Babylonians and then started allowing the exiles, the Babylonian exiles to return to their homeland. And we have covered that territory in Ezra and Nehemiah. And it had been about 50 years since the temple was rebuilt. And we remember Haggai and the last book that we read Zacharia speaking to the rebuilding of the temple, and all of these promises that once that happens, then the treasures of the world will begin flowing into Jerusalem and into the temple. And, so, the temple has been rebuilt. It’s been rebuilt for like 50 years. The people are indeed in their ancestral ancient homeland, but none of this kind of prominence and elevation, this treasure flowing, like this hasn’t happened. And, so, people are becoming discouraged about it. They’re not being restored to their former glory. They’re just a tiny little province in the Persian Empire. And because of this, the people were losing their passion for God and His law, and we’ve witnessed many times on our journey through the Scriptures what happens when that happens, right? It’s a downward spiral that just keeps going down until all is lost. And, so, there is moral decline and there is spiritual decline. Some of the things noted in Malachi, are that, you know, sacrifices were supposed to be perfect, perfect unblemished animals but the priests were…were offering blind and blemished sacrifices and the Mosaic law was becoming less and less of the north star for the people. So, it’s into that kind of environment and scenario that…that Malachi comes. And Malachi is probably the last prophet of the Old Testament age. And like other prophets it’s a call to return to God. Interestingly, after Malachi, there isn’t a prophet like for 400 years. There is no prophet of God speaking on behalf of God to the people until a voice crying out in the wilderness comes and prepares the way of the Lord and this person was known as John the Baptist. And in the coming days because we’ll be moving into a new year, we’ll…we’ll get introduced to John the Baptist as we begin the Gospels again. And generally, with the coming of John the Baptist we…we see sort of a change, a new era beginning what we would call the New Testament era. And this is how the Bible is laid out. You might wonder what happened in those 400 years. I have definitely wondered like what happened in those 400 years. And the history of those 400 years is easily available. There are writings that come from within that 400-year period. We…well some of those writings we know as the apocryphal books. And depending on the Christian tradition that you are involved in those books may be included in…in the Scriptures that you have. They are certainly included in a lot of Bibles and referred to in a lot of traditions while in other traditions they’re…they’re basically ignored, maybe even held suspect, like there some kind of inappropriate books. I don't…I don’t think that’s true. A number of the books in the apocryphal are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. I read them several years ago. A lot of them are in narrative form like much of the…the rest of the Bible where we’re reading kind of a story of events and people and where their journey led them, which is historically interesting if you’re into that sort of thing. Now listen, I’m not suggesting you read the Apocrypha. That is entirely up to you. I’m just saying if you’re kind of curious what happens between the Old and the New Testament, there are writings from that period of time. They have generally not been included in the canon of Scripture. So, many people do not see them as Scripture, but that doesn’t mean they’re not valuable and from the time period that’s biblical and from the people that we’ve been traveling with through the entire Bible. And, so, I guess that's…that’s that. Take it or leave it. What we will not leave behind is our next step forward in the Scriptures. And, so, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Malachi chapters 1 and 2.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the days of this year. Each and every day we have come here around this Global Campfire to hear from Your word and to allow it to speak to us and direct and guide us and we thank You for that. And we thank You for bringing us here into the book of Malachi, the last book that we will encounter this year. We will conclude all of the books tomorrow. And, so, this is a moment of reflection right here, one more step to go. Thank You. We thank You and we worship You, thank You for Your faithfulness to us this year. Thank You for bringing us through so much. Thank You for teaching us so much. And we begin to look with anticipation for all that You have yet to speak to us as we continue our journey into the new year. But right now, with one step left to go we are thankful, we are grateful, and we honor and worship You in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here, it’s home of the Global Campfire and so is the app of course, the Daily Audio Bible app. You just press the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and that opens a drawer and you can navigate to different places and get connected in any way that you want to.

But I guess the immediate thing that is going on around here, this is New Year’s Eve Eve. I just can’t believe how fast it all went. We’re going to complete the Bible tomorrow for this year. Our journey is pretty close to the end. Of course, it’s a journey that just begins again the next day, but it really is a line of demarcation, right? It is a momentous thing to navigate through a year of life, and it is a wondrous thing to navigate through the Bible in a year and allow that to be incorporated into how we navigate life in a year. And we have…well…we’ve done our navigating. We’re about to come in for landing. And, so, I’m thinking a lot about that. We’ve been talking about finishing strong and finishing well and just acknowledging that to begin strong, to begin well, means that we finish what we were doing before properly and well and with excellence. And, so, here we are together one more day and we’ll conclude the Bible together. What a beautiful thing. What a joy this has been.

So, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in this year then we’re fairly…fairly close to being…well…we’ve got one day left of this year and then we’ll be into a new year, but I thank you with all humility and really with awe…with awe that all of these years, seven days a week, all of these years we’ve been here together taking this journey and I’m grateful. So, 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 there are a number of numbers that you can use 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. 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 not be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Tyler from Oklahoma I just wanted to call and say thank you for doing what you do that’s stepping into prayer and give a praise report. I recently called about a friend of mine who cuts my hair and her husband contracted COVID and he was put in the hospital and placed on a ventilator and…and literally nearly died. And until just…like just recently he is out of the hospital, he is in a rehabilitation center and he’s walking and talking and should…should probably return to work within the next few weeks I would imagine. The word says we conquer by the blood of the lamb and the word of His…and the word of our testimony. And this is testimony. So, thank you everyone for your prayer. That family really appreciates it. Have a great…

Good morning DAB family I just want to pray for Josie. I heard her message this morning and regarding her husband that he’s facing a health crisis in the hospital. And I just want to lift them up Lord and…and…and let your arms surround them as they go through this crisis together. And I just want to encourage couples. I know a couple years ago I invited my husband to start listening to the DAB so we could do it together and have this same message, same Bible study together. And it’s just been a blessing in our life Lord, and I just want to thank you for that. Thank… And I just want to encourage other couples. If your spouse is…is not listening to the DAB with you, just encourage that…that you guys start that together. And I just want to give that to Josie to Lord, while they’re even in the hospital room that…that maybe she’ll play the DAB with him and that that will give them comfort together as they face this crisis and this health crisis Lord. We just want to lift up all those things to you because we know that you’re the ultimate healer and it can be a body healer and it can be a spirit healer. I just want to give that to…to Josie and just bless her and give her the strength to get through this health crisis in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Hi DAB this is Gigi from g-ville. I wanted to let you all know that Alisa is growing well. She’s head down. We’ve got six more weeks to go and it’s very exciting. I was calling in for some prayer because I hurt my pelvis somehow and we’re trying to paint a house and it’s pretty difficult with limping and not being able to walk and not being able to sleep. I went to a chiropractor and not much difference so I’m going to physical therapy this week and my prayer is that it would be really led by God and that the physical therapist would have real insight into what’s causing all the pain in…in the pelvis area. And I will be going back to school very soon. So, I need to be able to walk. So…so, yeah that’s my prayer. If you guys could agree with me that this…this…I know…I don’t know if the physical therapy will be the answer but I know that God knows what the answer is. So, I am praying that I will we see that understanding and his healing in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you, guys. Bye.

Hello, my Daily Audio Bible family I would just like to express my love for this family and all that it had in store for me since listening beginning in 2011 and taking me 12 seasons to understand how blessed I am. I knew I was blessed, or I wouldn’t have stayed with it, but I mean just ecstatically blessed I am to have this to listen to. And it’s become a really good habit. If I can’t download it or if I have a glitch in my system I just have a little bit of a meltdown of not being able to listen to it when I want to listen to it, which is first thing in the morning while I’m getting ready to work. And double DABbing for two years and just loving it, loving it, loving it. And I just so appreciate every single person that has anything to do with this production because it is a production. It’s not just a podcast. It is a production. And I love you…I love you Jill, I love you Brian, I love China, I love Max, I love Ezekiel, I love every aspect of this family and I’m sorry I can’t remember the other boy’s names. And I’m just…love the Hardin’s, period. Amen. Happy new year. We will all be together in 2022. I love you.

Good afternoon family this is Incognito but not to God. I just completed listening to community prayer I believe the 26^th…24^th. I’m sorry it’s the 26^th. Anyway, just really want to reach out to my family to pray for my daughter Genesis. She’s only 12 years old and she’s really struggling. Her world is rapidly becoming dark. She’s becoming withdrawn. She’s been bullied for a very long time and the sad part is that she’s been bullied at church, she’s been bullied at school, she’s been bullied in my family. So, she is just done. And I really, I'm…I’m hurting for my child. She’s becoming more aggressive, and angry towards those that hurt her. And I…it’s just…just spiraling like, you know, out of control and I need help and prayer for my child. Eyes of a Dove, I believe that’s your name, I’ve been praying for Brayden and fasting with you. If you don’t mind adding my…my Genesis to your list and praying that you will p[ray for my Genesis too as I pray for you because she’s struggling with all those things, identity as well. She just…she’s just…oh…so upset and depressed that life has been so hard on her. So, I just want to pray for everyone for all the prayers that are going up, I…

Hello everybody we’re sending you a very merry blessed Christmas. This is God’s Smile here and Peter and Tom. Hello Tom. Welcome to…he’s home for Christmas. Yeah. Welcome to DAB. Let’s sing. [singing starts] Thank you for saving me. What can I say? You are my everything and I will sing your praise. You shared your love for me. What can I say? You took my sin and shame a sinner called by name. Great is the Lord. Great is the Lord. For we know your truth has set us free. You set your hope in me [singing stops]. We’re so thankful today for the gift of life, for the gift of life in Jesus. And times ticking away again. Say goodbye Peter. Bye-bye Peter. Say goodbye Tom. See you later. And kiss kiss from me…

Zechariah 14:1-21, Revelation 20:1-15, Psalm 148:1-14, Proverbs 31:8-9

Today is the 29th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a great to be here with you around the Global Campfire for these last couple of days of this year as we move to the end of our journey and…and the launch of a brand-new one. And we have been reading our way through the book of Zechariah, I guess for the last week or so. Today we will conclude the book of Zechariah, which means that tomorrow we will enter the last book that we are going to encounter this year. The book of Malachi. And we’ll talk about that then but we’re here now and we have one more step to take in the book of Zechariah, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, Zechariah chapter 14.

Commentary:

Okay, so during this in between week, between Christmas and New Year’s, as we’ve been talking about for the last several days, this is the time when we think about where we’re going and in every sort of way it sort of touches us, whether that be where we’re going spiritually or where we’re going in relationship or where we’re going in our vocation, we start thinking about these things and we’ve just spent the last couple of days kind of looking at the Proverbs, looking from the Psalms yesterday, just looking for advice in this in between week from the Scriptures that can inform the choices, that can give us advice for where we should go. And even as we’re talking about this yesterday, we just kind of noticed that a lot of…a lot of those New Year’s resolutions are aimed at improving ourselves and that’s fine and that’s good. We should do that. But if that’s all were doing then we’re pretty self-absorbed and pretty self-focused, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When you’re thinking about New Year’s resolutions because you’re thinking about how to be better, how to be a better person, how to be a better disciple of Jesus, how to walk this faith out in a better way. But if we’re really thinking in those terms than it won’t take long before we realize some of the things that we desire to do, that need to be resolutions, need to be outward focused toward others and not just inward focused toward our own comfort or pleasure or achievements. Proverbs today gives us such advice once again. And before you get to that though, I want to mention the Proverbs again. Yes, when we’re doing the Daily Audio Bible we’re moving through the book of Proverbs, a little bit at a time. And there’s plenty for us in those morsel, kind of, bite sized portions because the Proverbs is so densely packed with wisdom that that works but there is the Daily Audio Proverb and that is a chapter of Proverbs a day, moving through the entire book of Proverbs each month, pouring this wisdom that is so densely packed into our souls on a daily basis, over and over and over and it makes a difference because about the time that we’re faced with something where we need wisdom, well than it pays off because we have wisdom, it’s in our heart, it’s in our soul. So, if we’re gonna get off this…this ship in a couple of days and end our year together, but if you’re gonna board the new journey, into the new year and set sail once again and cross through another year together in community, Daily Audio Proverb is something really valuable to incorporate. It adds like two minutes, two minutes a day-ish to your listening experience and it is a good couple of minutes to invest in wisdom in the new year. So, speaking of wisdom and speaking of New Year’s resolutions let’s look at the Proverb that we read today. Open your mouth for the mute for the rights of all who are destitute, open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. It’s interesting how…how those words can so easily be run through some sort of political filter because of such divisiveness that exists in the world. It’s so easy to read that and go, uh, this is a political statement, I’m just waiting for it. When…when the Proverbs, when this, what we just read was written before any of the climate that were in now by thousands of years. It wasn’t written thousands of years ago to cause political drama now. Injustice has been a part of the story all along and we can read the Proverb at face value and most of us would agree, yeah, the rights of the destitute should be protected. Yes, there should be justice and righteous judges and the rights of the poor and the needy should be defended, we would agree with those things, they would indeed mimic the posture of Jesus our Savior. So, we can agree with them unless we run them through this political filter. But even if we don’t, we can agree with them and go, there, I agree with what the Scripture says yes, and feel as if we’re absolved because we agree, when what the Proverb is instructing isn’t like passive agreement, it’s actually active wisdom. Open your mouth right, that’s in action. Open your mouth for the mute right, for the people who can’t speak up for themselves. Open your mouth for the people who can’t speak for themselves. Open your mouth for the rights of all who are destitute. Let’s just notice there’s not like, this isn’t about how you vote or who you put into office. It doesn’t absolve you, we’re not absolved just because were like, yeah my candidate won, this person is running things and they’re gonna, they’re gonna do God’s work in and speak up for the unfortunate and my vote is my participation. That stuff’s not in here in the Proverbs it’s an instruction to individuals. This is the posture of your life. This is how you think about things. You speak up and defend those who can’t speak and defend themselves, my goodness, we can find so many examples but let’s just think of Jesus with the woman caught in the act of adultery, he defended her. He spoke up for her when she could not speak up for herself when she was going to be sentenced to death. He opened his mouth even as he wrote in the sand. The Proverb goes on, open your mouth, judge righteously defend the rights of the poor and needy. So, that would mean a lot of things to each one of us in our own nations, in our own cultures and in our own contexts. So, for some that might mean getting involved in politics in some sort of way, for others it means paying attention to what is going on around you. Our culture is trying to move so fast that we can’t pay attention to anything but ourselves. And the marketing machines are telling us all the stuff we need to make our lives better so that we can just be insulated and people are falling through the cracks spiritually and physically. Proverbs says we should open our mouth about that, that we shouldn’t be passive about that. So, we have another piece of ancient wisdom dealing with issues that have been part of the human condition for thousands of years. If this weren’t going on there’s no purpose for this Proverb. It’s not wisdom, it’s not speaking to something that’s happening, but it is happening and it’s has always been happening. Therefore, the ancient wisdom of thousands of years ago is still relevant today. It’s almost as if the Proverb just leaves it lingering there because the question after reading this is what are you going to do about it. Where will wisdom take you because we are the hands and feet of Jesus. Like, we are, we are days from ending this journey. And if we look back, we’ve been told some pretty monumental things about who we are. We’ve been told that we’ve been rescued by God. We’ve been told that there is no separation between us and God anymore. We’ve been told that the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is living within us. We’ve been told that we’ve been given a Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us and to rebuke and correct us. We’ve been told that every single part of this body is necessary and no one can say to any other one, I don’t need you because that is not true. We are all needed in this work, and part of this work, I mean James tells us that true religion is to care for the orphans and the widows, does that not equate to the poor and the needy and the destitute and their rights and their voicelessness. So, part of this work of being the body is to try to put in end to any form of injustice. But let’s just zoom out, our role is to replace darkness with light, not to add to the darkness. And sometimes that means we have to open our mouth and be involved. And again, when we talked about if were not absolved based on the vote that we cast, we are not absolved on the meme that we post to social media either. This is about getting involved in the kinds of things that Jesus involved himself in and so, as we spend these last days making our resolutions and considering what the new year might look like this is a good thing to consider.

Prayer:

So, Holy Spirit, we ask that You help us to be considerate and to consider these things and to consider what You might be saying and how You might be leading and how we need to be paying attention in this new year so that at any point we can be Your hands and feet in any way that You make available to us. So, come Spirit of Truth, come Holy Spirit of God, and lead us into all truth. We pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudioible.com that is home base, that is the website. If you’re using the app you can access pretty much everything that’s on the website, there’s little drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner of the app screen and out pops open a drawer and so you get to things like the Community section or the Daily Audio Bible Shop. And so, check that out.

Here we are, middle of the last week of the year. Stepping forward because there is no backward like we can’t turn around and go through the year in reverse, there is only forward and so let’s continue as we’re contemplating all of the things that we believe the Lord might be inviting us into or the things that we really actually need to get a handle on or things that we need to change. Let’s just remember the Bible touches all of those things and we have all kinds of opportunities for change. If we look back over the year, we’ve changed so much and yeah, we got a ways to go, don’t we all. We just keep moving forward in this process of sanctification, moving forward day-by-day, step-by-step catching ourselves finding that we can make wise decisions if we just slow down enough. That we can have the heart of God for people if we slow down enough and consider them less of a nuisance and something in our way and more fellow brothers and sisters, human beings created in the image of God and the Bible certainly teaches us all about that and the heart of God for us. So, even as we look back over the year, even as we consider what the new year might look like, let’s remember and we can walk hand-in-hand with the father, with our Creator, with the lover of our soul, with the most high God. And what a difference it makes. So, let’s stay here around the Global Campfire and finish well and begin well.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what’s happening here the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm so that we’re not alone, not alone in our journey through the Scriptures and not alone in life, we have each other that has been meaningful and life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership here in the final days of the year. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good morning, DAB family. I’m Leading, calling from Manchester, United Kingdom. It’s my first time calling, I’ve been a listener for the past two years. I sat into participate and pray for prayer request that are sent through after each reading. Today, my heart is heavy. I just want you to pray for me. I’m struggling to cope with the news. My sister, who lives in Malow, has been diagnosed with colon cancer. It’s a blow to our family. I don’t know how to cope, especially being far away from everyone and also being six months pregnant. Please pray for my sister. Pray for her that God would be with her and touch her in her pain that she’s going through right now. And to pray that as she goes through treatment of course, it go well. It’s may prayer that I will be able to see my sister when I’m around to travel. Thank you for listening.

Hey everyone, it’s Margo in Liberia. I just wanted to ring in with a little testimony, well heartwarming story. Even though we’ve been in Liberia a few years we actually haven’t had a Christmas year cause the last couple of years our home assignment has actually coincided with Christmas, which has been lovely. And this year, I’m looking forward to Christmas with our team here. But also, there’s certain bitter sweetness that comes with it because of course we really miss our family and our children at Christmas. But something so lovely happened that reminded me of the Lord’s goodness. As part of what I do here, I do fundraising for various small projects. And we recently helped a man named Harris who broke his leg a few years ago and it never healed properly. He’s essentially semi-disabled. And his job requires him to walk many kilometers every day. And he needs to keep going because he has a wife and four children he’s trying to support. So, we did a project where we just raised a few hundred dollars for him so that he could get a more appropriate job for a disabled man. He could start a little business maybe where he could sit selling things or something where customers could come to him. And the funded, the project was funded and we phoned him this morning and said come and see us and we’ll give you the money and we’ll do a little thank you video. And when he came in, he was so grateful. There always grateful but he was just extra grateful. And he said that yesterday his good leg started really hurting and he felt so discouraged and so down. And last night he sat with his wife and they prayed Lord, please help us, please help us. And this morning he got the phone call from us to say we have some money so you can start a better business. And I just found that just such a reminder of the Lord’s goodness. Nobody is forgotten on this planet. So, it’s Christmas Eve so that’s my little Christmas miracle. Bye.

Hello family, this is Demetri calling from Portland. I just wanted to call and thank everybody for this amazing opportunity. Thank Brian for his time for his faith in hearing God’s word that the this is something that he has to do and obviously and blessed myself and so many more people. So, so thank you Brian for…for hearing God’s voice and staying strong and having faith that the He’s good. So, thank you for that Brian and just want to also encourage everybody who’s listening to this and might be thinking about just giving up are not continuing this year. I encourage, even though you completed your one year and you might think that that’s enough I suggest that you continue listening to this that’s how I started, just to listen to one year in and check…check that off that I’ve read through the Bible, but as I continue listening year-over-year it’s been an incredible experience and life-changing so I do encourage everybody to continue listening to this, but I also wanted to share you know, it’s been a hard year for myself as well, as it’s been almost a year now. It’s been over a year now since my separation with my wife and the divorce and as I continue to pray and believe that God believe, God has room for restoration, I pray for next year that, that’s the same spirit that I go in and if it’s God’s will for our family to be restored and our marriage to be put back together that that happens. So, but thank you very much everybody. I pray for all of you and I listen every day and I hope everybody has an amazing end of the year. Amazing next year. And I will do my best to call more often next year, that’s one of my plans for next year but anyway, thank everybody, thank you Brian. God Bless. And I’ll see you guys all on next year, 2022.

Dear God, I lift up Emanual. I pray that You will be with him as is his name is God with us and I thank You for his life. I thank You for his walk. I thank You for his mom. I thank You for his family, Lord. And I am just lifting him up through this season as I hear his name spoken. I just pray that You will give him strength and wisdom and direction and hope and that You will bless him and his life. In Jesus’ name. It’s Radiant Rachel, have a great day guys.

Dear DAB family, this is your sister Ashley from California and I just want to say a belated Merry Christmas and have a soon to be Happy New Year. And I want to say thank You Lord for Christmas 2021 with the craziness of this year we got to celebrate our first Christmas in a new home and also my dad is here and he is recovering and it was a blessed time with our family. And I also want to come on here and praise God for my friend Abbie and thank you all for your prayers. She is growing a hunger for the Lord. Her brokenness is leading her to a place of humility where she sees she needs him. She’s even recognizing that God has provided people in her life that are showing her his love and his character, hallelujah. Thank you Lord for that. But I wanna come on here DAB family and ask for prayer for me and for all the others out there who have a desire to finish this year strong. I am behind on reading due to the shuffle of the holidays but I want to finish the race of this year strong. I also know that I can be a perfectionist and so I can beat myself up but I don’t want to live in that spirit of fear and anxiety so if ya’ll could pray for me to be able to finish this and finish strong but also to give myself grace and that would be wonderful. So, family, I praise our Lord for you and I covet your prayers. So, if you’re like me everybody, let’s do this, let’s finish this year strong. I love you DAB family.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible community. This is Diane Olive Brown from Newberg, Indiana. I am an encourager one of very very many. And I’m responding to the prayer of encouragement and for Dec 25th and it is now December 26th at 1140 in the morning. Shalom, shalom everybody, nothing is missing and nothing is broken. Ozzy Bear, I’m praying for your son and all the children of our Daily Audio Bible community, all of our children, no matter how young, no matter how old. As the prodigal son came back to his father, as Proverbs 10:21 says, the seed of the righteous shall be delivered. As Eyes of a Dove has said that they be until they be in the arms of the Father and His eyes be upon them in deliverance. I pray for them to be sealed in the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit by the blood of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. I pray for our children no matter how old, no matter how young. Father, You send Your angel armies, Jesus, you are the King of the angel armies and I send them forth from the North, from the South and the East and the West.

Zechariah 12:1-13:9, Revelation 19:1-21, Psalms 147:1-20, Proverbs 31:1-7

Today is the 28^th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue our journey through the final week of the year and the final days together on this journey through the Scriptures. I’m starting to feel it now. There’s always just a little lump that starts to bubble up inside my heart like we’re reaching the end of another journey. And it's…we’re…I mean there isn’t a day off…like once it’s January 1^st we…just starts again, the journey. It doesn’t end but I’m, starting to feel…feel that, right? It…it as goes with this week in between Christmas and New Year’s when we start thinking about what the next year’s gonna look like and how to finish this one well. And, so, I’m thinking about those things as you probably are too. But we do have several steps in front of us before we reach the conclusion and a new beginning. And, so, let’s dive in. We are reading from the English Standard Version this week. Zechariah chapters 12 and 13 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there are a couple of verses in the Psalms in our reading from Psalms today that every time I come to them for one reason or another, they stop me, especially this time of the year. So, let me just quote from Psalms. “His delight”, speaking of God, “His delight is not in the strength of the horse nor His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, and those who hope in His steadfast love.” And, so, what we see here is that God isn’t so impressed with your strength, It’s not what you’re capable of. It’s not in what you’re capable…capable of dominating. What is your strength compared to the Lord of Heaven’s armies, the Creator of all? What strength or activity could we do that would be impressive to Him? And yet in a way that’s answered. “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, and those who hope in His steadfast love.” So, it’s those who actually find themselves utterly dependent upon God, fully engaged and trusting in Him. The Lord takes pleasure in people who hope in His steadfast love, His unwavering, immovable, unchangeable love. Those who hope in that bring pleasure to the Lord. The reason that stops me is I want to be that guy. And in my own strength, which is just like everybody else, we have our old worn habits and we may know better, but there’s often times that we’re like, I don’t care that I know better I’m gonna say this, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna act this way. But it becomes stark when you realize this brings no pleasure to the Lord. There’s nothing good that can come from this. Now let’s think about the resolutions we’re beginning to form. Maybe we’ve written a couple down now. Maybe we’ve made a few phone calls. Maybe we’ve renewed some things. Maybe…maybe we’re on our way or maybe we’re just starting to think about it, but most everybody, not everybody, but most everybody comes to certain conclusions as they go into a new year about things they would like to not repeat and things that they would like to improve. And some people get very very serious and meticulous about it and actually achieve those goals, and other people just kinda walk into the new year with the idea of making some changes. But no matter what those changes might be normally they are about making our existence a better thing, right, our experience of life a better thing, which is not a bad thing. But if our resolutions are purely and entirely self-focused, even if one of our resolutions is to read the Bible or one of our resolutions is to walk more closely with God, so often that feels like if we would do that our life would be better. So, it’s not typical that we think of how we’re going to improve someone else’s life as a resolution and we rarely think how we would bring the Lord pleasure in the new year as a goal, as a resolution. And, so, that immediately lets us look okay, maybe I am a little self-focused here. Maybe the things that I’m thinking about in this in between week are more comprehensive than just more ease for my existence. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him and those who hope in His steadfast love. And, so, that is going on my list again. I will fear the Lord and hope in His steadfast love because I want to please my Father in heaven. I want to bring pleasure to the Lord. The Lord, if I’m speaking personally, has sustained me through an awful lot in my life and every single one of us would have to declare and confess the same thing. Each of us have our own stories and our own ups and downs but the Lord has carried me through things in my life that I didn’t know how to navigate, or even if I could. The Lord has sustained me. I don’t want to take that and say thank you and move back into my self-absorbed existence. Everything good that has happened to me has come from the hands of the Lord, right? Wouldn’t you say the same thing? Whether God is using other people or whether He is just involved. The Lord is responsible for the good of my life. I can’t ignore that. We can’t ignore that. And here in psalms we’re told, well…here’s a simple thing, “fear the Lord and hope in His steadfast love and you will bring pleasure to the Lord.” I’m resolving to move in that direction in the same way that I am resolving from the Proverbs yesterday to not stir up anger so that there isn’t an increased strife and divisiveness in my life and that I’m not adding to the divisiveness that is pervasive in the world. The Bible speaks to us if we’re listening. And may we listen because we were given something today that is pretty huge, a way to bring pleasure to the God of the universe, the God of all things, the Creator of all things. We actually have a way, and that way is to fear Him, and hope in His steadfast love. May be easier said than done because it is really throwing our allegiance and all of our hope completely on Him. But this is the direction we should head in.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for this. On some level it’s like You shouldn’t have to tell us this, we should know You by now, and in many ways that…in many ways we do, but we need constant reminders. We are constantly pressed in by our culture. We find ourselves just behaving the same way that the communities we’re involved in behave and often we find ourselves out in a field somewhere. We’ve lost the path, we’ve lost the plot and we’re just thrashing around in our lives with words that shouldn’t be said and actions that shouldn’t be taken, and we cause mayhem and destruction for ourselves and those around us when we can bring You pleasure if we walk in fear and awe and wonder and hope in Your steadfast love. And like everything else, who are we to accomplish this in our own strength? But You sort of already spoke to that in the Psalms. That doesn’t impress You. Our own strength isn’t the thing that You’re after. What is our strength compared to You? And, so, we set aside our own self-absorption and our own strength and fall utterly and helplessly into Your steadfast love, which we discover truly is the only safe place to be. And, so, Holy Spirit may this be a theme, may this be something that sticks, may this be something that we walk into and are purposeful about. And we pray this, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

We’re right at the cusp, like we are so close to closing this year down that we can see the shore very clearly. It’s like right in front of as. We’ve sailed across a year together. And, so, one of the things that we’re doing is preparing. That’s what happens in this week between the holidays, preparing for the new year. We will disembark from this year and board the next ship sailing across the new year every day together the rhythm of life in the Bible and what a difference it makes. So, I’m in a week that’s kind of like the melancholy week for me. It’s the coming to a close of the year and all of the flood of thoughts of all of the different seasons of the year and all of the things that happen in the year reflecting back and being grateful, but looking forward with great anticipation for all that is yet to come. And I’m sure not the only one involved with thoughts like that. But one thing that I know is that the Bible can guide us through whatever is coming our way and can really be there with counsel and wisdom when we need it. And, so, I’m looking forward to continuing our journey.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in these waning days of the year with just a handful of them left than you profoundly, profoundly for your partnership. We would not be here if we were not in this together and that has always been true. And, so, thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage, dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app 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 DAB fam James the teacher on my sixth try trying to get the story into two minutes. I just had a divine appointment right now. Fellow needed a tow. I basically had to insist that he stopped because he was about to destroy the rims on his wheel. Well, we got to talking. I find out his daughters getting straight A’s at a local school here that’s tough and I encourage him like make sure you tell your daughter that you’re proud of her, you know. If I had been more in encouraging with my family maybe I wouldn’t be going through a divorce right now. And he stopped me, and he said you know what? Before of my separation I didn’t believe in God and it’s to the point where I was drinking, sleeping in my car. Long story but someone came and sat down and opened the Bible with him. He hadn’t been…he hadn’t believed in God. Someone opened the Bible with him and helped him to see, yeah, he could be mad his wife and all that but, you know, he needed to focus on what was going on inside of his heart and what needed to change and how could he repent and love Jesus. And I don’t have any guarantee that God is going to do that specific thing in my life, but, you know, I was so encouraged that, you know, sharing the gospel bares fruit. You never know who and when that trusting Jesus bears fruit. You never know how or when, but it does. You guys, God is so good. God is so good. Please don’t forget that this time of year. OK. I love you guys. Have a wonderful Christmas. Amen.

Hey DAB family it’s Beloved in Texas and…and I just wanted to let you all know that I have a praise report and I wanted to thank you for all of your prayers. That job that I was interviewing for, and I had to do a presentation for I got offered that position and I start on Monday the 27^th. And not only is this an amazingly awesome opportunity and I think I’m really going to love this job. This is a big financial blessing to our family. So, thank you for so much for all of your prayers and support.

Hello DAB family I am a first-time caller. I am calling for prayer for my 13-year-old daughter. As I heard the words today from King David, “do not allow my deepest desires to lead me into darkness.” In hearing the words “let those who love righteousness strike me down in kindness, let them correct me in love.” I’m asking that this would be her state, her hearts state. Right now, she is loving the darkness. Her father and I are praying for her, confronting her as she does not see the error in her ways, and she is not willing to humble herself. And, so, I’m asking you family to come and join me in prayer for her battle over her soul and her mind. If you would just pray for us as well, encourage…that the Lord would encourage us and guide us as we lovingly bring her up in the Lord. She also has five younger siblings that this is affecting. So, I just would covet your prayers in that. Thank you so much. You guys bless me. I just cannot say enough about this community. I don’t know where I would be without you guys. Thank you. Have a great day.

Hello my DAB and DABC family. This is __ calling from the UK. By the time this plays this will probably pass on Christmas Day so let me start by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and the grace and peace of God in the coming year. Brothers and sisters, I’m calling too Sikh prayers for the parish person to my local church Father Phillip. He's…he had surgery on his foot a while ago and right now he’s in so much pain. He’s in so much pain. He…he can barely make it around the altar. He can barely walk up the stairs of the altar. And he…he keeps a brave face but when you when you look at him you know that he’s in so much pain. And my heart breaks. And all I ask is that you please lift him up in prayers and ask the good Lord to heal that foot. That foot has been a thorn in his flesh for so long. We ask the Lord to please heal that foot, the balm of Gilead. Please Lord I beg you, I ask you to please heal Father Phillip and if it is you’re not you will to heal that foot then give him the grace to carry on regardless. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every one of us both now and forever. Thank you for your prayers because I know that we have prayer warriors standing by.

[singing starts] build yourselves in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourself in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life [singing stops]. This is Candace from Oregon encouraging you to soak long, listen, and just be with the Lord, be in His word. Memorize some of it and let Him lead you in all things. Thank you, God for Daily Audio Bible. Thank you for your word, your Holy Spirit. Thank you so much for the Hardin family. In Jesus’ name. Candace from Oregon.

Hi good morning Daily Audio Bible listeners my name is Cheryl of New Beginnings I’m a first-time caller and this is the first time I’ve gone through the Bible in a year with Brian. And thank you so much Brian and Jill for what you do. I’m just…I’m thinking today is December 23^rd it’s my husband’s birthday. He…we gather together as a family at Christmas time to celebrate his birthday and I was just thinking this morning about where he is. And the fact is that he is with Jesus. And, so, we have a lot to celebrate, and I just want to pray for those who have lost loved ones in the past year. God has given us eternal life and the life is in the Son. As a father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the son gives life to whom He will. Jesus, you said you are the resurrection and the life. He who believes in you though he dies yet he shall live and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Oh, Jesus, I thank You so much for coming into the world and making a way that our loved ones can be with You for eternity and we can join them there one day. Oh God, we praise You and thank You. Joey to the world the Lord has come let earth receiver king. Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing. God bless you friends who have lost loved ones. May you be encouraged today in Jesus. We praise your Lord. Amen.

Zechariah 10:1-11:17, Revelation 18:1-24, Psalm 146:1-10, Proverbs 30:33

Today is the 27th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you today, this week that is in between, this week that yeah, we’re probably starting to maybe go back to work or maybe we have this week off. It is this interesting week of the year, the last week of the year, where we get reflective and it is a wonderful year, especially considering the journey that we’ve been on. I mean, think about a year ago today, right. And we’re moving through between Christmas and New Year’s and then we start this journey, we’ve been on this journey all year long and now we’re reaching the shore and we’re paying attention to the fact that we’re gonna transition into a brand-new year, and so we’re thinking about our lives and there is no better time than to incorporate the Scriptures and all that we’ve been through together in the last year into that decision-making process. And so it is a joy and an honor to be here with you today in that process and doing what we’ve done every single day, taking another step forward together and that next step forward will lead us back into the book of Zechariah, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, Zechariah chapters 10 and 11.

Commentary:

Okay, so we we’re talking about at the beginning, how we’re in this in between week, the week between Christmas and New Year’s and it’s a unique week really, even if we go back to work and we’re just kind of back into the flow things and by now, a couple days after Christmas, now that we’re in a week, like we’re starting to move toward normalcy again. But the week in between, this is really the time where our hearts, for whatever reason because the season sort of changes the atmosphere and then we’ll have this week in between, a new beginning, and we know that new beginning is coming, a brand-new year, and so there’s something inside of us, that’s like okay, we’re almost there, it’s a brand-new fresh start and it’s then that we start thinking what do I want that fresh start to look like. What things do I not want to repeat next year that I endured and went through this year? What mistakes have I learned my lesson on? What things do I need to press deeper into that I made a good beginning, but fell off along the way? We start thinking about our health right, how many of you have renewed your gym membership already, getting ready for the new year or that you plan to kind do that before this week is out so, that you can hit the ground running in this brand-new year? Right, and we’ve got our diet books and we’re thinking about it, but we got this week in between and so we’re probably just like living it up and feasting and going yeah, once this week is over everything is gonna change, everything is going to be different, I’m gonna press into this in a different way. And we start thinking about our spiritual lives, I want to walk with God more intimately or we want to understand what the Bible says more truly and deeply, or even at all. We think about our relationships, our relationship with our spouse. Maybe we’ve taken some hits this year, maybe we’d like to not repeat. Maybe we wanna grow closer in our intimacy with one another and walk with one another more truly. Or maybe it’s relationship with our children, maybe there’s some work to be done there or we need to pay more attention. Or whatever, it might be. Maybe it’s relationships at work or maybe it’s vocational goals, we want to get a raise this year and so, we’re gonna position ourselves in a certain sort of way to accomplish a certain amount of things. Or we have this great idea, that before the years out we would like to launch that idea and maybe that could change our lives. Maybe we could amend something, maybe we could do something, maybe we are very skilled at something that we think we should be doing for other people and not just for a corporation, maybe we should strike out on our own. There’s any number, I mean millions of possibilities in all of our stories and it seems like even though those things are contemplated along the way, we kind of get to this point in the year and we start, like those ideas, start becoming serious concepts, serious ideas that we want to actually start moving toward. One of the interesting things about our New Year’s resolutions are that a generous percentage, if not, the overwhelming majority of the goals that we might set for ourselves, they are external things, like I would look so much better and feel so much better and be more healthy if I lost that 25 pounds. I would be so much more happy and fulfilled and actually be able to not be struggling so much if I could achieve that raise, that promotion and none of that is bad or wrong. Those are all worthy, any of the things that we would like to do that would improve us, improve ourselves, make us better people sure. But if we ignore that what we’ve learned from the Bible is that things change from within. That’s actually where the beginning of the change occurs within you. So, yes, our body may be more healthy if we drop those pounds but dropping those pounds does not ensure our happiness other than temporarily and so, along with the goals that we might set we need to understand how are these categorized, like is my interior life, is my heart and the things that it has been through, is that a part of what I want to focus on because any of the changes that we want to make, if we actually want them to be fulfilling and actual changes that you know like, we’re not gonna jump on the treadmill lose 10 pounds by Valentine’s Day be done with the whole thing and then end up right where we are one year from today. If we want things to stick than we actually have to be transformed, we actually have to change and that change always begins within if it’s going to last. And I want to suggest in this week in between that we pay particular attention to the Proverbs, there’s all kinds of stuff that we’re moving through in Revelation: Zechariah and the Psalms. We certainly need to pay attention to those stories, but in terms of how we’re planning to move into the New Year and what we’re planning to do when we get there, Proverbs is indispensable. And so, I just suggest, it’s what I do in this week in between is pay attention to what the Proverbs are saying. And it reminds me also of the Daily Audio Proverb. And if that has not been incorporated into the rhythm of your life yet going into the new year, this is, I mean it’s a couple of minutes a day of unfiltered wisdom poured into our lives over and over and over and it speaks in simple sentences volumes about our lives. For example, today pressing milk produces curds, pressing the nose produces blood, I mean let’s just stop there, if you press milker or beat milk or whip milk, you’re gonna get cream or curds or cheese right. If you press enough, like if you get punched in the nose blood is going to probably flow and we might not even think that that’s earth-shattering wisdom. It’s more like common sense, this is how things work and so we could dismiss the Proverb but we haven’t finished the Proverb, pressing milk produces curds, pressing the nose produces blood, pressing anger produces strife. So, we got these two statements in Proverbs that we could be like that’s just common sense everybody knows that’s how it works and then the last line hits us. Oh, that’s how it works, pressing anger produces strife. If we’re going to stir up anger were going to get fights and quarrels and strife. That’s how it works after the same fashion as if you get punched in the nose, you’re gonna have a bloody nose. Stirring up anger is an intentional thing in the same way that making cream or making curds is an intentional thing, or striking a nose is going to produce a bloody nose. So, we have really wisdom being given to us on both sides, either decision that we make. If our goal is actually how much strife and anger and bitterness can I produce inside of the space of one year, how much resentment can I create for myself to carry for the next decade in the space of one year, how many people, how many arguments, how much division and strife can I make in one year. If that’s the goal, then we have the recipe, stir up anger, stir it and stir it, press into anger, if that’s what you’re going for. I don’t think there’s anybody probably that that’s what they’re actually going for, probably the vast majority, if not all of us, would like to see the exact opposite of that in our lives and so we have the wisdom before us, don’t press in to anger, don’t stir it up, don’t whip it up, which doesn’t mean the we’re gonna have zero conflict in our lives, there won’t be any kind of disagreement or argument or there won’t be any kind of confrontation that we have to press into in the next year. That’s life. Sometimes those things those things happen, but if we’re going to go into those situations and press into anger, then we know what the result is because Proverbs has just revealed to us what we already know. This is how it works and things like this from the Proverbs incorporated into our thoughts and prayers and intentions about the future, about what’s coming in this new year, will help us to understand that the goals and desires that we want they have to be treated and paid attention to from within as well as without. And so, let’s pay attention to, Proverbs, while we’re paying attention to our own lives and where we want to steer them in the coming year.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the counsel of Proverbs today. Simple, true something that we know, but so, sparkly put that it’s right before us and we cannot ignore it, we thank You for that because…because we don’t want more strife and division and anger in the new year. We’ve seen so much of what that looks like in the last few years, around the world, among Christian people, You name it, we’ve seen what divisiveness and division looks like, and we confess that big and small ways we participated in one way or another and that’s why it feels so tense and now we’re looking toward peace, we’re looking toward shalom, we’re looking for guidance on how to live from the Scriptures, which means that the Scriptures are going to invite us to make some changes. So, Holy Spirit, we invite You, we open ourselves to You, we become aware of You, we seek Your counsel, Your comfort, Your guidance, even Your discipline, even your correction as we move toward a new beginning, that we might finish what we started this journey, that we might finish strong and well so that we move into the new year strong and prepared. Holy Spirit come into this we pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here and as I so often say you can find out what’s going on around here if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app as well. You can navigate using the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner, so check it out, stay tuned, stay connected as we move through this final week, before this week is up we’re in a new year. We are on the literal homestretch and what a journey it has been and we have done this together.

So, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, here in the last days of the year thank you, thank you, humbly if we hadn’t been in this together, we wouldn’t be here at all. So, thank the Lord for another, almost another year but there’s 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 if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello Daily Audio Bible, this is your girl Stephanie Hickman and I’m calling in to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I love you so much DAB family and friends. Hope you’re doing well. Continually praying for you. Happy Holiday’s everyone.

Hi, this is Josie calling from Texas, this is my first time calling and I am asking for prayers for my husband and myself. He is in the hospital. He had a hemorrhage and now dealing with withdrawals. And I am asking for prayers for not only physical healing but spiritual healing, that he feel the presence of God. And just asking for prayers for me for trust and peace and that I feel God’s presence and His work in all of this. God Bless, thanks.

Hey family, my name is Navi from Canada. I’m just calling regarding the lady who called in today’s December 21st, so, she called in, I heard the phone call today, her message today. So, she’s requesting prayer for her marriage, she’s been newlywed a year and a half, I guess, I think. I am praying for her; I am praying for you. I’m praying for your marriage and for the restoration of the communication in your marriage. And I pray that the Lord will show Himself strong in the midst of you two. In the name of Jesus. I am also praying for the lady who, who is buying, who bought alcohol just because she couldn’t handle the weight of being alone in the holidays. And I am also praying for her. I’m praying that she will experience the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of her pain and her loneliness. Thank you, family. I really feel blessed by all your prayers and encouragement. Thank you, Brian, so much. Thank you, bye.

Hello DABers, this is Emily, of Emily and Jim. And I want to share with you a DAB Christmas story. See Jim, is in Texas right now. He went back to get the spouse visa but now we need a lawyer and I’m here in Wales and it’s really hard. We don’t know where God wants us to be in Wales, housing prices are crazy. I have a great job but we want to ministry and we really miss each other. This is our first Christmas apart in the 12 years we’ve been together. I miss him. So, when Brian announced the Christmas’s boxes this year, I thought, you know, I’m gonna send Jim a Christmas box. And I sent it to Jim LOML – love of my life – Mecelle. I got the address messed up and Sarah Jane was amazing a fixed the address but she’s really sneaky because she didn’t tell me that there was a box that was coming to me Emily LOML – love of my life – Mecelle from Jim. And so, when I opened the box, it was just like we were together. And we decided we we’re gonna play the CDs together, I’m getting emotional. And I just love this community. And I thank you Brian and Jill and Sarah Jane for helping us to feel more together this Christmas. And I just bless this community for the way you’ve supported us through thick and thin and continue to support us, through your prayers. And I just bless you and thank you and wish you a very Merry DAB Christmas.

Good morning, everybody. Hey, this is Annette Allison, I haven’t called in a while. The COVID got me down and just really messed up my voice. I guess I kind of got kind of embarrassed. But anyways, I love you guys. I hope everyone has a most Merry and Joyful Christmas and know that if you don’t think anybody loves you, you know that I sure do. Because you guys are the best part of my whole family and I love you, thank you Brian and Jill and all of your wonderful family. I love you guys all so very much. And, I hope everybody has a great New Year and make Jesus your number 1, right. Love you, all. Bye Bye.

Zechariah 9:1-17, Revelation 17:1-18, Psalms 145:1-21, Proverbs 30:32

Today is the 26^th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you on the day after Christmas day. And welcome to a brand-new shiny sparkly week. This is the last time we will greet a new week in this year. By the time we navigate this week we will have navigated ourselves into a new month and a new year and a brand-new voyage through the Bible. It’s hard to believe but this is the final stretch in this year. And, so, let’s take the next step forward which leads us right to the place where we left off yesterday and that will be back in the book of Zechariah. We’ll read from the English Standard Version this week. And today Zechariah chapter 9.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this season that we’re in. We’re kind of in this afterglow now of the celebration of Christmas day yesterday. And now we greet a brand-new shiny week. And as with every other week it is out in front of us, we can determine the scope and trajectory of where we’re headed. We have opportunity to make decisions in advance to cling to You, to be aware of Your presence, to be paying attention. And this is a week that we actually really need to do that, not as if any other week isn’t. But this is a week of transition. This is the week that falls between, between Christmas and New Year’s. This is a week when we start thinking the deeper thoughts about our lives and where they are headed and are they headed where we are wanting to go? And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit, as we navigate this week to speak into those things as we continue this journey, step-by-step, and day by day toward the conclusion of a year and the conclusion of the Scriptures and the beginning of a new year and the beginning of a new journey through the Scriptures. And, so, Holy Spirit we cling to You. We become aware of Your presence. We still ourselves before You. We wait calmly for Your leading and the peace that accompanies Your guidance. Come Jesus we pray. That is our prayer. That was the prayer of so many so long ago looking for a Savior. Come Savior. And we are in the same position now. You have come, You have restored, You have redeemed and we wait Your arrival. So come Jesus we pray. In Your mighty name we ask. Amen.

Zechariah 8:1-23, Revelation 16:1-21, Psalm 144:1-15, Proverbs 30:29-31

Today is the 25th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I am Brian. It is a joy and an honor to be here with you, it’s the 25th of December and so it’s hard to hide the fact that this is Christmas day. Merry Christmas everybody. We have journeyed all year all the way back to Christmas day again, O and what enjoy it is to be here around the Global Campfire, just to have a few minutes around the Global Campfire with you today and it’s a joy to be with my family as I’m sure it is for you as well. This is a day that we get to…to appreciate that the longing for a Savior is over, a savior has come.

Song - Joy to the World by Crowder

So, on this Christmas day and every day for that matter, we come together to take the next step forward as we continue our journey through the Scriptures and our next step forward leads us back into the book of Zechariah. Today we will read Zechariah chapter 8.

Commentary:

Okay, so obviously it’s no secret that it’s Christmas day and I love…I love the season, it brings me so much joy, I so deeply enjoy it. This year we had two new babies born into our family. Reagan, China and Ben’s daughter and Eden which is Kristin and Jocelyn’s daughter. So, I’m overjoyed. And their gonna be dressed up so cute and I love, I love Christmas. I love the music of Christmas. I love the spirit of Christmas and I’m sure you do to. You get together with family maybe we only see once a year or not that often, and with all the things that have been going on last couple years, maybe we haven’t seen certain people for quite a long time, that we get to see again today and that’s a beautiful thing and we’ll feast together and celebrate the coming of the Savior and exchange gifts and maybe have a fire in the fireplace and everything is decorated pretty. We actually do a pretty good job around the world of festivity in celebration all centered around the arrival of the Savior and I…I love it very much. I also know that that’s not necessarily everyone’s story, that may be the majority of our stories, but we may be at the Christmas table this year missing someone who is no longer with us, or we may be all alone with no one to share the joy with. For some, Christmas day really isn’t the day of…of warm hearts and burning fireplaces. It’s a day of loneliness or a day where the…the best thoughts of Christmas are Christmas’s past when we were little or the kids were little, or whatever. I just want to acknowledge that; it is joy to the world the Lord has come but circumstances of our lives over the last year may have done everything possible to steal that joy away and I understand. It’s easier, it’s more festive, it’s more heartwarming to talk about a baby in a manger, angels singing the shepherds, wisemen traveling and a deep sense of hope and I feel all those things but I also feel underneath it all no matter what Christmas I come to, I mean, it pretty much, we get to this point in the year and I’m looking at another week and we finish a journey and that starts, it doesn’t bring me down, it just starts to make me feel melancholy inside, we’re nearing the end of another year. I look back over the year at all that’s happened some good, some challenging right. That’s the nature of any life in a year and because of my temperament and my makeup, I, as a creative person I can get melancholy like, that’s really where creativity ends up coming from a lot. So, today is indifferent and every Christmas kind of brings out because there’s so much festivity and joy and that’s so wonderful but there are also people who fall through the cracks of that and I’m not really one of those who falls through the cracks and I’m lonely and depressed and I don’t have anybody, that’s not my story. I do have a family, but there is something underneath all of the joy, it’s not depression. I’ve wondered about it for many many years because I’ve recognized it in myself. Actually, completely kept it to myself for…for most of my life and really only began to talk about it during the season of The Daily Audio Bible. I used to think there was something wrong with me, why can’t I experience this kind of joy. Why is there something underneath it all, that feels not joyful and I used to think it was just my temperament or maybe a little bit the touch of the Christmas blues right, just like a little mild depression or something like that. But over the years reading through Revelation, reading through this portion of Revelation on Christmas day, I realized man that there’s this doesn’t feel like this reading doesn’t feel like Christmas, it doesn’t feel merry and happy, angels are pouring out bowls of God’s wrath upon the earth. The things that happen on earth are monumental. Several years ago, though I realized wait, wait, wait, this isn't…this isn’t the Christmas tree, Christmas presents, feasting kind of story but this is no less important because what we’re watching in Revelation right now is that baby Jesus, lying in a manger, all grown up as the King of Kings and the King of Kings is eradicating and destroying evil, just annihilating evil, moving the world toward shalom; the way things are supposed to be. And that’s when we’ll begin to realize that things aren’t as they are supposed to be and we know it. And then the hope of Christmas becomes the hope of the world, the hope that there could be change, the hope that all things will be made new again. So, I’ve realized over time, yeah this isn’t the Christmas blues, if I really want to think about what I’m feeling, if and it’s hard sometimes when you’re trying to like specifically describe an emotion, but I began to realize I’m a very busy person, so running all the time but this feeling, this blues if that’s what you want to call it, this sort of sense underneath it all, that somethings not exactly right. I finally realized I think…I think that’s longing and it was actually beginning to observe and appreciate the Advent season, which is about longing, but I began to realize yeah…yeah, underneath it all we can run we can have wonderful, joyous moments, but underneath it all, we are longing with the rest of creation for all things to be made new again. And sometimes when we slowdown and we sort of change the scenery and were festive and happy, like on Christmas, like this kind of a holiday and we’ve kind of changed our rhythm and so we’re more still, we can begin to feel it. And it can be experienced in all kinds of ways but I just want to suggest that maybe you’re feeling lonely because you are lonely but probably a part of it in all of us is that underneath it all, we are groaning for things to be as they were intended. We are longing, we are longing for this grown-up Jesus that we’re reading about in Revelation, we are longing for all things to be restored and made new again. So, I just want to say maybe…maybe that’s not you, maybe you don’t even know what I’m talking about and that’s fine, but for those of you that do, don’t just stuff it because what we begin to realize is it’s like the rest of life. It’s bitter and it’s sweet. We are longing for something that we know is coming. The restoration of all things but we are here now and we can still experience joy in fullness and hope and Christmas was the beginning of the story. And in Revelation we’re reading more the conclusion of the story and we are in the middle of all of it and it matters that we learn to endure and it matters that we get it through our skulls that we are the body of Christ; the physical hands and feet of Jesus in this world and we are here to do the work of Christ as we become Christ like in this world, we are not passively observing the story we are active participants in the story. So, let’s embrace all of it because it’s all part of it, it’s joy to the world the Lord has come and the longing for him to come back. It’s all part of it and so I’m going to go now and embrace all of it.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Christmas, we thank You for coming, we thank You for a humbling Yourself and leaving perfection and entering the fray with us very imperfect people in a very imperfect place and You have given us hope that things can be restored, even things in us, they can be restored. You are making all things new. And so, we rejoice in that hope on this Christmas Day. We pray that Your Holy Spirit would hover in our homes, would hover around our tables, would hover in all of the discussions and conversations that we will have, would be involved in all of the festivities and that we wouldn’t get sidetracked, that we would stay near to the awareness that You are present with us, even if…even if we’re eating Christmas dinner alone, You are present with us. So, come Holy Spirit, we pray, in the mighty name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Zechariah 6:1-7:14, Revelation 15:1-8, Psalms 143:1-12, Proverbs 30:24-28

Today is the 24^th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian. And the 24^th of December is also known as Christmas Eve, and it’s also known as the last day in the season of Advent. So, here we are, Christmas Eve. Many of us will participate in a Christmas Eve service or maybe even a midnight service to hear the Christmas bells ring in. Those of us who have kind of paid attention to the season of Advent and checked our hearts and tried to put ourselves in the position of longing and really immerse ourselves in the coming of Christmas…yeah…the longing is coming to an end and once again we will be able to celebrate the joy and the relief of the coming of the Savior. And what joy, joy to the depths of our soul, joy that can touch the brokenness in us and know that all things can be made new again, joy that lets us know that we are restored to God because of the coming of the Savior. And, so, happy Christmas Eve everybody. It is wonderful to be around the Global Campfire sipping virtual hot cocoa and munching on virtual Christmas cookies and warming ourselves and celebrating together. And of course, taking the next step forward in the Scriptures. And our next step will lead us back into the book of Zechariah in the Old Testament. Today we will read chapters 6 and 7.

Commentary:

Okay. So, this is the final day of the Advent season. This is the eve of Christmas day, and we have all the last-minute stuff we’ve gotta do. And as I was saying at the beginning, maybe we have…we’re gonna participate in a celebratory service tonight. And, so, we can get really wrapped up in the festivities and we should…we should…we should immerse ourselves to the degree that we are able. Enjoy. And as we look back over the Zechariah and what we read today we were given clear direction, a way to honor the coming of the Savior, a way to collaborate with God and His work in this world. We’re told, and I quote, “dispense true justice, have mercy on others, and show all people compassion. Do not take advantage of those who have lost a spouse or a parent or those who are outsiders or poor.” And as we read that I was like man, is there a better message that we could take into the holiday? Is there a better thing that we could carry with us into Christmas? And, so, let’s purpose in our hearts to follow the counsel of the Scriptures. And no doubt within the next day or two…like if…if we’re gonna participate in a Christmas Eve celebration this evening we will be singing carols, right? We will be singing songs of the holidays and we’ve probably been listening to those for the last month. I know I have. I love Christmas music. I love how it just attaches itself back to my childhood all the way to my present. I love the carols of the holidays. I love especially the ancient carols where the words are…are words that have been sung by millions of brothers and sisters over hundreds of years, but there was a song today in the book of Revelation, and it is certainly not a song that’s a part of our popular traditions around Christmas, but that doesn’t make it any less of an appropriate song for the season. The words to the song…and by the way this song is sung by those who endured to the end and were victorious. And as Revelation puts it they’re standing on a sea of glass holding the harps of God in their hands and they sing, “great and amazing are your works, Lord God, the all-powerful. Right and true are your ways, king of all nations who will not fear you, Lord? Who will not glorify your name? Because you alone are holy. All the nations will come and worship before you for your righteous judgments have been revealed.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the words to a song that we long to hear, And speaking of longing, so many years ago people were longing for a Rescuer, for a Redeemer for the Anointed One for the Messiah for the great rescue and that is what we are commemorating and we rejoice that You would not abandon Your creation otherwise we would…we wouldn’t be here. And, so, we love You and we do indeed rejoice in Your salvation. We worship You, Jesus and we pray these things in Your name. Amen.

Song

O Come O Come Emmanuel – Kim Walker Smith

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight

O come desire of nations bind
In one the hearts of all mankind
Bid thou our sad divisions cease
And be thyself our King of Peace

Zechariah 4:1-5:11, Revelations 14:1-20, Psalm 142:1-7, Proverbs 30:21-23

Today is the 23rd day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you today. Christmas eve, eve, can you believe it? How did we get here, but here we are and it’s wonderful to be around the Global Campfire with you on Christmas eve, eve as we continue our journey forward day-by-day, step-by-step which will include Christmas eve and Christmas day and so on and so forth, but it is a joy and an honor and a privilege to be here with you today as we move in deeply into the Christmas season and holiday. And we have sort of slowed our pace as far as moving through very, very rapidly moving through different books of…of the Scriptures. We’re camped out all the way through the Christmas holiday and right to the end of the year now, as we entered the book of Zechariah yesterday, which will take us up into the last couple of days of the year and we’ve been in the book of Revelation for a bit, which will take us to the last day of the year. So, let’s dive in for today. Zechariah chapters 4 and 5.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for another day, another step forward and these steps are leading us to a great celebration ultimately and eternally, but a great celebration is coming here in a couple of days upon the earth, joy to the world and we can sense that, we can we can feel that but we can also feel the tension that’s underneath that, not only from just preparing for festivities and trying to figure out how we’re gonna pay for it all of and all of the things that are just human in nature, but underneath it all, we can feel. Yes, we know what it feels like to have goodwill toward one another. We can feel the joy of Your arrival. But the tension that’s underneath it and the loneliness for many, that accompanies it can be really, really difficult. And so, we are grateful, we are grateful for even what we were given today as a gift from the Scriptures, from Psalms and so we pray these words out of the Scriptures because they are true. You are the one I called to, O eternal one. I said, Your the only safe place I know. You’re all I’ve got in this world and ultimately this is so true and yet You are all that we need, when we lose sight of that is when we start siphoning off each other for being validated or for finding an identity, but You are what we need. You are the one, You are this safe place. And so, praying again out of the Psalms, when my spirit buckled under the burdens I bear, You knew my way. And so, we rest in that, even as we take steps forward that lead us into the holiday season and through the holiday season and into the new year. We rest in the fact that You will not leave us and You are a safe place that we can run to. And so, Holy Spirit, we pray that this would come to mind, that we would remember this when we’re overwhelmed with some kind of an emotion, whether that be anger or whether that be depression or loneliness or hopelessness or anything. You are a safe place. You are a place of refuge and we run to You and we worship You and we find hope and comfort in You. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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