Category: DAB Transcripts

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

Today is the 12^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is awesome to be here with you today, every day as we come around the Global Campfire and just find a place here in the serenity of…well…of this little space that we create for ourselves each day, a space for the Scriptures to speak into our lives. And we are in the book of Nehemiah. We’re just getting started. It’s not a long book so it won’t take that long, but it reveals a lot for us to consider as we watch Nehemiah as he lives out a burning passion, a desire, a calling even to be a part of the rebuilding of the holy city of Jerusalem, and in specific rebuilding the wall in order to protect the temple. And, so, we pick up the story. Nehemiah chapter 3 verse 15 through 5 verse 13 today.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in the book of Nehemiah which we began yesterday and in yesterday’s reading we saw sort of the methodical approach that Nehemiah took from hearing about the exiles in Jerusalem and that kind of planting a seed as he pictured the temple of God in Jerusalem unprotected. And, so, he began to envision a wall, he began to pray about it and to intercede about it, think about it all the time until he had an opportunity as the Kings cupbearer to inquire of the king and ask permission to go and help restore and rebuild Jerusalem. And he was given permission. And, so, we watched that planning and what he took with him and their journey to Jerusalem. And then we watched him settle into Jerusalem for a few days and then go and inspect the wall all by himself, like not bringing a bunch of voices into the mix, assessing the situation, getting a true understanding of the scope of what it was that had been burning inside of him because he was in Babylon. He was several months journey away from Jerusalem. So, he’s seeing this and inspecting what he’s imagined in his mind for quite some time. And then he brings leadership into the mix, and everybody catches the vision and that’s kind of where we pick up today in the middle of rebuilding. So, there are a bunch of people rebuilding different stretches of the wall and there’s a lot of enthusiasm and vision for this. And, so, it’s happening. The dream is happening and it’s happening faster than was anticipated. The enthusiasm to continue the work is there. And that’s what we would want…like that’s what we would want. And it’s like that could be the end. The wall was built. The end. That’s how the story that we would like to be told. And that’s how we would like it to be in our lives. We prepare, we pray, we plan, we execute flawlessly, it’s awesome, it’s a great experience and then we move on to what’s next. It’s just that that…that basically never happens. And when we look into the Scriptures, we can see like it didn’t happen then either. And, so, the people of the region, some of the leadership of the region came to see what’s going on in Jerusalem and then they began the campaign of taunting and diminishing and criticizing. And we’re pouring our heart into something that we believe the Lord has commissioned us to do in some sort of way, and we’re pouring our life and our resources and taking the risk and doing these things than those of voices, those taunting words of criticism can be debilitating. In fact, they can take the whole thing down. And what we see is that they didn’t just ignore it or that they didn't…that…that…that it wasn’t acknowledged. It’s certainly acknowledged. We’re reading about it in the Bible. What we see is that Nehemiah turns to God. He essentially says Lord we’re here doing this work and you can hear what they’re saying. That is a different posture than getting pulled into the argument, like taking the bait of the critic and going in and having that constant debate of criticism and how you’re not doing it the right way and all of these things. Nehemiah turned to God and simply said, we’re gonna…we’re gonna keep going. You can hear what they’re saying. Let it not fall on us, let it turn around and let their words fall on their own heads. So, we move past this criticism, diminishment kind of phase, the taunting phase and then…then there’s the threat of actual attack almost as if the…the taunting can’t diminish them and stop the work then we’ll go in and disrupt the work. We’ll get into that city, and we’ll start sabotaging things. And people will start disappearing and we’ll disrupt and cause confusion and stop this work. Nehemiah’s response to that is essentially to cut the workforce in half so that half the people are working on the wall and half the people standing guard are ready for an imminent attack so that they can defend themselves while still continuing to take the next step forward, continuing to build out wall. And, so, you know, certainly discouraging. When…when things had gotten off to such a great start and were going so smooth and they got the wall all the way around the city half its height, and now they got to go at half the speed at a more difficult portion of building the wall because now it’s gotta get higher and higher and higher. And, so, things have gotten slow. They’ve been slowed down because of the threat of attack and because of the workload. What Nehemiah doesn’t do is get discouraged and quit. They just keep going with what they have to work with. And then finally in…in today’s reading, it’s an inside job as well. So, there’s an attack from the outside and an attack from the inside. And for any leader that’s like, okay I give up. I’m trying to serve here but the conflicting agendas are just overwhelming. So, it’s a time of drought and people rebuilding the wall in Jerusalem and then they can’t do all of the farming that they need to do and all the resources that they need aren’t there. And, so, they have to mortgage their property, or produce a certain amount of crops and resources for…for their lenders and it’s causing basically foreclosures and entrapments and enslavements that people are never going to get free from. And it’s the Jewish people with means, with the resources, with wealth, the nobles that are enslaving the commoners in various ways, demoralizing the people from within. And, so, Nehemiah has to step into that and confront that situation by saying we’ve been trying to buy our fellow Israelites back from slavery from different places and here you are re-enslaving them. This is not right. This is not how this is supposed to go. And, so, the nobles then sense the shame of it and respond appropriately when Nehemiah had to deal with the injustice of it. And, so, that’s all the way around this whole story, keeping one foot in front of the other. Even in the injustice of it keep moving. There is a destination. And, so, there is plenty for us to ponder from the book of Nehemiah today as we apply it to our own stories and our own callings and our own missions.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come. Thank You for the counsel of the Scriptures. Thank You for allowing us to look back into that story and understand that we have similar stories at various seasons and stages in our lives. And we see Nehemiah turning to You, not giving up and moving forward even if it’s just a little bit at a time. So, come Holy Spirit and encourage us in our discouragement, in our seasons of trying to move forward as we turn our hope and affection and attention on You knowing that You are our only hope. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, and its where you find out what’s going on around here. I say it every day because…well…for lots of reasons we need to be reminded of it, but every day is a first day for somebody coming into the community. And, so, welcome. This is where you find out what’s going on around here. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can find out what’s going on around here in the app by pushing the little…some people call it a hamburger icon, I call it more of a Drawer icon, little three bar icon in the upper left-hand corner. And that opens up a drawer.

And, so, you can access things like the Community section where the Prayer Wall is or the Daily Audio Bible Shop where there are…yeah…tons of resources there in different categories for the journey that we are on…not tons…but many resources there for the journey that we’re ongoing through the Bible this year. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, first of all thank you. Thank you humbly from…from my heart. Thank you. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. And, so, thank you for your partnership, especially as we navigate summertime. Thank you. What is it like five thank you’s in the last 15 seconds. Thank you. We wouldn’t do this…we couldn't…we wouldn’t…none of this would be happening if we were in this together. And, so, thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement…well…first of all, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s a little red button up at the top no matter where you are in the world and share your story from there. But if you want to use the telephone and actually dial a number there are a number of numbers you can use. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. In the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey DAB family I go by Little Leaf this is my first-time calling in. I’ve been listening for a while, but I’ve really been getting into this platform just this past year, especially after learning about the affair that happened sometime earlier this year. And while it’s helping me grow closer to the Lord, I’ve also been experiencing a lot of hardness of heart and unforgiveness. And I just…even though my husband has come home he only recently started to disconnect from this partner and I’ve just been having a real hard time accepting the fact that I’ve lost someone so near and dear to me as a trusted friend and trusted partner. And I know my God is good and He can do anything but I just don’t know how I can see myself with this person moving forward and I don’t know if I even want to as much as I hate to admit that. So, I just ask that you lift us all up, the other woman included, in prayer and just that God would take away all the confusion, take away all the pain and just allow me to love, to show His love and that His will would be done in our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you, guys.

Hello, my wonderful DAB family this is Rosie also known as great to be free in Jesus. I’m calling in to let you know that I’m still praying for you and your families. Just because I don’t call in doesn’t mean I'm…I’ve stopped praying because I still pray. And that’s still important to me because the Lord led me to do that. But I have a prayer request. My son Charles has been coming over now and he’s been talking to me and he’s been coming and seeing me but he is suffering with the spirit of fear and the spirit of rejection. And I told him a while back as part of my testimony, I told my family about how his dad wanted me to abort him because his dad had diabetes and he didn’t want any of his children to have diabetes and have to live the way he’s had to live. And I don’t think that helped out with his…with the spirit of rejection. But he really needs prayer because he’s been so hurt with rejection and now, he’s become an offender and he really needs prayer. I brought him up in church but every time I talk to him about that he reminds me that I forced him to go to church when he was younger. And I know that nothing is impossible for God and I would really appreciate your prayers for my son Charles and thank you and I’m still praying. I love you guys. Bye.

DAB family it’s Quiet Confidence from Virginia and I need your prayers I really need God to help me against the mental attacks, the fear, the anxiety, depression. I haven’t left my house in two months. Wasn’t able to work because the anxiety was so bad and my husband’s been the only one working and I don’t feel like this fear because he’s tired. But really need God to deliver me. I don’t want to go back on antidepressants or to the hospital because those drugs make me feel worse. But I know that God is able, and I just need your prayers. I need His strength. I want to be able to get a job. I want to be able to work and to help. And I know God can deliver me because He did it before. But I really need to be strengthened right now. I just can’t do this on my own. And every day I cry out to God and I ask Him to help me and to give me the strength. I ask Him for His grace and his mercy, and the enemy just keep speaking so many lies to me telling me I’m backslidden and I’m going to hell and that I’ve abandoned my faith. But my faith just got weak for a moment. But I really need God to just deliver me and strengthen me and I’ve seen the power of prayer in this community. Thank you so much. I love you. God bless you.

Hello today is Sunday August the 8^th and I just finished listening to July the 31^st. I am behind and trying to catch up. I wanted to pray for loving heart in Saint Louis. She had called in requesting prayer for her daughter that is anorexic. And I am a recovered anorexic. I was anorexic for…for years and years. Just purely the hand of God that I’m still here and I just right now Father and name of Jesus Christ I pray for a loving hearts daughter, Father that she would be set free from this addiction, Lord that her…her eyes would be open. God that she would be willing to get the help. Sometimes there’s such denial in anorexia or any addiction. Father, I just pray for her parents Lord that You would just comfort them and give them wisdom to know how to deal with their daughter and the situation. But we just pray Your intervention Father, that you would do it only you can do. We know that you can supernaturally deliver her or just lead her or to the right…the right treatment center. There’s some really good Christian treatment centers. God, You know what she needs. We pray Your protection upon her. God we just pray Father for her deliverance and her healing for her parents right now in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hello DABbers Bubba D here and my prayer goes out today to the sister of gods Princess warriors. Father God we ask that you would bless the family, give them peace God as they lost their teenage son, 17 year old son of a drug overdose. Lord we trust that he’s in Your hands we trust that You’ve given him a chance to see You to make that decision to follow even in his last minutes. We trust that You’re able to perform miracles like that and to reveal Yourself like that to people even that side of eternity father. We just cast all the cares and the troubles and the…the feelings and the hurt and the loss and the cutting off of something that was part of You. We ask for Princess warrior’s sister too be comforted by Your Spirit these day Lord. We pray that You would even confirm to her Your love in ways that only You can God in the midst of this tragedy. Father bring Your presence around her in a mighty way Lord God. Comfort her. Lord we ask that You would give her the strength to see that You’re with her, that You are walking right alongside her in this very very hard difficult times, hours, and days that will follow. Blessing her in Your name Jesus. Amen.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is LJ lavender Dream calling from western mass. I’ve been listening now for about a year, and I don’t usually call in. I’m praying for everyone who’s struggling right now and especially those with their children who’ve lost their children who are dealing with eating disorders and the family who lost their son because he was saving his little sister and everything. We’re going through something right now. I am with my son. I had to call psych crisis on him because he was suicidal and we’re waiting for inpatient and it’s very difficult. I tried to leave him where he was, and he was very upset that I couldn’t take him home and it took three staff members to allow me to be able to leave. And I just felt like he felt like I was abandoning him, but I am not qualified to keep him safe at home. So, I’m just asking for prayer for my son and for our family and I’m also trying to advocate for my mum and I had to do something that is causing a rift in the family but it’s also, you know, doing the right thing and doing the right thing doesn’t always mean it’s the easy thing. So, I’m just praying for mended bridges and that God will cover his hands and peace that will surpass all understanding and that He will give a clarity and an understanding for my son because he’s really having a difficult time dealing with my chronic illnesses. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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

Today is the 11th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian. It is a wonderful day to be here with you around the Global Campfire as we take the next step forward and our next step forward is actually taking us into some new territory right off the bat we concluded the book of Ezra yesterday.

Introduction to the Book of Nehemiah:

Which brings us to the book of Nehemiah and interestingly enough, there was a time when Ezra and Nehemiah were one text, leading some scholars to believe that Ezra was also involved in penning Nehemiah, that he was at least one of the authors, we don’t know that for sure but it has definitely been a tradition. And, we’ll also notice that we’re pretty much gonna pick up where we left off in Ezra as we begin Nehemiah. And what we’ll learn is that Nehemiah was a Hebrew, he was exiled in Persia and he had a pretty high-ranking position. He was a servant but he was a servant to the Persian king, so he had access to the king of the Empire. So, a good job. But this job would’ve allowed him to kind of keep up with the latest updates about what was going on with the return of the exiles to Jerusalem, and the hope and the dream of rebuilding God’s temple in Jerusalem because the temple had been the place where God would dwell in would meet and commune with His people and so the temple meant more than just like…a like a home church or something. It was this symbol of their entire society. And so, for it to have been destroyed, it like destroys something in the heart of the culture and so for this to be revived and rebuilt had a lot of hope behind it, for a lot of people, even people who didn’t plan to return from exile. And Nehemiah, he would think about it, he would think about it, and then he would see the temple unprotected, the temple of God rebuilt, unprotected. So, in his heart began to boil a dream, even a calling, a hope that maybe he could be involved in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem to protect the temple of the most high God. And so, he began to consider it for months and intercede and pray until he got the courage to ask and then he was sent and we’ll see that that’s not the like…so often when we’re looking, when that dream begins to percolate when something in us is born and we’re like, that is where I need to go, that is where I am compelled, that is the direction I feel pulled toward. I feel like God is moving me in this direction. We think well, I’ll pray; I’ll ask and maybe I’ll be sent and that will be that. But that’s not that, and it never is that. So, we’ll see that Nehemiah does go through the preparation and is sent, but that’s not the end of his opposition. That’s not all that he will have to endure but we will also see that he did not deviate. He did not deviate from what he was sent to do, no matter what came against him and he never lost sight that the only hope was the mercy and power of the Lord of God in the situation. And so, I mean just not right there, all of that applies to our life right now. And then we’ll see that this wall does get built and it gets built quick, faster than anybody thoughts. Nehemiah returns to the king. He reports he resumes his role but he’s able to return. And what he finds is a strong wall in a weak people and he steps into that as a leader and restoration in repentance and revival begin to happen. So, there are a lot of books in the Bible that have a lot of really, really important things for us to understand and to live into toward our own freedom and toward our own destiny but Nehemiah just watching the steps watching the way the story plays out and understanding some of the principles that underlie his leadership. Truly, truly speak into our lives today. And so, with that, we begin. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 14.

Commentary:

Okay we’ve already done kind of a little bit of an overview where were going in the book of Nehemiah. But the book of Nehemiah isn’t that long and so we’ll move through it pretty quickly. And, we can already see Nehemiah hears news, a passion begins to boil inside of him. He begins to intercede before the Lord about this thing that’s growing inside of him. It’s all quiet, he’s the only one that knows, he and God. And so, this passion grows until there is a bit of a plan in place because he saw him go before the king and when the king was like what’s wrong and what do you want, he had an answer. So, this had been planned. He didn’t just get a burning desire or some kind of wild hair and take off in that direction, just thinking that it’ll be made up as we go along. He planned it out and then he made the journey, got to Jerusalem and didn’t tell anybody for several days. He rested and then he went out and inspected everything himself before he got like an advisory team and all this, he went out and looked the whole thing over, so that he knew what he was facing and that he knew what he was going to be talking about before…before he got the team together to accomplish the goal. So, we see this kind of systematic approach and we’ll continue to see that which is one of the things makes Nehemiah so immediate. In some of the decisions and trajectories that we find ourselves on in our plans.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You for Your words. Thank You for this book of Nehemiah that we’re getting into and we ask Holy Spirit that You use it as a form of template for us as we look at the systematic steps being taken and things being put in place that it sure forward movement toward the goal of the things that get put in place to diminish discouragements because sometimes we feel like we’re all alone out there trying to get something done and it’s discouraging in all the voices are discouraging us. When there is a burning passion inside. So come Holy Spirit into our reading of Nehemiah and into our best laid plans, we pray in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission to bring God’s spoken word read fresh every day and given freely to whoever will listen anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night and build community around that rhythm so that we are not alone, not on the journey through the Bible and not in life. We are in this together. If that has made a difference in your world then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address, if you prefer, 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, the little red button up at the top. Or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayers and Encouragements:

Hi I’m calling in for the lady who is having a baby and everyone in her family supports it except for her I wanted to say, I’m only 16 so, I’ve never actually you know, been pregnant before or any of that but I wanted to say that one of the things that stuck out to me about your prayer is how you kept saying I can’t. And I realize that on my dresser I have the verse that says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and I feel like in times we feel like we can’t. That verse is just one of those verses that sticks out to me. You’re right, in your strength you can’t but in God’s you can. So, I’m praying for you and I just ask that you’re encouraged by that, I obviously again have never had kids so I just wanted to say God can help you and He can do what you cannot do. And He can give you a heart and He can help you through this trial and I just really hope that you’re encouraged by this.

Hi DAB family this is Toni from Germany. I’ve been out of pocket for a while and some of you might have recognized that. So, I am leaving this message because the DAB family is on my mind and in my heart. And you are just so present before me. And I want to just give you a virtual hug. Wrap my arms around everyone of you around the world and embrace you and send prayers for whatever needs you have. And, I also want to of course, the Hardin Family, Brian, a special, special hug for each of you as you try to continue on and carry this ministry. I can’t imagine how the enemy works against and tries to block your efforts. So, I’d ask the family to join with me in praying for Brian and Jill and Ezekiel who are doing the readings and everybody else behind the scenes to rebuke the enemy. And to give the energy, the creativity, the inspiration and to carry forth this ministry. But I also, I feel specially, especially that we need to pray for Brian to give him that energy to renew his spirit to carry on and get into the Holy Spirit and proclaim it to us. God bless you all, I love you.

Hello this is Jayden. Can you please pray for me. This is Betsiada. We’ve been diagnosed with COVID. It’s been a couple of days, we’re laying in bed but we’re making it. We love you guys, keep us in your prayers. Amen.

Hi DAB, this is Candance from Oregon. Let’s pray for the nation of Haiti. Dear Lord, we pray for wisdom for those in power in Haiti to find peaceful solutions to ending the violence. We pray that gang leader’s will recognized violence is not the solution to ending the economic and political problem and instead strive for peace and unity. We pray that families who live in fear will find God’s peace to help them through despair. We pray that the hearts of the Haitian people will be filled with forgiveness for those involved in the recent assassination so they can move forward with compassion rather than anger and hate. We pray for the swift and fair administration of vaccines and that Haitians will take the necessary precautions to slow the spread of the virus. And Lord we pray for our dear Sussi from Colorado and all of those who work with her that they will remain healthy and safe as they work as they continue their work after so many years. And that there will be fruit. Lord, come, in Jesus name we pray.

Hey DAB family it’s Doctor John need urgent prayer. So, I had my glaucoma surgery on Tuesday, things were going okay, just some minor complications but then probably just probably about half an hour ago I was bending over and sharp shooting pain and my vision is gone to light and dark. I’m afraid there is bleeding in my eye. And that I might lose the vision in that eye, if you could please pray for me. I’d appreciate it, thanks. Bye Bye.

Hey this is PJ from NC I have called to encourage and to pray. Encouragement: when I was four years old and on a family vacation, I fell 15 feet landed on the pavement below on my head cracked my skull from the front to the back, spent two weeks in a out-of-state hospital ruining the family vacation. And what they told my parents, the neurologist said that if I walked again I would certainly never run like other kids that I would have headaches all my life. And I would probably never develop beyond a five or six-year-old. And for two years that’s exactly what my family saw, for two years, my family, my church family contended every day, every week, every month in prayer for the miraculous in my life and saw nothing. And then one day, just like a switch was flipped God did the miraculous and all of that was rectified and not only rectified but He did it so complete that not only did I learn to walk and run, but in high school I lettered in four sports. Not only did I develop beyond where they’ve said I’ve excelled in academics and career and today at 55 I find myself in ministry and beyond that, I’ve never had a headache day in my life ever. I don’t know what one feels like. And with that in mind, I want us to pray. God today we come before you and we contend for the people who have submitted prayer requests today. Lord, we contend for those who have submitted in the past, Lord do miracles in God’s Smile. God set Lauren’s emotions and mind in order. God, we pray for those who are sick with COVID, God we pray that you would bring healing to them. God, we pray for those who have broken relationships and emotional needs and financial needs. God, we pray that You would do miraculous. We contend as a DAB family today. And we pray this in Christ name. Amen.

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

Today is the 10^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we come…come around the Global Campfire and get ready to take the next step forward together just releasing all of the stuff that’s swirling around us, giving our heart permission to just relax and allow God’s word to speak to us and guide our steps. And, so, let’s dive in. We’ve been working our way through the book of Ezra. Today we will conclude the book of Ezra by reading Ezra chapter 10. And we’re reading from a Christian Standard Bible this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So as we continue our…our journey through the letter, the letter to the Corinthians, known as first Corinthians we’re seeing that Paul is…is being pretty direct and confronting some things that he believes should not be present in the community of faith in Corinth or really for that matter, anywhere. So, basically he begins with disputes and he’s like, why are you taking each other to court basically. Isn’t there anybody wise among you? Is there no wise people? Is there no way to handle these matters? And what he’s ultimately getting at here is do you understand that you are the light, that you are the example, that you are setting the standard? And he’s pretty direct. I quote Paul, “as it is to have legal disputes against one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do this to brothers and sisters.” Paul’s point is that that sets a standard, that sets an example. That’s not the example that we as the body of Christ want to bear witness to in the world. We need to bear witness to the light. So, we can obviously…I mean we can take that on board and apply it to any kind of sets of circumstances in our own lives, but we can see he wouldn’t be addressing this if it weren’t going on in the church. So, we can look back and go even back at the beginning this stuff was going on. This has been a struggle all along. And sort of the underlying theme that’s going on here, as Paul confronts a couple of things is actual freedom. Are you actually free if you are entangled in some kind of very long-drawn-out lawsuit with a brother or sister? That’s basically his point. But then he turns to say like everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial. So, we are free to do what we want, but not everything that we do has any benefit. And some of the things that we do can be destructive and is that freedom? So, Paul says, “everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” Why? Because that’s not freedom. And then Paul goes into the things that we do with our bodies and the ways that we sin against one another with our bodies. And again the underlying theme is freedom. He's…he’s saying your body is a part of Christ’s body, the body of Christ are those who believe in Christ on this world and you’re a part of that body. In fact, Paul says your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. You’re not your own. You were bought at a price. So, glorify God with your body. So, we can look at the territory that we’ve been in for these first chapters of first Corinthians in this letter and go, a lot of confrontation and condemnation, but it's…the point is freedom. The point is freedom as perceived by the quote unquote world is upside down and backwards like everything else in this world, which is what Jesus taught and what the New Testament teaches. So, when we discover that we are free in Christ so often we think about that in terms of freedom…like I can say I can do whatever I want. I’m free. Sin has no control over me, has no claim to me. I’m free. And then we think of it in worldly terms, and this is what Paul’s bringing out in his letter. So, it kind of boils down to sexual immorality and the kind of confrontation that we have with each other and the ways that we fight against one another, diminishing the light, diminishing the witness that we are to be in this world for the rest of the world, to reveal that there’s a better way. If all we’re doing is the same way and overlaying words that say we’re Christians but we’re not different than we’re not revealing this kingdom and we’re not being the light. And, so, when we realize that true freedom is to understand that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, God. We are housing the Spirit of God within us. So, anything that we would rather not include God in we shouldn’t be participating in because God is within us, the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, according to Paul. If we understood…like if we believed that, that’s a game changer, that’s a life changer, that’s a world changer, that we are walking around, and wherever we go the Spirit goes because the Spirit is within us. We bring the spirit of God into every situation that we walk into, or we should if we were aware of our true freedoms.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit well up from within. May we become aware of this reality that is never off and always on. We were bought with a price. That purchase was our freedom. We are free from the claims and the customs of this world. We are freed to be true. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that’s the website, its where you find out what’s going on around here. And as I say often, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access everything that’s going on around here there.

So, be aware of the Community section. That is so important. That’s where the Prayer Wall is and lives and is always happening. So, there’s always somewhere to reach out for prayer, there’s always somewhere to go and pray for one another. I mean we are all living human lives. And, so, right? You never know what the days gonna bring exactly and we always are in need of prayer and just to know that we’re not alone. That makes such a difference, to know that this journey is not a solitary one. We are in this together. And, so, be aware of the Prayer Wall. In there in the Community section is also links to get connected on the different social media channels that we are involved in. So, be aware of that. Check that out. Like check out the Daily Audio Bible women’s page. Jill is continually posting encouragement there. It’s fantastic. So, if you’re a woman then there is a place to get connected and the DAB friends there is a place to get connected. There’s plenty of places to get connected. And also following the Daily Audio Bible channels so that whatever social media platform your on if there’s an announcement of some sort or whatever that you’re able to get that. So, check it all out in the Community section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you. I’m looking at the calendar and going…well…we do have a way to go in this year. It’s going faster than I thought. But we do have a ways to go this year but all of these years have been in this story day by day step-by-step together and it’s a beautiful thing because if we hadn’t been together we…we wouldn’t be making the next step forward. And, so, thank you. If what’s happening here, bringing the spoken word of God and being in community together around the Global Campfire that is life-giving to you than thank you for being life-giving. There is a link on the homepage. 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, 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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey, DABbers it’s Kira Contrite Spirit. And for months and months maybe even a year I had seen this guy who lives in his car right off of the trail behind a house in the alley and just started waving to him and he waved back and so we’ve been waving at each other. And the other day the Holy Spirit put on my heart real strong to…well…it…it, you know, went for a couple days and then I said I better just listen to the Holy Spirit. And, so, it put…put on my heart to go and talk to him and then to give him some food and it was really, really hot. And, so, I got some eggs together and a beverage and just some fruit and…and I just, you know, went up to him and real friendly talked to him. He…for a little while told him my story. He said that he believes in Jesus, but he doesn’t necessarily believe Jesus is the only way to God. So, please pray for him. His name is You and he’s 75 and, you know, he’s really, really, you know, cool guy. And I just want to encourage anybody out there, you know, don’t be afraid to talk to people, you know, even if they’re down and out because, I don’t know, I think those are the folks that need it the most, need the light that we have. So, shine your light and spread the word. I love you, DABbers. Amen.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Daniel in Arizona. It’s been…it’s been a long time since I’ve called in but I have this burden on my heart because I’m going through it myself, but I’ve been praying for actually I say the men of this nation, but I mean maybe the men of this world. A lot of times we try to go it alone and we weren’t designed…we weren’t created to be alone we were created to be part of a tribe and I’m praying for the men who feel isolated and alone and don’t have good friends to lean on or to talk to, good male friends and I’m praying that for myself. I’m praying…I’ve been having this burden of just wanting good men in my life, good friends who are…not only push me to be better but to push me to be closer to God. And I’m praying for all the men on this group, all the men who listen, I’m praying encouragement and life and God has surrounded you with good men who are willing to serve the Lord, serve others, and serve their families. That’s just been a huge burden on my heart, and I pray that…I pray that we would all reach out together, that we are part of one family under God and that we’re not alone, that you don’t do this alone. Alright I love you. Be blessed.

Good morning DAB family it’s August 5^th and this is Sally in Massachusetts Amazed by Grace. Just want to thank the Lord for this community and for all He’s doing and leading us. And thank you again for Brian and Jill and all the team that makes this ministry possible. I’m praying with you all each day and thanking the Lord that He hears us, that He answers. And today I wanna pray particularly for Gigi. Thank you so much for calling Gigi. Thank you for your honesty and your vulnerability. God does hear you and He does love you. And I would just encourage you to lay all your dreams on the altar, your dreams of going to nurses training, this pregnancy and all the future plans that you had in mind. Just give them all to God. He loves you. This baby is not an accident and if the plans you had for nurses training need to be put on hold for a little while, trust God. He loves you. He loves you. He loves this baby. He loves your husband and your family, and He wants you to know His joy and peace as you trust Him. So, hard to trust when things are different than we expected them to be but trust His love. Trust His grace. Trust His mercy because He does love you and want what’s best for you and that you may be to the praise of His glory. Blessings on you Gigi and your family. In Jesus’ powerful name I pray for you for grace and peace. Amen.

My name is All for Him in Alton IL. I’ve been listening for five years I’ve wanted to call in so many times just to kind of connect with everybody. I really do appreciate the ones that call in, but this is my first time and I think a lot of time people are just kind of shy like me but they’re out there. My heart resonated with the lady who called in requesting prayer for her son and daughter in law who are taking in their niece who had attempted suicide and was sad when she didn’t die. Our granddaughter also falls into this category, and I just wanted to pray for all these kids, these young people who are being taught not the truth about You, they’re being told things that turn them away from You and they feel hopeless, and they feel lost. Lord, I lift them up to You, just this younger generation that doesn’t really know you. And Father I just pray that Your Holy Spirit would pour out and that a miracle it happened and they would come to know You. And I pray this in Your precious name. Amen.

Good morning this is Jamie from Arizona, and I just heard the prayer of the young lady who’s pregnant and in nursing school and I just wanted to offer a word of encouragement. I’ve been in your shoes honey. I waited so long to go back to school, and I was so excited, and I wasn’t expecting to be pregnant but I was excited. But I want to tell you that God will work a way for you. I actually delivered the day of my organic chemistry lab exams, and I couldn’t even do them because I wasn’t allowed in the lab because I was pregnant, but I will tell you that God worked and my professors. I was allowed to take my exams at home. And the thing with nursing and nursing programs is that you don’t have to have an A, you just need to get through. And you’ll find your professors will encourage you and will work with you. And when that baby is born nursing school will be important but there is nothing as important as a child. And I just want to encourage you that when that way was so dark, and I didn’t know how I was ever going to finish God worked it out and He made a way and He’ll make a way for you too. I just want you to know I’m praying for you. I know pregnancy is overwhelming and nursing school is overwhelming but take it a day at a time don’t try to look all the way down the road because we never know what is down that road and I could tell you that that child was such a blessing, and my nursing degree was such a blessing. It wasn’t the way I planned it but it was the way that God planned it and I’ve been in nursing 30 years now I wouldn’t change a thing about how that course went. So, please just know that we’re praying for you and your hormones are surging and you know that…

He my outstanding DAB fam this is out of breath Kingdom Seeker Daniel having a little stroll after meal on this evening of August 5^th. This message goes out to my dear sister Gigi. Oh dear sister I heard your cry. Listen I have this particular scripture posted on my TV so whenever I’m looking at the TV reminded of this verse of scripture. And I want to encourage your heart with Isaiah 41 and verse 10. God says to Israel and He’s saying to Gigi fear not for I am with you. Do not be dismayed Gigi for I am your God. Gigi, I will strengthen you. Gigi, I will help you. Gigi, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Dear daughter of the King lift up your head and know that the Lord is with you and in this glorious season of pregnancy. He sees everything going on with you and your life and He’s going to help you. He’s going to strengthen you and He is going to uphold you. Be encouraged. Be encouraged. Be encouraged daughter of the king. He’s got you and you will come through this victorious. Love you sis.

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

Today is the 9th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today as we do what we do, take the next step forward together. And that next step will lead us into the book of Ezra today chapter 8 verse 21 through 9, verse 15.

Commentary:

Okay, it’s kinda hard not to notice the parallels that have aligned themselves in today’s reading, both in Ezra and in 1 Corinthians. Even though these events happened centuries apart from each other. So, let’s just take a look at what’s going on here. In Ezra, we began by, you know, hearing the journey taken to Jerusalem with these people coming back for the first time. Ezra, a leader before God comes back rests, counts out the money, make sure everything is there and then begins to observe what’s going on and begins to hear the reports that some of the very things that it undermined their culture and their society, namely mixture, in this case, were occurring again. So, some of the very things that caused the temple to ultimately be destroyed and the people taken into exile, when they returned from exile, they began those practices again. So, for Ezra arriving as a leader before God to lead people in the worship of God, set up the systems that governed that and governed the culture, he’s discovering this and he’s, according to what we read today, devastated. Devastated, that’s a big word. Like it wasn’t like an annoyance or a roll of the eyes, he tore his clothes and sat down, devastated all day until the evening sacrifice. And then in his humiliation, he got up and prayed a prayer, a plea for mercy and a prayer of repentance and we’ll go back to that. It’s easy for us in a very intermingled world to look at the situation and go why are you so devastated, like why can’t people be together, like why can’t they associate together but there was a point when…when God came to Abraham, which was back at the very first beginning weeks of our year, He said he was going to create a new set of people, essentially, and it was a people with promise and there was a son of promise, Isaac, and remember the whole journey. But the point was that God was coming to earth’s people and setting apart a certain group of people that he had chosen for a particular purpose, not because they were better human beings or somehow they were superior to other people in humanity, but because this people would be His people, and they would be ordered around knowing the one true God, and they would build a culture that would broadcast that to the world. A nation of priests, a nation who feared God, a nation who walked with God to reveal to the people of earth. First of all, there is one true most high God. There is no other and secondly to show what that looks like, how that can be lived so that the example can be set for the rest of the world. They didn’t do that, like we’ve read the whole story, only in fits and starts. Kinda like us, only in fits and starts, did they do this and when they did they prospered and when they didn’t, they were no longer setting an example. They were being influenced and led astray, so no longer were they this nation of priests shining the light into the world and showing and revealing the one true God and how to walk with that one true God. Instead, they were being seduced away. They were not being the influencers; they were being the influenced. In Ezra’s like you’ve got to be kidding me, this is what destroyed us. So, he’s devastated. They aren’t setting a precedent or setting a standard, they’re mixing the standard with all kinds of other practices. Things that had led to their own destruction. Then we flip into 1 Corinthians in Paul’s writing to the church there and he’s pretty clear like not talking about judging everybody in the world, you can’t judge everybody in the world. And you can’t have an opinion about what everybody does out there, that’s, God will judge that. But inside this community of faith, this is supposed to be a new species. This is supposed to be a new thing that God is doing in the world, one in which everyone is welcome, but you have to open your eyes and know that you died, to who you were and you started over. There’s a new standard, a standard of love. And when you do things that really can’t be done in the name of Jesus, then it’s mixture that’s leading nowhere, it will ultimately, it will ultimately lead to destruction. It’s the precedent of this whole story. And for Paul, he’s a Jewish person who knows this story well and recognizes that God is doing something new in the world that he did this new thing by coming in the person of Jesus to accomplish it, and that has to change things. We can’t just go oh, I’m free and then intermingle ourselves into bondage that destroys us and then blame God for it. And man, we can rationalize just about anything, but truly, if we are honest just with ourselves, if we can be, if we pause and contemplate a set of actions that we are going to engage our mind and heart and body to participate in. We know in the core of ourselves whether that is right or whether that is wrong for us, whether that is clean, or whether that is unclean for us, whether that is holy, or whether that is unholy mixture for us. Because, because there is a couple of really, really critical things that we must observe and pay attention to. One, when we go against the flow of our new nature in Christ, we are not headed for abundance, we are headed for destruction. We are not headed into further freedoms, we are free. All of these things that we mix and intermingle, they eventually lead us into deception, where we have to wear a mask, where we aren’t true, we aren’t really who we were made to be, we’re a lot of things, we put on a lot of masks in every different circumstance, so that we are divided within ourselves. When freedom is, hey, there’s a way that this works. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you can’t participate in it in the name of Jesus, then don’t do it. Why do you want to hurt yourself? Why do you want to lead yourself to destruction? And so, you can see why Ezra would be on the ground with torn robes devastated, because this stuff is going nowhere. And so, truly the Bible has led us today into a place to consider these things because we’re supposed to be the light of the world. Right, we may have all kinds of freedoms and don’t have to obey the Mosaic law but we’re supposed to be the light of the world. The mission hasn’t really changed. Everyone is invited but we, who have been reborn, we’re the ones supposed to be showing the rest of the world that there is a better way to be here together. That there is a better way to be a human being and if we look around man, we see the mixture, that’s what we’re full of is the mixture. And this doesn’t mean like oh okay well then, I’m gonna stop drinking wine, it’s the stuff that is intermingled in our hearts, it is bringing us anxiety and confusion that is forcing us to have several different identities in several different circumstances; we’re invited to be the light of the world, we’re invited to be true. And when we are true, we are not only walking in the light, we are free. And so, we can easily go back to Ezra chapter 9 and see this…this prayer, this plea for mercy, this cry of repentance. And maybe it’s words can actually be meaningful to us because were guilty too.

Prayer:

And so, Father we come together here before You as if we were on our knees, humbled, devastated to realize that not only have we’ve been counteracting Your work in our lives but we’ve been sabotaging Your will and sabotaging ourselves. So, we pray from the Scriptures, our Lord God, we are ashamed and embarrassed to lift our face toward You Lord, because our iniquities are higher than our heads and our guilt is as high as the heavens. Our guilt has been terrible from the days of our ancestors until the present. Because of our iniquities, we have been handed over, along with our kings and priests to the surrounding kings into the sword captivity plundering and open shame. And now, for a brief, moment grace has come from the Lord our God to preserve a remnant for us and give us a stake in His holy place, even in our slavery God has given us a little relief and light to our eyes, though we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our slavery. He has extended grace to us, giving us relief so that we can rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins. Now, Lord, what can we say in light of this, we have abandoned the commands You gave through Your servants the prophets, after all that has happened to us because of our evil deeds and terrible guilt. Though You God have punished less than our iniquities deserve and have allowed us to survive. Should we break your commands again. Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we survive as a remnant today. Here we are before you with our guilt, though no one can stand in your presence, because of this. Father, we repent and we understand that the only reason we can stand in Your presence is that You came and rescued us and allowed it. You want us in Your presence. You want us as Your children. You want us to be the light of the world because you want all of Earth’s people to be welcomed in and yet we are seduced into the mixture so that we have been influenced, we have not been the influencer. And so come, Holy Spirit in this moment of repentance and wash us clean. Help us to reset and restart by taking the next steps that are right before You. We pray for mercy, just as Ezra did, we pray in repentance for forgiveness in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

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

Today is the 8^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s awesome to be here with you today because we’re here at the threshold. We’re throwing open the windows and the doors on this brand-new shiny sparkly week. We normally recognize that we’re beginning…beginning a new week because it’s a really awesome time to understand that it’s in front of us. It’s in the future and we can choose how we’re gonna live this week in advance no matter what might come our way, whether known or unexpected. We can center ourselves and root ourselves in our anchor, which is the Lord of Heaven’s armies. And one of the ways that we reorient ourselves to God is through the Scriptures. And, so, we’ve got a brand-new week, whole new set of territory to move through, lots of things to talk about and life to live together in community as we take the next step forward. And, so, let’s do that. We’ll read from the Christian Standard Bible this week and picking up where we left off yesterday. Ezra chapter 7 verse 1 through eight verse 20.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You that we’ve walked through this threshold into a brand-new week. And we always pay attention to these new beginnings even though it’s just another week. It is a start. A similar start was found in the book of Psalms today. Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning. We always have the chance to begin anew with You and begin to take the next right steps forward as You lead and direct our lives. May we pay attention to Your leading. May we slow things down and not react to everything but to just take it all in and invite Your spirit to guide our steps. And we might live a peaceful and joyful week as we walk with You. Come Holy Spirit into all this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning my lovely family it’s Susan from Canada __ calling and today I have a wonderful praise report. We were at the oncologist yesterday for my son Keith and he…he had had a CT scan on the 27^th of July, and it shows no tumors in his lungs. He had seven of them and now there is none. There is some nodules, several, they said nodules but they’re only one to three millimeters in size. So, they’re not going to do anything about them right now and there is extensive lung damage from the radiation he had. But praise God, praise God they are all gone the tumor…the…any measurable type of tumor is just gone in the name of Jesus. I just thank you Lord Jesus. I can’t thank you enough. So, we’re…we are all unpacked in __ Belleville and Keith is off my worry list to a great degree. So, I am just gonna relax and enjoy the rest of the summer with my grandkids. I’m so happy. Thank you for your prayers one and all. And keep praying. Keep praying he’s still very weak and tired but just…awe…it’s just such a joyful time period and I just give God the praise and glory for this wonderful break where I can enjoy some time with family. Love you all and pray for you all. God bless.

Hey there DAB family it’s James the teacher in LA. I’m just having a…a moment here this morning. I want to let you guys know I pray with you whenever I hear the prayer requests every day. The lady who just called in on August 4^th for her multiple myeloma, I am praying relief and restoration of health for you. For those of you who have experienced unimaginable losses, pain, exhaustion, depression, physical health, mental health it’s all really one. I…I pray for all of you, for restoration, for God’s touch and comfort. But I had a realization as I had…as I had been listening. Every one of us is suffering with something in this life. Every one of us is suffering with something in this life. And many of us are not suffering as badly as others of our brothers and sisters. Yes, we all suffer but we all should also be remembering to give thanks to God for all the things that we don’t suffer. And even when we do go through really terrible hardships, we continue to draw breath. We continue to have breath in our lungs if we’re on this earth with which we can praise God. And even if we can’t speak, we can praise God in our hearts. And I need to remember that every day. So, I praise God for life on this earth and life everlasting and the world after when we go to be with Him and when He will come to be with us. Amen. Hallelujah. I love you family.

Hi Daily Audio Bible and brothers and sisters my name is Eugene I’m 24 years old. I’m currently in Dallas TX but I’m just visiting family. I live in New York, and I just ask for your prayers. My life for the past five years has been pretty difficult ever since my dad passed away. And I’ve gotten closer to God and gotten stronger in my faith but I’m also having a problem with physical deformity in my torso which makes it hard to be around people. So, it’s been a lonely few years. And, so, yeah I would just ask for your prayer for healing in my body and just joy in my life and just to be able to be social with others and, yeah, not…not be so self-conscious. Yeah. thank you so much. God bless you.

Hi, I’m a first-time caller my name is Ann my parents gave me that name I go by Annie but I’m gonna be called Savior by Grace because that’s what the name means. I’m calling for the woman who has a daughter that has anorexia. I want you to know that I had anorexia when I was 13. I’m 53 now so this is 1981 and I was as tall as I am now at 5’6” and I got down to 78 pounds and I was hospitalized for five and a half weeks and my poor parents…my poor parents did not know what to do. A friend of mine said that it was the first time that she saw my dad cry and I’m one of four kids. And my dad was angry at me also. He poked me once in church and he say’s look what you’re doing to your mother because my mum was crying. But I had no idea…I had no idea what I was doing. So, there was a lot of prayer around me and I want you to know that I recovered. And I’m fine now, no eating disorders, nothing. So, I believe that God did heal me, and I will pray for your daughter too. And kids you know, we don’t know we do to my parents…our parents. So, I was really happy to hear you express that and it made me so sad for what I put my parents through so long ago. And prayer does work so let’s pray. Dear God please work this precious child see but she’s loved by You, and she can relax. She doesn’t have control every little thing in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Dear God, I lift up the little boy and his family who saved his sister but ended up drowning. What a precious little heart. Lord I pray the best for him. I pray Your will for him Lord. I pray that You will just come and help that family in whatever your divine plan is for him Lord. Please help him to thrive wherever he is. Thank You. Thank You Lord for this little boy who gave his…who gave himself to save his sister. What a sweet, sweet little boy. I also pray for the little one in hospice with cancer Lord. I pray for him and his family Lord. I pray for healing over these children. Lord, we know You love him…them and You know what’s best for them and You know where they’re going to be and happy and thrive and where they belong Lord. So, I just pray that you be with them and their families. And I pray for Gigi. I pray for peace for her. Help her to be able to rest and to take a break and help her to be OK with it. If anything…if COVID has taught us anything it’s been had a slow down and just stop and rest, and…and Lord I pray that she will just be able to take a rest and to put things aside and…and focus on her child and her family Lord. Amen.

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

Today is August 7th, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I am Brian, it’s wonderful as it always is to be here with you as we come around the Global Campfire together. Exhale, let it all go for a little bit as we just allow the Scriptures to come into our lives with open hearts and open minds, pushing pause on the cares of life, giving ourselves permission to catch our breath and reorient ourselves to God and allow his Spirit to renew us. So, let’s dive into the Old Testament. We’re in the book of Ezra today chapter 4 verse 24 through 6 verse 22.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and again we thank You for another week that has gone by, another week, this first full week of August this eighth month of the year and we are grateful for Your faithfulness to us and for the gift of the Scriptures that You have offered to us to counsel and correct and lead and direct our steps. So, Holy Spirit, we invite You to come into all that we read this week, all that we talked about this week and seal it in our hearts that it might yield fruits. The fruit of this spirit in our lives. We ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s how to get connected, how to find out what’s going on around here, so check that out and if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you  can check it out from within the app, there’s a little drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner, if you press that a little drawer pops out and then you can find things like the Daily Audio Bible Shop where the resources for the journey that we are on exist, as well as the Community section where you can get connected on social media or the Prayer Wall is there. And you can always pray you can always ask for prayer, so check that out as well.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what’s going on here is life giving to you and makes a difference than thank you for your partnership as we navigate these summer months. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button and that’s 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 and that will, well, it’s Hotline button so you can share no matter where you are the world’s or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayers and Encouragements:

Hi this is Victorious Solider just calling to pray for some of the DABers. I want to pray for the young man who said that he was tired. Sometimes we get tired in waiting for the Lord but I want to encourage you my brother it says that he that wait upon the Lord, He shall renew their strength, you shall mount on wings as eagles, they shall run and not faint and whatsoever they doeth he shall prosper beyond __ not so but on which the wind driveth away. I remember on the alter that I was tired and I put my trust in the Lord and He lifted my burdens and He gave me life. My brother, you want life as God, say I’m tired Lord I want life. And let the Lord give you that life. That’s what He wants to give you. I just pray for you my brother, I ask you, I ask you to trust ___ I heard a story about her daughter. I ask you to bless her daughter. I ask you to touch the young woman who’s moving and going away. I remember the days that I moved in the military and didn’t know what was gonna be there when I got there. But God always provides. And I praying my sister in my spirit and in my soul that God bless you with everything in abundance as He always do. That’s the kind of God He is. We just have to get used to that, he’s an abundant God. Lord I just thank You for touching Your people. I just thank you for blessing my sister and the one that was talking about the beautiful pool, it’s so good to hear your voice and it’s so good to know you. Oh Lord, I just ask you to bless em. Give em life and favor. Oh Lord, strengthen somebody today that don’t know You. Touch our children Lord and guide them to you. Lord, I pray also for my precious brother and your precious brother my precious brother is in the hospital in intensive care with Corona virus and a.

Hi this is Gina, God’s Princess Warrior. Just wanted to call and ask for prayer for my sister and family, my five girls. My younger sister, she and her husband just lost son yesterday, she found him in his bedroom with a drug overdose. And he was 17 and yesterday being August 2nd that she found him and August 1st was her birthday. So, the night before they had celebrated and everything so, just keep my sister Chrissy and her family in prayer. She, after having a several miscarriages they adopted two children and then she got pregnant with her third who was the son, yesterday, and he was a spitting image, looked just like our dad. And so, I can’t imagine finding your child in your home. It’s actually a brand-new home they just built, their retired now. And just moved in last October so, if you could please just be in prayer for our family. This is a great loss, please pray. They actually just talked to him two days ago about his drug addiction and were seeking for him. So, please just be in prayer for our family. And

Hello, my name is Julia I was just listening to the August 3rd podcast and I’m just seeing this repetition of mental health issues kind of coming up. I work in the mental health field and so I just wanted to come on an just pray for some people. I know there was a mom who was calling in about her daughter who was suicidal. There was also a friend calling in for their friend who was a cutter and just multiple things going on, and so I just want to lift these people up and anybody else who may be struggling with some mental health stuff. Lord, I just thank You right now that You are the King of glory the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle we lift Your name up above everything Father God, we just thank You that you are the way the truth and the life Lord. And so, when the enemy tries to come and tries to deceive us or putt lies in us or nocks us down Lord, we can just turn back to word knowing that we are never lost Lord because You’re the way. And right now, Lord, I just thank You Lord for these people that were brought forth, Lord. Right now, and we lift them up to You, Lord. I thank You Lord that because you died for us Lord, You freed us from all mental torment. You freed us from all sickness and disease Lord. You freed us from all sin, Father God. You made a spectacle out of the enemy on the cross, Father, and I just pray Lord that You would help us to renew our minds in Your word Father God. I take the authority You have given us over the enemy right now and Satan we speak to you and we serve you notice. You are to stand down and stay down in the name of Jesus, you have no right to these people. I declare that they have the mind of Christ. That they do not operate of

Hello, this is Debbie from Canada. And my son Lucas really needs prayer. He’s struggled keeping jobs. He’s just moved to the big city and he’s lost 5 jobs already. He’s on the autism scale but he’s still quite independent, so he struggles with obsessiveness and listening and remembering. He’s slow and so he really needs to find work where the boss and the company understand his situation and there willing to keep him on and he really needs that stability. He…he knows Jesus, he knows that he is loved and but he’s just really struggling and angry and doesn’t get it. Also, his girlfriend is not a Christian and it’s not a good situation there really either so I’d really appreciate if you could pray for Lucas that he could find stable work situation. Thank you so much. I listen to DAB all the time. Bye for now.

Hello brothers and sister. I’m excited. It’s been a little bit again but I’m still less than a month behind. But I just felt encouraged to call and just some encouragement and some prayer. Cheering Jasmine from Florida, no sorry, Jasmine from Virginia and then having her talk about Lorenzo from Florida. I mean, like it is, it’s encouraging for myself being in that age group and I’m just, I’m just glad God has us here. And just to pray over school, maybe you’re gonna be senior maybe look for colleges just maybe were still high school. But I just pray that God might take us on a journey that is glorious. I mean, really glorious. And that throughout that journey we might praise Him and He just might get that praise. It makes me feel a little bit more comfortable if there are people in this community that are my age. I just pray a blessing on all the teenagers. And just tonight August 3rd I am thanking God for this community. In Jesus name. Amen.

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

Today is the 6^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy to be here with you today as we all find our places around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together. And that next step leads us…well…we’re kind of in some new territory in both old and new Testaments. We’re moving into Ezra and we’re moving into first Corinthians. So, that’s where we’ll be today. First, Ezra chapter 3 verse 1 through 4 verse 23.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we began the book of Ezra we talked about, you know, what its contents are and the fact that it sort of picks up where second Chronicles, the book we previously read left off. And, so, exiles are returning back to Jerusalem with the blessing of the king to rebuild the temple and worship God there. And, so, they have. They have come back and begun to rebuild, but the people around them are being critical and some are coming and asking if they can help rebuild, the people that have been relocated into Samaria by the Assyrian Empire, the people that will come to be known as Samaritans, who worship God differently. And, so, there’s sort of a…a rift there with the returning Hebrew people, the naturally born Hebrew people wanting to rebuild the temple of God, as commanded by the king, they didn’t want any mixture, they didn’t want any help. And, so, that causes a rift, and before long the politics start, and letters are being written to the king. And by the time we finish our reading today everything is stopped. Like, their dream and their mission has come to a halt. And this book Ezra and the one that will follow it Nehemiah…I mean…we’re definitely reading of the restoration of parts of Jerusalem that had been destroyed by the Babylonians. And, so, we have a bit of a historical account here, but when we look deeper into the challenges that are faced we really do see some things for our own lives. And, so, what we’re going to begin to see here is endurance, perseverance, staying true to a specific goal that that that needs to be achieved, even if things grind to a halt, even if it’s just a millimeter forward per day until things break loose. Keep moving forward even if it’s just a little bit every day toward what we’re heading into and enduring what we must to achieve those things, these are valuable lessons for our…for our lives, because intimidation and discouragement and politics and the stuff we’re seeing begin to shape up here in Ezra are things that we face at one point or another in one circumstance or another. And, so, there’s so much here for us to watch. But what we watched today is the joy of rebuilding. And, of course, as sacrifices are starting to be offered they’re on the site of the Temple. Some people are very, very joyful. Like this is the restoration that we were praying for. And other people who had seen God’s temple before it was restored are weeping because of what was lost. And they continue forward until their halted by…by the king. And we’ll pick up with that story tomorrow.

In the letter to the Corinthians, first Corinthians that we’re in, Paul had been talking about the nonsense of the gospel in our reading yesterday and how it’s offensive to Hebrew people and Judaism because it does not line up with accepted tradition, and it doesn’t make any sense to a Gentile who’s never been involved in Judaism. It sounds like nonsense. And that kind of conversation continues today. And…and so, we…we can see this. Let me quote Paul. Now, just put on a rational mind here. Like, just listen to these words rationally and not spiritually. “We speak about the mystery of God’s wisdom. It is a wisdom that has been hidden which God had planned for our glory before the world began.” Okay that’s a statement. It’s a statement of faith. It’s a statement that you would have to believe, but if you look at that statement rationally it’s like what hidden wisdom? What glory was planned before the world began? Who knows this? How do you know this? And you can start picking it apart and go, well…well just that one verse there, that doesn’t even make sense, much less the rest of what Paul’s saying. What Paul was saying that we…we gleaned from our reading yesterday is that it’s all backwards. The world’s wisdom, the way that things are constructed is what we have done over time to try to be our own sovereign and have control over this place and control over everyone else in whatever way we can. And it’s upside down. Jesus said the same kinds of things, especially like in the Beatitudes. It’s upside down. It’s backward. And, so, Paul says that’s intentional. That’s his argument. That’s intentional. This nonsense that you…that you can’t wrap your mind around, that’s intentional. You won’t be able to hold God in your mind or control him that way by human understanding. Even if you’ve devoted your life to a theological understanding, you’re scratching the surface of the most-high God. And, so, according to Paul, God has chosen the foolishness of the world to reveal his wisdom. And to believe these things might make us look foolish to anyone out there but once we’ve tasted and seen, like once we’ve had eyes to see, even for a moment, things flipped upside down where we have eyes to see this kingdom at work in and among us and that we’re a part of this, that changes everything. We can’t unsee what we’ve seen. I quote Paul. “God has revealed those things to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, especially the deep things of God. After all, who knows everything about a person, except that person’s Spirit. in the same way no one has known everything about God except God’s own Spirit. And we didn’t receive the Spirit that belongs to the world. Instead, we received the Spirit who comes from God so that we can know the things which God has freely given us. We don’t speak about these things using teachings that are based on intellectual arguments like people do. Instead, we use the Spirits teachings. We explain spiritual things through those who have the Spirit.” So, we can look at this and go, well we are rational beings who try to create order out of the story that we’re living to try to give some linearity to it so that it makes sense as we live. And we look at things to try to understand how they work. So how then, if God is so far beyond us and we’re only can have spiritual teachings, then how will this settle in? What makes it work? Which is what brings us to a very famous saying in the book of first Corinthians. So, Paul says, “a person who isn’t spiritual doesn’t accept the teachings of God’s Spirit. He thinks they’re nonsense. They can’t understand them because a person must be spiritual to evaluate them. Spiritual people evaluate everything but are subject to no one’s evaluation. Who has known the mind of the Lord so that he can teach Him? However, we have the mind of Christ.” So, according to Paul that’s what we see through. That is the lens that we see through. It’s not our own intellectual understanding, it’s the mind of Christ opening with in us. And indeed, to those who have not accepted or believed in faith in that direction than its nonsense. For those who have opened their hearts and minds to the mind of Christ and the Spirit of the risen Christ within and the guidance of the Holy Spirit than we can’t see differently. Things have changed.

Prayer:

Father, we open ourselves to You. Even now, even as we’re here in this moment now we slow things down and open our hearts and minds to You understanding that we can’t hold onto You, that we can’t figure You out, we can’t rationalize all of this. It’s not something that we can sort out. It’s something that we have to simply be and know. So, we open ourselves. Come Holy Spirit, may the mind of Christ open within us. May our hearts open to Your Spirits guidance and direction. May we pay attention we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, it’s how to find out what’s going on around here and how to get connected around here. So, check it out. If you’re using the…the Daily Audio Bible app, you can access all these things as well. And if you haven’t used the app, go ahead and download the app. It’s free and it’s a great way to stay connected and keep track of your progress through the Scriptures. So, check that out.

Also check out the Community section. This is so where to get connected. This is where the Prayer Wall lives.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible shop. This is where a number of resources for the journey that we are on lives and where you can access those. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission to just keep showing up every day around this Global Campfire and taking the next step forward together, if that means something encouraging and life-giving in your life than…than thank you for being life-giving. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible 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 it outline button in the app, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DABber family this is the burning Bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and our king. I’m calling with a praise report guys. Two years ago, this time of year I was calling in with a prayer request for my nephew who was diagnosed with a brain tumor, was undergoing several tests. The doctors had gotten to a point where they thought that this was going to be fatal and his at the time girlfriend had gone to stay in the hospital with him. They got married in the hospital and, you know, my family was praying, you guys were praying with us, and I just want to announce today that he is awaiting the…the birth of his first child. Now rewind two years ago they thought that he was not going to make it past three months and today he is alive and well. God has healed his body. His family is growing, and I just want to share this with those who are struggling with something similar. Somebody in your family has a brain tumor. Someone in your family’s struggling with cancer. Know that it’s not a death sentence, that there is nothing that God can’t do. The power of prayer still exists today. That’s it. I want to pray for God’s Smile and her husband. Father God, I praise You for the beautiful couple. I praise You for health in their family Lord. I pray that You will sustain them and keep them and help them to consistently walk in Your grace. I pray for divine health over that family right now in the name of Jesus. I also pray for all our DABbber family members who are going through sickness and fighting, battling illnesses this this year. I pray for healing God, that Your healing hands. I pray that You will put the blood of the lamb over the door of each of our members and the name of Jesus that they will not fall to any illness in the name of Jesus I pray. I love You all. Amen, Amen, Amen. Have a blessed…

Lee from New Jersey my brother from another mother this is doctor, John from Jordan New York. We missed our birthdays July 24^th. I don’t know what number it is for you but for me it’ll be my 14^th Daily Audio Bible birthday. And, yeah, I’d love to hear from you and see how you’re doing. I also have another request DAB family. I have a glaucoma procedure tomorrow and I’m in surgery on August the 3^rd. Today is August 2^nd. So, if you could pray for positive outcome, pray for the surgeon’s hands, for my vision to stabilize. For the first time ever, I have lost vision. My dad was blind at 65 and I’ve got normal pressure glaucoma which means that his vision under normal pressure. So, I’ve got to try to get my pressures lower. And, so, I’m kind of getting a taste of what my dad experienced, and I’d rather not lose anymore vision. So, if you could pray for me, I would appreciate it. Love you family. Lee, give me a call give me a shout out. Love you brother. Bye bye.

Hello DAB family this is Dasia from North Carolina. I am calling in response to prayer Mama calling about your situation with your daughter Lauren. I know the spirit of suicide firsthand. I tried several times in my life not understanding that the gifting of the burdens of my life was for the ministry of my life. So it is my prayer that God touches her mind, touches her heart to realize that everything she’s going through even though it’s painful to her has nothing to do with her. It’s all about what God has to reveal through her. So, I pray with you Mama that everything is gonna be OK. I would not recommend that you let her know you read her diary because that’s just another avenue for the enemy to play on her mind. So, just stay in prayer, fast before the Lord, keep her lifted as we will keep her lifted. And in the name of Jesus Lauren, we call against…we pray against the spirit of suicide. I bind it in the mighty name of Jesus. Hallelujah God, I thank you so much lower for the life of Lauren Lord. I thank you for the ministry of Lauren Lord. Lord, I thank you because I know that you are going to touch, I know that you’re going to reveal yourself unto this family and I bless your name in the mighty name of Jesus I pray. Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. Keep your head up Mama. Everything is gonna be alright. The sun will shine again in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning DABbers I’m responding to the prayer request from the mother who read her daughter’s journal. Daughter is __ suicidal. Father we lift up this daughter before You this morning. I pray Your peace and __. We ask Lord God almighty that You’ll visit her in a divine way, that You’ll take away all the suicidal thoughts away from her. We also pray for the couple that are taking in their niece. Their niece is leaving behind a lot of baggage. Father for the good heart that this couple have to be able to take this niece in, Lord I pray that You protect them, their little daughter and their son. We pray Lord God almighty for wisdom for discernment and we ask Lord that You will send help from Your sanctuary to Your children because they’re doing this good deed just like the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to do. Lord I pray that in the name of Jesus they will find favor, they will find direction, and they’ll find purpose for the life of their nice. Heavenly Father Lord we lift up this mother that is also smiling again. She wants to help Christine but then though Christine has so many mental issues. Lord, You place it on our hearts to reach out to all DABbers to pray for this woman. As she continues to cut herself Lord we pray that You take away this evil spirit from her and grant her Your peace, give her Your comfort, and let help reach out to her in the name of Jesus. Father we thank You for so many needs that Your children bring to You. Thank You, Lord for Brian and Jill who have put this podcast together that we can all come together and lift each other up in prayer. In Jesus’ name Amen.

Hey DABbers Bubba D with you. Prayer goes out to Tammy from Adirondacks. Father God, restore her. And we ask God for her friend who’s a cutter, asking God that You would reveal Yourself to her, that You would speak to this friend who’s been harming herself and has been hurt by it. Reveal Yourself God in a way that would affect her, revive her, bring her back to life, bring her to understanding that You love her so much Father. Would You reveal Yourself to her in her thoughts and her feelings and everything she goes through every day, that she would see You in everything and be able to experience You in a deep way. And wherever this hurt is coming from Lord, minister to that Father. Holy Spirit You are the great comforter You are the great counselor. We ask for Your blessing for Tammy’s friend in Jesus’ name Lord God. May Your peace wash over her, may Your love wash over her, Your goodness Your grace would be made known to her in new and amazing ways Father. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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

Today is the 5th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I am Brian, it is great to be here with you today. Just like it’s great to be here with you every day because we get to come into this little place that we’ve made for ourselves that we call the Global Campfire and having that place, at least for me in my life, this one place that’s gonna be the word of God washing over us, ah, an oasis of calm in the storm. So glad to be in that place with you today as we take our next step forward in the Scriptures. We concluded 2 Chronicles yesterday and so that has us opening up a new book in the Old Testament.

Introduction to Ezra:

This is called Ezra and just in terms of like the history picking up where we left off. So, where 2 Chronicles ends Ezra pretty much picks up. The children of Israel and are in exile in Babylon. They were carried away. They rejected God, chased after other gods and now they live in Babylon, away from their homeland. And this book of Ezra, it’s about 80 years of time that’ll be covered in this book, and there will be three different kings involved: Cyrus the Great, Darius and then Artaxerxes, who begins to allow some return to the homeland. So, Cyrus starts things literally wanting the temple to God, rebuilt in Jerusalem for the worship of God. So, over 40,000 Israelites who had been in exile in Babylon, finally, make the trip back under the leadership of Zerubbabel to rebuild…rebuild Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem’s been in ruin for a while now and so, you have a major city that’s been depopulated and lies in ruins and so you imagine that nearby peoples will kind of move in and begin to take over, over time, and that’s indeed the scenario here. And so, you have these…these exiles returning to their homeland, who then face opposition and intimidation and politics, imagine that. But we’ll watch that despite that they have a mission. They have a test and they continue to move forward in that direction which becomes really, really helpful for us in our own lives, because these things happen to us, right. There’s politics involved at work or wherever, there’s intimidation, there’s opposition in this world and it’s really easy to get pulled in or sucked into things that really actually pull us off our task, off the direction that we’re going in. All kinds of distractions we get ourselves into, over the course of life that wastes so much of our energy and time. In this case we’ll see that despite it all, they’re gonna stay true to what they’re trying to accomplish and that can help us. And then Ezra will come back again with a second group of exiles before we reach our conclusion. And so, let’s dive in, we’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week, Ezra chapters 1 and 2.

Commentary:

Okay, so in 1 Corinthians today, Paul talks about the gospel’s nonsensical values or properties. So, let’s just kind of sit with that for a second because what he’s saying is the truth. If we simply sit down and try to reason with logic, what we know and what we’ve experienced in this world, then you know, God coming to earth and being born of a woman and living a life and being executed and dying and rising from the dead, even though none of that is not…even though it’s so much different than nonsense to us, if we were just trying to make an intellectual exercise out of it, we’d say ‘yeah, that doesn’t really make sense,’ even as Gentiles, even as Gentiles, we say, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but we have not immersed ourselves in the Hebrew story from which Christianity came. There’s plenty of stuff even in the Scriptures that we’re like why is that…like what is that matter? Why is that important now? That doesn’t make sense until you have context and then you say ‘okay I see what’s happening here.’ I see why these things matter. So, what Paul’s doing is essentially acknowledging the elephant in the room, yeah, basically it doesn’t make any sense. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Essentially Paul is saying you can pursue human wisdom all you want but God is well beyond anything we will ever be able to grasp or control, or even figure out fully. In fact, the least of God’s wisdom is greater than any human wisdom. So, God is choosing, according to Paul, to use the foolishness of mankind’s wisdom to reveal Himself. So, just quoting Paul here “the world with its wisdom, was unable to recognize God in terms of his own wisdom. So, God decided to use the nonsense of the good news we speak to save those who believe. Jews asked for miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but our message is that Christ was crucified. This offends Jewish people and makes no sense to people who are not Jewish.” In other words, Gentiles. So, Paul’s saying that Jews wants signs and wonders, and the Gentiles, they don’t really want anything it doesn’t make any sense. So, there’s a lot to go on, a lot of directions that we could go but as far as just like letting this seep in become a part of our thought processes today as we revisit what we’ve read and move through our day. It would be that we will not be able to hold God in our minds. We will not be able to sort out the mystery or the vastness of the most High, because we are not equal to the most high, and we do not have the capacity of the most High. Paul says God’s nonsense is wiser than human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. And so, at the outset of this letter here, we can begin to get into that posture, where he’s coming from. By the standards of the world, we are talking nonsense when we talk about the good news. But when…when we have received the gift of eternal life and the guidance of the Spirit of truth, then, as Jesus says, we open our eyes, we open our ears and we see how things have flipped and how much of the world is complete nonsense. Just because we’ve been doing things for centuries a certain way doesn’t mean it’s not nonsense it just means it’s centuries of it. The good news brings us a better way of being a human being, a different way of looking at everything and we’ll be diving into that as we continue this letter.

Prayer:

And so, Holy Spirit come into that. And we certainly have made an intellectual exercise of it at times, really trying to get our theology right, trying to get all of the statements correct, jump through the hoops and do the steps correct. When the nonsense of the gospel is that You came for us and You achieved Your goal of rescuing humanity and anyone who chooses to participate is welcome and we choose to participate. And so, come Holy Spirit, and lead us into all truth. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Of course, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can find out what’s going on around here from…from within the app. So, check it out. Check out the Community section, this is where to get connected. This is where the different links to social media channels that we are involved in are as well as the home of the Prayer Wall where you can always go, always ask for prayer, always share what’s going on. But also, you can always pray. Pray for one another, which is a beautiful thing. It’s very distinctive about the community that we share around the Global Campfire, so check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage and thank you, thank you profoundly as we navigate these warmer months of the summer. Thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address is P.O Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Prayers and Encouragements:

Family, this is Saved by His Grace in Happy Valley with three very urgent prayer requests. Sort of a court of last resort. The first one is a young man named Carson, he’s about 10 years old, I think. He has successfully battled Lymphoma twice. And his family was rejoicing and suddenly another form of cancer has struck him and the people at St. Jude have said there’s nothing more we can do. We’ll arrange Hospice Care. Please, family, pray for Carson and complete healing. Another one is a little guy named Levi who is 3. He and his sister got into someone’s pool and he saved her but he drowned except that brought him back and now they’re struggling to bring all of him back. It has been a struggle. Please pray for Levi. And finally, my son Evan and his wife Lauren are having a divorce hearing tomorrow. There’s a five-year-old grandchild, Ronan involved and I pray that there will be forgiveness and healing and kindness and compassion. And that, I would love to see the marriage healed but if not at least let Ronan be cared for. Thank you.

Hello, today is August 1st and I was listening to July the 23rd and the lady called in The Disciple that He Loves from Ohio requesting prayer for her daughter that’s 15 and going through depression. Just wanted to pray for her daughter. Father, we do, just agree for all of us in this community for this daughter, Father. That’s just undergoing such depression Father, God that You would intervene. Father, that she would be set free that her mind would be renewed. Father, that she could get the help she needs, we know that You can supernaturally intervene. Or that You would just open doors that no one could open for her mom under the helps that she needs Father. We just lift her up, we do just pray for Your protection, that You will send guardian angels around this girl. We know that you will bring healing for deliverance that could only come from You. Father, for this ladies 15 year old daughter but also for other teenagers and other people God that are just desperate Father that don’t want to be here anymore. Lord, we know that’s such an attack from the enemy. We just pray that they would be able to take every thought captive Father. That You would bring healing and deliverance that only You can. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is GG from Gville. I’m pregnant. I’m in my second trimester and I don’t feel like I can do this. I can’t do this, I need…I need help. I need God’s help. My family’s really supportive my husbands really supportive but I have nursing school to go to in just a couple weeks and I’m hardly making it each day. And, it’s…I need…I need so much help. I, I need encouragement but I also need help that it’s gonna get better and that I’m gonna be able to go to school and I know that it’s not that bad, I don’t…I know other people, you know, just would be so happy to be having a baby right now, I just, I feel, I don’t know, a lot of mixed emotions. Ashamed and upset at myself for I don’t know, not dealing with this better. But, I don’t know what else to do. I feel like I’ve been trying everyday, anything I can do. And it’s such a struggle. If you guys could please pray for me to, if there’s something I could do. Lord help please. Amen.

Hi, this is Ivy it’s been a while since I put in a prayer request but I wanted to just mention that I am just so blessed and honored to have been apart of DAB for so long, I had no idea how long until I found an old note in my bible that referred to the date November 29th 2010 that’s when I started and I wished I would’ve stayed with that but as life goes on with so many it seems that we just either get busy, life gets in the way, I’m not sure what but. Today I am grateful that I’m back into it. I have been searching through my Bible for so many notes and again I’ve been so blessed with so many notes that I’ve kept in there, God has been so true to me. I am going to ask for prayer for my family, because it seems like it’s been under attack and I know why now because I’m back into the word and it seems like when you’re following the Lord, as you should Satan doesn’t like it and I’m just very blessed to know that God is on my side and my family’s side so I ask prayer for my family. There’s so much going on I can’t even begin to explain, please, please just pray for my family. My mother especially, she’s 91. She’s been attacked with all the prayers that she’s been praying for all of us so bless her Lord Jesus in your name I pray, and lift her up and everyone else on this site. Thank you.

Hello, I’m calling for the first time I’ve been a listener since 2011. I just want to first thank Brian and Jill for this ministry and this ministry has been such a blessing for me, and all those that are around me are affected by it also. And I just want to give praise and honor to our heavenly Father for this ministry also. Thank God for the DAB listeners and everything that we do daily together and help our walk in this life. And so, I want to pray for all the DAB listeners. Okay, and I want to pray that God would just meet every need whether it be spiritual, physical, mental or financial need or whatever the need be, I’m just praying that God would meet every need. And I just want to share this scripture for DAB members. I want to share this scripture that says Isiah 45 and 12: I am the one who made the earth and created people to live on it and with my hands I stretch out the heavens. All the stars are at my command. And that’s the scripture coming from 45 Isaiah verse. I just want you to pray for my strength in the Lord. This has been a rough year. This is one of the roughest years of my life. And so, I’ve lost 3 members of my family. And I would just pray you guys would keep me in prayer. May name is Waters, I’m calling from Virginia. Have a blessed day, DAB members, DAB listeners and all the families. Look forward to hearing from you, so keep me in your prayer. Thank God for you. Chow.

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

Today is the 4^th day of August welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is a joy and a privilege and an honor to be here with you today around this Global Campfire as we take our next step forward together through the Scriptures and through the year. And…yeah…a year of our life together in the Bible changes an awful lot. So, let’s take that next step forward. We’re reading from the book of second Chronicles, and we’ll actually be concluding the book of second Chronicles with our reading today. And then we get to the New Testament because we concluded the letter to the Romans yesterday we’ll be moving into some new territory. And we’ll talk about that when we get there. But first, second Chronicles chapters 35 and 36.

Introduction to 1 Corinthians:

Okay. So, now we’re turning into some new territory in the New Testament, another letter. We’ll actually be kind of camping out in Paul’s letters for a while, but this newsletter was a letter written to the church in Corinth and those people were known as the Corinthians. And, so, this is…this letter is called Corinthians and it’s the first one in the New Testament. And, so, this is called first Corinthians. And, so, just kinda of getting the lay of the land, Corinth wasn’t like a little village, a little hamlet out in the hills in the sticks somewhere. This is like one of the largest cities in the whole Roman Empire. So, pretty influential city in the empire, kind of a hotspot, definitely a hub for commerce and trade and negotiation and business. And, so, it is a large polytheistic Roman Empire city where worship of lots of gods are happening, but it’s also a very secular city, very secularized society. Same as we would experience in any large city pretty much in the world today. If there are a lot of people and they’re from a lot of places then you have a melting pot of a lot of ideas. So, there’s a church there in Corinth, a Christian fellowship of people that Paul was in association with, and this letter is…is really written responding to some of the things he had been asked and some of the things that he had been hearing that were going on in the church there. And fundamentally he’s encouraging unity. And they may have needed that encouragement. Obviously, they needed that encouragement but even though they’re a couple thousand years in the future…man that…that theme of getting on the same page and working and walking together in unity is no less poignant, no less needed today. And as we were going through Romans, you know, we came across passages of Scripture that are very famous like “the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal”, like all of these things in Romans. So, we recognize a lot of passages that are…that are famous. And we will notice the same thing in first Corinthians. There are themes and passages that are very famous like the theme of seeing through a glass darkly or that when I was a child I spoke as a child but when I…when I became a man I put away childish things. These are in first Corinthians. Then, of course, when we get to the 13^th chapter of Corinthians, that…that is known as the love chapter and its very famous and very quotable. So, this is some of the territory that we are steering into. And, so, let’s dive into Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. And today we will read chapter 1 verses 1 through 17.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You each and every day for the way that it…it comes into our hearts and into our lives and informs us and challenges us and moves us forward and we are so deeply grateful. And today we had an ending and a beginning. And, so, we’re ending territory in the Old Testament, we’re beginning territory, another of Paul’s letters and we invite Your Holy Spirit to speak clearly that we might hear what You’re saying and obey where You are leading. We invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. As we continue to live into this faith, this journey, this adventure of life together with You. Come Holy Spirit we pray and to all of this and all that we will encounter in the Scriptures in the days ahead we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And, so, check it out. Check out the Daily Audio Bible app. You can access all of these things from within the app as well. So, check that out.

Check out the Shop, the Daily Audio Bible Shop either in the app or on the web. There are a number of resources there and a number of different categories that we have developed over the years for the journey that we are on around this Global Campfire through a year in the Bible and in life together, and there are resources to accompany that journey. So, check them out in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, humbly, with humble gratitude. Thank you for your partnership. If the…the mission here around this Global Campfire to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and given freely to whoever will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night, and to build community around that rhythm so that this isn’t the solitary journey either through the Bible or through life, that we’re in this together. If that makes a difference ten thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi this is Paul from Ohio been listening for about 14 years off and on. I’m calling today to say some prayer for Susie from Colorado who called in as she’s feeling weary after 27 years of taking care of orphans in Haiti. You deserve to feel weary. Jesus felt weary several times. In John 4, 5, and six is said He was tired in the well near Samaria. In Matthew 5:23-24 He slept through the storm he was so weary. Elijah was allowed to sleep. In King’s 19 he slept in the cave under the broom tree and God fed him and he fell back asleep and was OK. Jesus said come to me all you are weary, and I will give you rest. It is totally understandable, and I pray that you get the help that you need, and I pray that you’ll see in scriptures not the verses that talk about you being lazy or not doing enough. You are doing plenty and you have to take care of yourself to be able to take care of the rest of the…those orphans many with disabilities. Just like on an airplane when they tell you to put your oxygen mask on first so that you can help the others, you gotta put your oxygen mask on. Give yourself a break. Ask for help. It will make you be a better caregiver and better able to do God’s work on this earth. And I think that is what your goal is. You’ve already done so much. So, I pray for all these things for you. Amen.

Hi this is Kelly in Greensboro NC, and this is for Loving Heart in Saint Louis. I just heard your prayer my dear sweet sister in Christ over your precious daughter who has anorexia and I just wanted to lift you and your husband and your precious child up to the Lord for healing and I just wanted to pray some scripture over her. Psalm 30 verse 2, I cry out to the Lord and heals me. Psalm 103:3 the Lord forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. Psalm 107:20, He sends His word and heals me and rescues me from the pit and destruction. Isaiah 58:8, My light shall break forth like the morning and My healing shall spring forth speedily. Jeremiah 17:14, heal me O Lord and I shall be healed, save me and I shall be saved for You are my praise. And then Jeremiah 30:17, the Lord has declared that He will restore me to health and heal my wounds. Lord we just pray that if there are any untapped resources that this precious family has not been made aware of that You will bring them into their lives father. And we just lift up this daughter to You, we lift up this mother and father who are heartbroken to see the health of their daughter deteriorate father. And Lord we just pray for complete and total healing of her mind and her body and in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Hey DAB family this is D in Tampa and I called in a couple of…well maybe a week ago or so…a couple weeks ago feeling down and sad from some losses I’ve had over the last five years. And the prayer request I have for today…and by the way thank you so much to those who did pray. The prayer request I have today is to ask that people, my family on here, my DAB brothers and sisters would pray for the Holy Spirit’s intervention over my mental health. I suffer from PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and depression, anxiety along with physical illness. Anyway, my time is running short, and I just want to say we need Christians to stand around each other and not shame each other about mental health issues. And I just want to ask for your prayers over me and I thank you in advance and God bless you guys. Thank you.

Good morning Daily Audio family I just wanted to speak to the person, the gentleman who was wanted to pray for the son’s girlfriend with the __ and everything. I just want to say right now in the name of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus she is being healed and is healed. So, I’m in agreement for full healing and that the Holy Spirit will be able to heal her give her peace and be able to speak to her and draw her closer to God to the Father and also to Jesus. So, I’m in agreement with that and right now I believe in the name of Jesus that she is going to be healed, that it’s gonna be a speedy recovery and healing in Jesus’ name. We love you family.

Good morning DABbers this is God’s chosen one from Georgia. I am standing in need of prayer this morning. I have been dealing with multiple myeloma for a while. The pain is deep. The aches are unbearable, but I could use your prayer this morning. It’s a new month and so I believe that God will do something new. That our God will move with might and power and restore me to health. I pray that this morning as we enter into this new month of August His mercy will prevail and that His loving kindness will speak life into me. I pray for healing, completeness, wholeness. I pray for complete restoration. I pray as I believe by faith that He is more than able. [singing starts] it’s me it’s me oh Lord standing in the need of prayer. It’s me it’s me oh Lord standing in the need of prayer. It’s not my brother not my sister but it’s me oh Lord standing in the need of prayer, not my father or my mother, but it’s me oh Lord standing in the need of prayer [singing stops].

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

Today is the 3rd day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian, it is always great to be here with you today as we do what we do and take another step forward together through the Scriptures. So, let’s dive into that, we’re in the book of 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament, which we will finish up soon. And today, in the New Testament, we will conclude the letter to the Romans. We’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week, 2 Chronicles 33 verse 14 through 34 verse 33.

Commentary:

Okay, so we are definitely reaching the conclusion of 2 Chronicles and we did conclude the letter to the Romans today. One of, if not the crowning jewel from the pen of Paul anyway, where the claims of sin in our life are explained and the fact that Jesus opens up salvation to anyone and everyone who will believe and live into it, whether Jew or Gentile, is unpacked. The fact that we are all reborn into something new that God is doing in this world, in which Jesus was the firstborn, is unpacked. And this puts us all on level, like a level playing field. We are all lucky. We are all fortunate to have this rebirth and we are all equals in Christ, one in Christ. No one’s better than anybody else and no gifting is better than anyone else’s, we’re all here with a purpose. These things have been explained and unpacked before our very eyes, as we’ve read through the book of Romans. And it’s really impossible not to at least look at what Proverbs is telling us today because it’s talking about gossip and gossip is such an insidious thing, like it seems like it’s not. But people are talking about each other behind each other’s backs, like continually as even a part of our cultural norms and yet when have you ever found out that there was gossip going on about you and that ever produced something good in you? When, for that matter, have you ever perpetrate…like have you ever passed around gossip? Get together with some friends have some coffee and then sort of just eat one of your other friends behind their back for lunch just having conversation; what you think this, what you think their thinking what…oh well, I heard this and you just keep going and going. Do you leave a conversation like that is feeling the joy of the Lord in full inside? And even if you could say “yeah, I feel pretty good,” how would the person that you have been gossiping about feel, were they to hear the conversation that just happened. Gossip is…it’s just in the dark behind the scenes and it divides, it brings division, it’s divisive. The counsel of the Proverb is “do not associate with a person whose mouth is always open, that person goes around telling secrets,” according to the Proverb. And this is pretty straight up right? It’s not like it's…we got a sit here and ponder what’s really being said, we’ve all experienced gossiping, we’ve probably all participated in gossip. What kind of time and energy would it free up if we just didn’t participate? Even if we took a week off just to test, just see what kind of difference that would make, especially if we’re kind of habitual and that’s what we do is gossip. We’ll be incredibly hard pressed to find any mention of gossip in the Scriptures in which it’s a good thing and that anything good comes of it. But we see from the council of the Scriptures is that our words matter. They have the power of life and death. And if we’re gonna use them in some sort of dark way, than some sort of dark thing is going to happen. And at minimum, it’s worth considering.

Prayer:

And so, Holy Spirit come, come into that. Come into the things that we let fly out of our mouths. The things that have been born in our hearts before they ever were formed into words and communicated. The things that have been swirling around in our minds before we ever send them. We need You in those places before these things are ever forming, before he ever…well, before we ever go around as a gossip and tell secrets, so that we are a person that shouldn’t be associated with because our mouth is always open. That’s the council from the Scriptures from the Proverbs today. May that sink into us, may it change us we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website. It’s where we find out what’s happening around here and all…all of us be familiar with the Community section of the website or app for that matter, because well, in the Community section, that’s where the Prayer Wall is and that is where it lives, and it is always happening. People are praying for one another. People are asking for prayer. And there’s always a place to reach out and so definitely check that out in the Community section, the Prayer Wall. There are also links to different social media channels where we’re we are participating in. So, that is also a good thing to know, so check out the Community section on the app or on the website.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, as we move through this year, as of said many, many times, we wouldn’t be moving through the year, or around any Global Campfire if we weren’t in this together. So, thank you, thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com or if you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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

Prayers and Encouragements:

Hi DAB family this is Tammy from the Outerondex. I want to thank everybody for your prayers. I’m smiling again, I still have tears here and there but I’m smiling again and I just want to thank you all for your prayers and your continued prayers. I’m still in remission, praise God. I’m calling because I’m asking for prayers for a special friend. She’s 50 years old and she’s got a lot of mental health issues and she’s a cutter. And she just recently had…my husband and…she lives in across the country and my husband and I have offered for her to move in. She lives, she lives alone, her daughter is grown up, her parents live this side of the country, the East coast. But she just feels very alone. She says that she believes in God but I don’t know if she really knows the relationship you have with God when you become saved. And, she says that she has her, she prays to God and she asks God to forgive her but she just recently, her daughter told her she didn’t want to talk to her anymore and her relationship with her father is strained. I’m running out of time here. She’s a cutter and she cut herself and ended up having to get 19 stiches and, on the outside and two on the inside. And I want to help her and I believe God spoke to me tonight and told me to reach out to all of you. And maybe with all of us praying we could help her and maybe you can help me to help her. So, I love you all I pray for you all and God bless you all and please keep Christie in your prayers. Thank you, bye.

Hi DAB family. This is Praying Momma from SOCAL. And I really need your prayers. I just read my daughters journal and it said that she was suicidal and that she didn’t fear death and she is just going through a lot so I’m just crying out to you all because I know you pray and I believe that God hears my prayers right now. But He’s also hearing us together. I’ve appreciated all of you that have called in and everyone that prays for each other. Very thankful for you all and I’m thankful for you praying with me for my daughter Lauren. Lord, I just lift up Lauren to you right now, it’s 2o’clock in the morning and my heart has just been woken up to pray over her and her mind and her thoughts. In Jesus name, by the power of invested in us in the blood of Jesus, You’ve given us that power to come against any spirit that is just coming against my daughter. And I’m thankful for all of those that are praying with me over her mind, her heart, her spirit, her purpose and that her ability to know you Lord. Open up her mind to you Jesus. And come in and show her how much you love her. Thank you DAB family for praying. Thank you for praying over Lauren. I love her so much Lord and I know that You love her. Thank you.

Just wanted to take this time to, you know reach out to that Lady in regards to her daughter dealing with anorexia. And I just want her to know that you know that I called in the other day to Alberta from Tampa in regards to me, dealing with you know, depression and just had to call in again and you know just let her know that the mind you know, tries to take control of us and I’m learning that you know that the devils a liar and to just keeping having faith. And everyday is a new step and just have faith that you know, mentally your daughters gonna you know get better. Just want to thank you guys for just giving me hope every morning, you know, I feel like, I live double lives right. I work 9-5 very professional, successful individual. But when I get home it’s just like that’s when you know, I just deal with this. And just trying new different things and just having you guys every morning just gives me hope. And you know, I just, I’m a man of God and I just want to thank you guys for giving me hope every morning and Brian just being there and we all doing together as a community as a family. And you know, that individual that called in, the way he prays, the way he was talking in regards to the other day about the individual being charged and just the way how you guys teach me how to pray different and how to just open to God and just have faith. Let’s all just have faith. Hopefully, everything been changed. And I love you guys and I look forward to, just hopefully one day meeting everyone.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. I have a prayer request this morning. My daughter-in-law has a niece from a broken family who’s given up on life and tried to commit suicide unsuccessfully. When they revived her she was angry and started screaming that she just wanted to die. It just breaks my heart. My son and his wife have agreed to take her into their home and try to help her. They have a six-year-old little girl and a four-year-old little boy of their own as well. I’m just asking for prayer for them. I know this is a big thing, they’re taking on and I just ask God to give them wisdom and guidance and protection. Please pray that their niece thrives in this new environment and accepts them into her life and that everything goes smoothly. Pray for protection over their own children as well. As they open their home to help their niece. I know it will be a rough road ahead. They’re Christians and they attend a church that offers a lot of support. Their niece is coming from a northern Pacific densely populated area to an entirely different rural Midwest dry climate. She’s leaving behind a mom and stepdad who have had past drug abuse and a little sister and half-brother, a dad and a stepmom, a boyfriend, grandma, an aunt and an uncle. She’s a beautiful young girl who has totally lost the will to live. She needs Jesus and to be surrounded by people who care more about her than themselves to help her find meaning and value in herself. Thank you. Your prayers are coveted.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Dr. John in Illinois. I had just heard Susie from Colorado. She has a mission in Haiti and I guess I would move most specifically because she is a missionary somebody that has served, and I don’t recall how many years that she said 29 years maybe, but she’s weary, she’s exhausted. And sometimes it is hard. It’s easy to say don’t grow weary in well doing, sometimes is hard to limit so I just want to lift up Susie right now and Jesus name Father would You just provide cover for her, provide restoration for her heart. For her spirit, for her flesh, and Lord bless her because of her service and again doing what she is, she’s caring and loving and providing for orphans, those that have no others. So, Father I would ask in Jesus name that You would meet that need. Father, because I know that You can. I know that You are able and Father, I lift up this loving heart from St. Louis and she’s desperately crying out for her children Lord and all of us that have kids and grandkids know the fear and the desperation when your kids are sick or there are other issues. We do all we can in our power to try to help, but more importantly Lord, we have to depend on You and I guess we should seek You first in all that we do. So, I’m again I’m asking that we pray we seek God for this mother and his father, for this child, and there’s a lot like them. So, I ask you Lord, would you do that, would you step in, would you make a way? And Lord we thank you.