A Walk Through The Word

1 Kings 9:1-10:29, Acts 8:14-40, Psalm 130:1-8, Proverbs 17:2-3

Today is the 12^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian, it is awesome to be here with you today as we, man we’re approaching the middle of another month, we’re not there, no, I know, we got a few days. I just notice that when we get into that week and I start looking at the calendar and I’m like wow, this is, this is how it goes. We’re only a couple weeks away from the middle of the year already. And I for myself couldn’t be happier to be on any journey with anybody than this one with you. Ånd so, let’s take that next step forward. We’re reading from the Common English Bible this week. 1 Kings chapters 9 and 10. And just by way of reminder we are, we are reading the life of King Solomon. And we have reached this place where this is ancient Israel’s finest hour, at least as told in the scriptures. And so, let’s enjoy the peace and prosperity that’s happening here, it took centuries to reach this point and it just last’s so briefly. So, 1 Kings chapters 9 and 10.

Prayer:

Thank You Father for Your word. All that we are learning in Kings Solomon’s reign and observing in ancient Israel and all that we are learning and observing about the early birth of the church after Your ascension we thank You for these things from 1 Kings and Acts. We thank You for what’s spoken of in the Proverbs today, that You are the tester of the heart. You test the heart in the same way a crucible is a tester for silver and a furnace is for gold. And so, purify us God. Make our hearts true before You that we might have eyes to see and ears to hear and that we can completely participate in what You are doing in this world. We can assume our place in Your story. Come Holy Spirit we pray. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website. It is where you find out what’s going on around here so be sure to stay tuned and stay connected. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access all of these things as well. So, like for example in the Community section on the web or in the app gives you access to the different links on social media where you can connect and where we are. The Prayer Wall is also there and that is always on, always available, you can always ask for prayer there, you can always offer prayer there, it’s always available no matter what time of day or night it might be and no matter what you might be or might not be going through. It is always there and so, check that out and participate. That’s one of the beautiful, distinctive things about this community is that we love each other very well through prayer, very well. We shoulder so many of each other’s burdens over the years and we’ve seen God do some beautiful things. Because God does beautiful things in and among us when we make ourselves available. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. If this mission to be a Global Campfire, an oasis in all of it, in the chaos, in the swirl of all of it, a place a safe place, a very safe place for us to exhale and to reorient ourselves and realign ourselves to the priorities of our lives as we follow God. If that makes a difference then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com, if you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Spring Hill, Tennessee, 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayers and Encouragement:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Samuel. I’m calling from Nigeria and this is for Brian who is missing his mother on June 8^th ___. Thank God for her life and thank God for you that you’re able to carry on the good work of the Daily Audio Bible family even after she has passed on. And many of us know what it means to have lost a loved one so I pray that God’s strength be with you, God’s grace would be upon you, He would continue to strengthen you and your entire family and He would give you grace even when you continue with the good works that she started and do more. In Jesus name. Amen. And I would also like to pray for the caller who called in for a nephew who had a neuro-blastoma in the cerebellum. I know that region and God’s hands is really with you. And it really pains me so much that that young boy has to go through with all that but we pray in the name of Jesus that come June 16^th he would be found cancer free in the name of Jesus. God would strengthen him, God would strengthen his mother and his family. The good work that the Lord has started in him God would complete it in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus God would strengthen you too give the boy grace and he would become a testimony of God’s healing power and for his future in the name of Jesus I pray for every other Daily Audio Bible family member that God would be with you that are listening to that are not listening that God would be with them. God would carry your body, God would lift all of us, God would bless us. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible family, I’m glad to be a part of this family and this family is a blessing to me. God bless every one of you. Keep loving Jesus, keep walking in His ways and it will always come through for you. Amen.

Hey DABers it’s…calling in today to pray for so many of you. I listen almost every day and pray for so many of you, I’m on the east coast, my name is Charlie and I love this ministry, this podcast and all of you. I want to pray for Andrew who is a young man in college who realizes that he wants to follow God and commit his life to God and I just pray for Andrew that he will find a Christian group on campus, there’s so many where he can build new relationships and he can start studying the word of God and creating a community because the enemy loves to keep us in isolation. So Andrew, right now, in the name of Jesus I pray that He will bring you into a community of believers on campus, you and your girlfriend, so that you both can begin to build a foundation of faith and of studying the word of God and getting it on the inside of you so that you would become strong and realize that you are a child of the most high God and that you have the power and the authority to grow in faith and in love for the Lord God and for yourself and for other believers. I want to pray for Desperately Running to Jesus who is mourning the loss of her family members, so many people are mourning the loss of their children who’ve committed suicide, son’s who’ve died by motorcycle accidents and it’s…and family who’ve passed. Lord God, death is a natural part of life that’s so hard for us to accept sometimes. So, right now in the name of Jesus I pray for the healing balm of Gilead to flow out on every single person who is listening to this podcast and…and mourning the loss of a loved one. And God, I just pray that You would remind us that we are yoked to You and Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light. I thank You that You are all mighty God and I commit our way to You and our path to You in Jesus name. Amen.

This is a message for Angie who called on the 9^th of June. Talking about how you’ve got someone whose 28 and has found a new mum. And you’ve been an addict since he was 18 and you’ve been very close but he’s found this mother and she’s a Christian and you’re pleased about it but you’re clearly really upset understandably. I don’t know the ins-and-outs of the situation but you’ve must of called around about the day that we were listening to …Brian talked about Solomon asking for wisdom and then afterwards the two women come to him with their child both arguing that it’s their child and in the end the real mother is identified by the fact that she wants the best for the child and I just wanted to make sure that you realize that that’s you. Because you…you’ve accepted that he’s found this other woman even though it’s upsetting to you and in the end that’s how that woman got her child back by wanting the best for her son. So, I just wanted to make sure that you realized that that was you and that you’re doing the right thing by caring about your son more than yourself and to have faith because that’s how that woman got her son back. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure you knew that. God Bless.

Hi there Daily Audio Bible, my name is Shinu, I’m from South Africa. I’m calling in this morning because I need some prayer. I’ve been struggling a lot recently. We’ve moved recently me and my family to a new place and because of this pandemic and because of things that have happened in the last year I’m feeling quite stuck. And there’s a lot of things that I’ve been dealing with that I’ve been trying to deal with on my own and with God. There’s a lot of healing that needs to happen and I just don’t think my parents quite understand or care for that matter. And it’s been really hard because they have all these expectations of me and I try so hard to meet those expectations but I’m struggling with anxiety and depression. Not the clinical depression but the depression of the body and the mind. And I feel like there’s so much healing that I need to do and they…they can’t see it or they don’t care or whatever but it’s really hard and difficult trying to feel like I’m not a burden. Trying to feel like I’m not useless. Trying to feel like I’m just this ghost, roaming around my house. I feel so estranged from the people that I love and I really need prayer. Thank you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible this is God’s Tree for I have many branches and I’m trying hard to be rooted in the word of God. I called a few weeks back about my son going through a difficult time trying to find a job and trying to get a reliable car and everything. Well, me and my husband decided to pray over him this weekend and cover him cause he’s a good kid just has bad luck. And, this morning I just got a call from him, he’s driving his father’s truck trying to go for…to take a test for a job and lost control of the truck and crashed it and it caught on fire and total loss of the truck. And even though his father was not angry he was glad that he’s safe in my heart I’m afraid that my husband is gonna hate my son cause he keeps taking us a through monetarily. And I’m just asking that you would pray for my family and my relationship with my son and my husband. He’s a step-son to my husband but he…that’s the only daddy he knows. But it’s starting to cost us a lot of money to get him straight even though he’s a good kid. So, I ask that you just pray for him, his name is Tyke and that God would turn around his situation and that the enemy would stop attacking him and his luck would improve and his life would be better. He’s 30 years old and he wants to be stable and have a good life and I know that there are other people who have worse things going on in their lives but I just need prayer for my situation. I thank you all. God Bless you.

1 Kings 8:1-66, Acts 7:51-8:13, Psalms 129:1-8, Proverbs 17:1

Today is the 11^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we press forward in our week toward the end of another one of our weeks together. I’m so grateful that we can share time. I’m so grateful that we’re…none of us are in this alone. And what a journey it is to travel through the Bible together. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the book of first Kings in our Old Testament reading. We’re reading from the Common English Bible this week. First Kings chapter 8.

Commentary:

Okay. So, it’s kind of a pivotal day here in Old and New Testaments. Important events that sort of shift and change things have occurred. So, in the book of first Kings it’s the temple. The temple is completed and dedicated and Solomon’s before his people and dedicating the temple and standing humbly before the Lord. And this is the pinnacle, and we don’t really get to stay at this pinnacle for very long before we start going down the other side of this story. And, so, this is a bit of an important day because, odd as it sounds, we’ve been working toward this day since we started the beginning of this year. And as I’ve mentioned before, especially since we met Abram who became Abraham. We’ve been following the story of that family and we will continue to follow the story of that family throughout the rest of the Bible because they become the children of Israel. And, so, now there is a temple in Jerusalem. There is a king of Israel. His name is Solomon and he is bringing them to their finest hour. And, so it’s like, let’s enjoy this moment because we’ll continue this story, it’s like we’ll continue the story of ancient Israel, certainly but we’ve been working like so long toward this promised land and toward the establishment of this people and this is where we are now. They are in for firm control of the promised land. The have a wise king who is standing before God in humility. His reputation for wisdom is known the world over. Peace is upon them, all around them on all sides. Prosperity is everywhere. People are sort of like living the dream at this point. But it just doesn’t last that long. So, let’s enjoy it.

When we turn into the book of Acts, we have reached the conclusion of Stevens testimony, which went on for a couple of days now where he recounted the story that we read from the beginning of the year. He was doing it at his own trial where he was accused. Basically, he needed to haul out his Hebrew credentials. And that’s what his testimony was, telling the story of his people of which he was one of them. But when he got to the last little bit of that story and connected Jesus to that story and then, you know, kind of indicted the religious leaders themselves in that story, like reverse accusation. They’re accusing him of one thing and then he’s kind of accusing back how that story came to its conclusion and they’re just livid right, grinding their teeth at him, rushing at him, dragging him out of the city. And we see the first person after Jesus’ death, the first person recorded in the Scriptures that died for their faith in Jesus Christ. This is the first person killed for their faith in Jesus. And I guess it’s fair to point out since it’s pointed out explicitly in the Scriptures that it's…it’s the religious leaders. It’s the religion, it’s the people who are over the people spiritually that have hauled Stephen and made these accusations and then condemned him and shrieked at him and drug him out of the city and a mob forms and then they stoned Stephen to death. It’s sort of the same story, same opposition that came against Jesus. It’s so ironic that it’s the religious leaders that are so against this move of God that simply can’t in any way fathom God doing a new thing that in any way He will replace any old thing in any possible scenario. And, so, they’re…they’re…they’re stoning Stephen and they’re very angry and they’re doing it in their rage, but they think they’re defending God. Like, it’s not like they just got murderous all of the sudden. It’s very possible that they got envious, but Stephen, he wasn’t that big of a deal. Like, there’s wasn’t a whole lot to envy there. There was definitely envy over Jesus. It’s…it’s…that’s explicit in the Scriptures too but in this scenario, they just want this to stop, and they want this news of a Messiah that suffered and has risen from the dead. They want this to go away. And the…the book of Acts goes into detail about Saul, Saul standing there holding the robe…the cloaks of those killing Stephen, approving of it, and then how he unleashed an assault on the church and was dragging people into prison and questioning them. And just his mission, he believed was on behalf and for God defending the name of God and His righteousness and His law. So, he begins to persecute the church. And that’s what we see happen after Stephen’s death. We’re just barely scratching the surface here in the book of Acts, but we see that when that happens, once Stephen was killed that caused people to…to break apart and to flee, to move into other regions, to move around, which only served to escalate the good news spread all around the region. So, Stephen dies and as a result the…the thing that they were trying to stamp out only moves more aggressively forward and more quickly. And this is how the church, and the church era is born - early believers under duress being pressured and marginalized by their fellow Hebrew people. Like, we don’t have a whole lot of news about Gentile…like we haven’t reached that part. We’re at the very beginning and this is a Hebrew centric thing, the faith in Jesus. It’s a Hebrew centric thing is it as it gets going. It becomes a Gentile centric thing over time once the Jews condemn following the Nazarene as a heresy, distancing themselves from…well…what becomes known as Christianity. And, so, that’s what we’re watching develop.

Prayer:

Father we thank You. As always, we thank You for these…these stories and these people that we get to know and how it all begins to fit together to tell a larger story. We are very, very grateful. And, so, even as we watch ancient Israel reach the mountaintop experience that they been working toward for so long, we thank You for that story. And we will continue to watch the story all the way through and find so many of the nuances of our own lives in it. We also thank You for the story that reveals the birth of the church and how our earliest brothers and sisters faced questions that were before them and the pressures and persecutions that were thrust upon them. Holy Spirit come. Help us to learn lessons that we need to know. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base.

Of course, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app your holding home base in your hand there. So, all of these things can be accessed from either the web or the app, like the Community section where the Prayer Wall is, like the Daily Audio Bible Shop where there are resources for the journey, the journey through the Bible in a year in community. In fact, in the Daily Audio Bible Shop is an entire Global Campfire section of the Shop with all kinds of things just to accompany the journey to be there along the way to remind us that we’re doing this together, we’re doing this together in community. And, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s 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 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:

Heavenly Father Lord I just want to lift up that the lady who just came on on the 6^th of June in regards to her son passing Lord. Father God I just pray that You would just continue to be her in her family’s strength. I pray Lord God that You watch over her heart Lord. Father God tend to her heart and to the whole family’s heart Lord. Father God, I also thank You that they were allowed, and You gave them the opportunity to spend the time they spent with their son and his heart wanting to go back to church and wanted to get close to You. So, Lord I just pray God Father that You would just lift them up, be with them, strengthen them. Help them oh God in this season of their grief. Oh God Father minister to their hearts God and know that their son have connected with You and now is with You. So Father God I just lift up her and her family. I lift up every day from…from henceforth that You would just continue to be with them. Show them that You love them. Give them what they need oh God. I lift him up in the mighty name of Jesus. Have Your way. Give them peace of God. Comfort them when they need Your comfort oh God Lord. And Father God, I pray You will send people around them who will also encourage them, lift them, Lord God, for a __, for a word, for song. Lord God I just pray oh God that their hope will continue to rest in You as they go through their daily days and their daily weeks. Father God in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Ashley from California and I just wanted to reach out and encourage those out there who are still experiencing the COVID pandemic and just still wrestling with the season of a lack of joy and feeling like that. I wanted to share with you Psalm 27 verses 13 and 14. And it says, “yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.” And everybody, I have had…I’ve had…I’ve had a rollercoaster over a year, and I can’t imagine what other circumstances are going on in your life, but I just want to encourage you from what it says in the scripture. It says when things look topsy turvy and is hard to keep leaning into God to keep our eyes on Him and to pray and lean in and He will offer that peace that surpasses understanding. So, I just want to encourage you. Just keep waiting, just keep praying, just keep going to God and he will help, and it will get better. Take care everybody. This is Ashley from California. I love you all. I’m praying for you all and have a blessed day. Bye.

Hi, DABbers, this is Kira from Denver. I just wanted to lift up Carmen from Canada. And…ahhh…Father God I come to You in prayer to Your throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need. Please strengthen Carmen and her family as they grieve the loss of her son. Help them to be comforted and know that You are God. And we don’t understand why these things happen in the way that they do but show her Your face God. Let Your love shine upon Carmen. Amen.

Good evening DABbers this is Running Desperately to Jesus also known as Staying Desperately connected to Jesus. I’m coming…coming to you very humble thanking you all for your prayers for standing in the gap for me. I heard every prayer that was sent straight up to God. So, I know He heard them. I thank you for your words of encouragement and for your asking God to give me joy in the month of June. My joy comes from hearing my brothers and sisters that I can go to whenever I need to have someone pray me through and that’s exactly what you did and that’s exactly what you’re doing is praying me through. I thank you again from the bottom my heart. I love you all. I wish I could see you personally, but your voice right now is sufficient because it’s a voice from God and I thank you. I thank him for this season, this season of putting you in my life. This season has been going on now for three years and I look forward to the season continuing on. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you and I love every one of you. Thank you. Running Desperately to Jesus also Staying Desperately connected to Jesus.

Good morning DAB family it’s a beautiful morning in the UAE Abud Abi here I am. I am __ from South Africa Cape Town, a first-time caller but a longtime listener. Well man, thank you Brian for your way of breaking down the word to us and make it easy, make it simple in our busy days that we can just sit on our phones and hear the word of God. Man, I’m so moved by king Solomon’s. I always love reading his books because instead of asking of everything that other kings are searching and searching even today’s life but he asked for wisdom because without wisdom we are nothing in this world. So, Father God, we thank You for this beautiful word. We just want to pray over us Lord we just want to pray that prayer and ask for wisdom Lord, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Father You chose us to be Your sons and daughters. You chose us Lord to show this world Your love, to be an example of who You are. So, we pray for wisdom in the places where You have placed us. We believe Lord, You have placed us for a purpose, and we need Your wisdom every day. We need Your knowledge. We want to know deeper things of the heaven Lord. We don’t want to do things Lord according to our own understanding, but we search for that wisdom Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You for this beautiful family that we can come together Lord and pray and encourage each other and love each other. But we don’t want that to end only hear Lord, on these phones, on these mobile phones that we’re listening, but we want to do that Lord practically outside. We want to show that love to the world. We want to change the world Lord through Your love…

1 Kings 7:1-51, Acts 7:30-50, Psalm 128:1-6, Proverbs 16:31-33

Today is the 10^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we continue our journey through this week, through this month, through this year through the bible and I’m excited for the fact that we are here and we can take the next step forward together as so let’s do that. We’re reading in the Old Testament from the Book of 1 Kings. We are reading about King Solomon at the moment and the building of the temple of God. And really all the development that King Solomon did during his reign. So today 1 Kings chapter 7.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for all of the different facets and nuances of thousands of years that are laid before us in the lifetimes of those that have gone before us that we get to know and we get to look at and we get to observe. We get to see their choices and motivations of their hearts and where those paths lead. And so, even as we continue in the Book of Acts this review that is coming by way of testimony from Stephen, one of the early followers in Jerusalem, one of the early leaders, one of the 7 first deacons in the scriptures. As he’s been arrested and has been interrogated and is being accused he’s telling the story of his own Hebrew heritage. And as he does that we get a review of the territory that we’ve encountered. And so, as we read the testimony of Stephen help us to recall and remember things that you have planted in us along the way this year. And then even as we move toward the conclusion of Stephen’s testimony and prepare to meet Saul and somebody that we’re gonna get to know pretty well. We open our spirits, we open our hearts to your leadership God. To everything that you have to say, through everything that we’re reading now and then everything that…all the letters that we’ll read from this Pharisee Saul who will become Paul. We open our hearts to what You will teach us. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home, home base. Home of the Global Campfire and home for all that we do around here and so, stay tuned and stay connected to that. Check out the resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. And also check out the Community section that is where the Prayer Wall lives, that’s where it is and exists and is always available for yeah, to go and request, ask for prayer. Ride it out or maybe go and offer prayer and offer words of encouragement to those in need. So that can be found in the Community section either on the web, the website or using the app by pressing the little drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. That will get you to the Community section and that will get you to the prayer wall so be aware of that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission that we share to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to whoever will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around the rhythm, of being here around the Global Campfire every day. If that is meaningful, then I thank you humbly for your partnership. So, there’s 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 P.O. Box 1996 Spring Hill, Tennessee, 37174.

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

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

Prayers and Encouragement:

Hello Daily Audio Bible family my name is Deja from North Carolina. I am a new member I was introduced to the Daily Audio Bible by a gentleman at work. I’m just asking for prayer and clarity and truth. I just found out at the age of 40 that my father is possibly not my father. I am currently waiting on DNA results from ancestry DNA and to be honest it’s a bit nerve racking. It’s just been a lot unfolding. I know that we’re in a season of uncovering so, everything that’s been done in the dark is coming to the light. So, anything that we have done and covered up it’s the time for revealing. And unfortunately, a lot in the last 3-4 months has been revealed about life, my life, my family life, my siblings. We’re really, really going thru so, just pray for us. I thank you all so very much. I love this community, listening to the prayers and the responses and Brian with the word, I mean, it’s amazing. It’s been life changing and it keeps me humble and stable through this situation. So, thank you so much in advance for your prayers. And just waiting and ya’ll please trust and agree with me that everything is gonna be okay. No matter what the results say. Thank you. Love you all.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Steve from Albertville, Alabama. I ask that you lift up my cousins Brian and Donna. Donna has found out that she has a very aggressive terminal cancer and she has a goal. Her short-term goal and long-term goal is that she’s able to stay alive long enough to see her first grandchild which is 6 weeks from now. Just join me in prayer and lift up Donna as she goes through cemo and that she can complete her goal. She’s a Christian, she’s a believer, her husband is as well. And so, again I just ask that you join me in prayer and lift Donna and Brian up through these hard times. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

A good day to everybody. My name is, my moniker here is Blessed Amongst Women. Today is Sunday the 6^th of June of 2021. I just finished listening to the message played yesterday the 5^th of June. The message from a young man called Andrew a 21-year-old. Andrew I have to admit your message brought a rather wry smile to my face cause there’s nothing as humble as to listening to a young man or rather a younger person come to his God to lay himself bare and to admit to God that he cannot have his own free will. But I do quote, let it be known to you Andrew that please do not for one-minute think that you’re not alone. The struggle is eternal, the struggle has been from time in the ___ and it is universal. After all it is with the same caldron with the same humility that the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 7:15: For that which I do I allow not, for what I would do that do I not but that what I hate to do, that I do. And then in 19 it goes on to say: For the good which I would I do not but to the evil which I would not, that I do. The point being, you are not alone Andrew. And my prayer for you is that you will always know to come before your God. Because it is better for us to be chastened by God…for it is better for us to repent than the be chastened by God. And I pray that in your walk with Him that He would never leave or forsake you.

Hello DAB community my name is Tiara and I’m from Houston, Texas and this is my first time, officially, calling. I’ve participated in the Community wall, and Prayer wall, but never done this before. So, I’ve felt inclined to do so because I’ve been a little weary, I’ve been kind of letting my negative thoughts and emotions kind of cripple me and it’s hard for me to put them into words, what I’m feeling and going through. And I don’t have friends and family who love ___ but sometimes I just get tired of burdening them with my emotions and so I just feel kind of alone and I know I’m not. So, I just know that I’m not the only one that’s feeling like this or ya know, I don’t know. I’m just asking for prayer in that aspect and if anyone else is going through this please know you’re not alone and we’re in this together, God willing. Thank you for listening and I pray you have a rest…a blessed Sunday evening.

Hello, this is Aaron from Vegas. It’s been a while since I reached out and touched everyone. It’s my tenth-year anniversary listening to the DAB and it’s been a blessing to my life. I want you guys to keep me in your thoughts and prayers; I’ve battled some legal issues and it’s been stressful but I know God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think. I also want to pray for the woman that called, she lives in a small town and her family runs a business and she’s having some marital issues and she has sons that work at the company and one left the company because he had a dispute with his father and she’s battling with her husband because she won’t take the son’s side…the husband’s side regarding the situation. And the affair that he had…the husband had and what not. Just want to lift them up. Father thank You so much for this family and I pray that Your will be done in their lives. I pray You would bless the husband to come back, change his mind, change his ways and raise him up Lord to be an example to his sons and to his wife and to his family. Bless him and keep him. We pray for the wife that she would be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Bless his sons as well and bless the business and keep them all well and keep them safe. We thank You for all the prayers that come through, we thank You for this wonderful podcast and this platform. Bless everyone that calls in and bless everyone that listens. We thank You for everything in Christ’s name we ask. Amen. God bless you. See you soon, talk to you soon. Take care. Bye Bye.

1 Kings 5:1-6:38, Acts 7:1-29, Psalms 127:1-5, Proverbs 16:28-30

Today is the 9^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you in the center of our week. And this is the first full week of the month of June, not that that matters but we’re in the middle of the first full week. I pay attention to these things because it’s day by day step-by-step. And, so, everything that marks the time, the forward progress is a good thing. And it’s good to be here with you did today around the Global Campfire as we take this next step forward. In the Old Testament we are reading from the book of First Kings and we’re just getting going. We’re…we’re working through the life and reign of King Solomon who is the son of King David. Solomon is leading Israel really to its finest hour. And that’s basically what we’re watching. It’s really interesting, because in Solomon’s reign, everything that we have been working toward this entire year reaches it’s…it…it’s mountaintop…it…it’s apex. And then in Solomon’s reign there’s a slide. Like, we reach the mountaintop and then we start going down the other side. But right now, we are working our way to that apex. Solomon has consolidated all his power. He’s got his government structure in place. His wisdom is becoming renowned all over the world. People are actually making Jerusalem a destination. Like, high profile powerful people are making Jerusalem a destination because they want to visit with this wise  King Solomon. And Solomon is going to build a permanent temple for God, something that his father David had wanted to do but wasn’t allowed to do. Solomon will be allowed to do that. And, so, let’s head in that direction. First Kings chapters 5 and 6 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in first Kings Solomon is now indeed building the temple. And we see how they’re gonna get the lumber and how it’s gonna be floated down the ocean and the exchange of payments and all of this. And, so, the temple, the temple of God is being built in Jerusalem, bringing with it a sense of national identity and spiritual identity. And we’ll continue with that story tomorrow.

In the book of Acts, we sort of began a story yesterday, just very very briefly and that story has spilled over into today’s reading in the form of a testimony. So, we remember that there were seven deacons that were appointed to more fairly distribute resources and food to…to widows. One of those men was named Stephen. Stephen was out doing his job but he was confronted by Jewish people from other regions and it kinda broke out into a fight. And then there were some accusations about Stephen’s commitment to his Jewishness and to his Jewish heritage. He is being associated with Jesus and one of the things about Jesus, one of the accusations against Jesus was that…well…first of all that he was a blasphemer but second of all that he was a lawbreaker, right? The…the…the laws of Moses were being broken or reinterpreted in a way that they didn’t accept. So, Stephen’s being accused and then he’s arrested. And, so, now what’s happening is Stephen is giving his testimony in his own defense. And what we should notice is that what Stephen is saying is basically a review of the story that we’ve read from the beginning of the year. He’s retracing the steps by retelling the origin story of the Hebrew people and by doing this he’s proving not only that he knows the story but that this is his own heritage. There’s some very very important things going on here. People who were following the Nazarene or “the way”, the way of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus indeed was crucified, and everybody knows that. There are still people following his teachings, though that truly did believe He was a good teacher and a good man and a prophet of God, and there are people who are following after the ways of Jesus, but at this point, at the origin, the beginning, the flashpoint of the church, this is very, very centered in the Hebrew culture. So, the Nazarenes teachings can theoretically be tolerated as long as they stay in the context of Judaism. And the earliest believers were Jews. Jesus was a Jew. Everyone who penned anything in the New Testament was also a Jew. And, I mean, there are generally scholarly disputes that have always been going on about authorship of certain books. And we can…we can point like to the book of Hebrews and go like, “well…you don’t know that. You can’t make that statement because we don’t know who the author of the book of Hebrews.” But, like the book of Hebrews is to Hebrews. So, it would be really hard for it to not have been written by a Jew because the whole context at all in that book is a Hebrew context. So, Stephen’s arrested and he’s being questioned and he’s…he’s choosing to show his Jewishness because as the church began it was coming from that context from that region from those people and outward into the world. And, so, you can follow this Rabbi Jesus, you can…can follow this person’s teachings as long as you obey the Mosaic law and follow the customs of Judaism. Jesus was accused. Stephen is being accused of not doing that. This will eventually come to a head. And we’ll get there soon enough, but it’s important to just realize it is a Hebrew context from which this story springs. We are mostly all Gentile people who believe in Jesus in the world today. Like vastly more Gentile than Jewish, and yet we can’t approach the good news without the Hebrew context, or it doesn’t make any sense. So with Stephen being arrested we see some early rumblings, some of the early unsettling reverberations of what is to come as this new thing that God is doing upon the earth through Jesus Christ begins to take hold, begins…well…begins to form and become a tsunami that spreads throughout all of the earth. We also have a really good opportunity, and I point this out every year when we get to the story of Stephen, we have a really good opportunity because his testimony is…is review of the stories that we have read. So, it gives us an opportunity to quickly go back and kind of catch-up to where we are. At the end of this…and I’ll bet most of you already know, at the end of this we’ll meet somebody who is around all this testimony and all that’s going on around Stephen. He is a zealous Pharisee, very devoutly attempting to become righteous before God by obeying the law and doing what he believes God is commanding and also defending God. He is a student of Gamaliel, and his name is Saul and he will eventually know…be known as the apostle Paul. But when we meet him, and we meet him in this story he wants nothing to do with Jesus. Actually, that’s not true. He does want something to do with Jesus. His mission is to blot out the name and memory of Jesus from the earth and from God’s people, the Jewish people. And, so, he wants to round up these followers of the Nazarene these people that, maybe they’re being tolerated by the greater community, but for Saul these are…these are heretics. These are people that are on the outer boundaries. They need to be rounded up and punished and silenced and this teaching of this person, Jesus, needs to go away. And, so, we’ll see that develop in the coming days.

And then lastly, let’s just look at the proverb again. It’s three sentences. Sentence number one: Destructive people produce conflict. So, I mean that’s ½ a sentence. That’s ½ a sentence but if we stop at that half a sentence and just go, “okay. When I am observing conflict in the world, the voice of wisdom instructs there is…there’s destructive people involved identifying that…just the knowledge of it is helpful but then the sentence is completed. So, “destructive people produce conflict. Gossip’s alienate close friends.” That last one is something that we probably already know, and it’s very destructive and causes conflict, right? So, gossip in this sentence is very dangerous. It causes destruction and conflict and alienates close friends. I mean, we can just take that one. In fact, let’s just take that one. If you want to go back and read the other two sentences, that’s Proverbs 16:28 through 30 today. Let’s just stay there. The things that we say, truly have power and truly need to be selected carefully.

Prayer:

Father, that is something we also know. We know this. It’s just hard to practice it, to do it consistently because how we respond to just about anything very much is affected by the emotional state that we’re in, what’s going on within us. And, so, how we respond to something usually is because of what button got pressed within us and that button is attached to all kinds of stuff inside of our psyches. And, so, we’re not always seek wisdom in the moment. And yet we can cultivate that, we can build that into our lives so that we think before we speak, before we gossip, before we alienate close friends, before we produce conflict, before we’re a destructive person. Come Holy Spirit into that we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Check out the Daily Audio Bible shop there are resources there that I say often are there to accompany the journey. That’s why they’re there. So, like resources like The God of Your Story, which is a project that we created. It was a an incredibly difficult long journey, but to create a 365 day devotional accompanying the passages that we read every day. So, it’s kind like the gold of the Daily Audio Bible in written form. And, so, it’s a resource that’s amazingly available even when Internet isn’t there, whether you’re traveling or on vacation or whatever to just keep with your rhythm. It also serves as a fantastic accompaniment. You know, maybe Daily Audio Bible in the morning then maybe God of Your Story just to kind of reinforce or to look at what we read today and what you might’ve been meditating on during the day from a different angle just to get that in our hearts, in our spirits, allowing it to really transform who we are. So, yeah, check that out, The God of Your story. It’s available…well…it’s available anywhere that you can get a book, but it is certainly available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. 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 I thank you, I thank you. We wouldn’t be here. We couldn’t do this if we didn’t do it together. And, so, thank you profoundly and humbly 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, 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 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 this is Matt from Eastern Washington I was just calling in again really quick just for prayer or encouragement for Becky in Texas. I was listening to the February 22^nd podcast for Daily Audio Bible and you were talking about a blended family and just being exhausted and tired and, you know, your husband’s a first responder. You know, so I don’t know what’s kind of struggles you guys are going through but, you know, my wife and I are both first responders. We both work law enforcement. You know, I don’t know if your husband works law enforcement or EMS or as a firefighter but any…any one of those professions, you know, it…it takes a toll on people. So, anyways, Father god, You know I…I just want to lift Becky up to You and…and her family up to You and just pray that that You can help her, and that You can help them find some sort of where for healing in their marriage and to just restore Becky’s strength and…and that You can show her that having faith in You and…and seeking You for that strength can help get her through all this when she doesn’t think that she has anything left. Father God I…I just pray that You can help Becky’s husband, You know, see that she is exhausted and soften his heart and allow him to help her through these struggles and to reach out to help when he’s struggling. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Becky just look for God for that strength that’s all I’ve been able to do with my stuff. Bye.

Good morning DABC this is Vicki from Ohio I’m reaching out to Vincent from Connecticut this morning. His message really touched my heart. There are so many of us out here that are struggling to find our mate. We go through it so slow. The process is so slow, and healing takes time. I too cannot find a partner that wants to be with me. I always get excited at the beginning and get lots of promises and then I am left behind. God watches over us. He does heal us. It takes so long though sometimes. Vincent, I pray that you keep praying and asking God and that He will provide a woman for you that is deserving and loves you as you can love her. I pray this for everyone out there searching and hoping and desiring their ultimate soulmate through Christ. I pray for myself. I pray for Vincent, and I pray for each one of you out there looking. In Jesus’ name I pray. Be true to us dear Father and let Your will be done. Amen.

Hey family it’s Sparky from Texas. I wanted to take a minute to pray for Andrew who called in asking for prayer over… He’s 21 years old and I just wanted to take a minute to…to tell you that I remember being 21 years old and in the bowel of sin. I’m 35 now but the feelings that you’re feeling, it’s a pivotal moment in your life and you are in the right spot, and I wish that I would have been 21 years old listening to the Daily Audio Bible and listening to…listening to people pray for each other. You’ve got the world ahead of you. Keep your head in the word and look to God. And when it feels like there’s way too much sin in your life, we’ve just finished watching the perfect person and we’ve just finished watching the people closest to Him sin, including Peter. You’re in the right spot. Focus your life where you need to be, where you want to point and keep that part of your life pointed towards Jesus. Keep it here in prayer with people. I just wanted to give you encouragement. I pray with all of you. I love you. And you bring me to tears sometimes, but every prayer request I pray with every one of you. I hope you all have a blessed add weekend and a blessed week following up.

Today is June 4^th this is Beth from Chicago. Today’s reading really touched my heart. I ask that you pray for my sons Tyler, Ryan, and Logan, that their heart may be opened and remove the hardening that has occurred through childhood, through rough times. And I ask that Lord God our Father come into their lives and touch them and help them believe. I am very thankful for this community, and I love you all and I wish you all blessings, peace, and joy. Thank you so much. This is such a beautiful start too every morning. God bless you. Amen.

Hi, my name is Angie from Colorado Springs calling. It’s my second time calling. Thank you guys for praying for me last month or maybe it was April. I’m still needing of prayer for confidence and clarity, depression, anxiety and happiness and laughter. I’ve been sober two years and in this time I have changed so much for the better and have a lot of goals set but in the meantime my son has pretty much not accepted me anymore as his mom. And I got into addiction when he was 18. Before that we were close as ever. He’s now 28 and we’ve been very close throughout this whole time of my life, but I just didn’t do the things I needed to do for him as a mom. So, he has a new mom in his late age which I’m grateful for because their Christians, they love him as far as I know. Anyways, I’m heartbroken. I'm…I'm…just heartbroken. So, he’s always been so close to me, and such a good son, and I’ve been a good mom believe it or not even through my hard times of addiction. Anyways, I just…I can’t find any pleasure in life anymore and it’s because I’m feeling like it’s a death losing a son that you love…

1 Kings 3:3-4:34, Acts 6:1-15, Psalm 126:1-6, Proverbs 16:26-27

Today is the 8^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today. It’s kind of a special day at least in my life this would have been my mom’s birthday and I can’t go past this day without missing her a lot. She…she was a part of this community and I suppose it’s true to say this community couldn’t have existed without her and so, I’m missing my mom today and honoring her today and I know, I’m not the only one missing their mom today or on any day. If you lose your mom…at least, I only had one mom and I only have one experience and that’s my life but I’ve talked to lots and lots of people about grief and when you lose your mom, something feels like it’s missing from then on at least. That’s how it’s been for me so, I miss my mom. I’m grateful for her and her life and for giving me life. And so, with that life and all of our lives combined around this Global Campfire let’s take the next step forward in the scriptures this year. We’re reading from the Common English Bible this week. Today, 1 Kings chapter 3 verse 3 through 4 verse 34.

Commentary:

Okay, so in the Old and New Testament today there are parallels about leadership. And we’ll get to that in a second but in the Old Testament we’re watching King Solomon now, pretty much consolidate everything under his authority. And he’s kind of appointed his government and who’s gonna be where and responsible for and he has a vast territory. And we watch Solomon go before the Lord and simply acknowledge that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I mean that right there, that posture is not unlike his father David in his earlier years and it is the posture that the people really, really identify with they can really get behind. And we see that taking hold in his judgements in what we read today. Solomon goes before God and confesses basically, how did I get here, like, how did this happen, how is it that I’m sitting here now as the King of all the land? How is that you saw my family from way back, how is it that you loved my father the way that you did and how is that I am sitting here and how am I gonna do this? These are your people, how am I gonna lead your people? And so, Solomon asks for understanding, for wisdom, for discernment instead of a powerful army to beat up all the people around him or more slaves so he can do more development, anything that would cause glory to come upon his own name, anything that he could build, he didn’t ask for that. He asked for the tools that he would need to adequately govern the children of Israel, God’s people. And that was the key and God bestowed that upon Solomon as well as everything else he could ever want. And we’ll continue that in the days ahead. But in this king’s life, he had the where with all to not think that he knew what he was going to do and he was the only one that could get it done and that he would go ahead and make that happen, he would be forcing this sort of decisive person that’s just leading things. Rather, he kind of is a contrast to that. He’s a person who knows that he has limitation and knows that he doesn’t even know what those limitations are yet because he’s never does this before. And he doesn’t know exactly how this landed upon him and that he should be so fortunate to be entrusted with this kind of leadership to be a king over a people who are loyal to him but are also depending upon him. And so, he humbles himself before the Lord and asks God to give him what he will need to do the task. When we turn the page into the New Testament we see that the early church continues to develop and numbers to added to day-by-day so there’s a great increase happening. And people are all coming together as a community and sharing…sharing their stuff. Like, providing for each other out of their own surplus so that there is no lack so that everyone is taking care of but as the numbers grow so does the complexity and so does the need for structure and we see that in the book of Acts and this is like one of the times that we can go, I don’t know how I glossed over this all these years. I just saw the Holy Spirit come in the Book of Acts and seemed like everybody after that, when they heard the good news they got saved and they flocked to the early church and it was perfect and everybody took care of everybody else. But what we see in even caring for one another they still had to struggle through some things. In today’s particular episode food was being distributed to widows, so they were, so that is a good thing, like that is a Godly thing, the community has…has come together and one of their purposes is to make sure that the less fortunate, the vulnerable, are cared for. It’s just that now the church has a couple of different languages being spoke: Aramaic and Greek. And these were spoken in the land of, well, it was the Province of Syria in the Roman Empire at the time but in the land where Jerusalem is, the promised land. And that land had gone through Hellenization under the Greek Empire so people still spoke Greek as well as Aramaic and so, people were sort of yes, we are in the same body but no we don’t speak the same language and so people would congregate together based on the languages they would speak, right. And some people would speak bilingual but that, we can understand this, like this is not a concept that is foreign to us in this day and age because people are gonna congregate. And as it turns out the Greek speaking followers of Jesus began to accuse the Aramaic speaking members of the community for playing favoritism. And that the Greek speaking widows were being over looked. And they weren’t…there needs weren’t being met. In response to this, structure was put in place. And 7 people were appointed to take care of this matter in a fair in equitable way. And this, is functionally the birth of what we now know as the deaconate or the role of a deacon which is originally to equitably distribute resources to people who were vulnerable. That role has come to mean a lot of things in a lot of different denominations. Sometimes it’s worked out for the better and sometimes its worked out terribly. But this is the concept, this is where it comes from. These leaders were appointed for a role, an important role to fix a problem, an important problem. And so when the Apostles said you need to appoint 7 people to do this they gave criteria, and I quote from the Book of Acts: they must be well respected and endowed by the Spirit with exceptional wisdom. Wisdom, that’s what connects us back to Solomon. Wisdom is what was sought in the leadership roles. One in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament here on the same day, wisdom was the foundation piece required in order to lead and accomplish the goal. Solomon wanted to lead an entire nation of God’s people with justice and equity and fairness before God righteously. In the Book of Acts, the church in its infancy, wanted to fairly, with equity, with justice provide for the body that was in formation the body of Christ and wisdom was required. So, I think we can say, maybe two things. One that applies in our lives, we must not ignore wisdom as a category. Like, wisdom is beyond common sense and yes we need common sense but wisdom is something that is consulted, wisdom is something that is pondered, wisdom is something that is cultivated and developed. It is born out of experience, it is born out of humbly seeking the experiences of others. It is bestowed by God, wisdom, discernment, understanding, humility. If we would like to eventually and we probably would never, if we became a wiseman or woman we probably wouldn’t know that that’s what we’ve become because we’ll always be a student and we’ll always be seeking discernment and wisdom and humility. But if we want to walk the pathway of the wise then these are criteria that have to be cultivated because they’re part of wisdom, they’re the atmosphere of wisdom. I guess we could think of it like this, discernment, understanding, humility, this is the air that wisdom breaths. And if want to breath that air, if we want to be wise we have to cultivate these things. The other thing that I think we could say is, wisdom isn’t usually a criterion, it’s not even usually a category that we consider when we’re considering leaders and leadership when we have a voice in those kinds of matters whether it would be a political vote or whether it be the selection of kind of, who were gonna follow or how that’s…how that’s gonna work. Often times were just looking for where the fight, where the smoke is then we can find the fire where something’s actually happening, where there’s a lot of energy. Wisdom doesn’t usually look like that. Wisdom is usually a very ancient, solid, methodical, step-by-step observant, aware, sense of things. Wisdom isn’t usually flashy. Wisdom doesn’t have anyone to impress. If we remember wisdoms voice from the Book of Proverbs back we were in the 8^th chapter of Proverbs, she’s everywhere, at every crossroad calling to everyone. She’s looking for those who are listening. In some ways you might say she is looking for those that have eyes to see and ears to hear. And so, not only should we cultivate wisdom in our own lives but as we do we become more and more clear at what is wise and what is foolish and we can see that more clearly and once we do we should expect that, the counsel and leadership of the wise is a good thing. The bible tells us it leads to justice and prosperity. And so, we view into the life of a king today seeking wisdom. And we view into the birth of the early church seeking wisdom, maybe that’s a good path, maybe we should follow it, maybe we should seek wisdom to actively not passively. Like actually in engaging with the idea of becoming wise.

Prayer:

And so, Holy Spirit we invite You into that. If there’s one thing that is very available but scarcely consulted it would be wisdom. We could say that about the world but we can certainly say that about our own lives too. And so, we can’t just point fingers out to the rest of the world we have to look in the mirror. And today we’re seeking wisdom. Today we’re considering it an actual category in our lives, an actual category required for leadership and that flicks on all kinds of lights and makes all kinds of things make sense. And so, with Solomon we pray God give us an understanding heart, give us discernment, give us wisdom, above all of the other things that we are trying to achieve give us wisdom we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base it’s the website it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Of course, if you’re using the app you can find out these things too and I mention the Community section a lot and the fact that the Prayer Wall lives there. So, I mentioning it again because it’s good to know that it’s there. And good to know that it’s on and never off and it’s always available. We can always pray for each other, we can always ask for prayer. So check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, thank you for your partnership. There’s a like on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address if that’s your preference is P.O. Box 1996 Spring Hill, Tennessee, 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app the little red button up at the top and that will work wherever you are in the world. Or there are a number of numbers that you can use that are located in different parts of the world. I guess you can use any of them if you want to call internationally. In the Americas 877-942-4253. If you are in the UK or Europe +44-2036-088078. And if you are in Australia or in that part of the world 613-88-205459 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.  

1 Kings 2:1-3:2, Acts 5:1-42, Psalms 125:1-5, Proverbs 16:25

Today is the 7^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we dive into this week and move through it together. Yesterday as we began this week, we …we began a new book called first Kings. And, so, we’re getting moved into that. It…it basically picks up where Second Samuel left off. And, so, we see one more kind of attempt. David’s getting older, his son Adonijah wants to be the king. And, so, he’s trying to like be proactive about it and get some of the powerful people behind him and see if he can’t get himself declared king somehow, which creates quite a bit of drama because David had promised Bathsheba that Solomon her son would become king. And, so, he does…he does, but it’s kind of weird. There’s rival, sort of people looking for the kingdom, but David puts Solomon on the throne. And, once that’s firmly established, like that Solomon has access to the throne room and the throne and is sitting on the throne and the attendants are attending him as the king, once all that gets back to Adonijah and all of his buddies who are wanting him to be king…well…Adonijah gets left alone pretty quickly. Everybody splits in all kinds of directions. They don’t want king Solomon to know. They don’t want any kind of purge to happen, and they don’t want to be involved in it. They don’t want to be purged. Adonijah has to run into the temple and grab the horns for mercy because he doesn’t want to be purged. But Solomon lets him live long as long as he’ll be honorable. And, so, that’s where we are. David, the king is older now, very very old and is about to pass away and has installed King Solomon on his throne. And, so, we pick up the story. First Kings chapter 2 verse 1 through 3, verse 2 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of First Kings we…well…we’re just getting moved into the book of First Kings and for that matter in the book of Acts we’re pretty much getting moved into the book of Acts as well. So, in first Kings we said goodbye to King David today. And, you know, as we’ve mentioned before sometimes the Bible…like we can be traveling along with a figure for so long that it’s like we know them and then the Bible’s like, “and then they died.” And that’s kind of the story. David has a conversation with Solomon privately about correcting some injustices that still remain and then he died and then Solomon’s on the throne and we saw that this transfer of power was not a smooth transition completely. Nothing was the same after Bathsheba. Like after David took another man’s wife and then had that man killed noth…nothing was ever the same again and his family, or his family line. And, so, David did die but one of the princes, like the eldest son, the prince of Israel also died today, Adonijah, the son of David who had expected to be king and who had…was in the process of trying to get himself declared king. He’s bummed about all this. Solomon is on the throne. He’s disappointed by this and he’s thinking, how can he get some notoriety and how can he, you know, how can he save face here. And he’s got this idea because they had gone and got this beautiful girl, and her name was Abishag. And she's…they searched the whole country for this beautiful girl to come in warm the king’s body. Like king David’s old. So, she’s a beautiful young woman. Normally we know kinda how those things go but that’s, that wasn’t the purpose. It was just for her to serve the king, keep him warm. And, so, she had done that. She was the last one to be the servant and attendant of the king. And, so, Adonijah like, “man, if I can marry her, not only is she beautiful respectable, she’s the last servant of the king. Like, who knows what the king might have whispered in her ear. Like, who knows how this could all turn around if we get everything in line and work it out just right.” Solomon, sort of sees what’s going on and that…and that’s the end of Adonijah. So, Joab the general of David is dead. Adonijah the son of David is dead. David’s personal priest has been sent into retirement. And then that one guy from Shimei who was like…remember when David was fleeing from Saul…from Absalom and there’s this guy throwing rocks at him and throwing dirt at him and throwing dust up in the air and cursing him and cursing him for what he did to the house of Saul. And…well…he’s kinda grounded to Jerusalem. And he doesn’t stay where he supposed to stay. So, he’s dead too. So, Solomon is now pretty much in firm grasp of the kingdom, but he has no idea what he’s gotten himself into. He is in so far over his head and he’s only just beginning to realize that. And we’ll see him realize that and we’ll see the steps that he takes as we continue the journey forward.

And then we flip into the book of Acts what we mostly see is intimidation. What we see is the good news spreading and people being added day by day and…and people holding together everything in common and…but as the gospel is preached there’s this same kind of intimidation that was against Jesus. And, so, there are those who do believe, and they are together, and they are a community, and they are moving forward and then there are also those who believe but are secretive about it because they are afraid of the social repercussions that could be brought against them. And then there are those who flat out do not believe and it’s pretty much the people in charge…like the religious leaders are against the apostles in the same way that they are against Jesus. And, so, they get beaten, they get held in prison. All this kind of stuff happens. And then we met…met this figure at the very end of our reading named Gamaliel and he’s part of the Council. He’s part of the elders of…of Israel, and he mentions a couple of other situations where charismatic type figures who had a following had come in and they were announcing themselves to be this or that or the other but…but they were all killed eventually, and all of their followers scattered. And, so, Gamaliel’s basically like, “if these apostles, if these people who seem to be…that God seems to be performing signs and wonders through, if there’s really nothing to this the same thing will happen. They’ll get killed and their followers will scatter. But if this actually is a move of God there’s nothing any…I mean nothing any of us can do.” That’s not exactly what they believe. Like, the Council is gonna do everything conceivable to diminish this name of Jesus because…well…they…they sorta turn their hand today. They don’t want to be held responsible for the death of Jesus and that’s what the apostles are preaching. And, so, they’re trying to shut this whole thing down as quickly as possible. Gamaliel is an interesting character because like we’ve pretty much read everything about him in the Bible, but he’s a teacher and he teaches students, and he has a very zealous student named Saul. And we’re gonna be meeting him soon.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You for another day to be together around this…this Global Campfire, to be together in a safe place that we come to every day, a small little oasis of time that we set aside that is a beautiful place. It is a beautiful place and there are so many days where we’re like, “I’m just too…there’s just too much going on.” But every time we come into this place its calm. Like all of the cares, all of the things that just completely distract us, we have permission to let them go. It’s like they can survive a ½ an hour. We can…we can go get them back and be all full of anxiety if we want but we can have the freedom of a ½ an hour of peace that very well might change our perspective altogether so that we are re-oriented to You. And, so, we are so grateful for the rhythm of life together in community as we move through the Scriptures. And, so, is as our custom almost every day, Come Holy Spirit, this is our ask, this is our request, that You would lead us into all truth and that we would have eyes to see and ears to hear it. We pray this in the mighty and victorious name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello Daily Audio Bible my name is Elena and I’m a first-time caller. I’ve been listening to Daily Audio Bible for a little over a year now and just felt really moved to pray for two women in particular. I just heard their prayer request on the June 2^nd recording. I’m really sorry, I’m not recalling names, but the first woman called in, she’s a single mom of three and the father of her children doesn’t have the relationship that she’d like him to have with her children. Her father also has dementia, and she lost her mother not too long ago. I lift her up to You and pray that she would receive Your restoration and peace as she seeks You. I…I just feel that that desire to and need to rest in You Lord and that she wants Your help. And I just love her heart for that God, and I know that You see everything she’s been through and that You are there to give her rest. And, so, I pray in this season she would find that peace and that rest in You as You cover her and I pray You would cover her children Lord and as they draw near to You, I know You will draw near to them and that You are a good provider, a good Father and You will give them everything that they need to keep running the race Lord. I pray that she would find encouragement in this season Lord and that she would know You are a God who sees her. And I also pray for restoration in her relationships. I also wanted to lift up the woman who called a couple of people after her. June is a hard month for this woman, and I lift her up to You and pray that she would find peace and she would fight answers in You, the only…You’re the only one who can provide us answers this side of heaven Lord. And, so, I pray that she would find hope in knowing that her mother was victorious in Christ even in death. Thank You…

Hello this is In Love with Jesus asking you to come along beside me and pray for my daughter. I’m asking the Father for divine rescue for her who’s struggling with mental health and physical health problems. This has been going on for many many years and I confess, I get tired, and I get scared as my husband and I are getting older and worry for her living on her own. Her illnesses have created an isolation where she doesn’t have any friends, no longer goes to church yet still loves…loves the Lord but is hoping to…to die by disease. So, she’s constantly seeking out doctors and to do more health investigations. So, I'm…I’m just asking you that if the Lord prompts you that you will be willing to come alongside us as a family. It’s just really really painful. And I just…we just need help. So, thank you for praying. God bless.

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I wanted to pray for Blessings Flow, that she lost many family members and also for other people who have lost family members during this particular time. And I want to also pray for Running Desperately to Jesus and Running Desperately for Jesus and all the…the…the members that she’s lost in June and how it affected her. Just want to encourage you all I want to play with you all that God be with you and…and…and strengthen you because I…when I think of…of June and when I think of this sickness, I remember when I was…went to work one day and told not to even unpack my bag because my mother was dying. And I…and then later on when I finally moved on home, I wind up losing her and I…she died before I got home but God told me that she was gonna die that weekend. The same way I just want to pray with you all that He touch you all like He touched me because I was just so grieved by it, I couldn’t eat but God, this wonderful God touched me and then He began to show me how she got her new body and that new body that she’s smiling because she’s got this new body. Gracious Father I pray for those who lost their loved ones, those who lost them through this pandemic and those who are going through the grieving process. Father I ask that You be with them like You were with me Lord and You just show up and You comfort and You strengthen Lord and You continue to…to show them Your word and that You love them and that You took them and the reason that You took them is it’s time to get their new body and that we one day will get to be with them for us to keep our eyes on You and keep looking for the joy that You have in showing us that You have…

Hi this is Carmen from Canada. I called a few weeks ago asking for prayer for my son who lives on the streets and has multiple health problems and addiction and mental health problems. Anyways, he was found dead yesterday. So, our family’s dealing with that. So, I’m just asking for prayer for strength and for my faith. This is really tough obviously. I’d seen him a lot more than normal recently and a few days ago he had actually asked for his dad to bring him a Bible. But it was a bit too late at night. He was really trying to make a change, you know, showing…talking about going to detox. He had asked me if I would go to church with him once things opened up from COVID. And he’s not gone to church for a long time but he said if I’d go to…there’s a specific church he was interested in going to and would I go with him once the services started again. There’s definitely a lot of spiritual battle going on within him. He thought demons were bothering him and we were able to pray with him and get him anointed with oil when all of this happened within the last month but his fight is over and I know where he is but it’s incredibly sad not to be able to see him for a long time. And, yeah, I just so many prayers for so much of his life and so many answered prayers. So, this isn’t what we expected to happen. Thank you for your prayers.

Good evening Daily Audio Bible this is Blessings Flow in Pennsylvania and wanted to join in prayer for our brother George Powell who is…heard your prayer brother. You are currently incarcerated. Pray that…may your…even though your body’s there may your heart and mind and soul be free. And I wanted to pray over you Isaiah 40 - they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. And I thank You God that You are good to those who wait. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lord I just pray for grace for our brother as he waits on You. I ask that You’d strengthen him. I ask that You’d remove any shame. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. We love you brother.