A Walk Through The Word

Numbers 26:1-51, Luke 2:36-52, Psalms 60:1-12, Proverbs 11:15

Today is the 17^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we move through the center of our week right here at the center of our month. It’s been quite a week. We’re in the gospel of Luke. And, so, this week we read of the coming of John the Baptist. we read of the birth of Jesus. And in the book of Numbers, we have read the story of Balaam and Balak and have applied that to our lives. So, let’s take the next step forward. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. Numbers chapter 26 versus 1 through 51.

Commentary:

Okay. I think it was the day before yesterday in the gospel of Luke that we read of John the Baptist or John the one that would grow to be John the Baptist of the story surrounding his birth. And we did that in the context of saying like John didn’t just show up magically at the Jordan River and everybody just went down to see the crazy man walking in out of the desert, that there was a story surrounding his life that people would have known and watched as he grew up. And then even as he went into the wilderness, when he came back out of the wilderness to the Jordan River calling people to repentance there was a story around him. Everybody was looking to see what would become of him and then they realized he was a prophet of God. We have similar things with Jesus. Obviously, the angelic visitations letting the shepherds know and then the following of the star. Like all of those things would announce the arrival of the Savior, certainly. So, like with the shepherds, you can only imagine how many people they told of what they had seen. Whether they were believed or not, the story began to spread. You can only imagine the wise men making their journey and then returning back after having seen the child and spreading the word. Like, the story is beginning to get out. And then Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to dedicate Him to God and offer the appropriate sacrifices and there’s prophetic utterances over Him. This is happening in the temple complex. People would see this, wonder about it, talk about it. Maybe it wouldn’t spread all over the nation to every far-reach, but it will be something that was talked about. And, so, Jesus with his family, they would make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. So, Jesus was familiar enough with the temple. And, so, it wouldn’t be like a terrible stretch into the realm of fantasy, and believe me, plenty in the realm of fantasy around Jesus Christ. But it wouldn’t be here in the realm of fantasy to say, okay annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover was a part of the story of Jesus upbringing. We get that from the Gospels. So, if you were visiting the temple complex on an annual basis it’s not a stretch that some of the people who were around Him as an infant, would begin to see Him become a toddler, would begin to see Him growing up and know who He was. But then we have this episode where Jesus is 12 years old, and we read this today where they’ve done exactly that. They’ve gone to Jerusalem for the Passover and then they’ve left. And that’s 90 miles roughly on foot from Jerusalem back to the Galilee near…near Nazareth. So, they would travel in caravans for safety, but also, it’s a long way. So, they would travel in caravans. And, so, they assume Jesus was among them when He wasn’t. That right there, like that part of the story if we enter into it as a parent, that’s a terrifying to thing, that’s a terrifying thing to think that you’ve lost your kid in a major metropolitan world center. And, you know, you discover this when you’re a day’s journey just to get back, just to start looking. So, they are several days removed from Jesus, at least five days removed from Jesus when they end up finding Him because they traveled a day away from Jerusalem and they travel a day back to Jerusalem and it took them three more days to find Jesus in the temple. So, you know, they’ve gotta be freaking out. Nevertheless, they find Jesus in the temple complex and He’s learning and He’s being taught and He’s asking questions and He’s answering questions and He is amazing. Like He is absolutely getting the attention of the rabbis who are there in Jerusalem. This would be the elite leaders and teachers who work in the temple of God and He’s answering them adequately to the point that they’re stunned by Him. Of course, as the story goes when Jesus’ parents find Him, they ask Him why He did this to them. And He says I must be about my father’s business, but the next thing you know, He submits to them, they go back to Nazareth. This is not the kind of thing that would be forgotten. Like, if a…a kid is speaking among the scholars and speaking coherently and asking important questions and…and giving answers and perspectives in a way that is amazing or stunning to the elite leaders, to the scholars of the Torah, then this is not something that is gonna just be forgotten. This is something that they would’ve been talking about for days after the fact and wondering similar things as they were wondering about John. What’s gonna become of this kid? Something special is happening. My point here isn’t like a theological point or something that we gotta hold up and apply to our lives. It’s the context here. It’s just having some sense of a back story. When Jesus began His ministry and began to speak with authority the Scriptures tell the people found that to be amazing, that He was amazing, that He was stunning, that what He said was not like what anybody else was saying. He spoke with authority. He spoke as if He knew what He was talking about. So, when the word spread that there was this rabbi up in Galilee, this person doing this kind of teaching, eventually word would’ve been like, what…what’s His name? Well, His name was Jesus. Dots would’ve been connecting. That’s that kid. That’s that kid that was up here in the temple when His parents left Him in Jerusalem. That’s that kid. And we get clues about this from the…the other gospel narratives, that Jesus began His ministry and was beginning to make waves. Rabbis, people traveled all the way from Jerusalem. Again, they walked 90 miles to hear Him. And we can see through the Gospels that the people who were making that kind of trek, like the scholars, like the elite, they were not antagonistic toward Jesus at first. It…it wasn’t a situation where right from the get-go they wanted Him dead. They were coming to check Him out. It took a while for that enmity to grow, and it mostly came out of Jesus calling the truth, exposing the darkness, especially among the religious. That definitely got Jesus on the wrong side…well…on the wrong side of the law, you might say. Because in the end He was condemned as a blasphemer, a lawbreaker. So, let’s just understand that. Jesus wasn’t born, and then He disappeared and then He just reappeared like some kind of magical apparition with magical powers and then people flocked to Him and nobody knew what was going on. This was an ongoing thing. And to look into this and just have a little bit of a context, this is kind of the only way that we get a bit of context about Jesus early life. There’s very…just very, very little in the Gospels between His birth and the beginning of His ministry. So, for example, this account of…well…everything that we’ve read here about Jesus in the temple when He’s an infant and then…then they go back to Nazareth. That is in the gospel of Luke, whereas in the Gospel of Matthew that also has an emphasis, an infancy narrative. They…they end up fleeing to Egypt for a season. And, so, when you think about some of the stuff, you’re like, “well man that would be so cool to…like what was that story? Like, what happened there?” And we don’t have all of that. There are ancient writings about it that date way back.  These are the infancy Gospels. These are apocryphal writings that were not canonized. They are not part of Scripture. They’re just part of the early early stories in the church. And, so, obviously the story of Jesus going to Egypt is important to the…like those who are in the Coptic church, which is largely Egyptian. So there…there are definitely writings with stories in them about Jesus early life and His journey to Egypt and really, really interesting fanciful things but not contained in the canon of Scripture. I say all that just to simply say that, yeah, we get Jesus birth then we kind of skip to Jesus adulthood and that’s where the focus is and we wonder, “what was it like for Him to grow up?” And, so, we look into the Gospels and like, well here’s kinda what we can say, here’s what we can see from the gospel narratives that would allow us to…to understand that Jesus’ development wouldn’t have been completely unknown any more than John’s development would’ve been completely unknown. But also, that there’s a lot that we don’t know. But there’s a lot that we do. And isn’t that our desire, isn’t that our hearts’ desire, to know more. Not just to know more about, but to no more with.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. It is deeply interesting and fascinating to learn of You because we’re learning what it looks like to be truly human. When we look at You, we’re looking at what it looks like for the most-high God to be willing to become one of His creation to identify with us so that we could understand. And the truth is we’ve missed so much of it but we’re so deeply grateful that we have this life to get to know You, deeply, from the Scriptures and deeply because we’re in relationship. And. so, Jesus, help us to learn of You, what we need to learn of You. We pray in Your precious name. Amen.

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Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family I hope you’re all having a blessed blessed Sunday. I just thank God for all your lives and also thank you to the Hardin family for this amazing ministry. May God continue to add many many more years to this amazing ministry. In the UK today is Mother’s Day and I just wanted to say happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful mothers and carers to young children. I lost my mother on the 23^rd of October 2016. She was a woman of faith. She really loved God. She was my rock, the most loving, softest mother I could have ever asked for. So, a day like this normally makes me feel quite sad, quite low, quite lonely. And also, sometimes it feels as if people around me forget my pain and how a day like this makes me really feel. But my reassurance is that I know that my mother is in heaven where is, you know, that is a place that’s filled with laughter and praise to the Almighty. You’ll probably hear this later, but I just want to ask for prayers for God’s comfort for me during this time. I also want to say a prayer for all those who have lost mothers, for the Lord to give you strength. May He comfort you especially a day filled with mixed emotions. May His love provide you with confirmation that God will never leave you nor forsake you. Amen. And this is Sarah from London. God bless you all. Stay blessed.

Hello this is Charlene from Akron OH first time caller. I had started listening to DAB a couple years ago and just each year I would get distracted, and I would just fall away, and I just wouldn’t see it through, but this year so far has been going so much better and I just really want to stick with it. I was calling to reach out to D from Pennsylvania whose son is moving to California just let her know that I had a son that went to school and hasn’t been home since he’s 18 he’s down 26 and he lives in Texas. And while it’s getting easier there’s always that longing to have him home, but it does get better, and they do learn to live and be on their own and…but I just want to let you know you’ll be in my prayers. And I also wanted to ask for prayer for my oldest one period his wife. She is facing a hysterectomy on April 9^th and I just want to pray that this is really the right thing. They do not have any children and obviously this would make it permanent not to be able to have any children of their own. I know adoption is an option. This is also my first born and he was saved when he was five years old and had stayed with his faith all the way through college, taught Bible studies, and all kinds of stuff. And then just a little bit before he moved out of the house, he was just sharing how he was just doubting things how he’s letting it ride out. And he’s never fully committed to coming back and he’s very respectful, loves family. And I just want prayer for them. And I don’t know if this is something that maybe God is using to bring him and his wife to Him and make their relationship with Him the strongest it could be. Well, I’m out of time. Thank you so much.

Hello everyone, this is Rachel from Oregon. I’m actually going to change my name to Redeemed Rachel. I just wanna ask for a couple prayers. First of all, the pastor and…and his wife of our church are being called to be missionaries in Norway and it’s just such an amazing thing that God has called them to do and they are being obedient in it, but they are also super amazing people who have really stewarded our church so well and taught so many people how to walk in line with the word of God and just what God’s love really looks like. And I’ve never grown more than being at this church with them as pastors. So, I know a lot of people are having a hard time with it in my church and I just ask that you pray, that God will bring along the next right person and bring our body over here peace through this time of transition and adjusting to whoever does come along. And also, I ask prayer for my family because we are making a cross country move, totally uprooting. I have to say a lot of goodbyes over here which is going to be really hard and I’m going to a place I’ve never been to and don’t know much about but I am…I’m really excited about it but it is very nerve wracking. I have a couple months to get rid of all this stuff in our apartment and pack up we’re taking and clean up our apartment and just get everything in…in order and I’m also nervous about finding a good church over there because until the one I’m at right now I’ve only been in bad churches. So, just please pray for my family and bring us peace and let us stay in God’s will. Thank you.

Hi everyone, this is Jeanette from Denmark. I’m calling for prayer against a tumor which has developed in the left stump of my arm under the elbow. I’ve had cancer before about 16 years ago and it came back under the stress of covid. And I am so blessed right now to be able to speak the language here where I live and to participate in the local church. And I thank God so much for what He’s taught me through this walk of a totally different life of where I come from in the states. I bless his name because he has blessed me with a dependent…a sense of dependency upon Him. And I know that He has much more in store. I want to share about healing and about the love of Father God here and help the church to grow here. And I thank him for blessing my family with peace of mind in this time and inspiring us with what to do and holding us tight in these days. And I pray He does the same for so many of you. Thank you for the DAB and the time we spend together every day. And [singing starts] may the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you because He loves you, He is your Father He is a wonderful Father [singing stops]. Amen. Thank you.

Hello DABbers, it’s your girl Val here in Vegas. Oh my gosh y'all. This makes one year. Whoo…i got to get through this call! It’s been one year since I called in and asked for help. I was sitting alone in the hospital in a zero-gravity room believing the lies of the enemy that God was mad at me with double pneumonia. You guys prayed me…well…you prayed me out of that situation, but man you did so much more than that. I’m literally about to celebrate on April 6^th a year at my dream job. My health is literally better than it’s been in quite some time. I can’t even name in the two minutes that I have all the blessings in this last year. I’ve grown closer to my family. I’ve been more prayerful. I understand now that God wasn’t mad at me then and he’s not mad at me now. And I say all this to say to anybody that is just at that edge where you feel like you want to give up, don’t! Please don’t. Stand strong. Call in. Know that this family is praying for you. We believe in you. We are people that love the Lord. We want to pray for you, and we want you to call in and we want to hear your words of encouragement. Those praise reports warm my heart. I love you guys. Please hold on.

Numbers 24:1-25:18, Luke 2:1-35, Psalms 59:1-17, Proverbs 11:14

Today is the 16^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian. It is an honor, it is a privilege and joy and just fun…fun to be around this Global Campfire together with you, to know that we’re in this together, O just to know that is not a solitary endeavor, that we just have to shoulder the loads on our own, that our brothers and sisters are going through the same kinds of things we are all over the world. The Scriptures tell us that and it’s true. We are in this piece of history together. We are in life together because we find ourselves alive on this planet at the same time. And what a joy it is to share this bit of history with you. And one of the ways that we understand our own history is to see how history is played out over the millennia with God in the middle of it, which is what the Scriptures give us. And, so, let’s dive in. We are in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament and we’ve been tracking along with this, man named Balaam who had a donkey who talked to him yesterday. He’s been summoned by a king named Balak to curse the people of Israel. It’s just not working out that way. Let’s pick up that story. Numbers chapters 24 and 25 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Luke today we…we read of the birth of Jesus. So, that’s a significant thing to point out. We won’t go into a whole lot of depth other than to just point out what we were pointing out yesterday. This is the last time will read the narrative of the birth of Jesus. Indeed, we’re in the third of the four Gospels. And the Gospel of John is what we’ll read after we finish the book of Luke, but the gospel of John doesn’t refer to the Nativity story, the birth of Jesus. And, so, I’m just suggesting that as we move through this territory that we give it significance. I know we just passed through Christmas not too long ago and of this is a very famous story, but this is the story of the coming of the Savior. And, so, just really immersing ourselves into it, especially as we’re moving toward Easter, especially as we have this opportunity move through the gospel of Luke and really absorb and really put ourselves in the story as we move into the Easter season. So, this will be important for us.

But ow let’s go back to the book of numbers because we’ve had a developing story over the course of several days, a story of a man named Balaam who seemed to be hirable to curse people and apparently was effective at doing this sort of behavior because the king of Moab whose name was Balak sent for him, sent far and wide and sent dignitaries to get him to come. So, we can assume the Balaam had some sort of reputation for this sort of thing. Balaam also talked to God and heard from God. And, so, I don’t want to go over like every little detail of the story because it’s kind of drawn out but let’s remember that the Moabite king Balak sent several envoys of prestige to get Balaam to come back to Moab and there was a promise of riches. God spoke to Balaam and told him not to go at least initially. When the first envoy came, they spent the night, Balaam sought God, God said don’t go, he told the people, “I can’t go. I can only obey God.” So, the envoy went home. The next envoy came and said, “come, come at once.” Balaam said, “I can…I can only do what God tells me to do. Wait…wait for me to hear from God.” And at that point God said, “you can go.” So, in other words, “go with them but you can only say what I tell you to say.” That is key in this story. Let’s remember that Balaam gets paid to do this kind of stuff. Let’s remember that Balaam was promised prestige and riches. At first God told him that he couldn’t go. So, that was a “no”. And then God told him that he could go as long as he only spoke the words of God. So, what was a no to riches and prestige kind of became a maybe depending on what God told him he could say, which opened up all kinds of possibilities for what might be able to happen to enrich Balaam’s life. And, so, they set off toward Moab. Moab, so that it’s not completely confusing is essentially modern day Jordan. So, Balaam has permission to go and there’s still a promise of riches and prestige. And, so, they take off and that’s when the angel of the Lord comes and stands in front of the donkey stopping the donkey three different times. It’s odd. Like it’s an odd twist in the story because God gave Balaam permission to go. So, why is God sending an angel to stand in his path? So, the donkey sees the angel and veers off into a field. And, so, Balaam gets mad and beats the donkey back onto the road and they keep walking. Then they go through a vineyard and the donkey can’t get all the way through so Balaam’s foot gets smashed. And, so, Balaam’s pretty angry about that and then he beats the donkey harder and then finally they get to a really narrow place and the angel’s standing there with his sword and the donkey can’t do anything but just sit down. And Balaam is furious, like he’s seeing red with rage and beating the donkey and that’s when the donkey talks to him like, “have I ever done anything like this to you before? Why are you beating me like this?” It’s then that we get true clues to what Balaam has been thinking about as they’re taking this journey. So, the donkey says, “what have I done to make you hit me three times?” And Balaam answers, and this is the funny thing. He doesn’t answer, “well…you walked into a field or you smashed my foot. Balaam answers, “you made a fool of me. If I had a sword in my hand, I’d kill you right now.” Balaam is traveling with a high-level entourage from the king of Moab who have promised prestige and wealth if you will come to the king. God told him no and then God told him he could go and he’s been thinking about it. When his donkey misbehaves because of the angel, he’s not confused about why he’s having a conversation with a donkey and he’s not really all that angry with what the donkey did, he’s angry because he’s embarrassed, which reveals that there is pride involved which means that things could get very situational. Once the riches are promised and the prestige is out there then maybe Balaam could say a little curse, even if God didn’t announce it maybe he could say a little curse and get out of there. What we see God doing by sending the angel is making it abundantly crystal clear to Balaam is that he must only say what God says. There are no other alternatives on the table at all. Once that is clear to Balaam, he does arrive in Moab to the king Balak who immediately takes him where he can view some of the camp of the Israelites. And Balaam asks for altars to be built and sacrifices to be given and then he goes to seek the Lord for…for His words concerning Israel. He comes back and blesses Israel. Balak the king of Moab who has sent for Balaam to come curse Israel, he’s not happy about this. Of course, Balaam’s got the message loud and clear. “I can only say to you…I can only say what God tells me to say.” So, the king of Moab, Balak, is like, “well, let’s go look at this from another angle. Let’s go look at the people from a different mountaintop. Like, let’s change our location and maybe God will be more favorable to us over there.” And, so, they go look. They build altars, they make sacrifices. Balaam is unable to curse Israel. And, so, the king of Moab’s like, “let’s go to another place and look at it from another angle and they do that and there is no curse, forthcoming toward Jacob or Israel. So, Balak’s clapping his hands and he's…you can just see him throwing sand, clapping his hands, kicking the dirt, yelling at Balaam like, “I sent for you and I promised you riches and prestige, all you need to do is pronounce a curse on these people and you’ve only blessed them.” Of course, then Balaam pronounces blessings upon Israel and pretty much curses for the nations surrounding them. Let’s now overlay our own story with this story. Maybe we’ve sought God. Maybe God has said “no”. Maybe we’ve accepted no. Maybe we waited a little while and it came up again and we sought God and he said, “yes, but you must obey me completely.” And, so, we begin walking down that path. We’re walking along with those who are around us in this endeavor. And then we begin to think about all of the things that could come from this and then we start shifting the story in our minds, our goals and priorities, the way we’re going to position ourselves begins to suddenly change away from simply going and being the spokesperson for God, like to do God’s will and more towards, “yes to all of that and what can I carve off the side for myself?” And then maybe obstacles come, maybe things that stop us in the center of the path or veer us into a field or smash our foot and we’re working so hard to curse the devil away from the thing that we can’t tell that there’s an angel blocking the path because we have shifted our motivations. And, so, it looks like missteps or some sort of attack is only illuminating our pride because we’re embarrassed. We can find ourselves in Balm. Balaam ultimately got the message about what he could say what he couldn’t say. Then we get to Balak the king and it really becomes our lives all over again. He’s so glad Balaam is there. He wants the curse brought down. The altars are built. Everybody does everything right, it’s just that the curse isn’t forthcoming. And, so, what is Balak do? Let's…let’s frame this differently. Let’s look at this from a different angle. Like let’s position this differently. Maybe God will see our way from a different angle and give us what we’re asking for, give us what we want. And that didn’t work. And, so, what does Balak want? Well, then let’s look at this from another angle. We do this all the time. We want a “yes”. We want what we want. And, so, we’ll just keep reframing the question or keep angling or positioning or manipulating the circumstances so that we can finally whittle the situation down so that we can get what we want. This story exposes so many of the games we try to play. In the end though what God has blessed will be blessed and that which is not blessed by God will not be blessed. This story also has a very interesting twist as it ends because it ends and then it’s like we’re in another story where the people of Moab and the people of Israel are getting together and having meals together and worshiping false idols together and…and the women in the men are fraternizing together. It’s like a super odd…are we even in the same story? Because it’s like we leave one chapter where God will not curse the Israelites He will only bless them and Balaam only speaks blessing over Israel and then he pronounces curses of…of the surrounding nations, and then the story ends, the next thing we know, the Moabites, which is king Balak’s people and Israel’s people, they are having sex. So, there’s like a bunch of stuff going on. How did we get from “curse these people so that they will die so that I can destroy them with my army to let’s all get together and have a party?” Ironically, Balaam is involved here as well. We don’t see it here in this particular story. We will get the rest of the story later in the Bible when a reference back to Balaam is given that tells us that this fraternizing, that the women of Moab going to bed with the men of Israel was a suggestion by Balaam. He ends up dying because of that. So basically, Balaam can’t speak anything that the Lord isn’t telling them to speak. But in the end, he gives a strategy. God’s not going to curse these people. The only way is to seduce them. So, we see that even in the end, after an angel in the path blocking the path, even though it becomes clear to Balaam he can only speak on behalf of God what God says he’s still trying to carve off a piece for himself and he dies, he dies in battle, as we’ll see later. And, as, for our wilderness experience and how easily it would be to be seduced away from the work in the wilderness toward the promise of comfort, ah, there’s just so much in this one story that so brings up motivations, the impulses that begin us on paths toward actions that we then carry out, whether they’re right or wrong.

Prayer:

Father, we open ourselves to that because we are not above lying to ourselves. We’ve done it lots of times. We’re not above any kind of nuancing whatever it is that we want to manipulate whatever we’re trying to get. We’re not above these things and sometimes we don’t even know we’re doing it. Sometimes it’s so inherent in the way that we grew up or so inherent in the way that we’ve made life work so that we can get things done that we don’t even see the deception, we don’t even see the nuanced behavior that is leading us on a path that can’t end well. And, so, this is a season, this Lenten season is for these things. It’s here marked as a season of the year where we really enter into these more difficult deep questions about why we do what we do and what we actually have our faith in. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit. Come into these things that are being brought up, the things that You’re bringing up. because even as we read these stories and talk about them the overlay is unique to each of our lives. We all have our own story. And yet the motives of the heart are so common that we can think of all kinds of things that You’re bringing up. And, so, we invite You into that. We open ourselves to what You’re bringing up instead of shutting it down. We open ourselves. Reveal to us the ways that we are going astray, even if it’s just by a half a degree, even if it’s so subtle we can’t even tell, because if we continue on that path, we’re going to ultimately be miles away from where we’re supposed to be. We’re ultimately going to be somewhere totally different than where we we’re supposed to be. So, we open ourselves to realigning our lives with Your will. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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And, so, important to know certain aspects like the Community section. That is where to get connected. There’s the different links to the different social media channels and platforms that…that we are on. the Prayer Wall lives there in the Community section and that is always happening, always. Always, we can go there and…and shoulder one another’s burdens together and face outward by praying for each other or we’re just carrying a burden that’s very very heavy we can reach out and have our brothers and sisters come around us. So, the Prayer Wall is always there in the Community section. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in this mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and delivered, given freely to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build a rhythm’s around the…the rhythm of the Scripture and us showing up every day around the Global Campfire to build community around that. If that has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. 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 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 on Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi from Baltimore MD God bless you each and every one of you. I so much enjoy the DAB and the DABC, the DAB Kids I listen to the proverbs I’ve listened to the Psalms. I listen every day. I’ve known about DAB for the last five or six years, but I’ve really just started listening this year, first of the year and I’ve been so blessed. I hear people talk about China when she did Chronological that I’ve actually even listened to China. I’ve listened to all…well half of January all of February and now I’m in…up to March the 13^th. So, yeah, I’ve really been blessed by the Dab with this ministry and God’s really moving in my life. And I just thank Brian and Jill and China, and everyone involved in the ministry including Ezekiel. I just thank you listeners that call in with your prayer requests. I’m touched deeply by each and every request and I pray along with you and for you. And it’s such a joy to hear people like Kingdom Seeker Daniel and Blind Tony and all the rest. I'm…I’m just a little nervous right now but I am so happy to be part of this ministry and I just pray that the Lord will reach out and touch each and every one of you and bless you deeply. And I will be calling again.

Good morning this is Flourishing in the Desert and I’m just listening to the community prayer for February 20^th and I just want to lift up the family with the beautiful little baby yet to be born who has trouble with his heart. Lord God I thank You that none of this comes as a surprise to You, that You are already there, and You are already with them. Lord God I just thank You that You have chosen these parents to love this baby regardless of defect and I thank You Lord that You are with them through thick and through thin, that Your comfort and Your protection surround them. Lord God I pray that You would encourage them, that You would strengthen them. And Lord should You call this baby home early I just pray Lord God that You would comfort them even in that. And Lord should this baby come to term and live a full and prosperous life as long as You have deemed his life should be, I just pray Lord God that these parents would just cherish every moment with this child regardless of circumstance from the beginning of his life until the end. May they be thankful to You for the blessing and the treasure that You had brought to them of this beautiful, beautiful child. I thank You Lord for this child’s life and I thank You for his parents. You are doing a marvelous work in each and every one of them. I trust You Lord, I trust Your work, I trust Your provision, and I trust…I trust You. And I just pray that the family would do so as well. I just lift all of them up to You Lord in Jesus’ name.

Good morning it’s a beautiful Sunday morning in Saskatoon downtown. My husband and I are here at a hotel having some renewal time in our marriage and I’ve been watching a fireplace burning but not burning, just the flames coming up off the coals. And what Brian said on March the 11^th how is…how we sometimes don’t believe in what…don’t believe that God understands what we’re going through. And it’s been very painful what I’ve been going through and many other people have experienced this pain during Covid and before and well beyond. But I know that we are purified by the flame of God in our lives, and we will be a fragrance lifted up to heaven that other people see. I appreciate it’s painful it’s disruptive. I know I’ve been impulsive and said things that I shouldn’t. I’ve dedicated too much to my career, but I know that God’s forgiven me and I’m gonna take those lies captive like it says in second Corinthians 10:5 and take them captive to the obedience of God and allow the truth of the word of God to penetrate into set me free. I also want to pray for Jade now one of my friends who is still very ill. His body is on fire with inflammation of autoimmune disorders. And he had a piece of his tongue removed make sure it’s not cancer I guess and he and his wife Gloria and two children are so beautiful and they need your prayers. It’s been three months now. It’s the middle of December to now…

Hey DAB family this is…I’m just gonna just go by C in this request. I just wanted to reach out, cry out to…I’m praying and I…I need you guys to pray for me too that I’ve been dealing with postpartum depression now since December and just things feel endlessly hard. I just feel weary. I’m so tired of feeling this hopelessness and I know that God is working but I feel like I can’t see any fruits of the Holy Spirit in my life right now and I just honestly feel like I’m really worthless for His Kingdom. And I know have 4 kids who need me, a husband who needs me and I am hanging on for them but I just really need prayer because things feel really dark today and they have felt really dark this week and last week. And yeah, so just please pray for me.

Prayer for Catalina continues She’s a sister of faith like a flint and this is her ninth time in the hospital in a health…in the behavioral health unit with psychotic affective bipolar disorder. It’s a long long diagnosis. I don’t understand it, but God does, and He gives the doctors wisdom and the treatment. And, so, I pray that the treatment this time will be so effective that she will never have to return to the hospital the 10^th time in the name of Jesus I pray this. And I pray that she would be receptive to what the treatment plans are and I pray for her brother and the remainder of her family as they surround her with prayer, that they be encouraged as they see Christ…Jesus move in her life so she will totally dedicate her life to you. There are two persons who have lost their joy. Tammy is in remission from ovarian cancer. She’s feeling emotionally overwhelmed and she’s now caring for her husband as the kids haven’t come around much anymore since it seems that she is doing better. Anne in Vancouver, after three years of suffering you’ve been diagnosed with pelvic prolapse and your joy is also gone. We hear it all the time, the joy of the Lord is our strength, but when we have no joy, you know, it’s so hard to reach out and grasp that strength that is there for us. So, sometimes hearing these things we can’t even fathom it. So, our family here, we’re lifting you up and I am praying the joy of the Lord will return to both of you, you will skip like dear, you will soar on eagles wings and you will be so joyful it will be contagious to your family and friends.

Numbers 22:21-23:30, Luke 1:57-80, Psalms 58:1-11, Proverbs 11:12-13

Today is the 15^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today. This is as close as we can get to the center of the month, right? Halfway through today is I think the dead center of the month. So, welcome to the middle of March. A couple weeks from now we will complete the first quarter of the year if you can believe it. A couple weeks from now it’s gonna be just about Easter if you can believe it. But we’re here. We’re here in the season that we know as Lent, a season that is leading us toward Easter, a season that allows us to just spend 40 days of…of deep introspection and contemplation on the sacrifice of Jesus and all of His work on our behalf, but also, the ways we reject that to our own peril and doom and we invite God, we invite the Holy Spirit to rearrange us, to remove from us the things that don’t belong in our lives, even if they were good things and they just have no purpose anymore, to remove the things that don’t belong in our lives and to introduce the things that do belong into our lives and to rearrange the things that belong that are in our lives as we aim toward resurrection day. So, I guess…I guess that’s the lay of the land. That’s where we are in our year, but we’ve come for one thing and that is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures today. And, so, let’s get to it. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. We are in the book of Numbers. The children of Israel are wandering around the wilderness. Just their very presence is causing anxiety among the leaders of different nations around them. The Moabites have sent for a person to come and curse the Israelites in the desert. His name is Balaam and we’re…we’re in the middle of his story. That’s where we’ll pick up today. Numbers chapter 22 verse 21 through 23 verse 30.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there is plenty we could talk about from the book of Numbers and this story of Balak the king of Moab and Balaam. I don’t know what we would call him, the hired curse assassin or something like that, like the person who’s hired to come and put a curse upon people. It’s a really weird story isn’t it? Like talking donkeys, the whole nine. It’s very strange, but we need to get a little bit further into it and so we’ll wait until tomorrow so that we can see the full complexion of the story because, man it’s like so many the other points in the Bible, it’s a mirror. So, we’ll get to that probably tomorrow. Let’s just pay attention to what’s going on in this story.

In the book of Luke, we’re…we’re still in chapter 1 of the book of Luke so we’re just getting going, but the book of Luke begins with the narrative telling us of the birth of Jesus. And I point that out because this is the last time this year where we will encounter that narrative, the story that we know as…as the Christmas story. Only two of the four Gospels have anything to say about the birth of Jesus and that would be Matthew and Luke whereas Mark and John don't…don’t refer to the birth of Jesus or tell that story. So, I’m pointing that out so that again we don’t just assume, “well we’ll hear that story again, I’ve heard it a million times” so that we actually press into the narrative of the coming of Jesus into the world and the development of His ministry. So, we have already, you know, Gabriel’s already come to Mary and she's…she’s given her permission, she surrendered herself to God’s will. She’s already seen her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant in her old age. So, a bit of a miraculous turn of events. And Zechariah the priest, the husband of Elizabeth how he was struck dumb as he was serving in the temple because he couldn’t get his head around how he was gonna have this child in his old age. So, he wasn’t allowed to talk. He wasn’t able to speak until the child was born, which is what we witnessed today. John, the cousin of Jesus was born and he will grow up and will be known as John the Baptist or John the baptizer because that’s what his ministry will look like and we’ll see that soon enough as we get a little bit further into the book of Luke. What I want to point out today is how easy it is for us to read the narratives of the Gospels and just kind of…it's…it’s like Jesus and John, they just show up one day. We…we hear of their births and then they just show up one day. John just wanders in out of the desert and starts calling the people to repentance or Jesus just seems to show up at the Jordan and gets baptized. And it’s like they grew up in a vacuum somewhere and then just appeared magically when that’s not really what happened, and we’ll see this with Jesus as well as we go forward. But with John today. Well, what happened? Elizabeth and Zechariah a priest of God, so somebody who would be known by the community, they were righteous according to the New Testament and they were also elderly, and they were also childless. The people around them would’ve known all of these things and then when the priest Zechariah receives his commission to go and burn incense before the Lord and goes into the temple and he’s in there too long and then he comes out and can’t talk then everybody who was waiting outside knew that…that he had seen a vision according to the New Testament and he couldn’t talk. So, obviously something’s up, something supernatural is up. People are going to be talking about these things. And then finally John is born to Elizabeth and Zechariah in their old age. Zechariah still can’t talk to name the child. And, so, Elizabeth says his name is gonna be John, which is another thing that confuses the people because that’s not usually how you name people in your family. Like this son should be named after his father and nobody else in the family is named John. So, it’s odd. And, so, they appealed to Zechariah and Zechariah confirms his name is John and that opens his mouth and he’s able to talk again and the Spirit falls upon him and he prophesies. So, John didn’t just appear out of nowhere in a vacuum. All of these events happened that are noteworthy and would’ve had the people talking, right? So, if you had followed that story and were around Jerusalem or in the outskirts of Jerusalem around Zechariah and Elizabeth you knew their story and how they had this child miraculously and then named him oddly and then Zechariah prophesies. This is the kind of stuff you’re gonna be talking about and you’re gonna wonder, “what’s gonna become of that kid? Like what's…what is all of this that’s happening? What is his destiny? What is this future?” So, then when John does show up coming out of the desert at the Jordan River calling the people to repentance, he’s not just some crazy person who has just gone mad out in the desert. He has a reputation from birth that God has his hand upon this man. And, so, we can see in the gospel narratives that the people believe John to be a genuine prophet of the most-high God. Even when the religious leaders confront Jesus about his own authority Jesus confounds their questioning by saying, “where did John’s authority come from, right?” Because all of the people believed he was a true prophet of the most-high God except for the religious people. And this is an miraculous thing. That’s the thing of it. Like this is a miraculous thing for a prophet of the most-high God to show up because in their story a prophet of God hadn’t been among them for 400 years from the end of what we would call the Old Testament, from the last book, the book of Malachi. 400 years go by before there is a legitimate prophet of the most-high God that the people actually recognize. So, that’s where we are in the book of Luke with John beginning his ministry and his ministry, of course, as he declares is to prepare the way of the Lord. So, let’s enter into this. As we…as we move through the gospel of Luke let’s enter into the details of the story. Let’s look at the context surrounding the story so that we might more accurately and truly embrace the story and make it a part of our story.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for all of the people that we get to meet in Your word, all of the spiritual ancestry that has gone before. And we look at these people and there’s so many time we can see miraculous things happening but they’re normal people. There is nothing particularly different about them than us, and You have invited us to be a part of Your story upon this earth at this time. And, so, as we engage with and interact with the stories in the Scriptures, we find ourselves. So, Holy Spirit come. Continue to lead us into all truth. This is…this is all we want, is all truth, that we might walk the narrow path that leads to life. Come Holy Spirit 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 and it’s always good to stay tuned and stay connected. It’s a year-long journey that where on, and, yeah, it can get long, and things can get heavy and it’s nice to know that we’re not alone.

So, be aware of the Daily Audio Bible app. If you don’t have it you…you should try it out. And all the things that…that I’m talking about in the web are in the app as well, like the Community section. This is where to get connected. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of different categories in there as well as a number of different resources that have been developed over the years for the journey that we’re on. 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 or if you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. And I thank you, I thank you so much that the journey that has lasted all of these years now, is a journey that we’ve been on together all of this time. And its with great humility that…that I say these things. It’s incredible that day by day step-by-step we keep taking the journey through the Scriptures. And if that has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. So, 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, we’re a community and one of the beautiful things about us as a community is that accept each other and pray for each other and that is a beautiful thing. And, so, if you’re carrying something, if you have a prayer request or encouragement then you can hit the hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top and share from there or there are a number of phone numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. Of course, I guess it doesn’t really matter. You can use any of these numbers wherever you are in the world, but in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world, the lands down under 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey family this is Benjamin the Sower calling. I would just like some prayer today just for the people in my life, that God has placed in my path. Just that I’ve gotten the chance to reach out to and that He's….God has given me given me some friendship or connection or ability to…to witness to, my hairdresser Gage and neighbor Dale, my coworker Elise, just people who believe in…in God but that don’t really know much more than that. I find just a lot of people out there are just kind of agnostic or call themselves atheist but that are like, “oh we can’t know.” And just kind of hold that humility and, you know, they hold it up high but really it's…I think it might be fear of exploring. And yeah, just in those conversations it’s been really cool but sometimes I’ve just felt tongue tide and, you know, hindsight afterwards, I’m sure we all have had that, looking back and thinking, “I wish that I had said, you know, said…said…said this or said more about you” or especially in times of covid just people looking for peace and hope. I just don’t want to be ashamed of the gospel. I just…I’ve experienced the joy of it, and I want that for others. So, I would just love…love prayer over that for boldness, just for more opportunities. At my church we call it like taps on the shoulder from God, which is kind of…kind of cool. So, I just want the Holy Spirit to be tapping me more on the shoulder just to be able to…to see the needs around me and to see the chance of the gospel to come to life. Alright. Love you guys so much. Bye.

Hey everybody this is Carmen from Germany I thought it was time I call in again. I’ve been wanting to call, oh gosh, for weeks and you just kind of put it off. And I don’t have any major requests for myself but I hear all of your requests and I pray along with you and keep thinking, “well I need to call in and…and let people know, you know, that I’m still here, that I’m praying for you.” But I just listened to March 12^th and I heard the call from the anonymous woman who said she got herself into a pickle by doing…by taking her…her eyes off of God. And I thought, you know, you’re speaking for so many of us. When I look back on my life and I think of all the times I’ve hurt people, I’ve got into bad…bad whatever, I mean, broken relationships, everything, it’s always been because I took my eyes off of God and my own selfishness, thinking, you know, somehow, I could justify whatever I was doing either that or…or being so selfish that I didn’t even think about it. But anyway, I want you to know that I’m going to be praying for you as well as so many people because I think you speak for so many of us and I think that so many of us can relate to what you're…you’re saying and probably even what you’re going through without knowing the details because we’ve all got our own versions of pickles we go through. Anyway, I’m praying for you. I thank you also for letting us know as a reminder for us to keep our eyes on Jesus just as that song says, “look full into His wonderful face.” So, thank you very much. I’m praying for you. Brian happy belated birthday and Jill I just want to let you know you are wonderful. I just love everything that you’re doing on the DABC. So, the both of you and Brian together, what a wonderful…

I’d just like to thank the Lord for taking away my wife’s cancer. She was diagnosed two years ago with metastatic Melanoma and through fervent prayer from family members and church members it’s gone. The treatment worked. Her spirits are good. Now we just need to go back in six months to continue to do cat scans and MRIs to make sure it doesn’t come back. And we were told by the doctor that only 10% of the people who recovered the way she did can get it back, only 10%. So, I continue in prayer and all my good friends at the Daily Audio Bible which I’ve been doing now for eight years every day, for eight years. I hear the prayers. I hear the crying that happens, and it breaks my heart, but together we all must pray and keep each other strong and continue to pray for Brian and his family. Prayer does work for our Lord is on the throne, doesn’t change. But prayer changes things. And may we all seek the wisdom of God, have a joyful heart, and faith back and move mountains. Come Holy Spirit I pray. I ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Abiola from New York I’m calling in wanting to throw another log on our wonderfully warm fire. I love you guys so much. Thank you, guys for having me a part. Praise God. Thank Him so much for the Holy Spirit guiding us all to this platform to where we can encourage and love on one another and not skip that beat in recognizing who He is in our lives. He’s so good to us and I just wanted you all to know that I pray with and for all of you guys. I’m asking for prayer to ask for prayer. I struggled with asking for help and asking people to pray for me and trusting people with things that’s going on with me and how I feel. So, I know that I need to ask. So, pray for me to be able to ask for prayer. I also wanted to pray for Kelly from Boston. Sis, I am praying with you that you and your husband in the second half of your marriage comes out better than the first half. I’m praying for total reconciliation and love and forgiveness to resonate through your relationship. I’m also praying the same for anonymous. God bless you for being able to confess your sin. I pray that those people around you in your relationships have a softened heart towards you. I pray that you guys can all reconcile and love. The of Christ can be the epitome of all of our lives. God bless you all.

Hi, my name is Marybeth I’m calling from New Hampshire I’m a first-time caller asking for a prayer request. I’m going in for an endoscopy on March 22^nd and I’ve been having a lot of symptoms and I’m really concerned and I'm…my imagination keeps going towards cancer and I just have to hold my thoughts captive and not go there and just trust in the Lord. I just ask for healing and I just pray that God’s will be done. And I also ask if you will pray for my husband for his Salvation and I pray for my son. He is in the military in the Middle East, and I pray for his Salvation. And I thank you for everybody’s prayers in advance. Thank you.

Numbers 22:21-23:30, Luke 1:57-80, Psalms 58:1-11, Proverbs 11:12-13

Today is the 15^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today. This is as close as we can get to the center of the month, right? Halfway through today is I think the dead center of the month. So, welcome to the middle of March. A couple weeks from now we will complete the first quarter of the year if you can believe it. A couple weeks from now it’s gonna be just about Easter if you can believe it. But we’re here. We’re here in the season that we know as Lent, a season that is leading us toward Easter, a season that allows us to just spend 40 days of…of deep introspection and contemplation on the sacrifice of Jesus and all of His work on our behalf, but also, the ways we reject that to our own peril and doom and we invite God, we invite the Holy Spirit to rearrange us, to remove from us the things that don’t belong in our lives, even if they were good things and they just have no purpose anymore, to remove the things that don’t belong in our lives and to introduce the things that do belong into our lives and to rearrange the things that belong that are in our lives as we aim toward resurrection day. So, I guess…I guess that’s the lay of the land. That’s where we are in our year, but we’ve come for one thing and that is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures today. And, so, let’s get to it. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. We are in the book of Numbers. The children of Israel are wandering around the wilderness. Just their very presence is causing anxiety among the leaders of different nations around them. The Moabites have sent for a person to come and curse the Israelites in the desert. His name is Balaam and we’re…we’re in the middle of his story. That’s where we’ll pick up today. Numbers chapter 22 verse 21 through 23 verse 30.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there is plenty we could talk about from the book of Numbers and this story of Balak the king of Moab and Balaam. I don’t know what we would call him, the hired curse assassin or something like that, like the person who’s hired to come and put a curse upon people. It’s a really weird story isn’t it? Like talking donkeys, the whole nine. It’s very strange, but we need to get a little bit further into it and so we’ll wait until tomorrow so that we can see the full complexion of the story because, man it’s like so many the other points in the Bible, it’s a mirror. So, we’ll get to that probably tomorrow. Let’s just pay attention to what’s going on in this story.

In the book of Luke, we’re…we’re still in chapter 1 of the book of Luke so we’re just getting going, but the book of Luke begins with the narrative telling us of the birth of Jesus. And I point that out because this is the last time this year where we will encounter that narrative, the story that we know as…as the Christmas story. Only two of the four Gospels have anything to say about the birth of Jesus and that would be Matthew and Luke whereas Mark and John don't…don’t refer to the birth of Jesus or tell that story. So, I’m pointing that out so that again we don’t just assume, “well we’ll hear that story again, I’ve heard it a million times” so that we actually press into the narrative of the coming of Jesus into the world and the development of His ministry. So, we have already, you know, Gabriel’s already come to Mary and she's…she’s given her permission, she surrendered herself to God’s will. She’s already seen her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant in her old age. So, a bit of a miraculous turn of events. And Zechariah the priest, the husband of Elizabeth how he was struck dumb as he was serving in the temple because he couldn’t get his head around how he was gonna have this child in his old age. So, he wasn’t allowed to talk. He wasn’t able to speak until the child was born, which is what we witnessed today. John, the cousin of Jesus was born and he will grow up and will be known as John the Baptist or John the baptizer because that’s what his ministry will look like and we’ll see that soon enough as we get a little bit further into the book of Luke. What I want to point out today is how easy it is for us to read the narratives of the Gospels and just kind of…it's…it’s like Jesus and John, they just show up one day. We…we hear of their births and then they just show up one day. John just wanders in out of the desert and starts calling the people to repentance or Jesus just seems to show up at the Jordan and gets baptized. And it’s like they grew up in a vacuum somewhere and then just appeared magically when that’s not really what happened, and we’ll see this with Jesus as well as we go forward. But with John today. Well, what happened? Elizabeth and Zechariah a priest of God, so somebody who would be known by the community, they were righteous according to the New Testament and they were also elderly, and they were also childless. The people around them would’ve known all of these things and then when the priest Zechariah receives his commission to go and burn incense before the Lord and goes into the temple and he’s in there too long and then he comes out and can’t talk then everybody who was waiting outside knew that…that he had seen a vision according to the New Testament and he couldn’t talk. So, obviously something’s up, something supernatural is up. People are going to be talking about these things. And then finally John is born to Elizabeth and Zechariah in their old age. Zechariah still can’t talk to name the child. And, so, Elizabeth says his name is gonna be John, which is another thing that confuses the people because that’s not usually how you name people in your family. Like this son should be named after his father and nobody else in the family is named John. So, it’s odd. And, so, they appealed to Zechariah and Zechariah confirms his name is John and that opens his mouth and he’s able to talk again and the Spirit falls upon him and he prophesies. So, John didn’t just appear out of nowhere in a vacuum. All of these events happened that are noteworthy and would’ve had the people talking, right? So, if you had followed that story and were around Jerusalem or in the outskirts of Jerusalem around Zechariah and Elizabeth you knew their story and how they had this child miraculously and then named him oddly and then Zechariah prophesies. This is the kind of stuff you’re gonna be talking about and you’re gonna wonder, “what’s gonna become of that kid? Like what's…what is all of this that’s happening? What is his destiny? What is this future?” So, then when John does show up coming out of the desert at the Jordan River calling the people to repentance, he’s not just some crazy person who has just gone mad out in the desert. He has a reputation from birth that God has his hand upon this man. And, so, we can see in the gospel narratives that the people believe John to be a genuine prophet of the most-high God. Even when the religious leaders confront Jesus about his own authority Jesus confounds their questioning by saying, “where did John’s authority come from, right?” Because all of the people believed he was a true prophet of the most-high God except for the religious people. And this is an miraculous thing. That’s the thing of it. Like this is a miraculous thing for a prophet of the most-high God to show up because in their story a prophet of God hadn’t been among them for 400 years from the end of what we would call the Old Testament, from the last book, the book of Malachi. 400 years go by before there is a legitimate prophet of the most-high God that the people actually recognize. So, that’s where we are in the book of Luke with John beginning his ministry and his ministry, of course, as he declares is to prepare the way of the Lord. So, let’s enter into this. As we…as we move through the gospel of Luke let’s enter into the details of the story. Let’s look at the context surrounding the story so that we might more accurately and truly embrace the story and make it a part of our story.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for all of the people that we get to meet in Your word, all of the spiritual ancestry that has gone before. And we look at these people and there’s so many time we can see miraculous things happening but they’re normal people. There is nothing particularly different about them than us, and You have invited us to be a part of Your story upon this earth at this time. And, so, as we engage with and interact with the stories in the Scriptures, we find ourselves. So, Holy Spirit come. Continue to lead us into all truth. This is…this is all we want, is all truth, that we might walk the narrow path that leads to life. Come Holy Spirit 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 and it’s always good to stay tuned and stay connected. It’s a year-long journey that where on, and, yeah, it can get long, and things can get heavy and it’s nice to know that we’re not alone.

So, be aware of the Daily Audio Bible app. If you don’t have it you…you should try it out. And all the things that…that I’m talking about in the web are in the app as well, like the Community section. This is where to get connected. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of different categories in there as well as a number of different resources that have been developed over the years for the journey that we’re on. 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 or if you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. And I thank you, I thank you so much that the journey that has lasted all of these years now, is a journey that we’ve been on together all of this time. And its with great humility that…that I say these things. It’s incredible that day by day step-by-step we keep taking the journey through the Scriptures. And if that has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. So, 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, we’re a community and one of the beautiful things about us as a community is that accept each other and pray for each other and that is a beautiful thing. And, so, if you’re carrying something, if you have a prayer request or encouragement then you can hit the hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top and share from there or there are a number of phone numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. Of course, I guess it doesn’t really matter. You can use any of these numbers wherever you are in the world, but in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world, the lands down under 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey family this is Benjamin the Sower calling. I would just like some prayer today just for the people in my life, that God has placed in my path. Just that I’ve gotten the chance to reach out to and that He's….God has given me given me some friendship or connection or ability to…to witness to, my hairdresser Gage and neighbor Dale, my coworker Elise, just people who believe in…in God but that don’t really know much more than that. I find just a lot of people out there are just kind of agnostic or call themselves atheist but that are like, “oh we can’t know.” And just kind of hold that humility and, you know, they hold it up high but really it's…I think it might be fear of exploring. And yeah, just in those conversations it’s been really cool but sometimes I’ve just felt tongue tide and, you know, hindsight afterwards, I’m sure we all have had that, looking back and thinking, “I wish that I had said, you know, said…said…said this or said more about you” or especially in times of covid just people looking for peace and hope. I just don’t want to be ashamed of the gospel. I just…I’ve experienced the joy of it, and I want that for others. So, I would just love…love prayer over that for boldness, just for more opportunities. At my church we call it like taps on the shoulder from God, which is kind of…kind of cool. So, I just want the Holy Spirit to be tapping me more on the shoulder just to be able to…to see the needs around me and to see the chance of the gospel to come to life. Alright. Love you guys so much. Bye.

Hey everybody this is Carmen from Germany I thought it was time I call in again. I’ve been wanting to call, oh gosh, for weeks and you just kind of put it off. And I don’t have any major requests for myself but I hear all of your requests and I pray along with you and keep thinking, “well I need to call in and…and let people know, you know, that I’m still here, that I’m praying for you.” But I just listened to March 12^th and I heard the call from the anonymous woman who said she got herself into a pickle by doing…by taking her…her eyes off of God. And I thought, you know, you’re speaking for so many of us. When I look back on my life and I think of all the times I’ve hurt people, I’ve got into bad…bad whatever, I mean, broken relationships, everything, it’s always been because I took my eyes off of God and my own selfishness, thinking, you know, somehow, I could justify whatever I was doing either that or…or being so selfish that I didn’t even think about it. But anyway, I want you to know that I’m going to be praying for you as well as so many people because I think you speak for so many of us and I think that so many of us can relate to what you're…you’re saying and probably even what you’re going through without knowing the details because we’ve all got our own versions of pickles we go through. Anyway, I’m praying for you. I thank you also for letting us know as a reminder for us to keep our eyes on Jesus just as that song says, “look full into His wonderful face.” So, thank you very much. I’m praying for you. Brian happy belated birthday and Jill I just want to let you know you are wonderful. I just love everything that you’re doing on the DABC. So, the both of you and Brian together, what a wonderful…

I’d just like to thank the Lord for taking away my wife’s cancer. She was diagnosed two years ago with metastatic Melanoma and through fervent prayer from family members and church members it’s gone. The treatment worked. Her spirits are good. Now we just need to go back in six months to continue to do cat scans and MRIs to make sure it doesn’t come back. And we were told by the doctor that only 10% of the people who recovered the way she did can get it back, only 10%. So, I continue in prayer and all my good friends at the Daily Audio Bible which I’ve been doing now for eight years every day, for eight years. I hear the prayers. I hear the crying that happens, and it breaks my heart, but together we all must pray and keep each other strong and continue to pray for Brian and his family. Prayer does work for our Lord is on the throne, doesn’t change. But prayer changes things. And may we all seek the wisdom of God, have a joyful heart, and faith back and move mountains. Come Holy Spirit I pray. I ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Abiola from New York I’m calling in wanting to throw another log on our wonderfully warm fire. I love you guys so much. Thank you, guys for having me a part. Praise God. Thank Him so much for the Holy Spirit guiding us all to this platform to where we can encourage and love on one another and not skip that beat in recognizing who He is in our lives. He’s so good to us and I just wanted you all to know that I pray with and for all of you guys. I’m asking for prayer to ask for prayer. I struggled with asking for help and asking people to pray for me and trusting people with things that’s going on with me and how I feel. So, I know that I need to ask. So, pray for me to be able to ask for prayer. I also wanted to pray for Kelly from Boston. Sis, I am praying with you that you and your husband in the second half of your marriage comes out better than the first half. I’m praying for total reconciliation and love and forgiveness to resonate through your relationship. I’m also praying the same for anonymous. God bless you for being able to confess your sin. I pray that those people around you in your relationships have a softened heart towards you. I pray that you guys can all reconcile and love. The of Christ can be the epitome of all of our lives. God bless you all.

Hi, my name is Marybeth I’m calling from New Hampshire I’m a first-time caller asking for a prayer request. I’m going in for an endoscopy on March 22^nd and I’ve been having a lot of symptoms and I’m really concerned and I'm…my imagination keeps going towards cancer and I just have to hold my thoughts captive and not go there and just trust in the Lord. I just ask for healing and I just pray that God’s will be done. And I also ask if you will pray for my husband for his Salvation and I pray for my son. He is in the military in the Middle East, and I pray for his Salvation. And I thank you for everybody’s prayers in advance. Thank you.

Numbers 21:1-22:20, Luke 1:26-56, Psalms 57:1-11, Proverbs 11:9-11

Today is the 14^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today. Can you believe it? Like a month ago today was Valentine’s Day. And if I remember right it was on the…at the beginning of a week just like this. And just like that a month goes by and here we are approaching the center of this third month of the year. Yesterday we…we began the gospel of Luke, the third the gospel and we’ll be camped out in this third gospel for the rest of this third month of the year although we will transition in the Old Testament before this month is out. But I digress. That’s just kind of where we are. That’s the lay of the land. Let’s move into the Scriptures. We’ll read from the God’s Word translation this week, picking up where we left off yesterday. In the book of Numbers the children of Israel are…they’re kinda trapped in the desert at this point and they had asked if they could pass through the country, the nation of Edom, but they were refused. Ironically, the nation of Edom, these are brothers, like this family. Jacob, remember his name was changed to Israel. And, so, his children were the children of Israel. And he had a brother named Esau. And there was a bunch conniving going on and they kind of had a falling out even though they reconciled in the end. The Edomites are the descendants of Esau. So, basically Jacobs descendants are asking Esau’s descendants just to be able to pass through and they’re saying “no.” And in yesterday’s reading, we concluded with the Edomites bringing out their army, essentially a show of force at the border to say, “you’re not coming through here.” So, that’s where we pick up the story. Numbers chapter 21 verse 1 through 22 verse 20.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and for bringing us safely into this…this brand new shiny sparkly week. And we often…we often think of this at the beginning of the week that it’s all out in front of us. We…we haven’t an made any miss steps, we haven’t made any mistakes. It’s out there in the future. It has yet to be revealed. It has yet to be created. We have to live into it. And, so, we are here now with grateful hearts looking forward to the adventure that we get to share together walking with You into this new week. Come Holy Spirit. We pray that You would continue to inform and awaken our hearts by…by the Scriptures, and we thank You for binding us together in community as we take this journey come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi everybody my name is Garrett I’m a long-time listener here I’ve called in in the past and I try and pray along with you as much as I can did. I've…I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression for a long time now and today’s been honestly extra bad, and I’d really appreciate some prayers to help give me some strength to, you know, get back on the right path and get that passion that I once had back. And I really appreciate it. I love you all and God bless.

Hello this is Gwen, and I am calling in for my friend Kate. She has something called seizures and I am really sad about it. She was my best friend so please pray for her and that she stays safe especially during covid. And I’m going to ask my sister right now if she wants to say something Do you? She said no. But please pray for her and her parents. And also, this little miracle happened when we were there. We were over at Kate’s house praying and her grandma pulled in and said that she was allowed…her dad was allowed to go in the hospital with her and we just prayed that. And also, that her seizures would stop and it did. All they have to figure out is it for it not to come back. So, please pray for her and her family to do very well. Thank you.

Good morning DABbers this is Nancy from Southern Oregon. I’ve recently retired. So, instead of listening to the Daily Audio Bible on my commute to and from work I’m now listening to it at home on my computer. Well, today’s Friday March 11^th they were talking about how the bronze censors were so holy when God made them…the people that gathered and God burned those 250 followers, He commanded __ to gather them up because the censors were holy. And he had them hammered out and repurposed into making sheets to overlay the altar to remind everybody that God is holy and only the people of Aaron should bring censors. So, in my mind I’m thinking this is the first time I recall hearing of repurposing by God or recycling. But then I think about how he recycled us, that we were recycled by God from people whose very best was nothing more than filthy rags and how He chose us, and He called us first. And then we set ourselves in His light and we turned away from the world. We have purpose and we gotta hold up and be empowered into something useful to honor the Lord. And it’s just a reminder to the world that the living God wants us to enter into a relationship with Him. Those were my thoughts for today. Thinking and applying it. And thank you Brian for this program. God bless you all. Thanks. Bye-bye.

Hi everyone, it’s Christy from Kentucky. Oh, I just have such a burden on my heart today and I need to share a couple of things with you that I need prayer for. I haven’t called about this because it’s been very difficult to talk about, but I lost my second Cousin Morgan to a…what they believe is a heroin fentanyl overdose. And it just…I…I can’t even wrap my brain around it because the last time that she and I spoke she seemed to have turned her life around and was telling me about how she’d asked of the Lord to forgive her and I’m so grateful for that message that she sent to me. But I’m kind of kicking myself because I didn’t follow up and that was back in September. And, you know, sometimes we take things for granted thinking things are going OK and then this happens. So, if you would please keep my family in your prayers. Also, my sweet friend Barb in Ohio had had a lung transplant several years ago due to a chronic illness and she had new lungs and she was just doing so well and something with this new medication that they put her on in the fall for her immunity…her…her immune system has…has attacked her lungs and now she’s only at like 41% lung capacity. Please pray for my friend Bard for healig. Alright everyone. I love you guys so much and I lift you up in prayer. I pray each of you are having a most blessed and lovely day today.

Good morning DAB family this is Minnesota Ruka I just wanted to call in because it is the 12^th of March and I heard an amazing young daughter speak at the very end wanting to be anonymous. And I heard your story girl and I just wanna let you know that the Lord is so proud of you and he is so beside you right now. We all make mistakes in life. I’d like to say a lot of us at different times struggle with our own flesh who needs to think that we can do things on our own. But I want to let you know that don’t let the guilt or shame hold you back. You are on the right path and the angels are rejoicing that…in this new awareness that you have and that that valley that red sea that you were in where you fell astray, that that sea is being lifted and that the Lord is excited to have you back and is open arms with you right now and is gonna bring you blessings and peace. Keep close to him and know that he loves you and that we love you too dear sister and you are amazing. Have a great one.