A Walk Through The Word

Joel 1:1-3:21, Revelation 1:1-20, Psalms 128:1-6, Proverbs 29:18

Today is the 9^th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is a joy and an honor and a privilege to be here with you today just like it is every day of the year. I’m excited for us to take our next step forward in the Scriptures. That next step forward is actually going to lead us into new territory in both old and new Testaments. So, we have two books that we are entering into today that we need to talk about and the first one that we will encounter is the next of the minor prophets in the Old Testament, and this book is known as Joel and we’ll read the entire book of Joel in our reading today. So, let’s just kind of get a little bit of understanding of what we’re reading.

Introduction to the book of Joel:

Nobody really knows exactly which Joel wrote the book of Joel. There are people…other people in the Bible that have the name Joel but…but scholars believe that these are the…any of them are the author of this prophetic book although the language of the book does share kind of a style with other prophets, prophets, like Ezekiel or Jeremiah or Amos or Micah in the minor prophets or Zephaniah. So, that leads to conjecture like so much of the scholarship that surrounds the origins of the Bible. On the one hand it…it could be that the book of Joel is the work of more than one prophet or it could be that the writer of Joel, Joel, this Joel that we’re talking about was in fellowship with other prophets, maybe even in close proximity to other prophets, so they shared kind of a common vernacular. And, so, with repeated readings of these texts these similarities become apparent. But those are like plausible ideas. The text itself doesn’t really give any historical clues. So, dating the book is really, really difficult at least with any precision. If we’re just kind of like aggregating the ideas, somewhere between 500 and 800 B.C. like a three-century span here, somewhere between 500 and 800 years before Jesus came. And what we’ll see is that Joel wrote of this massive overwhelming horde of locusts that invaded the land and just destroyed the vegetation of the land, including all the crops. And, so, following that, as you can imagine, famine because there’s no food. And, so, a plague and then a great famine. And Joel uses this as the backdrop to call the children of Israel to repentance. And its thought that the locusts…like this isn’t a vision, this isn’t like a metaphor or an allegory. There probably was this type of locust invasion and people knew of the circumstances and had endured these things. And, so, when Joel’s speaking of these things people know exactly what he’s talking about and so they’re listening. And as is the case with the other prophets, the prophet is essentially announcing a fork in the road like that. Things have reached a point where like this is the last stop. This is where you either get off the train or you stay on the train and go straight into destruction. And if they stay on the train headed for destruction, then…then they will encounter the great and terrible day of the Lord as Joel describes it. But there is an alternative path as there typically is in the prophets, a path of restoration, a path of repentance. And following that path in the book of Joel leads us to some of the most encouraging and famous passages in the Scriptures, things like “I’ll pour out my spirit upon all people and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions”, stuff like that. So, God through Joel is saying, “you can have the great and terrible day of the Lord, or you can have Me pouring out my spirit upon all of you. The choice is yours.” And friends, the choice is still ours. And, so, let’s dive into the book of Joel understanding that not matter what’s been going on, no matter what the locusts have eaten, restoration is still always possible. And, so, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Joel its entirety, which is three chapters.

Introduction to the book of Revelation:

Okay. So, that is Joel in its entirety and now we flip the page or flip several pages into the New Testament, and we find ourselves at the very final book in the New Testament, and this book is called Revelation. And there isn’t a book in the Bible that seems to have captured the fascination of…of its readers more than this book. And it’s been interpreted many, many various ways through many various lenses over many centuries, in fact, over thousands of years. And these interpretations can be fantastic just wild stuff and then there are more pragmatic attempts to try to find out what’s going on in this book. And, so, revelation tells us, it self-identifies the author as is John. It’s just…we don’t have like a last name. We didn’t have those then. And, so, which John are we talking about because this is not particularly an uncommon name? So, traditionally we would accept the author being the apostle John who wrote other portions of the New Testament as well - the gospel of John and first, second and third John. But this isn’t like a straight line and this isn’t like modern scholarship trying to tear things apart. that’s been questioned since at least the third century and that debate continues to the presence but  without, you know, without new evidence, without something archaeologically being discovered that would give more clues or that would paint a more complete picture, the tradition…the tradition holds just as strongly as any other explanation that the…it was the apostle John who probably wrote this text. So, this being the case, it’s not just any John who was exiled to the island of Patmos it's…it’s John the evangelist, the disciple of Jesus who was banished to the island of Patmos where Revelation was written. And it’s believed that Patmos, it…Patmos still exists, it’s still an island today. But at the time it's…it’s like a Roman penal colony, a place of criminal and political exile. So, rather than just dealing with all these people they just put em’ on this island and let them sort it out under the guard of the Roman…Roman military. And like I said, it’s still an island. You can still go there. You can visit Patmos. It’s in the Aegean Sea. It’s like between modern-day Greece and Turkey and not too far actually from Ephesus where the tradition holds that John spent the elder…elderly years of his life. But here’s where it gets interesting. Here’s where the intrigue about the book of Revelation begins. It is a work in the genre of literature known as apocalyptic literature. This type of literature is highly symbolic, highly allegorical. And, so, when you read the book of Revelation and you have to kind of have your discerner…if that’s a word…you have to have discernment, you have to be paying attention because you find that as you go through this, you’re taking certain things to be literal, you’re taking other things to be allegorical or symbolic and you have to wonder why you’re doing that. How is that happening? How do you decide? And because we have so much seemingly symbolic language and be…because it appears that the subject matter here is the end of all things as we know it, like the end of the world and the beginning of the next, well then you’ve got a good recipe because everybody’s interested in that topic. Like if there’s going to be the end of the world then we should probably have as much understanding about that as we can get. So, we would read this at different than say a poetic allegorical poem like the Song of Songs, right? So, we can read Song of songs and put different lenses on and go, “this is Christ’s love for His bride, this is God’s love for His people. This is just a beautiful portrayal of love between a man and a woman.” And we could be fine with that but you overlay the end of the world into that mix and you’re paying attention, but you still have highly symbolic language to…to discern and work your way through. And, so, as you can imagine, there have been thousands of very unique diverse interpretations over thousands of years. So, some scholars would say this is a very, very important book. Obviously, it’s in the New Testament. Pulling it apart and trying to lay the pieces, the components out and then put them back together, this is indeed a prophetic utterance, but it is meant for people in the first century and contains a first century perspective and the sym…symbolism is something that would be understood better in the first century context. And, so, they conclude that the book of Revelation is already been completely fulfilled. That’s like one way of looking at it. Others see like that Revelation outlines a chain of events that starts when this was written in the first century but lasts until…well…until the end of the world. And then others believe that the symbolism is the thing that keeps the relevance. It's…it’s poetic and so can be interpreted and brought into any time period. So, it’s timeless, and is ultimately describing the overarching cosmic struggle that we find in the Bible between good and evil. And the thing is, all of that can be legitimate. Like all of that can be right but even knowing that we still pretty much have only ever gotten it wrong because what happens is that we get intrigued in all these details and we’re trying to fit them together and overlay them into the time that we live in and come to some sort of conclusion that this is it…this is all going down right now. The problem is that’s what’s been going on for 2000 years. So many, many, many, many generations have looked into this and overlaid it into their time and said this is happening now. And yet 100% of the time until right now they’ve been wrong. One thing that I can tell you that is a right though, remember when we started getting into the letters and started to move to Paul and I’m telling you like this theme of endurance is going to show up and it’s going to be unrelenting all the way until we end the Scriptures and understand how important that word, endurance, actually is to our faith journey, that is probably as clear as it can get in the book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible because it’s a fundamental theme in the book of Revelation. In some ways, it almost feels like we’ve been pulled forward in this theme of endurance all the way to this point where we can see its enduring, not just kind of enduring healing because you broke your leg or enduring the transition of a job. It's…it’s enduring until the very, very end, enduring until the end of all things. And Revelation ultimately tells us that those who stay faithful, those who endure and stay faithful to the testimony of Jesus until the very end will then experience eternal victory. And that brings us to one of the famous passages in the book of Revelation –“they overcame, they defeated evil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” Here’s the thing, this theme of endurance that we’ve been working our way through for months, and it has probably encouraged us on days that we needed to endure and enduring is never easy, but as we kind of come to the end of the Bible and this theme becomes dominant, we begin to realize that this is…endurance isn’t just sitting still and suffering until something is over. It’s not a passive waiting thing. It’s not like some sort of defensive posture. It’s actually a very conscious active thing that we are doing understanding that it’s going somewhere. It’s our endurance in the face of deception, our holding true to the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. In the face of the entire world being dissected around us, we’re to remain true. When I say, “we are to remain true” I’m talking about the people at the very end that are spoken of in this book. It’s their witness that remains until the very end so that there was always a chance for anyone to turn. And when everyone who is going to turn has turned then things get very bleak and they come to an end and a new beginning emerges. And, so, let’s dive into the book of Revelation. This will carry us until December 31^st in the New Testament, until the end of our year. And we will notice that as we begin the book of Revelation, we begin by hearing from Jesus. Jesus writes some letters to some churches and that sets the backdrop. Revelation 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for bringing us into this territory, this new territory across the board…board in both old and new Testaments. And Lord we invite your Holy Spirit as we now encounter and move into and move through the final book in the New Testament, the book of Revelation. Show us what we need to see. Give us what we need to take with us into the future. From the very beginning of this year we’ve been asking for something specific because it’s something that you told us Jesus that we need - eyes to see, ears to hear. And, so, this is again our prayer as we move through the rest of this month, as we move through the territory that we’re moving through in the Bible. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear what you’re saying. We pray this in the incomparable immeasurable name of our Savior Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And really, the things to talk about are Christmas related because that’s where this is headed. That’s where we’re going. And, so, the first thing is we have an annual program and …sort of like our annual Christmas party. And, so, for the next week beginning yesterday you can call in your holiday greetings to the community that you’ve been spending the year going to the Bible together with. And you can use the Hotline button for that or the phone number 877-942-4253. And that might sound familiar because that’s how we send in our prayer requests and encouragements to each other. And, so, we’re gonna use that same apparatus to collect our holiday greetings. There’s just one kind of rule…rule about it. Don’t call a holiday greeting mixed with a prayer request or anything like that. If you’re gonna call in a holiday greeting, call in a holiday greeting and let that be that. If you have some other things going on or you wanna pray for somebody or you want to ask for prayer, do that separately. This is like the only time year that you can do like multiple…like you can do that, call and then call right back. We’ll take those calls for the next week and then we’ll start assembling everything and create our annual Christmas gathering and I can’t wait for it. It’s always virtual because we’re a virtual community but this year, especially. It’s like we get to do this without a…we don’t have to change a thing. There can be viruses running around the world or pandemics. We don’t have to change a thing. We’re gonna do what we always do and it’s gonna be beautiful as it always is. So, you can call those in now.

And then the other thing is the Daily Audio Bible Shop and shopping. Go there and look for resources that you might want to use to invite others along for the journey, or just to encourage their…their faith. There are written resources in book form, like the God of Your Story or Sneezing Jesus or Reframe or Passages. Like, there’s there are books there. There are all kinds resources from things to wear to things to write with, to things to write in. Our Global Campfire candle is in the Shop. We worked so hard on that with a perfumer last year, with a sent a designer to get a candle that smells like a campfire but still smells good, not like ashy, like still smells good like a campfire to remind us. It’s amazing how aroma actually brings us to a place. And, so, to have the Global Campfire candle reminds us that we’re in community together. All kinds resources like that. The Daily…or the Wind Farm coffee, our entire line of coffee that we roast fresh and send you our entire line of tea because these are activities that we do most every day. We drink something warm…not everybody…but most people drink either a cup of coffee or a cup of tea in the morning and maybe even throughout the day. I do. Everyone around here does. And, so, we created this line well over a decade ago because it’s kind of part of the journey. It’s nice to have a cup of coffee and allow God’s word to be spoken over us and gives some things to think about and move into our day. It’s just part of the rhythm. All those resources and more are available in the Shop. If you spend $40 or more in the Shop, we will send you this year the 2020 Christmas ornament for the Daily Audio Bible included in your order. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here in the latter part of the year, then thank you. Thank you humbly and deeply. Sincerely, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. So, thank you. If this has made a difference, then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer ad Praise:

Hi everybody it’s Lisa the Encourager I just wanted to remind everyone of something that I wrote down after Brian read the last part of second Peter and I just called it when I wrote it down in my notes I just wrote it down as Peter’s charge. And I thought it’s…it was so good the way he reminded us that, you know, we should honor Peter in this last message that he gave to us as followers of Christ and basically telling us that, you know, this would be things that you would follow in the gift of having the rich welcome into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And, so, I love that. And, so, there are seven beautiful principles to follow. And, so, the first one is goodness and the second one is knowledge. And we’re certainly getting all that through Brian and also reading the Bible every day. Self-control, which we could all use that especially with the busy holidays and busy traffic and even with our families continuing to have self-control with those that we love the most. Perseverance and walking with Christ, mutual affection and respect for all. I love that…just…just having mutual affection for, you know, people that we interact with. And then godliness, mirroring the way we are like Jesus, so continuing to have godliness. And then the last one is love. Again, just reminding us to show love to all and everything we do and all of our actions, like put those word to action. So, I wrote them down because I need reminding of this. So, I hope it helps you. I also shared them with my children…

Good morning DAB family my name is Pamela and I’m calling from Toronto Canada. It’s December 5^th 130 in the morning and I’m calling for prayers, to ask for prayers for my son in Jamaica. His name is Ray. For him to turn his life over to Jesus because it’s the only way. And I’m praying for my other family members, nephews, and nieces, sisters, brothers. And I am also praying…asking for prayer for myself. I’m having pain all over my body. Sciatica pain, arthritis pain. So, I’m asking for your prayers and I just want to say thank you Brian and your family for the beautiful work you’ve been doing through Jesus. Thank you. I love you all. In Jesus name. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Radiant Rachel and like Jane in the Everglades I’m going to pray Psalm 191 over us and with us for anybody who is in battle against demonic attacks. And I’m also specifically calling out protection and clarity for Janna and her family - Billy, Amber, Roland, Braden and Izzy. I may have one of those names wrong, but God knows his name and also over the state of Washington where they currently reside. Lord, we choose to live in the shelter of the most-high where we will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. You alone Lord are our refuge, our place of safety. You are our God we trust You. Thank You, Lord for rescuing us from every trap and protecting us from deadly disease. We are covered with Your feathers. You shelter us with Your wings. Your faithful promises Lord are our armor and protection. We will not be afraid of the terrors of the night nor the arrows that fly in the day. We do not dread the disease that stocks in the darkness nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though 10,000 fall at our side, though 10,000s are dying around us these evils will not touch us. Open our eyes Lord that we may see all the wicked are punished. You are our refuge. You Lord are the most-high and You are our shelter. No evil will conquer us. No plague will come near our home. You Lord have ordered the angels to protect us wherever we go. They hold us up with their hands so that we won’t hurt our foot on the stone. Thank You, Lord for the strength to trample lions and cobras and the strength to crush fierce lions and serpents under our feet. You tell us Lord that You will rescue those that love You. We love You Lord. You will protect those who trust in You name. We trust in You. Thank You for answering when we call on Your name. Thank You for being with us when we are in trouble. Lord, thank You for rescuing and honoring us and rewarding us with a long life and giving us salvation. In Jesus’ name we pray all these things. And we thank You for all these things. Amen.

I recently learned the lesson of the bamboo tree
and the many parallel analogies between that tree and me
that tree can grow so tall so fast that it mystifies the mind
90 feet or more in the first five years much faster than any other tree you’ll find
but for the first 4 ½ years you’ll only see a sprout
just a tiny shoot above the ground is all that’ll be sticking out
but in the last six months of that last 5^th year it grows 90 feet and more
only the most faithful and loyal cultivators would stick it out to see what’s in store
but God is like that in our lives he’s faithful and he’s true
and even when we show little or no growth he still gives grace and mercy too
most would say just let it die it looks like it’s dead already
but God never loses hope for us his hands are true and steady
great is his faithfulness morning by morning new mercies we see
God changes not his compassions they fail not and as he has been he forever will be
and when all our worldly hope is gone and no more friends are left around
that sprout we had left for dead becomes a tree high above the ground
with roots so deep that the fiercest of storms could never erode its grip
it bends it sways some branches may break but mostly it’ll just dip
while we see nothing above the ground there’s continual growth below
only God can make a tree there so much that we just don’t know
but I also know that sometimes it looks like there’s little or no growth in me
so I’m thankful for his loving hands and I’m sure in time all will see
that growth was present all the time and God was present too
carefully nurturing day by day so my roots would hold fast too
don’t be so quick to judge that shoot that’s barely out of the ground
God has the power to make it as strong as any of the tree that’s around

blindtony1016@gmail.com…

This is from junk to treasure. I want to talk about our voices for couple minutes. I have heard so many people on the DAB mention of a miss the voice of someone who used to call in for prayers or someone who will comment about how they love to hear from those who call in regularly. The study of the voice and the ability to recognize voices is so complex and amazing. Like our unique fingerprints everyone has a voice identity due to pitch and tone rhythm and tempo and texture and so on. Also, many of us have little catchphrases that are used for their own special way of expression like when I say “kiss kiss”, “shalom shalom”, “okay Holy Spirit let’s roll”, or “in the name of Jesus!” You would know exactly who I’m referring to without me even using their name. I love to hear Grandpa Bob on here. His voice is so calming and soothing. He expresses such a sense of sincerity that you want to hear from him more and more. But there is one voice that is above all others and that is the voice of the One who has the power of creation and judgment, that of healing and forgiveness. It calms a raging storm and raises people from the dead. How do we recognize the voice of the Lord? By spending quiet time contemplating in His word. I believe we also hear from God in the voices of those who call in for prayer and encouragement every time they throw their log in the community campfire. Each day I find that I long to hear and get into the word with Brian every day and to hear the wonderful unique voices of my DAB family and I praise God for the ability to recognize and to hear from each and every one of you.

Hello DAB family this is Russell from superior. I just had a call talking to my daughter. She told me she’s injecting drugs. Ask you all to pray for her and keep her safe. Thank you.

Hosea 10:1-14:9, Jude 1:1-25, Psalms 127:1-5, Proverbs 29:15-17

Today is the 8^th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and an honor to be here with you today as we do what we do every day, take the next step forward together in the Scriptures as we continue our journey toward the end of the year. And I’ve been mentioning things are gonna speed up because we’re moving to use shorter texts. Today is no different. We will conclude the book of Hosea today in the Old Testament, and then when we get to the New Testament, we will read in its entirety the letter of Jude and we’ll talk about that when we get there. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Hosea chapters 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 today.

Introduction to the book of Jude:

Okay, now that we are at our New Testament portion for the day, as I mentioned at the beginning, we’re gonna read the entire letter of Jude, which is pretty short, 25 versus. And it wasn’t too long ago that we were reading first and second Peter and we may notice as scholars have noticed that second Peter and Jude are fairly similar. And it…it’s thought that second Peter is using Jude as a source because of the similarities. It’s not unlike the synoptic Gospels sharing material and stories. So, if this is a true theory, then Jude’s letter would then predate second Peter and that would put the letter somewhere maybe in the mid-60s A.D. And that’s not the case if the similarities are just like coincidental. Then the letter could go all the way to somewhere near the end of Jude’s life and that would prop probably be somewhere around 80 A.D. And that’s fascinating and interesting and certainly trying to place these letters and these texts in…in their proper place historically, that’s definitely a discipline worth achieving, but there’s probably a more important question, at least for us who are about to read this. Who is Jude? Who is this person? And that has been a question that has been raised throughout the history of the church. It’s a question that continues to be examined among scholars to this day. If we move toward what has been the consensus then the majority of traditional scholars agree that the Jew who wrote this letter was the brother of James and the brother of Jesus, which would most definitely give the letter credibility and be a valid explanation for why it was preserved, but we need to remember like James, Jude, the brother of Jesus didn’t believe, like he wasn’t an apostle. He didn’t follow along under Jesus teachings. Even though they were brothers he didn’t believe in Jesus during his ministry. But with a short letter like this there are still some mysteries like, who was this supposed to be read by? Who is this writing to in the first place? Jude says he is writing to all who have been called by God the Father who loves you and keeps you safe in the care of Jesus Christ. So, like that’s everybody who believes ever. And, so, we can include ourselves as recipients of this letter, but if the similarities between second Peter and Jude are true, then it’s than likely that Jude was writing to the same people, possibly that Peter was writing to, which would be the displaced believers who were fleeing persecution and marginalization, both because of their faith in Jesus, but also those who had been dispersed into exile in generations past. Oddly, it looks like Jude was wanting to send these people an entirely different letter. I mean, he says that. We’ll see that in a minute. But an issue has arisen and he…he writes to address it. And the issue was this false teaching about grace. And what Jude is addressing isn’t something that hasn’t been addressed in other letters. Basically, that the teaching about grace is that you receive it as a gift. You haven’t merited it right. It’s unmerited favor that is bestowed upon you by God. And that has always been a core understanding of our Christian faith, right? You can’t earn it, it’s a gift, it’s grace. So, when we’re reading through the letters like James and the letters of Peter and letters of John we see there’s an understanding that if you receive this gift, it should transform you and it should transform the way you live your life. And your faith then should be evident in the things that you do. What Jude is addressing here is kind of the opposite of that spectrum, which is basically an understanding that if this grace has been bestowed upon me freely and there is nothing that I can do to ever live into it or live up to it are earn and it’s given to me as a gift and nobody can take it away from me then I can do whatever I want with whoever I want whenever I want to do it because sin isn’t a category of my life anymore. God has taken it away so now I can do whatever I want. And Jude is forcefully opposing this concept. Okay, there’s one more thing to note about Jude and it’s really not about the text or who Jude was, or when this was or anything like that, it’s where it lies in the New Testament. We’re gonna read this entire letter of Jude and this is kind of the end of the letters. And, so, when we conclude our reading today then and…and check it off in the app then we will see, we have concluded another portion of the Bible, the general letters and we will get the general letters badge, which is cool. But that’s where we are. We have one more text in the New Testament that will take us to the end of the year and that is a book known as Revelation. And there are letters actually contained within the book of Revelation from Jesus and we’ll read those. But as a category we’re moving into apocalyptic literature and prophecy. And, so, as we read through and conclude Jude today, we will be making the final turn into the final book in the New Testament that will…will carry us forward. So, let’s dive in and read in its entirety the letter of Jude.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word. And as we have spoken out loud so many times, we are grateful for the way that it transforms the way we think about things. And when we think about things differently, when we change our minds about things then we realize that we have done exactly what you have invited us into, repentance. Repentance is changing our minds and moving in another direction. And your word continually pulls us forward into all truth and we are grateful for that, deeply, deeply grateful for that. And, so, as we continue through these final weeks of this year and as the pace increases in our lives, but the pace increases in the Bible, we ask for attentiveness for focus for openness. Sometimes when things get so busy it’s like we can’t handle another thing and so we start to shut down. And this is one place that we need to remain open, one place that is set aside as a place in community to work through the Scriptures certainly, but as a place that is a constant, an oasis, a place that we can go to to reorient ourselves from the chaos of life. And, so, help us to keep this day by day step-by-step rhythm as we move into the final weeks of the year we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

So, a couple things Christmas related. Every year we have an annual Christmas party together. It’s virtual. It’s beautiful, it’s moving. I have never attended one of these little virtual parties that…that I don’t end up in tears just hearing everybody. And, so, now is the time. And, so, you are invited to call in your holiday greetings to the community that you’ve been spending this year with. And you do that by using the prayer line or the Hotline in the app. So, this is a rare thing. Normally the rule is just one call…one call a day, not multiple stacks calls, but this is one time where you can call and then call back if you have a prayer request. The only rule about this really is do not combine a prayer request with a holiday greeting in the same call or that…it will get nowhere. So, if you have a prayer request, certainly call it in and or use the Hotline and send it in. And if you have a holiday greeting then do the same but just don’t combine them. And we’ll do this for a week. We’ll collect these for a week and compile them together and then Jill and I normally get together and have a conversation about the year, the year that we’re leaving and about our sense of the year that we’re going into next year and just talk a little bit about that. And then we hear from each other, all of the greetings from all over the world and we are just immediately reminded of this thing that we got to be a part of, this beautiful thing called the Daily Audio Bible around the Global Campfire. So, today’s the day we start. You can call in your holiday greetings, like I said, using the telephone 877-942-4253, or using the Hotline button in the app. And I am particularly looking forward to our Christmas gathering this year and it always brings joy, always. And joy…you know we’ve had to contend for joy this year, haven’t we? So, just to have this dumped into our lap, just as we collectively come together and celebrate the wonder of the Christmas season is beautiful. So, send in your holiday greetings for the next week and we’ll be working to put it together.

And then the other thing is, it’s obviously Christmas time. And, so, I’ve been talking about the Daily Audio Bible Shop as an option, as a place to go and shop and look around. You may find some really wonderful things, unique things to give away. You also might find some stuff that you…you want, to remind you of the journey that you’ve been on. So, we have journals. We have developed a journal that…well…it’s my daily Journal. So, we’ve developed these journals. We have wonderful things to write with, resources to take the journey deeper, video wise or…or in book form. The Global Campfire line, just all kinds of stuff. So, check it out in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. If you spend $40 or more in the Shop, we will send along with your order the Daily Audio Bible ornament for 2020 with our words for the year which were “vision” and “settle”. And, so, take advantage of that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here in the waning days of the year, I cannot possibly thank you enough. I’ve tried…I’ve tried all the vocabulary words that mean grateful and that mean awe and that mean wonder and that mean surprise. And all those things are true on a daily basis. Isn’t it surprising and shocking that we live in a time that we could get together like this and even taken for granted? That we could be all over the world working our way day by day step-by-step through the Bible and that we would know each other by voice, that we would know each other by heart and that…that we live in a time that we could even take that for granted? It’s amazing. But the only reason it exists is that it exists because we’re community and we’re in it together. And, so, if life has been brought into your life this year or if light has shown and shined into the darkness, if it’s just been an oasis, a place to go in the middle of very uncertain chaos then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or holiday greeting or an encouragement you can hit the hot line button in the app, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, DABbers it is December 3^rd and I wanted to call in because of two things. First of all, to thank you all over the last several weeks. Probably since the end of October I have been putting on the Prayer Wall and on Facebook and had called in about my dad who was ill and we didn’t know if you really understood salvation and we were praying he would make it to his 95^th birthday which is Monday. And he did and was surrounded by family and it was beautiful. And he went to be with the Lord last evening, December 2^nd. And I just wanted to thank you all for your prayers. And I also wanted to take time to let Brian know how meaningful today’s reading was of first John and specifically his message afterward and the application of it. It was so special to me and it’s what we need to hear for such a time as this. So, thank you DABbers and God bless you and thanks for your prayers for my dad. God was good, is good, and he gave us that hope that we wanted. Thank you. God bless.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible it’s Laura Lee in Boynton Beach. It’s 5 AM on December 4^th. Getting ready for work and feasting on the word of God in the 16^th year of feasting on the word of God. Thank you, Lord for the voices of the Hardin family who have fed us faithfully. I want to just tell you how thankful and grateful I am for all of you. I love you all. From the very beginning I’ve heard the people join the family and grow and rejoice and weep and praise and sing. And I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving in Savannah going back to the holy ground, the altar which I was saved on and the people who were part of that salvation. And I want to welcome some new listeners who are ending the year right so they might start the year right. So, David Browning invited his grandchildren Bahavia and Kyle. Welcome Bahavia and Kyle. I invited Berena from Savannah and she is listening and double DABbing already. And iErashum is another woman I work with, but she is a new believer, my little girl and she is listening as well. She loves China. So, help us feast on your word Lord. I thank you for the new believe …

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is John from Bethlehem Pennsylvania I hope you’re you doing great today. It is the 4^th December, welcome to the last…the last few days of the year. What an amazing year it’s been. Harold, I heard your prayer today on the prayer line for your son Jonathan who had been admitted to the hospital. You’d mentioned that he’s diabetic and they took a look at his foot and the MRI showed that they may have to amputate. I just want you to know that yes, I am praying for you, and I’m praying for your son for healthiness for courage for strength for full and for God’s comfort, that he shows up in a real way for him. Sky and Rebecca or SkyBecca, team SkyBecca, with a van named rhino. That’s so cool. Man you guys are amazing. And, yeah, we are tent dwellers here aren’t we? Thank you so much for your call. You could hear your voice, you know, break a little bit when…when you are talking about how your luster possessions and that you’re moving and you’re moving away from the family but you’re bringing light life and hope into people in the world. And, so, God bless you guys as you travel. And, yeah, I’m thinking about you and praying for you as you move on and praying for your health and well-being. And God’s Smile, kiss kiss everybody…you are just a hoot. I love you and man the work that you’re doing in Maria’s life. Man, how God uses us for His glory. You’re bringing Maria closer and closer to Jesus. And, you know, the impact that that’s gonna have on the world and on the kingdom of God. You truly are loving, and I just thank you so much for setting such a great example. Well…I love you family. I’m gonna go. My time’s running out. And know that you’re being thought of and loved. Brian, I love you buddy. Talk to you soon. Bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Mac from Pennsylvania and my heart was moved for Harold from St. Louis who called in today about his son Jonathan. I’m a father too and I faced some health issues with my…with my son, both of my sons actually from time to time but from a father to a father Harold I am praying for your son Jonathan, that the Lord will save his foot and ultimately __ him of the issues he’s facing with his diabetes. And I’m just praying for him. I’ll be praying for him throughout the day today whenever I have time and whenever I can think about it. And just from a father to a father from our father Harold I’m praying for your son for you for strength.

Hello DABer’s my name is Stefon I’m from Sydney Australia it is the 4th of December and I just want to say I’ve been listening for quite some time. And Brian and Jill really thank you so much for putting together this program here. My wife and I have come almost to the end point where we’ve never read the whole Bible but because of this program we’ve been able to do that. So, yes we…we run sometimes behind. I think at one point I was almost a month and ½ behind but little bit by little bit, you know. Playing em’ one after another sometimes it connects a story really well and you see a greater picture. But I just want to say thank you so much and I’m coming to find that listening to everyone’s prayers prayer requests and how much we care for one another as really made me feel like I really am part of a Global Campfire. So, it’s hot and sunny outside at the moment in Sydney. and, yeah, there’s so many souls. We’re such a multiculturally society and city over here down under. So, just pray everyone that the word continues to spread. We’re so blessed that we don’t have to be on a mission to see other countries. They’re all here in this one place. How amazing is our God that he’s brought the whole world to a place to like Island like Australia? So, hello everyone and thanks for listening to this…this request. God bless. Bye.