A Walk Through The Word

November 15, 2020

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday November 15, 2020 (NIV)

Ezekiel 31-32

Egypt Compared to Fallen Assyria

31 On June 21,^[a] during the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the Lord: ²“Son of man, give this message to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his hordes:

“To whom would you compare your greatness?
³You are like mighty Assyria,
which was once like a cedar of Lebanon,
with beautiful branches that cast deep forest shade
and with its top high among the clouds.
⁴Deep springs watered it
and helped it to grow tall and luxuriant.
The water flowed around it like a river,
streaming to all the trees nearby.
⁵This great tree towered high,
higher than all the other trees around it.
It prospered and grew long thick branches
because of all the water at its roots.
⁶The birds nested in its branches,
and in its shade all the wild animals gave birth.
All the great nations of the world
lived in its shadow.
⁷It was strong and beautiful,
with wide-spreading branches,
for its roots went deep
into abundant water.
⁸No other cedar in the garden of God
could rival it.
No cypress had branches to equal it;
no plane tree had boughs to compare.
No tree in the garden of God
came close to it in beauty.
⁹Because I made this tree so beautiful,
and gave it such magnificent foliage,
it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden,
the garden of God.

¹⁰“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because Egypt^[b] became proud and arrogant, and because it set itself so high above the others, with its top reaching to the clouds, ¹¹I will hand it over to a mighty nation that will destroy it as its wickedness deserves. I have already discarded it. ¹²A foreign army—the terror of the nations—has cut it down and left it fallen on the ground. Its branches are scattered across the mountains and valleys and ravines of the land. All those who lived in its shadow have gone away and left it lying there.

¹³“The birds roost on its fallen trunk,
and the wild animals lie among its branches.
¹⁴Let the tree of no other nation
proudly exult in its own prosperity,
though it be higher than the clouds
and it be watered from the depths.
For all are doomed to die,
to go down to the depths of the earth.
They will land in the pit
along with everyone else on earth.

¹⁵“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When Assyria went down to the grave,^[c] I made the deep springs mourn. I stopped its rivers and dried up its abundant water. I clothed Lebanon in black and caused the trees of the field to wilt. ¹⁶I made the nations shake with fear at the sound of its fall, for I sent it down to the grave with all the others who descend to the pit. And all the other proud trees of Eden, the most beautiful and the best of Lebanon, the ones whose roots went deep into the water, took comfort to find it there with them in the depths of the earth. ¹⁷Its allies, too, were all destroyed and had passed away. They had gone down to the grave—all those nations that had lived in its shade.

¹⁸“O Egypt, to which of the trees of Eden will you compare your strength and glory? You, too, will be brought down to the depths with all these other nations. You will lie there among the outcasts^[d] who have died by the sword. This will be the fate of Pharaoh and all his hordes. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

A Warning for Pharaoh

32 On March 3,^[e] during the twelfth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the Lord: ²“Son of man, mourn for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and give him this message:

“You think of yourself as a strong young lion among the nations,
but you are really just a sea monster,
heaving around in your own rivers,
stirring up mud with your feet.
³Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
I will send many people
to catch you in my net
and haul you out of the water.
⁴I will leave you stranded on the land to die.
All the birds of the heavens will land on you,
and the wild animals of the whole earth
will gorge themselves on you.
⁵I will scatter your flesh on the hills
and fill the valleys with your bones.
⁶I will drench the earth with your gushing blood
all the way to the mountains,
filling the ravines to the brim.
⁷When I blot you out,
I will veil the heavens and darken the stars.
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
and the moon will not give you its light.
⁸I will darken the bright stars overhead
and cover your land in darkness.
I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!

⁹“I will disturb many hearts when I bring news of your downfall to distant nations you have never seen. ¹⁰Yes, I will shock many lands, and their kings will be terrified at your fate. They will shudder in fear for their lives as I brandish my sword before them on the day of your fall. ¹¹For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“The sword of the king of Babylon
will come against you.
¹²I will destroy your hordes with the swords of mighty warriors—
the terror of the nations.
They will shatter the pride of Egypt,
and all its hordes will be destroyed.
¹³I will destroy all your flocks and herds
that graze beside the streams.
Never again will people or animals
muddy those waters with their feet.
¹⁴Then I will let the waters of Egypt become calm again,
and they will flow as smoothly as olive oil,
says the Sovereign Lord.
¹⁵And when I destroy Egypt
and strip you of everything you own
and strike down all your people,
then you will know that I am the Lord.
¹⁶Yes, this is the funeral song
they will sing for Egypt.
Let all the nations mourn.
Let them mourn for Egypt and its hordes.
I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

Egypt Falls into the Pit

¹⁷On March 17,^[f] during the twelfth year, another message came to me from the Lord: ¹⁸“Son of man, weep for the hordes of Egypt and for the other mighty nations.^[g] For I will send them down to the world below in company with those who descend to the pit. ¹⁹Say to them,

‘O Egypt, are you lovelier than the other nations?
No! So go down to the pit and lie there among the outcasts.^[h]’

²⁰The Egyptians will fall with the many who have died by the sword, for the sword is drawn against them. Egypt and its hordes will be dragged away to their judgment. ²¹Down in the grave^[i] mighty leaders will mockingly welcome Egypt and its allies, saying, ‘They have come down; they lie among the outcasts, hordes slaughtered by the sword.’

²²“Assyria lies there surrounded by the graves of its army, those who were slaughtered by the sword. ²³Their graves are in the depths of the pit, and they are surrounded by their allies. They struck terror in the hearts of people everywhere, but now they have been slaughtered by the sword.

²⁴“Elam lies there surrounded by the graves of all its hordes, those who were slaughtered by the sword. They struck terror in the hearts of people everywhere, but now they have descended as outcasts to the world below. Now they lie in the pit and share the shame of those who have gone before them. ²⁵They have a resting place among the slaughtered, surrounded by the graves of all their hordes. Yes, they terrorized the nations while they lived, but now they lie in shame with others in the pit, all of them outcasts, slaughtered by the sword.

²⁶“Meshech and Tubal are there, surrounded by the graves of all their hordes. They once struck terror in the hearts of people everywhere. But now they are outcasts, all slaughtered by the sword. ²⁷They are not buried in honor like their fallen heroes, who went down to the grave^[j] with their weapons—their shields covering their bodies^[k] and their swords beneath their heads. Their guilt rests upon them because they brought terror to everyone while they were still alive.

²⁸“You too, Egypt, will lie crushed and broken among the outcasts, all slaughtered by the sword.

²⁹“Edom is there with its kings and princes. Mighty as they were, they also lie among those slaughtered by the sword, with the outcasts who have gone down to the pit.

³⁰“All the princes of the north and the Sidonians are there with others who have died. Once a terror, they have been put to shame. They lie there as outcasts with others who were slaughtered by the sword. They share the shame of all who have descended to the pit.

³¹“When Pharaoh and his entire army arrive, he will take comfort that he is not alone in having his hordes killed, says the Sovereign Lord. ³²Although I have caused his terror to fall upon all the living, Pharaoh and his hordes will lie there among the outcasts who were slaughtered by the sword. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

Footnotes:

31:1 Hebrew On the first day of the third month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This event occurred on June 21, 587 B.c.; also see note on 1:1.
31:10 Hebrew you.
31:15 Hebrew to Sheol; also in 31:16, 17.
31:18 Hebrew among the uncircumcised.
32:1 Hebrew On the first day of the twelfth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This event occurred on March 3, 585 B.c.; also see note on 1:1.
32:17 Hebrew On the fifteenth day of the month, presumably in the twelfth month of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar (see 32:1). This would put this message at the end of King Jehoiachin’s twelfth year of captivity, on March 17, 585 B.c.; also see note on 1:1. Greek version reads On the fifteenth day of the first month, which would put this message on April 27, 586 B.c., at the beginning of Jehoiachin’s twelfth year.
32:18 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
32:19 Hebrew the uncircumcised; also in 32:21, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32.
32:21 Hebrew in Sheol.
32:27a Hebrew to Sheol.
32:27b The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Hebrews 12:14-29

A Call to Listen to God

¹⁴Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. ¹⁵Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. ¹⁶Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. ¹⁷You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.

¹⁸You have not come to a physical mountain,^[a] to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. ¹⁹For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. ²⁰They staggered back under God’s command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”^[b] ²¹Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, “I am terrified and trembling.”^[c]

²²No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. ²³You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. ²⁴You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.

²⁵Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! ²⁶When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.”^[d] ²⁷This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.

²⁸Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. ²⁹For our God is a devouring fire.

Footnotes:

12:18 Greek to something that can be touched.
12:20 Exod 19:13.
12:21 Deut 9:19.
12:26 Hag 2:6.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 113-114

Psalm 113

¹Praise the Lord!

Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord!
²Blessed be the name of the Lord
now and forever.
³Everywhere—from east to west—
praise the name of the Lord.
⁴For the Lord is high above the nations;
his glory is higher than the heavens.

⁵Who can be compared with the Lord our God,
who is enthroned on high?
⁶He stoops to look down
on heaven and on earth.
⁷He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
⁸He sets them among princes,
even the princes of his own people!
⁹He gives the childless woman a family,
making her a happy mother.

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 114

¹When the Israelites escaped from Egypt—
when the family of Jacob left that foreign land—
²the land of Judah became God’s sanctuary,
and Israel became his kingdom.

³The Red Sea^[a] saw them coming and hurried out of their way!
The water of the Jordan River turned away.
⁴The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs!
⁵What’s wrong, Red Sea, that made you hurry out of their way?
What happened, Jordan River, that you turned away?
⁶Why, mountains, did you skip like rams?
Why, hills, like lambs?

⁷Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob.
⁸He turned the rock into a pool of water;
yes, a spring of water flowed from solid rock.

Footnotes:

114:3 Hebrew the sea; also in 114:5.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 27:18-20

¹⁸As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit,
so workers who protect their employer’s interests will be rewarded.

¹⁹As a face is reflected in water,
so the heart reflects the real person.

²⁰Just as Death and Destruction^[a] are never satisfied,
so human desire is never satisfied.

Footnotes:

27:20 Hebrew Sheol and Abaddon.

New Living Translation (NLT)

November 14, 2020

11/14/2020 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 29:1-30:26, Hebrews 11:32-12:13, Psalms 112:1-10, Proverbs 27:17

Today is the 14^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue our journey forward. I guess we’re…we’re approaching the middle of the 11^th month now. We’re gonna cross through the middle of this month before the weekend is over. So, a month and a half left in this year and we have already discerned…we’ve already determined to finish strong and well. And, so, let’s dive in. We are reading from the God’s Word Translation this week, which is today. Ezekiel chapters 29 and 30.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for another week in Your word. And it really is true, we’re looking at the weeks that remain versus the weeks that we have already moved through and we see that there’s just a handful weeks left in this year. That seems strange but it is the reality. And ,so, as we as we look at that, we also take the time as we’ve done so many times this year to look back and see the way that You have them imprinted Your word on our heart and that it has spoken to us in profound and meaningful ways impacting our lives, impacting the ways that we’ve lived our lives this year and we’ve needed it more than ever because it’s been one of the strangest years ever. And, so, we are grateful, and we turn our face forward with tremendous anticipation for all that You have yet to say to us this very year. So, come Holy Spirit, plant the words that were spoken today in the soil of our lives. May we cultivate them, may we care for them and may they sprout, and may they yield the harvest of the fruit of the Spirit within us we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the websites, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And You can also find out what’s going on around here if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible after pretty much the same fashion by pressing the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner of the app screen. So, stay tuned, stay connected.

Stay connected to the Prayer Wall. That’s in the Community section of the website. And that is one of the most beautiful resources that we have, prayer - prayer for one another in a number of different ways. So, be aware of the Prayer Wall in the Community section.

We’ve been talking the last few days about the Global Campfire initiative that is occurring right now. We have…well we’ve gone a bit old-school and…which is new school now and pressed up some vinyl, a deluxe, beautiful, really beautiful vinyl addition of the Heart guided prayer album that we released in July of this year at…during the long walk. And it is gorgeous and…yeah…something to hold onto, a memento of 2020, a positive memento of 2020. And, so, we have it available and what we’re doing is saying, hey, anybody who can contribute a hundred dollars or more to this initiative we are continuing to pour into developing home base, which is the app and the technologies that will continue to connect us as we take the journey through the Scriptures. And anyone willing to contribute a hundred dollars or more to this initiative, we want to send you this vinyl addition of the Heart album. So, we had 500 of these pressed up and when they’re gone, they’re gone and at that point they become…well they become impossible to find. So, they’re something to hold onto. And I thank you profoundly for all of you who have already gotten on board with this. This directly affects how…what we’re doing in developing the app. Our next release will…well should conclude the Badges initiative that we had earlier this year and just being able to look at a glance and see where you are in the Bible from a number of different perspectives. But there is so much more on the docket as we continue to move forward and continue to make this home. And, so, if…if you can get involved, if you feel lead in that direction then thank you so very much.

If you have a prayer request or encouragement, then you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the red button up at the top of the app screen 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:

This is Candace from Oregon I just want to touch base with Rebecca from Michigan. I hope your birthday was really special and look forward to hearing about it. And I just felt that the Lord wanted me to say to you, he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. And I would like to say a prayer over you. Lord, bless Rebecca from Michigan and thank you so much for her life, for all that you’ve done, and I pray that you will just pour a blessing on her. I pray Lord that she will find a true, true friend and life partner. I pray that her immediate problems with technology will straighten out, that she will solve that if she hasn’t already and be able to hear DAB every day without any problems. And I ask these things in Jesus’ name and for Jesus sake because I know that you Lord Jesus love her so dearly and gave your life for her. Thank you, Lord for everything that you’re doing, everything you already have done in her and all that is to come in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Becky and Orlando it’s been a crazy year for all of us. I know 2020 is one year that just I’d like to not have happened. But anyway, I haven’t called in very much this year, but I’ve been listening and right now I’m a little bit behind. I’ve really enjoyed hearing all the new voices and being able to hear some of the old voices like Annette Allison and Shante. I’m so happy to hear from you again in Detroit and hearing that you’re going to come down to Florida. But I have an urgent prayer request for you. My mom is an atheist up in Massachusetts and things are pretty dire right now. Her husband has Parkinson’s disease and she’s now decided that she’s not gonna treat a UTI that he has and she just wants to speed up his progression and now he hasn’t woken up since Thursday and today’s Monday and he hasn’t had any food or drink. She’s not waking him up to feed him or anything or give him antibiotics. And, so, I’m just praying, praying, praying for his soul because as far as I know he is not a believer. And, so, I’m praying that he somehow in the state that he’s in surrenders to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and am praying for my mom’s soul also. And if you guys can join me in prayer for that I would love it. So, I thank you guys and I look forward to checking back in again soon. All right. Bye.

Hi this is Christina I’m a child of God calling for prayer for my family. This Friday when…well…today is the eighth or the ninth, I’m not even sure but this past Friday when Brian…after Brian read about Ezekiel chapter 16 __ of God how He feels about Jerusalem and the betrayal I found out that my husband’s cheating on me. And it’s been a very tough weekend but God has given me a lot of peace and if it wasn’t for my faith in God and my…the Bible studies and this Daily Audio Bible that I’m so much in the word that I can be strengthened with His power to get through it but my son and my daughter are not believers and neither is he of course. Anyways, but could you please look them up in prayer. They are in a lot of pain. My daughter especially is devastated because she had her dad in very high regard. My daughter’s daughters name is Phoebe and my son’s name is Eric my husband is Humberto. He’s agreeing to go to a counselor to counselling or a therapist with me and he’s admitted to the affair. And, so, if you’d please keep me in prayer. Thank you.

Hey guys Eyes of a Dove here and much like Radiant Rachel and Big-Hearted Ben I’ve been compelled to involve my kids in the Daily Audio Bible prayer time. So, I’d like to introduce Ryland and Braden and we’re gonna pray for a couple people. I would like to pray for Joe. This is Ryland. Yeah. I would like to pray for Joe, yes Lord, and that his wife and his daughter turn to God so he doesn’t have to have a lot of stress and anxiety and they stop like hurting…and they’re just causing him a lot of hurt. Yes. And not judge him all the time. Yes, Lord we just pray that the mom and the daughter are saved, and Joe just feel strengthened and we hope to hear from Joe again. And here’s Braden. Hi, thank you guys for praying for me and helping me through my tough times and hopefully God can help some of you in the ways that He helped me. Yeah. Yeah thank you so much you guys and…for lifting up our…our other family member Izzy and how much Braden has felt the impact of your guy’s prayers. And that he can just be a leader to the other broken kids. And we’re praying for all the broken kids out there that are hurting just like Braden’s gone through and what Izzy’s going through and God we just lift and touch them. We just thank you so much Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Good morning my son is…is diagnosed with autism and he’s getting a little older now. And, so, he is dealing with meltdowns. And anybody that has autism…a kid with autism knows that they…a lot of them deal with meltdowns and his are now starting…they went from having one once every week may be every two weeks now he’s having them, three or four of them a day. And, so, he’s only 10, he’s getting bigger and he’s strong. And, so, he’s getting violent and it’s…he’s just such a sweet kid. And, so, it hurts me, and his mother’s feelings and it hurts our hearts to see him act out like that. We know that’s not what he wants to do but he can’t help it. And, so, we’re just praying…we still…just we still believe God’s gonna heal him completely from autism but we’re believing God to…to…to stop these meltdowns. They’re…they’ve gotten a little bit much, overbearing for both of us. So, we just ask you guys to pray and remember him. His name is Michael. Thank you, guys.

November 14, 2020

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday November 14, 2020 (NIV)

Ezekiel 29-30

Judgment on Egypt

29 On the twelfth day of the tenth month in the tenth year, the Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Son of man, turn to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. ³Tell him, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

I’m against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
You are like a monster crocodile lying in the Nile River.
You say, “The Nile River is mine. I made it for myself.”

⁴“ ‘I will put hooks in your jaws
and make the fish in the Nile River stick to your scales.
I will pull you out of your river
with all the fish in the Nile sticking to your scales.
⁵I will leave you in the desert, you and all the fish from the Nile.
You will fall in an open field.
No one will pick you up or bury you.
I will feed you to wild animals and birds.
⁶Then all those living in Egypt will know that I am the Lord.
Egypt, you have become like a ⌞broken⌟ walking stick
to the nation of Israel.
⁷When Israel grabbed you, you splintered and tore up their shoulders.
When they leaned on you, you broke, and they wrenched their backs.

⁸“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: I am going to attack you with a sword. I will kill people and animals. ⁹Egypt will become a wasteland and a pile of rubble. Then you will know that I am the Lord. You said, “The Nile River is mine. I made it.” ¹⁰That is why I’m against you and the Nile River. I will turn Egypt into a pile of rubble. It will become a wasteland, from Migdol to Syene, all the way to the border of Sudan. ¹¹No human or animal will walk through it, and no one will live there for 40 years. ¹²I will make Egypt the most desolate country in the world. For 40 years Egypt’s cities will lie in ruins. They will be ruined more than any other city. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and force them into other countries.

¹³“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: After 40 years I will gather the Egyptians from the nations where they have been scattered. ¹⁴I will bring back the Egyptian captives and return them to Pathros,^[a] the land they came from. There they will be a weak kingdom. ¹⁵They will be the weakest kingdom, and they will never rule the nations again. I will make them so weak that they will never rule the nations again. ¹⁶The nation of Israel will never trust Egypt again. The people of Israel will remember how wrong they were whenever they turned to Egypt ⌞for help⌟. Then they will know that I am the Almighty Lord.’ ”

¹⁷On the first day of the first month in the twenty-seventh year, the Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ¹⁸“Son of man, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made his army fight hard against Tyre. Every soldier’s head was worn bald, and every soldier’s shoulder was rubbed raw. Yet, he and his army got no reward for their hard-fought battle against Tyre. ¹⁹This is what the Almighty Lord says: I’m going to give Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He will carry off its wealth, take its prized possessions, and loot it. That will be the pay for his army. ²⁰I have given him Egypt as pay for what he has done. Nebuchadnezzar and his army worked for me, declares the Almighty Lord.

²¹“On that day I will make the people of Israel strong again, and I will give you, Ezekiel, something to say among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Nebuchadnezzar Will Conquer Egypt

30 The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Son of man, prophesy. Say, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

Cry for that day!
³The day is near. The day of the Lord is near.
It will be a gloomy day, a time of trouble for the nations.
⁴There will be war in Egypt and anguish in Ethiopia.
Many Egyptians will fall dead.
People will take away Egypt’s wealth,
and its foundations will be torn down.
⁵Sudan, Put, Lud, all the Arabs, the Libyans,
and people from the promised land will die in battle.

⁶“ ‘This is what the Lord says:

All Egypt’s allies will die.
Egypt’s strength will disappear.
People will die in war from Migdol to Syene,
declares the Almighty Lord.

⁷“ ‘Egypt will become the most desolate country in the world, and Egypt’s cities will lie in ruins. They will be ruined more than other cities. ⁸Then they will know that I am the Lord, because I will set fire to Egypt and all her defenders will be killed. ⁹On that day I will send messengers in ships to terrify those who live in safety in Sudan. The people of Sudan will be in anguish when Egypt is in trouble. That day is coming!

¹⁰“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will use King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to bring an end to Egypt. ¹¹He and his troops, the most ruthless troops among the nations, will be brought to destroy the land. They will draw their swords to attack Egypt and fill the land with dead bodies. ¹²I will dry up the Nile River and sell the land to wicked people. I will have foreigners destroy the land and everything in it. I, the Lord, have spoken.

¹³“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will destroy the statues and put an end to the idols in Memphis. A prince will never rise again in Egypt. I will spread fear throughout Egypt. ¹⁴I will destroy Pathros, set fire to Zoan, and bring punishment on Thebes. ¹⁵I will pour out my fury on Sin, Egypt’s fortress, and I will kill many people in Thebes. ¹⁶I will set fire to Egypt. Sin will be in much pain. Thebes will be broken into pieces, and Memphis will be in trouble every day. ¹⁷The young men from Heliopolis and Bubastis will die in battle, and people from these cities will go into exile. ¹⁸At Tahpanhes the day will turn dark when I break Egypt’s power. Egypt’s strong army will be defeated. Clouds will cover Egypt, and people from its villages will go into exile. ¹⁹Then they will know that I am the Lord, because I will bring punishment on Egypt.’ ”

²⁰On the seventh day of the first month in the eleventh year, the Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²¹“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. His arm isn’t bandaged, so it can’t heal and be strong enough to hold a sword.

²²“This is what the Almighty Lord says: I’m against Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I will break both his arms, the healthy one and the broken one. I will make the sword fall from his hand. ²³I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and force them into other countries. ²⁴I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong. I will put my sword in his hand, but I will break Pharaoh’s arms. Pharaoh will groan like a person who is dying. ²⁵I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but Pharaoh’s arms will fall. Then they will know that I am the Lord, because I will put my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon. He will strike Egypt with it. ²⁶I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and force them into other countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Footnotes:

29:14 Or “southern Egypt.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Hebrews 11:32-12:13

³²What more should I say? I don’t have enough time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. ³³Through faith they conquered kingdoms, did what God approved, and received what God had promised. They shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴put out raging fires, and escaped death. They found strength when they were weak. They were powerful in battle and defeated other armies. ³⁵Women received their loved ones back from the dead. Other believers were brutally tortured but refused to be released so that they might gain eternal life. ³⁶Some were made fun of and whipped, and some were chained and put in prison. ³⁷Some were stoned to death, sawed in half, and killed with swords. Some wore the skins of sheep and goats. Some were poor, abused, and mistreated. ³⁸The world didn’t deserve these good people. Some wandered around in deserts and mountains and lived in caves and holes in the ground.

³⁹All these people were known for their faith, but none of them received what God had promised. ⁴⁰God planned to give us something very special so that we would gain eternal life with them.

Faith Directs Our Lives

12 Since we are surrounded by so many examples ⌞of faith⌟, we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us. We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up. ²We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith. He saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured death on the cross and ignored the disgrace it brought him. Now he holds the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne. ³Think about Jesus, who endured opposition from sinners, so that you don’t become tired and give up.

⁴You struggle against sin, but your struggles haven’t killed you. ⁵You have forgotten the encouraging words that God speaks to you as his children:

“My child, pay attention when the Lord disciplines you.
Don’t give up when he corrects you.
⁶The Lord disciplines everyone he loves.
He severely disciplines everyone he accepts as his child.”

⁷Endure your discipline. God corrects you as a father corrects his children. All children are disciplined by their fathers. ⁸If you aren’t disciplined like the other children, you aren’t part of the family. ⁹On earth we have fathers who disciplined us, and we respect them. Shouldn’t we place ourselves under the authority of God, the father of spirits, so that we will live? ¹⁰For a short time our fathers disciplined us as they thought best. Yet, God disciplines us for our own good so that we can become holy like him. ¹¹We don’t enjoy being disciplined. It always seems to cause more pain than joy. But later on, those who learn from that discipline have peace that comes from doing what is right.

¹²Strengthen your tired arms and weak knees. ¹³Keep walking along straight paths so that your injured leg won’t get worse. Instead, let it heal.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Psalm 112

112 Hallelujah!

Blessed is the person who fears the Lord
and is happy to obey his commands.
²His descendants will grow strong on the earth.
The family of a decent person will be blessed.
³Wealth and riches will be in his home.
His righteousness continues forever.
⁴Light will shine in the dark for a decent person.
He is merciful, compassionate, and fair.

⁵All goes well for the person who is generous and lends willingly.
He earns an honest living.
⁶He will never fail.
A righteous person will always be remembered.
⁷He is not afraid of bad news.
His heart remains secure, full of confidence in the Lord.
⁸His heart is steady, and he is not afraid.
In the end he will look triumphantly at his enemies.
⁹He gives freely to poor people.
His righteousness continues forever.
His head is raised in honor.
¹⁰The wicked person sees this and becomes angry.
He angrily grits his teeth and disappears.
The hope that wicked people have will vanish.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Proverbs 27:17

¹⁷⌞As⌟ iron sharpens iron,
so one person sharpens the wits of another.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

November 13, 2020

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday November 13, 2020 (NIV)

Ezekiel 27-28

A Funeral Song about Tyre

27 The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Son of man, sing a funeral song about Tyre. ³Tyre is the city at the entrance to the sea. It is the merchant to the nations. Say to Tyre, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

Tyre, you used to brag about your perfect beauty.
⁴Your home is the sea.

“ ‘Your builders made your beauty perfect.
⁵Your builders made all your boards from pine trees on Mount Hermon.
They took cedar trees from Lebanon to make a mast for you.
⁶They made your oars from oaks in Bashan.
They made your deck from pine trees on the shores of Cyprus.
It had ivory set in it.
⁷Your sails were made out of fine embroidered linen from Egypt.
They were like your flags.
Your awnings were violet and purple.
They came from the coasts of Elishah.
⁸People from Sidon and Arvad used to row you.
Your own skilled people were your sailors.
⁹Master shipbuilders from Gebal went inside you to caulk your seams.
All the ships on the sea and their sailors
docked alongside you to trade with you.
¹⁰People from Persia, Lud, and Put were soldiers in your army.
They hung their shields and helmets inside you.
Their victories made you look good.

¹¹“ ‘People from Arvad and Helech ^[a] were guards all around your walls. People from Gammad guarded your towers. They hung their shields all around your walls, making your beauty perfect.

¹²“ ‘People from Tarshish traded with you because you were so very rich. They exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for your merchandise. ¹³People from Greece, Tubal, and Meshech traded with you. They exchanged slaves and bronze items for your goods. ¹⁴People from Beth Togarmah exchanged horses, war horses, and mules for your merchandise. ¹⁵People from Dedan traded goods with you. You traded with many people on the coasts, and they brought you ivory and ebony as payment.

¹⁶“ ‘People from Syria traded with you because you had so many products. They exchanged emeralds, purple cloth, richly woven cloth, linen, coral, and rubies for your merchandise. ¹⁷Judah and Israel traded with you. They exchanged wheat from Minnith, baked goods, honey, olive oil, and balsam for your goods. ¹⁸People from Damascus traded with you because you had so many products. They exchanged wine from Helbon and wool from Sahar.

¹⁹“ ‘Danites and Greeks from Uzal traded for your merchandise. They exchanged wrought iron, cassia, and sugar cane for your goods. ²⁰Dedan traded saddle blankets with you. ²¹Arabia and all the officials of Kedar traded with you. They traded lambs, rams, and male goats. ²²The merchants from Sheba and Raamah traded with you. They traded the finest spices, precious stones, and gold for your merchandise. ²³Haran, Canneh, Eden, the merchants from Sheba, Assyria, and Kilmad traded with you. ²⁴In your marketplace they traded for beautiful clothes, purple robes, embroidered cloth, and many multicolored rugs with woven and twisted cords.

²⁵“ ‘Ships from Tarshish carried your goods.
You were like a ship filled with heavy cargo in the sea.
²⁶Your rowers took you out to the high seas,
and an east wind wrecked you in the sea.
²⁷Your wealth, your merchandise, and the goods you sell,
your mariners and your sailors,
your caulkers and your merchants,
your soldiers and everyone else on board
sank into the sea when your ship was wrecked.

²⁸“ ‘When your sailors cried out, people on the shore trembled.
²⁹All the rowers, the sailors,
and all the mariners came down from their ships
and stood on the shore.
³⁰They cried loudly and bitterly over you.
They put dust on their heads and covered themselves with ashes.
³¹They shaved their heads because of you and put on sackcloth.
They cried over you with bitterness and with bitter mourning.
³²They sang a funeral song for you with loud crying:
“Who is like Tyre, the city destroyed in the sea?”
³³Your merchandise was sent overseas.
You filled many people with your great wealth and your goods.
You made the kings of the earth rich.
³⁴Now you are wrecked in the sea, at the bottom of the sea.
Your goods and your whole crew sank with you.
³⁵All those who live on the coasts are horrified because of you.
Their kings are terribly afraid.
Their faces show their fear.
³⁶The merchants among the nations laugh at you.
You have come to a terrible end,
and you will never exist again.’ ”

Judgment on the King of Tyre

28 The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

In your arrogance you say,
“I’m a god. I sit on God’s throne in the sea.”
But you’re only human and not a god,
although you think you are a god.
³You think that you are wiser than Daniel
and that no secret can be hidden from you.
⁴Because you are wise and understanding,
you’ve made yourself rich.
You saved gold and silver in your treasuries.
⁵Because of your great skill in trading,
you’ve made yourself very wealthy.
You have become arrogant because of your wealth.

⁶“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

You think you are wise like God.
⁷That is why I am going to bring foreigners against you,
the most ruthless foreigners among the nations.
They will draw their swords against your fine wisdom
and dishonor your greatness.
⁸They will throw you into a pit,
and you will die a violent death in the sea.
⁹You will no longer say that you are a god
when you face those who kill you.
You will be a human, not a god, in the hands of those who kill you.
¹⁰You will die at the hands of foreigners like a godless person.
I have spoken,’ ” declares the Lord.

¹¹The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ¹²“Son of man, sing a funeral song for the ruler of Tyre. Tell him, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

You were the perfect example,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
¹³You were in Eden, God’s garden.
You were covered with every kind of precious stone:
red quartz, topaz, crystal,
beryl, onyx, gray quartz, sapphire,
turquoise, and emerald.
Your settings and your sockets
were made of gold when you were created.
¹⁴I appointed an angel ^[b] to guard you.
You were on God’s holy mountain.
You walked among fiery stones.
¹⁵Your behavior was perfect from the time you were created,
until evil was found in you.
¹⁶You traded far and wide. You learned to be violent, and you sinned.
So I threw you down from God’s mountain in disgrace.
The guardian angel forced you out from the fiery stones.
¹⁷You became too proud because of your beauty.
You wasted your wisdom because of your greatness.
So I threw you to the ground
and left you in front of the kings
so that they could see you.
¹⁸You dishonored your own holy places
because of your many sins and dishonest trade.
So I set fire to you to burn you up.
I turned you into ashes on the ground
in the presence of all who saw you.
¹⁹All the nations who knew you are horrified because of you.
You have come to a terrible end,
and you will never exist again.’ ”

Judgment on Sidon Means Hope for Israel

²⁰The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²¹“Son of man, turn to Sidon and prophesy against it. ²²Tell it, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

I’m against you, Sidon.
I will show my greatness through you.
Then people will know that I am the Lord,
because I will punish you and show you how holy I am.
²³I will send a plague against you
and make blood flow in your streets.
Your people will fall dead.
People with swords will attack you from every side.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.
²⁴The nation of Israel will no longer be hurt
by prickly thorns or sharp briars from everyone around them.
Then they will know that I am the Almighty Lord.

²⁵“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: When I gather the people of Israel from the nations where they were scattered, I will show that I am holy as the nations watch. The people of Israel will live in their own land, the land I gave to my servant Jacob. ²⁶They will live there in safety. They will build homes and plant vineyards. They will live in safety when I punish all the surrounding people who treat them with scorn. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.’ ”

Footnotes:

27:11 Or “Celicia.”
28:14 Or “one of the cherubim.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Hebrews 11:17-31

¹⁷When God tested Abraham, faith led him to offer his son Isaac. Abraham, the one who received the promises from God, was willing to offer his only son as a sacrifice. ¹⁸God had said to him, “Through Isaac your descendants will carry on your name.” ¹⁹Abraham believed that God could bring Isaac back from the dead. Abraham did receive Isaac back from the dead in a figurative sense.

²⁰Faith led Isaac to bless Jacob and Esau.

²¹While Jacob was dying, faith led him to bless each of Joseph’s sons. He leaned on the top of his staff and worshiped God.

²²While Joseph was dying, faith led him to speak about the Israelites leaving Egypt and give them instructions about burying his bones.

²³Faith led Moses’ parents to hide him for three months after he was born. They did this because they saw that Moses was a beautiful baby and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s order.

²⁴When Moses grew up, faith led him to refuse to be known as a son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵He chose to suffer with God’s people rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a little while. ²⁶He thought that being insulted for Christ would be better than having the treasures of Egypt. He was looking ahead to his reward.

²⁷Faith led Moses to leave Egypt without being afraid of the king’s anger. Moses didn’t give up but continued as if he could actually see the invisible God.

²⁸Faith led Moses to establish the Passover and spread the blood ⌞on the doorposts⌟ so that the destroying angel would not kill the firstborn sons.

²⁹Faith caused the people to go through the Red Sea as if it were dry land. The Egyptians also tried this, but they drowned.

³⁰Faith caused the walls of Jericho to fall after the Israelites marched around them for seven days.

³¹Faith led the prostitute Rahab to welcome the spies as friends. She was not killed with those who refused to obey God.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Psalm 111

111 Hallelujah!

I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart
in the company of decent people and in the congregation.
²The Lord’s deeds are spectacular.
They should be studied by all who enjoy them.
³His work is glorious and majestic.
His righteousness continues forever.
⁴He has made his miracles unforgettable.
The Lord is merciful and compassionate.
⁵He provides food for those who fear him.
He always remembers his promise.^[a]
⁶He has revealed the power of his works to his people
by giving them the lands of other nations as an inheritance.
⁷His works are done with truth and justice.
All his guiding principles are trustworthy.
⁸They last forever and ever.
They are carried out with truth and decency.
⁹He has sent salvation to his people.
He has ordered that his promise should continue forever.
His name is holy and terrifying.
¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Good sense is shown by everyone who follows ⌞God’s guiding principles⌟.
His praise continues forever.

Footnotes:

111:5 Or “covenant.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Proverbs 27:15-16

¹⁵Constantly dripping water on a rainy day is like a quarreling woman.
¹⁶Whoever can control her can control the wind.
He can even pick up olive oil with his right hand.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

November 12, 2020

11/12/2020 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 24:1-26:21, Hebrews 11:1-16, Psalms 110:1-7, Proverbs 27:14

Today is the 12^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you to take the next step forward. So, yeah, let’s just all fid our place around the Global Campfire, find a peaceful place within us, just kind of exhale the cares of life that would love…would love to interfere with this time. But this is the safe place. This is the oasis that we have together where we come together and just let God’s word speak however it speaks, just take a few minutes to catch our breath and allow God into the day. And, so, let’s get that. We’re reading from the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament right now. So, we’ll continue that. We’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week. Ezekiel chapters 24, 25 and 26 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, yesterday we were talking about our reading from the book of Hebrews. We talked about being able to move into the holy place beyond the curtain, beyond the veil, so into the very presence of God. And again, like we’ve said so many times, this is all…this is all being fleshed out in a Hebrew context because Hebrews is written to Hebrews and if we don’t have the Hebrew context then none of its gonna make any sense much like the rest of the Bible. So, essentially what was being promised here is that we can go into the very presence of God as His children and that He will welcome us that way, that there is an intimacy, a relationship that is available with the most-high. Well, for the Hebrew people hearing this, the high priest could only go into the most holy place once a year. So, what was being described was something impossible. The impossible was possible which is…which is the good news, that there is no separation between us and God anymore. That’s the good news. So, as we turn the page and move into today’s reading what we’re seeing begin to be fleshed out is how to do it. Like, how it works. How might one begin that process of entering into some kind of personal interaction even relationship with the most-high God. How do you…how you start that journey. And the writer of Hebrews lays it out. Faith. And, of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard faith in the Bible this year. This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about faith since we started our journey so many months ago. We talked plenty about faith when we were working through Paul’s letters because it’s the centerpiece of the gospel that he was teaching but it’s Hebrews that gives us the famous definition, right? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, it is the evidence of things not seen. Or reading from the translation that we’re in now. “Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see.” So, I mean logic just dictate…dictates; if you don’t have faith in a God that you cannot see then how can you be in a relationship with that God? Faith is required unless we get bent out of shape, like, “well…I just don’t have that kind of faith …I don’t have enough faith…like I can’t get anything to get done because I have enough faith. And where do I go? Like, where is the well that I can get more faith? Where do I go to the store and buy more faith? Where’s the faith shop at? There isn’t one. You have what you need. We are all living by faith. As much as we are denying it, we are all living by faith. So you have faith in love? You can’t see it yet can’t really prove it other than its evidence and the fact that it’s ubiquitous everybody believes that there is love and we act in love, but you can’t see it. Do you believe in the wind? You can’t see it. It can blow down a tree, though. It can bring a flood. It can dry the earth. So, we have faith in its existence because we can see what it’s doing. Do you have faith in next Tuesday? Probably. Probably you’re expecting that next Tuesday will come. You may even have things planned for next Tuesday. Can you see it? Can you attain it? Can you grasp it? It’s yet to be. It hasn’t come into existence yet. But somehow our faith fleshes out and gives substance enough that we could write in a calendar what we planned to do at a time that does not exist yet. Do you believe that if you’re going to work today that you’re probably gonna get there, or if you’re on your lunch break do you believe that you’re probably gonna make it home tonight? Yeah, probably you have faith that that will happen. Do you know it will happen? You have no idea that it will happen other than that it keeps happening, and so would you believe that it will. And that’s just some random examples. If you just think about your life and the things that you have faith in that are not necessarily spiritual things but maybe spiritual things, we realize that we are operating in faith a lot because we’re made that way. And then we turn to spirituality and we turn to God and it all the sudden gets murky when we are made for this. Faith lets us see a reality and then begin to live into that reality like next Tuesday even though it’s not here, even though it hasn’t reached its fullness or its completion. It gives substance to what is not seen. So, there’s a bit of…just an argument, I guess, for the existence of faith, but we would have to acknowledge that it does exist because we employ it every day of our lives. The writer of Hebrews is simply trying to say, “this is the way forward. Your faith is the way forward. But don’t think that faith is a new invention. Faith has been the underpinning of…of everything all along. It’s the essential piece of the puzzle.” It preceded in the Hebrew story, any tradition any ritual any law, any culture any anything, it was the foundational piece of it all, which led us into a bunch of names. We started reviewing. Like we started at the book of Genesis and started forward, right? It’s by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God. It’s by faith that Enoch was taken without dying. He disappeared. It was my faith that Noah built a ship to save his family from the flood. It was by faith that Abraham obeyed God and left the land that he was in to a land that he would be shown. It was my faith that Sarah, even though she was too old to have children and they were both a Abram and Sarah, Sarai, were both too old to have children. They had a child. All those examples come from the book of Genesis, the beginning of the story that we read so long ago. And as we continue because we’re…we’re walking down a section of Scripture that’s famous, it’s famously called the hall of faith and the reason for this existing is…well…is for the author of Hebrews to show fellow Hebrews that faith was always the centerpiece of the story from the get go. It was always the essential piece. It’s a part of all of the stories. If faith gets removed from the stories than the stories…the stories don’t exist. So, the writer of Hebrews is essentially trying to say, “this has always been going on. It’s going on right now and for you to go forward, for you to go forward with God into an intimate relationship it is going to require faith. Faith is what will make you move fomrward. And what we should see from our reading today as we began the hall of faith and as we continue the hall of faith forward into tomorrow what we should see is that these were not superheroes. At the end of their story they did not get some kind of cape and some kind of special power. They were people, ordinary, normal people. We’re not reading the hall of faith as a list of names of people who were exceptions. We’re reading the story of people who serve as examples for us. And, so, we should consider then, what…what the readers of this letter would’ve had to consider - where is my faith then, what is my faith in then? If I’m struggling right now and it’s all falling apart my faith is in something somewhere. Where is my faith? And if our faith is…if it feels like it’s thin and frayed and ruffled and torn and…and God feels distant, if our faith toward God feels like it’s paper thin and we can see through it and somebody just poured water on it and it’s just starting to come apart maybe our faith isn’t in God. I mean I know that sounds kinda forward, but maybe it’s not. Maybe our faith is in what we thought He was going to do. Maybe we asked Him for something or expected things to go in a certain direction and we put our faith in that outcome and that outcome isn’t God. If our faith is in the expectation of what might happen then maybe it’s not in God. Because as we’ve seen from beginning the hall of faith so many of those people never saw the promise, so many of those people never saw the fulfillment but the story couldn’t have continued if they hadn’t taken their place and believed in faith. And, so, our stories aren’t only about us. Like, we’re one day gonna lay down in death and there will be generations that exist upon this earth because we were here. We carried the story forward, but can we believe for the future generations that are not future generations of the earth, but just future generations of our offspring, our family? Can we see beyond our own lives and believe that our faith is telling a story? And that story needs to continue forward because faith activates everything. And our faith has to have hope beyond us. And, so, let’s give that some thought today. Where is our faith? We need to locate it and know where it is because we’re going to need it.

Prayer:

Father, O we love You and we invite You into that. Where have we put our faith? Why are we so frustrated? Why are we spinning? Maybe we have put our faith and outcomes that continually leave us downtrodden and disheartened when our faith could have been and should have been in You wherever the road may lead. Because wherever the road may lead, if we are with You we are where we’re supposed to be and we are where we ultimately want to be. So, come Holy Spirit and lead us on the narrow path that leads to life, the path of faith. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and it’s obviously a website and it’s…it’s our home. It’s home of the Global Campfire and everything that we are and all that we share together. So, check that out what’s going on around here.

I mentioned yesterday a Global Campfire initiative and we did this a couple years ago and just to…to be able to sow more deeply into app development for this community and…and to keep it free and to continue building it into the place that we call home. And, so, I shared the whole story yesterday of the converging lines that sort of made the Heart album that we released early in the…earlier this year into a deluxe beautiful keepsake vinyl addition. And anyone that is able to participate in the Global Campfire initiative, anyone who is able to give $100 or more, and as I said yesterday…even as I say it today…like I don’t know how to say it any other way but I’m trying very hard not to sound televangelist type, fundraiser type. Like that’s not who we are, that’s never been who we are, it never we will ever be. That’s not what we’re doing here. But we do have needs and it has been a heck of the year and we want to continue to grow at the pace that we’re growing in terms of developing the app and not slow anything down. So, yeah, anyone…anyone that can participate in this Global Campfire initiative with a hundred dollars or more, we’ll send you the…the Heart LP and what fun it is to say that. I’m a little bit…I don’t think I’m a junkie for albums…like I don't…I don’t have…I did for a minute there while I was collecting all the Christmas records and stuff but I’ve really, really enjoyed being back into vinyl because I like holding my music. Like that’s how I grew up, reading liner notes and just admiring the artwork and just wanting to be in that business whatever it took. And, so, here the other side of that have the Heart album be on vinyl is a wonderful joy. And that is just…it’s beautiful. All of the prayers that are included in the heart album, they are included in written form, in printed form for the first time. And, so, yeah it is a…it is a collectible. There are 500 of them in the world. Well…there were. I haven’t checked. I suppose we’re about half of that now. So, long and short of the story is, if…if Daily Audio Bible is a place that’s like a home base for you, a place that you consider yourself a part of the community, you’re going through the Scriptures and you can participate in this than thank you with all of my hear. And it’s going to be a joy to send Heart, the music, the album to you. So, basically you just need to go to dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you just need to push the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and look for Initiatives and click the Initiatives, whether on the web or whether in the app, and you will find the Global Campfire banner. You will see it. Shows you the album packaging, etc. etc. Just press that link and it will take you where you need to go. And I thank you humbly and I mean that humbly, graciously that we can continue forward together. So, thank you.

As always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button that’s in the app that we’re talking about. And that’s one of the features that have come because we continue to build in and sow in and…and build up a home base where we can connect. So, just the Hotline button no matter where you are in the world and you can share from…well…wherever you are in the world or if you want to use the telephone you can call 877-942-4253.

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

November 12, 2020

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday November 12, 2020 (NIV)

Ezekiel 24-26

Judah Is Compared to a Boiling Pot

24 On the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year, the Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Son of man, write down today’s date. The king of Babylon has surrounded Jerusalem this very day. ³Tell these rebellious people a story. Tell them, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

Put the pot on the fire; put it on.
Pour water in it.
⁴Cut the meat into pieces,
all the best pieces, the thigh and shoulder.
Fill the pot with the meatiest bones
⁵selected from the best sheep.
Pile wood under the pot.
Bring the mixture in the pot to a boil.
Cook the bones that are in it well.

⁶“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

How horrible it will be for that city of murderers,
for that tarnished pot.
Its tarnish will not come off.
Empty the meat out of it piece by piece
without choosing any particular piece.
⁷Blood is still in that city.
The blood was poured on a bare rock.
It wasn’t poured on the ground where dust would cover it.
⁸In order to stir up my fury so that I would pay that city back,
I put the blood of its victims on a bare rock.
Now that blood can’t be covered.

⁹“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says:

How horrible it will be for that city of murderers.
I, too, will pile the wood high.
¹⁰Pile it high, and light the fire.
Cook the meat thoroughly, stir the mixture,
and let the bones burn.
¹¹Then set the empty pot on the coals
so that it gets hot and its copper glows.
Its impurities will melt away,
and its tarnish will burn off.

¹²“ ‘I have worn myself out trying to clean this pot. Even the fire can’t take away its thick tarnish. ¹³I tried to clean you of your filthy lust, but you wouldn’t clean yourself from your filth. You will never be clean until I unleash my fury on you. ¹⁴I, the Lord, have spoken. It will happen, and I will do it. I will not ignore you, pity you, or change my plans. I will punish you because of the way you lived and because of everything you have done,’ ” declares the Almighty Lord.

Ezekiel’s Silent Sorrow over the Destruction of Jerusalem

¹⁵Then the Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ¹⁶“Son of man, with one blow I’m going to take away from you the person you love the most. But you must not mourn, cry, or let tears run down your face. ¹⁷Groan silently. Don’t grieve for the person who dies. Tie on your turban, and put on your sandals. Don’t cover your face or eat the food that mourners eat.”

¹⁸So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I was ordered.

¹⁹The people asked me, “Tell us, what do these things that you are doing mean to us?”

²⁰I told them, “The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²¹‘Tell the nation of Israel, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I’m going to dishonor my holy place. You brag that my holy place gives you strength. It’s the thing you love the most. It’s your hearts’ desire. So the sons and daughters that you left behind will die in battle. ²²Then you must do as I did. Don’t cover your faces or eat the food that mourners eat. ²³Leave your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet. Don’t grieve or cry! You will waste away because of your guilt and groan to one another. ²⁴Ezekiel is a sign to you. You will do everything he has done. Then you will know that I am the Almighty Lord.” ’

²⁵“Son of man, on that day I will take their stronghold away from them. It makes them happy and proud. It is their hearts’ desire and the thing they love the most. I will also take away their sons and daughters. ²⁶On that day a refugee will come to you to tell you the news. ²⁷On that very day your mouth will be opened, and you will talk to the refugee. You will speak and not be silent anymore. You will be a sign to them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Judgment on Ammon

25 The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Son of man, turn to the Ammonites and prophesy against them. ³Tell the Ammonites, ‘Listen to the Almighty Lord’s word. This is what the Almighty Lord says: You were glad when my holy place was dishonored, when the land of Israel was ruined, and when the nation of Judah went into exile. ⁴That is why I’m going to hand you over to the people in the east. They will possess your land. They will set up their camps and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your crops and drink your milk. ⁵I will turn Rabbah into a pasture for camels, and I will turn Ammon into a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁶“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: You clapped your hands and stomped your feet. You rejoiced and felt contempt for the land of Israel. ⁷That is why I will use my power against you and hand you over to the nations as loot. I will wipe you out from among the nations, make you disappear, and destroy you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Judgment on Moab

⁸“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: Moab and Seir said, “The nation of Judah is like all the other nations.” ⁹That is why I’m going to open up the cities that protect Moab’s borders. They are the beautiful cities of Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim. ¹⁰I will hand the Moabites and the Ammonites over to the people in the east. So the Ammonites will no longer be remembered among the nations. ¹¹I will punish Moab. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Judgment on Edom

¹²“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: Edom took revenge on the nation of Judah and became guilty because of it. ¹³So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I will use my power against Edom. I will wipe out people and animals. I will turn the land into ruins from Teman to Dedan. People will die in battle. ¹⁴I will use my people Israel to take revenge on Edom. My people will deal with Edom based on my anger and my fury. Then the Edomites will know my revenge, declares the Almighty Lord.

Judgment on the Philistines

¹⁵“ ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: The Philistines have taken revenge with spiteful hearts. They have tried to destroy their long-time enemies. ¹⁶So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I’m going to use my power against the Philistines, cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the people that are left on the coast. ¹⁷I will take fierce revenge on them and punish them with fury. I will take revenge on them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

Judgment on Tyre

26 On the first day of the month in the eleventh year, the Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Son of man, Tyre said this about Jerusalem: ‘The city that was the gateway for the nations is destroyed, and its doors are swung open to me. I’ll get rich now that it’s ruined.’ ³So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I am against you, Tyre. I will bring many nations against you as the waves on the sea rise. ⁴They will destroy the walls of Tyre and tear down its towers. Then I will sweep up the dust and turn Tyre into a bare rock. ⁵It will become a place by the sea where people spread their fishing nets. I have spoken, declares the Almighty Lord. It will become a prize for the nations. ⁶The people in the villages and on the mainland will die in battle. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

⁷“This is what the Almighty Lord says: From the north I’m going to bring King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon against you, Tyre. He is the greatest king. He will bring horses, chariots, war horses, many people, and many troops. ⁸He will destroy the villages on your mainland. He will set up blockades, put up dirt ramps, and raise his shields against you. ⁹He will direct his battering rams against your walls, and he will cut down your towers with his axes. ¹⁰He will have so many horses that their dust will cover you. The noise from the war horses, wagon wheels, and chariots will shake your walls when he enters your gates. He will enter as people enter a conquered city. ¹¹With his horses’ hoofs he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people in battle, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. ¹²His troops will loot your riches and take your goods as prizes. They will destroy your walls and tear down your delightful homes. They will throw your stones, wood, and soil into the water.

¹³“I will put a stop to your noisy songs, and the music from your harps will no longer be heard. ¹⁴I will turn you into bare rock. You will become a place to spread fishing nets. You will never be rebuilt. I, the Lord, have spoken, declares the Almighty Lord.

¹⁵“This is what the Almighty Lord says to Tyre: The people who live on the coast will shake with fear when they hear about your defeat. They will groan when your people are wounded and slaughtered. ¹⁶Then the princes from the coast will come down from their thrones. They will remove their robes and take off their embroidered clothes. Dressed in terror, they will sit on the ground. They will tremble constantly and be shocked at you. ¹⁷Then they will sing this funeral song for you:

Tyre, you famous city, you have been destroyed.
You have been shattered by the sea.
You and your people ruled the sea.
All your people terrified those who lived by the coast.
¹⁸Your defeat will make the people who live by the coast tremble.
Your end will terrify the islands in the sea.

¹⁹“This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will turn your city into ruins like cities that have no one living in them. I will bring the deep ocean over you, and the Mediterranean Sea will cover you. ²⁰I will bring you down with those who descend to the grave to join the people of long ago. I will make you live below the earth among the ancient ruins with those who go down to the grave. You will never return or take your place in the land of the living. ²¹I will turn you into a terror, and you will no longer exist. People will look for you, but they will never see you again,” declares the Almighty Lord.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Hebrews 11:1-16

Faith Directed People’s Lives

11 Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see. ²God accepted our ancestors because of their faith.

³Faith convinces us that God created the world through his word. This means what can be seen was made by something that could not be seen.

⁴Faith led Abel to offer God a better sacrifice than Cain’s sacrifice. Through his faith Abel received God’s approval, since God accepted his sacrifices. Through his faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

⁵Faith enabled Enoch to be taken instead of dying. No one could find him, because God had taken him. Scripture states that before Enoch was taken, God was pleased with him. ⁶No one can please God without faith. Whoever goes to God must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

⁷Faith led Noah to listen when God warned him about the things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God and built a ship to save his family. Through faith Noah condemned the world and received God’s approval that comes through faith.

⁸Faith led Abraham to obey when God called him to go to a place that he would receive as an inheritance. Abraham left his own country without knowing where he was going.

⁹Faith led Abraham to live as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God. ¹⁰Abraham was waiting for the city that God had designed and built, the city with permanent foundations.

¹¹Faith enabled Abraham to become a father, even though he was old and Sarah had never been able to have children. Abraham trusted that God would keep his promise. ¹²Abraham was as good as dead. Yet, from this man came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the grains of sand on the seashore.

¹³All these people died having faith. They didn’t receive the things that God had promised them, but they saw these things coming in the distant future and rejoiced. They acknowledged that they were living as strangers with no permanent home on earth. ¹⁴Those who say such things make it clear that they are looking for their own country. ¹⁵If they had been thinking about the country that they had left, they could have found a way to go back. ¹⁶Instead, these men were longing for a better country—a heavenly country. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God. He has prepared a city for them.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Psalm 110

A psalm by David.

110 The Lord said to my Lord,
“Take the honored position—the one next to me [God the Father] on the heavenly throne
until I put your enemies under your control.”^[a]

²The Lord will extend your powerful scepter from Zion.
Rule your enemies who surround you.

³Your people will volunteer when you call up your army.
Your young people will come to you in holy splendor
like dew in the early morning.^[b]

⁴The Lord has taken an oath and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever, in the way Melchizedek was a priest.”

⁵The Lord is at your right side.
He will crush kings on the day of his anger.
⁶He will pass judgment on the nations
and fill them with dead bodies.
Throughout the earth he will crush ⌞their⌟ heads.
⁷He will drink from the brook along the road.
He will hold his head high.

Footnotes:

110:1 Or “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
110:3 Or “You have the dew of your youth.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Proverbs 27:14

¹⁴Whoever blesses his friend early in the morning with a loud voice—
his blessing is considered a curse.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

November 11, 2020

11/11/2020 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 23:1-49, Hebrews 10:18-39, Psalms 109:1-31, Proverbs 27:13

Today is the 11^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we move forward in our week and forward in our year for that matter. Step-by-step day by day we make the journey together. And, so, the next step leads us back into the book of Ezekiel. We’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week. Ezekiel chapter 23.

Commentary:

Okay, So, as we continue our journey through the letter to the Hebrews…I mean we…we keep reminding ourselves of certain specific things almost every time we talk about Hebrews and the first one is that Hebrews is for Hebrews. Hebrews was written to Jewish people. And Hebrews does a really good…I mean…it’s not the you can’t see this in other letters in the New Testament but Hebrews does this really good job of really providing us the Hebrew backdrop, the Hebrew side of the argument for Jesus, that God was the God of the Hebrews, is the God of the Hebrews. Jesus is that God incarnated as a human being among His own people showing them the way forward. O that in and of itself, that could, you know, that that could turn off lots of people. Like, well, it’s like just another cult leader or this is just a dynamic person that people are following…are following around or whatever. But the point in Hebrews is Jesus was foretold, like this was always supposed to happen, this was always on the radar. That’s the argument. Like basically, open your eyes and see what is actually happening…happening here. God is doing a new thing, but hints of this have been foretold from long, long ago. It’s happening now. We’ve also talked as we’ve read through Hebrews, if we read it at face value, just to understand that you don’t have any of the Hebrew context and that Hebrew context is very much provided in what we know as the Old Testament, then the implications, because they are religious implications, they are…they are unpacked through the lens of Judaism then they don’t make a whole lot of sense if you have no background whatsoever if you just come…while you just come to the faith itself but you come to something like the letter to the Hebrews and you start reading it and it’s all kinds of things about high priests and temples and sacrifices and this and that and the other and it doesn't…like…like there’s no context for it. So, without the Hebrew context it’s hard to understand the implications of Jesus. And then the third thing is why this letter seems to have ever existed in the first place. And that was because Hebrew believers who were following Jesus and were in community with each other were being marginalized on a lot of levels. And we’ve spent a lot of time, so I don’t need like to retell the whole thing. We’ve talked about this several times throughout this year, especially while we were going through the letters of Paul. So, they were being marginalized, persecution was beginning. The Jewish people, they weren’t not buying into the Jesus story en masse. They were mostly rejecting this story. The Hebrew leaders were rejecting the story because. It was the Hebrew leaders who had plotted the killing of Jesus. And, so, they basically had a stick by their story. And, so, no one is accepting this. And, so, people who do are being marginalized by the Jewish people. Meanwhile the Jewish people were marginalized by the Roman empire that was in…in the region of Syria where…where the land is. So, people who were following the way of Jesus who were following His teachings, they were like double marginalized. They were being marginalized by the marginalized. So, kinda not a lot of places to maneuver then. And, so, they were shrinking back, falling away, turning away, basically going back into their Hebrew tradition and into Judaism and going back and following the Torah religiously or just walking away from the whole thing. So, the letter to Hebrews comes along to encourage them not to do that, not to walk away. And that’s precisely what we’re seeing in our reading today. So, I’m quoting just to bring this point home. “Remember the past when you first learned the truth. You endured a lot of hardship and pain. At times you were publicly insulted and mistreated. At times you associated with people who were treated this way. You suffered with prisoners. You were cheerful even though your possessions were stolen since you know that you have a better and more permanent possession”, right? So, these are words encouraging them, “don’t fade, don’t disappear, don’t hide, don’t walk away, don’t go backward. God is going forward. God has come and a new thing is happening, and the only way is forward. Don’t go backward.” And understanding the things that we just talked about, we can see why they were going backward and why this letter comes at the right time to say, “don’t forget what God has done for you and don’t forget what God is doing for you. And even that is unpacked in our reading today. “Brothers and sisters”, I’m quoting, “brothers and sisters, because of the blood of Jesus, we can now confidently go into the holy place. Jesus has opened to new and living way for us to go through the curtain.” Okay. So, we may all understand the Hebrew context because we’ve heard this kind of stuff before but the Hebrew context here is that the holy place, like the most holy place here is in the temple behind a curtain, behind a veil. The high priest can only go into the most holy place once a year. The writer of Hebrews is saying, “like…like there’s no veil anymore. It’s gone now. Why would you go back when you can confidently enter the holy place? Maybe you’re not gonna go up into the holy place in the temple in Jerusalem, but spiritually, you can enter into the very presence of the most-high God as His child, like confidently as a beloved child.” That is a drastic paradigm shift. And, so, the writer of Hebrews is saying, “don’t walk away from that. That’s all you ever wanted. That’s always been the goal, is to find righteousness so that we might enter God’s presence. It’s now possible. Don’t walk away from that.” And, so, we can see the context for the tension. But the mirror always goes up with the Bible. And we can look at ourselves. And maybe we’re not gonna be marginalized or persecuted, but we shrink back, we fade, we disappear all the time. And this ancient letter is speaking to us from thousands of years ago saying, “why would you do that? Why you fade when everything you’ve been after is before you? There’s only one way to go and that’s forward. God is doing a new thing. The veil has been removed. What could happen to the world if God’s people could experience God’s presence, knowing that there were no more hoops to jump through, that it’s a Father and His children not a veil and a chest with a covenant in it, and sacrifice? It’s like hearing about a relationship all your life as a kid. Like, one day…one day I’m gonna get married, one day I’m gonna have a spouse, someday I’m going to grow up and constantly thinking of the coming day when that will happen. It’s the difference between thinking about it and that day when your eyes locked with the one who would be your spouse and it started a brand-new story of actual intimate relationship. And, so, let’s ponder that today. What are the ways that we’ve just faded? What are the ways that we’re just kind of…we’re here but we’re just disappearing? It’s just happening. It’s like everything’s moving on and we’re standing still. And, so, before long, everything will have moved forward, and we’re just stuck here. Why would we do that when everything we’ve wanted, when the…the very intimacy that can make us whole, union with God is available.

Prayer:

Father we enter into that. By the fact…the very fact that we are reading this letter to the Hebrews and by the very fact that we still have these struggles, it may look a little different, but the heart issues are the same. We can see that this has been a struggle all along and that brothers and sisters have been struggling with this for thousands of years. And, so, on the one hand it’s comforting to know that we’re not alone and we’re not messed up. On the other hand, the question still remains, Why would we disappear? Why would we fade into the woodwork when everything we have ever wanted is before us? So, Holy Spirit we need eyes to see it again. That’s the thing. The veil keeps falling before our eyes and we can’t see it because the world is swirling around us and discouraging us in every possible way. And, so, we reach for You Father. Remove the veil. Let us see the joy of our salvation again and let us bear witness so that others who are struggling too can see that we can move forward if we move forward together. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base. It is indeed the website it is where you find out what’s going on around here. And I promised yesterday that there was something to talk about today. And there is ad I’m just thinking. “how can I share this in five minutes? I think this is like the coming together of a couple of things that have joined themselves and made something. So, I guess…man…it’s been five years at least, maybe even longer that I started seeing vinyl records come back. And I come from the music industry so music packaging all the…just the entire apparatus of the music industry is something that I’ve spent a very very long time making a living doing. So, I get it. And, before all that I was younger and was a music fanatic. Like by the time I was 15, 16 years old it was like, “I’m gonna be in music business one way or another whatever it takes.” So, I was an avid music student, music business student, music listener. Like I was the guy reading every bit of the liner notes. So, when LPs faded away way back a long time ago I was kinda bummed because I kind of loved being able to hold my music in this kind of 12" x 12" square format where the…the artwork could be seen and appreciated and everything could be read. And we kind of migrated from there to CDs which was like a junior version of that and cassettes which were even a smaller version of that and then they faded. I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. Music is pretty much in your pocket now, right? Anything you would want to listen to you can carry in your pocket. You remember when it used to be, we had…you maybe 2had 0 CDs in your car or whatever, and you know, those were your choices and now you have hundreds of thousands of choices. So, anyway, trying to consolidate a long story. It’s like a year and half ago I started collecting records like vinyl records. I bought a record player. I started listening to records. What I was specifically doing was re-accumulating all of the albums that were meaningful to me in my childhood in the format that I had them in and I just realized really interesting things listening to records again, like you can’t just get 15 or 20 seconds into a song and go, “nahhh I want the next song. You have to get up and go switch it. And, so, you…you find yourself appreciating the way records were laid out, how they were a journey and how you listened to a side of an album, you sit there and you’re participating with the artwork, etc. etc. I started doing that mostly trying to get vintage albums from my childhood and vintage Christmas music because that’s the sound of my…my childhood, like the crackle of the records at Christmas and just sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting for it to finally arrive. Okay, so that’s one part of the story. The second part of the story is that for the last several years I had been working on some music that we released in July, July 7^th in specific. That was the day of the Daily Audio Bible long walk. Doesn’t that sound like forever ago. And didn’t come at a time when we needed to get outside and out of quarantine and hear the birds again and feel the breeze on her face and go for a long walk with God. And, so, we released this music. It’s called Heart, a contemplative journey. And it's…it’s like a guided prayer journey with the intention of leading us into the emotions of our heart, the things that we’ve been dealing with in our lives but maybe don’t have language for. And, so, the prayers lead us to that place, and then the music does what music does. It speaks volumes with no words at all. And, so, we released that and it struck a nerve and ended up becoming the number one album…Christian album in the in the nation for a minute there, which was shocking and encouraging. And then the feedback started coming back in just letters and emails sent in about how it did what it was sent to do basically, how it did what I hoped it would do, lead us back to feeling again, to feeling our heart beat again, to not just closing down to all of the chaos going on around us. So, that was in July and it’s been available since then online at the iTunes Store or the Google play store. And then there’s one more component to this story. It’s been two and a half years I think about now that we were preparing to launch our own, very own Daily Audio Bible app. And for all of the years previous to that we had worked with technology partners and strategic alliances and the app was a paid app in the store and we had invested heavily in the building our own specific app because there was just no way to go forward where we were wanting to build the app to be a real community presence. There was no connection points. There’s no way to do it. We…for the things we were dreaming up it’s like we’re gonna have to build this from scratch. We’re gonna have to this. And, so, we…we did. And it was very time-consuming and very expensive. And, so, a couple years ago we did something called the Global Campfire initiative. Some of you…many many many of you will remember this and we printed up some hatch prints. That…that’s a Nashville, classic Nashville thing that just dates back pre-Elvis even. These hatch prints were all over…all over Nashville…Nashville and all over the world for that matter. There’s books on them. Anyway, I digress. We had this Global Campfire initiative and just invited people to so into the app. And as a way of being grateful we sent on these hatch prints. Here’s where the whole thing begins to converge into the story we’re trying to tell now. After it was apparent that the heart album was really striking a nerve, I thought, “let’s press up some vinyl of this, let’s press up 500 copies of this. This will be so interesting to do.” So, I set about the business of seeing what manufacturing…manufacturing was gonna look like and I realized “wow…there’s only a few places to do this and they are backed up months and months and months and months.” So, I was like, “well maybe that won’t work. But I was like why not?” And we pressed into it and made them and waited months and months and months and months to get them, and now we have them. And now is…is the right time. It’s been two and half years and it’s time for a Global Campfire initiative again where I’m just inviting anybody who can participate in this to sow into the development of the app that is more and more and more becoming home base for us. When we release the Daily Audio Bible app we released it as a free app. That was never the intention while we were developing. It was like, well, we’ll slowly over time be able to deal with this and I felt so strong the Lord that it’s supposed to be free. So, that was counterintuitive and that’s what we did. We released a brand-new app, it has been free, it will be free, it is free but it’s no less expensive to develop. So, here’s the long and short of the story. Some of the things that we’re trying to build into the app right now, some of the things we have underway are important pieces and we just need to sow into this. One of the important pieces that have been in develop…development all year, and that should hopefully see the light of day sometime next year is the multilingual nature of the app. Like there’s several languages and we have several teams reading the Bible in different languages. But the app is in English. And, so, if English is not even a second language. If English isn’t the language you speak, then it’s pretty hard to navigate, but to be able to build an onboarding process that just simply asks, what’s you’re primary language here and if it’s one of the languages that are…that…that we have the Bible in, to be able to switch to that language natively and then matter where you are if English isn’t your language to still be able to navigate and be involved, this is a missional effort to allow the spoken word of God to reach anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night. But we’ve also been working really, probably the dominant priority this year was to build in the badges. Remember when badges came online. And, so, every time we cross a threshold, a portion, a section of the Bible and we’ve completed it then we get to see that we’ve completed it. We get a little word of encouragement, a little badge that comes up and says we’ve completed this. And that was kind of phase 1. Phase 2 was a more robust view of where we are in the Bible, like…like what percentage are we completed in the Bible? What percentage are we completed in the New Testament? What percentage are we completed in the Old Testament? To give us a more robust view of the journey that we are on every year. And, so that is…well…that’s been being rolled out all year and that whole phase should be completed. In fact, the next major update that we do will have all of that technology baked into it. All of this development is to more completely to more robustly dial us in together and dial us into the fact that we are on a journey and there are indicators along the way they we’re making progress, that this is happening. And it’s all free for anybody to get involved and take the journey. So, here’s the deal. Anyone who is willing and is able to donate, to contribute to the Global Campfire initiative this year by giving $100 or more. And, gosh you guys, you have no idea how much like I squirm inside when I say those kinds of things because I kinda grew up watching televangelists and all that and I made it the mission of my life to not become that guy. And, so, I’m not but this is a need and we are a community and really do want to bring excellence into this community, but it just can’t happen if we don’t do it together. And this is a specific need. So, anybody who can, is willing to contribute $100 or more, if you’re one of the first 500 people than we want to send you the Heart, a contemplative journey album on vinyl, like on one hundred and eighty graham audio vinyl. Like this is not the kind of vinyl I used to buy when I grew up. It’s so thick and sounds so good. But one of the major reasons people collect vinyl these days is for the packaging, to be able to hold your music in your hand again, instead of it being like a virtual thing. So, we worked really hard to make it really, really beautiful. It has a gape…like it opens up like a double LP. It is beautifully packaged. It’s serene. And all of the prayers that are included in the Heart project for the first time that like they’re printed, they’re printed and included in the package. So, it’s the one place that you can get the prayers in a written form. It’s just really, really beautifully done. And if you are in a position, if you are able, if you have a desire to help in this way then we’d love to give this to you as a collector’s item, as a limited-edition that’s only available here and is only available until there gone. So, I can keep saying words but I think that’s the long and short of the story. And if you’re if you’re in a position, if you’re able you can check it out at dailyaudiobible.com. You can check it out in the Daily Audio Bible Shop or there’s an Initiatives section and that will just zoom you right there. Just click the Initiatives button and then look for the Global Campfire initiative and that’ll take you right there and you can look at it and see what I’m talking about. And I…I thank you I thank you humbly. I mean I thank you with all of my heart. What we’re doing is remarkable to me even though this has been like my everyday life for almost 15 full years, it’s still remarkable to me that we can do this, that I can be here speaking to you knowing that this will go out across the world and that we have the community here and our desire is to be together around the context of being together in the Scriptures each and every day. And, so, I am grateful beyond words. In Fact, that’s a frustrating thing in my life. I don’t know what other words to say. It’s just…you just keep saying bigger words. This is amazing, this is spectacular, this is miraculous. But it’s just special that we get to spend our lives together and that we get to grow together as God words…as God’s word speaks into our lives. So, that’s it, brand-new Global Campfire initiative supporting, specifically supporting app development and our development team. If you can partner with that than we want to send you the heart album and you can find it a dailyaudiobible.com.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, like in the app is where that hotline button lives and this is what we are sowing into, further developing this, this is home base for us., So, you can hit that hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello this is Daughter of the King from Tennessee. Lord I thank you for being our shepherd and as our shepherd you said that we would have no need or want because you promise to supply all our needs according to your riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And we thank you for your promise not only to supply all our needs but to supply them exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think. And we thank you father. Mike, I want to thank you and take you up on that five minutes a day Proverb challenge. I will do that. Ms. Tyler you’re a first-time caller and you’re seeking a place to live. God will help you and we’re praying for you. Brian we just commend you for choosing to do the right thing in your marriage. Two wrongs don’t make a right. But we know God can make it right and we pray for healin’. Lisa the Encourager always, and we just thank you for the beautiful prayer, praying for our elderly parents. And yes, I can remember praying for Brian go through with his mother. Brian we just thank you and know that must’ve been hard too. Danny, we’re praying for Christopher your 15-year-old grandson, his friend Tony and Dustin. We know it was a horrible situation and we know God can still make that thing right. And Kathy your martial art test that you’re taking on, that’s important to you and we just commend you as a sister that wants to do this and that’s important to us as well. Jordan we’re praying that God will get you back on track and don’t surrender your joy. Peg where praying for your dead son and Jared where praying for your son and we hope things went well with you guys when you all met during his birthday. As well as running walking in the light we are praying for your son. As you say don’t surrender your joy. And that was so beautiful. And we won’t surrender our joy. Emberley…

This is Charlotte from Missouri and I want to share some testimony. Recently my partner of seven years abandon me for somebody else. The pain of this heartbreak has been hell and has been agony and the heartbreak I’ve experienced has been like…unlike any other. I’ve been asking God why and how to get through this. And today’s reading and it was Ezekiel and describing God’s heartbreak with us, how we…we have caused him the same heartbreak. It’s really just humbling and exactly what I need because this relationship I had this man on earth, you know, will never be able to be again. It will never be able to be restored but there is a man who will always restore me, who will always restore our love, who will always take me back, and that’s just exactly what I needed. Today I’m just asking for your prayer. I need to move out of the city and get a new job. So, I’m asking for prayer, direction, and wisdom. Thank you DAB family. Love you guys.

Good morning DABbers it’s November 6^th and am praising the Lord thanking Him. Oh, His love is so great. I knew this Ezekiel song would be just coming again. I just felt it was coming and today’s the day and oh my goodness that song, wow. It is so good. Thank you, Brian for playing it again. It totally wrecks me but in a good way because it just once again just reminds me to the full extent, it’s like nothing, nothing does God not know about heart and suffering and loss and pain and rejection and all those things. There’s nothing that we go through that he doesn’t totally understand. And the magnitude of his understanding is just so great. And, so, even though I cry, it’s tears of joy because we’re so loved by such a loving loving loving loving loving Father. We have everything to rejoice in every day no matter what. And, so, on this day I’m just thanking You Lord. I’m praising You. I’m rejoicing in You. Bless Your people Lord. May they just turn to You and just rest in You and be bathed in Your love. Thank You. Amen.

Hello this is Chile from Florida. I’m calling about that teacher on the 7^th of November your…your heartfelt request to be able to be in your classroom. I just want to speak a word of encouragement to you. That was a…that was a beautiful thing that you shared. Lord Jesus I pray for this teacher and I thank you Lord Jesus that the day will come sooner than she expects where she will be able be back in her classroom teaching her kids. And Lord I ask you bless not only her but all…all those out there who want to get back in the classroom and teach our kids one on one. We…we…we thank you for them in Jesus’ name.

Good afternoon DABbers this is Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada. It’s with a heavy heart that I come to pray for Danny from Southern Oregon, her grandson, the family of the young man that was shot. One is in jail and then the other friend who was present during the shooting. This is a hard hard time. It’s so difficult. One doesn’t even know what to pray. But our Father knows everything. So, I am asking Father God that You would touch these boys Father. Chris’s best friend, that’s the grandson, was shot by Dustin and Tony is the other boy who was present. These boys are going to go through some awful times. But Father God You are there to protect them, their minds. I pray for all the families. And Lord I don’t know what happened, but You do. And in the midst of all of this please be real to these boys. I pray that their families will get together and try and get peace and harmony, that bitterness won’t overtake. But it’s difficult. And, so, we need intervention Father for grandma, Danny here, she’s worried about her grandson and the whole situation needs Your intervention.

Seeking your face at the start of my day
I found that for me there’s no better way
in fact you said to acknowledge you in all of my ways
and to bring all of my thoughts in subjection to you whenever my mind and heart strays
because trouble surrounds me wherever I go
health problems family problems bills a sack full of woe
should I try to work it all out with the strength of my own hands
or stand in faith and wait on you ignoring my hearts well thought out plans
because you said the wisdom of man is foolishness to you
and I know that all your words are faithful and true
so I’m gonna seek your face the start of my day
because I know that for me there is no better way

blindtony1016@gmail.com

I’d like to give a shout out to Sherlock Washington and Kim and also to Victoria soldier haven’t heard your voice in a while and I sure miss it. Know you’re all thought of pray for love daily and missed very much. And once again Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.

November 11, 2020

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday November 11, 2020 (NIV)

Ezekiel 23

Samaria and Jerusalem Acted Like Prostitutes

23 The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Son of man, there were once two women, daughters of the same mother. ³They became prostitutes in Egypt when they were young. There men fondled and caressed their breasts.

⁴“The older girl was named Oholah, and the younger girl was named Oholibah. I married them, and they gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah represents Samaria, and Oholibah represents Jerusalem. ⁵Oholah acted like a prostitute, although she was my wife. She lusted after her Assyrian lovers who lived nearby. ⁶They were governors and commanders clothed in purple. They were all handsome young men who rode on horses. ⁷She became a prostitute for all the important men in Assyria. She dishonored herself with the idols of all those with whom she fell in love. ⁸She continued the prostitution that she started in Egypt. When she was young, men went to bed with her, caressed her breasts, and treated her like a prostitute.

⁹“That is why I handed her over to her lovers, to the Assyrians whom she lusted after. ¹⁰They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters, and killed her with a sword. Women gossiped about how she was punished.

¹¹“Even though her younger sister Oholibah saw this, Oholibah lusted after men more than her sister did. Oholibah’s prostitution became worse than her sister’s prostitution. ¹²She lusted after the Assyrians who were nearby. They were governors and commanders in full dress. They were mounted horsemen, all of them desirable young men. ¹³I saw that she was dishonoring herself. Both sisters acted the same way. ¹⁴Yet, she carried her prostitution even further. She saw pictures of men carved on walls. They were figures of Babylonian men, painted in bright red. ¹⁵The men had belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads. All of them looked like Babylonian officers who were born in Babylon. ¹⁶She fell in love with them at first sight and sent messengers to them in Babylonia. ¹⁷So these men came from Babylon, went to bed with her, and dishonored her with their lust. After they had dishonored her, she turned away from them in disgust.

¹⁸“She carried out her prostitution openly, and she lay around naked. I turned away from her in disgust as I had turned away from her sister. ¹⁹She remembered how she had been a prostitute in Egypt when she was young. So she took part in even more prostitution. ²⁰She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose semen was like that of horses. ²¹So she longed to do the sinful things she did when she was young in Egypt, when young men caressed and fondled her breasts.

²²“Oholibah, this is what the Almighty Lord says: I’m going to stir up your lovers against you. They are the lovers you turned away from in disgust. I will bring them against you from every side. ²³I will bring men from Babylon and from all Babylonia, men from Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, as well as all the Assyrians. They are desirable young men, governors and commanders, military officers and important men. All of them ride on horses. ²⁴They will attack you from the north, with chariots and wagons and with a large number of troops. They will attack you from all around with small and large shields and with helmets. I have handed you over to them for punishment. They will punish you with their own kind of punishment. ²⁵I will direct my burning anger against you so that they will deal with you in anger. They will cut off your nose and ears and kill everyone who remains. They will take your sons and your daughters and burn down whatever is left. ²⁶They will rip off your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels. ²⁷I will put a stop to your sinning and to your prostitution, which you began in Egypt. You won’t desire these things anymore or remember Egypt anymore.

²⁸“This is what the Almighty Lord says: I’m going to hand you over to those you hate and to those you turned away from in disgust. ²⁹They will treat you hatefully and take away everything that you have worked for. They will leave you naked and bare. The shame of your prostitution will be revealed. ³⁰Your sinning and your prostitution have done this to you, because you lusted after the nations and dishonored yourself with their idols. ³¹You’ve acted the same way as your sister. That is why I will put her cup in your hand. ³²This is what the Almighty Lord says:

You will drink from your sister’s cup,
a cup that is deep and wide.
You will be scorned and mocked,
because this cup holds so much.
³³The cup of your sister Samaria will be filled
with drunkenness and sorrow.
³⁴You will drink from it and drain it.
You will break it into pieces
and tear your breasts off your body.
I have spoken, declares the Almighty Lord.

³⁵“This is what the Almighty Lord says: You have forgotten me and turned your back on me. So you will be punished for your sinning and prostitution.”

³⁶The Lord said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah and tell them about their disgusting practices? ³⁷They have committed adultery. Their hands are covered with blood. They commit adultery with their idols. They have sacrificed the children they gave birth to for me as burnt offerings to idols. ³⁸They have also done this to me: They have polluted my holy places when they do these things and dishonored the days to worship me. ³⁹When they sacrificed their children to their idols, they came into my holy place and dishonored it. That is what they’ve done in my temple.

⁴⁰“They even sent messengers to invite men to come from far away. When the men arrived, they washed themselves for the men, painted their eyes, and put on their jewels. ⁴¹They sat on their fine couches with tables in front of them. They put my incense and my olive oil on their tables.

⁴²“I heard the noise from a carefree crowd. A large number of people came from the desert, and they put bracelets on the women’s wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads. ⁴³Then I said, ‘She is worn out from her acts of adultery.’ Yet, men continued to have sex with her. ⁴⁴Men slept with her. They slept with those sinful women, Oholah and Oholibah just as they slept with a prostitute. ⁴⁵Righteous people will punish these women for adultery and for murder, because these women have committed adultery and their hands are covered with blood.

⁴⁶“This is what the Almighty Lord says: Bring together a mob ⌞against the people of Samaria and Jerusalem⌟. Hand them over to terror and looting. ⁴⁷Then the mob will stone them and kill them with swords. The mob will kill their sons and daughters and burn their homes. ⁴⁸So I will put a stop to the sinning in the land, and all the women will be warned not to sin as they do. ⁴⁹They will be punished for their sins, and they will pay for their sin of idolatry. Then they will know that I am the Almighty Lord.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Hebrews 10:18-39

¹⁸When sins are forgiven, there is no longer any need to sacrifice for sins.

¹⁹Brothers and sisters, because of the blood of Jesus we can now confidently go into the holy place. ²⁰Jesus has opened a new and living way for us to go through the curtain. (The curtain is his own body.) ²¹We have a superior priest in charge of God’s house. ²²We have been sprinkled ⌞with his blood⌟ to free us from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with clean water. So we must continue to come ⌞to him⌟ with a sincere heart and strong faith. ²³We must continue to hold firmly to our declaration of faith. The one who made the promise is faithful.

Encourage Each Other

²⁴We must also consider how to encourage each other to show love and to do good things. ²⁵We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as we see the day of the Lord coming.

²⁶If we go on sinning after we have learned the truth, no sacrifice can take away our sins. ²⁷All that is left is a terrifying wait for judgment and a raging fire that will consume God’s enemies. ²⁸If two or three witnesses accused someone of rejecting Moses’ Teachings, that person was shown no mercy as he was executed. ²⁹What do you think a person who shows no respect for the Son of God deserves? That person looks at the blood of the promise (the blood that made him holy) as no different from other people’s blood, and he insults the Spirit that God gave us out of his kindness.^[a] He deserves a much worse punishment. ³⁰We know the God who said,

“I alone have the right to take revenge.
I will pay back.”

God also said,

“The Lord will judge his people.”

³¹Falling into the hands of the living God is a terrifying thing.

³²Remember the past, when you first learned the truth. You endured a lot of hardship and pain. ³³At times you were publicly insulted and mistreated. At times you associated with people who were treated this way. ³⁴You suffered with prisoners. You were cheerful even though your possessions were stolen, since you know that you have a better and more permanent possession.^[b]

³⁵So don’t lose your confidence. It will bring you a great reward. ³⁶You need endurance so that after you have done what God wants you to do, you can receive what he has promised.

³⁷“Yet, the one who is coming will come soon. He will not delay.

³⁸The person who has God’s approval will live by faith.
But if he turns back, I will not be pleased with him.”

³⁹We don’t belong with those who turn back and are destroyed. Instead, we belong with those who have faith and are saved.

Footnotes:

10:29 Or “grace.”
10:34 Some manuscripts and translations add “in heaven.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Psalm 109

For the choir director; a psalm by David.

109 O God, whom I praise, do not turn a deaf ear to me.
²Wicked and deceitful people have opened their mouths against me.
They speak against me with lying tongues.
³They surround me with hateful words.
They fight against me for no reason.
⁴In return for my love, they accuse me,
but I pray for them.^[a]
⁵They reward me with evil instead of good
and with hatred instead of love.

⁶⌞I said,⌟ “Appoint the evil one to oppose him.
Let Satan stand beside him.
⁷When he stands trial,
let him be found guilty.
Let his prayer be considered sinful.
⁸Let his days be few ⌞in number⌟.
Let someone else take his position.

⁹“Let his children become fatherless and his wife a widow.
¹⁰Let his children wander around and beg.
Let them seek help far from their ruined homes.
¹¹Let a creditor take everything he owns.
Let strangers steal what he has worked for.
¹²Let no one be kind to him anymore.
Let no one show any pity to his fatherless children.
¹³Let his descendants be cut off
and their family name be wiped out by the next generation.
¹⁴Let the Lord remember the guilt of his ancestors
and not wipe out his mother’s sin.
¹⁵Let their guilt and sin always remain on record
in front of the Lord.
Let the Lord remove every memory of him ^[b] from the earth,
¹⁶because he did not remember to be kind.

“He drove oppressed, needy,
and brokenhearted people to their graves.
¹⁷He loved to put curses ⌞on others⌟,
so he, too, was cursed.
He did not like to bless ⌞others⌟,
so he never received a blessing.
¹⁸He wore cursing as though it were clothing,
so cursing entered his body like water
and his bones like oil.
¹⁹Let cursing be his clothing,
a belt he always wears.”

²⁰This is how the Lord rewards those who accuse me,
those who say evil things against me.

²¹O Lord Almighty, deal with me out of the goodness of your name.
Rescue me because of your mercy.
²²I am oppressed and needy.
I can feel the pain in my heart.
²³I fade away like a lengthening shadow.
I have been shaken off like a grasshopper.
²⁴My knees give way because I have been fasting.
My body has become lean, without any fat.
²⁵I have become the victim of my enemies’ insults.
They look at me and shake their heads.
²⁶Help me, O Lord my God.
Save me because of your mercy.
²⁷Then they will know that this is your doing,
that you, O Lord, are the one who saved me.
²⁸They may curse, but you will bless.
Let those who attack me be ashamed,
but let me rejoice.
²⁹Let those who accuse me wear disgrace as though it were clothing.
Let them be wrapped in their shame as though it were a robe.

³⁰With my mouth I will give many thanks to the Lord.
I will praise him among many people,
³¹because he stands beside needy people
to save them from those who would condemn them to death.

Footnotes:

109:4 Or “but I am a man of prayer.”
109:15 Or “them.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Proverbs 27:13

¹³Hold on to the garment of one who guarantees a stranger’s loan,
and hold responsible the person
who makes a loan in behalf of a foreigner.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

November 10, 2020

11/10/2020 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 21:1-22:31, Hebrews 10:1-17, Psalms 108:1-13, Proverbs 27:12

Today is November 10^th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you for another day, another opportunity to come in out of the cold and warm ourselves around this Global Campfire together where we have…well…we’ve created a safe place, a safe place for our souls, a safe place to just come in out of it, lout of the chaos of it all, out of the frustration of it all, out of the tensions of life, all the things that are pulling us in so many directions and just be…just be here together letting God’s word, letting the Scriptures speak. So, let's…let’s do that. We’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week. Ezekiel chapters 21 and 22 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, yesterday we were talking about…well…we were talking about how an early first century Hebrew person, a devout Jewish person hearing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time, like, how…what challenges they would’ve had to have overcome through faith in order to enter into a relationship with Jesus because so many things flew in the face of their tradition, a tradition given to them by God through Moses and the writing of the Torah, the Bible that they read and read today. And we just did a little exercise, like trying to put…trying to put ourselves in that position because it does offer us glimpses of how we kind of do get enmeshed in those traditions. And then when God comes and does a new thing then it becomes very, very difficult to move with that or to move into that. And, so, let’s just explore that a little further. I…I’m gonna read again from the beginning of what we read today and we kinda need to go back to that place where we are, you know, we haven’t really heard the story of Jesus. We don’t have thousands of years of tradition behind us. We’re first generation to hear this. We’re some of the first people to hear this. And, so, here’s what the writer of Hebrews says. “Moses teachings with their yearly cycle of sacrifices are only a shadow of the good things in the future. They aren’t an exact likeness of those things. They can never make those who worship perfect. If these sacrifices could have made the worshipers perfect the sacrifices would’ve stopped long ago. Those who worship would’ve been cleansed once and for all. Their consciences would’ve been free from sin. Instead, this yearly cycle of sacrifices reminded people of their sins.” So, reading this now 2000 years in the future with 2000 years of tradition behind us and a faith passed down throughout those centuries, we can just read this and go, “yup. That’s right. Amen! That’s the truth. Thank God. No more sacrifices.” But if we put ourselves back in the first century, first generation to hear this what’s being said here sounds quite offensive because it sounds quite heretical. So, this is controversial at best. Hebrew people already…like it had been ingrained in them from the get go, they already considered themselves to be the chosen people of God. So, they….it wasn’t as if somebody was showing them a way to come to God. They had been coming to God all along - God, like the most-high God. So, this announcement, this proclamation comes along to try to explain how things have shifted, and to tie those things historically to the prophets and show a path forward that essentially said this has been foretold, like we’ve known this was coming. Then to tie this to Jesus and say like, “the whole…it has happened” caused an incredible amount of controversy. So, like just try to put ourselves in the position as believers. What…what…what person…I’m trying to think like…whoever is the most famous pastor or television person…whoever has the most…has the most influence, let’s say that that person came onto television or on podcast or whatever, and said, “a new revelation from the Lord that the time of no sacrifices has come to an end. That was a grace for the last couple of thousand years. Now God would like us to return to the sacrificial system because at our time now it’s gonna make more sense and it’s gonna be more valuable. And, so, beginning on the day of atonement, on Yom Kippur we’re gonna start this back up among evangelical Christians around the world. And, so, you got a little bit of time to prepare. You need to go raise a sheep or goat or a bull or whatever. Like you need to start with the livestock preparing for sacrifice because we’re going to start this again, thus saith the Lord.” Are you gonna do it? Like what’s it gonna take for you to kinda get your mind around that…that that could even happen? And then over the course of months and months and all kinds of social media flaming arrows and arguments and insults and all the stuff that would go on with something like this. Camps would be formed, people…some people would be early adopters. Other people would say, “this is heresy” and “that person is a heretic and they…nobody needs to listen to them anymore.” And other people would be in between. It would be disruptive to say the very, very least. We would have theologians arguing both sides of the coin. Like it would be…I was gonna say incredible, but that denotes…that it would… denotes that it would be like a good thing. It would just…it would be a spectacular thing to observe and because it would cause unbelievable divisiveness, which is what the gospel did. And that’s what we’re getting at here. Not…I’m not saying we’re going back to the sacrificial system and nobody’s gonna say that. It’s an example. It’s just like if something like that were to happen, we can see how difficult it would be to get our minds around. And this is what that first generation would’ve been dealing with. And, so, although Hebrews is…the writer of Hebrews is saying the things that we’re reading, the argument, what like…what’s trying to be peeled back here is that this was always going to be the way things went. This was coming. This was foretold. The good news of the gospel wasn’t inviting them to change into a new religion or to worship a different God, of course. It seems that God was trying to…to reshape, to pull forward, to expand the people’s understanding of His heart and who He is and so He came in person. This is what is so compelling to us, that we can enter into a relationship with God, that we can know Him, that we can be known by Him. This is the good news. But this also was God doing a new thing. And as we’re reading this, I mean, as we read the New Testament itself we can see that…well…I mean, we can read the Old Testament for that matter and see that God is not afraid of shattering the paradigms because the paradigms are things that we made to explain things. And we make a paradigm and live into that paradigm and its passed down from generation to generation and it’s not right and it’s actually leading people into bondage or away from God then if it's…then He will…He shatters it. He comes and makes things right. And that requires certain elements that shake us. They…they make us feel uncomfortable like the ground we’re standing on isn’t solid. It disrupts and reshapes our understandings and ironically, this is what we are asking him to do. Like, when we go to church and sing worship songs, listen to what you are singing. This is the kind of stuff we are asking for. We are asking for revival, to be awakened, to be resurrected, to wake up and receive new life, to collaborate with Him and His work in the world. This is the stuff we are asking from God. But we think it’s just kinda…kinda gonna come all nice like a big bow on top and it’s just gonna happen that we just wake up and see things differently, when if we look at our heritage, if we look at our history, if we look at our own cultural history, but if we look back into church history we see that, no, the way things move forward usually happens in tremendous disruption and discomfort and a reshaping of a lot of things. The writer of Hebrews today said, and I quote, “Moses teachings”, right? So, this would be like Torah “with their yearly cycle of sacrifices are only a shadow of the good things in the future.” Obviously, that would’ve been a disruptive thing to say because they’re believing that what they have is the perfect law of God given through Moses. And yet the writer of Hebrews is saying, “that was a shadow of the good things to come in the future. God is doing a new thing now and those good things won’t be shadows anymore. We’re moving forward.” And now we find ourselves in this time a couple thousand years in the future, crying out to God to remove the veil, no more shadows, let’s do the good new thing in this world, let me be a part of it, send down your fire, send revival, awaken us O Lord. Like, we’re having prayer gatherings all over the place and repenting. We’re asking God to do something new without understanding that He probably is because we are in a tremendously disrupted time. And if we just relax and allow the Spirit, God’s Spirit within us to continue doing the reshaping we might see what we’re praying for.

Prayer:

Father once again we invite You into this. It would be so much easier if You would just…if You would just ride in on a white horse and everybody could see You and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, but we are here right now and we see how much we don’t see. And yet in our hearts as Your people, as Your children we are crying out collectively. Like we sense the necessary need, our utter dependence upon You and we want, we cry out for Your movement and for us to be able to see what You are doing. And we don’t always get that because sometimes we miss it because sometimes the first thing that we should be noticing is the disruption and the shaking and the unsettling that a new thing brings. Holy Spirit we need You. We need You always of course but we need You now. We need You in this time as we move forward as we sense You moving us forward. We don’t want to go kicking and screaming because we’re so disruptive and we’re just really asking You to take away everything that we’ve asked You to do. We want to grow up. We want eyes to see and ears to hear and we’ve been asking for this all year, and You have been giving it to us all year. We’ve seen more this year than…than I can remember any year. So, we are awake and eyes open in ways that we haven’t been before. And, so, You are doing this. Help us Father to see You in it and relax instead of fighting You in it. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Dion calling from sunny Southern California and I have to tell you I am so excited today. First of all, I wanted to just thank God for this ministry. It has been absolutely life-changing for me. I started listening in January. I’ve been behind for a little over a month and I’ve been wanting to call in, but I told myself that I could not call in until I caught up. So, here I am it’s November 4^th I am finally caught up in calling. Today on the prayer line I heard Desperately Running…Running Desperately to Jesus call in and she also calls herself Staying Desperately Connected to Jesus. My sister I just wanted to let you know that I heard you I feel you and I am standing in the gap for you. I have been there I know that darkness. I know what it’s like to be there and not know how to pull yourself out but I’m letting you know that I am praying for you my sister. The Lord will pull you through because He has pulled me through. So, I just wanted to let you know that. And Amy from Illinois I heard you as well. I understand that loneliness. I have felt that loneliness. I…I am actually still feeling that loneliness. So, I get it, I understand, and I am just sending you a hug to this phone and letting you know that I love you too my sister. It will be okay. You are not by yourself. So, again thank you Daily Audio Bible family. I am so excited that I am finally caught up. I love you all and I want you all know that I am praying for you, each and every day.

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I want to pray for Jared from Duluth on his son coming home. I’ll be praying that…that you’ll come together in in a wonderful way. Running Desperately for Jesus. I’m calling in to pray for you my sister. Don’t…I want to pray for you. I want to pray for John from Bristol and the separation between is his…his mother and his father. I want to pray for D who’s going through with her marriage and the loneliness. Lord I ask you to have your way in her life. Oh, Father the names I’ve called Lord, they need You Father in the name of Jesus You Have Your Way, Lor in the name of Jesus. You touch Lord You deliver there is nothing impossible for You. Oh Lord in that marriage Lord You bring them together. You Show Your Way, Lord. You have Your way. In the name of Jesus that son let him see what a wonderful Father he has. Lord and learn…and learn to say like and learn as Solomon say that we being obedient to his more better than sacrifice. Oh Lord I just ask You to touch. Oh, Lord touch the mothers and the Fathers. Touch the families Lord. O Lord touch us through this pandemic. Oh, Lord touch us through all of the challenges Lord. You are not an author of confusion but You’re God of peace, power, love, and a sound mind. Lord my sisters in darkness. Lord You turn on the light for her. You turn on the light Lord and let her see that You are able. That You are able to do exceedingly abundantly. Give her the mind of Christ Lord. Let her not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of Your mind. Giver her joy unspeakable and full of glory. You have Your way in Your people’s life. And Lord I give You the glory. Oh, Lord and the honor and the praise in the name of Jesus…

It is bedtime and I have a little friend with me tonight my daughter Imber and we’re going to do a little bedtime prayer. Hi. Go ahead Imber go. Go ahead and pray. Dear God make sure everybody is safe today and all the children if their mom and dad are divorced make sure they don’t be sad anymore. Make sure they’re in a safe place and…and everybody around the world is safe and that if anybody gets in danger everybody would be okay. And make sure that all the schools be fine for their schoolwork. Yes, Lord and I pray for Amber’s friend that doesn’t know You, Tinguin . We ask that Imber can continue to just be Jesus to her and thank You so much Father that You’ve encouraged Imber to invite Tinguan to church with us and hope that she is a special time with her family and just pray protection for us because Billy is not here and he’s hunting. So, we’re all just the kids and me tonight. Father we pray for protection for all of us in our whole world and we ask that You just protect and comfort all those mommies and kids out there. And just all the crazy stuff. We know everything has to go through the throne room God. Everything has to be approved through You before it happens. Amen. Amen. This is Eyes of a Dove and Baby Eyes of a Dove Imber. Bi. Signing out. We love you. Bye.

Shalom shalom this is Diane Olive Brown calling from Newburgh Indiana it is Friday, November 6^th, 2020 at 1:33 AM central time. And I just listened to this daily reading and I kind of feel like Job just put my hand in front of my mouth but I just wanted to say how grateful and thankful I am for this community to put my log on the fire and sit around with all of you in the Global Campfire. And I realized something that I didn’t realize before, that I have a choice and nobody is going to take that gift away from me, that I have to make a choice. I have to choose every minute of every day and nobody is responsible for the choice I make, not all the things that happened to me. I can’t blame any person, thing or anything. It’s just me making a choice. I’m that little girl but I ran away from the one person, God the Father who could help me through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. It’s my choice, no one to blame. God is just. Shalom shalom.

Good morning DAB family this is Walking in the Light in Tennessee. I was just blown away when I listened to the recording from November the 6^th. It was just…well…actually…not November the 6^th August 25^th because I’ve been playing catch-up all year long so I’m listening to August and November. But Rosie, I believe it was Rosie made a recording, she said it was the second time she had done at and it was about being set free from the problems that your children…your children have. And she said that God had told her that, “look at me I’m the perfect Father.” And I still have problems with my children and that was so freeing for me because I’ve been going through it with my son so much and beating myself up about it. So, thank you Rosie for that recording. I’m listening again to August and November and so it just happened that I heard it this morning. God is so good and He’s such an on-time God. Thank you, Rosie. I am praying for you as I know you are praying for me. Walking in the Light in Tennessee. Thank you, my sister.

Hi DAB family. I love thinking of you all is my brothers and sisters. I’m calling today to ask for prayer for my sister. I remember about a year ago or so there seemed to be a lot of people asking for this kind of prayer for an adult sibling or an adult child who had gone back into a life of drugs. And at that time my adult sister was out of that or so we thought. She wasn’t. She’s had a very rough year and half or two and her son has taken her out of a really bad situation and brought her to his house but it didn’t last long and she’s gone back to drugs and I just found out that she’s also selling her body for money for drugs. She might be an adult but she is still 13 years old and at 11 years old she was raped, molested by our dad and she’s never been the same and she’s never really grown up from 12 years old or 13 years old. She’s still in that mindset. It’s heartbreaking to see her go down this rabbit hole again and I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I don’t know how to help her. She’s not reachable. Not by any of us. So, I’m asking you to pray for her. She’s reachable by God. And she needs Him. She loves Him, she knows Him but she can’t help herself. Thank you, family for praying for her. Her name is Andrea, and this is Kari, overcomer Kari from Ontario Canada.

November 10, 2020

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday November 10, 2020 (NIV)

Ezekiel 21-22

The Sword of the Lord

21 ^[a]The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Son of man, turn to Jerusalem, preach against the holy places. Prophesy against the land of Israel. ³Tell the land of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am against you. I will take my sword out of its scabbard and kill the righteous people and the wicked people among you. ⁴I’m going to kill the righteous people and the wicked people among you. That is why my sword will come out of its scabbard to be used against everyone from the south to the north. ⁵Then everyone will know that I, the Lord, have taken my sword from its scabbard, and I will not put it back again.’

⁶“So, son of man, groan with a breaking heart and with bitter crying while the people watch you. ⁷When they ask you why you are groaning, say, ‘News has come that will discourage everyone. People’s hands will hang limp, their hearts will lose courage, and their knees will become as weak as water. It’s coming! It will surely take place!’ declares the Almighty Lord.”

⁸The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ⁹“Son of man, prophesy. Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord says:

A sword, a sword is sharpened and polished,
¹⁰It’s sharpened to kill
and polished to flash like lightning.
How can we rejoice?
My son has refused to be disciplined or punished.
¹¹The sword has been handed over to be polished,
to be placed in the hand.
The sword is being sharpened and polished
to be placed in the hands of killers.

¹²“ ‘Cry and mourn, son of man,
because the sword will be used against my people
and against all the princes of Israel.
I will throw the princes and my people on the sword.
So beat your breast, and grieve.
¹³Testing will surely come.
What if you refuse to be disciplined again?
Won’t you be tested? declares the Almighty Lord.
¹⁴So prophesy, son of man.
Clap your hands!
Let the sword strike again and again.
It’s the sword for killing.
It’s the sword for killing many people.
It’s the sword that surrounds them.
¹⁵I have appointed my sword to slaughter people at all their gates
so that their hearts will sink and many will die.
Yes! It’s ready to flash like lightning.
It’s polished to kill.
¹⁶Sword, cut to the right.
Cut to the left
or wherever your blade is turned.
¹⁷I will also clap my hands and rest from my fury.
I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

The Sword of the King of Babylon

¹⁸The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ¹⁹“Son of man, mark two roads that the king of Babylon and his sword can take. Both of these roads should start from the same country. Make a sign, and put it where the roads start to fork toward the cities. ²⁰Mark the road that the king and his sword can take to the Ammonite city of Rabbah, and mark the road that leads to Judah and the fortified city of Jerusalem. ²¹The king of Babylon will stop where the roads branch off, where there is a fork in the road. Then he will look for omens. He will shake some arrows, ask his household gods for help, and examine animal livers. ²²The omens will indicate that he should go to the right, to Jerusalem. So he will set up his battering rams there, give the order to kill, raise a battle cry, aim the battering rams against the city gates, put up ramps, and set up blockades. ²³The people won’t believe this because they have made treaties with other nations. But the king of Babylon will remind them of their sins, and they will be captured.

²⁴“This is what the Almighty Lord says: You make people remember how sinful you are because you openly do wrong. You show your sins in everything you do. So you will be taken captive.

²⁵“You dishonest and wicked prince of Israel, the time for your final punishment has come. ²⁶This is what the Almighty Lord says: Take off your turban, and get rid of your crown. Things are going to change. Those who are unimportant will become important, and those who are important will become unimportant. ²⁷Ruins! Ruins! I will turn this place into ruins! It will not be restored until its rightful owner comes. Then I will give it to him.

²⁸“Son of man, prophesy. Tell them, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says about the Ammonites and their insults:

A sword, a sword is drawn ready to kill.
It’s polished to destroy and flash like lightning.
²⁹People see false visions about you
and prophesy lies about you.
The sword will be placed on the necks of dishonest, wicked people,
for whom the time of final punishment has come.

³⁰“ ‘Return your sword to its scabbard.
In the place where you were created,
in the land where you were born,
there I will judge you.
³¹I will pour out my fury on you
and breathe on you with my fiery anger.

I will hand you over to cruel people who are skilled in destruction.
³²You will be fuel for the fire.
You will die in the land.
You will no longer be remembered.
I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

Jerusalem Is Judged because of Its Murderous History

22 The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²“Will you judge, son of man? Will you judge the city of murderers? Then tell it about all the disgusting things that it has done. ³Tell it, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: ⌞Jerusalem,⌟ you are the city that murders people who live in you. Your time has come. You dishonor yourself with disgusting idols. ⁴You are guilty because of the people you have killed. You are dishonored because of the disgusting idols you have made. You have brought an end to your days, and you have come to the end of your years. That is why I will make you a disgrace to the nations and a joke in every land. ⁵Those near and those far away will mock you. Your name will be dishonored, and you will be filled with confusion.

⁶“ ‘See how all the princes of Israel who live in you have used their power to murder people. ⁷People in you hate their fathers and mothers. They oppress foreigners in you. They oppress orphans and widows in you. ⁸You have despised my holy things and dishonored the day to worship me. ⁹Some of your people slander. They want to kill people. People who live in you eat food sacrificed to idols at the worship sites on the hills, and they sin sexually. ¹⁰Men have sex with their father’s wives. They have sex with women when the women are having their periods and are unclean.^[b] ¹¹Men do disgusting things with their neighbors’ wives. Some men sexually dishonor their daughters-in-law. Other men who live in you have sex with their sisters, their father’s daughters. ¹²Other people take bribes to murder people. You collect interest and make excessive profits. You make profits by mistreating your neighbors. You have forgotten me, declares the Almighty Lord.

¹³“ ‘I will use my power against you because of the excessive profits you have made and the murders you have committed. ¹⁴Will you still be brave? Will you remain strong when I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it. ¹⁵I will scatter you among the nations and force you into other countries. I will put an end to your uncleanness. ¹⁶You will be dishonored in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

¹⁷Then the Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ¹⁸“Son of man, the people of Israel have become worthless to me. All of them are like copper, tin, iron, and lead in a smelting furnace. They are like the impurities left from silver. ¹⁹This is what the Almighty Lord says: All of you have become worthless. That is why I’m going to gather you in Jerusalem. ²⁰People gather silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin together in a smelting furnace to melt them with a fiery blast. In the same way, in my anger and fury I will gather you and put you in the city. I will melt you there. ²¹Yes, I will gather you, breathe on you with my fiery anger, and melt you in the city. ²²You will be melted in the city like silver that is melted in a furnace. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my fury on you.”

²³The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ²⁴“Son of man, tell the city, ‘You are an unclean land that has not had rain during the day of my anger. You have not been made clean.^[c] ²⁵Your princes are like roaring lions who tear their prey into pieces. They eat people and take their treasures and precious belongings. They turn many women into widows. ²⁶Your priests violate my teachings and dishonor my holy things. They don’t distinguish between what is holy and what is unholy. They don’t teach the difference between what is clean and what is unclean. They ignore the days to worship me. So I am dishonored among the people. ²⁷Your leaders are like wolves that tear their prey into pieces. They murder and destroy people to make excessive profits. ²⁸Your prophets cover up these things by seeing false visions and by prophesying lies. They say, “This is what the Almighty Lord says.” Yet, the Lord hasn’t spoken. ²⁹The common people oppress and rob others. They do wrong to humble people and to poor people. They oppress foreigners for no reason.

³⁰“ ‘I looked for someone among you who could build walls or stand in front of me by the gaps in the walls to defend the land and keep it from being destroyed. But I couldn’t find anyone. ³¹So I will pour out my anger on you, and with my fiery anger I will consume you. This is because of all the things you have done,’ declares the Almighty Lord.”

Footnotes:

21:1 Ezekiel 21:1–32 in English Bibles is Ezekiel 21:6–37 in the Hebrew Bible.
22:10 “Unclean ” refers to anything that Moses’ Teachings say is not presentable to God.
22:24 “Clean ” refers to anything that Moses’ Teachings say is presentable to God.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Hebrews 10:1-17

We Can Enter the Most Holy Place because of Christ’s Superior Work

10 Moses’ Teachings with their yearly cycle of sacrifices are only a shadow of the good things in the future. They aren’t an exact likeness of those things. They can never make those who worship perfect. ²If these sacrifices could have made the worshipers perfect, the sacrifices would have stopped long ago. Those who worship would have been cleansed once and for all. Their consciences would have been free from sin. ³Instead, this yearly cycle of sacrifices reminded people of their sins. ⁴(The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.)

⁵For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“ ‘You did not want sacrifices and offerings,
but you prepared a body for me.
⁶You did not approve of burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.’
⁷Then I said, ‘I have come!
(It is written about me in the scroll of the book.)
I have come to do what you want, my God.’ ”

⁸In this passage Christ first said, “You did not want sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sacrifices for sin. You did not approve of them.” (These are the sacrifices that Moses’ Teachings require people to offer.) ⁹Then Christ says, “I have come to do what you want.” He did away with sacrifices in order to establish the obedience that God wants. ¹⁰We have been set apart as holy because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do by sacrificing his body once and for all.

¹¹Every day each priest performed his religious duty. He offered the same type of sacrifice again and again. Yet, these sacrifices could never take away sins. ¹²However, this chief priest made one sacrifice for sins, and this sacrifice lasts forever. Now he holds the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne. ¹³Since that time, he has been waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool. ¹⁴With one sacrifice he accomplished the work of setting them apart for God forever.

¹⁵The Holy Spirit tells us the same thing: ¹⁶“This is the promise ^[a] that I will make to them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put my teachings in their hearts and write them in their minds.’ ”

¹⁷Then he adds, “I will no longer hold their sins and their disobedience against them.”

Footnotes:

10:16 Or “covenant.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Psalm 108

A song; a psalm by David.

108 My heart is confident, O God.
I want to sing and make music even with my soul.^[a]
²Wake up, harp and lyre!
I want to wake up at dawn.
³I want to give thanks to you among the people, O Lord.
I want to make music to praise you among the nations
⁴because your mercy is higher than the heavens.
Your truth reaches the skies.

⁵May you be honored above the heavens, O God.
Let your glory extend over the whole earth.

⁶Save ⌞us⌟ with your powerful hand, and answer us
so that those who are dear to you may be rescued.

⁷God has promised the following through his holiness:
“I will triumph!
I will divide Shechem.
I will measure the valley of Succoth.
⁸Gilead is mine.
Manasseh is mine.
Ephraim is the helmet on my head.
Judah is my scepter.
⁹Moab is my washtub.
I will throw my shoe over Edom.
I will shout in triumph over Philistia.”

¹⁰Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
¹¹Isn’t it you, O God, who rejected us?
Isn’t it you, O God, who refused to accompany our armies?

¹²Give us help against the enemy
because human assistance is worthless.
¹³With God we will display great strength.
He will trample our enemies.

Footnotes:

108:1 Or “my glory.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Proverbs 27:12

¹²Sensible people foresee trouble and hide.
Gullible people go ahead ⌞and⌟ suffer.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)