A Walk Through The Word

2 Kings 8:1-9:13, Acts 16:16-40, Psalms 143:1-12, Proverbs 17:26

Today’s the 25^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as…as we move in and take the next step forward. And we’ve been working our way into and through the book of second Kings. And largely for the last couple of days dealing with the story of the prophet Elisha, which we will continue to do today, but we’ll also get back to kind of the Kings and the different generations of kings as we go forward. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Second Kings chapter 8 verse 1 through 9:13.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the examples. And that’s one thing that we need to understand, and we invite Your Holy Spirit to help us understand, that we’re not just reading all of the exceptional people, like all the exceptions that ever lived. We’re reading stories of people who are examples to us of where roads lead and what it looks like to walk with You. And, so, even as we see Paul and Silas in jail we also see that at every opportunity that they have, no matter where they’re at, including in prison they’re worshiping, they’re sharing, they’re being light in the darkness and You are present with them. And, so, it's…it’s easy for us because we usually…we isolate ourselves when we are challenged, but we see this example of reaching outward and being open. And, so, Holy Spirit come and show us what that might look like in our own situations. We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And our annual…our annual holiday…sort of our own little personal Daily Audio Bible holiday is coming up on the 7^th of July and it’s known as the long walk. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of days because this is a special long walk. We’ve got a special resource that we’re releasing, not only for the long walk, like for life, but that…that will pair so perfectly with a day that we go and walk with God. So, if you…if you haven’t been here for the last couple of days, the long walk occurs on the 7^th of July each year and we’ve been doing this for well over a decade and it’s an individual thing to be sure. It…it is what it sounds like. Just choose somewhere near you, wherever you are in the world, somewhere that’s beautiful or that’s serene, that brings a sense of calm and allows you to experience the beauty of nature. And whether you drive for hours, or whether you just go down to the corner and…and go to a park or something, it doesn’t matter, just a place that brings peace to you and go for a long walk with God and actually carve space out, like take a day, carve it out realizing that we have been through a heck of the first part of the year, a lot has been going on that’s been really disruptive and here we are in the center of the year and it’s time to regroup. It’s time to take some time and really speak our hearts in prayer, sharing our souls with God, but also to understand that a relationship is conversational and we need to take time to listen so that we can come out of a time like that with some direction, sort of how we’re aiming our lives as we move into the second half of the year. That’s the long walk and it’s a beautiful thing and it’s a…it’s an individual thing. It’s just that we as a community are all over the world and so we’re doing it together alone. It’s perfect for social distancing, but it always has been, like we’re not changing anything. It’s just how it’s always been all these years. So, that’s the long walk on the 7^th of July. So, mark that on your calendar and…and begin to make your plans, just start anticipating that, even in your prayer time, just telling the Lord, “I’m really looking forward…I’m really looking forward to this time where we can just kinda set everything else aside and just be together. I’m looking forward to that and just anticipate it.” And…and then when you go wherever you go just snap a picture of where you went or take a little video of where you are and you can post as a comment back to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and then we’ll post it up on the page and all of the sudden…it’s one of my favorite things in this year…is to scroll through all of the different long walks and just have windows into each other’s lives, but also just windows into the beauty of the earth that God has given us to enjoy. And, so, that’s the long walk.

This year is special because were releasing a brand-new resource that is really perfect for the long walk. It’s called Heart, a contemplative journey. And it's…it’s a musical journey and a guided prayer journey that allows us to embrace, acknowledge and experience the emotions of the heart that we’ve been experiencing throughout our lives, but in particular throughout these last months. And, so, this resource will become available at midnight, like the beginning of the day on the 7^th of July but you can preorder it and purchase it now at iTunes or Apple Music, Google Play, wherever it is that you get your music you can find it. Just look for my name, Brian Hardin or Heart is the name of the project. And it’s available now and you can preorder it now and it will just download and show up in your device on the 7^th in anticipation for the long walk this year. I have been…I mean I kind of shared this story a couple days ago of how this project came to be over the course of several years just trying to speak to my own heart about the things that I was feeling. But, you know, sometimes you’re trying to describe how you’re feeling, and words fail. But there is language beyond words and music is one of those languages. And, so, just trying to compose and arrange. This is one of the most like visual projects I've…I’ve ever made. I tried to pour as much life and atmosphere into it as…as possible. It's…it’s beautiful and I’ve taken many, many, many long walks for that project just praying the prayers. And, so, basically, yeah, it's…it’s, you know, there’s a prayer that leads us into the music and then we just open ourselves to allow the music to speak and God to be present in that emotion and then we move to another emotion. So, like we deal with forgiveness, we deal with hope, we deal with bittersweet…the bittersweet nature of life, we deal with moving forward, we deal with finding a sense of home in our heart or with God or comfort…comfort that we so deeply need sometimes and life just feels so frantic that comfort is hard to find. But if we slow down it’s there and available to us. So, this is what Heart is. It’s available now. Go check it out. I thank you for that. And in anticipation of the long walk, I think this is gonna be a really special long walk because I know that we have a lot to say. I sense that we have a lot to say as we spend time with God but we also need direction. It’s been a disruptive year like I said, and we do need direction and God is not withholding it from us. We’re just too busy. So, let’s slow down on the 7^th and explore the terrain of our hearts as we open our hearts to God and His leadership in our lives.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. I thank you profoundly for your partnership. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

2 Kings 6:1-7:20, Acts 15:36-16:15, Psalms 142:1-7, Proverbs 17:24-25

Today is the 24^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s wonderful to be here with you today as we move through the center of another week and just keep one foot in front of the other taking step-by-step day by day and continuing our journey in community through the Bible. I mentioned yesterday to mark your calendars for the 7^th of July which is the long walk and I have some things to share about that at the end, a brand-new resource coming on the 7^th of July tailored for some of the time that we spend on the long walk. So, we’ll talk about that in a little bit. But let’s do what we come here to do. Let’s get into the Scriptures. We will pick up where we left off yesterday, which is what we do every day. We’re ion the book of second Kings in the Old Testament and we are journeying alongside the prophet Elisha, which is what we will continue to do today. Second Kings, chapters 6 and 7. And we’re reading from the New International Version this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of second Kings we are a kind of traveling the journey of the prophet Elisha. And, so, some pretty significant, amazing, miraculous things happen in today’s reading like an axe head floating or Elisha informing the king of Israel that the king of Aram was attempting to…like what kind of traps he was setting. And…and the entire city, like trying to find Elisha and surrounding the entire city of Dothan only for Elisha to say there’s more with us than are with them and asking the Lord to strike the Army blind, which was not…obviously was not like blindness that they couldn’t see. It was like a…a cloud. They were blinded so that Elisha could go like, “hey, he’s not here, the one you’re looking for, but like, let me take you to him” and their just following along right into the capital city of Israel, which is Samaria and just turning them loose after feeding them. So, significant things today but…but then Samaria, the city is again surrounded and besieged by Ben-Hadad king of Aram again and this lasts. So, they surround Samaria and…and basically cut it off and then begin to starve the people. And that’s kind of one of the war tactics of walled cities at this time, just wait it out. Basically, nobody can get out and no supplies can get in. So, open the gates and let us in and nobody has to get hurt or keep your gates closed and we’ll just wait until you’re all dead and then we’ll come in. This goes on so long that Samaria really is starving. Like it’s gotten to the point that people are eating each other. So, that’s pretty bad starvation indeed. And, so, the king, he’s just had it with this prophet Elisha and he’s goona kill him because this famine is from the Lord. That’s what he believes. And, so, “I’m gonna…like, we’re not waiting anymore.” And, so, he’s gonna just be done with the Lord by killing the Lord’s prophet. And Elisha’s like, “you know, tomorrow…by this time tomorrow, every…like everything will change. There will be an abundance of resources to feed us. And, of course, that’s pretty hard to believe. And people say that’s pretty hard to believe, but in the end there’s some leprous people outside the city that go to the army camp thinking like, “we’re dead no matter what”. Like their, “the best option to live is to go surrender to the enemy because of we’re dead…I mean…we’re dead no matter what. And they find that the camp is empty, and supplies are plentiful. And, so, the heat and they start hiding things and it’s just this crazy scene. And you have to imagine, like put yourself in this position. You have been surrounded by the enemy for a very, very long time so that you are starving. And, so, you…you realize you’re gonna perish no matter what you do, but if you would go over to the enemy camp, maybe…I mean, like maybe they would actually feed you but what you find is there’s an abundance waiting. Like there is no enemy surrounding the city anymore. Well, after a while of them going…going in the tents and getting stuff they want and eating whatever they want they realize it’s not right that we do this. In fact, I’m quoting from second Kings here. This is what they said, “what we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.” Are you starting to track with me here? Like, we can look at this story and go, “these are…this this is the life and times of the prophet Elisha”, but then we look behind the story we find a mirror because weren’t we trapped, weren’t we surrounded spiritually as it were? Weren’t we starving to death, weren’t we willing to feed on whatever was around before freedom came into our lives? And then at…at some point the lights went on. We met Jesus and looked about us and realized that the reality we thought we were living in is different. We weren’t surrounded. The enemy had fled, and we were unaware, and we feasted on the good things of the Lord. But we do have to reach a point where we realize it’s not right to hoard this. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. We’re not the only ones free here. Victory over the darkness is available to anyone now. And maybe these leprous men who went into the Aramaean cam teach us a significant lesson about our own lives. Maybe there are people still starving, feeling surrounded and trapped, feeding on each other when freedom is completely available if someone would tell them.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. Yes, yes we’re talking about sharing the good news and we go to all kinds of places and all kinds of methods and everything but that’s really not the point. The…the point is that we are supposed to be living in this freedom and when we see people surrounded and in bondage and dying spiritually, we should have the same awareness that these leprous men had. We’re not doing the right thing by hording everything. This is a day of freedom. This is a day of good news. We can’t just keep this to ourselves. So, come Holy Spirit. Show us how to live in the light so that everything that we do is light and life and good news. And sometimes we say it with words and sometimes it’s with a smile to a stranger whose having an awful time of things and just a moment of kindness brought the kingdom to them. And we…we didn’t even know it. We were just aware. We were just kind. We were just Christ like. Come Holy Spirit and show us how to live like this in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And what’s coming up is July 7^th, which is our own little community celebration or our own little holiday that we have for ourselves. And we call it the long walk and it happens every July 7^th and it is exactly what it sounds like. We…of course…we can’t all gather together and go for a long walk. We’re all over the world, but we can all do it on the same day and it’s the center of the year and it’s, like I said yesterday, been a heck of a year so far. So, this is more necessary than ever that we carve out some time, that we carve out a day and try to disrupt the routines that are dragging us and go somewhere beautiful and drink in the life that is happening all around us that God is giving us moment by moment just to become aware of His presence through the beauty of nature and to go for a long walk and finally have the time to not be rushed, to not be rushed with God or anything else, to just be able to say everything that needs to be said and to listen because the Lord has so much. You…He’s…He’s been trying to say, has been waiting to say. And this is a time to just devote ourselves to listening to what He has to say about the second half of our year. Like how should we point ourselves? Where should we go? How should we head? And listen for his direction. So, that’s the long walk and that is that two weeks from yesterday. So, the 7^th of July.

But I’m I mentioned yesterday, and I mentioned at the beginning today, there’s a new resource that’s coming. This resource is called “Heart”. And the…well…I’ll tell you why it matters to the long walk in a minute, but first let me just tell you the story. I mean so many of the resources that…that we create and develop here, they…they take a long time. So, like I’ve written several books but you don’t just sit down one day in front of a word processer…processor and go like, “alright…I’m ready to go. I’m gonna write …write a book.” You might do that, but if you get past the first page…yeah…you…it's…it’s a process of contemplation of research of thinking of living into of understanding of trying to get clarity on what you’re trying to say it. It’s…it’s a long process that takes years sometimes. So, like in the case of the God of Your Story, which is the latest resource that we’ve…we released…yeah…that took several years to write but it took 12 years of Daily Audio Bible to sort of like live into So, some of these resources take a very long time. And this one took several years. It was four years ago this month I was traveling around speaking about Sneezing Jesus and my mom had not been well but she became quite ill and this had been coming on to the point that it was really necessary for my brother and I to be involved and that very, very quickly became a seven day a week involvement and she was kind of sliding. I mean she had a lot of things going on, congestive heart failure and diabetes, and some incontinence issues that were…that were bringing on kind of repetitive UTIs. And those of you who have kind of been with…been with, especially people who are beginning to age and UTIs…I didn’t know anything about this, but…yeah…you can just really start…becoming incoherent with that infection. And, so, these things are going on and then finally just understanding that dementia, actually really fast-moving dementia was setting in. So, a super, super trying time that ended with her passing away on the 13^th January of the next year, which was 2017. And those of you who have been around for a few years, you were there. And I thank you for walking through that with me. That was really, really hard. I mean still hard to this very day. And, so…so, that’s kind of the beginning of the story and then after she passed away it took some time to just…grief…get some counseling, get some…some voices in my life and walk through…because it…it rocked me. I’m like I’m still rocked because it was a situation where was really trying to do everything right and it still didn’t end up well, you know. And, so, just kind of questioning a lot of things that I…you know…I’m still working through with the Lord, not in a bad way. Like it’s catapulted me, to opened my eyes to see in a lot of ways but not to just kind of relive that story, that was just sort of the beginning of things and a couple months later, I guess is when I began this project, Heart. And many…many of you…many of you know I have a music industry background and that’s where I come from, and that I migrated from there into ministry here. And, so, you know, I kind of speak that language, I speak the language of music. It’s what I did for a living. And sometimes those of you who are musicians you will understand very…very well what I’m saying. Sometimes words can’t say what needs to be said. Sometimes…sometimes it’s just silence because there isn’t anything to say. And then…but for me anyway, sometimes I can sit down in front of piano and I can say what I need to say without words by just…by just playing. And that’s just what I started doing and that often is the beginning of something. And, so, I just began to compose how I was feeling, and I began to explore specific things. Like if I’m dealing with the loss or if I’m dealing with having to persevere or if I’m dealing with my hope being deferred and…and feeling sick inside and wondering where my hope has gone or wondering how to move forward or just contemplating the bittersweet nature of things. How that, you know, for every wonderful thing that we are given we also need to release something, like it just kind of moves through our hands and that’s the nature of things and how to live with that. I just began speaking in music to myself. Like, I would ask myself, “okay this is what I’m feeling right now. And what does that sound like? What is…how can I play this and experience that emotion through melody?” And, so, over the course of the next couple of years very, very slowly I composed pieces that were speaking to exactly the kinds of things that I was going through. And I thought, “you know, well, I’ll get these songs done and then we’ll use them in the Daily Audio Bible. I mean, like what's…what’s in the background right now, like this music that’s playing in the background right now comes from the Promised Land films and it came the same way. That whole project started because I got dust really really bad dust in my eyes in the desert in Jordan when we were in Israel many years ago. And by the time I got back to the United States I had an eye infection. I couldn’t see very well. And, so, I just began to play, you know, just began to speak how I…I could. And that became the same…same kind of story here. And I thought I would get several compositions done and just make them available and we would use them. But I began, like it was my custom of the time to go for a nightly walk and walk for an hour or an hour and a half maybe even two hours sometimes and just try to find a serene place in my life. A lot was going on - trying to write the God of your story, trying to do develop a farm that we have and just a lot of work. And I began it to walk but I would walk with these compositions in my earphones. And I began to pray. I began to pray about those specific emotions that I was feeling and that became kind of a nightly thing. And I realized this is really helping me. Like, I am praying what I feel, I am opening myself to God and then I am allowing the melodies to wash over me so that I could just, in silence, experience the emotion and experience the presence of God in it all. So, then I took a step back and I thought, “well…it’s a very, very personal thing, but I don’t think that these things that I’ve been experiencing in my life are solitary to me. I think these are things that we all experience.” And, so, I started thinking, “maybe this is more than just music. Maybe this is something that is like guided prayer, like we would pray together and then do exactly that. Let the music wash in and speak to the things that are beyond words and be silent as the melodies wash over us so that we’re not just filling the room. We’re filling the atmosphere with our own words but we’re being silent and becoming aware with the presence of God.” That is Heart. Heart, a contemplative journey. And that is finally gonna see the light of day and it will become available on the 7^th of July. And that’s why it makes so much sense for the long walk. It's…I mean just to go into that journey and being able to just open up our hearts to God for a little while in a…in a guided way and just allowing music to speak to us and open us up as we’re walking with God and then to just listen…just to listen to Him. So, that's…that’s what’s coming - this brand-new resource, Heart, a contemplative journey. And it’s available for preorder now. So, you can get it on iTunes or Apple music, or you can get it on Google Play or wherever it is that you get your music. One little thing about this particular project is that it's…at this point it’s not on streaming services. You can purchase it. And kind here’s why. These prayers, like if it…if it’s streamable then these prayers can be disembodied from, you know, from their associated compositions and music and stuff and so they’re just they’re just like random. And I thought that would be just such a strange thing in a streaming environment. So, you can buy Heart, just look for Heart, H E A R T or look for my name, Brian Hardin, and look for the album Heart and you can preorder it now in preparation for the seventh of July. And, of course, the resources that…that come into the Daily Audio Bible because of…of this recording…they…they throw logs on the Global Campfire. And that's…that’s what it’s for. And, so, it’s available for preorder now and I…I appreciate your partnership and support in this project. When we release a resource and it becomes visible then it just draws more and more people into our community here around the Global Campfire. So, heart is available for preorder now and will become available for full release on the 7^th of July just in time for the long walk.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you humbly, gratefully your partnership as we move through summertime. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

2 Kings 4:18-5:27, Acts 15:1-35, Psalms 141:1-10, Proverbs 17:23

Today is the 23^rd day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is awesome to be here with you today around the Global Campfire as we just kind of exhale, release the stresses and all of the stuff that just builds up and it’s just chaos sometimes…we just release all that for a few minutes and just come into this oasis around the Global campfire and…ahh…exhale and allow God’s word to speak to us today. So, in the Old Testament we’re in the book of second Kings and we will spend our time alongside the prophet Elisha and then we will flip over into the New Testament and in the book of Acts today we will be encountering the…the most poignant foundational impactful decision that the early church really needed to face and come to terms with. And the implications are far reaching but we’ll get to that soon enough. First, we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Second Kings 4:18 through 5:27.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we kinda mentioned at the beginning that…that…that what was happening in the book of Acts today was really big, monumental pivotal shift. And this is known as the Council at Jerusalem or the Jerusalem Council or the first church council, like where…where church leaders had to come together and actually consider and even debate and wrestle with and invite God into a decision because they had reached a…a point where they needed the guidance of the Holy Spirit because things were not adding up. Basically, what was happening is what we’ve alluded to in the past, Jesus the Savior was a Hebrew human being. Although God made flesh, He was a Jew and He grew up Jewish. And, so, when he began His ministry the context for this ministry was Jewish and it was centered around the Hebrew Scriptures and the Hebrew prophets. Like the whole thing was based on the Hebrew story. And, so, that’s how He did His ministry and that’s mostly who He did His ministry among. So, Hebrew people who had put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Hebrew Messiah, they…it was not in their mind that they were converting to a different religion or like that they were leaving the traditions of their lives that they had grown up immersed in and needed to find completely different ways of doing things. It was just assumed that Jesus is a Hebrew rabbi, He’s commenting on the Hebrew Scriptures, He’s attending the Hebrew festivals, He’s doing things in synagogues. Like this is…is a Hebrew context. Nothing’s changing here. Then Gentiles began to believe, and God began to affirm the Gentiles belief through the affirmation of the Holy Spirit. I mean we can be like 2000 years in the future right here in 2020 and go like, “man, what does that got to do with me? And why? You know, like, it just doesn’t make sense that they would be arguing about this.” But this is huge. Like what we’re seeing today changed the complexion of the faith. So, some Hebrew believers that gone to Antioch and they were teaching about Jesus, but the message of conversion or like the good news message was, “convert to Judaism. Follow the Hebrew customs. Be circumcised. And then you can follow Jesus. But until you come in through that gate…like until you come in and are circumcised and the whole thing, you can’t follow Christ.” That was very troubling to the Gentile people that wanted to follow Jesus and it was very troubling to Paul and Barnabas to the point that this Jerusalem Council came to be. And the central question was, “are Gentiles permitted to be in this faith in Christ, or is this a Hebrew only thing?” In other words, who gets to be in? So, Peter weighs in and talks about the vision that he had about clean and unclean. He talks about going to Cornelius’s house, a Gentile military man of Rome, and how the Holy Spirit fell upon the entire family and affirmed that He was accepting them in the same way that the Holy Spirit moved upon the Hebrew believers while at the same time, there were others in the church, church leaders, arguing, “no. This is a Hebrew thing. Jesus was a Hebrew person and His own commentary was in a Hebrew context. So, that…that’s how people have to understand Him. That’s how they have to…that’s how they have to come in. That’s how they get in.” And you see why it would need to be a counsel because these are valid things to consider on both sides. And in the end as they come together, hear all of the different testimony, including the testimony of Paul and Barnabas, it becomes apparent. The decision is made because they can see or sense that it’s not them that are making a decision, it’s God who has already chosen to accept Gentiles. And why heap upon them the Mosaic law when the Hebrew people have not even been…not been able to figure out or adhere to it pretty much ever. So, then the thought is like, you know, “to a person who hasn’t grown up in this or has no understanding of this, why do they need to be saddled with this when Christ has come to make them free?” And, so, they give them a very few basic things that they need to adhere to, like don’t eat the meat of sacrificed animals to idols and stay away from blood and…and…and stay away from sexual immorality. But…but other than that, “welcome to the family”, basically. “Welcome. And God is doing a new thing and we…we have to acknowledge and see it. So, welcome.” And they sent two people back to affirm this in word and they sent a letter back which we read today. This shifts things dramatically in the church because now everyone…everyone is welcome, all who call upon the name of the Lord. Everyone can be saved no matter who they are, no matter where they are, no matter how they are. It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal that’s called good news. But this good news, like we’ll see this the rest of the year as we continue through the New Testament, especially as we get into the letters. This decision right here causes monumental problems on a lot of different levels. For starters, just the Roman empire itself. The Roman Empire itself let you at the time worship whatever God you wanted or whatever gods you wanted. Like you had the religious freedom to worship whatever gods you wanted to honor however you wanted to. But you had to revere the gods of Rome, the gods of the Empire. You had to revere the gods who made Rome great. And, you know, especially like observe the national festivals and stuff like this. And if you didn’t do that that’s gonna be a problem because the people that you live among, your own nation, your own people would see you unwilling to participate in national celebrations and there's…like this time there’s not something called the separation of church and state. Like sacred and secular weren’t compartmentalized. So, if you’re not involved in what’s national and even honoring the national well then, it’s very easy to think that you are anti-Empire you are anti-Roman. And I think we’ve…I think we’ve experienced enough in the Scriptures to get the sense that that’s probably not a good idea if you want to stay well and alive. So, the interesting thing is that the Hebrew people were part of the Roman Empire as well, but their worship of the one true God, right, the God of Israel, the one who had chosen them and set them apart, that predated Rome vastly. They were a very, very ancient people with a very ancient religion. And, so they kinda had…they kinda had a pass. Like it was understood what they were doing and why they were doing it even though it was marginalizing them in the Empire. But for the most part they didn’t care about that because they were separatists, they were exclusive other than the fact that the marginalization was oppressing them. So, they were being oppressed by the Romans and that’s the environment that Jesus came into. But they didn’t have to do all this Roman God worship and stuff. Up until this point, the Christians, because they…they weren’t really called that, they were followers of Jesus or followers of The Way of Jesus the Hebrew teacher. Up until this point kind of the assumption was, “well…He…Jesus was a Hebrew and He was a rabbi. And, so, like this is part of the Hebrew religion.” And, so, they, the early believers, gotta pass as well. They didn’t have to do any of the other worship. But then this decision gets made at the Jerusalem Council, where now Gentiles have completely different rules about coming into the faith and now all the sudden the law of Moses doesn’t have to be adhered to in the way that is traditional and the teachings of Paul are kind of contrary and he’s being labeled a heretic. And, so, now all the sudden this isn’t under the protection of the Jewish religion anymore. The Jews are rejecting it and are being vocal about it saying they have nothing to do with us. So, now believers in Jesus are kind of out there because it’s like this is a new religion. And you gotta be on board with the gods that made the Empire great. You gotta be on board with being Roman if you’re gonna be here. If you’re gonna be here you gotta be here and do what we do. So, that makes things difficult because now the Jewish people want to oppress the…the believers in Jesus, the Christians as well as the Empire. So, there’s like no place to go. And over time this gets really really difficult and we will read through some of those difficulties as we go through the rest of the New Testament, but because of all of this climate that’s being formed here we’re gonna see a theme. And there’s one word that defines this theme, “endure.” It’s not particularly our favorite word. It’s probably not particularly our favorite action or posture, but we will see the church to survive, like to survive had to learn to endure. And we will see that that has a role to play in our lives as well.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for all that…all that you teach, all that you reveal, all that you snap into place for us as we move through the Scriptures. And as we continue to learn both in our minds and our brains but also as we continue to grow in our hearts, we invite your Holy Spirit to be ever present and lead us into all truth. This is our kind of perpetual request. We…we ask it a lot but it…it’s necessary. We want to walk in the truth, and you are the truth. And, so, we want to walk with you and we are like sheep and we do go astray and we need a shepherd and you have come to comfort and guide us. And, so, we surrender to that. We rest in the flow of that. We allow you to lead us forward. Come Holy Spirit into all of this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s you know, home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. There are some things coming up that are going on around here. So, talk a little bit today and…and even more tomorrow about it.

So, two weeks from today is kind of our own Daily Audio Bible family holiday, I guess. It’s a tradition that we have had for well over a decade now and we call it “the long walk” and that takes place every 7^th of July. And it’s something that we do together as a community, even though we’re…we’re doing it alone. And it’s designed to be that way. So, we’re kind of alone together which is so strange because this has been a tradition we’ve had for well over a decade like I said, but in this kind of era of social distancing, yeah, we have this event that is…that fits perfectly. Like we don’t have to modify anything. So, the long walk is self-explanatory, a long walk. Every July 7^th we…we try to take the day off if we can and just go somewhere beautiful, whether near or far. Just kind of pick a park or a place or a trail or a region or just wherever, whether you drive for several hours which some people do, or whether you just go down the street. Find somewhere beautiful. Find a place to find stillness and go for a long walk with God. And it’s remarkable what that can do to change the entire complexion of the week and really the trajectory of the year. We find ourselves approaching the center of the year in the middle of our journey through the Bible and if you haven’t been under a rock, which I assume none of you have, the first half of this year has been exciting and unusual. It’s been very very different. And we’ve had to think about, contemplate and endure things that we never really…that were never categories per se, some of them of long-running things…but there’s been unrest, there’s been disruption. This is a time to re-center ourselves to actually take a day and say, “I need to get alone with God. Whatever it takes I need to get quiet and still before God. There’s a lot I need to say that I haven’t had time to say. And, frankly, I haven’t even been listening that well. And the Lord has a lot to say that I haven’t been listening for.” And, so, we just take a day out of the year in the middle of the year to restart the second half of the year and just go for a long walk with God. And just knowing that even though we’re doing it alone, we’re not doing it alone. Our brothers and sisters all over the world are doing it as well. And then we make it kind of a community event by just saying, “wherever you go, whatever you do, wherever you go on your long walk, take a picture.” I mean you’re probably gonna carry your phone with you. Maybe you could put it on do not disturb for a few hours or whatever but take a picture of where you go or take a little video of where you are and what you’re doing and then you can kind of post that as a comment to the Daily Audio Bible and then we’ll post it up on the Daily Audio Bible page and all the sudden these windows start opening up. Like we get these glimpses into the beauty of the world all over the world, but also glimpses of the beauty of each other in community just knowing that we’re really doing this and we’re really doing this together. And, so, that’s the long walk and that is coming up two weeks from today. So, I mention it now just so we can begin to make preparations and plans because…well…those of you have been on long walks in the past because we’ve been doing this for…I don’t know…I think this is thirteen years, I think. So, many of you have been on…on long walks before and could say, “yeah that is a re-centering, a necessary re-centering of the year. That does make a difference.” In fact, most people I talk with are like, “this needs… you know…this needs to be once a month. Like this needs to be something that we do often.” But here at the Daily Audio Bible we do this together each July 7^th. So, make plans for that. And then tomorrow I’m gonna tell you about a new resource that is releasing and coming…becoming available on the 7^th of July, tailor made for part of the long walk journey. And I’ll explain that tomorrow. We’ve been kind of talking for a long time about the Jerusalem Council and stuff. So, I’ll wait and share that more tomorrow. But make plans for the long walk July 7^th, two weeks from today.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I am profoundly humbled and in awe of the community that we have. And we have it because we’re in it together. And, so, thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can dial 877-942-4253 or you can just hit the Hotline button in the app and begin to share from there, the little red button up at the top.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi everybody this is Lawrence in California it is June 17^th. I just heard Adrian’s call from June 12^th. Adrian is having a hard time focusing on things that she has to study to advance in her work and it’s really driven her downwards is wat it sounds like. Adrian, you said that you were happy that everybody would just listen to you prattle or you hoped that people would be okay with your prattling on. Adrian, it’s fine. I was happy to hear you prattle. These are hard times and I admire your courage. I admire that you have called in to join in with us and I will pray for you that things take a better turn. And don’t think of yourself as an idiot. Okay? Take care. Bye-bye for now.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Denise and this is Ephesians chapter 2 starting with verse 14. Gracious heavenly father I pray over the Daily Audio Bible family. I pray over Asia from Chicago. I pray over Virginia from Dallas. I pray over Kingdom Seeker Daniel and Vincent and Lady a Victory and Father everyone whose voice whether prayed on the prayer line or prayed in silence who is grappling with racism in their heart and their place of being a solution here in Your world Father. I affirm that You are a peace, I affirm that You have made all groups one and that You have torn down the dividing wall of hostility between us for in Your son’s flesh Father He has made no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations that would divide us. Father, I ask that You might create one new people from the dividing parts two resulting in peace Father. And I know that You will do this so that You might reconcile us to You as in one body through the cross that Your son hung on by which He put hostility to death Father. And I ask in this prayer that we are able to proclaim the good news of peace to those who are near and to those who are far. For Father through Jesus we want everyone to know that we have both access in one Spirit to You and that we are no longer foreigners and strangers but brothers and sisters who are in love with each other who pray for each other who respect each other who can hear each other honestly and still love through whatever would make us different Father because difference is beauty. You’ve made us all different. We celebrate that Father. We are citizens with the saints and members of Your household built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone Father. And, so, I ask in this prayer that the whole building being put together be larger grow through this strife and grow into a holy temple for You Father. And I ask this in Your Son’s matchless in mighty name. Amen.

Hi this is Rachel from Pennsylvania. I ask that you guys just lift up my brother and sister Laura and Stephen. I’m praying for their salvation just praying that they find God and that they find a personal relationship with Him. I had some time to talk with them today and I just…I was praying for God to…to help lead me and guide my words but I just felt attacked and I just…they said a lot of things that were hard to hear about religion. And I tried to explain to them that this is not about religion, but they don’t understand because they’re…they haven’t listen to the DAB and they’re not part of the community and they just don’t get it yet. I just pray that they get it one day. So, if you would keep them in prayer I appreciate it. Thanks.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible listeners this is a Elisa Marie from Dinuba. I just finished listening to the podcast for the 16^th and I heard Victoria Soldier call in and I love what she said that no matter what they tell us in about what’s going on in our country and in our nation it is righteousness that exalts a nation. And, so, upon that I come in agreement with my sister and everyone else who is praying. We put on father God…we put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We take up the shield of faith where we can quench all the fiery darts of the evil one and above all we take up the sword of the spirit which is your word. Father your word says in Isaiah 54:15 that whoever comes against us it will not be you’re doing father. Whoever comes against us will surrender to us. And right now, we see the spirit of division, we see the spirit of murder, of gang mentality of mob mentality. We see the spirit of the enemy of hatred of dissension, contention and strife and division. We see you and in the blood of Jesus we say no. You stop. You take your dirty hands off of America right now in the mighty name of Jesus. We plead the blood of Jesus over the doorways of America. The entryways of America and the north and the south of the east and the west and we say no. We take authority over you by the mighty name of Jesus and with the spirit of the living God we say you take your dirty hands off of America right now. We speak peace over America. We speak peace we speak truth. May the truth of the living God came forth each and every every believer and we stand together united in the mighty name of Jesus and we say no more, enough is enough. So, you get your dirty hands off of us and we stand for truth for God’s righteousness and we ask that the peace that passes all understanding will come in and govern our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Nate from Washington. I need your prayers. I’ve been struggling with addiction to pornography for the last 15 years. I got to a point 3 years ago where I was faced with the decision to choose my addiction or my wife and three kids. I chose my family thank God. I believe I got the courage to make the right decision because I prayed about it for the first time. For so long I’d been trying to change on my own. I’ve made some great progress since then, but I still keep falling on my face a lot. I started listening to the DAB in January and I get so encouraged by Brian’s passion and everyone’s prayers and voices. I keep telling everybody all about it. I know that putting this out there would be accepting life on God’s terms and not mine. And your prayers help me learn how to talk to God and the DAB has been a lifeline for me ever since I found it. Thank you everyone.

Hello, my dear Daily Audio Bible family. I love you. We are one in Christ. A shout out to Tony the Narrator that what you said so encouraged me about there being only two races and we get to be family. It’s so awesome. We are not just that counterfeit that the world has for unity, which is uniformity, you know everybody being a whole bunch of clones that trying to force everyone to think a certain way and somehow that’s going to cause us to be one. Even Peter and Paul disagreed on things and in the New Testament we’ll see about John Mark that they had their disagreements the early church you know and the rockiness that…that Brian will point out later on and ask like how much more will we have trouble now. But those very diversities are what brings such glory to God when we all come together in unity in Christ and in love and I love it. It’s one of things I treasure about the Daily Audio Bible. I come here and I’m challenged. I’m not in my little echo chamber because of my background or the church I go to or whatever. I come here and I hear differences of opinion because of denomination because of race because of culture because of all these backgrounds and I go, “oh well maybe I should look at that scripture again. Maybe I haven’t been understanding or right. Maybe it’s just my tradition that has made me look at it that way.” And I love that. I love being a missionary through these almost 15 years that we have here serving in Mexico a lot of co-laborers in the gospel, English, Irish, Mexican and Colombian, Canadian, Venezuelan, Navaho, Guatemala, __, Glax, Australians, Asians, I can’t…there’s too many to name all of the different people that we have been working with and we are one in Christ.

Good morning everyone this is Helen in Durham North Carolina. In today’s reading of Psalm 136 I did what you suggested Brian and joined in saying the response “his faithful love endures forever.” And as I did that I thought throughout the earth thousands of voices are saying, “his faithful love endures forever.” It was a powerful thought to me. It is a powerful action against the forces raging against God and His authority. So, I say yes and Amen to this.

2 Kings 3:1-4:17, Acts 14:8-28, Psalms 140:1-13, Proverbs 17:22

Today is the 22^nd the day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we move into our time together around the Global Campfire and around the Scriptures. We’re in the book of second Kings. We haven’t been there long but we’re moving into the book of second Kings. And we spent a good…good-ish amount of time in the northern kingdom of Israel and their kings as well as the prophet…prophets Elijah and Elisha and we’ll continue with that. We’ll continue in the north and we’ll continue with the prophetic voice of Elisha today. Second Kings chapter 3 verse 1 through 4 verse 17.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we are on mission with the apostle Paul at this point in the book of Acts and they move through a city called Lystra and they preach and there is a healing. People witness this. They start freaking out and they decide that Paul and his companion Barnabas at this point, that they are gods that have come down in human form and they need to be worshiped. And, so, they’re doing everything that they can, and they decide that Barnabas is actually Zeus and Paul is Hermes. And, so, there…there happens to be a temple to Zeus. So, they’re like going to the priest and…and saying “hey. Zeus is in town. Like he’s showed up in town in human form.” And, so, they’re bringing bulls out. They’re gonna do these sacrifices to the…to Paul and Barnabas. And, of course, Paul and Barnabas are like trying to stop everybody and are like, “hang on a second. We’re just humans like you. We’ve come here to tell you about the living God.” And, so, they begin to share the gospel, but the people still are convinced that they’re Zeus and Hermes. And, so, there like still trying to do the sacrifices until…until some Jewish people from nearby cities come in and they know who Paul is. And. so, they start to turn the crowd. And the next thing we know, Paul is stoned and left for dead. That…that’s the story of the early church. Like these are the stories of the early church. This is how things came to be. And, so, Paul went from being a God to being stoned to death and left for dead, as it appears, on the same day, which shows you a bit of the mob mentality at work, like how quickly people can be pulled together in one direction, even with a complete false word, a false story or declaration. People come around the stores. And, so, that’s what happened. At first, they are absolutely convinced that the gods are among them, until the seeds of this story from the Jewish people spread through the crowd which turns the crowd murderous. That’s not a new concept. Obviously, it’s an old concept because we’re reading it out of the Bible. So, we’re reading a story that’s a couple thousand years old. But this kind of behavior has always been going on. And it’s interesting. On the one level it’s interesting how compelling a narrative can be, like how concrete some sort of narrative can be when it pulls people together and ushers them to move in the same direction for a period of time. That can be for great good and for great evil. Often, it’s for great evil, especially when there’s a mob involved like this. And we’ve seen these kinds of things in our lifetimes, but that…it’s not new. Like this has always been happening. We have to admit that this is not unlike the mob mentality that ultimately condemned Jesus to the cross. So, we can see some pretty significantly negative things can happen when people are swept together without the whole story. And we have to look into our own lives at the way that we get swept into things the same way. And at times we get swept into things against our brothers and sisters in the Lord and people’s lives get damaged or destroyed in the process.

This is essentially the words coming out of the Psalms today. So, going back even further, way further than the book of Acts. “Those who surround me proudly rear their heads. May the mischief of their lips engulf them. May burning coals fall on the. May they be thrown into the fire into miry pits never to rise. May slanderers not be established in the land. May disaster hunt down the violent. I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright live in your presence.” It’s like this kind of thing has always been going on, causing at minimum mischief and maximum total destruction to the lives of people in their path. It’s part of the Old Testament story. It’s part of the New Testament story. It’s part of the early church story. It’s still part of the church story. And we have to watch ourselves because it’s really, really easy to get swept up into worshiping God for what He’s doing through someone and then trying to destroy that someone because it turns out they’re a human being after all and not God. So there are times that we just…we need to keep our eyes on our own lives and the path that we are walking, and not get swept into someone else’s story that’s getting stirred up. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves, “yeah, that might be tasty to get into, but is that my battle? Is that even something I have anything to do with whatsoever? Am I getting involved to be seen here? Like, what’s going on? Am I being invited to be an agent of the good to be Jesus in this situation or is it that I simply want my opinion expressed? What good can come from my involvement? These are good questions for the times that we are in and the times that we are going into. And as we navigate, may we remember the proverb today; “a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Let’s not be agents dispensing crushing blows to people’s lives. Instead, let’s hear the first part of the proverb; “a cheerful heart is good medicine.” So, we can take that on board in our own lives and say, “okay. Whatever it takes I’ve got to find a way to maintain a cheerful heart. That’s medicine for me. But I also need to spread, like in every way that I can I need to promote a cheerful heart so that we all might experience this good medicine instead of being swept up into things that will only crush people and eventually crush us.

Prayer:

Father, we come into that and consider that. And it brings up all kinds of different scenarios and situations that we’ve experienced in our lives, times that we’ve hurt people, times that we’ve been crushed, times that even with our own brothers and sisters we’ve been at odds and swept into things we had no business being involved in and people got hurt. And this was…this was never Your way for us. So, Holy Spirit come and show us what it looks like to maintain a cheerful heart and made it become good medicine in our souls. And as we are transformed may that spill out into the world so that we aren’t being swept into anything, we aren’t crushing anybody. Rather, we are about the business of restoring things. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus. we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and its…it’s a website on the Internet. It’s the…its home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And, so, stay tuned and stay connected.

Check out the Initiatives section for…for things that are going on around here.

Check out the Community section. That’s where the Prayer Wall lives. It’s always happening. It’s always on. You can always reach out for prayer. You can always reach out in prayer there at the Prayer Wall. And there’s different links there to get connected on the different social media channels that we’re involved in. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link on the homepage. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your partnership as we move into the summertime. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning everybody. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. Yesterday was a very upsetting day for us. Some of you will know from the Friend’s page. Our little ginger cat Loki went missing. He’d been __ too so where really concerned as the day and night was ticking on. He’d been gone nearly 20 hours and is very unlike Loki. I cried out to the Lord as we do, and I was listening to worship and they were singing about trust. And I said to the Lord, “I trust you Lord.” I didn’t have an outcome in my mind or in my heart, but I simply said I will trust you. It wasn’t long after that declaration that Peter went out searching again and little Loki appeared very thin, quite unwell. He’s just gone to the vet. But he was home. I’m so thankful to God. What’s precious to us is precious to Him. His love is…it just melts me. His care for us. The little things in life with all that’s going on in the world He was concerned enough about my heartbreaking over the…the gift of a pet he gave to me. And His love abounded towards us. Thank you so much. This is God’s Smile here sending my love and drying my eyes. Bye-bye everybody.

Hello this is Gloria from Uganda here in __. I’m really really very grateful for this Daily Audio Bible app and __ podcast. And I’m really really really very grateful because I had desire to study a Bible plan at the start of the year but I couldn’t go with the flow but I’m very excited and I’m really enjoying hope to review all the previous messages. I’m really really blessed thank you very much Brian. Thank you very much China. We…we love you. We…we ask you to pray for us. The situation and the pandemic with most of the people all around. And the closest family to me and all unemployed right now and it puts me in a state whereby I have to look after my family of 12 people. My mom and my dad are not working, and I really really puts me in a very very very difficult position right now. But I trust God and with your messages I believe my faith is going to rise higher and I’m gonna…I’m gonna…I’m gonna go through this __ first and with your messages I believe I will…I will move forward I will believe and I will grow. Thank you very much. We do really really appreciate it and ask you to pray for us. My job __ business is really slow, and I pray that our business visions and people came back __ because many of our staff were laid off because of the pandemic. And I also pray to get an increase in salary because I got a promotion, but __ an increase in salary. I need to have a family of 12 people behind me. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Pam from Shasta County California and I am calling in for Patricia in New Orleans. And Patricia, I just want to pray for you. Heavenly Father thank You so much for Your goodness and Your mercy and Your love and thank You for how much You love Patricia. Thank You for her heart, thank You for her passion, thank You for her strength. Father I just pray in Jesus name right now that You would ease her pain Father. I pray for relief. I pray for healing in Jesus’ name that You would just pour Your healing out over her and that she would get immediate relief from this pain. Father, thank You for who she is Lord and who You are in her life. Father thank You that You are so close to her. I pray that she has people around her that are loving her and are helping her Father and are praying for her. And help us all to remember pray for her and everyone here and we thank You for Your goodness. We thank You for Your mercy. And thank You for Your healing in Jesus’ name.

[singing starts] Lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you be gracious to you. Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. May his favor be upon you for a thousand generations your family your children their children their children. May His presence come before you and behind you and beside you all around you and within you he is with you he is with you. In the morning in the evening in the coming and the going in your weeping and rejoicing he is for you he is for you. He’s for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is. [singing ends] Just a sweet reminder DAB family. This is Abba’s Grace and He shines. Amen. Amen!

This is Vickie calling from Southern Oregon and I have been listening now for a few months and really enjoying reading Brian and I’m also enjoying the prayer community. Thank you so much. I’ve been struggling trying to call and not having the courage to do that. My son is an adult and having problems. He’s severely mentally ill and he’s also strung out on drugs. And I recently moved him out to Oregon trying to save his life and now I’m feeling overwhelmed and not really knowing how to help and it’s disrupting my life and, you know, risking my career and my home. So, I could use some prayer. His name is Eddie. Thank you.

Hi this is Brooke Right from Omaha Nebraska. I just want to pray for my mom because my grandma who came to take care of everybody, she…I don’t remember how long ago…is leaving tomorrow afternoon and my mom just had a major surgery taking out her…in which she had to take out her womb. A womb is a place with the babies come. So, it was very painful. She has a lot ohwees. She has to go on a walk twice a day which is kinda good for my dog Ella which I would show you but this is a recording not a video. And, well, just want to pray for my mom, my brothers and my dad because he’s in masters. Probably have a lot of more….no… wait…just quite a few maybe five which is…we count it quite a few…more…like five more chores a day because we have a garden that has like snow peas and tons of other things. So, yeah, alright I don’t have much longer on this call so I’m just gonna leave. Bye. Brooke Right.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is God’s Light out in Portland Oregon, and it’s been some time. I’m responding from Ben in Columbus who called back in…maybe the 12^th of June or probably even before that. His message was there on the 12^th of June and I…I believe he was speaking to me and I was so taken aback that I needed to allow a couple callers in and hear a couple more prayer request just to confirm that he was speaking to me. I have tried to submit prayer requests and haven’t…and having…and fallen short and felt silly for doing it. I’ve really…I’m in a bad spot right now financially, physically, mentally, spiritually. Everything’s under attack and I have lost everything. I’ve lost my home, my children, my ex-wife. I’m soon to have another child, which I’m ecstatic about. So, the grieving process comes and goes with excitement but…but for the most part this grief and humiliation is following me. And if you could pray for me and I would…I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve been following the Daily Audio Bible since 2011 pretty much every day and I’m just so thankful for this community and thankful for you as my family. I’m very thankful to have you. Please stay strong and I pray for all of you.

2 Kings 1:1-2:25, Acts 13:42-14:7, Psalms 139:1-24, Proverbs 17:19-21

Today is the 21^st day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you as we collectively twist the knob and throw open the gateway and step into a brand-new week. It is all out there in front of us. Let’s live into it with all of our hearts as we stay in close step fellowship with Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us into all truth. And that will make for…that will make for a good week. So, let’s step into this week doing that and doing what we do every day, taking the next step forward as we continue the journey through the Bible. And today…I mean it’s a special day because we’re beginning a new book in the Old Testament the book of second Kings. But there’s not really a lot to talk about second Kings that we haven’t already talked about, even all the way back to first Samuel, second Samuel and first Kings. These were all one…one scroll. They were…they were all one book at one time. And, so, things have been broken up into chapters and verses over time for ease of reference, etc. etc. And this has happened over many centuries that have preceded us. So, we will be picking up where we left off. Of course, the book…the books of Kings are telling us the stories of who reigned in the kingdom of Israel, which is the 10 tribes in the North and the kingdom of Judah which is the king…which is the tribe of Judah and Benjamin in the South. So, let’s pick up the story. Second Kings, chapters 1 and 2 today. And we’ll read from the New International Version this week.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this new week that we have walked into and we thank you for what we were greeted with as we come into this new week from the Psalms, that there is nowhere that we can go that you are not, that there is no where we can be to flee from your spirit - up, down, left or right - does not matter which direction we go or how far we go we cannot escape your spirit, which means that your presence is perpetually available to us, which means that you are present to us right this moment if we would simply have eyes to see and open those eyes and become aware. So, come Holy Spirit as we move into this new week. Lead us deeper into Jesus. Lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. Lead us into all truth we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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Today in the United States it’s Father’s Day. And, you know, fathers as with mothers are celebrated at different points of the year in different regions and different countries, but today is Father’s Day. And, so, happy Father’s Day all of you fathers out there. I’m a father as well. And, so, you know, I think of the great privilege that it has been to be a father to my children and I think of the profound impact that they have had on my life and…and just showing me the heart of God by forcing me…by forcing me to…to not only receive His fathering but to give…to give it back to my children the best flawed, stumbling way that I can. And, so, yeah…as we remember our fathers today let’s remember them in prayer. Let’s lift them before the Lord. It’s a difficult job to be a parent but it is…it is how the gospel advances forward from generation to generation. And, so, happy Father’s Day. All of you men out there, happy Father’s Day.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you do that at dailyaudiobible.com. That’s the website like I mentioned a second ago and I thank you…thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little Hotline button up at the top…top right…top right-ish part of 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:

My Abba you have called me. I hear you - to listen, to absorb, to feel, to understand, to reach back, to pray. Please give me the discernment, the wisdom, the words, the energy to answer your call. My 21-year relationship with multiple sclerosis will do its best to get in the way but you have called me to pray and to call the DAB, the DABC and to write on Facebook. Thank you I love you so much my Abba. This is Adrian from Maryland and I love my DAB family.

Hello, my name is Javier I am 26 years old and I live in Florida first time caller. I’ve been listening almost a month now and I just wanted to thank everybody for…for…for…for this application. It has changed my life most definitely. I just love listening to…to every word that comes from the Bible and to be a part of a community of love and peace. I…I battle with my…with guilt and…and…and just a lot of sorrow and I know I’m going…well I am going through some warfare and I…I just feel guilt over my pats sin. And I just ask everyone to pray for me to have strength and that I can trust and continue to fight this war in Jesus’ name. I thank you and love everybody so much. This honestly has changed my life so so much.

Hi DAB family this is Julie I’ve been listening since January and I’ve called in a few times. I took care of my mom for six years in my home. She had stage IV colon cancer and then she died in March and I thank everybody for the prayers at that time. God has placed it on my heart to pray for and ask for prayer for kids in the United States, kids in my area and your area who are in foster care or kids who need to be in foster care or kids who are still in a bad situation in their home or a relative’s home. These kids are often so scared and sad and angry and afraid. They don’t know if they’re gonna be able to stay in a foster home, if they’re gonna to a bad situation at home. And there’s so many kids and not enough people to take care of them. Help me in praying for these children for their safety. And pray that there’ll be more people willing to help these kids, foster families or mentors or whatever we can do to help them. Thanks DAB family.

Good morning DAB community my name is Nyia and I’m a black woman in America with a 26-year-old son and a husband and I am gripped with fear. I cannot sleep. I love God, I know I trust Him, and I know He has not given me the spirit of fear. But in these times, I have become so fearful. I do not want my family out there. When my son is a car I cannot think, I cannot breathe. When my husband leaves the house to go to the grocery store, I am paralyzed with fear. This is not healthy for me. I have prayed and prayed, and I cannot get fear away from my heart. And I’m asking for your prayers. I am praying with all of you guys that the Holy Spirit will come and bring peace in America and bring justice for African Americans all around the world. And I’m asking you to just pray for me and my family and I will continue to pray for you as well. May God bless us all during these trying times. I thank you so much.

Good morning this is Sonia in Austin Texas and I am calling for a sister that called back a couple months ago and she was very sad because she’s a single woman, she’s never been married, she has no children and it was coming up on Valentine’s Day and she wasn’t able to celebrate that with a significant other and Mother’s Day would be coming up and she said that there’s just all these reminders at her job and everything else that, you know, she just didn’t fit in these categories and there just was a lot to celebrate. But she did say on June 16^th 1989 and today is June 16^th 2020 that she gave her life to the Lord and she can celebrate that. And sister I want you to know that I am celebrating with you today the most important decision that you have ever made and will ever make in your lifetime and that is to become a follower of Christ. In we here at your family, the DAB family, we rejoice with you, we love you, you are not alone. God is with you every day. And I just want you to know that I have been thinking about you and praying for you and I will continue to do so. If you want to reach out to me, I have a funny email is called bugtickle@gmail.com. And sister, I’d love to become a partner with you and just know that…that you’ve been on my heart. And congratulations! Today is your day. What a beautiful day. Heaven is rejoicing remembering the decision that you made. Well, my time is up, and I want you to know that we love you and your so in our thoughts. Congratulations again.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Cheryl in southeastern Washington. Got through…got through listening to the Daily Audio Bible with Brian. Thank you, Brian and Jill for this ministry, this podcast that we can come together and listen to the word and…and to hear what God has to say and to also listen to the prayer requests. Right now I want to…I heard a prayer request from Patricia in New Orleans just asking that God take her pain away. And I’m just letting you know Patricia, I’m gonna be praying for you that God will completely heal you and that he would just bless your socks off Patricia and thank you so much for calling in. And just know that Cheryl in southeastern Washington is praying for you. God bless you, God be with you, God heal you. And thank you Daily Audio Bible family. Love you all. Bye.

I can’t believe. These words have been, a cry for help and a battle cry as our world gets swept up in the spirit of baseless hate that’s overtaking us, hate for those who don’t follow COVID rules, hate for those who do follow the rules, hate for mask wearers and non-wearers, for Chinese people where a virus began, for foreign people after we closed our borders and now again for our black people. I can’t breathe. Why? Is this hate infiltrating me and changing the into a hateful person? God forbid it. Our world is changing but God You aren’t changing. We again find ourselves in a desert. We walk towards it originally to escape persecution fear and yet we became fearful and we began to persecute each other. God help us to overcome the fear of being unable to breathe because the desert temperatures have become too hot, to overcome the fear of dying from thirst because we forget that You are our living water, to overcome the fear of dying from hunger because we forget that You’re very word is enough to sustain us, to overcome the fear of abandonment because we can no longer see the one who leads us who is up on that mountain. Help us to overcome the temptation to build up golden idols because we forget Your promises to return to us, because we forget that the mountaintop is not really that far. It is and has always been within reach. It has been within reach through the grace of Your cross and Your Holy Spirit but even if we…if we still feel that if we can’t climb because we can no longer breathe, Lord You have promised to climb down to us again and You have sent us Your breath of life to help us to hold on until You get here. Help us to breathe Lord, help us to hold on. In the name of the Father in the son of the Holy Spirit be blessed family and be a blessing.