A Walk Through The Word

Leviticus 27:14- Numbers 1:54, Mark 11:1-26, Psalms 46:1-11, Proverbs 10:23

Today is the 3^rd day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and I’m faking like I’m not tired. But safely back in the rolling hills of Tennessee. So, good to be home. But, yeah, you leave parts of yourself behind…like things have to catch up. And, so, jet lag can be so disorienting. But right now these hours are a good time. So, it’s great to be here with you and to move forward in the Scriptures. And today we will conclude the book of Leviticus, and I then we will begin the book of Numbers and we’ll talk about that we get there. But first, Leviticus 27 verse 14 through 34.

Introduction to the book of Numbers:

Okay. So, that concludes the book of Leviticus, which brings us to the opening pages of the book of Numbers. And as we go into the book of Numbers we’ll encounter like review and it might feel redundant. It might be like, “haven’t we just…like didn’t we hear this already?” And, so, that can be tedious, but there’s something going on underneath this that’s important because we’re now switching from the first generation of…of Hebrew slaves that came out of Egypt and moving toward an emerging generation of people. And much…much has happened under Moses leadership. So, they’ve seen God show up miraculously in their midst and His…His mighty power is among them, and then they received the law, but now they have to actually live the law because…because God’s giving the order. It’s time to move out. It’s time for them to move into the Promise Land. Like now they have the law, now they’ve established themselves, now it’s go time. It’s time to go to the Promise Land. And, so, we we’ll see in the book of Numbers, spies that are sent into the land and kind of get this first glimpse of what this land of promise might look like. And we’ll also watch…watch this generation completely disqualify themselves from the promise. And there’s plenty of parallels for our lives. So, let's…let’s just dive in to the third book of the Old Testament, the book of Numbers chapter 1.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Mark, Jesus has entered Jerusalem. This is His final visit. This…He has not been arrested yet, but we’re in that story. An it’s so weird because it’s like just a couple days ago…just a couple days ago we were like walking the path that we were reading out of the gospel of Mark. So, it’s like immediately poignant…poignant to me in spite of being jetlagged and everything. It’s like very, very immediate. And one thing I want to point out as we’re going through the story this time is the cleansing of the temple. And we can make a theological statement about the cleansing of the temple but let’s just make a practical statement about cleansing the temple. Let’s just imagine what’s happening here because a lot of times we can read through these stories…like when I read them…I’ve heard this story of Jesus…I mean this is a flannel board Sunday school story for me. And, so, I always thought like, “of course, Jesus, you know, he would, you know, tip over the money changers. Like, of course He would cleanse the temple, and everybody should get on board and there’s no problem.” Now on the flannel boards it was always like a really small thing. You know, like he let some birds go and he tipped over a table with coins and they fell out on the ground. It was like a small thing. That’s not the story. So, like…and I’m thinking like, “what kind…how could we do this?” Let’s picture…let’s picture our local courthouse, okay? And if we’re in a big city, then there’s probably like a, you know, a larger courthouse made out of stone and there’s big stairs and you go up into it and these are the halls of justice. And maybe your famous, maybe you’re not. Maybe if…maybe people…you’re well-known. Jesus had become well known. So, maybe you’re kind of well-known, but you don’t go to that courthouse to stand outside on the sidewalk with a sign as you’re permitted to do because you have a disagreement with a case or with the justice system or whatever. Your protesting, which is your right but instead you actually walk up those stairs, go in, go through security, go in and start disrupting inside in the different courtrooms, you start throwing things around and you start yelling, “this is all corrupt. This whole system is not what it was intended to be.” Like you’re saying these things and you’re throwing things around. That’s kind of similar to the scenario we have going here. So, it’s almost as if Jesus is provoking this. Doing what I just said in a courthouse would have you more than arrested, more than quickly. What Jesus was doing would have been considered vandalism at best and profaning the temple. So, things that would get Him arrested and it’s like He almost purposely pulled the last straw because at this point, they are determined to destroy Jesus.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You for the opportunity as we read through the Scriptures that we can encounter this story a number of times and see it from a number of perspectives and explore it thoroughly because this is the story of why we are here and why there is hope. And, so, we thank You for allowing us to just peer into the story and have context and be able to visualize it and we ask that You open the eyes of our heart. Give us eyes to see we ask in Your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

What is going on around here? I don’t know. What’s going on around here is I’m trying to figure out where I’m at. That’s how jet lag works. Every year I get back I know I’m back. Everything looks like how I left it. It’s…it’s my house. Like it's…this is…this is where I live, but it also feels foreign because I’ve been on such a…such a journey that has some much emotion and heart locked into it that it’s almost as if part of me is still there taking the next flight and all of me has not assembled yet. That takes a couple of days to kinda get switched back over and start feeling like your feet are on the ground again. I doubt that I am the only one who has ever experienced this. I doubt that I’m the only one experiencing this now for all of us who have…or who are returning from our pilgrimage to Israel. So, hang in there. I’ve done this a lot of times. It gets better. It just takes a couple of days. Take it easy. It’s fascinating how much got poured into us, how much knowledge and how much heart, just how much we were rooted in that story. And it’s just way, way, way, way, way too much to comprehend. And I said all that at the beginning of the journey when we are having our opening dinner. And it’s just way, way…but it’s all there. Like all the experiences that we have and all things that we see, we may not be able to consciously bring them up but they’re there. And over the next month’s they’ll just continue to seep into our lives and keep informing us so. It’s good, good, good to be home and that’s kind of what’s going on around here. So, thank you for your prayers as we make this transition back.

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…I am grateful beyond words for those of you who have clicked that link. If you are 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 comment, you can just hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Dear heavenly Father I just want to come to You today Lord and lift up all the stay at home parents, the moms the dads the grandparents Lord that stay at home with her children. God, I pray right now that You would give them extra energy Lord extra comfort. God, I know it times it…it feels for…for me I feel isolated or lonely Lord Jesus like no one understands but God I know that’s just the enemy. And God I pray right now if there’s anyone that feels like that, that stays at home with their kids on a consistent basis Lord that You would uplift them, that You would know that what they are doing matters Lord, that they are sowing seeds into the next generations coming up behind them. God, I ask that You would drown out the noise of the enemy, that they would know that they are precious in Your sight Lord Jesus, what they are doing. God these children are such a precious gift from You. Lord You say in Your word that children are gifts from the Lord. And God I believe that, and I thank You. Thank You from my children Lord. Thank You for all these other DAB family members Lord who get to pour into their kids every day. Thank You Lord that I get to see them throughout the day, for the ones I get to send them off to school, for the ones that come home from school, I’m here and I thank You that is a privilege I don’t take lightly. But God I know sometimes I feel so by myself God. So, fill me today, fill others today. For those who are struggling Lord Jesus just give them a new fresh awakening, a fresh touch from You. May Your Holy Spirit overflow in their lives and the joy of the Lord be upon them. We pray all these things in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Truly Thankful Taylor from the DFW Metroplex. Love You guys blessings in Jesus Christ. Have a wonderful day. Bye-bye.

Good morning this is Wanda Manning from Kansas City. I guess you could call me Sword for the Lord from KC. I just wanted to tell Michael Davis that I got your message this morning. I’m listening to the 23^rd so I’m about a day behind but I wanted to let you know how encouraging it was to hear from you and hear how well you and your brother are doing. And I’m so grateful to God that your auntie and your cousin are taking great care of you guys. Man what a voice of encouragement to come across the virtual lines this morning because to hear from you I’m sure just like myself you have encouraged so many others with just the…the joy that’s in your voice and just to hear that you’re pressing forward and that you’re continuing to believe God for all His goodness and all His great grace and mercy for you and your family. So, I’m just so encouraged by your call this morning, so encouraged by your words this morning and so thankful that you chose to share with us again an update on how you and your brother are doing. I’ll continue to keep you guys lifted up in prayer. Thank you again for sharing. Sword for the Lord in KC. Bye for now.

Hey family it’s Jesse in Washington. I’ve been meaning to call for a week or so. I need prayers from my marriage. It’s just been so hard the last few months and it’s like the more blessings we get the harder our relationships…our relationship gets. And it’s clearly, you know, a spiritual attack, but I just wish there was a break from it, you know. It’s just…it seems like it’s one thing after another and getting so burnt out on my efforts bearing so little fruit. And I know that’s the game but it’s super frustrating. I’m…I’m tired of feeling lonely. I’m tired of not having anyone to talk to or no one that will listen to me. I just have this like weight on my heart and I don’t know what to do. I mean, keep moving forward obviously. It just doesn’t seem like it gets easier. It seems like every time we make progress it just steps that bar up and now, we have to fight even harder. And I guess maybe that’s part of…part of the game too but it’s just hard. I’m tired of my heart feeling so heavy, you know? And I’m tired of apologizing for…I guess perceived wrongs or putting myself in the grave for other people’s offenses. And I…I…I’m not perfect at all. I’m just…it’s getting…

Hi DAB family it’s Carla from Las Vegas. I am driving around in Las Vegas today and listening to the community prayer from last Saturday and wanted to pray for a few people. Carrie from Utah I heard your request for prayers about your marriage. I am praying for your marriage. Dustin you were leaving the hospital, you’re in pain. I am praying for you my brother. Arielle, I heard lots of prayers for you and I just want you to know that I joined everybody in praying for you. Harold, I was hooping it up when I heard you praying for other people because we’ve been praying for you and the gift goes on. His little Cherry from Canada, yes, you have been missed. I actually remember the mud pie story and I actually remember what I was doing when I heard your initial call about the mud pie. I was mowing my lawn with my earbuds in. So, yes, you are somebody that’s very precious to our community. Praying for the Israel trip. I’m watching all the pictures you’re posting and I’m thankful for all of those. Michael, thank you for calling in to let us know how you and Elijah are doing. You continue to be in my players. Charisse, I am still praying for you. I pray that you are out of the hospital now and with your children. Julie, thank you…Julie from Texas thank you for calling about the twins being home and healed. Thank you, Jesus. I’m asking for prayer. I’m still looking for a job. I’m actually on my way to a job interview right now. I have started dating my ex-husband. He’s pretty sick. And, so, I’m asking for healing for him. It’s chronic illness and…and it’s been ongoing. So, it’s…it’s kind of all-consuming. I am leaving tomorrow to go visit my granddaughter in Colorado. She’s five months old. I can’t wait. And just a reminder that Lent is…Lent starts today and it’s a season where we, leading up to Easter, where we can love more and more deeply. I love you all. Have a great day. Bye.

Hi family this is Terry from Southern California. Today I was listening to the podcast and I heard Tina, a brand-new listener and she was calling to just let everybody know that she’s enjoying the podcast and that she’s also found a little church and how she didn’t grow up, you know, with the word of God. And, you know, Tina when you are talking you kind of reminded me of myself. I’m much older than you are now, I’m in my 50s but I too didn’t get to know the Lord until I was in my 20s. And _ the church at all and I’ve been on this journey now for over 30 years…about 30 years. And, so, I just want to just applaud you and just say a blessing over you that you have made the best choice ever and that you just continue on this pathway. I used to say if I could __ ride that Disney land used to offer but it will be an adventure, it will just help out some rocky places but the most beautiful thing about it is you won’t go it alone knowing that you’ll have the DABber family, you’ll have the church family and you will have people praying for you all the time. And I just want to encourage you Tina to stay on the journey, never take your hand out of God’s unchanging hand. I’m so grateful that God changes not. He’s the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And, so, God bless you and we will be lifting you up in prayer. Thank you for calling in. I look forward to hearing your…your praise reports and your prayer requests as well. And to all the DABber family, always know I’m lifting everybody up in prayer. Continue to lift by family up in prayers too. I have teenagers and as you guys know I trade off __ and I continue to put him on the altar because, you know, he’s a young man making…

Hey DAB family Broken Tony here, here with my beautiful wife __ . You want to say hi? Hi everyone. We just wanted to call in and say thank you for everyone for all the prayers that you prayed and to give thanks to God right where it belongs for the healings that He’s bringing to our family and the blessings that He brings to our family. Want to…just be so grateful for the DAB family. Listen, call in. If you haven’t called in, call in when you have a need. Get on the DAB friends on Facebook. Put your needs down. You have an incredible community, one of the greatest church communities that exists out there. Use it, that’s wat we’re here for. Prayers work. It worked for us. Guys, we love you so much. Thanks again.

Good morning DABber’s it is 4 AM in Florida this is Florida Charlie Oscar Poppa giving a hello. I’m reaching out to the DABber family because I need prayer. I need prayer for my family, prayer for my parents and my siblings. Some days you try to, I guess, kinda do everything on our own and try to help and do as much as you can to help your family members and do things right but it’s just some days it gets too much. So, if you guys just could keep me in prayer. I’m here right now working, getting ready to get off shift. Had a busy night. And also, if you could keep the law enforcement family in prayer. These…these…these cities really need Jesus. When you go out and about and you patrol your area and see the hardships that people are going through, the demonic strongholds, it really takes a toll on you. But I know God is faithful. And, so, just keep me in prayer, keep my family in prayer and pray for our nation. Thank you. Love you all. Look forward to hearing you all on the prayer line. God bless. Bye-bye.

Leviticus 25:47-27:13, Mark 10:32-52, Psalms 45:1-17, Proverbs 10:22

Today is the 2^nd day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today. I know I said goodbye from Jerusalem yesterday, but kind of saying goodbye from Jerusalem today too. I got looking at a calendar and was like, if there’s any flight delay whatsoever, like there’s no margin of error, if there’s anything I won’t be back, I won’t be back, I don’t know where I’ll be. So, I am reading this just to be wise…so, from Jerusalem. Though by the time you’re hearing this, well hopefully I’m sleeping right now and that we arrived back yesterday afternoon. But I’m gonna play it safe because we have never missed a day in…well this is the 15^th year and that’s not gonna happen. So, we have one more day of reading from Jerusalem and it’s great to be here with you today. And we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. And today, let’s remember like we’re getting lots of rules and regulations and laws and lots of instructions and craftsmanship, all kinds of stuff, a whole culture is being built, but we’re still at Mount Sinai. So, we’re still around this mountain where we’ve been since the children of Israel left Egypt. And, so, we’re still there, still hearing the giving of the law. So, today Leviticus chapter 25 verse 47 through 27 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we went through the gospel of Matthew. We certainly went through the story of Jesus, you know, His arrest and trial and execution and resurrection. We read that and we’re moving into that territory now again in the gospel of Mark. And I just want to point this out again because it’s so poignant to our lives and so interesting in the Scriptures. So, like, let me just read a couple verses. “And they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him and after three days He will rise.” And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Him and said to Him, “teacher, we want you to do whatever you ask of…whatever we ask of you.” And He said, “what do you want?” And they said, grant us to sit one at Your right and one at Your left hand in your glory.” Okay, what’s so fascinating is that Jesus is saying to His friends as He’s walking to Jerusalem where these things are gonna to take place that He’s going to die, that He’s going to be killed, that He’s going to be mocked and ridiculed, that He’s going to be spat on, that He’s going to be beaten, and that He’s going to get killed, that He’s going to be executed. And all they can think of to say in the gospel of Mark, like the next breath is James and John asking for seats at His right hand and His left. What’s poignant about this is that they are still…the they don’t understand, even though He’s telling them what’s going to happen. They’re looking for an earthly kingdom. Whatever Jesus is saying He’s saying. He talks in parables all the time. Sometimes He’s hard to understand. They’re thinking these things as they’re moving. And, so, they’re not completely tracking with what’s going on here. And, so, they’re expecting Jesus to go to Jerusalem and like the revolution is going to begin. And although that’s very true, it’s not in any way as they are expecting. God’s kingdom is a heavenly kingdom. It’s a kingdom that is here within us and among us. We…we talked about that at length going through Matthew because Matthew’s gospel captures Jesus revealing the kingdom of heaven basically more than…than the other gospels. So, we’ve been looking at this, but we still so often are looking for it with our senses, our five…like we’re looking for it to be upon this earth. Like where is the kingdom upon this earth? The kingdom upon this earth is everywhere you look if you have eyes to see. And if you feel like you can’t see it then go look in the mirror. So, let’s continue to pay attention to that because I mean, the word for our year, one of the words for our year, is “Vision”. And it’s not like that you can see, it’s that you have eyes to see. It’s that we actually don’t take this is a weird metaphor, but we actually go like, “I have to look differently. I have to look from within. I…I have to look for the goodness of God in the world.” And its growing everywhere. It’s holding back the darkness. We keep thinking like the darkness is overwhelming the world. And, yeah, it’s pretty rough out there, that’s never not been true. Like we’re reading texts from thousands of years ago in the Scriptures, and it was true then. Yes, the darkness is here. The light keeps the darkness from overwhelming us. And according to Jesus, we are the light of the world. So, let’s not miss it. Let’s not waste our lives waiting to die so we can graduate into this. Let’s understand that our lives are full of purpose because we are holding back the darkness. Let’s not…let’s not miss it because when Jesus was here, the Son of the Living God most high we missed it. Let’s not miss it anymore.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite you into that and it…I mean we’ve asked so many times and we’re going to continue asking, give us eyes to see and ears to hear your kingdom. And we’re asking specifically, let us see it today as we move through this world doing our work having our interactions may we see goodness, may we see the goodness, may we see the light and know that we’re not alone, that we are part of holding back the darkness. We pray this in your mighty name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And it’s all…it’s…it’s been this pilgrimage that we’ve been on for the last couple of weeks that has come to a close. And, so, now it’s all about reentry and getting back in the saddle and…and getting reoriented. If you’ve been following along with the trip, then you can see all the different pictures and stuff that we’ve posted on social media and all the videos. If you haven’t then you can go back and see all the different things we did at facebook.com/dailyaudiobible or Instagram is just Daily Audio Bible.

If you want to go one step deeper into these places, the Promise Land films are a fantastic resource for that as we continue our journey through the Bible. There is like 71 difference archaeological locations that we have identified and filmed over the years in the Promise Land films. And, so, all of the major places that we experience in the Bible you can experience and see visually from lots of different perspectives in the Promise Land films. So, that’s great.

And reminding you that…so we have to start talking right now like…but we’ll be coming back in 2021. And that trip is organized and planned and open for registration. It is indeed filling up fast. And, so, you can check that out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Just look for Israel 2021 and you can get every detail that you would need to help you make that choice and discern if this is your time. Hope to see you in the land of the Bible next year.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t a community and we wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t doing it together. And that has been the story since the beginning. And, so, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is a number to dial.

And that is it for today I should be somewhat conscious and able to read English words tomorrow. So, I love you I’m Brian and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family this is Lady of Victory is about 8:18 on Tuesday the 25^th of February and I am a listening to Brian on 25^th of February and my heart is overwhelmed…my heart is overwhelmed as I am listening to the prayers at the end. And I specifically want to reach out to Tina for her encouragement. She says she’s a first-time caller and a new listener as of January 1^st and how she encouraged us to continue to pray for our adult children. And Tina I just wanted to say to you, you have no idea how you ministered because, you know, as believers sometimes we’re like, “God are you hearing us? Are we making a difference?” And my husband and I are really trying to seek out what God wants for us. God what do You want for the season? And I, you know, we are season believers. And, so, it’s not like we’re just like walking around aimlessly like, “where do You want us God?” But just in this season it’s like God where do You want us? What are You saying? And, so, for you to encourage us the way that you did was so powerful. And I just want to thank you so much. And, yes, you are going to be saved because your heart is ripe for it. And God has…God has been waiting on you all this time to get right where you are. And, so, all you have to do is say, “Lord I am a sinner and I need You in my heart, I need You in my life to take over my life and be Lord. And I surrender, I submit my will to Your will.” And right there, you’ll be saved. He said, when we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that He’s Lord then that’s it. And, so, I encourage you sister, do exactly that and thank you so much for your encouragement. We love you.

So, this is my first day listening to the Daily Audio Bible. It was definitely amazing and a great way to start my day. I want to thank Dana the one who told me about the app. I love listening to everyone at the end of each session. I feel a connection to everyone just through, you know, our faith and God and I just pray for all of you and that all your hardships and that everything works out for you. I just want to put a prayer request out there for my fiancé. We’re going through a rough time right now and everything’s been going well so far but I’m just praying for further blessings from God because I know He’s been watching over us during this time. But I just want to thank you guys for creating this app and this ministry. It’s truly amazing.

Hi Daily Audio Bible I love you guys and I am so blessed. I do ministry and everyone who prays, please pray for me. I’m in the hospital with a very bad infection. It’s the second time in the hospital in two months and it can get very discouraging. So please pray for me. Thank you. And please join in praying for everyone out there who’s afflicted with the coronavirus. I just pray that God would break through in the midst of this horrible epidemic. Okay. God bless you.

Hello beloved DABbers this is Chris from Michigan. During the February 22^nd community prayer, we heard Daniel from Singapore seek prayers because of the Hunan virus, which we in the states call the coronavirus. Daniel said this is attacking churches almost as if it were from the evil one. So, please let’s all stop right now and pray together. Father God fill us with Your Holy Spirit as we pray. Lord, David prayed at Eranas threshing floor and You answered his prayer and stopped the plague on Israel. So, please hear our prayer. Lord we don’t have the authority of David over his people that we come in the name of him who has authority over us, Your son Jesus. We ask that You would stop this plaque wherever it is right now in the name of Jesus. We ask that those who have been exposed to the virus that will not fall ill nor will they pass it on to others. We ask that those who have fallen ill will be healed. We ask that the plague would be stopped in every nation on earth. We ask for this to happen today in the mighty name of Jesus. We praise You Father God for You’ve asked us to pray this prayer and You hear us as we pray. All glory be to Your name. Amen.

Hello DAB community I have never called in. I’ve been listening silently for a few years. I just want you to know that I do listen to the prayers and I tell everybody about it. I…I just called in because I was so personally touched by just hearing about the two boys that their mother passed away. I had been thinking about them and praying about them and carrying them in my heart just wondering if they’re okay, talking to my husband about it. And to hear them talk and let us know how they’re doing. I just cried and just thank God that they’re doing okay, and they just sound so beautiful on the line. I’m just so grateful and I hope and pray that they will continue to be all right. And the one legacy that their mom left them was a faith in God. That’s the best thing you can do for your child. And never give up on your children, never give up on anybody but especially your children. I…I….I’m so touched by that and how much God has given them joy and that they know that their mother is in a better place. That is…that is just…that…that made me…gave me peace. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Love you guys.

Good morning DAB family this is your brother Mark from beautiful Florida. I don’t think I’ve ever left my tag or moniker. I’ve often called and sang and prayed for people, but I’ve never left anything or acknowledged my existence. So, here I am this morning. I want to pray and challenge all those people out there that are calling in for our brother Harold. Harold, you have made such an impression and left such a mark in our community. I can only come to the conclusion that everybody who’s thrown their support in for you, for your run, needs to throw their support in and go and evangelize people. To me this this just shows that people are hungry to share the gospel right where they’re at. And, so, DABbers, I just want to challenge you to do that today. Go tell it on the mountain. Tell everybody. Uncover that gospel light you’re hiding and that you use just to crawl under the shell. Challenge yourself. Go talk to a couple people today right we you’re at. Pray for them. Tell them that Jesus loves them. It’s a fun thing to do and it makes you feel good too. And you’re doing your job for the Lord. As Jesus said, go forth and make disciples of all nations baptizing them and telling them what I told you in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and low I’ll be with you always. He promises this. Don’t be afraid, He’s gonna be with us to the end of the age. DABbers I’ll talk to you soon, this is Mark from Florida.

Father God thank You so much for this new day and all of the opportunities before us and all the blessings You have in store for us this day. Help us Lord to grasp with open hands and also help us to recognize when we are at a crossroads when we do have a choice between the narrow path that leads to life and the easier wide path as well. Help us Lord to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow You. Lord, thank You for today and a reminder of what today is, Ash Wednesday. All go to one place. All are from the dust and to dust all return. One day Lord we will die unless You come before that, but anyway. But Lord it’s not left there for as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Thank You, Lord that though we may die that is not the end because Christ came and redeemed us so that we might have life everlasting. And I pray Lord that You’d help us to remember that hope as we face the disappointments of life, as we face death, that You’d be with us Lord. Lord, I also want to pray for India at this time and pray for wisdom for the government and the authorities as the people are rioting. And we do Lord, we pray for peace and we pray for calm and we pray that love would reign, especially between the Hindu and the Muslim community. Please be at work Lord and please be protecting people and property in Jesus’ holy and precious name. Amen.

Leviticus 24:1-25:46, Mark 10:13-31, Psalms 44:9-26, Proverbs 10:20-21

Today is the 1^st day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you. It’s always fun when we begin a new week and a new month at the same time. And this is one of those days where we get like a complete fresh reset to live into a new month and live into the first week of that month. And, so, let’s do it with all our hearts. So, coming to you for the final time, from the holy city of Jerusalem. We concluded our…our journey our tour of the land of the Bible yesterday. I’ll tell you about that in a little bit and today will be the long, long, long travel back. So, thank you for your continued prayers over all of that – the…the travel and the reentry and all of the jet lag and there’s kind of a collapse that happens. I don’t know if it happens to everybody, but I think most people. You finally get back to your own environment and, yeah, it just starts…finally, you’re kind of like, okay I’m in super familiar surroundings and so much has been going and you’re just like, ahh…collapse I guess is the right word. So, that’s out in front of us and thank you for your prayers over that. But let’s do what we have come to do on this first day of the third month of the year. We’ll read from the English Standard Version this week. Leviticus 24 verse 1 through 25 verse 46.

Prayer:

Father again, we thank You for Your word and here at this threshold of a brand-new shiny week and a brand-new sparkly month we are grateful that You have brought us successfully through each and every day of the first two months of this year. In some ways it’s hard to…it’s hard to comprehend that we’ve…it just feels like it was just New Year’s, but here we are entering the third month of the year and by the time we finish this month, well things…things will be…begin to show signs of change and we will be moving our way into the springtime. And, so, we mark where we are. We’re here now and we’re grateful for all that You’ve done in our lives through Your word so far. We can feel the changes happening in our hearts and we are so grateful. And Father as we end this time in the land of the Bible here in Israel and prepare to make our journeys for…for us here all over the world to different places and for us personally traveling back to the United States and making our way back into the rolling hills of Tennessee, we…we thank You for giving each and every one of us the traveling mercies that we need and the strength and the stamina and the health that we need. Come Holy Spirit into this month we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, as I mentioned at the beginning, yesterday was the last day together on our trip and the last day is centered in Jerusalem and its oriented around the final…the final steps…the final days of the life of Jesus. And, so all of the kinds of places that we read in that narrative that’s the places that we were…were visiting, like the Mount of Olives. And just walking down the Mount of Olives and seeing Jerusalem and kinda putting ourselves in the position of Jesus coming into the city. That…that would’ve been the way He came into the city across the Mount of Olives and then He would’ve seen the temple and then, you know, the Bible says He wept, “oh Jerusalem…Oh Jerusalem. How I long to gather…gather you and you weren’t willing”. And, so, just to kind of be on the Mount of Olives looking down upon the…the Temple Mount. Of course, the temple was destroyed back in A.D. 70, so the dome of the rock is there, but just to…that’s where the temple was. So, to be able to look across there and I don’t know, you put yourself in the position of Jesus and you realize that the weight of the world, maybe the weight of the universe is on His shoulder. He’s just…He longed for them to understand and they weren’t ready, and He was going to bear the suffering before Him. So, it’s just kinda stuff like that and then on down to the bottom of the Mount of Olives into the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed, “If there’s any other way to get this done, if there’s any way for this cup to pass.” And the chapel that is built there at Gethsemane really is…it’s one of…I think it’s one of my favorite chapels that…I mean there’s many ornate beautiful unbelievable chapels but just because the architecture is so centered around the…the moment…the moments that…that happened in Gethsemane. It’s dark it's…it’s made to be dark. It’s made to be silent. It’s beautiful. It’s got this huge beautiful blue roof with this gold all around…it’s beautiful but it’s sobering. It’s meant to be like, yeah, you’re walking into a place, this is the place where Jesus was arrested. This is a somber place to commemorate. And, so, we spent some time there and  then the quarter of Caiaphas the high priest, the ruins of this which is kind of across the Kedron Valley from the Mount of Olives, where Jesus would have been brought after having been arrested, there's…there’s ruins that still exist. And, so, and there’s a chapel there too. And again, it’s breathtaking. All of these…these chapels that are built in some of these places are…well they’re meant to be places of contemplation. So, you walk into them and almost against your will whether you’re paying attention or not your eyes are drawn upward to the ceiling and that’s the intention, like, that’s the intention of it all, so that you sit in quiet and your eyes are lifted and you’re just kind of in a space that’s designed to speak to your heart that there’s way more…like that there’s this vast spiritual realm, there’s way more going on. And, so, so that’s great. And then you can kinda move down because this is Caiaphas’s quarters. So, this is the place where…where Peter went, right? And this where he’s standing outside warming himself by the fire being accused of being a disciple and cursing and denying that he even knows Jesus. So, and the dungeons below are still there. And, so, we always go down into the dungeons and I mention…I mention…mention it most every year, it's…that place…I don't…I’m not sure what it is because like I should be numb to it by now because I’ve been down there so many times over so many years and I’ve been all over the place and…but that place…that place…I don’t know it’s just…I just can’t stand it. I just…I hate thinking about Jesus tied up down there by Himself. I don’t know what it is but it’s just like this moment where He’s being held while all of the…the people in power, religious power, are like making as much of an arrangement as they can to have Jesus killed by the Romans. And Jesus is just down there, spit dripping out of his beard and red marks all over Him from being slapped around and that’s just the beginning. Like that was the appetizer and what’s coming next is He’s gonna be beaten almost to death unrecognizable and then crucified to death. I just…yeah…but anyway it’s deeply, deeply, deeply moving to have the experience. And then back, back to the walls to the old city there’s a place where at least this is far as archaeology can go and when you have archaeology and you have many many many layers of archaeology, then you have to, you know, you have to start making educated guesses about what everything is. But just that there's…there’s remains of some steps that were, you know, kind of almost like a side entrance, a private entrance into the Roman garrison in the…the palace for Herod. And, so,  this would’ve been where kind of where the mob gathered and yelled, “crucify Him” and you can sort of see some steps and understand that very, very likely, these steps Jesus would’ve stepped down these steps carrying a cross. So, that’s just the kind of stuff we’re centered around. Of, course, the church of the holy sepulcher, which is…well it contains a portion of a very small portion of Golgotha, which was…like…like a large hill, a very long large hill. There’s like a bit of it preserved and, of course, the tomb…the tomb of Jesus. And, yeah, that’s also…like it’s hard to put some of this stuff into words, especially tired now. I mean just having had all these experiences and how to process it all. But you go in there and you at once are not…you’re like…I don’t understand where I’m at, how does this all work. And it’s confusing. It’s very ornate. And its…you know…you have like a little bit of distance in your mind you because you’re looking for this garden, you know, you’re looking for this hill where a cross was, you’re looking for all these things and they’re all encased inside of a building now because so many of these places have been just destroyed and desecrated over years and over, over, over millennia,. But the tomb, yeah, just to know this is the spot where the most pivotal moment in human history ever happened, the resurrection. So, so…that’s…all of these things carry with them all of these kinds of deep moments connected to our soul as we follow Jesus and then we end up in the garden tomb, which is…it’s a beautiful place to end. And it…it…it does provide that sense, that…that sense of the garden. And, so, to be able to be there and receive communion together and end our trip together is always a bit bittersweet, always full of a lot of emotion and then…and then we move to our final dinner together, our farewell dinner, which is also always bittersweet, but really, really filled with joy and just a sense of family just a sense that we experienced something together and that will always matter. Like even as we go our separate ways it’ll always matter. And, so, that’s that and today is…is a travel day.

So, thank you. Like I said at the of beginning, thank you for your prayers over travel and over reentry and…and all that goes along with it. I can’t thank you enough for raising a canopy of prayer over this…this journey. We felt you. We knew you were there. We…we knew we were doing this together all around the world. And, so, yeah, it’s been fun. Tired, ready to be home, but it’s been a joy as it always is to be able to lead people deeper, deeper into the Scriptures and apply those to our hearts and lives so that…so that we’re transformed so that we’re changed. So, that’s been an honor. And that’s it. That's…that’s it from Israel. I’m, Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey Daily Audio Bible family it’s doctor Kanio here from London I pray that everyone is well. It’s the 22^nd of February and Brian I have to say that I am loving the way that you are reading the book of Leviticus with so much __ and so much clarity. You are bringing a book that perhaps most of us would run away from into…into perspective and I __ have to grapple with some of the things that have arisen in this book. And I did love the fact that we were reading Leviticus alongside the gospel of Mark whereby we’ve got the passage of the woman with the issue of blood and how poignant her story is because now I understand that she just wasn’t experiencing a physical healing but it was also in emotionally healing, that emotional aspect of being ostracized from your…your community, for being set apart for wrong reasons. She was also healed from that and I love the way that Jesus responded to that perhaps feeling of shame that she had. And I do encourage anyone that’s also experiencing shame perhaps this is something you have no hand in. She didn’t have a choice as to whether she was going to endure this bleeding. It was by no fault of her own to our understanding. But Jesus was still able to carry her shame and to publicly declare that she is free. And how beautiful that even when we do experience shame Jesus came so that we might be free from shame and He declares us as free from the things that once held us bound and we are no longer unclean, but we can come into His presence. So, I do want to encourage people to enjoy the book of Leviticus just as I’ve been enjoying it. And Brian thank you so much again for…for reading with so much passion and…and allowing us to connect with the stories as well. Thank you so much.

One more thing, this is Pink Paint again. But the precious lady from Northern California, Jared the Encourager, and His Little Cherry from Canada, the three of you have literally bought beachfront property in my heart and I don’t know you personally, but I do. And after hearing your messages I played them over and over and over again and you guys, Jesus used you to give me hope.

Good morning DABbers this is Darrell from Depew. Brothers and sisters, can you please prayer. I have a very, very good friend of mine, a pastor friend of mine who is having surgery this coming week. I think his surgery will be Tuesday which will be the 24^th. He’s got back surgery. He is a warrior of God, first of all. He was a paratrooper and how this incident happened with him was he jumped out his plane the one day and the parachute never opened. It’s been 30 years he’s been suffering with this pain in his back. So, I am asking all my friends and family and the DABbers around the world, pastor CT. Father, I know that You have a plan for him. I know You have a team set up already for the surgery with You being the Jehovah Rapha, the healer of all Father. Please, please Father have him come through this surgery with peace and wisdom and knowledge of You. Amen.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Brandy from Arizona. I’ve been listening for a couple of years now and I just wanted to say good morning and thank you Brian and Jill and the entire team that brings the Daily Audio Bible to my phone every day. As so many of my DAB brothers and sisters have said, you guys are an integral part of what starts my day, helps me focus, helps me understand who I am and whose I am. And I am just so fortunate to not have to do life without you. I have struggled to find a…a home church and I will continue to look but I do not feel like there’s a void because I come to the mantle of the Daily Audio Bible family every day and I get to hear the word of God, I get to praise, I get to worship and I get to pray for my fellow brothers and sisters as well as be prayed…being prayed for. I just have to say, Terry the Trucker, Blind Tony, Victoria soldier, there are just so many of you that have broad light and life to me over the last couple of years as I have listened. It’s just been an amazing experience, and this is just complete, complete, complete praise for the love and the fellowship and the kindness and the encouragement and the learning, the intensity and the intelligence that you guys bring to me every day. I love each and every one of you and I thank you. Have a blessed day everyone.

Hi DAB family this is Abby I’m calling from Dublin Ireland. I’m not originally from here I’m actually from Nashville Tennessee but I am married to an Irishman and we’ve been living here in Dublin or I’ve been living here in Dublin for about six years now. I just wanted to call and say hello. It’s my first time calling. I’ve been listening for a couple of years now and I just wanted to thank Brian and everyone that calls in. It’s been such a huge blessing in my life to find this community and this podcast and I just want to pray for if there’s anyone else, you know, living here and Ireland that is a listener, you know how hard it can be here. It’s quite cynical of any sort of faith or relationship with Christ here in Ireland as I know it is in a lot of places. It was quite a culture shock for me coming from living in Tennessee in the south and, you know, you can be a lot more open with your faith. So, it’s something I struggle with here. So, I just wanted to pray for anyone that’s living in a place where it’s kind of hard to be bold with your faith, but God’s grace is with us. So, I just wanted to pray for you and encourage you and also just to say hello to everyone. Thanks guys. Love you all.

Hey, everyone this is Tony the narrator. I just text…I just had a text conversation with my ex-wife who got me to North Carolina and she’s in Britain right now and I was supposed to bring her here, but her new boyfriend has. And…sometimes being a Christian is the most painful thing in the world. We were really friendly…you know I was really friendly but…oh God. Weeping and gnashing your teeth, I’m so grateful to Jesus that this is as close to hell as I’m ever going again. Please pray for me guys. I love you. I’m exhausted. Take care of yourselves everybody. I love you. Bye-bye.

Lord, I’m so thankful for You. You give me hope in all things. You love me like no other. You care about the details of my life. You direct my steps. You use me to help and encourage others. You stand with me in all situations. You discipline me out of love. You challenge me. You speak to my heart. Thank You for being with me always. Thank You for creating me, for loving me when nobody else did, for drawing me to You, for being so patient with me, for forgiving me for all of the choices I made that grieved You and for never giving up on me. Thank You, Lord. I will praise Your name as long as I have breath. I will dedicate the rest of my life to serving You. I will be faithful to You as You have been to me. I will proclaim Your goodness to all who will listen. I will live a life pleasing to You Lord. Shape me into a vessel You can use for Your glory Lord. I surrender all. Amen. This is Danny from Southern Oregon hoping You all have a blessed day. Bye now.

Leap Day:

Today is the 29^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. This is the odd day, the leap day that comes around every four years. And it’s so interesting that we find ourselves preparing for the final day of our journey here and the land of the Bible and that’ll be taking place on this leap day. And in some ways that’s a happy thought, in some ways it’s a sad thought. Ad this is an important…a really important day on the tour. But since it’s the 29^th day of February, since it’s leap year day…I mean…we don’t have a specific portion of Scripture to read for today. I thought we could just talk about some of the different things that we’ve experienced. So, I have Jill here. She’s been on the tour with us and she’s gonna share and I’m gonna share, I guess. I guess we’re gonna share. That’s the plan.

Brian: So, yeah, do you have…our journey begins in the wilderness. Are there moments for you that were, that were significant in the wilderness?

Jill: The wilderness was hard. I thought I would do a little bit better acclimating this time around and it actually ended up being worse. It took me off guard and I was literally thinking, “I cannot wait to get out of the wilderness or the desert or just, you know, this phase of the trip.” Like, I said, because it was harder this time around. And I thought, “second time” I’d have it down and “piece of cake.” And it wasn’t so much. So, maybe just all of the reflections that other people have talked about just about having to go through the wilderness, but not really wanting to at all. It’d be so easy to stay stuck there. Like it really is in your face reality of how easy it would be to stay stuck instead of having to get to…to go through, to be intentionally deliberate about getting through it. So, yeah, the wilderness was hard. I love…I love the desert. I love that first day of just the vastness of nothing. I…as somebody who has grown a fondness of silence and space. I love it. I think it is just stunning and beautiful to look at. It’s mind blowing to see how far it goes on, how…how far nothing goes on for miles and miles, like as far as your eyes can see. So, there’s the stark beauty of the wilderness of the desert.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. I like when we get to the bottom of Israel, the bottom tip to the city called Eliot and it’s on the Red Sea and just looking into Saudi Arabia, looking into Egypt, looking over onto Jordan, and being in Israel, and just like, it’s…we get to that point and I realize, man we are…we are here, we are in this stark desert and it just always seems to be a moment that I always remember from all the of the different trips. And then we head north, and the tabernacle is really remarkable, because we spend so much time reading about it in the Bible. And it’s, you know, this many cubit’s, and this many curtain holders, and just all of the different things that have to be built. And, so, to have that in context makes that make some sense. And just to walk-through that is always good. And yeah. I mean the story of the wilderness on this pilgrimage is the story of the wilderness of our lives. By the time that we complete those days we’re ready for the promise land. And, so, coming into the Galilee last time you were here was a different season of the year. And, so, this year they’ve had a lot of rain. And, so, it was just gorgeous. Very, very green. What was the Galilee like for you?

Jill: Galilea is gorgeous. I am a woman who loves her garden and so to see the lush crops of Israel and how they take pride in their vegetation, it was…it just did my heart so good. And the green…there were parts of it where the hills, the sky, the clouds just melded right into the mountains and the hills and it just literally took my breath away. Valley of the doves, especially. I thought was so beautiful. But yeah, who doesn’t love Galilee, the water, the sea of Galilee? It’s just…it’s gorgeous. That’s my language. Water’s my love language. So, I just…I felt my store…my…my soul was restored in a much-needed way, especially after being sick in the dry…in the wilderness. Yeah. Loved it.

Brian: Are there any places in the Galilee that…that you felt like God was moving in your life? Like, I mean, we don’t necessarily have to go region by region that we’ve gone through. What places are gonna be memories for you?

Jill: Well, I mean I think, you know, everyone has, everyone will have a different place because we’re so individually made and it’s just different things speak so specifically to our hearts. But it got me last time and got me even better this time, Peter’s Primacy is…ahh…I’ll get teary…but it is probably by far my favorite place here. Just…and I have to say…the shore was flooded…it was so much more flooded this year than last time. And I was…I was so anxious to walk out onto the beach and sit up on one of those rocks, like I did last time and just be. And I was disappointed that the shore was all the way back to the back of the building and I couldn’t…there was only a certain part I could walk to and then I was kinda stuck. But I just looked out and it was where the sea ended, and the sky began. You could not tell the difference. And I just have these moments where I am envisioning Jesus preparing breakfast for His disciples for the…for His closest friends, for His comrades, for His…the men that He has been with through thick and thin, the men that betrayed Him and denied Him and He still chose them. And I love to cook. I love to grow food. I love to cook food for my family. And it’s probably my love language of just making people happy through food. And, so, to think that Jesus loved His own enough to go to the water and prepare breakfast. And just…I’m just…I’m out there and I’m envisioning Him calling them in, you know? Like, “it’s done.” It’s ready.” And just the whole story of, you know, Peter denying Him, and Him just asking Peter, you know, “Peter, do you love me?” And ultimately, it’s, “if you love me feed my sheep.” And I love to feed His sheep, so that…it…it sounds even kind of cheesy, but it just is so specific to my heart that it shows me that humanity of the Savior that I love so much. And then of course the boat ride. That just always takes my breath away. You know, it’s hard to kind of have intimate moments in a group of a hundred people but just being able to go to the front of the boat, which looks like the back of the boat. But to be in awe of Jesus when He got out and walked on the water. And I just stand in awe, I just stand amazed at who He is, not really what He’s done when I’m here. But it’s for who He is. And that He loves us so much. I really…I’m always awestruck at His love when I’m here because this is the place that He chose to be at, and this is the place He chose to be intentional with people’s hearts. I just love that so much…I love that I get to see up close when I’m here.

Brian: Yeah. I do too. And we just had…well you mentioned the sea of Galilee. It’s…I just can’t remember ever seeing it this full. And that's…that’s been so needed. It’s been kind of re-seeding because they’ve been having to use the water. And, so, to have a full back up, like you said, at the church, to almost all the way up to the rocks which, I’ve never seen it like that before and it’s just beautiful. And the hills are just green, and the new flowers are coming out, the yellow flowers all over the place. And, so, being at the Mount of Beatitudes and being able to read The Sermon on the Mount. That was just really meaningful. It always is, but on a lovely day it’s just really spectacular. And, so, the…the Sea of Galilee isn’t the only thing that’s full. The Jordan River has been full, and it’s been flooding down in the desert and that’s usually where we go to baptize people and this…we had to kind of move to another location…the Jordan River. And that is always one of the most meaningful things for me, but it was particularly meaningful because Ezekiel made his…made his decision to be baptized on his own. Like he…we didn’t throw him in the water. We didn’t ask him. He wanted this. And, so, to come down into that cold water, make his profession of faith and go under that water and feel the shock of it and get out and climb up on me. It was just…never gonna forget that.

Jill: Yeah. That was obviously…that was…but it’s also personal. And, so, it's…you want to share it with thee world but wanna kind of keep it to yourself too because I’m telling you that boy could not get in the water fast enough to do that. And if just people knew the back story of just the general anxiety that he has had over the last couple of years of being afraid and being away from us and just looking at us to see if it’s okay to talk to people sometimes where, “am I gonna get in trouble?” And I was trying to hold him back so he could be the last because I didn’t want him to be freezing waiting in a group of people because I love the baptisms and I want to see everybody. He would not wait to the end. He just wanted to go so bad and everyone graciously let me go to the front and watch him. And such an unbelievably beautiful moment and just walking back with him he was just smiling from ear and he said, “mommy, it feels like Jesus is hugging me.” It was just unprovoked, genuine, genuine feeling that he had, and he was…you could tell he was really proud of himself for…for making that decision. And, of course, everyone was so gracious…gracious in telling him how proud he was…they were of him. And, so, it was a really special moment here this year.

Brian: Yeah. That is…I mean that is always a highlight for me and most everyone gets baptized. So, that's…just it takes a little while but it’s just a really, really…it’s one of those moments where it seems like things start clicking, things start making sense to everybody. Like that, “I’m really here. I’m walking in the footsteps of Jesus.” And we had done the marriage…the marriage renewal ceremony before that, and that’s also amazing. It’s just amazing how meaningful something can be when you’re really trying to be in the moment with God. And being here helps with that tremendously because that’s the whole focus. And, so…

Jill: I wanted to say something about that because this is only my second time, but you said something at the beginning of the ceremony. I…I was amazed at the amount of people renewing their…their vows. But you said something at the beginning where you said just close your eyes and take a moment and think of how far you’ve come in the journey of getting here in your marriage. And that…you can feel the weight that in the room. And just being there with you…before I sat in the back and this time, I got to be up front with you. I got to see people’s faces and it was incredible, the amount of the men who were teary during that. I guess I just always think that women are far more emotional beings. But you could see the men physically moved by the weight of just that pause in that moment and that was really special to be able to see that and share that this year.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, I agree. I…it’s such an honor to be a part of that moment and be included in that moment with anybody. And to be able to do it on this trip is just humbling. And I mean there are many…we could start talking about stories in the group…just all that happens as lights go on in different places, and it’s just like, “oh. now I finally see this. I will never think about that story the same way again now that I’m walking here.” And, so…I mean…there’s a day we go up on the Golan Heights and I love it up there. It’s so fertile and it’s…there’s less people and…and it’s super super green this year. Like they’re having a really, really…it looks like a really great year. And, so, you know, getting to the Syrian border and just understanding how fortunate that we can be and just praying for those brothers and sisters who…I mean, just…they are trapped because of all kinds of different circumstances. To face outward, that’s something that’s really meaningful for me each year.

Jill: Yeah. I mean…I don't…I think we could share a million different stories and people probably just don’t want to hear about our experience but there was one lady in particular that we were in the gift shop together afterwards that just couldn’t stop sobbing and she said, “I just didn’t now. I just didn’t know that this existed.” And, so, there’s been these little moments, like you said, of awakening that you’re just witnessing in the group throughout, all throughout the grouping. I think what I love so much is that we…we don’t have to be the ones to fix it for people. I love just sitting in the questions with them and being a part of that too. There was another precious lady from our group who came by herself and yesterday she just had an “ah-ha” moment that I got to be a part. I loved that I got to be a part it with her, just witnessing it. And She said, “I’m already known. I just have to be…” And that is such…I just feel like it’s such the journey of awakening, like of…of the moment you realize it’s like, “God already sees me. He already knows me. He already loves me. I don’t have to strive. I don’t have to do. I just have to be.” And that was such a beautiful moment to share that with her yesterday right before the…the wall where we prayed together. So, really, really special moments like popping up all over the…the trip but those “ah-ha”, like being part of people’s awakening is maybe the greatest joy of what we get to do together.

Brian: There’s no question about it. And this whole thing is…is geared and aimed and tailored for God to move…like it’s…you’re right…we’re not here to fix anything that…we’re here to focus our affection and our attention and our hearts on God and open ourselves completely to whatever He has for us. And when…to bear witness to that. It’s hard actually sit here and talk about places anymore because like, you know, it’s not really a travelogue. By the time we get to this point in the trip so much has happened that our hearts are all full and our minds are all full and our bodies are all tired and it’s been a pilgrimage it’s been a long and difficult journey to someplace holy. And, so, even getting to Jerusalem and going through that, just finding how different it is from any other place on earth but any other place that we visit on this trip as well. It’s just amazing. And, so, like we’re sitting here on leap day getting ready to go through the final day together and walk in the footsteps of Jesus by following Him on his last days and I just think ahead to that and it’s been an honor to be here.

Jill: I agree. And even just like you said, you know, moments talking with people and their…the shift, just a visible shift in our son’s heart, our 19-year-old that’s with us too on this trip that just, you know, you hope and you long for that can happen on its own and only God can do and being…being able to witness that too is just, you know, does a mom’s heart good. Yes. Such beauty. Such beautiful moments, such beautiful moments in the relationships made with the people in the group together, how they care for each other, how they care for the bus driver, how they care for the tour guide, how they care for feeble and the tired and the lonely. And really, sometimes I feel like we just have to get out of the way and let them do it and it’s so beautiful to watch.

Brian: Yeah. It’s unbelievable beautiful. It’s one of the beautiful things about the Daily Audio Bible community. You, like, you can listen every day and be involved in people’s stories and praying for another and then you do get the opportunity to be around when we get the opportunity to be together. It’s the same thing and really is a beautiful thing to watch. So, I…my body is tired, and my mind is full, and my heart is full, and we have this one more day and then we’ll be making our journey home. And, so thank you for your continued prayers. This day that’s in front of us is one of the most important days and we have to live into that. It kind of puts the exclamation point on our journey together. So, keep continuing to pray for us over the journeys…the journeys home. So many of us are going in so many directions after this. But I believe that we are knitted together, and we’ll never forget the time that we had here in the land of the Bible in 2020.

Jill: I agree. So, where do we do:

Brian: dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on.

And well, we’ve just been telling you what’s been going on here. And we got one more day and then long, long journey home. And our prayer is that transformation has begun and will continue long, long, long after we return. In fact our prayer is that we won’t ever be the same again, that by compressing time and…and going through all that we’ve gone through over these last week and a half, that that will change the way we live when we reenter our lives with eyes to see and ears to hear in ways that…that we hadn’t considered before. And, so, thank you for your prayers over that.

And it feels a little weird to have…have this time on a day and not have any Bible to read. I don’t ever I guess go through a day that I don’t read the Bible. So, let me just end out time together with the 23rd Psalm, a Psalm inspired by a place, a place that we were able to see, a notoriously dangerous portion of the Kedron Valley opening up down in Jericho, the valley of the shadow of death.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointist my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for that promise and we thank you that it’s rooted. We’ve been able to even understand how that came to be said and how deeply important it is to our journey of life together with you and life together with one another. And, so, we thank you Holy Spirit for all that you’ve done and all that you are doing. Come Jesus we pray in your mighty name, we ask. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Harold this is Asia from Chicago. I am so happy to hear that you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and that, yes you are part of our family and we love you. You are my brother now and I am your sister. We’re family. I think it’s really cool that you’re running the Chicago Marathon. Maybe I can come and watch. I’ll try to like, get a sign of something and I can root for you as you run. That would be so awesome if I could see you and meet you and just like give you a hug face-to-face. So. here’s a…a virtual hug through this podcast and eventually, you know, whatever will maybe link up at some point. But I just wanted to say, so proud of you, so happy that you’re running this race with us, not just the marathon but the spiritual race that we’re running together. You have no idea how much this has blessed my day. I’m going through a lot right now and just hearing that you are now part of the family it’s seriously turning my day around. So, I live in Roscoe Village if you’re familiar with that neighborhood. And, yeah, I can’t wait to see you run. I’m gonna…I’m gonna support you dude. I’m gonna support you and I’m gonna get my…my sister and my brother, we also listen…like my actual immediate sister and brother…we also listen to Daily Audio Bible. Yeah, everybody that lives in Chicago, let’s all root for Harold. We should root for him when he runs his marathon. Yeah, okay, cool. I’ll talk to you guys later. If you could please be praying for me, going through one of the hardest seasons of my life. I’m surviving but I want to be doing more than surviving. But, yeah, God’s getting me through it. Love you guys. Be praying for me. Harold, again, love you brother. Welcome to the family. This is Asia from Chicago.

Hi everyone, this is Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada. My heart is just breaking as I heard the sister of Karen called in to say that Karen, her husband Andy, they have two sons Theo and Ben. Ben committed suicide and was found by his mom. Also, that Karen is the caretaker of her dad who’s in hospital with a brain hemorrhage and their non-Christian family. And my heart just breaks. As a parent we don’t want our children to go before us and especially in such tragic situation. And they don’t know you as their Savior. So, God of all comfort, wrap Your arms around about them, draw them close. Open their eyes to see You. Give them seeking hearts and send someone their way, Lord God who would help them to understand who Christ is and how You can be their source of strength at this time. Be with the whole family. Lord God give them wisdom, understanding. Sometimes I don’t even know what to pray. My heart is so grieving, but You know. And, so, I lift them up to You Lord God. Be with them now. Give them all that they need for such a time as this and at the end of all of this Lord may they come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. And I thank You that her dad will be healed, and he’ll be home to be with the family to help to pour out his love on his daughter and the remainder of the family. And I give You praise in Jesus’ name. If you hear a pur pur that’s my cat Nicole. He’s joining with me in prayer this morning. Bless you.

Hey family this is his little Cherry in Canada. And guys I just wanted to share something with you that I’ve discovered in the last few months. It’s called adoration. I don’t know how much time you spend specifically on adoration in your relationship with the Lord, but I would highly recommend it. It has changed everything for me in the last little while. Adoration is different than coming to God with your prayer list or having your, you know, devotion time when you read a certain amount of Scripture. And adoration is just simply getting alone with the Lord, telling Him what He means to you, loving Him, lavishing your love on Him like Mary did when she poured the ointment on Him. And I’ve never found anything that has softened the soil of my heart like adoration. And as I’ve been giving more time to the Lord in adoration, I’ve found that, although my situations haven’t necessarily changed, I feel differently about those same situations. I just feel differently about everything because I’ve turned my eyes upon Jesus and looked full in His wonderful face and the things of earth have grown strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace because He is so beautiful. He is so wonderful that simply to see Him, simply to kiss His feet reminds me that He’s the only thing that matters. So, I highly recommend family that you spend lots of time in adoration.

Today is February the 21^st, 2020 and I’m calling to request prayer meeting today. I have a saying, “today’s me tomorrow is you.” We take turns in this lifetime don’t we DAB listeners. I developed a small lump in my right breast and am going to the doctor to have it checked out at 3:30 PM. I would appreciate your prayers over me, and I will also keep you updated. And I want all of you to know I always pray for all the requests coming in and I love you all and this is Angel from California. God bless.

Hello this is Pink Paint. It’s February 22^nd and this message is for Artifact in Bakersfield California. I don’t know why but God really highlighted you to me. And my friend I am partnering with you on prayer. I’m praying for complete restoration for you, complete healing and I ask you pray for me as well and let’s watch what God does.

Today’s February 22^nd and this is Wide Spread Jesus out of Omaha Nebraska. I’m a first-time caller and have been listening since April of last year. I’m so grateful for the Daily Audio Bible app and the strong community of prayer warriors. I’ve had multiple thoughts of calling over the past few months and never have. So, today is the day. At first, I didn’t listen to the prayer wall but once I started it’s been profound in my faith. I pray with the prayer requests from day-to-day and I’m filled with great joy when I hear the praise reports. This community is truly a blessing. I’ve been praying for the Diana Davis family, specifically Michael and his brother. It’s obvious Diana Davis was an amazing woman of God that impacted many. It reminds me of my mom when I lost her to breast cancer at age 15 which was 23 years ago. Stay strong and seek God for all things for one day we will be reunited with our moms in heaven. I also want to give a shout out to Harold from St. Louis. Amen brother, welcome to the kingdom of God. I’ve been following your calls and when I heard you give your life to Jesus, I shouted out with praise and glory to God. That’s what life is all about, being disciples of Jesus and honoring the God Almighty. Thanks to Brian and the DAB community for all you do. You are all loved. All praise and glory to God. Amen. God bless you all.

Hi family this is Lori from San Diego and today is February 22^nd. I want to give all those who are struggling with sobriety a message of hope. I was like the man in the cave tortured by demons that called themselves Legion. I tried for many years to get sober. When I got a DUI and totaled my car, I knew I was going to die. So, I tried one more time. Fear is a great motivator and kept me sober for three years. But in my third year of sobriety I realized the one thing missing in my life was God. I had never given Him a chance. I had such anger towards Him because I was born with alopecia and was horribly bullied as a child. I decided that if I was going to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him that perhaps I should try to get to know Him. In 2018 I tuned into DAB every day and for the first time in my life I read the Bible. During that year I was convicted to go to the holy land, and I went on the 2019 pilgrimage. A year ago, today I was baptized by Brian in the Jordan River. I went last because I was so terrified about taking my wig off in front of people which I had never done before but my desperate need for freedom from all bondage gave me the courage. Real freedom means I have nothing false within me and nothing to hide from anybody. So, I took my wig off and I stepped into that river. I didn’t feel cold or even water on my scan. What I initially felt was unworthy and shame but when Brian dunked my head under the water, and I came back up I was freed. Everything that I believed defined me floated into the Dead Sea and I was reborn. Today I have six years of sobriety and I love the Lord with all my heart. So, my message to you is this. Please don’t give up on yourself or on God. He is more powerful than any legion of demons. Give God a chance to allow the sunlight of the Spirit into your heart. God is your biggest fan and He loves you. If He can save a wretch like me there is nothing He won’t do for you. God bless you. I love you.

Leviticus 22:17-23:44, Mark 9:30-10:12, Psalms 44:1-8, Proverbs 10:19

Today is the 28^th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today coming to you from the holy city of Jerusalem where we…well…we spent the entire day kind of in and around the old city and…and all of the different things to see here in Jerusalem. Today will be escaping and going down to the shephelah, which is the lowlands for the day. So, that’s exciting. It's…it's…it’s beautiful to see the green lush open land again after being more in a metropolitan, kind of large congested area. So, that will give us a breather and get us ready for our final day of this pilgrimage tomorrow. So, let's…let’s get into the Scriptures. Let’s see what the Bible has to say to us today. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Today Leviticus chapter 22 verse 17 through 23 verse 44

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Mark today Jesus is moving around the countryside teaching, doing ministry, doing what he does, and John comes to Him with this really, really interesting situation. He’s like, “we saw somebody trying to cast out demons in your name and we tried to put a stop to it because he wasn't…he wasn’t one of us.” That is sort of the first rumblings of an issue that was…that was certainly going on among the Hebrew people but then bled its way into the early church and still continues until this very day. Even though Jesus spoke very very clearly from His own lips about how He saw it. So, like as believers, we usually kind of…we usually find a group, we might call it our church community, but we sort of find a group of friends, other believers and we…we stick together. And that’s community. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If we’re defining ourselves as believers in Jesus, we’re following the way, we are practicing our faith, knowing that we have not mastered anything, that…that we’re in process and that we’re walking with God and we’re walking together then we’re the body of Christ. It just gets weird once we decide we have to define precisely what that means. And then we get our theology books and start with our dogmas because invariably at some point we will think we have it right and someone else, some other group, some other people who don’t see things the way we see them, they have it wrong. So, the ultimate question then becomes “who gets to be in the kingdom? Who gets in? And is that something that a human being, no matter how judgmental, and no matter how much authority they seem to hole, do they have any say in it at all?” After all it is God’s kingdom. But we can get ourselves so segregated into our group that we then can’t even fathom the concept that God could use anyone to do anything that thinks differently than we do because they’re not really in. So, John was seeing somebody that they didn’t know that was not part of their group casting out demons in the name of Jesus and he tried to shut it down because he wasn’t part of the group. Same thing was going on with the Pharisees toward Jesus and now it’s in Jesus’ inner circle. And unfortunately, it’s always been with us and is still with us today. But Jesus said “don’t stop him. Anyone who is not against us is for us.” And then He went on and He had a little child and He uses the example. What He was saying was, “like anything that’s done for anyone who belongs to Christ, even something as little as like a glass of water isn’t gonna go unrecognized.” So, in our own lives may we understand that if and when we encounter God on the move, whether through a group of people or a person or something that we don’t understand, let’s quit with the labels, let’s understand that we are at a crossroads. And as we’ve been talking about in all kinds of situations, let’s understand that wisdom will be there and just the humility of knowing none of us have this all sorted out. That’s why we’re practicing our faith. That’s why we’re all undergoing the process of sanctification, the process that sets us apart and makes us holy to God. We’re all at different points in our journey. Criticizing everybody else’s journey does not further ours. It actually walls us off and it doesn’t take long before we look like the Pharisees. May we offer grace, the same kind of grace we would like to see as we love our neighbor as ourselves.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into that because what freedom it would bring, what freedom it would bring. And we confess, the reason these kinds of things usually happen is truly based in fear. We do not want to get it wrong, not with You, not with You. The implications are far, far, far too dire. And, so, we live in fear that we might get it wrong when we will get it wrong. But You have offered us an open door. We can always return. We can always repent. And that is for everyone, not just for our group. So, come Holy Spirit and give us grace. May we see the kingdom at work in our world today and may we understand that we are a part of it. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, we’re like down to our last couple of days in the land of the Bible for this pilgrimage and that’s always kind of…of a mixed…mixed feeling. We’ve been in motion for so long now and it’s just our heart…heads, hearts, just bodies, everything. We’re full, empty and tired and elated. And, so, it’s just all of that. And, so, yeah, longing to be home but hating to leave all of that just kinda comes. Yesterday, ooo, it was a long day around Jerusalem. Beautiful day, thank God. It was a beautiful, beautiful day but we…we were…we were working and we saw a lot, covered a lot of ground. I’m trying to think if I can even remember it all.

We got up early, like ½ an hour early to get in the line, queue to…to be able to go on to the Temple Mount. And that’s pretty extraordinary on a clear blue-sky day. The dome just kind of stands out. It…it’s just a really…it’s a remarkable place with definitely conflicted history all over the place over all kinds of time. But that’s kind of the nature of Jerusalem. That’s been the story pretty much all along. So, yeah, you can feel the tension, you can sense…you can sense that because it’s ancient, it’s always been. And, so, there’s just a lot of jostling around. But a beautiful morning up on the Temple Mount.

And then we came down and went to the pools of Bethesda. And this is where Jesus healed a man that had been…had been suffering there by the pools on a…basically on a daily basis for 38 years. And Jesus came along and said, “do you want to be made whole?” And that’s a challenging thing. That’s a challenging thing to consider, especially here on the pilgrimage. It’s like…it’s like so much comes down to that. “Do you want to be made whole?” Not “can you” or “should you”. Like, “do you want to this and the collaboration that happens with God when we say yes to that?” And, so, yeah, spent a little bit of time, kind of pondering that and putting it in our hearts. It’s a beautiful church from the Crusader era right there with the acoustics that are really breathtaking as well. And often it’s really full, really hard to get in there but we managed to get group in there, and Jill lead us in…in a song and just could hear the echo of our voices just bouncing all around. It’s really majestic. It’s a lot of fun to do. It’s just a really, really unique experience. It’s like you’re in a huge cathedral and you are, but just being in Israel in this ancient church and singing to the Lord and just hearing the echo of it is…is wonderful.

So, we did that and then many…many of us walked on the old walls. You can kind of walk a portion of the old walls, beautiful views and you gotta climb some stairs, but beautiful views. And then coming down and also just little small sections of the city that from the Roman era as well as like the wall, a portion of the wall of Jerusalem from the time of King Hezekiah. And that is also pretty remarkable, see how wide the wall is. Even though it’s like all buried, you know, you can’t see how high. And it’s a small section but just kind of see like, “this is…the this is what a wall at this time, a fortified city at this time would’ve look like.” And their thick. I’m thinking, I don’t know, we’re like above it, I’m thinking 30 feet maybe 35. Maybe…I don’t know. I’m not so good with that and I didn’t have a tape measure, but really really thick. So, you know, it's…it’s easy enough to imagine the kind of battle the…like the kind of ongoing onslaught that it would take to breach a wall like that. And we read of those kinds of stories in the Scriptures, especially the tactic of surrounding…like starving the city basically and weakening everyone’s morale. And there’s plenty of stories that we will encounter in the Bible about that including Hezekiah’s story when we get to it.

Then there was some lunch in the Jewish quarter and then to the Jerusalem archaeological Park, which is again, it’s…I mean there’s a lot to see but it is really spectacular. Your down below the walls of the old city. So, like the southern temple steps are there. Part of the steps that what would’ve continued up to the temple when it was there. And some of them have been re-created but some of the original steps are there. And, so, that’s one of the places that you can be where…where you’re…you have just a pretty near certainty that Jesus would’ve walked there, that Jesus would’ve taught things on those steps and would’ve been there. And, so, for us to be there and not only have that touch point with Jesus, but also to open up the book of Acts and read the story of the Holy Spirit’s coming and Peter’s first message, and 3000 people following the way of Jesus after that and being baptized and considering where…where that might’ve taken place and understanding that the temple complex is really the only place that would have that kind of resource to do that many baptisms. So, that’s a likely scenario. And just having that touch point is great. Like all these things are great by themselves and you start stacking them up and it’s really great and then just kind of following all of the archaeology around the old walls and then making our way over to the Western wall and being able to go to the wall and join with brothers and sisters all over the world and…and pray, touch the wall.

I took Ezekiel to the wall this time. I mean, we prayed and that was…that was really sweet to watch his little hand reach out and touch the wall. Probably should’ve took pictures of that, probably would’ve wanted to remember that, but it just seemed like a moment that needed to live in memory. I don’t know. Sometimes you have these moments where you’re like, “I really really should video this or I really should take a picture of this”. But maybe that, you know, maybe that ruins the whole thing. Maybe this is just a moment that we have. So, that…that…that happened and was beautiful.

Then we went into the, what’s called the rabbinical tunnels. So, a lot of archaeology has been done under the ground along the walls of the old city because the temple mount itself, the second Temple era, this is during Herod’s development phase. And he was crazy. I mean you read about it. He was crazy. But he was a fantastic developer and so much of his fingerprint on this land still stands today, including…including the, you know, the Temple Mount, the whole support system to hold up the Temple Mount, like all these massive retaining walls. But they sort of disappear. You have this like one little section of that with, you know, with the western wall or the Wailing Wall as it has been known. But it continues. It’s just, you know, the cities built up. But archaeologist have for years been working beneath the ground. And, so, you can kind of go down there and see all of that, basically walk the whole length of the Temple Mount under…under the ground and see that, “yeah, these are the same. This is the same Herodian era all the way down.” Ssee some of the Roman era. There’s opportunities where they had like glass, you could look down all the way to the second Temple period, the time of Jesus, see the street down below. So, that’s pretty…pretty fantastic as well.

And then we finally…finally got back to our hotel pretty exhausted. We did a lot of walking. But it was a beautiful day and we made it…we made it and we saw a lot in Jerusalem today and we got sort of the…the full force of the city…like the change of complexion that Jerusalem brings. So, the wilderness, very different. The Galilee, very different than the wilderness. The Mediterranean coast, very different than the Galilee. Jerusalem, very different than the cost. So, we’ve kind of experienced all of that and it’s been wonderful and today we’ll be heading into the low lands and I’ll be telling you about that tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued prayers and…over all of this…and as we prepare…even though we have a couple days left…as we prepare to reenter our world as we go home and prepare for that. Thank you for your prayers over all of that.

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 profoundly 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 hit the Hotline button in the app, 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.