A Walk Through The Word

Jonah 1:1-4-11 ~ Revelation 5:1-14 ~ Psalm 133:1-3 ~ Proverbs 29:26-27

Today is the 14^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I am, of course, Brian.  It’s great to be here with you today for another step forward.  Not that many more steps, friends, before we reach the end of the year.  I can’t believe it but it’s true.  We’ve been kind of sailing through a lot of territory as things speed up here toward the end of the year, not only in our lives because of the holidays, but because of the shortness of the books that we’re moving through and today is no different. We begin today a new book in the Old Testament, the book of Jonah.

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

Jonah is a book of prophesy that has a twist.  Jonah was a man in the 8^th century BCE, so a long time ago, who lived just north of Nazareth in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign for Jeroboam II.  Although he was a prophet, his mission was not to call Israel to repentance, nor was it to forecast the destruction of Israel’s enemies.  His mission was a unique one that he wasn’t excited about at all. His mission was to go to the land of Nineveh, enemies of God, enemies of Israel, and call them to repentance.  Of course, like I just said, Jonah was not excited about that idea at all and his pride and fear very quickly had him on a ship sailing in the other direction.  He’s way up in the north in the Galilee and he comes all the way to the Mediterranean coast and Japha, which is still a city today just outside of Tel Aviv, and he gets on a ship and he goes in the opposite direction of Nineveh. Of course, the story of Jonah is a famous one.  Jonah ends up in the belly of a whale and after three days of repentance he is spit up on the shore alive.  

So there are obvious foreshadowings of Jesus in this story and there are also obvious parallels to our own lives.  When we allow fear and pride to lead us, this fear of man that we were talking about yesterday, when we allow this to rule and govern us and lead us into disobedience, well then all we can do is find ourselves on the run. But running from God, not only is it stupid, it’s impossible.  God loves us enough to never stop pursuing us and although Jonah found himself in the belly of a whale, that whale became his salvation.  He would have drowned for sure in the open sea in a storm and although the journey must have been unspeakably uncomfortable and gross, God used the whale to deliver him alive and well on the shore, giving him a second chance which he takes.

There are a lot more nuances to this as we get into the story, but we may find our journey similar.  It is important to consider the fact that maybe God is not punishing us.  Maybe we’re in the belly of the whale and God is rescuing and saving us because we’ve been on the run and it’s not working.  

So we begin, from the English Standard Version today, the book of Jonah, chapter 1 verse 1 through 4 verse 11.  

Commentary

Alright, the story of Jonah is riveting because it is so full of tension and drama and humanity, but it is like a mirror of our own lives in so many ways.

Jonah gets this call from God and he is invited to do something he doesn’t want to do.  Part of that has to be the fear of man, like we were talking about yesterday.  He does not want to go to Nineveh, God’s enemies, and call them to repentance.  They are God’s enemies, so they are enemies of the people.  If he goes there and calls them to reconciliation with God and repentance and they hear him and God spares them, then how is he going to go back and face the people?  He can go back and say, “I just did what God told me to do,” but they are enemies.  So there is that layer going on and then there is just the fact that he hates these people.  He does not want them to be spared by God.  He wants justice.  He wants God’s mighty hand to fall and burn up the city and get rid of their enemies, so there is that layer going on.  

It all conspires to put him on the run and he runs a long way, from Nazareth to Japha, which is a pretty good distance, especially if you don’t have a car and he didn’t, so it is a good way.  He is already on foot on the run before he gets on a ship on the run to go further away from God, but God is having none of it.  We know the story.  It is really, really remarkable because God redeems Jonah.  God could have been like, “Well, you got what you deserved.  Now you are food for the fish,” but instead God redeems.  God rescues.  

There are times that we’re in the process of being rescued where we are still upset about the situation.  Because being in the belly of a whale for Jonah had to be – I don’t even know how to think about what that would be like, other than probably unpleasant.  Probably thoroughly unpleasant in every sensory way and terrifying, but here he is in this very uncomfortable, very weird place but it is also the thing that is keeping him alive.  So Jonah gets spit up, back alive on dry ground.  

God is always rescuing us.  Sometimes we’re still thrashing in the rescue, like a drowning person who is panicking and the lifeguard or rescue forces come to extract a person, but it becomes dangerous for the rescuer because the person is panicking and flailing and thrashing and all they need to do is be still and be rescued.  We do this stuff all the time.  

Once Jonah is in the whale, he begins to pray.  He knows what is going on and he gets spit up on the ground.  So he still has to make the long journey to Nineveh and it is a long journey from the coast of the Mediterranean all the way across the desert to Nineveh, a long, long, long way.  I imagine news of what was going on with Jonah probably started to spread and probably gave his message a lot more weight than it would have had, had he just gone.  Had he just gone, he would have obeyed God and the people would have had the opportunity to repent, but the story of the whale, if that was making itself known around the countryside and got its way to Nineveh, well that would make people pay attention to what Jonah had to say.  

When Jonah spoke, the people all the way to the king responded and the city was spared and Jonah is outside the city just fuming.  He is so upset that he is like, “I just want to die!”  It is so funny, but it is so tragic because it is so like our lives in all of the thrashing and all the things that we say. God’s message is ultimately, “This is not your call, little buddy.  I mean, who are you to decide whether or not I spare these hundreds of thousands of people?” Why can’t I, who created all of this, invite anyone I choose to stop going on the path of destruction and return to a place that will keep them safe?  Who are you to decide this?”  God is just saying, “Why can’t I rescue people who don’t even know what is going on, who don’t know their right hand from their left?  Why can’t I rescue them?”

It’s funny because he’s like, “Just kill me.  I’m angry enough to die!”  And what is he angry enough to die about?  Because God asked him to do something he didn’t want to do.  Oh, that is close to home there.  God wanted him to go and rescue and be his voice to his enemies.  Yeah, that is all through the Bible and that is all through our lives.  So if we’re feeling like we’re in the belly of the whale because we know we’ve been on the run and we know there are some things we need to reconcile, there are some people that have become enemies that we would just as soon see lightning bolts cast upon so that they get what they deserve, but God is saying no, I actually want you to be part of the redeeming story in their lives, I want you to set aside what you think you know and stop this fear of man and swallow this pride that has poisoned you and I want you to be part of the redemption story, well, may we consider the story of Jonah as we proceed.

Prayer

Father, we invite you into that.  It is close to the bone on a number of levels for sure.  There are a lot of layers here, but they touch us in the soft spots.  So rather than continuing the run, we invite your Holy Spirit to come, rescue us, Lord. Reshape the way we’re looking at things, the way that we’re looking at our enemies, the way that we’re looking at those we fear, those that we have marginalized, and let us see that we don’t really have a say here.  You choose who you want to redeem and you have come to redeem the world, so that means you have come to redeem those that maybe we’re not on good terms with or maybe that we’ve just had these attitudes toward, people groups that are just like, yeah, let’s do away with it, let’s just be done with it, when that may not be your plan of redemption.  Help us, Lord, to pray for our enemies and love those who hate us and live like Jesus. Come, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base.  It’s the website.  It is where you find out what is going on around here and we have these three items that are important right now:

1.      Call in your Christmas greeting while you can. The number to call is (877) 942-4253. And, yeah, you can just call up and say whatever you want to say to the whole community about the holidays, about Christmastime.  We compile all this together and make a Christmas party out of it and we call it the Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas.  It’s a lot of fun, so looking forward to putting that together.  Make sure you get your call in.  Now that is the prayer request line, so don’t call in a Christmas greeting that is combined with a prayer request.  Keep them separate and that will keep everything moving in the right direction.  But be sure to call.  

2.      The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box.  That is available and chockful of resources, some that you’ll want to keep, some that you’ll want to give away.  So we’re in the final days before those are sold out. Be sure to grab yours while you can. You can find out everything about it at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.    

3.      It is advance registration time for the More Gathering that will take place this coming April 6-9.  We do advance registration at this time because it is an opportunity to maybe get one of the most powerful and unique Christmas gifts for the woman in your life that is very, very specific and very, very unique. So check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Initiatives section.  Every detail you would want to know about the More Gathering, that is contained there.  So take advantage of that while you can.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here in these final days of the year, then we thank you from a humble and true place.  Literally the Daily Audio Bible doesn’t exist if we don’t do what we’re doing together, so thank you humbly, deeply, honestly for your partnership in keeping everything moving forward.  There is a link on the home page.  If you use the app, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  

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

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hey.  I got behind major, but I finally caught up.  Going on six years listening.  Man, I’ve had a rough year and also I guess early summer I got in a fight and got stabbed behind the knee which crippled me and I lost everything, became homeless. There has been so much heartbreak and broken relationships that have come from that and stuff even before that event.  I don’t know, but I need some teeth and I need reconciliation with people.  I need a forgiving heart and I need others to forgive me.  So please pray for me.  Thanks.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  It’s James, the teacher in LA, and this prayer is being sent to Rebecca from Michigan calling in about feeling lonely and concerned about being alone at Christmas and the holidays.  Father God, I pray for Rebecca and for all the other single people in our Daily Audio Bible family, particularly those who don’t have a lot of close friends to spend that time with.  Lord, I pray that first of all you would make your presence known to them, even as they hear this prayer, knowing that I wouldn’t be responding, Lord, if you hadn’t moved your Spirit in me to respond, Lord, that your Spirit in me is the same Spirit in them, that you are in all of us, that you are present to all us.  I pray that they would feel your presence in this moment and all throughout the holiday season.  I pray that they would learn to hear you and feel you in the stillness, Lord, and that in the time of being quiet and being alone, that they would be able to tune in to you more closely, get closer to your heart, hear what you have to say into their lives so that they can follow you and just get closer to your heart.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  Rebecca, if I lived in Michigan, my wife and I lived in Michigan, we would invite you over, but sorry about that.  Yeah, do you have people you volunteer with or anything?  See if they want to go do stuff with you, even if it is just inexpensive. Who knows?  Love you guys.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Hi everyone.  This is Reginald M. from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.  It’s just a little bit after 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon the 10^th of December.  My email address is KeepersoftheEarthOwner@gmail.com.  Pastor Gene, thank you for mentioning me in your prayer request/message as Keeper of the Earth.  Thank you for your prayer support.  I thank you, everyone, for having prayed for my son.  December 4^th was his 5^th birthday and it was the first birthday I was able to celebrate with my son in three years and it was a very nice day for the two of us to spend together, a couple hours.  I also want to give you some advice from a heart filled with love.  Pastor Gene, you’re always the majority no matter what the odds are against you, especially walking in obedience to Christ and you’re walking with Christ.  Number two, there is something that I would consider the root principle.  When Ruth was in the fields gleaning from the edges of the fields, she was still blessed by God and singled out by another man who was watching out for her.  Being in that situation, I would be looking for more positive opportunity after another or one glimmer of hope after another and just trust God with the process completely and watch what he does for you as far as opening doors and maybe even getting you out of there sooner than you imagined.  Have a great day everyone.  I love you all.  God bless. Bye for now.  

Father, I come humbly in prayer before your throne once again because you’re Almighty God and the deliverer of all men.  There are so many people among us who are hurting and in pain, with very serious problems, __________ and tears fall like rain.  You said you keep in a skin bag each and every one of our tears. You said every hair on our head is numbered and you know the sum of all of our years.  You said you had written down in your book every one of our parts before even one of them was ever formed and only you know our hearts.  And on top of that, you offered us adoption as sons once our hearts had conformed so we come to you through Jesus, humble, tired and worn, walking by faith to this place we consider safe. But then we have all these problem that won’t go away, even though we cry out to you day after day.  Like people with cancer and people who need a liver and so many other problems, Father, from which only you can deliver.  Strengthen us, Father, so we can endure to the end and if our faith gets a little bit shaky, please revive us again and help us to see that when we’re under such strong attack, that it is really just the wicked one trying hard to turn us back. Help us, Father, to commit ourselves anew.  Help us to surrender all completely unto you.  BlindTony1016@gmail.com.  I have to give a shout-out to Pelham and Molly.  Didn’t you say that you all were about to have a baby around Christmastime? It is around time.  It’s time for you all to check in, Pelham and Molly. Let us know what is happening with the baby report.  And once again…

Hey Daily Audio Bible.  This is Pelham from Birmingham calling.  Just wanted to call.  Apparently the Holy Spirit wants me to reach out to Mark from the Four Corners region again. I think he called like on the 5^th, maybe a day or two after that, but he was battling addiction and an addiction to pornography.   I’ve faced both of those things, so I feel. Man, you’re on my mind and I’m praying for you and you have the victory already.  Don’t let the enemy lie to you.  Exposing it like you’ve done and bringing light to it is the first step toward victory over that.  I also just wanted to call because I need international prayer because I’m going to be a father any day now and I’m scared.  I’m not sure. I definitely don’t know what it is going to be like and I want to raise up a wonderful child that is a world changer. I don’t deserve a child, but God in his grace has blessed my life so much.  So pray for me and Molly.  I just wanted to reach out.  Hope everyone is doing great.  Blind Tony, you’re on my mind as well.  Thanks guys.

Hello.  I’m calling from southwest Florida and I just want to thank everyone involved with the Daily Audio Bible.  I’ve been listening for several years and I’ve never called in, but I feel like the enemy has been keeping me from doing that and today my husband said something.  He said we need 1000 prayers for our son.  I thought where can I get 1000 prayer warriors?  And then I realized I could get more than 1000 through the Daily Audio Bible.  So I’m asking you to pray for my son, Danny.  He is a 29-year-old wonderful young man with a degree, very bright, but has just not found his way and is struggling with the things of the world. I just pray that he’ll surrender to God and give up all of those things that are holding him down.  There is nothing we can do.  We’re putting him at the foot of the cross, but I would so appreciate prayer warriors for my son, God’s will be done in his life. Thank you all so much. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Thank you.  

Obadiah 1:1-21 ~ Revelation 4:1-11 ~ Psalm 132:1-18 ~ Proverbs 29:24-25

Today is the 13^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today and every day as we continue the rhythm of the scriptures and our interaction and relationship with the scriptures that never ends and is never not new and always speaking.  So it is exciting that we can take this next step as we near the end of another year and as we end the end of the year, things kind of do speed up and they bring us to new books and letters continually and today is no different.  We will read the book of Obadiah today.  

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

The book of Obadiah contains just 21 verses, making it the shortest book in the Old Testament.  It deals with a very long-running family issue.  Contained in this one chapter is a prophesy of the complete destruction and doom of the Edomites.

So if you reflect back on the beginning of our adventure through the Bible, you’ll remember the story of Jacob and Esau.  Jacob’s descendants became the children of Israel.  Esau’s descendants became the Edomites and they were forever in conflict.  When God delivered the children of Israel from slavery and bondage in Egypt, the Edomites would not allow them to pass through their land on the way to their promised land.  At other points in history, when Israel was being attacked and overrun, the Edomites stood by silent and God reached the end of his patience and through the prophet Obadiah predicts their utter destruction.

We have good application for this today, too, for although we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and have been made children of God, therefore making us all family, all too often we see brothers and sisters at war with one another or standing by silently as brothers and sisters are destroyed before our eyes.  Perhaps they are getting what they deserve in our judgment.  The book of Obadiah shows a very clear picture of how God feels about that.

So we will read in its entirety the book of Obadiah, reading from the English Standard Version this week.  

Commentary

Alright, let’s talk about the proverb today, the 25^th verse of chapter 29:  

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

Easy to blow-by some of these sometimes, but these little one-sentence proverbs are absolutely jam-packed with wisdom and have so many layers sometimes. So there is a lot more going on here than just don’t be afraid of people, just trust God.  This is speaking to the core of our identity because the fear of man speaks to how it is we are arriving at an identity.  If we’ll examine our lives, we’ll see just how true this is.  

How people perceive us, how people think about us is a huge motivator in most lives, so on the one hand we have this personality that we present to the world and then we know that there is an inner life behind all of that portrayal, this whole life that is inside of us that not a lot of people get to see. We have this presentation that is effectively showing us what our fear of man is.  Then there are the ways in which we sort of govern ourselves and won’t boldly step into our faith because of what it might look like and then what it might look like touches so many parts of our lives.  If we would sit down and examine this, we would see yeah, there are plenty of places I have walled myself in because of the fear of man.  

The fear of man is all throughout the Bible.  We could pick so many stories, like the story of Saul.  We see a life completely lived this way and it brought the downfall of a king.  Then we juxtapose this with Jesus and we see a completely different way of living. Humanity, totally different. Jesus was devoid of this which means we are to be devoid of this as well or, as the proverb says, that is a trap. That is a snare.  You will be safe if you will trust in the Lord, but you will be trapped if you are afraid of man and what he thinks about you if you are trusting in the Lord.  

So may we consider the ways in which we do this because we do this in subtle ways, ways that are just culturally ingrained in us, this idea of comparison.  I mean, our whole marketing system is set up this way.  If we could have this we would be that.  And if we could get ahead this way over another group of people we would be superior.  We’re invited into this constantly, but the Bible is saying it’s a trap.  It’s not going to work.  If you’re really after safety, if that is why you’re doing the things that you’re doing, it’s not going to work.  Trust in the Lord.  So this one sentence containing a mere 15 words actually is speaking to the deepest places inside of us.  May we consider the ways in which we’ve trapped ourselves out of a fear that is nothing more than a snare, but if we would fear and revere and honor and trust in the Lord, we will be safe.  

Prayer

Father, we invite you into that.  I mean, we can certainly see it in this season of the holidays.  We can certainly see it, but it’s touching us in different ways all of the time.  We’re always pulled in this direction.  So come, Holy Spirit, and free us from that.  We reject that.  We renounce that.  Help us know what it looks like to live in fear of you, in awe of you, and trusting in you and not garnering our identity in the fear of man.  This is an invitation to freedom.  Help us, Holy Spirit, because this is complicated. It’s a pretty sophisticated web in our lives.  Help us find these different places, disentangle ourselves from them, and live free. Come Jesus, we pray in your precious name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It is where you find out what is going on around here and it is three things right now:

1.      Call in your holiday greetings.  Just a couple more days and we’ll stop taking those, so call in your holiday greetings.  (877) 942-4253, that would be the number to use.  We compile all these and create our Annual Christmas Party.  Virtual as it might be, it is still very, very real and very beautiful as we enter into the nativity story, the story of Christmas, and just spend some time together.  It is a lovely thing, so don’t be left out.  Call yours in while you can.  Now that’s the prayer request line, so like I’ve been saying, there is one rule about this. Don’t combine your Christmas greeting with a prayer request.  Make those separate things.  If you have a prayer request, call that in separately and that will help immensely. In fact, that is what will get it through.  But don’t hesitate.  Get your Christmas call in.

2.      The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box, we are running out of them.  You can still get yours.  We’ve packed them full of resources this year like Promised Land, the double DVD, a look at the land of the Bible is in there.  Bible Stories About Jesus is in there.  The Family Christmas CD is in there.  Jill’s album, the latest one is in there.  My latest book Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is in there. The films that go along with that book on DVD are in there.  And this is the last time those will be available.  That’s in there.  Your choice of our house blend of Windfarm coffee or our English Breakfast Tea, that is in there, your choice.  Some of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards and the ever popular Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb for the year that can only be gotten in the Christmas Box, that is in there as well.  So check it out:  www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  You can see everything that I’m talking about.  Get yours while we still have them.  

3.      The More Gathering for Women coming up this April – advance registration is available between now and the end of the year and we make this available because it makes for the most unique of Christmas gifts for the women in your lives.  So check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You’ll find the More Gathering and all of the pertinent information you would want to know contained there.  So check it out.  

If you want to partner with Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It lives right on the home page.  Cannot possibly articulate words of gratitude for those of you who have clicked that link. That is how the Daily Audio Bible exists.  That is how these servers spin and continue to push the spoken word of God throughout the entire world and into each of our ears each day.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for your partnership here at the end of the year.  If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More tab in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  

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

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi family.  Hey, the reason for my call, I just heard Egbert and Anne and the reason for my call is it is a tough time of year for many of us and I’ve been struggling.  I struggle with every holiday and I refuse to admit it because I look around and I see the joy that people seem to have running around, and their families and everything is great and it seems like my family has been fractured, although this family is amazing.  And I just wanted to reassure you that what you do, what you’ve done in the name of Christ will mean more than all this time you spent with your family.  I know it is very hard to be separated.  I’m separated from my daughter and my ex-wife, I’m not sure if they even have a relationship.  But every Christmas is difficult for me because my brother died on Christmas Day, my younger brother, after a battle with cancer.  But it was actually a thing of joy when he passed from this life to the next and it was sorrow for all of us who miss him, but the joy because he knew where he was going.  He knows who he is and if we change our focus from ourselves to Christ, then the joy is just overwhelming.  That is what I struggle with every day.  Family, it is so comforting to have you and to be able to pray for you and have my eyes closed, to know that I love you so much.  I just want to give you all a big hug, a hug like you would get from your dad or your grandfather.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  I’m calling you guys because you’re the first people I wanted to call after I called my husband.  They called me from my son’s afterschool program saying that he banged his head really hard on the floor and he is having trouble remembering things, so my husband __________ check him out and I’m leaving work as quickly as I can. I’m on the road, but just calling for extra prayers that everything is okay and that we handle it well.  Thank you.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Homeward Bound and it’s December 8^th about 9 a.m. in the morning.  What a precious blessing it is to be able to call you in times like these and to know that the power of heaven is ours as we lift our prayers for one another to the Lord Jesus.  I would like to bring my best friend, Vickie, to you in prayer at this time.  Her husband, Paul, was in a head-on collision with a semi-truck two days ago and he is in critical condition.  He is alive only by a miracle of God.  Paul has a broken pelvis, broken ribs and ankle, but no brain or spinal injury.  He lost a lot of blood in the accident and is on a ventilator at the moment.  After surgery today on his ankle, he is in critical but stable condition.  Please pray, family, that the Lord would save his life and pray also for his wife, Vickie.  They both love the Lord so much and have a huge amount of support from their church family in Monterey.  Thank you so much for your prayers and I will bring you an update soon.  May the Lord answer every prayer ever mentioned on this prayer line and reward you prayer warriors more than you could ever imagine. God bless you all.  This is Homeward Bound.  Bye-bye.  

Hi everybody.  It’s Alicia from Kansas and you know I try to…I’ve noticed I…  Anyway, I’m seeking prayer.  It’s the holidays.  I struggle with being alone and I struggle with listening to the lies of the devil. I am striving to overcome all my addictions and right now I don’t have conversation really or contact with any of my five kids, two of them I’ve not met, the 17-year-old and the 29-year-old. My 24-year-old daughter recently quit talking to me because I broke her trust because I became angry with her father and told him a couple of things he didn’t know about her and I couldn’t keep that secret because it says…there is a thing __________ your secrets, but right now I miss my children.  I have so many Christian friends and I have all of you praying for me and I pray for you and I know shame is not from the Lord, but I feel so ashamed that I just can’t pull it together when I’m hurting like this over being alone and over my children and the damage I caused.  If you would please pray for me.  Thank you so much.  

Hi everybody.  This is TJ from Vermont.  About finishing my third year with the Daily Audio Bible.  It has changed my life.  Thank you so much, Brian and Jill, the crew, prayer warriors, all those who listen and call in.  I pray for you every day.  Can’t get to them all and I kind of cover things up with beatitudes and The Lord’s Prayer to fill the gap.  But I just wanted to call in and pray for those who are lonely and isolated this time of year during the holidays.  I pray that you receive fellowship.  I’ve been there and this community has helped me so much, but I just want to make a couple suggestions, things that have worked for me and hopefully they will work for you.  It’s just try to focus on the first commandment and just worshipping God and loving God and those blessings will wash over you ever day.  I found a couple hymns that I actually sing.  I have a terrible voice, but I sing those hymns and the blessings just wash over me and they are so powerful.  When I do that and I connect with God in that way, then I ask for what I need.  And at this particular time I asked for fellowship.  I asked for better relationships, for friends, and I asked for a church and it’s all been given to me.  I found wonderful people, people like in the Daily Audio Bible.  So just focus on that first commandment and then go with Matthew 7:7 and ask and it will be given to you.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and the door will be opened unto you.  It will take time.  If you focus on God first and that first commandment, loving him and praising him, it’s going to happen for you.  I just wish that for you.  I’m praying for you.  God bless you.  Merry Christmas.

Hello brothers and sisters.  This is Shannon from Oregon.  A few years ago after studying Ezra and Haggai, the Lord moved me to write a song from Haggai called Consider Your Ways.  Today I’m heading into the studio to finish recording vocals for Consider Your Ways.  Last night as I was reading Haggai and reviewing Ezra 1-6, the Lord impressed on my heart how desperately we as his people need the message of Haggai today. When the remnant of Israel returned to Jerusalem, they came to rebuild the Temple.  They started the work but then faced opposition from enemies and stopped. For 14 years the foundation sat and the people turned to their own houses, building them, paneling them, then God sent a wake-up call through his prophet and his Spirit stirred his people after hearing Haggai’s message and they got back to work.  They pushed through the enemy opposition and saw God’s deliverance and they finished building the Temple.  I believe the Lord will use Consider Your Ways to move people into his works in ways I can’t even imagine.  Please pray for God’s blessing on this song and the others I’ve recorded. Pray that it gets sent into the ears and hearts he wants to move.  I’ve been facing enemy opposition in the process of recording this and two other songs. Pray that like the remnant stirred by God’s Spirit, I will walk by the Spirit, resist the devil and fulfill every good purpose God has for me.  I love you family.  If you want to connect with me, my email is Shannon@ReidSaunders.org.  [singing]  Consider your ways, O my people, O my people.  Consider your ways, O my son and my daughter.  

Amos 7:1-9:15 ~ Revelation 3:7-22 ~ Psalm 131:1-3 ~ Proverbs 29:23

Today is the 12^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is a pleasure and an honor, as it is every day, to be here with you.  And yeah, we are counting down the days, aren’t we? Not too many more in this year and I guess I need to stop talking about how fast it is all going because we’re all living through it together, but here we are for another step forward in the scriptures.  This week we’re reading from the English Standard Version, picking up from yesterday in the book of Amos.  We will conclude the book of Amos today, chapter 7 verse 1 through 9 verse 15.  

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your precious word and what it means in our lives and the rhythm that it creates for our lives and the context that it gives to our lives.  It is a gift that is priceless and we thank you for it.  We ask your Holy Spirit to come and plant it in our lives.  We thank you for your goodness and your kindness and your patience, your longsuffering with us.  That really is what it has been – longsuffering.  We see this throughout the entire Bible, that you have suffered long and you have suffered greatly to have your people and we have not honored that always.  We have not loved you with our whole hearts.  And we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.  But you have remained longsuffering and patient, fathering us, maturing us, growing us.  We ask that you continue that work.  Show us the places in our lives that we have walled off from you and we haven’t allowed access.  Come, Holy Spirit.  Everything that we are is because of the gifts from your hands.  The breath in our lives is from your nostrils.  We are nothing literally without you.  We ask that your Holy Spirit continues to make us aware of this that we might rise up to our full glory which is your glory through us.  Come, Holy Spirit, we ask in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  And that is where you find out what is going on around here and the three things that we’re mentioning right now are:  

1.      Call in your holiday greetings.  We’ll just do that for a couple more days.  You can use the prayer line to do that:  (877) 942-4253.  Just don’t combine a prayer request and a holiday greeting in the same call.  That is the rule about that.  So just a couple more days, do it while you can, and then it will be too late.  So jump on that.  

2.      The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box, same kind of deal.  We’re just about out of those, so jump on it while you can and yeah, go to www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop and you can see everything that is in the box this year.  It is about as full as we can cram it with resources that you’ll want to keep and that you’ll want to give away and that’s the idea.  So check that out.  

3.      The More Gathering – we have advance registration going for the More Gathering coming up in April.  This is our annual women’s conference and it is a beauty to behold.  It makes for a very unique gift for the woman in your life, so check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Initiatives.  All of the details are there.  

If you want to partner with Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share collectively to bring God’s spoken word to anyone who will listen, anytime of day or night, anywhere on this planet and to continue to build community around it so that no one has to feel alone ever again, if that is something that is life-giving to you and resonates with you, then thank you for your partnership in allowing it to continue forward here as we approach the end of the year.  There is a link on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you use the app, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  

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

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hey DAB family.  This is He Sings Over Me in upstate South Carolina.  And I just wanted to share something, might have enough time for a prayer request my next callback.  I have been listening ever since the 9^th of November consistently and I’m all caught up as of today, the 7^th of December, but I’ve also been doing catchup for the summer when all the kids were home from school, so I am still listening to the last week of July and it is so cool.  I just kind of have a little glimpse of what it is like for the Lord when we’re praying for him.  I’m listening to prayer requests that were given back in July and listening to those same people and their praise reports now in December.  It’s like I’m a little outside of time in those moments because they were in need, you all were in need in July, and now the Lord has answered it in December.  I don’t know if this is making sense, but that is what our prayers are to him. He’s already answered them.  The July us and December us, those needs have all been taken care of, so it’s been really kind of neat perspective to see. Like I listened to December and I then I listened to July and they are telling me about the needs that I know have already been answered by the Lord.  We know that.  We know that our needs and our desires and our hurt and our pain have been answered and have been addressed.  We’re not there yet, but God is.  I’m out of time.  I’ve just been wanting to share that for a while.  It has been a really neat perspective and I will continue to pray for you all.  God bless.

Hi Elaine.  It’s Lana. I just heard your prayer request. You just had lost your husband and you didn’t know where you were going to spend Christmas.  Well, actually you didn’t want to spend Christmas with some of your family because there was a lot of drinking and a lot of greed going on. You had some other offers and I hope you take those offers up, Elaine.  I’m also in a similar situation.  I just lost my mother about eight weeks ago and I have absolutely no one to spend Christmas with this year because it was just a very small family, myself and my mother.  Now that she is gone, I don’t know what I’m going to do.  It’s going to be a very sad, sad time and lonely time for me, but Christmas is all about Jesus.  Yes, we have to remember that.  God bless you, Elaine.  He loves you. I know he loves me too.  Okay, Elaine, bye-bye.  

Good morning.  This is Andy from the UK.  Sorry for the noise.  I’m on my way to work at the moment.  Just been listening.  I’m a couple of weeks behind, but a couple of people have just prompted me and I just want to pray for them.  The first is Michaela in the UK.  It’s been a long time since I’ve heard your voice and I just hope everything is okay and a friend of mine, Karen, who is a fellow listener here in the UK as well, I just want her to know that she is loved.  Let’s pray.  Father God, I want to thank you.  How wonderful you are.  I want to thank you for what you do for each person, for the joy that you bring and for the peace that you bring.  Thank you for who you are and thank you that you love us.  Lord, I just want to lift up Michaela now.  Father God, thank you that she is your special child, your precious child.  Thank you, Lord, for the way in which she loves and cares for those around her and for those who are here.  Lord, take her out of whatever his holding her back at the moment.  Let her know that she is loved.  Let her know that you love her.  Father God, I pray similar for Karen as well.  Thank you, Lord, for the encouragement that she is to so many people. And Lord, you know where she is at the moment and you know some of the things that she is having to go through. Lord, I just want to pray that she knows again your loving arms are around us, that she knows that intimate friend in you. In your precious name we ask, amen. Speak soon, guys.  

Hi, this is Shelly from Missouri and I’ve listened to DAB for almost 10 years now.  This is my first time calling in.  I’m sorry. I’m calling because my granddaughter, Cecile, is 10 years old and she has been hospitalized a couple of times this year for mental health issues and this last time they hospitalized her and said she was homicidal and suicidal and was hearing voices.  It is really hard as a Christian to understand how to fight this, if it is all spiritual, if it is something biological that needs to be fought with medications.  My son and his family are not strong believers so I’m praying for wisdom on how to fight this battle with my granddaughter so that she can be set free. I’m praying for salvation for my son and his family so that they’ll have an environment in their home that fosters the love of God.  I thank you so much because I hear prayers and hear the prayer warriors all the time and it encourages me in my spirit so I’m asking you to please pray for my family. Thank you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Angela and I’m calling from Raleigh, NC.  I heard the prayer requests today, this is the 9^th of December, from a lady in Charlotte, NC.  Charlotte is a sister city of Raleigh and I am a sister in Christ to the mom that called that is estranged from her children.  It touched my heart to hear her prayer request and I heard the pain in her voice as she spoke about being estranged from her children whom she loves. I also have a prodigal from my four children who are grown and I know the pain that causes and I just wanted to pray, Lord God, to lift up that mother in Charlotte and give her peace, Lord God, that you are working in this situation.  God, I pray that the children’s hearts would be turned back to their mother.  I pray for reconciliation.  I pray that you would put people in her children’s lives that would demonstrate the type of love that is needed and that the children’s hearts would return to their mother.  Lord God, I just pray that you would work in this situation and that you would fill her with your spirit, Lord God.  Surround her with your presence.  That you would comfort her and that the children would return home.  And Lord, for my prodigal, I pray in faith also that she would return home in her heart and that we would be reconciled.  And I pray this in Jesus’ name.  

Good morning family.  This is Cherry C., Cherry Pie.  I just want to thank everybody for lifting me up in prayer, for covering me.  You guys are awesome.  Yes, I’ve been through the storm, still going through it, but I had to do like the old saints.  I had to get in my prayer closet.  And I’m telling you, when I got in there, I prayed for a couple of days, probably about three days.  Even at work, going in a bathroom stall and still praying.  God is still on the throne.  Letting you know we all have to go through.  I’m just going through, but then God.  I want to thank God for allowing me to be transparent, just totally transparent, clear, that you can see straight through me.  God allowed me to speak to someone so I just could really just get it all out and I really thank God.  Asia, you know I thank God for you, girl.  Thank you for letting me be just totally, totally transparent with you.  Girl, when I was reading your emails, reading it I could hear you speaking and just praying.  I mean, I’m telling you, she started praying over my life and saying Lord, Malcolm is already covered.  He is blessed and he’s healed and started praying over my marriage.  I’m telling you, girl, you’re my sister now.  You’re my baby sister now.  I already took you.  So I want to thank everybody for covering me and let me tell you, we all gotta go through it.  Thank God for this Daily Audio Bible so we can all help each other and keep each other strong.  I want to tell you guys be blessed.  Thank you guys for covering me.  I’m still going through the storm, but then God.  I know he’s still on the throne.  Just thinking of you guys, everybody that is calling in, it kind of lifted me up, started thinking about different people.   Blessed Like Me, where are you?  Dr. John, I thought about you, my prayer soldier.  I tell you, you guys are awesome.  You guys have a great and wonderful, blessed day and I love you guys.

Amos 4:1-6:14 ~ Revelation 2:18-3:6 ~ Psalm 130:1-8 ~ Proverbs 29:21-22

Today is the 11^th of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I am Brian.  It is a pleasure to be here with you today as we start another week.  We don’t have too many starts to weeks left in this year. That is crazy to think about.  It is crazy to think about how fast a year goes, but here we are, third Sunday in the season of Advent.  

Advent, of course, is a season in the church used for a couple of reasons. One, to put ourselves in the position of the children of Israel waiting for their Savior to come and then his arrival. That is what Advent means, arrival. So that is what we’re doing as we move our way to Christmas and understand and deeply contemplate the mystery. But we are also still waiting for the advent of the Savior, his arrival back, and so we use this season to contemplate that.  It is a season that just overwhelms us with the shopping, the parties, the goodwill, and all the beautiful things that are Christmas.  A lot of times we don’t take the time to relish in the mystery and contemplate deeply what happened that altered the trajectory of the world and the arrival of God in human form.  And so we observe this.  We pay attention to it as we continue forward in this season.  

SONG played on today’s DAB “God With Us” MissionSong http://apple.co/2gQfYej

So it’s a brand new week.  We’ll read from the English Standard Version this week and pick up where we left off, moving our way through a few days of the book of Amos.  Today chapter 4 verse 1 through 6 verse 14.  

Prayer

Father, the cry of the psalm is the cry of our heart and so together we say out of the depths we have cried to you, Lord, and we ask you to hear our voice. We ask your ears to be attentive to the voice of our plea for mercy because if you should mark and count our iniquities against us, who could stand?  Because we know we could not.  But we do know that with you there is forgiveness, an endless supply that is beyond description or understanding.  With you there is forgiveness and it leads us to awe.  We hold you in awe and reverence.  We fear you.  You are amazing and sovereign.  We wait for you.  Our soul waits and we hope in your word.  Our soul waits for you like watchmen wait for the morning.  We hope in you, Lord, because with you there is steadfast love, never ending, never wavering.  There is no other place like this and with you there is plentiful redemption.  So come, Holy Spirit, plant the words of the scriptures deep in our lives today.  Plant them deep at the level of our identity and come, Holy Spirit, and indwell us.  Lead us forward into all truth, we ask.  In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com, that is home base and it is where you find out what is going on around here and I’m going to tell you what is going on around here right now.  It amounts to three items:

1.      It is time to call in your holiday greetings so that we can have our Annual Christmas Party, also known as Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas.  We’ll be putting that together real soon, so be sure to get your call in.  All you have to do is call the prayer line: (877) 942-4253 and just put words and your voice to your holiday wishes as you greet your community in the Daily Audio Bible.  The only trick to this, the only real rule to this is that because it is the prayer request line, you don’t say a prayer request and incorporate it into a holiday greeting.  That won’t work.  Just call your holiday greeting in as one call and then if you have a prayer request, call that in as a different one.  So that is that.  

2.      The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box is getting dangerously low and we’ll be selling out soon, so if it was something that is kind of on your list that you keep not quite getting to, get them while you can. They are going to be gone here probably in the next several days, so you can find out all about that including its contents.  We have packed it full of resources this year.  You can see that at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  

3.      The More Gathering for Women will take place this coming April, April 2017, early April over in the mountains of Georgia where we do this each year.  That is coming up and we have advance pricing until the end of the year so that you can consider taking advantage of this for Christmastime because it is a one-of-a-kind gift.  It is like giving the woman in your life her heart back for Christmas, so we try to make this available and you can find out all about it at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Just look for the More Gathering in the Initiatives section and you’ll find out all of the details that you would want to know.  So take advantage of that.  

If Daily Audio Bible is something that has become a part of the rhythm of your life and is a life-giving source to you and you are a part of the community here, then thank you for your partnership with the Daily Audio Bible. We are a community and everything that happens here is done as a community, so your partnership, well, it’s inseparable from the Daily Audio Bible being able to go on.  So thank you for your partnership here as we’re ending the last part of the year.  There is a link.  It’s on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you’re using the app, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  

And, of course, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment or holiday greeting, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.  

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hello my Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Ossie James calling from Japan once again.  Firstly, I want to thank you all for your prayers about my shoulder and also my parent’s visit to Japan.  My shoulder is healed up and I haven’t even had to go to the doctor or anything.  It started healing up pretty much as soon as my prayer went on the prayer line.  And yeah, my parents had a wonderful trip to Japan and my dad preached twice in our church and the message was well received, but sure, there were attacks.  My wife who was doing translating just before the second message got very sick and she was still very sick a while after that, but she was able to do the translation. And my parents, after the second message, the train they were on to get to our place got stuck because of an unfortunate situation that occurred further up the line and yeah, but they were able to get a taxi to our house, even with little Japanese ability.  So God is amazing and he’s done so many amazing things for us and I want to give a big thank you to David in Kansas for his prayers for us.  Mate, you’re a real inspiration to us all, how you have gone from someone who was really suffering to someone who is praying for everyone.  You’re an inspiration, mate.  Keep up the good work.  Love to you all.  Ossie James in Japan.

Hello Daily Audio Bible community.  This is David in Kansas.  It’s December 6^th.  This is my prayer for healing.  Please pray with me.  Merciful Father, Almighty God, Blessed Lord Jesus, we come before you to pray healing over our community, those who surround our community and those who hear the prayers of our community.  We ask for full miraculous healing and give you nothing but praise.  Lord, today I have actually four calls where either they didn’t leave a name or I couldn’t quite understand the name, but you know who these people are and you know their needs.  I’m lifting them up to you, Lord, and asking the community to pray for them with me, but you know who they are.  First, there was a woman who called.  Her father was having surgery for pancreatic cancer today on the 6^th.  We’re lifting that up to you, Lord, and asking for the surgery to go well.  I think it probably would have happened by now, by the time I make this phone call, but hopefully it went well and you can heal this man.  There was a woman who called last week for a prayer for Betty who was going in for a mammogram and biopsy.  We ask that this goes well and she gets good results.  A man who called about his grandfather who had heart surgery on the 29^th of November.  Again, you work outside of time as well as knowing things we can’t know.  We know that you will be able to heal this man and be with him no matter when we pray for him.  And finally, there was a woman who called for Steve who is undergoing surgery for cancer.  We are asking you to pour out healing upon Steve and get him back on his feet as soon as possible and heal him of cancer.  Thank you for praying with me, family.  I love you.  Goodbye.

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier.  I’m calling tonight to pray for the Dabbers.  I wanted to welcome Brian and Jill back.  I know you are tired but illuminated from the wonderful time that you had there.  And I’m just so glad that you had a great and blessed time.  I want to pray for He Sings Over Me and pray for the encouragement of the people in Pittsburgh.  I want to pray for Paul F. from Barcelona to do with the children.  Don’t give up on us, Paul.  I didn’t know about it and so glad you brought it to light.  Let’s come together and pray because the more we pray, the more God will have something happen.  We have to pray until something happens.  Salvation Is Mine, thank you for that.  I’m talking to Laura about depression.  I want to pray for you, my sister, because the joy of the Lord is your strength.  God has it for you.  It’s right there.  Don’t give up.  I’ll continue to pray with you, my sister.  I want to pray for Tim, both of the Tims, one from Tampa and one from Edinburgh.  Gracious Father, we praise your holy name.  Lord, we just thank you for your power and your glory.  Lord, we lift you up, Lord, because you are God and above you there is no other.  O Lord, in the name of Jesus, you touch the slaughter of the young babies in Barcelona, Lord. O Father, you put a standard against it. O Lord, you have your way.  Lord, you step in.  You show up and show out, Lord.  O Lord, in the name of Jesus, touch my sister, Laura, in Houston, Lord.  O Lord, you lift her up from that depression. Give her your joy, Lord.  Let her see you and know that you are with her, Lord. O Lord, you have your way in her life, Lord.  You guide her and you keep her and you direct her, Father.  In the name of Jesus.  

Brian and Jill, shalom.  Dabbers, it’s Kathleen M. from Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.  It’s been a long time since I’ve called in.  Still listening daily and praying daily.  I’m requesting prayer for my grandson who is 3 and has been diagnosed with glandular fever.  It’s not very nice.  It just looks yucky and he’s uncomfortable and sad and unhappy.  So I just ask that we all pray together for healing, quick healing. The prayer of the righteous availeth much power.  All together we can knock on the gates and come before the throne and know that healing will be released and he’ll be made well and whole quickly.  Bless you all and thank you all.  Love you all.  Merry Christmas.  And Ezekiel must be about 3 or 4 by now.  Okay, bless you all.  Bye.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible.  This is Rebecca from Michigan and I was wondering if you would pray for me during the Christmas holiday, that God would just bless me with a lot of cheer and joy because sometimes Christmas bums me out because I really don’t have a lot of money and I don’t get paid for the week of Christmas.  I only get paid for New Year’s Day and so I know Christmas is not about money.  It’s about the spirit of things.  I do enjoy the Christmas songs.  I love them.  For you married people, you’re so lucky to have somebody to spend Christmas with because I’m single and sometimes as a single person you don’t get invited to a lot of things, especially since I’m 51 years old.  You really get left out.  And it would be cool if God brought me some friends to spend time with during Christmas. I have family but sometimes family is doing their own thing.  You don’t know if you’re going to get invited to something or not, so I did it for Thanksgiving.  I did my own thing.  It was pretty cool.  I didn’t eat a lot of turkey or eat a lot of food so that was good.  I have a dog and I’ll probably go spend time with her because pets, they kind of cheer you up better than people sometimes.  I think God gave this little dog.  I’ve had her for 10-½ years so yeah, that would be cool if you guys prayed for me to have a fun Christmas.  I’m always afraid of spending money because I’m afraid I won’t make enough to make it through this Christmas.  So prayer would be awesome.  Yeah, thank you.  Have a nice Christmas you guys.  I love you and I thank you for your prayers.  Bye.

Hi DAB family.  This is Christy P., the missionary to the Philippines.  Today is December 7^th and I asked for prayer for Jerry, the inmate who has been in prison for more than 20 years and it was his __________ today and I have really exciting news to say.  Praise God, he was acquitted, so after 23 years of waiting, tomorrow Jerry will be a free man.  Thank you all for your prayers.  God is so good.  Thank you again.  God bless.

Amos 1:1-3:15 ~ Revelation 2:1-17 ~ Psalm 129:1-8 ~ Proverbs 29:19-20

Today is December 10^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be here with you as we move into the end of another week.  Yeah, here in the month of December, as our lives kind of speed up into the holidays and preparations of the beginning of a new year, it’s like the Bible also pulls us into this faster trot.  We move through a lot of books in the month of December and today is no different.  We read the book of Jude in its entirety yesterday which brings us to the prophetic words of Amos written down in the book called by his name.  

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

These words come from the lips of a very ordinary person.  He is not a man of status.  Amos isn’t famous in any way and he doesn’t really have status or stature to bring him before anyone important.  He’s not a trained person in the priesthood.  He’s just an ordinary man living a pretty ordinary life.  He lived in the Judean city of Tekoa while Jeroboam II reigned over Israel, the northern kingdom, and Uzziah reigned over Judah, the southern kingdom.   So the northern and the southern kingdoms are experiencing tremendous prosperity and peace and they have not seen this kind of prosperity really since the days of Solomon, so it would seem odd by our standards that God would take a very ordinary countryman, a peasant, to deliver a very harsh message of impending judgment on Israel and the surrounding countryside, but that is exactly what he did.  

Everything looked prosperous and well, but corruption had found its way to the core of the people and they had abandoned God and they were consumed with their idol and pagan worship, the poor being misused and oppressed, which is something Amos could see intimately and closely, greed ruling the hearts of the nation’s leaders and, true to form, God sends a messenger, like he always has, letting everyone know that judgment is upon them.  But also true to God’s character, he always leaves a way out and he foretells of the remnant that will experience revival and restoration of the land.

You would think after these many thousands of years that we would know the drill, and yet it seems that we’re still grappling with and trying to grasp the very simple concept that God is sovereign and we are not as powerful as we think.  One way or the other, the hard way of judgment or the easy way of repentance, every knee will bow to his authority.  

So we begin, reading from The Message today, Amos chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 15.  

Prayer

Father, as we read through the prophetic words that foretell an outcome that the people, your people would not have wanted, may we heed the words and look for these things in our own lives.  As we move through what the Spirit said to the churches in the book of Revelation, may we hear and know what you’re saying to us.  Your word is good.  It is light.  It illuminates where we are going and this is what we need and such a gift.  So come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth as you promised.  We invite you and open ourselves to you completely.  Come, we pray, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home.  It’s home base.  It is where you find out what is going on around here and we have really three things going on right now of note that need to be mentioned.

1.       It is time to call in your holiday greetings.  A few more days and we will be beginning to put this all together. So you just use the prayer line: (877) 942-4253 to call in your holiday wishes to the Daily Audio Bible community here and we put this together in our annual Christmas Party.  It’s a virtual Christmas party that we call the Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas, but it is beautiful.  Really, really beautiful.  We enter in this story of the nativity and intersperse our calls and Jill and I get on the mic for a while and have a chit-chat about the year.  It’s really, really fun to do and always moving for me as we approach the end of the year.  So make sure to get your call in while you can.

2.      The second thing is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box.  This is something we do annually as well.  We pack a beautiful box full of the resources that have been created for this community.  This is a great box.  It has the Promised Land films in it.  It’s got Bible Stories about Jesus in it.  It’s got the Family Christmas CD in it.  Jill’s new album is in there.  My latest book Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is in there as well as the corresponding films/DVD that goes with the book and, of course, I’ve been mentioning this is the last time those will be available like this so get it while you can.  Your choice of our Windfarm coffee or our English Breakfast Tea, depending on what you like to drink in the morning or afternoon or evening, your choice, it’s in there.  Let’s see, what else?  Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards are in there and the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb for the year 2016 is there as well.  So yeah, there will be things in there you’ll want to keep and things in there you may want to give away, but grab them while you can at the Daily Audio Bible Shop at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  

3.      Then the third thing we’ve been mentioning is the More Gathering for Women that will occur this coming April.  We have advance registration pricing through the holiday season because it makes for a one-of-a-kind, very unique, really special gift for the woman or women in your lives.  So check that out as well.  You can find out all about the information you would want to know about the More Gathering at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Initiatives section.  You won’t miss it.  It is easy to find.  But all of the details you would be interested in knowing about, you can find them there.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here as we approach the end of the year, then a heartfelt humble gratitude are mine to you.  Thank you for your partnership.  The Daily Audio Bible doesn’t and can’t exist if we don’t do this together.  These 16 servers just don’t spin on their own and all the associated things that it takes each and every day.  So thank you for your partnership in allowing the Daily Audio Bible to be here for you and to continue to build the community we are.  There is a link.  It is on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You can find it in the app if you push the More button which is in the lower right-hand corner.  Or the mailing address, if you prefer, is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, or right now, a holiday greeting, (877) 942-4253 is the number to call if you’re in the Americas. If you’re in UK or Europe, you can call 44, 20-3608-8078.  And if you are in Australia or the lands down under, 61, 3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hey DAB family.  This is Byron out in Florida.  Just checking in.  God is good and so am I.  Victorious Soldier, thank you so much for your prayers for me.  I’m always encouraged by hearing you pray.  It reminds me of when my mother prayed, so thank you so much for that.  Cherry C., Cherry Pie, sorry to hear about your struggling in these different ways. I am praying for you.  I too have been in a situation with the church where I wasn’t sure what I needed to do and at some point I got wisdom on it, but it was the opposite of what I wanted in my bones to do.  But I stuck it out and it made all the difference, all the difference, all the difference.  So I’m praying for you, that God gives you wisdom about where you need to be as far as worshipping with family and that he will help you with all your other struggles as well.  I just thank God that we have this community here and that all of our struggles, this is one place that can be relied on in our usual way.  I love that we show up for one another.  It has really helped me throughout the years.  I know it has helped countless others.  I love you guys.  Talk to you later.  God bless you Brian and Jill.  See you.

Father God, we just praise you this morning, Lord, for you are holy and there is none like you, Lord.  Lord, we lift up our brother, Mark, from the Four Corners area, Lord.  Lord, we pray, O God, that you hear his cry.  We pray, O Lord, that you relieve him and his family of spirits of addiction in the name of Jesus.  Father God, we ask, O God, that you fill him with your Holy Spirit and remind him who he is in you.  Lord, I pray that your love and your peace would just flow through him right now, even as he hears this prayer, Lord.  And that it will flow through him to his daughter and his son, Father.  God, I praise you, Lord, because you came to set the captives free and those whom you set free are free indeed.  So Father God, we speak freedom over Mark and his family in the name of Jesus.  God, we praise you, Lord, that there is no addiction that is stronger than you, O Lord. There is nothing, Father, because you move mountains, Lord.  We ask that this mountain of addiction be raised up and cast into the sea, in the name of Jesus.  And we claim victory over him and his family, in Jesus’ name.  God, we love you and we thank you.  In Jesus’ name.  Mark, I heard your prayer request today and I just want you to know that you are not alone and whenever you feel that withdrawal or feeling of negativity, just speak it out loud and say that you are not alone, that God is with you, and that in the name of Jesus that mountain be cast into the sea.  We love you, love you, love you.  

Morning, fellow Dabbers.  It’s Joe, the Protector from Georgia, December 6^th about 8 a.m.  Just finished listening to the December 6^th podcast and man, what a great lesson, some good call ins, specifically I’m calling about two of those.  The first one is Mike in Four Corners.  Hey brother, I hear your plea there for yourself and your family.  First of all, you are a child of God, so don’t ever doubt yourself on that and don’t ever put yourself down for that.  Brother, we’ve been given access to the keys of the kingdom of God and those keys are to bind what is found in heaven such as sin, depression, sickness, anger, addictions, whatever it might be, and to loose on earth what is in heaven.  Those are prosperity, goodness, righteousness, just healthy relationships, health and physicality, and things of that nature.  Just joy, gladness, everything like that, brother.  So just pray the kingdom to come down here on earth and to loose what is in heaven which is goodness and to bind the things on earth that are in heaven like sin.  Just start practicing those key principles.  The other one is Carol that called in that was supposed to be on the Israel trip and wasn’t able to make it due to the car accident…

Hi, this is Kim from Kentucky and it’s Tuesday, December 6^th, 8:30 in the morning.  I’m on my way to work and I just finished listening to the prayer line.  I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the sister who at the end she spoke the words of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.  I never had heard that song all the way through. I really listened to the words and it is a great song.  Thank you so much for sharing that.  It made me think of the gentleman who called in earlier that was reportedly a father and he was asking for prayer because of his addictions to alcohol and pornography and his son had an eating disorder and his daughter has started pornography and in that song it says we can rest, let nothing dismay us, let nothing shake us because our Savior was born and we can overcome sinful nature in spite of us because of that.  So for that father and that family, I’m just praying for you all.  The power is in you, brother, to resist every temptation that the enemy throws at you.  Even the Bible says no temptation has taken us, that such is common and God gives us a way out.  And know that the Spirit inside of you is your way out, to just say no and it is there for you and others.  Just know your prayers have been heard and you’re being prayed for and we love you. I just thank you so much.  I’m so happy everyone got back home safe from Israel. I pray one day I will get to be on that trip with you, Brien.  Blessings in Jesus’ name.  Bye.  

Good morning my Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Lisa from Nevada.  There are two Lisa’s from Nevada.  I’m the one that doesn’t have the courage to get up at the farewell dinner the night of saying goodbye to everyone in Israel.  I so wish I can speak in front of people.  But I’m calling today to thank you, Brian and Jill and the whole Daily Audio Bible family. Morningstar, __________, the tour guides, Olga and Ellie for what an amazing experience.  2016 has been the most unbelievably blessed year for me and my family, overcoming obstacles with birth certificates, with passports in order to get my husband, __________, to get to go with me to Israel.  Last minute, finally getting the passport.  Arriving there, renewing our vows, getting baptized in the River Jordan.  Against all odds.  The pastor here in my little town said that wasn’t biblical, that I didn’t need to be baptized in the Jordan River.  I got baptized in the Jordan River and I thank the Daily Audio Bible and Morningstar and Olga and Ellie and everybody that had anything to do with…Tatiana, the rooms, the food, everything was above and beyond.  And if you could save to get to go to Israel with the Daily Audio Bible, I strongly encourage that.  It will not leave you the same.  

Hello, this is Miguel from California.  I’m calling with a message for Naomi.  I forget where you said you were from, but you were a first-time caller who shared with everybody a story of being rescued from a lifestyle of sin and finding relationship with Jesus.  So encouraged by that and your story going on to ask for prayer for your former husband who has also now fallen into a lifestyle of sin.  So the Lord has put it on my heart to call in with a word for you. First off, a word for protection for you and this newfound relationship with Jesus.  This is the most precious thing you have.  May you be protected in that and be commissioned to share this gospel with your former husband in power, in Jesus’ name.  So receive the word from the Lord.  Stand firm then, Naomi, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of Pete.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  Naomi, may you be commissioned in the name of the Lord.  May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus be with you.  Amen.  

Joel 1:1-3:21 ~ Revelation 1:1-20 ~ Psalm 128:1-6 ~ Proverbs 29:18

Today is the 9^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is great to be here with you.  Wow! So like we’re almost a third of the way through the final month of the year.  It’s hard to believe.  We have one of the rare opportunities today to begin two different books on the same day, so in both the Old and the New Testaments we’ll begin new books.  Of course, in the New Testament we’ll be beginning the final book.  But before we get there, let’s talk about where we’re going in the Old Testament.  

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

The book of Joel – Joel was a prophet who wrote his book of prophecy more than likely in the mid-800s BC so a long time ago.  He writes of a vast horde of locusts that have invaded the land and obliterated the crops and everything else, causing great famine.  And as is true with most of the Bible, this brings them to a fork in the road where a choice must be made.  They can return to God and enjoy his blessings and restoration, or they can continue to reject God and face what Joel calls the day of the Lord, the day of God’s judgment.  And, of course, we’ve spent enough time in the Bible to understand the heart of God. It’s not God’s will that his people suffer these terrible repercussions.  So he is constantly calling them back as he continues to do today. We see this through some of the most beautiful promises of restoration and hope in the entire Bible that are spoken through the prophet Joel.  

So we begin Joel chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 21.  We’re reading from The Message this week.  

Introduction of a New Book (New Testament)

This brings us in the New Testament to the gateway of the final book of the New Testament which is the final book of the Bible.  The book of Revelation is, well, the thing about it is it is not really a book at all.  It is a letter written by the apostle John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. Patmos is an island southwest of Ephesus that the Romans used to banish people to who had committed crimes against Rome.  So John would have been a very old man at this point and he wrote this letter to churches that had been established during the time of Paul’s missionary journey some 50 years earlier.  So this letter is written to established churches.  

Revelation is one of the more controversial or misunderstood books of the Bible, but no matter which school of interpretation you adhere to, when you distill it all down, it’s a call to repentance and spiritual renewal.  It is a letter to encourage Christians and bolster their faith in the face of tribulation and trial and it is a letter of great hope because once again it shows that our Lord and Savior, Jesus is in fact all-powerful and in the end he remains victorious and we remain victorious along with him.  

So we begin Revelation chapter 1.  

Prayer

Father, as we turn the page and enter the final book of the Bible in the New Testament, we invite you to speak to us through it as you have every other word. And as we continue to move forward in the Old Testament through the minor prophets, we invite you to speak to us as you have every other day through your word.  As we’re here, I guess, about a third of the way through the last month, we invite you, Jesus.  This can become a very, very, very disruptive, busy time and we can get completely lost in why and we can find ourselves coming out the other side of this in complete disarray in a lot of places of our lives, but we’re choosing ahead now to stay lockstep with you and lockstep with your word.  So come, Holy Spirit.  Be the guiding force in this season as we seek to finish well the race of the year, the year through the Bible.  Come Jesus, we pray.  In your mighty name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home.  It’s the website.  It is where you find out what is going on around here and three primary things are going on around here right now.  

1.       It is time to call in your holiday greetings.  For the next several days we’ll take those and then we’ll be compiling our Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas that we do every year.  It’s one of the most beautiful times of just sharing with each other and sharing in the story, so be sure to get your call in.  You just use the prayer line:  (877) 942-4253 and the only thing about this is that you don’t combine your Christmas call, your holiday wishes with a prayer request call. That will kind of disqualify them both. If you have a Christmas wish, call that in, and then if you actually have something else going on, then call that in separate.  That will keep everything tidy and neat for me as we try to put it together.  So that is the deal on that.  

2.      The second thing is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box is available.  It will sell out.  We can tell that for sure, but there are still some left.  Grab yours while you can.  We have packed it full of resources from the Daily Audio Bible, things that you’ll want to keep, things that you’ll want to give away, so check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.

3.      Then the third thing is advance registration for the More Gathering for Women that is coming this April in the beautiful southern Appalachian Mountains located in North Georgia just outside of Atlanta about an hour.  It is a spectacular place and so we have advance registration through the end of the year and it covers the holiday season because it makes for a unique, one-of-a-kind, spectacular gift for the woman in your life, to send her away with no obligation, with no responsibilities and none of the weight of life crashing in around here and just allow her to reset in her heart with God. It’s the gift that keeps on giving without a doubt.  So you can check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com as well in the Initiatives area.  Everything that you would want to know, you will find there so check it out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here as we approach the end of the year, then thank you truly and humbly.  If Daily Audio Bible has been life-giving to you, then thank you for being life-giving back.  This is how we do the dance that is the Daily Audio Bible every day.  We do it together as a community.  Thank you for your partnership.  There is a link.  It is on the home page of the website.  If you use the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 and, of course, right now, if you have a holiday greeting, you can use that line as well.  Then there are a couple of other numbers around the world.  If you are in the UK or Europe, 44, 20-3608-8078 would be the number to call.  And if you are in Australia or the lands down under, 61, 3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Nick B., originally from California, here in the country of Belize. I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I want to say that a lot of times people do not hear their names being mentioned about specific requests that they give, but know that Jesus does hear our prayer and that is the most important thing that we need to consider, that he hears our prayer, our prayer of sincerity, so when you don’t hear your name mentioned, don’t think that the prayer warriors associated with the Daily Audio Bible family are not praying for you.  Sister Victorious Soldier, I want to thank you for lifting me up and many others that have mentioned me.  I thank you and I covet your prayers.  Please continue to pray for me.  I want to thank the Hardin family and those behind the scenes that play such an integral part in our community.  Pray that you would just continue to embrace God’s promises as we are in this season. I’m away from my family.  Just continue to pray for me that I may continue to allow God to use me in the way that he chooses.  I thank you.  God bless your name.  Biola, Blind Tony, all the faithful out there, Sue from Seattle, the quadriplegic, and many others, just know that God is good all the time.  All the time God is good.  Amen.

This is Anne in Charlotte, NC and we do pray for requests even though we may not call in and say so.  I want to assure people of that.  I pray today for the children of Aleppo and many, many children, especially unborn children who just need to have the right to be born alive.  I wanted to ask for some prayer because I am really having a lot of sadness and grieving as the holidays are here and I miss my estranged children.  I was listening to Brian’s commentary today on Hosea and I never thought of it in the light of any estrangement, any rejection.  I’ve always thought of it as the marital relationship, but the unnatural rejection of my children that I gave birth to and love so much is just a daily grief and pain that most days I do okay but some days I just have a heavy sadness. My fourth daughter, who was married a little over a year ago is in California and expecting a baby and she has been very sick with the pregnancy.  I’ve talked to her once but she doesn’t answer my calls or respond to my texts except very rarely.  She doesn’t want me in her life hardly at all.  And Noran, the child, my new grandbaby who I love and has a Christian grandmother that loves them, it just hurts so much and in the past few days I’ve just felt like I can’t bear it, Lord.  The grief is so heavy.

Hey guys.  It’s Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL.  Good morning. It’s December 5^th.  I’m on my way back to work, to the place where I thought would never have to go back to, but that God has asked that I go back to with him and with him I go, a little stressed out, but trusting my Father. As you know, these people have tried to fire me as early as three weeks ago and had it not been for my knowledge of the law and threats of suing them, I probably would not have a job anymore. I have tried like crazy to find another job but it has not happened.  This is all in God’s hands.  I praise him.  I worship him.  I’m declaring __________.  Unlike like me, he has the whole picture, so I am trusting him with all of my heart.  Jen from Southern California, I just want to let you know that I have been praying incessantly for you for the loss of your stepmother and __________ for your daughter Abbie.  Kevin, I wanted to let you know that I have been praying for you, your legal case, and that the Lord will open doors for you to see your babies again.  And finally, Keepers of the Earth, I was overjoyed to hear of the positive __________ of your case and that you are finally going to be able to see your child.  We have been praying with you for so long and we’re rejoicing what God is doing. Family, I cherish your prayers and I continue to pray with every one of you every single day.  All my love to each one of you, have a great day.  Bye.  

Good morning.  This is Shirley from southeastern Washington.  It is Monday, December 5^th.  I just got through listening to the DAB.  Thank you Jill and Brian for this venue that we come together and listen and read God’s word and to pray for each other.  I’m calling because I heard a request for prayer for Paul in Barcelona.  Just want to let you know, Paul, that we are praying for the children in Aleppo and please don’t leave the group.  That is what Satan would want you to do.  So just know that the family of God and probably many, many others that you don’t know about are praying for them.  So don’t listen to the lies of the enemy.  We all need to stand together and pray together.  Just letting you know we’re here, we’re listening, and we’re praying.  So just letting you know that.  Also want to pray for Margaret.  Margaret, I’m going to be praying that you get a job and that it is a job that is right for you and that you’ll be able to handle it.  I just want to thank everybody for calling in and for those who are praying. Even though you don’t hear your name or you don’t hear your prayer requests, know that God knows and that there are people praying.  God is an awesome God.  He knows everything and he directs his prayer warriors even in the middle of the night. I know it has happened to me.  At times I’ll wake up and I know I’m awake because I need to pray for someone.  So just want to thank you all.  Love you all. Have a blessed Merry Christmas Season and remember that the reason for the season is Jesus because God loved us so much that he sent his only son for us.  

Hello Daily Audio Bible community.  This is Cheryl in Arizona, trying to move quickly toward my two reasons for calling. I listened to the December 4^th podcast this morning and I’ve got the 5^th to listen to yet. I love it.  I love all of you.  Thank you Brian and Jill and this beautiful community.  I heard two in particular this morning, prayer requests that really touched my heart and hit close to home definitely.  So for Tricia who called in about her marriage of seven years that has been suffering since about three months in when you were involved in an accident and for Katie who also called in regarding her marriage with the two little boys, I think you said ages 1 and 4.  Those suffering in your marriages, and then Katie mentioned there have been several times that she hasn’t felt safe, just want to pray for the two of you.  The Holy Spirit really touched my heart because again I have definitely been in situations that are similar to what you described.  So right now, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I lift up Tricia and Katie, God, these two beautiful women of God before you, Lord, and I just pray for your protection.  And Lord, you say in your word that if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God and that God will provide that wisdom.  Lord, may the answer be there.  May the comfort be there.  May the safety be there.  I just pray that you would give your angels charge over these and all the situations like it, for the ones that did not call in who are in similar situations.  God, I pray for your protection, your wisdom, and your clarity, strength, comfort, all that is needed.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible.  This is Nettie in New Jersey.  Today I want to lift up Mark and I want to lift up Carol.  Lord Jesus, please fill their house, of Mark and of Carol, and my own house and the house of all our Daily Audio Bible brothers and sisters.  Father God, fill our bodies, our souls, and our spirits.  Father God, get us in divine alignment.  Rise up within us.  Holy Spirit, cover our actions, our thoughts.  Cover our deeds, Father God.  Cover our words.  Cover our prayers.  We want our prayers strong, Father God.  We want our minds sound.  We want to be able to sleep.  We want to be able to look at healthy things.  Father God, keep the word healthy in our hearts.  Father God, Holy Spirit, we can’t do it on our own.  We need you, so we surrender right here, right now, Father God.  Carol and Mark and Mark’s children, Father God, and my own sons and husband.  Father God, I lift up Nick.  He is being bullied at school by a young lady who is calling him things that are really provoking and he is struggling with defending himself because sometimes it is hard to just take it.  So Father God, I just pray for the Holy Spirit to cover his thoughts and his tongue, Father God, and to just put a hand of protection over him and over Carol and over Mark and his son and his daughter.  Father God, put a hand of protection over us.  Holy Spirit, when you knock on our door, let us open up wide and just let you come in and take over in our life because we can’t do it on our own, Father God.  Let us just surrender and be obedient and you will take care of all things.  You take care of the sparrow.  You told us that you would feed anybody, anybody who asks, anybody can have the living water, Father God, and we need you, Holy Spirit, to just carry us through the day so we’re not in our own flesh.  In Jesus’ mighty, mighty and precious name I pray, amen.  

Hosea 10:1-14:9 ~ Jude 1:1-25 ~ Psalm 127:1-5 ~ Proverbs 29:15-17

Today is the 8^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is great to be here with you, day 4 of jet lag recovery.  Feeling pretty good, probably won’t mention it anymore and bore you with the jet lag stories.  I’m feeling pretty good.  Some of the hours are a little off still, but excited for God’s word today because, man, I need it in my life just like we all do.  It is such an honor that we get to do this together.  It is crazy to think about sometimes.  So rather than thinking about it, let’s do it.  Let’s dive into God’s word.

We’re reading from The Message this week and we’re reading through the book of Hosea right now in the Old Testament.  When we get to the New Testament we’re going to read the book of Jude, so we’ll talk about it and we’ll read it in its entirety which will then set us up tomorrow to begin the book of Revelation which is the final book of the Bible, so we will walk our way through that up until the end of the year as we round out the Old Testament, the Psalms and the Proverbs. But that is tomorrow.  Today Hosea chapter 10 verse 1 through 14 verse 9.

Introduction of a New Book (New Testament)

This brings us to the epistle or letter of Jude.  It is a mere 25 verses and yet it packs a very direct and succinct punch.  We don’t know a whole lot about Jude’s background and his life.  We do know that he was the half-brother of Jesus and the brother of James, neither of whom believed that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God, during his earthly ministry, but his resurrection from the dead seemed to change their viewpoints considerably and understandably.  

We don’t know exactly who Jude wrote this letter to other than we know that he wrote it to believers.  He wrote to vigorously combat a false doctrine that was going through the church that basically said the grace of God through Jesus gives us license to do whatever we want to do.  So some people were misbehaving in all sorts of inappropriate ways.  Jude hits this head-on and directly as a false doctrine and challenges believers to contend for their faith.  

These are very good words as we turn the corner and head into the final chapters of the Bible, for the life of faith is something we must contend for. This faith journey, this relationship with God is something that we have to be overwhelmingly committed to and fighting for.  

So we begin and we will read in its entirety the letter of Jude today.  

Prayer

Father, it is true what the psalms say:  If you don’t build the house, it is a waste of time.  If you don’t guard the city, no matter what we do, it is not going to work.  And we have human history to show us this and we have our own lives that tell us this is absolutely true.  So we call upon you, even mimicking the words of Jude.  You’re the only one that can keep us on our feet standing tall in your presence, fresh and celebrating.  You are the only one, the only Savior.  You are the only master and we give all glory, majesty, strength and rule, from before all time until now and to the end of all time, to you.  We love you.  We worship you.  We ask you to build the house that is our home and the city that is where we dwell and we ask that you show us how to collaborate with you in that so that our lives have a purpose that is beyond all of the nonsense that we wander into. Come Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus we ask.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It is where you find out what is going on around here.  So a few things, three things:  

1.       It is time to call in your holiday greetings for the Daily Audio Bible Virtual Family Christmas Party that we have each year.  So we compile all that and do a reading of the nativity story, the Christmas story and intersperse that with our calls.  It is just a beautiful, beautiful time that we have together.  So the number that you call is the same as the prayer request line:  (877) 942-4253.  The only rule really about this is that you don’t combine holiday wishes with a prayer request in the same call.  So if you have a prayer request or something like that, keep that separate from your Christmas wishes to your brothers and sisters that are in the Daily Audio Bible community.  And that is the rule about that.  So for the next few days we’ll be taking those calls, so call in your Christmas wishes.

2.      The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box is available now for Christmas and we’ve packed it full of resources that we’ve created for our community here.  So the Promised Land Films double DVD is included.  Bible Stories About Jesus, the double CD is included.  Family Christmas, the CD project is included.  Jill’s latest album that we released this year is included.  And that would be enough, but wait!  There’s more. So my latest book Reframe is in there, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us, a deep exploration of what it actually means to be in a relationship with God.  We say it all the time, but what does that actually mean?  This book explores that.  And then the corresponding films that we created to go along with the book are included in DVD form.  This is the last time those will be available.  So get it while you can.  And then your choice of either our Windfarm coffee or our Windfarm tea, so our house blend of coffee or English Breakfast tea, your choice, as well as the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards and then the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb that is available each year in the Christmas Box.  This time it has the word for the year which was healthy on it.  It is beautiful.  I love having those on my tree.  I love it very much.  It is my personal way of kind of bringing everybody into my house for Christmas.  I look at them, literally.  I actually do.  I have them kind of front and center on my tree and so when I’m sitting on my couch at night with the lights on and just kind of chilling out and winding down for the day I can see them and think of all that we’ve been through over the years together.  So that is included in the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box as well.  Like I’ve been saying, we sell out of them, so grab them while you can.  There will be things in there that you want.  There will be things in there you may want to give away.  It’s perfect for that.  So check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.

3.      The More Gathering for Women is a conference that we put on each year in the mountains of Georgia just outside of Atlanta in this beautiful location.  Now, I know we’re just kind of getting into winter, but come April, at least here in the south, new life begins to spring forth.  So we do this at that time when it is new life springing forth.  That is what happens at the More Gathering.  So we have advance pricing right now until the end of the year so that the Christmas holiday can be taken advantage of because it is a very unique Christmas gift for the woman in your life. Giving her some space to consider what the next season of life is going to look like and to process that with God without any interruptions or anything like that, it is so rare that we get that, makes for a gift that has long term benefits.  So you can check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com as well.  You’ll find it in the Initiatives section and all of the details, everything about it that you would want to know, you can find that there.  So take advantage of the pricing that we have right now until the end of the year.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here in this final stretch of the year, thank you.  Thank you profoundly.  It is your partnership that lets the Daily Audio Bible be here.  We are a community.  That is what we are.  We’ve done what we’ve done and we’ve done everything we can do to do it with excellence and commitment and daily and we do it together.  So thank you for your partnership in allowing the Daily Audio Bible to continue into the new year.  There is a link on the home page at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You can also find it using the app by pushing the More button in the lower right-hand corner. Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment or right now a holiday greeting, (877) 942-4253 is the number to call.  And we have a couple of other numbers.  Let me grab that sheet.  I don’t have those memorized.  I mean, I kind of do but I kind of don’t have them memorized.  If you are in the UK, you can call 44, 20-3608-8078 and if you are in Australia or the lands down under, 61, 3-8820-5459 is the number to call.  

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi DAB.  December 2^nd was Baby G’s second birthday.  I was in the kitchen making birthday cupcakes for the daycare and the doorbell rings.  I went to the door and it was the postman delivering me my DAB Christmas cards and package.  Thank you SarahJane, Brian, and everyone at DAB.  I was so happy.  I put on Christmas music, was in the mood.  My son came home.  We had a nice little party for him.  Saturday, getting ready to go to a Christmas Advent function at my job and chewing on a piece of bread and crunch!  My temporary crown broke and I thought, “Oh no.  Oh my goodness.  Wow.” I’ve had a horrible headache for three days and I’ve just been fighting it and pushing through and giving God the praise and the glory and now this happens.  So not going to let it ruin my day. Getting dressed, we’ll still go to the Advent and afterwards we’ll go to the emergency doctor, get to the dental clinic and he tells me, “Your tooth is cracked.  You can’t fly to London on Monday.  It’s not good.”  Gotta cancel my business trip to London.  In bed thinking, “Well, do I need to cancel?  Maybe I could still go.”  Get up this morning, chewing a piece of toast on the right side, crunch!  Crack!  My permanent crown cracked in place.  Through all of this, I got up with a banging headache, took heavy medication, got in the kitchen and baked cookies for my church Christmas Cookie Exchange.  There is so much more of this story, but the bottom line is it was God’s __________ that I wasn’t listening to him when he told me slow down and because of that I believe God will put another stumbling block in our way and I said, “I got it!  I heard you, Jesus.  With a throbbing head, I’m calling you.  Pain in my tooth, but I’m still rejoicing.”  I love you DAB family.  Cheers to you all.  Asia from Munich.

Hi Sarah.  This is Shannon from Oregon.  I’m calling about your recent loss of your dad and the pain that you’re feeling right now. I lost my dad nearly four years ago and I understand a lot of what you’re going through right now and I want to encourage you.  I found a lot of encouragement from the Psalms which I spent a lot of time in before my dad passed away and it was one of those things the Lord just totally led in, because my dad wasn’t sick or anything.  He actually died in an accident, but I was able to be so much more real and honest with God, I think, because I had been in the Psalms and seeing that example that David gave us being just totally honest with God and God calling him a man after his own heart and not judging him or shaming him. So I wrote a song out of that pain called Hold Me and I would love to share that song with you.  If you’ll email me I will send you a copy of that song. My email is Shannon@ReidSaunders.org.  Here is a little bit of it now.  It’s called Hold Me.  [Singing] I thinking I’m doing okay until the waves come. It hits me like a wall, knocks me down, I can __________.  Am I still free __________.  It’s all that I can do.  So hold me. Hold me.  Hold me.  

Hi DAB family.  This is Grandma Dorothy, formerly from Toronto but now in far west southern Ontario. Today is Sunday.  I listened to the weekend prayer and praise and heard my call this past Tuesday and realized all my two minute rambling barely got me started on all the thoughts I wanted to express.  All the ads about Black Friday last weekend got me thinking of its true meaning and significance.  First, how blessed America is to be able to connect Thanksgiving to Christmas in their holidays, the day we thank God for all his bountiful gifts to the day God gave his greatest gift of all.  God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.  Our northern harvest comes too early for this connection.  When I first heard of Black Friday, I thought what a strange, even morbid name for the day after Thanksgiving, but later I learned it didn’t describe the day but the color for the ink in the ledgers of all businesses worldwide as these sales launched Christmas shopping that would go on until January 6^th, thus getting out of the red and into the black, recouping losses and making profits.  The bottom line is this, that after more than 2000 years and the birth of Jesus Christ and all the giving that is prompted from that is the recovering of the economy of the whole world every year.  How beautiful is this?  How very benevolent is our loving Heavenly Father.  God bless.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Homeward Bound.  Alleah, I heard your call and your cry for prayer for your family.  Your name must mean angel because you have a such a beautiful heart.  I pray that the Lord will heal your family in Jesus’ name and pour his peace over your family, that he’ll come against enemies from attacking your family and cover your home with his presence and peace.  In Jesus’ name.  Please, family, if I could ask you to pray for my son’s wife.  She is going through tremendous hardship in her job.  She works as a personal assistant and her boss has overloaded her with 60-hour work weeks and weekend work as well.  She is so worn out and overwhelmed.  I just ask that you could pray that the Lord will bring her a new job and also for salvation for her boss.  Lastly, if you could please pray for a young man we met today named Tyler who came to church.  He is 18 years old and he is seeing demonic activity in his house, even experiencing demons touching him.  Please pray for deliverance for Tyler and for God’s presence to cover his house and body and to fill him with his Spirit.  He has started coming to church more regularly, so I just ask that you could all combine your prayers for Tyler.  Thank you so much.  God bless you all and may he hear and answer every prayer that you have. Bye-bye.  This is Homeward Bound.

Hi family.  This is Jacqueline, aka Salvation is Mine in San Leandro, CA.  I haven’t called in a few days and the reason I haven’t called in for a few days is I didn’t feel like praying and I’m sure some of us have that feeling.  So on that note I’m calling in tonight to pray for those who don’t feel like praying sometimes.  So let’s do it.  Let’s pray. Dear Heavenly Father, our precious Savior, Jesus Christ, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, we come before you right now asking for your forgiveness for not feeling like we want to pray because we’re feeling so broken or feeling so down or feeling so hurt or feeling so angry at you for whatever reasons we may have that we just can’t find the words to pray. But you know the depths of our souls. You know the depths of the things that are in our heart, even when we don’t pray.  So we do ask you for your forgiveness in that matter, that we have not come to you, and seek your face and seek your word and seek your guidance and seek your mercy.  Help us to open up and to pray to you to let you know that we care.  We love you.  We know you’re there for us and that you’re just waiting for us to come to you at the throne and be there with you.  Maybe we don’t have any words to say and all we can say is, “I’m coming to you, Lord” and just be silent after that, that you will know what is in our heart and you will open up everything within us so that we may be in your presence again.  In the blessed name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit I pray.  Amen. Goodnight.

Hi, this is Elaine from Victoria.  Thank you, Jen, that is turning 50.  Happy birthday to you.  Thanks for your prayers.  I pray for you too and all that call in.  Lord, you know them all, so be with them at this time.  It is a difficult time too for me.  I did lose my husband September 9^th but it’s okay.  I pray to Jesus.  I’m celebrating his birthday.  I put __________ to my son-in-law’s sister’s place, but I don’t want to go because I have to witness drinking.  My daughter is drinking and I’ve had enough of drinking the past at Christmases so I don’t want to go there.  I may have a chance to go to have Christmas with my great-grandchildren, grandson, but it is up to the Lord where I go.  My daughter, Carrie, and her teenage daughter, they are coming.  Like times before, may you all just be with them, the three of us. It is time to focus on Jesus and I’ve tried to tell my grandson we don’t celebrate Santa Claus.  We celebrate Jesus’ birth, not getting drunk and greed.  That’s all I see.  So __________ and I thank you, Brian, for this.  It’s 1:20 in the morning, but I know I’m not alone.  So thank you and I pray for people with __________.  I pray for deliverance of __________, even in my own family.  So thank you Jesus. 

Hosea 6:1-9:17 ~ 3 John 1:1-15 ~ Psalm 126:1-6 ~ Proverbs 29:12-14

Today is the 7^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  This is day 3 of jet lag recovery.  Things are going well.  I just have a number of people on different time zones in my house right now which is a little weird.  It is like somebody is awake no matter what and little Ezekiel, he doesn’t seem to care whether it is day or night.  He just knows when he’s awake and when it is time to play, so that is fun.  But enough about me.  How are you doing?  How are you all doing all over the world?  Some of you enjoying winter weather, white snow, the Christmas holidays upon us?  Some of you are in warm climates and enjoying that.  Here in the rolling hills of Tennessee we’re enjoying wet and rain and low clouds and falling leaves.  All together it makes the beautiful tapestry of this beautiful earth that God has given us to live on.  I hope wherever you are, it is a great day and that as we move into the time of scripture, that it washes over you and resets whatever is going on.  

So let’s dive in.  We’re reading from The Message this week and picking up in the story in the book of Hosea and when we get to the New Testament, believe it or not, we are moving rapidly and we enter 3 John and we really are rounding the corner.  After 3 John comes Jude and then comes the book of Revelation which is the final book of the Bible, so we will move through 3 John and Jude rather quickly because they are short and then kind of settle in with the book of Revelation as we continue through the minor prophets in the Old Testament.  So let’s take that next step forward.  Hosea chapter 6 verse 1 through chapter 9 verse 17 today.  

Introduction of a New Book (New Testament)

The third letter of the apostle John, also known as 3 John was probably written right along with the second letter that John wrote that we read yesterday or just shortly thereafter.  It is a little different than John’s first and second letters in that this is a personal letter to a man named Gaius.  The letter was probably written from Ephesus where John was spending the latter years of his life.  Gaius was an upstanding Christian man who was a member of one of the nearby churches and he was passionate about assisting those who were traveling in ministry, missionaries in the area, and were furthering the gospel of Jesus.  

So this is a snapshot, this letter.  It is a fascinating picture of church politics.  So there is this man name Diotrephes and he inserts himself into the equation because he doesn’t like the way Gaius is doing his missionary assistance, so John writes this letter to Gaius personally to affirm him in what he is doing and to let him know he’ll deal with the issue.  This letter helps us see lines of spiritual authority.  It also helps us see that some of the issues that we hear about or see around us today, these were even struggles for those in the early church.  So we begin 3 John.  

Prayer

Father, that is our prayer from the psalm today which is such a beautiful psalm.  We have seen you at work.  We have felt your presence in our lives.  We see life bursting forth wherever we look for it.  And we pray with the psalm and now God, do it again.  Bring rains to our drought-stricken lives so those who planted their crops in despair will shout in joy at the harvest, so those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing with armloads of blessing. Father, we ask that you make that true in our lives while at the same time acknowledging the need for our own participation in it, that we heed what we learn from the scriptures yesterday, that it is not enough to know we’re supposed to love one another, that we actually have to do it.  To put ourselves in line with the way we were created and the way this psalm could wash over our lives and be true.  So come, Holy Spirt.  We ask in Jesus’ name, with all your power.  We open ourselves fully to you.  Fall upon us we ask, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website and that is home base for all of us. If we can remember that we can always find our way back to where we find out what is going on in this community. Of course, the Prayer Wall is there and all the resources are there.  So that is home base.  

What is going on right now, a few things.  One, for the next week we’re preparing for our Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas, this little virtual Christmas party that we have.  We get to hear each other’s voices and it’s a great time. So all you have to do to participate is call the prayer line, (877) 942-4253, and leave your holiday wishes to the community here.  It is obviously the prayer line, so the only rule about this, besides time and all that is don’t combine a holiday wishes call with a prayer request call.  Then neither one of those will make it through. We just don’t have the capacity to edit all that out.  So yeah, if you have a Christmas greeting, then call that in.  If you have a prayer request, call that in separate.  So we’ll compile these over the next about a week and then we’ll put our Family Christmas Party together and it’s great. It’s great.  We do it every year.  It’s always been great.  It’s never not brought me to tears just to hear everyone’s voices.  I love it.  So yeah, call in your Christmas greeting now – (877) 942-4253.  

The other thing with the holidays is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box and that is available.  They are going faster than we had anticipated.  I mean, we always sell out of them so grab yours while you can. It’s chockful of all of the resources of the Daily Audio Bible, things in there that you’ll want to keep, things in there that you will want to give away.  It’s perfect for that.  

It’s got the Promised Land Films in it.  It’s got Bible Stories About Jesus, the double CD project that we released a couple months ago in there.  Family Christmas is in there.  My wife Jill’s latest project that we released back in the summer, and it’s awesome. If you haven’t heard it yet, it is so deeply encouraging on so many levels.  That is in there.  My latest book Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is included as well as the corresponding films to the book on DVD and this is the last time those will be available so take advantage of that.  Your choice of our Windfarm house blend coffee or our English Breakfast tea, if you’re a tea drinker, and some of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards as well as the Daily Audio Bible 2016 Christmas Bulb is included.  The bulb, the only place you can get it is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box.  I’ve got these on my tree for the last several years and I love that.  I love that.  So that is the Christmas Box.  It is available at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  

Also, preregistration, advance registration for the More Gathering coming up this April is available now through the end of the year.  It makes for a very unique, one-of-a-kind Christmas present for the woman in your life.  It is a life-changing thing without a doubt and so we try to make this available for the holiday season as a gift idea that has profound impact because it is a beyond a thing.  It is just the offer of time away with God to reset, to reconsider life and move in new directions.  So check it out.  You can find out everything you would want to know about the More Gathering at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Initiatives or the Events section. Just click through and you can read all the details.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Thank you humbly, deeply, sincerely for allowing the Daily Audio Bible to be here. We’ve done this together and it has only ever been something that we’ve done together.  It’s really remarkable, this community.  It is really truly unique and one-of-a-kind.  I’m always reminded of that.  So what we’ve done we’ve done together.  Thank you for your partnership in allowing it to continue forward. There is a link on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you use the app, push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment or right now a holiday greeting, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.  

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi.  This is Victorious Soldier just calling tonight to pray for Tricia from Nevada and Katie from Annapolis where they’re having the challenges in their marriage. I’m just praying to give them an opportunity to let God direct them on what they can do in order to put about some positive changes and some positive blessings in that marriage.  Gracious Father, we come before your throne of grace once again.  Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we just thank you today for these two young women. O Lord, that they made the commitment to be married to someone, Lord, to trust you, Lord, being in the middle of that marriage, Lord.  O Lord, we ask you to touch the spouses.  O Lord, we ask you to touch the man first, Lord.  O Lord, teach him how to win control in his marriage through the love, Lord. O Lord, in the name of Jesus.  O Lord, you touch those __________, Lord. You touch that husband to be the husband that you are calling him to be.  O Father, you control that anger, Lord.  O, you were angry.  You were for me with everything.  You were angry but you sinned not.  You were angry but you cast them out but you didn’t do anything evil.  You knew how to do it and you knew how to do it right. Lord, you touch the hearts that need to be written in.  The only way to __________ him is he has to be under control and you are the Holy Spirit. You can do anything.  Lord, you touch those marriages.  You be in the midst, Lord.  You touch those husbands and you bring them together and bless that house, that it be a house that you are calling it to be.  You bless those young women.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible.  This is Janaya from Indiana and I’ve been a listener since 2011.  And this is my first time calling in.  I just wanted to say I’m praying for all of you, for everyone that has the __________ to call in.  I just heard Tricia from Nevada and Katie from Annapolis and I’m praying for you both and anyone that is going through abusive relationships, particularly marriage.  I just left my husband of two years of marriage and we have three kids.  I have twin boys and a baby girl and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but my prayer to God was that he show me what was going on.  I didn’t even realize it was an abusive relationship and situation.  I prayed for God’s peace and his joy and his will and he answered my prayer.  He will answer yours.  Just continue to pray.  If you all want to reach out to me and talk and pray together, you can reach me at my email:  DABJanaya@gmail.com.  

December 4^th, __________ Rose from the Chicago area. Father God, I lift up the woman who is calling about her son and has called many times.  He is in jail and I believe struggling with addiction problems. Father God, it appears that she doesn’t really know you and that she was raised Hindu and it didn’t work for her. Holy God, I pray for this mother and for her son.  I pray for them individually and together, Father, that you would work, that you would show them that you are God, that you would bring someone in this young man’s life to bring him strength and peace, Father God, and you would strengthen this mother and her mother’s heart.  Mend her entire life by your Spirit, Father God.  She calls into this line, Lord.  She hurts and she is desperate for her son and she is crying out and you would wish that no one would be lost, Father.  I pray for their strength and their individual understanding of you, Father, that you would move, that you would bring courage, that you would bring light in this difficult, dark situation.  Father God, there was a woman who called in.  She lived with her mother and I don’t think she has anybody else and her mother died about eight weeks ago.  Holy God, I can understand for I purchased an apartment of my mother’s house and she is elderly, Father God.  I pray, Lord, that you would work in the loneliness, the aloneness, Father God, in the sorrow, in the grieving, in the loss, Father God.  That you would strengthen her.  If there are words from around her who kind of say, well, your mother was old anyway, you knew it was going to happen, Father, that you would break the pain of that, of that sorrow.  Amen.  

Hey everyone.  It’s Arjen from Florida.  First, I just wanted to say, you know, when I say that I love you guys, that I really do mean that from the bottom of my heart just because I find the genuineness here that is just lacking in the world.  I just want to encourage all of you guys that it means a lot to me and I’m sure many other people.  I love you guys.  I don’t really have any prepared thing to say about that.  I just wanted to say that.  But I also wanted to extend a prayer for physical, spiritual and emotional weariness and feelings of loneliness.  So Jesus, Father, Friend, I lift up all of us in this community who whether it be due to the holidays or because of life or whatever, they just feel spiritually tapped out, physically exhausted, alone, feeling like we’re isolated from you and the community.  Jesus, I pray for your encouragement, Lord, that we realize that your word is a foundation. It is not an extra component to our lives that we can just add on.  No Lord, we ask you to help us realize how foundational and how true it is, God. And we ask you to help us, to give us revelations that each of the promises is absolutely true, even when it doesn’t seem like it, even when it doesn’t feel like it.  Father, reinforce in our heart that yes, your word, but you, Lord, you, God, Jehovah, Yahweh, that you are more real and you are…

Hi DAB family.  I am a survivor of a very damaging family situation.  My ex-husband was very angry all the time and I stayed there for 23 years because I thought that was the right thing to do.  I have two children that are now in their 20s that are damaged from this situation.  So my prayer is for every woman that has called in that has these kinds of situations, these abusive situations, know that this is abuse.  Know that you need to separate.  I’m not telling you to divorce.  Get your children out of the situations because yes, God says if you are with an angry person, get away from that angry person lest you become one.  One of your children is becoming one.  I am praying for you diligently.  I have no prayer request for myself right now.  I am praying for you.  I love you DAB family.  I love you all.  God bless you.  

Hi everyone.  It’s Christy from Kentucky, a cold Kentucky morning on my way to church.  I just wanted to ask for a few prayer requests for someone that has called me.  I met this young lady in a doctor’s office and she has been calling me requesting prayer requests.  This is the second one I’m sending in for her and what a blessing it is.  She asked me to please put this on the international prayer chain.  So here we go.  Little Autumn is 13 or possibly 14 years old, was in a very bad car accident and she was on her way to the hospital when Dianna called me and so I’m asking, if you would, to please pray for Autumn, praying that her injuries are not critical and praying that she will be home even now as we speak.  Also wanted to pray for Casey.  Casey is in her 40s and she has been going in to have routine polyps removed but this time they found a tumor and they told her it was cancer.  So if you would just pray for Casey and we know God’s healing hand is on her life and we just praise God for that.  And also for a young man named Scott.  Scott has cancer as well.  They thought they had it under control, but it looks like it has come back.  But God. Amen?  But God.  And we just praise God for his healing, healing power.  I miss you all.  I am so far behind but I want you to know that I think of you all all the time and I love you.  I pray that everyone is well.  I want to give a shout-out to Blind Tony.  I understand that you’ve been battling.  You know that God’s hand is on your life, Pastor Tony.  Pastor Tony, did you hear what I just called you? Prophetically, I feel sure. Alright guys, I love you.  Have a blessed day.  

Hosea 4:1-5:15 ~ 2 John 1:1-13 ~ Psalm 125:1-5 ~ Proverbs 29:9-11

Today is the 6^th day of December and like day 2 of jet lag recovery from Israel.  It’s like I got home and the seasons have changed.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, at least the southern style which is fairly gray and brown and the leaves have fallen.  We’re doing everything we can to sort of sleep when we must and reintegrate.  One of the beautiful ways that happens is continuing with the rhythm that we’ve established for our lives every day to enrich ourselves through God’s word and listen to him speak.  So let’s jump into that now.  

We’re reading from The Message this week and we just really got going in the book of Hosea, so we’ll continue forward in that and then when we get to New Testament, we’ve got a new letter because we’re kind of moving through some of these shorter letters and it will bring us to 2 John.  But first, Hosea chapter 4 verse 1 through 5 verse 15 today.

Introduction of a New Book (New Testament)

Coming quickly on the heels of John’s first letter is 2 John, the second epistle of John written shortly after he wrote his first letter and probably to the same people he wrote the first letter to.  This letter was probably written from the city of Ephesus where John spent the latter years of his life and he wrote it to encourage and strengthen the church against the false doctrine that was so pervasive around them and to remind them that they needed to guard themselves against these false doctrines and live in truth and love in contrast to these false teachings.  

This is all true today.  There are plenty of false doctrines around us, plenty of things to be seduced by and it’s very important that we walk in truth and love, guarding ourselves as we carry forward the gospel, the banner, as ambassadors of the gospel on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ.  So we begin 2 John chapter 1.  

Commentary

John reiterates what is throughout the entire Bible and throughout the entire faith culture that we live in to the point of cliché.  That we should love one another is sort of foundational and irreplaceable and we all know it.  But the question that remains is are we living it?  To know about something and to live something, those are two different things.  Just like to know about God is not the same as being in a relationship with God so we can know that we’re supposed to love one another and not and then what is the good of knowing about it?  

Here’s the thing.  Loving one another as Jesus loved us, that is the centerpiece of this faith.  If we aren’t doing that, well then a couple of things.  One, it’s not going to work.  The faith journey is not going to work.  Loving one another is the centerpiece.  But it is not just this commandment.  It is not just this cage.  It is this invitation.  To love one another is to live Christ-like.  To love one another is to live healthy as we were made to be.  

So may we take some moments throughout this day and kind of consider that, consider the ways in which we are loving well and consider the ways in which we are not because it is not like an on or off thing.  It is like we sort of do this.  What if we went all in and actually did set aside preference in every other thing and just lived in love for God’s people including the ones in our homes and love the world as Christ did?  Then we would be living well.  We would be living healthy.  So let’s invite the Holy Spirit into what that would look like if we were fully engaged.

Prayer

We do invite you, Holy Spirit, and we invite your life and your love to be a part of our lives, to spill out of the overflow of our lives into everyone that we interact with in any way.  May we love as you love because this is healthy and this is right and this is how we are made.  Anything less is living contrary to our design and so it makes a lot of sense that so many things won’t work.  We’re living contrary.  So help us, Holy Spirit.  Set us right. Give us the eyes and ears of the kingdom.  Give us your heart for those that you love and may we love them as you do.  We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s, of course, where you find out what is going on around here.  It’s Christmastime around here, so a couple things.  Today we’re going to start what we do annually in creating our Annual Virtual Christmas Party.  So if you’ve been around the Daily Audio Bible for more than year, then you kind of know the drill here.  If this is your first year, what we do is we call in Christmas holiday wishes for each other and then we create this little Christmas party that we can all listen to and a retelling of the Christmas story is involved and just our calls and it’s a really, really beautiful time.  

So in order to create that, here’s what you do.  You call the prayer line, (877) 942-4253, and leave your holiday wishes.  However, there is one trick, one request.  Since it is the prayer line, if you have a prayer request or anything like that, don’t mix it together with your holiday greeting or neither one of them…I mean, there is just no way to do that.  So if you have a prayer request, call it in, of course.  And then if you have a holiday wish, call it in separately, differently and then we will compile all of that together and have our annual Daily Audio Bible Christmas Party with each other.  It’s a lot of fun.  So we’re starting to do that now.  We’ll do it for about a week so get your calls in for that.  

Then also the Christmas Box is something we’ve been talking about.  I love it when we do this every year because we pack this box full of resources, things that are like, yeah, I’ve been wanting that.  Things that you’ll want to keep.  Things that you’ll want to give away.  This Christmas Box is full of stuff.  

The Promised Land DVD series, the two DVD set with four hours of content from the land we just got back…  I still haven’t done all my laundry.  It is still in my clothes, the dust of that land is on my shoes and feels like it’s still on my skin.  So yeah, the land of the Bible, the places that we were just at and so much more is included in Promised Land and that is in the Christmas Box.  

And then Bible Stories About Jesus, the two CD set, the reading of the gospel of Mark in its entirety using age-appropriate translations for children.  It’s great for the car.  It’s great for bedtime.  It’s great to introduce those children in your lives to the stories about Jesus and how it is that he came for us and what his coming means to us. So that is Bible Stories about Jesus.

The Family Christmas album is included.  Jill’s latest album that we released this year is included.  

My latest book Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is in there as well as the films that go along with the book in DVD form and this will be the last time those are available so they are in the box this year.  

Then your choice of our Windfarm house blend coffee or our English Breakfast tea, whichever you prefer.  

What else?  The Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards, so there is like a pack of 20 of them with their envelopes.  They are in there.  

And the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb for 2016 is in there. That is the only place you can get it, is in the Christmas Box.  

So check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

Then the other thing we’ve been mentioning is the advance registration for the More Gathering coming up this April and it’s amazing and it makes for quite the unique, one-of-a-kind Christmas gift for the women in your lives. So check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You’ll find it in the Initiatives or in the Events section.  You’ll find it.  All the information, all of the stuff that you would want to know, that’s all there and advance registration will go to the end of the year.  So check that out as well.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It is on the home page.  Thank you so very much for letting the Daily Audio Bible continue to exist and move forward into the next year.  Thank you humbly.  That we get to do this is amazing.  That this community exists and is a beautiful, beautiful representation of the body of Christ in this world, it’s amazing.  So thank you for your partnership.  There is a link on the home page.  If you use the Daily Audio Bible App, push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment or right now a holiday greeting, (877) 942-4253 is the number to call.

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hello.  My name is Jennifer and I’m from Las Vegas.  I’ve been listening daily since January 1^st of this year and I’m able to tell who each person is by the voice before each person’s introduction and for that I’m thankful for the dedication of the Hardin family.  I’m calling today for Gloria who called in about a month ago and had lost her cat.  My heart broke when I heard the call and I still think on that call with sadness today.  I know there are some crazy and horrible things that go on in the world that many may think are more deserving of my concern, but there is something so sweet in the trust of a pet.  I don’t know what message there is in the loss of your cat, Gloria, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve been thinking about you and I hope that you found some comfort while searching the Lord for answers.  May God bless all of you.  Thank you.

Hi, this is Mark from the Four Corners Area.  This is my second time to call.  I’ve been listening for about six months now and it is a true blessing.  I am so blessed to have this community.  I want to put in some prayer requests.  The first prayer request I have is that there is some sort of resolution as far as my own family and my church family.  We kind of fell away from the church family the last year and I just pray that there is some sort of resolution there because I need God so badly.  Also I pray that God shows me who to give to.  If it doesn’t happen to be this church family, who do I give to?  Also want to pray about my addictions.  I have an addiction to pornography and alcohol and this leaves me so down, especially this winter, and I just hurt so badly sometimes and I’m so hard on myself.  And also want to pray for my son who has an eating addiction.  His name is Nathan and please pray that he can change his ways. I’ve been working so hard with him so he can change his eating habits and it just doesn’t seem to be making headway, so I want to pray for him.  And I also have doubts with myself about whether I’m a true son of God because of my lack of self-control recently.  And I have a daughter who has a porn addiction as well and she is a very young age and it surprised our family, kind of shocked us, so if you could just be praying for my family, that would be wonderful.  I love you guys.  I am so fortunate to have you guys to…

Good evening DAB.  This is Sherry calling from British Columbia, Canada on Friday, December 2^nd. This is one of my favorite Christmas songs.  I don’t have time to sing it, so I’m going to say the words.  God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day.  To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray,  O tidings of comfort and joy.  From God our Heavenly Father, a blessed angel came and onto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same, how that in Bethlehem was born the son of God by name.  O tidings of comfort and joy.  Fear not then, said the angel.  Let nothing you affright.  This day is born a Savior of virtue, power and might.  So frequently to vanquish all.  The friends of Satan quite.  O tidings of comfort and joy.  The shepherd at those tidings rejoiced much in mind and left their flocks a-feeding in tempest, storm and wind.  And went to Bethlehem straightway this blessed day to find O tidings of comfort and joy. But when to Bethlehem they came wherein the infant lay, they found him in a manger where oxen feed on hay.  His mother Mary kneeling onto the Lord did pray, O tidings of comfort and joy.  Now to the Lord sing praises all you within this place and with true love and brotherhood each other now embrace.  This holy tide of Christmas all others doth deface, [singing] O tidings of comfort of joy, comfort and joy.  O tidings of comfort and joy. God rest ye merry gentlemen. [end singing]

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier.  Just calling tonight.  I wanted to say hi to Chante and let her know I’m praying for her.  And good to hear Not Shaken.  I definitely got you in my prayer, my sister. Chante from Detroit, my prayers are with you, Chante.  Praying everything is working out well over there in Detroit.  Pastor Gene, wanted to say hi to you and still praying with you, praying for God’s miracles to be done.  I wanted to pray for Pam.  She was talking about Teri who has stage IV cancer.  I wanted to pray for the healing in her body.  Gracious Father, we come before your throne of grace once again. Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we just thank you tonight.  We just thank you for your people, Lord.  We just thank you for the answers to their prayer.  You have your time of judgement, Lord.  You have your time  of deliverance, Lord.  In the name of Jesus, we just ask you to deliver, Lord.  We just ask you to open up doors, Lord.  We just ask you to show up and show out and be the God that you are.  We know that you are able.  We know that you’re mighty.  We know that you’re awesome.  We just need you right now to let the world know that you are who you say you are.  Lord, we just ask you to touch Teri and dealing with stage IV cancer.  We just ask you to bless her, Lord, and heal her, Lord.  In the mighty name of Jesus, we thank you for healing her with your miraculous healing power.  And Lord, let her know that you love her.  We just thank you, Lord, for bringing Brian and Jill home tomorrow.  We just ask you to have your way, Father.  We ask you to continue to bless Blind Tony and all the Dabbers in all the challenges and all…

Hello beloved brothers and sisters.  This is your sister, Candace, from Oregon.  Let’s pray together.  Dear Lord Jesus, we bring before you our sister, Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL. We thank you that as you call her back into the fire on December 5^th, that she obediently goes there, that she knows as the day approaches and as the day happens that she is enveloped in our prayers and that you are her strength and her song.  Lord, thank you.  Thank you that you never leave us for one second.  Thank you for what happened to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were in the fire.  O Lord, you are a great God and we praise your name.  Thank you for my seven piano students who will be giving a recital tonight at my church and for some of them who don’t have the benefit of your church but will be surrounded by your people tonight, bless each one of them.  And I pray that as they do this courageous thing of playing very difficult music in front of all of us, that you bless them.  And Lord, as I’m training and developing young musicians, I remember in all of our churches throughout Advent and the Christmas season, please come, please bring just glory to your own name, Lord, that we all may become much closer to you.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  

Hello family.  This is Carol from Minnesota.  It’s been quite a while since I called.  Last time I called I was asking for prayer for my friends Dan and Annie, both of whom were battling cancer.  I’m happy to tell you that they both have conquered their battles and are doing very well.  Thank you all so much for your prayers.  I’m calling today for myself.  I was supposed to be on the Daily Audio Bible Israel trip right now, but I was in a serious car accident in September and I’m unable to travel because of my injury.  I was in the hospital for four days and in rehab for six weeks.  I’ve been home now for about three weeks.  It’s been a difficult time financially as I have been unable to work and without a paycheck since September.  I’m thankful to say that I have a wonderful circle of friends and family that have surrounded me with their care, concern, prayers and help.  The Lord has been with me through it all for which I am very grateful. The problem since the accident is that I’m having a hard time sleeping and sleeping is what I need to heal, so I’m asking my DAB family to lift me up in prayer to our Father for good sleep and complete healing.  I would be so grateful to all of you for doing that for me.  

Hosea 1:1-3:5 ~ 1 John 5:1-21 ~ Psalm 124:1-8 ~ Proverbs 29:5-8

Today is the 5^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is great to be here with you.  Greetings to everyone who is just arriving back in your homes, wherever you come from, landing in the United States today from the amazing, amazing tour that we had in the land of the Bible.  It’s great to be here with you diving into this week, and as we move ourselves fully into this week, we move into a brand new book and start speeding up here at the end of the year.  It gets really fast at the very end.  As we move through the books of the minor prophets we move quickly and as we move through the smaller letters in the New Testament we move quickly.

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

We’re at the book of Hosea.  Now, the theme of marriage is used often in the Bible to represent God’s love for his people and what that is like to be in a relationship with God, especially in the Old Testament between God and those he was in covenant with, the children of Israel.  It is a fitting metaphor because we often find God’s people off with other lovers. We’ve been through this all year. They’ve been committing adultery, as it were.  

So God’s reaction to this in that light is very understandable, as a scorned lover who deeply loves and cares for his love lost.  Nowhere in all the Bible is this more clearly presented than in the book of Hosea, a book of prophesy, because God asks Hosea to use his very life as living prophesy.  He instructs him to marry a prostitute named Gomer and this represents the idolatry, adultery, and harlotry of Israel.  The couple have children and each child is given a prophetic name that speaks directly to Israel.  And then Gomer, Hosea’s former prostitute wife, she is unfaithful.  So Hosea divorces her as God thrusts away Israel and then in an about face, Hosea goes in pursuit of Gomer once again.  And this woman, who has been unfaithful, who has played the harlot, actually has to be purchased back, which Hosea does, representing God’s passion for his people, even to the point of rescuing and buying back that which he loves.  It’s a beautiful picture of God’s love for us.  

We also get a good picture of our betrayal and what that looks like when we chase after other loves.  Most of us have experienced a broken heart or had a sense of betrayal in our lives and the book of Hosea gives us a good picture of what that looks like from God’s eyes.

So we begin, reading from The Message this week, Hosea chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 5.  

Commentary

This passage in Hosea is one of the most bittersweet, beautiful passages in all of the Bible to me.  There is another passage like this in the book of Ezekiel and we talked about that when we were there, but the description here is so personal and so understandable. Whether we have been through the betrayal of adultery, and I know a lot of us have, but whether we’ve been through that or not, we know what it is like to feel betrayal.  If we were to consider it, we could understand the ravaging, tormented heart and emotions of finding out that somebody we love with all our heart and gave ourselves to wasn’t nearly as all-in as we were and we find out that the reality that we had hoped in is not real at all and everything is upside down.  Those of you have gone through this, you know what I’m talking about, and those of you who haven’t, you can imagine just the rollercoaster of emotions, the instability of finding this kind of information out, the way that it reframes life as you knew it.  Everything is upside down and then it goes right side up.  It’s like being in a washing machine.  

God is describing this kind of emotion.  We see the back and forth.  We see the shock and then we see the anger and then we see the love that still remains and then we see the anger.  Then we see the disbelief and then we see the hope of rescue and then we see the resolve and determination to find a way.  It is like God is saying you have cheated on me.  I have been faithful to you.  You have cheated on me.  You have betrayed our covenant, our trust.  You have gone off and not just fallen in love with somebody else, but have been all over the place.  There is this song by the band U2 and the lyrics are you’ve been all over and it’s been all over you.  That is what we’re talking about here.  God looking at his people and saying you’ve been all over and it’s been all over you. He is heartbroken.  He’s not just raging.  He’s heartbroken.  

This particular passage, along with the one in Ezekiel, actually completely changed my understanding of this concept of a vengeful, raging God in the Old Testament.  As I grew up, I never really liked the Old Testament.  It was just this angry God.  Now I realize as I have grown to know God and know the scriptures that is not fair.  A person who has found out that the one they loved enough to die for has been cheating on them, yeah, they go through a range of emotions.  So God is being very open and he is articulating emotions that we can wrap our head around and understand to say this is how I’m feeling. And it for me brought the Father so close.  Like, oh my! I see now and I see how I’ve contributed and I don’t ever want to feel that way again.  I am not going to be unfaithful.  

So may we understand that God is not aloof, distant, some kind of gray cloud hanging out in the corner of our lives that we can invoke and try to use as some sort of magic.  We’re invited into the relationship that we were made to have with God.  May we understand that our choices matter.  They matter to the heart of God who loves us beyond words.  

Prayer

Father, we invite you into that by first saying we are so guilty.  We have certainly been guilty and so all we can do is come back humbly and fall before you in shame, knowing that you will wipe that shame away.  But we can own the fact that we have played this role.  We have done these things and we can feel the weight of it on your heart while asking you to forgive us and take us back.  And you do.  You do. Your love is beyond words.  It is beyond description.  It is beyond vocabulary in any language.  And so we thank you.  And we return once again inviting your life and your love into us, the Spirit of Christ spoken of in 1 John inside of us, transforming us.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here.  It’s the Christmas Box.  It’s Christmastime.  

I’m delirious.  I’m faking it. I’m tired as can possibly be from the journey and that will go on for a few days.  It’s just weird.  You get back from something like that and you have to find the rhythm of your life again because it has been disrupted in all kinds of good ways but all kinds of challenging ways too, like jet lag, just having your days and nights backwards, trying to find the rhythm again because you’re changed and you have to find the new normal.  So there is this kind of in between period where you’re like I don’t  know where I belong.  And it takes some time.  So on the one hand to kind of be in the land of the Bible during the beginning of the holiday season, even to go to the Church of the Nativity that is the flashpoint for Christmas, is so different than coming back into the Western culture and all of the feelings that Christmas evokes.  I’m trying to give myself a little bit of space to kind of move into that.

The Christmas Box is something that we bring out at Christmastime because it is full of things that are resources that are helpful, things that are meant to be given away and things that are meant to be kept.  So that is available.  

The Promised Land double DVD is in the Christmas Box this year, so all of the places that we just were are contained there as well as many, many others. It’s four hours of content, just immersing one’s self in the land of the Bible and in the places where the stories in the Bible happened.  So that is in there.  

And then Bible Stories About Jesus, the double CD project that we did this year, the entire reading of the book of Mark using age-appropriate translations for children is there.  I’ve got a little baby.   Well, he’s not a baby.  He’s 4, but he’s my baby, Ezekiel.  I just remember trying to read the book of Mark like I was reading it as a bedtime story and he helped me a little bit and my wife, my daughter helped me a little bit to create that project.  So that is included.  

Then the Family Christmas project which I listened to as I went to sleep nearly every night while over in Israel because it is contemplative, it’s soft, and it’s easy to just sit back and take in, I put that on at night to help me go to sleep because every day was like sensory overload where your mind wants to race, but your body is desperate for rest and it was helpful.  That is included.  

My wife Jill’s project that we released this year is included.  

My latest book Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is also included as well as the corresponding films that we created for small group study and just personal enrichment.  That DVD is included.  This is the last time that will be available so that is in the Christmas Box this year and that is the last time that will be available.  

Then your choice of Windfarm coffee or our Windfarm tea, either our Windfarm house blend that we’ve created or the English Breakfast tea which we find to be very satisfying, that is included. Your choice.  

A pack of 20 of the 2016 Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards with the corresponding envelopes and everything, that is included.  

And then the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb that is only ever available in the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box and this year it has the word for the year – healthy – on it.  Like I’ve been saying, every year we’ve done this, I’ve gotten one for each year on my tree and it reminds me of each journey through the scriptures.  So it reminds me of that but it also reminds me of you, of this community.  That is on my Christmas tree and it makes me think of what God has done among us and how his faithfulness has been so true all of these years, so that is in the Christmas Box as well.  So check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  

We always end up selling out of these, so I’m just encouraging you that if you are like, yep, I’m going to give that away.  Or yep, there is some stuff in there I want and there is some stuff I’m going to give away, get it while you can at www.DailyAudioBible.com.

And then I mentioned, was it yesterday or was it 10 days ago?  I don’t know.  Everything is backwards right now.  The More Gathering is coming up this April.  (It’s so weird.  I’m telling you.  I can’t even imagine.  I’m so turned around with jet lag, but all these things are coming.)  We do this every year, a women’s conference.  It’s called the More Gathering for Women. It’s epic.  It’s an unbelievable experience.  If you’ve known someone who has gone, they can tell you about it.  If you haven’t, come.  I mean, even if you’re going to come alone.  The Daily Audio Bible is this interesting thing.  Even when you think you’ve come alone, you are immediately not alone.  It makes for a great gift.  It makes for a great gift for the woman in your life or the sister or the best friend or whatever.  It is just amazing.  So we have advance pricing for the holidays at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You can find the More Gathering in the Events section or in the Initiatives section. You’ll find it if you’re looking for it. It’s pretty easy.  All of the details, everything that you would want to know about it, that is at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  So check that out here for the holiday season as well.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we move ourselves toward the end of the year, I run out of ways to say thank you and I run out of ways to say I’m humbled, because I think those are the words.  Those are the words.  The Daily Audio Bible rose up out of the dust of the Internet and became a community and it has only ever been this family affair that we’ve done together and we’ve only ever been able to do it because we’ve done it together, so thank you for your partnership in helping Daily Audio Bible exist at all and continue into the new year that is right out in front of us.  Thank you humbly and profoundly.  There is a link.  It’s on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you use the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

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

And that’s it for today.  Thank you for your prayers over everyone who took the journey to Israel because I’m sure I’m not alone, I’m sure everyone is kind of in the same boat to some degree. I mean, those who maybe came from the UK, they just had a couple hours of difference so not so much.  But for those who traveled from the United States or South America or New Zealand or Australia, yeah, I’m sure there is some of what I’m going through going on.  The melancholy of it all, the bittersweetness of it all, the fatigue of it all, the heart that is so full it is bursting and now can kind of begin to seep out and be involved in the changes in our lives, all of that.  We thank you for your prayers.  

And that is it for today.  I’m Brian. I love you.  I’ll be waiting for you here, maybe jet-lagged, but I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.  

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi family.  This is He Sings Over Me in South Carolina.  You know, he sings over you, too.  Anyway, just a thought there to revel in, I guess, that he is singing over you. But my call is to encourage the city of Pittsburgh.  So if you are listening and you are in the city of Pittsburgh, I just wanted to let you know that I am praying for a revival in your city.  I grew up in Southern California and I’m here in the south as an adult raising all my children here, but Pittsburgh, you have my heart.  I don’t know why, I believe it’s the Lord’s heart.  But that’s all.  I just want to encourage you.  Father God, I pray right now for a revival in Pittsburgh.  I thank you, Jesus, that I don’t have to physically be there to pray that and I stand in the gap for those who might be feeling discouraged, might be having a dark day today.  The Christians that know you, Lord, I just pray that you to light a fire under them that burns much brighter than the fires that we are dealing with here on the mountain, that it would be a spiritual fire, Jesus.  So I pray this and I lift this up to you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.  

Hello, may name is Margaret.  I have a prayer request.  I moved from Utah to here in Arizona and I was planning on taking care of my parents, but things are not going the way I wanted and financially I am starting to hurt and it is getting scary.  So I got me a grocery store place that I started working, but I’m 60 years old and I got this job where I don’t think I can handle it.  It’s a lot of lifting.  Things are like 50 pounds and I can’t pick them up and I’m not computer savvy, so finding a job is really hard.  It’s on a reservation, Indian reservation, so I don’t have very much to go by.  I really do need prayer.  I wish that I could stay home and take care of my parents, but financially I cannot. So I really do need prayer.  I try to have the faith but sometimes I go down and I get scared.  I know that fear is not from the Lord, but it’s hard to hang in there.  But I wanted to try to live here for a year.  I don’t want to give up.  So please pray for me that I’ll get a better job for myself.  Thank you very much.  Bye-bye.  

Hi family.  This is Salvation is Mine.  I am calling because I’m on the DAB website and looking at a message from Paul F. from Barcelona, Spain who says he is leaving the group because he has felt that no one has been moved to pray with him for the poor children being butchered in Aleppo in regard to the racism and everything else that is going on there. Paul, I just want you to know that even though you may have not heard your prayer come through or heard someone specifically call out your name and for what you’re praying for, please know we are praying for all oppressed, all the people being butchered because of their race and being condemned with hatred all over this world.  That includes the children of Aleppo.  We have not forgotten them.  Please know that our Lord Jesus Christ hears our cry just as God heard the cry of the Hebrew children in Israel when they were enslaved by Pharaoh.  Please know that prayers are being sent up for all, for the Muslims, for the single mothers, for the gays and lesbians, for the Christian democrats, for, even though you said grim, the democrats, the immigrants, the complicated people, the autistic, the transgender people, the druggies, the adulterers.  Lord Jesus, we just come before you.  We lift all of these things that Paul has placed here on the DAB website up to you and we ask you to bless Paul in a mighty way with his continued fight for the children of Aleppo.  We ask, Lord Jesus, that you just grant him peace and mercy in his heart, that he knows that there are people out here praying for them and praying with him. In Jesus’ name, I say thank you and amen.  Paul, please don’t leave the group.  Please post more on the DAB web page and I guarantee you, I will talk to you.

Good morning, guys.  This is Jen in SoCal, aka Prayer Warrior Princess.  Father, we are putting the beloved friends who are on the Israel trip at the foot of your throne.  They are about to return home and we know that the enemy’s plans are to steal, kill and destroy, to assault their senses and their spirit as soon as they even start thinking it is time to go home let alone get on the planes and arrive back to their real lives and the things that are awaiting them.  We know the enemy wants to bombard their thinking, to make them physically sick, to break up their finances and their relationships and to mar the experiences that they have had with you, to make them doubt what has happened and to forget it.  Lord, so many other things.  I don’t even want to mention them either, so disgusting.  The enemy is so disgusting.  You are so perfect and so wonderful.  The things that you’ve done for these beloved people on this trip are so fantastic and full of splendor.  We ask you to be with them, to help them persevere, to steadily plod through whatever you allow as they return home, Father.  Strengthen them to face these things.  And whatever you’ve given to them on this trip, make it the thing that helps them get through the tests and trials that happen as they return home. Bond them to you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.  

Hi family.  It’s Lauren in Houston.  I’m calling in to encourage those who are depressed right now.  I’m someone who has struggled with depression historically most of my life and in the past two years the Lord has shown me some things that have really helped, especially about bringing all my thoughts to him.  But here’s a prayer that I hope will encourage you that I wrote about one of those times.  I’m at the cold floor of a deep well.  Looking up, the water is so gray-blue, clean and clear.  I can see your face above me and the sunrays rippling in the dear sky.  I know you’re pulling me up with immovable arms, but I can’t help thinking through tears of joy and despair, will I make it?  Panic is an option, but I know I don’t need to.  I’m rising, rising through the weight of deep water.  I’m going to make it.  You told me that, didn’t you?  In the name of Jesus, amen.  Hope this encourages you and the Lord is with you all.  Much love in Christ.  

Hello family Dabbers.  I’m Timothy P. from Edinburgh in Scotland.  A long time listener but rarely a caller.  I was struck today, the 2^nd of December, by Tim from Tampa. Tim, you are at a crossroads with your business.   Check. You’re seeking wisdom and favor. Check.  You’re giving thanks for your wife and your marriage.  Check.  My wife and I run Love After Marriage workshops and have a passion for supporting Christians in their marriages so I pray for healing and comfort for all those in need. I pray for a renewed vigor for Brian and Jill and all the DAB, especially SarahJane and her packing team with the Christmas Boxes and I pray for my praying partner, Adam, for his elephant prayer list.  Jesus, you have won the victory, the healing and the peace of mind and the mercy.  Holy Spirit, you are the gift that lifts us and encourages us.  I ask you to anoint us all.  Father God, you are the King, the Creator.  You are the reason that we exist.  We praise and worship you.  So this is Tim from Edinburgh praying for wisdom and favor on Tim from Tampa. Thanks.