Month: January 2017

Genesis 28:1-29:35 ~ Matthew 9:18-38 ~ Psalm 11:1-7 ~ Proverbs 3:11-12

Today is the 13^th of January.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and it is a pleasure to be here with you for the 13^th day in a row this year.  If you can believe it.  We’re almost two weeks in and it has been an epic adventure so far as we take steps each day through the scriptures.  Today will be no different.  Abraham sent his servant to find Isaac a wife among his people and now Isaac is going to invite his son Jacob to do the same.  Genesis chapter 28, verse 1 through 29, verse 35 today and we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week.    

Commentary

Let’s do just a quick recap so we can stay with the story.  You remember Abram and you remember how he became Abraham and you remember that he had a son of promise named Isaac.  And you remember Abraham was getting old and he sent his most trusted and close servant to find a wife for his son.  He makes him swear an oath.  “Put your hand under my thigh and swear to me.”  This is a little weird.  We don’t do that anymore, but that is one of the signs that you are promising to do something in this culture at this time.  So Rebekah is found, brought back to Isaac and they love each other and they have twin boys, Jacob and Esau.  We’ve just gone through all that, so we won’t recap that, but Jacob and Esau are estranged from each other because there has been some trickery that has gone on.

If you look back at Abram’s life, you’ll see he was a little bit of a finagler too.  He was always saying my wife is my sister and this kind of stuff and they were moving around and this was part of their characteristics.  Isaac is the same way and does the same thing so you can see they are a little bit of a suspicious people.  They are always on the lookout for ways that they can get hurt or put themselves in danger, which was part of the culture and just part of their characteristics.  So we begin to understand some of the trickery that got turned inward on the family between Jacob and Esau.  

Jacob has secured the birthright and the blessing of his father, Isaac, through some trickery and when Jacob gets back to the same family where his mother had come from, some trickery is played on him.  He falls in love with Rachel and gets Leah as a wife instead. And then to get Rachel, he has to work another seven years.  He didn’t work for Laban for seven years and then get Leah and then work seven more years for Rachel.  Rachel was given him, but he had to promise another seven years.  

So Rachel doesn’t have any kids yet, but Leah has four sons.  If you look at their names, they will start sounding familiar.  I’ll give a little spoil alert here because it will snap everything into place as we move forward.  Jacob, this guy, the grandson of Abraham, is going to have a name change just like Abram was turned to Abraham.  Jacob is going to have the same thing happen and his name will be turned to Israel. So Jacob has begun having children and when his name changes, then the obvious will come to the forefront. These are the children of Israel. The first four ever children of Israel are born in today’s reading:  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.  And Israel, or Jacob, is going to have 12 sons and their descendants will be the 12 tribes of Israel.  It will be a fascinating story that brings us to that place.

Then when we move into the book of Matthew and we pick up Jesus’ story. We see a number of miraculous things take place today.  Let’s look at them just really quickly.  

Jesus is on his way to a man’s house because his daughter has died.  A woman has been bleeding (and we’ll get to her story in a different gospel because it is expanded upon) and she touches Jesus and she is healed.  What is Jesus’ response to her?  “Your faith has healed you.”  That is what he said to her.

And then he arrives at his destination where this girl has died and he tells everybody who is mourning there to go away, she is not dead.  And they all laugh at him, but the important thing or the interesting thing is he sent everybody away so she is raised up to health without an audience.  Jesus pushes them all away.  We see that Jesus just does not grandstand.  He is not trying to make a big deal out of these things.  That is further illuminated by what he does next.

The next thing in the gospel reading today is that Jesus is leaving there and there are blind people, blind men following him, asking for mercy. When Jesus speaks to the blind men, he asks a question.  “Do you believe I can do this?”  And they said “yes.”  And Jesus’ response is “It will happen for you just as you have believed.”  And they were healed.  And then Jesus says “Don’t tell anybody about this.” Of course, they can’t.  They go tell everybody.  

But it is interesting the way Jesus is conducting himself.  Number one, we see that he is collaborative in the miraculous, that it is not Jesus, the super guy, the God-man walking around doing supernatural magic tricks.  It is a collaboration that is taking place.  These are certainly beautiful echoes of Eden, the way things were supposed to be, the collaboration between God and those who were made in God’s image.  This is what sets things right because this is how we were created to be.  It’s also interesting that Jesus doesn’t need a crowd.  He’s not trying to be the magic man.  He is trying to say this is how it is supposed to be.  

So one of these transformational moments in the Bible has come where we begin to realize this is a journey that we are not alone on and this life journey will not work without collaborating with God.  But when we do, when we give our hearts fully, when we put away all Plan B’s and stop trying to explain away everything with reason, the knowledge of good and evil, and just fall face first into this faith that is the activator, then we begin to see how this collaboration works.  

It is breathtaking.  It will look different for each of us.  We each have our own stories to tell.  If you are here at the beginning of the year thinking ‘I need to go inside and figure out my spirituality and I’m going to read the whole Bible this year and find out about God,’ awesome!  You will. But it is far, infinitely more important that you get to know God and not just about God.  If it has been awhile since you’ve even thought about that and your whole idea of prayer is kind of skewed in some sort of way that you have to find the right words and the right time and you don’t know what to say after a few minutes of asking him to do things that you need done and to do nice things for people that are around you, then set that aside and understand that it is a collaboration, that it is a conversation.  Don’t go to God today with all the things you need him to do for you, to bail you out of all the things you got yourself into.  Just go to him today and say “Hi, it’s me and I just want to talk to you.”  You’ll find the warmth of his embrace because he’s been waiting for you to just finally come and be yourself.  All of a sudden you’ll realize you can be yourself.  

We have to be a lot of things to a lot of people in our lives because this is how our culture is shaped, but we can be who we really are with God and God can change us into who we were created to be but only if we’re willing to be who we are right now.  

Prayer

Jesus, hi.  It’s me. It’s us in an unguarded moment and here we are.  What we need is you.  So there will not be any more pretending in any of our conversations.  It will be raw and it will be true.  We invite your Holy Spirit into all of it, everything that is going on.  As we realize that this is what you’ve been looking for, this true, honest place in us. We have to confess that we have many assumptions about who and what you are, but if we’re going to be in a relationship that is conversational and collaborative, then we’re setting that aside as well and inviting you to come as you are.  We want to get to know you for who you are and not who we’ve been told you are.  So just about a couple of weeks into this journey of finding what the Bible has to say to us, but we’re finding this journey is leading us to these kinds of places that are deep and ancient and true.  We invite you into all of that, inviting your Holy Spirit to reinterpret our stories and wh has brought us to this place on this day.  There isn’t another day in our future that we don’t want a conversation with you.  We’ve been lost in our knowledge.  We’ve been lost in trying to figure you out and now we want to be lost in you.  Come Holy Spirit.  We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.  

SONG played on today’s DAB “Lost” by Brian’s wife Jill Parr https://itunes.apple.com/…/a…/i-still-want-more/id1107237770

Genesis 26:17-27:46 ~ Matthew 9:1-17 ~ Psalm 10:16-18 ~ Proverbs 3:9-10

Today is the 12^th day of January.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is awesome to be here with you today.  We’re starting to turn a corner toward the end of the second week and the rhythm is established.  We’ve covered so much ground already and so much richness to go as we continue our way through this year.  Let’s get to it.  We’re picking up in Genesis where we left off yesterday and getting to know this son of promise who is named Isaac.  From the Common English Bible, Genesis chapter 26, verse 17 through 27, verse 46.

Commentary

The book of Proverbs gives us, of course, wisdom and today it is giving us wisdom specific to the word we’re exploring this year – margin.  

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will burst with wine.  

Ironically, it doesn’t say first build yourself a nice portfolio and then guard that selfishly as long as you can so that it can grow and you can have plenty.  It says honor the Lord.  Honor the Lord with all that you are.  Yes, that includes your financial resources, but that includes everything.  Give the first, the best of what you are to God.  

What I’m not saying is make sure that you give a bunch of money to whatever charity or church or cause that is important to you.  That is not what the proverb is saying here.  It is saying give the first and best of what you have and what you are to God, which means you need to go to God to find out what that looks like.  

Just think of this relationally.  Is the first and best of who you are offered to God in relationship? He is certainly offering his first and best to us.  He has withheld nothing from us and is life-giving.  We begin  to see not only in the words of Jesus, but in the words of the Proverbs and all throughout the Old Testament that God’s ways are counterintuitive to our own ways. Does that mean we are completely separated and we can’t see it God’s way?  Not at all.  We were made to be intertwined with God.  So what we see when we see these contrasts in our own lives is the ancient and ongoing effects of the fall of mankind.  We were made to be quite a bit different than how we normally live our lives.  The proverb is simply telling us how things are supposed to be and that we understand our source of life and everything that fills life and we are to honor that and steward that and protect that above all by offering the best of what we have and what we are to God. Then we’ll have everything that we need. Plenty.  

Prayer

Father, we invite your Holy Spirit into that because we so often move toward money.  There have been so many generations of dictating how that is supposed to look. Some of it is completely and totally righteous, but it has also been mixed in with all kinds of other motivations to persuade and motivate us.  So we’re coming to you.  What does it look like for us to give the best of who we are and what we have to you? You have placed individually on this planet each of us with our own experiences and stories, so it looks and feels different for each of us.  It is shaped like our lives are, so we invite you into this.  What are the areas inside of us that we’re completely unwilling to give our best to you?  Or like Jesus was saying, what are the areas that we’re pouring new wine into old wineskins? That will not work.  We invite your Holy Spirit to begin the work within us, the ongoing work of sanctification, the day by day, step by step process of being reformed and renewed.  What are the things that you are after right now that we are withholding from you and by withholding them from you, effectively saying that we don’t believe this is true, we don’t believe you’ll come through, which is essentially saying you won’t do what we want you to do?  It shows us, as the whole thing comes unraveled, that we’re trying to really control you and not submitting ourselves to your will and your ways in our lives, which unravels further, all the way down to the core that we don’t trust.  We don’t trust you.  What are the ways that we’re doing this?  Begin that work in us and continue that work through this year so that when we get to the end of this year we have grown comfortable and that it is normal for us for us to fully embrace and trust you for our very next breath.  Come Holy Spirit, we ask.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website and that is home base.  That is where you find out what is going on around here. Prayers are happening there and resources are available there.  Check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in this rhythm of the spoken Word of God every single day of the year, then thank you for your partnership. 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 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, (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 brothers and sisters.  This is Byron out in Florida.  I was listening to Saturday’s podcast where Brian was talking about The Lord’s Prayer and all that and my heart was just overcome with all kinds of things that was just on it that I wanted to share with you guys.  I’m just going to mirror it out of the __________, but before I got to that, I wanted to call out to Yvonne in California. Yvonne, I heard your call on how you struggle with drinking and how you want to get past that this year and I want to encourage you in that.  You very much can succeed in that and you very much can turn that around, but in light of what Brian was talking about today, in everything else we go through, it is a process.  It’s a process.  The things that we want desperately in our lives to just change overnight, they don’t in most cases.  But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t working on them.  It’s a process.  And I want to talk more about how God has shown that in my life, but if I had to pick a word as a __________ for this year it’s process.  It is God working bit by bit every day over time.  So Yvonne, take it one day at a time.  Take it to the Lord.  On that same podcast another lady called and talked about how she got freed from drinking, so I managed to listen to that again and take that to heart, what she said there because it was very powerful.  But I just want you to know that I’m praying for you and you can do it and this can turn around but it will be a process.  Love you guys.  I’ll talk to you all later.  Bye.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible.  My name is Kelly M.  I’m a 32-year-old from Cincinnati, OH.  I’ve been listening to Brian’s podcast for the last year and it has been such a blessing to me.  This is my first time calling.  I call to ask for your prayers for myself and my family.  Four years ago my parents both were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two days apart from each other.  My father died on January 19, 2013.  My mother passed away on my 30^th birthday on May 9, 2014.  We didn’t think that was coincidence at the time.  Well, recently, we were just kind of out from our city due to an investigative report by Fox 19 that showed mold, asbestos and a whole bunch of toxins that were in the building.  Over 25 officers have been diagnosed with cancer throughout the last 50 years and we think that is not a coincidence that our loved ones are getting sick.  I call to ask for prayer for my family because we are all angry and we’re bewildered and the city is trying to hide evidence of what they did and won’t take responsibility.  I just heard the podcast about forgiveness which I know wasn’t a coincidence, but how do you work through this process?  Thank you all.  I love you all.  It has been such a hard world for us all.  We feel like we’re starting the grieving process over again and it is frustrating.  Thank you Brian for all that you do and your wife Jill.  I’m praying for you all.  God bless you all.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible.  This is Thankful from Australia.  I’m just ringing.  I’ve become aware of an issue in my life that I feel God is showing me that some of my loving is so that other people will love me.  It has been revealed and I’m just reaching out and asking that God would help me to love with his love, without any expectation of needing other people to love me, that I would somehow find my value and __________ in God.  I haven’t been able to change this on my own.  I’m just reaching out and ask that God would help me and also bring the right resources or help across my path.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate and value the Daily Audio Bible and the wisdom that comes through that.  Thank you.  

Hello everybody.  Hey, this is Annette A.  I have to give my speech today, okay?  I’m having a little bit of a hard day.  But anyway, I’ve been contemplating forgiveness here in the last few days. Wow.  You know, you think you’ve got it all figured out, you’ve put before the Lord the things that you’re forgiving him, whether that is actually forgiving people, forgiving circumstances, or turning things over to the Lord to let him deal with on your behalf.  That is what for-giving is.  You’re giving it to somebody else to fix.  But anyways, I know there are a lot of people dealing with a lot of hurts out there and bad situations and I know children…  It’s tough.  I know it’s hard.  I want to let you know that God cares and that he sees and that he knows and he understands. Sometimes when we’ve come to the end of the things that we can fix, we have to for-give it to God and it not only takes the burden out of our hands that we don’t have to worry about it so much anymore, that we have to fix it, but we’re going to trust that our Father has our best interests at heart with things that he knows the bigger picture.  Sometimes things don’t look like the way we want to see it and circumstances happen, but he knows the biggest picture.  Sometimes things don’t make sense to us, but they sure do to him. Consider that today.  I want you all to know that I love you very, very much.

Hey family.  Jordan from Michigan.  I wanted to call with day 26 of my 30-day challenge which is a great praise report. Today I am grateful that Yeshuah has granted me a new job.  So I’ll be working at the Dearborn Academy as co-teacher and a reading specialist.  So I just want to give thanks to everybody who has been praying for me.  It really made a difference.  Look at what happened.  A miracle happened.  Seemingly out of nowhere they called me and gave me this job.  I just feel so blessed, so blessed to have this wonderful new opportunity in a school where my friend worked and he told me that it is a very nurturing, warm, caring atmosphere for new teachers.  So it is the ideal place for me to grow so that I can go back to the Detroit schools that I aspire to teach at and be much more effective someday. So Heavenly Father, I just want to thank you for everyone who prayed for me.  I want to thank you for this opportunity.  I want to thank you for my Daily Audio Bible family.  I just want to thank you for all their prayers.  I pray that you bless them and show them that no matter what they’re going through in their lives, there is always a possibility of something better around the corner.  Heavenly Father, you know that I sinned.  You know that I doubted.  You know that I went through so many trials, it’s innumerable, but you pulled me through because…

Good morning Daily Audio Bible.  I wrote a prayer request on December 23^rd and it read “Hi Daily Audio Bible.  This is Autumn.  I’m 11 years old.  I’m a first-time caller.  I am letting everyone know that I am praying for them and I need you to pray for my paternal grandma.  She is getting discharged today.  I ask that she is healed completely and that she returns for home safely.  I also ask that you pray for my parents, my brothers and me, that everything will work out for God’s glory.  Also, I am Inez from Arizona’s granddaughter.  My family and I had moved to Oklahoma in September but things didn’t quite work out, so my mom, brothers, and I came back to Arizona.  My hope is that we get to go back to Oklahoma, my dad, and that no harm or no evil penetrates our family.  Thank you.  Bye.” Well today I am calling to tell you that my grandma Gloria passed away on December 27^th.  We are all heartbroken and sad but I also know life has to go on.  My prayer for being together as a family has been answered.  We are going back to Tulsa with my dad.  Please pray for us.  By the way, I really love the way Victorious Soldier prays for everyone and the way she says ‘the name of Jesus’ really makes her prayers powerful.  I love it.  Okay, I’m going to go now.  I will call back when time allows.  Bye now.

Genesis 24:52-26:16 ~ Matthew 8:18-34 ~ Psalm 10:1-15 ~ Proverbs 3:7-8

Today is January 11^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and it is, of course, a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in the scriptures.  I am delighted that we can be here together today.  We’re reading from the Common English Bible this week and we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday.  Sarah, Abraham’s wife has passed away and has been buried and we met a young maiden named Rebekah yesterday who may in fact become the wife of Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac.  We’ll have to see.  Genesis chapter 24, verse 52 through 26, verse 16.  

Commentary

After Sarah’s death, Abraham gets married again and has a number of other children by his second wife and he also has a number of grandchildren through his son Ishmael who he had with Hagar the servant.  Rebekah and Isaac meet each other today and are married and have twins, Esau and Jacob, the grandchildren of Abraham, the grandchildren of the promise.

As we’re looking into the Bible for examples of what margin looks like in a person’s life, we can see this in Abraham’s life.  His wife died.  He knew he was getting old.  He sent his servant ahead to find a wife for the child of promise, Isaac.  He didn’t wait until he was on his deathbed.  He didn’t wait until it was too late.  He got about the business of this very important choice because there was a promise out there, a promise from God given to Abraham, the promise of a son in his old age and that came true.  So obviously through this son whose name was Isaac this promise would continue so it would be important who his wife would be. Abraham didn’t wait until he was in some sort of reactionary posture or that he had just died and was silent on the subject.  He was proactive, moving to protect the promise and to care for his son.  

That is a good example of margin, not putting off what is most important. If we’ll look at our lives, we’ll see how often we actually do this, how often we are distracted by everything else that seems easier.  We can spend our lives from distraction to distraction, from entertainment to entertainment while putting off the things that are actually the most meaningful and have the most importance in our lives, forcing us to simply live reactionary, to deal with the crises as they come instead of being way out in front of things, building margin between us and the things that might come up because things come up.  If we’re not out in front of this stuff, well then we’re going to react to it.  And then once we’ve reacted to it, we’re going to need some space for some time for ourselves and then we’ll get ourselves into another distraction, only waiting for the next thing instead of working forward, preparing ahead.  

Ironically, the first thing to do in building margin isn’t necessarily to build an elaborate strategic plan, although that may be necessary.  The first thing that we have to do is found in the book of Proverbs today.  

Don’t think you’re so smart. Don’t consider yourself wise. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

That’s it.  It’s that simple.  But it is also that complicated.  Spend today, spend tomorrow, spend a couple days just with this posture of heart. Don’t consider yourself wise. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Make that the posture of heart for the next couple of days and then we’ll realize just what a change that makes when we are conscious of it.  Then after a couple of days, we’ll also be able to look at the way we were doing things and see a stark contrast.  What the proverb says is don’t consider yourself wise, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.  Then your body will be healthy and your bones strengthened.  You will have health and margin in your life.  

Prayer

Father, we invite you into that.  This is what we want.  We want to be proactive in your kingdom in this world and not just reacting to the small fires that crop up and the crises of our lives because we are completely unprepared.  So come, Holy Spirit.  Help us put pen to paper.  Help us to write some things down that you are bringing up that just need to be dealt with, that we need to be clean in, things that we need to simply fear the Lord and turn away from evil in, that we might think we’re that smart.  We’re just not that wise inside of ourselves, but your Holy Spirit is.  So we turn to you, Holy Spirit within, and invite your wisdom to flow into every sector of our lives.  We are desperate for your wisdom.  We are desperate for your counsel and comfort.  We are desperate for your discipline and rebuke because you will lead us on the path, the narrow path that leads to life and this is where we will find wholeness and margin in our lives.  So come Jesus.  We need you. We want you.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website and that is home base.  That is where you find out what is going on around here. The Prayer Wall is there. Resources are there.  Everything Daily Audio Bible is there.  Check it out!  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link and it lives on the home page.  I thank you profoundly for clicking that link and helping the Daily Audio Bible to exist at all.  If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  If you prefer the mail, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, of course, as always, we are a community.  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

Hi Daily Audio Bible.  I am Chelsea from Southern California.  This is going to be my second year calling in, or first time calling in, second year listening, and I have been so blessed by all of you and your prayers and your well wishes and your songs.  I wanted to speak for my husband.  He is an incredible physician and every day he listens to the Daily Audio Bible on his way to work to care for his patients.  And what a blessing.  I know he gets discouraged and he feels like he can’t do enough, so I just hope you can pray for him, that he feels the courage and the peace that he is doing God’s work and touching lives even in small ways.  I love you all.  Thank you for listening and calling in.  God bless. Bye.  

Hi, this Cathy calling from Nacogdoches, TX.  I had called I think about two weeks ago requesting prayer for my son Brian J. He has had some brain surgeries. I was listening to the Daily Audio Bible on the 4^th, yesterday, and a gentleman had prayed for Brian over the phone.  Before I go any further, I’m going to hurry up and get this said, but on Psalm 46:1 it says God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Whoever that gentleman was, he didn’t leave his name, where he was from or anything, but he said that he had vision that Brian’s brain tissue was too long and that Brian means strong and powerful.  And he prayed for me, that God would give me a shot of hope for the glory of Christ.  And when I was laying here last night listening to that, the Holy Ghost just came over me and I rewound it and I took it in to Brian and I played it for Brian and he started weeping.  I just want to thank you, whoever you are, for  praying for my son.  There are so many people in need.  I live for God.  God is my God.  He is my refuge and strength.  But I just called to say thank you.  If you wouldn’t mind, please continue praying for Brian.  I don’t say that to be selfish.  I know there are so many needs out there.  I write them down and I’m praying for all of you, but I wanted to acknowledge that gentleman and to tell him thank you for being so sensitive to the Holy Ghost.  The Lord bless you all.  The Lord keep you all.  The Lord anoint each and every one of you for his glory, in Jesus’ name.  Thank you.  

Good morning family.  This is Biola from Maryland.  I hope you’re all doing well.  Brian and Jill, God bless you.  Family, I want to say real quick that God honors persistence.  You remember blind Bartimaeus in the Bible?  That man was persistent.  When he heard that Jesus was coming along the way, he shouted “have mercy on me, Lord!”  And when people told him to shut up, he looked at Jesus and shouted some more “help me, Son of David!” and Jesus rewarded his persistence.  And then how about Hannah who was looking for Samuel? She was a persistent woman.  Even Jesus told the parable of the woman and the unjust judge and the judge said “if not for anything else, even though I do not fear God, I am going to listen to this woman because she will not let me rest. I will give her what she wants.” And the judge avenged her.  Listen family, God honors persistence.  If you’ve been trusting him for one thing or the other, keep holding on.  There is no Plan B.  Tell God that.  I am holding onto you.  Do we want to talk about King Jehoshaphat who told God “our eyes are on you.  You have to deliver us, God.  It is either that or nothing else.”  You need to hold onto God and say “God, you are the only plan. There is no Plan B.”  And if you’re a woman, come to the More Conference and learn how to do that for yourself and press into God.  God bless you.  I want to pray for Emma from Missouri.  God bless you for your obedience, Sister.  I’m thanking God that he brought your kids back to him.  I pray that God would renew your marriage and breathe life into it afresh.  I pray that God would unify and reconcile you and your husband and make you of one heart and mind, that he will soften your hearts and make you tenderhearted to one another and quick to forgive each other.  Mickey from Florida, I’m so sorry about your counselor.  I’m praying that God would comfort you and your family.  I also thank God for healing your marriage. I pray that God who began the good work of healing will perfect it, in Jesus’ name.

Hi family.  This is Shannon from Texas and literally like 10 minutes ago I asked the Lord to protect my son because I thought about how it is icy outside and he is driving in Dallas. And he just called me and said he was in a wreck and he’s okay, so thank the Lord for that.  The thing that is really upsetting me the most is that I’ve just been praising God for how great he has been doing because he has come such a long way.  He is in college.  It is just a miracle where he is at, but he has told me that he has been feeling like he wants to die, like he wants to commit suicide.  My earthly father committed suicide so that just…  He knows how much that upsets me.  I’m just devastated to know that he is doing that bad and I guess I just didn’t realize.  The first thing I thought of was to call my spiritual family because I trust you guys and I love you guys so much and I know you will help me pray for him. His name is Jadrien and he’s my world. So please just pray.  Thank you guys.  I love you.  Bye.  

Hello everybody.  This is Alicia from Kansas.  So for those who are new to the Daily Audio Bible, just be aware that you won’t always hear your name if you call in for prayer, but know without a doubt people are praying for you as I pray over all those who call in, as I go through the Prayer Wall and pray.  This morning my heart was so broken for the mother who called in.  She was going through a crisis with her daughter Raegan who has borderline or bipolar.  I apologize now.  My heart goes out to you as I watch my children be wayward and have mental health issues.  Just know that I’m praying for your beautiful daughter and praying for you to have the strength for tough love and that you would seek out God and that the Holy Spirit would guide you, that you would seek wise counsel because tough love is not always the answer, but God’s ways are the answer.  My heart goes out to, sweet mother.  Know that you are not forgotten, that many are praying for you and for Raegan.  I pray for being able to hear what the outcome of the situation was, that things have calmed down for you.  Please, please, Sister, know that you are loved.  Please call in, let us know how you are doing and how Raegan is doing. And I will keep her in my thoughts and prayers.  Everybody have a blessed day.  Today is January 7^th.  Bye-bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Angela in North Carolina and I’m calling with a word of encouragement for Raegan’s mother.  I did not catch your name, dear one, but the Lord knows your name and hopefully you’ll get to hear this.  This is for Raegan’s mother who Raegan has borderline personality disorder or at least she has been diagnosed with that.  You called in, I think it was the 31^st, but whenever it was, before the new year.  And you were right when you said God is outside of time.  So it doesn’t matter if your call was then and the answer comes later. I hope that today, which is January 7^th, that it will find you at peace and the crisis and the storm has passed.  But whether the storm has passed or not, the peace is coming.  I pray in the mighty name of Jesus against the raging and against the suicidal threats, Lord God.  I pray that you would protect Raegan’s heart and her mind against any of the flaming darts of the enemy.  I pray that you would protect her, Lord God, and that you would give her mother strength and wisdom to know how to best respond.  Persons with borderline personality disorder fight against those who love them.  They desperately want love, but they are like a person that is drowning in the ocean and when a lifeguard goes to put hands on them to rescue them, they fight, not out of anger, but out of desperation to live.  I pray that the Lord God would be the lifeguard that pulls Raegan out of the raging ocean and may God bless you and keep you, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Genesis 23:1-24:51 ~ Matthew 8:1-17 ~ Psalm 9:13-20 ~ Proverbs 3:1-6

Today is January 10^th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and, of course, like every day, it is great to be here around the global campfire that is the Daily Audio Bible.  It’s exciting to be together for the next step forward.  Look at us.  This is our 10^th step forward into this year, so we’re steady.  We’re moving through.  That is how it all works, one foot in front of the other, one block upon the next as we continue the adventure.  

So we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week and the story of Abraham continues.  Genesis chapter 23, verse 1 through 24:51 today.  

Commentary

Today Sarah, who is Abraham’s wife, and we’ve been journeying with them as the promise of a land and the people in that land begins to take shape, and really most everything else that we’ll read in the whole Bible is influenced by this couple, Sarah dies today.  It is not a big, dramatic story in the Bible, but it is an important moment.

Abraham is living in Hebron.  Hebron exists today.  It is actually a city today.  Abraham buys a little piece of real estate today, a cave in a field called Machpelah. This landmark will show up a little later in the story as we move our way through the scriptures.  These places are real.  This cave where this burial took place was not just to be the burial place of Sarah.  It will also become the burial place of Abraham and his descendants.  It is still there.  It still exists today.  Back in King Herod’s time, a huge monument was built over the cave and that is still there as well.  These are the kind of places that you can see in the Promised Land Films that I’ve mentioned a couple times.  Those can be found at the Daily Audio Bible Shop.  It is just a great companion as you move your way through the Bible because you can either load up the film on your computer or stream it to your television or throw the DVD in and you can see these places that we’re talking about and what they look like today.

Sarah dies and Abraham knows that he is not too far behind in years and he begins the process of finding a wife for his son Isaac, this son of promise. Obviously the wife is going to play a pivotal role in the story of the promise and Abraham knows that this is an important decision.  So he sends his servant back to his own clan, his own people and we’ll pick up with that story as we go forward tomorrow.  

In the book of Matthew we’re getting to know Jesus.  There is an interesting scene that we read today.  A man who has some skin problems comes before Jesus and he says something interesting.  “Lord, if you want, you can make me clean.”

And Jesus reaches out and touches him and says “I do want to.  Become clean.”  And the man is clean.  

Often we focus on the miraculous things that Jesus did because it makes him extraordinary.  It makes him something that doesn’t seem to be normal.  And yet the irony is Jesus’ posture in these moments isn’t that something crazy, extraordinary, supernatural is happening.  Most of the time he does what he did with this man. He says don’t tell anybody about this. Just go show yourself to the priest, offer the gift, this will be a testimony.  

He does this kind of thing all the time and we’ll get to that as we go forward.  What is beautiful is the posture in this little, small story because it reveals a collaboration in the miraculous.  

The man comes before Jesus and says “Lord, if you want.”  In other words he’s saying I know you can do this.  I believe that you can do this and if you want to, you can make me clean.  So he is extending his faith.  He believes this could happen if Jesus is willing.  

And Jesus’ response is “I am willing.  Of course.  I do want to. Become clean.”

So in this year where we’re searching for margin and balance and wholeness, we have to look at our own lives with this stark reality and without all of the things that we talk ourselves into, without the way that we massage reality, inform it to whatever we need to present, and look honestly at the places that are not clean inside of us.  Even as I say that, immediately some of those things or that thing comes up inside of us.  Maybe it is some sort of addiction and we’re trying to say “Lord, if you want, you can make me clean.”  Or maybe it is relational debris from messes that we’ve made between us and other people. Or offenses that we’re carrying around. Or whatever.  If we want margin in our lives, then we have to become clean. We have to become true.  

A lot of these things are deep.  They are deep within us.  They are intertwined with other things in our lives and so to untangle all that can be difficult.  Do we want margin?  Do we want to be clean?  Do we want wholeness.  How we approach this is going to dictate what our true will is.  If we want margin and wholeness more than anything else, then that is what our focus will be upon.  If not, then we’ll create all the reasons why that is not possible and then once we’ve found the reasons why that is not possible, we’ll find people and circumstances to blame for it.  Then we’ll assign blame to support what we’ve created.  And then when that all runs out, we’ll blame God.  This is just how easily it is for us to estrange ourselves from God when God is saying you can be clean.  You can.  

Jesus says to this man “I do want to make you clean.  Become clean,” which is interesting because to become, that is to begin to be.  Maybe there are some things in your life that you’re struggling with that you need to be clean of and you just don’t know how you’re going to get there.  Jesus is basically saying you can do this.  I want to help you.  Start now.  Begin to be clean, which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all better right this second, but you have to start.  Begin to be clean.  

So may the cry of our hearts be Lord, if you want, you can make me clean and may we hear his response.  I do want to. I’ve been waiting for this for so long. Begin to be clean now, today and tomorrow and the next day.  Don’t look back.  Freedom awaits you.  Wholeness is available.  Life more abundantly will begin to spill out from within you.  

Prayer 

Jesus, this is our prayer today.  Lord, if you want you can make us clean and we hear you say I do want to, become clean.  Help us, Holy Spirit, by your power and by your wisdom to understand and know the places that you are after in this.  We surrender them to you.  We begin to be clean because through you this is possible.  So come, Holy Spirit.  We open ourselves fully to you, the attics of our lives, the basements of our lives, the closets of our lives, under the rugs, under the furniture of our lives, the places that we shove things to get them out of sight.  We invite you to show us the places that we’re hiding things even from ourselves, things that need to be clean.  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 so check that out.  Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.  The Promised Land Films are there.  They are in the Daily Audio Bible Shop so when we were just talking about Hebron, if you want to see that, grab a copy of the Promised Land Films and then you’ll have this as a companion to go through the scriptures and you’ll be able to dive in each time we come to a location and look for yourself.  So be sure to check that out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in our common mission to bring God’s spoken word to whoever will listen, any time of day or night, anywhere on this planet and to build community around it so we understand that we’re not alone in this life, we have brothers and sisters who are in the same struggle with it, and it takes considerable amount of effort and resource to do, we have 16 servers spinning constantly, dispersing terabyte after terabyte of data and that data is the spoken word of God, that is how you’re hearing it right now, if that is life-giving to you, then thank you for helping allow it to exist.  There is a link.  It is on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Thank you humbly for pressing that link.  If you’re using 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 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.  Good morning. I would like to share something with you.  Yes, you are depressed.  Yes, you have anxiety.  Yes, you are dealing with a situation that is overwhelming.  Yes, it seems like it is too much to bear.  Yes, there is hope.  There is joy.  There is rest in the precious and matchless and mighty name of Jesus Christ.  What we believe together as a family, as believers, as Christians is that through Christ all things are possible, that depression can be overcome, that anxiety can flee, that situation that you’re dealing with will pass.  Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank you God.  We bless the name of God.  We praise you God.  Father, your son Jesus Christ is the most amazing, precious and powerful gift we have ever received and we thank you for it.  God, we take this moment at the beginning of this year to recognize your power, your sovereignty, and your omnipresence.  Father, Paul tells us that we can learn to be content through Jesus Christ.  We pray that now, in his holy and precious name, amen.  

Hi DAB family.  This is Becky in Ohio and I just wanted to add to everybody that studying the word every day and getting the word with Brian and then mulling it over and learning the word and getting it out of our head and into our heart is how we overcome. We know we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.  Understand who we are in Christ and then sometimes we have the time to look up the scriptures and pray the word and then sometimes we have to have in our hearts.  Last night at this time one of my children fell over a banister, hit his head, propelled him up into the air and down 14 feet onto the ground below, and as I’m running down the stairs, out of my mouth is coming “the Lord will beat down your foes right in front of your face and smite those who hate you.  He will break the teeth of the ungodly.  The Lord will not allow the enemy to take anything from you. God will protect you from hidden traps and danger and darkness” and speaking life into the child and speaking life into him, that “God is a keeper of your bones and not one of them is broken.” You know, the child did not even get unconscious.  His head was a little bit red.  I got him ready, took him to the hospital and they released him in about a half an hour. He had a bunch of tests that said there was nothing wrong with him.  So be encouraged.  Be encouraged.  Not just listen to the word, but learn the word.  God bless you all.  Love you. Bye.  

Good morning Daily Audio Bible.  This is Dorcas from New York.  I’ve called before.  I started listening in October of 2016.  I’m calling because I need prayer.  I shared that I went totally blind last year and even though I’m dealing with it and God works all things for our good, I am struggling because I do not have a lot of help. I do not feel that people include me in things and I’m struggling with a situation here at work in which they are making it look like I cannot work anymore because I went totally blind.  I am quite good at computers and there is a lot of technology out there, but I need prayer for God’s favor here.  I also need prayer for my son because I don’t think he’s dealing with my total blindness very well and he has kind of isolated himself from me. He doesn’t speak to me very much. I am doing everything that I used to do when I had some light perception, but now things are a little harder for me because sometimes I can’t tell what I’m holding in my hand, whether I’m going to cook or going to clean or whatever it is.  And there is just no one to ask for help.  I have a guide dog and a lot of people just don’t seem to want me around because of the dog and so sometimes I’m feeling very alone, even though I know that the Lord is with me.  I want to ask you to just pray for my protection at work and for the Lord to give me favor.  And I want to thank Brian and his family.  

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Deborah from Providence, RI.  Thank you Brian and your family and all the other saints for all you do.  This is a call to congratulate Pelham, Molly and their new baby. God bless.  It is a wonderful thing to hear.  And also to say I was very happy to hear from Bill B. two weeks ago. And also Blind Tony, praying for you. You’re such an inspiration.  I pray that all is well, that you’re getting better.  And Yvonne H., we haven’t heard from you for a while.  I hope all is well with you.  God bless and have a blessed…  Also people, I’ve been listening to this coming on 11 years and I know there are a lot of us that have been listening to it for a long time.  This is not without a cost.  Brian and his family are paying for this.  We need to donate, people.  Even if it is $5 or $10 a month, we need to donate so that it can continue because with all this time I’ve been listening there hasn’t been one day that Brian or Jill has not come on to give us this podcast.  It’s a great sacrifice for them, so I thank God for them.  Please people, let’s donate.  God bless and have a great day.  

Good morning guys.  This is Jen in SoCal, aka Prayer Warrior Princess.  I want to share a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing that we normally would pray only on the first day of Hanukkah but last year I started saying it to the Lord when I got painful news.  It was a way to transform my thinking about the circumstances and to make proclamations that I would trust God through pain, so I would like to pray this over us as a proclamation that each of us meet our challenges this year with a mindset of God’s abundant love for us, of his kindness and his tender mercy.   I pray that the things of earth would grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.  Baruch atah Adonai Elohenu Melech haolam asher kideshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu lehadlik ner Chanukah.  Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, king of the universe who has granted us light, sustained us and enabled us to reach this season.  Father, for everything under heaven, you have appointed a season.  We yield to your wisdom and your love for us in 2017.  You know what seasons are needed for each of us to cultivate the soil of our hearts and minds.  Fortify us.  Grant us life and sustain us to meet the challenges of each of these seasons with your grace and your peace.  In Jesus’ name, amen.    

Hey, good morning DAB friends and family.  This is currently Larry from Monterey, CA, but I used to be Larry from __________. It’s been awhile since I called in, but I wanted to start the new year off right.  I have some prayer requests, but first I want to congratulate Pelham and Molly for baby Andy.  I just heard the podcast and I was so, so excited for you guys.  What a blessing.  And the fact that you recognize and see God’s miracles in this and share them with all of us, that is just…  you know, we’re honored.  Anyway, I want to shout-out to a few people, people that won’t __________ praise here, but that’s the way with Jesus.  Always great to hear from you, Tony, Blind Tony.  First off, always praying for you, Brother.  I absolutely love your stuff.  Joe the Protector, I haven’t heard you in a while, but I’ll tell you I miss you.  It is always great to hear from you.  Toni from Chicago, I haven’t heard you in a bit either, but I’m always praying for you.  It is just so great from them.  Missing a lot of other names too, but anyway I want to start the new year off well and I have two big prayer requests actually.  The first is just for my marriage.  Me and my wife Bridget, we’re going through some struggles and I would just like you guys to give a prayer for us.  But mainly my mom.  My mom has stage IV lung cancer still and she is still fighting, breathing, and doing well, but she did get a bad report from a PET scan a few weeks ago, so if you could just pray for Theresa in New York, I would really appreciate having all the other Dabbers out there praying for my mom.  It would be really, really awesome.  I think I know that.  Anyway, I love all you guys.  I’m always listening, always praying for you all.  Thank you Brian and Jill for just having this available and I look forward to getting my new coffee subscription too.  Take care.

Genesis 20:1-22:24 ~ Matthew 7:15-29 ~ Psalm 9:1-12 ~ Proverbs 2:16-22

Today is the 9^th day of January.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is awesome to be here with you today for the next step forward in our adventure through the scriptures this year, and right now in the Old Testament we are tracking the story and getting to know Abraham and Sarah, Abraham being a very pivotal and important person in the Bible whose legacy endures until today. So from The Common English Bible, Genesis chapter 20, verse 1 through 22, verse 24.  

Commentary

Okay, there is so much to talk about today, so many sights and sounds along the path of the scriptures that we walked today.  Let’s go to Abraham and Sarah.  

So they’ve come back to the region that they were dwelling in and they go to a city named Gerar.  This trick that Abraham had pulled in Egypt saying that Sarah is his sister, they did this again in Gerar.  So Gerar is a place that still exists today.  It’s just a mound.  It’s only been mildly excavated, but it has been found and identified and that is where this takes place.  So King Abimelech of Gerar runs the region that Abraham is trying to settle in.  Because it’s a transition zone.  It’s not like full-blown, barren, desolate wilderness, but it’s not rainy and wet and fertile either, it is like in this in-between zone, Abraham, having been a Bedouin, basically a desert person, is settling at least partially in a terrain that he understands.  

So this “she is my sister” trick gets Abraham some more wealth.  He’s become very wealthy on this, but the outcome is a treaty with the power of the region that Abraham can live wherever he wants to live.  So Beersheba is settled with the digging of a well.  Beersheba exists until today as a modern city, but the ancient ruins of Beersheba exist until today.  Both of these places you can see in the Promised Land Films.  Those of you who were just with us, my gosh, it seems like a long time ago, but just like a month ago when we were in the land of the Bible, you’ll remember being in Beersheba.  This is where we’re talking about and it is from here that Hagar and Ishmael are sent away into the wilderness of Beersheba where God protects them and sustains them.  It’s kind of from this Beersheba, this area that so much of world religion today, two-thirds or more of all world religion’s origin traces to this place through Ishmael, through Isaac, definitely tracing back to Abraham, the God of Abraham.  So definitely an important geographical location on the map of the Bible.  

But this promised child to Sarah and Abraham is born and he is named Isaac and he is the son of promise because he was a promised son.  But there is a pretty difficult twist in the story that we find today because God comes to Abraham and invites him to take a little trip with his son where the end will be that his son becomes a sacrifice to God. Pretty difficult stuff, right?  So you are 100 years old, you have had a son in your old age, the son is promised to be the father of many nations and through Isaac will be a blessing to all and yet this God who gave you this son is asking you to give him up as a sacrifice, which is ironic and certainly counterintuitive at best.  Abraham, who has come into and become a part of a covenant with God, cannot and will not withhold anything from God.  That is the deal.  That is still the deal.  But we’ll get to that in a minute.

So Abraham and Isaac, they do go toward Moriah which is now the place where the Temple of God would one day stand and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem now stands.  So to contextualize this and put this firmly on the geography, this is where the Dome of the Rock is in Jerusalem, the big gold-domed building.  Underneath that building is the bedrock of this mountain where Muslim people would argue that Ishmael was nearly sacrificed.  Jewish people and Christian believers would argue that Isaac was nearly sacrificed because of what is spoken here in the Bible. So a holy site for sure and a contentious one at that.  

The story itself is disruptive, because as parents, those of us who are parents, we can’t even imagine something like this.  But Abraham obeys God and he brings Isaac.  Isaac is starting to figure out like “okay, we have everything we need to do this except for the animal.  How is this going to work?”  By the time that Abraham ties up his son and lays him down on the altar that they’ve built together, I’m sure Isaac has figured out how this is potentially going to work.  The only thing Abraham says is “God will provide.”  And of course he does.

We can look at this story as kind of harsh, very disruptive, one of these points we can look at God and kind of see his ways as difficult and harsh and we can put ourselves in Abraham’s position as a father and it just kind of messes with us because it is supposed to.  Because Abraham and God are in covenant with each other and they will withhold nothing from each other.  What God has asked Abraham to do, even though he is calling the whole thing off, even though Isaac is never in danger, Abraham believes he is giving up his most valuable possession.  The thing is, God calls it off for Abraham and then has to endure it himself.  This is how our salvation is born because God did not withhold his son as a sacrifice for the human race.  

So we can read a story like this and it can estrange us from God when its purpose is to allow us to see into the heart of God.  We can imagine through Abraham what this must have felt like and how difficult a story like this would be which allows us to look into the heart of God and see just how profoundly he would not surrender his image, his creation to the darkness that they were creating for themselves and we begin to see the cost of this rebellion, the price of introducing sin into the human narrative, something that was never supposed to be a part of our story.  

We all get the opportunity to be a part of this story, this covenant, this intimacy, this collaboration with God.  But it is an all or nothing proposition.  It’s not a partial thing.  You can’t be partially in this with God.  Just like you can’t be partially married.  When you marry before God, you enter into a covenant with your spouse that you will give all of who you are to them and they to you and withhold nothing from one another and remain loyal and faithful to one another. And when that covenant is broken (some of you know this story really well) when that covenant is broken, then that covenant is broken.  And although things can be repaired and restored, it’s broken.  It gives us an opportunity to look at our own lives right now.  This idea of a bond, of an agreement, of a covenant, something that is deeper than the paper that it is written on, something that is written upon our hearts and irreversible is something that God brings into our story.  

So when we move into the New Testament reading today and Jesus is finishing up the Sermon on the Mount, we see him saying something really interesting. He says “people will come before me on the day of judgement and they’ll be like ‘Lord, Lord, look at all the stuff we did.  It’s so good to be here.  Look at what we did.  We cast out demons in your name.  We healed people in your name.  Look at all of the stuff we did for you.’”  And Jesus says “I’ll look at them and say ‘you’re going to have to go away. Depart from me.  I never knew you.’”  Which helps us understand that this relationship with God is exactly that. It’s not enough to know about God. We have to actually know God. This is how relationships are shaped, to know and be known.  So Jesus is effectively saying yeah, you ran around and did a bunch of stuff in my name, but we didn’t know each other.  It’s not enough to know a lot about your spouse from a distance and do things in your spouse’s name.  You have to know one another.  That is how relationships are shaped.  That is what a covenant looks like, to withhold nothing from one another, to give all that we are and receive all that they are.

As the story of the Bible begins to unfold before us, we will see that God has withheld absolutely nothing from us.  We are created in his image.  We are here because of him in the first place and he has done nothing but continue to be involved in our story relentlessly.  So one of the major things that we have to do as we take this journey is to examine our own lives and the places in our lives that have estranged us from God.  Why would God let this or that thing happen? At the base of all that, the fundamental question is:  Is God trustworthy and good?  Or is he not? Because he’s one or the other. His heart is either good toward us or not.  So there can be plenty of things that happen in life that we do not exactly understand in the immediate moment which invites us to ask ourselves, do I believe God’s heart is good toward me?  Do I trust God?  Am I really all in on this relationship?  If we can answer the question and say yes, in spite of anything that I may be feeling at this moment, God’s heart is good toward me, I know that, then it brings up the secondary question:  Is my heart good toward him?  Because this is the nature of relationship.  

So through the story of Abraham and Isaac and through the Sermon on the Mount we begin to see this relational language begin to take form and shape in the story of mankind and God.  May we examine ourselves right here at the beginning of the year.  Are we really all in or have we come here to find out more information about God rather than knowing God intimately?  

Prayer 

Father, we come into your presence and we believe your heart is good toward us.  We ask your forgiveness for the ways in which our hearts have not been good toward you. All of a sudden so many things snap into place because we see the ways we’ve been blaming you for everything and not owning our part of the relationship.  We want to be known by you.  Jesus, we want to come into your presence and say Lord, Lord, and you say welcome home, I know you, I’ve known you for a long time.  Come Jesus, we pray.  We open ourselves and invite your Holy Spirit to root out and bring up anything that you need to bring up in the ways we’ve perceived you and misunderstood you and your activity in our lives.  Come Holy Spirit.  We ask in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It is certainly where you find out what is going on around here.  The Prayer Wall is there.  Resources are there.  A great resource that goes along with the things we were talking about today would be a book that is in the Daily Audio Bible Shop called Reframe – From the God We’ve Made to God With Us, where we take a deep dive in what it actually means to be in a relationship with God, that makes that no longer a theological concept but actually fleshes it out where we live, what it actually looks like to be all in and in a relationship with God.  So you may want to check that out.  Check out the other resources that are available there.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in keeping everything spinning and moving every day, then www.DailyAudioBible.com is the place to go to.  There is a link on the home page.  Thank you deeply and humbly for those who have clicked that link.  If you’re using 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 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 Dabbers, as Becky from Philly calls us and I’ll get to that in a second. My name is Easy Cleghorn and I just wanted to take a moment and introduce myself to the whole family.  I’m 30 years old.  I am totally blind.  I’m an educator living in Georgia and I’ve just had the most wonderful couple of days and I’ve gotten into the rhythm of being part of the Daily Audio Bible family. It’s just amazing the way that Brian runs this.  I’m just so grateful and so at peace every time I listen.  Back to Becky from Philly, I heard the message yesterday and it just broke my heart and I just wanted to say, and I said this on the Facebook page as well, that you don’t have to go through anything alone and there are always going to be those of us who you can reach out to.  If you want to find that post on the page and message me directly, I will leave you contact information day or night.  You can text or call or whatever.  That goes to any of the members of our wonderful new family that I’ve just discovered in the last couple of days.  There are people that are here.  I’m always here.  I can always be reached and I will always pray for you guys.  I love you all very, very much and it’s just an honor to take this journey.  

Hello, my name is Lisa H.  I’m a first-time caller.  I’ve listened to the Daily Audio Bible for about five or six years and I’m in desperate need of prayer.  Thursday night, early Friday morning my house burned to the ground.  I’ve lost everything.  I’m a single mom with two children, but I know that God is still on the throne.  I need your prayers for God to guide me and to tell me what I’m supposed to do and pray that my insurance pays the maximum amount.  I thank God for this program and I’m reaching out now in desperate need of prayer.  God bless you all.  Thank you.

Good morning family.  This is Cherry C., Cherry Pie.  I just wanted to welcome all the new callers, let you know that you came to the right place at the right time and that you’re step has been ordered.  So welcome to the family.  Biola, I just heard your message and I was so happy to hear from you because I was just thinking about you and then as I was thinking about you, you popped up on the message.  And I was like, this is great!  I wanted to hear you and now I did, so that’s great.  I want everybody to have a blessed day.  I want to tell you guys I love you guys and this year I’m going to do something new.  I’m just going to try to always think positive, speak positive regardless of my heart time and my hard situation I’m going through.  I’m going to push through like I’m birthing a baby.  Like I’m having a baby.  So I’m just going to birth through and give God the praises and let everything else try to wash over my head.  I love you guys.  You have a great day and I hope your New Year’s was great and bright and I did want to call New Year’s Day and say do you know what today is?  It’s my anniversary.  It’s my anniversary.  But the 1^st went by, I didn’t get a chance to do it, so it is my anniversary on the 1^st.  I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for seven years.  Whoever thought?  Seven years straight.  You guys have a blessed day.  I love you. C’mon callers, the new callers, call in. You need us?  We’re here for you.  Love you guys.  

Hello DAB family.  This is Chante calling from Detroit.  Happy New Year everybody.  But really I’m calling in today in response to Sam from Australia.  You basically called in with a plea for us to fast for those less fortunate, for those who may have not had a Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year because they are in places that are dealing with war like Aleppo or they are just in less fortunate circumstances where maybe they don’t have a roof over their head or food to eat.  You didn’t put it quite that way, but generally that is how I understood it. To pray for those who are just basically less fortunate.  So to let you know that I have joined you in a day of fasting and let’s just pray right now. Dear Lord, we thank you, O God, for all your blessings, O Lord, that you’ve given us, Lord.  But we want to take some time, Lord, to pray for those, to lift those up, Lord God, that need your mercy, Lord God, that need you, that need to know you, Lord God, that need hope, Lord.  We lift up those that are in war-torn areas, Lord God, especially the children, Lord.  We are praying, O God, that you will send peace, Lord, that you will send a lasting ceasefire, Lord, and that these areas can be rebuilt on the stable foundation of peace and on your word, Lord.  We’re praying, Lord God, that you would strengthen missionaries already there and send more missionaries there to provide food and clean water and medicines.  We’re praying for just the homeless in general, Lord.  

Hi, this is Lisa the Encourager.  It’s getting easier and easier now that I’m getting a little bit of a pattern, so that maybe encourages you to call too.  Anyway, I’m calling today for two things.  I would like to encourage those that maybe listened to all last year and were not able to give or haven’t given to the Daily Audio Bible. I would like to encourage you to give just as a little challenge.  I listened all last year and then I was blessed at the end of the year and was able to share some of that blessing with the Daily Audio Bible.  So I would just like to encourage you to give back to this wonderful mission of delivering the Bible to all of us.  And then my last bit of encouragement is to pray for those that have family members that are suffering with addiction, so we pray for them right now.  Dear Heavenly Father, I would like to pray for those families that have members of their family that are addicted to either drugs or alcohol or they are suffering with problems and addiction, Lord.  I just pray, God, that you will help them to be able to understand that they can’t necessarily be the solution but they can rely on you, to just be able to trust you in the situation, that it is not something they can control or that they can change but you can.  I just pray for those that are in the situation, Lord, that they will just be able to have refuge in you, God.  I thank you so much for all your many blessings and I pray for all the individuals out there in the Daily Audio Bible and the families of the Daily Audio Bible. Alright, have a great day. Bye.  

Hi, this is Steve from New Hampshire and I want to say again how much I appreciate the Daily Audio Bible and the family that we have here.  I’ve joined in many prayers for people who have called in.  This is actually my first-time calling in to request prayer.  We, my wife and I have been in a financial issue for a long time. Some of it is some bad choices that I made, but we also have several thousand dollars in medical bills and we seem to be just living paycheck to paycheck, trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage and the electric and oil and all that.  I’m late on most of my bills and just need some wisdom and also some increased income as well.  I have a business and I would like to just ask God to bless that to bring in more provision through that or whatever, but we’re looking to the Lord to provide and we just ask the body to join us in prayer for God’s breakthrough, for God’s wisdom.  Thank you so very much.  God bless all of you in 2017. 

Genesis 18:16-19:38 ~ Matthew 6:25-7:14 ~ Psalm 8:1-9 ~ Proverbs 2:6-15

Today is the 8^th day of January.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is awesome to be here with you as we greet a brand new week.  Usually this is the week around the world in our lives where we kind of settle into the new year, the holidays are kind of behind us now and we’re moving forward into the year.  We’ve set sail.  And that’s what’s we’ve done in the Bible.  We have set sail.  A lot happens in the first week.  There is a lot to contemplate.  All of a sudden we realize, “oh, the Bible, not such a stagnant thing like I thought. It is very much alive and speaking into my life and touching places inside of me that are true.”

So here we go, launching into the new week.  We’ll read from The Common English Bible this week and picking up where we left off.  We’re traveling on the journey, getting to know this man named Abraham.  Genesis chapter 18, verse 16 through 19:38 today.

Commentary

Jesus says some riveting things today that are disruptive when they are juxtaposed against the way we live our lives and we’ll talk about that in a minute, but we can’t pass over the book of Genesis today because the passage in Genesis today is difficult.  It’s difficult, what all happens.  It starts out so interestingly.  

Yesterday the promise of Isaac is given.  Specifically, the Lord says, “about this time next year…”  And we talked about that yesterday.  Immediately after that, that is when they are heading down toward Sodom and Gomorrah.  And we see something beautiful, this collaborative nature of God, this relational nature where he says, “how can I keep what I’m planning to do from Abraham?”

The plan is that God is going to go look at Sodom and Gomorrah and see if the evil that he is aware of is actually as bad as it seems.  He tells Abraham and is so patient with Abraham, letting Abraham speak his mind.  “Surely you wouldn’t do this if there were righteous people down there, if there are 50 people.  What if you go down there and you find 50 people that are righteous, are you going to destroy the place?”

And God is like, “no,” and then it’s 45 and then its 40 and then its 30, then its 20, then its 10 and God is just patiently saying, “no, that’s not really how this works.  I’m not going down there just for the sake of destruction.  If it is completely evil, if it is completely irredeemable, then it is going to go away.  But if there are righteous people there, that is not what I’m trying to do.”

I don’t have to retell the story.  We just read the story.  They go down. They find Lot.  There is this strange scene that takes place.  Lot takes the men into his house.  The house is surrounded and they want to rape these guys. Lot is in this predicament and we see this kind of patriarchal society that they are living in at the time where Lot’s daughters, they don’t have the value of the guests and so Lot is offering his daughters to the mob.  Yeah, that is just…  I don’t live in that kind of society, so I can’t imagine that.  But we are getting a look into the society, the culture of that part of the world at that particular time, but what ends up happening is that Lot’s guests pull Lot back in, they do not throw his daughters out, they seal the door, they blind the people, and they put the plan into action.  The place is evil.  So they get Lot out with his family, those that would go with them, and the place is destroyed.  Lot’s wife, she looks back.  There is plenty to contemplate right there because sometimes when God is leading us on and rescuing us, which he is constantly doing, we need to not be looking back.  But anyway, Lot is like, “I can’t go to the mountains.  I need to go to this little village of Zoar.  Can I go there?”  

And they are like, “Yeah, you can go there.”  And he does.  Then Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, but the next thing we find is that Lot and his daughters are hiding in the mountains.  The place that he said he couldn’t go is the place he ended up.  We don’t know exactly why, but they end up hiding in the mountains.

So here are two daughters and a father hiding in the mountains. Everything that they’ve had is destroyed.  The life as they knew it is gone.  Lot was prosperous.  He lost it all and he lost his wife.  So we can see that they have fallen into some serious hard times and the daughters have this conversation among themselves.  And without a little context, it is confusing because what they are contemplating is having sex with their father, trying to get pregnant by their father, so all of a sudden we have this incest story in the Bible, a great way to begin week two.  But let’s move into the story here.  

These are young women.  These are teenage women who had been betrothed to be married.  Life as they knew it is gone.  Their mom is gone.  They’ve been offered up to a mob of men.  They are in a pretty precarious situation.  Their father, who had some means and had some respect because he was sitting in the city gate, has fallen on circumstances that changed everything. So now they are hiding in a cave with their dad.  Their mom is gone.  They are not going to be getting married to the men they were planning to be married to because they are gone as well.  The city that they grew up in is gone and they are hiding.  So what are their options?  Their father is getting old.  He is the only one in this patriarchal society that can speak up and defend them, but he doesn’t really have what he had before.  They are all destitute, homeless, on the run.  So they come up with this plan.  If they can have male children, then those male children can take care of them as they age as mothers.  There is a man to claim them and carry on the family story.  But Lot is not going to last forever and the options aren’t what they used to be so they decide what they have to do is try to get pregnant.  

So it is not like there was some crazy, weird lusty thing going on.  It was more practical for them.  A horrible option, but the best of the worst of the options.  That is how this all happened.  What we have to look at is our own heart when we read a story like this.  

At least for me, I read this story for years and thought, “I just don’t get it.  Why is God involved in incest?  Why? What is going on here?”  And it wasn’t until I really read and read and read the story that I began to realize, “Hang on, God’s role in this story was to rescue Lot and his family from the destruction of the evil that he was doing away with.  That’s it. Everything that came next was all decisions that were made by the people who had been rescued in the first place.”  So we don’t have this narrative of them crying out to God.  Why didn’t they flee to Hebron and find Abraham, their uncle?  

We can see pretty clearly our own stories overlaid here.  People get to make choices and those choices get to matter. Every choice is a decision to walk down a certain path and that path is going to lead somewhere.  It may lead to other forks in the road and it always does, but the choices that we make become the roadmap of the life that we live.  It’s not right or true to blame God for every choice that we make that we have not consulted him in or walked with him on.  

At the end of our New Testament reading today Jesus says there is a narrow path and that path leads to life, but it is a narrow gate and it’s a difficult road and few people find it.  There is a wide highway that leads to destruction, but there is a narrow path that leads to life.  And we walk that path when we walk with God.  Blaming God that we get off that narrow path and on the wide road that leads to destruction when he didn’t do it and it’s not his fault, yeah, that’s not the kind of relationship that we’re looking for when we talk about a relationship with God. Have you ever been in a relationship where you got blamed all the time for things that you didn’t do?  Or things were aimed at you and nuanced in a way that weren’t true?  That’s horrible.  It’s not a life-giving relationship.  We have to understand we can’t have that posture of heart toward God and have a true intimate relationship.  You can’t truly love somebody you don’t really actually trust.  And we watch this play out in the book of Genesis.  

In the New Testament, Jesus gives us such a gift today.  He shows us what life is supposed to look like.  You don’t have to worry, is what he says.  You don’t have to worry about your life.  You don’t have to worry about what you’re going to eat or what you’re going to drink, what you’re going to wear.  Life is more than all of that.  Life is bigger than the exterior things we focus most on.  

What Jesus says is essentially you’ve got it backwards.  You’re trying to live from the outside in and it’s the reverse.  Life comes from the inside outward, so if you’re foremost desire is God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, then all this other stuff that you need and want will be given to you.  So stop worrying about tomorrow and focus on God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness right now and continue to do that.  Make that choice every day.  Follow that narrow path every day and you’ll have all of the rest, but you will be living as you were created to live, intertwined with God.  Just ask.  Just seek. Just knock.  It’s all here for you.  It’s all available to you.  Just most people won’t.  

Most people won’t walk through the narrow gate.  Most people won’t live from inside out.  Most people are just distracted by what is exterior, things like judging each other, which Jesus talks about.  And he simply says the same kinds of things he does about forgiveness. If you’re going to judge, it’s your prerogative, but you’re going to be judged using the measuring stick that you judge others.  So if you’re going to be harsh that way, that’s how it is going to come back to you. Stop paying attention to the speck that is in your brother or sister’s eye when you have a log in your own. Focus on what is going on inside of you. Walk with God on the narrow path. Walk in intimacy.  Stop blaming him for what he hasn’t done.  Own your stuff.  If we would just listen, we would have so much margin in our lives.  Things would become spacious because we’re living from within.  We’re not looking at our lack on the exterior.  We’re looking at abundance from within that then spills out into everything.  

Prayer 

Jesus, we thank you for the gift that we don’t have to worry.  It’s a gift.  It’s also a choice.  And we can ignore it.  We can continue to live the way that we’re living, but it is erratic and it is close to the edge and it has no margin in it.  Or we can realize we don’t have as much control as we think we do.  Ttrying to control every eventuality and every person in our lives, including you, isn’t working.  It doesn’t work.  It can’t work.  You’re giving us permission to relax and rest in you and be obedient to you.  So come Holy Spirit in this and forgive us, Lord, for the ways that we’ve blamed you for things you had nothing to do with that were our own choice and they have landed us where we’ve landed.  But here you are.  Here you are wherever we’ve landed.  You haven’t abandoned us.  You’ve simply allowed us to have the fruit of our  own choices.  You’ve always done this because you’ve desired true intimacy and true love.  You have loved us unconditionally but we have not loved you unconditionally.  We’ve blamed you for all kinds of things.  Forgive us for that.  We’re sorry for that.  That stops now, right here at the beginning of the year.  That stops now.  You are good and you love us and we believe that.  So we’re sorry for the ways we’ve built walls around ourselves to protect ourselves that have only brought us destruction.  Come Holy Spirit, help us see things as they really are, from the inside out.  We ask in Jesus’ name who makes this possible, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website and it’s home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here, so check it out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link on the home page.  And thank you for clicking that link.  If you’re using 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 is the number to dial.  

And that is 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 DAB family.  I’m Carol from the UK and I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  Today I felt I needed to share my testimony with you. I became a Christian believer in 1984 when my brother-in-law phoned us up one Friday evening and told us he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and had to have an operation the following Tuesday.  Although I wasn’t a believer, I knew to pray for this kind of thing but I didn’t feel I had authority enough.  I didn’t think God would answer an unbeliever, so I phoned a family friend who happened to be a local Baptist minister and asked him to pray for him, which he did over the phone.  Monday evening we received a call from my brother-in-law and he told us he had to go to the hospital that morning for further x-rays for the operation in order to see if the cancer had spread.  After a while, his consultant called him into his consulting room and there were about four or five other cancer specialists there studying x-rays.  They told him the tumor had gone and that there was no sign of cancer in his body at all.  He asked them to explain what had happened and one of them told him that he was an atheist and didn’t believe in religious stuff.  And then he said that medically speaking what they were looking at was absolutely impossible, medically absolutely impossible and that someone must have been praying for him over the weekend.  They immediately discharged him.  It was then that I realized that Jesus really existed today and is still performing miracles.  I just gave my life to him there and then.  I want to encourage everyone that when you pray God hears you.  So never give up hope.  Sometimes it doesn’t always work the way you want it to, but you must trust and open your heart to Jesus and let him in.  There will always be a room for you in one of his mansions. God bless you all.  Bye-bye.

Good morning Dabbers.  Good morning new Dabbers, DABers.  My name is Walta.  I started as Liberian Walta because I’m from Liberia and now I go as the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our Lord and King.  And hopefully in time you understand why. But I’m just calling to say welcome! Welcome, welcome, welcome!  I’m so glad you started.  I invited a few of my friends.  I hope you guys are listening.  Love you guys so much and you will never regret it.  Every single day is brand new, so it is unlike any other audio Bible you’ve ever listened to and you’re listening with hundreds of thousands of people.  I listened in Liberia.  I listened in Europe.  All over the world people are listening and just to remember that.  This is a global campfire and a glimpse into what heaven looks like, all nations, all peoples, all ages.  Welcome!  I’m just going to say a little prayer.  Father God, we thank and praise you, Lord, for everyone listening today.  God, I pray that you will bless their families, bless them, and just bless this audio Bible reading for this year.  God, I pray for Brian and family.  I pray you keep them, sustain them, and continue to provide for them.  I pray that every single day we listen to your word, we pray that you will speak through your word into our hearts and into our daily lives.  We love you.  We love you. We love you and we trust you.  In Jesus’ name.  Love you guys.  Have fun!

Good morning Daily Audio Bible.  This is Sandy from New Hampshire.  It is the 2^nd of January.  Happy New Year!  I’m starting my second year with Daily Audio Bible and I’m grateful for all the hard work that everybody put in toward it.  Thank you. I am calling this morning because I’m listening as I’m doing my quilting and what-not to the prayer requests and Lana from Canada, hello friend.  Hello Sister. And I’m so sorry for your loss of your mom.  You asked to hear your name.  Even if nobody else says your name, Jesus knows.  I know that you just need a hug, so I hope that my call is your hug from Jesus. Father God, in the name of Jesus, I lift up Lana.  I thank you, Lord, that your word says that you are the comforter, that you alone, Lord, can comfort and heal and restore.  I ask that you would just touch Lana’s heart and help her, Lord, through this holiday season.  Help her as she mourns her mom but also trusts in you.  I give you thanks and praise for Lana.  I thank you for people, Lord, that are grieving, mourning, and their hearts are wounded.  I ask you, Lord, to touch and heal them.  Move in the midst of the grief, Lord God.  Help us to trust you when we can’t see, feel, or know you.  In the midst of it all you are there.  God bless you, Lana.  I’m praying for you and I’ll continue to pray for you, Sister.  God bless you, friends.  This is Sandy in New Hampshire.  Have a great rest of your day.  Bye.  

Good morning guys.  This is Jen in SoCal, aka Prayer Warrior Princess.  Happy New Year.  Here is a prayer for all of us for the new year.  Father, we thank you that you have been our dwelling place.  We have found you faithful in the midst of uncertainty and trials and grief and suffering.  You have been our refuge and our ever-present help in all of our struggles. You’ve been a shield about us in the face of persecution.  You’ve been our strong tower.  How glorious that we can be sheltered under your wings and be lifted on the wings of eagles above our challenges.  Oh what mystery you hold in these truths, Father God.  You have been our refuge in the valley of the shadow of death. You’ve prepared tables for us in the presence of our enemies.  You’ve anointed us with grace to persevere and adore.  You’ve made goodness and mercy follow us.  You’ve secured for us the promise that we who sow in tears shall reap in joy, bringing the sheaves in with us.  We rest in this and we rest in you.  Oh Father, be our vision for 2017.  Keep our eyes firmly fixed on you.  Only you know what awaits us in this coming year.  Fill us with faith to trust you as you pave the way.  You are our glory and the lifter of our heads. Keep us in this mindset and daily encourage us in our endeavors to submit ourselves as living and holy sacrifices acceptable and pleasing to you.  Only by your grace and tender mercies can we do this.  Overflow us with your Spirit, your power and your grace that we might yield our hearts today, proclaiming that no matter what befalls us this year, that we align ourselves with the truth about you, hold us together and believe all truth about you.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Hi, good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  My name is Rosalea and I’m calling from the Los Angeles area.  This is actually my first time calling ever, my first time actually starting the Daily Audio Bible for the entire year. Initially I began back in late August from a recommendation through a sister in Christ and I’m very thankful for that.  So I’m very excited to start the new year with the readings from January 1^st. More than anything, I feel very, very blessed to be in this new year with everyone.  I want to ask for some prayers for my sisters in Christ.  We have a group, a few sisters that listen to the Daily Audio Bible.  They have finished the Daily Audio Bible throughout the year, so just prayers that we continue to keep this group alive.  We will be meeting this weekend at one of the girl’s cabins, so I’m very excited for that as well.  And just prayers for guidance throughout this year.  It was a trying year for me this past year, but regardless I feel very blessed and very thankful that God has worked his way in my life and my family’s life. With that being said, I hope you guys have an amazing day.  I’m not quite sure what else to ask for or what to do, but I’ve listened to everyone’s prayers and I will be praying for everyone who has prayer requests. Everyone have an amazing day and I hope to be calling more often with praise reports and praying for the people who ask for it.  Have a great day.  Bye.

Hi there.  This is Beth B. in South Carolina and I’m calling to let China and Brian know how thrilled I am that China is going to read the Bible chronologically this year. I have been listening for eight years. Brian, you probably don’t remember. My husband and I went with you on the first trip to Israel and I am the woman with low vision.  I’m probably the most blessed to be able to listen through the Bible. And of course the community is such a great bonus.  I took a break a few years ago to listen through the Bible chronologically and it was so rich and I was so broken and I was so longing for the Messiah by the time he showed up in late August and I was considering doing it again this year, but didn’t want to take a break from the community, so it is such a blessing that I get to listen chronologically.  I appreciate China’s wisdom already in the past two days and also remain part of the community.  So China, I’ll be praying for your strength and wisdom and just direction from God as you go through the year.  I’ll be praying for the requests that come in even though I’m an old lady, but I won’t be calling into your line myself.  So thank you. And Brian, I’m just again so blessed and thankful and have grown so much through the wisdom of reading the Bible through or listening through every year so thank you very much.  Bye.