03/16/2017 DAB Transcript

Numbers 24:1-25:18 ~ Luke 2:1-35 ~ Psalm 59:1-17 ~ Proverbs 11:14

Today is the 16th day of March.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is great to be here with you today for another step forward in the scriptures this year.  Man, we started this story of Balak and Balaam and so let’s move back out into the desert in the book of Numbers and see what happens.  Numbers chapter 24, verse 1 through 25, verse 18 today.  And we’re reading from the Expanded Bible this week.  

Commentary

In the book of Numbers, Balaam blesses Israel and he gives prophetic utterances about the surrounding nations and how Israel will prevail eventually over them.  And then he gives a prophetic long view, referring to the Messiah who was born in the book of Luke in our reading today, an utterance out in the wilderness before there was a land of Israel at all and then the fulfillment of the promise.  Meanwhile, Israel started worshipping the Baals.  

I think it is like what else is there to say?  The juxtaposition is so stark that it is like what else is there to say except when I look at the children of Israel coming out of Egypt grumbling, wandering, complaining, chasing after everything that just comes across their path, that the promise is some sort of pleasure or life, then I have to look at my own history and acknowledge I’m that.  The Bible is absolutely reading my history, my life, and I feel fairly confident that it is doing the same for you in one way or another. I mean, this Balaam and Balak story is a powerful one.  Here is God speaking through a foreign prophet to a foreign king who has the idea of destroying these people.  Meanwhile, these people have begun to worship the Moabite gods.  It’s almost like God could be like, “Look Balak, you’re the king of Moab.  You don’t really need me to curse these people.  They are cursing themselves.  You don’t need me to destroy them.  They are destroying themselves and they are my chosen ones.”  It is so stark.  

We have to look at our own lives and invite the Holy Spirit to reveal the ways that we have colluded with our enemy to destroy ourselves.  I mean, we’re constantly looking for somebody to blame, so we’ll blame the devil.  We’ll blame the Lord.  We’ll blame our fellow human beings when sometimes we just have to look in the mirror and own it.  Getting mad at God is not the answer.  Getting right with God is the only solution.  

Overall, as we continue forward in this story of the children of Israel, we’ll get to see what both of those look like and where those paths lead. And then we get to ask ourselves which path am I actually on?  Not the path I say I’m on, which path am I really actually walking?  Is it the narrow path that leads to life or not? And the Bible will show us where both of those roads lead and then we’ll get to choose.  And it’s not something that we choose once.  It’s something that we choose in every decision we make.  So may we use this story of Balak and Balaam and the children of Israel and the way that they are so easily seduced into other distractions and invite God into all of that as we use it as a mirror for our own souls.  

Prayer

Father, that is our prayer.  That is what we do.  We invite you into that because it’s true.  We’ve been all over the map.  If we’re going to be honest about our life story, we’ve been all over the map and not all of the places have been promised and not all of the places have been good. A lot of it has been spent in the wilderness wandering around trying to figure it out, but we’re not going to figure it out.  We weren’t made to figure it out without you.  We weren’t made to do anything without being intertwined with you and collaborating with you in life.  So help us, Holy Spirit, to stop seeing you as something other and to fully realize we are a temple for the Holy Spirit within us, actually a part of who we are, within our hearts, always available, never distant.  When we feel like we’re a distance from you, we’re just acknowledging we’ve lost our mooring and we’re distant from our identity because where you are is within us.  We want that to rise up and become the central truth of our lives, in every thought, word, and deed.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In the name of Jesus, the Mighty One, we ask, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here and there is always something going on.  The More Gathering for Women is coming up, and that is really what is going on because registration for More will end in about a week.  So we’re kind of getting down to it and once it’s done, it’s done.   You are invited, ladies, to come explore all of these things, the deeper recesses of your heart, the places inside of you that you don’t have time…it’s all of us, we’re busy, very busy people, so there is not a lot of downtime to just open up and have just a couple of days to just really, really sit with ourselves and Jesus and have those conversations that we just don’t take the time or have the time for.  It’s a beautiful thing.  I invite you and hope you can come.  All the details about the More Gathering for Women are at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Everything that you would want to know.  We’ll look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It is on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Thank you for those of you who have been willing to click that link.  If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press 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 DAB.  Violet from the UK.  I just wanted to share with you a little testimony that I had from just now.  I was writing my dissertation for university and I could feel myself getting so frustrated, saying to myself __________, I can’t do this.  I can’t even remember the points long enough to type them down.  __________ for me, but then there was a thought that gently broke through and stopped everything, saying that __________ stopped everything in that when you succeed, my power will be perfect in your weakness.  Coming from Book II in Corinthians 12, verse 9.  I just __________ encourage someone today. So __________ day.  Bye-bye.  

Good morning Daily Audio Bible.  My name is Kathryn from New Jersey and I’ve been listening to Daily Audio Bible for about two years, my first time calling in.  I was listening to the recording from February 27 and I just wanted to say thank you, Jane, for sharing Isaiah 43:2.  I want to read it again to encourage those who are listening today.  It says fear not, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by your name.  You are mine.  When you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.  When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned.  When I heard this, it was very encouraging and I would like to ask for a prayer request today for my family, for deliverance.  I have two sisters struggling with depression and just a time of heartbreak.  One of them is going through a separation, so I just want to pray for both of them and for provision for one of my sisters who also has our nephew.  So thank you for your prayers.  Okay, God bless.  

Hi.  This is Joyful in Tennessee.  I was just calling.  I am calling for someone that is struggling right now with a lot of fear and depression. I’m not sure of your name and you haven’t really called in, but the Lord has just laid you on my heart specifically to tell you that he hears you and that you’re supposed to press in.  I know I’ve come up on a year mark where I struggled with depression and God is so good.  He brought me through that.  But I had to press into him.  It hurt. It hurt and it was lonely, but when I pressed in I realized that there was a big, great God there.  So whomever you are, that you hear me and you know in your spirit that this is for you.  God has named you Brave.  You are brave and you are loved, so go past the dead feeling that you are feeling.  Go past that hurt and press into it and you press into your Lord Jesus.  I love you. I’m praying for you.  

My precious Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Candace from Oregon.  My husband, Brad, had a heart attack Friday morning, about 4:30.  The next morning by, I’m thinking, 3:30, he had gone on to be with Jesus after open heart surgery earlier that day.  He is the one whom __________ me to be part of all of you and I’m thanking him and Jesus. Please read Psalm 23 in his honor and remember that we have nothing to fear.  I love you and thank you.  God bless you.  

Sometimes I stop and reflect on the insanity of my past and how far you have brought me over a chasm so vast.  My soul cries out hallelujah for the die has been cast.  And just like Martin Luther King Jr. used to say, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.  But to whom much is given, much will be asked.  So I know there is a great responsibility that comes with my past. Many who were first now find themselves last, so strengthen me, Father, to be up to the task.  I know I have a story that is supposed to get told about how you’ve given me so many victories over so many dangers untold, how you’ve shielded me from a young age and allowed now to grow old.  Strengthen me, Father.  Make my speech bold because all that I have is due only to thee, the air that I now breathe and everything around me that I see.  Life and a future, eternally with thee, and life right now, life more abundantly.  Thank you, my Father, for all that you do.  For giving me this chance to live life anew. Please keep my thoughts faithful, humble and true and may all of my thoughts be acceptable unto you.  BlindTony1016@gmail.com.  Tito, it was nice hearing your voice.  I didn’t know you were still there, brother.  And Delta Alpha Foxtrot, where are you, man?  Time to check in.  Past time to check in.  Tony, truck driver, AJ, yeah, time to check in, y’all.  And Steve of the Redwoods, are you still there?  Alright, okay…oh, wanted to give a little update on my daughter Neeci that had the stroke.  She is progressing nicely.  She is able to say certain words now.  She can’t string together sentences yet, but I believe that is coming and they have given her a…

Hi DAB family.  I’ve got two things that I want to talk about.  One, when people don’t call in, let’s just not assume that it is because they are no longer a part of the community or they don’t want to call in.  Let’s remember that God is the one who should be leading us to call in and pray for other people and give praise reports.  So I just want to reiterate that.  It can be that everything is fine, but that if God is not leading you to call in, then we need to be respectful of that and only have something to say when God has given us peace about it.  I know that I used to call in the beginning every day, but I was doing it because I wanted to do it.  And God brought to my attention I need to be calling in when he has led me.  So I just want to put that out there.  The other thing is we need to start thanking God for the prayers that we have asked.  Once we have asked them, we need to put them down and start standing in faith so that God can see that we are trusting in him and giving him the glory.  Start thanking him for that baby that you want to have.  Start thinking him for that relationship you want repaired.  Start thanking him for that job that you want or thanking him for your finances, thanking him for your health being restored even though none of these things have happened yet.  If we stand out in faith and start thanking God for what he is doing, I promise you, you will feel God’s working in your situation versus us continually asking him.  God doesn’t need a reminder like we do.  We don’t need to ask God 5 and 10 times to send us something. God knows.  Remember, he knows our beginning and our ending.  So I just want to put that out there, too.  I love you all.  I thank you all for your prayers, for covering me.  Brian, Jill and everyone behind the scenes at DAB, I love you.  And I’m having my vitamin DAB.  Cheers!  Asia from Munich.