Month: July 2017

2 Chronicles 1:1-3:17 ~ Romans 6:1-23 ~ Psalm 16:1-11 ~ Proverbs 19:20-21

Today is the 20th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in this week in the scriptures and in our lives. In the Old Testament we’re beginning the book of second Chronicles today and there isn’t really an overview to give about second chronicles that isn’t the same as when we talked about first Chronicles. We’re just kind of moving forward. First and second Chronicles were all one text and they we’re just broken apart for the ease of locating things at a time where we didn’t have word processors and search engines and stuff like that when we needed to go to the right scroll to locate what we were looking for. But, generally speaking, first Chronicles ends with the end of David’s reign and second Chronicles begins with the beginning of Solomon’s reign. We saw this same kind of pattern in the books of the Kings and so we begin. Second Chronicles chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 17 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so, Paul is laying out his argument and his argument is reframing their understanding of their faith as they’ve traditionally known it. Paul is bringing Jesus into the mix and saying, look, this revelation, what Jesus did, that God came here in the flesh and dwelt among us, this is a big deal. And, so, we have to reframe what we think we know because we know more now and here’s how this works. And that’s basically what Romans is doing. And it can get tedious. Paul is packing, like, every sentence with theological understandings and it’s like, wow, slow down a second. I need to process this. So, a few days ago, Paul begins with Abraham. He’s like, let’s go back to the beginning and work our way forward. And let’s remember, because this was his first reframe, let’s remember that it was Abraham’s belief that was counted as righteousness in God’s eyes, not his following of a recipe, because there was no recipe. It was his belief. Let’s start there. It was his belief in what God said that was counted as righteousness to him. All the other stuff that we’ve been kind of stuck in under this law came later.

And then, yesterday, he talks about the law and he talks about mercy. Right? He talks about Grace that overcomes the deficiencies that we find in the law because the law shows, it reveals, our hopelessness and powerlessness to achieve righteousness in our own strength. We cannot get there on our own but God is merciful. He is a Father. He has grace that He extends to us through Jesus and that changes everything.

And, so, what Paul is going into today, and you can sort of see this build. It’s the entire faith that we ascribe to. What he is saying today is, so, now that we know this that we have a merciful kind graceful God that would come and, while we were still enemies, while we were still sinners, He would die to offer freedom to us. Now that we know that he’s that kind and now that we know that that kind of Grace exists and is extended toward us, does that mean we can just do whatever we want? Because every time we do something wrong there is grace and it multiplies and multiplies. So, should we intentionally just do what we know isn’t right so that we can receive this grace even more and more? Absolutely not, he says. Because when you become a slave to something you are obeying it and you have died to who you were. The waters of baptism are a representation of this. You go into the water declaring that who you were without Christ is dead, is going to be left behind in those waters, and you will come back out a new creature.

But the whole thing that we’ve come to this far is beautifully summarized today at the end of our reading. And the very last verse that we read is one of the very famous verses in the Bible, right? For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Absolutely astounding, the truth in that verse. But it’s even more powerful when we just go back a couple verses and understand the entire paragraph, the narrative that he was saying that led to that statement, because it applies to us all. So, what fruit was produced from the things that you are now ashamed of? Right? So, you can look back over your life and go like, man, college was not so good of a season for me, or man, you know, some of those things that I did to and against my spouse, or some of those things that I did to against my parents and my friends, or the way I betrayed, the way I did those things that I knew were wrong, I’m ashamed of those things. So, Paul’s just simply saying, where was the fruit in that, did you get what you were looking for, was there a bunch of fruit produced from the things that you are now ashamed of? Right! Because the end of those things leads to death. But that’s not you anymore. You’ve been liberated from those things. You can let them go. That was an earlier version of you. That was the version of you separated from God. That’s not your story anymore. You are intertwined with God now. You are a new creation. Those things that you were enslaved to before that we’re leading you toward death. That’s gone. You’ve now changed yourself. You are now slaves to God and as you obey your master that will only lead to fruit, which will result in your sanctification. And the end of that story is eternal life because the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Prayer:

So, Father, we thank You for the book of Romans. We thank You for your word. We thank You for this truth washing into our lives. We thank You for this opportunity to remember what it was like without You. It’s nothing we really want to relish in but it’s good to remember that that old person is gone now and it was leading nowhere and You intervened and came and rescued us. And now every day, we march forward deeper into sanctification. Every day we are being made set apart and holy. Every day we are being transformed into Your likeness. We are looking more and more like You, Jesus, every day. And the end of this story is the beginning of forever and ever and ever and ever with You, Eternal Life. So, we thank You, God, for the gift of mercy and grace and, like Abraham, we believe. That’s what we bring to the table because that’s all we have to bring to the table. And You supply us with everything we need. You indwell us and fill us. It’s no longer us. The person that we were without You is gone. Now it’s a new creature intertwined with You. It’s a collaboration in life, moving us deeper into restoration and wholeness and sanctification and eternal life. What do we even say to that? Thank You…is…is…it’s flat…it’s not enough. This is the point where our vocabulary fails us. This is too good to articulate. And, so, we just simply worship You, walk with You, enjoy this life with You, and share the light and good news of it everywhere we can in every way we know how. So, come Holy Spirit, show us what that looks like as we walk with You today. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the web site. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

Couple things are going on around here.

Tonight at 7 p.m. we’re going to do a Facebook Live inside the Sneezing Jesus discussion group and I’m just going to share some thoughts. And it’s great forum for us to get together, like, to be together, all in one place at one time when we can kind of fellowship. Even though we are all over the place and maybe even spread out in all kinds of different time zones, we can be together in the same place at the same time, a little bit. So, that’s going to happen at 7 p.m. tonight. That’s Central Standard Time, which is the time zone for the rolling hills of Tennessee. And you’ll just have to, maybe, look up wherever you are in the world, the difference. I know what it’s like here in the United States. I know that that’s 8 p.m. on the east coast and I know that’s 5 p.m. on the west coast and I know that it’s 6 p.m. mountain time. But I don’t know where it is all over the world. So, you can just Google that. I hope to see you there. You’ll need to be in the Sneezing Jesus group, discussion group, to see that. So, you can find a pretty easily facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus. So, we’ll see you there tonight.

Other thing that I’ve been telling you about this week is that all the formats of Sneezing Jesus have been released, including the audio addition, so, you can get it at Audible or iTunes or wherever else you get audiobooks. So, it’s out there. It’s out there in all kinds of formats. And if you haven’t had a chance, be we sure to check that out.

We’ll be doing the Sneezing Jesus tour beginning this autumn and into the new year. If you would like to see that come to your area, there’s a form you can fill out - small one, just a couple things, just a way to get in touch.  Go to sneezingjesus.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll find it. Boom! Piece of cake. You’ll find it in 1 minute. And we’ll see if that can happen.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, in the common mission that we share -  to bring the spoken word of God fresh every day to anyone who will listen to it, anywhere on this planet, anytime of day or night and to continue to build community around that rhythm that we share each day - so that we know, that no matter what, we’re not alone. There’s somebody, no matter what, we’re not alone. If that has brought light and life and good news into your life, then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you are 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 PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian, I love you, and I’ll certainly be waiting for you here tomorrow. But I’ll also be waiting for you here, tonight, at the Sneezing Jesus page. So, I’ll see you there or I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hello. Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Jay calling from New Jersey. It has been a little while since I’ve called in. Well, allot has happened this while that I haven’t called in. I am now married and I’m enjoying the honeymoon phase of life. So, let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much God for life. We thank you for health. We thank you for strength to call in to the DAB and listen to our brothers and sisters and to pray with them. God, we love You so much, there’s no possible way that I could even begin to fathom. You’re awesome. So, we praise You now. We lift You up. We glorify Your mighty name. In that God, thank You for the many blessings that we’ve been able to experience the last month, getting married. Many people have had children, others are getting engaged, some are even having birthdays, and celebrating anniversaries, so, God, we thank You for that. Father, we thank You for the new jobs, and we thank You for the new cars, and we thank You for our homes. God, we thank You for being able to satisfied with what we have, because I know it’s so easy sometimes to get caught up in what others have and what we don’t have and where we want to be and how we want to get there and then we can forget to be satisfied with what we have. So, thank You Father. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible. This is Lauralee and I have received my 10 Sneezing Jesus books and that was Saturday, and its Monday and oh boy…I had…anyway…I’m just going to lift up the names of the people to our heavenly Father with this community. Thank you, Brian and Jill and the Hardin family for your faithfulness. Lord Jesus, your word says draw near to you and you will draw near to us. So, I pray for pastor Dwayne, Joanne, Robert, Cheryl, and Matthew, that those small little books will draw their eyes to you, draw them by your spirit to you, and open new days and new ways to live your life out in and through you. We come to you in Jesus’s name Lord, God, our Father and mention His righteousness only to call on Your obedience and Your sufferings. You magnify the law in its construction and its cost and made it faithful. May we be secured by your blood, saved by your light, joined by your spirit. Let us pick up your cross and follow you. May your grace prepare us for your appointment and make us willing that we should choose your inheritance for us and a point that we will keep or loose, suffer or enjoy. If blessed by prosperity, let us be free from its snares and use, not abuse, its advantages. And may we cheerfully and patiently submit to those afflictions, which are necessary…

Hello DAB family this is Marsha from Colorado. I’m a member of the Sneezing Jesus Facebook group and I feel so compelled to share a post I made this morning, July 17^th, for those of you who are not on Facebook. So, here’s my post. Something very powerful is happening deep within me today. I have power read Brian Hardin’s new book, Sneezing Jesus, and now I am going back through, slowly listening on audio and taking notes. It is obvious to me that God has placed a powerful anointing on this book and I feel God’s presence as I listen and read. It’s deep, it’s wide and it’s having the effect the author desired and prayed for. Thank you, Brian. All the sudden I find myself navigating through some very troubled waters that God brought to my attention just yesterday. If I handle this through the knowledge of good and evil without God’s guidance, it has the potential for great destruction. Had I not received this book last week and devoured it, and made the decision to wake up and see what’s it’s like to be fully human, intertwined with God, I know I would not be sharing this post today. God’s timing is impeccable. I was literally on my knees in prayer last night about this and awake all night in turmoil, but today God specifically showed me how to proceed, which was opposite of how I was going to handle it. I am tremendously thankful for His intervention. I went from turmoil to peace in a short amount of time and I can’t wait to see the restoration God has in mind for this. I am almost giddy in anticipation. Now that’s powerful, and I think this is the stuff that sneezes are made of.

Hi, this is Nadene from Michigan and I want to say first of all, that I have never been much of a reader of the Bible or even very spiritual. And, so, I was trying to get rid of some fears that I have of death and a lot of…I have panic attacks. And I asked my dad and he suggested this. And on my breaks, at work, because I work at a factory, I’ve been listening to it. And now, for at least 2 weeks, they’re letting us listen to music at the factory and I’ve just been listening to this on my own personal speakers. And I’ve become quite addicted to listening and it’s changed my life a lot, in the fact that I actually feel like I want to learn more and I’m asking questions. And I wanted a prayer request because my husband is not a believer because of a church we went to. And I want to be firm in my faith so he can see what Christianity is supposed to look like. And I’m not feeling like I’m doing a very good job. With two young kids, two full-time jobs, and college split between the both of us, it’s pretty hectic to even get out the door to go to church. But I wanted to thank you all for being such a wonderful community. Thank you very much. Bye.

1 Chronicles 28:1-29:30 ~ Romans 5:6-21 ~ Psalm 15:1-5 ~ Proverbs 19:18-19

Today is the 19th of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Man, didn’t it, wasn’t it just July 1^st? Some days I sit down in front of this mic and say the date and it’s like, really, were did the last week go? So it’s going to be here with you on the 19th of July as we take the next step forward in the adventure through the bible this year. And this week or reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, working our way through 1st Chronicles, and will actually complete the book of 1st Chronicles today before diving deeper and drinking from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans. But first, first Chronicles chapter 28 verse 1 through 29:30 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so, obviously, we’re continuing in the book of Romans. And so, yesterday, we were talking about circumcision and the apostle Paul showing that it was Abraham’s belief, it was his faith in God, that was counted towards him as righteousness, not anything he did. So, Paul’s unpacking that further today by simply saying, look, the law shows us what sin is. Every one of us knows that we haven’t been able to achieve perfection in the law. None of us can actually live up to it a hundred percent of the time all the time. If we could do that then we could claim, in our own strength, we have been made righteous, we are righteous within ourselves by our own action. But no one’s been able to do that except for Jesus, who said he didn’t come abolish the law, he came to fulfill it. Right? So, He did that but nobody else has been able to do that and so we should acknowledge that we’re helpless. We can’t achieve it on our own. We can’t get there. So even while we’re in the state of helplessness, that we cannot achieve it. God came through Jesus and died for the ungodly and that’s rare because rarely will a person die for any other person. But God, even while we were estranged, even while we were helpless, even while we were hopeless, God did come. Even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It is God’s way of showing Mercy to the world, extending grace to the world. In the thick of our inhumane behavior and helplessness, he is merciful to us, rescuing us.

Prayer:

Father, that rescue of us has altered the world, has certainly changed our lives, and you have extended that grace and mercy to everyone. And you’ve invited us to be a part of that story by living into it, by the very weight of our lives, being an example of what that restoration looks like, and in inviting us to bring light and good news into this world just like the Savior did. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit into that. Come Holy Spirit and show us what that continues to look like, as it is an ever evolving process within us. We are continually being changed from within and You have continually invited us to change the world from within. So come, in every thought that we have today, in very word that we speak today, in every interaction that we have today, may we represent You and do it well, as an ambassador for Your kingdom in this world. Come Holy Spirit, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the web site. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

So, the announcements for this week are that the Sneezing Jesus audiobook is available. So, you can get it at Audible, iTunes, or wherever else you get your downloadable audio books. Which means that all of the formats, whether that be physical book or like a digital book or audiobook, they’re all released and everywhere that you can get books.

The Sneezing Jesus discussion group is lively and good and amazing and encouraging and I just love seeing what everybody is saying. I’m going to do a little bit of a Facebook live discussion tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time. So, I guess you’ll have to Google…like…we’re all over the place…we’re in a lot of different time zones…so…you’ll just kind of, like, have to Google the difference. I know here the United States that would be like 8 p.m. on the east coast and 5 p.m. on the West Coast. And I’ll just share for a little bit and we’ll be able to discuss. So, make plans for that. You need to be in the Sneezing Jesus discussion group to be able to see that. So, jump over to facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus and dive into the conversation.

The other thing is that we’ll be taking this message out on the road on a limited basis and if you would like to see that come near your area, there’s a form at sneezingjesus.com. If you just scroll all the way down to the bottom, there’s this little form. If you fill that out and send it in you’ll be responded to. We’ll see if that can happen.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link, it’s on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. Thank you. Thank you for your partnership here in the thick of the summer. I appreciate it more than I can say. 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 PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 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 Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hey family, it’s Rich from Little Rock and I wanted say I thank you so much for your prayers. I love you Blind Tony and I love you Brian and it’s great to friend up with you on Facebook. Things have been kind of up and down but, you know, I’ve decided…I’ve decided that I wasn’t going to let this be my lord, you know.  I mean it’s not totally gone but I reprioritized things and I love my Lord Jesus. I remember, Brian, that my mom, the month before she died, she went through this exhaustive search in the Book of Ezekiel, especially. I can hardly handle chapter 1. It was wild. The way the bible describes the angels going up and down and around but I wanted to know things like that before I go. You know that Jesus is closer than any brother. And you guys…and now I’m going to get emotional…I love guys you very much. I’m back in Exodus still. Let’s roll man. I love you guys for loving me. Keep those prayers coming. I appreciate it.

Hello Daily Audio Bible. My name is Marco. I’m from California. I’m a first-time caller. I’m just calling to… I’m going through a rough time. I never do this. Just trying to have a prayer request. I lost my job and bills are piling up. I’m the provider for me and my wife and I don’t want her to start stressing.  I’m on my hands and knees and am reading my Bible and I’m praying every day. And Brian, you, you are amazing - what you do, how you do it. You brought me closer to Jesus. I know that all things are possible with God and I know that I’m going through this adversity to test my will. It’s really hard but I’m trying and I’m standing and I’m praying every day, more and more, and I’m listening. I’m listening every day to the Daily Audio Bible. And I love all the prayers that get sent in and all the prayer requests and I really want to be a part of this community. And I really want God to be a part of my life and remain to be a part of my life. I just want to pray for financial stability. If any of you can just pray for me, I’d appreciate it. I know that things are going to get better. It’s just, I’m at the point right now where it’s hard to see that but again I’m praying and I’m staying strong and I know that all things are possible with God. And once again thank you Daily Audio Bible family, friends, brothers and sisters. And Brian thank you for what you’re doing. You’re an amazing human being. God bless. Thank you.

Hi everyone this is Karen in Saint Louis. Hey, first off, I just want to say, Blind Tony, I just love your poems and I wish that you would put them all in a book. That would be, like, so awesome to have. Anyway, that was just a thought that I had. Another thing that has been on my heart and especially, through this week, something that God’s been putting on my heart, the whole idea of us and how we go through seasons. There is also a friend of mine that’s in Ministry that spoke about this on the praise show on TBN. And, so, I have friends that are going through tragedy, that are going through loss, that are going through struggles. I do the same. And the thing is is that, just like in Ecclesiastes 3, we go through these seasons - the low, the rocky, the rough spots. They’re just as important and good as the high tops – the mountaintop experiences that we go through. And in our humanness, it’s so easy for us to focus on the sadness, the pain, the hurt of the low spots. But may we turn our eyes upon Jesus during that time because Romans 8:28 is true and God is going to make it good, no matter how bad it seems, and it seems like there’s so many things that…we’re just…it’s hard…it’s hard. Nobody said it was going to be easy. But I think about how a diamond…how it is…it goes through so much to sparkle and shine. And, so, I just want to encourage us that go through these low valleys, sometimes for a very long time, that God loves us so, so much. He is for us. He is with us walking through it. And just like Brian had shown that tear bottle…

Hi Daily Audio Bible family, it’s James here from the UK. I haven’t called in for a while but been listening to the community prayer, 15^th of July. Candice from Oregon, I just was so touched by your prayer and I just wanted you to know that you’ve been a real inspiration to me. I haven’t called in to mention this before but what you talked about and the love you have for your husband, your late husband. Candice, it is an absolute inspiration. And you need to know that you are inspiring many people that are listening to this podcast and sharing your grief and just sharing your openness to the Holy Spirit to take you to the next level, to transform you, to continue to be at work in your life without your life partner is something that has inspired me so much. So, thank you for reaching out Candice. I will continue to pray for you and…you know…please pray for me…that as a community it’s a beautiful thing that we can do this for each other. And Candice, I know that lots of people are thinking of you. Continue to inspire us and thank you for your heart for Jesus. Amen.

1 Chronicles 26:12-27:34 ~ Romans 4:13-5:5 ~ Psalm 14:1-7 ~ Proverbs 19:17

Today is the 18th of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is good to be here with you -  really good to be here with you today - as we take the next step forward in this journey that we are on together through the Bible and we’re working our way through the books of Chronicles in the Old Testament and Paul’s crowning jewel, the book of Romans, in the New Testament. We are reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week. First Chronicles chapter 26 verse 12 through 27 verse 34 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so you see what Paul is doing here, right? I mean, we were talking about this yesterday with circumcision as Paul is deconstructing an understanding that everyone thinks is complete but, then as now, they don’t know all they think they know, just like we don’t know all we think we know.  And since Paul was a Pharisee right? So, like a devout, respected Pharisee. Since he met Jesus on the road to Damascus he has had to go into a season of complete deconstruction of what he thinks he knows and it’s being put back together, molded into the same faith but with an understanding of who Jesus is and what he did. So, it’s forcing Paul to go all the way back to the beginning, all the way back to Abraham, and kind of start there, which you can just…I mean…I imagine Paul. I cannot wait to shake that guy’s hand and, I don’t know, have some coffee or something at some point, just to go like, okay, so, you’re killing the believers, like you’re persecuting the believers and then you meet Jesus but you’re also an educated Pharisee. You’re studying this all the time, constantly, this is sort of your vocation. And so, once you meet Jesus all of the sudden everything you thought you knew starts to come apart like old wallpaper peeling off a wall. And so, where do you go? How did you do this? But we can see from his writings, he had to go back to the beginning of his faith, which originated in this person, Abraham, to whom the promise of this nation and this people was given. So, that’s what Paul is doing here in Romans, going back to the beginning and saying, look, we have done everything we can to perfect ourselves through the law but, would it be heresy, might we consider just a simple truth? Abraham, our father, the originator, the one who entered into covenant with God in the first place, that has brought us to this place, might we consider the fact that he didn’t have a law to obey? Might we understand that it didn’t exist yet and still God was in covenant with him? Still, God was with him, promising everything that would come next.  And there’s even controversy within this because, in some ways, this is diminishing Moses and his activities that brought the law to be because he came way after Abraham and they all have to have a continuity. And so, they are saying, if you are saying this kind of stuff then what about Moses? And Paul’s just like, let’s just go back to the beginning and work our way forward again with, maybe, some new eyes here. The promise to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world didn’t come through the law. It came through righteousness that came through faith. And so, if those who are trying to follow the recipe of the law are heirs, then faith is empty and the promise is cancelled because Abraham didn’t have any of those things to put his faith and trust in. So, Paul is saying, Abraham didn’t have any of this. He simply had one thing - he believed - hoping against hope in the impossible in that what God was telling him, that he would become the father of many nations, even though he was a hundred years old and his wife was not far behind, that against all odds, he was going to become the father of many nations. And he did not waver in that belief. He did not waver in that faith. He looked at the realities. He looked at the circumstances. But he did not waver or, to quote the bible, he did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God because he was totally convinced that what had been promised, God was also able to perform. If God promised something, he believed he could do it.

Now, do you believe that? Do I? Do I believe what God promises he can do? I think we would all say yes,. I do believe he can do. I’m just not so sure he will. And there is the rub. There is the disconnect. Because within that is doubt, not faith. He could but I don’t know that he will. He said it but I’m not so sure he’s going to come through.

And yet this story, I mean the human story, would be radically different if Abraham did not believe in the impossible. Not because he’s simply believed in the impossible but that he believed in God’s declaration, that what Abraham saw as impossible was in fact possible. So Paul is effectively saying, God can speak a promise and we collaborate by simply believing in an unwavering way, not denying the realities around us, totally understanding that what’s being said is impossible, and hoping beyond hope, against all hope, and moving forward as if it’s going to happen. And in all of that we rejoice in our afflictions, in are realities, because we know that all of it has purpose. Affliction produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and we need this hope. This is rocket fuel and it will not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who is given to us.  

Now, I don’t want to pull this out of context, because the context that Paul’s talking about is why we can have faith in Jesus, what this actually means - that Abraham had to have faith and that was what justified him before the Lord and he took God’s promise and he believed against all circumstances that it would be true. That he, I mean, we don’t know many 100-year-old fathers that are, like, having a brand new newborn baby, that that would actually happen and that because that happened nations would be born. But for us there’s all kinds of things that we have hope for and in that God has spoken to us and they will not happen if we decide they will not happen. If we decide we are not going to collaborate through faith and hope in an enduring way then they’re not, then they won’t. Many of us have had dreams that we’ve basically abandoned because we feel like it’s too late for us now.  But then we have to look at Abraham because it was most certainly too late for him. And none of this would be here if he had thought it’s too late, this is bogus, I don’t know what I’m hearing but it’s not the Almighty. Nope, he would have died and disappeared from history. We would have never known his name. Paul is saying it’s faith guys. It’s hope that we need.  It’s not recipes or traditions or rituals or laws. It’s faith and hope that we need. And in Paul’s context, he’s inviting hope and faith in Jesus and it’s no different for us.

Prayer:

So, Jesus, we put our faith and hope in you and you alone. And the thing is, we say those words but we’re going to have to do that in 5 minutes. And we’re going to have to do it again in another five minutes or we’re going to have to do it every minute, as long as it takes, until hope arises. And, so, we invite your Holy Spirit. Our hope is in you, in the face of the impossible. Our hope is in you. And we ask your Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see and ears to hear and that we are pulled away from the thing we are obsessing about even if it’s your promise, trying to figure out how it’s going to work and back away. I don’t know how it’s going to work. We don’t know how it’s going to work but our hope is in you and you alone. Our faith and trust is in you and you alone. It doesn’t matter how it’s going to work. Our hope is in you and we see how we’ve obsessed and how we’ve tried to make things happen only to be frustrated, which is simply an indicator that we lost hope.  So, come Holy Spirit, fill us with hope today we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base. It’s the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check in and check it out.  There’s a couple of other things going on around here.

The Sneezing Jesus Discussion Group, which is just…some of the things you guys are saying and doing are just incredible and there’s really good discussion happening there. So, if you haven’t had a chance to get into the group it’s at facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus. And you’ll want to jump in. We’ll be doing a Facebook Live inside that group about Sneezing Jesus just a couple of days from now, on the 20^th, which is Thursday at 7 p.m. Central Time. So, just maybe Google the difference between central standard time and wherever you are, so, that you have the right time.  And I’ll be sharing some thoughts and maybe taking some questions. So, I will look forward to seeing you there.

I mentioned yesterday the Sneezing Jesus tour. And so, we will be out on the road this fall into the winter and spring and if you would like to see that come to your area, go to sneezingjesus.com, scroll down to the bottom, and you see the just a little form there. And we’ll see if that can happen.

The other thing around Sneezing Jesus is that the audio edition of Sneezing Jesus is available. I read that. So, it’s my words in my own voice. And that is available, as I understand it, pretty much everywhere that you can get audio books in the downloadable formats. So, you may want to check that out. It’s on Audible. It’s on iTunes and a lot of other places around the world.  So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, If what we are doing here, together, as a community around this global campfire, brings warmth and light and life and good news into your life, then thank you for your partnership, that it might continue to burn into the future. There’s a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you using the app you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner or if you prefer the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is 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 Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hi this is CenCal, as in central CA. First time caller long time listener since ‘08. Responding to Grady from PA. This is July 14^th podcast. The college student that’s worried about his friends.  Man Grady, you can tell by just how emotional you’ve gotten talking about them, your heart’s for God, man.  That’s awesome.  Make sure that your friends don’t change you or influence you but rather change and influence them.  Be the light in their lives.  Let your light shine the way and I truly believe that you are there for a reason man. You are there to show them the way. God did put you there and put those people around you. So, make sure you are that positive influence in their life that they need.  Ya know, we need more people like, you know, like you, that have a heart for people. And you were bold enough to make that phone call today.  That’s awesome man.  Just keep on doing what you are doing. Keep your friends in constant prayer, that God protects them, that he guides them, as well as yourself. Basically, just keep doing what you’re doing and let God handle the rest man.  We’re praying for you. We love you man. Ya know, just keep on calling back whenever you feel God tugging on your heart that you need to reach out.  I just want to thank Brian, Jill, and the staff for doing what you do and have a blessed day DAB family.

Hello my DAB family this is Max _____ from Sydney AU. Today is the 15^th of July and I am ringing for massive praise report.  I came back on Thursday last week from youth camp and the youth camp was amazing. It was really was. There was so much of Jesus’ love shared around to everybody and all the kids that I was looking after were absolutely a joy to have and be able to impart Jesus with them and spend some wonderful time together.  So, the whole camp was a success.  It was about 90 children and I think everyone experienced God’s love. And so, I do want to ring and say thank you. Thank you for all those who prayed for this camp, especially Candice who I heard call in but I know there was others as well, so, I thank you for everyone that called in. So, just looking forward to Sneezing Jesus. I’ve got my copy.  I’ve got my download copy for my iPad. But I’ve got 10 books coming.  But unfortunately, in Australia it will take until about the end of August for me to get the books but I am planning, nervously. I must say I am nervous about spreading the word but I know how that’s ____ coming against us too, so. And thank you Sarah from Nebraska for reaching out and praying for us too about sneezing. And I’m praying for everybody too, that we will have that courage, because I know that courage in me is feeling a bit weak at the moment. The Spirit is willing and I’m certainly going to get out there and start spreading the word.   So, I am praying for myself as well, that courage myself, that I will have the courage to spread the word. And I’m praying for everybody out there as well that we’ll all have the courage to spread the word of God. Thank you my DAB family and I am praying for all of you. Bye.

Morning on Daily Audio Bible.  This is a message for Hope. I call her Hope but you called yourself Hopeless. Anyway, you are dealing with depression and want to be freed in your mind and I’m sure many of us can agree we face this. So, I just want to help try to bring you out of it, not by my strength but by God’s.  You say you have generational family patterns. I pray and hope you’ll be the one that breaks the patterns with trust, faith, and with God to bless the rest, that He’s given us what we need. Through the word we find the scripture. I’ve found one for you.  It says, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is glistening, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy take that with you.  That’s Philippians 4:8. So, hold onto that. I needed it. And I pray and hope your day is blessed and empowered.

Hi this is Tony N. I’m calling from Germany. I want to start off by saying hello to Brian, to Jill, to your children, and I would like to ask our community to please pray for this family as a unit when they are so out there on behalf of the Lord. They are under attack, so, please pray the Lord, protect this unit. If you were to give me a name or, if the Lord would, it may be facilitator of healing, mind, body, and soul and you’ll see me post on DAB sometimes, DAB Friends, sometimes private messages just sharing what the Lord has blessed me with right where knowledge is concerned on health and healing. I want to especially call out Elaine from Victoria. I heard your cries, your ruinedness, your pain when you called and, it was very special. To hear that the Lord had reached out to you, specifically, and in a miracle, let you know you are His, yes, we are His. Most importantly He wanted you to know you are His and I’m very grateful for that blessing. Very happy to be connected with my DAB family. Bye-bye.

Hi family this is _____ from FL.  I haven’t called in a while and a lot has been going on but I can’t really say in 2 minutes but I just wanted to call and thank you and thank God for intertwining me with such a beautiful community. The forgiveness that you all show, devotion that you all have. The love that is so clear is something that I know touches God’s heart. So, I just wanted to express my gratitude to you and my praise to God, who is the source of all love. And, so, anytime you guys show your love, what you’re showing, and what you’re teaching is an aspect of God’s character. So, I just, I thank you all for being such beautiful ministers and I’m just grateful and I just love all of you guys. God bless.

1 Chronicles 24:1-26:11 ~ Romans 4:1-12 ~ Psalm 13:1-6 ~ Proverbs 19:15-16

Today is the 17th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today as we dive headfirst into this week and, of course, at first into the scriptures for today and we’re reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week. So, back into the book of 1 Chronicles we go, Chapter 24 Verse 1 through 26 Verse 11 today.

Commentary:

Alright so, we’re in the letter to the Romans, obviously, and we talked a lot about the apostle Paul as we were going through the book of Acts, trying to fill in the back story, why he’s such a lightning rod, why people want to assassinate him, why there are mobs forming around him, and this is largely due to the fact that they believe this devout Pharisee has become a heretic and left his faith and is trying to entice others by dismantling everything they’ve believed all along, when the reality is that Paul’s argument is: None of that is true. I’m not trying to leave anything behind. I have found how it works. I have found how Jesus fits into this story. It’s the same story and God is continuing it and completing it through Jesus.

And so this letter to the Romans is to the Roman Church, people who were following Jesus, but it’s a mixed church, it’s an integrated church with some Jewish believers and some Gentile believers. And Paul is speaking, in particular, about circumcision today, which is one of the outward representations of devotion to God in the Jewish faith. So, for them, you can’t be in the Jewish faith if you’re a man and you are uncircumcised. So, sorry for all the penis talk today, but I think I can safely blame it on the Apostle Paul. Circumcision was a very big deal within Judaism and some of the things Paul is trying to explain were getting him on the hot seat as if he were saying it is no big deal.  We’ll see this crop up. We’ll see this very issue crop up as we continue forward in the New Testament.  But underneath It all, Paul is saying, if you have this symbolic thing that you’ve done ritualistically and you have no idea what’s underneath that, like you have no idea why, the why of that, then you have built a dogma around a tradition you don’t even understand, which is no less true in the Christian faith, and Paul is equating this to like action, work that will by default justify you and make you righteous before God.

So what we are talking about today in the Book of Romans is kind of controversial at this time because Paul is zooming out and going back to their ancestral father, Abraham, like the guy that started the whole thing, that has made them to people that they are, and saying, hang on a second. Abraham believed God and God then took that belief, that faith, and looked at him as righteous because of it, but (and it’s a big but) we have to remember that Abraham, when this happened, wasn’t circumcised. It was only after this that circumcision was given to him as a symbol that was in his flesh - like he couldn’t ever take a bath, get naked, go to the bathroom, whatever, without being reminded of his righteousness and covenant with God.  It was a symbol of this state of being that he had entered into, because God bestowed it on him, differentiating the idea of working your way into this or receiving it as a gift. Works versus Grace. So, in effect he’s saying, look, you can jump through the hoops and you can follow all the rituals that you want, you can follow whatever recipe you want that you think is going to make you righteous before God but that’s not how it works. Those rituals, those symbols, those works are as a result of what has been given to you, bestowed upon you by grace.  The symbols, the recipe, the rituals, they don’t mean much unless they are attached to something far deeper within you. You’re just kind of going through the motions, thinking that if you can follow that recipe it’s all good when the only way it’s going to be all good is if you, like our ancestor Abraham, believe God and receive this gift that you cannot possibly earn your way into.  And for them, the earning their way into it was by following the law to a tee, which no one could do, which is a pretty big deal. A really big deal for us now as we understand our faith in Jesus, but an even bigger deal for the Jewish people who had been practicing a faith all along of trying to obey the law perfectly, trying to work their way to God.  This was part of the tapestry of their entire worldview and being in the world. Everything was oriented to doing, to obeying this law.

And so Paul coming along and saying all this is sort of reframing things. It’s very disruptive because it’s a new way of looking at the same thing that reveals that the story is much bigger then maybe previously thought.  And so Paul is this lightning rod in the middle of all of this. Paul is preaching a message that is inclusive and expansive in that he’s saying the Gentiles can be grafted into this story and are supposed to be grafted into this story, which is in part where the circumcision talk comes from because he’s saying Abraham wasn’t circumcised when he believed and then God gave him circumcision as a symbol of what had already taken place. So why are we thinking that can’t still happen?  But he’s also saying none of us have been able to achieve perfection in the law. The law is what shows us sin. The law, actually because we can’t keep it, shows us our powerlessness to achieve that perfection before God and yet God came to be here and give us righteousness and give us what we cannot possibly do ourselves.

And so it is the heart of the Christian faith, but it’s such a beautiful thing when you have some context and see how disorienting and disruptive what he’s saying is that what we take for granted wasn’t something we could always take for granted and watching this unfold, which brings us to consider what are the things that we’re wrestling with right now? I mean, how is it that we have tried to close the whole thing down and own it in some sort of recipe that must be followed, when the reality is we cannot possibly achieve perfection before God without God.  We can’t possibly earn our way forward into this by just being that good. We cannot receive the divine nature of God that Jesus offers us on our own, in our own strength. We can’t earn our way into it. It can’t happen. We’re not capable of doing it without God. That’s the story of the human race.  That’s the story of the Bible since Adam and Eve, trying to figure out how to make it work without God when we were never made to do anything without God.

Prayer:

God, Father, without You we can do nothing. You’ve been pretty clear about that in the scriptures, not only explicitly but within every story and every person that we meet. And Your word shows us our flailing struggle to try to wrap our minds around our own helplessness but also our struggle to try to make this work on our own terms, to try to take the knowledge of good and evil and find our way back on our own to perfection.  And it can’t happen on our own because the state of Shalom, of perfection, that we see at the very beginning and in Jesus was deeply and utterly and hopelessly intertwined with you. So come Holy Spirit, show us the recipes that we’ve been trying to follow to make it work. Not that  they’re bad things or choices or activities or postures, but because when we try to achieve them without Your indwelling we will never get there.  Come, Holy Spirit we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here and a few things.  Obviously, last week we gave birth as a community to this work Sneezing Jesus, and I can safely, I think, announce that the audio edition of that work is now available. I know it was becoming available even as we released. Here’s the thing. Last time, my last work, Reframe, had a bit of a delay with the audio release, several months, largely because there was a CD edition of it in the world before there was a digital audio downloadable edition and so that was staggered.  So we had been working toward the downloadable audio edition for a while trying get them as close as possible, but when you are trying to roll something out all over the world in all kinds of formats and places, you don’t just push a button and it happens. It’s a bit of a tedious process. I’m pretty sure, pretty much everywhere that does downloadable audio editions has it now. For example, here in the United States, probably the two primary outlets for audio books would be Audible and iTunes and it’s available. I even saw that Audible had it on sale, I think $4.95 is what I saw.  I don’t know if that is still the way it is, but I think so. Anyway, so those of you who ordered Sneezing Jesus and working through the book, who are also like, I’d love to have it read to me, I read the audio edition of the book and so that’s available. And wherever you are in the world, wherever it is that you go to get your audio books, it should be there now. So Sneezing Jesus, audio edition is available.

The other thing is we have a great discussion group going around Sneezing Jesus. We are discussing and talking about it. Come jump into that and this Thursday, just a couple of days from now, we’ll do our first little live broadcast about Sneezing Jesus and we’ll talk about it, but it’ll be in the Sneezing Jesus group discussion page. So, you have to be in that group to be able to see it, so it’s at facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus and that will be at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time which is where I am in the Rolling Hills of Tennessee. So you have to maybe Google it depending on your time zone.  If you’re in the United States that would be 8 p.m. on the east coast and 5 p.m. on the West Coast and I’ll just come down here in the studio and turn it on and share some thoughts and take some questions and we’ll just see where all of that leads us, but make some plans for this Thursday and I will look forward to seeing you there.  

And then the other thing is the Sneezing Jesus tour. So this fall and into next year we’ll be doing some traveling and bringing this message and we are looking forward to that. I have done some pretty grueling travel and speaking schedules and tours in my life. This is not going to be quite Iike that. I’m not going to do quite as many cities as I’ve done before, just keep a little margin in my life this year; however, if you would like to see Sneezing Jesus come to your city, your church, here’s how to get some of the ball rolling. Go to sneezingjesus.com and so that’s like the portal for Sneezing Jesus, and scroll all the way down to the bottom and you’ll see that there’s a little form down there.  Fill that out and we’ll respond and see if we can make that happen.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com.  There’s a link on the homepage. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your partnership as we move through the thick of the summertime. If you are 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 PO Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request a 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 Prayers and Praise Reports:

Good morning Dabbers, this is Walta, the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King.  Today is Friday, July 14^th and I just heard Paula, the child advocate, and I heard your prayer and I am so touched in my heart because when you were speaking about other people calling and praying versus you praying, I just saw that woman, no, not the woman, the scripture where Jesus talks about this man going into the church, going into the temple and praying these loud prayers and telling God all these things and the man was just quiet in the back and just crying and saying Lord forgive me.  And what I saw was the sincerity of the prayer.  The Bible says the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person availeth much.  Your prayer was so effective and it hit the nail and you talked about loneliness, those who feel alone and honestly I’ve been struggling with that last week and I praise God for you and thank Him that you were able to step out and just let the Holy Spirit speak through you. I strongly believe that God listens to the prayers of your heart and your prayer is just you verbalizing what’s in there. And so, to you, and all the other Dabbers out there who don’t pray audibly for fear of not being able to meet a certain standard, take her challenge and call in and pray and let God bless others through you. I love you all and I’ll talk to you later.  Bye.

Hi beautiful family. This is Pastor Gene all the from Bradenton, FL. I love you guys. Praying for each one of you. Please join me in prayer. Lord, You are so good, we love You, we praise You, we give You thanks for Jill, we give You thanks for Brian and the inspiration and anointing You have given him. Father, thank You for helping him pen Sneezing Jesus. Father, we pray for each one that has been able to purchase from one book to several of them, it doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that each one of us is going to read the book, put it in the hands of somebody else, and most importantly, practice the principles of looking at Jesus as God Man inspiring us to spread love, hope, and light wherever we are. Father, I pray that every person that we will place a book in their hands will be blessed, will be strengthened, will be encouraged to become Your followers and Your witnesses. Father, I want to pray for my sister Judy from the Midwest. Father, you know that she’s working in a very hostile environment where she feels she was about to be assaulted the other day.  She is intent in being the light and the salt in her work environment and I, who can completely relate to what she is trying to do, pray that You will grant the desires of her heart, that You will affirm her and establish her and make her a beautiful testimony and that You will cover her and protect her. Father, if it’s Your will to deliver her from that place, please do so in the mighty name of Jesus, but if it’s Your will for my sister to stand in the midst of the fire and overcome and be the church that many of those people attend just by looking at her life, then let it be so. And in the name of Jesus, Father, I bless my brother John, who called very sad because his wife is moving away and they are thinking about a separation. Father, in the name of Jesus, You make all things new.  Make my brother John’s marriage brand new.  I pray for all you guys in Jesus mighty name. Pastor Gene. Bye.

Greetings to my beautiful DAB family. This is Candace from Oregon. I owe a debt of gratitude. Wow, big time. I owe thanks to Brian and Jill and everyone who’s a part of this family. I am so upheld by this daily experience that I’ve gotten to be in now for about three and a half years now and I just can’t tell you how the kind of growth and strengthening its been and spiritual growth and it’s getting real, getting more real, and getting more into relationship with Jesus. Jen from SoCal, thank you for your prayers for me. I feel them and I know many people are praying for me. And really I feel it and I need it.  Boy, I need it. This is probably one of the toughest years of my life, no doubt, but only God knows that. And he can carry us through anything. I’m on the Eucharist chapter of Sneezing Jesus. Wow, there you go. There’s your proof. He can get us through anything. He called Lazarus out of the grave.  He walked to His own grave for us. There’s nothing too difficult for him. There’s nothing too big for him to handle. Thank you Jesus. Thank you so much. We love you. We love you back.

Hi DAB family, this is ___________ from Phoenix. I am actually calling with a praise report. Quick back story.  I found out a year ago, last June, that my husband was having an affair and we’ve gotten a little closer over the last year.  The praise report today is that he is going to lunch with my pastor.  He thinks it’s just lunch because he’s not working, but he really likes the guy and he’s actually willing to sit down with a pastor and hasn’t been willing to do that for at least the last four years. Other huge praise report, I know it won’t be heard before it happens, but if you could be praying that that relationship would form.  Second praise report.  His attitude has significantly changed towards me.  He is more attentive.  He’s been living at home pretty much for the last few months, but the last week since we got back – we’d been gone for a week on vacation - he’s been very attentive, wants to know what I’m doing, who I’m talking to, just things that never happened before that he didn’t care about, so that’s a great attitude change and I’m very excited about that.  Third thing which is also a big prayer request, we have our mediation hearing for a week of separation this upcoming Wednesday.  Prayers that all that can be worked out so that we do not have to go to court for, that we will work to reconcile and call the whole thing off. Either way, that God’s will be done for the best and that we will keep moving forward towards him coming back to God and back to his family.  Thank you so much for your prayers.

Hi family and friends. The is Deb in ____.  Today is the 14th of July and I’m calling because of Grady’s call and ____ call and just really and truly calling because the Holy Spirit moved me to call and to pray for Grady and to remind you how much you’re loved and that even though some others, like myself, don’t call often, we are listening and we are praying and I love what’s been happening a lot lately of just praying while we’re here so because Grady called and asked for help with reaching his friends for Christ and I know many of us have cried out for the Father to send laborers into the Harvest, I think Grady is an answer, in part to that prayer, so join me as we pray for Grady. Lord, we know that you love all of your children. We know that you love all of the population of the earth and would love to see all those that would receive You be saved to come into a closer relationship with You and that’s where Grady’s heart is.  Give him wisdom. Give him guidance. Give him the right words at the right time and the courage to speak them. Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, well up in him with the ministry that each one needs and give him strength to say his course, to not be tempted, to not fall away, and to not fail in Your assignment but Lord, help him to remember that it’s not his strength and that the failure isn’t the way we see things but you’re with him to help him to obey and that we are here praying for him in the background. You all have a wonderful day. Know how much your Father loves you and know that you are important and that if you are sneezing, God bless you.

1 Chronicles 22:1-23:32 ~ Romans 3:9-31 ~ Psalm 12:1-8 ~ Proverbs 19:13-14

Today is the 16th day of July.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible and here we are stepping through the threshold of a brand new week.  And kind of here, where I live in the Rolling Hills of Tennessee, this is the thick of the summer we are moving into. For the next 6 weeks, for me, it’s going to be hot and humid, which is probably my least favorite, although one of the most beautiful times – lush, green, beautiful - but the point is, we are moving into the thick of the summer, unless you live below the equator and then, I guess, we’re moving into the thick of winter. I guess as a community we experience it all but I digress.  Welcome to a brand new week. There is much out in front of us for this week in the scriptures and this week we’ll read from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Today, 1 Chronicles, chapter 22, verse 1, through 23, verse 32.

 Prayer:

Thank you, Father, for your word, and as we walk through this threshold into this new week, we walk through it with you. Every step that we take, every breath that we take, every thought, word, and deed we invite you into and we consecrate ourselves to you and invite intertwining with you as we walk through this week. May we be your hands and feet in everything that we do and in all that we are. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Announcements:

Dailyaudiobible.com is the website.  It’s where you find what’s going on around here. So be sure to check it out and check out the prayer wall where people are constantly praying for each other. Check out the resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible shop. Stay connected. Find out everywhere that we are on social media. If you’re there, we’re probably there too. So be sure to check that out. If you haven’t gotten into the Sneezing Jesus group yet be sure to do that. That’s at facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus. There’s a great dialogue going on now and we’ll be doing some things in there, so be sure to be a part of that if you’re taking though Sneezing Jesus Journey.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link that is on the homepage. Thank you, thank you…humbly and profoundly for your partnership. If you are 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 PO Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or a comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. There are also a couple of other numbers.  If you live in the UK you can dial for 44-20-3608-8078. If you live in Australia or the lands down under you can call 61-3-8820-5459.  

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hi DAB Family.  It’s Carla Jean from Pahrump, NV just outside of Las Vegas. I’ve been a listener since the beginning of the year and this is my first time calling. I was diagnosed yesterday with diabetes and it’s out of control and so it’s kind of scary right now. I also have my oldest daughter who is getting married this Friday and although she lives in Las Vegas, we have not been invited to the wedding and so that’s heartbreaking.  We’ve just been having a lot of financial difficulties in the last 6 weeks.  We’ve had 8 major appliances break, water system, the well, and it just feels like we’re hemorrhaging cash at this time. But we got Sneezing Jesus this week so I’m looking forward to diving in with that. I want to shout out to Christy and Candice, Pastor Gene, Blind Tony, Sandy and Dan from New Hampshire. I’m from New Hampshire, so I especially love listening to you. Jacqueline, Slave of Jesus, and the gentleman Marty who called about a month ago about his marriage and having problems with his daughter passing away a couple years ago. Just want you to know I listen every day and I pray along with you every day. I love you family.  Bye.

Hi Brian, Jill, the young Hardin’s and the DAB family, this is Garth from Bromley Kent UK. Brian, ever since you’ve spoken on Proverbs, Chapter 17 one month ago, verse 9 has stuck with me:  One who seeks love forgives an offense. As I reflected over and over on this and on what you’ve said since then it eventually dawned on me – if I truly want to be His light in that relationship I will forgive the offense. From another perspective, if I withhold forgiveness I hinder his light from permeating the relationship.  In addition, the person may hinder from receiving that fullness of all God has to offer in that relationship might be ourselves.  A few of my work relationships involve an ebbing and flowing of betrayal, forgiveness, and slipping back into mistrust on both sides. It has been an issue that I’ve struggled with over the past 6 years. Father, I continue to thank you for Brian, Jill and family, keeping themselves in such a relationship with us that they facilitate your fullness being revealed to us.  I thank you for your love that has not given up on us and allowed us several chances to become more Christ-like by disrupting us again and again. I thank you that your love continues to pursue us relentlessly, despite the fact that we have failed to recognize You in difficult circumstances. I thank you for exposing my and my colleagues’ habits of repeating offenses on perpetuating darkness rather than allowing Your light, Your love to infect these relationships.  With Your revelation and Your help, I come against this unforgiving state of mind, call it out, and bind it in the name of Jesus.  I ask that you loose your Holy Spirit in these relationships and allow them to bear your fruit.  With Your revelation and Your help I recommit myself to looking for You in these difficult relationships and serving your purpose above my own. I ask all this in the name of your precious son, Jesus. Amen.

Hi, this is Charlene calling from Toronto, Canada.  I am requesting prayer request for my brother, who is in the hospital. Unfortunately, he tried to commit suicide. Happened on July 1^st, which was Canada’s birthday -  150th birthday for our country. Anyway, I know that it’s a spiritual issue. The world would call it mental illness. Anyway, he is very…(call disconnected)

I used to make a lot of plans and then ask God to bless them.  I never stopped to seek His face, so I know that I used to test Him. And still He wouldn’t let me down. He’d let me do things my own way and when I’d fail, He’d pick me up. He knew I’d get it right someday. He changed my pride to humility. He changed my doubt to faith. My desire is now purity and within His plan I’m safe. In everything I seek His face. I let Him make all the plans. I trust in Him to give me strength because the whole world’s in His hands. blindtony1016@gmail.com.  I’d like to give a shout out to Annette A. and Janet _____.  Hope all of you all are well. And once again, my love goes out to the Hardin family for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow throughout the earth. Keep it flowin’ y’all.  Alright. Bye-bye.