Month: December 2017

Amos 4:1-6:14, Revelations 2:18-3:6, Psalms 130:1-8, Proverbs 29:21-22

Today is the 11^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we fully immerse ourselves in this brand-new week. And from our Old Testament reading, we are smack in the middle of the book of Amos. We will conclude that tomorrow. And, of course, we’re working our way through the book of Revelation in the New Testament. But first, the book of Amos. We’re reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week. Amos 4:1 through 6:14 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we go through the book of Revelation it’s important that we try to keep our place and that we try to approach it with new ears. And what I mean by that is, that the book of Revelation has a lot swirling around it. A lot of people think of it as the scary book of the Bible because it has to do with the end and it’s full of symbolism and people try to make that symbolism a lot of things. And, so, there’s incredibly diverse interpretation. So, we need to try to keep track. So, basically where we are is that John is on the island of Patmos and he hears a trumpet call and he turns around and their seven golden lampstands with Jesus in the middle of them holding seven stars. And Jesus tells John to write down what he hears, what he sees. And we learned that these lampstands represent seven specific churches, not churches that are symbols, actual real churches that exist at this time. And, so, as John is basically taking this dictation from Jesus and writing the words that he has to say to these churches down, we see that these little notes or letters to the individual churches are addressed to the angel of that church. And although there are several interpretations, we think these Angels of the church are the leaders of the church, churches, because the letters are specific to what’s going on in the church. And yesterday we read the three different letters to the first of the three churches - Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum. Today we read the letters to Thyatira and Sardis. And then tomorrow we’ll read the of the last remaining two letters to the last two remaining churches. And, so, to the church at Thyatira, Jesus encourages them that He knows their works, what they’re doing. He knows their love. He knows their faithfulness and service and even their endurance. And He says that their last works are greater than their first. So, in other words, there growing in this, they’re living into it, they’re doing better now than they were when they started, which is an incredible complement. But Jesus does have a problem with the church at Thyatira. And it’s basically the same problem with the church at Pergamum. There holding onto the faith and they have no problem engaging the culture, but that has led to the problem that they are too engaged and things are seeping back into the church that shouldn’t be there. And Jesus describes that by saying you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives my slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols. So, we don’t know if there is actually a woman named Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess in this church or if Jesus is simply talking about the behavior of Jezebel found in the Old Testament stories about her, because Jezebel led God’s people away into Baal worship, which also led them into sexual immorality. But, anyway, there’s someone or some people who are following this someone that are in the church and this kind of behavior is being tolerated. And Thyatira was an economic hub at the time and it was a working city and there were trade workers. And there were many trades to keep a city and region going. And these trade workers would collect themselves together in guilds and these guilds would be communities of people who did the same kind of work. And, so, people knew each other and lived together in community. And these guilds would have their own customs. For example, there would be like a patron god or deity of the guild. So, if the trade was iron working, for example, then there would be a god that would overlook that whole process. And, so, no matter what other gods might be worshiped in the home, these people would worship that god, the god of the guild. And if you refused to do that, then you can see how quickly you could be ostracized and economically impacted, blacklisted. And, so, people would assimilate, they would belong to the church and worship Jesus but then go to their guild and worship that god because it was required in the culture and then maybe they would visit other temples and feasts and do all kinds of rituals and things and then show for church on worship day. And, so, we can see it was it was just as hard if not harder for them to be in the world, but not of it, as it is for us. And they’re trying to figure this all out. But some churches are taking this too far. And, so, we’ve seen references to Balaam, to the Nicolaitans, to this Jezebel prophetess person or people and it stems from a teaching that this world is passing away and our human experience in it in exchange for a new world and a new glorified body and the family of God. And, so, while that’s being awaited it’s a free-for-all. And the cultic practices of the culture are seeping their way back into the church in the guise of freedom in Christ. And, so, this was going on and Pergamum. This is also going on in Thyatira. By the wording of the letter, it looks like it was going on longer in Thyatira than it had been in Pergamum because in the letter to Thyatira Jesus is talking about judgment and He’s saying time has past. Specifically, He says, I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. So, she’s going to get sick and those who commit adultery with her are going to fall into tribulation and it’s not going to go well. So, Jesus is calling out a specific group of people in the church that are living this way and then he closes the letter by talking to everyone else, those who are not, by telling them that there is no additional burden for them. In other words, there’s nothing else, you’re doing it right, well done. And that brings us to the letter to the church in Sardis. And the thing going on in Sardis seems to be similar to what is going on in Ephesus. The light or the witness of the gospel of Jesus is going out. And Jesus is fairly frank with them. I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but your dead. So, wake up. Be vigilant, be alert, strengthen what you’ve got left because it is about to die and you haven’t finished your mission. Repent, remember what you heard in the beginning, remember what you received and heard and keep it and repent. Because if you don’t wake up if you’re not alert, I’ll come like a thief, and you have no idea when, when that will be. And in this letter Jesus says you have no idea at what hour I will come against you. With the church in Ephesus, Jesus said that if He has to do that He’ll remove the lampstand. In other words, the light will go out. So, we can probably assume that what Jesus is saying to the church in Sardis is similar. So, we’ve gone through five little letters to five different churches and there are different things that are going on in these churches and they all seem to boil back to the question, how do I be in the world and not of it? In the case of some of these churches they’re true, they’re holding very, very true, but because of the marginalization of the culture that they’re in, they aren’t able to shape and shift the culture, they’re not out in the world showing a better way. They’re getting every conceivable opposition and it’s making them grow smaller and quieter. They’re being true, but they’re also basically being invisible. And then the other side of that, you have churches that are out and engaging, and kind of showing that, hey we Christians, we’re people too, we can do all things you can do, we’re just part of this, we just have a different way of looking at things. But the end result is, rather than shaping culture and being a positive influence in showing a better way, the opposite is happening and their being shaped. And it’s seeping back into the church. And, so, Sardis is one of the churches that is growing smaller and invisible and they have a lot of pressure. The Jews are very vocal about denouncing the Christian faith, very, very much about the business of trying to differentiate Christianity with Judaism. And the Jewish community in Sardis was large and influential, one of the most important in the entire region. And, so, they have cultural opposition and then they have spiritual or religious opposition as well. And they’re finding it easier just to keep their mouth shut and be together rather than to shine bright and be a light in the darkness, because that will likely only amp up the opposition and it could lead to death, persecution, marginalization, blacklisting, all of the things that would bring suffering. So, we still have two more letters to two more churches to read, but we’re getting a pretty good overview of what’s going on in these churches and we see that these are still issues that we have to face today. How can I be in this world but not of it? And the picture that were getting from Jesus is that, remaining true is very, very important, critical, crucial, but also crucial is the outflow of that. We are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. We’re not just here to stay true and wait for the world to change, we’re here to stay true and change the world, and those are different things.

Prayer:

Father, we bring that question to You. How are we being in the world but not of the world? What is shaping us and what are we shaping, and what is out of balance? And we acknowledge that this is different for each one of us. We are in an individual relationship with You, walking with You, and this is different for each of us. We’re in all kinds of cultures and in all kinds of contexts, but it does boil down to what we are allowing to shape us and what we are vigilantly trying to shape. And we invite You into that question. Holy Spirit, speak to us we ask 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, so, a number of things, all Christmas related, since it’s Christmas time.

It is time to call in your holiday greetings for the annual Daily Audio Bible family Christmas, which is kind of our virtual Christmas party together. And we’ll only be doing this for a few more days. So, don’t procrastinate. It’s really easy. You just use the prayer line 877-942-4253 or you can use any of the prayer lines that we have for different parts of the world. And you just call in your Christmas wishes. It’s that simple. The only rule about this is, because of the fact that were using the prayer line, don’t like call in a holiday greeting and then add on to it a prayer request. That’s too hard to edit and make it make sense. If you’re calling in for a prayer request, call it in. If you’re also calling in a holiday greeting, call it in separate. And that’s it.

The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box for 2017 is also available and going fast. And if you want these to arrive for Christmas, jump on it. We’ve got just several more days on that too before we kind of feel like we’re getting close. And I’m speaking domestically. So, like, I’m speaking inside the United States at this point. If you’re outside the United States, we’re kind of past that, not sure. You can certainly order it and we will certainly ship it. We’re just not sure it will arrive for Christmas. Inside the United States we’re good for a few more days. But the Christmas Box is full of goodies, some that you will keep for yourself and some that you will give away. We have the Advent CD from our friends at Mission Chattanooga in the Box. The family Christmas CD that I produced and it’s lush and contemplative and full of the carols of the season. So, that’s in there. The book by my friend Ian, The Road Back to You, is in the Box. Two copies of Sneezing Jesus are in the Box. A Black Wing pencil is in the Box. The Daily Audio Bible annual Christmas bulb is in the Box. So, it’s got Daily Audio Bible 2017 on it with our word ‘Margin’ for the year. A pack of 20 Christmas cards, the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for 2017 with the envelopes, are in the Box. And then, your choice of our DAB blend of coffee or if you’re a tea drinker our honey bush and rooibos tea.

And speaking of The Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards, those are available separately. If you’ve got a lot of Christmas cards to send, we have them in packs of 20 with the envelopes for $4.99. It’s just a great way to invite those that you love to take the journey with you next year. So, you can get those in the shop.

And the More Gathering for women that is coming up this April, early registration is open for that right now. You can find it in the Initiatives section at dailyaudiobible.com. All the details about it, locations, just the kind of questions that you would have, they’re all answered there. You can also just go to moregathering.com. And early registration pricing is available until the end of the year. And this, this makes for a very unique gift. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. And, as always, I thank you profoundly. It’s pretty amazing, what we get to do together every day. Thank you for helping that happen. So, there’s a link on the homepage. If you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request, 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:

This is Candice from Oregon, let’s pray. Dear Lord Jesus, thank You that You are Holy and that You are present and that You’ve done everything to save us out of the pit of hell. And even though this earth has not been restored yet, it has not been renewed yet, even though it’s pretty much a war zone and You’ve left us here. You’ve left us here for a reason. You will empower us for mighty things that You want us to do. I mean, we’re just trying to get through the next day, sometimes the next hour. I have trouble getting the vision for all of the aspects of Christmas when my husband of 40 years is no longer sure to do that with me. And he was so inspired about it. And I just heard the community prayer and I know that so many others also have really no idea how to move forward in the dilemma of whatever their situation is. So, Lord, we look to You. We look to You and we know that we have but to keep our eyes on You and You will give us a vision for this moment, this hour, the next step. And that we only have to do the next right thing. You’re the one who’s sovereign. You’re the only one who can redeem the situation. And You love us Lord, deeply, that we can even begin to imagine. You’ve counted every hair on our heads and You will show us how to move forward in a way that brings honor and glory to You and wholeness to our hearts.

Hi DAB family. It’s James here from the UK. Long time, no call. But once again, just inspired by a young lady today. Joyce from California, your request and your story really touched my heart and I just want you to know that I’m sitting here in my little car in a back quarter of the UK after just listening to what you said and I’m just wanting to channel such positive energy to you by the Holy Spirit right now, that you would just know God’s transformation and His peace and His grace, which you already seem to have experienced in incredible ways in your life. That He would take you into the next step part of the journey, and the healing and restoration that you are going to experience would be beyond your comprehension and that what He would be doing would be preparing you for a great, great work. That is what I believe in my heart. And I just hope you can embrace that joy along with hopefully many other people calling. We love you and I know that God has got an amazing plan for your life. Thank you for calling in and sharing your story with us. Bless you. Bless everyone. Happy Christmas.

Hello, my brothers and sisters of Daily Audio Bible. This is Randy from Rocket City. I haven’t called in while, but I was so touched by Joyce from California. My precious sister, daughter in the Lord. Oh Lord, may you just shower Your love upon Joyce and just know how precious she is. And I definitely lift her up this entire month of December that she might have victory over this exam, that she might go on to serve you, Lord, in the medical community. Lord, help her to know how precious she is to You, how valuable she is to You, and to all of us. And we lift you up, sister Joyce in California. God bless you.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. It’s James Redeemed in LA. I know it’s been a while since I called in. I was just listening to prayer requests this morning, and Joyce from California, yea, it’s been a while since we heard from you. I’m glad you called in. I remember praying for the last time you took your boards and I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t pass them. But, even more, I just want to pray for you now. So, that’s what I’m going to do. Father God, we love You. And we rejoice that Your love for us is not like our parents love for us, which, even for the best of parents, can still be conditional and flawed and based in the flesh. You took ___ the world sees and we thank you for that. You don’t see Joyce the way that parents saw her, the way that cultures see her. God, I pray against the spirit that hated her and got into her family, and pushed them, urged them to do evil. ___. I pray that there would be redemption and reconciliation fully in that family, that as that relationship heals, that Joyce would heal fully as well. Let her pass those boards Lord. Most certainly, let her find her place in You. Lord God, we love You and we praise You. We know and trust that You are going to do exactly Your will in Joyce. Thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi, my names Tom and I’m calling from the UK. I just want to give a shout out to Joyce, 4^th year medical student from California. Joyce, I’m a doctor and I graduated medical school 2 years ago. I know the struggles of studying for medical exams. I’m studying for my postgraduate exams now. It’s had but God is your strength. We need Christian doctors to deliver God’s healing. God wouldn’t have brought you this far for you to fail. God is greater than any exam. He is the great physician and I’m praying that you’ll ace your exam. God, bless.

God is my refuge and my strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Amen. It’s is Jubilant Perseverance in Indonesia and I needed to call and give you guys an update. I just found out that I will not be continuing my time in Indonesia next school year. I will not be invited to return to my current teaching position. I am not angry. I’m not sad about it. I am disappointed because I have __ myself up and been vulnerable in this season of growth and tried to develop my relationship here through honest conversation and sincere choices, but that’s neither here nor there. God knows exactly what He’s doing with that and He’s still using it to give authority and to make sure that I’m growing. Right? For our good and for his glory. So, I just need to call and ask you guys to pray with me as I job hunt and explore the right moves to take next because I know that God has amazing things planned for my future. I trust, honestly, but I don’t know exactly where my feet need to step next. So, please pray with me for clarity and direction there. And I hope to talk to you all soon with a wonderful update of what’s to come. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Bye-bye.

Amos 1:1-3:15, Revelations 2:1-17, Psalms 129:1-8, Proverbs 29:19-20

Today is the 10^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s good to be here with you today as we take the next step forward. And we’re running out of steps in this year. We’ve got quite some ground to cover, but it’s going to happen fairly rapidly as we move to the close of the year. Of course, we’ll continue to take steps forward, we don’t stop doing that, but we’re quickly moving toward the final chapters of the Bible. And today is the second Sunday in the season of Advent, the season that leads us up to Christmas, a time for us to contemplate the mystery of the arrival of the Savior and our longing for his coming return, his second Advent, or arrival. And this week we’ll read from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Amos:

We read the entirety of the book of Joel yesterday, which brings us today to the prophetic words of Amos, written down in the book called by his name. And these words are interesting because they come from the lips of a very ordinary person. Amos isn’t trained in anything spiritual. He’s not a man of status or great influence. He’s not trained in the priesthood. He’s just an ordinary man living pretty much in ordinary life. He lived in the Judean city of Toccoa while Jeroboam the Second reigned over Israel and Uzziah reigned over Judah. So, in the time that we would call the divided monarchy, where there is northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. And the northern and the southern kingdoms are experiencing tremendous prosperity and peace. They’d not seen this kind of prosperity since the days of Solomon. So, it would seem odd to by our standards that God would take a very ordinary countryman to deliver a very harsh message of impending judgment on Israel and the surrounding countryside. But that’s exactly what He did. Everything looked prosperous and well, but corruption had found its way to the core of the people. And they had abandoned God and were consumed with idle and pagan worship. The poor were being misused and oppressed. Greed ruled the hearts of the nation’s leaders. And true to form, God sends a messenger letting everyone know, hey, this isn’t going to work, and this is leading nowhere good, and the judgment is upon them. But, also true to God’s character, He always leaves a way out. And He foretells of the remnant that will experience revival and restoration in the land. You would think, after these many thousands of years, mankind would know the drill. And yet, it seems that we are still grappling and trying to grasp the very simple concept that God is God, sovereign, and we are nowhere near as powerful as we think. One way or the other, the hard way of judgment or the easy way of repentance, every knee will bow to the authority of God. And, so, we begin. Amos chapter 1 verse 1 through 3:15. And we’re reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week.

Commentary:

Alright. Let’s talk about the book of Revelation for a second. So, we got started with that yesterday when John says he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and he saw some things. There was a voice like a trumpet that told him to write these things down and to send them to seven churches. And these weren’t metaphorical churches or allegorical churches, these were real churches, some of the earliest churches that we know about. So, the church in Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea. So, those were the instructions and when he turned around to see who he was talking to him, he saw more things. He saw seven golden lampstands. And in the middle of the lampstands he saw Jesus. And we get this incredible picture of Jesus, this incredible depiction, where Jesus is standing in a long robe, and He’s got a gold sash, and His hair is all white like snow, and His eyes are burning like flames of fire, and His feet is like burnished bronze, and His voice was like a rush of many waters, and He’s holding seven stars in His hand, and out of His mouth comes a sharp sword, and His face is shining like the sun, full-blown, full-strength sun. So, John, like all of us would, fell down as though dead, but Jesus comforts him and tells him to not be afraid, that He’s the first and the last, that He died but He’s now alive forever, and He holds the keys of death and Hades, and John needs to write down the stuff. And right off the bat we have some imagery. So, we have seven golden lampstands. And these lampstands represent the churches, the seven churches. But what do lampstands do? Well, they hold lamps. Right? So, they hold the light. They hold the flame. So, using this symbolism, the lampstand is the church. Right? The faith community. And the light is their witness of the gospel of Jesus. Right? The light shines in the darkness. But Jesus is also holding seven stars in His hand, and these represent the angels of the seven churches. And what the symbolism means there has been debated for a long time. These can be actual angels, who are the guardian angels of the seven churches. But it’s also thought that these seven stars could be the pastors of those churches. Right? Or the priests or presbyters of those churches, because what follows, what we started to read today, are seven brief letters and they’re addressed to these angels. So, like, when we begin our reading today, it would begin, ‘to the angel of the church in Ephesus.’ And all these little letters are to the angels of the church. So, you can see why that’s a little complicated. Because we have the cosmic Christ, the resurrected Jesus appearing to John, the human, being told to address these little letters to angels. So, it’s just like you have God coming and appearing to a human being who is instructing the human being to then tell the guardian angels a message. So, you can see why the stars are angels have been looked at as symbols for the church leaders because the contents of these little letters are specific to the human church. Like, the church in Ephesus was a real church made up of real people. And each of these little notes speak directly into what that church is physically, humanly facing. And it’s these little notes, these little communications from Jesus to the churches, that we begin to get into today. So, first up was Ephesus. To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write the words, of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands. So, Jesus is saying, I’m holding you in My hand and walking among you, and I know what’s been going on, I know what you’re going through. So, Jesus commends the church at Ephesus because they’ve endured patiently, they’ve toiled, they’ve kept the faith, they’ve resisted false doctrine and false teachers, false apostles, and a lot of all of that that was going on, all this false teaching and stuff we see in the writings of Paul, and we saw in Peter, and in first, second, and third John, and Jude. And we talked about that when we read them. Here in Revelation we’re seeing this church, the church at Ephesus, has successfully been able to go back to the beginning, to what they were told in the first place and hold onto that. So, Jesus commends them for that, but he says, ‘I do have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first’. Right? So, your first love. So, look at that. Look at where you were at first and look at where you are now and see how far you have fallen and repent and do the works you did at first because if you don’t I’ll come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. So, what is the first love that they abandoned? It’s not likely that it was their love for Jesus because Jesus had just commended them for staying true. So, a good many scholars would agree that the first love that they lost was their light in the darkness, their witness of the gospel of Jesus. So, they’ve done well in holding onto the truth, that they had originally expected this is change, this sudden change of the world to have happened a long time ago. And now are getting into a new generation and it still hasn’t happened. And, so, they’ve stopped talking about it, sharing the light, sharing the good news into the world. So, they are a community of faith, they are all in this together, they are holding on to Jesus, they are holding onto the things that they were first taught, but they’ve lost their passion to share this good news. And Jesus is telling them they need to repent from that and reignite the passion they had at first, to rescue everyone by sharing the good news of Jesus. Otherwise there is no need for the lampstand. It’s not shining light in the darkness. And, so, Jesus says he’ll remove the lampstand. And then we have this little note to the church in Smyrna. But Jesus tells him he knows that their suffering and that their poor, but spiritually their rich. He knows that they’re being slandered by people who are claiming to be Jews but aren’t. They’re actually part of the synagogue of Satan. And Jesus is encouraging them to stay true, that they’re going to be persecuted, but if they’re faithful all the way to death, then they will receive the crown of life. So, the probable back story here has a lot to do with the Roman empires posture toward Christianity. From a wider cultural perspective, like the Roman empire, cultural perspective, this belief in Jesus was just part of Judaism, that’s its origins. But most of the Jews, they were not on board at all, and in fact, were in opposition to these teachings about Jesus. So, they had no problem being vocal about denouncing followers of Jesus, and saying that they had nothing to do with Judaism. So, they would slander the Christians, marginalizing them. And, so, a clear distinction between Jews and Christians was developing. So, in this little note to the church in Smyrna, Jesus says, I know your tribulation and your poverty but your rich. And I also know about the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but there are of a synagogue of Satan. So, that’s what was likely going on here. And Jesus is simply saying, I see you, I see this, and I can see that it’s going to lead to some trouble and some suffering. And I’m telling you that if you’ll stay true, even if that means you have to die, you’re not going to die, you’re going to receive the crown of life. And then lastly in our reading today, we have this little letter to the church at Pergamum. And in it, Jesus commends their loyalty, their faithfulness to them. He says, I know where you dwell, like, I know where you are and your where Satan’s throne is. And from a biblical scholarship perspective, like, there’s not many people that would say, ‘Pergamum, that’s where the actual throne of Satan is.’ Rather, it’s thought that this is just referring to the false idol worship that is pervasive in all of these cities, some more than others. I mean, there were large temples. When we read through the Bible, we think of the temple in Jerusalem as this amazing pinnacle an awe-inspiring structure, and it was. But in the Roman Empire, they worshiped many, many gods. There were many, many temples. Some far more ornate than the temple in Jerusalem had ever been, temples with a vast horde of priests and all of the support staff that it would take to run something like that. Pergamum was the first city in that region to build a temple to the Emperor, to Augustus, for the cult of Emperor worship. So, this is what we think is being referred to here. So, Jesus is commending them, that in spite of their marginalization and persecution, even with some dying. For example, a person named Antipas, who Jesus calls ‘my faithful witness’, was a person who was killed. Unfortunately, like, we do not know who Antipas is, which is kind of a bummer. I want to know who Antipas is because Jesus mentions him by name. Unfortunately, from at least a scholarly perspective, we don’t know for sure. What we do know is that this person was a witness who was killed in Pergamum. But, anyway, Jesus commends them for their loyalty, but, he says, I have a few things against you. Some of you, some there in the community of faith hold to the teachings of the Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. And you also have some who hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans and the Nicolaitans are another thing that’s hard to pin down exactly. But here’s a thought, Balaam is mentioned.  And, so, Balak was a king and he summoned Balaam to curse the wandering children of Israel in the desert and he couldn’t curse them. He could only bless them. But, as tradition holds what Balaam did was later to suggest to Balak that, basically, he send the ladies in. If the women could get the attention of the men who were wandering they would go with the ladies and be seduced. And, so, they would be seduced through sex, but eventually that would seduce them to the worship of the other gods. And that happened. And, I mean, we’ve read through most of the Bible now and we can see that the problem of worshiping other gods is a pervasive problem in the Bible. And, so, the thought here is that this is what was happening. And it’s a problem that we saw earlier in some of the letters in the New Testament. People thought an imminent change was going to happen, the end of humanity as we know it, the introduction of the family of God, of which Jesus was the firstborn. And, so, the time remaining with the human experience as we know it or as they knew it was coming to an end. And it didn’t matter what they did. It didn’t matter if they assimilated into their culture and went to the temples of other gods and participated because they didn’t believe in those gods and they were real anyway. And many of the cultic practices of these other gods that were being worshiped all over the place included temple prostitution as part of the worship. And this was kind of spilling into the church. On the one hand, people had no problem going other temples, having sex with the temple prostitutes, all that kind of stuff, because it didn’t matter anyway. And then there were those wouldn’t go into the temple and worship these other false gods. But they had no problem having sex with whoever they wanted to have sex with because it didn’t matter anyway. And then this begins to seep into the church itself in the way that they observe the Eucharist or communion. this would be a feast, a love feast. And we have other examples in the New Testament of these things getting out of control. And, so, this sexual component of the culture was seeping into the church, resulting in sexual immorality. And we know that this kind of stuff was happening because there are witnesses to it in the New Testament. And in some ways, this worked to marginalize the believers. They began to get this weird convoluted reputation of a religion of incest. Right? So, because the believers all felt like they were part of the same family, the family of God, and they called each other brother and sister, and the reputation of these love feast wasn’t so great, and in some cases led to sexual immorality in the church. And, so, you have people that are claiming to be brothers and sisters having sex with each other. There you go. You have this religion of incest. Now, obviously, this isn’t like the teaching that they heard from the first. This was obviously never talked about or condoned or suggested by the apostles. The apostles are totally against this. And it’s not the wider teaching of the church at large, but because it’s so juicy and over-the-top, you know, rumors spread, this is how stereotypes begin. And, so, it’s thought that this is some of the stuff that the Nicolaitans were doing. So, in the case of Ephesus, the first church that we have this little note to from Jesus, he commends them for shutting that down. In fact, He says He hates that. But in the case of the church in Pergamum, we see that it’s present and He’s calling it out. So, that’s how far we got today, but we see at the beginning of the book of Revelation is some notes to specific churches and we can see that they are going through different things. And Jesus is encouraging them specifically but also calling them out specifically. So, like in Ephesus, the problem isn’t that they’re not holding onto the true faith, the problem is that they’ve lost their first love. It’s not shining, they’re not passionate about shining out into the culture and affecting the culture. In the case of, like, Pergamum that we just talked about, the problem isn’t that they’re unwilling to engage the culture they’re doing that just fine. But in some cases they’re doing that way over the top and engaging in a way that is shining the light of the gospel, but is exploiting their freedom in Christ so that they can do whatever they want. And it’s a problem. And Jesus asks them to repent. And there’s lots of jumping off places that we can apply this to our own life. I mean, what would Jesus commend you on? What would He say you’re doing this really, really, really well, but I do have this against you, there is this problem and you need to repent because this is going to take you where you don’t want to go.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that because even as the words are spoken, things begin to bubble up. And Your kindness, Your kindness is so apparent. You begin all of these little notes, not with what’s being done wrong, but with what’s being done right. And, so, we listen for those words Holy Spirit. How are we doing things well? This encourages us so deeply that it exposes the things that we need to repent of for what they are. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to speak to us individually and personally. 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 as with most of the world, it’s Christmas time. So, the Daily Audio Bible annual Christmas Box for 2017 is available now. And they’re going fast as they always do. So, grab them while you can. We have about another week before it’s getting dangerously close to shipping for Christmas. So, don’t hesitate if you want a Christmas Box this year. We’re still in good shape and we’ll get them out to you, that is, if you are inside the United States. If you’re outside the United States, not so sure about arrival for Christmas, but you can certainly still get the Christmas Box.

Also, in the Daily Audio Bible shop is the Daily Audio Bible Journal and all of the writing paraphernalia that we have to go along with that to make for a great opportunity to Journal your way through the Scriptures next year, but it also just makes it’s a fantastic gift. There are number of bundles that are just fantastic gifts for those who like to Journal in your life. So, check that out.

The Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for 2017 are available in the shop. You can get 20 cards and envelopes for $4.99, which is tough to beat, but it’s a great opportunity to invite those that you love to take the journey through the Bible next year with you.

And then, early registration for the More Gathering, which is our women’s conference that we do each April in the mountains of Georgia, that is open and early registration pricing is available till the end of the year. So, you can check that out as well at dailyaudiobible.com. That’s in the Initiatives section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. If you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174. And thank you. Thank you for your partnership here at the at the end of the year.

And lastly, our annual Daily Audio Bible family Christmas, our virtual Christmas party, is coming up and you can call in your holiday greetings now. You just use the prayer lines wherever you are in the world. So, for example, here in the United States the number is 877-942-4253. And just call in your Christmas wishes. It becomes this beautiful tapestry of community and I love it. It’s one of my favorite things that we do each year. The only rule about it is, don’t combine a holiday greeting with a prayer request. Make those separate and that will help us out a lot.

And I just mentioned the prayer line. If you have prayer request or, 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:

Good morning. This is Rebecca from northwest Arkansas and it’s December the 6^th and I just heard Joyce from California, her prayer request. And I just want to pray for you Joyce. Holy Father, we come to You right now begging for Your mercy upon Joyce. I pray that You would give her strength and, in the days to come, especially on December 20^th as she remembers her birth and the things that happened around her birth. I pray that You would comfort her ad give her great peace. I pray that You would give her Your Holy Spirit to walk with her in this month. And every day, I pray that you would give her comfort and peace. Father, she has accepted so much…her circumstances…and she’s willing to embrace that and I just…God this can only be you in her life and I pray that you would continue to walk with her and help her to see how you’re working through the things that have happened to her. I pray, Lord, that you’ll be with her while she studies. Give her wisdom to apply the things that she’s learned. Give her a sharp mind. Help her, please, to retain the things that she’s studied. I pray that you’ll help her to get good rest. And help her to, once it’s time to take the test, Lord, I pray that you’d go with her and help her to remember the things she’s studied. Lord, we want her so much to pass this test and she wants so much to pass. I pray that You would make this happen because You can do anything. Father, thank you so much for this Daily Audio Bible family. And all the people, the loving people that pray for each other. It’s been such a blessing to me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi DABbers. This is His Little Cheri from Canada. I woke up very early this morning and I had such a strong impression that I should call and read this to someone. I think you’ll know who you are because you’ll hear the Lord speaking this to your heart. The Lord says to you, thank you, thank you for staying when you didn’t know what to say, when you didn’t know what to do, when you didn’t know what to believe, you stayed. In the darkness, when you couldn’t sleep, I waited. In the silence, when your pains surfaced I waited. I waited ready for anything, even your rage. I embraced the violence of your accusations and waited to see if you would go through with it and walk away. But then, you stayed. You stayed long enough for me to touch you. Even in your disappointment, you let me touch you. Do you know what that means to me? Do you know how many times I’ve been left standing alone, staring after someone, bleeding my need for them, even after they tell me I’m not worth it. I know it would have been easier for you to do the same, to cut your losses and start over. But you turned and looked at me. You didn’t understand. You didn’t even trust me, not really. It’s alright, I know. And yet, some part of you couldn’t bear to go. Some part of you needed me. I’ll never forget what you gave me in that moment. Thank you for that moment when your heart refused to let go of me.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Kimberly calling. There are two gals that left a message wanting prayer. The first one is the mother who is losing her temper and yelling at her kids. And I just want to let you know that I’m sure there's…oh…it’s not a hundred…a thousand of us have been down that road who have just hollered at our kids or done something like that where we either get into a pattern or we lose sight of what’s important. And I just want you to know that I stand with you and I am lifting you up in prayer. I know how that feels. I’ve hollered at my kids and sometimes I got in the pattern of doing it for a long time. And it took a lot for me to get through that and a lot of focus on the Lord’s word and a lot of work in the proverbs about anger. And all I had to tell myself is __ are soon parted. And that usually helped me out a lot. The other gal I want to pray for is Joyce in California and your medical exam coming up. I am lifting you up to the Lord as often as you come into mind. And I pray this you pass your exam with flying colors. And I pray that God honors your hard work. You are such a beautiful testimony to endurance and perseverance and I just want to celebrate your birthday, which is on the 20^th of December and I want to say how grateful and how thankful I am for you being on this earth so you can have such a strong testimony for the Lord and be such a blessing for others. You are so loved. Have a wonderful day Daily Audio Bible.  

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. It’s Sheila in Massachusetts. I felt the call to phone in this morning and just ask us all to pray for our leaders here in the United States, the leaders of our country. And I’m asking everybody in the DAB from around the world to pray for our leaders, that they experience the heart of God, that they are awakened by the Holy Spirit, that they…just are touched by our lord with the wisdom and the compassion and the love that Jesus wants. The politics in the United States, in fact, the entire world in different countries in different ways and everything is just so interconnected…I just…my heart breaks for our leadership right now. And some of the things we see, some of them on social media, and the way things are going, and I’m not taking a political stance but whoever is representing us and impacting people around the world, I really want to be touched by God. So, let us pray. Dear Jesus, Lord, You are so powerful. You have the ability to touch hearts and impact spirits and minds any second. And Lord, please touch those that are so powerful and in powerful positions that they influence and impact us in so many and various ways. All age groups, all nationalities. It doesn’t matter that they have an impact. And, please Lord, we want Your representation out there in the world. We want to be guided by people who know You, people who love You. Please touch their hearts Lord. I hope if will help if we all collectively pray, God answers our prayers and…

Hey Daily Audio Bible, this is Sarah in Chicago. And just calling in with a praise. Yesterday this __ guy ___ and I guess they taught us more about prayer. And it was just such a cool thing to see that some people in this __ myself included be reenergized…myself included…and be re-encouraged to try prayer. So, let’s pray. God thanks so much for today. Thank You that you give ___ of encouragement along ones path. That You strengthen us in __ ways and that You are capable of working in spite of our poor motives or great motives, whatever they may be. I ask that You would encourage every person that hears the Daily Audio Bible today, that their souls would be revived. And especially going into this holiday season, that people who have lost loved ones or have broken hearts that You would show them in such a beautiful way that You are near to the broken hearted and ___ in spirit. Thank you so much for Brian and his family. We ask that You would protect them from the evil one and that you’d give them wisdom on how to continue spreading Your light and Your love and Your truth through the Daily Audio Bible. Amen. Bye guys.

Hi. My name is Sheila. I’m calling from South Carolina. And this is my first time calling and I’ve been listening for a while and I’m getting…so sorry…I’ll try to get it together…and I don’t cry pretty…so I hope you can understand me. My heart is broken for my daughter. First, I want to back up, Jill, Brian, thank you for all you do. I’ve been listening or a while, like I mentioned and…I just…you’re the first thing that happens in the morning. I grab my phone and listen in. I want to be with my brothers and sisters in the Lord. Alright, so, back to my daughter. The bottom line, she’s 37 with a little 3-year-old and a 10-month-old and out of the blue had asked her husband for a divorce and it was quite clear, she’s having an affair. And, so, it’s very clear to me, she’s been in pain for a while. As to what is at the root of that pain, I don’t know. So, I know with pain going unresolved it can push into very dark places. And there’s no bottom to that pit. So, I would appreciate your prayers and I appreciate all of you. And just thank you so much and standing with you all in prayer as well. Alright, thank you family.

Joel 1:1-3:21, Revelations 1:1-20, Psalms 128:1-6, Proverbs 29:18

Today is the 9^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and, of course, it is always great to be together around the global campfire. And as it gets colder and colder outside, it’s warmer and warmer when we’re snuggled up in community. So, it’s great to be here with you today. And today marks a little bit of a shift. And that is this, for the last little while we’ve been moving more rapidly through the New Testament, as we read through a lot of letters and those are shorter documents. Today, we reached the final book of the New Testament and will be spending the rest of the year in that book, the book of Revelation. At the same time, we’re moving through, what is known as the minor prophets, not so much because the profits were minor, but because the books are shorter, some as short as the letters that we read in the New Testament. And we’ll start moving more rapidly through the Old Testament. So, for example, in just a second, we’re going to read in its entirety, the book of Joel from the Old Testament.

Joel:

So, let’s talk about the book of Joel. The prophet, Joel, wrote this book of prophecy, more than likely, somewhere around the mid-800s BC. So, we’re talking seven or eight centuries before Jesus. And he writes of a vast horde of locusts that have invaded the land and subsequently obliterated the crops and just about everything else causing great famine. And he uses this natural disaster as his backdrop to call the children of Israel toward repentance. And, as is true with most of the Bible, this brings the children of Israel to a fork in the road where a choice must be made. They can return to God and enjoy his blessings and restoration or they can continue to reject God and face what is called the day of the Lord, the day of God’s judgment. And of course, as we can see the arching narrative of the Bible, it’s not ever God’s will that His people suffer these terrible repercussions. So, He’s constantly calling them back, just like He still does today. And we’ll see that there is some of the most beautiful promises of restoration and hope that we’ll find in the entire Bible. And they are spoken in this very short book of prophecy, the book of Joel. And, so, we begin with Joel chapter 1 verse 1 through 3:21. And we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week.

Revelations:

Okay. So, as we move into the New Testament, like I said at the beginning, we’re moving into the final book of the Bible. But the book of Revelation is not really a book at all. It’s more like a letter. But from a literary perspective, it would be classified as apocalyptic, apocalyptic literature. In fact, for a long time this writing was known as the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John. And apocalypse is Greek, it means Revelation. And we know this writing by that name because that’s what an Apocalypse is, a revelation. It’s this unveiling of things that were not known previously and that couldn’t be known outside of the Revelation, outside of the unveiling. And we normally think of, like, the word apocalypse as a scary word that speaks of like the ultimate end in destruction of everything, but there’s all a lot more going on in the book of Revelation than that. And there are a lot of other apocalypses. Like, so, there’s a lot of other apocalyptic writing in many cultures, and other apocalyptic writings that were, or that came out of the Christian tradition, the early Christian tradition. This one was canonized into the New Testament. And traditionally, the author has been thought to be the apostle John. And that this was written on the isle of Patmos, where he had been exiled. And there’s a lot of scholarly debate, there has been a lot of scholarly debate for a long time, about who this John is. Is this really the apostle John, or was this a Christian prophet who was a follower of John, or whose name happened to be John? And that continues to be debated. However, early Christian writers, apostolic fathers, so like the second generation after the apostles, so like the grandchildren of the apostle’s generation, identify John the apostle as the John of Revelation. And the isle of Patmos is an island that’s southwest of Ephesus. And the Romans used this island to banish people who had committed crimes against Rome’s. So, if we’re talking about the apostle John writing this from the Isle of Patmos, he would’ve been a very old man at this point. And he wrote this letter to different churches that had been established during the time of Paul’s missionary journeys in the early church’s activity some 50 years earlier. So, some of the earliest Christian churches that were now into and moving into their second generation. And Revelation is one of the more controversial or misunderstood books of the Bible, but no matter which school of interpretation you adhere to, when you boil this all down, it’s a call to repentance and spiritual renewal. It’s a letter to encourage Christians, not to scare them and freak them out, to encourage Christians and bolster their faith in the face of tribulation and trial. And it’s actually a letter of great hope, because once again it shows that our Lord and Savior, Jesus, is in fact all-powerful. And in the end, He remains victorious and because He remains victorious we can remain victorious with Him. And, so, we begin the final book of the New Testament, Revelation chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You so much as we do every day for Your word and the gift that it truly is in our lives. And we see the promise today from the book of Joel that You will pour out Your Spirit on all people, and Lord, let us be those people. Our hearts are open to You God. we ask that Your Holy Spirit lead and guide us, rebuke us, correct us, shape us as we move deeper and deeper into the relationship that You have offered us. Come Jesus. Come, we pray in Your holy 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 lot of Christmas things are going on around here right now.

And one of those things is your calls, your holiday greetings back into the Daily Audio Bible community. We do this every year. It’s a joy, a joyous time. It’s our version, as a virtual community, of our annual Christmas party, our family gathering for Christmas time. So, we take these calls for a period of time and then we start assembling this all together and move through the Christmas story and talk about the year and hear from each other and it’s just a wonderful time. And you can get involved in that. You should get involved in that. All you have to do is call the prayer line. 877-942-4253 is the number. But you can call any of the prayer lines. If you’re in the UK or Europe, 44-20-3608-8078, or if you’re in Australia or that part of the world, 61-3-8820-5459 is the number. And you just call in your Christmas greetings. And the only rule about that, because these are the prayer lines, are that you don’t mix a holiday greeting with a prayer request in the same call. Make those separate. And it’ll just be a beautiful time as it always is. So, we’re doing that right now for the next few days.

The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box is available and it’s full of resources and goodies - some that you’ll give away as gifts, some that you’ll want to keep for yourself and you get to kind of go through and pick. So, that’s available in the Daily Audio Bible shop at dailyaudiobible.com.

Registration, early registration, is open for the More Gathering for women that’s coming up this April. That’s our annual women’s conference. And you can find out all about that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. Just go to the Initiatives section and you’ll find the More Gathering 2018. And all the information that you want or need to know is there. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we approach the end of the year, thank you. Thank you, humbly, profoundly, deeply, gratefully for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And I mentioned the numbers before, but if you have a prayer request, or comment, or holiday greeting, 877-942-4253 is the number.

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports:

Hello my DAB family. This is Goddess, the Kings Daughter. I am praying for every single request that comes through. As I’ve stated on here before, I’m not really the one to call in but I am praying in the background. I feel that is where I am called to operate. So, I am calling to speak to my sister Gloria. I’ve been praying about your mom’s situation, and also the situation between your brother and yourself. And all I hear in my spirit is that you should be still and know that God is God. Be still and know that he is God. I will encourage you to read Psalm 46, with emphasis on verse 10, saying that be still know He is God. He is our refuge in times of need. He is not going to…He hasn’t abandoned you. He is fighting for you. Because you’re not hearing from Him doesn’t mean that He’s not working. So, be still and have that peace in your heart my dear and know that God is working on your behalf. You may not see it, but I for one, if I have to tell you what I’ve been through, what I went through all of last year, and I’m still going through, which I need to actually call for a prayer request for myself and I haven’t done so yet. My sister be still and know that that God is with you. All is well. Praying for you. Bye-bye.

Good morning DAB family. This is Spoken By Faith from New York City. Today is December 5^th and I’m calling to just let you guys know that I’m praying and I heard Christi from New York asking for prayer for marriages and that’s always been on my heart. I’ve have a request also for my sister in Virginia, she’s doing much better. She was bleeding out from a vain in her esophagus and have made several transfusions and now they are finding bandings and therapy so hopefully they will stop the bleeding and she won’t need a __. I’m asking for prayers for her. Her name is __. And I ask for prayer for my brother also in his marriage. And today my heart is broken because my son’s wife, just yesterday, told him that she needed space and just…my grandson…and I’m just broken hearted for him. That’s why I just feel such a burden, I’ve always had such a burden for marriages, and I’m praying with him to be able to…just… hold onto the Lord as so many are going through…spouses that just want out for no reason…they want space…whatever it is…it just doesn’t make any sense. God is in control and I pray that you would intercede with Him as he’s going through this very trying time. And I intercede with those that are also in difficult marriages and difficult situations and need healing. Whatever your need is, and I’ve been listening every day and I pray and intercede and I ask you to keep my son in prayer as he’s also going through this and that. That God would speak to…

Hello Daily Audio Bible community. This is Greg from Stow, Ohio. And my prayer request is for all international students that are visiting our country, that they would hear the gospel and respond to the gospel, especially during this holiday season. There’s over a million international students from countries where the gospel is not really proclaimed. So, let’s pray that God draws them to Himself while they are here visiting us and that Americans would reach out to them. Lord, thank You God for bringing these people from all across these nations, from all across the world to our doorstep and God, I pray that You would draw them to yourself and that Christians would be motivated to invite them to church services, to Christmas programs, to befriend them, and to share the love of Jesus with them. I pray that many would find Christ and become missionaries to their own countries. Thank You Lord. And I pray for the missionaries that work with these students, that You would bless them and protect them from the enemy, protect them from the spiritual warfare they encounter and guard their marriages, provide for them, funding wise. And I just thank You for their work and I thank You for the amazing opportunity we have as believers to share the gospel with people who don’t know You. Help us to do it with this with boldness but with humility. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. Thanks a lot. This is Greg. I’m on Instagram actually on @daily_bible_devotional or you can find me at gospeldriven.org. God bless you guys. Thank you so much for your ministry. I’ve been reading through the bible every year for the last 20 years and your audio broadcast…

Lord, our God, how majestic is Your name in all the air. The heavens and creation all around us declare Your glory. You are the source of all things. You sustain all things. You keep this world spinning and my feet moving. Lord, the cares of this world are threatening to overwhelm me. You know what they are. Help me to let them go and give them to you. Help me to cast my anxieties on You. Help me to trust in Your love, Your strength, and Your provision. Help me learn to be content. Help me know that I can do all things through You who gives me strength. I’m sorry Lord for all the times I’ve relied on myself to get me through when I should have trusted and relied on You. I’m sorry for the times I’ve doubted. Help me to remember Lord that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Thank You Lord for how you’ve made me and help me to remember that I am loved by You and that You made me to be me. [singing] If I were a butterfly, I thank You Lord for giving me wings. And if I were a robin in a tree, I thank You Lord that I could sing. And if I were a fish in the sea, I’d wiggle my tail and I’d giggle with thee. But I just thank You Father for making me me. For you gave me a heart and you gave me a smile. You gave me Jesus and You made me your child but I just thank You God for making me...

Hosea 6:1-9:17, Jude 1-25, Psalms 126:1-6, Proverbs 29:12-14

Today is December 8th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today. And even as we get to the end of the year and just things speed up in the culture as we begin to move into the holiday season, things also speed up in the Bible because we’re moving through shorter epistles or letters in the New Testament and the minor prophets in the Old Testament. So, we’re moving quite rapidly. And that will continue today. We will conclude, in the Old Testament, the book of Hosea and we will read in its entirety, the epistle of Jude, in the New Testament. So, from the English Standard version this week, Hosea chapter 10 verse 1 through 14 verse 9.

Jude:

Okay. So, like we were talking about the beginning, we read through first John, then second and third John each in one day because there are short. And that’s what we’ll do here with the epistle or letter of Jude because it’s just 25 verses. And yet, it’s going to pack the punch of more than 25 verses. It’s very direct and succinct. And we don’t know a whole lot about Jude’s background and his life, but we do believe he was the half-brother of Jesus and the brother of James, neither of whom believe that Jesus was the Christ, right, the son of God, during his earthly ministry. But His resurrection from the dead seems to have changed their viewpoints considerably and that’s understandable. We don’t know exactly who Jude wrote this letter to other than that we know he was writing to believers in Jesus. But he wrote this letter to aggressively, to vigorously combat a false doctrine that was going through the church that basically said that, God’s grace through Jesus covers everything and we can do anything that we want, like you have license to do whatever you want to do because God’s grace covers it all. And, so, that led to some people but misbehaving in all sorts of inappropriate ways. And Jude writes this letter to hit this on the head and calls it false doctrine and challenges the believers to contend for their faith. And these are really, really important words for today because, as were turning the corner and heading into the final chapters, of the Bible, if there’s one thing that we’ve learned through the year in the Bible and through our experience as believers, the life of faith is something that you have to contend for. It’s something that we have to be vigilant about. It’s not something that we finally get everything right and then everything just stays right. It’s a vigilant collaboration, a relationship that needs constant maintenance just like marriage does. So, with that, we read the letter or the epistle of Jude.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we talked about the epistle of Jude before we read it to get a little bit of an overview. And, in a broad sense, we’re dealing with the same issues in first and second Peter, first, second, third, John and Jude. So, we kind of know there’s a lot of teachings that are not what was taught from the beginning, and people are moving in all kinds of directions, and some of them are very unhealthy and very unhelpful to the faith. And, so, we see, you know, the corrections made in these letters, the renouncing of a number of these behaviors or ideas. And, so, we kind of have the lay of the land there. But there are some peculiarities in the book of Jude, the epistle of Jude, and they actually capture for us extra biblical thought, that is documented in extra biblical writings. That is to say, they are not explicitly found in other parts of the Bible, kind of like when we talked about Melchizedek in the book of Hebrews. So, Jude talks about angels who were given a position and a job by God who then overstepped those boundaries and were chained up in gloomy darkness until judgment day. And the interesting thing is that Jude doesn’t really explain ways talking about. He just refers to it. And what we can take from that is that everybody that he’s talking to, they already know what he’s talking about. Like, he’s writing a letter not a theological treatise. And, so, he refers to this as if everybody knows what he’s talking about. It’s just an understanding in their culture. But we don’t have that embedded into our culture, so we can be, like, what is going on here? And some scholars think that what he’s referring to is, back in the book of Genesis, when the sons of God see the beauty of the daughters of Eve and then they come and have sex with them and giants are born, in order to tie it back to something in the Hebrew Bible. But what we can see is a fascination with angels and what they do and what happens to rebellious angels. And, so, you know, a lot of discussion happened over the centuries. It still happens today. But one of the places that some of this thought was captured is found in a writing called the book of Enoch. And, although the book of Enoch wasn’t canonized into the Bible, people were aware of it, read it, used it. Some churches in the second century used it as the in the authoritative word of God. And Jude seems to be referring to it here. And speaking of fascination with angels, Jude also refers to this confrontation, where the devil confronts the archangel Michael over the body of Moses. Well, that story is not found anywhere else in in the Bible and it’s not found in Enoch either, although Enoch talks about six different archangels of God. And the two that we would recognize from the Bible would be Michael and Gabriel. And people were trying to figure out the hierarchy of the Angels, like, how does that whole angelic world work? And it was thought that archangels were like the top, the chief angels, and they were in charge of different territories. And some of that thought is found in the book of Daniel. And from the book of Daniel, the idea that Michael was an archangel who was over the territory of Israel, God’s people, he was in charge of protecting them from evil. So, for the devil to confront the archangel Michael over the body of Moses doesn’t particularly mesh with the rest of the Old Testament because the devil has the personification of evil. Right? Like the Prince of evil, the Prince of darkness is an understanding that came over time. I mean, there is some language like this in the book of Job, but even there it’s not quite as we understand it now. But the awareness that he’s evil and the accuser and the adversary, these things are clear and present in the writings of the New Testament. As for Michael,  his role that kind of expands by the time we get to the book of Revelation, where he is a protector of the church from the dragon. But as for the devil confronting the archangel Michael over the body of Moses, I mean, the only thing we have about the body of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy is that nobody knows where he’s buried. But there is a writing that is dated to around the first century, so, basically contemporary with the New Testament writings called the Assumption of Moses. And in it, after Moses died, Michael was given the job, the task, of burying him. And the devil comes along and basically claims that he has jurisdiction and Michael refuses and then the devil claims that Moses was a murderer because he killed the Egyptian who was mistreating his fellow Hebrew. So, it’s very similar to what Jude is saying, but in that story Michael doesn’t rebuke the devil or anything like that. He just simply buries Moses. So, that is all fascinating stuff. But Jude doesn’t unpack any of the story. And, so, what we can assume from that is that the people that that Jude is talking to, they know all of this and there’s a common understanding of it, which gives us an intriguing look at some of the thoughts and discussion happening early on in the development of the church. So, I didn’t tell you all that to make a theological statement. It’s just interesting when you read certain things in the Bible and you’re like, what is being talked about here? When you dig into it you find intriguing snapshots and in those snapshots you find thoughts, ideas, and convictions take form and it gives us a wider scope of understanding, not only in the lives of our ancestors, but in the way that we form these things still today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the journey that we have been on for every day of this year so far and we look ahead and we have 11 different books to move through in a very short space of time. And tomorrow we will begin the final book of the New Testament. And we are awed by all that You’ve done inside of us. Your word is so comprehensive, such a treasure. This book that we all looked at one point or another as something big and unattainable, and maybe antiquated, hard to understand, and even archaic is anything but. It speaks into our human experience from every conceivable direction and peels back the layers and changes us and we are thankful. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to continue to speak through Your word and to continue to speak into our lives and to continue to speak through our lives as we continue to open ourselves fully to You. 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. Plenty of things are happening’

So, it’s time to call in your holiday greetings in anticipation of our annual Daily Audio Bible family Christmas program. And then we get together and wish each other Merry Christmas and good will toward each other and we move through the gospel story of Christmas and we just talk about the year and what’s to come in the year. Jill and I usually get on and talk about that for a while. So, that’s coming up pretty soon. It’s time to call in your holiday greetings. You just use the prayer line, 877-942-4253, for that. The only request is that you don’t combine a prayer request with a holiday greeting. We just don’t have a way to manage all of that. Just call in your holiday greeting and if you also have a prayer request then call that in separately.

The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box 2017 is available. And as I’ve been saying, it’s chock full of goodies -  some you will want for yourself, some you will want to pass on his gifts, and you get to choose, and that’s the magic of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box. In the Christmas Box this year is a CD called Advent, full of contemplative songs meant to put us in the season, to put us in the contemplative mode of considering the mystery of the coming of the Savior and our longing for His return. The family Christmas CD is in there, full of traditional carols, set in a backdrop of lush instrumentation, and just wonderful to shut the lights off and just take a minute in this busy season. Two copies of Sneezing Jesus are in the box. A book called The Road Back to You, which has been a really helpful book for me this year, written by my friend Ian, who is a fellow pastor, a brother in Christ, and also a licensed therapist, is included in the box. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb for 2017 is in the Box. A Black Wing pencil is in the Box. A pack of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for 2017, so 20 Christmas cards with the envelopes is in the Box. And your choice of the DAB blend of coffee or our honey bush and ribose tea. So, it’s a great Box this year as it always is.

The Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards are available outside the Box. You can just get as many packs of 20 as you want. They’re $4.99 for a pack of 20 with the envelopes. So, probably can’t be that anywhere. And it’s a great opportunity to invite those that are in your sphere, those that you love, to take the journey with you in 2018 through the Bible.

Also, in the Daily Audio Bible shop is the new Daily Audio Bible journals and the Black Wing pencils and all of the associated instruments that work for journaling. And we’ve got a number of bundles that I think are great gift ideas. So, check that out.

Early registration for the More Gathering, which is our annual women’s conference that will take place in April is open now and makes for a great gift idea as well. And that can be found at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible at the end of the year here, then thank you very, very much, very humbly. The global campfire that we share together burns because we do it together. So, there’s a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. 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 Prayer Requests and Praise Reports:

Help me shine brightly within this dark place
I want men to see You when the see my face
Let love surround me and light up this place
Kiss me with kindness I’ve been touched my Your grace
My smile is enormous and reflective of You
It’s stretching my insides and making me new
Changing my heart my desires my tongue
I know that I’m aging but it’s keeping me young
So let me shine brightly each moment for You
And not be deterred by what others do
And when shadows fall as often they do
Help me stay focused on that which is of You
Let me shine brightly within the dark place
Making a statement the world can’t erase
The Spirt is light the Spirit is Love
The Spirit is joyful and comes from above
Caring forgiving it’s patient It’s kind
It gives me Your peace that surpasses the mind
It looks for the best from out of the worst
It safeguards the tongue when one wants to curse
It doesn’t bring up the past when often we sin
It gives you a mindset and power to win
Let me shine brightly my Savior for the
I want men to see You when they look at me

Blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a special shout out to Dean S. and Kim. Hope all is well. And Michelle from LA, know you’re very much loved. Marvin and Cynthia, know you’re daily y’all in my prayers. Anyway. And thank you Brian for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. Alright. Bye-bye.

Hello this is Jamie from Phoenix. I need your prayers for a friend of my husband. Her name is Andy and she has a young 3-year-old son that is at Phoenix Children’s hospital right now. And needing a lot of prayers. Long story short, his father tried to kill her and the baby, stabbing the baby in the head and he had brain surgery a couple of months ago and has been in the hospital ever since. He has not woke up in the last 4 days and she feels that God is punishing her. So, please pray for a miracle that this all turns around and God is glorified so that she can see that God does not hate her. Please join me with this and I will keep you posted. God bless you all. I love you. Bye-bye.

Hi DAB family. This is Brandon from western Colorado. I was wondering if you could pray for me and my family. I’ve been having a bunch of weird anxiety lately and been having a hard time sleeping and my wife’s been having a hard time sleeping too. So, if you could pray…we’ve been praying and stuff like that, but I wanted you guys help as well. So, we all appreciate your prayers and love you all. Alrighty. Bye-bye.

What’s up everybody. It is a Miguel from Santa Rosa. And this might sound a little bit out of left field but I’m going to trust that this is the Spirit leading this prayer, but I’m actually traveling through San Francisco right now and driving down 19th Ave. and just in awe of the lights of the night right now. And I feel led to pray for this city and the people in this city. So, I just want to do that and invite you to do that with me. Father God, as I travel through here and I see people in the hustle and bustle in the malls and the streets in this great city that has been built, Lord I ask that You would move here Lord, that Jesus, Your Spirit would move, that your church would move in this place Lord. And that people would be brought to you Jesus, and that there would be healing in Jesus name, that there would be a unification of churches under the name of Jesus, and God, that you do a mighty work in this city, that there would even be a revival of your church here in this city. I don’t even know what this looks like. I barely even know what I’m asking here, but God, I believe You are leading me to pray this because You have plans for this city. You have plans for San Francisco and You have plans for California, for the United States, for the world, Lord. I pray in faith, fixed on You, asking You to do exactly what Your willed to do Lord. Would You bless every Daily Audio Bible listener in this city Lord that’s listening to this, that they would be healed, that they would be met by Your Spirit Jesus? God, do mighty, great, unexplainable things in San Francisco. And I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.