Month: January 2018

Genesis 13:5-15:21, Matthew 5:27-48, Psalms 6:1-10, Proverbs 1:29-33

Today is January 6^th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today for the next step forward. And we’re completing our first week in this new year. So, one week from today, give it another week, and we will be settling into a rhythm. And as we move through the rest of this month we’ll be seeing how we are starting to look differently at things, simply because the Bible is counseling us, and correcting us, and cheering us on, and pulling us forward. So, let’s dive in and take the next step. We’ve been reading from the New International Version this week, which is what we’ll do today, and then we’ll switch to something else tomorrow. Genesis chapter 13 verse 5 through 15 verse 21.

Commentary:

All right. So, we’ve got some things going in the book of Genesis, some battles, some moving around, some parting of company, and probably we should get our geography in order. So, Abram, and I don’t think this is a spoiler alert, Abram is going to have a name change to Abraham. He starts his journey in what would be modern day Syria and he moves his way into the land where the Canaanites live. And this is the land he is promised, the land that becomes Israel, the land that most of the Bible happens in. And this area of land isn’t that big, like, maybe the size of the state of New Jersey in the United States. It’s not that big. But for its lack of size, it has huge significance, because the land goes all the way to the Mediterranean Sea on its west and in its southwest it leads into the Sinai Peninsula, which leads to Egypt and the African continent. So, for trade to flow between Africa and into the Middle East and Asia, this was the only land route that wasn’t completely desert. And because it borders the Mediterranean Sea, it was also invaluable for sea trade. So, Abram comes into this land and God promises this land, but it’s very important land. The nations had to travel through there to trade with one another. So, later, when the children of Israel do become a nation, and the children of Israel at this point in the book of Genesis haven’t even been born yet, but when they do come into the promise land and conquer the promise land, they really are proverbially in the center of the world and control the flow of trade. So, we can see why this land is so valuable and why so many people have wanted to control it. And today Abram and his nephew Lot, they have to split up and go in different directions, simply because the land can support all that is required of both of them. So, Lot chooses the Jordan Valley. So, the Jordan River runs basically between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea and those are two very different bodies of water. The Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake while the Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth. So, everything kind of flows down to that point, but there’s no way to get out. From the Dead Sea, moving inland toward the Mediterranean Sea, the land begins to rise and rise and rise all the way to the point that Jerusalem is. It’s a pretty steep climb. So, Lot is going down into the valley and Abram is staying more in the high lands. And Lot gets taken as a prisoner of war and this happens near the city of Sodom. There’s been lots of conjecture about where Sodom and Gomorrah actually were, but, I mean, we can just, as a ballpark, say, somewhere in the vicinity of the Dead Sea. And, so, they’re carried northward and then eastward toward Damascus, through the city of Dan. So, from the Dead Sea to Dan. And the ancient ruins of the city of Dan are still in existence today. I’m going to guess, about 100 miles. So, Abraham has to go in pursuit to recover his kin and he goes through the city of Dan. What’s interesting about that is that, in this ancient city of Dan, an even more ancient city gate has been uncovered. And the ruins of this city gate are Canaanite, dating back to the time of Abraham. So, it’s likely that Abraham and his men, Abram and his men, moving in pursuit of rescuing Lot, pass through those city gates. So, there’s your geography lesson for the day. If you see this on a map, it can help. Just kind of being acquainted with where things are is helpful so when things happen you kind of see where they happen, how they had to travel to get to that place. And at the end of next month when we go to Israel, we’ll be posting lots and lots and lots of pictures on social media and staying connected to that pilgrimage. And a lot will happen in the Bible between now and then that is all situated in this land. So, it will start coming alive and it’s very exciting when it does.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And we see that Your word is situated on planet Earth among earthlings and it’s rooted in a geography. And we thank You that we can see these places and get an understanding of what life was like in these times because this gives us context and we see that context is important in Your word. So, come Holy Spirit, plant what has been read today in our hearts, and may it sprout and yield the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here.

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that the next time we’ll be out on the road we will be in Louisville, Kentucky on the 14^th of January and I’ll be speaking at New Song Christian Fellowship Louisville. So, if you are in the area, love to see you, love to say hi. You can get all the details for this at dailyaudiobible.com in the Events section, and all the details that you would need to know. So, looking forward to that.

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’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press the Give button in the upper 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 Prayer and Praise:

Hi Daily Audio Bible, this is Rebecca from Michigan and it’s January 2^nd. Happy New Year. I have a verse for us since we are doing the word Hope. For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you not to harm you, plans to give you hope __ and in future. Jerimiah 29:11. And I want to say, one, realize I’m not God, I admit that I am powerless to control my tendencies to do the wrong things and that my life is unmanageable. Happy are those who know they are spiritual poor. Matthew 5:3. Have a happy New Year Daily Audio Bible and I hope that God uses me to minister to other people and win them to the Lord. Thank you. Bye. I love you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Shelia calling from Massachusetts. Happy New Year to all of you. Brian, Jill, China, I just want to say, thank you so much for the work that you do. This is Bob’s and my 10th year joining you on our trip through the Bible, out of your 13 years. And China, this year I am adding your version of the Chronological reading into my daily spiritual life. So, I’m very excited to go through that with you. And the dedication that your family has for spreading the word of the Lord is truly amazing. And your there to sit with them day after day after day serving the Lord. It’s such an inspiration, it’s such a blessing. I lift you up Lord. Lord Jesus, I just, I say prayers to the Hardin family, continue to provide them with the strength and the wisdom and the courage to spread Your name, Lord. They’re such a __ of Christians out there, such a role model. We love you. Thank you.  

__ calling from California. I’m calling because I have a few different prayer requests. The first one is that we have been under steady, heavy, attack from the enemy. I have been sick for going on two months now. Constantly different things, strep throat, infection in one of my teeth, flu, cold, but now my voice is gone. We’ve also been heavily under attack with our financial situation. As I remain sick, I’ve been in and out of work. So, we’ve been struggling financially and I’ve been just praying. And because of the financial struggle, me and my husband have been in constant battle. We’ve been constantly fighting __. Now, my husband’s bi-polar, so, any issue when he’s stressed triggers an additional anxiety attack with him. So, it’s been very hard to not only stay positive but to stay focused. So, I pray and I ask for prayer that God turns it around. It’s the second of the year and we are barely able to pay December’s rent now and we have all of the new bills coming in this month. I just ask that God __ focus on the other side. That we’re not behind but ahead. We had to borrow money from someone and I was very uncomfortable with it. This person is very…he’s just someone I don’t feel comfortable with in my husband’s life. So, I pray that either God changes him or my husband’s able to influence God into him. My husband has between wavering between God because of the situation. So, I ask for prayer for that as well. Thank you for your time. Thank you DAB family for always being there for me. Brian thank you for this podcast.

Hi this is Scottish Tom calling from the Cleveland Ohio area. I’m actually calling for prayers for my mother. She called me from Scotland on Friday and has told me that she’s been diagnosed with Leukemia. The good news is she’s got kidney transplants a few years ago and they do regular blood tests and they had caught it almost right away and she’s had no symptoms. So, we’re very hopeful that we can, she can beat this. And they’re saying that she’s very healthy. She’s 66. So, She’s not to old. So, they’re doing the most intense treatment. So, she’s going to be going to hospital for five weeks starting tomorrow. So, the first day to that treatment and I think she gets out for a week and then goes back in for another five weeks. So, if I could just ask you to pray for her and to pray for my dad and the rest of our family, that the Lord will keep us strong, strong for my mom, and that she’ll get through this and have a full recovery. Thank you for your prayers in advance. And I pray for you guys all the time, although I don’t always call in. Thank you. God, bless. Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Chris from London. I haven’t called in in forever. I’m just calling with a praise report. I want to thank God for China and Daily Audio Bible Chronological. I listen for the first time and it’s just crazy…I’m just…oh my goodness…China’s reading the Bible. It’s just mad. So, I’m just so grateful to God because I remember meeting China and Brian at the Daily Audio Bible retreat, family retreat, in London, it was probably around 5 years ago, way before I was working, probably 5 years ago. And now I’ve got…I’m, married. I’ve a married. I’ve a daughter as well who is three months old. I just took it like how that she’s growing and I’m just like…wow…God…I pray that my daughter Ava will grow in the same way, in the way of the Lord. __ pray for. Just praise report. Praise God.

Genesis 11:1-13:4, Matthew 5:1-26, Psalms 5:1-12, Proverbs 1:24-28

Today is the 5^th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we close in on our first week of the year together. I’m excited to take the next step forward. We’ve been reading from the New International Version this week. And the next up forward in the book of Genesis will take us through chapter 11 verse 1 through 13 verse 4 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Matthew we’re hearing for the first time from Jesus. We’re not hearing about Jesus, we’re hearing from Jesus. And what we began today and what we’ll continue with for the next several days in the book of Matthew is known as the Sermon on the Mount. And this is where Jesus lays out his worldview. This isn’t the only thing Jesus teaches, but most would agree this is his central message. And, as I mentioned about the book of Matthew when we began it, way back at the beginning of the year, like two days ago, the writer of Matthew seeks to root Jesus in His Hebrew context because Jesus was Jewish. Now the Sermon on the Mount occurred very near ground zero for Jesus ministry, which was the city of Capernaum, where he made his adult home. And Capernaum sits right on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, about 90 miles north of Jerusalem. And there is a lovely sloping hill that has commemorated this spot for about 1700 years called the Mount of Beatitudes. But we see right from the get go in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is flipping the paradigm. And part of that flipping is in who He’s ministering to, who He’s choosing to talk to. He’s not down in Jerusalem trying to cozy up to people in power. Rather, He’s up in Galilee among common people who are having a difficult time making life work, people who were struggling, people who felt the oppressive weight of a system that was pushing them to the margins, people who were trying to find a more modern context for their ancient religious views. And the Galilee area was known for its zealotry. A century and half before Jesus was born was fraught with uprisings. So, these people had experienced loss. They had experienced what they certainly perceived as injustice. They were struggling to survive and they didn’t see any way out. So, we should at least point out, this is who God came to. This is where everything that we know of as the Christian faith started and this is who it started among. And Jesus didn’t stroll up a nice little rise overlooking the lake and give little platitudes, little pats on the back, little ‘God will come through for you, don’t worry, he has plans to prosper you.’ He didn’t do that and make it easy on them. He simply told them, you don’t have to live like this. Your circumstances may not change, but your heart can. And if you change from the inside, then the way that you look at the outside will be different. And when we understand that and hear the words of Jesus. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. Jesus was showing them how backward things had become, how the sense of God’s peace and order in their lives that they were seeking wasn’t going to come through their rage and their flailing attempts to reorder their circumstances. It was actually going to begin to come when they could pry their hands-off control and surrender, not to the injustice or the oppression, but to God. And those things are no less true this very moment than they were when they were uttered from Jesus mouth. We feel it. Right? It’s all over the world, this bubbling tension. It’s in everything. It’s woven into our cultures because the idea of dissatisfaction is really good marketing. You’re dissatisfied, but if you will buy this, then you will be satisfied. We get hammered all day, every day, with this kind of messaging. But it’s still true today, we cannot find the peace and order inside of ourselves by moving things around outside of ourselves. It begins with our hearts. And if we’ll keep that in mind, then the Sermon on the Mount will open up to us.

Prayer:

Jesus, that’s our prayer, that’s our prayer right now. Things can get pretty crazy in life and we can find ourselves sideways or off the road. And then we start making lists of all the things we’re going to change and were just moving pieces around in our lives, rather than understanding this whole thing originates from our hearts. So, come Holy Spirit into our hearts, into our identities, into the places that have been wounded, into the places that are most true of us. Come Holy Spirit and speak through Your word. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here.  Couple things are going on around here.

We’ll be back out on the road the 14^th of January. And we’ll be in Louisville Kentucky at New Song Christian Fellowship Louisville. So, if you are in the area, love to meet you, love to shake your hand, hug your neck. Come and say hello. You get all the details for that at dailyaudiobible.com in the events section - times, phone numbers, websites, all that kind of stuff, maps. So, check that out. Hope to see you.

Also want to invite you to follow Daily Audio Bible on social media. Not only so that you can interact with each other and places like DAB friends on Facebook, but also for things like announcements. So, for example, when we were going through a little bit of a meltdown here a couple of days ago because we were just completely overloading the system, we were posting updates, you know, we were tweeting updates and posting updates so that the word could get out. So, that’s a good way to stay up on stuff like that. Don’t worry, we’re not going to post a meme a day that’s going to flood your feed. That’s not really our style, but we do try to keep you informed and that’s one of the ways. So, you can find all of our social media channels by going to dailyaudiobible.com and then clicking Community at the top and then you’ll see social media in there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link that lives right on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the give button in the upper 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 Prayer and Praise:

Hi, my name is Stan Sr. and this is Stanley Jr. and we have a praise report. Yesterday, we had a Daily Audio Bible party and we celebrated the last day of the year that we listened to the Daily Audio Bible together and it has been such a blessing in our lives. And Brian, I just want to say you really brought me to tears that day you had China on interviewing her about the chronological version. China is my new hero and I’m looking forward to trying to share that with some other young people that I work with, that they might be inspired that a young woman will be so committed to the Daily Audio Bible. And I’ve called in two or three times. This is Stanley from Maryland. But I just want to say thank you for a great year and all the prayers that have been prayed. And it’s really nice to have his community be a part of. 2018 will be my third year listening to the DAB. So, healthier than ever taking my vitamin DAB every day and thank God for you Brian. Thank God for you and I love the music that lays in the background all of the time.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family, Brian, Jill, it’s Katherine M. from __. Happy New Year everybody. We’re in for another year. How wonderful. Thank You Father and blessings to You for giving us Brian to read this to us. I’m just ringing to say hello to everybody and I wrote to myself here ___ your ringing and ___ and to let them know how wonderful it is that I play the Daily Audio Bible when I’m going to sleep at night. I do it in the morning and play it at night. And if I’m ever wrestles and can’t sleep, I put this on, and if the enemies harassing me, he never hangs around. He can’t stand listening to the Bible. So, anyway I thought I’d just give you that praise. Hope…that’s all I’ve got to say. Bye. Bye- for now. Bye.

Hello DAB family. I hope you all had a blessed Christmas season and cheers and blessings as we bring in 2018. My name is Jill and I am calling from Des Moines Iowa. I am a long-time listener but first-time caller. I’ve always thought about calling in and never did. So, I decided to start the new year and call. So, here I am. I wanted to share a big praise to God and gratitude I have for Brian, Jill, and the DAB team for all that you do. It’s such a blessing to have you all in my life. I’ve been to the More conference twice in the last three years, which has been so phenomenal and I’m so excited to go back in April. I also wanted to share a couple of other things. I was in a three-year relationship. I was an alcoholic and that journey recently ended, early December. Although there were good times, tough times and a lot of grief. I am thankful to God for the growth I’ve had these last three years and thankful for the wonderful people and support that God has placed in my life, including the DAB family, Al-Anon, celibate recovery, and other friends and family. Also, I’m excited to share, I have found a few ladies to join me in a support life group to read the Bible with the new DAB mobile app. We are going to get together and pray for one another. If anyone has suggestions on discussion guides, please let me know. I have been praying for you family and I hope that 2018 will be a great year. I love you. Jill in Des Moines.

Good morning or afternoon or evening Daily Audio Bible. Happy New Year. We are in 2018 and it’s so exciting. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that I’m going into my 6^th year. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible, it will be 6 years in July and I cannot even believe it. I am so excited. And with that being said, I just wanted to welcome all the new members. Oh my gosh, you guys are in for a ride of your lifetime. Just wanted to encourage to stay on course. Do not discouraged. You will notice that some days you will miss. Don’t get discouraged. You can always play back and, you know, get caught up. Just go with the flow and eventually you will see that this will become part of your life. I usually do this when I’m getting ready for work, when I’m driving to work. I have a 30 minute drive to work and I get…there’s lots of time to get caught up. So, you are going to be just fine and we are so excited that you joined us. You’re going to meet allot of our members here. We have a lot of dedicated members that call in to pray for you and we encourage you to call in. One of my New Year resolutions is to try and call in and participate in just praying for everybody. So, hopefully I’ll do a lot better this year. So, yeah, I just wanted to let the new members…because I know when I first started listening it was very encouraging to hear like people calling in and encouraging us and just giving us tips on really how to stay on course. And wanted to thank Brian and Jill for the commitment. And, yeah, let’s do this guys.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible community. This is Diane Olive B. from Newburgh Indiana and it is 6:20 AM, January 2^nd. Happy, happy New Year to everybody. I wanted to go over this again, First Peter 3:4-5 in the Modern English Version. ‘I do not let my adorning be the outward adorning of braiding my hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine clothing, but I let my adorning be the hidden nature of my heart that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a gentle and quiet Spirit, which is very precious in the sight of my heavenly Father.’ Think about that. Sela, pause, and calmly think about that. Did you hear where it said, ‘the adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit.’ That is my goal in life, to have a gentle and a quiet spirit, to be something that is precious in the sight of my Father. Oh, I’ve got a little bit of work to do on that though. Just yesterday we were all in the car and I wasn’t gentile and I wasn’t quiet, but, I shall overcome. I shall succeed in my goal because I am Christian and Jesus lives in me. Shalom, Shalom everybody. Nothing is missing. Nothing is broken.

Genesis 8:1-10:32, Matthew 4:12-25, Psalms 4:1-8, Proverbs 1:20-23

Today is January 4^th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today as we move through our first week together this year. And as you can probably see, the Bible launches us like a rocket, like, we just take off, and there’s so many interesting things going on. And, so I’m excited. I’m excited about today, I’m excited about this first week, and I’m excited about this year. So, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday and read Genesis chapters 8 through 10. And we’re reading from the New International Version this week.

Proverbs:

Okay. So, we’ve come to our reading from Proverbs today. And, true to what we been doing the last couple of days, we’ve been just doing a little bit of an overview of what the book is that we’re reading and where it comes from. And so, we did that with Genesis, we did that with Matthew, we did that with Psalms yesterday. And, so, today, Proverbs. And I’ve mentioned this, Proverbs is an invaluable book of practical wisdom. In the structure of the Old Testament, Proverbs is the main book in what is called the collection of wisdom literature. The others being, Ecclesiastes, the book of Job, and part of the Psalms. And these portions of Scripture are called wisdom literature because they’re more intended to speak a direct lesson, rather than to be a narrative where the reader follows a story and then gleans meaning from it. The wisdom literature, or the books of wisdom, speak directly what they are trying to teach. So, most of the Proverbs are attributed to the great wise man, King Solomon, although there are a couple of other characters involved that lend their wisdom to the Proverbs. It seems that the Proverbs may have been collected all along, but weren’t really put into a collection until the time of around King Hezekiah. And most biblical scholars think that some of the Proverbs could predate Solomon and were a series of oral traditions and oral wisdom that had been handed down from generation to generation and, finally, placed into the collection of Proverbs. And the Proverbs all address the human experience and transfer wisdom that has stood the test of time to what we, as people, experience both with each other, and with God, and inside of ourselves. And it gives us the ultimate roadmap to life. It’s the ultimate book of wisdom, the greatest collection of wisdom that mankind has. Proverbs tells us, whatever you do, get wisdom because wisdom is more valuable than anything else. If you have wisdom everything else can be achieved. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And, so, our reading from Proverbs today will be from the first chapter, versus 20 through 23.

Prayer:

Thank You Father for Your word and all of its facets and nuances and for the way it speaks so relevantly into our lives and our stories. And, even though we’re only four days into this year, Your word feels so safe and so familiar, and we grant it access to our hearts and invite Your Holy Spirit to speak through Your word into our lives as we take a step forward every day through the scriptures. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here.  Let me tell you what’s been going on around here.

We have been experiencing some growing pains and you’ve probably been experiencing them too. So, yesterday I got up to find that we had a complete systemwide outage that was affecting all of the Daily Audio Bible programs. And that’s very unusual. And it’s kind of a big deal. Oh, but guys, we have such a good team. Chet’s team up in Indiana figured it out, isolated it, and worked on getting everything restored, while Daniels team in Kansas City found workarounds and got us back up and running. This isn’t the first time that we’ve experienced growing pains, but it was definitely the first time in 12 years we’ve experienced something like that. So, we were back up and running pretty quickly. And, so thanks to the dedicated people who work so hard to make this happen every day. When we launch our app or go to our web player and push play and hear the Daily Audio Bible every day, it takes…I mean…there’s just a lot of things that happen to make that happen, including nearly 20 servers, simply to handle the data. So, it’s no small feat. And I appreciate…appreciate what we have here as a team and as a community.

Now, you also may have experienced inability to register an account or getting errors on the website or that kind of thing. That’s just a result of system overload. We’re getting 5 to 10 requests per second on the system. So, we’ve been experiencing some overloads, which is, you know, giving you errors. And that should be going away. We’ve put some measures in place and are putting some additional measures in place to kind of handle all that’s going on. So, things should be starting to smooth out there. The downside is that the upgrades that we’ve had to make is going to increase our monthly costs to support of platform by 30 fold. So, 30 times as much, which is a little scary, but the upside is that the Lord invited us to do this, to create all of this and to give it away. So, I don’t think the Lord spilled His coffee when he realized we had some growing pains, like I just about did. And he has provided every single step of the way for the 12 years that we’ve been at this. So, I have no doubt that this is no problem for Him. But over the next couple of days everything should smooth out and work more like it is intended to. So, like I say a lot, where in this together. Thank you for your prayers. Things should be smoothing out and will continue to smooth out over the next couple of days.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link that’s on the homepage. If you’re using the new Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, we are a community and we are in this together. If you’re shouldering burdens that are best not carried alone, there’s a number you can call and a community, all of us together behind that number, and we are praying people, and we are a loving people. So, there are some numbers that you can call. If you are in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number. If you are in the UK or Europe you can call 44-20-3608-8078 and if you’re in Australia are not part of the world. 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 Prayer and Praise:

Hi family. This is His little Cherri from Canada and I’m really enjoying Brian read the last of Revelations. Finally, the happily ever after that is coming for us. But as I’ve been thinking about how wonderful it would be to finally experience complete shalom, it occurs to me that this life here and now is my only chance to love God in the middle of a mess. Because when I’m in heaven, I’ll see Him as He is. I’ll love Him as He loves me. But it will be too late then to offer Him what I can give Him now, which is to worship Him, thwarts and all, to trust Him before I’m healed, to come to Him even in the middle of my addictions. And I know that we’re in the process of being saved. We do experience redemption hear and now, but none of us are perfect yet. I know I’m not. And so many times I feel that my feeble attempts to love and obey God must just be a joke to Him. But, actually, I think it’s the exact opposite. I think He must treasure every offering that I bring, weak and broken as it is, because it’s a rare and precious thing to Him. So, family I just wanted to remind us that we don’t have to wait to come to God until we get our act together. Let’s run to Him now in the middle of our mess because this is our chance to give Him something we can only give Him now, our brokenness. God bless you family.

Hey family. This is Jordan from Michigan. December 31^st, __ the end of another year. This is the second time I’m finishing the Daily Audio Bible and the second time that I’ve read the Bible because of the Holy Spirit and by God’s providence finding the Daily Audio Bible. And, so, I’m just so grateful for all of you and all your prayers that you’ve been praying for me over the past couple of years. And it’s really made such a huge difference. And, if I could, I would like to request that you would just pray for me for the next year that God would transform my teaching. This is the first year that I’m ever going to be in the same job for a whole year. And I’m a teacher. And I really just need…I really need the guidance of God because I am really struggling with that. So, thank you and happy New Year. Love you guys. Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is John calling from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is the 31^st day of December 2017, the final day of December 2017, and I just got through listening to the 31^st of December program and finishing up the last transcript for the program of the year. And I couldn’t make the call here right away because I was just crying…just tears of absolute joy over being able to get here…not that though…but it was just being here with all of you and getting to know you. So, Brian, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for your dedication and commitment and loyalty and integrity and truth and for everything you do in your ministry here in sharing the word of God. Thank you to the family, the Daily Audio Bible family and your family, Brian. You folks are amazing. This community has changed my life forever and I know it’s doing work in your hearts as well as it’s done in mine. So, I can’t thank you all enough. You’ve been such an inspiration and a blessing to me. I’ve cried with you, I’ve laughed with you. And I just want to leave Brian with the same words that he left us this morning. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make his face to shine upon you, Brian, and be gracious to you. May He lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. May the strength of God go with you. May the wisdom of God instruct you. May the hand of God protect you. May the word of God direct you. May you be sealed in Christ this day and forevermore. Amen. And God bless you. We’ll see you next year guys.

Hi family. This is Purely Pampered of Maine. I’m calling in for prayer requests for a few of you that I continue to pray for regularly but haven’t heard from in a long time, some of you, years. If you’re still listening, will you call in and give us an update as we continue to pray for you? Marie with your daughter, Elizabeth Joy, and your now toddler, how are you doing? I’m praying for you. Valerie, you used to call in regularly for you and your husbands physical health and for the situation where you were being taken advantage of by your grandchildren. You’re in my prayers. Nana Jones, I’m still prying for you, for your daughter Tiffany, who was an exotic dancer and your now, must be, eight-year old grandchild. Crystal, you had seven children and you contemplated abortion or adoption for your eighth. But you decided to keep that baby who now must be a preschooler. You’re in my prayers. And Kevin of California and your three sons, Levi, Moses, and Takoa that you hadn’t seen in two years. Now it might be close to three. I’m praying for you all. Oh, Creator and Sustainer of all, I lift up each of these brothers and sisters in their situations to You. I pray for healing, for restoration, and for Your supernatural peace that goes deeper than their painful situations. Fill each of them with hope Lord. I lift them up to You. Amen. Love you family. Bye for now.

Good evening. It’s Beloved for Him from Gloucester in the UK and it is Sunday the 31^st of December 2017. Just going to read a couple of words from Hebrews that I got read at my church today. Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have. For He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So, we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that’s from Hebrews 13. Yes, you know, the old year is done. The new year is coming. And I just wanted to take a few to say thank you for all of your prayers, love, and support this year and bring on the next year. And just a reminder for us to pray for our leaders. Pray for Brian and those involved behind the scenes in the Daily Audio Bible. But also pray for our local churches as well, that they’ll be encouraged. So, I’m just going to pray now. Father God, thank You so much for what You’ve done for our lives in 2017. Thank You so much for placing this burden on Brian to read the word…and it’s like 12 years that he’s finished Lord and that is amazing. Father God, but we’re not focusing on what’s happened Lord. We’re looking ahead. Lord, thank You so much for 2018 and this new app that we have and I Pray Lord that You be bringing people to find the app and find the podcast and to get through the Bible and join us. Lord, help us spread the message of Daily Audio Bible and how important it is to be reading Your word, but also help people find it Lord. Bless this coming year Lord. In Jesus name. Amen.

Genesis 5:1-7:24, Matthew 3:7-4:11, Psalms 3:1-8, Proverbs 1:10-19

Today is the 3rd day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s, of course, wonderful to be here with you today from the rolling hills of Tennessee, where it is a cold. Not as cold as many of you further up in the north. I get it. I know that. But cold for us nonetheless. But, thankfully, we have a nice, warm, global campfire burning that is this community and we can all come in out of the cold and warm ourselves with some time in God’s word as it opens up its stories and wisdom and inspiration to us. So, today we’ll do what we do every day, pick up where we left off yesterday and continue the story forward. So, we’re reading from the New International version this week. Genesis chapter 5 through chapter 7.

Psalms:

Okay. So, we have talked about the book of Genesis as we began this year. And then the next day, which was yesterday, we talked about the book of Matthew. Now let’s talk about the book of Psalms. So, the Hebrew word for Psalms is Tehillim, which means, praises. And that’s what this book is. It’s a collection of 150 songs, hymns, congregational and responsive singings, and individual songs and poems of worship. It’s basically five books in one. And they’re classified by who wrote them or there theme or purpose. Some of them give praise to God, others speak of his character or actions. Some are songs of lament or repentance, while others are songs of thanksgiving. In other words, they’re songs about life and the life of faith. And no matter the circumstances of life, the book of Psalms is meant to bring praise, glory, adoration, reverence, and honor to God in all circumstances and for all purposes. Psalms is a beautiful book containing some of the most heartfelt musical poetry ever written. And every conceivable human emotion is explored in the Psalms. There are heart cries that are so passionate and broken that you can feel them across the boundaries of time. And yet, there are also some exalted mountaintop experiences where the glory of the Lord is tangible and present. David, who we haven’t met yet, but we will, he was the second king of Israel and he was a master musician and he composed most of the Psalms. And, although we have a large amount of information about David throughout the rest of the Bible, the Psalms reveal his heart. And what we find is that he is completely human and the ebb and flow of his humanity is ever present in his compositions. But David didn’t write all the Psalms. Other writers include Solomon, who is David’s son, the sons of Cora- Asaph, Ethan - and then there are a number of them whose authors unknown or they were anonymously written. But ultimately, the purpose of this Psalms was to rally the people and to enrich the worship experience of Israel. And the songs would have been sung in public and private homes as people went about their daily lives. And these songs have stood the test of time because we sing and quote them now. Their power and enduring beauty is unmatched and they’re absolutely unrivaled in terms of literary and spiritual value. Scholars believe that the Psalms were written over a long period of time, between roughly 950 BC until about 165 maybe 170 BC. Three major periods in Israel are covered in the Psalms. The first would be during the reign of David and Solomon. The second would contain songs written when the children of Israel were taken into exile in Babylon, a story that we’ll get to later. The third would contain writings from when they were freed to go back and re-create their land after the exile. Also, a story that we’ll get to later. We have a long time span and various culture points that are represented here in the Psalms, but the Psalms are very cohesive in their purpose of bringing glory and honor to God in a very authentic and beautiful way. And today we’ll read Psalm 3, a Psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom.

Commentary:

Okay, so in the book of Genesis we’ve traveled many generations from Adam and Eve and we’ve begun to see the wickedness that is happening in the world because humanity was separated from divinity. And all of that is leading us to the man, Noah, and an ark, and a flood. But just before we got to Noah and basically right in between some genealogy and Noah, we come across this strange passage. ‘The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.’ Then we were told the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, ‘when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.’ And we reach passages like this throughout the Bible where you go, wait, what is going…what is being said, what is happening? And every year as we go through the Bible, we dive into some of these. So, who are the sons of God that saw the daughters of Eve were beautiful and took them? And who were the Nephilim, who were apparently their children? Well believe it or not, we’re not the first people to ask this question on the face of the earth. This has been being pondered for millennia. So, from a biblical scholarship perspective there’s basically three interpretations here, three ways of looking at this. The first would be that the sons of God or the Nephilim, these are angelic beings but they’re part of the spiritual realm. The second way of looking at it is that these were the rulers, they were tyrannical people, but kind of smaller kings of clans that would roam about trying to conquer and build up their kingdom. And then the third way of interpreting this would be that these are the descendants of Adam and Eve’s son, Seth. So, two of these ideas are humanly based and one of them is rooted in the supernatural. And they each have their own challenges to overcome, which is why there’s different ways of looking at this. So, let’s look at the Seth idea first. Basically, the thought is, Adam and Eve had three sons - Cain, Abel and later Seth. Cain killed his brother Abel and then was cursed and sent away by God. Abel had died. He had been murdered by his brother. And then Adam any of had Seth. So, when we get to today’s reading and we’re moving ourselves through how the world became more and more wicked, leading to a massive flood, we read of Adams family line. But it’s Adams family line through Seth. So, the idea here then, is that Seth’s offspring would’ve been similar to Abel’s offspring. They weren’t murderous and tyrannical people, they weren’t cursed and sent away, and they weren’t supposed to mix in with those who were. So, the Sethites weren’t supposed to be mixing in with the Caneites, but they found them beautiful and did. And we’ll find that later on as we get further into the Bible that this idea of mixture is kind of a big deal. It causes massive amounts of problems for the Israelites. And, so with that explanation, then the Nephilim are the offspring between Seth’s family line and Cane’s line and then being heroes of old and men of renown is just ancient memory, legend, and myth that everybody knew at the time of this writing. The problem is that the Nephilim get referenced later, when the 12 spies go to spy out the promised land, which would mean that they survived the flood. So, those following, then, this Seth model would say that that was just a reference, when the 12 spies spied out the land. The legend of the Nephilim as a species of Giants was still well-established in the culture. And, so, they weren’t really the Nephilim, they were just being referred to that way because the spies likened themselves to grasshoppers in in their midst, which is figurative language. Okay, the other human option here is that these were the judges and rulers and kind of kings of the time that they just attacked each other and were trying to build kingdoms and they would rape and pillage and do what they did. So, they were referred to as sons of God because they were part of the human family. And their bloodline was thought of as powerful because they came from powerful people even though they were evil. And a lot of that thought comes from the fact that what Genesis is doing is leading us toward the flood. So, it’s going through some genealogy, showing generations have passed, with the intent of showing how each generation became more and more evil. So, immediately following the passage about the sons of God and the daughters of man and the Nephilim, we read, ‘the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time’, which led God to regret that he had made people and the earth was flooded. So, in light of that, these were just powerful but evil people who became legendary. And then the third way is to look at them as spiritual beings, which would make us become acutely aware that there is much more going on in the cosmos than what we can perceive with our five physical human senses. And this would’ve been the common worldview of ancient readers. This is how they would’ve understood their existence. And it is, in fact, how we as believers view our existence, that we are, in fact, spiritual beings wrapped in human flesh. But we have a much more difficult time absorbing that a spiritual being, an angelic being of some sort, could take on human form, or even human flesh, and participate in the world. But from this way of thinking we would have to acknowledge the incarnation, we would have to acknowledge that God came in human flesh in the person of Jesus and transformed the world by participating in the world. So, the idea here is that God has a spiritual family and although not tethered to physicality, is nonetheless at work in the world or wherever it is that God’s work needs to be done. And they can interact with humanity. So, for example, a little later in the book of Genesis when we meet Abraham, we’ll see that he interacts with two divine beings in the physical flesh and they eat a meal together. And then they go down to Sodom and Gomorrah and they physically rescue Lott, Abraham’s nephew. And even later, when we meet Jacob, he’s going to have a wrestling match. And it appears that he’s a wrestling with a spiritual being, or even God. It’s after this wrestling match that Jacob gets a name change, and his name changes to Israel. So, this is a divine experience that affects the world after this. Or Jesus, when he’s tempted by the devil in the wilderness, once those 40 days are over angels come and minister to Him, which probably means more than just floating around Him invisibly. And the apostle Peter escapes from jail because an angel comes and unlocks the door, setting him free. So, then, if you’re following along with this, then these are spiritual, angelic beings that have become infatuated with the beauty of the women of earth. So, the extrabiblical book of Enoch talks some about this. So, we read about Enoch, I think it was yesterday. Enoch was one of people that didn’t live to be like most of thousand years old. He lived like less than 400 years and then he was no more, because God took him. And the only other person mentioned in this way is the prophet Elijah who was taken up in a whirlwind and chariots of fire, which is just another example of the divine realm interacting with the physical realm here on earth. So, the book of Enoch isn’t in the Bible but it is ancient and it’s within the context of the Bible. And, so, in it, Enoch talks about, after his translation, going to some of these angels, warning these angels, and even angels that are under God’s judgment and restrained. So, that’s not like, hey, run out and find the book of Enoch and start digesting that, although it’s very interesting. It’s just that through ancient writings you can begin to tell what people were thinking in a certain period of time, how it was they understood their existence. And if this kind of stuff intrigues you, another good resource would be to read The Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser, who is a very decorated scholar. And he moves through the Bible and the ancient cultures showing how the spiritual realm is very, very much at work in our existence. So, there’s some thoughts on the sons of God and the daughters of Eve and the Nephilim. But one thing that we can say for certain is that the book of Genesis is leading us toward Noah. And we see that after Eden, as things spread out upon the earth, it became more and more and more wicked. Mankind was trying to use the knowledge of good and evil to achieve what it had lost. But what it had lost was true penetrating intimacy with God and that could not be restored by the power of human ingenuity. And mankind became like animals. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, and a redemptive thread emerges, one that we’ll be seen throughout the entirety of the Bible.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And here we are at day three and already it is opening up to us, awakening our spirits, awakening our minds. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to continue that work throughout every single day of this year. We want to be awake and aware. We want to partner with You and participate in Your work in this world. So, we invite the transformation, the transformative power of Your word to wash over us. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.  

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here.

So, a few things to talk about today.

January 14^th, which is a week from this Sunday, we’ll be back out on the road and will be speaking in Louisville, Kentucky. So, if you are in the area, we would love to meet you, shake your hand, hug your neck, hear a little bit of your story. I’ll be speaking at new song Christian Fellowship, Louisville and you can get the information for that at dailyaudiobible.com. Just go to the events section and you can get all the details, even a map, websites, phone numbers, all of that. So, if you are in the area, come say hello. We’ll look forward to seeing you.

We’re also talking a little bit each day about how the Daily Audio Bible works. So, we’ve talked about the website. One of the things that you will notice at the website is the Daily Bible Shop. There are a number of resources there that kind of let you wear your colors as you go through the year, but also resources to help you move your way through the year and not forget the year. We have Daily Audio Bible journals in the Daily Audio Bible shop as well as a lot of writing utensils that can accompany you through. I mean, if God’s speaking to you, take notes. Journal your way through this year. One of the themes that we’ll find emerging through the Bible is not forgetting where you have come from. So, as you take the journey through the Bible and as you Journal your life as your interacting with the Bible and are able to talk about the things that are going on in your life, those will become invaluable as you go back to previous years and are able to read through what was going on and how God was faithful. And then this emerging theme of redemption that we find in the Bible, we begin to see it in our own lives. So, we’re big on journaling around here, which is why we’ve put a journal in the new Daily Audio Bible app, so you can just kind of write some thoughts down as you think of them, things you don’t want to forget. But if you want to kind of Journal your way through your life, then we have a perfectly…I mean we worked really hard to come up with the perfect pairing, the perfect things to take you through that journey and you can find them in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

Another thing to point out is our Tumblr account. Every day, the things that are said on the Daily Audio Bible are transcribed and uploaded there. So, you can go back and read what was said. And you can find that link by going to dailyaudiobible.com and you’ll see some tabs up at the top to help you navigate, like a lot of websites. One of those tabs is called Community, and in the Community tab you’ll see Social Media, which will show you all the social media channels that we’re on, but one of those is Tumblr, and that will take you to the transcripts.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link that’s right on the homepage. If you’re using the new Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper 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 Prayer and Praise:

Well hello from beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio, and happy New Year. This Daniel J. Jr. and I want to give a special shout out to all of my fellow Cincinnatians and those that live around the greater Cincinnati, northern Kentucky area. We need to meet up in the new year some time. Reach out to me on social media, just look for Daniel Johnson Jr. But that’s not why I’m calling. I want to wish everybody in the Daily Audio Bible community a Happy new year, especially those of you that are listening for the first time. What a trip this is going to be for you as it has been for me. I’ve been listening for quite a number of years now and I never wind up being the same at the end of the year as I was at the beginning of the year. And I’m so grateful that we have this new Daily Audio Bible app, the new Daily Audio Bible mobile app, and great functionality. I can Journal right there, to read along with the passages there, even mark that I’ve been or started an episode. What a phenomenal thing and I’m just really excited about the new year. My word…my new three words for the new year for me it’s, joy, write, I’m going to do a lot more writing in the coming year, and dream. And that kind of correlates to the word for the Daily Audio Bible, a community of hope. So, I praise God for all the work he’s been able to do in 2017, but I’m excited about what’s going to happen in 2018. Come, let’s celebrate all that God has done and let’s celebrate all that God is about to do. From beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio. This is Daniel J. Jr. Make it a great day.

Hi. My name is Derek from Vancouver, BC. This is my third time calling. And I just want to ask you, my DAB friends, to pray along with me and agree with me on this request. Heavenly father, I want to start a new year by surrendering to You completely. I have procrastinated so much in the past and I have lived in regret. I’ve complained and moaned about everything and I want to just start fresh. I’ve been tied up with doing so much stuff, getting busy doing things that do not matter, and I want to give those up. Father, I ask for Your help. There are addictions in my life that I want to break free from and just the guilt and shame that then goes along with it. So, Father, I ask you in Jesus’s name to help me to recover what the locusts have taken from me. I ask You this Father in the name of Jesus. My brothers and sisters, I ask you to pray and agree with me on this. Okay. Thank you so much. And the Lord bless you. Happy new year to you all. Bye-bye.

Happy New Year Daily Audio Bible family. It’s Jubilant Perseverance from Indonesia. Today, I am blessed and really happy to be calling you from Thailand. I have left Indonesia for my winter break and spent the last few days in a healing center shedding 2017 and preparing to walk into 2018 with clear vision, clear sight, and ready to see what God is up to and how I can be a part of it. So, I just wanted to call in and pray for that to be a part of all of our perspectives as we cross over into a new year and ask that the Father give us wisdom, and that He continue to guide us as we surrender ourselves to Him. And just pray for the blood of Jesus to cover all of His people who have just surrendered to Him and given our lives over to Him and confessed that He is Lord. It’s been a really, really difficult year, but I am excited about what’s to come as the old passes away and the new is finally here, literally a brand-new year. Thank you all so much for continuing to be a part of this and support one another and Brian and your family, thank you for your work that the team is doing there to make this community possible. I’ve been very blessed listening to the word and listening to your commentary on it as well as the prayers. Have a wonderful 2018 everyone. By-bye.

God Your so faithful that I’m forced to confess
That I’m wonderfully made and abundantly blessed
And as we draw closer to the end of another year
Some things in my blindness have become abundantly clear
Two months ago I had anguish every single day
Blisters and excruciating pain that never went away
Now two months later I’m sending up praise
Halleluiah, thank you Jesus and my spirit just stays and replays
Over and over I can’t thank him enough
Things seemed so hopeless excruciatingly tough
Now I’m ebullient like a bottle of uncorked Champaign
Free from anxiety free from all pain
We can endure for a moment, a minute, a night
But when that joy comes in the morning it’s an incredibly welcome wonderful sight
Halleluiah, thank you Jesus I have to say it again
Like I told you before his praises within me don’t end
I know there’ll be other problems other ailments and fights
Other days filled with anxiety as well as other sleepless nights
But I know that the Father has given me the power to win
Jesus and the Holy Spirit advocate, healer, and friend

blindtony1016@gmail.com. Happy New Year’s everybody. I’d like to give a shout out to Walter. Hope everything’s going good with your mother. Keep burning girl. Keep burning. Haven’t heard from Blessed Like Me. You still there brother? And Shannon, with the spiritual nuggets. Where you all at? And Gigi, haven’t heard from you either. And, also like to give a shout out to Slave of Jesus. Alright, love you all. You’re in my prayers every day. And, once again, Brian, thank you for this won…

Genesis 3:1-4:26, Matthew 2:13-3:6, Psalms 2:1-12, Proverbs 1:7-9

Today is the 2^nd day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you for the 2^nd step of 365 as we make our way into and through the Scriptures this year. So, we set sail yesterday and have just left the harbor, as it were, on our voyage this year, and what an adventure it will be. So, yesterday we began the book of Genesis, and the book of Matthew, and the book of Psalms, and the book of Proverbs, which is the trajectory we will take this year - a bit from the Old Testament, a reading from the New Testament, a bit of Psalms, and a bit of Proverbs, each and every day. So, we talked about Genesis yesterday as we began, and today, when we get to the New Testament, we’ll talk about the book of Matthew. And at the end, I’ll talk a little bit about Daily Audio Bible and the community that we share here and some good things to know as we get out into the open seas on this grand adventure. And by the time we’ve finished a week together we’ll all be on the same page. But the primary thing that we do here is to read from God’s word. And, so, we’re reading from the New International version this week, Genesis chapter 3 and chapter 4.

Matthew:

Okay. So, I mentioned that we began the book of Matthew yesterday, obviously, and we read from it - the genealogies of Jesus and of Jesus birth. So, let’s get our bearings with the book of Matthew. Like the book of Genesis, the book of Matthew is also a part of a grouping of books known as the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And each of them give us an account of Christ’s life, who is our Savior, but they were written at different times and by different people to different audiences for different reasons. So, understanding the back story a little bit helps us get some facets and nuances that we might completely miss. So, most Scholars would place Matthew as the second of the Gospels written with Mark being the first and Matthew coming maybe a decade or a little more after Mark. Matthew, the person this gospel was attributed to was one of the 12 apostles, or disciples of Jesus, and he was a tax collector in his former life. So, he wasn’t the most liked person socially, but when Jesus called him, he left everything. So, from that perspective, this is a man who gave up a life that he knew and that was definitely providing for his needs and making him wealthy in exchange for a great leap of faith to follow a man that he came to believe was the son of God. And the book of Matthew was written for Jewish people. And that’s kind of an important thing to understand. Jesus was a Jewish person and His ministry was primarily to Jewish people. So, that was the context for His ministry. And after His death and resurrection, the apostle Paul came onto the scene. And we haven’t met the apostle Paul yet, but we will, and you’ve probably heard of the apostle Paul. It was Paul who began to unpack the fact that God was drawing all people back to himself through Jesus and the work of Christ wasn’t just an ethnic thing. The reason that that became so influential is that some of the letters of the apostle Paul are the earliest Christian writings that we have. So, Matthew, the gospel of Matthew, is a bit younger than the gospel of Mark, and the gospel of Mark is a bit younger than some of Paul’s writing, some of Paul’s letters. In other words, the New Testament isn’t laid out in chronological fashion. That was never the point. Which brings us to another point that we have to pay attention to as we move through the New Testament. These writers weren’t trying to compose books of history. Rather, they were trying to impart truths to specific people that they were writing to. And Matthew was writing to Jewish people, especially Jewish believers in Jesus. And we know this because of the Jewish nature of the book. For example, the gospel of Matthew quotes the Old Testament more than any of the other Gospels do. And the intent was to show how Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament Mosaic Law and the fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies, which we’ll see constantly. So, we’ll be reading along in Matthew and it’ll be like, ‘Jesus did this to fulfill this particular prophecy’. We’ll see that over and over. And we have to remember, at the time of the writing of the gospel of Matthew there was no New Testament. It hadn’t all been written yet and it wasn’t collected together until much later. So, what the Jewish people did have was the law and the prophets. So, Matthew is using the Scriptures of the time to reveal why Jesus is the Messiah. And of course, we’ll get to know Jesus pretty well in the book of Matthew. We’ll get to understand a bit of His style and personality. There are over 20 parables that we’ll encounter. Jesus uses symbolic picture stories that are rich and have deep meaning and He uses His words to craft a sense of feeling and emotion that’s beyond just words and it’s quite striking and quite beautiful. But Jesus often uses stories and figurative language. And if there’s one thing that comes out of all this as we move through the book of Matthew it is that we begin to hear the first rumblings of the kingdom of heaven that is coming, and that is near, it is now, and Jesus is the King. And, so, with that, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday, Matthew chapter 2 verse 13 through 3 verse 6.

Commentary:

Okay. So, let’s go back to the book of Genesis, just for a second because, really, we encountered one of the saddest stories in all of history in the book of Genesis chapter 3 today. And this story is known as the fall of man. We had the briefest glimpses into a world that was perfect and then we saw what happened. God had given His children made in His image the earth to flourish upon and had given everything in it to them. He simply asked them to abstain from one thing, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were not to eat from that. But they were deceived. And we’ll find, as we read through the Bible and get ourselves all the way to the last books of the Bible, that deception is the primary tool that the evil one, and the forces of evil use in this world. Deception is what gave dominion to the evil one, but we also learn some remarkable things about God and His heart toward those He has made in His likeness. Adam and Eve were allowed to make a choice and their choice was allowed to matter. And we might wonder about that tree in the middle of the garden. What’s the point of that? Why even have that? Why give them the choice? But love and relationship are funny things, because they cannot be forced. No one can force you to love someone else. They may have some power and control over you and maybe even severe enough to make you pretend, or fake act that you love them, but no one can make you give your heart to someone else. Love isn’t love if there’s no way out. If there’s no way out you are enslaved. Adam and Eve made a choice. The choice mattered. And we’re going to meet a lot of people as we travel through the Bible and they will be making choices and those choices will matter. And God will be there in the midst of it all, simply calling out to his people, come back to me, return to me. And we’ll see this over and over because He’s still doing it today.

And then we get into the book of Matthew and we’ve already talked about that, but after we talked about it we could clearly see, Jesus is, like, fulfilling some kind of prophecy, practically every time he turns around, which makes Matthew a great beginning to the New Testament because it bridges the gap. We end the Old Testament and start with the book of Matthew and all these references back to the Old Testament are building a bridge, telling a story of how Jesus is the next chapter in the story of God and man. And this will continue to unfold as we continue in the book of Matthew.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for another day, day 2. We thank You for Your kindness. We thank You for Your patience with us, Your long-suffering towards us. And we pray that you see our hearts turning toward You, that we are running toward You with arms open wide, knowing that Your arms are open wide to us. And we invite Holy Spirit to continue to speak to us through Your word. Come, Jesus. We pray in Your name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, a couple of things to talk about.

Let’s just talk about the website. The website is a portal. It is where you find out what’s going on around here. I mention it quite a bit because the events calendar is there. Resources are there. The Prayer Wall is there and there are people praying upon that wall all of the time. So, if you’re carrying some burdens, you can post them there, and people are praying all of the time. So, just checking out the Daily Audio Bible website and spending some time there will familiarize you with what it is that we do as a community here.

While you’re at the website you’ll see that there is a web player that plays the Daily Audio Bible every day and allows you to read along and Journal along if you like. And you’ll also see the links to the Daily Audio Bible app, which does the same thing, just in app form. So, just getting familiar with the tools will help you get the most out of the journey that we’re on together this year. So, check that out.

While you’re at dailyaudiobible.com you’ll see at the top, a Community tab, and in there you’ll see the Prayer Wall, that’s where the Prayer Wall is, but you also see Social Media and that will give you all of the connections to where we are on social media. And that is a great thing to follow because then you’ll kind of find out what’s going on as it’s going on. And you’ll find groups there where discussion is continually happening in and among the Daily Audio Bible communities. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. We’re a community, and what we’ve done over the…well…this is into year 13 now…what we’ve done for all of these years we’ve done together. In fact, this couldn’t be happening if we didn’t do this together. So, thank you for your partnership in this new year. As I said, there’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper 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. But that’s not the only number you can dial. We have a couple of lines in different places in the world. If you are in the UK or Europe you can call 44-20-3608-8078 and if you are in Australia or the lands down under, you can dial 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 Prayer and Praise:

Good morning family. This is Cherry Chase Cherry Pie. I hope everybody’s holiday is going well. Today is Friday, I think it’s the 29^th. So, I’m calling…I just heard a caller today. I didn’t get her name but she’s a new caller but she has three sons, she’s praying for two, they are prodigal sons. One just really touched me, I believe Grant, she said, now he’s atheist. I called to tell you, rest assure honey, he will turn back around. My daughter kind of did the same thing. She didn’t say she was atheist but she did say she was worshiping the stars and the moon. As long as you know you know Jesus and continue to show your light, he will come around. I think when they get to a certain age they go through this change we’re they are trying to figure out life their self. But I want to tell you that I am praying for Grant. And I’m telling you to hold on. Just be still and hold on and let God do the work and both of your kids will come back around. I love you sister and just knowing that not only I’m praying for you but you’ve got thousands of other people praying for you as well. You guys have a great wonderful and a marvelous day and have a happy New Year. And Brian and Jill, thank you so much for all that you do for us. You guys have a great day and have a Happy New Year. Love you guys.

Hi DAB family. This is Marilyn in Houston. I would really appreciate your prayers. I have four vertebrae or four ribs __ that come out on a regular basis – two up on my rib cage and two on the lower part of my rib cage. I also have a constant headache. And right now I’m having problems with the vertebrae between my cervical and my thoracic. Right now I know that they are out. So, that’s adding to my headache and then I have a hip that needs replacement. And its very arthritic. I’m seeing a physiotherapist to help me with my __ muscle and right now it’s just very mad. I’m having that discomfort in my right __. I’m leery about getting a hip replacement because I need upper body strength. So, I’m trying to go to the gym to strengthen my upper body and I see my orthopedic surgeon the first Friday of the year. So, I would really appreciate your prayers. Thank you ever so much. Oh, I love you dearly. Thank you.

Hi. This is Suzanne calling from Albuquerque. And today I’m calling…so…I don’t know why I don’t call in more. I pray a lot with you and I think of things that I want to call in and say to support somebody and then….I think I’m just a very…kind of quiet. So, I’m going to try to be a little more involved and just take the risk of letting all of you know me more in the next year. Anyway, today I’m calling because I do…I am asking for prayer…I am the only Christian in my family and as you could imagine that’s very difficult. I want to lift up my brother and especially my nephew and my sister-in-law, but especially my nephew. He is…I think he’s just very depressed. He’s very lost. And he has a beautiful heart. And they both are very insistent that Christians are just crazy people and…you know…and…that I…you know am of the attitude that…just…you know…don’t listen to her.  So, I work very hard at just loving them. Anyway, I’m just going to try to make this as short as possible. I’m asking that you lift up my nephew. His heart is very depressed. He’s very lost and he still lives at home. He’s 29. And he doesn’t have any self-confidence or self-esteem. And I just love him so much and I really want all of them to come to know Jesus. So, that’s what I’m praying for, that you all lift them up. His name is Ben. Thank you.

Hi family this is Alberta from the UK. I haven’t called in a while but I’ve been listening and I’ve heard all the prayer requests. But I called today because I wanted to remind everyone that no matter what’s taking place in our lives, we are still children of God. And as evil and wickedness around us we must keep holding onto the word of God, seeing His light through our faith. So, please join me in this prayer. Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we call Your name seeking Your grace. Father, You’ve given us the weapons with which we can destroy the work of the enemy. By the power and authority in the name of Jesus every principality and authority exulting itself above You, oh Lord, we cancel by fire. Every __ of cancer of blood and boil affliction, we arrest you in the name of Jesus. __ of depression or any kind of oppression, we stand up against you and subdue you. We command you to be destroyed, never to rise again in the name of Jesus. Any yokes and limitations, we cancel you in the name of Jesus. Father, we open our hearts to you and commit all that we have into Your hands, asking You to pour over us holy anointing. Father, we ask that as we enter into the new year that which is not of You will remain. Father Lord, we put on our garments of praise and glorify Your name for upholding us with your rightful right arm throughout the year and __ us to know Your purpose and will for the year ahead. We ask this as a family and community in the name of Jesus. Amen. God bless you all and happy New Year. Bye for now.