Month: February 2018

Leviticus 14:1-57, Mark 6:30-56, Psalms 40:1-10, Proverbs 10:11-12

Today is the 23^rd day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. Coming to you from the dead see here in Israel, where everyone who is along for the ride has softer skin today than they did yesterday. And we had a great day yesterday, which we’ll talk about in little bit and we’re going to have a great day today as well. And we thank you for your continued prayers as we continue to travel through the land of the Bible. And speaking of the Bible, that is what we have all come here for and to do. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. And we’ll begin. Leviticus chapter 14.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Leviticus, we’re moving through laws about infectious skin diseases and laws about mildew and we’ll have some other exciting things to cover as we move forward. And you might come to this point and think, I don’t understand…I don’t understand exactly what’s going on here. Like, I don’t know why whether there’s a boil…and the hair on my arm has turned white and if that’s good or if its deeper…like…I don’t understand what’s going or exactly why this is important. And I want to point out something that, if you’ll pay attention to this thing as we go through the law, you will always be able to find your bearings. There will be a practical reason for a law. But that practical reason will also connect to the heart. There will be a spiritual reason as well. What’s happening externally is important and practical to the survival of the people, but there is a corresponding inner spiritual representation. Okay. So, from a practical perspective, infectious skin disease is not a good thing to have with a million people wandering around in a wasteland. If it’s infectious, then it can infect other and it can run throughout the whole camp wiping people out eventually. If you find mildew on your clothes are on your working articles or whatever or you find mildew or mold inside your tent or on the walls of your home, that could be a fairly significant problem, even today. It would be something that you need to take seriously. Right? Because if you just leave it alone it’s only going to get worse. And if it only gets worse than it could become harmful to your health and eventually maybe even condemn your home. So, if you’ve ever dealt with mold before or talked to people who have. Like, walls have to come down, you know, all kinds of stuff has to be done, it takes a long time, has to dry out, has to be re-inspected to see if there’s any trace. Like, this is a big deal if it’s in your house. So, what kind of mold may be growing in your heart? What have you noticed that’s kind of black and spidering itself up the walls but you don’t really want to pay attention to it or you don’t have time? You see it. You just see it spreading. You’ll deal with it later. What have you been dealing with in your life and your emotional life in your heart that seems like it’s something a little deeper than the surface? It’s not the stuff that’s just kind of flying at you every day, just the coarsened matter of navigating life, this is under the surface, this is deeper and it’s starting to cause problems. We notice in the book of Leviticus that when a person discovers something on their skin or in their homes they bring it out into the open. Right? They don’t hide it, stuff it, and try to keep it a secret, because that could affect a lot of people around them. That could make all lot of people sick. Right? You see the implications here. Or if their home has become plagued with mold or mildew and it’s left in the dark, it’s only going to get worse, they bring it into the light, even if that means they have to tear the whole thing down and start over. And sometimes, sometimes what we have to do. So, we can read through the laws. And we will. And we can see, okay, I can see the practical reasons for this for a formation of a people who are in the wilderness, but when I begin to think of all of these things from a spiritual perspective and I begin to start thinking about my own heart, my own relationships and interactions, my own thoughts, words, and deeds, the issues of my life, I can see that there is work to be done.

Prayer:

Father as we move through this, all this territory, this part of the law, we invite Your Holy Spirit to speak to us, to be able to see the implications in our own hearts in our own lives. And we see the council today Lord, that these are not things to hide, these are things to bring into the open. Bringing them into the open, in community, means that we’re not going through it alone, we’re not trying to hide something that’s going to kill us in the end. We don’t have to go through anything alone. And we need to stop ignoring the things that You keep bringing to our attention, the things that are below the surface, the things that are connected to deeper things within us, because we have been praying for You to transform our identity. We have been asking You to make us like Your Son. We have been asking that we might become Christ like, which means that these things that are below the surface that are connected to our identity that are poisoning us from the inside out, they have to be acknowledged. And, so, come, Holy Spirit. We submit ourselves to You and open ourselves to You in our minds. Come into our minds. Heal us there. Come into our hearts. We open ourselves to You. We open our very identity to You, completely, and ask You to inhabit us there. Find the mold. Find the mildew. Find the infection. Heal us from within, in our bodies, in our minds, and our hearts. Come Jesus, we pray in Your mighty name. We ask. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, we began our day yesterday at the very, very bottom of Israel in the city of Eliat. And we ended our day at the Dead Sea, many, many miles away from where we began. So, we’ve traveled many, many miles in two days. And you just start thinking, man, has it really only been a couple of days or has it been like, you know, a week, but that’s how…that’s how it is when you’re drinking from a fire hose. So, we left Eliat and we went to a place called Timna, which has been for millennia, a place of mining minerals, especially copper. King Solomon has some associations with the area, had some mining in the area. And geologically, it’s just absolutely spectacular, just truly breathtaking in its stark desert wilderness beauty. But…and we got to witness all that…but the reason we were there is because the tabernacle, a replica of the tabernacle out in the wilderness exists there. And visiting there and just kind of understanding contextually what all the symbolism means and how intentional it all was for the children of Israel, it just snaps a lot of things into place, especially being out in the wilderness experiencing that, because that’s what we’ve been doing. So far, we’ve been in the wilderness and contemplating what the wilderness represents, not only in the Scriptures but in our lives. So that, just visiting the tabernacle is just truly beautiful, truly amazing experience. And once we finished, we began to continue north. Of course, we stopped and had some more ice cream. I mean, you have to keep your energy up on trips like this. And ice cream, you know, is the most healthy thing you can do. Just kidding. Just the freshness of it. And it’s a bathroom stop anyway. So, made a quick pit stop. Did that and began to move north and or next stop was the ancient Herodian fortress of Masada, which has deep significance to the Jewish people today, dating back to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. It’s just remarkable. I mean, just the ingenuity and the ability to create, on a mountainside, that is nearly impenetrable, an opulent fortress is absolutely remarkable. And just the resolve of the Roman army to end that rebellion and the amount of work that they put in to defeat that fortress is also fairly remarkable. And the views from atop Masada are breathtaking to say the least. Truly stark desert. Great views of the Dead Sea. So, we enjoyed very much visiting there. The sun was beating down. A pleasant, balmy, I guess, probably around 80°F in the desert. And, so, we got a little son, a little history, and some wonderful views, and a cable car ride up to the top and back down to boot. And then we went down to the shores of the Dead Sea, walked out on the salt, and contemplated some of the things that happened in the book of Genesis between Lot and Abraham and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and what followed in Lots life with his daughters. And some of the ways that we blame God for things He has nothing to do with other than to be the redeemer in the story. And, so, once we finished there, we were able to get to our hotel early, on purpose, so that some loading in the Dead Sea could take place along with a nice big barrel of Dead Sea mud to be spread all over the bodies of everyone who was going to float. And, so, a good time was had by all. And a nice dinner. And a, kind of, early evening just to get some rest. We’ve been hard charging for a couple of days and that’s not going to let up a lot. And, so, we will depart this morning and continue our northward journey. There’s a bunch of things to see and do today, which will we talk about tomorrow and we will end our day in the Galilee.

So, thank you for your continued prayers. We feel them. We need them. We appreciate them. And of course, as I’ve been saying all along, we’re posting things as they happen, pictures and little videos to Facebook and Instagram. And you can follow along easy enough, facebook.com/dailyaudiobible or just Daily Audio Bible at Instagram. So, follow along with the trip. See what we’re seeing and join in virtually.

Tomorrow, the 24^th, which will be Saturday, we will be doing a Facebook Live from the Galilee region. And that’s going to take place at 8 PM in Israel, which is not likely the time zone you are in, but is easy enough to figure out. You can just Google the difference in time between Tel Aviv and where you are. So, for example, on the East Coast of the United States, it’ll be will 1 PM on Saturday. In the central time zone, which is where I live in Tennessee, that’ll be noon on Saturday. And you can just kind of figure it out from there, depending on what time zone you are in. So we’ll all get together and a debrief and share our experience thus far and part of that we’ll broadcast live. And it’s just a great community experience because, you know, many will be there virtually. And, so, just talking to each other and asking questions and hearing the stories of the journey, it’s just always rewarding and always a beautiful community experience when we do this at Daily Audio Bible. So, plan to attend virtually and we will plan to attend in person.

Couple of other things to mention. If you want to come, we have made plans and committed to come back in 2019 around this same time, so, about a year from now. You can get all the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Just look for Israel 2019. Click the link and you’ll find out the information.

And another event that’s coming up is the More Gathering for women, our annual women’s conference in early April. Of course, that won’t be taking place in Israel, will be taking place in Georgia about an hour outside of Atlanta. And you can get all the information ladies…I mean…I’ve have been talking about it for a while. So, if it’s been on your heart and you just haven’t followed through just kind of getting your questions answered, just visit moregathering.com and I will look forward to seeing you there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what we do in making the rhythm of our life centered around daily interaction with the Scriptures in community is light and life and good news in your life, then thank you for your partnership. It’s no secret. We say it all the time. What we’ve done we’ve done in community, we’ve done together, we’re in this together. So, thank you for your partnership. There is a link that lives on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. 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:

Good morning my name is Lucy. I’m calling for prayer for myself and for my family. My children are grown but they still live with me and we need prayer. And we are very disconnected. And, you know, I have raised my children by myself for a very long time. And now I’m older and I just need prayer for my direction. I do belong to a church family, but even there I feel that I’m not connected. So, I’m asking God to help me…to lead me where I should go and what I should do in the next half of my life. I’m in my late 50s and I just need some direction. I just need to know that I’m serving God. You know, I do things in my church, but sometimes I feel like I’m not doing what God wants me to do. I want to do __. And I want to know that I know that God is real in my life and in the lives of my children. I have a mother and sister and we’re not together. There’s so much discord in our family. I’m asking for prayer for my family. I’m just so lost and so lonely sometimes. I just want to believe. Family, just pray for me. And pray for the children that were killed in Florida. Pray for the young man who did the shooting, because he is a child of God and needs prayer…

Hi this is Jeanette from Denmark. I’m calling for prayer about not being afraid. The Holy Spirit has been talking to me about it. And I have a hard time understanding how to move out of that position that I grew up with. I want to ask that you pray that the Lord would lead me in the path and talk to me in ways that help transform that spirit of fear into a spirit of power and that it would be according to His will as I go forward in my job searching. Thank you.

Hey everyone it’s Chrissy from Kentucky. I just had an unspoken prayer request for you guys. I just don’t want to go into details but…after losing mom and dad, you know, it’s been like a fog. And I thought I was getting back to some even ground again, where I could get some kind of normalcy back in my life, but it doesn’t seem like anything’s ever going to be normal again. And I’m just finding myself in a position right now this just really hard with my husband and I…hard to agree upon…just agree upon things about things that need to get done and there in an outer state and I’m just not ready to leave yet. He still doesn’t understand. He’s so __. Anyway, I gave you a little bit more details than I really wanted to, but I know that this is someplace we can come and just be transparent. So, I love you guys so much. And I pray that each of you all have a most blessed and lovely day. And I appreciate your prayers. Thank you.

Hi this is Victoria S. Just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I wanted to pray for Doug’s brother who has lung cancer and I also want to pray for Bob, who’s going through the ordination. I like your spirit Bob. I like the fact that God is using you and you want God to use you. I can see God blessing you like He did Samuel. He needs strong ministers who love God and love to let God have His way. My prayers are with you my brother. And I’m also praying for you now as we speak, that God will anoint you with the fire of the Holy Ghost and have you preach the word that people will come to receive Him. Gracious Father, we come before Your throne of grace. Father, in the name of Jesus. Lord I just thank You today. I thank You for touching Your people. I thank You Lord because You’re a healer Lord. You’re a doctor that never lost a case. That brother that suffering lung cancer Lord, You’re a doctor that never lost a case. Lord You have Your way father, in the name of Jesus. You heal and deliver and set him free. Oh Lord in the name of Jesus. Lord You touch Bob who’s going up to the ministry. Oh Lord You use them like never before. You anoint him and appoint him to be what You call him to be. Give him the fire and anointing, that he can break the yolks that come against him, that come to receive the Lord as their Savior. Lord have Your way. Lord we ask you to touch Brian today. Continue to use him. Continue to appoint him and anoint him. Continue to bless him and protect him on this trip. Give him traveling mercies. Bless him and his family Lord. Bless our pastor Gene and also Blind Tony. Oh Lord and my friend Sharon Lord, in the fight for her mother Lord, You Have Your Way, Lord You let Your will be done…

Hi this is Sandy from Amarillo. I’m a first-time caller and I’m calling to request prayer from all my family for my daughter-in-law’s niece. She’s nine years old and she has developed a rare blood disease. And if this can’t be caught and be cured in time it will turn into bone cancer. And I really believe in the power of prayer. And I listen to you daily. I’ve been a year and a half now. And I thank you all in advance. And I do pray for you all. And Blind Tony, you are an inspiration to me. And keep on keeping on. And Brian, thank you so much for the Daily Audio Bible because my eyesight has been going and it really…it helps me to listen to you all day. Thank you and love everybody. Bye.

Hello my DAB Friends this Candace from Oregon. I just watched a movie that was made in 2005 about people who surf really giant waves. And it was amazing the footage of that from places in Hawaii and California and half Moon Bay. Amazing stuff these people were doing and occasionally they would be killed trying to do it. And, I’ve been thinking, you know, I’ve got to, tomorrow I’ve got to deal with the tax year from the Black Lagoon. I mean…I just think it’s…feel like it’s the world’s most complicated tax year and I’ve never done this before. And also, the anniversary of some things this year are starting to hit me pretty hard. And then I listen to your prayer requests and your situations and it pales mine. My challenges pale to insignificance. You are riding giant waves, some of you. Lord, I lift before you these, your people, who you are making valiant and strong to ride these wild waves. And as your breakers and waves crash over us, Lord, we look to You for strength and Your guidance and Your Holy Spirit and we know that Your life Your death and Your resurrection that was where You took it all on. You took it all on in our place. And you have won our life that’s truly life in You. Thank you, Jesus.

Leviticus 13:1-59, Mark 6:1-29, Psalms 39:1-13, Proverbs 10:10

Today is the 22^nd day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you from the land of the Bible and, specifically, from the city of Eilat, which is as far south as you can go in Israel, because to go any further south you have to just go out into the Red Sea or into the country of Egypt. So, from the bottom of the land of Israel, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. We had a wonderful day yesterday, which I’ll tell you about in a little bit. And I look forward to another great day as we move forward in our journey. But before we get to any of that. Let’s center ourselves and do what we come together each day in community to do and immerse ourselves in the Scriptures. Today, from the God’s Word translation, that’s what we’re reading this week, Leviticus chapter 13.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the rhythm of the Scriptures in our lives each day that we share in community. We thank You that each day is a step forward, not only in our year, not only through the Bible, but in our lives, and You are transforming us through Your word each day. Father, even as we’re here, we’re here in the land of the Bible right now, and we’re in the desert, very similar to the desert where You began to give the laws that we find in the book of Leviticus. And we see the starkness. And we seen that it is indeed the wilderness. And we see the utter dependence that it would require on You to survive. We can see that starkly, because we’re in the wilderness. We can see that and yet, our utter dependence on You for survival is always and constant, but we just often mask it. We have all kinds of products and services offered to us that we can buy, make our life better, make it seem as if we can navigate on our own, and You are still the only hope. And, so, we place our hope in You and invite You. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. What a day 1 that we had together as a little community here in Israel. And long day. So, I think we’re all a little on the tired side, but doing good. Just an amazing day. So, we started on the Mediterranean coast in the modern city of Ashdod, which is also the ancient city of Ashdod, which happened to be one of the five main cities of the Philistines. So, that’s where we all congregated as we were coming in on many, many flights from different parts of the world and had an opening dinner and I just got to be together for a little while, start things. And, so, then we got up and off we went. And our first stop was in the southernmost border city of the Promise Land, Beersheba. So, from Dan to Beersheba. We’ve talked plenty about Beersheba in the Scriptures so far this year, especially in the book of Genesis. Beersheba goes all the way back to before Abraham’s time. And Abraham spent time in Beersheba, as did Isaac, his son of promise, as did Jacob and Esau. That’s kind of where the whole birthright thing went down. So, we visited the site, talked about it, and just looked at the ingenuity of how of a people living in the desert arid zone would provide water for themselves. There’s quite a cistern in Beersheba. It’s just hard to imagine digging all that out. Then we left Beersheba and headed out into the wilderness proper, like, the bona fide full-blown wilderness, also known as the Negev desert. And, so, we wound our way down, I guess, about an hour, hour and a half, until we got into the wilderness of Zinn and spent some time there just looking at it. It’s absolutely breathtaking in its stark beauty. It doesn’t exactly look like the place that you’d want to wander around for your whole life. Right? For like 40 years? But it’s beautiful in its own way. And that’s exactly what happened, from the wilderness of Zinn, 12 spies were sent into the Promise Land. And, of course, it hasn’t been that long since we read that story. So, were all familiar with how that went down. And the children of Israel had to head back out into the desert for an entire generation to, kind of, move out of the way and an emerging generation to rise up. And, so, we contemplated the wilderness because we spent the day in the wilderness. And the wilderness is a part of all of our stories. And usually what we do in the wilderness is thrash around and yell and scream and run in all kinds of directions and blame God for bringing us into the wilderness and, in very real ways, become like the children of Israel, just long for the days that we understood, even though it was bondage and slavery for us. Just get me out of here. And we contemplated that God lead the children of Israel into the wilderness. And the wilderness wasn’t the quickest route to the Promise Land, but there was an identity shift that needed to take place that only the wilderness could provide because the children of Israel could only depend upon God. They did plenty of grumbling. We’re watching all that as we read through the stories in the Old Testament. But we do the same thing. And the children of Israel, you know, they spent 40 years in the wilderness that they didn’t have to spend. When the 12 spies went into the land it was go time. Like, they were supposed to come back with intel, and everyone was supposed to move out, and the Promise Land was supposed to be taken, but instead, they had to spend 40 more years in the wilderness. And, so, it just begs the question, how long do we spend in the wilderness that we don’t need to spend in the wilderness? And when we finally get it through our heads that there is no hope but God? But God is capable and loves us deeply. So, we spent some time in the wilderness of Zinn, took lots of pictures, and considered these things and then moved on to lunch. We were able to have lunch in a tent with the Bedouin people of the desert, which is an incredibly unique experience in and of itself, to just kind of sit down and recline and eat and enjoy each other’s fellowship and kind of regroup. And then we got back on the bus and just headed deeper and deeper and deeper into the desert as we continued further and further south. Of course, we had to make an ice cream stop. I mean, because what else do you do in the desert besides eat ice cream? Nah… There’s a great little place that we found on a kibbutz that are dairy farmers. And, so, some fresh ice cream, a little refreshment, and then on down to the Red Sea, and Eliat. And the sun was setting. And we made a U-turn at the border of Egypt and then parked near the Red Sea and went down to the shore and just opened the Scriptures for what happened there because the children of Israel were in a pretty tight spot at the Red Sea. The Egyptian army bearing down upon them. Terror running throughout the camp. The Red Sea in front of them. There’s nowhere to go. And, so, we read a little bit of that from the book of Exodus, where the children of Israel are screaming at Moses, why didn’t you…didn’t we tell you to just leave us alone? Didn’t we just tell you to let us serve the Egyptians and leave us alone? Weren’t there enough graves in Egypt that we had to come out here to die? And Moses response is so beautiful, but also so direct into our own lives. He tells them, you’ve got to stand firm and you’ve got to watch. You don’t have to do anything. These Egyptians, like, this enemy that is bearing down upon you that you think is going to bring you death, you don’t understand. They aren’t going to do anything to you. God is going to fight and all you have to do is be silent. And isn’t that the last thing we do when we feel like we’re like cornered? Isn’t being silent and watching God come through the last thing that we do? And, so, we make so many more problems for ourselves that we don’t need to have. And that’s what we contemplated as we ended our day.

We had received word a couple of hours before that, and I’m sure by now all of you have heard that Billy Graham had passed away. And, so, we mentioned him and remembered him. He, Billy Graham, wow, like, he’s, he’s just…he’s an icon. Right? I mean no one else in this generation is like…is like Billy Graham. I remember seeing Billy Graham in a stadium when I was little and then I remember seeing him later in his life, kind of as he did his last stadium run, in Nashville. And he’s someone that I can look to in ministry and say, he stayed true. He was solid. He wasn’t scandal ridden. He was who he said he was. And that’s always mattered a lot to me just in ministry. So, you know, it’s hard to say goodbye to anyone in this kind of situation, but…man…what rejoicing…what rejoicing…and well done.

So, the sun had set and it was getting dark and we all boarded the buses and came back into the city of Eliat for dinner and for some rest. And today we’ll be heading north. Where else can we go? We’re as far south as you can go. So, we’ll be heading north and I’ll be posting pictures of where we’re going and what we’re seeing, pictures and videos on Facebook and Instagram. All the places that we visited today are posted up there, little videos and pictures. So, you can check that all out, facebook.com/dailyaudiobible or Daily Audio Bible on Instagram. And we’re posting stuff as it happens.

Reminding you, this Saturday, which is the 24^th, which is just a couple of days from now, we’ll be doing a Facebook Live from the Galilee area. That’ll take place at 8 PM Israel time, which is noon central time in the rolling hills of Tennessee where I live. So, 1 PM, like, say, in New York, Eastern time zone. You can work it out from there. 6 PM London. Just Google the difference in time between where you are in Tel Aviv and you’ll have it locked and loaded and we’ll be doing Facebook Live from the Sea of Galilee. So, hope you can be there. Hope you can just hear what we’re thinking, what we’re feeling, and ask your questions, and it’s just always a great time. So, plan for that.

If you’re interested in coming to the land of the Bible with the Daily Audio Bible and doing one of these pilgrimages yourself and smelling the smells and walking the earth and seeing the sights and enjoying the culture and the food. You can do that. We’ll be coming back next year, about a year from now. And you can get the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Just look for Israel 2019.

Also, reminding you ladies back on the other side of the ocean, in several weeks, in April, early April, when the seasons begin to change in the South, the More Gathering for women will be taking place. You can get all the details for that at moregathering.com. Hope to see you there as well.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link. And that lives right on the homepage. Thank you for your partnership. 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 thank you for your prayers as we travel here and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello DAB family and Happy New year. This is Victorious Vanessa from Maryland. It’s been a while but I’m always lifting everyone up and keeping me in you in my prayer. This is the year I’m expecting great things to happen. And I heard Jim call about his wife, Kim. And I thank God for you Jim for being the covering that you are. I stand in agreement with you for the wisdom that you have asked God to have to give you two while you’re going to this challenge on this journey. If I could just put a nugget there to find one healing Scripture and you and your wife stand together on that Scripture, memorize it, meditate on it, let it get your Spirit about the challenges that she’s going through and that you would also not to refer to that cancer as hers. It’s not hers. It is something evil. And just remember that God is the God that healtith the. I also want to lift up my sister Jacqueline, Salvation is Mine. The struggle is over my sister. Say it, believe it, and receive it. I’m lifting up Miss Peggy. I heard your prayer as well. And I’m just standing in agreement for you and your prayer, that God will grant you the desires of your heart as you have delighted yourself and Him. For all of the DAB family, be blessed, have a great and prosperous year, and remember we win in all things. What God died for, we have been delivered. We are always winners. Be blessed.

Hello, my name is Suzanne from Arkansas. I’m a first-time caller, a seven-year listener. I’ve intended to call many times, but you know how things go. You just kind of put it in the back of your mind and never end up calling. Today I am praying for AJ and her family. Her grandfather called in and this grandchild is now adoptive teen. And she was born with a condition called CDH or congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Three years ago, I wouldn’t have even known what that was, but because my grandson was born with this condition I’ve read extensively on it and experienced, firsthand, the trauma and anguish that goes on with it. Years ago, these were called blue babies. They only have about a 50% chance of living, generally, but because AJ was born with a 10% chance she must’ve had a larger hole. And that’s what I diaphragmatic hernia is. The diaphragm separates the upper organs from the lower organs. And if you’re born with CDH, you have a hernia or a hole so that your organs travel up past where they should go. Your liver and your stomach and your intestines go up where your heart and lungs are. And nowadays they are able to operate and fix these babies so that they don’t die quite as often. I hated to hear that AJ’s hernia is now not holding with her growth and that she’s having the same problems again in her teen years. My heart broke when I heard this because I know firsthand how it feels and that her survival was a miracle. And, so I felt compelled, and a song came to my mind. And I’m not going to sing it but the song is, he did not lead us out this far to take us back again…

Hey DAB, this is Curtis from Calli. It’s been a long time since I’ve called in. I’m a long-time listener. I just don’t know…I just have been calling that much. I’m sorry but I do want to see if you guys could send up some prayers for my son. His name is Kingston. And recently he’s been going through…he’s only eight…and it looks like he’s showing some signs of depression, anxiety. And he’s been having like little panic attacks. He tells me that he’s got thoughts of fears, of thoughts of death for himself and his family and how it’s just kind of crippling him to where he just ends up bawling in tears. And it’s super sad…super sad to see a little eight-year-old dealing with that. You know, he should be thinking about other things like Legos or Star Wars shows, you know, whatever it may be. But, you know, I’ve gone through the same thing he has with the thoughts and all that in my life. And depression…and it’s one that you never want to go through yourself but then seeing your child go through it is just something else, especially when they’re only 8. So, yeah, if you guys can, please with my boy Kingston up. And, yeah. Thank you guys. love you DAB.

Good morning DAB family this is Joyful Noise from Southern California. I just really listened to the Valentine’s Day message. And thank you so much Brian for reviewing what Lent is all about and that lamenting is one thing that we don’t do very well as Christians. We ask for grace and we ask for mercy but we do not lament what Jesus had to go through so that we could walk this Christian walk and have a personal relationship with God and have the Holy Spirit in our lives 24 seven. My gosh. What a gift. And I so appreciate you walking us through that. I didn’t grow up in a Christian environment. And, so, a lot of this, although I’ve been….I would say…walking it…I would say 20 years…I still learn something new every day. So, thank you Brian for walking us through that tradition. I want to also thank His little Sharie for praying for prodigal’s. Thank you so much. I so appreciate those prayers and I know your praying for prodigal’s everywhere. And weren’t we all prodigal at one time in our lives? You know, if you’re wondering, if you need a little bit of encouragement, are a parent of a prodigal child, just look at your own walk. I mean, I look at mine, and my parents didn’t even know I was a prodigal because it was all default living to them. But thank God He reached down and touched my life in a powerful way so that I can see the difference between righteous and right. And I look at my own children and I pray mightily over them. So, thank you His little Sharie for joining me and so many others in this community and committing to that. I so appreciate you. Thank you for all of the wonderful DABbers who are praying for marriages. And, just in general, marriage that God…first…is the most powerful covenant for us. Marriage is being lifted up by people being on this…

He DAB family it’s Keith from New Hampshire, the granite state, calling in. I want to ask for prayer for your little boy, and my little boy, who’s now a big boy. Some time ago, when my 21-year-old, Asher, was about 15 years old…and anybody who’s been the parent of a 15-year-old will be able to relate to this…where I was at my wits end…I didn’t know what to do. I thought that all of my efforts bringing up a godly child were for not. He was making really bad choices, hanging around really bad people, and doing really bad things. And I called up you guys and I asked for prayer. And I…you know…I said he was a good kid at heart but he was headed for a typical teenager and you guys went to…you went to the throne of God for me and I remember someone called up and rebuked me for calling him and typical teenager and claimed Joshua for him. And that’s why I say he’s your little boy, because he’s a 21-year-old man of God now. And I really think it’s because this community went to prayer for him. He’s going to go to Moody’s Bible Institute. That’s his vision. And he wants to become a pastor. And he’s on fire, rebuking his father, and correcting me or am wrong, and loving God, and loving Jesus, and he’s getting married to a godly woman in May. And I want you guys to pray for him and Annie, who is my soon-to-be daughter-in-law, that they’ll have all the stress and family dysfunction that comes in around weddings. You know, there’s people that don’t think they should get married and people that do think they should get married but they’ve got the blessings of their parents on both sides. And it’s really, you know, some of the sisters and distant relatives that are…oh you guys are too young…and I just want you guys to lift them up and pray Job’s hedge of protection around them…

Leviticus 11:1-12:8, Mark 5:21-43, Psalms 38:1-22, Proverbs 10:8-9

Today is the 21^st day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today from the land of the Bible, and from the city of Ashdod, where we’ll be launching into the pilgrimage and adventure that is out before us today and heading out toward the desert. And we’ll start in Beersheba and make our way all the way to the Red Sea today. But I can’t really talk about it because it hasn’t happened yet. But we’re launching off today and I’ll be talking about what we did today in tomorrow’s Daily Audio Bible. But today it all begins. And we’ll talk about that in a little bit. But let’s dive into the Scriptures for today. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation and we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday in the book of Leviticus. Today we’ll read chapters 11 and 12.

Commentary:

Okay, a couple of things to talk about today. One, from the book of Leviticus, we are talking about the rules relating to childbirth. So, if a mother has a male child, then here is how long she will be unclean, here’s what’s supposed to happen. If she has a female child, then here’s the procedures for that. And we’ll notice that it’s twice as long when a girl is born. And, so, we can go, like, what’s up with that? And the funny thing is, this is the only time in the Bible where childbirth, not like childbearing, but the rules surrounding it, are mentioned. And what we read, that’s all there is. So, there’s no backstory or context. So, the scholarship on it’s pretty varied. Some have made it totally a spiritual thing while others would totally argue, validly, well, why is childbirth an unclean thing? We’re supposed to be fruitful and multiply. This is a beautiful thing, which is true. Others would talk about the patriarchal nature of the world at that time. But, honestly, I think it’s just a little more practical than that. Because the context, what we’re talking about right now in the law, is clean and unclean. And one of the things we’ll find that are considered unclean is menstruation. So, I’ve got to confess that’s probably on the top five list of things that I am not qualified to speak of. But let’s consider that we’re living in the desert and we’re moving around a lot, right? So, no husband can be sent down to the corner drug store to pick up certain items on behalf of their wife and stand in line feeling a little weird about it. Now, I can’t confirm or deny that that’s ever happened to me. But if we were living several thousand years ago in the middle of the wilderness, nobody would be running to any drug store. Those things would be handled somehow, somehow different. And even in today’s medical community, if you come into contact with someone else’s blood, you’re probably going to be coming into contact with it with gloves on. Right? Because it’s a biohazard. And they didn’t have the kind of protection or procedures that we do now. So, coming into contact with each other’s blood, however that happens, can be dangerous to the entire community. They’re in the desert three thousand years ago.  They’re not going to be able to run to the ER. So, we can kind of understand the practicality. Now, the difference between time of uncleanness between a boy and a girl probably also has it’s own practicality. The baby boy at eight days old is going to go through a procedure of his own. Thankfully, he won’t remember. He’s going to be circumcised. So, what’s being embedded into the culture is that the mother needs to be present. She’s a part of that story. And obviously with the female baby she’s not going to be circumcised at eight days old. But the extended time period may have something to do foreshadowing the baby girl’s own fertility in the future. But rather than looking at all this as some sort of penalty, we might also understand it as an exemption. So, the new mother doesn’t have to stay involved in all of the rituals designed to govern and keep the health and welfare and spiritual connection to God inside the community for a period of time. We might, in a modern context, call this something like maternity leave. Because, again, the context that we encounter this in is clean and unclean.

So, we move into the New Testament, into the book of Mark, keeping up with this theme and we find a woman who has had an issue of blood for twelve years, which is a significant hardship, not only on a practical level, but because she could never be clean, ritually speaking. So, as the story goes, there’s a synagogue leader who comes to Jesus because his daughter is dying and he’s desperate and he reaches out to Jesus in faith, asking him if he would come and heal her. Jesus is on His way to this guy’s house when this woman is in the crowd along with Jesus and she reaches out in faith just to touch His clothes and He knows it.  Well what’s His response? Does He stop the crowd and make a big circle and say, alright, who touched me and shame her for making Him unclean because she was unclean and she touched Him?  Not at all. Quite the opposite. His response, which would be God’s response, is, ‘daughter your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Be cured from your illness.’ So, let’s move away from menstruation and childbirth and into faith. Because what we’re beginning to see as Jesus touches and heals people and sets people free is that He is continually saying, your faith made you whole. In other words, the power of God has been here and you opened yourself to it. You collaborated in faith. Of course, from the New Testament we have this definition of faith that it is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of what can’t be seen. If we just open the dictionary, faith is a total and complete trust and confidence in someone or something. We’re also told in the Scriptures that without faith it’s impossible to please God. So, not only is faith supremely powerful, it’s also indisputably necessary. And we see that play out. We see what Jesus is doing as He’s going to the synagogue leader’s house.  So, after this scene with the woman with the issue of blood, people come from that synagogue leader’s house to inform him that there’s no need for Jesus to come, that the little girl has already died. I cannot imagine what is immediately going through that father’s mind. On the one hand, it’s like if I’m in that situation, I’m mad at the lady with the issue of blood for slowing the whole thing down and not letting Jesus get to my daughter before she died. Right? And then right on the heels of that, I’m thinking, I left her, I left her to go get help, but I couldn’t be there. I couldn’t get back to her, which would bring terrible regret. So, all that stuff that would be swirling around. It would just be a faith killer. What’s interesting is that Jesus overhears this and steps immediately into the situation and says don’t be afraid. Just believe. And it’s interesting how forcefully He steps into that because He knows that faith is going to be required. It cannot be snuffed out. And, of course, when He gets to the synagogue leader’s house, everybody’s wailing and moaning and crying and every indication that this story is over, this little girl is dead is right before them. Faith killer. And Jesus steps right up into that. Why are you making so much noise? She’s not dead, she’s sleeping. Of course, then they’re mourning turns into laughter and they’re mocking Jesus and so He kicks them all out. Like, this is going to require faith and the faithless have to get out of the room. And, of course, in the end the little girl is brought back to health. We have plenty of opportunity for faith killers in our lives. We would probably otherwise call that circumstance. Notice how Jesus handles this. Notice that He steps right into it and says no, no, no, no. You cannot lose your faith. Don’t be afraid. Just believe. May we take that to heart because I promise you, you’re going to need it. And you’re going to need it a lot. And when we feel like we need God to come through and we’re trying to pray a lot and we’re trying to be strong, we have to ask ourselves, is my complete and utter trust and confidence in God in this matter? Because that gages immediately where our faith is.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that because we need faith and it’s not a one-time thing. We need faith and we need it a lot. And, so, we declare our complete trust and devotion and confidence is in You and You alone. We declare You are our only hope and we invite Your Holy Spirit to continually remind us of this because the next set of circumstances that present themselves are going to try to kill our faith. And we ask Jesus that You would step into that and that Your words would come forth out of our hearts, don’t do this, don’t be afraid. Just believe. 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.

Like I said at the beginning, we are in the land of the Bible. And today will be our first day out in the wild. And we will begin at Beersheba, the southernmost part of the Promise Land. Now it’s not the southernmost part of Israel, but from Dan to Beersheba was always the saying to define the northern and southern boundaries. And then we’ll be heading south into the deep, deep desert. The kind of desert we’re talking about as all of the law is being given in the book of Leviticus. So, I’ll talk about all that we do today tomorrow, after we do it. And we’ll be posting pictures on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and Instagram. So, you can kind of follow along with the trip that way. And I’ll be talking about what we’re doing each day. Thank you again for your continued prayer over all of this. This canopy of prayer over everything that we do while we’re here is much, much appreciated.

The other thing that’s going on this trip is coming up this Saturday, which is the 24^th of February. We’ll be doing a Facebook Live from the Sea of Galilee area. So, we’re headed in the opposite direction at the moment, but by Saturday that’s where we will be. And we get together as a group, start to debrief, and just talk about the experiences, but we share some of that live. So, this is going to take place at 8 pm Israel time, which is going to be 1 pm on Saturday on the east coast of the United States, noon if you’re in central time, 11 am if you’re in the mountain zone and 10 am if you’re on the west coast of the United States. If You’re in London, that will be 6 pm on Saturday and if you’re in Australia, like if You’re in Sydney, that will be 5 am Sunday morning. Just for some reference. You can easily Google the difference in time between Tel Aviv and wherever you are. And this’ll take place on our Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And I encourage You to follow Daily Audio Bible on Facebook so that You can stay connected to this trip. We’ll be posting a lot. So, you can see some of the places that I’ll be sharing about as we go forward.

Also, if you want to come, we’ll be coming back next year about this time and you can get the details and information at dailyaudiobible.com. Just scroll down and find Israel 2019 or look in the Initiatives section. You’ll find Israel 2019. Like I mentioned yesterday, these always sell out way in advance. So, check into it if it’s something you feel compelled to do. We’d love, love to see you next year.

And I’ve also been mentioning what’s coming up in April back across the ocean. In the mountains in Northern Georgia, about an hour outside of Atlanta, is the location for our women’s conference that we do each year called the More Gathering for Women. So, ladies, if the winter’s getting long and you’re longing for more and you’re longing for new life, then that is the place to be as the springtime arrives in the south, new life begins to emerge, a sisterhood of women come together to explore more. And You can get all the details for that at dailyaudiobible.com as well, same place you would go to look for the Israel trip, and just scroll down to the Initiatives or look in the Initiatives section and you can get all of the details there. Hope to see you in April.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link that lives on the homepage. Thank you humbly and profoundly for your partnership. 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 P.O. 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 love You and I’ll be waiting for You here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

[singing] Jesus, You have one me. You have broken every chain with love and Mercy. You have triumphed over death and You are worthy of glory and praise. [singing stops] Good day Daily Audio Bible family this is Sherry calling from British Columbia Canada. Today is Wednesday, February the 14^th which is Ash Wednesday or the beginning of Lent. And I wanted to call  in because, Brian, when I heard you talk about Lent I was surprised. I usually participate but it came up and caught me off guard and usually takes me a really long time to figure out what I’m going to do differently or give up for lent. And as soon as you mentioned Lent, God instantly said socks. I need to give up socks for six weeks. And I knew it was God saying it because it’s nothing I would’ve ever thought of myself. So, anyways, I’ve decided to give up socks for Lent and it’s great because I wear socks all the time. I even wear socks to bed. Pretty much the only time I don’t wear socks is what I’m in the shower. So, yeah, it’s going to be a constant reminder every time I think of putting on socks or feel my feet swishing around my shoes without socks. So yeah. So, thank you Brian for reminding us about Lent. And I’ve already had a chance to talk to two people, one who already knows God and one  who doesn’t. When I wanted into Payless to get some shoe deodorizer spray because my feet are going to stink after six weeks of not wearing socks, the lady at the counter, she offered me a pair of socks because they’re on sale. And I’m like, well, I’m actually giving up socks for the next six weeks for Lent. And she’s like, Lent, what’s that? And, so, I got a chance to share about Jesus and how when we get closer to the crucifixion we’re reminded of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. And, so, for the next six weeks I am sacrificing sauce. Anyway, I hope that blesses someone. Have a good evening DAB.

Hi everyone at the DAB. My name is Mel. M E L from Central Florida. And I am a first-time caller. I’ve been listening for just over a year now and I love it. I love you guys. I love everything about the DAB. And a couple of months ago somebody called in and they were talking about the phrase, you are mine. And this really spoke to me because my favorite song in my church is called You are Mine. And I was thinking I’m not sure if everyone’s heard of the song or knows the song. So, I figured I would sing the refrain for you guys and then maybe you can look it up on your own. It’s a really beautiful song. So, yeah. Here is goes. [singing] Do not be afraid I am with you. I have called you each by name. Come and follow me. I will bring you home. I love you and you are mine. [singing stops] So, yep, that’s just the refrain part, but the rest of it is a really incredible. So, if you get a chance, like I said, look it up. And I hope it speaks to somebody how it speaks to me. I want to tell you guys I’m praying for you. I pray for you every day. I listen every day. And I hope you all have a great day. Thank you and God bless.

Hey, Peggy the victorious. This is Dr. John from Jordan New York. I just want to give you some encouragement about your eyes. I had glaucoma __ this before but I was diagnosed with glaucoma when I was 23 and it runs strongly my family. By the time my dad was into his mid-40s his vision, he had lost so much from glaucoma, that we could never play catch. Now he was legally blind at the age of 65. Things have improved immensely in terms of the treatments of glaucoma. I have not lost any vision at all. I had the evidence of damage to my nerves when I was diagnosed at 23, but there has been absolutely zero progression. Now, I calculated I am somewhere in the north of 60,000 eyedrops that I’ve put into my eyes over the course of my life, but to me that’s been totally worth it to preserve my vision. Regarding the cataracts. I had cataracts at age 46 and 47. So, I have had both lenses replaced. Very routine surgery. The laser surgery for cataracts…sorry…for glaucoma is…I like to say…a minor procedure…but the definition of a minor procedure is a procedure on somebody else. But as much as it can be a minor procedure it’s not a dangerous thing. You will keep your vision. Have faith. Trust in the Lord. We love you. Have a great day. Dr. John signing off. Bye-bye.

Hello DABbers I am a grandmother with the 11-year-old granddaughter that was in a psychiatric hospital. I had called in one time to update you all but my call was cut off before I got to that part. So, I wanted to thank to be a blessing for continuing to pray for us. We still need your prayers. She’s out of a psychiatric hospital and she’s doing some better, but our family is in turmoil. And I thank all of you for praying for us. I have been wondering about some DABbers like Lenora in Florida that had her son and grandson move in with them. Wondering how you’re doing and wanted you to know that I’m still praying for you. And Jackie in Hawaii who had the son that was living in Colorado. Still praying for you. Michael, traveling from Colorado to New York. You are heavy on my heart. I pray that the Lord will speak clearly to you and that you will know what He has in store for you and that you’ll feel a piece that comes only from Him. I’m continuing to pray for Bonnie son __ and I pray that the union is going well. I’m praying for Darrell’s son Jeremy, for Jadrian, for Jaden, for Michaela, for Emmanuel. I ask you all to pray for my son Charles who is in rehab for substance abuse. Thanks to all of you. Pray for you regularly. And I’m asking God touch our families because Satan is after us. In Jesus’ name I pray.

Hello my DAB family this is Mark S from Sydney Australia. Today is Friday, the 15^th  February and I wanted to pray today for the Israel trip for the DAB community. Heavenly father, we come to you as a community Father. Our dear brother Brian is organizing a trip to Your holy land Father. Abba, I ask you that You keep Brian, his family, and his whole crew Lord under Your protection Father from physical health, spiritual health, and mental health Lord. Lord, little weather conditions be perfect Lord for this trip too Lord. Lord I ask you also Father for all the participants Father that are going to this trip to the holy land who are Lord that they’ll get a closer relationship with you, seeing the footsteps that You walked on this earth and may they connect with you greater than they ever have before Father. And I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. I love you family. Talk to you again soon. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Natalie from Arizona. Greetings to all my brothers and sisters in Christ out there. I was in the middle of listening to the audio podcast for February 15^th and the word of God is just so alive. I just had to share what came to my heart as I was listening. And Brian was reading the part where God ordained Aaron to be his priest forever and he dressed him in the all of the regalia and lined it with gold and some really interesting things. But it’s so funny how this is the same Aaron who, just prior to this, was behaving in such an ungodly way and just a few Scriptures prior to the Scripture today. So, it’s so interesting how God reveals himself to us, that He just spoke to me as I was listening to that Scripture how He loves us, he will…we just come as we are. That’s what He means by come as we are because we know that His messenger that Aaron had a lot of issues, which, we know. When we look at the mirror, we individually have more it seems like. But praise God, He loves us, He accepts is how we are. And look at what He’s done with Aaron and how he’s continuing to use Aaron even though Aaron needed Him so much. And, so, you know, we all are in the same boat. We all need Jesus as our Savior. And that just really spoke to me. I hope it speaks to you too. I love you all. Have a wonderful day.

Leviticus 9:7-10:20, Mark 4:26-5:20, Psalms 37:29-40, Proverbs 10:6-7

Today is the 20^th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. Greetings from the land of Israel. And don’t let my chipper attitude deceive you. I’m very, very jet lagged. It’s like walking around for a few days in kind of a fog, where you feel like you are only semi-present, no matter how hard you try. It’s the strangest of phenomenon’s, but what’s the point of moping around, and what’s the point of sleeping all day just to stay up all night. Right? So, why not be chipper? We have the Scriptures out in front of us, another day around the global campfire, another day to allow God to speak to us through His word. So, it’s great to be here with you safely in the land of Israel. And we’ll talk about that a little bit more, but let’s dive in for today. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation. Picking up where we left off yesterday, the law is being given. And just by way of reminder, I mean, we get to these tedious parts of the Bible, or at least they’re perceived to be tedious because, the law is being given. Right? So, you don’t normally go to the library, unless you’re like in law school, and start reading law books because that’s not exactly page turner stuff. However, the laws of our land are what govern the society. That’s what’s being issued here, that’s what’s being laid out. And one thing that you can begin to notice as the law is being given is that, although it governs behavior, it’s all attached to a spiritual reality. So, the law may shape how the culture works and kind of govern the behavior of the society, but it’s all intended to be attached to an inner reality, to the heart. So, we pick up where we left off, Leviticus chapter 9 verse 7 through 10 verse 20. And if I’m reading along and then all the sudden things go silent for a minute, just stick with me, I just…I nodded off…but I’ll be right back with you as soon as I wake up. Hopefully that won’t really happen. And even if it does really happen, I’ll edit it out. It’s just…I’m just teasing…it’s the jet lag talking. Leviticus chapter 9 verse 7 through 10 verse 20.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word as we do every day, because we are grateful. We are thankful that You’ve given this tangible gift to us that speaks and touches everything about us, everything about our experience here on earth. We’re thankful. And we’re thankful for another day. And we look forward to all the days that are in front of us this year that You will speak. And Father, we thank You for safe travels, for bringing us here to the land where all of this happened, and for the opportunity to experience it again, and to bring it near so that we can feel connected to the places where these things happened. And we pray Father for all those who were on planes now and all those who are coming in. We pray along with this entire community, over all of the facets, over the next most couple of weeks that we will be spending. Thank You for giving us strength and stamina. Thank You for watching over the technology. Thank You for safety in all of our travels. Thank You for letting us come. And God, we embrace this time, whether it be virtual or whether it be here in person, it all matters because it makes the Bible come alive to us. And Your word is alive. We are told that in the book of Hebrews. And it’s sharp, sharper than any two-edged sword. It can pierce us right to the level of our identity and we’re grateful for that because You transform us at the level of our identity and we open ourselves to You as we move through the land of the Bible. 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, of course, what’s going on around here is that we’re coming to you from Israel. And tonight is when we kind of officially begin. So, some have landed, some are landing, but tonight we’ll begin with dinner together and just kind of go over some particulars. And that will be a little bit south of where I’m at right now. And we’ll be out on the coast in the city of Ashdod, which is a biblical city. It was a former Philistine stronghold. So, the Philistines, during the era of the monarchy…right…so we haven’t gotten to that yet…but during the era of like King Saul, King David, Philistines were like sort of the archrivals. They were border countries but they were a border nation with Israel, but they were enemies. And they were set up where they had like five primary cities to protect their territory and each of these cities had their own leadership and King. And Ashdod was one of those Philistine strong cities. And that’s kind of where we will be getting things going this evening. There are a few ruins of ancient Ashdod but not a lot. And we’re not in Ashdod to visit Philistine ruins. It’s just a great launching spot to get…to cover the kind of miles that we need to cover tomorrow. So, I’ll try to find a picture or two that I can post on social media. If you want to follow along with the trip, either follow Daily Audio Bible on Instagram or on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And yeah, and then other than that, just going to be powering through. If you’ve ever experience jet lag you know what I’m talking about. It’s just a weird sort of half-awake and half-present thing. So, anyway, as I’ve been saying for the last week or maybe even a little bit more, a canopy of prayer over all of this, every time that you think of us in this land, if you would say a prayer. This whole thing gets sustained by the prayers of God’s people. And I do not underestimate the power of God’s people praying. And would never want to step into anything like this without God’s people praying. So, we’re going to have a great time but we need your prayers.

Okay, a couple more things. First of all, this Saturday, which is the 24^th day of February, we’ll be doing a live broadcast of from the Sea of Galilee. And we’ll be well into our trip. We will have experienced a lot of places. And we get together as a group, those of us who are here, and just debrief a little bit. But part of that will be Facebook Living…I’m not sure that’s a term…we’ll be using Facebook Live to do this. And just sharing some of the stories of our pilgrimage thus far. And that will take place at 8 PM Israel time. So, that will take place at 1 PM on the East Coast of the United States, Eastern time, noon, Central time, where I live in Nashville, 11 AM if you are in the mountain zone of the United States, 10 AM if you are on the West Coast of the United States. If you are in London or in the UK that’ll be 6 PM. And if I’ve got my math correct that’ll be 5 AM on Sunday if you are in Australia. So, I don’t want to confuse anybody, but you can just Google the difference between Tel Aviv and where you are and do the math yourself. So, this will take place, Facebook Live. So, like I’ve been saying all along, follow this trip because we’ll be posting a lot on Instagram and Facebook. So, you can follow along at Facebook, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And every time we do something like this it’s a great time of fellowship, because there’s this live thing going on, but there’s this opportunity to post and chat with each other. And you’ll be able to post questions to us as it’s happening live from the Sea of Galilee. So. we’ll look for that this coming Saturday the 24^th.

Also, if you’re kind of following along with us and you’re like, I want to go, we’ll be going back next year. You can get all set up for that now. Just go to dailyaudiobible.com. Look in the Initiatives section for Israel 2019 and you can make plans to come and be here with us. These trips always sell out way in advance. So, check it out. If it’s something that’s churning in your heart to come, we’ll be planning to come back next year around this same time.

The other thing that I have been mentioning is what’s coming up in April back on the other side of the ocean, in my homeland, back in the United States, the women’s gathering that we do each year called the More Gathering for women will be coming up in early April, which is a lot closer than it seems. And we’re looking forward to that. Just want to make you aware of it, invite you if you’re a woman looking for more to this. It is a fellowship, a sisterhood, and I have watched friendships that have flourished and are lifelong. I have met so many people who have met really, really intimate friends that stay in contact with each other almost on a daily basis even though we live in different parts of the country or even world. So, it’s a beautiful thing. I want to invite you to that. It takes place in the springtime just as new life is beginning in the South. It’s a perfect metaphor for what the whole things about. And you can find out all of the details, every bit of the things that you would need or want to know at moregathering.com. So, check that out. And look forward to seeing you back on the other side of the ocean in April.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share to bring God’s spoken word read fresh every day to anyone who will listen to it, anywhere, any time of day or night, and to keep building community around that rhythm so that we are sure that as we move through our days we’re not moving alone, we have community we have one another. If that has been meaningful then thank you for your partnership and allowing it to exist at all and to continue forward. There’s a link at dailyaudiobible.com 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. Pray that I can stay awake a little longer. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good evening Daily Audio Bible sisters and brothers. This is Linda from Phoenix. Today is February 13^th. I called about two and half, three weeks ago asking for prayer for my daughter who has an alcohol problem and she had gotten fired from her job. Anyway, I just wanted to give praise report. She went to a rehab, a detox center, and we were trying to find a location for inpatient and my insurance, the last I had spoken with one of the…one of the staff at the detox…my insurance wasn’t going to cover and it was going to cost about $15,000, which I just could not afford. Long story short, DABbers, there’s a place in Tennessee that is going to take our insurance and her recovery is going to be 100% covered. My insurance is going to cover it 100%. I just want you guys to know. I want to thank you for the prayers that I received because I know this prayer wasn’t answered on my own. I know __ [crying] __ to the DABbers…God bless __ I just wanted to say thank you. Keep praying for her recovery and I pray for each and every one of you and I just want to say thank you. I love you.

Hi fellow DABbers. This is Joe the Protector from Georgia. It’s February 14^th at about 8 o’clock in the morning. Just got finished listening to the 14^th podcast and want to just update on my daughter, Madison. We’re still having a mountain of struggles there. Nothing’s been actually done still. We’re out of the hospital now. But, you know, it’s still just a battle. They haven’t truly treated her as they should, no one has. And she’s been rejected by big facilities and hospitals as well. So, anyhow, just continue to lift her up. And I heard Sharon the Victorious, I believe she called herself, that she said is dealing with depression and some other issues in her life. As you all know depression is on my heart right now due to my daughter. And, you know, I got to thinking yesterday, I felt a little defeated yesterday, but, you know, Satan tries to bring us just the feeling of defeat, but the thing is is he cannot defeat us. It’s our choice to be defeated or not to be defeated because he’s been defeated. He can’t bring something on us that has been taken away from him, that has been done to him. And he doesn’t own defeat. He just tries to bring the feeling of it. So, I just encourage everyone that feels that way to just laugh and say, devil, you don’t own nothing. You don’t own me. You cannot…

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family or afternoon or evening, depending on where you are. I’m calling for specifically, Sharon. Sharon, I hope you hear this. I hope this makes it to the air. This is Sheila from Massachusetts. I heard your call for prayer today and I heard the pain and the fear and the desperation in your voice. Your husband with a bad back who still has to work. Your daughter who’s bipolar who may be using prescription drugs again, and Sharon, you, who just was diagnosed with glaucoma and are having a procedure. Sharon, I feel like that you are my sister that is supposed to be in my life, on my heart, to pray for every moment of every day as you go through this in your life. My husband has a bad back. He’s a carpenter. My daughters 22 years old, an __ , bipolar one. And sister, you can’t carry that weight on your own. You lay it at Gods feet to let yourself unto peace in knowing He’s got this, He’s got a plan. We suffer a lot as His children but He never lets us be defeated by it. Sharon, grab Jesus hand. Walk side-by-side with Him as your friend and know that you can find the peace that you need to get through this. You just need the Lord right now. He is there. Hard to see maybe, but He is there in all of this sister. But you have to relinquish some of this worry to Him and know that He’s going to take care of it in His time in His way. He does work all things for good sister and I am praying for you. You have my heart and my love as your sister in Christ. Bye family.

This is for Sharon the Victorious. And that is how you named yourself. And you called in on 14^th February requesting prayer for your husband, your daughter, and yourself. And you know that you are covered in prayer. And you’re right to call yourself victorious because you are fighting from victory and not for victory. God has already given you the victory. So you stand in that victory, standing firm as he’s called you to stand. And from Psalm 37, verse 39, ‘that the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength in times of struggle. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him.’ So, as you take refuge in him, Sharon the Victorious, stand in that victory. And for your cataract surgery, you are covered in prayer. Prayer has been __ he is covering your daughter and her bipolar personality, all of it. Remember Romans 15:13, ‘now, right now, now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’ Lord Jesus, we are covering Sharon the Victorious. We thank You Lord that You give her all joy and peace. We thank You that she will abound in hope by the power of your indwelling Holy Spirit. Lift her up Lord, cover that family. We ask it in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

I’m calling for Sharon the Victorious. Sharon, you are victorious because of Jesus. I’m praying for your family but most of all I’m calling right now to encourage you. I was 79 when I had laser surgery. I had glaucoma. And it was nothing. It didn’t completely work, I had to have extra medicine, but there was no pain there was nothing to fear. I had cataract surgery. I was in my late 70s. And each one, when I had them done, was five minutes it was over. So, do not fear my sister and we are praying for your husband. I’ve had a back problem most of my life but God’s been so faithful. So, we are just trusting that you will keep your eyes on Him and that you are victorious and praying for your daughter also. God bless you Sharon and be not afraid. God is with you. And I’m going on 83 and I’m still doing great with my eyes. God is faithful. He is a faithful God. So, God bless you and God bless your family. We are praying for you. We love you. And God bless you Brian and Jill for this podcast. It has made such a difference in my life. And thank you. In Jesus name we just praise You alleluia. Amen.

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible family. This is Lee from New Jersey. I wanted to say hello and God bless you all. Today is Valentine’s Day. Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. And also the beginning of Lent. We’ll pray for you all during this time. Listening to today’s podcast, today is the 14^th, and hearing Sharon the Victorious from Northern California. Sharon, we may be connected. What you said immediately touched me. So we’re connected in regards to those emotions that you’re feeling. That pain that you’re feeling, that’s a connection. Those of the feelings that I have as well in different times. Different situations but those feelings I am very familiar with them. So, you know what, your wish is our command. We are going to pray for you. Father, in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We pray for our sister Sharon. She’s crying out to You Lord and she’s asking us as well to cry with her. She’s asking for the intervention of the saints Lord, that we all come together and pray for her, for her, for husband, her daughter Lord. They’re in a tough and dark situation Lord. We ask for intervention Lord your mighty intervention Lord. You are a miracle maker Lord. No one else can do the things that you do Lord. That is why we come to you, because you loved us first before we even knew that you loved us Lord. Sharon is in a dark place Lord. She has scheduled operation for the 16^th for glaucoma. Lord, help her to see Lord. Remove the cloudiness from her eyes Lord. Remove the cloudiness as well from her Spirit Lord, from her mind Lord, that she will be clear to see that You are there amongst all the darkness Lord, that there is a light that shines. She must go to through this darkness to see this light, that she understands that. And that she also appreciates it Lord, that in the end her name, victorious, will be that proper name for her, that she will be victorious…

Leviticus 7:28-9:6, Mark 3:31-4:25, Psalms 37:12-28, Proverbs 10:5

Today is the 19^th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. So, by the time you hear this, I will have landed in Tel Aviv, but because of the big time difference and all of the logistics, I’m recording here in the United States in the rolling hills of Tennessee just before getting on the planes so that there can be no possibility of disruption in our daily rhythm of moving forward step by step through the Bible. And then tomorrow, I’ll be recording from the land of the Bible. So, 19^th of February. Let’s take that next step forward. And this week we’re reading from the God’s Word Translation. Today, Leviticus chapter 7 verse 28 through 9 verse 6.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for each day’s rhythm that brings us back to Your word. We circle out and we circle back and every day You counsel and nurture and father us through Your word and we’re thankful. And even as we prepare to spend the next couple weeks in the land of the Bible, we invite You to lead our steps. Make the terrain and the geography where all these events happened come alive to us. And may it make our understanding and love for the scriptures grow even that much more exponentially. And may we grow deeper and more intimate with Your word and with Your Holy Spirit. Come Jesus, we pray. In Your mighty and precious, the most beautiful of names. Name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

So, literally, it’s weird for me to be sitting here talking forward. But since I’ve done this enough times, how I’m feeling right now, literally, as you’re listening to this, probably is jet-lagged. And probably pretty severe and probably upside down in my days and nights, which can be a bit disconcerting. It goes away, of course. But it takes a few days. So, I will have landed in Tel Aviv and I’ll be spending the next day, in part, just trying to get a little bit of a running start on jet-lag because once we start the pilgrimage, it’s pretty well non-stop. And just doing technology checks, setting up everything. We do a lot of filming while we’re in Israel, as well as the technology required for the Daily Audio Bible because that never stops.

And then, so tomorrow evening is when we all get together for the first time, share our, kind of, opening dinner and just get to know each other. And then we’ll be off. So, your prayers, even as I’ve mentioned for the last week, are coveted and are needed. Your intercession over all of the different facets of moving around the land of the Bible. Jet-lag is one of those things, just fatigue and tiredness, which, you know, can lead to health challenges, so health, fatigue, jet-lag, technology, transportation, all of these things. As a community, we’re in this together. And, so, your prayers over all of us who are in the land of the Bible. And, as I’ve said, we’ll make this as interactive as possible.  We’ve always worked really hard to stay connected to the virtual side of things, the virtual community. So, we’ll be posting photos to our Instagram and Facebook pages. You can find those at dailyaudiobible.com by clicking the Community tab and it will give you all the links or you can just search for Daily Audio Bible on Facebook or Instagram and you’ll find it. So, we’ll be posting pictures and videos and stuff like that, probably beginning tomorrow, but, for sure, beginning on the 21st when we actually begin. So, you can follow along that way and see visuals and then, of course, once we get going, I’ll be sharing where we’ve gone, what we’re doing, what it feels like God is speaking to us through this pilgrimage and we’ll have a wonderful time. Thank you for your prayers.

Also want to mention the More Gathering for women that is coming up in April, early April, as the new life of springtime springs forth, this is just a lovely time, lovely location. And if you’re looking for more, than that’s what’s being explored at the More Gathering for women. So, you can find out all about that at moregathering.com. And if you’re looking for a sisterhood of people that are following the rhythm of the Bible just like we do every day here at Daily Audio Bible, but are also looking for more, just reaching, longing, knowing that there’s got to be more, then this is probably for you. And if that quickens something in you, then certainly check it out. moregathering.com. And we’ll look forward to seeing you in April.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. Thank you humbly, profoundly. That is how the global campfire that we share as a community everyday burns on. That’s how the logs get thrown on the fire and the fire keeps burning no matter what time of day or night it is. So, thank you for your partnership. 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 P.O. 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:

Hey Daily Audio Bible this is Rebecca from Michigan. February 9, 2018 at 2:05AM a little baby girl was born named Athena Jade. And that’s my new granddaughter. So, yes God has really blessed me when I just don’t feel like I really deserve it and in situations that shouldn’t happen, but it’s amazing what God’s ashes He turns into a more beautiful thing, just takes your ashes and makes them beauty. So, God can always use what you think is not worth anything and turn it into gold. So, I’m praying that God will give me a full-time job somewhere. And I was thinking about going back to school but I’m 52 years old and all I need is my student loan paid off besides a couple of other items and I’m debt-free, but I thought about going back to school because, like the college, that I need to more general studies and one major and with the major I’m not sure what I should go into. So, maybe, I’m looking for a place to live too and I’ve seen God do favors for me lately. So it’s just really awesome how God just works on my behalf. So, don’t quit praying because it does say in the Bible ___ without praying. So, I know God is listening here. He’s listening to all your prayers and He cares about you. And it might not seem like it at the moment but he does cares about all of us and…

Hi this is Wayfaring Wanderer from Western Canada calling in. Brian, I heard your kind of sermon at the end of the February 9^th Daily Audio Bible and it just really struck home to me. I was married many years, 39 years, and I wandered and it broke my family up so much. My grown children, my grandchildren, it separated all of us. My eldest daughter took her own life. Divorced after three years myself. And went the way of repentance, asked for forgiveness, actually married the man that I had left my husband for and he and I are married, but now my first husband was diagnosed with cancer and it is splitting our family apart with he and his girlfriend who are not following the way of the Lord. I’m broken, I’m crushed. And I feel many times so alone and so isolated, but I know that God is with me. I’m asking you fellow believers out there, please pray for our children, pray for our families, my family is completely distraught by all of this. The day I told them that his new family is with his girlfriend and the children…his…our children, are not his family anymore and my own son and his wife and grandchildren came back to be in the same business with us and now everybody is gone. Thank you. I covet your prayers. And I thank you for being so faithful. God bless you all.

Hi there. This is Deborah in Michigan. I’ve called before but it’s taken me this long to call you again. Thursday, I was in a car with my granddaughters and I was the driver and I was sitting still and it was on the expressway and I was rear ended full speed by a semi and I really need your prayers. By the grace of God my girls were just fine, not a scratch on the, but I have a broken sternum, several broken ribs, a brain bleed, a concussion, and several vertebrae in my neck are broken. And as I lay here in my hospital bed it has been very difficult for me to talk to the Lord and I don’t know why because he’s been so gracious to me, but that’s why am reaching out to my family here the Daily Audio Bible. If you could just pray for me, pray for my healing. I should be getting out tomorrow, but I’m grateful for all of you, especially Brian and Jill. Please pray for me and thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Yeah. This is Tony, Blind Tony. I went to the doctors yesterday and got all my test results analyzed and I’m happy to report that there is no cancer in my bones and there’s no metastases anywhere my body. Once again, God’s grace and mercy has shown itself great in my life and I want to thank my Daily Audio Bible family for my prayers for healing and comfort and encouragement. You know, Minnie Riperton wrote a song many years back called ‘Loving You is Easy because You’re Beautiful’ and I can definitely say that about you all, loving you is easy because you’re beautiful. Thank you once again. You know, I want to make it clear though that my views on God’s grace and mercy are not contingent on my test results. You know? If my test results came out with me having cancer everywhere in my body, God’s grace and mercy would still be great and good. I want that to be clear. Anyway, but I am grateful and very, very thankful that His mercy is so great. I took the first injection of hormone treatment to reduce the PSA levels and I go back in four months and get another one and hopefully that’ll take everything back to a point where we can just be on an observation type situation. Anyway, continue to open your minds and your hearts up to the Holy Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to use you as a willing, open vessel for God’s glory. And I’m sure that the measure that you measure out will be measured back to you.

Hi. This is Joey from Missouri. It is 8:09 AM here on B E A - utiful Tuesday morning, February the 13^th. I just wanted to talk about men. I think, though, we need to be courageous men. It’s time to stand up for each other and stand up for our families. We just need to be the spiritual leaders of our households, I think. It’s just so important because if we’re not then our family falls and then…we need to totally be focusing on you Lord because I just pray for all the men out there and the husbands and the young men who will one day become husbands and dads, fathers. God just be with them God, be with them. And just…I pray that if they don’t know You I pray that they would continue to…if they don’t know You God I just pray that they would know You…that if they do know You…I just pray they continue to know You and be strengthened by Your word God. And that’s my prayer today Lord God. So, I just thank you for all these things in Jesus’ name amen. Love you all so much. Love you Brian. Love you all. Okay. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

Yes. This is Shane calling from Illinois. I just want to thank you all at the Daily Audio Bible family for giving me the opportunity to hear you daily and to pray for you guys as you put out your prayer requests. My prayer request is that I can get away from the demons and things that I work with and try to find me another job that’ll take less stress on me. About a year ago I was diagnosed with a torn aorta and I made it through it and I’m struggling with my blood pressure on a daily basis, which they cannot find a reason to get it under control. But I keep my faith in the Lord because I know the Lord will take me when it’s my time. And He puts me in a place for a reason and He keeps me there and He’ll let me go when it is time for me to go. So, I am not afraid and I’m just definitely keeping my faith. I want pray for all those out there having troubles and struggling with daily lives and in job situations. My job to happens us to pay a lot of money but, like I said, I’m around a lot of demons, a lot of really bad people, and they are always trying to take you down with them. Thank God for my wife and my family as they fight with me to get through these days on a day to day basis. I’d like to thank you all at the Daily Audio Bible family for praying for me and keeping me in mind. Thank you very much.