2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27, Romans 13:1-14 , Psalms 23:1-6, Proverbs 20:11
Today is the 30th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is always a pleasure, always an honor to be here with you every single day, taking the steps necessary to lead us through the Bible in a year. And so we’ve come for the next step. And we’re reading from the New English Translation this week. 2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27.
Commentary:
Okay. So in Romans today Paul continues to show us how to be in the world, how to live this life after a manner like Christ. And his conclusions come down to what the whole Bible concludes. It’s all gonna come down to love. Paul says, Owe no one anything except to love one another. For the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Paul says that every rule, every law, comes down to one thing: love your neighbor as yourself. If you’re doing that, if you’re obeying that, you’re obeying the rest. But obviously loving your neighbor as you love yourself is more challenging than just saying it. Now we’re not going to actually be able to do it until we wake up to the realization that we don’t have to live any other way. All of the things that we do that prohibit us from living in love need to be disregarded as if they were dirty clothes. That’s what Paul said. So in other words, we need to take off what is filthy and put on some clean clothes. Put on love. And then Paul gives us a little description of what filthy clothing might look like. What it is that’s filthy on us that we might need to take off. Wild parties, drunkenness, sexual immorality. And we can be like, Yeah, yep. We hear that all the time. I’ve been told that my whole life. But Paul’s list isn’t just about being wild. Paul’s list includes quarreling and jealousy. So think about that for a minute. It’s easy to pass judgement against those who are in the party scene because it’s blatant and clearly not a lifestyle that’s going anywhere. But what about jealousy and quarreling? That brings it right back home. But for Paul and his list, quarreling and jealousy are in the same league as sexual immorality and wild drunkenness because none of those things can really be done in love, right? We can’t commit adultery in love. We might think we’ve fallen in love with somebody else and so we’re living in that direction, but we are breaking a vow that is deeply wounding someone else. That can’t be done in love. You can’t murder someone in love. You can’t covet in love. You can’t steal from someone in love. Which invites us to consider what else we may be involved in that we can’t do in love. These are things that we can’t do in love, these are the filthy clothing that we need to take off and throw away if we want to reflect the glory of the Lord upon the earth as God’s children. That’s what Paul says. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to arouse it’s desires. So the rule of love must guide us if we desire to live godly lives. Everything else will become natural. Everything else will snap into place if we’ll live our lives in love. And as we reorient and become more Christlike, as we continue to be sanctified by the work Jesus has done on our behalf, we will grow in love.
Prayer:
Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit into this. We ask that You begin to reveal to us the ways in which we are certainly not behaving in love, that we are not living in love. You’ve given us a way to consider this by simply asking ourselves before we act or speak, Can I do this in love? Come Holy Spirit, we pray, into this question. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi everybody. This is Tony from Germany and I just want to share something. Yesterday was my birthday, July 25th. And I wasn’t doing anything special but I got a lot of, you know, happy birthday wishes on Facebook and friends and so forth. So anyways, I was thinking, oh, I wish I could get a birthday wish from the people or have some kind of connection with my Daily Audio Bible family. And today is the 26th and I’m just a little bit behind in my…in the podcast recordings and today, just now, I turned on the Daily Audio Bible and Brian announced that today was Ezekiel’s birthday. Happy birthday, a day belated Ezekiel. What is also really interesting is I started listening to Daily Audio Bible when Brian was reading Ezekiel. And that is what got me hooked. So, there I got my little beautiful, actually, big birthday gift from Daily Audio Bible. And I just wanted to share that. The other thing is, I am reading Sneezing Jesus to my mom and she is in a nursing home and sometimes her minds not all there because of the medication she’s taking but she always asks: now, so, are you going to do the reading tonight? So, I wanted to share that. Have a great day everyone. Bye-bye.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family it’s Laura in Houston. I’m calling because some months ago somebody called in and said, hey let’s call in our answers to prayer and I was really convicted. And here I am, months later. So, a while back I asked you all to pray for the man I was dating at the time in our relationship. And I want to give a praise. Thank you for praying. We got married this May. We were engaged in December and got married in May and it has been just an amazing journey and God has been in it and we are very thankful for each other and am I’m very thankful to you for praying. And I also wanted to reach out to Keisha, when you called in with your request it really resonated with my heart and I’ve been praying for you and I wanted to say that God has delivered me from a family, I guess you’d call it, sin, a family sin. And it was a spiritual battle, like a real spiritual battle. I’m so thankful to the Lord. He is faithful. He is good. And He is…we are victorious through Him. And family. I also wanted to call in and ask you to pray because my husband Toby and I are trying to discern, what is the Lord’s will for my career. We are having a couple of great career options that are very different. I’m graduating with my Masters in counseling but I am not sure which job to take. They’re all great. And, yeah, I want to make sure I’m really following Jesus and not just trying to do good things. Like, that interaction with Jesus, having that relationship is really important, most important. Love you all.
Hi. This is Victoria Soldier. I’m just calling tonight to pray for some of the DABbers. I wanted to pray for Rich. It’s so good to hear from you Rich. And looks like you’re doing good with the help that you got and I’m just thanking and praising God and looking to hear and see greater things from you. I’ll continue to pray for your strength and your faith and your future. I want to say hi to Walking by Faith and to pray for her and Asia and I want to pray for Stephen Alabama and I want to pray for those who having problems in their marriage and those who are going through depression. I want to pray for those who have lost a loved one and that are fighting to pull themselves back up, for their strength. I want to pray for Blind Tony and Pastor Gene and all the people of God. I want to pray for Brian and his family. Gracious Father, we come before Your throne of grace. Father, in the name of Jesus, just thanking You for being God, thanking You for being mighty and holy and to let them remember that You’ll never leave them nor forsake them, that You’re always there. All they have to do is call on You and You’re a present help in the time of trouble. Lord, You have Your way Father. Continue to strengthen Rich. Continue to guide him and keep him in Your perfect peace. Oh Lord, we ask You to touch Steve in Alabama and Walking by Faith. Continue to be their strength and their guide and continue to use them as You’ve been using them in the mighty name of Jesus. Blind Tony and Pastor Gene, continue to strengthen her and Viola and all of those who are having challenges on their job. People seem to love drama on their jobs and we’ve got to continue to pray and remember that even a fool is considered wise when he holds his peace. Oh, continue to have Your way. Continue to touch Brian and all the people of God. And Lord, we will give You the glory and honor and praise. And also…
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Becky in Orlando. I apologize, I stepped away from our Daily Audio Bible family campfire and I got lost in the wilderness for like a year. And I have found my way back to you guys and I’ve been listening to our campfire stories for the last couple days. And I’ve been missing you guys and I thank you Brian for still hanging in there and reading the word of God every day. And I thank God for still being with me. And I thank you guys for staying in the word. It’s so great to be able to hear Blind Tony and his problems still. Thank you. And I did get to hear that James the teacher in LA is going through some difficulties right now. So, I’ve got you and Kayla in my prayers. Shantay from Michigan, I miss you. I don’t know if you’ve been calling in. Becky, from Philadelphia, I miss you also. Sophia and Claire out in the Pacific Northwest, I hope you guys are doing well. And Jan, the Prayer Warrior Princess in California. I am praying for you. And, anyway, I love you guys like crazy and I thank the Lord because I avoided an accident this morning. There was my road that I take every day for work was shut down and I guess I thank Him for being late this morning just a couple minutes late because if I had been running on time I would have been stuck in the traffic also. So, I am still alive and kicking. A bit late for work today but I praise the Lord because I’m still alive and I can to continue to do His work. So, I pray for Him to just show me the way, show me where He wants me to be. So, I am working for a new company, I’m not sure if it’s where he wants me to be. So, I’m just asking for, yeah know, sight for that…