07/05/2018 DAB Transcript

1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17, Acts 23:11-35, Psalms 3:1-8, Proverbs 18:14-15

Today is the 5th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you as we all assemble around the global campfire coming out of the darkness we warm ourselves together in community and allow God’s word to wash over us and into our lives. And today we will be beginning a new book, the book of first Chronicles.

Introduction to the Book of First Chronicles:

So, let’s just kind of fly over this for a second. Not completely sure who wrote the books of Chronicles. There’s a first and a second Chronicles, but Jewish tradition, going pretty far back, has Ezra as the author. The books of Chronicles date to about 450 to 425 BC. So, there about four centuries, roughly before Jesus came. But in first and second Chronicles, I mean, we’re going to be recovering a lot of the same territory that was covered in first Samuel, second Samuel, and then first and second Kings but we’ll be looking at it from a different perspective. We’ll be looking at the stories, and we’ll be looking at the same stories, but we’ll be looking at them through the eyes of the priests and kind of get their take on what happened. As we just completed the book of second Kings, we see that the children of Israel are in exile and they’ve been taken away by the Babylonians and it’s been pretty brutal. The books of first and second Chronicles were written from the exile. They were written to remind the children of Israel who they are, who God is, how to worship Him, and what to do when they return. So, the first nine chapters will cover a lot of genealogy and, you know, we’re kind of at that point in the Bible. And all the genealogies can be tedious. And we wonder why we’re reading names. Once we understand why they’re there, to tell a moving story. The children of Israel are in exile. Many families have been torn apart. Many will never see each other again due to death, slavery, forced relocation. So, these names, these genealogies, their knit together so that the people can remember where they came from and who they are and each name has behind it a story of life and loss. Of course, this won’t be the last time this happens to the Jewish people. So, these genealogies matter. And as we go back to some the territory we’ve already covered, once again we’ll see God’s faithfulness, God’s forgiveness, His mercy, but also His righteous justice. The children of Israel know firsthand what it looks like to serve God and the repercussions of their own actions as they turned their back on Him. And none of this has changed. We all face the same things in our own lives. So, as we read through these stories, the echoes through history can remind us of who we are and encourage us deeply to follow God and walk in His will and His ways. And, so, we begin. We’re reading from The Voice Translation this week. First Chronicles chapter 1, verse one through 2:17.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we get going in first Chronicles we can see that we are retelling the generational history of the people, and this certainly gives a backdrop of the people and players in the stories that will be told.

In the book of Acts, we can see that Paul, had he not had the protection of the Roman government, of which he was a citizen, he’d be dad. He would’ve been beaten to death by the Jewish people. What is this all about though? Like, it’s really easy to get lost and say, okay ,Paul was a devout Pharisee, then he became a follower of Jesus. There were other followers of Jesus and there were not assassination plots. I mean, why such rage against Paul? It’s a pretty complicated issue on a number of levels. First of all, Paul’s back in the holy city, Jerusalem and this is not an unfamiliar city to Paul. Paul has been a trained up Pharisee, living in Jerusalem for his life, his adult life. He’s not unknown to all of these people. He’s not to some kind a rogue person who keeps traveling around the empire saying things and shows up in Jerusalem. Like, they know who he is. The problem is what he appears to be doing is heretical to them. He seems to be an apostate, a person who is left his faith. And as we can see with these devout Jewish people, that’s worthy of death. So, we can understand why a mob would form or, you know, an oath of allegiance – I’m not gonna eat or drink until I kill this guy – you can see where that comes from. But why though? Why do they think Paul is an apostate. This is because, to them, that’s exactly what he is. And it boils down to two reasons and neither one of them directly relate to Jesus. I mean, everything in Paul’s life relates to his encounter with Jesus, but at this point in time people who believe in Jesus are just kind of a sub- sect of Judaism and so they’re tolerated by religious Jews, at least to a degree. Paul has done a couple of things that are a step further. For starters, he’s gone to the Gentiles, a people that the Jewish people insulated themselves from. Anyone who was non-Jewish was a Gentile and the Jewish religion was a separatist thing. You had to be a Jew, You had to convert if you wanted to worship God. For Paul to go out among the Gentiles speaking of this Jesus was separating him from his Jewish heritage and customs. And to make matters significantly worse, his language was that the law of Moses had been fulfilled in Jesus and was no longer something that they had to adhere or live under because it would only reveal their inability to be in relationship with God in a righteous way because nobody could obey the law. So, Paul had to spend a lot of time, a lot of theological wrestling as a Pharisee. And as he’s converting to Jesus, looking at the story of the Jewish people. And we’re looking at the story of the Jewish people in first Chronicles as we read down the generations. And we found a name in the genealogies today, Abraham. Abraham started everything, not Moses. And that was Paul’s really long-running argument. Abraham is the origination of this story. Abraham didn’t have a law to obey. Abraham believed God, he put his faith in God and God considered him righteous because of it. That was like a game changer for Paul. We all know how things go, right? You tell somebody something and then it gets rebroadcast and told out of context. Without the full context it seems like it’s something different. That’s kind of what’s going with Paul. He’s got this reputation going around that he is an apostate, that he has left his Jewish heritage, that he is preaching against the law, that he is claiming that Gentiles can be included in this new covenant. And, so, to the religious Jews. He has become a heretic. They don’t leave this at all. So, now we kind of can understand why a couple hundred people need to escort Paul out of Jerusalem, like, armed military soldiers to get him out of there. And they take him to Antipatris, which is about halfway. Basically, from Jerusalem to Caesarea is a journey to the north west. Caesarea is a coastal town right on the Mediterranean coast and it was very Roman, whereas Jerusalem was obviously a very ancient city. Antipatris still exists today. Some of the Roman roads that go through there are still in existence. You can still see chariot tracks on some of those roads. And, so, it’s interesting to be there and just understand the apostle Paul came through here on his way to Caesarea. But now we kind of understand why he’s under such heavy guard, it’s to protect his life, not because he’s that big of a criminal. It’s to protect his life. God is using the Roman army to protect Paul from his own people, but still allow him to speak to them, to tell them the story. And we’ll see this continue as we move forward.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the way that it sweeps into our lives and informs us and counsels us and corrects and rebukes us and pulls us forward each and every day into relationship with You. We are grateful for that. And, so, we invite You, Holy Spirit, to come, plant the words that we’ve read today in our lives. Lead us into all truth, we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to check in and check it out.

Just a couple days for now, day after tomorrow, is the Daily Audio Bible long walk. The 7th of July. It’s our 11th annual. So, make plans for that. Go somewhere beautiful. Take a long walk with God. Let Him speak to you. Speak to Him, worship, enjoy nature. And take a picture or video wherever it is that you go and you can post that to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page Facebook.com/dailyaudiobible and we will all enjoy each other’s long walk. And it’s always been a beautiful thing. So, plan for that on the on the 7th.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. Thank you for your partnership. Thank you, humbly, especially here in the summertime. 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’ll be waiting for here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey Daily Audio Bible family. This is Billy from Montgomery. I wanted to put a prayer request out there for my wife. She had a colonoscopy today and everything went fine with that but then they did an x-ray on her lung. She has some issues in her chest and then they found a spot in her lung that was questionable. That’s what the doctor said. They do not know what it was but it was questionable. Anyway, that is all we know now. We just need to be covered up in prayer and hope that it is nothing. Anyway, I just want to put that prayer request out there. My wife’s name is Natalie and I will talk to you all later. All right, bye for now.

Hey everybody, this is Pelham in Birmingham calling. I just finished listening to June 30ths  reading. Brian, you just finished reading Acts. Brian, I don’t know if it’s just your voice this year or if it’s just the world and I know it’s happening in everybody’s life, but Brian, I was in tears saying goodbye to Paul. That was one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever experienced in the Bible, his departure, and them hugging him in a circle, crying, knowing they aren’t gonna see their friend again. The way you read it man, it was like I was there. I felt like I was saying goodbye to one of my best friends. And it made me think, what if I couldn’t contact you guys? Or what if I didn’t have any connection to anyone that knew anything? And then, I can thank my Lord, I can fall down on my knees and I can thank Him for giving you a mission 14 years ago and for you just taking that one step in the right direction and look at what that decision has done to the world. Brian, thank you. Everybody, thank you. The Daily Audio Bible is a revolutionary thing and that decision that you made 14 years ago Brian was a revolutionary decision. It caused and causes revolutions of light and its increasing. Just as fast as the darkness seems to be increasing the Army is being encircled. Thanks for your prayers guys. Blind Tony thank you. I love you everybody.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. It’s Jim, the teacher from LA. Summer break has been good to me. Sorry I’m out of breath. I was out for a run. Only the second…second time since February cause teaching and having a family and getting a Master’s degree is not always good for your health but you can get back into it and maybe that’s encouragement for someone out there but that’s not why I’m calling. I’m catching up on old broadcasts, listening to prayer requests back to back and a woman called in about her daughter’s baby and not having a proper umbilical cord, having only two chambers and not three. You know, it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, a strand of two cords is stronger than a strand of one and a strand of three is not easily broken. As I know that they speak that to couples at weddings often times to say that you need both partners and the Holy Spirit. That that baby needs mom and dad and the Holy Spirit. And God can work miracles and He can certainly work in the uterus, the heavenly secret place where we are woven together. So, pray with me family. Father God, as you are weaving this baby together in her mother’s womb in the secret place of the earth, weave a new chamber to that umbilical chord, we pray that this cord will be a three stranded cord, unbreakable for this child who has been attacked by the enemy even before coming into this world. She’s already in this world. You’ve already given her life, you’ve already given her breathe and spirit in your kingdom. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Love you family.

Hi fellow DABbers. It’s Lanna calling from Canada and I desperately need your prayers. I’m going in for surgery on the July 9th at 1 o’clock. I have to have a wisdom tooth extracted which has a cyst lying underneath it and I’m asking for your prayers. I’m quite anxious about this. And I guess, since my mother’s passed away I have to face everything alone now, except I do…I do have Jesus, and I have you as a family. I have no other family except I do have a cousin, yes, that lives out west but I have no family here, just my friends and you guys. So, please pray for me that everything will be okay. Thank you. God bless.

07/04/2018 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 23:31-25:30, Acts 22:17-23:10, Ps 2:1-12, Pr 18:13

Today is the 4th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. It’s a big holiday here for us who live in the United States. This is Independence Day. This also happens to be my wife, Jill’s birthday. So happy birthday my love. She is doing a great job encouraging many, many, many of the women in this community. So it’s a day of celebration and it’s also a day. And every day, no matter what’s going on, we take the next step forward in the Scriptures, centering ourselves. And God will speak to us through his word. So we’ll take the next step. We’re reading from The Voice translation this week. 2 Kings 23:31-25:30.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we today completed 2 Kings. And 2 Kings concludes with Jerusalem being destroyed by the Babylonians. And with this story of King Zedekiah trying to escape and being captured. And pretty grizzly scene there where all of his sons are killed before his eyes and then his eyes are put out. And it’s a pretty tragic scene. Pretty catastrophic for those who lived in Jerusalem and it brings to an end the Israel that we have been following since we met Abraham back in January in the book of Genesis. Obviously, this does not bring an end to the people. But this united monarchy known as Israel that formed when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land and solidified under King David’s rule and then was brought to its apex with Solomon’s rule. We remember how the story goes. The country split into two. The northern tribes were called Israel and the southern tribes were called Judah. They’re both gone now. Assyria came and conquered the northern tribes and carried them away. And now Babylon has invaded and taken Judah into exile and destroyed Jerusalem. So, this is effectively the end of ancient Israel as we have known it. A remnant of exiles will be able to return. They will begin to rebuild and there’s much for us to know there, but this is the end of an era. And this did not have to happen, as we see through the voices of the prophets. Even the events that we’re reading about today. We will revisit them when we get to the prophet Jeremiah who is right in the thick of this, speaking into this. It didn’t have to happen. The rebellion of the people and the systematic falling away and chasing after other gods deteriorated and undermined everything that they were and it’s the end of this part of the story.

And of course, in the book of Acts, we’ve turned a page and we’re fully focusing on the Apostle Paul, but his story has turned the page and we’re in a new era of his story. And we see that Paul was arrested in our reading from yesterday. A mob formed around Paul trying to beat him to death. Roman soldiers captured him and then Paul was able to share his story under to the protection of the Roman military to the very people who were trying to beat him to death. So, he was able to share the gospel. In today’s reading, which is the next day, the Roman officials had discovered Paul was a Roman citizen so his treatment changed. He was about to be flogged and once he was discovered as a Roman citizen that went away. So, he’s safe under the protection of the Roman military. They call the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council together. Paul gets to go before them under Roman guard and shares the story with them, which certainly causes a stir. But Paul is protected. So, what we’re seeing is that Paul certainly has been arrested and has lost the ability to just go wherever he wants to go, but the Roman military who are protecting Paul to try to figure out what’s going on, is allowing Paul to share the gospel with people who otherwise wouldn’t listen to it. And this is going to be a recurring theme.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the stories found in it, the nuances of life, all there for us to discover and apply to our lives. And we find ourselves so often in so many of these stories. And You’ve offered us the wisdom of where the choices and the paths lead and we thank You for that. We invite Your Holy Spirit to come. Lead us on the path today, the narrow path that leads to life. Lead us into all truth. We ask in Jesus name Amen.

Announcements:

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

It’s a big holiday so everybody’s got the day off in the United States today. Maybe not everybody, but it’s a national holiday. But we have our own little tradition, our own little holiday, coming up this Saturday, the 7th of July, which is the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. So, certainly make plans to participate in that. Go somewhere beautiful, go for a long walk, spend some time with God. Say all the things that you need to say. Listen to all the things that He needs to speak. And just disrupt yourself enough to get out into nature and hear the quite, hear the stillness. And wherever you go, take a little video, take a picture, take something to commemorate your long walk but you can share that on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And we will share in each other’s long walks all over the world starting on Saturday. So, make plans for that. It has been a tradition for over a decade and it’s always been a beautiful thing. So, make plans to go for a long walk with God this Saturday.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. And I thank you humbly and deeply for those of you who have clicked that link. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DABbers. I am a Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory of Our God and King. I just heard a prayer request coming from a heart broken father whose son Tanner passed away, whose son had cerebral palsy. And I just want him to know, I know today’s your anniversary, I think one month anniversary, with the DAB. You are on the right track. I want to know that I am praying for you and your family, and indeed your right that God heals the brokenhearted and you’re right that your son Tanner is __ with Jesus in heaven today. And I pray that God will allow you to see the gift that He gave in the life of Tanner and that God will show you that all things work together for good and He will help you to see that good in Tanner’s life brought you and your family. I pray that God will show you that Tanner’s life not only impacted your family but the rest of the world. And just hearing your prayer request, I didn’t know your son but I was moved by your request and I want you to know that his life has already touched me. And I will continue praying for you and your family. Love you guys. God bless. Bye.

Hey. It’s Cole from Canada. First time caller. I just want to thank everybody for prayers, that you give out. And I need some prayer for myself right now dealing with my anxiety and depression that I’m going through, the situation that I’m going through right now. I feel very lost, very, just wandering around with no real purpose in life right now. And I just ask that people would pray for me and that I can be better, that I can serve the Lord better, that I have a purpose for my life that I feel. That’s all. I just thank you for your prayers. Thank you.

Hi. This is Victoria and I’m calling from Alabama. And I am calling because I just want prayer. I always…I just covet everybody’s prayers. Today, I am struggling as I am just going through…I lost my husband on May 15th. He passed away from cancer and it just all happened so fast. I feel like I am doggy paddling as fast as I can and it’s hard to just handle everything that’s coming at me and in different directions and I want to keep my focus on God and I get so frustrated at all these details that keep coming up. I need to, I mean, I’m just being really real but I have his ashes and my son passed away in December and I have this kind of burial plot. I’m trying to sell his truck. And there’s just so many details that I feel overwhelmed sometimes. And then just asking you to pray that I would have wisdom and things that just seem so hard right now to become easier, which I know that God wants things…He says the burden is easy…it’s light. And I just think this is a small part of my life, if I could just get through it, you know, God’s gonna make a way where there doesn’t seem to be away. I keep saying that to myself, I can do all things with Christ who lives in me. And then, you know, something else will hit or another call will come in and I’m like, gosh, I don’t know what to do about this one. So, just pray for me for wisdom and peace. That’s my prayer, wisdom and peace for Victoria from Arizona. I appreciate it. Have a blessed day.

Hi. This is Scottish Tom calling from the Cleveland Ohio area. I did put a post on Daily Audio Bible Friends on Facebook. I said I would call back when I got into the USA. Things went through hell with my mom. Recently, just for the last two weeks, the leukemia was back. The chemo wasn’t working and she had gotten a pretty bad infection. And she told me two weeks ago I should probably think of coming over and there was no rush, you know, being a week or two and then the next day I got a call from her doctor saying I really needed to get there ASAP. So, we recently jumped on a plane, five hours later and we got there the next afternoon and she was still alive. She was very unresponsive though, but she did muster the energy to get up and set up and she was hugging me and my wife and telling us that she loved us. And then she passed away the next morning. And I want to thank everyone that has been praying for my mom and I ask you to continue to pray for her soul and pray for myself, my wife, and my dad, who is still back in Scotland. He seems to be doing okay. He’s now getting back to normality after we left. So, he’s got quite the people that are going to look after him over there. So, once again thanks for your prayers. And I just wanted to keep you all informed. Thank you. Bye.

07/03/2018 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 22:4-23:30, Acts 21:37-22:16, Psalms 1:1-6, Proverbs 18:11-12

Today is July 3rd. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great, as it always is, to come together around this global campfire and spend some time together, allowing God’s word to wash over us and wash into our lives and form us and to do it together in community. It’s great to be here today and every day. And so today we will take the next step forward, picking up where we left off. We’re reading from the Voice translation this week. 2 Kings 22:3-23:30 today.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in 2 Kings, we read the story of Josiah, who was a king who’s perhaps the greatest reformer. Definitely one of the greatest reformers in ancient Israel’s history. And we saw what he did. He went on a rampage for God as it were when he discovered the book of the law that was in the temple. It had become obscure. And it was read and he realized just how far from the path that they had wandered. He spent the remainder of his time as king setting thing as right as he could. And as the Bible said, there was no one else like him ever. So, we read of his life and events and times and legacy and we left the Old Testament reading today with his son taking his place on the throne. And we’ll have to see where that story goes tomorrow.

Then in the book of Acts yesterday, we saw a mob form, we saw Paul being beaten to death until he was rescued by Roman soldiers. And he was taken into custody. And we begin to see the counter intuitive ways of what’s happening because of Paul’s incarceration, even today. Because the mob is following Paul, screaming, trying to get at him. The soldiers have to pick Paul up to get through the crowd and to try to save Paul, though it’s a pretty tense situation. But Paul reveals himself as a Roman citizen to the Roman guards. They had mistaken him for someone else, but now they’re holding in custody a Roman citizen which changes everything. And Paul asks for permission to speak to the mob. So, the people who were going to and would have killed Paul by beating him to death are now his captive audience. And under guard of the Roman soldiers, under their protection, he is speaking the gospel to the very people who were trying to kill him. And that will become Paul’s story going forward in all of his travels. Paul could have never shared the gospel story, his own testimony, to that mob. They would have killed him. But he was able to share the gospel story with the very mob that wanted to kill him because he got arrested. So, we will witness the counter intuitive ways of the Lord through the Apostle Paul as we continue forward through the book of Acts and then into his letters.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your ways. Your ways are higher than our ways and Your ways are often counter intuitive to us. But Your ways are always good and righteous and right. And so we ask, Holy Spirit, come. Reveal Your ways to us. Show us what this day is supposed to look like for us and give us clarity and wisdom and awareness. And help us to slow down enough to walk with You so that we might know and follow Your ways. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And the one thing that’s going on around here right now is what’s coming up this Saturday. I mean, there’s other things going on around here. Tomorrow is a big national holiday for those of us who live in the United States. It also happens to be my wife’s birthday. So, there are other things going on around here. But what’s going on in the community happens on the 7th of July. We have our little holiday, our own little tradition. It’s called the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. And it’s simple as can be. Doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you can participate. Just mark the day off. Take that day and give it to God. Go for a long walk. And let this be one of those times where you had all the time you needed to say everything you needed to say. Just to talk through everything that’s going on in all of your relationships, your work environment and in your ambitions and in your hopes and in your dreams. Just take the time to talk about it all. And take the time to listen. And it’s a great thing to go somewhere beautiful. Go out into nature where there is some stillness, where you can disrupt the normal flow of your busy life and just breathe and see the rhythms of nature that God has created. And allow that to speak because it does. It’s all created by God and it all bares his glory and speaks of his glory. And so, we go out into nature and just disrupt ourselves. It can be very, very (meaningful). So, that’s what’s happening and thousands of us will be doing it all over the world. What makes it a community experience is that when we’re on our long walk, we know that someone else is too. And just take a picture, shoot a video wherever you go, whether it’s across the street or across the country. Take a picture, shoot a little video or something. Keep that as a commemorative of your long walk. But you can also post it up to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page. Just go to facebook.com, search for Daily Audio Bible. Or facebook.com/dailyauiobible will get you there. And we get to watch the windows open into each other’s lives as we experience each other’s pictures from their long walks and maybe some things that God spoke or just how you were feeling or what the day was like for you. So, make plans for that this Saturday, the 7th of July.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what we’re doing together as a community is bringing life to you and bringing transformation to you, than thank you for your partnership so that we can continue to move forward. There is a link on the homepage of 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 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi. I want to praise God for his love, mercy, and grace. I am a pastor’s wife and I’d like prayer for my two adult children, one son who recently married whose marriage is in deep trouble and a daughter who has been away from the Lord since her teenage years and now serving in the United States Army but not serving the Lord’s army. Thank you so much for remembering those two children who are a great burden to my heart. Thanks and God bless you all. Have a great, wonderful time serving the Lord.

I know the plans that I have for you
plans not to harm but to prosper you
behold I am making all things new
return to me and I’ll return to you
what an awesome promise from our Lord
that I, even I could be restored
sins forgiven, past ignored
blessings in and on me pour
God I’m so glad that You’re not like men
because You’re more patient with me than my most patient patient friend
because I return to You again and again
and again and again I return to my sin
and not just in some mistaken airing way
but blatantly disobedient day after day
forgive me Father please forgive me now
because I do want to serve You please show me how
I read your word I fast I pray
and I still fall short every single day
that’s why I thank You for your mercy and your grace
and for Your open arms and your smiling face
and You let me know even though I fail
victory is mine I will prevail
and I thank You for telling me every day Father the battle is not yours
because I still need help staying out of those revolving doors
because even though I’m out of Egypt Egypt is still in me
and even though there are no bars walls or chains I know I’m still not free
Father give me more of your Holy Spirit
I love Your voice and I long to hear it
and one more thing Father grant me please
an open broken heart on bended knees

blindtony1016@gmail.com. Blessed Like Me and Show Me God’s Love In This life, I hope you’re both still hanging in there. Haven’t heard from you in a while. Know you’re still loved and prayed for every day. And once again Brian, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flown’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.

Hi family this is his little Sharif in Canada. It’s a July 1st today. Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians. Last month I called and shared with you prayer plans as a creative way to pray and this month I’d like to tell you about mosquito bite prayers. Mosquito bites are one of the most effective triggers for prayer that I’ve ever discovered. And I call them trigger prayers. They’re just prayers that are triggered by something. For instance, you can decide that every time you hear a certain song on the radio you’ll pray for a certain situation or every time you see a chickadee at your birdfeeder you’ll pray for a certain person, etc. etc. Well, recently, after I spent today in the country I came home with a bunch of mosquito bites and I was scratching like crazy but then I thought, maybe I can turn these bites into prayer somehow. So, I decided that every time they itched, which seemed like every 60 seconds, instead of scratching I’d pray for people I knew who were battling addiction. And, so, that’s what I did. And I found myself praying all day for people like Terry the truck driver and other DABbers fighting addictions, that God would deliver them and give them supernatural strength to resist temptation. So, maybe that’s something that you’d like to try this summer. Mosquito bite prayers, another creative way to pray from the banqueting table of prayer. God bless you family. Bye for now.

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible family. This is Akeem from Edmonton Alberta Canada. I just wanted to say hello and God bless you all in 2018. Today is July 1st. Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends and family. Anyway, I just wanted to check in. I haven’t called in for a while. I just wanted to let you know guys, I’m listening and I’m praying with you all. And 2018 has been amazing. God has been working wonders in my life and with my family and I hope He’s been doing great for you as well. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to Brian and Jill and the family for this wonderful podcast. And I’m just checking on my sister, Nora. She’s from Canada I believe and she hasn’t called for a while. And she’s got an Islamic background. Family, so I hope God is great with you and you are keeping good with Jesus and He’s just working in your life. Take care everybody. Thanks. Bye.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday July 3, 2018 (NIV)

2 Kings 22:3-23:30

During Josiah’s 18th year as king, he dispatched his minister of state,[a] Shaphan (son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshullam), to the Eternal’s house with instructions.

Josiah: Visit the priest, Hilkiah, and ask him to give us an account of the finances that have been collected by the doorkeepers from those who enter the Eternal’s temple. Tell them to give it to the workers who watch over the Eternal’s temple, to the repairmen who keep the place in good condition, to the carpenters and builders and masons for purchasing the wood and cut stones to keep the temple in working order. There is no need to document the financial exchange with these workers because they are honest in their dealings.

Hilkiah (to Shaphan): I have discovered the book of the law in the Eternal’s house.

Hilkiah then handed the book of the law to Shaphan, and Shaphan read through it. Shaphan the secretary returned to the king with a report.

The discovery of the book of the law which has been forgotten for a long time serves two purposes: it rewards Josiah for the work he’s already done, and it pushes him toward more reforms. Besides its positive effect on Judah, not much is known about the book of the law, except that it isn’t a book at all. It is probably a scroll with two columns of writing, much like the Dead Sea Scrolls. The exact content is unknown, but it is probable that the book of the law was the foundational text for the compiler of Deuteronomy. Assuming this, the laws from Deuteronomy explain why Josiah destroys any object that could be used in pagan worship.

Shaphan: Those who serve you in the Eternal’s house have given every last cent of the money to the workers who keep the Eternal’s house in good condition.

10 (continuing) While I was delivering your instructions, Hilkiah the priest handed me an old book.

Shaphan then read the old book aloud to the king. 11 While the king listened to the words of the book of law, he was filled with sorrow, and he tore his garments. 12 Then the king gave a command to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam (Shaphan’s son), Achbor (Micaiah’s son), Shaphan the minister of state, and Asaiah (one of the king’s advisors).

Josiah: 13 Go and speak to the Eternal One on my behalf, and also on behalf of the people and all of Judah. Speak to Him about this book and all that it commands. There is a wrathful fire on its way to us from Him, all because our ancestors before us did not obey the instructions of this book or do all that is written concerning us.

14 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to visit the prophetess Huldah (Shallum’s wife). Shallum was Tikvah’s son, and Tikvah was the son of Harhas, who was in charge of the clothing and garments. Huldah lived in the second quarter of Jerusalem. Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah spoke to her.

Huldah: 15 This is the message of the Eternal God of Israel: “Go back and speak to the one who told you to speak to Me that 16 the Eternal says, ‘I will bring a wicked cloud of disaster over this land and those who live within it. It will be just as it is written in all the words of the book read by the king of Judah. 17 Because they have turned their backs on Me and have been promiscuous with other gods, burning incense for them and causing My anger to boil with all their wicked deeds, the fire of My wrath will consume them and be inextinguishable.’”

18 But tell Judah’s king, the one who told you to visit me and speak to the Eternal One on his behalf, “This is the message of the Eternal God of Israel: ‘Concerning what you have heard, 19 your heart was gentle and concerned about My commands. You were humble before the Eternal because of the warnings of desolation I gave to this place and to those who dwell within it. You even tore your garments and cried before Me. Because you have done all this, I have certainly heard your sincerity,’ proclaims the Eternal One.

20 “‘Observe! I am going to bring you to be with your ancestors, and you will meet the grave peacefully, so that you will not have to witness the wicked cloud of disaster I will bring to shadow this land and all those who dwell within it.’”

Then Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah returned to the king and gave him the Lord’s message, as sent through Huldah the prophetess.

23 The king ordered an assembly of all of Judah’s and Jerusalem’s elders. He then went to the Eternal’s temple with all the citizens of Jerusalem and the men of Judah, as well as the priests and prophets and people of all statuses, and he read to them everything in the covenant book that was discovered in the Eternal’s house.

While standing next to the sacred pillar, the king proclaimed a covenant before the Eternal One. He promised to follow the Eternal, to obey His commands and laws and testaments with all his being. He promised to honor every word of the covenant book that had been discovered in the temple. Everyone who was present entered into the covenant with the king.

The king gave a command to the high priest, Hilkiah, and to the priests of the second order, as well as the doormen. He told them to remove from the Eternal’s house all the vessels that were crafted to honor Baal, Asherah, and all the other gods of the skies. He set them on fire in the fields of Kidron outside of Jerusalem, and then he transported the ashes to Bethel.

He got rid of the corrupted priests who worshiped false gods and whom the old kings of Judah had instructed to burn incense in the high places in Judah’s cities and in the land all around Jerusalem, and those who honored Baal and the sun and moon and stars and all the gods of the skies by burning incense.

The king removed the sacred pole from the Eternal’s temple, and he set it on fire at the Kidron brook just outside Jerusalem. He crushed it until it was nothing more than a pile of dust, and then he tossed the dust onto ordinary graves, further contaminating it by contact with dead bodies. He destroyed the houses of cult prostitutes next to the house of the Eternal, where women were weaving hangings for the sacred pole. He assembled in Jerusalem all of Judah’s priests and destroyed the high places from Geba to Beersheba where they had burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates located on the left side of the city gates near the gate of Joshua, who was governor of Jerusalem.

The corrupted priests of the high places did not approach the Eternal’s altar in Jerusalem, but they filled their bellies with unleavened bread in the company of their families, since they would not travel to Jerusalem to perform their religious duties.

10 The king destroyed Topheth as well. Topheth is in the valley of Hinnom’s son. He did this so that no man could offer his children as a burnt sacrifice to Molech.

11 Close to the entrance to the Eternal’s house, near the official Nathan-melech’s chamber in the area around the temple, were horses that Judah’s kings had dedicated to the sun. The king removed the horses and set fire to the chariots of the sun as well.

12 The king also tore down the roof altars, Ahaz’s upper room which was crafted by Judah’s kings, and the altars crafted by Manasseh for the two courts in the Eternal’s house. He crushed them into piles of dust, and then he tossed the dust into the Kidron brook. 13 The king also destroyed the high places south of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon (Israel’s king) constructed east of Jerusalem to honor Ashtoreth, the corrupt Sidonian goddess; Chemosh, the corrupt Moabite god; and Milcom, the corrupt Ammonite god. 14 He shattered the sacred pillars and chopped down the sacred poles. In their place, he desecrated their sites by contact with corpses.

15 He tore down the altar at Bethel, the high place—the one erected by Jeroboam (Nebat’s son), the very Jeroboam who caused the Israelites to live sinful lives. He crushed the rocks and pounded them into dust and set fire to the sacred pole.

16 Josiah turned and observed the graves there on the mountain; and he sent men to gather up the bones and set fire to them on the altar, defiling the altar by contact with corpses exactly as the Eternal One had spoken through the man of God.[b]

Josiah (noticing a specific burial plot): 17 What is the significance of that marker?

Men of the City: This is a grave marker for the man of God from Judah who prophesied the very things which you have just done to the altar at Bethel.

Josiah: 18 Leave him be. No one is to lay a finger on his bones, so that he may rest in peace.

They let his bones rest in peace next to the bones of the Samaritan prophet.[c]

19 Josiah tore down all the temples of the high places built by Israel’s kings in the Samaritan cities. These high places had caused the Eternal’s anger to boil. Josiah did the same thing to these houses as he did to the houses in Bethel.

20 Josiah also killed all the priests who were present at the high places. He killed them on the altars and set fire to their bones. Then he went back to the place from which he came—Jerusalem.

Josiah (to the people): 21 The covenant book that was found in the temple says we must observe the Passover and rejoice in the Eternal One our God, who led us out of bondage in Egypt.

22 The Passover had not been observed from the time when the judges judged Israel, even throughout all the generations of Israel’s kings and Judah’s kings. 23 But during King Josiah’s 18th year, the Passover was celebrated in honor of the Eternal One in Jerusalem.

24 In addition, Josiah destroyed the clairvoyants, necromancers, household gods, idols, and every other corruption in Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he could make things right according to the laws and commands of the covenant book Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Eternal’s house.

25 No king before him or after him ever gave himself to the Eternal so fully and deeply as Josiah did. He offered to the Eternal with all his being: all of his heart, all of his soul, and all his might, in accordance with the sacred law given through Moses.

26 Still the Eternal did not abandon His immense wrath. It boiled against Judah, because of all the wickedness Manasseh had committed against Him.

Eternal One: 27 I will remove Judah from before My presence. I will do this just as I have done it to Israel. I will cast aside Jerusalem, the city I chose for My temple when I said, “This will be the dwelling place for My name.”

28 Is not the rest of Josiah’s story—his actions and lasting legacy—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings?

29 Josiah’s death happened this way: Pharaoh Neco, Egypt’s king, marched north with his army to the Euphrates River to meet with Assyria’s king. King Josiah mustered his forces and attempted to block Neco’s advance.

The situation has changed for Assyria in the 100 years since the Northern Kingdom was conquered. About 7 years after the Babylonians conquer the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, Neco is actually rushing to the aid of Assyria instead of fighting to destroy her. The Egyptian and Assyrian plan is to defeat Babylonia; and unfortunately, Josiah is in the way. The death of the good king Josiah and the victory of Babylonia over both Assyria and Egypt doom Judah to becoming part of the Babylonian Empire.

In the ensuing battle, Neco and his forces killed Josiah at Megiddo. 30 Josiah’s servants took his body back to Jerusalem from Megiddo in a chariot. They laid him to rest in his own tomb instead of in a tomb with his fathers. The people of Judah then took Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, and anointed him and set him upon the throne of his father as king.

Footnotes:

  1. 22:3 Literally, secretary
  2. 23:16 1 Kings 13:2
  3. 23:18 1 Kings 13:11–12
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Acts 21:37-22:16

37 They were just leaving the temple area when Paul asked the commandant,

Paul: May I say something to you?

Commandant: Do you speak Greek? 38 We thought you were that Egyptian who recently stirred a rebellion and led 4,000 assassins out into the desert. But if you speak Greek, then obviously you’re not the person we supposed.

Paul: 39 No, I’m a Jew, originally from Tarsus in Cilicia. I’m a citizen from an important city. Please, I beg you, let me speak to the people.

40 The commandant agreed, and Paul stood there on the steps, motioning for the people to be silent. The crowd settled down, and Paul spoke in their native tongue, Aramaic.

22 Paul: Brothers and fathers, please let me defend myself against these charges.

When they heard him speaking Aramaic, a hush came over the crowd.

Paul: I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia. I was raised here in Jerusalem and was tutored in the great school of Gamaliel. My education trained me in the strict interpretation of the law of our ancestors, and I grew zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I encountered a movement known as the Way, and I considered it a threat to our religion, so I persecuted it violently. I put both men and women in chains, had them imprisoned, and would have killed them— as the high priest and the entire council of elders will tell you. I received documentation from them to go to Damascus and work with the brothers there to arrest followers of the Way and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains so they could be properly punished. I was on my way to Damascus. It was about noon. Suddenly a powerful light shone around me, and I fell to the ground. A voice spoke: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” I answered, “Who are You, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, the One you persecute.”

My companions saw the light, but they didn’t hear the voice. 10 I asked, “What do You want me to do, Lord?” The Lord replied, “Get up and go to Damascus; you will be given your instructions there.” 11 Since the intense light had blinded me, my companions led me by the hand into Damascus. 12 I was visited there by a devout man named Ananias, a law-keeping Jew who was well spoken of by all the Jews living in Damascus. 13 He said, “Brother Saul, regain your sight!” I could immediately see again, beginning with Ananias standing before me. 14 Then he said, “You have been chosen by the God of our ancestors to know His will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the voice of God. 15 You will tell the story of what you have seen and heard to the whole world. 16 So now, don’t delay. Get up, be ceremonially cleansed through baptism,[a] and have your sins washed away, as you call on His name in prayer.”

Footnotes:

  1. 22:16 Literally, immersed, in a rite of initiation and purification
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Psalm 1

Book One

Book One (Psalms 1–41) is attributed almost entirely to David; all but four of the psalms (1–2; 10; 33) are ascribed to him. In Hebrew Psalm 10 is a continuation of Psalm 9 because it was composed as an acrostic poem. Likewise, many Hebrew manuscripts combine Psalm 33 with 32. Only later are these divided into separate psalms. Psalm 1 sets the stage for the entire collection by explaining that the study of the Word of God is the foundation of a meaningful, prosperous life.

Psalm 1

God’s blessings follow you and await you at every turn:
when you don’t follow the advice of those who delight in wicked schemes,
When you avoid sin’s highway,
when judgment and sarcasm beckon you, but you refuse.
For you, the Eternal’s Word is your happiness.
It is your focus—from dusk to dawn.
You are like a tree,
planted by flowing, cool streams of water that never run dry.
Your fruit ripens in its time;
your leaves never fade or curl in the summer sun.
No matter what you do, you prosper.

For those who focus on sin, the story is different.
They are like the fallen husk of wheat, tossed by an open wind, left deserted and alone.
In the end, the wicked will fall in judgment;
the guilty will be separated from the innocent.
Their road suddenly will end in death,
yet the journey of the righteous has been charted by the Eternal.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Proverbs 18:11-12

11 The rich think their wealth is their sturdy fortress;
they imagine it to be an invincible wall of security.
12 A proud heart precedes destruction,
and before honor is humility.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

07/02/2018 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 20:1-22:3, Acts 21:18-36, Psalms 150:1-6, Proverbs 18:9-10

Today is the 2nd day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we buckle in and take the next step forward in our adventure through the Scriptures this year. And we’re just getting moved in to this shiny sparkly second half of the year as we move into the month of July. So, let’s take the next step. We’re reading from the Voice translation this week. 2 Kings 20:1 - 22:2 today.

Commentary:

Alright. As we continue through the book of 2 Kings, we finish the story of Hezekiah’s reign and then things kind of went south from there in a very bad way for the next half century. And this is what we see, an increasing decline, until eventually nothing will be left. But Hezekiah, who was a good and honorable and loyal king to God. And some of his innovations and some of the things that he built, they still exist. There’s a water system that’s in Jerusalem. There’s the early one from David’s time, very small tunnel, and then there’s a more advanced one built in Hezekiah’s time. Some of the ancient walls of Jerusalem from Hezekiah’s time still exist. Not a lot, but a little bit of the wall from Hezekiah’s time exists in Jerusalem. 

And we get into the book of Acts and we’ve traveled around with Paul quite a bit. We’ve been on the road a lot with him in a lot of different cities. But he’s made his way back to Jerusalem. And we remember, as we read through the book of Acts, as he’s making his way back to Jerusalem everyone is telling him not to go. At every stop he’s warned, but he kept insisting that the Holy Spirit is telling him that he’s gotta do this. And so he’s obedient. And he does end up in Jerusalem and he meets with the Jerusalem church. And some controversies are addressed about Paul because Paul had become a very controversial figure. And we’ll get to see why when we get into his letters. We’ll understand very very clearly why there is controversy around Paul. But it’s alluded to in the book of Acts that Paul, being a Jew and being a Pharisee, has abandoned essentially his Jewish faith and the practice, the customs of that faith. But he’s in the epicenter. He’s in Jerusalem and so the Jerusalem church is largely made up of Jewish believers who are continuing to practice their Jewish customs and continuing to practice their religion that way. But they have come to believe that Jesus is their Messiah. So, there’s a rift and we’ve mentioned it before and we’ll really truly understand what’s going on as we move forward in the New Testament. But the leaders of the Jerusalem church encourage Paul to practice a vow. To actually do the rites of purification and actually be Jewish like he is. Paul agrees to that and they’re in the process of doing this purification vow when Paul is recognized. And we just read the story. A massive mob has tried to beat him to death, he’s rescued by Roman soldiers and taken into custody. That’s a big distinction because for just about all of the rest of Paul’s life, he will be incarcerated in some way. But as we’ll see from the book of Acts, it’s not going to slow Paul down. In fact, in very counter- intuitive ways, it’s going to protect Paul and increase his influence. And we’ll begin to see that in the coming days.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the constancy of it in our lives, the way that it transforms us. The way that we can come together in community like this. It’s a beautiful thing that You’ve allowed us to be in the world at this time when we can participate together as a community no matter where we are, and we’re grateful. Thank You Jesus for Your kindness, Your love and Your sacrifice to redeem us. We love You and we worship You, Lord. And we pray these things in Your name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

I mentioned the new update to the app yesterday. Just reminding you to update, especially if you have vision challenges. This particular update was aimed at accessibility. And so if that’s you, it’s available. Update now. But if that’s not you, still update. There’s a lot of bug fixes in it as well, and every time we do an update, things get more and more efficient and stable and a brand new sparkly platform that’s being built. So, be sure to stay up-to-date in your app.

The other thing that we’re talking about is what’s coming up this Saturday. The 7th of July. The Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. An opportunity to mark on your calendar some time that you’re going to go for a long walk, somewhere beautiful, and enjoy a day with God. Where you’re unhurried, where you’re uninterrupted, where you have the time to say the things that are going on, everything that you’ve needed to talk about and to give space for the Lord to respond and lead and guide and shape what the second half of the year is going to look like. That’s the Long Walk. What makes it a community experience is that we’re all doing it together on the same day. And we just take our phone or a camera or something. We shoot a little video, take a picture that commemorates the day, something that we’ll want to remember anyway. And that can be posted to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And then it becomes a community experience. So, make plans for this Saturday. I’m making plans. I’m looking forward to it myself. So, that’s this Saturday.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you. Thank you profoundly for your partnership, especially in the summertime here. There is a link 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 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 here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi. Good afternoon from Sydney Australia. My first time ringing in. I’m a couple days behind on the Daily podcast but heard a gentleman that was the Uber driver. I’m not sure your circumstances but just…I just felt like you needed to take it a bit easier on yourself man. It’d sounded like you’re beating yourself up too much. I just felt like you just need to take it easy and get you’ll get through what you’re going through buddy. I’m praying for ya. Cheers. Thanks for all your work guys.

This is Jim from North Eastern West Tennessee near Kentucky Lake and Land Between the Lakes. I call today with a grieving heart. Today for me is June 29th and tomorrow will be one year since my precious 12-year-old son, Tanner, passed away from this world and onto the stable ___ of heaven. He had severe cerebral palsy and certainly with a battering of health problems and issues he had while here on earth. Even though his family and friends here miss him greatly, we know he has left his wheelchair behind. And he’s spending his teenage years skateboarding with Jesus. Tomorrow also marks the last day of the first month of me listening to the Daily Audio Bible. Please, DAB family, lift my family’s grieving hearts up to heaven in prayer. Jeremiah 31:13 says, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

Hi. This call is for Pelham. Pelham, I want you to close your eyes for a moment brother. You’re my brother and you’re the brother and sister of all those that are listening now and you’re not alone. We are one. You’re served Pelham from Birmingham and you’re going through a struggle. And you have been appointed to go through this struggle from the Lord. This struggle that you’re going through, it’s not easy. But Sir, I say Sir as a knight, you are being hardened like a samurai sword. You have to go through the fire, be tested, take a beating in order that you can be strengthened for the battles to come. So, don’t look back. Don’t think that your addictions are you are because that’s who you were. Who you are now is who you will become for eternity. You have a mission. Your mission is to live up to God’s calling for your life. Proverbs 3:5-6. Don’t look back my brother. We’re with you and around you there’s a ring of fire. They’re chariots of fire. There are other warriors cheering you on. Never, never doubt when you’re in the smoke and in the fire that you don’t have an army all around you. Peace brother. We are with you.

Hello DAB family this is Chantey calling from Michigan, formerly of Detroit. I am calling in to say hi to everybody, to say I love you all. I’m still here. I’m still listening. I’m still praying for you all. I’ve still been going through but God has still been carrying me through. I’ve had some really down days. I’ve had some really great days. And I am just calling in just to let you know that I’m here and that I’m still praying for you. And I want to let Chandra in Baltimore know, I hear you, I’m praying for you. Salvation is Mine, I’m praying for you. __ my sister. I love you so much. The mom of five who’s taking care of her elderly mother and her husband is looking for work. As of July 5th they don’t know where they’re going to stay. And I want to let you know…and…plus your dogs…and, you know, your pets, you want them all to be able to stay together. So, I’m with you and I am praying for you as well as your situation. I’ve been there, not knowing where you’re going to stay but if God can take care of me and my family he can do the same for you and yours. I am praying for Byron’s wife in regards to her anxiety. I deal with it too and my advice is to live your life despite dealing with the symptoms of it. And I have those days where I’m literally at work and I have rush to the bathroom to cry through a panic attack. And just rest on Philippians 4:6-8. I know it’s not easy but, oh, I could go on and on. So, I’ll have to call back in again. Whatever. I just wanted to say to Pastor Gene, I love you so much. I am praying for you. I am dealing with some of the same things at work. And, so, I am lifting you up and also regards to the summer camp…

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday July 2, 2018 (NIV)

2 Kings 20:1-22:2

20 At that time, Hezekiah was deathly sick. The prophet Isaiah (Amoz’s son) went to Hezekiah.

Isaiah: This is the Eternal’s message: “This is your last chance to make your final preparations because you are not going to recover; you are going to die.”

Then Hezekiah faced the wall and began to pray to the Eternal.

Hezekiah: Eternal One, I beg You to remember that I have lived in faithfulness and given my heart to you and have practiced goodness before Your eyes.

Hezekiah was truly distraught and wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had departed from the middle court, the Eternal’s message came to him.

Eternal One: Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people, “This is the message of the Eternal One, the God of your ancestor David: ‘I have listened to your prayer and have witnessed the tears falling down your face; therefore I am going to heal you. I want you to go to the Eternal’s temple on the third day. I will add 15 years to your life, and I am also going to save you and your city from Assyria’s king. I will fight on behalf of this city in order to preserve My honor and My servant David’s honor.’”

Isaiah: Fetch a lump of figs.

They placed the figs on the king’s open sore, and he was healed.

Long before the discovery of penicillin and invention of pharmaceuticals, people understand how to use natural remedies readily available. A poultice of figs—and a healthy dose of prayer—successfully heal Hezekiah’s sore. Many other plants have similar healing qualities: wild, poisonous gourds are used in small amounts as purgatives; terebinth resin, frankincense, and myrrh are common antiseptics (even though they are more popular as cosmetics); and mandrake fruit is thought to cure female infertility. While future generations might question the healing properties of plants, they are considered powerful medicines to the people in the ancient Near East.

Hezekiah (to Isaiah): Should I be looking for a sign from the Eternal, a sign that tells me He is going to heal me and that it is time for me to go to the Eternal’s temple on the third day?

Isaiah: Yes, this is the sign the Eternal One will give for you to know He will uphold His promise to you: will the shadow move forward 10 steps or retreat 10 steps?

Hezekiah: 10 It’s nothing special for the shadow to increase 10 steps. May the shadow retreat 10 steps.

11 The prophet Isaiah called out to the Eternal, and He caused the shadow on the stairs to retreat 10 steps down Ahaz’s stairs, which had been designed as a sundial.

12 During that period in time, Berodach-baladan, one son of Baladan, Babylon’s king, heard that Hezekiah was ill, so he sent him a gift and get-well messages. 13 After Hezekiah received the gift and the letters, he gave Berodach-baladan’s messengers a tour of his treasuries and showed them all the silver, gold, spices, oils, armor, and everything else that was in the treasure house. He left nothing out of the tour of his house and province.

Isaiah (to King Hezekiah): 14 What did those men tell you, and where did they come from?

Hezekiah: They came from a faraway land—Babylon.

Isaiah: 15 How much of your house did you show to them? What all did they see?

Hezekiah: They saw everything. I left nothing out of the tour I gave them through my treasuries.

Isaiah: 16 Listen to the Eternal’s message: 17 “A time is near when everything in your house, including everything that your ancestors have contributed until today, will be taken to Babylon. Not one item will remain in your house.” This is the Eternal’s message. 18 A time is near when your sons, who are yet to be born, will be removed from your land and made to be eunuchs in the Babylonian king’s palace.”

Hezekiah: 19 The Eternal’s message that you relayed to me is good.

(to himself) Is it not good that peace and truth will rule while I still live?

20 Is not the rest of Hezekiah’s story—his power and his construction of the pool and the conduit to provide water for the city—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings?[a] 21 Hezekiah left this world to sleep with his fathers. His son, Manasseh, then inherited the throne.

21 Manasseh was 12 years old when he inherited the throne. His reign in Jerusalem lasted 55 years. His mother was Hephzibah. He committed evil in the Eternal’s eyes, like the abhorrent practices of those nations driven out by the Eternal before the Israelites settled in Canaan. Manasseh reconstructed the high places his father, Hezekiah, had demolished. He constructed altars for Baal and crafted a sacred pole, just as Ahab the former king of Israel had done. He offered his praise to all the gods of the skies and was in service to them.

He constructed altars in the Eternal’s temple to foreign, pagan gods. This was the temple the Eternal had spoken of when He said, “My name will dwell in Jerusalem.” He contaminated the temple by constructing altars for all the gods of the skies in both the courts in the Eternal’s temple.

He forced his son to go through the fire as a burnt offering, and he was trained in the dark arts of witchcraft and fortune-telling. He practiced them both. He consulted necromancers and clairvoyants. He committed many wicked acts in the Eternal’s eyes, which caused Him to boil in anger.

He placed a carved image of the goddess Asherah in the Eternal’s temple. It was the very temple that the Eternal had spoken of to David and to Solomon, saying, “My name will dwell in this temple in Jerusalem forever. I have handpicked it from all of Israel’s tribes. If the Israelites will honor the commands and laws I have given them through Moses, then I will no longer force them to be apart from the land I promised to their ancestors. They will live peacefully within the promised land.

But the Israelites kept their ears and hearts closed to the message of the Lord; and Manasseh caused them to live even more sinful lives than the wicked nations, whom the Eternal annihilated before them, had committed. 10 The Eternal One delivered His message through His servants, the prophets.

Prophets: 11 Manasseh, Judah’s king, has committed even worse atrocities than the Amorites had committed before his time, and he also inspired wickedness throughout Judah because of his idols; 12 therefore, this is the message of the Eternal One, Israel’s God: “Observe! I am going to infect Jerusalem and Judah with disaster. The ears of anyone who hears the sounds of this catastrophe will tingle! 13 I will judge the uprightness of Jerusalem by the same plumb line that I used in Samaria and by the same level I used for Ahab’s house. I will clean Jerusalem in the same manner that one cleans a dirty dish. I will wipe off the grime and flip the dish over and wipe off the underside of it as well. 14 I am going to relinquish what is left of My inheritance to the possession of their adversaries. They will be like stolen goods and booty for all their adversaries. 15 This will take place because of all the wickedness they have committed before Me and because of the anger they have caused to boil within Me since the day their ancestors were delivered by Me from Egypt until this very day.”

16 Manasseh killed countless innocent people and filled Jerusalem with their blood. And this is in addition to causing Judah to live sinful lives and committing evil in the Eternal’s eyes.

According to tradition, one of those innocent people is the prophet Isaiah. Manasseh and Isaiah have a tumultuous relation ship from the start, when Hezekiah invited Isaiah to the court to meet his sons. Isaiah prophesied then that Manasseh would be evil. After Manasseh becomes king, Isaiah tells him the temple will be destroyed. Infuriated, the king orders Isaiah’s arrest. Isaiah flees into the hills where he hides inside a cedar tree. But Manasseh’s men find him—when they are cutting the tree in half. This legend is attested to by the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (11:37–38).

17 Is not the rest of Manasseh’s story—his wickedness and sin—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings? 18 Manasseh left this world to sleep with his fathers and was laid to rest in his own garden, the garden of Uzza. His son, Amon, then inherited the throne.

19 Amon was 22 years old when he became king. His reign in Jerusalem lasted two years. His mother was Meshullemeth (daughter of Haruz from Jotbah). 20 He committed much wickedness in the Eternal’s eyes just as his father, Manasseh, did. 21 He walked the wicked path of his father, and he served and worshiped the same gods his father had served. 22 Amon was corrupt and abandoned the Eternal One, the God of his ancestors. He did not walk on the Eternal’s path.

23 Amon’s servants plotted behind his back and murdered him in his own house. 24 Then the people of the land slaughtered those who had plotted in secret against King Amon, and they gave the throne to Amon’s son, Josiah.

25 Is not the rest of Amon’s story—his actions and lasting legacy—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings? 26 Amon was laid to rest in the garden of Uzza with his father. His son, Josiah, then inherited the throne.

22 Josiah was 8 years old when he inherited the throne. His reign in Jerusalem lasted 31 years. His mother was Jedidah (daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath). Josiah was righteous in the Eternal’s eyes. He continually did what was right, just as his ancestor David had. He did not ever step away from the righteous path.

Footnotes:

  1. 20:20 The story of Hezekiah is also found in Isaiah 36:1–39:8.
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Acts 21:18-36

18 The next day, we went together to visit James, and all the elders were there with him. 19 Paul greeted them and then reported account after account of what God had done through him among the outsiders. 20 When they heard his story, they praised God.

James and the Elders: Brother, we have a problem. You can see that we have thousands of Jewish believers here, and all of them are zealous law keepers. 21 They’ve heard all kinds of rumors about you—that you teach all the Jews living among the outside nations to forget about Moses entirely, that you tell believers not to circumcise their sons, that you teach them to abandon all our customs. 22 We need to deal with this situation, since word will spread that you’re here in the city. 23 So here’s what we would like you to do. We have four men here who are fulfilling a vow. 24 Join them. Go through the rituals of purification with them. Pay for their heads to be shaved according to our ritual. That will show that the rumors are false and that you are still observing and upholding the law. 25 For the outside believers, we’ve already written in a letter our judgment on their situation: they should not eat food that has been sacrificed to idols, they should not eat meat with blood in it or meat from animals killed by strangulation, and they should abstain from all sexual misconduct.

26 Paul complied with their request. The very next day, he publicly joined the four men, completed the initial purification rites, entered the temple with them, and began the seven-day ritual purification process, after which a sacrifice would be made for each of them.

27 The seven days of purification were almost completed when some Jews from Asia recognized Paul in the temple. They grabbed him.

Asian Jews (shouting): 28 Help! Fellow Israelites! This man is an enemy of our people, our religion, our law, and this temple! He travels around the world subverting our holiest customs! He is at this moment desecrating this holy temple by bringing outsiders into this sacred place.

29 In this accusation, they were confused—they had seen Paul elsewhere in the city with Trophimus the Ephesian, and they assumed that one of his current companions was Trophimus. 30 It was too late to clarify, though, because word spread and soon a huge crowd rushed to the temple. They held Paul and dragged him from the temple and shut the doors behind them. 31 They beat Paul, and it was clear they intended to kill him. By this time, word of the uproar reached the commandant of the Roman guard assigned to Jerusalem.

32 He led a group of soldiers and officers to the scene. When the mob looked up and saw the soldiers running toward them, they stopped beating Paul. 33 The commandant took him into custody and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He conducted a preliminary interrogation—asking Paul’s name, what he had done. 34 Members of the crowd were shouting over each other, and the tribune couldn’t hear a thing, so he ordered Paul to be taken back to the barracks. 35 When they came to the steps leading down from the temple, the crowd was seething with such violence toward Paul that the soldiers had to pick him up and carry him. 36 Then the crowd followed.

Crowd: Away with him! Away with him!

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Psalm 150

Psalm 150

If Psalm 150 is any indication, then the worship of the one True God ought to be full of life and energy. Consider what it must have looked and sounded like in those days: voices lifted, shouting for joy, trumpets blaring, stringed instruments playing, people dancing, pipes humming, tambourines keeping rhythm, cymbals crashing. There are times when worship ought to break out in joy. Is it possible that our worship is too quiet, too reserved, too structured?

Praise the Eternal!
Praise the True God inside His temple.
Praise Him beneath massive skies, under moonlit stars and rising sun.
Praise Him for His powerful acts, redeeming His people.
Praise Him for His greatness that surpasses our time and understanding.

3-4 Praise Him with the blast of trumpets high into the heavens,
and praise Him with harps and lyres
and the rhythm of the tambourines skillfully played by those who love and fear the Eternal.
Praise Him with singing and dancing;
praise Him with flutes and strings of all kinds!
Praise Him with crashing cymbals,
loud clashing cymbals!
No one should be left out;
Let every man and every beast—
every creature that has the breath of the Lord—praise the Eternal!
Praise the Eternal!

This doxology not only closes Book Five, but it also closes the entire Book of Psalms. Up until now, the songs in this book have reminded us of all the reasons we should praise God. Some songs have even commanded us to praise Him. But this closing remark takes the command to praise one step further: everything alive—humans, animals, and heaven’s creatures—must praise Him. Praise is what God created us to do; it is one of our highest purposes in life. So it is no wonder that the longest book of the Bible is purely devoted to helping us do just that.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Proverbs 18:9-10

Those who slack off at work
are no different from vandals.
10 The Eternal is known to be like a sturdy watchtower;
those who do right flee to Him for protection.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

07/01/2018 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 18:13-19:37, Acts 21:1-17, Psalms 149:1-9, Proverbs 18:8

Today is the 1st day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today. This launches us into the back half of the year. So we’ve got a brand-new month and we’ve got a brand-new week. And they are shiny and sparkly and we’re walking into them together. We’ll read from The Voice translation this week and we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. 2 Kings chapter 18 verse 13 through 19 verse 37.

Commentary:

Okay. So as we enter our first day of the second half of the year and enter the first day of this seventh month of the year, Paul has announced his intention to go to Jerusalem. In fact, he heads into the foothills and arrives in Jerusalem today. Paul’s story is going to change from this point forward but he won’t decrease. His impact will only increase and we’ll be entering into that story and kind of following through it for most of the rest of the year.

In the book of Proverbs, here on this first day of the seventh month, we’re given some counsel that, if we would heed it, if we would actually pay attention to it, it would change the way we do things and would revolutionize many of our relationships. Whispered gossip is like a delicious first course, it is devoured with pleasure and penetrates deeply. And we’re all aware of gossip, you know, the chatter, the constant chatter, the constant chatter about someone who’s not present to speak on their own behalf, right? So, stories are invented, pieces of information are gathered and passed around inside of community, behind the back of someone, and that’s gossip. And, as the proverb indicates, it’s tasty, right? It’s this slick a little delicacy, like a first course. You take these bits of information and they’re spoken in hushed tones and entire realities are fabricated out of little bits of incomplete information. And it’s tasty. And, so, we pass it around to each other. But according to the proverb, it penetrates deeply. And, a more literal way of saying it, it goes down into the innermost parts. So, gossip is something that you take in through your ears and you speak out through your mouth, but receiving them into yourself allows them to seep deep inside of you. So, the question becomes, do I want to be perpetuating that and do I want that stuff inside of me? Do I want the rumors and the things that I know are half-baked? Do I do I want those half stories inside of me causing offenses toward people inside of me when I know they’re not the complete story? Isn’t this the very kind of stuff that I want to try to get out of my life as I seek to imitate my Savior? Isn’t this the stuff I should be staying away from? The answer, of course, is yes. The things that we say and the things that we say in the form of gossip, these are recurring themes that show up in the Bible. They’re relationship killers. They’re community destroyers because you get that kind of stuff deeply embedded into a number of people’s lives and it’s not gonna turn out pretty. It messes up a lot of stuff. So, as we move into this second half of the year, we have the opportunity, right here at the threshold, to say that the second half of the year is gonna look different. I’m not I’m not participating in that. I’m actually doubling down on my relationship and friendship with God. If I have something that I need to say out loud about someone, I’m going to speak on their behalf to God. I’m not gonna spread it around because I don’t want that stuff deeply penetrating anyone and I don’t want to seeping into my own life. 

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we come into your presence at this threshold of the seventh month, heading into the back half of the year, and we become aware of the things that we say and the effects of those things being spoken out into the world. We surrender ourselves to your authority and ask for your guidance that will lead us into all truth and it will illuminate the narrow path that leads to life. We don’t want gossip to be part of that story, a part of our story. And, so, we invite your Holy Spirit to counsel and lead us into the things that we should say and who we should say them to. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of Jesus we ask. We thank you God for bringing us this far. We thank you for the first six months of this year, every day. You’ve spoken volumes into our lives and transformed us in ways that we could’ve never even accessed in ourselves. You are a mighty God and we worship you. We invite you. Come, Holy Spirit, and to the days ahead into the second half of this year. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

So, a couple of things, a couple of things to talk about. We have just released the next update to the Daily Audio Bible app - 1.0.1.1. And big release for a certain segment of the community around the global campfire here. and that is those with eye sight challenges in the blind community. So, we have certainly continued to improve efficiencies in the system since the beginning of the year and implemented a number of features just to stabilize the system. So, we’ve been working on that all year. And so, with this new update a number of bugs have been squashed and a number of efficiencies have been introduced, but, in particular, the most noticeable thing about this new update is that we have built out the accessibility features into the app for those with challenges, especially eye sight challenges. So, if that is you, make sure to update. Actually, be sure to update no matter what, because a lot of times there’s been little bugs that we’ve fixed. And, so, little problems, they can just go away. I mean, development, it’s a process. It’s an ongoing, ever changing process of perfecting things over time, kind of like our walk with God. But staying up with the latest updates in the app will always keep you as close as we are to perfecting it. So, if you are in the blind community and you’ve been using the Daily Audio Bible app, but you haven’t been able to use the new one because of those features, go ahead and download it and then let us know how it’s working for you. So, the latest update is available now.

The other thing that we’re talking about, the event that we’ve been talking about will be happening. The 7th of July is the Daily Audio Bible long walk. That’s this coming Saturday. And the long is just a tradition we have in this community. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of weeks. So, I think we’ve all got the drill. Go somewhere beautiful. Carve out some hours. Give the whole day to it if you can. Go for a long walk with God right here in the center of the year, same things were just praying about, re-centering ourselves, asking the Lord to give us advance words and clarity on the direction that we’re heading in, and saying anything that we just have not had the time to talk about, and letting him talk back, letting him speak back into our lives. That’s what the long walk is all about. And it’s an individual endeavor, but it’s a community endeavor at the same time. Wherever you go. Whatever you do, take a picture. Shoot a little video with your phone or something. You can upload that to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible, and we get to enjoy each other’s long walks. And, so, this is our 11th annual. So, it’s been a tradition for a while and it’s always a beautiful thing to watch…just…almost you get to go on a little vacation in all the pictures and videos as they come in. So, prepare for that this Saturday. I’m looking forward to it myself.

If your partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that it dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you humbly 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’ll be waiting for here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello. This is Steve from Texas. I’m asking for prayer request for my father-in-law. He was walking to the park at night and he got mugged by some young people. Please, you know, pray. Right now I’m heading back home to make sure he’s okay. But thank you for all your prayer in advance. May God bless you. Bye.

Hello. This is Gregory from London England. Today’s the 27th June. I’d just like to say thank you to Miguel from Santa Rosa who gave us the Scripture, Psalm 94 verse 9, He who planted your ear does He not hear? He who forms your eyes does He not see? We just need the Scripture so much in our lives and particularly to know that God hears us. And, I mean, this community, DAB, Daily Audio Bible is an example of people who are willing to listen. And beyond all of us, God hears and answers prayer. So, that’s for anyone who’s in the middle of a situation that just needs to hear this at this time. So, I am inspired to broadcast today’s Daily Audio Bible all over my contact groups and cell groups and so on. Now, I am wondering if I could get some prayer for my mother. She had a diagnosis of a form of cancer. She’s in and out of hospital. Well, at the moment, she’s 84 years old so it seems shall be there for a while. She’s __ but we pray for her. My wife and I go to the hospital and pray for her. And she’s stable but to see someone so feeble and hopeless, that makes us know that we need help and strength from the Lord. And am praying for her, that she will receive strength from the Lord, whatever healing can be done in her life, let it be done. My other prayer request is regarding work. I work as a teacher, it’s on-and-off, agency work. I’m looking to start paying back my student debt by earning more generous…

Hello. This is Evaun. I’m calling for the New York City area and I want to say thank you for Brian, to Drew in the bay area, to Blind Tony, to Pastor Gene, to Annette and to many others who have been instrumental. God has used you so much to bring me out of a back-slidden condition. I was aware of the Daily Audio Bible about nine years ago and I have been struggling to continue and to try to read through God’s word. I covet your prayers for myself and my family. I also want to say to Bridget, who lives in the New York City area, that the things that are surrounding mass, the violence that we see is just a wake-up call for us to come together and pray. I’m with you sister and all that you’re experiencing. I’ve been going through things as well in the New York City area. And, so, I join with you, believing in God to bring peace to our area and uniting us because, as a united body we will be able to do the will of God. I thank you for this fellowship and I pray for the Hardin family, that God will keep you strong and healthy and able to continue to do His will. Thank you brothers and sisters. Hope to speak you again. God bless. Bye-bye.

Hi family. This is Viola from Maryland. I hope you’re all doing well. Brian and Jill, God bless you. Oh, wow, the family event is full. Brian, you’ll have to make this a yearly thing. God bless you my brother. Be expecting something from me real soon. And I’m encouraging my brothers and sisters to please give to Brian’s ministry. He can only run it with funds and God has placed us in his life and I know we can help him with that. Alfi, God bless you for the shout out. Thank you so much. I am so relieved. I’m building my masters. Even though brother, I tell you, I’ll be starting my PhD this year. So, pray for me while you think of me. Oh, my sister with the controlling husband, I heard your prayer request and my heart just went out to you. I’m praying that God will give you wisdom and understanding. Sister, listen, if you believe you’re in danger, please seek help. Don’t just sit down in there. We’ll be praying for you, that God will give you wisdom to know what to do. You know, I like the trends that’s going on in the Daily Audio Bible now. You guys are following 2 Corinthians 1:4, where God says with the comfort that we have been comforted we comfort others. I like the sister that called in to give my sister encouragement. And I like the brother that called in to give people who have an alcohol or drug problem encouragement and how God delivers you. When we keep doing that it shows that God is still in the business of healing, of delivering. __ , I’m praying for your husband. I’m praying for healing for him in the name of Jesus. I pray in the name of Jesus that God will use this to bring him to Him in the name of Jesus. __ a way that He brings the Holy Spirit __ . __ that the Holy Spirit would keep on __ him relentlessly in the name of Jesus. Cecelia from Texas, God bless you my sister. Thank you for the shout out. I’m praying for restoration for your son’s marriage. In the name of Jesus I pray that God will bring them together. I pray for __ and her daughter. I pray that there will be restoration there in the name of Jesus. And I’m am praying for that friends son, Eric, that was in the car accident. Father Lord, I pray that you will touch even this man oh Lord God. Holy Spirit, I pray that You will just move in his life. Lord Jesus, I __ with __ …

06/30/2018 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 17:1-18:12, Acts 20:1-38, Psalms 147:1-20, Proverbs 18:6-7

Today is the 30th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. Congratulations. Today marks the halfway point in our adventure through the Bible this year. And what an adventure it has been together. So, let’s dive in and take the next step forward and cross through this halfway point. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week, which happens to be today. And we’ll go into the second half of the year choosing a new translation as we begin a new week. 2 Kings 17:1 - 18:12 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we cross this threshold, the halfway point of the year, we see the ending of Israel. The ten northern tribes broke away from David’s family after Solomon’s reign. They have been conquered and they have been taken away. They were assimilated into the Assyrian empire. So, from a formal historical perspective, they left the stage. They’re the lost tribes of Israel, they’re gone. And people were brought into the land to resettle it, which was the way of empire building at the time. If you conquered one people then you conquered another people and you swapped them and intermingled them, then over generations they would become one people, people of this empire, but wouldn’t have this national identity that they once had. So, new people are in the land.

Then in the book of Acts, as we’ve reached this halfway point in the year, we’re about to turn the corner and follow a different kind of story. We’ve been traveling with Paul freely. I mean, not freely for him. He’s been suffering persecution wherever he goes. Wherever they go, they cause disruption. But he’s been able to move around. Now he’s on his way back to Jerusalem and that part of the story’s going to change. And we’ll be mostly spending our second half of the year with the Apostle Paul and with the Apostle Paul’s letters as we move through the New Testament not completely but the majority of the time. So, we’ll get to know Paul pretty well. We’ve gotten to know some of the backdrop, some of the challenges that the early church was facing, especially the Jews and Gentiles intermingling with one another. And we will see that come out in Paul’s letters quite a bit, so we’re poised. But let’s take a deep breath. We’ve made it halfway. This has been good. God has been faithful. He has been merciful and kind. And He’s spoken profoundly through His Word on so many occasions. He has certainly brought us this far, and he will certainly continue to carry us forward through the rest of the year and through the rest of our lives.

Prayer:

Father, we are grateful. We are grateful that when the road stretches out before us, You are here and You are there and everywhere in between. And we rest in that. We rest in the fact that You are our father and You are good and we trust You. Thank You for bringing us through this first half of the year, Lord. And we look forward with great anticipation to everything that You will speak to us in the coming months. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen.

Song:

“Carry Me” by Paul Alan


Say you’ll hold me ever near Emanuel

I feel you and I know that I am not alone

When the tide is angry let the billows roll

I know that there is peace just beyond the storm


And if the road is long

You will carry me

And all my strength is gone

You will carry me

I will lift my hands

You will carry me

Like the child I am

You will carry me

And if tomorrow brings a bitter yesterday

I’ll hold on and believe in the sweet reality

Of love and hope and faith that come what may

I know that you’ll be here and holding on to me

Lay me down in a daffodil field where the still waters flow

Set my eyes on the horizon and the picture of home

Sail with me miles over even my highest hopes

Cause where ever you are- that’s where I want to go

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday July 1, 2018 (NIV)

2 Kings 18:13-19:37

The Assyrian King Sennacherib invades Judah at the end of the 8th century. In 701 b.c., he reaches Jerusalem and sets himself against King Hezekiah. In one of his royal documents are words describing Hezekiah’s situation: “like a bird in a cage in Jerusalem, his royal city, I penned him.” Hezekiah is desperate and consults Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah tells Hezekiah to trust God entirely.

The story is phenomenal! God sends an angelic warrior to the Assyrian camp and 185,000 Assyrians from the royal army are killed. The Greek historian Herodotus also mentions this story and says that multitudes of rats brought a divine omen and disease to the Assyrian camp. The writer of the book of Kings clearly encourages his reader to see this event as God’s hand favoring Judah over Assyria.

13 During King Hezekiah’s 14th year, Sennacherib, Assyria’s king, attacked and captured all of Judah’s fortified cities. 14 Hezekiah (Judah’s king) sent a message to Sennacherib at Lachish.

Hezekiah’s Message: I confess that what I have done is wrong! Please leave now, and I will personally pay the penalty of my own actions.

Assyria’s king demanded 11 tons of silver and one ton of gold from Hezekiah, king of Judah. 15 Hezekiah gathered up all the silver he could find in the Eternal’s temple and in the palace treasuries; and he gave it to Assyria’s king, just as he had demanded. 16 He even stripped the gold off the Eternal’s temple doors and doorposts that he had gilded, and he handed it over to Assyria’s king.

17 Assyria’s king then dispatched a large army to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The army was led by three senior military officers, Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh, from Lachish. They came to Jerusalem and waited by the channel of the upper pool. (The channel is on the main route to the fuller’s field.) 18 They called out to the king; but instead of the king coming out to meet them, Eliakim (Hilkiah’s son) the palace administrator, Shebnah the lawyer, and Joah (Asaph’s son) the reporter to the king and the people approached them.

Rabshakeh: 19 Go back and tell Hezekiah that this is the message of Assyria’s mighty king: “What is the basis of your confidence? 20 You are a big talker, saying, ‘I have everything I need for war—guidance and might.’ But to whom do you turn now that you have turned against me? 21 You turn to a broken reed, Egypt. If a man leans on a broken reed, it stabs his palm. It is the same with Egypt’s Pharaoh and all who lean on him. 22 But you profess to me, ‘We put our faith in the Eternal One our God.’ Is it not His high places and altars that Hezekiah has torn down? Did not Hezekiah tell Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Worship at this place in Jerusalem’?”

23 Make a deal with my master, Assyria’s king, and you will receive 2,000 horses from me. I hope you have enough riders for them. 24 How can you turn away a governor—even the least of my master’s governors—and lean on Egypt instead for horsemen and chariots? 25 Do you think I have come here to destroy this land without the Eternal’s permission? He is the One who told me, “Go destroy it! I’ll support you.

Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah (to Rabshakeh): 26 This needs to be a private conversation. Please speak to your servants in a different tongue—Aramaic—for we understand it and do not need you to speak to us in Judean. That way everyone on the walls won’t be able to understand you.

Rabshakeh: 27 How arrogant and foolish of you! Do you think I have been sent here by my king to talk to only you and your king? I am to speak to everyone. Soon you and these men on the walls will surely be doomed to fill your bellies with your own dung and quench your thirst with your own urine.

28 (loudly in Judean) Listen to what Assyria’s mighty king has to say! 29 He says, “Do not trust in Hezekiah. He cannot save you from me! 30 Do not allow Hezekiah to deceive you into trusting the Eternal when he says, ‘The Eternal One will save us, and our city will not be handed over to Assyria’s king.’” 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah. Assyria’s king says, “Let there be peace between us. Join me now, and fill your bellies with food from your own vineyards and orchards and drink from your own pools. 32 Then I will come and lead you to a land similar to your own—a land of plentiful grain, new wine, bread, vineyards, olive orchards, and honey. This is a place where you will live in peace and not worry about a premature death. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he lies to you, saying, ‘The Eternal will save us.’ 33 Have any of the gods of other nations ever saved their lands from Assyria’s king? Is there a single nation that has survived him? 34 Where are Hamath’s gods and Arpad’s gods? Where are Sepharvaim’s gods, Hena’s gods, and Ivvah’s gods? Did they save Samaria from me? 35 Are there any gods in any land that have saved their lands from me? No, there is not a single one. So do you really think that the Eternal will be any different? Do you really think He can save you, Jerusalem, from me?”

36 Everyone listening was quiet and did not reply with a single word, because the king had given them the command, “Don’t speak a single word to him.” 37 Eliakim (Hilkiah’s son) the palace administrator, Shebna the lawyer, and Joah (Asaph’s son) the reporter approached Hezekiah and tore their garments. Then they recited every word Rabshakeh had spoken to them.

19 King Hezekiah tore his clothes after he heard what had been said. He then covered himself with sackcloth and entered the Eternal’s temple. Hezekiah dispatched the palace administrator, Eliakim, along with Shebna the lawyer and the priest-elders, to go meet with the prophet Isaiah (Amoz’s son). Eliakim, Shebna, and the elders all went wearing sackcloth.

Eliakim, Shebna, and the Elders (to Isaiah): This is Hezekiah’s message: “Today is filled with hours of sorrow, pain, anxiety, and reproof. Children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to deliver them. It may be that the Eternal One your God will disprove the words of Rabshakeh, whom Assyria’s king has sent to taunt the living God. So pray hard that your God, the Eternal One, will rebuke those words and save His few children who remain.”

King Hezekiah’s servants approached Isaiah, and Isaiah spoke to them.

Isaiah: Go back and tell your master, “This is the Eternal’s urgent message: ‘Have no fear of the blasphemy which the servants of Assyria’s kings have spoken. They are merely empty words. I am going to infect Assyria’s king with a spirit, and he will hear a rumor and go back to his homeland. There I will cause him to die by the sword.’”

Rabshakeh returned to the Assyrian king who was now battling against the city of Libnah because he had heard that the king had abandoned Lachish.

9-10 Sennacherib then received word about Tirhakah, Cush’s king: “He is preparing to fight you.” So Sennacherib sent a message again to Hezekiah.

Sennacherib’s Message: Hezekiah, king of Judah, I warn you not to be fooled by your God, on whom you rely, when He says, “Jerusalem will not be conquered by Assyria’s king.” 11 Surely you have heard about how the kings of Assyria demolished all the nations completely—every last one of them. Do you really think you will be rescued? 12 Were the people of those nations saved by their gods when my fathers attacked? Were Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden’s sons in Telassar ever rescued? No! 13 And what happened to the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim’s city, Hena, and Ivvah?”

14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, and then placed it before the Eternal in His temple.

Hezekiah (praying to the Lord): 15 O Eternal One, Israel’s God, who sits above the winged guardians, You alone are God of all the kingdoms on earth, the One who made heaven and earth. 16 Eternal One, open up Your ears and Your eyes so You may hear and see. Listen to the words Sennacherib uses to reject the living God. 17 Eternal One, I certainly know that the Assyrian kings have destroyed the nations and lands. 18 I know how they have thrown the gods of the nations into the flames of the fire and destroyed them, but those gods were created out of wood and stones by men. 19 Eternal One, our True God, I pray You save us now from Sennacherib’s conquest—the fate that all the other nations have suffered—so that every nation on earth will know that You alone, Eternal One, are God.

20 Isaiah (Amoz’s son) sent a message to Hezekiah.

Isaiah’s Message: This is the message of the Eternal One, Israel’s God: “Because you have come to Me about Assyria’s king, Sennacherib, I have heard every word you have prayed.

21 This is the Eternal’s message against Sennacherib:

“She has abhorred and ridiculed you,
Zion’s virgin daughter.
She has ridiculed you behind your back,
Jerusalem’s daughter!
22 Whom have you rebuked and spoken blasphemies against?
Whom do you speak loudly against?
And arrogantly lift up your eyes
against the Holy One, Israel’s God?
23 Your messengers have been your vessels of rebuke against the Lord;
you have spoken, ‘In the company of my countless chariots,
I arrived at the mountain heights.
At the most distant lands of Lebanon,
I chopped down the tallest cedars
and the finest-looking cypress trees.
I went to its most distant resting place,
in its deepest forest.
24 I made wells in the ground
and quenched my thirst with foreign waters;
With the bottom of my feet I soaked up
every last drop of Egypt’s rivers.’

25 Don’t you know?
I did this thing a long time ago;
From the beginning, I planned it.
I have now done it,
So that you might cause strong cities
to turn into piles of rubble.
26 Those who lived there were weak;
they were distressed and humiliated.
They became like the grass that grows in the field
and also like the green herb,
Just like grass that grows on the roofs of houses
but is burned by the sun before it gets too high and thick.
27 But I am aware of everything you do
when you sit down, when you go out, when you return—
and I am aware of your fury against Me.
28 Because you have raged against Me,
because your arrogance has flooded My ears,
I am going to insert My hook into your nose
and harness your lips with My bridle,
And I will send you back in the direction
from which you came.

29 “This will be the sign for you: for the first year, you will feast on what grows on its own; for the second year, you will feast on what grows from the original source; and for the third year, you will prepare the soil, gather, plant vineyards, and feast on their fruit. 30 Whatever is left of Judah’s house will again spread its roots down into the soil and grow upward with fruit. 31 A remnant will depart from Jerusalem; survivors will depart from Mount Zion. This will all be accomplished by the intense passion of the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.”

32 This is the Eternal’s message regarding Assyria’s king: “He will not approach this city, nor will he shoot an arrow toward it. He will not approach it with a shield in hand or construct a ramp against it. 33 He will go back the same way he came, and he will not approach this city.” This is the Eternal’s message. 34 “I will defend this city in order to preserve it for My own honor and for the honor of David, My servant.”

35 That night one of the Eternal One’s heavenly messengers invaded the Assyrian camp and struck 185,000 men. When they woke up the next morning, the camp was filled with corpses. 36 Assyria’s king, Sennacherib, went away and returned to his own land, Nineveh.

37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god, Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword. Then they fled to Ararat. Sennacherib’s son, Esarhaddon, then inherited the throne.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Acts 21:1-17

The last words of Paul to his Ephesian disciples are emotional, inspiring, but unbelievably arrogant. Who would place himself on a pedestal and encourage everyone to be more like him? It sounds like a cult of personality, but it is not. Paul understands that the gospel must be incarnate; it is more than a set of ideas, so someone must demonstrate how to walk the path of faith. He calls them to watch him carefully and emulate his behavior: watch how I treat people, how I eat, what I say, the way I give; and do likewise. If all believers could possess the same boldness to say, “do as I do,” then the world would be a better place. Believers would not just speak the good news; they would live the good news.

21 Cos was our next stop, and the next day, Rhodes, and the next, Patara. We found another ship in Patara that would take us south and east toward Phoenicia. We saw Cyprus to our left and sailed on to Syria, landing at Tyre where the ship had cargo to unload. We found the disciples there and stayed with them for seven days. The Spirit moved them to tell Paul not to go on to Jerusalem; but the day came for our departure, and the whole community of disciples, including wives and children, escorted us outside the city. We knelt down together on the beach, prayed together, said farewell, and then parted company— the disciples returning to their homes, we sailing on. From Tyre we docked at Ptolemais where we met with the believers and spent a day with them. Then we moved on to Caesarea. In Caesarea we stayed with Philip the evangelist, one of the seven.[a] His four virgin daughters lived with him, each having the gift of prophecy. 10 While we were with them, another gifted prophet named Agabus came north from Judea. 11 He took Paul’s belt and used it to bind his own feet and hands.

Agabus: This is a message from the Holy Spirit: unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem will in this way bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the outsiders.

Paul is a man of great mystery. This persecutor-turned-preacher seems more like a character from pages of fiction than the instigator of the spread of Christianity. He becomes what he once despised and willingly suffers on behalf of his new Savior. Paul is accused of many things, but he is no fool. He fully understands what is waiting for him in Jerusalem: persecution, suffering, and ultimately death. His friends beg him not to return to this holy city, but Paul is called to live in the footsteps of the One who was crucified—He who was destined to suffer yet called for no drugs. His suffering served a greater purpose, and Paul never loses sight of this spiritual reality because he is living in the kingdom of God.

The masses hope for a gospel that makes them happy, healthy, and wealthy. Jesus said the way of life is a hard road, with only a few on it. Ironically this hard road ends in life. The easy, broad street—which may be paved with good intentions—always leads to death and destruction.

12 Now we all joined in imploring Paul—we, his companions, and Philip and his daughters, everyone present—begging him not to go one step closer to the city.

Paul: 13 Please, you’re breaking my heart with your tears! I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m fully prepared to be bound, and more—to die for the name of Jesus, the King.

14 We realized our persuasion was fruitless, so we stopped pleading with him and simply said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

15 So we knew what we were getting into as we prepared to ascend the foothills toward Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and led us to the home of Mnason, a Cypriot and one of the first disciples, with whom we stayed. 17 We continued on to Jerusalem and were welcomed warmly by the brothers there.

Footnotes:

  1. 21:8 Acts 6:1–6; 8:4–40
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Psalm 149

Psalm 149

Praise the Eternal!
Write new songs; sing them to Him with all your might!
Gather with His faithful followers in joyful praise;
Let all of Israel celebrate their Maker, their God, their friend;
let the children of Zion find great joy in their true King.
So let the music begin; praise His name—dance and sing
to the rhythm of the tambourine, and to the tune of the harp.
For the Eternal is listening, and nothing pleases Him more than His people;
He raises up the poor and endows them with His salvation.
Let His faithful followers erupt in praise,
singing triumphantly wherever they are, even as they lie down for sleep in the evening.
With the name of God and praise in their mouths,
with a two-edged sword in their hands,
Let them take revenge on all nations who deny God.
Let them punish the peoples.
Kings and nobles will be locked up,
and their freedom will be bound in iron shackles.
This judgment against them, decreed by a holy God, will be carried out.
It’s an honor for all His faithful followers to serve Him.
Praise the Eternal!

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Proverbs 18:8

Whispered gossip is like a delicious first course:
it is devoured with pleasure and penetrates deeply.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.