Month: January 2019

Genesis 32:13-34:31, Matthew 11:7-30, Psalms 14:1-7, Proverbs 3:19-20

Today is the 16^th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and, of course, it’s a pleasure to be here with you. I can’t think of anywhere else, and this is the true, I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be right now than here, together with you, taking the next step forward through the Scriptures and that next step forward, at least from the Old Testament perspective will take us back into the book of Genesis where we’re learning the story of Jacob and where we left him yesterday was that he had just dealt with his father-in-law, Laban, who had been in pursuit of him because he fled but now he’s got his brother Esau out in front of him. And the last thing he knew of his brother Esau was it his brother Esau want to kill him. So, off we go to find out how the story continues to unfold. Genesis chapter 32 verse 13 through 34 verse 31 today and we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Genesis today, pretty monumental things have happened. We’ve gone through the story of Jacobs father-in-law Laban chasing him down. So, kind of the past following him and then the peace being made there and then Esau is out in front of him. And, so, they meet today, but as we begin our reading Jacob has this wrestling match, that kind of lasts all night and he ends up getting his hip out of the socket and Jacob won’t let go, like he’s trying to find out who it is he’s been wrestling with and he won’t let go. And there has been plenty of scholarly speculation about this particular passage over the millennia with something that Jacobs wrestling with - an angel or with God - something from the divine, while others would say that he’s wrestling with his brother Esau who has tracked him down and they kind of fought it out. And this comes from, as the narrative tells, the story of their actual meeting. Jacob says to Esau, “seeing your face is like seeing the face of God.” Either way, what happens to Jacob is fairly profound. Like his grandfather, Abram, whose name was changed to Abraham and his grandmother whose name was Soraya and that was changed to Sarah, Jacobs name was changed and the name that replaces Jacob is really important. Jacobs name changes to Israel. And we’ve gone through the story of the development of Jacobs family, right, the two sisters that are married and then they give their servant girls to have more children. And, so, all of these children have been born and we’ve seen all of their names and it’s at this point that it should all begin to make sense. Jacobs name being changed to Israel now very literally makes his children, the children of Israel. And that’s exactly who they are. Each of those child’s names we should recognize, and they should be familiar because they go on to become the tribes of Israel. Of course, a daughter was born in amongst all of those sons and her name was Dinah and we read of her story today, of the family coming through Shechem. Shechem is still an actual place. It is now called Annapolis and it’s the biblical Shechem, a place that we’ll visit often in the Bible. Some really, really pivotal things happen in this in this city, Dinah’s rape being one of those things. And, of course, then we see her brothers rise up and defend her honor as we leave our reading from Genesis today.

And then we get into the book of Matthew and Jesus has a conversation about John the Baptist and He questions what the people are actually looking for, like what is it that they came to see when they came to see John the Baptist. What Jesus is beginning to do in this particular dialogue that we read today is to reveal that we won’t be able to figure out our entire spiritual journey intellectually, it will have to be a collaboration between our heart and our mind, which is how we were created to be in order to walk with God. So, just trying to sorted out by reason will come up short. And listen, we’re at the beginning of the year, we’re getting to know each other, but my natural state is an introvert and as a student. I need to know why things work the way that they do. And, so, I turned to theology thinking that that would have all the answers and just, you know, like, you know, at some point in your faith you’re like, how, just tell me exactly how this works, like, exactly how does this work and exactly what am I supposed to do so that I have some sort of gauge to know whether I’m doing this right or not? Unfortunately, that can’t be achieved through a theological formula that makes a declarative and dogmatic statement about God because we don’t know what we’re talking about when we’re talking about God. We know what we’ve observed, and we know what we’ve experienced, but we also acknowledge that He is vastly beyond our comprehension, right, so vastly beyond our ability to reason out and make a statement about that is definitive and covers everything. And then we have to ask ourselves where, how, how it is we know, where is God? Like, how is it that we’re relating to God? Is that all in our mind or is it in our heart. I mean, like, do we accept Jesus and begin to believe? I mean, does he come into our mind, or does he come into our heart or is it both? Like, we don’t…it starts to break down, our semantics, but we would say, we accept Christ into our heart. We would say that our heart, this is the source of our love, this is this is the core, the truth, the real person, or however you want to say it. We would agree that in terms of spirituality in our believes, that our heart is involved in the process, so can’t be done just with the mind. And, so, Jesus begins to discuss things like this by praying. “Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes father, it pleased you to do it this way.” So, we begin to realize that the message Jesus is unfolding, the way that He is being in the world as a human being and the invitation that he is beginning to offer humanity is a different way of looking at how you are being in the world. And one of those first lessons is you’re not going to be able to figure it all out with your knowledge, which we’ve already talked about. It takes us back to the beginning of Genesis where the forbidden fruit was eaten and the exchange that was made was an exchange for the knowledge of good and evil and that’s what we’ve been using to try to make ourselves sovereign all this time. And then here comes Jesus, a perfect…a perfectly human person saying, “you’ve separated yourself from your own heart and that these are repercussions of the fall, but I am announcing the good news of the kingdom, a new thing is going on here and I’m looking for those eyes to see and ears to hear”. So, I don’t think I’ve just said anything that we don’t all already believe as Christians, but we may not have thought about it in this way, but since we’re going to go through the entire Bible it’s important for us to examine and try to till into our lives what is actually being said here so that we can actually live into it. And what we’re learning today is we’re not gonna figure it all out in our mind any more than we can figure love out in our mind, right? We have to engage ourselves in something that’s mysterious to us, but that we know is true and that we believe is true like when we talk about love. How do you know you love somebody? I mean, you can give all kinds of reasons, but when you’re trying to describe what love is you have to move into the territory of art and poetry, you have to move into the ways that we speak about realities that are mysteries and that are beyond us and Jesus is beginning to unpack this as he announces the kingdom. And then Jesus instructs us or invites us, “come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” So, I’m signing up for that. I hope you are too. And then Jesus invites us to take His yoke upon us and allow Him to teach us because He is humble and gentle at heart and we will find rest for our souls. And then Jesus tells us. “For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” And that’s a famous passage of Scripture, so we all know that. But let me let me just invite you to think about something today. As believers in Jesus we are supposed to be like Christ our Savior. That’s really the point of our faith, right, to become like our Savior. And we can look at a passage like this, “My yoke is easy, My burden is light” and just simply think, “well what Jesus is supposed to do is make my life easy. I’m supposed to accept Jesus and then He will make my life easy”, but all throughout Jesus teachings, we will find that He’s not inviting us to anything that’s easy, He’s inviting us to something that’s hard, that will become easy if we are living integrated with our hearts and our minds intertwined with the mind of Christ and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance. And yet bringing light into the darkness is a struggle, it is a burden. And, so, maybe another way to consider this Scripture is that His yoke is easy to bear, and the burden that He is inviting us to share in is light not on heavy, but light into the darkness. And, so, we can consider today how much we’re willing to carry the burden of bringing light into the darkness as we move into this year. Is this going to be another year where we live defensively, right, all huddled up in this in kind of a fetal position just hoping that Jesus is surrounding us and will make things easy and will make all the difficult things go away or are we beginning to understand that Jesus is inviting us to collaborate with Him in bringing His kingdom and revealing it in this world. To bring light into dark places, that’s not going to be an easy thing. It wasn’t an easy thing for our Savior; however, it is noble to be a part of changing the world and isn’t that the kind of purposeful, meaningful thing we spend our whole lives trying to find? And yet here it is, all in front of us. We are invited into the great dance of collaboration and relationship with God. We are invited to reflect His glory upon the earth as image bearers. We are invited to do the same kinds of things and even greater things, according to Jesus then He did. We are invited to bring light into the darkness, that’s purpose but it’s nothing that we can achieve on our own. We have to go back to square one, have the faith of a child, and understand that our reason isn’t going to get us there alone. We’re not going to figure God out all by ourselves intellectually, we have to re-integrate our spirit and our heart and walk with God as we bring light into the darkness. What that looks like for each of us will be different because each of us has our own story and we’re all over the world, but it looks like something. What does it look like for you?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we invite You into that question because all kinds of simple questions become very complicated questions when we begin to actually ponder them and when we begin to realize how much is actually being touched inside of us. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit into the questions that the Scriptures bring up. We invite Your Holy Spirit into this as we contemplate it today. Come Jesus. We ask in Your mighty name and lead us into all truth, which is what You promised to do and we trust You to do. Come Holy Spirit we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Check out all of the resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible shop including all of our journal and writing…like…journal your way through the Scriptures this year and you will have that for a lifetime to refer back to. Or other resources, like the Promise Land films. So, for example, we visited the city of Shechem today and I said a lot of biblical things happened there, and they do. Shechem is a place we’ve gone and filmed, it’s in the Promised Land films. And, so, you can kind of see some of these places that we’re visiting as we visit them in the Bible. So, check out those resources, they’re there for the journey through the Bible in a year.

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

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Genesis 31:17-32:12, Matthew 10:24-11:6, Psalms 13:1-6, Proverbs 3:16-18

Today is the 15^th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and, of course, every day is a joy and a pleasure to be here with you and in your presence and in the presence of our brothers and sisters all over the world. And we lovingly call this activity the global campfire. And I don’t really know where that started, honestly, it just kind of stuck a few years ago, I guess I was just sitting here right in front of the mic just picturing us all coming in out of the cold, you know, because we begin the year, at least here in the northern hemisphere in the wintertime. So, we’re just coming out of the cold. And, you know, it can be like dark and cold out there and to be able to come in and warm yourself with friends and know that you not alone, know that this journey isn’t a solitary endeavor, that we’re in this together. I just…I guess…it just kind of caught on from there. So, just through another log on the global campfire, and off we go. And man, here we are halfway. This is like the halfway point of the first month of the year and it happens just like that because it was just Christmas, right? Like it just was Christmas but this is…time just kind of moves and before we know it we’ll be in another season and the year will move by and we’ll realize just how much God’s word is speaking into our lives and just how profoundly it is affecting the way we make our decisions and that happens day by day, step-by-step around this global campfire. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Today, Genesis chapter 31 verse 17 through 32 verse 12, and reminding you we’re following the story of Jacob and his wives and their children, and they want to leave and head back to Jacob’s homeland. And, so, there’s some drama brewing. Genesis chapter 31.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis we’re following the story of Jacob who…well…we don’t have to review every little detail of the story because we just read it in the last couple of days, but he’s on his way back to his homeland and we need to remember that he had to flee from his homeland, right, because he’s the one that stole his brothers birthright and then he and his mother kind of colluded to get this family blessing. So, when Esau, the older brother, finds out what has happened Jacob has to run for his life and Esau decides, like, after I’m done mourning my father I’m going to kill my brother, right? So, like, they have to separate each other, separate from each other. And, so, it’s been a couple of decades now. So, that’s, you know, some time for this to all cool off, but Jacob doesn’t know, I mean the last thing he knew was that his brother wanted to kill him, but he doesn’t really have a great scenario where he’s at with his father-in-law Laban because Laban, I mean, Jacob and Laban, they both have been like tricking each other and we can’t forget that Jacob’s a bit of a trickster himself. I mean he did get the birthright from Esau, he did get the family blessing under trickery and he did have to run away for it. So, Laban’s given him a taste of his own medicine but there’s no future there and God is calling him to go back to his Father. So, what we saw in today’s reading was this man and his wives and his family and their whole entourage leaving secretly to try to do just that. And in a very, very short time we have Jacob and his family in the middle of a pretty nasty situation that could turn really volatile really fast and destroy them all because behind him he’s got his father-in-law Laban and their family and surely, they’re going to figure out that he’s gone. So, they’re going to come in pursuit, but out in front of him he’s got his brother Esau also wanting to do him harm. So, he’s kind of like in between two bad situations. And you may find yourself in a similar position in life. And we see Jacob responding in a very, very human way, in a way that we would understand. I mean Laban does arrive and there is a pretty big confrontation and then Jacob is able to kind of unload some of the things that he’s been carrying around. And in the end, a monument is set up, a covenant is entered into, and they have agreed that they will not pass that boundary line with the intent of hurting each other. So, Jacob’s able to navigate and find favor in that situation that was behind him, the one haunting image from his past as it were, but he’s still got his future out in front of him, which is a big circle from the very distant past, his brother. And, so, he sends word just the sort of test the temperature and the next thing he knows his brothers riding toward him with 400 mercenaries and that’s kind of where were left today. So like, let’s get it really clear that in biblical times these people didn’t just float around, you know, a foot off the ground with halos and, you know, like they actually had to face some pretty difficult things, and as we do. So, we can look into these stories and say, okay, yeah, I mean proverbially I got the same thing going on, I’ve got something going on behind me, I’ve got something going on before me, I feel like I’ve been caught in the middle, I’ve got to navigate this. Probably not to the extreme of Jacob. And we get to watch Jacob navigate and learn from it.

Then we get into the book of Matthew and Jesus is saying some pretty provocative stuff. Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth. I came not to bring peace but a sword. I’ve come to set man against his father, daughter against her mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, your enemies will be right in your household. Okay. So, what happened to the loving baby Jesus in the manger and peace on earth and goodwill towards men? Like, Christmas hasn’t hardly worn off. What is this? What we have to begin to realize about Jesus message and Jesus way is that He is fundamentally reminding human beings what they were created to be and He is living a life as a full human being, certainly, the son of God as we believe, fully divine but also fully human as the Scriptures teach us. And, so, we’re looking at Jesus and we’re seeing a person like people are supposed to be, like what they were created to be without the black weight of sin involved. And light comes into the darkness, certainly the darkness flees, right, but the shadows are cast and it’s like a cosmic battle because mankind had been spending its time trying to organize itself in such a way that it could be its own God, which is what we saw as we started this story back in the book of Genesis chapter 3 with the fall of man and betrayed. Like, eating that fruit gave mankind the knowledge of good and evil, but what mankind lost in the trade was an intimate fellowship with God. And, so, mankind became very evil but tried to use the knowledge of good and evil to become its own God. Well when God shows up in the middle of that story then we’re talking about the clash of kingdoms and people are notoriously famous for not wanting to give up their freedom of choice and will. And yet that is exactly what…that is exactly what Jesus message is. And maybe kind of taking this journey this year, first time through the Bible just kind of wanting understand what it is actually saying so you can determine whether you’re going to follow this path or not, this is fundamentally the Jesus way, is that there is a better way of being a human being, one that is restored to the way that human beings were supposed to live. And we get to watch that in the person of Jesus, but we also notice that those with power and influence only feel exposed by Jesus. Like, they can’t cozy up to Jesus and get him to collude with them because He won’t, because He’s pure, because He’s true and He can’t be bought. We’re watching a person live in this world true and everywhere He goes it disrupts what is false even to the point of dividing family. So, the Scriptures tell us there’s a narrow path that leads to life and only a few find it and those who do disrupt things. And all you have to do is just think about it, think about, well okay, what if I were absolutely truth? Like, what if there were no falseness in me? When we start thinking about that we realize that all of the ways that we relate to each other has a falseness to it. We are presenting an image so that we can all find a way to get along, but we have an inner monologue of things that are really going on that we wouldn’t let out. Some of that’s because we wouldn’t let out the embarrassing dark thoughts that we have, but what if we didn’t have any darkness either, right? So, what if we weren’t hiding anything because there wasn’t anything to hide and everything that we did, everything about us was true, everyone knew exactly who we really are and that was good, that was true and good. Well then, we would be Christ like, right, then we would be like Christ. Then we think, well, that kind of person could really lead people into the truth, that kind of person…that kind of a leader would really, really pull us forward, but that’s not how it worked out for Jesus, right? Those in power and authority killed Him. The darkness does not want the light because you can’t hide in the light. And, so, understand that as we take this journey and truly give ourselves over to allowing a relationship with God, an intertwining of spirits, a transformation from within us, so that we are experiencing actual life, not a fabricated version full of stuff that we have to maintain, but actual life, then that is not going to just disrupt us, that is going to disrupt everything around us

Prayer:

Father, we pray for wisdom as we continue to take these steps forward. Its intriguing to understand that the life that we want, the truth that we want, the way that we want to walk into life with You, our hearts cry for this, but as the layers begin to get peeled back we begin to understand, following this way on the narrow path that leads to life will be costly and will cost us everything that we think we are because everything that we have been is changing and everything that we are in You. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit to come. We’re here at the beginning of the year and Your testing our motivations, You’re revealing our hearts to ourselves, You are allowing us to see things as they really are and we are swept into this, we have pulled forward. So, Holy Spirit show us how to navigate. With Your wisdom we pray. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Check out the Daily Audio Bible resources that are in the Daily Audio Bible shop, visit the Prayer Wall at dailyaudiobible.com or in the app, pray for your brothers and sisters around the world or maybe you need your brothers and sisters to pray for you. This is a community that prays for each other and shoulders one another’s burdens. And, so, the Prayer Wall is a certainly one of the places to do that.

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 it just lives there. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Genesis 30:1-31:16, Matthew 10:1–23, Psalms 12:1-8, Proverbs 3:13-15

Today is the 14^th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure to be here with you today as we move into this workweek and, you know, continue to move into this new year although I imagine we’re starting to find the rhythm of things. This week we’re reading from the New Living Translation and will take the next step forward, which will take us back into the book of Genesis. Today chapter 30 verse 1 through 31 verse 16 and we’re learning the story of Jacob who has found himself married to two sisters, which has caused considerable amount of family conflict, but we should watch this story very, very closely because we’re still following the story of Abraham and his descendants. And Jacob’s descendants couldn’t possibly have a more profound effect on the Bible. And, So, with that we’ll read from Genesis chapter 30.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we are following the story of Jacob in the Old Testament. And just by way of reminder, Jacob is the grandson of Abraham and we talked about the significance of Abraham and we’ll be talking about the significance of Abraham pretty much the rest of the way through the Bible because he’ll come up, but he had a son of promise named Isaac who had a couple of sons and one of those sons is named Jacob and then Jacob had to flee from his brother Esau, right, back up into the north country to find his family and this is how he came to marry the two sisters, Rachel and Leah. Now, we kind of…we saw a battle of who could have the most kids in our reading today, but each of those sons that were born had names at each of those names should kind of seem at least a little familiar. And if that we understand we are tracking a family and its growth as we move through the book of Genesis we’ll understand that a larger story is being told instead of like discombobulated genealogies of people that we may or may not have ever heard of and can’t really figure out exactly where this is all going. We’re following the story of a family and this family affects the world until today and through this family line comes Jesus who we are spending some time with as we spend our time in the New Testament. So, the Bible often offers us some pretty penetrating things to think about in terms of adjustments to our own lives and the way that we are living in this world, but the Bible is also telling us a story of a family of promise, a family that we as believers have been grafted into or adopted into. So, we’re kind of getting close to half way through the first month of the year. Now that we’re establishing a rhythm we should begin to understand that we’re reading the story of how we got here and who we are. And, so, as deeply penetrating as the Bible can be it is also deeply compelling. This is how we got here.

And speaking of Jesus, in the book of Matthew Jesus sent his disciples out among the Jewish people and He give them interesting instructions and those instructions basically look like it like instructions to not prepare. Like, I mean He told them, like, not to take an extra change of clothes, not take any money, like just go and that gives us a pretty compelling picture towards our own lives because, here we are kind of at the beginning of the new year, we’ve got some New Year’s resolutions we’re trying to live up to, we’re far enough into the year to understand now that the idea of the resolution was a lot more fun than actually the work of the resolution, right? So, if it’s 20 pounds you’re trying to dump, yeah, I mean, there’s a bunch of discipline involved in kind of changing the way you do things, but it could be anything, it could be any health-related goal, you know, a spiritual related goal, a vocational related goal. Whatever it is were going for, when we think about the goal it’s a lot more fun to prepare then to do the work. And, so, when we think about our spirituality we’re like, okay, I’m just gonna get myself strong, you know, I’m gonna get my vocabulary right, I’m gonna know what it is I believe, I’m gonna get my theology right and then I can share that with the world when I’m all nice and ready and knowledgeable to do it. In the example Jesus gave to his disciples, it wasn’t like a big theology lesson or like, make sure you’ve got this all right. He essentially told him to go, like, go now, go with whatever you have, go and don’t be surprised that its disruptive when you do. So, interestingly enough, Jesus is saying, like if you’re going to go on some sort of mission or become some sort of missionary however it is wherever you’re going that you shouldn’t be completely unprepared and just kind of figure it out as you go. What Jesus is telling us is you’re already in the process of going no matter what you are doing so, be where you are and live on mission as it comes to you. And yeah, if you’re planning something more extravagant, you’re being called to do something that’s in another country or, you know, that requires a lot of planning and preparation then, yeah, do that but remember, while you’re doing that not everything else stops. Wherever you are and whatever you have and however it is that you can offer it, you are offering the good news of the kingdom, right? So, you don’t have to spend your whole life preparing so that you can offer the good news of the kingdom, just do it. And friends, that can be as simple as a smile at a stranger today, right? That changes everything. When that person who you have no idea what their story is or what they’re going through, when their eyes lock to your eyes for some random reason and you offer back kindness, that not only changes their day, that changes your day, that changes your posture of heart. If we’re walking with God we have these kind of touch point opportunities constantly. And when we get into the habit of them then we find that what we’re doing, when we’re simply kind that we’re bringing light into darkness and it’s changing the atmosphere. But if we will intentionally change the atmosphere everywhere we go then we’re going to live in a different atmosphere, one of peace and hope and joy and kindness and wisdom.

And, you know, we have lots of pursuits that we’re going to go after this year, but speaking of wisdom the book of Proverbs offers us the opportunity to consider what is most important in our achievements this year. “Wisdom”, we’re told, “is more profitable than silver and her wages are better than gold.” In other words, having wisdom is more important and more profitable than having money. “Wisdom is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with her.” So, that gives us the opportunity to consider whether or not that’s true. Is wisdom the thing that we value more than anything else? Are we understanding the truth that whatever we may desire nothing can compare with wisdom. Some good food for thought today because if we’re gonna live into what the Bible is telling us this year then some of these really important things at the beginning of the year are monumental. And wisdom and acquiring wisdom and being in a relationship with wisdom and being intertwined with wisdom and walking through this world using wisdom is one of them.

Prayer:

Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit to help us know how to open ourselves fully to the voice of wisdom in our lives. We’re being counseled and we will continue to be counseled throughout the year that wisdom is more important than any other thing that we could acquire in this life because wisdom will show us how to achieve anything else. And, so, this is a foundational, fundamental piece of our existence. In fact, the voice of wisdom told us that You Father used her, when You created the world You used wisdom. And, so, making this wisdom available to us, why would we ever not pursue this with all of our hearts? That’s the great mystery. But come Holy Spirit because we’ve pursued all kinds of things in all kinds of directions and most of those directions have been wrong directions. And as we reflect back on it, we realize wisdom was the thing to sort of left in the dust. So, come Holy Spirit we want to wise as we move through this year and we won’t be able to do that on our own. We need Your help. There’s too many distractions, there’s too many things pulling us in too many directions. And, so, we need You. Come Holy Spirit we pray. Show us the path of wisdom we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

I will remind you of the sister programs to the Daily Audio Bible because we talked about wisdom again. And, so where talking about the book of Proverbs. And the Daily Audio Proverb is available every single day. We go through the entire book of Proverbs, a chapter a day and so, through the whole book each month. And just kind of pouring that into your life is one of the ways to get wisdom, right? I mean to understand the voice of wisdom and the kinds of things that wisdom wants to talk about is something that we find the book of Proverbs and it takes two minutes a day. Like adding two minutes of Scripture more than you already are into you are into your life, maybe like listening to Daily Audio Bible in the morning but taking two extra minutes at some point in the day to pour unfiltered wisdom, like the wisdom of the ages into your life. What will that do for you? So, check that out, Daily Audio Proverb. There’s also the Daily Audio Psalm where we’re going to the Psalms, just like we are on Daily Audio Bible but in a nice, compact, five minutes. You know, whatever you can pour into your life is a helpful thing because you’re pouring the words of life into your heart. So, these resources are available. Of course, Daily Audio Bible Chronological is a channel and then we have the foreign languages, and I say foreign because English is my native tongue. So, it’s foreign to me, but if English is a second language or third language or fourth language for you and you speak another native tongue, maybe we have a community using that language. So, we have Daily Audio Bible Spanish for Spanish speakers in Espanola. So, there’s the Daily Audio Bible as we’re doing but they also have Psalms and Proverbs in the in Spanish. We have Daily Audio Bible, Chinese, Arabic, French - and French has Psalms and Proverbs as well – Portuguese…oh I don’t have the list in front of me…but all of those channels are available in the Daily Audio Bible app in the Daily Audio Bible player and I wherever it is that you get your podcasts. So, just want to make sure that, you know, these resources are available and ongoing. It is our mission to bring God’s spoken word to anyone who will listen to it and that’s been the rhythm of this community. And, so, there are number of ways to do that. And Daily Audio Bible Proverb was created for no other reason than to make it simple. Like wisdom isn’t as complicated as we might make it out to be or is mysterious as we might make it out to be, its calling from everywhere and if we start the book of Proverbs that’s what it’s telling us, it’s calling to us from everywhere. So, we need to learn it’s voice and reading through the book of Proverbs gets us very familiar. So, check these resources out.

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

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DABbers, this is Slave of Jesus in North Carolina, all right, Holy Spirit let’s roll. Justin from SoCal welcome back to the DAB, good to hear from you. The first of the year some of us get some automatic raises. Gotta take the time to go in and update your donations to the DAB. Doing it monthly. I actually changed the __ , it’s really easy, took about 12 seconds to do it. Lord we ask you to watch in and all the prayers for longtime marriages, especially those who have been separated and separated now. We know the enemy wants to destroy these marriages, so he can take away the shining example of your love in a marriage. And in all the prayers from Nick and Alex the wrestlers. Lord, we ask you to give them the motivation to do things in their life and help their family deal with that of their doing. Amen. All the prayers from the Prodigal, but prodigal, waiting for you to call and for others. I mean, calling in on New Year’s Eve. But it sounds like the enemy is telling you a bunch of lies because I am hearing you repeat some of those lies and the biggest what I heard was you don’t have a family. You have a huge family. You know, you have hundreds of DABbers, probably thousands of DABbers praying for you out loud, out loud. There are pastors and priests that wish they had thousand people praying for them out loud. But you’ve got to realize that this DAB is a family. For those of you that have the family Christmas’s, I download those and keep those on my phone. You listen to a few hours of a family Christmas and you are this heaven on earth…this is what a true family is, not our biological messes that we deal with, this is a true family, spiritual family that we all have. You’ve got that prodigal. So, you are definitely part of our…brother prodigal. So, I love you brother. You’ve got tons of brothers and sisters right here in the DAB. So, just please don’t forget that. Don’t let the enemy lie to you about that. Don’t let the enemy lie because he puts it in your head and you repeat it you’re putting a curse on yourself. So, I hope you say I huge family. Love you all, have a great day. Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family it is a blessing and a pleasure to continue on and on and on. This is my third-year in, I’m fairly new, but it feels like I’ve been doing this for a very long time. I’m so happy to be a part. I just want you all to pray for me, pray that God would continue to lead, guide, and protect me. God also, heal. I’m going through some medical situations, but surgery is required. I’m asking you all to pray, pray together for me that God would heal me or His will it be done and whatever His decision is it will be well done. If He allows me to go through the surgery I’m thanking Him that He would be the operator, He would be the surgeon. I thank you for highlighting me in your prayer and acknowledging that I am a part of this family. Thank you so much. My name is Marjorie.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Jay from Nashville Tennessee. I want to welcome all the new listeners this year. This is such an amazing community. I’ve been through some things, I’ve done a lot of things that I shouldn’t have done and throughout it all this community has been there for me, has prayed for me, has encouraged me, has pulled me out of darkness. Sometimes when we do things that we know we’re not supposed to do and it’s time to face the music, to face the consequences, sometimes it’s hard to bear and in my case I nearly lost my mind. I’m a firm believer that if it were not for the Daily Audio Bible and this community of people around the world that are praying every single day, I’m not sure exactly where I would be. If it wasn’t for the numerous people calling out my name and saying we hear you, we love you, and we’re praying for you. Even in times where I didn’t hear my name I felt the prayers. It’s just a feeling that you…you really can’t describe. And we’re not just only on the Daily Audio Bible, we’re on Facebook and we’re also on the Daily Audio Bible website. So, if you are dealing with something and you don’t want to do it alone, call, we’re here for you and we love you.

Good morning DABbers, today is January 9^th, my name is Brandon, I’m from Maryland. I’m calling with a broken heart for my wife, my family, myself. I’ve hurt my wife badly enough to where she needs to go…she feels she needs to go to a support group. We’re each seeing therapists, we’re starting marriage counseling on the 16^th and I’m just asking you guys, my family, whom I don’t know, I’m asking you guys just to pray for my wife and I, that I recognize what I have done to her, the wife of my youth, the love of my life, and I’ve completely screwed it all up. I just pray Father that You lay that on my heart and You fill that piece of my broken heart up with your love, your grace, your mercy Father, and I show that to my lovely wife. Thank you all for your prayers and I look forward to all the miracles done in 2019.

Genesis 28:1-29:35, Matthew 9:18-38, Psalms 11:1-7, Proverbs 3:11-12

Today is the 13^th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you as we greet a new week and together we stand at the threshold and turn the knob and step through into a shiny and sparkly, new one. And like every brand-new week, it’s out in front of us. And, so, everything that has gone before is something that is now a part of our past and here we are, but we’re looking into the future and how we live into it, right? Like, I mean, if last week was chaos and everything is blown apart in some of your relationships, I mean, that can be perpetuated into this new week or we can just decide that we don’t have to live that way anymore, we can make things right and move forward peacefully as we continue with the rhythm of the Scriptures and allowing God to pull us forward, away from all of our pride and arrogance and all of the things that are lower and less than we were created to be and we can live into all that God has for us. So, it’s a shiny, sparkly, new week and we’ll read from a shiny, sparkly, new translation. This week we’ll read from the New Living Translation and we’ll pick up where we left off in the book of Genesis with the story of Isaac and Rebekah and their children Jacob and Esau. Today Genesis chapter 28 and 29.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for this, the beginning of a new week and we look forward to all that You will speak to us through Your word in this week and we pray, Holy Spirit come, we remain open to You because we can hear Your word and not do it or we can hear Your word and allow ourselves to be open and allow You to lead us and transform us. And, so, this is our hearts posture and I we commit to this, we open ourselves to You Holy Spirit into this new week lead and guide us we pray in all of our conversations, in all of our relationships, in all of our choices and decisions, and all that is before us in thought, word and deed, we invite You come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its the website, of course, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected.

And I remind you that at the community section at dailyaudiobible.com you find all of the links to different social media channels. So, if you are on social media you may want to be involved in one of the groups like DAB Friends where you can continue to interact with for your brothers and sisters as we take the journey through the Scriptures this year. So, check that all out at dailyaudiobible.com.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link that’s on the homepage and I thank you for those of you who have clicked that link over the years and thrown another log on the global campfire and we continue to move forward day by day. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Genesis 26:17-27:46, Matthew 9:1-17, Psalms 10:16-18, Proverbs 3:9-10

Today is the 12^th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it’s great to sit down here and take a deep breath and slowly exhale and take a sip of coffee and scooch up to the microphone and cozy around this global campfire that is the community here. And I see that some of you have thrown some logs on, we’ve got a nice warm fire going and we’re just kind of coming in out of the cold, coming in and out of the dark and warming ourselves and feeling each other’s presence. And, so, here we go, altogether, taking the next step forward. And we’re reading from the New International Version this week, which obviously ends today. We’ll read something else tomorrow, but we’ll pick up where we left off no matter what day it is, no matter what translation we’re reading from. And today we’ll read Genesis chapter 26 verse 17 through 27 verse 46. And once again what we’re following now, because Abraham passed away yesterday, we’re moving into the generation after Abraham and beginning to follow the story of Isaac. And Isaac has had some children, Jacob and Esau. And, so, we’re beginning to know their story and these particular names, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, we need to know these names and we need to know their origin because they will shape how the story unfolds as we continue through the rest of the year. So, Genesis chapter 26.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us this far into this new year. And as we release the first full week of this new year we feel like we’re starting to settle into the rhythm of this new year and we can see that this can be a very, very overwhelming year for us or there’s an alternative path, a narrow one that leads to life and we’re beginning to learn about that path and You are beginning to teach us of that path and we’re beginning to realize we may need…we may need to change some things. And You are so kind, and You are so gracious and gentle with us that You allow us to become aware and You gently lead us in the way that we should go. And, so, our part in this at this point is to remain open. And we have an open heart to You. Nothing is off-limits from You God. We trust You. There are many things we may be skeptical of in this world, but we trust You. You are our only hope. And, so, we declare this, we speak it out loud, we say it, it’s our reality. There is no other one. There is no other way. And, so, we put our hope in You and we trust You and by doing this, our heart begins to open to You. Come Holy Spirit, plant the word of God that we read today and all that we’ve read so far this year into our lives continuing to till the soil and plant the fruit of the Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission that we share in common, which is to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and to present it and make it available to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet, anytime of day or night, and to continue to build community around that rhythm so that each of us know that we’re not alone, if that resonates with you and that brings light and life and good news into your life, then thank you for being life-giving. There’s 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 PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, this is Victoria Soldier just calling tonight to pray for some of the DABbers. I just want to pray for some of the DAbbers who are going through, especially some of those who are affected by the government closure. I want to pray for those who are going through stress and who have a need in their lives. Lord, in the name of Jesus You have Your way. Lord You’re a God who can supply all our needs. You said that You are the way, the truth, and the light. You said that You would not hold any good thing from us. Oh Lord, somebody needs You tonight, somebody needs some strength, somebody needs some guidance, somebody needs some direction, somebody needs some protection. Oh Lord, You have Your way in the name of Jesus. Lord, You supply their every need. Oh Lord in abundance You come that we might have life and we might have it more abundant. You said You would never leave us nor forsake us. You said You are the way the truth and the light. You’re our Alpha and Omega. You’re our beginning and our end. Father we thank You, we thank You for Your presence, we thank You for Your spirit, we thank You for Your power, we thank You for the victory, we thank You Lord for You delivering power, we thank You for Your miracle working power. All those strongholds, every stronghold that comes to hold us down, every wicked sin from the enemy that comes to take away our joy, to come to take away every good thing that He has for us. Lord, You have Your way. Oh Lord, in the name of Jesus You continue to bless Brian and Jill and his daughter China and all the people of God. You continue to bless Blind Tony, Sharon, and the lady that lost her daughter. Lord __ for Joe the Protector, You pray for him and his daughter Lord. Oh Lord in the name of Jesus, Lord You touch Pastor Gene, You touch Your people Lord, You touch those who are going through, You touch those who lost everything Lord, You provide, You open doors no man…

My beautiful family, this is Pastor Gene from Bradenton Florida, and I am calling rejoicing for China’s engagement. Congratulations China, congratulations Ben, praise God for your engagement, congratulations Jill and Brian. You have done an extraordinary job with your little girl whom I met when she was 16, which is how old my daughter is today. So, I look at her and I just glorify the Lord for everything that she is and now an extra reason to thank God for his faithfulness towards her and toward you guys. Bless you, bless you, bless you. We are going to continue praying more than ever for you guys and now we have to __ of prayer. Praise the Lord. And my beautiful family, particular for the newcomers, one of the wonderful things about the DAB, particularly the prayer line, is that we came here only to listen to the word but we get to pray for one another and that is an excellent exercise. Sometimes, the Daily Audio Bible has been a life saver for me not only from the perspective of the word but because it forces me to look outside of myself into the needs of others. So, you will find that when you pray together with your brothers and sisters, whether on the line or later, that you are strengthened just because God intended for us to pray and intercede for one another. And now join me in prayer. Father, we pray for Sean from South Carolina. We ask for Your blessing for Your strength oh God. Oh Father we pray for our brother prodigal. We believe that he is gaining his strength and that he knows that You are with him and that he has heard Your words of love by just listening to this podcast. Father, I pray for Demarius and for Enesto, two individuals that we shared the word with and we are expecting and anticipated results…

Good morning DAB family, my name is Janet. I am calling __ year on the Daily Audio Bible. I enjoy every minute of it, in awe of the community and the prayer warriors out there. I myself am not very good at prayer but I am in desperate need of prayer for my son Jared who is 23 and he’s an alcoholic. I found out earlier last year that he was drinking. He was drinking for about two years and he kept it from me and my family kept it from me. I’ve done everything I can to get him help. I have had him in a 30-day program. He just got out and am getting ready to send him off to California for his next sobriety program because he had a drink on Saturday. I was away for him for three hours and he had a drink. I don’t have the money for these programs. So, to take the train system in there and no work and so the money is…it’s hard for me and __ for him and he is a wonderful loving person with a disease and I just want to know if you’d pray for Jared. Pray for me that I can get through this so that I know how to help him. And I pray the Lord for direction, I pray for strength, I pray for Jared __…

So, good morning my name is David and I live in in Indianapolis Indiana in the United States and I am carrying a burden, have been carrying it for a little over 2 ½ years. And what it is is my son is really going through a…a very nasty long separation from his wife and he’s living with us currently and I have…get to see the three grandkids occasionally. So, anyway that’s been very hard for us…my wife and I. We just especially appreciate prayer for that and then for my…I have a problem with anger. It wells up inside me. So, as a grandfather I feel helpless sometimes but…so anyway Daily Audio Bible family, I hadn’t been listening in a good solid two years, and now I’m back at it so please pray for me. Thank you. Goodbye.

Good morning, I am Peggy in Texas and for this moment I invite you to join me in prayer. Father, on this Monday morning I thank you for your word read so beautifully and strongly to us and for the commentary causing us to ponder the way you’re speaking to us this day. May we not forget the challenge. I thank you for that same Spirit heard in Rudolph’s strong and clear voice from Toronto as well as from Sherlock in New Jersey and from, I think it was, Denise in Cleveland. Their voices gave strength and brought gratefulness to my heart. Thank you, Father. At the same time, I recognize at times like these that is easy to become fearful and weary and restless, to have a soul that is lacking in joy, for problems are real and life is often hard. Father, remember with your healing touch all those who are in pain, pain due to illness or rejection, tragedy, loss, death, or hunger, or who cannot find place whatever that might mean. Have mercy on all of DABbers who are suffering at this hour. Please, meet needs. We often fail as it’s easy to identify with Easy in Georgia who spoke of failure and maintaining as well as Denise’s desire, not only to maintain but to obtain and to sustain in order to be good witnesses to your power. We identify there and ask that all of us will be faithful in our seeking, for you tell us if we seek we shall surely find. We praise your name this Monday morning. In the name of Jesus…