Month: January 2019

Genesis 23:1-24:51, Matthew 8:1-17, Psalms 9:13-20, Proverbs 3:1-6

Today is the 11^th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is always a joy to be here with you to take the next step forward on our journey through the Scriptures this year. An we’re coming to the end of our first full work week of this brand-new year. So, hopefully you’re feeling kind of moved into the new year. Hopefully the rhythm of the Daily Audio Bible is a part of that journey and I think we’re getting kind of getting moved into this rhythm of the year that will carry us to the center of our souls because the Bible has a way of doing that and will also influence the way that we conduct our exterior lives this year. So, well done for making it this far. We’ve been reading from the New International Version this week and we’ll take the next step forward in the book of Genesis, which is the first book of the Bible. Today Genesis chapter 24 verse 52 through 26 verse 16. And by way of reminder, Abraham has sent his servant because Abraham is now in his old age and he’s lost his wife Sarah, he sent his servant to his own family to find a wife for the child of promise named Isaac. And that’s what happened and we’re in the middle of that story. And, so, we’ll pick up where we left off in Genesis chapter 24.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Genesis today, we said goodbye to Abraham and, of course, we’ve been following the story of Abram who heard from God and followed him into a land that he had never been in and entered into covenant with God. His name was changed to Abraham and he influences the world until today. And so, we just read of his life in the book of Genesis. And now he has died and been buried in the cave of Makpella where he buried Sarah, but the isn’t the last we will hear of Abraham, we’ll hear of Abraham for the rest of the Bible and he influences the world until today. In fact, we could easily say Abraham is more influential as far as a patriarch as far as an ancient one over the world’s religions of today than anybody else and that would be true. So, we should take a moment to send and give honor where honor is due, we’re saying goodbye to Abraham, he’s laid his head down in death. Now, there were two sons, right, Ishmael and Isaac and we went through some of their family tree. So, Ishmael goes off and has his own…the generations that follow become their own people and we’re kind of tracking with the Isaac story. And that will be the story that we chase the rest of the Bible. So, Isaac has married Rebecca and we read of how Rebecca came to be Isaac’s life and they have had twin sons, Jacob and Esau. And it’s very easy, especially if is the first trip through the Bible to go, “these are very fascinating stories and interesting things and, yes, I can see that there’s a lot to think about but I don’t know how all the stories connected”. It’s all connected, which is why we kind of take time to pause and go, “let’s remember how we got here”, because all of these stories and all of these generations are going somewhere and we’ll be following that story throughout the Bible.

We get into the book of Matthew and we’re continuing to kind of observe and get to know Jesus and His personality and His ministry style and places that He went and things that He did. And certainly, there were miraculous things in today’s reading, but maybe more important is the fact that Jesus began to reveal that if you want to follow him it’s gonna cost you everything. And as we continue forward that will become more and more apparent to us not only as like a concept but also in practical ways. We’ll learn the faith that we have placed in Christ and this journey of faith that we are walking on will be the continual journey of ridding ourselves of all entanglements that would hold us back from union with God. And isn’t that ultimately the pursuit of our faith in Christ? Is it not to be transformed and become Christ like and operate in this world on this planet where mankind is no longer separated by a chasm of sin between God and man but that is been bridged and we are reunited with God, as was always intended for mankind? But we will find that the things that have attached themselves to us, the things that we bow down and worship to that aren’t God, I mean every single one of those things is going to be confronted and at every turn we will have the opportunity to make a choice and that choice will get to matter and if we will follow Jesus then we’ll find that we have to be willing to release and let go of plenty of things, but we will find that these are the very things that would make it impossible for us to become who we were created to be. And, so, we’ll be continuing to take that journey throughout the whole year but we’re still kind of here in the beginning and just reading these stories and maybe this is the first time that you’ve systematically gone through the Gospels and just really, really paid attention to the stories. Like, yeah, we have all the Sunday school stories and we know all of the different things, but maybe this is the first time just front to back going through. And, so, it’s important to just get to know Jesus in the stories that are found in the Gospels and then just simply ask ourselves, “does my life resemble in any way the life that Jesus lived”? And in some areas I we’ll be able to say, “yes, I think so, I think in this area I continue to grow forward and become more like my Savior” while in other areas we would have to say, “no man, there’s a lot of work to do here.” Once that is exposed though, a lot of times we’ll just cover it back over, don’t have time, can’t maintain all these responsibilities, just trying to get my spiritual fix and stay in touch with my heart. We’re gonna have to find out that some of the other things that are in our lives may have to go so that we can pay closer attention to the things that are going to absolutely deeply matter and can transform the way we live our lives.

It’s just like what we read in Proverbs today, “do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and shun evil.” So, that’s an instruction, and that is a trajectory or a direction to head in and we should, but the Proverbs goes on to tell us why. “This, if you do this, if you do not be wise in your own eyes and fear the Lord and shun evil, then it will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” So we’re seeing in Proverbs that if we pay attention to what’s going on within us it is absolutely going to affect the health of what is happening exterior. So, plenty to think about today as there is every day.

Prayer:

And father, we invite you into all of it. We can think about it all we want but without your Holy Spirit’s guidance we can’t plant these words in our hearts, we can’t cultivate and water them so that they become the fruit of the Spirit. We can just become fertile soil. And, so, we do and ask your Holy Spirit to come, plant the word of God in our lives and as we continue forward may we see new fruit of the Spirit sprouting up, a new way of thinking, a new way of being in the world, a transformed way where we are daily being sanctified, daily becoming set apart and made holy. These are things that only you can do but we come with a willing heart and surrender and ask you to do this work inside of us as we continue to sail deeper into the year and deeper into our adventure of life with you. Come Holy 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 tuned and stay connected.

The Prayer Wall lives dailyaudiobible.com. If you haven’t had a chance to visit the Prayer Wall, please do. There’s always someone in need of prayer and there’s always people praying. And, so, this is a great way to reach out in prayer whether you need it or whether you want to offer it at the Prayer Wall. Of course, the Prayer Wall is also available in the Daily Audio Bible app. Just press the little navigation, sort of like the drawer in the upper left-hand corner and that will open up a drawer where you can get to the prayer wall as well as other things. So, stay connected, that’s one of the beautiful distinctives of the Daily Audio Bible community, is that we are willing to love each other, accept each other where we are on the journey, and pray for each other and kind of stay in each other’s stories, rooting each other along, just realizing I’m not alone…I mean, I’m not alone. Even some of the things that I think are dark inside of me that I’m confessing, I’m not the only one struggling with these things, I’m not alone. And that makes so much difference. It doesn’t give us permission to keep harming ourselves in some way, but it does give us permission to know, “I’m not in this struggle by myself and so I don’t have to make it all by myself, my brothers and sisters are here.” And, so, the Prayer Wall is a great resource for that. Be sure to check that out at dailyaudiobible.com or in the Daily Audio Bible app.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that it dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link and it just 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 23:1-24:51, Matthew 8:1-17, Psalms 9:13-20, Proverbs 3:1-6

Today is the 10^th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian like every day and it’s great to be here with you like every day and got a nice steaming cup of Windfarm coffee to my left, which is pretty normal, very normal. And off we go forward for our next step forward through the Scriptures this year. This is, of course, our 10^th step, so only 355 more steps and we’ll be completing the Bible but this is our 10^th step. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Today we’ll read Genesis chapter 23 verse 1 through 24:51.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Genesis we’re saying goodbye now to a very, very important figure, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, who bore the son Isaac to Abraham in his old age. She passes away today. And, so, obviously, Abraham is morning and he goes to the Hittites and he needs a place, he wants to buy a place where, you know, he can have his own kind of a burial site for his family. And we get a little bit of a glimpse into the negotiations of the time, right? You know, Abraham’s like talking to all the leaders of the city in the city gate saying, “ask Ephron to sell me this”, right? Well Ephron’s sitting right there but this is more of a communal negotiation and Ephron’s like, “I’ll just give it to you, you can have it”, you know, and Abrahm’s like, “you know, just…just tell me the price.” And, so, we see this negotiation going on and Abraham buys Ephron’s field and cave, the cave of Machpelah near Mamery in the Valley of Eshkol. I wish that might all just like a bunch of biblical, you know, site names or something that have no relevance but remember this, remember this day, remember that Abraham bought this cave because as the story goes in a couple of months this particular site will become important. And incidentally this particular site, this burial ground is still in existence until today and can be visited in the city of Hebron, which, you know, at times can be a tense place. And this particular burial site for Abraham and his offspring is one of the most holy sites in the world to people who are Muslim, to people who are Jewish, and also to Christians and those groups of people don’t always see eye to eye on things. So, it can be a pretty tense place, which is kind of funny when you think about it. Some of the most holy places in the world are also some of the most contentious places in the world because everybody wants a piece. And as we continue our journey forward we’ll just have to decide whether that’s good, it’s a good thing or whether it’s not, but nevertheless the place actually does exist. The structure that is over the top of the cave was built by King Herod. So it’s very, very old. Of course, when Abraham bought it was much more old, it’s a very ancient place and you can see this place in the Promised Land films. I’ve mentioned the Promised Land films I think once this year. It’s a great resource in the Daily Audio Bible shop. It’s two DVDs and then you can also download all the content digitally. But it’s over four hours of content letting you zoom into these places. And they’re just short films, like two to five-minute films of the location where you can kind of come in, find out what happened there biblically, but also get a good 360° view, like a good understanding of what that place looks like. So, when we went and filmed we had to, you know, we went into the mosque and had to have permission to go in there and film. Then there’s a synagogue on the other side, we had go through some pretty high security to get in there and, you know, there’s lots of soldiers around that place. And as it turns out, we got permission from the military to do some aerial flights over it. And, so, you know, we’re flying a drone and filming and everything but we’ve got guys with machine-guns standing around watching what we’re doing, but we got that footage and it’s some of the only aerial footage from there. So, that’s included in the Promised Land films as well as some of the other places like Gerar, we talked about in the book of Genesis today, we’re, you know, Abraham is again saying that Sarah’s his sister instead of is his wife and stuff. That’s filmed. Like Beersheba is another place where Abraham spent so much of his time and where Ishmael and Hagar were sent away to wander in the wilderness of Beersheba. Like, these are real places. And, so, if you kind of want to…if you’re curious enough to go, “okay, I’m in, I want to know what these places look like”, the Promised Land is a great resource for that. So, you can check that out at the Daily Audio Bible shop.

Announcements:

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link that’s on the homepage. And I thank you, 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 like the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And a as always if you have a prayer request or comment you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today other than other…other than to remind you of two verses that we just read, the last two verses that we just read from the book of Proverbs. Take this into your day. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight.” Now that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Genesis 20:1-22:24, Matthew 7:15-29, Psalms 9:1-12, Proverbs 2:16-22

Today is the 9^th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a joy to be here with you today and taking the next step forward. And I think we’re far enough into our new year to kind of begin to understand that there’s a rhythm and to begin to understand that the Bible isn’t this static old-fashioned book that is irrelevant, that there’s a bunch…a bunch of things that it is willing to speak directly and truthfully into our lives. And if we will and heed it that it will change the way that we live our lives. And, so, welcome back for the next day forward. And that will lead us back into the New International Version, which is what we’re reading from this week and back into the book of Genesis chapter 20, 21, and 22 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, you know, we encountered a pretty harrowing story yesterday with the destruction of Sodom and Gomora and we talked about that and the way that we subtly move toward judgment, even judgment of God and how that that can estrange us in our journey that we’re taking through the Scriptures yesterday. And, so, today, we kind of encounter another one of those types of stories where God tells Abraham to take is a promised son Isaac to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him. And we’re not gonna get into all of that because that story will unfold very, very clearly over some time, other than to just point out God and Abraham had entered into a covenant with each other and covenantal language is something that we will, you know, we will encounter quite a bit. So, we understand that the two of them joined together in covenant, which meant that nothing was off-limits from the other. So, when God tells Abraham to go and take his only son, and He’s very specific about this with Isaac, Abraham is in covenant he cannot withhold anything. And, so, he does. Of course, his trust and faith is in God and Isaac is the son of promise, so Abraham can simply say, “I must follow God even though I don’t know how this is gonna work out, but I do know that my son is a son of promise and through my son many generations will come. This is what God told me. In fact, he marched me outside and had me look up the night sky and try to count the stars. So, there’s this promise and I need understand what’s going on, but I do trust the one I’m in covenant with.” We know how that story worked out but what we may not have paid attention to is the thread of redemption that begins to show itself at all kinds of points in the Bible and this is one of them because Abraham did not withhold his son from God and God didn’t take the sacrifice of a human being, instead He sent his own son, His own only son. Now if you’ve been a believer for a long time, then you know, you can connect those dots pretty easy. If this your first trip through the Bible and encountering the stories of the Bible, this one is one that kind of touches a lot of things and will become more and more apparent as we move forward because Isaac is going to have a son of his own, a couple of sons of his own, and they’re gonna change the whole story, but let's…let’s go back into the book of Matthew.

Jesus is saying some very important and very forthright, like, non-ambiguous things that we should pay attention to, “judge not, lest you be judged.” That was yesterday. And again, like if you’ve been a believer for a long time you’ve probably encountered the stories of Jesus before. And, so, it’s really easy to just encapsulate them into their story form and not really listen to the words Jesus is teaching. What Jesus is saying is revolutionary and when he said it in the first century it was fundamentally revolutionary. We’re used to hearing the words of Jesus now, so it’s not quite like…has that kind of impact unless we slow down and listen to what He’s saying. So, let’s just examine what He said today. “Many will say to me on that day”, Jesus says, and He’s talking about Judgment Day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly. I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers.” Okay. So, this is another big deal on our faith journey because we can spend our whole lives trying to get our beliefs correct and our theology airtight and waterproof. We can think that every day that we learn more about God or learn something else about Jesus, then we are drawing closer and closer to Him when Jesus is saying, “there’s going to be people who call on the Lord and prophesied in His name and have even cast out demons in His name, and even performed miracles in His name, and He will still say, I didn’t know you.” So, what have to realize is that all of our flurry of activity that keeps us busy, that keeps us thinking that we’re drawing closer to God, all the stuff that we might do around our faith that’s great, it’s just not the point. What Jesus says He will say to those people is, “I never knew you”, which must mean that the point is that we can know Him and not only know about Him and that is a pretty big distinction because if you zoom out and apply these principles to any relationship in your life you would have to say that knowing about somebody is not the same as knowing them. And that should prick us a little bit because when we think of our spirituality and our faith journey, you know, then it’s centered around acquiring knowledge most of the time, trying to dial it in, know what to believe, know the spells and incantations, know the potions. Like, I know that’s not literal, I’m just saying, like, that’s what we boil it down to. If I can say the right mantras, If I can pray the right prayer in the right order doing the right things with the right attitude then God will do something for me, like, just give me the recipe, show me how the recipe works, what I can add and what I cannot add and how to make this whole thing work, just somebody tell me how to do this. Relationships do not work that way. You can read every marriage book that has ever been published…well…you probably couldn’t because there’s too many that have been published to read in a lifetime, but you could read, I don’t know, the 20 most popular books ever written on marriage and still not know how to be married because it is a relationship and that happens in the spoken and in the unspoken and that does not happen based on the rules. Like, if you’re living a rules-based marriage, then you’re probably not very happy in it. When you are in a life-giving relationship the rules become apparent and you obey them. Like, I’m not going to commit adultery because I will not break the heart of the one that I love. I’m not going there because of what it would do to the person that I have given my heart to. And you obey the rules because you are in love. Jesus speaking in the first century is speaking to a people that have taken the law, and I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself…ahead of ourselves…because we haven’t gotten to the law yet, but these people had taken the law and made their relationship with God all about obeying the rules, which bypasses the idea of a relationship other than just a relationship by proxy because you are behaving a certain way. Jesus is saying to that mindset, you can do all of the right things in it and still not know me. And, so, once again, and I mean, we’re not quite, you know, only just a little over a week into this journey so you can still jump off this boat and swim back to shore probably but it won’t be long before we’re so far in the deep that these things that come along and you have to sit with them and really begin to examine your faith and understand what it’s made of and where it’s headed because my story and the story of thousands and thousands of people that I have spoken to over these last 13 years doing this is one of confusion about faith. Like, how do I know when I’m doing…like how do I know that I’m doing the right thing and believing the right thing? And, so, we’ll redouble our efforts to get the knowledge. And man, that’s my story, that is even how I’m wired, to acquire knowledge to truly understand what it is that I’m talking about, but I have found that even if we could know everything there is to know about God that is still not the same thing as being in a relationship with God because I can know everything there is to know about my wife and not be in a relationship with her. And we human beings are wired to be relational people. So, it’s like already baked into our DNA, we know when we’re in a relationship and we know when that relationship is life-giving and we also are aware when we are in a bad relationship and it is life taking. So, we know this intuitively, we’re made for relationship. It’s just the ways we try to relate to God are by acquiring knowledge about Him and that’s only part of the story. Actually being together in a relationship is what we’re invited into. So, there’s some things to think about and examine. Like, what is the status of your relationship, because maybe the state of your life mimics the state of your relationship with God.

Prayer:

And, so, Holy Spirit come, we invite you into that question and we’re again thankful. I mean, yes, yes, with your word you are pressing into us, you are you are pushing us back. Like, we came into this boldly thinking we may have had much more figured out than we do and you’re using your word to kind of push us back and humble us and we’re now beginning to feel the truth flow into us and ask the right questions of us and of our faith. And this is the beginning place, this is the place where wisdom begins to be planted and flourish and the fruit of the spirit begins to be cultivated within. So, we invite you Holy Spirit to show us. What’s our relationship like? Are we unhealthy with you? What needs to change? What needs to go? What needs to stay? What needs to be moved around? You can answer these questions because you have promise to lead us into all truth, you have promised us that there is a narrow path that leads to life. And, yes, few find it but we want to be one of those people. So, we’re humbling ourselves before you and saying there is no question that is off-limits, you can press in on us in any way that you want to. We are hungering and thirsting for your righteousness, we are hungering and thirsting to live in this world as we were intended, and we don’t want this confusion and this stress and this anxiety that you’re telling us that we don’t have to have. You told us yesterday, we don’t have to worry about anything, we don’t have to worry about tomorrow, it’ll take care of itself. And, so, we want to live in that place, but we won’t be able to live in that place with a bunch of knowledge, we’ll only be able to live in a place walking with you in deep intertwined relationship. So, come Holy Spirit. We pray into these questions and may their answers be honest, and may they be life changing. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

One thing that I’ll mention today that’s been mentioned in the past is the Daily Audio Bible shop. There are resources in the Daily Audio Bible shop that we’ve assembled specifically for this journey, the journey through the year and through the Bible. And, so, you can check those out and there are also other resources, other writings and stuff. What we were just talking about in terms of a relationship with God, there’s a longer conversation about that contained in a book that I’ve written called “Reframe” and you can get that anywhere, but you can also get it in the Daily Audio Bible Shop and that really is an exploration of what we are talking about when we say we’re in a relationship with God. What does that even mean? One of the things any relationship means is that you know the other person, which is what Jesus is saying. I’ll tell them plainly, I never knew you. Like, you did all this stuff in my name, but I didn’t know you. So, relationships are knowing and being known. And, so, we go into a conversation that’s much more lengthy then we can do just in one sitting here. And, so, if that peeks your interest you can check out that resource, it’s called “Reframe, from the God we’ve made to God with us.” And that’s in the Daily Audio Bible Shop as well as bunch of other resources. So, check that 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 and I thank you profoundly and deeply, humbly for your partnership. What we’ve done we’ve done together as I’ve said so many times. And so, as long as we do this together we’ll continue marching forward. And, so, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Genesis 18:16-19:38, Matthew 6:25-7:14, Psalms 8:1-9, Proverbs 2:6-15

Today is the 8^th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and, of course, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today, we are past the week threshold, of course we’re in the middle of a week, but we’re a full week now into this year and we’re sailing strong and out into the deep and we should be all getting kind of moved in and understanding what’s going on. And about another week and we’ll be like locked in and sailing strong with our daily rhythm in the Bible and in the year. So, let’s go ahead and take that next step. We’re reading from the New International Version this week and we’re working our way through the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis and today we’ll read chapter 18 verse 16 through 19 verse 38.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there’s so much to talk about in our reading today and that’s the case often where it’s like, wow, that was one days reading, but, wow, there’s a lot going on there for me to contemplate and consider. In the book of Genesis today, the first book of the Bible, we have finally reached a point where we enter into a story and we’re like…wait…wait…what is going on here? We have cities being destroyed, we have daughters having sex with their father, and this is the first book of the Bible, and I’m halfway through it, and what is going on? And this is a good time to point out the fact that we will encounter stories in the Bible this year that will make you scratch your head and say, what is going on here? And what you need to notice, what you need to notice when we encounter those stories is the subtle judgment that comes up in our heart toward God. That might sound odd but it’s what happens, especially if we’re on our first trip through the whole Bible, like this is the first time going, like where we’ve made a commitment and we’re like, okay, I place my faith in this in this book, but I’ve never read it and now I’m gonna read every word and now I’m gonna understand what’s in this book. We begin to realize that if we’ve never been on the trip, on the journey through the Bible, that we have sort of these prejudices. We think that there is an angry God who’s vengeful and wants to smite humanity. And we more we need to meet him and find out how to fear him properly. And then we have a dichotomy, we have Jesus showing another way of actually being in the world altogether and we’re trying to mash those together because father, son and Holy Spirit, these are the same being. And, so, how does this all equate? And we get this angry God thing going on and we fear the Lord because He’s gonna be so angry. And, so, this is the first time today, we come up against one of those notions, we see a story in the Bible that just rings all the wrong bells. So, let’s just go back and look for the story real quick and try to find a place where it is that our hearts have turned toward judgment at God or maybe we’re looking at a story that tells us something completely different. So, let’s begin with the fact that God comes to meet the person that He’s in covenant with, Abraham, and they have this meal and then God is leaving to go see what’s going on in Sodom and Gomorrah down in the valley. And God’s tops, according to the story in Genesis, and thinks to Himself, should I keep this from Abraham, should I keep this from the one that I’m in covenant with. And He decides that he shouldn’t keep it from the one that He’s in covenant with. And, so, He tells Abraham what his intentions are. And then what do we see? A man, a human being, Abraham approaches God, the Creator of all things, the All Powerful One and begins a negotiation, right? Would you go down there and wipe that city, those cities out if there are 50 righteous people? And the Lord reveals His heart. No, I wouldn’t do that. Well, what about 45? No, I wouldn’t do that. What about 40? How about 30? How about 20? How about 10? And we see that God is revealing His heart in the story because this is where God is speaking for Himself in the story. I’m not about the business of destroying people, I’m about the business of eradicating evil and wickedness. And as the story progresses we get a sense of the wickedness that he’s talking about. I think that, like no matter what else we might say, that we would probably all agree that if you’re going into a village and the outcome is that you are going to be gang raped by the men of the city that that’s, you know, like, that’s evil. And, so, we just read the stories, so we know how the story goes. And we have this, you know, Lot trying to protect the Angels who he know are beings sent from God, but the only thing that he thinks he can barter with is to throw his virgin daughters out the door and let them endure the gang rape, which makes you go, “hold on a second…hold…what in the world is something like this doing in the Bible? Like, this isn’t the right way to live. Why would Lot do something like that?” And then the story goes on, right? The girls as it turns out are betrothed, they’re engaged to be married. And, so, Lot’s trying to get everyone that is connected to him out of the city, but the guys, they won’t go, they don’t believe him, they think he’s joking. And, so, it ends up that Lot and his wife and his two daughters are the only ones that escape the city and their running and then, of course, this story is famous, so Lot’s wife looked back, she turned into a pillar of salt and so there’s only Lot and his two daughters fleeing for their lives and everything that they had, all of their possessions, all of their wealth, all of their standing, everything is wiped from the face of the earth along with their home and everyone that they knew. So, they are completely on their own in this valley and they end up in a cave in the mountains, right? We know the story. The two daughters decide that the best course of action is to have sex with dad and see if they get pregnant. So, it’s a pretty disturbing story that we can go, “why is this in the Bible? And, you know, where is God in all of this?” Well, God was in the beginning of the story speaking to Abraham, telling Abraham that he wasn’t going down to Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy righteous people. In fact, had there been 10 righteous people the story would be like that, the destruction wouldn’t have happened. And, so, it was. There weren’t the people who could maybe be considered righteous. Lot and his two daughters and his wife, they got out. Of course, mom isn’t there anymore. And, so, the daughters are thinking, “what are we supposed to do?” And if we kind of get contextual here we can understand the dilemma that they were in. This family that had been reduced to poverty, like everything was destroyed. They were foreigners, these two daughters were foreigners and Lot was the only family member that could protect them, especially in the culture of that time and he’s getting older. So, there’s no one for them and if a Lot were to perish, and they were obviously in a pretty precarious situation, they had lost everything and were hiding in a cave in the mountains. So, things were pretty bad. And, so, they’re thinking to themselves, “this isn’t the desirable choice, this is the only choice. We need another male heir. We need someone that can speak for us and can have property.” And, yeah, we get into patriarchy, we can get into all that stuff, but why don’t we just say, “this is what was going on then, this is how they understood the world to be. This is how it was to live at this time in the book of Genesis, which is a long time ago.” And, so, the outlook for the daughters was to either have a male heir somewhere or what was gonna happen is their Father would be killed or would die and they would be taken and probably live a life of prostitution. So, they did what they did. And, yeah, we can look at what they did and say, “that’s just that’s not how it’s supposed to go. And yes, it’s not, but we need to look at a story like this and say, “why am I judging God about this story? Why am I saying there, I told, you see, this kind of stuff is in the Bible?” I mean, when Lot fled and only had his daughters why didn’t they finish climbing up the mountain that they were hiding in to get to the top where their uncle Abraham was living? Why didn’t they go back to the family that they had? We don’t have the answer to that question. But why would we blame God for the choices that they made? Remember back earlier in the story when Lot and Abraham got together because they had grown too wealthy to stay together and everybody was kind of fighting and so they decided to part ways so that there would be room enough for them both. It was Lot who picked what he thought was the best option for himself. He picked the best of the land and went and lived in it and this is what happened. Why is it God’s fault? Was God anything but a Redeemer in this story. He told Abraham what He was going to do and then He went and did it. And why would Abraham being…why would Abraham ask these questions of the Lord if its not to protect his own family? So, what God did was go down into the midst of this debauchery and rescue Abraham’s family and get them out. What we don’t see in the story is how they fell down and worshiped the Lord and asked for counsel on what to do and were led on the path that they should go, right? They went their own way and what happened happened. Which brings us to a little touchy point where we’re gonna have to realize as we continue to take this journey that it is absolutely going to touch all of the soft spots of our lives. And this is a good time to realize how much blame we place on God for things that He hasn’t done. It’s incredible, the trash heap of things that we throw upon the Lord that He had nothing to do with. And we can say He is Sovereign and He knows all and so He could like preempt things, and yet there was that story back at the very, very beginning, the second day together where Adam and Eve were in the garden staring at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they were instructed not to eat from it and then they did and they were allowed to make that choice and that choice was allowed to matter. We are each created in the image of God and God is a Creator and He creates things and because we are created in His image and it is hardwired into who we are, so do we. And every day we are writing that story and creating what our destiny is going to look like. We get to make choices and they get to matter. And this story that we just read in the book of Genesis shows us once again this reality. Not everything’s God’s fault and when we just throw everything that we get ourselves into onto God like it’s his fault, then how is it that we can have a trusting loving relationship with Him? How is it that we will walk through this year with a God that we do not trust and do not know?

On the other hand, we zoom forward into the book of Matthew and we have Jesus, who is God in the flesh here in a relatable way that we can understand speaking the heart of God to us by inviting us to understand specific realities, that all of the worry and the chaos and the stress that we carry around with us is not going to get us anywhere. In fact, Jesus is bold enough to say, I’m telling you not to worry about your life. The choices that you gotta make about eating and drinking, what you’re gonna wear, there’s way more going on, it’s a bigger story and can anyone of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? And we can stop right there and say, “okay, okay, enough for today, there’s a lot going on”, but Jesus’s isn’t done, He’s saying, look, the way to do this right is to not estrange yourself from the Father. What you need to do if you want to do this right is to seek the kingdom of God first and seek His righteousness and then everything else that you are trying to arrange for will be given to you. You don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have to worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. What you should worry about, what you should think about, according to Jesus, is how you are judging things, right? And, so, we just talked about how we can subtly begin to judge God but we are doing this constantly to each other. And Jesus has some very clear, very choice words that we need to get into our minds before we get out of sight of shore, right? We’re one week into this journey and we’re getting absolute, pivotal, foundational instruction about how to navigate this world and our life upon this earth. Jesus says, “do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you.” So, get 2 tablespoons of that and stir that into your coffee and drink that one down because that’s a big one, especially if you just love to fight on the Internet about what every leading Christian may or may not be doing or saying or how they may be conducting their walk. How we judge others is how we are going to be judged. So, if we can’t be merciful, we will not experience mercy. If we learn nothing else from the Bible this whole year, which will not be the case, but if we learn nothing else from the Bible this year but this one thing, if we stop living in judgment continually and instead see what is a right about a person and what is right about a situation as opposed to only what is wrong and needs to be judged, that’ll change our whole year right there. That one thing right there will change the way we interact with everybody. So, there’s plenty to think about today. And we could go on. I mean, there’s more, but go back and read it again. I mean there’s plenty to meditate on. Jesus leaves us with some thoughts. “Enter through the narrow gate. Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through that. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find that.” So, what’s it going to be? I want the narrow path that leads to life and I admit there are times that I feel like I’m walking on that narrow path and there are others that I feel like I’ve run down onto the main highway that leads to destruction and we all probably have those seasons and days, but the path that leads to life is narrow and there aren’t going to be a lot of people on that path. This is from God in the flesh. These are the words of Jesus. And if we’re gonna live judge mental lives then we can pretty much be assured about which path we are on. How much in judgment in your life has ever brought you inner peace and tranquility and an overwhelming sense of the presence of the Lord, right? When you’re tithing those nasty things out on social media and being in a war with somebody over some kind of theological point like some hill to die on or you’re saying things out of your mouth to the people that you love that you shouldn't…that are wounding them because you don’t like how they’ve done something and your judging them, how much…even if you are right and you pound them into mortar on the floor and they are absolutely destroyed because you have a powerful vocabulary and you’ve just…you’ve just torn them down…like what…what do you get out of that? You leave the room feeling overjoyed you were right? You got to judge them appropriately and they got what was coming to them? Jesus is saying this is not the way it’s done. For one to navigate humanity like we were intended we have to become like Christ. Christ-like. And when we watch Jesus in the Gospels we need to watch close because this is the example of not only what humans are supposed to be like, but exactly what it is that Jesus offers to us. This is the good news of the gospel, that we can be fully human like Christ revealing His kingdom on this earth and enter into a relationship with the Father that will never, ever, ever end.

Prayer:

Father, you have given us plenty to think about today. There are…on the number of levels you have you’ve touched some things within us and now we are seeing, now we are seeing just how deep this can all go and we can already feel you shifting things inside of us and in some cases it’s very uncomfortable because we have all the reasons for why we do what we do. And yet we are still confronted with the fact that there is a narrow road that leads to life and only a few find it. May we be one of the few Lord. Come Holy Spirit, we surrender our rights and our wrongs in our judgments and all the things that we are carrying around. We begin to release that, and we begin to become aware that what the Bible is going to do is invite us to release a lot of things. And, so, we start here with judgment. We release our judgments against you, we release our judgments against everyone who has ever wronged us, we begin to move toward a posture of forgiveness. Come Holy Spirit 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.

And we’ve been talking a little bit each day about different things that are going on around here. And, so, one thing that I’ll mention today is the Daily Audio Bible transcripts. For many years now, there’ve been volunteers that have transcribed, posted what gets said here on the Daily Audio Bible. And, obviously, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible web player or the app, you can favorite it, an episode, so that you can go back and re-listen to what was said or even write some notes that you want to remember. So, that is certainly a way to go back because a lot…I mean we’re going through the whole Bible. So, we’re trying to unpack a lot of things this year and some of those things we need to remember because they’re life-changing things. So that’s one way to go back. But the transcripts are in written form, what got said. And, so there may be a day where you’re like, “okay, I want to go back and read that. I want to listen to that, I want to read that to consider that a little bit more deeply. So, you can get to the Daily Audio Bible transcripts by going to dailyaudiobible.tumbler.com. That’s just kind of a blogging platform that makes it easy enough for us to offer this. So, dailyaudiobible.tumbler.com. If you can’t remember that, just go to dailyaudiobible.com and click the Community section. It’s like in the navigation at the top and then click the Social Media button, which will show you all of the different places where we’re on social media so that we can, well, so you can stay connected. But one of the links is to the transcripts. So, there’s a valuable resource for you as we continue this journey.

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, there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you’re in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or the lands down under, 61-3-8820-5459 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 family, this is His Little Cherrie in Canada. Happy new year. I’m calling with another creative way to pray from the banqueting table of prayer. And this one is one of the most hopeful things that I personally do every day, and that’s to use a prayer binder. And it simply is a normal binder that I put pages in, divided into either five days or seven days depending on how many you’d like to have, and each day I use as a reminder to pray for certain people. So, for instance, I have my binder divided into five days for the five days of the week. And the first day, on Monday, I have pictures of people that I’m praying for their salvation. Tuesday are couples, I’m praying for their marriages. Wednesday is family and friends and Thursday is people in ministry. And it’s just a reminder to me to pray for certain people because I think we’ve all been in the situation where someone has shared a concern or a prayer request with us and we’ve told them, “oh I’ll be praying for you”, with every intention of praying for them but life happens and we forget and then the next time we see them, they say, “oh thank you so much for praying”, and we smile and nod and realize we haven’t prayed for them because we’ve forgotten. Well, a prayer binder makes sure that doesn’t happen. When you tell someone, “I’ll be praying for you”, you put the picture or even just their name in your prayer binder and as you go through it day by day you remember to pray for them. So, that has been really helpful for me and I wanted to let you know about it in case you’d like to try it this year. Prayer binders, a creative way to pray from the banqueting table of prayer. Thank you, family. Bye for now.

Hi everybody this is Tony the Painter, really really happy to be starting this new year with you all. Brian, I just want to thank you for this opportunity and say that we love you too and thank you for doing what you do and China too. I’ve started listening to Chronological and congratulations on your engagement. That’s awesome news. Diane Olive Brown, we love you so much, you have no idea and your message from Christmas Day brought…I actually flapped my hands __ but it’s true. I was like oh, “you sound so happy.” So, yeah just so you know that I’m still praying for you. Also, Prodigal, yeah brother, I’ve recently gone through divorce this year and I’ve been suicidal myself. I love you, I empathize with you, I understand what…some of what you’re going though, and I just want to just let you know that I’m praying for you and that we’re all praying for you in this time. And everybody is bringing over baggage from last year and that’s fine, but I noticed in everybody’s voice who was speaking today on the 2^nd January, everybody it is that little bit hopeful. You know, so, we’re gonna maintain this year. We’re gonna, you know, that’s my job, its maintenance. So, I go and repair stuff. So, yeah, just keeping that…letting you all know that I’m praying for you all. You all have my love and God bless you. Dial back soon.

Hi this is Tito Ramirez calling from Southern California. I want to reach out to Prodigal. You know, I feel your pain so much because my life mirrors so much of what you’re going through. You know, I’ve been through divorce and business has just been terrible, it’s been so tough and I’ve fallen behind on so many important things - taxes and child support and trying to get health insurance for the kids and trying to make sure we have money to eat and just pay rent - and it’s just so, so, stressful and it feels like just a gigantic failure and you just…I’d never thought it could happen to me because I’m an educated individual, I should have a good job, like this shouldn’t be happening but I just keep trusting in the Lord. And prodigal, I’m reaching out to you because I need you, I need somebody that’s gonna be praying that’s in the same space that I’m in. And I can’t afford to lose somebody like that and I’m gonna pray for are you and you pray for me and the Lord’s gonna do wonderful things in our lives for us. I look in Romans, in Romans 7 and in Romans 8, I look about how sin trips us up and I looked about us just trusting in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit changing us. And I look in Proverbs 3 and it gives me so much hope, you know, that these old dry bones, these messed up bones would come back to life, you know? And I look in Psalms 51 when things don’t go bad or a when I feel like I’ve made a mistake again or when I feel like I’ve blown it again and I look at David crying out to the Lord and I think, you know, I did something, but it wasn’t what he did. I mean, what he did was so much worse, but I use that Psalm 51 as a prayer of confession sometimes and I love in that Psalm when David asks for a new clean heart and that’s something that I can’t do for myself and it mirrors so much what is being spoken about in Romans, that we can’t…we can try to change ourselves and do it. God has to do it for us…

Happy new year daily audio Bible, this is Isabel from Australia in Melbourne. Just want to wish is all a happy new year. May God’s blessing be upon you and your family. Just wanted to wish China and Ben a happy engagement and congratulations to the Hardin family. There’s a new addition in the family, soon to be married, so happy for you guys. Let this be a year of blessing to all of you. Thank you, Brian once again for all the amazing, you know, readings of the word and just for your teaching on the word of God and just thank you…I’m growing a lot through it and I know a lot of us are too in the Daily Audio Bible.  I just want to say hello to all the families just may this year be a year of blessings to all of you. Please call in and just say hello and I’d love to hear from all of you. Blessings. Love you all. Bye.

Genesis 16:1-18:15, Matthew 6:1-24, Psalms 7:1-17, Proverbs 2:1-5

Today is the 7^th day of January, almost said December, January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and I’m still moving into this new year and I bet that in some ways you are as well, but we have set sail and we are in this new year and we’re about to take our seventh step of 365 steps that will take us through the entire Bible in a year and in the first week we have covered some significant ground. The Bible kind of launches us into the deep right away. And, so, we have met some key players that are going to affect the rest of the Bible and in fact affect the world until today and we’ll get to know their stories as we continue forward and we are certainly for the first time in the first Gospel of Matthew getting to know this man named Jesus that has certainly affected the world and radically affected our lives until today. So, we’ll take the next step forward. We’re reading from the new International version this week. Genesis chapter 16 verse 1 through 18 verse 15 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’re just beginning our first full work week of the new year and there’s a bunch of stuff we covered in the Scriptures today, stuff that…things that we can think about all day and some of these things we need to be thinking about for the rest of our lives. So, in the book of Genesis Abram has become Abraham and that should snap some things into place because Abraham affects the world all the way until today. And, so, now there’s a promised child to an old couple that are beyond childbearing years, and this is supposed to be a son of promise that will grow to become as many as the sands on the seashore. So, we’ll have to see whether that’s gonna happen or not but that’s the promise. God has found this man Abram and this man Abram has believed God, and that belief has caused him to be seen as a righteous before God. And when we passed by that passage of Scripture you may not even have paid any attention to it or you may have heard that before, but it doesn’t mean anything. It should though. The entire premise of a man named Paul who we’re going to meet later on in the year who is responsible for like two thirds of the New Testament, this is the central thing for the apostle Paul, that Abraham believed God, and God considered him righteous because he believed. So, we’ll get into all that when we get there because today we have new things to unpack and unfold. But I want to point this out because we’re in the book of Genesis and we’re just getting going. But this one thing, that Abraham believed God, and God considered him righteous because of it is a very, very, very important thing to the Christian faith. So, just a bookmark. Remember, because we’ll be visiting this territory again.

And then as we move into the book of Matthew Jesus is still speaking and he’s speaking and he’s speaking pretty frankly about grandstanding today, about drawing attention to yourself, which is really exposing the deficits within yourself, what’s empty inside yourself. But Jesus is saying, “don’t do that, don’t do that spiritually”, right? So, don’t walk around acting like you’re more spiritual than you are because you’re only exposing yourself as less spiritual than you think you are. Do these things in secret where your Father can see them and where you can commune with Him because otherwise, if you’re doing these things, even if they’re good things, if you’re being generous or whatever, you’re doing these things so that you can be seen doing them, then that’s the end of the story, it’s a good thing that you did and you get the pat on the back that you wanted, somebody observed you doing that and then you can continue to build the false story around yourself that you’re uber spiritual when the reality is, if you were then you would do these things in secret where only you and your Father know. So, something to think about because we definitely live in cultures where we are our own spotlight and we are constantly trying to shine the light on ourselves and we do this all kinds of ways, including kind of curating our life for Facebook or Instagram, like trying to make ourselves look a certain way. It is only partly the truth. What we’re portraying is what we like to be, but we know what’s really going on and so does God. And, so, Jesus is saying, “you don’t have to do this, God knows.” And that relationship is in secret and what you do in secret is something that God will reward you for but if you’re gonna shine a spotlight on yourself that’s all there is, that’s the beginning and the end of the story, you got everything you’re going to get. So, well done, you did good, but you got your word already, you arranged for it yourself, you were looking for that little bit of dopamine or whatever to make yourself feel better about yourself and you got the pat on the back and they’re you go, that’s all there is. Jesus is trying to indicate that there’s a whole lot more if we’re walking with God. There’s a whole lot more available than just a pat on the back or Facebook like.

And then we got into the Psalms today and we’re left with something to think about and we should think about this all day today. Actually, this should probably be a point of meditation, like something to really kind of consider today, “if you conceive trouble you will be pregnant with evil and you will give birth to disillusionment.”

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. What does that mean in our story right now? In what ways are we conceiving trouble that will make us pregnant with evil and only give birth to disillusionment? What ways have we done this? What ways are we doing this? We have been taught by Your own words Jesus, to humble ourselves today. And, so we do, and we invite Your Holy Spirit into all that we have read. We heard of a promise today to an older couple that by this time next year the promise will be fulfilled. And, so, we’ve been waiting for things for a long time. And, so, we bring that to You Lord. About this time next year what are our hopes? What should we be hoping in? What are You promising as something that pulls us forward as we walk with You? There’s plenty for us to think about today and we invite Your Holy Spirit into all of it. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And we’re kind of moving into the year, it takes a couple weeks to get fully moved into the rhythm of the year and unpack everything that’s going on.

I mentioned the Promised Land films yesterday, that those are available in the Daily Audio Bible shop.

There’s other things in the Daily Audio Bible Shop that are available and one of those things is our Windfarm coffee and our Windfarm boutique tea. And you might think like, coffee, tea, Bible what’s going…like…why do have that stuff in the Shop? It’s because they pair well. Kind of a coffee snob around here. I pretty much like to drink good high quality coffee, have for many, many years and I drink it every day as I’m , you know, reading the Daily Audio Bible, but I’ve found over time…and by the way, I’m a tea drinker too…I drink tea almost every day during the week as well. But what I found over the years is that my routine, that includes coffee in the morning, has also become like a part of my rhythm. It’s like part of an environment that surrounds this rhythm of the Bible in my life. And, so, over time, just being kind of a coffee snob, I found coffee roasters and we’ve had our own windfarm brand of coffee for 8…at least…eight years. And, so, we roast the coffee fresh at altitude in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and then send it out and we import the tea. It’s boutique level, high quality, excellent tea, like not grocery store stuff here we’re talking about for the tea drinkers. But we realized, this is a part of a morning, afternoon, or evening ritual for most people, not everybody, not a hundred percent of people are like coffee or tea or hot beverage drinkers, but most people are going to buy a cup coffee somewhere or steep some tea at some point every day. And, so, we just began to realize we can source, we can do good and source this in raw and do this ourselves and then make it available to the community and bring the best high quality product that we can to the community that’s going to spend this money anyway and then just harvest the margin to help support the efforts of what’s happening here at the Daily Audio Bible. So, the Daily Audio Bible Windfarm coffee and tea is available in the Daily Audio Bible shop, but also we have a coffee club, like we can send it to you every month. And we do. Hundreds and hundreds of pounds of fresh roasted coffee and tea get shipped every month all over the world. And, so, you know, every time that I am grinding up my fresh coffee and doing a little bit of a pour over in the morning getting and getting ready for the day, I know where this coffee came from and it came as an outgrowth of this community that I love with all of my heart and it reminds me to be prayerful and mindful of you as I’m going into the day. And it can do the same thing for you, not only to remind you to pray for your brothers and sisters that are in community together going through the Scriptures, but also just to center yourself around the fact that this day is not going to work if we don’t walk with God. And, so, as we put these little kinds of reminders in our lives, and they can be anything like…listen…it doesn’t have to be coffee or tea. Like, you can listen to what I’m saying and go, “ya, ya, ya, ya, I’m gonna stick with my Maxwell House or whatever”. That’s fine. But as you put little things, little reminders to maintain what’s going on in your life, to maintain the rhythm, which is our word for the year, to keep things in working order. The more that we can do to help ourselves have reminders, like, that we do not have to go sideways, we don’t have to skip tracks today, like we can actually have a successful day on every level if we’re paying attention. So, this is one of the reasons for it. So, you can get coffee shipped to you, however many bags, however many pounds, whatever kind of tea…like…we have a lot of different varietals that we’ve sourced over the years. So, you know, if that’s something that’s already kind of part of the rhythm of your life, check it out at the Daily Audio Bible Shop, maybe you’d like some sent to you every month and when that box arrives it’s just one of those reminders about what this next week, this next month is gonna look like for you. So, you can check that all out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop or if you’re looking for the coffee club, like you want it sent you each month, go to the Initiatives section in the website or in the app and you can read all about it.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you. I’m humbled. I‘m humbled and surprised and delighted that we’re in our 14^th year and God has been faithful and that as a community we’ve done things that have never been done before in the history of the world. And there is no community like this. It’s, quite remarkable what God is doing in and among us. So, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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:

Today is January 1^st, 2019. This is Randolph from Toronto Canada. Brian, I wish you a happy new year to you, Jill, China, Max, Tyler, Ezekiel, Mary Jo, Mike and all those who work behind the scenes of Daily Audio Bible. I praise God for your commitment to reading the Bible every day. I’ve been listening every day for about six years now. I also want to let my fellow DABbers know that I listen to every prayer request and pray along with each of you although I don’t call often. A happy new year to all. This is Randolph from Toronto Canada. And Blessings.

Greetings to the Daily Audio Bible family. Just so blessed and so happy to be a part of this beautiful community another year. Brian, I thank you, Jill we thank you and team and to my Daily Audio Bible family. We are embarking upon a whole new year with Brian guiding us through revival. For those of you who are new, you are in for such an amazing journey. If you were looking for a different step, 2019 will make just basically drawing closer to the Lord was truly the best thing that you could have ever done for yourself this year. Within this community you will find so many prayer warriors, individuals that are there to stand in the gap for you no matter what you’re going through we are all here. So, we listen, some of us call in on a consistent basis and pray, but some of us pray on the outside, just listening and may not hear from us all the time but we are listening and truly we are praying. So, I just wanted to welcome you guys to this new step, the next step I should say, in your spiritual journey. It will be one that you will never regret and that you always look back on and say that this is truly one of God’s blessings. So, thank you again. Everyone, have a happy healthy and a very prosperous and blessed 2019. This is Sherlock from New Jersey.

Hi Daily Audio Bible DABbers. To Brian, Jill, happy new year to everyone. This is Tinese calling from Cleveland Ohio and I am just grateful for a new life and today a new year. I am praying for each and every one of you that 2019 will be a prosperous year, that you will find a deeper connection with God and that your goals and dreams that you have, you will be able to achieve those as well as just live the very best life that you can. I’m excited. I’m asking you guys to pray for me as well. I love the word of the year of being “Maintain”, that is awesome. For my personal goals I’m adding a little bit to that, I’m adding “obtain” because sometimes I just leave so much on the table because I’m fearful and I don’t maximize my opportunities. So, I also want to be able to obtain some things that God has for me this year as well as sustain. I want to be sustainable, I want to leave a great footprint for my family, for people that I have an opportunity to mentor. I want to be able to give back. So, I want to be able to have resources and opportunity and information that I have had in my life, I want to be able to pass it on to them. I am so thankful and deeply grateful for the Daily Audio Bible. I am, even more at this point my life, just profoundly…I just have profound gratitude for the blood of Jesus that covers my life. So, many times I can look back and see why I should not be here and where He has kept me. And when I get to heaven I want to get there, and I want to say, “hey God, look, I did the best I could, I went for it all in Jesus name.” And I thank God for everything that He’s doing. So, again, I’m praying for each and every…

Hello DABbers, this EZ in Georgia and for those of you that have been listening for a long time, you’ll know that every year or two I will start out to do this with all of you and then the pressures of life or the length of the program in the day will just make me feel like I can’t finish. And last year I ended up just reading the daily message, but I love this so much and I want to complete it and I want to be part of it and this is the first day of January as I record this. So, I would ask that you all…just…if you would, please lift me up in prayer that I will finish this this year, that peace will come into a lot of personal trials. My family is going through a lot of health issues and that the will of the Lord will be done in my life. I have music ministry and it’s very difficult for an artist in this day in age to get into churches because praise teams have kind of taken that kind of ministry and made it obsolete in a lot of areas. And I just pray that that will change enough that doors will open for me. I love all of you so much and I’m thrilled to be back and I’m gonna stick with it this year, I promise.