Deuteronomy 18:1-20:20, Luke 9:28-50, Psalms 73:1-28, Proverbs 12:10
Today is April 1st. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today as we step into this brand-new month, the fourth month of the year and it’s our opportunity to step into the second quarter of the year. So, well done. We are well on our way. Our reading today will be from the book of Genesis chapter 1 and will be reading from the Street Bible.
First off, nothing but God, no light, no time, no substance, no matter. Second off, God’s is the word and whap! Stuff everywhere. The cosmos in chaos, no shape, no form, no function just darkness total and floating above it all, God’s Holy Spirit ready to play. Day one. Then God’s voice booms out, “lights!” And from nowhere light floods the skies and night is swept off the scene. God gives it the big thumbs-up but calls it day. Day two. God says, “I want a dome. Call it sky, right there between the waters above and below” and it happens. Day three. God says, “too much water. We need something to walk on a huge lump of it. Call it land. Let the sea make its edges.” God smiles and says, “now we’ve got us some definition but it’s too plain. It needs color, vegetation, loads of it, a million shades, now.” And the earth goes wild with trees, bushes, plants, flowers, and fungi. “Now give it a growth permit.” Seeds appear in every one. “Yes”, says God. April fool’s everyone!!!
Welcome to the month of April in springtime here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. Oh, I have so much fun with that. Believe it or not, that is actually in print. I like, find these obscure, strange, partial or full translations of the Bible and bring them out here on April 1st. I love it. April fools, we are all awake now and we are aware that we are in a new month although it’s been a while since we’ve been back in the book of Genesis but nice to visit there in an odd sort of way for just quick second. We’re really in the book of Deuteronomy and we’ve been working our way through the book of Deuteronomy for a while now, listening to the final things that Moses has to say to his people before he becomes…before he dies, becomes part of their past. So, we’re really reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. And today, Deuteronomy chapter 18, 19, and 20.
Commentary:
Okay. So, all joking aside about April Fools’ Day and all let’s go back to Psalm 73 that we read today because it’s very revealing. So, Asaph is the author of this Psalm and he pours out his heart with questions that probably are familiar, probably about things that we’ve thought about. And he is basically saying, “why is it that the proud and wicked people get to have an easy life, get to be healthy and prosperous while I’m here trying to do my best, to be good and to be devout, but all I seem to do struggle? So, am I trying to do good for no reason and does any of it matter because what I see in the world makes me feel bitter? That's…that’s pretty honest, right? That’s pretty stark and we’ve probably all had shades of those feelings in our lives from time to time. And, so, we can see that the Scriptures are inviting us into honesty, into being honest with ourselves with what we’re seeing with God. It was really only until Asaph went into God’s presence that he began to understand. He realized that just complaining about everybody else’s life and comparing his life to everybody else’s life was ignorant. In his own words he said, “I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.” So, what we see is a Asaph realizing that his identity, his purpose, who he is is not found by comparing how well he might be doing with someone else’s life. His identity was found in knowing God and he found that, he reoriented himself to that by going into God’s presence. And once that happened and his heart was reoriented to the fact that he belonged to God, well, then there was hope in being God’s child. He said, “I still belong to you. You hold my right hand. you guide me with Your counsel leading me to a destiny that is glorious.” We may feel, we may sense the things that Asaph observed and lamented about but we have to follow the same path into God’s presence because we’re all invited into life, into this collaboration on this planet with God that we call life. And when we lose sight of that because we’ve placed our eyes on someone else’s life then we’re no longer freely living hours, we’re attaching ourselves in all kinds of ways to compare to get some sort of identity but it’s false. It’s a total distraction. We can’t find our identity like that. Our identity is found in God’s presence. And, so, along with Asaph today, let’s pray these words from the Psalm, “As for me, how good it is to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord, my shelter and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.”
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite You into that. It’s something that we see often in the Scriptures because it’s part of our human experience to compare ourselves, how well we’re doing, how superior we are, or how inferior we are when we’re asking the wrong questions and looking in the wrong places. And, so, we come into Your presence where true identity dwells and where everything that we need is because we are Your children. Come Holy Spirit into this brand-new month that we have, lead us forward into the changing of the seasons and may we find You in everything and may we see clearly where You are leading us in the days ahead. We pray these things expectantly because You have offered these things to us. And, so, we pray these things expectantly in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, stay tuned, stay connected in any way that you can, any way that you will.
This is a busy month for us. The More Gathering is coming up. This is the month of Easter and this is a month of…well…there’s gonna be a wedding in my family, China’s gonna be getting married. So, it’s a busy month for us. Thanks for your prayers. We’re looking forward to all of this even though it’s a busy time.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. That link lives on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are 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.