07/30/2019 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27, Romans 13:1-14, Psalms 23:1-6, Proverbs 20:11

Today is the 30th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. 30th day of July. One day left in this month. The year is flying, but maybe that’s just me. I doubt it though. But it seems like the further we get into the quicker it goes. Nevertheless, we have something in our lives that roots us to the here and now and this is our daily rhythm of allowing God’s word to wash over us, to speak to us. And we continue to create this safe place around the global campfire for us to step out of whatever’s going on and just be at peace in the presence of community, in the presence of God as we hear the reading of His word. And, so, today…well…this week we’re reading from the Common English Bible. Today from the Old Testament we’ll continue our journey through the…well…through the journeys of the kings of Judah and Israel. Second Chronicles 26 through 28.

Commentary:

Okay. So, yesterday in the book of Romans, we kind of went down this list that’s in Romans 12 of just what life should look like. Like how our behaviors should be, what it means to be a living sacrifice. And, so, today Paul just kind of summed it all up. Like all of that and all of the issues of life all boil down to one thing and that one thing is love. As Paul said, if you love your neighbor…like…if you love your neighbor as you love yourself then you are fulfilling the law, right? And he just kind of boils it down. Like, everybody knows you should not commit adultery. That’s the rule. Everyone knows you shouldn’t murder. That’s the rule. You shouldn’t covet. That’s the rule. Like, you know the rules, but if you think about it, you can’t do any of those things. Like, you can’t break the rules in love. You cannot murder in love. You cannot covet in love. So, that’s why love is the thing here. The thing is that that’s not a new concept, right? Love is the answer. I mean how many billions of times has that been said. Like, how many times do we hear that every week almost to the point of cliché? Like everybody, no matter what they believe intuitively understands the idea that love is the answer, but what we rarely actually slow down and pay attention to and move beyond cliché is just how powerful of a statement that actually is. Love is the by far the most potent weapon to fight darkness that there is. So, when we love, even sacrificially, when we love then God’s kingdom is being revealed and made visible in this world. When we love we are reflecting the glory of the Lord upon this earth. And as Paul’s writing this letter, he’s saying this is urgent…like…this is an urgent matter. Time’s running out. You’ve gotta wake up. It’s here, it’s happening, the night is almost gone, the day of salvation is coming. Like, he’s saying this is an urgent matter, this is an urgent matter. When we love, especially the unlovable, or when we are not being loved in return, we are doing battle against the darkness. And the Scriptures tell us love conquerors all. So, we begin to realize this isn’t like a battle against nations, this isn’t in battles against communities, this is in battles against neighbors. This is a battle between darkness and light. This is battle between good and evil and love is the weapon that will destroy and utterly annihilate evil and darkness from this world, which, as we will see in the end, as we’re nearing the end of the Bible is kind of the point. And if we just look back at the Gospels, we will realize that this is what God in the flash demonstrated, taught, revealed, modeled for us. So, it would be easy enough to say…well…love one another and have a good day. But you need to understand when you one another what is happening. When you love you are restoring things to how they were meant to be.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. And there’s a part of us that’s deep inside that knows this. There’s also a greater part of us that’s very distracted from it and we usually are reacting to something not in love before we even think about whether or not we should respond in love. We need Your help because we need love to be the default. We need to be transformed in this area badly. We need love to be the default, not some sort of resistance, not some sort of anger, not some sort of defensiveness, not all of the things that we go to instead. We need love to be the default in our lives, that we will respond in love to whatever comes our way. And we can only go so far in our own strength. And, so, come Holy Spirit. Well up from within and show us how to do this. It’s gonna take some practice but we’re beginning today. Show us how to be a living sacrifice as we respond and love and reveal Your kingdom in this world in every situation that comes our way. May this be our default. We ask in the name of Jesus, who gave us the example of what that looks like. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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