Month: November 2019

Ezekiel 31:1-32:32, Hebrews 12:14-29, Psalms 113:1-114:8, Proverbs 27:18-20

Today is the 15^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you…I guess the dead center of this 11^th month of the year. And I suppose we should be taking some deep breaths here because it's…it’s about to get to the busy season of the year, isn’t it? But we’re out in front of that as we come to the conclusion of another one of our weeks together and we’ll finish strong like we always do. We’ve been reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week and the next step forward is back into the book of Ezekiel. Today we’ll read chapters 31 and 32.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have a pretty good view of our faith and what happens in our faith as we follow the path, the narrow path that leads to life, as we follow the way of Jesus found in the book of Hebrews today. So, the author of Hebrews is saying, “look, everybody pursue peace with each other. This is what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to pursue holiness. If you don’t have that you’re not gonna see God. So, make sure you’re pursuing these things. Make sure nobody falls short of the grace of God and that the root of bitterness doesn’t spring up and defile the community”, right? “Make sure you are in this. Make sure there isn’t any immoral or irreverent person like Esau who sold his birthright in exchange for a single meal”, right? So, putting that in terms of the gospel, it’s like you can’t carry your faith around as if it’s disposable as if you could sell it all for something that you think is better. Like that’s not how this works. So, that’s the context, that’s what’s being said here. And he’s saying, “do all these things for a reason,” And this is where we have to again remind ourselves that Hebrews was written to Hebrews, right? So, the entire context and all of the imagery is a part of the Hebrew worldview. So, the author then takes us back to the mountain, in this case Mount Sinai where Moses met with God but God’s intention was to meet with his people but when he descended upon the mountain the people were afraid to hear directly from God so they sent Moses up on the mountain. And even Moses was trembling with fear. So, the writer of Hebrews is giving that imagery and saying that, “this is how we’ve looked at God, ever since, but we…that’s not how it is and that is most certainly not how it is anymore since God in the flesh in the person of Jesus, since God himself came to rescue us and institute a new covenant, that’s not how it is anymore. Instead…” and I’m quoting Hebrews here…“Instead, you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a judge who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which says better things than the blood of Abel.” Alright, so let’s just recount where we’re going here because it can…it can be complicated. The writer of Hebrews is saying, “live upright, live holy, be at peace with everyone. Don’t let immorality, don’t let irreverence, don’t let bitterness grow among you because you’re not living in fear of God like they did at Sinai. Now you can come right in, you belong”. And then he goes on, “see to it that you don’t reject the one who speaks for if those people back then in Zion didn’t escape when they rejected him and warned him on earth then nobody’s gonna get away when they’ve been warned from heaven. “His voice shook”…we’re quoting again…“His voice shook the earth at that time but now He has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. This expression “yet once more” indicates the removal of what can be shaken, that is, created things, so that what is not shaken might remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful.” So, let’s sum this up. There are postures that we’re supposed to live into that lead us to holiness because without it we won’t see God. In the past Moses went on Mount Sinai and everybody was terrified when they heard from God but now things have changed, and we can go boldly into the presence of God. However, God is about the business of revealing and installing His kingdom forever and ever and that will require that everything that can shake will be shaken so that only what is unshakable will remain. There is the context for life friends. All that can be shaken will be shaken so that all that remains is unshakable because we are inheriting an unshakable kingdom. So, I don’t know about you but there’s been some shaking going on in my world and in my life this year and I’ve…usually a few times now…usually have the where with all to embrace and invite God in to the shaking and saying, “I believe you are in this as uncomfortable as this might be.” And I’ve been shaken plenty of times in my life and I know that when all that can shake has been shaken off then all that’s left is what is true. So, maybe rather than the anger and the frustration and all of the associated emotions that go with that, that eventually get us shaking our fist at the heavens and being angry with God. Like maybe we need to reframe what’s happening here. We are being made unshakable and the only way that happens is that all that can shake has been shaken off.

Prayer:

Father we embrace what You are doing in our lives and we invite Your Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see and ears to hear, because so often when we face challenge, when things start shaking it’s uncomfortable and so we immediately label it bad or evil because it’s making us uncomfortable. We don’t take that beat and invite You to help us interpret the path we’re walking and what’s happening in our lives. So, we’re taking that moment now. Come, Holy Spirit. Help us to reinterpret the circumstances that are swirling around us. Certainly, we face obstacles because we create them because of the decisions that we make. But sometimes we face seasons where it feels like everything is shaking and we’re not really sure why and the longer that it lasts the more that we cling to things that You may be trying to shake loose. And, so, we’re working against You and getting frustrated and exhausted in the process. So, You have given us some eyes to see today, that this is what is going to happen. Until Your kingdom is fully established, all that can shake will be shaken. And, so, it’s hard to invite the shaking into our own lives because it’s inviting disruption and yet we are told by the author of Hebrews today that what we’re aiming for here is holiness, what we’re aiming for here is to live at peace. And, so, we invite You. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth as You’ve promised and as we believe. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that is home base. And as I…as I am in the habit of saying, that’s where you find what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay connected in any way that you can.

Visit the Community section where you can find all the different social media links. That’s a way to stay connected. The Prayer Wall is there. That’s a way to stay connected. So, check those out.  

The Daily Audio Bible Shop lives at dailyaudiobible.com as well where resources for this journey are available, including our…our latest. It’s entitled the God of Your Story and it’s a 365-day devotional kind of…a written form of the journey that we take through the Scriptures each and every day here at Daily Audio Bible, so a fantastic companion. So, check that out.

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

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment you can hit the Hotline button in the app little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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:

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Lola coming to you from East Asia. I don’t really call in very often but there’s a huge need in my community here right now. There’s another teacher, I’ve never actually met her, she doesn’t even teach at this place where I am, but she is dying of cancer. She…at this point she wouldn’t even make it to the airport to fly back to the US. She does not know the Lord and she is terrified. She’s dying in a place that’s not her home. Her family isn’t here, and she doesn’t know God. There…the women here at my community have been pitching in. Most of us have never met her before but we are going to the hospital so that we shall have people who speak English with her as she’s dying. But what we really need is…she needs to be lifted up so that she’ll know the Lord before she passes away. And I also…we also…I haven’t been helping much…but we need prayer for the women here in my community who are volunteering to just go and be with her. They are exhausted. So, if you could pray for that that would be wonderful.

Good morning this is Valerie from South of at Atlanta. I just wanted to call and share my heart a little bit. I find that I’m growing cynical. It’s like I just feel myself getting cold and a little bit cynical with the Lord and I don’t want to be that way and I don’t quite know what…where it’s coming from, but I do know that I need a new church home. I know that I need to surround myself with other Christians, especially Christian women that are entering into the older phase of their life. So, I ask for prayer that God will direct me and the path that I need to go. But in order for me to combat the cynicism I think that I really need to just start praying more. So, it’s going to be my goal to start calling in much more frequently and praying for the DABbers and lifting others up to God in the hope that my heart will become tender and more compassionate. So, I want to pray for Abigail right now who had found that she has cancer spots on her lungs, and she’s gone through so much already. And then to have this diagnosis, I can’t I just can’t imagine the feeling of defeat. So, I want to pray for her, and I want to pray for Janet who had her bad test results. And Janet please know that I’m praying for you. I’m praying that God will work in that situation. And I also want to pray for Sandy who had the stroke. And I’m running out of time, so I want to mention Mark who has COPD. So, I’m praying for the four of you today. You will be on my heart constantly. God bless everybody. Have a blessed day.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible readers, family, I’m calling to lift up a few of the dampers from listening to the November 11^th podcast. This is Brave from New Jersey. I’m calling for Janice from the UK concerning your friend who is currently in very…a lot of difficulties, about to lose his house or apartment and he has lung cancer, he has to find out if you can go back to work after reassessment. We want to lift up your friend Janice from the UK that the Lord will visit him and as everything rushing into him as water the Lord says that although the flood brushes over us of water it will not overtake us. So, I trust God that he will not be overtaken, and our Lord will give him a reason to celebrate and know him. And as you’re lifting him up over the podcast here, you’re lifting up will not be in vain and it will receive a visitation of the Lord even where he is, and the Lord will visit Him in show him kindness. I also want to pray concerning Betsy from Michigan and her friend the teenager who is driven to the dark side that the Lord will visit her too, that the Lord will show his face to her and that also even in these dark days there will be a reason to celebrate and the Lord will be glorified. And finally, I want to pray for Dana in Arkansas and her three daughters recovering from PTSD from sexual assault. Lord, this prayer point hit hard to my heart because I have been a victim too and I pray that the Lord will truly restore their youth, restore everything concerning them.

Hi everybody it’s Margo in Liberia. I have a bit of a cold, so my voice is a bit different. I’m calling the old way. I phoned in a few times using the Hotline button but I’m not sure if mine is working so I’m trying my old way because I’d really like to connect with you guys. Just touching base letting you know I’m still here, I’m still listening, and I’m still praying for you all every day. And could you please keep me in your prayers. Don’t forget me over here in Liberia. We’re coming up to…well it’s been about six months that we’ve actually been in Liberia now and some things are getting easier. We are starting to adjust. It’s not an easy place to live. I’ve done lots and lots of volunteer work at the mission hospital which has been really fulfilling. However, it’s…it’s a big change for me and it’s…it’s very confronting and very challenging and just I need your prayers. I had my son come and visit which was amazing. He was here for a few weeks and he’s just left and him going seems to have just triggered in me the most piercing grief. It’s just not an easy life and sometimes the suffering is great. But at the same time, I love Jesus so much and it’s such a privilege and an honor to be doing what he’s called me to be…called me to do and called me to be. Anyway, time’s running out. I love you guys. Don’t forget me. I’ll talk again soon. Bye.

Ezekiel 29:1-30:26, Hebrews 11:32-12:13, Psalms 112:1-10, Proverbs 27:17

Today is the 14^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it’s great to be here with you as we move through the center of another of our weeks together and…well…frankly we’re moving through the center of the 11^th month of the year at the same time. So, yeah, we’re well into our journey but we still have so much yet in front of us. So, we will take the next step forward. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Ezekiel chapter 29 and 30 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, this is our third today walking down what is known as the “hall of faith” in the book of Hebrews and it’s simply called that because it’s example after example after example, starting in the book of Genesis and working its way forward through the Hebrew Scriptures of…of people and stories that we have all encountered as we’ve moved through the Bible this year where faith was the irreplaceable thing. So, we concluded that hall of faith today in an interesting way because we concluded the book with people who had faith but did not see the promise fulfilled in their lifetime. So, we start in the beginning of the Scriptures and we worked our way forward seeing that faith is irreplaceable. Like, without faith it is impossible to please God and we saw God come through in those stories of faith, but they all faced considerable opposition, right? Like, they had to fight for it. And then today we get to people who were faithful and true and fought for it and died, hoping, hoping in faith. And then as the…as the writer of Hebrews concludes this hall the faith, basically what happens is a mic drop, a summary, a mic drop, a walk off the stage, basically, what else is there to say about walking the life of faith. And they say, “therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us.” What he’s referring to when he’s talking about this large cloud of witnesses is all of the examples we just walked through in the hall of faith. Their lives, their faith, their witness, their testimony, their story serves as an example, this is the path. So, the writer of Hebrews says, “so, since…since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.” And he’s using Jesus as this final example in the hall of faith. “For the joy that lay before him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right end of the throne of God.” That…that’s a pretty big mic drop moment as we’ve walked down the hall of faith and seen all these examples and realized really, it is impossible to please God without faith and really, it’s pretty much impossible to get anywhere without faith. So, since we have all of these examples, since we have this great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s walk the path. So, my brothers and sisters, listen, I mean, we’re well into our year and it’s been a heck of a year, at least it’s been a heck of a year for me. I’ve faced challenges I did not know were coming my way. And, yeah, I mean all kinds of things happen in a life in a year. So, we all have these stories and it’s so easy to come to get punched and knocked down and then think, “okay, well where is God” and just be discouraged. But since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, brothers and sisters let us lay aside every hindrance, all of them, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that keeps trapping us, that keeps tripping us, that keeps ensnaring us. Let’s stop those things. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us. In other words, we’re walking down this path of life. This is the road were on. Let’s run with endurance the race that we’re running, keeping our eyes on Jesus and not on anything else because all of the times that we turn our head to the right or the left and get distracted we end up in the ditch. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. And, as we’ve been told it’s impossible to please God without faith. And Jesus is the source and perfecter of our faith. So, let’s run this race and endure what comes, keeping our eyes on Jesus, knowing that our faith is being perfected and we are becoming pleasing to God. We know it’s impossible without faith to please God, but that means it’s possible to please God by faith and Jesus is the source and perfecter of our faith. So, let’s get up off of our buts. It’s time to stop sitting around in our own self-absorbed misery. Let’s get up since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s go.

Prayer:

Father we invite You into that because if we look at our lives, we can see when we’re faithless, we can see what happens when that tank is empty. We cannot please You. We cannot please anyone. And we have been given example after example after example in the Scriptures telling us flatly and frankly, faith is the activator, faith is the fuel of this story we are living. And, so, we keep our eyes on You Jesus. Running this race with endurance come what may our eyes are on You. You are perfecting our faith. And as the author of Hebrews goes on to tell us that You discipline those that You love, we submit to You. We believe that You want good for us. We believe that You want to reveal the narrow path that leads to life that very few find, and we will certainly not find it without faith. So, come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth. We surrender to You and we pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, and that is home base for…for all of us here, around the global campfire. So, stay connected and stay tuned in any way that you can there.

The Prayer Wall lives at  dailyaudiobible.com. That is a fantastic resource to ask for prayer and to offer prayer for brothers and sisters around the world. So, be sure to check that out. In the same section, that’s the community section, you’ll find all the different links to the social media channels that we are involved in. So, stay connected that way as well. You can also get to the Prayer Wall using the Daily Audio Bible app by pressing the little drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. That’ll take you there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm., if that has been life giving to you then thank you, thank you humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, of course, if you have a prayer request or comment. There are a number of ways to reach out, you can press the Hotline button, the little red button in the app at the top or, if you are in the Americas you can dial 877-942-4253. If you are in the UK or Europe, you can dial 44-20-3608-8078 and if you are in Australia or that part of the world you can dial 61-3-8820-5459.

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

Ezekiel 27:1-28:26, Hebrews 11:17-31, Psalms 111:1-10, Proverbs 27:15-16

Today is the 13^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you on this 317^th day of the year, which is our 317^th day together as we’re making our way to the Scriptures this year. We’re continuing to work our way through the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament and the book of Hebrews in the New. And we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Today, Ezekiel chapters 27 and 28.

Commentary:

Alright. So, yesterday we were talking about what is known as the “hall of faith” found here in the book of Hebrews. And, so, we continued walking down that hall of faith in today’s reading. And, so, what we’ve done basically is begin in the book of Genesis and then the author of Hebrews begins to point out instances in the Hebrew Scriptures where faith was like the irreplaceable part of the story. And, so, we spent all of our time walking down those examples in today’s reading from the Old Testament, right? So, it was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice for God was testing him. It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future of his sons, Jacob and Esau. It was by faith that Jacob when he was old and dying, blessed Joseph’s sons. It was by faith that Joseph when he was about to die talked about leaving Egypt. It was by faith that Moses parents hid him for three months when he was born. It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be identified with Pharaoh’s daughter. It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover. It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as they were on dry ground. It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days and the walls crashed down. It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed. So, you can see it was “by faith”, that phrase pounded over and over as we’re looking at the examples simply starting at the beginning of the Bible and working our way forward. This is because the author, the writer of Hebrews was pointing out something that had always been obvious but hadn’t been seen, hadn’t been understood in this context. And the larger point is the same point that the apostle Paul made in his writings, it was by faith that all of these things happened not by adherence to some sort of code or ethic. It was by faith. Faith was the component that…that changed all of the stories. Like today We worked from Genesis all the way to the book of Joshua and without faith all of the major characters and all of the major decisions of those stories that carry the narrative forward in the Bible wouldn’t have happened. Like what if this was the hall of disbelief that we were walking down and all of these people had the supreme opportunity to live by faith with God in covenant, but they chose not to, right? We would have…we would either not have the Bible or we would have a different Bible. And this is the point that’s being made. Like, faith is the key to our union with God and our awareness of the spiritual realms. Faith has always been the essential component of life with God. It still is. Nothing has changed there. Without faith we can’t please God. And in all of the examples that we read of today in the hall of faith, God responded to their faith. So, we’re talking about faith because we’re walking down this hall of faith, but we have to think about our own faith. We can certainly look and go, like, “He's…that’s right…that’s right…faith was the thing because all the way back to the beginning I can see that now.” But what about your faith? What about our faith right now? Because what we are putting our faith in is essentially what we are giving our hearts to in worship as if it were God, as if it were going to be able to bring us life. So, let’s think about it because that’s the point. That’s what the author of Hebrews is trying to show here. Where is your faith because without it you’re going nowhere? So, it would be a good thing to not lose it, and it would be a good thing to know where it is at all times. So, it comes down to, like, in whom, or in what have we put our faith? We see from the hall of faith with…that when people against all odds put their faith in God, God responds. That hasn’t changed. So, maybe we’re waiting for God to respond only to sit down and realize we do not have faith that He will and we have put our faith in someone or something else. Or maybe we put our faith in ourselves and we’ve gotta dig out of this. Maybe our faith is in the wrong place. Something to think about today.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You to help us think about that, to begin to unpack where is we’re putting our faith because it’s been made abundantly clear, we will never please You without faith. And, so, forgive us for all of the times that we’ve tried to navigate without it or that we’ve put our faith in something that can’t deliver, and given our hearts in worship to that thing or that person. Forgive us for these things. We see the foolishness of our ways. We place our faith, all of it…all of it…there is no plan B…all of it is in You and You alone. We invite You Holy Spirit to come into that. Show us all of the areas that we’ve placed our faith in other things. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is home base, and certainly where you stay tuned and connected to what’s going on around here. So, be sure to do that.

Visit the Community section of the website. That’s where the Prayer Wall lives.

Visit the Daily Audio Bible Shop. That’s where resources like the God of Your Story can be found. If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com and I cannot thank you enough for your partnership as we continue this journey forward. 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, you can press the Hotline button, the little red button in the top of the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Ezekiel 24:1-26:21, Hebrews 11:1-16, Psalms 110:1-7, Proverbs 27:14

Today is the 12^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a pleasure to be here with you today. As we come around the global campfire and…well…come in out of whatever’s going on and just set it aside and allow this to be a safe place for God’s word to wash into our lives and that will take us back into the book of Ezekiel as we continue that journey. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Ezekiel chapter 24, 25 and 26 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we’ve been moving our way through the book of Hebrews, we’ve been seeing this argument and the implications of what’s being said laid out very meticulously. So…so, the implications of the good news or the gospel have become clear. Because of Jesus, who is our great and final high priest, through Him we can…we can, with boldness, enter God’s presence as a son or a daughter righteous before God. And, so, today we started talking about what it is that must be present in order for that to happen. Faith. So, like, just because we’re reading the book of Hebrews, like this is not the first time we’ve ever talked about faith. We’ve examined it from every angle because we’ve been reading the writings of the apostle Paul and this is a primary theme for him, but Hebrews gives us a definition and its famous and it’s memorable and it’s quotable, right? “Faith reveals the reality of what we’re hoping for. Faith itself is the evidence of what we can’t see.” So, in other words, faith lets us see a reality and begin moving into that reality and living in that reality even though it’s not reached its full completion. Faith gives substance to what is yet unseen. And it’s often that we’re praying for more faith, right? We hear it on a can annual basis, “increase my faith. I need more faith.” But if this is what faith is, if it is a substance of…of what we can’t see…a reality of what we hope for, then we have to understand that it’s baked into our experience as human beings. We are all living by faith because we all have faith in things we can’t see, right? So like…so like, we all probably have somebody in our lives that we love. Can you see it? Right? Can you see the love? You can’t. You can see the evidence of the love, you can see the implications of the love, the repercussions of the love, but you can’t see it. Or how about your next breath? You have faith that it’s going to come, so much so that you don’t even think about it. So, we’re exercising faith all of the time, every day, somehow. It’s a part of our experience, but when it comes to our spirituality and our union with God all the sudden it becomes some sort of different category. So, the writer of Hebrews isn’t trying to prove that faith is a real thing, that it actually exists. Who’s gonna argue with that? The point was, faith had always been a part of the Hebrew story and we have to remember, Hebrews is written from a Hebrew context to Hebrews and this had always been a part of their story, in fact this had always been essential to the story. Faith, as Paul so constantly laid out, came before any law, before any ritual, before any behavior, before any tabernacle, before any temple. Faith was the beginning of the story. It’s the centerpiece. It’s the cornerstone. And making that point is very, very important to the writer of Hebrews because they lead us down a path that we have begun to walk today and will continue to walk over the next couple days. It’s famously known as “the hall of faith”, right? Because the writer of Hebrews is showing this point to be true - all of these famous important characters found in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament - all of their stories could not have happened without faith, right? It was my faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain. It was my faith that Enoch was taken into heaven without dying. It was by faith Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. It was my faith that Abraham obeyed God when God called him to leave his home and go somewhere he didn’t even know. He went even though he didn’t know where he was going. It was by faith Sarah had a child even though she was too old to have children and through that child this promise has been brought to fruition. The people are like the sand on the seashore. So, we see what’s happening here. The author of Hebrews is simply going back to the beginning, back to Genesis, and started working forward through the stories that are there, revealing that faith is the thing that activated the stories. Faith is the essential piece. But why? Like, why was the apostle Paul pounding this theme home throughout his writings? And why is the author of Hebrews pounding this home almost to the point of redundancy? It’s because the people, in order to accept, in order to see the revelation that a new covenant with God through Jesus was being offered, the only way that anyone could have participated, could’ve come into that covenantal relationship was going to be by and through faith. It would take faith to enter into that relationship and that is no less true today. So, as we read these stories starting with Genesis and continue walking down this hall of faith, we…these are…these were not the exceptions to the rule. They’re simply a list of people that serve as the examples for everybody, including you, and including me. Faith activated their story and we’re not gonns get anywhere without faith in our story. I mean, the writer of Hebrews put it clearly, “it is impossible to please God without faith.” So, that leaves us with an understanding that we probably already had, but it puts it really front and center because now we have to think, “where is my faith?” Right “What have I put my faith in?” Like, when I leave this little oasis around this global campfire and I have to go back out into that world and complete my day. “What have I put my faith in?”

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into that question. Sometimes it’s those sorts of questions, they’re just simple, and they seem easy enough to answer until we sit with them and realize that You have begun to unravel us, that You begin to peel back the layers, that You are after things inside of us that are keeping us in fear and doubt and not faith. And, so, reveal those things to us. We open ourselves to You completely and fully declaring nothing is off-limits here. Nothing is off limits to You. We trust You, we love You and we believe that it is our good, that it is our freedom, that it is our sanctification that You are after, and we are after that to. And, so, we collaborate, we surrender. Come, Holy Spirit show us the places throughout the rest of this day that we’ve put our faith in things that aren’t You, and that can’t deliver. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

The Daily Audio Bible Shop lives there and there are resources available for the journey that we are on. The entire Global Campfire line is at the Shop as well as the God of Your Story, a brand-new resource that’s just…just been released which is…which is essentially a devotional…365 day devotional book that goes through the Bible and talks about the kinds of things that we talk about here every single day. And, so, it is a fantastic companion, a wonderful resource. And I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions, it is my prayer that everyone…everyone in this community has this tangible representation of who we are together as a community at the Daily Audio Bible. And, of course, all of the proceeds from the sale of the God of Your Story through the Daily Audio Bible Shop, all of the proceeds from the sale of the God of Your Story go to support the efforts of the Daily Audio Bible in our ongoing mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to keep building community around that rhythm so that we know we’re not on this journey alone. So, thank you for your free support of the God of Your Story. That’s available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link and it lives on the homepage and I thank you profoundly…profoundly 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 the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

Ezekiel 23:1-49, Hebrews 10:18-39, Psalms 109:1-31, Proverbs 27:13

Today is the 11^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is, of course, great to be here with you as we take this next step forward in the Scriptures this year. And as we get our work we going we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Ezekiel chapter 23 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, let’s just…let’s just reread a passage from our reading in Ezekiel today. “Yet she multiplied her acts of promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth when she acted like a prostitute in the land of Egypt and lusted after her lovers whose sexual members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. So, you revisited the depravity of your youth when the Egyptians caressed your nipples to enjoy your youthful breasts.” So, are we all paying attention here? Like is everyone paying attention right now, because that was sort of the point? So, I mean Ezekiel chapter 23 is one of the most graphic portions in the Scriptures, and pretty much not a year goes by that I don’t get a bunch of emails, like “I don’t why…what’s this doing in the Bible” kind of questions. And I guess the fundamental answer is because God said those things and they were written down by the prophet Ezekiel. So, I mean we can approach us a couple of ways. We can say, “ooo, I don’t like that kind of language being in my Bible. And, so, if God said it…well…I have a weird feeling about God. And yet as graphic as it might be, God is simply saying this is where you will end up if you do that. Or we could say, “what is going on here? Why is God choosing this particular imagery and memorializing it for all time in the Scriptures? If we simply go back and we remember the story of the baby girl lying in her blood left abandoned to die and then God shows up and says, “live”, and cares for her and meets her every need and she grows up to be beautiful and marries Him and they have children together that she then sacrifices and that she then abandons the Lord in favor of adulterous relationships with anyone that she can find, well then when we get to this kind of language in the 23^rd chapter of Ezekiel it starts all making sense. God had entered into an exclusive covenantal relationship, the bonds of which were as powerful, if not more powerful than marriage itself because this is the language God chose to use and his vision was for an exclusive family, His family, set apart and made holy. And He offered painstakingly the parameters of what that would look like. If they would obey and live within that covenantal relationship as a people before their God, then there was nothing that they couldn’t do that the entire world would be blessed because of them. And yet their story, and we have read so much of this story by now that we know this by heart, they won’t be faithful, they won’t stay true. And God sends prophet after profit saying, “like this is what you need to do. You need to return to me. You need to come home.” Finally, in the book of Ezekiel we get it, like full force, “this is what you are doing. You are inviting mixture. You are inviting all of these foreign lovers into our exclusive covenantal relationship. Your lust for other lovers is making you this gusting. Can’t you see how far you have fallen. You are sacrificing my children born in this exclusive covenantal relationship, these children who are set apart to me, these children that are holy, you are sacrificing them to fall God’s. Do you not see what you are doing?” Well, understanding this helps us understand why God is being sold graphic. Because we’re reading this, and we can be off put by it, but we certainly understand what’s being said here. Okay. So, if we can wrap our minds around what’s being said here and go, “okay. Alright. I…I see…I see that my heavenly Father…I see that the Lord here is exasperated and brokenhearted even. Sad, even. Jealous, even”, which He says He is on a number of occasions. So, we can get our minds around this and say, okay, I see what they…what they were doing but I wouldn’t think of sacrificing one of my children to an idol. So, that’s not me.” And yet really the point isn’t so much all of the things that they were doing. Those were the repercussions of the path they had chosen. It was the mixture, inviting other lovers into a covenantal relationship. And that can hit home pretty quickly. I mean we can say, “well I’m not committing adultery. I’m…like I’m faithful to my spouse.” Awesome. Awesome. Me too. We’re all supposed to be. But are we being faithful to God? And I’m not sure I need to like come up with a bunch of examples. I think we can just leave it there. This, what we have been reading is what unfaithfulness looks like, where it leads, how God feels about it, what it does to his heart. I mean, I’m a man, so I can process this from a male perspective and say that when God talks about other men fondling the one He loves, I don’t like the thought of that. I don’t think any of us do. And what God’s talking about here is those who are actually seeking these kind of adulterous relationships, those who are looking outside of a covenantal relationship to find some sort of life that they think is gonna make them more happy. And if will sit with it, if we’ll go into this, and the Bible offers us all kinds of opportunities just to go into places that we don’t necessarily want to examine. But if we’ll sit with us today with the imagery, with the starkness of it all and consider ourselves in the story then we may find we’ve been flirting with destruction in one way or another and it’s heartbreaking and it’s supposed to be. And maybe it’s time to stop.

Prayer:

Father we invite Your Holy Spirit into that. It’s a convicting thing so it’s an uncomfortable thing. And yet You…You have proven in the Scriptures that You…You don’t have a problem making us uncomfortable. If it’s an attempt to free us, to give us freedom, You don’t mind breaking through these uncomfortabilities. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit to show us places that we have chased other lovers, the places that we have broken faith with You. We repent. It’s so starkly on the page before us that we…we see it makes us uncomfortable as it’s supposed too. And, so, we’re facing it. Come Holy Spirit. Convict us of the places that we…that we are chasing life outside of You. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its the website and it’s definitely how you stay connected and stay tuned to what’s happening around here and in the community. So, be sure to do that. Be sure to stay connected.

The Prayer Wall is at dailyaudiobible.com and it is a fantastic, always on, resource to ask for and to offer prayer.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at the website as well. There’s a link that 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 the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top and just start talking or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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