Genesis 48:1-49:33, Matthew 15:29-16:12, Psalms 20:1-9, Proverbs 4:20-27
Today is the 24th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today. It’s a joy that we can kind of come around the Global Campfire for another day and just enjoy each other’s company as we listen to God’s word. So, we’ve been reading from the English Standard Version this week. We will continue with that through the end of the week. And today Genesis chapters 48 and 49.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we continue our journey through the book of Matthew and kind of walk alongside Jesus in his ministry, we’re seeing things start to amp up. He’s shown up on the radar very clearly. He’s clearly drawing a crowd. He’s definitely becoming well. And, so, the religious leaders are watching Him and traveling to question Him. And, so, that’s where we find ourselves today. They travel to see Him and asked for a sign from heaven. So, Jesus answers them like, “when it’s evening you say it will be fair weather for the skies red and in the morning, it’ll be stormy because the skies red and threatening. So, you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you can’t interpret the signs of the times.” So, it’s like Jesus saying, “you’re asking me to show you a sign from heaven when signs from heaven are everywhere you look and you can’t interpret them and you are the leaders.” So, we see the tension. In terms of Jesus, it’s not really coming from the people that He’s ministering too. Rather, it’s coming from the people who feel as if their territory is being invaded and it’s easy just to look at, you know, that the leaders are taking…are antagonistic toward Jesus. And that’s really the story but you have to imagine, this Rabbi just kind of shows up and…and all of a sudden is igniting something in the hearts of the people that hasn’t been seen…like that they are not able to…to make happen. And all…all of the rumors are that God is on the move…like the miraculous is happening, the power of God is on display. And, so, they’re certainly asking questions and checking things out but what’s happening in the processes is that Jesus is this essentially making mincemeat of the way that they’re doing things by saying, “you have lost the Spirit of the law. You’re trying to obey the letter of the law, but you forgot why it exists. And, so, this whole thing has boiled down to a set of rituals and power and control over the people. You’re not leading to people deeper into an awareness and relationship with God, you’re leading them deeper into a cage of rules that has become a cage because you’ve been willing to wrestle with things among yourselves and come up with conclusions that void the word of God.” So, we sort of see this showdown in the making. And later on, after this exchange Jesus is talking to the disciples and He’s like, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” And, of course, they were confused. They thought He was talking about bread because that's…that’s the context for leaven. Like, leaven is an agent that modifies the dough so that it will become inflated and…and actually it ferments and then there’s gases and that it inflates and then it can hold more air and be more puffy and more edible for bread. And that's…that’s really nice the way that that works in bread but not very nice when you think of your faith, being fermented and full of gas and puffed up and full of holes so that it’s inflated and it’s been modified. And, so, yeah, this is…this is what Jesus is dealing with. And that is fundamentally people who are asleep, who do not have eyes to see and ears to hear, who are asleep, who need to be revived, who need to be awakened so that they can see and interpret the times. We don’t need that any less now. And we can get into these stories and see what Jesus is dealing with and see that He’s trying to bring light, He’s trying to bring life and good news and awareness. He’s trying to say like, “the stories different than the one you’re living in.” But they’re blinded. And we…we struggle. We see through a glass darkly as the apostle Paul said. So, you know, we struggle with the same kinds of issues. What are we supposed to do? We’ve got 2000 years a history here since that time. So, it seems like we should be moving forward. How do…how do we stay rooted and grounded like Jesus? How to navigate like He did. How was He able to see the things that He saw? And I think we’ve already…we’ve already talked about this. We’re watching God walk the path of wisdom and the path of truth. The irony is that there’s nothing that was available to Jesus that has been withheld from us. Jesus said all these things you see me do, you can do these things. You can do greater than these things because I’m going to the Father. Paul tells us it’s the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that is indwelling us. There’s nothing that’s withheld from us here. So, how do we walk that path? How do we navigate like Jesus?
We walk the path of wisdom that Jesus is walking. which brings us to the voice of wisdom from the Proverbs today, practically on her knees begging us, “my son be attentive to my words. Incline your ear, like bend your ear to my sayings Let them not escape from your site”, right? “Don’t let wisdom out of your sight. Keep these sayings within your heart. Their life to those who find them and healing to their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flows the springs of life.” That’s wisdom telling us, “your heart is central. Everything flows outward from that place. It is the most true and essential part of you. From it flows the springs of life.” So, she, the voice of wisdom is basically saying, “hey! Attention! Watch where you’re going.” We understand that in terms of like of vehicle, right? If you’re gonna get in a vehicle and start the ignition you better pay attention and watch where you’re going, or you can get hurt or killed or kill somebody. Wisdom is saying, “apply that idea to your heart and watch where you’re going.”
Prayer:
Father we invite Your Holy Spirit into all that we read today about leaven and puffed up and air and all of this as well as how to navigate listening to the voice of wisdom. And that’s something we’ve gotta learn because we’re so used to hearing things so many other ways when the voice of wisdom, the voice of Your Holy Spirit is deep within us. So, again, we’re asking what we’ve been asking, give us eyes to see and ears to hear Your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi this is Yvonne from Chicago I’m calling in for prayer for a member of my family, my cousin Isaiah. He’s in his mid-20s and is going through a crisis related to his mental health. He’s not the same young man that I knew growing up and he knows God. He was given the foundation of the Lord with our family. Unfortunately, there were some dramatic things that happened to him, you know, as a young adult. He still is a young adult. But he, for lack of a better word, he was violated in some way and given…given mind altering drugs against his will. And as a result of that issue it has caused trauma where it’s like he’s not in his right mind. He goes in and out of being in his right mind and reality. I don’t know the full diagnosis but I’m just asking for the DAB family to pray for my cousin Isaiah. He was a prayer warrior when he was a toddler, praying and laying hands on people and now it grieves me to see the enemy trying to take him out by way of mental illness, his mind, depression, oppression. So just praying and asking for the DAB family to keep Isaiah listed in prayer and that the Lord will restore him mentally and bring him back.
Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Becky in Orlando. Anyway, I’m a couple days behind I just finished listening to the 14th and Diane, my heart goes out to you. I can’t imagine how you feel right now with metastatic breast cancer having that metastasize into your brain and knowing about your kids who have autism and a husband who’s dealing with his own demons right now. I just want to let you know that I’m praying for you and I’m praying for your full recovery. I know that God can heal you. I remember a couple years ago I was out walking, and I had heard a mother call in about her son. Her son had cancer that metastasized, and they said that he only had months left to live. He decided that he was going to quit going to college in he was going to become a full-time missionary. And talk about how faithful God had been in his life. Even though he only had months left to live. And I just thought how brave this boy is. And then a couple months later she called in again and said that he had gone in for update to see where the cancer had spread to and how bad it had become. And guess what? He had divine healing. There was nothing left in his body that they could detect that was cancer and the doctors couldn’t explain. I know that God didn’t can do this for you Diane and I am believing in it for you. And Kathleen from Mount Zion Illinois I have listened to you for so many years and I love your spirit and I’m praying for your daughter. I’m praying for her complete healing and am also praying for you to get a flight out of Abu Dhabi. I love you guys and I look forward to hearing your praise report and I will talk to you soon. Thanks. Bye.
Hi, DABbers this is Kim in Recovery. I just heard Victoria Soldier prayer request and I just want to lift her up. Lord, we pray for the special sweet sister. Lord, so many times I’ve heard her lift up the DABbers and pray for us. Lord, I want to send out a special prayer for her as she’s had this loss of her cousin, the pastor of a church that recently burned down. Her family church Lord. Lord, I just want to pray for her, her family and this community. Lord, pray specially for this community of believers that they just lost their pastor and their church. That, You’ll bring them together, that You’ll knit these special souls together, that they’ll be able to do Your will in the rebuilding of this church, of the changing in the landscape, or whatever Your will would be and what You would have this church and this community as they’ve had this great loss. Lord, we pray that You will You’ll give the resources, that You will pray for each church member, that they will not get discouraged, that…that…that we know that You’re always near us and You’ll walk with us in any circumstance Lord. We pray especially for this community, we pray for Victoria Soldier, pray for her family, and we pray that You’re…that Your mighty work will be shown and that…that Your glory will be magnified in this rebuilding of this church and with this community and we pray in Your sweet Savior’s name, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, to be a Blessing in California. Just wanted to let folks know who I haven’t heard from in a while that I’m praying for you. I’m thinking Salvation is Mine, Cherry Chase Cherry Pie, Malisa, Annette from Oklahoma City. Praying also for Drew from California. And I wanted to let those who are starting this beautiful journey this year for the first time as well as reminding those who have been a part of this community as well that it’s so easy for the enemy to make us think that our prayer requests are not important, that reaching out to get prayerful support won’t matter but it really does. To know that there are people out there praying for you even though you may have forgotten what your request was, it’s so important. God wants to do amazing things for us, and He says Jesus tells us that we don’t have because we don’t ask. And also, we might be asking for things that are going to be for our best good, but God knows about. So, He may not answer our prayer the way that we want but know that He will answer our prayers. He’s faithful. He loves us so. I experienced that situation last year where I wasn’t calling in for a while because I was just under depression, feeling hopeless. So, I pray that whenever we find ourselves in those situations that we will push through, pick up the phone, push the button and ask for help. Diane Olive Brown, I’m certainly praying for you and your family. God bless each and every one of you. Bye-bye.
This is Colette from California and I’m led to call in to pray for the three mothers that called in this week. The first mother, I believe her name is Kenisha and she called in regarding her two eldest children, a son who may be involved in some illegal activity and a daughter who is expressing some behaviors associated with depression. Father, we also want to bring before You the mother who called in regarding her two children who are delving into the occult. And the third mother called in regarding her two daughters who appear to be following their own way and are being tossed to and fro by their decisions. So, we want to come before the Lord this morning. Father, we come humbly yet boldly to Your throne of grace pleading for these situations to be halted in their very tracks. You promised in Your word according to acts 16:31 that if we believe our entire households will be saved. We believe, we stand, we claim this in the mighty matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And Father, one other request, is that You give these mothers a measure of peace that is unusual, that is irrational, that is not understandable Father as they go through these life situations that are…that are currently plaguing them. Father we know that we are to be anxious for nothing but often times these situations do rattle us, but Father we know that Your balm of Gilead can be swabbed over their minds, their hearts, their souls, their emotions so that they are coming before You in prayer and in clarity. And Father we know that You will give them wisdom. Father, we also know that situations are for Your glory and that they will and in the testimony one day. Thank You, Father in advance for delivering and for answering this prayer. Amen.
Hey, DABbers this is Slave of Jesus in North Carolina. I am in the middle of the Middle East and I sometimes listen to the Daily Audio Bible when I’m getting ready to go to sleep or trying to get a nap or whatever. And today I heard a prayer request that literally…I’m on my knees right now…got me out of bed right before I was ready to fall asleep. And Lord I just ask you to honor…honor this prayer request as for one of our DABbers. I ask you forgiveness from my wife for mentioning a female’s name on the DAB prayer line. But Lord I ask You to watch over Diana Davis. I ask You to miraculous…we know what the doctors have said about her cancer, but Lord You are the ultimate physician, the ultimate healer and I ask You to miraculously heal her so that she can honor You here in the DAB family. She has faithfully, faithfully honored You for…for 13 years but more importantly Lord, if it’s her time to come on we ask You to honor prayer request, to keep her sons Elijah and Michael together. Autistic people are some of the most wonderful people in the world and we ask You to use them Lord long after whenever You decide to take Diana. We ask You to use them to honor You but just to show joy and peace and to bring people into their lives that they can honor You. Love You all. Have a great day.
Hello DAB family this is Paula the child advocate from the LA area calling. I just wanted to ask for some prayers. I heard some really sad news yesterday. There’s a group of women that I’ve been getting together with for 30 years or more and this past Christmas we got together at the one of our friend’s homes, her name is Doris. And Doris has had a hard time because her son died a few years ago unexpectedly, but she had some good news to share with us, that her daughter was recently engaged and getting married this year. And we all felt that Doris was doing so much better and we were delighted to spend the evening at her home with her. And then yesterday I got this very sad news that Doris took her life this week. And it’s just such a shocking thing for myself and my whole group of women friends because we just didn’t see anything that indicated that, you know, she wasn’t doing well. So, I ask for your prayers please for Doris’s daughter and for her husband who now have suffered, you know, the loss of not only their child, their son, but also now their mother. Thank you DAB family. I really appreciate it. I hear your prayers and I pray for you all. Thank you.