06/25/2020 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 8:1-9:13, Acts 16:16-40, Psalms 143:1-12, Proverbs 17:26

Today’s the 25th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as…as we move in and take the next step forward. And we’ve been working our way into and through the book of second Kings. And largely for the last couple of days dealing with the story of the prophet Elisha, which we will continue to do today, but we’ll also get back to kind of the Kings and the different generations of kings as we go forward. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Second Kings chapter 8 verse 1 through 9:13.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the examples. And that’s one thing that we need to understand, and we invite Your Holy Spirit to help us understand, that we’re not just reading all of the exceptional people, like all the exceptions that ever lived. We’re reading stories of people who are examples to us of where roads lead and what it looks like to walk with You. And, so, even as we see Paul and Silas in jail we also see that at every opportunity that they have, no matter where they’re at, including in prison they’re worshiping, they’re sharing, they’re being light in the darkness and You are present with them. And, so, it's…it’s easy for us because we usually…we isolate ourselves when we are challenged, but we see this example of reaching outward and being open. And, so, Holy Spirit come and show us what that might look like in our own situations. We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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And our annual…our annual holiday…sort of our own little personal Daily Audio Bible holiday is coming up on the 7th of July and it’s known as the long walk. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of days because this is a special long walk. We’ve got a special resource that we’re releasing, not only for the long walk, like for life, but that…that will pair so perfectly with a day that we go and walk with God. So, if you…if you haven’t been here for the last couple of days, the long walk occurs on the 7th of July each year and we’ve been doing this for well over a decade and it’s an individual thing to be sure. It…it is what it sounds like. Just choose somewhere near you, wherever you are in the world, somewhere that’s beautiful or that’s serene, that brings a sense of calm and allows you to experience the beauty of nature. And whether you drive for hours, or whether you just go down to the corner and…and go to a park or something, it doesn’t matter, just a place that brings peace to you and go for a long walk with God and actually carve space out, like take a day, carve it out realizing that we have been through a heck of the first part of the year, a lot has been going on that’s been really disruptive and here we are in the center of the year and it’s time to regroup. It’s time to take some time and really speak our hearts in prayer, sharing our souls with God, but also to understand that a relationship is conversational and we need to take time to listen so that we can come out of a time like that with some direction, sort of how we’re aiming our lives as we move into the second half of the year. That’s the long walk and it’s a beautiful thing and it’s a…it’s an individual thing. It’s just that we as a community are all over the world and so we’re doing it together alone. It’s perfect for social distancing, but it always has been, like we’re not changing anything. It’s just how it’s always been all these years. So, that’s the long walk on the 7th of July. So, mark that on your calendar and…and begin to make your plans, just start anticipating that, even in your prayer time, just telling the Lord, “I’m really looking forward…I’m really looking forward to this time where we can just kinda set everything else aside and just be together. I’m looking forward to that and just anticipate it.” And…and then when you go wherever you go just snap a picture of where you went or take a little video of where you are and you can post as a comment back to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and then we’ll post it up on the page and all of the sudden…it’s one of my favorite things in this year…is to scroll through all of the different long walks and just have windows into each other’s lives, but also just windows into the beauty of the earth that God has given us to enjoy. And, so, that’s the long walk.

This year is special because were releasing a brand-new resource that is really perfect for the long walk. It’s called Heart, a contemplative journey. And it's…it’s a musical journey and a guided prayer journey that allows us to embrace, acknowledge and experience the emotions of the heart that we’ve been experiencing throughout our lives, but in particular throughout these last months. And, so, this resource will become available at midnight, like the beginning of the day on the 7th of July but you can preorder it and purchase it now at iTunes or Apple Music, Google Play, wherever it is that you get your music you can find it. Just look for my name, Brian Hardin or Heart is the name of the project. And it’s available now and you can preorder it now and it will just download and show up in your device on the 7th in anticipation for the long walk this year. I have been…I mean I kind of shared this story a couple days ago of how this project came to be over the course of several years just trying to speak to my own heart about the things that I was feeling. But, you know, sometimes you’re trying to describe how you’re feeling, and words fail. But there is language beyond words and music is one of those languages. And, so, just trying to compose and arrange. This is one of the most like visual projects I've…I’ve ever made. I tried to pour as much life and atmosphere into it as…as possible. It's…it’s beautiful and I’ve taken many, many, many long walks for that project just praying the prayers. And, so, basically, yeah, it's…it’s, you know, there’s a prayer that leads us into the music and then we just open ourselves to allow the music to speak and God to be present in that emotion and then we move to another emotion. So, like we deal with forgiveness, we deal with hope, we deal with bittersweet…the bittersweet nature of life, we deal with moving forward, we deal with finding a sense of home in our heart or with God or comfort…comfort that we so deeply need sometimes and life just feels so frantic that comfort is hard to find. But if we slow down it’s there and available to us. So, this is what Heart is. It’s available now. Go check it out. I thank you for that. And in anticipation of the long walk, I think this is gonna be a really special long walk because I know that we have a lot to say. I sense that we have a lot to say as we spend time with God but we also need direction. It’s been a disruptive year like I said, and we do need direction and God is not withholding it from us. We’re just too busy. So, let’s slow down on the 7th and explore the terrain of our hearts as we open our hearts to God and His leadership in our lives.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. I thank you profoundly for your partnership. 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.

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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.