1 Chronicles 12:19-14:17, Romans 1:1-17, Psalms 9:13-20, Proverbs 19:4-5
Today is the 12th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today. How are you? How are you? Just checking in here. Where at the threshold. We’re about to step into this shiny sparkly new week that’s here before us. So, just kind of check…checking in, understanding that this week, there may be lots of plans for this week, but none of those things that happened yet. We may have much to accomplish before this week is out, but it’s in front of us. And then there’s always the serendipity of the unknown that is out in front of us because we don’t know the future. So, here we are at this threshold looking into a new week. And every time we do this we get the chance to…to make some internal decisions about how we’re gonna live this week, just some motivating factors, right, some postures of our hearts that will dictate how this week goes for us. And, so, let’s live into it well. And as I have said before, one of the ways that we do that is to continue with the rhythm of allowing God’s word to come into our lives each and every day as we gather around this Global Campfire and hear from God through His word. So, we’ve got a brand-new week and we’re gonna read from Lexham English Bible this week. And we’re still in the book of first Chronicles in the Old Testament, but when we get to the New Testament today, we’re entering a completely different genre of literature. We’re entering a portion of the New Testament that we will be in for quite a while. They are letters. So much of the New Testament is letters to churches and today we will begin the letter to the Romans. And we’ll talk about that when we get there, but first first Chronicles 12 verse 19 through 14:17.
Introduction to the book of Romans:
Okay. So, yesterday we concluded the book of Acts, and we concluded the book of Acts with Paul finally arriving in Rome. And he wanted to go to Rome. He had been wanting to go to Rome but he's…he's…he’s arriving in Rome as a prisoner to stand trial before the Emperor for what the Hebrew people were claiming he did back in Jerusalem. So, Paul’s been incarcerated now for couple of years, but in the book of Acts we got to know Paul. We traveled with Paul on his missionary journeys. So, we’ve been by land and sea with Paul including a harrowing shipwreck on the island of Malta. So, weve kinda got…gotten to know Paul through his travels. Now we’re going to begin to get to know Paul through his letters, so through his words. And here’s the thing. Most of the theological underpinning for the Christian faith are things that Paul wrote and interpreted. Like he’s highly, highly influential. In fact, I pretty much believe there would be a almost unanimous consensus among biblical scholars that the faith as we know it wouldn’t exist without the writings of Paul although Paul never actually met Jesus in life during his ministry at all. What happened was, Paul met Jesus, what we would know as the cosmic Christ or celestial, like the risen Christ, who had ascended but was appearing to Paul in visions and instructing him. And we should also remember Paul was a Pharisee in Jerusalem. So, he is an educated religious person, a literate person in a sea of illiteracy and a person trained in the Mosaic law and its interpretation and its implementation because, you know, when you have the Mosaic law given say a couple thousand years ago and you’re trying to interpret it today then you understand like there are new things going on. So that’s how it was for Paul 2000 years ago. We’re 2000 years into the future still. And, so, things have changed. And, so, you have to look at the Scriptures and go, “okay. How does this work in the world that exists right now?” And, so, Paul had been engaged in this activity as a Pharisee. Once he had this experience with Jesus things shifted dramatically for Paul and he began to see Jesus threaded through the story of the Hebrew people, Jesus as the Messiah but Jesus also as the inclusive savior of the world, that anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord can be saved, that all Jew or Gentile are welcome, that as we’ll learn from the letters of Paul, there is no Jew, there is no Greek, there is no male, there is no female, there is no slave, there is no free. In Christ, we are equal, which most certainly was not how things were on the outside, like in the outside culture and world that Paul lived in. Another thing that’s fastening about the letters of Paul is that some of Paul’s letters are the earliest Christian writings that we have. Paul was writing letters to churches that had been established before the Gospels were even written down. I mean, the history of the earliest Christian times is so fascinating because they didn’t have a New Testament to refer to. And, so, the gospel was passed around orally. The stories of Jesus and things were eventually written down about all kinds of stuff was written down. But Paul’s letters had been being passed around during this time because they’re some of the earliest Christian writings that we have. And, so, they have endured indeed until today. This letter, Romans, probably was written in the city of Corinth where Paul spent some time and some…some of the greatest accomplishments for the kingdom were achieved and probably somewhere in the mid-50s AD. And, so, when he finishes this letter, he sends a Deaconess, a woman named Phoebe from a church in Cenchreae, which is just outside of Corinth. She was to hand-deliver this letter and make an introduction to Paul to the church in Rome. And the church in Rome wasn’t established by Paul. This wasn’t one of his churches and there’s only conjecture about how the gospel got to Rome. I guess if you want to speculate…once you get into speculation that’s what you’re doing, your speculating. But the speculation is that somebody, maybe even a small group of somebody’s who were influenced by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Jerusalem who were either there who had witnessed this happening ended up carrying the story and the gospel back to Rome and a church was established there. And Paul writes this letter to encourage them. Also, to give them the gospel as he understood it as it was given to him by Jesus. And what we’ll notice is a bit of a contrast because, I mean, like I said, there’s a lot of stuff going on in the earliest early church and there was a lot of contention over allowing Gentiles to be considered followers of The Way, the disciples Jesus. And we’ve talked about this in the past and we’ll talk about it some more, so I’m not gonna go into it right now, but there was a lot of tension and this is why Paul was on the hot seat in Jerusalem, because…because the Jewish people, including his fellow Pharisees were hearing the Paul was out around the world saying nobody had to obey God’s law anymore, the Mosaic law anymore. And this is where we will begin to see a contrast in what Paul’s thinking is. So, as a Pharisee, as an educated Hebrew leader these people are studying Moses, right? They’re studying the law of Moses, the law God gave through Moses. Paul…this…this meeting with Jesus had to be so disruptive to him that he had to go back to the beginning of the story. Well, we would think, “the beginning of the story is Genesis and Adam and Eve”, but for Paul, the beginning of the story is Abraham, the first person called by God to go into a land that he didn’t know. Like the first person to originate the story that would become the Hebrew people. So, not Moses but Abraham is the beginning point for Paul. And when he begins there and tells the story forward it includes Moses, but it’s a different viewpoint. And we’ll see why. Fundamentally, we’ll see why because Paul will argue Abraham didn’t have a law to obey. He didn’t become righteous because he obeyed perfectly a law. He became righteous because people believed what God told him. And that is a fundamental difference in the Christian faith and in the writings of Paul. So, let’s get to it. Romans chapter 1 verse 1 through verse 17.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us into this brand-new week. And as we enter this brand-new week, we enter a brand-new book of the letter of Romans, letter to the Romans. And, so, the complexion of what we’ve been reading changes and we invite Your Holy Spirit as we take this journey through the book of Romans to help us understand why we believe the things that we believe and what that means, the implications of what that means. Come Holy Spirit, open our eyes that we might see and become aware of what You are doing in and among us. We ask this in the name of Jesus our Savior. 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
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey guys this is Tiffany from New Mexico from the four corners area and I have a lot to say and only two minutes to say it so I’m gonna try to make this fast. But I was thinking of you all this morning and I wanted to take a moment and tell you just how much I love and appreciate you all. I didn’t know several years ago, I had no idea when I started listening to DAB just how vital this community would be to me, this family, all of you, the body of Christ. You have made such a significant impact on my life. You have helped me get through some of the most challenging times and you have helped me celebrate some of the best times and I know that you will continue to be there. And specifically you guys have prayed me through several health challenges, you guys, many of you set my boys birthday cards when they had to celebrate in quarantine. And some of you have become my very, very close friends that I know I could lean on for anything. In short, you guys have helped renew my hope, and my faith and my heart for the body of Christ and I know you will continue to. And I want you to know that my family pray for you daily and we will continue to encourage all of you how we can. And again, we’re praying for all of you. I want to give a shout out to my friend Barbara, my friend Lois, Kathy, Paula, Pastor John, thank you guys for all of your love and for caring about me and my family. And actually, that goes for all of you. Thank you. And I will continue to be praying for you guys and I will pray specifically for all of you during my long walk today. So, be encouraged. Have a great day.
Hello, my beautiful sisters and brothers this is Dawn calling from New York on our long walk day. Giving thanks to God for this special time that we’ve set aside. Grateful for the beautiful Heart production from Brian. Thank you so much and just praying for everyone. What a year and asking God to renew our hearts, give us strength, courage, hope as we move into the second half of this amazing 2020 year we are journeying together. God bless all of you. I give thanks to God for you.
Hey DAB family this is Nelly I’m just calling just asking for your prayers. I probably recorded this a couple times. Just to be completely transparent I am struggling so hard with my voice just…just speaking out. I want to be used by Christ. I want to be a speaker of truth. I want to minister. And I feel this calling, but I feel also this amount of fear and second-guessing my…my words and knowing what to say. So, just praying that God gives me a voice of wisdom, a voice of strength and truth with grace. I’m just really wanting to be used by Him in any way I can be, and I don’t want to be afraid to speak out anymore. So, will you stand in prayer with me? Thank you.
This is Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada and I listened to Monday, July 6th’s podcast and I heard the cry of Woman of Honor. She has done all that she could possibly do – fasting, praying waiting. She’s now at the point of no return and thoughts of death assails her. Well my dear sister, I understand what you’re feeling, and I just want to take you to the throne of grace. I just read something that says, “when you come to the end of your rope and patience seems to fly away settle back into God’s waiting arms.” Father God You have seen all that she has done, You hear her cry, You see her tears. She can’t do anymore, that’s what she said. She’s at the point of no return. And, so, now I pray that You would take over and You will do only…what only You can do. You see her pain. You hear her cries. Father, Abba Father, touch her today, revive her, give her hope again. Remind her that her hope is in You and You alone. And the enemy often times tries to take us down but I’m praying for her Lord. I’m standing in your corner sister. Hold on tight to the…
Good morning this is Adrian from Maryland. This morning we are praying for Oligna and his family with premature baby Dji. Oligna not just lost his daughter, Dji’s mom. She died a week after the baby was born. And Dji is still in the NICU because he was born two months early and something happened to his mom and she died. This is tragic for the family. They’re are going to need a ton of support. So, Lord please take care of Oligno’s family and Dji’s family as…as Dji comes home from the NICU at some point and they learn to take care of Dji without his mom. Please wrap Your arms around them, love on them and give them the strength and support that they need to learn how to live together without their mom and daughter. Thank You so much Lord. We love You so much. You’re such a good and faithful God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Good morning DABber family this is Walta the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King. Guys today I heard Alina’s call praying his daughter…praying for his family. He just lost his daughter a week before we called. Father God on praying for his grandson Dji. God, I pray that you will to protect that baby. I pray blessings upon that family. God made that baby be a blessing to the family. Lord I pray that you will comfort…comfort their souls and their hearts as they grieve the loss of their daughter. God, I pray for trusting in God. Her son battles with mental illness. For the first time God I pray that in the name of Jesus You will send Your ministering angels to that hospital that he will…not only will he yield to taking his medication but God that You will help them find the right…the right…just the right medication for him. I pray for healing God. I know You can heal with and without medication, so we just commit that boy into Your hands Lord. He is Your son first God. We pray for divine intervention in the name of Jesus. I pray piece in her heart in the name of Jesus as she waits. Sam from Texas called in. She is a survivor of coronavirus and she’s praying for Spain. God, I pray not only for Spain for the world Lord. I pray that You will touch the heart of believers that we will begin to stand in the gap and pray the sickness out of our nations in the name of Jesus. God protect those who have not yet contacted…contracted the virus and pray for those who are battling the virus and I pray for healing in the name of Jesus. Finally, Lord I pray that as we go out Lord that we will be witnesses to You Lord. Help us to speak and act justly, be examples. In Jesus’ name we love You Lord. Amen.