Isaiah 39:1-41:16, Ephesians 1:1-23, Psalms 66:1-20, Proverbs 23:25-28
Today is the 22nd day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today just like it’s great to be here with you any day, every day. And that’s what we do, every day we get together and take…take another step forward in our adventure through the Scriptures. We…our…are about…I’m thinking 75% through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament and we will be beginning a new letter in the New Testament, the letter to the Ephesians today and we’ll talk about that when we get there. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Isaiah chapter 39 verse 1 through 41, verse 16 today.
Introduction to the letter to the Ephesians:
Okay. So, we are entering into the letter to the Ephesians today. So, let’s just kind of talk about it for a minute and get our bearings. Ephesians…well…on a personal note, reading Ephesians, getting to this place every year is a joy because the things that are in this letter are mind boggling things. Like there are things in the letter to the Ephesians that we will read and then think about what’s being said, and then apply that to our own lives and realize that this is good news that’s almost too good to be true, like this is how good the good news actually is. And, so, it’s a joy to kind of reach this letter because it gives us these mountaintop views that are…they go on forever it seems. Just unbelievable what is true of us because of our faith in Christ. But, we’ll see that Ephesians is very different than, for example, the letter that we just read, Galatians, which leads biblical scholars to debate, and they have been debating for century’s, hotly debated out whether Paul wrote this letter or not, whether Ephesians is Pauline or is more of Paul’s school of thought or maybe even an actual school that Paul trained and taught people up and then this material came later. That’s, again though, that’s a hotly debated thing. Ephesians is one of the disputed letters of Paul in the Scriptures, has been for a long time, way before any of us who are alive today were alive. Like, it’s not a new thing. It’s very old and those who would argue in favor of Paul authoring these would just simply say like, that the way….the reason that some of the language is different, the reason some of the terminology’s different is…is just the way these letters were passed around and copied, the way that…the way that they were given. Like Paul would’ve spoken, dictated out loud to a scribe and different scribes wrote different letters. Some of them even pop up in the letters and basically go like, “hey me too…like…hey hello” when Paul is kind of closing his letters down. So…so, those scholars then would say, “it's…it’s these things. Like that…that’s what creates these nuances.” Nevertheless, this is a letter that was sent to the church in Ephesus. And Paul had spent time, about three years establishing this community. And that the time of Paul Ephesus was one of the more important cities of the Roman Empire. So again, another urban centered community of faith, mixed community, Jew and Gentile. Ephesus was a port city. So, all kinds of goods coming from all over the world and all kinds of goods going out from there. So, you can see people coming in and out of there. It was just a melting pot. Ideas were coming in. Ideas were going out. Culture was being imported in. Culture was being imported out. But Paul wasn’t writing Ephesians to combat a false teaching as we’ve witnessed in other letters or to correct some sort of a misbehavior as we’ve seen in other letters or to answer specific questions about how to live into this faith in Christ as we’ve seen in other letters. And that could be because he knew these people. He spent years among these people and…and was writing this letter to…to give…to give them a mountaintop vista, like I said before, of where their faith is headed and what this all means. There are…there are passages that we’re gonna go through in the letter to the Ephesians that we could ponder, like literally meditate upon for days, weeks, maybe even a lifetime. It’s that remarkable. And the truth is, we’ve headed through all kinds of territory recently that have allowed us to go deep inside of our hearts and explore the emotions of our hearts, especially in terms of suffering and…and to contemplate that. And, so, now as we reach the letter to the Ephesians, we get the opportunity and just gaze upon the beauty of the promise of the Good News. And, so, let’s dive in. Ephesians chapter 1.
Prayer:
Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for…for new territory that we keep moving into. As we keep taking steps forward we come to all of the different facets of this beautiful library really that is the Bible, all of these different books, spanning millennia telling us an ancient story of who You are and leading us into relationship with You. And then we enter in and live this out. And, so, as we come into the letter to the Ephesians, we invite Your Holy Spirit to speak to us in the days ahead about how this is not only good news, this is really big news. What You began at the cross is like…we know it’s revolutionary, but it profoundly shifts everything if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. And, so, we’re asking for that as we move forward. Come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth. Plant the words spoken today in our hearts and may they yield the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. 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’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey this is Jared calling from Duluth Minnesota it’s Saturday, September 19th at 1 AM in the morning. Day 262 of the year, day 511 since April 26th, 2019 where God has woken me up every night and…to have my DAB time. The prayer requests today were just such a blessing to hear. Some of the old-timers of Biola from Maryland and Duane from Wisconsin. So thankful your son is gonna soon be getting out of jail. And thank you so much for praying for my kids and so many kids in the DAB family. And the new caller, Openhearted Overcome in Michigan, thanks for calling. And Joe the wife whose daughters stopped going to church and praying for Joe the protector and Tammy from Texas and Val in Vegas. Thanks for just sharing on the 15th what a tough day it was and guilt in a sense for being okay when there’s so many not okay. And for Abigail in Oregon for your baby that was a loss and your husband who is…who is grieving and for the Oregon fire’s. So many cool things happening and God I…and challenging things as well. And God I thank you for all those who’ve prayed for my kids who have two of my four kids are bipolar and I suffer with it as well. I appreciate you…your prayers during this time. It’s been kind of a rough season right now, but God is good. Thank you again for all that you’ve done. God bless. Bye.
Hi, I’d just like to pray for Abigail from Oregon. And yes, we have been praying about all those who are being affected by the fire…the wildfires in the Pacific Northwest in California. And I’d just like to pray for you now Abigail and for your family and community and friends there. Lord Jesus You are our rock and refuge. This is got to be such an unsettling unstable time and one where there these dear people don’t know for sure what will happen to their homes or their churches or their physical communities. But we look to You and I just want to pray specifically for Abigail who has lost a child and now is in danger of losing a home and church and all these different things. And I pray that they can experience Your supernatural provision and Your pouring out of Your Spirit during this time that they, despite the pain and the unsettledness and the disruption, that they experience Your perfect peace that surpasses all comprehension in the beautiful precious name of Jesus. Amen.
Good morning DAB family my name is Vincent and I am Vincent Walking in Love or at least I try to. I have one minute and 47 seconds to tell you that God must be extremely pleased with this communications, how much love and care there is from seemingly all over the world. I want to say that on the 17th, I don’t know if anyone heard, well I’m sure you did, that young lady, that little girl that sang and has the voice of an angel. You should sing again and say your name so that I could properly thank you. I wanted to tell Val in Vegas that…to keep going and God’s got you. Joe, I’m praying for your family, that they come back to you. I want to say God bless Tammy in Texas and Susan from Canada. God’s lovely flower, God’s Yellow flower, that I greatly appreciate your prayers they are truly heartfelt. And Abigail from Oregon, I feel your pain. God bless you. Pray for me family that I find love with the one that I love, miss Becky, and that God helps me to find my purpose. I’m getting too old to find out what I’m going to do when I grow up. Vincent Walking in Love. God bless.
Hello people I’m Sean and I am a sinner. I am despicable and I really, really, really can’t stand myself. And what I’m asking for is for your prayers. Our God, our Lord Jesus Christ has told me to do stuff, he’s told me to write and I’m having great difficulty with that and I just want your prayers please.
The Lord bless you and keep you
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you
I pray he gives you peace
and that all that you have will increase
that your blessings never ever cease
and that your life be one big gigantic feast
but the truth of the matter is the road is long and rough
the battles are hard and tough
your best is never enough
and Satan will always call your bluff
but I still know you can make it
I know that you can stand
the Lord will not forsake you and there’s not much he’ll demand
keep your eyes upon his promises
let your vows be firm and true
let your friends be in his service
let your strength his renew
don’t be afraid to call his name when problems are too tough
and you might have to do some fasting too when prayer just isn’t enough
but whatever problems come your way whatever storms may arise
if you stay connected to the Lord in the end you’ll win the prize
honesty and integrity are things you should possess
and if humbly you just ask for strength he’ll give you all the rest
the Lord bless you and keep you
the Lord make his face to shine upon you
I pray he gives you peace
and that all that you have will increase
may your blessings never ever cease
and your life be one big gigantic feast
blindtony1016@gmail.com I’d like to give a shout out to the little girl that sang the song. It was a wonderful song, had a lot of purity in it and I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much. And once again Brian and the Hardin family, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.
Hey family it’s Jesse from Washington. I need some more prayers. Looks like gonna be going to court and it’s looking like it’s going to get super ugly and I just…first praise report that I’ve felt all your prayers and all the negative stuff that’s been happening over the last week, it’s just multiple just nightmare situations and, you know, in…in it I felt, you know, I felt peace simultaneously with just the fear and shame and anger and every…every negative emotion a person can have, you know, in these situations and it’s…it’s…it’s been all of them. So, God’s there, I know you guys are there. And I thank you for just…your love and your prayers and just pray for accountability, I pray for the truth to come out. You know it’s gonna come out for me too, so I’m prepared no matter what happens. I know God’s got me. I pray for repentance for me, true repentance for forgiveness for my…for my sins. You know on both sides I hope we can work that out. I hope that, you know, a guardian ad Litem is, you know, assigned that they have, you know, eyes and ears and hearts to hear and see the truth and I’m just ready, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, you know and I know that no matter what happens God has me and I’m prepared, I’m prepared for whatever he has for me because I know no matter what it’s going to be okay even worse case scenario I know it’s going to be okay and I know he has me because he’s been here every second with me through this. So, I love you. Thank you, family.