Month: October 2020

Jeremiah 48:1-49:22, 2 Timothy 4:1-22, Psalms 95:1-96:13, Proverbs 26:9-12

Today is the 25^th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we launch ourselves into the final week of October, the 10^th month of this year. And as we round out this month, we will be…yeah…will be closing the door on another one of our months and moving forward. But that’s not where we are right now. Where we are is at the threshold of a shiny sparkly new week. And, so, we not only need to think about how we’re gonna live into this week, we need to…well…we have the opportunity to think about how we are going to finish this month well. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Jeremiah chapter 48 verse 1 through 49 verse 22.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for the Scriptures. We thank You for daily opportunities to meditate upon, to ingest, to hear, to just allow Your word to speak to us and direct us and the choices and interactions that we have before us that we encounter. We are so grateful. And, so, as we cross this threshold and move into this final week of this 10^th month of the year, we invite Your Holy Spirit. May we be aware, may we be in lockstep, may we see what You are doing and where You are leading us. May we get our minds off of what You might be doing in everybody else’s life and pay attention to where You are leading us. Holy Spirit, well up from within we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's…it’s where you find what’s going on around here. So, I say it every day because that’s home for us. That’s where the Global Campfire is burning. So, check it out. There’s just a…I mean it’s really easy to navigate, there’s a few sections to be aware of.

The Community section is where the Prayer Wall lives. It’s also where there are links to get connected on social media. So, check that out. There is the Daily Audio Bible Shop that has a number of resources in all kinds of directions. Some just plain fun stuff to be…just to identify with the journey that we’re on but also serious things to take the journey deeper. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if…if the mission here is making a difference in your life then thank you for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t doing this together and deeply grateful that we are. So, there’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app…and if you're…if you’re not…you should…you should be. It is all of the time becoming more and more and more the portal into community here at the Daily Audio Bible. So, 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 encouragement and you’re using the app, the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Hotline button, it’s the little red button at the top, you can’t miss it 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.

Jeremiah 44:24-47:7, 2 Timothy 2:22-3:17, Psalms 94:1-23, Proverbs 26:6-8

Today is the 24^th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is a pleasure, it’s always truly, truly…like to be able to come be together with you every day, hat is a joy. And, so, thank you for letting me have that privilege. And it’s great to be here with you today as we bring to a close another one of our weeks together. You know, we start this journey, it’s like all those weeks are out in front of us, 52 whole ones, out in front of us but we’re kinda narrowing down now and like we’re within our last 10, if my calendar…well I’m just doing that with a calendar in my head but I think that’s somewhere in the vicinity of right. So, we have traveled far and journeyed long and I wouldn’t say we’re on the home, final homestretch, but it won’t be long. And, so, let’s press in ever deeper into finishing strong and finishing well and staying open as we…as we take the next step forward. So, we’ve been reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week, which is what will do today because it’s the end of week. Jeremiah chapter 44 verse 24 through 47 verse 7 today.

Prayer:

Thank You, Father for Your word and thank You Father for another week, another week in Your word, another week in community, another week in this world in life, the gift, the grand gift of life that You have bestowed upon us. And as we live may we be giving that gift back to You, giving our lives back to You. And, so we thank You. You continue to teach us, that You continue…continue to guide us, that You continue to correct us, that You continue to press in upon us and lead us forward in our transformation in our sanctification. We love You. Only You can do this. We could never make ourselves righteous. And yet You come and day by day step-by-step You do exactly that and we are grateful, and we acknowledge You in all things. May we become more and more aware of Your Holy Spirit’s presence and Your guidance in our lives we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, of course. It’s the home of Global Campfire. It’s where you find out what’s happening around here. So, ways to get connected are found in the Community section. And that’s where the Prayer Wall lives as well. So, be familiar with that. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there for…well…for what we’re doing, taking this journey through the Scriptures this year and deepening our understanding and awareness of the Scriptures, and at the same time opening our hearts for God to use the Scriptures to transform our lives. So, check that out 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 on the homepage, and I thank you with all humility and…and just gratefulness 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 encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button 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.

Jeremiah 42:1-44:23, 2 Timothy 2:1-21, Psalms 92:1-93:5, Proverbs 26:3-5

Today is the 23^rd day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we continue the journey, the journey through the year, a journey through the month, a journey through life together in God’s word. And this week we been reading from the Christian Standard Bible, which is what we’ll continue to do until the end of the week, which we be tomorrow. But we’re here, we’re here now and we’re the book of Jeremiah and we’ll read today chapter 42 verse 1 through 44 verse 23.

Commentary:

Okay. I want to read a little piece of Scripture, little poem, or saying or maybe even lyrics from a very, very ancient worship song embedded into this letter that we’re reading right now called second Timothy. So, these are the words, “for if we died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny himself.” Okay, so that little…that little saying, that little kind of creed that we just read, that’s really interesting actually. It’s one of the things that scholars would look at and say, “okay. when did this develop? When was that understanding solidified? Where…where does this go?” And, so, there’s debate like over this because why is…whoever wrote this…let’s just say, why did Paul in his final letter on earth put the piece of creed or song lyrics in here? So, it’s in his letter to remind the recipient of this letter, Timothy, what the core doctrine, like what the core beliefs are in the context that they’re being used, endurance. Paul’s telling Timothy to endure. And we’ve seen this come up. And I’ve mentioned that we won’t be able to get to the end of the Bible without…like…endurance becomes a central major…like major theme of the New Testament. And it’s so funny because it’s like the last thing we want to do or participate in or be involved in. And usually when we have to endure something, we’re not happy about it. We don’t see it as a positive thing in any sort of way and we just…all of our prayers and all of our energy is to make it go away when what we see in the New Testament in the early church is that they had to learn how to live with it because it wasn’t going to go away. So, Timothy this pastor at Ephesus, he is a trustworthy follower, he is a son in the faith to Paul, Paul had passed the faith onto Timothy, and he had passed the faith on the many others and that passing on of the faith is…was gonna cost him his life. And, so, for Paul to tell Timothy he’s going to have to endure is…is essentially Paul seeing the writing on the wall. The Empire had begun to truly actively systematically persecute Christians and marginalize them completely. And Paul was a ringleader of dispensing the faith, right? So, he’s in prison. He’s probably not getting out of prison. He didn’t. But at the time you would think that he’s probably gonna die. And, so, when he’s sitting in a dungeon and it’s dank and it’s cold and he’s thinking about all of his children in the faith and all of the churches, all of the places he will never go again, all of the people he will never see again, he can notice what’s happening, that the Empire is coming against this faith and it’s all gonna be…like they’re gonna be victorious, they’re gonna stamp it out. They will destroy it from the face of the earth unless God’s people endure it no matter what, to the last person. So, Paul knows even though his journey is coming to a close, endurance is going to have to live on in the church in order for it to survive. And, so, this little piece of a creed, this little piece of maybe a worship song that was song as a declaration of faith among the early churches is inserted here in the letter as a reminder to Timothy. And what gets really really interesting here is something that we’ve mentioned before, but it becomes really poignant here. When this letter was written, even if this was written later after Paul's…like, even if this is a really late first century writing or something like that, a decade or more after Paul’s death, it’s still really really early. It’s early church material here. And, so, we have to remember that when this letter’s written, when any of these letters that we’re reading in the New Testament were written they weren’t known as the New Testament. There was no such thing as the New Testament. So, Timothy as a pastor in Ephesus couldn’t refer to any of the passages that we now continually refer to in the New Testament. It didn’t exist. So, Timothy could’ve taught out of the Torah. He could’ve referred to any of the communications that Paul had with Ephesus, any of the copies of the letters that had been passed around and collected that they had. And…and they did do that. And then, of course, the, you know, the personal letters that…that might have existed in the churches. So, finding this…this statement in this letter gives us a glimpse into what our earliest brothers and sisters were holding on to, holding onto and singing, as a song, as a memorable thing and that they could continually sing or something that they could declare and state before there was a New Testament, right? So, this is…this is the kind of stuff that was being said in the churches before a cohesive New Testament was pulled together from all of the various, various wide library of things that were being written down before the New Testament was all cohesively collected together. So, kind of having that backdrop, it’s like really interesting then to know, okay, we have done plenty of exploration about the trials of the early church. We’ve pretty much demystified the fact that there was not ultimate harmony in the early church. There was all kinds of stuff going on, which gives us kind of a sense of hope that we haven’t digressed. We’re just continuing in the tradition of wrestling through what we believe. But our earliest brothers and sisters were trying…were sorting these things out, wrestling through these things trying to find practical ways to live into these things under pressure. And we see that pressure a lot in the church but now we’re like seeing that the Empire’s got a vendetta and Christians really are, at least in certain areas and in certain circumstances, really being pressed hard unto death. Christians are being killed. So, to look at what they were holding on to when there wasn’t a New Testament to hold on to, when all of the theology of the New Testament hadn’t been formed because the New Testament wasn’t a closed cannon at this point. So, we’re looking at things in formation, what these brothers and sisters who were holding on to Jesus were holding onto. “For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful for He cannot deny himself.” That’s looking back to a time, although this is in the New Testament, this is looking back to a time before the New Testament and seeing what our brothers and sisters were clinging to. And we need to cling to the same thing.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word. As always, as always, something clicks, something is…is illuminated, something leads us forward, something takes us the next step. You are always there guiding and directing us. Your Holy Spirit is always present leading us the next step forward. And, so, we’re grateful for that. We appreciate it more than our words…like the vocabulary fails at some point because it's…it’s a changer…it’s a life changer. You have changed our lives and You continue to transform our lives as…as…as we are diligent at hearing the Scriptures, as we are diligent in pondering and meditating upon them, as we are diligent to quieting ourselves and following the leading of Your Holy Spirit. So, we are so grateful, and we are grateful that we are continuing an unbroken tradition leading all the way back to our earliest brothers and sisters. And, so, to have a glimpse back into what they were holding onto is a beautiful thing and we are grateful for it. And may we hold on and endure as well. We Pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s home for a virtual community like ours. So, it’s good to be aware of it. And check it out.

Check out the Community section. That’s where you can get connected. That’s where the Prayer Wall is. Check out the Shop, the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there for the journey that we are on.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, I cannot thank you enough other than to say this is happening, the Global Campfire exists because we all throw logs on and we wouldn’t be here and this wouldn’t be a blazing and warm and hospitable and cozy place for our community if we weren’t in this together. So, thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the 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, of course, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement that's…that’s one thing we do well, is to love on each other and pray for each other and…and lock arms and hearts together and shoulder each other’s burdens. As far spread out as we are all over the world this is still happening and God’s Spirit hovers us and is in it all. No matter where we are the Spirit of the living God connects us. And, so, that is a beautiful thing. So, yeah, if you’re carrying some things you shouldn’t be carrying you can reach out. There’s a…there’s a hotline. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Hotline button. It’s the little red button at the top and just start to share from there no matter where you are in the world, or if you’d rather use the phone, 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 everybody this is Pelham in Alabama or addicted to Christ calling. I’m calling for T-Ray from Texas. You called. Your call played today on the 17^th of October. And you called for your children and you called for Ray Cross, your son who apparently is copying what I did. I wasn’t selling anything but boy I’ve got some stuff I’ve gotta take care of with the government as far as I messed up and I got a DUI and I’ve got all kind of hoops to jump through and I’ve got another case pending or something down in a different county that got put on the side because of coronavirus. And the Lord is in control. He’s on the throne, He is the King of Kings and the Lord of lords and He loves His children. Your daughter who claims she is a pagan, I just wanted you to know that my thoughts and prayers are with you, that this is the cost of freedom, this is the cost of free will. We have to find our own way with fear and trembling. We have to discover who we are in His kingdom and He is so cool, He’s such an incredible Father that He allows us to choose that. He allows us to explore this world, to have our anger, to have our doubt, to choose plots of the enemy, to choose paths that aren’t His path. But He has a way of taking the broken things and He has a way of taking those that are lost and bring them home and He does it poetically. He does it like the ultimate storyteller, which He doesn’t like a boring story. He likes a comeback story. He likes the underdog. He is the ultimate underdog. And I just wanted you to know that your call was the call for me today to…to reach out and pray for you. I love you guys.

Today I remember the warmth of your smile
your incredible love for me from the time I was just a child
the sound of your voices I can still hear in the wind
telling me Tony God’s love doesn’t end
I just want to thank you for your prayers and your tears
and for not giving up on me after so many fruitless years
there were times when I was stupid and selfish at best
but your love was consistent through many a test
in fact it was my anchor and the only thing sure
whenever there was trouble would help me endure
I’m sorry I failed you
my life was a mess
and I prayed every day for your forgiveness
you and dad were the best
and though everybody says their parents are the best
for me I know it’s true because I know I put you through the test
and the prayers that you prayed and the tears that you cried
condemned me in spirit deep down inside
four truly you were two of the best things that God ever placed in my life
and I hurt you so bad that it still cuts like a knife
but still you forgave me and I prayed every day
that God would allow me to show you someday
the love that I felt and to be the son I always wanted to be
for the two of you then as well as for all eternity
for you two were consistent in standing by me
and your love brought me closer every day to becoming free
thanks mom and dad

blindtony1016@gmail.com. Like to give a shout out to Candace and His little Cherry. Know you’re both loved and prayed for daily and once again Brian and the Hardin family than you for this wonderful podcast…

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Crowned in His Glory and this is the first time I’ve ever posted a message before. I did ask for prayer and you guys did pray for me on the Prayer Wall for my continued battle with cancer and I thank you. Bless all of you for that. First, I want to thank the Hardin family for this ministry. It has changed my life in the past…past few years. It’s just unbelievable. And I want to pray for Carmen in Orlando I believe. She is faced with the situation that she has to put her father in a care facility, and she is struggling with that. Father we…heavenly Father we pray for Carmen in Orlando and for her earthly father. Take care of them give them comfort and peace. Let this gentleman know that Carmen is only acting in his best interest, that if possible, if she had the ability, she would care for him herself for the rest of his life. Father heal this man, touch him, comfort him and give Carmen the strength to do what she has to do Lord. Give her comfort, give her the…the means and cut through the red tape to get her earthly father put into a care facility that will give this gentleman the proper, most professional care possible. And Lord we…we ask these things in the precious name of your son Jesus Christ.

Hi, my name is Rebecca from Michigan, we’re first-time callers. My husband Skye and I started listening in January. Just need prayer requests for my neck and my jaw. Took a fall when we went on a little mission trip to deliver a bike that we raised for a paraplegic named Eric. We just pray for Eric that he will be touched by the Holy Spirit to want to receive the free gift of salvation and the same for Scarlett, Dave, and John we also met on witness to that trip. And we also pray for this van that we’ve been traveling in to continue to be anointed by God, for open doors to witness to others. And others that we met this last week when we camped, TJ, CJ and Lorrie, that they will come to know the grace and love of Jesus in their hurting lives. And we just pray a blessing over Skye and I to protect our marriage. We need your prayers for…against the enemy for any backlash for doing kingdom work and we pray that over Brian, we pray that over others doing the kingdom work and we just need new means of income since Covid. And, so, just prayers for that and to be led where at where he wants us to be. And this winter as our landlord is selling our house. So, probably some more van evangelism because we’re just tent dwellers in the world anyway. And we believe that Jesus is coming soon, and he is good and I’m expecting good things to come and hope that for all of you. We love you guys and we want you to be encouraged to do the good work of the King of Kings. For He is our treasure and in him our inheritance is going to be amazing in heaven. So, we look forward to that and I just hope for a blessed day for all of you.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. I’m Xavier calling in from Cameron and I want to thank each and every one that takes time to pray for our various brothers and sisters  __ most especially those having problems in their marriage with their children trying to overcome some drug addiction and where listening to your beautiful voices, where listening to your prayers that you pray for one another gives me hope as well in my own little corner trying also to cope with my own addiction. I just want to thank Brian most especially for everything he says. I love you. It gives me a whole lot of comfort. It gives me a whole lot of peace inside and __ Daily Audio Bible family. It’s like it’s not even virtual. It’s like I have people talking to me right in my ears. So, it…it’s so comforting. I must say. In all of the years this is been my number one spot for comfort and peace and giving the job that I do which drains out all your energy listening to people __ in our country it just gives me a whole lot of peace to come here and know what people are going through and what people also are doing to make sure that they receive comfort in their various destinations. I’m thankful again Brian for your beautiful platform which gives out peace to people all around the world. And I also want to reach out to __ tough time in the family in their personal lives for you __ we’re there life there is hope. Tune into the Daily Audio Bible family every single day and you’ll find comfort like I have found comfort…

Hello DAB family this is Dimitri from Massachusetts. I’m a first-time caller but have been listening since the beginning of the year. Just stumbled over this podcast and been listening ever since and I would like to pray for Dimitri from Oregon or Washington not sure which state, but he called asking for his marriage…asking for prayer for his marriage. And I pray for God’s intervention. I pray for God’s restoration because for God nothing is impossible. And I pray for Christian as she asked for restoration for her parents and relationship with her parents. And I pray so God will restore that relationship because God is an Almighty God. And I pray for every needy heart in the community. I pray for freedom and deliverance from all addictions. I pray for their restoration to the family so God will turn…turn sons back to their fathers and fathers back to their sons and just restore the…the relationship with families and God’s pray…I pray for God’s intervention for every soul. __ and the type of the enemy in the name of Jesus. And I also love to ask prayer if somebody can just pray for me so I can reflect Christ in everything that I do. I have a ministry in church but it’s hard for me to reflect Christ in everything that I do. It’s just hard to work to with people but all things are possible with God. Thank you. DAB family thank you for everything you do Brian and the whole team. God bless you.

Jeremiah 39:1-41:18, 2 Timothy 1:1-18, Psalms 90:1-91:16, Proverbs 26:1-2

Today is the 22^nd day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today like every day. It’s always, always a joy to be here with you as we take the next step forward and that next step forward….well…that will continue our journey in Jeremiah but when we get the New Testament we’re moving into the middle pastoral epistle known as second Timothy, and we’ll talk about that when we get there but let's…let’s dive into Jeremiah. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Jeremiah 39, 40 and 41 today.

Introduction to second Timothy:

Okay. As we said at the beginning, we are moving into another of the pastoral epistles. These are letters that are personal in the Bible, not like circular letters written to entire churches to be read and performed before a congregation and then past to another church. They are personal letters. They are attributed to the apostle Paul although as we talked about, these pastoral epistles are highly disputed and have been for centuries. And there are, you know, very few biblical scholars these days who would say the pastoral letters were actually written by the apostle Paul. That mostly comes because historians, church historians, who have watched like the development of church structure have been able to kind of observe that these pastoral epistles, they seem to have developments within church structures that came after the apostle Paul’s life. Nevertheless, the letters are like Pauline in…in nature and are…are written to be from the apostle Paul to these two pastors Timothy and Titus as personal letters that contain a lot of church structure instructions, yeah, that still provide controversies in certain sections and segments of the church today. But this letter, second Timothy is written in the name of Paul, may have been written by Paul, and would be the final of the pastoral epistles. And as its later, like a late letter, if the apostle Paul did write this letter than this is the last known writing of the apostle Paul’s life. And if Paul didn’t write it then somebody familiar, somebody of the Pauline school, somebody who’s theologically under Paul or under one of these pastors of the churches was…was indeed kind of counting the last days of Paul. And, so, Timothy who this letter is written to, like the last one that we read was the pastor the church in Ephesus. And this is a church that Paul spent a lot of time in. So, these people knew Paul and they know Pastor Timothy pretty well. And Paul at the time is in prison in Rome. He had appealed to Caesar. He’s waiting to find out whether he’s gonna live or die and as it turns out he's…he’s gonna die. And Paul’s imprisonment is also a matter of scholarly debate, not whether it happened or not, but it…it seems like laying out the timeline of Paul’s journeys that he may have been released for a time, and had freedom again for a time. So, when he first came under arrest when he was first imprisoned in Rome, he kinda had some freedoms. We see that written in the Scriptures. It was kind of more of a house arrest. He was under guard, but he had some freedoms. Like he wasn’t just in dungeon and then as the timeline kinda lays out it seems like he was released from custody and then he traveled again for a period of time, and then it would be during those, that small time of freedom that he wrote first Timothy and Titus, which we’ll read next. And then Paul was incarcerated again, and this would be A.D. 66. And not to get to technical, but this is some of the reasons like dating Paul’s life, you can’t date right down to the days on things, but you can get pretty close in when his wife would’ve been. And then looking at church structures etc. etc. knowing like some of these things came to be later that’s why a scholar would think about these letters being later than Paul’s life. But around 66 A.D. Paul then was arrested again, and this was under Emperor Nero who just was …was a savage to Christians and persecuting them and executing them and denigrating them. It was a…a bad time. And, so, when Paul was arrested again, he didn’t have the kind of freedoms that he had before. He was then at that point in a cold dungeon waiting to die pretty much. That’s the…the writing was on the wall. So, the idea then is that from this imprisonment, and we’ll see in the letter, that it’s full of melancholy, like it’s full of the type of hopeful language we would expect from a letter like this, but also just sobering realities of the circumstances and the likely outcome being martyrdom. This is the tone of second Timothy. And, so, we can take second Timothy as the last things we would hear from this apostle, sort of like the…the period at the end of the sentence, the last things that get said. So, I mean, the marginalization that was happening among the church, people would identify as Christians being completely set aside and really, really pressed in on and persecuted, most everybody had deserted Paul. Like people were waiting for Jesus to come back. He wasn’t coming back. Paul, the guy that had showed them this way, is imprisoned. The Empire has got a vendetta against people of this faith. So, there just like, “yeah. That’s not gonna work for me” and just went back into the wall work and back to whatever they were doing before. And, so, Paul is alone. Only Luke the physician who we believe to be the author of the gospel of Luke as well as is the book of Acts stayed in Rome with Paul. Paul knew that he was probably gonna die. From the tone of this letter he was hoping to see Timothy just one more time, like one more time in this life face-to-face and that he had some final counsel just in case that face-to-face couldn’t happen, some final words of encouragement, some final words of instruction. And given the backdrop that I just, you know, that I just said for us, that’s why we find famous verses in this letter, like “I have fought the good fight of faith. I have finished the race.” And, so, we begin. Second Timothy chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word. We are so, so grateful for Your word and Your direction and Your counsel and Your comfort in these days. And I…I’m sure the generations before us trailing back to the very day that these words were penned, that those who read them felt this way. Thank You, thank You, thank You for being here for us when things are confusing. Thank You for taking us back into this melancholy territory in the early formation of the church as we are reading a letter that…that gives us language for the end of the apostle Paul’s life and the convictions that were held intact, even as he faced…even as he faced like…like that his head was going to be severed from his body. That’s a pretty stark thing to think about. And, so, Holy Spirit, as we continue our journey through the New Testament, as we continue our journey through…through the books of prophecy. Come, lead us into all truth. Lead us in the way that we should go. Lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. Lead us deeper into our relationship with the Savior. And we ask in His name, the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, yeah, it’s home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. It’s where the Global Campfire lives. It’s home for the community that we are. So, like I say most every day. Check it out. Stay connected. Check out the Community section. Check out the Prayer Wall that’s at the Community section. You can always, always, always pray for each other.

And 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. 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 that’s your preference, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button 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:

Hello my fellow DABylonians this is Kevin in California checking in and real quick just want to ask that you would continue to pray for my three sons - Levi, Moses and Tekoa - that God would give them peace and wisdom and courage. But my main call is I wanted to call Chris in Florida. Wow man. That’s…that’s some heavy stuff. Thank you so much for calling in and reaching out. I’d be honored to pray for you and your 12-year-old daughter. So, let’s pray Familia. Holy Father, Son and Spirit thank You for this man Chris. He’s calling in for his…his beloved daughter and the mourning and grief and healing that she will have to go through with such a difficult thing as losing a mom. And I just pray God that Your Holy Spirit would fill this man Chris with great love and courage and wisdom to love and guide and comfort his daughter through this time of grief. May he and his daughter grieve well together. And I pray God that You’d give him great opportunities to let the tears flow Father. Give them places and opportunities to feel their grief and let it flow and heal through that God. Thank You, Father for what You’re going to do in this man Chris’s life and his 12-year-old daughter. Thank You, God that You have a plan and those plans are for good. Thank You, God that this lady is now with You Lord and I…

This is from junk to treasure. I’m calling because I heard Joel Maddox reach out for help. He was the first caller on Monday, October 19^th’s broadcast. Joel I just…you said you can’t stand to look at yourself in the mirror and you’ve lost everything and you’re ready to give up and you don’t know what to do. This is when you look at yourself in the mirror as a child of God and you start from where you are. You call upon the Holy Spirit and you ask for help and direction and you start by setting small goals each day of what you can do until you can get back on your feet and regain. I don’t know whether you lost possessions or what it is you lost but we just pray over you and we ask the Holy Spirit to circle around you and uplift you and we praise God that you called out for help because it’s not too late when you ask for help and just pray that God will hold on to you in a mighty strong way so that you can get your eyes set back on the right path. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Hello DAB family this is Shantay calling from Metro Detroit and I wanted to call and share some good news with you all. I just received a call from a company that I’ve been interviewing with and I hadn’t heard from them in a good while. And, so, I thought they just forgot about me. But anyway, I found out today they offered me a job in Florida. And, so, I am like so…so many emotions. I’m so grateful and thankful to God for just working everything out. I’ve been furloughed since April. It is now October and I have a job offer and I’m…I’m just…I’m so amazed and it’s just…ahh…thank you to each and every one of you that have prayed for me over all these years. This month, October marks my 10^th year of listening to the Daily Audio Bible and you all have seen me through so many ups, so many downs, so many back up’s, like just…you guys have been praying for me since the beginning and I just…I thank you all and I love you all so much. I’m so grateful for each and every one of you, for Brian and Jill I’m so grateful for you too…you…you have just blessed my life, your saying yes to doing the Daily Audio Bible and…and reading the Scripture in and out, day in and out, rain or shine has just blessed my life and so many others and I’m just…I…I’m so very thankful, so very thankful. So, I just want to call in with that praise report to everyone. Thank you for your prayers. I love each and every one of you. And, yeah, okay I know I’ve been cut off so I’m just gonna stop now. But if anyone else is still listening, I love you all so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you do…

Hi, it’s Sherry from Kansas. I would like to ask you to continue praying for Jennifer. She’s the 13-year-old girl I told you about that her dad is super morbidly obese and her mom has mental issues and is very abusive. The dad can’t even get out of a chair or anything. And Jennifer started cutting herself and lying and doing a little stealing as well. But Jennifer’s mom told Jennifer that if she wasn’t dead before her 18^th birthday then Jennifer’s mom said she would kill herself, which is a horrible thing to say to a child. But this is the kind of things that Jennifer’s mom says. Anyway, CFS, child and family services has gotten involved and I’m just really praying for them for wisdom and for something to happen, but I don’t know what at this point. So, I just want to ask you to continue praying for her because Jennifer is really a wonderful girl and she’s acting out and doing the things she’s doing because of the abuse that she’s suffering. Anyway, thank you all for praying and God bless you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible audience I’m calling on October 17^th I’m a listener in Maryland and I’m calling for two people who call this week. One was a lady and I’m sorry I don’t remember your name, but she was very upset because she was alone, and she desperately wanted to be married and she had no children and she was 62. It spoke to me because it was near my birthday and I turned 64. I too have never been married and I have no children; however, I don’t feel alone in that I do know that the Holy Spirit watches out for me and makes it possible to for me to move through this journey. The other person whose name is James, he had sort of the same problem except he was a young man and he had been in foster care and he was alone, and he was going through rehab. James, your strong, I could tell it in your voice and you’re a good person. You were asking for prayer and hoping that your parents were still alive and well. You also have the Holy Spirit that is taking care of you. So, both of you, make it…you will make it to through the loneliness. You just have to get it in your heart and in your mind and in your spirit. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jackie and I’m asking prayer for my brother Sonny who’s in the hospital with chest pain and stomach pain possibly due to stress. He has lost his job and battling with some financial __. Also for my sister, she’s a single mom, she’s not working, she has a college aged son in need of a financial blessing, in need of scholarships she’d applied for but due to COVID-19 everything is closed down. I’m also asking prayers for my son who’s single, hasn’t been married, has no kids, and is __ and lonely. And I’m asking God to cease the loneliness and I’m also worried sometimes, worried about my future, what’s gonna happen. I feel stuck __ that God would just relieve my stress, relieve the loneliness. __ pray for my DAB family I greatly appreciate it community. I love you all. I love you Brian and Jill and there are so many I keep praying for you. I thank God for this community. Have a blessed day.

Jeremiah 37:1-38:28, 1 Timothy 6:1-21, Psalms 89:38-52, Proverbs 25:28

Today is the 21^st day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we just kinda come in and take our places around the Global Campfire. How is everyone? How are you doing? Well…no matter how you’re doing, no matter how any of us are doing we have kind of created a little oasis where when we come here things kind of get shifted, perspective gets reoriented because when we come in here and sit around the Global Campfire together we know we’re not alone and we’re simply letting God’s word speak to us in whatever way that it does. This is safe…this is a safe place that has been a rescue so many times. And, so, it is wonderful to be here with you today as we take the next step forward. And this week we are reading from the Christian Standard Bible. So, we’ll continue to do that throughout this week and continuing our journey through the book of Jeremiah today. So, today we’ll be diving into chapters 37 and 38.

Commentary:

Okay. So, I have been in ministry a long time and I have been around ministry my entire life. And, so, I have encountered the word prophetic or prophetic things plenty…plenty of times over…over the years and that's…that’s fine but I have also had people introduce themselves to me as profits many times in many kind of weird interesting sorts of ways. But with further conversations like, “no. I’m not sure this…I’m not sure where on the same page. I’m just not sure we’re having the same conversation.” So. well, like what does a prophet look like? What does a prophet do? What does a prophet have to face? That’s something we get a very clear view of in the book of Jeremiah today because in my experience most of the people who have introduced themselves to me as prophets are really really, really trying to be seen that way and are trying to live like a ultra-prosperous sort of life that draws attention to themselves as somebody with some sort of secret special direct line to God. So, we’re reading through the book of…a book of prophecy, the book of Jeremiah, who was a prophet in the Bible and he’s in Jerusalem and there’s a blockade around the city and everyone is trapped and the only thing keeping the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, from getting into Jerusalem is the wall. The thing is, the wall is protecting them from the invading army, but the invading army has surrounded the city. And, so, there is a wall between them, but society is falling apart inside the walls. There’s no food, right? Like, and…and there’s no law and order. It’s all falling apart because the writings kind of on the wall. We’ve been reading through Jeremiah and so in earlier times in Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry, there were other prophets around contradicting Jeremiah, like very aggressively contradicting Jeremiah. We’re not hearing any of those prophetic voices anymore. Those prophets, the ones who were like, “no. There’s a two-year plan. Everything’s coming back. No. Certainly the Chaldeans will never breach the walls.” We’re not hearing any of those voices anymore. Jeremiah is the remaining prophet of God with a voice here and he is continuing to say the message that God had given him from the beginning. He’s just the messenger. He doesn’t want to be seen. He’s not trying to get notoriety. He doesn’t want to be doing this job. Now he’s trapped inside Jerusalem with a blockade. Pharaoh’s army from Egypt, the rumor is that he’s coming and so the Chaldeans back off and so Jeremiah wants to go inspect the field that he bought. And he can’t even…he’s not even allowed to leave. Like his freedom is taken because the accusation is that he’s defecting to the Chaldeans, because he’s been saying to surrender to them all along as the word of the Lord. So, this famous prophet is then thrown into prison and then the king whose name is Zedekiah let him out but didn’t let him go free. He like kept him under house arrest in the courtyard. But it’s not too long then that people aren’t…they’re looking for somebody to scapegoat. Things are falling apart. Jeremiah’s word from the Lord has been consistent and is coming true and the people are furious at Jeremiah for saying the things that he said. So, Jeremiah ends up basically in quicksand at the bottom of a well to die there. That’s the life of this prophet. Then king Zedekiah comes to Jeremiah privately. Everybody’s watching everybody at this point inside the city. Everybody’s trying to figure out how to get out alive. The authority of the king has been diminished significantly. And Zedekiah comes to Jeremiah is like, “just tell me the truth. Just give me it straight.” And Jeremiah’s basically like, “I’ve been doing that, my friend. I’ve been doing that for more than a decade for more than two. I’ve been telling the truth. Nobody’s listening to me and if I tell you the truth, you’ll probably kill me. And if I give you good advice you’re not gonna listen, you never have.” That’s kind of how we see the prophetic voices in the Bible. That…that’s the response in the lives of the prophets, at least the ones that are portrayed in the Bible. They come with the word from the Lord and a lot of times the word from the Lord is a foretelling of what is to come. And what is to come is not usually a good thing. And the reason that they are foretelling what is to come is because the people are heading in that direction. The prophet seeing and hearing the word of the Lord can see where this is going and speak to it because that’s where the road is going. That’s where things will end up. And, so, a prophet lay’s that out. This is where you’re going. This is what’s going to happen. However, it’s not too late to change direction. And if you do repent, if you do change your mind, if you do change direction then the outcome will also change accordingly. But the people don’t listen. Only rarely do we see examples of people listening. So, the work of a biblical prophet is indeed difficult work, to say the least.

And then we come to Proverbs today and it brings it all very, very near. “A person lacking self-control is as a city with broken down walls.” In many ways that is a prophetic word into our own lives. In Jerusalem the wall was the only thing keeping the enemy out. According to Proverbs, when we lose control of ourselves the wall that keeps the enemy out of our lives falls down. In…in this scenario that we’re reading in the Bible, there were walled cities to keep enemies out and if those walls fell down then the enemy rushed in and conquered the city and in many cases destroyed the city. When we lose control of ourselves the enemy rushes in to destroy us. So, when we have not practiced…and remember we were talking about practicing just the other day, like practicing our faith. Like, this is how we train to be godly, we practice being godly. One way we practice is self-control. It’s a fruit of the Spirit. It’s a byproduct that is offered to us who…who have believed and who are practicing a godly life. If we lose that then the walls fall down and chaos rushes in, right? Fear rushes in, loss overwhelms, panic rushes in. You name it. Whatever it is that’s our enemy rushes in to conquer and destroy. And, yeah, similar to what Jeremiah’s saying, the way we will ultimately overcome is that we will surrender, we will surrender to God. And, so again, the Bible greets us as it does most every day with the illumination of pathways and where those pathways lead. The Bible once again…I mean we learn this very very much the very very beginning of the Bible, that wisdom is at every crossroads saying go this way and don’t go that way. If we would just listen and slow down. And, so, once again the Bible has brought to us the illumination of pathways and where they go. And what we can see is that if we do not practice self-control then we have a very, very vivid picture of what being surrounded by an enemy with chaos inside the walls, starvation inside the walls, and surrounded by the enemy on the outside, we see what that looks like and we know when the wall falls down that the enemy rushes in. We have a clear view of what happens to us spiritually when we do not practice self-control. Here’s the thing. I don’t think this is like new revelation. Like, you may have never heard it in this context before, but when you, when I, when we lose self-control it may not have been described as a wall falling down and an enemy rushing in, but we already know that’s exactly what it feels like. That’s what happens. And, so, let’s take the visual that the Bible has given us in Jeremiah and essentially the prophetic word that has been spoken to us from Proverbs and listen because that’s what the prophets were doing, saying this is where you’re going, this is where it will end, listen, change course. Listen. Are we gonna listen or are we gonna continue to have the wall fall down and our lives be a swirl of chaos? The choice is ours. We’re at the crossroads. Wisdom is speaking. This is the way to go. Don’t go that way. Here we are. Which way are we going?

Prayer:

Father, we know the way we want to go. We know the way were supposed to go. We just often don’t. Sometimes that is out of rebellion. Sometimes it’s just we’re overwhelmed and not paying attention. You have given us Yourself, Your presence. You are here and we get so distracted that we forget that’s real. And, so, we run around from chaos to conflict just trying to keep things afloat when there’s a better way. Come Holy Spirit and help us practice self-control. We need You now. Actually, maybe more than ever in our lifetimes we need You now. Come Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is the Joy of the Lord calling from the UK and I just want to first of all say thank you to Brian and the Hardin family for all the great work that you’re doing at the Daily Audio Bible. And I was just calling in response to Joel Maddox who called on the 19^th October, Monday the 19^th of October. Sounded very distressed and ready to give up. And I just want to encourage you Joel that don’t give up. That is exactly what the devil wants you to do. But please don’t give up. I know and I can hear that you are hurting but I know that even though everyone may have left you, even though you may feel alone, I know that Jesus is still with you. Jesus is reaching out. He can never give up on you. He can never leave you. He can never forsake you. He can never forget you. So, I just wanted to encourage you that God is with you at every single point in time. You may not feel like it. You may feel like you’re alone. You may feel like you’ve lost everything but do not give up. As far as there is life there is hope. So, just continue to put one foot in front of the other. Continue to just pray to God and cry out to God and I know that God will surely answer you and surely make you feel like you’re not alone and surely embrace you and encourage you in more ways than you can imagine. I look forward to an amazing praise report after this because I know that God is with you. So, I just want to call you to encourage you. And of course, I’m lifting you up in prayer and I know that my God will strengthen you beyond your capacity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Beautiful Soul from North Carolina. I wanted to call in and say a prayer for Joel Maddox. Joel, I know your pain and I know your…your loneliness and you feel like you’re not loved but you are loved. God loves you and He loves you through His people and you’re not alone. It’s not a time to give up. I’ve been there before where I wanted to just give up and throw in the towel but God kept me and He’s brought me out on the other side. And again, I also want to pray for God’s Smile. God’s Smile, she brought me through some really hard times in my life just by hearing her voice. My mother passed away 12 years ago and not having that mother’s comfort is really hard when you’re going through but to hear God’s Smile’s voice is just like my mother hugging me when I would hear voice. And I wanted God’s Smile to know that I’m praying for her too and I’m here for her to pray and lift her up as he goes through this difficult time and know that she is loved as well. Dear heavenly Father I pray for these two people in our lives that need You so desperately God. I ask that You go to their rescue God and deliver them from whatever the enemies put before them that’s causing them to suffer. I pray God that You get the glory out of the entire situation but most of all God that they draw closer to You. Lord let them know that their loved, they’re kept, and they should be carried through. When they can’t even take another step, You’ll carry them the rest of the way. Lord I not only pray for these two but all those who are suffering. We give You honor; we give You glory we give You praise. You are an awesome, awesome, awesome God and we praise You in Jesus’ name. Thank you, thank you daily audio Bible for this platform. Amen.

Hi siblings this is your sis His Little Cherry in Canada. Would you please say a prayer for my daughter joy? I got an emergency text from her this morning saying that things are not going well, things are not going well for her and for the whole first year class at the vet school. I don’t think I need to give a bunch of details because it’s really a Shakespearean tragedy is what it is. Drama, drama, and more drama with staff and deans and professors and power struggles and I guess there’s been a lot of mid…mid program choices…changes. Partly because of Covid, no one knows what they’re doing or what’s going on and just partly because of politics. And the first-year students are beside themselves as far as overwhelmed and stressed. It’s just…that school normally speaking is stressful enough and then things are just…what are they? Their inhumane, which is interesting for vet school students. So, Joy sent a long middle of the night email to the mental health counselor last night and I’m really worried about her. I’m worried about her marriage, which is only a year old and there’s lots of stress there too. So, I am clinging to Daddy for my treasure, my joyous and asking if you would have time to say a quick prayer for Joy I would sure appreciate it. I love you guys. Bye.

Hey DAB this is White as Snow from Tennessee. Just wanted to thank Soaring On Eagles Wings from Canada for praying for truck drivers. That was just an awesome prayer just lifting us up and, you know, the things we have to deal with. And I just want to thank you for…for praying for us. And I want to pray for unshavn’ misbehavn’ Tavin, which I…I love that. His Little Cherry’s son who had some pain who hopefully by now got the results of the test and just praying for just complete recovery if surgery needs to be involved just whatever that everything will go smoothly, and he’ll be doing great. And I’d also like to lift up his wife whose an atheist. And I just…just praying that God will open her eyes and she can come to know Him. And you never know how God’s working on someone. On the outside you may not see anything but, you know, God can still be working, you know, on their heart on the inside. So, just praying for her and just lifting you up and thanks again for praying for all of us.

Hello, my name is Glenda from central Missouri I’m a first-time caller, but I’ve been listening for about a year or so. Brian thank you so much for your program because I can no longer hold the Bible in my hands, yet I can still pick up the Bible every day. Right now, I’m fighting cancer. I’m not doing so good. I ask for prayer for that. I want to thank everybody for all the prayers in advance. Thank you so much. My names Glenda from central Missouri.

Hello Daily Audio Bible viewers my name is Juan __ and I just needed prayer for me and my girlfriend Cornetto. Me and her have not been going to the best of times right now but I will say this, she has brought me back to Christ when me and her got together and this feels like now she’s running astray now and since she’s been back in New York and her friend from jail got out it feels like she’s been losing her way with the Lord and I just want her to turn her favor back to God because he sent her to save me from myself and used her as a vessel to have me come back to the Lord when I felt like I was veering off and straying off. And there was never no judgment where…I just want the Lord to restore her heart, make her realize she’s woman of God and she needs to come home and that she has a man of God that loves her and I really do and I see the pain that she went through. Hopefully you guys get this, pray over it. And have a great day.