Month: October 2020

Jeremiah 4:19-6:15, Colossians 1:18-2:7, Psalms 77:1-20, Proverbs 24:23-25

Today is the 6^th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today and every day for that matter. It’s great to be in your presence is great to be in…in one another’s presence, and in the presence of the Lord as we let it all go, spend a few minutes here focusing ourselves, orienting ourselves to God, allowing His word to speak and preparing us for the rest of our day or evening. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Jeremiah chapter 6, verse 16 through 8 verse 7.

Commentary:

Okay. In the letter to the Colossians we’re seeing Paul respond against some teachings that had kinda  come in and come around the church, angel worship and this sort of thing but in the process of doing that he is stating or even restating because these things have been stated before in other letters, they’re fundamental, foundational pieces of our…of our understanding of our faith. So, we kind of get yet again another opportunity to take the basics that we take for granted and look at them and marvel at how mind-boggling what’s being said is. So, Paul’s saying, “everybody that has put their faith in Christ, their reality is a different reality than it used to be.” And we could say, yeah…well…yeah…I mean Jesus changes everything, so things look different.” But Paul’s like, “everything is different because everything that happened before that moment is dead, it died so it no longer has any claim, it no longer has any anything, it’s dead, it no longer can influence us, it no longer can overshadow us, it’s gone, it died, and Paul restated that, “in Christ”, and I’m quoting, “in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.” Okay, once again reiterating, Jesus is God, is one with the Father, is God. In Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. And, so, Paul’s like, “that’s the…that’s the thing. So, any other thing that kinda comes in and nuances that away from that stark reality isn’t true and any other reality being described beside this baseline reality isn’t reality and living into this reality forces us to understand that we are not who we were. We were transformed and we continue to be transformed and that transformation is leading us away from the fragmentation of life as we knew it and leading us on the path toward and into restoration and complete wholeness where our identity is in Christ, in whom the fullness of God dwells and that same Christ dwells within us now.” Okay. Again, like that’s kind of the basic understanding of things, but it is absolutely mind blowing when we stop and think about it. When we stop and think about anything that we believe about our faith and live into it we realize most of the time we are living significantly…significantly like fractionally of what is available to us. And what Paul’s saying basically is that anything that will erode your understanding of who Jesus is and the fact that when you believed in Him your previous self ended and you were reborn into this new thing that God is doing. Anything that would try to steal that from you is something that you can identify as false, which is not to say anything that disrupts you or makes you think or takes you deeper or takes you wider, like that’s not the point. The point is anything that would steal what is yours, your understanding of your Savior and your understanding of yourself in Christ is a false reality being spun out before you that you can go into, but it will be a false reality. Your reality has completely changed and in the reality that Christ offers you, you are continually, whether waking or sleeping, like no matter what you are doing, when you are in Christ, you are being sanctified, you are being made whole, you are being made perfect. And once again we get this description of why this is good news.

Prayer:

Jesus, this is such good news that it offers us, no matter where we’ve been, no matter what we’ve done, a complete and utter restart, like a…not a restart of what was but a brand-new rebirth, born again and we are…we are stunned at Your mercy and kindness and grace and we worship You and we thank You because this is such good news that it changes everything and there is no way for us to do this on our own. And, so, we put our faith in You. We trust You. Holy Spirit, may we be aware of Your continual work in our lives transforming us as we move forward. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's…it’s where the Global Campfire…it’s us, it’s home base for a virtual community. So, be sure to check in. Check in…it’s, as I’ve said before, it’s pretty simple to navigate around.

There’s a section called the Community section. Be aware of that. That’s where to get connected to other people. That’s where the Prayer Wall is to pray for other people or to ask other people to pray for you. So, just knowing that, like just dive in there, visit the Prayer Wall. As I’ve said…I don’t know…many times, sometimes when we’re feeling pretty much at our low points it’s really, really easy to get very very focused on our struggles and it pulls subtly into isolation because we’re focusing on fixing whatever it is that’s broken in our world and all of the sudden we feel like we’re totally alone walking this path when we’re not, we just got isolated. So, going to the Prayer Wall and just praying for others and realizing, I’m not the only one, maybe my circumstances are unique and specific to me, but other people are going through all kinds of things. We are all in this together and when we reach out in prayer for each other it changes the atmosphere. We know we’re not alone and we can start to turn…to turn outward instead of increasing our self-absorption in some way and it makes a huge difference. So, just knowing that the Prayer Wall is there all the time is a great thing. You can always reach out and ask for prayer or offer prayer. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission that we share to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and given freely to the world for anyone anywhere anytime to listen to and  to build community around it because it’s a rhythm of life so that we know as we go through each and every day we’re not going through this solitary kind of endeavor. We are on a journey together through the Scriptures. If that matters to you, if that has brought life into your life than thank you for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t be able to do this if we didn’t do this together. And, so, thank you. 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 is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or you can hit the Hotline button, the little red button at the top in the app. No matter where you are you got a hotline and you can share from there.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Jeremiah 4:19-6:15, Colossians 1:18-2:7, Psalms 77:1-20, Proverbs 24:23-25

Today is October 5^th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and a privilege and an honor to be here with you today as we move into this workweek as we take the next step forward together in the Scriptures, the…the grand adventure that we find ourselves on as we move through this year together. So, we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Today Jeremiah chapter 4 verse 19 through 6 verse 15.

Commentary:

Okay. So, Psalm 77 is what we read today when we were moving through the Psalms portion and man there’s not a better argument for why we should journal our way through the Bible and maybe even through our lives. And we’ve talked about journaling a number of times as we move through the Scriptures. We see the president kind of set with the monuments and the piles of rocks that would be stacked up. What is being portrayed here is a way of remembering what happened so that what happened isn’t forgotten. And we see a deep soul cry in the Psalm today. “I cry out to God. Yes, I shout out.” And let’s think about it. When do we cry out to God? I mean we…we can cry out to God if we are in a sense of worship. Mostly we cry out, like shout out to God because we are done, like because we are overwhelmed, we are cooked crispy, like everything feels like it’s falling apart and we are suffering and it’s agonizing and so we cry out to God. And this is the psalmist Asaph today, “I cry out to God. I shout O that God would listen to me. When I was in deep trouble I searched for the Lord. All night long I prayed with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted.” Oh…there’s such honesty in that. We should all be able to understand where this is coming from. It’s just that Asaph actually gives voice to this. These thoughts, these kinds of things, these are the things we stuff. We just keep them inside. It’s like, “I could never…never say that out loud.” I mean…some…some of us are good at just telling God how we feel but usually this is the kind of sentiment that we…we just go like, “yeah, you’re just being a big baby. Suck it up, move on.” But the psalmist asks some really penetrating questions and likely they are questions we have asked. “Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will He never again be kind to me? Is His unfailing love gone forever? Have His promises permanently failed? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Had He slammed the door on His compassion?” Asaph is giving voice…like I just read this out of the Bible. This is ancient. People have been having these kinds of feelings for thousands of years wrestling through these. Like we might think we wrestle through these things when we try to say them but it’s just like a new phenomenon? This is not true. This has always been going on. So, Asaph kind of concludes, “this is my fate. The most-high has turned His hand against me.” Have we never felt that way before? It usually goes away, right? We get some context, we get some perspective, but in the moment that feels so true. So, what does Asaph do? Like, he’s poured his heart out. He’s been brutally honest about what he’s feeling like. But what does he do? I continue to quote the Psalm. “But then I recall all you have done O Lord. I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts. Can’t stop thinking about your mighty works.” Okay, so in the moment where we feel like everything is falling apart, we get pulled into a hurricane basically and we are just being pummeled if we have nothing to remember, like if we can’t remember God’s faithfulness. And this is what Asaph is essentially teaching us. “Then I recall all you have done. I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.” And, so, as we move through the Bible, but also through our lives to be able to write down…and it can be a religious like tradition where it’s an every day thing, it can be a once week thing, it can be a once a month thing, whatever, but just to kind of chronicle our own journey in our own hand after some fashion gives us literally the written testament of God’s faithfulness in our lives. So, when we find ourselves in those moments where we’re just totally gettin’ leveled, to be able to remember God’s faithfulness when we can’t see or feel it is a game changer. And we see this borne out in the Scriptures.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for the ability to write. We thank You for the ability to articulate. We thank You for the ability to chronicle Your faithfulness in our lives and we thank You that this has been done in the Scriptures, not only as a model for us, but as something we can look at and say, “okay. Honesty is coming off of these pages and leading me into a true place that can really help me.” And, so, we thank You for that. And Father as we do chronicle our lives as we do write down the things that are going on, may they be exactly that, a place to return to say, “O, I thought I was going to get destroyed in that situation but I’m still here and I remember that fear and I remember being agonized over all that. But I’m reading these pages and remembering but I see that I’m still here. You were faithful. You brought me through.” We thank You for the ability to do that. This is what the Bible does for us over the course of thousands of years. But we have our own story to tell, our own story with You. And, so, come Holy Spirit as we continue…as we continue to write the story of our lives, or maybe as we just begin to start to write down some of the days and some of the happenings and some of the things going on in our lives. Come Holy Spirit, lead us to create a testament of our own, a testimony of Your faithfulness through our lives. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, stay tuned and stay connected.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop where there are resources that are available for this journey including resources for what we just talked about, journaling. We have our own Daily Audio Bible journal that we have developed over the years and it’s perfect for writing in. And we also have writing stuff like the Black Wing pencils that I…I use on a daily basis. As I’ve said over the couple of years that we’ve had this, there’s something tactile, something real about sharpening a pencil and writing in my own hand my own life. There is something to that to giving it honor and enjoying the process. And, so, there are resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop exactly for this. So, check those out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you, humbly and 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 mail, 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 red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.
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:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible. So, I just heard the news Ms. China, Mr. Ben, we have the same last name, Brown that’s awesome! Congratulations to Jill Brian in the whole Hardin household. God bless you. Heavenly Father, thank You that You have given us Your written word, the word that these…this family has been anointed by…by Your hands and the words of…of Your mouth the theirs and to our ears over the years casting the bread upon the water and reaping great harvests. I ask You to bless this new baby and their parents and their grandparents and their children and their children for generations to come. Lord You said that children are an inheritance from You and that blessed is the man whose arrow…they’re like arrows that are shot out into the world and blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. So, I pray that…that just as Brian and Jill have trained their children up in the way that they should go they are training us up and the legacy is and amazing one and it’s just from God because of God because of the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts that we would seek Him daily and share this together. Lord I remember meeting China when she was 12 at the Wind…the Wind Farm café and Max was out riding his skateboard in the parking lot and Tyler was doing the audio and Christian was there. Just thank You so much for this family. I pray bless them. And thank You that the followed Your commission from Adam and Eve.

Hello family this is Demetri I’m calling from Oregon. Some of you might remember I called regarding my marriage, my wife, and everything that’s been going on with that. My wife did apply for divorce even though I told her I didn’t believe in divorce and I will not go for it. I received the paperwork and the court date is set for…for the beginning of November. I’m staying faithful to God and believing that He’s in control and He’s gonna do what…what is best for both of us. I pray and continue to pray that restoration is what’s gonna happen, but I believe that God can use this situation even if through divorce He can…He can restore us anyway. So, I pray and ask you family to continue praying for my wife, continue praying that that she will seek Him, she will find Him, and she will do the right thing. Thank you, family for…for always being there for me and Brian thank you for this amazing platform. I’ve been with you guys for about five years now and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. So, if you can pray for my wife, pray for me to not lose hope, not lose faith, to continue relying that God is in control I’d really appreciate it. Thank you everybody for your prayers and for always being there for me.

Oh China and then and baby what wonderful news you had today and I listened to your dad earlier and it made me remember how my husband and I felt when our baby girl finally told us that she was pregnant and it turned out she had a baby girl too. We were just walkin’ on air and when I knew I was pregnant back then we didn’t know the sex but that first Christmas, and I want to warn you, brace yourself, every time we would sing Christmas carols I would just have tears streaming down my face because I was so happy and so humbled that I was going to the same thing that Mary went through to have Jesus. And, so, oh, you know that so many prayers are with you and with this baby and take care of yourself. We love you. We love Ben we love the baby. God bless you. Bye.

Hi family this is his little Cherry in Canada and I want to pray for Kim in Texas, her husband, and their family. Daddy, it’s wrong what’s happening. I can only imagine Your fury over the suffering that’s happening, and the injustice and I pray God that You would do battle on behalf of what’s right and what’s true. You love everyone involved. But I pray for Kim and her husband and their children. I pray that You would rebuke the devourer, that You would silence his lies, that You would expose him as if he’s suddenly naked in front of everyone, that he would be dismayed, turned back, that he would run screaming into the night, into the darkness that he himself has created. May he fall into his own traps and be foiled. And Lord Jesus I just pray that You would vindicate those who are in the right, that You would put a stop and an end to all the plans and purposes of darkness for Kim and her husband and her children and that they would be delivered in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Heavenly Father we just thank You and praise You because You are worthy You are worthy of our highest praise You’re worthy of our best You’re the one who supplies our joy Lord and so we thank You. We thank You for this awesome news that China and her husband Ben are gonna have a baby. Thank You for that. We needed that. We so much needed that. And how appropriate Lord with the Psalm that You picked that we saw the wicked succeeding in the world and everything going to pieces Lord, but You cause us to remember Your faithfulness Lord and You’ve done it through this __ through this beautiful thing that we get to share together as a family Lord. You are good. You’ve always been good even in the beginning of this year You were good. Throughout the year You are good. And thank You Lord for returning our attention to that goodness Lord. So we praise You and we ask that You extend Your healing hands over this child, that You protect the baby, keep the baby safe, watch over the mother, the Father, the grandparents, aunts and uncles Lord. Heavy blessings upon them Lord so they can bring this child to term healthy and strong that we again as a community can continue to give You the praise honor and glory that You deserve Lord. You are a faithful God, You’re a loving God and You’re a true God and we thank You we thank You we thank You. And all praise honor and glory belong to You. This is Byron out in Florida. Brian, China, Jill, Ben, everybody. Congratulations. So excited for you all. God is so very good. Amen.

Hey Daily Audio Bible does Paul from Houston and I wanted to call to pray for James the Mighty Warrior from…called in on the September 29^th asking for prayer. He’s been…you said you that you’ve been separated two years and I’m not sure that you…that your wife was trying to move on and just wanted to pray for you with all the people and totally understand what you’re going through and just want to pray for peace Lord. I ask Lord that You would be with James marriage Lord, that You would bless him. God, I ask Lord that You would open the eyes of…of him of his wife. Lord I thank You for being with them. Lord I ask Lord that You would just see the different things that…that…that Your Holy Spirit would just guide their steps Lord, that You would be in the middle of…of what’s happening Lord and I ask Father that Your presence would be made known and I thank You Lord that as James seeks You Lord I thank You Lord that You would just bless him and be with him just give him wisdom help him to see things clearly. Help him to have the eyes to see and the ears to hear and help us all to have the eyes to see and ears to hear to know what direction to take and what steps to go and which way to go right or to go left or to go straight or to backup. There’s…there’s all these things God that we just need we need Your help and we’re just praying for my brother that You would be with him and just bless him and keep him and put Your angels around him. Lord I thank You Lord for just giving him peace in the middle of the storm no matter what’s happening. God, I ask Lord that You would just direct his steps in Jesus’ name. Love you guys. It’s Paul from Houston. Take care.

Jeremiah 1:1-2:30, Philippians 4:1-23, Psalms 75:1-10, Proverbs 24:17-20

Today is the 4^th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian. Here we are friends at the threshold of a shiny, sparkly, new week that we are entering into. Whether we like it or not there’s only one way to go and that’s forward into this week and this is our first full week of the 10^th month of the year. So, we are well on our way in our journey although there are some tremendous miles in front of us. We began the book of Jeremiah and we’ll continue with that today. We concluded the letter to the Philippians yesterday and so when we get to the New Testament, we will begin the letter to the Colossians. But first we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Jeremiah chapter 2:31 through 4:18.

Introduction to the letter to the Colossians:

Okay. So, as…as I said at the beginning, we are now at the New Testament so we’re moving into some new territory, another letter, another epistle from the apostle Paul, this one to the Colossians. And the city of Colossae, this is a place that Paul frequented. It was like 100 miles maybe from Ephesus and Paul spent years even in Ephesus. So…so, Colossae wasn’t unfamiliar, and the people weren’t unfamiliar to Paul. And the ancient ruins of Colossae, they exist. They’re in the western part of modern-day Turkey, but they’re largely unexcavated to this point. But during Paul’s life Colossae, like so many of the other urban centers…and we notice that…we notice the early church, at least under Paul’s ministry is more of an urban center thing. Like you don’t see a lot of churches being planted in rural areas. He’s is going into these cities and so the Roman cities, they…all…although they have their own personality like every city even today does, they had a lot of similarities. It was a stew of people and a lot of the philosophical and religious ideas being thrown around and argued about and wrestled with. And, so, some of this had made its way into the Colossian church. And, so, Paul writes this letter in response, because he’s been there, he’s given the gospel. But then, now it's…you know, now it’s being made into theology, now the philosophy is getting involved. And, so…and this isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a thing and this is what’s going on. And, so, Paul is responding to things that they’re asking about, responding to things that he’s hearing. And like the letter to the Ephesians and the letter to the Philippians, Colossians is another of the letters that are considered prison epistles, letters that would’ve been written while Paul was awaiting trial before the Emperor And basically we got…we got two sections to this letter. We have the first doctrinal issue. Like, people were coming into the church and they were bringing in, kind of like…well like we’ve said before. At the time of this writing of this letter there was no New Testament, right? There is nothing…there was nothing to go like, “well, this is this is the baseline.” So, lots of people thought lots of things about Jesus and lots of writings and lots of basically early denominations were happening. And some people had come into the church and they were teaching angel worship and some other rituals. And, so, Paul has to basically address this by making them understand that no matter what lesser thing you might try to give yourself to there is only the most-high God and Christ is supreme over all things. And it’s in this letter that hear Paul saying the universe itself was created by and through Jesus and remains sustained by and through Jesus. And then there’s this issue that…ahh…I mean we’ve seen this issue so many times. It’s the circumcised versus uncircumcised controversy that seems to permeate the early church writings from Paul. And, so, once again we’ll see Paul comment on that very issue. And of course, that issue goes back to the very very beginning – does a person need to be Hebrew and obey the Mosaic law to become a follower of the rabbi, teacher, wisdom teacher, miracle worker, Jesus or is God in fact doing a new thing in the world, one in which He is inviting everybody who believes to be a part of no longer needing to be under the law, but realizing freedom has come from the law? A direct relationship with God is possible. There is no chasm because righteousness has been bestowed upon us, which was the purpose of the law like to lead a person to become righteous. But Paul’s argument is that Jesus made that possible. We are righteous. And, so, these rituals especially, or the one that seems to crop up the most is circumcision. And, so, with that said, we begin. Colossians chapter 1 verses 1 through 17.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us into this shiny sparkly new week. We thank You for bringing us into the new letter of Colossians. We thank You for the journey that we are on. We thank You for one another. And although we don’t see each other we feel each other’s presence and we have…we have become allies we have become brothers and sisters in this journey. And, so, we are thankful for the gift of community, thankful for Your Holy Spirit that binds us together. And, as we move fully into this first full week of this final quarter of the year we pay attention we become aware, we have eyes to see and ears to hear all that You are saying to us and all that You are leading us into. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base its where out find out what’s going on around here as I a say most every day as a reminder that we should know what’s going on around here. What’s going on at the Prayer Wall? Pray for people. Ask for prayer. Stay connected.

The Daily Audio Bible Shop is another great place to visit. There are resources there. And, yeah, it’s a shop. So, certainly, certainly it all goes to help keep the servers spinning so that all over the world the Daily Audio Bible is served up fresh every day, but the resources weren’t really invented or…or sourced for that. They…they were brought together over all of these years to be a companion to the journey, to take the journey to the next level, to take the journey deeper, to take that journey wider, to feel more connected to the journey. And, so, you can check that all out at…at the Shop at dailyaudiobible.com.  Of course, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access all of this by pressing the little Drawer icon that’s in the upper left-hand corner of the app and that’ll get you to where you’re going.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission that we share in common to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and given freely to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night time zones are irrelevant, if that has been something that’s brought life into your life than thank you for your partnership. There is a link. It lives on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button it’s 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 877-942-4253 is the number to call or you can hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top and that makes it so convenient no matter where you are. You have a hotline in your pocket. You can always reach out.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Jeremiah 1:1-2:30, Philippians 4:1-23, Psalms 75:1-10, Proverbs 24:17-20

Today is the 3^rd day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we bring to a conclusion another one of our weeks together. And I guess we’re preparing as we move forward from here to encounter the first full week of this 4^th quarter of the year beginning tomorrow, but we are here. And we concluded the book of Isaiah yesterday which brings us to another book in the grouping known as the major prophets.

Introduction to the Book of Jeremiah:

This is called Jeremiah. And it’s an intriguing book, a lot because…because of Jeremiah. Like he didn’t…he didn’t really want to be a prophet. This wasn’t like his most exciting time and he’s authentic about it because God tells him to do things that he doesn’t exactly want to do and there’s plenty of times he just wants to walk away because nobody’s paying any attention to him and his prophetic words, like the ministry that he’s doing on behalf of God, speaking for God is only getting him persecuted because things have been going pretty well in the society. And, so, for a prophetic voice to come and say, ‘hey where this is going isn’t going to end well.” When nobody can see any evidence of he’s just dismissed or harassed or persecuted. And he gets very much persecuted before the story is over. I mean it’s just…it’s not good for…it’s not good for the economy to have somebody like Jeremiah out in the streets of Jerusalem prophesying that things are gonna get bad. But Jeremiah was faithful and as it turned out what he was saying was accurate. And, so, in 587 BC…so we’re looking back a long ways as we go into this story…but in 587 Babylon invaded and the Babylonian empire conquered Jerusalem and the city fell. And much of the…the development from Solomon’s era, including the temple, the temple of God was destroyed in that conquest. But if we put ourselves in sort of the mindset where things are prosperous, things are going well, we’re generally at peace, economy’s doing well, people are prospering, like we have ourselves kind of in that mindset and listen to Jeremiah we’ll see like why they would want him out of circulation and we’ll see that what he was saying was the truth and it allows us to kind of examine our own hearts in our own time. So, we’re reading from the Lexham English Bible this week, which is today. Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 30.

Prayer:

Thank You, Father for Your word. Thank You for another week in Your word. And as we get ourselves moved into this new quarter, we are grateful and hopeful, and we rest in You. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that’s home base, it’s certainly where you find out everything, everything that…that guides the Global Campfire and what we do together.

The Community section is there. That is how to get connected. That’s where the Prayer Wall is. So, if you’ve never been, that’s probably the place to start and get connected. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you profoundly and humbly for your partnership. I say…similar things every day because they’re always true. It's…it’s a community endeavor that we’re on and we…we need to be in it daily. And, so, thank you 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 the mailing address, if that is your preference, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always is the case, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, if it’s pretty dark inside your head right now or the circumstances in your life are looking like you can’t carry this load, there’s a place to reach out. Like, you may still have to move through these things, but you don’t have to go by yourself. Just knowing that there are people thousands by the thousands all over the world that are going through this too, that are going through these kinds of things too, but that we’re in this together. That makes a difference. And, so, you can reach out. There’s the Hotline 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.

Isaiah 66:1-24, Philippians 3:4-21, Psalms 74:1-23, Proverbs 24:15-16

Today is October 2^nd welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we move forward and take the next step through the Scriptures, and yeah we’re at the beginning of a new month and a new quarter. And, so, we’re just getting oved in and an understanding of where we are and doing what we talked about yesterday, thinking about finishing well, finishing strong in a…in a year that has done a lot to challenge us. So, let’s dive in. And we’re working our way through the book of Isaiah, and we’ve actually reached the conclusion. Today will be our final day in the book of Isaiah for this year. We’re reading from the Lexham English Bible this week. Isaiah chapter 66.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in Philippians today we kinda dropped into the middle of something that was being said that we had finished up with yesterday. And, so, we see Paul kind of doing the boasting thing again where he’s like…he’s kinda forced to boast in order to defend himself from things that people are saying. So, he’d rather not be doing this at all, but he has to do it. And, so, he’s saying what he’s done. Like, “I was circumcised on the eighth day. I…I’m from…I’m an Israeli. Like, I’m a natural born Hebrew from the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Pharisee. I was so zealous about it I persecuted the church. I was blameless in keeping the law trying to be righteous before God.” And then Pals says, “but all the stuff that I did, it doesn’t mean anything to me. It…it's…it’s a loss. Like, I count it as a loss because of what I have gained in Christ.” And that juxtaposition is Paul again saying what he has always said in his letters. “I was trying to obey the rules. I threw myself at it wholeheartedly. I wanted to be able to be righteous before God, so that I could one day be welcomed by God, so that one day I would be righteous before God. And, so, I did all the right stuff, but it wasn’t going to me there. So, now I realize it was a loss, like I count it as a loss because of what Jesus has shown me since I’ve met the Lord.” And once again this is Paul trying to say, “the rules are not the relationship. The rules do not come before the relationship to gauge whether there is a relationship.” For Paul that’s like backwards, for Jesus as well. The spirit of the whole thing had been lost and so all that was left were rules when the rules were actually a byproduct of a relationship. And basically…I means…here’s a way of looking at it. If you’re married…even if you’re not married you’re gonna understand this…if you’re married you don't…you don’t dig out your marriage covenant and read it every time you have a fight, right? Every time you have a disagreement you don’t dig out your marriage license and begin reading and say, “wait a minute. These were our vows. This is what we said.” I mean there are times that this needs to happen, but this isn’t what defines the relationship. Love defines the relationship. And when two people are in love than the rules become apparent and you don’t have to like study and ritualize and try to make the relationship work by the rules. If there’s no love there it’s going to be pretty tough to do. And this is what Paul is trying to argue. Like he had tried to do this, always knowing his failures because the law showed him his failures, always having an understanding of God being displeased because of his failures. Everybody felt that way. Like nobody could live up to the law. Everybody felt that way on a continual basis just looking for the other shoe to drop. And that’s what Paul is trying to say. Like that’s not freedom, that’s not freedom. Christ came, fulfilled the law, God began a new thing by raising Him from the dead, faith in Jesus makes us righteous before God, fulfills all of those requirements that we think we have to live up to. We are free to be in love with God, free to be in love with God as He is in love with us. Rather than understanding him as an angry deity we now see Him as Father as our Papa as a loving child would refer to their parents. That’s what Paul has been after today. And, so, he says something very famous. “I haven’t achieved that. That’s where this is going. We are all on that path. Why would you want to turn from that path and go back into bondage because somebody’s telling you something different than what I’ve been telling you. Let me tell you my credentials.” And then he goes through his credentials. “I have done this.” That’s his point. “I have done this with all of my heart, and it cannot be achieved, but Jesus came and revealed Himself to me and revealed how this actually works. It’s a leap of faith and I have not achieved this. I can’t achieve this, it can only be achieved inside me by God”, which is the same for all of us. We can’t achieve anything. Everything that we have is a gift from God. “So, I haven’t achieved it” Paul says, “but I am trying. Like I am doing one thing. I am forgetting the things that have gone behind me and I am pressing toward the things that are ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” And that should do for us what it would’ve done for the Philippians and what it did for the Philippians. And it encouraged to them. It reminded them. And, so, yeah most of what we just talked about are things we have talked about before, but Paul repeats these things in the letters and the letters got passed around from church to church so people were being continually reminded in those early days, just like we are continually being reminded now because we forget. And in the same way we get back to the rules. We know our failures. We know we can go to the Father and ask forgiveness but we know our failures. And, so, we live sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop. We live feeling as if we don’t keep our act together something bad’s going to happen when that’s simply…at least according to Paul, at least according to Jesus, that’s not how this works. And, so, once again we are reminded of God’s mercy and grace and we need to press forward because of the deep and growing love of the relationship that we have with God. The rules become apparent. There are things we wouldn’t do against our spouse because we love them, and we wouldn’t want to break their heart and we wouldn’t want to cause them pain and suffering. There are things that we wouldn’t or shouldn’t do in our relationship with God for the same reasons because we are committed in a covenantal relationship and in love. Let’s remember that as we head into the end of the week.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You. We thank You that You loved us first. There is nothing we can do. There is nothing we have done to earn that. You have loved us and come for us. And this salvation that we are working out in fear and trembling isn’t about how often we step out of line. It’s about us being aware of what we will not do because we are committed to You, because we are in love with the creator of our souls, with the lover of our souls. So, Holy Spirit come. Make this a reality. May we live into this fully in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

Still reeling, not reeling, just still kind of floating from the announcement we made yesterday about China and Ben expecting their first child, their first baby. And the outpouring of love and good wishes and prayers is so encouraging. It’s like a lifting…lifting spirit and we need that. We need…we need our spirits lifted in these days. And, so, thank you for…for that. And thank you for your continued prayers and…and…and just joy we go through this process and through…then through the winter months and into the spring and then as spring brings new life and this spring will bring really new life into our family and so we’re very excited. And thank you. Thank you for your…your love and being a part of life here in community as…as we move forward.

I remind you that the website is home base. And, so, and it’s not very complicated. It’s actually made to be pretty simple.

There’s a Community section, that’s where you can get connected on social media and that’s where the Prayer Wall is. There is a Shop full of resources for the journey through the Bible in a year. And there’s Initiatives, things that are going on around here. So, be…be aware. Check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, I can’t thank you enough because the reality is if we didn’t do this together, we wouldn’t be doing this at all. And, so, so grateful, so humbled that we can take this journey, day by day step-by-step fresh every day moving forward in life together in community. Like this is really happening, we’re really doing this together. And what a joy that is but it wouldn’t happen if we didn’t do it together. So, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a Give button in the Daily Audio Bible app in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app…and if you’re not you should…you should be…this is the portal into community, there’s a Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top, No matter where you are in the world you can…I mean that’s sittin’ in your pocket. You got a Hotline, you got a way to reach out at any point when your shouldering things that you just can’t carry anymore or when you’re so full of joy that you just have to tell somebody because that’s community. That’s the friendships that we have forged as we’ve just gone verse by verse page by page, chapter by chapter book by book all the way to here in the Bible. So, you can always reach out there.

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:

Hello this is Lacey from Cape Cod Massachusetts I’m an elderly woman alone in the world with no family. It’s just me and my precious dog and Jesus and I’ve had some serious serious health issues with my back and I’m severely arthritic but my dear precious dog has been very sick and I beg your prayers that…for healing for her and mercy for me because I just cannot imagine life without her. The loneliness and isolation is just so painful. And before Covid…but now with Covid it’s 10 times worse. She’s my baby and my precious companion and I need her, and I love her. Please pray for mercy. Thank you in Jesus’ name. God bless you all. Thank you. I’ve been listening for over a year…about a year. Bye-bye.

It is September 26^th this is joyful Jay from the Everglades. I just want to say thank you DABbers. Thank you, Brian, Jill, China and all who make this daily campfire happen. I’m a longtime listener and very rare caller. Change is coming. My fear of saying the wrong thing is less than my fear of not being known by a community of believers who live fearlessly in loving each other and want to be known by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh Lord to let people in, to let people know me, you know this is my struggle. Thank you for opening my year and opening my heart. Thank you to all of those who call in on a regular basis. Your voices, your accents, the cadence in your speech. This is how I’m getting to know you. I will not know you because I can see you, but I will know you because I know your voice. Your words bring me joy and at times lay a heaviness on my heart. Just hearing the different tones, the tunes of all your voices and songs. I am crying as I listen to people saying they prayers. Hearing the songs, hearing the prayers, hearing the encouragement is nourishing to my spirit, leaving me wanting more of this community and a desire to change and desire to be known by you. Thank you, Lord Jesus. This is JB saying thank you for all of you calling in and setting an example of caring for each other in prayer. Have a great day. Blessings in the Lord Jesus. Bye.

Good morning DAB family this is Dawn of a New Day from California calling to lift up our sister Tammy from Canada. Tammy God has you in the palm of His hand as your reaching out, your crying out, your trusting and believing even in the face of not feeling like you can still hold on and trust God. In the name of Jesus, you will not crack, you will not fold, you will not lose your mind. You will get the best sleep you have ever received ever. And Father we give You praise, we give You glory, and we give You honor right here and right now not just for Tammy’s sweet sleep but for every person that has insomnia for every person that feels as if their sleep deprivation is cracking their life God. We trust You are Lord. We lift this ministry up to You God. We lift up every prayer request. We lift up our sister who was invited by her two brothers who is excited to be a part of our DAB family God. We lift up each and every heart the grows in Your word that loves Your word. We lift up every single person that listens and absolutely believes and trusts You more God. I pray that we will spread this word of this ministry, that we would then learn and grow and serve, believe God that we would reach out and reach in and…and absolutely not give up. We love You like never before, and we thank You now for loving us back. We love you Tammy. Your DAB family is calling out your name and glory not just this day but in all the days to come and we will hear your testimony of your breakthrough and sweet sleep. God bless you sister. Thank you for calling in for the first time. DAB family sew a seed of support today. God bless you all.

Good afternoon DAB family this is Lady of Victory on Monday, the 28^th of September calling in for Jody who called in for prayer for Desiree, a 15-year-old, I believe, who has been diagnosed with cancer that has metastasized to her lungs and other parts of her body. So, we want to lift her up in prayer. God, we thank You, we glorify You, we magnify You because You alone are worthy to be praised. God what a report to have said about someone so Young who is dealing with all that she’s dealing with God. And yet according to Jodi she is not lost for Jesus joy. Some of us have been diagnosed with a lot less God and we have turned our backs on You. And, so, God we thank You for the joy that Desiree has in You in spite of God the diagnosis. Now God our prayer is that You would heal her on this side of every disease God. We recognize that cancer is a name and You said that at the name of Jesus every knee is going to bow. And, so, God we tell cancer to bow in the name of Jesus. God, and we lift her up before You. We ask that a miracle will be performed for Your daughter. God but if that is not Your perfect will for Desiree’s life God it sounds like she’s ready to meet You and to hear those words good and faithful servant well done. And that’s not what we want God while ultimately that’s all of our desires. God but we want her healed on this side, but we also want Your perfect will to be done and established. Comfort the hearts of those around her God who are lifting her up who have to see her suffer. Do it for Your glory.

Hi, DABbers I may first time call inner just started listening to the Daily Audio Bible this January, it is an answer to prayer, truly. I just wanted to call in because after five years of having Ménière’s disease, it’s a…a vestibular disorder a balance disorder, I was able to, little by little, build up an art business but I got very used to working alone, as hard as it was. And since social distancing has occurred, I’m just having a really hard time I find now connecting with people and I’ve always been so gregarious. And there’s so many winds of doctrine out there I…I don’t feel like I fit anywhere anymore. And I…I know that that’s not God’s will for me, that His will is that I live in community but I’m very, very, very confused and I feel very lost and in a real desert place. Not depressed but lonely but yet I feel that there’s this glass around me that I can’t cross over. Also, if you’ll pray for my son. He’s been an addict for 10 years. He’s living in Philly now in a sober home but he’s…he’s using when he can and just so afraid of him dying. God has kept him for 10 years even as a homeless person and he’s had many, many maybe over 40 rehabs. But I really hope that you hold Jesse up in prayer and for his complete deliverance…

Hi family is Purely Pampered of main. I have an answered prayer praise report to call in. Yesterday we helped my son and his fiancée move into a new apartment about an hour away. My future daughter-in-law found a full-time job and today my son started a two-month temporary job. Right before we left their apartment for the last time, I asked them to indulge me and I thanked God for all the wisdom they gained through the challenges they’ve had these past 2 ½ years living there more than I could never go onto and I prayed that as they closed and locked the door they could let go and leave behind all of the pain and look forward to their new beginning. I told them that hundreds of thousands would be rejoicing with them when I called in this praise report. Thanks to each of you prayed for them and thanks to each of you that took the time to call in and pray for them. I won’t list your names, but you know who you are. I so appreciate you. There’s just no explaining how it feels, for others lifting up my family’s needs. Thank you. Please continue to pray for all of us dealing with transgender pansexual and gender spectrum issues in our families. We so need those prayers. I love you family. Bye for now.