05/03/2021 DAB Transcript

Judges 17:1-18:31, John 3:1-21, Psalms 104:1-23, Proverbs 14:20-21

Today is the 3rd day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you as we get busy about our work week our first workweek of this month of May. But before we do, let’s just center ourselves, exhale all that anxiety, come around this Global Campfire and let the Scriptures speak. We’re reading from the New International Version this week, working our way through the story of the different judges of Israel, which is a period of several centuries between Joshua’s leadership and the time of the monarchy, the time when Israel decides it wants a king. So, let’s dive in. Judges, chapters 17 and 18 today.

Commentary:

Okay. In our reading from the book of John today we encounter I think probably the most famous passage in all the Scriptures, at least in the New Testament. We can probably say it together, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” What may be a lesser-known, as is the case with a lot of very famous versus, is the context of this…this saying. It was Jesus himself who said this passage, “for God so loved the world.” Jesus said that. He said it to a man named Nicodemus, who was visiting Him under the cover of the night so that he wouldn’t be exposed to the rest of the Council that he was having a private meeting with Jesus. And it’s in that context of that conversation that Jesus tells Nicodemus, “you gotta be born again.” And that’s where we get the concept that we use when we talk about being born again. This is all coming from a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus after dark one night long ago. Of course, Nicodemus is a grown man. He’s a…a scholar of the Torah. So, he’s confused. Obviously, like, how would a person go back into their mother’s womb and be born again. And this is when Jesus explains this salvation process. A person is born of water, which represents a physical birth into life and a person can be born again of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives birth to new life within. That’s what being born again means, that the spirit of God is within us, integrated within us, completing us as human beings as we were intended to be from the beginning. When we believe this, when we believe Jesus, we open our hearts to God’s Spirit and we’re never the same again. According to Jesus when we do believe there is no longer anything held against us to condemn us. But for those who do not believe they’re all…they’re already experiencing condemnation. Like there already experiencing judgment or I just quote Jesus here. “whoever believes in Him…” Actually, let me just back up. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” Then Jesus goes on to talk about how light, when light comes into the darkness, those in the dark that don’t want to be in the light go further into the darkness. Like they don’t want to be exposed. And that should generally be easy enough to see in the world. Just a little bit harder to see it in ourselves. So, you know, the question that arises then is, “what am I trying to keep in the dark?” You know, “what am I afraid of being exposed? Because whatever I’m afraid of being exposed, that’s ultimately pulling me deeper into the darkness.” And we have probably already learned by now that life on the margins in the shadows, there’s not really any life there. And, so, this is one of the examples where we see Jesus teaching a lesson, giving us really the essence of salvation from His own lips, but also this theme of darkness and light that permeates Jesus’ teachings. It’s this contrast between false and true. And we try to spend our lives because of the way our culture is made up, because of the repercussions we…we live most of our lives, kind of in the shadows, right? When Jesus…Jesus was true. He was total light. And the and we see what the darkness is capable of as we look at…what it…how it raged against Jesus. We should also remember how that story ended. Jesus, the light of the world returned to victorious over the darkness and we don’t have to live in the darkness anymore. We would call that the good news. That’s the good news that we’re supposed to be living and demonstrating and explaining.

Prayer:

Father, Holy Spirit come. Allow us to grow in our understanding and the depth of our awareness of our salvation and of our intimacy of our connection with You, and of Your desire…and this is the part that’s so overwhelming…of Your desire for the connection with us, a desire so profoundly deep that You sent Your only son, that You love the world so much that You sent Your only son, that whoever would believe in him will not perish but have eternal life. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello this is Beloved in Texas and I know that I’ve called in about this before, but my 13-year-old daughter’s counselor wants to meet with me next time she goes in to see her because she feels as though she needs to go see her doctor for anorexia. And because body dysmorphia eating disorder is something that I struggled with I don’t know how to help her. I’m covering her in prayer, and I know that’s the best thing I can do but I just ask that my Daily Audio Bible family come along side me and just pray for peace and wisdom in how I deal with and react to and help my daughter. I just pray that the Holy Spirit speaks to me at every opportunity to speak life and peace and my daughter’s life. Thank you.

Hey this…this prayer is for Running Bear. Man, your prayer request just broke my heart for you and your kids so much. And, so, I just want to pray for You. Lord, I bring before You Running Bear and his children God and You are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and You are the God of comfort and Jesus You know every human suffering. But I just ask God that You would end this suffering that is being caused by our culture and humans that are adding to the pain that these kids have already been through. And Lord, I just lift them up. I ask that You bring them community God. I ask that You bring them faithful fellowship Lord. I ask that You bring them friends who will all walk alongside them, godly friends who will pray with them and talk with them and share in their hurt and not be afraid to cry when they cry and laugh when they laugh and…and walk with them. Lord we all need people like that in our lives. And, so, I just lift this family up God. Be with them. And Lord we know that You are good, and You can do this in a way that’s better than they even had imagined for themselves. And, so, I just pray that You exceed expectations here Lord and just put an end to this suffering God. We pray this in Your Sons’ name. Amen.

Father God I would like to say some prayers with Running Bear for his children and for himself and that they find the Christian community more compassionate and more giving to their grief. It’s been a while since their wife died and they need companionship and fellowship with Christians to be made felt that there’s people grieving with them. I am so sorry Running Bear that you are experiencing this, and your children are. Just…just so sad. I…I just wanted to pray for you. Please, today God, please put Your hands on these children and this father for they need people to come alongside them and help them. I ask You this in Your name. Amen.

Hi good morning Daily Audio Bible family my name is Norman I’m here on the East Coast of Pennsylvania. I’m a double DABber as I guess I’ve heard before. First time calling in and I have a request. I was diagnosed with…with cancer two days ago. Should have had it diagnosed a few ago apparently. It’s pretty aggressive. I’m at peace with where I’m going. I’m just asking for prayer that I can speak to my daughters again. I haven’t seen or heard them in 10 years. My oldest just turned 20 and youngest 18. So, I don’t know what’s been going on in their lives. I try to reach out to their mother but there’s no communication. So, I also need prayers for my son and my mother. But I’d just like to have one more chance just to speak to them and tell them I love them. So, thank you Brian for your… It’s amazing it’s a blessing what you do here every day. God bless you and congratulations on your new…your new baby with China and her new baby. God bless. Bye-bye.

Hello daily DAB DABbers this is Trick Selena. I’m just calling it to say hi. I love you guys and I’m praying for you on the Prayer Wall and for everybody calling in. I just wanted to say and remind you all that we are made in the image of God and there is so much power in prayer, there is so much power in words. The Lord said let there be light and there was light. And just…I just want to remind you that, that we’re able to walk into a storm and call peace. And I just wanted to say healing, healing is absolutely at the Lord’s hands and that we are just praying for healing over November and Indigo and Checkered Johnny and all the people on the Prayer Wall asking for prayer and…and to lean in and never give up and never stop and keep going and always to have hope. And I just really wanted to pray for…I don’t remember his name, but he called in had lost…he lost his wife and the teenagers mom and that the teenagers, people are avoiding them and the teenagers are really hurt by that. And, so, I’m just going to pray. So, Lord God just please be with his family. I pray that You just…just put a hedge of protection around them Lord. Give them peace, happiness, hope, joy, rejuvenate them every single day Lord God and send them messengers. Send them Your loving people to show Your love Lord God. And I pray, send them on the road of healing. Such a deep, deep, deep situation that’s just so full of pain. Lord God I pray that You cradle them in Your arms and that You just heal them, heal them, heal them, and that they may take this sorrow and this sadness and pain they felt, and they will go out and they were help others who are in the same situation in their future because Lord You are building those teenagers into Your mighty warriors. Lord God and I pray for the husband Lord God. Just strengthen him, rejuvenate him every day and give him peace, happiness, hope, and joy in the name of Jesus. Amen. I love you guys. I love you all…

Hello DABber family this is the Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory of our God and King. I am listening to the DAB, a little bit behind on Gideon and how the Midianites were taking sustenance from the Israelites and how Gideon then was threshing wheat from the wine press. I tried to leave this message earlier. I’m not sure it…it…it…it…it registered but I want to share it reminded me of a time during the Liberian civil war. I was 13 years old and a military kept coming and taking our food. And, so, I could relate to Gideon and being afraid and fearful for, you know, having…not only afraid of the military that having food would draw their attention but also afraid of you losing my food. And, so, I remember there was one military guy who used to come to bring us food once in a while. He brought us like a quarter of a…like a quarter of a thing of food and it was like a quarter of a…a bag. What do you say? Like a like a pillowcase of food and he would bring it to us and we had to cook it and we were trying to hide the smoke from the soldiers. Anyway, my point is we were fearful, but God was so faithful. And Gideon was fearful, God was so faithful. And, so, at the end of the day I’m alive today to share the story and my testimony that God was faithful even though I was fearful. You don’t have to be fearless for God to be faithful. That’s my point. I hope this actually records. I love you all. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.