Month: June 2021

2 Kings 8:1-9:13, Acts 16:16-40, Psalms 143:1-12, Proverbs 17:26

Today is the 25^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue the journey. Our journey at this point in the Old Testament has us in the book of Second Kings and we’re learning of those kings and interspersed with that is the story of the prophet Elisha. And, so, we’ll continue with that before getting into the book of Acts. Ae are reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Second Kings chapter 8 verse 1 through 9 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the…in the Christian faith it’s not unusual to hear someone say something like, “yeah, we’ve gotta be ready in season and out of season.” And this comes from the Scriptures of course and it’s generally a sentiment that's…well…in part it means we should always be ready to offer and share the good news of the kingdom of heaven, and of Jesus our Savior, but it also kinda means we should be awake, alert, aware, always ready in season or out, always ready to do the work of the kingdom, to be aware of the kingdom. And that is what we are actually witnessing materialize in the book of Acts. That is what we are watching. That is one of the characteristics of the early church, that when they suffer persecution, they endure it but then maybe they move out, maybe they move somewhere else to find a more…more freedom of their religious expression but wherever they go they take the gospel with them and that’s how this kind of spreads. And what we see is that it’s under the pressure that it materializes. It’s like this ongoing pressure coming against the church and their willingness to endure it and be in season and out of season, like to be still in the moment or in the game or how…whatever kind of language we would use. Even as they had to endure hardship and challenge they were still able to be in the moment sharing the good news of the kingdom, not just with words but with their example in their very lives. And, so, we see a really good look at that idea in what we read in the book of Acts today. So, we’re now on Paul’s second missionary journey, right? He goes with Paul and Barnabas…Paul goes with Barnabas and they…they move around and then they get in a fight and Barnabas leaves off with John Mark who is the author of the gospel of Mark as we understand it, and Paul heads out with Silas. And, so, they’re in Philippi and they’re ministering and there’s this girl, right, who keeps saying, “these are the men who are showing the way to God and she’s like a fortuneteller. She has a spirit and she’s a slave. And, so, her ability to sort of tell people their future is how the slaveowners make money. And she’s been kind after Paul and Silas telling everybody, “they’re telling you the right thing.” And then Paul finally gets exasperated and commands the spirit to leave her alone which…which ends up getting Paul and Silas in court because now they’ve taken away the livelihood of these people. And, so, they want restitution, they want justice. A mob forms. I mean we see this so often. And then Paul and Silas end up getting beaten and thrown into jail. Everywhere we look in the book of Acts we see the light colliding with the darkness in very volatile ways. So, Paul and Silas are beaten, and they are in jail. The whole thing is an injustice. They were beaten unjustly. They were imprisoned unjustly. And in particular they’re Roman citizens. So, they’ve been…they’ve been imprisoned without a trial. That’s a big deal in the Roman Empire. It’s a big deal in most of our cultures. So, you know, if I’m putting myself…if I’m just being super honest in this moment and put myself in that position and then think, “okay. I just got beat up. So, I’m feeling sick, I’m feeling bruised, I’m feeling cut. I’m not feeling good in my body. And I’m chained to a block of wood that I can’t move. I’m trapped. I’m in this dank, stinky, awful prison with…I guess…with criminals but I haven’t done anything wrong. And, so, for me, yeah, I’m probably crying out to God in that moment, but more like the Psalms - take vengeance upon my enemies. This isn’t right. Get me out of this.” And I don’t know if I’d be able to sleep or not, but I would probably get angry, I would probably have fear. I’m after all chained up and anything could happen. It wouldn’t take long before I started thinking about the injustice of it all and I would probably get bitter and just sit with that while wondering what comes next. That's…that’s not the posture, though with Paul and Silas. They…they have given their lives. Like, they know that they could die at any moment, and they have accepted that. And, so, they have given their lives in their mission day or night in prison or not in prison, with plenty to eat or with nothing to eat is to continue to reveal God’s kingdom by sharing the story of Jesus. And, so, they’re beaten up, they’re bruised, they’re not feeling good in their body, they’re chained to a block of wood, they can’t escape. It’s unjust and so they decide that they’ll worship God instead. I mean…that’s in season and out of season. That’s in the moment going, “well…we’re beaten up and we’re in prison but that doesn’t mean that our mission has been thwarted because our mission is to be a light in the darkness wherever we are, however we are. That's…that’s beautiful, right? That’s beautiful, that’s faith. That's…that’s what it looks like. But it's…it’s just easier to conceptualize on paper and go, “Yep, Yep, Yep”, until we’re actually, you know, beaten and bruised and chained to a block of wood, that's…that’s when it actually gets lived out. It isn’t a theory or a concept. Most of us don’t get beaten up and thrown into prison. Some maybe in this community, I mean this is a large community all over the world, so some probably have experienced this. If you have experienced this then you can think about what that was like and where you were in your life at that point in time, but most of us aren’t likely to get beaten up and thrown into prison for, you know, for casting a demon, an evil spirit out of a fortune-telling slave girl. Like we’re not probably gonna repeat that cycle but we do face hardship and trial. There are things that we must endure. And the further we go on this journey into the New Testament the further we’re going to see just how much our brothers and sisters did have to endure and how much they had to encourage each other in that endurance because it’s so discouraging. But we have this example the book of Acts today. It gives us a really, really good luck what it means to endure, what it means to be really, deeply sold out and committed to a mission in season and out of season wherever they are, however they are, and that’s an example for us brothers and sisters. That’s an example for us in our own endurance.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into that. We hate challenge and endurance. I mean we can grow familiar with it and even accept but it’s always challenging because it’s always hard. And in that hardship, the longer that it goes on, so the longer that we have to embrace endurance it’s so easy to get bitter, it’s so easy to get discouraged, it’s so easy to throw up our hands in the air and say, “I quit.” But this is the…this is the point at which we are actually growing. When it’s challenging and difficult, this is when we are actually growing. And You give us seasons of growth and You give us seasons of rest. You are a good Father. We trust You. And, so, come Holy Spirit and help us to properly interpret the days of our lives. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And I’ve been talking about it during this week. We have something coming up, and on the calendar…on the calendar. And that is the 7^th of July. That is our own little holiday here around the Global Campfire. It’s a day that we call the Long Walk and it’s something we’ve been doing well over a decade now and it’s every 7^th of July. As many of us can, we take the day, draw a circle around it and carve it out basically, push everything else away from that day, so that that day can’t get hijacked, so that that day is clear and then we go for a long walk. So, maybe we drive a couple hours to a beautiful place that has meaning to us or maybe we go to the nearest park, somewhere beautiful wherever that might be, somewhere beautiful where there is nature, and, yeah, go for a long walk with God. And it might sound like, “well…what’s that all about. It’s kinda self-explanatory. Really, that’s really what it is. Go somewhere beautiful where the majesty of what God has created reveals itself, things that we take for granted, like the beauty of nature or the birds or the babbling brook or the animals that just scurry around. And they’re having life and they’re living their lives uninterrupted moving through their day, day after day. It’s beautiful to witness that. It’s amazing how healing it is when we’re just out among it with no agenda, we don’t hurry back to anything, we have this day, pour out our hearts to God, say everything that we just haven’t had the time to say and just realize, “oh…my conversations with God are just like text messages…like it’s so quick and now I have some space.” And God has been waiting for that space and in that space to commune with you. And, so, yeah in part it is saying everything that needs to be said but it’s conversational, it’s intimate, it’s love. And, so, communication and beauty happens in the spaces where nothing is being said, in the silence. In fact, the silence is more profoundly meaningful than anything we’ll say. And it’s important just to listen. So, that’s kind of the long and short of it. That’s the Long Walk and no doubt you’ll have a tablet or a phone or some type of device in your pocket or in your backpack or whatever with you. And I’ve mentioned this the last…I mean I’ll mention it right up until we do this, the trick is to keep it in your pocket, right, or keep it in your backpack and not be checking it every five minutes because it will be apparent pretty quickly how addicted we are to these devices and we’ll see just how often we naturally turn toward them for comfort and just a distraction when there’s another move. There’s another move besides reaching for the phone. We can reach for the Spirit of God instead. And, so, we just learn a lot about ourselves taking a day with God. But there will be some point in that day where you want to grab that device and snap a picture or take a video just to remember, to remember that you went on this long walk and what that meant to you, but also you can share that. So, we’ll have a post at the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page for the long walk and you can comment in there with your pictures and your videos and your stories. And then as we all kinda come in, because this will happen all over the world, so it’ll happen in waves all around the world. We come back and just glimpse at the beauty of God’s creation all over the world that happened that day like on that day and have this little mini vacation as we just connect for the Long Walk. So, put that on your calendar. It’s the seventh day of July.

I have mentioned, there is a resource that is tailor-made for the Long Walk. It is called Hearts, a Contemplative Journey. You can download that onto your device from…well…wherever you…wherever you get your music. So, like the iTunes Store or the Google Play Store. The thing is you have to…it’s not stream-able. You have to download it, purchase the album and download the album. So, not Apple music, but the iTunes Store for example. And that so everybody has to by records. It’s because there’s a lot…it’s a prayer and contemplation contemplative journey that includes music and includes prayers that are really aimed at the emotions of our heart that we all feel and that we all sense and that we’re all going through. And there’s no way. Stream-able you have to have all the prayers disembodied from everything else and it’s just, as I’ve mentioned, kinda weird. So…but if Hearts, a Contemplative Journey is something you want to incorporate into your long walk. I recommend it for sure. It is a wonderful, wonderful way to get the conversation started. And you can get that from wherever you get your music.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com. 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 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 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:

Yes, this is Patrice from Norcross GA I was calling for the gentleman James the Teacher in Los Angeles with regard to receiving God’s joy. And when I was going through a very difficult time in my life, suffering abuse in my marriage for years, one of my coworkers while I was a teacher, he…he taught taught me that joy was going to be a decision. He was a former Vietnam vet and he had explained to me all the things that he had gone through in life. And when he elucidated those things, I was wondering why he was so joyful, and he said that every day he wakes up he’s grateful and he continues to proclaim that today is going to be the greatest day of my life and I’ll never be broke again. And…and I realized that joy was going to be a decision that regardless of what you may be going through on a regular basis every day is a new opportunity to take hold of God’s promise for that day because the devil’s always going to fight you to take away God’s promises. So, be really encouraged. Find whatever encourages you and know that you’re in complete control of your day. So, speak it according to God’s word, that today is going to be the best day of your life. And just be blessed…

Hey everyone, this is Michael from California just wanted to share a praise report. I listened to this app roughly 10 or 11 years ago when God first called me to start following Him and I took a long break, a long hiatus about nine years and just started up again this year. And wow…I mean it's…it’s encouraging to hear everybody praying and yeah, just to support the Holy Spirit and how God is using this ministry. So, just keep praying for the…the impact left here. It’s a very…very huge blessing. So, God I just thank you for this community and I pray that you would set us all ablaze for you…

Hi DAB family this is Dorothy out in California. I miss you and I love you and I wanted to ask for your prayers. My friend Nikki she just…I…how do I describe this? She’s really sad to where she wanted to take her life and she…she reached out to me. I think she’s a new ager for…she believes in everything including Jesus and she reached out to me because she knows God…I hear from God, so she was like reaching out and life circumstances and we prayed the prayer of, you know, giving your life to God and she just…she needs God to rescue her. Well…if you could pray with me. Please Abba, please rescue her from her circumstances and talk to her. Give her direction but let…please talk to her. Talk to her like you talk to me, draw her close. Please. Thank you, God. She needs your comfort. Please in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you, DAB family. I love you guys. Bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family it’s Lorelei and Boynton Beach I am calling for prayer on behalf of Eric Lucas who I’ve called in over the years. He’s a man who has been in prison for 13 years now and the Lord saved him in prison. I’ve talked that he is provided a wife and a daughter, and he has continued to faithfully disciple them over the phone for the last three years. His last appeal did not get a response, a good response although he did get moved to a different facility as the church was praying. It was a beautiful moment. We were all praying for him, and he got move the next day to a closer facility. And we know that God is on the move. His ways are not our ways His thoughts are not our thoughts. Mr Lucas has provided a letter for the Supreme Court, and it just reminds me when Paul said oh, I appeal to Caesar and to Caesar you will go. And sometimes we have to go to the highest court, but we know that we have then justified in the highest court in heaven, and we are saved washed clean of our sins. So, we pray that God opens the door for Eric Lucas. I know many people have children coming out of prison, Daniel junior has gone into prison, and I’ll testify that God had to take me to jail to woo me and break me and call me into his glorious light. So, Lord please family pray with me.

Hi this is Nannie Always Praying. I’m asking for prayer for my son today. My son is a young man who has gone through life and hasn’t really embraced the goodness of it. He’s a child of God although he was pulled himself away from it for a while. He now has a serious alcohol problem. He wakes up with a drink all through the day. I don’t know how he functions at work. I’m just so concerned for him, and I just spent a weekend watching him looking at him and I know that his body has experienced some grief with the amount of alcohol that he puts in his system. I pray for him daily. I just ask this community to please send up some special prayers for my son. His name is Robert and he's…he’s a young man. He’s 39 years old. He just seems to be wasting his life away in the bottle on a daily basis. And I’ve tried to encourage him. I pray for him, and I just ask you that the community would pray for me. I would be so grateful thank you all Hardin family for all that you do and for just being there giving me the strength in the word on a daily basis. Bless you all. Thank you.

2 Kings 6:1-7:20, Acts 15:36-16:15, Psalm 142:1-7, Proverbs 17:24-25

Today is the 24^th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I am Brian, it is a joy and an honor and a privilege to be here with you today as we do what is customary: take the next step forward in the scriptures as we continue our journey together and so, that’s what we’ve come to do that’s what we will do. Which will take us back into the Book of 2 Kings and back into the story of the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judah and well, right now, the prophet Elisha and his story is intermingled. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week, 2 Kings 6 and 7.

Commentary:

Okay, so in our reading as we’re moving through 2 Kings what we’re seeing a lot of, especially what we’re seeing in today’s reading, is the prophet Elisha but in a lot of ways Elisha’s with the Hebrew people but a lot of the commentary, a lot of the things that are happening are with the Syrian King. So, the Syrian King, he keeps making plans for how they’re gonna invade and ambush some of the Hebrew people and what they’re gonna do and Elisha keeps warning the king about it, right. And, the Syrians finally figure out that there’s a prophet in the land of Israel that’s telling everything and that the king probably couldn’t even say anything in his own bedroom without Elisha knowing about it and being able to report it and so of course, they decide, well, then we need to capture this guy. Which is what they do, they go to the city Dothan and surround it and that’s when a famous passage of scripture “There are more with us then are with them” that’s where that scripture comes from. Because the city is surrounded by Syrians but the Heavenly armies are greater and Elisha prays that his servant would be able to witness and experience that which he does. Then God strikes the Syrian army blind and Elisha goes out and he’s like you’re at the wrong place, this isn’t where he is so let me take you to him and they go back to the capital city of Samaria. It’s a intriguing story because they’re inside the walls of the capital city of Samaria, there enemy, when they wake up, like when they come to and realize what’s going on they realize they’ve been marched into the capital city and they are, well, they’re surrounded. But in the end, they weren’t captured more and they’re set free and that brings some peace for a minute. But the Syrian’s do come back even in today’s reading and just so we’re all in the same page they’re not gonna stop coming back. Ah, they’ll eventually win. Eventually they will defeat the ten tribes of Israel but we’re not there yet. And so, they do come back and they surround Samaria and that’s kind of, well, that’s a war tactic to starve a city into submission. To starve it into surrender and things have gotten pretty bad inside Samaria with the blockade and people are eating each other inside the city, that’s how bad it’s gotten. The King of Israel is determined he’s going to kill Elisha, he blames God for all of this and he’s gonna kill Elisha. And that’s when God speaks through Elisha. Tomorrow, this whole, like, it’s gonna be night and day. Things will be so different in the next 24 hours that you won’t even be able to recognize it. Like you can’t even find food unless you’re like eating a donkey’s head or pigeon droppings or other people. But by this time tomorrow flour will sell for next to nothing. That’s indeed hard to believe but it’s indeed what happens and we get the news through the leprous people who are outside the city wall going “if we go inside we’ll die, if we stay here we’ll die, if we go over to the Syrians we might die we might live” so they determine going and asking for mercy from a…from the Syrians is there best option, every other option is death and going to the Syrians may mean death too but it’s the only option that has possibility of life. And so, they go and the army has fled which is how flour sells for next to nothing in Samaria. But it’s super interesting when these guys get to these empty tents and there like going from tent to tent eating food, grabbing treasure, hiding things, thinking about it, they realize what’s going on back in the city and they say to each other “this isn’t right, today is a day to celebrate and we haven’t told anyone else what has happened.” The metaphors abound there if we want to look at our own Christian journey. We can find people who are besieged who are absolutely surrounded and are being starved out, are being forced into scenario’s that they would have never have chosen doing things they would have never chosen to do to survive. They’re besieged in mind and body and spirit when everything that they need is available. “This isn’t right” the leper said “today is a day to celebrate and we haven’t told anyone else what has happened.” Let’s carry that along with us today and see how that might stick, see how that might apply.

Prayer:

And so Holy Spirit come into this we have been set free and we’ve been able to feast while others are starving and sometimes we don’t pay attention to that. Sometimes we’re too self-absorbed to the things that aren’t right in our lives when You’ve given us what we need and You have sustained us and so often we’re hording that when we should be sharing it. And so, come Holy Spirit and show us how to live true. How to live in Your kingdom, how to live for You, about Your work in this world we pray. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And what is going on around here is that we’re gearing up and preparing for our own little community Global Campfire holiday that happens every 7^th day of July. And it’s a little internal holiday that we have among the community and we call it the Long Walk and it really is kind of self-explanatory. Every July 7^th, everyone who can, we take this day, set it aside, almost consecrate it, almost really draw a circle around it and say okay this day is a day that I’m gonna be doing something that I should do more often but I’m gonna be involved on the 7^th of July, I’m gonna go for a Long Walk with God the one who loves me more than anyone and the one that I am constantly struggling to have time with or even know how to have a context for that. What we do is we just go across town, drive a couple hours if you want or just go down the street to the local park wherever you can think of that feels beautiful and calm. A place where there is nature it’s remarkable, it’s astounding how powerful just being in nature for a little while can be if you’re not pre-occupied with something else. Just kind of walkin along and become aware of the birds, become aware of the squirrels, become aware of the rustling of the leaves in the trees. Become aware of the babbling brook, become aware of what is going on around you, this is almost like practice of becoming aware of the presence of the Lord all around us at all times. It’s incredible when you get still enough and then nature emerges, like all of this life that is exploding all around us and the animals and the plants all around us. And we just, it’s like the background to our foreground, we’re never even paying attention, hardly ever. But if we take some time to actually pay attention and become aware it’s incredible how life giving that is and how much life there is that we’re not even paying attention to. And so, we kind get into that posture and let’s go for a Long Walk, however long. Some people have walked 20 miles, some people have walked 20 steps. Do what you can do, go somewhere beautiful, be with God, it’s the middle of the year and we have been through a lot in the last year and a half in the world. And we’re just trying to navigate out and figure it out and keep moving but so often we’re kind of just getting sucked right back into the crazy pace of it all. When this is a day to slow it down and pay attention to what’s really going on. Speak to God, everything that needs to be said and actually have time for that. And actually, have time to be silent and listen to things that He may have been trying to say all year but we’ve just been just too busy. It’s kind of the essence of the Long Walk, go somewhere beautiful and go for a Long Walk with the one who loves you more than anything. And a, maybe you probably have your phone or something with you. The trick is to not be checking it every 5 minutes. The trick is to just have it with you but wherever you find really beautiful maybe take a picture or a little video and then come post that back to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page. We’ll have a post there for the Long Walk 2021 and yeah, you can just post your pictures and comments into that post and that is a treat. It’s a treat, it’s like a mini-vacation all around the world as we look at beautiful places all over the world where our brothers and sisters have been that day walking with God just like we have and it’s a fantastic experience. So, plan for that, there is a resource called Heart: A Contemplative Journey, which you can get from anywhere that you can download your music like the iTunes store, the Google Play store. Just search for Heart and my name, Brian Hardin and you should find it and you can download it from there. It is a really the perfect accompaniment to the Long Walk. It is a fantastic journey of prayer and music just washing into those prayers and allowing us to focus our hearts and open our hearts to the different emotions of our hearts that we’ve been feeling and that just really opens us to God for this Long Walk and so, that’s a resource that’s available. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, thank you so much, thank you humbly. Especially here in the summertime thank you for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t here together and we are here together. And so, thank God for that, that’s awe inspiring. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. 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 you prefer is P.O. 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 up at the top or there are a number of numbers that you can call in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you’re in the UK or Europe 44-2036-088078 is the number. And if you are in Australia or in that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

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

2 Kings 4:18-5:27, Acts 15:1-35, Psalms 141:1-10, Proverbs 17:23

Today is the 23^rd day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian. Welcome. It’s good to be here with you. Got my seat here around the Global Campfire. And any time we come to the Global Campfire, we’re never…we’re never ever…like…it doesn’t matter when we push play somebody else is listening too and the word of God is being heard nonstop 7 days a week 24 hours a day. And I’m glad these particular minutes we get to be together as we move deeper and further into the Scriptures. So, we’re working our way into and through second Kings in the Old Testament. And, of course, the book of Acts in the new. We might notice that in first Kings we dealt a lot with the prophetic voice of Elijah. Now that we’re in second Kings we’re hearing a lot from the prophetic voice of Elisha who succeeded Elijah as essentially sort of the chief prophet. I’m like making that distinction. He wasn’t named…there wasn’t an office of chief prophet, but he was a senior prophet at least portrayed here in the book of Second Kings. And, so, let’s pick up that story. Second Kings chapter 4 verse 18 through 5 verse 27.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Acts today we come to what is known as the first church council. And there have been church councils over the years. Some church councils lasting for years and years and years to really search out and determine specific theologies. This first church council that’s recorded in the book of Acts deals with a very important, very important issue at the time and the decision of that counsel changes the complexion of the growing faith forever from this point forward. So, it’s important that we at least understand the lay of the land here. Basically, we’ve been reading the story of the Hebrew people, right? This is what we read since Genesis, and we continue to read of the kings of Judah and Israel right now. So, we’re traveling along with this specific family - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all of their progeny forward. We’re following along with this family. And when Moses came along and became their prophet, they…they were freed from slavery and set apart as holy to God, separate…separate. They were not to intermingle with all the nations that they were going into, right? They were to be separate and the ultimate goal was that they would be a people that would be a light to the world, that they would be separate and live separate not because they were better but because they were set apart to be an example to the rest of the world about how…how life could be. In other words, this group of people were being set apart and given a different reality and they were living into that completely so that it would be an example to the other nations, that would bless the rest of the nations of the world. Well, that’s part of their DNA. That’s been part of their understanding of who they are. Jesus came and was one of them. He was a Hebrew, and He…His ministry was done within a Hebrew context. It was done within the confines of that story. So, when Jesus taught, He taught from the Torah. He taught within the ancestral homeland of this people where they were…well…where they were, at that point part of the Roman Empire, but they were still there and were still practicing their religion separately from the pagan religions of the Roman Empire around them. And within Judaism there were plenty of people who followed different rabbis, their specific way of teaching ore their specific way of understanding. They followed rabbis and no one ever thought they were leaving Judaism. Their rabbi was teaching them maybe their understanding or interpretation of it and ways to understand it more deeply, but they weren’t leaving Judaism. And, so, when Jesus came along and people began following this Rabbi and maybe with signs and wonders and everything, He was very popular for the time, but even those who were following Him, they weren’t thinking, “I’m following this Jewish rabbi who has signs and wonders from God accompanying them indicating that their anointed of God. Maybe a prophet of God and who knows maybe even the Messiah.” Like, they followed for all of these reasons, but they weren’t conceiving that what Jesus was doing was creating a brand-new world religion that they would need to then convert to in order to be a part of it. Jesus was Hebrew, was Jewish. He was teaching as a Jewish rabbi. He was teaching in synagogues, which are Jewish. He was moving around among the Jewish villagers. He indeed did interact with Gentiles. He indeed did interact with Samaritans and made Samaritans the heroes of His stories at times. So, He was definitely speaking inclusive type language, but His entire contract…His entire context of ministry was with inside that the Hebrew context. So, after Jesus died and was resurrected and ascended to the Father His earliest followers were Hebrew people that He had ministered to. To our knowledge the entire New Testament was written by Jewish people. That we know of there’s not a specific Gentile voice that is a writer in the New Testament. And, so, people could follow Jesus, not leave their…their entire society, not leave their communities, continue to practice Judaism obeying the Mosaic law while following Jesus. In fact, at this time in the earliest early church when everything pretty much is Hebrew centric no one would’ve really conceived of anything different. Jesus wasn’t inventing a new religion. He was the Jewish Messiah, the Anointed One sent by God, the fulfillment of it all, not the establishment of a brand-new religion. And that would’ve, generally speaking, been the mindset until… As the early church is beginning to rapidly bring people into the fold the Holy Spirit descends upon Gentile and Jew alike. This is like a rewiring of things. This is a bit of a new understanding. The…the Hebrew people following Jesus’ teachings, they would’ve had the understanding that, “okay, you can be God fearing, you can be a Gentile and follow Jesus, but if you…but Jesus is a Hebrew rabbi. So, if you really want to follow Jesus then you need to convert to…to Judaism, become circumcised, and begin obeying the law of God that…that came through Moses and then follow Jesus. Then you’ll be in.” And yet the argument, if it’s an argument, was that that’s not the distinction God made. God sent His Holy Spirit upon Gentiles in their Gentile-ness right where they were. They didn’t have to convert to Judaism to become a follower of Jesus. They could just follow Jesus. And this was a rift. This was a problem, a problem that not everybody who was a believer in Jesus agreed with. Like not everybody in the Jerusalem church in the Jerusalem Council agreed with this decision. We know this is a fundamental early problem because the problem shows up in the…in the letters of Paul when he talks about Judaizers, when he talks about people coming into…to the Gentile, to the mixed churches that he has founded, that they come in behind him and try to tell everybody that they’re not really followers of Jesus, they’re not Christian. Of course, this is a Gentile term, but that they’re not really…that they need to convert to Judaism and then they can correctly, rightly follow Jesus. So, what we have laid out in the Jerusalem Council that was decided that Gentiles were welcome because God was welcoming them. They were welcome just as they were. They were welcome to come to Jesus just as they were. They didn’t need to convert to Judaism, become a circumcised and, you know, obey the dietary laws and…and such. They were asked to avoid meat sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. In effect what the decision became then is that you don’t come to Jesus through your adherence to the Mosaic law or even by trying to adhere to the teachings of Jesus. You to come through faith. All of this was a really big…this was a big deal. The Jews ultimately outright reject this teachings of Jesus. Well they have been rejecting the teachings of Jesus, but this is an outright distinction that is going to cause problems for the early believers. Up until this point it had been determined that followers of Jesus were just really following a Jewish rabbi, just kind of a sect of Judaism and then following the way of the Nazarene or following The Way. But as a way of observing and practicing Judaism. Once the Jewish people completely reject the inclusion of…of Gentiles then…then Christians will no longer be considered a sort of Jewish sect, which as they spread out into the Empire is going to really put them in some…on some hot seats because they’re going to be expected to…to worship the gods of the Empire. The only people who have a pass from that are the Jews because their religion is so much more ancient that they have been allowed to be separatists as long as they’ll obey the laws, the Roman laws. Everybody else is expected to give honor to the gods of the Empire. So, once the Jews reject that Christians are part of the Jewish heritage well then their pressed toward this idolatry and it becomes a problem that ultimately brings about tremendous persecution. So, what we read today is pretty important historically to the development of the church, but is a really really monumental distinction in how the church grew forward because although Christianity, although following the Nazarene, following the Rabbi Jesus, following the Son of the Living God, who was incarnated into human flesh as a Jew originated and was formed among the Hebrews. Today, it is almost 100% Gentile. And, so, it’s interesting to be able to look back and see some of the origin of how things became the way that they did and how things have eventually brought the faith to us today.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for that, that we can look back, we can look into and begin to understand some of the things that were going on, we can begin to understand that so many of these types of things are still in the world going on and we face them. They just look a little bit different, but Your word gives us counsel into so many of the different issues that…that present themselves on any given day. And, so, we are thankful for Your word. We are thank…thankful for the examples that we have in Your word of how to live. And, so, come Holy Spirit, we pray. 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. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can find out what’s going on around here as well.

Check out things like the Community section. This is where the Prayer Wall lives and that is something that we mention often because it’s always there, always on, never off, you can always go and pray for your brothers and sisters or ask for prayer or both. It’s always there as a resource. So, certainly check that out and stay connected in any way that you can.

I mentioned yesterday something that I’ll continue to mention along the way here. Two weeks from today is the 7^th day of July and that is holiday. You may be scratching your head and going, “what holiday is that?” But it’s a Daily Audio Bible holiday. It’s a little holiday we have within the community here that’s just ours. It’s called the long walk and it’s a day every 7^th of July. We just try to take the day, whatever day it is, try to take the day off from all of the other responsibilities and obligations, take some time, like a couple weeks…we’re a couple weeks in advance and so we can prepare for that day. And it it's…it's…interesting because once you’ve done it, once you’ve been on the long walk it…it’s like a day that you want to protect. It’s a day that you want to guard because it’s a day to go out in nature and go for a long walk with someone who loves you more than you can even comprehend and spend the day saying what needs to be said, whatever it is, with no rush. And that's…that’s what it’s like when you’re in love, no rush, say what needs to be said. Allow the silence to speak. Listen. It’s a time, now that we’re in the center, like we’re approaching the dead center of the year here, it’s a time for us to look back at the first half of the year and look forward to the second half of the year, reprioritize, reorient, reconsider, invite God into all of it, invite God to ask us where we should aim our lives for the second half of the year. Instead of just going blindly into it and seeing what happens let’s ask. And those advanced words can save us a lot of energy that could be wasted otherwise. So, yeah, just go out somewhere whether you get in your car or jump on your bike and drive somewhere a few hours or whether you just go down the street to a local park, doesn’t matter, somewhere that you think is beautiful, somewhere where there’s nature and then go for a long walk and no rush and no agenda other than to say what you  need to say and to hear what God wants to speak back.

And there’s a resource, I mentioned this yesterday. There’s a resource that’s really perfect for the 7^th of July for the Long Walk. It’s called Heart, a Contemplative Journey. You can get that at the iTunes Store or the Google Play store, wherever it is that you can buy music. You have to purchase this record and not stream it. It’s not stream-able because there's…it’s prayer and music. It’s prayer and then music washes over us as we continue with that prayer and continue with those thoughts. And to stream it like means all the prayers are disembodied. So, they’re completely out of context and it’s just too weird. So, yeah, so it’s just…you can go get that resource and have it in its entirety wherever it is that you can download music. And it is a…well…it’s near perfect accompaniment for part of the journey of the long walk. It definitely orients our hearts and opens our hearts to God. So, that’s a resource for the long walk. The other thing about the long walk is we will post a post about the long walk on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and then when you get done with your long walk wherever you are you can come back to that post and upload a picture, or a little video or something and it becomes a…it’s a just a treat actually, to come back from the long walk and then go to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and just skim through all of the different long walks. For me it’s like this little mini vacation because we’re going to beautiful places wherever we are. And, so, it gives us just a little glimpse, a little tour around the world, a little mini vacation on top of it all, and real sense of connection to our brothers and sisters who have been out doing the same thing, using the day to reorient ourselves to God. So, that is the Long Walk. That is coming up the 7^th of July. Put it on your calendars. And I can’t wait. I can’t wait to…to see all the pictures and I can’t…well…actually to have the day to walk with God. So, hopefully you feel the same and put that on your calendar.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. Thank you profoundly for your partnership. We would not be able to be here if we weren’t able to be here together. So, thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage. 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, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top and share from their no matter where you are in the world 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:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Rosalind calling from North Carolina and today is June 20^th. It’s Father’s Day and the Lord just gave me a wonderful image of a father holding a child and comforting the child and the child still being fussy although he’s in the arms of his father and he’s safe. And the father gently guides the child’s head back to his chest in a gesture that says, “I have you baby, it’s OK. You don’t have to worry about a thing. Just rest. Feel my love. Be secure in my love.” And I just imagine our Lord God, our heavenly father, our Abba doing the same thing for us. When we’re troubled when we’re fussy when we’re anxious even though we’re resting in His arms He still has to guide our heads back to his chest to feel His heartbeat to feel His warmth to fully feel His embrace and to rest in those things and to give it all over to Him. So, I don’t know who that was for, but I pray that you will give it all over too our Abba. He cares for you.

__ got a visit from an old friend who had just been released from jail
he said he wanted to walk in the newness of life
but he had a mindset that was predestine to fail
he was shocked when he saw that I was now blind
but he was even more shocked when he saw that I didn’t really mind
and then when I told him that I also had cancer
he was so stunned with unbelief that he couldn’t even answer
I told him that I had taken my old ways and my old wife humbly before God
and asked him if he would be willing to forgive
and God gave me such a powerful reassurance of his love
that I now have profound contentment while I live
profound contentment powerful peace
joy and blessings that continually increase
a life built on giving in service to others
a life of which all men of all races can live life as brothers
the more that I give the more I receive
and the more I read God’s word the more I believe
and those of you who know me know I don’t need no validation
my resumes been written across this whole entire nation
and if God can change me he can definitely change you
in fact God is the only one I know who has the power to make a life new
I guess the question is do you really want change do you really want new
or are you just looking for some new way to make it do what it do
I’m going to tell you just like I told my old friend too
if God can change me he can most definitely change you too

blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Gigi and Melissa from Albertville it was good hearing your voices recently. And know that you’re often in my thoughts and daily in my prayers. And once again Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow keep it flowing yo. Alright. Bye-bye.

Greetings Daily Audio Bible family this is brother Chad from Jomo calling you from my workplace taking a moment to respond to some prayers and to some new family that has joined us. First, I want to just let you guys know that I love you dearly. I’m blessed by your talents you share on here. Brother Blind Tony you’re a very talented man brother and I’m just very grateful for all the talents that you share with us on here. It blesses me on a regular basis. And so many others, your voices and just your poetries and you guys are amazing and I’m just another…I’m blessed to be a part of this wonderful podcast. Thank you, Brian and family for that. I’m calling specifically for Melissa from Kingston Jamaica. My…my father’s side of the family is also from Jamaica. So, a little inclined to say hi. Blessing to hear from you and for you to join us. I just want to pray Father in Jesus’ name I want to ask for a favor for Melissa and her son Joshua Daniel. Bless them Father with provisions with favor that…that her business pick up and do well. Bless her Father with the opportunities that she can grab ahold of that can help her to come take care of life’s demands and her family. Bless her son Joshua Daniel Father that he does well with his exams and just bless them all the way around Father and keep them safe. Keep us all safe Father from the evils that are attacking us these days and just the normal dredge of life. I just love your family and keep looking up. Your redemption draws nigh. Jesus is coming back soon. Love you guys. Have a blessed week. Brother Chad from Jomo signing off. God bless.

Hello Daily Audio Bible this is Duane from Wisconsin all praise and glory to our wonderful Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Today is June 20^th.It is Father’s Day at least here in the US. So, I’d like to wish a happy Father’s Day to all those fathers out there. I ask that you continue pray for my son Nicholas, my son Nathan who is wayward and homeless and hanging out with the wrong people. I ask you to pray for my son Joseph. He’s doing well, has a job and actually is renting a house. So, he’s doing well. And then from my daughter Natalie. She just graduated high school this year, but I have not spoken to her in a number of years for a number of reasons. But I ask that you continue to pray for them. And I pray for all of you who have wayward lost sons and daughters and children that are doing well and praising God so we give praise to the Lord for that, but we ask that we come this time and for those of us who have children that are struggling and lost whether it’s physically needs, mental needs, financial needs or legal reasons Lord we lift them up to you. We place them in Your hands on this Father’s Day. Give us the words to say the…the directions that we need to go in to help our children Lord learn of you and become one of yours and find peace in that Lord. So, we lift this up to our wonderful Lord and savior Jesus Christ. God bless and amen.

Hey DABbers, this is Danny from Southern Oregon. I wonder if you could please pray for the wildfire that’s going on in my community right now. Last night it was 1000 acres in zero percent contained and I didn’t even find out about it until I was actually at the airport getting ready to board the plane to go down to visit my parents because my dad’s in the hospital and he’s not doing well and my 96 year old best friend was evacuated and she’s she staying with somebody I trust but I know this is gotta be so hard for her. She’s not used to being out of her own home and…and I can’t get ahold of her. So…and my son has received an evacuation notice too and he could come to our house but…so I don’t worry so much about that but so many good people have had to leave their homes. So, could you please pray for the bonanza wildfire and pray for my friend Alfie, just peace, that she would be well taken care of because I can’t be there for her. And could you please pray for my dad? I just visited him. It’s Father’s Day today and he’s in the hospital and he…he just does not look good at all, and I’m just scared. So, thank you for friends and family. I love you all. Bye.

2 Kings 3:1-4:17, Acts 14:8-28, Psalm 140:1-13, Proverbs 17:22

Today is the 22^nd day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you today as we come together around the Global Campfire and move forward step-by-step and today we have another step, like we do each day. And that next step will take us into, well, into the new book that we’re in, 2 Kings, and so let’s dive in, we’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week, 2 Kings chapter 3 verse 1 through 4 verse 17.

Commentary:

Okay, so in the Book of Acts we are the first missionary journey along with the Apostle Paul now and Barnabas. We have moved in the Book of Acts through some of Peter’s ministry and now we’re kind of tagging along with Paul and what we should be seeing pretty clearly is that the early church at its foundational level was highly disrupted on a very regular basis for all kinds of reasons but one reason that is really, really beginning to bubble forth is the Jew/Gentile separation like, this ministry is happening among the Jews and the Gentiles at this point and that is a big deal. But the gospel is having a disruptive effect on Jew and Gentile alike. So, we find Paul moving around from…around cities today with Barnabas mostly in modern day Turkey, so Lystra is one of the cities that they’re in today. And a healing occurs which is a miracle right, it was a move of God the Gentiles who had witnessed this are not irreligious they’re just Pagan, they worshiped a lot of gods. But they have actually seen a miracle take place so it is…it is super natural right, it is from the gods in some sort of way and so in their interpretation of what has just happened, they determine that Barnabas is Zeus and Paul is Hermes and they’re gonna sacrifice to these guys who are gods in human form right before their very eyes. This is their determination, this is their interpretation, so much so that they go get the priests of Zeus right and they’re bringing bowls and it’s like about to go down. That’s when Paul has to jump in and wave his hands and like no, no, like you can’t do that, you can’t sacrifice to us we’re human beings. And even still they are determined that they’re gonna make these sacrifices until some Jews who had been in other cities that Paul and Barnabas had been in they show up, there’s commotion, they see what’s going on, they recognize Paul and Barnabas. And so, within a very short time the crowd that was so determined to worship, to sacrifice, to bow down to Paul and Barnabas, very, very quickly, the mob mentality turns and they’re trying to kill them. Which in so many ways is not unlike the mob mentality that was yelling crucify when Jesus was brought out. It’s pretty incredible what can happen when a mob mentality forms. In today’s reading from the New Testament Paul ends up getting stoned and left for dead. So, he was Hermes, a god to be worshiped and then he was stoned and left for dead all as part of the same story. The point here is certainly to stay in the story as we’re moving through the formation of the church and read everything and examine everything and contemplate everything. But probably the deeper story underneath it all that we need to get our minds around is that disruption and challenge are kind of part of it. I don’t like that, I wish, you know, you just wake up in the morning and the sun is shining and spirits are high and you move into your day and you do productive work and all…all in the presence of God and aware of it and just kind of move through everything like…like Christ, Christ-like, like Jesus. But even when we look at Jesus we see that disruption was part of it, everywhere he went, disruption and challenge were part of it. And we can often feel pressed or crushed or tested in those times of disruption or challenge and so all of our efforts really go to make those challenges go away and so often we don’t even invite the interpretation of the Holy Spirit. Like so often our efforts, our prayers are to make it go away and our efforts are to make it go away when maybe it’s an invitation to go through and come out stronger on the other side. This is what we’re seeing in the Book of Acts, we’re seeing that as they face the challenges and the disruptions and they are…they are significant, way more significant than most of us face. They are significant challenges but as they go through them, instead of trying to navigate around them, as they go through them, they become stronger and their resolve becomes stronger and then their sense of ownership over their own lives is yielded to God. They are in God’s hands, they will not survive if God is not before them and so they have this almost loose hold on their very lives, knowing that they are on a mission and they are not their own. These lessons that, our brothers and sisters who went before us, the lessons that they had to learn, we can certainly learn through them but they also give us clues about how this works. And that sometimes shaking and challenge and disruption are part of it and if we would allow those to be categories that God can use to challenge us toward growth we can often find perspective in the murkiness of it all. And so, let’s give that some thought today as we apply it to some of the things that maybe we feel disrupted in or maybe we feel challenged by and invite the Holy Spirit into that.

Prayer:

In fact, Holy Spirit come into that we invite You into that, here and now, the disruptions and challenges of our lives. The things that take us off our plans and throw us into the weeds, in the ditch somewhere and we’re trying to figure out how to make it all work. You are with us as we spoke of yesterday, there’s nowhere that we can flee that You are not, You are with us in it all. And so, help us Holy Spirit to interpret the challenges that we face in our lives. Because certainly sometimes these are things that we do need to stare down and become victorious over and other times You are inviting us to build strength and endurance. And so, come Holy Spirit and show us, may we see clearly what You are doing because what You are doing is for our good and we trust You and so we pray these things and ask them in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Daily Audio Bible Long Walk Introduction:

And we have something coming up around here that is…that is ours, our own little holiday that we have every year and have, I think since the third year of the Daily Audio Bible so, well over a decade. Every July 7^th we take the day and we call it the Long Walk and we take the day as a community, everyone who can and give yourself permission to take a day off if possible and take that day specifically not to catch up on all the chores but take that day to go somewhere beautiful, whether near or far, whether you drive a couple of hours or whether you just you know, go across the street to the local park or whatever. Find somewhere that you consider beautiful and take that day to go for a Long Walk with God. We find ourselves approaching the center of the year and we sure have no problem thinking about what the New Year is gonna look like when we’re doing our New Year’s resolutions right, when we’re coming into the brand-new year, we have an agenda. But we don’t always look at that agenda and it kind of goes by the wayside, a lot of those things do go by the wayside. But to check-in in the middle of the year, reflect back-on what God has done in your life, look at those goals and dreams and go for a Long Walk and pour out our hearts in worship and in life sharing out of our soul what’s going on. It’s something that we like grab-at, it’s something that we get little moments of time here and there but this is a day to take and just spend that day. And it doesn’t have to spent in talk-talk-talk-talk-talk actually we can say everything that we need to say and then spend generous amounts of time listening, just listening. Listening to the birds, the rustle of the leaves, nature, how much life is actually happening all around us that we almost never pay attention to when it’s flourishing all around us giving us reminders that, not only is God in control but is the author of life including our own. And all of our confusion, when we pour it out in the presence of God, the comfort that can come from that, the direction and clarity that can come from that, that’s certainly what the Long Walk is about. And so, that will occur on the 7^th of July which is two weeks from tomorrow and so we have time to get it on our calendar and kind of get prepared and then go. Go for that walk and all we ask is well, certainly you’ll probably take a phone or a tablet with you, maybe listen to the Daily Audio Bible, maybe listen to some music and stuff along the time of your day. There is a resource available specifically that’s really specifically tailored for these kinds of experiences. It is called Songs of the Heart, it is available wherever you can download and buy music, like the iTunes store or the Google Play store, wherever you get your music. This Heart album isn’t stream…like you can’t just stream it, if you don’t have it you’d have to go to the store where you can purchase it, there’s a reason for that. And it’s not like oh can we sell a bunch of records, it’s not like that at all. It’s that this is a prayer and contemplation journey. So, there are prayers and then there is music that comes in, beyond, behind those prayers just to open our hearts and let us focus on what we’ve just prayed. And it moves through all of the kinds of the different emotions that we will have been feeling as human beings and the different things like loss or memory, things like comfort, things like transition, the transitions that happen in our lives. We go into all of these things and allow music to heal and speak to our souls beyond words but allow prayer to lead our hearts to where it needs to go so that we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. And so, that resource, it’s always available but I mention it now because it’s a really rich experience for the Long Walk. So, just look for Songs from the Heart or just look for Heart and my name Brian Hardin and you should be able to find it and download that in advance of the Long Walk. And the other thing is you’ll probably have your phone or whatever, and the trick is to stay off of it right, like not spend the whole day just surfing social media instead of walking with God. Well, when you get out there in nature and you find a beautiful place where you’ve been sitting for a while and you’ve been walking and it’s just lovely and you have that moment where you’re like “ah, I should do this more often” yeah, take a picture or maybe a little video or something. So, you have it to remember but that’s something that you can post. We will put a post on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page which is Facebook.com/DailyAudioBible and then you can post in the post right, comment to the post and put your pictures in there, little stories about what you did and it’s so fun. Like we get to do this Long Walk in a solitary way just us and God and we get to have that time that unique special connection to reorient ourselves to God for the second half of the year and then when it’s over we can go to social media and go to that post and it’s almost like a little mini-vacation because we’ll open windows into each other’s lives all over the world and see the beauty of God’s creation all over the world. And so that is the the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. That is coming up on the 7^th of July. I’m really looking forward, I always am, very much looking forward to it. And so, put it on your calendar we’ll continue to talk about it as we move toward it. And yeah, go for a Long Walk with God. Set up the second half of your year in a meaningful way.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, I can’t thank you enough. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. I can’t thank you enough that we are here and in this together. So, if Daily Audio Bible is life giving to you then thank you for your partnership as we navigate the summertime. 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 P.O. 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 up 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.  

2 Kings 1:1-2:25, Acts 13:42-14:7, Psalms 139:1-24, Proverbs 17:19-21

Today is the 21^st day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we launch into our workweek. And as we do that we’re launching into a brand-new book. Actually, not…I mean it is a new brand-new book that we’re reading this year, but it’s the second part of Kings. So, we concluded first Kings yesterday. We’re beginning second Kings today. And just by way of reminder in two parts, number one these were all one text until the Middle Ages. And, so, this is how we get first and second Kings. They were broken apart just for ease of finding things and verses inserted etc. etc. for ease-of-use. So, we don’t necessarily have to get our minds around a whole new, you know, a whole new historical backdrop and a whole different context that we need to understand as we read it. We’re really just turning the page and continuing the journey through the kings of Israel, which are the 10 tribes in the north and the kings of Judah, two tribes in the South. And, so, our context remains the same, but we are entering another book and we will set it up and we will read through it and we will close it and will open up the next book which is what we’re doing here day by day step-by-step together moving through the Scriptures this year. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Second Kings chapters 1 and 2.

Commentary:

Okay, Psalm 139 is what we read today, and it is a psalm probably that is good to keep close to our hearts, a psalm to keep really really nearby because in this Psalm these questions are asked, “essentially where is it that I could go to get away from You, God? Like, where could I go to escape You? Where can I go that You aren’t?” And as the psalm progresses, we realize there is nowhere that we can flee from God’s presence, which means that we should probably finally put that to rest and stop wondering where He’s gone. He’s never going to abandon you. It’s our awareness of God’s presence that we often find lacking. There’s nowhere that we could flee, that He wouldn’t be there whether into the highest heavens or into the depths, whether on the far side of the sea or right where we are we are in His presence. When that begins to sink in then we realize that we have what we are looking for. It’s not this lifelong search to find the presence of God, we have only ever been in it, but we need eyes to see and ears to hear as Jesus said so many times. We need to be awake and aware. But what a comfort Psalm 139 can be for us because it gets foggy out there and things stop making sense and we find ourselves on an emotional roller coaster and sometimes we don’t know how to feel, and we’re tossed to and fro by these waves these back-and-forth things that go on in life. And, so, pretty soon we find ourselves spinning and not sure what to do and wondering where God went. If we come back here, we can be reminded that the answer to where did God go is nowhere. He has never left at all. So, may we…may we drink deeply of that today brothers and sisters. I am. May we drink deeply of that and find comfort and rest for our souls.

Prayer:

Father, we need that. It’s a constant need, that we need rest for our souls. It's…it's…it’s weary. It’s wearying. There’s a lot that’s always going on that…that we’re navigating in life, and it can be a complete distraction from the fact that we are actually in Your presence, and that we don’t have to live completely confused and concerned and disoriented. That happens when we lose…when we lose the truth, when we lose this thread that we are in Your presence, that there is nowhere that we can go to flee from Your presence. And, so, we become aware, we consider the fact that You would never leave or forsake us, that You are here. And we become aware of that and it brings peace, it brings calm. And, so, as we become aware come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth, we ask in the name of Jesus. 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:

Dear heavenly Father king of kings and Lord of Lords we thank You for Your great love and Your mercy that comes in spite of the very very broken world that we truly don’t comprehend or understand. Lord, my heart aches for the caller that just shared about her son committing suicide, Dawn, and her husband mark who’s coming up to Father’s Day and…and grieving the loss of their son. Lord, just touch them in a incredible way, that…that one, that they would have to the strength to be faithful with today with what has been placed in their hands but also to the ability to let go and be broken before You. And Lord please surround them with people that allow them to be broken and instead of making judgment that they are there to support. And Father just…just give them space, help them to have space to grieve the loss of their son. And as they are both people that work in the daily situation of trauma and of sorrow and heartache, Lord please help them to be able to have the strength there just…just to be faithful with now. Thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi DAB family it’s James here from the UK. It’s been a while since I have called in, but I just was really compelled today to pray for a gentleman called Mark. His wife Dawn left a prayer request and basically from what I gather their son committed suicide a year ago. And, so, Dawn, your message just really…it really touched me and I’m just going to pray. Father God I do want to lift mark up to you. I want to ask Lord for your blessing in Dawn’s life, in Mark’s life, and the life of their other son as well. And Holy Spirit what’s really just touched me is this sense of the unknown and just needing to be able to release and to let go and for Mark to understand deep in his heart that, Jesus, you can unlock him from the sense of guilt and turmoil and the misunderstanding and the not knowing. And I just pray father God that at Father’s Day there would just be this sense of release. I thank you for Dawn. I thank you for the fact that she wants so much to stand by her husband and bring the family together strong after this tragedy. I thank you for her tenacity and her courage overs a really difficult year. Release them into your love into your care in a way Holy Spirit that only you can, that Father’s Day might be a chance to restart with knowledge of how much you love them and with knowledge of how much their son cared for them and loved them as well.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Jimmy from the East Coast. I was calling just to talk about what Brian said about with Peter when he said what about that disciple and he says what is it to you if I…if he stays until I come back? And it’s so profound because I spent a lot of my life just comparing, not knowing how to be satisfied with where I am and who I am in what God’s doing with me. And it’s so profound and freeing that I thought that it was very appropriate to take a moment when the opportunity came which happened days after to share with my daughter who’s turning 9 when she was worried about something that wasn’t to do with her. And I said, what’s it to you? And then began to teach her at a childlike level how to let things pass and not to use her youthful energy for things for things that doesn’t matter to her or compare. I’m just so thankful for Brian. I mean it’s been a long time I’ve listening, I believe like maybe the year we started or the year after and it’s just been nothing but enrichment. Thank you so much. God bless you and your family and that baby Reagan.

Hi DAB family this is Linda also called Maria calling from Sweden. Today is June 18 and I heard a woman talking about anxiety and depression and the verse from Psalm 34 about God being close to the broken hearted. And I felt that, so I wanted to call in. I wanted to ask for prayers because I’ve recently been in psychiatrics for three months and I had bipolar and many other things and being in a spiritual warfare while being sick was hard on me. I never lose faith. Thank God I never lost that faith, but I feel that my faith’s gotten weak. And I know God is close, but I just called for you. I’m in the healing phase right now and, you know, God has done so many amazing things with my illness. It’s been basically gone since I gave my life to Christ three years ago. And in over three years this is my first episode. So, God is really good. And it’s amazing. And, yeah, life got too much so I had another episode. So, please pray for me and my faith to get stronger and to feel God’s love more and more as I am being picked up in His hands and He has saved me so many times countless times and he heals me over and over again. And yeah, it’s just so amazing. And I wanted to say that those with mental illness to never give up. Just never give up. Nothing is impossible with God. And, yeah, thank you so much. And love you lots. And, yeah, have a good day and bless you. Bye-bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Megan from sunny but wintery Sydney Australia and I’m calling to…to just say thank you to the lady who…what day is it today…the lady who was calling about wisdom. She had the vision of wisdom coming down on all of us listeners like online, you know, hooked up app family that we are. And I just wanted to say thank you so much and that that really this morning it was…it was little. All you did was share, all you did was, you know, open up. But really that gave me such a spirit of encouragement this morning and I’m going to carry that into my day. I’m going to take that wisdom that God is going to give me. I’m going to claim that and I’m going to follow where God is leading. Yeah. Love you all. Bye.