Isaiah 57:15-59:21, Philippians 1:1-26, Psalms 71:1-24, Proverbs 24:9-10
Today is the 29th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s wonderful to be here with you today as we come together and take the next step forward. Today we’ll be continuing our journey through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we are moving into some new territory, the letter to the Philippians. And we’ll talk about that when we get there. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Isaiah chapter 57 verse 15 through 59 verse 21.
Introduction to the letter to the Philippians:
Okay. As…as I mentioned at the beginning, we’re moving into some new territory here in the New Testament, Paul’s letter to the Philippians. And this is one of the letters among biblical scholars and historians that Paul’s authorship, just about no one debates about this, holds it as an authentic letter of Paul, not just a letter of…of Pauline school or Pauline theology or thought, but from Paul. And there’s little disagreement that he was incarcerated when he wrote this letter. And, so, that would likely date this letter somewhere around 61, the year 61 A.D. and written from Rome while he’s awaiting a trial before the Emperor. And, so, we realize reading up prison epistle, a letter written while Paul was in prison, but it’s also very early Christian text. So, this letter was written before the Gospels were written – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It was written before the book of Acts was written. So, we have a really early letter here written to the Philippians, those at the church in the city called Philippi, which was a colony of the Roman Empire in the region of Macedonia, which is now the northern part of Greece. And Philippi was a prosperous enough city, but it…it appears that the church was not particularly wealthy. They were…they were poor, but rich in love and rich in their allegiance to Paul. And, so, part of this letter is just gratitude, thank…thanks for that. The church in Philippi knew Paul was in prison so they sent somebody to check on him, someone named Epaphroditus who was a part of the congregation there, went to Rome to find out how Paul was doing, bring him a gift from the congregation to support him to lift his spirits. And you can imagine Paul being in prison in Rome on a capital…like a life-or-death case, would find encouragement and comfort in…in this gesture and in any way he could. And Epaphroditus stayed with Paul. And, so, helped Paul during his incarceration, but he eventually got really sick and just about died. And, so, when Epaphroditus got well enough again Paul wanted to send him back to Philippi along with this letter to the Philippians which talks of his circumstances. And, so, in part just the well-being of Paul, like a missionary update. But there’s so much more. Paul’s in prison writing language of the joy of our salvation more than is expressed in any of his other letters and perseverance. And this is something that we’re gonna keep seeing all the way to the end of the year, more and more. Perseverance and endurance become such an increasing pervasive disruptive theme because perseverance is the last thing we necessarily want to sign up for. But endurance is critical to the life of faith and actually the human experience. And, so, Paul encourages perseverance, and that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, which kinda…I mean the last couple years…I mean I could say even longer than that, but we all know what 2020 was like and very different kind of experience of a year. And we’re trying to move back into whatever normal might be, whatever this new normal is, get back to how things were. But Philippians really speaks to us where we are if we’re looking for it. And, so, we begin. Philippians chapter 1 verses 1 through 26.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this new letter to the Philippians that we are just getting into, and we invite You to speak to us from days gone by, into the heart of the matter that is happening even today, which is what Your word does. It reveals to us plenty of things over time, and it always lands where we are. And, so, come Holy Spirit and plant the Scriptures in our lives and our hearts pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey everybody this is Jonathan from Denver. Speaking in the terms of the story of the prodigal son, this past week I have really been off in the far country. I…I really walked away from God, and I fell into my own desires and my own vices, and I was incredibly selfish and just been kind of digging myself deeper into a hole. Today I woke up and kind of just realized how miserable I am. So, I am trying to get back. I fell behind. I wasn't…I wasn’t listening to DAB so now I’m catching up. But I just need prayer, that I would fall back into the arms of Christ and let Him fill me and satisfy me instead of trying to satisfy myself with all the selfish desires. So, if you could all just please be praying I would really appreciate that. I hope you’re doing great day and I love you. Bye.
Hey DAB family I’m a first-time caller. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible since January 1st and shout out to Jamie in Illinois for encouraging me to check it out because it has definitely changed my life. To the gentleman who mentioned yesterday that he had prayed and asked God to give him a name, that a lot of people use, handle on here, not his word but my word, anyway that they use that to identify themselves instead of their real names. And, so, thank you for that. I can introduce myself as His Crown of Daisies and I have a prayer request. I have a broken, shattered relationship with my father and stepmother, and they have agreed to see me sometime next month to sit down and talk about the things that happened, the drama that happened, all the things that shattered the relationship and to possibly begin the process of restoring those relationships. I have two sons and they don’t know their grandfather, or their step grandmother and I really feel like that needs to be rectified. Boys need a grandpa. The girls do too, I’m not saying they don’t. But those…this girl needs her daddy. I don’t care how old you get; you still need your dad and I would appreciate your prayers for that. Thank you.
Hi DAB family this is Angie from Eugene OR and today I am calling for prayer request for my daughter Savannah. She has stress related IBS and colitis and terrible stomach problems. But more…worse than that she has anxiety. She’s in college. She’s 20 years old, she’s had a pretty rough time. She lost her dad to pancreatic cancer a year ago. She was very very close to him. She lost me, her mom, to drug addiction from the age of 12 to the age of 20. So, I am now sober two years and have been in contact with her for two years by phone. I moved to the state to be by her once I was able to and things are going great now between us. We are rebuilding our relationship but because of the abandonment from me and then the death of her father this little girl has had to be extra strong, and she has suffered immensely to no fault of her own. However, she is resilient, and she just is an amazingly strong girl. So, she faces a lot of challenges at school and in college. She goes to the University of Idaho, and she has to deal with the peer pressure, the drinking, which she confines in me about. But God has brought me out of addiction and he has restored a relationship with me and her which I never believed was even impossible. I never even believed I could be where I am today. So, anyways I’m praying for her stress, I’m praying for her anxiety, I’m praying for her stomach pain. I’m about to run out of time. I love you guys. Thank you, Brian and God bless everybody. Amen. Thank…
Good morning this is Longing to be God’s Delight in Pennsylvania. I’m calling in this morning for Maggie Mae who I heard a few days ago in utter despair over the illness of…it sounded like all of her family, there were children and grandchildren, and her voice was just so…so torn and with pain and…and fear and not knowing where to turn. It just broke my heart. I’m also praying for Lazarus who called in this morning. I’ve been praying for him for who was in desperate need of shoulder surgery and extreme financial straits, about to lose his apartment and in terrible pain. Lord, we just don’t know where to turn. So, his advice is wise, to turn to Jesus. I want to pray from Psalm 103. Lord, we bless You, we bless You from the depths of our souls and inner being. Help us Lord not to forget Your benefits, to remember that You do forgive us. You have…have died, You sent Jesus to die for us and You do heal our diseases and redeem us from the pit. You crown us with love and mercy and satisfy us with good. I pray for Maggie Mae and her attire family and for Lazarus and for all of us that You would lift them up…lift us up, heal us, renew our Youth like the eagles. Work righteousness in us. Help us Holy Spirit to keep in Your loving arms. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hi
DAB this is Renee __ AKA a Kathleen in Illinois and I’m listening on the 27th
today on September 27th and I heard Lazarus call in and about being
in constant pain and he talked about having to take Percocet every day. That’s
what I…my mom had had to take that every day because of just chronic pain that
she had. And…and I know it’s an incredibly strong drug. And I was thinking…and
you were saying you’re still having pain even despite that. And, so, I just
wanted you to know that I’m lifting you up in prayer. In fact, let’s just pray Lord
right now. Lord Jesus, I wanna lift up Lazarus to you in this chronic pain that
he is experiencing and has been experiencing for quite some time. And I pray
that…I just pray for healing. I pray for healing for him, just complete healing.
I pray that his entire physical body would be renewed, would be raised from the…the
death that it is now in, the sickness, the death, that it would be raised just
like his namesake Lazarus. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.