Jeremiah 48:1-49:22, 2 Timothy 4:1-22, Psalms 95:1-96:13, Proverbs 26:9-12
Today is the 25th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we launch ourselves into a new workweek and, of course, pick up where we left off and take the next step forward together, which leads us back into the book of Jeremiah once again. Today, Chapter 48 verse 1 through 49 verse 22.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we finished second Timothy just a few minutes ago and we’re not done with Paul’s writings, we have a couple more short letters to read before…before we we’re finished with the apostle Paul for this year and continue forward into some of the other letters in the New Testament, but these are thought to be the last words to come from Paul, the last preserved thing that we have from Paul. And it’s pretty heartbreaking. Paul, as we learned in this letter is in a cold dungeon and winter is coming and his judgment is imminent, and the end of his life is imminent along with that judgment unless by some miracle, a very anti-Christian persecutor who is the emperor is gonna judge Paul and condemn him to die, which as church tradition tells us, is exactly what happened. I’ve actually stood in that place where tradition holds that Paul was executed. The tradition is that as a Roman citizen he was…he was condemned by the emperor and then…and then beheaded. And, so, there’s a place in Rome that commemorates this. Of course, it’s venerated with a chapel now, as so many important places in the Christian faith are. But I can remember walking down the path toward this chapel, toward this place and thinking about how monumental this person’s influence is on the world until this very day. But to read it in Timothy, to read of a dungeon that’s cold and winter’s coming and everyone abandoned Paul, it would be so easy in a circumstance like that to just…I mean you’re in jail, you have nothing to think about, but what might be coming for you. And just to think, “did this matter? Did any of this matter, because I’m gonna die. And nobody’s standing with me, everybody’s deserted me” gives the letter poignancy. And he asked Timothy to bring his scrolls and parchments and his coat. It’s pretty heartbreaking actually, to see that all the apostle Paul, right, famous from the book of Acts and all of these letters, this is where he ends up. And it’s very similar to how Jesus ended up, which lets us know that we might need to rewire in some ways our expectations because we seem to…we seem to gauge how well we’re doing with God based on how well we’re doing in life and how blessed we feel. And granted God blesses us beyond our wildest dreams and gives us more than we…we will ever be able to earn or deserve. But one of the lessons that we learn in the Scripture and one of the lessons that now will….it will not let up. It’s as if the New Testament really begins to bring this theme and it’s a theme known endurance. It becomes more and more apparent that this life of faith cannot be navigated without the ability to endure, to stick to it, to keep going, to not surrender, to not give up, even if that costs everything, even if that costs our lives. And we can hear it. We can hear it in what Paul’s saying to Timothy today. “I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.” That is heartbreaking friends. At least to me it’s heartbreaking. Like what he’s talking about is a drink offering is his own blood being spilled out as…as he’s being executed but also that he’s pouring his very heart, every breath that he has left, pouring out everything that he can in this life in the service of Jesus, enduring to the end which is how we get to the famous verse; “I have fought the good fight.” And, so, Paul says, “I am already being poured out like a drink offering and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” And he looks forward to the crown of righteousness. So, once again, as in the life of Jesus we see that the things that we use to measure well-being and success may not actually be those kind of correct measures at all. Maybe we find that being able and having the ability to endure is even more valuable than a…large bank account. The Bible indicates to us pretty clearly that it is something we need to become accustomed to. And I think that, in part, is because enduring makes us strong. But I also think in part because it's…it’s part of the story and people have historically all along died for their faith and endured and people are doing exactly that now, enduring hardship and struggle and some are…are dying for their faith. It doesn’t seem like that’s how it ought to be. And ultimately that’s not how it will be. But from the biblical times until now that’s how it is. And Paul can look at this situation with confidence and know that the end of his mortal life wasn’t the end of him and that he had preached a message of good news and hope and that he would hope in Christ. And, so, let’s honor that as…as we leave this final writing from Paul. Even though tomorrow we’ll be picking up with Paul, this is the last writing. And, so, let’s give honor where it is due while taking the message, the lesson and applying it to our lives. Endurance is part of it. And most of us will have to endure far less then Paul. But we have brothers and sisters on this earth today because of where they are on this earth today because of what they believe in the place that they are that very well can face the very same thing Paul was facing. So, certainly, certainly we can keep the faith. Certainly we can endure and not be mad that we didn’t get that gift box from heaven on the day that we expected that gift box from heaven to bountifully bless us. Maybe we can endure. Maybe we can learn to put on our spiritual big boy pants and big girl pants and grow up and understand that so many hang in the balance between good and evil, and we actually have a mission. That’s something that Paul didn’t lose sight of, lose site of the mission that he was on. And, so, he stayed on the mission no matter what was going on. No matter whether he was in prison, no matter whether he had been beaten up, no matter whether he had been run out of town, no matter whether things were doing great or whether he was floating in the open sea wondering if he was gonna drown or sitting in a dungeon with winter coming on wondering how many hours remain in his mortal life. So, let’s not lose sight of our mission because it’s the same mission.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that. We thank You once again for the Scriptures. Without the Scriptures, without these letters being preserved, we wouldn’t have this story to tell each other. We wouldn’t have these reminders. We wouldn’t know that endurance is part of the story. And, so, we are grateful. And we are grateful for brothers and sisters who have gone before, who are heroes of the faith, saints of the faith, but also just brothers and sisters who endured until the end, holding true to the name of Jesus. Help us Lord to understand that this is a big story. And, so, much we focus the story around ourselves and our own well-being when it’s way bigger than any of us. We are all a part of something and we must endure to see that something come to fruition. And, so, as we journey together on this earth step-by-step, day by day sharing history together, let us know that we are in this together. We are carrying good news into dark places. Come Holy Spirit. Come into all of this 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:
Hey guys, hi family this is Janice calling from Phoenix. And praise report, praise report! I called on Friday. My husband was in a critical care unit with a bleed on his brain and it did not look good. And I was told it was horrible news. OK, testing, testing all weekend. Monday…yeah…turns out they did an MRI, and the bleed is not so much there anymore which was a miracle! So, miracle alert, miracle alert! I feel bad because this is our third miracle in Dave’s life. And the Lord has spared three times. First from pancreatic cancer and then he had __ hematoma and then he had…it’s called an arachnoid something. But anyway, it’s gone, and the doctors and the nurses are freaking out. And we’re just praying to the Lord. Even the nurse who isn’t so much a God person is like, “whoa! That is a God thing.” So, please know not only is He on the throne but He’s showing up just a little bit. And He is perfect. So, all praise and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. Anyway, I’m going to cry it out so I gotta go. I just knew you had to hear this. Please take it and know your miracle is close behind.
Hello, my amazing DAB family this is Kristen Fletcher calling from Oceanside CA. I love you so much. I love you so much. I listen to you from, let’s just say 11:00 AM to 5 PM sometimes longer every day. I’ll replay and replay and replay. But this is what I need to hear. And I just want to let you know that I absolutely love every single one of you. I love your voice. I love what you say. I laugh with you. I smile with you. I cry with you, and I pray with you most importantly. I am asking for prayer for my son’s father Paul. I wrote it on the Prayer Wall yesterday to deliver Paul from his addictions to drugs. And I want to thank everyone who prayed for Paul. I want to let you know the enemy wants Paul because I put that prayer request on the Prayer Wall and then last night Paul got high. And I know he is just…Paul is just tormented. He is just being attacked and the enemy wants him. The enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy Paul. Paul has the potential to be such a strong brother with us, a brother of God. And, so, I’m praying for you…or that you will pray for Paul to deliver him from his addiction to drugs. I need your help family. I know we can do this with the power of prayer. So, I thank you so much for your prayers and I love you all…
Hi Daily Audio Bible family it’s the Disciple that He Loves in Ohio. I haven’t called in in a little bit. I guess I was feeling like I have asked for so much prayer that it was someone else’s turn. But God has just convicted me that there are a lot of us out there who have kids struggling with mental health and the need just doesn’t go away. My daughter has made so much progress and she just finished up her program today. She’s on a new medication and in a lot of ways she is doing better but she’s still so sad and she still doesn’t want to be alive. And I don’t want to quit praying for her and lifting her up anywhere short of total freedom and healing. So, could you just pray with me for all of us parents who have kids with mental illness who just feel really lonely sometimes and feel like we’re always reaching out and asking for help. But our need for help is so real. Dear God, please be with every parent who loves a child and is child trying to shepherd a child through a mental illness. Lord I pray that these children would have complete and total healing and I play…I pray that you would lift us up and give us strength and send people into our lives who are willing to come alongside of us and fight and battle with us and help us to not get weary in doing good. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning this is Just Right from Pennsylvania. This is actually my first-time calling in. I love DAB I recently found it maybe a few months ago and I’ve been listening to it every morning and I just…I absolutely love it. So, I want to say thank you to Brian and the entire group over there at Daily Audio Bible for always delivering a wonderful message and…and just everything that you guys do. Thank you so much. I…I…I want to pray for Mike in New York that he continues to walk the path that the Lord has laid out for him, and he continues to be able to deliver a message to those he comes across. And I also want to pray from mark for…for him being able to find Jesus eventually and him being able to know…to come to know Jesus and the love that is there for him. Lastly, I want to pray for the young lady and her family moving across country. I want to just pray that her family is surrounded by love, surrounded by Jesus and that they just hold on to God’s word. And lastly I…I…I ask for prayer for my own family just for…just for a long season that we’ve been in. It feels like we’ve just been experiencing one thing after the next. And, you know, there’s been some ups and downs. There’s been some…some good times but I just want to just lift up prayer for us and just continue…continue to hold on to God’s word and continue to…to look to Jesus and not to look to our surroundings. And I thank you and I pray for everyone. Love you.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Alexander Soldier for God. Today is October 21st. I just spent0 the…I’m trying to catch up the last month and a half of Daily Audio Bible that I missed due to a lot of things, but this is actually part of my praise report. I had to leave the army for various reasons so I could take care of my family better, raise them in a godly way, and spend more time with them. For about half a year we were without a home of our own. And I did work in between, and a lot of prospects fell through, a lot of things I thought would have worked fell through. And I thought God was telling me to take my family back out west to Missouri to a community we’d been to before where I felt I was being led to for the best of the family. So, we left for Missouri without a job, without a home. And through an elder of a church God blessed us with a home and with connections to find work so I can take care of my family. So, praise God and know that he can provide. I also have a prayer request for my wife and I. We have scars from packs relationship that seem to be interfering with our own intimacies and our relationship being able to be open with one another without feeling pains from old injuries. So, I pray and ask for prayer for healing for her and I, spiritually and emotionally, that we can fully love one another and be an example to our children of how to love one another better. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible for all that you’ve done for us and the support that I’ve had.
Hello everyone, my name is Crystal and I’ve been listening to this podcast for a couple of years. I just love listening to everybody’s stories and praises and it encourages me. And I’m so blessed and thankful. I’m calling today because I’m just so discouraged and hurt. I’ve been standing in the gap for my husband and our family and our children for my future children’s children. He has left my kids and living with another woman. We’ve been married for a long time, for 27 years and I’ve known him for 30. We have five children and I know that standing in the gap for him is where I’m supposed to be. God has shared this in so many ways. And I’m so blessed and thankful that I have a relationship with my Father, but I’m asking for prayers today. I’m asking for y'all’s encouragement so I can stand with no doubt just like as Abraham. I’m asking for the Lord to restore my husband’s soul so that he would love the Lord. He is lost. I’m asking for a restoration Father, for our marriage and our family and our kids. I know that they want to love my husband but they’re so full of pain and rejection. I know God is a restorative God and I know that we will be fine one day. But I ask everybody here for prayer for help so I would have some little bit of encouragement. Thank you.