Daniel 7:1-28, 1 John 1:1-10, Psalm 119:153-176, Proverbs 28:23-24
Today is the 30th day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you and this is it, this is the last day of the 11th month of the year. So, when we conclude today’s reading, we will have concluded 11 consecutive months, every single day with only one month remaining. And what we’ll notice with the Bible, as with our lives in the final month of the year because such, so much changes in the last month of the year as we move toward the holiday season, we’ll also see that the Bible seems to be speeding up too because we will be encountering a number of smaller books. For example, in the Old Testament we’ll be moving through the minor prophets, and some of them we’ll read in one day. Many of them we’ll read in one day. And the letters in the New Testament we’ll run out of those and end up in the final book of the Bible, known as the Apocalypse of John or the book of Revelation and we will be reunited with that voice of John today in the New Testament. We concluded second Peter yesterday, which brings us to first John. And we’ll talk about that when we get there. But before we get there, we need to take the next step forward in the book of Daniel and today that step will be chapter 7.
Introduction to the Book of 1 John:
Okay, as we mentioned at the beginning, we’re moving into first John today and first John is the first of three letters: I John, II John and III John, that will bring us back together with the apostle John, a disciple of Jesus the beloved apostle. Interestingly, though, I John doesn’t mention who it’s from, doesn’t say who it was written to, so easy enough to go this is like Hebrews as well, like this is an anonymous letter we’re not exactly sure, for sure because there aren’t these identifying characteristics that we can kind of pinpoint down. One thing we can say is that the church fathers in the mid-second century, so, this is like, this is like 50 years-ish from when this particular letter was written. So, it obviously was passed around and existing 50 years later, and at this time it was thought, and attributed to John the evangelist. And John being the author of…of these letters weren’t disputed when the New Testament was being canonized. It’s, this is more recent where textual criticism and linguistic criticism were…were comparisons between writings purported to be from the same person are examined and the writing style and the use of specific words and the way things are communicated is different, so it’s thought that this is a different author. We’ve talked about that when we were talking about Peter though, could be a different secretary, could be at a different person who’s actually writing down what’s being dictated. These are just some of things biblical scholars and biblical historians’ study and examine and pour over in their study of the Scriptures. So, I said, there is no indication of who this letter was written by and there’s no indication of this letter was written to and so that presents a problem if you’re trying to figure out the origin and so that’s how different theories come forth, like maybe John was writing to people who already knew John, that he had written to many times, that he had visited many times, that were part of churches that were under his care. They already knew John; he didn’t need to say that this is from John or maybe it wasn’t addressed to a specific group of people because the people that were originally receiving this were in danger of persecution in some sort of way. So, anything that would identify them like to the church in Corinth or if that, if persecution is hard-core in Corinth and I’m just using that as an example, then maybe you don’t want to say to the people of Jesus in Corinth. We just don’t know for sure. I John was probably written from Ephesus, probably as the apostle John was late in his life. The letter is usually dated in the mid-90s, maybe the early 100s A.D. and from the contents of the letter we know that the primary purpose was to make a statement against a specific kind of false teaching and it’s here that we see some of the earliest forms of Gnosticism, which may or may not be a term that you’ve ever heard, but what we have to understand is that as we read these letters they are part of what we know as the New Testament, but when these letters were written they were not known as letters or books of the New Testament, there wasn’t a New Testament, there were these letters being circulated around and there were others as well being circulated around and there were other forms of conviction around what Jesus did and what he represented, going around. There wasn’t this definitive canon to sort of establish Christian doctrine. So, there were different ways of looking at what Jesus represented and what His mission to earth was and what ultimately, He represented and how it was that He was bringing salvation and light and good news into the world. Eventually, the particular persuasion that we adhere to today began to form. This was very necessary once the Roman Empire was essentially converting to Christianity. You have to have, you have to have some sort of clear standardized way of conducting things if you’re going to transform an empire to a specific religious persuasion, but before all that lots of people were saying lots of things and John, in this letter, is specifically speaking against what we, what we would now call Docetism, which was an early belief that Jesus wasn’t an actual human being, He was more like an apparition, like He appeared to be a human being, but he wasn’t a human being. He was divine, he was a God. There is also another view of Sorenthis, that taught that Jesus was a human being and He actually became divine like intertwined with God at his baptism, when the skies opened and the voice said this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, this is the moment when the human and the divine are intertwined in Jesus and then when Jesus is hanging on the cross and he cries out, why have you forsaken me, this is the moment that the divinity, the God, that was in Jesus left, departed and then Jesus body died. So, John writing these letters would have a unique perspective to speak on them because he was with Jesus. He had walked with Jesus. He was the beloved disciple of Jesus. He…he had seen Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, so he would be able to give an eyewitness account that could dispel some of these thoughts, which is what he does. So, with that we begin I John chapter 1.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for 11 months consecutively, day by day step-by-step in the Scriptures. We thank You for all that You have shown us, all that You have taught us, all that You have transformed within us, all that You continue to do by the council of the Scriptures and by the leading of Your Holy Spirit. And so, as we release this 11th month and prepare ourselves for the final month of the year, we do it with gratitude and thankfulness. We are grateful for Your kindness toward us, Your patience with us. We thank You for Fathering us and we ask Holy Spirit, that You continue to lead us into all truth as we continue this journey forward. We pray this in the name of the risen Savior Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is of course the website, that’s where you find out what’s going on around here and it’s been Christmas time and it’s Christmas time around the whole world right now. So, it’s kind of Christmas time stuff that’s going on around here as well. We’ve been talking about the new Christmas album Christmas Time and this record will become fully available, it releases fully tomorrow. So, you can take advantage of pre-release pricing today and you can find it by going to the iTunes store or the Amazon music store. Just look for Maxwell Hardin or Christmas Time and can find it there and the album will show up tomorrow. Well, you’ll get three of the songs now and then the full album will show up tomorrow.
Also, the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box, family Christmas 2021 is underway. And included in the Christmas box this year is the God of Your Story the sort of a written version of the Daily Audio Bible if such a thing could be done and this was quite an adventure to accomplish but that will be in the Christmas box this year. Daily Audio Bible Journal 3.0 is in the Christmas box this year. Your choice of coffee or tea, whichever you prefer, is in the box. The Global Campfire candle which smells like a campfire is in the box this year. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas ornament for 2021, which is only available in the Christmas box, is in the Christmas box. A Global Campfire pop socket, two Global Campfire stickers and a series of five Global campfire postcards as well as a mystery item. And you can find that, look at all that in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Christmas category.
And then also, our brand-new book Promised Land, Photographs from the Land of the Bible. A beautiful coffee table addition, allowing us to kind of peer into the different regions of the land and be able to look at what it looks like where so many of the stories that we have encountered actually happened and that can be found in the Daily Audio Bible Shop as well. So, check that out.
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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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Family, it’s MaryBeth in New Brunswick and I’m calling to kind of practice some obedience. So, the Lord has been pressing on my heart to call in and speak what he wants me to believe. And I was kind of procrastinating as you guys know I like to do. And of course, my DAB app stopped, and I couldn’t get it started again so I said “okay, okay, I get it.” So, this is what I am to call in and say and believe me it’s hard. Father, I know Shelley is a seed of your righteous. I acknowledge that Heather is the seed of one of Your righteous. I acknowledge that April is the seed of one of your righteous. And as such I claim, along with their mothers’ prayers, that they will be delivered. In Jesus name, Amen. Now, if you guys could all, kind of pick-up there and believe with real faith and real belief, I would really appreciate it. The Lord is working on me, He’s getting me there. But I’m not there yet but I have noticed over the months that I’ve been with you guys that when He convicts me to do something, particularly to call in and pray for someone and I don’t, immediately I hear someone else pray exactly what He told me to pray. And He’s showing me that I am not going to stop His will but I am gonna stop my blessing. So, keep me up, keep me lifted up folks and get me through this cause this one’s rough, this one’s really rough. Thanks, remember it’s God’s love in us to the world. Because love truly does change everything. I believe it, I believe it, I believe it, I believe it, I believe it, I really believe it, I’m trying to believe it, I believe it.
This is Susan from Bryton in England. I recently attended the funeral of my father and at the end of the reception that we had for him, somebody approached me and said, “do you remember me” and I didn’t. And it turned out to be somebody I had known 40 years ago, a man called Johnny. And Johnny was a very troubled boy when I knew him as a teenager. He was always in trouble with the police and to be honest most people avoided him because he was just bad news. He did spend some time in a youth offenders’ institution as well. And then, later on he settled down a bit and seemed to be on the straight and narrow for a while but then tragically lost his partner very young, she died very suddenly. Anyway, he introduced himself, I didn’t recognize him at first. And then we sat down and had a chat during the reception of my father’s funeral. So, we had lots of interruptions and things, but he told me that he was still very lost and all over the place, that, those were his words not mine. And he told me he was developing an interest in Wicca, which I understand a form of witchcraft. Anyway, it was a marvelous opportunity to very quickly try and point the way to Jesus. And I did my best in the short time that I had to share my testimony and how my life had been changed by following Christ. I just wondered if the Daily Audio Bible community could stand with me and reach out to Johnny and see if we could bring him back from the brink. Thank you.
Hi everyone, it’s Lisa the Encourager, I hope you all are having a beautiful day. I’m calling today to pray for those that suffer from anxiety. And I’m just praying that God will help you through this season of the holidays. So, let’s all pray together for our friends that suffer from anxiety or depression. Dear God, I pray for these people, these loved ones of ours that are suffering Lord. I’m so sorry for their pain God, I’m so sorry for what they go through. I just pray God that you would help those, that You put people in their lives that can come alongside them and support them and love them and hug them and people that aren’t necessarily there to fix the issues or the anxiety but just someone that is there to support them and love them and give them the resources that you God, can help them with. Lord, and we just pray that You will just bless them during the holidays that we know that sometimes it can be very numbing or very difficult to want to get out of bed or difficult to want to get out of the house and see everyone else is happiness when their struggling deep inside, God. So, I just pray that You God will help them with those struggles that You God will help the people in our Daily Audio Bible community. And the ones that are around this campfire right now listening to me God, I pray that You will help them. That You will just be there for them and put people in their lives again Lord, that can support them and love them. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. I love you.
Hi DAB family this is Simple and Still and I’m calling in my November thanks. Thank you, Brian and Jill, for this ministry. Thank you for hearing and listening and obeying God’s voice in your life and following the leadings of the Holy Spirit. So many lives are touched daily, and I can say for my it’s been transformative in my faith. Listening daily and so thank you. And with that I want to ask for prayer for my ex-husband’s uncle passed away a couple weeks ago and so for his family, he has a wife and two children that are teenagers or young adults and so please pray for them as they mourn the loss of their husband, father, uncle, and we just got word two days ago on Thanksgiving that one of my boyfriend’s cousins had passed away in his sleep, a young man, only 18 turning 19 years old. So, there’s just a lot of grief and I pray that God comfort and that He work through these most sad scenarios and…and that family would be drawn close to God through these times, close to one another, but mostly close to Him and that our families would be saved. And so, I thank you for your prayers. I thank you for the word and the encouragement that is shared, and I praise God for each of you, those that call in, those that don’t. I just covet your prayers and I’m so grateful for you all. God Bless you.
Good morning, this is Jeannie from Virginia. I’m calling with a story and a request. I’m a physical therapist, I’ve worked for 37 years now with older people that’s been the bulk of my career. I currently work for a program that we seek to help seniors age in place at home. They qualify for nursing home admission, but they and their families want to keep them at home. So, we provide support in the way of transportation, healthcare therapy, homecare support, etc. Yesterday, one of our patients, towards the end of the day, when it was time to get on the bus to start heading towards home began to cry out in pain, her knew hurt, her ankle hurt. I’m pretty sure I’ve broken it. I hope I don’t have to be in a wheelchair. And as I went over to her and started questioning her and assessing her, I helped her to her feet. We started walking together with me supporting her and I questioned her about the day before which was Thanksgiving Day. She shared that she had spent it alone, that she had made some deli turkey and opened a can of sweet potatoes to try to make a Thanksgiving meal. But as she continued to share her walking normalized. In other words, there was no visible pain. She was walking perfectly fine, but it was a physical manifestation of emotional pain. She also shared that a local church had told her they were gonna bring her Thanksgiving feast and they didn’t. So, my challenge and my request is, please reach out to the least of these that are in your community or in your circle of friends. Please reach out and be sure that they are having their needs met. Whether it’s conversation whether it’s food. And please, I beg you, if you’re part of a church that reaches out with programs like this, please don’t make a promise and then fail to keep that promise. Love your neighbor love the least of these. Thank you.