Deuteronomy 9:1-10:22, Luke 8:4-21, Psalm 69:19-36, Proverbs 12:2-3
Today is the 28th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a joy and a privilege and an honor to gather together with you today. How are you? I hope all is well with you and your soul, and no matter what is going on, we…we come in here, into this oasis, this little place, this little serene space that we call the Global Campfire, where no matter what time of day or night it is, no matter when it is, no matter when we’re listening, someone else is too. No matter what day it is, we’re never alone here around the Global Campfire and so, let’s just exhale, we can do this, but as we’re learning really clearly in the Scriptures, we can do this with God, without God we won’t be able to do much of anything. And so, let’s relax, allow the Scriptures to speak into our lives today and it will lead us back into the Book of Deuteronomy where Moses is saying what he needs to say, leaving nothing left unsaid, before he becomes a part of the history of the children of Israel, instead of their leader. He’s about to recede into history. These are the last things that he wants to make sure he gets said and so we pick up that story, Deuteronomy chapters 9 and 10 today.
Commentary:
Okay, so we are with the children of Israel, as it were. We are in the crowd with the children of Israel and Moses is speaking to the children of Israel all of the things that he needs to say, leaving nothing left unsaid so, that as he goes to his own grave, his heart is pure, before the people, his heart is pure before the Lord. And he says some things today that are very direct and are incredibly appropriate to our own faith journey, our life and this, in so many ways come down to expectations, and feelings of entitlement. So, the children of Israel have a long-running promise. Their expectation is that that promise will be fulfilled. Although they have grumbled every step of the way against the promise and have continually, repeatedly longed for the good of the old days of slavery. So, we can see that the fulfillment of this promise goes through the wilderness and now the wilderness has lasted a lot longer than they expected it to. Why is that? Because of their own rebelliousness, because of their own lack of faith in God, which fundamentally is the message of the wilderness, that there is no other hope besides God for any kind of future. So, there is the expectation of the fulfillment of a long-running, centuries long-running promise but there is also this sense that they deserve this promise because they have to go through the wilderness. Now, they’re entitled to this promise and if God doesn’t come through well, then it’s God’s fault, because it certainly can’t be anything that we’ve done to thwart it. And we can see how this is starting to become a mirror and reflect so many of the paths and trails that we’ve taken in our lives. And so, I quote Moses “after the Lord your God is driven them out before you do not say to yourself, the Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness. No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going into take possession of their land but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand then that it is not because of your righteousness, that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.” So, electricity hadn’t been discovered yet. So, there were no sound reinforcement speakers and Moses wasn’t holding a mic but that’s kind of the moment where Moses could drop the mic and it could reverberate through the speakers and he walks off the stage because there’s a lot there to reflect. They don’t deserve any of it ever. God, who loves them and is fathering them and bringing them into a land, fulfilling a promise that has taken centuries to fulfill and the other folks on the other side of the Jordan have been given every opportunity but have chosen wickedness, repeatedly, habitually over centuries and the end has come. So, when they go into the Promised Land and they begin to conquer the Promised Land, if that’s what’s going to happen. Then they cannot say to themselves, look at how righteous we are, we just can’t lose, we just can’t lose, we’re so holy and set apart to God because that would not be the case, they don’t deserve it. They are a stiff-neck people. And then Moses goes on in his dialogue to show them the ways in which they’ve been stiff-necked people, not the least of which being, building an idol of a calf and worshiping it as the most-high God out in the desert. And so, this kind of gives us an understanding of the tensions that are going on among the people, the things that Moses wants to press into, the wisdom that he feels like he needs to impart before he goes. But the subtleties and the nuances and the things that he are saying really, really bounce out of the Bible into our own lives, into our own motivations, into our own expectations, into our own senses of entitlement from the Lord. Like, if we just be good enough, God has no choice but to deliver for us. When actually, the way this works is that we learn that we are utterly and hopelessly, hopeless without God, we are utterly and completely dependent upon God. When that finally does become the way that we look at things, then we can look at everything through the eyes of gratitude, a grateful heart, fortunate to be here, unbelievable. It’s like we won the cosmic lottery to be able to walk in fellowship and intimacy and relationship with the most-high God, knowing that we are here to serve His purposes and not the other way around.
Prayer:
And so, Father become the heart of gratitude in a moment, acknowledging our utter dependence upon You, knowing that we’ve tried in our own strength, every conceivable way to make life work and we can spin the plates, we become anxious and exhausted and depressed in the process. But we can spin the plates and just try to push through or struggles through or put our shoulder to it, when You’ve given us and easy way, the path of surrender, knowing that we can’t do this, but if we follow You, if we honor You, if we reference You, if we walk with You, wherever we are going, no matter what it looks like, it is good. And so, come Holy Spirit, as we consider this today. We pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hello Daily Audio Bible family, I’m a first-time caller. My name is Demetrius I’m calling from the Midwest, Ohio. First-time calling in but just wanted to call in and just say in the short amount of time that I started with the Daily Audio Bible, which was January 2nd of this year, just tremendously amazed at how awesome this is and thank you Brian and your entire family for this platform that you created. I really just wanted to say, it’s just amazing to get reintroduced to strengthening my faith. A goal that I set for this year was to get back more into church, more so strengthen my faith and become more obedient and become more faithful in my word. I’m thus far, it’s been tremendous and I must say prayer works. It truly, truly works. A testimony of it, I personally was in a bad situation, work environment wise. And was just praying for, you know something good and just to be removed from a toxic environment and as of this year, just reading this and staying committed I am now this week I’m in my third week of my brand-new job and it’s just amazing how prayer works and all you have to do is take a few moments to just ask and you shall receive. So, I just want to say thank you to everyone praying for everyone and everyone just stay strong, lifted up and prayerful. Love and blessings.
Oh wow, Brian, you are on fire. March 24th, Luke 6:37 and 38. Stop judging and you will never be judged. Stop condemning and you will never be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Verse 38, give and you will receive a large quantity, pressed together, shaken down and running over will be put into your pocket, the standards that you use for others that you use will be applied to you. I never realized that verse 38 was straight from the Bible. And Brian your commentary, straight from the Bible. Think about those offenses, the bitterness, the envy, the things that we carry around inside ourselves like their our best friends. Oh my gosh, that stood out to me so much, like their best friends, we do that. And, you know, what has that done to enrich our lives and lead us on the narrow path that that leads to life into freedom. It doesn’t work. And you know, you’re showing us the path Brian, you’re pointing out you know, that and inviting the Holy Spirit to come and help us. Because if we take two steps we get off the path, into a ditch and because we were reactive we have triggers. We won’t be able to navigate on our own so Amen. Holy Spirit come and help us. You know, you have mentioned that Jesus is showing us a path to become free and that we are setting the gauge for our own judgement and that it’s backwards from the way that we do that, from the way we’re designed. We’re not supposed to have complete mental break downs. That was never the plan for us to be a mess, to move in that direction. And we have to get good at letting go of the things that are weighing us down that have captured us, that is putting us into prison. Cause it’s not the way that it’s supposed to be. We need to stop judging people but we need to choose, we need to
Hi there, Daily Audio Bible friends. My names Robin and I’m a Pastor’s wife. And I live in Canada, PEI to be specific. And I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for quite sometime. I started listening to it originally because I had not been spending enough time in my, in the word and I knew that wasn’t good for my spiritual life. And so, I started listening to the Daily Audio Bible while I worked and God has really used His word, through the Daily Audio Bible to minister to me all these years and it has really helped me grow in my faith and in my walk with the Lord. It’s also helped me to retain His word and I just can’t say enough good things about it. And when I get the opportunity, I do share and encourage others to listen to it as well. I also wanted to pray for Alisha who’s 32 weeks pregnant and has anxious thoughts about dying. When I was in my 30s, I’m 51 now, I went through that as well. It was a time of fear and anxiousness. I had a son and I was afraid of dying and leaving him. But as I drew closed to God and as I worked through it, God ministered to me, He helped me. It didn’t last forever, although when I was in the midst of it, it felt like it was never gonna go away. It did, God showed me, He used little examples throughout the day, like stubbing your toe. If you think about stubbing your toe, you’re not gonna like it all, it’s gonna hurt but when it just happens you deal with the pain and it goes away. I don’t know, that was a little thing that encouraged me. But I pray for you Alisha and I encourage you, don’t worry, this will pass. And, anyway, thanks guys.
Hi, this is Lawrence in California. I’m calling to acknowledge the young man whose brother is autistic and who is having a lot of trouble in the special ed classroom or special ed school. I remember when you called last year when your mom was dying and your hope was that your brother and you would stay together even when she passed away. And it sure seems to me like you have been really serious about that have done a lot to keep your home together for the to two of you. And I pray to Jesus that dear Jesus, would you encourage this young man, give him endurance and fill him up with faith, hope and love. And as to the two young men, live young men, live in the house with them. Grant to them, your comfort, give them security of life and well-being in every way because it sure seems to me that they are good guys and that they are trying so hard to do the right thing all the time. I ask this in your holy name. Amen. Thank you everyone. Bye Bye.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Demetris in Phoenix. Actually, I moved to Glendale now. So, but I’m still in Arizona. I just wanna say good morning and I am praying for my DAB family, praying for Grace, praying for the young man who has the autistic brother and I’m praying for the family to get over hardships. I’m praying for all of you as I ask that you continually to pray for me. I am sending out a special prayer requests for the ladies that I work with in recovery. They’re pregnant and have babies and I just pray dear Lord that your mercy and grace just flood over them. Father God, give them knowledge and understanding that the program is for them. It’s not against them. It’s something different that they have to do Father God, but I just pray that they will get an understanding. Let me be a light Father God, as I go into work each day. Father God, help me to love them, dear Lord, just as you loved us Father God. And let me not be with judgment, let me not be with any preconceived idea or anything Father God. Because I myself am also in recovery. So, I want to share my story and how Jesus saved me and brought me out of the darkness. Father God and I want to show them that the struggle is real, but is totally doable in you. I love you Audio family. I love you Brian, thank you for this platform. Be blessed and have a glorious day.