1 Kings 3:3-4:34, Acts 6:1-15, Psalm 126:1-6, Proverbs 16:26-27
Today is the 8th day of June, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is awesome to be here with you today. Today, would have been my mom’s birthday, of course, she has left us several years ago, but I miss her, no less, and so on this, her birthday, I’m thinking about her. But I am also thinking about the next step forward and we are about to take. We’re just kinda getting moved into the book of first Kings and the books of the kings of Israel. King David has died, his son Solomon, is on the throne and we are now learning about King Solomon. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, first Kings chapter 3 verse 3 through 4 verse 34.
Commentary:
Okay, a couple of little mileposts, just to kinda, keep us in the stories that we are in. In the book of first Kings, we are obviously walking alongside the reign of King Solomon and we are seeing that wisdom has descended upon him, that respect is widespread for him, not only among his people, but all over the known world and many dignitaries are traveling to Jerusalem to hear and spend time with Solomon. We’re also seeing how he set up, setting up the organization of the country and who is responsible for what. And what we are seeing here and it will happen so fast, it will go by so fast, what we are seeing is the mountain top experience for the ancient Israelites. These people that we met, all the way back with Abraham, went all the way through the story of Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and slavery and Exodus from slavery, and the entire wilderness experience, and the crossing of the Jordan and the taking of the Promised Land. Like, we’ve been on this journey and there’s been much for us to reflect about our own journeys, but at this point, it’s the same journey and Solomon is bringing the people to the absolute mountaintop, the heights that they reach. And like I said, we’ll keep reading and we’ll see that this goes by rather quickly in the narrative and then we slide down. But we’ve been working for this place. We’ve been working to get to this place, this apex, where everything is working, everything is firing on all cylinders, it’s all working. And where there. And so. let’s enjoy it, while we’re there.
We turn into the book of Acts; we see that the community of faith is growing in Jerusalem. The growth is causing some tensions and the need to begin to build some sort of loose infrastructure, especially to care for the less fortunate, especially the widows. And as we saw in the book of Acts, there was some favoritism going on and so, we see seven people appointed to take care of these kinds of matters and that is kind of the birth of what we would know as the diaconate or deacons. And in the process, we met a person today named Stephen and the book of Acts tells us that essentially, Stevens an upstanding person, full of the love of the Lord, and full of the grace of the Holy Spirit. But he gets captured and incarcerated and accused and brought before the Council and now he’s going to have to defend himself. And we will watch that begin to unfold as well. And his testimony and its repercussions have a pretty pivotal influence on the church in Jerusalem. In fact, probably Steven’s testimony and the repercussions of it, were a major catalyst for the Gospel to begin to spread. And so, we will watch that, as we continue forward as well.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You for Your word and as we move through these stories, and we…we witness what is going on, we are grateful for the opportunity to be a witness to what happened, and to be a witness to what is happening, both within us and in this world, and to know that the same Holy Spirit that led and directed our earliest brothers and sisters, is directing our lives. And so, come, Holy Spirit, You have been working among billions of brothers and sisters throughout thousands of years, may we be one who listens and obeys and draws near and holds on for dear life, as You lead and direct us. Come we pray, 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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
There were men in the Bible
Who were clearly God’s own
There were considered His friends
And were intimately known
But still they had troubles, fears and great doubt
But they walked on by faith, and God brought them out
Abraham believed and left his own land
He went all the way to Cana led by God’s hand
And as soon as he got there, there was famine and drought
So, he sojourned in Egypt till God brought him out
And then he returned and was surrounded by war
His nephew Lot got captured when 5 kings fought 4
And right after that, he got tested again
And even though God was still with him, His problems didn’t end
He had problems with Hagar, Ishmael and even Sarah too
God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac, just to prove his love was true
But though he had troubles, fears and sometimes doubt
He walked on by faith till God brought him out
Gideon was another one, threshing wheat in fear
Afraid of the Midianites but God still called him dear
Likewise, we too, must face trials and tests
Give it our all and let God do the rest
blindtony1016@gmail.com.
I’d like to give a shout out to Mark Creet down under, haven’t heard from you in a while. I hope you’re still hanging in there. And Tony Part, the Writer, haven’t heard from you in a while either. Know that you are both thought of often and prayed for daily. And once again Brian and the Hardin Family, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow, keep it flowing ya’ll. Alright bye, bye.
Hey Daily Audio Bible family, David here in Norge in the UK. My wife Penny, 57 days ago went into psychiatric care after having a break down. Her delusional thoughts, that she thinks everything is of God, but her facts are twisted. She comes out with things that are just untrue. She’s twisting Scripture. And she’s really struggling. Although, she thinks there’s nothing wrong with herself. It’s been a hard time. Been hard for 57 days now. And just appreciate your prayers that she would soon be better mentally and physically and that her epilepsy would go away and that she would have no seizures. While she’s been in the hospital, she’s had some quite bad ones and she was rushed to the emergency hospital. But she’s been returned to psychiatric care. I see her only about once a week and there’s not really much of a conversation. There’s, it’s not my wife, when I see her, it’s not, she’s…she’s not my wife, she’s just somebody there, that’s very confused. It’s she’s so irritated. So, I would just ask for your prayers and support. Thank you.
Hello, from beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio. I am ready for whatever happens. Never been this way before, don’t know what all lies ahead but I’m ready Lord, I’m ready for whatever happens. Ready for the ups, ready for the downs, ready for the straight paths, ready for the curves, because you go before me, I can follow joyfully. Yes, I’m ready Lord, I’m ready for whatever happens. Ready for the flatlands, ready for the hills, ready for the warm times, ready for the chills. For as long as I’m with you, it will always be a thrill. I’m ready Lord, I’m ready for whatever happens. From beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio. God bless you all and let’s make it a great.
Good morning, DAB family. I’m a first-time caller. My name is Sharon, I’m from Charleston, SC. I listen to the Daily Audio Bible every morning on the way to work. I’ve been doing this now for 3-4 years. And I just love listening to everyone’s prayers, thoughts. I just love this community. And when ya’ll ask for prayers, I might not call in and pray for you but I want you to know that I am praying for you, every time. I’m calling today because I need to lift my husband up to the Lord. He is going through a lot. He’s not working. He’s got anger issues, pain issues from arthritis. He was telling me last night that he just don’t feel like the Lord knows him, hears him when he prays. And he just, I just fear that he’s at the end of his rope. But if ya’ll could please lift my husband up, his name is Roy, I would appreciate it. I love you guys. Bye from Charleston.
Good morning, this is Peggy in Texas. Child of God. I am Ben’s mother. Ben is 62-years-old, a strong Christian, a child, a disciple of our Lord. He’s a leader, a teacher, he is married and he has four children and four love our Lord. God has been good. On January the 6th however, Ben entered ICU, a local hospital, for COVID 19. And he spent 3 months on a ventilator with heavy sedation. He endured a collapsed lung and a heart valve infection, heart complications, he lost much weight and of course, he became extremely weak. And at one point the family was called to tell him goodbye. But God gave Ben breath and he lives, really a miracle. But then he was moved to one facility to another, in order to remove the ventilator and the feeding tubes. And then, he went to another facility for physical therapy but now he is a Newrou Rehabilitation Center. Ben is trying to speak. It is hard to understand him. He is, we don’t even know what he’s comprehending. It is so difficult. He cannot feed himself; he cannot sit up and of course, he cannot walk and take care of himself. Ben is trapped. And so, we would love so for our Heavenly Father to, he would love to be about his Heavenly Father’s business and to be taken care of his family and not to be dependent on others. We know that, we know his nature. And I just ask the DAB family to join this mom.