1 Chronicles 2:18-4:4, Acts 24:1-27, Psalm 4:1-8, Proverbs 18:16-18
Today is the sixth day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. It’s kind of our Long Walk eve, tomorrow’s the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. Looking forward to that. But looking forward right now, to diving back in and taking the next step forward on our long walk through the Scriptures, this year. And so, just by way of reminder, we are working through some genealogies in the book of first Chronicles. Sort of, reassembling, well, the of the genealogy of the people who have been carried away into exile. And then in the book of Acts, we have been traveling along the apostle, well alongside the apostle Paul on his journey back to Jerusalem where he didn’t stay very long and definitely caused a commotion, a significant commotion with assassination plots involved and everything. He’s been whisked away and now he is on the Mediterranean coast in Caesarea Maritima, where we will pick up with his story when we get to the New Testament. But first, we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week, first Chronicles chapter 2 verse 18 through 4 verse 4.
Commentary:
Okay so, Paul going back to Jerusalem, we’ve talked about this and we read it, we’ve mentioned it, even as early as yesterday. Like, he’s coming back to Jerusalem because the Holy Spirit has told him to go back to Jerusalem. He knows he’s going to be arrested there and every port that he stops in, to visit with the believers, they, it’s a tearful goodbye and many people warn him not to go. So, we kind of know that part. Now, the rest of the story is beginning to take shape and we can see it. So, we know Paul got to Jerusalem, we know he was arrested in Jerusalem, we know that a riot was about to form about Paul, we know Paul was protected by the Romans, we know that he was brought before the Council of the Jewish people. Like, the high council for them to make accusation against him and in that high council, Paul, in his own defense, shared The Way, what we would call the Gospel or the Good News. He shared about Jesus, to the entire Hebrew counsel, who were making accusation. And they couldn’t do anything to him, right, like he’s under Roman guard. He’s being protected by the Empire and he’s telling them about Jesus, while being protected, which doesn’t stop 40 people from getting together, to try to make an assassination plot to just kill him, which is in fact what happens. It’s just that that plot gets uncovered and Paul then gets removed from Jerusalem, under heavy guard of the Roman people. He goes through Antipatris and ends up in Caesarea Maritima, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. In today’s reading, the high priest, the high priest, with an entourage, including attorneys or lawyers, they come to Caesarea to make accusation in front of the Roman governor, whose name was Felix, and he was married to a woman named Drusilla, who was a Jewish. So, he had heard of The Way, that he had heard about Jesus. And so, when the high priest and his entourage arrived and begin to make accusation against Paul, Paul then has the opportunity to begin to defend himself. And once again, he is able to talk about Jesus, while being guarded by the Roman Empire. So yes, he’s somewhat incarcerated, in that he doesn’t have total freedom to move around, but he wasn’t going to have total freedom to move around anyway because the Jews were trying to kill him. But now he has soldiers protecting his life as he shares the Gospel or The Way of Jesus, to unbelievably, prominent, powerful people. Felix is the most powerful person in the land. He is not the Roman Emperor but he is in charge of this province. Ananias is the high priest of God. So, while being protected by the Romans, Paul is sharing, in a forum, an articulate message of the Gospel of Jesus. And it’s so interesting, the Lord had told him to go to Jerusalem, and in such counterintuitive ways, Paul is being protected as he continues to be on mission, to be a missionary, to be somebody bringing the Good News. Which gives us a glimpse of the fact that God does counterintuitive things, if we hadn’t already noticed that in the Bible, God does counterintuitive things to further His work and we are watching that, as the apostle Paul begins to share the Good News with the most powerful prominent people in the land.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for another day to step forward and we thank You for this story, that we are watching happen as You protect Paul, by way of the Roman soldiers, so that he can share the Good News about what You have done to rescue humanity. We are grateful for this; we are grateful for this example of faith and utter dependence upon You. And as we continue in the days ahead, we look forward to seeing how this story fleshes out. And so, Father, we pray that You would water what has been planted in our souls, the Scriptures in our lives, planted deep within us, that they might transform us and change us in every way, in all we do and say and think. We pray this, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, and that is the website and its where you find out what’s going on around here. You do the same thing using the Daily Audio Bible app, just push the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and that opens up a drawer and you can find things like the Community Section, like the Initiatives Section, you can find out what’s going on around here so, check that out.
There is something going on around here, tomorrow. Tomorrow, is our Daily Audio Bible holiday, that we have here, just around the Global Campfire. It is a day we call the Long Walk. And we’ve been talking about it for a couple weeks now so, we can have the drift, but it’s a day that we set aside. Hopefully, you’ve done that, hopefully you’re carving out that time. We go somewhere beautiful, near or far. It’s just important that we get out into nature, that we get somewhere where we can allow the beauty of what God has made and situated us in, to be evident. Let things slow down, we are attached to our technology and our obligations and responsibilities and they are driving us forward and we never have time, never to slow down. Unless, we make it. This is a time where together, we make time, to slow down, to enjoy what God has made, to go for a Long Walk, wherever you might go, whether you’re circling around a lake or hiking in the mountains, or just making a revolution around the park down the street. Wherever it’s beautiful to you, go there and enjoy it fully with…with no guilt, knowing that you set this day aside for something much more purposeful than anything else you’re doing, a day with God, in the middle of the year, to look back and reflect on where you’ve come from, since the beginning of the year. And to look forward to where you’re going. Having actual, generous, time to speak about everything that’s going on in your life. Having actual generous, time in silence to listen, to the Holy Spirit leading and moving us forward, in speaking advance words to us. This is the Long Walk and this is what will be going on tomorrow. And what makes this a community experience together, is that we’ll put a post on our Facebook page Facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. We’ll put a post there for the Long Walk and you can post pictures, stories, videos, just enjoying everything that God has for us, during this Long Walk. So, yeah, looking forward to it very much, that’ll be happening tomorrow. And just real briefly, I’ll mention a resource that is perfect for the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk, a resource that is here, at the Daily Audio Bible, for us, of us, it is a guided prayer and musical journey, that you can get wherever you are able to download music. It is called Heart, A Contemplative Journey, and it moves us through prayer and through some compositions, through the emotions that we experience as human beings, inviting God into all of those things. And so, that, it can’t, it can’t be gotten like where, whatever streaming service you’re using. You have to go somewhere like the iTunes store or the Google play store. You can purchase the album, if we had it set up for streaming, it’s like all of those prayers will be disembodied from the, from…from the work itself. It’s all strange if they’re torn apart, it’s a cohesive work. And so, if you want to take that and have that accompany you on the Long Walk, it is a fantastic resource for that. It’s a way to get the conversation started by just acknowledging the way we feel and inviting God into all of that. And then beginning to move into personal conversation, from there. So, check that out. It’s called Heart, you can just search, well, you can probably just search for Heart, you might find a band named Heart, I don’t know. But, search for my name, Brian Hardin, you’ll probably find it. So, enjoy that, as a resource on your Long Walk and this will be fun. It always is. And I’m looking forward to it.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, thank you, as we navigate through summertime, thank you, humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.
And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up at the top, or you can dial 877-942-4253.
And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hello, it’s Radiant Rachel and I was listening to the prayers on July 2nd. Lord, thank You so much for Your blessings. Thank You for the open door that You have provided for Sparky and be with him as he goes back to school and goes through this. And lift up those who called in with the hard stuff going on in their lives. The father, who’s grieving his son, and has to go through identification. And the father who’s going through brain cancer and bone cancer. We grieve together with our family. And we ask You to come, grieve with us and with them. And bring them peace. Help them to be able to honor their grief, to identify it, to speak it, to give it to You, speak it out to You, Lord and invite You into it. And comfort them and bless them, Lord. Be with them and bless the mother as she’s gonna give birth. We pray that You will be with her through this and bless the child. Bless our families Lord, and heal our souls and activate our spirits, Lord, so that we will go on mission for You and find our identities. Amen.
Hi, DAB family, it’s the Daughter of the King from Australia, here. I just want to thank you, Brian and your family and the team for everything that you do. This is just so amazing. I have benefited and appreciate, having listened for the last 3 or 5 years, it’s very special. And yeah, it’s really making a big difference in my life. I just want to say a quick hello to His Little Sharie from Canada. Thank you for praying for my son’s best friend, I appreciate that. Thomas, thank you so much for ringing in. I am a few days behind but I heard you today and I so appreciate you giving us your name and as you know, lots of people have been praying for you. And I just wanted to ask you, if you have a friend or a friendship or a relationship, whether it’s with a human or a pet, where you can just be friends? You don’t have to perform; they don’t have to perform. You don’t have to take boxes, neither do they. It’s just a friendship and there’s acceptance and caring. And, I just want to encourage you that God actually doesn’t expect a performance. He, he just wants a response, the same as we all do from each other, a love response. And the word of God is actually just full of so many amazing promises. It’s, it reveals His character, it reveals our identity in Christ, which is, that’s actually impacting me the most currently, is knowing or finding out who I am in Christ. So, bless your journey, Thomas. And God bless everyone, bye.
Ezekiel, this is Jersey Jane for Jesus. And I listen to your father’s words from the Bible almost every morning, I’m a little behind. And so many people have said things, positive things about you. And I remember on April Fool’s Day, you took your dad’s place, that was so funny. But I wanted you to know that an adult, really enjoyed how you are able to say all those prayers and words. You amaze me that you can pronounce those difficult names. And, I loved listening to you. And I hope children around the world are listening because you’re a very special young man. And I prayed to our Lord and Jesus that they follow you, that they love you and see the light that you’re giving them. You’re giving them the word of God. And that is so special, Ezekiel. Thank you for doing this for kids. Byyyyyyyyeeee
Hey Daily Audio Bible family, it’s James the Teacher and I’m calling in a for Travis. Hey, Travis, I know a lot of people have been calling in for you, letting you know, you know, you starting out later in life with studying to be a pastor. And you expressed your concern about not being smart enough. You know, I was kind of a smarty pants, myself, got into college young, got into teaching really young, really, really young. I was 22 when I started teaching High School kids. And it wasn’t till I’d been doing it for at least 10 years that I started having any real idea what I was doing because, you know what? It had almost nothing to do with really, with what I learned it college. Even a lot of my teaching credential stuff, which was good, didn’t prepare me to be a High School teacher. Because a lot of being a teacher, is pastoral. And I didn’t have a father’s heart for a long time. But you’ve got life experience. You gotta have something going on inside you, you would feel called to pastoring, to caring for the souls of people. And people are gonna see that you’re older and that you’ve lived life and they’re gonna respect that. So, don’t you downplay yourself, man. Gods got you exactly where He wants You, for exactly the reason that He needs You there. And if you’re not open to that yet, I hope that you will be soon. Love you, bro.
Hi, this is Brian from Ohio, from Huber Heights, Ohio. I really need some prayer for my son, my 33-year-old son, Mitchell. Please God, God, I pray You will help him, God. He’s homeless, he’s mentally ill, he’s a drug addict. He’s got no money, no place to go, no friends. He’s been recently kicked out of the homeless shelter for a year. I don’t know what’s gonna become of him. He has professed to be a Christian years ago, but I think he needs to address that with God. I just pray that God would give him the help that he needs to overcome these things and that his life would be restored and that he would be able to serve God with his life. And that he would be truly saved. I love Mitchell very much and I ask for your prayer for him. Thank you very much and God Bless.