2 Chronicles 4:1-6:11, Romans 7:1-13, Psalms 17:1-15, Proverbs 19:22-23
Today is the 21st day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to gather around the Global Campfire, come in together, find a place, set everything down, set all the cares and responsibilities and obligations down just for a few minutes and give ourselves permission to just focus our hearts attention on the Scriptures and our hearts affection on the Lord and take the next step forward together. And that next step forward leaves…or leads us back into the book of second Chronicles, which we’ve just begun. Second Chronicles picks up the story of Solomon’s reign in the same way that second Kings picks up the story of Solomon’s reign. And, so, let’s pick up the story of Solomon’s reign. Second Chronicles chapter 4 verse 1 through six, verse 11 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we’re getting kind of in the thick of it now with Paul in the letter to the Romans. And he has been talking about freedom from the law, which we know is the Mosaic law. And we’ve already talked about Paul looking through a Hebrew lens. And, so, his awareness of the law and in fact the entire worldview is apparent. And, so, it’s easy enough for him to say we’re free from the law or we’re not under the law and just immediately feel as if the law has become an obsolete thing or is not a perfect thing or isn’t even a good thing since we’re free from it out. And what Paul is explaining today is there’s nothing wrong with the law. The law is what revealed the transgression, right? And, so, Paul says, like, how would I have known not to covet if there hadn’t been a rule or a law that said coveting is a bad thing? So, lets just bring this immediate. Stop signs are at corners for reason and if you didn’t have the stop sign, you wouldn’t know to slow down and so you could move through the intersection and get hammered. The stop sign is there to let you know you should stop for your own good. And disobeying the stop sign put you in peril and others. Well the law that we should stop at an intersection is…is prudent and valuable, with or without the stop sign. The stop sign makes you aware that there’s a law in place. You better stop. But Paul, he’s telling us that the wall reveals sin. But the thing is, sin doesn’t have a claim to us anymore. And Paul uses another analogy we can completely understand. If you’re married, you’re bound to the covenant. If one spouse dies, the covenant of marriage is ended. And, so, the person that in the future falls in love again and maybe remarries again isn’t breaking any covenant, the law of marriage. And, so, in the same way when we have faith in Jesus, we’ve died the person that sin had a claim to that the law could reveal sin in and are resurrected in Christ who is blameless, faultless and perfect. And through Christ sin has no claim to us. Again, a lot of these things are so important to the foundation of our faith, but as Paul is speaking then in the first century, they are really revolutionary thought to the point of Paul’s branded a heretic for it while Paul is saying is the law isn’t the problem, sin is the problem, and the law reveals sin when we transgress against it. So, when we break the law, breaking God’s law we have entered into sin, we’ve broken the law. The law isn’t the problem. Sin is the problem. But through Jesus there is no claim of sin against us. Through Jesus we no longer have to atone for ourselves. We don’t have to sacrifice a sheep or a goat or a bull. We go boldly before our Father, requesting mercy and grace and forgiveness. And according to the Scriptures, we are forgiven as if the transgression never happened, which does not mean we don’t face the repercussions of our choices because we all know where sin leads. And, so, when we operate from that place, we know the direction that we are headed. So, how do we sum this up? The law isn’t a bad thing. Obeying the law is actually walking a good solid path instituted by God. Disobeying the law brings us into sin. Grace and mercy cover the sin so that we get back up and keep moving knowing that there is no good in us to obey the law righteously. We can do our best but we will fall down. But mercy gives us a way to stand back up. And we will certainly explore this further, not only in Romans but in the other letters of Paul.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for where we are in this letter to the Romans and we thank You that we can take it in bite-size portions and kinda look at things and discuss things as we move forward and we are grateful for the opportunity. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to plant truths in our lives that grow into full blossoming truth inside of us. Lead us into all truth 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 will be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Kate from __ New Zealand. I’m wanting to do two things. First is to pray for our brother Renzo. I’ve always had a heart from him since I’ve heard him speaking. I’ve only been on this for 18 months but I hear __ and he’s lost a lot of his spark. So, Lord I pray for Renzo, that You’ll restore his hope and his strength and his joy, that You’ll encompass him with Your love and grace and You would lead him forward, where he’s been beaten down that You will restore and lift and enliven by Your Spirit by Your truth by Your strength and Your sword, that You’ll bring Your word to him to lift him, You’ll bring Your angels around him and You’ll guide him in his circumstances with his family and his…yeah his direction for his future, that You’ll be the one that guides his next step forward. Thank You for Renzo and for the witness he’s being to so many people, encouragement he’s been to his family and to those around him, the circle of…his circle of influence that he’s had. Lord, I bless him and Jesus mighty name. Secondly, I’d like to ask for prayer for my eldest son Howani who has been through a very dark place, is in a very dark place, has been for years, has rejected God a long time ago, has tried everything else, is now at the end of his rope. I pray Lord, would you join with me, I pray Lord that You will bring Howani to his knees, that he will cry out in desperation for something outside of himself instead of trying to do it all in his own strength, that he’ll cry out to You Lord Jesus, Lord God to show Yourself to him. And absolutely engulf him with Your love, Your grace, Your forgiveness, and strength, that he will come to know You, he will come to know You. Thank You, Jesus and thank You for Your prayers people. Amen.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is anonymous from Colorado. Today is July 18th. I just finished listening through the reading for today. Particularly Romans 4 was very encouraging to me as I’ve been dealing with a lot of feelings of hopelessness and just despair. I…still working through an assault that happened 20 years prior and feel great inadequacy as I try to establish healthy relationships. I’m in my 30s and praying that I can eventually have a family and that…that God will continue to bring healing as He has. But I just…been struggling and feel very burdened as of recently. I would very much appreciate prayer.
Hello DAB family I don’t call in very often and don’t often even listen to the prayer requests but when I do I feel so connected and some of the ones that I happen to hear often and really really enjoy our Victoria Soldier and Blind Tony and Renzo. And just last week I was driving home from work and Renzo was on my heart, so I began to pray for him and that stayed on my heart for a couple of days. And I didn’t call in or I didn’t do anything and honestly didn’t even hear any prayer requests last week. But today I ended up listening through the prayer requests and heard somebody praying for Renzo. So, he must have called in and asked for prayer and just…I wanted to call in and just encourage everyone that those of you that we hear on this platform, even if we don’t call in and pray for you God still puts you on our hearts. And here I was up here in the Black Hills of South Dakota praying for Renzo without even hearing anything. And that’s just totally the work of the Holy Spirit. So, I just wanted to call with that encouragement and then just pray over those of you who are in my heart often right here, especially for Renzo, whatever that prayer request is. Father God just be with him, be with him. Speak to his heart. Help him to sort out the…the voice of truth from all of the other voices. Help them to understand this…this process of sanctification of being like Christ, that it isn’t just an instant thing but it is a process of growth. So, I just bless him in his growth even though it feels like uncomfortable challenges to him, that he would be encouraged and just ground in tight to the word of God and Jesus name. Amen.
Hey DAB family it’s Ryan from Alberta Canada here. I just heard the story of the mother and a baby who choked on some food, Jill and Gus. And Gus is currently in the Children’s Hospital. I just want to hold that little baby up in prayer. How precious life is and how hard it is to come by for a lot of people. In my family having kids wasn’t easy. It’s a struggle when you want something so precious. It’s a struggle that we have something so precious __ is __ is how it’s doing. So, we just pray…little Gus we pray you work a miracle in his life. We pray you would help us be bold, to be willing to pray for these things, to not be ashamed of the God we believe in, the God who does miraculous things, the God that has changed all of our lives, to speak, to preach about you and your goodness to those who don’t know you so they too could pray to you, could know you, could experience the change of life that you’ve done in so many of our lives.
Hey DAB family this is your sister Ashely from California and I’m calling in to…I'm…I’ve been on the struggle bus, and I just listened to yesterday July 18th’s broadcast and Val from Vegas called in and she said when you’re on the struggle bus that there’s a miracle coming around the corner and to call in. And right now, y'all I am struggling. The grief from my grandmommy Jody passing and the dysfunction and the…and the…the just like…hiccups…I don’t know what they are. But just the unharmonious relationships in my family. Lord it is hard. It is so hard. And just missing my grandmother. And guys I know she’s in heaven. I know she’s with Jesus and I know she is good but here it is real rough. It is so rough, and we need…we need the Lord, we need renewing of our minds. We need that worship music. And I’m gonna do that. So, I’m gonna blast that when I’m at her house and we’re cleaning it up and we’re trying to do that. And I’m gonna do what that beautiful sister who had her purse stolen did for relatives that I feel like are not showing the love of Jesus even though they claim to love Him. So, I’m going to be praying for them and asking the Lord for help. So, please keep my family and your prayers DAB family. I love you Val. I love you so much. And guys thank you. I love you. Bye.