Jeremiah 19:1-21:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:4-28, Psalm 82:1-8, Proverbs 25:9-10
Today is the 12th day of October, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today, as we gather every day, take the next step forward together in the Scriptures. And our next step forward leads us back into the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament and then we’re working our way through Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians in the New Testament. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week so, let’s dive in Jeremiah chapters 19, 20 and 21 today.
Commentary:
Okay, so we concluded first Thessalonians today, in our reading, which means obviously we have new territory tomorrow and not so terribly new. Second Thessalonians is on deck and we’ll talk about that tomorrow. But as we finish first Thessalonians, we see something that is a common characteristic in Paul’s letters, he likes to list things out. Like, not just one example of something, but many examples of something so that the point is quite clear, but also so that it’s comprehensive and helpful. And so, sometimes that these are lists of things that are to be avoided like the plague like, totally stay away from these things. Sometimes they’re characteristic of what we’re living into in our what our lives should look like. And often there’s a couple of lists there we can contrast and go okay these things, remember when we were talking about clothes and our wardrobe, like somethings you cannot wear together, they don’t go. Some things you can’t mix together in your life because they won’t work. So, first Thessalonians concludes with…with a list. So, let’s take a look, “we ask you, brothers and sisters to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you and to regard them very highly in love because of their work.” Okay, there’s something we should do. “Be at peace among yourselves,” that’s something we should do. “We exhort you brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle,” something to do. “Comfort the discouraged,” again, something to do. “Help the weak. Be patient with everyone. See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone. Always pursue what is good for one another and for all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you, in Christ Jesus. Don’t stifle the spirit. Don’t despise prophecies. But test all things. Hold on to what is good, stay away from every kind of evil.” And so, wrapped up in this paragraph that brings first Thessalonians to its conclusion, we have a list of things we should do and we have a list of things we should not do. And this is the guy that has told us, there’s nothing we can do to achieve salvation. So, and we, and I’m not denying that, I’m just saying but also, even though there’s nothing we can do to achieve salvation, it should transform us to the point, like our faith is what we believe but living our faith or putting our faith into action, is what we do with it. And there are a couple ways that we can look at lists like this one. One, we can read it and look for the places where we struggle. For example, we could read from first Thessalonians today that we’re supposed to be patient with everyone, and we can think heck, I’m not patient with anyone. And then we could realize we got some work to do in the area of patience, and that can, that can compel us forward or that can heat condemnation upon us, where we feel like, I’ll never, I’ll never be patient, I’ve never been patient, I’ll never be patient. I’m gonna fail at this. I’m an awful person. That’s not the point, though. Godly conviction is important, that’s where our conscience comes in. When we’re stepping into something that we know for sure is wrong and we do it anyway, we should feel conviction about that inside of ourselves, as children of the most-high God and correction from the Holy Spirit. But we can look at these lists and go, I’m a failure, I’m a failure on so many levels, I’m a failure, and walk away from anything like this just feeling like the Bible is speaking the truth to me, it is rightfully condemning me and so I am therefore condemned and I will walk around in condemnation, feeling like trash and a failure from this point forward, because I can’t live up to these things. Or, we can look at the list like this and realize, this is what I am becoming, because of Jesus. This is what things are supposed to look like. And if I collaborate with that and move in that direction, then step-by-step, day-by-day, I get to become like this because this is what Jesus looks like, these are the things he avoided. These are the things he embraced, I get to become that and all I need is an open heart and to be paying attention and I have a bit of self-discipline and I can collaborate in becoming what I am supposed to be. And so, let’s look at this list again with that in mind, this is where my life is heading. This is what I get to become, this is what I am to live into, this is the work of sanctification in me. And so, Paul says, give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you and regard them very highly in love because of their work. If you hate your pastor, if your pastor’s message is what you have for Sunday lunch every day, by simply trashing your fellow congregants in the leadership of your church or anyone else that you consider to be in leadership spiritually in your life. Then we can look at this and go okay, I have some work to there, to do there. But we can also realize, this is the natural flow of my life. This is where things are headed. And so, we continue. “Warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak. Be patient with everyone.” This is what we are living into, this is what we get to become. “See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone. Always pursue what is good for one another and for all.” So, like even that last statement, is a statement essentially against being completely self-absorbed and selfish, which doesn’t lead anywhere good. But we realize, this is where our lives are headed. When we are in collaboration with the Holy Spirit’s leadership in our lives. “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Don’t stifle the spirit, don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good, stay away from every kind of evil.” This is the trajectory of our story. This is what we get to become. This is what we are becoming. And so, we can read these lists and feel conviction because we’re failing in certain areas. But we can also realize, that doesn’t have to be the rest of the story. This is the roadmap for where the stories going. I get to learn to rejoice always, it’s part of my relationship with God. I get to pray constantly, I am never out of touch with the Lord, His presence is with me always, at all times. I get to give thanks in everything, I get to learn how to do that, even for things that would’ve sent to me over the top. That would’ve been the last straw, I can find gratitude even in those places. I get to be transformed like that, because of Jesus. That’s good news because we all know our deficits and we work really, really hard to cover them. It’s tremendously encouraging to understand we’re not the only one in the story. This isn’t just our personal struggle that we’ll never overcome. The Holy Spirit is invested into moving us from darkness to light, from death to life, we get to become these things. Let’s rejoice. Yes, there is work to do in all of us, thank God the work is being done, unless we are just simply rebelling against the change that the Holy Spirit brings in our lives. And one of the things we should know intuitively but also clearly in the Scriptures is that that doesn’t work. We won’t rebel against the Holy Spirit and then harvest the fruit of the spirit in our lives. If we want the fruit of the spirit to be very evident in our lives, then we will have to collaborate and move in that direction. And the good news is, that our faith is moving us in that direction. If we’re not determined, to simply not follow the way, the path.
Prayer:
So, Holy Spirit, come into this we pray. It is such good news to know that You can transform what we cannot. Your power is vastly beyond our own and where our strength ends, Yours is barely even begun. All we have to do is rest and flow with where You are leading and going. And we see in letters, like this one from Paul, what that’s going to look like. We understand, we fail at this a lot. But what it is such a comforting piece of good news to know, that we we’re never going to be successful on our own anyway. This is what we get to become because of You in our lives. And so, we take a deep breath and exhale it in relief, the utter relief of it. We get to become like You, unless we are absolutely determined to become anything but. And we get to see clearly where both of those choices will lead us in the Scriptures and we choose You, we choose light, we choose life, we choose the good news. Holy Spirit come, and lead us into all truth. We pray in Jesus’ name we ask. 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:
Hello, my wonderful DAB family, this is Rosie, also known as Great to Be Free in Jesus. I’m calling in today with a prayer request for my grandson, Daniel. I know I’ve called and asked for prayer for him, two or three times at least. He called me yesterday, wanting me to come pick him up. He says, someone had beat him with something like a baseball bat, which is something that has happened many times because the life that he has chosen to live. I told him I couldn’t come pick him up because I was working. But I know, what I’m going to do, if he calls me like that again. I’m going to tell him the only way I will come pick him, is to take him to get help. Because he told me yesterday, he didn’t have anywhere to go. So, it was very heartbreaking for me to not go get him. But I learned from my daughter, that I would only be enabling him, and I don’t want to do that. So, please pray that God will get a hold of him and protect him. I love you, my DAB family. God bless you. Bye.
Hi, this is Jenny from Central PA. I’ve been listening since January 1st of this year. And I’m just so grateful for this family. The lady with the bed bug situation, I came across 2nd John 1:5 and 6 from the Passion Translation and I felt the Holy Spirit wanted me to share that with you, so be encouraged. People On the Water from Indiana, you shared that you’re suffering from depression and you’re opening a men’s life group in your college, and I just want to tell you, I can sense the fire of God inside of you. And I know that many men will be impacted with the ministry. And I see that even in, you know, through your depression, how God is using you and I just declare victory over your life, and you are more than a conqueror. Val, with your shoulder pain, you are a beautiful soul and I’m praying for supernatural healing and I’m trusting the Lord is gonna come in your situation. And the lady that called in with the pastor that was in Germany that had a car accident, I just pray that all of us together would agree as touching this one thing, that healing would come over his life. And the man who, Brian was one of your groomsmen, I just want you to be encouraged. I want to tell you, trust in the Lord and know that He resurrects the dead in the word of God, we see brings life to bones. So, He can surely resurrect your marriage. So, I pray the resurrection power over your marriage. I plead the blood of Jesus and that the covenant made 30 years ago, would still stand. And the man whose wife is pregnant and lost two children, I just wanna say that He sees you, He loves you. And I just decree that your wife’s womb is blessed and fertile. Love you DABers. Blessings to all. From Jenny, from Central PA. God Bless. Bye Bye.
After hearing the nameless gentlemen who requested prayer for his marriage, I was reflecting on my own separation from my husband, 5 years now. And realizing the need for prayer is really the restoration of the relationship between each individual and God. Because once that happens then the restoration of the relationship, here on this earth, can take place. So, Father, I lift up every person who has ever called in or is out there listening, who has gone through a crisis of their marriage and their relationship Father. And I pray that You would restore each individual to open their eyes and have a relationship with You God. A relationship that transcends all other relationships. And in that, Father, we ask healing in this physical realm of their relationship with one another. Thank You, Lord Jesus for that opportunity and that Spiritual healing that can take place, Father, in our lives. We just give You the glory. In Jesus name.
Hello, this is John Ransom calling from Budapest. I just wanted to let you know that about a month ago now, I’ve been meaning to call earlier. There was one day where two or three calls were about praying for our children and for the youth, both in the United States and around the world. And I’ve been meaning to call so, let’s go right to prayer about this. Abba, in the name of Jesus, I come before You, with the entire DAB family and we know it’s a critical hour in the world and it’s so important that we cover our children, our teenager, preteens, and young adults with a canopy of prayer and with the blood of Jesus for protection. We have been lax in this, we have been lax in understanding how important the youth leaders are, the Sunday Schools are. You know, as a matter of fact, we sing the praise to You and then, in many churches, the kids go off and we feel like, okay, well somebody’s got them and that’s the end of the story. But Father, we also lift up, especially the Youth Pastors, the song leaders, the activity coordinators. Also, those youth leaders that are there counseling the children one-on-one, they’re building those relationships, so that these kids have a safe person to talk to, along with their parents, of course. And Lord, we ask You to completely strengthen them. Give them the status they deserve. Give them all the support. Help us to remember to pray for those who take care of our children. And Lord, we ask You also, to rescue our children from all of the dangers, be they spiritual, threw the Satanic movements, pedophilia, then also the drugs of pentenyl and the mobbing and the bullying at schools. And You would fill them with the power and the presence of Jesus and just make them immune to the terrible messages from this culture. And we ask of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Hey DAB family, this is Jeramiah, God Gives Good Gifts. And I could just use your prayer right now. I’m a trucker for UPS and I’m over the road right now. I’m headed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. And I haven’t been here in almost 40 years. It’s where I visited my dad when he was in the state penitentiary when I was just a little boy, at 8-years-old. I have an 8-year-old son now. And just getting flooded with a lot of pain and just remembering a lot of the abuse that I went through. And it’s just, I’m having a hard time facing it. And even though it’s so long ago, it’s still is in there. And I know a lot of you guys understand that, that we go through hard things and other people’s choices can really cause us a lot of pain for our life and really break our hearts. And I’m just asking for your prayers of strength and healing. And that I would be able to go to a new level in my forgiveness for my dad and my mom. And that God would just continue to heal me, continue to make me a father that He wants me to be. And thank you so much for your prayers. I listen every day and I pray for all of you. I love you. And I’m so grateful that I can just bare my heart to you. So, God Bless you guys. Jeramiah, God Gives …
Hello DAB family, this is God’s Tree, for I have many branches but I’m rooted in the word of God. I’m coming to you this evening asking for a prayer request for my little cousin, she goes by the name of Ty. She has suffered with Juna Diabetes all her life and she struggle; she’s spent 75% of her life in hospital. And she’s 29 now and she had a stoke on dialysis today and she stopped breathing. They were able to resuscitate her but at the same time she got a call from the hospital, saying that, she has a pancreas and kidney transplant on the way. So, they stabilized her tonight. And they’re air lifting her to Charleston. And prayerfully, she would get this transplant and she would be healed totally on this side of glory. Our families really emotional right now. We’re all praying for this little girl so that she could have a full life. She’s never had normal things that other teenagers have had experiences, cause she stay sick all the time. So, I ask You to send Your angels God, be with her tonight and her mother and her father. And I pray God, that this transplant will take, and it would make her whole, Lord. And I also pray God, for the soul that was lost because, providing this transplant. May You bless that soul and bless that family as they grieve for their loss Lord. But let them see Your glory in Ty’s life. Please pray for her. Please pray for her. We need all the prayers that we can get right now. Bless this little girl. I thank you. God Bless you and I continue to pray for you.