Jeremiah 23:21-25:38, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, Psalm 84:1-12, Proverbs 25:15
Today is the 14th day of October, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is great to be here with you today, as we gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together in the Scriptures. And of course, we’ll be going right back to the place where we left off, which leads us back into the book of Jeremiah today. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week and today, Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 21 through 25 verse 38.
Commentary:
Okay so, we read the 84th chapter of the book of Psalms today and I love this Psalm, just because of the way that it describes this desire be with God, this awareness that God’s presence is what our…our souls search for. And we fill ourselves with all kinds of things but what we really want is the presence of God. I quote from Psalm 84, “I long and yearn for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” I love that. People, human beings, we’re passionate people, we get passionate about all kinds of things. But we don’t usually think about this kind of longing, this kind of desire, this passion to be in God’s presence and it gives us an opportunity to just reflect. Is that, is what we’re reading in the Psalms the posture of our heart? We probably are that passionate about any number of things, but are we that passionate about God? We can throw our passions at all kinds of things but is our deepest yearning to be with God, to be aware, to be paying attention? Because we are a passionate people, as a species and our passions lead us in all kinds of directions, all kinds of directions. And if we just take a moment to reflect about where our passions have led us, we have probably gone places that we wish we hadn’t gone. But that can never be true of God, like our longing, our yearning, our passion, our desire toward God is not going to land us where we never wanted to go. It’s going to land is where we’ve always wanted to be and that is what the psalmist is bringing to the surface. And I quote, “better a day in your courts than a thousand days anywhere else. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God, than live in the tents of wicked people. For the Lord God is a son and a shield. The Lord grants favor and honor, He does not withhold the good from those who live with integrity. Happy is the person who trusts in You, Lord of armies.” Doesn’t that just awaken something inside of You? That is where we want to be. And yet our passions, pull us in all kinds of directions. So, how do we focus our passion, our yearning, our longing toward God? Intimacy. How does any relationship grow to feel like that; to yearn, to long to be together and how do we practice intimacy with God? Well, we start by making time. Like, that’s an actual thing that we want in our lives, that we actually do long and yearn, we actually do pursue. So often this is simply being aware of God’s presence and being in prayer or being in worship. And like prayer and worship, we know these things and they become cliché. We spend time in prayer because that is communication, that is talking, that is the back-and-forth of a relationship with God. And worship is giving ourselves, opening ourselves, trusting, being wide open and offering our hearts to God and God alone. There is no other, there is no other place that we want to be, there is no other destination we want to arrive at. Our whole lives are aimed in this direction, we just live such distracted lives. The psalmist is essentially saying, I would rather be on your front porch, Lord, on your front porch just there, then anywhere else that would promise me fulfillment. May we consider that today, as we consider where our passions are leading us, because if we follow them, they will lead us somewhere, may they lead us deeper into Jesus today.
Prayer:
And that is our prayer, Holy Spirit, come lead us deeper into Jesus today. May we fall more deeply in love, may we trust more intentionally, may we pay attention. Your presence it isn’t being withheld from us. Often our presence is being withheld from You but you are not withholding from us at all. You are always with us, You would not leave us or forsake us. We’re just not always paying attention to the fact that You are present, You are here and we think that You, the most-high God, would even acknowledge our presence, would even be in our presence, our hearts begin to long and yearn for You. This is how we were made to be together with You. And so, may we passionately pursue this above all. We pray this in the name of Jesus. 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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hey guys, how you doing? This is Lazarus, who is fighting hard to not change my name to Legion. But that’s another story. Hey, I just listened to Unashamed, yeah, I’m behind but it doesn’t matter. God’s here. And like him, I’ve been here since the first year, whatever. And you know, that’s another story too. But anyway, over the past few weeks the, years whatever, the subject of abuses come up and hey, guilty as charged man. I have, I was a verbal abuser. I’m an overachiever and I married a really great woman. She was a gift and I outpaced her, the things of this world. And you know, you get what you get, so. After 22 years, I came home and there was a 3.5 card on the counter that said, I can’t do this anymore. I’m leaving. Bye. And I haven’t seen her in 10 years. So, I talked to her a few times and every time I do, I fall in love with her all over again. And I beat myself up. Yeah, there’s a, just a long way back. So, I actually came to an emotion that I tried to come to grips with me. And it’s tough as a self-confessed abuser. What’s wrong with you dude, I mean, you know. You destroyed something, love, that you didn’t even know you were doing it, as you were doing it. I mean, Brian even remarried us, at the falls of Angeti. Come on, man. So, I’m still here, I’m still trying. Broken, broken and trying hard. It’s kind of a cosmic gotcha. And abusers, there isn’t any excuse. Anyway, I love you guys. In a lot of pain and stuff but it doesn’t matter. Pray for you all. God bless.
Hello, it’s a bit noisey here, I’m out on a long walk. My name is Francis from Miltonkeens. And this prayer is for Samantha in California. Samantha, my heart broke for you when I heard your prayer. God, I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. Dealing with one, the betrayal of your boyfriend, now husband. Two being that both you and the lady in question, were pregnant together and you lost yours. I’m __ to the glory of God but it’s hard. Where there’s not way there won’t be a little fraction of jealousy there or anger. And I just pray that the Lord will heal your heart, will give you yours in time. And most of all, that you find in your heart to forgive your husband. And that he and the baby comes safely as well. Mother and baby, we’ll pray that they do well. I pray for your heart cause your heart needs the most healing here. Oh Lord, please heal her heart. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Good afternoon, Daily Audio Bible family. I am Deb of Bleeze calling from the French Antaleze in Guadaloop. I’m a first-time caller, I’ve never succeeded to get my call through. But I’m a long time listener. I listen every day. I’m sometimes a triple DABer. But I’m mostly a double DABer. I listen to Daily Audio Bible and the lovely Bible Chronological. Today, I’m asking for your help with me in prayer. I just got the news of my cousin, who is, has been diagnosed with a brain cancer, stage 4 and has 4 months to live. She doesn’t believe in Jesus as her Savior and as her Lord. She lives like many people, believe that Jesus is a good person, He’s of the Christian religion. But please can you, please help me to pray for her. I have been shocked and touched by this bad news. And I know that God is good and I can come to Him to see me through, in my process of hurting. But thank you for your prayers for her. Her name is Mary. Thank you and God bless.
Hi, this is Laurie from South Carolina. And I am calling because my sister and brother and I, we all three, need prayer. We lost our mom, it will almost be a year in October. And we’re not doing well at all. I am a devout believer and follower of Christ and my sister and brother, both believe in Jesus, but they are, they’ve strayed away from our Father and we just need prayer. Because our mom kept everything put together and kept us together and we three our just huddling together, trying to weather this storm and it’s a horrible storm. My name is Laurie-Ann from South Carolina. Becky and Josh and we lost our mom Anne, to COVID. And we’re trying to take care of all the probate things, take care of all the power. It’s so hard and I trust Jesus for everything, I know that everything in my life, everything good comes from Him. I have been following Him and I just feel like the Devil is attacking us from every corner. That there’s more fear going on all around us. I just pray that all of my sisters and brothers and Brian and China and Jill, that you guys would pray for us and give us the courage to go on without our mom. Thank you so much. We love the Hardin Family. Bye Bye.
Hi, Daily Audio Bible family, this is Cody in Southeast Washington State, in the Alawa area. I left a message a few weeks ago but I think I was very hard to understand. It was very early in the morning and I was very emotionally just trapped. I’ve been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and not receptable, which means it’s not operable. And so therefore, the prognosis is really not good, not good at all. We have three kids, three of them teenagers and one of them 20 who is just starting her junior year at University of Washington. We’re really proud of her, now covering her living expenses in Seattle. Which isn’t very cheap. And it’s just the prognosis is so bad to the traditional and conventional masses, we want to try and do other things, including independent IV infusion, high does vitamin C and I need be taking therapy messages for pain, acupuncture also, etc. And a lot of those are out-of-pocket, all of that is out-of-pocket. Pain management doctors recommending opioids already. Because of the pain, I haven’t been able to eat for almost two months, very much. I’m now getting more than 3-5 hundred calories a day. So, I lost about 40 lbs. in about two months. And so, I’m very weak because of that. Anyway, DAB family, I’ve been nervous, I’ve been a DABer for five years, not consistently but this year, very consistently.