Genesis 1:1-2:25, Matthew 1:1-2:12, Psalms 1:1-6, Proverbs 1:1-6
Today is January 1st welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Welcome to a brand-new year. Happy new year and welcome back or welcome aboard. We are about to set sail on the journey of a lifetime, a journey that will take us a year to accomplish, a year of our lives, a year of our lives shared together in community, a year of our lives is gathering each day around the Global Campfire and taking the next step forward together. And what an adventure it is, to share our stories with each other as we immerse ourselves in the story that God has revealed to us through the Scriptures. And in those Scriptures, we will meet a lot of people and we will see all a lot of things happen, but we will slowly realize that we’re not just reading the Bible. It’s reading us and we’ll find ourselves and our hearts and our motivations in those stories. And one of the things that we will clearly see over and over and over again is that God will not give up. He will not surrender. He will not surrender us because he loves us. And, so, no matter what last year looked like it was actually last year. It’s now a part of our history. It’s now in the past. Maybe there were some pretty hard knocks last year, some pretty big losses and we’re coming into this new year crawling or maybe the week between Christmas and New Year’s is a blur because we’re just so disoriented and partied so hard last night we just come here going, I’ve got to make some changes in my life. Fantastic! Welcome aboard. We’ll find that no matter how hard we try to change ourselves there is transformation that can only happen in relationship with God, a God who will not give up. So, you are in the right place. Whether you have jumped on the ship and are ready to sail another year and maybe this is your 10th or 15th voyage through the Bible, we are beginning today, our 18th year of the Daily Audio Bible of the Daily Audio Bible has grown from infancy all the way into adulthood. This is day one of year 18 and we have been at this seven days a week without fail for all of these years and this is going to be a special adventure through the Bible together this year. And, so, as we begin may we all center ourselves around this. Our story is unfolding. God is in the middle of it. He will not give up. You have always been perfectly loved.
Song:
Perfectly Loved – Rachael Lampa (Feat. Tobby Mac)
Who said that you weren’t beautiful
And that you didn’t belong in your own skin?
Who said that you were all alone
And that you’re never gonna find love again?
So many little words, so many little lies
That have followed you all of your life
Looking for the truth, look into your eyes
And you’ll see it’s been there the whole time
Ooh, even when you were running
Even when you were hiding
Never been a moment that you were not perfectly loved
When you barely believed it
When your eyes couldn’t see it
Every single moment, you’ve always been perfectly loved
Ooh, perfectly loved
You’ve always been perfectly
In the hands of the Infinite
As the wounds of the world became His
See the kindness Heaven has for you
And how He’s always been drawing you in
So many open doors (so many open doors), so many miracles
(so many)
That have followed you all of your life
Looking for the truth (looking for the truth), look into your eyes (oh)
And you’ll see its been there the whole time
Ooh, even when you were running
Even when you were hiding
Never been a moment that you were not perfectly loved
When you barely believed it
When your eyes couldn’t see it
Every single moment you’ve always been perfectly loved
Ooh, perfectly loved
Ooh
You’re not a problem
You’re not a mistake
Don’t need fixing or solving
In the arms of His grace
You’re perfectly human
Made from the dust
You’ve got a heart, broken and scarred, yet perfectly loved
Oh, even when you were running
Even when you were hiding
Never been a moment that you were not perfectly loved
When you barely believed it (when you barely believed it)
When your eyes couldn’t see it
Every single moment you’ve always been perfectly loved
Perfectly loved
You’ve always been perfectly loved
Ooh
Perfectly loved
You have always been perfectly loved
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we begin this brand-new adventure in the Scriptures this year and as we begin to read the story of a God who will not give up we will begin at the beginning, which means we are about to begin with the first words of the Bible, “in the beginning.” But the way that the Daily Audio Bible works each day is that we will move through a portion of the Old Testament, and a portion of the new Testament, a reading from the Psalms and a reading from the Proverbs each day. And we’ll have plenty…plenty to talk about as we move through each of these sections of the Bible. But this is the first day of the year and we’re starting four books all at the same time. So, it’s gonna take us a few days to move in. As we go through the next few days we’ll fly over and kind of give an overview of the book that we are reading and the territory that it’s covering so that we can keep our orientation to what’s going on. So, by the time we get through our first week together we’ll kind of settle into the rhythm that will carry us through the year together. But there’s always a beginning, there’s always a page 1 and that is where we find ourselves right now. And, so, we are about to crack open the book, “in the beginning” and the beginning is the book of Genesis. And whether you’ve read the Bible 100 times or this is the first time that you’re sitting down and going, I’m actually gonna read everything…I’m gonna know everything that’s in the Bible, I’m gonna read the Bible, you probably know that the first book of the Bible is called Genesis.
Introduction to the book of Genesis:
Typically, when we think about Genesis we think about the story of the creation of the world, that that’s what the book of Genesis is about. And it is. But that’s only a small portion of the book of Genesis. Genesis will actually cover more time than any of the other books of the Bible. So, we’re about to start with chapter 1 verse 1 and read the story of the creation of the world and discover what happened to us, but after that about 2500 years will pass within the book of Genesis, which is more time than the rest of the Old Testament combined. So, by the time we’ve reached chapter 11 of the book of Genesis, we will have covered a couple thousand years and a couple thousand miles and then things will slow down and we’re gonna meet some specific people and we will watch a couple of generations of people materialize and get to know their stories. And these are important stories, and these are important people because they will form a family and that family will carry us through the rest of the story of the Bible because the Bible is centered around this family. We will meet people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and see how these people become the Hebrew people. And it’s the Hebrew Bible that we are reading. It’s also important to know that there are different groupings of books in the Bible that kind of group them together in the kind of context that they’re in. Like there are books of prophecy and so those are the prophetic books whether major or minor prophets. Genesis falls into a larger grouping of writings that are the first five books of the Bible. So, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. This grouping of books is called the Torah or the Pentateuch. And, so, for example if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can check off all of the days that we go through so that we don’t miss anything, and as we move through and keep track of where we are in the Scriptures every time we complete a grouping of books a little badge shows up in the app and let us know like, we…we…we’ve completed this grouping of books as we move through the Scriptures. And, so, that gives us a very, very brief orientation to where we are going. But we’ve gotta start. And, so, we open the book to page 1 and launch into the adventure of a lifetime. Genesis 1.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we have begun. We are under way. We have set sail. We’re still kind of finding our rooms and unpacking our stuff and getting situated and getting settled in for the year, but we are under way. We are moving out of the harbor and heading into the deep. And as we have begun, we have begun to be oriented to the story that we are telling here in the Scriptures. We’ve started in the beginning. We’ve discovered that our human experience was fashioned in God’s own image and that it is God that animates our lives. He is the source. And according to Genesis it’s not by accident. God wanted us here, which means all of us are supposed to be here and we each bear the image of a God who isn’t just this silent distant observer, but one that has created us in His own image. He is intertwined with the story that we are living deeper than our cells, deeper than our atoms or our DNA. He is the source of life. And as we read through the story of creation, we got a pretty rare view. It’s not something that we will get to see often in the Bible. We were able to see how things were intended to be, how it was supposed to be for us, a perfect world, perfect people made in the image of God Himself, a dance of life that was perfect. And if we think about that for a second and then just take a step back, turn in a circle, look over our lives, look over the world that we live in, we could all agree it’s less than that now. Something happened. And although we have technologies to give us so much convenience, we would have to agree it’s not perfect. It’s not how it was supposed to be. And we find as we move through the Bible is that God is putting it back together and has invited us to collaborate.
Then we moved into the book of Matthew and the book of Matthew begins with a long set of genealogies which are not the most riveting things in the world to read, but we were reading the lineage that led us to Jesus. And although it’s easy to kind of glaze over on the genealogies and the different names of, you know, who had who, it’s in no way purposeless. Every single person that we read in the genealogies in the book of Matthew are people that we are going to meet as we move through the Bible. And when we completed the genealogies we moved right into the birth narrative of Jesus, which is also known as the Christmas story, and we should be reasonably familiar at this point in the year. Even though we’re beginning a brand-new year we just came through the Christmas season and so we should be reasonably familiar with what’s going on in the book of Matthew. And we will move our way into Matthew a little bit more deeply tomorrow. We’ll kind of talk about Matthew when we get to Matthew. And then over the next couple of days we’ll talk about Psalms and Proverbs as well.
But we are underway friends, and I am excited to see what the Scriptures bring up in our lives because the Bible tells us that it’s alive, it’s a living thing, it’s a sharp thing. It’s something that can reach to the very depths of our identity. It can speak at the level that nothing else, no other instrument can reach. It speaks so often to right where we are and gives us the counsel that we need. So, I’m excited to see what this year looks like together in community around the Global Campfire as we move day by day step-by-step together.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for your word and we ask here on day one that you would send your Holy Spirit among us and lead us into all truth. We haven’t come here to get all twisted and deceived. We’ve come here to get clarity. We’ve come here to hear every word of the Scriptures and allow them to come into our hearts and transform us. And, so, we ask that you bless this year and that we would be open and receptive to what you are saying through the Scriptures. We are committed. We want transformation. We want life to look as you intended it to look, which means that we’re gonna have to have eyes to see and ears to hear, as Jesus will tell us so many times. And, so, give us these things - eyes to see, ears to hear - that we might be changed and transformed. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base, it’s the website obviously. It’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. There is also the Daily Audio Bible app. You can download that from whatever app store works with the device or phone that you are using. It’s free. It is a fantastic way to go through the Scriptures. It consolidates it all together. And, so, check that out. Certainly, as I was mentioning earlier we can kind of keep track of the days that were listening to see if we missed something. And as we continue through the Scriptures as we pass through the different categories, the different sections of the Bible we’ll be able to measure and see our progress. So, certainly check that out.
And as we move in this week and kind of get ourselves oriented and moving in the same direction, we’ll talk about all the different little things that we might need to know as we take the journey together. But this is day one and this was good day, a good first step. 364 more steps and we will find ourselves at the beginning of new year.
And this is a really good time right here, day 1. Go look in the mirror. Actually, take a minute. Not like…not like you’re putting makeup on looking in the mirror or you’re combing your hair looking in the mirror or whatever. Just look at yourself. Look at yourself in the eyes. Look into your own eyes. That may be uncomfortable but look into your own eyes. Acknowledge where you are in your life. Acknowledge the victories. Acknowledge the setbacks. Look at where you are right because 364 days from now you should look in the mirror again and look into your own eyes again because you won’t be seeing the same person. A year in the Bible is the adventure of a lifetime, but it is striking. It is remarkable how relevant and how deeply the Bible speaks into why we do what we do and why we should pay attention to what we’re doing.
One other little tiny bit of counsel. Grab yourself a notebook. Whether you go to the bookstore and get yourself nice writing tablet. Whether you go to the Daily Audio Bible Shop…we have journals in the Daily Audio Bible Shop for exactly what I’m talking about. Or whether you just go to the cupboard and get some paper. It doesn’t really matter. Plan to journal your way through the Scriptures. If God speaks something to you through the Scriptures, write it down. Begin this habit. It doesn’t have to be like you have to write 20 pages a day and you don’t how you’re going to find time to do this journaling project. Whatever comes your way, chronicle it because what you’ll find is that as we move into this year and we face days that feel foggy, that feel great, maybe that feel dark, maybe there will be days that we have to go through this year and it feels like the sun didn’t even come up and we don’t know where we are and who God is and what’s going on anymore. Looking back at the journey that we are on and what we have written down becomes our own encouragement, it becomes our own words to our own selves. There is a God. He made us. We were created in His image. He knows who we are. He wants us to be here. There is a path forward. And as we write our own story we find that it becomes quite a reference for us on those days where we feel completely upside down and disoriented. And, so, consider journaling your way through.
Okay, I think that’s a pretty good launch. We have plenty of other things to talk about not only in the Scriptures but just in orienting ourselves to the rhythm that we have embarked on as we take the journey through the Bible this year. But we’ll get to it. We have 364 more days together.
And, so, that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello, my DAB family this is Mark Street from Sydney Australia. Today is Monday the 26th of December and I’m calling in for some prayer for myself. I’m just bit embarrassed because I’m going to ask for you to pray for God’s forgiveness on me. Being like everybody, very stressful period. So, I’m disappointed in myself. Look, I could explain things, but God doesn’t need explanations. At the end of the day I went to Christmas mass with my mom and after leaving she said something in the car that was a trigger point. And that’s all I’m going to say. And I lashed out at her, and I am very sorry to God and to my mom as well. But I’m just so disappointed in myself that…that it happened. I could give you all excuses, but, you know, that’s making excuses is not acceptable to God. So, family pray that God will forgive me. I know He does. I’m disappointed in myself that I fell short on God’s birthday. And__ start crying because I’m disappointed in myself. Thanks family. Love you all and I’ll talk again soon. Mark Street from Sydney Australia.
Good morning family, this is Brenda Rowan calling it a prayer request for my niece Jasmine who’s been diagnosed with brain cancer and given 8 to 12 months of life. We know only God can tell us how long we have to live on this side of eternity. I just wanna live her up. This is a wonderful young lady with two beautiful children and a wonderful husband and it’s just kinda like rocked her world as it’s done to everyone who knows her. I just want to covet your prayers and just want to continue to lift up all of the DABbers. This is such a wonderful community to be part of. I love you all so much and I thank God for blessing Brian with the foresight to bring this forth. We love you guys and I thank you for…for…for joining us in prayer thanking God for his divine intervention. Love you all. Thank you and God bless. Amen.
This is Saved by His Grace and Happy Valley about to finish out my 7th or 8th year with this campfire group. And I was listening to Brian today and he made a suggestion about checking out the Daily Audio Bible proverbs. I cannot second that hard enough. For many years as I happened listened to Daily Audio Bible I was known as Joanne from happy valley. I thought I was a Christian. I felt, you know, holier than a lot of people and I could certainly point out everybody’s faults but then I started listening to proverbs. And the first year I cringed a lot because I saw myself in so many of them. The second year I really didn’t like myself but somewhere along the line I realized God wanted me to look at myself honestly and understand that I wasn’t a failure I just needed Him in my life. And now I let Him teach me through the proverbs. That was when I changed my…my name to Saved by His grace in Happy Valley. I cannot say enough. Listen to proverbs. You’ll be so glad you did. God bless you.
Good afternoon, DABbers or good evening good morning, wherever you are and, wherever you are listening from. I am John Opara and I’m calling in from South Sudan. For us it’s afternoon now. It’s about 3:00 PM. And I know for those in the US it’s about 8:00 AM, and those in the UK it’s about 4:00 PM or it’s about 2:00 PM. Anyway, I have been hearing several people talk about placing their loved ones with disability in a care home. And I…I felt like I need to share this because one of the most memorable time in my life. There was a time fresh out of college looking for a job I did not know what to do with myself. I got a job you know taking care of develop people with developmental disability, autistic and those with Down syndrome. And in this job, I enjoyed working with this population because there you see the power of God at work. So, what am I saying? Rest in the Lord. God is in absolute control. May God bless you in Jesus’ name. Amen.