Joshua 9:3-10:43, Luke 16:19-17:10, Psalm 83:1-18, Proverbs 13:4
Today is the 14th day of April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is fantastic to be here with you today as we gather together around the Global Campfire and step forward together into a brand-new day and into the next territory that the Bible is leading us into. Which will lead us back into the Book of Joshua. Israel’s second city of, of conquest the city of Ai, they were able to take that city and we went through the entire story of Aiken yesterday and discussed that. And so, where we find ourselves, as we move back into Joshua today, is that word is getting out, the kings of the regions, the nations that are surrounding where the children of Israel are, are getting pretty nervous. And although they may have at one time been enemies with each other, they are becoming allies to join together to attack and eradicate this people that is coming into the land. So, let’s take the next step forward and find out what happens next. Joshua chapter 9 verse 3 through 10 verse 43 today.
Commentary:
Okay, let’s look at something that Jesus was teaching today because it invites us, it invites us to deeply check our motivations and our posture. And I don’t mean posture like your, your standing or sitting down posture. I mean, the way you’re standing up or sitting down or slouching around or laying down spiritually. So, Jesus says, if another believer since rebuke that person and if there is repentance forgive, even if that person wronged you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive. So, if a person is going to repeatedly offend you seven times a day, then it will require a posture or a lifestyle of forgiveness. And the apostles responded to Jesus after he said this, show us how to increase our faith. Cause in listening to what Jesus is saying and going okay, we’re gonna need more faith, show us how to increase our faith so that we can do this. And Jesus says, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree may you be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you. So, what is Jesus telling the disciples, unless you are faithless, like, unless you have no faith, then you have what you need to obey me. And Jesus then responds when a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep does his master say, come in and eat with me. No, he says prepare my meal, put on your apron and serve me while I eat, then you can eat later. And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say we are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty. That is a very different posture than our culture operates in and that we normally operate in. That is a posture of utter humility that we don’t often display, even in Revelation to God. This is the posture, as Jesus is describing it, of a servant who has a master, and the master does not owe the servant anything. The servant’s posture is to be grateful that they have shelter and sustenance and work. The master doesn’t owe the servant, the servant owes the master service. In this analogy from Jesus, by the way, we are the servants, we aren’t the Masters. And so, if the instruction from the master is to stay in a posture of forgiveness, even if you’re offended by the same person seven times in the day, if they come and repent and ask forgiveness, you are to forgive. This is the way of God’s kingdom, as we’ve talked about before already this year. But then if we obey the command, we think that we’ve put ourselves in some kind of humble position and we deserve a reward, when what Jesus is saying is this is your lifestyle, this isn’t some special thing you do to be humble. It’s not some kind of special thing that you should be rewarded for, this is supposed to be your normal, this is the normal state, one that takes care of each other and looks out for the other and dispenses forgiveness, as we are forgiven. This reveals God. If the work of God isn’t forgiveness, what is the work of God? Why did God come to earth in the person of Jesus and and die that we might be forgiven. But where the posture kind of has to shift and the understanding has to shift, is that, when we do something that humbles us, we haven’t done anything that’s not supposed to be normal. Putting it back in the words of Jesus, we are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty. That’s a bit of a big shift, one that we need to consider in our own lives, in our relationships to others, and in our relationship to God. That we are fortunate to be servants, and to be serving God. It’s simply our duty to obey our master. This is the normal Christian life, and this flies in the face of our pride and our arrogance and our entitlement. And so, let’s give it some thought today, let’s remember we’re simply doing our duty, we’re simply doing what were supposed to do, what’s supposed to be normal for us.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we invite You into that. Certainly, this applies to more than forgiveness. Although, forgiveness is the context here in Luke. But more and more, as we get to understand what You are teaching and applying that to our lives and letting it be a mirror, so the way we have to look at ourselves and see where we are, versus what You are instructing. We more and more realize our utter helplessness to in any way achieve righteousness before You, without You, and without Your help. And so, Holy Spirit come. We can’t do this on our own. We really aren’t good enough, we really aren’t as good as we had thought, we really truly need You. But in understanding this, it’s like coming home. It’s like realizing that what has been missing has always been there. We just needed to surrender for real and not in word only, but an actual posture of heart. So, we thank You for coming for us, and rescuing us, and forgiving us and giving us right standing with You and allowing us to come into Your presence and allowing us to be a part of Your family, allowing us to be grafted in as Your children. And we say we are unworthy servants who are simply doing our duty. We take this posture of humility and put it on our head, like the crown that it is, that we may forgive and be forgiven and reveal the good news that all are welcome. Come, Holy Spirit, into this 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’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hi, Daily Audio Bible Family. It has been a really long time since I called in. My prayer request is, I live in Maryland. My sister lives in Pennsylvania and my sister is really having a hard time. She’s limited with her income, and she has difficulty getting around. She’s mobile, you know, but just age and it makes it painful for her to do things. And I have been weighing out options on how to help her, how to support her. And I’m thinking that I need a house, I need a house with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms so that I can have a place for her to come and be with me, so I can watch over her and care for her. I’ve just been struggling with taking the steps to make that happen. So, I mean financially I can do it, it’s just taking the step and finding the house and the financing and all that. So, I ask please for guidance, clarity and the steps that I need to take to bring my sister home with me. Our parents are deceased, neither of us has children so it’s just us. And I really need to figure out what to do and how to help her. Please pray for me. Thank you. God bless.
Good morning, DABers, this is Carrie aka Jesus Girl. It’s Saturday April 8th and I just want to lift up 2 of the DABers that I just heard call in. Jesus, I come to you on behalf of KB and his friend Chico. Lord, this traumatic accident that has caused so much physical damage for his friend. Jesus, I just ask that, as we know You’re capable of doing a miracle, Lord, and this is the weekend of the ultimate miracle. And so, Lord, I’m just asking that You heal, that You touch this body, Lord. That You give strength and courage to the family and to the loved ones and to KB, who said he didn’t need prayer. But he does need strength, Jesus, he does need comfort and courage. Jesus, I don’t know at this point if this young man is still alive or not, regardless, either please touch his body or both ways, be healing or be he gone, Lord. Again, be with his friends and family and loved ones. Lift them up with courage, strength, peace, Jesus, and reliance on You. Wrap Your arms around them at this point. And Lord, I also bring Kathy’s friend Kim to You, Lord. My heart just broke, thinking about what this poor woman’s going through right now, having lost her husband a year ago and now her son. Jesus, please. I thank You that she’s a believer. I thank You that she knows You and that she’s leaning on You. But Lord, help us as fellow believers to lift her up to You, Jesus. To again, her also, wrap Your arms around her, Lord. Let her know Your there. Give her peace and comfort and strength as I prayed for this other family. Jesus, as who You are in our situations. And I just thank You and I praise You, Lord. I know that through this, You will be uplifted and You will be glorified. And Lord, if there are those that are lost, dealing with this, use these horrible situations to bring them to You. Thank You and praise You in Your holy name. Amen. God bless ya’ll. Happy Easter.
Hi, Daily Audio Bible Family. This is Work in Progress. About a month ago, I called in a prayer request for my daughter, who we didn’t know where she was, and we were kind of fearing that she was being trafficked and. Well, I just wanted to give you an update and continue and ask that you continue to pray for her. We, she is, she was found on the streets unconscious. She had methamphetamine and fentanyl in her. She was weighing 88 pounds now, by what I understand. Is currently in the ICU. She was extremely dehydrated and will probably be in the hospital for, well, at least 3 or 4 weeks. Which I’m grateful for that she’s, that she’s off of the streets and all that. But what, if you would just, please continue to pray for her and especially that she gets the, she gets into a treatment facility that is Christ centered and something that really deals with more than just her addictions but also just her hurt heart and her mental illness. We would love for her to get into a adult and teen challenge ministry somewhere. So, if you would just lift that up to the Lord in prayer, I would appreciate it. Thank you, family. Thank you for just the comfort in knowing that you’ll be hitting your knees and praying. So, thank you.
Just like Satan I was stubborn, and I had to be the best.
Hard driving, impatient and cut above the rest.
And sensitive, self-reliant and chronically independent
I even tried to compete with God, was a crazy or just demented.
Demented, now that’s the perfect word.
It has that demonic sound and demons did control my life, they rammed me into the ground.
It had to be poor self-esteem that made me so independent.
And dependence made me critical, egotistical and cynic.
Being critical and egotistical has led to isolation.
Isolation led me into sin and lots of aggravation.
Once you’re deep in the sin, you’re far away from God.
And once again, poor self-esteem starts to make you feel odd.
This cycle just repeats itself; you know you can’t win.
Unless some kind of way you can get to God and make the cycle end.
But how does one get back to God? There are a lot of different theories.
I guess that’s why so many people give up, the spirit often wearies.
Especially if your spirit isn’t one that’s from the Lord.
Satan tries to make it seem hard to get back restored.
But really, it’s quite simple. Accept and just agree.
Deliverance is a gift, my friend, that’s absolutely free.
You can learn to be dependent. God will help you too.
Stay humble and compassionate, cause love will bring you through.
And as your walk in faith gets stronger, you once again become Gods son
The cycle will be broken and the battle can be won.
But there’s gonna be other battles.
But other victories too.
As long as you stay close to God but the choice is up to you.
Blindtony1016@gmail.com I’d like to give a shout out to Sherlock Washington and Kim, on the case, Sherlock Washington. Haven’t heard from you lately, but know you’re daily in my prayers, often in my thoughts.
Happy Easter DABers. This is Grace Filled in Castro here. I’m just calling for prayer for the family of Big James who went on a beautiful trip with my husband and 13 other guys. A boy’s trip to the Peak District, here in the UK. And unfortunately, didn’t return home after having a fall down a hill and just passed away, instantly. Pray for his family, his wife who would have had to receive the news at whatever point yesterday. And pray for all of the guys. My husband included who witnessed this unfortunate accident and we’re very distressed. They were supposed to come back at some point this afternoon, early evening. And they all made the journey in the early hours of the morning back home. Because they just wanted to be with their families. I pray that this unfortunate accident will draw them nearer to God. That they will realize that their life is a gift, and we aren’t promised tomorrow. So, we should honor God every single moment of our lives when we’re awake. From the moment that we wake up and every breath and every step that we take. Thank you to all of you who are always calling in, prayer warriors. You know, even though I haven’t been calling in regularly, I’m still praying for everyone behind the scenes. God bless you. Have a wonderful Easter. Love you all.