Month: April 2023

Joshua 21:1-22:20, Luke 20:1-26, Psalm 89:1-13, Proverbs 13:15-16

Today is the 20th day of April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather to take the next step forward together. And our next step, leads us back into the Book of Joshua. We’ve been working our way through Joshua and…and entering the Promised Land and settling the Promised Land. And so, we pick up that story today. Joshua chapter 21 verse 1 through 22 verse 20, today.

Commentary:

Okay, let’s talk about sound biting. In our culture, we like, we try to distill things down to the headline. So, if there’s an interview going on we’re looking for the soundbite moment, the moment the becomes the headline that reduces all of the nuance of the conversation down to the headline, because our culture is moving so fast, information is so available. It’s flying so fast at us that that’s kind of what we can handle the headlines. It’s just that the headlines aren’t the story. They’re the headline. And so, when we’re just paying attention to the headlines, or the talking heads who are not looking at the story but are trying to interpret the headlines, then it’s super easy for people to get destroyed in the mix, because nobody’s life is a headline. I mean what if somebody put a headline on your life today with film at 11 like, story at 11. You’d be like what are we talk, wait a minute, what’s the headline, what…what are we talking about here. And what if the headline were to put you in a bad light and you’re like that’s not the story. That’s not how that happened, that’s not who I am. But when people simply consume headlines, they simply consume people’s lives at the same time. They could be like cool, what does that got to do the Bible? What we watched today in the Gospel of Luke was the attempt to reduce…reduce Jesus into a headline or a soundbite. So, chapter 20 of the Gospel of Luke, which we read today, begins that Jesus’s teaching the temple courts. He’s in Jerusalem, He’s doing what He said to do, preaching the good news. And the religious authorities, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders approached Jesus with a question. By what authority are you doing these things, who gave you this authority? It’s this kind of gotcha question where there’s gonna be no good answer and it’s going to get turned into a soundbite that puts Jesus in a bad light, and He knows what they’re doing. And so, He’s like, look, let me ask you a question that will reveal for all of us what’s really going on here, because you’re trying to put me in a position where there is no answer. So, He asked them, what about John? Was John’s baptism from heaven or did he make it up? Is it a human thing? He put them in the position they were trying to put Him in, and as the Gospel of Luke tells us, they have to go and discuss this among themselves because now they realize there is no answer for them to give. He’s put them in the same position. And so, they have to come back and ultimately say, we don’t know. And why did they say that? Because if they say he was from heaven, Jesus will ask why didn’t you believe him. And if they say he made it all up, its of human origin, then the people will be angry. They think the people will stone us. I’m quoting from Luke, “the people will stone us, because they’re persuaded that John was a prophet.” And so, they say we don’t know. And so, Jesus says, great no answer that I would’ve given you would have given you the answer. I’m not giving you an answer. But he actually did give them an answer by immediately turning as a rabbi into a parable about a man who planted a vineyard and rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. And in this parable, the man who planted the vineyard is God, and the tenants are the religious leaders, the scribes and Pharisees and teachers of the law, and the elders. And so, the man, God plants a vineyard and puts it in the charge of tenants. And when it’s time for the harvest, he sends for the share of the harvest. And with escalating violence they continue to throw out those who have come to collect on behalf of the master. The ones that are sent to collect, represent the prophetic voices that were sent over and over, over many generations, to God’s people. So, these mouthpieces, these voices, these people carrying the authority of the master to come and deliver a message and collect, are abused and thrown out as the prophets were. And then the owner of the vineyard. So, God said, what shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love, perhaps they will respect him, but when the tenants, right, the religious leaders saw him, they talked the matter over. This is the heir, they said, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours. So, they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Which is a prophetic word about what is about to happen. It’s like Jesus is telling the story that is about to happen. And they have this opportunity to recognize what’s about to happen and choose a different path. But that’s not what happens, they kill Jesus. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them, Jesus asks? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. The whole parable is to allow the people, the religious leaders, who know what He’s saying, to have this moment, this opportunity, this clarity before they continue forward. And as the Gospel of Luke tells us, the teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest Him immediately, because He knew, because they knew He had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people. So, rather than arresting Him, because they were afraid of the people, they tried to soundbite Him again and catch Him again. So, I quote from the Gospel of Luke, “keeping a close watch on Him, they sent spies who pretended to be sincere.” They hoped to catch Jesus in something He said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. And so, they sent people to ask Jesus questions about taxes, something they could get Jesus in trouble with the Romans. Jesus knows again what’s going on and brilliantly answers them. The question is do we pay taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus says show me a denarius, like, show me some money. Whose image is on this money? Caesars, they replied. And so, He says, then give to Caesar what belong to Caesar and give to God what is God’s. That’s a soundbite all right, but not the soundbite they were looking for. Not the way that they were trying to reduce Jesus to headline, turn Him over to the Romans and get rid of Him. But if we zoom forward into our own culture today, the idea of being trapped by words and malicious things happening once the words are reduced down into soundbites or headlines, this happens all of the time. This happens at work, this happens at school, this happens at home. This happens on the news; this happens on the Internet. This happens all of the time where we’re like trying to trap each other and reduce the whole thing down into a morsel, when there’s a whole story. We have an example of this in our Savior. We saw how He handled this kind of situation, but He had nothing to hide. And so, much of the time this sound biting you’re trying to reduce things that is trying to flesh out what’s hidden and He had nothing to hide. And so, He was able to clearheadedly see what was going on, what was flying at Him, to see the motive, so that He knew how to respond. And we see, from these examples today, that His responses expose the motive. Jesus didn’t get mad and go on some kind of tirade and say something that He would regret and something that would trap Him. He didn’t resort to any of that kind of aggression. He just simply told the truth and exposed what was going on. We can be the same way, if we’ll slow down, if we’ll pay attention, if we won’t be entrapped by words, if we won’t try to set word traps for others. The problem is, the problem is we have a culture, a Christian culture and we participate in this kind of stuff in the same way that the religious culture at the time of Jesus was attempting to box Him in. Let’s pay attention to what’s going on in Luke here. It’s not the people that are upset with Jesus. It’s not the Romans that are upset with Jesus. It’s the people in religious control that are upset with Jesus. It’s this, this is all a religious people thing that is going on in the Gospel of Luke today. Highly educated, trained, superior like the elite. The people in Jerusalem at the temple. It’s they that are doing this to Jesus. Maybe we could consider how we stop doing this to each other because there’s more to anyone than some kind of headline about them.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. That requires us to slow down and take a broader view and understand that humanity is much more complicated than soundbites and we are much more complicated than we can even understand about ourselves. And so, grace and mercy and love should pour into us, empathy should pour out from us, that we may be able to have eyes to see and ears to hear what’s really going on. So that we might, through the power of your Holy Spirit address what’s really going on instead of all of the superficial things. Come, Holy Spirit, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We pray, in the name of Jesus our Lord, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base and that is where to find out what’s happening around here. And so, be familiar with that. The Daily Audio Bible app will do that as well, very conveniently, right on your device. And so, search for Daily Audio Bible, wherever your app store is, and you can download the app for free from there. While you’re checking things out, check out the Community Section. There are links there to the different social media channels that we participate in, so you can follow along there and get connected there. That is also where the Prayer Wall lives and as we know, the Prayer Wall is there for us, always, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. No matter what’s going on in our lives, whether it’s mountain high or valley deep, we can always ask for prayer. We can always go and extend prayer and offer encouragement. This is one of the ways that we let each other know for sure, we’re not alone, we’re in this together. So, that is always available. We can ask, share our story, or we can just go and catch up on stories and offer encouragements. So, that’s Prayer Wall and that can be found in the Community Section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If you find that being around the Global Campfire is life-giving thing then thank you, humbly, for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. And so, there’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If it’s the app that you’re using, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial a number of numbers, depending on where you are. In the Americas 877-942-4253. If you are in the UK or Europe 44 2036 088078 is the number to call. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61 3 8820 5459 is the number to call.

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 DAB family, this is Mark Street from Sydney, Australia. Today is Thursday, the 13th of February and I’m just calling in for Show Me God’s Love. I heard you on this week’s community prayer. I just had a feeling, just to call in. Just to pray for you, Show Me God’s Love. I don’t know what it’s about, but I just want to pray for you. So, dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for Show Me God’s Love and his participation in this community. We love him very much, as You do, Father. I ask You to bless him in all things that he needs blessing in. Bless his family, his extended family and his life, Lord. Lord, restore anything to him that needs to be restored. Remove anything from his life that needs to be removed so that he and his extended family will feel Your love, more and more. In Your name, I pray. Amen. Love you family. Mark Street from Sydney, Australia. Bye.

Hi, my name is Becca in Bellingham. I am calling for prayers for myself and my whole family. My mom died last Monday morning and the whole family is just missing her and all 25 grandchildren are going to just have this hole in their life. And I’m just asking for prayers for God to surround us with His comfort and care. I have felt Jesus so near and I just pray that He would continue to be near us. And I thank Him for all the years that He did give us with our precious fierce loving sweet mother. Just asking you to lift us up in prayer. This is Becca in Bellingham. Thank you.

Good evening family. It’s Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada. And this evening, I want to pray for all the pastors in the Daily Audio Bible family, including Pastor Brian, of course. Because Shepherding outside Seattle pastor called in and wanted prayers for himself and his small congregation. And as my friends and I were studying Salomon this week, Salomon recognized that he had an enormous group of people that he had to lead. And when it was asked what he wanted, he told God it was wisdom to care for the people. And so, I’m gonna pray this over our pastors. And I pray God and I thank you for the pastors You have given unto us who fill us with knowledge and understanding. Thank you that those who are placed over us, to feed us up would fear no more, nor are we dismayed or lacking in anyway. Thank You Father for watching over our pastors and their families, their marriages, their homes, their possessions, their congregation. For giving your angels charge over them to keep them in all their ways. May no evil befall them, and no plague come near dwelling. Thank you that they are intent in your words, they incline their ears to Your sayings, they do not let them deprive from their eyes. And they keep them in the midst of their hearts. Your word is life unto them and health to all their flesh. Oh, so I pray for them as they go forth, standing on your word and being nourished by Your Holy Spirit. So, as they shepherd the flock that You have …

Greetings, from Springfield, Missouri, fellow DABers, I’m calling in a prayer in response to the wife that called in for her husband and the group that went hiking and lost one of their hikers to a tragic fall. So, that I’m just calling on You right now, God, that You would come alongside each one of these men and their families. And especially the family of the lost man that God that You would come along and sit beside them and minister to them, God. That Your word says that You are close to the crushed in spirit and the broken hearts. So, God, I just pray that You make Yourself Holy, present with them, God. That they could almost reach out and touch You, feeling Your presence, Lord. And God, that You would be with this family, who lost their father, their husband. God, that You would be gracious and merciful to them, God. That they would have a community of believers surround them, minister to them, comfort them, and walk this jury of grief with them. God, that You are the great healer and merciful, compassionate Father, and they would see that in this time. We thank you Jesus, that You’re a personal, up-close God, that cares deeply for us.

Hey family, how are you? It’s Prodigal returning. Anyway, I’ve been with Brian and you guys for 18 years or whatever and just for some reason, just tried some other things. They were good, the Chosen and worked with some other good people but got very crushed financially, physically. Three bad surgeries didn’t work. So, I want to get out my point. As I was driving yesterday, and I, all of a sudden, Blind Tony’s poem on the 14th came on. Which was exactly the most convicting, perfect thing I could ever need. And…and I want to thank you Blind Tony, I really do. I’ve listened to you from the beginning, bro. And then a few of you who know my story, I was on the edge a long, long time ago. And was gonna take myself out and I’m sitting there, just ready to do it, guns in my hand, in my lap, and all of a sudden, the Daily Audio Bible comes on and there’s Brian. And so, God wants me to do something. I just pray, I need your prayers to help me figure it out. Because I am physically broken, spiritually broken, financially destroyed, and that’s not important, I need to get back and walk with Him. We used to walk on the beach every morning, Jesus and I. Somehow, I lost that. I’m back, I’m coming back. And I hope to be able to pitch in and add to the light here. So, God bless you all. Know I pray for you, I’ve been praying for you guys forever. So, I’m back. God Bless you. Prodigal out.

Joshua 19:1-20:9, Luke 19:28-48, Psalms 88:1-18, Proverbs 13:12-14

Today is the 19^th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today as we gather yet again around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together, which leads us back to where we left off, which leads us back into the book of Joshua. And we are at the point of…in Joshua where the different allotments of territory to the different tribes are being assigned. And, so, that’s where we will continue until we get through that portion of Joshua. Today, Joshua chapters 19 and 20. 

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s talk about God in tears, God crying today. And let’s go into the book of Luke, because we see this…this tear filled seen in the gospel of Luke. We spent some time in Jericho, right, with the blind man, with Zacchaeus climbing up in the tree and we looked at those things. Now we’re moving into Jerusalem. And, so, Jesus has walked 18 miles from Jericho uphill pretty much the whole way up to Jerusalem. And we watched Him, you know, we watched the disciples go to get the donkey and He’s sitting on the donkey and riding in, and this is known as the…the triumphal entry and this is something that gets commemorated on Palm Sunday, which…which we observed earlier in this month. So, people are waving palm branches and putting their cloaks down in front of the donkey, and they’ve covered the donkey with cloaks that Jesus can sit on and they’re celebrating and their worshiping God and there saying hosanna to the son of David. They’re…they’re like celebrating. And then they get to the top of the Mount of Olives, crest the monologues, begin to come down the other side and that’s when the scene changes. When you crest the Mount of Olives, kind of at that point on the ancient roads you’re looking down over Jerusalem. You’re above it. You’re looking down at it. Even today it and it's…all its modern…modernity. When you Crest the Mount of Olive from that point you are looking down on the old city of Jerusalem down upon the Temple Mount. As I mentioned before, that’s kind of the quintessential postcard view. And, so, when Jesus crested the Mount of Olives and began to work His way down the other side, He wouldn’t have looked down upon the dome of the rock that is there now. He would’ve looked down upon the temple of the most-high God. That’s where things switch because as the gospel of Luke says, He approached Jerusalem and saw the city and wept over it and said, “if you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace. But now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you and your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” We can read those words and go, well that’s harsh judgment, harsh prediction or we could understand that this is being said through tears. God in the person of Jesus is weeping as He says this. This isn’t harsh judgment. This is mourning over what could have been. And Jesus foretold of a time that would come where they would be walled in and under siege and…and that was…that was correct and it wouldn’t take that long, a few decades later and the Romans were done with the…the Jewish uprising and revolts, and they came and absolutely completely destroyed Jerusalem. And from that point forward Jews weren’t even allowed in that area, in that city. It was re-built to be a Roman city and Jews weren’t even allowed for a long time. Jesus had come. God had come to show the ways of God’s kingdom, a kingdom that the people were crying out for day and night, and He came to answer them. He was the answer and continually throughout his ministry He was revealing what they were looking for and the way to it. But they could not see any other way to overthrow the global superpower that was the Roman Empire short of a Messiah who would lead them in military revolt. And in mere days Jerusalem would chew Jesus up and spit him out as it were. The people that Jesus loved would reject Him, and not just marginalize Him, they would kill Him. And then within the next decades they would attempt the kind of revolt they were looking for the Messiah to lead and they did, and it did not work. The result was the absolute destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem, including the utter destruction of the temple. Once again, we have this fork in the road where we can see two different paths that lead in two different directions, understanding that there was a way to peace and the path to destruction was chosen. Can we at least acknowledge that we walk these paths as well? We might cry out to God for something that we need or some kind of circumstance to change or people to be moved in or out of our lives or anything that we strive after, and He may come, and He may answer, and He may try to rescue. But we’re so certain about what it is we need, and our assumptions and expectations are in the mix that we can’t even see that He’s trying to show us the way to peace. But we’re rejecting it in favor of this other idea that we think we’ve got to have. He…He might rescue us and we’re not even paying attention, which eventually leads us to think that He…He’s not gonna help, because He’s not gonna help. He’s not gonna obey us. We are to obey Him. And we miss it because we’re not even paying attention. And, so, we attempt to force our will onto the situation and create the environment that we wanted Him to make for us, which could very well be the path that leads to a complete downfall. The part here that’s really penetrating and that should stop us in our tracks is that this…this circumstance, this kind of behavior is sad enough to make God cry. In the example from the gospel of Luke today it’s a longing and a mourning for what could have been if they were just listening if they were just ready. What about us? What could’ve been if we had just been aware and ready? And is that the story we want to be telling here or do we just want to be alert, awake, observant and ready? If we want that then we have to set aside what we think we know. We have to set aside all of the expectations and come to God and say help, I surrender, show me the way to peace. I am willing. Let’s give it some time today to ruminate in our spirits. Let’s give it some thought today in just how much we aren’t paying attention because we’re very very busy paying attention to ourselves.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into this. We all have to agree that we know what it…what it means to go our own way. We know what it means to stop waiting on You, to stop trusting You to believe that You’re not going answer and so we gotta come through for ourselves. And very likely we have all experienced where that road can lead, and it can lead into some pretty bad and dark places. And, so, we begin by asking forgiveness. We also confess our repentance, which means we turn around and go a different way, that that way doesn’t work, and we return to a willing heart and a submissive spirit to Your will and Your ways and Your leadership in our lives. Holy Spirit come lead us into all truth. This is our continual ask. This is our continual prayer, that You would lead us on the pathways of truth on the narrow path that leads to life, that You would be a light to our feet and illuminate our paths and show us when we are stepping in the wrong direction. We ask in Your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base and that is where you can always find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app do that’s right there in the palm of your hand on your device’s search for Daily Audio Bible in the app store that works with your phone or device, and you should be able to find it and download it from there. So, check it out.

Check of the different sections like the Community section. This is where to get connected. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop there are resources there for the journey that we are on as a community through the Bible in a year.

And if you want to partner with Daily Audio Bible, if the mission that we share to bring God’s word read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone, anywhere, anytime anybody that will listen can encounter the Scriptures at any time and to build community around that so that were not just encountering the Scriptures we’re also reminding ourselves continually we’re not alone. We have brothers and sisters throughout the earth who are on this journey together. If that is life-giving to you then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right hand corner for the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Springhill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

Joshua 16:1-18:28, Luke 19:1-27, Psalm 87:1-7, Proverbs 13:11

Today is the 18th day of April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today, around the Global Campfire in the springtime, at least here in the northern hemisphere. And watching everything come back full force here in the South, in the rolling hills of Tennessee. And I trust that it is a beautiful, beautiful day, wherever you may be. It’s always a beautiful day here, around the Global Campfire together, each day and find a place to be together soon, just know that we’re together. There is never a time that we’re listening that somebody else isn’t so, it’s fantastic that we can gather again and take another step forward. And our next step is at the very point where we left off, as it is every day. And so, we are moving back into the Book of Joshua today. And we’re kind of reading through the different allotments of land now, so there was a lot of battle and conquest. The children of Israel were attacked a couple times by many of the different kings in the region and they won. And so, they were able to take over massive pieces of the land, in short order. But there is still plenty left to do at this point. We’re sort of reading through the boundaries for the different tribes of the children of Israel as they move into their inheritance in the Promised Land. So, today, Joshua chapters 16, 17 and 18.

Commentary:

Okay, so, yesterday, we were talking about Jesus arriving in the Jordan Valley, moving through Jericho and the blind man crying out desperate enough to disrupt the crowd, even though he was further being marginalized. And that his cry got the attention of Jesus that cry, “Lord, have mercy upon me,” is a cry of the heart that the Lord hears. And so, Jesus stopped everything he was doing, restored his site we talked about that, opening our eyes to see what is going on and how we are here to put back together what is broken, instead of continuing to break things further. Now, we’ve kind of gotten through town, we’re still in Jericho today was, maybe got to the middle or to the other side of the town. And there’s a tax collector he, he is kind of, marginalized by the marginalized. Like, he’s a Hebrew but the people paid him, he’s Jewish but he’s a tax collector on behalf of Rome and so he’s a traitor and so he’s already marginalized is Hebrew and he’s marginalized by his fellow Hebrews as a tax collector. But he wants to see Jesus while He’s passing through, he wants to see what’s going on. And the problem is he’s just a little guy. He’s just a little guy and can’t see over the crowd and he can’t get close. And so, he runs ahead and climbs a tree, which is funny in and of itself. So, here’s this little guy who is a tax collector and so, may have financial resources, but doesn’t have a lot of community, marginalized by his own people for his work. He’s a sinner. For some reason, when I think about this story and Jesus is kind of walking through Jericho, He still has the weight of the world, like He, He still has to go to Jerusalem and die. But He’s moving through Jericho and He’s healed the blind man and I can just see Him walking through Jericho with this crowd of people all around Him. And He looks up and sees this guy in a tree and it’s Zacchaeus and He knows it. And I just picture with a smile on His face cause He’s looking up at this tree. Saying, you need to come down bud. You need to come down because I’m coming to your house, which actually disrupted the crowd that was escorting Jesus through Jericho, waiting to see what He would say or what He would do. They were, they were all of a sudden displeased. They’re trying to figure out if Jesus is the Messiah and is about to you know, sound the battle cry and rally the troops. And here He is going to a tax collector’s house to be the guest of a sinner. Which is what they say, I quote from Luke, “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner, they grumbled.” Which, once again, shows the disconnect from the people and what Jesus was doing. He said what He had come to do was to heal the brokenhearted and set the captive free. He said He had come to seek and save what was lost and He’s just doing what He said He came to do, but it doesn’t fit their paradigm. And we’ve seen crowds turn on Jesus before and in short order, we’re going to make it to Jerusalem and we’re gonna see the crowds turn on Him again. They’re going to be Hosanna to the son of David as He comes into Jerusalem, and like a couple of days later they’re gonna be like, crucify Him, crucify Him. Which helps us to at least take a glimpse of the fact that we can get caught up in the mob mentality and be doing the same kinds of things, breaking things, instead of putting them back together. Ironically with the disruption that’s going on Zacchaeus doesn’t seem to be paying all that much attention to the commotion that’s all around. He found that he was in the presence of somebody like nobody he’s ever met before. And so, he’s sitting there in his house with Jesus, realizing this is a whole other thing going on. And he says, and I quote from Luke, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much.” This is Zacchaeus, who’s marginalized by the marginalized, agreeing to give up the only power that he has in his, his vocation and in his money and to give it back any ill-gotten gain, to give it back to the people who need it. And Jesus responds to that, that statement, that commitment, is that salvation has come to this house. So, the displeasure of the people for watching Jesus go and have a meal with a notorious sinner, juxtaposes against the fact that Zacchaeus has completely repented, and his life is different. He was restored. And that gives us another opportunity as the Bible is prone to do, to look at ourselves in the mirror. Because we can be following along in the crowd, following Jesus where He’s leading, a part of the crowd. And I don’t mean like, a part of the crowd in Jericho, I mean like a part of the faith journey of fellow brothers and sisters who are following Jesus. And so, we can be in the crowd of people following Jesus and then we make all kinds of assumptions and statements about what Jesus does and what Jesus does not do and who He does not for sure do it with. But again, Jesus was not unclear about what He was doing: healing the brokenhearted, setting captives free, seeking and saving what was lost. And that’s still what He’s doing, thankfully or what, what would our stories be, if he hadn’t come to heal our broken hearts and set us free from captivity, and seek us out and save what was lost? He did this for Zacchaeus, despite the displeasure of the people who are following along in the crowd with Him. He will still do that, despite our displeasure. So, we have to kind of think about who may be inadvertently being marginalized by us, by our tribe, who is the notorious sinner, who are the notorious sinners, that all we want is for God to judge, for God to rise up and retaliate. What if He retaliates by pursuing them their entire lives as He has done for every single one of us? What if we took up our cross and followed Him.

Prayer:

And Holy Spirit, come, into this. We’re all guilty of all kinds of things. We aren’t deserving of a moment, a nano second of Your attention. That we are here at all, is a gift, and a grace, and a mercy upon us. And that You have sustained us, reveals Your patience and endurance for us. And we, we’ve grown accustomed to expecting that. And somehow, we’ve grown accustomed to thinking that we don’t have to follow Your way, that we don’t have to actually imitate You, that we don’t have to do what You were doing. And yet, all of these examples that have been memorialized in the New Testament, in the Gospels, are there to teach us how to be, by following Your example. So, that brings up all kinds of things for us to think about today, we invite Your Holy Spirit to help us think about them today. Keep this upon our minds, as we interact with life and the world today. We pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, it is the website. That’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Alternatively, the Daily Audio Bible app will put that in the palm of your hand, nice and convenient, and you can download that from the App Store that works with your phone or your tablet. So, check that out. And while you’re doing the checking out, check out the different sections like the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of different departments, categories there in the Shop, that all have resources in them that have been developed for the journey that we are on, moving our way, day-by-day, step-by-step through the Scriptures. So, there’s a broad amount of categories there, with a lot of different things. And so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If being around the Global Campfire each day is life-giving, then thank you, humbly and deeply for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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, DAB Family, it’s Veronica, going by Hopeful. I’m calling with such a heavy heart today. I know this might sound trivial cause there are so many other needs here, but I’m grieving today. I had called about my husband and I being childless and how we had prayed for us to make peace with this. Then, everything fell into place for us to pursue fertility treatment. And somehow, almost by a miracle, we were able to go through with the treatment, only to find out yesterday that it simply did not work. We have traveled out of the country for this procedure and endured all the shots, medications. Only to be left empty handed, yet again. It’s hard for me not to feel like I’m cursed with a barren womb. I’ve asked the Lord to help me more times than I can count. Our hearts are crushed is an understatement. The tears of disappointment will not stop this morning. And please pray for my husband, Anthony. I know he’s in much pain as I am. Please pray for our marriage. I’m so tired of crying over this same situation. I don’t even know what to pray for anymore, other than, please pray for our hearts to heal and for us to allow the Lord to direct our steps as to what to do, going forward. Thank you DAB and God Bless all of you. Bye Bye.

Good morning, Daily Audio Bible, my name is Melissa. I’m calling from California. I’m calling cause an online friend, someone I’ve never met, but I had tremendous respect for, has committed suicide. Ashley was this beautiful woman who saved cats and kittens and shared their storied online. She arranged their adoptions; she got them healthy and ready to move on to their forever homes. She was always very honest about her depression and her mental illness. She was always very forthright in the fact that her father had committed suicide. And on April 6th she committed suicide, and my heart is shattered. I don’t know how to process this because she is such a beautiful woman and so much for so many. So, I pray for her mom as she goes through this terrible ordeal. I pray for the pets that she left behind. I pray for all of us who were touched by her, in the smallest of ways, in the largest of ways. And I pray for anyone who is dealing with suicidal thoughts. God be with you. God bless you. Amen.

Hi, it’s Audrie from Marino Valley and I just wanted to check in with all of you and let you know how things are going. I know there are so many of you that have been praying for me and my son, Christian. And I feel that it’s important to let you know how things are going along the journey. It is by God’s grace simply, that is it. Your prayers and being faithful to the promises that God has given, me especially, that keep me moving forward in this season of my life. It’s not easy. And so, therefore, asking for prayers always. But seeing God do His good work and what He promised years ago, is more than I can explain to you without just great joy. Keep praying and thank you. We covet your prayers and, and I want you to know, I do pray for those of you that call in and even those that don’t, that haven’t called in, in a long time. We pray for you always. Hi, it’s Christian. I’m still sober and that’s what I’m gonna remain to be, is sober for the rest of my life. Because I owe it my kids and to God, first and foremost and for getting me out of that lifestyle. And anybody’s that listening that is struggling with addiction, keep fighting for sobriety. It changes your life. It’s a blessing and yeah, DAB on fellow DABers. Thank you. God bless you. We’re praying for you, each and every one of you. Thank you, Brian, for this platform.

Good evening, friends, this is Wind and Water. Wanted to pray and lift up Ashley from California who just asked for help through a season, her son is sick, and she just needs hope. She wants to push through and just humbly seek You and to grow and for Your will to be done, Father. And I just pray for that in Ashley’s life and I pray for her son, please heal. And Father, I also want to lift up Little Pinguin from South Africa. Praise God that she is back with Jesus and it’s a lot because of what Brian does and because of the whole DAB community. So, thank you for that. And welcome back Little Pinguin. She just prays for her country of South Africa, that there are so many people fleeing, and they could do the work that needs to be done there. And she just prays for maybe a change of heart in those people. And also, she prays for her boyfriend, who has been abused and who has differences with his father, Father. And Abba, I just pray that You would bless him, though her. Help her to be a good influence and Father, help healing to come about. And finally, I want to join with God’s Chosen from Georgia in praying over all DABers. Thank You Jesus, for this community. We pray for healing, restoration, reconciliation, and redemption. And Father, God, we ask for Your Shalom. It’s Jesus Holy Perfect and Precious name we pray. Amen.

Hello, this is Manita from Lomberg. Hello my siblings. I love you guys, my family. I’m so thankful for Brian and Jill and China. I started with Brian many years ago. And I wanna thank you, Brian, for leading me back into the word of God. God uses you tremendously, to minister to me in your readings and your powerful words and prayers, thank you. And I’ve been wanting to thank Ezekiel. Thank you, Ezekiel, for joining your family on April Fool’s Day. That was really amazing. Thank you so much, your family is amazing, Ezekiel. You are amazing. I was so surprised on April 1st when other family got together and, for the reading of the word of God. That was, that was powerful. I just wanted to thank you; I’m praying for you Ezekiel. You continue to grow in ways, favor of God. I’ll be listening to you forever, you know, until the Lord comes and picks up His church. Thank you so much, everyone for your prayers and encouragement. You guys are the best. I love you guys. This is an encouragement for those that are behind, hang in there and continue to listen. Don’t get ….

Joshua 15:1-63, Luke 18:18-43, Psalms 86:1-17, Proverbs 13:9-10

Today is the 17^th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather yet again around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward like we do every day. And our next step leads us back into the book of Joshua. And today we’ll read Joshua chapter 15.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in the gospel of Luke today, we are now turning toward Jerusalem, which is what Jesus has…has told his disciples in our reading from today, we’re going to Jerusalem, and I’m going to be taken from you, basically. And the disciples don't…they don’t get it. As…as…as the gospel of Luke tells us they don’t understand. And this is in…in part because of their expectations. The idea of the Messiah wasn’t like a foreign concept to the Hebrew people. They were waiting for an Anointed One to come and lead them back to God and…and…and get their land back and dedicate it back to God. And…and just kind of diving into that really gives us a true glimpse even of our own world. There were prophetic words that they were leaning on that one day, God would rescue them, that there would be an Anointed One, but from where they sat or where they stood, where they lived, from where their lives were being lived they were in their ancestral homeland, but it was not their land. It was part of the Roman Empire. It was the province of Syria. It was controlled and governed by Rome. So, on the one hand you have Hebrew people that are just assimilating going like this is pretty good. We get all our needs met, everything is good and just try to assimilate. But then there are other people that are trying to worship the Lord God and are separating themselves because of the mixture in the land. And there are other people that are like, the only way this is gonna work, the only way is that there is Anointed…Anointed One that comes and leads us in a military overthrow of Rome pushing them into the sea, getting them out of the land and restoring the land to God. This is the only way they could see like a tangible victory that made any sort of rational sense. And, so, they’re kind of leaning in this direction. And the territory thar Jesus came from, the Galilee region even…even going back into the intertestamental period, the time between the old and the new Testaments, this is an area known for zealotry for rebellion for…I mean, depending on which side of the equation you’re on, for terrorism, for that kind of stuff, for like ambushes and all kinds of skirmishes. And, so, nobody was expecting what…what Jesus did, and it creates a sharp contrast with the way that we think all oftentimes. We think power through strength, respect through strength and dominance when…when Jesus modeled humility, forgiveness, and love, and sacrifice. He conquered the darkness and the power of death and hell by that example, a very different example than a messianic figure that rises up and creates military unrest and becomes a warlord. And that’s on a macro level. But if we bring it down to a micro level and kind of put it in our own laps, it’s like how we react when the wrong thing gets said with the wrong tone of voice. Like, do we retaliate and start a verbal war, or do we begin to understand that love is a more powerful weapon than any of the disruptions in our lives. Like, Jesus is modeling that love actually does conquer all even if it looks like defeat. The cross changed the entire world, right, including our own lives. Like we are absolutely affected by this If not irreversibly changed by this. And, so, this is our model. And, so, Jesus is telling the disciples this is gonna happen. They don’t completely understand what He’s saying. They arrive in Jericho, which is a desert city in the Jordan Valley. This is the way that the journey was often made. Its…it’s a desert route, but it’s flat land and you’re not up and down and up and down through all of the hills and mountains. So, Jesus is moving through Jericho when a blind man sitting by the side of the road hears that He’s coming through. We’ve seen this story before. And he cries out, “have mercy on me, son of David”, and he won’t stop calling out, “please have mercy on me. Please have mercy, son of David”, even as everyone around him is telling him to shut up and trying to marginalize and push him to the outer boundaries where he can’t be heard. He keeps yelling for mercy. God hears that kind of cry all through the Bible, that humble reaching, that humble longing, crying out, “have mercy on me”. And, so, indeed it gets the attention of Jesus who stops everything. And let’s remember, Jesus has told His disciples what’s gonna happen to Him. They understand…they didn’t understand, but He does. He understands. And, so, like, this scene, it has a lot of weight when we read it because the weight of the world is on Jesus. He’s got a walk up to Jerusalem and be tortured to death and He knows it. Like if you know that kind of knowledge, you’re probably going to be very very very distracted. But Jesus stops everything for this guy. And He gets near the man and says, “what do you want me to do for you?” And the man replies, “I want to see”. And Jesus says, “receive your site. Your faith has healed you.” It’s such a beautiful scene. It’s such a riveting scene. It’s such an important scene in our own lives and it illustrates what we were just talking about, Jesus telling His disciples what’s going to happen, and they can’t see it. They are blind to it. And what does Jesus say about the kingdom, “for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.” Many expected military uprising and overthrow from the Messiah, but they didn’t have eyes to see that forgiveness and love was the way to reconciliation, to putting things back together instead of breaking them down further. That’s our role friends in following Jesus along the path of faith putting things back together. And, so, when that thing gets said with the wrong tone of voice and what rises up in us is retaliation, that’s the moment of truth right there. Will we return good for evil? Will we respond with love knowing that it’s not a week thing, that it actually takes a whole lot more strength and a whole lot more focus to love in the face of it than it does to simply retaliate and continue to break things down further? God’s work is redemption. God’s work is putting things back together. When we go out into the world and continue to break things down because we don’t have eyes to see we’re not helping. And, so, may we begin to get desperate enough for God and desperate enough to see that like this blind man, we will scream out, have mercy upon me, I know I’m blind. I know I can’t see, have mercy upon me. And may we hear Jesus coming up alongside of us asking us, what you want me to do for you? And may we respond. I want to see. And may we hear receive your site your faith has healed you. This is life changing things. Like this is transformational for us. We open our eyes and see what’s going on and get on board with what God is doing in this world. And at the basest level we can understand that if we’re retaliating or if we’re jumping into the fray and actually breaking things further that’s not the right direction. We’re in the direction of redemption and restoration and reconciliation. We’re in the direction of wholeness. We’re moving in the direction that puts us back together again and that we get to participate in putting the world back together. Let’s give it some thought today. There’s not a downside here other than maybe our pride, like other than our arrogance, other than things that we have to control anyway. There’s no downside. What if we experiment in our home? What if we just take a week and go, I will respond in love. I will respond in love. That doesn’t mean I’ll become the doormat. That means I will respond and love. I will not further break another thing down in my relationships in my home. That’s the place to start, just to see if this is the truth, just to…like we’ve come here to read through the whole Bible and many of us have been through the Bible together around the Global Campfire many many years and the Bible continues to confront us in every conceivable way possible in order to get our eyes open, that we might see so that we might walk the path of wholeness.

Prayer:

Jesus we invite You into this. It’s You we need, and You have modeled a path that is a difficult path in the face of the world that we live in. And the fallenness of our human nature and our lust for power and dominance, we see what You were facing. We also see what You’ve modeled for us, that redemption is the way. Putting things back together, restoring, making things new is the way. And we have to confess that we have participated in tearing lots of things down through our thoughts, our words and our deeds, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. Forgive us Lord. We repent. And by saying that we repent, because we can say anything, we’re confessing that we need to go in a different direction and we need Your help to guide us. Come Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, that’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app will put that in the palm of your hand and that app can be downloaded from whatever app store is connected to your smart device. Just search for Daily Audio Bible and enjoy.

Check out the Community section. The Community section has different links to the different social media channels that we participate in. And, so, that’s a good way to communicate. If you’re following along that allows us to…well…that allows us to do lots of things like post words of encouragement, but it also allows us to let you know what’s going on. So, check those links out and follow along if you are connected to any of those platforms. The Community section is also the home of the Prayer Wall. And the Prayer Wall is there for us. It’s not all over the place. It’s there for us as a community around the Global Campfire taking the next step forward every day. And we have to do that. We take the next step forward every day but sometimes the next step forward leads us into situations that we don’t know how to navigate or into circumstances that feel like they’re gonna crush us. Of course, sometimes we take the next step forward into complete calm and serenity and we’ve come out of the storm. And, so, it’s this kind of back-and-forth, the ebb and flow of life together. But that’s the thing, together. So often we’re like shouldering these burdens and just getting crushed when we could reach out for our brothers and sisters to just simply encourage us, pray for us, be there with us in it. And that is the Prayer Wall. It’s there for us to share our stories and invite our brothers and sisters to pray for us. And they do. And it’s also a place to pray. Maybe we’re in that season where things are going pretty well right now, but we know what it felt like to be in the storm. And the Prayer Wall is a great place to go and come alongside those who are in the storm and let them know, I know how you feel, I’ve been through this, you’re going to be okay. I’m praying for you. That is the Prayer Wall and that can be found in the Community section, either on the website or on the Daily Audio Bible app.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission to bring God’s word read fresh every day and offered freely to the world, if that…if that offering each day brings life and good news and thank you humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

Josh 13:1-14:15, Luke 18:1-17, Psalm 85:1-13, Proverbs 13:7-8

Today is the 16th day of April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you today, as we greet a brand-new, shiny week that is out here in front of us friends. Here we are sitting around the Global Campfire, looking out over this brand-new week and it, it’s all clean and pretty. It’s all out there, nothing, nothing has really happened yet, we haven’t lived it yet. We will tell the story of this week, by writing it with our lives, with our thoughts and our words and our deeds. So, we are doing well to center ourselves in the Scriptures and take the next step forward into this week together. And our next step will lead us back into the Book of Joshua. We’ve seen twice now that a bunch of kings allied themselves together to attack Israel, only to be defeated. This is how most of the conquest of the Promised Land happened. Armies gathered together to eradicate Israel and then were unsuccessful, Israel, thereby taking over the land. And so, we will read from the New International Version this week and pick up the story where we left off, Joshua chapters 13 and 14 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for this brand-new week. And like we were thinking about at the very beginning, it’s out in front of us. And we need You. We sit here out in front of this week and look into it and yeah, it’s shiny and sparkly, but we can make a mess of things. We have done plenty in our lives to make a mess of our days and weeks and so, we know what that looks and feels like. And yet, at the beginning of a new week, each week, here we can reflect upon what is out in front of us and choose to follow You, choose to slow down and consider where You are leading. And so, Holy Spirit, come and lead us on our steps, lead us in our interactions with others. Help us to remember that we are to love one another as we love ourselves. Help us to have that posture toward each other. This posture of humility that we were talking about this past week in the Gospels of humbly doing our service. Help us in the choices that come our way this week. Some of them may be really big and consequential, and some of them may be small that lead to big things and we don’t always know, we need Your leadership. Help us in our communication, may we soften our hearts, so that our language may be softer and kinder, not just for the sake of aa humble posture, but so that we may bring life through our words and not death. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good afternoon, DAB Family. This is Justify Now in North Carolina. It’s April 7th, Good Friday. Just wanted to call in and say that I’m so grateful and appreciative for what Jesus did for us so many years ago. He sacrificed His life for you and me and He paid that price for our sins and I’m so grateful. And I’m so glad to be saved. Just wanna thank Brian for that wonderful commentary today about this hurricane of worry that we live in. It resounded with me so much. You hit so many points that was so spot on, Brian. That word says fear not what is blocked but ___ good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God bless you Brian and I pray for you and your family and all the DABers. Pray that ya’ll have a very blessed resurrection day. Love you now. Bye bye.

Hi, my name’s Andrea. I’ve been listening for a couple years, and I called in once before. I’m not sure if it got posted but I really need prayers for my son Jayden. He is 19 years old. He’ll be 20 in October. He’s away at college and he’s on his second round of Accutane. This isn’t a mild case of acne; it came out of nowhere the first time. We thought we had it under control. He went away to college and his face exploded. He came home around Christmas time and was put back on Accutane. His severe scaring from the first round and now his face is so blown up he can barely eat on either side of his mouth. They put him on a steroid to try to calm it down, they’ve lowered the dose, now they’re lowering it again. It’s just so bad that it’s causing him issues in his own life. I don’t even know if I could go outside the way he looks, it’s heartbreaking. He’s one of the kindest people I know and has a heart for God and prays. And my heart is breaking for him. No one should suffer like this, and I don’t know what’s causing it. They don’t know why it won’t stop. Just pray for my son. As a mother, it’s hard to watch your son struggle, being so far away, having to blood work and getting bloody noses and it’s just painful. Very painful to watch. Something is causing this, and they don’t know what to do. High doses of the stuff is dangerous for your body, long term. And the scaring is horrible. So, please I’m just asking that you would all pray for my son, Jayden, and lift him up. That God would heal whatever is causing this condition to happen in his body. I appreciate it very much. Thank you DAB family. I love you, bye.

Hi, everyone, this is Janean from Washington. I hope you all had a nice Easter. And this morning I wanted to lift up Garret in prayer. I was very touched by his call this morning. And so, Father, we just lift up Garret to You. Thank You for his life. I thank You for his desire to serve You. And I just thank You for his honesty in sharing his struggles with depression and alcoholism. And today, Lord, I just ask that You would pour out Your mercy and Your grace and Your love upon him. I pray that he would know how much You care about him, Father. And for all of us, You’ve removed our sins, as far as the East is from the West. And I thank You for that, Lord. And just assure him of that love and forgiveness that You have. And, and moving forward, Father, I just pray for just great strength for him as he faces different issues in life, as we all do, Father. Would You just give him the grace and strength to reach out to You and when the enemy tries to tempt him to turn to alcohol, Lord, just may he just run to You and to Your word, to other Christians who can support him. And so, Father, I just ask for Your grace and mercy once again, to be upon him today. And just strengthen him and encourage him. Thank You for his desire to walk worthy of the calling You’ve given him. I pray that You’d help him to do that, Lord, by Your strength and Your power. And we just lift him up today now, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Hello, Daily Audio Bible Family, this is Diana, His Dearly Beloved in Washington State, formerly from Minnesota. I just heard from Justin, which made my heart so happy. Justin, formerly of Southern California, now of Memphis. I’ve been praying for you for years, dear brother. And many others, that I keep waiting to hear from again. So, my heart was so blessed in hearing from you. I’m very sorry for the challenges that you’ve been having and, but you know, as you said, if you’re looking for truth, you’ve definitely come to the right place. So, I will continue praying for you. Super excited that you called in. And I would also like to ask for prayer for an upcoming surgery for me. I had a surgery last week. I had pancreatitis and had four stones removed from my common bowel duct, because I no longer have a gull bladder, that was removed in 2001. And now have a surgery for an abdominal hernia. I’ve had multiple surgeries over the last two years and, and I had a nine-pound baby in my past and I’m over 60. So, I’m now kind of struggling with some structural weakness of my abdomen. So, I’m gonna have an elective surgery to help put in a mesh binder to hopefully fix that. So, anyway, just wanted to, I was so happy to hear from Justin. I love you all. I hope you had a blessed Easter. Take care. Bye.

Okay DABers, this is Eyes of a Dove. I had to wait all day to call you guys. I’ve been fairly emotional, numb, kind of shell shocked actually. All be 47 years old this July. So, I guess I’m not a young one, right. However, I know that the Lord has designed me for eternity, and I don’t believe it’s my time to leave this earth, anytime soon. A couple days ago, I went in for my yearly mammogram. And this morning, Monday morning, I received a message that they have found a 1.3-centimeter mass in my right chest, with blurry edges, I guess, or uneven edges. It’s oval in shape. And it’s about half the size of a pea. I don’t know how to feel. It’s 30 days before my wedding and the enemy is just doesn’t want, doesn’t want this marriage to happen. Oh man, we’ve just had it. It’s just been overwhelming friends. Every single day there’s been something. Nearly semi-breaking down, trying to find a car for Braden, every car breaking down. The car we bought; they scammed us. And we’re trying to make the best of a situation, take it day-by-day. But this one just bulldozed me. I still have my young ones. It’s not time. And I know that that’s a small tumor, right. And I don’t receive that it’s anything but benign, in Jesus name. But yeah, I’m afraid. They can’t get me in until the end of April. And they would be one and half to two-hour extensive imaging appointment. But at the end, the doctor will give me results as to where I’m at. And I’m praying that I can get in sooner and I’m praying that it will be benign. And I pray for healing. Will you join me?