2 Kings 9:14-10:31, Acts 17:1-34, Psalm 144:1-15, Proverbs 17:27-28
Today is the 26th day of June, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today, like every day as we gather again, yet again, day-by-day, step-by-step and take the next step forward. And our next step leads us back to where we left off, that happens to be the book of Second Kings right now. And so, let’s pick up the story, Second Kings chapter 9 verse 14 through 10 verse 31 today.
Commentary:
Okay so, as we continue our journey through the Book of Acts, we’re back out on the road with Paul. So, we’re on the second missionary journey now, depicted in the Book of Acts. And we got a snapshot today of Paul in three different locations and this little snapshot gives us a view of the way that Paul adapts to who he’s talking to. So, we have this picture of Paul in Thessalonica, he’s in the synagogue, he’s opening the Scriptures and revealing that Jesus is a part of the Hebrew story, a part of the Hebrew heritage. That the Jewish Messiah, and many came to faith and believed. Of course, opposition arrived, as it seems to have arrived everywhere that Paul goes, as the good news continues to spread throughout the world. And so, a mob forms and Paul and Silas have to sneak out at night and then they go to the next city and that’s called Berea, and Paul goes to the synagogue again among the Jewish people. The Berean’s have a different reaction than those in Thessalonica. The Berean’s are listening diligently, they’re studying the Scriptures to sort of trace what Paul is laying out for them. They have a lot of questions, many come to faith. And then again, opposition arises once again to oppose what Paul is teaching. Once again, he’s got a move onto the next city and in this case, he’s taken to Athens to wait for Silas and Timothy, to catch up. In Athens he’s dealing with people who have very, very open minds and very, very, very much want to explore spirituality, but are also very pagan. So, in this setting Paul’s not trying to show a Hebrew person, how Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and how he fits into the Jewish story. And when he is given invitation to speak, he says, look I notice you’re very religious, like everything is religious around here. I was walking along looking at all these shrines and I found an altar that said, to an unknown God. I’m here to tell you about the unknown God. So, we’ve been watching Paul now, we’ve seen him open the Scriptures with devout Hebrews, we’ve seen him talking one-on-one with a jailer, we’ve seen him in mob settings where there is great vigorous debate going on. We’ve watched him walk into a place where nobody has a clue what he is going to share and simply begin to reveal the unknown God. Paul wasn’t running around trying to win theological arguments or to be right, or to bring condemnation and sin or the awareness of sin upon people. He seems to be able to look at the people that he’s talking to and attempt to discern what they need and to try to bring truth into this situation. He seems to be more concerned about the people than the argument, very much like Jesus. And sometimes we get that mixed up. We all know that we are commissioned to share the good news of the Gospel. And sometimes that doesn’t require us, spouting doctrine and being right. Sometimes that means offering a good heart and an open ear to hear a story, to meet a person where they are and to offer life in the situation. May we remember that offering the good news isn’t about us, it’s about bringing Jesus, and that can happen in spoken and in unspoken ways in just about everywhere we take a step, if we’re paying attention. We’ve seen Paul in all kinds of different contexts; let’s learn from that.
Prayer:
And Holy Spirit, come. Most of the time, we are not paying attention to the fact that we are supposed to be not only representing You but revealing You in what we do and what we say and in what we think. And so often, when we are talking about You, it’s to be right about something, as opposed to being hands and feet willing open vessels for Your use, living sacrifices. And so, forgive us for the times that we’ve missed it, because there have been many. Forgive us the times that we have simply ignored it because there’ve been many. Come, Holy Spirit, and let us realize that every breath is a gift from You and every step we take and every interaction that we have, is an opportunity to bring light into the darkness. Come, Holy Spirit, into this, make us aware of what we are doing and saying, we pray, in Jesus name. Amen.
Announcements:
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And there is something coming up around here, like a week from now, is the fourth, well, a week from tomorrow, fourth of July. That’s a national holiday. That’s Independence Day here in the United States of America. But right on the heels of that we have kind of our own unique Daily Audio Bible holiday. Something that we have observed together as a community for 14 years, I believe. This is the 14th, well let me count, hold on a second. I’ll be right back. Okay, I’m back, it’s 16, 16 years, that we have been observing this little holiday that we call the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. This is something that happens every seventh of July, it’s a very unique and individual experience that becomes a really beautiful communal experience. So, those of you who have been around a while you kinda know the drill. Those of you who are like what, the Long Walk? What are we talking about here? The 7th of July is pretty close to sitting dead center in the year. And it is a really, really good time in the middle of the year, to take a day and reset for the second half of the year. We might often think of these things as luxuries that we can’t or couldn’t or can’t afford or can’t this or can’t that, there’s just all kinds of reasons. But often what we’re arguing against is the very thing that we need the most. Like, we will just keep charging ahead in our year, just bulldozing our way through the year getting more and more fatigued, more and more sleep deprived, more and more confused, anxiety will begin to bubble and grow and become a thing and depression, all of the things that may have legitimate, biological reasons, but truly the pace of our lives is a contributing factor to all of this. We won’t slow down because we think we can’t. July 7th, this little day for 16 years that we’ve been carving out. That’s what we’ve been doing, carving it out, saying, this is mine. This day is a day for me and for my God. So, we encourage, take the day. If you don’t have the day, take the day, make a square around it. Let nothing penetrate it. It is a special time, if…if…if you can jump in, it is a special time to say, okay, middle of the year, I jumped on, I’ve been moving my way through the Bible, middle of the year check-in. I’m gonna go for a long walk. And this kind of comes, I mean, remember when you fell in love with your spouse, or the one that you’re with? You fell in love and maybe you would go for long walks and maybe you would realize that time didn’t exist during that time. Maybe even the rains came, and you walked and splashed in the puddles and everything, things that maybe we never do now. It was playful, it was childlike, it was love, time stood still. There was no rush to communicate data. It was unhurried conversation getting to know each other. That’s what we’re talking about here. Go somewhere beautiful, whether that’s your backyard, whether that’s a park that’s a few blocks away, or whether you get in your car and drive couple hours to a place that is very meaningful to you. Take some lunch, take some water. Go for a long walk in the center of your year. A time for your mind to calm down. A time for you to reunite with your body and be aware of the fact that God has created a lush, unbelievable planet that is bursting forth with life all around us and were not paying attention because we’re locked into our work and our technology. So much builds up inside of us and we need to pray about it. But so often our prayers are flares right, there just like help, I’m going down over here. Help, SOS! What if you went for a walk that was unhurried and you had all day and you had carved out all your obligations. Like this is, this is your day, and you go for a long walk, and you get in touch with your body by paying attention to the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the lilies of the field, the lushness of creation. And that begins to pull your heart into a place of adoration and worship as you begin to feel God’s presence calming you, because he’s telling you He loves you by giving you the day. And then we begin to speak. Right, and then we say everything that we need to say. Everything that we haven’t had time to say. Everything that we fall asleep saying. Like, say it, pour it out to the lover of your soul. And then, spend time listening and walking in silence, enjoying all that creation speaks about our Lord. This is the Long Walk; this is something I look forward to every year. So many thousands of us look forward to this every year. And it’s obviously, I just described a very individual, very unique and personal experience between you and God. What makes this a community experience is that as we’re doing this individually, we know that our brothers and sisters all over the world are doing this as well. That we are all drinking in the serenity, the rejuvenation, the healing of slowing down for a second and catching our breath and being in the presence of God. So, what makes it a communal experience is knowing that were doing it but also, we put a post on our Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is Facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. We put a post on there on 7th of July and invite everybody to take a picture of where you are, or little video of what it was like during your day. And we post these all back into this post and all of the sudden we are scrolling through the beauty of God’s creation all over the world on this very day, the 7th of July. We all get to kind of regroup together and see windows into each other’s lives, windows into each other’s geography and are knit together, knowing that we have gone out and regrouped for the second half of the year. So, that is the 7th of July. That is a week from this Friday, make plans. I mean, think about it, we may talk to God every day, it may be fleeting, may not be enough, we may feel guilty about it, but think about the Lord, your creator looking forward to you taking some time to be with Him. And He is looking forward to this, greatly. That is the posture that we go into this with. So, that’s coming up, the 7th of July.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hello DAB Family, this is Dancing Flame in North Carolina. I’m a relatively new listener. And I had a prayer request. I have an uncle. He is my, one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. And he is nearing the end of his life. He’s in palliative care now. And his days are short. And I wanted to ask you guys to pray that he would find the Lord and be saved and be with us all in heaven. He’s a wonderful man, incredibly generous, incredibly funny, was very successful in business, very gifted. But he does not know the Lord. And it breaks my heart. We only see each other every few years. The amount of time we’ve spent together is disproportionate to the deep love that I have for him in my heart. But I just ask that you would join me to kind of storm the gates of heaven and just ask for God to, in His unending mercy, to save him. To reveal Himself to him, to show him who He is and to show him his great need for a loving Savior. I just ask that the Holy Spirit would just infiltrate him. Father, even if he’s not necessarily willing that God in His mercy, would just rain down on him in these last moments, that he could be saved. I know that, you know, the thief on the cross, all he had to do was say that he believed, and he joined Jesus in paradise that day. And so, that is my prayer for my Uncle Chris. And I just ask that you would join me that you would just join me in believing for his salvation and for asking God for incredible grace and mercy to reveal Himself to him in a mighty way. Thanks DAB Family. Love you all. Always praying for you.
Hey DAB Family. This is Beloved in Texas and I’m sure some of you, at least, those in the U.S., heard about a devastating tornado that went through the Amarillo Panhandle not to long ago. A lady at work, her sister was killed in that tornado. And she’s asked for prayer. Her nephews found their mother and the only way she was able to be identified, were her clothes and her nail polish. And they’re showing signs of PTSD. They were raised in church but they’re kind of far from the Lord now. So, I would just like to ask you to come alongside me and pray for Chad and Cory. Father, we just lift up Chad and Cory right now, in Jesus name. And I just ask that You would replace those images in their head with loving images of their mother: her love, her smile, her hugs. And I pray that You would fill them with your peace Father. I thank You that even though they don’t understand what happened and why, they can lean not on their own understanding but on Yours. Lord, I pray that You would turn this situation to the good and that You would bring them right back into Your loving arms. In ….
Hello DAB community, it’s Morning Lift. Just reaching out to ask for you guys to pray for me. I’m going through a difficult time with my marriage. I’ve been separated now for too long. And it’s seems that my wife is continuing to take steps towards separation rather than reconciliation and it’s really just discouraging and I need help. And I’m praying that God would give me hope. And I’m asking that God would fill me with His joy because I know that He’s the only thing that can satisfy in this world: not relationship, not reconciliation with my wife, nothing really can satisfy me, or anyone for that matter, but the love of the Father. And I just pray for that satisfaction, that joy that comes from Him. I pray that I would seek Him and that I would make decisions for the right reasons, not out of fear, or not out of any manipulation or desire to get what I want. And I just ask for you guys to hold me accountable in prayer, lift me up in prayer. And I also lift you up in prayer. And I ask that God would just bless you and take care of all your needs. In Jesus name I pray.
Hi, this is Betty from Hamburg. I’m calling in again tonight to thank you DABers for helping me in the past. And to ask you to please, please pray for my son Nathan. His mental illness is getting the best of us all, right now, especially him. He’s not managing it well. He’s tried to manage it on his own and it gets worsened when he drinks. And he has been drinking. So, I just pray that you would give us clarity to know what to do, how to help him and how to protect ourselves, as he’s living here in the house. And just to, I don’t know, I’m kind of at a loss right now. So, just thank you for hearing my prayer. And thank you that I can come to this community. Thank you, friends.