2 Kings 10:32-12:21, Acts 18:1-22, Psalms 145:1-21, Proverbs 18:1
Today is the 27th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and find a place and get cozy and allow the Scriptures to come into our lives. And we will do what we always do. We’ll go back to the place where we left off. That happens to be second Kings right now. And, so, we’re picking up the story from there. Second Kings chapter 10 verse 32 through 12 verse 21 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Acts we are continuing along with Paul on his second missionary journey and we have noticed that wherever he goes, wherever this message is shared hearts are open, people realize and acknowledge the truth and enter into a new way of life. But also there are those who are viciously and in many cases violently opposed to what Paul is teaching. And we’ve experienced a number of different places that they traveled and spoke. So, we have all these little snapshots. And, so, we’ve watched Paul adapt to where he’s at and who he’s talking to and how their hearts are. Like his whole focuses upon a person to introduce a person to Jesus, not to convince a person to buy some sort of snake oil that he’s talking. He’s a truly, truly, deeply wanting people to know Jesus and this is viciously opposed as a false teaching. And many many Jewish people considered Paul heretic at this point, an apostate worthy of death that he needed to be killed. So, here’s the deal. Like, wh we know the gospel story of Jesus. We know about His death and resurrection, and then we know that the church kind of grew up after that. And a lot of times we have this idea that the power of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, like this was such a magical time, such a serene time of the gospel going forth and just becoming plentiful and accepted throughout the earth. I regularly hear the sentiment, “boy I wish we could experience the book of Acts. I wish we could go back to the book of Acts, to experience the early church again.” And so often that sentiment is attached to the idea that it was an easier time. I’m just pointing out we’re reading about that time from the Scriptures themselves and as I read each day as we take another step or through the book of Acts that’s not what I’m seeing. I’m seeing that light is going into the darkness and the darkness does not want to be exposed and so fights against the light. This same thing was happening with Jesus. Jesus was revealing a kingdom that is available and is now and is happening but to reveal a kingdom that is going to overthrow…like the kingdom of light overthrowing the kingdom of darkness is not gonna happen without the disruption and unrest of one kingdom overthrowing another one. So, we have the snapshot today. Paul is in Corinth speaking, teaching pleading, trying to reveal Jesus day after day after day. And day after day enters into debate and receives opposition, receives insult, and eventually shakes off his clothes. He’s like look, I’ve done what I’ve…I’ve done my best. Your blood is on your own head. I came to tell you the truth. I’m innocent. I’m gonna go to the Gentiles. And the irony in this snapshot is that for Paul to leave the synagogue and go to the Gentiles is simply for Paul to go to the building next door where he continues to teach Jew and Gentile alike. And, so, let’s just observe, this…this was difficult work. This was dangerous work. It was tireless and often thankless work. It was not easy, and it didn’t happen in some sort of measurable progressive way. It was in fits and starts. It was messy. It was met with vicious opposition and like we were saying just a minute ago sometimes violence. Let’s remember that we’re in the same era. It’s the same kingdom of light and kingdom of dark. And when we are engaging with the good news and offering Jesus then we are at the tip of that spear. Paul had all kinds of reasons to be discouraged. I mean, I read through the book of Acts and I’m like, this guy is…is definitely resolved. He is very very committed to this mission. He is committed to die for it if he needs to and you can see that because he has every opportunity to get discouraged. And sometimes we feel that way too. We have every reason to be discouraged. But even in those circumstances, we are given comfort. Even in today’s reading. Paul receives word from the Lord. And God says to him, don’t be afraid. Don’t be silent. Speak out. I am with you. No one will attack and harm you. There are many people in this city that belong to me. Let’s remember that we are certainly reading of the apostle Paul, and we should appreciate what we are reading. But let’s also realize that he’s a brother. He didn’t have anything that we don’t have. He’s doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. He’s an example for us.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit come into that we pray. We want things to go well for us and we pray for Your blessing and You want things to go well for us and You offer Your blessing and You care and protect us but there are also times where You are inviting us to reveal in the darkness the light and that causes all kinds of disruption. And sometimes we shy away from that or misinterpret that. We invite Your Holy Spirit into that as we continue to obey You, that You would continue to interpret for us what’s going on and what we are a part of so that we don’t lose the plot, so that we don’t get discouraged and lost, so that we can hear the same words that Paul needed to hear – “don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t be silent. I’m with You. I will protect You. No one will harm You. There are many people here who belong to me.” May we remember this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
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And we do have something coming up around here. The seventh of July, which is a week from this Friday. And this Friday is the last day of June, but the following Friday is the seventh day of July, and the seventh day of July is our own little Global Campfire holiday. It’s a holiday for us who are taking this journey through the Bible and it’s something that we have been doing for 16 years. I think that was the number we counted up. 16 years we’ve been doing this seventh day of July, the long walk. And, so, essentially what we’ve got going on here is where a community, we come together around the Global Campfire every day but we’re all over the earth. And, so, we can’t just all gather together in one place and go for a long walk together, although that would be fun but it would be very very different than what we’re talking about. This is a day that we do together, but we do individually. So, it’s a day that we kind of square off on the calendar and say that day belongs to my heart. That day belongs to the Lord. That day I’m going for a long walk with God. That’s a day that I’m not gonna be rushed. That’s a day that I’m not gonna get pulled in a thousand directions. That’s a day that I’m not going to go home after work or whatever and just be wound up in anxiety and how this is all gonna to work out and everybody’s fighting and it’s just World War III. That’s not going to be that day. That day belongs to my heart. That day belongs to God. And all you have to do to participate is sort of make that declaration and make it so. Go somewhere beautiful whether you get in your car and you drive for a couple of hours to a very very meaningful place that’s very beautiful and symbolic to you or whether you go down to the nearest park, sit on a bench, listen to the children, listen to the birds, become familiar with the fact that you are embodied in your skin and are on this earth as a gift and it is here to restore and heal us. It is here, at its own pace. And we realize pretty quickly that our pace is not the pace of nature, that we have created a whole new nature at its frantic. But consider the lilies, listen to the birds, slow down for a second and don’t make your prayers these desperate pleas before you fall asleep. Say everything you’ve gotta say because you don’t have any time constraints. You can say everything you need to say. And they’ll be time left believe it or not. Lots of time to listen. And you can listen to the birds, you can listen to the leaves as the wind blows through, you can listen to the whisper of the grass and become very very aware that there is a lot of life that is happening all around us all of the time and we aren’t even paying attention, like literally paying attention to things that aren’t alive. And, so, that is the long walk and we’ll be talking about this as we move toward it. But I’m trying at make a case to square off a day in the middle of the year. As you get ready to go into the second half of the year. We’ve made it here. We’re halfway through. And we’ve limped our way and fought our way and the grace has brought us here. What is the next half of the year supposed to look like? That’s what we do, is go and spend the day with God re-familiarizing ourselves with our own hearts and the fact that the only thing God wants is us not our productivity. And what makes this a community experience is that we are doing this together individually all over the world. We’re taking long walks. We’re going out into nature. We’re slowing down. We’re regrouping. We’re allowing the second half of the year to emerge in our mindset and we’re inviting Jesus to show us the way that we should go. And while you’re out there wherever it is that you go, certainly don’t stay stuck to your technology. But maybe you want to take a picture, remember your day. Maybe you want to take a little video to remember your day or to remember something that you felt like the Holy Spirit was…was whispering to you. And then we put a post on our Facebook page, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. We put a post there for the long walk and…and invite everybody…like here…post…post your pictures, post your stories inside this post. Post…like respond to this post with your pictures and stuff. And all the sudden we have these windows…and I have love this part of the year…like I love this. All of a sudden windows open and we’re looking at the same day all over the world with our brothers and sisters who are on this journey together. And, so, that is the long walk. Make plans for that next Friday the seventh of July. I am eager. I am looking forward to it myself. But make plans for that. That is what is coming up.
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And that’s it for today. I am Brian I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
It’s it’s eyes of a dove. Oh my goodness my son ryland i don’t even know where to begin it’s been of my oh my kids the hardest for me emotionally. Every area that i could fear as a parent aside from him doing drugs or getting a girl pregnant is being attacked by the enemy. So came back from the honeymoon and instead of being in his room doing his homework unbeknownst to the nanny he was at the neighbors house who is an elderly gal that has that drinking problem and she was inappropriate with him. Or at least that’s what he claims. She went and took a polygraph test and passed with flying colors and that leaves me with a choice to do a $500 polygraph on my son for an 8590% chance period thing is is we’re keeping our son away from her. I’ve i’ve spoken with a therapist and my legal counsel just to making sure I’m doing everything correctly for my son and right now we are focusing on therapy for him and not really worried about one way or the other just because it’s really hard to tell what he’s telling the truth. He really needs to turn his heart over to the Lord in a in a big way not in a mediocre way. And now tonight I get a call four days before the end of the school year my son spent deceitful again not telling me the truth about his homework. 45 missing assignments. I mean we’ve been struggling all year to get caught up and now three of his major classes he’s failing. One he can’t recover. I don’t know if he asked to retake 9th grade and i absolutely lost it. You wouldn’t even recognize your eyes of dove. I’m ashamed of myself. I’m frustrated i’m scared things are hard.
Hey this is Micah and oh in Kansas City MO area. Today instead of addressing the person by name I’m going to address an issue that’s that we could all relate to. It’s the I want or I feel mentality right? So there’s many things that we can want and feel that are very good like our want for my brother to have success. I want to for the world to see healing and for god to pour out his holy spirit. Many fields and lots that are good but then there are sun that lead to sin. Like i want to be with another woman right? I feel like this marriage was an accident and that I made. Like i want to feel something different so i’m going to experiment with drugs or alcohol. You know so many of them that we can and these these are i mean we’re going through hard times right now right i mean everyone’s kind of struggling so these wants and feels they begin to look really nice. These are nothing more than temptation right? And we can coerce ourself into them by saying well why not. Like I’m already struggling. Life is going really bad period like I gotta feel something right? So I just want to challenge us all here the scriptures say that we’re not supposed to lean on our own understanding that we’re supposed to trust God. We’re supposed to resist generation. Supposed to stand firm against the tricks of the enemy. There’s scripture that says to follow the holy spirit guidance to listen for that to look for that to pray for that and scriptures romans 6 ephesians 515 through 18 and first Peter 5-6 through 11. I love you guys. Hang in there and check the scriptures.
Hi Lance in Atlanta this is radiant Rachel I want to pray for you. I can relate to an extent. My ex-husband before we separated encourage me to have an emotional real relationship with with someone else because he was doing his own thing. And you know i didn’t know that but i didn’t you know I just thought I was needy or like he just basically said he couldn’t meet what you know what my needs were. So he wanted somebody to be you know he wanted my needs to be met. Anyway so yeah I I did some of that and you know I struggled with it and prayed about it. It wasn’t really walking with the Lord of the time but I knew I knew who God was I knew that that wasn’t the way we should live. There was a religious spirit over me where you know i was made my bed and was kind of sleep in it and all of that so anyway I just lift you up today and I just pray for healing and restoration over your family over your marriage over lances marriage Lord just calm and bless them. Restore them soften their hearts bring them the support they need give them you know send them to godly counsel and just exposure of of you and your love that will will help them to pick up the pieces of their marriage and put it back together…
Father God we lift up Ernie and we lift up Lawrence of Atlanta. We lift up their marriages God. We lift up their hearts for being men of God who love you and the marriage that you have blessed them with God. God we lift up from mercy and the grace that they need to hear you and to seek you God. I pray right now god that you would create in them a clean heart and renewing them a right spirit god that they would think about the damage and the destruction and the devastation that happens to children and to families when marriages fall apart. I pray right now father God that they would give him the press every day seeking your face and calling on your name and laying out prostate before you God until they literally God they literally would feel their hearts turn towards you God and they lay prostrate God that they would feel you enter into their situation God and till the strongholds are broken father and their hearts open for their lives and their hearts open for holiness and sanctification and that your light would shine through them and they would be a testimony and an instrument of vessel of righteousness to be used in your hand for men and women everywhere like give up on marriage period we love you God. We lift up Nicole God we lift up that tumor God where the avocado sized or golf ball sized God that you would heal deliver and set free and bless her family God for support surround and encourage her period in Jesus mighty name and through his blood we pray. Amen. This is Donovan new day love you dad family.
Hey DVD audio Bible family it’s blessings flow in Pennsylvania. Just want to lift up Lawrence in Atlanta who called about prayers for his marriage and the emotional relationship with a colleague. Lawrence we love you. So proud of you for calling in recognizing even the fact that you called is God’s work in your life and also recognizing your respect and love and admiration like I have for this community knowing that you wouldn’t be judged if you called them but that you’d have family and God to pray for you. So Lord we just thank you for Lawrence. God sometimes we must pray that we would want to want you. So Lord I just ask that you would give him grace to want to want more of you. It sounds like he does in his marriage god where he feels his heart is heartened towards his reconciliation god. We just pray you tear down those walls in the name of jesus. We know that feelings are fickle and that situations change but you remain the same. Lord you’re a God of breakthrough. We just pray for breakthrough for Lawrence in the name of Jesus that you would shatter and tear down all lies God that you would bring healing period we pray that you would restore trust God that you would give fortitude and grace God for the long haul in the name of Jesus that you were even just revived those bombs that him and his wife spoke on their wedding day. A lot has taken place then oh god but we just pray that you breathe on them. Thank you for every budding virtue thank you for the grace even just to call and to ask for prayer in Jesus name we pray. And we bless him and bless this community. Amen.