2 Kings 10:32-12:21, Acts 18:1-22, Psalm 145:1-21, Proverbs 18:1
Today is the 28th day of June, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you today, and every day, like I say all the time. It’s great to be here with you today, as we gather and I’m glad we get to do this. I’m glad no matter where we are, we can gather together and take the next step forward. So, let’s do that. Let’s put that foot out in front of us, and lead into it and let our balance shift and move forward together, one more step. And our next step leads us back into the book of second Kings, and today we will read chapters 13 and 14.
Commentary:
Okay, let’s take a quick look back at what we read today in the territory that we navigated through. We’re working our way through Second Kings, obviously, and so, we’re getting some lengthy descriptions of some of the kings lifetimes, and paragraphs of other Kings lifetimes but we’re moving through this kings of Judah and kings of Israel, the northern and southern kingdoms. And we’re seeing there’s a lot of back-and-forth. Once in a while, a good king will come and restore the land and restore the people’s hearts to God. And then there are generations of idolatry and at times the kingdoms, even though they are the 12 tribes of Israel, who just decided to divide themselves into nations, at times they were at war and at enmity with each other. At other times they are allies and obviously this is heavily influenced by who is sitting on the throne of what kingdom. And we’ve watched prophetic voices move through the kingdoms and through the kings. We had been working our way through the life and times and ministry and prophetic utterances of the prophet Elisha. Today, we said goodbye to Elisha, as we continue our journey forward through the kings.
Then we flip over to the Book of Acts and now Paul is on, what we believe is, his third missionary journey. And so, he works his way to Ephesus, and spends a couple of years there. And as we navigate our way through the Book of Acts, we do a lot of traveling with Paul because he’s on these missionary journeys planting churches and spreading the good news throughout…throughout the Roman Empire. But as we travel with Paul now, at this point, we’re…we’re…we’re kind of rounding the corner and ending our journeys with Paul because circumstances are going to arise that prohibit Paul from traveling around. Ironically, this won’t diminish his influence or impact, it will actually increase his impact in some pretty counterintuitive ways. And so, we will be watching that materialize in the days ahead.
And then the Proverbs today, gives us something to think about. To think about, in our experience of life and interaction with other people, but also to take a good hard look at ourselves. The Proverb today is discussing opinions, and we all seem to have those. In fact, it seems as if we carry a number of them around with us at any given moment. And are always ready to offer. And we probably know people in our lives who can’t not offer opinions, whether they’re asked to offer them, or not, right. We have probably people in our lives that just think they were born to tell people how they should live their lives and offer their unsolicited opinions and advice. And everything, from how to fix the nation’s politics, to how to, how you should be raising your children, to how you should be navigating your marriage, to all kinds of stuff. And a lot of times, we can take those things, they can be hurtful, or we can just kind of pass them off and go, oh, that’s just the kind of person that that they are, but if we reflect back, a lot of times these opinions come without all of the details. They’re formed without all of the ideas and circumstances being…being brought forth. And so, there’s so many assumptions inside of these opinions and we begin to realize that what’s going on here isn’t anything other than the person really, really likes to hear themselves talk. They really think they know what everybody else should do. So, according…according to the Proverbs, those people are fools. It’s not understanding that they seek, they seek an audience, they want to hear themselves talk. Or to just read it out of the Scriptures, “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in disclosing what is on his mind.” So, let’s take some time to observe ourselves, today. We…we all have opinions, and we offer them often and that’s conversation, in a lot of ways. And in a lot of situations, we are invited, ‘what do you think about this or that or the other thing. But let’s watch ourselves because we might catch ourselves inserting our opinion, our unsolicited advice in foolish ways, that are in no way helpful and could be very much unhealthy. The point here of just kind of taking a step back and watching the way that we interact with each other, isn’t to like bring shame upon ourselves. It’s to grow and learn. And so, may we learn from the Proverbs today, and may we not be foolish.
Prayer:
And so, Holy Spirit, come into that. The things that we say, the things that we offer to each other, they’re beautiful gifts that this is how we share our lives but at times we bring our own baggage into the story and it becomes very, very unhelpful and we flip the whole thing around so that the spotlight is on us and the whole thing has become about us, and our experience, and our advice, and our opinion, and that can become really unhelpful because not only are we inserting ourselves where we don’t belong, but we may very well be interfering with what You are doing. So, we do need to slow down. We’re continually invited, slow down and pay attention in what’s actually happening. And so, it’s probably not a more important place to exercise some practice, then in what we say, in the things that we speak out into the world. And so, may we observe these things, as we offer advice and opinion today. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com that is home base and that is where you can find out what is going on around here. You can download the Daily Audio Bible app free, from the App Store that works with your device and put that all in the palm of your hand, nice and convenient. So, check that out. And yeah, so we have something coming up around here that we’re talking about right now. It comes up next Friday, not this Friday, this Friday is the 30th of June, the last day of this month. The following Friday is the seventh day of July, and that has become a tradition. It’s like our own little community special holiday, our own little moment that we call the Daily Audio Bible Long Walk. And that’s a tradition that goes all the way back 2007. 2007 was the year in Nashville, there was a repentance and prayer gathering, a solemn day to…to come together as believers and repent before God. And this was going to be taking place at the stadium where…where our football team, The Titans, play. And we we’re gonna be walking from Centennial Park, which is…which was a park that was built here in Nashville, that…that…that commemorated Nashville’s 100th anniversary. We’re another century well past that. But we were walking from there. We gathered there and then there were tens of thousands of us and we walked all the way down through downtown in silence. I hadn’t seen anything quite like that before. Tens of thousands of people walking in silence. And at this time there were some, there was some broadcasting of this. And so, the interesting thing it was, that even as we are there kind of doing this, other people in the Daily Audio Bible community. And this is back 2007. So, like the technologies that exist today that make things like live broadcasting and all that stuff so easy, they weren’t, they weren’t easy that long ago. It’s like our lives have so radically changed so quickly. That just that far back, the technology wasn’t there. But it was being broadcast on some television stations. And so, some people in the community were watching and there was this thing going on in our message boards at the time. It’s before all of the kind of social media technologies that we use today, before all that. So, in this very rudimentary way, we were kind of being together in this virtual way, we were, whether we were watching, whether we were there. It was this thing and it sparked something, and it made me just realize this community is real, this community, we actually are in this together. And so, since then, we’ve just commemorated the 7th of July. It just falls pretty close to the center of the year. It’s a really good opportunity to regroup. It usually falls in the, a week that’s a national holiday, at least in the United States. So we’re kind of in that frame of mind and it’s like this re-group before we go into the second half of the year. We go together as a community, we go out into the world and enjoy God’s beauty, we go for a long walk and…and say all of the things that need to be said. Like that we empty ourselves before God. Getting it all out, everything, anything. And then when it’s all out, then we’re still inside. And we have this opportunity to appreciate and enjoy silent, and we realize that in the silence we’re listening, and we realize in the silence it’s not silent, nature is alive all around us. It is a beautiful time. And so, make plans for that, the seventh day of July, next Friday. And this is, obviously, individual, we’re all over the world. So, wherever it is that you find beautiful, wherever it is that is sacred to you, go there and then, maybe take a picture. Maybe you want to remember your day. Maybe take a video or something and then just come back to the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, Facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. We have a post there, or we will have a post there for the Long Walk, and you can post those pictures into that post, share your stories. And then, all of the sudden, we had a day and we spent it with God and then we come back together and we hear from one another. And just open up these windows, these pictures, these videos. Like, all of the sudden we get this glimpse all over the world. What today looks like, what…what that day looks like, all over the world and to hear from our brothers and sisters. So, make plans for that, the seventh day 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, this is Romans 8, it’s my new name. I don’t know if anyone else has that, if I stole someone’s name and I hear it, I will change my name. But Romans 8 is my name. And today, I want to call in for the man that says he’s married for 14 years. He and his wife had a successful business. They have great children. But his relationship with his wife has not been very good and he’s grown an emotional relationship with someone else from work, I believe. And so, you’re wanting prayer for that. And you asked God. I first just want to start out by saying, I am so encouraged by the fact that you want prayer. I think that that is such a beautiful thing. The fact that you’re willing to say God, change me. Change me right now. There’s so many people in this world right now that are in your place that just drive straight into it and say, you know, nope, mm mmm. I do whatever. But the fact that you’re coming to God, saying Lord, please change my heart is so encouraging. And it’s beautiful. And I have confidence that God will work through this situation. And so, I just wanted to give out that encouragement and also just pray for you real quick. Our Father in Heaven, thank You so much for this man that is calling in and asking this community to pray for him. Lord, would you soften his heart. May this emotional relationship that he has with this other person change and go away. And that God You would help him to love his wife. To love her the way that Christ loves the church and that God, ultimately through this all, You may be glorified and that You would soften his heart. May he turn to You through this whole process and help his wife through this as well. Thank you Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. Alright, well I hope you all have a blessed day. And hope you will call in soon.
Hey everyone, this is Emily of Jim and Emily in Swansee, Wales. And I want to thank everyone who prayed for Alice Baboo, my friend, Depocks wife in Bangalore. Who has been suffering with cancer and then hepatitis and it’s just been a crazy journey for over a month with her in the ICU. And she went to be with God this morning, the 21st of January at 1000. And it’s very hard. But I was listening to Brian where Elisha tares his clothes in grief and I thought that was very interesting. Because even though, Elisha knew that Elijah had gone to heaven, he still grieved. And we know where Alice is and her body is in a better place. But our hearts are sad. And I think about what Brian said about wherever we are, God is there. We can’t hide from God. And he wasn’t hiding from us as we prayed for healing, for a miracle. And He suffers with us and mourns with us. So, thank you Brian and thank you everyone for praying. And please pray for Depock. And he’s got two grown daughters, Perana and Tasha. Yeah, please pray for them and healing and of their hearts as they grieve.
Hello Daily Audio Bible. My name is Brevola. Today’s Thursday the 22nd. I heard a young person calling to ask for prayers because his parents are going through a divorce. And my heart went out to them, to him and to the whole family and I would like to pray that the Lord would step into the storm and let peace rain. He would touch the hearts of both parents, let them see the higher purpose in Christ. Let them think about the welfare of this very wise child or children that they have. That the Lord will restore what seems to be broken. Send helpers their way, oh God. In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you to Brian and the family for the great work that they are doing. Thank you to everyone of this community for the peace that’s, we’re all in spirits when we come here. Thank you Jesus.
Good morning everybody. This is God’s Smile here. And as I’m sad this morning and I’m thinking about our beautiful community and so many are going through such hard times. And the song and the words came to me, Hide me now, Father, under your wings. Cover me with your mightier hand. When the oceans rise and thunders roar, I will soar with You above the storm. Father, You are King over the flood. And I will be still and know you are God. Father, I pray for my family that You’ve given me, that I listen to and those who listen quietly, who are going through storms. And they see the flood rising. But you Lord, are King over the flood. And You help us to be still and to know You are God. As Your hand moves upon our life. Father, help us to be patient, help us to draw from the life of Christ, that we may be still and know you are God, that we may know of Your love and Your grace and Your mercy towards us. We love You Lord. Thank You, that You’ve gone before us. And times ticking away my dear friends. Kiss Kiss.
Lawrence in Atlanta, this is Lawrence in California. My brother, my heart is breaking for you this morning. I see the road that you’re headed down. I’m down that road already brother. Please turn around. Turn around now. It’s not too late. Turn around now. Please reach out to me if you can, lawrencedacus@gmail.com that Lawrence with a ‘w’, d as in David, ‘a’, ‘c’ as in cat, ‘u’, ‘s’ as in Sam @gmail.com. My brother, please reach out to me. I have something to share with you that no one else can share with you. I’m down the road that you’re traveling already. Please turn around.