2 Chronicles 30:1-31:21, Romans 15:1-22, Psalm 25:1-15, Proverbs 20:13-15
Today is the first day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to throw open the gates and walk into this brand-new month together. Today is the 213th day of our journey, 213 days into this year, 152 days to go. So, we are well underway. And I’m excited, excited to step into a brand-new month together, take the next step forward together. And our next step will lead us back to where we left off and that happens to be Second Chronicles, today chapters 30 and 31.
Commentary:
Okay, so, yesterday in the book of Romans, we we’re discussing unity, uniformity, harmony, and judging each other. And since each day we pick up where we left off, we’re continuing with that discussion today. But whereas yesterday, the examples were, you know what, which food can you, or can you not eat, which days should you, should you not fast, which days are holy and should be observed as such, which days are not. Today, he talks about people, Gentile people, because really, what we’re talking about here from yesterday and today and judging one another and dividing ourselves up into camps, is a discussion about who gets to be in. And when it comes to the early church, that was an issue. In Paul’s time, the church era that we are in right now, was just beginning. We’re 2000 years into the future, right now we have like a plethora of choices for worship style, music style, teaching style as well as like doctrinal and theological camps, that we would call denominations. We have like a buffet of choices. In Paul’s time all of this infrastructure hadn’t been established yet and it’s a bit more of the wild frontier. One of the dominating questions being who gets to be in, who’s included. And in the letter to the Romans, Paul’s laying out an argument that anybody who believes, even if they’re not Jews, are included. So, we can look at that now and go, duh. But that’s not how it was then, this is a major issue and not everybody was on board. It was a heated disagreement. For Jewish believers Jesus was the Messiah. This is not a new story, Jesus is the Savior of the Jews, a continuation of the story of God’s chosen people. And so, yes, people can come into that camp, but they would need to convert to Judaism and lead a Hebrew lifestyle and live inside that culture and follow Jesus within that context, to be included, as a God-fearing Gentile. Which is not something that Paul wouldn’t of understood, as a trained Pharisee he would’ve understood it very well. And we know he was extraordinarily committed to that way of thinking because he was trying to stamp out the name of Jesus from the earth. But after Paul met Jesus, he realized something way bigger was going on, and that Jesus was not only the Savior of the Jews but the Savior of the world. So, I quote from Paul. “Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises He made to their ancestors. He also came, so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for His mercies to them. So, today, like we’re not wrestling with this, this issue that was a massive issue because at this point in the world, the Christian faith is almost entirely Gentile. But the underlying issue of who gets to be included is still with us and it comes out in the ways that Paul was discussing in yesterday’s reading in the ways that we judge each other. So, if we drill into all this, we find out what we’re being invited to consider is, can a person who believes and who loves Jesus, who believes but differs from me on my theology or does things and behaves in a way that I think is wrong or isn’t representing Jesus or is sin, can that person still be a Christian? And what we realize from Paul is, we’re not the judge of that, we will all stand before God individually. We need to keep our eyes on our own lives, making sure that we aren’t contradicting our own convictions, rather than keeping our eyes on everyone else’s lives trying to get them to adhere to our convictions. And so, to sum this all up into a posture that Paul gives us I quote, “Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement, grant you to live in harmony with one another. According to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with one mind and one voice.
Prayer:
And so, Father that’s what we ask for, that we would glorify You with one mind and one voice and all of our diversity, in all of our stories. The only thing that can unite us like this is the mind of Christ. And may we set our affection, our attention, our intention, and our hearts desire on You. Keeping our eyes on the love story that we get to tell together and refraining from being consumed by everyone else’s story and all of our opinions and judgments about them. Come, Holy Spirit, and set us free, free to be who we are, who we were created to be, that we might glorify You in the earth. That all might know. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website and it’s where you can find out what’s happening around here, like I say most days. The app does all of that and a lot more and you can download it free from the App Store that’s connected to your device. So, check that out. Check out the different sections like the Daily Audio Bible Shop. That’s where you can find like the special edition snapback hats, the blue, the Navy ones and white ones. Some of my favorite, that, that’s my favorite one so far. But we we’ve been bringing out a different addition each quarter and so those are available. The new Daily Audio Bible Kids shirts are available in the Lifestyle Section. Check it out.
And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. Thank you, humbly. 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 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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Good morning DABers. This is God’s Chosen from Georgia. We’re almost towards the end of the month of July. And we have just three days to enter into a new month. And today, I would like to say a short prayer of gratitude. Lord, help us to navigate through this July and support us safely towards the end of the month. God is always faithful. And He will never deny Himself, according to Second Timothy 2:13. As long as there is life within us, there will always be hope. We do not need to be confused. And we do not need to be afraid of the future. God is always there for us. He said, I will not leave you, nor forsake you, according to Hebrews 13:5. Our hope and our confidence is in Him. So, all we need to do is know that our faith in Him will not be in vein. This, our defense we need to know. Father, we come before You today to say thank You, for getting through this month of July with each and every one of us. No matter the challenges that we have dealt with, we have found You faithful. You have been there. We thank You Lord, God Almighty, as we look forward to starting a new month, in a couple of days. But we have come back to say thank You, thank You for Your amazing grace. Thank You for all the good things that are planted in our lives. Thank You Lord, God Almighty, for healing that has taken place. Thank You for provision. Thank You for all the needs that we pray for on this prayer community. May Your name be glorified. In Jesus name. Amen.
Good afternoon ya’ll, this is Intertwined in God’s Love. And I am just getting ready to pull into the jail, the jail. My home for the next 3 weekends. Very nervous, very sad. I know you are all here with me in spirit. And I appreciate your prayers. I know that when they shut the door on me, I know God’s gonna be there with me. I totally would covet your prayers. Love you all.
Hello, I’m gonna go by the user name Walk by Faith. I’ve been listening for three years. But this is my first time calling. And I have a prayer request. I would like to pray for my mom. Her name is Pamela. She has struggled with alcohol for a long time. And I’m not completely sure she still is, I’m not living with her and she’s very secretive. But she is just a mess. She has a lot of health problems and anxiety and depression. She’s, she’s extremely depressed. And wants to have a very good relationship with my sister and I, yet she treats us really bad. And we’ve tried to help her, we’ve tried to get her the help she needs and we’ve tried speaking truth to her. But she’s in denial. And no matter what we do or say, it’s always a fight and always negative and toxic. It just so hard to have a relationship with her. Because she treats me so poorly and it’s just really confusing emotions. Feeling love and anger and sadness all at the same time. And I would just love to see God save her. She does claim to be a Christian and love the Lord but with her choices, I don’t know how she could. But yeah, if you could just please pray that she would have open eyes and open ears. And that she would get healing and just see the truth and receive the truth. And for our relationships to be restored. Thank you.
Good morning DAB Family. This is Paula calling from Albuquerque. I do pray that you all are doing well and just continuing in the word and letting it speak to you. It is Saturday, July 29th. I am working today. But I’ve been home a lot. Listening to the word and really trying go in depth, in the word. The Holy Spirit has just really beat me up with Romans. And today, Romans 12, I think I called in about this but I ended a three and half year relationship with a guy that I thought was the one. And he had hid his feelings from me and so forth. And, yeah. So, in my humanness, it’s so easy to focus on what he did and didn’t do. And those around him, what they did and didn’t do. Man, Romans 12 really spoke to me today. So, I woke up this morning, prayed before I got out of bed and I asked the Lord to just speak to me in the word, as I do every day. But today, He really spoke to me. I love you all. And I know I’m not the only one going through this. So, as we walk through life, this is so hard to practice but it’s so necessary. I love you all. Have a wonderful weekend and keep loving each other and let Him do what He does best. The Holy Spirit can do it better.