Author: Daily Audio Bible Transcripts

Exodus 19:16-21:21, Matthew 23:13-39, Psalms 28:1-9, Proverbs 7:1-5

Today is the 4^th day of the month of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today as we…as we take the next step forward and reach forward for what comes next. And we’ve been spending our time working through the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, which is what we’ll continue to do. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Exodus chapter 19 verse 16 through 21 verse 21. And just by way of reminder the children of Israel have an appointment with the Almighty God who is coming to speak to them at the mountain of God. Exodus chapter 19.

Commentary:

Okay. So, God has come down upon Mount Sinai in the…in the desert in the wilderness. The people are all around the mountain. They’re not allowed to go upon it. And God has come to speak directly with the people. The people don’t want God to speak directly to them. They’re too afraid and so they’re essentially telling Moses. “you speak on behalf of God and we will listen to you and do whatever you say.” And, so, in so many ways the people are affirming Moses as a prophet. That is what a prophet does, speak on behalf of God to the people, which shows us the importance of the prophet being genuine. We will learn about false prophets in the Scriptures. We will also see that there are consequences in this new society that God is being built for people who claim to speak in the name of the Lord but aren’t at all. But let’s notice what’s beginning to happen here. People are gathered around the mountain of God. God begins to speak to them. He begins to tell them what they are going to look like as a people. And, so, we encounter famously the 10 Commandments as well as other instructions including like instructions about servants and slaves. And, so, we can scratch our head and read the 21^st-century into the ancient Scriptures and go, “well…what’s that doing in the Bible”, not understanding that we have to get ourselves the context of what’s happening here, what’s actually going on and why it matters. The children of Israel have only ever been slaves. So, 400 years have gone by and no one’s going to be 400 or more years old at this point, right? So, every single person that came out of Egypt was born a slave and left Egypt as a slave. All they ever knew was how to be a slave. All they ever knew of the culture was whatever had been inherited - part of Egyptian, part Hebrew, mostly all slave. They don't…they don’t know how to go into a promised land and establish it and set up the leadership and rule under God and be a nation of priests to the world. What they do know how to be is a slave. And, so, for God to give provisions about slaves and essentially say they are hired laborers for a period of time and this is how it works. This is a gigantic can take step forward in the world at this time. The idea that there are term limits, the idea that there are any rights whatsoever of the slave, even a free person who has been captured in battle and made a slave. So, we have made some pretty significant progress in the world over the last several thousand years. But we are also watching God establish revolutionary ideas and concepts about culture because that is fundamentally what we are in the wilderness for. That is fundamentally what’s happening here. The children of Israel know how to be slaves. They don’t know how to be anything else. They don’t know how to be the chosen people of God. They don’t know how to be a nation of priests. They don’t know anything but what they have always known. And, so, God has brought them into the wilderness where they have no way out. They have got to depend upon Him for their survival. And that is a fundamental principle that is a baseline truth for this new thing that God is doing among the Hebrew people. And, so, what we are beginning to experience is the giving of the law, the law of God, the law that would govern this people that would inform them into a cohesive people moving in a specific direction for specific purposes. They were the chosen people, and they were chosen to bless the world. So, we have in some ways begun to shift our narrative. Like this is a very dramatic story with the plagues and everything in the Exodus from Egypt and the Red Sea but we’ve begun to shift the narrative now to where the people are hearing what God wants to shape, like how He is going to knit these people together as the family of God and what He expects. And what we’re going to notice is that everything, everything about this law…and some of these things we’re gonna scratch our head and say go, “that is so antiquated I can’t even imagine doing that.” That was thousands of years ago but the essence of what God is knitting together is that everything that they do reminds them of who they are and who God is and where they’re going. It’s being baked into the new culture that is emerging. And, so, yeah, we’ll go into all kinds of stature…we’re going to read the book of the law and it will read like a law book. But before we even get there understanding this is where it’s going. What God is doing is bringing His people into the wilderness where they have to listen, and they have to learn to trust or they will not survive. And then God is beginning to instruct them. What’s happening is the world is moving forward. The way people deal with each other is being reimagined. Okay…so…so that’s that…

…and then we turn the page into Matthew, and we see Jesus is just very ticked off, “woe to you, You brood of vipers, you whitewashed tombs.” Like He’s just going off. And who is He going off on? The religious leaders who are responsible for stewarding the law. What had happened is they lost the plot along the way and the law was no longer like this way of living, this way of being, this is way of staying set apart and pure and so everything that you did reminded you you were in covenant with God. Instead, all that was lost in favor of ritual, in favor of following the letter of the law. And that became nothing more than controlling the people. And, so for Jesus to make commentary today like He did so directs, He’s basically saying, “Are you so stupid”, right? “Are you so blind? Are you so ignorant? Can’t you see you’ve lost the plot here?” Of course, power obscures all kinds of things that we know are right and all kinds of things that we know are wrong and they have power and it’s a very tenuous power because the Roman Empire is in charge, but they are allowing these Hebrew people to kind of maintain their own subculture, a separatist culture. And, so, these religious leaders are just trying to keep everything moving forward and stay in power and stay in control and Jesus sees right through it. Jesus sees right through everything. Jesus sees the truth in all things. That is having eyes to see and ears to hear. And, so, in some ways, in today’s reading, we get a glimpse of the time when the law when instructions are just being first given and then we get to zoom forward a couple of millennia into the first century in the time of Jesus and see what became of things and what God in the flesh, what Jesus has to say about what they’re doing and He doesn’t like it.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your word and we thank You for this…this kind of perspective where we can look sort of like before and after and we don’t have all of the story in between but that’s the story of the Bible, that’s what we’re doing every day step-by-step day by day and all of these things will be filled. But we get this glimpse that it’s not about what You look like, it’s not what You can present, it’s not in the way that You can perform in front of people, how pious and holy You are. It’s what’s inside of us that’s true. And we watch You Jesus looking at the truth in everything that You do. And, so, we believe that You are looking at us and You can see the truth. We can’t hide it from You. We can’t do a dance and fool You. We can’t change the tone of voice that we’re using or put-on makeup or wear a hat or hide in the other way. You see the truth about us. That can be unnerving, or it can be freeing. Finally, finally, in all of the earth there is one who would look upon us and see us as we truly are and still love us enough to die for us. We thank You for that. We want this to compel us and shift us that we might press in and move away from all that is false so that we can find freedom in the truths because the truth sets us free. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, stay tuned and stay connected in any way that you can.

Check out the Community section. The Community section’s where you can find links to the different social media channels that we are a part of places where communication is happening on social media. So, check that out. But there are also different links there, like links to the transcripts of each day’s reading and each day’s commentary. That’s there in the Community section as well. And the Prayer Wall lives there in the community section. So, check it out. Stay connected. Pray for each other. Turn…it…it’s just so important that we keep our hearts turned outward, that we remember that. It’s so easy, the culture is so prevalent that we be self-absorbed, and really thinking about what we need and what we want and what we desire. But so much of that is answered when we turn our hearts outward and that it’s not just about us, that we are praying for one another around the world. So, check out the Prayer Wall.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if…if the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and given to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm so that as we take this journey, we know we’re not alone. It’s not a solitary journey through the Scriptures any more than it’s a solitary journey through life. We’re in this together. If that is life-giving to you than thank you 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.

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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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible it’s January the 30^th and this is Chris Ann calling back in. And I’m just asking for some continued prayer for…for me for decisions that I need to make in my life. As you may have remembered several times that I’ve called in, I’m separated from my husband, separated for several years and it’s just been a very difficult journey. And while I feel like I’m supposed to keep praying through this it’s just getting harder and harder. It…I miss my family, I miss my husband, I miss…even though that the situation was that he did what he did and wasn’t faithful that I still miss him, and I still care for him very deeply. And I miss my son and just so much that’s been going on from last year even into this year that the stress on me has caused me not to feel well. And I have an older dog that I know that while he’s in pretty decent health I know that he's…he’s got a little heart murmur that’s going on and just ask for his body just to be healed and…because he is my comfort that I have right now at home and it’s just hard. It’s hard. I don’t even know how to explain it, but at times it’s very lonely and it’s hard and I just need some prayer just to get me through this. And thank you all so much. God bless.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Renzo from Maryland. I just want to say thank you guys for everything you’re doing. It’s a blessing. I just caught up. I was behind like 14 days. So, I just thank God that He’s just really been blessing me to just catch up and get closer and closer to Him. And I just want to pray for anybody that’s just going through anything hard times, going through anything like depression because I heard that only the line, depression and stuff like that. Just please…just Father God, I just thank You for everything that You do for us God and just please just help people who are struggling with depression God. Just please help them to get closer and closer to You God and the Holy Spirit to guide them and please help them just keep listening to the Bible because the Bible is so relational, and it just gives us a perfect guideline in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Praying for you guys God bless you.

This is Mike in Tampa I’ve been a long-time listener. I haven’t called in a very long time probably several…about four years now but I was especially moved to call in when Desiree got on here and was telling us about her finding out that her mother was a drug addict and how it just left her…left her with a lot of hurt. And Desiree I just want to pray for you sweet sister right now. And thank you for calling in. It was such a blessing to hear from you sweetie. Lord Jesus we…we come to you in prayer for our…or dear sister Desiree. And Lord I just ask You Lord to bring healing to her heart. Help her to know how much You love her oh Lord. Help her to…to experience or great love and healing and acceptance and…and…and how she’s very dear and precious to You a Lord. And thank You Lord that…that she called in so we could pray. And just please please please Lord bring healing to this family, bring healing to help her mom to find the healing that she needs as well and the help that she needs and help her to…to be reunited with her daughter and to not blame her in any way for what she’s done and…and thank You Lord in Jesus’ name. Amen. Desiree have a…have a good day sweetie and…and just know that a lot of…an awful lot of us are praying for you. Probably as many as thousands are praying for you right now. A lot of ‘em won’t call in but they’re praying for you sweetie. OK. Bye bye.

Hello DAB family this has been an amazing amazing journey these last couple months. My devotional life last year I…I decided to get more focused on…in the word and this last year has been even though with Covid and everything has been a struggle. I’ve grown a lot. And finding this app through a YouTuber I’ve been really excited to finally have a daily plan that I’ve been listening to. So, that has been awesome. The reason why I’m on here now is…and by the way…my name is Andrew. I am from Regina Saskatchewan Canada but the reason I’m phoning is because of this lady that…that sent a message about being hurt by the Christian community and…and her being engaged and her thinking that there’s gotta be something bad that’s gonna happen and she asked for prayer for peace. So, I just want to pray right now for her. Dear heavenly Father I just thank You so much for Your love and who You are and for the gifts that You give us. And God sometimes in our human nature we under…we don’t understand sometimes why You give us good gifts. God, I understand that it…it may not feel real. And I just pray that this lady who didn’t give her name but You know who she is God, that You would just give her that peace, give her that confidence that You are a Father who wants to give us good gifts. And I pray that for the continual healing in her heart for…for being in involved in the Christian community. And I pray that that that would just be a blessing to her and give her peace in those areas and healing and enjoy this engagement that she’s that she has. So, I pray You just bless her and give her strength. I pray all these things in Jesus’ name.

Hi good morning this is John Allen from Orlando FL. This is a first-time caller. I want to thank all of you Daily Bible Audio family for all your prayer requests that you have requested. I want to stand in the middle and say a prayer for all of you. Father God I thank You for all my brothers and sisters who have called in seeking You. Lord You’ve heard their petitions. We come before Your throne of grace Lord praising You, glorifying You. Glory be to Your name Lord. Glory be to You in the highest. Father You see everything, and You know everything. I come before You believing in faith that You will walk on water for everyone who called out to You requesting a prayer. I thank You Jesus for this platform that we can all reach out to one another encouraging one another. I thank You for Brian and his family for creating this this daily prayers and daily readings. Thank You, Jesus for Your grace that never ends. Father God cover every single brother and sister who has called in with Your blood protection Lord from this COVID-19. Father comfort the people that are not able to see that are going through all difficulties on their own Father God. Thank You, Jesus. Come through for us Father God. We seek You we look for You Lord. We put our eyes on You. Glory be to Your name Lord the name that is above all names. Father thank You for what You are doing in this group. Thank You for Your grace that never ends Lord. Thank You for the small victories that You’ve given us this month Father God. Thank You, Jesus for who You are Lord. Thank You, Lord my God. We honor You we glorify You we put our eyes on You. Thank You Lord. Thank You in Jesus mighty powerful name I pray the covering of Jesus blood over every single brother and sister who called in in Jesus’ name. Amen. Blessings.

Hello everybody this is God’s grace for Japan and I just heard…I’m a little behind…and I just heard the January 29^th broadcast with a new sister joining us at the end of the broadcast who just got engaged. And first of all, congratulations. I’ve been married since 2014 and the reason I’m bringing that up is because I wanted you to know that I too came into my engagement from a season of almost a decade of heartbreak and pain in which I…I…I think I just didn’t really believe that the good thing could happen. And, so, that plus I also related very much to what you’re talking about the inability to connect with a Christian community which I also had experienced some spiritual abuse within Christian communities, and I mean I think more than one of us can attest to that we…our other brothers and sisters do not always love us or care for us or behave towards us as I think that our Messiah would prefer but that aside I hope you find healing here. And also, I want to encourage you as you enter this journey…and yes…I know it’s terrifying, it’s terrifying to start something good or for something good to come into your life when everything around you is saying, “no but good things don’t happen to me.” And I…I had way too many days, years, months of…of wrestling with that almost and anxiety in the early days of my marriage. And I still have all sorts of anxiety about “when’s the other shoe gonna drop? When is the terrible thing gonna happen?” And I want to courage you, rest in the good thing that God gives you too. He gives us blessings. Yes, this life id full of trouble and I know nothing lasts forever on this side of heaven but enjoy the blessings He gives you. I will be praying for you sister. And if you have a need just call us up. Love you. Bye.

Exodus 17:8-19:15, Matthew 22:34-23:12, Psalms 27:7-14, Proverbs 6:27-35

Today is the 3^rd day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is an honor and privilege and joy to be here with you today as we put one of our feet out in front of us and shift our balance and lean forward into it and take the next step forward, which is what we do every day. 365 step journey. Seems like a little one, but it takes us through the whole Bible, takes us through the whole year. And, yeah, like I was saying in the last couple of days, now that we’re moving into this second month of the year, we…we already can look back. It’s not like the Bible didn’t start speaking to us right out of the gates. It’s been speaking all along. And, so, let’s dive in and that take the next step. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Exodus chapter 17 verse 8 through 19 verse 15.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s talk about chosen people for a second, right? Because probably…unless this is like…you’re just…very very new to anything about the Bible and just hearing these stories or some of this terminology for the first time…and I know there’s a ton of you…and…and no problem…it’s all gonna start clicking into place as we keep following the story. But those of us who have been around this faith for a while, like understanding that the Israelites are God’s chosen people. That’s just kind of part of the story. And we can think that He chose them because He wanted them more than anybody else and somehow, they are better or more exalted or are more favorable somehow than anybody else. And, so, they’re like almost a different level of human being and everybody else is below that. And that terminology, that kind of concept, it then bleeds over into the Christian faith. And those of us who have accepted Christ, then we know that we have been chosen and have been adopted in the family of God. And, so, we feel that same kind of “I’m special-ness.” And that’s fine, that’s good, but it’s not all there is to it. I mean, if the Scriptures tell us God is not a respecter of persons, if the Scriptures tell us like nobody’s better than anybody else, and that’s very explicit in the writings of the apostle Paul, then how do we get to this favored chosen people and what does this mean? God very clearly speaks to that today as the children of Israel are at the mountain of God. So, there out in the wilderness at what has traditionally been believed to be Mount Sinai. And God and Moses have been talking and God is…has instructed Moses to invite the people to purify themselves, because He's…God is going to meet with them directly, personally, like not through a prophet or anything. Like we’re seeing God’s intention was to communicate directly with His people. As the story unfolds, we’ll see that that’s not how things exactly work out for various reasons and we’ll discuss them as we go, but at this point that is the invitation, that the people purify themselves and not come upon…on the mountain, the mountain of God until they are given permission. And God speaks. And I read this out of the Scriptures, and this is the voice of God. “You are eyewitnesses of all that I did to the Egyptians. You saw how I snatched you from the bonds of slavery and carried you on Eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you will hear my voice, obey what I say, and keep my covenant, then you out of all the nations of the world will be my treasured people. After all, the earth belongs to me. You will be my kingdom of priests, a nation holy and set apart.” There it is. There is a reason these people are being set apart. It is so that they can be His kingdom of priests to the world so that all nations can be blessed through them, which is what God told Abraham. They’re not being chosen because they are better. They are being chosen for a purpose, a purpose that affects the world until this day. So, my brothers and sisters as believers in Jesus Christ we share in that. We aren’t better. We are chosen for a purpose. We are set apart to be a kingdom of priests, to be a city on a hill, to be the light of the world.

So, if we zoom out of the wilderness and zoom forward in the story by millennia and come into the time of Jesus and just look at how things are than we hear God in flesh, Jesus speak of these priests and what He says…well…I’m gonna quote Him. “The Pharisees and the scribes occupy the seat of Moses. So, you should do the things they tell you to do but don’t do the things they do. They heap burdens upon their neighbors backs and they prove unwilling to do anything to help shoulder the load. They’re interested above all in presentation,” right? In how things look. “They wrap their heads and arms in the accoutrements of prayer, they cloak themselves with flowing tasseled prayer garments, they covet the seats of honor at fine banquets in the synagogue, and they love it when people recognize them in public and call them teacher and beam at them.” That is a very different thing than knowing that you have been set aside, set apart to God to be a kingdom of priests to the world. So, indeed we are chosen, indeed we are special. It has nothing to do with us. And when we start subtly thinking that it does, we have planted seeds that are going to grow up and they’re going to be called arrogance and pride. And that I guess…maybe the easiest most clear way to say it is, that won’t work. Look around you. Look at the stories in the Bible and see it doesn’t work and just look at the world we live in, it doesn’t work.

Prayer:

Father, indeed, we feel chosen. Indeed, we know Your love for us, but indeed we know that we didn’t do anything. There’s nothing we could do that would ever force Your hand. You would never…there’s nothing we can do that would make You go, “like, okay You have achieved righteousness on Your own. I have no choice but to see You that way.” We are what we are because of You. We are nothing without You. Our next breath is a gift. We are utterly dependent upon You even when we don’t acknowledge it, even when we’re not paying attention. So, we’re taking this moment to be grateful and to humble ourselves. That was Your words today Jesus, “for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Come Holy Spirit and help this to be the way we live, the default, the normal, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is home base and it’s where you stay in touch and stay connected and find out what’s going on around here.

It’s where the Prayer Wall is, where we pray for one another on a continual basis. It’s where different links to get connected on social media are, wherever we’re participating. You can find that all in the Community section.

You can also check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there that have been pulled together and crafted and created over…over the years to take this journey deeper. So, yeah, the Daily Audio Bible Journal is there. And we encourage journaling often because remembering is something that is…is an inherent narrative inside the Bible that…that we would remember what God has done, that we would tell future generations what God has done. And, you know, in the Old Testament or whatever they would build an altar, they would pile up rocks, they would make a memorial. Ad we think about around the world, like there’s memorials and statues and all kinds of stuff all over the world to say, “this is what happened here” or “this is the significance of this place or this person.” It’s important that we…that we remember…that we remember these things in our own lives and then we can look back at God’s faithfulness and that we can share with the future generations what God has done. And maybe a more modern representation of that over piling up a pile rocks would be to write it down, write it down in your own hand. Let it be a memorial in your own hand of God’s faithfulness in your life. And, so, there’s the Daily Audio Bible Journal but then there’s also the Black Wing pencils and all of the writing utensils that are there in the Shop. I discovered those…well…let’s see…it would’ve been several years ago. It was when my mom…it would’ve been 2016. She got real sick and she passed away in early 2017. And just…it was just constant care…constant care and kind of on a plane on the weekends and traveling and speaking and back, constant care. And it was just exhausting the level of just how quickly dementia was becoming a part of the story and just the confusion and the anxiety and on her side and my side…all of our sides that were involved. And, yeah, Jill and I were out in little community near us where there’s some art galleries and that’s where I found the Black Wing pencils. I was just out there bot too long ago remembering all of that. And I don’t know, there was something about. Why am l gonna spend so much money on pencils? Who writes with pencils anymore? But then just sharpening those pencils and knowing like, this is the best pencil you can get. Like this is actually a craft pencil and just I mean wit the Cedar wood and with the craftsmanship of the whole thing. And I just fell in love. I just…I was like I…it connected me back to other earlier points in my life. I hadn’t written with pencils in since…I don’t know maybe school, but there was something about it and that stuck. It stuck all these years. And I’m looking at a Black Wing…like I’m picking it up. I’m holding my Black Wing pencil that I write with every day right now. And, so, that’s little pieces of the story that get incorporated along the way that make up the story of this community and what we are aiming for, which is certainly to move through the Bible together in community, but that it’s not like this passive thing where we just go, “there. Check. I read the Bible.” We’re actually the Bible transformed us, where we really entered into the stories and allowed it to do what it does, which is become a mirror into our own hearts, and then really bring up the stuff that needs healing and really bring up the stuff and needs to not be thee in our lives anymore and then to be able to write these things down as they are happening and to refer back. “Oh, yes I remember walking through that season and now look at where I’m at.” So, we encourage all that stuff. And that’s why everything that’s in the Daily Audio Bible Shop is there intentionally. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. And as I’ve said so many times the fact…the fact is we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. That’s just the fact. But…but we are here. And, so, we are in this together. And, so, if life is coming to you through the community here as we make this journey through the Bible than thank you 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, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Exodus 15:19-17:7, Matthew 22:1-33, Psalms 27:1-6, Proverbs 6:20-26

Today is the 2^nd day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and an honor to be here with you today as…well…we’re taking these steps forward into this new month, so we can move into it comfortably and sail through all the Scriptures have before us. So, it’s good to be here with you as we continue our journey through the month of February. We are reading from the Voice Translation this week, picking up with our story of the children of Israel in the wilderness from the book of Exodus. Just reminding you, yesterday there was a showdown. The enemy was coming against a population of former slaves known as the Hebrews. They were backed up to the Red Sea. There was nowhere to run, and God split the Red Sea and they crossed over. And the…the Army, the Egyptian army was just gonna go through as well, but they didn’t make it. The ocean collapsed over them and that was that. And that’s kind of where we find ourselves. They got to the other side of the Red Sea on dry ground and saw what happened to their enemy and then they burst out in song. And, so, we find ourselves on the other side of the Red Sea in a time of celebration and we will continue with that singing and dancing today. Exodus chapter 15 verse 19 through 17 verse 7.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s talk about what we read in the book of Exodus today. So, we are with the children of Israel in the wilderness now and they are freed from slavery in Egypt. And I mean, man, God has invaded Egypt, right, dismantled Egypt and the Israelites essentially pillaged Egypt by requesting silver and gold on their way out. And, so, they pillaged Egypt without even drawing his sword. So, obviously God had been with them. And then He’s leading them cloud by day pillar of fire by night. They cross the Red Sea on dry ground and watch the armies of Pharaoh be drowned in that same Red Sea. And then they head out into the deep deep deep desert and they can’t find water. And sure, sure that’s a struggle. In fact, that’s a struggle for survival. That’s what God was up to. They are in the wilderness, and they are trying to do what they can do to survive in their own strength when God had invited them into a different story, one that was going to shift and change their identity altogether. The only identity and we will…we will touch on this many times because I’ve already mentioned, we’re in the wilderness part of our journey right now in the Old Testament and we’ll be in the wilderness. And we need to learn the message of the wilderness just like the children of Israel need to learn the lesson of the wilderness because you can’t get out of it until you learn. So, let’s learn it. So, here they are wandering around and their thirsty. They’ve seen God do all the things we just mentioned. So, they have plenty of proof that He is with them that He cares about them and that He is most powerful. And yet here they are, they can’t find water and what do they say, “why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?” And then they start thinking about slave days, cucumbers, bread, meat in the pot. That’s what they had. And, so, they’re lamenting that they don’t have those things anymore even though they have their freedom. They would rather give up their freedom for an easier path. You see where this is going friends? Like all we gotta do is understand that the Bible so often is simply a mirror exposing us, like exposing all the things that we are naked and ashamed about, exposing the ways in which we are hiding and pretending.

So, we watch Jesus do this kind of stuff with His words in the New Testament. We’re watching this, these stories become the stories of our lives as well as we pay attention. How many times have we felt freedom, have we felt God rescuing us, that He did rescue us and then things got difficult again or they got even harder quickly? And we would trade freedom for slavery just to have it easy. There’s so many things to think about on so many levels in that that that is where the Bible has led us to today, to invite the Holy Spirit to reveal these ways that we choose slavery over freedom because slavery might be easier, bondage might be easier even though it’s going to kill us in the end. When God is saying fight for your freedom and then you will be free. Like, learn to trust me utterly and you will be free. Nothing can touch you after that because nothing can be taken from you. You know who you belong to and you know that He is the most-high God and that for eternity you will be His child, you will be in fellowship with Him. There’s nothing that can take that away from you. Until we learn that we just keep making circles in the sand and it’s going nowhere. And we’re watching this in the children of Israel’s lives but it doesn’t take too much effort to see it in our own.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come. Yeah, it might be easier sometimes to just give up, just settle for whatever, just…just be in bondage because freedom that…that would be too painful, that would be too much of a risk, that would be…that would be too difficult. We’d give up, we’d walk back. We’ve done it so many times. But You are inviting us like, for real into freedom, that we can walk into freedom. Even though it will be supremely difficult we can become free if we will completely and utterly depend upon You. Come Holy Spirit and show us the ways that we’ve put the chains back on our ankles and wrists and that we just keep carrying around bondage for no reason. And the only reason being that we just think it will be too hard to be free. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s home of the Global Campfire, it’s where we congregate in a virtual world. So, be aware of that. Of course, the Daily Audio Bible app will get you there as well. So, if you don’t have the Daily Audio Bible app download that from your app store. It’s free. Just look for Daily Audio Bible and get connected.

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you, I thank you deeply for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the 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.

Exodus 13:17-15:18, Matt 21:23-46, Ps 26:1-12, Pr 6:16-19

Today is the 1^st day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today. Obviously it’s a special day because we’re transitioning into the second month of the year, but it’s a special day because we’ve completed a whole month together, which means we are settling into a rhythm and we are settling into community for the year. It's…it’s interesting. If we…we make it to Valentine’s Day, then the chances are really good that we are going to make it through the year together. And, so, well done for making it all the way here to the second month of the year. Let’s just take a second to think back. It’s only been a month, but look at all that has happened. We…we found our origin story. We discussed that. We found out in the third chapter of Genesis what happened to us. We know this is the fall of man. We…we saw the repercussions of that immediately, both in the world and in the human heart. Mankind was naked and unashamed. That was the natural state of things. That’s how it was supposed to be both inward and outward week. We weren’t supposed to have to hide. We weren’t supposed to have hide from each other or from God. But that’s what happened, naked and ashamed and hiding. And that’s what we see everywhere we look, including in the mirror. And, so, we got some context. And we went through famous stories that we’ve probably heard our whole lives, like Noah and the flood. And we then met this man Abram and God calling this man Abram to a land he didn’t know and giving a promise for this land and changing his name to Abraham and entering into a covenant with him. And then we watched the miraculous story begin to unfold as generations passed to new generations and more and more children were born. And, so, Abraham has Isaac. Isaac as Jacob. And we hear this often in the Bible, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” And then Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. And all the sudden we have a context for what we hear about the children of Israel. The children of Jacob and his offspring, the children of Israel. And we watched the story of Joseph at length, one of the children of Israel, who was trafficked by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. We watched God save Egypt from plague, saving Joseph’s family in the process. And then we watched them prosper in…in Egypt, four centuries. Like, four centuries, but they were enslaved and then we met another powerful pivotal figure in the Scriptures named Moses, who was sent back to Egypt to be the…the prophet of God and to demand the freedom of God’s people. And that brought on all these plagues that we’ve been reading about the last few days. And that’s where we find ourselves. The final plague has descended upon Egypt. The…the children of Israel have been forcibly forced out of Egypt. And that’s where we pick up the story as we begin this second month of the year. And we’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Exodus chapter 13 verse 17 through 15 verse 18.

Commentary:

Okay. A few things we should probably take note of from our reading today because they will help us with our day and our week and this brand-new shiny sparkly month that we find ourselves in. Let’s go to the book of Exodus first. The children of Israel have been set free from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. And we watched all of that unfold plague after plague after plague sort of systematically dismantling Egypt. And Pharaoh’s arrogance in believing that he is a deity, that he is divine, that he is a God himself, and who is this Hebrew God that would come. And you can kinda get in his head and understand why he would think this. If he has been raised to believe that he is a child, a son of God, that he is the Pharaoh, like a divine being upon the earth, the king of Egypt, and he has a population of people who are his slaves and this population of people who are his slaves come and say, “our God says that you should let us go.” I mean if you think you are divine yourself then you would be thinking, “well, at bare minimum you are my slaves. Whoever your God is is no way near as powerful as the gods of Egypt or me.” So, we can see him resisting and we can see God just demonstrating His power before them at first but then things definitely begin to take a more serious turn and things amp up all the way until Pharaoh and the Egyptians demand the children of Israel leave, which they did. And then we…we read something really interesting that could really help us in our lives. So, the children of Israel were freed from slavery. They entered the desert because that's…that’s the way to go to the promised land, across the Sinai Peninsula, but God did not lead them by the shortest, easiest coastal route. He led them deeper into the desert. So, in other words, He set them free and did not give them any easy path, did not give them the most straightforward path. There was work to be done in that desert. And we’re in that desert now, right? They’ve crossed the Red Sea and they are on the other side of the Red Sea, but they are in the desert and they are going to be there, and we are going to be there with them for what feels like an awful long time, 40 years to be specific. Actually, even more than that. And, so, we’ll be spending some time in the desert. And this is our desert portion of the year and we need to embrace it because there are so many lessons in the wilderness. And I mean that metaphorically in our lives, but I also mean that literally in the stories that we’ll find in the Bible that come from the wilderness. So, the children of Israel are in the wilderness backed up to the Red Sea when they notice that an army is coming against them. And the closer that tis army gets the more they realize these are the Egyptians. This is the Egyptian Army coming to destroy us and re-enslave. Of course, the Egyptians and Pharaoh after they…after they let the people go, they start imagining the repercussions. This is going to be devastating to their economy because now you have…you have about a million people that are your slaves that have been propping things up that you’ve set free. And, so, they’re reconsidering and hardening their hearts again. And they’re gonna go back and get going back and get the Hebrew people. Meanwhile the Hebrew people are kind of boxed in. It’s the wilderness in front of them, the Red Sea, the ocean behind them and the enemy army is bearing down upon them. We could pause here and just think about seasons in our lives where we have felt trapped and boxed in, like where there is literally no good way to go. The enemy is coming down against us. It’s the sea behind us and the mountains and the wilderness before us. There is no way to escape. And, so, the Hebrew people do basically what we would normally do. They start to complain and gripe about the predicament they’re in because now God has come to set them free and things have only gotten worse again. Do you see a theme emerging, though? Is this not the story of Joseph where when he did everything right things only got worse? So, they’re ready to abandon Moses, see if they can maybe go back to Egypt and become slaves again because that might be better. While here’s this army that’s gonna destroy them. They are trapped. And God speaks to Moses and Moses speaks to the people. The only thing you need to do is shut your mouth and watch this. This enemy that you see today you will never see them again. And that is indeed what happened. And that is indeed something that we should put in our pocket or purse and carry around with us for the next year.

Then we move into the book of Matthew. The religious leadership, we are talking about the clergy, right? We are talking about men of God who are leading the people are getting pretty fed up with Jesus. God in flesh. Like, they do not believe. And, so, they confront Jesus about how…who gave Him permission to do what He’s doing. And, of course, as we have come to notice in the first month of the year Jesus is always going to speak to the truth of the situation. He’s always good to talk to the plot behind the story. He knows that what’s being presented is a mask, that everyone is naked and ashamed and hiding. And, so, He’s like, “well, let me ask you a question.” And He talks about John because they didn’t believe in John either. And, so, Jesus ends up telling the story about a man who had a vineyard and he fixed it all up and got it ready for business, and then he leased it and went away and when a  harvest time came he wanted his share of the harvest, but the tenants refused became rebellious, beat up the people who came to collect the harvest on a number of occasions until the master sent is heir, his son to come and collect because he’s the heir, he that…he’s the owner. And, so, they should respect the owner of the vineyard but they don’t. They conspire to kill him, which is what they do. And then Jesus asks the religious leadership what the Masters gonna do. And they immediately answer, “the master is gonna destroy those people.” They were speaking out their own future essentially, because in the story the vineyard is the Kingdom, and the master is the Father, and the Son is Jesus. And this story is an interesting warning about religious dominance. When religion is used to ensnare or entrap or control people then there is no value in it. That might sound bigger than it should. But it’s simply the story that’s coming out of all of the Gospels. The people that were against Jesus were the people of God, God’s leaders who did not recognize that God was doing a new thing in the world and did everything to destroy that new thing including…including killing God, including killing Jesus. God made flesh. So, we should get some clues that this journey we are on as we walk alongside Jesus and listen to what He has to say and watch the away that He operates and observe His character that we may find a bunch of challenges, that we may need to listen to Jesus instead of what we’ve been told about Him, that we might need to press in closer and deeper as we watch the amazing and that’s an understatement…the amazing thing that God had chose to do when He chose to come and rescue people again from slavery. Slavery to the oppressiveness of what was going on around them in their culture and slavery to sin. And we also may need to understand that when we become free we may not be taking the easy road. We may need to go into the wilderness because there is work to do there.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that because it doesn’t sound like it would be fun. We don’t want to go wander in the wilderness. We felt like we did that all year last year. And yet the thing You are after is our freedom. And we confess that even as we see it in the Scriptures, we see it in our own lives. We fight You on that because it might be hard, it might be difficult. We might have to endure. It may get more difficult, before it gets easier and we don’t like that. We don’t like that. And yet You’ve been very clear all along that there is a narrow path that leads to life and that that is the path that leads to life and few ever find it, but wide is the road to destruction, the easy path. And, so, as we move into this second month, we are inviting Your Holy Spirit to begin to align us with where You’re going, to begin aiming us in the direction we need to head in no matter what it looks like because we as the children of Israel are going to have to learn that there is no other hope outside of You. You are the only hope there is and we must trust You utterly. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is…it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And equal…equally effective way to find what’s going on around here would be the Daily Audio Bible app. So, check that out. It’s how to stay connected in a virtual community moving through the Bible in a year.

So, stay connected to the Prayer Wall. Stay connected through social media. There are number of channels that we’re involved in. You can find those in the Community section of the app or the website.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources, like I say, to go deeper, but also just to be involved. So, check out the different sections in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission to continue to bring God’s spoken word read fresh every day and…and given freely to anyone who will listen anywhere anytime and to keep building community around that rhythm, which is what we call the Global Campfire and what we enjoy every day. If that matters. If that is life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage of the website. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you’ve a prayer request or encouragement, you can Hotline button in the app, which is 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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, my DAB family this is Truly Thankful Taylor just wanted to say hi tonight. I have three of my little ones with me…2 littles and one teenager. Girls do you wanna say hi? Hi. We’ve been talking about our reading for today in DAB Kids and Chronological and all the different stuff ‘cause all of our family are doing different ones. Some of us are doing all five in English. Some of us are just doing Chronological or kids and we’re just loving God’s word even more but we were talking about having faith as small as a mustard seed that it can move mountains. So, each…two of the girls wanted to pray tonight. So, sister do you want to start? What did you want to share? That people would have faith in God and that people would love God even more and let Him be in their heart. Jesus thank you for the day. Thank you for everything you have done. Thank you for being our God. And I want to…I want people to let you into their heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen. OK sister. Jesus thank you for the day that we have faith in us and faith in Jesus and that everyone starts praying and those who don’t pray now pray. And have Jesus where? In our faith, in their heart. That’s right. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Love and blessings everybody. Bye. Bye. Bye.  

Hi, my name is Luanne from Texas. I just want to say thanks. This journey so far has been so good and so revealing. It’s been so wonderful to watch the creation and then the de-creation and with the New Testament seeing what the recreation could be. I’m just so grateful. I’m grateful for Brian for this. I’m grateful to the community who’s reading it along with me and it’s just been so healing after 2020. I’m just so grateful. So, Lord I just ask that for those who are weary, come. Come to the Bible. Sit with us and learn and you will find much joy. I ask this in our most holy savior’s name, Jesus. Amen.

Good morning fellow DABbers this is Sally in Massachusetts Amazed by Grace it’s January 27^th and I am so thankful this morning that I listened as I do most every day to the DAB and so blessed by the word of God and so encouraged today as we read of Moses and Aaron and pharaoh and the people, how God works through everyone to carry out His plans and purposes. He worked through pharaoh. He worked through Moses. He worked through Moses mother and father. He accomplishes purposes through people and He’s accomplishing His purposes in and through each of us day by day as we yield to Him. And I’m just so thankful that we worship a God of power, a God of a plan, a God with purposes. And I am so thankful that we have this family to worship God together, to encourage and strengthen each other. Thank you, Daughter of the King from Tennessee. I so appreciated your prayers and your thoughts today. And Pamela from Pennsylvania how easy it is. I have also often been guided by fear instead of faith in making decisions. And dear brother McQueen from Utah. Lord we pray Your comfort to this family. Thank You for Betsy Lopez and the wonderful grandma she was to him. We pray Your comfort to this family at this time. And Lord we thank You that although world at times feels like it’s out of control You are God alone from before time began and You are on Your throne because You are God alone. Increase our faith in You Lord we pray and thank You in Jesus’ powerful name.

Hello Daily Audio Bible my name is Gail and I’m calling from Las Vegas. I’m calling in response to a boy that just called in about his grandma, Grandma Lopez who was in a car accident and he wanted to get the word out to us about his grandma. I am so proud of you for the courage that you showed to call in and let us know what happened to your grandma. I felt that you two had an amazing relationship and you were so close. And I bet you miss her. I really know that you miss her because you wanted to make a lasting memory and let us know that she died, and it was important to you to get the word out. So, I applaud your courage sweet boy and I just wanted to say that we hear you and we are praying for you. Keep calling in. Keep calling in. We love to hear from you. Bye for now.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible I’m calling in to speak to Golda McQueen. Young man your courage to send in the message to speak to the people about your grandmother and her legacy of love in your life touched my heart in so many ways to remember my own grandmother. I want to know not only Betsy Lopez will be remembered today for her own life but for the life that she poured into you. And I just want to encourage you with two verses that I thought of when I heard you speaking. Exodus 4:12. So, go Golda. I will be with you. When you speak and I will give you the words to say. And in Acts Jesus himself came to Paul and encouraged him to keep speaking. He said in acts 18 9 and 10 during the night Paul had a vision and the Lord said to him don’t be afraid and don’t stop talking to people I am with you and no one will be able to hurt you. Many of my people are in the city. Heavenly Father I pray You pour out a triple blessing upon Golda McQueen as he goes to the funeral of his grandmother whom he loved so much and wants her to be remembered and it made such an impact to remember my own grandmother I know prayed for me, but I never got to grow up with her. So, I…I thank you Golda. You have touched my heart in ways you’ll never know until we see each other in heaven. God bless you son.

Hello, my name is Richard today is my first day listening in several years. I just listened to February 27^th recording that I was blessed by. Some of you may remember I was Richard from Mississippi back in 2018 I went through a divorce. I moved back home to Arkansas. That’s where I stay at now. I work for my dad part time. I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m trying to get back into reading the word and listening to DAB every morning. So, I covet your prayers that you would pray for me as I establish a new habit and to know the Lord. Bless each and every one of you in Jesus’ name.

Good morning this is Radiant Faith in Georgia. I’m listening on January the 27^th and I just heard a young man from Nevada I believe his name was Golda McQueen. He’s nine years old and he was on his way…I hope I can get this out. He was on his way to his grandma’s funeral. I’m a grandma and this just really touched my heart, the love that he had for her. He said that it’s hard to get messages out from where he lives and he’s only nine years old but let me tell you something, we heard you loud and clear. We heard the love that you had for your grandma and I just pray, and I believe that Jesus let her hear you. Oh, Lord I know she was proud of you.

Exodus 12:14-13:16, Matthew 20:29-21:22, Psalms 25:16-22, Proverbs 6:12-15

Today is the 31^st day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you as we end and begin, right? So, we’re ending the first month of the year. Can you believe that exactly one month ago was December 31^st and we were at the end of the year and just getting ready to launch on to this journey? Now we are a month in. It’s gone quick, and there’s a lot…a lot that we have learned and I just…I mean the new year…I need…I needed the new year to come. And I think a lot of people did too, and I’m just really encouraged by what the Scriptures are speaking into our lives as we continue. So, we’re just marking this moment where we reached the end of our first month. Today’s reading will end that first month and tomorrow we’ll be in the second month of the year. And it just goes and goes quickly, but it also goes at the pace that it needs to go out. So, I just want to tell you, well done. I mean we’ve been at…this is 31 days we can do this. If we’ve made it this far, we can…we can make this journey work. And, so, let’s dive in. This is a brand-new shiny sparkly week that we are walking into and we will read from the Voice Translation this week, picking up the story of…well…Moses and Pharaoh and the enslaved Hebrew people. And God’s full intention that is people are not going to be slaves anymore. And, so, we begin. Exodus chapter 12 verse 14 through 13 verse 16.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us through this first full month in Your word for this voyage, the voyage of 2021. And we are…we have set sail and we are well on our way and we are grateful for the shifting that is beginning to take place. Like it's…it’s starting to become a rhythm and we’re starting to feel like we can do this and we’re a part of something. We are grateful for that. We invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. This is one of the promises of the Scriptures, that You would lead us into all truth. That is what we are asking for, that is what we seek, that You would lead us on the pathways of truth, that You would lead us on what Jesus called the narrow path that leads to life, that we would embrace wisdom as…as a best friend and that we would walk the pathways of wisdom. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, check out what’s going on around here and stay connected.

Check out the Community section. This is where the Prayer Wall is.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a whole plethora of resources that are available there, some things that are just…just pure fun but some things that are pure fun but also productive and things to take this journey deeper, things to listen to, things to read. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if…if the mission that we hold in common to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night, and to build community around that rhythm, because it is a rhythm and it’s not a solitary one, it's…it’s a communal one, if that has made a difference to you than thank you for your partnership. There is a link that lives on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible 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, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can dial 877-942-4253 or you can just simply hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top and share from there no matter where you are in the world.

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:

Hi, my name is Desiree I’m a 13-year-old girl. I’ve been studying and recently found out my mom was a drug addict and now that I’ve seen so many things pass during my life when I was taken away from her at the age of 6 years old and went to my aunt and uncle’s house which are now my new parents because I got adopted from them and I’ve been going through some rough times because of all the things that my mother has done like when I recently found out that she was a drug addict I just broke down and started crying and I…I couldn’t believe what she did an…and the fact is that she wants to bring me or some other people and that…that’s not really our fault and the fact is that she doesn’t care. And I just wish that everything was the same, but I just asked for prayer that she just helps us. I mean God help us and please pray help and thank you.

Hey guys it’s your brother from Indiana I’m just calling to just…just out of greatness just out of all the awesome __ right now. I just heard that Sean has recently came to Christ, you know, just this past year. He said he got baptized last Sunday. He’s been reading the Bible. I just pray encouraging… just that…that…that the Holy Spirit would encourage you. Man that…that’s amazing. I’m so glad and I’m so glad you’re, you know, I’m just really glad and I pray a special blessings upon you and your future. You say you may want to go on mission trips. God’s will be done. May you have eyes and ears to hear that. Also, By God’s Grace I didn’t hear the last part of that but Covid and breast cancer. That is a really traumatic experience, but you have the faith to know that God is our great physician. I pray that your family have increased faith, you would recognize the blessings around you being your family three beautiful daughters and I pray __ for your whole family, your husband, and man or girl, I…I’m sorry. Just blessings and for anyone that has depression especially teenagers, I’m just praying for you today that your eyes be lifted to God the maker of the heavens and the earth in Jesus’ name I’m praying. Thank you, guys. And girls. I love you.

Hi DAB family I have never actually called before but I did hear a prayer from By Your Grace Sherry and I just wanted to let you know that sometimes when we pray for God to increase our faith, He puts us in situations that essentially force us to have faith in Him that He will put us through. There is so much power in faith that we…that God wants us to be able to tap into. There is so much love and passion and Satan definitely wants to keep us from all of that. So, I just wanted to say keep on going. Sometimes what we ask for is certainty in faith rather than actual faith, but I will pray for you and I do hope that God will God will show you some amazing things during this time that you are, that you have to lean on him in order to get through this. So, I’ll be praying for you.

Hello everybody my name is Josh and I’ve been listening for several years. I’ve never called because honestly, I rarely listen to the prayer request and the only reason I was listening today was because it was one of those rare occasions where I was actually running and I just couldn’t reach my phone but as I was listening I heard Zealand Isabel from Georgia and they were so moved by her story I literally stopped in my tracks. She was explaining that she has a brain problem and that it has affected her right side and she has trouble with seizures and that she is looking for prayer from the Daily Audio Bible community. Zealand Isabel if you’re listening, I want to tell you something about my family. I have two daughters on this earth. The oldest is 4 years old and was a twin. She and her sister were born really early, so early that one didn’t make it out of the hospital, and she is with Jesus. Now the other one or the one who’s for now, had a brain bleed that, like you, affected her right side. Today she would tell you that her right side just moves a little different, but I see how hard she works every day on things that I would otherwise take for granted. And I am sure that you work hard every day as well. I pray for my daughter each morning, that she would be healed but also that she would be strong and would know Jesus more she grows up. I pray for her to be like you. I want you to know for sure that you are strong, and I will be praying for you along with my daughter every day. I speak healing over you from the one who made you and pray blessings on you.

Hi, Macy here from Texas and…and I’m a new listener. I just turned 6 and I wanted to say I listen to you… to your bibles… to your Bible…to the Bible stories that you read to us so I…so I would…so I would like…so today I’m also listening to one too. So, and I love them too and I just wanted to say that. So, bye.

Hello this is Donna from California and recently a couple of people have called in that I just really, really some calls really touch you very deeply, they all do but these in particular did for me. There was a lady who called, and she has since had a lot of response. A lady who called in and said she had Covid and her husband had left her after 47 years of marriage. This broke my heart. And then another lady, Amy, from Canada called recently just expressing the loneliness and the…I too, didn’t sign up to be single. I…I actually had been married. My marriage fell apart about 10 years ago. And I…I didn’t sign up to be single. It’s very difficult and then I understand people who are well meaning will quote things like “my grace is sufficient for you” and “delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”, which are very well meaning and very true, but often it just rings hollow because sometimes that comes from people who are blessed with a good marriage. Not to sound bitter. But I just want to offer a quick prayer because I only have like less than 30 seconds. Dear Lord help…help those of us in this situation to believe you. Help us to really search deeply. What are the desires of my heart? My…my desires are for you. And why would I place them anywhere else? I don’t know if that helps but I pray for you and I love you. Thank you for calling.

Exodus 10:1-12:13, Matthew 20:1-28, Psalms 25:1-15, Proverbs 6:6-11

Today is the 30th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you. Man…we are that close to the end of the first month, right? Tomorrow…well…tomorrow’s the last day of January. So, yeah, we’re rounding the corner on our first month together. It’s hard to believe but that’s how quick it goes. And I never get to this point in the in the month of January where I don’t look back and go, man so much as happened in the Bible, so much has been said. Like, we just launched out of the gate and the Bible just goes right after our hearts and has given us so much already. And I’m so excited for the journey ahead. And let’s dive in. We’ve been reading from the English Standard Version this week, which is what we’ll do today. Exodus chapter 10 verse 1 through 12 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s talk for just a second about what we read in the book of Matthew and just come back up alongside Jesus as He’s ministering and He began His teaching today by saying something that we should pay attention to because it’s something that we should be looking for, “for the kingdom of heaven is like.” When Jesus says that we should pay attention to what He’s saying because we are looking for this kingdom of heaven that we claim to be a part of. So, He’s like, “the kingdom of heaven is like a master of the house.” And then He tells a story. A landowner goes into the marketplace to hire day laborers to work in his fields and they make an agreement in the morning about a certain price that they will receive and then those people go to work. And then the master then goes back out into the marketplace and finds people over the course of the day, even getting to the end of the day sending them into the field to work. And then at the end of the day they all get paid the same. And then those who had agreed to the denarius and got paid the denarius are angry because they feel like they worked harder than anybody else. When the master simply says, “yeah but didn’t we make…like you got exactly what you agreed to. So, now you’re trying to judge my generosity. Do I not get to do with the resources that belong to me what I want to do with them? So, if I want to be generous then I can be generous. This story can be a little bit disruptive because it’s like well that doesn’t seem exactly fear. Like I kinda get the…I kinda get the point of the people who worked out in the hot sun all day. It’s supposed to do that. Like the story is supposed to be disruptive because it shows us how easily we can sit in judgment of God because the master in this story is the God figure in this story. We know this because Jesus started out describing the kingdom of heaven is like, right? And then we pay attention to what it’s like. What we find is that the fortunate thing is to be able to come into the field at all no matter what time of day we got there. And God wanting to be generous reveals to us that nobodies better than anybody else in the kingdom of God, which is very different than the…the world system or the cultures that we live in because we inflate people and throw people up and worship people and admire success even if it’s ruthless success. In God’s kingdom there’s not this hierarchy where you get the mansion up on the hill looking down on the people who were sinners until their last breath who just barely get to get into God’s kingdom. That’s not how this works. In is in all the way. And for all of the things that we like to spout off about what God does and does not do, what he will and will not do, this story shows us that we don’t have that say. God can do what God wills to do no matter what. He’s the most-high God. Everything is His. Everything in all of creation is His, which leads us to what Jesus ended the story with. The last will be first and the first will be last. We have plenty to explore about the kingdom of God from the lips of Jesus as we navigate through the Gospels, but every time that we come to this talk of the kingdom, we should pay attention because it all begins to fit together. And the way that the kingdom works is very different than the way the systems we have designed as humans work. And what we should be understanding is that Jesus is God made flesh modeling what humanity without sin is…is capable of and is supposed to look like. And He is describing the kingdom that was intended to be upon this earth as His children. And He will claim that it’s still here, but it’s actually really here now and happening. And if we would have eyes to see and ears to hear, we would be able to see that. So, anytime we hear Jesus talking about the kingdom of heaven is like something, let’s have eyes to see and ears to hear. It’s an important part of our journey. It’s vital that we understand what we are actually a part of instead of continuing to navigate through life believing that we have faith, but having no idea about why it works one day and doesn’t work another day and how to actually make this something that’s a part of who we are. What we begin to understand going through the Gospels and listening to Jesus and then into the writings of the apostle Paul is that it’s different than what we think and more immediate than we could ever imagine.

Prayer:

Jesus, we…we invite Your Holy Spirit as we continue in the days and weeks and months ahead of us, as we continue to move through the Scriptures, that You would plant them deep in our hearts, change the way that we look at things that we might be actively participating and the transformation that…that is happening in us known as sanctification. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's…it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s happening around here. Of course, using the Daily Audio Bible will do the same for you and let you stay connected in any way that you can, in any way that you desire.

So, whether using the web or the app, check out the Community section. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. And this is a fundamental piece of being in community as learning each other’s stories, praying for each other, reaching out in spirit, it's…it’s really miraculous how God uses our prayers to connect us with our brothers and sisters around the world. So, be sure to check that out, the Prayer Wall. In there in the Community section you’ll also find links to the different social media channels that we are involved in. So, check that out as well.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, tank you. Thank you profoundly. We wouldn’t be a Global Campfire. We wouldn't…we…I don’t know what we…we would be. We wouldn’t be this. We wouldn’t be doing this. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. And what an honor that we can walk through life, spend a year together, move through the Scriptures together. It’s incredible. So, thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage. 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, as always, if you’ve a prayer request or encouragement 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or just hit the Hotline button in the app no matter where you are on planet Earth and no matter really where you are at all as long as there’s Internet. So, I haven’t received any…any hotline calls from outer space, but who’s to say that can happen someday. So anyway, you can hit the Hotline button no matter where you are as long as you’ve the Internet and share from there.

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

Exodus 8:1-9:35, Matthew 19:13-30, Psalms 24:1-10, Proverbs 6:1-5

Today is the 29^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today doing what we do, taking steps forward. We’re not taking steps backward or sideways. We are on a path that’s going to lead us one step after the other straightforward through a year and a through the Scriptures. And we are well on our way. So, it is a joy and an honor to be here. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, picking up where we left off. The plagues are descending upon Egypt. The man Moses is leading his people although this is not his favorite thing to do. This wasn’t on his radar. This is what God has invited him into and he is being obedient. And Pharaoh the king of Egypt is having a hard time with it. So, let’s pick up the story. Exodus chapters 8 and 9 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there’s plenty for us to touch on today. In the Old Testament the book of Exodus we are reading of the plagues. And obviously very very famous story. But the plagues are starting to amp up and Pharaoh he keeps changing his mind. And, so, we are watching like systematic dismantling of the power structures that were holding God’s people. Pharaoh could’ve said okay like the first request. It was within his power but his heart…his heart was hardened, and it continues to be hardened because he cannot get his mind around the fact that there may be a God more powerful than himself or the gods of Egypt. And, so, he is convinced that the…the local gods are more powerful than the Hebrew God’s because after all they have enslaved the Hebrew people. They sustain their economy. So, of course they would think that their God is more powerful. But one thing after another after another day by day it’s becoming more and more clear to Pharaoh that this is a problem. But at the same time, he’s got all these officials and his people looking at him like he’s the son of God and a God himself and descended from the gods. So, this is like a problem to surrender to another God. And, so, every time these plagues go away then he reconsiders, hardens his heart and steps back into the ring to get punched again basically. And we will continue with that story as we continue in the book of Exodus.

We get into the book of Matthew today are just watching Jesus. There’s this is beautiful scene where He …He…the little children want to come to Him. The people want Him to bless their children. They’re kinda being held back, they’re just kids and stuff. And Jesus is like, “let em’ come to me. Don’t keep the kids away for me. Don’t keep the children away from me. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” That is…that is something to consider because it’s something that is said more than once in the Bible from the lips of Jesus, that if you don’t have faith like a child, right, then you can’t enter the kingdom of heaven. And, so, we have to begin to think and ponder, “what does that look like?” And those of us who have children we know, like they’re…when they are little children, they look at us like we know everything and can do anything, and they can do anything, and they believe. They believe what we tell them. Then…then we begin to teach them a reason and they begin to go to school and learn reason and out to adapt themselves into their environment around them and we grow skeptical and we lose…we…we lose mystery, and we can’t lose it. Like that’s the thing. It’s not faith when we know it. It’s faith when we don’t but we do if that makes sense. Children. Children are like this. And we should learn that lesson. And then right on the heels of that is a man who is rich…this is like up famous story…would be called the story of the rich young ruler. But this is a wealthy person who actually is a devout servant of God, actually has been trying to obey the Mosaic law and live for God. And, so, he comes to the Rabbi Jesus because at this point in Jesus ministry there’s healings going on, there’s teaching with authority that the people hadn’t experienced before. And, so, he’s coming and saying, “what…what…what else do I need to do? What do I lack?” And this is an instance where we can look at the narrative, look at Jesus, look at His personality, look at how He operates in this world and we can see that He’s going right after the thing that is holding this person back. And in this case, it’s his possessions, his riches. And, so, Jesus tells him, “sell everything, give to the poor and come, follow me.” That’s significant because that is the language Jesus has used to call His disciples, the people that are His inner circle. He’s inviting this person to come follow Him, to come be a part of the story, to divest himself of the things that would hold him back because that’s his question, “what do I lack?” And Jesus answers his question honestly. “What you lack is the ability to let go of your identity as a wealthy person.” And, so, on so many levels, the story becomes about identity. It becomes about what is it that we are surrounding ourselves with or trying to collect and amass to have an identity, right, to make ourselves look good, to be out there in the world and respected? And we’ve talked about…I mean we’re still in January, but we have talked about the masks and about being naked and ashamed and hiding and this is what we’re talking about. What is it that gives you your identity outside of God? That is something that is going to get challenged as we continue our journey because what we will find is that the faith that…that we’re claiming is an all or nothing proposition and nothing that we hold more dear than our relationship with God can survive it because it becomes an idol. It’s the thing that we’re looking to to give us life. We’re gonna watch this over and over and over in the Bible and we’ll…we’ll find that God has no patience for that. He is the author of life and wants to live in relationship with us. And, so, if we’re gonna give our hearts in worship to something else then that’s essential essentially adultery, spiritual adultery. It’s like cheating. It’s turning to a false God in order to get life when the most-high has given us life and we’re giving that life to something else. God hates that. And we’ll watch that. He hates it because it only leads away from Him. And walking in a direction away from Him only leads to destruction.

And, so, to dovetail that really nicely we move into the book of Psalms that we read today and this question, these two questions are asked that are vital questions. “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord” and “who shall stand in His holy place?” In other words, who gets to be in God’s presence? Who actually gets get there? And the question is answered. “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation.

Prayer:

Father, in all of these struggles we see identity kind of at the center of it all. Pharaoh’s thinking he’s a God descended from the gods and that…that there is none higher. And this is his identity and he also needs to kind of keep that image up because that’s one of the things that keeps him in control and in power and it is leading him to destruction. So, Holy Spirit, come help us to realize the things that we have been building up to make ourselves look good, this personality that we keep constructing and modifying and tweaking, the possessions that we try to gather for the sole purpose of…of elevating ourselves above somebody else, these are going nowhere and we can…if we sit and meditate upon this we can find all kinds of ways in which we probably should repent, which in its truest basic form is to change our mind and walk in a different direction. Come Holy Spirit into this we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask because we all need to tweak this out. We all need to surrender. We are all trying to present some kind of false identity out there and it’s going nowhere when we are a city on a hill when we are the light of the world. That’s our identity. Come Holy Spirit and help us to remember and live it we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Commentary:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, its where you find out what’s going on around here. Of course, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access all of these things as well from within the app by pressing the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. So, check that out. Check of the different ways to be connected and stay connected as we take this journey.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop there are a number of resources there for the journey, different sections of the Shop, like the Global Campfire section. We have an entire line of Global Campfire themed items that are just…they’re…they’re there as a reminder that we are a part of a community as we move through the Scriptures this year. And we see that precedent set so many times in Scripture where God is like don’t forget what happened here. Pile up stones so you don’t forget what happened here. Make an alter so you don’t forget what happened here or we even think of Jesus at His last supper, “don’t forget. Do this in remembrance of me.” So, remembering is that inherent in the Bible in a lot of settings. And, so, just…isn’t that the thing? We forget. We react to things because we don’t take a moment to remember and calm ourselves in the moment and invite the Holy Spirit. So, remembering. Then beyond that is in the Lifestyle section of…of the shop, the Daily Audio Bible journals that have been perfected over the years, the Black Wing…all of the Black Wing pencil stuff, this is…this is what I journal with, this is what I write with every day. I have found…and I don’t know if I’ve said it this year, but I have found that I’ve kinda picked up the old school way of sharpening a pencil, actually sharpening a pencil and writing with a pencil in my own hand and that makes a difference. And, so, we searched for the best stuff we can find so that we could write down things so that we won’t forget the days of our lives. So, the Daily Audio Bible journals there, all kinds of things to write with are in the Shop. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg There’s many many other things to take this journey deeper. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. The link is on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. And I thank you with all my heart profoundly for your partnership with the awareness that we wouldn’t be here if we were not in this together and that we have been in this together for quite a while, and I’m awed and grateful. So, link on the homepage, press the Give button in the app, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the Hotline button up at the top. It’s red. You can’t miss it. It looks kinda like a Hotline button, you can press that, 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:

Hi, I’m here in California. Today I listened to woman call in who has insomnia and deals with depression and I believe she said diabetes. And my heart goes out to you for those issues and I am…I am right beside you in prayer regarding them. But something you said today really hit home for me. You talked about having this deep, deep, deep longing and desire to have a partner, but you haven’t seen it come to fruition yet. And you wonder why God would do that to you. And I just got to tell you, you could have…you could have been reading my mind. I literally feel like that all the time. I’ve been dreaming of who I might marry since I was a little girl. I still strongly desire a partner, but it hasn’t come to fruition yet and I’m a single parent to a toddler right now. I awoke love before it was time and I wonder why God would allow such a deep longing to still be in my heart even though, you know, the…the fruition of it doesn’t seem closed like at all. But then I remember that we serve a good God who loves and delights and seeks desires…to satisfy the desires of our hearts with good and lovely things. And that He is the perfect lover of our soul. And I know you have heard that many times in your life, but I pray that today it would still be a comfort and that you would seek closeness to Him tell Him you’re at angers tell Him your worries and your frustrations. He’s here for it all and He loves you. God bless.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible my name is Oyen from London and I am a first time DABber. I am now 25 days in, and I want to say thank you to Kaneo who shared this on Twitter without whom I probably never would have found this. I also want to pray for Isabel from Georgia who has health issues with her brain and seizures. I just wanna pray that the Lord will heal you, that He will make you whole, that He will increase your faith for healing and that your faith will also make you whole. I pray that wherever you are you will feel the arms of God around you. I also want to pray for whoever is feeling alone or lonely in this period, that God will reveal himself to you as a comforter. Thank you, DABber family. I’m so grateful for you. You have been such a blessing.

Good afternoon DAB family this is Marsha I am calling from Minnesota. It’s a beautiful day the sun is shining, and we have a fresh coat of snow on the ground. Today is January 25^th and I am calling as a new person who’s joined your family. I started the first of the year. And when I first started and it got to the prayer request time I thought, “oh I’m just going to skim over this.” And now I found myself I can’t wait to hear what people are calling in with for requests or phrases. And, so, it’s actually moved me greatly. I’ve heard a lot of or a few parents who have called in to say their children have abandoned their family. Unfortunately, I too am dealing with this situation. My first and only grandchild lives 10 minutes from me and I have not seen him or my son for six months. And, of course, I would love to ask for prayers for him to reunite with his parents and his brother and sister. That would be awesome, and I hold tight to that promise that that will happen someday but even more so DAB family, just pray that my son would come back to the Lord. I know he gave his heart to Jesus during high school camp and I believe that he did believe at one point. And, so, I think if he could come back to that it would make such a difference in…in the situation. But I pray for all the other people who have called in with similar situations. It's…it’s so hard to explain. There are times when you think about a death, and I know that I’m grieving the loss of him, but he’s still here so I have hope and I have hope that…that things will soon be back to what they used to be. But I thank you for your prayers. Have a blessed day.

Hello everyone, it’s Tooty Toots His precious scene one from the UK. Today is the 25^th of January and I’ve just listened to the prayers from the 23^rd of January and I’ve just heard from a young lady, I think her name is Isabel and I just wanted to pray for her because I know what it’s like to have seizures at a young age. I’ve got lupus and when I was first diagnosed, I had seizures as well. So, her prayer really connected with me. Just, so yeah, I just want to pray for her and just lift her up in prayers. So heavenly Father we bless You we thank You for Your daughter. We thank You for her life. We thank You for the fact that You have breathed life into her. And we just thank You for Your awesomeness Lord. We just pray for Your daughter. We ask that Lord You will wrap her in Your warm embrace Lord almighty, that she will feel the fullness of Your joy. And we just pray that God almighty in her life Your name would be glorified. And we speak to anything in her body that doesn’t work well, and we just ask in the name of Jesus that You perfect everything that concerns her. From the crown of her head to the soles of her feet I just pray that Your anointing will be upon her. And I just pray that God in everything that she remembers that she is fearfully and wonderfully made by You, that she is made in Your image and that You delight in her. So, I just pray that God in her life that she will come to know You in such an intimate way Lord and that God You will give her complete and total healing because You are the God who is Jehovah Rapha. Heavenly Father we bless You we thank You we just give You all the glory. Thank You so much Lord Jesus. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. I may not see you I hear you and I love you all so much.

Good day brothers and sisters I would just like to echo the prayers spoken by the mouth of Brian on the 23^rd of January, it’s Saturday. And I just pray the Holy Spirit would intercede. These thoughts in our head may they not just be thoughts in our head, but may they be footsteps, may they be steps in which we walk in faith. Holy Spirit I pray that you would come upon each and every one of your children. God show us the way you want us to live. Let us take away the fig leaf’s, take away the shame and let us be naked in your glory God not being ashamed because we are fearfully and wonderfully made in you God. Hallelujah. Come on. God I just lift up each and every one of Your children. May we become more like You. May we present to the world the people You have made in Jesus’ name I pray. God bless.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family I am so grateful to be part of this ministry and found it and be on this journey with you all. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had a faith family due to various reasons. But mostly just being very hurt in the Christian Community. And it’s been a very hard year for all of us. I think 2020 it was so hard. And…but I am __ getting engaged and I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel like I should be happier, but I am, but I just feel like nothing good happens to me. And, so, this can’t be right either. So, I just really need the help. I don’t know what to do and I need to feel God’s peace in this waiting. So, if you could help me with that, I would appreciate it. I…I love you all and I am praying for you in my heart. Thank you. Bye.

Exodus 5:22-7:25, Matthew 18:21-19:12, Psalms 23:1-6, Proverbs 5:22-23

Today is the 28^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is an honor to be here with you today as we just lock-in, come around the Global Campfire together and let it all go and let this center us where we belong and orient us to God. So, we are reading in the book of Exodus. We’re just getting started in the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible and we’ve been introduced to Moses. Moses has been tasked to be the…the representative of God, basically, God’s prophet and to go before the king of Egypt the Pharaoh and demand the release of the Hebrews who have grown to become strong and numerous as a nation themselves. But God is now wanting to set them free from their slavery and so far, that’s not going well. And we’ll pick up the story. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Exodus chapter 5 verse 22 through 7 verse 25.

Commentary:

Okay. So, let’s catch ourselves up in Exodus in the lay of the land. the Hebrew people, remember Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, who became Israel and had children, the children of Israel. And then Joseph goes to Egypt and then famine comes and those people, 70 of them, go to Egypt and are saved. Those 70 people, we are 400 years in the future now, and those 70 people have become tens of thousands and tens of thousands of people. Moses is one of those people. He was supposed to be as an infant thrown into the Nile River to die, to drown, because Pharaoh was doing away from…well…he was trying to eradicate the male population because these people were becoming…were becoming too powerful. In the end it’s Pharaoh’s daughter who saves Moses and he’s educated, and he kills an Egyptian while defending a Hebrew and he has to go on the run where God appears to him and says, basically we’re gonna go back and set the people free and you’re gonna be my mouthpiece. So, he goes back and starts making these announcements and we’re just getting going in the very famous story of the plagues upon Egypt that will one day set the people free. So far not going so well. And this is an important thing for us to look at here because God tells Moses it’s not gonna go well, that He’s gonna harden Pharaoh’s heart and he’s going to resist until he has to be broken essentially. That doesn’t seem fair, though, right? That God is going to somehow against the will of Pharaoh make his heart hard so that he has to resist God in order to be broken and he doesn't…like he has no choice in the matter. That’s not what’s going on here. What would it take to harden your heart? Maybe way less than we realize. Suppose that you have a bit of authority at your job. You have maybe a whole department under you, representing hundreds of people or maybe, you know, you’ve a couple of people who have to answer to you. Let’s suppose that a subordinate guess an appointment with you and comes before you, demanding that you do something that doesn’t make any sense to you and yet they are demanding it it’s. And, so, because of the situation and your flummoxed and your like, “wait a minute. Like I’m your boss, not the other way around. And are you trying to take my job?” And then all this kind of pride kind of begins to emerge. And, so, we want to push that person back and put them in their place because they’ve hardened our hearts. Or they come in with a threat. “If you don’t do what I’m telling you to do then bad things are going to happen to you.” And they say that God is going to do this, but they happen to be of a different religion than you and so you don’t really respect any of their traditions. And, so, you’re like, “I don’t know who this is. I don’t know what you’re…I don’t know what you’re trying to do here. Get out of here if you want to keep your job”, right? The heart gets hardened when we are pressed to do what we don’t want to do. We don’t want to submit anybody’s authority. This is exponentially more difficult for Pharaoh because Pharaoh thinks he is a God. And, so, what we have going on here is that the most-high God is speaking through a Hebrew man demanding that the Hebrew people be let go. And Pharaoh is like, “I don’t know you’re God. Who cares what your God thinks? I am a more powerful God then you’re God or you wouldn’t be my slaves. Get back to your job. And I’m not supplying you anymore. Get back to your job and find your own supplies.” That is the long and short of what’s happening here. And the Bible tells us that pride goes before a fall. And we might…might even know how this story ends. It’s a famous Bible story. So, we could say that in the and Pharaoh does find that he is humbled, whether he likes it or not, but then we have to understand that these stories also become a mirror into our soul. What would it take for us to submit in this kind of scenario? And would it be our pride…like would we resist until we were completely broken? Because pride goes before the fall and God does not appreciate pride because pride exalts us. It exalts us above all things. And God in the Bible or in history does not suffer that for long. And, so, yeah, we’re in the middle of a pretty dramatic story but let’s find ourselves in this story. And one way to begin to find ourselves in the story today is to observe the hardening of the heart and begin to observe ourselves when our hearts are being hardened because most of the time we’re gonna find pride is a part of that recipe.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into that. It is not our desire to be arrogant and prideful people. And yet we’re encouraged to be just that all the time inside of our culture. We need to be dominant; we need to be powerful. And yet this is not the path that leads to life, this is not the way of the gospel. The way of the gospel is that strength is actually found in surrender and that strength is actually found in weakness. So counterintuitive to the way that life is been presented to us. And yet this is the way we were made. So come Holy Spirit and help us to interpret our own hearts by observing when they are becoming hard. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

It’s where resources are available for taking this journey deeper in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

It’s where you get connected on social media and in the Community section. Prayer Wall is also in the Community section. So, dive in and get connected as we continue this journey forward.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if…if…if what we’re doing here by coming around the Global Campfire every day in and just stepping in out of the cold and warming ourselves with each other’s presence and the presence of the Lord allowing the Scriptures to wash over us and into our hearts, informing how the…how the rest of the day and the rest of the week are supposed to be aimed, if these things make a difference then thank you for your partnership, which makes all the difference. There is a link on the homepage. 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, 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:

Good morning DAB family this is Flourishing in the Desert and it’s Sunday January 24^th 2021. I just want to say thank you to all of you. Last year 2020 was a really hard year for me not because of Covid but because of oh the push from God to finally leave an abusive relationship. It was such a struggle. All of last year was such a struggle. And then a dear friend of mine, All the Treasures from Wyoming told me about DAB and I started to listen and I just want you guys to know that your faithful prayers for others for everyone in this community just encouraged me on so many levels and I am forever thankful for your love for the body of Christ, your willingness to put your issues out there, to seek prayer, and also your willingness to pray for others in need. God has blessed me abundantly through you and He continues to carry me through and to bring joy to my day. And I just want to let you guys know that, yeah, you’re the best and I just so appreciate you. You touch the lives of others in so many ways, in ways you just don’t understand. So, I tip my hat to each one of you and I thank you. Be encouraged today and to know that your blessing others even as you pray for those who are in need. God’s blessings on you all. This is Flourishing in the Desert in Cheyenne WY.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family I’m a first-time caller I’ve been listening for about two years and I’m going on my third year and I’ve become a double DABber listening to the Chronological Bible as well. Thank you, Jill. I live in Texas and I’m calling myself Joyful Paradise in Texas. I chose that name not because my life has been easy, but because through everything I’ve been through the Lord has been the joy of my life and the one who’s carried me through everything and sustained me. I met the Lord at a camp revival as a child and I’ve walked with Him and I’ve I've…I've…I’ve grown in the Lord over the years and this year I turned 70. So, it’s…I’ve had my share of ups and downs. A good friend of mine downloaded the app on the on…on the…of the Daily Audio Bible onto my phone and said, listen. So, I did, and it has been a blessing to me. It really has been a blessing and I’m so grateful. I’m so grateful to get to know each one of you, to hear your voices, to hear your prayer requests and my heart has been deeply touched many times by many of your requests and I…and I hope to hear more from each one of you. You…and we’ll just keep praying for one another. Thank you for this podcast Brian and God bless.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is His Dearly Beloved in Minnesota. I’ve called in a couple of times recently asking for prayer for a pain I’ve been experiencing. I’m scheduled for a total hysterectomy on February 2^nd so I very much would still love your prayers for that. But I’m calling today to encourage each one of you. Today is February 24^th, it’s a Sunday…January 24^th, sorry. It’s a Sunday and Brian has been talking about our hearts and how we need to guard our hearts because life springs forth from our hearts. And I’m nearing 60 years old right now. So, I have definitely had my fair share of pieces of my heart strewn along the way and have needed mending. And I’m here to tell you that God absolutely does mend our hearts. My…probably my biggest heartbreak was ten years ago when my husband of 25 years who had been my high school sweetheart. We dated 8 years before we were married at…I was about 21 at the time and he finally released me from our marriage because he had…was feeling that he missed out on a life of dating. And…and as you can imagine that was…that was pretty rough for me. But I’m here to tell you 10 years later God has completely…completely healed and mended my heart. And I wanted to share my intention for the year, which is to give my first…give my wholehearted best first and foremost to God loving and trusting the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, shining that love, joy, peace, hope, and light into the world each day. I love you take care.

Hello this is Rachel from Oregon just want to call in for the lady who asked for prayer whose husband of 46 years just left her. This prayer was posted on January 20^th. Today I am praying for you on January 24^th. And you just got out of the hospital recently from Covid and you have no one to help you at home. And I can’t even imagine how hard it must be for you right now the things that are happening in your life and in your situation and feeling so alone. And I am so so sorry. My heart breaks for you. I really really wish that I could come help you. In a heartbeat I would. I would be over to help you at home, but I don’t know where you live and chances are it’s not nearby me. But Lord I come before You today to ask You to intervene in this lady’s life. You know all her needs. You know the pain in her heart and the cry of her heart Lord. Will You please bring her the peace that passes all understanding and help her through this hard time that her husband has left her. And please convict him to repent of leaving her and this divorce and also please bring her in abundance of people in her life to love on her and to help her in any way that she needs. We are meant to serve each other as a body in Christ Lord and I ask that You will just show her Your love through other people and help her to find her hope in You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family members this is Abby calling from Maryland. I trust you are all doing well. My goal for this year is to call more often. So, here I am. And I have been so blessed listening to people calling in, you know, especially those who are joining us on board this year 2021. I’ve heard this lady who is so excited, you know, I believe she’s blind and she’s just been having a wonderful experience with this community. Welcome to every new member and for…I specifically want to pray for a young man or a man who had called I believe his name was Tilly from Florida who is currently in the hospital. He’s scared and, you know, he has chest pains and he said that he’s broken hearted because he had to make a confession to his wife. I lift you into the hands of the almighty God and I pray that God heals you. I pray that God wraps His love around you and God shows you how much He loves you and God just restores you, restores your health in Jesus’ name. I pray for each and every member who has called for one thing of the other. God meets each and every one of you at the point of your need. And yes, I am so excited to hear when China does deliver her child. I am looking forward to that. Thank you, Brian for always being awesome. Thank you, Jill for always being awesome. Thank you, this amazing community. You guys are…you are my community. I just look forward to getting into the word of God with you guys every day. You all have a blessed week. This is Abby from Maryland. Stay blessed.

Good morning everyone this is Mary from the United States. As Brian talks about endurance, I just want to join with him and encourage you. Endurance sounds like a strong word of suffrage and drudgery, yet there’s freedom in endurance. There’s joy in endurance. There’s confidence and grace in endurance. Their strength in endurance. There’s wisdom in endurance. There’s a vision and a sense of purpose in endurance. Endure in love, endure in joy, endure in the morning, endure in the evening, endure in the Lord to the very end. Endurance brings with it joy, peace, rhythm, meaning. Endurance is a gift we can choose or deny. Open the gift and discover its treasures in the box of endurance. Breathe in, breathe out the blessed joy that we can endure in love. Put on foot…put one foot in front of the other, breathe in breath out. The riches gain in endurance. The interest compile in endurance. A rich abundant life as we endure in love.

Exodus 4:1-5:21, Matthew 18:1-20, Psalms 22:19-31, Proverbs 5:15-21

Today is the 27^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy, a privilege, an honor, all things good to be here with you around the Global Campfire taking the next step forward on our voyage through the Scriptures this year. All things are a go here in the rolling hills of Tennessee and I trust that all things are well with you wherever you might be on our big, beautiful planet that God has given us to steward and live upon and enjoy life together. So, let’s dive in. we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week and we are getting to know this new figure that has appeared in the story. His name is Moses. And we’ll be traveling a long time with Moses. And I mean he…he will affect the rest of the Bible. So, Exodus chapter 4 verse 1 through 5 verse 21 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Proverbs we basically have some self-evident wisdom. It’s pretty clear what’s being said here. But underneath it all, what is the…what is the ultimate warning? The ultimate warning is do not stray from the path, right? Don’t leave the path of wisdom. So, isn’t this very, very similar to what we are taught in the Gospels in terms of following the path of Christ so that we might be Christ-like? And what we are watching in Jesus ministry is that He is at teacher of wisdom. And, so, what we begin to understand is that there is a path that leads to life and the Bible continually reminds us that it exists, but it also reminds us not to stray from it. And it gives us all kinds of advice along the way about what it looks like when we do if we need that advice. But so often we don’t need that advice because we’ve experienced what happens when we step away from wisdom or we walk away from the path and into rebellion. And, so, let’s remember, there is a path, there is a way. And if we would maybe…maybe slow down on all the excuses about why we can’t be obedient or why we can’t walk this path, maybe we should just try actually just walking the path and not…and not straying to the left or the right. I mean, here we are in the middle of the week about finish the first month of the year. How about we be very very intentional about walking the path and not deviating to the left of the right for the rest of this week. That would be a good way to bring the week to a landing. A lot of the things that have become tumultuous might begin to simmer down. So, let’s consider the voice of wisdom as we so often do as we so often should.

Okay. If we go back to the book of Exodus where we started our journey today, we’re getting to know Moses. Moses has met with God. God has given him a command to go back and set His people free and be His mouthpiece. Really one of the saddest scenes of the Bible happens today because Moses is talking to the Almighty most-high God, who has said, “I have seen the plight of your family, your people. These are my people to. And I have…now they have flourished but now they are in slavery and I have heard what is happening to them. I’m going to set them free and you are going to be my instrument.” And Moses…Moses is talking to God and giving God every excuse about why he can’t obey Him and they’re having a direct conversation. And Moses is like, “I’m not a good speaker and, you know”, and God’s like, “I’ll send Aaron.” And there’s all this stuff going on until Moses heart is completely revealed. And this is the sad part. And we should think about our own lives because this is why it sad. Moses is invited by God to be a part of the story. And Moses in the end, says, “could you send somebody else besides me?” Oh. that has been my story. I…I can’t run from that. That has been my story throughout many seasons of my life. That has been all of our stories at one point or another. And, so, this is how the Bible becomes this mirror where all the sudden, yeah, we’re in the story too. Certainly, we’re watching a narrative. Moses is going to Pharaoh. We’re watching all this stuff happen, but we begin to realize that the story here is mimicking our own story and that’s not an accident. In the end Aaron comes, Aaron’s the mouthpiece, Moses is the prophet, they convince all of the leaders that God has seen them. And then they go and confront Pharaoh and things only get worse, right? They only get worse. And, so, Moses is like, “what in the world have I done?” And the people are like, “what in the world have you done? You’ve made us stink to Pharaoh. He’s like, there’s no way we can do what he’s asking us to do. He’s gonna kill us all.” And that’s where we leave the reading today. If we remember the story that we read just before this one, that was the story of Joseph. And didn’t things get way worse before they ever got better? So, isn’t there some kind of theme emerging here about following God. when God invites us to be a part of His story He’s going to confront evil. He's…He’s not just going like, “Oh, now you believe. Let me…now you’ve won the lottery. Here’s a new couch and here’s a new voice activated TV, so you never have to leave that couch except to go into the kitchen and get food. Enjoy your life. God isn’t inviting us into laziness or idleness. He’s not just Santa Claus trying to bring presence. There’s evil in this world, and He would like to use this as His agents to be a part of removing it from the world. Because ultimately, we’re gonna watch throughout the stories of the Bible and we’re gonna hear all kinds of prophecies in the Bible that this is ultimately the objective. Gods not mad at people. He’s not trying to destroy people. He is fed up with the evil that is destroying people and His ultimate goal is to eradicate it, to remove the things that would separate us from God. And once that begins…I mean just like we were talking about, like, let’s not deviate from the left to the right and stay on the path of wisdom for the rest of the week. If we do that, then the darkness that may exist on the margins of our lives, it won’t take long before kicking and squirming. It won’t be long before we’re confronted with our own selves. And then we have to start asking ourselves the kinds of questions that we see in the ministry of Jesus. Do I actually want to live true even if that marginalizes me, even if all the games that I’ve been playing to kinda make the culture work for me, even all the falsehoods that I present to the world, even if those have to go do I want to be true? Even if it’s gonna get more difficult before it gets easier, do I want to live true? Some pretty poignant things for us to think about as we continue our journey through the rest of this day.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come. These are definitely penetrating things to consider - the path before us and not deviating from it, paying attention to wisdom to illuminate that path, understanding that living in wisdom and walking the narrow path that leads to life is not always going to be easy. In fact, often it won’t be. Yes Jesus, we…we haven’t reached this point yet but You will tell us that it is important to count…to count the cost and we’re beginning to see why that matters. So, come Holy Spirit and help us to walk true and walk the path of wisdom, even if only for the rest of this week. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be…be aware. Stay tuned and stay connected.

Check out the Community section. And of course, I’m talking about the website, but if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can access all these things as well. But the Community section is where to…well that’s where the Prayer Wall lives. So, there…there’s always opportunity to ask and to receive prayer there. But it’s also where to get connected. All the different links to the different social media channels that we participate in, those are there and it’s good idea, at least to be aware of but its good idea to at least follow the Daily Audio Bible on…on…on your platform of choice just so you can be aware of announcements and reminders and encouragements and that kind of stuff. So, check that all out. You can get connected in the Community section at dailyaudiobible.com or in the Community section within the app, which is by…you can access that by pushing the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. And that’ll open the drawer and you’ll find community in there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if…if what’s happening here is meaningful, if bringing the spoken word of God read fresh every day and just given to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time any day or night no matter what’s going on and to build community around that rhythm, if that is meaningful thing in your life then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. 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, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top in the app. You won’t miss it. No matter where you are in the world you can hit the Hotline button and reach out or there are a number of numbers, phone numbers that you can use. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call. If you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820- 5459 is the number to dial.

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:

Hello DABbers this is daughter of the King from Tennessee. Father we thank You according to Your word You have established us as Kings and priests unto the most-high King Jesus Christ. You said in Your word when the King said he decrees a thing it shall be established. Therefore, we DABbers decree and declare according to Your word that we are blessed in the city, we blessed in the field, where above only and not beneath, we are the head and not the tail, we blessed coming in, we blessed going out, we’re the lenders and not the borrow. We thank You Father we blessed upon our jobs. We blessed in our homes. We confess Your word that are families are blessed, our children are blessed, and prospers all the days of our lives. We thank You. Welcome everyone to this brand-new year. Welcome newcomers. And we thank You. Brian we just so…oh my God January the 22^nd recording is so good, and we all need to save this and go back continuously on faith. The…the substance of faith allows us to have access to something we cannot prove, right Brian? We cannot prove. And we must have faith. Peter was walking on it, but he looked around. And that’s what we do. We get discouraged when we look around and we fall. But we trust in God that we…that this 2021 would be the best year ever and we would not continue to look with our eyes that we would trust God in every…every area of our lives. I wanna continue to lift up Gary who called for prayer he would be going to Hospice. God we just praying and believing You with our faith that You would give him life, that he would…life would be restored and we thank You guys for everybody…

Hey this is Micah in awe in Kansas City. So, yesterday I didn’t make it all the way through the DAB. Something with work came up or something where it stopped me during Brian’s…before the final message and I didn’t get to hear the prayer. So, it kept bugging me, like I need to listen to the rest that just so I do my due diligence. And I was like, but the prayer is not that important, like it’s just it’s just the same old prayer da da da da. But man was I wrong. This morning I started out by listening to that. It would have been…it’s the January the 22^nd and heard these totally encouraging messages like Alyssa from Montana talking about how the Daily Audio Bible lets you be in the Bible daily. Amazing! Like, if…if the Daily Audio Bible only ever helps just you have a relationship with God in the mornings then it was so worth it, and it’s done it to so many people and all…just insane. I'm…I’m so happy that I listened to the prayers. And I want to welcome you. I’ve been here like a year and a half or something like that and totally excited to have you in our family. Please call in and tell us how you’re doing. Tell us…give us prayer request praise reports. The brother from Indiana. Man…like when you went through the faith of the people that called in, I really felt that. That’s incredible. And then there’s another brother or you didn’t leave your name, but you were talking about how you were struggling with a hard heart towards people. Dude, that is me too. Like, I’ve been struggling so hard to be loving and this virus times just makes it so easy to just put people off to the side and like get away from me. You know what I’m saying? And I want to join in on that prayer with you. I’m praying for you. This is Micah. Pray for me. God soften our heart. I love you all.

Hello, this my name Golden McQueen. I’m from __ McGill Nevada I’m nine years old and when…somebody really close to me and my grandma and me and my grandma died in…in a car crash and her name was Betsy Lopez. Today we’re going to her funeral, but I could wish you…I wish you please send it out because I don’t I…I want everybody to hear how sad that people because we live in a…how sad we are because we love __ and it’s hard to get messages out. And we live in a the…rural area of Nevada. So, it's…it’s hard…very hard to get messages…messages out. And I’m only nine years old but…but…but I wanted to do this for my grandma and for her as a lasting memory. Thank you very much and…

Hi this is Pamela from Pennsylvania. I am not feeling well today. So, it gives me a wonderful opportunity to catch up on the community prayers. I’m sitting here with my notebook and pen recording names and prayers. I’m getting to know all of you and lifting each request up in agreement with you. I wanted to share…the woman who’s praying with hope for healing, I didn’t catch her name today, talked about all of her life living in fear and that resonated with me. And just recently I the Holy Spirit may be aware that all of my life I’ve been making decisions out of fear. It started because of the environment that I grew up with…grew up in with my father being schizophrenic and beating my mother and I had to play the protection role standing in between. God has now healed me from all of that. He’s healed me from the continuing saga of being married to two abusive husbands and I am now living in God’s grace, freedom, healing and victory. I praise our Lord and savior and I encourage all of you that He really does love us and He really will heal us completely.

There was a woman that was very beautiful and her beauty was from the Lord
she had never ever been with a man she was a irgin and very much adored
even her brother who knew right from wrong wanted her so bad that it burned
but his sister the Virgin wanted to please the Lord so all his advances she spurned
he continued to burn and got physically sick and he forced her to do things his way
and because he was bigger and stronger than she was there wasn’t too much she could say
but after the act his love turned to hate and he wanted her out of her sight
She begged and she pleaded the best that she could but there was no way to make this thing right
now the brother who raped her was soon killed himself by another brother who heard what he had done
the father of all of them David was now very much ****** and the killer was now on the run
then the killer got killed and the father was sad
when the families in conflict it’s all just plain bad
families are very important to God but even more so they’re important to us
sometimes we don’t understand all God’s ways so it’s very important just to trust
don’t desire the things that are wrong don’t allow them to fester and burn
Satan is always waiting my friends to trap you wherever you turn
he destroyed their whole family and he’ll destroy your house too
he started in Eden and he’s definitely not through
so keep your desires above board and chase
let all of your dealings be done face to face
all of God’s ways are wholly and pure
and he won’t give you more than you’re able to endure
pray in his spirit do things his way
and your strength will increase as you grow day by day

blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to shout out to Mark Creed from down under. Know that you’re being thought…

Good morning dear DAB this is Jeanette from Denmark I want to share something that I thought changed my life step by step. There’s been many things, but since I moved here when I was twenty, I learned the example of two house church leaders who shared what their life had been like by simple example. We were at the little building that we had gotten permission to use and the pastor…well our school teacher he…he asked us to be quiet after a good period of singing together welcoming the Holy Spirit in. And I was at the projector and he said, well let’s stop singing. Just let your heart rest and think of the Lord. Be still before the Lord. Know that He is here, and He is with, that He always has been and always will be and that you are in His arms at this moment. He is so good. He will never leave. He will never forsake you and He loves you. And that moment of breathing opened my heart to a whole different realm of possibility. The pattern started to become a walk, but also I knew I could be in the stillness with my Jesus, my savior, my father in heaven and the Holy Spirit. And in this time stillness and, yeah, the song of worship, it brings hope. I love you all. Bye.

Exodus 2:11-3:22, Mathew 17:10-27, Psalms 22:1-18, Proverbs 5:7-14

Today is the 26^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy, it is a privilege to be here with you today as we gather, kinda come in out of the cold, com in out of whatever, the chaos, whatever it is and just find our place around the Global Campfire and exhale. In fact, let’s do it. Let’s take a deep breath and exhale. Let it go. Isn’t interesting how just one deep breath and slow exhale, something happens in our body where we’re like okay, changing gears here for a second. It’s remarkable. Let’s do it again. Let’s take a deep breath and let it go. All of the cares of life, they’ll be there. We can go pick and choose whatever we want to pick up. If it’s the anxiety that we’re letting go of for a few minutes, we can go get it if we want it. It’s the depression or if it’s just the issues that we gotta deal with today, all we need is a few minutes here to let those things go. We may not need to go pick them back up or if we do need to go pick them back up maybe we can do it with a different perspective. And, so, let’s let everything go and just move into this time. It is safe, serene we are here together. All is well. Yesterday when we were reading, we met this new figure, and we will…well…we’ll actually never escape this figure. He will keep showing up throughout the rest of the Bible. But right now, we’re in the center of his story. His name is Moses and we found him in a basket in the Nile River and Pharaoh’s daughter also found him and his mother got to nurse him and then Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him. And, so, Moses the Hebrew infant that was supposed to be thrown into the Nile River because he was a male child and should’ve drowned instead became Pharaoh’s son, adopted son and was raised getting educated like a royal education. And, so, let’s pick up the story. Exodus chapter 2 verse 11 through 3 verse 22.

Commentary:

Okay, so in the book of Matthew today Jesus throws out a demon out of a person and the disciples had not been able to accomplish this task. And, so, it almost seems like Jesus is exasperated, “O faithless and twisted generation how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” What’s He frustrated about? Like what is it that they aren’t getting that He keeps trying to show or model or teach and their just not getting it all so that He would be perplexed like this? The key is in what he said, “o faithless and twisted generation.” So, he heals this person. The disciples come to Him and say, “why couldn’t we do that?” And He says to them, “because of your little faith”, right? “Your faithlessness.” So, let’s just pause there and think about that for a minute because we have already encountered the concept of faith. Obviously, we can’t escape the concept of faith. The Bible tells us it’s impossible to please God without faith. So, if you are ye of little faith…well then you can guess do the math. Jesus goes on to say something famous, “if you have faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” So, then we could deduce that there was faith, less significantly less, then the grain of a mustard seed in the story that were just reading because Jesus is like, “you can move mountains if you just have a little faith.” So, we’re starting to get clues that faith is a very powerful thing in our existence. So, if a tiny speck of faith the size of a little…the size of a little seed can move mountains then what could a lot of faith, like what could full up faith look like when Jesus basically tells us, “nothing will be impossible for you.” So, what…what can we get from this though? Like what…I mean we can understand the concept here but what is He really trying to say that can help us right now live today? Jesus is trying to model for those who are listening to Him that what He is doing is not remarkable it’s supposed to be normal. What we will hear from Jesus in the Gospels as we continue forward, He will say, “yeah, all these things you’re seeing me do, you can do all this. You can do greater than this.” So, what’s the plot behind the story here. Maybe we try our very best to have faith in God. So that God will then go and do something on our behalf. And then when he doesn’t, we get really really frustrated when perhaps what Jesus is modeling and teaching His disciples, and if we are His disciples, and that includes us, then what we’re beginning to see is that we are empowered. Let’s think about this. Think of Jesus healing people. What does He say so often to somebody who has received something? “Go in peace, your faith has made you well.” Maybe there really is something to this faith thing. And maybe as we walk with God and continue this process of being transformed from who we were to who we were intended to be as we find an identity as a child of the most-high, as we walk with God and cultivate faith in our lives, maybe nothing is impossible. After all that is a fundamental understanding of the Christian faith. Maybe we keep sitting back waiting for God to do something that He’s sitting back waiting for us to do. Maybe this is a dance. Maybe this is a collaboration. Maybe God’s not our squire. Maybe He’s not our servant after all. Maybe He doesn’t jump up to do whatever we tell Him to do. Maybe this is a dance. And maybe this is a dance where nothing is impossible. Let’s think about that today. Remember when we came in here just a few minutes ago and we were talking about just coming around the Global Campfire and we took a few deep breaths and we talked about all the stuff that we’re gonna just leave outside of the circle and them we can go back to it in any way that we want to go back to it. What if we go back to it understanding that we are in a dance of life we’re nothing is impossible? That changes things.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come, come into that. We become aware of Your presence, that never leaves us. You would never leave us or forsake us. You are always present. We are just mostly unaware. Like Jacob, “surely the Lord was in this place and I was unaware of it.” Help us to become aware that there is nowhere that we can go that You are not, and that You have invited us into a relationship a covenantal relationship where we can walk with You and our faith can be cultivated and increased. And yes, sometimes that happens through endurance. So, come Holy Spirit come and help us to zoom out and get like a bird’s eye view, an overview of what we’ve been lost in. Because when we can get and higher perspective and see everything around us, we can see so much more clearly. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources that we have created over the years that are tailor-made for the journey that we are on. Some things to wear, some things that have, some things to read, things to listen to, coffee and tea. I mean just go to the Shop and you will see that there are number of things there that are intended to accompany us on our journey and give us a sense of connectedness and belonging and depth. And, so, that’s Daily Audio Bible Shop. That’s it’s purpose. So, check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you, I thank you humbly and with all my heart for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible 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.

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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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning my name is Roxanne and I’m calling because I’m asking for prayers for my children. Their father had passed away last night from Covid and complications. And I also have a son that has been living with him that is on drugs. But now we need to find help for my children and I’m asking for prayers for strength. Thank you.

Good day folks it’s Sean from Sydney down under here. I actually became a Christian very recently, the tail end of last year and I was so thankful to be saved and now I’ve started listening to the Daily Audio Bible and I’ve been also reading a Bible plan so I can read it in one year and I’ve just been frothing on it it’s been so good. I’m actually getting baptized on Sunday, two days from now and I’m so excited guys. I’m absolutely pumped. So good to be in the Lords…in the Lords world and to have you guys as a family and a community as well. It’s just…it’s just great I’m just relishing it. And I want to give my prayers to Margo as well fellow Aussie. She’s heading off to Africa pretty soon and just want to give my blessings to her and hope that she gets where she wants to be, and I know she’ll be leaving Australia and her sons, but God will look after you. And you know what, I feel like one day I might do the same. I’ve always wanted to go and help people and now that I’m a Christian I feel like I have the means to do so. But anyway, I’m jabbering on a bit. But thank you Jesus. You’re a bloody legend mate. And thank you all.

Hi family this it’s Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada and it’s Friday January 22^nd and I just finished listening to the DAB podcast of the day and at the end of it 2 persons called in and I’m absolutely amazed. This is…was Alyssa from Montana. She’s blind and the blind man from Ohio. They are both newcomers. They’re both so excited to be a part of our family and I am so excited to know that you both called in one after the other. And I say welcome welcome welcome. You’re going to…you’re going to join a family that will pour out such unfathomable love upon you. You won’t even begin to understand how people from the four corners of the earth could love you so much. You will experience that love from this family. And, so, I pray for you and your family. I ask the Lord to shower you with His love and His mercy and His great…His grace. And as the blind man from Ohio says, we walk by faith and not by sight. Hallelujah to that brother. And, so, I pray for you both and your family as the Lord guides you along this pathway, this journey with us. We will pray with you we’ll pray for you and we will love you. Welcome welcome welcome. Thank you for calling in and please continue to do so frequently. And know that even though you may not hear us call out your name we are praying with you and for you and we love you.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is C from Mississippi and this message is for Alyssa and blind man from Ohio. I too…I’m not blind but I do have low vision due to a brain surgery of them removing a tumor that messed up…damaged my optic nerve. And yes, you guys welcome to the family. And we just want to thank Brian for just helping us, Brian and Jill, because they actually have just made a way for us for us to be closer to the Lord and just listen to His word. And just want to thank you Brian and Jill and again Alyssa and blind man from Ohio, Blind Tony and Duncan whoever’s having low vision. We just pray like Brian and thank you everybody have a good day and happy new year again. This is C from Mississippi and I just listened to the recording for today January 23^rd. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Good morning DAB it is January 22^nd, Friday and I just heard Alyssa from Montana. My sister I am also blind. I have only been blind, totally blind since 2015 - a freak accident at home. Before then I was legally blind but just a tiny little bit of light perception. But anyway, God has brought me through and then right after you called, by the way welcome, our brother from Ohio who is also blind, welcome to both of you. Anyway, I wanted to pray today for some of us that are struggling with children that are estranged. I myself have a brother who has a daughter who’s estranged from him and it’s going on like 4 years, 3 or 4 years. I heard Kingdom secret Daniel. I heard our brother Paul. And there was a lady who was crying. I’m sorry my sister I don’t remember…I didn’t hear your name. You called on the 15^th and I just wanted to pray for those of us who are suffering with children that are estranged young adults, adult children. And I’m gonna stand in the gap as I have been for our children. I’m praying for Micah Candace your son and for unshaven Paven sister from Canada and for Kingdom Seeker Daniels children and for our brother Duane from Wisconsin, his boys. And I’ve asked you to pray for my son. So, I know that…I just want you to know that I am…

Hi this is by His Grace Sherry in Lo Roadie and today I found out that I have Covid, but Monday I found out I had breast cancer. I have three daughters 17, 19 and 22 and a husband who sometimes is there for me and sometimes he’s not. But all of my family needs to be more faithful to our Lord. And I ask that you guys pray for me to increase my faith that I can get through this. I know I’m sick and I know that’s interfering with my mood and how I’m receiving the cancer diagnosis, but I need to be strong for my girls and I need the Lord to give me strength and the devil to stop interfering with my bravery and my courage to fight this. I need them to see that God is helping me. You guys are all supporting me through this and without the Lord as our great physician we cannot…we cannot heal ourselves. Thank you. I look forward to listening day after day.