Author: Daily Audio Bible Transcripts

Hosea 1:1-3:5, 1 John 5:1-21, Psalms 124:1-8, Proverbs 29:5-8

Today is the 5^th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we buckle up and take the next…I was gonna say buckle up and take the next step forward but buckling up and taking a step…like that’s a mixed metaphor, right? So, let…so let’s just move into our time in the Scriptures today. So, we finished the book of Daniel yesterday, which means that were gonna begin a new book and this book is called Hosea and we have also come to the final grouping of books in the Old Testament, and they are known as the minor prophets. And there are 12 books, Hosea being the first and we’ll work through these 12 books obviously, in a pretty quick fashion because we’re running out of year, but from Hosea to Malachi, these are the minor prophets. So, let’s get some context.

Introduction to the book of Hosea:

Hosea probably lived about eight centuries before Jesus. So, about 800 years. And he saw the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel, which was his homeland. And we haven’t talked about that for a while. We’ve been mostly dealing with the Babylonian exile and the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, but we will remember that the northern kingdom was taken away and carried into exile by Assyria. Many biblical scholars think that Hosea’s prophecies eventually were collected together in the southern kingdom of Judah after the Assyrian conquest after the 10 tribes were taken into exile in being assimilated. Now the theme of marriage is used in the Bible, often to represent God’s love for his people. It’s covenantal language. And, so, marriage is a covenant. And this theme is…is vivid in the book of Hosea and is fitting because we've…we’ve come this far in the year. So, we’ve watched God’s people chasing other gods for months. We’ve watched God’s people committing spiritual adultery for months. And we’ve watched what that’s done to God’s heart. We’ve watched what that’s done to the people. We know where that road leads but when we place it in the context of marriage all of a sudden, things become very immediate and very close to home. And God’s reaction to being betrayed by the people that He loves, that’s understandable, He’s a scorned lover. Like, His heart is broke. He’s longing for what was lost and thinking about what His love is doing with…like…you understand, right? You understand how marriage brings things really immediate. And the book of Hosea brings it the most immediate, the most clear in the Bible because God asked Hosea to use His life to speak as like living prophecy. So, God asked Hosea to marry a prostitute and her name was Gomer. And this represented the idolatry, the adultery, the spiritual adultery of Israel. And, so, Hosea and Gomer had children together and God instructed that each child was to be given a prophetic name that was to speak directly to Israel and then eventually Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea. So, he divorced her, which represented God’s casting away of Israel. And then God told Hosea to go get Gomer back. And, so, he pursued her, and as it turned out he had to buy back the woman who had committed adultery and broken their covenant and played the harlot. And he did! He bought her back, representing the lengths that God’s willing to go in order to be reunited with those that he loves. So, we’ve also been working our way through first John and we’ve been talking about the love of God, and we’ve been talking about the profound effect of the love of God on the world and how we are loving the world…God is loving the world through us. So, the…the portrayal of God’s love in the book of Hosea should show us very clearly what we’re talking about because it’s potent and it’s a picture of His love for each one of us. And when we get that it’s overwhelming, like when we understand how profoundly God loves us, when we have a glimpse of that, it’s overwhelming, but the flipside of that, the dark side is that we also have to look at the ways that were betraying that love. And Hosea helps us to see the impact of our betrayal on the heart of God. And, so, we begin. Hosea chapters 1, 2, and 3 today and we’re reading from the English standard version this week.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another step forward in Your word. And as we move into this book, Hosea, and for that matter, as we move through the minor prophets toward the end of the Old Testament, we invite Your Holy Spirit. We have a lot to learn in a short amount of time to cover that territory even as we’re moving through the rest of the New Testament. So, Father we…we acknowledge that this indeed is the point of the year where things seem to go into warp speed, and it does at times feel like we’re gonna blink our eyes twice and we’re gonna be in a new year. And, so, we recognize that as the rhythm of a year and we see that in front of us. And, so, again, we are committing ourselves. We will finish this year strong because that is the only way to begin a new year strong. And, so, come Holy Spirit and lead us where You will that we might learn from You all that we need to know to finish the story of this year strong. And, so, we calm ourselves and we will look for You and everything and we will look to Your word to guide our steps. Come Holy Spirit we pray into all of this. Lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

I’ve been mentioning because it that seems like everybody in the world’s mentioning something similar, it’s Christmas time around here. And wow! It’s…I guess I’m just noticing the influx of media being sent my way about things that I might want for Christmas or that I want to get for somebody else for Christmas. It’s like this stream that just never ends and I…maybe it's…I just…I think it’s always been this way…maybe I’m just noticing more. And, so, I’ve had these discouraging moments where I’m like, “man, I don’t even want to talk about the family Christmas. I mean just everybody’s talking about something.” But the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas box…we don't…we don’t make the Christmas Box to make money. We actually try to pile as many resources and discount them as far as we can and pile them in there because they’re for the family, the family that has been on this journey. And, so, there’s just some of our most popular things that we put in there that are like a great way to get these resources for the journey ahead. And we believe in all of these things. Like, we didn’t make them randomly. We made them…some of them over years. Like the God of Your Story over…well…it’s taken 14 years, right, and then two years to get this in…in written form. It's…it’s to help. So, yeah, it’s just been this kind of weird battle inside my head but the family Christmas Box is a valuable thing and it is a good thing and it's…it’s a worthwhile thing and there really are things in there that…that you want and that will serve you in your life and there are things in there that you may want to give away because they’ll serve someone else’s life. And that’s why we do this. So, I guess I’m not gonna…I’m not gonna struggle with it because I’m telling you about a resource, but we’re not trying to hock stuff here. It’s not…that’s just not what this is about. But there are resources that are valuable to the journey in the Christmas Box. So, check it out. Got of Your story’s in there. I just talked about that. The Journal 2.0 is in there and I talked about that yesterday. And the Global Campfire candle and the stickers and the postcards and the pop socket. All these things have been so popular. And for us, we made them because we made this Global Campfire logo this year just to represent our community. We created resources that were about that, that were touch points to the community. All of the Global Campfire stuff…it’s when you see these things, when you use these things, when you touch these things, they…they’re supposed to be tangible reminders of the community that we share here centered around the rhythm of God’s spoken word in our lives every day. So, anyway, you can find out all the stuff that’s in the Christmas Box at dailyaudiobible.com in the Christmas section in the Shop. And, so, check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well and I can’t thank you enough. It’s one of the things where words aren’t capable of expressing…expressing the gratitude that I feel. Thank you for your partnership now and over the years. So, 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 comment you can press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Daniel 11:36-12:13, 1 John 4:1-21, Psalms 123:1-4, Proverbs 29:2-4

Today is the 4^th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you as we continue our journey through this first week of the 12^th month of the year. And we find ourselves in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament and in the letter that we call first John in the New Testament. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Daniel chapter 11 verse 36 through chapter 12 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. Back…back a few months ago when we were reading the book of Ephesians, which is a letter that was written by the apostle Paul, we…we discussed how…how grand of a vista we were looking, at how the good news is actually so good it’s almost too good to be true. And we encounter that kind of a vista today in this letter that we’re reading, known as first John. And the implications are so profound that I mean…words…words fail. I mean what’s being said about who we are is so profound that, if it ever seeped past our head and into our hearts and was fully activated within us our world, which I mean, the way we live our lives would be forever transformed, which is the point. So, let’s just kind of work through what we read today. Obviously, John is speaking about false teachings and false prophets and testing spirits and like understanding what the truth is. And basically, there was just a lot of discussion and a lot of teachings about who Jesus was. Like we have reached a point now that Jesus’ ministry is over, and He has ascended to the Father. And now, as the message, the good news spreads throughout the world, people are trying to…to sort of reverse engineer what’s going on, to understand what’s happening. And, so, lots of different teachings were kind of sprouting up. And, so, John confronts one of those today. It was a teaching that claimed that Jesus wasn’t really a…a…a human being, that He was more of an apparition more of it like a ghost, he was a spiritual being but not a flesh and blood human. So, we remember in John’s Gospel, at the beginning of John’s Gospel, he says that, “the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” So, the question here then became, “is the divine simply being made visible? Like, is He not a human being? He’s a being, a spiritual being that is…has been made visible so that we can see him but he’s not a human or has the divine been made flesh as John claimed?” So, this idea that Jesus was like a spiritual apparition, this would be called Docetism later on. So, John addresses this and I’m quoting John, “by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” So, our eyes could glaze over going and we could be like, “well…this is just like a theological issue, right? This…like…this doesn’t actually affect the way my life is lived. It’s just…yes…I want to understand the truth but this is just a theological truth that doesn’t actually touch my…my world.” John’s actually arguing that it does touch our worlds profoundly that Jesus came in the flesh. So, John’s saying, “look. You can know the spirit of a person by their posture toward Jesus.” And then he encourages them. “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Okay, so that’s a super famous verse, but it’s setting up something very, very important. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Okay, so lots of people are saying lots of things about Jesus, lots of teachings that are divergent are occurring and John is saying, “you know how to see what’s true by understanding how people relate to Jesus.” And what John is teaching is that the Spirit of God isn’t distant, isn’t esoteric, isn’t hard to understand like all of this swirl of false teaching was suggesting. Instead, this Spirit of God is within those who believe and is a greater than the deception of the world. It’s important for John that Jesus was a flesh and blood human being and divine at the same time because Jesus came to rescue humanity and model humanity. So, even though what John’s saying can look highly theological because it is, the implications are very practical because Jesus came as a human being and was the divine…was God made flesh. And if through the work of Christ humanity can be redeemed and restored to God, in other words there is no chasm of sin any longer, then God, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, indwells you, indwells us, lives within our flesh, which means we can become Christlike because of the work of Christ, right? The human and the divine occupying the same space at the same time within us. Yeah, that’s mic drop kind of stuff, that’s like holy moly! We talked about this when we were working through Paul’s letters, but if God indwells you and you are moving around the earth how can you ever feel like God has abandoned you when He is within you. But how do you know? Like, I mean how you know this? What is the evidence of this? Love. I’m quoting John. “Beloved let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God”, right? Not that we did him a favor by loving him, but “that he loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so love us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.” Okay. So, Jesus was the physical human embodiment of God’s love for us, a love that we could actually see in action. It wasn't…it wasn’t that we could see a vision of it or an apparition of it. It was given to us by God in the flesh as we are. When we have one another we’re making the love of God, that same love, visible in the flesh, our flesh, just like Jesus did. John explains it like this. So, I’m quoting John. “So, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world”, right? So, we’re seeing a description of the fact that we are supposed to be becoming Christlike as he is. This is pretty big stuff here. We can’t see God as John pointed out and as we know, but we can see each other. And when we understand that our reality is that the Spirit of God lives inside, within us, then we begin to understand that the body of Christ isn’t an example or a metaphor, it’s a reality. We are physically bringing the love of God to the world in the same fashion that Jesus did, as He is, Christlike because it’s the same Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is guiding our lives and when we die to ourselves and live into this reality then the love of God is made perfect in us and perfect love casts out all fear. So, when we love God is loving through us and love is pouring out into the world and when we love we are being perfected and when we love we’re being as He is, Christlike. So, the bottom line here is that we have a job to do. Like our job isn’t to wake up every morning and try to figure out our problems and try to say the right prayers so God will bestow blessing on us so that we can be comfortable. We’re supposed to be loving the world as Christ in this world, the hands and feet of Jesus, the body of Christ. We are a part of that story. that’s who we are and we are empowered after the same fashion that Jesus was to do this job, not because we earned it, not because we’re somehow…we were born this way, but because of Christ’s sacrifice and God’s love for us even when we were His enemies. God has elevated us back to who we were created to be, intertwined with Him in this world, revealing His love. That’s pretty big stuff and maybe…I mean…you sit down and think about it and you’re like, “this is too good, this is too big., I can’t get my mind around this.” Grab your Bible and…and just start working your way through first John chapter 4 just like what we just did. This is what the Scripture says. This is who we are. This is what we’re supposed to be doing and it’s going to require endurance to do it, as we have been seeing and as we will continue to see as we move forward. But be encouraged today. The Spirit of God is within you and the evidence of that will be how you love today.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into all of this. We ask that You lead us into all truth and we open ourselves completely to You. We ask that You would plant what we’ve read here from the Scriptures into our lives today. We pray that the soil of our hearts would be fertile and that these spiritual truths and realities that are…that are fundamental of…fundamentals of this faith, that they would not be fundamentals anymore, they would be realities that we would live into these things and wouldn’t think of them as theology or wouldn’t think of them as metaphors, but think of them as our reality. What You have done for us is so monumental that it’s hard to get our heads around and we are grateful, and we are thankful. And we’re also seeing how subdued and suppressed we’ve lived our lives. If the Spirit of the living God is within us there’s nothing we can’t do. So come Holy Spirit, may we be willing vessels for Your work in this world. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is home base, which means that’s where you find out what’s gong on around here, which is what I say most every day if not every day. That’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, stay tuned and stay connected in any way that you can, and in any way that you will.

It’s Christmas time around here. So, we’ve been mentioning the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2019. And pretty excited about this Christmas Box. I love them…I mean, I love putting them together every year and just kind of thinking through, but this is a really, really comprehensive Christmas Box. It’s got some of our most popular resources in it and…and really most helpful. So, this year we have the God of Your Story, which is the brand-new book that is a 365 day devotional that really follows the rhythm of the Daily Audio Bible, is kind of the gold of the Daily Audio Bible journey that we take each year. And, so, we have a signed hardback first edition copy of the God of Your Story in the Christmas Box this year. And this is the only place to get that. I went and signed a whole bunch of these until my hand was cramping and for the Christmas Box this year. So, they’re only available in the Christmas Box. We also have the Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0, brand-new journals for journaling your way through the Scriptures. And I’ve talked about why I think that’s important, not only just for the rhythm of our lives, but also that we find that rhythm in the Bible, write things down so that you don’t forget, right? Memorialize things so you don’t forget what happened. And journaling is…is one way of memorializing, of doing that, writing down what happened, what God did so that you don’t forget. And that becomes really, really helpful in the future when things get foggy because you have the story…you’ve been journaling the story of your life with God and His faithfulness. And, so, when you can’t see forward sometimes you can refer backward and see like, “oh my gosh. I remember going through that. I did not think I was gonna make it. But I’m here and I have wrote the story of how I got here. And, so, I know that this story hasn’t just stopped because things are foggy right now. The story continues on in God will be faithful.” That’s what memorializing things does and it’s so helpful. So, the Journal 2.0 is in there. Let’s see…we have the Daily Audio Bible Christmas ornament for 2019 that is exclusive to the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box. It says, Daily Audio Bible 2019 on it and our word for the year, which has been “Maintain.” And, so, your choice of our DAB blend whole bean coffee, fresh roasted. And it will arrive at your door fresh roasted or you can choose our boutique tea if you’re a tea drinker. A pack of the Christmas cards, 20 Christmas cards and their envelopes. The Global Campfire pop socket for your phone or device. The Global Campfire candle, which surprisingly smells like a Global Campfire. Two of the Global Campfire stickers and five of the beautiful global campfire postcards. So, it’s packed full. It’s packed full. You’ll see when it arrives. So, check that out. It’s all available at dailyaudiobible.com in the Christmas section. And they’re going pretty quick, so grab them while you can.

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'm…I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart from the deepest place in me that can find gratitude…like I’m thankful. I'm…I’m also in awe. Like gratitude and awe are not constants in my life, but they visit me each day when we get to this point because I’m grateful that we’re about to complete 14 years seven days in…seven days a week without missing ever. I’m grateful. And that would’ve never happened if we didn’t do this together. And, so, I’m in awe that God has let us be this…this community wrapped all over the world doing things that have never really been done before, but in ways that are so profoundly deep and matter in our lives in a year. What a journey this has been. So, I’m thankful for your partnership and there is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can just press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner if you want to or you can use the mailing address, which is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment you can press the Hotline button if you are using the app, just press the little Hotline button, the red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Daniel 11:2-35, 1 John 3:7-24, Psalms 122:1-9, Proverbs 29:1

Today is December 3^rd. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in our year and take the next step forward on this path that we have been following for this year through the Bible, which will take us back into the book of Daniel in our Old Testament reading and back into the letter, the first letter of John in our New Testament reading. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Daniel chapter 11 verses 2 through 35.

Commentary:

Alright. Let’s talk about what we read in first John today because if we can grasp what we read in first John today it’s one of the most poignant, pivotal, important…I’m trying to like think about other words, this is like bedrock stuff for how we’re supposed to live a life of faith, like what it’s supposed to actually look. So, like John…John asks a question, “if anyone has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him”,  which if you think about it causes us to pause for a second and just think, “what is the purpose of God’s benevolence?” Like, “what is…why…why would He bless anybody in any way?” Like, “is He blessing us for our good behavior? Is He blessing us because He just simply loves us more and wants us to benefit more, or does He love and bless us so that He can then love and bless through us, or because of us, or in collaboration?” And before we go any further, let’s like jump out of first John and go back to the gospel of John and see that John quotes Jesus. So now from John’s Gospel I am speaking the words of Jesus. “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples”. So, all of the sudden we’re starting to see James and Peter’s point being made in John’s letter and that is fundamentally that we can’t claim a faith that does not change our actions in any way, right? Like, we can claim anything but if we’re not living that it’s not true. So, taking that further, we can’t claim to walk in the love of God if there’s no love flowing out of us into the world, right? True faith, true love compels us into action, which is…which is what John said. So, let me quote John from first John. “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything.” So, what we’re being told here is that love is the thing, and love cannot be fully expressed in word alone or talk. It must be done in deed and in truth. So, in another words it’s offered not as a manipulation, it’s offered freely as an honest true gift and borne out in the actions of our lives. And, so, John gives us a gauge. “By this”, which is our love in action, “by our love in action, we will know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him.” Because if our heart is condemning us and we are loving in deed and in truth, well then we know we are on the right path and God is greater than our heart or any kind of condemnation that will come against us. We’re certain of God’s love and that His love is within us when we see Him loving through us. And we see him loving through us when we open the floodgates and let love flow out of us. This is where it gets really helpful. This is where the layers start peeling back. We started talking about what was the purpose of God’s blessing upon us in the first place. And if we look, any kind of blessing that we get we usually try to hoard. We usually live from a place of lack. We usually live as if what we have obtained is in limited supply, which then leads us to be very self-absorbed about just about everything in our lives, which according to John then reveals that God’s love is absent from the equation. So, there’s an example that I like to use…because…well…because it’s biblical. And we’ll go back and see this for ourselves in February when we go back to the land of the Bible. There’s this geographical body of water known as the Dead Sea. It’s known as the Dead Sea because it sits at…it’s the lowest point on earth, right? There’s nothing lower. So, when water flows into the Dead Sea there’s no way for it to continue its journey, it has reached the bottom, like the lowest point on earth. And, so, it stays there, becomes stagnant and there’s no life in it. Water flows into it but can’t leave. But just north of there is another very famous body of water known as the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is also below sea level. In fact, it’s the lowest freshwater lake in the world. Water comes out of the mountains and fills the Sea of Galilee, which has a tributary known as the Jordan River. And the Jordan River flows out of the Sea of Galilee bringing life all along the line and eventually dumps into the Dead Sea. So, let’s just…like if we think back to the time when Jesus walked to this earth until today water has continued to flow out of the mountains into the Sea of Galilee, out of the Sea of Galilee down the Jordan River and into the Dead Sea. We’re talking about billions and billions of gallons of melting snow and rainwater and fresh living water that has flowed out of the Sea of Galilee since Christ lived around it. It’s still full of water. Billions of gallons have flowed out of it and it’s still full of water and it’s never grown stagnant because new water is constantly flowing into it. What John’s trying to tell us here is that there is no lack, there is no shortage of God’s love, but we will only ever experience that kind of life and that kind of awareness when we’re not trying to hoard and look at everything from a sense of lack. When we throw open the floodgates and allow everything that flows in to flow back out then we do not become stagnant, then we do not become a lifeless, like the Dead Sea. So, are we living in lack spiritually, physically, in any way? Are we living in lack because we have habitually been selfish? Then what we are witnessing is ourselves becoming stagnant and we will not find life in that direction. But if our hearts actually have been overcome with the love of God then that is gonna require more than us just saying it. It’s going to propel us to love in every way that we can think. And what we’ll find is that the more we’re willing to love the more full we’re going to become. No matter how much love flows out of us we will be filled again with God’s love because there is no lack, and he’s loving the world through us and this is the only way we will ever get a sense of fullness, wholeness. When we start to hoard then that is all there is. We have…my dad used to use an example, he’d say, “get all you can. Can all you get. And sit on the lid” as an example of this kind of behavior. When we do that though, even if the can is full that is all there will ever be. When John is telling us, when the Bible, the Scriptures, are telling us, we are tapped into the author of life, and the energy that is flowing through that connection is known as love. And if we’re willing to give it away, we will never be in lack of it. So, I mean it’s hard to ignore that we’re moving full force into the holiday…into the Christmas season. This is something we need to carry with us through this season. The greatest gift we will ever be able to offer is an open heart. God can do miracles through the open hearts of his children. And yet if we’re going to be closed off and stagnant then we can say whatever we want to say, there is no life there. So, it’s a matter of which direction we want to head in  from here.

Prayer:

Father, we want to head in the direction of love. It’s just that sometimes people are hard to love and because that’s difficult it exposes all of our brokenness and then all of a sudden we’re just wallowing in brokenness when You have come to make us full and whole and all we have to do is surrender and find ourselves in an ocean of love that is inexhaustible. Show us how to live like that because that would be becoming Christlike. That is the direction we are supposed to be heading in. We can’t get there on our own. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to once again illuminate our path and lead us into all truth. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And we are certainly in…in the Christmas season. I think yesterday was cyber Monday. Yeah. And, so, we have the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box. We bring that out every Christmas and pack a box full of some of the most popular resources that we have and ship ‘em all over the world and just pray over them. And it's…it’s fun because there’s things in the box that you’ll want to keep for yourself but there’s also things in the box that you…you may want to give away as gifts and just to pray over those things and just understand that they’re going out all over the world through…through this community. And it’s a beautiful thing to see God working in the world that way. So, we have the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box. It’s available now. The international ship date for that cut off was yesterday. We’ll…we’ll ship them anywhere in the world, but we felt like kinda yesterday was the cutoff for Christmas arrival, where it was safe for Christmas arrival. But we’ll ship anywhere in the world. Here in the United States we’re still good, although they are going fast so we may run out of them. So, check that…check that out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop. There is a Christmas section and it has three items in it: the Christmas Box for this year that we were just talking about; the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards which can be purchased separately. They come in packs of 20 with their matching envelopes for…for $4.99. So, fivce bucks. And yeah, I mean, you can’t…you can’t beat that…that's…there’s no margin is what I’m saying. We make these as resources to give to you to use to invite your friends and family on the journey with you next year but there not…there not Daily Audio Bible advertisements. There just Christmas cards, but they leave generous space for you to write and the only thing that says dailyaudiobible.com on it is just on the back where it would say Hallmark. And it’s just their real easy to…to…to use. So, those are in the Christmas section as well as our Christmas album, Family Christmas, which you can order from Daily Audio Bible Shop but you can also stream on Spotify or Apple music or wherever you get your music, Amazon music, wherever you get your music you can find it. Just search my name and look for Family Christmas. And that is a soundtrack that we have created for the season and it’s beautiful and lush and relaxing and contemplative. It’s a great thing to listen to with just the Christmas lights and a cup of hot cocoa or whatever. I do it every year. I mean it was created to be that…to set that atmosphere. And, so, check that out as well.

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 here as we approach the end of the year 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 that is what you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is number to dial.

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

Daniel 9:1-11:1, 1 John 2:18-3:6, Psalms 121:1-8, Proverbs 28:27-28

Today is the 2^nd day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we…well…as we move in and get comfortable with the month that’s gonna go by pretty quickly but the final month of the year. And every time we move into the new month of December, I remember this day, because this would’ve been my father’s birthday. And obviously without my father or my mother, I wouldn’t be here, and I would’ve never had the privilege of spending these moments together each and every day as we continue our journey through the Scriptures. So, remembering my father today. And in terms of the Scriptures we will be moving back into the book of Daniel for our Old Testament portion today and into first John when we reach the New Testament. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Daniel chapter 9 verse 1 through 11 verse 1.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s talk about Dow’s today. What brings us to doubt? In our faith or in life in general, what leads us into doubt? For me, and I think for most of us, doubt enters the story when we expected something to happen that didn’t, right? An unmet expectation. So, in spiritual terms we think God didn’t do what He promised, or what we asked Him to do is taking longer than expected. And, so, we get anxious and we’re not content, and then we start spiraling and then eventually we’re led into doubt. Doubt is sort of this response we’re throw our…our hands up and go, “I don’t know what I think anymore.” And, so, there’s like roots…little seeds of all kinds of bad things mixed in there, which makes is very, very vulnerable to deception and then our faith weakens and becomes dormant and at that point some…some walk away…completely walk away from their faith. And some are super vocal about it, like they become anti-faith, they become anti-God, they become anti-Christ. And that’s where we begin in this letter from John today. John says, “children, it is the last hour and as you have heard an antichrist is coming. So, now many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us. In other words, they used to be a part of who we are, but they left because they were not of us, because if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they are not of us.” Okay, so we…we’ve been talking about the apocalyptic worldview throughout…throughout our time in the New Testament but we talked about it recently and it plays heavily into what’s going on here, what John is writing about because the obvious question that comes up here is, why didn’t some of these early followers of Jesus become antichrists? Why did they leave the faith when it appeared that the end was so near?” Why did that happen. It happened for the same reasons this kind of stuff happens to us. We were expecting something that went unmet, we were led into doubt, we were then susceptible to deception, then the next thing you know we’re like in a different universe from where we started. The people John’s writing to hear had faith in the imminent arrival of Jesus, like that He was coming back any moment and they, because they were putting their faith in Him, were finding themselves inaugurating the kingdom of God. Instead of all of that happening though, time went on and they started getting ridiculed instead of elevated. They were marginalized instead of becoming the status quo. They were receiving persecution instead of comfort. And even though they were being taught to endure eventually their stamina ran out when the timetable didn’t work out. And, so, they threw their hands up in the air and walked away. And on one hand you can kind of understand because they were signing up to be marginalized, to be ridiculed, to be persecuted. They were signing up to suffer and endure because that’s part of the story, and its part of our story. It’s part of the story, but many were walking away. And as John said, “they didn’t really…like…they didn’t belong with us. If they belonged with us, they would’ve stayed.” Into this little crockpot that we’re stirring around, or this’ll stew that we’re making there were a lot of questions being asked about how this all works theologically, like how do we understand the gospel, the son of God, the sacrifice, the resurrection, faith? How do we understand all this? So, questions were being asked and many people were coming up with many kinds of explanations. Things like the true nature of Jesus, whether He was human or whether he was truly divine, or whether he was both of those things, which eventually brought on confusion. And confusion is an incubator for doubt and conflict. And, so, you have people who are being pressured by their culture, marginalized, and pushed to the sidelines of their culture, and being mistreated by their culture, and being confused by what they’re being told about their faith. So, they’re going through some pretty tough…tough things. And John was trying to communicate to those things the essentials, like the absolute core of the faith, and he was aiming it at their doubt. He said, “anybody who denies the father and the son is an antichrist. And anyone who denies the son doesn’t have the father either.” Because in this context, many people were leaving back into Judaism, leaving Jesus behind but going back to Yahweh, like going back to God. And John’s saying, “like you don’t get one without the other. That’s not how it works.” And he wasn’t trying to keep…keep his readers…keep those who were following the in the faith from asking questions about their faith or trying to understand their faith through asking questions of it. That wasn’t the point. He was reminding them that what they heard from the beginning wasn’t something that was a moving target. The gospel that they learned from the beginning wasn’t changing. It hadn’t changed. No matter what questions were being asked, no matter what conclusions people were coming to, no matter what kind of a confusing stew it was becoming, what they’d been told from the beginning hadn’t changed. It was still the truth. But it went even deeper than that. It was not just, “hey hold onto the things I told you” or “hold onto the things you heard from the beginning.” He was trying to show them, “look…lots of people are going to say lots of things all of the time. This has always been going on. But you have something, and you need to not forget it. You have what you need.” So, quoting John again, “I’m writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray but you have received the Holy Spirit and He lives within you so you don’t need anybody to teach you what’s true. The Spirit teaches you everything you need to know and what he teaches is the truth. It’s not a lie. So, just as he’s taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.” Okay, so we can understand now the situation and who John was writing to and why he was, and we can even understand and put ourselves in that position. But let’s actually do that. Let’s put ourselves in that position now because there’s no shortage of thoughts and ideas and questions and teachings. There’s no less of a stew then there was then. In fact, there probably is more, and we all face unmet expectations. We cry out to God for certain things thinking…expecting certain other things to happen and when they don’t, then we have the same opportunity to be led into doubt, which will lead us into deception…well…which would ultimately lead us to become anti-Christ. So, there’s nothing that John was writing about to these earlier believers that we can’t relate to here. And what John is ultimately saying is, “you have what you need to be led into the truth. You have the Holy Spirit of the Almighty God within you. This is what you were told from the beginning, that the divine, that God, that the most high loves you, forgives you, wants to collaborate with you, and wants to be in union with you, wants to join with you, will be within you. Through the power of his Holy Spirit you have what you need. You don’t need to run around to every little thing trying to figure out every eventuality. You don’t need to ask all of the questions and then go seek all of these answers outside of God. You don’t need to go looking for endless opinions. The spirit of truth indwells you by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has promised to lead you into all truth.” So, if you’ve been in the process of resetting expectations, if you have suffered long and feel like there’s no progress, if life’s circumstances is leading you to throw your hands up in the air, doubt, and walk away and even become anti-Christ, rethink that. What you are looking for is something you already have.

Prayer:

And, so, Holy Spirit it is You that we are speaking of. And, so, we invite You into that. We become aware that Your presence never departs from us. We become aware that maybe we grow impatient in listening for Your direction and maybe we jump the gun and make a mess, but You are always there. And if we would walk with You at Your pace, we would do ourselves a grand favor. And, so, we become aware of You and we become aware of our doubts and all of the back-and-forth that we’ve been enduring, and we invite You and all of it. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And we’re fully like…if we’re not fully we’re fully moving into the holiday season. And, so, that's…that makes for us considering others and finding gifts for others. And, so, the Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas Box for 2019 is available in the Daily Audio Bible shop. And it’s always the goal with the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box to put things…just to stuff it full of resources. But just to make it a lovely choice, like things to keep, things that you want, things you want to give away. You just kinda get to think that all through. This is no different. We’ve put things in this Christmas Box…most of this Christmas Box has never been in a Christmas Box before because these are brand-new items. So, check them out. The God of Your Story, a signed first edition hardback version of the God of Your Story is…is in the box, a brand-new resource. Our Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0, the Global Campfire candle, your choice of…of our whole bean Daily Audio Bible blend coffee, fresh roasted and sent to you. Or if you’re a tea drinker, our boutique tea. The annual Christmas ornament that is found only in the Christmas Box with our word for the year, “Maintain” on it is there. Daily Audio Bible Global Campfire pop socket for your phone or your tablet or your mobile device. 20 of the 2019 Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards with their matching envelopes. Two of the Global Campfire stickers and five of the Global Campfire postcards. So, it’s a well-rounded box. In fact, it’s chock full. It’s stuffed full. We can’t really put anything else in there…it’s full.

So, that can all be found in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Christmas section where you will also find our Christmas album called Family Christmas, which is just a beautiful, classic, musical experience of the holiday season. It’s your hot chocolate music. It’s your wind down Christmas music. Right? There’s like shopping music, it’s super festive and lots of jingle bells clanging and all that, you know. But then there the contemplative Christmas music that’s just kind of wind down, setting an atmosphere of peace and calm and joy. And, so, that’s what the Christmas record is aimed at and that’s what I think it does. And, so, it’s available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Obviously, you can get it at Spotify music or wherever but just letting you know it exists. Make it a part of your Christmas holiday season. And it’s just one more touch point, it’s just one more way that we stay connected to each other.

And you can get the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards individually, not individually but in packs of 20 outside of the Christmas box in case you need like 100 of them or whatever. Their five bucks for 20. You can't…like you’re not gonna beat that. So, it’s a wonderful way to…to share the season, and to invite those that you love along for the journey in the coming year. And, so, all those things are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. So, check them out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you with all of my heart…with all of my heart for your partnership as we move through this season and move toward the end of the year. So, 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 a comment you can just hit the Hotline button in the Daily Audio Bible app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey Daily Audio Bible this is Ted from East Stroudsburg Pennsylvania. Please bear with me but I just have to brag about the Daily Audio Bible. My daughter Rachel started listening to DAB a few months ago. She’s an audio learner and always struggled to read the Bible. Well, Brian brings it alive for her. She listens in the car with her five-year-old son Benny, the little guy who’s been calling in lately. She’s…she has him listening to Genesis, adult Genesis and he loves it. Then she started…I’m sorry…one day she bought some coffee and she got DAB cards. She started giving these cards to friends and family then she started leaving them in lunchrooms, restrooms, on counters in restrooms…restaurants, you get the idea. And then she started to hand them out to strangers too and Benny wanted to help. Now he hands them out as well. He’s excited and he knows what he’s handing out. Recently they were in a pizzeria and it was packed. He went up to each table and explained, “it’s the Bible” and handed each one a DAB card. He even got the waitstaff. He does this everywhere that they go. They a DAB missionaries in their corner of the world. God bless you all Daily Audio Bible family. Thank you.

Hello DAB family this is Karen from Hemet and its early, early in the morning on Thanksgiving morning. Wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving and it’s a sad one for my family today because my husband of 36 years passed from this life into Jesus arms yesterday morning. He’s been in a battle with Parkinson’s dementia disease for 10 years now. Had to say goodbye. I was so happy to know he is not suffering any longer and I can picture him in Jesus arms, but sadness is pouring over me like ocean waves right now. I appreciate your prayers. I appreciate you. I’m thankful for Daily Audio Bible that saw me through this painful journey. Keep us in your prayers. Have a blessed time with your family. Hold them close. Love you guys. Goodbye.

Hey DAB this is Melody in Ohio, first time caller, I am in about my 11^th year of listening and I love listening to the word of God every day. My husband and I have made it a rhythm of our life and it’s just an amazing community and amazing thing. Thank you, Brian for following God’s lead and doing this. And I wanted to pray for Vicki in Arizona who lost her son two years ago. And Father I just pray for my sister in Christ. I pray that You would heal the brokenhearted, that You would let her literally feel her hands being lifted by this community Father. I pray that she would give her joy beyond her circumstances and that You would give her peace in her dreams and sweet sleep at night. And Father thank You that this is not the end, that eternity waits for us and we just thank You for Your peace and Your presence in our lives and just pray for all of the brokenhearted this holiday season Father. I pray Your comfort and we just thank You for the hope of You. Thank you, family. God bless and have a happy Thanksgiving.

Morning guys it’s Michaela from Gloucester in the UK. And two weeks from today the UK is going to the polls again. We’ve got another general election. Today is Thursday the 28^th of November. So, I would really value your prayers for us over these next two weeks on election day and then beyond. Just pray that people would use their vote, that their voice would be heard even if they think it wouldn’t make a difference, that they would turn out and they would cast their vote so we can get a true picture of what people think. And whatever happens on election day and whatever happens with the results I pray that whoever is elected in will work together for the good of the people. I also want to thank God for all those people out there who are willing to stand up and perform a difficult role of representing our people because I can imagine how hard that is trying to…trying to do that…I don’t know. Yeah, thank you so much. Father God thank You for this opportunity that we have in the UK to cast our vote on who we think should be representing us in parliament and who You think should be leading us. I pray Lord You’ll be giving us wisdom as we cast our vote and I pray Lord that we would make the most of this opportunity that we have a democratic right I pray that we would be using it and I pray Lord whatever happens that they would be working together for the good of the people and that ultimately that they might come to know You and that Your name will be praised. Thank You for all the Christians who are in politics and I pray Your blessing upon them. May they be ambassadors and lights in Jesus’ name Amen.

Hey DAB family this is Micah in Awe. Vicki from Arizona, I just heard your message. I lost a best friend to suicide in 2006 and it was so hard. I can’t even imagine how much worse it would be to lose your son and also your husband in that same timeframe. Your attitude is pretty astounding to me that you’re setting yourself to worship and that…I mean…it was two years ago but that still has to be so painful and I’m sure it will continue to be painful. But you requested joy and the Lord has that for you. The Lord has joy. I’m praying that He’ll pour out the oil of gladness on you and as you requested, He walks you by that date. He will be there for you. He will be your strength. Your faith already has determined it and you know it. I’m praying for your sister. I’m gonna add you to my daily prayers. I heard the message about Adelaide struggling with cancer, eight-year-old. Praying for you now. I’m praying for the eradication of leukemia and all cancer. I ask all of you to join me in praying for solutions to cancer and the eradication of cancer. Pretty radical prayer but God’s a pretty radical God. Bless you all in this holiday season, all of you that are in pain, let us know, we want to shoulder…shoulder your burden, God wants to shoulder your burden. He can be your strength. You’re not alone out there. We’re all here for you.

Hi, it’s Sherry from Kansas. I am reminded of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens where two men are endeavoring to put together a fund to buy meat and drink for the poor and for the homeless because it’s this time of year where they suffer the most. I want to remind people in the hustle and bustle of the holiday to think of those who are homebound, who have no family, who have no money, who cannot even get out to look at Christmas lights and they sit at home alone and they have no one to celebrate the holidays with. If you don’t know where to find some people like that, go to the senior center or the department of aging or go to a housing project where elderly people live and think about doing something for them, maybe offering to take them out or offering to go to the store or bringing them a special holiday treat. I love you all. I know many of you already do that, but I just wanted to remind you that not everyone has family, not everyone participates in holiday, not everyone can. God bless you all. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Daniel 8:1-27, 1 John 2:1-17, Psalms 120:1-7, Proverbs 28:25-26

Today is the 1^st day of December, the first day of the 12^th month of the year. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It's…it’s wonderful to be here with you. We ended a week and ended a month yesterday. So, that means we’re beginning a week and beginning a month today and what a glorious month it’s going to be. Today is the first Sunday and a season that’s on the Christian calendar known as Advent. So, many of you will certainly be hearing about that in church today and many of you may be like. “yeah, I’ve heard the name Advent before but that’s just something I never participated in. I don’t really know what it’s about.” And then others of you may be like, “I never…I don’t even know what we’re talking about here.” Well basically on the Christian calendar and the Christian calendar certainly finds its way into every calendar, like for example, Christmas day, is a major holiday on the Christian calendar, representing the coming of the Savior, right? The purpose of our faith. And yet it’s a national holiday all around the world. And then there are other holidays or seasons that are just part of the Christian rhythm and Advent is one of them. The four Sundays leading up to Christmas are intended to allow us to have a season of contemplation, a season to consider what Advent means. Advent means arrival. So, these four weeks to consider the arrival of the Savior. And we do this in part by realizing that before Jesus came, before Jesus was born the people were longing, were waiting, were praying for a Savior, a Messiah to come. And we can easily put ourselves in that same state, in that same sense of longing by understanding that although He did come and His work is complete, we are waiting for His second Advent, His arrival. So, Advent gives us an opportunity to explore that longing inside that really doesn’t ever go away but we can’t quite put our finger…like we can’t quite name it. And, so, we’ll get more active…like we’ll get busier and busier and busier just to kind of mask that there’s something missing somewhere, and we can’t quite figure it out. That is our deep spiritual longing for all things to be made new and advent allows us to contemplate and live into that as we celebrate the fact that God came for us and He will always come for us, and in the end all things will be made right. So, this is the first Sunday in Advent. And, so, in lots of churches a candle will be lit today. It’s the week that we consider hope, hope in the Savior’s coming, hope in the joy that awaits His arrival. So that’s where we are in the year. In the Bible we’ll be moving back into the book of Daniel in the Old Testament and this letter that we began, first John yesterday. This week will read from the English Standard Version. Daniel chapter 8.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us here successfully to the…well…to the shiny threshold of a new week and the shiny threshold of this final month of the year. And it’s all out there in front of us. It’s a story that has yet to be told and we will write that story with our thoughts, words, and deeds. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit into all of them - all of our thoughts, all of our words, all of our deeds. May they reveal Your kingdom. May they be light in the darkness as John was just talking about. May our lives light up the darkness wherever we go in this season and may we celebrate with hope this week as we contemplate what You have brought in arriving here to rescue us, things that we could never earn, things that we do not deserve, things that have been given as a gift, which is why we celebrate the season the way that we do. Thank You for the gift of eternal life. Help us to live into it in this season that we celebrate. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And a number of Christmas things are going on around here. So, be sure check that out as we move into this holiday season and this season of Advent. Check out the Christmas section in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage and I’m…I’m beyond words grateful that we’re even here and get…that we even get to do this and that has always been because we’ve done it together. And, so, thank you for your partnership. So, there’s a link 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, if that’s what you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can press the Hotline button in the app the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Margo from Australia you’re now in Liberia and when you pray, we hear you in our hearts they are near you. You’re hurting in this transition phase and we are hurting with you and yet we are joyful that God is with you during this time. We could never forget you. You’re a part of this family. Chin up, keep looking up to Jesus. We love you. By Margo.

Show Me God’s Love Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20 and 21. Holiday attitudes and tempers are not always in the warm tiding’s arena. We’re all under stress and most dread the inevitable bad interactions. I recommend to take a breath, think before you speak and consider if you should. Just like it says in the Bible, “be slow to speak, quick to hear, and slow to anger.” A lot of people are very sad this time of year as well because a lot of bad things may have happened in their life around the holidays. I’ve lost a lot of people that I care very much about in the last quarter of the year including my sister who was murdered brutally. So, please try and be…remember to be kind as often as you can. Hope everyone has a great holiday season including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year. Show Me God’s Love.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Andrea from Kentucky just wanted to call and say I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving for those who celebrated Thanksgiving. Just wanted to say…I wanted to personally thank each and every one of you even the ones that never call in, but you listen in on a regular basis. I just want to say thank you for just being a part of this Daily Audio Bible community and you matter and even if you’re not speaking or…or anything, just showing up and being a part of this community and just listening to the word of God. I just want to say I’m proud of you and good job and I’m just so grateful that you’re growing in your faith with the Lord and you are just being…taking those steps whether baby steps or big steps to really grow yourself because you…as we are all growing closer to the Lord, as we are all coming back out of maybe paths that we don’t need to be in a lot of decisions that we don’t need to be in as we’re getting realigned, redirected in the word of God, we’re making a global impact and the kingdom of heaven is being advanced. And as you let the Holy Spirit love on you through the word of God and direct you and guide you and comfort you and just help us all, we are all being able to take off the weights that are easily entangling us and we’re able to be free, more free. And, so I just wanted to cheer you on and say that I’m so thankful that your my brothers and my sisters and if you’re not a born again yet I just want to invite you into the family of the most high Elohim, our amazing Creator and I just want to invite you into that personal relationship with Yeshua, He is the best thing, He is the most fulfilling relationship, the most fulfilling situation you can ever began. So, I just want to invite you in if you’re not in. But I just want to tell you I love you family. Have an amazing holiday season.

Hi DAB family this is Rob’s Still worship dude in Nashville Tennessee and I just want to pray in response to November 27^th call from Diana Lake Davis. Your call was riveting. And thank you so much for calling in and sharing from your book, the Jewels of the Bible. You know, I was just reflecting on…we’ve been studying first Peter 4 where it talks about each of us should use our gifts to serve others and be a blessing, you know. And thank you for doing that. So, I just want to pray about this cancer and this prognosis that you have. And Lord right now in Jesus name I pray for Your mighty healing power to touch Diana Lord, that Your peace would be over her mind about her family and her kids and God You would deliver her from this cancer that’s in her body Lord, we rebuke it in the name of Jesus. And God I just speak life, life, life that she may have it and have it more abundantly God. So, bless her we ask in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Thank you for calling sister. The Lord be with you.

This is for Diana Blake Davis with the metastatic breast cancer. I declare over you today, healing from your head to your feet. I have prayed and prayed and prayed for your healing and I know that God answers my prayers and you will be healed. And I also pray now for your peace and comfort and so much joy, so, so much joy in Jesus’ mighty name I ask of you holy Father in Jesus’ mighty name I ask of you Jesus. Lord God spill Your love all over her and within her. Lord hold her tight and heal her from the top of her head to the bottoms of her feet. Lord God and give her peace, much, much, peace, Your peace that surpasses all understanding in Jesus’ mighty name in Jesus’ mighty name be healed be healed. God bless you Diana. God bless you. Amen.

Hi, it’s Sherry from Kansas. I wanted to share something with you that has been on my heart. When I was picking out the gravestone for my parent’s grave, I was sitting and talking with the woman who owned the business and an elderly man came in and he was so joyful that he almost glowed. It was like he had a light around him. And I commented on it after he left and she said, “you know, he is in a lot of pain all the time because of back problems that he had. And there had been other difficult circumstances in his life.” Well, I wanted to ask him, “how is it that you’re so joyful?” And he came back in again and I asked him, and he told me every morning when he wakes up the first thing he does is start thanking God, that he finds something that he can thank God for. And it sets the atmosphere for his whole day. Well, I was just taken by that. It’s so touched my heart. And I’ve been thinking and…that this is something that I need to do. And I have been seeking to do that. When I wake up in the morning the very first thing before I do anything is find something to thank God for. I hope this story speaks to you, blesses someone. And blessings. Have a wonderful holiday. And I’ll call back later. Thank you. Bye.

Daniel 7:1-28, 1 John 1:1-10, Psalms 119:153-176, Proverbs 28:23-24

Today is November 30^th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here on a day where we’re ending a week and ending the month at the same time. And, of course, is the final day of the 11^th month of the year, leaving only one month left in this year and one month left in our journey through the Scriptures this year. Today is the 334^th day out of 365. And from the Old Testament we will move back into the book of Daniel, which we’re working our way through now and then we get to the New Testament we will be reunited with somebody that we got to know pretty well during this year, John. But we’ll talk about that when we get there. First, we’re reading from the New International Version this week, which is today. Daniel chapter 7.

Introduction to first John:

Okay. As we move forward into our New Testament reading, as I mentioned at the beginning, we’re being reunited with somebody that we know and we got to know him in the Gospels as one of the disciples of Jesus, John. And, so, we’ll begin the first of three letters that are attributed to the apostle John. Ironically, this letter that we’re about to read makes no mention at all of who it’s from and it does not even specify at all who it’s addressed to. So, it be would easy enough, like other books in the Bible, for example, the book of Hebrews, to conclude that this is an anonymous letter. We don’t know. But church fathers in the second century, so just like about 50 years after this letter was written attributed the letter to John the evangelist and neither the letter nor its author were disputed when the New Testament was canonized, so when it was organized into the accepted New Testament that we have today. It’s only been in more recent centuries that scholars have begun to ask questions as sciences develop. For example, stylistic or language differences between the gospel of John and these letters, the epistles of John. Part of the reason for not addressing the letter to a specific group of people may have been that it was intended to be circulated to many people throughout many churches. It’s possible that the first readers were familiar enough with…with John that he didn’t need to introduce himself in the letter. So, he would’ve known the people that he was writing to and was overseeing their churches and they knew who he was. It’s also possible that those who were receiving the letter weren’t identified in case the letter fell into the wrong hands, so in order to protect the people from additional persecution. This first letter or this first epistle of John was probably written from Ephesus and it was probably very late in John’s life. Most scholars would date the letter around the mid-90s and some even into the early 100s and John was writing this letter for one reason, he was addressing false teachings. Some of the earliest forms of teachings that we…we would now call Gnostic teachings had become a part of the conversation, especially this early view known as a Docetic view or Docetism, that Jesus wasn’t really actually a human being in the same way that we are flesh and blood, but simply appeared to be that way. Or another earlier teacher, Cerinthus who taught that the spirit of Christ, the divinity, the God parts of Jesus actually united with the human part of Jesus when He was baptized. And, so, He was divine from that point all the way through to His crucifixion when this divine spirit, then departed this fleshly Jesus. So I'm…it's…it’s not so hard in our day and age to understand that there are various and very diverse views of the Christian faith all influenced by all kinds of things, tying being one of them. But we get a glimpse here looking backward to the early formation of the church in that early time and see that all kinds of questions were being asked and all kinds of theories were being put forward. John though, even though he’s like a late in his life, is still alive and is in a unique position here, a position of authority because he was there, like he had been there, he was a part of Jesus inner circle. He had been with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry. So, although any number of things could be thought about Jesus, John…John was there, he saw it. So, he could dispel a falsehood about Jesus, basically because he had an eyewitness account. And that’s pretty much what he does here in verse John. But beyond just denouncing a false teaching, the letter offers contrasts, ways to test the postures of our heart in these matters while encouraging us forward and assuring us of our salvation because that was the heart of the matter here. All of these differing opinions in all of this discussion, which continues until today, confused people about where they were with God. And, so, as we as we finish this 11^th month of our year let’s reunite with an old friend. The last we heard of him…well…we learned about him and in the synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John…told the story of Jesus life for the final time. Now some time has passed, the church is beginning to form, and we get to hear from him again. And, so, we begin. First John chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for another week in Your word and…and…and we thank You for another month in Your word. And as those two endings come together on this day, we are grateful, we are thankful, You have brought us through 11 months every single day and transformation is profoundly visible as we look inside. And, so, we’re thankful because it works, Your word is alive and is powerful and does reach down to the level of our identity and speaks truth to us there. And, so, we are so eternally grateful that You are, that You are raising us up so that we live with boldness and confidence, not only about who we are, but about who You are, which is so vastly more important because without You we can do nothing. And, so, we take this moment here at the end of a week and the end of a month just to offer our worship, just to offer our thanks, to offer our love. We thank You Father for Your presence in our lives at all times and we invite Your Holy Spirit now to continually make us aware of Your presence, and we pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that’s home base, certainly where you find out what’s going on around here. And it’s Christmas time. So that’s what going on around here

And we’ve released the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2019 and I’ve been sharing about that for last couple of days. So, you have a sense of what’s in there - a number of brand-new resources. In fact, this Christmas Box is full of things that have pretty much never been in a Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box before. And, so, super excited about it. It’s very…I don’t know…kind of comprehensive…it just touches all the…a lot of different areas of our lives in this Christmas Box. So, excited about it. Check it out at dailyaudiobible.com. In fact, in the Daily Audio Bible shop there is a Christmas section and it’s got few Christmas related items in it, including the Christmas Box but also the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for 2019 and our own Christmas album that came out of our community called Family Christmas. So, you can get all those things or look at them anyway at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then I humbly thank you with all of my heart for your partnership. We wouldn’t exist…we would not exist if we were not in this story together. And, so, I'm…I’m deeply grateful that we are. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or you can press the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button of the top.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello wonderful prayer warriors out there. This is Vonnie from Northern California calling out to the woman from the Pacific Northwest. I’m sorry I didn’t get your name, but the Lord knows your name. You have been left by your husband with five children and my heart breaks for you. This is a very lonely time, very uncertain time. And dear Lord I pray for my friend in the Pacific Northwest. Lord Jesus please give her a freedom from fear, give her Your piece because You have promised to be the husband to the widow, the husband to the woman who’s alone and we trust You first to be our security, to be our safety, to be our intimate provider and protector. And I ask You to supply every need. Please do not allow her home to be taken. But we pray together that You would bring that man back to his senses. God, please reach out to him and minister to his hurting heart that is defying You and everything that he knows to be right and take away this desire for something that’s not of You. Bring him back to You God. I just ask in Jesus’ name that You’d break the enemy’s hold. Bring him back to his wife and family in Jesus precious name.

Good morning DAB family this is Married and Alone. I’ve been a listener for about four years, but this is the first time I’ve ever called with a prayer request. So, how do you fit 20 years of hard egg into a two-minute audio clip? My husband suffers from intimacy anorexia which is the active withholding of emotional, physical, and spiritual intimacy from a spouse. And as a result, he has withheld love from me for our 20-year marriage. And instead they replace it with criticism and blame and they control you with anger. And if it weren’t for my Lord, I would have no self-esteem at all, but I know…I know God is with me, His grace and His mercy always there for me. And while my husband says I’m unlovable my Lord tells me He loves me. And while my husband makes me feel ugly my Lord tells me I’m beautiful. And, so, I thank God for…for that. I’m still recovering from the last verbally abuse session and haven’t been able to speak to my husband for a week. And, so, I know that that conversation needs to happen because Thanksgivings coming. So, pray for me that I would have the wisdom to say what I need to say and just hold us up in prayer. More to come. Married and Alone. Thank you DAB family. Love you.

What is peace? Is it a piece of cake, delicious gluten-free chocolate fudge cake? Is it a part of a puzzle? Are there are many different pieces that make a bigger picture? Don’t we all want peace? Then why do I fight to get my own way? Why do I strive to get the latest things? Why do I struggle against myself and the world? Why do I contend with those around me? I see the conflicts being waged worldwide, the discontent, the nonstop fighting, the suffering and death. Where is peace? Peace is not worrying about my family. Peace is not worrying about the future. Peace is not worrying about money. Peace is not worrying what people think. Peace is not worrying what to do. I want peace more than a delicious slice of gluten-free cake. I want the whole picture. I want the missing piece. I want to be complete. I want to find peace. Peace is a man named Jesus, a man who walked this earth and showed us how to live, showed us what it is to be human and paid the ultimate price for us our Prince of peace. Peace is choosing joy, celebrating the small things, reveling in the presence of our God and His blessings. Peace is living in expectation of His provision, trusting in His mercy and grace. Peace is sharing our thoughts and feelings with our Father and with our Prince and with our advocate. Peace is being grateful for what we have, it’s learning to be content, it’s remembering who I am, a daughter of the King. I want that peace from God, the peace that surpasses all understanding. The piece that will guard my heart and mind. So, I will trust in the Lord with all my heart and I will love the Lord with all of myself.

Hi this is Jack in Wisconsin. Heard today in the prayer section of a woman who’s going through a divorce. She’s got five kids. I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to be praying for you and I’m really thinking of you. I have the perspective of this situation in that I was an unfaithful husband. And I am in the process of trying to put my marriage back together again with God’s grace and help. I am in repentance and I’m desperately trying to win the heart of my wife back, but it may not work. So, I would covet your prayers in return, that my wife’s heart opens and softens to me. Especially as we enter the holiday season it’s particularly hard. And again, for the woman, I just want you to know that I’m going to be thinking and praying for you and your family intently. And thank you for sharing. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is his beloved and California. I just want to say happy Thanksgiving and I’m just so thankful for you, each of you, my family. It’s amazing. I just love and adore. And this is the beginning of my day every day and thank you to Brian and Jill for creating this amazing family here on earth that we are so connected in Spirit. Shanna from Oklahoma, when you called and said you got your job for…with the…calling in with a praise report and you said you might have shed a tear you opened the email, I shed a tear when I heard you got a job. I was so happy for you. I’m praying for you. So, that made me happy. Patricia from New Orleans, I love you call in. And keep calling in. You’re in my daily prayers for healing and also for your family situation. I looked up what you told us to look up and I am praying for you. Please pray for my son’s girlfriend Jenna’s mother who is not doing well with her cancer. And her daughter went home to be with her and take care of her. And I just ask for you to cover her in prayer. Also please pray for me. My mind is playing tricks on me with a recurring infection I’m getting. And, of course, I’m thinking the worst thing possible. So, I was up all night. Please pray for healing of my mind body and spirit in this and that the Lord would just heal me up and all would be well in that situation. I love all of you. Thank you, prayer warriors who call in. You know who you are, the staples here. God bless you all.

Hi, I’m calling, I’ve called many years ago and now is the first time in a long time. I’m going to call myself Finding Great Comfort. I want to thank this community because I can reach out in prayer to you. My heart is heavy as I lift this prayer. Lord God Almighty intercede for my daughter Colene. She needs your healing, sober mindedness, and courage to do the right things for herself, her family, and her children. Intercede Lord by your mighty grace for mothers like her suffering and causing suffering. I ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ who came, lived, died, rose again, and lives and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. I ask your mercy, your grace and restoration. As we finished up first Peter today it says love covers a multitude of sins. To love deeply. Loving deeply means that we are stretched beyond our understanding. And here we are Lord. I ask for your grace and your mercy. At this time of Thanksgiving I am thankful for family and even the sufferings of grace. Please cover us and restore us in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Dan 6:1-28, 2 Pet 3:1-18, Ps 119:129-152, Pr 28:21-22

Today is the 29^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. Happy…happy Black Friday. It’s gonna be a shopping day today. This is the day that is traditionally…well…it traditionally kind of launches the holiday season. And yeah, we’ve mentioned it on a number of occasions, this is the point in the year where things seem to accelerate and for some reason between now and the end of the year it seems like everything’s moving at double speed and it’s really, really easy to get taken out and really easy to get knocked off of our…our usual rhythms. And, so, this is a time to focus in on what’s most important and the things that we will not allow ourselves to be moved from and obviously the rhythm of Scripture should be one of those things. And, so, we’ll take the next step forward as we continue our journey through the Scriptures this year. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Today from the Old Testament Daniel chapter 6.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we move into the end of our week here and for that matter as we move into the end of this month and get ready for the 12^th month of the year, we have concluded second Peter. So, I have a great idea. Let’s talk about endurance because that’s what the Bible talking about and but today, we have a really good opportunity to understand why endurance is necessary from a cosmic perspective. So, we can apply endurance to our own lives and understand that resistance makes us strong, right? And being…being patient and persevering actually strengthens our lives. So, we can…we can understand that even though it’s difficult. But is there a greater purpose that we should endure? That’s what the apostle Peter is talking about it as we conclude this letter today. And as we concluded this letter today, we…we certainly brushed up against the apocalyptic worldview that existed in the first century. And we can go like, “like…well…what do I need to know about the apocalyptic worldview of the first century?” Because we have the same essential apocalyptic worldview. And essentially that is that the world as we know it is a changing thing and a new era is coming and this change that is taking place will eventually bring about unrest and great challenge, but inside of all of that rescue will come and something new will be born. So, we don’t usually articulate that but that is a backdrop for our lives. Generally, we all believe this in one way or another and this belief or this sense of the fact that things are going somewhere was a part of the culture that…that Jesus was in in the first century. It actually was the kind of language He used because Jesus continually talked about the kingdom of heaven and revealing the kingdom of heaven, and the nowness of it. In fact, if Jesus were not looked at from a spiritual perspective just as a historical figure then He would generally be considered an apocalyptic profit. So, we’re a couple thousand years in the future since this letter so we know that a couple thousand years have passed since the time Jesus did his ministry on this earth. So, we understand that the…the apocalypse…the time is unknown…even though lots of people are trying to name the dates and figure it out, we accept that we don’t know but we still live with the conviction that we are going somewhere, there is an ultimate destiny. And, so, as the generations go by, right, everybody is considering where we are on that continuum. And in light of this, at the time of the writing of second Peter, this understanding hadn’t evolved, thousands of years hadn’t passed. And the early believers in the first century, they were not looking toward a…a distant unknown future. They believed that the return of Jesus was imminent. So, in the decades that followed Jesus life, His followers taught that Christ would soon return and reveal himself ushering in the kingdom of God revealing the new heaven and a new earth. And because this is all over the New Testament, we find ourselves basically waiting for the same thing. But in the time of…of Peter’s writing, years had passed, and Jesus hadn’t returned. So, what they thought was supposed to happen imminently hadn’t happened imminently, hadn’t happened at all, which left a problem that needed clarity. And, so, Peter stepped into that offering some clarity and I’m quoting here, “above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They’ll say, “where is this coming, He promised”. Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” And skipping ahead a little bit, “but do not forget this one thing, dear friends, with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” So, this is where things get really interesting for us because we need the same clarity. According to Peter, God isn’t being slow about anything, especially His promises. We are being impatient. And the irony is, the thing we are being impatient about is God’s patience, which should flick some lights on for those of us who feel like we’ve been waiting on the Lord for a long time. God doesn’t want to lose anyone, and He has entrusted we who have received Christ who are being transformed into His likeness. He has entrusted us to be His witness in the world, to reveal the good news. Now it’s easy to quote from Revelation that they overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. That’s what we’re talking about here. The blood of the Lamb is our salvation. The word of our testimony is what our lives are communicating to a world that is dying. When we endure. We are embodying God’s patience. So, think of it like this, it’s very easy for us to say, “Jesus, come. I wish it could be today. Can you just get me out of this mess?” Just, would you return? Would you just make things right?” And I certainly pray those prayers when a more appropriate posture might be, “God strengthen me to endure, to be Your witness in this world to stand here and show that what You…that what I claim to be true is true. May those who are lost and floundering see Your light in me and be drawn to it and help me to endure so that no one will be lost, so that all can hear?” Basically, when we live by faith and endure then we’re doing it for the sake of the world. It would be easy enough for us to say, “okay. If God could just bring fire down and end it all today and start a new thing, I would be with him, that would be great”, but what about…what about those that would be lost? We must find the heart of God in this. So, the next time we’re going berserk because of impatience, we must remember God’s patience because if He hadn’t been patient with us, we would have never known Him. And there are many that He would like to know. And we are His hands and feet in this world. Jesus said we are the light of the world. When we endure, we are revealing God’s kingdom and that is a game changer.

Prayer:

Father we invite Your Holy Spirit into this and we ask that even though today’s a busy day and it’s going to be busy, busy, busy, and we can be very distracted, we pray God that You would help us understand that we are here for a reason and it is to reveal the good news and we need to be willing to face whatever challenge that might bring, especially in this season, especially when we have the opportunity to interact and rub up against family and friends that we may not otherwise see the rest of the year. May we be light in the midst of it all, Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And today is Black Friday, so like one of the biggest shopping days in the year if not the biggest shopping day of the year worldwide. So, I’m guessing that whether online or off-line, maybe chances are good you’re going to do some shopping. So, have fun and be careful out there and…and…and share the love of Christ in everything that you do, even if that means you have to give up a parking place. Show the love of Christ.

I’ll remind you that it’s Black Friday and every…every Christmas season we compile resources and create the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for the year. And, so, it’s family Christmas Box for the year 2019 and we’re super excited about this. The things in this Box have…have never been in in any box because they’re…they’re…they’re new. And, so, a number of resources from our Global Campfire line that we…that we released back in September are in the Boxes, some of our most popular items. So, there are the brand-new Global Campfire postcards. There’s five postcards. They’re in a nice little package and they’re beautiful, they’re frameable, they’re givable, they’re mailable, they’re shareable, they’re wonderful. And, so, five of them are in the Christmas Box as well as two of the Global Campfire stickers are in the Box. The…the brand-new resource in book form, known as the God of Your Story, which is a one year 365-day devotional that in written form captures the essence of our journey through the Scriptures in a year. So, it is a fantastic gift idea, but it’s also a wonderful resource for everyone around the Global Campfire to have. It’s a tangible representation of what it is that we do here. So, this is a beautifully hardbound first edition and this is a signed first edition copy of the God of Your Story. And that’s in the Christmas Box. We also have our new Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0. We have well…we went to the drawing board and crafted a journal that we wanted to be, you know, something that’s was beautiful, was the right size, was good to hold, had a good feel to it, had really good paper, was like the kind of thing that would encourage companionship and interaction with and writing in and…well…journaling. And, so, we went to the drawing board and crafted that and had some made and went back to the drawing board after that first batch and refined and just made it even better. And, so, our Journal 2.0 is in the Box this year. Also, fantastic gift for anybody that’s journaler but a wonderful way to set up for the new year. Life of your gonna take the journey through the Bible again then let’s write down the things that God shares with us. And as those things accumulate over years, we begin to see the wisdom of God in our lives as He keeps bringing insights from His word into our hearts. So, that’s what the Journal 2.0 is about. So, that’s in the box. The brand-new Global Campfire candle is in the box. And I’ve mentioned many times, we worked hard to get this aroma right. It’s amazing how an aroma, and we even studied this in the Scriptures when we were talking about the aroma of Christ, which is…which is something that Paul said. But it’s incredible how an aroma changes the atmosphere. And, so, like here in the US we just went through Thanksgiving. My wife, she’s like a master chef. So, you know, the day before Thanksgiving my house had such a festive, such a homey aroma in it, just a…that the entire atmosphere was permeated in my home. That’s what an aroma can do. And we were trying to…to find an aroma that was reminiscent of Campfire and community and sweetness and…and wholeness and nature. And, so, we worked really hard to make the Global Campfire smell like a Global Campfire and…and it does. And, so, we’ve included a candle in the box. Ahhhh…the Daily Audio Bible ornament for the year 2019, those are only ever available in the Christmas Boxes, is in the Christmas Box. This one, it says Daily Audio Bible 2019 and our word which has been “Maintain” is on the…is on the ornament. And mine is hanging on my tree. And I hope yours will be hanging on your tree soon. We also have your choice of our Daily Audio Bible blend of whole bean coffee or our boutique tea. And the coffee is roasted fresh in Colorado and will be sent…sent. It will arrive to you fresh. It’s not something that…well…I mean a lot of the gift Boxes that are out there that will have coffee and that kind of stuff in them, those were roasted may be a couple months ago and they’re just making their way through distribution channels. The coffee that we’re gonna send to you is gonna be roasted like days ago and you’ll be able to tell the difference, significantly. So, your choice, coffee or tea. We also have a pack of the 20 postcards…or…not postcards, Christmas cards, 20 of the Daily Audio Bible 2019 Christmas cards with their companion envelopes. And you can certainly get the Christmas cards in the Daily Audio Bible Shop separate from the Christmas Box, like if you need more than 20 or whatever. They’re five bucks for 20. I mean…and they’re a wonderful way to invite your friends and family along for the journey next year. These are not advertisements for Daily Audio Bible. They say Daily Audio Bible on the back where Hallmark would be written and that’s it. But they are beautiful, and they are wonderful way to engage with your sphere of influence and invite your friends and family to be on this journey because where at this point in the year where you can see like a journey through the Bible, I mean it touches everything in your life and it’s the constant in a year and it makes such a huge profound difference. So, invite your friends and family along for the journey next year. Anyway, a pack of 20 of the Christmas cards are in the Christmas Box. And lastly, one of the Global Campfire pop sockets, which has been very popular for your phone or your tablet device to…to…it’s a little thing that pulls out and you can use your fingers to kind of hold onto things, that’s in the Box as well. So, check that out. Like I said, you can get Christmas cards separate if you need more.

There is a Christmas section in the Daily Audio Bible shop and it contains a few Christmas items including our own family Christmas album that we released…ahhh…I can’t remember…a couple years ago. And you get out on Spotify, you can that on Apple music, just search my name, search for family Christmas, you’ll find that. Enjoy a Family Christmas. I created that album to be as classic…like the kind of album…I don’t know…I’m a Christmas music lover and I’ve got albums from my childhood that they were made in such a way that they…they feel timeless and that’s what I was going for in this instrumental Christmas album. It’s the kind of album that you put on after a busy day, right, you’re just kind of winding down for the night, it’s the holiday season, you’ve got the tree on, I don’t know, maybe you’ve got a fire, but all the lights are off and you’re just kind of sitting there in the bask of the glow of the lights and this album makes the perfect companion for that atmosphere. So…so, check that out as well. All of these things are available here on Black Friday in the Daily Audio Bible shop dailyaudiobible.com.

The only other thing I want to say about that is that our international cutoff date for shipping of the Christmas Box or for anything Christmas later will be Tuesday. We have an arrangement that allows us to ship via FedEx into another country. But then, that…that country then takes it…takes the item and via their domestic mail system delivers it and that can take 21 days or more. And, so, this is the date that we’re cutting off for international…I mean you can order internationally as long as we have these. Just heads up, like this is the date that we think is the last safe date ship for Christmas and that’s just kind of born out of years of experience.

Okay, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, thank you, thank you. You can do that at the website, you can do that on the app, you can do that via the mail. The mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or you can just press the Hotline button in app, the little red button up at the top and begin sharing your story.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Greetings everyone this is Toni from Germany. So, I am calling first and foremost because I am thinking about Prodigal because I remember Prodigal about last time of this…last year…pardon me at about this time where in December you were calling in with some very grim messages. And I’m smiling just thinking about where you are now compared to then. And, so, I’m grateful for that and I’m sure this will make others…other people smile who remember that time and have seen where you’ve come. And, so I’m glad you have hung on and you have listened to the Lord and you’ve leaned on the faith however thin it was and just kept hanging in there and that you’re doing, you know, with the Lord wants you to do basically. So, God bless you and continued…continued joy on your journey. As for me, I’m a little bit better health wise. I called in before. On a long journey of being sick but…and I’ve been using natural remedies but I just kind of feel that this illness that I’ve had is the Lord’s way of actually helping me get some other medical issues under control. So, yeah, so I’m on an interesting journey. A lot of different trials but I’m seeing the Lord in that and I’m trusting him. So, I just want to say too, hello mom. She started listening again. Bye-bye everyone. God bless.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible listeners my name is Vicki I am also called Victorine and I’m calling from Winnipeg in Canada. I am a longtime listener. I’ve listened actually for over 11 years now, but this is the first time I’m calling. I have tried to call before but just not had the courage to post it. Anyway, I’m calling today to ask for prayer because I will be having surgery tomorrow, November 25^th, 2019. I know that will long be done by the time you guys listen to this request, but I believe that God is God and He knows what’s to be and I just pray that everything is a success and that my recovery is quick. I am hardly ever sick, and I’ve never gone to anything as major as this. So, needless to say I’m a little worried but I believe God is good and He means good for us and He’s a God that heals and He’s going to heal me. I want to thank you Brian and Jill for all you do. I want to thank you for this forum and thank you for all the people who call in regularly. I listen every time. I enjoy hearing the requests. I pray with people that give requests and I rejoice with those who call in to give prayers that have been answered. I don’t call. Anyway, this is my first time calling but I pray that that’s a __. I do miss some people’s voices like Pastor Gene who has called in the past. I listen for regulars like Biola, like Rebecca from Michigan and, like Blind Tony and several other people. I just…I just thank you so much for having the courage to call often. It is very encouraging. And for those who pray we are with you in spirit. I know I never call in to pray but we do pray for you in the background and we pray that God will walk us all through this different struggles that we have

Hey DAB family this is Dominque I know haven’t checked in a while. I just wanted to say thank you for everything. Thank you for the prayers, thank you for the books, thank you for the year planning…the year Bible reading book. Like I said this is Dominic Crumhold from LDC in Arab Alabama, friends with Pelham Morris. He’s a good brother of mine I love him the death. I’m very happy that God sent him, in my life. I just want to give you a quick update on myself. I’ve moved beyond the fear of the future. I am falling more and more in love with Jesus. I’m understanding and more and more and am emptying out myself more and more. I just recently give my testimony, which was amazing ordeal for me. I just love…I can’t even really explain it…I’m just loving walking with God, walking with my father, walking with dad. And I’m almost done with my program. I graduate in two months. Thank you for your time. Love you all.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible DABbers this is Norma from the Bronx and I just have to call and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, a time when I spend meditation particularly just in Thanksgiving for all of the great things that God has done for me for the year. And one of them is definitely for this Daily Audio Bible ministry. I just have to thank Brian for this amazing…I…I…that I divinely got…divinely got…just brought me to and wishing…wishing that I had found Daily Audio Bible sooner. It has been such a blessing to me. And I want to thank your wife for giving you the support to do this Daily Audio Bible forum. I am thankful for the DABbers, the community. I feel like I have brothers and sisters all over the world and I’m just so thankful to Jesus, to your blood, the resurrection, the power of the Holy Ghost. I thank you God for the gospel and just so thankful for all of you. I have you in my heart, I have you in my prayers, and I pray that each and every one of you will have many, many, many reasons to be thankful, to focus…focus on the things, the things you can be thankful for. Don’t focus on the things you don’t have. God bless you and I love you.

Hi everybody this is Susie from Colorado. I’m going to try to talk fast because I have so many praises to report. First of all, his little Cherry, thank you so much for praying for me and my children in Haiti and Joe my husband. We were getting ready for work this morning and my husband turned around and I looked at him and he looked at me and your voice was on DAB praying for us. I was just…it just started this week off so wonderfully. And then I talked to my staff in Haiti at the orphanage in the schools and they wanted to say praise God. We have had the biggest blessing and that not one of our children has had to be rushed to the emergency room during this civil war. This almost never happens. We almost always every week are having to take our children to the emergency room because we have a lot of terminally ill and very severely handicapped children. But God knew that we could not safely get in the streets, so He has kept them safe and well and we’ve had plenty of oxygen. We…this is also a miracle because we just run out of supplies so often with many, many crises, lots of little sick kiddos, but every one of them…no seizures in the last couple months. This is just a miracle. I can’t tell you. So, praise be to God. I mean…really. And thank you. Keep please keep praying for these kids in Haiti. Just we thank you should so very, very, very, very much. We love you and just keep us all in your prayers and just pray that God would keep the kids with no seizures, with no emergencies, and that we would not run about oxygen. We’ve lost a few animals because we couldn’t get into the streets to get food for them but just…and we’ve…

Hey everybody this is Pelham in Arab Alabama with lighthouse deliverance center. Addicted to Christ is my first white stone name that the DAB gave me. I’ve got a couple others, but I won’t mention those right now. I’m calling to let you guys know how…you know…I’m coming up on six months I’ve been in this program here which is…it’s tough but it’s life…but life is tough wherever you are. You face it day-to-day with His help and He’s got treasures along the way if you’re looking for them. So, I’m calling because on Friday…well okay…first of all, I can’t get on the Internet, I cannot listen to the show for the first time in almost a decade that I’ve been a part of this community, I can’t get to the show, I can’t hear Brian, I can’t keep up with what you guys are doing. So…but I still call, and I still let you guys know was going on. So, apparently someone has heard that and low and behold Friday I received a box with about 20 copies of the God of Your Story, the companion to the one-year Bible that goes through the whole thing and it’s get the words that Brian each day. So, now at the beginning of the new year I can keep up with you guys and I can actually read the book and then read Brian’s commentary. I read…I want to give the book to the guys in the program. That’s why they sent so many copies. And thank you so much to who sent them to me. I don’t have but a few more seconds. Brian your words in the opening introduction brought me to tears in front of the men in the program…

Daniel 5:1-31, 2 Peter 2:1-22, Psalms 119:113-128, Proverbs 28:19-20

Today is the 28^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today. Happy Thanksgiving…well…happy Thanksgiving to everybody in the whole world. I know it’s not Thanksgiving everywhere that…that you are, but here in the United States, today is Thanksgiving Day. So, happy Thanksgiving everybody. And yeah, let’s spend the day in the state of gratitude and thanks and let’s continue with the rhythm that we have every single day as we come around the Scriptures and allow God’s word to speak into our lives. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. And today, Daniel chapter 5.

Prayer:

Father, as we have a posture of gratitude, as we give thanks today, we certainly give thanks to You for Your word and we certainly give thanks to You for the community that You…that You’ve raised up around this rhythm of being involved in and interacting with Your word every single day. So, we are grateful, and we are thankful. And we are thankful for all that You have brought us through to get us to this point in the year and all that You have rescued us from through Your word and all that You have rescued us from in spite of ourselves, and in spite of our own actions. You are a good Father. No, You are a great Father. You are a perfect Father and our hearts are full of gratitude for Your involvement in our lives that You would even be mindful of us as the Psalms say, is beyond our comprehension. So, we are deeply grateful to You for all that You have done and all that You are doing and all that You have yet to do within us. We thank You and we praise You for who You are. We love You Father and we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Today in United States…this is a pretty major national holiday for us called Thanksgiving. It’s a day of gratefulness and thanksgiving. And, so, happy Thanksgiving…happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I suppose, like I was saying earlier, it’s Thanksgiving, we can give thanks all over the world every day, for in the life of a believer it should be Thanksgiving Day. This is just a day that’s commemorated here in…in our country. So, happy Thanksgiving to everybody. This is also kind of a transitional…it’s…it’s a holiday but it’s a transitional day…transitional day because it seems like worldwide tomorrow, you know, tomorrow’s Black Friday…just…yeah…it’s the…it’s the retail rush into the holidays and it’s a point at which it seems that things go into warp drive and that we spend the final month of the year…I mean it’s disruptive but it’s joyous but it’s different. It’s like December is different than any other month in the year and by the time we get through this weekend we will be in the month of December. And, so, let’s just be aware of that and take this this attitude of thanksgiving, this sense of gratitude that this day evokes and carry that into the festivities that are in front of us because…because invariably, our lives are gonna get disrupted and it’s very easy when that happens that we start to live reactionary, right? So, we’re not really enjoying the season anymore, we’re just responding to the season, like we’re just responding to things that are swirling all around us, and pretty soon we are just in the storm as opposed to the fact that we are in the season. So…so let’s remember that as we take the next steps forward intto this weekend and into this season.

I remind you, dailyaudiobible.com is where you find what’s going on around here. So, stay connected in any way that you can.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com there is a link that lives on the homepage and I cannot thank you enough, other than to say from my heart the deepest sense of gratitude that we are even here is kind of how I live every day. It’s amazing for 14 years every single day we’ve been doing this, and we’ve been doing this together. That’s why we’ve managed to do this every day for this long. So, thank you 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.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top and just begin to share your story or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi this is Vickie from Arizona and I am calling first of all because I just want to give God praise, that this is the day that He has made, and I shall rejoice and be glad in it. So, I’m setting my face to rejoice but I’m also asking for prayer. December 10^th it’ll be two years. And my son left this world and it was suicide and I still every single day give in and struggle and want to hear his voice and I see his little girl and I just wish to God he had made a better choice that day. And I know when that day comes that I just really need God to put His arms around me and just walk me through that day because it’s such…such a hard thing to go through. And I lost my husband almost a year and half ago. So, it’s just a lot of loss that I just…I keep walking through thinking…well God…you’re gonna make a way where there doesn’t seem to be a way, You’re gonna give me joy unspeakable and full of glory and I am declaring and decreeing that over myself. But it’s a constant thing that you just walk through day by day and it doesn’t…it doesn’t stop and I know that God loves me, I know that He’s there, but it’s still such a missing part of my life. And December’s coming and my birthday and Christmas and all the things that…I just miss ‘em. So, I just am asking for prayer for just joy…joy that I can…I can put my head up and say that God said He would never leave me nor forsake me…and I know…

I this is Rolan, my daddy listens to the Daily Audio Bible and I want to…I have a prayer request for a member of our church, she has cancer and she’s having a hard time with that. And also, for my cousin and his mom, they aren’t believers in God and I want them to know how…how much…how much He…how much He loves them and that they…they need to know about Him. Thanks for listening. Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Aminah out of Ohio. I just wanted to follow up on baby girl Adelaide. She was the eight-year-old that had the cancer and she’s been going through aggressive treatment, chemotherapy treatment, and it looks like this is her third round of chemotherapy and that the doctors did anticipate that her white blood count would drop. It’s usually between a 4.5 and a 14.5 but hers is currently at a .6 white blood cell count with this new chemotherapy drug that they are treating her with. So, I ask that you guys please keep her lifted in prayers and may God give her body strength. She’s just a baby and these drugs are so…so aggressive. And, you know, before they work, they really tear your immune system down. This is really a poison. So, I ask that you guys keep her in prayer and that God gives her strength, strength in her little body to get through this aggressive treatment and that this cancer is eradicated. And I don’t think any child should have to suffer and go through this. So, it’s been a while. You know, her hair fell out and everything else and she’s only eight years old. So, please keep her lifted. Let’s pray collectively. I know where two or three are gathered God is in the midst and I know He…He is in the works before we even activate these prayers through the airwaves. So, I love you all. God bless everyone. Again, her name is Adelaide. Take care.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Isaiah from New Jersey and actually I have an awesome praise report. I am…I can finally say that I have passed the math portion of my PRAXIS. It took me so many times, but I knew that I couldn’t give up. So, I appreciate your prayers and your interceding for me and just…yeah…just being there, standing in the gap for me. Thank you so much Daily Audio Bible family. I was just at the point where, you know, I was like, “oh great, here are my test results again.” So, I was like, “oh I’m going to have to take this again. I know I didn’t pass” and it puts me in a funky mood, you know. But I finally, you know, checked my results and it said that I passed, and I just sat there and just cried and said, “oh…I know that I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me And I know that I can’t give up on God because I know that God will not give up on me.” So, guys, just have faith in God. Put your faith…put your faith to work, put some feet on your faith. Just know that God is able, and He can do exceedingly and abundantly far above what you can ask or think. Just believe and trust God. If He can do it for me, He can do it for you. He can do it again and again. I love you guys. Have a blessed holiday. Be grateful. Be thankful. Love on each other. And also love God because He loves you. All right. Be blessed.

Hi family this is his little Cherry in Canada and I’m calling because I wanted to pray a blessing over all of the architects, contractors, designers, builders, those involved in construction because we’ve just read through the portion of Ezekiel where Ezekiel has a vision of the temple and an angel or whoever that man was took Ezekiel through the temple very specifically and showed him all of the measurements and specifications and it’s so specific. And, so, I just want to encourage all of those who are involved as architects or builders that what you do is incredibly spiritual, and God is an architect. He loves all of that. He’s so precise. And, so, I just want you to know that your valuable part of the body of Christ. And not just architects but also tailors, seamstresses, cooks, all of those things are mentioned in this vision that Ezekiel had. And, so, I just want to pray for you. Heavenly Father bless all of these creative people who express Your heart in these specific ways through building, through creating, cooking, sewing, designing, even interior decorators. Lord, bless what they do, kiss what they do by Your Spirit, may it reflect Your heart, your vision. May they do exactly what they’ve been designed to do and bring glory to You in and through it I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hey DAB family this is God’s Little Bird and this is my two year anniversary and I just wanted to call in and share my appreciation to you guys for all that I learn from you and I’m praying along and I’m glad to use the hotline button because my last couple calls didn’t get played because I think my quality at home is terrible and they get…they thrown out. So, darn! But my last call that I wanted to make was to tell Toni in Germany that like I too did not maintain this year. So, I’m with you. I’m with all of you who are, you know, huge self-judgers and feel like, you know, you just didn’t measure up this year. You know, it’s okay to start over. I’ve had some real up and downs this year, but you guys have been through that with me when I have my really bad anxiety days when I feel like everything’s falling apart. My relationships are terrible. I post on the Facebook page and I have many, many brothers and sisters who pray for me and I just appreciate that so much. It’s so helpful and thank you Brian for all that I learn from you. This podcast keeps me in the word and the word is really what keeps us so close to God and it just makes it so much easier to be able to do that. So, I love you guys, I appreciate you, and I am always listening along just going yes Jesus, agreeing with you guys in prayer. So, I might not call in and say, “hey you I’m praying for you” but I have, you know, I have acknowledged your prayer. So, I love you guys. Thank you so much. Happy two years to me and here’s to many more. Bye.

Daniel 4:1-37, 2 Peter 1:1-21, Psalms 119:97-112, Proverbs 28:17-18

Today is the 27^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we pass through the center of the last week of this month. And I guess traditionally here in the United States, this a big cooking day like a big preparation day. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, which is a national holiday for us here…here in the United States and then the day after that’s Black Friday and I think worldwide that sort of kicks off the Christmas season. So, here we are right at the threshold of a busy season for us but we have a rhythm that we’ve established all year and we come around this Global Campfire where there is peace and where there is calm and we let God’s word speak into our lives. And, so, that’s what we’ll do. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Today, Daniel chapter 4. And when we get to the New Testament we’ll be beginning of Peter’s second letter known as second Peter but first Daniel chapter 4.

Introduction to Second Peter:

Alright. So, as we mentioned at the beginning, we finished first Peter yesterday, which brings us to second Peter today. And the second letter of the apostle Peter is thought to be the final writing of Peter’s life, but it’s also important to understand that the authorship of this particular letter has been questioned, going all the way back into antiquity. The acceptance of the idea that the apostle Peter wrote this letter, that happened over time and the letter was considered Scripture by the fourth century. In the more modern era scholars have observed stylistic differences between first and second Peter. So, those who would defend Peter’s authorship would say he…he was dictating…like he…he may have been illiterate…he wasn’t writing these things, he was saying them, and they were being written down by a secretary. So, he just used two different secretaries who wrote down the thoughts that he was saying. But all in all there are compelling reasons to consider this letter like we do the letter to the Hebrews or the book of Hebrews as in the author is unknown, but there are equally compelling reasons to consider the author to be the apostle Peter as is named in this letter. So, if the apostle Peter wrote second Peter it would’ve likely been in the late 60s. A.D. and he would’ve been martyred shortly thereafter. And our church tradition holds that during his execution period Peter was crucified upside down at his own request and that may in fact be the true truth. The Bible doesn’t verify that. It’s a very long-running tradition of the church. And Peter didn’t explicitly say who he was writing to in second Peter. He said he was writing to you who share the same precious faith that we have. So, we assume that he was writing to the same people he wrote his first letter to because he referred to the first letter in the second one, the one that we’re about to read. And these letters have different purposes. First Peter sought to bolster and encourage and instruct believers about how to endure the pressures that were coming against them. Second Peter will warn about false teaching and evil behavior from within. But rather than like just looking at this letter as another encouragement and try to live better, we have to know that Peter’s about to die and he says as much in this letter. This is Peter, right? This is the man who walked with Jesus along the Sea of Galilee. This is a person who saw Jesus perform His miracles. This is a person who was a friend of Jesus, laughed with Him, cried with Him, lived with Him, ate his last supper with Him. And of course, we know the story of Peter. This is the man who denied Him and watched him die, but this is also the man who saw Jesus raised to life again. And this is the man who preached the first sermon after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and 3000 people decided to follow Jesus. So, this letter, these may be the final living words of the apostle Peter. And, so, we should give them the weight that they deserve in our lives. And, so, we begin. Second Peter chapter 1.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have…well…we have talked about second Peter and we’ve begun to read it and so let’s just…let’s look at what we read today for just a quick second because we have some addition, some spiritual addition to do. We’ll have to kind of unpack the introduction to this letter. The letters in the Bible…the greetings in the letters in the Bible…they’re…they’re usually really long comprehensive sentences and you’ve gotta go, “let’s read that slower.” So, let’s do that. “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life.” Alright, we could just pause there and think of that for a minute. We have been given what we need to live this life. And we’ve been given it through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. “Through these”, through God’s divine power and our knowledge of him, “through these, He has given us His very great and precious promises. So, through His divine power and through our knowledge we have been given these precious promises, so that through them”, the promises, “so that through those promises we get to participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” That’s two verses and one paragraph that says an awful lot about our status as brothers and sisters, as children of God in this world. But we’re…we’re still working through this. “For this very reason. So, for the reason that we just talked about, that we get to participate in the divine nature of God because He has given us that promise, because of that, for that very reason we need to do some adding. “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness and add to goodness, knowledge, and add to knowledge, self-control, and add to self-control, perseverance, and add on to perseverance godliness, and add to godliness, mutual affection, and add to mutual affection, love. If you possess these qualities” and I’m quoting Peter here. “If you possess these qualities in increasing measure”, in other words, “if you keep adding to these things, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever doesn’t have these things is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they’d been cleansed from their past sins.” That’s an awful lot. I mean there's…there’s a bunch here that’s going on because we walk around feeling like we’re like weighted down by this…by our sins because we fail all the time. And, so, we’re estranged from God. There’s so much in this that we can look and go, “okay. If this is true, this weight of sin that I carry around all the time feeling as if God is angry at me, it’s an illusion, He’s not angry at me, He doesn’t see them, they are not a part of my life. I certainly can choose to…to rebel in some way against God, but all of the things that have led me to this point, God has forgiven…they are not a part of my life, they are not a part of my identity anymore. So, rather than adding shame to guilt and then adding condemnation and then adding rebellion and then following that spiral down. I have a different math problem to do. I need to be adding to my faith, goodness and knowledge and self-control and perseverance and godliness and mutual affection and love. Then I will not wonder what’s going on and I will not wonder why am living in unproductive life. If I’m adding these things together, I will be effective and productive in my knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ”, according to second Peter. So, that can explain a lot about the state we’re in about the status of our lives. And, so, let’…I mean there’s a lot…reread it today. Think about these things. Today we’re going into a very busy season, a season that we can move through with excellence and precision following the leading of the Holy Spirit, enjoying the joy of the season and spreading that joy to everyone that we encounter or we can get bowled over and end up at December 31^st, making the same New Year’s resolutions we made last year. It’s a big circle a year, a big circle around the sun and we can end up right where we started if we don’t obey what we’re hearing.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that because it’s just flatly the truth. We’ve experienced it enough times, we’ve seen the patterns, it’s the truth and yet Your word continually pulls us forward out of those patterns that are going nowhere and that has happened today. Help us Father as we move into this season to add to our faith, goodness and to our goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection and to mutual affection, love. Then we will be effective and productive as we move through the rest of this year. Come Holy Spirit into this, we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and home base for what’s going on around here.

And now we’re moving into the holiday season and so the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2019 is available. We wanted to jump out in front of Black Friday a little bit just to give a few extra days for international shipments. We ship internationally. But like I was saying yesterday, the cost of shipping internationally are just really, really high. And, so, we have this arrangement where it’s a lot cheaper, more like domestic shipping, it just takes longer and take more than three weeks. So, the international cutoff date for shipping Christmas Boxes in time for Christmas will be the 2^nd of December, which is a Monday. So, just a few days from now. Of course, shipping domestically inside the United States, it’s no problem. So, we’ve got…got time there as long as supplies last. In this year’s Christmas Box is one of my very favorites that we’ve ever done because I think it centers us in the journey of a year, the rhythm of a year. And, so, the God of Your Story, this new daily resource that really is the heart, the essence of the Daily Audio Bible in book form, in written form is in the box. So, a signed first edition copy of the God of Your Story is in the box but also our new Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0…I can…I mean…we do throughout the year talk about writing things down, and especially when we see that mimicked in the Scriptures, but I can’t tell you how important it is to write things down, especially things that…that are like insights that you have received from the Holy Spirit through his word…like as you’re moving through the Scriptures. It’s crazy how you can have something that actually is like a missing puzzle piece in your life snap into place and then after lunch, you’re like, “what was that again?” But it was like so important, and then it’s gone. But when we write these things down, they’re there, and we can go back through a year of these kinds of insights and transformations in our lives and review these things and lock them in. So, I guess the best the best way I can say it is, if you feel God speaking to you, take notes. And, so, we have the new Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 in the Christmas Box this year for next year’s journey. Also, some of our most popular Global Campfire items from the new Global Campfire line of resources that we released just a couple months ago. So, the Global Campfire Daily Audio Bible candle is in the Christmas Box and worked hard to get this candle to smell like campfire so that it evokes the community that we share, the Global Campfire. So, Global Campfire candle is in the box. Two of the Gobal Campfire stickers, five of the Global Campfire postcards, in a nice…nice little plastic wrap to keep them safe. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas ornament for 2019, which…well…has Daily Audio Bible 2019 on it and our word for the year which has been “Maintain” is in the Christmas box. The Global Campfire pop socket for your phone or tablet device is in the Christmas box. 20 of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for 2019 and their envelopes, those are in the box as well as your choice of our Windfarm DAB blend coffee, fresh roast, it will be freshly roasted and sent to you or your choice of our boutique tea, whichever you prefer. So, it’s a great Christmas Box. It’s available now in the Daily Audio Bible Shop at dailyaudiobible.com or you can get to the Shop in the Daily Audio Bible app by pushshig…pressing the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and that’ll get you there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. And I can’t thank you enough for your partnership as we move into toward the end of the year. So, there’s a link on the homepage. If using you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment you can dial 877-942-4253 or just press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top and start sharing your story.

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 Daily Audio Bible family today is November 20^th and can I just say Rachel from Pennsylvania and Ben, you guys made my day. I was listening to community prayer from November 2nd and you were praying, oh my goodness, for the devil to get out of two boys heads and having voices. It is such a beautiful fresh breath of air to just listen to Ben praying. Yes, telling the devil to get out right now. I smiled all day. I can replay that prayer over and over again. Oh. Jesus said let them…let the little kids come to me. Yes. For the kingdom of God is for as such the faith of the little kids. I love this community because a lot of parents encourage their kids to come to Jesus. And it’s so beautiful when you’re here even the little kids who are calling in and praying for their friends and praying for their parents and praying for even other members of this community. Can we continue to pray for little generation to continue loving Jesus? So, Rachel I just want to say thank you for calling and for involving your little kids to also pray. Oh. I know Jesus heart is so smiling. Thank you so much. I just wanted to call and say thank you. Daily Audio Bible family this Alfio calling from Delaware. Make it a great day. Bye-bye.

Eliab, David’s brother this is Jesse’s oldest son burned with anger at David’s question and asked him why he’d come. Why don’t you just leave now go finish up those chores? Why is it that you came here and left those few sheep of yours? King David said, I’m not afraid. He went and told Saul that he was going to go and make things right. He said no, you’re just a boy I must tell you the truth you are no match for this giant who’s been trained up from his youth. David said his father sheep I have kept safe from both lion and bear. When they were up against me, I caught them by the hair. God gave back the lamb to me out of the lion’s jaws. My God who delivered me from both bear and the Lions paws, my God will do the same again. This victory will be mine. __ the living God some circumcised philistine. Saul said go ahead and try if you think you can. David knew the Lord would give Goliath into his hands. __ to give you some for protection that will shelter you from harm. Why don’t you go ahead and try my armor on? David tried to wear it, but he had to take it off. He said I’m just not used to that and went to look for some rocks. Five smooth stones he spotted shining on the ground. Stuck four in his shepherd’s pouch and in his sling, slung one around. My name is Diana Blake Davis. I have metastatic breast cancer that’s metastasized to my brain. I’m stage IV. I’m 57 but I have two autistic boys 19 and 21. God has provided everything for us. So, we need prayer and what you just heard was from Jewels of the Bible. And I took the Bible line by line and I pulled out the stories and I made them rhyme only because Brian, I’ve been listening to you every single day for 12 years and I love you forever.

Hi, Desperately Running to Jesus it’s never too late to build a relationship with our Creator and the moniker you chose tells me that you have a great mindset now. 15 years ago, I was 54 and I finally apologized to God for my sins and bad choices. I found a church that taught me how to build a relationship with Jesus. I joined a life group and met people that became the friends who…who cared about me. Six years ago, I heard about DAB and this community and the podcast that family…the Daily Audio Bible and Facebook which…where people encourage, inspire and taught me about God and other people, myself, my family. What I know is this, that thanking God and praising God every day is an essential thing to do. Asking God for guidance in everything you do is essential as well. And listening for the voice in your head that says do or don’t do what you’re about to do and volunteering in your church and or in your community will change you in wonderful ways. I am praying for you.

[singing begins] give thanks with a grateful heart give thanks [singing ends]. Hi everybody it’s Candace from Oregon. I just want to encourage you all to start listing all the things you’re thankful for. Our world is trying to drag us down, the enemy is trying to drag us and we’re thinking just about anything else except what were thankful for. Oh Lord I thank You for health, I thank You for the country that I live in. I thank You for faithful servants who keep our lives just filled with blessing Lord. I thank You for the pastors in all our churches. I pray that You’ll be with them and help them to surrender themselves completely to Your Holy Spirit as they lead Your bride, as they bring our attention and our focus back to You. Lord, thank You for Your word and that Brian Hardin reads this to us every day 365 days of the year and how it is transforming our lives. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit. Thank You, Lord for everything that You are doing. You are a good and gracious God, beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words. Thank You for the sunrise, the sunset, the moon and the starry night. We love You Lord. We love You. We love You back. Candace from Oregon.

Hi everybody it’s Lisa the Encourager just calling to say hello to everyone. I’ve missed calling in and talking to everyone and praying for everyone, but I promise you I am still listening and I’m still praying for you. As you call in your prayers I’m praying on the sidelines. But I wanted to call in today to encourage Margo because when you called in Margo your prayer request and your message that you left, it just seemed like you were really and a sad spot since your son left and I just wanted to let you know that I am praying for you and holding you up high in my mind as far as everything you’ve given up. You left Australia and went to Africa and just…now you’re in a missions and given up so much of your life. And I just am so impressed with everything that you’ve done, and you’ve done it all for the Lord. And just don’t ever forget that because God is gonna reward you for eternity. And, so, what you’ve given up temporarily on this earth God is gonna reward you tenfold in heaven one day. And I’m so envious of everything that you’ve done for the Lord and hope that I will be able to do half as much. So, also wanted to encourage everyone too. I decided to buy the God of Your Story for our…my pastor. I’m going to surprise him and give it to him for Christmas. So, I just wanted to encourage everybody to maybe think about doing that too. And maybe if not your pastor then at least someone this Christmas. Just surprise them with that gift and ask God who you should bless with the God of Your Story and I think that would be a wonderful gift for anyone at Christmas. All right. Love you so much. Bye-bye.

[singing starts] How deep the father’s love for us. How vast beyond all measure. That He should give His only son to make a wretch His treasure. How great the pain our searing Loss the father tells His __. As who’s which now the chosen one bring Mary’s sons to glory [singing stops]. Good morning everybody. I greet you my Daily Audio Bible family. I’m a Dr. Kamari and I’ve been listening to Daily Audio Bible for about two years now and it has been such a blessing. And today I just want to encourage those who are perhaps going through a period of suffering whether it’s sickness, whether it’s loss, whatever it might be I want you to be encouraged that you can find healing in the wounds of Jesus. And it’s such a paradox. How can something which was broken for us produce healing and totalness and wholeness? But indeed, that is the mystery of His love. And I pray that His love overwhelms you wherever you are. I pray that even in your suffering you will learn to suffer well and by that I mean that you will know you will suffer well because you know that your suffering produces __ and perseverance, endurance, these qualities that cannot come about unless we go through to know that God is. Sometimes you will go through heartbreaks and know that He’s a healer and the mender of the brokenhearted. So, I lift you all up to the Lord and I thank you for your lives.

Daniel 2:24-3:30, 1 Peter 4:7-5:14, Psalms 119:81-96, Proverbs 28:15-16

Today is the 26^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. It’s great to be here with you today on my daughter and China’s birthday. So, happy birthday China over on Daily Audio Bible Chronological. China’s first married birthday. So, we’ve got a mark that moment. And now turning our attention toward the Scriptures, we began the book of Daniel yesterday. And, so we will continue forward in that journey today. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Daniel chapter 2 verse 24 through 3 verse 30.

Commentary:

Alright. So, we concluded first Peter today, the first letter written by Peter. And as we’ve been observing and just kinda mentioning as we’ve moved to this point in the Bible, the theme of endurance starts to really become very apparent in the New Testament and that theme ran all throughout Peter’s first letter. And, so, we’ve discussed this from…from various angles as we’ve moved through these writings, but let’s just recap as we head into a busy season in the year. But…but certainly this theme, this theme of endorphins isn’t gonna let up. So, let’s just understand…understand why. Why…why are all of these people writing these letters encouraging other people to endure? So, basically during the formative years of the church, it wasn’t illegal to be a follower of Jesus or in other words, a Christian in the Roman Empire. The Roman society was a polytheistic society. In other words, they believed in many gods, a pantheon of gods. So, for them, gods were everywhere, and they were involved in everything, all people’s activities. And people could worship whatever gods or goddesses they wanted to worship but there were the gods of the Empire, the ones that…that all the people believed were responsible for creating Rome and making it great. And, so, those gods, the gods of the Empire, they should be worshiped by all citizens and all immigrants inside the Empire. So, Christians wouldn’t do that, which immediately made them visible, immediately made them stand out, immediately brought up a lot of questions about them. Not so unlike what we we’re reading about Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego, right? And the great statute that they wouldn’t worship in the book of Daniel today. Now Hebrew people wouldn’t worship the gods of the Empire either, but they kinda had a past. Like, they were…they were tolerated because Judaism, the religion of the Hebrew people was a very exclusive, very ancient religion. So, although they were…were fairly marginalized in terms of the Empire, they were tolerated. And that’s what actually made an easier time of it at the beginning of the church because at the beginning of the church, Christianity, which is a term that was coined later was…was perceived as just a sect of the Jewish faith, was in other words, the Hebrew religion but specifically adhering to the teachings of a specific rabbi within that religion. So, for a while, the early believers in Jesus had the same kind of cover that the Hebrew people in general had religiously. But as the Jews continued to denounce Jesus and mount opposition to the teachings and the followers of Jesus and as Gentiles began flooding into the faith, forcing the early church to have this counsel, which fundamentally…fundamentally opened the doors for the Gentiles to come into the faith, but ostracized Christian people from…from Judaism, from the Hebrews. And you’ll remember because we explored this argument many times as we were working through the writings of Paul, right? The earliest Jewish believers had no intention of converting out of Judaism. Jesus was a Jew. He taught the law. He was a rabbi. They never understood Him as creating a new religion, but at the same time the Holy Spirit was falling on the Gentiles in droves. And, so, they couldn’t argue with God on this. So, it made them have to reframe what they thought that they knew. But even as they did a reframe and understood that God was saving the entire world…like anybody in the world could come to Jesus and find righteousness before God. The Hebrew people denounced that. So, all the sudden the Christian people following Jesus and don’t have the cover of this ancient Hebrew religion because the Hebrew people are denouncing them as well. And, so, then it’s expected that these people who are following Jesus…like “worship Jesus all you want but you’ve got to worship the gods of the Empire or it will become clear that you are against”, right, “you are against the Empire. You are anti-Roman if you aren’t willing to worship the gods that made Rome.” Okay. So, that’s the soup, right? Like that’s the cultural soup that we’re talking about here. So, we can see why believers in Jesus are starting to be forced to the margins, we can see why they are being pressured, we can see why they’re being blamed for all kinds of things. They’re like an easy scapegoat. So, we can see why these early writers of letters that have found their way into the New Testament would be encouraging the believers to endure, to stay true, to hold to the name of Jesus until the end, whatever that might mean, and why a letter like first Peter would be treasured in the New Testament. These early brothers and sisters who received this letter were in a struggle. They were being stereotyped. They were being marginalized and there was no voice. So, the only thing that they could do, like the only way they could fight back and resist this was to rise above it all and make sure that their lives were speaking louder than the things that were being said about them. And the kinds of things that were being spread about the early believers, I mean, if we heard those things said about somebody, we would not be eager or excited to go find out what the fuss is about. We would stay away from it. I mean, like, just as just…just as a small example, because believers called themselves brothers and sisters, people who are observing this are like, “how? How? You don’t even know each other. Like, you’re not in the same family, you don’t even know each other, you are not blood related in any way. You call each other brothers and sisters when you just…when you first meet each other.” This was odd in the culture. And because the believers would meet together and share a meal there were all kinds of wacky thoughts about what happens at those meals with this brothers and sisters who just meet each other and then have these incestuous relationships inside their strange cultic practices. Like, this is the kind of stuff that was being spread around. So, you start hearing that enough about a certain people group and you want to stay away from them. And, so, people were staying away from them. They were getting more and more marginalized then they were getting picked on, right? Persecuted. So, that’s why this theme of endurance comes up, and why it has stood the test of time. I mean, because few of us are gonna to have to endure as the early believers did in our lifetimes probably. But if somebody had to stay true…that’s the thing…somebody had to stay true. We may live in a time inside of a culture where we don’t really have to think about this type of persecution or this type of marginalization, but it’s still happening to people, it’s still happening to people all over the world, and it’s still happening…happening to brothers and sisters, believers in Jesus all over the world. And somebody had to stay true. If these letters had been passed around and…and in our earliest brothers and sisters had not stayed true, we probably wouldn’t be here. Like, our faith was handed down to us by the few who chose to stay true, to endure, to overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, their witness. They stayed true and bore witness in the world to the gospel, even though in some cases…in many cases it cost them their lives. That’s why we’re here. That’s how we got here. We’re called to be the same. We’re called to do the same. So, let’s invite the Holy Spirit even as…as we’re moving into a deeper…into a very busy week and beginning a very busy season. Let’s invite God to speak into the areas of life that we’re looking at and the only way through is going to be endurance. I dislike endurance as much as everyone else. I don’t sign up to endure and yet I am learning that the Scriptures are asking of us that we stop labeling it as something that we have to avoid and understand that it’s something that we have to embrace. It’s part of it. It’s part of the process of life. And, so, I know that we’re looking at things in our lives that there…like…we can avoid it as long as possible, but eventually we’re gonna have to dive in and walk through it and endure it because that’s the only way forward. We’re gonna have to remember that we can thrust into it and confused about it the whole time or we can actively participate in it knowing that we will not be abandoned, we will not be left alone. We are in this together. As Peter told us, our brothers and sisters are going through the same kind of things all over the world. We’re in this together. We are not alone. This is not purposeless. This is the path to freedom. What if you found out that the narrow path that leads to life included endurance, that it was a necessary skill to walk that path because it is?

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into that. We don’t like to endure and sometimes when we’re forced to, we realize how weak we are. And yet the resistance is what makes us strong. So, we’re moving into some busy days, we’re moving into a busy season. There’s plenty out in front of us, but this team that You bring up for us each year and staying true, of overcoming by the blood of heaven and the word of our testimony of enduring until the end, well, it's…it’s here for a reason and we need to know it and we need to embrace it. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit into this theme, into this idea, into reframing and rewiring what we think about endurance because we’re normally doing everything possible to avoid it, as opposed to embracing as a part of the story. So, come Holy Spirit we pray. Into all of this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And I just thought, well, it’s China’s birthday so let’s do this. So, Black Friday, right, is this Friday and I mean…I am getting every…like I wake up in the morning and I’m like oh my gosh…just to dig through all of these emails for Black Friday sales. And I always start with, like, “how did I get on this list?” But okay. So, I’m assuming that that’s what’s happening for you too. And yeah that’s just…it’s been Black November, which is the first time I’ve actually seen that. Nevertheless, every year around this time we gather resources from within the Daily Audio Bible and create a Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box and have a Daily Audio Bible family Christmas. And normally that’s something that we would just announce Friday because it seems like Friday’s the day that the holiday season actually like it’s upon us. The only problem is that that really restricts our cutoff date for international shipments. It is extraordinarily expensive to ship internationally, but we’ve worked out this thing with FedEx where it’s about…it’s roughly the same as domestic. It just takes a lot longer. It can take 21 or more days. So, we’re adding a couple of days and announcing it today. The Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2019 is available now. They usually go fast but it’s available now. The International Cutoff date is this coming Monday, December 2^nd. So…so, get them while…while you can. And this year’s Christmas Box is different…well…they’re all different. This one’s different than any other one ever because we’ve picked some of the most popular items from this new Global Campfire line of resources that we have. So, in this year’s Christmas Box is a copy of this new resource, the God of Your Story that we’ve been talking about. This one is a signed first edition copy. I was out at the warehouse in Colorado a couple weeks ago and set up a table and signed Box after Box full of these and I just remembered how much I love this book. I love how it feels, I love how it looks, I love how it represents who we are as a community to the world. And, so, I enjoyed that time. So, first edition signed copy of the God of Your Story is in the Christmas Box. Also, our new Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 is in the Box. Your choice of our Windfarm Daily Audio Bible blend whole bean coffee or our boutique tea, your choice whether you’re a tea or coffee drinker. We also have a pack of 20 Christmas cards, the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for 2019 are included in the Christmas Box. And I haven’t talked about those yet. You can also get those separately in the daily audio Bible Shop in the Christmas section. We…we create these, every year. They’re a beautiful touch point, they’re beautiful cards. This year is no different. It’s a beautiful winter Christmas setting. We create these, every year because they’re a great opportunity for you to invite those in your life that you love and care about to take the journey through the Scriptures with you, but they’re not like an advertisement card. It’s a Christmas card. So, it doesn’t advertise the Daily Audio Bible. The only place it says Daily Audio Bible on it is on the very back, like where you would read Hallmark or whatever. But they are beautiful, they come with matching envelopes and they’re five bucks. So, pretty hard to get Christmas cards like that for five bucks, but this is a great opportunity to hand write an invitation and invite your friends and family on the journey with you next year. So, those are in the Christmas Box. Also, the Daily Audio Bible annual Christmas ornament that is only ever in the Christmas Box. 2019’s edition with our word for the year, “Maintain” printed on it is also in the Christmas Box. I am a little early because I have mine on my tree mow. I have all the different years on my tree now and I love that. I…I can, you know, be sitting just kind of winding down for the night, have the Christmas lights on, everything is peaceful and quiet, look at a tree, and see those bulbs and remember all of the faces and voices and all of the life that those bulbs represent. Like, a whole year in the Bible together is what each one of those represents. So, this year’s Christmas bulb is also in the Christmas Box. The very popular Daily Audio Bible candle that we worked really hard with a perfumer to get smelling like a campfire, because it’s a Global Campfire candle is included in the Christmas Box as well as the very popular Daily Audio Bible Global Campfire pop socket for your phone or tablet device. That’s in there as well. A pack of five of the Global Campfire postcards are included and they’re in a nice little plastic container. They’re fantastic for certainly…they’re very, very visual, they’re very colorful. So, they stand out if you leave them somewhere, but they’re also beautiful for framing, which is something I plan to do during the holiday season. So, a pack of those are included, as well as two of the Global Campfire stickers. So, it is a big box, it’s packed all the way full of these resources and for the first hundred and fifty, the first hundred fifty we’ll also be including one of the Daily Audio Bible Black Wing pencils. So, those are a Black Wing pencil with Daily Audio Bible written on the side. We did those last year and we had…we had some left over…about 150 left over. So, we’re gonna put them in this year’s Christmas Box for the..for the early birds. So, that is the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2019. It is available now in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Just go to dailyaudiobible.com and click on Shop at the top or if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app just push the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and you can get to the shop from there, and they are available now.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we move our way toward the end of the year then I thank you humbly and profoundly. Words…yeah…sometimes there are things that words can’t say. Like  you try and try and try say all kinds of different ways, but the gratitude that is my heart for the fact that we are still here doing what we’re doing every single day as a community around the world, that there are those of us that are hungry for this, there are those of us that are actually looking for deep and fundamental and irreversible transformation in our lives through the Scriptures, ahhhh….that is…that is….yeah…words fail. So, if that has been meaningful to you then thank you for your partnership. There’s 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, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial, or you can press the Hotline button, the little red button at the top of the app and just start sharing.

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