Category: DAB Transcripts

Deuteronomy 2:1-3:29, Luke 6:12-38, Psalms 67:1-7, Proverbs 11:27

Today is the 24^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is fantastic to be here with you today as we gather and take the next step forward on our journey through the Scriptures. Yesterday we navigated ourselves into some new territory, the book of Deuteronomy. And we talked about it. Talked about what we’re moving through here, the final discourses of Moses before Moses becomes a part of the history of the children of Israel, and as the children of Israel prepare to move forward under new leadership without Moses. And, so, Moses has gathered the people to make sure that nothing that needs to be said remains unsaid. And that has become the contents of the book of Deuteronomy. And, so, let’s pick up with Moses speaking to the children of Israel. Today we’ll read Deuteronomy chapters 2 and 3.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Luke today we encounter the Sermon on the Mount again, the…the foundational teaching of Jesus ministry at least as found in the Gospels. This sermon in a more lengthy version can be found in the gospel of Matthew. And, so, we have already read through the gospel of Matthew. And, so, we’ve read that. Certainly go back and read it again, but since we have read some of the other Gospels and we’ve kind of been walking alongside of Jesus and His ministry since the beginning of the year, we can see that what He’s teaching isn’t just something that He’s saying. It’s not something that He’s just teaching. It’s something that is modeling. He’s actually living the way that He’s teaching, it’s how Jesus lived and these teachings in the early days eventually came to be called “The Way” because Jesus is describing a way of being in the world. And the way that He’s describing being in the world was disruptive because the posture of heart required to…to live this message was almost backward to the way that the world is and that is still true today. Like just…just think about your life. Think about the world that we live in. Don’t think about faith or religion or anything. Just about how the world is today, and pretend you’re out for a walk, you’re walking the dog, you’re walking through a park, there’s a group of people over at the side of the park, like maybe 50 people are over there and so you kind of walk over just to see what’s going on. It seems like there’s a conversation or something is happening over there. And, so, you go over to see what’s going on. And when you get…when you get there you find there’s like this small crowd around a person and he’s talking and as you walk up you hear him say, I say to you who are listening, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Like, if we didn’t know all that this was a passage of Scripture and we hadn’t heard this kind of talk before we would probably say yeah, good luck with that. That’s not how the world works, which is pretty much Jesus’ point. The way the world is going is not the way the world works. There is a better way. And one of the things that He’s fundamentally telling us in the Beatitudes is that if you are suffering now that will come to an end and you will be made right again. And the warning is to those who are working the system right now to their own advantage, because that also will come to an end. The way forward, the way to put the world back together, the way to put our lives back together is to love the unlovable. And that’s not just the unlovable like the outcasts of society, to love the ones that we have a hard time loving, to love our enemies. Jesus is saying is love is the absolute most powerful thing in the human experience. When we are acting in love, we are in lockstep with what God is doing. And it’s not like we don’t have an example. We have the example of the Savior, who is doing the teaching here. And, so, Jesus is telling us the world is upside down and backwards. We know that, but to put it right means that we might have to lay down our rights and love. As believers in Jesus we know His compassion upon the world and His mercy in our own lives. We have to align ourselves with that same thing, that God loves our enemies and love is the only thing that can change them from enemies to family. And, so, let’s give it some thought today, maybe revisit the Sermon on the Mount. That was Luke 6 that we are reading today. If you want to go back to Matthew, that’s Matthew 5 through 7 and just spend time with the central message of Jesus.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You in, into all of this. We like to think that we’re following You well and we know that we have all kinds of missteps every day, but then we read things that are so blatant and so stark in front of us and we realize that we struggle with these things the way the rest of the world struggles because the world is moving in a certain direction and You are showing the way that we were made to be. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to continue this transformation in us, that we might walk in Your ways and live in Your light. We pray this in Your name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that that is where you find out what’s happening around here. The Daily Audio Bible app puts that in the palm of your hand. And you can get the app from the app store that works with your device. And, so, check that out.

Check out the…well…check out everything. But check out the different sections. The Community section is where to get connected. That’s where social media links are. It’s also the home of the Prayer Wall, which is always available to us. We can always, always reach to each other and ask for prayer and we can always pray for each other and encourage each other. That’s always happening. So, check that out.

And then check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of different resources in different categories, all centered around the journey that we are on through the Bible this year. And, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible than thank you deeply, deeply. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in here together. And, so, thank you. 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 PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you not be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family this is Cheryl and southeastern Washington Princess Warrior of God. Just listened to DAB this morning and heard a prayer request from Blessed Assurance about inflation. Blessed Assurance we are all in this together unfortunately, but God is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He has His ways of helping us and He will continue to help us. We will get through this. We will get through this. And, so, just keep trusting Him. Keep trusting Him. He will not leave you. He will…God has a way of…of blessing us in ways that we don’t even know in our finances and…and getting through what goes on in this world. But just stand firm, cling to psalms 91 which is the protection chapter is what I call it and Ephesians 6 verses 10 through 20. And we just keep going and God is faithful because God is in control and just remember that. We’re praying for one another. Thank you Lord for this community. So, God bless you all and remember God is in control. Bye.

Good morning my beautiful DAB family today is the first day of spring. It’s March 21^st. Is it really officially the first day of spring? I know that when I was in school, I learned but…well…actually yesterday was the first day of spring. I just looked at my calendar. Anyway, I just I am calling in to ask for prayer again. I was just reminded by a young woman who said Sparky reminds us to call in and ask for prayer and sometimes we don’t. And I am asking for prayer for my sister, my sister mother as I effectually call her. She’s 12 years older than I. I am 67. She is 79 actually and she’s hurting. In 1999 she had lung cancer in her right lung. She had the lobe removed where the tumor was never had radiation or chemo. She’s been fine all these years. She’s suffering now and has been for many many weeks. I want to say two months or more with this unexplained pain from under her right breast to all the way around her back. Chest x-rays show nothing, but I don’t always trust that stuff. So, I’m just asking for prayer for my sister Joanne. Would you please all pray with me? Lord God if it’s Your will can You please just heal my sister. You know she’s in a neurotic person. In general, it kind of runs in our family and I have learned to trust You and she is a godly woman. She loves You, Lord. I had…she had me baptize her in the pool when I became a born again Christian even though she’s a devout Catholic. But You know her will and her heart Lord and if it’s Your will to heal her could You please do that, and we all pray for her in Jesus’ holy and precious name. Thank you, my DAB family I love you guys.

[singing starts] I, I am in love, a wondrous love and it’s divine. I, I am in love a perfect love and it’s all mine. My fiancé he is the Prince of Peace an heir to the royal throne. His Father is the King of Kings who one day called me to His own. I, I am in love, a wondrous love and it’s divine. I, I am in love a perfect love and it’s all mine [singing stops]. Have a wonderful day everybody. God bless.

Good morning this is Jessica from the Jersey Shore. I just heard Jerry from Wyoming call in and she was called upon to stop drinking but she had some beers and went out and got into an accident and is now facing possibly a 90-day suspension of her license and all that goes along with that. And I want to let you know that I am praying for you, that you will not suffer effects of…negative effects for your job. I apologize. I’m just a little emotional about this. I have been sober, for over 12 years and have had a similar scrape as you’re experiencing right now and I pray that God will deliver you from this and that this is your wakeup call, that He is serious and that you do really need to stop drinking. And I love you and I understand, and I am continuing to pray for you. Thank you all.

Numbers 33:40-35:34, Luke 5:12-28, Psalms 65:1-13, Proverbs 11:23

Today is the 22^nd day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather like we do around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward through the Scriptures and through our lives together. And our next step forward traditionally…actually not even traditionally, like always leads us to right where we left off yesterday, which will lead us back into the book of Numbers. We should be concluding the book of Numbers and moving forward in tomorrow’s reading, but…and so today will be our last full day in the book of Numbers for this year. Numbers chapter 33 verse 40 through 35 verse 34 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we are coming to the close of the book of Numbers. We will finish Numbers and move into Deuteronomy tomorrow. And, so, we’ve been kinda recapping the different places that the Israelites camped throughout their wilderness journey. Further instructions and expectations are being given. We’re…we’re…we’re raising up the next generation, the generation that will go into the promised land. And, so, there’s some recapping and clarifying. So, for example, we learned about manslaughter today and cities of refuge that would be set up for a person who accidentally killed someone so that they would have a place to flee so they could be protected while things got sorted out because in this day and age, if somebody got killed the next in line, the next kin in line, the avenger of blood would go hunt down that person and take their lives. And, so, we’re seeing kind of baked into the culture here a dramatic move forward which says have some…this needs to be sorted out. If a person was killed with malice and forethought and its premeditated and it was on purpose that’s one thing, that’s murder. But if somebody accidentally injures somebody and they die they didn’t have any animosity, it was a total accident then that needs to get sorted out. And, so, the concept of cities of refuge in this new promised land are being established.

And then we go into the gospel of Luke, Jesus is just moving around doing exactly what He said He was going to do, that He would heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free. According to the fulfillment of prophecy. And, so, He’s doing exactly that, while making the religious leaders upset. We got into a situation today where Jesus said your sins are forgiven and of course that didn’t work theologically for them. They’re like, that’s blasphemy and only God can forgive sins. And, so, Jesus is like, well, so that I can show you that you’re wrong about this and He says to the man get up off your mat and walk and he does. And, so, all of the people they can…they can see like, well, there may be theological differences here, but God is clearly in our midst. We just watched a miracle happen. Meanwhile, the religious leaders as we know continue to build animosity toward Jesus.

And then we get into the book of Psalms today and it’s such a beautiful song that reads like such a prayer that seems appropriate that we just end our time together in the Psalms by not just reading and absorbing what they say but actually praying what they say. And, so, I’m praying from Psalms today. Oh God, our Savior, all the ends of the earth trust in you as well as those living across the wide seas. You created the mountains by your power and demonstrated your strength. You calmed the raging seas and their roaring waves as well as the commotion made by the nations. Even those living in the remotest areas are awestruck by your acts. You cause those living in the East and West to praise. You visit the earth and give it rain. You make it rich and fertile. God’s streams are full of water to provide grain for the people of the earth, for you have prepared the earth in this way. You saturate its furloughs and soak its plowed ground. With the rain showers you soften its soil and make its crops grow. You crown the year with your good blessings, and you leave abundance in your wake.

Prayer:

Father, we are thankful for these things, for Your mighty power, for the way that You sustain the earth and sustain our lives. So often we lose track. We’re just so focused on whatever the next problem is that we’ve got to solve that we lose sight of the fact that You are sustaining us and our lives, that You are aware of us and that You care and that You love us. And we spend our time distracted in our problems. We set those aside and turn our gaze upon You. You are our only hope. We are utterly dependent upon You, and we are safe in the shadow of Your wings. Holy Spirit come help us to remember what’s really going on here, not the many distractions of any given day, but that You are sustaining the day itself, giving us the opportunity to live. We worship You. We praise You. We adore You and we humble ourselves before You in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is a home base and that is where you can find out what is happening around here. And, so, certainly check that out.

And check out the Community section. Stay connected. That’s where different links to get connected on social media are and that is certainly where the Prayer Wall lives as we know, and that is always available to us, day or night, rain or shine, and that is in the Community section. So, be familiar with that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm, what we call the Global Campfire, if that is life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

Numbers 36:1 - Deuteronomy 1:46, Luke 5:29-6:11, Psalms 66:1-20, Proverbs 11:24-26

Today is the 23^rd day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today as we gather once again around the Global Campfire and all find our place. There’s a place for everybody here. Get all cozy and take the next step forward together. Our next step today leads us into some transition. We will conclude the book of Numbers and begin the book of Deuteronomy. And, so, we will be beginning the fifth book of the Pentateuch or the Torah. And once we’ve concluded Deuteronomy, we will…we will have concluded the Torah, but we have one more book in front of us and we will get to that in a minute. And we’ll talk about Deuteronomy as we begin it in just a minute, but first we have one final chapter in the book of Numbers. And, so, let’s dive in. Numbers chapter 36.

Introduction to the book of Deuteronomy:

And that concludes the book of Numbers, which brings us to crack open the book called Deuteronomy. And as we said just a few minutes ago this is the last book of the Torah. And as we dive into the book of Deuteronomy, we may feel like we’ve read some of this, it feels like review, maybe we’ve covered some of this territory before. And you would be right because we have covered some of this territory before. But there are a couple of things going on here. First of all, Deuteronomy contains the final discourses of Moses, the man who had led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt all the way to this point. So, in part, there are some things that Moses is reviewing because he’s pulling the children of Israel together for his final comments, for his final instructions, for the final things that he will say as their leader, making sure that nothing is left unsaid, and that the people are well equipped and prepared to move forward without him. But we have also been wandering in the wilderness and a change of generations has happened in that wandering. And, so, this is the next generation of people. And, so, Moses is speaking to the people who will go into the promised land reminding them of their story - where they came from, who God is, who they are, where they’re going and some of the challenges and pitfalls that they will face because Moses will not be needing them forward. He will not even be accompanying them. They will be crossing the Jordan into the promised land without him. And, so, when we read Deuteronomy understanding that there are four discourses, four main speeches, four specific talks or things that he is trying to impart to the children of Israel, the emerging generation who will cross the Jordan and go into the promised land then we can place ourselves in their midst. We can put ourselves in the assembly of the children of Israel and listen, listen to what the leader Moses has to say, what his challenge is all while knowing that we are making preparation to go into the promised land. If we put ourselves in that position then we will be putting ourselves in the position of the children of Israel as they listen to Moses giving his final discourses before he becomes a part of history and becomes part of our history, our biblical history as we will also have to move forward with the children of Israel, leaving Moses behind. And, so, let’s listen to Moses as we move and navigate our way through the book of Deuteronomy. And today we will begin obviously with Deuteronomy chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for a day of transition as we moved into some new territory. And we ask Holy Spirit that You would lead our hearts to hear what we need to hear and see what we need to see as we move through the book of Deuteronomy and hear the final words of Moses placing ourselves at the precipice of another attempt at the promised land. And as we review with Moses and listen to Moses and remember so much of the story that we have read thus far may we find ourselves in the story. May we see where You are leading us in the story. Lead us into all truth as we ask most every day. There isn’t a time we don’t need to be led on the pathways of truth and that is the only path we want to walk. And, so, lead us, guide us, awaken us we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is homebase and that is where you find out what’s happening. So, certainly check that out. You could do that on the web, or you can do that using the Daily Audio Bible app, which you can download free from the app store that works with your device. Just search for Daily Audio Bible app and you can download that for free from there. And, so, check that out.

And check out the different sections like the Community section. This is where to get connected. This is where the Prayer Wall is.

Check of the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are number of categories with a number of resources in those categories for the journey that we are on through the Bible this year. And, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you humbly. We wouldn’t be around a Global Campfire if we weren’t around it together. And, so, thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up at the top or there are a number of numbers you can dial. In the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is a number to call.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good mornin, DAB family this is Isabella Celeste calling and I just wanted to give you an update on my cousin. She’s doing amazing and so is her beautiful son. They did do a C-section a month and ½ early and he was in NICU for a while. He just came home, and it was incredible because she did so well. Within a 10 day period they did a…a C-section and then they remove the tumor in her brain and she’s healing and they’re home now, the family. And I just wanna thank all of you for your prayers because I know that your powerful prayers had a lot to do with it. So, thank you so much DAB family. I’m so excited sometimes that I am able to be talking about our Lord and savior and find out that the person I’m talking to is…is a DAB family member. So, thank you Brian and your family. God bless you all. God bless every single one of you that take the time to pray. Thank God for every single one of you that ask for support for you know that you are not alone when you ask for the support and you hear all of these amazing people from all around the world just praying for you and your families. I thank God for all the mothers, the pregnant women that are out there. Bless their babies and their healthy homes Father God and just thank You for everything that You do for every single one of us every single day, every moment of every day. Blessings upon blessings to all of you. Thank you so much. Amen.

Hey, DAB its winter and I just wanted to pray for the woman on March…let’s see here…21^st. She said that she thinks that it’s trivial that we’re going through inflationary times where money is hard to come by, but prices keep soaring very high. And no, I feel you girlfriend. Eggs are challenging 2020 plexiglass prices. So, I wanted to pray for you. It is not…it is not trivial that your physical needs are being stressed to their…to a breaking point. I trust God is gonna take care of you because He takes care of my trivial matters as well. He still helps me with my parking spaces. Anyone who’s been following my prayers from earlier this year and late last year knows that I've…I’ve had ferocious parking at my school, and he always opens one right as I arrive if there’s not one there. So, trust me. If God’s going to take care of something as simple as parking spaces for a random girl in Texas, then He’s definitely going to make sure that you can afford that home insurance increase. And if you can’t He’ll guide you to a place where you can. OK? So, just trust in God and have a little faith. He’s going to take care of you love and just a reminder. I love you all. And I’m excited to see you tomorrow.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible  family this is Justin from Virginia and I’m calling in response to Chantelle’s message on March 21^st. Chantelle it’s a pleasure to meet you through the modern marvels of technology. We’re grateful for you to call in for the first time and I just want to pray for your brother. I pray that God would move powerfully in his life and bring him mercy and grace and that he will be able to rest in…in his identity and put his faith in the Lord. And that he will find peace in God and that he will not struggle with these things anymore. And in these things, I pray in your name Jesus. Amen.

Good morning DAB family this is Cynthia from Virginia. I come to You this morning Father God Lord in Your precious son Jesus’ name praying for all of us Father God, Father Brian, and his family, for the people behind the scenes, for everyone in this community. Lord, You know each and every one of us Father God. We all are going through something Father God, but You know exactly what it is. You know what we need even before we ask for a Father God. Lord I just pray to You Father God and ask that Your will be done in each and every one of us Father God Lord. Help us Father God to lean on You Father God, to put all our trust in You Father God. Lord, I ask that You heal all those that need healing from all kinds of diseases, cancer and…and for all kinds of…o…off people that are on…people that have addictions. Heal all the addictions, heal all of the diseases no matter what it is, the pain, the suffering. Lord heal marriages. There’s so many people going through struggles in their marriage. Help them to put their trust in You, also lean on You Father God Lord. Heal their marriages, Father God. Lord just comfort those that have lost loved ones, Father God. Lord just You know what we all need. We just…I’m just asking Lord that Your will be done in each and every one of our lives Father God. I pray this prayer Father in Your precious son Jesus’ name. Amen.

Numbers 32:1-33:39, Luke 4:31-5:11, Psalms 64:1-10, Proverbs 11:22

Today is the 21^st day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is fantastic to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together. And our next step is leading us to the final chapters of the book of Numbers. I believe the day after tomorrow is when we will transition out of Numbers and into the next book in the Torah, Deuteronomy. But for now, we are squarely in the book of Numbers. And today Numbers chapter 32 verse 1 through 33 verse 39.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there are some things in the gospel of Luke today that are just so beautiful, so beautiful and so important for us to look at and examine and apply to our own lives and in our own contexts. So, yesterday Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted then He came to Nazareth where He announced His ministry and the fulfillment of prophecy, which ultimately, after a conversation took place, had Jesus on the edge of a precipice where the…the other Nazarenes who lived in Nazareth were going to throw Him off the mountain and He passed right through them and went on His way. Today we open up the gospel of Luke and we find Jesus, about 20 miles northeast of Nazareth on the north, northwest edge of the Sea of Galilee, in a village called Capernaum. And Capernaum would become Jesus’ adult home and sort of like home base for his ministry. And let’s not get lost in the story because we read Matthew and Mark and so we kind of know how this flows. This is the very beginning. Jesus is just announcing. He’s been baptized. He’s announcing what He’s here to do. Everywhere he goes He’s doing that and the word is beginning to spread quickly. But Jesus isn’t walking around the countryside as a rabbi with 12 disciples following him around yet. He doesn’t have disciples yet. That’s what’s so beautiful about all we got to see in today’s reading. So, Jesus is in Capernaum. He is teaching. The people, they are amazed. They are bringing their sick to Him. The sick are being healed and recovering and being restored to health and wholeness. And, so, by the next morning the village is full of people and Jesus is like, I got a go to other places too. Like, I was sent here to do what I’m doing here all over the place and the crowds are pressing in on Jesus until they basically press Him all the way down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is called Lake Gennesaret. You see that in some of your translations. They’re the same. The Sea of Galilee, Lake of Gennesaret. The crowds are pushing Jesus down to the shore. There are fishermen who are on the shore with their boats cleaning their nets. They’ve come in from fishing. They fish at night. They have to fish at night. The sea of Galilee’s a deep lake. So, during the day as the sun is warming the water, the fish will go lower down deeper further down than nets could reach. And, so, they go out at night when the fish come up to the warmer water that remains in the evening where the nets can catch them. And, so, this is the next morning and they’ve been working all night and they don’t have a big catch and they’re putting their stuff away and getting ready to go to bed so that he can get up at nighttime and go back fishing. Meanwhile, Jesus is being pressed by a crowd down to the shore and there’s a couple of boats there and He climbs into a boat like just randomly. Like, that’s so funny to me because…I don’t know…in this day and age you just don’t climb into the back of somebody’s pickup truck. You don’t just get into the passenger side of their car just because the car happens to be sitting there. So, here’s some fishermen cleaning their nets. They’re not in the boat. Here comes this guy. And they would’ve understood what the commotion was about, who this person is. Like, this is somebody doing something important. Jesus ends up in the boat and He’s just like, hey, will you take me out away from the shore a little bit. Like, basically what Jesus is wanting is to put some distance between the crowd and Him so that he could teach them, He could say what He is going to say to them without getting mobbed. And, so, they do they do. They row them out a little ways and He sits down in the boat and He teaches the crowd. It’s also just a beautiful acoustical thing since I’m an audio engineer and I love this stuff. I love that Jesus rowed out a little ways, just a little bit in the water and used the water as like natural amplification, so that he could sit down in the boat and just talk to the people and that they could all hear Him. It’s a beautiful thing. And that’s what Jesus does is He teaches from the boat and then when he’s done teaching, He asks Simon, who will become Simon Peter, who will become a disciple of Jesus because it happens to be His boat that He climbed into if they would go out and cast their nets again. And these are professional fishermen Jesus is talking to, fishermen who had worked all night and it is now day and they’re being asked to go out counterintuitively and…and fish again. And, so, they’re not disrespectful. They’re just like, you know, we’ve been fishing all night but if this is what you want this…this is what we’ll do. We’ll go out and we’ll show you how fishing looks up close and personal. And they cast their nets and it is unbelievable, the hall of fish. It takes to boats to fill them all up. And they bring them to shore, and this is astonishing to them. The amount of fish and the time that the fish were caught, this is astonishing and the implications are astonishing because this is a big catch. This is the moment when they finally broke through to a financial victory with some level of hope. They were just rewarded amazingly for the use of their boats for a little while. Peter though, Simon, he’s thinking deeper. Like, there’s other things going on inside of him. Like he’s not just a simple person. He may speak before he thinks but he's…he’s not shallow and he's…he’s the one seeing what’s going on here. He’s the one that’s actually understanding the deeper implications, like this is more than fish, this is more than money, this is a miracle. Whoever this person is, whoever this Jesus is there’s something else going on here. There…God is showing up in our midst. And Peter can see that and Peter comes before Jesus, gets down upon his knees and just asks Jesus to…to leave him, that he’s a sinner, that he does not deserve to be in this man’s presence. That is the moment though. That is the moment Jesus looks for in each of us and that is the moment that Jesus immediately tells Peter, don’t be afraid you’ll be catching people now. This is Jesus’ invitation to come and follow Him. At the moment when Peter realizes that he has just been blessed of God he is also presented with a choice because there is the invitation of God to come and follow. And as the gospel of Luke tells us, and I quote, “when they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed Him.” They left it all on the shore. They left the windfall. They left this blessing. They left this alternative life. They were in the presence of something that was more important than any life they could create for themselves and they…they knew it in the moment and they made a decision because they had an invitation and they left what they had. They left the life they had and the life that they were preparing for for an adventure with God. This is such a beautiful depiction, a beautiful picture for each of us because this is the moment. This is the moment of faith that we all come to where we look at the life that we have and the life that we are trying to arrange for and we realize we are in the presence of something holy, something bigger, something cosmic, something greater and more pervasive and more present than anything we’ve ever felt. And the words fail but the reach, the leap, the jump, the freefall into the adventure with God through faith. The leap of faith helps us to realize we’re actually safe for the first time. We’re where we belong for the first time. Things were difficult for Jesus and His ministry. We know how the story ends. Things were difficult for Jesus disciples, especially after He had ascended to the Father, and they were to go into all the world. Things got very difficult for every one of these people, but they had experienced God, and it was irreversible and may that be our story brothers and sisters. May that be our story.

Prayer:

Jesus we long for that to be our story and that is our story. You came near. Whether we were expecting it or not, You came near. And in that moment, we had eyes to see, and we could see well beyond what we were seeing. We could see for a moment what it might be like to be reunited with You and become whole again. Often when we face challenging hardship and difficulty it’s confusing to us. The wilderness and the lessons in the wilderness, they become confusing to us because we lose our eyes to see and ears to hear, we become distracted. Holy Spirit, come. Remind us that we are invited to encounter You every day always, that You will never leave or forsake us, that there is nowhere that we can flee from Your presence, that You are always with us and that we get to enjoy this dance of life together following You, leaving behind the life that we were making for ourselves in exchange for a life with God. Come Holy Spirit. Remind us of what’s going on here. What’s real here. We get so distracted so often. Return us to the moment when we knew, return us to the moment and the joy of our salvation we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home base and that is certainly where to find out what’s happening. So, do that. Find out what’s happening around here. You can do this with the Daily Audio Bible app as well. Just go to the app store that works with your device and search for Daily Audio Bible and you can download the app for free. So, check that out.

Check out the different sections like the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of categories from things to wear to things to journal in to things to write in your journal with to things to…to drink, coffee and tea and just a number of written resources, a number of musical resources, all…all centered around this rhythm of moving day by day, step-by-step in community through the Bible. And, so, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you deeply. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t here together. And, so, thank you deeply. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning, everyone this is Abby from Maryland it’s been a while since I called but I’m calling. Val in Vegas actually made me call this morning just listening to the podcast from March 17^th. And she really just spoke live to me, you know just this morning on the 18^th I’m here just thinking about how I didn’t do this, I didn’t do that, I need to do this, you know, I’m just slacking off and things like that. But she made me really think about the goodness of God, the fact that I’m alive, I’m awake, I have air in my lungs. I mean, like she said God’s just sprinkled lots of joy into us. I just really, really love and appreciate you Val in Vegas. Every time I listen to you there’s just this excitement in your voice and I pray that the joy of the Lord will continue to be yours, friend. And I pray for everyone in my community DAB. I may not call in but I’m listening. I’m praying along and I pray that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guide all of your hearts and mind in Jesus’ name. And I pay for Brian and his family that the joy of the Lord will continue to be his strength, that the anointing of God will continue to rest upon him and his family. I’m praying for you all. Blind Tony, Biola from Maryland. I mean there’s too many…Diane Oliver I think that’s her name. You all are amazing. You all inspire me. Continue to just continue to encourage each other and pray for each other. God bless you all. You all have a blessed day, week, year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hello, my Daily Audio Bible family this is Blessed Assurance calling Saturday March 18^th in the evening. I’m calling because Sparky gave some advice a few weeks ago about how we should call in our prayer requests. I’ve been a listener for 10 years and this is only about the third time I’ve called in. This may sound like a trivial matter to many people, but I know a lot of you are in the same boat as I am. I’m really struggling with all this inflation. And I know…I’m very grateful for all the blessings God has given me. I really am, but as so many of you also know it’s really hard for us going from paycheck to paycheck to meet our bills. And tonight, I just found out that my…my home insurance has gone up $124 a month and I just don’t know how I’m going to make that payment. I’m using tonight to pray and commune with my savior. And that’s awesome and I do his feel His comfort, His arms around me but I’m just asking for a hug from Victoria Soldier and Val in Vegas and Sparky and the rest of you because you guys know what we’re going through here. I love you all so much. Until we meet again. Love you. Bye-bye.

I’m basking in the spirit while I’m lying in bed
the sun hasn’t risen yet and I’m glad that I’m not dead
it’s quiet and it’s dark and it seems like the world’s asleep
but I can feel you all around me God inside too real deep
it feels like I’m glowing but I know that can’t be true
pre-dawn is my favorite time to come in prayer to you
there are no real distractions no voices cars or lights
no human interference no arguments or fights
only me reflecting thoughts that spring from deep within
thoughts now filled with gratitude that used to be about sin
I come to you for power I come to you for grace
I come to you my father because there really is no other place
I lift you up for what you’ve done you’ve done so much for me
I praise you God for who you are and how you’ve set me free
it seems like I just can’t get enough I’m praising you every day
the closer that I get to you the more I love to pray
thank you God for lifting me for loving me for setting free
thank you God my eyes can see a concept like eternity
the sun’s up now and I’m still in prayer
and I can still feel you everywhere
inside outside all around
even deep below the ground
you truly are awesome

blindtony1016@gmail.com. Like to give a shout out to Deborah Canney and your sister Judy. And my condolences Judy on the loss of your husband. And I’d like to give a shout out to your brother Beau and his wife. Know that you all are daily in my prayers and often in my thoughts. And once again Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful…

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Chantelle calling from London. First of all, I just want to say this is my first time doing this and it’s exciting and encouraging to know that I have a family all around the world who is praying just as I am praying for you all as well. I’ve been a part of the DAB family for the last two years now and it’s been such a blessing to my life. And, so, I really felt lead the other day as I was listening to…to share my prayer request, which is for my brother who has been struggling with suicidal thoughts and just mental health issues for the last, I would say, about a year. And he has been raised in the ways of the Lord. He knows the word of the Lord. I think the enemy really attacks him when it comes to his thoughts about himself, self-belief, and you know, his place and in God’s heart and knowing that there’s nothing that he could do that we’ll ever separate him from the love of Christ. So, I just wanted to ask you all to help me to pray that the word of God would rise up in his heart, that he would just become that mighty man that God has ordained and destined him to be and be able to speak the truth over the lies that the enemy is just spouting in his mind. And I just pray. I know that God gave me a vision and I know that he’s going to be such a pillar for his generation. He’s only 15 years old but he’s such an intelligent lovely creative young man and I know that the enemy is at work in trying to attack what God has put in his life. But I reject that in Jesus’ name and I would just be so grateful for your prayers. Thank you so much. I love you guys.

Numbers 30:1-31:54, Luke 4:1-30, Psalms 63:1-11, Proverbs 11:20-21

Today is the 20^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today like every day, wonderful to be around the global campfire, wonderful to have this place to be together. And the purpose that we gather is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And, so, let’s dive in today. We are rounding the bend and coming to the conclusion of the book of Numbers. Couple more days and we will move forward before this week is out but we are still in the book of Numbers and our next step forward leads us to where we left off. Today we will read Numbers chapters 30 and 31.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have a really interesting scene in the gospel of Luke today and the scene centers around Jesus and the beginning of his ministry, but this is Jesus. And, so, we’re watching Him also model life on earth as it was intended to be for us, that we may follow the same pattern. So, Jesus was baptized outside of Jericho at the Jordan River where John was baptizing people. This is desert terrain. And once Jesus was baptized, He went out into the wilderness for 40 days. Jesus had His own wilderness journey and very likely His 40 days in the wilderness imitate the 40 years that the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. And, so, from a symbolic perspective Jesus would be revealing that the wandering is coming to a close. But while Jesus is in the wilderness, He has an encounter with Satan in the desert and Satan is there to provoke or to test or to tempt him. and it’s interesting the things that the evil one goes after. there are temptations to go after Jesus physical body. There are temptations for Jesus to worship lesser things. And there’s a temptation for Jesus to test God all with a promise attached to these temptations. If you do these things, it’s the easiest way to get what you want. If you do these things everything can be easy. Everything will be immediately better. Worship me, and you can have it all. There’s no battle here. Worship me, and you can have all of it. If we pause and think about the seasons that we have spent in the wilderness, those seasons do wear us down and shake us till all that is unshakable is all that remains, and we do see clearly our utter dependence upon God. But if we are honest about the seasons that we’ve been in the truth is probably 90% of the time was spent thrashing around trying to figure out how to get away from the hardship or the difficulty or the challenge. It’s in that thrashing around that we begin to experience those subtle and similar temptations. It can be so much easier if you take this path out of this wilderness even though you know this is the wrong path, even though you know this is not the right thing. It can all be yours in it can all be yours easy if you just step away from this wilderness, follow the path that I’m laying out for you, worship me, all will be good. And it’s unlikely that we hear it like that. It’s that we’re thrashing around looking for any way out instead of embracing the safety of the wilderness, knowing that once again we are utterly dependent upon God, and there are no shortcuts because we need…we need the lesson that we are learning for what comes next. And as it turns out in the gospel of Luke, Jesus resists the devil. The devil does leave Him and as the gospel of Luke says the devil leaves Him for another opportune time. And then the next scene is that Jesus makes it back to Nazareth, which appears to be the next opportune time because Jesus is in His hometown. He’s come home to declare the inauguration of the ministry and the fulfillment of prophecy. And, so, the people have been hearing about Jesus and they’re happy to hear Jesus and they’re intrigued very much by the way that He communicates and what He’s saying but they’re also…there was skepticism and they just want to see Him do the things they’ve been hearing about and that’s when Jesus tells them a prophet really has no regard in his hometown. In the end, the people of Nazareth are enraged and they drag Jesus to the top of a cliff. This is…well the traditional place now is called Mt. Precipice. And, so, Jesus is able to overcome the temptation in the wilderness, but can He overcome a mob that is intent on throwing Him off the side of a cliff and that being the end of the story. And it’s interesting because Jesus is here on this precipice and He just…according to the gospel of Luke, and I quote, “He passed through the crowd and went on His way.” So, we can look at the scene and go, okay, there…here’s a miraculous kind of thing, Jesus somehow got cloaked, He had the power of invisibility and he just disappeared, and he went on His way. This is a miraculous event here. We can look at it as an event in Jesus’ ministry life. We also need to look at what’s being modeled here in the life of Jesus and apply it to our own lives. Jesus overcame temptation in His wilderness journey, only to come and face cynicism and marginalization by His own hometown, His own people, where He had specifically come to announce His ministry, to announce what He came to do and to tell everybody this is being fulfilled. Like, you got to see, you are getting to see something happen that was foretold. In the end they just want the magic and in the end, they’re going to throw Him off the cliff and in the end, they are denying what He came to tell them He had come to do. These are the voices of doubt. These are the voices of cynicism. These are the voices that say you’ll never be able to do that. These are the voices telling Jesus we’ve known you since you were a kid and we’re not sure You are who You think You are or who You’re purporting Yourself to be, right? A direct attack on Jesus’ identity. Oh…we all experience these things. Every human being experiences these kinds of things and so often we experience these kinds of things from people that know us, like that we’re never really allowed to grow beyond who we were even though we’re double the age of who we were when we lived there in the hometown. Like, we get stuck. We’re pigeonholed. We’re put into a place and our identity feels attacked. And, so, being in that environment makes us feel small. What is the lesson here? He passed through the crowd and went on His way, which is indeed what He did. He went on his way and kept doing what He came to do. It would be very helpful for us to remember this scene as we walk through these seasons because we all will and there may be times that we need to follow Jesus, who is telling us we need to get out of here and pass through the crowd and go on our way and continue on the mission that God has given us.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. That’s not permission for us to become aloof and arrogant. That’s permission for us to just abandon everything that challenges us. That is an awareness that as we walk with You and follow in the pathways that You have laid out for us and as we see You at work in the world and in our lives and in our families and in our communities we need to be awake and aware to that which is attacking our identity and the mission that You have placed us upon and be willing to pass through it and move on our way as You lead us. Help us to see where we’re going and why. Help us to understand what You are doing. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website, it is certainly where to find out what’s going on around here. And, so, certainly do that. You can also do all of this with the Daily Audio Bible app, which you can download from the app store that works with your phone or your tablet. And, so, check that out.

Check out the different sections like the Community section. This is where different links to get connected on social media are but it’s also the home of the Prayer Wall and that is always there and always available to us. As I…as I remind us often, it’s always there. So, no matter what’s going on, whether we’re just having a normal day or whether we’re…we’re just moving along, and the bottom falls out and we’re spinning upside down and we don’t know what’s going on or whether we’re having this mountaintop experience that we want to share with our brothers and sisters to encourage them. We can share. We can share back, and we can pray together. And, so, just be familiar with the Prayer Wall. That lives in the Community section, whether on the web or in the app.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if you find that being around the Global Campfire and showing up together each day and taking another step forward brings life and hope and good news then thank you humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s a little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Josh. I go by Living Daily in Him Today. I called in about a year and a half ago for my daughter who was struggling with anxiety and having an anxiety attack when moving into the dorms. I’m just happy to say that she is off of all medications. It’s been a long journey for her, but she is doing much better. Glory be to God. He is so faithful. But about a year ago she told us that she was pregnant and that there was lots of hard conversations and medical trips and finally last year she told us that she was going to be having twins. So, that was very not expected but the babies are doing excellent. They were born on January 12^th. They spent about a month and ½ in the NICU. So, it was an awesome journey with her. But about a couple days ago they…her and her baby’s dad got into a little argument, and we just really want to lift them up. We know that it’s hard to go through anything like that especially when you’re not married and you’re not together. So, I just pray that you would just lift them up and be with us today. And dear God I also want to lift up Widespread Jesus. That is a huge blessing that you’ve been so encouraged, and we just want you to be able to glorified, and know that you can trust in Jesus and if you are faithful to Him he will show Himself faithful to you just like He has with me. I love you all have a great day.

Hey Daily Audio Bible I’m just calling about somebody who prayed for someone else who it was a lady who was struggling with her legs and then she just had to put her mom into a facility. So, yeah, just dear heart just know that you are loved and cared for. Yeah, there are just so many things going on, so many things happening so fast and sometimes it’s all we can do is just cry out to God to cling to Him. And, so, that’s what I’m asking you to do and anybody else. So, yeah, my mother passed away on March 1^st and just…just being gone for a week so many things happened while I was gone. I mean it’s like unbelievable it’s like…just even trying to ingest. So…so…but I just wanna pray for everyone to just hang on just to cling on to Jesus. He's…He’s the only one that we can cling on to. He’s the answer. So, we thank you God and I thank you God for…for being able to pray and then being able to ask for prayer. So, in Yeshua’s name __. My friends, love you. Thank you so much…

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I just wanted to pray for Blessing in California as she was saying that she was having a problem sleeping well and some of the challenges that she’s going through. And I wanted to pray for some of those that are going through depression and pray for our precious babies that are having some of the challenges that are coming on them with the schools and the…and the different direction and…and things that are directing them to something that’s saying it’s God but isn’t God. We just ask Lord in the name of Jesus You are the way the truth and the light. Father, You help them to see the light. You have Your way, Lord. Bless my precious sister who’s having a problem sleeping Lord. We ask You to have Your way, ask You to bless her with Your peace Lord. Give her such a sweet peace that she’ll sleep, that she will sleep with a sleep that is sweet and peaceful Father. In the name of Jesus, we ask that You continue to have Your way. Continue to bless Kingdom Seeker, Kingdom…Lady of Victory and my brother Tony…Blind Tony, my precious brother, Blind Tony and Joe the Protector and God’s Smile and my sister the Encourager, my precious sister the Encourager. Lord, continue to bless her, continue to encourage her God, continue to open doors, give life and favor to Your people, to all of Your DABbers Father and bless them in a mighty and special way. Let Your divine will be done in their life and all will give You the glory. Continue to bless Brian in being a grandfather and Jill as being a new grandmother again in Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Hello, my DAB family this is Jamie in New Jersey Standing on the Word of God. I humbly ask you to please pray with me. Dear Father in heaven thank You for the establishment of Your church. Thank You for placing us with a body of believers who care about us and are willing to pray and believe alongside us for the desires of our hearts. It is such an amazing blessing to have a church family we can share life’s up and downs with and who help us grow stronger in our faith. Help Your church show itself strong and mighty in this dark world. Thank You for loving and choosing us in Christ to be wholly and without fault in Your eyes even before You made the world. Please help us keep our relationship strong, unified, and loving in the body so we can always find You amongst us. You have promised that if there are two of us calling Your name You are with us binding our hearts and blessing our souls with Your presence. Father, help Your church body to walk in a manner worthy of the calling You have given us. Help us in all our interactions with one another to have humble and gentle hearts. Grant us patience for one another bearing with one another in love. Let us truly reflect Your love to the world around us we pray in Jesus’ name Amen. Thank you for praying along with me my brothers and sisters. I love you all dearly. Have a good night.

Numbers 28:16-29:40, Luke 3:23-38, Psalm 62:1-12, Proverbs 11:18-19

Today is the 19th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today, as we move through this season of Lent and move toward Easter, out in front of us, yet and great today, a brand-new, shiny, sparkly week, out in front of us immediately, that we get to live and tell the story with. This week is like the blank paper, and we will write the story of our lives, at least for this week, upon that blank page out in front of us. And may we choose wisely, may we apply what we are learning in the Scriptures, each and every day, into the days and weeks of our lives. It’s a brand-new week, we will read from the New English Translation this week. And obviously, we’ll be picking up right where we left off yesterday, which leads us back into the Book of Numbers. And before this week is out, we will bring the book of Numbers to its conclusion and take a step forward into the next book, which happens to be called Deuteronomy. But we’ll talk about that we get there, which is a few days from now. We are squarely here, rounding the corner on the Book of Numbers. Today chapter 28 verse 16 through 29 verse 40.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for the Scriptures in our lives, we thank You for the ability to…to be engaged with them every single day. We thank You for the time that You have allowed us to live in, where we can be knit together all over the world, literally on the same page, moving through the Scriptures, gathering around the Global Campfire and caring about each other and caring about each other’s stories. This would’ve been just a dream, it would’ve been an achievable dream, it would’ve been science-fiction just as a century or more ago. So, You have allowed us to be here taking steps forward together, all over the world, as You transform us by the renewing of our minds, and we are grateful. So, as we go into this week, we open ourselves, our hearts, our minds, our bodies to You, for Your service, for Your correction, for Your discipline, for Your blessing, for Your fathering. Lead us forward into truth, we pray. Lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. Lead us deeper into Jesus, we ask, in His precious name. Amen.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey, DAB family, it’s His Sojourner here on the, today’s the 16th I believe. I wanna say the 16th, who’s knows. But I’ve just finished listening to the 14th of March and I just wanna say, hey. Like, I’m so excited to here China’s expecting another little baby and we are absolutely gonna be lifting her up in prayer. Lord, we thank You for opening her womb. We thank You for this pregnancy. We thank You for a safe delivery and that she’ll have all the resources she requires. Not just to deliver this baby, Lord, but also to continue doing the duties that she is doing, including doing DAB-Chronological and just blessing those around her, including the little baby Reagan. Well, who’s not really a baby any more at all, so I’m blessing her husband and the rest of her family and friends. And then I also wanted to, I didn’t remember the names, and I will do better moving forward but praying for the family, the mum and the dad, who will be picking up their son and heading to Minnesota. That’s very, very exciting. We pray they’ll be a peace over this household, that there will just be a union with them, the mom and the parents and the child. And I know he’s a grown man as well, but I just pray that there will just be a joy. A peace and a joy that radiant within the household. And that the parents would be able to have wisdom in terms of how to, how to support their son even as he makes the transition back into society. Also, want to pray for the last man who I believe was praying pertaining to his marriage. What a blessing that you are starting, you are even pre-marriage in prayer. I’m so grateful and encouraged by that as a single young woman. But I’m just praying that God would honor your prayers and that you and your future bride will be able to come together and know that you’re always working together, not against each other, right. You guys are coming together to glorify God. And while the wedding is super-duper important, we know that marriages it’s what’s most important, which will be way beyond the wedding day. So, we’re just praying that you all, everything pertaining to the wedding will be, will be sorted and that you guys would be able to grow and develop through this. Pray all these things in Jesus name. Bye for now. God bless.

Hello, Daily Audio Bible. My name is Hardy. I’m very nervous doing this. But one has to be brave when it comes to, to connecting to others. So, I just want to ask that the __ please pray for me. I am currently going through quite a lot at work. And I’ve tried so hard to find another opportunity because as a family, we also need this income. And I also want to help and support my family. So, I don’t want to just give up. Even though, daily, I have to deal with anxiety, stress, a toxic work environment. But I just, I’ve just been continuously praying to God. And He knows the path that He wants me to go down. And that I’m not there just for, just by a mistake. That I’m there for a reason. But I’ve also been applying continuously, daily, for an opportunity, which is not easy. Sorry, because I’m a foreigner, working in this country and they have a lot of rules and regulations about that. And I’ve also applied for permanent residency but that is still quite a while to go, till I get it. But I just pray that, I’m just asking for prayers that something opens up and that I continue to be strong during this hard period. Thank you everyone.

Hey, DAB family. I’m a first-time caller. I’ve been listening for years. But today I was listening to Christy’s prayer about her son in the psych ward. And God just reminded me when you prayed Christy, about how all the people in the Bible, that came to Jesus, so many of them got healed because of their faith. And your prayer was so faith filled. And even in, like Luke chapter 7 where the officer comes and he asks Jesus to heal his slave, the slave, the sick slave didn’t even come to Jesus. But the officer sent messengers to ask for him. And I believe that we can also do that. Like, it’s not just a Biblical thing, that doesn’t work nowadays. But it’s still works and it still a Biblical principal. So, just keep your faith. And then, we will also pray for your son and stand with you. But I really believe that he will meet Jesus and that he will get better. So, just keep your faith, don’t lose it. Hold onto hope. Know that Jesus hears you, know that He sees you and the Holy Spirit will guide you. And, yeah, I hope everyone has a good week. God bless.

Hi, DAB family, this is your sister Prisoner of Hope. I am lifting up Jonathan in the UK. Lord, his daughter and wife are in care under a section. They just need Your help; they need Your healing. He is taking care of children on his own and I pray that You would just provide for them and bring healing to them. I’m praying for Jersey from Texas. Lord, her daughter, Veronica, is pregnant and has been stressed with anxiety and depression. I pray that her husband would help her and that You would please remove this dark cloud that is following her about. I am praying for Micah who was super sick. Thank You that he is willing to stay with his mom until he finds a place in a sober house. I just pray that You would protect him from the enemy who is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour him. Please, I just ask that You would not let him ever return to alcohol again. I’m praying for Rebecca from Michigan. Your mom, WH, just needs a touch from God. I pray that You feel her spirit and please help Rebecca with her studies. I’m praying for Timika who’s afraid of physical therapy starting. Her rent situation has been tough because she’s been off work, she needs to come up with $700 dollars. Lord, she says You’ve provided with her, provided for her so many times in the past. I pray that You would send someone again just in time. And that You would just have Your hand all over this. I’m praying for Blessed Bill, your friend Geraldine received your medical information, Lord. Please, may Your hand be upon her and help her to have her iron levels be raised and give her doctors wisdom. I’m praying for Patrick in Chicago. He is going through something similar as Adriane and AJ and Chicago PA, thank you so much for your prayers. Lord, he doesn’t want to hear about God but we know that You don’t want him to perish. I ask You to call him and draw him into Your kingdom. Please, I’m begging You to send somebody to share the Gospel with him. That he would find it irresistible, and he will want to follow Jesus all the days of his life. We ask all of this in the beautiful name of Jesus.

Numbers 26:52-28:15, Luke 3:1-22, Psalms 61:1-8, Proverbs 11:16-17

Today is the 18^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today around the Global Campfire as we bring week to its closing and take the next step forward together. And that next step is going to lead us back to what…where we left off, which at this point happens to be the book of Numbers and today we will read Numbers chapter 26 verse 52 through 28 verse 15.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us through another week together now here in the center of the third month of the year. So, day by day step-by-step this is how it’s done and day by day step-by-step Your Holy Spirit comes, and we are being transformed as the Scriptures challenge our lives, our thoughts, our intentions, our motivations. And we are grateful for all of the change that is happening within us, and we open ourselves to You declaring as we have all through the wilderness journey of the children of Israel, we are utterly dependent upon You. There is no other source of life. There is no other place to place our hope. There is nothing else. You are what we seek and Your will and our lives, and Your direction, that we might collaborate, that we might be able to be involved in Your story of redemption in this world. And may it begin in our own hearts in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s…that’s home base, that’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. Of course, as we say often the app will do that as well and put it in the palm of your hand. And you can download the Daily Audio Bible app free from whatever app store works with your device. And, so, check that out.

And while you’re checking, check out the different sections like the Community section. This is where to get connected. This is where the Prayer Wall is.

The Daily Audio Bible Shop has a number of different categories for the journey that we are on together through the Bible in a year. And, so, check those out.

If you want partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anybody anywhere anytime and to build community around the rhythm of showing up every day, if that’s is life-giving than thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family this is Jen from Maryland calling in about a prayer request from He Who Knows My Name. I love that…that moniker by the way. You were calling in about your anger and your daughter not having a close relationship with her biological father, him being in and out of her life. I just want to say to you that it’s OK to be angry, but the Bible says be angry and don’t sin…don’t sin. If you feel need you need counselling, and your husband won’t go with you go get the counselling on your own. I encourage you to get biblical counseling if you can, maybe from your church because you are identifying a problem. And pray on it and pray for a counselor that can understand your situation. Don’t just blame it on hormones. Hormones just show what’s already there. And just remember anger is…is a sign of fear. So, something is troubling you underneath the surface. But I wanted to speak to you…your daughter’s situation. She’s 11 years old you said. I was that 11-year-old girl with my father not being around when he did decide to pop into my life it wasn’t the best interaction. And, so, I’m one of eight children from my father. Last year we just buried my brother, one of my youngest brothers that grew up with my father. And even my father would say that the children that grew up around him are worse than the children that did not. Everybody that didn’t grow around him got their life together and is moving on and the two that grew up around him struggle with their life the whole time. So, don’t force the situation that’s not meant to be. Just let her…teach her to lean on God her heavenly Father and…and let her be OK with him not be being around. It’s not compulsory…it’s a compulsory to have healthy positive role male models but not necessarily your bio dad. Anyway, I’m out of time. love you all have a…

Hi family this is Shelly in central California where it’s really rainy today. I heard the March 11 encouragement to Sparky to ring out our needs for the family to pray and it got to me because I got a lot I’m carrying right now. I often feel like there’s so many big needs out there bigger than mine, but just to try to power through or walking through Jesus with them is…it isn’t something to do on my own. So, thanks for that word and for that nudge. As Brian says we don’t have to carry everything by ourselves. So, here’s some things I’d love for you to pray with me over. Healing for my oldest daughter who’s had a wide range of physical and mental health issues. Right now, she’s been dealing with dizziness and nausea for two weeks. For our family dynamics and my marriage. There are a lot of emotional barriers that have been put up and each day we try to take down a few bricks, but we need to be building healthy boundaries but seem to be building the other kind. For wisdom in managing our resources. We have been blessed…were in need of a larger family vehicle and God blessed us with a really awesome one. And He reminded me that the gifts He gives are good gifts __. For guidance in following through on many good opportunities God is brought by way. I feel so beyond my capacity. So, I’m asking Him each day how to climb this mountain as I often do by climbing a hill of sand. So, prayer for that would be awesome especially with this spring break missions trip coming up and so many details to work out. It’s so vulnerable to speak these things out but  __. And there’s so much on my heart too like a coworker who was recently diagnosed with cancer for a second time and the next season in my church and for things with a DAB family like Work in Progress and your daughter and God’s Tree and your broken heart and so many others. But there’s good things too I know. Thank you, Brian, and each of you…

Good morning it’s March 15^th and I just listened to the prayer request of the woman who is pregnant and struggling with anger. I feel so compelled to pray for you. So, I hope you’re listening. Lord I’m so thankful that You know this woman and I’m just reminded of Hagar from the Old Testament. She was cast out from her home, and she went into the desert and You saw her. You made such an effort to let her know that You saw her Lord and I just feel that over this precious woman. You see her. You see what is causing the anger and You have so much compassion. Lord, I pray that You would help this woman to open up to You, to speak with You about what’s going on in her heart. I pray that You would reassure her. You know if this is the result of the changes that are happening in her body because of this pregnancy. God, I pray that You would give her grace. I pray that You will give her compassion for herself and that You would be her great comforter. I also ask for her daughter who has the estranged relationship with her father O Lord I pray that You would just come around this little girl and let her know that You are her Father and that You love her. I pray that You would strengthen her identity in You. I pray that she would come to know You. I just pray for Your hand over this family Lord in Your name Jesus. Amen.

Hey DAB family this is your sister Ashley from California and I’m just calling in because I’m really struggling today. And I know that it’s OK to not be OK. It's…it’s better to talk about it than to just let it sit and fester inside. And, so, right now I’m not OK. I am struggling with exhaustion. And I know that struggling is OK because struggling means you’re successfully not giving up, but this has just been such a hard season and I just wanted to come on here and ask you guys for prayer. Please my…the…my work might…we might be going on strike soon and that is concerning because I already have to take some time off but…so I’m concerned about that. I need rest. I need time to just recharge my batteries and I just feel so burned out. So, if you guys could please pray for me I would greatly appreciate it. And also, I just need you guys to…I need to ask for prayer for from you guys for my uncle Lucas. He’s been in the hospital since Saturday night, Saturday the 11^th and he…and he has congestive heart failure, and he has had pneumonia but he is being treated for the pneumonia and they just have to figure out a plan. So, please pray for him and my aunt Becky and their kids. They have five kids under 15. So, thank you DAB family. I love you. Bye.

Numbers 26:1-51, Luke 2:36-52, Psalm 60:1-12, Proverbs 11:15

Today is the 17th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today, as we continue our journey. We’re taking the next step forward in the Scriptures, picking up right where we left off, gathering around the Global Campfire to be together, as we take this next step…next step forward. And our next step leads us back into the Book of Numbers. Today we will read Numbers chapter 26 versus 1 through 51.

Commentary:

Okay so, in the Gospel of Luke today, and we’re just in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, so we’re just kinda getting moved in and we’re moving through the birth narratives. And so, we went to the…the birth narrative of John the Baptist and then we’ve been going through the birth narrative of Jesus, the Lord. And we get this rare and small glimpse into Jesus childhood in the Gospel of Luke today. And this precious little in the Scriptures that depict or give us clues into Jesus childhood. But we did get glimpses yesterday and today. So, Jesus, just an infant yesterday, but He is taken into the temple where circumcision would take place and the offering would be given, and there are a couple of encounters that take place. One with a man named Simeon, a righteous and devout person, who’s looking for what God was going to do next with this people. And according to the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that He wouldn’t die before he saw the Lord’s Messiah. So, he’s in the temple when Jesus comes into the temple. And he is able to hold the baby. He is able to bless the baby. And then we also have this scene today in the temple of a prophetess named Anna, who lives in the temple and was married for seven years. She’s in her 80s now. The rest of the time she’s been serving the Lord and so, she also comes to Mary and Joseph and their infant baby Jesus, and she begins to praise God and to speak over the child. This is happening in the temple. So, if we just pause right here for just a second. Just think back to Zechariah the priest and his wife Elizabeth. And how Zechariah was in the temple worshiping before the Lord, burning incense before the Lord when he is the angelic visitation, and there’s this foretelling of John’s coming and all of the miraculous things that happen around that, not the least of which Zechariah is struck mute and he can’t speak until the baby is born. So, when we were talking about John, we were just saying, he didn’t just appear out of the wilderness in a vacuum. There was something going on with him from the very beginning and this had been something that people talked about. Now, we’re with Jesus in the temple complex and seeing that there are words of praise, prophetic utterances, and rejoicing over the coming of this child. This is happening in the temple. This is something that people would talk about. And then now, we have to skip forward a long way until Jesus is 12 years old and we were told in our reading today that every year, it was their custom to go to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. So, when Jesus is 12 years old, they’re making this journey. This would’ve been a journey that would’ve been done kind of in caravans, in families. Nazareth to Jerusalem is over 100 miles walking and it’s mostly uphill. They could have gone down into the Jordan Valley and taken kind of the…the flatter route until…until Jericho and then up to Jerusalem. But this would’ve been something that they traveled kind of in families. And so, when Mary and Joseph leave, after the festival is over, they’re assuming that Jesus is with the cousins, with whoever. Like is with the friends, is all in the group and they get all whole day’s journey and realize Jesus is nowhere to be found. Any parent, like any parent thinking of this story, like that would be a terrifying thing to discover. I mean Jerusalem is a big city, that’s like lost in New York City, lost in Mexico City, like lost in any big city. And they gotta go back, and it’s gonna take a whole, like a whole day’s journey just to get back, just to start searching. So, what if He’s been kidnapped, what if, what if he’s not even Jerusalem, what if He’s been taken away into slavery somewhere, what if He’s been trafficked. And they get back to Jerusalem, and for 3 days, 3 days they’re looking for their son. I think about that as a parent, and as a father and it’s like I don’t even know like, how many days before you start losing hope and, and as you’re losing hope of finding your son, the terror of what’s happening. I just, it’s hard to wrap my mind around but Mary and Joseph are dealing with this as they search through Jerusalem for a missing Jesus, who they end up finding in the temple. And I quote now from the Gospel of Luke, “After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.” So, even though we have precious little details in the Gospels about Jesus childhood, we can see here from the Gospel of Luke that Jesus didn’t happen in a vacuum either. In this scene alone, we see Jesus in the temple, in Jerusalem, with the best of the best. The best scholars, the ones in Jerusalem, among the teachers, being taught, asking questions. And everybody is amazed at His understanding and His answers. And this is Jesus at 12. So, when Jesus shows up later and begins to, to do his ministry, some of the people who knew about Jesus as a child, would remember that is the kid, remember the kid. His parents came back to Jerusalem, looking all over for him. This is that kid. Which is why, when we read the Gospels, we see why there is so much musing and wondering about Him. And so, the Gospel of Luke has given us insight both into John and Jesus arrival, not only by angelic visitation, but all that surrounded their birth and early life, and how that that would’ve invoked a lot of discussion about what will become of these kids, by those who saw them, and were able to witness the circumstances around them. Which adds to the tapestry of the story and our understanding of the circumstances, and the culture, and the time in which Jesus did His ministry upon earth.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You for that. We thank You for all that we can glean and learn from Your word. Whether it’s being applied directly to circumstances in our lives or confronting postures of our hearts or simply giving us insight into the kinds of things that You saw, and the kinds of things that You dealt with as You navigated earth, giving us insight into how to live. We are grateful for Your word, we are thankful for the presence of Your Holy Spirit to lead and guide us each and every day. And so, we say again, lead us into all truth, Holy Spirit, as we surrender and humble ourselves before You. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is where you can find out what is going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app does that as well, right in the palm of your hand and you get that from the App Store that works with your phone or your tablet, so check that out. Check out the different categories. Like check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are number of categories there with a number of resources in them for the journey that we are on. For example, you could check out the coffee, see the Wind Farm Coffee, all the different varieties that we source in and roast fresh and send out all over the world. That’s my habit, not everybody is a coffee drinker, but we have tea as well and kind of a hot cup of something in the morning is how a majority of people begin their day, in one way or another. And so, the Scriptures and a nice relaxing cup of tea or coffee goes a long way. It’s something that accompanies, it’s accompanying me now. It’s sitting to my left, as it always is. I keep it in the same place because I have my brain programmed not to swing my, sometimes I move my hands and stuff when I talk like, like we do. And I don’t want to knock it off and destroy electronics. So, I’ve got it right here in it’s ordinary place. It’s a part of my day. Maybe it’s a part of your day. Or maybe you just want to check it out. Check out the resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. Thank you, humbly. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t here together. So, thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. Happy St. Patrick’s Day by the way, I am Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good morning, DAB family. It’s Alexis, the Psalmist on the Prayer Wall. Fast forward, I just want to say thank you for all the prayers for my sister, who was having issues along the way in her pregnancy. To the glory of God I can testify that she has continued to carry well, and I believe that she’ll carry this pregnancy to full term. So, thank you for your prayers. Today, I wanted to ask a prayer request for myself. Which I’m not sure if I’ve done before. But yeah, so, we’re coming up to the one-year anniversary since my cousin was killed by a truck driver. And the two-year anniversary since my uncle suddenly passed away due to a liver disease that we didn’t know about. And the maybe 7-year anniversary since my cousin was a killed by ___ and my colleague, two of my colleagues passed away last week. So, this season carries a lot of grief processing. And I just want to ask for your prayers as I go through that. As I process, I want to stay in God. My prayer life has been attacked in this season. So, I’m just asking guys for you to just lift me up, Alexis the Psalmist, and I can be like David and continue to rejoice in no matter what the season. Thanks.

Hello, my name is Jason. I’m a first-time caller. It’s Monday, March 13th. I’m just calling to request prayer in my marriage. My wife has left and is over a false church that she’s in and the pastor has stopped going too. And she has made her decision not to stop going and to leave me. So, I pray that God removes the vail from her eyes and that He restores our marriage. Thank you.

This is Jill from Arkansas. Join me in prayer for our sister Sinai from PA from March 9th and her request. She will be discharged from the hospital soon and sit up and walk on her own, to be restored to her family. Lord Jesus, we lift up our sister to You. And we come to You Lord, and we believe, as if it has already happened, that You will restore her to full health. Lord, that You would teach her how to care for herself moving forward. And how to make that a priority, Lord, so that she can serve You and she can serve others and take care of her family, Lord. Stress has a powerful effect on our bodies. It can incapacitate use to where we can’t even take care of ourselves in daily living, Lord. I have seen that in my own body, and I’ve seen it reversed in my own body, Lord. But it came with believing that I don’t have to live that way. I don’t have to accept the diagnosis that was given to me, Lord. And neither does our friend Sinai, our sister, our dear beloved. I can hear it in her voice how exhausted she is. Lord, we lift up her arms, we hold her up to You. The strength of her spirit and the strength of her body, to fully recover, Lord. Give her hope and expectation Lord, that You are gonna do mighty, mighty things. Help her to see this progress daily. Help her to know what it is that she can do. Lord, and the people caring for her in the rehab facility, Lord. We just wait to hear …

Hey DAB, it’s Valiant Val here in Vegas. I just wanted to say, good morning and send in a praise report. Jesus is on the throne. He woke me up this morning in my right mind, with all my faculties, in a place to live with air conditioning and heat, with food and water, with smile and grace and a good attitude. Oh, family, if you have that, you have most, you have more than most of the world. Oh, our God is on the throne. He is victory, He is abundance, and He is love. That’s Val. He is all of that, a bag of chips, honey bun and a fruit salad for ya girl. Oh, thank You, Father, that love is the greatest of these. Oh, God, I’m sending a praise report of good things to come. You know the plans for my life, Father. Plans to prosper me and not to harm me. Oh, Lord, I’m ringing in victory, in the mighty and majestic name of Jesus. I’m thinking about our girl Lee Lee that called and said right now, in this moment, just chose to live in victory. Chose to live happy. Make a choice to understand that our God can do everything but fail. In the mighty name of Jesus. I’m ringing in love and victory, right now. Oh, go Heavenly Father. Put it on them, Father. Sprinkle a little joy and peace on that unspeakable joy and peace. In the name of Jesus. Muah.

He knows my name. He knows my every thought. He sees me when I’ve fallen and hears me when I call. He knows my name is the name of a caller who, as soon as I heard your name, I smiled. I smiled so big. Because that one, in itself just personalizes our relationship with God. And then your call, your prayer request really hit me. You called because you’re angry. You’re angry at your husband, you’re angry at your ex and I just want to encourage you that your walking through the first step of your healing. That God said, let not the sun go down on your anger, however, there is no condemnation to them who are in within Christ. He, He sees you. He knows your name. And so, He alone calls on you right now and speaks to that anger like a storm and He says peace be still. In the name of Jesus. Father God, I take your daughter, I walk with her before your throne of grace. You said we should come boldly before your throne of grace. God, we lay down that anger and we replace it, oh, Father God, with a joy so deep, so unspeakable, so unexplainable. Father, I thank you, Lord. For You are Holy and Righteous. Peace be still. In the name of Jesus. Thank you.

Numbers 24:1-25:18, Luke 2:1-35, Psalms 59:1-17, Proverbs 11:14

Today is the 16^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today, wonderful to be around the Global Campfire gathering and taking another step forward together. And our next step forward will lead us back into the book of Numbers and back into the story of Moab’s king Balak and Balaam who has been invited to curse the Israelites on behalf of Moab, which he hasn’t been able to do. And, so, we pick up the story. Numbers chapters 24 and 25 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have gotten through this…this drama with Moab’s king Balak and this prophetic voice, this person who can bless and curse named Balaam who was sent for to come and curse the children of Israel out in the wilderness. Because the children of Israel have been wandering around in the wilderness as we know, and that is causing disruption in the nations surrounding them. No nation will let them pass through to get somewhere else. So, they’re kind of out in the wilderness until finally they get attacked. And they win. And, so, they have some territory that they’re settling into, but it happens to be right next to Moab. So, this place is Moab. They’re freaking out about this people moving in, which is why Balaam is summoned in the first place. Come here and see this people out in the wilderness and curse them for me, they’re too strong for me, they’re moving in next to me. We’ve got to do something about them. And, so, Balaam is summoned and Ballam consults the Lord about what he should do. And the Lord tells him, don’t go. Like, I’m not in this. Don’t go. And, so, he comes and tells the people I can’t go. The Lord won’t let me go. And, so, the officials of Moab went back to king Balak and said Balaam…Balaam refuses to come. The Lord won’t let him come. So, king Balak sends more officials, more high-ranking officials back to Balaam and tells Balaam again, the king Balak needs you to come at once with us right now. And Balaam’s like…I mean..I…I already had emissaries sent from Balak and I already gave my answer, but spend the night here and I’ll go talk to the Lord and see what the Lord says. And, so, Balaam goes before the Lord again and God speaks to Balaam again and says go with them this time. Go with them but do only what I tell you to do. And we can read the story and go, man, that’s redundant. What? Like why not just tell him that in the first place the first time the people came to get him? Why does he take this second trip? And now why was he not allowed on the first trip, but he is allowed on the second trip? We were able to get glimpses and see why. God was impressing upon Balaam there’s nothing else for you to do here but exactly what I tell you to do and you need to do exactly what you are instructed to do. There is no wiggle room here. What we end up noticing is that Balaam’s looking for wiggle room. So, it’s almost as if Balaam is like…well…I couldn’t go but now I can. And, so, maybe there is opportunity here. And, so, God reiterates, you have nothing to do but what I tell you to do. So, the next morning Balaam gets up and he leaves with all the people and is riding on his donkey and there’s an angel of the Lord following along and stands in the road blocking the path. And, so, the donkey turns into a field when it sees…when he sees the angel. And they continue on a little bit more then the angel is front of the donkey and the donkey can see it but Balaam cannot see it. And the angel’s blocking a pathway into a vineyard. And, so, the donkey’s trying to get around the angel, but in the process kind of scratches Balaam’s leg against the wall. So, Balaam gets mad. He starts beating the donkey. And they got on a little bit more and then the angel blocks the path altogether. There’s nowhere for the donkey to maneuver. And, so, the donkey just lays down underneath Balaam who is serious and begins to beat the donkey some more. And that is when the talking…talking donkey happens. That’s when the mouth of the donkey is opened. What have I done to you? Why would you hit me these three times? And then Balaam reveals his heart. First of all, he responds to the donkey. Like, he’s so angry. The donkey is talking to him and he’s talking back. He’s not struck silent. He’s not freaking out that he’s talking to a donkey. He’s just angry. So, he’s answering back to the donkey I’d kill you. Like, if I had a sword, I would kill you. And why is Balaam so mad? I quote, “because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand. I would kill you right now.” That is very revealing and goes right down into the heart of Balaam and his motives. He doesn’t want to look like a fool. He doesn’t want to be made of. Even though he’s been instructed that he can only say what God has told him to say he’s also very worried about the optics, what this looks like. He doesn’t want to look like a fool. That’s when Balaam’s eyes are opened, and he sees the angel and the point is made. Balaam you have a job to do. Nothing more, nothing less, exactly what I tell you to say, nothing else. And Balaam seems to have gotten the message because he’s like look, if you want me to go home, I’ll go home. I didn’t know there was an angel here. But God reiterates, “go with the man but speak only what I tell you to speak.” And, so, Balaam does get to Balak. Balak is like, why didn’t you come the first time and all of that. And Balaam has got the message loud and clear. I can only do what I’m told to do. And, so, there are offerings offered on altars and Balaam looks at the children of Israel and seeks the Lord and comes back and essentially says, I cannot curse these people they are blessed by God. Balak doesn’t take kindly to that. I brought you here to curse my enemies. You’re doing nothing but blessing them. And Balaam’s like, I…I can only say what I’m allowed to say. And, so, we see Balak doing something really interesting. Come with me to another place and you can look at the children of Israel from this other place and maybe God will let you curse them from there. And, so, they do that. More offerings, more sacrifices, more seeking the Lord. There is nothing but blessing for Israel. And, so, king Balak is like, don’t bless them. If you can’t curse them don’t bless them. Just don’t do anything. And then Balak says, let’s go to another place. Maybe…maybe you can…maybe God will let you curse them from there. Of course, the Lord won’t curse His chosen people. He will only bless them, which is what happens in the end. But there are so many lessons for us. We can seek God. We can get a no. We can seek God again and maybe He says, okay. Yes. But only what I told you. And we can very easily forget about all that. We can just think, yes, I got a yes, I got a yes. I’m off to the races. I’m off to do the thing that I wanted to do. I got a yes. But then we can get into a situation where we feel foolish, or we feel condemned or we feel whatever we feel and we want to change the script because of what it’s going to make us look like or we can find ourselves in king Balak wants his enemies cursed. You can send for a professional to do it, and the professional comes and says there is no curse for this people only blessing. And, so, what does Balak do? Like here…let's…let’s go over here and look at this whole thing from another angle. Let’s see what the Lord has to say from this other angle. Of course, it’s only blessing and not cursing. And, so, what does Balak do? Well…let’s…let’s go over here to this other place. Let’s look at it from this angle. Maybe from this angle, the Lord will change His mind. We do the same kinds of things. We try to force through what it is that we want even though we may look like fools in the end. And what we’re watching is…well under normal circumstances, we would say this is very manipulative. It just so happens that in this case its manipulative…manipulation toward God. As if we wouldn’t do that too. And, so, there are some deep lessons about motives, the why we do what we do and what we’re willing to do to try to get what we want embedded in this story. The way that this particular drama ends is that Balaam can’t curse the children of Israel. Balak is displeased about it, but in the end Balaam just goes back home. Immediately following that story, we begin moving into how the people did cause the children of Israel to stumble and fall. They were not over calm by warfare in battle. Rather, they sent the women and began fraternizing and the people began going back and forth in intermingling and that led them to the place that God had warned them about. They were bowing down and giving their hearts in worship to the false God Baal. So, they could not defeat them with sword and shield and bow and arrow and sling, and whatever other warfare utensils that they were using. They chose a more seductive form of warfare and were successful. And we can think like, well Balaam didn’t have anything to do that but as we will see…and you’ll have to remember this story because we will come back to a very very short reference back to this time as we continue forward in the Scriptures, and we will find that on his way out it seems as if Balaam gave some advice. He couldn’t curse the children of Israel, but the suggestion of how they might defeat the children of Israel through seduction was planted and what we end up finding out is that Balaam ends up getting killed.

Prayer:

Father, it’s a disruptive story to go through but we have the whole story and we’ve spent the last few days moving through the story in the book of Numbers. And, so, it gives us pause to reflect. And as we place ourselves in the story and consider our thoughts, our motivations, our way of trying to finagle the things that we want, our way of looking for every vantage point to get what we want our way of just trying to…to live on the margins instead of under the shelter of Your wings it becomes apparent and we realize that we look at the story…it’s a pretty dramatic story and we can find ourselves there and it’s humbling. And, so, we ask for forgiveness, and we ask Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, that we might not find ourselves in a position that we’re willing to manipulate anyone, including You if we could, to get what we want. Come Holy Spirit into that we pray as we humble ourselves before You and declare once again, we are utterly dependent upon You. You are our source of life and when we look for a source outside of You, we are walking the wrong path for the wrong reasons with the wrong motivations. Set us aright we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base. That is certainly where you can find out what’s going on around here. So, check it out.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources…there are resources in the Shop in a number of different categories that are really all tailored for the journey that we are on just moving through the Bible in community together in a year. And, so, check that out.

Check out the Community section. Definitely get connected on social media. That’s where links are to get connected that way and that’s where the Prayer Wall is. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio, if the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anybody who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night, and to build community around the rhythm of showing up every day, if that brings life and good news and hope and community into your world then thank you humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can certainly hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up at the top or there are a number of numbers you can dial. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial and if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

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:

On March 9^th Sinai from PA called regarding her medical condition in which she said her brain was not allowing her legs to work. She was being transferred from a hospital to a longer-term care facility. At the same time she had to make the difficult decision of putting her mom in an assisted care facility. Her voice was worn and weary and tinged I’m sure with a little bit of fear. And I just want to lift her up to you dear Lord. Although Lord Sinai is in a very challenging place with her own health as well as responsibilities with her mother. Lord, we know that your desire is to mold us and shape us more into the image of your Son, our Jesus who exemplified every fruit of the spirit. And unfortunately, because I hate this fruit of the spirit this long-suffering. Obviously, I’m being facetious in that. But the long-suffering Lord, we know You are long-suffering in that we get to understand what it’s like to have Your heart to be hurt and crushed and broken and still press on. We move forward to love others, to keep relationship with You. So, Lord I left Siani up to You right now and I ask that You would just touch her spiritual body from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. We obviously want her physical body to be touched but Lord our bodies are not as important as our spirit man. So, we thank You for whatever work You’re going to do and her and that You’re gonna do for her mother. We thank You dear Jesus. Amen.

Hey DAB family this is the mother that had gestational diabetes that was feeling overwhelmed at the end of her pregnancy. I guess I’m calling in a praise report. Everything of course worked out in the end. By the last couple days, we…sorry…we settled on an induction date and the last couple of days before the induction date I was able to find peace and be prepared and get ready for the baby and even went on an outing with family just before the baby was born. And she’s this beautiful happy healthy baby was born on the 27^th of February. And we’re just loving having her here. And I just wanted to thank you all for your prayers. So, thank you. Bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible community to be a Blessing in California. I have not been sleeping well it’s about 4:30 on Monday morning and I just would like to ask that you would pray for me. I know casting my cares on Jesus for he cares for me. I know promises and I believe them but for whatever reason I’m not able to shake loose some of the concerns this morning, concerns for my brother who sounding more despondent, more sad, more hopeless. And I’m just asking that you would pray that God would break through the darkness and that he would experience a desire to invite joy into his life and joy is Jesus and that you would pray for me to know how to minister to my brother at this time. Also praying for my community. We’ve had more than 40 inches of rain since the beginning of the year and more year rain is coming and the ground is saturated. There’s really nowhere for the water to go except into the community. I’m in a flood zone. My neighbors are in a flood zone. And, so, praise God our homes have been spared. And I’m just asking that God would continue to spare our homes. Also, for those who have lost their homes because of the flooding. Just ask that God would be with them as well. My stepbrother has multiple sclerosis and has had a relapse. So, prayers for him in a very special way. Young man taking care of his family. And lastly a friend of mines son committed suicide over the weekend. So, if you would pray for Jack and his fiancé Jacqueline as they go through this grieving process and God would be with them. Thank you so much.

Hello, DABbers this is Artie from Arkansas. This morning I’m listening to March 7^th ‘s broadcast and podcast and there was a young lady Rochelle who had called in on…on the 25^th of February and aired today. Wow! Rochelle, Rochelle that was so beautiful, so beautiful. Another young man David also was on this day. He too was a young adult and now he has come back. He’s come back to the Bible, to God, to counting on Him for…for his…his blessings, counting on Him for his walk, counting on Him for prayers for other people and for themselves. Please let’s continue to pray for Rochelle. Rochelle your words are amazing. You…you spoke as if you…as if you were completely involved with your Lord and Savior your entire life and strong and convicted. David, please know you will be prayed for as well. And we just lift you both up. And also Rochelle, the lady and her daughter that you are concerned with, we lift them up.

This message is for Susie in California who called about her eight-year-old nephew with autism who’s been running out into the street into the traffic escaping from school escaping from the home and running out into traffic. Susie your…your story touches me close. My…my son has…he’s on the spectrum as well. He’s doing much better now but he didn’t do this, but he did some things. And this story just also brought my mind straight to…to…to Mark 9 where…where the father brings her…his son to…to Jesus. His son has been dealing with epilepsy all his life and he said that it would have a tendency to throw the boy into the ground and into the fire and into the water and try to kill him. Jesus also cast the spirit out. He said sometimes this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting. So, I’ll be praying for your…for your nephew. Encourage your…your sister, the…the…the boy’s mother, the parents to read this passage. It was affective with my son as well. OK. Praying for you Susie. Thank you for calling in.

Numbers 22:21-23:30, Luke 1:57-80, Psalm 58:1-11, Proverbs 11:12-13

Today is the 15th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today, as we gather together and take the next step forward together. And we have been working our way through the Book of Numbers and we have just begun to encounter a story between the king of Moab, his name is Balak, and a person who speaks to God, who hears from God, but is also known to have the ability to bless and curse things. And Balak summons Balaam to curse God’s people, the children of Israel, because they’re more powerful than Moab and they are making Moab very nervous. So, Balaam inquired of the Lord and the Lord told him not to go. And so, he sent the emissaries away. And they sent another group to them. You gotta come, you gotta come curse these people. And so, he goes back to the Lord, who tells him that he can go with these people, the next batch of people, but he can only do what he is told to do. And that is where we pick up the story, Numbers chapter 22 verse 21 through 23 verse 30 today.

Commentary:

Okay so, we still have an unfolding story Balaam and Balak and the children of Israel and who gets to curse who. And we will continue that story as we move forward tomorrow and then talk about it. We also have this unfolding story in the Gospel of Luke, and we talked how the angel Gabriel had given to Annunciation’s, two announcements about the birth of two different children, one that would become John the Baptist and one that would be Jesus, the Lord. And we talked about the reactions to those announcements. The fact that Zechariah was a priest and happened to be in the temple of the most high God burning incense when he had this revelation. And how he was struck dumb, he could not speak, he could not speak about what he had seen until it had been fulfilled. And in today’s reading, John is born. Everyone assumed that he would be named Zechariah after his father. It’s their firstborn son and it’s they’re, they’re older like this is probably their only son, so he should take the name of his father forward. But he declares what he had heard from the angel and writes it down, his name is John. And everybody’s amazed by this and then immediately Zechariah’s mouth is opened and he began to speak praises to God. So they’re amazed that the boy’s name will be John and then fear comes over them when his mouth is opened and he begins to praise God. And according to the Gospel of Luke, all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said what then will this child become, for indeed the hand of the Lord was with him. And then Zechariah gets a prophecy over his son. We know John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way of the Lord and that he shows up at the Jordan and he’s baptizing people and calling people to repentance. What we see here, once again in the Gospels, is that it didn’t happen in a vacuum. John didn’t just appear out of the wilderness at the Jordan crying out to the people to turn their hearts back to God. We’re looking at what’s happening. John is born and he is born to a priest of the most high God, who has done work in the temple in Jerusalem, so he’s not obscure, he’s a priest who has had the opportunity to serve God in Jerusalem in the temple. And when he was serving God in the temple, he received a vision and when he came out of the temple, people were waiting for him, and he couldn’t talk. So, the rumors begin there. And then Elizabeth in her old age gets pregnant and then any number of rumors or jokes or whatever, like there in the dialogue of the people that are in their community, people are talking about this. Because Zechariah is a priest who can’t talk and he can do other things because his wife gets pregnant, but he still can’t talk. So, there’s probably plenty of talk about them. And then the baby is born and Zechariah names him John, which is unusual, and the people are shocked by it, but once he does, once he does this act of obedience, his mouth is open, and he begins to worship God and prophesy and freaks the people out. That’s the context for John the Baptist. And so years later, after he’s gone through his childhood and grown into adulthood and he shows up at the Jordan, people are going to find out what’s going on because that was the kid, that was the kid that Zechariah and Elizabeth had, and Zechariah couldn’t talk and then he named him John and everybody was talking about it, and everybody was wondering what’s going to become of this kid. Or to quote the Gospel of Luke, “What then will this child become.” So, they’re wondering. There’s almost this prophetic aura around John his whole life. And so, when he shows up, calling people to repentance, he’s not just showing up like a mirage in the wilderness. They’ve wondered what…what God was going to do through this John. Of course, we know that what he’s going to do is prepare the way of the Lord. And we will watch that unfold as we continue through the Gospel of Luke.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we invite You into all that we’ve read today, all that we read in the Book of Numbers between Balak and Balaam. And all that we’ve read here in the Gospel of Luke, of the arrival of John the Baptist to prepare the way. We ask that You continue to open our hearts, may they be wide open to You and may You lead us into the truth, and may we have eyes to see and ears to hear all that You are speaking into our story, transforming us. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, that’s the website. That’s where you can find out what’s going on around here, so certainly check it out. You can do the same with the Daily Audio Bible app, which you can download free from the App Store that works with your device. And so, check that out. Check out the different sections. Check out the Community Section. This is where the Prayer Wall lives, which we talk about often. It’s always on, it’s never off. We can always pray there, we can pray for each other, we can ask for prayer. And so, be familiar with that. There’s also links to get connected on social media there in the Community Section. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there for the journey that we are on through the Bible in a year. And so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. Thank you, humbly, we wouldn’t be here if we were not in this together and so thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good morning DAB Family, this is Abba’s Child in Southwest Florida. I’m calling to respond to a few people that just called in for prayer today on March 11th. The first one is Beloved in Texas whose 12-year-old daughter is suffering from depression. Oh, sweet girl, my daughters 34 and suffers from depression. I had called in and asked for prayer and someone responded to my prayer, his name was Steve. He and his wife suffered with their own daughter with her depression and her anxiety disorder. I am praying for you, dear on. It’s so hard when our kids are suffering, especially with something that we can’t physically fix. Mental illness is such a curse. And all we can do is trust. And I’m telling you now, the crisis that my daughter just went through, I have learned to truly trust. So, I hope that my prayer for you is that you can have peace in knowing that Jesus has the wheel. And Sparky, you called in today too, to remind us to ask for prayer, that everyone has problems. We all suffer the same issues big and small. And none of them are too small or too big to ask for prayer about. And last but not least, PA Chappy, the pastor whose celebrating his very first year at his new church that has gone from 60 members to 90 members, who was suicidal 8 years ago. God bless you man. I just love hearing stories like that. God is so good, and I will pray for you and your church. I love you all, I love this community. In Jesus …

Hey DABers, this is Emily of Emily and Jim. Sorry to bother you again and hopefully this recording will actually work. I had to call though for the mother of the 12-year-old girl who was diagnosed with major depression. And is being diagnosed with ADHD. I had ADHD, I was diagnosed when I was 46, I’m 53 now. But from ages 10 to 12, to 13 I’m sorry, I was suicidal every single day. I was bullied. I didn’t fit in because kids with ADHD don’t fit in generally. And ADHD wasn’t a thing then and especially not with girls. So, I just want to, first of all, encourage you that it was in clinging to Jesus. My family weren’t even believers. But if somehow reaching out to Jesus and the word, that kept me alive. I’m here today. And so, I want to pray for your daughter because God is going to work in her life. The enemy is not going to have her. And I pray, Father God, for this…this 12-year-old girl, Lord, that you would give her hope. Lord, that she would cling to Jesus. Lord, that Your Holy Spirit would fill her up and fill her with joy. Father, we pray for the right diagnosis, Lord, and Father, the right coping mechanisms. Whatever she needs, Father. But I thank You Lord God, that she will have life, I speak life to her, I speak the joy of the Lord, which is her strength. And, Lord, I thank You, that You have my life as a testimony that the enemy will not prevail. The enemy will not prevail in this 12-year-old girls’ life. Thank You, Lord God, for Your faithfulness. And I pray these things, I pray life and joy and hope for this girl. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Hello, my wonderful DAB family. This is Rosie, aka Great to Be Free in Jesus. And I’m calling in regarding the prayer request, Winnie called in about her nephew who lost his wife and lost his home. And I just want you to know that I’m praying for him. Cause I’m sure he’s got a broken heart. I went through a really hard time when I lost my husband. I had never known such grief. And when I would cry, it felt like the tears were coming from the very pit of my stomach. And it was so painful. I was stuck on the question, why. And I was on that question for two years. And people kept saying to me, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. And it took me two years to finally do that. I finally just told Lord, Lord, I don’t know why my husband died because You told us to move from Indiana to Oklahoma. And now I don’t have a husband. And I don’t know why he died but You do, and I don’t have to know why. I trust You. And once I did that, all those tears no longer felt like they were coming from the very pit of my stomach. And I also had children at home that I had to finish raising. It was a very hard time. I just wanted you to know, he’s got a broken heart. And I’m praying for him. I love you my DAB family. God bless you.

Hi DAB family, this is God Knows My Name. I’m calling to ask for prayers please. I need prayers for this anger that I’m feeling. I feel so angry. I am pregnant. And I, I’m aware that you know, the hormones get some pregnant women to, to be like that. Sometimes and my anger is started towards my husband. Not for something that he did. And even though I have given some proposals on how we can manage it, including maybe seeking counseling, he prefers to just pretend like everything’s okay. And basically, not address the proposals I’ve given and not propose anything for me and it just makes me even angrier. I don’t know if it’s the hormones. I’m so angry. I’m angry at my daughter’s father. He has refused to talk to her for a very long time and I don’t know why. And I’m so angry because I kept her out of her life for so long and he begged, and I finally let him into her life and now he is just breaking her and me. He just popped in and now he’s just popped out. And I’m so angry that I exposed her to that. And I don’t know why he’s doing that to her, she’ just 11-years-old. She’ll be 11 next month. So, please just pray for me. I don’t want to feel this way.

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier, just calling to pray for some of the DABers. I want to pray for Tim from New Hampshire, and I want to pray for his wife to be strengthened. I want to pray for Dennis from Anis, Texas. She’s the mayor there, there was an unexplained death of her, of her, I think it was her brother or someone in the family. I wanna pray for that family. And they found out that it was no foul play but just pray for that family and the loss of that loved one. I wanna pray for Audrie and I wanna pray for Matthew who needs a miracle for their nephew and the 8-year-old with autism. I wanna pray for them. I also wanna pray for the lady who lost her, her mother, she called on the 9th of March and she lost her precious mother. I wanted to pray for her. And I wanted to pray for those families who are going through who called in on that March 9th. Gracious Father, we just ask You to have Your way. Father, we just ask You to heal. We ask You to deliver. Lord, that precious baby, the lady that is pregnant with her baby and she is going through the, through some challenges, Father. We just ask You to pray, to bless her and bless that family, Father. We just ask You to give life and favor, Lord. We just ask You to open doors, we just ask You to bless those marriages, 30 and 31 years, Lord, we ask You to bless those marriages. Bless those families. Bless those children that are trying to take them with astrology and all of this wicked stuff. Father, You have Your way, the devil wants to take our children, but You have already prayed for them. Father, we just ask You to continue to have a support of our kids, what You have for them, Lord. So that the devil don’t have an opportunity to pull anything else. And Lord, we give You the glory. We just thank You for Brian, we thank You for them being back and getting through with the jet lag and we just thank You for Your grace and Your mercy. We just thank you for Your amazing blessing.