Category: DAB Transcripts

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’m Brian it is great to be here with you today like it is great to be here with you every day as we come in from the swirl of life that can lead to chaos, or confusion, or whatever, just all kinds of challenge. This is a place we try to create together that is free from those things. We can’t insulate ourselves from every challenge of course, but in this place we can because this is a place where we let it go and can leave it at the door. This is a safe place where we’re here to hear the Scriptures to be together, to invite God to lead us, and then we regroup, and we go back into the world. And it’s amazing, at least for me how much, how different things can look after some…some deep breaths and just hearing the Scriptures and just reorienting to God how different things can look. And, so, let’s just take a deep breath and let it go. Let it go and let’s allow the Scriptures to speak. Today we are going to conclude the book of Numbers and then we are going to begin the final book of the Torah or the Pentateuch known as Deuteronomy. And when we get there in a couple minutes once we finish this 36^th chapter of…of numbers we’ll talk about Deuteronomy. We’ll fly over it, get our bearings and then dive in. But first Numbers chapter 36.

Introduction to the book of Deuteronomy:

Okay. This brings us to…well…that brought us to the close…we close the book on Numbers and now we’re opening the book of Deuteronomy, which is the fifth book of the Bible. So, we’ve read four of the five books of the Torah and we’re moving into Deuteronomy. And Deuteronomy again might feel like, “haven’t I heard…didn’t I hear this already? Like, didn't…didn’t we cover this ground?” And it could seem like, “wait, did I? Did we cover this ground? Is this new ground? Are we reviewing? What’s happening here?” The truth is that we are going to be doing some reviewing and some looking forward. And to put ourselves in the right frame of mind, imagine that you know that your time upon the earth is limited. And of course, we all know that, but like extremely limited. Like…like it’s not an arbitrary thing, it…it’s coming very soon, and you have a lot left to say. And, so, you find a way to get everybody that you have anything to say to together and say it, that is the book of Deuteronomy. These are the last things that Moses has to say to the people that he has been leading since his calling at the burning bush. And Deuteronomy essentially breaks down into three different speeches or discourses where all of the people are brought together to hear what Moses has to say. He’s leaving nothing left unsaid. He’s saying everything that he needs to say because this is the last time he’ll be saying anything to any of them. And they need to be reminded. We’ve been traveling with them and we’ve been finding that we need to be reminded because we’re the same way. Moses wanted them to remember who they were and why and who God is and where they’re going. And aren’t these the things that we forget? Just like they…just like they forgot. And, so, in the same way that we kind of come around this Global Campfire together, we would have to imagine ourselves to put ourselves in the right perspective for Deuteronomy that we are in a throng of people. We have been wilderness dwellers our whole lives. Our ancestors who came out of Egypt. They’ve died off, but we know all those stories. We’re not so far removed. We know that we’re in a period of transition and that God is calling us forward but we’re gonna lose our leader and someone else is gonna take us into our destiny. And the leader who has been…who has been the leader of the people our whole lives has some final things to say and some final things to do. And, so, we take our seats, and we begin to listen. Deuteronomy chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, as is our custom on a daily basis because it’s always true, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the Scriptures, we thank You for the community that You’ve allowed to form around the rhythm that we share here of being involved and interacting with the Scriptures each and every day. We are grateful. And as we move through this transition into the final book of the Torah as we move into Deuteronomy and hear are the final discourses of Moses, this is somebody that we’ve gotten to know well because we’ve been traveling with the children of Israel for quite a while now along with Moses. And, so, understanding that we’ll be saying goodbye and moving into new territory, this gives gravity to what Moses is saying. And we have learned a lot in the wilderness, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves as we’ve gone through the wilderness territory here in the early books of the Bible. And so many times the stories have become a mirror into our own souls. And, so, Holy Spirit help us to pay close attention to the final things that Moses is saying in this book of Deuteronomy because they apply to us too. Help us to have eyes to see and ears to hear what You are saying to us in our lives. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base that is…that’s where the Global Campfire is. And, so, that’s where you find out what’s going on around here. If you’re using the app, the Daily Audio Bible app you can find out what’s going on around here there as well.

So, indeed, check out, especially be aware and be familiar with the Community section. That’s where the Prayer Wall lives. And, so, we are constantly praying for one another there on the Prayer Wall. That’s also where the different links to get connected in places like social media are. So, yeah, be familiar, check that out. Get connected.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this Global Campfire mission that we share to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and just offered to whoever will listen to it wherever they are, anytime of day or night no matter where…where we are on this planet it’s available. And because we do this every day, every single day it becomes a rhythm, step-by-step, day by day we take the next step forward together. So, if that has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. So, there’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request 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:

Hello, DABbers this is Rosie __ I haven’t called for a bit but I’m always __. This is my 5^th year being with you guys and I gotta tell you every year it gets better, and I get more in. Those prayers at the end have been lifeline and I love to sit there and hear and get, you know, get filled by its hope and also be able to pay for one another. And __ I believe in the power prayer and I’m in need of a prayer. I have tried to do this myself and I just felt that I need to just put in prayer. I know that there’s a worldwide right know prayer. You know, I’ve come here before and I know God __ seen me through it. I know that with more prayers I can get through this. I don’t what it is but I’ve been having for two years a pain on my right side, by my liver and kidney and they’ve been saying things and I’ve been trying to just put it to the side. I just…I’ve been serving. I’m in ministry and I have to be made strong and I have __ of faith but it can seem like I’m falling apart at times. And I know my God is faithful and I know he doesn’t give us more to bear and it’s just nothing it just could be another stone that I had previously before, and I had surgery before. I don’t know. I had Covid. And…and ever since after that the pains are getting harder and you know from a 1 to 10 the pains about 6 or 7 and I just wake up and go to bed with the same pain. So, I just need you guys to pray. __ so well __ 4 to 7 is my promise that by His stripes I’m healed and everybody that is out there that is needing a healing __ we’re one father…

Hey this is Jerry calling from Duluth MN it’s Friday March 19^th 1:45 in the morning day 78 of the year day 693 of my midnight journey of being in the DAB during the middle of the night or early in the morning. I was really moved today by Brian’s message on sitting in silence and trying to not spend prayer time just talking about myself and talking about things that we would like to make the world better or my life better but to take the time in silence. And I noticed at the end of the podcast they put 4 minutes of waves of rolling and putting us in such a state of being on the side of the ocean. For us in lake Superior living right on the tip of Lake superior. Lake Superior’s in inland ocean and we have the same type of atmosphere where you look over the water and there’s nothing but water and the waves rolling…rolling in. So I tried to spend those four minutes in silence. Had a difficult time so I backed it up and tried it again and what a great exercise to do to just take and stop talking and listen. May God help us to do this more and put this as part of our practice of our worship. In Jesus’ name.

Hi Daily Audio Bible brothers and sisters this is God’s Life Speaker. I just desire that we all magnify the Lord together and we do, and I just love the idea that could be anytime of the day and somewhere else there is a DABber with me praying and as you bring in your prayer requests, I’m praying with you. It could be anytime of the day or night there is just constant prayer. And we can continue it on our own when we magnify the Lord. Having been in the military I really enjoy the compass theory of true North and even just a degree of if you’re a pilot would take you somewhere totally outside of where your destination would be just if you were off by a degree. And I have prayed for conviction to live in awareness. We need to be standing in awareness in our spiritual lives so that we can always come back to true North. If there’s a shifting in our soul that we feel that we know what we come back with self-control and the fruit of the spirit magnifying the Lord being helped by the Holy Spirit and just going forward always in the direction of our true North as we magnify Him. Lord Jesus we love You. We just worship You. We praise Your name. You are the comforter You are the God of creation You are the God of our lives, author, knowing before time ever began what our stories would be and I pray Lord that we would die to self and be living in awareness so that we can always be directed towards You, towards true north magnifying You shining You drawing others towards You and always going higher and higher to the upward call. Amen. Bless you Brian. Bless you DABbers.

Good morning DAB family this is Walta the Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory of Our God and Our King. Today I listened to Radiant Rachel praying for her church family as the pastors being moved away on a mission’s trip to Norway. Radiant Rachel I love the compassion and love that you have for your home family and I felt that even more when you shared that your family has to move across country and basically start from scratch when it comes to your church family. I’m praying for you right now that wherever you’re going that God is already preparing a place for your family, spiritually speaking a wonderful family, just somewhere where you would never even imagine that existed. I pray to God that they will welcome you into their arms and I just challenge you to dig deeper into the DAB. I dug into the DAB when I moved my family from Arizona to Liberia West Africa. And that’s why I love this family. It’s just solid. Val in Vegas your praise report just warmed my heart. I had all kinds of feelings. I’m praising God for your healing and for your dream job. Your testimony is just why we’re here, is because no matter where you are in the world, no matter what continent you’re on, no matter what state of being you are in mentally, physically, emotionally God’s got you and the DAB family is always there for you. As long as you can get Internet and if you can’t download it before you leave. Love you guys. Have a blessed, blessed weekend.

Good morning this is Mary. I am on this for the first time. I just want to thank God for Brian and his family. I would like to just say this is my first time trying to complete this Daily auto Bible. I was on last year, but I did not complete it because of different circumstances but this year I am determined to finish. It is so helpful. It helped me with understanding the Bible verse by verse chapter by chapter. I get so excited every morning when I get up and put it on. And if I miss a day I go back and I listen to it. I am determined. It gives me the excitement of hearing what is being taught. Growing up I feel like I missed out on a lot in the word but just listening to this encourages my spirit. It makes me want to learn more about God and His word in depth and I wanted to thank you Brian and your family and what God has put you in this position to help those who can’t read or don’t understand the word. I praise God for you, and I ask God to bless you and your family. And for those that are listening God bless you and keep me in your prayer my family. Again, my name is Mary and continue to praise God and lift his name. No matter what is going on in the word…in the world put God first and everything else will __. In the name of Jesus. Love 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’m Brian it is great to be here with you as we just, you know. We’re…we’re moving into work and yesterday we came into this week and we talked about it being a brand-new shiny sparkly week, like we always do and now we have to live into this week and now is the time where it’s not a theory where we have to hold onto Jesus and walk with God and allow the Scriptures to lead us forward. And, so, it’s great that we have this place, right? This place that we can go, come around the Global Campfire, situate ourselves, find a place to sit, just relax and orient ourselves to God as we move forward in our day. So, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, picking up with the story in the book of Numbers. Today, Numbers chapter 33, verse 40 through 35 verse 34.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we are indeed nearing the end of the book of Numbers and so we’ve been kind of recounting the travels that…that we’ve been on with the children of Israel since they left Egypt, place to place and what happened there and all this in preparation for moving forward across the Jordan. And then sort of how the…the…the borders would look and how things would be divided out up, that’s being laid out in front of us as well so we can tell that we’re moving forward toward something.

And then in the gospel of Luke, obviously, we’re in the Gospels. So, primarily we are observing and walking along as one of the disciples of Jesus listening to His teachings, observing His ministry, observing the way He interacts, His personality, the kinds of things that He does. And we’ve already gone through Matthew and Mark so it can be like, “yeah…I mean, yes, I want to hear the stories over and over but I…I know the stories.” But let’s just kind of go into the book of Luke and observe what we’re seeing today. Jesus’ ministry has begun, and it is…it is beginning to catch fire. Actually, word is spreading all over the place. So, his fame is spreading, and we have to look and go like, “what is Jesus after here? What is He going for as He sets up His ministry?” Obviously, He’s becoming famous but is that what He’s going for? What is He after here? One thing that we began to observe is that Jesus isn’t afraid to mingle with anybody. The crowds are pressing in on Him and so He is among all kinds of different people, whether clean or unclean, whether Jew or Gentile. He is among all kinds of people in all different statuses of life. And we see Jesus begin kind of sorting for the for the people who aren’t particularly religious or aren’t particularly educated or who don’t think they have the answers. So, he goes to fisherman, common people or he goes to a tax collector, which…which would’ve been a statement in itself. These tax collectors, they were Hebrew people, but they work for the Roman government and it’s kind of a convoluted thing because the right to collect taxes is something that could be bought, sort of like a license, but it costs a lot of money. And, so, wealthy people would obtain these licenses and then hire people to do the collection and then these hired people would be paid, but they’re also kind of allowed to…to skim or to overcharge to embellish their own pocketbooks in the process. And these were Hebrew people among Hebrew people collecting money and so they were pretty well hated for what they were doing because they were perceived as betrayers, right? Not really…really in the Hebrew community, just extorting from the Hebrew community. So, for Jesus to hang out with those kind of people, even invite one of them to become a member of His inner circle, this is a statement in itself. This is not what other rabbis are doing. They are condemning these tax collectors and sinners. They are staying completely clear of them and instructing everyone else to stay clear of them, to not give hospitality, to not be friendly with them. So already, Jesus is making statements with His behavior that would have had people, especially the people that are educated and think that they know the answers, would’ve had them talking amongst themselves, which is what we see shaping up in the Gospels. And, so, Jesus is healing people today and one of the ways that he heals someone is to say, “your sins are forgiven.” For the religious leaders this would be a statement of blasphemy because forgiveness of sins can only be given by God and through a process. So, you’ve got to think again, “what is He going for then?” Because if He’s going to be a rabbi and make comment on Torah then he’s a religious person. And yet, He’s like picking fights with the religious leaders. So, He is becoming famous among the people, but He continually separates Himself and goes into a solitary place, to recharge, to pray, to be with Father. So, obviously, the accolades and being thrown up on a pedestal of fame isn’t what He’s after. He mingles with the…what would be considered the riffraff, the underbelly of the society. I suppose if you are known to be friendly with prostitutes and I don’t mean like customers, I mean like friends with prostitutes and tax collectors then your stereotyped, then there are assumptions made about you based on the company you’re keeping. We’re kinda taught these things from childhood but Jesus seems to be flying in the face of some of that. We’re told that we’re known by the company we keep, largely to keep us from others leading us down paths that could lead to destruction. Jesus seems to be going like right into those people’s lives inviting them to be His friends. So, we can imagine that the people that are being befriended are finally…finally getting for just a moment what it might feel like to belong. And isn’t that what we’re looking for in our lives? Isn’t that like what motivates so much of our lives, that we could belong somewhere? And the people are buying into it. They’re flocking to Jesus, they’re hearing Jesus and its it’s changing the atmosphere, it’s changing the atmosphere among the religious people too. It’s just inflaming them. So, Jesus is doing what He’s doing, and it is giving the outsider a sense of belonging and a sense of invitation and a sense that there might actually be some hope left in the world. And He continues to do what He’s doing. Like, He’s not changing anything but there’s a completely different reaction among the religious elite, those who think they know God, those who think they know what God will and won’t do, those who think they know exactly what God expects. Without Jesus changing His behavior at all He is inflaming those people and inflaming them to the point where they will become profoundly antagonistic as we all know and will eventually sit down and decide that they will do whatever it takes to get rid of this guy. So, what is Jesus going for? Jesus, at least from His own testimony is going for the truth. He’s attempting to open people’s eyes to see that there are other ways to be, that the world and all its deception and the whirlwind that the world brings just pushing us forward even though we don’t know where were going and keeping us discombobulated all the time so that it is very easy for us to be at odds, Jesus is saying that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Do you not perceive it? Can’t you see it? There is a totally different way of being a human being and it doesn’t have to be this way.” The irony is He’s going to finish His ministry and provide that path and it’s going to be the people who think they know what God wants that are going to have Him killed. It’s the religious that want Jesus out of the way. And as hard as it might be, that is a mirror. That is a mirror that should be right in front of our eyes. If we were to say…I don’t know…go review the things that we have posted on social media over the last few months or the conversations that we’ve had over a variety of topics over the last year, if we just review ourselves do we find ourselves in the camp that knows that we don’t know and are so profoundly fortunate to even be here or are we in the camp of those who think they know what God will and will not do and that we have been somehow appointed His spokesperson to defend Him as if He can’t defend Himself? There’s a lot there to be considered. Of course, every one of us would have to repent at some point over last few months, even if it’s just something we said to our spouse and we just…it just trickled out of our lips before we could stop it. The point here in trying to create some type of contrast is that there is a contrast that exists in these stories in the New Testament. If our goal, like if the thing we’re going for is to follow Jesus, is to be transformed and to become Christlike, like Christ in this world, to follow in His footsteps and do the things that He did so that is not one Jesus but His entire body in this world. If our goal is to be a part of that than the contrast should invite us to look at whether we are Christlike or whether we are Pharisee like. And that could be disruptive, which can be a good thing.

Prayer:

Jesus come. Come into the things that we’re considering. Are we walking with You and representing You in this world the way the examples have been given to us in the Gospels or are we more like religious elite people who think we know everything? The truth is, we can find ourselves somewhere in the middle and on any given…any given day we can move to either of those extremes. That’s just how we are. Like we can…we can get into alignment today and be completely off tomorrow, which is why a rhythm and staying connected and moving forward, step-by-step day by day brings us back so that we can make progress, so that we can cooperate with this process of transformation, so that we can yield ourselves to this process of sanctification, so that we don’t stand in our own way of what You’re doing in our lives. Come Holy Spirit into all these things that we’re considering today, what our postures are like, what the aroma of our lives are bringing into the world. Come Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can find what’s going on around here as well.

And a couple places to…to…to really stay dialed into would be the Community section. There are links there to the different social media channels that we are on. And, so, following the Daily Audio Bible there. That’s a good way to get alerts if there’s just something to announce but…but also in the community section is the Prayer Wall. And the Prayer Wall is…is always available and always occurring always happening. You can always reach out for prayer there, always reach back in prayer there. And, so, certainly do be aware and to both of those things, reach out and reach back at the Prayer Wall. And that’s in the Community section either on the website or on the app. You get to the Community section in the app by pressing the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner.

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

And, as always, if you are carrying a burden that is crushing you then you don’t have to carry it alone. You can reach out. You can reach out by hitting the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top and share from their no matter where you are in the world or there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on…telephone numbers is what I’m referring to…anywhere you are in the world, 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. 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:

Hi this is Steve from Maryland; I’m calling to ask for prayer for me and also for my family as we are going through a lot of struggles right now. To give some background my wife and I had adopted five kids a number of years back and raised them. And five years ago my wife passed away so that left me as a single dad to raise these kids and here we are five years later and we are struggling with my son, I am struggling with my son who is 14 years old and with dealing with the whole schooling and home…home…home life with the pandemic and also a lot of loss. Still dealing with the loss of mom and other people in his life. And now he’s losing his sister who is going into jail tomorrow. She got herself in a legal jam a year and a half ago and it’s finally coming to pass at this time. And I have one daughter who is having a baby next month. And this is just a lot to take on and I just ask for any prayer that anybody can provide as this is a lot for me to take on. Any prayer is appreciated. I thank you very much.

Hello DAB this is Carla from East Texas…East Texas. I listen every day and I just started this journey on listening to the Bible everyday January 1^st and I’m so glad I did. I’ve learned a lot and I’ve heard a lot. The Bible’s my favorite. Praying for everyone whenever I think about it. I mean, life is busy. I just gained guardianship of my great-niece and I just want to ask for prayer for her. Her name is Chloe and she’s lovely. She six. I have a four-year-old daughter. I’m a single mom actually. So, my daughter loves her being over and I’m learning how to have two children in the house. And if you could just pray for her and her heart and her mind because she’s been through a lot. Stability was a reason why wanted her and I prayed to God that if it’d be His will that she stay with us and here she is. So, thank you for this. Thank you for your prayers and God bless.

Hello family this is People on the Water from Indiana just calling in just to be thankful. For Redeemed Rachel I heard your message, and I was just so blessed by hearing your very words. And just your name, Redeemed Rachel. I lift up prayers of intercession for your church family as a…as…as…as they are going to Norway to go on and serve the Lord in nor…Norway. And you’re also moving, and you’re excited about that. You have to say goodbye to friends but you’re excited to go…to go across country…to go cross nation. And like you’re just excited about that and I just thank the Lord that He has given you eyes to see and hope and not in fear or not in negative energies but in hope you can see hope so may you just keep that gift. And also, just in…in a spirit of celebration a prayer answered. I asked you all to pray for me that I might get my job. And this job is a little interesting because I was standing firm on. I didn’t want to have any other job but this one. I believed God would do it for me. And I…I…I turned in my application and I got the job brothers and sisters. I got it. So, keep being faithful to your God who is faithful to you. And know that Jesus loves you. I’d seen it within his scars and may you grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. I love you all. It’s in Jesus name that I pray, and I ask. Amen.

Good morning DAB family this is Jenny from London UK. I just started reading the plan this year. I would like to pray for the man who phoned in on the 18^th of March with a brain tumor pending surgery. By the stripes of Jesus, you are healed. Jesus had already paid the price at the cross. He has healed all our diseases. I curse that brain tumor and command it to shrink and die in Jesus mighty name. Thank you, Lord for a miracle for this man and his family, for supernatural healing prior to any surgery. In Jesus’ name I pray. Thank you, Lord. Amen.

Hey DAB family my name is Nathan, and I had a stroke in 2009 when I was 25 and I’m 37 now and I’ve been a believer for five years. I posted on the Prayer Wall and got some feedback and I think it’s working. I think it’s working. I…I will continue to listen to the daily devotional, and I thank you DAB family. Thank you very much. God bless you. Goodbye.

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’m Brian it is great to be here with you today as we greet the beginning of a brand-new shiny sparkly week out in front of us to step into and to live into with all of our hearts as the Scriptures continue to teach us and lead us forward. So, this brand-new week we’ll read from the English Standard Bible, and of course we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. We’re working our way through the book of Numbers and this week we will transition to the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament in a couple days. But we are here squarely in the book of Numbers for today and W’ll read chapter 32 verse one through 33, verse 39.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us safely into this brand-new shiny sparkly week. We look forward to it with anticipation. No matter what we’re carrying over, no matter what cloud we’re under, every moment is a new moment and this brand-new week is a week where we commit to seeking Your counsel, listening to Your voice, to walking with You, to making this the priority of our lives so that things are in alignment that we are seeking You first and Your kingdom. And then all these other things will be added unto us. So, help us to keep our priorities clear as we move forward and continue to keep our hearts open in this season of Lent where we invite You to insert into our lives what needs to be there and remove from our lives what doesn’t and to rearrange what is in our lives so that we are aligned so that we are situated to move forward effectively with You. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi Daily Audio Bible crew. I just saw my friend Angel. She’s a homeless girl that I met when it was a really cold night and I helped warm her up in my car and she just had her best friend rob her. And just as I was pulling into the parking lot, I just saw her crying next to the dumpster collecting recycling. And she’s just really upset, and she really misses her husband who’s no longer around. It really just breaks my heart to see a friend like that. I don’t feel like there’s anything I can do. Please pray for this woman. Pray for her meth addiction. She told me that she takes it for pain whenever she gets beaten up by somebody __. Please pray for her. Thank you all.

I arise today through the strength of heaven. Light of the sun, splendor of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of the wind, depth of the sea, stability of the earth, firmness of the rock. I rise today to God strength to pilot me, God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s hosts to save me, afar or anear, alone or in a multitude. Christ, shield me today against wounding. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath eight, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me. I rise today through the mighty strength of the Lord of creation. Hi guys it’s Michaela from Gloucester here and it is Wednesday, the 17^th of March __. And just wanted to give you guys a heads up that Ramadan starts on Monday, the 12^th of April, I think. So, yeah, let’s start praying that God would be revealing himself to…to Muslims of…

O Father in heaven on today You heard Your request from Your children, Your daughter and Your son. One is scared for her life and the other one is having surgery to remove a tumor from his brain. Father God he has children and a wife. I pray dear Lord that You will touch him and heal him, not only that the physicians who are…will be attending to him Father God, let their hands be Your hands and guide and direct as only You can. Father God we pray for protection for this Young lady. We pray that her friend will come into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Send down Your Holy Spirit and Your holy angels to cover both of them. Cover this gentleman with surgery. Cover the Young lady with protection and guidance. Father God we plead the blood but Father God forgive us for our sins because we know that we’ve come short of Your glory and all these prayers and all these request dear Lord, hear and answer according to Your riches in glory. We thank You and we love You. You are just so awesome. Lord we celebrated the times but You see and You forgive us and You hear us and You answer. Help us to wait patiently for Your answers. Thank You, Brian and Your family for this wonderful audio Bible that we can come around the morning and listen day or night. We can repeat and we can hear the cries, O my God. Lord You are just awesome Your people are crying out to You. Share them answer accordingly. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord…

Hello Daily Audio Bible community this is Daniel Johnson Junior calling from beautiful Cincinnati Ohio it is about 6 o’clock in the morning here on Thursday, March 18^th. I can hear the birds chirping in the….in the trees around me. It’s wet, it’s been raining, it’s gonna be raining a lot today and I just want to say…hang on second…let’s hold the log in the campfire. Okay. There is a lot…there are so many of us that are grieving something right now. It could be our health, it could be life changes, it could be a loss of loved ones or a changing in the relationship with loved ones and we are all grieving something right now. And one thing that I’ve learned is that it’s impossible and it’s really not sensitive for us to compare the grief that we…that somebody else shares with our brief or vice versa. It’s really…none of us can really know what it is like to be that person. And the other thing is just that man, there’s so much pain, there’s so much loss that we’re experiencing every single day. So, we need to go to God. So, let’s go to God. Father we just come to You right now and we don’t know how to deal with the loss that we’re experiencing. There are so many things that we’re doing…that we’re going through and we just ask You Father to be…to Father us like the best dad that You…that You are. Come into our grief, come into the sadness into the loss that we’re experiencing, the loss our own bodies, our own health, the loss of loved ones and the loss of a relationship, loss of jobs even. Please Father come in and be…be present in this because we desperately need You. In Jesus’ name. Amen. From beautiful Cincinnati Ohio this is Daniel Johnson Junior. God bless you all.

Good morning it’s Rich Exeter in the UK here and it’s Thursday, the 18^th of March. I was struck today by the final in the DAB by a guy who didn’t give his name but has a brain tumor next to his ear and I just wanted to pray for him now. Father God we lift our brother up to You now, who has had this tumor discovered in his head next to his ear. Father God we thank You that it has been discovered. We thank You that they are going to be operating soon. But Father we lift them up to You at this time of uncertainty. We pray that You will be his peace, that he will know Your loving arms of comfort around him as he goes through this process. And Father we pray specifically that his hearing will be saved. And Father as well that his face will have no long-lasting effects from the surgery.

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 it’s great to be here with you today as we reach the conclusion of another week together. And what a joy it has been to be able to spend this week in your presence, to spend this week together in God’s presence, and to know that this doesn’t ever have to end, and we’ll just keep going, week by week, day by day, month by month. We’ll just keep going, growing deeper in our understanding of the Scriptures, growing deeper in our understanding of how to apply them to…to our lives and shape…allow them to shape us and transform us. It’s a joy that we can do this and it’s a joy that can do this every day. And, so, let’s dive in for today. We’ve been reading from the God’s Word translation this week, which is what we’ll do today. Numbers chapter 30 and 31.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for another week in Your word, and now that we’ve completed it, we are grateful. We are grateful for all of the weeks that have come in this year and all of the weeks that are stretching out before us in this year as we spend this year walking through the Scriptures together in community and asking Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth so that we might be transformed so that…that the goal of our faith to be Christ like is not a metaphor or is not something that is elusive, but rather something that is actually happening. Come Holy Spirit transform us we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a whole bunch of different categories in there, many different resources that are…that are for the journey that we’re on. So…so, check it out. Check out the Daily Audio Bible…well…Wind Farm coffee and tea, even our Wind Farm coffee and tea club. Like we can ship, coffee…fresh…fresh roasted coffee, freshly sourced tea to you each month if you are a coffee or tea drinker. So, check out that as well as all the other resources in the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible that can be done in dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage or if using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DAB community this is Bob Odie praying for C who submitted her prayer request back March 16^th. Father I’m asking that You would light this __ that she’s going through, that You would open up the streams of living water in the midst of this hopelessness and tiredness and weariness she’s feeling Father. I pray Father that You’d restore the joy of her Salvation to her. Bless C with the fruits of the Spirit. May she experience Your joy, Your love, Your forgiveness, renewal all over again. May C realize Father through Your Holy Spirit right now as we pray that she is worth so much for Your Kingdom, that she is a jewel, a precious, precious stone in Your Crown. Thank You Lord for C. Bless her, bless her children, her husband. Release her from this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi family this is March 17^th and I want to encourage us. And sometimes, you know, in our lives we need to speak to ourselves like king David did. We need to start doubting our doubts and questioning our questions and we need to start believing in God and believing in him and to believe also in the fact that God can be trusted and that he is trustworthy. O my soul where is your faith? Where is your hope? Why are you troubled? Why are you worried and anxiously trying to figure it out all that’s to come? O my soul why do you doubt? Why do you fear? Where is your song? Why aren’t you singing and thankfully giving Him praise for all that’s to come? Has He ever failed you? Has He ever left you? Has He ever spoken a promise and not made it good? He never has, He never will, He never would. Look back and remember all that you ever felt was your loss. He has only…it has only been again. He can do it again. And He can do it again. O my soul why do you fear? Why can’t you surrender? Where is your trust? Why aren’t you willingly choosing to follow Him into all that’s to come. Family trust in the Lord. He is trustworthy, He is faithful. We thank you Lord for your faithfulness. Be encouraged. Anne from Arizona.

Hello this is God’s messenger from Pennsylvania and I just want to call in to praise the Lord because I was listening today, and today’s the 16^th of March and I am just so happy how God has restored some of your lives and just encouraged you and strengthened you and blessed you. It is amazing. God is faithful. And I just also want to say that if you’re in a season of sowing tears and you have precious seeds, in due time you will gather your harvest with joy and you’ll be singing again, you’ll be dancing. God is faithful. Trust in Him. Call in and open up. He…He is faithful. He will show you the path of righteousness and show you where to step on the rocky path and He will lead you to the green pastures of living water. He will strengthen your soul. God bless you all. Shalom in the mighty name of Jesus.

Hello DAB this is Sharon in Southern California. I’m calling in because I just heard Val in Vegas, her testimony, and her…I guess commitment, renewed commitment to God and to hear about all the blessings. I am just so happy for you Val. I’m so happy that you came to the realization that God loves you and He will always be there for you, and that He keeps you. It was just so joyful to hear your testimony and to hear your voice and how grateful and in love with God you are. It just filled my heart with joy. I just wanted to say thank you and it gives the rest of us hope. It does. It gives me hope knowing that God is still out there listening, and God is still in the blessing business. So, I want to say thank you again for your testimony Val. You have a wonderful and blessed day.

Hi Lori Music. I’m a long-time listener. Some of you know me as Lori Music the transplant from Chicago down to beautiful Hebrew Springs Arkansas. It’s taken me a while to do this but last Wednesday my husband passed away rather quickly, but I think he knew because he made the rounds to see all three of his daughters, his mom, his stepdad, his best fishing buddy. It’s amazing what the will can do to make sure that they’ve achieved that before they go on. But my heart is heavy. But when I first married my husband he was not saved. He would’ve been in hell. And it’s not me who saved him. It’s the Holy Spirit that worked through me to save him. So, my girls and I are blessed to know that we know that we know he is in heaven, he is saved, he is redeemed, he is in no more pain. But please pray for our three girls – my Kelly, my Caitlin, and my Stephanie because they’ve lost their daddy. We know they still have their heavenly father who will love them more than their earthly father ever did and as they grow older into their 30s and 40s and 50s they’ll understand more deeply how much their heavenly father loves them and one day they will again reunite…be reunited with her earthly father. So, please lift up prayers for them. I love you all. Blessings.

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

Today is the 19^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and honor to be here with you. We’re rounding the corner on another week. We just keep moving forward, step-by-step day by day and when we do that without stopping, we actually make progress on our journey and we will indeed complete this journey if we keep putting one foot in front of the other. And that’s no different than any of the rest of life. We will complete what we do not quit. We will finish what we’ve started if we keep going and finish what we’ve started, which is what we’re gonna do. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. We got the news in the book of numbers yesterday that Moses time was short and that it was time for him to prepare new leadership for the emerging generation, that he wouldn’t be going into the promised land, but his assistant had been with him for a very long time, Joshua would emerge as the new leader. And, so, we will see that come to fruition as we continue put one foot in front of the other and take steps forward. Today, Numbers chapter 28 verse 16 through 29 verse 40.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Numbers we’re kind of working through annual festivals and we’re still, you know, this is a portion of the law so it can be repetitive and even feel redundant because it’s explicit, it’s very clear.

And then we move into the book of Luke today and we’re reading the genealogy of Jesus, like tracing the family story back all the way to the first man and to where humanity originated with God.

And then we flipped over the Psalms, “my soul waits calmly for God alone. And even more accurately, “my…my soul waits in silence for God alone.” I’m not…I’m not sure I could stress how important of a statement that actually is. Let’s think about…let’s think about the way we interact with God. What does that look like for you? you know, it can include prayer, right? Where we wake up in the morning and we acknowledge God and are grateful and maybe tell Him some of the things that we’re facing today or maybe we are remembering our children or our spouse, family, our extended family. Maybe we’re just praying over people that are in our communities are friends of ours. Maybe we move through the day and have ongoing conversations with God. Maybe we talk to Him at a red light or maybe we talk to Him before we eat dinner or maybe we talk to Him before we fall asleep or maybe we fall asleep talking to Him. The point is that when we interact with God, we’re usually doing almost all the talking. It’s us that’s filling the world with words. And yet the psalmist suggests that there are other ways to be in God’s presence, there are other ways to pray. Maybe we should listen more than we speak. It’s funny because we’ll maybe sit down to give God five minutes of conversation or whatever and we run out of words to say and we don’t know exactly what to do but we know we need to do it and so we just, you know, we talk about all the evil things in the world that needs to be corrected and we’re just talking about ourselves and what would improve the world and our lives were God to…to intervene on our behalf in some way or another. What if He would like you to intervene in some way or another on His behalf because He is a job for you to do but we don’t listen. I’ve done a pretty deep dive for an extended period of time in this area just realizing that a one-sided conversation isn’t really that much of a conversation. And what the early monks and those in monastic orders and the mystics of the Christian faith understood was that some of the most valuable prayer that you could ever be involved in is one in which you present yourself in silence before God and wait, whether…whether He says anything or not, wait to just be comfortable in the silence with God like you can be comfortable with somebody that you really love and really know where something is going on that’s beyond words alone, that there’s an intimacy there that transcends what you can say. When you begin to practice that it’s kinda odd at first because it’s like nothing’s happening, you’re just sitting there, and you just realize how disruptive silence can be. You just begin to…like even just trying to sit for five minutes in silence or ten minutes in silence and you become so acutely aware of how addicted to distraction we are, like how we can’t actually be still. And if we can’t be still, then how can we be still and know He is God? And, so, is it any wonder that we really don’t functionally live as if that’s true? It’s a verse we share. It’s a verse quote but it’s a…it’s also an invitation to deeper intimacy. “For God alone, my soul waits in silence.” Maybe we can carve out a little silence for ourselves over the weekend. It’s shocking how restorative it actually is to kinda move past the distractions and needing to check the phone every 30 seconds, twiddling, twiddling, twitching, twitching to just be still and breathe and know that He is God.

Prayer:

And, so, Father, we…we confess. We…we do most of the talking and that’s, You know we try to develop the narrative that tells the story of our lives and we have to additionally acknowledge that we avoid silence. It’s disruptive. We don’t know what to do with it. And that’s just it. There’s nothing to do with it but rest, be still and know. And, so, help us Father to begin this even if it’s just a one minute practice that we do twice a day or something, just that we acknowledge You, that we sit with You, that we’re before You without some other plea or ask, without some other ask, that we just present ourselves before You in full-blown worship beyond words in silence that speaks far more than our words or our vocabulary is capable of. Come Holy Spirit, lead us deeper into Jesus we pray. In the precious name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, and it’s always where you can find out what’s going on around here. It’s always a place to get connected.

The Prayer Wall is there. It’s always time to pray and receive prayer. So, check it out. Stay familiar.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop, there are resources there for this journey. Check out the Wind Farm coffee and tea. Check out all the different apparel, all the Global Campfire line of stuff, all the things to write in and write with, things to read, things to listen to, music to enjoy. The DAB shop is kind of like the outfitter for the journey that we are on so…so definitely check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link that just is…that stays right on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner and the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement there are a number of ways you can reach out. You can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little button up at the top. You won’t be able to miss it. Looks like button, like a red button. Press that and you can share from anywhere in the world or there are a number of telephone numbers that you can use. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. In the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or the lands down under 61-3-8820-5459 is number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning this is Pamela from Pennsylvania. I would appreciate your prayers. I’m going to invite my husband to be a part of this community, the DAB and to listen to the regular DAB every day. I’ll give you some the back story to that. We’ve been separated for six years now and prior to that it was a very, very unhealthy environment. The enemy did many things, outlandish things to manipulate him and manipulate me to harm one another. In saying that, I think the degree of harm to me was…was much greater. But the enemy has been trying to get at me for many, many years and has been successful. I’m recently learning how to live free from the enemy’s attacks and standing in victory, standing firm. So, I believe it’s a good time to introduce my husband to the things that have been feeding me. He has now finally come to remorse and repentance. So, I would appreciate your prayers as we go through this first step. Thank you very much. God bless you all. Bye-bye.

Hi DAB family this is Sparky From Texas. And I was just gonna call and see if you guys could pray for me a little while. I have real bad depression and it’s…it’s pretty painful and you don’t necessarily know how to deal with it sometimes. But I just wanted to ask for some prayer, if I can work from home and everything else. I’m just trying to stay the word, keep my focus here, but I know we have a very powerful community and if you could pray for me, I’d greatly appreciate it, for some clarity. And it’s just a tough time. I love you guys. I appreciate the prayers. Bye-Bye.

Hello DAB family this is Melissa in Arkansas and this is the first time I’ve called in to respond to somebody’s prayer request but for some reason I am today. I’m not sure why I don’t pray out loud in front of people. So, I’m a little nervous about this but I feel like God told me to do it. So, this is what I’m doing. Please forgive me. But it’s not a very…I don’t pray very elegantly but I’m just…it’s March 16^th and I just got through listening and a lady called in and she called herself C and she said she’s been dealing with postpartum depression since December and was just having a hard time seeing God’s light. So, I just…Father I just pray for C. I just pray that You show her Your light and grab her in Your arms and give her some comfort Father and let her know that You’re there. Just let her see You in a big way. Lord help her through this. I know dealing with depression and postpartum and all of that is really hard and you just feel alone. So, I just pray that You just show up like I said in a big way and bless her and bless Your family. And thank You Father. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning DAB family this is Tina here from Cross Harbor which is on the East Coast of Australia. Could you please, please pray for our friend Robbie. He’s a much loved church musician, songwriter, preacher, lover of Jesus, one of God’s really choice ones. And about 12 years ago or so he suffered a work injury and was severely poisoned. And at that time, he became like a baby in the way that he functioned and his ability. But through God’s miracle and the love and care of his wife Bronnie who helped him with brain retraining and diet and chelation and much, much prayer he recovered almost fully. Well, this year he began to relapse of three days ago tried to take his own life in the most horrible of ways. I can’t even describe it. Bronnie rushed him to hospital the surgeon operated, though it was touch and go he did survive that and he’s now on 24/7 supervision. His family and his church family all are in shock and disbelief. He’s in and out of psychosis and says he’ll do it again. Please pray. It’s…it’s not Robbie. It’s just not the way he is. Could you just pray that Bronnie can get him into a rehab facility, the one that she has her eye on, is safe and will get them the help he needs. So, appreciate you guys. So appreciate DAB. Thanks family. Bless you all. Bye.

Words of life even more than before reaching all the way to our wayward way. The ache so deep beyond our sleep the aching abyss of our souls. [singing starts] You alone can reach us here in the dark. You alone bring us out of the cold. Lord you shine so bright unbearable light hope of all the ages. Appreciate what you have you tell me. Where you are and watch who you are with. Richer than richly you pour out blessings in this moment now [singing stops]. Half a body still lingers here without the love of my life but Lord you enliven this half the remains with [singing starts] music bike rides and students [singing stops] dear young ones struggling too. You Lord made the magic of falling in love. You will see us through. Jesus, lover of our souls you will make us new. I will walk in the ways of your commands [singing starts] when you enlarge my heart [singing stops]. You’ve been here from the start and long before, but your great goodness open every door. You’re the mystery were invited to know in whom dwells all the treasures of wisdom. Christ Jesus our Savior, love defined, love imbued. Wholeness now and forever more our strength our joy our song.

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’m Brian it’s wonderful to be here with you today as we do what we do, which is take steps forward. Kind of hard…I don’t even know how we would take a step backward and read the Bible in reverse or something but we’re here to take steps forward. The only way is forward. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week and we’re in the book of Numbers chapter 26 verse 52 through 28 verse 15 today.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Numbers today we have begun a transition and it’s gonna take us a while to get through this transition. But it’s a major major transition, a transition of leadership, a passing of the torch as it were from Moses, who we’ve been traveling with so long…like a long time now - many many miles together with Moses, many trials and many of…of God’s miraculous deeds and provision for His people. So, that transition is…is beginning. It will take us a minute to get there because we’ll conclude the book of Numbers less than a week from now but then we will enter the final book of the Torah, the book of Deuteronomy. And, so, we won’t be leaving Moses. Deuteronomy really is the last speeches or discourses of Moses to the people, to the people that he’s been leading before he dies. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll talk about that when we get there. But there is a transition beginning here now, where God is instructing Moses that he will leave…leave the scene basically, leave the stage, die, join his ancestors and then we will continue to move on without Moses. Joshua is being commissioned to take the place of Moses in the future when Moses is gone. Ironically, Joshua or Yehoshua, or Yeshua in Hebrew might sound familiar because it’s the same name as Jesus and this name means God’s salvation. And, so, we see connecting threads and ironically they’re very…they’re very connected in our reading today because when we turn to the book of Luke we are at the very inauguration or consecration of…of Jesus who is at the Jordan River being baptized by John and he comes up out of the water and the Spirit comes down on him and says, “you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” The irony is that Joshua is being commissioned to lead the people forward. Jesus is God’s son, leading the people forward and we have shared names with shared meanings with redemptive threads with stories of redemption kind of tying a thread between the two today. And we’ll be able to watch both of those stories unfold before us in great detail as we continue our journey forward.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all these connecting points that connect over centuries in the Scriptures of an ongoing redemptive thread that winds its way into our lives as well as we carry the story forward. And, so, come Holy Spirit into all that we’ve read today. Plant it into the soil of our lives. We continue to open ourselves to You fully inviting You to rearrange our lives, shape us, conform us to Your image we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, it’s where the Global Campfire is burning, it’s where we all come together in this virtual community. And, so, be familiar with that.

Check out the…the Community section. Of course, on the web or in the app you can do these things. So, on the web there’s like, you know, a navigation up at the top and you’d be looking for the Community section. If you’re in the app you would just push the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and look for the Community section. But this is where the different links to get connected on social media are. This is also where the Prayer Wall lives. And, so, we are a community of prayer and we have done a really, really beautiful job of praying for each other over these years through…I mean…we have brought each other through some really, really difficult things over these years. And God has honored that and been in it with us. And, so, Prayer Wall is always on. You never have to be without. You got stuff going on, you can poste it on the Prayer Wall and brothers and sisters will pray.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage. 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 I thank you from the bottom of my heart or the top of my heart, from a full heart, from a heart that’s in awe that this is even happening. I’m grateful that we’re in this together. Thank you for your partnership.

And, as always, if you have 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:

DAB family Kathleen Mount Zion IL I am calling today…I tried calling earlier on my way to work and for some reason I just kept redoing and redoing these recordings. So, I finally just stopped and said I will just wait till after work. But I just wanted to pray. I…I read something about Nigeria again and Nigeria’s always been dear to my heart. I have called in the past. It’s been a couple of years at least calling for Nigeria and every once in a while, I call in about that. But I’m just asking you to pray with me right now because there was another recent kidnapping of Christian children right out of their school. They’ve done this before. The last time the girls came back many of them had children they had been forced into marriage with Islamic extremists. And, you know, I just…it’s just awful. Anyway, just pray with me. Lord Jesus I pray for Nigeria. I pray for this country Lord. There are many many Christians in Nigeria. Lord you are the King of all, you are the one’s…with you we can walk on water we can move mountains and I pray that the people of Nigeria the Christians of Nigeria will bind together, they were bind together and they will force Boca Ram out of their country and they will first however retrieve what has been lost, their lost children, lost young Christians. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Hi this is Gloria calling from Florida. This call is for Tammy from the Adirondacks. She is in remission from ovarian cancer. I don’t know what you’re going through, but I want you to take comfort in a God who loves you. He has healed your cancer and He can also heal your heart and your mind in what you’re going through right now. Jesus came to bind the broken hearted. Take heart that He has overcome. I pray that you would wear the full armor of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith and yield the sword of the Spirit of the word and pray. I pray that you reach out to those that are close with you, that you share your burdens with them so they can help you carry this burden. I’m so glad that you called so that we could pray for you. In Jesus’ name. Amen. We love you.

Hey DABbers, this is Keira from Denver I am so grateful to God for everything He’s done for me. And y’all I would like continued prayer for my son, Nish. Tonight…today was the second day this week that I had to call the police because…because I had concern for my own safety in regards to my son. The earlier one last Tuesday they took him to the hospital and they…he went to the psych unit but then he got released the next day. Tonight, they took him to the hospital again and this time they took him to this city detox place. And I know this place is not that great. It’s not a rehab and it’s not a lockup. He can leave anytime. But I pray that he stays till…until tomorrow and I pray…I pray and I would like for you…you guys to stand in prayer with me that he…everyone he comes in contact with…with is Spirit filled and Christ filled and can give him guidance. And I pray that maybe this is…this is the moment, this is the moment that Nish makes a decision to change and that he can actually go into a rehab and get the help he needs. And he’s had these issues of psychosis ever since 2012 but he’s continued using drugs this whole time. So, it’s just a compounding of problems. And please pray, please pray everybody with me. Thank you. I love you DAB…

Good morning friends and family this is Justified Smile I am a new listener from late last year and this is my first time calling. It is the morning of March 16^th and I just heard C’s prayer request about her postpartum depression and her feelings of worthlessness. And also, just last night dear friend and sister of mine that I’ll call M texted me last night about suicidal thoughts asking for prayer. I’ve seen in the past year that a spirit of death haunts this world. So, I ask you all to join me in prayer. Jesus, teach us to pray. Lord You are King, comforter and shepherd. You are goodness and life. And in Your name, we repel death from the hearts and mind of C and M and all Your children who it attacks along with its every backup replacement and contingency. Let Your life and joy rule in the lives of Your children. Protect those who pray for retaliation and comfort, those who have been hounded and antagonized. Keep us good Shepherd. All this for Your glory oh God my sovereign King.

Hello everyone, I wanted to ask for some prayer today. Been listening for a while and this is…Daily Audio Bible’s really been an encouragement to me. Last year I had a…a pulmonary embolism and it’s kind of been…otherwise been really healthy but it’s kind of since last year seem to have gone downhill. So, I had this embolism and then about…about a month ago I started getting these really bad migraines and…and some double vision. Went to the doctor and he told me to get an MRI. It came back with a…a…a…s brain tumor that’s 3.4 cm. It’s called an acoustic neuroma that kind of grows in my ear next to my brain but it’s pushing against my brainstem. And, you know it…it…it…it…it would be pretty dangerous. They’re gonna have to take it out in the next couple weeks. So, I am praying for obviously as a successful surgery but I’m also praying…there’s…there’s two risks. They…they have already told me I’ll probably lose my hearing in my right ear but also the…the risk that…that…that is possible is kind of almost permanent, is Bell’s palsy because it’s right there on the facial nerve as well. So, just praying for that, praying for my family. I can’t drive right now because…because my double vision and so my wife’s having to take me around everywhere and we have three small boys. So, I really…I pray…I pray for the prayers. I have lot’s of people praying for me but if, you know, more…more people going to the Lord on my behalf would be amazing. The only last thing I pray well…

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

Today is the 17^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we move through the center of our week right here at the center of our month. It’s been quite a week. We’re in the gospel of Luke. And, so, this week we read of the coming of John the Baptist. we read of the birth of Jesus. And in the book of Numbers, we have read the story of Balaam and Balak and have applied that to our lives. So, let’s take the next step forward. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. Numbers chapter 26 versus 1 through 51.

Commentary:

Okay. I think it was the day before yesterday in the gospel of Luke that we read of John the Baptist or John the one that would grow to be John the Baptist of the story surrounding his birth. And we did that in the context of saying like John didn’t just show up magically at the Jordan River and everybody just went down to see the crazy man walking in out of the desert, that there was a story surrounding his life that people would have known and watched as he grew up. And then even as he went into the wilderness, when he came back out of the wilderness to the Jordan River calling people to repentance there was a story around him. Everybody was looking to see what would become of him and then they realized he was a prophet of God. We have similar things with Jesus. Obviously, the angelic visitations letting the shepherds know and then the following of the star. Like all of those things would announce the arrival of the Savior, certainly. So, like with the shepherds, you can only imagine how many people they told of what they had seen. Whether they were believed or not, the story began to spread. You can only imagine the wise men making their journey and then returning back after having seen the child and spreading the word. Like, the story is beginning to get out. And then Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to dedicate Him to God and offer the appropriate sacrifices and there’s prophetic utterances over Him. This is happening in the temple complex. People would see this, wonder about it, talk about it. Maybe it wouldn’t spread all over the nation to every far-reach, but it will be something that was talked about. And, so, Jesus with his family, they would make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. So, Jesus was familiar enough with the temple. And, so, it wouldn’t be like a terrible stretch into the realm of fantasy, and believe me, plenty in the realm of fantasy around Jesus Christ. But it wouldn’t be here in the realm of fantasy to say, okay annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover was a part of the story of Jesus upbringing. We get that from the Gospels. So, if you were visiting the temple complex on an annual basis it’s not a stretch that some of the people who were around Him as an infant, would begin to see Him become a toddler, would begin to see Him growing up and know who He was. But then we have this episode where Jesus is 12 years old, and we read this today where they’ve done exactly that. They’ve gone to Jerusalem for the Passover and then they’ve left. And that’s 90 miles roughly on foot from Jerusalem back to the Galilee near…near Nazareth. So, they would travel in caravans for safety, but also, it’s a long way. So, they would travel in caravans. And, so, they assume Jesus was among them when He wasn’t. That right there, like that part of the story if we enter into it as a parent, that’s a terrifying to thing, that’s a terrifying thing to think that you’ve lost your kid in a major metropolitan world center. And, you know, you discover this when you’re a day’s journey just to get back, just to start looking. So, they are several days removed from Jesus, at least five days removed from Jesus when they end up finding Him because they traveled a day away from Jerusalem and they travel a day back to Jerusalem and it took them three more days to find Jesus in the temple. So, you know, they’ve gotta be freaking out. Nevertheless, they find Jesus in the temple complex and He’s learning and He’s being taught and He’s asking questions and He’s answering questions and He is amazing. Like He is absolutely getting the attention of the rabbis who are there in Jerusalem. This would be the elite leaders and teachers who work in the temple of God and He’s answering them adequately to the point that they’re stunned by Him. Of course, as the story goes when Jesus’ parents find Him, they ask Him why He did this to them. And He says I must be about my father’s business, but the next thing you know, He submits to them, they go back to Nazareth. This is not the kind of thing that would be forgotten. Like, if a…a kid is speaking among the scholars and speaking coherently and asking important questions and…and giving answers and perspectives in a way that is amazing or stunning to the elite leaders, to the scholars of the Torah, then this is not something that is gonna just be forgotten. This is something that they would’ve been talking about for days after the fact and wondering similar things as they were wondering about John. What’s gonna become of this kid? Something special is happening. My point here isn’t like a theological point or something that we gotta hold up and apply to our lives. It’s the context here. It’s just having some sense of a back story. When Jesus began His ministry and began to speak with authority the Scriptures tell the people found that to be amazing, that He was amazing, that He was stunning, that what He said was not like what anybody else was saying. He spoke with authority. He spoke as if He knew what He was talking about. So, when the word spread that there was this rabbi up in Galilee, this person doing this kind of teaching, eventually word would’ve been like, what…what’s His name? Well, His name was Jesus. Dots would’ve been connecting. That’s that kid. That’s that kid that was up here in the temple when His parents left Him in Jerusalem. That’s that kid. And we get clues about this from the…the other gospel narratives, that Jesus began His ministry and was beginning to make waves. Rabbis, people traveled all the way from Jerusalem. Again, they walked 90 miles to hear Him. And we can see through the Gospels that the people who were making that kind of trek, like the scholars, like the elite, they were not antagonistic toward Jesus at first. It…it wasn’t a situation where right from the get-go they wanted Him dead. They were coming to check Him out. It took a while for that enmity to grow, and it mostly came out of Jesus calling the truth, exposing the darkness, especially among the religious. That definitely got Jesus on the wrong side…well…on the wrong side of the law, you might say. Because in the end He was condemned as a blasphemer, a lawbreaker. So, let’s just understand that. Jesus wasn’t born, and then He disappeared and then He just reappeared like some kind of magical apparition with magical powers and then people flocked to Him and nobody knew what was going on. This was an ongoing thing. And to look into this and just have a little bit of a context, this is kind of the only way that we get a bit of context about Jesus early life. There’s very…just very, very little in the Gospels between His birth and the beginning of His ministry. So, for example, this account of…well…everything that we’ve read here about Jesus in the temple when He’s an infant and then…then they go back to Nazareth. That is in the gospel of Luke, whereas in the Gospel of Matthew that also has an emphasis, an infancy narrative. They…they end up fleeing to Egypt for a season. And, so, when you think about some of the stuff, you’re like, “well man that would be so cool to…like what was that story? Like, what happened there?” And we don’t have all of that. There are ancient writings about it that date way back.  These are the infancy Gospels. These are apocryphal writings that were not canonized. They are not part of Scripture. They’re just part of the early early stories in the church. And, so, obviously the story of Jesus going to Egypt is important to the…like those who are in the Coptic church, which is largely Egyptian. So there…there are definitely writings with stories in them about Jesus early life and His journey to Egypt and really, really interesting fanciful things but not contained in the canon of Scripture. I say all that just to simply say that, yeah, we get Jesus birth then we kind of skip to Jesus adulthood and that’s where the focus is and we wonder, “what was it like for Him to grow up?” And, so, we look into the Gospels and like, well here’s kinda what we can say, here’s what we can see from the gospel narratives that would allow us to…to understand that Jesus’ development wouldn’t have been completely unknown any more than John’s development would’ve been completely unknown. But also, that there’s a lot that we don’t know. But there’s a lot that we do. And isn’t that our desire, isn’t that our hearts’ desire, to know more. Not just to know more about, but to no more with.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. It is deeply interesting and fascinating to learn of You because we’re learning what it looks like to be truly human. When we look at You, we’re looking at what it looks like for the most-high God to be willing to become one of His creation to identify with us so that we could understand. And the truth is we’ve missed so much of it but we’re so deeply grateful that we have this life to get to know You, deeply, from the Scriptures and deeply because we’re in relationship. And. so, Jesus, help us to learn of You, what we need to learn of You. We pray in Your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, that’s where the action is, that’s where the Global Campfire is, that’s where virtual community like us calls home. So, be familiar and check it out.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources that we stocked in there for this journey specifically, whether that be just fun stuff to kind of carry around. Like, I have things that I take with me and remind me of this community no matter where I go. Just put mt hand in my pocket. Got this little coin that we have, the Global Campfire coin just as a touch point. Like everywhere I go I want to be reminded of the community that I get to be a part of. And, so, there’s all kinds of Global Campfire stuff there. But there are…are writings to go to deeper. There…there’s a journal there that we’ve developed along with wonderful things to write with, to write your story in your own hand. Just check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link that’s on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button. That’s 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 just hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top that remarkably looks like a hotline button. You can’t miss it. And you can share from there no matter where you are in the world 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 I hope you’re all having a blessed blessed Sunday. I just thank God for all your lives and also thank you to the Hardin family for this amazing ministry. May God continue to add many many more years to this amazing ministry. In the UK today is Mother’s Day and I just wanted to say happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful mothers and carers to young children. I lost my mother on the 23^rd of October 2016. She was a woman of faith. She really loved God. She was my rock, the most loving, softest mother I could have ever asked for. So, a day like this normally makes me feel quite sad, quite low, quite lonely. And also, sometimes it feels as if people around me forget my pain and how a day like this makes me really feel. But my reassurance is that I know that my mother is in heaven where is, you know, that is a place that’s filled with laughter and praise to the Almighty. You’ll probably hear this later, but I just want to ask for prayers for God’s comfort for me during this time. I also want to say a prayer for all those who have lost mothers, for the Lord to give you strength. May He comfort you especially a day filled with mixed emotions. May His love provide you with confirmation that God will never leave you nor forsake you. Amen. And this is Sarah from London. God bless you all. Stay blessed.

Hello this is Charlene from Akron OH first time caller. I had started listening to DAB a couple years ago and just each year I would get distracted, and I would just fall away, and I just wouldn’t see it through, but this year so far has been going so much better and I just really want to stick with it. I was calling to reach out to D from Pennsylvania whose son is moving to California just let her know that I had a son that went to school and hasn’t been home since he’s 18 he’s down 26 and he lives in Texas. And while it’s getting easier there’s always that longing to have him home, but it does get better, and they do learn to live and be on their own and…but I just want to let you know you’ll be in my prayers. And I also wanted to ask for prayer for my oldest one period his wife. She is facing a hysterectomy on April 9^th and I just want to pray that this is really the right thing. They do not have any children and obviously this would make it permanent not to be able to have any children of their own. I know adoption is an option. This is also my first born and he was saved when he was five years old and had stayed with his faith all the way through college, taught Bible studies, and all kinds of stuff. And then just a little bit before he moved out of the house, he was just sharing how he was just doubting things how he’s letting it ride out. And he’s never fully committed to coming back and he’s very respectful, loves family. And I just want prayer for them. And I don’t know if this is something that maybe God is using to bring him and his wife to Him and make their relationship with Him the strongest it could be. Well, I’m out of time. Thank you so much.

Hello everyone, this is Rachel from Oregon. I’m actually going to change my name to Redeemed Rachel. I just wanna ask for a couple prayers. First of all, the pastor and…and his wife of our church are being called to be missionaries in Norway and it’s just such an amazing thing that God has called them to do and they are being obedient in it, but they are also super amazing people who have really stewarded our church so well and taught so many people how to walk in line with the word of God and just what God’s love really looks like. And I’ve never grown more than being at this church with them as pastors. So, I know a lot of people are having a hard time with it in my church and I just ask that you pray, that God will bring along the next right person and bring our body over here peace through this time of transition and adjusting to whoever does come along. And also, I ask prayer for my family because we are making a cross country move, totally uprooting. I have to say a lot of goodbyes over here which is going to be really hard and I’m going to a place I’ve never been to and don’t know much about but I am…I’m really excited about it but it is very nerve wracking. I have a couple months to get rid of all this stuff in our apartment and pack up we’re taking and clean up our apartment and just get everything in…in order and I’m also nervous about finding a good church over there because until the one I’m at right now I’ve only been in bad churches. So, just please pray for my family and bring us peace and let us stay in God’s will. Thank you.

Hi everyone, this is Jeanette from Denmark. I’m calling for prayer against a tumor which has developed in the left stump of my arm under the elbow. I’ve had cancer before about 16 years ago and it came back under the stress of covid. And I am so blessed right now to be able to speak the language here where I live and to participate in the local church. And I thank God so much for what He’s taught me through this walk of a totally different life of where I come from in the states. I bless his name because he has blessed me with a dependent…a sense of dependency upon Him. And I know that He has much more in store. I want to share about healing and about the love of Father God here and help the church to grow here. And I thank him for blessing my family with peace of mind in this time and inspiring us with what to do and holding us tight in these days. And I pray He does the same for so many of you. Thank you for the DAB and the time we spend together every day. And [singing starts] may the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you because He loves you, He is your Father He is a wonderful Father [singing stops]. Amen. Thank you.

Hello DABbers, it’s your girl Val here in Vegas. Oh my gosh y'all. This makes one year. Whoo…i got to get through this call! It’s been one year since I called in and asked for help. I was sitting alone in the hospital in a zero-gravity room believing the lies of the enemy that God was mad at me with double pneumonia. You guys prayed me…well…you prayed me out of that situation, but man you did so much more than that. I’m literally about to celebrate on April 6^th a year at my dream job. My health is literally better than it’s been in quite some time. I can’t even name in the two minutes that I have all the blessings in this last year. I’ve grown closer to my family. I’ve been more prayerful. I understand now that God wasn’t mad at me then and he’s not mad at me now. And I say all this to say to anybody that is just at that edge where you feel like you want to give up, don’t! Please don’t. Stand strong. Call in. Know that this family is praying for you. We believe in you. We are people that love the Lord. We want to pray for you, and we want you to call in and we want to hear your words of encouragement. Those praise reports warm my heart. I love you guys. Please hold on.

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. It is an honor, it is a privilege and joy and just fun…fun to be around this Global Campfire together with you, to know that we’re in this together, O just to know that is not a solitary endeavor, that we just have to shoulder the loads on our own, that our brothers and sisters are going through the same kinds of things we are all over the world. The Scriptures tell us that and it’s true. We are in this piece of history together. We are in life together because we find ourselves alive on this planet at the same time. And what a joy it is to share this bit of history with you. And one of the ways that we understand our own history is to see how history is played out over the millennia with God in the middle of it, which is what the Scriptures give us. And, so, let’s dive in. We are in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament and we’ve been tracking along with this, man named Balaam who had a donkey who talked to him yesterday. He’s been summoned by a king named Balak to curse the people of Israel. It’s just not working out that way. Let’s pick up that story. Numbers chapters 24 and 25 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Luke today we…we read of the birth of Jesus. So, that’s a significant thing to point out. We won’t go into a whole lot of depth other than to just point out what we were pointing out yesterday. This is the last time will read the narrative of the birth of Jesus. Indeed, we’re in the third of the four Gospels. And the Gospel of John is what we’ll read after we finish the book of Luke, but the gospel of John doesn’t refer to the Nativity story, the birth of Jesus. And, so, I’m just suggesting that as we move through this territory that we give it significance. I know we just passed through Christmas not too long ago and of this is a very famous story, but this is the story of the coming of the Savior. And, so, just really immersing ourselves into it, especially as we’re moving toward Easter, especially as we have this opportunity move through the gospel of Luke and really absorb and really put ourselves in the story as we move into the Easter season. So, this will be important for us.

But ow let’s go back to the book of numbers because we’ve had a developing story over the course of several days, a story of a man named Balaam who seemed to be hirable to curse people and apparently was effective at doing this sort of behavior because the king of Moab whose name was Balak sent for him, sent far and wide and sent dignitaries to get him to come. So, we can assume the Balaam had some sort of reputation for this sort of thing. Balaam also talked to God and heard from God. And, so, I don’t want to go over like every little detail of the story because it’s kind of drawn out but let’s remember that the Moabite king Balak sent several envoys of prestige to get Balaam to come back to Moab and there was a promise of riches. God spoke to Balaam and told him not to go at least initially. When the first envoy came, they spent the night, Balaam sought God, God said don’t go, he told the people, “I can’t go. I can only obey God.” So, the envoy went home. The next envoy came and said, “come, come at once.” Balaam said, “I can…I can only do what God tells me to do. Wait…wait for me to hear from God.” And at that point God said, “you can go.” So, in other words, “go with them but you can only say what I tell you to say.” That is key in this story. Let’s remember that Balaam gets paid to do this kind of stuff. Let’s remember that Balaam was promised prestige and riches. At first God told him that he couldn’t go. So, that was a “no”. And then God told him that he could go as long as he only spoke the words of God. So, what was a no to riches and prestige kind of became a maybe depending on what God told him he could say, which opened up all kinds of possibilities for what might be able to happen to enrich Balaam’s life. And, so, they set off toward Moab. Moab, so that it’s not completely confusing is essentially modern day Jordan. So, Balaam has permission to go and there’s still a promise of riches and prestige. And, so, they take off and that’s when the angel of the Lord comes and stands in front of the donkey stopping the donkey three different times. It’s odd. Like it’s an odd twist in the story because God gave Balaam permission to go. So, why is God sending an angel to stand in his path? So, the donkey sees the angel and veers off into a field. And, so, Balaam gets mad and beats the donkey back onto the road and they keep walking. Then they go through a vineyard and the donkey can’t get all the way through so Balaam’s foot gets smashed. And, so, Balaam’s pretty angry about that and then he beats the donkey harder and then finally they get to a really narrow place and the angel’s standing there with his sword and the donkey can’t do anything but just sit down. And Balaam is furious, like he’s seeing red with rage and beating the donkey and that’s when the donkey talks to him like, “have I ever done anything like this to you before? Why are you beating me like this?” It’s then that we get true clues to what Balaam has been thinking about as they’re taking this journey. So, the donkey says, “what have I done to make you hit me three times?” And Balaam answers, and this is the funny thing. He doesn’t answer, “well…you walked into a field or you smashed my foot. Balaam answers, “you made a fool of me. If I had a sword in my hand, I’d kill you right now.” Balaam is traveling with a high-level entourage from the king of Moab who have promised prestige and wealth if you will come to the king. God told him no and then God told him he could go and he’s been thinking about it. When his donkey misbehaves because of the angel, he’s not confused about why he’s having a conversation with a donkey and he’s not really all that angry with what the donkey did, he’s angry because he’s embarrassed, which reveals that there is pride involved which means that things could get very situational. Once the riches are promised and the prestige is out there then maybe Balaam could say a little curse, even if God didn’t announce it maybe he could say a little curse and get out of there. What we see God doing by sending the angel is making it abundantly crystal clear to Balaam is that he must only say what God says. There are no other alternatives on the table at all. Once that is clear to Balaam, he does arrive in Moab to the king Balak who immediately takes him where he can view some of the camp of the Israelites. And Balaam asks for altars to be built and sacrifices to be given and then he goes to seek the Lord for…for His words concerning Israel. He comes back and blesses Israel. Balak the king of Moab who has sent for Balaam to come curse Israel, he’s not happy about this. Of course, Balaam’s got the message loud and clear. “I can only say to you…I can only say what God tells me to say.” So, the king of Moab, Balak, is like, “well, let’s go look at this from another angle. Let’s go look at the people from a different mountaintop. Like, let’s change our location and maybe God will be more favorable to us over there.” And, so, they go look. They build altars, they make sacrifices. Balaam is unable to curse Israel. And, so, the king of Moab’s like, “let’s go to another place and look at it from another angle and they do that and there is no curse, forthcoming toward Jacob or Israel. So, Balak’s clapping his hands and he's…you can just see him throwing sand, clapping his hands, kicking the dirt, yelling at Balaam like, “I sent for you and I promised you riches and prestige, all you need to do is pronounce a curse on these people and you’ve only blessed them.” Of course, then Balaam pronounces blessings upon Israel and pretty much curses for the nations surrounding them. Let’s now overlay our own story with this story. Maybe we’ve sought God. Maybe God has said “no”. Maybe we’ve accepted no. Maybe we waited a little while and it came up again and we sought God and he said, “yes, but you must obey me completely.” And, so, we begin walking down that path. We’re walking along with those who are around us in this endeavor. And then we begin to think about all of the things that could come from this and then we start shifting the story in our minds, our goals and priorities, the way we’re going to position ourselves begins to suddenly change away from simply going and being the spokesperson for God, like to do God’s will and more towards, “yes to all of that and what can I carve off the side for myself?” And then maybe obstacles come, maybe things that stop us in the center of the path or veer us into a field or smash our foot and we’re working so hard to curse the devil away from the thing that we can’t tell that there’s an angel blocking the path because we have shifted our motivations. And, so, it looks like missteps or some sort of attack is only illuminating our pride because we’re embarrassed. We can find ourselves in Balm. Balaam ultimately got the message about what he could say what he couldn’t say. Then we get to Balak the king and it really becomes our lives all over again. He’s so glad Balaam is there. He wants the curse brought down. The altars are built. Everybody does everything right, it’s just that the curse isn’t forthcoming. And, so, what is Balak do? Let's…let’s frame this differently. Let’s look at this from a different angle. Like let’s position this differently. Maybe God will see our way from a different angle and give us what we’re asking for, give us what we want. And that didn’t work. And, so, what does Balak want? Well, then let’s look at this from another angle. We do this all the time. We want a “yes”. We want what we want. And, so, we’ll just keep reframing the question or keep angling or positioning or manipulating the circumstances so that we can finally whittle the situation down so that we can get what we want. This story exposes so many of the games we try to play. In the end though what God has blessed will be blessed and that which is not blessed by God will not be blessed. This story also has a very interesting twist as it ends because it ends and then it’s like we’re in another story where the people of Moab and the people of Israel are getting together and having meals together and worshiping false idols together and…and the women in the men are fraternizing together. It’s like a super odd…are we even in the same story? Because it’s like we leave one chapter where God will not curse the Israelites He will only bless them and Balaam only speaks blessing over Israel and then he pronounces curses of…of the surrounding nations, and then the story ends, the next thing we know, the Moabites, which is king Balak’s people and Israel’s people, they are having sex. So, there’s like a bunch of stuff going on. How did we get from “curse these people so that they will die so that I can destroy them with my army to let’s all get together and have a party?” Ironically, Balaam is involved here as well. We don’t see it here in this particular story. We will get the rest of the story later in the Bible when a reference back to Balaam is given that tells us that this fraternizing, that the women of Moab going to bed with the men of Israel was a suggestion by Balaam. He ends up dying because of that. So basically, Balaam can’t speak anything that the Lord isn’t telling them to speak. But in the end, he gives a strategy. God’s not going to curse these people. The only way is to seduce them. So, we see that even in the end, after an angel in the path blocking the path, even though it becomes clear to Balaam he can only speak on behalf of God what God says he’s still trying to carve off a piece for himself and he dies, he dies in battle, as we’ll see later. And, as, for our wilderness experience and how easily it would be to be seduced away from the work in the wilderness toward the promise of comfort, ah, there’s just so much in this one story that so brings up motivations, the impulses that begin us on paths toward actions that we then carry out, whether they’re right or wrong.

Prayer:

Father, we open ourselves to that because we are not above lying to ourselves. We’ve done it lots of times. We’re not above any kind of nuancing whatever it is that we want to manipulate whatever we’re trying to get. We’re not above these things and sometimes we don’t even know we’re doing it. Sometimes it’s so inherent in the way that we grew up or so inherent in the way that we’ve made life work so that we can get things done that we don’t even see the deception, we don’t even see the nuanced behavior that is leading us on a path that can’t end well. And, so, this is a season, this Lenten season is for these things. It’s here marked as a season of the year where we really enter into these more difficult deep questions about why we do what we do and what we actually have our faith in. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit. Come into these things that are being brought up, the things that You’re bringing up. because even as we read these stories and talk about them the overlay is unique to each of our lives. We all have our own story. And yet the motives of the heart are so common that we can think of all kinds of things that You’re bringing up. And, so, we invite You into that. We open ourselves to what You’re bringing up instead of shutting it down. We open ourselves. Reveal to us the ways that we are going astray, even if it’s just by a half a degree, even if it’s so subtle we can’t even tell, because if we continue on that path, we’re going to ultimately be miles away from where we’re supposed to be. We’re ultimately going to be somewhere totally different than where we we’re supposed to be. So, we open ourselves to realigning our lives with Your will. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base. As always, it’s the home of Global Campfire, it's…yeah…it’s the community, it’s where we gather every day.

And, so, important to know certain aspects like the Community section. That is where to get connected. There’s the different links to the different social media channels and platforms that…that we are on. the Prayer Wall lives there in the Community section and that is always happening, always. Always, we can go there and…and shoulder one another’s burdens together and face outward by praying for each other or we’re just carrying a burden that’s very very heavy we can reach out and have our brothers and sisters come around us. So, the Prayer Wall is always there in the Community section. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in this mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and delivered, given freely to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build a rhythm’s around the…the rhythm of the Scripture and us showing up every day around the Global Campfire to build community around that. If that has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address 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, the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi from Baltimore MD God bless you each and every one of you. I so much enjoy the DAB and the DABC, the DAB Kids I listen to the proverbs I’ve listened to the Psalms. I listen every day. I’ve known about DAB for the last five or six years, but I’ve really just started listening this year, first of the year and I’ve been so blessed. I hear people talk about China when she did Chronological that I’ve actually even listened to China. I’ve listened to all…well half of January all of February and now I’m in…up to March the 13^th. So, yeah, I’ve really been blessed by the Dab with this ministry and God’s really moving in my life. And I just thank Brian and Jill and China, and everyone involved in the ministry including Ezekiel. I just thank you listeners that call in with your prayer requests. I’m touched deeply by each and every request and I pray along with you and for you. And it’s such a joy to hear people like Kingdom Seeker Daniel and Blind Tony and all the rest. I'm…I’m just a little nervous right now but I am so happy to be part of this ministry and I just pray that the Lord will reach out and touch each and every one of you and bless you deeply. And I will be calling again.

Good morning this is Flourishing in the Desert and I’m just listening to the community prayer for February 20^th and I just want to lift up the family with the beautiful little baby yet to be born who has trouble with his heart. Lord God I thank You that none of this comes as a surprise to You, that You are already there, and You are already with them. Lord God I just thank You that You have chosen these parents to love this baby regardless of defect and I thank You Lord that You are with them through thick and through thin, that Your comfort and Your protection surround them. Lord God I pray that You would encourage them, that You would strengthen them. And Lord should You call this baby home early I just pray Lord God that You would comfort them even in that. And Lord should this baby come to term and live a full and prosperous life as long as You have deemed his life should be, I just pray Lord God that these parents would just cherish every moment with this child regardless of circumstance from the beginning of his life until the end. May they be thankful to You for the blessing and the treasure that You had brought to them of this beautiful, beautiful child. I thank You Lord for this child’s life and I thank You for his parents. You are doing a marvelous work in each and every one of them. I trust You Lord, I trust Your work, I trust Your provision, and I trust…I trust You. And I just pray that the family would do so as well. I just lift all of them up to You Lord in Jesus’ name.

Good morning it’s a beautiful Sunday morning in Saskatoon downtown. My husband and I are here at a hotel having some renewal time in our marriage and I’ve been watching a fireplace burning but not burning, just the flames coming up off the coals. And what Brian said on March the 11^th how is…how we sometimes don’t believe in what…don’t believe that God understands what we’re going through. And it’s been very painful what I’ve been going through and many other people have experienced this pain during Covid and before and well beyond. But I know that we are purified by the flame of God in our lives, and we will be a fragrance lifted up to heaven that other people see. I appreciate it’s painful it’s disruptive. I know I’ve been impulsive and said things that I shouldn’t. I’ve dedicated too much to my career, but I know that God’s forgiven me and I’m gonna take those lies captive like it says in second Corinthians 10:5 and take them captive to the obedience of God and allow the truth of the word of God to penetrate into set me free. I also want to pray for Jade now one of my friends who is still very ill. His body is on fire with inflammation of autoimmune disorders. And he had a piece of his tongue removed make sure it’s not cancer I guess and he and his wife Gloria and two children are so beautiful and they need your prayers. It’s been three months now. It’s the middle of December to now…

Hey DAB family this is…I’m just gonna just go by C in this request. I just wanted to reach out, cry out to…I’m praying and I…I need you guys to pray for me too that I’ve been dealing with postpartum depression now since December and just things feel endlessly hard. I just feel weary. I’m so tired of feeling this hopelessness and I know that God is working but I feel like I can’t see any fruits of the Holy Spirit in my life right now and I just honestly feel like I’m really worthless for His Kingdom. And I know have 4 kids who need me, a husband who needs me and I am hanging on for them but I just really need prayer because things feel really dark today and they have felt really dark this week and last week. And yeah, so just please pray for me.

Prayer for Catalina continues She’s a sister of faith like a flint and this is her ninth time in the hospital in a health…in the behavioral health unit with psychotic affective bipolar disorder. It’s a long long diagnosis. I don’t understand it, but God does, and He gives the doctors wisdom and the treatment. And, so, I pray that the treatment this time will be so effective that she will never have to return to the hospital the 10^th time in the name of Jesus I pray this. And I pray that she would be receptive to what the treatment plans are and I pray for her brother and the remainder of her family as they surround her with prayer, that they be encouraged as they see Christ…Jesus move in her life so she will totally dedicate her life to you. There are two persons who have lost their joy. Tammy is in remission from ovarian cancer. She’s feeling emotionally overwhelmed and she’s now caring for her husband as the kids haven’t come around much anymore since it seems that she is doing better. Anne in Vancouver, after three years of suffering you’ve been diagnosed with pelvic prolapse and your joy is also gone. We hear it all the time, the joy of the Lord is our strength, but when we have no joy, you know, it’s so hard to reach out and grasp that strength that is there for us. So, sometimes hearing these things we can’t even fathom it. So, our family here, we’re lifting you up and I am praying the joy of the Lord will return to both of you, you will skip like dear, you will soar on eagles wings and you will be so joyful it will be contagious to your family and friends.

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

Today is the 15^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today. This is as close as we can get to the center of the month, right? Halfway through today is I think the dead center of the month. So, welcome to the middle of March. A couple weeks from now we will complete the first quarter of the year if you can believe it. A couple weeks from now it’s gonna be just about Easter if you can believe it. But we’re here. We’re here in the season that we know as Lent, a season that is leading us toward Easter, a season that allows us to just spend 40 days of…of deep introspection and contemplation on the sacrifice of Jesus and all of His work on our behalf, but also, the ways we reject that to our own peril and doom and we invite God, we invite the Holy Spirit to rearrange us, to remove from us the things that don’t belong in our lives, even if they were good things and they just have no purpose anymore, to remove the things that don’t belong in our lives and to introduce the things that do belong into our lives and to rearrange the things that belong that are in our lives as we aim toward resurrection day. So, I guess…I guess that’s the lay of the land. That’s where we are in our year, but we’ve come for one thing and that is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures today. And, so, let’s get to it. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. We are in the book of Numbers. The children of Israel are wandering around the wilderness. Just their very presence is causing anxiety among the leaders of different nations around them. The Moabites have sent for a person to come and curse the Israelites in the desert. His name is Balaam and we’re…we’re in the middle of his story. That’s where we’ll pick up today. Numbers chapter 22 verse 21 through 23 verse 30.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there is plenty we could talk about from the book of Numbers and this story of Balak the king of Moab and Balaam. I don’t know what we would call him, the hired curse assassin or something like that, like the person who’s hired to come and put a curse upon people. It’s a really weird story isn’t it? Like talking donkeys, the whole nine. It’s very strange, but we need to get a little bit further into it and so we’ll wait until tomorrow so that we can see the full complexion of the story because, man it’s like so many the other points in the Bible, it’s a mirror. So, we’ll get to that probably tomorrow. Let’s just pay attention to what’s going on in this story.

In the book of Luke, we’re…we’re still in chapter 1 of the book of Luke so we’re just getting going, but the book of Luke begins with the narrative telling us of the birth of Jesus. And I point that out because this is the last time this year where we will encounter that narrative, the story that we know as…as the Christmas story. Only two of the four Gospels have anything to say about the birth of Jesus and that would be Matthew and Luke whereas Mark and John don't…don’t refer to the birth of Jesus or tell that story. So, I’m pointing that out so that again we don’t just assume, “well we’ll hear that story again, I’ve heard it a million times” so that we actually press into the narrative of the coming of Jesus into the world and the development of His ministry. So, we have already, you know, Gabriel’s already come to Mary and she's…she’s given her permission, she surrendered herself to God’s will. She’s already seen her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant in her old age. So, a bit of a miraculous turn of events. And Zechariah the priest, the husband of Elizabeth how he was struck dumb as he was serving in the temple because he couldn’t get his head around how he was gonna have this child in his old age. So, he wasn’t allowed to talk. He wasn’t able to speak until the child was born, which is what we witnessed today. John, the cousin of Jesus was born and he will grow up and will be known as John the Baptist or John the baptizer because that’s what his ministry will look like and we’ll see that soon enough as we get a little bit further into the book of Luke. What I want to point out today is how easy it is for us to read the narratives of the Gospels and just kind of…it's…it’s like Jesus and John, they just show up one day. We…we hear of their births and then they just show up one day. John just wanders in out of the desert and starts calling the people to repentance or Jesus just seems to show up at the Jordan and gets baptized. And it’s like they grew up in a vacuum somewhere and then just appeared magically when that’s not really what happened, and we’ll see this with Jesus as well as we go forward. But with John today. Well, what happened? Elizabeth and Zechariah a priest of God, so somebody who would be known by the community, they were righteous according to the New Testament and they were also elderly, and they were also childless. The people around them would’ve known all of these things and then when the priest Zechariah receives his commission to go and burn incense before the Lord and goes into the temple and he’s in there too long and then he comes out and can’t talk then everybody who was waiting outside knew that…that he had seen a vision according to the New Testament and he couldn’t talk. So, obviously something’s up, something supernatural is up. People are going to be talking about these things. And then finally John is born to Elizabeth and Zechariah in their old age. Zechariah still can’t talk to name the child. And, so, Elizabeth says his name is gonna be John, which is another thing that confuses the people because that’s not usually how you name people in your family. Like this son should be named after his father and nobody else in the family is named John. So, it’s odd. And, so, they appealed to Zechariah and Zechariah confirms his name is John and that opens his mouth and he’s able to talk again and the Spirit falls upon him and he prophesies. So, John didn’t just appear out of nowhere in a vacuum. All of these events happened that are noteworthy and would’ve had the people talking, right? So, if you had followed that story and were around Jerusalem or in the outskirts of Jerusalem around Zechariah and Elizabeth you knew their story and how they had this child miraculously and then named him oddly and then Zechariah prophesies. This is the kind of stuff you’re gonna be talking about and you’re gonna wonder, “what’s gonna become of that kid? Like what's…what is all of this that’s happening? What is his destiny? What is this future?” So, then when John does show up coming out of the desert at the Jordan River calling the people to repentance, he’s not just some crazy person who has just gone mad out in the desert. He has a reputation from birth that God has his hand upon this man. And, so, we can see in the gospel narratives that the people believe John to be a genuine prophet of the most-high God. Even when the religious leaders confront Jesus about his own authority Jesus confounds their questioning by saying, “where did John’s authority come from, right?” Because all of the people believed he was a true prophet of the most-high God except for the religious people. And this is an miraculous thing. That’s the thing of it. Like this is a miraculous thing for a prophet of the most-high God to show up because in their story a prophet of God hadn’t been among them for 400 years from the end of what we would call the Old Testament, from the last book, the book of Malachi. 400 years go by before there is a legitimate prophet of the most-high God that the people actually recognize. So, that’s where we are in the book of Luke with John beginning his ministry and his ministry, of course, as he declares is to prepare the way of the Lord. So, let’s enter into this. As we…as we move through the gospel of Luke let’s enter into the details of the story. Let’s look at the context surrounding the story so that we might more accurately and truly embrace the story and make it a part of our story.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for all of the people that we get to meet in Your word, all of the spiritual ancestry that has gone before. And we look at these people and there’s so many time we can see miraculous things happening but they’re normal people. There is nothing particularly different about them than us, and You have invited us to be a part of Your story upon this earth at this time. And, so, as we engage with and interact with the stories in the Scriptures, we find ourselves. So, Holy Spirit come. Continue to lead us into all truth. This is…this is all we want, is all truth, that we might walk the narrow path that leads to life. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here and it’s always good to stay tuned and stay connected. It’s a year-long journey that where on, and, yeah, it can get long, and things can get heavy and it’s nice to know that we’re not alone.

So, be aware of the Daily Audio Bible app. If you don’t have it you…you should try it out. And all the things that…that I’m talking about in the web are in the app as well, like the Community section. This is where to get connected. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of different categories in there as well as a number of different resources that have been developed over the years for the journey that we’re on. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage or if you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. And I thank you, I thank you so much that the journey that has lasted all of these years now, is a journey that we’ve been on together all of this time. And its with great humility that…that I say these things. It’s incredible that day by day step-by-step we keep taking the journey through the Scriptures. And if that has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. So, there is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, we’re a community and one of the beautiful things about us as a community is that accept each other and pray for each other and that is a beautiful thing. And, so, if you’re carrying something, if you have a prayer request or encouragement then you can hit the hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top and share from there or there are a number of phone numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. Of course, I guess it doesn’t really matter. You can use any of these numbers wherever you are in the world, but in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world, the lands down under 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:

Hey family this is Benjamin the Sower calling. I would just like some prayer today just for the people in my life, that God has placed in my path. Just that I’ve gotten the chance to reach out to and that He's….God has given me given me some friendship or connection or ability to…to witness to, my hairdresser Gage and neighbor Dale, my coworker Elise, just people who believe in…in God but that don’t really know much more than that. I find just a lot of people out there are just kind of agnostic or call themselves atheist but that are like, “oh we can’t know.” And just kind of hold that humility and, you know, they hold it up high but really it's…I think it might be fear of exploring. And yeah, just in those conversations it’s been really cool but sometimes I’ve just felt tongue tide and, you know, hindsight afterwards, I’m sure we all have had that, looking back and thinking, “I wish that I had said, you know, said…said…said this or said more about you” or especially in times of covid just people looking for peace and hope. I just don’t want to be ashamed of the gospel. I just…I’ve experienced the joy of it, and I want that for others. So, I would just love…love prayer over that for boldness, just for more opportunities. At my church we call it like taps on the shoulder from God, which is kind of…kind of cool. So, I just want the Holy Spirit to be tapping me more on the shoulder just to be able to…to see the needs around me and to see the chance of the gospel to come to life. Alright. Love you guys so much. Bye.

Hey everybody this is Carmen from Germany I thought it was time I call in again. I’ve been wanting to call, oh gosh, for weeks and you just kind of put it off. And I don’t have any major requests for myself but I hear all of your requests and I pray along with you and keep thinking, “well I need to call in and…and let people know, you know, that I’m still here, that I’m praying for you.” But I just listened to March 12^th and I heard the call from the anonymous woman who said she got herself into a pickle by doing…by taking her…her eyes off of God. And I thought, you know, you’re speaking for so many of us. When I look back on my life and I think of all the times I’ve hurt people, I’ve got into bad…bad whatever, I mean, broken relationships, everything, it’s always been because I took my eyes off of God and my own selfishness, thinking, you know, somehow, I could justify whatever I was doing either that or…or being so selfish that I didn’t even think about it. But anyway, I want you to know that I’m going to be praying for you as well as so many people because I think you speak for so many of us and I think that so many of us can relate to what you're…you’re saying and probably even what you’re going through without knowing the details because we’ve all got our own versions of pickles we go through. Anyway, I’m praying for you. I thank you also for letting us know as a reminder for us to keep our eyes on Jesus just as that song says, “look full into His wonderful face.” So, thank you very much. I’m praying for you. Brian happy belated birthday and Jill I just want to let you know you are wonderful. I just love everything that you’re doing on the DABC. So, the both of you and Brian together, what a wonderful…

I’d just like to thank the Lord for taking away my wife’s cancer. She was diagnosed two years ago with metastatic Melanoma and through fervent prayer from family members and church members it’s gone. The treatment worked. Her spirits are good. Now we just need to go back in six months to continue to do cat scans and MRIs to make sure it doesn’t come back. And we were told by the doctor that only 10% of the people who recovered the way she did can get it back, only 10%. So, I continue in prayer and all my good friends at the Daily Audio Bible which I’ve been doing now for eight years every day, for eight years. I hear the prayers. I hear the crying that happens, and it breaks my heart, but together we all must pray and keep each other strong and continue to pray for Brian and his family. Prayer does work for our Lord is on the throne, doesn’t change. But prayer changes things. And may we all seek the wisdom of God, have a joyful heart, and faith back and move mountains. Come Holy Spirit I pray. I ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Abiola from New York I’m calling in wanting to throw another log on our wonderfully warm fire. I love you guys so much. Thank you, guys for having me a part. Praise God. Thank Him so much for the Holy Spirit guiding us all to this platform to where we can encourage and love on one another and not skip that beat in recognizing who He is in our lives. He’s so good to us and I just wanted you all to know that I pray with and for all of you guys. I’m asking for prayer to ask for prayer. I struggled with asking for help and asking people to pray for me and trusting people with things that’s going on with me and how I feel. So, I know that I need to ask. So, pray for me to be able to ask for prayer. I also wanted to pray for Kelly from Boston. Sis, I am praying with you that you and your husband in the second half of your marriage comes out better than the first half. I’m praying for total reconciliation and love and forgiveness to resonate through your relationship. I’m also praying the same for anonymous. God bless you for being able to confess your sin. I pray that those people around you in your relationships have a softened heart towards you. I pray that you guys can all reconcile and love. The of Christ can be the epitome of all of our lives. God bless you all.

Hi, my name is Marybeth I’m calling from New Hampshire I’m a first-time caller asking for a prayer request. I’m going in for an endoscopy on March 22^nd and I’ve been having a lot of symptoms and I’m really concerned and I'm…my imagination keeps going towards cancer and I just have to hold my thoughts captive and not go there and just trust in the Lord. I just ask for healing and I just pray that God’s will be done. And I also ask if you will pray for my husband for his Salvation and I pray for my son. He is in the military in the Middle East, and I pray for his Salvation. And I thank you for everybody’s prayers in advance. Thank you.

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

Today is the 15^th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today. This is as close as we can get to the center of the month, right? Halfway through today is I think the dead center of the month. So, welcome to the middle of March. A couple weeks from now we will complete the first quarter of the year if you can believe it. A couple weeks from now it’s gonna be just about Easter if you can believe it. But we’re here. We’re here in the season that we know as Lent, a season that is leading us toward Easter, a season that allows us to just spend 40 days of…of deep introspection and contemplation on the sacrifice of Jesus and all of His work on our behalf, but also, the ways we reject that to our own peril and doom and we invite God, we invite the Holy Spirit to rearrange us, to remove from us the things that don’t belong in our lives, even if they were good things and they just have no purpose anymore, to remove the things that don’t belong in our lives and to introduce the things that do belong into our lives and to rearrange the things that belong that are in our lives as we aim toward resurrection day. So, I guess…I guess that’s the lay of the land. That’s where we are in our year, but we’ve come for one thing and that is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures today. And, so, let’s get to it. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. We are in the book of Numbers. The children of Israel are wandering around the wilderness. Just their very presence is causing anxiety among the leaders of different nations around them. The Moabites have sent for a person to come and curse the Israelites in the desert. His name is Balaam and we’re…we’re in the middle of his story. That’s where we’ll pick up today. Numbers chapter 22 verse 21 through 23 verse 30.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there is plenty we could talk about from the book of Numbers and this story of Balak the king of Moab and Balaam. I don’t know what we would call him, the hired curse assassin or something like that, like the person who’s hired to come and put a curse upon people. It’s a really weird story isn’t it? Like talking donkeys, the whole nine. It’s very strange, but we need to get a little bit further into it and so we’ll wait until tomorrow so that we can see the full complexion of the story because, man it’s like so many the other points in the Bible, it’s a mirror. So, we’ll get to that probably tomorrow. Let’s just pay attention to what’s going on in this story.

In the book of Luke, we’re…we’re still in chapter 1 of the book of Luke so we’re just getting going, but the book of Luke begins with the narrative telling us of the birth of Jesus. And I point that out because this is the last time this year where we will encounter that narrative, the story that we know as…as the Christmas story. Only two of the four Gospels have anything to say about the birth of Jesus and that would be Matthew and Luke whereas Mark and John don't…don’t refer to the birth of Jesus or tell that story. So, I’m pointing that out so that again we don’t just assume, “well we’ll hear that story again, I’ve heard it a million times” so that we actually press into the narrative of the coming of Jesus into the world and the development of His ministry. So, we have already, you know, Gabriel’s already come to Mary and she's…she’s given her permission, she surrendered herself to God’s will. She’s already seen her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant in her old age. So, a bit of a miraculous turn of events. And Zechariah the priest, the husband of Elizabeth how he was struck dumb as he was serving in the temple because he couldn’t get his head around how he was gonna have this child in his old age. So, he wasn’t allowed to talk. He wasn’t able to speak until the child was born, which is what we witnessed today. John, the cousin of Jesus was born and he will grow up and will be known as John the Baptist or John the baptizer because that’s what his ministry will look like and we’ll see that soon enough as we get a little bit further into the book of Luke. What I want to point out today is how easy it is for us to read the narratives of the Gospels and just kind of…it's…it’s like Jesus and John, they just show up one day. We…we hear of their births and then they just show up one day. John just wanders in out of the desert and starts calling the people to repentance or Jesus just seems to show up at the Jordan and gets baptized. And it’s like they grew up in a vacuum somewhere and then just appeared magically when that’s not really what happened, and we’ll see this with Jesus as well as we go forward. But with John today. Well, what happened? Elizabeth and Zechariah a priest of God, so somebody who would be known by the community, they were righteous according to the New Testament and they were also elderly, and they were also childless. The people around them would’ve known all of these things and then when the priest Zechariah receives his commission to go and burn incense before the Lord and goes into the temple and he’s in there too long and then he comes out and can’t talk then everybody who was waiting outside knew that…that he had seen a vision according to the New Testament and he couldn’t talk. So, obviously something’s up, something supernatural is up. People are going to be talking about these things. And then finally John is born to Elizabeth and Zechariah in their old age. Zechariah still can’t talk to name the child. And, so, Elizabeth says his name is gonna be John, which is another thing that confuses the people because that’s not usually how you name people in your family. Like this son should be named after his father and nobody else in the family is named John. So, it’s odd. And, so, they appealed to Zechariah and Zechariah confirms his name is John and that opens his mouth and he’s able to talk again and the Spirit falls upon him and he prophesies. So, John didn’t just appear out of nowhere in a vacuum. All of these events happened that are noteworthy and would’ve had the people talking, right? So, if you had followed that story and were around Jerusalem or in the outskirts of Jerusalem around Zechariah and Elizabeth you knew their story and how they had this child miraculously and then named him oddly and then Zechariah prophesies. This is the kind of stuff you’re gonna be talking about and you’re gonna wonder, “what’s gonna become of that kid? Like what's…what is all of this that’s happening? What is his destiny? What is this future?” So, then when John does show up coming out of the desert at the Jordan River calling the people to repentance, he’s not just some crazy person who has just gone mad out in the desert. He has a reputation from birth that God has his hand upon this man. And, so, we can see in the gospel narratives that the people believe John to be a genuine prophet of the most-high God. Even when the religious leaders confront Jesus about his own authority Jesus confounds their questioning by saying, “where did John’s authority come from, right?” Because all of the people believed he was a true prophet of the most-high God except for the religious people. And this is an miraculous thing. That’s the thing of it. Like this is a miraculous thing for a prophet of the most-high God to show up because in their story a prophet of God hadn’t been among them for 400 years from the end of what we would call the Old Testament, from the last book, the book of Malachi. 400 years go by before there is a legitimate prophet of the most-high God that the people actually recognize. So, that’s where we are in the book of Luke with John beginning his ministry and his ministry, of course, as he declares is to prepare the way of the Lord. So, let’s enter into this. As we…as we move through the gospel of Luke let’s enter into the details of the story. Let’s look at the context surrounding the story so that we might more accurately and truly embrace the story and make it a part of our story.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for all of the people that we get to meet in Your word, all of the spiritual ancestry that has gone before. And we look at these people and there’s so many time we can see miraculous things happening but they’re normal people. There is nothing particularly different about them than us, and You have invited us to be a part of Your story upon this earth at this time. And, so, as we engage with and interact with the stories in the Scriptures, we find ourselves. So, Holy Spirit come. Continue to lead us into all truth. This is…this is all we want, is all truth, that we might walk the narrow path that leads to life. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here and it’s always good to stay tuned and stay connected. It’s a year-long journey that where on, and, yeah, it can get long, and things can get heavy and it’s nice to know that we’re not alone.

So, be aware of the Daily Audio Bible app. If you don’t have it you…you should try it out. And all the things that…that I’m talking about in the web are in the app as well, like the Community section. This is where to get connected. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of different categories in there as well as a number of different resources that have been developed over the years for the journey that we’re on. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage or if you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. And I thank you, I thank you so much that the journey that has lasted all of these years now, is a journey that we’ve been on together all of this time. And its with great humility that…that I say these things. It’s incredible that day by day step-by-step we keep taking the journey through the Scriptures. And if that has been life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. So, there is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, we’re a community and one of the beautiful things about us as a community is that accept each other and pray for each other and that is a beautiful thing. And, so, if you’re carrying something, if you have a prayer request or encouragement then you can hit the hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top and share from there or there are a number of phone numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. Of course, I guess it doesn’t really matter. You can use any of these numbers wherever you are in the world, but in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world, the lands down under 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:

Hey family this is Benjamin the Sower calling. I would just like some prayer today just for the people in my life, that God has placed in my path. Just that I’ve gotten the chance to reach out to and that He's….God has given me given me some friendship or connection or ability to…to witness to, my hairdresser Gage and neighbor Dale, my coworker Elise, just people who believe in…in God but that don’t really know much more than that. I find just a lot of people out there are just kind of agnostic or call themselves atheist but that are like, “oh we can’t know.” And just kind of hold that humility and, you know, they hold it up high but really it's…I think it might be fear of exploring. And yeah, just in those conversations it’s been really cool but sometimes I’ve just felt tongue tide and, you know, hindsight afterwards, I’m sure we all have had that, looking back and thinking, “I wish that I had said, you know, said…said…said this or said more about you” or especially in times of covid just people looking for peace and hope. I just don’t want to be ashamed of the gospel. I just…I’ve experienced the joy of it, and I want that for others. So, I would just love…love prayer over that for boldness, just for more opportunities. At my church we call it like taps on the shoulder from God, which is kind of…kind of cool. So, I just want the Holy Spirit to be tapping me more on the shoulder just to be able to…to see the needs around me and to see the chance of the gospel to come to life. Alright. Love you guys so much. Bye.

Hey everybody this is Carmen from Germany I thought it was time I call in again. I’ve been wanting to call, oh gosh, for weeks and you just kind of put it off. And I don’t have any major requests for myself but I hear all of your requests and I pray along with you and keep thinking, “well I need to call in and…and let people know, you know, that I’m still here, that I’m praying for you.” But I just listened to March 12^th and I heard the call from the anonymous woman who said she got herself into a pickle by doing…by taking her…her eyes off of God. And I thought, you know, you’re speaking for so many of us. When I look back on my life and I think of all the times I’ve hurt people, I’ve got into bad…bad whatever, I mean, broken relationships, everything, it’s always been because I took my eyes off of God and my own selfishness, thinking, you know, somehow, I could justify whatever I was doing either that or…or being so selfish that I didn’t even think about it. But anyway, I want you to know that I’m going to be praying for you as well as so many people because I think you speak for so many of us and I think that so many of us can relate to what you're…you’re saying and probably even what you’re going through without knowing the details because we’ve all got our own versions of pickles we go through. Anyway, I’m praying for you. I thank you also for letting us know as a reminder for us to keep our eyes on Jesus just as that song says, “look full into His wonderful face.” So, thank you very much. I’m praying for you. Brian happy belated birthday and Jill I just want to let you know you are wonderful. I just love everything that you’re doing on the DABC. So, the both of you and Brian together, what a wonderful…

I’d just like to thank the Lord for taking away my wife’s cancer. She was diagnosed two years ago with metastatic Melanoma and through fervent prayer from family members and church members it’s gone. The treatment worked. Her spirits are good. Now we just need to go back in six months to continue to do cat scans and MRIs to make sure it doesn’t come back. And we were told by the doctor that only 10% of the people who recovered the way she did can get it back, only 10%. So, I continue in prayer and all my good friends at the Daily Audio Bible which I’ve been doing now for eight years every day, for eight years. I hear the prayers. I hear the crying that happens, and it breaks my heart, but together we all must pray and keep each other strong and continue to pray for Brian and his family. Prayer does work for our Lord is on the throne, doesn’t change. But prayer changes things. And may we all seek the wisdom of God, have a joyful heart, and faith back and move mountains. Come Holy Spirit I pray. I ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is Abiola from New York I’m calling in wanting to throw another log on our wonderfully warm fire. I love you guys so much. Thank you, guys for having me a part. Praise God. Thank Him so much for the Holy Spirit guiding us all to this platform to where we can encourage and love on one another and not skip that beat in recognizing who He is in our lives. He’s so good to us and I just wanted you all to know that I pray with and for all of you guys. I’m asking for prayer to ask for prayer. I struggled with asking for help and asking people to pray for me and trusting people with things that’s going on with me and how I feel. So, I know that I need to ask. So, pray for me to be able to ask for prayer. I also wanted to pray for Kelly from Boston. Sis, I am praying with you that you and your husband in the second half of your marriage comes out better than the first half. I’m praying for total reconciliation and love and forgiveness to resonate through your relationship. I’m also praying the same for anonymous. God bless you for being able to confess your sin. I pray that those people around you in your relationships have a softened heart towards you. I pray that you guys can all reconcile and love. The of Christ can be the epitome of all of our lives. God bless you all.

Hi, my name is Marybeth I’m calling from New Hampshire I’m a first-time caller asking for a prayer request. I’m going in for an endoscopy on March 22^nd and I’ve been having a lot of symptoms and I’m really concerned and I'm…my imagination keeps going towards cancer and I just have to hold my thoughts captive and not go there and just trust in the Lord. I just ask for healing and I just pray that God’s will be done. And I also ask if you will pray for my husband for his Salvation and I pray for my son. He is in the military in the Middle East, and I pray for his Salvation. And I thank you for everybody’s prayers in advance. Thank you.