Ezekiel 23:1-49, Hebrews 10:18-39, Psalms 109:1-31, Proverbs
27:13
Today is the 11th day of November welcome to the Daily
Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we move forward
in our week and forward in our year for that matter. Step-by-step day by day we
make the journey together. And, so, the next step leads us back into the book
of Ezekiel. We’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week. Ezekiel
chapter 23.
Commentary:
Okay, So, as we continue our journey through the letter to
the Hebrews…I mean we…we keep reminding ourselves of certain specific things
almost every time we talk about Hebrews and the first one is that Hebrews is
for Hebrews. Hebrews was written to Jewish people. And Hebrews does a really
good…I mean…it’s not the you can’t see this in other letters in the New
Testament but Hebrews does this really good job of really providing us the
Hebrew backdrop, the Hebrew side of the argument for Jesus, that God was the
God of the Hebrews, is the God of the Hebrews. Jesus is that God incarnated as
a human being among His own people showing them the way forward. O that in and
of itself, that could, you know, that that could turn off lots of people. Like,
well, it’s like just another cult leader or this is just a dynamic person that people
are following…are following around or whatever. But the point in Hebrews is
Jesus was foretold, like this was always supposed to happen, this was always on
the radar. That’s the argument. Like basically, open your eyes and see what is
actually happening…happening here. God is doing a new thing, but hints of this
have been foretold from long, long ago. It’s happening now. We’ve also talked
as we’ve read through Hebrews, if we read it at face value, just to understand
that you don’t have any of the Hebrew context and that Hebrew context is very
much provided in what we know as the Old Testament, then the implications,
because they are religious implications, they are…they are unpacked through the
lens of Judaism then they don’t make a whole lot of sense if you have no
background whatsoever if you just come…while you just come to the faith itself
but you come to something like the letter to the Hebrews and you start reading
it and it’s all kinds of things about high priests and temples and sacrifices
and this and that and the other and it doesn't…like…like there’s no context for
it. So, without the Hebrew context it’s hard to understand the implications of
Jesus. And then the third thing is why this letter seems to have ever existed
in the first place. And that was because Hebrew believers who were following
Jesus and were in community with each other were being marginalized on a lot of
levels. And we’ve spent a lot of time, so I don’t need like to retell the whole
thing. We’ve talked about this several times throughout this year, especially
while we were going through the letters of Paul. So, they were being
marginalized, persecution was beginning. The Jewish people, they weren’t not
buying into the Jesus story en masse. They were mostly rejecting this story. The
Hebrew leaders were rejecting the story because. It was the Hebrew leaders who
had plotted the killing of Jesus. And, so, they basically had a stick by their
story. And, so, no one is accepting this. And, so, people who do are being
marginalized by the Jewish people. Meanwhile the Jewish people were
marginalized by the Roman empire that was in…in the region of Syria where…where
the land is. So, people who were following the way of Jesus who were following His
teachings, they were like double marginalized. They were being marginalized by
the marginalized. So, kinda not a lot of places to maneuver then. And, so, they
were shrinking back, falling away, turning away, basically going back into
their Hebrew tradition and into Judaism and going back and following the Torah
religiously or just walking away from the whole thing. So, the letter to
Hebrews comes along to encourage them not to do that, not to walk away. And
that’s precisely what we’re seeing in our reading today. So, I’m quoting just to
bring this point home. “Remember the past when you first learned the truth. You
endured a lot of hardship and pain. At times you were publicly insulted and
mistreated. At times you associated with people who were treated this way. You
suffered with prisoners. You were cheerful even though your possessions were
stolen since you know that you have a better and more permanent possession”,
right? So, these are words encouraging them, “don’t fade, don’t disappear, don’t
hide, don’t walk away, don’t go backward. God is going forward. God has come and
a new thing is happening, and the only way is forward. Don’t go backward.” And
understanding the things that we just talked about, we can see why they were
going backward and why this letter comes at the right time to say, “don’t
forget what God has done for you and don’t forget what God is doing for you.
And even that is unpacked in our reading today. “Brothers and sisters”, I’m
quoting, “brothers and sisters, because of the blood of Jesus, we can now
confidently go into the holy place. Jesus has opened to new and living way for
us to go through the curtain.” Okay. So, we may all understand the Hebrew
context because we’ve heard this kind of stuff before but the Hebrew context
here is that the holy place, like the most holy place here is in the temple
behind a curtain, behind a veil. The high priest can only go into the most holy
place once a year. The writer of Hebrews is saying, “like…like there’s no veil anymore.
It’s gone now. Why would you go back when you can confidently enter the holy
place? Maybe you’re not gonna go up into the holy place in the temple in
Jerusalem, but spiritually, you can enter into the very presence of the most-high
God as His child, like confidently as a beloved child.” That is a drastic
paradigm shift. And, so, the writer of Hebrews is saying, “don’t walk away from
that. That’s all you ever wanted. That’s always been the goal, is to find
righteousness so that we might enter God’s presence. It’s now possible. Don’t
walk away from that.” And, so, we can see the context for the tension. But the
mirror always goes up with the Bible. And we can look at ourselves. And maybe we’re
not gonna be marginalized or persecuted, but we shrink back, we fade, we
disappear all the time. And this ancient letter is speaking to us from
thousands of years ago saying, “why would you do that? Why you fade when
everything you’ve been after is before you? There’s only one way to go and that’s
forward. God is doing a new thing. The veil has been removed. What could happen
to the world if God’s people could experience God’s presence, knowing that
there were no more hoops to jump through, that it’s a Father and His children not
a veil and a chest with a covenant in it, and sacrifice? It’s like hearing
about a relationship all your life as a kid. Like, one day…one day I’m gonna get
married, one day I’m gonna have a spouse, someday I’m going to grow up and
constantly thinking of the coming day when that will happen. It’s the
difference between thinking about it and that day when your eyes locked with
the one who would be your spouse and it started a brand-new story of actual
intimate relationship. And, so, let’s ponder that today. What are the ways that
we’ve just faded? What are the ways that we’re just kind of…we’re here but we’re
just disappearing? It’s just happening. It’s like everything’s moving on and we’re
standing still. And, so, before long, everything will have moved forward, and we’re
just stuck here. Why would we do that when everything we’ve wanted, when the…the
very intimacy that can make us whole, union with God is available.
Prayer:
Father we enter into that. By the fact…the very fact that we
are reading this letter to the Hebrews and by the very fact that we still have
these struggles, it may look a little different, but the heart issues are the
same. We can see that this has been a struggle all along and that brothers and
sisters have been struggling with this for thousands of years. And, so, on the
one hand it’s comforting to know that we’re not alone and we’re not messed up. On
the other hand, the question still remains, Why would we disappear? Why would
we fade into the woodwork when everything we have ever wanted is before us? So,
Holy Spirit we need eyes to see it again. That’s the thing. The veil keeps
falling before our eyes and we can’t see it because the world is swirling
around us and discouraging us in every possible way. And, so, we reach for You Father.
Remove the veil. Let us see the joy of our salvation again and let us bear
witness so that others who are struggling too can see that we can move forward
if we move forward together. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we
ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com
is home base. It is indeed the website it is where you find out what’s going on
around here. And I promised yesterday that there was something to talk about
today. And there is ad I’m just thinking. “how can I share this in five minutes?
I think this is like the coming together of a couple of things that have joined
themselves and made something. So, I guess…man…it’s been five years at least, maybe
even longer that I started seeing vinyl records come back. And I come from the
music industry so music packaging all the…just the entire apparatus of the
music industry is something that I’ve spent a very very long time making a
living doing. So, I get it. And, before all that I was younger and was a music
fanatic. Like by the time I was 15, 16 years old it was like, “I’m gonna be in
music business one way or another whatever it takes.” So, I was an avid music
student, music business student, music listener. Like I was the guy reading
every bit of the liner notes. So, when LPs faded away way back a long time ago
I was kinda bummed because I kind of loved being able to hold my music in this
kind of 12" x 12" square format where the…the artwork could be seen
and appreciated and everything could be read. And we kind of migrated from
there to CDs which was like a junior version of that and cassettes which were
even a smaller version of that and then they faded. I’m sure I’m not telling
you anything you don’t know. Music is pretty much in your pocket now, right? Anything
you would want to listen to you can carry in your pocket. You remember when it
used to be, we had…you maybe 2had 0 CDs in your car or whatever, and you know, those
were your choices and now you have hundreds of thousands of choices. So, anyway,
trying to consolidate a long story. It’s like a year and half ago I started
collecting records like vinyl records. I bought a record player. I started listening
to records. What I was specifically doing was re-accumulating all of the albums
that were meaningful to me in my childhood in the format that I had them in and
I just realized really interesting things listening to records again, like you
can’t just get 15 or 20 seconds into a song and go, “nahhh I want the next song.
You have to get up and go switch it. And, so, you…you find yourself appreciating
the way records were laid out, how they were a journey and how you listened to
a side of an album, you sit there and you’re participating with the artwork,
etc. etc. I started doing that mostly trying to get vintage albums from my
childhood and vintage Christmas music because that’s the sound of my…my
childhood, like the crackle of the records at Christmas and just sitting there
waiting and waiting and waiting for it to finally arrive. Okay, so that’s one
part of the story. The second part of the story is that for the last several
years I had been working on some music that we released in July, July 7th
in specific. That was the day of the Daily Audio Bible long walk. Doesn’t that
sound like forever ago. And didn’t come at a time when we needed to get outside
and out of quarantine and hear the birds again and feel the breeze on her face
and go for a long walk with God. And, so, we released this music. It’s called Heart,
a contemplative journey. And it's…it’s like a guided prayer journey with the
intention of leading us into the emotions of our heart, the things that we’ve
been dealing with in our lives but maybe don’t have language for. And, so, the
prayers lead us to that place, and then the music does what music does. It
speaks volumes with no words at all. And, so, we released that and it struck a
nerve and ended up becoming the number one album…Christian album in the in the
nation for a minute there, which was shocking and encouraging. And then the
feedback started coming back in just letters and emails sent in about how it
did what it was sent to do basically, how it did what I hoped it would do, lead
us back to feeling again, to feeling our heart beat again, to not just closing
down to all of the chaos going on around us. So, that was in July and it’s been
available since then online at the iTunes Store or the Google play store. And
then there’s one more component to this story. It’s been two and a half years I
think about now that we were preparing to launch our own, very own Daily Audio
Bible app. And for all of the years previous to that we had worked with
technology partners and strategic alliances and the app was a paid app in the
store and we had invested heavily in the building our own specific app because there
was just no way to go forward where we were wanting to build the app to be a
real community presence. There was no connection points. There’s no way to do
it. We…for the things we were dreaming up it’s like we’re gonna have to build
this from scratch. We’re gonna have to this. And, so, we…we did. And it was
very time-consuming and very expensive. And, so, a couple years ago we did
something called the Global Campfire initiative. Some of you…many many many of
you will remember this and we printed up some hatch prints. That…that’s a
Nashville, classic Nashville thing that just dates back pre-Elvis even. These
hatch prints were all over…all over Nashville…Nashville and all over the world
for that matter. There’s books on them. Anyway, I digress. We had this Global Campfire
initiative and just invited people to so into the app. And as a way of being
grateful we sent on these hatch prints. Here’s where the whole thing begins to
converge into the story we’re trying to tell now. After it was apparent that
the heart album was really striking a nerve, I thought, “let’s press up some
vinyl of this, let’s press up 500 copies of this. This will be so interesting
to do.” So, I set about the business of seeing what manufacturing…manufacturing
was gonna look like and I realized “wow…there’s only a few places to do this
and they are backed up months and months and months and months.” So, I was like,
“well maybe that won’t work. But I was like why not?” And we pressed into it
and made them and waited months and months and months and months to get them,
and now we have them. And now is…is the right time. It’s been two and half
years and it’s time for a Global Campfire initiative again where I’m just
inviting anybody who can participate in this to sow into the development of the
app that is more and more and more becoming home base for us. When we release
the Daily Audio Bible app we released it as a free app. That was never the
intention while we were developing. It was like, well, we’ll slowly over time be
able to deal with this and I felt so strong the Lord that it’s supposed to be
free. So, that was counterintuitive and that’s what we did. We released a
brand-new app, it has been free, it will be free, it is free but it’s no less
expensive to develop. So, here’s the long and short of the story. Some of the
things that we’re trying to build into the app right now, some of the things we
have underway are important pieces and we just need to sow into this. One of
the important pieces that have been in develop…development all year, and that
should hopefully see the light of day sometime next year is the multilingual
nature of the app. Like there’s several languages and we have several teams
reading the Bible in different languages. But the app is in English. And, so,
if English is not even a second language. If English isn’t the language you
speak, then it’s pretty hard to navigate, but to be able to build an onboarding
process that just simply asks, what’s you’re primary language here and if it’s
one of the languages that are…that…that we have the Bible in, to be able to
switch to that language natively and then matter where you are if English isn’t
your language to still be able to navigate and be involved, this is a missional
effort to allow the spoken word of God to reach anyone who will listen anywhere
on this planet any time of day or night. But we’ve also been working really,
probably the dominant priority this year was to build in the badges. Remember
when badges came online. And, so, every time we cross a threshold, a portion, a
section of the Bible and we’ve completed it then we get to see that we’ve
completed it. We get a little word of encouragement, a little badge that comes
up and says we’ve completed this. And that was kind of phase 1. Phase 2 was a
more robust view of where we are in the Bible, like…like what percentage are we
completed in the Bible? What percentage are we completed in the New Testament?
What percentage are we completed in the Old Testament? To give us a more robust
view of the journey that we are on every year. And, so that is…well…that’s been
being rolled out all year and that whole phase should be completed. In fact,
the next major update that we do will have all of that technology baked into it.
All of this development is to more completely to more robustly dial us in
together and dial us into the fact that we are on a journey and there are
indicators along the way they we’re making progress, that this is happening. And
it’s all free for anybody to get involved and take the journey. So, here’s the
deal. Anyone who is willing and is able to donate, to contribute to the Global Campfire
initiative this year by giving $100 or more. And, gosh you guys, you have no
idea how much like I squirm inside when I say those kinds of things because I kinda
grew up watching televangelists and all that and I made it the mission of my
life to not become that guy. And, so, I’m not but this is a need and we are a
community and really do want to bring excellence into this community, but it
just can’t happen if we don’t do it together. And this is a specific need. So,
anybody who can, is willing to contribute $100 or more, if you’re one of the
first 500 people than we want to send you the Heart, a contemplative journey
album on vinyl, like on one hundred and eighty graham audio vinyl. Like this is
not the kind of vinyl I used to buy when I grew up. It’s so thick and sounds so
good. But one of the major reasons people collect vinyl these days is for the
packaging, to be able to hold your music in your hand again, instead of it
being like a virtual thing. So, we worked really hard to make it really, really
beautiful. It has a gape…like it opens up like a double LP. It is beautifully
packaged. It’s serene. And all of the prayers that are included in the Heart
project for the first time that like they’re printed, they’re printed and
included in the package. So, it’s the one place that you can get the prayers in
a written form. It’s just really, really beautifully done. And if you are in a
position, if you are able, if you have a desire to help in this way then we’d
love to give this to you as a collector’s item, as a limited-edition that’s only
available here and is only available until there gone. So, I can keep saying
words but I think that’s the long and short of the story. And if you’re if you’re
in a position, if you’re able you can check it out at dailyaudiobible.com. You can check it
out in the Daily Audio Bible Shop or there’s an Initiatives section and that
will just zoom you right there. Just click the Initiatives button and then look
for the Global Campfire initiative and that’ll take you right there and you can
look at it and see what I’m talking about. And I…I thank you I thank you humbly.
I mean I thank you with all of my heart. What we’re doing is remarkable to me
even though this has been like my everyday life for almost 15 full years, it’s
still remarkable to me that we can do this, that I can be here speaking to you
knowing that this will go out across the world and that we have the community
here and our desire is to be together around the context of being together in
the Scriptures each and every day. And, so, I am grateful beyond words. In Fact,
that’s a frustrating thing in my life. I don’t know what other words to say. It’s
just…you just keep saying bigger words. This is amazing, this is spectacular,
this is miraculous. But it’s just special that we get to spend our lives
together and that we get to grow together as God words…as God’s word speaks
into our lives. So, that’s it, brand-new Global Campfire initiative supporting,
specifically supporting app development and our development team. If you can
partner with that than we want to send you the heart album and you can find it
a dailyaudiobible.com.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or
encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, like in the app is
where that hotline button lives and this is what we are sowing into, further
developing this, this is home base for us., So, you can hit that 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 this is Daughter of the King from Tennessee. Lord I
thank you for being our shepherd and as our shepherd you said that we would
have no need or want because you promise to supply all our needs according to
your riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And we thank you for your promise not
only to supply all our needs but to supply them exceedingly abundantly above
all that we could ask or think. And we thank you father. Mike, I want to thank
you and take you up on that five minutes a day Proverb challenge. I will do
that. Ms. Tyler you’re a first-time caller and you’re seeking a place to live. God
will help you and we’re praying for you. Brian we just commend you for choosing
to do the right thing in your marriage. Two wrongs don’t make a right. But we
know God can make it right and we pray for healin’. Lisa the Encourager always,
and we just thank you for the beautiful prayer, praying for our elderly parents.
And yes, I can remember praying for Brian go through with his mother. Brian we
just thank you and know that must’ve been hard too. Danny, we’re praying for
Christopher your 15-year-old grandson, his friend Tony and Dustin. We know it
was a horrible situation and we know God can still make that thing right. And
Kathy your martial art test that you’re taking on, that’s important to you and
we just commend you as a sister that wants to do this and that’s important to
us as well. Jordan we’re praying that God will get you back on track and don’t
surrender your joy. Peg where praying for your dead son and Jared where praying
for your son and we hope things went well with you guys when you all met during
his birthday. As well as running walking in the light we are praying for your
son. As you say don’t surrender your joy. And that was so beautiful. And we won’t
surrender our joy. Emberley…
This is Charlotte from Missouri and I want to share some
testimony. Recently my partner of seven years abandon me for somebody else. The
pain of this heartbreak has been hell and has been agony and the heartbreak I’ve
experienced has been like…unlike any other. I’ve been asking God why and how to
get through this. And today’s reading and it was Ezekiel and describing God’s
heartbreak with us, how we…we have caused him the same heartbreak. It’s really
just humbling and exactly what I need because this relationship I had this man
on earth, you know, will never be able to be again. It will never be able to be
restored but there is a man who will always restore me, who will always restore
our love, who will always take me back, and that’s just exactly what I needed.
Today I’m just asking for your prayer. I need to move out of the city and get a
new job. So, I’m asking for prayer, direction, and wisdom. Thank you DAB
family. Love you guys.
Good morning DABbers it’s November 6th and am
praising the Lord thanking Him. Oh, His love is so great. I knew this Ezekiel
song would be just coming again. I just felt it was coming and today’s the day
and oh my goodness that song, wow. It is so good. Thank you, Brian for playing
it again. It totally wrecks me but in a good way because it just once again
just reminds me to the full extent, it’s like nothing, nothing does God not
know about heart and suffering and loss and pain and rejection and all those
things. There’s nothing that we go through that he doesn’t totally understand. And
the magnitude of his understanding is just so great. And, so, even though I cry,
it’s tears of joy because we’re so loved by such a loving loving loving loving loving
Father. We have everything to rejoice in every day no matter what. And, so, on
this day I’m just thanking You Lord. I’m praising You. I’m rejoicing in You. Bless
Your people Lord. May they just turn to You and just rest in You and be bathed
in Your love. Thank You. Amen.
Hello this is Chile from Florida. I’m calling about that
teacher on the 7th of November your…your heartfelt request to be
able to be in your classroom. I just want to speak a word of encouragement to
you. That was a…that was a beautiful thing that you shared. Lord Jesus I pray
for this teacher and I thank you Lord Jesus that the day will come sooner than
she expects where she will be able be back in her classroom teaching her kids. And
Lord I ask you bless not only her but all…all those out there who want to get
back in the classroom and teach our kids one on one. We…we…we thank you for
them in Jesus’ name.
Good afternoon DABbers this is Soaring on Eagles Wings from
Canada. It’s with a heavy heart that I come to pray for Danny from Southern
Oregon, her grandson, the family of the young man that was shot. One is in jail
and then the other friend who was present during the shooting. This is a hard
hard time. It’s so difficult. One doesn’t even know what to pray. But our Father
knows everything. So, I am asking Father God that You would touch these boys Father.
Chris’s best friend, that’s the grandson, was shot by Dustin and Tony is the
other boy who was present. These boys are going to go through some awful times.
But Father God You are there to protect them, their minds. I pray for all the
families. And Lord I don’t know what happened, but You do. And in the midst of
all of this please be real to these boys. I pray that their families will get
together and try and get peace and harmony, that bitterness won’t overtake. But
it’s difficult. And, so, we need intervention Father for grandma, Danny here,
she’s worried about her grandson and the whole situation needs Your
intervention.
Seeking your face at the start of my day
I found that for me there’s no better way
in fact you said to acknowledge you in all of my ways
and to bring all of my thoughts in subjection to you whenever my mind and heart
strays
because trouble surrounds me wherever I go
health problems family problems bills a sack full of woe
should I try to work it all out with the strength of my own hands
or stand in faith and wait on you ignoring my hearts well thought out plans
because you said the wisdom of man is foolishness to you
and I know that all your words are faithful and true
so I’m gonna seek your face the start of my day
because I know that for me there is no better way
blindtony1016@gmail.com
I’d like to give a shout out to Sherlock Washington and Kim and also to
Victoria soldier haven’t heard your voice in a while and I sure miss it. Know
you’re all thought of pray for love daily and missed very much. And once again
Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy
Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.
