A Walk Through The Word

Ezekiel 27:1-28:26, Hebrews 11:17-31, Psalm 111:1-10, Proverbs 27:15-16

Today is the 13th day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a joy and an honor and a privilege to be here with you today around the Global Campfire as we take the next step forward, that next step will lead us back into Ezekiel. We have been camping out in Ezekiel for a little bit working our way through. It will also lead us into the letter to the Hebrews where we began to speak about faith and I began to walk down the hall of faith yesterday, we’ll conclude that journey today. But first, Ezekiel chapters 27 and 28.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for another week. They pass by and we keep moving forward. But we like to take this opportunity to look back and thank You, You, every week, every week You speak to us through the Scriptures. Every week we learn and grow. Sometimes we get clarity and direction for the path ahead. Sometimes we just get wisdom that is gonna grow and cultivate inside of us and be valuable. Sometimes we get knowledge and understanding of the trajectory, of the way that our faith grew and evolved over time as You lead Your people, our spiritual ancestors. We are grateful for all of it, we thank You for all of it. We thank that it gives us an anchor point in the fog of life. Sometimes things can be confusing. We have a gift and its tangible, we can see it, we can hold it, we can touch it and yet to really immerse ourselves into it, it has to go with in us and transform us and that has been happening every day of this year and so, now we can look back and see what a shift, how things can change in the way that we view them when we immerse ourselves in Your word and yield ourselves to the guidance of Your Spirit. So, come, Holy Spirit, we yield ourselves to You and ask for Your direction and clarity in the days ahead. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that’s home base, that’s well, that’s a website. If you had never heard of those things, it’s kind of new, but that’s the website that’s where you find out what’s going on around here. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible, you can find out what’s going on around here within the app by pushing the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and what is going on around here is the release of a brand-new resource that we’re so excited about, so excited about this one: Promised Land, Photographs from the Land of the Bible. A project that was long time coming but is now here and is truly gorgeous. A beautiful coffee table book. It’s like 12 x 12 12" x 12" like I was saying the other day. That’s the equivalent of like album jacket for vinyl album a really good size for sitting there on the coffee table. It’s just a beautiful piece. We went for it. We used only the finest materials in the manufacturing and it’s something that’s gonna hold up, it’s a really beautiful art piece. So, you can check that out at dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop, there’s categories in the Shop, a number of different categories. You can find this in books and audiobooks or you can also find this in the lifestyle section. Check it out, its mission is to bring the places where the Bible happened near and to present these locations creatively and beautifully because indeed it is a very beautiful land of very, very diverse land. There’s just kind of flipping through Promised Land, you can realize the diversity of the land. It might not be quite as apparent that it’s a very, very small nation. So, I live here in the United States of America in the rolling hills of Tennessee. But this is a vast land so we have these rolling hills but we also have the high mountain peaks and deep and barren deserts and beautiful coastlines. We have a great amount of diversity. Geographically in this country. Israel is pretty much just as diverse, but packed into a small area like one of the smallest of the United States. Then so if, if I wanted to get to the desert from here in the rolling hills of Tennessee, I would neither or either need to drive a couple of days or get on a plane and fly out to the desert. Whereas in Israel, things are much more compact so we try to capture the diversity of the land and the beauty of the places where the Bible happened and this resource is available now.

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

And of course, 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey, this is a message for Terry who calls himself The Guy in Prison. Terry, I want you to know I just prayed a prayer for you and I’m gonna say it on this podcast. You are a new creation, Christ Jesus. The old has gone, the new has come. He has given you a new name, you are a son of a most high God. Also, I am praying in the name of Jesus for protection that God will bring other Christians who are in the place where you are, like magnets together. I am praying that you, in the name of Jesus, you all will become a hedge of protection for each other, that you will begin to pray together and love each other as you follow the Jesus way. I pray Terry, in the name of Jesus, for God’s blessing, mercy, grace over you. I pray Terry, that you will become a force for good, a force for love, a force for peace and that will emanate like that aroma of Christ from you and around you and when you walk into the room you have the power to change the atmosphere in the name of Jesus because Jesus lives in your heart. I lift you up Terry, and I pray that God will bring other people into your life who are in the prison as well to lift you up and to encourage you in the name of Jesus. I thank You God that Terry is fearfully and wonderfully made. I thank You Lord God, that You are blessing him to claim his new identity in you. He is a son of the most high God, he is renewed, redeemed and restored. And Terry you are free and one day soon, in the name of Jesus I pray, sooner than you expect, you will be free indeed, physically, and able to move on with your life, in the name of Jesus. Trust and know that you are loved in the name of Jesus I pray the things. Amen.

This prayer is for Tammy from the Adirondacks. I heard your prayer request yesterday about your husband and the health struggles he’s facing, the depression, and especially now the depression that you’re facing after surgery. My heart just really want to you and so this is Daniel from Michigan, actually I really liked your handle so I’m gonna say Daniel from the Great Lakes and I just wanted to encourage you and I wanted to encourage you today, to tell you that, that you are loved, that God loves you and that’s my prayer for you today that that prayer from Ephesians where Paul’s praying that he wishes above all else, that we would know the height, depth, breath or I should just say the vastness of God’s love and that’s my prayer for you today that you would know His love and that you would be empowered by the Holy Spirit and with strength to fight and face the battle that you are and I pray for healing for both of you in Jesus name, Amen.

Hey my beautiful DAB fam, this is Kingdom Seeker Daniel. Family, I want to hold up our first family here at the DAB, Pastor Brian and Lady Jill. I’ve been thinking about them since I heard a caller a while, a while back mention that we need to be praying for them and then on yesterday Lady Jill was out from the reading due to some kind of something, I don’t remember what it was but she wasn’t well. And it really brought back to my mind of how important it is for us to cover our first family here at the DAB. So, that’s what I want to do family, can we all gather around the Global Campfire and hold them up. Come on, let’s pray. Father, we thank You and we praise You for the leaders, Your servants, that You have raised up for such a time as this: Pastor Brian Hardin and Lady Jill. God, I ask that You would strengthen them in the inner man. O God, would You cause them to feel healing virtue flowing in their bodies from the crown of their head, to the soles of their feet. I ask God, that You would preserve their health, that You preserve their strength, that You would touch their vocal cords, touch their vital organs, their lungs and all the major components that make up their physical being. Lord, we speak healing to the house, we speak peace to their dwelling place, we pray that You would strengthen them, that You would let Your angels be encamped around about them all the days of their lives. We thank You for their sacrifice. And we pray that they would feel Your strength even now, coming into their little bones, in their bloodstream, in every part of who they are, cover them. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. We love you Pastor Brian and Lady Jill. Bless you guys.

Hi, happy Wednesday. Today is November 10th. This is Shawna calling. First, I wanna say Brian’s reading about how we don’t have to carry everything by ourselves just being apart of this Daily Audio Bible family, just hearing, not only the words but hearing the words of encouragement and the prayer requests just gives ___ for everyone and saying that I wanted to bless everyone for prayer. For some reason, my level of trust and anxiety is just like, I really can’t describe but I would ask that you all would please keep me in prayer. And I would just continue to change my perspective and look at God for who He is and trust Him for who He is. I’ve trusted Him before in the past but because I’ve been so overburdened by so many things, the cares and all the souls going in and around me it’s causing me to look at them more then look at God and what He is capable of doing. Thank you all, I love you guys, thank you, bye.

Hey, it’s Shannon from Texas and I need some more prayer. I am realizing that my, all these strange things that are happening, I’ve known this for a while and it’s happening, it’s been like an attack. Mostly it’s been on my ability but also on my ministry and I’m just determined to press through and I’m doing like a month of November every morning prayer and I’m just gonna pray my way, press my way through no matter what. And it’s been a strong attack but God is stronger. And I will have victory. But what I’m dealing with right now, so you can pray, is my son, who got out of rehab, I’ve called in for 2015, and I called the other day just about the abuse cause that’s really set me so much back, I’m trying not to get emotional but I can’t that I didn’t go to work, I just didn’t show up. So, I think that might be bit much. And it’s just really hard on me, people know what it does to your spirit. It’s destructive. But I just have been going through so much lately that I just shut down. And I just could not do it, it’s a really far drive, it’s just like, I feel like I’m just being tossed to and fro. But what I need prayers for is my son is still kinda not real good right now. He’s kinda texting me about a car and I just need the Lord’s intervention and I just need prayer and I love you guys. And love you, love you, bye.

Ezekiel 24:1-26:21, Hebrew 11:1-16, Psalms 110:1-7, Proverbs 27:14

Today is the 12^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today as we continue our journey, move another step forward on that journey. We’re reading from the Evangelical Heritage Version this week and our next step is in the book of Ezekiel. Today, chapters 24 25 and 26.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’ve been navigating the letter to the Hebrews and we’ve spent ample time talking about the difficulty, what…what makes the gospel so revolutionary or what makes the gospel so controversial, especially in the first century. And, so, we’ve explored that and we’ve explored the way in which the writer of Hebrews is trying to show Hebrew believers as well as unbelievers that this isn’t a new arrival, a new thing that’s just magically been constructed by some people in a closet somewhere. There is prophetic heritage that is foretold that there was a savior coming, that this was supposed to happen. And we talked about how some people put their faith in Jesus because of this, and lived that way while others couldn’t get their minds around that this Jesus, this guy that was a Jew up from the Galilee, who got crucified by the Romans, how He could be this promised Savior. And, so, they rejected it. They didn’t believe. So, they both heard the message equally coming from similar backgrounds. So, what makes one person believe and another person reject? The answer is something that we have been exploring…well throughout our entire year but most certainly once we got to the letters of Paul. The difference is faith. And that is where the letter to the Hebrews is turning us now. So, you may hear the good news of the gospel and maybe it does nothing to you. And, so, faith is not present, does not arise. You do not put your faith in Christ, you will reject the message. Whereas with other people it’s like a light bulb goes on, it’s like…it’s like the presence of Jesus is very apparent. It’s like this unexplainable love washes over and everything starts like for a moment to make sense and there’s clarity and faith arises because of the experience and then we believe. The apostle Paul taught us as well as all of his readers of all of his letters over all the time since they’ve been written that Abraham’s faith is what made him righteous before God, not his adherence to a law because Abraham didn’t have a law to obey, not because of any rituals found in the law like male circumcision because that rule did not exist at that time. And, so, Paul’s argument was that it was Abram or Abraham’s faith, he believed the promise that God spoke to him. Even though he couldn’t see it, even though he was old too old, he and his wife really to have kids, I guess if you’re in your 90s you’re not thinking about starting a family. So, all of the reasons to not believe the promise were before Abraham and Abraham chose to believe God. Despite what he could clearly see he put his faith in God and God, in turn, counted that as a righteousness, counted Abraham as righteous before Him. So, it was faith that enacted this righteousness, not the adherence to the Mosaic law or any other ritual or rule. It was faith. And that’s where we are finally arriving in the letter to the Hebrews. And it’s essentially the same kind of argument. It’s just that Hebrews gives us definitions that are super famous about faith. And, so, quoting from Hebrews. “Faith is being sure about what we hope for, being convinced about things we do not see.” And then the letter to the Hebrews begins to give us examples of faith. “By faith we know that the universe was created by God’s word so that what is seen did not come from visible things.” Let’s just stop there because there’s a practical one to consider. Do we know that the universe was created by God or God’s word that he spoke it into existence so that everything that we now see came from something that was no…was not visible? And what kind of visibility are we talking about? Human visibility? Because God began to create things before human eyes were created. So, we could say taking a step back and just using deduction and reason we weren’t there. We weren’t eyewitnesses. We aren’t first person…person witnesses to the event of creation. We don’t know exactly how it came about. None of us do. We have clues and hints from the Scriptures that have been given to us, but that’s what we have. We weren’t there so we don’t know. But do we believe that the universe was created by God. I believe that. And, so, I can say I have not the ability to prove this. I am not a first-person witness to this. But, at least for all of the weakness of my faith in different areas of my life this area I have faith. I believe that even though I can’t see or do not understand, can’t even fathom what creating a universe and for that matter just speaking it into existence. I…I don’t know how that all works but I know that without faith it is impossible to please God. So, God is inviting us into a story that is out of our reach, right? Because when we have something within our grasp, and we are certain of it and we are certain that we understand how it’s put together, and how it works and how it operates and we have experience then we don’t really need that much faith, we already have the thing in our control. Whereas our relationship with God we will never be able to control it. We can be in it. We can experience it. And that does make our faith grow. As we continue to have fellowship with God we become more and more secure about what we didn’t know, but now that we do know because we’re experiencing it, but there will always be matters in the realm of the spirit that are beyond our control and that we do not understand and that is where our faith actually begins as it did with Abraham in the beginning of the story that we have been telling over and over throughout this year. Abraham had to believe something that seemed rather unlikely at best, that God shows up to you wandering in the desert and says go into another land that you’ve never been to. And that you get there, you obey that, you get there and then you are told this will be the land of your family one day and you will have descendants that outnumber the stars or the sand on the seashore. If your elderly you’re thinking this is this is highly unlikely, but Abraham believed anyway. Our story is no different. And as we continued in our reading from Hebrews today and it will…it will spill over into tomorrow. We started walking down what is famously known as the hall of faith because it’s a series of examples from the Hebrew Scriptures, not just Abraham alone, but a series of stories that we are familiar with because we’ve read them of people who had faith in God despite what seemed to be apparent. And in those stories, if we just go back and read Hebrews 11 again and just go down the list of the stores we can go yep, I remember that story. I remember that story. I remember that story. What we begin to realize is that without faith, the story couldn’t have happened. And what we are supposed to begin to understand is that it’s no different for us. Without faith, our story cannot happen. The story that we’re in, the one that we’re in love with a God who has adopted us into His family and…and now sees us as dear children and we now see Him as abba our papa, the most high God, the Creator of this universe, the One who was able to speak it into existence is intimately involved in our lives, knows who we are and desires fellowship. If I step away, if I step back, I examine myself, I can say I’m trying really hard as hard as I can. I am all in in this faith. I am all in. And yet my failures are so before my eyes. The ways in which I react and choose to not obey things are before my eyes. So, for me to think the God who spoke it all into existence intimately loves me and wants fellowship with me, from a logical perspective I could say I don’t know how that’s even possible. I am so small. I am so weak. I am so momentary. So, the only way then to be in this fellowship with God is by faith. We believe it despite our shortcomings, despite our logic, despite whatever. We reach beyond and find. We seek we find. There is no other way to be in life with God without faith. And there’s really to be honest, it’s very difficult to live a human life without faith. We are all living by faith in one way or another if we have any type of plan for the future beyond the next 30 seconds. We are in some way living by faith. Like we can’t see love but we see the evidence of love and we feel love and we have faith that it exists because even though it’s not a tangible thing it is a real thing. Or how about Christmas? Anybody thinking at this point that Christmas is just six weeks away? Well, that has not happened. That is six weeks away, and yet we are beginning to make preparations for that event and our lives are gonna get busier and busier and busier centered around that event that does not yet exist. Christmas of this year does not yet exist. It’s something that we have faith that it will come and that we will live that day and that day will be a day that we prepared for, but it does not exist until it does exist. We are all living by faith in one way or another and Hebrews is giving us the hall of faith. It’s giving us example after example after example of how a person’s story could not exist were it not for faith. And, so, it would be a good exercise for us to simply consider where our faith is. Where is it? We need to locate it and find out what it’s in. If it’s not in God it should be a lightbulb moment. All kinds of questions should begin to be answered for us as we contemplate what we are putting our faith in.

Prayer:

Father, we believe. We believe that You created all of this, including us, including our hearts, including our minds, including our ability to have faith. And, so, we believe. We declare our allegiance and faith in You. At the same time, we invite Your Holy Spirit to reveal to us places that we are placing faith in something that will not deliver and cannot work. Help us to learn the ways of faith because so often we consider our faith just simply the fact that we have prayed a prayer and accepted You believed. And that that we do believe, but the it is not a category that we are trying to grow in. We may sing songs and ask You to increase our faith. We may pray prayers that ask You to help us to have more faith. But in order for us to have more faith we’re going to have to reach the end of what we think we are in control of and what we think we know and begin to reach beyond that. And, so, when we ask You to give us more faith we are inviting disruption. We are inviting ourselves to continually be aware of the end of our ability to reason and…reason and rationalize things and know that we have to reach beyond that and seek and find. And, so, help us to understand this, to actually make this a functional category in our lives. Faith. Faith is what is to be increasing along with our ability to please You. And, so, Holy Spirit we invite You into that and we pray this 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. And there’s plenty going on around here.

Yesterday we released the latest book and I shared about it in yesterday’s program but it is so exciting to finally bring to life a beautiful coffee table book. Promised Land is what it’s called. Promised Land. Photographs from the land of the Bible and it builds on the Promised Land films that we worked on for many years but this resource was created…well…over nine years of being in the land of Israel and photographing, but over the last several years putting it all together in a cohesive package that is truly beautiful and crafted to last and be held onto as an heirloom. At least that was the goal. It was, if we’re going to do this let’s do this right. Let’s do this with excellence. Let’s use the finest materials the finest matt art paper to print on, let’s make something worthy of the Global Campfire community. And we have done that. It is beautiful, beautiful on your coffee table, beautiful to give away. All with the same mission the Daily Audio Bible has. In this particular case it’s to try to bring the land of the Bible near so that we understand that these stories that we’re reading, they happened somewhere and those places exist. So, check it out. Promised Land, photographs from the land of the Bible. You can find that in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, whether that be at dailyaudiobible.com or in the app. Find the Shop and in the lifestyle category, or in the books and audiobooks category you will find Promised Land photographs from the land of the Bible. And this is book 5 for me. Although this is a little bit different in that it is largely a creative expression through visual, but I’ve done my best over the years of photographing the land to try to seek out the essence, the beauty and it is a beautiful land. So, check it out in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that dailyaudiobible.com. 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, 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:

Hey Daily Audio Bible family James the teacher not in LA anymore. I just had a realization this morning that I wanted to share with you guys. And this message is for all of you and also for you Brian Hardin. I’ve been listening since 2009…2008…I can’t really remember anymore but I…I in that time I have moved more times than I care to count and changed churches more times that I care to count and gotten married had kids currently going through a divorce and I haven’t necessarily been on the DAB the entire time but this is literally the most consistent community I’ve been a part of in my life and has been a part of my walk with Christ for the majority of my walk with Christ, all 20 something years now of it. And that’s just crazy, valuable, crazy amazing. And I just love all of you guys and I’m thanking God for all of you this morning. So, I love you guys. Thank you, God bless you, all of you, every one of you.

Good morning my DAB family this is Judy from Georgia. This goes out to Running Desperately to Jesus. I heard your message today and I feel the same. It’s very hard when you’re alone and you try to fit in in groups and it doesn’t work out. I talk to some of the ladies at church after church, but it never goes beyond that. I pray every day that if there’s someone for me to minister to or that can minister to me, do Bible studies with, have a friend, someone just to talk to. So, I pray every day that God will put that person in my life at the time that he chooses. So, that’s what we have to tell ourselves, that God is with us all the time. He is always there to talk to and depend on. And though we may feel lonely those are the times I usually try to pick up the Bible or do one of my Bible studies and immerse myself in that. So, please anyone out there feeling the same way, please know that if you pray God will put a person in your life that supposed to be there when the time is right. Have a great day everyone. I love you all.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Tierra from Texas calling in because I heard a woman who was praying through a very shaky and a very worrisome voice to find a new facility for her mother who is suffering from dementia. She’s called in before and I remember hurrying her the first time and just hoping that, you know, whatever she was going through that God would keep her and protect her and I want the same thing now. I pray that in your worry and in your seeking that God will strengthen you and guide you to the right place where your mother can be safe and protected and taken care of and ultimately in the hands of our Father and our Lord and Savior. I pray that you’re comfortable leaving her somewhere where you can trust the workers and the caretakers and that wherever she ends up that you bless the hands of the caretakers and nurses and that you just Father steady the heart of her…her daughter who called in and asked for prayer. Change is always scary and it’s something that I know we all have issues with making decisions. So, I pray that, you know, you can help make a decision in her uncertainty, you know, keep her certain that You are protector, provider, and comfort. And I pray for just prosperity and peace and safety and a clear head and a clear mind in these next coming months. And I pray in the name of Jesus that You just fulfill the prayers of her and her mother. These blessings I asked in Your son’s holy name Jesus. Amen. Be blessed happy Wednesday.

Hello DAB my name is Gin in Min which is short for Virginia in Minnesota. I’m calling on the 10^th of November and response to a caller Tammy from the Adirondacks who called on the 9^th. She’s nine months in remission from ovarian cancer, complete hysterectomy last year, and menopause depression. Has a previous history of depression and anxiety and she’s going to the Lord to be healed. She said she cries often. Her husband is in progressive stage of MS and she’s currently taking care of him. Her meds cannot be changed, her liver enzymes are elevated. Her tears she says never stop. She needs to know that God loves her. And I want to tell you miss Tammy that your prayer request hit my heart and my soul and I loved you at that moment. I never knew you and yet I loved you. And I want to pray for you right now. God, I come before Your throne, and I carry my sister Sam Tammy in my hands to Your throne of grace with confidence. I pray for Tammy. I want her to know that You are the God who sees her. You are the God who heals her, You are the God who is her constant companion. You are the God who heals, who forgives. And I lift her up to You and I ask that You strengthen her inner man, her emotional self, that You would make those connections, her neurological connections, that You would remove her depression and instead replace it with extreme gratitude and peace that passes all understanding, that her husband will be a source of encouragement though he has an MS situation himself, that You would provide friends and surprises and gifts along her path that are gifts from You and she knows they’re gives from You even if it’s a bird in the window or a __  You would let her know that You love her in the biggest ways and in the smallest ways. I love you, Tammy. Bye. Your friend Gin in…

Hello DAB family my name is Mikey I’m a first-time caller I’ve been listening to DAB for about three or four years now. The reason I’m calling is me and my wife had a baby this summer her name is Maren and we've…she’s been going through some tests, and we found out she has auditory neuropathy and she is hard of hearing. And, yeah, we would just like prayer for her. Either she gets better or as along the way that we have wisdom and strength to get through just the learning process that that’s going to be and for her as she grows up that she can have strength to grow and learn. And, yeah, just that her development goes really well. Yeah. Thanks guys.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Greg in Colorado been a longtime listener and supporter of Daily Audio Bible. Last time I called in was 2007. So, that’s been quite a while back. Just want you to know I’ve been praying for you and listening to all of the prayer requests and really my heart goes out to so many of you. I am also praying for my sister and brother-in-law in Kenai AK. Prayers going out to Denise and Mark. I love you and I will continue to listen and pray for all of you.

Ezekiel 23:1-49, Hebrews 10:18-39, Psalm 109:1-31, Proverbs 27:13

Today is the 11th day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian. It’s a joy to be here with you today as we come around this Global Campfire together and find a place, relax, exhale, release, release the stresses and anxieties that present themselves to us on a continual basis, let it go and just have this little oasis that we create each and every day. The little place in a day that is a peaceful place, a serene place, a place for us to learn, a place for us to experience rest together as the Scriptures come alive and wash into our lives and so let’s just do that. Let’s exhale, let’s relax, let’s rest as the Scriptures come into our minds and hearts. And later when our reading is over for today, stick around. There is an important resource announcement that I’m excited to share. We have been reading from the Evangelical Heritage Version this week. We have been reading from the book of Ezekiel and the letter to the Hebrews. We’re going to continue doing that until we complete both of those books, today, Ezekiel chapter 23.

Commentary:

Okay, so continuing our journey in Hebrews and just remembering, the remembering that Hebrews was written to Hebrews, to Hebrew people, to Jewish people. It’s written primarily to Jewish people who were believers in Jesus and it’s unpacking, in a Hebrew context from a Jewish perspective, a religious Jewish perspective, how…how the good news is good news and…and what the implications are. And so, we’ve spent some time talking about those implications; on one level, this is the good news and the implications are eternal life for all those who believe so, there’s an implication. But we’ve also talked about how this was perceived and could very easily be perceived as heresy or blasphemy. So, it’s good news, it’s such good news that it’s almost impossible to get our minds around, and yet from a religious perspective it’s setting aside the Mosaic law, it seems, and so that is the perfect law of God. That’s how you are made righteous and it’s setting aside atonement and sacrifice by saying that has come to an end and the final sacrifice has been made and that final sacrifice was God made flesh himself. And we’ve talked about how if no sacrifices is, if no sacrifice is necessary any longer than all of the apparatus that keeps the momentum, that keeps the whole thing going, then that’s not needed anymore, like you don’t have to, you don’t need an altar anymore if you’re not gonna be sacrificing on an altar. And…and then there’s the temple and there is the holy place and then there’s the holy of holies, or the most holy place and that place could only be entered once per year by these serving high priest at the time. And the high priest could go into the most holy place the very presence of God as it were, to make atonement, this one time per year. And so, this most holy place, that’s what it was, the most holy place. Right, so for a Hebrew person no, only the high priest can even go in there, that is the most holy place there is and a human being in the person of the…the high priest could enter it once a year. So, you weren’t going to have people just come storming the temple and getting into the holy of holies without…without being stopped. So, understanding all of that and remembering all of that I quote from our reading today “we have confidence to enter the most holy place through the blood of Jesus. It is a new and living way he opened for us through the curtain at his flash. We also have a great priest over the house of God. So let us approach with a sincere heart and the full confidence of faith because our hearts have been sprinkled to take away a bad conscience and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold on firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering since He who promised is faithful.” Okay so, like me just reading that verse, we could say as believers in Jesus, yeah, that’s what I believe, that’s what I was taught, that’s what I believe. But do we understand what we’re saying when we take it from the Hebrew perspective because what we’re saying is that, that most holy place, the most holy place that could only be entered by a human being once per year, we can go there with confidence anytime we want to because of Jesus. That’s pretty radical. And so, we should once again be able to get this glimpse of why people following Jesus believing this, speaking this out, teaching or telling of this, why they were facing marginalization, why they were facing persecution and why this letter was written to encourage them, to remind them of what actually really is going on here, but to also encourage them to not back down, to not disappear because that’s what was happening. People were facing challenge to this message and it was starting to hurt. And they were having to endure and so they’re being affected economically, there being affected in getting a good job, there being affected in by their neighbors like, there beginning to be isolated. And so, many people are just deciding maybe to go ahead and trust Jesus but just sort of fade into the culture and continue to worship God using the rituals and customs that they’ve always known, while other people are going this is just crazy, what am I doing and then and just leaving the faith and going back into to what would be considered more Orthodox Judaism. We can see the struggle here and it should give us a profound understanding what people were facing, but also a profound gratitude that there were those who endured and that the good news continued forward, and that we’re standing here or sitting here around this Global Campfire as beneficiaries of the endurance that was necessary to fly in the face of what had been traditionally understood by bringing new revelation.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You, we thank You for your word. Thank You for the way that it instructs our lives and develops us as people, we thank You that it informs us, that things have shifted and that we have a great high priest, and that is our Savior Jesus, who was making intercession for us before You each and every day that we, through Jesus, can come into the most holy place that…that we can enter Your presence. I know that You are our Father and that You love us as Your children because of Jesus, and no matter how many ways this is told to us then no matter how many contexts we can understand this in, it is still revolutionary, it…it changes everything about our lives and we are grateful for that change. And yet we admit so often that we’re ignoring it and that we’re just trying to make life work on our own, in our own strength by what we can manage to arrange for, when we are allowed to come into the most holy place anytime we want with confidence. So, Holy Spirit, we ask that You would help us to remain aware of this and not get tossed to and fro by everything that comes our way. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay, so for that announcement that I was talking about at the beginning, first, yesterday we announced the arrival of the clean canteens, 2021 Global Campfire addition and I had expected that they would last a few days anyway but they didn’t make it till noon so the clean canteens, 2021 addition is sold out. Which allows me to talk about something that I have been waiting to talk about for years, for real, four years. So, my first trip to the land of the Bible was about a decade ago now and after that we began to travel there each year and take a group out of the community here to the land of the Bible to walk the land. We obviously weren’t able to go this year due to COVID restrictions which will be true of 2022 as well. But previous to that disruption, we had been annually taking a couple of buses over and rooting ourselves in the places that the Bible happened. And I’ve said many times over the years that visiting Israel was never really a bucket item for me but once I did go and once I saw the power, at least in my own heart and spirit of standing in a place and being able to turn in a circle and look all around and feel the air on my face and smell the smells of the trees and not just the experience of being somewhere, but to be somewhere that you’ve been reading about or that you’ve been aware of from Sunday school for most of your life, to be somewhere where you’re like that happened here, like here, I’m standing here, that was a profound experience to me. I wasn’t imagining stories anymore, I was there, I was looking around and the ancient hills look the same as they did in biblical times and I realize the power and that which is why we…we continued to go back. For many seasons after that we started filming in the land of the Bible. Not only the more popular and well-known places and archaeological sites to visit, but also some of the really obscure things that are hard to get to, sometimes you can’t even get to some of these biblical locations without a four-wheel-drive vehicle. So, obviously that rules out a bus full of people, but it doesn’t rule out the importance of what happened there. And so, for many seasons we filmed and filmed and filmed and filmed the land of the Bible which became the Promised Land films that have been available for a while now, several years. And those films are available in the Daily Audio Bible shop. There the little snippet kind of, 2/3 minutes in a location but many, many biblical locations. The idea, the goal was how close can we bring this land to a person who may never be able to go. How can we bring it near? And all during this time of filming photographs were being taken the entire way and those began to accumulate into thousands and thousands of photographs using a lot of different cameras and lenses over a lot of years. About a decade worth of photographs with the intention that maybe one day this could be a tangible thing, like a coffee table book something beautiful, something to hold onto and treasure with the same intention as the Promised Land films, to give us context, to root us in a place that, that…that the Bible happened, to understand that, that story, the one that I knew for so long, that happened here. So, a couple of years ago, it would’ve been 2019. I began to collect all of those together and I kind of began to curate them and kind of narrow things down and many, many passes and it wasn’t something that I could just devote like a whole month to and just block out everything else going on and just focus on this project. So, in fits and starts and many phases I worked through all of the photographs that I’d taken over all of the years, narrowing them down, with the intention that there would be a Promised Land coffee table book. Of course, you know once it’s all distilled down and kind of broken down into categories and the frames are selected and the whole thing has to be designed and laid out and so that was a phase. We went through all of that and then the manufacturing process and I thought if we’re going to do this, I want to do it like we do everything else around here with excellence, the best that we can as an act of worship. So, going through the process of selecting the art paper that would be printed on and the kind of spine that it would have, the thickness of the board used for the cover and the dust cover and how can that really be preservative. Just all of the little things that go into this kind of creative project were accomplished and then there have been ever escalating supply chain issues in the world affecting everybody in some sort of way, whether we know it or not. We’re just trying to see if they could arrive before the year is out. All that just took a long time over many phases, over several years, but I am here to tell you today that Promised Land, Photographs from the Land of the Bible is available today and no corners were cut. This is a beautiful heirloom piece. Something to hold onto and the craftsmanship in the manufacturing process is evident. It is a beautifully crafted book and the last book that I published was God of Your story a couple years ago, so this is a brand-new offering just a little different than only the written page. Although there are definitely words to read in this book. It’s a visual experience. I’ve experienced a number of proofs along the way. But now that I’ve been able to hold in my hand the final addition, like this is what it is, it is, it is gorgeous. It’s 12 x 12 to 12" x 12". It’s like a, it’s like a square approximately the size of a vinyl album, and has been manufactured to pretty exacting specifications and it contains photographs from the different regions of the land of the Bible. So, there’s the wilderness right, and so much of the Bible happens in the wilderness and it’s a such a backdrop and metaphor for our own life experiences so there are photographs from the wilderness that we read about. And there’s the Galilee region which is where Jesus lived and conducted his ministry and then Israel, its western border is the Mediterranean Sea and so there are many things in the Bible that happen along the coast. And then there is the interior both north and south, the northern regions is really rocky and craggy. This is where places like Shiloh are, or Bethel and then there is sort of the southern central area, this is known as the Shufala, the low lands, which is famous for all kinds of stories like the story of David and Goliath. And then of course Jerusalem, a city with more biblical heritage, both old and new Testaments than really any other place on earth. Promised Land, Photographs from the Land of the Bible visits these regions and connects the dots to the biblical heritage. So, I’ll probably be able to share some more things as I think of them over the next coming days, but I wanted to let you know about this resource as soon as we had them in hand. This book is beautiful and it is worth holding onto. But it is also very worthy of being given away and we are clearly moving into the time of year where we’re thinking about stuff like that so, I wanted to let you know as soon as possible. You can find Promised Land Photographs from the Land of the Bible in the Daily Audio Bible Shop at dailyaudiobible.com. Or if you’re using the app you can press that drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and go to the shop from there. You’ll find Promised Land in the lifestyle category as well as the books and audiobooks category. It is available as of today, which means it’s available now and I’m looking forward to hearing what you think so check it out if you can.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com or if you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner of the main screen or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can at 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.

Ezekiel 21:1-22:31, Hebrews 10:1-17, Psalms 108:1-13, Proverbs 27:12

Today is the 10^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we take the next step forward, find ourselves around the Global Campfire and move forward together. And that of course will lead us…well that’ll lead us right to where we left off yesterday, which will put us back in the book of Ezekiel and the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament. We’ve been reading from the evangelical heritage version this week which we will continue to do while it’s still this week. Today Ezekiel chapters 21 and 22.

Commentary:

Okay. We were talking yesterday from our reading in the letter to the Hebrews about the Hebrew centric nature of Hebrews, that Hebrews is written to Hebrew people, to Jewish people who were…who were familiar with the Hebrew culture, but also very familiar with the Hebrew religion, which is what we read when we read the…the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament. And we were talking about the…the controversial nature of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and why a Hebrew person would’ve been intrigued, likely because boy it’s good news. That’s the thing. It’s good news. If it’s true, it’s good news. But how difficult it was for them to accept that this was actually good news from God. And so, let’s just go back into that today and look at it a little bit more because we were talking about sacrifices yesterday and the end of the sacrificial system. Essentially, a…the end of a way of life that these people had known for centuries, many many centuries. So, Hebrews chapter 10, which is where we spent our time today begins by saying, and I quote…and before I even quote this, before I even quote this, if you put yourself back in the mindset that you’ve grown up Hebrew, right? And, so, sacrifice and all of the rituals associated with Judaism are a part of your life. You…you celebrate the holidays and the festivals. You practice the Sabbath. You…you are involved in this, so you understand what it is that you think is expected of you by God. And sacrifice is part of the thing that you believe is…is expected of you by God. This atones for your sins. This washes away your sin and separation from God. So now, with that in mind we begin Hebrews chapter 10. “The law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the actual realization of those things. It will never be able to make perfect those who continually offer the same sacrifices year after year. If it could do this, would they not have stopped bringing sacrifices because the worshipers once they were cleansed would no longer have a bad conscience about sins. Instead, these sacrifices reminded them of their sins, year after year. The fact is that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.” We can read that from the book of Hebrews and not even know that that is a very very controversial statement. Once again, what they have to wrap their minds around is that they were waiting for a Savior who did come. Like that would be the first place, the first point of belief, who did come. He was Jesus, the one who was crucified. And then that crucified, that executed portion, that’s a leap of faith to get…a hurdle to get over as well because they were not expecting their Savior to come and be dead. They were expecting their Savior to come and take over Jerusalem, not die on a cross outside the walls of Jerusalem. And, so, many people hearing this message just considered it to be heretical. Like it's…it’s heresy. It's…it's…it’s blasphemy even. And there are many levels that this goes on. Let’s remember the Hebrew identity. We have a read of it. We…that’s what we’ve been reading since January in the Old Testament, this formation of a people through this man named Abraham who was in covenant with God, and these were God’s chosen people. And through these people they received God’s law through…through their Prophet Moses. These are not people that feel unfamiliar with God or unfamiliar…unfamiliar with what they think God wants from them. They believe they’re chosen by God, and they have been given a perfect and holy law that is exclusive and perfect for the Hebrew people. So, they’re being told that that’s done, like it’s accomplished. Or as Jesus said on the cross, “it is finished.” And that is hard for them to get their minds around. And an easy enough way for us to try to put ourselves in that same position is to imagine now as believers in Jesus, some of us new believers in Jesus, maybe some of you are here, and maybe you have known the Lord for a month and you’ve come here to find out about the Bible and then some of your seasoned and have been walking with Jesus maybe most of your life. Nevertheless, you have come to an understanding about what you think you know at this point in time. And, so, as believers right now, we…we…we don’t practice sacrifice, right? Like nobody’s planning to sacrifice a sheep or goat or a puppy or anything anytime soon, especially in some sort of religious ritual that we believe that is necessary that…that…that it’s something that God desires and wants. What we understand is that we are a living sacrifice to God, that we…that we live sacrificially on behalf of the kingdom of God as…as we let this good news be known in the world. But that’s about as far as it goes in terms of like blood sacrifice. So, what we would have to imagine, then, is that somebody super famous in the Christian ranks, somebody with the really really monstrous megaphone is able to get word out that they feel like they’ve heard from God and that the sacrificial system is to be reinstated, thus saith the Lord, and in that next year on the first of January this is to go into effect. And, so, it will be again necessary than for us to atone for our sins with blood sacrifice. And, so, we need…you know…and we need to prepare for that. You can only imagine how that would light up social media among Christian people because the Internet gets lit up by Christian people for way less than something like that. And people…people get thrown under the bus or chastised or even persecuted for believing way, way less than that. So, for us to get our minds around returning to a sacrificial system, it’s like we can’t even…we wouldn’t even know how to go there. And we certainly would dismiss it. And for some, we would call it heresy. We would…yeah…go after the…the messenger. Any number of things would happen that wouldn’t be good because we wouldn’t be able to believe that that’s what God wants. That’s not too…I mean…that’s just the reverse of what Hebrew people were needing to become aware of and believe about Jesus. So, the only real way for that to work and the only opening for a person’s mind and heart that was Hebrew practicing Mosaic law, God’s law, who are being told that that law has reached its conclusion and a new covenant is being initiated, the only way to get your mind around that would be to understand in your culture that there was a Savior foretold. And that is what we’re beginning to see develop in the letter to the Hebrews. The argument is this is not a newfangled religion. This isn’t some kind of messed up version of the religion that we already have. This was expected. This new covenant was expected. It was foretold. We’ve been waiting for this. The prophets have spoken about this. This isn’t heresy. This isn’t a new religion even. And God surely isn’t trying to get other people to believe in a different God. Rather, He’s trying to expand their awareness of God and His presence. And it was foretold. It was to be expected. That is really the only way for them to approach this good news in a way that they can understand and appreciate and accept and begin to live into it. This isn’t new. It has been expected for a very long time and it’s happening now. And that’s good. That gives us some context for what we’re reading through and helps us to put ourselves in the position of first century Jewish people who are…who are hearing the good news and how they would’ve received it. But kind of putting ourselves in a position of modern times and like having some new thing revealed if it hadn’t been foretold…if we didn’t have any context for it, we would be doing the same thing, but that does give us the opportunity to consider because God talks about doing new things a lot in the Bible. What if God did do a new thing and you didn’t understand it? How would you respond Would you go, “that’s heresy” and then persecute the messenger? What if God was doing a new thing that brought our awareness of His presence in our lives and His activity in the world more clear to us? Would we reject it because it’s new or because it messes with our own paradigms? Because what we’re seeing in the letter to the Hebrews is that God did do that and He didn’t seem to mind that He was messing with peoples paradigms, that He was messing with what they thought they had figured out about Him and what had been sort of cemented in place so that it is immovable. God didn’t seem to mind coming the way that He did and doing the work that He did and disrupting things the way that He did. He didn’t seem to mind that. We, 2000 years in the future who aren’t Jewish, who mostly are Gentile who are reading these things and may have read them our entire lives, we should now be beginning to understand that the gospel is disruptive and it always has been. And anything that we cement in place that will thwart our awareness of His presence and guidance in our lives, He just…He just doesn’t seem to care about that stuff. We’ve been reading the Bible an awful long time, like we’re so close now to concluding our journey that we…we should have a pretty good grasp on the personality and essence of the Scriptures and we should be pretty clear that God does what God does. God is God. And what we think about it often times is less important to God than doing what is what God’s will is. And God’s will is perfect and right and just and true and good, but He also does not mind shaking things up to shake us awake and shake us free.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit as we look back and are assured of how our salvation were…as we understand the good news from the letter to the Hebrews we also understand how this would’ve been received. And then we have to put the mirror in front of our own eyes and think of the ways in which we are the same way or would’ve done the same thing and rejected what You were doing. And Holy Spirt come and help us to become aware of some of the maybe smaller ways that we’ve thwarted what You wanted to do. We’ve just rejected it because we can’t imagine that You would do things in a certain way, we think You do things only a certain way with certain people at certain times for certain reasons and we go around telling everybody what You do and don’t do when…when that’s pretty arrogant. You are the God of all things, the Creator of all things, the Sustainer of all things. You will do what is right. You will do what You will do regardless of what we think about it. Help us to humble ourselves to become aware of the myriad of ways that You are working all around us that we ignore, that we don’t pay any attention to because we don’t have a context, we don’t have a paradigm for it. Holy Spirit come, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the home base and its where you find out what’s going on around here and somethings going on around. There’s always something going on around here but sometimes there are new things going on around here. And that will be the case in the next couple of weeks. So, today I want to announce the arrival…and boy there really have been supply-chain problems in the world this year, but the arrival of our Klean Canteens, the 2021 edition. And I know a lot of folks out there wait for these to come in stock because we don’t keep them in stock because they’re really expensive for us to get manufactured. And, so, once or twice a year we’ll bring them in, and this will be our time for this year. Brand-new look. This year we have a cream, a beautiful, creamy kind or pearly finish with a tope lid, dark gray Global Campfire logo, super classy. I love them. And if you’re hear and you’re like, “this is my first year. I’ve never really heard…what is this about?” Well…we’re kind of coffee people around here, which is not to say they we’re not tea people around here. I drink tea just about every day as well as coffee. And it’s been well over a decade now that we’ve had the Windfarm coffee brand and roasted our own coffee at altitude in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and we ship them all over the world. And we source the finest quality teas for our Windfarm tea. So, lots of people have this delivered every…every month because we ship out a new shipment every month to those who receive it every month. Or you can just go and kind of get some tea or pick out which varietal of coffee that you want and have that shipped to you fresh. And for the longest time I was on a search for the best possible thing to drink coffee or tea out of, like some…something that would keep my coffee warm because I like to sip it. I don’t like just sit down usually and drink a full cup of coffee in the space of 15 minutes or whatever. I…I like to kinda carry my coffee all along the way through my morning all the way through the Daily Audio Bible sometime kinda sipping it along the way. And it was super hard to find kinda what I was looking for. So, I’d like get a thermos and it’s like okay that’ll kinda keep it warm, but I gotta keep pouring cups of coffee out of this thermos. I want something that’s just standalone, that I could just reach over and take a drink out of and then everyone. And then I remember one year kinda finding one of those coaster things, right, that you can plug in and you put your…you put your coffee mug on it and it sort of heats the bottom of your coffee mug keeping your coffee warm. Problem with that is it’s easy to spill, but the bigger problem is…it makes it…for me…to my taste buds…it made my coffee taste like I was drinking a liquid pencil. And I remember kind of frequenting you know out…outdoor outfitter kind of places and like REI or whatever and they had Klean canteens. I didn’t really know what they were. And several years ago I’d have to count back, but many years ago now we were traveling, we were in Portland, Oregon. And that region of the United States is kinda known for being a coffee region. And I was in a coffee shop and found thee Klean canteens that were self-contained and they were double-walled and they used food grade stainless steel and they were conscientious in the manufacturing process. So, there’s a lot of good things going for it, but it was kind of expensive. And I was like, “I don’t Know” but I ended up going for it and have never looked back. Loved it so much, used it so often, carried all over the world with me that I finally was like who is…like I want to find this company and see if we can make these because that coffee shop did. And. So, what do you gotta do. And it took a while and then we were able to make our own Klean canteens and it’s an offering that’s the best I have been able to find for that perfect coffee mug, that thing that will keep the coffee warm and drinkable pretty much the whole day. And although I mostly use it for hot beverages I have also tried cold beverages. Got in the car for a long car drive, put some ice in my Klean canteen, filled it up with water and it’s ice in the evening. And what better way to drink excellent coffee then in a container that’s gonna treat it properly. And, so, these Klean canteens are that, our offering, our pairing with our coffee. When we are able to bring them in stock they last about a week. And, so, maybe a week maybe less and they’ll be gone, at least from us and they’ll be all over the world serving their purpose, hopefully bringing enjoyment and hopefully they come alongside you as we take the next step forward every day through the Scriptures. So, the 2021 edition of the Klean canteen Global Campfire edition is available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop now while supplies last. If you go to dailyaudiobible.com you’ll find a little navigation thing at the top. One of those says Shop. They’re in the Shop. Or if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can push the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and when that drawer pops open one of those categories is the Shop. And once you’re in the shop there’s a bunch of categories but if you go like into the Global Campfire section or the Lifestyle section you’ll find the Klean canteen 2021 edition. There’s some nice pictures to show you what it looks like. And, so, this is the announcement and I fully expect because this is what always happens, they won’t last long. In fact, I know people who wait for this. So, like I haven’t even been able to get through this announcement before it’s already ordered. So, plenty of things in life that we can procrastinate about. This is probably not one of them if you’re interested. When they are gone they will be gone. So, don’t miss out.

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’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 DAB family this is Greg from Bothell WA it is November 6^th and I’m behind. I’m listening to November 4^th and I just want to start praying for some people. Aussie Bear. I heard you and I’m praying for you and Jody, your…your bully contact. Lord Jesus I just pray that this enemy that our hearts could be turned to her Jody all of us that hear this prayer from Aussie Bear that we would come alongside and we would find a way that our hearts could turn toward compassion and a vision that You have for Aussie and You have a vision for Jody and that empathy and kindness and love that we would pray this prayer Lord that father forgive them they know not what they do. I also want You to just come alongside Aussie because Aussie Bear is…is struggling with finding a place in her heart to connect with someone she doesn’t like. And I know what that’s like Lord. And I pray that You would help Aussie Bear just to…to find a place that You…You would find that You would come…Your heart would come…would fill her up and that when she goes into that grocery store and runs into Aussie….I mean she runs into Jody that she would know that…that she is hurting inside that…that she is sad inside and that she has darkness and she needs the light, she needs the salt of Your word and Your truth and Your Spirit. Lord Jesus I just pray Aussie Bear would continue to call in and let us know how she’s doing, that we can continue to encourage her to love.

Greetings Daily Audio Bible family I’ve called in before seeking prayer just about the fact that I am the sole caregiver for my mom who has dementia and how challenging that’s been over the last couple of years. I’m calling in again because I’ve reached a bit of a tough decision point about whether or not it’s possible for my mom to continue to stay in the home with me doing this by myself. It’s just…it’s impacting my…my work and mental health and personal life and I’m hitting…hitting a wall in terms of just needing to get back to some element of normalcy. But this process of finding a facility that I can be comfortable with that’s also affordable, and you know that I think my mom will be happy in is just turning out to be so extremely difficult. And I have a couple of options I’m looking at right now and I just…it’s just such a hard decision. I’m sure a lot of it is just me being guilt ridden. So, I’m just asking for prayer that I have, you know, a clear head and I’m able to see clearly, you know, what the best options and next steps are and that whatever those are it…it creates safety and peace and happiness for my mom but also just peace and comfort from me. Thank you in advance for the prayers. I…I just feel so lost and stuck in this process right now.

I want to give thanks to Brian and the Hardin family just for the gift of scripture for the context. I mean just the simple words of Hebrews and…and who the audience is it’s being written for. I cherish that you use…you use the gift of context of things sharing how it affects us in our lives. I am so grateful, and I thank you so much for this Bible study, daily scripture, how much I have been blessed by this. I pray for all of you. I pray for you as you go through the holidays that you’ll be protected from illness, protected from greed and be given anything that you need, food, groceries, utilities. I pray for all of you who are in those needs. I thank You and praise You Lord for the goodness that You have for all of us here at the global campsite. Thank you.

Hello this is Faith Walker of Tennessee I am calling today to encourage and to pray for Rodney who is paralyzed and is just believing God for his wife to come back. God has done great and miraculous things in my life. 15 years ago, I became paralyzed, and the doctors did all they could to try to get me to walk again and my limbs to operate. After my situation of becoming paralyzed I began to just seek the Lord with all my heart, soul, in mind. I in the word and all I could do. It was during that season that I found Daily Audio Bible which became a daily and still is a daily encouragement to me. I’m so glad to be in this community and I’m glad you found this community because prayer change things. Over the years the Lord has begun to heal my body bringing limbs back to operation again. Today I’m still para…paraplegic but I’m paraplegic incomplete. That means I have some movement returning in my body. I’m up walking now with a limp and a cane whereas before I was in a wheelchair and could not move one limb of my legs. Hey, I give God the glory today. Rodney you be encouraged. God, we pray for Rodney today that he should have faith to believe the impossible. God, we pray God that he will stand forth on the word of God as he continues to commit himself in the word and we believe that for his family being put back together. God…

Hello DAB family I am a first-time caller. I’ve been in this community since January 1^st of this year, and you all have been such a blessing to my life. Thank you so much. I’m going to go by the game Colorado Cab and I’m calling because I think we are due for a praise report, and I couldn’t wait to share mine with you. I have a niece and several nephews I have been praying for since the moment they came out of the womb. I have prayed that they would live a life coming to know the Lord Jesus. I live so far away from them, and my brother and sister and their families are not Christ followers. And it’s always weighed heavily on my heart that these kids might not be exposed to the love of Christ. And boy my prayers have been answered. My 19-year-old nephew is a marine and he attends church regularly on his base praise the Lord. My other nephew just began his freshman year of college and of all places he chose a private Christian School. Praise the Lord. My prayers have been answered. I am so thankful. Even my 13-year-old niece has shared with me that she has a Bible in her room, and I know it’s because she has friends from school who have invited her to go to church. Praise the Lord. These children are becoming to know the Lord and being exposed to people who love Jesus. I’m so thankful. I wanted to let all of the parents know in this in this community that I pray for your children as well. No matter their age, whether they’re teenagers 20s, 30s, 40s. 50s it is never too late for your children to return to the Lord. There is always hope and I am standing in prayer and agreement to all of you who are calling out in prayer for your sons and daughters. And Brian I also wanted to let you know I’ve heard callers mention that they love hearing those words I love you at the end of your podcast. I do not have my own children. I am single and I don’t hear those words often. So, thank you so so much. They mean a lot to me. I love you too. I love…

Good morning, DABbers this is Running Desperately to Jesus also known as Staying Desperately Connected to Jesus. And I cannot say desperately more than I can with emphasis as of right now. This call goes out to Jeremy. You called into the community prayer line on October 16^th. Today is November 9^th…excuse me…6^th I believe, and you called in because you felt that you didn’t have any friends and that, you know, you reach out to people, but it seems like it’s rarely done to you. And that you desperately would like to have friends. Jeremy, as I said today is November beginning of November and I was just crying out to God this morning, God why do I not have friends? Why does no one ever invite me over? Why is it that when I try and be friends with other people they’ve already created or developed or have a closed circle that's…that I cannot break into. So, I’m alone. I’m alone all the time. I’m alone through holidays. I’m alone on my birthday. I’m alone on any holiday that you can think of. I live by myself, everything. I go every place by myself. So, Jeremy the only thing I can say to you as well as I’m encouraging myself is hang on to God. Because this sometimes can be a cold lonely world and when we don’t have someone down here to go and cry to or laugh with, we know that we have a Father…a Father a friend that will never leave us nor forsake us. And that is God. So, I’m standing in the gap for both of us that God one day if it is His will to send us someone a godly person that will also have something in common with us. Running Desperately to Jesus. Stay encouraged.

Ezekiel 20:1-49, Hebrews 9:11-28, Psalm 107:1-43, Proverbs 27:11

Today is the 9th day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a true privilege to have a seat here. All of us together around this Global Campfire, just to be here, to gather, to come together to allow the Scriptures to speak into our lives and allow the cares of this life to diminish for a little while anyway while we take a breather and allow God to speak to us through the Scriptures and so let’s dive in. We are reading through the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament and the letter to the Hebrews in the new; we’re reading from the Evangelical Heritage version this week, Ezekiel chapter 20.

Commentary:

Okay, in the book of Hebrews today we have another opportunity just to see once again that Hebrews is written to the Hebrew people and it is written within the context of Jewish worship and Jewish understanding of God. And often we, especially if we’ve been believers in Jesus for a while and have spent any time in the Bible than some of the things, we the kind of grew up in and just they’ve always been an understanding or we’ve learned them over time. So, we accept them, there in the Bible, but its context, the magnitude of what’s being said is…is lost on us often. For example, I had, I mean, I grew up in the faith, and so I had always heard that the good news, the gospel of Jesus was revolutionary and was controversial. I never understood that, like I’m just reading of Jesus and I’m like, who’s got any beef with Jesus, he’s awesome. Who wouldn’t want to be like this guy? Not understanding how delicate the situation was and how controversial things were so, it was hard to see the faith as controversial or revolutionary. But in today’s reading we can see it if we’re looking for it. So, just imagine with me for a second that you have no understanding of that there is the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christian people understand as the Old Testament, we don’t know the Torah, we don’t know the prophets, we don’t really know anything, we’ve never heard these stories before. Imagine maybe that you have heard the name of Jesus before but you don’t know what the fuss is about, except for that He has a good reputation of being a wise person, a good teacher, somebody that a lot of people try to live up to, but that’s kind of the long and short of your understanding. And then, you start reading the book of Hebrews with no context, just to kind of understand some of the back story about what the fuss might be about, and you encounter our reading today. And so, I quote from the letter to the Hebrews and actually what I’m going to be quoting is a core thing, a core understanding of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, I quote “He entered once into the most holy place and obtained eternal redemption, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. Now if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who were unclean sanctifies them so that their flesh is clean, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we worship the living God”. So, if you’re imagining that you’ve never heard any of this stuff before and you don’t know the context, then we are talking about some strange things, indeed. If we’d never heard the back story at all then what is a most holy place, and why does it matter? And going into a most holy place obtained eternal redemption somehow? But it wasn’t by the blood of a goat or a calf? Is this not the point that were like wait a second, by his own blood, not the blood of gold goats and calves? Who needs the blood, where is the blood of goats and calves coming from? How does this play into the story? What is happening here? Now let’s say we have heard the good news of the gospel, we have believed and we are in a fellowship with one another as the body of Christ, and we are in deep, loving relationship with our Savior and we know that He died on the cross, He was executed mercilessly and that it was that death that made things right. He shed His blood and washed away our sins. And so, we understand that part of it. We still may not understand the magnitude, the revolutionary things, even controversial things that are being said in these small portions of Scripture that we’re looking at from the book of Hebrews. If we do bring things into context, then, as we have read the Old Testament, we saw God give the law through Moses, the Mosaic law on Mount Sinai. We saw the institution of a sacrificial system whereby animals would be sacrificed to God, to atone for the sins of the people that they had committed against God, and we can go that’s weird. Who does that? And that might be true but if we lived, you know, if we go back 3000/4000 years ago to a tribal world where this is not strange but is very normal and it would be very strange if we weren’t participating in this kind of a system than we would have a better understanding. People thought they needed to give sacrifices to appease the gods. All the nations around this area of the world were doing this. Where that became a little bit different was that God came to the Hebrew people and said I’m choosing you to be a a nation of priests to the world. We’re gonna establish a new way of doing culture and it’s going to be oriented around specific things and the main specific thing is that I, your God will be in the midst of you, I will go with you. I will lead you. I am in your midst. I am here. So, this sacrificial system became less about seeing whether or not God, the gods or whatever the local god was would give rain so the crops could grow and more about the people understanding that breaking covenant with God was sin. Sin needed to be covered and washed away so that righteousness prevailed and was a dominant part of the culture. So, if everybody was on the same page, living a righteous life then sacrifices wouldn’t have been necessary, but everybody knew their failures and so this is a constant reminder and these sacrifices went on for generation after generation after generation after generation, until the point that everybody that was alive had grown up this way. There was no knowledge of any other way. This is how you live; you are oriented around this Mosaic law and this is what you do, you have all these festivals, all these different sacrifices for all these different things and you do these rituals and this is how your culture is reminded continually of the story of who they are. It’s the origin story. It’s where they’re going and who God is and how they got here. And so, they lived with sacrifice being a part of their religious worship and it had been that way for a long, like I said, generation after generation after generation, centuries. This system eventually included a temple which was a permanent structure that replaced the portable structure known as the tabernacle. There is a temple, and in that temple was a most holy place and there was a high priest who served and was able to go into this holy place, most holy place, once a year to sacrifice for everybody. So, we can be like okay yeah, heard that, know that, kind of understand that, I’ve definitely been taught that before. What does that got to do with Jesus? How does this become revolutionary, why is this controversial? What the letter to the Hebrews is saying today to Hebrews, right so, to Jewish people who have never known it any other way than the understanding of this sacrificial system, though the writer of Hebrews is announcing that the last sacrifice in this system has occurred. That last sacrifice was God made flesh, God becoming the sacrifice to…for all people, ending this system. It is no longer necessary to atone for your sins with the sacrifice of an animal, the blood of Christ, which is God in the flesh, willingly paying the price that no one could ever pay, you could only ever try to atone for yourself with some sort of sacrifice of an antlike blood. Something had to be lost in order for your life to be preserved, that has ended. Christ has covered it all, for all time. So, you can begin to see that if you were a Jewish person who had grown up and known it no other way and you’re being told this, on the one hand you’d have to thing okay no more blood sacrifice, which rituals do we need to keep, how does this work. You have to begin to re-think how everything is done because you’ve been using all of these rituals and in obedience to this law in order to have fellowship with God and now you are being told, God has come for you to be in fellowship with you. There’s nothing else that you have to do. In fact, there’s nothing else that you could do. You can’t earn it. It’s being given to you as a gift that you don’t deserve, nor will you ever deserve, it’s a gift to you. You can now consider yourself a child of the most high God with all of the benefits that would go along with being an heir, an heir of God. That’s revolutionary, my friends, that is a revolutionary and as we can see clearly from the Scriptures, not everybody was on board and not everybody bought it. In fact, it was so controversial that people died in the process of it, not the least of which was Jesus. And again, like taking this like one step further, if we have no previous knowledge whatsoever of the idea of covenant or of covenantal language that we have seen in in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, where covenants are entered into and ratified and of course broken repeatedly, than repentance and kind of a re-inauguration or a re-commitment to a covenant, if we don’t understand that that was part of the story, then we don’t understand that what Christ had done, according to the letter to the Hebrews, is to inaugurate or to institute, and then to mediate a new covenant and this new covenant is more perfect and replaces the old covenant, the sacrificial system of the old covenant is retired once and for all time, redemption has been offered through Jesus Christ, the new covenant. So, maybe we can at least get a glimpse into the controversy of it. How many people who were devout and had only been taught one thing, one way we’re being told things have changed and how difficult that would have been for them to accept and understand why they would’ve moved against it and why it would’ve become a problem which we see in the New Testament. So, we can see the difficulty of believing it but at the same time what’s being told about this new covenant is something that they had been hoping for, something that they had thought was coming in some configuration somehow there would be a savior, that’s part of the story and so they did expect somehow but what they were expecting was military overthrow, what they expected was that they could storm Jerusalem, which is the holy city, the capital city. They could storm the capital city and defeat the enemies. The Romans pushed them out, that God would against all odds, restore their land to their own governance. It’s just that we’ve been reading the Old Testament and we know that God did that for them many times, rescued them many times and it didn’t work. This is a whole different paradigm. Everything has shifted here. So, let me quote from the letter to the Hebrews once again “Christ was offered only once to take away the sins of many, and He will appear a second time without sin, to bring salvation to those who are eagerly waiting for Him.” So, that’s like the new promise and that’s the promise that we live into as believers in Jesus. Understanding that this letter was written to Jewish people who did believe this to bolster and reinforce what they believed but to also explain to nonbelievers, who do not believe in this paradigm shift, what we’re even talking about here. Like, explaining it in a way that they can understand, giving a Hebrew context, for what has been going on here. And so, hopefully that helps us, once again, kind of glimpse into the situation so that we can understand the challenges that were being faced. And for us to once again appreciates deeply, maybe even more deeply than we’ve ever been able to grasp before, how good the good news actually is.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we invite You into that, these are the things that have come up in the Scriptures today, these are the things that we’re thinking about and meditating upon. So, Holy Spirit, come and lead our thoughts, lead us into the things that we’re considering as we consider the good news and what a change that it has made in our lives but what a change, what a shift it was in the world. Help us to appreciate this and know what kind of story we are in. We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Savior, the one who made this conversation and all of this redemption possible and we thank You Jesus, we worship You with deeper humility and appreciation as we become more and more aware of the story that You entered and shifted and the way that You changed the story in ways that we take for granted. We thank You for the gift of relationship. We thank You that once and for all You have covered our sins, that You have restored us and made us right with God so that we can…we can call him Father and not be intimidated or afraid. We are children of the most high. We thank You for this and we appreciate this anew from what we’ve learned from the Scriptures today. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit to come and plant it deep within us that we might hold onto these things for dear life. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the home base and that is the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here and were moving into the holiday season, so things begin to be going on around here, and everywhere else in the world and so they’ll be some things coming here in the next weeks and we’ll get to that as we take steps forward day-by-day, step-by-step. I just want to remind us again about the Community section where the Prayer Wall lives. I think we’ve said plenty of times why the Prayer Wall exists and its importance in the grand scheme of things around the Global Campfire but it is important for us to remember that it’s there and where it is because these holidays, you know this time of the year. We can be on cloud nine in the morning and down in the depths in the evening and it can be really stressful at times. So, knowing that were not alone, that goes a long way, knowing that we can reach out, knowing that we can reach back is important and the Prayer Wall is a wonderful place to do that, that’s in the Community section so check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission that we are on together to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and given freely to anyone who will listen, anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night and to continue to build community around that rhythm, that is the Global Campfire. So, if what’s happening here every day is life-giving to you, then thank you for being life-giving. There is a link on the homepage, dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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

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