A Walk Through The Word

Ezekiel 44:1-45:12, 1 Peter 1:1-12, Psalms 119:17-32, Proverbs 28:8-10

Today is the 22^nd day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. Here in the United States it’s the day before Thanksgiving. So, a lot of cooking going on today for the feast that happens tomorrow. You may be cooking up a nice turkey right now while your listening. I know that’s going to be happening in my house. I won’t be doing the cooking. I’m not the magic there. My wife is. Jill is an amazing cook, but I don’t think we’ve come here for cooking tips. We’ve come here for the Scriptures. And, so let’s dive in. We have just a couple of days left as we move through the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament and then today we will begin first Peter and we’ll talk about that when we get there. But first, we’re reading from the New International Version this week, Ezekiel chapter 44 verse 1 through 45 verse 12.

Peter: 

Okay. So, yesterday we finished up the book of James, and we were left with plenty to ponder, plenty to examine and to consider, especially as it relates to our words. And now we find ourselves at the threshold of the first letter or epistle of the apostle Peter, and we’ll find, as we can deduce from the Gospels, that he will be very direct as well and that Peter’s passionate and direct encouragement is for believers who are in persecution or are beginning to be marginalized and coming under persecution. And, of course, we’ve come to know the personality and character of Peter through the Gospels and in the book of Acts. This a very passionate follower of Jesus. One of Jesus inner circle along with James and John. And probably Peter’s lowest moment was that of denying Christ three times. Remember that from the passion stories? But as is true with each one of us, God redeems everything. And that denial, although a part of Peter’s history did not become Peter’s legacy. He was the man when the tongues of fire of Pentecost came down upon the believers who preached a message where 3000 came to Christ in one day. And he spent the rest of his life before he was martyred spreading the good news. So, this first letter from Peter was probably written from Rome although we don’t know that for sure, there’s nothing positive about that. It was likely written between A.D. 62 and 64 somewhere around the time that the apostle Paul was first released from prison in Rome. In fact, there is some persuasive evidence that maybe Paul asked Peter to write this letter. And again, that’s conjecture, but make some sense. Paul was leaving on a missionary journey but there was persecution in the region. And what is compelling about this is that John, Mark, and Silas, who were accompanying Paul happen to be present with Peter as he wrote this. And these were assistants to Paul. So, that’s where that idea comes from. The letter is written to the strangers, sojourners scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. These were five provinces of the Roman empire that sit in modern-day Turkey now. And he uses the term ‘strangers in the Diaspora’ because this would be well known in Jewish culture. So, you remember the 10 tribes, when the Assyrians came in and they were lost to history? Well, they were dispersed. They were in the Diaspora. So, you remember when Judah was captured by Babylon, and they were taken away, and many fled in all kinds of different directions? Yea, they were dispersed. So, those in the Diaspora were those who would have been scattered all over the world in different exiles and those were who were estranged and found themselves strangers from their homeland. And, so, this letter is written to bolster and encourage and lift up those who are suffering persecution and those who were, that it’s looking like they’re about to enter a time of persecution, encouraging all believers to stand firm in the grace of God. And we’ll find that Peter’s direct and forthright. And as we embrace this letter we’ll see that that rings true, that that’s actually helpful, and that it matters as much today as it did then. And, so, we begin First Peter chapter 1 verses 1 through 12.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and the rhythm that it provides for our lives in community here Daily Audio Bible. We thank You for this constant in our lives that is so often a rescue for our circumstance and advice and counsel for the road ahead. And, also, Your pursuit of our hearts, of setting us free by forcing us to expose things inside of ourselves and face things inside of ourselves and name them and surrender them to your Lordship. We are grateful. And as we turn into this season, here in the United States, of Thanksgiving, we all turn toward family and gratitude. But this is also the time when a lot of things get brought up inside of ourselves and we find ourselves fulfilling roles in our family from days gone by, and all kinds of turbulence mixed in with gratitude and thankfulness and joy. And then we come out the other side of this and here we are in the holiday season and it gets busier and busier and busier. And, so, Father, we commit to this rhythm, to staying true to this rhythm, to continue to walk with You and listen to You, heed Your counsel as we move into the busier part of the year, the most joyful time, as the world rejoices at the coming of a Savior, but also a time that can be exhausting and can be depressing, and has its own challenges. And, so, we’re holding on to You. And we’re holding onto Your word in our lives every day. Come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And we just acknowledged the season that we’re moving into as we went before the Lord together. And this is a joyful time of year as we turn toward thinking of others and giving gifts and receiving and all centered around the coming of the Christ child who would grow to be the Savior of the world. And, so, that’s what’s going on around here. Every year for, oh gosh, 10 years or more, I can’t remember when we first did this, I just remember it was a basket the first year we did this. But we compile resources together and make a Christmas box that is full of things, things for you to choose for yourself and for your own journey and things to give away. And we always bring that out the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, also known as the day that the shopping begins for the Christmas season. And that’s what we’ll continue to do. This Friday, the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box 2017 will become available. And we always sell out of them because, on our side, our intention is to create a box that is a valuable, valuable for giving away, valuable for keeping for yourself, and bundling resources together so that we can offer them as inexpensively as we possibly can this one time of year. And I think this box is really well-rounded and really tailored to the season that we’re moving into. So, I’ll give you little overview of what’s in the box this year. Some of these things I’ll be talking about maybe a little bit more detailed as we move forward, but I’ll give you a sneak peek. So, for starters, we’re moving toward the season of Advent, and you know, I’ll talk about Advent when we get into the season of Advent. Lots and lots of you already know what Advent is and you maybe observe it or at least are aware of it every time it comes around. And others of you are probably like, I’ve heard of it, I don’t know what it is, it’s not something that is part of the tradition in my church, we don’t do that. No problem. No problem. I mean, observing Advent isn’t in the Bible. But there is an ancient rhythm to the Christian calendar that moves us through seasons and if we’ll pay attention to that calendar it has really rich traditions that focus our hearts on the time of the year that were in so that we can particularly give reverence to what’s going on. Advent’s one of the seasons. And this has been going on among brothers and sisters since fourth and fifth centuries. So, it’s a long-held tradition. And Advent means coming or arrival. So, it’s the season that we put ourselves in the position of the people who were longing for a Savior to come and praying for that and waiting expectantly for that. And then Jesus came. So, we put ourselves in that posture of longing, of waiting expectantly, as we move ourselves through all of the story of the arrival of Jesus and the mystery of it. And we also acknowledge that we are in that same time still. And we can put our hearts in that same place because we are awaiting Jesus second Advent, His arrival. We are waiting for Him to come and the fullness of his kingdom to arrive. And it can be a beautiful, beautiful time of reflection of pondering the mystery and setting our hopes on Christ. And I said all of that to say that first up in the box is a CD. And the CD is called Advent. And it’s full of beautiful songs of longing and contemplation for the Advent season. Not like Christmas carols, these songs are meant to allow us that space in our lives to contemplate the season. And it’s beautiful. It was created by our friends at Mission Chattanooga, really, really good friends of ours and a church that has really built an intentional core of songwriters and worship leaders and it’s just a beautiful, beautiful album for the season. Then, next up in the box is the family Christmas album. And that is a project that I produced and arranged. And that project is full of Christmas carols that we would, that we know, that our traditional around the Christmas season. And I guess I’m biased, since I created it, but I think it’s lush and orchestral and beautiful and family Christmas is what I think it says. It’s is the kind of project that you put on after you know you trimmed the tree and everything’s, you know, ready to go and you have that rare moment of quiet in the evening and maybe you’ve got a fire burning or maybe the lights are off and just the Christmas lights are going and you have this minute to just get a cup of hot cocoa or whatever and exhale - this is the perfect soundtrack for that. So, in the box, some music for the season. And then next up in the box is a book that was written by my friend Ian. And this book has been one of the most influential reads for me, personally, for the year 2017. I read this book earlier in the year and then had long, long discussions with my wife, and then brought it to our kids, and then brought it to everyone around the Daily Audio Bible that works with us, and then gave away a ton of them, and then made some inquiries to see if we could get them for the Christmas box this year. And this book is called, The Road Back to You. And I’m going to need to go into this in more detail at another time. Actually, I’m going to see if I can round up my wife and do coffee with Jill and Brian about it. So, we’ll talk about that as the days go. Then, next up in the box is two books. We’re including two copies of Sneezing Jesus in the box this year because Sneezing Jesus is just meant to be given away. I mean, it’s meant to be read and pondered, but then the response is to pass it forward, to sneeze it forward. And we’ve been doing that since it came out in July and the stories have been incredible to hear. So, if you don’t have Sneezing Jesus yet, then there’s one in the box for you and there’s one in the box for you to give away. And if you already have it then there’s a couple for you to give away. And then, every year we include in the box or your choice of our windfarm lose leaf tea, our boutique tea. This year, in the box for the tea selection is honey bush and ribose, a South African tee. And our whole bean coffee selection is our own Daily Audio Bible blend. And it is fresh roasted at altitude in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and then shipped to you so that it arrives fresh and you can tell that it’s fresh as soon as you open it up. So, your choice coffee or tea. Every year in the Christmas box we have the annual Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb. I think this is the fifth year that we’ve done this, I believe. The only place to get Christmas bulb is in the Christmas box and it’s got the Daily Audio Bible logo on it and the word for the year which has been ‘Margin’. And, wow, that has been quite a word for me this year. So, every year when we put our tree, I put up the bulbs from the Daily Audio Bible from these different years on the tree and its, for me, in my heart, it’s my way of bringing you into our family and our home. I see those hanging on the tree and they represent a whole year together. And every time I see them I just think of the community that we that we share together. So, the Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb is in the box. And then, a pack of 20 of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards that are new and unique and specially designed each year. This year the cover is Peace on Earth and inside is a portion of Scripture from the gospel of Luke around the birth of Jesus. And if you send out Christmas cards, this is a great way to invite people along for the journey with you next year. I mean, there’s nothing about these Christmas cards that just screams Daily Audio Bible. Right? It’s not like that kind of a thing. They’re like cards that you would go to any shop and buy to send out for Christmas and the only thing Daily Audio Bible about it is just on the back, you know, where you’d, like, see Hallmark or whatever, it’s just Daily Audio Bible back there. But there’s plenty of blank space inside for you to write your notes of holiday cheer and greetings. And maybe want to invite some people along with you for the journey next year through the Bible. And incidentally, you can get the Christmas cards, like if you need more than 20 or whatever, you get them at dailyaudiobible.com in the shop as well, just as standalone’s. And they’re not like, we’re not trying to raise money off the Christmas cards, their $5. $5 for 20 of them with the matching envelopes. So, you probably can’t get Christmas cards more inexpensively than that. We create them each year because it’s a great opportunity to invite those that you care about deeply, that you would love to take the journey with you through the Bible in year, into the community for next year. And then, finally, we have included a Black Wing pencil. We introduced those earlier in the year when we introduced the brand-new Daily Audio Bible writing notebook, the new journal that that we custom made from the ground up and paired it with these pencils. And I talked at length about that when we brought those out. So, I won’t revisit that right now. Maybe, I’ll tell the story as we get to the season. But we’ve included a black wing pencil of your own. And their normally sold in boxes. In fact, that’s the only way we’re allowed to sell them, but we talked to them and they agreed to allow us to put one in each of the boxes. And, so there’s one for your writing pleasure in the Christmas box. You may think, pencils, isn’t that kind of old school? Exactly. Writing with a pencil that you have sharpened, that is made out of cedarwood and Japanese graphite, that is the best pencil you can get. It is a joy. I have journaled my way through this entire year using these Black Wing pencils. And, so, we’ve included one in the box. So, there’s little bit of an overview. The Christmas boxes will be available on Black Friday. So, this Friday. And we’ll talk more about that as we move along.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. Thank you profoundly for those of you who have been willing to click that link. If you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hey family. It’s Jordan from Michigan. Wow! So, I listened to the community prayer line last week and there were, like, eight people that called in and from the couple days before that as well. And I can tell you, with each person that called, man and I started to tear up. Sometimes I started to full-blown weep every time I heard that people would actually take the time to call in and to try to nourish my soul like that. That is just beyond words, a gift from God for sure. And I just can’t thank you enough. And the prayers are working. This week, I feel as though I’ve had my first successful week as a teacher. And I’m getting a lot more support. And for the first time my career I have some hope. And I always have my hope in God but in my career as well. So, thank you, I love you, and have a blessed day.

Hey everyone. This is Sheryl in Arizona. I think today’s the 17^th. It’s 10:04 my time in the evening. I’m calling in, I was sitting here feeling a great deal of anxiety and it was just put on my heart to call in. I just need you guys. I need your prayers. I hate anxiety. I am trying to trust God. If you could just pray whatever the Holy Spirit lays on your heart to pray I would appreciate it. I’m just being hit with it so hard, especially when I lay down to go to sleep at night. So, I just…I…I definitely need clarity, direction, clarity…I just…really… and the peace of God. Psalm 46:10 has been my life Scripture - Be still and know that I and God. And I just…but I need the prayers of this wonderful community. And I want to say thank you to Tony the painter and to Duane from Wisconsin. Thank you both for saying for mentioning my name on the prayer line, for your prayers, and your words of encouragement. And I am also praying for you both and this whole community. I love you all so much. I just need you. I need my family. I love you guys. Sorry, sorry to call up upset, but thank you so much. Like I said, I love you. Okay. Bye-bye.

Hello. I’m Alaska Mom and today is November 18^th. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible on and off for several years but this year I’ve been pretty much keeping up every day or catching up if I miss a day or two. I also have been really listening to the prayers each day and I have been praying. But I felt God nudging me to call for a bit but I hate the telephone. So, this is my first call. I’ll probably start posting some prayers on the prayer wall though for those of you who check that. I’m asking for prayers for my family. My husband goes to church on most Sunday’s and says he believes but he doesn’t seem acknowledge God anywhere except maybe an occasional grace at dinner. He used to go to a men’s group and bible study but then got sick for a while. I also have three adult sons who have drifted away from God and although I am very proud of them in what they are doing they doing and that they are not into illegal drugs or activities as far as I know, I long to have them in ___ the presence of the Lord. I also have an elderly mother and older sister who don’t believe and I ask prayer for them. And last, I ask prayer for myself and for a young woman who is struggling with life right now. She’s pretty devout Catholic and I sometimes encourage her and help her as she doesn’t seem to have a very good personal relationship with Jesus. She seems to have difficulty with spontaneous prayers, especially those for confession and forgiveness. She seems to feel like she has ___ or even just to pray for anything. And even little things seem to weigh her down and it’s affecting her health. So, anyway, if any of you listeners could please pray for me and my family and friends, I would really appreciate it. Thank you all for making this podcast and God bless.

Hi everyone. It’s Kristi from Kentucky. I’m looking forward to the day that I can call you with joy again. But today, it’s a hard day, and I’m asking for prayers again. My best friend Gracie is in Orlando and she is, at this moment, sitting next to her brother who is actively dying. And, so I’m just asking, if you would, to please pray for Gracie for strength and that the Lord will keep her well because her health is been reflecting so much of the stress that’s been in her life. So, please, if you would please pray for Gracie and her family, that God will surround them with His peace and comfort them and strengthen them and keep them well. She just lost her daddy, lost him 2 months ago. And, so, she’s really having a hard time. So, please, just pray for my sweet best friend. And also, I’m going to ask you to pray, and this seems so insignificant right now, but I need prayer for my knee. I injured it about 3 months ago but because daddy was so sick I really didn’t do what I needed to get done. But yesterday I went and had an MRI done and last night I was doing some stretching exercises that a physical therapist showed me that help to strengthen my hamstrings and my tendons and when I did my knee popped really loud and I almost fell. And, so, now I don’t know what I’ve done to it more than what was already done to it. So, anyway, I just need prayer for this knee and that I don’t have to have surgery. Alright everybody. I love you all so very much and I thank you for praying. You are so amazingly faithful friends and I love so much. I pray that each of you have a most blessed and lovely day.

Ezekiel 42:1-43:27, James 5:1-20, Psalms 119:1-116, Proverbs 28:6-7

Today is 21st of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. And of course, like every day, it is wonderful to be here with you as we dive in and take another step forward through this week, through this month, through this year, through the Bible. So, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday, which leads us back into the book of Ezekiel, but then when we get to the New Testament, we will be finishing up the book of James. We’re reading from the New International version this week. Ezekiel chapter 42 verse 1 through 43 verse 27 today.

Commentary: 

 Okay. So, we just completed the book of James and if there is one thing about the directness of James that happens, it is that it creates contrasts that then invite personal examination. And we’ve been doing some examination as we’ve gone through the book of James. So, in order to look at the last things that James has to say in this letter, we have to kind of review, really quickly, the last paragraph of yesterday’s reading. Otherwise, it looks like James just launches into an unconnected tirade against rich people, but there’s a more complete thought here. And, so, as we were ending yesterday’s reading we were talking about plans, like, the plans that we make in our own strength. Or to quote James, ‘today or tomorrow we will go to this city or that city and spend a year there and carry on business to make money’. And James is like, you can’t know that, you can’t plan that in your own strength, you don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Instead, you have to humble yourself, first, before the Lord before you’re off out there making all of your schemes and plans. First, your posture is to be, ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’, which is kind of interesting and we didn’t talk about yesterday, but it’s kind of interesting, because, I guess the majority of my life I’ve heard teachings against ever saying ‘if it be the Lord’s will’ because that could introduce doubt into what you’re saying and you shouldn’t say ‘if it is the Lord’s will’ if you already know that it is the Lord’s will. And, as true as that might be, James is saying, no you actually do say ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’. ‘We will live and do this or that’, that’s pretty encompassing. And his point is, this is your first reaction in all things, to acknowledge God and our humility, our humbleness, before Him as we seek to follow His will and His ways in our lives rather than coming up with our own schemes and in our own strength trying to make things happen. And it’s here that we turn the corner. And in the same way, James was talking about words and owning what we say and actually sitting with it and being grieved by and mourning and wailing with the repercussions of the harm that we can do with our mouths. He does the same thing as we turn the corner about our own plans and acknowledging the Lord. ‘Now listen’, he says, ‘you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you’ and then he goes on to explain the temporary nature of wealth and its inability to be fully preserved. And from a scholarship perspective, it’s not quite clear which rich people James is talking about. And there’s a couple ways look at it that both make sense and, actually, both have value and meaning. So, the first would be that he’s talking about best laid plans and acknowledging God and then he turns his attention to the rich people of the world who are probably hiring and paying the poorer people who are in this church or in this community and the ways in which they are oppressing them, like, by holding back payment, by not actually paying them what they’ve earned, and thereby making themselves richer by preying on poorer people. And what are these poor people to do? I mean, they can rise up and claim injustice and maybe even be successful in getting their pay, but then they’ll be blackballed from working anywhere. So, it’s kind like this oppressive situation. The other way of looking at is that James is talking to people who have wealth that are in this faith community and are doing that, are making themselves more wealthy by exploiting people who are in the working class. For James, if you’re doing that, then it’s going to eventually completely fall apart and you are going to lose what you think you have and then you’ll have judgment to look forward to in the process. And, so, he launches into that warning and that warning is encouraging to people who have been exploited, which leads him to his larger point, ‘be patient then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming’. So, in other words, if this is happening to you and you don’t how ends are going to meet and you’re being exploited and in this way, anger, and bitterness, and rage are inside you because of this injustice, just know, God handles the scales. He is the judge and He sees and has always seen this kind of behavior for what it is. But in all of that, you have to adopt a patient posture. He uses the example of agriculture, ‘see how the farmer waits for the land to yield its crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm because the Lord’s coming is near’. So, don’t find yourself turning toward grumbling and this is stirring up more misery. The Lord sees all of this’. Then James uses Job as an example of a person who was patient and persevered. And then James abruptly changes topics and turns to the taking of oaths, and that change reads abruptly, but we have to remember, James has spent a good majority of this letter talking about words and the use of them. So, it’s not surprising that we revisit that idea at the end of the letter. And, so, what’s the big deal about oaths here? For James, this is about simply living true and patient and enduring whatever has to be endured with a good true heart and controlling our mouths so they don’t cause further and unending destruction in people’s lives. And, so, this deal with oaths is more about simply being true. There have been a diminishment of just simple truth speaking. And this comes up in other places in the Bible. And it shows up in our culture. So, it’s unlikely that you’ve never heard somebody say, ‘I swear to God this is the truth.’ Right? Or, ‘I swear to Jesus and all the angels’ or ‘I swear on my own life’ or ‘I swear on the life of my children that this is the truth’. This has been going on a long time. It was going on back then. And, so, the issue is, had you simply said yes this is true, would have been true or do you have to take these oaths, do have swear to something or on something or about something to make it be true? And if you have to do that, was the assumption of the person that you’re talking to that you weren’t saying the truth because you haven’t said the truth before? And, so, now you have to pile on all of these oath’s in order for something to be true? So, for James this is unnecessary. Just be true. Your yes means yes. And if you live that way for a long enough period of time people know that when you say something it’s the truth. If you say no it’s no and if you say yes it’s yes. You don’t have to say I swear to Jesus and Mary and all the angels and on my children’s life and in the memory of my mother that this is true. It doesn’t need all of that unless underneath all of that you are prone to being untrue. And so, you have to say all of these vows and oaths to make someone believe you. Just be true. And then James ends his letter with a set of postures or behaviors that should be espoused and their outcomes, what they will bring about. So James says, is anyone among you in trouble? Then their response is to pray, let them pray. Is anyone happy? Then let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Then let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise them up. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. And that, my friends, is something that we have done well here at the Daily Audio Bible, confessing our sins to one another and praying for each other. That is biblical, as we all know, but what we may have missed is the why -  so that you may be healed. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is a powerful and effective thing. So, when we come together and we hear each other’s voices and we pray over each other and for each other, that brings healing. And it’s not just like physical healing, that brings wholeness. And then James gives his final thoughts. And this letter doesn’t have a valediction or like a closing, a goodbye, it just ends. And his closing challenge is to not let anyone fade away. If people fall away, go after them. Don’t just let them go. Go after them. And, so, he says, ‘my brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins’. So, it only took us a few days but we covered a lot of territory in the book of James and have a lot to continue to contemplate and invite the Holy Spirit into. We talked about being quick to listen and slow to speak and how to control our anger and that our rage goes nowhere. We talked about the fact that we can’t just hear the word and expect that it’s going to work. We have to do. We have to live into what we hear and make our lives. We learned that our religious life is absolutely worthless if we cannot control our tongues. We learned that favoritism in the body of Christ is a ridiculous thing because everyone is made in the image of God. We learned that if we harbor and hold bitterness and envy and selfish ambition in our hearts then, not only is this an unspiritual thing to do, its allowing the demonic, and that’s a literal translation. And we learned that to avoid quarrels and fights we first submit ourselves to God. We acknowledge God first in all things, submitting ourselves to Him in all things. And if we would submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, He would flee. And we learned that in our own strength, we can make all the plans we want, but we have no idea what we’re talking about, we have no idea what tomorrow’s going to bring, and our posture should be, first, to acknowledge God and if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. So, plenty of stuff that hits right at the heart of where we live in the book of James.

Prayer:

Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit to keep it rolling inside of us, to keep these issues that plague us coming up. And even sending us back into the book of James, ourselves, as we continue to understand our posture of heart, the one that is of Your kingdom, and the one that is how we were made to live. Come Holy Spirit, we ask forgiveness for the ways that we have messed this all up so many times. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us to do better. Lead us into all truth. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

A couple of days from now is Thanksgiving Day. And then, so, this Friday is Black Friday and we’ll be talking about the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box that we have every year. And I am excited about this one and looking forward to telling you all that’s in it. I guess I’ll do that tomorrow. So, that’s coming up.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It’s on the homepage. I thank you for everyone who has ever clicked that link. Thank you for your partnership. If you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Springhill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hi. This is Paul from Houston. I’m calling to pray for Kayla from Nashville. Kayla you were pouring your heart out about some depression and thoughts that you were struggling with and thoughts of not wanting to go on and I just want to encourage you that I think Satan is trying to come and really to deceive us and to not understand who we are and just ask that God would just reveal himself to you as you cry out to Him, Lord, that He would find you and you would hear from Him and that you wouldn’t be stuck in those negative thoughts and I cast those strongholds down that have been in your mind and those things that have taken the place and have put themselves up. And I thank You Lord that Your Spirit, your peace would just dwell in Kayla and that she would be strong in You and I just ask, Lord, that You would bless her and be with her and show her her value and how much of a purpose You have for her. Lord, I ask that You would give her a calling and that You would draw her. And I thank You, Lord, as You draw her, Lord, she would find the redemption in You and I thank You Lord that Satan won’t get the upper hand because she’s a daughter of the King. And I just thank You God that You be with her and You just bless her and bring her that hope in the future that she’s just crying out to You for and I just thank You Lord that You meet her. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What’s up everybody? It is Miguel from Santa Rosa and I just wanted to call in real quick and give you guys an update. And after little bit of prayer. I know some of you have been praying for Santa Rosa, you’ve been praying for me, you’ve been praying for my church, you’ve been praying for pastor and, guys, God is doing a great work here. There’s not enough time in a 2 minute call to explain it all, but here’s the short version. God is unifying the churches in Santa Rosa for a common purpose -  to get out there and serve the people of the city, to bring people to Jesus. That’s an answer to prayer straight out of John 17. God has provided for our pastor, who lost his home in the fire. He has a home. Praise God. God is speaking to our church, City Alliance church, and showing us that He is going to be doing a work in this church. Guys, God is working. So, as I’m asking for you to pray, the prayer is not that God will you do something. God is doing something. God is working. That is happening. Whether we pray for it or not it is happening. The prayer is this, that we would be fixed on Jesus, as all of this happens, that we would be focused, that we would not take our eyes off of Him as things get turbulent as the work ramps up as God does his work in the city, in our church, in our lives. So, I just ask you guys to continue to pray for that and I am praying for all of you guys too. And I appreciate all the love and encouragement that I have heard on the line lately. I really do feel a part of this community and it’s amazing over…over simple voicemails. So, thank you guys so much. May God bless and strengthen every single one of you listening to this. Alright. Thanks guys.

Hi. This is Dave from Maryland and I’m calling for two of my brothers who are teaming on Kairos Prison Ministry weekends right now. One would be Billy from Montgomery, Alabama who had called in early last month and looking for prayers on whether to serve and for the support of his family and the other is friend, a coworker, who is also serving on his first Kairos Prison Ministry here in Jessup Maryland, on his very first Kairos weekend at this facility. I just pray that they both feel God’s presence through the entire weekend and they know that they don’t have to worry about anything that’s going on inside or outside, that God’s there, He’s with them, He’s on the outside with their families and with everything there. And I just pray for the other men on the team. And I’ve just been inside. Each team has about 42 men – outside guys and inside guys together - and I just pray that everyone involved is open to the work of the Holy Spirit and great things will come out of these weekends. Thank You. Amen.

Beautiful family. This is Pastor Gene. I wanted to bless Lisa the Encourager and thank you so much for all your calls as I hear you pray, I pray with you for others. My heart rejoices and I’m so glad that you have taken up the mantel of being in encourager, as well as so many others here in this community. Thank you so much. And family, before I completely closed chapter with the whole thing with my mom, I wanted to use it to give God glory and to build someone up. And, so, I thought about it, and prayed about it. I’m calling with an exhortation for anybody that is estranged from a loved one, whether that is a daughter, a son, a husband. If you have wronged your loved one, remember that repentance entails not only to say I’m sorry, but to change direction. And if you know you don’t have the power to change direction on your own then repentance also involves using every tool at your disposal to change. In my case, when I started hurting my husband, as a result of the way I have been brought up, I had to admit that I needed therapy. I had to admit that I needed medication. I had to let admit that I needed more than just prayer and reading the word. I had to change and I didn’t have the power to completely change because my personality traits have been affixed by my upbringing. So, I encourage anyone that is listening to this, if you’re estranged, not only say I’m sorry, but don’t whatever it takes to change. Ask God for guidance, create accountability, and use every tool at your disposal to change because, only when we change, we demonstrate to those that we have wronged that we really mean it. I love you family. This is Pastor Gene.

Ezekiel 40:28-41:26, James 4:1-17, Psalms 118:19-29, Proverbs 28:3-5

Today is the 20th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today, back in the rolling hills of Tennessee. And we had a great time in Louisiana yesterday. Thanks for everyone coming out and saying hello. It was so good, so good to see some of you again and so good to meet so many of you for the first time. So, we’re diving into our brand-new work week . We’re reading from the New International Version this week and continuing our journey through the book of Ezekiel and the Letter of James in the New Testament. But first, Ezekiel chapter 40 verse 28 through 41 verse 26.

Alright. In the book of James, we had a short reading but still packs a punch and can be a swift kick in the pants because James is super direct and clear about what he’s saying. But what he’s saying can be a challenge to our postures and behaviors. So, let’s just take a quick look. We begin with a question: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Right? What causes that tension within you that erupts into conflict? And James says, doesn’t that come from the desires that are at war within yourself? Right? Doesn’t it basically boil down to that you are not getting what you want or that you think you deserve? So, you use domination tactics to take it by force. And this isn’t like stealing or pilfering or robbing or looting. This is how you are trying to obtain what you think is missing inside yourself. And, oh, opening up that door is so complicated. Ironically, it’s not quite as complicated for James. James is basically saying, you’re not going to get what you think you need out of somebody else. Like, what is missing inside of you isn’t something you can force someone else to give you or be for you. James says, you do not have because you do not ask God. And when you do ask God you don’t get what you’re looking for because you’re asking with the wrong motives. And this becomes an interesting opportunity for us to examine the terrain of our own inner hearts. And it quickly exposes the ways in which we are living self-absorbed. And this happens because we’re taking our cues from the world. Or in other words, we’re trying to get our identity, we’re following the way the culture works. And, according to James, this puts us at enmity with God. And enmity is like opposition or hostility. And, so, the net-net is that, when we’re looking to other people to fill a void or to provide something to us that we think that we want or need or deserve, and are putting the burden on someone else to provide what only God can give, then we’ve got it so backwards that were at odds with God because He has put his Spirit within us to dwell in us. And we’re basically saying, that’s not going to cut it, that’s not enough for us, and we’re turning elsewhere, which makes Him jealous, in the same way that if you were to come home today and tell your spouse you are not enough for me, so I am receiving identity and pleasure from someone else, which will only cause fights and quarrels. And James is saying, this is where that emotional and spiritual conflict comes from. So, James offers instructions for getting out of that vortex that’s only going to just keep spinning us but never going to get us anywhere. And those instructions are, ‘submit yourself to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you’. If you will simply come near to God, and His Spirit is within you too, so He’s incredibly close, come near to that and He will come near to you. And that’s a very popular verse. And we quote it to each other all of the time. It’s very, very encouraging, but that’s not all James is saying, which is so often the case with very encouraging promise versus. That’s not all that he’s saying. He’s saying, to make that shift, to do that kind of turn, requires a very humble awareness. And that humble awareness will bring you to a place of repentance where you’re actually feeling the weightiness of what you’re doing. So, to give the whole thought in context, James says, submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you, come near to God and he will come near to you, wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded, grieve, mourn and wail, change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom, humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up. So, James is saying, you’ve got to see what’s happening here, and you’ve got to own it, and you’ve got to let it be what it is, and grieve it, and repent, and change. Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up. And that is the first priority to orienting things properly. And then James continues on in this idea of conflict between each other. ‘Brothers and sisters do not slander one another’, which is essentially to say, do not skew the truth about someone in order to damage them or to cut them down. And this includes our spouses by the way. And James has some strong language for that kind of behavior. ‘There is only one lawgiver and judge’, James says. And that is the one who is able to save and destroy and that’s not you. Or to quote James, ‘you, who are you to judge your neighbor’. So, James is, very directly, discussing conflict in the things that like keep us all twisted up inside of ourselves and the ways in which we look to other people to fill voids or other circumstances or positions that we can get ourselves into, to fill those things, when they can only be filled by God. And God has been gracious enough to put his Spirit within us and we’re ignoring it. And, of course, that’s going to cause conflict. And then James turns to another thing that causes these kinds of conflicts, this adoption of the world’s system, he turns to our plans. So, he’s like, when you say, ‘today or tomorrow we’ll go to the city or that, like, we’ll make our plans, and we’ll go there, we’ll make some money, and we’ll do some business’, as a way of fulfilling something that is missing, filling something is missing within us, that is causing conflict, then we’re missing the point again. And we can see that James is touching everything - thoughts, words, and deeds. Right? The things about us. And in regards to all of our well laid plans, James says, you don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. So, James is saying, you know, making all these plans without acknowledging God in it all is simply you blustering and boasting in your own strength and it won’t work. Or to quote James again, ‘As it is you boast in your arrogant schemes and all such boasting is evil. If anyone, then knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it then it is sin for them’. Alight. So it’s a short reading, like I said, but there’s a lot packed in there, a lot for us to consider, a big mirror that’s full-length in front of us for us to examine ourselves. And what is being described is a posture of heart that is humble enough to understand that what is broken and what is missing inside of us can only be filled by God. And we must acknowledge God and include God and collaborate with God in everything. And that has to be the first reaction in all things. That is the first place that we go before we say that thing that we shouldn’t say that’s degrading or that’s going to cut down our spouse or somebody else that we’re after. Right? Now, that we’re in conflict with? The first order of business is to submit ourselves to God and understand that His Holy Spirit indwells us and move in collaboration with the Holy Spirit rather than causing more conflict that is ultimately only about the things we find as shortcomings in ourselves or the other places that we run, to all of our plans and schemes without acknowledging God first and inviting his counsel and collaboration, His Spirit within us, speaking and leading us into all truth. And James brings these things to the surface because we can think we’re going along just fine and then we encounter something like what’s written in James and go, ah, not so much. Like, I’m involved in a lot of this stuff and the Scriptures are making it clear to me that that’s not going to work. And, so, I have a fork in the road, which way am I going to go? And the grace of God in all of this is that we have a choice at all. We don’t have to continue in this vortex. It’s just going to keep spinning us inside and out. But we have the Spirit of God within us to lead us and guide us in all things.

Prayer:

Father we come into Your presence with that in mind because the truth is, we’re guilty of everything that’s written about in James today. And this leads us to a place of repentance, a place of us actually sitting with and owning and naming what we’re doing that is putting us at enmity with You, that is putting us in conflict with You. And if we’re in conflict with You, there is no way out of that. It is contrary to how we were made. So, come Holy Spirit and allow us to sit with these things, bring these conversations that shouldn’t have happened to mind and give us the courage to ask for forgiveness. Bring to mind the roads and paths that we wandered down inviting You to come with us, but you were never leading us there in the first place. All our schemes and plans that didn’t work out and that we blamed You for, You were never leading us there in the first place. There’s much to repent of as we consider this and we invite Your Holy Spirit into this and we take it soberly because we want to change. We don’t want this anymore. And here you are, speaking us to Your word saying, here is the way, walk in it. And, so, we grab Your hand and ask You to lead us forward. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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

Of course, in the United States, this is Thanksgiving week, which will happen on Thursday, of course. And then Friday, Black Friday, like, we’re in it. Like, this is the week where we begin the holiday season around the world. And, so, we’ll be talking about that as we get a little bit closer.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. We are a community here. And everything that we’ve done and that were doing we have done together. So, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. And, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Springhill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is John calling from Bethlehem Pennsylvania. I hope you guys are all doing well. I just wanted to respond to a prayer request that had come in on the 11/15 podcast, today. The woman didn’t leave her name but she was, you were, asking for prayer over your husband. You talked about the loss of your two daughters to gun violence and now that your husband has been diagnosed with cancer. You talked about the anxiety and the pain you’re feeling, understandably, but that you called, because God led you to call the Daily Audio Bible and ask for prayer. So, I wanted to let you know that I’m lifting you up in prayer. Family, pray with me, please. God, You know this person and who they are and what they’ve been through and you haven’t done this to them, Lord. These are things that happen to us in our lives because life is temporary, life is a test, and it’s about our trust. It’s about trust in You, heavenly Father, in Your son, Jesus, and the promise that You have for us. Lord, God, we ask You to show Your tender mercy, and Your outstretched, caring, loving hand over this family, to lift them up and encourage them. Heavenly Father, nothing is impossible with You. You are a supernatural healer and a supernatural God. This family has been through so much. We ask that you heal John. We know that you can perform a miracle for this family and we thank You for that. We come to You humbly, Father God, for this healing and for reconciliation, for full restoration for John and for…

Hello. My name is Linda and I’m calling from Spokane Washington. I just really wanted to ask for prayer for my daughter Maddison. She’s 18 and…just…ya…she…I just pray that God would just come to her and speak to her clearly and allow her to know that she can’t do things on her own Lord, that she just can’t do things on her own. And to stop rebelling so much and admit that…you know…she needs help. And I believe she’s saved, she’s just going through a really rough time. And for me as well to…ya…everything that goes with that. I also would like prayer for James. He struggles with addiction and he is in rehabilitation but I would just pray that God would do mighty work in that as well and for direction for me in both of those circumstances. Ya, I just know that there’s so many prayers out there. But I just thank you for listening. And thanks again.

His this is Toni Nichols from Germany, the Lords Facilitator in Health. And l wanted to say, I have a praise report. I called, not long ago, talking about how we are persecuted and how when you’re a strong Christian there is a power force. So, to give you a little more information, I’ve been under a strong spiritual attack for 6-½ years in the workplace. And I wanted to say that even though I was just sharing information about the counterforce, Satan being the counterforce, I know you guys pray. There are people out there in our DAB community that prayed. Why do I say that? Because today, 6-½ years later, the Lord redeemed me using one of his strong warriors. And so, I want you to know that the only thing that changed was that I reached out to you just to talk a little bit about it. I just made reference to it. And I know that there are people who prayed. So, it’s just such a major thing and I want to thank you. I will say, I want you to know too, that in these 6-½ years I will tell you I always try to do the right thing and I leaned on the Lord. And He redeemed. And He redeemed me. And I say that very humbly because any time we say that is humbling. God bless you. Bye.

Hi family. It’s Drew from the Bay Area, as you know me. You know I used to be Andrew from the Bay Area but the Holy Spirit has led me to call for Jill, Jill Parr. Your music came on and I was praying for you this morning and thinking how you support this ministry behind the scenes and how the Holy Spirit wants us to pray for you. And we know that God deserves all the glory and that He’s given you your powerful, beautiful voice, Spirit filled. But you don’t get enough credit for what you do for Brian and Zeki or maybe you do. But family, I just think we should pray for Jill. And if you don’t have her music, you’re missing out. But let me just say, you can call me uncle Drew. I have nieces and nephews - Laura and Casey and Garett – and I love them dearly. And I have been a great uncle as I could be because there is Southern California, but for all you young ladies and even older ladies, my Shari from Canada, I’m uncle Drew and I give you a big hug. And Jill, I give you a big brotherly hug and say thank you. Thank you for taking care of your family and our family behind the scenes. And all those others that the do the work behind the scenes. We love you. We really, really love you and we appreciate all you do. Okay. Bye for now.

Ezekiel 39:1-40:27; James 2:18-3:18; Psalms 118:1-18; Proverbs 28:2

Today is the 19th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you at the shiny threshold of a brand-new week. And greetings from Louisiana, from the deep South, from the Shreveport area. We’re excited to bring the Sneezing Jesus message this morning, but we can talk about that at the end. Looking out in front of us for the week, we will touch for different books of the Bible this week. We’ll complete the book of Ezekiel before the week is out and move our way into Daniel. And we’re in the book of James in the New Testament. We’ll complete that and get into first Peter. So, that’s kind of the outlook for the week. And let’s dive in. And we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Ezekiel chapter 39 verse 1 through 40 verse 27 today.

Prayer:

Okay. So, we have to talk about the book of James at the threshold of this brand-new week because the implications are fairly profound, what’s being said here, profound enough for us to snap ourselves to attention. The first shot across the bow is that you can’t just say you have faith, you can’t just declare you are a person of faith, and that there’s nothing in your life to back that up, like, it has not transformed you because that’s not real. That’s like you walking around saying that you are wealthy when you have a negative balance in your bank account. Just because you say it doesn’t make it true. Or to stick to the themes found in James, you can’t oppress the orphan and the widow and then claim that you are full of faith. It’s not true. You can’t compartmentalize your spirituality and wherever you put your faith into a segment of your life that doesn’t touch any other part of your life. Your faith informs everything and it informs your thoughts, words and deeds. It affects the way you operate in the world profoundly or it’s not really there. And you can’t say you believe in God but live as if there is no God. That won’t work either. Or as James says, you believe that there is one God, good. Good for you, even the demons believe that and shudder. And, so, to summarize his point, James says, a body that is without its spirit is a corpse. It’s dead. And in the same way faith, without it transforming the way you behave, without it affecting your deeds, is dead. And, so, we can see that James is very direct. He’s not messing around at all with this letter. It becomes a mirror into our own souls as the Bible often does, but this is like a full-length mirror because were being clearly told that if we claim to have faith but it is not affecting our behavior, it is not transforming the way that we live our lives, then it’s dead. And we have to examine ourselves in this. And we can stop there, as if someone had thrown ice water in our faces to wake us up and contemplate this, but James isn’t done. He turns to a practical example of what this looks like when he turns the conversation to what comes out of our mouths. He talks about how a small bit in the mouth of a horse can turn the entire large powerful animal or the way in which a small rudder can steer the course of a large ship. And then tells us that’s how our little tongs, these little things that live behind our teeth, inside of our mouth, steer the trajectory of our body and our entire life and then summarizes his point in a clear and concise way - with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father and with it we curse human beings who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Okay. So, if you skated through the faith checkpoint that we just talked about with his full-length mirror in front of you and you’re like, now, my faith actually does change the way that I do things, and then we get to the words bit of this and we realize, oh my gosh, I really do have the capability of worshiping God and cursing my brothers and sisters out of the same mouth. I’ve done that. And according to the Scriptures this should not be. So, if nothing else, at this point James should have our attention. And he’s not done. He has one more point in this trifecta of confrontation that we find in the book of James today for us to ponder. And that is this, if you think you‘re wise and have understanding then it should be evident, it should be visible in your life, but if you’re harboring bitterness and envy and selfish ambition in your heart, if you’re keeping that compartmentalized and keeping it inside you, then you need to understand that that’s not coming from heaven, it’s unspiritual and demonic. And it being called demonic here, this isn’t just, like, you know, a word from Greek that could have many different meanings. Like, that’s a literal translation, demonic. And James says, where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. And where is the there that you find disorder and every evil practice? Inside you. That’s pretty stark. That’s full-length mirror stuff. And then he contrasts that disorder with the wisdom that comes from heaven and describes that which should embody all believers who profess faith - the wisdom that comes from heaven is, for starters, pure, then peace loving, and considerate, and submissive, and full of mercy and good fruit, and impartial, and sincere. Peace makers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. And that contrast brings us to a fork in the road as the Bible so often does. We can see where the two paths are going to lead. Do we want to be led into the unspiritual and demonic, into disorder in every evil practice or do we want to follow the path of righteousness? The choice is ours to make.

Prayer:

Father we have plenty to contemplate and we invite Your Holy Spirit into that contemplation into the ways that we follow the well-worn paths of our lives and behave accordingly and the things that should not be. And we invite Your Holy Spirit into that. We surrender all of that to You. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth. Lead us on the path of righteousness. Show us what You are after in this. Come Jesus. We pray in your name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

And what’s going on today is that we’re in Louisiana and looking forward to being at River Valley church in Bossier City this morning. Looking forward to spending time among friends today. So, looking forward to seeing some of you.

And, of course, we’ve just launched ourselves into Thanksgiving week. I know that’s not how it is all over the world, but that’s how it is here in the United States and that usually launches us into the holiday season. So, this is a big week and we’ll talk about that as we go.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link, it’s right on the homepage. Thank you deeply for your partnership. If you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Springhill Tennessee 37174.

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

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

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hi. This is Melody from Canada and today was the reading about discipline in Hebrews. And it really struck me about piano practice because I know that God has given me a gift of music to bless others with and I just recently started piano lessons again and it’s been really hard to practice. Just kicking my butt and trying to get myself to practice is really hard and it kind of makes sense now in that passage about resistance and things not always being easy. So, I would ask that for prayer that I would be able to discipline myself and with joy. I’m a teacher and I know that if I try to force my kids to do something than its not really fun and it won’t work very well. So, I just want to motivate myself to do that and also break through any obstacles so that I can be a blessing. Thanks so much. Bye.

Good day Daily Audio Bible family. This is Pamela, the teacher / pastor’s wife, calling from Huntington, NY. I just want to give a praise report. First of all, hello to everyone. Thanking God for Brian and his wonderful wife and family, taking their time and ministering to us on a daily basis. I so appreciate it. It’s such a blessing to my life. But, at any rate, I want to move quickly. I have a praise report. I came home work and was exhausted and wanted to make a cup of tea. And I put the kettle on. I went to bed just to lie down but I ending up sleeping all night, and to my surprise, I got up the next morning, and I just thank God, that the tea kettle was still going. All the water was gone and it was still on. It had burned. It leaked…leaked for nine hours but it never caught on fire. And the pot didn’t even burn. And I just give God the praise. I give him the glory and the honor for protecting me and my family as we slept. Danger, He protects us from seen and unseen. And I’m just so grateful. And I just want to give this praise report, how God allowed an angel to protect us. My house did not catch on fire. And I will never do that again. Just praying for everyone. God bless you everyone. Have a great day. Bye.

Hi. This is His 100^th Sheep and I’m from Maine and it’s 15^th of November and I am calling for a dear sister in Christ who just left a message that she and her husband had lost two daughters to gun violence and now her husband is facing cancer. And she was asking for our prayers. My dear sister, I want to let you know that I will pray for you and I know that many people who heard your cry are going to pray for you. I’m glad that you listen to the dream that that pointed you in the direction of DAB for prayer. Stay with us and keep us updated.

Hi Daily Audio Bible community. This is Ashley. I just wanted to offer some thanks to this community for helping with loneliness. I’m divorced and I know that I have sought comfort in very and sinful ways to kind of combat my loneliness and it has only brought me a lot of pain and sadness. And hearing ways that other people are drawing closer to God to help with loneliness instead of committing sin is very uplifting for me and very helpful. So, I just wanted to offer my praise and thanks that you guys are there and that you are helping me. Thank you. Bye.

Ezekiel 37:1-38:23, James 1:19-2:17, Psalms 117:1-2, Proverbs 28:1

Today is the 18^th of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we officially close down another one of the weeks that we have together in this year. And we’ve been reading from the Common English Bible this week, which is what we’ll do today and move our way into Ezekiel and then the book of James. But first, Ezekiel 37 verse 1 through 38 verse 23.

Commentary:

Alright. Let’s talk about Ezekiel chapter 37 for a quick minute before we talk about James because I just need a second to get over the spanking I just got from James, like, you know what I mean? So, Ezekiel 37, The Valley of the Dry Bones has always been a riveting picture to me - this vast field of bones, bleached by the sun of long dead people probably fell on a battlefield or fell as they tried to escape. Of course, this is happening in a vision that Ezekiel has been swept into. And so, these are bones, like, they’re long dead, it’s long over, and they’ve just been left, and God asks Ezekiel, what you think, can these bones live again? I mean, how would you answer a question like that, other than how Ezekiel did, which is, only You Lord would possibly know the answer. And God tells him to speak out, to call the bones together, to prophesy out to them. And he does. And as he is saying those words the bones begin to come back together and they become like full skeletons and then tendons and muscle and skin, like, cover them. And, so, now you have this vast horde of people who have been killed and were long dead all back together again, but they’re not alive. And then God invites Ezekiel to call to the four winds the breath of life. And that’s what he does. And life returns to these dead, long dead, bones, a great army. The imagery is so riveting because it’s calling back to life something that was long dead. I remember being in Washington DC, which is our nation’s capital, one year many, many years ago. I was with a friend and we went to Arlington Cemetery, which is our national military cemetery. And, you know, most states, probably all states, have them too. But this is a national Cemetery and I remember we were walking around and we found this tomb of the unknown soldier and found a bench and pulled out the Scriptures and spoke this out, not expecting mass resurrections, but just considering the church and the good news and how only the breath of life that comes from the mouth of God can bring back to life that which is dead. And several weeks after that, I was out on a walk talking to God about this when I felt the strong impression - I want you to build a wind farm. This was several years after the Daily Audio Bible started. It certainly wasn’t a vision like Ezekiel or anything like that. It’s just this impression. I saw people all over the world calling the breath of life from the four winds through prayer for one another, speaking life over one another. And I feel like every day when we get to the end of our reading for the day and the words of prayer and encouragement come in from all over the world and we hear them, that’s what we’re doing, and that’s what we are going to continue to do and it has become one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen, the way that this community behaves toward one another, and the freedoms that we have extended toward one another, the grace that we have offered one another - to speak, out loud, the deepest darkest things in our lives without fear of retribution. To me, that’s calling the breath of life and it’s been a beautiful thing since we began to do it all those years ago. And if you’ve ever gotten our coffee or tea, you’ll notice that it’s called Wind Farm. Now you know why. And if you’ve ever seen the Daily Audio Bible logo and wondered, what is this, what is this, an airplane propeller, what is this? No, it’s four blades that make a windmill and as the four blades come together in the middle, it creates a cross. And now you know why. And Jill and I have a son, a five-year-old little boy, whose name is Ezekiel. And now you know why. And we would do well to remember this story in Ezekiel, chapter 37, because every day we have a choice to speak out death and darkness into this world and over people, even those that we love. We have no shortage of pointing out our failings to each other, but how often are we calling the breath of life over each other? And what would happen to the world if we all did?

Maybe we should listen to the words found in the book of James, ‘know this my dear brothers and sisters, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry. This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness. Therefore, with humility, set aside all moral filth in the growth of wickedness and welcome the word planted deep inside you, the very word that is able to save you’. You see, those are instructions, which means we have to participate, which means we have to turn our hearts in this direction, which is what James is saying. ‘You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves’. Then James goes on to say later in our reading, ‘claiming to have faith can’t save anyone. Faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity’, according to James. And of course, at length, we went through the book of Hebrews and learned that faith was the very thing that we need to navigate a new thing that God is doing in the world, a new covenant. And, so, may we build a wind farm together. Not only as the community of the Daily Audio Bible, but in everything that we do. May the Holy Spirit’s energy flow through us as it blows throughout the earth, bringing back to life that which has long been dead.

Prayer:

Father, what can we say? But Holy Spirit come and fall upon us. Restore to life what is dead inside of us, bring us back and help us to call the breath of life from all corners of this earth, understanding that it makes a profound difference in Your kingdom on this earth. Open our eyes. Help us to lift our eyes to the horizon and get our equilibrium back and get our balance back. We’ve been looking down so long, trudging along, moving forward, step-by-step, feeling like there’s no hope when there is. Give us the ears to hear the need around us. Help us to call life into it. Help us to not be hearers only but, by hearing, moved to action and may that action be the work of Your kingdom in this world. Come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

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