A Walk Through The Word

Hosea 10:1-14:9 ~ Jude 1:1-25 ~ Psalm 127:1-5 ~ Proverbs 29:15-17

Today is the 8^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is great to be here with you, day 4 of jet lag recovery.  Feeling pretty good, probably won’t mention it anymore and bore you with the jet lag stories.  I’m feeling pretty good.  Some of the hours are a little off still, but excited for God’s word today because, man, I need it in my life just like we all do.  It is such an honor that we get to do this together.  It is crazy to think about sometimes.  So rather than thinking about it, let’s do it.  Let’s dive into God’s word.

We’re reading from The Message this week and we’re reading through the book of Hosea right now in the Old Testament.  When we get to the New Testament we’re going to read the book of Jude, so we’ll talk about it and we’ll read it in its entirety which will then set us up tomorrow to begin the book of Revelation which is the final book of the Bible, so we will walk our way through that up until the end of the year as we round out the Old Testament, the Psalms and the Proverbs. But that is tomorrow.  Today Hosea chapter 10 verse 1 through 14 verse 9.

Introduction of a New Book (New Testament)

This brings us to the epistle or letter of Jude.  It is a mere 25 verses and yet it packs a very direct and succinct punch.  We don’t know a whole lot about Jude’s background and his life.  We do know that he was the half-brother of Jesus and the brother of James, neither of whom believed that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God, during his earthly ministry, but his resurrection from the dead seemed to change their viewpoints considerably and understandably.  

We don’t know exactly who Jude wrote this letter to other than we know that he wrote it to believers.  He wrote to vigorously combat a false doctrine that was going through the church that basically said the grace of God through Jesus gives us license to do whatever we want to do.  So some people were misbehaving in all sorts of inappropriate ways.  Jude hits this head-on and directly as a false doctrine and challenges believers to contend for their faith.  

These are very good words as we turn the corner and head into the final chapters of the Bible, for the life of faith is something we must contend for. This faith journey, this relationship with God is something that we have to be overwhelmingly committed to and fighting for.  

So we begin and we will read in its entirety the letter of Jude today.  

Prayer

Father, it is true what the psalms say:  If you don’t build the house, it is a waste of time.  If you don’t guard the city, no matter what we do, it is not going to work.  And we have human history to show us this and we have our own lives that tell us this is absolutely true.  So we call upon you, even mimicking the words of Jude.  You’re the only one that can keep us on our feet standing tall in your presence, fresh and celebrating.  You are the only one, the only Savior.  You are the only master and we give all glory, majesty, strength and rule, from before all time until now and to the end of all time, to you.  We love you.  We worship you.  We ask you to build the house that is our home and the city that is where we dwell and we ask that you show us how to collaborate with you in that so that our lives have a purpose that is beyond all of the nonsense that we wander into. Come Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus we ask.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It is where you find out what is going on around here.  So a few things, three things:  

1.       It is time to call in your holiday greetings for the Daily Audio Bible Virtual Family Christmas Party that we have each year.  So we compile all that and do a reading of the nativity story, the Christmas story and intersperse that with our calls.  It is just a beautiful, beautiful time that we have together.  So the number that you call is the same as the prayer request line:  (877) 942-4253.  The only rule really about this is that you don’t combine holiday wishes with a prayer request in the same call.  So if you have a prayer request or something like that, keep that separate from your Christmas wishes to your brothers and sisters that are in the Daily Audio Bible community.  And that is the rule about that.  So for the next few days we’ll be taking those calls, so call in your Christmas wishes.

2.      The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box is available now for Christmas and we’ve packed it full of resources that we’ve created for our community here.  So the Promised Land Films double DVD is included.  Bible Stories About Jesus, the double CD is included.  Family Christmas, the CD project is included.  Jill’s latest album that we released this year is included.  And that would be enough, but wait!  There’s more. So my latest book Reframe is in there, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us, a deep exploration of what it actually means to be in a relationship with God.  We say it all the time, but what does that actually mean?  This book explores that.  And then the corresponding films that we created to go along with the book are included in DVD form.  This is the last time those will be available.  So get it while you can.  And then your choice of either our Windfarm coffee or our Windfarm tea, so our house blend of coffee or English Breakfast tea, your choice, as well as the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards and then the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb that is available each year in the Christmas Box.  This time it has the word for the year which was healthy on it.  It is beautiful.  I love having those on my tree.  I love it very much.  It is my personal way of kind of bringing everybody into my house for Christmas.  I look at them, literally.  I actually do.  I have them kind of front and center on my tree and so when I’m sitting on my couch at night with the lights on and just kind of chilling out and winding down for the day I can see them and think of all that we’ve been through over the years together.  So that is included in the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box as well.  Like I’ve been saying, we sell out of them, so grab them while you can.  There will be things in there that you want.  There will be things in there you may want to give away.  It’s perfect for that.  So check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.

3.      The More Gathering for Women is a conference that we put on each year in the mountains of Georgia just outside of Atlanta in this beautiful location.  Now, I know we’re just kind of getting into winter, but come April, at least here in the south, new life begins to spring forth.  So we do this at that time when it is new life springing forth.  That is what happens at the More Gathering.  So we have advance pricing right now until the end of the year so that the Christmas holiday can be taken advantage of because it is a very unique Christmas gift for the woman in your life. Giving her some space to consider what the next season of life is going to look like and to process that with God without any interruptions or anything like that, it is so rare that we get that, makes for a gift that has long term benefits.  So you can check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com as well.  You’ll find it in the Initiatives section and all of the details, everything about it that you would want to know, you can find that there.  So take advantage of the pricing that we have right now until the end of the year.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here in this final stretch of the year, thank you.  Thank you profoundly.  It is your partnership that lets the Daily Audio Bible be here.  We are a community.  That is what we are.  We’ve done what we’ve done and we’ve done everything we can do to do it with excellence and commitment and daily and we do it together.  So thank you for your partnership in allowing the Daily Audio Bible to continue into the new year.  There is a link on the home page at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You can also find it using the app by pushing the More button in the lower right-hand corner. Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment or right now a holiday greeting, (877) 942-4253 is the number to call.  And we have a couple of other numbers.  Let me grab that sheet.  I don’t have those memorized.  I mean, I kind of do but I kind of don’t have them memorized.  If you are in the UK, you can call 44, 20-3608-8078 and if you are in Australia or the lands down under, 61, 3-8820-5459 is the number to call.  

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi DAB.  December 2^nd was Baby G’s second birthday.  I was in the kitchen making birthday cupcakes for the daycare and the doorbell rings.  I went to the door and it was the postman delivering me my DAB Christmas cards and package.  Thank you SarahJane, Brian, and everyone at DAB.  I was so happy.  I put on Christmas music, was in the mood.  My son came home.  We had a nice little party for him.  Saturday, getting ready to go to a Christmas Advent function at my job and chewing on a piece of bread and crunch!  My temporary crown broke and I thought, “Oh no.  Oh my goodness.  Wow.” I’ve had a horrible headache for three days and I’ve just been fighting it and pushing through and giving God the praise and the glory and now this happens.  So not going to let it ruin my day. Getting dressed, we’ll still go to the Advent and afterwards we’ll go to the emergency doctor, get to the dental clinic and he tells me, “Your tooth is cracked.  You can’t fly to London on Monday.  It’s not good.”  Gotta cancel my business trip to London.  In bed thinking, “Well, do I need to cancel?  Maybe I could still go.”  Get up this morning, chewing a piece of toast on the right side, crunch!  Crack!  My permanent crown cracked in place.  Through all of this, I got up with a banging headache, took heavy medication, got in the kitchen and baked cookies for my church Christmas Cookie Exchange.  There is so much more of this story, but the bottom line is it was God’s __________ that I wasn’t listening to him when he told me slow down and because of that I believe God will put another stumbling block in our way and I said, “I got it!  I heard you, Jesus.  With a throbbing head, I’m calling you.  Pain in my tooth, but I’m still rejoicing.”  I love you DAB family.  Cheers to you all.  Asia from Munich.

Hi Sarah.  This is Shannon from Oregon.  I’m calling about your recent loss of your dad and the pain that you’re feeling right now. I lost my dad nearly four years ago and I understand a lot of what you’re going through right now and I want to encourage you.  I found a lot of encouragement from the Psalms which I spent a lot of time in before my dad passed away and it was one of those things the Lord just totally led in, because my dad wasn’t sick or anything.  He actually died in an accident, but I was able to be so much more real and honest with God, I think, because I had been in the Psalms and seeing that example that David gave us being just totally honest with God and God calling him a man after his own heart and not judging him or shaming him. So I wrote a song out of that pain called Hold Me and I would love to share that song with you.  If you’ll email me I will send you a copy of that song. My email is Shannon@ReidSaunders.org.  Here is a little bit of it now.  It’s called Hold Me.  [Singing] I thinking I’m doing okay until the waves come. It hits me like a wall, knocks me down, I can __________.  Am I still free __________.  It’s all that I can do.  So hold me. Hold me.  Hold me.  

Hi DAB family.  This is Grandma Dorothy, formerly from Toronto but now in far west southern Ontario. Today is Sunday.  I listened to the weekend prayer and praise and heard my call this past Tuesday and realized all my two minute rambling barely got me started on all the thoughts I wanted to express.  All the ads about Black Friday last weekend got me thinking of its true meaning and significance.  First, how blessed America is to be able to connect Thanksgiving to Christmas in their holidays, the day we thank God for all his bountiful gifts to the day God gave his greatest gift of all.  God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.  Our northern harvest comes too early for this connection.  When I first heard of Black Friday, I thought what a strange, even morbid name for the day after Thanksgiving, but later I learned it didn’t describe the day but the color for the ink in the ledgers of all businesses worldwide as these sales launched Christmas shopping that would go on until January 6^th, thus getting out of the red and into the black, recouping losses and making profits.  The bottom line is this, that after more than 2000 years and the birth of Jesus Christ and all the giving that is prompted from that is the recovering of the economy of the whole world every year.  How beautiful is this?  How very benevolent is our loving Heavenly Father.  God bless.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Homeward Bound.  Alleah, I heard your call and your cry for prayer for your family.  Your name must mean angel because you have a such a beautiful heart.  I pray that the Lord will heal your family in Jesus’ name and pour his peace over your family, that he’ll come against enemies from attacking your family and cover your home with his presence and peace.  In Jesus’ name.  Please, family, if I could ask you to pray for my son’s wife.  She is going through tremendous hardship in her job.  She works as a personal assistant and her boss has overloaded her with 60-hour work weeks and weekend work as well.  She is so worn out and overwhelmed.  I just ask that you could pray that the Lord will bring her a new job and also for salvation for her boss.  Lastly, if you could please pray for a young man we met today named Tyler who came to church.  He is 18 years old and he is seeing demonic activity in his house, even experiencing demons touching him.  Please pray for deliverance for Tyler and for God’s presence to cover his house and body and to fill him with his Spirit.  He has started coming to church more regularly, so I just ask that you could all combine your prayers for Tyler.  Thank you so much.  God bless you all and may he hear and answer every prayer that you have. Bye-bye.  This is Homeward Bound.

Hi family.  This is Jacqueline, aka Salvation is Mine in San Leandro, CA.  I haven’t called in a few days and the reason I haven’t called in for a few days is I didn’t feel like praying and I’m sure some of us have that feeling.  So on that note I’m calling in tonight to pray for those who don’t feel like praying sometimes.  So let’s do it.  Let’s pray. Dear Heavenly Father, our precious Savior, Jesus Christ, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, we come before you right now asking for your forgiveness for not feeling like we want to pray because we’re feeling so broken or feeling so down or feeling so hurt or feeling so angry at you for whatever reasons we may have that we just can’t find the words to pray. But you know the depths of our souls. You know the depths of the things that are in our heart, even when we don’t pray.  So we do ask you for your forgiveness in that matter, that we have not come to you, and seek your face and seek your word and seek your guidance and seek your mercy.  Help us to open up and to pray to you to let you know that we care.  We love you.  We know you’re there for us and that you’re just waiting for us to come to you at the throne and be there with you.  Maybe we don’t have any words to say and all we can say is, “I’m coming to you, Lord” and just be silent after that, that you will know what is in our heart and you will open up everything within us so that we may be in your presence again.  In the blessed name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit I pray.  Amen. Goodnight.

Hi, this is Elaine from Victoria.  Thank you, Jen, that is turning 50.  Happy birthday to you.  Thanks for your prayers.  I pray for you too and all that call in.  Lord, you know them all, so be with them at this time.  It is a difficult time too for me.  I did lose my husband September 9^th but it’s okay.  I pray to Jesus.  I’m celebrating his birthday.  I put __________ to my son-in-law’s sister’s place, but I don’t want to go because I have to witness drinking.  My daughter is drinking and I’ve had enough of drinking the past at Christmases so I don’t want to go there.  I may have a chance to go to have Christmas with my great-grandchildren, grandson, but it is up to the Lord where I go.  My daughter, Carrie, and her teenage daughter, they are coming.  Like times before, may you all just be with them, the three of us. It is time to focus on Jesus and I’ve tried to tell my grandson we don’t celebrate Santa Claus.  We celebrate Jesus’ birth, not getting drunk and greed.  That’s all I see.  So __________ and I thank you, Brian, for this.  It’s 1:20 in the morning, but I know I’m not alone.  So thank you and I pray for people with __________.  I pray for deliverance of __________, even in my own family.  So thank you Jesus. 

Hosea 6:1-9:17 ~ 3 John 1:1-15 ~ Psalm 126:1-6 ~ Proverbs 29:12-14

Today is the 7^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  This is day 3 of jet lag recovery.  Things are going well.  I just have a number of people on different time zones in my house right now which is a little weird.  It is like somebody is awake no matter what and little Ezekiel, he doesn’t seem to care whether it is day or night.  He just knows when he’s awake and when it is time to play, so that is fun.  But enough about me.  How are you doing?  How are you all doing all over the world?  Some of you enjoying winter weather, white snow, the Christmas holidays upon us?  Some of you are in warm climates and enjoying that.  Here in the rolling hills of Tennessee we’re enjoying wet and rain and low clouds and falling leaves.  All together it makes the beautiful tapestry of this beautiful earth that God has given us to live on.  I hope wherever you are, it is a great day and that as we move into the time of scripture, that it washes over you and resets whatever is going on.  

So let’s dive in.  We’re reading from The Message this week and picking up in the story in the book of Hosea and when we get to the New Testament, believe it or not, we are moving rapidly and we enter 3 John and we really are rounding the corner.  After 3 John comes Jude and then comes the book of Revelation which is the final book of the Bible, so we will move through 3 John and Jude rather quickly because they are short and then kind of settle in with the book of Revelation as we continue through the minor prophets in the Old Testament.  So let’s take that next step forward.  Hosea chapter 6 verse 1 through chapter 9 verse 17 today.  

Introduction of a New Book (New Testament)

The third letter of the apostle John, also known as 3 John was probably written right along with the second letter that John wrote that we read yesterday or just shortly thereafter.  It is a little different than John’s first and second letters in that this is a personal letter to a man named Gaius.  The letter was probably written from Ephesus where John was spending the latter years of his life.  Gaius was an upstanding Christian man who was a member of one of the nearby churches and he was passionate about assisting those who were traveling in ministry, missionaries in the area, and were furthering the gospel of Jesus.  

So this is a snapshot, this letter.  It is a fascinating picture of church politics.  So there is this man name Diotrephes and he inserts himself into the equation because he doesn’t like the way Gaius is doing his missionary assistance, so John writes this letter to Gaius personally to affirm him in what he is doing and to let him know he’ll deal with the issue.  This letter helps us see lines of spiritual authority.  It also helps us see that some of the issues that we hear about or see around us today, these were even struggles for those in the early church.  So we begin 3 John.  

Prayer

Father, that is our prayer from the psalm today which is such a beautiful psalm.  We have seen you at work.  We have felt your presence in our lives.  We see life bursting forth wherever we look for it.  And we pray with the psalm and now God, do it again.  Bring rains to our drought-stricken lives so those who planted their crops in despair will shout in joy at the harvest, so those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing with armloads of blessing. Father, we ask that you make that true in our lives while at the same time acknowledging the need for our own participation in it, that we heed what we learn from the scriptures yesterday, that it is not enough to know we’re supposed to love one another, that we actually have to do it.  To put ourselves in line with the way we were created and the way this psalm could wash over our lives and be true.  So come, Holy Spirt.  We ask in Jesus’ name, with all your power.  We open ourselves fully to you.  Fall upon us we ask, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website and that is home base for all of us. If we can remember that we can always find our way back to where we find out what is going on in this community. Of course, the Prayer Wall is there and all the resources are there.  So that is home base.  

What is going on right now, a few things.  One, for the next week we’re preparing for our Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas, this little virtual Christmas party that we have.  We get to hear each other’s voices and it’s a great time. So all you have to do to participate is call the prayer line, (877) 942-4253, and leave your holiday wishes to the community here.  It is obviously the prayer line, so the only rule about this, besides time and all that is don’t combine a holiday wishes call with a prayer request call.  Then neither one of those will make it through. We just don’t have the capacity to edit all that out.  So yeah, if you have a Christmas greeting, then call that in.  If you have a prayer request, call that in separate.  So we’ll compile these over the next about a week and then we’ll put our Family Christmas Party together and it’s great. It’s great.  We do it every year.  It’s always been great.  It’s never not brought me to tears just to hear everyone’s voices.  I love it.  So yeah, call in your Christmas greeting now – (877) 942-4253.  

The other thing with the holidays is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box and that is available.  They are going faster than we had anticipated.  I mean, we always sell out of them so grab yours while you can. It’s chockful of all of the resources of the Daily Audio Bible, things in there that you’ll want to keep, things in there that you will want to give away.  It’s perfect for that.  

It’s got the Promised Land Films in it.  It’s got Bible Stories About Jesus, the double CD project that we released a couple months ago in there.  Family Christmas is in there.  My wife Jill’s latest project that we released back in the summer, and it’s awesome. If you haven’t heard it yet, it is so deeply encouraging on so many levels.  That is in there.  My latest book Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is included as well as the corresponding films to the book on DVD and this is the last time those will be available so take advantage of that.  Your choice of our Windfarm house blend coffee or our English Breakfast tea, if you’re a tea drinker, and some of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards as well as the Daily Audio Bible 2016 Christmas Bulb is included.  The bulb, the only place you can get it is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box.  I’ve got these on my tree for the last several years and I love that.  I love that.  So that is the Christmas Box.  It is available at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  

Also, preregistration, advance registration for the More Gathering coming up this April is available now through the end of the year.  It makes for a very unique, one-of-a-kind Christmas present for the woman in your life.  It is a life-changing thing without a doubt and so we try to make this available for the holiday season as a gift idea that has profound impact because it is a beyond a thing.  It is just the offer of time away with God to reset, to reconsider life and move in new directions.  So check it out.  You can find out everything you would want to know about the More Gathering at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Initiatives or the Events section. Just click through and you can read all the details.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Thank you humbly, deeply, sincerely for allowing the Daily Audio Bible to be here. We’ve done this together and it has only ever been something that we’ve done together.  It’s really remarkable, this community.  It is really truly unique and one-of-a-kind.  I’m always reminded of that.  So what we’ve done we’ve done together.  Thank you for your partnership in allowing it to continue forward. There is a link on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you use the app, push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment or right now a holiday greeting, (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 Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi.  This is Victorious Soldier just calling tonight to pray for Tricia from Nevada and Katie from Annapolis where they’re having the challenges in their marriage. I’m just praying to give them an opportunity to let God direct them on what they can do in order to put about some positive changes and some positive blessings in that marriage.  Gracious Father, we come before your throne of grace once again.  Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we just thank you today for these two young women. O Lord, that they made the commitment to be married to someone, Lord, to trust you, Lord, being in the middle of that marriage, Lord.  O Lord, we ask you to touch the spouses.  O Lord, we ask you to touch the man first, Lord.  O Lord, teach him how to win control in his marriage through the love, Lord. O Lord, in the name of Jesus.  O Lord, you touch those __________, Lord. You touch that husband to be the husband that you are calling him to be.  O Father, you control that anger, Lord.  O, you were angry.  You were for me with everything.  You were angry but you sinned not.  You were angry but you cast them out but you didn’t do anything evil.  You knew how to do it and you knew how to do it right. Lord, you touch the hearts that need to be written in.  The only way to __________ him is he has to be under control and you are the Holy Spirit. You can do anything.  Lord, you touch those marriages.  You be in the midst, Lord.  You touch those husbands and you bring them together and bless that house, that it be a house that you are calling it to be.  You bless those young women.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible.  This is Janaya from Indiana and I’ve been a listener since 2011.  And this is my first time calling in.  I just wanted to say I’m praying for all of you, for everyone that has the __________ to call in.  I just heard Tricia from Nevada and Katie from Annapolis and I’m praying for you both and anyone that is going through abusive relationships, particularly marriage.  I just left my husband of two years of marriage and we have three kids.  I have twin boys and a baby girl and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but my prayer to God was that he show me what was going on.  I didn’t even realize it was an abusive relationship and situation.  I prayed for God’s peace and his joy and his will and he answered my prayer.  He will answer yours.  Just continue to pray.  If you all want to reach out to me and talk and pray together, you can reach me at my email:  DABJanaya@gmail.com.  

December 4^th, __________ Rose from the Chicago area. Father God, I lift up the woman who is calling about her son and has called many times.  He is in jail and I believe struggling with addiction problems. Father God, it appears that she doesn’t really know you and that she was raised Hindu and it didn’t work for her. Holy God, I pray for this mother and for her son.  I pray for them individually and together, Father, that you would work, that you would show them that you are God, that you would bring someone in this young man’s life to bring him strength and peace, Father God, and you would strengthen this mother and her mother’s heart.  Mend her entire life by your Spirit, Father God.  She calls into this line, Lord.  She hurts and she is desperate for her son and she is crying out and you would wish that no one would be lost, Father.  I pray for their strength and their individual understanding of you, Father, that you would move, that you would bring courage, that you would bring light in this difficult, dark situation.  Father God, there was a woman who called in.  She lived with her mother and I don’t think she has anybody else and her mother died about eight weeks ago.  Holy God, I can understand for I purchased an apartment of my mother’s house and she is elderly, Father God.  I pray, Lord, that you would work in the loneliness, the aloneness, Father God, in the sorrow, in the grieving, in the loss, Father God.  That you would strengthen her.  If there are words from around her who kind of say, well, your mother was old anyway, you knew it was going to happen, Father, that you would break the pain of that, of that sorrow.  Amen.  

Hey everyone.  It’s Arjen from Florida.  First, I just wanted to say, you know, when I say that I love you guys, that I really do mean that from the bottom of my heart just because I find the genuineness here that is just lacking in the world.  I just want to encourage all of you guys that it means a lot to me and I’m sure many other people.  I love you guys.  I don’t really have any prepared thing to say about that.  I just wanted to say that.  But I also wanted to extend a prayer for physical, spiritual and emotional weariness and feelings of loneliness.  So Jesus, Father, Friend, I lift up all of us in this community who whether it be due to the holidays or because of life or whatever, they just feel spiritually tapped out, physically exhausted, alone, feeling like we’re isolated from you and the community.  Jesus, I pray for your encouragement, Lord, that we realize that your word is a foundation. It is not an extra component to our lives that we can just add on.  No Lord, we ask you to help us realize how foundational and how true it is, God. And we ask you to help us, to give us revelations that each of the promises is absolutely true, even when it doesn’t seem like it, even when it doesn’t feel like it.  Father, reinforce in our heart that yes, your word, but you, Lord, you, God, Jehovah, Yahweh, that you are more real and you are…

Hi DAB family.  I am a survivor of a very damaging family situation.  My ex-husband was very angry all the time and I stayed there for 23 years because I thought that was the right thing to do.  I have two children that are now in their 20s that are damaged from this situation.  So my prayer is for every woman that has called in that has these kinds of situations, these abusive situations, know that this is abuse.  Know that you need to separate.  I’m not telling you to divorce.  Get your children out of the situations because yes, God says if you are with an angry person, get away from that angry person lest you become one.  One of your children is becoming one.  I am praying for you diligently.  I have no prayer request for myself right now.  I am praying for you.  I love you DAB family.  I love you all.  God bless you.  

Hi everyone.  It’s Christy from Kentucky, a cold Kentucky morning on my way to church.  I just wanted to ask for a few prayer requests for someone that has called me.  I met this young lady in a doctor’s office and she has been calling me requesting prayer requests.  This is the second one I’m sending in for her and what a blessing it is.  She asked me to please put this on the international prayer chain.  So here we go.  Little Autumn is 13 or possibly 14 years old, was in a very bad car accident and she was on her way to the hospital when Dianna called me and so I’m asking, if you would, to please pray for Autumn, praying that her injuries are not critical and praying that she will be home even now as we speak.  Also wanted to pray for Casey.  Casey is in her 40s and she has been going in to have routine polyps removed but this time they found a tumor and they told her it was cancer.  So if you would just pray for Casey and we know God’s healing hand is on her life and we just praise God for that.  And also for a young man named Scott.  Scott has cancer as well.  They thought they had it under control, but it looks like it has come back.  But God. Amen?  But God.  And we just praise God for his healing, healing power.  I miss you all.  I am so far behind but I want you to know that I think of you all all the time and I love you.  I pray that everyone is well.  I want to give a shout-out to Blind Tony.  I understand that you’ve been battling.  You know that God’s hand is on your life, Pastor Tony.  Pastor Tony, did you hear what I just called you? Prophetically, I feel sure. Alright guys, I love you.  Have a blessed day.  

Hosea 4:1-5:15 ~ 2 John 1:1-13 ~ Psalm 125:1-5 ~ Proverbs 29:9-11

Today is the 6^th day of December and like day 2 of jet lag recovery from Israel.  It’s like I got home and the seasons have changed.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, at least the southern style which is fairly gray and brown and the leaves have fallen.  We’re doing everything we can to sort of sleep when we must and reintegrate.  One of the beautiful ways that happens is continuing with the rhythm that we’ve established for our lives every day to enrich ourselves through God’s word and listen to him speak.  So let’s jump into that now.  

We’re reading from The Message this week and we just really got going in the book of Hosea, so we’ll continue forward in that and then when we get to New Testament, we’ve got a new letter because we’re kind of moving through some of these shorter letters and it will bring us to 2 John.  But first, Hosea chapter 4 verse 1 through 5 verse 15 today.

Introduction of a New Book (New Testament)

Coming quickly on the heels of John’s first letter is 2 John, the second epistle of John written shortly after he wrote his first letter and probably to the same people he wrote the first letter to.  This letter was probably written from the city of Ephesus where John spent the latter years of his life and he wrote it to encourage and strengthen the church against the false doctrine that was so pervasive around them and to remind them that they needed to guard themselves against these false doctrines and live in truth and love in contrast to these false teachings.  

This is all true today.  There are plenty of false doctrines around us, plenty of things to be seduced by and it’s very important that we walk in truth and love, guarding ourselves as we carry forward the gospel, the banner, as ambassadors of the gospel on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ.  So we begin 2 John chapter 1.  

Commentary

John reiterates what is throughout the entire Bible and throughout the entire faith culture that we live in to the point of cliché.  That we should love one another is sort of foundational and irreplaceable and we all know it.  But the question that remains is are we living it?  To know about something and to live something, those are two different things.  Just like to know about God is not the same as being in a relationship with God so we can know that we’re supposed to love one another and not and then what is the good of knowing about it?  

Here’s the thing.  Loving one another as Jesus loved us, that is the centerpiece of this faith.  If we aren’t doing that, well then a couple of things.  One, it’s not going to work.  The faith journey is not going to work.  Loving one another is the centerpiece.  But it is not just this commandment.  It is not just this cage.  It is this invitation.  To love one another is to live Christ-like.  To love one another is to live healthy as we were made to be.  

So may we take some moments throughout this day and kind of consider that, consider the ways in which we are loving well and consider the ways in which we are not because it is not like an on or off thing.  It is like we sort of do this.  What if we went all in and actually did set aside preference in every other thing and just lived in love for God’s people including the ones in our homes and love the world as Christ did?  Then we would be living well.  We would be living healthy.  So let’s invite the Holy Spirit into what that would look like if we were fully engaged.

Prayer

We do invite you, Holy Spirit, and we invite your life and your love to be a part of our lives, to spill out of the overflow of our lives into everyone that we interact with in any way.  May we love as you love because this is healthy and this is right and this is how we are made.  Anything less is living contrary to our design and so it makes a lot of sense that so many things won’t work.  We’re living contrary.  So help us, Holy Spirit.  Set us right. Give us the eyes and ears of the kingdom.  Give us your heart for those that you love and may we love them as you do.  We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s, of course, where you find out what is going on around here.  It’s Christmastime around here, so a couple things.  Today we’re going to start what we do annually in creating our Annual Virtual Christmas Party.  So if you’ve been around the Daily Audio Bible for more than year, then you kind of know the drill here.  If this is your first year, what we do is we call in Christmas holiday wishes for each other and then we create this little Christmas party that we can all listen to and a retelling of the Christmas story is involved and just our calls and it’s a really, really beautiful time.  

So in order to create that, here’s what you do.  You call the prayer line, (877) 942-4253, and leave your holiday wishes.  However, there is one trick, one request.  Since it is the prayer line, if you have a prayer request or anything like that, don’t mix it together with your holiday greeting or neither one of them…I mean, there is just no way to do that.  So if you have a prayer request, call it in, of course.  And then if you have a holiday wish, call it in separately, differently and then we will compile all of that together and have our annual Daily Audio Bible Christmas Party with each other.  It’s a lot of fun.  So we’re starting to do that now.  We’ll do it for about a week so get your calls in for that.  

Then also the Christmas Box is something we’ve been talking about.  I love it when we do this every year because we pack this box full of resources, things that are like, yeah, I’ve been wanting that.  Things that you’ll want to keep.  Things that you’ll want to give away.  This Christmas Box is full of stuff.  

The Promised Land DVD series, the two DVD set with four hours of content from the land we just got back…  I still haven’t done all my laundry.  It is still in my clothes, the dust of that land is on my shoes and feels like it’s still on my skin.  So yeah, the land of the Bible, the places that we were just at and so much more is included in Promised Land and that is in the Christmas Box.  

And then Bible Stories About Jesus, the two CD set, the reading of the gospel of Mark in its entirety using age-appropriate translations for children.  It’s great for the car.  It’s great for bedtime.  It’s great to introduce those children in your lives to the stories about Jesus and how it is that he came for us and what his coming means to us. So that is Bible Stories about Jesus.

The Family Christmas album is included.  Jill’s latest album that we released this year is included.  

My latest book Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is in there as well as the films that go along with the book in DVD form and this will be the last time those are available so they are in the box this year.  

Then your choice of our Windfarm house blend coffee or our English Breakfast tea, whichever you prefer.  

What else?  The Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards, so there is like a pack of 20 of them with their envelopes.  They are in there.  

And the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb for 2016 is in there. That is the only place you can get it, is in the Christmas Box.  

So check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

Then the other thing we’ve been mentioning is the advance registration for the More Gathering coming up this April and it’s amazing and it makes for quite the unique, one-of-a-kind Christmas gift for the women in your lives. So check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You’ll find it in the Initiatives or in the Events section.  You’ll find it.  All the information, all of the stuff that you would want to know, that’s all there and advance registration will go to the end of the year.  So check that out as well.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It is on the home page.  Thank you so very much for letting the Daily Audio Bible continue to exist and move forward into the next year.  Thank you humbly.  That we get to do this is amazing.  That this community exists and is a beautiful, beautiful representation of the body of Christ in this world, it’s amazing.  So thank you for your partnership.  There is a link on the home page.  If you use the Daily Audio Bible App, push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment or right now a holiday greeting, (877) 942-4253 is the number to call.

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hello.  My name is Jennifer and I’m from Las Vegas.  I’ve been listening daily since January 1^st of this year and I’m able to tell who each person is by the voice before each person’s introduction and for that I’m thankful for the dedication of the Hardin family.  I’m calling today for Gloria who called in about a month ago and had lost her cat.  My heart broke when I heard the call and I still think on that call with sadness today.  I know there are some crazy and horrible things that go on in the world that many may think are more deserving of my concern, but there is something so sweet in the trust of a pet.  I don’t know what message there is in the loss of your cat, Gloria, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve been thinking about you and I hope that you found some comfort while searching the Lord for answers.  May God bless all of you.  Thank you.

Hi, this is Mark from the Four Corners Area.  This is my second time to call.  I’ve been listening for about six months now and it is a true blessing.  I am so blessed to have this community.  I want to put in some prayer requests.  The first prayer request I have is that there is some sort of resolution as far as my own family and my church family.  We kind of fell away from the church family the last year and I just pray that there is some sort of resolution there because I need God so badly.  Also I pray that God shows me who to give to.  If it doesn’t happen to be this church family, who do I give to?  Also want to pray about my addictions.  I have an addiction to pornography and alcohol and this leaves me so down, especially this winter, and I just hurt so badly sometimes and I’m so hard on myself.  And also want to pray for my son who has an eating addiction.  His name is Nathan and please pray that he can change his ways. I’ve been working so hard with him so he can change his eating habits and it just doesn’t seem to be making headway, so I want to pray for him.  And I also have doubts with myself about whether I’m a true son of God because of my lack of self-control recently.  And I have a daughter who has a porn addiction as well and she is a very young age and it surprised our family, kind of shocked us, so if you could just be praying for my family, that would be wonderful.  I love you guys.  I am so fortunate to have you guys to…

Good evening DAB.  This is Sherry calling from British Columbia, Canada on Friday, December 2^nd. This is one of my favorite Christmas songs.  I don’t have time to sing it, so I’m going to say the words.  God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day.  To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray,  O tidings of comfort and joy.  From God our Heavenly Father, a blessed angel came and onto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same, how that in Bethlehem was born the son of God by name.  O tidings of comfort and joy.  Fear not then, said the angel.  Let nothing you affright.  This day is born a Savior of virtue, power and might.  So frequently to vanquish all.  The friends of Satan quite.  O tidings of comfort and joy.  The shepherd at those tidings rejoiced much in mind and left their flocks a-feeding in tempest, storm and wind.  And went to Bethlehem straightway this blessed day to find O tidings of comfort and joy. But when to Bethlehem they came wherein the infant lay, they found him in a manger where oxen feed on hay.  His mother Mary kneeling onto the Lord did pray, O tidings of comfort and joy.  Now to the Lord sing praises all you within this place and with true love and brotherhood each other now embrace.  This holy tide of Christmas all others doth deface, [singing] O tidings of comfort of joy, comfort and joy.  O tidings of comfort and joy. God rest ye merry gentlemen. [end singing]

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier.  Just calling tonight.  I wanted to say hi to Chante and let her know I’m praying for her.  And good to hear Not Shaken.  I definitely got you in my prayer, my sister. Chante from Detroit, my prayers are with you, Chante.  Praying everything is working out well over there in Detroit.  Pastor Gene, wanted to say hi to you and still praying with you, praying for God’s miracles to be done.  I wanted to pray for Pam.  She was talking about Teri who has stage IV cancer.  I wanted to pray for the healing in her body.  Gracious Father, we come before your throne of grace once again. Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we just thank you tonight.  We just thank you for your people, Lord.  We just thank you for the answers to their prayer.  You have your time of judgement, Lord.  You have your time  of deliverance, Lord.  In the name of Jesus, we just ask you to deliver, Lord.  We just ask you to open up doors, Lord.  We just ask you to show up and show out and be the God that you are.  We know that you are able.  We know that you’re mighty.  We know that you’re awesome.  We just need you right now to let the world know that you are who you say you are.  Lord, we just ask you to touch Teri and dealing with stage IV cancer.  We just ask you to bless her, Lord, and heal her, Lord.  In the mighty name of Jesus, we thank you for healing her with your miraculous healing power.  And Lord, let her know that you love her.  We just thank you, Lord, for bringing Brian and Jill home tomorrow.  We just ask you to have your way, Father.  We ask you to continue to bless Blind Tony and all the Dabbers in all the challenges and all…

Hello beloved brothers and sisters.  This is your sister, Candace, from Oregon.  Let’s pray together.  Dear Lord Jesus, we bring before you our sister, Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL. We thank you that as you call her back into the fire on December 5^th, that she obediently goes there, that she knows as the day approaches and as the day happens that she is enveloped in our prayers and that you are her strength and her song.  Lord, thank you.  Thank you that you never leave us for one second.  Thank you for what happened to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were in the fire.  O Lord, you are a great God and we praise your name.  Thank you for my seven piano students who will be giving a recital tonight at my church and for some of them who don’t have the benefit of your church but will be surrounded by your people tonight, bless each one of them.  And I pray that as they do this courageous thing of playing very difficult music in front of all of us, that you bless them.  And Lord, as I’m training and developing young musicians, I remember in all of our churches throughout Advent and the Christmas season, please come, please bring just glory to your own name, Lord, that we all may become much closer to you.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  

Hello family.  This is Carol from Minnesota.  It’s been quite a while since I called.  Last time I called I was asking for prayer for my friends Dan and Annie, both of whom were battling cancer.  I’m happy to tell you that they both have conquered their battles and are doing very well.  Thank you all so much for your prayers.  I’m calling today for myself.  I was supposed to be on the Daily Audio Bible Israel trip right now, but I was in a serious car accident in September and I’m unable to travel because of my injury.  I was in the hospital for four days and in rehab for six weeks.  I’ve been home now for about three weeks.  It’s been a difficult time financially as I have been unable to work and without a paycheck since September.  I’m thankful to say that I have a wonderful circle of friends and family that have surrounded me with their care, concern, prayers and help.  The Lord has been with me through it all for which I am very grateful. The problem since the accident is that I’m having a hard time sleeping and sleeping is what I need to heal, so I’m asking my DAB family to lift me up in prayer to our Father for good sleep and complete healing.  I would be so grateful to all of you for doing that for me.  

Hosea 1:1-3:5 ~ 1 John 5:1-21 ~ Psalm 124:1-8 ~ Proverbs 29:5-8

Today is the 5^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is great to be here with you.  Greetings to everyone who is just arriving back in your homes, wherever you come from, landing in the United States today from the amazing, amazing tour that we had in the land of the Bible.  It’s great to be here with you diving into this week, and as we move ourselves fully into this week, we move into a brand new book and start speeding up here at the end of the year.  It gets really fast at the very end.  As we move through the books of the minor prophets we move quickly and as we move through the smaller letters in the New Testament we move quickly.

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

We’re at the book of Hosea.  Now, the theme of marriage is used often in the Bible to represent God’s love for his people and what that is like to be in a relationship with God, especially in the Old Testament between God and those he was in covenant with, the children of Israel.  It is a fitting metaphor because we often find God’s people off with other lovers. We’ve been through this all year. They’ve been committing adultery, as it were.  

So God’s reaction to this in that light is very understandable, as a scorned lover who deeply loves and cares for his love lost.  Nowhere in all the Bible is this more clearly presented than in the book of Hosea, a book of prophesy, because God asks Hosea to use his very life as living prophesy.  He instructs him to marry a prostitute named Gomer and this represents the idolatry, adultery, and harlotry of Israel.  The couple have children and each child is given a prophetic name that speaks directly to Israel.  And then Gomer, Hosea’s former prostitute wife, she is unfaithful.  So Hosea divorces her as God thrusts away Israel and then in an about face, Hosea goes in pursuit of Gomer once again.  And this woman, who has been unfaithful, who has played the harlot, actually has to be purchased back, which Hosea does, representing God’s passion for his people, even to the point of rescuing and buying back that which he loves.  It’s a beautiful picture of God’s love for us.  

We also get a good picture of our betrayal and what that looks like when we chase after other loves.  Most of us have experienced a broken heart or had a sense of betrayal in our lives and the book of Hosea gives us a good picture of what that looks like from God’s eyes.

So we begin, reading from The Message this week, Hosea chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 5.  

Commentary

This passage in Hosea is one of the most bittersweet, beautiful passages in all of the Bible to me.  There is another passage like this in the book of Ezekiel and we talked about that when we were there, but the description here is so personal and so understandable. Whether we have been through the betrayal of adultery, and I know a lot of us have, but whether we’ve been through that or not, we know what it is like to feel betrayal.  If we were to consider it, we could understand the ravaging, tormented heart and emotions of finding out that somebody we love with all our heart and gave ourselves to wasn’t nearly as all-in as we were and we find out that the reality that we had hoped in is not real at all and everything is upside down.  Those of you have gone through this, you know what I’m talking about, and those of you who haven’t, you can imagine just the rollercoaster of emotions, the instability of finding this kind of information out, the way that it reframes life as you knew it.  Everything is upside down and then it goes right side up.  It’s like being in a washing machine.  

God is describing this kind of emotion.  We see the back and forth.  We see the shock and then we see the anger and then we see the love that still remains and then we see the anger.  Then we see the disbelief and then we see the hope of rescue and then we see the resolve and determination to find a way.  It is like God is saying you have cheated on me.  I have been faithful to you.  You have cheated on me.  You have betrayed our covenant, our trust.  You have gone off and not just fallen in love with somebody else, but have been all over the place.  There is this song by the band U2 and the lyrics are you’ve been all over and it’s been all over you.  That is what we’re talking about here.  God looking at his people and saying you’ve been all over and it’s been all over you. He is heartbroken.  He’s not just raging.  He’s heartbroken.  

This particular passage, along with the one in Ezekiel, actually completely changed my understanding of this concept of a vengeful, raging God in the Old Testament.  As I grew up, I never really liked the Old Testament.  It was just this angry God.  Now I realize as I have grown to know God and know the scriptures that is not fair.  A person who has found out that the one they loved enough to die for has been cheating on them, yeah, they go through a range of emotions.  So God is being very open and he is articulating emotions that we can wrap our head around and understand to say this is how I’m feeling. And it for me brought the Father so close.  Like, oh my! I see now and I see how I’ve contributed and I don’t ever want to feel that way again.  I am not going to be unfaithful.  

So may we understand that God is not aloof, distant, some kind of gray cloud hanging out in the corner of our lives that we can invoke and try to use as some sort of magic.  We’re invited into the relationship that we were made to have with God.  May we understand that our choices matter.  They matter to the heart of God who loves us beyond words.  

Prayer

Father, we invite you into that by first saying we are so guilty.  We have certainly been guilty and so all we can do is come back humbly and fall before you in shame, knowing that you will wipe that shame away.  But we can own the fact that we have played this role.  We have done these things and we can feel the weight of it on your heart while asking you to forgive us and take us back.  And you do.  You do. Your love is beyond words.  It is beyond description.  It is beyond vocabulary in any language.  And so we thank you.  And we return once again inviting your life and your love into us, the Spirit of Christ spoken of in 1 John inside of us, transforming us.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here.  It’s the Christmas Box.  It’s Christmastime.  

I’m delirious.  I’m faking it. I’m tired as can possibly be from the journey and that will go on for a few days.  It’s just weird.  You get back from something like that and you have to find the rhythm of your life again because it has been disrupted in all kinds of good ways but all kinds of challenging ways too, like jet lag, just having your days and nights backwards, trying to find the rhythm again because you’re changed and you have to find the new normal.  So there is this kind of in between period where you’re like I don’t  know where I belong.  And it takes some time.  So on the one hand to kind of be in the land of the Bible during the beginning of the holiday season, even to go to the Church of the Nativity that is the flashpoint for Christmas, is so different than coming back into the Western culture and all of the feelings that Christmas evokes.  I’m trying to give myself a little bit of space to kind of move into that.

The Christmas Box is something that we bring out at Christmastime because it is full of things that are resources that are helpful, things that are meant to be given away and things that are meant to be kept.  So that is available.  

The Promised Land double DVD is in the Christmas Box this year, so all of the places that we just were are contained there as well as many, many others. It’s four hours of content, just immersing one’s self in the land of the Bible and in the places where the stories in the Bible happened.  So that is in there.  

And then Bible Stories About Jesus, the double CD project that we did this year, the entire reading of the book of Mark using age-appropriate translations for children is there.  I’ve got a little baby.   Well, he’s not a baby.  He’s 4, but he’s my baby, Ezekiel.  I just remember trying to read the book of Mark like I was reading it as a bedtime story and he helped me a little bit and my wife, my daughter helped me a little bit to create that project.  So that is included.  

Then the Family Christmas project which I listened to as I went to sleep nearly every night while over in Israel because it is contemplative, it’s soft, and it’s easy to just sit back and take in, I put that on at night to help me go to sleep because every day was like sensory overload where your mind wants to race, but your body is desperate for rest and it was helpful.  That is included.  

My wife Jill’s project that we released this year is included.  

My latest book Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us is also included as well as the corresponding films that we created for small group study and just personal enrichment.  That DVD is included.  This is the last time that will be available so that is in the Christmas Box this year and that is the last time that will be available.  

Then your choice of Windfarm coffee or our Windfarm tea, either our Windfarm house blend that we’ve created or the English Breakfast tea which we find to be very satisfying, that is included. Your choice.  

A pack of 20 of the 2016 Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards with the corresponding envelopes and everything, that is included.  

And then the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb that is only ever available in the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box and this year it has the word for the year – healthy – on it.  Like I’ve been saying, every year we’ve done this, I’ve gotten one for each year on my tree and it reminds me of each journey through the scriptures.  So it reminds me of that but it also reminds me of you, of this community.  That is on my Christmas tree and it makes me think of what God has done among us and how his faithfulness has been so true all of these years, so that is in the Christmas Box as well.  So check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  

We always end up selling out of these, so I’m just encouraging you that if you are like, yep, I’m going to give that away.  Or yep, there is some stuff in there I want and there is some stuff I’m going to give away, get it while you can at www.DailyAudioBible.com.

And then I mentioned, was it yesterday or was it 10 days ago?  I don’t know.  Everything is backwards right now.  The More Gathering is coming up this April.  (It’s so weird.  I’m telling you.  I can’t even imagine.  I’m so turned around with jet lag, but all these things are coming.)  We do this every year, a women’s conference.  It’s called the More Gathering for Women. It’s epic.  It’s an unbelievable experience.  If you’ve known someone who has gone, they can tell you about it.  If you haven’t, come.  I mean, even if you’re going to come alone.  The Daily Audio Bible is this interesting thing.  Even when you think you’ve come alone, you are immediately not alone.  It makes for a great gift.  It makes for a great gift for the woman in your life or the sister or the best friend or whatever.  It is just amazing.  So we have advance pricing for the holidays at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You can find the More Gathering in the Events section or in the Initiatives section. You’ll find it if you’re looking for it. It’s pretty easy.  All of the details, everything that you would want to know about it, that is at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  So check that out here for the holiday season as well.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we move ourselves toward the end of the year, I run out of ways to say thank you and I run out of ways to say I’m humbled, because I think those are the words.  Those are the words.  The Daily Audio Bible rose up out of the dust of the Internet and became a community and it has only ever been this family affair that we’ve done together and we’ve only ever been able to do it because we’ve done it together, so thank you for your partnership in helping Daily Audio Bible exist at all and continue into the new year that is right out in front of us.  Thank you humbly and profoundly.  There is a link.  It’s on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you use the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

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

And that’s it for today.  Thank you for your prayers over everyone who took the journey to Israel because I’m sure I’m not alone, I’m sure everyone is kind of in the same boat to some degree. I mean, those who maybe came from the UK, they just had a couple hours of difference so not so much.  But for those who traveled from the United States or South America or New Zealand or Australia, yeah, I’m sure there is some of what I’m going through going on.  The melancholy of it all, the bittersweetness of it all, the fatigue of it all, the heart that is so full it is bursting and now can kind of begin to seep out and be involved in the changes in our lives, all of that.  We thank you for your prayers.  

And that is it for today.  I’m Brian. I love you.  I’ll be waiting for you here, maybe jet-lagged, but I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.  

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi family.  This is He Sings Over Me in South Carolina.  You know, he sings over you, too.  Anyway, just a thought there to revel in, I guess, that he is singing over you. But my call is to encourage the city of Pittsburgh.  So if you are listening and you are in the city of Pittsburgh, I just wanted to let you know that I am praying for a revival in your city.  I grew up in Southern California and I’m here in the south as an adult raising all my children here, but Pittsburgh, you have my heart.  I don’t know why, I believe it’s the Lord’s heart.  But that’s all.  I just want to encourage you.  Father God, I pray right now for a revival in Pittsburgh.  I thank you, Jesus, that I don’t have to physically be there to pray that and I stand in the gap for those who might be feeling discouraged, might be having a dark day today.  The Christians that know you, Lord, I just pray that you to light a fire under them that burns much brighter than the fires that we are dealing with here on the mountain, that it would be a spiritual fire, Jesus.  So I pray this and I lift this up to you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.  

Hello, may name is Margaret.  I have a prayer request.  I moved from Utah to here in Arizona and I was planning on taking care of my parents, but things are not going the way I wanted and financially I am starting to hurt and it is getting scary.  So I got me a grocery store place that I started working, but I’m 60 years old and I got this job where I don’t think I can handle it.  It’s a lot of lifting.  Things are like 50 pounds and I can’t pick them up and I’m not computer savvy, so finding a job is really hard.  It’s on a reservation, Indian reservation, so I don’t have very much to go by.  I really do need prayer.  I wish that I could stay home and take care of my parents, but financially I cannot. So I really do need prayer.  I try to have the faith but sometimes I go down and I get scared.  I know that fear is not from the Lord, but it’s hard to hang in there.  But I wanted to try to live here for a year.  I don’t want to give up.  So please pray for me that I’ll get a better job for myself.  Thank you very much.  Bye-bye.  

Hi family.  This is Salvation is Mine.  I am calling because I’m on the DAB website and looking at a message from Paul F. from Barcelona, Spain who says he is leaving the group because he has felt that no one has been moved to pray with him for the poor children being butchered in Aleppo in regard to the racism and everything else that is going on there. Paul, I just want you to know that even though you may have not heard your prayer come through or heard someone specifically call out your name and for what you’re praying for, please know we are praying for all oppressed, all the people being butchered because of their race and being condemned with hatred all over this world.  That includes the children of Aleppo.  We have not forgotten them.  Please know that our Lord Jesus Christ hears our cry just as God heard the cry of the Hebrew children in Israel when they were enslaved by Pharaoh.  Please know that prayers are being sent up for all, for the Muslims, for the single mothers, for the gays and lesbians, for the Christian democrats, for, even though you said grim, the democrats, the immigrants, the complicated people, the autistic, the transgender people, the druggies, the adulterers.  Lord Jesus, we just come before you.  We lift all of these things that Paul has placed here on the DAB website up to you and we ask you to bless Paul in a mighty way with his continued fight for the children of Aleppo.  We ask, Lord Jesus, that you just grant him peace and mercy in his heart, that he knows that there are people out here praying for them and praying with him. In Jesus’ name, I say thank you and amen.  Paul, please don’t leave the group.  Please post more on the DAB web page and I guarantee you, I will talk to you.

Good morning, guys.  This is Jen in SoCal, aka Prayer Warrior Princess.  Father, we are putting the beloved friends who are on the Israel trip at the foot of your throne.  They are about to return home and we know that the enemy’s plans are to steal, kill and destroy, to assault their senses and their spirit as soon as they even start thinking it is time to go home let alone get on the planes and arrive back to their real lives and the things that are awaiting them.  We know the enemy wants to bombard their thinking, to make them physically sick, to break up their finances and their relationships and to mar the experiences that they have had with you, to make them doubt what has happened and to forget it.  Lord, so many other things.  I don’t even want to mention them either, so disgusting.  The enemy is so disgusting.  You are so perfect and so wonderful.  The things that you’ve done for these beloved people on this trip are so fantastic and full of splendor.  We ask you to be with them, to help them persevere, to steadily plod through whatever you allow as they return home, Father.  Strengthen them to face these things.  And whatever you’ve given to them on this trip, make it the thing that helps them get through the tests and trials that happen as they return home. Bond them to you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.  

Hi family.  It’s Lauren in Houston.  I’m calling in to encourage those who are depressed right now.  I’m someone who has struggled with depression historically most of my life and in the past two years the Lord has shown me some things that have really helped, especially about bringing all my thoughts to him.  But here’s a prayer that I hope will encourage you that I wrote about one of those times.  I’m at the cold floor of a deep well.  Looking up, the water is so gray-blue, clean and clear.  I can see your face above me and the sunrays rippling in the dear sky.  I know you’re pulling me up with immovable arms, but I can’t help thinking through tears of joy and despair, will I make it?  Panic is an option, but I know I don’t need to.  I’m rising, rising through the weight of deep water.  I’m going to make it.  You told me that, didn’t you?  In the name of Jesus, amen.  Hope this encourages you and the Lord is with you all.  Much love in Christ.  

Hello family Dabbers.  I’m Timothy P. from Edinburgh in Scotland.  A long time listener but rarely a caller.  I was struck today, the 2^nd of December, by Tim from Tampa. Tim, you are at a crossroads with your business.   Check. You’re seeking wisdom and favor. Check.  You’re giving thanks for your wife and your marriage.  Check.  My wife and I run Love After Marriage workshops and have a passion for supporting Christians in their marriages so I pray for healing and comfort for all those in need. I pray for a renewed vigor for Brian and Jill and all the DAB, especially SarahJane and her packing team with the Christmas Boxes and I pray for my praying partner, Adam, for his elephant prayer list.  Jesus, you have won the victory, the healing and the peace of mind and the mercy.  Holy Spirit, you are the gift that lifts us and encourages us.  I ask you to anoint us all.  Father God, you are the King, the Creator.  You are the reason that we exist.  We praise and worship you.  So this is Tim from Edinburgh praying for wisdom and favor on Tim from Tampa. Thanks.  

Daniel 11:36-12:13 ~ 1 John 4:1-21 ~ Psalm 123:1-4 ~ Proverbs 29:2-4

Today is the 4^th day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It is great to be here with you on this, the second Sunday in the season of Advent. Of course, Advent is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, a time to just really immerse ourselves in the mystery that God came for us and to put ourselves in a place of longing for his arrival which is represented by Christmas, but also our longing for his return, his second arrival.  We know that day will come, that the King is coming.  

SONG played on today’s DAB “The King Is Coming” MissionSong http://apple.co/2gQfYej

So as we greet this new week, we will read from The Message and pick up right where we left off yesterday, Daniel chapter 11 verse 36 through 12 verse 13.

Prayer

Jesus, as we’re here in this season of Advent, certainly a season that is commemorated and venerated by man as a tradition of the church, it has no less impact or meaning on us as we put ourselves in the position of contemplating that perfect love has come into the world and this love within us now compels us to love one another and to love outward into the world bringing, light and life as your body in this world and recognizing that without love, according to the book of 1 John, well, if we’re not willing to love, then we’re not as close to you as we might think.  So we invite your Holy Spirit into that.  Show us the places that we have blocked love in our lives and, like an artery, closed off our heart.  That is what is happening when we’re not allowing your love to flow through us. So come, Holy Spirit, into this time of contemplation, into this time here in Jerusalem for our final day and for all the travel that will be taking place tonight and tomorrow.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Today is a travel day, flying back in time as it were.  So all day today we’ll be in transit over the ocean and connecting through, making our way back to the rolling hills of Tennessee. That is always a delirious day. Everything is off.  So we thank you for your prayers.  Many are just arriving home, many will be arriving home today, like us, some time tonight and so, yeah, it’s been an absolutely overwhelming experience.  And it always is.  It is just every day is like multiple days.  It is like we’ve been here for months and our hearts are full and now we can get back home and into the rhythm of life a little bit and into familiar surroundings and all of what is in our hearts can begin to seep into what our lives are and we’ll see the changes because we’ve walked the land and the Bible is alive and awake and quickened in our lives.  So thank you for your prayers over all of the travel today.  

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is, of course, the website and it is where you find out what is going on around here.  It’s the Christmas Box right now.  The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box is available.  It is chockful of the resources that we’ve created for this community.  

The Promised Land Films are in the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box this year. It is a double DVD package with over four hours of content.  All of the places we visited on this excursion, this pilgrimage are included as well as so many others that we either couldn’t go to, there is just no way to take a group there, or that we didn’t go to this time.  You can make the Bible come alive to you in the same way by seeing where these things happened in the Promised Land Films.  So they are in the Christmas Box.  

Bible Stories About Jesus, which is a double CD reading of the book of Mark using age-appropriate translations for children is included.  

The Family Christmas Album is included.  Jill’s new album is included.  

My latest book Reframe, From God We’ve Made to God With Us is included as well as the corresponding films that go with it on DVD.  And this is the last time those will be available so get them while you can.  

Let’s see, what else?  Your choice of Windfarm coffee or our Windfarm English Breakfast tea, your choice, will be included.

A pack of Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards, 20 Christmas cards with the corresponding envelopes for 2016, that is included.  

And the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb for 2016.  It has our word for the year – healthy – on it.  We’ve been doing this for a number of years now and so I have a number of these on my tree and I know a number of you do too. Every time I look at them I remember all of the journeys we’ve taken through the Bible together.  It’s a wonderful tradition.  For me, it brings you into Christmas for us in the Hardin household.  That is included.  The only place to get that is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box, so check it out.  

We are selling out of them, so get yours while you can.  There will be things in there that that you’ll want to keep and things that you’ll want to give away for Christmas and you can pick and choose how you wish, but you can get that at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here at the end of the year, if this has been a life-giving experience for you inside this community that we are, thank you for helping it to continue forward into the new year. Thank you humbly and gratefully with a true, full and gracious heart.  You can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link on the home page or if you use the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 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.  I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.  

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi, this is Tricia in Henderson, NV, God’s Princess.  I’m calling.  First off, thank you for all you who prayed for my daughter Amanda and my boys. We’re all talking and getting along much better.  My marriage of seven years is suffering really bad.  My husband is very jealous of my children and I brought to the doctor’s attention that he has anger issues and he has outbursts all the time and takes it out on my verbally and I just pray that our marriage can be helped.  I want it to work so bad.  It’s been struggling for a long time.  A few months after we got married I was in a major accident and since then our marriage has suffered.  I also want to pray for our pastor, Pastor Leonard, who has Parkinson’s.  I pray for his healing.  Thank you everybody.  I love you. Bye.  

Hello family.  This is Drew from the Bay Area.  The reason for my call today is I’m calling because I’m in a bind and my first thought, I said I’ve got to call my family, the Daily Audio Bible.  But I just laid my head down after hearing a song to go to Jesus first and that is what I did.  I pray that God would draw me closer to him and I thanked him for how close we are now because of Jesus and what he has done to restore our relationship with God.  I asked him to take away the fear that I have.  Family, I’ve been praying for all of you.  I’m not the only one that is going through this.  I’ve been attacked.  Many of you know my story.  I’ve lost family.  I’ve lost my daughter.  My son is living with me now.  We’ve been restoring our relationship.  Things are much better.  But now the job that I love and the people that I love at the job seems to be going from summer to winter, if you know what I mean.  Pastor Gene, I feel your pain, but I’m not saying what you’re doing is wrong in any way.  Each of us have our own battles to fight.  But I’m going to stay close to God and depend on him and wish you would pray for me and pray for those I work with because I pray that evil will be exposed and I think that is what is happening.  I’m not sure.  But I ask you to pray for me.  I prayed for something silly about the ice because all the people were upset about ice and God came through on that.  I’m sure he can come through on this.  Love all of you and I’m praying for you that are in Israel, those of you that aren’t, those of you that call and those of you who don’t.  I love you so much.  Bye.  

Hi family.  This is Salvation is Mine in San Leandro, CA calling in with a nightly prayer.  This prayer is for those who have lost loved ones around the holiday season, so family, let’s pray.  Dear Precious Savior, our Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Healer, we come before you with broken hearts this holiday season, for those who have lost loved ones around this season who find it painful to find joy and cheer this time of year.  We ask you to come into their hearts and give them comfort and peace.  We ask that their memories at this time of year be those of joy and remembrance of good times and not the passing.  We ask you to bless their remaining family members or friends and keep them in your care as well.  We know that it is hard to heal a broken heart because we are human and we miss people and we want them here and not gone but Father, you have a plan that we don’t know about and we know that we will see them again someday seated at your table and we will be united as one again.  So Lord God, please just give us the memories that are joy and peace and love and take away our heartache and pain of those we have lost.  Let us continue to pray for each other and lift each other up in prayer and hold out a hand for those who are in need of comfort. In the blessed name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit I pray.  Amen.  Thank you family.  Have a good night.  Bye-bye.

Hello from God’s Outpost here in beautiful Cincinnati, OH.  This is Daniel Johnson Jr. and just wanted to call and say thank you, Brian and Jill and all of your family.  We want to wish you the very best this holiday season.  God bless you on your travel back from the land of the Bible.  Biola, haven’t heard from you in a little while and I’ve been thinking about you, sister. Rumbii, you know what?  It’s been a really long time since I’ve heard you call in.  SarahJane who works behind the scenes, I haven’t heard from you in a while.  Carol from New Mexico, you were the one that pointed me to the Daily Audio Bible back in 2009.  I haven’t heard from you in a while.  And also I want to give a shout-out to Rob from Indiana that I met back in 2011 I think it was.  Anyhow, guys, let’s pray.  Father in Heaven, Jesus, I come to you now for all of us that are dealing with seasonal depression or just sadness that is going on because of this time of year.  I know that the holidays are not as merry for some of us.  Please comfort us.  Many times I know it is because of expectations that we have for ourselves or for one another and there is shame that is involved in that.  God, I also just want to pray about these areas that we’ve gone after.  We’ve gone after sin over and over again.  Even as sheep that have been given lush pastures and refreshing waters, we’ve gone outside the pen back into well-worn areas which not only cannot sustain us but also harm us.  Thank you for coming into us and never giving up on us.  Come into these hidden, dark areas of our hearts and spirits, in these places that we’ve been trying to protect for so long, knowing that it is killing us to do so.  Come into our fears.  Come into these places and heal the brokenness in us, these very places so that we can let you love us here.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen. God bless from beautiful Cincinnati, OH. Daniel Johnson Jr.

Hello brothers and sisters.  Are you dealing with something that you’ve done that is so convicting that the enemy has come in and capitalized on that because you know it is wrong?  The people around you that know about it know that it is wrong. The person or persons that you have done it with know that it is wrong and you’re a believer so the enemy is coming in and he is telling you that it cannot be forgiven.  He is trying to tell you the God will not forgive this.  Well, brother, sister, fellow Christian, that is a lie from the very father of lies.  Know this now in the name of Jesus Christ, that 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.  So if there is something that you’re struggling with, a sin that you’ve committed, a wrong that you have done, confess of it.  Confess of it to your Lord and Savior because he will forgive you.  Do not allow the enemy to use this to keep you down, to keep you stressed out and depressed and sad and anxious and overwhelmed with guilt because you have been washed in the blood and it has been nailed to the cross.  Take that. Use it.  Live in it and make today a day of confession.  God bless you.  I love you. Have a wonderful day.  

Hi.  This is Katie from Annapolis.  I’ve called a few times before over the years, mostly asking for prayer for my marriage and I’m continuing to do that.  My husband and I have had several situations where I felt unsafe and I’m just asking for prayer and for guidance from God, knowing what to do.  My husband’s rage and anger is affecting everybody in the family and he is very resistant to confronting this problem.  I don’t want to break up my family.  I have two boys.  One is 1 and one is 4; however, my little boy who is 4, when he is angry he lashes out and tells people he is going to shoot their heads off and things like that.  I’m concerned for him.  I’m concerned for my husband and I’m concerned for all of us.  I need guidance from the Lord.  I need peace. It’s hard to be submissive to a husband who is like this and I need to know what to do and if it is God’s will for me to divorce him, then I need to be able to have the strength to be able to do that.  Thank you. I love the Daily Audio Bible.  I love all of you and thank you for your prayers. Bye.  

Daniel 11:2-35 ~ 1 John 3:7-24 ~ Psalm 122:1-9 ~ Proverbs 29:1

Today is the 3^rd day of December.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It’s great to be here with you for the last day in Jerusalem and for the last day on this particular pilgrimage to the land of the Bible.  It’s a pleasure and an honor to be here with you and it is quite a day today.  And it was quite a day yesterday.  I’ll tell you about that in a little bit, but let’s center ourselves now and take that deep breath and exhale and step away from the cares of life and the hustle and bustle that is beginning to surround us for the holidays and orient ourselves to God through his word.  

So as we end another week, we will be reading from the New Living Translation which is what we’ve read from this entire week.  Diving back into the book of Daniel, today chapter 11 verses 2 through 35.  

Prayer

Father, as we prepare to end our time here in the land of the Bible, the scriptures are as poignant as ever.  So as we are here in the city of Jerusalem, we mimic the scriptures together.  We pray for peace in Jerusalem.  May all who love this city prosper.  O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces.  For the sake of my family and friends, I will say may you have peace.  For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.  May it be so.  In the victorious name of the Risen Christ we ask, amen.  

Announcements

So yesterday, yesterday was a fight for everything that we got.  We had been kind of skirting rain that was coming in and had been able to, for some reason, be in the right place at the right time until yesterday.  Yesterday there was nowhere we could go.  It rained and then it rained some more and then it rained some more.  

So yesterday we boarded security buses to go to some of the places that we were going to go and the first stop out of Jerusalem was to head northward all the way to the top of Mount Gerizim.  Mount Gerizim, of course, scripturally is the Mount of Blessing.  If you remember when Joshua led the children of Israel across the Jordan River and into this land, they made their way to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, the Mount of Blessing, the Mount of Cursing, and they recited the blessings of the covenant and the curses of breaking the covenant.  This is where Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  

So we got to the top of Mount Gerizim in the pouring rain and it being on the top of a mountain, it is completely exposed, so the pouring rain blowing sideways with the wind  in the clouds so that everything, everything was obscured.  The view from Mount Gerizim is actually spectacular and the biblical history, the crossroads of what happens right there on the mountain and right beneath it, because just at the base of the mountain is ancient Shechem, so much history in that place that can be seen from this one location.  So we made the effort, a long bus ride to get there, only to be in the clouds and in the sideways blowing wind and rain.  

It was an interesting thing because maybe one of the more profound moments for me personally on this journey happened in that.  As we’re moving on our way, I’m like, “Lord, clear the sky.  We need to see this, Lord.  Lord, just give us a few minutes.”  And we got to the top of the mountain and it was absolutely just socked in.  We’re praying for this to clear and I just felt like the Lord was saying, “I’m in this.  I’m in this.”  I just had to kind of reset my expectations, which is what we continually have to do in our lives.  And I felt like okay, okay, whoever wants to go and get out in this, we’re going.

About half of us, I guess, got off that bus and got out into that and just kind of stepped to the side where we could see just a little bit and stood there and worshipped God and just considered the fact that he led them with a fire by night and a cloud by day and here we were, standing at the top of the Mount of Blessing.  Rain in this land is a sign of blessing and we just said, “Here we are, God.  Whatever it is, here we are.  We are socked in in our lives lots of times where we do not know where to go because we cannot see in front of us.  We do not know.  But we’re going to remember we stood here and we surrendered ourselves to you on this Mount of Blessing.  We stood here.  Here we are before you and we will follow you and this wind may blow and this rain may chill us to the bone, but we will not be shaken.  You are good.  You are God and we love you and we will serve you.”  

We just spent some time right there letting it all blow, letting it all swirl, just being present to it all.  It was good.  It’s been a tough year for lots of people.  So to just stand there in the thick of it, in the thick of the storm, knowing our feet were planted at the top of the Mount of Blessing was really rich, really different than what was planned, but really truly memorable.  I will never forget that moment and I’m grateful for it.  

So we made our way back to the buses, cold, wet, but full inside and just kind of shared the things that happened there.  Shechem is just a crossroads.  So many biblical things happened there.  It is such an important place, so we just reviewed some of that before making our way down from the mountain and back southward toward Jerusalem with a stop at the ancient city of Shiloh.  

Shiloh, of course, is the place where the Tabernacle was set up in a semi-permanent way as the children of Israel were conquering and settling the promised land.  This was the heart of worship.  It was there as the center for almost four centuries.  

And the rain came and they rain went and the rain came and the rain went. So a little reprieve and we got soaked again, but we fought for it and we got what we got.  We got to be in that location and understand it and understand what happened there and why and how and just see the extent of the ruins dating all the way back to the Judge and Prophet Samuel’s time.  

We climbed back on the bus wet, chilled to the bone, but having accomplished what we came to do.  Then we made our way to lunch and a beautiful lunch it was.  There is a lovey winery in the area that we have visited in the past. They just set a table before us and it was warm and it was dry.  It was delicious.  It was rich as a community to share in this meal.  Yeah, beautiful, beautiful indeed.  So a wonderful stepping out of all the cold and rain and lunchtime.

Then we got back on the buses and went to Nebi Samwil.  This is the gravesite, the tomb of the Prophet Samuel. So having just been in Shiloh where Samuel was brought by his mother Hannah because she had promised the Lord that if she were to have a son, she would give him back to God, and she did. So we ended up where he is buried. This is also the place that we can go that overlooks ancient Gibeah, Gibeah of Saul.  We reviewed the story of the Tribe of Benjamin and its near demise. I mean, there was an incident that happened that caused 11 tribes to move against the one tribe of Benjamin and nearly annihilated them completely.  But it is also a story of redemption because it was from the Tribe of Benjamin that the first king of Israel, Saul, came from.  So we just kind of reviewed all of that even though it was raining, even though it was cold, even though we were out there in the thick of it exposed.  We were able to fight for what we got.  That is what it was, just kind of fighting, contending for it.  Easily the preference on a pilgrimage like this and in life is for every day to be sunny and good, but there are days that you have to stand firm and weather it, and that is exactly what we did.  We weathered it.  

And then we moved our way into Jerusalem for the final stop of the day which was at the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, for a time of prayer.  Most people, having weathered what we weathered, wanted to pray.  It was wet and they were rained upon and they were blown upon and they stood firm.  

So that is how that day went.  I can remember one other time being in Israel getting kind of soaked. It happened at Caesarea Maritima, on the ocean.  Just absolutely drenched.  But yesterday was a day like no other, a day I won’t forget.  A hard day.  A good day. A rich day.  A day that mimics life at times with the constant rain.  It only briefly let up here and there and watered the ground and blessed the people and we were out in the middle of it.

So today is our final day.  Many, many of those who have journeyed all the way here will be leaving late tonight for late night flights back to all points around the world.  

We will be retracing the final days of Jesus today.  So we continue to thank you for your prayers, stamina, health, weather, flights, technology, all of it.  Continue to cover us as we all begin to make our way back to where we’ve got to go.  Me, myself personally, we have an early morning flight tomorrow to make our way back to the rolling hills of Tennessee.  So we thank you  and covet your prayers.  

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here and it is the Christmas Box that is going on around here.  It is chockful of resources that we’ve arranged and packed it full for you, stuff in there that you’ll want to keep, stuff in there that you’ll want to give away and you can see it all at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  You are encouraged, if it is something that you’re interested in, to go ahead and grab it.  We sell out of them every year, so go ahead and grab them while we have them.  

I would also like to announce the women’s conference that we will be having – The More Gathering for Women – this coming April, so April 2017.  We announce it at this time because it is just a fantastic gift idea.  If you’re looking for a way to bring life to the woman in your life, then consider this, the More Gathering.  Right now until the end of the year, we have advance pricing that goes away at the end of the year for those of you who are wanting to kind of take advantage of it as a gift.  We try to do everything we can to make it as accessible as possible.  You can check the entire thing out, all the details about it that you would want to know at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Initiatives section.  You’ll find The More Gathering there, or even in the Events section.  If you’re looking around you won’t miss it.  You can read all about it.  That is available.  

Man, we meet so many women who are like, “I didn’t know.  My husband got this for me for Christmas.  I didn’t know how Jesus was going to come for me.  I didn’t know that this was going to be more than a trip and it has been so rich.”  So More Gathering 2017 is now available for registration at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It is sitting right on the home page where it lives and I thank you humbly, profoundly, deeply for your partnership here at the end of the year.  If you use the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Eyes wide with wonder, the world is big and small.  A picture of perfection scarred, askew since Adam’s fall. Ears open to the gospel, the words come right from him.  If only we would hear them, our lights would never dim.  Hearts of humble servants, our neighbor waiting to hear the hopeful song we carry that takes away our fear.  Arms waiting for the helpless, the ones who need a hand, the people who we were ourselves, are saved just as he planned.  A life that speaks His story, lived out from day to day, we’re waiting on his mercy, He shows it when we pray.  A love that is only holy, a God who knows our frame.  A grace that is unfurled for a sinner Jesus saves.  

Hi DAB family.  This is Christy, English missionary to the Philippines.  I haven’t called in more than a year I think it is, but I have been listening with you all every day.  Last year I called in for prayer for Jerry.  Jerry is a Christian inmate in one of the jails we visit weekly here in the Philippines.  He’s been in jail now for more than 20 years just waiting for his trial to come to an end. Last year when I called in he was seriously ill and gone blind with TB so that was an additional problem to having this terrible situation.  So praise God for answered prayer.  Jerry has been healed of his TB so we praise God for that and praise God too that his long wait is coming to an end.  His case, he’s been accused of finding jobs for people abroad illegally but at last, on December 7^th the judge will pronounce her verdict, __________ on December 7^th, so we’re praying for God to pour out his mercy and grace and set Jerry free in time for Christmas.  So we would be really grateful if all our DAB family would join us to pray for this.  I told Jerry that you will all be praying all over the world just to let him know he’s not alone in this.  So again just thank you all for just being there, having an ear to hear and being willing to offer up a prayer for others in need.  So thanks again DAB family.  Love you all.  God bless. Bye.  

Hi.  This is Not Shaken.  I called a while back about my son Brian.  And I just wanted to say that I really appreciate all the prayers.  They were wonderful and I do see, even if I do sound bad, I do see some movement forward that God is working in his life. We tried to have him over for Thanksgiving and he became verbally abusive to the point with his language sounding like the devil was talking to me himself.  He became so violent in his words and slammed a piece of furniture down that we actually had to call 911 to come and make him leave.  He has just become extremely self-centered and paranoid and to people that he loves he just treats disgracefully.  It’s frightening.  I wanted to say that even though that sounds terrible, I feel like God is really working on this and I’m so thankful to those of you who prayed.  Victorious Soldier, thank you.  You prayed twice.  And Arjen prayed and I know many others pray along with me so I’m not alone. Well, I have my family.  We are not alone.  I also wanted to pray for a sister’s son Vincent who became abusive with his mother and is now living with his drug-abusing father.  I also wanted to pray for my sister’s son Chris who is also addicted. I’m just praying a curse on the very thought of drugs and alcohol, that it will make them so sick to even think about it that they won’t ever touch it again.  

Hello DAB family.  This is Chante calling from Detroit and I am calling in because I need everyone’s prayers like never before.  Basically I am being pressed on every side right now, from home to work to cub scouts.  There is so much coming at me that it is allowing me to just really press into God and I was just reading in Psalm 78:34 and it says whenever God slew them, they would seek him.  And it has taken me to this place of seeking God like never before which I’m thankful for, but I really wish I could get to the point where I would seek him like never before in those seasons where there aren’t any trials or it’s not as hard.  I need your prayers with cub scouts.  We have a meeting this week.  We don’t have an activity and we need help with that.  I am now transitioning to the __________ department and there is a lot of hostility in my company in general and there is a lot of slander that is going on.  I am sort of concerned that I’ll be taking on the brunt of the slander myself, that my name will be slandered if I don’t perform the way that they want me to perform.  And also we need repairs to our furnace.  We’re praising God that we’ve had such mild weather that we’ve been able to really not need it that much, so I’m thankful for that, but we still just…

Hi family, this is Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL.  I love you guys.  Working my way up.  Have a big backload but working on it and praying with all of you guys.  Just a shout-out to specific people.  Jean, I’m praying for your daughter and her addiction.  Jen the Warrior Princess, I have been praying for Abbie and for a special touch of God over her life.  Cherry C., I love you.  Chante, thank you for your joyful spirit every time you call.  __________, you are in college and are asking for opportunity to serve and just turned 21 years old.  Congratulations!  I’m so glad that you are walking with Christ and that you are trying to serve.  That is a prayer the Lord will answer.  And I just love you guys.  I’m praying with each one of your prayer requests even if I’m not calling although I am going to start calling probably more often.  I am starting to go back to work, back into the fire as the Lord asked me on December 5^th, so I cherish your prayers for strength and full health.  I take a step of faith and go back to this place because I need to work and I need the income and I’m the sole breadwinner in my house.  Thank you for praying for the work of the __________ which continues to advance the kingdom.  I love you guys.  Brian, thank you.  Thank you that this __________ that even when we are in exile, as Jeremiah 29:11 says, we can still trust our God, that the plans he has for us are to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us hope and a future.  That is God’s plan for all of us.  Love you guys.  Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL.  Bye-bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible.  This is Pam from Oklahoma.  I’m a first year listener and a first time caller.  When I heard Teri from Missouri call in about her baby sister who was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer I knew I had to call.  I should have called sooner and I apologize for that, Teri.  A little over six years ago I lost my sister when she was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and I was the baby sister in this case. She was my best friend and I could hear that same pain of possibly losing a best friend in your voice, but I want you to be encouraged.  There are so many advancements that have been made in lung cancer now that stage IV is no longer a death sentence and I know that with prayer and faith your sister can beat this.  Keep up your faith and your prayers and trust that God will always deliver.  Please know that I will be praying for you daily and I’m sure all of your Daily Audio Bible family will be and we’ll be lifting you and Baby Sister up in prayer.  Thank you.

Daniel 9:1-11:1 ~ 1 John 2:18-3:6 ~ Psalm 121:1-8 ~ Proverbs 28:27-28

Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  Today is December 2^nd.  Greetings from Jerusalem, in the land of the Bible.  Today would have been my father’s birthday.  Let’s see, how old would he have been?  This would have been his 74^th birthday, so that always comes to mind. Of course, I miss him very, very much. But I’m very excited to be here with you today from the holy city of Jerusalem.  We’re working our way through the book of Daniel.  So we’ll dive into that.  From the New Living Translation, Daniel chapter 9 verse 1 through 11 verse 1 today.  

Prayer

Thank you, Father, for another day in your word.  Your word is good.  Your word is true and it instructs us in every level of our lives:  Spirit, soul, body, mind, heart, will.  You speak to us.  So we ask that the words that have been spoken today are words that edify and nourish our souls and draw us closer in our intimacy with you as we walk this path through this life of faith and as we continue to reach for you and know that you are reaching back and we can cry ‘Father, Abba’ and know that you are there and that you love us and that you love us in ways that we cannot even comprehend.  You are good and you are God and we love you.  We pray these things in your name.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Alright, so yesterday, long, full day, which is completely par for the course here as we travel around.  Every day has its own personality and yesterday was that.  We’ve been navigating our way around a little bit of rain and we’ve done a pretty good job.  Got hit a little bit with it at the end of the day, but we began our day with a brilliant blue sky and we went to a place that is called the Jerusalem Archeological Park.  

The Jerusalem Archeological Park is all of the ruins of the ancient area right next to the Temple Mount.  So we explored that but in particular we went to what is known as the Southern Steps, the steps that at one time led into the Temple.  Some of the ancient steps remain.  It is a beautiful place to go.  It is a very moving place to go.  It is an important place to go because these were the steps that led into the Temple so this is where rabbis would have taught and a certain place where Jesus would have walked and taught.  This is how you got into the Temple.  So to be able to sit on those steps, stand on those steps, touch those steps with our hands and some people laid down on those steps, kneeled on those steps, prayed on those steps, it is a moment of pilgrimage because you are for sure standing where Jesus stood.  It is hard to describe because it is different for everybody.  For me, I like to touch them.  I like to touch them with my hands and just have that tactile touchpoint cross the ages to the time that Jesus walked here and lived a human life among us and all that represented.  

We opened the scriptures and read from the book of Acts the sermon that the apostle Peter spoke after the coming of the Holy Spirit.  A beautiful, beautiful time and it was a beautiful setting because the weather was perfect.  We had the place largely to ourselves that time of the morning so it was great.  We began our day on a great note before we got back on the buses and moved our way to the Shephelah, the lowlands of Judah to the southwest of Jerusalem.

Our first stop, a brief one, Beit Shemesh.  We didn’t spend a ton of time there but it was important to stop there as a touchpoint with the scriptures.  This is the place where after the Philistines had taken the Ark of the Covenant in battle and had moved it around among their city states and kind of dedicated it to their gods, plague just kept breaking out on these people until they felt they had to return the Ark and they did that by attaching some cows to a new ox cart and putting the Ark of the Covenant as well as some gifts of gold on the Ark to send it back to their god and felt like if the cows knew where to go, then that was what was supposed to happen.  Of course, according to the scriptures, the cows did know which way to go and they immediately headed back toward the land of Israel and Beit Shemesh is where they ended up.  Those cows and that ox cart became an alter and a sacrifice and the Ark of the Covenant was returned to Israel.  So an important story, important portion of scripture that touches that particular land. So we were able to see it briefly.

We then moved our way down to having some lunch and then to the ancient city of Maresha which is certainly in the Bible.  In the land of Judah, it was one of the conquests during Joshua’s leadership, but it also has significant historical value between the Old and the New Testaments in the time of the Maccabees.  It is an active archeological dig and so we were all able to participate for a brief time as it were in the caves there at Maresha digging and just immersing ourselves in what it takes to bring these ruins to life, how they come out of the ground and what the process is, which is very detailed and very scientific to allow things to be identified and place them in their time period.  A lot of these places are not just one time period.  They may be many, many different time periods that any given ruin or tell, hill, settlement was occupied.  So it is a very painstaking process because if you’re going to go down to the base level of the first time that area was settled you have to destroy everything above it, so that is a painstaking thing.  A lot of times places will be cut into sections.  It is a destructive process so everything has to be documented. So learning how that all worked and even being able to participate even briefly in the history of the place is important. Also just a nice change of pace.  So that is what happened and a good time was had by all.  

From there, that is when the clouds were threatening and it was kind of all coming in.  We made a quick stop at Lachish which was perhaps the second most important city in Judah, second only to Jerusalem.  This is the place where King Sennacherib destroyed all of the strongholds.  He had camped out there and sent his rabshakeh, his representative, to the walls of Jerusalem to intimidate and taunt them as well as inviting them to completely surrender so there wouldn’t be any loss of life.  They were going to be resettled, but they could do it nice and clean if they would just give up, which they did not.  King Nebuchadnezzar had to go home.  He was having some problems at home and was not able to take Jerusalem at all.  The threats did not hold.  So it was just a brief time there, but another place that touches the scriptures, so we did that.  

Then the rains came.  So we had to drive by the Elah Valley, the ancient borderlands between Philistia and Judah in Israel.  Of course, this is the place where David fought the giant Goliath and defeated him. It is a very powerful story, a very famous story in the Bible.  We weren’t able to spend a lot of time there.  It was pouring and so it became dangerous to go down in there and we weren’t able to do it, but we were at least able to see it and understand what is going on there.  

From there, on to Emmaus and rain was certainly threatening but it held off enough for us to get off the bus and see this ancient site that connects us to the resurrection of Jesus.  Of course, Jesus is walking along with the downcast disciples and he is just asking them, “why so sad?” and they’re saying, “where have you been?  Haven’t you heard what happened in Jerusalem, about Jesus?”  And he’s like, “no, what happened?”  It is just playful and interesting.  Jesus comes and sits down at the table and breaks the bread and disappears and this is where the disciples say “weren’t our hearts burning inside of us when he opened the scriptures?”  It helps us to look at the times the presence of Christ is there and we’re not even really aware but somehow deep inside we are.  Just a great place to meditate, a great place to walk.  The rains held off enough for us to do that before making our way back toward Jerusalem.

Then last night it was just a lovely, lovely experience to have some of our brothers and sisters that are in the Daily Audio Bible community come and join us for dinner, those who live here.  Being able to meet each other for the first time and finding out they knew each other in some cases and just to understand the connection, so just spending time.  Very, very heartwarming and fills me with joy every time.  So that made a fitting end to a really wonderful, wonderful experience of a day and we have another different complexion, different personality of a day in front of us today as we don’t head south into the lowlands, we head more north into some of the ancient times.  We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayers.  We’ll never not need them when we’re here.  It means a great deal to us.  These days are very tiring.  They are very long, but they are very full and they leave our bodies and minds tired but our spirits are just kind of like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, burning inside of us.  There is just so much, so much and we’re trying to not miss any of it.  So your prayers and your covering and your intercession help with that and we appreciate it more than we can say.  

So we’re off into another day.  Today and then tomorrow ends our time this time in Israel.  I think for the most part we’re ready to be back in our homeland, in our homes, but that is always bittersweet and melancholy.  We will certainly be leaving changed and with full hearts, but that is not now.  We still have some ground to cover and we thank you for your prayers.  

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It is home base.  It is where you find out what is going on around here and it is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box that is on the horizon right now.  For those of you who are ordering internationally, if you are outside the United States, today really is sort of the day that we’ve put on the calendar to say hey, after this, for the most part we think everything might work out just fine for the holidays, but this is the last day we feel really comfortable saying yeah, we really think everything will arrive for Christmas.  So especially if you are international, you may want to check that out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  It is full.  The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box is full of the resources of the Daily Audio Bible. Like I’ve been saying, we sell out of this so no matter where you are, if it is something that you’re like, yeah, there are some things I want to give away in there, there are some things I want to keep for myself like the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb that is only available in the Christmas Box, then check it out, www.dailyaudiobible.com in the Shop.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible here as we approach the end of the year, then I thank you from the depths of my heart, with a true, true humble, grateful posture.  We can’t do this if we don’t do this together, so thank you for your partnership. There is a link.  It is on the home page at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi DAB family.  This is Tim in Tampa.  I just need to… I think I just need you to lift me up in prayer today.  I’m at a crossroads in my business.  I hear all the prayer requests that are brought forward every day, every single day and I pray with you as well.  It is just humbling to have to come to you and have you pray for me.  I’m just at a crossroads in my business.  A lot of changes just real fast and I really just need to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit loud because I’m a little bit of a knucklehead and I get tied up in everything that is going on every day and get stupid busy.  I just need to hear the voice of the Lord.  I need wisdom.  Need some favor.  I won’t bore you with the details of what I do, but it is just a fast-moving industry that seems to be changing an awful lot right now and I need to provide for my family and it is just a tough time.  So just lift me up.  Pray for wisdom and favor and I just thank you for that.  On a little bit of an update note, I just want to thank the Lord today for everything that he has done in my marriage and in the life of my wife. The Holy Spirit has touched her in a profound and dramatic way.  As a result, he has really opened up new things in me as well.  I cannot thank him enough.  Lord, I just want lift up everybody that is listening right now that is going through struggles in their marriage. And Lord, I just stand in faith for every single one of them, Lord.  I know that the devil wants to destroy every one of these relationships. And Lord, I know you want to heal them and you want us to have great relationships with our spouses and Lord, I just thank you for what you’ve done and I thank you for what you’re doing in every one of these people’s lives that are going through these awful struggles. In Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible team.  My name is Sarah and I’m a first-time caller.  I’ve been listening for a while with my dad.  He is one of Brian’s biggest fans and absolutely loves the Daily Audio Bible.  My father recently passed away and I am calling in a request for comfort, for prayers of comfort.  I am 33 and I miss my dad terribly.  I know my mom is also really suffering.  They were best friends and would have been married 38 years the day after Thanksgiving. The holidays are coming up and I’m not prepared.  I just want to be able to talk to him, to hear from him.  I know he’s in heaven right now and he’s happier.  I feel like there is so much that I missed out on and that he was taken from us too soon.  So prayers of comfort, prayers of peace for myself, my mom and my two siblings and that we can make it through these holidays and that we can also grow closer together and that I just don’t feel so alone.  I’m the only child not married.  I live alone.  I don’t have any prospects right now so I really miss my dad.  I spent a lot of time with him.  So your prayers are so appreciated.  Thank you.  

Hi, my name is Ruthie and I’m calling and asking for prayer for my daughter, Cassia.  She is living in a very abusive situation with an abusive boyfriend and then another person in an RV.  She needs protection, deliverance, and freedom.  She needs to know Jesus’ strength and power to deliver.  She is living in California and I’m living in Colorado.  I pray that God would give her wisdom and guidance and me wisdom and guidance about trusting him, that he is our defender.  So thank you everybody for your prayers for my daughter Cassia.  God bless you.  Bye-bye.

Father, in the name of Jesus, maker and creator of all things, before I ask you for anything, I want to thank you for everything.  Thank you for life, health and strength.  Thank you for the blood that you shed for us, Lord.  Lord, I’m asking if you will to come alongside Alleah of Waxahachie.  Her family is being ripped apart, Lord.  I don’t know the situation, but you know.  Lord, she is feeling it is her fault in some way.  Lord, just let her know it is not her fault.  Let her know that you will never leave her or forsake her, Lord.  Let her know that she can cast all her cares on you because you care for her.  Let her know that we love her and we’re praying for her, Lord.  I thank you for all that you’ve done.  I thank you for this family.  I thank you for Brian and Jill.  I thank you for everything.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

How do I ride if I don’t have the fare?  How I do eat when the cupboard is bare?  How do I hold on if my faith just aint there?  Some people say it is the power of prayer.  Take you burdens to the Lord and leave them there.  I mean, he really does care, your burdens will share. But aint Satan the ruler of the power of the air?  He has the whole world in his hands.  He got the whole world in his hands.  He got the whole world hands, but he gives us the power to make our own plans and therein the crux of the whole matter stands.  Because the choices we make and the chances we take and the laws that we break are for our own selfish sake.  It’s hard to admit that you made a mistake.  Then you ask yourself over and over again ‘don’t I know that if the Lord was truly my friend, that his kindness, his grace, and his mercy don’t end? That all of my battles even I would win?’  Now here I am with this big stupid grin, on the floor on my knees in a jam once again knowing my actions were nothing but sin.  And Satan still tells me ‘you’re going to win.’  He never stops trying and lying, amen?  But what if I had stayed?  What if I had prayed?  What if I had just trusted and obeyed?  What if’s are fruitless because I can’t change the past, but one thing in prayer, God, I humbly ask.  Help me a better person be, a better son, a better father, a better servant for thee, because one thing even in my blindness I see and that is nothing will ever change until I change me.  BlindTony1016@gmail.com.  I would like to give a shout-out to Lisa K. and __________.  I haven’t heard from either one of you lately.  Hope you all are still hanging in there.  And Pamela P. and __________, hope things are good up there in Canada.  Anyway, once again, my prayers are with those on the Israel trip.

Hello Dabbers.  This is Stacy from Oregon.  This is my second year listening and my second call into the hotline.  I need your prayers.  Today’s message was about Daniel in the lion’s den and Brian asked several questions about if we were in the lion’s den, and I am, and if I caused why I was in there and I did.  Unfortunately it is playing on my marriage and we are the point that I don’t know that my husband wants to continue.  He is a believer.  We’re both believers.  We both believe that God put us in this marriage but he has doubts and he is wanting to walk away.  Dabbers, I do ask that you would pray for my marriage, that God would intercede and that love will prevail.  Thank you in advance for all your prayers.  I love you guys and I pray for you daily.  

Daniel 8:1-27 ~ 1 John 2:1-17 ~ Psalm 120:1-7 ~ Proverbs 28:25-26

Today is December 1^st.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  Wow! This is the beginning of the last month of the year.  We have journeyed 11 full months together in this year.  Wow!  It is great to greet you from the land of the Bible where we are kind of moving toward the last phase of our journey for this year into the scriptures and the land in which the scripture happened, but wow, welcome to December!  In just a couple of weeks it is going to be Christmas.  What in the world?  The year did go by fast, I have to tell you, but it is exciting to be here with you today.  So we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week and we’ve been moving our way through the book of Daniel, which is what we’ll do today, Daniel chapter 8 verses 1-27.  

Commentary

There are some days in the scriptures where things are so clear, direct, understandable that you can’t ignore them and you need to spend time with them.  The Proverbs are often like this, but here are plenty of places in the scripture that are like this and what we read today in 1 John chapter 2 is like this.  It is really a clear explanation of the reality that we live in.  Rather than me saying some words or reading it over again, I challenge you to go to your Bible and spend some time with it with this question.  Is this how I live?  Is this what my life looks like?  It explains so much if we’ll be honest with ourselves about the posture of our heart toward God and toward one another and the beautiful grace of Jesus and knowing that we’re all in different places and different seasons and at different stages of our lives.  

Prayer

Father, we invite your Holy Spirit into this as we do most every single day.  Without you planting this in our lives and our openness to it to change the way we look at things, then we’re just trying to control this relationship and not surrendering at all.  We are just trying to manage.  So we come and surrender to you your will, your ways.  May they become ours as your Spirit rises within us to spill out from us into this world.  Come Jesus, we pray in your name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Okay, so yesterday was a full day in the Jerusalem area and a lot of jostling around as it is in Jerusalem and moving through some checkpoints and all of that.  

We started our day early and it really was early because the day that moves us toward Jerusalem is a long one and so we were I think delirious.  I was really tired getting here.  Some sleep, but a really early morning because we began the day ascending up on the Temple Mount, and you have to get there early or it can be complicated.  

So we went up on the Temple Mount.  It is spectacular.  Even though there is no Temple on the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock is there.  It is a Muslim controlled area.  We went up and the views from there are really wonderful. It was a blue sky even though rain had been forecast as is the case today.  We spent some time up there.  We looked around, did the whole of the Temple Mount and then made our way down to the Pools of Bethesda.  We reconsidered Jesus there with the man who had been waiting to get into the water for 38 years and for the collaboration that Jesus invited this man into and the waiting and the longing and the wholeness and everything that has been coming up in our hearts.  So a little bit of time there.  

Right next to the Pools of Bethesda is a church called St. Anne’s. In all the hustle and bustle, every single day of this journey is a journey unto itself and each day has its own personality and there are little oasis that come up throughout the day where there are these moments.  This particular church that is there at the spot is from the Crusader Era, but it has acoustics that are rare, that are really reverberant in a very pleasing way. With the size of the group that we have this time, we were able to basically take all the seats.  So the priest, he came and gave us a little bit of an encouragement.  The church is known for its grandparents, for prayers for grandparents.  So that is nice.  It was nice of him to share and encourage us.  And it was very encouraging.  And then Jill, my wife, she came up to the front and pretty much threw down and all of a sudden we were all singing together.  The reverberation is angelic and it is just this moment of serene worship.  It was just a surreal and beautiful experience.  It really was lovely.  If there weren’t other people trying to get in there, I think we could have stayed in there a long, long, long time. But it was a beautiful, beautiful moment.

Then when we departed there, down through the Lion’s Gate, got on the bus and began to make our way toward Bethany where the Tomb of Lazarus is.  So we considered some of the stories that happened in Bethany once we got up there, of course the calling forth of Lazarus from the grave as well as the story where a woman comes and kisses Jesus’ feet and weeps over them and brings an alabaster jar of ointment.  We considered the stories of Jesus there in Bethany and then moved on our way toward Bethlehem.  

With a little lunch in our bellies, we went into the Shepherd’s Fields which are obviously a famous reference point in the Christmas story and being the Christmas season that is special.  It also is very intertwined with the story of Naomi and Ruth and Boaz, so we spent a little time there.  

A little shopping in Bethlehem and made our way to the Church of the Nativity, which has been under renovation for several years now, I think about a year and it will be complete.  I’ve been there before the renovation started so before the scaffolding was up and all of the pillars are wrapped and all the restoration there is takes to care for a building that is so old and has been through so much.  It requires the cooperation of so many different Christian traditions.  We were able to go in and go down into the grotto and see the spot where Jesus was born. That is always special.  

For me, there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of chaos and a lot of tradition layered upon tradition layered upon tradition, but every time I start walking down those steps it just hits me, the significance of the arrival of Jesus, especially in this season of Advent.  That he would come for us at all.  I mean, we had it all.  We had perfection and we managed to really mess perfection up, this perfect intertwining of relationship with God.  We managed to mess it up significantly, and that he would come, that he wouldn’t give up, that he would love us, to not let go, to not turn his back, to not just go ‘well, you’re on your own now.  I don’t love you anymore because you haven’t loved me.’  He loved us first and he loves us always.  So just to be there in spite of all of the layers of tradition, just to understand that he came, he came for us, he would not let us go brings so much hope because he has never stopped coming for and he will never stop coming for us.  That is the hope of our salvation and the ground upon which everything that we believe in exists and stands upon.  And so to be in that spot, as brief as it is, is a powerful moment.  

So we were able to have that moment before moving our way back through the hustle and bustle of Bethlehem, which is a Palestinian controlled city and so a different culture.  Very nice people.  Everyone was very kind to us and always is but very, very different than what we’re used to.  The irony is that it is not so different from what Jesus knew and understood.  So we moved our way and got back on the bus and back through the hustle and bustle and back through the checkpoints and all of that and made our way back to end our day.  

A number of the group went into the Jerusalem markets.  If you’ve ever been there, that is a story of its own. It’s chaos and color and smells and more chaos and more beautiful humanity.  So that is an experience of its own.  Others of us needed to check in with things back across the ocean and get some rest and some other things done, so we ended our day and are ready for a new day with a new personality and a new complexion.  

We thank you for your continued prayers over us.  Stamina is definitely something to pray for.  Rest, good quality, deep restorative rest.  We’ve been at this and it feels like we’ve been at this for a long, long time, so rest is important at this point so we thank you for that.  Of course, always safety, technology, travel, all of that.  We thank you for your prayers.  We’ll talk about what we’re doing today after we do it.  

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It is where you find out how things are and what is going on around here.  You can follow along with this trip.  We’re posting videos and even broadcasting live as often as we can get stable enough connection to do it at the Daily Audio Bible Feedback page which is www.Facebook.com/DailyAudioBible.  So there are definitely little moments from each day there and you can go back and watch through everything we’ve been talking about.  So that is there.  

The Christmas Box is well underway and you can get yours at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  It is chockful of resources that have been created for our community and its enrichment.  It is full. It is a full box.  So you can see everything that is there at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  Check it out.  We’re always selling out of them before the season is over.  

If you are wanting the Christmas Box for Christmas and you are ordering internationally, outside of the United States, you need to do that today or tomorrow at the latest.  I mean, you can do it at any time, but tomorrow is sort of the time period where we feel like this is the last day that you can safely expect it to get there for Christmas.  We do our best but just a heads up on that if you are international and want the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box.  If you are in the United States, there is still some time on that, but we always do sell out of them.  So check out the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It is on the home page.  Thank you here in the last month of the year, the homestretch of the year, for your partnership, allowing the Daily Audio Bible to exist and continue and be here every day faithfully and consistently.  Thank you for your partnership.  If it has been a life-giving thing to you this year, then thank you for partnership and being life-giving back.  

As a community, we are really good at praying for each other.  So if you have a prayer request or comment (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.  

And that is it for today.  I’m Brian. I love you all the way from Jerusalem and back and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.  

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hey fellow Dabbers.  This is Joe the Protector from Georgia here.  It’s November 28^th at about 7:40 in the morning.  I just finished listening to the 28^th podcast and just wanted to call in.  God has been putting on me that I’ve heard a lot of desperation in some of the calls coming in lately as in from Alleah from Waxahachie and others.  And Alleah, we have you.  God has you.  The body of Christ has you lifted up, girl, so don’t despair.  As children of God we’re not to be discouraged.  I know it happens in our flesh, but we’re supposed to lay our flesh down and become like Christ more and more every day.  So I want to read this passage that I just got finished reading a moment ago and made me call in.  Philippians 3:12, starting in 12:  Not that I’ve already attained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, which is the kingdom of God.  I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Let those of us who are mature think this way and anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.  I know we’re all at different maturity levels in our walk with Christ, but….

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  It’s James, the teacher in LA and I just listened to the November 27^th podcast.  I heard Krista from I don’t know if she said Saskatchewan or Alberta, I’m sorry, but you said that you were just going through a lot of anxiety, nausea, and that you felt like you were in the valley of the shadow of death.  I don’t know if you’ve read through this recently, but I just felt I need to read this to you and anyone else who feels like they are going through a valley.  Psalm 23: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.  He leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul.  He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.  Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies and anointest my head with oil and my cup brimmeth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Krista and everyone else out there who feel that they are being done in by the enemy and in darkness, the Lord is with you.  I need to remember that too.  God bless you family.  I love you guys.  

Hi, this is Irma from Missouri.  I have been thinking about calling for so long.  I’ve been in DAB for quite a while and actually just caught up. I’ve been behind about five or six days, but I just wanted to thank you all for your prayers for each of us, even those that you don’t know.  I pray for you all as I hear your prayer requests and I just am so, so honored to be a part of this special thing that we have going on here.  Brian and your family, thank you so much for your ministry. So many people that I’ve gotten to know over the years that I’ve been listening, just listening silently but still praying.  Blind Tony, I love the faith that you have.  You have pulled me through so many things.  So many other people too I can’t name as well.  I just wanted to ask for prayer for my family.  I’ve been feeling a tug on my heart to call in and ask for prayer.  I feel like I walk alone with the Lord here most of the time.  Just pray for my family.  We’re having so many struggles going on with grandkids and spouses, marriages, all kinds of things.  The Lord knows.  God knows. I know that you know.  Just please, please pray for our family.  And I wish you all the best of the special holidays and God’s hand in your lives.  I love you all.  Thank you.

Hello.  It’s Bries calling from the Northwest Territories, Canada.  I’ve been listening for about four years and I really enjoy the fellowship and I really appreciate Brian reading and the commentaries that you give every day.  It’s great to be part of community and to feel so enriched by the word of God and then the commentaries and the prayers.  I am calling in to…  First of all, I heard today someone from Saskatchewan, Canada calling in for prayer who was having a lot of depression and physical problems and her doctor changing medication.  I just want you to know that I’m praying for you.  With all of us praying together, you will be healed, in Jesus’ name.  And I wanted to share some praise reports.  I myself was healed after a surgery, that I wasn’t expected to be healed of all the __________ I had.  However, I seemed to have been and I just praise God for that. A lot of people were praying for me. And another one is that I know a friend of mine has been healed from breast cancer completely.  No symptoms.  Without surgery and without any treatment.  So praise God for that.  Just to encourage that God indeed does answer prayers and does heal today.  God bless you.  Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible.  This is Nathan, Gift of God from Illinois.  I know I haven’t called for like forever I think, but I wanted to call today because a good friend of mine told me a story, something that happened to him and I’m hoping it’s an encouragement.  I’ve known this guy for like 40 years.  We’ve been best friends.  Sometimes he can start a sentence and I’ll finish it for him.  He was telling me unbeknownst to me he and his wife had like $2 in their checking account.  That was all the money they had.  Running low on food.  Now he runs the books because it causes a lot of anxiety for his wife to be involved at that level in the family budget.  So he decided to share with his wife that that was all they had and so they decided to pray. He prayed “God, just need food. Plain and simple, we need food.” And he is a believer, been a believer most of his life and very faithful.  So just within like a half hour or so, a short amount of time, there is a knock on the door. The son answers it and said “hey, mom! It’s our next door neighbor.”  And so his wife went to the door and she said, “Todd, get down here now!”  And the next door neighbor had a box of food for them.  Apparently her dad was giving food boxes away and couldn’t find __________, gave it to her, and she had no idea of the circumstance and gave it to him.  Previous to this she had made a list of food items that they needed and this is the miracle.  Other than just the food arriving, every single thing on that list was exactly what she wrote down except for two items.  It was even like she wrote down green beans and it was green beans in the box. This is God.  This is the God that we…

Hey family, it’s Scott from Carolina.  I wanted to check in after the holiday on Monday and just give you a few updates. I asked you to pray for my son Josh. He is improving and I just want to ask you to continue to pray.  It is a long road for him and everything that he does is a challenge with anxiety and distraction, so just keep him in your prayers, that he would be able to focus and concentrate. He’s planning to start back in school in January.  We praise God for that.  I also wanted to reach out to Olympia.  Indonesia, wow!  Awesome. I remember you talking, I think, Olympia, earlier about going there and so I think that was you anyway.  We want to lift you up in that new culture and environment.  And also Alleah from Waxahachie.  You know Alleah, you were one of the first voices I heard when I started listening to Daily Audio Bible and I just don’t know how to say it, but I just want to say I love you and I want to pray for you now.  Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for Alleah and we thank you for her love for you. Father, we just pray that you would surround her with the prayers of thousands, Lord, and give her the comfort that only you can give.  Father, we pray for this family, Lord, and the struggles that are going there.  We just love you and praise you.  In Jesus’ name.  Have a great day family.  

Daniel 7:1-28 ~ 1 John 1:1-10 ~ Psalm 119:153-176 ~ Proverbs 28:23-24

Today is the 30^th day of November.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and greetings from the holy city of Jerusalem.  We haven’t gotten to really explore anything yet.  We got in after dark after a nice long day that had some traveling miles involved to get us here, which we’ll talk about in a little bit. We have arrived in Jerusalem and we’ll be exploring the center part of this land for the remainder of the time that we are here in the land of the Bible.  Like I said, we’ll talk about that in a little bit.  Let us do what we’ve come to do and center ourselves in God’s word and orient ourselves to him and allow him to speak to us through his word.

On this last day of the month of November, gasp!  Can you believe that?  We are continuing our journey through the scriptures and we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.  We will continue forward with our journey through the book of Daniel and then when we get to the New Testament we’ll begin a new letter.  We’ll talk about that when we get there.  Daniel chapter 7 verses 1-28.  

Introduction of a New Book (New Testament)

We have arrived at the first letter of John the Evangelist, the Beloved Disciple.  As church tradition holds, he is the author of this letter.  Although John does not specifically claim authorship, copies of this letter were all over the early church and it was quoted and referred to in the early church writings.  When the canon of the New Testament was being ratified, 1 John had no problem being authenticated as a true writing of John and true scripture.

John is writing this letter probably as a rotating or circular letter, giving us clues to how the New Testament church worked early on.  It is probably written to the same people that Peter wrote his two letters to later in his life and that Paul wrote letters to. These letters were meant to be circulated throughout the churches so that they had many apostolic voices pouring the truth of the gospel into the church.

John probably was writing this letter from Ephesus very late in his life, somewhere around AD 92 to AD 100, maybe as late as 110.  He is writing specifically to combat false teachings and heresies that have sprouted up in the early church.  These are the earliest forms of Gnosticism and John has a unique perspective because he was actually there.  When an early gnostic teacher like Cerinthus began teaching that the Spirit of Christ came into Jesus’ body at baptism but before that he was just a normal man and then the Spirit departed from him just prior to crucifixion, John as an authority can refute it.  This is very helpful for us today because there has been plenty of false teaching over the last couple of thousand years and there is no shortage of it now and we are very fortunate to have an eyewitness disciple who walked with Jesus to speak clearly of how things were and how things are.  

So we begin 1 John chapter 1.  

Prayer

Father, once again we thank you for your word and as we continue to make the journey through your word, well, the end is within sight as we begin to prepare our hearts tomorrow to turn the corner into the last month.  So we have had enough time to easily look back and see the difference the rhythm of life centered around your word makes and we thank you.  But we also look forward with great anticipation to what comes next and so we center ourselves where we are right now and ask you to plant this into our hearts, into our lives, and may it yield a bountiful, abundant crop of the fruit of the Spirit within us that we might actually be your hands and feet in this world, very aware and focused by your leading.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Okay, so yesterday we left Galilee which feels like several days ago, but we left the Sea of Galilee behind us which is always…I mean, it’s exciting to move forward in the pilgrimage knowing that there is much left to see and do and contemplate and till into the soil of our lives or sow into the fabric of our hearts or whatever other metaphors we might use, but it is always a little bit of a, you know, goodbye to an old friend, the Sea of Galilee, and just knowing that we’re not leaving Jesus’ story, but we’re definitely leaving behind the place he spent most of his time in ministry.  

So, yeah, we did that and made our way over to Acre which is right on the coast near the city of Haifa.  It is an old crusader…well, the ruins there are probably the best preserved of the crusader era here. We didn’t really go there to do a bunch of biblical things. It is just as we’re passing on our way we stopped in to see some of that and spent just a little time in the markets and enjoyed that part of the country before moving up Mount Carmel.

Mount Carmel is where, of course, a great showdown between the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal took place.  God demonstrated his power by raining down fire on the sacrifice which in the end didn’t turn out so well for the prophets of Baal and they met their end fairly swiftly after that.  So we opened the scriptures, moved into that story, considered the implications in our own lives.  From Mount Carmel we could look down into the Valley of Megiddo also known as the Valley of Armageddon which definitely leaves some things to contemplate as well. So we spent some time there and then moved back to the coast, moving our way southward to Caesarea Maritima.    

Caesarea Maritima is epic in terms of its preservation of the Roman Era, the Herodian Roman Era.  The city was built to be a jewel, a port city second to none, one that would put the Roman province of Syria on the map as a destination place.  It did do that.  But there is definitely biblical history there. This is where the apostle Paul was taken after having been arrested in Jerusalem and he spent a couple of years imprisoned in Caesarea Maritima and he was able to share the gospel with dignitaries, kings, governors, people he would have never gotten an audience with any other way.  He was able to share the gospel, but it was from here that he appealed to Caesar his case and it was from Caesarea Maritima that he sailed for Rome where he would eventually lose his life as a martyr.  So we certainly, of course, moved into that story before departing for the journey up to Jerusalem.  

Caesarea Maritima is right on the coast, the Mediterranean Coast so it is at sea level.  From any point in Israel you can only go up to Jerusalem, so that is what we did.  We climbed up to Jerusalem where we landed for the night and just kind of unpacked.  Now our hearts are ready.  Even though our bodies may be a bit fatigued, our hearts are ready to enter into this part of the journey, this part of the story and we covet your prayers.  We do.  We covet your prayers because our prayers are that we till all of this into the soil of our lives and take it back because it has changed us so profoundly, that it is more than just the story of that one time that we went to Israel and saw all those things but that it impacted us in a way that right now we can’t articulate.  There is just too much, but we can feel things have shifted and continue to shift. We want that to stick so that it influences our spheres of influence in profound and unexpected and delightful ways as we are changed by it.  So we certainly thank you for your prayers over travel, over stamina, over health, over technology, over all of it and we feel your prayers.  Thank you profoundly for that.  

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  That is home base.  It is where you find out what is going on around here.  The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box is high on the list right now. We’ve packed it full of resources that have been created for our community here and there is stuff in there you’re going to probably want to give away for Christmas and there is stuff in there you’re going to want to keep.  

The Promised Land Films, the double DVD set containing four hours of content, including every place that we’re talking about here on the Daily Audio Bible, every place that we’re visiting now has been filmed meticulously and unpacked scripturally so that you can kind of see it, it is in there.  

Let’s see, Bible Stories About Jesus is in there, the double CD project that we made for children using age-appropriate translations.  That is in there.  

The Family Christmas Album is in there.  Jill’s album that was released a little earlier in the year is in there and that is fantastic.  If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s fantastic.

My latest book Reframe is in there and the films that go along with the book, Reframe – From the God We’ve Made to God With Us – they are in there in DVD form.  This is the last time those will be available so if you haven’t had a chance to see those yet, they’re impactful and they’re challenging and they’re helpful.  So that is in there.

Your choice of either the Windfarm house blend of coffee or our Windfarm English Breakfast Tea, one of those, your choice is included as well as a pack of 20 of our 2016 Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards and the annual Daily Audio Bible Christmas Bulb that we’ve done for several years now.  I’ve got one for each year that we’ve done this on my tree at home.  I love that because not only does it remind me of the many different revolutions through the scriptures that we’ve taken together, but it reminds me of you and I love having that on my Christmas tree.  All of the years of God’s faithfulness and all of the scripture, all of the journeys we’ve taken through the scripture together.  So the annual Christmas Bulb is in there and it has our word for the year – healthy – imprinted on it as well.  So that is in the Christmas Box.  

Some things that you’ll want to keep, some things that you may want to give away.  Check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  We always sell out of them, so grab it sooner than later so that it gets to you on time.  Those of you who are international and want the Christmas Box in time for Christmas definitely need to jump onboard there.  To get it to you we need to allot ourselves three weeks from an international perspective because of some arrangements we have for shipping.  We can ship at a very economical rate, but it just takes longer. So definitely, if you’re international, but, like I said, we sell out of them, so no matter where you are, jump onboard. Check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It is on the home page and it lives there.  Thank you for everyone who has clicked that link, especially here at the end of the year.  Your partnership is what is making it possible for the Daily Audio Bible to show up every day.  So thank you for your partnership.  If you use the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner and, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, of course, we are a community and a part of being a community is that we shoulder burdens together.  We pray for each other and we’ve done that well.  We do that well.  If you’re carrying a burden, especially moving into the holiday season, a burden of the blues or depression or loss or any other kind of challenge, we pray for each other.  We love each other.  It is one of the ways we realize we’re not alone.  So if have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Quinette from Southern California.  I’ve been listening for four years.  This is my first time calling in.  I love Daily Audio Bible and I am encouraged by the prayers and testimonies of people who call in.  I’m asking for prayer support as God is transforming my character and giving me a desire to do and stay in his will and also pray and love the people he has put into my life. I’m a radiation therapist and I live and work in Temecula, CA.  Please pray for the doctors and staff as we work together as a team to help people with cancer.  Many here do not know the Lord.  There have been struggles here and I have been tempted to give up, but I feel that the Lord is telling me to stay and pray, to slow down, to be quiet and listen, and that hope is a choice.  Please support me in prayer as God works this place into my heart, that I will not shrink back from the battle.  I’m trusting and hopeful that God is doing a good work here.  Please pray also for my husband and son, that God will provide work close to home.  I would like to leave you with two quotes from a popular Bible teacher that have helped me.  When you’re tempted to give up, your breakthrough is probably just around the corner and courage is fear that has said its prayers and decided to go forward. Thank you Daily Audio Bible.  I love you and I look forward to calling in again with praise reports.  Thank you and have a blessed holiday season.  

Hello family.  This is Candace from Oregon.  Let’s pray. Lord, we lift before you Krista from Saskatchewan and thank you that she has reached out to all of us who lift her in prayer as she is in a terrible struggle with depression.  Lord, tell her the secrets and her doctor, but tell her the secrets of how to dig out from this, how to come to full health.  And we just rebuke, we rebuke any and all thoughts that come against the love of Jesus Christ and the grace that belongs to Krista. And we claim this full healing in Jesus for her.  Lord, we pray for our sister, the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King.  Thank you for the testimony of her brother, his healing from I think it was bone cancer, a miraculous healing, Lord, and this is so glorious and beautiful and true to who you are.  You can do anything and we claim that same healing power over her mother who has been diagnosed with colon cancer.  O Lord, come now.  Come now by your Spirit, touch her mother and bring her back to full health and healing, in Jesus’ name.  Lord, thank you for Blind Tony and his testimony to all of us, that even if you slay me, yet will I believe, yet will I trust in you, Lord.  Thank you for that testimony.  Please bless Tony today, in Jesus’ name.  

Hi, it’s Candy from Northern California.  Haven’t called in a while but I want to just reach out to a few people. Tony, Blind Tony, we’re praying for your physical problems and so uplifted by your testimony that though he will slay me, yet he is my God.  Yes, as we say yes and pray for your healing.  Carol from the UK with kids and grandkids who have drifted away from the faith, welcome to the clan of those of us who are lifting up our children and grandchildren.  We’ll put you on the list and pray for yours too.  Marian in Illinois, your dad has a feeding tube.  As a health professional for many, many years, I can ask you at the age of 85 is this really something he wants to continue or do you?  These are really important questions.  You need to have that conversation with him.  And Krista from Saskatchewan, depressed.  You know, the best weapon we have when we are depressed or anytime that we feel we’re attacked by Satan is to praise God. That is what the psalmist called the sacrifice of praise.  You don’t have to do it alone.  Put on the praise music and start singing with it and you just battle the depression with the promises of God.  Praise him, praise him, praise him and Satan will flee.  He can’t stand it.  And thank you, Brian, for your updates on the trip.  We wish you travel mercies and God’s speed, bring you home safe.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Hi, my name is Lynn and I desperately need prayer.  I lost my mother about eight weeks ago and I’m so sad and I’m just so very, very broken.  I lived with her for 17 years and I miss her so much and it’s just so very, very lonely for me now when I come home without her being there.  I would ask you to pray for peace and for comfort.  Even though I do have Christian friends, they are all married and they are all into their own thing which is certainly understandable.  I pray that a friend, a good Christian friend would come into my life, someone to share with.  Thank you all so much.  Love your podcast.  Bye.  

Let’s pray family against addiction.  Father, we come to you, Lord.  We submit ourselves fully to you.  We ask, Father, that, Lord, as a family, Lord, that this prayer would honor you, Father. I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would invade our space right now, our mind, our body, our soul, our spirit, Father God.  That we will pray in spirit and in truth, Father God.  I ask, Lord, that you would just unleash love, Father, and by love alone, Lord, shall we break addiction, Lord.  It is that love that will unleash its power against selfishness and against the ills, Lord, that are at the heart of addiction, Father God.  Come Lord Jesus.  Bring the healing, Lord.  Bring the healing in your name, Jesus, we ask, Father.  I pray forgiveness in all areas, that nothing would hinder your work, Father, and I place your whole armor upon this family, Lord, as we pray in the Spirit, Father, against the spiritual principalities, Lord, that are at play here, Father.  We ask, Lord, be our Savior, Father.  We love you, Father.  We honor you. In Jesus’ name.  Thank you everyone.  This is Delta Alpha Foxtrot calling from the Southern Texas Front.  

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier.  Just calling tonight for prayer.  I want to pray for Arjen.  I want to pray for Jordan from Michigan.  I want to pray for Blind Tony.  I definitely want to pray for you, Blind Tony.  I pray on that back surgery, what would God have you to do.  Whether God wants to heal you or whether he wants you to have the surgery, we’re going to believe God for healing.  Thank you to the Burning Bush.  I’m thankful to hear from you Burning Bush and definitely praying with you. Sorry to hear about the colon cancer with your mom and everything you’re going through.  Definitely praying with you and I’ll continue to pray with you, my sister. Carol from the UK, I want to pray for you, you and your family.  We definitely want to believe him for the victory in Jesus Christ.  I’m praying for Marian from Illinois and I’m going to pray for Krista, my sister who is going through depression and anxiety.  O God, in the name of Jesus, I just ask you to touch Krista today, Lord. O Lord, you touch Krista, Lord, and let her know that you are with her, Lord.  Touch her. Let her see you and know of your presence, Lord.  O Lord, encourage her heart, Lord, and let her know to hold on, that victory is near. My sister, hold on.  O Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, you touch Blind Tony and you touch his back, Lord.  You touch the challenges he’s going through, Lord.  Let him know that the Lord is with him, that God has something great for him.  O Lord, you touch our other sisters and brothers, the ones with cancer and the one with colon cancer, Lord.  We know that you are a doctor that never lost a case, Lord.  We just ask you to stretch out your hands and touch their bodies and heal them, Lord.  In the name of Jesus, encourage them, Lord.  Encourage them on every hand and let them know that you love them and that you’re with them.  

Daniel 6:1-28 ~ 2 Peter 3:1-18 ~ Psalm 119:129-152 ~ Proverbs 28:21-22

Today is the 29^th day of November.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and it is a pleasure and an honor to be coming to you for the last time this time from the Sea of Galilee.  We’ll be leaving here today and moving our way throughout the day and ending up in the holy city of Jerusalem.  But that is a story for another time because we are not there yet and we’ve got a full day in front of us, not that any of these other days aren’t full.  They are.  I told everyone it’s like drinking from a fire hose and I’m pretty sure everyone now knows what I’m talking about and believes me fully.  I’m sure there were a few who were like yeah, yeah, yeah. No big deal.  It’s like drinking from a fire hose.  So another fire hose day in front of us that will end us up in Jerusalem tonight.  We can talk about all that in a little while, but let’s get into the scriptures for today. Alright, we’ll continue our journey through the book of Daniel today and we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.  Daniel chapter 6 verse 1 through verse 28.  

Commentary

In the book of Daniel we come to one of the most famous stories in all the Bible, Daniel in the lion’s den, and in it we see some of the political intrigue of the time and the place.  The same kind of stuff was going on in the book of Esther when we read of Haman and Mordecai.  The king is counseled really against his own interests and issues a law that is designed to affirm the king and his power and authority and even his god-like attributes. That appeals to these kings and they issue these decrees but they haven’t really understood what the domino effect is going to be.  

In this case, Daniel is going to be thrown to the lions and he is.  Of course, the lion, the king of the jungle, the dominant beast of the field, the feared and revered animal throughout human history has been used to describe the evil one – that he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for whom he may devour.  It is also described in terms of Jesus – the lion of Judah.  So lions are throughout the scriptures as something regal, noble, also something cunning and to be feared.  I suppose if you’re in a society that throws people into lion’s dens so they could be devoured alive, that would build even more fear throughout the culture.  

Certainly we can make this immediate to our lives by just considering the things that we have been facing or are facing and we can look at them as we’re facing the lions, but in order to really get at what is going on in our lives, we have to be willing to own our lives enough to ask ourselves how did I get in this den in the first place?  This is kind of the first step.  Am I here facing this because of my own choices systematically and my own stupidity or my own rebellion?  Or am I in here because of my righteousness?  

Being honest with ourselves about the predicament that we may find ourselves in is important because we have a tendency to put ourselves in the lion’s den and then blame God for it, which is not the story of Daniel.  Even if we find that we are really in the den with the lions because of our own stupidity, that does not mean there isn’t rescue.  That does not mean that there isn’t mercy.  It just means that we own the fact that we kind of got ourselves into this den and we can’t blame everyone else, the world and God for everything that we do.  A lot of times we find ourselves facing lions that we never had to face in the first place.

Daniel had to face lions and he didn’t deserve it at all.  He was thrown to the lions because of his righteousness, his faith and trust in God that was unmovable and irreversible, to the point of death.  So Daniel goes into the lion’s den and God rescues him.  

We see wonderful pictures of God’s mercy in many lives throughout the scriptures. King David is a great example.  He has this affair with Bathsheba.  We were talking about this not too long ago.  He kills her husband in battle on purpose and her husband, Uriah the Hittite, was one of his top 30 men, most trusted.  An unbelievable betrayal by David.  And although there are consequences, David is rescued.  David does this census.  There is this choice put before David, sort of a lion that he is facing and he throws himself on God’s mercy.  We see this play out in the psalms where he owns what he’s done.  “I and I alone have done this.”  And he asks for mercy.  

It is a totally different story when we find ourselves facing the hardship or challenge or a metaphorical lion and trying to make it everyone else’s fault and then try to make it God’s fault.  That completely changes the posture of our heart.  So often we end up getting devoured in the process and then blame God for that.  

So rather than going into a big long thing, because I certainly want to talk about all the stuff that is going on here in the land of Israel, the things that we’re seeing and experiencing, let’s at least take some time to analyze the situations in our lives that feel like a lion’s den, like we’re in an impossible situation and understand that we got there somehow, but we have a Father who does not want to see us devoured by lions.  But when our posture of heart is to turn to assumption and blame and begin inventing stories about our righteousness that isn’t real in a situation, then we are only isolating ourselves and estranging ourselves and isolation will get us killed.  If you want to talk about lions, just watch them in the wild.  Watch them storm a herd and kill the one that gets isolated.

We have to own what is true.  Only through owning what is true and what truly happened can we then rely and utterly depend on God’s mercy and kindness and his great strength and love on our behalf. Because believe me, our Father is far more ferocious than any lion and he is coming to rescue those he loves.  So may we own our lives and understand that sometimes we face things unexpectedly and completely out of our control, but more often than not we have laid a significant if not the significant role in navigating ourselves into the situation.  So may we own that and trust in the Father’s goodness and grace to send his Holy Spirit to navigate and advance before us the way out.  

Prayer

Father, your kindness is beyond description.  Your patience is beyond any words that we could string together in some sort of sentence to articulate.  You are supporting the world.  You are supporting our very lives.  You are deeply invested in our maturity.  So help us, Father, to grow up and own the truth.  Come, Holy Spirit.  We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

So man, recapping yesterday.  Yesterday was a day that we began at the Sea of Galilee but we’re moving away from the Sea of Galilee, out of the lowest fresh water lake one earth, which is the Sea of Galilee, and then up onto what is known as the Golan Heights with several stops along the way, beginning with the ancient stronghold of Hatzor, which is an amazing place.  It’s a world heritage site.  There were excavations that have uncovered 21 different civilizations there, different time periods of occupation there, but it finds its way into the story of the Bible during the conquest as Joshua is leading the people across the Jordan and into the promised land and it’s settling.  I mean, if you put it into context, you have to think about the city you live in being destroyed.  If the city you lived in were destroyed it would probably make the news, especially if you live in a large city.  And Jericho was the first city to be conquered and the walls fell down.  So that just didn’t happen in a vacuum and no one else knew about it.  That happened and it spread throughout all of the land and made its way north to Hatzor which was the strongest city of the area.  The king of Hatzor was sort of the most powerful king of the area and he got with other kings of other cities and they decided they needed to form a common army to push these invaders out but, as we know, it didn’t work.  

So Hatzor finds its way into the biblical narrative.  It’s a beautiful location.  The preservation of everything from the palace to the water system which is incredibly intriguing, you look at it and go how did they do that?  That happens a lot of times.  It’s just a beautiful, serene place to start the day. Beautiful views of Mount Hermon. It was a little bit hazy here, but it began our day.

Then we moved up to the ancient city of Dan and accomplished from Dan to Beersheba so the span from north to south of the promised land.  It is also an amazing place where after the kingdom divided into northern and southern kingdoms, King Jeroboam erected temples with golden calves for his people to worship in the north and in the south of his kingdom.  So we explored that a little bit and talked about those alters and in particular the story where God asks, commands a prophet to leave Judah and enter into Bethel where the duplicate of the alter we were looking at in Dan was and he was to curse it and then leave and not go by the way he came back home.  Straight in.  Straight out.  But he didn’t do that.  Another prophet had come and did the ‘God told me to tell you this’ thing that eventually got the prophet killed.  So we just considered that we have to own our own relationship with God.  We have to.  Yes, community is very valuable for finding the will of God, especially in the gray areas, but without an underlying conversational relationship with God to begin with, all we’re doing is running around looking for an oracle and that, like I say often, is just not how it works.  So we considered that.

Then also near ancient Dan, within walking distance on our way out we were able to see the ancient Canaanite Gate, one of two of the oldest gates in Israel. It dates all the way back to the book of Genesis, all the way back to Abram before he became Abraham.  That is mind-blowing in and of itself.  It is worth going there just for that.  So we did that, had some lunch.  That was nice.  

And then we went into Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asked his disciples “what is everyone saying about me?” and ends with really probably the most important question of all, “who do you say that I am?”  We just contextualized Caesarea Philippi with the geography that Jesus was describing when he said the gates of hell will not prevail against this church.

And then we moved all the way as far north as we could go, right to the border of Syria, accomplishing as far north as you can go, as far south as you can go, as far east as you can go, and as far west as you can go in this land. We’ll be spending today kind of moving our way to Jerusalem but then the interior for the rest of this trip.  

We gazed into Syria and just contemplated the fact that brothers and sisters…  It’s just so hard to be confronted face-to-face with this, not on the news, but to be confronted face-to-face where you’re looking across a border and realizing the chasm is so great that you’re looking into a country that although you can’t see it from there has been in civil war for a long time.  The uprising of things like Isis is there and just knowing that we have brothers and sisters that are dying for their faith, that is just tough but necessary.  So we prayed a prayer of intercession for them.  May that stick.  May that stick for this entire community.  We have brothers and sisters around the world that are exhibiting a faith that we are rarely challenged with, that we aren’t faced with the fact that we’re being hunted like animals or that we’re being killed.  So we prayed.  We asked God for his mercy over them before beginning the journey back to the Galilee.  

A powerful day it was indeed.  So you can continue to follow this journey that we are on, this pilgrimage that we are on where every day feels like a good four days, if not a week. It just feels like we’re just drinking it in so quickly, sucking it up so fast and our hearts are open and they are being carried in the wave.  I mean, yesterday morning I completely spaced, but we began the day on the Sea of Galilee in a boat worshipping Jesus.  It was such a powerful thing.  So many different kinds of experiences, all telling the same story from different angles, making this composite, making the Bible a living thing, making it the living thing that it is while giving us history and context and meditation and reflection.  So it’s been good.  We thank you for your continued prayers.  There is not a moment we don’t need your covering and we thank you for it.  

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It is where you find out what is going on around here.  Of course, other than the fact that we’re on this pilgrimage and doing it as a community, whether in person or whether virtually, I guess the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box is the thing that we’re talking about right now. That is available and chockful of the resources that we have at Daily Audio Bible that are for this community, for our family here.  So check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com in the Shop.  You’ll find that there are things in there you’ll want to keep for yourself and there are things in there that you want to give away.  Yeah, so check it out and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link on the home page.  Thank you here as we move toward the end of the year.  Thank you for your partnership and allowing the Daily Audio Bible to exist at all.  Thank you. If you use the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

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

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

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi family.  This is Salvation is Mine.  It is Thanksgiving, November 24^th in the United States.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.  I hope you had a great day.  I’m calling in tonight for my nightly prayer and this is for prisoners. Dear Heavenly Father, gracious Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit our comforter, we come before you right now lifting up those who are in prison all over this world tonight.  We especially lift up those who are innocent, Lord.  We lift them up to you that you will give them strength, that you will come and give them comfort, that you will give them peace, that this is just a season in their lives and that things will work out for the good of them in you in whatever the outcome is supposed to be. For those who are in prison tonight, Lord, who are guilty, we ask you to forgive their sins.  We pray that they have bowed before you and asked sincerely for forgiveness and have made atonement to those they have wronged. Dear Lord, there is so much hurt and there is so much crowding in prisons.  We just ask you to just send the Comforter in there and let there be peace in the prisons.  There are so many gangs and racial strife, Lord God.  We just ask that those who are there will have safety as well as the guards and the ones, that they will do their jobs properly and not abuse their authority.  We just ask, Lord God, that the families who visit these people in prisons will find some peace as well.  Lord God, we love you and we know you are the ruler of all and take care of all.  In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.  Thank you family.  Have a blessed night.  Bye-bye.

Hi.  This is Victorious Soldier.  I was calling to pray for Amatha.  I think that was her name.  She sounded like she was so down.  I really wanted to pray for you, my sister, and lift you up because your blessing is right there.  Do not give up.  I just want to encourage you.  Do not give up.  I’m talking to Biola and her sister, Chante from Detroit.  Hi Chante.  Good to hear from you.  Blind Tony, good to hear from you.  Wayne from Maine, good to hear from you.  Definitely want to shout-out and continue to pray for you, my brothers and sisters.  O Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, you touch Amatha.  She sounded like she was already to give up, Lord.  And her blessing is right there, Lord.  O Lord, the joy of the Lord is her strength.  Lord, you give her the joy.  Lord, you touch her right now with your Holy Spirit.  O Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, you touch her, Lord, and you lift her up, Lord.  O Father, in the name of Jesus, I magnify you Lord that she may be lifted up, Lord.  O Lord, in the name of Jesus, you touch my sister, Lord, and let her know that you love her and that you are right there, that she doesn’t have to look but you are closer than she ever thought you could be.  You may even be carrying her, Lord.  O Lord, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we thank you for touching the Dabbers who call today. We thank you for touching Brian and Jill and little Ezekiel, Lord.  We thank you, Lord, for touching Pastor Gene, Lord.  O Lord, continue to see the miracle in the good in her challenges. In the name of Jesus, Lord, we just praise you.  We give you the glory.  We thank you for this Thanksgiving Day.  We thank you, Lord.  We give you thanks and glory, O Father, in the name of Jesus.  

Family, Biola from Maryland.  How are you all doing?  Brian, thank God for journeying mercies and a safe trip to Israel.  I pray in the name of Jesus that everything will fall into place while you’re there, God protects each one of you.  I cancel and reject every plan of the devil concerning you, Jill, the family, and every single person that is there with you, in the name of Jesus.  Tito, good to hear from you, brother.  I’m praying that God would give the doctors wisdom so they can properly diagnose your son. And most importantly, I pray that Jesus, the Son of Righteousness, will arise with healing in his wings over your son and heal him according to Malachi 4:2, in the name of Jesus.  Scott, I’m praying for healing for your son, that God would touch his spirit, mind and body. I pray for his healthcare team, that God would give them wisdom and they will know how to properly care for him, in the name of Jesus.  Lucas, I’m praying for sweet Joy.  I join my faith with yours, that God would touch her body and heal her from that throat cancer, that everything that the devil is trying to steal from her, her joy and her voice, in the name of Jesus, I neutralize every effect in Jesus’ name and I pray that God would open her voice and she will sing again, in the name of Jesus.  And I pray that everything that is bothering her right now, God would give her peace and calm, in the name of Jesus.  Blind Tony, shout-out to you.  I hope you’re doing much better.  I’m still praying for you.  Victorious Soldier, my dear sister, God bless you.  I pray that God would continue to strengthen you and fulfill your heart’s desire according to God’s will, in the name of Jesus.  Family, I’m praying for everyone who is struggling with one kind of illness, addiction or the other.  I pray that Jesus, the Son of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings over you and your loved ones during this Thanksgiving period in the US. Every day is a day of thanks for a child of God and I just pray that God would heal you all, in the name of Jesus. Jenny my friend, I’m praying for you and your job situation.  God bless you.  

Hi, this is Bonnie from Virginia reaching out for prayer.  As I have feared before, my son is in jail since May 18^th of this year.  He just had turned 18 on May 3^rd.  He wanted to participate in a RISE program for alcoholism and drug-addicted people. Although he was not addicted to drugs or alcohol, he did try to take marijuana sometimes.  He got kicked out from that program because the petty officer found him sleeping during his 15 minute break.  Always someone is scheduled for courtesy call.  That is what my son said, so he thought he could hear him and wake himself up to go to the next session, but the guy did not call for a courtesy call.  He only had two weeks to complete this program.  I don’t know whether this will affect his hearing, but he wanted to participate in this program to look good on his hearing.  December 21^st is his sentencing hearing date.  I am continuously praying to God, but things do not seem like going right way.  I think I have started questioning on faith, even though I know one I believe is to God. I cannot accept any other faith, Hindu faith, because that faith had abandoned me when I was an infant child. I cannot think of any other faith because my heart does not want to accept it.

__________ calling from Honolulu, HI.  I’m a first-time caller and I heard Teri from Missouri call in whose sister is battling stage IV cancer.  First off, Teri, I just want to lift you up in prayer to the Lord.  And Matthew 11:28 came to mind where the Lord says “come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.  You will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Teri, I pray that you just take that verse to heart and go to the Lord with your problems for he can take them. And I pray over you.  I’ve gone through cancer in my daughter this year, that the Lord would be your comfort in this with your family.  I’m so grateful that we have a God that we can serve who is defender of the weak and loves us more than we can ever know and who will deliver us by the blood of his Son.  In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.  

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  Today is Friday, November 26^th and I just want to pray specifically today for my dear sister Alleah who I just love.  I love hearing your voice, Alleah.  I’m sorry you weren’t feeling good and you weren’t feeling strong.  I just want to pray over you.  Father God, I present Alleah  to you.  Father God, I present her mind, her spirit.  Father God, cause her to be filled with your Holy Spirit.  Father God, help her to walk in your power and your spirit, Father God.  I just want to say a little prayer too for all of us.  I pray for Brian.  I pray for everyone who is listening, everyone who calls in for requests, everyone who did not call in for requests.  I just lift everyone up, Father God, all of my Daily Audio Bible brothers and sisters and their families and their requests, Father God.  Guide us in the right way.  This day is our pilgrimage, Father God.  When we are daunted by the day’s tasks, give us strength.  When we are weary by the same path, help us to see you in all things.  When forgiving is an uphill struggle, Father God, grant us your help.  When we are overwhelmed by obstacles, Father God, lift us up. When the load we carry is heavy, come to us and give us rest, Father God. When we are fearful of unexpected twists and turns, assure us that you are here.  Assure us of your presence.  When we are worried about which path to take, guide us in the right way, Father God. And at the end of the journey, at the end of this day, Father God, may our hearts be burning with your knowledge that we have walked with you and that you have walked with us.  In Jesus’ mighty and precious name I pray. Amen.