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Daily Transcripts
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07/10/2015
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1 Chronicles 9:1-10:14 ~ Acts 27:21-44 ~ Psalm 8:1-9 ~ Proverbs 18:23-24
Today is the 10th of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you from the Bluegrass State of Kentucky. I'm not sure that is the motto of Kentucky. Maybe it is. I should probably look that up before I keep saying it. Hold on, I’ll be right back. Okay, that's the nickname - the Bluegrass State. But the motto is – United We Stand, Divided We Fall. I think that is true.
So from the Bluegrass State of Kentucky, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. We’re here for the Ichthus Festival. I’ll be speaking tomorrow morning. I’ve met some of you and look forward to meeting the rest of you who are here. Be sure to come out and say hello. Tomorrow morning, I think it is in the 9 o’clock hour in I think they call it The Galleria Tent, just look for the Shock and Awe Show and I’ll see you there. But now, since we’re all together for one purpose, another step forward through the scriptures this year, we’ll dive into the Bible. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week and we’re reading from 1 Chronicles.
Commentary:
We’re getting to know the apostle Paul pretty well and we’re going to really spend the rest of our year, for the most part, with his influence around us. We’re following his journeys right now, but we’ll be getting to know his voice as we begin to get into his letters. One thing really at the outset that we need to realize as we follow Paul and the other apostles is the fact that they had to deal with life and they had to deal with challenge and they had to deal with opposition and they had to deal with obstacles and hardship and even suffering. And a lot of times we subtly think that is something we’re immune to, even though we know better. There is this subtle thing that goes on that anytime we have to face something ourselves, a challenge, hardship, difficulty, pressing through something, that it should not be that way. It shouldn’t be that hard and yet such is the valiant and noble work before us in living this life in this world where we are here to be the body of Christ and bring and establish the kingdom. That just doesn’t happen without some challenges.
So Paul, he has been in prison for the last couple of years in Caesarea. Now he's on a boat. Now the boat is being tossed all over the place and everybody is freaked out, like the boat is going down. Even the crew thinks the boat is going down and everyone is going to drown. So it is a pretty bad storm. Paul is in the middle of all this. Of course, the Holy Spirit has told him that they will be safe. And he tells them, but he still has to go through the shipwreck. And we’re watching shipwreck occur.
What can be dangerous about the challenges of life is where it takes our hearts in our posture toward God. Because it takes us to places sometimes of mistrust or like, “I’ve got to be here for myself because God may not show up for me.” That makes a relationship pretty difficult. I was going to say it's pretty hard, but it is really impossible to be in an intimate, deep, abiding, life-giving, holistic, collaborative relationship with somebody you don’t fully trust.
So what we see in the apostles, what we see in Paul isn’t that they are not facing the challenges of life that just come their way. It's that you see the absence of blame. They are not blaming God for not keeping them comfortable. Ironically, they are actually celebrating the fact that they get to enter into this grand adventure of life together with God in all of it and have a pretty good grasp on the fact that there is no other hope for navigating life at all.
Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve talked about this this year, but here at the center of the year may we once again reset ourselves. Life is full of ups and downs, mountaintop experiences and journeys down into valleys and the entire journey can be full of confusion if there is no one to walk with. Really if we are on our own, if God is just either not there or aloof and doesn’t care, then we’re really walking this path on our own. We live functionally that way so much of the time. It is a totally different thing to have it settled once and for all. I have not been abandoned. I will not be abandoned. I cannot be abandoned. I am made in the image of God and I know him. I'm in a relationship with him. He's not gone. He's in all of this with us.
We get to today's psalm and David is just marveling at these kinds of realizations – looking at the stars, looking at the beauty of creation and all that it is that he knows and understands and having come to a place that there is so much more that he doesn’t understand, just realizing God is present in all of this. And to have that wonderful heart's cry – what is man that you're even paying attention? And me, who am I that you're even paying attention? How majestic is your name in all of the earth, God. It is this beautiful realization – I don’t know why you love me, but that doesn’t change anything because I know that you do – may we lock that into place. May we lock that ironclad. May that be planted down at the level of our identity. An unchangeable thing. An irreversible thing inside of us.
Yes, there are seasons of loneliness and challenge and difficulty, but we are not alone in it. We can get quite obsessive about the season that we’re in so that all of our focus and energy is about getting out of it rather than understanding everything gets tilled through the soil of our lives. Everything works to the character of what we actually believe, and how we walk through this day is our declaration about what we really believe. It doesn’t really matter what we say – what we live today is telling the truth of what we believe. So may we drink deep again the true fact that God is good and his mercy endures forever.
Prayer:
Father, you are good. How majestic is your name in all of the earth. It doesn’t make sense why you want a personal relationship with who we are, but you do. And it is the only source of life we have. So whether we understand it or not is irrelevant. It is true and we embrace it fully and invite your Holy Spirit to do exactly what we were just saying – plant it deep within us at the level of our identity so that it is irreversible, an irreversible part of who we are. You are here. You will not abandon us. You have invited us to walk through every second of every day with you and we accept. Come Holy Spirit, we pray. Lead our steps. Guide us deeper into Jesus. Lead us into all truth as you’ve promised. We ask this with the certain boldness of a child who is reaching out to his or her father. Father us today, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home. It's the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Of course, what is immediately going on around here is the Ichthus Festival. Man, these festivals, you know, it is very, very easy to just look at it as a bunch of fun when really it is an incredible amount of work but so worth it in relationships and just in moments and memories. So a couple more left in this summer tour. Next week we’ll be in Minnesota, next weekend, and then we’ll round the summer festival tour off in Washington State, in the Tri Cities at Creation Northwest at the end of the month. So looking forward to some more time with you here, those of you who are here at Ichthus. Looking forward to being in Minnesota next weekend, out in Washington in a couple weeks.
Thank you for your continued prayers over stamina. It is an enormous amount of travel and an enormous amount of logistics so thank you for your prayers over safety, over health, over stamina as we continue to do what the Lord has invited us to do.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at the website. There is a link on the home page, upper right-hand corner. 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.
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:
Good morning, family. This is Cherry C., Cherry Pie. I'm calling in for 2 prayer requests. I'm calling in for my niece who was sent to Atlanta where I am. She is going blind. She is 8 years old. They don’t know what is going on. They are running tests so I'm asking you all to cover her and ask God to restore her eyesight. Also I'm asking coverage for Malcolm. He did a blood test and if you will all remember, a couple years ago, almost a couple years ago he was dealing with his prostate, but they still monitor it. He did a blood test to see his level and also in September he still has to do the biopsy, so I'm asking you to cover my husband for his tests. He already took the blood test and he’ll do the biopsy in September. I’ll call back for that. And also to cover my niece that is going blind and asking God to restore her sight. Thank you guys so much. I love each and every one of you guys and I want to say Jill, I do have you covered in prayer. I hope everything is going well with you. Walta from Liberia, I am celebrating with you. Yay! I'm so excited for you. I love everybody. I can’t say enough. I don’t know what to do without Daily Audio Bible. I really don’t know what to do without you guys. And thank you guys so much. And thank you, Brian, for saying “I love you” every day. Sometimes I need that and it makes me smile, so thank you so much. Y’all take care. Everybody is in my prayers. I love you and have a beautiful day. Thank you.
Good morning. This is Sue from Costa Rica and I'm calling to say that I love this DAB family and I'm praying and I'm involved with praying for all of you. I would like to pray for Jennifer and for Christina who are cutters and I just ask that the Lord would bless them and Jesus, that you’ll put yourself in front of them when they want to do this, that you’ll comfort them and help them. I also want to pray for Helen in the UK for strength and comfort and relief from pain from her psoriasis and arthritis. I'm just so thankful for a husband that is willing to pray for her. Lord, I also ask that DAB family would lift up Beth who is a young woman that is coming off a heroin addiction and she is 9 months pregnant and due to have a baby girl soon. I ask that you would lift her up and just say, Father, I would ask that this baby would not be addicted to heroin, that she will be free and healthy and that she will be a blessing to the home that she comes into and that she will grow up and serve you, Lord. And finally, all of us going on the walk today, I ask, Father, that you touch our hearts with a desire to help financially with this wonderful ministry. I know that Brian doesn’t ever ask for funds, but I know that in the summertime that it is hard for all churches. So I would ask that we would be mindful of that and that any gift to show our appreciation and our love and that for many, as this is their church, that we would help out financially, that he is a blessing. I ask for blessing for his family, for his health, for Jill, that she be completely healed and that this Bell's palsy will not affect her voice or her health in any way, that she be completely healed from it. And I thank you. Thank you, Brian. Thank you.
Yes, my name is Mark N. and I have a praise report from Davie, FL. I called about a week ago and said I'm going to come see Brian at the Creation Festival. Well, I'm here in Kentucky, but the praise report is I missed the bus leaving Florida and I got another bus and I got on the Greyhound right in time, otherwise I would have missed it. And then when I got here I had to walk about 10 miles. I put my __________ and God got me a ride. I walked probably 2 miles and the young man picked me up. So I'm here in service for our King and to me that is a praise report because it was a long walk. Thank you and God bless you. Bye.
Hello DABers. This is Blessed Like Me. How confident are we in Christ? If we were totally confident in Christ, I think a lot of our worries and a lot of the woes that we go through on a daily basis would not even be ours to handle or to hold. We should be completely confident in Christ because we have a Lord, we have a powerful God, we have a Father who art in heaven who knows all about our wants and our needs and cares so much about us, so much about us. Our daily mission is to know who we are in Christ. We’re blessed. We’re highly favored. We’re one of his flock. We’re one of his feathers, not plucked out but still in when he is flying over us and helping us and keeping us and teaching us and molding us and mending us. Just to know that we are a part of this family should be enough to keep us where we need to be. If we continue to be confident in Christ, others will say that we’re arrogant in Christ, but we must have a boldness. We must have an assertiveness that will get us to where we need to be in this life, in this walk. Today is the 7th so I’ve been on a long walk so I’ve had time to review who I am in Christ. I am a child of the Most High God. I'm blessed and highly favored and you're blessed, just like me; hence, the name Blessed Like Me. Keep your heads above the realm of this world. Stay spiritually minded and be no earthly good unless you're bringing somebody into Christ. The harvest is ready but the workers are few. We should be more powerful than sometimes we are. I love all of you guys. Bless your holy name, Jesus Christ. Thank you for this ministry, Brian and Jill. We love you and we thank you for it. It's in Jesus’ name.
Hello everyone. This is Christy in Kentucky. As you can hear by my voice, I'm a little under the weather today and the weather here is pretty kind of rainy and, well, just say it's not a great day to be outside taking a walk. But in any event, I am here and I'm spending time with my Lord in my little home here in Kentucky. Actually our little home, I should say, and being blessed, so I posted a little video. I did take a drive and I posted a little video of where I probably would have ended up today, so I hope you guys enjoy it. I want to pray today especially for David in Tulsa. He called and he asked that he would be able to take this walk today on July 7th and so I'm going to just ask that you join me in prayer. Father God, we thank you for David. Lord, we thank you that he's come humbly before your throne and his petition to you, Lord, is that he can take this long walk with you today on July 7th. Father God, we thank you that you are bigger than Parkinson's, Father God, and that you are able, more than able, Father God, to heal and we thank you, Father God, that you’ve heard his request. You are a great God, a mighty God. You are bigger than Parkinson's and we thank you, Lord Jesus. We thank you, Father God, that you hear David’s requests and that you answer them. David, I pray wherever you are today that you are having a beautiful day. Kat, praying for your son, Joseph, today as he is arraigned. Lord, in the name of Jesus, I pray that Joseph has come to know you, Lord Jesus. I pray that he has asked for forgiveness and realizes he can put the past behind him and start fresh and anew. Lord, I ask that your angels surround him and just be with him today, Father God. We pray favor on Joseph's life and we thank you, Lord, that you forgive us of our sins. Lord, we’ve all done things that we are not proud of, but you, Lord Jesus, you and your grace, Father, cover us.
Hi family. This is Christy calling from Alberta, Canada. Happy Long Walk Day. I had a short walk but it was one of my first times that I’ve actually arranged to be away from Baby Micah, so it was still eventful. I wanted to ask all of you to pray with me for something that I felt really burdened by today. There is a couple that I know. I won't say their names, but the Lord knows. They are right now on a marriage intensive counseling retreat and I'm just praying that God does a miracle for them. The enemy has really been harsh with them and there were a lot of lies and wounds and brokenness and bitterness at work. So I just ask that you would join me in covering them in prayer and calling for the miracle. And today while I was long walking and listening to the Daily Prayer, I just had this thought, sort of a new way of thinking about the way that we die to ourselves or picture about dying to ourselves and receiving a new life in Christ as we pray about the blood of Jesus. The phrase “total transfusion” has been sticking in my mind all day and I'm praying for myself and for all of us a total transfusion, that all my life would be poured out to be replaced by all of his blood, in Jesus’ name.
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Tamarie 07/10/2015 00:26 |
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