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Daily Transcripts
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07/23/2015
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2 Chronicles 8:11-10:19 ~ Romans 8:9-25~ Psalm 18:16-36 ~ Proverbs 19:26
Today is July 23rd. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s good that we can be here together today. It's great that we can come together like this and I'm happy for another day, another step forward in the Word of God for our adventure through the Bible this year. We’ve been reading from the International Standard Version this week. We’ll continue forward from where we left off yesterday.
Commentary:
Okay, you know that longing that is somewhere central, somewhere down inside, something that tells you there is more? There is more to this? There is more to this life? That kind of hunger that is down there and doesn’t exactly ever really go away? That's what Paul is unpacking today in the book of Romans when he says, “the whole world is groaning, is longing for the children of God to be revealed and we in turn are groaning, are longing forward to that complete union with the spirit of God.” This is a very real thing. It is also a very available thing. The reason that we hunger and long and groan, as it were, is because this is how we’re made. We’re made to be united and joined to God.
Paul is in shorthand laying out the argument of our entire existence. There was that perfect union made in God's image with perfect conversational intimacy with God that existed and then rebellion. We gave it away. We traded God for the knowledge of good and evil and we’ve been working through that lens to try to get things right and back, but that was not to be. Our biblical history has shown that. Our world history has shown that. Our present day and lives show that. But God came for us. He wasn’t going to abandon his beautiful creation, those that he loved, those he created in his own image, and so he came. Jesus came, which means God came in the person of Jesus in order to rescue us, to restore us back so that we were no longer separate from God but adopted back into his family, righteous, holy, set apart, washed clean before him so that that intimacy, that union with the spirit of God was once again made available.
These are core beliefs of our Christian faith and yet if this is true and this intimacy is available, then how is it that we only get glimpses, small nibbles of it? Why are we still groaning? Why are we still longing? For the most part, we’ll kind of put that in a little compartment and say the reason is because we’re waiting to die. When we can finally die, well then everything will be revealed and we’ll have that union, that oneness again. We’ll be able to throw off this body and be spiritual beings before God and connected to him. And yet, according to the scriptures, this is why Jesus came, to restore us back to God.
So is this oneness, this union available to us now through the work of Christ? This restoration of our spirits? And if so, why only the nibbles? Why do we go on groaning and longing? Maybe it has less to do with us trying hard as we might to live out our lives the best we can with just waiting to die and more about how it is we choose to fill that groaning, that longing, that hunger. Hunger is an all-consuming motivator in our lives, in our bodies, in our spirits, in our thoughts. We have this deep groaning, this longing knowing there is more and we’re hungry for it, but a starving person will eat anything and maybe we’ve been feeding ourselves on junk food all along, just looking for any little nibble of nourishment and satisfaction that we can find along the way spiritually, anything that we can kind of give ourselves the illusion of being full, but being full isn’t the same as being nourished. Maybe this intimacy with God really is available, very, very present to us in all things, at all times, in all places, under every circumstance of our lives.
Maybe God is very present to us, but we’re so programmed to work through our knowledge of good and evil that we skip God in the process. We put him in some sort of other category that we can’t really understand, but we know he is there. We’re trying to work through what it is we think we know about him to get to him when he is like “I'm just right here.” It is my spirit within you. I'm right here. I'm closer to you than if we were having coffee at a café.
For me, I thought for so long if I could just have coffee with Jesus… Don’t we all think that at some point? If I could just see him, talk to him, see his facial expressions, have a small conversation personally where I could see him with my eyes, then everything is going to make sense and I can make it through the rest of my days, knowing I had that encounter.
What Paul is saying and what God has been saying through the scriptures is I'm far, far, far more present than that. I am far more embedded in you than that, than some person you can see in a physical body sitting across from you at a table having a conversation. I am in you. I am a part of who you are. You are created in my image. You wouldn’t even be here if I didn’t will you to be here. I love you. I am with you. I am so with you that I am within you. You can’t get away from me unless you choose to simply ignore that I am here and kick my spirit away, push me away.
This longing isn’t going to go away in our lives until we acknowledge what is really going on here. Intimacy with God is available. There aren’t a lot of hoops we have to jump through. We just simply have to acknowledge the reality. God's spirit is within us. We are God's children. All of creation is groaning and longing for us to step into that role. May we do exactly that today.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we invite your Holy Spirit to quicken us, to awaken us to the intimacy that is available, the intimacy that you are longing for. So often we feel like you're just aloof and distant when actually you are very, very present. So come Holy Spirit, awaken this within us that it might continue the work of sanctification, of washing us clean and setting us apart as holy, of changing us irreversibly. We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. Man, I didn’t plan on that. I’ve been living into that myself in the whole, long journey of writing Reframe and in this whole year of making that our word – reframing what we think we know so that we might be set free. We will touch on that more at another time.
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. It's where you go to find out what is going on around here. There is one more festival left in this summer festival tour and it will take place at the end of this month in the Tri Cities of Washington State. Looking forward to being out there. I think it is the 30th, 31st, and 1st of August, so looking forward to seeing you there.
If you want to partner with Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at the website, www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link in the upper right-hand corner of the home page. Thank you. Really, thank you for your partnership in the summer.
If you have a prayer request or comment, there are a number of numbers that you can use, depending on where you are in the world. Of course, I guess no matter where you are in the world, you can use any of these numbers, but:
1. If you're in the Americas, (877) 942-4253 is the number to call.
2. If you are in the UK or Europe, 44, 20-3608-8078 is your number.
3. If you are in Australia or the lands down under, 61, 3-8820-5459 is the number to call.
4. And if you are in Africa, 27, 21-300-2728 is the number to call.
That is it for today. I’m Brian. I love you. Go and experience intimacy with God today in a way that you never have before. I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.
Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports:
Good morning Dabbers. This is Claire from Anderson Island, WA. It is the 17th. I'm calling for a few reasons. One, to update on my son. Things have been really horrible, but God has given me a peace. We did this Freedom Immersion last week and he even did it as manic as he was. He is in a full-blown mania and very agitated and aggressive and does some very crazy things, but God's peace reigns and we just have to stand on the truth of his Word, like Brian said today. God creates with his Word and we can create our world with our words, so let's speak God's Word over ourselves, our children, our spouses, our lives, our situation. Let's just speak God's truth. So I'm encouraging myself and you today because, believe me, yesterday was a mess, but when we hang on to God and what he says about us, that we are full of his grace, full of his peace, and we just stand on that, then we are his conduits of grace and peace. Also, I want to pray for Ann, the young mom of the twin girls whose husband says going to church he was just going to get a brainwashing. Ann, I will be praying for Chris, but let me tell you, he's right. He's going to go to church and he's going to get his brain washed with the Word of God. You can just tell him, “Honey, you're right. That's exactly what is going to happen.” Just keep praying over him the Word of God. Then for the men who are struggling with lust or whatever anyone is struggling with, I'm learning through this freedom that we just need to repent of sin, even the sins sinned against us, because sometimes we hold onto bitterness about it. We need to repent and confess it, receive God's forgiveness and cleansing, rebuke any of the hold that the enemy has on us because of that sin, and just take authority over it because of Jesus’ resurrection power and then replace all those lies with God's truth. So repent, receive, rebuke and replace. Okay guys. I love you so much. Remember Simon Peter, my son in your prayers please. He's coming home today. He only spent one night in a…
Hello everyone. It's Christy from Kentucky. I hope I'm not calling too often, but I was so excited that I needed to call back today and just encourage you. If you’ve not already heard Brian’s podcast on July 16th, please go back and listen to it and hear the exciting news that he has about the new Global Bible Read. If you’ve already heard it and you haven’t been to the website yet, please check it out. It's beta.globalbibleread.com. This is such a fresh and exciting way that we as a community can come together to be able to spread the message of Jesus Christ around the world. Thank you, Brian. Thank you for listening to the Lord, with coming up with a fresh and new way to be able to spread God's love to everyone in the whole world. This is going to be amazing. I praise God for your anointing, Brian, that he has given you this beautiful idea. And Jill, I just wanted to say to you that I am praying for you. I'm praying that you are being restored to perfect health and I believe that God is healing you even now, in the name of Jesus. I love you guys and I hope that you're having a blessed and beautiful day.
Hi family, this is Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL. Would you guys help me pray for Javon and his family? He's a boy that we’ve ministered to for the last five months. His family lives a horrible lifestyle. We’ve tried to help them find God to no avail. They are now today homeless. They have received help. They have misused it. The Lord is saying we cannot help them and we know that our Father has given us exactly the right directive and we’re going to be obedient, but our hearts are still broken because we love this child and we also love this family. So we don’t even know where or how to help because Javon is a victim of the occult and his family, particularly his mom, isn’t willing to do anything to step out of this vicious circle. Thank you for helping us pray for Javon and his family. Thank you for helping us pray that in the midst of everything that is going on with them, that we will continue to have the opportunity to minister to him and to draw him to Christ and, to the degree that they let us, the family also. Thank you, guys. Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL. Bye.
{singing} We will lift our voices with your praises. Jesus, you are our King. Jesus, you are our King. Jesus, you asked me to declare that you are our King, that you are our hero, that you reign and we take possession and we claim authority over everyone's lives, over every place that they put their foot, Lord God. We just claim that, Lord. We take our birthright, Father God. We claim our inheritance, Lord God. Send your spirit upon us, Holy Spirit. Set it upon us, Lord God, and bring revival, Lord God, to our nation, Lord God, that it may spread out, Lord, through our families into the world. Holy Spirit, yes. We just say come Holy Spirit. Come, invade this community and invade our world, Lord God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. In your name we pray, amen.
Hey Daily Audio Bible family. This is Becky in Orlando. Hey Rumbii, I am praying for your surgery. By now (it's after the 15th), so I'm praying that you are on your way to recovery and that the Lord has healed you and that he is your comforter and he has just laid his hands upon you. And I'm praying for your finances. I know that God's will shall be done for you. So I will be praying for you. And Geo, my goodness, your story touched me. I'm praying for you and your wife in Okinawa. I know that it is so hard dealing with the loss of a baby, so I’ll be praying for the Holy Spirit to comfort you in this difficult time. Alright, guys. I love you very much. Oh, if you guys could do me a favor. If you guys could pray for me. My goodness, I should have asked you this sooner, but please pray for my gluttony because I am just out of control between eating and I drink too much wine also. So I'm just inhaling all these calories and I need to just be able to fill my body with what it really needs and not what I really want. So if you could just pray for my gluttony that would be fabulous. And I will talk to you guys soon. Alright, love you lots and I’ll be looking forward to hearing the Bible read by the Daily Audio Bible community. Alright, bye guys.
Good morning family. This is Biola from Maryland. I hope you're all doing well. Brian and Jill, God bless you. Brian, still praying for journey mercies for you. I don’t know if your tour is finished. I'm a little bit behind because of a new job and everything, but Jill, Jill, I'm trusting God that you're fully healed now. Thank God for his mercies. Walta, I heard your prayer request. I'm praying for that child of yours, that the Lord will remove every foolishness from his heart, in the name of Jesus. Sister, you said it. Hold on. Hold on to the confession of your hope without wavering for God who promised is faithful. You just keep holding on, Sister, and God will see you through. Annette, praying for Alex. I'm praying that everything will go well with his work release and that he will trust God. He will know God more and more. He will desire him, in the name of Jesus, and above all that, that God would keep your own heart at peace, my sister, in Jesus’ name. Sister, I'm praying for Jake, that God would heal him and deliver him from epilepsy. Epilepsy is a name and the name of Jesus is above that name, in the name of Jesus because there is nothing difficult for our God. I command this epilepsy to bow to the name and lordship of Jesus in Jake's life. I come against the spirit of suicide and depression harassing him and I bind you and command you to loose your hold on Jake, in the name of Jesus. John from UK, I'm praying for healing for your wife, Helen, that God would touch her limbs and heal her from arthritis. I pray that Jesus, the Son of Righteousness, will arise upon her with healing in his wings and cause every limb, every limb to move freely without pain, in the name of Jesus. Have mercy on John and Helen, O Lord, in Jesus’ name. Marcia, I'm praying for Baby Nathan, that God will breathe life into his body and heal him completely, in the name of Jesus. I'm looking forward to that testimony of when he’ll be released from the hospital in good health. Shout-out to you, Jay from New Jersey. God bless you, keep you. May you continue to walk with and honor God every…
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Tamarie 07/23/2015 08:52 |
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