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Daily Transcripts
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07/31/2015
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2 Chronicles 29:1-36 ~ Romans 14:1-23 ~ Psalm 24:1-10 ~ Proverbs 20:12
Today is the 31st of July, last day of the month. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. Great to be here with you, honored that we can spend this time together, and coming to you from the lovely central region of the state of Washington, the Tri Cities area. We are out here for the final of our festivals this year, Creation Northwest. It is quite lovely. Looking forward to the next couple of days, but good to be here with you right now, centering ourselves, orienting ourselves to God through the scriptures. We’re reading from The Message this week.
Commentary:
I think it is pretty clear what Paul is saying in Romans when he is using diet as the backdrop. And speaking directly to a people and the set of circumstances, he is also using holy days as a backdrop. That is to a specific people and a certain set of circumstances. But he is also speaking more broadly than that because he expounds on what he is saying. So it is not just about diet and it is not just about holy days. It is about life. Diet and holy days are the examples used to illustrate his point. His point is when you try to superimpose what you think you know about God onto other people and then sit in judgment of them when they don’t see it quite the same way that you do, it is a mess.
Man, if we look at our history, if we look at church history, if we look around us now, this is so true and so still with us. So what was with Paul, what he was seeing, what he was speaking to in the early church that had already begun to crop up, it is still around.
We cannot stand to think that we could possibly get it wrong because we do not want to have our belief system wrong in any way for fear of what the eternal implications might be. And Paul just cuts to the chase – that is not how this goes. You need to have an authentic, personal relationship with God and your relationship with God will be unique and personal, as any personal relationships are.
I have a relationship with my wife. It is a personal and intimate relationship with her. I also have relationships with other people, but not like my wife. But my wife has other relationships besides me. Not with other men, like intimate relationships, but with other people. She has relationships with people that I don’t really have deep friendships with for any number of reasons. But I know them and maybe we hang out sometimes, but they are her friends. So the relationships are different. The relationships that she has and the relationships that I have with her friends or whatever, it is different.
So trying to standardize the whole thing so that everybody has the same relationship and there is no variety in those relationships, so the intimacy level of them, the knowledge of them, all of the parameters of those relationships, they are standardized, that is not life. Life doesn’t work that way. The relationships would not work that way.
So Paul is saying why are you trying to do this with God? Why are you trying to cookie-cut and stamp this thing out? What are we so afraid of when what is offered to us is an actual first-person, firsthand holistic, collaborative, life-giving relationship with God? And that is going to be different for us than it is for the next person because we all have different stories and backgrounds and convictions. So yes, we should be, as Paul says, true to those convictions, but to prove what our convictions are is not to go to battle to try to superimpose those convictions on somebody else. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, the work of the resurrected Christ, the work of the almighty God of the angel armies. We are not equipped.
We just want to standardize things so that we’re all moving in the same direction and this is what Paul was talking about earlier in Romans. That gives us a superiority complex where we’re looking down on people who don’t see it the same way. We have no tolerance for people who don’t see it the same way. It just becomes a mess, a mess based in fear and fear is not of God. Do we think that we can somehow regulate our salvation and our favor with God because we believe the right things about him? Or can we do exactly that because we know God, we are in a relationship with him, we speak to him, he speaks to us, we move through life together, hand in hand, as it were?
We were talking about this last week where Paul was describing that God is more present to us than if we could have coffee with him and see him with our eyes. He is closer than that. We want that – we want the physical sense of our humanity in it, but he is closer than that. He is within us. It can’t be more intimate than that. And that is revolutionary. When it seeps in and clicks on, the light goes on, you are like okay! Yeah, I can’t get my identity by comparing myself to anybody else. I can’t superimpose my convictions on somebody else so that my convictions are validated.
All of these things can only happen within an intimate relationship with God and then our lives are not about the business of trying to get everyone to conform to whatever it is that we think we know. Then it is about walking with God and being led by the power of his Holy Spirit through every day so that everything we touch is an installment of the kingdom – in every situation. Every conversation that we have we have just brought the kingdom. Every choice that we make, we have just brought the kingdom. Everything that we do in our interactions with our spouses and our families we have brought the kingdom. This is how it works because, according to Jesus, the kingdom is within us just like God is within us. And when what is within us spills out of us, then we’re moving in the right direction.
Man, Romans 14, put that one on your wrist. Tie it around your neck. Keep it close by because it outlines our posture of heart in dealing with each other and, in the process, it exposes us deeply, exposes our motivations, exposes our hearts. So it is worth some time, some additional time today.
Prayer:
Father, we invite you into that time. In fact, we ask your Holy Spirit now to be disruptive enough to keep this in our minds all of this day until it starts to shake loose the things that have been ironclad, the things we haven’t been willing to let go of or look at or examine, so that it shakes us to the core, so that we begin to realize you are pulling us to yourself. And there is no other way to get there but personal intimacy, no other way. So draw us to yourself today, we pray, even if it is a small step. Even if we’re like ‘I want that, but I don’t know how to do that.’ Pull us. Woo us by simply helping us know in our hearts that this is possible. We may not get there today, but that is sanctification. We are on the path every day. We are closer and closer and closer. So come, Holy Spirit, 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. Like I say often, because it is, it is where you find out what is going on around here. Creation Northwest is what is going on around here for today. This will bring an end to the summer festival tour, so if you are around, come say hello for sure.
Beta.globalbibleread.com is on the radar and I’ve been talking about it for, well, less than a couple weeks and we’re trying to finish up that beta test. You can certainly go see what this is all about and have a little taste. And then what you have to do is watch this little video and then extrapolate what this would be like with the whole Bible available, searchable, where you can look up a verse or you can listen to a book or a series of verses and just all of a sudden you know inside of the Word of God you are not alone. You have so many people speaking it over you that you know you're not alone. You can go see what I'm talking about with these little videos that we have at www.Vimeo.com/DailyAudioBible. And then go back to beta.globalbibleread.com and contribute your verse no matter where you are in the world and we’ll finish this up. It has been profoundly educational for us because we’ve been building something that has never been done before. So get involved, make your mark on biblical history. It just has never been done before.
If you are willing to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, in our collective family mission here, then thank you. You can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link in the upper right-hand corner of the home page. 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 call.
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:
Hi DAB family, this is Andrew from Southern California. This is my first time calling in. I’ve been listening since about April this last year. I just want to thank all of you. You guys have been a tremendous help to let me know I don’t walk through this alone. I’ve had a crazy life coming up and I considered myself always a strong person. I lost my mom when I was 7 to cancer. I lost my dad when I was 12 to results of that cancer and his alcoholism. And then more recently this last year has been a really hard one for me. I lost my only brother last April. He was murdered for defending a homeless man. And then I lost my dog that following January. And I almost lost my 5-year-old daughter in February. She fell out of a window 2 stories high and had to have an emergency head surgery. So it has been a really rough year. Money is a huge thing right now, all the medical bills and just the money that we didn’t have we owe. So I'm just asking for prayer from everybody. I'm really, really feeling weak and worn down lately and I just need everybody's prayers. I have 2 beautiful girls and a beautiful wife, but I'm so depressed inside and I'm trying to fix it, but I’ve just carried it over to marriage and my children's wellbeing in terms of my mood with them. I love them to pieces. I just ask that everybody can pray for me for peace, financial freedom, and just heal my heart, Lord. I thank you all for this community. I love you all. God bless. Thank you.
Hi, this is Patrick. I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm calling in regard to I have a son who is an alcoholic and we have to confront him or talk to him about it. He has a small 3-year-old boy. He is divorced and the problem is that he is angry mainly because he was abused sexually by a family member that was married into the family and was also active in the church that we were attending. So his feelings towards God and Christianity – he said ‘I’ll never turn to God.” He's made that statement because of where he was. He thought he was abandoned. I know there are a lot of parents out there that have to deal with the same issue. The sexual abuse creates all the anger and all the emotions and the trials that come into play in the situation. I thought I would just say a prayer and ask for prayer for my son and that you would remember him, that God would touch him. Heavenly Father, you know the victims. You know their hearts, these people who have been raised, Lord God, in church __________ and they feel abandoned. But God, touch their hearts. Lord, just show grace and mercy. You are a loving God. You care about these people. I pray, Lord God, that you would just touch my son, touch the other children that are now grown adults that need your touch, need your loving hand. I just pray that you touch them and minister to them at this time and that your Holy Spirit would feed them, Lord God, and that you would speak into their life, that they turn their hearts to you, and, Lord God, that they would, Lord, just submit, Lord Jesus, all the anger, all the pain to you. We thank you, Lord God. In your precious name, amen.
Hey Daily Audio family, Rick from Massachusetts. Brian, thank you so much for your commentary on July 25th with your son Ezekiel. That was awesome. It so touched my heart. It really shows your love and commitment to God, family and your work and we appreciate you. Stay strong, man. Hey family, always remember to pray for Brian, his family, and the whole Daily Audio Team. Remember they also need financial support. Daily Audio Prayer Warriors, please join with me in prayer for Rebecca from Michigan. She requested prayer for God to fulfill her desires. She wanted to meet someone, go to college, and she wants to move out on her own. It is always good to have dreams, aspirations and desires, but we especially need to keep things in perspective and seek first the Kingdom. Matthew 6:33 says seek first the kingdom, his righteousness, and all these things will follow. These things refers to our needs and desires, these things in the scripture. Sam from Vancouver, WA, and __________ from Sydney, they both called in about having confidence for new positions. Just a reminder, guys, we don’t need to have confidence in ourselves but the one who is in us, Jesus. That is where we can have a bold confidence that he has us right where we need to be and you’ve got royal blood flowing through your veins. So wherever he put you, you’ll do a good job. We need to be faithful where we are and he will promote us at just the right moment. Remember the blessing that followed Joseph is also with you and your gifts will make a way. Heather from Northern California, we’re all praying for you and for your daughter, for that situation, in Jesus’ name. Amen. God bless.
Hi fellow Dabbers. It's Joe the police officer from Georgia here. It's July 28th at approximately 5:57 in the morning. Just calling in some prayer requests. I got backed up from the community prayer line – that is mighty long but mighty good and a lot of people are needing prayer and need to be prayed over. I’ve got a praise report before I start with that. My little brother was in a car accident on the 25th, I believe it was, on Saturday, and he rolled my mom's vehicle about 3 or 4 times. He had a friend with him and both of them were wearing their seatbelts and fortunately nothing happened – they weren’t harmed. Neither of them needed emergency medical services and they walked away and went home. So I just want to give God praise for that. So for the prayer requests, I believe I left off on the 25th. Rebecca in Michigan, you're so right in saying that that Lord gives us the desires of our hearts, so I pray that you do receive the desires of your heart in meeting someone and in also going back to school and getting a degree for a better job. Sam in Vancouver, we rejoice with you in your new position at your job and pray that you are able to use that position for the works of the Lord. I’ll call in some more here in a minute, fellow Dabbers. Love you all. Bye.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. My name is Shaniqa. This is my first time calling and I have come to you guys for prayer. I have a friend who is in need of prayer and I felt that this prayer is too big for me to do by myself. I need help. I have a friend. Her name is Kendra and her husband who is Ron is struggling with a drug addiction. He is badly addicted to heroin and he has made some very bad choices and his job has found out about his addiction and they are laying him off. They have 3 kids, one in high school, one in junior high, and one that is going to be in kindergarten this year and my friend, my beautiful friend, strong woman who has to try to take care of the family by herself under 1 income while her husband is going through rehab to try to get his life together. Her husband is going through some strong depression, just going through a lot of depression, a lot of family problems. Just not feeling accepted by his family, trying to numb those feelings with like just whatever drug he can find, not being aware of the consequences of what he is putting on his family. So I just ask that you guys just come together and pray for them. I pray that he will be delivered from this, that…
Hey Dabbers. This is Slave of Jesus. This Global Bible Read is the greatest thing since the DAB. I just watched those Vimeo things. Man, I had goose bumps the whole time. I had tears in my eyes. I have never seen so many beautiful people of God speaking the Word of God in my life. When people have their kids on their reading, I was just sitting outside this big military building bawling my eyes out. Just thank you for sharing that with us. Good to see Rick. Good to see Annette. And Carlton was in there. It was just awesome. And people from all over the world! Rio de Janeiro, Australia, Germany, UK, Mexico, South Africa, Canada, I mean, this is what having heaven on earth is all about. Thank you, Brian, for doing this, for calling out and doing this. Speaking about the military, if you guys could pray for Marine Corporal Sterling. If you look up Marine Times, you will see that she was busted down to private because she refused to take down some scriptures that she would put around at work. She works in an office and they ordered her to do it and they took them down and she would put them back up. Something from “no weapon formed against me shall prosper” and she actually got court-martialed and was convicted. So if you would just pray for her. Some congressmen are getting together to help her overcome that conviction and that God blesses her for standing up. I don’t know if I would have. I have some sitting in front of my desk. I don’t know what I would do if a superior told me to take it down. Real quick, Brian from __________ Florida, we are praying for the substance abuse that you are going through, and your marriage, your wife in there, and I don’t know. You guys have to get on there. You have to get on that Global Bible Read and get this thing done. This is just going to be awesome. Put your kids up there. That was just awesome, if you're willing to do that. Love you all. Have a great day.
Hey, Joe. Hey, this is Annette. I’ve been praying for you this week. You’ve been on my mind mainly because at the women's conference we are asked the find our names that God gives us and it was such a profound experience for me personally that I wished it for you because I hope that it is revealed to you the way it was revealed to a lot of us women. First, a plug for the women's conference right there, which is amazing. So Joe, I am praying for you, that God reveals your name soon. The thought came to my mind that you go to a quiet place, pray ahead of time, you tell God that this is what you want and this is what your desire is, and generally, I’d say the first thing that comes to your mind is going to be your name and God is going to reveal your name to you. I promise. He surely will. I know for me personally your name to me is Joe the Protector because you are out there every day protecting people, praying for us, protecting us spiritually and I want to thank you personally, my brother, for doing that for all of us. And we love you. Joe, nobody is perfect. None of us are. We may try and we may want to, but it aint happening. So there is no judgment from any of us here. We love you and we’re so glad that you're here. Have a good day, sir. Bye-bye.
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Tamarie 07/31/2015 22:08 |
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