|
|
Daily Transcripts
|
08/05/2015
|
|
Ezra 1:1-2:70 ~ 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5 ~ Psalm 27:7-14 ~ Proverbs 20:22-23
Today is August 5th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and I’m glad to be here with you. I don’t know why I'm talking like that. Um, I am glad to be here with you today (laughs). I really am. It's a travel day so we had a couple of days after the festival was over just to R&R, unplug for a minute, be with the family, and we'll be traveling back to the rolling hills of Tennessee where the humidity level should be a little bit different than it is in the Pacific Northwest. That part not so excited about, but certainly excited to be home. So thank you for your prayers over travel later today.
So for the last time for now from Washington, glad to be here with you. It’s exciting every time that we get to begin a new book because it’s like a little line of demarcation, a little blip on our screen that tells us we're moving forward. And so we concluded the books of Chronicles yesterday, which brings us to the book of Ezra in the Old Testament, and we started yesterday 1 Corinthians, so it’s kind of like a new page.
Introduction of a New Book:
The book of Ezra picks up historically where 2 Chronicles leaves off with the children of Israel in exile in Babylon and they've been carried off for their rebelliousness to God and these Chronicles that we've spent the last month in together are the retelling of the story from a land faraway, just memories of this beautiful temple that has been destroyed and memories of the holy city of Jerusalem that has been destroyed and everyone trying to get together and remember where they've come from and how they got there. And that was our time in Chronicles.
The book of Ezra covers a period of about 80 years and 3 kings in Babylon: Cyrus the Great, Darius, and then Artaxerxes, all who provide favor and even cover for the Israelites who are returning to their homeland. You can only imagine what that would have been like on so many levels, right? You've been in exile, stripped from your family, everything that you knew is gone, but you finally get to go back. It’s not going to be the same, but you get to go back.
Cyrus the Great begins the process, desiring to literally rebuild the temple in Jerusalem for the worship of God. Around 42,000 Israelite who had been in exile in Babylon, so just a small remnant, crying and weeping for the day that God would restore them finally get to make the trip back under the leadership of Zerubbabel to rebuild Jerusalem and, of course, it’s been a while so all kinds of people have been in and out of that area and they are going to face and they do face all kinds of opposition, both through intimidation of those nearby and through political maneuvers, but they want to stick to the task. It’s a great reference point for us in our own lives as we stick to what we know God has given us to do in our calling in our life, regardless of the outside opposition we may face.
Ezra later returns with the 2nd group, the remainder of the exiles that are in Babylon with the blessing of the King, and Israel is fully restored to its homeland. It is, of course, a much smaller population than it once was.
Let's embrace the book of Ezra as a metaphor for our own lives and we'll be sure to find ourselves in these pages without a doubt. So we begin from the Modern English Version, Ezra 1:1 through 2:70.
Commentary:
We're kind of like right at the beginning of an Old Testament new book, Ezra, and a New Testament letter, 1 Corinthians and so groundwork is being laid. In Ezra, right? Yes, we went through a lot of names and numbers today which happened quite a bit in Chronicles too. I mean, in Chronicles the entire society has been blown apart and everyone has been carried off. I think a lot of times we can gloss over what that would have been like, like it was just a historical fact. You have to imagine what that would've been like. You're just sitting at home having dinner with your family and all of a sudden people rush in and set your house on fire and drag you out and your kids are taken in one group and your wife is taken in another group and you are taken in another group and you're all carried off to a land you've never been to and its 1000 miles away by foot. Now we're talking, now we're getting it. And you don't know if you'll ever see them again and then you're all deposited in different places in this new land and told 'this is your new home.’ And not everybody is trying to kill you. It’s just you've been relocated forcibly. A lot of people have been killed and nobody knows what is going on, but here you are and it’s like 'make a new life.’ So you get together with everybody you can find who you may have not even known, but who is from your homeland and you're trying to figure out who you are, you're trying to remember who you are, like some organization begins to materialize and you're writing down who you are.
That is why we go through all these names. And so we can go ‘well, they are going home. Why do we need all these names?’ Because it’s a big deal! They’ve been begging God, they've been crying out to God for an entire generation, 'please forgive us! We have done wrong. We understand.' And they're longing for something they may never see again. And it’s only a small amount of people that get to go back and that is where we lay out this groundwork in Ezra. These are the people that got to go back and begin that work and so it’s like a prologue and then this is their story which we'll get into.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul is just laying out the groundwork to the church at Corinth. This gospel of Jesus is not something you're going to be able to debate in terms of intellect because God is surpassing that. You're not going to figure this out. What God has chosen isn't to go through human intellect to a higher level. He's chosen that it’s the faith of a child. You actually don't have a lot to do. You're not going to sit down and kind of brainstorm this out. You're not going to wireframe this out. You're not going to be able to build a graph that explains it. That's not how this works. You really have very little to do. All you have to do is believe and step into this relationship and begin to walk with God and allow him to begin to unpack what this is like, how life is wired to work and how he is integrated into your life. You just have to have faith which is one of the things Paul was talking about so eloquently in Romans.
So Paul is saying ‘well, the Jews, they need a sign from heaven. They need some kind of miraculous sign.’ Even when Jesus was here and the miraculous signs were all around, it still didn’t work. They still did not believe. The Greeks, they're just high on their intellect. They're trying to reason this out. They're trying to debate this out. Neither one of those things is really what this is about. They’re not necessarily bad things. That is just not what this is about. God will use what seems foolish to the intellect of man to confound the wisdom of man. Even if it’s just an exercise in showing the futility of man's ability to use what he's got that he traded God for - the knowledge of good and evil. Even if it’s just to confound that. We can have the knowledge of good and evil or we can have God, but if we want God, we're not going to get there through the knowledge of good and evil. It’s simpler than that. We just have to believe and step into the relationship by faith, understanding that what we're stepping into is not something we can earn. It is the gift of God, not of anything we've done. No one has the right to brag about anything. Like I was saying the other day, we're all just lucky to be here.
Paul begins to lay this out and he'll have much more to say about a lot of things, but it’s through this lens. Centuries and centuries before Paul, David came to the same conclusion, ‘my hope is only in you, whether my father or my mother forsake me, there is only you. I need you to lead me where I need to go. I’m going to seek your face because that's what you've said to do and that's all there is. I’m waiting on you, Lord. I can only be strong of heart and body in you.’
Prayer:
So Father, that's something that we declare today even as we review where we are in these next steps that we're taking in your Word. There is no other hope but you. There never was. There never will be and so we put our hope and our trust completely in you, completely in you and invite your Holy Spirit to come. Come fully. Come and transform us. Come and continue to awaken us because everyday it’s a battle between our knowledge of good and evil and our trying to figure you out. We invite you, Holy Spirit, to come and, in turn, we turn to you with the faith of a child. We believe. Come we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website, it’s home. It’s where you find out what's going on around here and what's going on around here is Reframe. Reframe the book, Reframe the Group Study, all of these things. They're on the radar, but they haven't yet arrived. So if you're looking at an old fashioned radar that's a round circle, you can see this blip on the outer rings and its coming towards the center, and that center is October 1st. Reframe the book releases October 1st, but Reframe the book is available for pre-order now. I’ve asked all of you who might be interested in Reframe the book (and I hope you all are, not for the reasons that you would think) because Reframe the book can change your life. I say that because Reframe the book changed my life.
So I’m just inviting you to help us do everything we possibly can to get this into the hands of as many people as possible and one of the ways we do that, I mean, we don't do a lot of this pre-order stuff, I’ve never done this before. I get it. I understand it completely. One of the reasons that we're even doing this is so that when October comes, we have made as much dent and impact, that we have made a crater that just has reverberations going far out beyond us because the Reframe message is for every believer and it’s beyond…I don’t know, it’s important, I guess, is what I’m trying to say. Really important that we get this through our head or we're stuck. What's in this book we've got to get into our hearts or we are stuck. We have a ceiling and we'll never get past it and we'll always be frustrated in trying to navigate this relationship with God and understand where He's moving and why it’s not working and all of those things that we encounter in life, all of those 'whys,' ‘why this?’ All of that frustration. We're never going to get past that, except for this. And so I’m just inviting you to help us make as big of an impact as we can. Go to www.ReframeBook.com and pre-order the book and we've got some nice things that you can get access to immediately to sort of offset that. It’s my way of saying ‘hey, this is the best I can do to give you this if you would please help.’ So thank you. Www.ReframeBook.com.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then thank you. We need your partnership on so many levels, especially through the summer. It just is what it is. We are a community. We are a family, a global family, and this technology and these 16 servers, they buzz data out of them every second of every day so that you might receive the Spoken Word of God and so that anyone can. Thank you for helping allow that to happen. There's a link on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.
As always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to call.
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
Hello DAB family, this is Nana Jones in Spring Hill, TN. I’m calling in today to speak to Alex. You are an amazing man and I have an encouraging word for you. The Lord told me to tell you to pick up a Bible and start reading his Word because you're going to have all your answers to your questions when you stay in the Word and keep listening to DAB, but also open a Bible and start reading the New Testament with Matthew. In Matthew 18, it talks about becoming as a little child and we all have to do that if we're going to come into the faith. So Alex, also, the Lord showed me in John 20:29 that Jesus was speaking to 'doubting' Thomas and he said, 'then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed, but blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed' and that's where most of us are now, brother. So, keep your eyes open. You're going to see Jesus and you're also going to see Jesus in your wife and in your children, so keep your eyes open because he speaks through others to us and he speaks through his Word. So I pray that the Lord will reveal himself to you through his Word and through your family, in Jesus' name. Alleah, you crack me up. You put a smile on my face and I pray that God will bless you and your family and your mom especially. Family, love you. Talk to you later. God bless everyone. Bye-bye.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family. This is Infinite Faith calling and I have a couple of prayer requests. My best friend had adopted 3 girls a few years ago and the middle child has been struggling a lot lately. She's getting ready to go into high school and is constantly lying, trying to set paper on fire in the house, running away, coming back, just no feeling, doesn't care about any consequences, just numb to everything. She's tried everything that they could. The counselors they have had even dropped her at this point because she's not honest when she goes to counseling sessions so they won't even keep her through the therapy sessions for that. So I just pray that God watches over them give her a change of heart. You know, 14 years old is a vulnerable time in life and getting ready to start high school is a little bit scary, I’m sure, so I just pray that God will help her change her heart and help her on the right path and be more honest and loving and realize that she has family and friends that love her. My second prayer request is for myself. I'm getting ready to go in tomorrow for additional blood test for my pregnancy. It's a chromosome test where they test for Down Syndrome and any other chromosome abnormalities. So I just pray that everything turns out okay, that we get the results soon, and that it is all clear and we have a healthy baby. Thanks family! Love you.
Hi, this is Scottish Tom calling from the Cleveland, OH area. Just wanted to give a report. I had called a while back in reference to my brother and sister-in-law and unfortunately they did end up getting divorced. My brother-in-law is then with the other woman. I do still see them both and I continue to pray for them both, so I ask if you could also pray for them and the 2 children, 2 young girls. One is 3. The other one is 7. And also I think that is a great idea with the video, Brian, that you're doing with the book of John. I’ve just been encouraging people to call in and record their videos. I see that there are still quite a few chapters to be filled up there. I called in the other day and did one and I just did another two, so I think it would be cool if we could get a lot more different people reading them as well. So if you haven’t done it, call in and make your video. If you have done it, then maybe do another couple. Take care, everyone. Bye.
Hey Daily Audio Bible family. This is Derrick from Michigan. The reason I called was for Alex. You called and you said that you're an agnostic but that you have been seeking God and I just wanted to say continue to seek him. I just wanted to pray for you. The rest of the family, join me in prayer. Dear Lord, we just thank you that in your Word it says seek and you will find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. Lord, we just pray that you would meet Alex where he is at and that you would reveal yourself to him in a way that he would be able to understand to your glory, that you would be glorified, and that your name would be lifted high. Lord, we just pray for wherever he's at in his situation, that you would meet him where he's at and that you would honor his desire to seek you and his crying out to you, know you, that you would honor that. And we just thank you for all these things, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Family, I just wanted to ask for prayers as well. We find out today whether or not we’re going to be able to close on the house that we’re buying. The schedule closes on Friday and that is going to work best for us for moving. If it doesn’t work for this Friday, then it is going to have to be next week, which is going to kind of make it a little difficult, so just prayers during this process.
Hi family. This is Jamie. I am calling in response to Alex. His phone call played this morning and he said something about…he called himself an agnostic and didn’t know if his mind was able to believe in a god. Alex, when I heard your request the thought that came to me is the very God who made your brain has surely fashioned it in a way to know him and he is wanting you to know him as much as I hear in your call that you are wanting to know God. Just keep searching, brother. Our God wants to be known. Sometimes we do sort of trip over our brains, but I guess I hear in your heart kind of that longing to know him. So God, I'm just going to pray for Alex. I just lift him up to you, Lord. I pray that hunger that he feels in his heart, it would just get bigger and broader and more and that he would not be able to ignore that, that you would just meet him in that place. You alone know that place where he will know you. I just thank you for the work that you're doing in his family and in him and in all of us, God. Just make yourself known in ways that there is no way we could explain it but by you and help our brains not to get in the way, Lord. We just thank you and give you praise for the good work that you're doing here. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Hi everyone. It's Christy from Kentucky. I wanted to share something that happened yesterday that just absolutely is just incredibly amazing. But then again that is exactly how our Father is. Amen? Yesterday I sent a seed. I planted a seed, an offering for ministry, and it has been a little tight. Our finances have been…I mean, we’re okay, but I try very, very hard to balance everything so that we don’t have to go someplace else, other resource for money. So it has been a rough week. A rough month, I should say. So when I planted this seed into this ministry, 3 hours later I received a gift card from a store that we had recently shopped at. I have no idea why they are sending this gift card but they did. It was over the amount that I planted seed with and then I got a check in the mail from our bank saying that we had paid too much money on a bill and they owed us money. I am just completely blown away at exactly how amazing our God is. Amen? So I wanted to call today and just say if you have a ministry or someplace that the Lord has just prompted you that you should give an offering, give a gift, I'm just going to encourage you today, do that. Don’t put it off because God will bless you. We don’t know how he’ll bless us. We don’t know when. I certainly didn’t expect to be blessed so quickly, but I praise God. I praise God for his generosity and his love and his blessing. Alright, I love you guys. Hope you're having a blessed and beautiful day wherever you are.
|
|
Tamarie 08/05/2015 20:33 |
|
|
