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Daily Transcripts
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08/19/2015
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Esther 4:1-7:10 ~ 1 Corinthians 12:1-26 ~ Psalm 36:1-12 ~ Proverbs 21:21-22
Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Today is August 19th. I'm Brian. It's great to be here with you today and looking forward to taking another step forward in this beautiful book of Esther as we continue to take our steps forward through the scriptures this year. We’re reading from the Names of God Bible this week.
Commentary:
Alright, so we have amazing drama in the book of Esther. I mean, it’s so full of intrigue, all of these twists and turns. This evil man, Haman, who cooks this whole thing up because of Mordecai. He wants to wipe out the entire people because Mordecai won’t bow down to him; happens to be the uncle or the adopted father of the queen of the land and he hasn’t put that together. And so he’s going to kill him, but he has to honor him instead and it just all comes unraveled. And all of this is happening right around the time that the exiles get their freedom to go back. And so we wonder, rightly so, that this story has something very much to do with the favor that the King bestows upon the Jews. Such an amazing story, but we’re not done with it yet. We’ll conclude the book of Esther tomorrow.
Then Paul is describing beautifully what things look like, what our reality is using the metaphor of a body – the body of Christ. And it’s really, really fascinating because it’s a beautiful picture of community. Like everybody needs everybody else because we are a part of a whole and when we go rogue and renegade and say ‘I don’t need any of the other parts. I am unto myself’ or ‘I have just this small group of people around me and we go rogue,’ well in a body, that would look like cancer, right? In the body, well I mean, if cells start to go rogue, we have a thing called free radicals, right? And they just lead to this rebellion, this cellular rebellion that turns on the body and begins to eat away and it can grow and grow and grow and become cancer and eat the body from the inside out. And that can ultimately cause death as so many of us have been touched by in one way or another in our lives. We’ve seen this happen inside of our community, even this year at the Daily Audio Bible. We’ve lost members to cancer and so we know what this looks like.
Paul is just describing it in terms of how it is we are the hands and feet of Jesus in this world; not only the hands and feet, but the entire body of Christ in this world. We’re all operating with the risen Christ’s Spirit within us as one, being the hands and feet of Jesus. And we can’t just go rogue. We can’t be a part of the hand and say to the feet ‘I don’t need you,’ right? Or the ear to the nose and say ‘I don’t need you.’ It’s just not true. We need each other.
And yeah, I know we’re human beings and so we find our way into conflict. I mean we just do. We brush up against somebody who thinks differently than we do, or believes differently than we do, or just has a different personality than we do. And all of that conflict that comes between us, you know, it can grow to be something to be really, really nasty. Or we can understand, ‘you know what? I am a part of a whole and this person is a part of that whole. We all belong here.’
It’s important that we find ways to keep the focus on the big picture. We’re bringing the Kingdom. We’re doing something much more important than this interpersonal conflict. But so often we don’t want redemption, we want to be right. And so we’re not willing to submit ourselves, we’re not willing to quell the fire within and shut it down. I mean this is a beautiful picture of family too, a family as a unit and all the conflict that can arise inside of a family. It can cause this whole thing to play out much more quickly than we see in the greater whole, but it all plays out the same. And we can have this even in ourselves, a conflicted thing inside of ourselves.
So what Paul is unpacking today using the metaphor of the body is very important for us to look at. There’s only one way this works, that the head is the head, that Christ is the head of the body. When we think of our own bodies, we realize that our head, our brain and our heart spiritually are working together to control what our body does. If you wiggle your left first finger right now, you decided to do that from your head, and it’s happening. In fact, I’m doing it right now as I talk about this. Right? I decided to move my finger and I know how to move my finger. My finger isn’t an independent thing. It wasn’t like some negotiation going on, going like ‘will you move?’ My head told my finger to move. When we get disconnected from Christ, what he’s sending out through his body to be done, it’s just not getting through. And when the signals are not getting through in our bodies, well then there is something wrong and some sort of sickness and nerve damage is there, some other sort of problem is there.
So as we look at what Paul is saying today, it has so many applications that it applies to the whole of life – in your family, in your faith community, in your workplace, in your friendships, in your own personal self. It applies to everything. But at the end of the day, if Christ isn’t the head, then none of this works – a body doesn’t work without a head – the body dies. So may we give this some consideration today and invite the Holy Spirit. In fact let’s do that now.
Prayer
Holy Spirit, we come into your presence and Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for its counsel. We thank you for this kind of surfacing, that there are some things to examine here, and we invite your Holy Spirit to show us the ways in which we’ve gone rogue at different places in our lives, that we’ve kind of allowed this whole thing to kind of fester and it will become cancerous to us and, allowed to grow, it will overtake and eat us from the inside out, destroying us, destroying our families, destroying our communities, and destroying what you are doing in the world today. And we are here because you have put us here, you delight to put us here. We’re supposed to be here. We pray in agreement with the Psalms. So come Holy Spirit, you want us here, we’re here for a reason. Begin to put us in our place because we’re never going to find freedom and we’re never going to find contentment until we know that we’re in that place. So we invite you fully to come and lead us into all truth. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcement
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website. It is home base and it is where you find out what’s going on around here. And the main blip, the bright light blipping on our radar is that Reframe book is coming. And so we’re doing everything that we can within our community to say get on board with this. Jump on board with this, pre-order this book. Be ready for this. And it’s just one of those conflicted things in me because it’s like I wrote this book, but because I wrote this book, I know exactly what this book says. And I’m telling you, over the 2 years, the depth that I needed to go to, just because of what I was going through and what I was inviting God into, this changed my paradigm. Like this was a game changer. And God so graciously allowed this book to go out, to be released. And so I expect fully that this is a message He wants to be heard, especially within the Daily Audio Bible community, for sure. So I mean if the Daily Audio Bible is part of the rhythm of your life, then this is an important thing for you. And so I invite you, I ask you to get Reframe.
We have this little website set up, www.ReframeBook.com, where if you pre-order the book, we’ve got some stuff we want to give you in exchange. It’s like one of those things we’re trying in our DNA, just as the community of the Daily Audio Bible, it’s always been the philosophy, let’s make sure we’re giving more than we’re taking. Let’s give far more than we ask. Let that be our ruling model and that’s what we’ve always tried to do. So I don’t have the ability to just give everybody this book. I simply don’t have the financial resources to do something like that or I would. But I have some things that are valuable and have the value of this book and they go along with this message and will enhance your reading of Reframe. And so they’re all at www.ReframeBook.com. So check that out and I thank you very much for that.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible itself, if this community is a light in your life, if it brings life to you, then the only way that happens is if life is given back to it. And so thank you for your partnership. There’s no other way for us to exist. Summertime is always a difficult time for everybody doing ministerial work and stuff like that. We could use your support and partnership. Thank you for that. There is a link on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com in the upper right-hand corner. Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.
And always, because we’re a community, we can reach to each other. We’re not alone in this. If you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number you can call if you are in the Americas. If you are in the UK, call 44, 20-3608-8078. If you are in Australia or that part of the world, 61, 3-8820-5459 is your number. And if you are in Africa, 27, 21-300-2728 is the number to call.
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 there. This is Casey in Calgary. This is my second year listening to Daily Audio Bible. I love starting every morning with God’s Word. I get up at 3:30 am in the morning for work. So I put on my headphones and listen to Daily Audio Bible while I get ready. It is the perfect start to the day. The first year I listened I would switch off when Brian was done reading. But this year, I’ve been listening to the prayer afterwards, praying along. And this has really transformed my morning. Not just hearing the Word, but being part of a community that prays for each other. I used to be a prayer intercessor. I look back at that time feeling like I was alone, standing in the gap for God’s people. A lot of pain, discouragement and despair happened and first my church family and then my marriage fell apart. I became severely depressed. But over the last four years I’ve steadily been getting stronger and healing, growing closer to God every day. I praise God for bringing me first to a new church family and then to the Daily Audio Bible family. I thank Brian and the Dabber community for being there for me, even though you didn’t know I was here. You made a huge difference in my life. My heart goes out to the woman who is estranged from her children and will be attending a wedding, but not allowed to sit with the family. I feel for you. My three daughters all graduated last year – two from university with honors and one from high school. I was allowed to attend the public ceremonies but was excluded from the banquet and celebrations while there father was included. Since I stayed home and home-schooled them for 15 years, it broke my heart. But I was so happy to see them succeed. And I know that even though they didn’t want me there, it was partly due to my love and time and effort that they were there. It also made me wonder if I would be invited to their weddings one day. But I have to leave that in God’s hand. They can push me away, but they can’t push away my prayers for them or my love. I have to hang on to that. So I hope you will be able to find peace in your situation, too. Just keep praying for God’s best for them. That’s what is important. I’m praying for you.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Debra in North Carolina. After about a decade of being a Daily Audio Bible listener, I am calling for the very first time. First of all that just shows you I need your help with pride and perfectionism, for keeping me from making this call, I guess. I certainly have not had my shortage of issues I should have called in prior, but this one is the one that has made it on the scene today. Basically just need your help. I felt called by God to make this call for the simple fact that I need my home sold. It’s been listed coming up on 9 months and got a couple of bites, but nothing is selling and it’s time to move it. So, I just ask my family to pl pray for that and of course pray for my spirit or stronghold of pride. Thank you so much and I love your prayers and feel very close to a lot of you. Although you don’t know me, I certainly know you. God bless all of us. Thank you Brian. Have a wonderful day, bye.
Hey everybody, this is Pelham from Cullman or as I’ve been called ‘Addicted to Christ.’ That’s my little nickname. I’m sitting here with my wife. We just got married. We’ve been married about 8 minutes, 8 or 9 minutes. We’re sitting in the back of the car about to go the reception. I just wanted to call to say hi to everybody. Molly say hi. ‘Hi Everybody!’ That’s Molly. So we were just calling to ask everybody for prayer across the world to strengthen our marriage, to protect us on our honeymoon, to complete this day with the same beauty that it started with. Hope everybody is having a great day. Thanks for listening. Bye.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. I’m calling in today to pray for Pelham and Molly. So let’s just pray. Lord we just ask that you would be there, Lord. Because Lord, you were the guest at the wedding in Cana. Just like that, you would be present, Lord, with them in their wedding and in their marriage, Lord, that you will be the center of their marriage, Lord. As Pelham has said, he’s changed his name to ‘Addicted to Christ,’ Lord. And I just pray, Lord, that you would be the center of them, Lord. I thank you, Lord, that you have brought them through so much, so much Lord. And you have brought them together. You have willed this relationship to be in place, Lord. And I just pray, Lord, that your blessings be upon Pelham and Molly now, Lord, as they enter into this marriage. Lord, that they this would be a marriage for you, Lord, that this would be a Kingdom marriage, Lord, that they would serve your mightily in your Kingdom. Lord, so we just ask for a blessing for Pelham and Molly now, in your most precious and Holy name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
This is Randy from Indianapolis. I’ve listened for probably as long as it’s been on, but I’ve never called before. I have a desperate prayer need for a friend of mine called ‘Marty’ from Indianapolis. And he needs his lungs healed; he’s got diabetes; he’s got a daughter that is being married in about 10 days and he’s in bad shape. He needs our prayers. Thank you very much. Thank you, Brian, for this forum. Bye.
His, this is Anna, a first time caller, Anna from Maryland. I wanted to say hi. Just glad I can call. I want to ask you for prayer for my husband. He’s looking for a job. And a prayer for our family, that we’re going through a trial and we’re asking God to come in. I’m just so glad to be able to call and pray for those. Tonight I heard of the woman who lost her baby. I pray for her and know that God is going to give her another chance and bless her to have another baby. And bless the man that his wife is leaving him because of the autistic child. I pray that God will stop the wife and will come in his Holy Spirit and bless him tremendously. He has a love for his wife so much. I pray the love for her to be kindled and stop the separation. I pray for all my other family and friends and I thank you all. I’m calling because you’re so beautiful, you’re so loving and I feel the Spirit of God moving and I want to be a part of it. And I’m looking forward to getting the book, Brian. Thank you so much. I love you, I love you all, and prayer for all of you that God's greatest and wonderful gifts be yours, his blessings and his future. He has a future for us, a future and a hope. And I thank you all for helping to rekindle it, in Jesus’ name.
This is Marcus from Washington State and I’m just calling in for Bradley. Brother, I feel your pain. I know exactly what you’re going through. And I just want to encourage you. Stay close to the Lord, stay in the Word. I’m praying for you. It hurts to be left and hurts when somebody interferes with your marriage, whether it’s another man or a family member. But I’ll be praying for you that God binds this person, this step-son, and changes his heart even and brings him around to seeing the truth of Jesus Christ being our Savior and that your family can be one. I just pray that you would also return the favor to me and pray for me and my family as we’re in the process of divorce I do not want. I am the one that is the provider for the children right now. I just pray that you would all pray for my wife as she is experiencing this sinful, hurtful thing that is happening to our family and that you would keep her in your prayers. Thank you Daily Audio Bible family. I love you and enjoy hearing your prayers and I pray for you all often, bye.
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Tamarie 08/19/2015 20:05 |
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