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Daily Transcripts
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09/22/2015
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Isaiah 39:1-41:16 ~ Ephesians 1:1-23 ~ Psalm 66:1-20 ~ Proverbs 23:25-28
Today is September 22nd. Welcome the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you again for another day as we take another step forward, and we’ll be stepping into a new book when we get to the New Testament reading today, the book of Ephesians, but first another step forward in the book of Isaiah.
Introduction of a New Book
We’ve come to the book of Ephesians on this adventure through the scriptures this year. Ephesians, this letter to the Ephesians is an epic and grandiose view of our faith written by the apostle Paul while in prison in Rome. You’ll remember in the book of Acts where Paul was arrested in Jerusalem. The upper echelon of the Jewish religious leaders wanted to do away with him because they felt like he was completely betraying Judaism and so there was this assassination plot against him and he was carried away to Caesarea and kept in prison, but he ultimately appealed to Caesar and to Caesar he has gone. So now he is sitting in Rome awaiting trial.
Ephesus where he sent this letter is a place where Paul spent considerable personal time, years in fact. So this letter doesn’t take on an instructional tone like some of the others. He is not writing to solve problems or establish new guidelines for behavior in the church. He is writing from a different place, the place of the heart, the wide and vast vistas of the faith. And that's how we have to approach this letter.
There are passages in this letter that we can just stop right there and consider for days, they are that profound. But because Paul is in prison, he is trying to write well beyond the chains, well beyond his personal circumstance, well beyond what it must look like for him to be in prison for those who are considering Christ and he is trying to appeal to the heart, the truest part of who we are. So if we’ll approach it with all those things in mind, it can have the very same effect it was intended to have on the Ephesians and beyond to us.
So we begin the book of Ephesians.
Prayer
Father, we thank you again, again and again and again for your precious Word, this tangible gift, this thing that we can hold in our hands when life seems cloudy or murky, this thing that is constantly pulling us back toward you, orienting us to your heart and guiding our steps. So we invite you by the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would plant these words deep into the soil of our lives, deep in us at the level of our identity, sanctifying us, transforming our very identity into the likeness of your son. This is what you’ve offered and we accept. We’ve fought you for a long time on some of these things, but we give ourselves over completely, completely to you. We want to walk in lockstep with you, always with you, for you have always been with us. So come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Announcements
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website and that is, of course, where you find out what’s going on around here. There is always something going on around here. Let's see. Let's dip into the calendar and go back to the month of September. This weekend I will be in Fort Smith, AR on the 27th at First Presbyterian Church. Looking forward to that, so please come if you’re in the area. I would love a chance to meet you. Their website is www.1pres.org for more information and we’ll see you this Sunday.
Next week I’ll be doing a little bit of speaking at the Story Conference here in Nashville, so say hello if you are attending Story.
Then looking a week out from there, and I'm really looking forward to this, the 11th of October. We’re all kind of doing Reframe, but the official launch date for the book is October 1st. I know I’ve been saying it is shipping, and it is, and I was saying a couple days ago it is shipping right now and then I got notice, no, it is actually a couple days later. It is hard to keep track of everybody who is shipping, but from what I understand it really is all shipping from Barnes and Noble and Amazon now. So you should get yours pretty soon. If you haven’t grabbed a copy yet, certainly, please do. We can go through this together. I'm so looking forward to talking to you guys after you’ve had a chance to dive in a little bit.
Nevertheless, October 11th we’ll be doing Reframe here in Spring Hill, TN. That is something I just don’t get to do right here in the home world. So you Nashville people, and I know you're out there, I’ve just never really had the chance to encounter the home world, so I'm really, really looking forward to this. I will be speaking at SouthView Church in Spring Hill, TN the 11th of October and you can get more information by visiting their website: www.SouthView.cc. Check it out. Call them. Get more information. I'm excited. So Nashville, come out and say hello.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. There is a link in the upper right-hand corner of the website and I cannot possible thank you enough. 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 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. I'm calling from Virginia. Today is September 18th and today I'm getting ready to go take my state exam oral test to be an interpreter, to be a court interpreter, and I would just ask for prayer. I’ve been listening to DAB for about six years and I'm really thankful for Brian, that he makes us or he leads us to have a closer relationship with our Lord. I’ve been reframing this whole way of looking at what I'm trying to do, which is interpret for people that are in trouble, that have no hope, that are lost, and I just would ask that this community, that as brothers and sisters you could hold me up in prayer that he would release the words that I need to say in the other language so that I could be clear, that I could continue ministering to these people in prayer as I interpret for them. I thank you so much and I thank you that we have the opportunity to do this, to pray for one another. Thank you.
Hi Daily Audio Bible. I’ve been a listener for 10 years and this is the first time I’ve called in. I just wanted to say God bless you, Brian and Jill and your family for your commitment and faithfulness. I feel like I know all of you as family but you don’t yet know me. (Sobbing). I'm sorry. Anyway, my family could really use your prayers as we’re struggling through a very rough time right now. We could really use God's direction and guidance and protection. I just hope that we will hear him clearly. Just love listening to the Daily Audio Bible. I love listening to all of your lives and being a part of this family. I hope to get to know you all a little bit better as maybe I call in more. Thank you Daily Audio Bible. God bless and much love.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible. This is Norma calling from Southern California, six year plus listener. I'm calling to say thank you first of all for just always being here and always showing up in good times and bad. I cannot live without this. I am also calling to request prayer request for my husband, Carl, who yesterday they found a mass on his liver and I'm freaking out. Like hugely. And trying to keep it together for my grown children who I have been told I'm the worst mother in their crisis situations. I was told not to look up things on Web MD and that is all I’ve been doing and I'm absolutely beside myself. I now know that I need to stay focused and put my focus on God, the Lord, healer of all healers. This will end up being probably nothing, but I just…I don’t know, I'm just scared. So please lift up Carl and his liver. I pray for all of you. Thank you all. I listen to everybody, pray for your dogs, cats, everything, addictions, broken hearts, just everything. I love you. Thank you. Bye.
Morning brothers, Daily Audio Bible. Santiago from Maryland calling and I just got finished listening to the podcast for Saturday the 19th of September. It was awesome. I love to hear the little voice, Zekey, and the reading was awesome, Sister, but at the end there was a prayer request. I was just listening to the praise reports and prayer requests. Sister Lynnette, from someone that has undergone several surgeries for his vision and had that fear that something could be damaged, I want to pray with you. Heavenly Father, I lift Sister Lynnette up to you, Father God, after she had expressed how scary it is, the thought of completely losing her eyesight. Father God, I know that it is not the end of the world, but it certainly does feel like the end of the world when one is before that possibility, Father God. So we are praying, Father God, first that you would give her the strength, Father God, to trust in you, to trust that you will be with her no matter what, Father God, that you will guide the hands of that surgeon and that you will provide the best outcome possible within the context that is presented, Father God. You are the God of miracles and you can do many things, Father God, according to your will. And then, Father God, I pray, straight out pray, Father God, that you would heal her, Father God, that you would heal her in such a way that the surgeons would step in and say, “you know what? We don’t need to do this anymore. Whatever was there is gone. Whatever was necessary is no longer needed because it has been healed.” Father God, in your mighty power and in the name of Jesus Christ.
Hi. My name is Roseanne G. and I'm calling from Calgary, Alberta. Just wanted to request prayer for my son Matthew. He has an eye disease called RP and has struggled with it for many years, but is losing sight in his left eye. Please pray for healing for his eyes as we turn to this and the doctors that he needs to get the healing or a miracle, please. Also pray for me for fear. I have fear of sharing my faith because of rejection and also for trying to start a therapeutic riding ministry with horses and the doors seem to be closing all over the place. Please pray for the Lord to open the doors for me and to show me his will for my life. I'm just so grateful and thank you for all your prayers. Thank you for Brian and Jill and the comfort to bringing us together as community. God bless you all.
Hey guys. This is Kim in Las Vegas and I just had to call in today because Jill filled in for Brian today. It is September 19th and I got to hear, well, we all got to hear the adorable voice of the Daily Audio Bible Baby – Ezekiel. Three years old, wow! I remember hearing the story of his birth and wow! It's been three years. Wow, God is good. He is incredibly adorable, stealing my heart with every word he speaks. He's adorable. I just wanted to get a prayer request out there. Also to reach out because I'm pretty sure there are lots of us out there in the community that are trying to getting our dating lives started up and maybe we’ve been in the dating pool for a while and it's hard to find someone godly. I wanted to give a quick prayer for those of us looking for our future husbands or wives out there. God, that you would prepare all of us, heart, mind, body and soul for our future spouses, Lord. That we would stay close in your Word and that you would always be our first love. We focus on you. Lord, bring the one for us into our lives at the right time and that you would prepare them and prepare us. And Lord, that you would bless that relationship and it be fruitful in and through you, Lord. Just help us to be patient and kind and focus on you and not so much focused on our single lives or dating, Lord. Just help us stay in your Word in prayer, Lord, and things will work out in your timing and your will and your way. I hope that helps some of us.
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Tamarie 09/22/2015 13:47 |
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