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Daily Transcripts
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11/11/2015
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Ezekiel 23:1-49 ~ Hebrews 10:18-39 ~ Psalm 109:1-31 ~ Proverbs 27:13
Today is November 11th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and what a pleasure to be here with you today for the next little while, while we take our next steps into and through the scriptures this year. And we have this time, this time to be together, all of us, all over the place, this beautiful family that we call the Daily Audio Bible. So thrilled that we can have our time together for today. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.
Commentary
So in the book of Ezekiel today, we get very graphic picture of what unfaithfulness and falseness looks like when God tells the story of Oholah and Oholibah, which are synonymous with Samaria and Jerusalem. And he’s using this descriptive text and these pictures of lewdness and prostitution and lust and all of the things that go with that to describe how Samaria and Jerusalem were unfaithful. And once again, God is using very descriptive language that can be understood. It’s not surface-y, it’s actually very deep what he’s saying and why he’s feeling the way that he does because they’ve been false, they’ve been unfaithful.
We get to the book of Hebrews and we’re immediately encouraged to be faithful and true, so much so that the writer of Hebrews is unpacking the fact that through Jesus, because of his sacrifice, we can move boldly into the very presence of God. Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting him, “for our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean and our bodies have been washed with pure water,” the scripture says.
But it also kind of comes back to the same theme: If you’re going to deliberately be unfaithful, if you’re going to deliberately be false, then you need to understand that there’s no sacrifice that can cover all of that. If you’ve known the truth and walked in it and then deliberately reject it to chase other lovers (which is what Oholibah and Oholah were doing), if you’re going to try to find life somewhere else by chasing other lovers, then you need to know that it’s not going to work, number one; you will suffer the repercussions of your decisions, number two, and that won’t be good; and number three, you’re breaking my heart. This is pretty much what God is telling his people. We can jump thousands of years and see the same common theme.
So, we’re encouraged today in Hebrews. Remember when you discovered the truth of Jesus. Think of those early days or just think of the days where it was really, really hard for you. Think of a time in your life when you were suffering a hardship of some sort, you didn’t know how you were going to get through it and you were clinging to God for dear life because there was nothing else to cling to. Well, the encouragement is that we stay in that place, that we learn to stay in that place when things aren’t so dire because it’s much easier to hold onto God for dear life when there’s nothing else to hold on to because the world is crumbling around us. It’s a different story to cling to God for dear life when it looks like we can manage our lives on our own, make our own decisions, put him back in a box, put that box in a drawer, close the drawer, keep him there for safekeeping when we actually need him again. And this is the rub because that’s not a relationship.
We’ve been talking about being in a relationship with God all year, of reframing what that looks like all year. That’s the rub. Putting someone away for safekeeping isn’t the same as a relationship with that person. When you’re in a life-giving relationship, you never put them away. They’re always a part of everything.
And we need to continue to get our minds around the fact that God is available. We can go right into the presence of God, but we’re so often wanting to go into his presence to get something, not to go into his presence for the sole purpose of offering him our presence.
May we be faithful. May we be true. May we be as Hebrews says today “not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction.” We are the faithful ones whose souls will be saved.
Prayer
Father, we want that to be true of us more than anything, that we are the faithful ones whose souls will be saved, but we have learned through life experience that our brute attempts at forcing ourselves to be faithful to you only lead to our own unfaithfulness. We do not have what it takes to be true, separate from you. You are the Way. You are the Truth. You are the Life. So we can’t do any of those things without you present in our lives and so we request your presence. We come into your presence. We offer you our presence. We make ourselves present to you in all of the moments of this day and every day and invite your Holy Spirit to come and be the Comforter in our lives but also to lead us on the pathways that bring us to truth, to lead us deeper into Jesus and the mystery of our faith. We ask you to come and we open ourselves completely to you. Give us the Way, the Truth, and the Life and show us how to walk in it. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
Announcements
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base. It’s the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on and what’s going on is the Reframe Tour. The final date for 2015 is this Sunday in the San Diego area where we will be at La Jolla Christian Fellowship. Www.ChurchatLaJolla.org is their website, so you can get their address and service time. I'm looking forward to being out there with you.
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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. If the DAB and the community here is life-giving to you and you feel like it’s a part of your life, thank you for being life-giving to it so it can exist at all. That link is in the upper right-hand corner of the home page. The mailing address, if you prefer, 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 is it for today. I’m Brian. I love you. I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.
Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
When you try to live right, but you get back only wrong, and it looks like you’re weak when you know that you’re strong; when strong winds assail you and all your friends fail you, hold on! When the road looks so dark that you can’t find your way, and you’re bills grow so large that you know that you can’t pay; when the future looks bleak and you really feel weak, hold on! Hold on to the Master! Hold on to your faith, and know in your heart that all will be safe. Remember He told you trials shape you and mold you. Hold on the Master, hold on. If you hold to His hand, rest assured you will stand. He will not forsake you, so don’t let things shake you. Hold on to the Master, hold on. When the ones that you count on are no longer there, when you’re writing out checks and the money isn’t there, when you cry all night long “Lord, help me be strong!” Hold on to the Master, hold on. When winter’s upon you and you don’t have no heat, when your clothes are all dirty and there’s no food to eat, when all your good Christian friends give you prayers with big grins, hold on. Hold on to the Master, hold on. Hold on to the Master. Hold on to your faith and know in your heart that all will be safe. Remember He told you trials shape you and mold you. Hold on to the Master, hold on. BlindTony1016@gmail.com. It was good hearing your voice again, Walta. I’ve been praying real hard for you. It’s good to hear that burning bush, you are that bush that will not be consumed and I get a lot of inspiration from you. Hang in there, girl. It’s going to be alright. Joe the Protector...
Hi, I would like to request prayer for some friends of mine. They are the… I’m going to just give the initials because I want to protect their privacy, but their last name starts with P. This family has been, they were raised as Christians, the mom and dad, and they have since walked away from the Lord and are heavily involved in Wicca. They’re following witchcraft. He served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army as a Wiccan although I think he began as a Christian chaplain and then, as his faith changed, he became a Wiccan chaplain. He was also very injured in the first Gulf war and is on disability. Anyway, the family, because they’ve opened themselves up to this demonic realm, is suffering incredibly. The entire family suffers from depression. The oldest daughter has had a sexual identity crisis and is now wanting to be referred to as a boy and the family obliges her and calls her “him.” There’s been polygamy involved within the family and the father recently separated from the mother and was gone for about eight months and he just returned back home and discovered that his wife had disappeared and that she had basically just stayed in her room very depressed the entire time that he was gone and the kids were sort of on their own. And she was supposed to pick them up, but when he came to the train station, when they got off after coming across the country, all that was left there was a wrecked van with a note from her saying, “Bye,” basically “I’m out of here.” They don’t know where she is. They don’t know… You know, she’s very depressed. They don’t know what happened to her. They don’t know if she’s safe. They haven’t heard anything from her, so I…
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Corey from New Haven, WV. I’ve not called in for a while. Things have not been good. Last time I called in, I told you guys about how my wife and I were…it was looking like she was wanting a divorce and to make a long story short, and today’s November 7th (Saturday), God in the past couple of weeks has really smacked me upside the head and opened up my eyes, and the bottom line is I am praying for reconciliation between my wife. I believe wholeheartedly that’s what God wants. I do not believe that He wants us to be divorced. I do not believe that He wants our family torn apart. I just ask two things: One, you pray that God’s will be done; and secondly, I have been having trouble for the past week sleeping. I go to bed, sleep for about an hour, and then I’m up the rest of the night and I just cannot go back to sleep. My mind is on hyper drive. I just ask that you guys pray for us. I really, really want to start calling in and encouraging and praying for people. I still pray for people, just not calling in; but God bless you guys. I love you guys. Thank you, Brian and Jill and all the team for what you guys do. I appreciate it. Have a great day. Bye.
Lord, dear Lord above, God Almighty, God of Love, thanks for looking down and seeing my people through. Lord, dear Lord above, God Almighty, God of Love, please keep looking down and seeing my people through. I believe that God put sun and moon up in the sky. I don’t mind the gray skies because they’re just clouds passing by. Lord, dear Lord above, God Almighty, God of Love, please keep looking down, keep seeing my people through. Up and down until sunset men work hard all the day. Come Sunday that’s the day. Oh yeah, and I have to interject here. It’s me, Candace. That’s the day God said, “Stop! Stop everything! Just come and be with me.” Often we’ll feel weary but He knows our every care. Go to Him in secret, He will hear your every prayer. (These words are by Duke Ellington, written was back in the middle of the last century.) It’s my prayer, too, today Lord. It goes on. He’ll give peace and comfort to every troubled mind. Come Sunday, O come Sunday, that’s the day. Lord, thank you that one day it’ll be like the Sunday of all time that day Mary suffered the Lamb and we just stop and celebrate and revel in your glory and your beauty, Lord. Let us get a taste of it, even today. Candace from Oregon. Love this family.
Alright Holy Spirit, let’s roll. This is Slave of Jesus in North Carolina. First, I just had this calling to call out for Pastor John. Just watch over Pastor John and his family and provisions and for his house, in Jesus’ name. Also, prayer and praise request for my wife has actually asked me to have people pray for her and her mom. They are doing some life-end decisions and that her mom just doesn’t suffer. But the praise is that she actually told her mom it’s okay for her to go now and that she believes that when her mom goes, she’ll be there with her dad, so that’s just great, great praise there. Also, got to get back to this: If you ever feel prompted, like you need to give more money, just do it. Just do it, regardless if you can’t pay. Got a minute left. A hundred thousand dollars over debt, got an out of work ex-pastor, praise guy from our church. God prompted for me to help him out. He makes a job offer. He made five job offers for $500. Like I can’t afford $500, but God says, “Do it!” So I went ahead and yeah, go ahead and do them all instead of just one of them and gave him the $500. A week after that happened, I’m on a business trip, they’re asking for volunteers because it’s overbooked. I always go early and they give me a voucher for $500 off the next trip and my wife’s flying back and forth, coast to coast, off and on for her, so we’re burning through our emergency money with that. But God is not just the God of “I’ll give back to you.” God does more. The following week I get another $500 voucher. I mean those are exact numbers. I have hundreds, well thousands of examples like that in my life. Even when I thought I couldn’t do it and I gave, God always rewards me for it. I love you all. Hope that helps somebody out there. Give to the DAB. Bye.
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Tamarie 11/11/2015 07:28 |
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