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Daily Transcripts
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11/22/2015
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Ezekiel 44:1-45:12 ~ 1 Peter 1:1-12 ~ Psalm 119:17-32 ~ Proverbs 28:8-10
Today is the 22nd of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Here we are, a brand new week, and before this week is out, I guess, we’ll find ourselves in the Christmas season. Hard to believe we’ve reached this point in the year. But we have, one step at a time as we take our adventure through the scriptures. Speaking of taking steps forward, we finished the book of James yesterday, which will bring us to 1 Peter in a few minutes, but before that, Ezekiel 44.
Introduction of a New Book
This brings us in the New Testament to the first letter or epistle of the apostle Peter and we’ll find that it is a passionate and direct encouragement for believers in persecution or just coming under persecution. Of course, we’ve come to know the personality and character of Peter through the gospels and then in the book of Acts. This is a very passionate follower of Jesus. He is a very passionate, outspoken person, one of Christ's inner circle, along with James and John. Probably Peter's lowest moment was when he denied Jesus three times, but as is true with each of us, God redeems everything. That wasn't Peter's legacy. He was the man when the tongues of fire of Pentecost came down upon the believers who preached the message where 3000 came to Christ in one day. He went on to be exactly what Jesus said he would be – the rock upon which the church was built.
So this first letter from Peter was probably written from Rome, although we don’t know that for sure. It was likely written between AD 62 and 64, somewhere around the time that the apostle Paul was first released from prison in Rome. In fact, there is some persuasive evidence that maybe Paul asked Peter to write this letter. Paul was leaving on a missionary journey, but there was persecution in the region and what is compelling about this is that John Mark and Silas were present with Peter as he wrote this and these were assistants to Paul.
The letter is written to the strangers, sojourners scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These were five provinces of the Roman Empire that sit in modern day Turkey. He uses the term “strangers in the diaspora” because this would be well known in Jewish culture. Diaspora were those who had been scattered all over the world in different exiles, those who were estranged and strangers from their homeland, but as Paul teaches in the book of Philippians, we are all in this world but not of it. We are all scattered and displaced from our homeland. We’re exiles here building the kingdom, awaiting the new heaven and a new earth under Christ's rule. The letter is written to bolster, encourage, and lift up those suffering persecution, encouraging all believers to stand firm in the grace of God. Peter, like James, is direct and forthright and as we embrace the letter, we will see that his words ring very true today.
So we begin 1 Peter.
Prayer
Father, we are so thankful for your Word and this week here in the United States brings us Thanksgiving. There is never not a time to give thanks, but at least here, this is when we get together to really focus on that and we are thankful. We are thankful for everything you have walked through with us this year, everything that you’ve led us through, everything that you’ve led us into, everything that you have opened your heart and shared with us, all of your patience and kindness. For this very life we are thankful. So we give thanks for your Word and your counsel and we invite your Holy Spirit to plant the words deep in our hearts as we march forward day by day. We say come Holy Spirit, our hearts are open to you, pliable to you, moldable to you. We want to be with you as you want to be with us. Come Jesus, we pray in your name, amen.
Announcements
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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’ve been listening since almost the beginning, but I’ve never called in before. Today I was listening to the prayer requests at the end of the program. It is Tuesday, November 17, and I heard a woman talking about her son who is going to court in January. I just wanted to say that I know how you feel. My son is going to court in December and I know that I did my best and we’ve all done our best and it is up to him now, but you know, I was talking to a lady whose son was in prison for 20 years and she said the thing that she could give thanks for is that he gave his heart to the Lord while in prison and that he is saved. So if that is the only thing that you can be happy about, just think that this might make him turn his heart to the Lord. And you can pray the scriptures over your son and say that he is willing and obedient and he will __________. I just wanted to give you that encouragement. Try to find everything you can that is encouraging in your situation even though it is so hard. I know. I'm there too. Thank you.
Good morning. This is Claire from Anderson Island. Thank you, Brian, so much for today's message about the dry bones from Ezekiel. Just a wonderful message. I'm calling actually for that reason, because my husband and I just got finished with a weekend marriage immersion. It just fits right in, raising up the dry bones in our marriage. We’ve been married 30 years. We always have dry bones. I mean, we have a great marriage, but there are always things that need to be resurrected, so I'm calling to exhort today, like Ezekiel, and just say marriage is such a picture of God's love for us, but the world, we have bought into the world's culture as believers that we think marriage is to serve ourselves. It is a very self-centered philosophy and that is why our marriages are ending, but God's design is that marriage is a picture of our relationship with him. He gave himself for us. He died for us. He served us. He continues to serve us and we are to serve our spouse. We are to love them. We are to give everything for them and as we do that, that is how our marriage will resurrect and those dry bones in our marriage will come back to life. So today I just would like to ask that, Lord God, you would help us to humble ourselves, knowing that you exalt us. Humble ourselves in our marriages. Help us to speak words of life to our spouse, to bless them, not curse them. Help us, Lord, to make a list of 100 things we love about our spouse, even if it is a prophetic list and some of it hasn’t come to be, we just prophetically write those things down, Lord. We believe them and we speak them. We read our list to our spouses and just build them up, Lord. I just pray, yes, you would raise up these dry bones of our marriages and breathe new life into them as we repent of just being, wanting, looking for ourselves to be healed in the marriage or wanting just our own design, having our own design, rather than having your design for marriage. Help us to repent of those things. We do repent. And help us to forgive our spouses.
Hi DAB. I'm a first-time caller. I'm Sarah from Ohio. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for a few months now and it has just been such a blessing, you know, recognizing a lot of the callers that call in. It's just amazing and a lot of the things you guys say are just really inspiring and just to know that there is a network of people around the world praying for each other. But I just wanted to call for prayer. I'm in a really difficult relationship right now and I'm trying to find a way out. I don’t really know where I'm going to be living. I just have a lot of really important decisions coming up and I just really need direction from the Lord. I need to have it pretty quickly. So if you could just keep me in your prayers that I would just know where I'm supposed to go, I would just really appreciate it. Thanks so much. Love you guys. I'm praying with you guys too, even being new to this. It is just such a blessing. Just know that you're all in my prayers. Thank.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Melody from Washington. I just praise God and thank him for so much in my life and the Daily Audio Bible is always one of those things I just praise him for because it is really a wonderful community. I'm calling to request prayer for a surgery that I'm undergoing tomorrow, the 19th, Thursday. The 19th of November. You just pray that the Lord guides the surgeon's hands and pray for a good recovery, good outcome. I just really…I feel peace in my heart about it, but I know tomorrow morning when I go into surgery I may not feel that way. So if you could please remember to pray for that, I would appreciate it. Thank you very much and God bless each and every one of you. Thanks. Goodnight.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Olynthia calling from Memphis, TN. It has been a while and I am very, very happy to be listening again regularly. God is hilarious. He has had me hear a message from my pastor about the rhema word and hearing the Word as well as reading it regularly and import it. The day that I started to get back on my regular schedule, Brian, you started James. It was so on time. I really need this kick, but I also needed to call you all and ask for your supported prayers in my workload which has taken over every area of my life. Our teaching team has fallen apart. It is unraveled. Instead of a team of four regular teachers, right now we’re down to two regular teachers and two substitutes and my partner, who was staying strong with me, has just informed me that she is taking a teaching job at another school early December. So please pray for me. I need wisdom and I need energy and I need all of the fruit of the Spirit to take hold of me and help me through the rest of this school year. I will be working with a team of substitutes to help lead our 5th grade level students to success and that is a tall order. So thank you so much for listening. I hope that what I said made sense. I will be continuing to pray for and with all of you. Thank you. Goodbye.
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Tamarie 11/23/2015 09:11 |
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