#on the website i found it on said “sinai israel”

[safije]

Bedouin Women, Sinai Egypt

[davidrmaas]

EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT

After his baptism, the Spirit “drove Jesus into the wilderness… for forty days and nights.” Like Moses on Mount Sinai, the Messiah of Israel found himself alone in the Judean wilderness where he was confronted by the Devil. His only guide was the Word of God. Like Israel, he was “tested.” Unlike that nation, he overcame every challenge and emerged victorious from the experience “FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,” and he then began to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom in the villages of Galilee.

Just as Moses did not eat during his time on the mountain, so Jesus “fasted” the entire period he was in the wilderness. Not coincidentally, his temptation preceded his ‘Sermon on the Mount’ recorded in Matthew in which he pronounced his authoritative applications of the legal statutes received by Moses on Mount Sinai.

(Matthew 4:1-2) - “Then was Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the Devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he afterward hungered.

(Deuteronomy 8:2) - “You will remember all the way which Yahweh your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.”

(Deuteronomy 9:9) – “When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water.”

Jesus was “LED BY THE SPIRIT.” All three synoptic gospels leave no doubt it was the Spirit of God that led or “drove” him to this confrontation with Satan. He was under divine compulsion. As the Messiah and God’s Son, he had to succeed where Israel failed – (Mark 1:12, Luke 4:1).

(Matthew 4:3-4) – “And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.”

The first temptation recalled the incident when the Israelites murmured against Moses and longed for the “fleshpots of Egypt.” But in the wilderness, Yahweh responded graciously by providing Israel with “manna” from heaven - (Exodus 16:1-4).

Rather than complain or demand what was his by right since he was the Messiah, Jesus responded to the Devil by citing the passage in Deuteronomy that described the miraculous feeding of Israel:

(Deuteronomy 8:3) – “And Yahweh humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that MAN DOES NOT LIVE BY BREAD ONLY, BUT BY EVERYTHING THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF YAHWEH DOES MAN LIVE.”

Unlike Israel, he did not mutter complaints against God because of his hunger. Instead, he submitted to the will of Yahweh.

[Sunrise over Waterfalls Photo by Sergey Pesterev on Unsplash]

[READ the complete post on the Good News for All Nations website at the link below]

[biblicalfeminism]

Suitable for him?

"Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18 (NIV)

"But for Adam no suitable helper was found." Genesis 2:20 (NIV)

I've hesitated to write this post for awhile now because, frankly, I felt unqualified to do so. I knew it was going to be Hebrew-heavy, and that scared me because I don't speak or read Hebrew. I am not an accredited scholar, pastor or teacher.

However.

The meaning of the word 'suitable', and especially 'suitable for him' is important to our examination of Eve. Eve represents all of womanhood, and her 'suitability' to Adam is key to that. Men have interpreted too many verses of the Hebrew Bible to be favorable to them to go unchallenged any longer. So with my limited understanding, I'm going to forge ahead and talk a little bit about this verse.

Now the Hebrew word used here is kenegedo. It is a form of the word neged, which is used as a preposition, as in the verses below. Neged is used 52 times in the Hebrew Bible in its basic form, which gives us a pretty good idea of what it meant in the text.  It usually means 'before', in the sense of 'in front of' -- some texts say 'opposite', which in prepositional terms means the same thing.

"But if you find anyone who has your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it." Genesis 31:32 (NIV), emphasis added.

"After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain." Exodus 19:2 (NIV), emphasis added

But kenegedo has two important differences from its root form; there is a prefix and a suffix attached there, as we can clearly see, and those suffixes can utterly change the meaning of the word. This is where I run into trouble, because I cannot read the Hebrew letters and understand how they change the word itself. The verses I just quoted use only neged, the basic form, and there are no other uses of kenegedo outside of Genesis 2 for us to compare against.

So we're going to try to suss out what those additions mean. I'm doing this simply by typing in search terms like 'Hebrew prefixes'. Once I got a handle on which character was the right one, I could go and look for information about what it meant. Very scientific, I know. But I cannot understate the importance of women trying to look for answers for themselves, rather than just blindly accepting what they're told. You don't have to be a scholar to ask questions -- you just have to be ready to be critical of your own answers! I tend to get help from websites like Biblehub and Understanding Hebrew, too.

A look at the word written in Hebrew shows us that the prefix used is kaf, which looks a little like a backwards C (bear in mind that Hebrew is written right to left, so the kaf is the last letter on the right). It also has a dot, or dagesh, in it, which changes the pronunciation of the character but not it's meaning. A little searching can tell us that kaf is means 'like, as', in the sense of being similar to something else.  

So far so good. Now we turn to searching for the suffix. This is called holem, and it is a pronoun indicating male (obviously indicating Adam in this case). In its most basic form it just looks like a line, though sometimes it has dots too. While the kaf is only added to neged these two times in the Hebrew Bible, there are 15 other uses of neged with the male suffix added -- these terms, like minnegedo or lenegedo or just negedo with no prefix, change the meaning of the word to mean 'in front of him' -- their prefixes obviously change their meaning, too, but I'm not getting into them here. Suffice it to say, this suffix means 'of him.'

So put it all together and we have ke-neged-o, meaning 'like as in front of him.' Kaf tells us that woman is to be like something, neged tells us that she was designed alongside that something, and the male pronoun tells us what that something is: mankind, represented here by Adam. Thus (if my Hebrew is correct, and I acknowledge that it may not be), the description of Eve as kenegedo emphasizes her similarity to man, their oneness and their sameness under God at creation.

Previously, I wrote a post about Eve being described as an ezer, a word that compared her to God. Now we see that God has also likened her to man. Could there be any doubt left that woman was made in the image of of God, that she is equal to man, that women are the same in God's eyes as men? Contrary to what some early church fathers and medieval theologians say, women are a glorious gift and an equal partner in humanity. The creation account underscores this by reminding us repeatedly that Eve is made from Adam's flesh, and then ends the chapter by making Adam acknowledge it, joyfully (Gen 2:21-24).

With this in mind, is 'helper suitable for him' really the best translation of ezer kenegedo? There is nothing in the Hebrew to suggest the 'for' that the NIV sneakily put in. I have four translations in front of me: NIV, NLT, and ESV all use the phrase use 'for him' -- only the NKJV says 'to him' rather than 'for him' (though the ESV grudgingly offers that it might be translated  'corresponding to him' in a footnote). But Eve was not made 'for' Adam. To get at the real meaning of the words, we might better translate God's speech in 2:18 as something like the following:

"I will make a rescuer similar to him."  

"I will make a mighty helper that is the same species as he is."

"I will make a savior, alike to him."

Imagine how different a young girl's Christian upbringing might be if she knew the real meaning of these words. Women aren't made 'for men', we were made with men, alongside men. That's the meaning of kenegedo.

View this post on my blog at https://biblicalfeminismforwomen.blogspot.com/2022/09/suitable-for-him.html

[dailyaudiobible]

02/11/2019 DAB Transcript

Exodus 32:1-33:23, Matthew 26:69-27:14, Psalms 33:1-11, Proverbs 8:33-36

Today is the 11th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian, of course, like I am every day and you are you like you are every day and here we are together like we are every day surrounding the global campfire as we come together to take the next step and get ourselves into this work week. So, we’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week and we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday, of course, and there is some drama brewing in the wilderness. Exodus chapter 32 and 33 today.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in the book of Exodus we witnessed…I mean…events that should make us speechless, at least in relation to the story, like, jaw-dropping stuff. Here the children of Israel have been brought out of Egypt in miraculous fashion, have walked across the Red Sea, are in the wilderness around Mount Sinai where God has come down to meet with His people and Moses has been gone 40 days and their antsy that he's not coming back. And, so they decide to create an idol and bow in worship to the idol that they watched being made and worship this golden calf as if it was the deity that brought them out of Egypt. That's pretty staggering stuff. Unfortunately, it won’t will be the last time in the Bible that we see a golden calf. And for that matter, cows are still worshiped among certain cultures today by millions of people. But I mean in the story that we have been tracking since the beginning of the year we come to this point where God has by his strong arm set a people apart and brought them miraculously out where he could reshape them and give them a new identity and this is what we find, idol worship? How could this happen, right? After all that God had brought them through, how could this happen? And that's what God thought, right? Go down the mountain right now, He’s telling Moses, your people that you brought from Egypt have corrupted themselves, right? They’re worshiping a golden calf and claiming that the golden calf brought them out of Egypt. So, I mean on one hand, this would almost be funny if it weren't so heartbreaking. God had moved heaven and earth to put in motion a promise that took generations, centuries to develop and He hadn't just shown His existence, but also His power in Egypt and He’d been feeding the people in the wilderness while leading them by a pillar of fire in the night and a cloud in the day. So, God was obviously in their midst and He had obviously chosen them. They had not only been told of their ancient story but of the story that they were currently living. In fact, they were at that mountain to meet with God and they made a false God at that mountain to worship. So, this might even be funny in our own lives too if we saw ourselves behaving this way until we actually do see ourselves behaving this way. And then it's equally heartbreaking. And when God seems distant to us or the path is fogged in and we don't know which way to go, we often find ourselves ignoring the obvious, that God has not departed, He would not abandon us, that He is present, that He has been sustaining us in ways that we've chosen to ignore and then we get obsessed and we get compulsive and we start looking for anything that's gonna promise life, even if it's only going to bring death, even if it's only idolatry. So, let's remember that the things that we give our hearts in search of life that is not God, that is idol and we find ourselves bowing before these idols perhaps more than we might realize and this is a big, big deal. Our tendency toward idolatry explains so much about our lives and the condition of our lives. And we have to pay attention because God is a jealous God, which doesn't mean God is an insecure God, right, or a manipulative God. God is faithful and loyal and good and it breaks His heart when we betray Him. And let's pause. If we are being faithful and loyal and good in a relationship only to find out that the person we have given our hearts to have been disloyal and unfaithful our hearts would be broken too and we would probably start acting very erratically very quickly. So, this isn't something that we do not understand it. It's actually a pretty sobering reality which we press into, that we can affect the heart of God like that, through our disloyalty and unfaithfulness. That should be pretty stark because it is pretty stark.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You to come into this. What are the ways that we've been searching for life that isn’t You and that we've been giving our hearts in worship to that person, that thing, that goal, that expectation, what are the ways, what are the things that we've been turning to for life that aren’t You? Things that may not be bad in and of themselves, but that we are turning to in access in hope for comfort that only You can provide. This exposes idolatry and that is a stark thing because we would never think that we are practicing idolatry in any way. We would never bow down to some kind of golden calf, that’s part of our culture. That’s not something we can even really relate very well to. Oh, but we can bow to bank accounts. We can bow to food. We can bow to people. We can look outside of our relationship with You and try to find a little life on the side. The thing is, if we tried that kind of behavior in our daily lives it would wreak havoc. And yet we don't realize the havoc that we wreak on our lives spiritually that then back fills into our daily lives by behaving this way. So, we take some time to press into this today. Yes, we would rather end today with some great word of encouragement that would help us navigate forcefully and confidently through this day, but You are leading us today to consider what we are giving our hearts to that aren't You. And, so, we’ll follow the path where You lead. What are those things Holy Spirit? We give ourselves to contemplating that today and opening ourselves to repentance. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

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Continue to pray into and over this upcoming pilgrimage that is speeding our way where we will get on a big plane and fly across the ocean and experience the land of the Bible. And many of us will be there physically in person taking this journey but all of us will be taking this journey virtually. And, so, certainly asking for God's people to intercede over this travel.

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And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi family, this is Karen from Pennsylvania and I’m asking for prayer for myself and my son, Jake. God kept me morally clean for six years and I became lonely and I started looking on apps for a partner but when I found someone I didn’t ask first of all what I should, you know, about what he believed and I got involved for eight months and I still care about him but I repent and he doesn’t want to be married. So, I stopped the relationship. So, please pray for me that I’ll stay strong and that I will no longer be enslaved to that. It’s been a weakness for a long time. I’m totally blind. My son just got diagnosed right after his 18th birthday with MS and he’s been struggling with a lot of sexual identity crisis, suicidal thoughts. Now that were both repenting of things in our life we have been hit hard with financial issues, other things, just everything right now, but I praise God because He is still good, and I thank you family. And I will do my best to keep you in prayer as well. God bless you.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Tim in Michigan calling back again. I called a few weeks ago discussing my start, infancy, of my journey through the Bible. I was actually very surprised and very much so inspired to hear so many people call in to try to lift me up and encourage me to follow this. Just letting you guys no man, it’s an amazing thing to hear the prayers and requests and, you know, my heart breaks so many times hearing folks call in that are struggling so hard. I think is really amazing, you know, you guys are truly, truly great to take care of each other the way you do. One of my favorites so far has gotta be Blind Tony. Man he calls in and every time he uses poetry I stop whatever I’m doing and give it every ounce of my attention. So, again, you know, not much new to say here, just want let you guys know I’m still here and I plan on being here for the long haul. I appreciate it. Love you guys and be blessed.

Hi, this is Michael calling from London England, United Kingdom. Yeah, I called like once before. I said I would call a few more times this year. So, yeah, I’d just like to respond to maybe certain kind of prayer requests and things and maybe also share like a praise report. And, yeah, so, like a number of people, I have encountered, you know, you know, I have, there’s kind of mental health problems like things to do with anxiety, you know, impatience, anger and stuff. And, you know, as such it has affected some of my relationships and, you know, and I’ve decided to seek, seek, you know, professional help and I’m glad I’m doing because I’m really kind of settling into this kind of therapy group. And it’s just really a beneficial way because you realize that you’re, you know, there are other people that are going through the same issues as you are. You get to share ideas about what is around and basically really get to the root of what feelings that you are experiencing when you’re having these relationship difficulties. So, you know, getting, what’s triggering the anger and what…is it related to offense. And I had a real breakthrough moment in therapy where I was like, if I actually say whatever I’m feeling something, if I actually tell someone, “look, I’m feeling offended because of XYZ” it’s revolutionary, like it changes because it’s like all of a sudden somebody else knows how you feel and then you’re able to, yeah, articulate and begin the process them. Yeah, praise report. I have my first commercial casting coming up and, yeah know, not to break __ but an actual paid acting job. So, yeah, God’s doing so many great things in my life. I hear the kind of, you know, the loneliness and people not being kind of connected but…

Hello DABbers, this is Christopher from the pretzel city. In our town this past weekend according to police a young man murdered his girlfriend leaving their 10-month-old son without parents and in an incident that may be related another man shot three men at a bar in one of the outlying towns killing two of them and wounding a third in the neck. There are a lot of people morning, a lot of people wondering what the heck is going on, and at least three children that I know of who are now missing at least one parent. Please pray for our community, pray for these families so that those who mourn will be comforted, that God will be in the midst of this and His glory will be shown through it somehow. Thank you for your prayers. And stay safe out there y’all.

[seekfirstme]

The following reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager © 2019. Don's website is located at Dailyscripture.ServantsOfTheWord.org

Meditation: Do you hold on to the promises of God at all times, especially when you are faced with uncertainty or adversity? The prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah spoke words of hope in a hopeless situation for Israel. The Davidic dynasty was corrupt and unfit for a Messianic King. Apostates like King Ahaz (2 Kings 16) and weaklings like Zedekiah (Jeremiah 38) occupied the throne of David. How could God be faithful to his promise to raise up a righteous King who would rule forever over the house of David? The prophets trusted that God could somehow “raise up a righteous shoot” from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 2:11).  Like the prophets we are called “in hope to believe against hope” (Romans 4:18) that God can and will fulfill all his promises.

Mary was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit

Mary had to face an enormous challenge to her faith and trust in God and to the faith of her family and Joseph, the man she chose to marry. She was asked to assume a burden of tremendous responsibility. It had never been heard of before that a child could be born without a natural father. Mary was asked to accept this miraculous exception to the laws of nature. That required faith and trust in God and in his promises. Second, Mary was not yet married. Pregnancy outside of wedlock was not tolerated in those days. Mary was only espoused to Joseph, and such an engagement had to last for a whole year. She was asked to assume a great risk. She could have been rejected by Joseph, by her family, by all her own people. Mary knew that Joseph and her family would not understand without revelation from God. She nonetheless believed and trusted in God's promises.

Joseph believed the angel's message "that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit"

Joseph, a just and God-fearing man, did not wish to embarrass or punish his espoused wife, Mary when he discovered that she was pregnant. To all appearances she had broken their solemn pledge to be faithful and chaste to one another. Joseph, no doubt took this troubling matter to God in prayer. He was not hasty to judge or to react with hurt and anger. God rewarded him not only with guidance and consolation, but with the divine assurance that he had indeed called Joseph to be the husband of Mary and to assume a mission that would require the utmost faith, confidence, and trust in Almighty God. Joseph believed in the divine message to take Mary as his wife and to accept the child in her womb as the promised Messiah.

A model of faith for us

Like Mary, Joseph is a model of faith for us. He is a faithful witness and servant of God's unfolding plan of redemption. Are you ready to believe in the promises of God, even when faced with perplexing circumstances and what seems like insurmountable problems? God has not left us alone, but has brought us his only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us celebrate Christmas, the feast of the Incarnation, with joyful hearts and let us renew our faith and hope in God and in his redeeming work.

"Lord Jesus, you came to save us from sin and the power of death. May I always rejoice in your salvation and trust in your divine plan for my life."

The following reflection is from One Bread, One Body courtesy of Presentation Ministries © 2019.

 

FOSTERING

  "Joseph...did as the angel of the Lord had directed him." —Matthew 1:24  

St. Joseph was a foster-father. He was not the biological father of Jesus, but he raised Jesus from birth with all the love and faithfulness as would a biological father. It can also be said that St. Joseph was a foster-husband. Mary's spouse was the Holy Spirit. She conceived Jesus by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit (Mt 1:18). The Church teaches that Mary was a perpetual virgin, devoted to her Spouse, the Holy Spirit (Catechism, 723). St. Joseph thus did not have a conjugal relationship with Mary, yet served her faithfully as her husband with all the devotion and holy protection as would any husband.

Mary certainly didn't consider Joseph a substitute husband or father. When she and Joseph found the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple, her words were "Your father and I," and "why have you done this to us?" (Lk 2:48) Mary followed Joseph's decisions with full confidence in his ability to hear the Lord.

God did not consider Joseph a substitute father or husband. The Lord entrusted him with the responsibility and honor of naming Jesus (Mt 1:25). God gave dreams and visions to Joseph. It was his ability to hear the Lord that God relied upon in giving him the orders to flee to Egypt and later return to Israel (Mt 2:13, 19-23). Jesus received His lineage as a royal Son of David through Joseph's standing in the tribe of Judah (Mt 1:16). Joseph may have been a foster-father and foster-husband, but God used him to father Jesus, our Savior, Redeemer, and Messiah. Thanks be to God for St. Joseph.

  Prayer: Father, may St. Joseph foster many holy vocations to the priesthood, religious life, holy married and lay single life. Promise: "The lives of the poor He shall save." —Ps 72:13 Praise: "O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, Who showed Yourself to Moses in the burning bush, Who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: Come, stretch out Your mighty hand to set us free."   (This teaching was submitted by a member of our editorial team.)  

  Rescript: In accord with the Code of Canon Law, I hereby grant the Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") for One Bread, One Body covering the period from December 1, 2019 through January 31, 2020.

†Most Reverend Joseph R. Binzer, Auxiliary Bishop, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, April 2, 2019.  

The Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat agree with the contents, opinions, or statements

[marcellorecords-blog]

The Ten Virgins

Matthew 24:45, “Who then is a faithful and wise servant,Mount Horeb Bible whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46, blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”

He then goes on to identify an evil servant in verse 48:

Matthew 24:48,  But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, “My Lord delayeth His coming.”

And in verse 51 we read:

Matthew 24:51, “And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Mountain of God Jesus addresses two types of servants, one who was wise and the other who thought his lord delayed his coming. The one who was wise knew that Christ is our wisdom,1st Corinthians 1:30, and the other should have believed that Christ comes quickly and has no intention of delaying His coming, Revelation 3:11; 22:7. We, His disciples, who make no room for Christ to return, is the reason why it was thought that Christ delays His coming. (see our article, No Room In The Inn )

Just before Jesus was to be crucified, He gave this parable:

Matthew 25:1, “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. 2, And five of them were wise and five were foolish. 3, They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them: 4, But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 

According to the Bible, Psalms 119:105 tells us that: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

To be a wise servant, we can’t neglect what Jesus said in the Gospel of John.

Sixth Day Creation John 2:23, Now when He was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. 24, But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men. 25, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

Jesus said that He knew what was in man. What did He mean by “what was in man”? Those who are in Christ, and are members of His body posses the wisdom of God to know and understand what had happened in the Garden of Eden. They knew and understood how Adam had made the choice for all his progeny to a death penalty, Romans 5:12.

The message of the ten virgins is for the deeper understanding of the Church Christ is building.All members of the Church, the body of Christ, have had an opportunity to read and understand what God has revealed to us, especially the fall of man and its cause, how, in the Garden of Eden, Adam rejected his creator God, changed the glory of God into a lie, and was now filled with the nature of Satan, not only for himself but to pass the serpentine nature to all born after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, Roman’s 5:14.

Adam’s Rejection of the Uncreated Life

According to the Book of Genesis, chapter 2 says that Adam was given a  warning of not eating of the Tree of Good and Evil, Genesis 2:17. Adam could have taken of any tree planted in the Garden, but Eve liked what she saw, how the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was pleasant to the eyes, Genesis 3:6, and changed her desire from the trees in the Garden, including the Tree of Life, which represented God’s uncreated Life. Adam and his wife Eve already had the human life but God’s intention was to raise Adam and his wife Eve from the human life to the Divine Life. Then, they would be legitimate true children of God. They rejected God’s Life and choose instead the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God’s tree was pure but the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a mixture. Satan was once called Lucifer and had been perfect in all his ways.

Ezekiel 28:15, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till inequity was found in thee.”

If Adam had taken of the Tree of Life, he would have passed God’s uncreated Life to those who were created male and female on the sixth day, according to God’s order. Rested with God on the seventh day, and on the next day, the eight day, they would have undergone resurrection. 8 is the number to indicate resurrection. God’s intention was to fill His children with His righteousness by filling them within with Himself. God expected Adam to do just that but he failed his test. Now, because of Adam’s failure, God had to issue a promised Seed in Genesis 3:15. who would do what Adam failed to do.

The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as well as the Apostle Paul.

We have known of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but have we considered the Apostle Paul’s book of Romans and included it as a continuation to the four gospels as well, Romans 1:1. The four Gospels were written during Jesus ministry before His death and resurrection, but the book of Romans was written after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Keeping the law will Never Save Us. We Need Resurrection

The Gospel to the Romans, the 1st chapter, is describing the pitiful condition man left to himself was in. It discloses how man is in dire need of a Savior. We need to remember that Jesus, according to the book of Romans, was not on the earth any longer, but has ascended to His Father’s Throne and is ministering to His body of believers from heaven.

Romans 1:7, “To all be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints; Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Here in the Book of Romans, we read that the grace of God is extended to His called ones. The Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written for us to understand that Jesus, as the last Adam, concluded the old covenant and brought in a new covenant, Hebrews 8:13, a covenant paid for with His blood sacrifice which was a gospel of grace and not law.

 Romans 1:25, “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, Who is blessed forever, Amen.”

The word creature in verse 25 is number 2937 in Strong’s Dictionary and it means: building, creation, creature, ordinance. It’s prime is found in 3936: create, Creator, to make.

Men have always worshiped and served the creation rather that God. Men have worshipped the sun, moon, stars, and practiced praying to people who lived in the flesh once and then died. Exodus 32:19 tells us that God’s people worshiped a calf, who they believed had delivered them from the Egyptians. They even worshiped the sabbath created by God on the seventh day. The Jews of today worship time beginning at Friday sunset until Saturday sunset as holy time. They worship a created day, not the Creator of that day.  Of course, the Jews never believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. One of the purposes of Jesus was to reveal His Father, Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22.

For more visite website : https://marcellorecords.com/biblical-topics/uncategorised/the-twofold-significance-of-mount-horeb-the-mountain-of-god/

John 4:23, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. 24, God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

We Worship the Uncreated God

To worship God, we must look to the Eternal, Life Giving One, Who says of Himself ,”I Am that I Am.”

Psalms 145:13, “Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.”

This is the life and kingdom we look forward to inheriting, to be joined to the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not created in the Godhead but as true son’s and daughters of the Eternal God and Father for eternity.

When Jesus made mention in John 2:25, “He knew what was in man,” He was referring to the serpentine nature, Satan’s nature, within all men, inherited by Adam in the Garden of Eden. This is the reason Christ died for all men, to pay the ransom price for all God would call to Himself and those who had a heart for God.

The foolish virgins were those who, although they were virgins, didn’t consider the serpentine nature within themselves and didn’t realize that they had to willingly dislodge the nature that was natural but carnal which was inherited from Adam and an offence to God. This is the messages to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation. “To him who overcomes”. We need to empty our natural life, the life of the flesh, and become a new man, Ephesians 4:24. A new creation, (creature), requires that we willingly become a new man, We can read of the action the Apostle John says of Jesus Christ immediately after being accepted by His Father, John 20:22. This can only be accomplished with the mingling of our spirit with the Spirit of God.

2nd Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

God’s Challenge

The Nation of Israel at Mount Sinai heard God speaking His law written on two tables of stone. However, we read in the Book of Galatians, written to those who believe that God’s intention was for the people to be doers of the law are mistaken. God would never command His people to do anything that would put them back into bondage.

Galatians 4:25, For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

But we, who have the Spirit of Christ, Philippians 1:19, God’s gift, Romans 6:23 are free.

John 8:36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Because we are in Christ, we not only are doers of the law, but keep the spiritual intent also. Little by little, God’s Spirit, Christ, has transformed us, who once had a serpentine nature, back to His pleasure, Revelation 4:11.

Galatians 4:26, But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all.

For more visite website : https://marcellorecords.com/biblical-topics/uncategorised/the-twofold-significance-of-mount-horeb-the-mountain-of-god/

The challenge God faced was how to get the law which was written on two tables of stone outside of man and bring the law within man. That’s the challenge and miracle performed by God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

He was spoken of as a Seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15, that seed would be placed within a virgin and called Emanuel, meaning “God with us”, Isaiah 7:14. Announced where He would be born in Bethlehem Micah 5:2, and the book of Luke tells of His birth and the events surrounding His birth, Luke 1:5-80.

He willingly gave His life for His sheep, men and women. In doing so, He took away the wall of separation between God and man. Now, because we are in Christ, we are a new creature, 2nd Corinthians 5:17, and have had our heart of stone removed, and given a fleshly heart.

Ezekiel 36:26, “A new heart also will I give you,and a new spirit I will put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

This is the work God is doing through Jesus Christ. The law that was once outside of us is now within us. The law has become part of our new nature. God has brought us out of the old man, Ephesians 4:22, a time when we did’t know God, to a new man, Ephesians 4:24,to a time when we are know of God.

The five foolish virgins lacked the wisdom of the Scriptures, and the understanding that Christ is God’s wisdom, 1st Corinthians 1:30.

For more visite website : https://marcellorecords.com/biblical-topics/uncategorised/the-twofold-significance-of-mount-horeb-the-mountain-of-god/

[travelworldnetwork]

By Clodagh Kinsella

27 June 2018

There were no signposts in the desert, but Faraj Mahmoud knew the way. A veteran guide of the mountain-dwelling Jebeleya tribe, he was escorting me – bumpily, in a 4×4 – to the Blue Desert in Egypt’s South Sinai. We rattled onto the plain, named after its now faded cerulean rocks, painted in 1980 by Belgian artist Jean Verame to mark the previous year’s Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.

I was joining a group of hikers that had set out eight days earlier from coastal Nuweiba, crossing the lands of the Tarabin and Muzeina, two of the founding Bedouin tribes behind the Sinai Trail, Egypt’s first long-distance hike. I was cutting in for the 50km-long, Jebeleya-guided ‘Roof of Egypt’ climax, which spans the Sinai Peninsula’s most iconic peaks and Unesco-listed St Catherine’s Monastery. After a mercifully short wait under the blazing late-morning sun, the hikers’ scattered silhouettes emerged like a mirage on the horizon.

People forgot this way

The Sinai Trail has been dubbed one of the best new hikes in the world by Wanderlust magazine, and was awarded best new tourism initiative, 'Wider World' by the British Guild of Travel Writers in 2016. While there are harder, headier walks, none are so rich with history – and none are built upon such unlikely bonds.

Bedouin tribes have long escorted pilgrims from all corners across the Sinai – Muslims en route to Mecca, Christians to St Catherine or Jerusalem – with each tribe handing them to the next at its border. “Then came cars and planes, and people forgot this way,” Mahmoud said. Deprived of guiding work, many Bedouin sought jobs in the city. The Sinai Trail, a fusion of old pilgrimage, trade and smuggling routes, counters that.

View image of Members of Bedouin tribes have long escorted pilgrims across the Sinai (Credit: Credit: Clodagh Kinsella)

You may also be interested in: • A side of Palestine that’s rarely seen • The temples that had to be moved • Was this the first Dead Sea Scroll?

The granite peak of Mount Sinai, the trail’s most iconic landmark, is where Moses received the Ten Commandments, according to the Book of Exodus. It’s also where, much later, Ben Hoffler encountered Mahmoud. One was an earnest young English geography graduate keen to discover the region, the other a gruff outdoorsman and BBC documentary fixer decades his senior, who knew the Sinai better than anyone. Without realising it, the improbable duo would pave the way for the Sinai Trail.

I got the story of their 2008 meeting twice, like superimposed images. “One day I’m at the top of Mount Moses waiting for the sun to rise,” Mahmoud said, using another of Mount Sinai’s monikers. “I find a man taking a lot of pictures, and I feel that this man has something, like something lost. I feel that this man can help.”

As soon as I saw the sun coming up, something woke up

It wasn’t something lost, but found: post-degree at Oxford University, Hoffler had worked for a year in Cairo and then drifted, not drawn to the typical path of a house and family. Then came the Mount Sinai epiphany. “As soon as I saw the sun coming up, something woke up,” Hoffler told me. “I had to come back to the Sinai and do a different mountain. But every time I got to the top of one mountain, I saw three more that I wanted to climb.”

Hoffler’s guide that day had seemed to be phoning it in, with Mahmoud interjecting to field Hoffler’s many questions about the surrounding landscape. They swapped numbers and met to walk and talk whenever Hoffler came down from Cairo. His eventual move to the town of St Catherine, which sprouted around the storied monastery, cementing their bond.

View image of The Sinai Trail, founded by the region’s Bedouin tribes, has been named one of the best new hikes in the world (Credit: Credit: Clodagh Kinsella)

As Hoffler’s interest in the mountains morphed into an all-out fascination with the Bedouins’ nomadic ways, he spent a decade hiking 10,000km across the peninsula (resulting in a book, Sinai – The Trekking Guide). All the while Mahmoud strode at his side or called on connections to remotely smooth the way. “I'm not sure why Faraj helped me,” admitted Hoffler, too embarrassed to ever ask. “Maybe he saw us as similar in a way.”

Post-2011 Arab Spring, Sinai tourism collapsed, preoccupying both men. Mahmoud felt that Bedouin guides must unite to survive, rather than running scattered hikes across the region. Hoffler cited the success of long-distance routes like the Jordan Trail – and they decided that their best chance was to focus on a single path, uniting swathes of the community around it.

Mahmoud, a Jebeleya leader well respected across the peninsula, approached the Sinai Trail’s two other founding tribes, and selected representatives with enough sway to get things done.

“He’s the unsung hero of the Sinai Trail,” said Hoffler, who is a co-founder but not credited on the Sinai Trail website. Mahmoud is credited, but reticent about his role. I had to drag this story of the trail’s founding out of both of them; it doesn’t appear anywhere.

View image of Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments, is the Sinai Trail’s most iconic landmark (Credit: Credit: Jon Arnold/Getty Images)

The trail launched in 2015, weeks before terrorists downed a Russian airliner over the Sinai, adding to existing woes (the region is still red-lit by most governments). But with the awards came hope – and venturesome Cairenes, their trip photos blazing a virtual trail that’s boosted traffic on the real one.

Joining 16 hikers, bound by blisters, was as disorienting for me as the relentless, rocky landscape soon pounding my shoes. The first night, at 1,670m, we huddled around a fire in a windswept valley under a canopy of stars. The routine was quickly set for the next three days: wake at sunrise, walk for four or more hours, and shrink back into the scant shadows for lunch – feta and salad wraps, oil and juice dripping onto the burning rocks – and a siesta. Several strenuous hours later we’d reunite with the camels bearing our camping gear, and have dinner and a fireside story from charismatic Jebeleya head guide Nasser Mansour. We zipped tents at a tame 20:00.

Mansour has been showing visitors the Jebeleya’s backyard for 20 years (his ancestors first came to the area in the 6th Century, to protect the monastery). In taking logistics off his hands, the trail has made his life far easier. “I wish it had happened 10 years ago,” he said.

With the Bedouin culture slipping away, Mansour’s nightly tales, passed down from those forebears, felt like testimonies. “People need to know our history,” he said. “Just to see is not enough; you also have to listen.” While he could identify the other tribes from a distance, they’d been ships in the night before the Sinai Trail. Now they run like a relay team. “When we work together we are stronger,” he said.

View image of Nasser Mansour: “When we work together we are stronger” (Credit: Credit: Clodagh Kinsella)

“Yalla bina,” Mansour yelled in the morning, dragging on a roll-up. “Let’s go.” By lunch we made camp near Elijah’s Basin, washing in a rare well with a tin of Cretan olive oil. That night, high above our tents, my head torch illuminated a pair of eyes. Exposed, I froze in horror, but the camel regarded me dully through long lashes: he’d seen it all before.

No-one had been blasé a few hours earlier when three mountain ibex appeared midway up Mount Sinai’s final 750 torturous Steps of Repentance, begun by a sinful 6th-Century monk. We tiptoed higher, penitent when they scarpered, but soon were consoled by the summit, its Toblerone-shaped shadow projecting back on the ridge that we’d come from.

Heading to Mount Catherine, we took ancient paths laid by the Byzantines, early patrons of the ‘Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai’, to pay St Catherine her dues (the monastery is alleged to house the Burning Bush, from which God revealed himself to Moses). “People say there are no more places like this in the world,” Mansour said. Switching back across blazing slopes behind the camels, we piled onto the snug summit, higher than all in Egypt – an equally beguiling thought.

View image of The Unesco-listed St Catherine’s Monastery is believed to house the Burning Bush, from which God revealed himself to Moses (Credit: Credit: travelgame/Getty Images)

A forlorn brick shelter with a metal roof semi-open to the stars housed our final dinner: warming lentil soup and vegetable pasta with memorably yellow cheese. After a story about the saint whose mountain we sat upon (monks found her body after a dream), one of our group asked Mansour if he had a dream. “Yes,” he said, not elaborating. And then, finally: “To continue living in the mountains, just like this.”

And it seems that his dream will become a reality. Three weeks later, in early May 2018, the Sinai Trail expanded from 220km to 550km, with five more Bedouin tribes joining the co-op after the founders saw the chance to extend its benefits and do further justice to the Sinai’s legendary sights. By reviving age-old union the Towarah Alliance, which once bound seven South Sinai tribes (and adding the Tarabin, who were not part of the original agreement), it has opened up a travelling route not hiked in more than a century, according to Hoffler – bolstering the Bedouins’ heritage and shifting visitors’ perspectives of a region that, right now, severely needs it.

Just to see is not enough; you also have to listen

Our hike was to be the last on the original trail; it is now possible to cross the whole Sinai Peninsula, from the Gulfs of Aqaba to Suez, in 42 days. The first organised group hike of the new route, which is the most viable option for solo hikers, is slated to begin on 26 October 2018. It will last 24 days (the first through-hike will happen in 2019), with the possibility to join halfway through.

“People look different when they come in from the desert,” Hoffler had told me intently, and the romantic proposition had lodged in my head. Now, like an echo, I heard Mahmoud: “For some people, the Sinai is like medicine, it can fix your problems,” he told me. “Forty-two days in the desert is really not easy,” – longer than Moses on his mount – “but some people need it I think.”

Sinai Trail highlights

Outside of organised group hikes, individuals can walk any part of the 550km trail, from one to 42 days, at any time. A guide is obligatory. These three hikes are the most scenic additions to the trail:

Jebel Serbal (3-4 days; 25km) All towering pinnacles and shadowy ravines, Jebel Serbal is reputed as the Sinai’s most beautiful mountain – and, long ago, was held to be the real Mount Sinai of biblical fame.

Serabit el-Khadem and El Ramla (4-5 days; 65km) A rugged trek from an old turquoise mining area – housing the South Sinai’s sole surviving Pharaonic temple – to the region’s biggest sand desert.

Jebel el-Gunna and Jebel Hazeem (4-5 days; 75km) These two high, windswept plateaus are ideal for stargazing, and form part of a remote land where, as per Exodus, Moses and his people went astray for 40 years.

For me, four days wasn’t enough. I’d return, and next time I’d be going the distance.

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The post An epic hike of biblical proportions appeared first on Travel World Network.

[m-rabie]

Naguib Mahfouz, the man we all wronged

Original article was published on Madamasr here.

1988

As usual I sat at the front, close to the blackboard because I’m short-sighted, and to the left, so the teacher’s body wouldn’t hide what he wrote.

On that particular day the teacher was absent. I don’t remember what he taught us or even who he was, but I remember the substitute who came instead: An Arabic teacher who had taught me the year before and whom I had understood very little from. Instantly the memory of incomprehension came back, along with the idea that he was a bad teacher. A few of my classmates surrounded him, but he didn’t seem to care for the mess, the shouting or the kids standing around him, or even for the kids sitting like me, chatting with their neighbors.

Suddenly I heard someone ask him about Naguib Mahfouz, who had won the Nobel Prize a few days before. I’d heard about it in the news and what he did wasn’t a mystery to me — I knew he was a novelist and I knew of the prize-winning novel, but I didn’t remember who had told me.

As if he had been waiting for a question to bring order to the class, the sub said: “If you want to know about Mahfouz, you have to return to your seats.” Those around him did sit down, the rest quickly followed, and we all listened.

He said that Naguib Mahfouz was an atheist Egyptian writer who did not believe in God and that he had written an atheist, infidel book, which said “God has died” on the first page. He didn’t tell us the title of the book, of course, fearing that we would read it and be tempted, and none of us asked for further details because of his excessive harshness and the idea of Mahfouz-ian heresy that was deserving of execution.

Maybe many of us didn’t give much thought to the awful details related by the substitute teacher, but something settled in my mind and refused to leave. For years I kept asking around and looking for Mahfouz’s phrase, “God has died,” in every magazine or newspaper I put my hands on. I eventually learned that it appeared in his novel Awlad Haretna (Children of Gebelawi, 1959). I read a lot about it, but never succeeded in finding a copy.

1994

I heard the news on the car radio. Unusually, my father was driving me to school and he was listening very carefully: Naguib Mahfouz had been stabbed while walking down the street, but he hadn’t died and was in a stable condition in hospital.

Dozens of images came to my mind of his turtleneck sweater, his neutral grey jacket, his slow walk and his back bent under the brunt of something I didn’t comprehend. I remembered that I’d lazed around a lot and hadn’t yet finished all of his novels, as I’d planned to do that year. Something told me that if I didn’t finish, the man would die and it would be my fault.

It didn’t take much intelligence to realize that the teacher who called Mahfouz an infidel had something to do with what had happened that day. Disbelief flies in the air and stabs with a sharp blade. The desire to enter heaven, to purge an infidel society or to set the rules of Islam — these are three of many motives driving that stabber or other potential stabbers, and it all starts in school when a person we trust, whom our parents also trust, tells us without doubt that Mahfouz is an infidel.

I was still faced with a dilemma — I had yet to find Children of Gebelawi. Perhaps I’d have to skip it, but I didn’t want that. For some reason I’d decided to read Mahfouz by order of publication date, but my terrible mistake was to neglect his short stories, so I only read them later. Anyway, the absence of Children of Gebelawi from the shelves of our small library was an inescapable stumbling block.

1996

One of my friends was holding a copy of Al-Tariq (The Search, 1964) and saying: “Mahfouz, that infidel!” We met at a bookstand in Heliopolis, and he pulled the book from its place and put the stigma of disbelief on the man, just like that. The stabbed man was still in recovery, but the blasphemy accusations never ceased, even from a young man my age who drank beer, smoked hashish and listened to heavy metal.

We proceeded together toward downtown Cairo, walking a long way before he took his leave and left me at Taalat Harb Square. There, at one of the bookstands, I finally found Children of Gebelawi — and in an unusually large size. The vendor handed it to me with a beautiful smile and said: “Absolute infidelity!” This was getting boring.

I went home and started reading the book, fell asleep three hours later from fatigue, then woke up after dawn and continued to read. When I read that Gebelawi had died, I was shaking.

***

But this did not start in the 1980s.

It’s said that when Thartharah fawqa al-Nil (Adrift on the Nile) was published in 1966, military commander Abdel Hakim Amer was infuriated by its descriptions of hash-smokers’ gatherings, possibly somehow reading it as slandering his person. It’s also said that he called Gamal Abdel Nasser and said Mahfouz should be imprisoned, to which Nasser responded: “How many Mahfouzes do we have, Amer?”

The story is clearly false. It’s one of those stories “the Egyptian state” (that complex and mysterious phrase) spread to put Nasser in a good light and everyone else in a bad light. It reeks of the Egyptian state not only because it presents Nasser as aware and understanding, but also because it treats Egyptians — in this case Mahfouz — as chess pieces manipulated by the state to tell stories with a specific purpose and for complete control over the board, attributing absolutely no will or choice to the pieces themselves.

But this wasn’t the state’s only interaction with Mahfouz. It’s also said that Nasser once asked journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal about Mahfouz’s next work, and Heikal responded laughingly that he was about to publish a novel by the author that would “bring disaster” in Al-Ahram. “Only to you,” Nasser told him. I have no doubt that both stories come from the same person. Nasser has the same quick wit in both, and in both the narrator dismisses Mahfouz as a chess piece to be shamelessly manouvered.

Stories about the state’s maltreatment of Mahfouz are many. They include harassment from Al-Azhar University because of Children of Gebelawi, forcing him to resign as head of the censorship authority. They include the censor’s brutal treatment of Karnak Café (1974), cutting so much that it became riddled with plot-holes and appeared more like a draft than a novel by Mahfouz at the height of his craft and creativity. They include Anwar Sadat’s insulting treatment of him — and others — for signing Tawfiq al-Hakim’s 1972 petition denouncing the state of “no war and no peace” since Israel occupied Sinai in 1967. And there are stories about security reports that criticized Mahfouz for talking about “democracy” and other heresies that threatened the Egyptian state.

2016

On social media website Goodreads, readers trade their views about books. On the Karnak Café page, I was surprised to find that someone wrote that it’s the best book he had read by Mahfouz, and that he personally envied Farag for what he did.

The name Farag does not appear in the novel. It’s the name of the man who raped Souad Hosni’s character in the film of the book, in a scene where we see her in total breakdown, degraded, afraid and wishing for death because of the brutality she’s confronted with, a scene that depicts rape as an atrocious act against the victim, and a crime not only against the victim, but against the country itself.

Maybe the commenter imagined himself raping Souad Hosni. Mahfouz did not write the details of the rape in the novel, but described it metaphorically in a single line, leaving the rest to the imagination of the reader who lived through that awful era of Egyptian history, and was familiar with what was going on. Or perhaps the censor removed part of the account. We’ll never know.

What saddened me was that the commenter didn’t notice the plot-holes and confusion obvious to anyone reading the novel with care, only seeing the rape incident as an act to be envied.

2014

Here’s a story I never get tired of telling. I was attending an event in Mansoura, in a large theater where some veteran actors were preparing to read selections from Mahfouz’s Ahlam fatrat al-Naqaha (Dreams of the Rehabilitation Period, 2004). Helmy al-Namnam (then a representative of the Culture Minister) was speaking onstage about the connection between Mahfouz and Egypt getting rid of the Muslim Brotherhood a few months before. He said the knife that stabbed the author was close to stabbing Egypt itself. He was cleverly tying together the fates of Mahfouz and Egypt, alive and timeless, now and forever.

Namnam then left the stage and the actors went on, each reading a “dream,” each with their own style and voice. It seems the person who chose the texts was smart, as half of the “dreams” read included harsh criticisms of the Egyptian state, of a ruler who is a fraud, a thief, an embezzler, an oppressor and who treats Egyptians like chess pieces to move as he pleases, without care for their will or desires.

2016

The same year again. On the sidelines of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, on a panel I participated in, an Egyptian reacted sharply when I criticized how Egyptians dealt with their colonizers. Angrily, she asked me not interfere with history, not to mess with it, and unhesitatingly used the example of Mahfouz, who “told the history” of Egypt in his novels.

The first thing that came to my mind was Mahfouz’s Zaqaq al-Midaq (Midaq Alley, 1947), which was written when Egypt was still under British occupation yet has no depiction of the Egyptian resistance, even though the freedom fighter is ubiquitous in television, movies and books about that era. I thought of citing Midaq Alley and Mahfouz’s dismissal of the “freedom fighter,” maybe because he thought the resistance was not serious, not enough to warrant the label, or maybe because he was writing a novel not a history book, writing down his view not “telling the history” of Egypt. But I chose to stay silent. It was obvious the woman had not read the book that the panel was about. It also seemed she had never read a word by Mahfouz.

1988

The Egyptian state was in crisis, as usual. A weak economy, meager industry, endless fights, a “democracy” with one party monopolizing everything and Hosni Mubarak, who knew almost nothing of what was happening around him, earning an enduring nickname: “la vache qui rit” (the laughing cow). If not for a few smart advisors, it would have been a disaster for all. Suddenly, everyone got a surprise: Naguib Mahfouz had won the Nobel Prize. The first Arab, the first Egyptian, and not in a scientific field but a creative field that everyone finds mysterious and attractive.

Mahfouz instantly became a star and the state decided to forget the grudge it bore with this old chess piece, but without forgetting the role it gave him. Indeed, it planned to make him the best, most active piece in the coming years: massive praise in newspapers, endless articles, countless titles (“Egypt’s fourth pyramid,” “the Arabs’ Nobel,” etcetera), magazine pullouts, books and the Order of the Nile awarded by Mubarak — the highest praise the state can offer a chess piece.

Mahfouz, intelligently, accepted all this with contentment. An elderly man cannot face the Egyptian state. Even a young man full of enthusiasm can’t. I think he thought it was all serving his literature in some way, that the state’s interest in him would create wider readership for his work.

He only hoped to spread his word more, and the state hoped to put itself in a good light, betting on the idea that Egyptians don’t read, an idea it planted in everyone’s mind years ago: books will ruin your head, drive you mad, get you arrested. In the end, Mahfouz’s hope didn’t materialize but the state’s plan worked to completion.

2016

Yes, a third time. It was a dark year.

The fallout of novelist Ahmed Naji’s case is endless, even after his recent release, because he “violated the decency” of a citizen with his writings. Part of this fallout was an Egyptian prime minister announcing that Mahfouz had also “violated public decency” with his Cairo Trilogy (1956-7), and he was not tried then only because no one presented a case against him, but he was still a criminal in the eyes of Egyptian law. If Mahfouz was alive today, he added, he would have been tried and sentenced. Rejoice, Naji — your name was mentioned the same sentence as Mahfouz, you were accused of the same thing and if he were alive you could have been cellmates.

It was truly a rare moment. The Egyptian state announced its secret view of Mahfouz, the chess piece used for years against his will. Such moments come after the state has an overwhelming triumph, as we see in every corner in Egypt right now: no one objects, no one opposes, whoever speaks is a traitor, whoever writes is immoral, whoever comments must be tried and whoever thinks is an infidel. Intellectual terrorism with every sentence and every thought. Nothing can stop the Egyptian state’s holy march. It hasn’t beaten the other chess player; there is no other player. The state has defeated the chess pieces themselves: Mahfouz and all other Egyptians.

But the state has not been the only one to wrong Mahfouz. We have all wronged him: when we called him an infidel, envied Farag, claimed Mahfouz “wrote the history” of Egypt and called for his imprisonment. We, fellow oppressed chess pieces, wronged someone who wrote for us and showed us everything that was inside him, all his puzzlement, questions, doubt, faith and the love with which he replaced everything. We wrong him more than the state does, because we never read what he wrote.

___________________________________________________________

This piece originally appeared in Arabic. It was translated by Ahmed Bakr.

[dailyaudiobible]

02/10/2018 DAB Transcript

Exodus 30:11-31:18, Matthew 26:47-68, Psalms 32:1-11, Proverbs 8:27-32

Today is the 10th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today at the close of another week. And we just keep taking these steps forward and the weeks go by and we move our way through the Bible. It’s incredible, the rhythm that is established and the change that is available inside of ourselves as the Scriptures speak to us. So, we’re at the close of another week. And we’ve been reading from the Good News Translation this week, which is what we’ll do today. We’ll go back out to Mount Sinai where the first of the law is being given and we’ve seen ordinances put in place toward the priesthood, a group of people that are being set apart out from this people to continually tell the story so that they don’t forget and to minister before God. And also of a tabernacle, a portable temple, essentially. A place that will sit in the middle of the camp with all the tribes encamped around it so that God will meet with them and move around with them, will be with them wherever they go, wherever he leads them, right in the middle of it all. So, today Exodus chapter 30 verse 11 through 31:18.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the New Testament, in the book of Matthew, we are moving through the story of Jesus’ last days. And we’re seeing how alone Jesus was in this. We’re seeing that He was abandoned by His friends, those who had walked with Him, those who had heard Him minister and saw Him heal. And they left.  They ran away. And Jesus was taken from the garden of Gethsemane, so this olive grove on the side of the Mount of Olives and back across the Kidron Valley and into Jerusalem, where the high priest’s quarters were. Ruins still exist today. And it’s one of the places that we will visit when we’re in the land of the Bible. And we’ll be heading off on that trip, whether virtually or in person, we’ll all be going together and we’ll be departing a week from today. But as we read through this story in Matthew, if it doesn’t make our hearts drop, like, if we can’t see this Jesus that we have come to know and love and have sought to be like. Right? To be Christ-like. We’re seeing what He’s going through and it’s so, so heartbreaking. That God, the Creator, would come to earth to rescue people and people reject Him outright.

In a few days, this coming Wednesday, the season of Lent begins. And we’ll talk about that when we get there. You may know all about it, you may know nothing about it. That’s all fine. We’ll talk about it when we get there. But one of the purposes of the season of Lent, this forty days leading up to Easter, is contemplation. Just to understand and try to allow it to sink in, what it cost. What the price of sin is. Right? So, in the Old Testament, the book of Exodus, we’re seeing rituals being laid out that include sacrifice. This is intended to show them what the price of sin is. But in Jesus, we see the awful, awful price that it cost to give us salvation, that is a gift that we cannot earn. So profoundly humbling to contemplate. So, yeah, the season of Lent is about that and it begins on Wednesday, but we’re right here right now in this story. And so just understanding what it was Jesus had to endure is humbling and we should be humbled by it.

Prayer:

Jesus, we are humbled. We are. Because we have run away and abandoned You, too. We have run and run and run in so many directions and You have still kept leaving to find us. And why You would value us individually so much is beyond comprehension. But it’s plain to see. Your word reveals to us Your heart toward us. And, so, what else can we say? Thank you isn’t enough. Like, words begin to fail completely in the face of what You endured on our behalf. You didn’t have to do this. It was love, and it’s reaching across time, beyond comprehension, and spilling into our lives and it should create in us a response of humble adoration and worship. And, so, that's where we are.  We worship You.  It's beyond our ability to grasp, what You endured. And when we look at our lives, it's all because of Your sacrifice. And, so, we thank You, Jesus. Today, we just take these moments to thank You. And, Holy Spirit, we invite You because we want to spend this time in contemplation, to really appreciate what we take for granted so often. Come, Holy Spirit. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it's home base, it's where you find out what's going on around here.

So, as I just mentioned, a week from today we'll be leaving for the land of the Bible and be doing a tour there for the next couple of weeks. And I would ask in advance of the community that we all begin to pray over that. It's a lot of work. It's a grueling thing to be touring all day, maintaining Daily Audio Bible, everything from across the ocean. So, there's a lot of component parts and just a lot involved. Absolutely breathtaking, beautiful to do and we'll be working every day to make this as virtual as possible for those that are not actually there. So, you definitely want to follow the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page or Daily Audio Bible Instagram page. We will be posting from Israel a lot, but we're going to need your intercession. And, yeah, it needs to start now and cover us all the way through - health, transportation, jet lag, fatigue - all of it. So, if it comes to mind, if the Holy Spirit begins to bring that up, thank you for your prayers over that as we pilgrimage to the land of the Bible with the intention of opening up the Bible and making it a real alive place that it is. So, thank you for your prayers.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this is bringing life into your life, then thank you for your partnership in keeping it alive. There is a link that's sitting on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942 4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi there. I am Peggy and I so appreciate DAB and appreciate the opportunity to hear Brian read the word so clearly because I have a hard time reading. It’s just difficult for me now. And I can’t carry a burden by myself. And, so, I am sharing it with you all. I’ve called several times through the years with a heart concern asking for prayer. I just want you to know that always grateful for those of you who will join the praying of the concerns of my heart. And know that I take the prayer time seriously and lift so many of you before the Lord. I thank you for joining me. And, I will say that I’m in my early 80s, and my husband was a minister, and died suddenly just a few months after he retired. We raised four children and now have 13 grandchildren. Last spring during a routine visit with my ophthalmologist for macular degeneration, I was given a shot. And I found, 12 hours later, through hard pain and in the middle of the night that my eyesight was gone in one eye and it will not be recovered. And it was such a shock and so sudden and so much pain with all that. And, anyway, good medical report one day and the next no sight in one eye and lots of adjustment. I was hospitalized in rehab and that had been home and on my own over the last eight months. And today by Dr. at the medical school said he thought the I should be removed. It’s been hurting him there’s no pressure in the eye which is not a good sign. The thought of going through that kind of surgery is horrid to me. Friends I don’t think I can do it. I am asking that God will keep my eye from deteriorating more, to keep my body from rejecting the eye. I’m frightened of surgery and I don’t want more pain. I’m sad. I just feel like I’m too old to go through that. Anyway, though I’m vital in many ways. Please join me in…

Hello DAB family it’s Akhim from Alberta Canada. I’m calling from my brother Blind Tony. I just heard you calling and asking for prayers with regard to your cancer on the podcast on January 30th. Tony, your poetry has been a real, real an inspiration to me for the past few years. And I just pray for you my brother, that God’s will be done in your life. I know He’s the God our healer and He can do amazing things in our life. My brother, you’ve been so great to so many people through poetry. So, we just take heart and know that God is with you. Let’s pray. Father God, in Jesus name I thank you for my brother Blind Tony. You know his heart, You know his mind, and You know his spirit Lord. So, let Your will be done in His life. May You be with him and his family. Give him a living touch Lord. You know You are better than any doctor we can have Lord. And You can do exceedingly and amazingly more than we can think or even imagine. You can do quickly ___. So, I just pray for Tony, that You touch him and You heal them Lord with Your great hand. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Hey brother. God with you. Thanks.

Hear me dear Lord as I go through this day To glorify You in every single way And not bring reproach by the things that I say To believe in your word and just trust and obey There’s darkness around me please give me more light Let me know Father that everything is all right Dispel all the shadows make everything clear And when I get lonely God please linger near Strengthen my faith God and let me shine bright Knowing in all things that I’m truly alright And when there is sadness Lord help me to smile To believe and hope with the faith of a child Dependent in all ways just like life is to the sun Not my will Father but thy will be done

blindtony1016@gmail.com I’d like to thank everybody for their many, many prayers. And also, does anyone know anything about Bill B? I haven’t heard about brother Bill in a long time. And thank you once again, Brian, for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flown’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.

Billy in Montgomery, Show Me God’s Love, Melissa in Alabama, Walta, Shantee in Detroit, Terri, Drew in the bay area. Salvation is Mine, Blind Tony, Pastor Gene. I am calling these names out because you guys have been on my heart, deeply, for all that you are going through. And when I am praying for you I am praying for myself, that God is going to claim the victory, that whatever it is we are all battling in this moment, God is in it, God will bring us through it. He is going to heal us from the top of our head to the soles of our feet. I want all of these prayer warriors that are a part of this DAB family to all come together and lift up all of those that have called in, all of those who have not called in. All of the names that have gone unspoken, know that your names are not unspoken. To all the new callers, you think you know what this is about. You have no idea. I have been listening to the DAB for 13 years, 13 years. And when I tell you I thought I was just joining something to listen to a podcast about God, I had no idea the connections that I would make. Living so far away in Munich Germany, I have found a family. I have found a deeper relationship with the Lord. Brian Hardin, you and your family, China with the chronological Bible, is just blowing it out the park. You guys have just no idea how wonderful this is. And to all the people behind the scenes, Sarah Jane in her entire staff, everyone that makes this happen. I pray prayers a blessing over you, prayers of your household. Victoria soldier I love you, Melissa and I Alabama, I…

Hi family. It’s Shannon from Texas. And I have a message for Jordan from Michigan. Is it Michigan? Jordan the teacher, I want to say LA. I don’t know which one. But Jordan, I love you so much. I’ve always listen to you and when you called in and prayed for my son to Jadrian, we just him Jay, I know Jadrian’s hard to say, it was so on point and so led by the spirit, everything that you said. And I was thinking about how you’re a teacher and how God has to be using you so mightily. I know He is. I’ve known from every time that you’ve called. And how it would’ve been so nice when my son was in school if he would have had someone like you. He really didn’t, not here we live now. The Lord told me just to take him out of high school and it’s kind of a long story but it was awful. We didn’t have anyone. And I know that the Lord can use you mightily. He is using you mightily. If you look at it every day like you were going in, and I know that you do this, you’re going into a ministry, and it is a ministry, and know that the enemy has come against you, come against your mind, tried to come against you in every way. But know that God has put you and ordained you and purposed you for this life, that you are being used mightily, and you can overcome this this feeling of it always being a battle. I know it feels like this right now, but if you just stay in him and keep pressing in, you will get past this and this will be a glorious life for you at the service for the Lord. This is your purpose, this is your passion, and this is God’s plan for you. So, just press in, don’t give up, we love you and we are praying for you.

Hi this is Lara calling from Lionel Lake Minnesota. I just wanted to say thank you everybody for this program. I am so, so, very, very happy I found this program. I do listen carefully to everything that everyone says and it just means so much to me. So, please keep sharing everything because you have no idea how much you impact others. So, bless you all and just know that God not only is listening, but other people are too. I wanted to say the purpose of my call is to encourage you all and also to let you know that I am struggling with my spiritual walk with God. And, so, that’s why I found this program, to help me finally just grow spiritually. And I have a son that I raised in the word of God when he was little and now he’s a 17-year-old child who’s really struggling to find his way in the world. And he’s kind of strayed from God’s word. He started doing that since he was 12 and he’s been living in a situation with custody shared. He lives with his dad and his dad is…let’s just say it’s not a very good environment for him. So, I pray…

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02/06/2018 DAB Transcript

Exodus 23:14-25:40, Matthew 24:29-51, Psalms 30:1-12, Proverbs 7:24-27

Today is the 6th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It's great to be here with you as it always is, every day, for these moments that we can step out of the chaos, and allow God's word to be a part of our lives, guiding and instructing us as it does so well. So, thrilled that we can take the next step forward. And the next step forward will take us back into the book of Exodus where we’re hearing the first of the law being given to govern this new people that God is forming out in the wilderness. So, we’re reading from the Good News translation this week. Exodus chapter 23 verse 14 through 25, verse 40.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Exodus we are at Mount Sinai. God has come down upon the mountain to speak with Moses. He’s telling Moses what the culture is to be shaped like. And Moses is writing this stuff down and formalizing it. The people are agreeing to it and entering into covenant with God about it. And then he gives them some advanced words, because it's not like they’re in the desert, and God’s going to give this law, and everybody’s going to agree to obey it, and they’re going to go marching into the promised land, and it's just all going to happen in a day, kind of like drive-through freedom, kind of like instant gratification. It’s not going to work like that. The process is important, even though the process is going to take some time and will have its own set of difficulties. Yeah. So, you see how we’re talking about our own lives again. Right? You see how this story becomes a mirror into our own souls. So, if we could hear the words spoken to the children of Israel in the Scriptures and apply them to our lives, it would sound like this. I will make the people who oppose you afraid of me. I will bring confusion among the people against whom you fight and I will make all your enemies turn and run from you. I will throw your enemies into panic. I will not drive them out within a year’s time. If I did the land will become deserted and the wild animals would be too many for you. Instead I will drive them out little by little until there are enough of you to take possession of the land. So, if we could just remember, ‘little by little’, as we walk through our days. If we could understand where we’re going, what we’re doing, what we’re invited into. What God is calling us into isn't going to be like going through a drive through. It's going to be little by little, but a little every day gets you to the end. So, kind of like what we do here at the Daily Audio Bible together every day. Little by little we go through the entire Bible. And we have plenty of time to talk about all kinds of things. It becomes comprehensive. It becomes embedded in our souls. It becomes a part of who we are. Little by little we are getting there.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word, for the encouragement that You are the Almighty God and anything that opposes You has no ultimate chance of victory. And when we are walking with You, when we are in Your will, when we are moving in collaboration and relationship with You, that extends to us. And, so, Father, little by little, continue to do the work inside of us. And little by little, allow us to take the land. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

On the calendar tomorrow, tomorrow evening, I will be on the West Coast in Bakersfield California, and I'll be speaking at New Life Church, and I'm looking forward to it. So, if you're if you're out there and you're in the area come say hello. Looking forward to that. The information that you would need to know can be found at dailyaudiobible.com in the Events section. We’ll see you tomorrow night.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then thank you, humbly. We are a community and we do this together and there is no other way. So, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer with reque…reque…I can’t talk…I don't know why…all of the sudden…but if you have a prayer request or comment, there are few numbers that you can call depending on where you are in the world. If you're in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number. If you're in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 and if you are in Australia of the lands down under 61-3-8820-5459 is the number.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello Dily Audio Bible. This is Nathan from Bloomington Illinois. Hey Brian, I listened to your commentary on the 29th and, oh man, you are spot on, that was so wonderful to hear, what you had to say. I think we find ourselves so much in that situation that we get caught up in what we believe and knowing that’s right when it may not be. And we want to claim that were right, we want to claim that we know things, but maybe we don’t know as much as we think we do and I am in that boat and that’s one of my struggles, about always being right and listening more than talking. And you know, that I know I need to see God daily for wisdom to show me every day, every brand-new day, to show me what I need to say, what I need to do, how I need to think, how I need to perceive things, because it’s so easy wrapped up on being the __ and not even know it. Discernment, that’s my word for this year, discernment. So, just wanted to share a little bit of that today. Thank you so much again Brian and Jill for what you do and the team behind the scenes and making this all happen. I can’t fathom what the day-to-day operations are but we thank you. We are blessed because you’ve been blessed. So, have a great day. Make it a great day.

Hey everybody this is Pelham from Birmingham, Addicted to Christ. Brian, man, your message, I’m pretty sure I’ve called in and said both things that you said - a lot of us here ourselves saying in our own heads like, I’m under attack, or I can’t withstand this attack, or the attack is really bad right now, the enemy is really coming against me. I’m pretty sure I’ve said that, probably two times in the last two months, maybe three times. So, you’re reading me like a book. You’re reading my mail man. I mean the words about deception and what’s really going on in this world and what God is using, the enemy schemes, what he’s doing with it, what he’s using it to do to strengthen people and to teach people what forgiveness means and to refine and…anyways…Brian, I just had to call in and say thank you today. You blew my mind, your words were amazing. And everybody, I went to work for the first time. Someone literally said, I don’t know who it was there, but they said first day worst day. And I don’t know who said that, it was one of the other workers, and they had like five people say that this is half of what I was making when the owner of the bagel, __ bagel, decide it wasn’t a good fit because he thought that my dreams were in a different place, to do something with my own company or, you know, web design, other stuff that I do. Anyways, I was just calling in to say that I love you guys. Thank you for praying for me and please keep praying for me and Molly and Anderson in our financial situation, my job situation. Bye.

All is well. I am Daniel I ask you all to pray with me my brothers and sisters listening this moment. The most high God, this day You have made for us. Father You said the wonders shall not cease. Thank You. I am honored father to be a brother of Your Daily Audio Bible family. We are fully armored Father and we stand together moving forward with You. Father You said, if You are for us, who dare be against us. There is no obstacle on our path bigger than You father. Father You said, speak of that which is not as if it were. Father You said You have not because You do not ask God. Father You said in Your word that I Am that I Am. I ask You Father to open the eyes of faith in my brother Pelham, that he may see clearly Your perfect will this moment. Father of our faith and Your faith together is unlimited. Our yes and Your yes is limitless Father. Thank you. I am Daniel. I am fully armored and I stand with you Pelham and all of my family in Christ. In all ways, here, this moment I seek him. Lord find his name and further his kingdom, answering his call saying, here, Father I am. In Jesus name. Amen. Pelham, my brother in Christ, choose to believe His word each moment you wake opening your eyes to a new day He has made for you. You are His most prized possession as the child of God you are through His word. Receive the gift already given in expectancy my brother, according to His perfect will. His more than enough good is already yours to choose from to receive by believing what He has already spoken. He cannot lie. He said I will not, will not, will not, fail you. Believe the good inside you and listen clearly. See what is yours through eyes of faith. Blessings that chase you down and overtake you and all of those He has…

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Paul from Houston. And I just want to call and request prayer for my marriage. I’ve had a separation for a good part of a year, starting around Valentine’s Day of last year. And I’m just praying that God could restore different things. I’ve seen him in different ways...it’s been a tough year but it’s been kind of an amazing year in some ways because there’s been addictions that have been broken and things that have been broken over many years that have…that God is allowing to minister to other people and to go into situations that I would never have anticipated. And I’m just praying though, that God could restore what the enemy has stolen and what he’s taken for me and my family. And I just thank you. I thank you guys so much for…for the ministry Brian…and all the people praying. And I tell you…it’s such a blessing to listen to so many different prayers from so many different people. Thank you for praying for me and my family as I want to pray for yours. And I just thank you and you all have a great day. Paul from Houston. Thanks.

Hey, this is Jaden Lopez again from New York. I want to say thank you for all the prayers that you guys have given me. I really enjoyed that __ prayed with me throughout this time. And I love you guys. __. Keep praying. ___ . Thank you.

Hey everybody it’s Peter from Toronto. It’s the 30th of January around 2AM. The reason I’m calling is that I am going through some changes, or enlightenment, stuff that I was brought up with in this particular church I found out that the Bible doesn’t pass or cut mustard as they say. And my current church and Daily Audio Bible is speaking of the same thing of deception and another YouTube ministry was speaking of the same or have the same sort of sermon. So, I believe God is speaking to me on that, that way. Recently, I haven’t been able to settle down, doing my normal prayers, and relaxation. Though a lot of people have been asking me to pray for them for different health issues, I have done a tracheary prayer for them. I like to get really into the muscle on the meat of things and I’m just so upset. Another thing at work, it’s people are asking me to speak up for them or holding me as a person that will speak up for them and speak the truth. And I don’t know if I am able to take that responsibility or I have just have been…just…basically…I’m just exhausted and I need your prayers and to help me through these patches. My family, especially for my daughter, who is been estranged for years because of her mother and my mom passing away three years ago. Her birthday was on the 25th and that threw me into a tailspin as well. So, I’m really discombobulated or whatever. Anyway, blessings to everybody.

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02/10/2020 DAB Transcript

Exodus 30:11-31:18, Matthew 26:47-68, Psalms 32:1-11, Proverbs 8:27-32

Today is the 10th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it's wonderful to be here with you as we move into this workweek. We’ll also be moving through the center of the month in this week and there’ll be some international travel going on before this week is out. And, so I'll talk about that in a little but let's gather, let's do what we've come here to do, and allow God's word to speak into our lives today. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. We’re in the book of Exodus and, you know, there’s been all this flurry of activity that's been going on since the beginning of the year and the children of Israel have found themselves now in the desert in the wilderness at the mountain of God at Mount Sinai and God's giving instructions, forming and shaping the culture of His people. So, we’ll continue that journey. Exodus chapter 30 verse 11 to 31 verse 18 today.

Commentary:

Alright. So, has anybody been bored with the reading that we’re doing in the Old Testament over the…over the weekend or the last few days? All these instructions - use this kind of clasp, make it this long, use this kind of basin, make this kind of thing with gold molding. It's easy enough on a couple of levels to just get lost in kind of check out. I assure you it won't be for long. But let's consider a couple of things. Number one, the drama of the scene that is happening. There is over a million people surrounding a mountain out in the Sinai Peninsula – deep, deep desert, complete wasteland. Fire and a thick smoke is coming to down on the mountain and lightning. And people have heard the voice of God and its freaked everybody out. Now Moses is at the top of the mountain receiving these instructions from God. And, so, we spent the last few days receiving these instructions from God, what He wants done when Moses goes down the mountain and begins to form the infrastructure of a complete culture. So, what has happened for us is that we've moved from a narrative story into an instruction manual. So, like, you know, raise your hand if you like, you come home from a long day at work, you're settling in on the couch, you’ve decided not to watch TV or anything tonight, you’re just gonna have some quiet time and you’re gonna read. And, so, you go scouring through your house trying to find as many instruction manuals as you can find, right? You’re like, I really should…I really probably should know how the hot water heater works in its entirety. I…I really should know this HVA system better and here's the manual or probably even better yet, it's Christmas time and you have children and you have boxes full of presents of things that have to be put together. Do you just revel in that instruction manual? Probably not. Probably more than half of us don't even read that manual. We just dig in and see if we can figure it out, but invariably, we probably have to consult the manual because we put it together backwards. God is telling Moses how He wants things to be put together. And once He does we’ll get back to the story, which is right in front of us.

In the book of Matthew Jesus has been arrested and it…He's being questioned by the high priest. Pretty weird when you think about it - the high priest of God questioning the most-high God. In the end of the people decide to convict Jesus of blasphemy. So, basically that means that…that they viewed what Jesus said, specifically that in the future “they would see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God's right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.” They considered that to be utter contempt for the glory and holiness of God, that He was profaning God which was a capital offense for them, which is what they were looking for, exactly what they were after, some way to get rid of Jesus. And, so, we’ll continue this story and I imagine that most everyone knows where this story is going but we only have so many times to come this way in a year and it's one of the most important stories we could ever know. And, so let's be sure to revere it, to give it reverence because it deserves it in our lives as we go through the day contemplating what it took to give us the life we have.

Then we move into the book of Proverbs and Lady wisdom, the voice, the feminine voice of wisdom is coming out of the Bible and speaking to us and today she said some very profound, like the…very profound things about herself. She says that she was there when God established the heavens and when he drew the horizon on the oceans. And she was there when He set the clouds above and when He established the springs, the waters of the earth. And she was there when He limited the seas so they wouldn't spread up onto the land. When He marked off the foundations of the earth, She, wisdom was the architect at His side. She was, according to the Bible, His constant delight, rejoicing always in His presence. And how happy she was, how happy Wisdom was when the world was created. How she rejoiced with the human family. And, so, she pleads, “listen to me. All who follow my ways are joyful.” I don't know if you’re catching what Proverbs has been telling us since the beginning of the year but she has been telling us that she is available to us and that she was there with God from the very beginning even before humanity was created. So, wisdom is flowing through creation and is more ancient than human beings. So, we have to wonder why we cross through most of the crossroads of our lives ignoring that she's there at the crossroads waiting to tell us which way to go. Like, we have to wonder why we ignore wisdom as much as we do when it was through wisdom that everything we have experience of has been created. Wisdom may be the greatest gift of God for understanding our lives and yet the greatest gift that we just walk past constantly. So, yeah, we should be paying attention here. Wisdom is something we need to acquire and that will be a process but she's telling us that if we look for her we’ll find her. So, if we’re looking for wisdom in our next choice, we can find it. Let's find it.

Prayer:

And, so, Father we invite You into that. Again, we’re asking for wisdom. Help us to tune our ears, to have ears to hear her call at the crossroads at the junctions of our lives. Forgive us for our foolishness and the ways that we have cultivated a relationship with the ways of foolishness. Help us to follow the path of wisdom we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's the website, it’s where you find out what’s going around here.

This is gonna be a travel week. Later this week we’ll be heading out and moving our way toward Israel where we will do the Daily Audio Bible pilgrimage for two thousand…for…for 2020. And a great sense of anticipation, a great deal of planning and preparation and prayer has already gone into this and looking forward to it very much, but definitely inviting the community to begin to pray over all that’s gonna happen and we’re gonna pray over this the whole time that we’re gone, but thank you for your prayers. And even as we're preparing to go and even as like a couple of bus loads of people who are in this community from all over the world are gonna join together and where gonna become one big happy family when we meet in Ashdod on the on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea in just a few days, we won't be going alone. We don't go anywhere alone in the Daily Audio Bible. We’re never alone. We’re in this together. And, so, as real as that pilgrimage will be everyone…everyone can come along. Everyone is coming along. And, so, we’ll be broadcasting from there and talking about what we’re doing each day and posting all kinds of pictures and videos on our Facebook and Instagram accounts. And, so, it becomes quite the virtual tour where we’re visiting places that we’re reading about, standing in places that we visited in the Scriptures and everyone gets to come along. And then when we get about halfway through the trip through the trip, which will a week from this Saturday we’ll be broadcasting live once we get to the Galilee. And, so, you can tune in, ask questions, just be a part and just kind of hear different stories that are happening on this trip. It's a fantastic time. So, I'll keep you posted about that.

If you want to come. If you want to come next year on the pilgrimage for 2021, we have decided we’ll be going back in 2021 and registration for that pilgrimage is now open at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Just look for Israel 2021 and you can get all of the details that you would need for making that decision and hope to see one day in the land of the Bible.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at the website dailyaudiobible.com as well. There's a link that's right on the homepage. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Fee from Mississippi and today is February 4th of 2020. And I just…this message is for Anonymous. Anonymous called and says she’s in an abusive relationship…an abusive relationship. Anonymous, I am praying for you. You need to get out of there Anonymous. You don’t…you and nobody else deserve to be in those kind of relationships. I grew up and watch my mama go through it and I promised that my kids would never see me go through it and I wasn’t going to go through it and I thank God I have never been through it and I’m not going to go through it. There’s people out there that can help you Anonymous. I just pray that you get the help that you need. Please, get out of the situation. You can do it. I know you can. While you may love him, but you don’t deserve this. Walk away from him. And I thank you, thank you so much Daily Audio Bible. Thank you, Brian and Jill for all that you do. Everybody have you wonderful day. This is Fee from Mississippi. Thank you.

Hi Daily Audio Bible listeners, this is Brent from California and I’m calling in to pray for Daniel Johnson Junior of Cincinnati Ohio. I heard that you had congestive heart failure and in the name of Jesus I’ like to speak healing into your body and into your heart. May Jesus renew your heart and heal you. May you be in perfect health just as Jesus healed others when he was on earth. In addition, I pray that you will find a better job than you had before. Regardless of all the things the enemy may be saying to you, we speak in Jesus’ name that you will find the job of your life and be joyful in it and prosperous and healthy. In Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.

Hi, my name is Kyra I’m calling from the UK. I’m using a pseudonym. I’m a new listener to the DAB and I started kind of early this year. I’m just calling in because at this point, I’m not really sure where else to reach out. I’ve heard of people calling in it seems to really improve things for them and how God kind of touched their lives and I’m really in need of some kind of divine healing. But so many things are happening right now. You know, especially with work and employment. I just kind of lost out on a job that I really, really needed at this time. And it’s kind of like I just feel like I can’t catch a break. I don’t know where God wants me to go. I don’t know what He wants me to do next. I’m just at a loss for where He wants me to go, especially with, you know, my family right now really broken. My self-esteem is in a similar kind of space. I’m…I’m concerned about a lot of different parts of my life and I just don’t really know how I’m going to get any healing and am trying to stay faithful and that’s kind of why I’m calling today and is my first time. I just kind of…I’m just praying for healing, praying for breakthroughs, praying for divine intervention in my life for something good to happen. And I just pray that…that that maybe someone out there listening can…can pray for me and pray for my family and the brokenness that’s there in so many…in medical and physical and…and relationship wise. So, thank you. Thank you, guys.

Good morning DAB family this is Healing Hands from Gaithersburg Maryland. I was on a train and I just heard Michael asking for prayers for his mom because she’s in the hospital and basically in a coma like state. Michael, I pray for you. I pray for your mom. I pray for your brother. I pray for every heart that your mom has touched. I pray that regardless of if God is ready for her to come home, that you in your brother will ultimately be taken care of and together. I pray that you know that regardless of what happens that you have a family in the DAB. You have a family of those that know that God is with you and he is your strength and guidance and it’s in Jesus’ name I pray for you and your mom and your brother. And I pray that you get all that you need in life in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This is Joanne from Happy Valley and I want to say hi Michael. I heard your call today and I thank you for your update on your mom. And I know you would love to keep her with you, but I see that you also can understand that God may be ready to call her home for her eternal rest. All I can say is she is completely in God’s hands and so are you. I know that she has done a good job raising you. I believe that you and your brother will be fine because God is not only with your mom but he’s also with you in everything that you do. I join you in prayer that your mother will be restored. We don’t know whether God intends to restore her here or to take her home and fully restore her but do know that either way our prayers are always with you and your family. Your mother has left a beautiful legacy in her book and also in her beloved sons and we need to give God the thanks for that. Do have a blessed day and do keep in touch with us and let us know how she’s doing. Love you all. Bye.

Hey there this is Mike from New York City and I’m calling to pray for a…a brother who’s mom has stage IV brain cancer and she’s in the hospital again and just praying for deliverance for her not to die. My experience, 12 years ago my mom had cancer, stage IV and I prayed hard and I prayed, and I was in the hospital all the time playing the guitar, singing worship, reading her the Bible. And, you know what? She did pass away. A hard, hard night. Hardest night of my life. But afterwards, like right afterwards, within a half-hour, a couple came from my church that was just being nice and coming by to help our family and they said on the way over here that their son said he got a message from God saying that June, that’s my mother’s name, she’s healed. And at first I just felt, “what?” And they sat down with me. They said they weren’t sure they would tell me what…tell me that because mom just died, and it might sound crazy. But you know God said he was healed. And that was when their son texted them, right after my mom died. So, even though its hard man, death is a rebirth for us to love Jesus who are chosen by Yahweh. Death is a rebirth and a healing, a freedom from pain. So, it might suck bro, if you mom dies. It will be hard, but Jesus is with you and He’ll take you through it. So, lean on that and, yeah, I love you dude. And I know how it feels and, you know what, one day we will all know how it feels. All right. Goodbye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family it’s Loralee in the Boynton Beach. I have a prayer request. I have a friend, a coworker recently, I believe born again five years ago. His name is Ricky. He’s on his way over in about an hour. He’s gonna spend the day. I’m cooking, encouraging people, singing, praying, watching the chosen. So, I invited him over. He lost his son to a murder five years ago here in Boynton Beach. His name was Ricky. He recently lost his wife. She died in her sleep suddenly. And two months after that he had a stroke. So, God has used all this pain to draw him to Himself. We know that God uses pain for good for, for His great purposes. So, I just pray that the Holy Spirit fills me with the Spirit of encouragement. He has great musical gifts that I don’t know anything about. He had a scholarship to the Chicago music conservatory when…before he got married and had children. And we all know that a lot of times God has gifted us for great things and then life, unbelief, not following Him leads to a path of diversion that brings us always back to His loving arms. And I just pray that, Holy Spirit fill me with the encouragement that Ricky needs today and to just spend time and a heart of compassion, which I already do in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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06/18/2019 DAB Transcript

1 Kings 19:1-21, Acts 12:1-23, Psalms 136:1-26, Proverbs 17:14-15

Today is the 18th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it's a joy to be here with you today, settling into the new week and moving our way through the story of the prophet Elijah as we move our way through the book of first Kings. We’re reading from the Amplified Bible this week. Today first Kings chapter 19.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’re moving through the story of Elijah, the prophet, and we’re actually kind of coming to the to the end of his story and his protégé, Elisha, will take over and we briefly met Elisha today. So, I mean, what happened here right is that Elijah proclaims that there would be no more rain which lasted for several years, bringing about famine. Nobody could find Elijah and God tells him to show himself. He does to King Ahab and then subsequently there's this showdown between the prophets of Baal and Ashera and Elijah. And God answers with fire and all of these false prophets are executed, and then Elijah tells Ahab rain is coming and a cloud comes up out of the ocean and sure enough rain comes. But Ahab tells his wife Jezebel what Elijah did and she sent him a note, right? In this modern era it would be a text, but she sent him a note that basically said, “may God judge me severely if you're alive tomorrow.” So, I mean we can understand, right? We get a nasty text or whatever. Something happens. We hear about something. Word gets to us that just ruins our day, right? It just puts ice in our veins and we can't really function through the rest of the day because we’re obsessing about the message that we received. This is basically what happened to Elijah. On the one hand, having the knowledge of what just happened on Mount Caramel we could expect Elijah would be like, “yeah, yeah, whatever. Bring it on”, but that’s not what he did. What he did was run away. And he ran all the way to Beersheba. That's pretty far. Like, understanding the geography of Israel, at this point, Mount Carmel to Beersheba is over 100 miles. So, he booked it. He didn’t have a car or a motorcycle or anything. He just ran down to Beersheba, which is a long way. And then he went a day more into the wilderness and then he rested and rested because he was going to Mount Sinai. So, he's so far, like he’s way down in the Sinai Peninsula, hundreds of miles from Mount Carmel and he’s complaining that he's the only one left, right? We can find ourselves here because on both counts we’ve probably had these experiences. One we see God move in a mighty way then something happens, and we get a nasty message and rather than going, “yeah, whatever, my God is an awesome God” we go on the run. And when we get to the end of our running our complaint is that we’re the only one that understands us, we’re the only one left. So, let's look at that for just a second. What if you were the only one left? What if that was true? In Elijah's case that's how he felt. It wasn't true, but it's how he felt. But what if it were true? What if you were the only one left? What God told him to do was come out on the mountain to meet Him and there's this fantastic display of signs, powerful, powerful signs like wind and earthquake and fire. But God was not in any of that. God was found in the silence, the still, small voice. And he told Elijah to go back the way he came because he needed to anoint two kings and he needed to anoint the one that would follow him. So, Elijah’s out in the wilderness begging from God to let him die because he's the only one left and nobody cares anymore, and God's like, “basically, even if you were the only one left why would I do that? You need to go make more if you're the only one left before you can check out a here. The mission is not accomplished.” But he did give Elijah advance words about who would come after him. So, he could see that his journey wasn't over but where it was leading. We have to think about this in our own lives because we find ourselves hiding out in a cave saying we’re the only one. Why are we hiding in a cave if we’re the only one? If we’re the only one then we’re the only hope. As we will see Elijah obeys God and we’ll follow that story and move into the story of Elisha, but for us today let's remember the words of the Lord to the prophet Elijah in the cave on Mount Sinai, “what are you doing here?” And may we follow the Lord back out into the world where we carry the hope of the world along with us and may we remember what the Psalm told us over and over today, “His loving kindness endures forever.”

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. We do believe that Your graciousness and Your mercy and Your compassion and Your long-suffering and Your loving kindness do indoor forever. For some reason we just choose not to participate, not to come close to Your lovingkindness. Rather, we find ourselves in a cave on the run saying, “we’re the only one”. Come to us Holy Spirit, bring Your comfort, bring Your still small voice of direction, and may we follow You on the path that You lead us. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And there's always something or another going on around here. So, check it out.

Check out the Community section where you can get all the links to the different social media channels that we are on. Visit the Prayer Wall there in the Community section as well and pray for your brothers and sisters. Maybe you have something that you need prayer for. It’s a good place to go.

Reminding you the Daily Audio Bible Family Reunion for 2019, right, the global campfire Family Reunion is coming up August 31st through September 2nd. You can get all of the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the initiatives section. Come, hang out on the grounds, camp, stay together, play together. It's…there’s so much to do there. You just have to go to the page and you can register and we look forward to seeing you and hanging out a little later in the summer.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, I couldn’t possibly thank you enough. We are a community, we’re a family of believers here who consider the rhythm of the Scriptures in our lives every day as something that's essential. And if that resonates with you and is bringing light and good news into your life, then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that is it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DAB family, my name is Bella and ‘m calling from England as I’ve got a praise report. I got a fellowship to the…for an executive MBA at Cambridge University. And it’s a massive, massive deal. I mean, just getting to Cambridge has it’s own challenges itself but __ it has to be God, it has to be God’s favor. So, I’m really excited and I’m very grateful to God. And, so, I just wanted to raise all the glory to Him and I’d like you to pray for me and that course __ and it starts in September, just for God’s grace and favor to follow me through. And I’d also like to encourage anyone who’s praying for something like this or anything to do with education, just to say God is still in the business of doing miracles and He will see through whatever desire is put on your heart. And very quickly I’d like to give a shout out to my prayer accountability partner, Kat. Thank you so much for all that you do to me. And thank you Brian, thank you Jill and the entire DAB family. Love you guys. Take care. Bye-bye

Hello, it’s Kelly from Australia, I just wanted to check in and just let you know that I’m thinking of you all. Just a shout out to Margot and Uganda. I am praying for you every day. Mark Street, my Aussie friend, I am praying for you every day as well and your son and your family. Victoria Soldier, I’m praying for you. Blind Tony, I’m praying for you. Abiding in Him, I’m praying for you. I’m praying for all of you. I just wanted to give you guys a shout out and just let you know that I’m thinking of you. Jamie with the…I think it’s Jamie in Canada…with cancer, I just…I’m lifting you up to the Lord and praying for your health. So, I’m just praying that God would inspire courage in your heart to fight this and to keep going. Brian, who is deaf and blind I believe, I am praying for you every day as well. You must be so frightened, and I just pray God would just bring peace into your heart and into the hearts of your family as well. I’m thinking of you. I am celebrating seven days sober today. I am very excited. It’s a massive…I mean hold the applause…it’s only been seven days but I am quietly confident that this is…this is the time…this is the moment. So, anyway I am praying for you all and I love you and I will check in again soon. Okay, by friends.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family it’s Jay from Nashville. I know it’s been a while guys. I’m so sorry. I’m listening every day, praying every day. I’m so excited about the Family Reunion. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it this year. You know, finances are really tight. So, pray for me there, that I’ll be able to discipline myself enough so that I can save up to come because I know that it fills up fast. So, listen, so this is, you know, just my advice to you if you haven’t been to the Family Reunion yet. If there’s a possible way that you can make it, I strongly suggest that you do everything you can to get there. It is really an amazing experience that you just won’t get anywhere else. Remember, I love you guys and yes I promise I will call in more often. Love you, bye.

Hi, this is Living in Hope and I’m calling in, I’ve been a listener for many years and I’m calling in because I desperately need to break through. My husband recently had an emotional affair with someone at work that he works closely with and we’ve been working through that. Unfortunately, she still works for us. He and her husband and herself all seem to think that’s fine and refuse to move on even though they know that it’s very, very painful to me. And he still has the freedom to call her and text her supposedly about work things, but I have no idea what they’re saying to each other or what’s in the texts. He says he’ll show me, but, you know, he can delete anything, and her husband doesn’t really pay attention. So, our relationship is going good. I just know what’s real and, you know, what’s really happening between them. And he says she works for us week by week, you know, just for now to see how things are going because she’s a very important part of our company, but I recently found out that she is scheduling herself for something months away. So, I feel very…I feel like God has been asking me to let Him move this mountain and fight this battle for me, but I just don’t know how to handle the daily anxiety and stress. I believe my husband’s sincere, but I believed he was sincere before too when it was all going on. So, it’s hard to know and I’m just really desperately asking for your prayers for real breakthrough. I just want freedom from this thank you.

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03/23/2018 DAB Transcript

Numbers 36:1- Deuteronomy 1:46, Luke 5:29-6:11, Psalms 66:1-20, Proverbs 11:24-26

Today is the 23rd day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It's great to be here with you as we approach the weekend. It's great to be here with you for the next step forward in the Scriptures. And today we will be concluding the book of Numbers and then launching ourselves into the book of Deuteronomy, which means we will be launching into the final book of the Pentateuch or the Torah, but we’re not there yet. We'll talk about that when we do get there. Let’s dive in and conclude the book of Numbers by reading Numbers chapter 36. And we’ve been reading from the New Living Translation this week.

Introduction to the book of Deuteronomy:

Okay. So, that concludes the book of Numbers, which brings us to the book of Deuteronomy, which, like I said a minute ago, is the final book in the Pentateuch of the Torah. Deuteronomy literally translates, second law, and it's a retelling of the law or Torah to the Jewish people. It's really a little bit more than a review though. It's a bit deeper than that. Because what is contained in the book of Deuteronomy are the final words of Moses. So, we've been traveling with Moses for a long time. Under Moses leadership we've seen God move in miraculous ways and rescue His children and assemble them as a people and establish a culture, all under the careful leadership of Moses. And what we find in Deuteronomy are his last words. Moses is about to die. We heard about that when we were reading the book of Numbers. He’s about to go up in a mountain like his brother. So, as we cover some ground we’ve covered before we will sense the more passionate version of the telling because Moses knows this is the end of his life and he knows that he's passing the responsibility and it's been a great burden and responsibility to lead this many people out of slavery in the showdown with Egypt across the Red Sea into the wilderness and change identity from slave to chosen people. That has been quite a story with fits and starts. Now Moses has to pass that responsibility on to a new leader who will be Joshua. Moses, in Deuteronomy, is reminding the people where they've come from, where they are, and where they're going. And in doing so he's pleading with them to obey the words of the Lord. If they will just obey the promises of God will be fulfilled. So, Deuteronomy is basically laid out in the three final messages from Moses. The first one is the recalling of what happened in Mount Sinai, when God came down on the mountain and met with the people and the 10 Commandments were given and it follows all the way to where they are right there in Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho in the Promise Land. And he appeals urgently that they will be faithful to God. Then his second discourse is the retelling of the giving of the 10 Commandments, where he gives the first commandment particular gravity. He talks about what it will be like when they go over the Jordan and the temptations that they will encounter and the tremendous importance of faithfulness and obedience, once again, to God. Obedience is the key to their success and really their only hope of a future. And then his third and final talk, which concludes the book of Deuteronomy, reviews where they've come from - who they are and where they're going. And it's his final plea to be faithful to God. And it renews the covenant with God. He warns them of disobedience and the repercussions of breaking the covenant. And then ends with Moses final instructions for his successor, his final instructions to the people, and his final blessing over the people. So, the mighty man, Moses, who, as a baby, was placed in a basket in a river and that's where we picked up a story to start with. He grew up in Pharaoh's house, killed an Egyptian, ran away to the desert only to be called and summoned by God in a burning bush, to go back to Egypt so that the people might be set free, through the plagues, the people were set free. And Moses had been there leader ever since. Moses was, in so many ways, responsible for saving the people of Israel because on number of occasions God was ready to wipe them out and start over. Moses and Aaron are found on many occasions flat on their face before God to intercede on behalf of the people. And, so, we read Deuteronomy this is the end of that story. And Moses blesses the people one final time and then he dies, which is where we'll find ourselves at the end of the book of Deuteronomy. But now we are at the beginning. Deuteronomy chapter 1.

Prayer:

Thank You Father for Your word. We thank You for it every day because we’re thankful and grateful every day. And as we move into the book of Deuteronomy and review the story of the wilderness, we once again thank You for all that applies to our lives in those stories. It is our story being told back to us over thousands of years and we recognize that and we invite Your Holy Spirit. As we prepare to move forward and into the Promise Land, that we review and consider the story of the wilderness. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It's home base. It's where you find out what is going on around here.

And just a couple days from now, On Sunday the 25th I will be speaking in Louisville, Kentucky AT New Song Christian Fellowship. So, looking forward that. And hope you can come out and say hello.

We’re moving into holy week. So, the 25th is Palm Sunday. And, of course, a week from today is Good Friday. So, we’re moving right into the Easter season. So, as we continue through the season of Lent, this the time to really, really consider, really, truly embrace the cost of our salvation. Something that we have accepted so freely and should, but it didn't come freely. It came at great cost. And, so, we should spend some time over the next week just really embracing that fact. And then as we approach Easter. It makes our joy, our utter relief that we are saved and have entered into eternal life all of the more beautiful and meaningful. So, let's pay attention to that as we move into the new week.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There's a link on the homepage. Thank you for those of you who have clicked that link. Thank you. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877 942 4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I am Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey good morning Daily Audio Bible Family. It’s Mydia from New Jersey. It’s Tuesday, March 20th and I’m calling to lift up all of our UK sisters and brothers that listen and that call in…just…you’re such a blessing to us and Father God, I just lift them up and all their intentions. I also lift up the intentions of those who don’t call in. Father God, You know who they are. And I just thank you for the blessing them and for keeping Your promises to all of us Father God and I ask that we stand in those promises. I also wanted to just make a comment about today’s reading about when the devil is tempting Jesus. Do you really think that he’s going to give Jesus the kingdom? He’s gonna…I mean…of course…Jesus is not going to succumb but that’s what the devil would do. He was laugh at Jesus after Jesus said yes. And he such a liar. Father God, may be please realize, identify, and just vanquish and call out the devil for his lies and may we just stand in your promises. May we remember all the things that you’ve done for us. And in the hard times may we just hold onto that until our knuckles are white father God because you do deliver and you have delivered us. May we remember like the other caller said, all the things you done for us. I want to lift up my friend Wendy. Her husband just passed away. He was 52. She’s not even 50 yet and they have two teenagers. Father God, may they know You. Reveal Yourself to them. May they just lean on You for everything because You will deliver them, because we trust in You and You have proven to us over and over again that You are truth and may our identity be found in those who feel that they need love from people. May we always, always just cling to You because that’s who we are, Your beloved sons and daughters. In Jesus mighty and precious name we pray. Amen.

Good morning family. This is Cherry Chase Cherry Pie. Hope all is well. I had a dream last night about our group, about the family, about Daily Audio Bible. __. I had a dream about us last night and it was beautiful. The dream was just…someone had called and assuming I had a prayer request and someone called in for a prayer request to lift me up. When I woke up this morning I thought about David, David from Florida. I was intent to call to lift you up to let you know that I’m praying for you. You said something that touched my heart. You said…you really didn’t say exactly what was going on with your family…your situation…but you said you had some difficulties and that you were scared and that kind of did something to me. I just want you to know that God is a fear. He’s of peace and a sound mind. So, I have your back David. I am definitely covering you in prayer. This is David from Florida. You called in last week sometime, but I just want to let you know I have you covered my brother. I love you and your family. You guys are gonna be okay. We all go through something. And that something you didn’t share, but I just want to let you know I thought about you so much that I had a dream about the Daily Audio Bible. So, I got you David. Don’t worry. Don’t be scared. God is not a fear. Just be of sound mind and know that God is with you. I love you my brother. You guys have a great and wonderful a marvelous day.

Hello this is Anne from North Carolina and I wanted to share about one of the ways God is using Daily Audio Bible. My husband and I have been teaching English as a second language for 4 to 5 years and there is one particular young woman who is back in China and she has not found a church there. She did become a very strong Christian while she was in America, attended church and Bible study all the time. And she now has a little toddler. She is married. But she’s not found a church or fellowship. And Daily Audio Bible is her link to fellowship. She listens in English so that she can keep up her speaking and listening English and she sends me a texts of audio recordings of her observations. So, praise God for how God uses daily Bible. And would you pray for Coco for, is for American name, that God would bring one other strong Christian woman into her life. It is very hard to find because everything is secret and people don’t talk about things openly. But pray that God will bring another Christian into her life right there where she lives in China so that she can have fellowship in the flesh with someone that can read the Bible with her and pray with her. Thank you Daily Audio Bible family. I love you.

He family. Heather here from Northern California. I haven’t called for a while but I wanted to call and give you guys a praise report. Do you remember last year when Brian announced that they came up with the journals and those very cool pencils? Well that’s always been something I’ve wanted to do, is journal. So, my husband and I decided to buy these, get the pencils, and were going to just make a commitment to write down our Bible struggles and do our prayers. And bottom line, what we discovered in that whole process, we’ve been doing it now for about six or seven months or so, is that the Lord has showed us that we need actually take action for any kind of change that we want to do for our lives. And I’m almost 50 years old and I would’ve told you that I just was born with a tendency to be anxious and have fears and just had to be crippled by those things in my life. And I know a lot of us suffer from that sort of debilitating thing. And what He’s showed me by the journaling thing and by washing myself in His word is that we have to make a decision, we have to take action, we have to choose to do something different. And although it wasn’t easy to continue to do it and I had a lot of battles, it was a choice and fully on this road to healing my mind and not listening to the enemy who wants to rip me off and tell me that I’m just born this way. And, so, I just wanted to share that with you guys. There is victory and we don’t have to live with anxious thoughts and doubting things. And be encouraged and, you know, take action. Do something. It’s all throughout the word. He tells us to do that. So, go. Be encouraged. Love you guys. Bye-bye.

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03/23/2017 DAB Transcript

Numbers 36:1-Deuteronomy 1:46 ~ Luke 5:29-6:11 ~ Psalm 66:1-20 ~ Proverbs 11:24-26

Today is the 23rd day of March.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I'm Brian. It's great to be here with you today as we take the next step forward through the scriptures this year and we will complete the book of Numbers today and begin the book of Deuteronomy.  So we’ll talk about Deuteronomy when we get there, but first Numbers chapter 36, verse 1 through the end of Numbers and then Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 1 through 46.  

Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)

The final book in the Pentateuch or the Torah, everything that we’ve read in the Old Testament up to this point, the final book in that grouping of books is the book of Deuteronomy, which literally means second law.  It is really much deeper than that because this book contains the final words of Moses.  

Under Moses’ leadership we’ve seen God move in miraculous ways and rescue his children and assemble them as a people and establish a culture and this happened under the careful leadership of Moses and these are Moses’ last words. Moses is about to die.  We’re about to cover some ground we’ve covered before, but we should sense the more passionate version of the telling, because Moses knows this is the end of his life, he knows he is passing this great responsibility of leadership on to Joshua.  Moses is reminding the people where they’ve come from and where they are and why they are there and where they are going.  In doing this, he pleads with them to obey the words of the Lord. If they will just obey, the promises of God will be fulfilled.

Deuteronomy is laid out in three final messages from Moses.  The first one is the retelling of what happened at Mount Sinai when God came down on the mountain and met with the people and the Ten Commandments were given from that point, all the way to where they are there in Moab, across the Jordan from the promised land, and he appeals urgently that they be faithful to God.  

Then his second talk is the retelling of the giving of the Ten Commandments where he gives the first commandment particular gravity.  He talks about what it will be like when they go over the Jordan and the temptations that they’ll encounter and the tremendous importance of faithfulness and obedience to God.  Obedience is the key to their success and their only hope for a future.

Then his third and final talk, the very final words of Moses reviews where they’ve come from, where they are, where they are going.  It's his final plea to be faithful to God and it renews the covenant with God.  He warns them of disobedience and the repercussions of breaking the covenant and then it ends with Moses’ final instructions for his successor, his final instructions to the people, and his final blessing over the people.  

This mighty man Moses, who as a baby was placed in a basket in the river, grew up in Pharaoh's house, killed an Egyptian and ran away to the desert only to be called and summoned by God in a burning bush to return to Egypt to set the people free.  Through the plagues, through the mistrust, the people were set free and he was their leader ever since.  Moses was in so many ways responsible for saving the people of Israel because on a number of occasions God was ready to wipe them out and start over with Moses. Moses and Aaron are found on many occasions flat on their faces before God to intercede on behalf of the people.

This is the end.  Moses blesses the people one final time and then he dies which is where we will find ourselves at the end of the book of Deuteronomy.  But we’re only at the beginning, Deuteronomy chapter 1.  

Prayer

Thank you, Father, for another day in your word and for the wisdom and for the transition into new books, new vantage points, and for all the lives that have gone before us that we can read into and walk alongside and find a mirror into our own soul.  So we thank you for your word and we thank you for your word in community.  We thank you for this community and pray your blessing and kindness and good favor over us each.  In all, through all, for all, by all, with all, we thank you for your presence.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It's home base.  It's where you find out what is going on around here and today is the day.  Today is the deadline day for the More Gathering for Women that begins two weeks from today in the mountains just outside of Atlanta, GA, in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.  They are beautiful.  I'm looking forward to seeing…  It's always beautiful there.  It's like new life springing forth, but Spring has kind of sprung a little early in the south so I'm eager to see what it is going to be like up there.  But it will be beautiful.  So this is the day.  If you’ve been thinking about it, today would be the last day to check it out. So you can check it out at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Just look for the More Gathering or just go to www.MoreGathering.com and it will take you there and all the details you would want to know are right there.  So we’ll see you very, very soon.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com as well.  There is a link on the home page.  Thank you.  If you use the app, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.  

And, as always, we’re a community.  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 and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.  

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi dear family.  This is Pastor Gene.  Dear Candace from Oregon, I have loved you from the moment I met you on the phone line and I love you every day more.  The __________ honor of your husband who is now with the Lord.  I rejoice in his graduation, but I'm terribly sorry for your loss.  The Lord is Candace's shepherd.  She will not be in want.  He makes Candace lie down in green pastures and leads her beside quiet waters.  He restores Candace's soul.  The Lord guides her in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even when Candace walks through the valley of the shadow of death, she will fear no evil because the Lord is with her and his rod and his staff, they comfort Candace.  The Lord prepares a table for Candace in the presence of her enemies.  The Lord anoints Candace's head with oil.  Candace's cup overflows.  Surely goodness and love will follow Candace all the days of her life and she and her husband will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Candace, I love you so much.  And many of us would like to get in touch with you beyond this hotline. If you have an opportunity, look us up in Facebook under DAB Friends where so many of us have started to post and many of us have posted our condolences and encouragement to you.  I love you, Candace.  Your sister in Christ, Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL. Bye.  

Hello DAB.  I am Tony from Southern California.  This is my first time calling to request for prayer.  Though I have prayed for other listeners, but I have not asked because of the awkwardness I feel, I have to ask now and I feel there are godly people here. I'm at the end of a 20-year long marriage with my wife.  We have three children, the eldest, a young woman, and two young men.  I love my family deeply and have worked all my life to provide for them.  I'm a good employee, but the life of a correctional officer is a hard one and has taken its toll and has only helped to enforce upon me what I learned as a child growing up in a dysfunctional family.  It is a struggle.  I have been doing it for as long as my marriage and now I feel I have to leave it. I offer not excuse for my actions. I'm not asking for pity because it is a hard job, but I feel that it was part of what I am today.  I'm at the edge of losing my family now.  I may already have.  My wife is completely right.  I have emotionally abused her and damaged the family extensively.  She is at the edge.  There is no trust anymore.  We both believe in God and the lifelong commitment of marriage, but this kind of thing is extremely damaging.  Now I know who Christ is and have accepted him into my heart.  He is the Savior that buys back the sins of all men.  Christ is the only path to God.  I understand that this is only due to God's grace, but I am a believer.  I know that I can come to God in prayer and seek forgiveness and ask for a miracle and I could ask for others to pray for me also.  I ask for listeners to pray for me.  I am not good at prayer and my heart is not broken enough.  Will you please pray that God will let the Holy Spirit enter into my heart and save me from sin?  I know we have such busy lives, but please stand in the gap for me.  Pray that I receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is what I need the most.  I need to be born again and that is what I’ve lacked.  Pray for transformation of the heart.  Pray that I be a humble man in Christ.  Pray for healing and a broken, contrite spirit.  I never really had that either.  I know that God can do this as nothing is impossible for God.  That God can save my marriage and I have…

Johnnie from South Alabama again.  I was outside working on a project and listening to the community prayer and the Lord made me stop in the middle of working and call in to lift up brother Bill B. in prayer right now.  I mean, I don’t know.  Some of you newer listeners may not know, but he was a missionary I believe in Uganda, helped out a lot of boys over there.  He's a worker.  Jesus said pray for the laborers.  Pray to the Lord of the harvest because the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Brother B. is a laborer.  So I just pray that, Father God, you would renew him physically, renew his strength, give him new life, new vigor so that he may go and do your work which you placed in his heart to do.  Lord, I just pray for all the other Dabbers at this time, especially the ones who are constantly lifting everyone up in prayer. I pray a shield of protection around the prayer warriors.  We release your angels to go and protect them and to protect us all.  __________ force, be a shield of force, be a rear guard behind us.  Every dart that the enemy flies against us, let it be struck down immediately.  The victory is already won.  You are Jehovah __________.  You are __________.  That is your name.  Our Victory. And we love you, Father God.  We lift you up.  We praise you and we glorify you in your mighty son's name, Yeshuah Messiah, Jesus, the Christ, Son of the Living God.  

Hello.  This is a DAB listener for probably 7-8 years now.  I can’t keep track because you’ve been part of my family forever.  I seldom give you my name because I feel like I'm part of the people that call and also those who do not, so I hope that I am giving word to those who don’t ring.  The reason why I'm calling today is that I lost a friend who was Native American and many of my Native American friends, which I have several because of where I live in the world, they may even truly believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, but they are so __________ into their community that they have native roots that give them the spiritual belief that ties them to their Native American faith. I don’t disrespect that at all because they were here where I live long before I and knitted their community together for a long time and, of course, the whole Christ and all of that kind of _________ their native faith is first.  So the thing is is that I just want to remind those who are Native Americans that Christ is not __________ your beliefs.  

Thank you, God, for giving me everything I’ve asked.  You’ve freed me from my demons and my true self is now __________.  Time is running short now.  As they say, this too shall pass.  I praise and thank you constantly.  There is not much that I ask.  The relationship I have with you I pray will always last.  Last is first.  The first is last.  A simple little verse.  Some men go from good to bad.  Some from bad to worse.  Help me just be patient, God, and follow where you lead.  Help me not be selfish, be consumed by lust and greed.  Wherever two are gathered, I know that you’ll be there. Keep my __________ simple and strip my ego back.  Make me in your image, God.  I’m flesh but still I'm clay.  Fill me with your spirit and renew my strength each day.  One and one is usually two, but you and I are one. Finish, God, the work in me you clearly have begun.  BlindTony1016@gmail.com.  I’d like to give a shout-out to Alleah from Waxahachie.  Haven’t heard from you in quite a while.  Hope you’re still there, hanging in there.  And I  would like to give a shout-out to Victorious Soldier.  Always love to hear your voice.  Okay.  And Melisa from Alabama, yeah, always love the sound of your voice too.  And my special prayers go out to the Hardin family, especially Jill right around now, getting ready to do the women's conference thing again.  I pray God's protection and blessings and he will stir up the gifts within you and make you a blessing in all that you say and do.  Yeah, keep the faith you all.  Keep it flowing.  Alright, bye-bye.  

Hello family.  This is Candace from Oregon.  Dawn from New York and the many others who are praying for me and my family in the sudden loss of my husband of 40 years, the dad of our three adult children and grandpa of two boys ages 11 and 16, it has been the toughest week of my life and yet also deeply blessed as so many have come to our aid.  This was easily a week of 1000 graces from the hand of our Heavenly Father who mourns with us even as he welcomes this wonderful man who loves Jesus so deeply.  Psalm 23 and Zephaniah 3:17 came into play again and again, the latter being truly his life verse, his eternal life verse.  So I am saying thank you, Lord Jesus, and thank you to each one of you who continues in prayer for us, we will be needing and we love you. 

[dailyaudiobible]

03/08/2017 DAB Transcript

Numbers 10:1-11:23 ~ Mark 14:1-21 ~ Psalm 51:1-19 ~ Proverbs 10:31-32

Today is March the 8th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and it is a pleasure and an honor to spend this time with you and come around this global campfire that is ours, that is the fire by night that we were talking about yesterday, leading us forward.  And so, from the Good News Translation this week, Numbers chapter 10, verse 1 through 11, verse 23.  

Commentary

We have been encamped at Mount Sinai for quite a while now as the law and the rules and the customs and the regulations and the rituals that God is weaving into this culture, where everything is a reminder, where everything they do as it relates to God orients them to God and tells them the story of who they are, but we finally get to kind of move out.  We’ve been hanging out there for a long time, but we get to move out today.  Everybody is fine.  Everybody is following the directions, the order of things.  Everything looks good.  Everything feels right.  They are moving out and then they start complaining again.  “All we get to eat is this manna.”  

If you ate the same thing every day for a long, long time, it starts to become bland and you’re kind of used to it and you don’t have any variety.  So we kind of get that, at least from a tastebud perspective.  But this manna is being snowed down with the dew and all they have to do is get up in the morning and collect it and they are nourished for the day.  God is sustaining their life in the wilderness. I have been in that wilderness. There is no way, even today that a million people out there on the desert floor can find enough food to survive. They are in the middle of a miracle and it is happening every day.  I mean, cloud by day and a fire by night and manna on the ground every day, everything is miraculous around them.  God is present with them.  There is no denying it and they are complaining about having to eat the same thing every day.  

Then it gets to the meat thing.  “Oh, you guys remember the meat we got to eat when we were slaves?  You remember that?  The watermelon?  The cucumbers?  The leeks? The onions?  The garlic?  And now all we have is this manna.”  So God came to Moses and said, “Fine, I’ll give you meat and you’ll find that you’ll get sick of that too.”  

It's like they should have understood that they were in the wilderness. They were like in the middle of nowhere. They were on their way to somewhere that was promised but they were out there in the wilderness and were being fed. So if there is a land of milk and honey out there, there will probably be some cucumbers there.  Probably some garlic and onions and watermelons and some meat.  The gourmet meal may be on the other side of this promise as it has been fulfilled, but for now they’re alive and their God is mightier than anything on this earth.

But that is not what happened.  Even Moses came to the Lord after saying the promise and he's like, “Look, there's hundreds of thousands of people you’ve got me leading here.  Where will this meat even come from?  We don’t have enough cattle and there is not enough fish in the sea.”  And God reminds Moses, “Is there a limit to my power?”  “You’ll soon see whether what I’ve said will happen or not.”  

This is our story, my brothers and sisters.  I mean, we are watching the story play out of God's chosen people, but it is a mirror into our soul because this is us.  Cloud by day, fire by night, we’re being led by the Lord.  We just want to skip the fact that the wilderness precedes the promised land.  Even in the wilderness God is sustaining us, giving us everything that we need and somehow we are still here, but it doesn’t take too long before we’re starting to talk about times when we were a slave because it was easier to be a slave.  We didn’t have to contend for anything.  We just had to do the work.  We didn’t have to pay for any of the food.  It was just given to us.  We were just the labor.  We were just the help.  There wasn’t much to think about.  We didn’t have to plan.  We didn’t have to obey.  We didn’t have to observe.  We didn’t have to be vigilant.  We didn’t have to be aware.  We didn’t have to fight.  We didn’t have to go through the wilderness.  So in those times slavery looks more appetizing.  But really?  Is this who we really are?  Is this what we’re made of?  Because we were made to be free and we were made to be intertwined with the Spirit of God within us.  We are meant to walk around with an authority on this earth like Jesus.  

May we stop replaying the tapes in our head that lead us to the places that we’re reading of in the children of Israel's lives right now because it is going to get us nowhere.  Nowhere. We will never get out of the wilderness that way.  I promise you.  And if you don’t believe me, then just watch as this story unfolds in the book of Numbers.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your word.  We thank you for the mirror into our souls because we need this disruption. We need to be shaken awake.  And we thank you for fathering us, for being patient with us, for parenting us, for helping us learn how to grow up, for helping us to remember that we are your children and, of course, you love us. But there are lessons that we must learn in order to mature and in order to heed the voice of wisdom.  So you brought us to places that we must wholly trust in you, not because you want it to be hard for us, but because we’ve got to learn how to do this.  So we thank you.  We’re sorry that we’ve misinterpreted what you’re doing in our lives so often.  We’re sorry that we’ve so often turned back and gone into slavery.  We’re sorry that we’ve so often complained about the way you’ve sustained and kept us alive only to just long for the good ol’ days.  Forgive us, Lord.  Have mercy on us, dear Lord, because we are so lost without you.  We never have to be without you for a moment.  We choose it.  Forgive us.  Have mercy on us, Lord, and forgive our sins, we pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base and it's the website.  It's where you find out what is going on around here. And yeah, this freedom that we’re talking about here is one of the things we really explore at the More Gathering. We’ve been talking about the More Gathering for Women that is coming up less than a month from now.  Registration will be closing soon and that will be that. So, if you’re out there, you’re a woman, even if you’re a man in love with a woman and you want this freedom for her, if you want this freedom for your heart, ladies, this is a good start. This is a good reset.  This is a good beginning point.  So check it out.  All the details are at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You’ll find the More Gathering very easily and all your questions about it will be answered.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It's on the home page.  Thank you for pressing that link.  If you use the app, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner. Of 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 dial.

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 everyone.  It's Christy from Kentucky.  I wanted to call tonight because as I was working on the community prayers for February 25th, Justin from Oregon, you called in about the 2-year-old child that was missing and there was such great compassion and concern in your voice.  And then when the child was found, you were so grateful and I could hear the relief and the sincerity.  The Lord just put across my heart the word authenticity.  And I just wanted to tell you that you all are such a loving family, each of you.  I hear such great compassion and love for one another.  I hear such sincerity in your voices when you pray for each other.  And I just love that this family is a family of authenticity.  And it is not self-serving.  It is such an unselfish love the each of you have for each other and it blesses me. So I just wanted to share that with you. And also I wanted to ask for a prayer request.  My friend Judy in Orlando has just been diagnosed with COPD and she just sent me a text and asked me to pray for her because she is having difficulty breathing. They are going to have to do more tests because they are concerned something else may be wrong and she is afraid. I can just hear it in her text. She loves Jesus so she is saved, but I just want you, if you would, to please pray for her to have peace and for them to be able to find that there is nothing else wrong and that she will be healed of this COPD.  I'm just asking that the Holy Spirit breathes through her and for her.  Alright everyone, I love you guys.  I pray you’re having a most blessed and lovely day.  

Hi, good morning.  This is Judy in Salt Lake City, UT.  I'm calling because James in the UK called regarding Faraj seeking work and the fact that he had been kidnapped and tortured or mistreated badly in Libya because of his human rights work as a human rights lawyer.  I just wanted to remind everybody that at noon every day some of us here in the DAB community are praying for those that are in captivity, whether it be sexual slavery or in Faraj's case, what was happening to him, those that have been enslaved by Boko Haram or used as human shields and kept captive by ISIS and others.  Please remember at noon wherever you are in the world to join us all as we pray for those that are captive.  We know and give the God the glory that he answers prayer.  Faraj is an excellent example of that and Jen's daughter is another one and there are so many others that we don’t even know about.  So thank you, Lord.  Thank you, Jesus, for freeing Faraj.  Now, please, we ask that you find him work that he can support his family in a decent manner, that he can continue his work.  Also I would like to thank our new listener, Candace in Kansas. At first I thought you were Candace in Oregon.  Thank you for that beautiful prayer.  And thank you, Sally in Mass, for your beautiful prayers for the community.  I felt them all the way down to my heart. God bless you and we ask you please to don’t forget praying for the health __________ at…

Hi family.  This is Rachel or Thankful from Australia.  Faraj, I'm praying for you that you will find work in your field.  And also wanting to praise God and thank you, family, for praying.  My daughter who lives in New York, her visa was renewed which was at first denied and then three days later, I believe after your prayers, was granted.  Thank you, family.  Also please pray for my mother who is suffering and tormented by Parkinson's disease.  I do pray for healing for her.  I believe the Lord can heal her.  Also if you would pray for me.  I’ve a longstanding gut condition which I’ve tried all sorts of things to heal and I'm just asking that God would heal that condition, in Jesus’ name.  Thank you, family.  Running out of time so just asking for prayer and also, Faraj, we pray for your beautiful family.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Hello.  This is __________ from Way out West.  I don’t call in very often.  Don’t like to use that name, but that is the name that God gave me and __________ my life when I thought I was going to give it all up.  That name has kind of haunted me.  It has __________ me and done a lot of things in my life and a bit of a __________ working on me.  God has given me this name and it made me think of Victorious Soldier.  That name, Victorious Soldier, is so powerful.  That woman is so powerful.  I just thank God for her and her prayers on the prayer line. I thank God for this ministry that Brian and Jill sustain every day.  It's a wonderful thing and my wife and I support it.  We hope that all the people that listen to it try to support it in some way.  At one point, this one guy on there said try to give $10 a month and I think that is probably a good thing.  If you listen to it, it's worth $10 a month.  If you listen to it every day like I do, it's worth $10 a month.  My wife and I give more than that because we feel led to give more than that because we feel like it is a very powerful ministry for a lot of people.  God bless you all.  I pray for you all on this prayer line.  We’re all praying for each other.  It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.  God bless you.  

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible family.  My name is Femi and I'm calling from London.  This is my first time of calling.  I’ve been listening now for about two years, but I just had to call today, today being Brian's birthday.  Oh wow! Brian, you have been such an inspiration to us all.  You have helped me personally on my faith walk.  I thank God for your life and I pray that God will continue to strengthen you and God will continue to plant your feet firmly in his presence and to forever meet you at every point of your need.  You will never know no lack.  Oh Brian, you have been wonderful for responding to God's call and for you being steadfast at it as well.  Oh man, you are such an inspiration and I thank God for you and I thank God for your life. I thank God for DAB family.  Thank you very much.  Love you.  Take care. God bless you and God bless every member of this family of Daily Audio Bible.  Thank you very much.  Bye-bye.

Hi, this is Blessed Beyond Measure from New Jersey.  I just finished listening to the March 3 podcast twice.  Brian, you are truly gifted in weaving the word of God into an amazing tapestry that we as listeners can view its true beauty. Thanks for guiding us through Leviticus and helping us to understand that the laws and explanation of the rituals were to help, not harm the children of Israel.  What a reminder that the word of God continues to be an ever present help to guide and not harm as we traverse through this world.  Brian, I know that margin was the word you had emphasized for the DAB listeners this year, but after hearing your commentary on that day's reading in Mark, I'm convinced it is actually release.  As true Christians, by faith in God, we need that action word to actually live and experience God's forgiveness, grace and power.  I agree if we release all things that we see as bad that have happened to us, that we are released to have our faith in God be unstoppable.  So let's pray.  Thank you, Father God, for dying for us because we are all sinners.  That act of love provides us the means to ask you to forgive us for our sins and in turn accept your forgiveness.  We in turn are instructed throughout your word to do the same to others.  Jesus, listening and reading your word with others in the DAB community is not just a devotional, but a way of life.  Thank you so much for the Holy Spirit that prompts people all over this planet to call in and speak praise to you, Father God, ask for prayer in times of need, offer prayer for those requests, share praise reports and even just words of encouragement. Bless each member of the Hardin family for releasing their will in this world and letting your will be done through the Daily Audio Bible ministry.  In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.