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One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on 'The Daily Radio Bible' for a daily 20-minute spiritual journey. Engage with scripture readings, heartfelt devotionals, and collective prayers that draw you into the heart of God's love. Embark...
One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on 'The Daily Radio Bible' for a daily 20-minute spiritual journey. Engage with scripture readings, heartfelt devotionals, and collective prayers that draw you into the heart of God's love. Embark on this year-long voyage through the Bible, and let each day's passage uplift and inspire you.
TODAY'S EPISODE:
Welcome, dear listeners, to another episode of the Daily Radio Bible. Today is the 28th of January, and I am your host, Hunter. Together, we'll venture through the transformative words of the scriptures, aiming to encounter the life and love of Jesus. Our journey today takes us through Exodus chapters 21 and 22, Psalm 12, and Acts chapter 4.
As we open the book of Exodus, we encounter challenging laws and cultural practices that can be hard on our modern ears. However, we place these scriptures in their historical and cultural context while recognizing the fallen human heart from which these laws arose. But fear not, as the new testament passage in Acts shows us a groundbreaking contrast—the emergence of a compassionate, generous, and loving community centered on Christ.
Today's Psalms prayer reminds us of God's steadfast presence and rescuing power, while the disciples in Acts exemplify the bold and transformative spirit of living in Christ’s love, even in the face of opposition.
Together, let’s delve into the Word and allow it to shape our lives today. So, get comfortable, open your hearts, and join me in experiencing the profound depth of God's message and the new reality we have in Christ. And remember, as we traverse this spiritual journey, you are loved. Let's begin.
TODAY'S DEVOTION:
It's hard to make sense of these laws in Exodus. They're hard on the ears. They're hard on our souls. These rules we hear dictating the treatment of slaves and women seem so cruel and barbaric. They're hard to hear.
In understanding them, it's important that we try to see them in their historical and cultural context. But maybe even more important is that we see them in the context of the fallen human heart. These hard and confusing laws that are being described here are a result of a fallen human heart living in a fallen world.
And God, in many respects, is conceding to this state of affairs through giving us these laws, but only for a while. He will not tolerate this forever, and we should not, as some Christians have in the past, interpret these scriptures in such a way that we say God is okay with slavery. To say that is to misread what the whole Bible is about. To say that is to misunderstand who Jesus himself is. He has come to set humanity free, to break the bonds of our slavery. God is not okay with slavery. Period.
He's done something about this. He has given us himself. The promised messiah that Peter so boldly proclaims in this chapter in Acts. Peter is living out of a new heart. He's a part of a growing community. At this point, 5,000 who are waking up to a new reality in Christ.
This new community we see in Acts is so different than the one that's being formed in Exodus. In this new community, God is no longer conceding to hard hearts. Instead, he has drawn them into his own heart, into his own life. And out of this place of wholeness and life in God, they are learning to walk in this new reality.
As the new people of God, not living out of a place of dominance or superiority or fear or ownership of one another that we see all over in Exodus. Instead, we see a community that is self-giving. It's generous, compassionate, and loving.
In Exodus, we see only a shadow, glimpses of the heart of God in these laws that are described. But in Christ, we see the very face of God. His unfiltered and perfect reflection of the nature and the character of God, fully seen, fully known in the Son.
You have been invited to wake up. To wake up to the new reality in Christ.
Through him, you have been enveloped into the Triune life of God. You are free. You are holy. You are His, and you are loved.
This is what's true. This is what is.
Ours is to agree with God, to turn from the lies that keep us living like a slave, and begin to live in the truth, in the light, as the daughter that you are, the son that you are.
And the prayer of my own heart is that today I'll be fully awake. That I'll live in this new reality that I have been swept up into. And that's a prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you. May it be so.
TODAY'S PRAYERS:
Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.
Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
And now Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. And where there is sadness, Joy. Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life. Amen
And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray...
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ. Amen.
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