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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, it's January 6th, and it's day six of our journey through the Bible. I'm Hunter, your host and Bible reading coach. For over a decade, we've been gathering from all corners of the world, united in our desire to be transformed by the God who is love. In today's episode, we'll delve into Genesis chapters 15 through 17, and wrap up with a reading from Luke chapter 6. We'll explore God's immense promises to Abraham, the profound lessons in the stories of Sarai and Hagar, and the powerful teachings of Jesus. Stay tuned as we dig deep into the scriptures to have our hearts pointed toward Jesus, the true point and purpose of it all. Let's begin this journey together.
TODAY'S DEVOTION:
He is so much better than we think.
God comes to Abraham, and he tells them that he's going to make him the father of many nations. That all the people of the world will be blessed through him. That he was going to give him the land of Canaan. And all of this, so it seemed to Abraham, was just too good to be true. Abraham couldn't get his head around a god who could actually do all this. So Abraham and Sarai conceived of something much more possible, something within reason, a surrogate son, something they together could try and make possible with their own efforts. We often do that. We struggle to think of God as big enough and good enough to do what our hearts long for or what he says he will do.
So we often will interject with a scaled down version of what we think is possible. And we try to push these scaled down versions of goodness and love down the road because, well, that's the best we can hope for or even imagine. But God is so much better than we dare to think. Jesus is proof of that. He is so much better than many theologians and pastors have dared to preach. Luke describes a sermon that Jesus is preaching. And in this sermon, Jesus is commanding his followers to be much better than they've ever dared to be. Love your enemies, he says.
Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Do this, he says, and you will truly be acting as children of God. Do this, and you will be acting the way God acts. In fact, Jesus ends this part of his message by saying, God is kind even to those who are unthankful and wicked. God the father is compassionate.
Did you catch that? God is kind to the unthankful and the wicked. He is compassionate. That is who he is. And yet so often we scale that version of God down with an endless host of qualifications. He's good if you do this. He's good if you behave this way. He's good only to these people. But Jesus today, in his sermon, is inviting us to imagine God as better than anything we have dared to believe.
Far too often, we have painted the face of God with a brush of our own anxieties and fears, and that picture of God is so much smaller, so less kind and loving than anything that Jesus has revealed to us. What Jesus shows us of the father is so much better. So let us hear how good God is today. Let's dare to begin to imagine, here at the beginning of 2022, that he is indeed better than we thought. When we begin to do that, we will begin to behave in ways that are far better than we ever thought we could. We will love our enemies. We will do unto others as we would have them do unto us. And that's the prayer that I have for my own soul.
That's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife, my daughters, my son. And that's the prayer that I have for you. May it be so. Let's continue now in a time of prayer.
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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