#❛ ― audio. / king of my city ‘ king of my country ‘ king of my homeland.

[dailyaudiobible]

5/4/2023 DAB Transcript

Judges 19:1-20:48, John 3:22-4:3, Psalm 104:24-35, Proverbs 14:22-23

Today is the fourth day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today, around the Global Campfire as we gather and take the next step forward together. And our next step forward leads us back into the Book of Judges. We are very near the end of the Book of Judges; we will conclude the book tomorrow. But that then and this is now. And so, we have another full step forward together in the Book of Judges. And so, let's dive in, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week, Judges, chapters 19 and 20.

Commentary:

Okay so, we are in the final story in the Book of Judges, and it is a profoundly dark chapter in the lives of the children of Israel, when Israel had no king, and everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. Which is something that the Book of Judges repeatedly tells us so that we don’t forget what's going on here. And this story definitely is a dark one, a story of a man and his…his concubine, sort of like a common-law wife. She was unfaithful to him. He lived in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim. She left and went back to Bethlehem and then several months later he went to speak kindly to her, to see if the relationship could be restored and repaired. And that's when we meet her father who wants the man to stay, and stay, and stay, and stay. And so, they all stay a lot longer than they were planning to stay, but eventually the guys like not going to be convinced to stay another single day. And so, they leave and as the sun is going down and they need to find shelter there are opportunities for them to find shelter. But the man makes the determination that they're not going to stay with anybody that's not from their homeland. They're not going to stay in the city that's not an Israeli city. And so, they end up in the Israelite city in the tribe of Benjamin, in the city of Gibeah. So, they're waiting in the town square, they’re waiting for hospitality. If there's no hospitality, they stay in the town square. But that seems to be a dangerous thing. And so, when an older man comes in and says where are you going and where have you come from, one of his words of counsel is don't stay how here in the city, in the city square, come into my house. Which is what happens and then the house is surrounded, and all of a sudden, this story is, it has a lot of resemblance to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, except for one very distinct thing. These were all Israelites, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were not, the people of Gibeon knew this story. And they surround the house, and they want the man. And as it turns out, it's the man's concubine who gets pushed out the door and there's like no way to sugar coat what the story is, she is raped and abused to death. And she ends up on the doorstep with her hand touching the door dead. Like there's no way to make that nice, it's not supposed to be nice, the Bible isn't telling us this story so that we feel flowery and great about it, it's showing us where paths lead and how our choices matter. If we just begin at the beginning of the story, she was unfaithful. That's where the story starts, she was unfaithful. She goes back to Bethlehem. Her husband goes after her, they reconcile. Had they just gone according to plan and gone on home, they would've gotten home. But the father-in-law is keeping pressing them to change their minds and stay longer and stay longer. And so, they end up leaving in the late afternoon, instead of in the morning, they could've stayed in Jerusalem. They wanted to stay among their fellow Israelites. So, they go to Gibeah. And then all of this stuff is perpetrated and it's horrible, it's absolutely horrible. And the story in the Book of Judges is letting us know, yes, you’re reading a horrible story here. The man takes the body of his concubine back to the hill country of Ephraim and does something pretty grisly. He divides her into 12 parts and sends her to all the different tribes of Israel. That sounds absolutely horrific and it is but it sounds that way, as we contextualize it. This is the equivalent of a message going viral. There wasn’t an Internet, there wasn't, there wasn't even a car. There wasn’t mass transportation, there wasn't mass communication. But this would indeed get the attention of the recipient. If a body part shows up at the tribal headquarters, people are going to want to know what is going on here and that did spread as we would understand it today, virally because 400 thousand people gathered over this incident. So, the Bible is not condoning this incident, what we’re finding is that there is outrage over this, as there should be. So, 400,000 people gather to hear the story of what happened and when they are told what happened their response is appropriate. Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel before. Basically like, how could something like this even happen here? What are we supposed to do? And what they decide to do is bring justice, which sets up a scenario for civil war, because the Israelites approach the Benjaminite’s and say look, here's what happened, give over the perpetrators, they deserve punishment, justice needs to be served. Only the Benjaminite’s won't. And so, they gather all of their troops together to defend their tribesmen, even though their tribesmen had committed a atrocities so severe that everybody's talking about it. And that creates the scenario for a war, a civil war among the people of God in the Book of Judges, where tens of thousands of people die. And as we left the story today, the tribe of Benjamin is all but completely annihilated. We will finish that story tomorrow as we finish the Book of Judges and then we will be moving into new territory in the Bible tomorrow. And this story is one of the darkest stories that we encounter in the Bible. And so, not to be complete spoiler, but I just need to tell parts of the rest of the story and then we’ll read the parts of the rest of the story and then move into new territory tomorrow. What we have right now are about 600 people hiding at the Rock of Ramon. That’s all that is left of an entire tribe of Israel. The tribe is missing, like they're really, like there's 11 tribes and 600 people in a tribe that has been destroyed because they stood up for injustice and it caused catastrophe throughout Israel among all of the people. Many people died. And the children of Israel, the rest of the tribes have already determined that they will not, they will not intermarry, like they're breaking connection with Benjamin. So, they make this promise and then they realize that there's a tribe missing and it's a sad scene. And they figure out how to replenish the tribe. But Benjamin will be the smallest tribe now obviously. Very, very soon from now, we will begin starting to transition ourselves toward the children of Israel, especially after things like this happening, deciding that they want a king to unite the tribes, to be a monarch over them, to lead them into battle, to sort of be the figurehead, to keep them solidified as one people. And we will meet that king, his name is Saul. And Saul has a ton of stuff to teach us. But as Saul relates to this story, what we are going to find as a redemptive thread, after all of this mayhem that we’re reading about today, time will pass. The tribe of Benjamin will begin to regrow. And God will choose a king to reign over Israel, as Israel's first king, King Saul. Saul came from a hometown; the hometown of Saul was Gibeah. The same city where all of this went down. And Saul will say yeah, but I'm from the smallest tribe, from the smallest family, who am I. So, out of these ashes that we are reading about right now, will come Israel's first king. And we will get to that soon enough.

Prayer:

And Father, we invite Your presence into this. It's really just, to have lived that would've…would've been really, profoundly, traumatic. To read of it is traumatic, to just be, turned inside out about the whole thing, makes us feel very like, this is…this is a story that doesn't belong in the Bible, probably because it is. Probably because it's a story that shouldn't have happened and because it did, we now have it as a cautionary tale to remind us that our choices matter. And when we determine that we are going to stand up for injustice and evil, mayhem and destruction are very, very near us. And yet, as the decades would go by, and as things would continue forward, You chose Israel's first king from the very spot of these ashes and this destruction. You continue to put things back together that are broken and most of the things are broken because we have a broken then. And we all make mistakes, and we all make choices that are wrong but when we’re not paying attention and we compound one wrong with another wrong, with another wrong, with another wrong, where will the path lead but complete catastrophe. And so, we come to You, Holy Spirit, realizing that although the story that we’re reading is extraordinarily graphic and dark one, our stories don’t reach this level of mayhem, we still know what it looks like to make wrong choices and then chase them with others that lead us down a path that is only going to end poorly. So, we come to You with open hands and open hearts and say, Holy Spirit, show us the path that we are on. Show us the path that we are supposed to be on and show us the route to get there and off any wrong path that we are walking willingly, knowing full well that no matter the ashes of our lives, redemption can come forth, because You put back together, what is broken. You are a Redeemer, You are The Redeemer of our souls and we give ourselves to You, believing fully that You will lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello, my DAB Family, this is Lib, I’m calling from the UK. I’ve come to just a give a little bit of encouragement for anyone who is struggling, anyone who thinks that God is far away and is not listening. You know it seems like life is just not happening the way it should. I had something happen yesterday, yesterday evening. Today is the 25th, so it happened on Monday, the 24th of April. My, we locked ourselves out. You know, there was key on the back of the door and my husband rushed out of the house on his way to work and forgot to take his key out. And I was on my way to work and then he called and said, my keys are in the door which means, when you come back you will not be able to come in. And I thought, oh well, as usual I go to my neighbor’s house, this is not the first time it’s happening anyway. And I’ll climb through their balcony and come in through my kitchen door. But then something happened in the evening when I was coming back with the children, and it was raining. And then I remembered, oh I can’t go in and I thought, I said Lord, I can’t climb, it’s raining. All I could see was myself falling off, you know, from that height, trying to climb through. And I went, I can’t climb, it’s raining. You know, and then when I was approaching the door with my boys right beside me and I just kept saying Lord, I can’t climb, I need a miracle. I turned the key the first time, it didn’t work. Turned it a second time, it didn’t work. And I just kept saying, Lord, I need a miracle. I turned it again and the door opened, and I screamed. You know, my greatest joy when that happened was my boys were there. So, for me it was a way, I saw it as building the faith of my children. You know, cause I always tell them anything that you want, ask the Lord, He will do it. So, for anyone who is struggling, ask the Lord.

This is the Burning Bush that Will Not Be Devoured for the Glory of our God and King. This is my second time recording this, my phone just totally shut down halfway through my prayer request, prayer, I’m sorry. For Darlene, her granddaughter, Sophia who’s struggling with Anorexia. So, right now, we pray in the name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that You hold back the evil that’s causing Sophia to not eat. I pray that in the name of Jesus, she will be healed. Father God, You understand what’s going on in her mind. I pray that You heal her mind and her body, in the name of Jesus. I pray for her spirit, I pray for a full deliverance, in Jesus name. Holy Spirit, I pray for a full restoration, that she will begin to walk in what You’ve called her to be, Father, greatness, Father, we speak greatness over her right now, in the name of Jesus. We praise You, oh God, that Lord, that she will be healed, not only physically but spiritually, Father. I pray that in the name of Jesus that she will be freed, Holy Spirit. I pray that You would send Your angels to protect her right now in Jesus name. Even in the hospital, I pray that You will help her to recover. I pray for a speedy recover, Father God. In the name of Jesus, complete. I pray for Devine healing over her. And I pray for her family. I pray for Darlene. I pray, oh Lord Jesus, that You will give them comfort as they go through this. I pray for wisdom for her parents, in the name of Jesus. And whatever it is, what be it emotional, mental, or even physical that she’s struggling with, Father God. You know. I just pray for healing. You touch her, in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. I love you guys. Talk to you later.

Hi, this is Amy in Olympia, Washington. I’ve called in a few times before, but I think I would like to start going by Running for Jesus. But anyway, today I’m calling in for my friend and asking for prayer, on her behalf. Her name is Samantha and she’s in the hospital with COVID pneumonia. And she’s fighting for her life. And she’s only in her 30s and she has a special needs daughter at home and her husband is home with her daughter and they’re out of sick leave and it’s just this really discouraging and this seemingly hopeless situation for their family. And it’s not looking good for my friend. They tried to intubate her, and her lungs are so damaged that even that was too much. And so, she’s on a special machine that’s taking the blood out and oxygenating it and putting it back into her body. And they’re also talking about a possible lunch transplant. So, I’m just asking that, that you as a community will pray with me and help me pray confidently that…that God would heal her lungs. I know that He is a God of healing. But it’s just really hard to not feel scared and discouraged for them. And it’s just really discouraging for me like, I just keep asking like why. Like, how can a mom that’s healthy and so young have this happen to her. But yes, if you could just pray for me that God would heal her lungs and that I’ll be able to call back with good news.

Hi, Daily Audio Bible Family. I have lifted countless prayers for this community. I’m a retired single mom and I can’t, I can’t quote them all right now, but just trust and believe that I am daily tuned in and praying for the needs of so many people in this community. And I need the same in return please for my 20-year-old son who is in college but he’s not reaching his full potential because he is struggling with chemical dependency on marijuana. And it is interrupting his relationships and he’s, his, he has other issues that are causing him to go into these psychosis type moods and it is really, really not only separating him from the love of God but also just interrupting his life in every way. And I cannot reach him. And I’ve tried everything to reach him, and I have prayed every prayer and so has his grandmother. And I just need help lifting up my beautiful son to become what God really created him to be and to pull him out of a life of darkness. He’s overtaken with darkness and he’s often very depressed and on this hopeless and this is the only thing in the world that matters to me right now, is the success and the life, the life and the wellbeing of…of my only child. I just need these prayers. My heart is breaking, and I really need these prayers. And I appreciate this community so much.

This is Tilly from Florida, calling on the 26th of April for The Dude from Florida. Dude, I’m also from Florida. I’m on the east coast by Melbourne, Florida on a beach community. What you said bore witness to me in many ways, particularly when you mentioned how you’re, you wouldn’t want to hang around your siblings, other than that. You know, I have 5 siblings, one of them is already passed way. But fortunately, I still have my twin sister and that’s really the only person out of five that I even communicate with. So, I get it and won’t go into it. It’s generational. Father God, I lift up this gentleman to You. I feel his heart and probably could write his story for him. Dude, you’re lifting up before the Lord by me, a person well acquainted with the things that you’ve gone through and go through every day. And I felt that in his spirit, really strong. Father God, as he goes on his trips and for the rest of his life, give him the grace and the peace to forgive his family members and to walk in wholeness and beauty. Have Your Holy Spirit leading and guiding …

Good morning, this is Dana from South Carolina. Today is April the 26th, I was listening to people praying for Libby in Australia. So, I went back and listened on the 19th to hear her request. Libby, I’m praying for you. I too, as a child, had some things happen to me that didn’t realize I, there was an option of speaking out. That I now know as an adult, that that has affected me in a way that, that if I ask for help or that I feel like I’m weak. I always feel like that I have to always be in control of every situation. And I pray, if that’s the feeling that you’re having, that there, if you feel weak, or feel like you’re not in control because you’re asking for help, I pray that the Holy Spirit would just come in and remove that feeling of…of feeling that you’re weak or shame or guilt, that Holy Spirit would remove that and God would wrap His loving arms around you and there would be such a peace and such a presence that you can cry out and speak out. And I pray that those things that have happened to you, that it would be a testimony to other people around you that would help them to grow and to speak out so they too, could help another person. That that feeling of being alone or being weak or it’s just no longer there. And that you would be strengthened by that, and you could strengthen other people. In Jesus name. And I thank You Lord that You’re doing this for her. Holy Spirit, rest on her today. In Jesus name. Amen.

[ladyhistorypod]

Episode 9: Monkey See, Monkey Do

Sources:

Helen Martini

Museum of the City of New York

IMDB

British Pathé (YouTube)

New York Heritage Digital Collections

Further Reading: My Zoo Family,  Cubs in the Tub, Mother to Tigers

Dian Fossey

Biography

BBC Earth

National Geographic: The Renegade Scientist Who Taught Us To Love Gorillas

Zoologist Dian Fossey: A Storied Life With Gorillas

Lady Science

DW: Made For Minds

Alana’s Surprise Lady

The Age

SF Gate

Kokoflix (YouTube)

PBS

Gorilla Foundation

New York Times

NPR

Washington Post

ABC News

National Geographic

National Geographic (YouTube)

60 Minutes Australia (YouTube)

Attributions:

birdsong, water splash, Zoos & Young Animals, Under Water

Click below for a full text transcript of this episode!

Haley: A brief warning about the following episode of Lady History: this episode contains sensitive topics such as murder, violence, and racism.

Archival Audio: Gorilla at Large! The most murderous, destructive beast man has ever seen! Gorilla at Large! In 3D and color by Technicolor!

Lexi: Alana, do you want to share your good news?

Alana: I do, I have very good news. So, in– I think it was episode five– we very subtly mentioned that GW had to let me into school so that Lexi and I could live together and um… Actually the same day that episode seven came out, we found out that GW let me into grad school.

Lexi: Woohoo!!

Haley: I feel like that's a universe telling you like “here is why” if it aired on the same day.

Alana: Yeah, definitely. I really think like. My dad was like “did you put– did you talk about your podcast on your application” and I was like yeah. I listened to– the suffragist episode? I listened like four times the day it came out. I was like this is so good. We're so good at this.

(Lexi laughing)

[INTRO MUSIC]

Alana: Hello and welcome to Lady History; the good, the bad, and the ugly ladies you missed in history class. I’ve run out of ways to say that we're on Zoom but Lexi what's the difference between monkeys and apes?

Lexi: Like. You want me to scientifically give you the difference?

Alana: Sure.

Lexi: Monkeys have tails.

Alana: Monkeys do have tails.

Lexi: There's a lot more but like monkeys do have tails. And that's the easy way to tell. So please, when you take your child to the zoo do not call the chimps or gorillas or orangutans or bonobos monkeys. As someone who previously worked in a zoo, and witnessed mothers and nannies telling their children “look at the monkey sweetie” to an intelligent ape, I… Nope. Mm. Okay.

Alana: That's why I picked that question for you. Also, Haley. Haley, what’s your favorite zoo?

Haley: I am a zoo connoisseur. I love zoos. Love me some animals but I'm going to have to go with my hometown, my first zoo ever was the Bronx Zoo. I have many memories, some scary, some pleasant, some very confusing but generally just like would ten out of ten live there.

Alana: And I'm Alana and my personality is fifty percent I love aquariums.

Haley: No.

Alana: Why are you shaking your head at me Haley?

Lexi: I also love aquariums.

Haley: Fish freak me out.

Lexi: Aquariums freak you out?

Haley: Fish and birds like, scare me on a personal level.

Lexi: Those are my favorite animals! I had a fish tank in my nursery as a baby. I think that's where my parents went wrong because I got a degree in museum studies and I just want to work with living collections that would be fantastic, so hit me up, any zoo in America. Actually, any zoo in the world. I am mobile. I am single. I do have a parrot so if your country does not allow parrots to come in from foreign countries please consider me off your list. But if I can bring a parrot into your country and you want me to work in a zoo or aquarium hit me up.

Haley: Cal Academy is right for you, that's where I– very close to where I currently live and they have like their live collection. I thought their penguins were fake. Like I did not realize because the way– Okay, the way the Cal Academy is set up is that when you walk in you’re greeted with this like giant forest– like what is called, atrium? Aviary is for the birds, right? So this is just like a whole encapsule of foliage and you can see some like butterflies go around and you can see the beginning of the aquarium, and the whole bottom floor is the aquarium and it's really really cool. You also have like an albino or white alligator. I forget what the guy's name is called, but it's like a white alligator that they have to– if he ever gets hurt and like he starts bleeding, since he’s white it's very noticeable they have to like hide him to not scare the children it’s a whole thing. Oh, the penguins. The penguins are in like their African, early human wing which are all taxidermy animals or like faux bones those like display of human origins like the Smithsonian and then one wall it's just penguins and then they started moving I truly just jumped out of my skin. This was like at a…  the first time I went was at like an adult night, 21 and older, you get a drink, you walk around the like, museum.

Alana: That’s sexy. I want to go to that.

Haley: I had like a beer in me and then the penguins started moving. People have like very mixed feelings on the Cal Academy but it's mostly people who like hate zoos, and like don’t understand that like some zoos are actually decent. Like it’s– we're not talking about GW Tiger King zoo, we’re talking about like–

Lexi: That's not a zoo. That's just not a zoo.

Alana: That’s not a zoo!

Haley: The amount of people who have fought me when I'm like “I love zoos” they're like “animals should be wild” and it's like “no. You do not put a hurt penguin back with its herd.” Like the elephant missing a tusk? Is not going to do well. Like GW Tiger King zoo? Not a zoo. That’s just–

Lexi: Science is important.

Alana: Science is important!

Lexi: The zoos on Tiger King, not science. When you go to a zoo, or are considering going to a zoo, look up what their contributions to scientific research and animal welfare are. If they are not AZA certified, do not go there. There was an incident recently in which the Pittsburgh Zoo, which used to be AZA certified, became un-AZA certified. It’s still an okay zoo but like in general look for AZA certifications. But the thing about AZA zoos is they follow a species survival plan, which means they don't decide when and where the animals go. There is a larger conglomerate that decides when animals need to be moved around. And so if one zoo needs a gorilla that will breed with another gorilla because that is what is best for gorillas all over the world, they will move the gorilla. They get a private plane and they take the gorilla with the keeper to meet its new keeper and that's where the gorilla moves because it's all about the science and the species preservation.

Alana: I really like the New England Aquarium and I'm not just saying that because I hope Erin Keif is listening. Um, even though I do hope she’s listening. Hi, Erin! We think you’re really cool!

Lexi: The aquarium in your homeland is beautiful.

Alana: It's so cool. I love the big old tube and then you like walk up around the tube. I think that's dope. I love that. That's like their main exhibit and I think it's so cool. I also saw like– I was in Boston maybe ten years ago; little more, little less, and there were like jellyfish! Right off the docks! Because we’re killing the turtles! That’s what I learned at the New England Aquarium!

Archival Audio: The llama family and cousins are all in the market for babysitters. While Mrs Helen Martini serves in that capacity for 3 little tiger kittens, born of parents themselves born and raised at the zoo, the triplets are concerned mainly with calories and vitamins and rather resent the working press. They're not up to scratch, yet, but they sure know the proper facial expressions. What a picture they make! (Tiger cub meowing sound)

Lexi: So, Haley, we were talking about your favorite zoo in the world. What was that zoo?

Haley: The Bronx Zoo.

Lexi: And do you know much about the history of the Bronx Zoo?

Haley: I probably used to, you're gonna have to fill me in on this one.

Lexi: Do you know who the first female zookeeper of the Bronx Zoo was? 

Haley: Your lady?

Lexi: Yes! Helen Martini!

Alana: Her name is Martini? 

Lexi: Yes, her name is Martini. So like, wonderful. We’re already off to a great start. But yes that is when talking about today so I thought it was very relevant that you mentioned how much you love the Bronx Zoo, that it's your home turf, because it was her home turf too. So a quick preface to our upcoming story, finding digital sources on Helen is extremely difficult. I had a really hard time with it. It appears very little has been published about her, particularly online and she doesn't even have a Wikipedia page, so for information about her life I had to use an IMDB page that exists for her, which I'm not sure if it's accurate and I'm not sure why it even exists, she was not a movie star. So take all this info on her early years with a tiny grain of salt. Once she actually starts being involved with the zoo that's when the information gets a little more accurate. Helen Martini was born on June 5, 1912 in Newfoundland, Canada. Her father, Matthew Delaney, was a merchant seaman and Helen was born with an eye problem that doctors told her parents would result in her eventually going blind. After father's death in 1925, her mother took her to New York to undergo eye operations. These operations helped protect her sight. Some attribute her caring personality to this turning point in her life. As an adult, Helen married a man named Fred. He worked as a jeweler and the couple lived in an apartment in the Bronx. Fred and Helen decided to have a baby, but unfortunately lost their child due to miscarriage. Helen was told by doctors that she would never be able to have a child. Helen turned her attention to caring for fur babies instead. She and Fred became diligent pet owners and avid animal lovers. The couple also lived close to the Bronx Zoo, and frequently visited the furry friends that lived there. One day, Helen saw an ad for an open position at the Bronx Zoo. At the time, American zoos only hired men as zookeepers. So Helen did what any sensible woman in mid-century America would do. She encouraged her husband to quit his job as a jeweler and apply to become a zookeeper. Fred had no formal training or experience in zoology, but he got the job. Fred became the keeper of the lion house, which was home to an array of big cat species. In 1942, a lioness had a cub and refused to care for it. Worried it would die, Fred decided he needed to enlist the help of the best animal mom he knew- his own wife Helen. Helen took in the cub and named him Macarthur, in honor of General Macarthur. Helen cared for the cub in her and Fred’s apartment, following the zoo’s protocols for care. At the age of 2 months, Macarthur was thriving and he returned to the zoo to live among other lions. Two years later, the zoo’s female tiger gave birth to three cubs. She abandoned all of them, refusing to nurse or care for them. Helen, who had successfully saved Macarthur, was again called upon to care for the baby big cats. She cared for the three cubs in her apartment, just like Macarthur, but the zoo had no set protocols for abandoned baby tigers. There was no guide for her to follow, as the Bronx Zoo had never successfully raised orphan baby tigers before. Helen, determined to succeed and help save the animals, used her own motherly instincts, her previous experience working with lions, and extensive research to develop a method for rearing the cubs. Much of her method was improvised, and used trial and error. Eventually, she developed the perfect diet to get the tigers fit; milk and water in the early days, then the addition of chopped meat as they grew. All three cubs became strong and were able to go back to the zoo. Helen had become a successful zookeeper, all without ever being paid or rewarded in any way. So the Bronx Zoo decided to do the unthinkable- hire a woman. Helen was officially hired as a zookeeper and became America's first woman to work as a professional zookeeper. Her role was to care for baby animals, and she established the Bronx Zoo's first nursery. She converted an old storage space into a place for orphaned and abandoned baby animals. Helen still cared for the youngest babies who needed round the clock care in her apartment, but the older couples are able to thrive in a space all their own. In 1945, Helen was a household name in the Bronx, known by many as a woman with tiger cubs in her apartment. Photographers from Look magazine visited her home, documenting the unique situation of her and her husband. Baby tigers rummaged through the fridge, sat in Helen's armchair, and even rummaged through the cameraman's bag. Helen did not stop at just lions and tigers. She knew other baby animals at the zoo would not be able to thrive if their mother stopped caring for them. Throughout her career, she also raised black leopards, marmosets, jaguars, gorillas, deer, antelopes, and even skunks. Her favorite of this was still, of course, the tigers. Before her retirement in 1960, she had raised 27 tigers in total. In 1951, newsreel video of Helen shows her caring for a baby gorilla named Mambo and refers to her as an “ardent disciple of Spock and Gessell” two child care experts of the era. In the video, Helen feeds baby Mambo from a bottle and sets him in his crib for a nap. You can watch this clip on YouTube and I will include the link on our Tumblr. In 1953, Helen and Fred published a book of photographs and stories which they called “My Family Zoo.” In this book, Helen mentions personal accounts of her favorite animals- Bagheera the leopard, Ugly the howler monkey, Zambezi the lion, Dolly the deer, and Dacca, her beloved tiger cub who went on to have cubs of her own, making Helen a tiger grandma. Unfortunately, this book is out of print and extremely rare. The cheapest copies seem to cost around $60 today. Helen has also inspired several modern children's books including “Cubs in the Tub” and “Mother to Tigers” which are both about her raising the three initial tiger cubs. Helen's work establishing a nursery at the Bronx Zoo was revolutionary in the world of zoology and zoo management. Through her efforts, dozens of vulnerable baby animals were saved and went on to live healthy lives as ambassadors for their species. Her observations of their behaviour and reflections on the issues of raising baby wild animals in captivity provided a foundation of understanding for future zookeepers. Helen, who brought motherly kindness and a caring nature to the zoo, is proof that sometimes a woman's touch is all an industry needs to progress. Also, I just wanna make a quick plea that if any of you are skilled Wikipedia editors, please help my girl Helen get on there and link it to the Bronx Zoo page so that people can find her because she is so cool and there are not many resources on her out there.

Alana: I have a question. Is Bagheera named after The Jungle Book Bagheera?

Lexi: I believe so, but it could just be a coincidence. But it sounds like it, probably.

Alana: It seems like it.

Lexi: Yeah.

Alana: I remember people were talking about the… it's like my mom's favorite song from Jungle Book, where King Louis, the orangutan king, is like singing with Mowgli and people are like “that's racist” and I'm like. I have bad news for you guys. About the Jungle Book. Bad news about Rudyard Kipling.

Lexi: Ruining their childhoods.

Alana: Yeah, for real. It’s like I… I… I have bad news, you know that guy, the guy who wrote The Jungle Book? He also wrote something called “The White Man's Burden” about how it's white people's job to civilize people of color. So maybe… beating a dead horse a little bit.

Archival Audio: In a land, in a forest grim and grand, where the chimpanzees and the cinnamon trees live a simple life with the simianese, a big gorilla he.

Haley: Born in 1932, she is known as the woman who gave her life to save the gorillas. Dian Fossey lead an incredible life and this story is definitely a roller coaster. Honestly guys this might have been the like hardest story for me to write because one, there's so much information about her out there, a lot of that information is conflicting. Based on the author's bias. It is also something that like. Like 1932 is not that far away it's less than a hundred years and it's not like she was– she… born and died between like before 1950. She's kinda more relevant. She knows Jane Goodall, we'll get into all of that. A lot of that information was hard to dissect. Let's– let's hope I did a good enough job for y’all. Please don't come out– come after me if I left something out. I could honestly go on for hours this could have been like a two parter for me. Alright. Let's start this history book at the beginning. Dr Dian Fossey was born and raised in San Francisco, California and she grew up in an environment surrounded by animals. So much so that she wanted to be a veterinarian, and fun fact she was an avid horseback rider so we got a horse gal for us here. Fast forward a little bit. Dian Fossey didn't really study veterinary, but she was still in the whole helping people, helping animals– because like humans are animals– and graduated with an occupational therapy degree. Moved to Louisville, Kentucky where she was the director of the Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital as an occupational therapist or she was the head of that department. This was in 1955 hence the dumb name. I really hope that wasn't the name but it was in 1955. There she also was living on a farm so she couldn’t super get away from animals because she did own some, had the whole farm life. But it wasn't enough to fulfil her adventurous side, and as the years went on, she was kind of itching to do something more and going back to animals seemed like the obvious choice. So in September 1963, Dian went to Africa for the first time ever. This trip not only cost her her entire life savings, but also an entire bank loan had to be taken out just so she could like go to Africa and do some research. Well, this clearly paid off because while visiting Kenya, Tanzania, and other places, she met paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey and her husband archaeologist Louis Leakey. And this is a side note like snaps they introduced her as Mary Leakey and her husband and my jaw just dropped I was like yes I was going to do this anyway! It was also the relationship that she had with the Leakeys, that she met up with Jane Goodall. And the Leakeys at this point wanted to find ways to make sure other areas– because paleoanthropology is the study of like really really old things, fossils, before human life– they are the guys who did Lucy. Af- Afric– Africanus– what was it–

Alana: Australopithecus

Haley: Austro– Someone please say it.

Lexi: Australopithecus africanus, right?

Haley: There we go. Yes, that is Lucy. It was also this relationship with the Leakeys that she was able to meet Jane Goodall. And Jane Goodall was part of this whole Leakey corporation, society, relationship, business type thing, because the Leakeys as paleoanthropologists were really interested in studying primates and how they worked genetically, historically, all that stuff with our ancestors as Australopithecus Africanus etcetera etcetera etcetera. We can truly visit this for hours and hours and hours. However, we don't have the time. So Dian kind of got the gorilla side of it and she also met with native wildlife photographers who were working on a documentary about African gorillas, and it was there that Dian was like “yes, I love gorillas, I really want to continue this, this is where I was meant to be.” And back in the States Dian kept thinking about Africa, endangered gorillas, and how she can get more involved. She ended up accepting an offer which allowed her to live among the mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo and then Rwanda, because of like the civil war that was happening she had to move around, be safe. In Rwanda, she established the Karisoke Research Foundation in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park to be like the base camp for her research. She grew her name in the primatology field and was the leader on the physiological and behavioral side of mountain gorillas. So really looking at how they interact with each other, and what individualistic qualities they resemble, so not seeing them as purely these hungry animals that will rip you from limb to limb. How did they act with their children, how did they act with their others like the male versus female, how do they act with other species in the area, all that good stuff. And her work also extended to the protection of our furry comrades by shedding light on how poachers kill gorillas and the violence against them overall. This opened up for international recognition of her work and the work to protect specifically the plummeting numbers of gorillas. So by this time, a lot of people knew her name. During this time, as she was building her framework for her research foundation, doing research herself, she obtained a PhD from Cambridge and then was now Dr Dian and continued more research through Cornell University. However, here on Lady History we have to cover the bad or the ugly. And… So… Look at the show notes for more, but I'll just give you the gist of why her as a conservationist wasn't necessarily a great woman. Like the two didn't have to blend. You can be a great conservationist but a shitty human being. Because in the eyes of the local Rwandans, they were often offended by the way she treated them. This is really like, reading this back I feel– I am getting such– just nervousness I– these are not my words, these are hers. So she would kind of call like a group meeting and go down the list of things and she just turned to locals and be like “my Africans.” It's not great. Even if it's like a little bit racist, it’s still racist. There's also instances of people not being paid on time, but I couldn't find concrete evidence more on like the foundation and research headquarters as a whole, because like she obviously, while was the head, she's not the only person in charge of things, like that’s not how like, a budding foundation worked. Many people– this is like a heavily debated topic in the fields of like how much praise do we give her because she had… she was racist at times, and she was discriminatory. But she did make these huge contributions and the lives of like endangered gorillas. She did devote much of her life to protect the “gentle gorillas” as she would call them from the human and environmental hazards. Unfortunately, her life was cut short because on December 26, 1985, she was found hacked to death. And a lot of this was kind of like circumstantial because they have not found the guilty party and prosecuted them for murder, but they believe that she was murdered by poachers at her Rwandan forest camp. Yeah, Alana’s face is dropped. It took a turn.

Lexi: You’ve never seen Gorillas in the Mist?

Alana: No!

Haley: So I watched Gorillas in the Mist, and I get to that, it's in her legacy. But my mom like turned it off or somehow– I don't remember this ending. I didn't remember that she died. And I read it again and I was like racism… Murder!

Lexi: She did that classic mom thing where you turn off the bad part of the movie.

Haley: I really think that’s what happened.

Lexi: I didn’t know there was a second VHS tape to the Sound of Music for twenty years.

(Alana laughing)

Lexi: Because the Nazis! And I’m German, so I wasn’t allowed to know there were Nazis.

Alana: Oh, that’s such a big problem!

Haley: Yeah, yeah. As you all know I like to just add a little bit of the legacy, and her legacy is still living through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, formerly named the Digit Fund, that's also linked in the show notes. Otherwise the book she wrote in 1983, Gorillas in the Mist, was turned into a movie, as Lexi said, which starred Sigourney Weaver in 1988. I don't know. I'm kind of stuck on this girl, on whether like, I think she's a great– she's definitely not a great human, personally, but like her contributions to science. But I just want to provide all information and be like… and let's respect that she did help the gorillas out, but probably did it in a way that we all cringe now.

(Archival music)

Alana: We've been talking about zookeepers, zoologists, primatologists, you know, that's the theme of the episode. But I feel like we're leaving a key demographic out of this discussion. So my lady for today is Koko the gorilla.

Haley: What?

Alana: Yeah.

Lexi: Fantastic.

Haley: I'm so on board for this.

Alana: Gorilla ladies are ladies.

Haley: I'm speechless

Alana: I’m so glad.

Haley: Bravo. This is fabulous, I’m excited.

Alana: Thank you. I'm also excited. So Koko was born on July 4, 1971 and her full name was Hanabi-ko which means fireworks child. And as I'm saying it I'm realizing that that's a Fourth of July reference… like, fireworks. I just got that. Isn’t that fun. And she was born at the San Francisco Zoo. She was a western lowland gorilla who– they have the best Latin name ever it's gorilla gorilla gorilla. And another woman, Dr Francine “Penny” Patterson, started working with her on sign language in 1972 when Koko was only a year old. And then Dr Patterson started the Gorilla Foundation in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1979. Koko learned a lot of sign language. She knew at least a thousand signs and probably understood about two thousand words because Dr Patterson would talk while she was signing. And that's about the vocab of a toddler. but also like what are non human animals but toddlers? Because I walk a dog, her name is Missy, I love her very much– if she won't leave the park with me, you do that thing that you do with three year olds– “okay bye Missy”– and you walk towards the gate. And what does she do, every single time, she comes running up to me. I say “bye Missy” then she comes. Really what are animals but toddlers. She had a companion named Michael who was rescued from the jungles of Africa and they were supposed to be a breeding pair because it seemed like Koko really wanted a family, in addition to western lowland gorillas being an endangered species. And that's that whole thing about gorillas getting on airplanes with the keepers and private jets, that we were talking about earlier. They didn't actually end up breeding they just became best friends. Like just best friends and they were playmates and it was very fun. He was also learning sign language and potentially learned how to tell the story of watching his mother get killed by poachers. Which… you can learn a little bit more about that I'll leave a link to that in the show notes. So Michael died of a heart condition that's very common in gorillas, and they brought in a second breeding partner whose name was Ndume... also learned sign language. Koko did get pregnant, but she had a miscarriage and couldn't get pregnant after that. So, similar to Lexi’s lady. So instead they got her kittens. Lexi is so happy about this. This is the best story ever. In 1984– 

Lexi: Kittens… I’m sorry.

Alana: I know!

Lexi: It’s just so cute!

Alana: I know! In 1984 she adopted a kitten named All Ball that she named, by signing, because she apparently loved rhyming words in sign language. And that inspired a book called “Koko's Kitten” and it's a little kids’ book and it's still in elementary schools all over. But then the cat got hit by a car and died, which is too bad. But for her forty fourth birthday, in 2015, they got her two more kittens and she named them Miss Gray and Miss Black because they were gray and black. Here's where the story gets maybe not as fun. In 2005 Koko kind of got Me Too’d? Three employees at the foundation, three other keepers claimed that Koko asked them to lift their shirts and show her their nipples, which Dr Patterson encouraged. They settled out of court, but like they were sued. That is kind of weird, but– and I was a little bit in disbelief– but also Robin Williams, who famously met her in 2001, talked about her doing that to him. It's just– it's jarring. So that's all very Tiger King, except Dr Patterson is actually like a scientist and has published real papers and isn't horrible. When Michael died, Koko actually expressed grief for him, the same thing when Robin Williams died. The Nat Geo article announcing her death, they had a quote from some guy who really had the audacity to talk shit about zoos while they were talking about how Koko died. And this person was like “yeah she did all these cool things for science but also she shouldn’t have been in a zoo.”And I was like oh my god… Let the people mourn an icon. But she is also– Koko herself has had a lasting legacy. She expanded how we think about animals and language. Like humans have to keep adding to the definition of language so that we can exclude how other species communicate. And some people think that she was only mirroring Dr Patterson or Dr Patterson and her associates were projecting, but Koko signed to herself and there's video in a 60 Minutes Australia segment where she's signing to herself. She has a hat, that is a flowered hat, it's a flower bucket hat. It's real cute, it's something baby Alana would absolutely have worn. And so she's signing “flower” and “hat” to herself. She would also invent signs. Like, she didn’t have a word for “ring” so when she saw Dr Patterson wearing a ring, she signed “finger bracelet” which is pretty much what a ring is. So I just think that Koko… it's a lot that we can learn about grief, and how animals express grief, and how we express grief, and how we can communicate with things. Because animals absolutely learn words. Like we teach dogs words. We teach them– you know– sit, stay, all that. So they know some human words. You can teach animals words in whatever language you speak. There's a dog who comes to the park who speaks Spanish. His name is also Coco! I don't think it's the same kind of Koko though, but. Yeah so that's the story of Koko. I'm so glad you guys liked my surprise.

Lexi: I love it. I'm a big nerd about the whole Koko situation because I am a big nerd about animals talking. Linguistic anthropology has always fascinated me, and I think it extends to animals, and a lot of anthropologists don't think it should extend to animals. But I read this book in high school, because I was reading all the books about birds I could possibly find because I had one, I have one still. And the book is called “Alex and Me” and–

Haley: I know that book.

Lexi: The person who is the scientist in that story was inspired by the Koko experiments to do something similar with a bird, and because birds don't have hands, it was vocal- completely vocal communication. And the bird learned to say phrases and even once asked an existential question. So… he asked “what color Alex” which is technically an existential question. And that's how he learned what the color gray was, because he was gray. So that's really interesting that animals do that stuff.

Haley: So my grandparents, I believe I've talked about this before, basically got a male and female cockatiel, started breeding them, and would often give them to their friends as like “hey you're really old, you live alone, here's a friend.” And I remember visiting one of their friends who had one of these birds and the bird would just start talking. And like she taught the bird how to speak, I– at least Spanish, because they're all Spanish speakers. And the bird I think was like a bilingual bird. Because I think he would respond to me and I'd speak English to it. And this bird would just like talk and be like “hello. How are you?” And I just remember as like a small child being like “this bird's talking to me. I thought this was just in movies.”

Lexi: There’s actually a lot of evidence that birds know their names too because parrots, specifically, their moms give each baby a name that's a sound, and while they don't sound like human names, each baby has a sound that is associated with them. So when we raise a parrot in captivity and we call it it's name, it learns it has a name which is–

Haley: Yes.

Lexi: Really, really cool.

Haley: We had them–

Alana: That is amazing.

Haley: –before cockatiels.

Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of the show will be on ladyhistory pod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review and tell your friends, and if you don't like the show, keep it to yourself.

Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra, you can find her on Instagram and Twitter at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, GarageBand and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, next time, on Lady History.

[OUTRO MUSIC]

Haley: Next week on Lady History, it's the witching hour. We’ll be casting a spell on you and discussing some women of witchcraft, women of vampirism you name it, it's spooky season, and we're here to celebrate.

Alana: Dogs are liberal because they love people, cats are liberal because they're smart.

Lexi: Yes. Mhmm. All animals are liberals. 

Haley: I also believe dogs can't be evil.

[yibvmbe]

❛ ― tag. / words. 

[learnprogress]

BREAKING: 50+ Dead, Hundreds Injured…

The world woke up on Monday morning to death and destruction, and a devastated landmark city in shambles. A gunman opened fire on a crowded concert in Las Vegas Sunday night, killing more than 50 people and injuring more than 400 others.

This is the most horrific and deadly shooting event in America’s history.

At least 406 people have been and are being treated in Las Vegas hospitals this morning. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is still trying to pick up the pieces of this shocking event.

At least one off-duty Las Vegas police officer lies dead today, and two on-duty officers were injured during the shooting. Both are in stable condition as of the writing of this piece.

The death toll from the shooting is now the highest for any event like this, surpassing the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting of June, 2016, an event that killed 49 people.

The gunshots began to ring out at around 10:08 pm local time, when a gunman fired into a crowd of approximately 22,000 people attending a country music concert. The gunman was firing from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, located on the Las Vegas Strip.

Based on audio recordings of the gunfire, it sounds as though the gunman was using automatic weapons. Police say he had “in excess of 10 rifles” in his hotel room.

The scene at the concert was chaos when the shots rang out. “Everyone was hiding everywhere,” said one witness. “And everyone was telling us to run, ‘run as fast as you can.'”

Prior to his Monday morning speech about the event, Donald Trump tweeted a pithy message through social media: “My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!”

According to Homeland Security, there is nothing for the rest of the nation to fear. “At this time, we have no information to indicate a specific credible threat involving other public venues in the country,” said Acting Secretary Elaine Duke.

Authorities believe that the shooter was a local man, a resident of a retirement community about 90 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. Stephen Paddock, 64, took his own life shortly before authorities swarmed the 32nd floor of the hotel to apprehend him.

Paddock had been renting the room beginning September 28. As of right now, police do not have any motive for this crime. Paddock has no criminal record to indicate a violent personality, or any other issues with law enforcement or the nation.

Police have located Paddock’s female companion and identified her as Marilou Danley. The two lived together in Mesquite, Nevada.

Their home, according to police officials, was clean, well-kept and built in the newer section of the neighborhood. Danley was out of the country at the time of the shooting, and did not travel with Paddock.

Officials do not believe that Danley, 62, was involved in the shooting. However, she has been detained for questioning about her now-deceased housemate.

People searching for missing loved ones are being advised to call a Las Vegas police hotline at 1-866-535-5654. The Las Vegas police have also established a family reunification center at the Clark County Sheriff’s office at 400 S. Martin L. King Blvd.

Police say that identifying all the victims and contacting their families will take some time, and have asked for patience. People who have videos or photos of the shooting are being asked to help with the investigation. Call 1-800-CALLFBI in order to share this with authorities.

Las Vegas area residents who want to help can give blood to the United Blood Services, who will be receiving donations at locations in Las Vegas and nearby Henderson, Nevada.

In the horrible days to come, Republicans will rally together to say that this is not the time to talk about gun control.

So when is the right time to talk about it?

POLL: Does America need stronger gun laws?

Are we ready yet to talk about changing the way guns are bought and sold in this country?

Share this story, along with your thoughts and hopes for the people of Las Vegas that they may one day recover from this tragic event.

The post BREAKING: 50+ Dead, Hundreds Injured… appeared first on Learn Progress.

from BREAKING: 50+ Dead, Hundreds Injured…

[dailyaudiobible]

07/05/2021

1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17, Acts 23:11-35, Psalm 3:1-8, Proverbs 18:14-15

Today is the 5th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it's great to be here with you today around the Global Campfire together as we move further and further into the year and get all settled into this new month that we have. Big day of celebration around the United States yesterday. Of course, we were celebrating Jill's birthday yesterday and so, yeah, we’re just kinda turning into this month and settling in, and as we do that, well, we’re reaching some new territory. It'll be familiar territory but it’s new territory. So, yesterday we concluded the Book of 2 Kings which concluded the Books of Kings and in that final reading from 2 Kings we saw the Babylonians enter the land of Judah and eventually conquering it, displacing all of the Jews. This is where they get their name that they were from Judah and so they were called Jew's and they were there they were taken into exile. This is actually massive and when we move through the territory in 2 Kings and then finished that book and it doesn't seem apparent just how monumental what is happened actually is. So, we remember, right, that the Assyrians came and took the kingdom of Israel, the northern tribes the 10 northern tribes, they took them into exile and they disappeared. They were assimilated. Now, we have the kingdom of Judah, falling, falling to Babylon and now they have been carried off into exile so the promised land that we worked forward toward from the book of Genesis, basically until yesterday, is over. It's the end. I mean, there will be remnant, a returns after exile yes, but it will never be this kind of independent nation like it was again in ancient times. Ancient Israel has come to an end.

Introduction to Chronicles:

And so, today we’re going to begin 1 Chronicles and of course there’s a 2 Chronicles and if we’ll remember these were all one text at one time and then were broken up, especially with the with the translation into the King James, that’s when a lot of these distinctions and breaking up of books and stuff happens but that's the Middle Ages, that’s like 500/600 years ago. So, for the thousands of years before that these were one text from the time that they were written and it's not really certain who, who collected these Chronicles, there are traditions like there's a Jewish tradition that suggests the priest Ezra, who has a book in the Scriptures by his name was involved, and it's not exactly clear specifically, ya know when and where these were chronicled, but it seems that about 4 1/2 centuries before Christ’s time the first century and that is contemporary with Ezra and what will notice is that we’re covering a lot of the same territory. It will be familiar. Chronicles, both 1st and 2nd Chronicles look at this same history that we've been covering in Samuel and Kings. But it's just from the perspective of the priestly view and these Chronicles were probably chronicled from exile during the exile, at least partly in an attempt to not forget who they were. Because empire building was the process of assimilating conquered people, we’ve talked about this a couple times how, you know, the nation will come in and conquer one another nation, and then carry off those conquered people into a different region of the empire and then relocate other conquered peoples in so that it’s just all mixed up, so that as the generations pass there’s, the identities are lost and so impart this is to not forget. So, as we begin Chronicles, we’ll be reading genealogies a little bit, lots and lots of different names and this is that part that’s kind of famous in the Bible because almost in a negative way like what was up with all these names and I certainly had those feelings early on in reading the Bible, but even being aware of them in my childhood, like who sits down to read page after page of names? And it really settled in, probably a decade ago for me, traveling into Africa, going into the into the country of Rwanda and experiencing the memorials from the genocide that happened in Rwanda. And I explain this most every year because this is the best way, I can make what were about to read meaningful to us. So, in Rwanda, I mean the genocide, it wasn't like warfare, it was, but it was like with machetes and knives and stuff like that and a lot of people were killed by machetes. There was a lot of places, even churches where, like priests gave up their entire congregations to be killed off. It's just a horrible, horrible story, but it's also a remarkable story of redemption in the end. But yeah, these things happened, and in many places throughout the country, places were mass murder, basically, genocide happened they’re preserved and really preserved in a way where people are left where they died, like their skeletons all over in bones and bones and bones. But anyway, there's a national museum about the genocide in Kigali in the capital city. And, you going there, super, it’s super sobering to say the least to see clothing that was worn when people died, blood stained or bones, skulls that have been, you know, you can see where the machete crushed their skull and they died and it’s just like, it's really, really sobering to think of what humanity is capable of doing to each other. And, there is one darkened, dark quiet room you go and there’s pictures everywhere, wall-to-wall pictures of people who died in the genocide. And there's a female voice, just very quietly saying the names of the people who were lost in the genocide. We need to understand that as we go into Chronicle’s exile is upon these people. They have been dragged from their homeland, the temple of the most high God has been burned to the ground. They have been carried away because it's warfare, many, like there’s been rape and pillage and plunder and separation, people are being pulled away from other members of their family and sent to different places. No one knows if anybody's ever going to see each other again. There are lingering questions about who’s still alive like, you can only imagine the kind of agony that these people would've been going through. And so, as we go into the genealogies, if we’ll remember that this is written from exile as an attempt to not forget who they are and to have a memorial to remember how things are connected but then it gives rich meaning. Actually, when I read this section now it's a sobering reminder of what I experienced in Rwanda, but any of the Holocaust museums from World War II, similar to this, any kind of genocide memorial similar to this because as a people were trying to not forget what happened so that we don't forget who we are, but also so that this doesn't happen again. So, with that we move into some new territory. The book of 1 Chronicles chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 17.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us into this new territory 2 Chronicles and as we move through these names help us Lord understand that every single name represents an entire life. People who laughed and cried and smiled and frowned. People who ate and drank, planted and harvested, enjoyed festivals and celebrations, endured the grief of loss. These are the names of the people who formed the story. The story that we’re reading the story that affects our lives until today and so, we thank You for allowing us to recite these names and we ask that they be meaningful to us and even as we continue to journey with the apostle Paul, under arrest and the chaos going on in Jerusalem. We recognize that Paul, all of the sudden, although in chains, is communicating with power, communicating with powerful people, he’s been able to under the protection of the Romans speak to the Jewish Council and yes, they wouldn't hear and they want him dead but he’s able to tell the story and we will continue to observe this as we continue through the Book of Acts. So, Holy Spirit we invite You to plant the words of Scriptures deep into our lives. The soil of our hearts that we can see that You have been doing that because we have reaped a harvest, we are being transformed. This is changing us, so we invite You to continue the work of transformation. We ask this expectantly in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's the website, it’s where you find out what is going on around here and its day after tomorrow, what’s going on around here. The 7th of July is coming up and that is our own holiday here around the Global Campfire. We lovingly call it the Long Walk and it's exactly that, a day that's on our calendar each year in the center of the year. A day to be, not to do so much. A day to go out somewhere beautiful whether it's a little walk down to a park or whether it's a, you know, a long drive somewhere that’s beautiful and meaningful, somewhere lovely and we go there and go for a Long Walk. And, I mean, the best way to imagine it is, think, think of when you've been in love, when you fell in love. You do that all, all the time. Time standstill when you’re love and you’re on a Long Walk with somebody that you love and you’re just talking about your life and about your future together are just dreaming or thinking. The beautiful thing about going for a Long Walk with God is yeah, you can talk out loud if you want, be silent if you want. That's what happens when you're comfortable and comfortably in love right, it's communicating with words and beyond words. It's being together and when we’re out in nature and we realize not only does God love me, but he made all this. All of this life that's bursting forth that I don't even hardly pay attention to and it’s healing and it sets us up well to go into the second half of the year so that's what we'll be doing on 7th of July. It's what we do every 7th of July so make plans for that. We will post a post on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page for the Long Walk, 2021, and in that post, you can post your pictures or videos and all the sudden we have this place where we've gone on a Long Walk but that we can join in or appreciate. Go on a little mini holiday all around the world by looking through the little windows of each other's cameras and it's so it's a solitary beautiful thing but it's also a community event. So, that's coming up on the 7th, on Wednesday. There is a resource that we have created that is really perfect for this kind of event, it’s called Heart: A Contemplative Journey and you can get that at the iTunes store or the Google play store wherever it is that you can buy music. Just search for my name or search for Heart: A Contemplative Journey and you should be able to find it and it is a really good companion for the Long Walk because it's really good conversation starter. It's really good to allow prayer to, through prayer to open up our emotions and our heart, which is why the projects called Heart, open our heart to God in the things that we've been feeling and then just to allow music to speak while we’re in nature and to contemplate, invite God into those emotions and that gets us going on the Long Walk. So, check out that resource, it's available wherever you get your music.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com there is a link on the homepage and I thank you with all of my heart for your partnership. If what we do here, bringing God's spoken word read fresh every day and offered to whoever will listen anywhere on this planet, whatever time it is, if that has made a difference in your life than thank you for being life-giving. So, there's a link on the homepage. If you're using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement 877-942-4253 is the number to call or you can hit the Hotline button in the app which is the little red button up at the top.

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

Prayers and Encouragement:

Dear DAB family this is Russel from Superior. I’m calling cause I heard Little Sharie’s prayer about using her walker for the first time. And it really touched my heart because my mom started using her walker about 8 months ago because she has back problems. She had surgery and for the first time she’s at the casino with my step-dad and she’s away from me for the first time for two days. And I was just sitting there thinking about her and Little Sharie came on talking about her walker so I see you too Sharie. Ya know, it really touched my heart right now. Stay strong, I love you and I’m praying for you. God Bless.

Hi everyone, my name is Isaac and I am from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I’d like to give a little inspiration. Back in October of last year I spoke to one of my doctors about going off medication that had side effects of severe weight gain. Now, at this time I was 20lbs short of 300lbs. I’m happy to say now that as of right now that I am probably 75lbs down since October. With that being said, there’s more work to be done. I’m gonna trust Jesus because I’m tired of trying to live my own life the way I want to live it. So, what I’m asking is for prayer. Prayer for my anxiety, my depression. Right now, my anxiety is so strong that I can’t work and I want to work, I want to be a hard-working person. I’ve had doctors tell me my anxiety is too strong and that they can’t help me. And I don’t want to listen to that anymore cause I know that’s lies from the devil. Not only that but I’ve had a head twitch, turrets head twitch for the last 11 years and it’s just painful, it’s frustrating and it’s just, it wears me out. If you could pray for that, that’d be great. Not only that but could you please pray for my mom. She needs both of her knees replaced, she needs surgery on her spine done, she’s got something called sciatica and it’s not fun, she’s in constant pain. The nerve twinges are unbearable for her and it’s hard because somedays I just I can’t stand seeing her in pain especially when all she can do is cry into a pillow because it hurts so bad. I know that Jesus can help but I know He will. Would you please pray for me and my family? Thank you, guys. Bye.

Hello family, Drew from the Bay area. Listen, just wanted to call in a quick prayer for Travis from Alberta, Canada. Travis, I’m so excited for you being in the pastoral internship and learning all about how to teach others about God, that’s awesome. I just want pray for you. Heavenly Father, You are an awesome God, You are Holy, beyond perfection. You created everything in 6 days. Lord, the God of Isaac, Jacob and let’s not forget Abraham, Moses and David, Lord, although we are imperfect men You are with us and when you are with us Your power, Your love spills out all over the place. Lord, we thank You for the love story of Your word, we thank You for this ministry. We ask You to bless Travis and the ministry that You have before him. Lord, encourage him, take away any doubt, confusion, anxiety and help him to show others that Your word comes from You and that You encourage through people like Travis, You encourage others. So, we thank You for Travis, bless him. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Nathan Basset from Bloomington, Illinois. Hopefully your day is truly going well. I have a prayer request. One week ago, today this, pretty much this very hour my step-son and his wife and their 7-month-old were involved in a very serious car accident. They hydroplaned on the highway going 70+ miles an hour and lost control, rolled the car multiple, multiple times and ended up going to the hospital. Seven-month-old, he actually was discharged a little bit after that, he was doing fine, no bumps, no scraps, no nothing. My step-son, he had some bumps and he’s still a little sore even a week later. My daughter-in-law actually fractured two vertebrae in her neck had surgery on Sunday and was released on Monday which kind of baffles me how that works. So yes, that’s my prayer request for healing, emotionally and medically. But here’s the other request that I have: my wife had a very good conversation with my daughter-in-law about Jesus on Sunday. She was asking questions of my wife about relationship and she was raised catholic, really hasn’t gone to church since her childhood probably. And she really was seeking a change of a heart. And so, this whole week we’ve been praying, praying for that, that they attend church. We’ve even invited them several times but that they see that Jesus really did protect them. And she even said when they were rolling over, she saw two big hands surrounding their child and my wife says that was God. that was God Allie. So, please pray for them. Embrace you …

Hello, my DAB family my name is Terrell Revenelle. I actually stumbled across this app a few days ago. I’m all things devotional, I love devotionals, lover of God, lover of Jesus, Holy Spirit and I was looking for a different type of devotional I already listen to several others and when I stumbled across this it blessed my soul immensely and then at the end when I was able to hear all the testimonials, the prayers, the prayer requests for different individuals, family, friends and also for the DAB family, that just lit up my soul. So, so I’m hear today just asking for you all to stand in agreement with me for my son who is 24 years old, my only son, his name is G and a couple years ago he woke up and he couldn’t walk. He had already been dealing with a bulging disc and he found out that he had seven bulging discs so just imagine, you know, how debilitating that was for him and his life. He’s newly married of two years. Him and his wife just moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And he’s really just trying to get back in step. He’s not a 100%, he’s able to walk now. We’ve gone through spinal non-decompression therapy, we’re trying to avoid surgery at all costs but now the issue is more neurological and muscular having issues of weakness of muscle, weakness of limbs. He gets exhausted very quickly after doing just a little bit of activity. He was once very active, he played college basketball, weightlifting and all of these things, dancer, and all of these things and I know that this is spiritual warfare that God is drawing him closer to Him. So, the prayer is two-fold that his spirit is enlightened and that he’s totally healed in Jesus’ name. Thank you.

[dailyaudiobible]

05/22/2018 DAB Transcript

2 Samuel 1:1-2:11, John 12:20-50, Psalms 118:19-29, Proverbs 15:27-28

Today is the 22 day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It's great to be here with you today as we move forward, the next step forward in our adventure through the Scriptures, which actually brings us to the doorway of another book. And we'll step into that today. We completed 1 Samuel yesterday and the life of Saul. And of course, Saul was killed in battle and we read of that. Which brings us today to begin 2 Samuel. And just by way of reminder, 1 and 2 Samuel were of a larger collection of books with other texts that were separated along the way, made individual books for clarification and ease. It would be pretty hard for Samuel to have written 2 Samuel since he had already died. So we don't actually know who penned this book, but it does seem to be a collection from previous times. But because of the way that the narrative reads, whoever did account for these Scriptures had first hand knowledge. 2 Samuel is gonna pick up right where we left off. So it's not like we're switching gears here and have to reframe what we're looking at. It's gonna pick up right where we left off. And we've basically concluded the book of 1 Samuel with the death of Saul and his sons. So we'll pick up there as 2 Samuel begins. And then we'll cover the life of David, his ascension to the throne, his victories, his conquests, his relationship and passion for God and then the mountain top of his life and then the trailing off and his falling away from God as well. And we'll be able to sit here in the front row and watch all of this happen and apply it to our lives. Because we'll certainly find ourselves in the life of David. And in his life we'll have one more example of how pressing into God, obeying God, following God with our whole hearts brings about victory in any situation and the falling away from God brings about rebellion and eventual destruction. And just a heads up. If this is your first time through the Scriptures, one thing to note is that the stories that we're reading now, these will be re-told again when we get to the books of 1 and 2 Chronicle. But it's not like it's the same book word for word and it's not coming from the same perspective and that's an interesting thing about the Bible. We have this story of David and we're reading it in Samuel from a prophetic perspective, from the view of the prophets. When we move back through the story again when we get to the books of Chronicles, we'll read this same story of David's life, only from the view of the priestly perspective. So with all of that said, let's begin this new adventure that we're on known as 2 Samuel. And we'll read chapter 1:1-2:11 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we've talked about 2 Samuel a little bit. Now let's just talk about the context of the territory that we're moving into. Because we can be reading the story of David's life in 2 Samuel or in the books of Chronicles and then we can, at the same time, be reading a Psalm of David and these would be from different periods of his life. So, David can write a Psalm that refers to Jerusalem. But in 2 Samuel where we are right now, Jerusalem doesn't exist. It is a Canaanite city called Jabez, but it's not the holy city of Jerusalem that we know of today. It's not the capital city of Israel. So, we've gone through the story, right? David has left Ziklag and moved back into his homeland to the city of Hebron, which still exists today. And the people of the tribe of Judah, which is David's tribe, they anoint him king over themselves. So Saul had died but he has an heir, Ish-bosheth, who is successor who is also anointed king. David being on the run and his fame from killing Goliath and his fame for his leadership throughout the country has put him in his favor, but he's just a commoner. And it wasn't a practice in those days, like it wasn't a democracy where everybody would vote on who would be their king. So, we have some political intrigue going on here. One of the tribes has spoken and made themselves have a king, King David, over them. Not everyone's on board with this plan. So, it's very easy for us to think, well, David comes after Saul so Saul dies than everybody anoints David king and they live happily ever after, but that's not what happened. So, where we are now is that David is ruling in Hebron and he's there for seven and a half years as the ruler. But not everyone is united around him. And there is no Jerusalem yet. And we will witness David capturing Jabez but he will make it the City of David where he will eventual build his capital and then the city will become Jerusalem.

Prayer:

So Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for our ability to continue in the journey through Your Word each and every year, each and every day. And we thank You for the different nuances that we get to explore, some historical, some deeply, deeply spiritual, penetrating very much to our essential identity. And all kinds of stuff that just makes us think about the road that we're walking and Your Holy Spirit knits it together within us, planting the seeds that become a harvest. And we ask for a bountiful harvest of the fruit of the spirit in our lives. Because we spend time in Your Word each day and find counsel in it. 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. So always check in.

See what's going on at the prayer wall…what people are praying for, what people are asking for prayer about. Check out the Daily Audio Bible shop, where there are resources that will help you on your journey in a year through the Bible, including the Promised Land films, which I mention from time to time, especially when we visit places in the Scriptures that we have filmed pretty extensively because Promised Land was created with the intention that it is a companion to go through the Bible where you can pause, zoom in, look at what we're talking about and where it is and situate yourself in the geography. So Hebron, for example, is in the Promised Land films where David reigned from. But Hebron has a pretty long biblical history. It's where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives are buried. So check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It's on the homepage. I thank you for gratitude and humble thanks 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 P.O 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 everybody. It’s Margo here from Australia. I just have a little bit of a prayer request. I wanted to say thank you to Beloved by Him from Gloucester in the UK. Prayed for police the other day. It was some sort of police day in the UK. And I would love it if you could pray for my husband. He’s been in the police for about 10 years now and he’s really struggling with it. He’s just really finding the stress of it all, it’s really getting him down, and we, in the process of getting him out of the police, were going as you know to Africa next year to the mission field. But it’s a good eight months away. He’s having trouble sleeping and just really struggling with it at the moment so I would love it if you guys could pray for God’s supernatural peace for him and to help them get some good strategies to help them through this last, hopefully only eight months. And I also have another little interesting fact, I wanted to share with Lee from New Jersey who is doing the anger prayers. And I was listening to Shangri-La hard on CD recently and he mentioned a few little facts that if you are angry you lose 25.2 points. So, that might explain sometimes why we make some pretty poor decisions while were angry. I thought that was interesting anyway guys. Love you all heaps. We really love listening every day to my wonderful DAB peeps. You have a lovely day. Bye.

Hi everyone. It’s Karen in St. Louis. Hey, I just wanted to lift up prayers for some things I heard today, today’s program. I wanted to lift up John in Bethlehem PA. And I also want to lift up Tom. And he and Johnson Jr. John, I love your prayers brother. So, I just ask you Father God, Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus I pray that You would be the God of all comfort to John and the community at his church as well has his family. I pray Lord Jesus that your light words just shine through at the funeral service and I pray that your glory would be shining through in the stories that are going to be told about Al and I pray that hearts would be prepared to receive You Father, for those who don’t know You at the funeral service. And I pray also for Pelham. I pray Father God that he would come so close to You. I just think about Matthew 11:28-30, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will lift you up, take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, being gentle and knowing and hard and find rest for your souls for My yoke is easy and My burden is light. And Lord, I just pray that for Pelham. I pray that he draws so close to You Lord, that the fear would just totally dissipate, that he trusts his future, every single day of his life. And, you know, I pray that for all of us, for the DAB, and all the believers in the world Lord that we would walk by faith and not by sight Lord, that we would just put all of our days in Your hands. And I know that we go through many trials and that we have griefs that we go through and longings that are fulfilled Lord and I just pray that You would be our all and in all. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Good morning family. This is Cherry Chase, Cherri Pie. I hope all is well. I’m calling for prayer. I know months and months ago I had to call in about my job. And still, same situation. Now we have another new manager, this is like my fifth or sixth manager. The team, now are moving to a totally different new building, but the team we have now, and I hate to say it, they’re very racist. I feel like I’m living in the 60s or what it was like two years old all over again. I work with a bunch of, and I hate to say it, with a bunch of Caucasians or white people who think they’re superior and they think all black people are beneath them. So, that’s my job, that’s what I’m working with. So, I’m asking you guys to protect me on my job. Asking for protection, asking that I don’t snap. I don’t know why God keeps taking me through this, whatever He is taking me through, but when He moves me, trust me, I will be wanting out of there, but I’m not, this is not my time to go yet. I’m not letting anyone push me out of what God brought me into. So, I’m just asking you guys for prayer. I’m working with a lot of evil, a lot of people that just don’t like black people. So, and the __ people in the office more. And they’re moving all of them out. Or their bringing more Caucasian people in too, I guess, to mix it up but it’s very stressful. I’ve never really been… I have, I’m black, so, but it’s hard because you think by now, times changed and people doesn’t talk like that for the do and it’s worse now for whatever reason. It’s horrible, this racial stuff, this hate between our skin color. I don’t understand it or never understand. Mine, I have biracial’s and all of my family. My grandkids on biracial. My son-in-law is white. I don’t have that problem but there’s just so much hate in the world. I’m just asking you guys to cover me on my job. Cover me and asked God to protect me…

Good morning everyone at Daily Audio Bible. This is Silver Bell and I’m calling from the Poconos in Pennsylvania. I’m calling regarding a call from May 19th, Pelham. As soon as Pelham started talking I knew something was wrong and I just want to reassure you that God is not the author of confusion. You said you were confused. God is not the author of confusion and I just want you to know that I’m praying for you and whatever is happening in your life, God is going to work that out for you. And, so, I just wanted to touch base with you and let you know that we all love you and just stand and know that God is still on the throne. Father God, I just pray for Pelham right now. I just ask you to calm his fears, calm his doubts, and Lord to show him that You are present with him in Your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is our comforter. Father God, I pray that the Holy Spirit lift him now, Pelham like never before, that Pelham will feel the Holy Spirit’s presence from his head all the way down to his toes. Father God, we pray for Pelham, we pray for each other, we pray for the Daily Audio Bible team and we just thank You for allowing Your face to be able to call this line to get help. As the Bible says, that You God are our refuge. The Daily Audio Bible is a refuge. And Pelham, I thank you for using DAB as your refuge, that we can reach out and safety here. And we just bless the Lord and we pray that God will keep us…

[dailyaudiobible]

02/20/2018 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 9:7-10:20, Mark 4:26-5:20, Psalms 37:29-40, Proverbs 10:6-7

Today is the 20th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. Greetings from the land of Israel. And don't let my chipper attitude deceive you. I’m very, very jet lagged. It’s like walking around for a few days in kind of a fog, where you feel like you are only semi-present, no matter how hard you try. It’s the strangest of phenomenon’s, but what’s the point of moping around, and what’s the point of sleeping all day just to stay up all night. Right? So, why not be chipper? We have the Scriptures out in front of us, another day around the global campfire, another day to allow God to speak to us through His word. So, it's great to be here with you safely in the land of Israel. And we’ll talk about that a little bit more, but let's dive in for today. We’re reading from the God's Word translation. Picking up where we left off yesterday, the law is being given. And just by way of reminder, I mean, we get to these tedious parts of the Bible, or at least they’re perceived to be tedious because, the law is being given. Right? So, you don't normally go to the library, unless you're like in law school, and start reading law books because that's not exactly page turner stuff. However, the laws of our land are what govern the society. That's what's being issued here, that's what's being laid out. And one thing that you can begin to notice as the law is being given is that, although it governs behavior, it's all attached to a spiritual reality. So, the law may shape how the culture works and kind of govern the behavior of the society, but it's all intended to be attached to an inner reality, to the heart. So, we pick up where we left off, Leviticus chapter 9 verse 7 through 10 verse 20. And if I'm reading along and then all the sudden things go silent for a minute, just stick with me, I just…I nodded off…but I'll be right back with you as soon as I wake up. Hopefully that won’t really happen. And even if it does really happen, I’ll edit it out. It's just…I’m just teasing…it’s the jet lag talking. Leviticus chapter 9 verse 7 through 10 verse 20.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word as we do every day, because we are grateful. We are thankful that You’ve given this tangible gift to us that speaks and touches everything about us, everything about our experience here on earth. We’re thankful. And we’re thankful for another day. And we look forward to all the days that are in front of us this year that You will speak. And Father, we thank You for safe travels, for bringing us here to the land where all of this happened, and for the opportunity to experience it again, and to bring it near so that we can feel connected to the places where these things happened. And we pray Father for all those who were on planes now and all those who are coming in. We pray along with this entire community, over all of the facets, over the next most couple of weeks that we will be spending. Thank You for giving us strength and stamina. Thank You for watching over the technology. Thank You for safety in all of our travels. Thank You for letting us come. And God, we embrace this time, whether it be virtual or whether it be here in person, it all matters because it makes the Bible come alive to us. And Your word is alive. We are told that in the book of Hebrews. And it’s sharp, sharper than any two-edged sword. It can pierce us right to the level of our identity and we’re grateful for that because You transform us at the level of our identity and we open ourselves to You as we move through the land of the Bible. 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.

And, of course, what's going on around here is that we’re coming to you from Israel. And tonight is when we kind of officially begin. So, some have landed, some are landing, but tonight we’ll begin with dinner together and just kind of go over some particulars. And that will be a little bit south of where I'm at right now. And we’ll be out on the coast in the city of Ashdod, which is a biblical city. It was a former Philistine stronghold. So, the Philistines, during the era of the monarchy…right…so we haven't gotten to that yet…but during the era of like King Saul, King David, Philistines were like sort of the archrivals. They were border countries but they were a border nation with Israel, but they were enemies. And they were set up where they had like five primary cities to protect their territory and each of these cities had their own leadership and King. And Ashdod was one of those Philistine strong cities. And that's kind of where we will be getting things going this evening. There are a few ruins of ancient Ashdod but not a lot. And we’re not in Ashdod to visit Philistine ruins. It’s just a great launching spot to get…to cover the kind of miles that we need to cover tomorrow. So, I'll try to find a picture or two that I can post on social media. If you want to follow along with the trip, either follow Daily Audio Bible on Instagram or on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And yeah, and then other than that, just going to be powering through. If you’ve ever experience jet lag you know what I'm talking about. It’s just a weird sort of half-awake and half-present thing. So, anyway, as I've been saying for the last week or maybe even a little bit more, a canopy of prayer over all of this, every time that you think of us in this land, if you would say a prayer. This whole thing gets sustained by the prayers of God's people. And I do not underestimate the power of God's people praying. And would never want to step into anything like this without God's people praying. So, we’re going to have a great time but we need your prayers.

Okay, a couple more things. First of all, this Saturday, which is the 24th day of February, we’ll be doing a live broadcast of from the Sea of Galilee. And we’ll be well into our trip. We will have experienced a lot of places. And we get together as a group, those of us who are here, and just debrief a little bit. But part of that will be Facebook Living…I’m not sure that’s a term…we’ll be using Facebook Live to do this. And just sharing some of the stories of our pilgrimage thus far. And that will take place at 8 PM Israel time. So, that will take place at 1 PM on the East Coast of the United States, Eastern time, noon, Central time, where I live in Nashville, 11 AM if you are in the mountain zone of the United States, 10 AM if you are on the West Coast of the United States. If you are in London or in the UK that'll be 6 PM. And if I’ve got my math correct that’ll be 5 AM on Sunday if you are in Australia. So, I don’t want to confuse anybody, but you can just Google the difference between Tel Aviv and where you are and do the math yourself. So, this will take place, Facebook Live. So, like I’ve been saying all along, follow this trip because we’ll be posting a lot on Instagram and Facebook. So, you can follow along at Facebook, which is facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And every time we do something like this it's a great time of fellowship, because there’s this live thing going on, but there's this opportunity to post and chat with each other. And you’ll be able to post questions to us as it's happening live from the Sea of Galilee. So. we’ll look for that this coming Saturday the 24th.

Also, if you’re kind of following along with us and you’re like, I want to go, we’ll be going back next year. You can get all set up for that now. Just go to dailyaudiobible.com. Look in the Initiatives section for Israel 2019 and you can make plans to come and be here with us. These trips always sell out way in advance. So, check it out. If it's something that's churning in your heart to come, we’ll be planning to come back next year around this same time.

The other thing that I have been mentioning is what's coming up in April back on the other side of the ocean, in my homeland, back in the United States, the women's gathering that we do each year called the More Gathering for women will be coming up in early April, which is a lot closer than it seems. And we’re looking forward to that. Just want to make you aware of it, invite you if you're a woman looking for more to this. It is a fellowship, a sisterhood, and I have watched friendships that have flourished and are lifelong. I have met so many people who have met really, really intimate friends that stay in contact with each other almost on a daily basis even though we live in different parts of the country or even world. So, it's a beautiful thing. I want to invite you to that. It takes place in the springtime just as new life is beginning in the South. It’s a perfect metaphor for what the whole things about. And you can find out all of the details, every bit of the things that you would need or want to know at moregathering.com. So, check that out. And look forward to seeing you back on the other side of the ocean in April.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the mission that we share to bring God's spoken word read fresh every day to anyone who will listen to it, anywhere, any time of day or night, and to keep building community around that rhythm so that we are sure that as we move through our days we’re not moving alone, we have community we have one another. If that has been meaningful then thank you for your partnership and allowing it to exist at all and to continue forward. There’s a link at dailyaudiobible.com 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 comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. Pray that I can stay awake a little longer. I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good evening Daily Audio Bible sisters and brothers. This is Linda from Phoenix. Today is February 13th. I called about two and half, three weeks ago asking for prayer for my daughter who has an alcohol problem and she had gotten fired from her job. Anyway, I just wanted to give praise report. She went to a rehab, a detox center, and we were trying to find a location for inpatient and my insurance, the last I had spoken with one of the…one of the staff at the detox…my insurance wasn’t going to cover and it was going to cost about $15,000, which I just could not afford. Long story short, DABbers, there’s a place in Tennessee that is going to take our insurance and her recovery is going to be 100% covered. My insurance is going to cover it 100%. I just want you guys to know. I want to thank you for the prayers that I received because I know this prayer wasn’t answered on my own. I know __ [crying] __ to the DABbers…God bless __ I just wanted to say thank you. Keep praying for her recovery and I pray for each and every one of you and I just want to say thank you. I love you.

Hi fellow DABbers. This is Joe the Protector from Georgia. It’s February 14th at about 8 o’clock in the morning. Just got finished listening to the 14th podcast and want to just update on my daughter, Madison. We’re still having a mountain of struggles there. Nothing’s been actually done still. We’re out of the hospital now. But, you know, it’s still just a battle. They haven’t truly treated her as they should, no one has. And she’s been rejected by big facilities and hospitals as well. So, anyhow, just continue to lift her up. And I heard Sharon the Victorious, I believe she called herself, that she said is dealing with depression and some other issues in her life. As you all know depression is on my heart right now due to my daughter. And, you know, I got to thinking yesterday, I felt a little defeated yesterday, but, you know, Satan tries to bring us just the feeling of defeat, but the thing is is he cannot defeat us. It’s our choice to be defeated or not to be defeated because he’s been defeated. He can’t bring something on us that has been taken away from him, that has been done to him. And he doesn’t own defeat. He just tries to bring the feeling of it. So, I just encourage everyone that feels that way to just laugh and say, devil, you don’t own nothing. You don’t own me. You cannot…

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family or afternoon or evening, depending on where you are. I’m calling for specifically, Sharon. Sharon, I hope you hear this. I hope this makes it to the air. This is Sheila from Massachusetts. I heard your call for prayer today and I heard the pain and the fear and the desperation in your voice. Your husband with a bad back who still has to work. Your daughter who’s bipolar who may be using prescription drugs again, and Sharon, you, who just was diagnosed with glaucoma and are having a procedure. Sharon, I feel like that you are my sister that is supposed to be in my life, on my heart, to pray for every moment of every day as you go through this in your life. My husband has a bad back. He’s a carpenter. My daughters 22 years old, an __ , bipolar one. And sister, you can’t carry that weight on your own. You lay it at Gods feet to let yourself unto peace in knowing He’s got this, He’s got a plan. We suffer a lot as His children but He never lets us be defeated by it. Sharon, grab Jesus hand. Walk side-by-side with Him as your friend and know that you can find the peace that you need to get through this. You just need the Lord right now. He is there. Hard to see maybe, but He is there in all of this sister. But you have to relinquish some of this worry to Him and know that He’s going to take care of it in His time in His way. He does work all things for good sister and I am praying for you. You have my heart and my love as your sister in Christ. Bye family.

This is for Sharon the Victorious. And that is how you named yourself. And you called in on 14th February requesting prayer for your husband, your daughter, and yourself. And you know that you are covered in prayer. And you’re right to call yourself victorious because you are fighting from victory and not for victory. God has already given you the victory. So you stand in that victory, standing firm as he’s called you to stand. And from Psalm 37, verse 39, ‘that the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength in times of struggle. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him.’ So, as you take refuge in him, Sharon the Victorious, stand in that victory. And for your cataract surgery, you are covered in prayer. Prayer has been __ he is covering your daughter and her bipolar personality, all of it. Remember Romans 15:13, ‘now, right now, now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’ Lord Jesus, we are covering Sharon the Victorious. We thank You Lord that You give her all joy and peace. We thank You that she will abound in hope by the power of your indwelling Holy Spirit. Lift her up Lord, cover that family. We ask it in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

I’m calling for Sharon the Victorious. Sharon, you are victorious because of Jesus. I’m praying for your family but most of all I’m calling right now to encourage you. I was 79 when I had laser surgery. I had glaucoma. And it was nothing. It didn’t completely work, I had to have extra medicine, but there was no pain there was nothing to fear. I had cataract surgery. I was in my late 70s. And each one, when I had them done, was five minutes it was over. So, do not fear my sister and we are praying for your husband. I’ve had a back problem most of my life but God’s been so faithful. So, we are just trusting that you will keep your eyes on Him and that you are victorious and praying for your daughter also. God bless you Sharon and be not afraid. God is with you. And I’m going on 83 and I’m still doing great with my eyes. God is faithful. He is a faithful God. So, God bless you and God bless your family. We are praying for you. We love you. And God bless you Brian and Jill for this podcast. It has made such a difference in my life. And thank you. In Jesus name we just praise You alleluia. Amen.

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible family. This is Lee from New Jersey. I wanted to say hello and God bless you all. Today is Valentine’s Day. Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. And also the beginning of Lent. We’ll pray for you all during this time. Listening to today’s podcast, today is the 14th, and hearing Sharon the Victorious from Northern California. Sharon, we may be connected. What you said immediately touched me. So we’re connected in regards to those emotions that you’re feeling. That pain that you’re feeling, that’s a connection. Those of the feelings that I have as well in different times. Different situations but those feelings I am very familiar with them. So, you know what, your wish is our command. We are going to pray for you. Father, in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We pray for our sister Sharon. She’s crying out to You Lord and she’s asking us as well to cry with her. She’s asking for the intervention of the saints Lord, that we all come together and pray for her, for her, for husband, her daughter Lord. They’re in a tough and dark situation Lord. We ask for intervention Lord your mighty intervention Lord. You are a miracle maker Lord. No one else can do the things that you do Lord. That is why we come to you, because you loved us first before we even knew that you loved us Lord. Sharon is in a dark place Lord. She has scheduled operation for the 16th for glaucoma. Lord, help her to see Lord. Remove the cloudiness from her eyes Lord. Remove the cloudiness as well from her Spirit Lord, from her mind Lord, that she will be clear to see that You are there amongst all the darkness Lord, that there is a light that shines. She must go to through this darkness to see this light, that she understands that. And that she also appreciates it Lord, that in the end her name, victorious, will be that proper name for her, that she will be victorious…