Today is the fourth day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.

I'm Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you as we gather together around the global campfire and take our fourth step forward together

into this journey that will take us through this year and all the way through the Bible and all through the issues of life that we may face

in this year the Bible will touch all of the soft tender places in us and bring us clarity and direction.

So I'm glad we're on the journey together, I need it, and I hope you do too. Our next step forward leaves us back into the book of

Genesis. Today we will read Genesis 8, 9 and 10. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat.

He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede.

The underground water stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped.

So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth.

After 150 days, exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountains

of Araat. Two and a half months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible.

After another 40 days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat and released a raven.

The bird flew back and forth until the floodwaters on the earth

had dried up. He also released a dove to see if the water had receded and it could

find dry ground. But the dove could find no place to land because the water still covered the ground, so it returned to the boats, and Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside.

After waiting another seven days, Noah released the dove again.

This time the dove returned to him in the evening,

with a fresh olive leaf in its beak.

Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone.

He waited another seven days and then released the dove again.

This time it did not come back.

Noah was now six hundred one years old.

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