The theme of "return from exile" is huge in Scripture, and it was still a big issue at the time of Jesus, even though the exile of Israel had supposedly ended after 70 years. Through Jesus, God wants to bring people from every nation "home" to be with him. He is in the business of bringing back the exiles who have been alienated from him because of their disobedience. If you trust in Jesus, your exile is over! Will you then help create a place for other exiles to return to and belong, and will you proclaim freedom for the captives, that they too can experience a great homecoming?

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The description of the 'garden city' in Revelation 22:1-5 shows that God's original perfect plan for his creation, pictured in the garden of Eden, will be gloriously fulfilled at last, as God's purposes reach their climax. If you are trusting in Jesus, you are included in that great restoration project! Listen and discover how wonderful that will be, and allow the vision to transform and embolden you to be a source of life for others, as the great 'river of living water', God's very presence, flows both to you and through you, to bring healing and eternal life to many.

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If you want to move in the gift of prophecy, there are ways to do so that will bring life, encouragement and transformative change. Equally, there are ways to mishandle or misuse the gift which will be unhelpful to others and hinder what God wants to do. The famous passage about love in 1 Corinthians 13 is actually given in the context of the use of spiritual gifts such as prophecy, and the description there of the characteristics of love also describe how such gifts should operate in the mouths of God's people.

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You are not the centre of your story! Rather, God is the hero, the main character. Your life-story fits within a much larger whole, and is given meaning and richness from that wider story - the grand narrative of God's kingdom and salvation plan, the restoring of all creation! Starting from Joshua 5:13-15, see how God challenges our thinking, so that we can find joy, purpose and meaning from being part of something so much bigger than our lives alone.

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Revelation chapter 21 tells us that God has not finished with this world! One day, creation will be restored and renewed, when God makes a "new heaven and a new earth" - and comes in person to live there! If you have put your trust in Jesus, you can look forward to this wonderful eternal future. Moreover, you can begin to enjoy eternal life already, because God dwells with you, by his Spirit. He wants you, in the here and now, to be a visible pointer, a foretaste to a watching world, of what God one day will do everywhere in his wonderful new creation!

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In life you will face challenges, discomfort, things that are bitter to swallow. How should you react to those? Jesus said, “In this world, you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” Don’t be consumed by bitterness, but turn to Him who has overcome already, and listen to what He says. God uses bitterness to take us through a process that changes us. And there is a way to recovery, by staying planted in a relationship with God that heals.

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If you are a Spirit-filled believer in Jesus, God does not want you to live as though the Holy Spirit was not there. Instead, recognise his presence in your life, expect him to speak to, guide and empower you on a daily basis, to help you witness to Jesus, overcome obstacles and see God’s power impacting others, as well as a growth of the "fruit of the Spirit" in your own life.

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Judgement of the dead, by God, according to their deeds done in this life is clearly taught in both Old and New Testaments. How do we reconcile this with the equally clear teaching about salvation by grace alone, through faith? Revelation 20:11-15 is a sobering passage about this event, but is nonetheless encouraging for those whose faith is firmly in Jesus.

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What makes you valuable? Is it simply what you can produce for others? On the contrary, God invites you into relationship with himself, not because of what you can do, but because he loves you unconditionally and wants friendship with you. And God has designed you to need and to enjoy friendship with other people - not in order to deliver outcomes, but simply as an end in itself, because that is how God has designed you!

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You cannot really begin to grasp the extent and the nature of the love of God outside of relationship with other believers. Only "together with all the saints" (Ephesians 3:14-19), in other words, only as part of the family of God - the Church - do you start to understand the love of God in Christ. Learn to enjoy and appreciate your local church family, as an expression of God's father heart, and make it your aim to help the church feel like a loving family that others can be drawn into.

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