Walk Boldly With Jesus

Who Are You Relying On?

Isaiah 22:10 “You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.”

When I asked God to give me a verse he wanted me to talk about today this was the verse I felt I heard.  Normally, I would read a verse like this and then find another one as this doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.  However, when I read it the first thing that came to mind was that they were trying to rely on themselves, instead of relying on the Lord.  Let me read you the verses just before and after this to give you a little context.  Isaiah 22:8-11 “The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest. You saw that the walls of the City of David were broken through in many places; you stored up water in the Lower Pool. You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall. You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.”

These verses start by saying that the Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah.  If God took away the defenses I am sure Judah was not living how they were supposed to live.  I am sure God was hoping that when he stripped away the defenses they would repent and turn back to Him.  It actually says in the next verse Isaiah 22:12 "The Lord, the Lord Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.  God was calling these people to repentance and instead they turned to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.  

In verse 10 above it says, "you counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.”  When I looked up online what it was talking about when it said counting the houses one commentary said, “They numbered the houses of Jerusalem, that every house might send in its quota of men for the public service, or contribute in money to it, which they raised by a poll, so much a head or so much a house.” God was no longer protecting them and instead of repenting, instead of turning back to him and crying out for help, instead of relying on God as their shield and their refuge, they decided to rely on themselves.  I think what God is wanting us to ask ourselves today is “Where are we relying on ourselves instead of God? Also, where might he be calling us to repent and turn back to Him?

I have heard the saying, “Pray like it is all up to God and work like it is all up to you.”  I don’t think God gets upset with us when we do things to fix out situation.  I don’t think He wants us to just sit around and wait for Him to do everything.  I don’t think that is what this verse is saying.  I think it is not what the people were doing as much as it is what was in their hearts when they were doing it.  It is very different to pray to God for help and for protection and then to also fortify your city.  There are plenty of cases in the Old Testament of the wars the Lord’s people fought.  They prayed to God for protection and for victory, but then they actually had to go out and fight the war. I really don’t think God wants us to just sit and let Him fix everything.  However, I do think He cares about what is in our hearts while we are working.

Have we prayed about a situation before doing anything?  Have we stopped and asked God what we should do?  Have we stopped to ask God for help in that situation?  Are we moving forward with the next right step with the confidence that God is in control and that He will help us?  God blessed the people in this verse with prophets.  The Old Testament is full of prophets that told the people when they were doing things that upset the Lord.  Did you know we have prophets in this day and age too?  There are people out there, right now, telling us we need to repent.  Telling us that God is not happy with a lot of things that are going on in the world right now.  Are we listening?  Are we even hearing them?  We seem to be so caught up in the ways of the world that we are not paying attention to God and the way that He wants us to live.  
God is calling us and has always called us to be set apart from the world.  He is calling us to a higher way of living.  Will this mean that we might stand out from others? Yes.  Will this mean that others might not understand us and might mock us or persecute us? Yes.  However, it says is Matthew 5:10-12, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”  Catholic beliefs today, and all Christian beliefs are not popular beliefs.  It is difficult to have a conversation right now, at least in America, because the country is so divided.  

I have heard it said that we have all forgotten how to “agree to disagree.”  If we don’t like someone else’s opinion then we jump down their throat and tell them all the reasons why they are wrong.  The days where we can have a civil discussion about differing beliefs seem to have disappeared and often times we are attacked for our beliefs, and I am not just talking about Christians being attacked.  Sometimes Christians are the ones attacking.  Everyone is so set in their beliefs and feel so strongly that they want everyone else to believe what they believe as well.  What if instead of beating people over the head with our ideas, we just presented them with love and left it up to God to change their hearts?  It is not our job to make every person we meet a Christian.  It is our job to make sure everyone we meet, knows Jesus, has heard of Jesus, has felt His love.  God will do the rest.

Think about your interactions over the last week or so, especially during the business of the Christmas season.  Have the people that you have interacted with seen Jesus in you this past week?  We are called to be a reflection of Jesus.  Have you been showing other’s the love of Jesus this week?  Try to call to mind some of your interaction, would you want that interaction to be a reflection of Jesus?  I know people who have been turned away from church or from religion and faith all together because they looked around at the congregation and they didn’t like what they saw.  They didn’t understand how people who went to church on Sunday and worshiped God could act the way they did outside of church.  

We are called to a higher way of living.  We are called to be representatives of Christ all the time, not just for that one hour on Sunday.  Today is the first day of our very last week in 2022.  Next Sunday we will begin a whole new year.  What could you do differently this next year to become more of a reflection of Christ?  What could you do to represent Christ better in your day to day life?  How can you grow closer to Christ in this upcoming year?  The more we know about someone the more we can imitate them.  How can you get to know Christ better this year?  My challenge to you for this week is to take some time, sit with God and ask Him what He wants you to do differently this year.  In what ways does He want you to rely more on Him and less on yourself.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord show us the ways we are relying on ourselves instead of you. Help us to rely more on you. Help us to see we don't have to do it ourselves. Lord help us to take time this week to see what we need to change in this upcoming year to depend more on you to be more of a reflection of you. Lord when others see us we want them to see you show us how.  Show us how to be a better representation of you through our entire week, not just on Sunday.  Lord we love you and we are sorry that you are calling us to a different way of living and we aren’t listening.  Please help us hear you better.  Please help us live the way you want us to live.  Lord, I pray for every single person listening to this that 2023 is an amazing year of growth for all of us.  I pray that this year, we all learn to grow closer to you.  You are so amazing.  You are the almighty one and you are the Light of the World.  We are so grateful for all you do for us and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Do Not Be Deceived

Collisions 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

Today's verse is a continuation of yesterday’s.  Yesterday I talked about the three verses right before this one.  I talked about how important it is to have a firm foundation in God’s word.  I talked about how important it is to read the Bible daily. Today’s verse talks about why it is important to be well versed in God’s word.  

It says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”  If you don’t know what the Bible actually says, you can be deceived.  The devil is a fallen angel.  He knows what the Bible says, he watched it all happen.  The devil is very tricky.  He tells us things that seem like they could be true, or he tells us things that are true, but takes them out of context or twists them around.  

It’s not often the the enemy tells you an outright lie.  If he did you would be less likely to believe him.  He also focuses on things that you may already be insecure about.  Let me read you how the devil tried to deceive Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

This happened right after Jesus was baptized and God opened up Heaven and said “This is my son in which I am well pleased.”  Jesus was fully God and fully human, can you see how he might have doubted his identity? He might have questioned if who He really was, or that God was really pleased in Him.  So, right away the devil says, “If you are the son of God…”  He will do this for us too.  He will try to tell us we are not the son or daughter of God.  He will try to attack our identity in many ways.  He will try to make us believe you aren’t good at our job, we aren’t a good parent, we aren’t a good spouse, we aren’t a good sibling.  He will take some quick doubt that passes through our mind, or some small truth and he will twist it until he has us believing his lies.  

After his first attempt did not work the devil tried to attack his identity again with another Bible verse.  “If you are the son of God…”  He will try this with us too.  Once we catch on to his plan, he will switch up his plan, but often it will still have to do with getting you to doubt your identity or doubt what God says to you or about you.  In this case, the devil used exact words from the Bible, he was just using them out of context.  He could do that with us too.  Luckily Jesus knew scripture and was able to keep from being deceived.  

Once the devil saw that Jesus knew His identity as the son of God and that wasn’t going to change, the devil tried to tempt Him to be more like God.  “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”  He was telling Jesus he could be ruler over all the land, as far as He could see if Jesus just bowed down to worship him.  Jesus recited a bible verse to satan and told him to leave.  The enemy does this with us as well.  He doesn’t come straight to us with this last one, he usually has others do it for him.  Have you ever been offered a job that is everything you are looking for as far as money and fame or prestige are concerned, and yet it has you working so hard you never see your family?  Have you ever been tempted to take a job that you know will just leave you stressed out because of the money or the location or the benefits?  Have you ever compromised your values to take a job?  

The enemy works in lots of different ways.  He knows how important family values are, family time is and so he will use your boss, your company, a new job offer as a way to entice you away from your family.  He will use your job to keep you so busy you don’t have time to think about God, you don’t have time to pray, you are too tired to go to mass on Sunday.  He will use lots of things to entice your children to turn to the world instead of God as well.  He will use their friends, social media, music, tv, movies, all to show them that they don’t need their parents.  They don’t need God.  

Do you see why it is so important to be in God’s Word every day?  Do you see why it is so important to not only read, but to try and understand the Bible and what it is telling us?  The more secure we are in who we are and whose we are, the more likely we will be able to recognize Satan’s lies and tell him to go away as Jesus did.  

Another reason it is important to know what that Bible says is because then you can carry on a well informed conversation with those around you that don’t believe the same way you do.  There are a lot of people that take the Bible out of context as well.  There are a lot of people who read one line and then use that one line, out of context to try and make their point that this thing or that thing is actually ok to do.  If you know what the Bible says, you can explain to them why what they are saying isn’t an accurate representation of the Lord’s Word.  They may not listen, but at least you didn’t let their faulty knowledge deceive you.  Also, maybe they will listen.

Imagine how great it would be if, just by knowing what the Bible says, you were able to win more souls over to the kingdom of God?  Imagine if the people who are believing the enemies lies, were to learn the truth and be able to see what God is really saying, or how much God really loves them.  Wouldn’t that be worth the sacrifice of a few minutes of scripture reading a day?  Even if you only helped one person see the truth and join the kingdom of heaven, it would be worth it.  

If you have never read that Bible before I have a few suggestions.  First, I would listen to the Bible in a Year podcast, also found on YouTube, with Father Mike Schmitz.  It is really good and he explains what he read so well.  Second, if you are doing it on your own, don’t start at the beginning.  Start in the New Testament.  It starts with the Gospels and you learn all about who Jesus is and what He did during His three years of ministry.  Then it goes on to talk about the early church.  You can also start with Psalms if you like.  If you start at the beginning of the Bible you will get bogged down with geneology and the laws and you will probably give up.  There is a lot of great stuff in the old testament, you just gotta get through a few books that might not feel as interesting without the back story.  

Another thing you can do is to join a Bible study.  This will help you go through the Bible with other people who are also just learning.  A Bible study helps you take a section of the Bible and really examine it, not just read it.  There is a podcast called “Exploring my Strange Bible” by Tim Mackie.  It is really good and it is like a individual Bible study.  If you want to study the Bible, but don’t have a group near you, or maybe don’t have time to meet with a group, this is a great alternative.  Tim Mackey is a pastor that did a bunch of sermons on various books in the Bible.  He goes into great detail on what is actually being said and teaches what that means for us.  I encourage you to check it out.  You can search for a book of the Bible that you are interested in and start there.  You don’t have to go in order.  

I hope yesterday’s and today’s episodes have impressed upon you how important it is to read the Bible daily.  You will be so much stronger if you do.  The enemy will still try to deceive you but you will be ready and armed with the Word of God.  You will have the armor of God on you and nothing is better than that.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  We ask you again to place upon our heart the desire to read your Word every single day.  We ask you to place upon our hearts the desire to not only read your word, but to understand it.  We ask that you equip us with all we need to see right though the enemies lies.  We ask that you strengthen us for whatever might come our way.  Lord, we ask that you protect our families.  The enemy is working overtime to attack our families and there are so many children that are hurting.  Please protect our families.  Please show us how to protect our children and our marriages, because they are under attack as well.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and I look forward to spending time with you all on Monday.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Live In Christ and Be Rooted In Him!

Colossians 2:6-7 "As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him,  rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

When I read this verse I really liked the message.  I love thinking about being rooted in Christ.  When I hear those words I think of trees and how intertwined their roots are.  The roots soak up the water to feed the tree.  Think about all the trees in the world and how well they are surviving.  Imagine if they were rooted in Christ.  Imagine if they had the access to the life giving water that we have access too.  

I don’t think we think about roots very much.  I don’t know if we truly understand how important it is to have a firm foundation.  If a tree doesn’t have good roots it will not be able to withstand a storm and there will always be storms.  It doesn’t matter if you are a tree, a mountain, an animal, a person, there will always be storms throughout life.  I wonder if we understand how important it is to try and develop those roots before the storms come?  While we are going through a hard time, we usually decide we need to figure out some way to get thought it.  This is often when we will turn to God, turn to scripture, or turn to church.  

What if we were to do this before we hit the hard time.  What if we were to prepare in advance for it.  When you are in the middle of a crisis, it is too late to prepare.  You are in survival mode.  I think society as a whole underestimates the need for roots, for a firm foundation.  This verse tells us to live in Him, just as you were taught.  But, what if you weren’t taught?  What if no one ever explained to you how important it was to read the Bible?  Or, what if they told you how important it was, but they didn’t explain why it was important?  Do you know why it is important to read the Bible?  That is not a rhetorical question.  If someone was to ask you why you should read the Bible, would you have an answer to give?  I feel like a few years ago I definitely wouldn’t have had one.  I don’t even know if I have one now that would fully explain how important it is and yet I am going to try to give you a reason because I think it is important for us all to be able to verbalize to others why reading the Bible and being “in” God’s Word is so important.  

One reason it is important to read the Bible is so we can get to know God better.  God desires an intimate relationship with each one of us.  How can we have an intimate relationship with Him if we know nothing about Him?  Have you ever had a one sided relationship before.  You know everything about that person and they know nothing about you?  It wasn’t a good relationship, was it?  Reading the Bible can help make the relationship a two way street.  

Another reason we should read the Bible is because the Bible has instructions for everything you might be going through.  It is an instruction guide for life.  Often we turn to the world for solutions to our problems.  We read books and we ask our friends.  How often to we turn to the Bible?  How often do we sit down and ask God what we should do?  The important thing to remember is not only to ask God, but to stop and sit in silence and listen to what God says to do.  The other day I heard a story of a woman who walked in while her son was on the computer.  She saw that he was looking at pornography.  She was so upset and told him to go to bed and they would talk about it in the next day.  She didn’t know how to handle it and didn’t want to say something she would regret.  She decided to turn to God and ask for wisdom on what to do in this circumstance.  

Did you know God will give you wisdom of what to do in a circumstance if you give Him a chance?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all pause when we are upset and consult God before we say anything.  Imagine how much nicer our words would be even if we just paused and said a quick prayer to God to guide your words before saying something.  When this woman was praying she felt God gave her the answer to her problem.  She had her son write a story for the woman on the screen.  What was her childhood like, what was her teen years like, what happened in her life that made her feel like she had to make a living in pornography.  He did this and he never wanted to look at pornography again.  If she would have just went with her first instinct she probably would have punished him and he would have gotten angry but probably wound’t have learned any lesson from it.  

Did you know there is something called the Bible Concordance?  A concordance contains an alphabetical index of words used in the Bible and the main Bible references where the word occurs. A Bible concordance is useful in locating passages in the Bible. If you can remember just one word in a verse, you can often find what you’re looking for.  If you are struggling with an issue, you can look key words up in the concordance.  If you can’t find the words you are looking for in the Concordance, you can also type your question into a search bar on the internet.  For instance, “Bible verses about parenting.”  It is likely that others have struggled with a similar thing and they have done all the leg work to find the bible verse for you.  

I was going to write a third reason it is important to read the Bible and nothing was coming to me, so I decided I would search the internet to see if there was an article about this topic.  There were so many.  I urge you if you aren’t convinced that reading the Bible daily is a necessity, do a search on the internet of why it is important and you will be convinced.  A third reason came to me as I was searching through the various articles.  Reading the Bible feeds your soul.  It offers you encouragement and strength.  As you go through the Bible you notice certain verses stand out to you.  These verses are great ones to write down and turn to in your time of need.  If they stood out to you, there is a reason why.  God knows you will need that verse at some point, or there is something He is wanting to teach you from that verse.  God speaks to us in so many ways and sometimes it is through scripture.  

The verse above ends by saying, “Abounding in Thanksgiving.”  This is so important and yet not always easy to do.  When times are good we sometimes forget to be grateful because we are just enjoying the good times, especially if things have been good for awhile.  Then when things are bad we don’t usually think we have any reasons to be grateful.  I believe God wants us to be grateful in the good times and the bad times.  I truly believe that there is always something you can be grateful for.  Sometimes it may be big things and sometimes it may be small things.  Sometimes I am grateful for huge answers to prayers.  Other-times, I am just grateful for my cup of tea, or that the sun is shining.  What if we all make it a goal to be “abounding in Thanksgiving” for this upcoming year?  Or if that is too much of a stretch from where you are right now, what if we just started with making a goal of finding one thing to be grateful each day?  What if you made a commitment to write down one new thing you are grateful for each day.  At the end of 2023 you will have a list of 365 reasons you had throughout the year to be grateful.  Wouldn’t that be something amazing to review at the end of 2023?  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, please show each one of us why it is important for us to ground ourselves in your Word.  Please put on our hearts a desire to read the Bible daily.  Help us to turn to you and to turn to the Bible in our times of need instead of turning to the world.  Lord you are so amazing and we are sorry we don’t listen more to what you have to say.  We are sorry we ask everyone else for advice, but we don’t ask you.  Or, if we do ask, we don’t listen to what you say.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click here.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

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Spend Your Days Under The Lord’s Care

Psalm 37:18-19 “The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care, and their inheritance will endure forever.  In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.”

I picked this verse this morning because of the line at the beginning that says, “The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care.  How great does that sound?  How much would you like to spend your days under the Lord’s care?  As I say that I realize we do spend every day under the Lord’s care.  I guess what I pictured when I read this verse was a more personal and intimate picture of living with the Lord.  My son Ryan is not feeling well this week.  It’s always hard to see our kids not feeling well.  When they are really little, them not feeling good equals you spending a lot of time with them.  There can be good and bad things to this. One good thing is they usually want to snuggle with you and that isn’t always the case when they do feel good.  One not great thing is that you don’t get a lot of other things done because they usually require all your attention.  Ryan is 14 so when he doesn’t feel good he just stays in his room and rests and I don’t really see him except to bring him medicine or food.  Regardless of the age when your child is sick, or even your spouse, you take special care of them.  

This is what I pictured when I read this verse.  I pictured lying in a bed and God bringing me chicken noodle soup and sitting with me.  He is talking with me and telling me I will be ok and that He won’t let anything happen to me.  Doesn’t that sound like a lovely picture?  The feelings you get when you think of a parent lovingly taking care of a child gives you a good sense of how your heavenly Father feels about you.  He may not make you soup when you are sick, but he does sit vigilantly by your bedside.  In fact, he is always with you, not just when you are sick.  Also, He is taking care of every detail of your life.  

The next part of this verse says, “And their inheritance will endure forever.”  This is pretty awesome too.  It doesn’t say it will endure until they make me angry.  It doesn’t say it will endure until they die.  It doesn’t say their inheritance will endure until they spend it all.  It says their inheritance will endure forever.  It will never run out.  Our inheritance is not based on anything we have done or will do.  If you think about it in earthly terms, how do you get an inheritance?  Do you have to work really heard, do all the right things, be a good person, and then we earn the inheritance.  No, that isn’t how it works.  We don’t earn an inheritance, we are granted it when someone dies.  For instance, your parent dies and so you inherit all of their estate.  You didn’t do anything to inherit it, you just get it because someone died.  

Our heavenly inheritance is the same.  There isn’t anything we must do to earn heaven.  We don’t have to check off all the right boxes, we don’t have to do all the right things, we don’t have to make sure we are perfect.  We already have our inheritance because Jesus died on a cross for us.  He sacrificed for our sins so that we could gain our inheritance.  And this verse is telling us that our inheritance is forever.  It is not a limited time offer.  It is not something that will expire.  It is ours for as long as we want it.  

The verse ends by saying, “In times of disaster they will not wither.”  I think this is important to remember because we may not always feel this way.  When we are in times of disaster we may feel like we are withering.  We may feel like there is no way out.  We may feel like we can’t go on for another moment.  We just want it to stop.  Whatever that it is for you.  If you are in pain or you are sick you may feel like you are withering away and soon there will be no more of you.  If you are in a dark season spiritually you may feel like your faith is withering away to nothing.  If you are struggling with relationships, you may feel they are withering away to nothing.  In these times this verse can be encouraging.  It can be encouraging to know that God will not let you wither.

The verse goes on to say that, “In days of famine they will enjoy plenty.”  This not only provides encouragement, but also hope.  This verse assures us that we will not be left destitute.  The rest of the world may be in a famine, but we will have plenty.  Does this mean that we will always be raking in the money and have an excess of money to use however we want to?  No.  Does it mean we won’t ever have money trouble? No.  What it does mean is that God will never let us starve to death.  He is not promising us that there will always be an abundance, He is saying that He will provide what we need.  What we need and what we want are often times two very different things.  We want things to be easy.  We want to not have to worry about anything.  We want to have everything we ever wanted.  However, we don’t need all those things.  

God knows what you need and He will take care of it.  I was just reminded of another verse that explains this so beautifully.  Matthew 6:25-27 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” I love this verse for many reasons, but most of all because it reminds us how much God cares for us.  It reminds us that He knows what our needs are and He will meet them.  It reminds us He really is a good, good Father.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to trust that you will meet all of our needs.  Please help us.  Lord, help us to know that you are always there with us, right by our side.  Help us to believe that when there is a famine we will have plenty.  We are so grateful that our inheritance is forever.  You are so amazing Lord.  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow’s witness will be a couple from my Encounter class.  They were enjoying nice picnic one day when things changed quickly.  There was an urgent need for prayer and they fulfilled it.  I know you are really going to enjoy it.  I may have one or two other short ones.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Love In Action (Part 4)

Romans 12:17-21 “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Today we conclude out Love in Action series.  This week we have taken a close look at Romans 12:9-21 and really spent some time trying to learn how to put love into action.  There are some interesting things in today’s verse.  Let’s take a look at it.  It begins by saying, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil.”  This is similar to what we talked about yesterday when it said to bless those who persecute you, bless and not curse.  Today it is telling us, not only can we not curse them, but we should not repay evil for evil.  This means we shouldn’t follow the saying found in Leviticus 24:19–20 which says, “Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner:  fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury.”  The verse today is telling us this is not what we should do.  We should not repay evil for evil.  It explains what we should do instead in Matthew 5:38-42, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’  But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.  And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.  If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

This is calling us to a whole different level of interaction.  You may wonder why the Old Testament says, “an eye for an eye,” and the New Testament says, “Do not repay evil for evil?"  This is a great question.  I am not completely sure of the answer, but after having listened to the Bible in a Year with Father Mike for the past two years, I think it is because they didn’t have the Holy Spirit inside of them in the Old Testament.  Also, God was teaching them slowly how to come back to Him.  They had slowly over time pulled away from God and mixed in with those around them.  Many of their hearts were hardened and so God called them back slowly.  He allowed things that He didn’t like because of the hardness of their hearts.  For instance, he allowed them to get divorced because many people have dealt treacherously against their spouse.  The people were committing grave sins and because of this and the hardening of the hearts, God told Moses to allow for divorce.  

However, in the New Testament, Jesus gave us a whole new way to live and a whole new set of standards.  He didn’t just give us these new instructions and then go up to heaven and forget about us. He sent us the Holy Spirit to help guide us and lead us.  The Israelites had the Spirit leading them through the dessert, but they did not personally have Him inside of them.  Each and every one of us has the Holy Spirit inside of us.  The Holy Spirit gives us the power to answer this call to a higher way of living and loving.  We just need to rely on that power.  When someone does something unkind to you and you get the urge to do something unkind back, remember this verse, and rely on the Holy Spirit to help you bless that person instead.  

Next it says, "Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.”  I think we need to be careful how we read this.  One might read this and think this justifies people pleasing behavior.  I don’t believe that is what this verse is saying.  I think this verse is saying to be careful to not let you actions have the appearance of sin to anyone.  For instance, you may be doing something that is not a sin, but because of the culture or the environment, it might appear that you are sinning.  If so, don’t do that thing if it may cause others to sin.

The next line in the verse says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  We all know that we don’t have control of other people’s thoughts, feelings, or actions.  For this reason, we can’t guarantee that we will be at peace with everyone.  However, this verse is calling you to live at peace with everyone as much as you can.  What this means for us it to do our best to get along with the person we are with.  We need to do whatever is within our control to ensure peace.  This means we do not repay evil for evil.  This means we don’t hold grudges, and we don’t hold on to un-forgiveness. What do you need to do to live at peace with everyone?  Are their changes you need to make?  Do you need to rely on the Holy Spirit more?  If you find you are not living at peace with some people, look at the situation and see which of your actions are contributing to the lack of peace.

The verse goes on to say, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” The beginning of this sentence is similar to when it says do not repay evil for evil.  It can be tempting to take revenge.  If someone hurts us we tend to want to hurt them, it is human nature.  However, God is calling us to rise above that.  God is calling us to trust that He will carry out any revenge that needs to happen.  What God wants us to do instead of taking revenge is to basically love that person that did evil to us.  

The verse says, “if your enemy is hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink.”  This sounds an awful lot like when he told us to bless our enemies  and not curse them.  Why doesn’t God want us to repay evil with evil?  Why does He want us to bless those who persecute us, instead of cursing them?  Could it be because He loves us and He knows if we return evil for evil our hearts will begin to harden?  Could it be He is protecting us from ourselves?  If those that are evil cause us to be sin by being evil back, they that hurts our soul, it hurts our relationship with God.  By God telling us to let it go, He is trying to protect us from sinning.  I love how God doesn’t just say be nice to those who have wronged you and everyone can live happily ever after.  God tells us that He will avenge the evil that was done, He will repay the person for the evil committed.  Isn’t it amazing that God is willing to take that burden on for us.  Our conscious can remain clear.  God is so good.

The one line I find the most interesting in this whole verse is when it says, “In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”  By being nice to your enemy you will be heaping burning coals on his head. I looked up what this meant online just to get a better idea.  There were a few different things.  One article said, “Our kind and gentle reaction to hatred spotlights the depravity of the one who treated us poorly and leaves the hurtful person alone in his or her hatefulness. Nothing pricks the conscience of a hateful person like a soft, forgiving spirit in the one he has wronged (Proverbs 15:1).  Another thought is that to "heap burning coals on his head" refers to a time when keeping one's hearth fire alive was a life-saving necessity. If someone could not keep their fire going, then they would go around the town, carrying some sort of container on his head, asking for hot coals to rekindle his fire. Putting coals in this container on his head would benefit him, fulfilling his need, and helping him.”  Either way, it sounds like by being nice to those who are not nice to you, you would be helping them to see how they should be acting and you would be showing them love, which is probably something they are lacking.  You know the saying, “Hurt people, hurt people.”  Your actions, good or bad, positive or negative will impact every person you interact with.  What do you want that impact to be?  

The verse ends with awesome advice, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  This is a great goal for us all try and obtain.  How great would it be if we overcame evil with good?  Do you even believe that is possible?  I have seen it.  I have seen people’s hearts change when they were treated with love.  I have seen people who had hearts that were hardened, people who had closed off their hearts to the world as a result of years of pain and suffering.  These people were rude and unkind.  They treated people badly because they felt bad and they wanted others to feel the way they felt.  They treated people badly because that is how they were treated and they didn’t know anything else.  Yet, when these people encountered the love of Christ, when their bad behavior was greeted with love and acceptance, their hearts began to soften and they began to treat people a bit nicer.  It is definitely not an immediate thawing or softening of the heart, but it does happen.  Who in your life could you try to overcome evil with good?  Is there a specific person that might just need a little love?  Is there someone that has been unkind to you that you could show kindness?  Let’s all make that our goal, especially over the Christmas season.  Let’s make it our goal to be kind to everyone, to overcome evil with kindness, and to spread God’s love to every single person we meet!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, you are calling us to things we aren’t sure we can do, please help us.  Please help us to be kind to those who are unkind to us.  Please help us to not want to repay evil for evil.  Revenge is something that comes natural to many of us, please help us break the cycle.  Lord, we want to do all that you want us to do, we just need your help.  Help us to remember you gave us the Holy Spirit and Jesus and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.  Help us to remember to ask the Holy Spirit to help us when we are too weak to do as you ask.  We love you Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I.  Have a blessed weekend.

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Love In Action (Part 3)

Romans 12:14-16 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”

Today we continue on with our Love in Action series.  In case you didn’t catch any other episodes this week let me explain.  This week we are taking a look at Romans 12:9-21.  In the Bible this section is titled Love in Action.  I thought it would be a great idea to look at these verses in a bit more detail than we would if we took the whole section at once.  Sometimes it can be easy to read through a scripture and although we like what it says, we don’t slow down long enough to put what it says into practice.  My hope with the episodes this week is that we will take a close enough look at this scripture that we are able to understand what love in action means and how we can implement some of it into our lives.  Even if we just took one thing away from this weeks episodes I think we would all be loving the world a little bit more than we did, or perhaps loving them in a better way.  

Today’s verse starts out with a tough word.  It says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and not curse.”  This is not always easy to do.  For many of us it comes more naturally to curse those who persecute us.  Well, maybe we don’t want to curse them, but we certainly don’t want to bless them.  We usually aren’t wishing for good things to come their way.  If we want to love like Jesus loved, we need to bless those who persecute us.  Remember on the cross, right before Jesus dies He said, Father forgive them, they know not what they do.  If Jesus could treat those that persecuted Him with forgiveness, we can attempt to bless those who persecute us.  My first thought is, what does blessing those who persecute me even look like?  When someone cuts us off in traffic instead of beeping our horn, swearing at them and saying whatever other unkind things we may think of, we can say a quick blessing.  Dear Lord, I ask you to bless that person today and keep them safe.  When people are rude to us throughout the day, we may stop and say a quick blessing.  Dear Lord, we ask you to bless that person and help them to have a better day.  It can be that simple.  It doesn’t have to be that you say a long drawn out prayer wishing the world for them.  Just say a quick blessing instead of wishing something bad to happen, which may be our go to thought.  

Next, the verse says, rejoice with those who rejoice.  This can be hard, especially if we don’t feel we have anything to rejoice about.  For instance, what if our friend just got a new job and they are rejoicing. According to this verse we should be rejoicing with them, but what if we have been looking too and we haven’t found a job yet?  What if our friend is rejoicing because they are getting married or having a baby?  We should be rejoicing with them and yet we have been praying to get married or have a baby for a long time and it hasn’t happened for us yet.  Do you see how it can sometimes be hard to rejoice when others rejoice.  When I first read this I didn’t understand why it would be hard to do this.  Then the Holy Spirit brought to my mind all these reasons why we might struggle sometimes.  Even in this instances when someone has something you want and you don’t, we should still strive to rejoice with them.  Someone else getting what they prayed for doesn’t take away from your chances of getting it.  That can be what we are thinking sometimes.  We might think if someone gets a job that means there is one less job out there for me to get.  This is not true, the perfect job for you is out there too.  

Something else that just came into my mind is that we can have two competing emotions at the same time.  I think it is super important that we all know that this is ok.  You can be happy and rejoicing for someone else’s success and at the same time be sad for your circumstances.  You can be excited for them and nervous for yourself.  Sometimes it is important to give ourselves permission to be happy for someone else’s success and know that our happiness for them does not take away anything from our circumstances.  

Next the verse says, “Mourn with those who mourn.” This can be difficult for the same reasons I listed above.  What if you are celebrating because something great just happened in your life, it can be hard to mourn with someone else.  It can also be hard to mourn with those who mourn if you don’t know the person they lost.  I think one way to mourn, even when it is hard, is to put yourself in that person’s shoes.  Maybe you are finding it hard to mourn with someone who got fired because you have never had that happen.  That is great that it hasn’t happened to you, but you can put yourself in their shoes?  Can you imagine how you might feel if it did happen to you.  Maybe you know someone who is mourning the loss of a loved one.  Could you put yourself in their shoes and imagine what life would be like if you lost your mom, dad, sibling, spouse or friend?  Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is a great way to connect with others.  You may not be going through what they are going through but when you take the time to think about what it would be like for you if you were, you gain a whole new perspective as well as a greater level of understanding and compassion.

The verse ends by saying, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”  Our country does not seem to be doing a great job of living in harmony with one another.  There is so much division in this country today.  I think if we were to love in all the ways we have talked about earlier in this episode and the last two episodes, then we might be able to live in better harmony with one another.  A big part of living in harmony with one another is addressed in the very next line.  Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low positions.  A lot of the division is caused by people thinking they are better than someone else.  When we think we are better than someone else and we think we know more than they do, then we don’t really listen to what they have to say.  We don’t take their opinion into account or listen to their side of things because they can’t possibly know what they are talking about.  

Politicians tend not to listen to the very people that elected them.  Once they get into their office they tend to forget who got them into that position.  Associating with people of a low position can be hard sometimes, just as associating with people of a high position can be hard.  We tend to like familiarity.  We tend to stick to people whom are like us.  We understand them and we relate well to them.  However, God is calling us to higher relationships.  If we want to love like Jesus did, we need to love everyone, not just those at the same station in life as we are, not just those we feel comfortable around, everyone.  

Do not be conceited is also a struggle these days.  We live in a “look at me” culture where people post photos of themselves on social media all the time.  Social media was first started to keep people connected.  It was a way of staying in touch with a lot of people at one time.  Instead of having to write individual letters/emails to all your friends, you could make one post and every one of your friends could see it.  It is a great concept. However, today a lot of people use it as a platform to say, “Look how awesome I am doing or I am.”  This can make it hard not to be conceited when we are spending all of our time only posting about how great we are and all the amazing things that are going on in our lives.  

If we want to love like Jesus did, we need to make the effort to do what Jesus did and think like Jesus thought.  Jesus never promised us that following Him would be easy.  Yes, many things we talked about today, and in the other episodes this week, might not come naturally to us, and that is ok.  Just because it doesn’t come naturally and just because it won’t be easy, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying.  We can do hard things.  The Bible says in Philippians 4:14, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  God will help us do these things, we just have to want to do them, try to do them and God will do the rest.  He will give us the strength and perseverance we need to do them.  Also, we don’t have to change everything all at once.  What if you just picked one thing out of this episode that you could start doing?  What if you just decided to rejoice when others rejoice from now on, no matter how you were feeling?  What if you decided you were going to bless those that persecute you from now on?  Whatever it is you think you could try to start doing, or stop doing if it was a negative thing.  

God doesn’t expect perfection from us.  He is just looking for us to try.  He is looking for us to want to grow closer to Him.  He is looking for our effort.  What is one step you can take today to love a little more like Jesus loved?  What is one thing you can do to put love into action?  Will you do that one thing today?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we want to love like you love, please help us.  Help us to rejoice when others rejoice and mourn when they mourn.  Help us to let go of pride, that is not easy for us Lord.  We will need some of your supernatural help to get rid of our pride.  Help us to not be conceited, help us to think of others more than we think of ourselves.  And probably the hardest thing you are calling us to today is to bless those who persecute us.  Oh Lord, we are definitely going to need your help with that one.  Please show us how to do this.  When we are in a circumstance where someone is persecuting us, please put on our heart the correct words to say, the correct feelings to have, whatever else we might need in the moment.  We love you Lord and we are so grateful you answer our prayers.  We are grateful for all the strength, wisdom and knowledge you provide us on a daily basis.  You are so amazing Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day.

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click here.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

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Love In Action (Part 2)

Romans 12:12-13 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”

Today we continue on in the section of Romans titled Love in Action.  If you didn’t listen yesterday, we are taking this week to go through Romans 12:9-21 and look at it in a little more detail.  My hope is by the end of this week we will all know how to love a little better. This verse starts out by telling us to be joyful in hope.  This isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do.  What if we have been hoping for something for a long time?  What if we are starting to get tired of waiting for that thing to happen? I think even in these circumstances, God is asking us to be joyful in hope.  He doesn’t specify, be joyful only when it is easy to hope.  He doesn’t specify, be joyful only when you are just beginning to hope.  He just says be joyful in hope.  Is that what you have been missing?  Have you been hoping for something and yet not really joyful while you hope?  What if you made that change?  What would be different if you were joyful in hope?  Could you give it a try?

Next it says be patient in affliction.  Man, we are starting right out of the gate this morning with some hard words.  An affliction is something that causes you pain and suffering.  I was just thinking about this and how the section we are reading about is love in action.  In this context I can see how it would be important to be patient while in affliction. Have you ever been around a loved one who is in pain and is not patient?  It can definitely be hard to feel any love from that person.  When we are in pain we don’t always feel like being patient.  Actually, I don’t necessarily think it is always a choice.  Patience is something that seems to come naturally to some while others have to work hard to be patient.  If patience is something that you need to work hard for it is not going to be easy to have patience when you are suffering and all your effort is focused on your pain.  
I think it is important to remember that the Bible is teaching us how to live, how to love, how to pray, how to do all things like Jesus did.  It is giving us the instructions and it is up to us to apply them in our lives.  Learning the things in the Bible is like learning anything else, it takes time.  I don’t want you to hear these episodes on learning to love and then feel bad because you don’t love exactly the way it talks about in the Bible.  We are all learning, some of us may be hearing this for the first time.  Some of us may have read this in the Bible one hundred times and yet never stopped to examine it and implement it in their lives.  This podcast is about our journey.  It is about trying to be a little better today than we were yesterday.  You might hear that God wants us to be patient in affliction and then think about how angry you get when you are suffering, or what a terrible patient you are when you are sick.  That’s ok, this is a process.  The first step is knowing what God is calling us to and noticing how our actions differ from that.  Once we are aware of something, then we can work to change it.  

The verse goes on to say be faithful in prayer.  This doesn’t seem like a hard one, but it can be.  How many times have we let other things get in the way of our prayer time?  If we think of this in terms of love in action, we can see how praying for others can help them feel loved.  I can definitely see how being faithful in prayer can show love.  We want the best for our loved ones.  We want them to succeed and to be healthy and happy.  The best way to help them with this is not nagging them to do what we think they should do, believe me, I have tried that route.  The best way to do this is for us to be faithful in prayer and to turn our worries and concerns over to God.  God loves our loved ones more than we ever could.  He wants the best for them.  If we can be faithful in prayer and then let God do the rest, our loved ones will feel more loved because we won’t constantly be nagging them.  No-one likes to be nagged.

Next, the verse says to share with the Lord’s people who are in need.  This is a great one.  It’s not hard to see how sharing with those in need could be love in action.  However, we might not always encounter love when we share with those in need.  There are a lot of factors that might come up.  For instance, we all struggle with pride at times and so someone in need might not take what you are trying to give because their pride is getting in the way.  Also, people in need might be angry at their circumstances and so they may not be as gracious as you would want them to be.  Don’t let a one bad encounter, or even a few bad encounters stop you from giving to those in need.  We are all people, we all have days when we aren’t our best versions of ourselves.  Just because someone didn’t receive your gift, donation, help with gratitude or grace this time, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give next time.  Keep sharing with those in need, keep loving people with your actions.

The last thing in this verse says practice hospitality.  This can be a great way to show love to others.  People love when they are treated with hospitality.  Hospitality can incorporate a variety of actions.  It can mean that you invite people into your home, have people over for dinner, or host a party for your family or neighbors.  When Tony and I first got married, we loved having people over to the house.  I remember we were out shopping one day and the salesman was very nice and we were both thinking, we should have him over for dinner.  We laugh now because we used to want to invite everyone over for dinner.  However, hospitality doesn’t have to mean having people over to your house if you don’t want to.  Another way to show people hospitality is to prepare meals for them if they have a baby, if they are sick, if they had surgery, or if they had a death in their family.  

This is something that is pretty big on military bases.  I never really saw it before living on base, but if you have a baby in the military, often times your the squadron of the military member will organize meals to be dropped off so you don’t have to worry about cooking for the first week or two.  Let me tell you, this definitely feels like love in action when you have a little baby and aren’t getting much sleep and then someone shows up at your doorstep with dinner all prepared.  You definitely feel loved and you definitely love that person.  Another way to show hospitality is to welcome a new neighbor.  Moving is hard and stressful and it feels so good when one of your new neighbors takes the time to stop by and say hello and welcome you into the neighborhood.  Think back to some times when people showed you hospitality.  How did it make you feel?  Did you feel loved?

Today we talked about several ways to put love into action.  I will leave you with the words from scripture to ponder throughout the day today. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”  How can you put love into action today?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who listen to this episode today.  Lord, help us to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.  Those are not all easy things to do and we definitely rely on you to help us.  Lord, help us to share with your people who are in need, even when it’s not easy.  Help us to not get discouraged if we run into problems when we try to share what we have with others.  Help us to not get discouraged if all doesn’t go like we thought it would.  Lord, help us to practice hospitality.  Jesus was so good at this, please help us love like Jesus did.  We are so grateful for all you do for us, you are amazing Lord.  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to brining you another witness tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I.  Have a blessed day!

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