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Why Every Ending Can Be a Beginning · The World Knowledge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, good afternoon, listeners. Thank you for listening to Lament
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of Hope podcast. And I'm very grateful. This is gonna
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: be a little unconventional, because if you're watching this, you're
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: gonna see it's just the logo for the podcast. But Dr.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Katina and I really tried. And unfortunately, we weren't able
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to do video, but that's okay. I don't.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the ones I know, the evangelicals I know,
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  Speaker 2: and there are quite a few in the mission field.
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  Speaker 2: I'd say most of the, gosh, most of the medical
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  Speaker 2: missionaries will probably classify themselves as evangelicals. So I see
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  Speaker 2: a lot of them out here doing, you know, doing
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  Speaker 2: the Lord's work. So I think a lot of evangelicals
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  Speaker 2: feel that, you know, same thing. Faith about works is dead,
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  Speaker 2: and they're living out their faith by what they do.
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  Speaker 2: I think the idea of being saved, you know, it's...
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  Speaker 2: it's something that, you know, growing up as Catholic, we don't,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: it's not, it's not, these aren't terms we use. Like
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  Speaker 2: you never see a Catholic. I remember when I was
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  Speaker 2: in college, as with these, you know, friends of mine
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: from Campus Crusade, they said, well, Tom, when did you
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  Speaker 2: become a Christian? I'm thinking, I've always been like, I
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  Speaker 2: was baptized as a baby. I've always been a Christian.
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  Speaker 2: Like it didn't make any sense to me, right? And like,
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  Speaker 2: when did you, well, I got saved when I was 18.
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  Speaker 2: Like you remember this is the day they got saved.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's okay. I understand it. I'm not
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  Speaker 2: saying it's a bad thing. I think the problem is
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  Speaker 2: that when you say I was saved and therefore I'm
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  Speaker 2: a perfectly formed human being, I think we have to
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  Speaker 2: think twice about that. I think for me, what they
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  Speaker 2: meant by being saved is this is the time you
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  Speaker 2: came to the realization that you are a follower of Christ.
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  Speaker 2: You're making a decision as an adult, I'm a follower
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  Speaker 2: of Christ. problem is that that is something you have
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  Speaker 2: to work on every day it's not like i got
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  Speaker 2: saved today tomorrow i'm a perfect person i'm never going
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  Speaker 2: to swear i'm never going to cheat i'm never going
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  Speaker 2: to lie i'm going to do anything bad because now
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  Speaker 2: i'm a perfect i'm a new person in christ we
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  Speaker 2: believe all that stuff I think we do get special
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  Speaker 2: graces from God to perform those things. I think it
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  Speaker 2: leads people to get discouraged because they say, man, I
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  Speaker 2: became a Christian. I got saved. I'm still looking at
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  Speaker 2: women like this. I'm still swearing. I'm still doing this.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, of course.
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, those things are still with us. We're sinners. We
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  Speaker 2: have to remember that. We're never going to be perfect.
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  Speaker 2: This is an ongoing struggle. My favorite saint is St.
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  Speaker 2: Francis of Assisi, who lived in the 1100s. die 12 something.
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  Speaker 2: And he, he, he's looked upon as being probably the
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  Speaker 2: most Christlike, one of the most Christlike humans ever lived.
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  Speaker 2: And he said his, he had to work on his
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  Speaker 2: conversion every day. Uh, that was something he did daily.
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  Speaker 2: And he, he, this has been attributed to him that the, the,
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  Speaker 2: the kind of closer he got to Christ, uh, the
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  Speaker 2: more he felt how far away he was. So as
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  Speaker 2: he kind of got more and more perfect in his
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  Speaker 2: faith and his belief, the further he realized he was
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  Speaker 2: from God. I think that's just, I think that's just reality.
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  Speaker 2: We're a fallen people and we are sinners. So, but
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  Speaker 2: let's not be ashamed of that. That's just how it is.
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  Speaker 2: Let's work on it. And that takes active work. I'm
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  Speaker 2: so happy people felt they got saved, but don't, don't
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  Speaker 2: stop there. keep working on it. It's a lifelong project
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  Speaker 2: for all of us. Whether you're, you know, the evangelicals
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  Speaker 2: say I got saved. Me as a Catholic, I'll say, well,
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  Speaker 2: I got baptized as a baby. I did my confirmation
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  Speaker 2: when I was in eighth grade. I went to confession.
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  Speaker 2: I received my first Holy communion. All those things are wonderful,
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  Speaker 2: but it's an ongoing process. Um, the Christian life is
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  Speaker 2: a hard life. And, uh, I do think, I do
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  Speaker 2: think if, I don't mean to sound like a, like a,
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  Speaker 2: like a total, um,